Title: Who is Really Behind the Migrant Crisis in Ceuta? | Ep. 7
Show: John Kiriakou
Date: 2026-08-04
URL: https://youtu.be/RzkZpg3HB50
Duration: 53:00

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[00:00] Hi everybody, I'm John Kuryaku and welcome back to the briefing room. We have a lot to go over today. I know I say that all the time, but my goodness, it was a busy weekend and first before we get to the news, I just want to say again how grateful I am, genuinely sincerely grateful to each and every one of you. We could not do this without your support and the growth has been absolutely stupendous. I can't believe it. Also, we had our first Q&A episode released on Saturday. You guys asked

[00:31] such great questions. Please keep them coming so that we can do them in our next Q&A episode. Today on the show, we have a lot to get to. Who is really behind the unbelievable migrant crisis in in Seut, Spain? We'll get to the political scandal that could turn Ohio blue, maybe temporarily. And finally, it's election day in Michigan today and Apac might get its biggest embarrassment yet. We'll talk about the election happening between an Apackedback

[01:01] Democrat named Haley Stevens versus a more DSA aligned Democrat Abdul Asai. So, first let let's talk about Seut. Roughly 60,000 would be migrants crossed from Morocco into Seuta, the Spanish enclave on the northern coast of Africa. Now, this is important because most people actually don't know that Spain has these two little teeny tiny just minuscule little

[01:32] patches of land in North Africa surrounded by what is Morocco. So, if you've watched these videos, you've probably noticed this little thing. It's a little bit strange. You see the straight of Gibralar there. You see Spain proper to the to the north, Morocco, which of course is in North Africa to the south. But that little enclave called Seuta, and then farther down the coast, there are other little teeny tiny Spanish enclaves. Now, these

[02:04] of course are remnants of colonial times and the Moroccans don't like it. The Spaniards do like it and uh it's an ongoing problem. Well, Moroccan security forces, as you see in this video, appear to be waving people in off of trucks. We've heard firstirhand accounts suggesting that Moroccan border guards effectively just stood down as thousands of people began moving towards Spanish territory. This is not something that happens on its own. So on this show, we're looking

[02:36] at who decided not to stop them. Could this happen again? And what are the odds that something similar happens, let's say, right here in the United States? Because there's a much bigger fight underneath this migrant crisis involving Spain, Morocco, Algeria, the United States, and potentially Israel. So before we start talking about it, let's take a look at a recap. This is by the Wall Street Journal. JB, please run that clip. >> This is the moment hundreds of

[03:06] immigrants crossed into Suta, a Spanish territory in North Africa. >> The mass crossings coincided with the arrival of tens [music] of thousands of migrants who swam into the enclave over the past week. Authorities estimate that at least 50,000 people streamed into Ciota, a place that only has about 84,000 residents. Spain's government said it had reached a tentative agreement with Morocco to return those who had entered. My colleague Benois Fukon traveled to Siota on August 1st. >> The Spanish government said yesterday

[03:38] that everything was pretty much under control and everyone had returned home in Morocco. And you can see the crowd behind me. You can see the police behind me. Clearly, there's still some action. Actually, I've seen also a lot of people living in the crowd that was just detained. So, obviously a lot of military deployments, a very surreal place, very quiet, but at the same time, lots of armored vehicles, maning camouflage, not a normal situation for that city, which I'm sure the unprecedented mass crossing has ignited fears of a much broader immigration

[04:09] crisis and raised questions about what prompted it in the first place. The sudden influx of migrants came after Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's recent visit to Algeria, a country which has long rivaled Morocco for influence in the region. Some analysts believe that the crossings were orchestrated by the Moroccan government. The influx also follows a recent change in Spanish law. Previously, authorities could immediately turn most people back, but a July ruling has made it harder to return immigrants if they arrive by sea. While

[04:40] Prime Minister Sanchez has taken a much more lenient approach to immigration than many other European leaders, he described the crossings as an attack and a violation of Spain's territorial sovereignty. Okay, so a lot to unpack here. According to the Spanish government, as of this morning, most of the migrants have now either been expelled, returned to Morocco, or left voluntarily. So these 60,000 or so that came in one day are all gone. There appears to have been a huge amount

[05:11] of misinformation circulating beforehand on social media, particularly the idea that migrants who reached Seota would simply be able to stay. They would be welcomed in Spain, given citizenship, a lot of them thought, and eventually be free to travel around Europe and just resettle anywhere they they wanted. This is what was circulating on Facebook and and Instagram. Listen to this interview with a migrant who says he came to Spain to Seut because of this misinformation on social media.

