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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Trump And Israel To Hamas, Accept Deal Or Else; Trump Threatens New York City If Democratic Socialist Wins Race; Hegseth Expected To Deliver An Address To Outline New Defense Strategy; Gunman Rams A Truck Into Michigan Church; MAGA In Meltdown As NFL Announces Bad Bunny Will Do Halftime Show. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired September 29, 2025 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, agree to a deal or else.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: This can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way.
PHILLIP: Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump pitch an end to the war as America's support for Israel falls.
Plus, after bragging about decorating the White House in 24 karat gold, the president threatens to starve Gotham of funds if the socialist candidate wins.
ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: The best way to respond to Donald Trump's strengths is not collaboration. It is his threats rather. It's responding with strength.
PHILLIP: Also, the more that's learned about the attacker of a church, the less the right is putting the left on trial for American violence.
And he speaks Spanish, hates ICE and is no fan of Trump. And now MAGA's big mad that Bad Bunny is the big game's super act.
Live at the table, Cornel West, Pete Seat, Ana Casparian and Rob Bluey.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening, I'm Abby Phillips in New York.
Let's get right, right to what America's talking about. Accept the deal or else. That's essentially the warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met today with President Trump and accepted the White House's new 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza. It calls for a ceasefire upon the agreement and the release of all the remaining hostages within 72 hours. And in exchange, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Now, Trump says that he believes peace is closer than ever. There's just one thing missing, and that's the sign-off from Hamas. Both Trump and Netanyahu say that there will be sharp consequences if the militant group turns down this proposal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NETANYAHU: Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it, and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: And to that, Trump reaffirmed, Israel has a full U.S. support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible, they're the only one left, everyone else has accepted it, but I have a feeling that we're going to have a positive answer. But if not, as you know, Bibi, you'd have more full backing to do what you would have to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Joining us in our fifth seat at the table is Max Boot. He's a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Reagan, His Life and Legend.
Max, it's really only in this conflict, I feel like, where there's a peace deal announced, except that one party to the deal is not even really involved in it. That's the first thing. And the second thing is Netanyahu, I think, he's obviously a linchpin of a lot of this. Do you -- did you sense that he was actually committed to the peace deal or is he just waiting for Hamas to reject it so that he can move forward with a war plan?
MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: That's my conjuncture, Abby. The reason why Prime Minister Netanyahu was willing to go along with this, which includes some things that will be a hard sell to his right wing coalition, including a path for statehood for Palestinians, is because he expects that Hamas will turn it down, or if they do accept it, they will say, yes, but, and add conditions, and then they will negotiate endlessly while Israeli troops continue advancing in Gaza.
And it's a shame because, in theory, at least on paper, this is actually a pretty good plan. This is the best plan I've seen that offers a way out of the fighting in Gaza, and it involves President Trump, for example, giving up some of his more outlandish ideas, like removing all the Palestinians and creating this Middle Eastern Riviera, mercifully, that's not part of this planet. And it does include acknowledgement of the reality that Palestinians want their own state.
But, unfortunately, as you say, Abby, Hamas was not consulted. And there are going to be a lot of things in there that they object to because it basically requires their unconditional surrender. It requires them to give up their weapons and either accept an amnesty or leave Gaza, and they're unlikely to do that, or at least they'll probably say, we love the idea and concept, but we'd like to negotiate some more, and then Bibi will say, no, you know, you haven't agreed to it, so we're going to continue advancing.
[22:05:13]
So I would love it if this would actually end the war, but, unfortunately, I don't think that's likely.
PHILLIP: As with a lot of things, it's a big show of things before things are really done.
ANA KASPARIAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND HOST, THE YOUNG TURKS: Right.
PHILLIP: I mean, I think that, really, the bulk of this is to be continued. We don't know if Hamas is going to agree to it.
KASPARIAN: Well, we've been here before. And one of the areas that Hamas has disagreed with in the past, and, really, it was the only area of disagreement was giving up their weapons. And I'm actually unsure of how that would even work, because Hamas is not a typical military. How do we know how many weapons they have, what kind of weapons they have, how do you demilitarize Hamas.
I just think that this is essentially setting up a situation in which Israel can continue on with what they've been doing, essentially take over the Gaza Strip, annex the West Bank and point to Hamas rejecting the deal as their excuse for being able to do so.
And I'm worried about that because there's going to be a lot of pain and suffering as a result, not just for, you know, the Palestinian people who've really suffered the brunt of this, but obviously the hostages, the family members of the hostages who have been protesting on a regular basis. I just want peace and I don't think we're going to get there with what I'm hearing from Netanyahu, to be honest.
ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE DAILY SIGNAL: I think we all want peace, and I thought it was notable that you had several leaders in the international community come out and praise the deal today, including Tony Blair, who's going to be a critical piece apparently if this moves forward. Tony Blair was apparently involved in the negotiations of this.
And so I think this is a hopeful sign that we're a step closer to peace. And I think, importantly, Abby, what you have here is a guarantee of Israel security, which has to be first and foremost. Secondly, the release of the hostage, which we've been waiting a long time for, and also a rejection, as we've seen, according to some of these leaders, that they want to create a Palestinian state. And there has to be several conditions met before we ever get to that point where we're having that conversation.
PHILLIP: But you're saying that there's a -- that it's not a rejection that there would be a Palestinian state.
KASPARIAN: It's all B.S. The U.S. is not favor of it, neither is Israel.
BOOT: A lot of these details are very fuzzy because it acknowledges the Palestinian aspiration for statehood without laying out a path for statehood. And it also creates a mechanism where you have Palestinians involved in governing Gaza, but it's all very fuzzy. Including there's this idea of a reconstruction authority that President Trump would be in charge of, but there's no sense of where the money will come from or how this will actually function. So, there's a lot to be determined here, and I think there's a lot of room for disagreement down the road.
KASPARIAN: Max, are you not concerned -- sorry.
CORNEL WEST, AUTHOR, TRUTH MATTERS: I think it's important, though, just that peace is not the absence of tension, as the presence of justice, and if you don't proceed on the notion that a precious Palestinian life has exactly the same value as a precious Israeli life. So, when I look at a deal like this, especially as a Christian, I'm concerned about the least of these, I'm saying, okay, I want to see Israeli humanity, security, and dignity. I see it and I see control. I want to see Palestinian humanity. I want to see Palestinian security. I want to see Palestinian dignity. I don't see Palestinian voices playing a role in shaping this particular deal, which means that you fall back on the United States and Israeli friendship, which has never been fair to Palestinians.
PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN, GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION: But I think I think that's wrong, Doctor. It says that Hamas will not have a voice in what happens next. It doesn't say Palestinians. And I know it's very difficult to divorce the two right now since Hamas controls Gaza and is controlling the lives of Palestinians that are seeking that two-state solution. But what makes this situation different -- you said it wasn't different.
KASPARIAN: It's not.
SEAT: What makes it different is having those Muslim majority countries on board. And last week, we spent a lot of time, wasted a lot of breath talking about teleprompters and escalators, but what happened at the United Nations is President Trump met with eight Muslim majority countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the foreign ministers of every single one of those countries came out today and said, they support this. They made positive comments, and now they're applying peer pressure on Hamas. In fact, they gave Hamas the plan earlier today.
KASPARIAN: Those countries have been pretty deferential to the United States.
SEAT: But they've rejected prior peace plans. KASPARIAN: It's great that Trump met with them and had these conversations with them. I just want to remind you all that we, the American taxpayers, spend quite a bit of money on essentially bribing these countries to play nice with Israel. So, let's not forget about that.
But the other point that I just want to make is how do you square the circle when it comes to Netanyahu's repeated statements about how he doesn't believe the Palestinians should ever be allowed to have their own state, a right to self-determination?
[22:10:00]
And more importantly, he conflates the Palestinian people with Hamas on a regular basis, so does almost the entirety of the far right current government of Israel.
SEAT: Well, frankly, a two-state solution should not be the result of Hamas slaughtering nearly 400 people.
KASPARIAN: I think a two-state solution should be the result of agreements that have been made long ago that Israel never honored and continue to annex more and more land from the Palestinian people.
WEST: But I think, in response to you, can I just respond to my dear brother just quickly, that you got to deal with occupation and domination. The only reason why you have Hamas is because you got occupation and domination. It's like in the United States, you had slavery, right? You can have Denmark (INAUDIBLE), John Brown, you can have Nat Turner, you can kill all of them. And if you don't come in terms with slavery, then sooner or later you're going to have to redo the whole thing over.
So, I hear what you're saying, but don't reduce Hamas to the Palestinian people. You got to deal with their suffering and their occupation and domination. Does this deal speak to occupation? I didn't hear a mumbling word.
