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Dec. 10, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
21:27
[SPECIAL] - Patrick Lancaster : LIVE from Tbilisi, Georgia.
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Time Text
Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Tuesday, December 10, 2024.
At least it's Tuesday, December 10, where we are.
Patrick Lancaster joins us now from Tbilisi, Georgia, where it is already tomorrow.
Patrick, welcome here.
I know you're in a dangerous hotspot.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Even if it is the last minute, you know you're always welcome here.
Why are you in Georgia and what's going on there?
Hi, Judge.
Great to be on again.
Thanks for having me as normal.
always great to be able to show the world some things with you that they need to see.
So I'm here in Tbilisi to cover the new...
Today is the 13th day of unrest slash protests.
And basically, 13 days ago, the Prime Minister, who is part of the longstanding Georgia Dream Party that's been in power for 12 years, Made an announcement saying that Georgia was a bit pulling back from the accession talks to the EU until 2028.
And after that, the opposition and some of the young population of Tbilisi and Georgia organized some protests,
daily protests, Early days quickly turned violent with many clashes between the protesters and police, which resulted in dozens injured on both sides, the police and the protesters.
The protesters accused the police of police brutality.
international response to the actions by the government side were mixed.
Of course, the European media and European countries condemned some of the what they called harsh actions by the government towards the protesters.
Minister of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said that Russia is up for regaining or increasing relations with Georgia as far as Georgia wants to take it.
And I arrived here in Tbilisi on the seventh day of the unrest and protests.
And the first two days I was here, which was 6th.
It was fairly quiet.
Lots of people.
I'm not sure exactly how many.
Tens of thousands, for sure.
Right in the middle of the city, in front of the Parliament building.
That's like the main place where the protests are, directly in front of the Parliament building.
As I said, the first two days were a calm.
As far as mainly comes, some fireworks being fired by the protesters above the parliament building and even on the parliament building, but no response from the police and authorities.
On Friday night, it was a bit different.
The protesters turned their large fireworks or pyrotechnics on the...
All right.
We have some clips that you gave us of the unrest.
We'll show it in a minute.
But just so we understand the competing forces here.
The government is popularly elected?
Yes.
Okay.
And the government has decided that it's either going to align itself with Russia or remain neutral, but it's not going to align itself with the EU.
Actually, the Prime Minister said he was delaying the accession talks, not necessarily turning his back on the EU, but delaying the accession talks for three more years.
Now, the accession into EU, or at least attempted accession, is actually in the Georgian Constitution.
So they can't really say it's not going to happen.
And as far as the democratically elected parts of these authorities, now there was an election October 26, which to me, from what people have told me, seems that it was it.
Now, the protesters said that it was not fair elections, and that's one of the things that they're also going for, is new elections.
I know that in one of these clips, the second one, where they confront you, they accuse you of being a Putin apologist.
We're not ready to run it yet.
But has President Putin or has the Kremlin taken sides in all of this?
Well, in a way, yes.
Just by saying the protests are doomed to fail, a revolution doomed to fail, but they're kind of riding...
But the protesters say that it's going to lead to war with Russia and all this.
There's many accusations by the protests against Russia using the Ukraine war as ammunition, basically.
And the older population I spoke to don't want to see.
Georgia turned into the second Ukraine, as they put it.
So it's a very complicated situation.
Got it.
Now, again, before we show the fireworks and the unrest, why are you there?
Why have you left Ukraine or the Russian areas that Ukraine says are Ukraine and Russia says are Russia?
Why have you left there?
Because I saw this developing story, and I felt like there was so much information coming out to the Western media that I had to go give a little on-the-ground view for my viewers on what was really happening, what I would see on the ground.
And the first days, as I said, I stuck with the protesters to give them a chance to show my viewers what their side was, and then slowly moved on to speaking to other people away from the protesters.
And, of course, everything is on my channel.
Nothing I say isn't backed up by video evidence.
Okay, we're going to show...
the tape you sent us of the unrest, and I am assuming that the building at which they're hurling Roman candles on fireworks is the parliament building in that tape.
Right now, the...
with reaction by the police.
Go, go, go, go, go!
Go, go, go, go!
Go, ever thought, ever thought!
You would do that!
Project Lancaster right now in the center of Tennessee on the ninth night of unrest and the protests are turning what you could say is violent.
again at this point.
Pyrotechnics are being shot at police here on the Parliament building.
Alright, so the direct fire on the Parliament building.
The police tape it off and now the...
Go!
Yeah.
you Does everybody just stop and go home, or do the police arrest people?
Well, basically, right after the moment of that clip, well, not right after, but I'd say it went on for another half an hour to an hour in front of the parliament there.
To answer your question before the clip, yes, that was the parliament building being directly fired upon.
A bit later, the police moved forward and started slowly pushing the protesters back.
And the protesters changed from firing just on the main front of the building, where there was some slot there, to actually firing on the police lines.
And the police deployed water cannons and then soon gas grenades, tear gas grenades, which But even still, that particular riot went on at least three more hours going down and farther away from the streets.
And then what we're told is as the...
While it's happening, I filmed as much as I could for my channel.
