It starts to feel like America is just a shell company, an LLC for Israel. I wouldn't send him a dime. Like, that's my position. I don't think whatever we're getting isn't worth it. And, don't ask me to articulate the benefit, because I think the cost [00:00:17] is greater than the benefit. Everybody in Gaza is, at this point has to hate Israel, right? And by extension, those bombs, when they see American politicians go over there and, like, sign the freaking bombs that are going to kill women and children. [00:00:33] Thomas Massie is absolutely correct about that. And that's the gentleman you heard in that clip yesterday. Representative Thomas Massie, of course, joined Theo Vaughn for a wide ranging interview that also happened to touch on the topic of Israel [00:00:48] and what's currently going down in Gaza. Now we'll start with Massie's thoughts on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Let's watch him talk about the sheer scale of death and destruction. What do we get from Israel? Do you feel like. [00:01:05] We got a lot of countries that hate us? It's one of the things we get. Well, especially right now with this stuff in Gaza, it's. I think it's Israel's. It's one of the worst PR campaigns I've ever seen in my life. If they're even, I haven't. It doesn't make any sense to me. It's like I just don't. [00:01:21] It gives their government this extremely evil look to me, you know? And I think to a lot of people, you know. Well, rough numbers, there are 2 million people in Gaza and 50,000 have been killed. That's 2.5% like they've killed 1 in 40 people in Gaza. [00:01:40] If you if you did that in the United States, if you did 2.5% of of 350 million, it'd be almost 10 million people dead. Yeah. In the United States, you everybody in Gaza is at this point related to somebody who's been killed, like at least a first cousin. [00:01:57] You had killed. And then if you say how many have been maimed, it's probably 3 or 4 times that. It. And I want to add to what Marcy is saying there, because as he was talking about how everyone in Gaza who's still alive [00:02:13] knows at least one family member who died as a result of this current genocide. I couldn't help but think about how Israel tends to respond to people who are openly critical of the genocide that's happening in Gaza. [00:02:28] I think about people like Miss Rachel, right? Miss Rachel, who creates children's content, who is absolutely disgusted by the number of children who have died. The number of children who have been maimed as a result of this genocide. [00:02:43] She hasn't said anything. Even close. Even close to anti-Semitic. She cares about the kids and she gives the kids a voice. And she's been dealing with threats. She's been dealing with all sorts of horrible treatment from, you know, the defenders of Israel. [00:03:01] And if you're worried about the way the world perceives you. Maybe don't terrorize people who are speaking out against the slaughter of children. Yeah. So, a couple of things here. First of all, a lot of truth telling there. [00:03:17] And again, I was on the air before the Iraq War. Young Turks stole the show and internet history, and, and we never got any of this from Republicans. We never got any of this from any other media. It was just us and Democracy Now! Every other media was massively pro-war. [00:03:35] They would never allow someone to say, hey, what do we get from Israel? Nothing but enemies. I wouldn't give Israel another dollar. These things were verboten. You were never allowed to say that. And so. And they could say, oh, that's so wrong. [00:03:51] It was just a coincidence that it was never said on air for about 18 years straight. Okay, maybe it was a coincidence that it was perfectly legal. Just nobody wanted to say it. Right. And by legal, of course, what I mean is groupthink, the etiquette [00:04:06] of that particular news organization, and everybody in the building knew you're not allowed to criticize Israel. If you do, your career will be in massive jeopardy. They could pretend that that's wrong. But ask anyone in media when you get them alone. [00:04:21] Is it true? They're like, oh yeah, I'm not going to say anything against Israel. Are you nuts? Right. So okay, so now we're in a different world where people are actually saying things that are true and critical of Israel. So, I mean, Theo Von's kind of like an innocent guy. He is. That's what I love. [00:04:37] But that's what I love because he gives the perspective of a normie. Right? He's not a super hyper political guy. He's just seeing what's happening, and he's telling us what he thinks about it. Yeah, and