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May 4, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
27:08
Scott Ritter : Can Trump Bring Peace to Ukraine ?
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, May 5th, 2025.
Scott Ritter will be with us in just a moment on Can Trump Bring Peace in Ukraine?
After what he said on Meet the Press yesterday, I don't know how that could happen.
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Scott, welcome here, my dear friend.
Just one or two questions on breaking news before we get to your view of Trump and his manner of negotiating and his public statements on Ukraine and whether this is likely to bring peace.
The Netanyahu regime announced today that the IDF will soon occupy all of Gaza, except for the southern portion, to which it purports to be able to expel all 2 million residents of Gaza.
Where is this going?
I don't know, because at the same time Netanyahu is saying that air blockade has been imposed on Israel by the Houthi.
The Ben-Gurion Airport was shut down.
They may have reopened it.
It'll be shut down again.
And there's no solution to the Houthi except for Israel to stop doing what it's doing in Gaza.
So Israel doubles down on stupid in Gaza while its economy continues to collapse.
I have a feeling that Hamas can hold out in Gaza longer than the Israeli economy can hold out.
Ultimately, I'm hopeful that the way this ends is there's a widespread recognition that unless the United States wants to escalate the war in Yemen to include putting boots on the ground, which we'll lose, by the way.
We're not going to win that war.
Or expanding the conflict into Iran, which we'll lose unless we go nuclear.
We're not going to win that one.
The recognition is to tell Netanyahu to back off.
That a ceasefire is the only solution.
And then you instantly solve the Houthi problem.
You de-escalate with Iran.
And we don't have to worry about the United States getting in the middle of Israel's genocidal mania.
Because this is what it is.
Netanyahu is a desperate man.
All of these headlines ignore the fact that he's under tremendous domestic political pressure.
He's being investigated.
He tried for corruption, for violation of state secrets, for other government malfeasance.
And he needs conflict in order to justify his continued hold on power.
So that's what's going on.
We need the Trump administration to finally step up.
You know, if they want to say they support Israel, that's one thing.
But the best way to support Israel right now is to dump Netanyahu.
And we need to tell the Israeli people that he is the problem.
And it's impossible for us to continue to work with Israel as long as he's your prime minister.
He just accused Turkey of refinancing or attempting to refinance a resurgence of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Is he trying to pick a fight with Erdogan?
He may be trying to pick a fight with anybody he can, because that's what makes him relevant.
He knows that Erdogan would have a hard time going in a direct conflict with Israel, given that it's a NATO member and that its economic future is almost entirely reliant upon the United States maintaining certain policies in place, that the United States could collapse the Turkish economy.
And so a direct conflict between Turkey and Israel would not be something that Erdogan is seeking.
So Netanyahu is, of course, going to make big statements in this regard to anything he can do to pump himself up, to be Mr. Relevant in a time of increasing, you know, It's This is a man who...
You know, has no credibility.
He is a genocidal maniac.
The international community recognizes this.
In the United States, we have the United States Congress running cover for Israel's genocidal policies by, I mean, they're even talking about passing a law right now which criminalizes people exercising their First Amendment rights of saying, we don't want to do business with Israel.
Saying this will apparently cost me $300,000 and put me in jail for up to 20 years.
Let's make clear.
I don't want to do business with Israel.
So, hey, Trump, come after me.
Arrest me.
Put me in jail.
Let's take that to the Supreme Court and see how far it goes.
I mean, this administration is destroying its credibility on this altar of Israel.
And Israel's losing all legitimacy because of this maniac they call the Prime Minister.
The legislation that you mentioned was scheduled to be voted upon in the House of Representatives today, and the leadership pulled it because they don't have enough votes for it to pass, and they don't want to be embarrassed.
This is something that lawyers call unconstitutional on its face.
You don't even need any evidence or any oral argument.
What you do is read it, and a law student can tell you it's unconstitutional.
Last question before we get to Ukraine.
Why was Mike Waltz fired?
We don't know.
I mean, the story out of the White House is because, you know, and again, we have to give Trump credit for this.
He's not jumping in with both feet.
Go bomb Iran bandwagon.
