Senator Gallego on another network, accused President Trump and our military of committing murder by attacking these drug boats. To our men and women in uniform, you're not murdering anybody. You're making America safer by going after narco terrorist. [00:00:15] You're following lawful orders. In a wild interview on Face the Nation, Senator Lindsey Graham stated that when the Trump administration murders people on boats in the Caribbean, [00:00:30] it doesn't actually count as murder. Graham also stated that he wants the United States military to take land actions in Venezuela. More on that later. But Jake, what do you make of this claim that what the Trump administration is doing in the Caribbean, [00:00:45] bombing these boats, killing people on these boats isn't murder because they're a narco terrorists? Yeah. First of all, even if they were narco terrorists, you're still murdering them. So you could play around with words all you like. But that's what it is now. [00:01:02] Words that matter is extrajudicial killing. And is that what this is? No question about it. Why? Because did they ask a court? They didn't ask a court. Did they go through due process? They didn't go through due process. Did they present any evidence that these people are guilty? No they didn't. In fact, the Colombian president says that at least one of the boats [00:01:19] was a fisherman's boat and they murdered a bunch of fishermen. But whether they murdered fishermen or people, they're claiming without proving are narco terrorists. It's murder. Either way. It's an extrajudicial killing either way, and it is wildly illegal, [00:01:36] let alone the war that it might start, which we're going to talk about. And now we have more clips from that interview to show you. But first, let's be clear about who stands to gain from a regime change operation in Venezuela. [00:01:51] Maria Corina machado, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, is a key figure in the Venezuelan political opposition to President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro has touted an economic plan to American and other investors, [00:02:07] saying that a democratic Venezuela under her movement's control has the potential to generate 1.7 trillion in wealth in 15 years. Now, in June, she told American corporate representatives, our message [00:02:23] to the oil companies is we want you here. Certainly we want you here not producing crumbs of a couple hundred thousand barrels a day. We want you here producing millions of barrels a day. As for Senator Lindsey Graham, his career, donations from the defense industry, [00:02:45] individuals 569,000 PACs, 593,000. So of course there is money behind his position despite, you know, seemingly he's a war hawk in and of himself. According to Open Secrets, he's taken over $1.1 million from individuals and PACs [00:03:05] associated with the defense industry over the course of his career. So keep all of that in mind as we show you this clip of Lindsey Graham cheering for land strikes in Venezuela. You don't need an aircraft carrier to hit drug boats. [00:03:20] Our land strikes planned. Yeah, yeah, I think that's a real possibility. I think President Trump's made a decision that Maduro, the the leader of Venezuela, is an indicted drug drug trafficker, that it's time for him to go. [00:03:35] That Venezuela and Colombia have been, safe havens for narco terrorists for too long. And, President Trump told me yesterday that he plans to brief members of Congress, when he gets back from Asia about future potential military operations [00:03:54] against Venezuela and Colombia. So there will be a congressional briefing about a potential expanding from the sea to the land. I support that idea, but I think as all authority it needs. Now, Margaret Brennan also asked Graham if American troops would be deployed [00:04:14] as part of this operation. - And here is his response. - You said time for Maduro to go. Yeah, that sounds a lot like regime change. Are you talking about troops on the ground? I'll let the president speak to that. I'm talking about a briefing that would expand military operations, [00:04:34] potentially from the sea to the land. It is time for Maduro to go. Finally, Brennan called Graham out on the legality of the Trump administration's strikes on those boats. Let's see how he handled that. [00:04:51] I know you personally used to serve as a judge advocate in the Air Force. Yeah. We looked at the JAG manual. Preventative self-defense employed to counter non imminent threats is illegal under international law. [00:05:06] So if we are not at war and these suspected criminals, pose no threat of imminent violence, isn't this potentially a war crime to be killing the people on these boats and then to be taking out a leader? [00:05:23] No, not at all. I don't know what manual you're referring to, but I know what President Bush 41 did. He took down Ortega, the leader of Panama, because he was involved in drug trafficking, threatening our country. Venezuela is now partnering with Hezbollah. [00:05:40] Hezbollah is running out of money because Iran is weak. That's not new. Partnering with drug cartels in Venezuela? No. It should have stopped. Here's what here's what's new. You got a