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May 26, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
31:33
Scott Ritter : Putin Attacks, Trump Insults.
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Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Tuesday, May 27th, 2025.
Scott Ritter will be here with us in just a moment on President Putin attacking and President Trump insulting.
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Scott Ritter, thank you and welcome here, my friend.
Why is Donald Trump threatening Vladimir Putin?
I mean, if you could ascertain what's going on between the left and right ear of Donald Trump and how whatever passes for a brain works, especially when it comes to Russia, you deserve some sort of Nobel Prize.
He makes no sense.
I mean, it's very difficult.
Normally, when you're asked to do an analysis of somebody, you look at patterns over time, you look at continuity of argument, you look at the sources that they rely upon, and then you can maybe reverse engineer thought patterns.
Where priorities are, etc.
With Trump, it seems to be a knee-jerk reaction every time he opens his mouth.
And it's based upon ignorance.
We saw this in the same interview where he calls out Vladimir Putin for striking Ukraine and calling Putin crazy for sending missiles in.
In the follow-on question, where he was informed that the Ukrainians tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin using a drone strike that had to have been facilitated with Western intelligence, more than likely some American intelligence.
He said, I didn't know this.
Now, this is problematic in the extreme on a number of levels, because if American intelligence or the intelligence of our allies was being used to facilitate a Ukrainian assassination against the commander in chief of a nuclear armed power, whom, if he died, would use these nuclear weapons preemptively under the assumption that this attack was being, you know,
It's insanity that he didn't know about this.
So who's briefing him?
Is he accepting the briefings?
Why does he not understand also that in the same context of the Russian strikes, we have to talk about over 2,500 Ukrainian drone strikes hitting Russia during this period of time, half of which hit purely civilian targets.
You know, the Russians have exclusively hit military targets.
It's easily demonstrable.
Any civilian destruction taking place is done by Ukrainian air defense, which if you study the issue as I have, you understand that They don't employ air defense the way it's supposed to be, radar guided, etc., because the Russians would then destroy their radar sites.
And so there's a lot of, you know, artificial queuing, launching missiles without any guidance and then trying to redirect at the end.
And they lose control of these missiles and they end up hitting civilian targets, civilian houses.
Almost exclusively the damage done to Ukrainian civilian targets is done by Ukrainian service-to-air missiles that have gone off track.
But the Russians are simply retaliating for the Ukrainian actions.
And why Trump doesn't understand it, why he doesn't understand that his words are destabilizing.
I mean, some people have said that he is reconsidering, you know, The lifting of restrictions on range limitations.
Does he not know what he knew when he made a statement that rejected the Biden era lifting of this, where he said this could lead to World War III?
I'm sure he was briefed on because at that time he showed that he understood what the Russian nuclear doctrine was, that if...
This constitutes a strategic attack that must be interpreted as an attack on Russia's nuclear command and control, and therefore Russia has every right to respond using nuclear weapons.
Retaliate preemptively using nuclear weapons.
Trump understood this in December when he spoke out against his policy.
Now he's just arbitrarily because he's ignorantly saying, I disagree with Putin.
Putin's crazy.
Therefore, I'm going to talk about lifting restrictions.
He's taking us right back to the scenario that exists in the fall of 2024 where we were on the path of a nuclear war with Russia.
This is a very dangerous man right now, Donald Trump.
Here's the interview.
It's not very long.
At the Morristown airport as he was about to fly from New Jersey back to the White House on Sunday.
Chris, cut number three.
Yeah, I'll give you an update.
I'm not happy with what Putin's doing.
He's killing a lot of people.
And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin.
I've known him a long time.
Always gotten along with him.
But he's sending rockets into cities and killing people.
And I don't like it at all.
Okay?
We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kiev and other cities.
I don't like it at all.
President, what do you want to do about that?
I'm surprised.
I'm very surprised.
We'll see what we're going to do.
What am I going to tell you?
You're the fake news, aren't you?
You're totally fake.
Any other questions?
I don't like what Putin is doing, not even a little bit.
He's killing people.
And something happened to this guy, and I don't like it.
Can I follow up on that?
A Russian commander reportedly said that Putin was almost caught in the middle of a drone attack from Ukraine.
I haven't heard that, but maybe that would be a reason.
I don't know, but I have not heard that.
