Getting SPICY with Mehdi Hasan

[0:00] genocide, racist, fascist. [0:02] They like war. [0:03] It's Iraqi WMD bull on steroids. [0:06] People can see through this bull . [0:07] We have a war, illegal war in Iran. [0:09] You have the Israelis massacring people in Beirut. [0:11] You have ICE rounding up American citizens. [0:13] CNN is doing multiple segments on Hassan Piker. [0:16] Are you kidding me? [0:18] The last time I interviewed Mehdi Hassan, [0:19] I made a huge mistake. [0:21] I told my boy to turn down the spice. [0:23] I would just say in general, turn down the spice. [0:27] Okay. [0:27] In comment section, you let me have it. [0:30] Don't you dare tell our boy to turn down the spice. [0:32] If anything, he should be turning up the spice. [0:36] And I hear you and I receive you. [0:38] And I'm going to give you exactly what you want. [0:41] I brought Mehdi back on the show [0:43] to hit all the spiciest topics in the news right now. [0:46] Islamophobia, Tucker Carlson, the DNC in Gaza, [0:49] the attack on Iran, Pete Hegseth, [0:51] all the way to habanero hell. [0:53] War crimes. [0:54] The spice. [1:04] Mehdi Hassan, ladies and gentlemen, the return. [1:09] Harvey Weinstein is complaining about Rikers. [1:12] That's right. [1:13] The supervillain of the Me Too movement is upset [1:15] because he got punched in the face by a fellow inmate. [1:18] And Harvey is correct. [1:19] Hitting is wrong, even in prison. [1:22] It is awful to be touched without consent. [1:24] Anyways, I read about this story on Ground News, [1:27] which is today's sponsor. [1:28] And HMDK's favorite independent news platform, [1:30] Ground News shows a breakdown of publications [1:32] reporting on a story in which way they lean politically, [1:36] whether it's right, left, or center. [1:37] Now, it's not about eliminating bias. [1:39] We all have biases, but Ground News helps you be a more conscientious consumer [1:44] of the pageant of pain unfolding around us. [1:47] Now, you may think, yeah, duh, CNN is slightly left. [1:50] Fox is right. [1:52] Why do I need this? [1:53] Well, not everything is about America, folks. [1:54] Ground News sources articles from all over the world. [1:57] For example, there are currently 97 articles talking about Weinstein and Rikers, [2:02] and a lot of the publications are international. [2:04] Now, I know the Globo in Brazil leans right and Le Monde in France leans left, [2:09] and I'm keeping that in mind when I read their coverage. [2:12] So go to groundnews.com slash Hassan to subscribe and get 40% off [2:15] the Unlimited Access Vantage plan, which breaks down to just five bucks [2:19] a month with my discount. [2:20] Stay aware and go to groundnews.com slash Hassan today. [2:24] Hey, comment section. [2:25] You wanted it. [2:26] You wanted it, didn't you? [2:28] You wanted it. [2:29] You little content babies. [2:30] Here he is. [2:31] Let me just start off by congratulating you, Mehli. [2:34] What for? [2:35] Well, as we established in our last interview, you love making very watchable. [2:39] Oh, God. [2:40] Very viral. [2:41] I apologize for that last time. [2:43] Videos. [2:44] It was a bad quote. [2:45] And you had a doozy in 2025. [2:47] Okay. [2:48] Let's put up this epic thumbnail of one of the most watchable viral videos [2:52] that starred Mehli Hassan. [2:53] Oh, God. [2:54] Jubilee. [2:55] Let's look at it. [2:56] Mehli Hassan verse 20 far right. [2:57] Bam. [2:58] Did you like that? [2:59] Did you finger whack for that? [3:00] I mean, I do what they tell me to do. [3:02] Jubilee knows what they're doing to go viral. [3:04] What was the experience like in the room? [3:07] That's the most insane thing I've ever done in my life without a shadow of a doubt. [3:11] I've never had an experience. [3:12] In my entire journalistic career, I'm 46 years old, 26 years as a journalist. [3:17] Never experienced anything like it. [3:18] Two and a half hours of my life that I, it feels like a dream. [3:22] What do you mean you've never experienced anything like this? [3:24] You walk into a warehouse in East LA and you're surrounded. [3:28] It was super hot. [3:29] AC is not working properly. [3:31] Literally, they're sitting there in a circle. [3:34] Freak show. [3:35] And you sit down and it's on. [3:38] They just go crazy from minute one. [3:39] Did you know they were alt-right or did you just know? [3:41] No. [3:42] I thought they're just going to be, you know, Trump supporters, conservatives, right-wing [3:45] people. [3:46] I didn't know they're going to be, hey, I'm a fascist. [3:48] Ah. [3:49] No, I didn't know that guy would be there. [3:50] A little bit more than a far-right Republican. [3:52] Hey, what can I say? [3:54] I think you can say I'm a fascist. [3:56] Yeah, I am. [3:57] Absolutely. [4:01] I'm just checking who's clapping just to get my set of where everyone is on this. [4:05] Because you know that millions of people are going to be watching you on YouTube and checking [4:08] out who the fascists and the Nazis are. [4:09] Yeah, absolutely. [4:10] I'm not ashamed of that whatsoever. [4:11] No, clearly you're not. [4:12] I didn't know there would be great replacement people. [4:13] I didn't know one of the guys would turn out, according to the Guardian, to be linked to [4:17] the Proud Boys. [4:18] No, I had no idea. [4:19] I took one security guard with me. [4:20] I should have taken an army. [4:21] What is the deal? [4:23] What happened with Conor the fascist? [4:25] He claims to have lost his job after the show. [4:27] I'm not sure if I believe him. [4:28] He had a GoFundMe going because apparently he lost his job. [4:30] But let me- [4:31] The fascist. [4:32] Yes. [4:33] What a world we live in. [4:34] Conor the fascist. [4:35] Totally normal. [4:36] But set this up. [4:37] So he's the guy who was like, I'm proudly a fascist. [4:38] Yeah, giggling, I'm a fascist. [4:40] You know, Nazis. [4:41] Well, you know, were they that bad? [4:43] That guy. [4:44] And that was right at the beginning. [4:45] This is like, Hasan, 20 minutes in. [4:47] I'm there for two and a half hours. [4:49] And already I'm thinking, what am I doing here? [4:50] How do I get out of here? [4:51] Like there's a toilet break in the middle. [4:54] And I went out and my producer with me, I was like, what are we doing? [4:56] How do I escape? [4:58] But when that view count hit, did you like it? [5:00] Are you glad you stayed? [5:01] I knew you did. [5:03] I don't lie to you, Hasan. [5:04] I knew you did. [5:05] I don't lie to you, Hasan. [5:06] I knew you did. [5:07] 14 million and counting. [5:08] The fact that you know what the- [5:10] Well, it was 14 million a while ago. [5:11] It might be high now. [5:12] A while ago, meaning you checked two days ago. [5:13] Maybe this morning. [5:14] Now, when the last time you came on the show, and I told you to turn down the spice- [5:18] I was like on a psychiatrist couch. [5:20] The comment section. [5:22] Did they have my back? [5:23] Oh, they had your back and they unloaded the clip on me. [5:27] How dare you, Hasan. [5:29] Turn up the spice. [5:30] Grow a spine. [5:31] Be like Mehdi. [5:32] Yes, I work at Kaiser. [5:34] Of course, I'm doing this on a private browser. [5:36] But you, on the gutters of YouTube, need to grow a pair. [5:39] Shutters of YouTube. [5:40] Have you grown a person? [5:41] I wish I could go as hard in the paint as you. [5:45] I wish I could have the Pantone that you have. [5:47] But I just want to let you know from here on out, this discussion- [5:50] Good. [5:51] I've learned my lesson. [5:52] Good. [5:53] We're going to turn up the spice. [5:54] I'm glad that you just bow down to your commenter. [5:55] Are you ready to go hot ones and turn up the spices? [5:57] I was born ready. [5:58] We're going to start with a little tang. [5:59] Okay. [6:00] Okay. [6:01] Mild warm-up. [6:02] Who's your favorite Spice Girl? [6:03] Uh, Sporty Spice. [6:06] She's my second favorite. [6:08] Who's your favorite? [6:09] Don't say posh. [6:10] Scary Spice. [6:11] Okay. [6:12] I am a little goth. [6:14] And then Sporty Spice was my second. [6:15] Who was, which one was Emma Bunton? [6:16] I don't know. [6:17] I don't remember. [6:18] Let's go a little Spice here. [6:19] Wow. [6:20] Okay. [6:21] Islamophobia. [6:22] GOP Islamophobia. [6:23] Let's turn it up a little bit. [6:24] Last month, Senator Tommy- is it Tuberville? [6:26] Tuberville. [6:27] Tuberville. [6:28] Last month, Senator Tommy Tuberville. [6:30] Is it Tuberville? [6:31] Tuberville. [6:32] Tuberville. [6:33] Tuberville. [6:34] Last month, Senator Tommy Tuberville tweeted, quote, [6:37] The enemy is inside the gates, along with a photo of 9-11 and then Zoran Mamdani. [6:43] What's your response? [6:44] Well, he happens to be the dumbest member of the Senate. [6:47] When he, I mean, I get upset with Islamophobia, but when he tweets Islamophobia, I always think, [6:53] is it concussion? [6:54] Is it a brain injury? [6:55] He's one of the dumbest people ever elected to high office. [6:58] He's a former football coach who was apparently good at football. [7:01] He knows nothing about anything. [7:03] And now he has jumped on the Islamophobia train like so many of the white supremacists in the Republican Party. [7:07] So when he posts stuff like this, he doesn't know anything about Islam or Muslims. [7:11] I would love for you to get him on the show and ask him just some basic questions about Islam. [7:14] The man knows nothing. [7:15] So when you, when you woke up and you saw this, did you reply to this? [7:18] You quote tweet him? [7:19] Probably. [7:20] Okay. [7:21] Hassan, how would I remember I do so many? [7:22] No, it's interesting. [7:25] Cause I wanted to know your spicy hot take on this, but if the New York Times were to see this tweet, [7:28] they would probably call this tweet insensitive. [7:30] Yes. [7:31] Maybe divisive. [7:32] Racially insensitive. [7:33] Racially insensitive. [7:34] They use all these stupid euphemisms. [7:35] Or it's racist. [7:36] It's bigoted. [7:37] It's white supremacy. [7:38] No, no, no. [7:39] I'm saying that. [7:40] I know, but the New York Times would call this quote outside the norms or bounds. [7:44] Yes. [7:45] Yes. [7:46] They're the masters of euphemisms. [7:47] We, because we've normalized Islamophobia, you know this. [7:50] Because if you'd said that about Jewish communities or black communities, people in the mainstream media would take a much stronger line. [7:57] Muslims, no one gives a shit. [7:59] But why, as someone who works in media, why is that type of language used? [8:05] Obviously I did it as a joke. [8:06] They would say, Senator Tuberville uses an insensitive