In a mostly party line vote. The House rejected Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna's war powers resolution on Iran yesterday. There were only two defections on the right before Democrats joined Republicans to vote this down. [00:00:15] We'll tell you who those four Democrats were and the repercussions and fallout from this vote. But before we get into it, can you guess what all four of those Democrats had in common? There's no way that all four. You mean all four got donations from Israel? [00:00:31] No way. No way. I mean, what were the odds? Well, we'll find out. We'll find out. But, guys, overall, we've got a huge problem in this country, which is that Congress will not hold the president accountable and will not follow the Constitution. So if this keeps happening, which it is, it seems like it happens endlessly. [00:00:51] We'll have forever wars. Oh, right. We're in the middle of forever wars, and nothing's ever changed. All right, tell us how it went. Disastrously, Jordan. So a day after the Senate rejected a similar measure. The House voted 212 to 219 to defeat the the Massey Resolution [00:01:06] to bring Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran to a halt on the Senate side. Rand Paul joined with Democrats and John Fetterman unsurprisingly joined with Republicans. That vote ended up 47 to 53. But in the House, the four Democratic defections [00:01:22] actually did affect the outcome. Here are their names and how much money they've taken from the pro-Israel lobby and their mega-donors. Juan Vargas $949,000. Greg Landsman 1.7 million. [00:01:38] Henry Cuellar 3.3 million. And Jared Golden 3.4 million. After the vote, Ro Khanna tweeted strong Democratic vote opposing the illegal war in Iran. On my. And Massie's Wppr. Hakeem Jeffries showed leadership whipping and we had 208 Democrats out of 212, [00:01:58] including representative Josh Gottheimer, who cast a hard and principled vote with us. The Republicans own this Middle East regime change war. And while it was a stronger showing by Democrats relative to past votes on war powers resolutions, it's easy for them to take an anti-war stance [00:02:16] when they're in the opposition party. But others pointed out there were just enough defections to kill the vote. Kyle Blomquist, a congressional candidate in Michigan, tweeted for those keeping score at home, if the four dem defectors had voted yes, the resolution would have been passed 216 to 215, restricting Trump's illegal [00:02:34] and catastrophic war with Iran. I mean, we see this rotating villain theory over and over and over again, and there's always just enough Democrats who are willing to join with the other side to push forward some terrible idea [00:02:51] or to allow Trump's new forever war. Whatever it is, there's always just enough defections. - Keith, what do you make of that? - Oh, gosh, I don't know. I feel two things about it because one, I, I know that we, we don't want this war [00:03:07] to happen, but I also feel like we want Democrats to be in control of the House. And these are Democrats who are also in swing state or swing swing districts. So they make these votes to look independent of the party. And so I get that. But at the same time, this is all very choreographed too. [00:03:25] So Hakeem Jeffries is okay with this. So I, I feel a little bit confused by it, confused about how I feel about it because I understand wanting to control the house in November, but at what cost? [00:03:41] Yeah. Yeah. Look, let's establish a number of things. Number one, the fact that they would have lost 216 to 215 if all the Democrats voted the right way is everything. So this rotating villain theory is not something Jordan came up with a minute ago. [00:03:56] It's been around for decades, okay. And there is dozens of examples of it, of Democrat just enough Democrats flipping over to the Republican side for the Republicans to win nearly every time. And they're usually the reason it's called rotating villains is because they'll rotate them out. [00:04:12] So it's not one guy that constantly stands out. Now, Sinema and Manchin wound up violating that a little bit. They just became the villains. And during the Biden administration. But even so, it was rotating because before it wasn't them. It was others. Right? It used to be Joe Lieberman who would vote for wars, and Ben Nelson from Nebraska. [00:04:31] And I can give you the whole decade long history of rotating villains. So what? So that then leads back to the guy that I mentioned in that tweet, Josh Gottheimer, who is very, very, very pro-Israel, wants to push us into every war. Israel wants endless funding, unconditional for Israel, etc.. [00:04:50] Same with Moskowitz, right? So those two in this case were totally kind of on the war seemed at best noncommittal. Right? They seem to be arguing in favor of the war. But then all of a sudden, as soon as they got past the threshold, they turn around [00:05:06] and they go, oh yeah, we vote against. Yeah, sure. If it required Gottheimer's or Moskowitz's vote, there is 0% chance they wouldn't have voted for this war. Okay, so but honestly, guys, it isn't just about Moskowitz or Gottheimer. [00:05:22] They're just spectacular examples of it because they're so overwhelmingly pro-Israel, right? But I bet you they could have found at least, at least, at least 50% of the Democratic Party. My real guess is at least 80% of the Democratic Party [00:05:37] that would have rotated through. Okay. And so why do I say that? Because at least 80% of the party Democratic