It's really inconceivable that he didn't hear about it.
It's not.
I mean, look.
What's inconceivable is it wasn't briefed about it.
I mean, I would imagine that when there was an attempt on President Trump or candidate Trump's life, that the Kremlin was briefed on this immediately because this has tremendous potential impact.
It's something that the commander in chief of a nuclear armed nation that is in a confrontational stance against the United States needs to know.
And now that, you know.
An attempt on Putin's life is something that Trump has to know about because the ramifications of a successful attack against Putin are enormous.
But this is a man who has allowed his ego.
I mean, I'm not happy about it.
What aren't you happy about, Mr. President?
You can't even articulate why.
He's killing people.
The number of Ukrainians killed by Russian strikes are minimal.
The number of Ukrainians killed because of Ukrainian air defense is where most of the casualties come from.
But you'd know that if you were well briefed, Mr. President.
Who's briefing the president?
And again, it comes down to something I've said before.
the president seems to be a prisoner of the last person to whisper sweet nothings in his ear before he goes to bed at night, or the first person to whisper in his ear when he wakes up in the morning.
And unfortunately, with Steve Whitcoff out, you know, trying to resolve the, you know, Hamas ceasefire issues or negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran.
The person that's whispering in his ear is he, either going to be Keith Kellogg or Marco Rubio.
And this is not a good thing because the prejudices that are contained in Trump's initial response are the prejudices that are found in the advice that is being publicly promulgated by both Kellogg and Rubio.
How do you think the Kremlin reacts to absurd statements like the one we just watched and a full screen, which I can put up in a moment, in which he calls President Putin crazy, C-R-A-Z-Y in caps?
How does the Kremlin react to that?
Is it, oh, there he is again, or this guy's dangerous, or we can't trust a word out of his mouth?
Well, I mean, I think the Kremlin is demonstrating how they react.
They are staying the course.
There's no deviation.
I'll give you an example.
Trump, in one of his earlier posts, said, you've got to fire Medensky.
He's not useful.
And Lavrov came out and said, Medensky was appointed by the president of Ukraine, or president of Russia, and only the president of Russia gets to make this decision.
No one else.
And the president's happy with Medensky.
So yeah, no, he's staying on.
The Russians don't care what Trump says.
They're going to continue to leave the door open for dialogue.
They say it's good that we're talking, but they are dismissive of what Trump says.
They don't care.
It doesn't register.
You think tonight there's not going to be another massive barrage of Russian missiles and drones against Ukraine?
Of course there is.
This is a sustained air campaign designed to achieve a specific result.
And if you listen to what the Russians have also said, when Mertz of Germany talked about, you know, lifting all restrictions on German weapons, implying that Taurus missiles may have been sent to Ukraine, the response from the Russians are is that we have lifted all restrictions on striking targets in Germany.
And I just want to remind people that when Mertz first suggested about before he became chancellor that he was going to send Taurus missiles, Pistorius, who was the defense minister in the previous election, Pistorius said, there's a reason why we didn't send Taurus missiles.
I'm not going to talk to you about that reason, but there's a reason why we did it and there's a reason why we won't send it.
And the reason is the Russians let the Germans know in uncertain terms that if Taurus missiles are fired against Russian strategic targets, that German targets will be hit by a Russian or Russian missiles.
And the Germans know this.
And so the Russians basically The deputy chancellors come out and say, that's not what we're doing at all.
And even Mertz had to come out and say, I'm not talking about today.
I'm talking about Biden's previous discussion.
But no, we're not doing that.
The Russians aren't going to bend to anybody, let alone Donald Trump.
Again, remind people, Trump has not reversed.
The policies of the Biden administration and his policies beforehand when he was first president and the policies of Obama prior to that.
The strategic defeat of Russia, seeking to bring down Russia from within by creating economic stresses, social stresses, political stresses, military stresses.
It's been the policy of the United States for many decades now.
Trump hasn't reversed that policy, so that still is the policy of the United States.
Ask Donald Trump what he's done to stand down the CIA in their ongoing efforts to empower the Ukrainians and empower The idea that Donald Trump has some sort of magic solution.
No, the Russians, the only solution to the Ukraine problem is the strategic defeat of Ukraine.
And one last thing, Madensky said something that was very telling.
