00:00Eight minutes left on the poll. Did Trump okay the Ukraine attacks on Russia? Yes or no? 25,000
00:07votes in so far. Let's see how Scott Ritter, our esteemed guest, might have answered that question.
00:16Welcome, Scott. Thanks for joining us, digging us out of a hole, as you've done before.
00:22I'm grateful indeed to you. Did Trump okay the Ukraine attacks on Russian nuclear bombers?
00:31I don't speak highly of Donald Trump very often, but I don't think he's that stupid. I believe that
00:38he is sincere in his desire to see a cessation of hostilities, even if he's unrealistic in his
00:46expectations of what he can demand of Russia. But I think he also understands that what the
00:53Ukrainians did was deeply provocative and unsettling and disruptive. And so I don't see that he would
01:03approve this. Now, this doesn't mean that the United States wasn't involved. I do believe that
01:10President Trump has, as many presidents have had, a CIA problem. And that problem lends itself to
01:20Donald Trump's failure of leadership. You know, he inherited a policy from the Biden administration
01:26that sought the strategic defeat of Russia. He has not ended that policy. He may not even know that it
01:33is a policy, but, you know, he has not formally come out and said, I declare this policy to be at an
01:39end, which means that all of the covert actions that were attached to that policy that were being
01:46carried out by the CIA using the 20 bases that were built on Ukrainian soil, most of them during
01:53the time of Donald Trump's first term in office, and all of which were involved in organizing and
02:00executing covert operations against the Russian target. This CIA is still on the job. They have to
02:07be ordered to stand down, and they haven't been ordered to stand down. And even if they have been
02:12ordered to stand down, what we've seen in the past is that many of them refuse to stand down,
02:17believing that they know better than the sitting president about what's good for American security.
02:22So there's no doubt in my mind that there were CIA fingerprints, together with MI6, the British
02:29Secret Intelligence Service, who I believe had the lead on this operation. There's no doubt that they
02:35were involved. But I am very skeptical of whether or not Donald Trump was cognizant of this, and if he
02:43gave the green light. Well, I agree with you. But that doesn't end the question, does it? Because
02:49it's either that Donald Trump is stupid and did okay it, or that he's not in command of the United States
02:59Armed Forces and its agencies. There is not, in fact, the commander in chief, no matter how many times
03:07they play it on the trumpet. And either way, we've got a problem, don't we?
03:13We have a huge problem. It's not just that Donald Trump can't control the intelligence community.
03:22He can't control the American foreign policy establishment. He has the United States Senate,
03:30and two senators in particular, Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, committing sedition,
03:36flying to Ukraine, conspiring with the Ukrainian government to enact policies on the part of the
03:43Ukrainian government that are designed to be disruptive of the, you know, declared intent of the
03:51president of the United States to bring an end to this conflict through negotiated settlements.
03:56You know, the president, let's be clear about this. Again, I'm not often complimentary of this
04:02president, but the pressure that he has put on Russia is unrealistic, as the expectations attached to
04:10this pressure are. Did have Russia agree to a process that Russia knows is unrealistic,
04:20realistic, but Russia doesn't want to be seen as walking away from this process out of concern over,
04:25you know, alienating Donald Trump. So Russia agreed to the Istanbul process. Russia agreed to the
04:34second round of the Istanbul process, and Russia has done everything the president has asked of them
04:40in terms of process and procedure. So Donald Trump deserves credit for this. But what's not happening is
04:47that Donald Trump is not being Donald Trump is not being backed up by his own cabinet. Marco Rubio is
04:55out literally alienating those who should be supporting the president. He makes contradictory
05:01statements. So does Keith Kellogg. So does Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary. J.D. Vance is confused
05:08about what Donald Trump wants with Ukraine, apparently, because he issues contradictory statements.