tweet. [8:12] Yes. [8:13] Divisive tweet. [8:14] What's happening in the newsroom? [8:16] What is shaping that decision to use that word? [8:18] It's a fantastic question. [8:19] It's one of the reasons I founded Zateo. [8:20] Because I wanted the freedom to be able to say racist, fascist, these words that genocide. [8:26] These words that a lot of mainstream media run away from. [8:29] And if you sit in mainstream media newsrooms, as I have, you find that a lot of it is cowardice. [8:34] You don't want to rock the boat. [8:36] You don't want to stick your head above the parrot. [8:38] You don't want to say anything controversial. [8:40] A lot of it is ignorance. [8:41] People don't quite realize how bad some of this stuff is. [8:45] The broader context of Islamophobia globally and nationally. [8:49] And some of it is just, I don't know, it's just liberals, you know, self-flagellating and trying to be overly fair to the other side. [8:56] Right, the liberals have been played by the right. [8:58] The right has spent so long telling liberal media, you're liberal, you're biased, that now you have people in the media who go out of their way to be fair, even to racists. [9:05] And I've heard arguments from people, I'm not going to take names, but I've heard from very silly people in the media who will say, you can't call Donald Trump a racist. [9:11] You can't call Tommy Tuberville a racist. [9:13] You don't know what's in his heart. [9:15] That's the kind of bullshit they hide behind. [9:16] You wouldn't say that about an anti-Semite. [9:20] Let's turn up the spice a bit more. [9:22] Let's talk about the DNC in Gaza. [9:23] This is something that was analyzed in depth. [9:25] You covered it, obviously. [9:27] The DNC is refusing to release its 2024 election autopsy, but someone apparently leaked it to Axios. [9:33] And it concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of Biden's Gaza policy. [9:38] Do you think that's why they're keeping it secret? [9:41] Yes, 100%. [9:42] And we're meeting, we're taping this on the day the DNC just voted to reject a motion calling for the condemnation of AIPAC, [9:49] which is very unpopular in the Democratic Party, but the DNC said, no, no, no, no, no. [9:52] The DNC is, of course, the establishment, the Democratic National Committee of the party. [9:56] It's very strange to do a post-mortem on why you lost and then not tell people why you lost. [10:03] What was the point of doing it? [10:04] Because you got results you didn't like. [10:06] We knew those of us who said Gaza would be an issue in the election. [10:10] Unfortunately, we were frustratingly vindicated. [10:13] Those of us who tried to sound the alarm bell and say, Democrats, people are not going to turn out in swing states. [10:18] People in places like Michigan, some of them might even vote for Trump. [10:20] They're going to buy his bullshit about being anti-war. [10:22] How did that work out? [10:23] And we were shot down. [10:25] Like, don't shoot the messengers. [10:26] We were shot down. [10:27] Oh, you're letting Trump in. [10:29] You're not being clear. [10:30] No, no. [10:31] We're just telling you what people are thinking. [10:32] People are upset. [10:33] And there was a denial of what was going on in the rank and file amongst young voters, amongst Arab American voters, amongst lefty voters. [10:41] And now they've kind of conceded. [10:43] They've looked. [10:44] The polling was very clear a while back, Hasan, that swing voters were saying that Gaza was a big issue for them. [10:48] They were telling pollsters this. [10:50] And there was this denial. [10:51] And there was that famous moment. [10:52] You remember, Kamala Harris goes on The View and they say to her, this is just before the election, what would you have done differently from Joe Biden? [10:58] And she said nothing. [10:59] Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years? [11:05] There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of, and I've been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact. [11:13] And that was it. [11:14] I watched that and I thought, she could lose. [11:15] That was the moment. [11:16] Until then, I thought she could win. [11:17] I think she could win this. [11:18] She's a better candidate, Biden. [11:20] And I thought after that, she's screwed. [11:22] So I want to show you a clip from May 2024. [11:24] This is Mitt Romney talking to Anthony Blinken about the TikTok ban during the Biden administration. [11:29] Let's take a look. [11:30] I wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature. [11:37] If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, it's overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcast. [11:50] So I'd note that's of real interest and the president will get the chance to make action in that regard. [11:56] Okay. So is this basically the political establishment's take on TikTok? [12:00] That we just got to get the cell phone out of the kids' hands? [12:03] Is that what it is because of the war? [12:05] I mean, this is the definition of quiet part loud. [12:07] Mitt Romney's not supposed to say that stuff on a stage. [12:09] That's the kind of thing you used to say in smoke-filled rooms. [12:12] He's telling the then Secretary of State, there's a senior Republican Senator on stage, we're going to do something about TikTok because it's super pro-Palestine. [12:20] And it's like, that wasn't what you were publicly saying. [12:23] At the time, you remember, Hassan, the argument was, it's owned by China. [12:26] It's Chinese propaganda. [12:27] And some of us said at the time, it's not really about China. [12:29] It's about Israel-Palestine. [12:30] And then Mitt Romney goes out and confirms it. [12:32] And you're like, wow. [12:33] One thing I say about the modern Republican Party, not just Romney, Cruz, Trump himself. [12:37] The one redeeming feature is they like the villains in the Scooby-Doo movies or even the Bond movies. [12:44] They just reveal the whole thing. [12:45] I don't think they're going to get away with it. [12:46] Oh, what the plan and the plot was. [12:47] Yeah. [12:48] They just say everything. [12:49] And I was like, all right, thanks. [12:50] It's useful for those of us who are accused of being conspiracy theorists. [12:52] If I say they're banning TikTok because of Israel, you'll say you're anti-Semitic conspiracists. [12:56] Mitt Romney just said it. [12:57] We all heard him say it. [12:58] That's why they did it. [12:59] It's repression. [13:00] They were losing the argument, the Democratic Party establishment, the political establishment [13:04] as a whole. [13:05] They've lost the argument on Palestine. [13:06] Hassan, if you look at the recent polls, I never thought in my lifetime, American public [13:10] would tell pollsters, we support Palestinians more than Israelis. [13:12] That is now what Gallup and Pew is showing. [13:14] Pew is showing that under the age of 50, everyone in America is more pro-Palestinian than anti-Israeli, including [13:20] Republicans under the age of 50. [13:22] So there's a generational change here happening in terms of attitudes to Israel that we've [13:26] never seen before in our lifetime. [13:28] It's a shame it took a genocide for the American public to wake up to our misguided support [13:32] for Israel. [13:33] But that's where we are. [13:34] And instead of engaging with where the public's at, instead of engaging with why they've changed [13:39] their views, because they saw a genocide, the answer from the political establishment [13:42] to say, shut down any independent discussion of Gaza, control, take control back of what people [13:48] are seeing, hearing, speaking about. [13:50] TikTok. [13:51] David Ellison bought Paramount Boss, bought CBS, now buying CNN, Warner Brothers. [13:56] It's all part of the same thing. [13:57] Control the discourse, limit what people can hear and see about Gaza and Israel. [14:01] Well, there's three buckets in regards to, let's talk about the TikTok issue. [14:06] You clearly laid that out. [14:07] Number one, it's Chinese interference. [14:09] That's one part of the argument. [14:10] The second one was what Mitt Romney was saying of, hey, we're seeing the search results on [14:15] TikTok. [14:16] This is a big issue for people. [14:18] How do they make sense of the third bucket, which is Donald Trump brought it back? [14:21] Yes. [14:23] He was like, I'll give you your TikTok. [14:24] He used to be anti it. [14:25] Classic Trump U-turn. [14:26] Yeah. [14:27] He not just brought it back. [14:28] He brought it back in violation of the law. [14:29] Like there was a congressional law that said you had to get rid of it. [14:31] He did his own deal with Ellison's, with Rupert Murdoch, I believe. [14:35] I can't remember who's in this conglomerate with some, maybe some Gulf country. [14:38] I can't remember the details, but there's a group of people who came in to fund this [14:41] TikTok USA spinoff, which was the compromise they did to say, okay, it's not now controlled [14:46] by China. [14:47] It's controlled by American right-wing billionaires. [14:49] Wow. [14:50] Great. [14:51] Like the CCP or a bunch of right-wing neocon billionaires. [14:53] That's our choice as the American public. [14:55] So Trump brought it back because he understood that what does Trump know about in the world? [14:59] He knows nothing about world. [15:00] He knows ratings. [15:01] He knows audiences. [15:02] This is what he knows. [15:03] He knows spectacle. [15:04] So when somebody showed Trump the numbers, he got it. [15:07] In fact, he created a TikTok account. [15:09] In fact, he dominated TikTok in 2024 in the run-up to the election, even under the old [15:13] ownership. [15:14] So he understood the power of controlling these messaging platforms. [15:17] Again, quiet, part, loud. [15:18] They keep saying, Pete Hexer said recently, I can't wait till CNN's under new ownership. [15:23] CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war's impact on the Strait of Hormuz. [15:29] The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better. [15:34] Brendan Carr, who's the head of the FEC, remains openly saying we need change of leadership and ownership at CNN. [15:39] They're not hiding the fact that their strategy is to follow what Narendra Modi has done in India. [15:44] Viktor Orban has done in Hungary. [15:46] Recep Tayyip Erdogan has done in Turkey. [15:48] Benjamin Netanyahu to an extent has done in Israel, which is the people in power, the authoritarians, they have their billionaire friends, just take over the media. [15:55] You don't need to send in men with guns. [15:57] You don't need to send tanks rolling