[05:43] >> All these people have been told that they're not going to be able to get asylum here. So, they're being turned around and sent back right there. >> Look at what the police have told us. Everyone, they're making everybody leave. But some people here in in go to >> you can see but most of them are walking

[06:13] this way because the police and the military have forced them to leave. The military says that they're not letting people stay that you have to go back. >> What about if many people stay? No problem. >> So your hope is that you'll be able to stay here? >> Yeah, there's no problem. So, you read a news article that said that if you came here, you could claim asylum and live in Spain. And you read that and then you decided to swim over. >> They say Spain has opened the door. >> It said Spain has opened the door. This was on social media

[06:43] >> on what on Twitter or Instagram or >> Facebook. Everyone want to be here. >> Why don't you want to go home to Morocco? >> No, no, no. Morocco. >> No, no, no, >> no. >> Morocco. >> There's no money in Morocco. >> Ah, easy. >> If you have a family, children like that, you can be happy all the life. >> Do you have a family? >> Yeah. >> And my mother, but you should to be do something to live a good life.

[07:14] >> So, you really want to leave Morocco. You don't care where you go anywhere. Just Turkey. You just want to be able to leave Morocco. >> And why is that? Why do you want to leave Morocco so badly? Yeah. See, somebody put out disinformation, misinformation, saying that the socialist government of Pedro Sanchez had just opened the door and you see the shock on the faces of

[07:44] these wouldbe migrants. The doors open. Spanish citizenship. Everybody's free to come. And that just wasn't the case. So the question then is why? Not even how. There are a thousand different ways that this could have happened. But but why did it happen? So early on in the hours after this thing began, a lot of people pointed the finger at Israel because Spain has been probably the single most vocal anti-Israel

[08:16] country in Western Europe. Spain and Ireland. and that the Spanish, I'm sorry, the the uh the Israelis who are close to the Moroccans, they have diplomatic relations and good good relations. The Israelis talk the Moroccans into just letting people leave Morocco and flood into Seut. I'm not sure that that's true. I think that the Israelis, you know, probably got a kick out of this, but I think this was specific to Morocco. I think the Moroccans did this on their own for a completely different reason. It doesn't have anything to do

[08:47] with Israel. I think the Moroccans did this because they're furious at Sanchez for having close relations with Algeria. Morocco and and Algeria hate each other. They've always hated each other. And they're rivals for, let's call it, primacy in North Africa. Algeria is bigger. It's more important. It's more powerful. It's just as poor, but it's very powerful politically.

[09:18] Sanchez went to uh went to Algeria uh for an official visit on July 20th. The Moroccan King Muhammad was upset and angry and decided to sort of throw a wrench into the works. I think that's what happened. But the fallout is going to be very significant. Let me tell you what's happening while the legacy media sleeps. This could be the biggest story of the decade and you won't hear a word about it from the traditional talking heads. I spent years inside the US

[09:50] government. If that experience taught me one thing, it's this. Pay attention to what governments do, not what they say. So, watch what China is doing. They shut down paper gold trading at four of their largest banks. Same move, same day. They keep physical gold wide open, build a new settlement system through Hong Kong, and expanded their vault capacity tenfold. The official explanation is that they're protecting retail traders from volatility. I've read a lot of official

[10:22] explanations in my life. This one doesn't hold up. China's trade surplus about $1.2 trillion a year. Their gold imports about 940 tons a year. Divide one by the other and you get what gold would have to be worth if China ever pays its bills in gold instead of dollars. $38,000 an ounce. That's just simple math. And what is our government doing while China

[10:52] prepares? It's printing trillions in interest on debt that they'll never repay. Every dollar they print out of thin air makes the dollars you saved your whole life worth less. Nobody voted for that tax, but everybody pays it, especially the savers and retirees who did everything right. I've seen how this works from the inside. The people in charge will not send you a warning letter. That's why I want to tell you about my friends at American Alternative Assets. They help everyday Americans

