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Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Useful Idiots, LLC
Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    “WORST CASE SCENARIO” Leaked in Secret Cuba Files—Here’s What They Hid

    2026/05/22 | 50 mins.
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    Read Peter Kornbluh's latest reporting: The CIA Goes to Cuba https://www.thenation.com/article/world/cia-cuba-trump-regime-change-sanctions-military-threats-havana/
    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: When Even the Newsmax Guy Calls Out Your Cuba Lies https://usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.
    After starting two regime change wars in Venezuela and Iran, Donald Trump is now ramping up his campaign to overthrow the government of Cuba, and in the process impose serious misery on its people by tightening his blockade and deepening the country’s humanitarian crisis.
    And much like in Venezuela and Iran, there are suddenly reports of an imminent threat from Cuba, the tiny, starving island off the coast of the United States: Members of the Trump administration have begun claiming that Cuba has hundreds of Russian and Iranian drones that they will use to attack Florida.
    It seems to be the same exact playbook each time: claim an “imminent” threat, increase sanctions, take out the leader, and start a regime-change war.
    And as if to prove to the world that this is indeed the game plan, the CIA just made an uncharacteristically overt trip to Cuba.
    CIA
    So to discuss the humanitarian crisis and potential regime-change war in Cuba, we’re speaking with Peter Kornbluh, Director of Cuba and Chile Documentation Projects for the National Security Archive, who has been unearthing classified documents showing the reality of US foreign policy in Cuba.
    In his latest piece, The CIA Goes to Cuba, Kornbluh examines the CIA’s aggressive operation in Cuba, detailing how CIA Director John Ratcliffe gave a “do or die” ultimatum to the Cuban government, how Marco Rubio seeks to benefit from a false flag attack, and reveals documentation that proves US officials “don't believe Cuba is an imminent threat, or actively planning to attack American interests.”
    It’s the latest in Trump’s “empire-building” scheme that now spans across the globe, all fueled by neocons like Marco Rubio, and would be a sizable “Cold War trophy” to boost Trump’s imperial ego. Watch and share Peter Kornbluh’s full analysis (ad-free version):
    00:00 Intro
    03:39 He just said they need to use "Jewish money" to oust politicians...
    09:40 These MAGA people are getting destroyed by Trump's war on Iran
    13:38 What's happening in Cuba?
    16:47 Peter Kornbluh interview
    19:18 Trump on Cuba
    34:12 "Marco Rubio is wrong about everything"

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Lindsey Graham: "The Iran War is worth losing my job" (and how to make that happen)

    2026/05/18 | 1h 8 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Is Genocide Worth It If We Get To Have Cherry Tomatoes? https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/is-genocide-worth-it-if-we-get-to?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.
    Watch Rami Elghandour's full uncensored commencement speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcP9wnphWAg&t=1s
    Follow Wyatt Reed on Substack: https://wyattreed.substack.com/
    From Lindsey Graham’s mouth to God’s ears: when asked on Meet the Press if the Iran War was worth losing the midterms over, Senator Lindsey Graham proclaimed: “It’s worth losing my job!”
    Finally, something to agree with arch-Zionist warmonger Lindsey Graham on!
    And speaking of God’s ears, Trump held a Christian Nationalist party to celebrate the US’s 250th birthday, where speakers claimed that it took God two centuries to bring us Donald Trump so that he could finally put a ballroom in the White House. That’s not a joke they really said that.
    From Lindsey Graham to Mike Johnson to John Fetterman to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, we’ve got a Monday Mourning that oscillates between the importance of bombing civilian infrastructure in Iran to the importance of that ballroom. It’s a ridiculous and jam-packed episode.

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    The Commencement Speech Israel Doesn't Want You To Hear

