'You Want The World To Think It Was ISRAEL?' Piers Morgan vs Bassem Youssef on Charlie Kirk

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0:35So Charlie Kirk himself tweeted the right to speak freely at the birthright of all Americans. It's very interesting that in the last three days after Charlie Kirk was killed, they even proposed a bill to revoke citizenships for people critical of Israel.

0:51Piers Morgan:Who committed the hit job on Charlie Kirk? I don't know, but I find it very interesting that Netanyahu, our prime minister of our country went around the TV shows, making sure that we didn't kill. I mean, it's like, this is like a very weird position. But I've also been, as you know, increasingly critical of the Israeli government. I'm sorry, you're not fooling me, Pierce. You are actually the real Iron Dome of Israel. You want the right to suggest that Charlie Kirk was the subject of a hit job by Israel. You want the world to think that. Well, let's talk about Toby Robertson. So Israel openly causing civil unrest in London.

1:23Piers Morgan:You call me an ill-informed, irresponsible journalist. Because I'm not a journalist. I'm a comedian. Remember, I'm a clown. Charlie Kirk's murder has shone an unflattering spotlight on the abject state of discourse and division, especially online, where extreme takes increasingly lead to real-world consequences. Many of the protesters at London's massive anti-immigration march this weekend were already fired up by some dubious content, brought their fury about Charlie Kirk onto the streets, and at the heart of it all is a bitter blame game which neither side is in the moon for compromise. Comedian and activist Bassem Youssef is a familiar face to uncensored viewers.

1:58Piers Morgan:His recent contribution to these debates implies he's in no mood for taking the temperature down. He's about to embark on a new tour called the Belly of the Beast. And he joins me now. Bassem, great to see you again. Hello. What is your view of the Charlie Kirk assassination? Oh, assassination is bad.

2:22I mean, it's a very open question. So if you're talking about the assassination, of course it's bad. But can you get more specific? What do you want me to say?

2:30Piers Morgan:Yeah, I mean, I guess the more specific one would be, I've been appalled. I didn't agree with everything Charlie Kirk stood for or said, but I respected the fact that he always went in to college campuses in particular and invited everyone who disagreed with him to come and debate with him. He was always happy to hear other people giving their views and would challenge them and they would challenge him. And I was appalled that the woke left, as I see it, as opposed to the old liberal left, of which I used to be a happy member, that the woke left seemed to be gleeful about his murder and have raced the social media to celebrate it.

3:12Piers Morgan:We've seen rap stars do it, we've seen TikTokers do it, influencers do it, all over the world, competing with each other to see who could be the most gleeful. We've seen teachers, doctors, university administrators and so on. I'm at a complete loss to understand how any human being with any sense of humanity would want to be seen celebrating the murder of a 31-year-old man with his wife and two kids watching at the time for his opinions. I mean, it's terrible, of course. I mean, to celebrate anybody, whether it's a 31-year-old father or babies and children in Gaza every day where we have seen the woke left and the right are celebrating the death of children every single day and nothing happened to them.

3:58I mean, first of all, when you say the woke left, who are these people? Are they like, who are the leaders? Bunch of pop stars and influencers and people with TikTok. And I mean, does that represent?

4:09Piers Morgan:I think it's more. Well, I would say it's more than that. I'd say there's a lot of people who I think have been part of what I call the woke ideology in the last few years, which has morphed from a very laudable thing originally. In the 60s and 70s, it started in American black music and it was about promoting a raised awareness of social and racial injustice. I read a book about it. By that criteria, I'm happily woke. But what it's morphed into in recent years, driven, I think, by very tribal social media, is it's become a form of fascism, where people on the woke left are quite happy to want to shame and vilify and cancel and destroy people for having a different view to them, whether that view is about historical figures or about books or about movies or about fashion or about hairstyles or what you can wear on Halloween or whatever it may be.

5:01Piers Morgan:It became a puritanical purge, which I felt has bordered on fascism. And at the heart of it was the constant description of Donald Trump as the new Hitler, his supporters as the new Nazis. They're all a bunch of fascists. And eventually you have a young, deranged mind who apparently, according to investigators, is of a woke ideology, radicalised, who initialed on the bullets that this was an anti-fascism assassination because he probably believed that Charlie Kirk was a fascist and a Nazi and everything else because that's what his people had told him. And I feel that's an incredibly dangerous cocktail that has been allowed to happen.

