What does Trump’s leaked audio REALLY reveal? We cover Hunter Biden’s text leveraging his Dad in a China business deal. Plus, Elon Musk commits to EU Censorship law for Twitter. Our guest is the man the Ukrainian Security Service want the FBI to blacklist, Aaron Maté.For a bit more from us join our Stay Free Community here: https://russellbrand.locals.com/Come to my festival COMMUNITY - https://www.russellbrand.com/community-2023/NEW MERCH! https://stuff.russellbrand.com/
Thanks for joining us live on Rumble for our show.
Stay free with Russell Brand.
I'm here with Gareth Roy.
We're going to go through the news stories of the day.
Trump's leaked audio.
Are his admissions incriminating?
It does sound incriminating, like this noise of someone literally going through a box, like, oh, here, look at this secret.
But I suppose this is the question we want to ask you.
And do let us know in the comments, in the chat, what you think.
Don't you sort of feel already that all politicians and particularly heads of state have access to highly sensitive material which they communicate about in private circles?
It's not really the worst thing you can imagine someone in power doing and isn't it more significant that the confidential and classified information pertains to a potential war with Iran?
Isn't that the real story rather than that Trump is rifling through them boxes Having a diet coke, not diet coke, full fat coke for Trump.
It's funny, isn't it?
Because basically this is about Trump, admittedly, you know, I guess you could say, illegally showing someone a classified document.
But basically what he's saying is, you see, I told you I didn't want a war with Iran.
And then the mainstream media going, ha ha, we've got you!
Like, the war with Iran is surely the important thing.
I don't know, what has more impact on you?
Is it that powerful people have access to classified documents that they maybe sometimes do not stay within the letter of the law around?
Or is it that there's this ongoing forever war perennial Armageddon plan that's amping up to wage war on Iran?
The next closing in on Hunter Biden, by all accounts, is getting harder and harder to believe that Joe Biden didn't know anything about... Allegedly!
About his business dealings.
Also, what I think is really funny, and let me know what you think about this, if you're watching this on Rumble, join us in the chat on local.
Some of you saying, what's happened to Jack Dorsey?
We're just delaying, we're doing Jack Dorsey on Monday, because we've decided on Friday, we are going to bring you exclusively, and just, I'm going to take my top off for this, RFK style.
I'm taking my top off, because what we are going to bring you is me, Schellenberger, and Taibi, We're gonna be bringing down the censorship industrial complex on Friday and on Monday and we'll actually, I think we're doing Jack Dorsey maybe on a Tuesday.
I hope they're keeping their tops on.
Who?
Will they be willing to take off their tops?
They're willing to blow the lid on a whole lot of secrets, but these little guys, they want censored forever.
They look like a shirtless Putin, it's been claimed over there.
So hey, you guys, join us, press the red button, join us on Locals for this chat.
Once we go exclusively onto Rumble, once we leave YouTube, we're going to be talking about RFK's now famous vaccine argument with Bill Maher.
I've been on that Bill Maher show.
I've been in that.
You won't even look at me, will you?
You won't even look at the little jelly tot.
One little bit of jelly tot and you go all crazy, don't you?
So yeah, let's have a look at RFK and Hotez.
Once we leave YouTube, we're going to be talking about RFK, who you know, Rumble is the only platform RFK trusts.
We're going to be talking a little bit about his appearance on Bill Maher and the way that he will become mired in anti-vax rhetoric.
The conversation between him and Dr. Peter Hotez goes on.
Hotez says that Kennedy looks like a shirtless Putin.
But I think he was just doing some push-ups and stuff, wasn't he?
He's a lovely fella.
That is essentially a dig about RFK's conspiracy theory about the war between Russia and Ukraine.
That's what that is a reference to.
Is RFK wanting an end to forever wars?
I'm going to text RFK right now.
You have it when I do this.
I'm doing topless texting now.
Wow, it's a new low.
I'm going to text him and say, do you want to spot me?
RFK, do you want to spot me?
No, look, I think it's unfair to say you look like a Shirtless Putin.
You're better than Shirtless Putin.
RFK!
Hey, baby, it's me, RB.
We are longing, now that you are a Rumble fellow, and I should let you know that we're broadcasting this live, just my half of the conversation.
I've seen you with your top off.
I've got my top off now.
I want us to work out together in a kind of Zuckerberg-Musk style showdown, but collaboratively.
Rather than in a combative form.
We support you.
We love you.
We're glad you've joined us on Rumble.
Stay free.
Speak to you soon.
RFK that's sent hang on well hang on collaboratively collaboratively so what
just two men hugging each other with a top pumping iron just a couple of guys
together okay That still doesn't seem collaborative.