commander in chief's not going to put up with this crap. [00:05:55] Genk. What do you make of this? All right, so first of all, the idea that Venezuela and Hezbollah are working together is just a load of crap. Jonathan Larson, our former managing editor here, broke it down brilliantly. These two yahoos, one of them is an Israeli citizen that's trying to get out [00:06:14] like criminals from Venezuela and get their cash out, etc.. They're the ones that are making up all this nonsense about how Venezuela. We have to kill them all. We have to kill them. We have to. We have to go to war. Hezbollah, Iran, they're with the dangerous Muslims. [00:06:31] It's I mean, Jesus, how do they bring Hezbollah into everything? Right. So just totally made up garbage from Lindsey Graham. Check out Jonathan Larson's Substack. You'll see the article I'm talking about. Okay. More nonsense. Oh, they say it's an imminent threat. [00:06:48] The boats are going to the first set of boats that they bomb were going to Trinidad. How's the how's a little speedboat going to get from Venezuela to America without running out of gas. I mean, their lies aren't even close to being true. And they just don't even care at all. There's, like, a guy in a dinghy pulling like a thing. [00:07:05] I'm exaggerating, but they bombed the living crap out of him. Like he was about to come to America and he was going to bring enough drugs, Trump said on one of those tiny little boats. This was not exaggeration. This is he literally said it would have killed 25,000 Americans. That little tiny boat. 25,000 Americans. How would they could fit a world of drugs? [00:07:25] Come on. They're not. Come on. Okay, so if you go to land, as Lindsey Graham is saying, the reason why he paused with that answer. So does that mean ground troops? He was like, he's like, yes, let ground. [00:07:41] That's for the president. That's for the president. Of course he wants ground troops. Of course he does. How are you going to do a land war without ground troops? So nonsense. They're trying to say, but, you know, even if you're a right wing, you know, you hate Lindsey Graham, right? Lindsey Graham is top neocon in the Senate. [00:07:56] So now that John McCain and Joe Lieberman are gone, he's like the he's the one, amigo holding down the fort. War with everyone. - He says. - Hezbollah for everyone. - Everyone's Hezbollah. - Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've heard this a billion times. What a giant liar. [00:08:12] So, MAGA, you're going to go back to the giant lying neocon establishment jerks who got us into every war that you hated. He's telling you right there. We're going on land. We're going to invade Venezuela. Is that what you voted for? I thought you voted for antiwar. [00:08:29] You voted to invade Venezuela for oil companies. Now, back to Lindsey Graham. We gave you over $1 million. He's taken from defense contracts at a bare minimum. That's a stuff that's public. A lot of times, superPACs funnel money to these guys that isn't necessarily public. [00:08:45] In fact, we had a spectacular case that we showed you a couple of weeks ago where Larry Ellison, we found out through his emails that were leaked, had given Marco Rubio $5 million to kiss Israel's ass. Nobody even knew about it because it was done through a super PAC. Then there's dark money. All of that is Lindsey Graham. [00:09:02] Graham has been loaded up with every conceivable legalized bribe there is. And that's before we get to the oil companies, who are also bribing Lindsey Graham and almost all the corporate Republicans. And, you know, the corporate Democrats also take money from these figures. [00:09:17] But at least to be fair to them, they're not driving for a rando insane war in Venezuela. So look, more great comments by our viewers and our members on YouTube. The Lennox is a member wrote in questions. [00:09:33] What does it take Americans who buy these drugs? What does that make the Americans who buy these drugs and provide a market for the so-called narco terrorists? But first of all, that's a great point. I love doing the show with our, paying members. Hit the join button below. Become part of the show if you're on YouTube. [00:09:49] If not, join. But let's talk about what he's saying. So. Forget the guys buying the drugs. There's tons of drug dealers here in America, and they're the ones directly selling to the guy. And then the guy dies if he has a fentanyl overdose. ET cetera. ET cetera. [00:10:05] So is that guy now a narco terrorist? And buy these precedents that they're setting? Do we not have to have a trial for them? Do we not even have to arrest them? Can cops just go up to them and shoot them in the head and kill them dead in the street and go as a narco terrorist? Wait, that was an American citizen. We didn't even do a trial. [00:10:21] We don't even know how he got there. Shut up. Who cares? Boom boom boom. Let's just kill everybody. They're all narco terrorists. Well, how do we know they're narco terrorism? I just said it. No, that's not how America works. The president just declaring someone an enemy of the state and murdering them is not how America works. [00:10:38] It's also not how the world works. It is wildly illegal under international