5:49Piers Morgan:And when I saw the celebrations going on, I realized it wasn't just about this shooter, that there were a lot of people in America, in the UK, around the world who actually agree and were prepared to celebrate it. Well, let's break this down. Now, when you say the left is very general, if you have thousands of people with TikTok accounts that celebrate people's death, it happens on the right and on the left. There are people who have mocked the death of the Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and her dog that were shot in front of their four years old. And again, I just want to preface it. I'm not condoning what happened to Charlie Kirk.

6:27What happened is terrible. It should not be accepted. And mind myself, I will never celebrate something like that. But like, I'm a little bit confused because someone like Randy Fine, who's a congressman from Florida, who posted about going after people's jobs if they mock Charlie's death online, which is terrible, of course, like if you mock anybody's death. But the fact that you go after someone, it's very confusing for me. For those of you who don't know who Randy Fine is, he is the fat bitch who continues to suck Israel dick every day on daily basis. And that guy, he is in Gaza. Like you said, everyone in Gaza should die.

7:00killed them all, let the blood fall in Gaza, they are animals, and now he pretends to have a soul? This kind of manufactured, selective rage will confuse me. If you're going to have rage, please, if you're going to be angry, please, but just be consistent. We have people losing their jobs, their careers, getting cancelled for being dismissive about Charlie, again, terrible to do, but I don't get it because I thought cancelling something is what the hippie PC left would do. I don't condone making insensitive remarks about a guy who was just murdered, we can discuss his ideas. We can praise or trash his ideas because his ideas will live on forever.

7:35But if some people are insensitive or rude, well, he was a public figure. For many people, he was a controversial figure. If today Biden or Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton died or got shot, I'm sure there's a lot of people that will celebrate their death. If I got shot today, I am sure there are millions of people around the globe who would travel in my death and they would make content that would call it insensitive. I'm sure that if you died, Piers Morgan, people would be celebrating. So I don't understand. Yes, we can talk about it being insensitive, terrible. We can talk about it with a moral issue.

8:08But I don't understand the double standard of the West. Well, I think I do.

8:11Piers Morgan:Listen, I think on that, Basav. No, no, let me. Yeah, sure, finish. Because for years, we as Muslims and Arabs, we were lectured from the West about freedom of expression, freedom to offend. It's very important. Freedom to offend. Freedom to offend. But for years, people made fun of Muslims, Arabs, our religion, our culture, our babies and children being the cattle being gathered every single day. And no one lost a single minute of sleep over it, which is very confusing to me because the lines between what is legal, what is allowed, what is accepted, what is punishment, what is prone upon, these are lines deemed hazy.

8:43So please, yes, go, rage, like be angry about it, but like be consistent so people can believe you.

8:48Piers Morgan:You know, I think you make a very good point. I've seen some of the hounding of certain people out of jobs in the last few days. is clearly hypocritical, because unless you're actually condoning the murder and endorsing and supporting an act of criminal murder, if you're just criticising Charlie Kirk for positions that he held, I think that's perfectly OK, right? I may not like it if you're a friend of Charlie's or one of his family members, but he would be the first to say, that's fine. Where I think the line is for me with cancel culture, if you like, is that there's a guy, for example, who's the president-elect of the Oxford Union Debating Society.

9:29Piers Morgan:I think you've done it, Bassett, haven't you? It's not just how the news is told, but what's left out, which concerns me. And when a friend in the business recommended I try Ground News, I gave it a go. Quite honestly, I was impressed. It does something brilliant, which most news platforms are afraid to do. It's an app and a website that lines up coverage of the same story from across the spectrum. Left, right, international, and lays it all out side by side. That kind of transparency is increasingly rare and is vital. Ground News helps you to dig in and find the facts by showing you who owns each outlet, what their bias is and which stories are being buried.

10:05Piers Morgan:It has an especially revealing blind spot feed which services stories being reported almost exclusively by only one side of the political divide. I want to hear every side before making up my mind. Ground News makes that possible and easy. It's independent, funded by subscribers and not corporate interests, just like my show. And it's a tool that puts the power back in your hands. Go to groundnews.com slash peers to claim your 40 % discount to the unlimited access vantage plan and see what everyone else is missing. That's groundnews.com slash peers. Yep. Right, so we've both done that. It's probably the most famous debating society in the world.

