Part one of Real News coverage from the the March for Truth in Washington, D.C.
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Story Transcript
Crowd: Lock Her Up. Lock her up.
Max Blumenthal: You said we don’t have all the facts. What is the most powerful-
Jamie Raskin: Well that’s why we need an independent commission. We need an independent commission to get all the facts. All we have is clues, you know, so we know that Page, and Manafort, and Stone were on the Russian payroll. We know there were all of these meetings between the son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Kislyak, and all these Russian agents. I don’t know whether there was a money making operation, I don’t know whether they were actually colluding to distort the news and to frame the campaign, but that’s why we need an independent commission.
Jamie Raskin: But in France, they hacked and trashed Macron. In a bid to elect the right-wing, immigrant-bashing, Marine Le Pen.
Max Blumenthal: You said that Russia attempted to hack Macron in the French elections.
Jamie Raskin: Yeah, well we know that. I-
Max Blumenthal: The Washington Post has reported that the French Cyber Intelligence Agency has said that it’s not true.
Jamie Raskin: Well I haven’t read this article but, certainly Macron is convinced-
Max Blumenthal: It’s not true.
Jamie Raskin: Well certainly if Macron is convinced of it, and everything that we read before was that there-
Max Blumenthal: Well it was reported days ago, in the Associated Press.
Jamie Raskin: Well all the information I’ve seen is that there was a hacking and a data dump the weekend before. There was certainly a data dump and so are they saying-
Max Blumenthal: Maybe it could have been anyone.
Jamie Raskin: Well, it’s quite-
Max Blumenthal: The French top cyber intelligence agency, the government got access to the servers.
Jamie Raskin: Do you support an independent commission?
Max Blumenthal: Yeah but I-
Jamie Raskin: Well then maybe we’ll get to the bottom of it.
Max Blumenthal: But you said that Roger Stone hosted a show on RT.
Jamie Raskin: Roger Stone, he hosted a series on the Russia propaganda network.
Jamie Raskin: Do you believe that we need-
Max Blumenthal: Roger Stone didn’t host a show on RT.
Jamie Raskin: You’re saying he’s never been on RT?
Max Blumenthal: That he didn’t host a show.
Jamie Raskin: Okay, well look, you can go over any picayune details you want, but I don’t see why it would be in your interests to support an autocratic, authoritarian government, which is jailing journalists and fighting against freedom around the world.
Max Blumenthal: But I think we should tell the people the truth.
Jamie Raskin: Well we absolutely need to tell the people the truth. If Macron is now saying that the Russians had nothing to do with it, I’ll very happily stand corrected but we know from the FBI, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency that Russia was involved in trying to subvert our election. And why would you try to hide that?
Max Blumenthal: You also talked about Venezuela, Philippines and Syria.
Jamie Raskin: Duterte’s Philippines, Assad’s Syria, the recent chaos in Venezuela. All the despots, dictators and kleptocrats have found each other and Vladamir Putin is the ringleader of the unfree world.
Max Blumenthal: Do you support regime change in those countries?
Jamie Raskin: Absolutely, from the people. Democratic revolution I-
Max Blumenthal: Who do you think would come into power?
Jamie Raskin: Duterte’s a killer. Let’s talk about Duterte-
Max Blumenthal: He was democratically elected.
Jamie Raskin: But he’s a killer who has assassinated-
Max Blumenthal: He was elected. He has 80% approval. You support regime change?
Jamie Raskin: Well Hitler was elected too then, you may as well say-
Max Blumenthal: He wasn’t elected.
Jamie Raskin: There’s massive-
Max Blumenthal: Hitler won power through a coalition with the conservatives.
Jamie Raskin: Well, but there was a democratic government. The Weimar Regime was a democratic government but-
Max Blumenthal: Who would come into power in Syria, do you think, if Assad and the whole government were overthrown? Considering that Al Qaeda is leading the armed opposition.
Jamie Raskin: Well I would not favor Al Qaeda and I presume you wouldn’t favor Al Qaeda either?
Max Blumenthal: I think it’s very dangerous to get up and call for regime change.
Jamie Raskin: To call for democracy around the world, that’s what America is. You don’t support democracy and human rights all over the world?
Max Blumenthal: What happened in Iraq?
Jamie Raskin: Why is that dangerous?
Max Blumenthal: Well look what happened in Iraq. It sounds like-
Jamie Raskin: Iraq was based on lies and propaganda by the Bush Administration. As though all these different-
Max Blumenthal: How do you know this isn’t lies and propaganda to advance an agenda?
Jamie Raskin: That’s why we need an independent commission, are you opposed to that?
Max Blumenthal: All the people out here are-
Jamie Raskin: Let me just ask you a question. Are you in favor of an independent commission to get to the truth or do you oppose that?
Max Blumenthal: It would be fine, but I think a lot of what we’d uncover is that you have not told the truth.
Jamie Raskin: We don’t know what we’d uncover. Well that’s-
Max Blumenthal: But you got up and stated certain things as facts that are clearly not true.
Jamie Raskin: Well that’s why we need an independent commission, ’cause all we know right now is what leaks out of the Trump administration. Do you think the Trump administration is telling the truth about their connections with Russia, and Azerbaijan and the-
Max Blumenthal: Well, I think that Kushner-
Jamie Raskin: That’s an amazing thing-
Max Blumenthal: Kushner owes-
Speaker 3: [crosstalk 00:03:57]
Max Blumenthal: Hey wait a minute, I’m in the middle of an interview boss.
Speaker 3: Just a couple of questions …
Max Blumenthal: Why aren’t you talking?
Jamie Raskin: The politics of what you’re doing.
Max Blumenthal: Okay wait a minute. Why don’t you think we’re talking about Saudi and Israeli influence here?
Jamie Raskin: Go and look at a speech that I made about Saudi Arabia and the human-
Max Blumenthal: And Israeli influence
Jamie Raskin: By all means, let’s have the truth.
Max Blumenthal: Well why aren’t you doing that here. Why aren’t we talking about jobs or racism?
It’s about Russia taking-
You said that Russia-
Jamie Raskin: Let’s set up a debate. Let’s set up a debate and we’ll have debate about it.
Max Blumenthal: Do you want to do it?
Jamie Raskin: Donald Trump is the hoax, perpetrated on the Americans by the Russians.
Max Blumenthal: He got up and said that Trump is a Russian hoax.
Lauren Doney: He said there’s a lot of uncertainty-
Max Blumenthal: He said that Trump is a Russian hoax and we have it on camera.
Lauren Doney: Okay.