Collaborative is an interesting word that you just used for RFK there.
Are you committed to text?
Join us on Locals if you're watching this on Rumble.
If you're watching this on YouTube we're going to flip over to being exclusively on Rumble when we cover the story about Bill, Ma and RFK.
We've got Aaron Maté coming up talking about Ukraine pressuring the FBI to blacklist him and obviously we'll cover what remains of this coup story and how the coup has been used by the mainstream media and how extensive the mainstream media's involvement goes.
But let's have a listen first of all to Trump's transgressions.
It's really actually quite lovely.
Have you heard this on the mainstream media yet?
It's like... It couldn't sound more like someone going through secret documents.
I mean, I shouldn't be doing this.
Have you looked in there?
Look at that.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
Have a listen.
Well, with Millie... Let me see that.
I'll show you an example.
He said that I wanted to attack Iran.
Isn't it amazing?
I have a big pile of papers.
This thing just came out.
Look.
This was him.
They presented me this.
This is off the record, but...
This is off the record.
That's the way covers go for his sense of material.
But again, that's the sort of thing we anticipate Trump doing, and we expect that all leaders everywhere do.
And when Trump does it, you just feel, well, this isn't an anomaly.
This is in line with Trump behavior.
And isn't it more important that he's talking about plans for a war with Iran, which they claimed, oh, it was him that came up with it.
If this is what he gets sent down for, that would be mad, wouldn't it?
Wouldn't it for revealing that he was being pressured into going to war with Iran?
How dare you!
How dare you reveal that we planned a war with Iran!
It's like Julian Assange still in Belmarsh prison for revealing the war crimes of the Iraq war period.
Like, what's more significant?
The person revealing the information or the information itself?
Our Lord.
They presented me this.
This was him.
This was the defense department and him.
This totally wins my case, you know.
Except it is like highly confidential.
Some people in the chat know Daganoku.
I'm sickened by this information.
I don't know if the information is... Ah, could be.
We're like, our point, or the actual... Ah, could be that.
This is secret information.
See, as president I could have been less, but now I can't, you know, but this is less.
Someone says, Russell, if you have to put a shirt on for today's show, please don't put that same shirt back on.
I like this shirt.
I know, I like the shirt.
It's a nice little shirt.
People are tipping me on locals like I'm a little lap dancer.
Thanks, guys.
Appreciate it.
That's the money makers.
Pop them back away for a little while.
Keep the lights on for a few more weeks.
That's us.
Keep us going.
Keep us rocking along.
So there you go.
We're going to be looking at this obviously in more depth over the coming weeks, but the central point is this.
I believe that the mainstream media and the neoliberal Democrat party establishment are attacking Donald Trump on the wrong front.
No one that loves Trump thinks it's particularly offensive that he's going through those classified documents.
More important than that is the fact that these documents appear to reveal a plan to go to war Stay free with Russell Brand.
where we talk about how there are already plans to amplify tensions between Israel and
Iran, existing tensions. So it seems to me to be that we are focusing on the wrong details
when it comes to this story. But let us know in the chat and the comments what you reckon,
guys. Let us know.
Stay free with Russell Brand. See it first on Rumble.
SMP2K. I'm Russell Brand.
I assume this segment is pre-recorded so Rusty can read chat.
Or did I miss him changing his shirt?
We'd re-record it and make it better, don't we really?
Everything wrong with Putin is wrong with every politician.
Yeah, yeah.
Gonna eat lunch, says Jack Swiss.
Too much anger churned and triggered for me and others.
Blessings to the community.
There you go.
Do you know what?
We're gonna raise the quality of this show exponentially in a moment because we've got a fantastic, bold and brave Another journalist that I rank alongside them is our guest on the show now.
of appearing with Michael Schellenberger and Matt Taibbi in a live event to bring attention
to and make a movement to oppose the censorship industrial complex.
Another journalist that I rank alongside them is our guest on the show now.
In the old days, Aaron Maté would have been played by Dustin Hoffman in a hagiography,
in a film that focused on the integrity and bravery of journalists.
He's worked at the Grey Zone.
He's the co-host of Useful Idiots podcast.
And according to The Guardian, a British legacy newspaper, he is a prolific spreader of disinformation.
We can only assume then he is at odds with the mainstream.
It's Aaron Maté.
All right, Aaron, how are you?
I'm good, Russell.
That line from The Guardian is my highest honor.
There can be no greater gong than the disdain of the Guardian.
You're on a blacklist.
The Ukrainian Security Service want the FBI to put you on a blacklist.
Why?
