Ambassador Charles Freeman, a veteran diplomat and strategist, analyzes recent rhetoric from Pete Hegseth and its implications for U.S.-China relations. 🎙️🇺🇸 Is Hegseth's tough talk just media bravado—or part of a broader push toward confrontation with Beijing? From Taiwan to trade wars, Freeman unpacks the risks of saber-rattling and the urgent need for diplomacy in a world on edge. 🌏🕊️
#CharlesFreeman #PeteHegseth #China #USChinaTensions #Geopolitics #ForeignPolicy #Taiwan #AsiaPacific #HegsethChina #MilitaryRhetoric #USPolitics #ChinaWatch #WarTalk #DiplomacyMatters #TradeWar #GlobalConflict #StrategicCompetition #EastAsia #TheDuran #WorldAffairs
#CharlesFreeman #PeteHegseth #China #USChinaTensions #Geopolitics #ForeignPolicy #Taiwan #AsiaPacific #HegsethChina #MilitaryRhetoric #USPolitics #ChinaWatch #WarTalk #DiplomacyMatters #TradeWar #GlobalConflict #StrategicCompetition #EastAsia #TheDuran #WorldAffairs
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, everyone.
00:27I'm Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
00:30Today is Wednesday, June 4th, 2025.
00:33Ambassador Charles Freeman will be here with us in just a minute on this.
00:39Is the American Secretary of Defense looking to pick a fight with China?
00:44But first this.
00:45While the markets are giving us whiplash, have you seen the price of gold?
00:49It's soaring.
00:51In the past 12 months, gold has risen to more than $3,000 an ounce.
00:55I'm so glad I bought my gold.
00:58It's not too late for you to buy yours.
01:00The same experts that predicted gold at $3,200 an ounce now predict gold at $4,500 or more in the next year.
01:10What's driving the price higher?
01:12Paper currencies.
01:14All around the world, they are falling in value.
01:18Big money is in panic as falling currencies shrink the value of their paper wealth.
01:24That's why big banks and billionaires are buying gold in record amounts.
01:30As long as paper money keeps falling, they'll keep buying and gold will keep rising.
01:36So do what I did.
01:37Call my friends at Lear Capital.
01:39You'll have a great conversation and they'll send you very helpful information.
01:44Learn how you can store gold in your IRA tax and penalty free or have it sent directly to your doorstep.
01:52There's zero pressure to buy and you have a 100% risk-free purchase guarantee.
01:59It's time to see if gold is right for you.
02:02Call 800-511-4620.
02:05800-511-4620.
02:08Or go to learjudgenap.com and tell them your friend the judge sent you.
02:12Ambassador Freeman, welcome here, my dear friend.
02:16Before we get to China, of course, the hot news on which I ardently seek your views is the drone attack in Russia.
02:28Did the United – is it fair to characterize it this way, Ambassador?
02:31The United States of America and its NATO allies just waged an attack on Russia using their proxy, Ukraine.
02:41Well, this was apparently begun planning for in the Biden-Sullivan, probably Rishi Sunak era about a year and a half ago.
02:54There's a real question about whether there was continuity in government and the Trump administration knew about the plan.
03:03It seems – everyone seems to have come down to the theory that the MI6 of Britain was behind it.
03:12It was very, very dangerous.
03:14There has been a long tradition for good reasons that the two sides in the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, now the United States and Russia, exempt each other's nuclear deterrent, all elements of it, from attack.
03:31Because to attack a nuclear – an element of a nuclear deterrent is regarded by both as the equivalent of a nuclear attack.
03:39It's trying to degrade deterrent value of the other side's nuclear weapons.
03:46Of course, Great Britain is not part of the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty, which has been suspended, but which both sides had continued to honor in practice, nor is Ukraine.
04:00But this has set a precedent, but this has set a precedent, which is very bad, not just because of the attack on the nuclear bomber, an obsolete bomber, the Tu-95, but not made anymore, basically the equivalent of the B-52,
04:16but also because of the method that was used, which was to use civilian drivers to drive trucks that had been specially engineered, to have retractable roofs full of killer drones.
04:34I parked those and then fire the drones through the roof after the roof was retracted.
04:41It doesn't appear that that much damage was done to the Russians.
04:45Satellite images show several aircraft severely destroyed and a couple damaged, but the basic fleet remains intact.
04:55This was on the eve of the Istanbul talks.
04:58And one has to suppose that the purpose was, in part, to derail those talks, to rile up the Russians to do something crazy that would justify the continuation of the war, which is what the British and other Europeans want, not what President Trump wants.
05:17So this was a disaster in terms of the precedence, and it was followed, of course, by an effort to take down the bridge from the mainland of Russia to Crimea, which it also appears to have not succeeded.