into a newsroom. [15:59] Just buy it all. [16:00] You change the laws to allow big companies to come take it over. [16:04] And then they put out content that you like. [16:06] Do you want to get a little bit spicier? [16:07] Sure. [16:08] Okay. [16:10] You said yes. [16:11] Always. [16:12] I'm never going to say no. [16:13] Keep going. [16:14] Okay. [16:15] It's going to get so spicy. [16:16] I mean, we're going to go into habanero hell. [16:20] Make no mistake. [16:21] Okay. [16:23] Now look, Mehdi, what's very interesting is right now is, as you're saying, the right wing is saying the quiet part out loud, or as you're saying is they're revealing what their true intentions are. [16:33] But what's also interesting is there have been, on particular issues, a Venn diagram overlap between the right and the left. [16:43] Big time. [16:44] One person who's been very vocal on this issue recently in regards to Gaza is Tucker Carlson. [16:49] You retweeted this interview last month with The Economist. [16:52] Now, I have to show you the graphic because you retweet a lot. [16:55] I do. [16:56] But this one I remember. [16:57] Okay. [16:58] In addition to this retweet, is there any other background you want to give your followers about Tucker Carlson? [17:01] Well, a couple of things. [17:02] Number one, I've been very critical of Tucker Carlson over the years. [17:05] And for the people watching at home, these days, Tucker Carlson has a big fan base amongst the anti-war left, who see him as saying the right stuff, trying to stop Trump from illegal wars in Iran, and amongst a lot of Muslims and Arab Americans who see him now as this great champion of Palestine. [17:21] Wherever I go, literally, wherever I go in this country, I do a lot of live events. [17:25] I do a lot of public events. [17:26] People come up to me, when are you going to Tucker Carlson? [17:28] When are you going to do an event with Tucker Carlson? [17:29] Why don't you do a collab with Tucker Carlson? [17:31] We love Tucker Carlson. [17:32] Wherever I go. [17:33] People ask me more about Tucker Carlson, even in my own family, than they ask me about my wife and kids. [17:36] So I find myself in this difficult position. [17:38] I find myself straddling this weird divide. [17:40] This insider-outside divide. [17:42] The insider in me gets why we shouldn't like Tucker Carlson. [17:45] He said some horrific things over the years about immigrants, about Muslims, about all sorts of people. [17:50] Great replacement theory, on and on. [17:51] Great replacement theory, which is anti-Semitic theory. [17:52] Also, we go through the list. [17:53] Yeah. [17:54] The election was stolen. [17:55] The election was stolen. [17:56] January 6th was a fedsurrection. [17:57] All sorts of nonsense. [17:58] I did a 25-minute video, I think, about Tucker Carlson when I was at MSNBC, just doing a debunking of all his lies. [18:03] Right? [18:04] So I have a long memory. [18:05] I'm cursed with a long memory, unlike a lot of Americans. [18:07] I remember all this shit. [18:08] And then, obviously, I'm aware of, you know, how people operate in this space. [18:13] A lot of it is for clicks or, you know, attention, et cetera. [18:16] So that's the insider in me. [18:18] He sees Tucker Carlson says, oh, I know what he's doing. [18:20] And I remember who he is. [18:21] The outsider in me says, you know what? [18:23] Our media is so broken. [18:25] Tucker Carlson's saying what a lot of mainstream media are not saying. [18:28] And do I like Tucker Carlson? [18:29] Not personally. [18:30] Does he like me? [18:31] I've heard he doesn't like me. [18:32] But he's saying what needs to be said. [18:34] And he's saying things that other people aren't saying. [18:37] And he's taking on people on his own side. [18:38] Remember, that's a key point. [18:39] Right? [18:40] People in America love it when you take on your own side. [18:42] Everyone can take on the other side. [18:43] But when the left goes after Democrats or the right goes after MAGA, that's a big thing. [18:47] And he took apart Mike Huckabee recently, the US ambassador to Israel. [18:51] He took apart Ted Cruz. [18:52] Of course. [18:53] Hilarious. [18:54] And wherever I go, people ask me about Tucker. [18:55] And I say, look, my view is I'm the Jon Stewart popcorn meme. [18:59] Like I'm that guy. [19:00] I'm just loving watching it as an outsider. [19:02] I don't take sides. [19:03] This is the right internecine warfare. [19:05] I'm glad he's doing it. [19:06] I'm glad he's him and others. [19:08] Marjorie Taylor Greene are causing some shit on the right. [19:10] Does that mean we all have to ally with them and say they're amazing people? [19:13] I'm not so sure. [19:14] And so I'm torn on this. [19:15] That tweet got me in a lot of trouble with liberals. [19:17] On Blue Sky, I got dragged for that tweet. [19:19] I don't go on Blue Sky. [19:20] You're checking the comments on Blue Sky? [19:22] I check everywhere. [19:23] So on Blue Sky, I got dragged, Hassan. [19:25] Dragged by liberals saying, oh, he's normalizing Tucker Carlson. [19:28] So on the one hand, I get dragged by liberals saying, why are you normalizing Tucker? [19:31] On the other hand, I get Muslims left to say, why are you being mean to Tucker? [19:34] He's saying the right thing on Israel. [19:35] So I'm in that weird space, which I find myself increasingly in these days, [19:38] where I'm kind of trying to straddle some divide. [19:40] How do you make sense of the accusation that people may say that you're sane-washing Tucker Carlson [19:44] the same way people accuse the mainstream media of, quote unquote, normalizing or sane-washing Donald Trump? [19:51] The difference is the word sane with Trump is relevant, right? [19:54] He says insane shit, and then they tidy it up, the media. [19:57] That's sane-washing. [19:58] Tucker's not insane. [19:59] The issue with Tucker is, are you normalized to some of his other bigotry, right? [20:04] And that is a legitimate question. [20:05] There are a lot of people who are uncomfortable and wonder about the agenda. [20:08] Is he speaking out in Israel-Palestine? [20:10] I don't know the answer to this question, but I can understand why people raise this question. [20:13] Is he speaking about Israel-Palestine because he's genuinely now revulsed by war? [20:16] He's anti-war. [20:17] He's a kind of old-school Pat Buchanan isolationist Republican. [20:21] Or is he speaking out because he's anti-Sammar and doesn't like Jews and doesn't like Israel? [20:24] People leveled us at Candace Owens. [20:26] Legitimately, she says some crazy shit about synagogues and Satan and other things and Hitler. [20:31] Is that the case with Tucker? [20:32] Is that the case with Marjorie Taylor Greene? [20:34] When it comes to far-right conservatives and their opposition to Israel, [20:37] a lot of people are nervous because we want allies, right? [20:40] We're so used to being in a minority. [20:42] Those of us have been pushing the pro-Palestinian cause in media and politics. [20:45] We want allies. [20:46] But are these the right allies? [20:48] Do they have the same intentions as us? [20:50] The only thing I noticed about Tucker Carlson is whenever he talks about Gaza, [20:52] he talks about Christians in Gaza. [20:54] He talks about churches being bombed in Gaza outrageously. [20:57] Okay, but mosques are as well. [20:59] We should condemn that too. [21:00] I saw him speak recently about Lebanese Christians being killed, which is outrageous. [21:03] But how about Lebanese Shias or Lebanese Sunnis? [21:05] So my worry is that if, you know, do we get into bed with Christian nationalists [21:10] because right now we have a common enemy. [21:12] I've never been of the school of thought, [21:13] how sort of my enemy's enemy is my friend. [21:15] I just think that's too cynical a worldview. [21:17] I think we have to be principled and consistent. [21:19] How do you, as someone who speaks in a British accent and speaks very quickly, [21:22] which makes you very talented in the media space, [21:25] how do you then engage with Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens or Nick Fuentes? [21:30] If they offered you to come on their podcast, would you? [21:33] Well, definitely not Nick Fuentes. [21:37] And I have been asked to do stuff with Candace. [21:39] I've said no. [21:40] Tucker Carlson has not invited me on his show. [21:42] I would love to have him on my show so I could get to the bottom of some of these questions [21:45] and ask him some tough questions about where is this all coming from? [21:48] Where does this all go? [21:49] Again, one of my other criticisms of these guys is they helped bring Trump, [21:53] like Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Candace. [21:55] They're all now saying, oh my God, why is Tucker, why is Trump in Iran? [21:58] This is so bad. [21:59] And then all these Muslims and leftists are like, yeah, they're speaking out. [22:02] I want some accountability. [22:04] They gave us Trump. [22:05] We wouldn't have Trump term two were it not for Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Candace and the rest. [22:09] So I want some accountability. [22:11] Would I go on the shows? [22:12] I don't know. [22:13] At the moment, probably not. [22:14] I understand the arguments. [22:15] A lot of people come tell me, you should do it. [22:17] You'll reach a new audience. [22:18] You'll reach a new audience. [22:19] But then there's other people who'll be very upset with me because they will legitimately [22:22] say, are you mainstreaming their other views? [22:24] Are you okay with their other views? [22:26] I don't know the answer, Hassan. [22:27] It's a really tough one because Gaza is a massive issue for me, as you know. [22:30] Palestine is a big issue. [22:32] Changing the consensus on Palestine is important to me. [22:34] We need allies. [22:35] But is there a way to do it with these people saying, okay, we all agree on this. [22:40] We'll carry on disagree on everything else. [22:42] So I don't agree with Tucker on immigration. [22:43] I don't agree with him on ICE, on deportations. [22:45] Yeah. [22:46] It's almost like you would need a book to tell you how to win that argument. [22:49] I wish. [22:50] Maybe there's a book to read. [22:51] If only. [22:52] If only. [22:53] Hey, what do you think of the Dems turning Hassan Piker's livestream into some weird litmus [22:56] test? [22:57] What's going on with that? [22:58] Because didn't they want a Joe Rogan for the left? [22:59] They kept saying that. [23:00] They kept saying it, but they didn't mean it, Hassan. [23:03] It's hilarious. [23:04] Yeah. [23:05] Why is it a litmus