PHILLIP: Well, let me just say that --
BOOT: Well, I mean, one good thing is that the Palestinian Authority actually did endorse this deal. So, moderate Palestinians are in favor. The problem is to get Hamas to go along, which will be very difficult. And Hamas could actually placed Netanyahu in a very difficult position if they were actually to agree, which I doubt they would. But if they were to agree, then the ball would be in Bibi's court. It would be very hard for him to get his coalition partners to agree to the steps for Palestinians occupying --
KASPARIAN: But the deal requires --
PHILLIP: The deal at this moment, I mean, Israel -- you just brought up Netanyahu perhaps being in a corner. Some people argue he's in a corner right now. The United States is now seeing rising dissatisfaction with Israel, with Netanyahu in particular, it's bipartisan and it's particularly generational. 53 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Israel and support for Israel. And among Republicans, that has increased between 2022 and 2025, from 27 percent to 37 percent. That's a ten-point increase.
Trump understands. That he sees it. He's talked about it. He said in a recent interview that Israel was the strongest lobby I've ever seen. They had total control over Congress and now they don't. They're going to have to get that war over with, but it's hurting Israel. They may be winning the war, but they're not winning the world of public relations, you know, and it's hurting them. That was Trump.
BLUEY: Abby, this was a big topic of conversation earlier this month at the National Conservatism Conference, where you had a debate on this between more of the isolationist wing and the neo-conservative wing. And I think what the American people, particularly younger Americans, I'd say it's a generational divide that you see when you look at some of the crosstabs in the polling between Republicans and talking about specifically here. And the younger Republicans, younger conservatives, I think are concerned. They came of age at a time of 9/11 and endless wars and a lot of money being spent on foreign entanglements. And they don't necessarily want to see the United States go down that path. And so that's why they're looking for a third way and a different outcome.
PHILLIP: 50 percent of young Republicans under the age of 50 have an unfavorable view of Israel, because they -- I mean, they have eyes, they are on the internet. They see the videos that everybody else sees. I mean, it's not a secret why that be.
KASPARIAN: Which is why Netanyahu met with conservative influencers at the U.N. and essentially said like we need to do something about X, we need to do something about TikTok. But instead of doing something about the reason, like the root cause of why people are souring on the Israeli government -- I don't want to say people are souring on Israel. That's a country of like innocent people, like I don't think anyone should hate Israel.
PHILLIP: And I do think it is the Israeli government in particular.
KASPARIAN: Government, yes, exactly.
WEST: The majority of Israelis who support what has been going on, the war crimes, the genocide, the ethnic cleansing. Charlie Kirk himself, God bless his soul, he was changing in regard to this issue. Why? Because he's a free thinker. You know, I got a whole lot of disagreements with that brother. We won't get into all of the challenges and so on, but he was undergoing this change. Why? Because so many young people see these kinds of massacres in real time. The challenge is to make sure they don't fall into the bitter cup of anti- Jewish hatred or anti-Palestinian hatred.
PHILLIP: But the pressure from Israelis has been building, Max.
BOOT: Yes. I mean, the war has actually become very unpopular in Israel because Israelis want a deal to release their hostages. They don't want to keep fighting forever because they know there is going to be no payoff for them for sending their troops into this perpetual war in Gaza. The Israeli security establishment and the Israeli people want the war to end. Netanyahu doesn't want the war to end, because if it does, his coalition government will splinter.
And so, unfortunately, I think he's pursuing his own political self- interest at the expense of Israeli interest and creating huge damage for Israel reputationally around the world, including in the United States.
PHILLIP: Pete, there's no question that Donald Trump wants this war to end and for all kinds of reasons, both selfish and good reasons, right?
[22:15:01]
But at the same time, Netanyahu -- I mean, even Trump has questioned, according to our reporting, whether Netanyahu actually wants to end this war. CNN's report says, for months, Trump has grown exacerbated at Netanyahu's resistance to ending the war and his expanding military operations in the Middle East. Once confident his personal relationship with Netanyahu could push him toward a resolution, Trump has wondered out loud in recent months whether he's being played by a man he described as a friend.
And that would be a very important question on a day like today, because it seemed very clear that Netanyahu was very interested in the alternative ending to this story, which is not a peace deal, but rather an ongoing march of the Israeli military into Gaza. Is Trump being played?
SEAT: I mean, they may very well come to having to completely destroy and eliminate Hamas. I mean, they have been determined by the United States since 1997 to be a terrorist organization. Quite frankly, I wish they were already gone. So, it may come to that.
PHILLIP: But say that that's not even possible.
SEAT: But that relationship --
KASPARIAN: It's been two years. It's been two years. Like how are they going to root out Hamas? Like what -- they are literally multiplying extremists right now.
SEAT: You have Donald Trump proposing a --
KASPARIAN: When you kill people's entire family members, that leads to more extremism.
SEAT: I know you're anti-Israel. I get it.