Why, Aaron, when you've got such lovely brown eyes?
Yeah, this came out recently in the Twitter files.
The FBI, acting on behalf of its counterparts in Ukraine, asked Twitter to censor a whole list of accounts and also hand over their information to Ukraine, to Ukrainian intelligence.
And my name was on that list.
I was among the people that Ukraine wanted to be removed and wanted to get my information.
And Twitter said no, because they pointed out that It wouldn't be such a good look if, you know, we're censoring Western journalists.
And the FBI said, okay, but it's just weird that It was Twitter that had to tell the FBI that maybe you shouldn't be censoring journalists, period, especially on behalf of a foreign government.
As to why Ukraine would want to do that, I don't know.
I just like to spread factual information about this proxy war and how it could have been avoided.
There were all these chances at diplomacy before the war and after the war.
They've all been sabotaged by the West.
I don't think it's good to use Ukraine and sacrifice its people for a geostrategic goal of bleeding Russia.
I don't see how that's in anybody's interest but U.S.
warmongers.
And because I say stuff like that, they wanted me censored.
Here is the email just to show that Aaron's not lying, that this isn't disinformation, it's evident truth that we can demonstrate there.
I had a conversation recently with someone that said that there's a kind of form of Occidental imperialism in the assumption that Ukraine aren't able to decide for themselves what the best response to a criminal Russian invasion Is that Ukraine is an independent nation and it's somehow patronizing to assume that the narratives of those of us that live in anglophonic countries supersede their own long-standing tensions with Russia.
How do you reconcile the fact that Ukraine do have their own intentions with what appears to be the observable fact that this is somehow beneficial to NATO and the military-industrial complex?
Well, a few things.
Ukraine, of course, has the right to resist an invasion, but that doesn't necessarily obligate us to fuel the war with our military aid and intelligence support, which is what the U.S.
is doing.
Ukraine could not fight this war without U.S.
support, and that's why Lindsey Graham said, the senator from South Carolina said, that as long as we aid Ukraine, they will fight to the last person.
I don't see how it's aiding Ukraine to use them to fight to the last person.
I want Ukrainians to live.
So, yes, Ukraine has the right to resist an invasion, but it doesn't necessarily obligate us to fuel the war, especially when, and this is a key point, there are diplomatic alternatives.
This war could have been avoided, and it could have been stopped after it began.
Before the war, there were the Minsk Accords, which Ukraine's far-right and the bipartisan U.S.
establishment bitterly opposed because that would have ended the war and the Donbass that began.
After the 2014 U.S.-backed coup, Russia put out proposals in December 2021 that, at minimum, should have been discussed trying to address Russia's security concerns about the expansion of NATO and the, you know, placement of NATO infrastructure surrounding Russia, including inside Ukraine.
And the U.S.
and NATO refused to even basically discuss it.
So that was a mistake, and that was a case where diplomacy could have possibly averted all this.
And then after the war, we now have so many sources—NATO sources, Ukrainian sources, Vladimir Putin himself saying that a deal was reached in April 2022, but that Boris Johnson, with presumed U.S.
backing, came over and blocked it.
So yes, in principle, of course, a country has the right to resist a foreign invader.
But when there are reasonable alternatives to avoiding it, those at least need to be explored and not blindly fueling this disastrous war, especially when it's pitting the world's top two nuclear powers against each other.
And one more thing about Ukrainian agency.
It depends which Ukraine we're talking about, because Zelensky himself was elected on a peace mandate in 2019.
He was going to end the war in the Donbass.
He was going to make peace with the rebels and with Russia.
He couldn't, because Ukraine's far right blocked him.
They protested violently whenever he took steps towards implementing the Minsk Accords, and some people even threatened to kill him.
So, this far-right leader named Dmitry Yarosh said that if Zelensky makes peace with Russia, he won't lose his popularity.
He will lose his life.
He will hang from a tree.
So, when people say we need to respect Ukrainian agency, which Ukrainian agency are they talking about?
The agency that elected Zelensky on a peace mandate?
Or the agency of the far-right fascists who threatened to kill him if he implemented peace?
Of course, it's reductive to suggest that there is one Ukraine with a singular objective.
That's a good point, thanks for explaining that.
Arshela says in our chat here that this is an example of neoliberalism by proxy, corporate
control and global oligarchy, neocolonialism, she corrects.
Now this Ukrainian counter-offensive, which many people said was going to change the timbre
of the war, has gone appallingly badly and some suggest that the much-covered coup approach
in Moscow that seems to have amounted to very little was covered so favourably and extensively
precisely because it's a distraction.