I know Democrats now hate him and everyone in the sphere because, oh my [00:04:54] God, they had Trump on or they everyone. Hates Democrats, so who cares what they hate. No, I know I got you, but but Theo Von is not some sort of weirdo, evil MAGA guy who's part of a conspiracy to lie to everyone to get Trump elected. - No, he's a normie. - He's a normie. So a lot of times he doesn't know all the intricate details of the politics. [00:05:11] Right? And he. And he looked at it before the election like, yeah, the Democrats seem really fake, right? And they do. They do seem really fake because they are. Now, that doesn't mean that you should have voted for Trump, but that's the same kind of like, you know, and you could say, oh, [00:05:27] that's the direction where it went badly. Right. And that we don't agree with him on that. But the good news is that when he goes in the direction of Israel, he's like, I don't know, it looks kind of evil that they're killing all those people. Yeah. That's right. So sometimes you need someone who is not, like, the world's [00:05:43] greatest expert on news to just look at it with a fresh set of eyes. Exactly right. Yeah. And so. And and when Massey says no more money to Israel, there's a faction of MAGA. Definitely not all MAGA, but a faction that goes. Hell, yeah, the America First faction right now, if Trump said it, if Trump [00:06:03] said no more money to Israel, that's it. We're keeping the money at home. Which, by the way, I talk to MAGA. So like, I know that's like terrible. But what happens is then you wind up learning their opinion. And so whether it's for good or for bad, and a lot of times it's for bad. But in this case, you know, a lot of MAGA doesn't realize [00:06:20] that Trump didn't end funding to Israel. They think he did. Okay. - Why would they think that? - Because they're misinformed. Because they watch right wing shows and right wing shows say, oh, we cut all funding to the whole world. - They they never say except Israel. - Right? [00:06:36] That's in Egypt. That's right. They. Since they never say that. A lot of MAGA thinks he already did cut funding to Israel. Right. Okay. So now if but if Trump were to actually do that, come out and say no, that's it. I said no funding to any country, including Israel, and we're not [00:06:51] sending them any more money for this. Oh my God. He'd be like, all of MAGA would agree with him instantly. Then it would go from a faction to all of them. So that's the whole right wing. We already had most of the left wing. The only people that would be left are the people on TV, right? [00:07:06] So yeah, the New York and Washington. So it would be the politicians and the television hosts versus the rest of us. And that's a battle I want. And then, by the way, that's not an, you know, an easy battle to win. Because one of the problems with Trump is that he watches TV and only TV. [00:07:23] - And he loves Fox News, even still. - Yes. So he'll go on Fox News and Fox News will say, oh yeah, 98% of the country says you should be Israel's servant. I don't know, that's what the people want. Right. So TV in Washington versus all of the rest of us is is a battle [00:07:38] that I've been waiting for my whole life. So with that in mind, let's talk about money. Because money in politics serves a huge purpose in regard to getting our politicians to support Israel's causes. And Thomas Massie weighed in on that during this conversation. [00:07:54] Take a look. It's a weird amalgamation of of combined interests. There's a military industrial complex that is all in for everything AIPAC is for. And And before I banned AIPAC from my office, we used to have conversations [00:08:10] that would go something like this. Oh, you should be for the foreign aid that goes to Israel, because it all comes back to the United States in the form of, military spending. We're buying it all from American contractors. And I'd be like, no, that's not a convincing argument to me. [00:08:29] America doesn't make money off of war. A few people in America do make money off of war, and they make a lot of money off of war. So they want the the music to keep going. They don't want the music to stop. I think I'm going to donate money to Massy's campaign. [00:08:45] Okay. I wouldn't go that far. Why wait till you see the rest of the things he thinks? No, no, he thinks all sorts of things I disagree with. Okay, but in that district, it's going to be a Republican. Oh, that's. So do I do I prefer a neoconservative, pro-war Republican over Massie? [00:09:02] Hell no I don't. Yeah. No, I got you. I wouldn't go as far as giving you money, but I appreciate