Speaking to Yermak, who is, you know, I believe the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Yermak said to him, you know, you Russians are lucky.
You only have one boss, meaning Vladimir Putin.
He said, we have three bosses.
Now, this is, you know, a senior advisor to the president of Ukraine acknowledging that Ukraine is not a sovereign state, that Ukraine doesn't call the shots, that the shots are being called by others.
Three bosses.
One of those bosses is the United States of America.
Which means that Donald Trump is disingenuous in the extreme when he's talking about we want this, we want that, we want peace, we want a discussion.
The United States has a vested interest, and that vested interest is directing Ukraine to do certain things to put pressure on Russia, and the Russians know this as well.
Here's the full screen, which is the truth social that Trump posted.
This is eight hours after the interview at Marstown Airport in which he said he didn't know that Here's what he says.
I have always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him.
He has gone absolutely crazy in caps.
He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I'm not just talking about soldiers.
Missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine for no reason whatsoever.
I've always said he wants all in caps of Ukraine, not just a piece of it.
And maybe that's proving to be right.
But if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia.
Likewise, President Zelensky is doing his country no favors by talking the way he does.
Everything out of his mouth causes problems.
I don't like it, and it better stop.
This is a war that would never have started if I were president.
Zelensky's, Putin's, and Biden's war, not Trump's.
I'm only helping to put out the big and ugly fires that have been started through gross incompetence and hatred.
What does he really think he's accomplishing by saying this?
Particularly the first part, calling the Vladimir Putin of Russia, as if there's another Vladimir Putin, calling him crazy, accusing him of attacking civilians, forgetting that he himself attacked civilians last month in Yemen.
No, I mean, again, either Trump is just fundamentally stupid, Or he is a habitual liar.
Because Donald Trump knows the following.
In 2017, when he became president, he signed off on programs that had the United States military working with NATO to arm, train, and equip Ukrainian military forces for the sole purpose of preparing to fight a war against Russia.
He knew this.
In 2019, Zelensky, the president whom he was in communication with, was saying that I am going to go to war in the Donbass, to liberate the Donbass.
War is my policy.
And the president of the United States did nothing to dissuade him.
Why?
Because under Donald Trump, the CIA built 20 bases inside Ukraine for the purpose of facilitating covert operations against the Russians.
Under Donald Trump, This happened.
So the idea that this isn't Donald Trump's war is an absolute lie.
Donald Trump is one of the people that actually advanced the policy objectives to use Ukraine as a proxy against Russia to weaken Vladimir Putin's government and to bring it down.
Biden just happened to be the president when this plan came into fruition, but it was Donald Trump's plan.
Donald Trump made this happen.
He knows this, so he's a liar.
He's a liar.
And to sit there and pretend that his hands are somehow clean, Donald Trump knows that the drone attacks against Russia are facilitated by American intelligence, that the United States aided the Ukrainians in the development of this counter drone campaign, both in terms of the design of the drones.
They use radar absorbent materials, wood, composites, the speed of the drones so that their low radar signature combined with their speed mimics the radar signature of a flock of birds as opposed to a drone, making it more difficult for the Russians to ascertain is it a threat or not.
And then splitting the seams of the Russian air defense, knowing how the Russians update their air defense, where their radars are, and finding the seams so that the drones split these seams, both in terms of direction but also height.
All of this translates into a very sophisticated drone campaign against Russia that could not happen without the United States involvement.
Now, either Trump knows about this as his line or he doesn't know about it, which means he's...
But either way, this is conduct unbecoming the commander-in-chief.
Now, fortunately, we have Vladimir Putin who doesn't care at all what Donald Trump says.
I mean, he'll pay attention to it, but it's not going to influence at all the policies of Russia.
And he thinks he's going to bring down Russia.
Hey, newsflash, Mr. President.
The Swedish king fought that back before the Battle of Pulteva.
Gosh, who else?
Napoleon.
He invaded, thought that.
Didn't work out.
Hitler thought that.
That didn't work out.
You want to bring down Russia?
It doesn't work out too well for the people that embrace that thing, that policy direction.
I mean, this president needs to learn history, and he needs better people briefing him.
Come on, Tulsi, do a better job.
Well, Tulsi, over the weekend, you're speaking of Tulsi Gabbard, who was the director of national intelligence.
