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Jan. 23, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
20:43
LtCOL. Tony Shaffer : Ukraine Under Trump
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So, yeah, I think he does understand that.
Transitioning to Ukraine.
Blinken and Sullivan each claimed that they left Ukraine strong and stable.
I mean, this is some of the most incredible comments in modern American history.
So, you have to understand that they govern from perception and emotion, not reality and fact.
In their little coffee-clutch world, yeah, it's all better.
They are the victors.
And they are the victors by the fact that they were able to produce a lot of revenue for their party.
I think we're going to come to find there's going to be a large auditing of all the money.
Tom Cotton is going to be involved.
I think we're going to come to find that they were very successful, that is, the Biden folks.
In getting money laundered through Ukraine back to U.S. concerns, I think we're going to find a lot of that.
What do you mean by that?
Do you mean American arms dealers, or do you mean illicit money laundering?
All of the above.
All of the above.
You're going to find three categories, my judgment, three categories of grift, corruption, whatever you want to call it.
First, it's been said, Lindsey Graham said it, that Yeah, this money going to Ukraine is all going to be spent here.
Well, a lot of it's going to be spent because of the American military-industrial complex.
Tons of money.
Weapon systems which were used have to be replaced.
Weapons which were pledged have to be manufactured.
So there's a lot of gravy in that train still coming to the U.S. arms.
And secondly, you're going to come to find non-governmental organizations, NGOs.
We're heavily involved in working to move money around.
I think a lot of these things produce nothing but actually absorb a lot of funds.
And you're going to come to find that a lot of those things were going to Ukraine but actually were benefiting people here.
And then just flat-out corruption of politicians.
There's rumors of Zelensky buying multiple houses.
I think there's all sorts of that.
Anytime you send stuff over...
It goes off.
And I think that half of the stuff that went to the Ukrainian military was sold in the black market in some form, probably.
So there's heavy corruption.
And I think I don't know how people think that you're suggesting serious criminal activity.
Yeah, absolutely.
On the part of Americans.
On the part of Americans who knew this was going on, permitted it to happen.
And then some Americans did benefit back here.
Yeah, I do believe that.
Is Trump still arming and funding Ukraine?
Well, I don't know.
I haven't been to the Pentagon as of late.
I'm going to be in D.C. tomorrow, Judge.
I believe the Biden administration put a lot of things in motion.
Has Trump turned them all off yet?
I don't know.
I don't know what he's given the guidance to his acting DOD folks.
Pete Hexteth has not confirmed it, as you know.
So, the acting folks, I don't know what specific guidance they've been given is.
With that said, I do believe that they're going to relook every program regarding what has been sent and what is being sent.
I'd like to believe Trump will follow through with his pledge to start looking at making sure that...
Money is spent here first, and he said he stopped all foreign aid for at least 30 days, which is good, to make sure that U.S. issues, such as the fires in California, the fires in Hawaii, Ohio, North Carolina,
all these things are looked at and funded before we fund anything overseas, which is good.
But the Ukraine stuff, some of the stuff's in the pipeline that starts...
You know, once it starts, it takes upwards of a year to get things done.
So I'm not sure what they've done.
All right.
So we don't know if the pipeline, which has been open for two and a half years, the Biden pipeline is still open.
We don't know if that analogy.
We don't know if the faucet's been turned off yet.
Again, I do believe...
I know there's a conflict going on on the inside.
You've got some folks who are the neocons who really do are trying to convince the president and the team to keep it going.
Their voice is, I think, being reduced every day.
I'd like to believe that.
That's General Kellogg, no?
I think he's more on the neocon side, to be honest with you.
And I think you have others who have access.
We're saying, yeah, I think you need to rethink that whole thing.
And so there's a lot of...
President Trump has said some things which I think he's been misinformed about regarding Russia's economy being in the shambles.
Yeah, it's not.
The World Bank has stated that their economy is growing very well.
The people who have primarily suffered from the economic...
all the sanctions has been Europe.
And Trump has said that.
He's said that Europeans have suffered greatly.
But I don't know if he's circled the square to put it all together to recognize that all the information he's being given is not accurate.
Can Ukraine survive a month if that faucet is completely turned off?
No. Bearing in mind that the American government funds the Ukrainian government, including pensions and hospitals.
I'd like to believe that foreign aid includes Ukraine.
It's like, if he said all foreign aid, that means aid to Ukraine, too.
And that would mean a demunition to the point of where it cannot be effective regarding the governance of Ukraine, since we, Ukraine has become the 51st state by all intents and purposes regarding funding.