test? [23:06] It's hilarious to see what they did with Hassan. [23:07] Because I'm here for the b-ball and the weightlifting. [23:08] I was trying to deadlift with my Turkish brother. [23:10] I was trying to. [23:11] Can you keep up with Hassan? [23:12] No. [23:13] No. [23:14] If you have him as a spot, him to spot me, that'd be cool. [23:16] Would you stand in a photo with him? [23:18] I've stood in a photo with him. [23:19] Super tall. [23:20] Very tall. [23:21] And my man is built. [23:22] He's built. [23:23] It's a good ad for the Muslim community. [23:25] I don't think he really identifies very much, but as a brown man, he's a good ad. [23:28] Yeah. [23:30] He's handsome. [23:31] It's insane what they made him. [23:32] Fox and Friends says he's handsome. [23:33] Jessica Taloff said she, it's objectively true that he's good looking. [23:35] Objectively true? [23:36] On Fox, they said that about Hassan Paikah. [23:37] He is objectively handsome. [23:39] Look at the New York Times profile of him. [23:41] I mean, he is- [23:42] Of course. [23:43] My queen. [23:44] My queen! [23:45] I'm gonna take a hard pass on him. [23:46] To make him into this boogeyman, we have a war, illegal war in Iran, where we're massaging [23:52] schoolgirls, threatening the end of civilization. [23:55] You have the Israelis massacring people in Beirut. [23:57] You have prices at home sky high. [23:59] And on top of it, you have ICE rounding up American citizens. [24:03] CNN is doing multiple segments on Hassan Paikah. [24:06] Like, what is going on here? [24:08] The media is broken, I know, but come on. [24:10] It's the Mitt Romney TikTok moment. [24:12] We can't out-debate these people. [24:14] We can't beat them with facts and figures. [24:17] So we must silence them. [24:18] We must ostracize them. [24:19] And by the way, all these Democrats who were asked recently, like Cory Booker, would [24:23] you go on Hassan Paikah's stream? [24:24] Hassan had a great response. [24:25] I didn't even invite you. [24:26] But I would say to them, oh, no, we wouldn't go on this. [24:29] They go on Bill Maher. [24:31] Bill Maher has said openly racist things about Muslims, about Black people, horrifically [24:35] misogynistic things. [24:36] You all go on Bill Maher. [24:37] Like, the double standard is just so brazen. [24:40] People can see through this bullshit now. [24:42] It's 2026. [24:43] The old ways don't work. [24:44] You want to get spicier? [24:46] Sure. [24:47] Okay, let's talk about Iran. [24:48] Right now, there's three major camps that I'm getting information about when it comes [24:51] to Iran. [24:52] WhatsApp, Reddit, and the comments section. [24:54] A very healthy IV drip. [24:56] I'm sure you know exactly what's happening. [24:58] You're on the show. [24:59] You're plugged in. [25:01] You have primary sources. [25:02] What are you hearing as you ignore your family and you walk past them and log online? [25:08] I do do that, unfortunately. [25:09] Yeah, I know. [25:10] I know. [25:11] They're eating breakfast and you go, let me just get right into the mainframe. [25:12] There's a war on. [25:13] Yeah. [25:14] There's a war. [25:15] You've got to make sacrifices. [25:16] Sure. [25:17] There's a war on. [25:18] Yeah, yeah. [25:19] They're eating Froot Loops. [25:20] Stop. [25:21] I don't even know what they're eating. [25:22] Who knows? [25:23] Who knows? [25:24] How many kids do that? [25:25] Sure. [25:26] Two, last time I checked. [25:27] I mean, we're taping this the day or two days after a ceasefire, which is not really a ceasefire [25:32] because they just massacred a bunch of people in Lebanon. [25:34] Then they said Lebanon wasn't part of the deal. [25:36] But then the Iranians revealed the points that show Lebanon's part of the deal. [25:39] And the Pakistani prime minister is on record saying it's part of the deal. [25:41] By the way, Pakistan peacemaker is nice. [25:43] I don't think it's over. [25:45] If you think it's over, you're wrong. [25:46] How do the America first people make sense of this? [25:49] Because the whole consensus behind the MAGA movement was you have to put America first. [25:57] And then, of course, the culture war. [25:59] Why are the M&Ms gay? [26:01] Yes. [26:02] And why is the Little Mermaid black? [26:05] Yeah. [26:06] These were their core issues. [26:07] Core issues. [26:08] And then, yeah, immigration. [26:09] I just don't want brown people here. [26:10] But these were kind of their, these were their core issues. [26:12] How do they make sense of now Donald Trump being the famous anti-war president, [26:19] now getting the United States involved in a very serious war? [26:21] So I think you need to divide up the American public. [26:23] You have the MAGA base, and they have no core beliefs or principles. [26:27] They are a Trump cult, right? [26:29] Let's just be very clear about it. [26:30] This is a Trump cult. [26:32] I hear people telling me MAGA split on this war because of Tucker Carlson, because of Candace Owens. [26:37] Yeah, I get it. [26:38] The influences are split. [26:39] The people? [26:40] No. [26:41] Look at the polling. [26:42] 80%, 70% support amongst the MAGA base when it comes to the Iran war. [26:46] They will follow him wherever he goes. [26:48] If Trump says we must invade Iran, MAGA supports it. [26:52] If Trump says we must not invade Iran, MAGA supports it. [26:55] If tomorrow Trump says tariffs are bad, MAGA supports it. [26:58] Tariffs are good, MAGA supports it. [26:59] This is a cult. [27:00] And when Trump says, I decide what MAGA is, that's one of the rare moments in the day when he's not lying. [27:05] It's true. [27:06] Donald Trump decides what MAGA is. [27:07] There is no consistent philosophy. [27:09] Don't be fooled. [27:10] At the last election, the Republican Party didn't even put out a plank. [27:13] They didn't put out a policy platform. [27:15] They said whatever Trump says, that's a cult. [27:17] That's the definition of a cult. [27:19] What moment happened for you that made you say, it's for sure a cult? [27:24] Oh, very early on. [27:25] Really? [27:26] Late 2015. [27:27] Oh, interesting. [27:28] So the moment I knew it was a cult, the people behind him, I didn't know the entire party would become a cult. [27:32] But I knew that he had cultivated a cult. [27:34] Do you remember he was sitting on stage and he said, John McCain? [27:37] He wasn't a war hero. [27:38] I like war heroes who didn't get captured. [27:40] He's not a war hero. [27:41] War hero. [27:42] He's a war hero. [27:43] Five and a half years. [27:44] He's a war hero because he was captured. [27:45] I like people that weren't captured. [27:47] I was like, oh, his campaign's over. [27:49] You can't say that about a war hero in the Republican Party. [27:52] Yeah, someone who served the American country. [27:53] Yeah, yeah. [27:54] Trump got away with this. [27:55] Poll ratings went up. [27:56] That was the moment I was like, oh, wow. [27:57] This guy's Teflon. [27:58] This guy can say whatever he wants and get away with it. [28:00] Remember he said during that campaign, I could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it. [28:03] A rare, truthful statement from Donald Trump. [28:06] In fact, he shot two Americans this year. [28:10] His forces did. [28:11] His paramilitaries did. [28:12] Got away with it. [28:13] Still in office. [28:14] So on the MAGA front, I don't buy that they were ever anti-war. [28:16] They were just whatever Trump said at the time. [28:17] Now, there is a constituency in the American public. [28:20] Swing voters who don't want foreign wars are fatigued by endless wars. [28:24] Don't want another Afghanistan, Iraq. [28:25] Now, some of them, did they fall for Trump's bullshit shtick? [28:28] Yes. [28:29] Did Muslims in places like Dearborn, Michigan say, well, Kamala Harris is a warmonger. [28:32] She's campaigning with Liz Cheney, which she stupidly did. [28:35] So Donald Trump came to Michigan. [28:37] He said, no more wars. [28:38] Stephen Miller said, we're not going to send your boys to the Middle East. [28:40] And then some of them bought that shit. [28:42] Some people like me were like, no, he's not anti-war. [28:45] Remember the first term? [28:46] He bombed Somalia. [28:47] He bombed Syria. [28:48] He bombed Iraq. [28:49] He killed Qasem Soleimani. [28:50] He did more drone strikes than Barack Obama. [28:52] We just never heard about this in all the shit show of term one. [28:56] He was super warmongering in term one. [28:58] And people thought he was going to be anti-war. [29:00] And now to go back to your question about America first, their argument is we're just imperialists [29:04] now, right? [29:05] It's the Don Roe Doctrine. [29:06] We just take what we want. [29:07] Like Venezuela. [29:08] We take the oil. [29:09] Right. [29:10] Greenland. [29:11] Greenland's next. [29:12] Yeah. [29:13] We'll take out Greenland. [29:14] We'll take out Iran for the oil. [29:15] You see what he said the other day when he was asked about the Strait of Hormuz and the [29:16] tolls that the Iranians are going to charge? [29:18] We'll do it with them. [29:19] It's a great idea. [29:20] We'll make money. [29:21] He cares about. [29:23] Hey there. [29:24] It's Hasan. [29:25] Before this podcast continues, I'm going to need you to fill out 37 forms about your listening [29:29] history. [29:30] I'll wait. [29:32] Nah, I'm just kidding. [29:33] I mean, that would be ridiculous to make you do that. [29:35] And yet you do do that every time you need healthcare. [29:39] But the new Amazon Health AI is different. [29:41] It can connect your health history to offer personalized care so you can get help fast. [29:46] Amazon Health AI. [29:47] Healthcare just got less painful. [29:49] I've always thought ATM fees are whack. [29:51] I mean, why are you charging me to get my own money? [29:54] Cut it out. 