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[11:54] catches on. A real US-based specialist walks you through it. No pressure. Get your free copy at johnlovesgold.com or call 888G053. Don't wait for the official explanation. By then, it's already happened. The Spanish government right now is on the brink of collapse. Not just because of what happened in Seuda, but because about a month ago,

[12:25] this government, which is a socialist government, announced that it would legalize 120,000 here to for undocumented migrants, all almost all of whom have come from North Africa. Well, you you can't do that. You can't just open the floodgates and and expect to be able to provide housing, food, water, jobs, medical care, education

[12:55] to anybody who happens to be able to make it across your border. I mean, it's it's a noble idea to want to help the poor, the the downtrodden, etc. I come from an immigrant family myself, but it's not practical. You can't you can't afford it. So the damage has been done. Spain is furious. Not just the Spanish government. The Spanish people are furious. The prime minister, as I said, leads this left-leaning government that

[13:26] has generally taken a more sympathetic approach toward migrants. His government insists that its policies did not cause this surge and that the same thing could have happened under a right-wing government. But I think politically he's done. Spain says the immediate crisis has subsided. They've expelled everybody. Although videos circulating on social media suggest that some migrants apparently remain in Seuta. And Europe's right-wing parties are having a field day.

[13:57] In Britain, Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party, warned that the migrants entering Seota would make their way toward the French northern coast and then onward to the UK by crossing the English Channel. Entirely possible. The deputy leader of the French National Front Party posted, quote, "By regularizing hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez has opened the doors of Europe to all dangers." Unquote. Of course, some of this is political

[14:28] opportunism. We we would expect that. But the real question is what made Morocco essentially just let 60,000 people cross the border with no check. And I think that's where this becomes more interesting. Think about this. Morocco potentially let dozens of it of its citizens die swimming into Seut purely to show that it can just mess with Spain whenever it wants to. That's an insane weapon to use against another country. As you heard, Morocco

[14:59] has let this happen to Spain once before. This was back in 2021. It seems like Spain made a terrible mistake letting Morocco control the flow of migrants into SEA, especially given political differences between the two countries. It looks like they did it again over frustration over Spain's relationship with Algeria. But there are even more concerns that another country was involved. As I said, and you can guess, the fingers are pointing at Israel. You'll remember,

[15:31] Israel and the US are not happy with Spain. Spain has not been letting the US use Spanish airspace for military strikes. And the Spanish people have been one of the most outspoken groups criticizing Israel over its actions in Gaza. As Spain criticizes Israel for being an occupying colonial power, Israel has been trolling Spain for its colonial settlements in Africa like Seuta. Spain was given those territories in treaties more than 400 years ago. So a

[16:02] little less recent than Israel laid claims to places like Rafa and the West Bank. But you can see Israel's point. So far, I have not seen any direct evidence linking Israel to this migrant surge, but it definitely seems that Israeli conservatives are loving it. Israeli Defense Minister Bengavir posted in Spanish, quote, "My congratulations to the president of the government of Spain," he meant Prime Minister Pedro

[16:32] Sanchez, for his profound commitment to welcoming immigration and quote human diversity unquote. But then something else caught my attention. Friend of the show, Thomas Massie, posted, "As of just recently, it's official." This is the post. As of recently, it's official US policy that we oppose Spain's colonies in Morocco. And we even call it an occupation. How the heck did that get into a US law?

[17:05] We even gave $40 million to the Moroccan government. Like I said, no direct evidence yet, but I would not be surprised at all if USIsraeli intelligence were aware of this and then just stood by and didn't stop it or didn't warn the Spanish. That would make more sense to me. Um, you know, at the CIA, you've got an army of analysts, right? These are supposed to be well what John Kennedy called the best and the brightest people

[17:36] who are experts in their field. And you've got a group of people just watching issues like this. So did the CIA know that this was going to happen or that the preparations were being made for this to happen? Of course they did. They didn't act. I wouldn't actually have expected them to act because it doesn't really impact US interests. And if the if the idea is that the fallout is going to embarrass Spain, okay. And if you're Donald Trump, who cares? Who cares if if if it embarrasses Spain?