He understands the consequences of this, and that consequence is made even more harsh in recent days when the Iranians have deployed a new missile that overcomes all of the defense capabilities that have been put in place by the United States and Israel, guaranteeing the absolute destruction of Israel should there be a general exchange between the two nations.
There's nothing the United States can do to save Israel in that case.
The only way that we can prevent this is by going in with a massive preemptive nuclear strike, which is something Trump doesn't want to do.
And so he is looking for a diplomatic solution.
This is why Steve Witkoff is his lead on this.
And Mike Waltz stabbed him in the back.
I went behind and, according to the news media, started talking with the Israelis, working with Netanyahu on how to get around the people that don't want to go to war, how to squeeze Trump.
And I guess Trump fired him.
Now, the Israelis have denied this.
Benjamin Netanyahu has come out and denied this straight up, said, no, there was no connectivity of this sort.
So I don't know where the truth lies about this one, because both, to be frank, the Trump White House and the Israeli government...
Can't be trusted on anything of this nature.
But Waltz isn't a team player.
I'll tell you who else isn't a team player.
And I'll tell you who's behind all this.
Marco Rubio.
He's positioned himself to be the new Henry Kissinger.
He is now dual-hatted as the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor.
And this is a man who hates Donald Trump.
I want to remind everybody of that fact.
Little Marco hates Donald Trump.
Despises him.
Has no use for this guy.
And he's using Donald Trump to build up his own foreign policy credentials, national security credentials, so he can challenge J.D. Vance in the election in 2028.
And Trump's playing along with his game.
Marco Rubio is a bigger traitor to Donald Trump and Donald Trump's policies than Mike Pompeo was.
It is Marco Rubio that has sunk the Russia policy.
And he's sinking the Iran policy.
He's preventing Trump from achieving the policies.
When I say prevent Trump, it's because Trump is ultimately, at the end of the day, a very weak and insecure man who doesn't have what it takes to stand up, look people in the eye, and say, you're fired.
And that's what he needs to do to Marco Rubio right now.
Fire him.
Terminate his existence.
But he took $100 million from Edelman's widow and, you know...
Gosh, he surrounded himself with the wrong people.
But Donald Trump, this is why he's failing right now, because of Marco Rubio.
And Marco Rubio is behind Mike Waltz being kicked out.
Does Donald Trump understand what's at stake in the special military operation in Ukraine?
No, I don't think Donald Trump can spell Russia, let alone understand the complexities of Russia.
He certainly doesn't understand Ukraine because he's a schizophrenic when it comes to Zelensky.
One minute he rightly calls him out as this irresponsible dictator.
The next minute he speaks about him as if he's the legitimate leader of a viable nation state.
He doesn't know how to deal with NATO or Europe.
He's all over the place, and one of the reasons is because of the conflicting guidance he's getting from his national security team, led by Marco Rubio, who continues to sell Europe as a viable ally.
Europe is not our ally.
Just listen to them.
They're not our ally.
Ukraine is trying to destroy us.
Russia's the only one out there saying, hey, we can work together with you.
Let's move forward on a path that we can both benefit from.
The Trump administration early on recognized that Russia was right across the board.
They said NATO expansion caused this war, and NATO lied to Russia.
They acknowledged this.
They say what the Ukrainians were doing to the Russian people.
It was abysmal that Russia had every right to do what it's doing, that Russia is in the right.
Now, having said that, then to turn around and legitimize the Ukrainian position as if the Nazis that control Kiev are somehow been reborn as responsible individuals, that the Europeans never played a role in trying to facilitate the rise of Banderas ideology, it's a schizophrenic policy that's doomed to fail.
Didn't Trump himself Did he bolster the Ukraine military in his first term in office?
Didn't he cause it to treble in size?
Judge, it's worse than that.
See, Donald Trump runs around and says, oh, this is Joe Biden's war.
It's not Joe Biden's war.
This is Donald Trump's war.
Donald Trump made this war.
Donald Trump designed this war.
It's not just that he sent more military aid.
Understand the underlying policy.
The underlying policy of the United States during the first Trump term is the same policy that is in place today to destroy Russia from within.
Donald Trump has not reversed course on that policy.
20 CIA bases were built in Ukraine during Donald Trump's time.
20 CIA bases.
And these aren't bases there to hold hands and sing kumbaya.
