Whistleblower: Americans Are Being Murdered While Trump Does Nothing and the Media Cover-up Grows

33:16They'd never cover up on behalf of foreign power when Americans are murdered. But clearly it is happening again. And my son is not even the only American that's been killed there. Since 2003, a dozen Americans have been killed. And even after my son, my whole thing was maybe this time will be different. Maybe something will happen. There'll be a change because there was media out there covering about Safe Story and it won't happen again. There'll be some sort of international pressure. No other American will be killed there. and even after my son was killed two more Americans were killed by Israeli settlers after my son and it just doesn't stop and like you know my whole thing is like like you know why is the US government not doing enough for their citizens you know when it comes to

34:32them being killed by Israelis.

34:39I don't know, Tucker. Don't you think if it was any other place in the world there would be this investigation? They'll send out their investigators and so forth to see what happened. It's been a year down the road. I just feel now it's even too late. Like, you know, what kind of investigation can you do after a year? You know, when... I don't know. You know, I'm going to try to keep doing my part, you know, and demand justice, demand accountability. And hopefully this impunity that they have, thinking they can do anything they want and get away with it, because they are. and nobody's stopping them, slap to the wrist or so forth.

35:35But there's no true accountability. There's nobody going to jail. And like I said, what the director of the FBI said,

35:49he's claiming that you're not going to get away if you kill an American citizen. But these guys have. you can also rape children and molest children in the united states and flee to israel and never face justice and that's happened a lot so of course um they behave as if they have impunity because they do have impunity that's the answer they do have impunity and and you know mike huckabee he called me up two days after. And these were my exact words that I asked him. I said, should I not fear to go into my land as an American that is under my name that I purchased anytime I want? And he said, no, you should not.

36:48I remember one year later, I still fear going into my land. He came to my house. We sat with each other. And he told me he wants to get answers from the Israeli authorities. And still today, no answers from them. The case is still open when we ask. but with no answers, with nothing. Well, he is the United States ambassador in a country that would only exist because of the United States. So if he wanted answers, he could get answers. He's the envoy from the Trump administration, the benefactor of Israel. So it's like not that hard to get answers if you really want to. So he doesn't really want to.

37:39What hurts a lot, Tucker, is like, you know, imagine what it feels like my own tax dollars that I pay contributed to my own son's murder. That hurts. That hurts because we all know our tax dollars go there. And my son was killed there. So do I have a part of that in reality?

38:19you know so i can well you know we can pray for the best and uh and you know hope that there'll be some change you know they'll finally put a stop to this land theft that just keeps going and going and going and just three weeks ago just three weeks ago, they put a new outpost in our land. In the Mazra Shalqiya land. Land that's owned by mostly 80 % Americans from our village. And they brought their sheep. They started small. Now there's a tent there. And now every day more and more settlers are going there. And now another area of our village that we can't go to because there's Israeli settlers there.

39:10This was just three weeks ago. So it's not stopping. It's not, it just, it's increasing actually on an everyday. I appreciate your taking the time to tell your story and the story of your son and what happened after he was murdered in this pogrom. And I hope many people will see this and I hope that changes the result of that. So thank you very much. Well, thank you, Tucker, for having me and letting me give my story and letting my son's legacy live on. Thank you. So if you just watched that entire interview, we were emotionally exhausted by the end of it. You may be asking yourself, among many other questions, why didn't I know that this happened?

40:01Pogroms are underway, literal pogroms, where people are being murdered, including American citizens, including a boy from an ice cream shop in Tampa. and I didn't know that even happened. Well, the reason you may not have known is because the media are, by and large, not covering it. There is one exception. It's a Catholic publication whose political editor you're about to meet, former political editor, and his name is Stephen Harriot. Harriot describes how coverage of this story and stories like it has been shut down at a Christian publication. And of course, if it's shut down at a Christian publication, you can imagine it has no shot at all at most media outlets in the United States.