[18:09] Hearing about a migrant surge caused by 60,000 or 120,000 migrants in Spain previously receiving citizenship. The question for the United States is then, could that happen here? That's really what you want your analysts to think about. Could this happen here? We obviously have a very different border situation, but there's something related with with temporary protected status, TPS, for certain migrant groups in the US, particularly Haitian migrants

[18:40] in Springfield, Ohio. I want to talk about this for a second. Right now, that group is in a very weird kind of limbo. Check Check out this clip. >> This is really humiliating. There are certain way you treat somebody, that person become like an animal. >> MS Now has exclusive reporting that at least two Haitians living here in Springfield, Ohio, who've seen their temporary protected status expire have been fitted with ankle monitors by ICE. >> There is a sense of fear. Fear about

[19:13] today and fear about tomorrow. [music] >> And many more have been receiving this letter to their homes. The letter gives them short notice to report to an ICE facility here in Ohio. And in that ICE facility, they have a meeting with an immigration officer. The Haitians tell MS Now they're presented with two difficult options. Either get detained [music] on the spot or be fitted for an ankle monitor until they can show up for a court appearance. And all of this is having severe psychological ramifications on the Haitian community here in Springfield, Ohio of about

[19:43] 12,000 people. I'm worried like a lot about self harm and um strokes because some of them tell me they got that letter and they haven't slept. >> They're not only crying like because of this letter but they know like when they get deported what they are what they going to be like facing when they go back to Haiti. I would call it a butchery the way I see things down there. Like I I think it's really bad.

[20:14] >> Now, all of this is part of President Trump's mass deportation campaign promise. We reached out to DHS about these ankle monitors. They didn't acknowledge them directly and instead opted to quote the song Closing Time by the band SemiSonic, writing to the Haitian community that it's closing time, which means you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Yeah, ankle monitors. The Trump administration's argument articulated by Steven Miller is pretty straightforward.

[20:46] Temporary protected status is supposed to be exactly that, temporary. So TPS exists to protect people who cannot safely return to their home countries because of extraordinary conditions, things like armed conflict, natural disasters, or other temporary catastrophes. We have thousands of Ukrainians here in the US on TPS status right now and hundreds of thousands of Haitians after the 2012 earthquake. But

[21:17] there's a difficult problem. What do you do when the conditions in that home country are no safer than they were decades ago? Often times the US is largely to blame for that country being a hell hole. and and revoking TPS amounts to a death sentence for many of these people. Haiti is a case in point. It is well documented that the Clintons, Bill Clinton as president, Hillary

[21:48] Clinton as Secretary of State under Barack Obama wrecked Haiti. They wrecked it. Couple that with a catastrophic earthquake and you have a situation where it's just not safe to live. Armed roving gangs control Haiti right now. And see, you have people like the the folks you just saw in that clip who have been here for quite a while on temporary status who just can't safely

[22:20] go back. They're likely to be killed. What do you do? The TPS is expired. They're not officially refugees. They haven't applied for citizenship or green cards. So, what do you do? What is the government strategy here? When clearly you can't house everyone from a messed up country who wants to come. So, how many do you take? And of the ones that you take, how long do you allow them to remain?

[22:50] I'll give you another example. Let's say you are an Afghan who volunteered to be a translator for the US Army, right? You worked for the army or the CIA or the American embassy or whatever for 10 years, 20 years and then the Americans lose to the Taliban and pull out of the country. Well, you're going to lose your head. Everybody in your family is going to be arrested. So, you come to the United States under

[23:21] TPS and then what? And then you risk the American government sending you back to Taliban controlled Afghanistan. This is a problem that's not going to end today, whether it's in Springfield, Ohio, or in Suta, Spain, or in Morocco or anywhere else. And it's going to be one of the primary political issues in every country in Western Europe. We're going to come back to it again.