These are people that are carrying out covert operations inside Russia, facilitating deep...
Direct action strikes by the Ukrainians to train people for unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare.
This is what the CIA was doing under Donald Trump for one reason and one reason only.
Because we're building a Ukrainian army in the West, and then there's a slide that was put out by the Department of Defense under Donald Trump that had an arrow that said, so we can take them over here and kill Russians in the East.
That's Donald Trump's policy.
He's a liar when he says this war would have happened.
He planned this.
He wanted this war.
This is Donald Trump's war.
And one of the problems is he can't divorce himself from it because this, at the end of the day, was his policy objectives.
I mean, the man doesn't know how to stand for anything.
He has been led by the nose by people who are smarter on the issues than he is.
Donald Trump is not a smart man.
Donald Trump may have some basic sense when it comes to, I want peace.
But if you want peace, You have to change the foundation.
Peace with Russia means you need to change the basic Russia policy.
Are we seeking to destroy Russia or are we seeking to stabilize relations with Russia?
I need a statement from Donald Trump today that says we are no longer seeking the strategic defeat of Russia.
That we are working with Russia as an equal partner in the world.
That means you want peace.
Anything else means you want more.
And look what he's doing now.
He's giving the Ukrainians more money.
He says for defense.
All it does is prolong the war.
Donald Trump, 5,000 men aren't dying a week, you idiot.
Why don't you talk to people who know?
5,000 Ukrainians are dying a week.
Maybe a couple hundred Russians.
But if you think for a second Russia is being bled to death on the battlefield, you...
Really don't have a functioning brain cell.
And I have to say, I mean, I don't mean to go down this path, but any idiot that puts himself out there as the Pope at a time when the Catholic Church is electing a new Pope, this man doesn't deserve to be President of the United States.
He's an embarrassment to the American people.
Literally, an embarrassment.
I'm tired of this buffoon.
I gave him every chance in the world.
I gave him every chance in the world.
And he humiliates the American people on a daily basis every time he opens his mouth.
Fasten your seatbelt.
I don't know if you saw this clip from the Meet the Press interview.
The takeaway from Meet the Press interview was his one-liner, I don't know if I'm going to enforce the Constitution.
This line, which you'll see in just a moment, is equally as troubling and revealing of profound ignorance.
Chris, cut number one.
Ukraine, there's been discussions they will have to give up some of the land.
Russia will have to give up all of Ukraine.
Because that's what they want.
All of Ukraine?
Meaning they wouldn't keep any of the land that they've claimed?
Russia would have to give up all of Ukraine.
Because what Russia wants is all of Ukraine.
And if I didn't get involved, they would be fighting right now for all of Ukraine.
Russia doesn't want the strip that they have now.
Russia wants all of Ukraine.
And if it weren't me, they would keep going.
I don't even know if Mike Pompeo said that.
The arrogance of this man, if it weren't for me.
First of all, Donald Trump, you are about as significant as my fingernail right here.
You're a nobody.
You may be the President of the United States, but the world is functioning without you.
You had a possibility to be an American leader, to make our country relevant.
When you say stupidity like that, it shows your ignorance.
Do you think the Kremlin, for a moment, is listening to that going, oh my God, he's on to us?
You know, it means that you are ignorant.
It means the people advising you are ignorant.
Russia doesn't want all of Ukraine.
There is zero evidence to support that stupidity.
Russia wants Ukraine to stop being seen itself as a base for NATO to carry out America's strategic objective, which you signed off on, and they're still signing off on, to destroy Russia, the strategic defeat of Russia.
That's your policy, Trump.
I dare you!
Back away from it.
You can't because you won't.
Hey, maybe you don't even know it because you're too stupid to live.
Russia doesn't want...
Anything but peace.
But the peace has to be so that the people who fought on side-by-side with Nazi Germany were coming up to the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
And the United States taxpayer is supporting the Nazis in Ukraine who are fighting the Russians who are our allies.
That's what's going on here.
Donald Trump is too stupid to live.
I want him to succeed.
I really do.
I want every president to succeed.
But this is a man, and you just said it.
I don't know if I will support the Constitution.
Then get the hell out of the office!