It was interesting, wasn't it, that NATO got a shout out when our man Pragoshin was outlining his objectives.
You didn't initially offer us a take on this, Aaron.
Will you offer us one now, mate?
Well, look, Prigozhin's hard to read, and there's so many theories about him.
Some people say he was working with Western intelligence, and there was Pentagon leaks not too long ago saying that Prigozhin had offered Ukraine the coordinates of Russian military positions.
He basically had betrayed his own side.
Now, I found that hard to believe because I don't think Ukraine needs to know where Russian forces are because the U.S.
tells them that.
Look, anything is possible.
I don't know exactly Purgosian's alliances.
On the surface, this could just be what it appears to be, which is that his group, Wagner, was facing a deadline to be incorporated into the Russian military.
Accordingly, Purgosian was going to be sidelined, and this was his way of rebelling against that.
Simple as that.
I don't know beyond that.
But what I do know is that this was not the coup against Putin that it was portrayed to be in Western media.
So within a few hours of Purgosian launching this revolt, all these neocon pundits who've gotten everything wrong
for the last 20 years from the Iraq War to today, and Al-Babam, Michael McFaul, all these people
were all saying there's gonna be a civil war in Russia, Putin is done, he might even already have fled Moscow.
And of course that didn't happen.
It took about 24 hours and this thing was done.
And the fact that this was not a threat to Putin can be I think best seen in the fact
that you didn't have a single person switching sides and pledging allegiance to Purgosian.
He had a few thousand of his own forces with him, but aside from that, I can't find a single senior Russian official who said that, you know, I'm joining with Purgosian and I'm on his side now.
So, that to me is a reflection that this actually strengthened Putin, although it embarrassed him.
And it did make him look weak, but ultimately he leaves this, I think, emboldened because now Purgoshin's in exile in Belarus, and his militia, Wagner, will be implemented into Russia's forces.
So the fact that there was this desperate rush to sign Putin's death warrant before even the developments could unfold speaks to, I think, first of all, the clamor for regime change in Russia that drives NATO policy in Ukraine.
And also, a reflection, as you mentioned, that the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which was supposed to turn the tide, is not going very well.
Understandably, because Russia's always had the advantage, and this was only a matter of time before Ukraine would run out of material, and also people to sacrifice.
All these young people being sent off to die in this useless war that could have been prevented and could still be avoided now.
So I was not surprised to see this hype in Western media, because they need anything they can to distract from how badly this counteroffensive is going.
In our chat, Bandi Boyan says, RFK Jr.
says he will free Assange on the first day.
We had a censorship industrial complex event with Schellenberger and Taibbi the other day in London where the significance of opposing the current agenda, global, legislative, it's been set up in several countries simultaneously, new censorship laws that will prevent free speech such as that which we are literally, I think right now, Enjoying.
How do you feel about that movement?
What do you feel the emergence of a figure like RFK means from somewhat from within the Democrat Party establishment, although he's sort of peripheral status is assured by some of his well established views on, for example, vaccines.
Do you think that this is a significant shift?
Do you think it will alter the conversation?
And if you'll forgive the pun, do you think it will move the needle?
I love what RFK Jr.
says about the Ukraine proxy war.
He's got a lot of courage and clarity there.
I hate what he says about Israel-Palestine.
To me, he parrots anti-Palestinian talking points.
And I just think, for a progressive, there's just no room for that anymore.
You just can't support the Israeli government and its occupation of Palestinians and call yourself a progressive.
I appreciate that he has changed the conversation on some of these key issues such as Ukraine.
And the fact that even before the primaries is underway, he's already polling really well.
That to me speaks with the deep frustration even inside the Democratic Party with the current government, this Biden government that's overseen this disastrous proxy war in Ukraine and has meanwhile neglected people at home.
So although I don't agree with RFK Jr.
and everything, I appreciate that he's there and I'm also excited that Cornel West Who's, I think, a progressive much more in line with my values is in the race as well.
And Marianne Williamson is also launching a challenge.
So I hope that all these voices get the chance to be heard, because clearly their presence in the primary reflects growing dissension and growing frustration with this current government.
And as for censorship, the movement to me has to center on Julian Assange, the most important journalist in the world.
He's being tortured, persecuted for his courage and bravery.
The U.S.
is trying to Not only bring him over to the U.S.
for prosecution and imprisonment, but I think they want to kill him.
And so I think we have to start, as you've been doing so effectively, Russell, with championing Julian Assange.
Thanks, mate.
Over in our chat, someone says, Cornel, U.S.
are now, whose avatar is a John Deere tractor, and I dig the John Deere.
Cornel West is getting zilch, says U.S.
are now.