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[25:24] There is a scandal taking place in Ohio within the Republican party and it's going to be something that I think most political observers and reporters are going to focus on. And besides that, how many members of Congress are being blackmailed for being closeted and gay? So, there's this scandal in Ohio that could, and I don't say this lightly,

[25:55] singlehandedly make it so that Republicans lose a seat in the US Senate, the US House, and the Governor's Mansion. This is Ohio. Ohio used to be a purple state. It's not purple anymore. It's red. But Democrats could sweep in Ohio. And these are all seats that Republicans just cannot afford to lose. At the center of this is a Republican congressman by the name of Max Miller. Max Miller is married to Emily Moreno. Emily Moreno is the daughter of Ohio

[26:27] Senator Bernie Moreno. And the allegations against Max Miller are horrifying. As reported in the New York Times, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno, has said that Miller scalded her chest and her stomach by throwing hot water from a skillet at her. He held a gun to her head. He pushed her against the wall and slammed her head. And he fractured their 2-year-old daughter's collarbone and bruised her shoulder.

[27:00] They even had to file a restraining order against the congressman and Emily Moreno's attorney because he grabbed the attorney in court. If my son-in-law laid a finger on my daughter or my granddaughter, I'd wreck his life in more ways than one. Well, Emily Moreno's father, as I said, is a US senator. And Bernie Moreno finally broke his silence on his daughter's abuse two years after the

[27:32] allegation surfaced this week, writing on Twitter. This is what he said. Quote, "As he has admitted privately, Max Miller needs serious psychological help. He is a danger to my daughter and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter. If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives." Okay, think of it this way, too.

[28:04] We're in August. The Ohio primary was last May. Max Miller won his primary uncontested and his own father-in-law, a US senator, has just come out and said that he's not equipped to be a member of the House of Representatives. So, you're probably wondering, why was this man so delayed in speaking out against his daughter's alleged abuser? Sure, he might not want to influence an ongoing

[28:34] court case. All right, I understand that. But there's also the possibility of blackmail. You'll like this. Before Moreno became a US senator, Miller messaged him this threat. Quote, "People are about to get to know you better than your wife does. Take that however you like." Unquote. Here's what he post here's what he posted on his Twitter account. Quote, "Hi,

[29:05] looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling. reads a caption on the photo list profile under the username Nardo19672. That's according to an Associated Press review of records made public through a massive and wellpublished data breach of the website. Mareno didn't deny it. He blamed the account on an intern in his office and claimed that the account was created as a prank. The intern even made the

[29:36] following statement. quote, "I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend and former boss, Bernie Mareno, nearly two decades ago." This intern then donated $6,599 to Mareno's campaign, according to campaign finance records. Is Marino closeted gay? Who knows? Who cares? But it's all part of this bigger scandal. You know, it makes one wonder too how

[30:09] many politicians, senior politicians, national politicians, do you think are closeted in some way and are being blackmailed for it? You know, back in the 80s when I was in college, two Democratic congressmen at the same time were outed. Congressman Barney Frank, who just recently died, he was a Democrat of Massachusetts, and Congressman Gary Studs, who was also a Democrat from Massachusetts. Um there was another uh congressman, a

[30:39] Republican from Mississippi, John Henson. So Barney Frank was um having a a gay affair with a guy who turned out to be a prostitute. Frank apparently didn't know that he was a prostitute and allowed the guy to move into his house on Capitol Hill. And when Frank was at work being a congressman, the guy was turning tricks in the congressman's house. He got outed. The guy uh admitted that he was a

[31:10] congressman. Frank had to admit that he was gay. Nobody cared. Gary Studs, however, was having sex with underage male pages, 16 year olds. Believe it or not, he was reelected and was never charged with a crime. >> [gasps] >> Henson was caught receiving a from his chief of staff, his male chief of staff, in a house bathroom. Uh he his career did not survive the

[31:42] scandal, but this kind of thing happens all the time. Look at uh former Senator uh Mccclure from Idaho who uh was caught doing a toetap gay code in a men's room in Minneapolis airport. His his defense was that he had a wide stance when he was using the bathroom and uh was just tapping his toes randomly. It wasn't a code that he wanted oral from the guy in the next stall. His wife stuck with him.

