0:32 Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Npalitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday. No, today is Wednesday, June 4th, 2025. Colonel Douglas McGregor will be with us in just a moment. Just how serious a military strike was the drone attack on Russia? But first, this. While the markets are giving us whiplash, have you seen the price of gold? It's soaring. In the past 12 months, gold has risen to more than $3,000 an ounce. I'm so glad I bought my gold, it's not too late for you to buy yours. The same experts that predicted gold at $3,200 an ounce now predict gold at 4500 or more in the next year. What's driving the price higher?
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2:04 guarantee. It's time to see if gold is right for you. Call 8005114620. 8005114620 or go to leerjudgenap.com and tell them your friend the judge sent you. Conor McGregor, welcome here. Thank you very much uh in advance uh for your time. Did uh the United States and NATO attack Russia over the weekend using drones from their proxy Ukraine? Yes, unquestionably. And how significant a military from a military perspective, Colonel, how significant was this attack? We're hearing stories that it was 40 to 50
2:50 planes that were destroyed and we're hearing stories that it was four to seven planes that were destroyed. I think for the most part it was a PR stunt uh to try and convey the impression that Ukraine is capable of carrying on the war, has great fight left in it, and is capable ultimately of harming Russia. I don't think the harm was very great. I think it's grossly exaggerated in the West. Anything you hear from the Western outlets, BBC or any of the mainstream in the United States are probably untrue or at least grossly exaggerated. What I think is true is that we damaged ourselves and our relationship, what what there is left of it with Moscow by
3:36 attacking these bombers on the tarmac or the runway as as a result of the strategic arms limitation agreements. And I think the Russians have reached a point now where collectively they all say we can't be trusted. Whatever we say is irrelevant because it's probably untrue. So I think that's the real fallout from this. We lost whatever lingering credibility we may have had with them uh for the foreseeable future. Well, you went right to where I was going to ask you about next. I mean, there are complaints this morning that President Zullinsky did not tell President Trump, but surely senior officials in the CIA or the DIA, whichever uh intel group was involved in planning
4:24 and carrying this out, must have known about it. Is it true that it took 18 months to plan and plot the first year under the Biden folks and the and the last the final six months under Trump? You know, that's something I I can't evaluate. I don't know. It may well be the case. Uh remember that Russia is an enormous country with thousands of miles of border. It's not hard to penetrate. And this was clearly an interesting and innovative way to attack by using these trucks that uh with roofs that could be opened and then launch these drones. But we've seen this sort of thing before. the the Russians have actually used containers on merchant ships to carry missiles that could be launched. I I think there was something of a strategic
5:09 failure on the intelligence side Russia. I don't know how that will be handled, but I'm sure that someone or some people will be held accountable for that. General Keane, who of course works for a U think tank that is a friend for either the Defense Department or for Langley, is calling it a a tremendous victory for the Ukrainians and a catastrophic defeat. This on Fox knows where he works. and a catastrophic defeat uh for uh the Russians, claiming that the Ukrainians had uh engaged Russian drivers and Russian engineers and all of this was assembled in Russia and it's a
5:55 catastrophic failure on the part of Russian intel. You think there's a little CIA exaggeration there? No, I think so. Uh, I think the larger the larger issue is not these sort of outrageous nonsensical claims that are being made. And you know, General Keane's an intelligent man. He knows the truth, but he's on the payroll and he's rewarded richly in New York City as well as in Washington DC and the defense industries for pushing the conflict. You know, we like to say the the so-called Democrats are all about refugees and open borders and the so-called Republicans are all about endless war. In truth, they all fit together as one party and and General Keane is serving
6:40 that interest. I think the the larger question though is as follows. What is the likely impact of all of this on Russia? How are the Russians going to proceed from here? There are a lot of really angry people in Russia. judge. I'm not talking about just officials. I'm talking about the the population and and they have always been uh dissatisfied with the slow, ponderous, deliberate progress that uh the Russian armed forces have made in eastern Ukraine. And I think that this also reinforces in the minds of the delusional in Washington that how can the Russians pose any real threat to us? Look how long it's taken them to advance in eastern Ukraine. no understanding of the larger goals, no understanding of
7:26 the larger objectives, one of which is to avoid war with us and NATO. The problem now for President Putin and his generals is you can't put up with this any longer. You've got to push this to some sort of conclusion or, you know, you risk this whole business escalating out of control because you don't know who you're dealing with. You know, President Trump tweets things or or sends out things on X and he thinks because he says them, they're true. This is not my war. I didn't start this. I don't want it. Well, that's that's interesting, but it's irrelevant. President Trump, this is your war. You are the commander-in-chief. This is your responsibility. And that's the way the Russians look at it and everybody else.