05:12Tulsi Gabbard is unable to bring her agencies under control. She has a rogue CIA right now just doing
05:19whatever the heck they want to do. And, you know, even people like Steve Whitcoff, who I think has
05:25emerged as a very sage and capable negotiator, you know, who understands the reality on the ground,
05:33he goes forth believing he's carrying out the directions of Donald Trump, gathering information,
05:38bringing it back, and only to be undercut by Trump and Trump's cabinet. This is a dysfunctional foreign
05:46policy and national security team led by a dysfunctional president. Indeed, so. Now, you mentioned
05:53sedition. It's a strong word. But it's hard to see how the million dollar jamboree to Kiev,
06:03and you and I have been in Kiev. We both know it's hard to spend a million dollars there,
06:11at least legally. That trip to Kiev was a treason because it was openly, a senator openly ridiculing
06:27the president. The president's policy, the comments about the cards and so on. And he's in the same
06:33party as the president. The president has endorsed him in a contested primary election. And it's a
06:44breach, surely, of the Logan Act, which is supposed to preclude this kind of thing.
06:50One hundred percent. That's why I use the word. I don't like to use that word, and I wouldn't use
06:56it lightly. But his actions literally fit the definition of sedition. Moreover, the 80 plus
07:04senators who are signing on to this bill need to be careful as well, because if Trump ever had the
07:11courage to pull the trigger on the sedition charges and the Logan Act violations, then these senators
07:17could be charged with conspiracy to commit sedition because they are conspiring with Lindsey Graham
07:22to achieve an outcome that is detrimental to the national security interests of the United States
07:27as defined by the only person who gets to make that decision. The Senate gets to advise and provide
07:34consent for certain aspects of foreign policy. They don't get to make foreign policy, and they don't
07:40get to implement foreign policy, and they damn sure don't get to negotiate foreign policy on behalf of
07:45the United States. This is what Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal did on behalf of 80 other
07:51senators who have come together to undermine the legitimacy of this president.
08:00So they spoke for an hour and 15. Trump perhaps ill-advisedly put a truth social on it and then deleted it.
08:11The Russians, so far as I can see, although I've been on the air for the best part of two hours now,
08:17have not said anything officially. Trump, to be fair, said in the post now deleted that
08:27it wasn't going to bring immediate peace. But he acknowledged, didn't he implicitly,
08:32that Putin is going to respond to the egregious terrorist attack on the train and the egregious breach of
08:48essential nuclear protocols in the attack on the nuclear bombers. You know better than anyone,
08:57as a distinguished weapons inspector. These planes were out on the tarmac uncovered because that's
09:06what the treaty requires them to be. And taking advantage of that, using British and American
09:14intelligence resources to do so, Putin's going to respond bigly, as Donald Trump might say. What do you
09:25think he's going to do? Well, first of all, let's underscore the seriousness of what happened.
09:31This isn't just a cool operation. I mean, come on. Hats off to the Ukrainians. This is made for TV
09:36stuff. Year and a half in the planning, smuggling guys in, getting a warehouse, buying trucks, converting
09:43the trucks, loading them up with drones, having retractable roofs, guys controlling it long distance.
09:50You could make a James Bond movie out of this. And it would be a very entertaining movie.
09:55But for real life, you know, they attacked Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent.
10:03Russia has promulgated a nuclear doctrine. The most updated version came out in the fall of last year
10:11that says the red lines, which are, if crossed, would, should trigger a Russian nuclear response,
10:20are if a conventional attack, attack using conventional weapons, is directed at the command
10:31and control or the actual assets linked to Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent, then Russia will treat
10:37that as a nuclear attack on their strategic nuclear deterrent. And they can respond using nuclear
10:42weapons. Moreover, if a non-nuclear state attacks Russia with conventional weapons in a manner that
10:49threatens Russia's existential existence, and they are assisted in this by a nuclear state, Russia has to
10:57assume that the nuclear state is the one carrying out the attack, and therefore Russia is cleared to use
11:03nuclear weapons. You know, the Ukrainians doing this, if I were a Russian general advising Putin,
11:09I would say, look, boss, this is very dangerous because they're setting us up. They're conditioning
11:13us. The next time they'll do this, and instead of it just being the Ukrainians, this will be the
11:19precursor attack for a larger preemptive attack by our nuclear armed enemies. So in the future, we have
11:25to treat the moment such an attack happens as a nuclear attack and respond accordingly. This is the
11:31world we live in. This is a very, very dangerous situation. So this isn't just an act of terrorism.