    2026/05/15 | 1h 26 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Is Genocide Worth It If We Get To Have Cherry Tomatoes? https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/is-genocide-worth-it-if-we-get-to?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.
    Watch Rami Elghandour's full uncensored commencement speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcP9wnphWAg&t=1s
    Follow Wyatt Reed on Substack: https://wyattreed.substack.com/
    It’s another classic Useful Idiots double header!
    First up we’re speaking with Rami Elghandour, biotech CEO whose company is developing transformative immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. He’s also executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab and The American Doctor. (note to other CEOs: it’s possible to do good things with your money)
    Rami was scheduled to give the convocation speech at Rutgers this week but was abruptly canceled, being told by a dean that “we’ve had a few students who feel that your social media posts are opposed to their beliefs.”
    Here is the tweet that got Rami canceled:
    “Forget a free ride. They’ve committed genocide. They’re running dungeons where they train dogs to sexually assault prisoners... Weapons embargo is the absolute minimum. Sanctions and diplomatic isolation are beyond justified. This we’ll sell them weapons won’t fly…”
    Rami reveals his full conversation with the dean and shows us a clip of the speech he would have given, which is now available on YouTube.
    We also speak with Wyatt Reed, journalist at the Grayzone who is currently reporting in Lebanon and Iran. As one of very few western journalists to actually go to Iran, Reed’s reporting is crucial to understanding what’s really happening on the ground, what actual Iranians feel about the US and the war, and how Trump’s attacks inadvertently pushed Iranians to rally around their own government.
    “Every night in cities all across Iran, there are pro-government protests in the major squares and town centers. This is happening throughout the entire country.Before the war, the die-hard support for the government was relatively limited to people who tended to be more conservative or more religious.After their country came under an existential threat, an existential attack that sought to topple not only their government, but clearly was not distinguishing between their government and their civilian population at all, this expanded to include a huge part of the population.So, the irony is that if they wanted to overthrow this government in Iran, they’ve done basically the opposite. They have solidified support for it through every segment of Iranian society. Iranians came to understand that basically their choice was between ruling themselves in a somewhat authoritarian manner or being ruled by an occupying foreign power which clearly seeks to conduct basically a genocide against them. It’s not hard to understand why more and more people began to side with their government.”Wyatt also shares footage of his reporting of the US bombing on the Minab elementary school, as well as the Israeli bombings of a hospital and synagogue in Tehran. It’s tough to watch, but Wyatt’s journalism is some of the only western journalism we’ve seen from Iran. Help to share his reporting!
    00:00 Intro
    01:09 Worse than 9/11??
    03:08 Let's raise gas prices so that they don't go up!
    06:06 JD Vance just figured out the REAL villain behind everything
    06:49 Rami Elghandour interview
    10:26 Rami vs Rutgers
    19:31 Michigan Commencement goes viral
    41:58 The speech Rami would have given
    44:49 Journalist Wyatt Reed interview
    49:09 Visiting the elementary school the US bombed
    55:25 ...and the hospital Israel bombed
    1:08:46 ...and the synagogue Israel bombed

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Netanyahu EXPOSED for Sabotaging US-Iran Peace Talks in 60 Minutes Interview

    2026/05/11 | 1h 24 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Somebody Check In On Pete Hegseth... https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/somebody-check-in-on-pete-hegseth?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Iran Strikes on US Bases Shock World—Here’s What US & Israel Hid

    2026/05/08 | 48 mins.
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    Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.
    Despite recent attacks from both sides, a ceasefire is technically in effect between the US and Iran: Is peace at hand? Or are these shaky truce talks just a break before the return to full-scale military conflict?
    What’s likely to move the scale in one direction or another are recent embarrassing headlines that could push President Trump to panic: the Washington Post reports that the CIA “says Iran can outlast Trump’s Hormuz blockade for months,” as opposed to days or weeks, which the administration has been claiming.
    Another headline claims that “Iran has hit far more U.S. military assets than reported, satellite images show.” And just this week Marco Rubio announced that the new goal of the war is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get everything "back to the way it was" before Trump launched the first attacks.
    Will these revelations force Trump into a corner and get him to take the win of a ceasefire, claim victory in Iran, and leave? Or does the embarrassment of losing on the global stage send him and Cartoon Pete Hegseth back out to war?
    To analyze all the latest in Iran, from a technical weapons level to the geopolitical ramifications of it all, we spoke with Dr. Sajjad Safei, researcher, lecturer, and analyst specializing in Middle Eastern geopolitics. Plus, we watch the latest right-wing commentator to once again prove the Useful Idiots thesis: “At this point, I think it’s in Israel’s interests to act against Iran in a way that blows up this deal.”
    00:00 Intro
    03:49 Israel Aims to Sabotage Trump in Iran Peace Deal
    06:01 Why no one talks about Israel's nukes
    10:57 ADL releases ridiculous list of "antisemitic incidents"
    16:09 Dr. Sajjad Safei interview
    26:34 Rubio wants Iran to go "back to how it was"
    35:01 Trump admin MELTDOWN

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About Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature analysis of the political news of the week and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of why both Republicans and Democrats suck. Join Aaron and Katie as they examine important stories that have slipped through the cracks and what the media got wrong – and laugh about whatever is left to laugh about.
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