8:11 And he's beginning to look either feckless or downright reckless. What do you uh think the pressure is like on President Putin to respond dramatically? You know, he has the archnik. He has, God forbid, he he uses them, uh nuclear uh weapons. I I get it that Russians are angry. These are Russians in the street. These are Russian elites. These are Russians in the intelligence community. These are Russians in the upper ranks of the military. And these are Russians that advise him every day. Uh, President Trump, what am I saying? Troopin, that's a new one. President Putin, if anything, is
8:56 not emotional. That doesn't mean he doesn't feel anything. But he's a man who learned early on how to manage and control his emotions. No doubt he shares the anger of his population. Absolutely. But he's not the sort he's not a a Trump-like figure. This is not someone who beats his chest in public and is anxious to announce his immediate intentions. I think what is happening right now is that they have an enormous number over 700,000 troops in Ukraine right now. They have additional forces in in Beler Russia and inside the Russian borders. What he's doing at this point is he's looking at the map. He's listening to his commanders and he is concluding that they have to press west. In other words, to Denipro, which is on
9:44 the uh Denipra River, also to Heron, and then ultimately down into Odessa. I think if anything these events, these PR stunts with explosives either on the in Siberia on these airfields or with the bridge to Crimea, which contrary to popular belief is no longer as vital and essential as it once was, but it's still it's still symbolic. Nevertheless, I think he's reached the point now where he understands they're going to have to press to those areas, and I think that will be his his response. He's not going to announce it in a big way, but over the next week or two, I think you're going to see major troop movements, and there's not a damn thing that the Ukrainians can do about it. Does the um
10:32 nature of this uh attack with the drones being smuggled into Russia and set off from within Russia bear the eararks of MSAD? Does it remind you of the um exploding pagers? Well, keep in mind that there are many Mossad agents inside Ukraine. They've been involved for some time now. Uh reports came in early on within the first couple of years of Mossad officers who spoke perfect Ukrainian, fluent Ukrainian, uh in Ukrainian uniform directing operations, uh running replacement operations and so forth. So they've been involved from the beginning
11:18 and keep in mind that uh the CIA the and MI6 in Great Britain and Mossad are all joined at the hip. After all their cooperation made possible the removal of Assad. Obviously the Turkish president Erdogan had the critical role to play because he had most of power in Syria. But nevertheless, they they were instrumental and now they're instrumental in integrating the former ISIS and al-Qaeda elements into this new permanent Syrian army. So they're they're all over. They're involved. If you begin asking, well, how how much were they involved? Then then we're in the game of speculation, right? I have no idea. But they're involved. But is it is it understood from your perspective that
12:05 CIA, MI6, MSAD and I forget the initials, forgive me, the Ukrainian intel work together. Yes. SBU, which is or the initials that you're talking about, they're very definitely not just integrated, they're heavily dependent upon it. I mean again, who's going to pro provide them with the intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance capabilities and the resulting intelligence that flows from that? Well, we're the principal source. This is the problem with President Trump standing up there and saying, "I don't want this and I've tried to end it and I don't want any part of this." Well, that's fine, Mr. President, but you're ultimately responsible for all of it now. And no one is going to believe anything you say unless you act decisively to disengage from this. And thus far, we found out that President
12:51 Trump isn't willing to do anything to fundamentally change what Biden and his administration did. Um, I'm just uh wondering now, if the CIA's involvement was integral, wouldn't they have had an obligation to under the law get a presidential finding before they could do this? Stated differently, did Donald Trump know about this ahead of time? Well, in theory, you're right, and there may be a finding left over from the previous president that they'll refer to. As far as President Trump is concerned, this is not someone who is detail oriented. This is not someone who sits down and studies reports. This is not someone who sits through lengthy
13:37 briefings and asks hard questions. Uh you know we had this recent incident where uh four American soldiers were returned their remains were returned to the United States from Lithuania. The Lithuanians provided them with almost a state funeral. They arrived at Dover Air Force Base and uh there was no president of the United States to greet them. Now technically he doesn't have to be there and he sent uh Mr. Hegsth the current secretary of defense to go receive these. But people remember vividly Ronald Reagan receiving these bodies after the Beayroot bombing that that has been imprinted on the American mind like nothing else. And there was an expectation that the loss of these men's lives would be noted publicly by the
14:25 president in a dramatic way. It didn't happen. Instead, he went to a golfing tournament sponsored by the Saudis. I don't think there's a lot of self-awareness with President Trump. I don't think he grasps the dangers that are involved. And so I the only thing I can tell you is that he may well not have known and he may have simply waved it off and said, "Yeah, that's fine." Uh, you know, whatever. And and gone on with the rest of his day. That sounds callous, but I don't think it's unrealistic. And I wonder what happens when he and President Putin speak again. Hey, Vlad. Hey, Donald. Your guys tried to destroy a good chunk of my military and you didn't know about it. Come on. I think President Putin will be as always polite but pay absolutely no attention