I myself got gassed several times and it's very effective tear gas, I can say.
But right now...
A lot of the viewers are asking if this has been fomented by the CIA, sort of like in Ukraine in 2014.
Did you come across Americans, whether they appeared to be agents or just American tourists?
Well, there's English being spoken on the protests themselves, I cannot confirm a large part of the protest is being foreigners at all.
Several of the locals that I talked to outside of the protest did say there was foreigners involved, but I can't confirm international operations going on inside of it.
What I see is what I see.
But what I can tell you about the protesters is that the majority of the protesters were younger generation, seeming between late teens, maybe 15 to 25 or 30, the majority of the protesters.
We noticed an American flag amongst the protesters.
Did that surprise you?
Well, there is several American flags, several Ukrainian flags, a lot of European Union flags, of course, Georgian flags, and NATO flags.
There's a lot of graffiti around the area.
Now, it was not overwhelming at first.
The first night, we just saw two and a few here and there in the following nights.
But there are some far-right emblems like the swastika.
I think we only saw a total of three swastikas on some of the graffiti around the area.
A few Azov battalion symbols and things like this.
But yeah, a lot of non-Georgian flags and symbology, a lot of graffiti saying that we are Europe.
Apparently your work has become well known to the demonstrators.
We're now going to play a tape where the demonstrators confront you and accuse you of being a Putin apologist.
And in a threatening way, suggest that you should get the hell out of there and go back to your hotel room.
This is about two and a half minutes long.
It's a little unsettling, but it's a very courageous and unmoved Patrick Lancaster.
Why are you following us?
Freedom of speech.
Please leave us alone.
Freedom of speech is very important.
Can we talk?
I don't show my opinion of anything.
Please stop approaching me.
You're working.
I know everything.
Okay, everything I do is truth.
Freedom of speech is very important.
I know who are you.
I'm a journalist.
I'm a journalist that shows the facts that I see.
You are not a journalist.
I don't put anything of any of my opinions.
I don't put my opinions in my reports.
I only show the facts.
I'm working for freedom of speech.
In this place.
You make provocation.
No, I don't.
Go home.
Go home.
I was in Abkhazeti.
Okay.
It's not normal for Georgia.
So now we are being surrounded.
Fuck Russia!
Go home, please.
Go home.
This is only freedom of speech.
I'm just a journalist that always shows the facts.
Go to your hotel, please.
Why do you not believe the journalist should be able to...
I'm from the United States.
Ah, understood.
But I work...
Go to your hotel, please.
Why can't I work free as a journalist here?
Go to your hotel, please.
Georgia is a wonderful country and people should be able to work here freely.
Ukraine is a wonderful country too.
Why do you be in Donbass?
What do you think about Putin?
What do you think about Putin?
In none of my...
I show exactly what's happened.
I never show my opinions in any of my reports.
I only show the facts on the ground.
The facts.
We see your report.
We see your report.
Go to your hotel, please.
I want to work free here.
This is a free country and a good country.
I gather they didn't succeed in silencing you, Patrick.
No, we were just on scene for today's protest just about an hour ago, which is considerably less than it had been.
The last days.
And what do you think that was all about and who were they and why are they upset that you're filming these demonstrations?
Well, in the day prior to that encounter, over the weekend, some pro-opposition journalists and other people put out My photos and information, because they saw my reports and basically put the protesters on alert that I was there and that I should be escorted or whatever out of the protest.
Now, I can say they didn't get very violent, of course, as you saw, aggressive, but a little pushing here and there, grabbing.
No punches thrown or any weapons of any kind used.
And to that, I can say that it was good to see that.
Just like on the police side during this night of unrest on Friday, we saw a lot of the police using restraint.
They were only...
deploying the water cannons and tear gas when they were being directly fired upon with these large fireworks or pyrotechnics.
So, yeah, basically since the encounter, the opposition or pro opposition have been putting out photos of myself and actually another journalist, an Italian journalist who also And it's to the point where when I go to the protest, besides what I'm doing as lives, I wear a mask now.
And in addition to that, there was another British journalist with us who they also...
And also they put out statements saying that my and the Italian journalists were putting out information lying about the protesters, lying about Georgia, and it's just absolutely untrue without any basis whatsoever.
They use words to lie, and I use the video to show what's happening.
How much longer are you going to stay there, Patrick?
Not that much longer.
I feel like I've done my part to show what's happening.
As I said, this is the sixth day.
I'm working on a couple other reports right now, talking to lawyers, possibly businessmen, and hopefully some political figures soon.
So a little bit of information more coming out from my various channels.
Soon I'll be headed out of here and back to the Russia-Ukraine war zone to be showing what's happening there.
But if things develop farther here, possibly I'll come back.
On the 14th, the acting, or not the acting, but the president of Georgia, who is president The parliamentary election for the president is on the 14th, I believe.
She's supposed to leave office, but she says she's going to refuse to.
So when that happens, I would expect some sort of an escalation.
There will be more fireworks.
Patrick, thank you very much for your time.
Stay well, stay safe, and keep us informed of your progress.
All the best, my dear friend.
Thanks, Judge.
Well, you never know what he's going to show us.
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