40:46But without delay, here is editor Stephen Harriot. Stephen, thanks so much for doing this. This story, what happened to you recently is, it's hard to believe at first. So if I understand just the outline of it, you were working for a Catholic news organization, and you were told not to allow anything in print that might criticize, discredit the state of Israel, up to and including the state of Israel's mistreatment of Christians. Is that right? It's not quite such a complete prohibition. more alarmingly, I guess, here's the thing. Let me just, for a little context, I work for, and I'm a longtime political editor for Zeal News, which is a Catholic votes news outlet.

41:41And we have in the past done a lot of coverage, until very recently, done a lot of coverage, arguably more than any other Catholic outlet on the mistreatment of Palestinians by Israeli forces and by the Israeli settler movement. And one of our main sources on the ground has been the organization, the Vulnerable People Project, which I know you've heard of, and I've seen mentioned on your show. And what happened is right after the NAPA conference, it was conveyed to me that we were now adopting a new policy. And it was to drastically reduce our coverage of Israel. Now, I will say it's been presented to me in various ways.

42:26On one occasion, yeah, it was a total prohibition. No coverage of Israel until the elections. That's as a rule. And maybe with exceptions, and there will be, if there are exceptions, it has to be explicitly put, you know, brought to the CEO and brought under extra scrutiny. I'm sorry to ask you to pause. Until which elections? I guess the upcoming midterms would be the reference. And so to me, though, what was alarming on the outset was this came in the context of right after the Napa Conference in California, which was attended by the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, Brian Burnt. And what is the Napa Conference?

43:09The Napa Conference, the Napa Institute, the people present would be influential Catholics in politics and media, donors, and U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, Brian Birch, who is the former president of Catholic Vote, was there, and the current CEO of Catholic Vote and of Zeal, Kelsey Reinhart, and another executive met with him. They also met with donors. meaning the current CEO and other executives met with donors and it was presented to me as coming from that like one of the takeaways from our meeting our meetings with donors and from our meeting with the ambassador is we have to change our editorial policy on all issues with you know all articles that we were publishing with regard to this one issue Israel.

44:01That in itself, without even getting into the substance of what the policy change might be, was so alarming that I immediately went to my immediate supervisor and said, I think this violates my conscience. I don't think I can abide by this. But that was only, I guess, the beginning. If you're over 35, you remember exactly where you were on 9-11, that morning, September 11th, 2001, 25 years ago. But amazingly, after a quarter century, we still can't say with certainty what happened that day. Why? Because the government is holding so many of the 9-11 files 25 years later. That's not the behavior of someone who's telling the truth.

44:41That's the behavior of a government that is lying. Secrecy is a signifier, is a sign that someone's lying. Now, former Congressman Kurt Weldon has been on this for a long time. The FBI actively tried to destroy his life for asking questions about what happened. And his new book outlines it all. The buried intelligence, the the bureaucratic cowardice, and yes, the cover-up spanning multiple administrations, indeed, generations. 9-11 changed history. So it's worth understanding what really happened. And you can get a lot closer to that in Kurt Weldon's book, Able Danger, What the 9-11 Commission Never Told You.

45:16It's available now on tuckercarlsonbooks.com. tuckercarlsonbooks.com. May I ask you again to pause and tell us what your supervisor said when you explain your conscience won't permit you to work under these conditions? Oh, my direct supervisor was very sympathetic. And there are, as you know, on this issue, there's a lot of sympathy. In fact, as I said to one of my bosses, you could cast about for sympathy for days. And if you tell people, we're changing our policy on Israel stories until the elections, you'll find that sympathy in one or two retirement communities and maybe Florida and New York and maybe in some boardrooms in D.C.

46:04But as you've seen, I mean, people are very morally outraged by the comportment of Israel in the West Bank and, of course, in Gaza over the last three years almost. So, yeah, my direct supervisor is very sympathetic. There are plenty of people who are very sympathetic. And in fact, Tucker, I'd honestly say, and I said this to everyone before I resigned, I said, I believe that you are fundamentally in agreement with me on this. I view you not as some bad guy trying to impose something on me, but as a good person who's been manipulated. And to me, that's my main attitude toward this. And I feel bound in conscience.