KASPARIAN: Okay. You know what? I'm anti-mass slaughter and that's mass slaughter's been going on for two years straight in Gaza, and the West Bank. How many countries has Israel bombed over the two years? Because it's not just Gaza.
SEAT: Come on. KASPARIAN: It's not just Gaza. 65,000 people slaughtered in Palestine, in Gaza, that doesn't matter? That doesn't matter at all. What happened on October 7th was an atrocity out terrorists and I've spoken out against it. And what I think was so interesting is that there's no concern at all for the lives of the Palestinians who have been lost in Gaza at all, tens of thousands of people.
SEAT: That's why you want to get rid of Hamas because they are destroying those lives.
KASPARIAN: What does that mean though? Do you think they're rooting out Hamas right now? They leveled the entirety of the Gaza Strip. They've leveled it. They've leveled it, Pete. The tallest residential building in Gaza, gone.
PHILLIP: We have to go, but Ana's question is super important. It's a question of, is it possible at this point to root out Hamas, to truly get rid of Hamas? And if so, after two years of unfettered war, why hasn't Israel done it?
SEAT: Is it possible? Yes. Should it be done? Yes. And even if it's impossible, that doesn't mean you just sit on your hands and allow terrorists to control land and people.
KASPARIAN: They used a quadcopter drone to assassinate a doctor --
SEAT: And that is why the Palestinians today are suffering.
KASPARIAN: They killed a doctor with a drone. I saw the video at Nasser Hospital today. Is that rooting out Hamas?
BOOT: The bottom line is Hamas is an evil --
KASPARIAN: We all know the truth here.
BOOT: Hamas is an evil organization that deserves to be eradicated. But if the history of warfare tells you anything, it is you can't kill yourself out of a counterinsurgency. And that's what we discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's what a lot of other countries have discovered.
PHILLIP: All right.
WEST: But if you don't come to terms with the occupation and the domination, you'd see the cycle that goes over and over and over again.
PHILLIP: Thank you very much for joining us, Max Boot. I appreciate it.
Next for us, President Trump is threatening to take away federal funding if New York City elects a Democratic socialist candidate, Zohran Mamdani, and now Mamdani is responding to that.
Plus a search for a motive in two deadly mass shootings in America, while the White House stays mostly quiet on them. We'll discuss. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
PHILLIP: Tonight, Zohran Mamdani fires back at President Trump's threats to New York City funding. Over the weekend, Trump said Mamdani's campaign to be mayor will prove to be, quote, one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party. He added that Mamdani, quote, needs the money from me as president in order to fulfill all of his fake communist promises. He won't be getting any of it. So, what's the point of voting for him?
Well, CNN's Erin Burnett spoke to Mamdani about that threat tonight. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: So, the number this year from federal government was $7.4 billion to New York City. Are you okay if New York City loses that?
MAMDANI: No, we will fight for every single dollar that the city currently receives from the federal government. And I look for examples across this country that showcase the best way to respond to Donald Trump's strengths is not collaboration, is his threats, rather it's responding with strength. And what we see in California is an attorney general of the state has estimated that for every dollar they spent on lawsuits against the federal government's threats to withhold funding, they won more than $30,000 in what would otherwise have been lost. And so we will take that same approach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: The paradox, of course, of Trump's post and also of his behavior in this whole situation is that he says, this is so good for Republicans, and yet he seems to be willing to do almost anything to get Mamdani out of this race. It's too late now, more than likely, but why? Why is he playing both sides of this?
BLUEY: Abby, I think you're going to see more fireworks. I mean, Trump has a lot going for him in this particular case, just as Republicans have pointed to other Democrat politicians in the past and try to make them individuals that they identify with certain brands of the Democrat Party. And in this case, Mamdani has identified himself as a Democratic socialist, or as conservatives would say, a communist. And so why wouldn't they play up some of the policy proposals and the cost of those and what it would mean in terms of the implications for the residents of New York City were he to be elected? And so, yes, you are going to see more.
PHILLIP: But on what basis would Trump withhold $7.4 billion from New York?
BLUEY: Well, we know Congress controls the purse string, so there's -- that's a lot that that he would have to --
[22:25:05]
PHILLIP: I mean, he's going to really say, oh. New Yorkers, you exercised your right to vote, we're going to take your tax dollars away from you?
KASPARIAN: Except New Yorkers spent almost 18 percent of GDP on federal taxes. I'm talking about New York City taxpayers, 18 percent of their GDP last year on paying federal taxes. The idea that the president is going to retaliate against local leaders just because he doesn't like their politics and withhold money that they're entitled to is ridiculous to me. And, honestly, it sets up a really, really bad precedent. I would be disgusted if Biden did something like that. It disgusts me that Trump is threatening to do it just because he doesn't like Mamdani, doesn't like his politics and wants to go against the will of voters in New York City.