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[30:40] Head to Chime.com slash Hasan. [30:41] That is Chime.com slash Hasan. [30:43] It only takes a few minutes to sign up. [30:45] Chime is a fintech, not a bank. [30:47] Banking services for MyPay provided by Chime's bank partners. [30:50] For more information on MyPay, go to Chime.com slash disclosers. [30:54] Optional products and services may have fees or charges. [30:57] You know why I love summer? [30:59] All those plans we made, they finally make it out of the group chat. [31:02] It seems like there's more time to fit everyone in. [31:05] Whatever you got in store this summer, capturing those memories is a must. [31:09] That's why I love the iPhone 17 Pro that I picked up from AT&T. [31:12] It's center stage front camera auto adjusts the frame to fit everyone into these group selfies. [31:17] You don't even have to turn your phone. [31:19] No awkward cropping or asking strangers to take it. [31:22] Just the perfect group selfie every time. [31:24] And AT&T makes sharing those moments with everyone easy. [31:27] Because you gotta share the pic or it didn't happen, right? [31:30] Right now at AT&T, ask how you can get iPhone 17 Pro for $0 [31:34] with eligible iPhone trade in any condition. [31:36] Requires trade in of iPhone 15 plus or higher. [31:39] Excludes iPhone 16E and 17E. [31:41] Requires eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply. [31:44] Subject to change. [31:45] Visit att.com slash iPhone or visit an AT&T store for details. [31:49] Help me make sense of the way the media frames Iranian history. [31:55] Any time I see historical context on Iran, especially in the American media, [32:00] it always starts with back in 1979, the Iranian Revolution. [32:03] The origin of Iran's current Islamic government and its antagonistic relationship with the West [32:07] can be traced to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. [32:10] The history, the revolution 47 years ago that brought the first Ayatollah to power, [32:16] replacing a secular society, the kind of place where women dressed and dreamed as they wished. [32:21] Why does history start at 1979? Did anything important happen before that? [32:25] Nothing. The world began in the Middle East on 1979. [32:28] You know what's really bad? Not only do we not know the history of our relationship with Iran, [32:32] but the Iranians are the exact opposite. [32:34] They super read. They're super into history. [32:37] Everyone in Iran can tell you about what happened in 1953. [32:40] In America, nobody knows what happened in 1953. [32:41] So tell us what happened, 1953. [32:43] 1953. [32:45] Who was elected as- [32:46] Yeah. [32:47] Is the prime minister of Iran. [32:48] Democratically elected. [32:49] Nationalized oil. [32:50] Nationalizes the oil. [32:51] Kicks out foreigners. [32:52] Americans get- Brits get really upset. [32:54] Americans get upset. [32:55] Send a guy called Kermit Roosevelt, descendant of the former president. [32:58] CIA guys help pay for riots and protests in the streets. [33:03] The CIA overthrows him. [33:04] You want to hear a really good bit? [33:05] Sure. [33:06] They ally with. [33:07] They ally with the mullahs, the ayatollahs, the clerics against this secular communist leftist Mossadegh. [33:14] Ironically, the same people we've now demonized for the last 46 years who were in power. [33:18] And they bring back the Shah. [33:19] Shah is this fantastically corrupt and autocratic ruler. [33:22] Has a secret police called Savak. [33:23] Tortures and kills people. [33:24] But lets women wear miniskirts and everyone can be, you know, free in that way. [33:28] It was a horrible period from 1953 to 1979, which helps bring about the revolution. [33:33] But it was a revolution that wasn't just Islamic. [33:36] It had secularists and leftists and communists. [33:38] But the Islamic part of it consolidated and crushed the rest of it, Ayatollah Khomeini. [33:42] But we start in 79. [33:43] We don't talk about the coup in 1953. [33:46] Everyone in Iran knows about the coup in 1953. [33:48] We also don't talk about what happened after 1979. [33:51] The moment they come to power, we supported who? [33:54] Saddam Hussein to invade Iran and carry out the Iran-Iran war. [33:59] Eight year long war in which Saddam used chemical weapons against Iranians. [34:03] Chemical weapons provided by Brits, French, Americans. [34:06] Donald Rumsfeld goes to meet with Saddam in the 80s to support him in his war. [34:10] We shoot down their airliner. [34:12] We shoot down Flight 655, I think it was, the USS Vincennes. [34:16] Yes. [34:17] Shoots down, kills over… [34:18] This is in 1988. [34:19] This is 1988. [34:20] Towards the end of the Iran-Iran war, we shoot them down, I think, over international waters. [34:22] The United States this afternoon acknowledged that a missile from an American ship in the [34:27] Persian Gulf shot down, accidentally, an Iran air passenger plane with 290 people on board. [34:33] All of those people, passengers and crew, believed to have died in the crash. [34:37] We're dead. [34:41] We had to have got it. [34:42] That was a dead-on. [34:43] George H.W. Bush, Vice President of the Times, says, I will never apologize for the United States. [35:05] Well, furthermore, the guy who did it got a medal, the Legion of Merit. [35:09] Yes. [35:10] So we blow up their airliner. [35:12] We support Saddam Hussein attacking them. [35:14] And before the revolution, we support bringing back the Shah and topple their debris. [35:18] And then we say, why do they hate us? [35:20] What do we ever do to them? [35:22] They killed our troops in Iraq. [35:24] They supported terrorist groups in the region. [35:28] They've only done bad… [35:29] And by the way, just to be clear, people are going to say, Iran's stooge. [35:31] Iran has done lots of bad things. [35:32] No one's denying that. [35:33] But the idea that this is one-way traffic, that we have not done bad things to Iran and [35:37] the Iranian people, is absurd. [35:38] And by the way, there were many moments to have some kind of reconciliation. [35:41] People don't know that after 9-11, on 9-11, on September the 11th, 2001, you know what [35:46] Iranians in Tehran did? [35:47] They went out with candle lights on the streets of Tehran to show solidarity with the victims [35:51] of 9-11. [35:52] In Tehran this week, demonstrators held a candlelight vigil for victims of the attacks [35:57] in New York and Washington. [35:58] And Iran's foreign minister was quoted today as saying, his government wants those behind [36:03] the attacks, quote, tracked down and severely punished. [36:06] That was a moment there for the Americans and Iranians to have some reconciliation. [36:10] In fact, our invasion of Afghanistan was helped by the Iranians. [36:13] The Iranians provided intel support on the ground to topple the Taliban. [36:16] There were many moments after the invasion of Iraq, the Iranians reached out and said, [36:19] let's do a deal. [36:20] And George Bush rejected it, threw it in the trash can. [36:22] So we've had many moments to fix this stuff and we refused to do so, partly because we [36:27] were backing Israel the whole time and Israel doesn't want to be still with Iran. [36:30] What does Iran as a country, why has it always had this kind of Rocky III, Rocky IV, similar [36:36] to the Russians kind of fog over the American public? [36:39] What's up with that? [36:40] Why? [36:41] You know what I'm talking about. [36:42] You know what I'm talking about. [36:43] Rocky IV is my favorite. [36:44] Yeah. [36:45] The way they are, the Russians, we got a big gun. [36:47] I know. [36:48] And then they all cheer him at the end. [36:49] Yeah. [36:50] The Iranians. [36:51] I was a Dolph Lundgren fan. [36:52] The Iranians, yes. [36:53] But a lot of times- [36:54] Partly it's the hostage crisis. [36:55] Let's just be clear. [36:56] The hostage crisis played a big part in the American imagination in the 1980s. [36:58] Yes. [36:59] And then you had a bunch of Chuck Norris movies who passed away recently, Chuck Norris. [37:02] A lot of Hollywood played a big role in kind of the Iran demonization, even the recent [37:06] Top Gun Maverick film, which is a great movie. [37:08] But that's clearly Iran that he's trying to attack. [37:10] And then you had a real life moment where this pilot went down in Iran. [37:13] Yes, Iran has been boogeyman. [37:15] And go back to 2003, Hassan. [37:17] George Bush wants to attack Iraq, right? [37:19] After 9-11. [37:20] Iraq did not attack America. [37:22] Iran did not attack America. [37:23] North Korea did not attack America. [37:25] But David Frum, his speechwriter, comes up with this axis of evil phrase, which brings [37:28] these three together. [37:29] Until that moment, Iran is trying to do a deal. [37:31] And George Bush says, axis of evil. [37:34] They've just been helping you in Afghanistan. [37:36] Axis of evil. [37:38] And there always has to be this boogeyman. [37:40] And they've been planning. [37:41] I wrote about this recently for Zateo. [37:43] They've been planning since the mid 1990s, the neocons, to take out Iran. [37:47] You go back and read the clean break memo, 1995. [37:50] Some of the most influential neoconservatives around George Bush, pre-Bush, during the Clinton [37:54] administration, they're writing policy proposals saying, we've got to take out Syria. [37:57] We've got to take out Iran. [37:58] We've got to take out all these. [37:59] And they have. [38:00] All these Syria. [38:01] Bashar al-Assad's regime changed. [38:02] Saddam. [38:03] They say, we've got to take out Iraq. [38:04] One, two. [38:05] You know what's at the end of every list? [38:06] Iran. [38:07] Iran. [38:08] Iran. [38:09] Iran. [38:10] Iran. [38:11] Iran. [38:12] Iran. [38:13] Iran. [38:14] You have no idea what they have. [38:16] Now, a recent poll showed that 25% of Americans believe Iran has nuclear weapons. [38:20] Another 45% believe that they're actively working to develop them. [38:24] Is any of that true? [38:26] No. [38:27] And you don't have to take my word for it. [38:28] But why do people believe that then? [38:29] Oh, because they've been lied to. [38:31] They've been lied to. [38:32] Not just by Fox, by the way. [38:33] They've been lied to by media across the board. [38:35] CBS News recently, I think 60 Minutes, did a tweet talking about Iran's nuclear weapons. [38:39] They had to be corrected by the general public. [38:41] There are no nuclear weapons in Iran. [38:43] And they were not building nuclear weapons. [38:44] We're lied to by people who have agendas. [38:47] Pro-Israel agendas. [38:48] Anti-Iran agendas. [38:49] Anti-Muslim agendas. [38:50] Whatever it is. [38:51] And, you know, the military industrial complex. [38:53] No. [38:54] President Tulsi Gabbard. [38:55] Someone I have no time for. [38:57] Director of National Intelligence. [38:58] Trump's Director of National Intelligence. [38:59] Went in front of Congress last year. [39:01] And said, the US intelligence community's consensus view, going back to 2007. [39:05] Nearly 20 years. [39:06] Is that Iran does not have nukes. [39:08] Is not building nukes. [39:09] And Ayatollah Khamenei. [39:11] Then alive, now dead. [39:12] Has not given the order to build nukes. [39:14] The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. [39:17] And Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. [39:23] In fact, Ayatollah Khamenei produced a fatwa in the 