Party takes money from AIPAC. Now, 99% of the Republican Party takes it. But, you know, these are the choices you have. [00:05:52] So except I think that there's a better option in a second. But one last thing about the guys who voted in this case with the Republicans, our press tells us that Jared Golden and Henry Cuellar are not affected by 3.3 and $3.4 million in campaign donations. [00:06:08] That that was their genuine, principled stand on this. They thought, you know what? I think the president should have the power to declare war. I think the Constitution is wrong. That's what Golden and Cuellar genuinely think. That's why I hate the national media. I despise them because it's one thing for a guy for the guy to commit [00:06:27] a bank robbery, right? It's another thing for the guy who witnessed it to go, no, he didn't do it. The other guy did. What, are you going to put that guy in prison for? His whole life when he was innocent. And you're going to let the guilty guy go. And that's what our national media does all the time. The reason they voted that way is not complicated. [00:06:44] They got legally bribed by Israel to vote in favor of a war that Israel wants. And 94% of our Congress takes money from the Israeli lobby. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. [00:07:00] We were always going to go to war. They're bought completely Well, not completely, 94% by Israel. That's a stone cold fact. And the national media doesn't cover that news. It covers up that news. You will not see that these guys were bought by AIPAC, [00:07:18] and that's why they voted this way in a single mainstream media article. Okay, so lastly, is there anything you can do about it? Hell yeah. There is to kiss dilemma, right? Look, the Republicans are worse, and that's why I voted against Trump three times. Even though I'm not a big fan of the three people he ran against. [00:07:36] Right? So that's why God created primaries. Okay, fine. It wasn't God. Okay. But, so primaries are everything. That's another reason why national media is like, primaries aren't important. They waste money, they waste important donor money. Okay? Ignore the primaries. [00:07:52] Just go to the general election where you'll have no choice. You'll have pro-Israel, a guy, a pro-Israel guy, guy B right in the primaries. Go vote the sons of bitches out. You don't have to cross the aisle. You don't have to get. Oh, yeah. Lesser of two evils. Oh, you better not vote for her. Good news. You can go to a Democratic primary and vote out almost all the incumbents, [00:08:11] unless their name is Ro Khanna or Jamie Raskin or someone you know for sure is a great guy, you're absolutely positive you can show it. I got bad news for you. Your incumbent sucks. They sold you out not just to Israel, to Big Pharma, to the military industrial complex. [00:08:28] Vote out all the bums on the Democratic side and on the Republican side. Go to the primaries. We have a pledge on operation consequences.com. We'll put the link down below, but you can make an internal pledge. You can do whatever you want. Just make sure you go to the primaries. And by the way, to some degree it has already started. [00:08:45] The Dan Crenshaw upset loss was had a lot of different factors to it, and Maga is against it for other reasons as well. But he was also the guy in the house that was most associated with war, [00:09:00] and he got crushed in the primary. So the Republicans are going to have someone else there. By the way, the next guy also bribed by AIPAC are okay, but we got rid of one of the biggest warmongers in a Republican primary without the Republicans having to ever vote for a Democrat and vice versa. [00:09:18] Don't worry, Democrats, you don't have to vote for. In fact, you'll have a stronger, cleaner candidate against the Republicans with a much better chance of winning. If you vote for guys in the primaries that don't take AIPAC money or any Israeli lobby money, but also any corporate PAC money, because the corporations [00:09:35] buy our politicians even more. Every time I hear Cuellar's name, I'm reminded of how Democrats swooped in to protect him in those primaries. I don't want to undercut Jake's argument on the importance of primaries, but I also don't want you to think it's going to be an easy fight [00:09:52] because two times Jessica Cisneros, a Justice Democrat, great progressive, challenged Cuellar, and both times she narrowly lost. But also both times top House Democrats went to that district to support him, [00:10:07] knowing that despite his terrible voting record, I mean, the first Trump term, the first two years of the Trump term, Cuellar voted with Trump 70% of the time. If you really want us to think that Trump is a the greatest threat to American democracy, and you've got someone in your caucus voting with him 70% of the time, [00:10:26] why are Nancy Pelosi, Akeem Jeffries, and Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn flying to that district to fundraise and whip the vote for him? When you've got a better candidate challenging him because they just want to protect their own. It's like a cartel. I'm sorry. [00:10:41] And I think Genk's description, well, some may shudder at the term bribe. We know he's okay with bribes because he literally took them from Azerbaijan in Mexico. And Trump had to pardon him last December. The guy's okay with it. [00:10:57] Doesn't matter. They're just doing it the legal way. It's an affront to our system. It's a front to the law. 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.