05:34That is, that is, that traffic is still moving across the bridge, apparently, but that, too, seems to have involved MI6 and expectations that, with the takeout of the Russian bomber force, the takeout of the bridge, the way would be clear for some sort of further assault on Crimea, which there are indications may be in the preparation.
05:59Wouldn't a Joe Biden finding, President Biden finding, the signing of a statement authorizing, that's the call of presidential finding, have to be reported to President Trump?
06:16I mean, Ambassador Freeman, is it even conceivable that the President of the United States would not know that American intel had planned, plotted, and carried this out?
06:26I think, unfortunately, I think, unfortunately, it is.
06:30The transition was messy.
06:32President Trump, for some reason, does not feel that he is bound by the decisions of his predecessors.
06:40He acts as though he is the sole authority and not occupying the office of the presidency.
06:46And I would have to say also that, you know, his interactions with the intelligence community are brief, perfunctory, apparently uncomfortable.
07:00They take place once a week.
07:03In about an hour, he's to meet again with the intelligence people for a briefing.
07:09He does it only once a week.
07:10I don't know what he knows, and I think you can't be confident that, in fact, there was the sort of continuity that would have been appropriate.
07:21Is it conceivable that the CIA was not involved?
07:25Colonel McGregor seems to feel the CIA took a lead role in this.
07:29He also thinks, now I suggested this to him, but I didn't put this idea in his brain.
07:34And he also seems to think that Mossad was involved, that the nature of this attack was very reminiscent of the Pager attack that Mossad pulled off in Lebanon.
07:49Well, I think the CIA obviously had to have been involved.
07:53It had a very close liaison relationship with MI6, which was probably the lead agency on this.
08:00I don't know whether Mossad was involved.
08:02I think there is an analogy with the terrorist attack on Hezbollah that Mossad carried out through explosive pagers.
08:14But I don't think that necessarily leads to the conclusion Mossad was involved.
08:19On the other hand, the argument that it might have been involved is that the Israelis would like this war in Ukraine to go on.
08:26It diverts attention from them, it keeps the U.S. arguably tied down in their endeavors, and it's good for themselves.
08:41And a lot of Israelis are, in fact, from Ukraine or Russia.
08:46Here is, I don't often quote Steve Bannon, but he's harshly critical of Senator Graham and seriously warning of where this could go.
09:09One, he's harshly critical of President Zelensky.
09:13Here he is on another program, another show.
09:15I think this is Chris Cuomo's show, but I might be wrong.
09:19I'll identify the anchor in a minute.
09:21Cut number eight.
09:22We can't have people over there telling the Ukrainians that we're going to back more.
09:28What we're trying to do is calm this down.
09:29What President Trump is trying to say is, look, we can't have Lindsey Graham, and particularly Zelensky, leading us into a third world war with a deep strike into Russia.
09:38And Putin came back today and said, hey, we're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to see who's accountable in Ukraine and beyond.
09:44And that was a message to the United States.
09:46What he's doing over there right now is stirring it up.
09:49He's giving Ukrainians false hope that we're there to support them on engaging Russia in a kinetic conflict, and we are not.
09:57Two things ought to happen.
09:58Either cancel his passport and don't lay back in the country, or put him in jail if he comes back.
10:03And people better wake up to the fact that we're getting sucked into this war.
10:08If the intelligence community actually did this, this is an act of war against Russia.
10:13Do the American people vote to go to war with the Russian people?
10:15Well, that was News Nation with my longtime friend and former colleague, Chris Cuomo.
10:23I thought much of what Steve Bannon made sense.
10:26Aren't there statutes or rules that prohibit members of Congress from conducting their own foreign policy?
10:33Well, there used to be, but the precedents now are against that.
10:38Don't forget that when the JCPOA, the nuclear agreement was negotiated with Iran, we had 51 senators write a letter to the Ayatollah saying,
10:54don't pay attention to that man in the White House.
10:57We're in charge, and this agreement stinks.
11:00We won't approve it.
11:02So there's an independent branch of government that, unfortunately, is heard from these days, mainly in irresponsible ways.
11:09That is certainly the case with Lindsey Graham.
11:12I agree with Steve Bannon.
11:14This is not anything that a senator you ought to be doing.
11:18And I know that there are increasing reports that Mr. Graham, Senator Graham, may be on the Ukrainian payroll with money that's been laundered through the Baltics and its way into his pockets or his campaigns.
11:36So this is very unsavory and very unwise on his part.
11:40So here's another clip.
11:43This is President Zelensky boasting about the success, so-called success, of this drone attack.
11:55Chris, cut number 10.