90s. [39:27] As an Ayatollah, as a religious leader saying, nukes are haram. [39:29] They're un-Islamic. [39:30] We can't build nukes. [39:31] Iran's supreme leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons. [39:35] But the US, forget him. [39:36] US intelligence community says there are no nukes. [39:38] And they're not building nukes. [39:39] The IAEA, the inspectors say, no military program. [39:42] No weapons program. [39:43] But these guys and Democrats are partly to blame for this too. [39:45] They bought into this idea that Iran is this nuclear threat. [39:48] That they're about to build. [39:49] Do you remember? [39:50] You've seen the video of Netanyahu online from like 30 years. [39:53] They're two weeks away from nukes. [39:55] They're always two weeks away from nukes. [39:57] It's been 30 years he's been telling us they're two weeks away from nukes. [40:00] But they're not. [40:01] But most recently, the United States, the conversation around the Iranian invasion has been, [40:06] we're taking out their nuclear program. [40:08] And they're highly enriched uranium. [40:10] Yeah. [40:11] They're 60%. [40:12] It's a nuclear program. [40:13] Which again, implies that. [40:14] But he said he did that last year, by the way. [40:15] I don't know. [40:16] I don't know why it is. [40:17] I obliterated it, he said. [40:18] So why are we there again? [40:19] It's all bullshit. [40:22] It's Iraqi WMD bullshit on steroids. [40:25] You know why it's worse than the Saddam thing? [40:27] I would argue that the lies Donald Trump has told for Iran are bigger than the lies they told in 2003, even, than George Bush and Dick Cheney. [40:34] Because in 2003, at least we had evidence that Saddam once had WMDs. [40:38] He had used chemical weapons against the Iranians, as I mentioned. [40:42] In fact, Jesse Jackson, the late Jesse Jackson, had made a joke at one time. [40:45] We know he has nukes. [40:46] We know he has WMDs because we have the receipts. [40:48] We sold them to him. [40:49] With Iran, there is zero evidence of a weapons program. [40:52] The IEA have never said, and the U.S. Intelligence Committee have never said they're building weapons. [40:56] So there is no country in the Middle East that has nukes, except one. [41:01] Well, why is it then acceptable? [41:02] Israel. [41:03] They're talking about the Democratic establishment that's like, you know what, fine, you want to commit war crimes. [41:07] But just give me an itinerary. [41:09] I love an itinerary. [41:10] Give me a PDF. [41:11] Send me a letter of what the plan is. [41:13] What time are we departing? [41:15] Give me a heads up. [41:16] Yes, that has been the attitude of Schumer and Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House and Senate. [41:21] Recently, they've hardened up their opposition to be fair. [41:23] They're calling for the War Powers Act to prevent Trump from bombing Iran. [41:26] But at the beginning, no doubt about it, that was their response. [41:29] They delayed holding a War Powers vote. [41:31] And Hassan, it's because a lot of these people quietly, secretly support this war. [41:34] They support Israel. [41:36] A lot of them get funding from AIPAC. [41:37] They're super hawkish. [41:38] They get funding from military industrial complex companies. [41:41] They like war. [41:42] Like, liking war is a bipartisan thing in the United States. [41:45] I don't want to cut you off. [41:46] Sorry, my producer is just telling me something real quick. [41:48] I got to get spicier. [41:49] Okay. [41:50] Scott, you want me to turn it up even more? [41:57] Okay. [42:00] Yeah. [42:00] So far, it's been pretty mild medium. [42:02] No, well, let's get into the pits of habanero hell. [42:05] Let's talk about war crimes. [42:06] We throw around the term war criminal quite a bit. [42:09] Yes. [42:09] Okay. [42:10] Because there's a lot of people who deserve it. [42:11] But let's get specific. [42:12] Okay. [42:12] Let's name names. [42:14] Who in the American political class has committed war crimes? [42:17] Who'd you put in the doc? [42:19] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, without a shadow of a doubt. [42:21] Hegseth was committing war crimes even before Iran, right? [42:23] Do you remember what happened in the Caribbean? [42:26] They're just blowing up boats. [42:27] Some of them are apparently drug dealers. [42:28] Some of them are fishermen. [42:30] They're just killing people. [42:31] In fact, they're not just bombing them. [42:32] They're coming back around to bomb the survivors, complete war crime, a violation of American [42:37] law, international law, the army code. [42:40] Yeah. [42:40] There's no shadow of a doubt that these people are war criminals. [42:43] Pete Hegseth recently gave you a 60 Minutes interview shortly after the first attack. [42:47] And I want to play you some of the highlights from that interview. [42:50] We can be clear with the American people that this is not a fair fight. [42:54] And that's on purpose. [42:55] They've been killing us for 48 years, 47 years. [42:57] They have unabated nuclear ambitions. [42:59] What you see right now between American efforts and Israeli efforts is a generational opportunity [43:05] for the people of Iran. [43:06] The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they're going [43:09] to live. [43:12] Iranians who think they're going to live. [43:13] Not talking about the government there. [43:15] Iranians. [43:16] This is an administration that called for the end of Iranian civilization that says Iranians [43:20] should be worried about living. [43:21] Hegseth there lying, of course, about the nuclear ambitions. [43:25] And I mean, you're familiar with Pete Hegseth. [43:29] He's a Christian nationalist. [43:30] He, you know, we talk about Iran. [43:32] You talked earlier about why does Iran have this, the Iranians, the Rocky four. [43:36] Part of it is religion, right? [43:37] We see them burning flags and mullahs, long beards, ayatollahs. [43:40] It's not like Saddam or this is, these are Islamic people. [43:43] These are religious zealots. [43:45] Rubio calls them messianic. [43:47] You know who the religious zealots are? [43:48] Our government. [43:49] Our government is the one run by religious zealots. [43:51] Not Donald Trump. [43:52] He has no, he has no religious beliefs that we know of. [43:55] Hegseth. [43:55] Hegseth is a Christian nationalist. [43:56] His pastor says women shouldn't have the right to vote. [43:58] The vote, the church that his pastor's from. [44:00] They're like, yeah, we shouldn't have the 19th amendment. [44:02] He invited his pastor into the Pentagon to pray. [44:04] Doug Wilson, complete nut job. [44:06] Hegseth has tattoos on his body of a crusader cross. [44:09] He has a tattoo of kafir in Arabic on his arm. [44:11] He, according to the New Yorker, was reportedly dragged from a bar drunk years ago, shouting, [44:15] kill all Muslims. [44:17] This is who this guy is. [44:18] And you put him in charge of the defense department, which they then renamed the war department [44:22] to really, so you get the point. [44:23] And then he brags about, there's another clip of him where he says, we're going to show [44:26] no quarter to Iranians, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies. [44:33] That's a war crime. [44:33] That means you're not going to allow survivors to live. [44:35] You're going to kill everyone. [44:37] So yes, I think if we lived in an actual just world where we were all signed up to the international [44:42] criminal court, which we're not, the Americans never signed. [44:44] Yes. [44:44] He would be someone you want to pull in front of the dock and say, and of course, Donald [44:47] Trump just threatening to end Iran civilization. [44:50] The other week was a threat of war crimes. [44:52] How'd you handle that? [44:54] Civilization will end tonight. [44:55] How'd you, what'd you do? [44:55] Did you go to sleep? [44:56] It was a stressful day. [44:57] Did you stay up all night? [44:58] I didn't stay up all night because by seven, he had moved the goalposts and said he wasn't [45:02] going to do it. [45:03] Yeah. [45:03] But all day, it was very stressful day. [45:05] I remember someone telling me something. [45:06] I was like, what are you talking about? [45:07] We might have nuclear Armageddon tonight. [45:09] It's a very stressful way to live in the US right now. [45:11] You have this president who already causes so much chaos and emotional turmoil and stresses [45:16] us out with bullshit every day and scandal and controversy and, as Steve Bannon calls [45:20] it, flooding the zone with shit. [45:22] And then on top of that, now you're like, should I be worried about nuclear war? [45:25] Yeah. [45:25] Does it end tonight? [45:26] Does it end for us tonight? [45:28] Am I going to be here? [45:30] Are a bunch of innocent people going to die? [45:31] It's a lot. [45:32] From the anti-war president. [45:34] I mean, this is the world we now live in where the president of the United States, [45:37] let me remind you all, a former reality TV star, a man who appeared in Home Alone 2, [45:40] now has his finger on the nuclear codes and is not just thinking about using them, [45:44] but is openly talking and threatening Armageddon. [45:47] I think that is a real issue. [45:48] And there's no controls on him, by the way. [45:50] No one can stop him from doing it. [45:52] I just want to remind people at home, if Trump wants to nuke someone, there's no member of [45:55] Congress, there's no member of his team, there's no one who could stop him. [45:59] He's a dictator in that sense. [46:01] Can I talk about media framing? [46:02] Can you help me understand this real quick? [46:04] In relation to Iran. [46:06] So on February 28th, the United States bombed an Iranian elementary school that killed [46:10] at least 175 people that we know, most of them children. [46:16] The New York Times did a very detailed analysis of this that clearly placed the blame [46:19] on the United States. [46:21] They wrote, quote, striking a school full of children is sure to be recorded as one [46:25] of the most devastating single military heirs in recent decades. [46:32] So that was an error, killing 175 kids that go to school. [46:36] That's a whoopsie. [46:37] That's a whoopsie. [46:38] Kind of like when you're on Instacart and you order Greek yogurt and they give you cottage [46:42] cheese. [46:43] Error. [46:43] Yeah, Instacart. [46:44] What can you do? [46:44] You go to the wrong website. [46:45] Error 404. [46:47] That too, according to the New York Times, an error. [46:49] So I'm glad you put that up there because it tells you a lot about