Scott Horton

194.252 - 219.956 Scott Horton

Yeah, and I'm getting almost universally good feedback from it. I've had very little substantive criticism, a lot of Russian asset and Russian talking point type garbage. On a substantive basis, they seem to have not read the thing because they'll accuse me of never addressing stuff that has a whole section of its own and whatever in there. I don't know.

272.671 - 301.484 Dave Smith

Right, exactly. Okay, so let's jump right into this, the latest, because this really is, and it's, you know, we've been living through such a crazy few years in this country. And as someone who does a show, I talk about this a lot, but when you do a show about the news, it's almost like there's something crazy every single day to talk about. And there's always like a new thing.

301.504 - 326.153 Dave Smith

And sometimes it's a challenge to kind of like zoom out and see things from, you know, like a transcendent position and like 10,000 feet above looking down. This meeting with Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office was, was one of those things where it's like, this is, this was really truly remarkable. I've never seen anything quite like it in my life.

326.874 - 353.342 Dave Smith

And it's just, I was, I want to get your thoughts on it and then we could get into the kind of what's come after. But I, you know, I, my first thought on it was just that this was, it's gotta be like the greatest political strategic blunder I've ever seen. And I, I don't, you know, I've, I've read a lot about this conflict.

353.642 - 370.537 Dave Smith

I don't necessarily have like a, a good understanding of who Zelensky is, but I don't know, like what your thoughts on that, like who was in his ear? Why did he think this would be a good move? And what, when you're in a position where you're totally dependent on Donald Trump and

370.877 - 385.041 Dave Smith

The idea that you would come in and try to like out alpha him on live television and in a language that you don't really speak. And to think that was going to go well for you. I mean, like, what were you thinking when you first saw it?

500.62 - 527.574 Scott Horton

that instead of cutting running from the war he just wanted to cut and run from the united states and say fine because of course if america stops backing him we can't really make a deal with russia to end the war if ukraine's not willing to end the war and we can call off all support and then they will be you know in a much tougher situation but it won't just be like the taliban walking right into kabul or anything like that the russians will still have a fight on their hands

528.354 - 549.052 Scott Horton

um at least for a time and so zielinski apparently is betting then that he can just turn to the europeans and essentially bet on their center left you know um last status quo position you know the the common call it whatever you want the the woke standard of the biden administration um

549.893 - 564.984 Scott Horton

And that they will, you know, distance themselves from Trump, who is, you know, oh, he's the rogue and the right wing nationalist. And so they are left. They're calling, you know, Keir Starmer. Is that how you pronounce it?

565.284 - 585.621 Scott Horton

They're calling him the leader of the free world now because Donald Trump is the isolationist turning his back on Europe and all this, which is, you know, vast hyperbole on both counts. But you do have, it's kind of funny to see, right? The British, the French, and the Germans are talking about, well, and I think the Poles as well, we're not going to sell you out.

585.661 - 609.558 Scott Horton

We're going to continue to back you no matter what, Ukraine. And with the British prime minister even promising with boots and planes, he said, and he's I would be worried about that, except that I just don't believe him. I think the Europeans have already all admitted that without the United States to guarantee their guarantees, they have nothing to offer, really.

986.161 - 1012.75 Scott Horton

I mean, the medium term future here at minimum just completely sucks for everybody as well because no matter exactly how the war finally comes to an end, Russia's not losing that territory. They have essentially absorbed the most pro-Russian population of Ukraine into Russia just by expanding the line around them. But what that means is they've moved them out of Ukraine.

1013.23 - 1036.435 Scott Horton

And so now nobody in Ukraine is pro-Russia anymore. Or the ones who are even sympathetic at all are going to be far more marginal in Russian politics now, which is going to be even more heavily dominated by the nationalists from far out west. who absolutely hate Russia. And I don't know if they're going to be allowed.

1036.455 - 1057.259 Scott Horton

I don't think they ever will be allowed to join NATO, but they may still join the EU and they still will be, you know, anti-matter force stuck right there, sharing a border with matter in the form of Russia from now on. And so I expect there to continue to be problems, you know, kind of ongoing even after the civil war

1057.859 - 1082.736 Scott Horton

or the the major war comes to an end um and including what could be a nazi-based insurgency uh led by the likes of andrew beletsky and dimitri yarosh and these others who you know it is after all a massive country and the russians still only control like the eastern and southern fifth of it right i mean it's the size of texas which there's a reason the size of Texas is a cliche.

1082.816 - 1103.768 Scott Horton

It's because it's huge. It's the same as Afghanistan. So now a lot of it is barren steppe and not very conducive to insurgency, but they do have some forests and some swampland and some other places where they could be based out of. And so I'm sure there are those who would want to continue to fight over the long term.

1253.98 - 1277.845 Dave Smith

I never wear a suit and tie. Almost never. But I got to say... it was very strange to me that he comes dressed like that. Like you don't put on a suit and tie when, and you know, Trump cares about that. That's the type of thing Trump really cares about, like looking TV ready or whatever. But I was, I was blown away that he referred to the vice president as JD. Yeah.

1277.925 - 1296.664 Dave Smith

Like that to me was like, you know, when Rogan floated out the idea of, of having the podcast with me and, and Trump and Joe Rogan, which I, you know, probably won't happen, but would be cool if it ever did. But like, I would refer to him as Mr. President. I would never sit there and say, Donald, the thing is, you know what I mean?

1296.684 - 1316.757 Scott Horton

That just seems crazy to me. That could have been a translation mistake type of a thing, too. Possible. Yes. So don't fight with the president and vice president when you don't speak the language properly, right? As you already said, they're like, are you sure you're fluent enough to get in this crap right now in this situation? And so that was a huge error to do, right? To say, look, JD.

1316.817 - 1334.423 Scott Horton

And, but then importantly, what was the statement? He was disregarding what he said. Like, listen, You're talking about negotiating with Putin, but you can't negotiate with Putin. You're essentially a fool to say that you can negotiate with this guy. He must be made to lose the war first, and then you have to give me a war guarantee.

1335.143 - 1358.265 Scott Horton

And so that was when Vance said, not, hey, how dare you call me JD, but I can't believe he actually said, like, actually astonished. Wow, I can't believe you want to litigate this right here in public with us. Because guess what? You're going to lose the argument now. You might've had a chance backstage, I think was the implication there. But dude, you're going to come at me like this.