15:12 to anything President Trump says. Remember President Trump I'm trying to turn Putin into Truman again. President Putin has said on more than one occasion that he's dealt with several presidents. Judge, right? And he discovered that it really didn't make a great deal of difference what they said or what they insisted were their intentions. that ultimately there was another power in Washington and that power was making the decisions and so the presidents themselves didn't turn out to be very influential in Russia the president of Russia has enormous power and authority and if he says something it happens if he says it's not going to happen it won't so for for the Russians right now this whole business is hard to grasp and they'll continue to be polite because that's their nature but they're going to
15:58 press on and do whatever they think they have to to secure their borders and their country. Let me uh switch gears if I might. Uh you mentioned Secretary Hegs Seth. Um I think he's been you may disagree with me saber rattling uh over China lately. Is something happening over there or is this just a diversion? First of all, the US armed forces are in no shape to take on any major power in a major war. So the whole notion that that we're we're going to threaten the Chinese or the Russians or someone else into obedience, which is what Mr. Hegsth and President Trump seem to think is a deterrence. In other words, the notion that we can bully people into
16:43 submission, is nonsense. And that's a big problem right now because I know that President Trump thinks that bullying works. Well, it may work uh on the Panameanians. I don't know. Uh it it may work on uh you know people in central Africa uh but it's not going to work uh in Asia. It's not going to work in Europe. Certainly not going to work anymore in the Middle East. So I think that's part of the problem. Uh the second thing is, you know, this is this is absurd. If you stop and look at it on its face, we've done everything in our power with these tariffs, not only to try and and harm China, Russia, and Iran, and other states. We've harmed our allies, our friends, people who are
17:31 friendly to us. We have made a mess of the world right now. There have been meetings all over the world. And and the media doesn't report this stuff. You can go to Asia. They've had these meetings in Singapore, in other capitals, and they're saying, "What what do we do with patient zero?" You understand patient zero? Patient zero is the man with the original malady that can infect everybody and kill them, right? That's the way they refer to President Trump at this point. Oh boy. So, the objective is to contain uh the Americans. you know, this this is a rogue state that still has enough military power at its disposal to do a lot of damage. So, what we have to do collectively all around the world, this is what BRICS is all
18:16 about. It's not just militarily, but it's also financial and economic. How do we protect ourselves against this? How do we contain the basillus? That's the way we're viewed at the moment. So, I I think President Trump is out of touch with reality. I don't think people are telling him the truth. And who knows, it may not make any difference because no matter how much damage these things do, uh the the tariffs or the threat of dramatically increasing them right now, he wants to tax foreign capital. Well, the most dangerous thing he can do at this point is drive foreign capital out of the United States. Right. Right. We need foreign capital. We shouldn't be taxing any of it. This should be a haven for it. And so people are looking at this whether you're in the Emirates or
19:03 Singapore or China or Japan or Korea or anywhere else. They're saying, "Well, we got to get our money out." And the stupidity that you hear in Washington from everybody is, "Well, there's nowhere else for them to go. We're the biggest market in the world. They're out of their minds." Not true. That's just nonsense. So, you can't view what's being done militarily, which is stupid and counterproductive, uh, as something separate and distinct from what's happening on the financial and economic side. It's all linked and it's all bad at this point. Let me switch gears if I could to another bad state of affairs. What is your uh understanding of uh resistance movements over the genocide in Gaza and the
19:50 persistent refusal of the Israeli uh government to allow sufficient uh food and medical supplies into Gaza? Remember, the most important thing to Mr. Netanyahu and to the Israeli state is our unconditional support for whatever he wants to do. That's the bottom line. We can't lose sight of that. As long as we are 100% on board, as long as we are going to continue to supply the Israelis with whatever they need to destroy the populations in Gaza and the West Bank to pulverize southern Lebanon, places in Syria or potentially even Egypt or anywhere else in the region. It doesn't matter to them what anybody else thinks. Now, because we
20:37 have a media that is very obedient, not just on the Ukraine narrative, which is utterly and completely false, but also obedient to the Gaza and West Bank narratives that this project greater Israel is justified and rooted in everything from biblical texts to uh you know, modernday anti-semitism. this sort of thing is is is just un it's unsustainable from the standpoint of most of the world. Uh you even the British now who have very much been in the Israeli pocket have now stepped forward and said this is unacceptable. The French even the Germans who have spent 80 years apologizing and subsidizing uh Israel have said no no we
