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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

    BOMBSHELL: JD Vance Turns On Israel After Iran Deal

    2026/06/19 | 55 mins.
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    This week, after months of demanding Iran’s unconditional surrender, Trump suddenly backed off his regime-change war, signing an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Iran.
    And what’s even more surprising than this apparent admission of defeat and push for peace is the Trump administration’s sharp turn on Israel, with Trump distancing himself from Netanyahu and Vice President Vance directly calling the Israelis out:
    “You have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the President of the United States.If I was in the Israeli cabinet, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have left anywhere in the entire world.What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”So to discuss the peace deal, whether it can withstand Trump’s turbulent negotiation tendencies and expected sabotage from Israel, and why the administration is turning against its ally Israel, we spoke with two Iranians: Trita Parsi, author and executive VP at the Quincy Institute, and Negar Mortazavi, journalist at the Center for International Policy and host of the Iran Podcast.
    Trita Parsi: The doubt of US power over Israel has now been completely blown up with the statements of JD Vance. I suspect that we’re going to see more of it, particularly if the Israelis continue to sabotage in the manner that they have been and probably will continue to do.What JD is doing there is not just changing the conversation about Israel. He’s changing the paradigm of U.S.-Israeli relations. He’s clearly pointing out to them how isolated Israel is today, and how few friends it has, which should not be a surprise.And at the same time, he’s reminding the Israelis the tremendous leverage that the United States has over Israel, even though most presidents have not had the backbone to use that leverage. But he’s reminding the Israelis of the extent to which the United States can really put a tremendous amount of pressure on them.Negar Mortazavi: This is incredible. It’s unprecedented. And now J.D. Vance, even Donald Trump, are starting to sound like America-first, anti-war skeptics of militarism, everything that was part of the political discourse in the campaign.I mean, it’s unfortunate that it took two wars, which also, by the way, took thousands of lives in Lebanon. But I think we see a gap and it’s very public and it’s widening. And this also comes after three years of genocide in Gaza, which has already created a gap between Israel and the U.S.Even in Congress now, across the political structure, you’re seeing the beginning of a movement. There are members of Congress or candidates running for elections who say they don’t want to accept money from AIPAC. That has become an unprecedented thing that is publicly being said.It’s a historic week, and extremely complex in terms of what the deal signifies and the shaky path it could have moving forward. Trita and Negar help us dig into the details and parse through the propaganda. This episode won’t be paywalled.
    If you want to support our work, please consider subscribing. You’ll get our recap of the craziest and most cringe-worthy reactions to the deal across corporate media in the Friday Free-for-All: Even Hillary Clinton is Turning On Israel.
    00:00 Intro
    01:30 Dems are MAD at Trump for ending the war
    05:21 CNN Anchor is SHOCKED Iran should be able to defend itself
    06:29 JD Vance calls out Israel
    08:59 Trita Parsi responds to JD Vance
    29:13 Negar Mortazavi breaks down the deal

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Trump Announces New Peace Deal with Iran, Causing Bipartisan Panic

    2026/06/15 | 1h 8 mins.
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Rep. Ro Khanna Exposes Israel's Secret PANIC

    2026/06/12 | 47 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.
    00:00 Intro
    03:22 Republicans are STRUGGLING to defend Trump on Iran
    10:28 Rep. Ro Khanna interview
    29:49 Adam Johnson on how to sell a genocide
    44:52 Why CNN and the New York Times call Palestinians "savages"

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Watch Katie and Aaron OWN Trump in Disaster NBC Interview

    2026/06/08 | 1h 12 mins.
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Israel CAN’T BEAT Iran in Lebanon War

    2026/06/05 | 46 mins.
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    The Trump Administration just announced their latest achievement: it’s a ceasefire in Lebanon!
    One problem: they excluded from their ceasefire talks Israel’s main target, Hezbollah, and the US is fully backing Israel’s continued assault on the group, which has included the bombing of civilian infrastructure in nearly every attack so far, killing over 3,000 people since March and displacing over 1.2 million.
    What this means for the so-called ceasefire: Hezbollah must withdraw from its own territory in the south of Lebanon and Israel has no terms. Unsurprisingly, Hezbollah has rejected this deal, declining the opportunity to freely hand over their own territory to the invading Israeli army.

    While corporate media has reported this simply as Hezbollah refusing peace, we’re digging deeper into the story to find out what’s actually happening in Lebanon: where is Israel attacking, what is Hezbollah’s goal, to what extent will Iran back Hezbollah, and why are the US and Israel failing to take control in Lebanon.
    To do this, we speak with Michael Young, senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Center and author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square. He is based in Lebanon.
    Michael has a different perspective on Hezbollah and Lebanon than most of our guests, but rather than giving you the same perspective every week, we want to feature different voices who may disagree with us, which gives us a fuller picture of the conflict. So speaking from Lebanon, Michael Young gives his take on the dilemma that Lebanon faces and what he thinks is the best way to stop Israel’s illegal invasion.
    00:00 Intro
    03:49 An Assault on Capitol Hill!
    10:09 Fetterman celebrates Israel blinding kids (and gets a big laugh from the crowd)
    10:53 Michael Young interview
    14:57 The ceasefire's a JOKE
    29:26 Debunking Marco Rubio

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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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