Marco Rubio's Latest Stunt Is EMBARRASSING

[00:00:00]The United States State Department under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio is uh ramping up for possible war against Cuba. And he is using one of the craziest excuses in order to make it happen. He's arguing that Cuba poses a a national security threat to the United States. And uh the state department has even released a report on this matter uh basically attempting to draw a link between the government of Cuba and so-called left-wing extremism across the globe.

[00:00:39]Now, as we're all absorbing images of war crimes, crimes against humanity, just barbarism, barbaric behavior by Israel, you have the United States backing that barbarism while claiming that Cuba is spreading an extremist ideology that poses a threat to the United States. Okay. So, uh let's talk a little bit about their report on the matter. This is a State Department report. For nearly seven decades, the Cuban regime has waged a sustained campaign of subversion against the United States. It is a campaign that has infiltrated the highest reaches of the US government, recruited and cultivated generations of American activists, backed an unprecedented wave of left-wing terrorism on American soil, and carried out one of the most durable and dam damaging foreign intelligence penetrations in American history. So this 100page report actually uh details the history of Cuban influence operations around the globe, most of which are literally decades old by now.

[00:01:44]Um as for what's happening now in 2026, well the report fear-mongers about Americans and organizations that are sympathetic to the Cuban government, kind of like the DSA, while simultaneously admitting that they aren't Cuban SCOPs.

[00:02:02]So there's no evidence that these groups like the DSA is like working with the Cuban government in some subversive way.

[00:02:08]And so I'm going to read you the part of the report that touches on this because it's hilarious. The DSA was not founded as a Cuban intelligence or influence front. It was born in 1982 as a fusion of socialist organizations and movements from both the old left and new left factions. Today it maintains a fierce almost religious commitment to the cause of the Cuban regime. Not because the group is controlled by Cuban agents per se, but because that commitment is now simply the deacto policy orthodoxy of the American far-left. Well, in a democratic system, you know, we uh choose our representatives based on a democratic process. Our constitution protects our first amendment. If there's no evidence of DSA working with a foreign government, what what's the problem here? So these are people who just prefer to defend Cuba even as the United States tries to crush the Cuban people with just terrible sanctions and an economic embargo. Okay.

[00:03:13]Today uh let's go to the the rest of this. So this represents a significant advance for the Cuban influence operation. Havana no longer needs to rely solely on intelligence penetration or asset cultivation to exert influence over the United States. Whereas the early Cuba solidarity networks were often confined to the militant fringe, DSA represents a newer and far more politically consequential development, a mass membership organization operating openly in American political electoral politics with chapters across the country, a growing bench of elected officials, and real influence inside the Democratic Party coalition. The report also uh name drops a number of prominent American citizens with alleged ties to Cuban operatives, including but not limited to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, uh former President Barack Obama, and of course, Hassan I think Amy Goodman even makes an appearance on this list. Amy Goodman, because when I think about real threats to American national security, I think Amy Goodman.

[00:04:20][sighs and gasps] Now, here to talk to us about this story, uh, he's been on it from the very beginning, is friend of the show, Ken Clippenstein, wonderful reporter, uh, who has a Substack that I highly recommend everyone subscribe to. Ken, thank you for joining us. Um, you've been on this from the very beginning and honestly, I'm wondering how much Sebastian Gorka has to do with drafting this report.

[00:04:44]Well, in this case, a lot of the responsibility goes to Secretary of State Marco Rubio since it was a State Department report, but the the spirit behind it is is totally Gorka. Uh Gorka released several weeks ago the new national counterterrorism strategy, and in it, he identifies three different groups as priority uh counterterror targets. Uh the first two aren't particularly surprising. It's, you know, the traditional uh jihadi groups overseas. And then the second one is naroterrorists, which is a bit more of a focus of the Trump administrations. The third one is explicitly uh the so-called radical left and it was the first time in any national counterterrorist strategy not just that it's identified the left as an area of focus for counterterrorism but that it's identified any American this is supposed to be something um that we prioritize foreign terror organizations uh in going after because it's understood as soon as you label or treat something as terrorism domestically that doesn't agree with the constitution and the civil liberties that people are afforded um in this country and under our political system. But that's what he did and that's the spirit in which the state department released its own um they they just last week held an international summit in which uh 65 other countries participated. These are cabinet, these are like high level officials, not just, you know, they didn't just send they didn't just send a local dog catcher to to meet with Rubio to discuss this. And um they prioritize the threat of what they called, this is the first time I've ever seen this term used in a official government document, far-left terrorism or FLT. They even have an abbreviation for it. So they're taking all this very seriously. I'm glad you said that. I've been on this uh from early on because when I was looking very closely at the interviews of Sebastian Gorka, that's Trump's counterterrorism ZAR. Um and he was saying, you know, we want to make uh material support for terrorism charges against uh political people on the left.