10:46Piers Morgan:The whole point of it is that they bring people into that chamber to debate, to have different opinions and debate, as you and I do regularly. And the president-elect, after Charlie Kirk was murdered, having debated opposite Charlie Kirk in that chamber in May himself, actually gleefully celebrated the murder. Said, LOL. And said, let's fucking go, with a big exclamation mark, right? That, to me, it's not cancel culture to say that guy should not be the president of the Oxford Union debating society. Clearly, he should not be the president of a debating society if he celebrates somebody being murdered for their opinions.

11:30Piers Morgan:Would you agree with that? I agree with that. But let's say if we agree on that, let's agree on everything else. So everybody who holds a position who mocks the death of Palestinian children being killed every day in front of cameras, they should lose their job too. You understand why it's difficult for me to be on the same page with you? Because this is like cherry picking. Well, you haven't asked me if I agree with you. No. I don't disagree. I think if you're a doctor... Let me explain. If you're a Harvard professor or you're a doctor or you're a teacher and you glorify or celebrate the murder, depending which side you're on, whether you see it as murder or, you know, collateral damage as you go after Hamas, whatever you want to call it.

12:13Piers Morgan:But if you are seen celebrating... You had to mention Hamas there, right? No, no, I'm just showing you... You had to just, like... No, no, no, no. You know my view of this. No, no, Basim, no. I'm simply saying... You just have to mention Hamas. I'm simply saying there are many pro-power... Wait a minute. Let me clarify. The reason I clarified, there are many people who believe what the IDF has been doing with civilians is murder and genocide. There are others on the pro-Israeli side who believe that they are targeting a terror group in Hamas and that innocent people will get killed in the process.

12:45Piers Morgan:Therefore, it's not murder. So I'm clarifying the two sides of that debate. You have a strong view. Other people have had on have an equally strong view the other way. But my point being, if you're in a position... There's no two sides of genocide. There's no two sides of the Holocaust. I know. So let's stop two-siding it because it's becoming exhausting. OK, let's not get into that part of the debate. The part I want to agree with you about is this. I think if you're an administrator of a university or a hospital or a school, if you're in charge of teaching people or, you know, medical practice and you are seen celebrating the deaths of innocent people publicly on social media, you should not keep your job, right?

13:27Piers Morgan:Because clearly you are unfit for that job. And it should be down to the people who run these organisations to say, sorry, no, you don't get to teach kids if you glorify murder? Well, there are people who are teaching kids on the left who actually glorified, like, hey, happy five-year anniversary for George Floyd is five years sober because he's dead for five years. I mean, the thing is, my thing is, if we're going to live in a utopian, polite society, let's make it general. The idea of just, like, cherry-picking things like that... I don't disagree. I don't disagree. Yeah, so... And the thing is, here's the thing.

14:01This is the internet, Pierce. The internet will always promote the most hateful, the most controversial reactions. This is how social media, like, I mean, there's like a whole kind of scoring system. A like would be one point, an angry face would be five points. This is what the internet, this is what boils up to the surface. It's always like that. If people say, oh, Charlie was a good man, I hope he's in heaven, that will not get a lot of traction. But people with more controversy, this is just a function of the Internet. You know, but if you're going to talk about the Internet, people all go on Twitter and just write whatever on their mind.

14:38But if you're going to if you're going to punish people with whatever on their mind. So we need, I think, to expand this spectrum. And let me read something that Charlie Kirk himself tweeted talking about free speech, because in April, he said, tomorrow the House will vote on H.R. 867, a bill that will criminalize private boycotting of Israel, fines up to$1 million, and prison up to 20 years. Bills like this only create more anti-Semitism and play into growing narratives that Israel is running the U.S. government. In America, you are allowed to hold differing views. You are allowed to disagree and protest.

15:12You're allowed to find too many people who hate America to move here from abroad. but the right to speak freely at the birthright of all Americans. This bill should not pass. Any Republicans that vote for this bill will expose themselves. We will be watching very closely. And then it's very interesting that in the last three days after Charlie Kirk was killed, in the past three days, the Congress approved$650 million for Israel for missile defense. They presented an amendment that bans Pentagon from boycotting Israel. And they even proposed a bill to allow Mark Rehubio to revoke citizenships for people critical of Israel.