And I think this is where President Trump has to really take and take a serious hard stand and say, yeah, you're not us.
We're not you.
And you all need to figure it out.
Now, the EU has been talking big.
As a matter of fact, Zelensky met at Davos.
He made a speech at Davos a couple days ago where he basically said, Europeans can step up and help us.
It's not going to happen, but okay.
So, you know, the Europeans have talked about taking over the war.
God bless them.
Go with God.
Have a go at it.
But I think it's time that we step back and take a second look at why we're there and what's going on.
Tony, here are two clips from him at Davos.
I think he was delusional.
Chris, play 10 and 11 back to back.
But will President Trump listen to Europe?
Or will he negotiate with Russia and China without Europe?
Europe needs to learn how to fully take care of itself.
So that the world can't afford to ignore it.
It's vital to maintain unity in Europe because the world doesn't care about just Budapest or Brussels.
It cares about Europe as a whole.
And Ukraine is already stepping in to support the new Syria.
Our ministers have been to Damascus and we've launched a food aid program for Syria called Food from Ukraine.
And we are getting our partners involved to invest in these deliverance and in building food production facilities.
And Europe could totally step in as a security donor for Syria time to stop getting Headaches from that direction.
And Europe, together with America, should put pay to the Iranian threat.
Start at the end, Tony.
He doesn't have two nickels to rub together of his own to give to Syria.
He's suggesting that U.S. largesse that's going to him is also going to...
He's transmitting to Syria?
Yeah. It's insane.
It's unhinged, to use a term the left likes to use.
And all this depends on us.
And it's like, yeah, you don't do any of that without us, period.
You don't have the transportation infrastructure, at least U.S. less shipping.
Other nations will do it.
I mean, other flag carriers.
The actual coordination, the global interoperability, it's all us.
And the Europeans don't want to do it.
I don't care what he says about, oh, you know, you don't want that headache of Syria.
It's like the Europeans don't care, nor do I necessarily think they should.
With that said, they're still believing that, and I think something else he said in that speech, I'm trying to remember the exact phrasing he used.
Basically, he implied somehow that, oh, you know, the Europeans, if the Europeans should turn their back on the U.S. because it'll force the U.S. to come to them, it's like, no, it won't.
No, it won't.
But you can believe that.
I think it's long overdue that we rethink How we interact with the world.
We have been basically deferring and funding failure all across the board for decades.
And this goes back to my time when I first joined.
Even, I have to say, the Reagan folks I think were pretty naive to some of the things we were doing.
And I love the Reagan guys.
They're close friends and mentors of mine.
But I think we have to relook our entire structure of relationships within alliances, within our trade structure.
Because people like Zelensky are kind of pointing out the obvious, like, let the Europeans turn their back on us.
I don't think we'd miss anything, just saying.
Yesterday, President Trump threatened the Russians, saying if Putin doesn't come to the negotiating table with Zelensky, something Putin has indicated many times he won't do, because in the Russian view...
Zelensky is not the legitimate lawful authority in Ukraine.
That's debatable.
We can put that aside for the moment.
But I want to ask you your opinion of the Trump threat to impose tariffs and sanctions on Russia beyond that, which has been imposed.
I mean, that resulted in laughter in Moscow.
Yeah. Well, again, I think after all these years of sanctions and no real...
Stopping Russia, I think you'd learn a lesson from that, just saying.
And I, again, I think President Trump's getting some bad advice, some bad information relating to what the real effects have been.
Russia, Putin has been very clear on this.
I think he did a very gracious congratulations video to the President, President Trump.
I think the Russians are ready to talk.
I'm not pro-Russian, I'm just saying.
You have to look at the situation as it is, not as you want it to be.
Agreed. You have been a harsh and eloquent critic of Lincoln and Company for looking at the world as they want it to be and claiming that that's the real thing.
They have been divorced from reality.
I hope we don't have a dose of the same thing.
I'm hoping to.
My judgment is there are certain people who have Picked up and want to maintain parts, if not all, of the Biden narrative.
And as you just point out, I've been harshly critical of Blinken and Austin and Beaker.
What's his name?
Jake Sullivan.
And I think the president, I think, needs to take and have a fresh look at the whole thing.
I hope he does.
Because he's got to hear voices that are not tainted.
So, Chris just informs me that the State Department posted a boasting of all the aid that we have given to Ukraine.
This is obviously before Rubio took control there, but they posted it on January 20th, perhaps in the morning, before the change in authority.