11:57Europe, together with America, has better weapons than Russia.
12:02We also have stronger tactical solutions.
12:04Our operation, Spiderweb, yesterday proved that Russia must feel what its losses mean.
12:12That is what will push it toward diplomacy.
12:15And when Russia takes losses in this war, it's obvious to everyone that Ukraine is the one holding the line, not just for itself, but for all of Europe.
12:26Ambassador, if he means what he says, isn't this the height of naivete that this drone attack will push Russia toward a diplomatic solution?
12:38If anything, it will push Russia towards more aggressive military solution.
12:43Two responses.
12:44First, the Russians don't panic easily.
12:48Vladimir Putin has a reputation for very cold-blooded consideration of options.
12:53He has been very restrained in his response to this provocative action by Ukraine.
13:00He sent his team to Istanbul to conduct the talks.
13:03They did not reach any agreement at all except on a number of humanitarian prisoner and dead soldiers exchanges, which are going forward.
13:17They did clarify that there is no meeting of the minds at all between Ukraine and Russia on how to end this war.
13:26President Zelensky just, in effect, confirmed that.
13:29So, the second point is that you have to regard firing weapons deep into Irkutsk in central Siberia, very far away from Ukraine, attacking Russian bases and trying to take down bridges and actually blowing up a railroad with the death of some civilians as acts of desperation on Ukraine's part.
13:55They certainly do no good at all.
13:58They have no effect on the steady advance of the Russian forces on the ground along the entire frontier.
14:05They're now into Sumy, the area from which Ukraine attacked Kursk.
14:13And, of course, they continue to push west and south virtually everywhere.
14:17So, attacking the rear, you know, makes a little bit of military sense in terms of disrupting logistics.
14:25But this doesn't, these attacks didn't affect logistics at all.
14:30And they will have no effect on the battle that really counts, which is the one on the ground.
14:34Now, the level of damage, Alistair Crook says six to seven planes.
14:43General Keene, of course, is on the payroll of one of these defense department think tanks, says 40 to 44.
14:51A, does it make a difference given the size of the Russian fleet?
14:54B, which do you think is more accurate?
14:56Or do you have another number from your sources?
15:00I don't have a number, but it's a very, I think Alistair Crook is very much in the ballpark.
15:06And the other estimates are what the plan was.
15:10In other words, if it had been carried out, that, as they hoped, that is what would have happened.
15:17Does this do anything significant to Russian warfighting ability in Ukraine?
15:23No, it does not.
15:25Does it really degrade the Russian nuclear deterrence?
15:28Not much.
15:30These are, as I said, aircraft that went into production in 1952, about a while ago.
15:37In that sense, they are the equivalent, as I mentioned, of the B-52.
15:41They're still operating.
15:43They're not being produced at all.
15:46There was apparently one transport aircraft, an illusion, blown up.
15:51But the satellite photography shows minimal losses, not the sort of huge losses that General Keene posits.
16:00You know, Ambassador, I am not a fan of General Kellogg.
16:05I don't think you are either.
16:07But this is what he told Fox News.
16:10And it seems to be that even the neocons are worried about the potential for Russian acceleration of the war as a result of what the Ukrainians do.
16:20If you listen to him, it almost sounds like he and the people around the president had no idea this was happening.
16:26And Chris, cut number six.
16:28Each age has its own style of warfare, and we're seeing now drone warfare.
16:33And we're going to have to adapt to that and look at that.
16:35And it's not so much the damage done on the bombers, which was what you call the bear, in the NATO terms, we call them bear and blackjack.
16:42Because the 22s, the Tupolov 22s, those are the swept-wing ones, and they're all nuclear-capable.
16:49But any time you attack the triad, it's not so much the damage you do on the triad itself, like the delivery vehicles, the bombers, but it's the psychological impact you have.
17:00And it shows that—
17:01Well, that was a huge embarrassment to people.
17:02Well, and I think what it showed, it showed that, you know, Ukraine is not lying down on this.
17:08Ukraine is basically just saying, you know, we can play this game, too.
17:12And they can raise the risk level to the levels that are basically, to me, they've got to be unacceptable.
17:18Raise the risk levels to a four-star general neocon who whispers into the president's ear, unacceptable.
17:27I don't even want to believe that.
17:28Well, he's, I think, basically right in the sense that we've seen in this war that every escalation by Ukraine in the West has led to a counter-escalation by the Russians.
17:42The fact that the Russians have taken their time to investigate these incidents, make sure they understand them, and before they act, is a sign of maturity on their part.
17:55But they will act.
17:56There will be a counter-escalation.