media framing, media [46:54] propaganda. [46:55] So error or war crime? [46:56] What was that? [46:57] Oh, it's 100% a war crime. [46:58] Because errors can be war crimes, by the way. [47:00] If you don't take enough precautions when you strike targets, even if somebody didn't [47:05] wake up that morning and say, I'm going to bomb a school with 160 kids. [47:08] That is not the bar for war crimes. [47:10] The bar for war crimes is what precautions have you taken? [47:13] Are you discriminating between combatant and non-combatants? [47:16] And they don't. [47:17] The United States does not. [47:18] We don't know if AI was used in this strike. [47:20] Pete Hegseth has already told us. [47:21] Iranians, are they going to be alive? [47:23] It was a double tap strike, by the way, as well, which raises all sorts of questions. [47:27] Okay, the first strike was an accident. [47:28] What was the second strike? [47:30] And by the way, the New York Times, the day it happened, you know where they put that story? [47:35] I think it was page A11, if memory serves me correctly. [47:39] The massacre of schoolgirls on the first day of the war. [47:41] Didn't make the front page. [47:42] Didn't make page two or three. [47:44] It's like 10, 11 pages into the paper. [47:46] Isn't that insane? [47:46] It is insane. [47:47] Can you imagine if a school of Israelis or Americans were blown up? [47:49] It's a horrible thing. [47:50] But what I want to understand is if you're going to engage in war, there's this thing [47:54] called collateral damage, which is another way to say error, whoopsie daisy, error 404, [48:00] Instacart messed up, the US military messed up. [48:03] These things happen. [48:04] So Howard Zinn wrote about civilian deaths. [48:06] And I want to read this quote to you because he wrote this back during the original war [48:12] on terror in the early 2000s. [48:13] He writes, quote, [48:15] In countless news briefings, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, responding to reporters' questions [48:19] about civilian deaths and bombing, would say those deaths were unintentional or inadvertent [48:25] or accidental. [48:26] These words are misleading because they assume an action is either deliberate or unintentional. [48:33] There is something in between for which the word is inevitable. [48:36] If you engage in an action like an aerial bombing in which you cannot possibly distinguish [48:40] between combatants and civilians, the deaths of civilians are inevitable, even if not intentional, [48:47] does that difference exonerate you morally? [48:51] I agree with the late Howard Zinn. [48:53] And we've seen that in Gaza. [48:54] We saw Israelis bombing refugee camps and schools and say, well, there may have been a Hamas militant [48:59] nearby. [49:00] But when you do that, the full knowledge that you're going to kill hundreds of civilians, [49:03] when you're okay with that, that's not collateral damage. [49:06] That is a war crime. [49:07] That is not discriminating. [49:09] And I think we're seeing that in Lebanon now. [49:11] We're seeing that in Tehran. [49:12] We've normalized now the bombing of crowded civilian areas, city areas, hospitals, schools. [49:17] We've torn up everything we built up after World War II, the Geneva Conventions, international [49:21] humanitarian law. [49:22] We tore it up for Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza. [49:24] And then we thought it would just stay in Gaza. [49:26] No, no, no, no. [49:27] Now it's in Iran. [49:28] Now it's in Lebanon. [49:29] And I think that is, we need to reestablish that. [49:31] I don't know how we reestablish it, but these people don't care. [49:34] Donald Trump was asked about war crimes. [49:35] They said, do you worry about war crimes? [49:37] He goes, no, he doesn't accept international law. [49:39] He said, only my own morals. [49:40] Do you remember that interview with the Times? [49:41] He said, the only thing that stops me is my own morality, not law, not restrained. [49:46] And I think we have to start using the same language for ourselves that we use for others. [49:50] You know what's been so interesting? [49:51] I've said this many times. [49:52] I'm going to say it again. [49:53] This stuff that's happening in the Middle East is happening at the same time as the [49:57] Russians are bombing and invading Ukraine. [49:59] And when it comes to Ukraine, we have moral clarity. [50:01] We say Russia commits war crimes. [50:03] Russia hit a hospital. [50:04] Russia killed kids. [50:05] But when it comes to Gaza or Tehran or Beirut, the hospital spontaneously exploded. [50:11] A bomb somehow killed people. [50:12] People dropped dead. [50:13] There's no agency. [50:15] We don't attribute blame. [50:15] 108 people died. [50:16] And people are... [50:17] But what's so interesting is, again, A, people are seeing through media bullshit. [50:20] Thank God. [50:21] And B, it's happening side by side. [50:24] My friend Asal Rad, who's an academic, she's written for Zateo. [50:26] She's done great Twitter threads showing the New York Times coverage of a Russian strike on [50:30] a hospital versus an American or Israeli strike on a hospital. [50:33] In that case, they'll say Russia did it, killed kids. [50:36] In this case, they'll say, oh, hospital was struck. [50:39] We don't say who did it. [50:40] We don't assign responsibility or agency. [50:42] We always want to be the good guys. [50:44] We would never massacre anyone. [50:46] We would never deliberately bomb a school. [50:47] Only Vladimir Putin would do that. [50:49] You seem to have some very clear moral clarity here when it comes to war crimes. [50:53] I mean, I think we should all have moral clarity on war crimes. [50:55] Well, then let's turn it up and let's go maximum spice. [50:57] You ready? [50:59] All right. [50:59] Do you want to do it? [51:00] Yes. [51:01] Okay. [51:01] I'm going to put together all these spicy topics and then I'm going to get you to turn [51:06] them on people in your profession. [51:08] Mehdi Hassan, do you think members of the American media could be held accountable for war crimes, [51:15] whether in Iran or Gaza? [51:17] Legally, I don't know. [51:18] I'm not a lawyer. [51:19] I don't know what their responsibility is. [51:20] But I would point out under the 1948 genocide convention, Hassan, incitement to genocide is [51:28] a form of genocide. [51:29] It's a crime. [51:29] So you're saying- [51:31] So I'm saying there are people in our media, I'm not going to name all their names right [51:33] now, but there are people who've said genocidal things. [51:35] There are people who've egged on the Israeli military in Gaza or the American military in [51:39] Iran. [51:39] I think that's a real problem. [51:40] I mean, you know, in Rwanda, Hassan, you remember Radio Rwanda. [51:44] People were indicted from that radio station for inciting that genocide between the Hutus [51:49] and the Tuzis. [51:50] Three news media executives were convicted for helping to incite that by an international [51:55] court. [51:56] Because incitement to genocide is a crime. [51:58] Incitement to war crimes is a crime. [52:00] And I think you watch some of our cable news shows where people are kind of baying for blood. [52:04] If you watch Israeli TV, don't even get me started on Israeli TV where they're all just [52:07] genocidal maniacs on some of those channels saying, burn down Gaza, kill everyone in Gaza. [52:11] There are no children in Gaza. [52:12] That's what they're saying on Israeli TV. [52:13] So those guys definitely inciting genocide. [52:16] But yes, forget legal accountability. [52:18] Morally, yes, we have to take responsibility. [52:20] As you said earlier, there is no Iran war without the fear mongering about the Iranians, [52:26] the lies about the nuclear program. [52:28] Why did we go into Iraq, Hassan? [52:29] Because the media lied to us about Iraq. [52:31] The media laundered George Bush and Dick Cheney's lives. [52:34] And again, this time around, they've done a horrible job of actually explaining what's [52:39] happening in Iran. [52:40] And I think, yes, journalists need to own their role, mainstream media journalists, in allowing [52:46] Donald Trump to get away with these lives. [52:46] Wait a second. [52:47] Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. [52:48] So this is, you're getting, you're getting hot here. [52:51] So you're telling me when Brett Stevens writes a New York Times op-ed saying basically invading [52:56] Iran is kind of a good idea and the timing couldn't be better. [52:58] You're saying that's basically a war crime? [53:00] No, I'm not saying that's a war crime. [53:02] I'm saying that's someone who is helping to enable war crimes. [53:04] Yes. [53:05] The media are enablers for war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide. [53:09] That's no doubt in my mind. [53:10] It's one of the reasons I created Zeteo because I was so fed up and frustrated with either the [53:15] cowardice of journalists who won't call out a war crime when they see it. [53:18] Right. [53:19] Or worse, some of the pundit class who are baying for blood, who are inciting hate, inciting [53:24] racism, inciting war crimes. [53:26] You know, you look at someone like Mark Levin at Fox, I mean, the nonsense he says on air, [53:31] it's horrific. [53:33] They are the enemy. [53:34] They're not going to go away if there's not regime change. [53:37] And we're going to have to figure out, and it's not going to be easy, how to keep our, [53:41] our, you know, foot on their throat. [53:44] I pray for the people of Persia and I pray this enemy drops dead. [53:49] Is that why you started Zeteo? [53:50] One of the reasons, yeah, I was deeply frustrated in the middle of a genocide. [53:53] The people in the media couldn't say the G word that the New York Times was putting [53:56] out memos saying, don't say occupation. [53:58] You know, this was a real problem for me. [54:00] We have to be able to speak truth to power, especially in a war. [54:03] War is when most lies are told. [54:06] And that is when the media has to be most independent. [54:08] Donald Trump is now threatened to prosecute any journalist who, you know, published leaks [54:13] from his administration. [54:14] He's threatening CNN. [54:16] This is a time for the media really to stand up. [54:18] Instead, what is the media doing? [54:20] Hosting Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner. [54:22] I believe you're familiar with that event. [54:23] Of course. [54:24] Hosting him there without a comedian like yourself to roast him. [54:26] And they're going to wear pins, Hassan. [54:28] Sorry, nap