[32:14] The most important thing here is that the family and their daughter are going to be okay. That's the important thing. But the political fallout from this is going to be huge. Bernie Morano was was behind Democrat Sherid Brown, a former senator in Fox News polling recently, just a week ago. He could get dragged down from this for looking completely spineless as his daughter is being allegedly, you know, beaten up and burned and abused. And Max

[32:45] Miller could cost this House district for Republicans as well. This was a safe Republican district. Donald Trump won this district. Ohio has become a deep red state with Trump at the top of the ticket. But right now, you have Vivic Ramaswami. Remember him? He He's the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio. The conventional wisdom was that he was just going to walk away with this and win big, but he got booed off the stage recently. Take a

[33:15] look at this crazy clip. The >> truth of the matter is, you know, no matter what happens in whichever direction we go, people, my generation will have already made it. We're going to be fine. It's going to be your generation. You're a political creaty turvy politically. It's it's the craziest thing. As I said, Vivic

[33:47] Ramoswami, you might remember, ran for president a couple years ago. Young guy, very very bright, very conservative. He looked to be one of the faces, the new faces of the Republican party. He didn't do well in the presidential primary, but he endorsed Donald Trump early on. Trump seemed to like him and he decided to go back to Ohio and run for governor. And as I said, everybody believed he was just going to walk right into the governor's mansion. This was

[34:17] supposed to be a friendly crowd. And he was literally booed off the stage. Well, a poll conducted by a Republican firm this week has Max Miller five points behind his Democratic opponent right now. 41% of voters view him unfavorably and only 25% view him favorably. And that's with the Democrats having spent zero dollars

[34:47] attacking Miller's reputation. No negative ads from the Democrats at all. What they do is they play these horrifying 911 calls, playing the audio of Miller that he was using needles to inject testosterone in his office and all the other weird details that keep coming out about him. You know, looking back, I think George Santos knew something that the rest of us didn't know.

[35:18] >> You, sir, are a crook. I know I should direct my comments to the chair. I yield back. My colleague wants to come up here, call me a crook. Same colleague who's accused of being a woman beater. Are we Are we really going to ignore the facts that we all have past and we all have the media coming out against us on a daily basis? I can go and read about all my colleagues. I'm not going to stand here to smear them. I'm not going to stand here and use the time I have to

[35:48] say ill things about my colleagues. I refuse to stoop to that level. George Santos. George Santos who went to prison for being a crook. He was pardoned by Donald Trump and uh and he's out now. He's actually on Cameo doing lots of cameos. I'm proud to say that I beat his record. He was the number one most popular Cameo person ever until John got to Cameo. Anyway, what makes politicians keep running for office when the evidence against them is

[36:21] beyond damning? If I were a politician who beat the hell out of his wife, scalded her with hot water, beat my two-year-old to the point where I broke her collar bone, may have been on a gay cruising website. Who knows? What in God's name would make me run for Congress? Narcissism.

[36:51] sociopathy. It's kind of a nice system we've given ourselves, isn't it? I spent my career in the CIA. I know exactly how easy it is to find someone when you have their name and just a little bit of patience. And here's what should scare you these days. You don't need to be a spy to do it. Your name, your home address, your phone number, details about your family. It's all sitting out there online, compiled by data brokers, and sold to anyone with a credit card. I've made my

[37:23] fair share of enemies over the years, and since going public on the CIA's torture program, I've got a lot more strangers who know who I am. So, safety and security aren't abstract to me. They're daily concerns. All that personal data floating around the internet has real world consequences. And honestly, most people have no idea how exposed they are. That's why I personally use Delete Me. Delete Me is a subscription service that removes your personal information from hundreds of data broker websites. You sign up, you

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[39:00] and enter code jkbr at checkout. Again, that's joindeme.com/jkbr code jkbr. Well, today is primary election day in the state of Michigan, and I have to say this is one of the most fascinating races I've seen in a very long time. I'm talking about the Democratic primary for US Senate. You have a mainstream moderate Democrat

[39:31] named Haley Stevens. She's backed by Apac, backed by the big labor unions, and backed by big well-funded corporate packs. She's running against a Democratic Socialist of Americabacked Democrat named Abdul Asai. I want to start this by telling you about 6 months ago, I went to a fundraiser at a friend's house for Abdul Ased and I had never heard of this guy. He talked about

[40:02] health care, health care, health care. He's a medical doctor, a PhD, and single-handedly built Michigan's health care system. I was so impressed by him that I sent his campaign $100. So there, you know, my bias. Um, with that said, the winner of this primary is going to face Republican Mike Rogers, who's running again after narrowly losing the Senate race in 2024 to Alyssa Slackin, a former CIA colleague of mine.