Whose track record as a member of the House of Representatives was extremely laudable and a lot of our hearts swelled when she was nominated.
What'd she do over the weekend?
She announced a central location for all surveillance entities in the federal government.
There are 17 or 18 of them to download warrantless surveillance.
She is making it easier for American spies to spy on us the same mentality that spied on Mr. Donald Trump in 2015, candidate Donald Trump in 2016, and President Donald Trump in 2017.
And citizen Scott Ritter throughout that entire period.
Well, that we know also.
I forgot about that.
Forgive me.
Yeah, Tulsi will someday hopefully be called before an appropriate congressional body and asked to explain this.
You know, we know that when she was, before she was being considered for director of national intelligence, she articulated, I guess, against, you know, the 702.
Surveillance programs, calling them unconstitutional.
And then when she met with various members of Congress in order to get their support, she reversed track and basically said that this continued warrantless surveillance of Americans was needed and she wouldn't oppose it.
She wouldn't seek to reverse it.
And apparently she's acting on that, seeking to consolidate and expand and streamline the ability of the United States government to carry out warrantless surveillance of American citizens, which is unconstitutional in the extreme.
Switching gears before we finish.
Netanyahu continues his murders and death by starvation.
What's to stop him?
Not Trump.
Trump could stop him if he wanted to, but he won't.
I'll just say this.
I would ask everybody who hasn't seen it to find the video of the little girl in the burning building running.
I was a firefighter for over a decade.
I understand what radiant heat is and how hot it is and the suffering she must have.
Now, she was saved.
She's alive today.
Her father was badly injured and the rest of her family, her mother and numerous siblings were burned to death.
But look at that video, and if you can't produce How would you feel standing out seeing that, the horror that you would feel?
This is a daily occurrence for the people of Gaza.
On a daily basis, the genocidal maniacs that run Israel unleash a military that's armed, equipped, and in some cases directed by intelligence provided by the United States against the civilian population of Gaza.
This is genocide in the extreme.
It's a policy designed to collectively punish the people for the fact that the Israeli military is incapable of militarily defeating Hamas.
And it's a policy that...
We instead are enacting laws and procedures domestically to punish people who dare speak out against this.
Who knows?
Maybe I'll get another knock at the door from my good friends in the Albany field office of the FBI because I dare question the legality and the morality of politics.
Literally abetting genocide.
And we're all guilty of it if we're not all standing up and condemning this.
For all Americans who remain silent, your silence empowers Trump.
You know, it's just the reality of this.
So what can be done?
Look, ultimately, Judge, what's going to have to happen is that the Israelis will defeat themselves.
Look, today the world is waking up to the fact that Israel is a genocidal state, that its continued existence along the lines that it currently operates is incompatible with basic humanity.
And the world is starting to come together and say, you know, we need to stop supporting Israel.
We need to block this.
And in the United States, more and more voices are being raised.
People are recognizing the horrible reality of a The pro-Israeli crowd will become more and more isolated, and Israel will eventually collapse on the weight of its own crimes.
We have an Israel that is economically damaged, I believe fatally so.
I don't think Israel is going to be able to recover from the damage that has been done.
And as Israel collapses economically, the sustainability of life in Israel becomes difficult.
If Hezbollah continues to fire missiles into Israel, the quality of life diminishes.
You know, people fleeing Israel.
And that's the end of the Zionist enterprise.
When people start to say that Israel is not a place that is capable of sustaining meaningful life, that this isn't a place for families to be raised, and they start looking elsewhere in the world, that means that the underlying argument of the need of a Jewish homeland has been eliminated.
And I think that will be the end of Israel.
But unfortunately, this could take months, if not years.
But nobody right now seems to have the courage, especially in the United States, to stand up and say, stop, shout, stop, scream, stop at the top of our lungs about the crimes being committed by the Israeli government.
And all of this has been brought about effectively, essentially, by one man, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Well, yes and no.
I mean, Max Blumenthal recently, who I respect tremendously, he talks about polls that were taking place.
According to the polls, the overwhelming number of Israelis support the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu when it comes to the Palestinians.
They approve of the murderous policies.
They have no sympathy for the Palestinian people.
They invoke Amalek.
They view them as subhumans.