We have now used the Emergency Presidential Drawdown Authority on 55 occasions since August of 2021 to provide Ukraine assistance totaling approximately $24.6 billion from DoD stockpiles.
That's a fraction of what was authorized.
The rest, I guess, has been...
Right. Right.
Right. I agree.
He hadn't even been confirmed or even technically nominated yet since that happened on Monday morning.
I want to play a cut of President Putin at his articulate best with an English translation talking about His expected interactions with President Trump.
Cut number eight.
We've heard his commitment to do everything to prevent World War III.
Of course, we welcome this approach and we congratulate the newly elected President of the United States on his inauguration.
We have never been against dialogue.
We have always been ready to maintain Peaceful relationship with any American administration.
I have said that many times.
We would like to see the dialogue built upon equality and mutual respect considering the common positions on our country on a number of international.
We're also open for dialogue with the new US administration on the Ukrainian conflict.
The most important thing here is to eliminate the fundamental reason for the conflict.
That's the most important.
And as for settling the situation itself, its goal should be Not a brief ceasefire, not just getting some time to regroup and rearm and carry on the conflict,
but long-term peace based on respect to lawful interests of all people and nationalities living in the region.
And of course, we're going to fight for the interests of Russia and its people.
This is actually the goal.
Your thoughts, Tony?
So, yeah, two things.
First, President Trump has recognized and acknowledged that the root causes needs to be the focus.
It's not about the conflict.
It's about how did we get here?
And President Trump said correctly, and this is why I'm hoping he'll listen to the right voices when he goes through this to understand that the root causes have to do with the West encroaching on Russia.
Again, let me be clear.
Nobody says I'm pro-Putin.
There was an agreement made in the early 90s, right after the Cold War ended, that created Ukraine and its independence.
And the path forward, basically, and it was signed by, I think, Secretary of State Baker, who said, basically, we agree we will not have expansion of NATO east.
And we did.
So it is what it is.
I think President Trump recognizes that that antagonism is one of the factors that needs to be examined.
And I'm glad he does.
And he said publicly he wants to resolve root causes.
So that's great.
Secondly, President Trump and our side has said they've said our policy objective is to end the conflict, not to give as much.
What do they say?
As long as it takes, you know, we're going to arm them.
So that's a massive change.
And policy, which again, I think recognizes that they want to have dialogue with Vladimir Putin.
There is some disconnect still, but at the same time, I think President Trump has said that he's open to the dialogue with Putin.
They want to have a constructive framework established for them to meet sooner than later.
I think FITSO is working to have that in Slovenia.
I know Viktor Orban is working.
Hungary is working on this as well.
So I think those three men, Trump, Fico, and Orban, will find a way to come to a common ground for a meeting sooner than later where everybody is included.
Now, I think the problem is going to be Zelensky.
I don't think Zelensky wants to show up to this, although he's saying he does.
I think the moment Zelensky shows up to this, he knows it's all over for him.
Can Trump...
Rid the State Department of the neocon mentality, or is it so deeply ingrained that no matter who the Secretary of State is or what the command style of the President is, we're stuck with it?
I was talking to Dr. Chris Lehman the other day.
Chris has worked with President Reagan's nuclear weapons advisor, brother of John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy.
We talked about the State Department.
The State Department has had problems going back before Reagan came into office.
They've always had this certain passive aggressiveness.
Zygmunt Brzezinski helped bring that in and it's always stayed there.
And it's almost like they talk peace but act war.
And again, I referenced this article from the New York Times, which is not a conservative publication, that they call...
Tony Blinken, the Secretary of War.
And so they are neocons.
They'll pretend they're trying to create peace, but they're always trying to get antagonism going to create war.
So the answer is, I don't know.
Marco Rubio is, you know, he's not my first choice to be kind of the guy who goes in and cleans it out.
But if he does the president's bidding correctly and starts removing people who are prone to being neocons, I'd like to see that.
That whole infrastructure, I don't know, Judge.
It would take decades to get it completely, I think, turned around to be focused on constitutional governance and oversight, proper oversight.
I think you're right, Tony.
Tony, thank you very much for your time, and thanks for...
Allowing the discussion to go over a broad range of issues.
All the best to you, my friend.
We'll see you next week.
Thank you.
Okay. We have a busy day coming up for you.
At 8.45 this morning, Dr. Gilbert Doctorow.
At noon, Senator Rand Paul.
At one, Kivork Almasian.
At two, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson.
At three, Professor John Mearsheimer.
At four, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, not finished yet.
And at 4.30, Colonel Douglas MacGregor, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.
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