that he's honest. And look, that's the second thing that he just opened up that we never talk about, which is the military industrial complex. Yes. So they're like, again, I mean, there's a point I made [00:09:18] on The Young Turks dozens of times, but to see a right wing congressman making it on a popular online show so that it reaches not just the left wing, but a lot of normies are. It's beautiful. Right? The reason part of the reason why Israel is so strong is not because of, like, [00:09:33] ridiculous anti-Semitic tropes about Jews control the world or whatever. No, no, you haven't met enough Jews. They don't have time. They can't control their own budget. Okay. Just as like friends of mine. But anyway. So. But what is true is the military industrial complex is very much lined up with AIPAC. [00:09:50] So they're like, okay, Israel keeps driving us into wars and we make billions of dollars off those wars, sometimes trillions of dollars off of those wars. So that is a super powerful combo. There's a third group that doesn't get as much involved in the lobbying from what I've seen in the reporting, but that also benefits. [00:10:06] And they're also super powerful lobby. And that's the oil companies because whenever there's a like, they don't want war in North Korea. That doesn't help anybody. Right. But if we're in in the Middle East, we'll also drive up oil prices. And it's the same costs, but a lot more profit for the for that same oil. [00:10:23] So the combination of those three lobbies is overwhelming in Washington DC and super hard to fight. But we didn't. But you didn't even know you were fighting them until people like us and Massey started exposing them from the left and the right. And so now the battle is joined a little bit, make a lot more interesting. [00:10:41] Real quick, we have a poll here in the live chat. Will AIPAC become more or less influential influential in future elections? Because I mean, in 2024 they were the number one donor to members of Congress. So if you're saying no, no, no, they'll melt away. [00:10:59] You don't know AIPAC, right? So I don't know if they're going to be, you know, more or less. I do know the popular opinion is now for the first time, building against them. And that's great. Not because they're for Israel, but because I don't want any government controlling us. And so that brings us back to anti-Semitism. [00:11:14] So quick point, because you mentioned Miss Rachel, Miss Rachel's wonderful human being. And so she doesn't say anything about Jews or non-Jews. She doesn't use any trope. She doesn't do any of that. Right. But if you're there but she's against the genocide. And I think these guys who are Israel first guys, the neocons, [00:11:31] they're making a huge mistake. 100%. Because they're equating Anti-genocide with anti-Semitism. Don't do that. Don't do that. Because if you take out the antis, you're saying if you're for Jews, you're for genocide. - No, no no no no, no. - I never thought of it that way. [00:11:47] But that is such a like perfect way of framing it. Right? That's why I get so irritated when they keep saying, oh, you're against the Jews. It's like, why are you defaming Jewish people? Because there's a lot of Jewish people who are not in favor of what's going on right now in Gaza. Yeah, stop doing that. [00:12:03] And it puts the, you know, dual loyalty trope in play. Your guys are putting that in play, not us. Similarly, a lot of the neocons who have been egging on wars in the Middle East and love what's happening in Gaza, they're not Jewish, John Bolton, not Jewish. Lindsey Graham, not Jewish. [00:12:19] Yeah. Dick Cheney, not Jewish. What are we talking about here? - All of those evangelicals who are. - Mike Huckabee. Who are like Mike Huckabee, salivating over the second coming of Christ. And, you know, all of the all of those who didn't convert to their religion are going to be perished. [00:12:34] Like. Yeah. And look. So I'm anti-genocide I've spoken out against what the IDF is doing. And IDF wrote my name on a bomb. Right. So then if I criticize the IDF, it's because I hate Jews. - It's ridiculous. - No, of course not. [00:12:50] It's because they're writing my name on a bomb that goes to murder women and children. So I think there's a pretty legitimate reason. So I think that the pro-Israel side is doing even more damage to Israel than they realize because of what Theo Van is saying. He's like, what? You guys are making yourselves look evil. [00:13:07] How does that help? Yeah. And it's a great question. A simple question, but a great question. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.