15:50This is what we need to talk about. This is what we need to talk about. If there are people there who celebrated the Pope would kill. It's been going on for years. Even when the Pope, if he died, people celebrate his death. This is words. Yeah, it could be terrible, offensive words. But when you turn words into destroying people's careers, revolving people's citizenship, because they talk about a foreign country, this is the real problem. This is the real problem with freedom of speech. That's not about people celebrating or angry about someone who died. Our roads and infrastructures, our education system, our health care, they're failing.

16:32While settlers in the West Bank, they equip our Palestine, they get free housing and free health care, free education. Same in England. I mean, I'm sure I'm sorry, but like you as a very famous and a very able and a very competent investigative reporters, I think you should actually talk about why half of you, more than half of your cabinet in the British government is financed by Israel. Why the Royal Army, the Royal Air Force are giving logistical help to Israeli planes bombing Gaza. I'm sure that there is not a single British person who would agree on that. Isn't that more important than this kind of manufacture rage?

17:09I mean, why don't you talk about, like... Well, OK, but let me... Aren't you worried? No, no, but, like, seriously, seriously. I hear you, I hear you. I'm very, very curious. Yeah, but why don't you talk about this?

17:19Piers Morgan:But, Bassem, as you know, I talk about the war all the time. No, no, you never talked about the Israeli lobby financing your British... Well, there are always lots... You never did. All right, there are always lots of... You never did. OK, but there are lots of... You never did. OK, but I've also been, as you know, are increasingly critical of the Israeli government. You can't accuse me of being biased. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're not fooling me, Piers. I'm sorry. Because, like, I came on your show many times. I discussed October 7th. Many people came to you and asked you, and people said, oh, Piers Morgan have, like, changed the mind.

17:49I'm sorry. It doesn't fool me for a second. It's not about changing my mind. I'm sorry. You and the Western media have been complicit in diverting and deflecting the truth and the facts. You are actually the real Iron Dome of Israel. You pretend to ask the tough question for the Israeli to maintain your credibility. but like you, over the past two years, you had laundering Zionist talking points. You never investigated the Hannibal Directive. You never questioned why it took them six hours to respond. You never used the Hasselblad... How many times have I had you on the show? No, no. No, no, no.

18:16How many times? How many times have you been on? It doesn't matter. No, no, it's not about you. You say I never questioned these things.

18:22Piers Morgan:I've platformed you multiple times and you have talked about this every time. Right? So you have been doing that on my show. Literally, you have been doing that on my show. And you effectively sabotaged these interviews. I brought up in your interviews many times Aza White-Stan, who's a British reporter, who talked in length about the rape hoax, about the Hannibal Directive, and he was raided by British police. They took his laptop, and I asked you twice on your show to bring him on your show to talk to you about how the Israeli propaganda lies are all lies, but you never did. If you actually were actually honest about this, you would do this.

19:00It's not about platforming. I mean, you're platforming people. It's good for views. It's good for reach. But, like, I'm sorry. It's about, like, how many times did Ben Shapiro come on your show and he talked about moral equivalency? There is no moral equivalency. There is no moral equivalency. Well, he thinks there is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said there's no moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel. He said that. That's right. But the thing is, yeah, but if any journalist who had read a little bit, who would say, well, Naum Chomsky said that moral equivalency is a propaganda term that was used in order to prevent us from looking to our actions.

19:34So we turn people into bad guys and good guys. The bad guys, even if he's occupied, he deserves to be killed. The good guys, even if they nuke them, it's OK because it's the good guys. You see, this is how you do the conversation. It's not about platforming.

19:47Piers Morgan:You think Ben Shapiro, you think Ben, listen, Bassam, you think Ben Shapiro is very partisan to the Israeli position? I wouldn't disagree. I don't think he would disagree. But many people think you were very partisan the other way and that your hatred of all things Israel leads you to say things... Well, leads you... Hang on. Leads you to say things... Leads you to say things like this. This is what you said about the Charlie Kirk murder in relation... Many people think you were implying something about Israel. Here, let's take a listen. Charlie Kirk is an obvious hit job, what happened there.

20:23But will we get the answer? No. They will stick it to whatever and then use it. I don't know, maybe they will stick it to Iran, like Netanyahu and his people, you know, the Israeli wire and the others were pushing for Iran being the culprit behind Trump's assassination. They can do that to Charlie Kirk and start a war or stick it to the left and start a civil war.