law. More importantly, it's wildly illegal under US law. That's why she asked that question to Lindsey Graham. And Lindsey Graham knows that. But he's like, yeah, but so what are my donors going to get paid? [00:10:54] Yeah, they're going to make billions, maybe even trillions. If you start a war this large, who's going to pay them? The US taxpayers are going to funnel all of your money over to the donor class so that your antiwar candidate can start another giant, disastrous war. [00:11:09] So and by the way, Jordan, they're not we keep talking about Venezuela. Lindsey Graham in that same interview, also threatened Colombia and said we might be starting a land war there, too. Oh, for Colombia was our top ally in Central America [00:11:25] and in Latin America and in South America. Now all of a sudden, we're going to invade them, too. How many countries are we going to invade with the antiwar president? Yeah, that's what I find so rich about all this. I mean, Trump administration, the Trump family, their whole team [00:11:41] pointed to how he was the No New Wars president in his first term. Now, obviously, we know that's bogus when you are just continuing forever wars around the world and inching closer to a potential new Cold War. God forbid a hot war with places like China. [00:11:59] But what's this? You're just bombing fishing boats. You're killing random people and saying, we're going to do a land invasion. They've already threatened Mexico. Now you're saying Venezuela and Colombia? But I think what's really dangerous here is this rhetorical sleight of hand the [00:12:16] administration and top Republican allies are using to justify these strikes. Now, of course, we know. And thankfully, Margaret Brennan pointed out this is illegal. But what they're trying to do here is use the designated terrorist organization label. [00:12:31] And this threat that, oh my God, if they were to come here with the drugs, they're going to kill us. They're going to harm us. It's all in self-defense. And that, in their eyes, allows Trump to act unilaterally without approval from Congress, without the traditional methods that presidents typically ignore. [00:12:50] They're saying it's an even more streamlined process of power consolidation. Nick Turse at The Intercept has done some tremendous reporting on this front. Talk to experts, legal experts, people in the government who warned what this looks like. If this continues unchecked, which it seems it will, but also at the same time, [00:13:09] this same exact labeling being used to describe domestic groups, organizations or people. And it's I again, God forbid this happened, but it's not hard to imagine [00:13:24] what the consequences might be if they continue to use the same, the same labeling, the same fear mongering over the threat and the same self-defense justification. Yeah, my last two comments go to the members. One is from Twitch. Shea, 70, wrote in. [00:13:40] They had two survivors from the boat strikes and they let them go because of lack of evidence, and they don't want the reality to undermine their narrative. Nice job. Shea 70. That's right. Thank you for reminding me of that. Yeah, we captured two of the people from the boats. Oh, crazy narco terrorists. They have to be murdered right away. [00:13:56] We let them go. Why do we let him go? Because we had no evidence on them. And if we try to try them, which is what the next step should be, we? You would all realize we've never had evidence on any of these guys. We're murdering nearly random people in international waters. [00:14:16] And it's not my actions or words that prove it. It's the administration's actions. If they were the such dastardly narco terrorists that they were about to kill 25,000 people in America with the drugs they were bringing in, and you murdered the other people on the boat? [00:14:31] Why aren't you going to try them? I mean, shouldn't you bring them to justice? No, no, no, no, let him go right away. Let him go. Please disappear. Please don't let anybody. Find out you're innocent. Come on, man. And then lastly, Titcomb member Rob three Chester said, I wonder [00:14:47] what a ground war in Venezuela would do to the flow of immigrants to the US. So that's another terrific point. Man, I love smartest audience in the world. So if you're a right wing, you voted for Trump or you're an independent, you voted for Trump, you voted for him. Why? You said antiwar was one of your top positions. [00:15:03] Definitely top three. Maybe number one, maybe the economy is number one. Immigration is number two. But anti-war is definitely top three. All right. The other one was immigration. And if you do a land war in Venezuela, let alone Venezuela and Colombia, do you have any idea how many immigrants will pour into this country, legal or otherwise? [00:15:22] And that's what you think you voted for? No, the neocons are back. The establishment is back, the warmongers are back. And so no matter who you vote for, Democrat or Republican, you get Lindsey Graham and you get Benjamin Netanyahu. Those are the two constants, the two vile creatures that we are [00:15:40] constantly having to deal with. No matter who you elect, every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.