I'm really interested to hear, Aaron, What you feel about the current story about the Trump audio there, what our take on it is, is that all of us basically expect that former presidents have access to censored material and probably
Share it in ways that are inappropriate.
There are stories about Biden having comparable materials.
And again, what's interesting is the lack of interrogation about the contents of the boxes, in particular the plan for a potential war with Iran and exacerbating the tensions between Israel and Iran.
What do you think about the coverage of this story?
And that's it really.
Yeah.
Well, because the media is obsessed with Trump, that's all they care about, they're going to ignore the substance of the story, which, as you pointed out, speaks to Trump revealing that there was a plan to attack Iran, and he was against it, therefore, I think, making himself look good.
But the media doesn't care about stopping warmongering, because they support warmongering.
They support it when the U.S.
goes to war against anybody, no matter the consequences.
And all they care about is ratings and all they care about is going along with this campaign to undermine Trump, not because they care that Trump is a misogynist or has bigoted views.
They don't think Trump is a suitable steward of the U.S.
global war machine.
He says the truth sometimes.
He says we're in Syria to take the oil.
You're not supposed to say that.
You're supposed to say we're there to spread democracy and fight terrorism.
He said recently about Venezuela that we should have taken their oil as well when he launched a coup there.
And they didn't care that he launched a coup in Venezuela.
They just don't like that he's admitting that he wants to take the oil and crush Venezuela's existence as an independent state.
outside of U.S. control. So that's why they're using cases like this with the classified documents
to undermine Trump. And whether he's guilty or not, I don't really care. I don't worship at the
church of classified documents. I don't respect the Espionage Act. I don't think it should exist.
And I don't care about these intra-elite feuds. I care about the substance of what these stories
contain. And as you point out, this story is more evidence that there is a clamor to attack Iran.
And it's very odd that we have to rely on people like Trump to stand up to it.
And we certainly can't rely on our media to cover it because they just don't care about stuff like this.
They just care about spectacle and taking a part in this long running lawfare campaign to undermine Trump, which began when they framed him as a Russian agent.
And even recently, we had this long report from John Durham, a special counsel, showing what a scam Russiagate was.
And there's been zero, or close to zero, introspection in US media because they don't care about facts.
They just care about whatever their agenda is.
Cool.
And I like the phrase, intra-elite feud.
Intra-elite feud.
I'm going to memorize it.
Intra-elite feud.
If you watch my content now, Aaron, you're going to hear me saying that.
Jay Gwynn Wilde says that RFK Jr clarified his views on Israel with Glenn Greenwald recently.
Love going out to you, Glenn.
Aaron can't have seen that, he says, so maybe he's offered an update on that opinion.
That would be cool if he has.
Aaron, thanks for joining us, mate.
You can follow Aaron on his sub stack, of course, and at The Grey Zone.
Plus, you can hear his fantastic podcast, The Useful Idiots Podcast, which I haven't been on in spite of seeming to have been designed for that title.
Aaron, thanks for joining us, mate.
Take it easy.
Listen, we are going to leave Rumble right now, but only so that we can have a little after party, a little get together.
We'll still be here.
Maybe you'll take your top off.
I won't be doing that.
Too much dignity.
It's always been your problem.
I'm going to take my top off, though.
Is this going to be like Bill Maher's nightclub?
Yeah, we're going to get proper high, proper smashed up.
Drugs.
What?
Yep, we're on Rumble now.
Do drugs!
Lovely old drugs.
What harm could they possibly do?
So if you're watching us on Rumble, give us one final Rumble.
Press that red button and join us on Locals, where we'll be reading your comments.
Very much like this one.
Ian Drummond says, Well, we'll read that on Locals.
especially as he's bravely come out to say the Palestinian Fall guy didn't kill his dad.
Oh, okay. Well, we'll read that on local.
Conspiracy theories you want, is it?
Press that red button right now.
We're going to just play the end credits, then we'll be there.
Later this week, my God, we've got exclusive groundbreaking content around the censorship industrial complex.
Me, Matt Taibbi, Michael Schellenberger, so-called journalists who stood up to that congressional hearing.
That's going to be this Friday.
Next week, we got Jack Dorsey.
He had to lay.
He's got bad signal where he is.
He's coming up on the show soon.
And we've got a guest that's so exciting that It's so exciting, so groundbreaking and revelatory.
It's such a world exclusive that I'm not even going to blow it by telling you yet.
It's big.
It sees me.
We've got fantastic coming up and you're going to want to be a Locals member by the time that happens because we'll do very exclusive stuff.
So if you're watching this on Rumble, stay Switch on, switch off.