[00:06:34]I I was kind of laughed at because people were like, oh, this is just rhetoric that can't possibly be true.

[00:06:39]And we are now seeing that that is very much something that the administration takes seriously. And I hope that and it seems that at this point people are finally starting to come around in the media to that this isn't just talk, this is something they actually want to do.

[00:06:50]Um but yeah, that's really that's really what we're seeing.

[00:06:52]>> Do you know your brain rot index? Uh no, of course you don't. I didn't either cuz I didn't know what it was. But you turns out you might want to uh especially after hearing this. Did you know that the average American checks their phone over 200 times a day? That's about 5 hours of screen time a day on just your phone. Unfortunately, that means your brain is rotting a little bit. But have no fear. I switched over to Noble Mobile, downloaded their Noble Mobile Life app, and was able to track my own brain rod index. It's zero. No, I'm just kidding. uh [laughter] tell you my number was uh not great, but now that I'm on Noble Mobile, getting way better.

[00:07:27]It tracks how much you use your phone, how often you pick it up, and even shows you how to save money on your phone bill by using it less. New members can even earn up to $100 cash back for keeping their Brain Rod index under 100, which means you are very unrot. Okay, so you and you unlock all that when you join.

[00:07:45]So download the Noble mobile life app today. Track your own brain rod index and learn how you can save money and spend more time doing things that actually bring you joy instead of doomcrolling on social media. Check it out by heading to tyt.com/switch or by downloading the Noble Mobile app.

[00:08:02]By the way, sh don't tell Andrew, [music] but if you're on Wi-Fi, you also don't use your data, so you're going to get money back [music] anyway.

[00:08:10]tyt.com/switch.

[00:08:12]I totally agree with you and I took this threat seriously from the beginning because I look I remember the exact moment in my life where I became politicized and it was the leadup to the Iraq invasion of 2003 and the labeling of anyone, you know, any foreigner as a terrorist without any due process, without a shred of evidence. And I remember making the argument, this is going to turn around and negatively impact American citizens. And that day has come. So the Trump administration likes to test the waters when it comes to these types of policies. As we know, uh DHS under the leadership of um the former DHS secretary Christy Nome uh started labeling American protesters who were against tactics used by ICE as domestic terrorists. They referred to Alex Prey um and Renee Good as domestic terrorists. So that was the first sign that this is an administration that totally sees themselves at war against Americans who don't agree with everything they're doing. Um that doesn't mean that there can't be an American citizen who carries out an act of terror. So clearly what's being done here um is fully motivated by you know political preferences and the fact that they want to target political opposition and so talk to me a little bit about what kind of response if any there has been from uh members of the Democratic party since there is an effort to target people on the like like Karen Bass the mayor of Los an we're worried about Karen Bass's impact on our national security like okay but these are you Milktoast Democrats, are they saying anything? Are they doing anything? Are they planning on taking action?

[00:10:01]>> I've seen a couple comments from members. By and large, there's been either silence or even attempts. Uh, you know, I saw the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, Democrat from Washington State, Adam Smith, go on breaking points recently and distance himself and criticize the Democratic Socialist of America, which was a point of focus in this, you know, Cuba subversion report that the State Department just put out. They had a three-page section on it. Um, and he he basically said DSA is harmful and we need to and I've seen more of that than I have of uh criticism of this report.

[00:10:33]People saying, "Yeah, DSA is out of control. We need to get back to the fundamentals of what the Democratic Party stands for." I've seen a lot more of that than I have um people taking this seriously and and critiquing it.

[00:10:42]And to the extent that it's even been reported, that summit that I told you about, the the international summit involving those 65 other countries where they discussed how to go after quote far-left terrorism, their their official term for it. Um the New York Times didn't even report that. There wasn't even a story on it. It incredible. So there's this sense, I think, in Washington that like, oh, this can't be real. Like this is just Trump saying the crazy things he says. And Trump certainly says crazy things. But I think that there's an abundance of evidence at this point. Um particularly if you look at the case against the anti-ICE protesters in which one of them carried out an act of violence but which you know like seven or eight others were charged with these just way over the top um sentences amounting to I'm not exaggerating half a millennium of years in in prison in federal prison I under under a under a like domestic terrorism approach. I think it's clear at this point that it's much more than just rhetoric and that the administration is serious about about effectuating that that kind of an approach.

[00:11:40]>> I I I totally agree with you. And how much of this do you think is actually Well, okay, let me let me back up and ask, has the administration, the State Department in in, you know, in particular provided examples of the left-wing terrorism that they're attempting to fight? Like what what are they providing as evidence?

[00:12:03]>> Well, it depends if you mean evidence from the last half century. Uh because [laughter] they had a lot of evidence from before either of us were born in the 1970s. They talked about things like it was like a blast from the past. I felt like I was in history class again.