46:42And I even said this to executives before I resigned. I said, this is unmistakably a moral scandal. And with the involvement of the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, especially in light of how outspoken our Holy Father has been, as well as his right-hand man and the holy man, you know, Virabatista Pizzabala, the cardinal who is the patriarch of Jerusalem, to say nothing of the clergy on the ground in the West Bank.

47:10For the U.S. ambassador to be going to the U.S. and meeting with an executive at a media organization, and saying we need to adjust our policy toward Israel and the way we cover it is inherently scandalous. And I said, I will not be complicit in such a scandal. And I don't appreciate being put in the position of sitting on it. And sure enough, when I reached out to your team, your response, I think, was as commonsensical as mine. Like, are you kidding me? That's very alarming. There's no mistaking it, is there? No, it's shocking. I mean, this is a Christian news organization reporting on, among other things, the mistreatment of Christians in the whole land.

47:54And so to hear not just the U.S. official, but the ambassador to the Vatican would be trying to shut that down. Yeah, I had trouble believing that could be true, but, you know, that's a daily experience for me. Well, and to be clear, Tucker, I wasn't privy to this conversation. I didn't have a conversation with the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, but it was very strange to me that three executives independently confirmed that this conversation had taken place. Two of them were present and recounted, yeah, as I was saying to Brian, and as he said, so to be meeting with the Ambassador to the Vatican and coming out of that meeting with, and here's our new editorial policy with regard to all stories having to do with Israel.

48:41By the way, Catholic Votes, in a sense, I'm Catholic Votes' most senior editor. I'm the political editor. To hear this as sort of just marching orders out of the blue and for it to be presented, frankly, cavalierly. Here's the other thing. When I talked with the CEO, she did mention, I do, quote, I do. She said, I understand that some things have been communicated in a clunky and alarming way. At one point, she even said she would have one person who communicated it to me rescind his communique. Nonetheless, I was like, no, you don't go oops on something like this. This is very grave. and I was very frankly I'm still mystified that they would not see how serious I was but also how grave the situation is if that makes sense What do you think motivated this?

49:44What kind of coverage and pardon my ignorance were you all doing before this conversation? Wonderful coverage really I'm very proud of it I'm very proud of them they really stuck their necks out Um, we, one of our main focuses to give you a flavor of it was Taiba. And thank you, by the way, I've heard you mentioned Taiba on your, on your show. Um, it's the last all Christian town in the West Bank. And it has been subject to some of the, some really nasty settler violence and menacing activity by settlers surrounding it. We're trying to push the local community out. This is an ancient Christian community, they descend from the first converts.

50:24I mean, the West Bank is made up of descendants of Christ's first followers. But we've done some beautiful coverage of Taiba that included exclusive comments from the residents there. That coverage included citations of those residents expressing, well, essentially alleging that Israeli forces were complicit in or even facilitated settler violence against them and threats against them by settlers. So there's a final chapter to this. Hours after I tendered my resignation, the Zeal website published its first report on Taiba without my editorial oversight, and presumably in keeping with the new policy that they had adopted on Israel.

51:19and in sharp contrast to all of the past reports on Taiba, there were no direct quotations from the residents. The main source it cited was an official statement from the Israeli military, and that statement gave its rationale as we are coming and declaring Taiba a closed military zone in order to protect the residents from settler violence. It flies in the face of everything we, the whole perspective of the local community, including, by the way, Father Bashar, the local pastor, who we've quoted in our past reports. These are exclusive quotes. By the way, I got these exclusive contacts through the Vulnerable People Project.