[40:32] This is a real test of electability for for the Democratic establishment. The the politics this year, at least among Democrats, are favoring DSA related candidates. We've seen DSA candidates win five congressional primaries already, upsetting at least three incumbents. Real lefty candidates running in swing states. Well, Michigan's a swing state. The latest polls, and there are a lot of

[41:03] them, show Alied kicking her butt, Haley Stevens butt, just crushing her um by double digits. According [clears throat] to an Emerson College poll, uh Stevens trails, I'll say it by 15 percentage points among likely voters. She only received a majority of ballots from voters ages 60 and older out of the six different age groups that were tested. And this is a quote from the the firm's

[41:35] executive director. There is a clear age divide in the Democratic primary. Voters under 50 break for Al sayed by 42 percentage points 67 to 25 and that gap tightens among voters in their 50s to a 12point lead and voters over 60 flip to Stevens by a 14-point margin 53 to 39. Establishment Democrats usually get to argue that the centrist candidate is more electable in the general election

[42:06] because they appeal to independents and to moderate Republicans. But this is one of the first times where it seems like that really is not the case. It's a question of will undecided voters in Michigan go for someone left-wing with a last name like Alsed, he's his parents are from Egypt. And will Donald Trump's voters avoid voting in the US Senate race like they did in 2024? A lot of them, it's not that they flip and switch Democrat, it's that they just stay home and don't vote at all.

[42:37] Uh, I want to show you a couple of clips that are fascinating to me in this case. The first is Haley Stevens. She probably wishes at this point that she had taken this back. Let's run this first clip. >> And in the United States Congress, I will continue to fight for the people of Israel. I will continue to fight for Israel's existence. Israel comes to me in my dreams. I see Israel's future. And I know that Israel

[43:08] will continue to exist for the Jewish people. >> Why doesn't Michigan come to her in her dreams? Why, if elected to the Senate, will she not go to fight for the people of Michigan? Right? And remember, Michigan has the largest Muslim population in America. So why would she say something like this? Now, conversely, Abdullah sayed

[43:40] has his own problems. He recently appeared on MS Now and uh and was pressed on some of these issues. Let's go to that clip. >> Has been largely and loudly populist, but also anti-Zionist. And you've sort of married those two things, equating funding for Israel with underfunding healthcare, for example. Um, are you worried that that framing juxtaposing the Jewish funding for the Jewish state against the needs of, in your own words, our own people echoes an

[44:12] old anti-semitic trope? Let me just be very, very clear. You know who benefits from guaranteed healthcare in this country? Jewish Americans. The idea that somehow we are going to use the spectre of anti-semitism to defend what a foreign government is doing actually has does a deep disservice to the well-being of Jewish Americans in this country. Judaism and the Jewish people are a light unto the world. Beautiful faith, beautiful people. The contributions that they've made to this country alone are staggering. And I'm looking forward to

[44:42] standing with the Jewish community against anti-semitism. After all, anti-semitism and Islamophobia are one in the same. And we need to take them on. But we cannot sit idly by and ask why is it that our $3.3 billion dollars a year at baseline is used to fund apartheid at baseline genocide over the last several years a war we have no business fighting with the attempt to annex the southern part of a neighboring country and then wonder why our kids schools look like they did 50 years ago. The reality of this >> respectfully you haven't made that same

[45:13] trade-off argument with regards to other items in the US's $800 billion. You just don't cover it. That's No, no, no. I have You just don't cover it. I'll say the same thing about the money we send to Egypt, which is where my my family comes from. So, if you want to go ahead and call me anti- Egyptian, go ahead and do that. But the reality is is that on principle, I don't think we should be sending unconditional foreign military aid to any government because none of us actually pay our tax >> or on principle then are you against ethnreligious states at large? >> On principle, I absolutely am.