21:24 can't go on with this. So the rest of the world is has turned, I would argue, overwhelmingly against Israel, and it doesn't make any difference. Judge, does it make a difference that Arab nations might do something? Are there movements in Egypt to um challenge Netanyahu? Well, you know, you have this march on Gaza that that people are trying to organize in Egypt where they hope they can get hundreds of thousands of people to walk across the Sinai uh towards Gaza to the Rafa Gate and demand that it be open and people there be fed and so forth. If you're an Israeli, given their mentality and what they're doing and the military power at their disposal right now that they can use with impunity, that's laughable. No,
22:11 nobody cares. They could care less. go ahead and march across the Sinai. If you're going to deal with Israel, I think everyone in the world has discovered there's only one way to deal with them, and that is the way they deal with everybody else. Uh the problem with that at this point is us. Uh everyone is prepared to go after Israel. Let's not kid ourselves at this point. The Israelis have made themselves about as popular as the plague. But as long as we stand with the Israelis, people are going to shy away from that. Now, how long will that last? Uh we don't know. We we just don't know. But we know that the Israelis are in charge and the rest of the world knows that we have not only no strategy, no plan, no attainable
22:59 objectives that conform to what we would call the American uh strategic interest. We that doesn't exist. Everything's impulse with uh President Trump from day to day. But his impulses are not even that important. What's important is that if you sit down, you're the president of the United States, you say, "How many senators or congressmen do I have uh to pass this particular legislation and you find out that President Netanyah or Prime Minister Netanyahu controls more senators and more congressmen than the president does, well, I think that about sums it up." And right now that's the fact. So you know President Trump can bloate, he can com complain, but nothing is really
23:44 going to change on that score. And by the way, it's very interesting that if you look at this big new beautiful bill that the president was talking about, which Elon Musk has rightly characterized as a catastrophe for the nation, uh, one of the things that's really interesting is that President Trump reserves all of his anger and spleen for really two people. One is Senator Ran Paul in Kentucky and the other is Thomas Massie from Kentucky. So, I imagine the anti-Semitic task force will descend on Kentucky in the near future and begin mass arrests. Well, I'm just kidding, obviously. Yeah. No, I understand. I understand exactly what you mean. I appreciate that analysis. Would hundreds of thousands of Egyptians marching across the cyanide
24:29 put pressure on General Al-Sisi or not? only to provide sufficient water and transportation and medical support to avoid large numbers of people dying. Otherwise, I would say in the immediate sense, no. The army is already anxious to fight. That is the Egyptian force. The nation is anxious to fight. General Cece, as I tried to say earlier, doesn't want a fight that will involve us. I mean, his nightmare is if I attack the Israelis for what they're doing in Gaza, uh, all sorts of terrible things could happen to us in Egypt, and we have no means of protecting ourselves against an American military, uh, offensive action
25:17 against us. Now, he's had conversations with uh, Mr. Erdogan. He's had long long and uh detailed conversations and discussions with Chron. Uh he talks at great length with MBS in uh Saudi Arabia. So he he he's preparing for the worst case scenario. I think in his mind eventually a war is coming and he's going to have to deal with it. He won't be able to avoid it, but he's not going to act prematurely to bring it on. And again, the thing that we don't have, and I I think Ambassador Freeman has been on to talk about this and others, we have an acute lack of uh executive
26:02 competence. When you look at the people that have been picked for the administration to do things, these aren't experienced, thoughtful people. They are not supported by large numbers of old hands, people that know what they're doing. I'm not saying that the last administration was better. They weren't. uh they they set the the tone and the stage for everything that's happening now. The great tragedy is very little has changed since President Trump took power. Uh but President Trump is focused on optics. It's back to what I said before about X. Sends out a statement on X and he says this is not my war. I don't like it. He thinks that that now is is concrete that something emerges from it. I don't think he understands that saying
26:49 these things and getting something done and moving something in a different direction are very different. So there is there is no executive competence with this administration. So I don't know what happens and I think that's why we're increasingly treated as patient zero. Everybody is equally alarmed but also confused. Thank you for all this Colonel. Thank you for your uh analysis on all of these issues. As uh unpleasant as it is, uh you are a breath of fresh air uh because of your ability to bore in and get through the PR fog. Thank you again, my dear friend. Look forward to seeing you next week. Sure. See you next week. Thanks, J. Okay. Thank you. Uh as Colonel uh McGregor just mentioned,
27:34 Ambassador Freeman, he will be with us at 1:00 this afternoon. Colonel Karen Quacowski at 2:00 this afternoon and our old pal Phil Geraldi at 3:00. Judge Npalitano for judging freedom.