Because you took an oath to defend that Constitution.
And now you're saying it's too complicated for you?
It's too hard?
It's too expensive?
Get the hell out!
America is about the Constitution.
It's the only thing we're about.
We are defined by that document.
And when you deviate from that document, you say you are un-American.
And I hear in telling you, Donald Trump, you're the most un-American son of a bitch that's ever sat in the White House.
And that says a lot because I wasn't a big fan of Joe Biden either.
What does a statement like he just made to Kristen Welker, the woman from NBC that was interviewing him, do to the efforts to negotiate a resolution to the special military operation?
What does the Kremlin think when they hear him say something like that?
The Kremlin doesn't care.
See, I mean, again, Donald Trump, hire some people that actually watch what the Russian president says and what he does.
The Russian president has recently said about leading up to 2022, he said, we didn't want to fight with the West.
We were, all of this took us by surprise.
You know, when they started sanctioning us, we weren't ready for that.
You know, but when the special military operations started, we weren't ready for that either.
We didn't want to go down this path.
But when you doubled down, when the West doubled down, when the West made it existential, we started doing the things we had to do to get where we're at today.
Today, Russia doesn't need the United States at all.
That's the statement.
Right there.
They pulled Anatoly Antonov out of the United States and left the embassy vacant because America just doesn't matter, doesn't resonate.
Russia doesn't care.
They'd like to be friends.
The world would be a better place if they were friends.
They brought in a new ambassador now.
How is he supposed to sit down with this lunatic and with the people that represent him?
Sit down with Marco Rubio to what?
Better relations?
Better relations with a man who doesn't even know the Constitution he's supposed to uphold and defend?
A man who doesn't understand the consequences of his words?
I mean, the Russians are going to do what the Russians have to do to bring this war to a conclusion on terms acceptable to Russia.
I thought...
Trump was smart enough to know that.
He sent a man, Steve Witkoff, to sit down with the Russians, and Witkoff came back and reported exactly that.
And I was optimistic early on that it would sink into Donald Trump's dense little orange face head.
But it didn't.
This is a narcissist.
He can't handle the fact that Putin is going to win the war.
And Donald Trump isn't going to get credit that when this war ends, it's going to be Putin's victory.
This man is so jealous of what's going to happen on May 9th.
He can't stand the fact that Vladimir Putin is going to sit there and have a victorious army march by celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Trump could have been standing side by side with him, but he can't stand the fact that Xi Jinping is going to be there, that Chinese leader is going to be there, that the world is going to be there, Modi is going to be there, everybody is going to be there but him.
Because Donald Trump doesn't matter.
Not to Russia.
Not to China.
And that's the reality.
And he can't stand this.
This is a narcissist that we elected.
But he could have gone.
And then he could have stayed for a week.
And he could have cut a grand reset with Modi, with Xi, and with Putin.
That's what you and I and everybody on this show has urged him to do.
And I guess Rubio said don't.
Yeah, well, Rubio is the most un-American Secretary of State you can imagine because Marco Rubio cares about Israel and he cares about the neocons.
Those are the two forces that have combined to destroy this country.
You know, they're going to get us involved in wars.
Donald Trump at least said the right thing is running for action and he doesn't want wars.
Well, how are you going to get out of the Middle East, Donald Trump?
How are you going to do that, pal?
You've bought yourself into a corner now, and your strength, your peace through strength, stupidity, has the Harry S. Truman making emergency maneuvers, dumping F-18s overboard because the Hooties are zeroing in on the carriers.
All the air defense additions that you put in there, jamming, thinking you had the Iranian missile singled out.
The Hootie just sent a missile into Ben-Gurion, penetrating everything, saying, we can do this at will.
There ain't a...
You have no...
Options left except to humiliation retreat or double down on stupid and go to war that you're going to lose unless you go nuclear.
That's the Middle East.
Now Ukraine?
Buckle in, pal.
You're in for another two years of bloodshed, and it's going to be a decisive Russian victory unless you double down on stupid and say, hey, Europe, let's fight the Russians.
We have to do something about the Russians.
And then what?
We go back to having a nuclear war?
Donald Trump could have won the Nobel Peace Prize.