17:57And General Kellogg, I believe, in another context, is quoted as outlining some of the Russian arsenal that has been held in reserve and not devoted to the war in Ukraine.
18:10The Russians have plenty of means of upping the damage level in Ukraine.
18:14I expect they probably will.
18:15Transitioning to another field of your expertise, which is China, I'm going to ask you if the Secretary of Defense is saber-rattling, but in fairness to him and to you, we'll play the clip of what he said.
18:32Chris, cut number 13.
18:34We cannot look away, and we cannot ignore it.
18:38China's behavior toward its neighbors and the world is a wake-up call.
18:43Any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world.
18:52There's no reason to sugarcoat it.
18:54The threat China poses is real, and it could be eminent.
18:58We hope not.
19:00But it certainly could be.
19:02It has to be clear to all that Beijing is credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.
19:12We know it's public that Xi has ordered his military to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027.
19:21Ultimately, a strong, resolute, and capable network of allies and partners is our key strategic advantage.
19:30China envies what we have together, and it sees what we can collectively bring to bear on defense.
19:40But it's up to all of us to ensure that we live up to that potential by investing.
19:47What is he talking about?
19:50Well, I thought you were going to ask me about drones, where the Chinese are the global leaders.
19:56Please tell us.
19:57He makes it sound as though somehow 6,000 miles of ocean between us, the Chinese ought to be afraid of us.
20:07Well, that's right.
20:08But, of course, they're supplying drones to both sides in the Ukraine-Russian war, or drone parts.
20:15Anyway, they haven't taken China's sides.
20:17His statement did not go over terribly well with the audience.
20:24The part that you just heard, or you just played, basically demanded that countries in the region make a choice to align themselves with the United States in a future war with China.
20:34Absolutely none of them have made any such commitment, and none of them want to make such a commitment.
20:40And I think people in the region are well aware there are no Chinese aircraft or ships patrolling the American coast or running provocative pseudo-attacks on our ports to see how we react.
20:55We're in their face.
20:57They're not in ours.
20:57And when he talks about Chinese aggression, everybody in that audience knows that China hasn't started a war, hasn't been in a war since 1979, the war with Vietnam, whereas we have invaded multiple countries.
21:12And we continue to maintain troops in places like Syria, which are there completely illegally.
21:21So I would say this was a talk addressed to an American audience.
21:28It was a pep speech.
21:29It was addressed to the extent it was to the people there, to those who are passionately pro-American or anti-Chinese.
21:38But all of the polling data, the statements from leaders, illustrate that that number of countries is rather few, if there are any.
21:49A final point.
21:51He also tried to make a point that Europeans should stick to Europe and not be helpful in not do anything in Asia.
21:59And that didn't go over well with our European allies, who think that they now have to watch out for their own interests, because we won't.
22:08So I think this is a talk that did not have the effect that he hoped it would or that was reported in our press.
22:21Ambassador, if the Xi government decides to use military force to dislodge the government of Taiwan, what the hell can the United States do about it?
22:35Well, all of the war games that we've run, the scenarios we run, so that if we do intervene to stop that.
22:44And by the way, this is a Chinese civil war.
22:48It's the product of an American intervention to halt the Chinese civil war before it concluded, protect Chiang Kai-shek.
22:57It's evolved into a robust democracy, but it's still part of a civil war situation.
23:03If we intervene, all of the war games seem to show that we could lose two-thirds of our Navy and Air Force.
23:10The Chinese would, too.
23:12So we would be finished as a world power without that level of damage to our armed forces.
23:18And we don't have the ability to rebuild.
23:20People imagine that just as in World War II, where Japan could not replace the ships and aircraft that it lost, whereas we could, and then some, that we're in that position.
23:33But the position now is reversed.
23:35China has 200 times the shipbuilding capability we do.
23:39Its aircraft production is able to ramp up considerably.
23:44It spends less than 2% of GDP on its military.
23:48We're spending not just the Defense Department budget, but another third or so on top of that, $1.5 trillion, about 5% or 6% of our GDP.
24:00And we're in debt.
24:02China's not.
24:03So this is not a scenario that we ought to be looking for.
24:08And I think we're leading with our chin.
24:10And I don't think we'll like the result if we actually get the war that we seem to be preparing for.
24:17Ambassador Charles Freeman, a pleasure, my dear friend, no matter what we're talking about.
24:22Thank you so much for joining us.
24:24We'll look forward to it.
24:25And thank you for accommodating my schedule.
24:26This is not your usual time.
24:28We'll look forward to seeing you next week.
24:30Okay.
24:31Thank you, Ambassador.
24:33Coming up later today at 2 o'clock, Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski.
24:37And at 3 o'clock, our old buddy Phil Giraldi.
24:39Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.