[45:47] >> Sure. Now, uh There's a lot to say here. Israel is a democratic socialist state. This is something I think most Americans don't understand. Israel has has a robust welfare system. If you are Jewish and you want to immigrate to Israel, you get everything for free. You get a free apartment. You get free furniture. You get free medical care. Everything's free. Well, it's because we we pay for that.

[46:18] We send billions and billions of dollars to Israel every year so that Israel can have a welfare state. Now, if that's something American voters want, okay, God bless. If it's something that you don't want, then you have to express that to your political figures. Mike Rogers, though, Mike Rogers, former congressman, former I believe he was the chairman of the uh of the House uh intelligence committee. I I may be wrong on that, but anyway, Mike Rogers left

[46:50] the House, ran for the Senate, lost, is running for the Senate again. He polls very well against Elsed. He polls less well less well against um Haley uh Stevens. But Mike Rogers came out with an AI ad saying that Aldo sayed is [laughter] a Trojan horse not for Islam but for communism. Check out this ad.

[47:26] They'll never see us coming. [laughter] They really think we're just Democrats. That ad counts on Michigan voters being morons. I I have a hard time believing that so

[48:00] many Republicans are so stupid as to not know that there's a difference between between communism, socialism, and democratic socialism. Anything that is not Republican to so many of these Republicans is communism. Okay? Bernie Sanders is not a communist. He's a socialist, a democratic socialist, which really is capitalism light. Democratic socialism

[48:31] um supports a robust social safety net. I've told this story before that I was sitting next to an old woman well into her 80s uh at a dinner one night. It was uh at a relative's house and she was watching Fox News. It was a whole bunch of relatives over. She had Fox News on and she turned to me and she said, "I think the country is turning into a socialistic state." And I thought, "Okay, I'm going to have some fun with

[49:01] this old lady." And I said, "I agree. I think we should we should do away with this socialism and we should start with social security because after all, what is social security but welfare for old people who were either too stupid or too lazy to save for their own retirements? And she's like, "That's not at all what I was talking about." And I said, 'But social security is socialism. So is public education. So is the interstate highway system,

[49:35] Medicare, Medicaid. It's all socialism, but it's not communism. And Mike Rogers wants people to think that it is. Mike Rogers is hoping people are stupid or reactionary. There's a far more serious issue going on here, too. Far more serious. And I'd like to play another clip. Uh this is from a mosque in Dearbornne, Michigan.

[50:07] Dearborn is a very heavily Muslim um city. JB, do we have that clip? gathered here today to commemorate the martyrdom of the great leader of our time. We might believe this was an attack led by Zionist Jews, but the commander of their mission is the very one who is trying to prove that Adam was not worth prostrating to.

[50:39] Eliss is the one behind the scenes leading their camp in the shadows lurking irking in their symbology, their ideologies, their psychology, their economy, claiming they follow the laws of Moses and Deuteronomy, a priest is the hidden commander of today's society. Regardless of the stoogge we put at the desk of the Oval Office, Republican or Democrat, or even if a thousand elections come to pass, it is clear that this country was

[51:11] built for and built by the Epstein class. And that just like Palestine, we live on stolen land. So, this is kind of an ongoing theme in in some of the mosques in not just Michigan, but we we hear this kind of thing in New Jersey and in uh New York City as well. Um, occasionally it will crop up in Texas as well. Um, listen,

[51:41] the truth of the matter is there are radicals and reactionaries in every one of the three major faiths in the United States. every every one of the three. And all of us, I think, are compelled to oppose radicalism, no matter where it comes from. There's no room for hatred in America. There's no room for hatred in American politics. And it's because we really are a melting pot. Somebody corrected me once when I said that we were a melting pot, saying we're not a

[52:12] melting pot. We're a tossed salad. So, we all maintain our independence, but we sort of get the coating of the dressing on us from other cultures. I disagree with that. I think actually that's dangerous. I think we really do need to be a melting pot. There is something that's uniquely American and I think that's something that all of us should embrace. I want to thank you again for joining us and I want to thank you again for these just remarkable numbers. Please, please, please continue to to

[52:42] watch, to share, to talk about the podcast, to uh to subscribe. It means so much to us. And and I've said it before, I'll say it again. We just cannot do this without you. And we're only succeeding because of you. So, thank you again. I'm John Kuryaku and this has been the briefing