even worse. [54:30] I think they're going to have pocket squares. [54:31] Pocket squares supporting the First Amendment. [54:33] Are you fucking kidding me? [54:35] That is what you're going to do at a moment when a fascist is threatening the free press [54:38] at home. [54:38] At a time when he's killing kids abroad. [54:40] You're going to invite him, not roast him, and then wear a pocket square or a pin to show [54:45] your objection. [54:46] This is a guy who mocks you, berates you, calls you fake news, threatens to sue your employer, [54:50] threatens to jail your colleagues, put Don Lemon, arrested Don Lemon, raided a Washington [54:54] Post reporter's home. [54:55] You're going to sit there with a pocket square? [54:57] Our media is broken, Hassan. [54:59] Broken. [55:00] It's just a pocket square. [55:01] They also invited a mentalist to do tricks. [55:03] Yes. [55:06] I wish you were there. [55:06] Joke's on you, Donald Trump. [55:07] I wish you were there, Hassan. [55:09] They're not going to have me back. [55:10] Let's cool things down a little bit, okay? [55:13] You play in the world of arguments. [55:15] You play in the world of words. [55:17] But so many arguments and phrases have now become virtually meaningless. [55:21] Hillary Clinton used the term fake news before Donald Trump to describe Pizzagate. [55:25] It was fake news. [55:26] Woke, that word actually came originally from the black community. [55:30] Anti-vaxxers, they were screaming, my body, my choice. [55:34] DEI today is now basically treated as the new N-word. [55:37] Yes. [55:38] It is an incredibly triggering word, apparently. [55:42] Are words themselves losing their political power because they can be so easily co-opted [55:47] and twisted as someone who lives and breathes and works in the world of words? [55:52] I think that Donald Trump has proved to be a master of kind of taking phrases, terms, [55:58] words, and turning them on itself, like fake news, as you say. [56:00] Fake news was originally used. [56:02] People like BuzzFeed were investigating. [56:04] In Macedonia, there was like all these content farms. [56:06] People were sitting there serving up fake stories online and people were talking about fake news. [56:10] Trump took that and turned it into mainstream media, saying anything critical about me is fake news. [56:14] No, I don't think words have lost their value. [56:16] I wouldn't do what I do if I thought that. [56:18] I would kick it all in and go be an accountant. [56:20] Not that there's anything wrong with being an accountant, but that's what I would try and do, [56:23] even though I'm crap at math. [56:25] But words have value. [56:26] I believe that. [56:27] It's why I do what I do. [56:28] It's why I wake up every day and write what I write, say what I say. [56:31] And in fact, let's take one word, Hassan. [56:33] Genocide. [56:33] That's a word that has value. [56:35] It has a word that's important. [56:36] How do we know that? [56:37] Because people have lost their minds trying to deny what's happening in Gaza is genocide. [56:41] People have lost their jobs over it. [56:42] People are screaming on the street, saying it's anti-Semitic blood libel to say genocide. [56:46] In the Democratic Party now, people like Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, or Mallory [56:51] McMorrow, the Senate candidate, saying, oh, no, no, no, don't make it a litmus test. [56:53] Don't make Democratic candidates have to say the G word. [56:56] I would argue that shows the power of that word, because people still understand that [57:00] that is the crime of crimes. [57:02] And it's what we have been complicit in for the last two and a half, three years. [57:05] Can I get a quick update on British politics? [57:07] What's going on with the Green Party? [57:07] What's happening? [57:09] The Green Party is actually quite a hopeful moment for UK politics. [57:12] In British politics, there was a two and a half party system. [57:14] They had the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats, poor old [57:18] Liberal Democrats, you know, younger brothers, not really the big deal. [57:22] Now we have a five party system in the UK. [57:24] You have the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems, and then you have reform run by Nigel Farage, [57:29] Britain's mini Trump, wannabe Trump. [57:31] And then you have the Green Party run by a guy called Zach Polanski. [57:34] He's gay and he's Jewish and he's anti-genocide. [57:36] He's willing to speak out against Israel. [57:39] The Green Party is now soaring in the polls. [57:41] It's like overtaking the Labour Party. [57:43] It's in second place in some polls behind reform. [57:46] Think about that crazy moment. [57:47] These two historic parties, 100 years old, Labour Conservative, are in third and fourth. [57:51] And these two new parties, one on the far right, some might say others on the far left, [57:55] are in first and second place. [57:56] What does that tell you? [57:57] It tells you British people, like Americans, like people around the world, fed up. [58:01] They're fed up with the status quo. [58:03] They're fed up with the political and media establishment. [58:05] They're fed up of being lied to and gaslit. [58:07] And they're willing to go to people who will speak to them. [58:09] And I'm not saying Nigel Farage is a liar in my view, but he speaks in a very blunt, authentic [58:13] way. [58:14] He doesn't speak like he's a management consultant spewing out talking points from some pollster. [58:19] And that's what people want. [58:20] And the Green Party, Zach Polanski, has been very frank about the genocide in Gaza. [58:24] He's been very strong on the cost of living crisis, billionaires ripping people off. [58:29] And people like that. [58:30] And people like someone who's offering them hope and a vision. [58:32] Not like the current Labour government, which is supposed to be a Labour center-left party, [58:37] but has no vision, no solutions for people's problems, no hope-filled politics. [58:41] It's all bland, bureaucratic, technocratic politics. [58:45] People are fed up with that shit. [58:47] Mady, I hope you felt okay. [58:48] We got a little spicy. [58:50] Things got a little heated here. [58:52] Maybe for you. [58:55] Yeah, it did a little bit. [58:57] I want to end with something a little bit soft because people in the comments section [59:00] think I razz you that I don't share your passion. [59:05] But I'm a soft guy. [59:05] I'm a sensitive guy. [59:06] I want to end with... [59:07] Are you saying I'm not a soft sensitive guy? [59:08] No, not at all. [59:09] You're not. [59:10] But I want to give you the opportunity to be a little bit vulnerable here. [59:13] And I mean this in all seriousness. [59:15] You have written... [59:15] You made me very vulnerable last time. [59:17] I literally left it thinking I need to go see a shrink. [59:18] You did. [59:19] You did. [59:19] And hopefully it improved your personal life. [59:21] But I want to end with something positive. [59:22] I want to talk about... [59:24] I called you recently. [59:25] I want you to talk about the impact that your father had on your life and shaping your worldview. [59:30] I want to give flowers to your father. [59:32] And I know that he meant a lot to you. [59:33] I appreciate that. [59:34] My father who passed away last year. [59:35] I did a video about his life and his contributions as an immigrant. [59:38] The other day I was clearing up in my house. [59:40] I had some spare moments. [59:41] And I remembered my family and home obligations. [59:44] So I went to try and clear up some crap in my office. [59:47] I came across a letter my dad wrote me in 1997. [59:50] I went to Oxford University in 1997. [59:54] Think about brown father, immigrant. [59:56] Son's going to Oxford. [59:57] Super proud. [59:58] Right? [59:59] I got into Oxford University. [1:00:00] That's like gold. [1:00:01] Of course. [1:00:02] For Desi immigrant parents. [1:00:02] Of course. [1:00:03] I've done it. [1:00:03] I made their world. [1:00:06] My dad couldn't make it to drop me at college. [1:00:07] He used to travel a lot. [1:00:08] He worked for the UN. [1:00:08] He was out of the country on an assignment. [1:00:11] He wrote me a letter saying, you know, how was it? [1:00:12] And I started reading this letter now. [1:00:13] It's like 26 years... [1:00:15] No, 29 years later. [1:00:16] And he says in that letter, he says, by the way, right at the end, he says, you're going [1:00:21] to an elite university. [1:00:22] It's an elite university. [1:00:23] He starts quoting... [1:00:24] My dad had amazing knowledge of British history and poetry and Shakespeare and all of that [1:00:29] classics. [1:00:30] So he starts giving me all the references of Oxford. [1:00:32] And then he says, you're going to an elite university, but don't come out of it elite. [1:00:37] Because don't forget where you came from. [1:00:39] Remember that this is all about service. [1:00:41] Whatever you do in life, whatever you get at Oxford, it's not about the accolades. [1:00:46] It's not about the showing off. [1:00:47] He said, it's all about service. [1:00:49] Remember that. [1:00:50] Don't forget who you are. [1:00:52] And reading that now, thinking, man, that was great advice. [1:00:56] That was something that even in that moment of great pride, my dad was very proud. [1:01:00] He was a classic Indian father. [1:01:01] He loved talking about his kids' successes. [1:01:02] I'm not going to take that away from him. [1:01:03] But at that moment, he understood what his son needed to hear. [1:01:06] Don't let that all go to your head. [1:01:08] Don't think this is all... [1:01:09] Don't be distracted by all the shiny stuff. [1:01:11] Understand where you came from. [1:01:12] Understand what we're put on this planet for. [1:01:14] Understand what your real goal is. [1:01:16] And I hope doing what I do... [1:01:17] He loved my journalism career. [1:01:19] He loved supporting me. [1:01:20] You know, other Indian dads wanted their kids to be doctors. [1:01:23] My dad said, it's fine. [1:01:23] You don't have to be a doctor. [1:01:24] You can try this journalism thing. [1:01:26] I hope that I've been able to, over the last 29 years, try and do some of that service. [1:01:30] Try and remember where I came from. [1:01:31] Try and support some of those communities that my dad came from. [1:01:36] It's really beautiful, man. [1:01:37] Very beautiful. [1:01:38] Thank you. [1:01:38] Yeah, man. [1:01:40] May thee hustle, ladies and gentlemen. [1:01:42] Hurry right away. [1:01:43] I don't think it's over. [1:01:50] If you think it's over, you're wrong.