11:37This is an act of nuclear madness. And so Putin must respond. He must respond in a way that deters two
11:47actors. One is Ukraine. This response has to be so harsh that the Ukrainian government must know that
11:55their lives are at risk if they ever try to do something like this again. And their lives may
12:00be at risk now. Dmitry Medvedev has tweeted, don't panic. That which needs to be destroyed will be
12:06destroyed. Those who need to be eliminated will be eliminated. And I think that's the direction the
12:12Russians are going. But more importantly, because Russia will defeat Ukraine no matter what. That's the
12:18other thing to come out. There will be no peace deal. There will be no peace process. Vladimir Putin spoke to
12:23his National Security Council. And this is going to be resolved on the battlefield through force of
12:27arms. And Donald Trump can thank Zelensky and the CIA for this harsh reality. But he needs to send
12:35the signal to Great Britain, to France, to NATO and the United States that if this happens again,
12:44the horrible response that they're seeing isn't going to be limited to Ukraine. It will bleed over and
12:51impact NATO, Europe, and potentially the United States. I want to remind people that Anatoly Antonov
12:58in September of last year made a phone call in which he implicitly told the American official on the
13:05other end that if Biden greenlights the use of a Tacum's missiles deep into Russia, the Russian response
13:11will hit the American homeland, including Washington, D.C. And that's one of the reasons why Biden backed off.
13:16Um, I think we're going to get a similar type of statement, perhaps with the Russian missile. Maybe
13:23it's time for Russia to pull that out again. Um, who knows, but it will, I think the response is going
13:29to be on a scope and scale that we have never seen before. And it is designed to scare the, you know,
13:35what out of, uh, Ukraine and its Western allies. Finally, Scott, if I may change tack, uh, and take your
13:44counsel, uh, what's going on in the white house in the extraordinary punch up that developed today, uh,
13:53between, uh, Elon Musk, uh, on the big, beautiful bill and the, uh, Trumpian blows being struck by Steve
14:06Bannon from his war room is the coalition that put Donald Trump in power now breaking apart.
14:14It was always destined to break apart because Donald Trump is not a man of honor and he's not
14:20a man of his word. Uh, Donald Trump is incapable of following through with the promises he made
14:26during the campaign. Um, Donald Trump is a very weak leader who is heavily influenced by outside
14:33powers. Um, the key to Donald Trump is to stroke his ego, not to, um, you know, seek counsel of his
14:40conscience because he has no conscience. He, um, he has a huge ego and you know, the fact that you have
14:47to call a bill big and beautiful just shows you how stupid this entire process is. Uh, and the fact
14:53that Donald Trump is actually contradicting the very things that he's saying, what happened to the 36
14:58trillion dollar debt? Apparently that doesn't matter anymore. Uh, what happened to Doge saving the
15:04American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars? That doesn't matter anymore. Nothing matters to
15:10Donald Trump. He's incapable of fulfilling a promise. And yet the, the, the pro Trumpians,
15:17as you call them, the Bannons and others, you know, they have attached themselves to Donald Trump's
15:21coattails. So they are there to defend Donald Trump at all costs. I think Elon Musk, I believed in what
15:28he was doing. I not the biggest Elon Musk fan, but I don't condemn him across the board. I think that
15:34he honestly thought that he was doing good, doing a service to the country and seeking out to make these
15:39cuts. And, um, and he came to realize that he was just being used by Donald Trump. And when he no
15:45longer was effective as a tool, like any tool that's broken, it gets discarded. And that's
15:52what's happening to Elon Musk right now. And he's waking up to that reality.
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