[00:12:14]They were talking about the Symbian Liberation Army and the weather underground and you could almost see the sepia tone film grain as you're hearing it cuz [laughter] it's just so from so long ago. That was like 95% of the evidence that Rubio and the other people speaking at this summit. um and in the Cuba report were able to site. And that's part of what was so interesting about the Cuba report is because it finally did talk a little bit about contemporary stuff. But when they got to the contemporary, there wasn't there was very little evidence of the kinds of, you know, violent political acts that they're saying necessitated a response like this. A lot of the names mentioned, it was literally just guilt by association. They had, you mentioned Amy Goodman at the top. Um her great crime was attending the wedding of Neville uh uh some some billionaire uh donor who or some wealthy donor who donates to leftwing political causes in the United States. Literally nothing alleged that she had even done just just associations. And at the at towards the beginning of that report it's really extraordinary. They actually invoke the Red Scare and they say look how effective it was at destroying the communist the American Communist Party in the 1950s. And the implication is really clear. It's like, how do we do that now to what we consider the new Communist Party, the Democratic Socialists of America? This is just all out there. I was my jaw sort of hit the floor cuz I'm like, I can't believe they're just saying this. So, I go online to think I'm thinking there's going to be all sorts of reporting on this. Virtually none. It's like either no one takes it seriously. I don't know if they notice it. Uh, but for the State Department, which is supposed to focus on foreign policy, to list, and I number it in the story that I did on it, which people can find in my newsletter, um, dozens of American citizens and American groups. That's extraordinarily unusual for an institution like the State Department to do.

[00:13:53]>> Yeah, I totally agree with you. And for those who, you know, we do have some conservative viewers uh who like to check in on different perspectives and I really appreciate that. So for those of you who do consider yourselves conservative, you know, if you're under the impression that maybe this isn't that big of a deal cuz it's not going to impact us, we're on the right. Uh I just want to remind you all that Ken Clippenstein's previous reporting focused on Sebastian Gorka targeting conservative voices. uh as domestic terrorists if they've been vocally critical of our alliance with Israel or critical of our uh attacks on Iran. You know, Tucker Carlson was named. There were others, but their names are escaping me at the moment.

[00:14:32]>> Alex Jones.

[00:14:33]>> Alex Jones. Yeah. Another one. Um so, you know, just briefly to, you know, wrap, discuss the if if this goes unchecked, discuss the broader ramifications uh for American citizens and our constitutional rights.

[00:14:49]Well, if you look at what was described in this 100page State Department report, it was basically just speech. I mean, yes, there have certainly been um some cases of violence carried out by the left, but that's not by and large what they uh focused on. They focused on people going to um you know, what they describe as solidarity delegations to Cuba. All of that can be stuff that you disagree with firmly, but there is literally no evidence presented to suggest that they're taking direction uh knowingly from a foreign uh party. And once you get into that territory, exactly as you're saying, um that opens the door to people's views being deemed uh by, you know, political people in Washington as too dangerous and as sufficient grounds to have them investigated. That's not good for anybody because Trump will not be in the White House forever. and they're retooling the um national security apparatus to focus on those things. And it's extremely short-sighted on the part of the Republican party or conservatives not to care about that because I promise you the Democrats are to come back in in much the same way that they did after January 6th and in my view um went beyond what what was necessary which was uh you know charging many of the individual cases of uh of of things like vandalism and treated it as this kind of insurrectionary uprising like there was going to be like it was a real threat to government when there's no evidence that that's the case. uh you're going to see us return right back to that and whatever the equivalent stuff is that they're going to look at. So it's really I mean you know it's it's so shortsighted on the part of anybody that that thinks that this isn't going to affect them just cuz they're not on the quote far far left.

[00:16:26]>> Look, Ken, your reporting is so important and so I want to make sure our audience knows where to find you and where to follow your reporting because you're right, the New York Times did not report on this. Uh and it's it's maddening. They also, at least the last time I checked earlier today, hadn't even reported on the House passing the NDAA without stripping section 219. And it's like, this is a big deal. Like, we're merging our military with a foreign military that's currently carrying out crimes against human.

[00:16:55]Anyway, whatever. But please tell our audience where they can find your work.

[00:16:58]>> Yeah. And Independent Media has been great on this stuff, and they've given me plenty of room and themselves have covered a lot of what I'm describing at great length. So, I don't want to give people too pessimistic of a picture, but you can find me at kenclippenstein.com and that's where I run a newsletter that focuses on stuff just like this.

[00:17:13]>> Love it. Thank you so much, Ken. And uh we'll talk soon.

[00:17:16]>> Thanks, Anna.

[00:17:17]>> Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets us wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.