52:05And a major part of the policy that troubled me the most when they said, we're going to be changing our policy on Israel, was zero, absolutely no more citations of the Vulnerable People Project as a source. And I'm like, they're our main source. They're a gold mine. They're a US-based Catholic apostolate. Their work has been favorably written up by the official Vatican News portal. They have contacts with everyone on the ground, including Father Bashar. It's through them that I got these exclusive comments from Taiba's residents. to suddenly no longer be able to cite VPP or use them as a source.

52:43And they're offering us exclusives freely. To suddenly, that's a major curtailment of my ability to cover what's happening to the community in the West Bank.

52:54And so anyway, in this report, no quotations of local residents. The main quotation was an Israeli press release from the military. And by the way, since then, I've been in a group chat with residents of Taiba. And they, sure enough, of course, they told me, the general mood, our sentiment on the ground is, we are frightened of the presence, the increased Israeli military presence. And we don't trust it. And we're afraid that it might even lead to a worse outcome. We feel more under threat. And in addition to that, settlers are still getting through. This is supposedly a closed military zone. The Christian residents of Taiba are saying our movement is being restricted, but settlers are walking into our town armed and not being stopped, which presumably would be the purpose of this closed military zone, would be to check them before they get in, right?

53:55So, and we've seen that there's footage now of people in Taiba being confronted by settlers and then the Bedouin communities right outside of Taiba are being directly attacked by settlers. Yesterday, I was literally in communication with them directly while these attacks were happening. So the military zone is not working. More importantly, the residents don't even believe it was intended to, if that makes sense. Yeah, it sounds like it is working according to its purpose. It's so disgraceful. It's so evil. Why would the United States ambassador to the Vatican abet the ethnic cleansing of Christians from the land that Jesus walked.

54:35I don't understand. I don't either, Tucker. And I can't speculate beyond to say, in a way, I think that what's happening right now, we battle, as scripture says, against powers and principalities. It would be simplistic and unproductive to go, okay I found the bad guys now jump on my bandwagon where none of the bad guys are we're all good the line as Solzhenitsyn said between good and evil runs through the human heart and I just found it runs through the hearts of everyone in my organization right and ours for that matter right and so the message that I feel I want to send is more like right now the church in the holy land is suffering and I want Catholics in America to be intimate with Christ, to be close to Christ, to look to Christ and not lose sight of Christ on the cross and not lose sight of the body of Christ where it's suffering, especially, and not allow whatever the interests might be that would say, well, until the elections, we need to focus, you know, downplay some, you know, like, that's just not an option for us as Christians.

55:49It's not. But we have to be focusing on being in solidarity, I think, especially with our co-religionists when they're under attack. As you said, in the land where Christ walked, the birthplace of our faith, what could be more important than that? Someone's ambitions for 2028? Maybe some donors who are angling for something? certainly, by the way, not even in the interest of the current administration, which has been increasingly outspoken, by the way, against Israeli aggressions. We have Trump directly decrying Netanyahu's use of arms in Lebanon, where their offensive is explicitly modeled after their Gaza offensives.

56:34And he's specifically calling it out for high civilian casualties. We have Vice President Vance warning about domestic efforts to pressure people to comply with Israel's interests. And we have the Trump administration repeatedly calling them out over annexations, over the settler movement explicitly. So yeah, again, if you know what I mean, I guess I'm saying, why would this happen? Because there's a devil. Not because, aha, I found them, the bad guys. This guy's turned bad or something like that. It's not as simple as that. In fact, you know what I would also say is that I would say that especially alarming is the fact this is all especially alarming because of how good everyone involved is.

57:21Yes. There is a powerful, just outpouring of power in the direction of keeping American Christians from looking at their own church where it suffers and their own Lord and being intimate with the people in the Holy Land And it's so powerful that even the best of us, you know, again, a Catholic vote and zeal, I think have done, I would say, arguably, they've been the best of all outlets in the U.S. in terms of coverage of this issue. And even they, someone even got to them. You see what I'm saying? Of course I do. Yeah. So to me, it's almost like, it's not like I found the bad guys and I want to go on a Tucker show and, you know, tell everyone how bad they are.