They view the civilians as an extension of Hamas and therefore legitimate targets.
So even if you removed Benjamin Netanyahu, the underlying sentiment in Israel could very well produce, you know, Netanyahu 2.0, somebody who may be better equipped to tell lies to the world about, you know, But at the end of the day, the policies remain the same.
Israel will not support, as it currently exists, the concept of a Palestinian state.
And Israel now believes that the issue of Gaza should be resolved by the forcible eviction of the Gazan population.
That's not Netanyahu.
That's Israel.
Here's Netanyahu.
Last week, you and I would stand on a street corner.
And also use the megaphone of this and other shows and say, free Palestine.
Here's what Netanyahu says about that phrase.
Cut number one.
Free Palestine.
This is exactly the same chant we heard on October 7th.
On that day, thousands of terrorists stormed into Israel from Gaza.
They beheaded men.
They raped women.
They burned babies alive.
Free Palestine.
is just today's version of Heil Hitler.
They don't want a Palestinian state.
They want to destroy the Jewish state.
I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.
They're now proposing to establish a Palestinian state and reward these murders with the ultimate prize.
You won't be surprised to learn That Hamas thanked President Macron and Prime Minister Starmer and Carney for demanding that Israel end its war in Gaza immediately.
Now these leaders may think that they're advancing peace.
They're not.
So don't give us this talk.
It'll be a peaceful Palestinian state.
It won't be.
Free Palestine, free Palestine, free Palestine.
And if you want to say that I'm saying Sigh Heil...
Free Palestine is the most honorable expression of humanity that exists in the world today.
It does not mean that you tolerate terrorism.
It does not mean that you are a proponent of violence.
What it means is that the Palestinian people have an inherent right to enjoy the dignity and freedom and sovereignty as every other human being on this planet.
Free of the occupation of Israel.
Free of the genocide of Israel.
Free from seeing their children burned to death in front of them.
That is what Free Palestine stands for, and I will shout it out as loud as I can, whenever I can, forever, until there is a Free Palestine.
But I won't tolerate Benjamin Netanyahu.
You know, he embarrassed every Jew in the world when he said that.
This man disgraced the Holocaust, disgraced the memory, but he's done it forever.
You know, the Holocaust has become an industry for Israel, not a cause, not something to be mourned, but it is a...
It's a marketing strategy used by the practitioners of genocide to promote their own genocide by creating an artificial shield saying, look, that's what real genocide looks like.
We know what real genocide looks like.
And we know that the policies of Israel, unlike the chanting of free Palestine, are more closely aligned to the The only person that invokes Adolf Hitler today when they stand and speak about Palestine is Benjamin Netanyahu himself.
He is the living expression of everything that was evil about Adolf Hitler.
Free Palestine.
Before we leave, Chris has been running a poll throughout the show.
Is Trump fundamentally stupid or is he a liar?
So here are the results.
42% liar.
40% fundamentally stupid.
17% crazy like a fox.
Well, you know, look, you're always judged by the final product.
And if Trump can pull this off, I'll be the first one to say, God, I got it wrong.
He was crazy like a fox.
But I don't see that.
When I listen to his words, I listen to the way he enunciates words, I listen to the egotistical manner in which he approaches everything, as if Putin is insulting him, that Putin woke up in the morning and said, I'm going to insult Donald Trump.
Putin could care less about Donald Trump.
Putin cares about Russia, the Russian people.
And it's high time that Donald Trump woke up in the morning and said, I care about America and the American people.
If Trump cared about America and the American people half as much as Putin cares about Russia and the Russian people, I think we'd have a hell of a lot better situation today than the one we currently confront.
Scott Ritter, thank you very much, as always, for your intellect and for your personal courage.
All the best, my friend.
We'll see you again next week.
Unless the FBI comes a-knocking, but thanks.
If they do, call me.
I'll get that one phone call.
Thanks, man.
Wow.
What a great human being.
What a staunch defender of peace and personal liberty.
And I'm deeply grateful that he is my friend.
Coming up tomorrow, Wednesday.
I know if you're in America, today seems like Monday, but today is Tuesday.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8 o 'clock, Ambassador Charles Freeman.
At 11 in the morning, Colonel Douglas McGregor.
At 3 in the afternoon, Phil Giraldi.
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