There could have been a signing ceremony on May 10th in Moscow where Donald Trump ended the conflict in Ukraine and started working side by side with the Russians to end the conflict in the Middle East and create peace and prosperity everywhere.
Then he wouldn't have to commit suicide economically with this stupidity of tariffs.
Donald Trump could have been the leader America needs.
Instead, he's just a narcissistic...
Idiot who sits there and puts out pictures of him as Pope, says he doesn't respect the Constitution, and he doesn't know a damn thing about Russia.
Where do we go from here?
No, I'm nervous now.
I mean, I'm angry, first of all.
I think you picked up on that.
Yes, I picked up on that.
By the way, you are supremely articulate when you're angry.
I almost went Marine Corps on you and I had like, no, not live on the judge.
Can't do that.
But no, I mean, now I'm nervous because, you know, the American leadership is absolutely essential for the world to function properly.
When you lack leadership, then America reverts to its bad ways.
And look, people, I know, look, I love my country, but we're the people that invaded and occupied Iraq in violation of international law.
So if you don't think we're the dumbest, cruelest, most, you know, warmongering nation on the planet, you don't know us very well.
And leaving America to fall back on its natural tendencies, these are tendencies that Marco Rubio and the neocons...
Continue to embrace means we will have a war in the Middle East that can only end one way.
With the destruction of Israel, tens of thousands of American lives lost, and then America nuking Iran.
Nobody wants that, but that's the direction we're heading.
And the situation with Russia and Ukraine, this could have been nipped in the bud.
We could be signing peace, have peace break out all over.
Instead, Marco Rubio...
It's encouraging NATO now to make itself relevant again.
And Trump, because he's a narcissist, this idiot, has to be part of this relevancy as they seek to reverse tide in Ukraine.
Because Donald Trump says, I'm not going to let Russia do anything.
Well, you don't have the ability to stop Russia.
Donald Trump, are you going to send American intermediate-range missiles back into Europe in 2026?
Donald Trump, are you going to extend the New START Treaty, or is it going to expire in February 2026, and now we have an arms race because you're too stupid to have nipped it in the bud, and now what?
You're going to spend $3 trillion for America to build new generations of strategic nuclear weapons that will never match the capability of the Russians, but because they increased the numbers and size and scope, and you put intermediate-range missiles in Europe, we now have the...
The possibility of an inadvertent exchange leading to a general nuclear exchange, and we're all dead because of you, Donald Trump.
You, and only you.
You're the man that's causing all of this because you are too stupid to occupy this space, and you don't have the courage to fire Marco Rubio.
You got rid of Mike Waltz, but there's others you have to knock on.
Where is Hegseth in all this?
Is Hegseth an enabler to him as well?
Hegseth, again, I don't mean to pick on this guy too much, but he, at best, was a battalion commander.
He's lost.
This is a man who is totally out of his depth here.
He's a little yes boy.
He's the little puppy dog that wants to sit next to Donald Trump and get his head scratched.
So Hegseth will do what Trump tells him to do.
Now, that means if Trump's telling him, don't go to war with Iran, Hegseth won't go to war with Iran.
But then when Marco Rubio whispers into Trump's ear and Trump turns to Hegseth and says, maybe we've got to go to war with Iran, Hegseth's not going to sit there and go, but boss, you told me not to go.
Maybe this isn't a good idea.
He's going, oh, yes, boss, yes, boss.
I'll do whatever you want, boss.
Hegseth is the wrong man for the job.
We needed an adult and we got a prepubescent teenager.
All right.
I'll let you come up for air.
Thank you, Scott.
This was a remarkable conversation.
A remarkable conversation.
You know I'm one of your biggest fans, and I can't say enough about your intellectual honesty and personal courage.
All I can say is, there goes my passport.
And eloquence.
Any thought of getting Marco Rubio to turn my passport over to me is now gone, but I don't care.
This administration has failed across the board.
Failed.
It's our job as citizens to call it out.
It is.
Thank you, Scott.
God love you.
All the best.
We'll see you again soon.
Thanks.
Sure.
That was a brilliant man on fire.
Tomorrow, Ambassador Charles Freeman at 8 in the morning, Colonel Douglas McGregor at 2 in the afternoon.
Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski at 3 in the afternoon.
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