58:08My attitude is almost more like, wow, this is so bad that even the best people who are advocating ostensibly for the interests of our faith and of our Lord and of the body of Christ are feeling enough pressure that they're going to their editor and saying, shut up. You know, like we have to be real careful, you know, whatever. Like I said, even if they weren't saying shut up and no coverage, even if they were saying we've got a new policy on this one issue, that's it. That's enough for me. I'm like, no, that's very alarming. That is such a wise perspective. And I just want to thank you for it.

58:45Because it's bigger than the story itself. And it is of a piece. And the rest of the piece is Christian persecution. And it's happening in a lot of different places, most strikingly in Ukraine, where the Bolshevik in charge has banned the largest Christian denomination and not one in a thousand Americans knows that their tax dollars are supporting this. So I wonder if you see this as foreshadowing of Christian persecution in the United States. Yes and no. I mean, yes. I shouldn't say no, of course. Yes, in the sense of, you know, the symbol that convinced me and kept me tied to Christianity, even when I struggled most profoundly with my faith to the point of identifying as an atheist, was the crucifix.

59:31And it was because it looks like reality.

59:37Christ identified himself, went out of his way to identify himself kind of especially with people who are not let in on the program. You know, people who are marginalized, who are not respected or represented. And then he died like one of them. And he said, you have to treat them like they're me. Right now I see definitely in our political messaging something that is more dangerous to Christians because it doesn't directly target Christians. Instead, it inveigles them into complicity and attacking their innocent neighbors who are not Christian. And so it's still a betrayal of the heart of Christianity.

1:00:22It is a betrayal of love and of human solidarity. And it is a stumbling block to our neighbors to whom the gospel is meant to be good news, not a threat. So right now in our messaging, and unfortunately Catholic vote has even been, again, some of the best of us are being drawn into this. You've seen the messaging about Muslims. We're living in a context where we as American taxpayers have been made complicit by our taxpayer dollars in numerous, decades of numerous unjust military actions, including against civilians throughout the Arab world. most of the victims of which, yes, are Muslims, many of whom are obviously also Christians.

1:01:09And there's no downplaying the gravity of ISIS, the rise of radical Islam, and the persecution of minorities, Yazidi, Christians, et cetera, throughout the Middle East. But in the context of this, we are part of, we helped get people elected who are involved in horrifically unjust. We just bombed a girls' school in Iran based on like 1.0 level GPS, AI systems. No apologies. It's just sort of, and that's just the latest of a long train of examples of abuses, military brutality, to say nothing of our backing of Israeli policies that have hurt people. Trump went to the Knesset and gave a speech at one point, and he boasted of U.S.

1:01:56manufacturers providing the arms that Netanyahu used in Gaza. And then he turned to Netanyahu, who was present, and said, and you used them well. I cried that day. It twisted my guts because I helped get this man elected. And this is evil. But right now, the messaging of Muslims. El-Sayed, you can oppose the guy's candidacy for numerous reasons. But he said, inshallah. So that's actually code for I'm declaring war on Western civilization. I have a coworker, by the way, he's a Lebanese Christian, Lebanese American. She just says, inshallah. It's like saying, how are you? I mean, it's so common in their language throughout the Arabic world.

1:02:42One person, by the way, who works for VPP is a Christian. He's an expat from Gaza. He said, I say inshallah like 20 times a day. Do you know what it means literally? Do you know what the English translation from the Arabic means? God willing, roughly? Exactly, exactly, exactly. That's God willing. And as a Christian, there's kind of no sentiment I endorse more than that. That's not in conflict with my faith. It's an expression of my faith. So, yeah. And the other thing is, you know, the messaging on the right, we can't be complicit in it, man, as Christians. Oh, I know. It's funny, too. I mean, there's a Christian community in Dearborn, Michigan, and it's all about how they're going to slaughter everyone as soon as we're not looking.

1:03:28This is a group of... They've partnered with local Christians to get LGBT extremes out of schools. Yeah, I know. They're social conservatives. They're family-oriented. Oh, I know. Oh, I know them. Yes. Yeah. And they all work to elect Trump, which is the irony. They all did. I don't know. The support that Trump got from Arabs in the United States, Arab American voters, was really, really strong, the majority. And by the way, I think if I remember correctly, Jesus spent two full days in a Samaritan village, right? And I mean, the Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews, of course. You know, they were going to hell.

1:04:12They were heretics, apostates, and Jesus lingered in their village and brought them over to him. So it's like the idea that we have a moral duty to hate Muslims. No, we have a moral duty to love people, period. Yeah, especially people when they are most directly under threat. Yeah. And I don't appreciate my friend having a crosshair put over her face because she has a Middle Eastern last name and because she says, Inshallah. and that's wrong it is wrong christians have i'm sorry i mean christ demands that we not do that right so i'm i must say i'm really uh i'm impressed by your bravery in resigning something people almost never do um and i'm grateful that you did because it opens up your future to something else and you're clearly on a path that this, this will help this country.

1:05:09So what is your next step? Um, my next step, if I may, is I asked father Bashar. I said, I'm about to do an interview. I didn't say where, um, that's high profile and that will air soon. Um, would you like to say something to American Christians? Um, I'd be honored if I could convey what your message is. Father Bashar is the pastor in Taiba, and I wanted to know his perspective on what, unfortunately, Zeal reported was a new policy of declaring Taiba a closed military zone so that the IDF could protect Christians in Taiba. If you wouldn't mind, could I read his statement? Oh, I would be grateful if you did.

1:05:53Okay.

1:05:57This is what he texted to me.

1:06:04Taiba is not simply another village on the map. It is an ancient Christian community rooted in the land of Christ for centuries, and today our people are facing a very serious threat to their ability to remain on their land in security, freedom, and dignity. For months, we have experienced repeated settler incursions onto private and agricultural lands, fires, damage to property, intimidation of families and workers, and attempts to establish a permanent presence around our town. Even after Taiba was declared a closed military zone, settlers have continued to enter areas around the village. This is why we believe that any new military presence or security measures must be judged by what actually happens on the ground.

1:06:47Are the attacks stopped? Are our homes and lands protected? Can farmers and workers reach their land safely? Can our children and families live without fear? Our concern is that measures announced in the name of protecting Taiba must not end up restricting the people who are being threatened while failing to stop those responsible for the violence. Protection must mean real protection of this community, its freedom of movement, its property, and its future. To our Christian brothers and sisters in the United States, I would say, please do not look at us only as Christians who need sympathy. See us as your brothers and sisters who are asking for justice, dignity, and the right to remain in the land where Christianity was born.

1:07:30We do not ask that you stand against anyone. We ask you to stand for human dignity, for justice, for peace, and for the protection of innocent people. Use your voices, your churches, your institutions, and your relationships with your elected representatives to ensure that the protection of Christian communities in the Holy Land is not only spoken about, but translated into concrete action. and please come and see us. Visit Taiba, pray with us, meet our children and families, listen to their stories and then go home and tell others what you have witnessed. Despite everything, our message is not one of despair.

1:08:08We intend to remain. Our answer to fear is faith. Our answer to isolation is solidarity. And our answer to the threat of displacement is to strengthen life here through our schools, jobs, healthcare, support for young families, and especially through giving our children a reason to believe that they have a future in their homeland. Please pray for us, but also walk with us. Help us keep hope alive in Taiba and keep the Christian presence alive in the Holy Land. With gratitude and hope, Father Bashar.

1:08:42Stephen Harriot, thank you very much, very much for doing this interview and for explaining it so well and for your integrity in how you responded. It's definitely a model for the rest of us. I hope we see you again. Thank you, sir. That's it for us tonight. Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next Wednesday.