SEAT: Well, there's two points, if I can, that I want to make here. One is New York is the beating heart of the Democratic Party right now. One, you have a socialist, self-described socialist, that is not a pejorative, he says it himself, who's running for mayor of New York City, and you have Chuck Schumer who is driving us towards a government shutdown because he's worried about a primary challenge from AOC. It is incredibly New York-centric, and it's the battle taking place in the Democratic Party.
The second point is the former governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, I was at this event back in 2009 in my home county, Lake County, Indiana, which has had a troubled past. It's where Gary is located. But people were complaining about all the corruption and the grift that was happening there and asking him for help. And he said, quote, I believe in home rule, and you're entitled to all the lousy, clumsy, graft-ridden government you are willing to pay for. That's how I feel about New York right now.
PHILLIP: Fair enough.
SEAT: You're entitled to all the socialism. You're willing to vote.
PHILLIP: Fair enough.
WEST: But I'll tell you this, I'm glad that you even described Democratic Party having a heart. Because it seems to me they've been so spineless.
SEAT: I'm feeling nice today.
WEST: You're very, very kind. But I'm going to say this though.
PHILLIP: Well, Dr. West, Doctor, let me ask you this, because it's to your -- perhaps to the point that you're going to make here. But the Democratic Party, it's a big question, what should they do with Mamdani. And in The New York Times, there was an argument that they should embrace the eat the rich populism. A scorching economic message delivered by political outsiders standing up to the powerful. The villains in this narrative are the elites at the top of the broken system. Do you think that that's right, that Democrats should just forget about the labels and just embrace the economic populism?
WEST: Oh, and it is a populism. It's not a socialism. Mamdani's not a socialist at all. This is new deal liberalism, new deal social Democratic policies. And New York is not just the center of what you said to be the Democratic Party. It's the center of the national and international capitalist order. So, if Trump wants to be a gangster and bully and said, I'm going to take your money if you win, doesn't he realize that when people straighten their backs up and have a spine and respond to his bully activity, if New York wanted to boycott the federal government as a city, the government would go down too.
And there's an identity in New York that cuts across class Brooklyn, boogie down Bronx, I live in Harlem, New York would be able to come together. So, all this talk about socialism, that's just abstract so and so. (INAUDIBLE) is a liberal, he's a social Democrat. He's no revolutionary at all. I'll do that.
KASPARIAN: I actually agree with your take on that. And, honestly, I think Mamdani represents the class-based politics that Trump pretended to be about and ran on both in 2016 and 2024 but didn't -- he didn't deliver.
WEST: And Brother Bernie did ran in too.
KASPARIAN: He did.
WEST: And many of us were with him. But he was unable to succeed at that level. But thank God brother Zohran Mamdani doing his thing.
BLUEY: I'll give you this much. I do think he's tapped into the issues that particularly young people care about. I mean, they can't afford housing in this country because the price is so high and interest rates are, you know, at historic levels, and all of these challenges that they're encountering as they enter the world. The problem is that the policies that he's pursuing are not going to make things any better for them.
And we know this because we can look at four years of Joe Biden and the spending spree that the federal government went on and what that meant for the cost of living in inflation in this country.
KASPARIAN: I think Joe Biden and Madani are very different. Joe Biden was all about policies, public private partnership. For instance, like the infrastructure bill, which, you know, Democrats love to talk about, love that it happened, but it really privatizes a ton of public infrastructure. There's a lot of corporate giveaways in there. Mamdani comes from a different school of thought.
PHILLIP: Yes. I got to leave it there. But next for us, images that show the LDS church attacker in a Trump shirt with a Trump sign outside of his home lead to some questions about what was the motive. The FBI director is quiet so far on this case.
We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:34:42]
PHILLIP: Tonight, the search for answers after a gunman rammed a truck into a church in Michigan and began shooting, killing four people and setting the building on fire. Investigators have identified the shooter as Thomas Jacob Sanford, an Iraq war veteran who served in the Marines. Now, Sanford's family is cooperating with the FBI as it investigates the attack as an attack -- an act of targeted violence.
[22:35:03]
And while the motive has not yet been established, the more that we are learning about the attacker, the less the right is putting on the left for the trial -- on trial for violence. Notably absent from all of this is Kash Patel and J.D. Vance's assessment of the shooting that the shooter's apparent politics are not -- they're not coming up in this conflict.
KASPARIAN: Right.
PHILLIP: And you know, so, it's so interesting because this attack is like so many others. I mean, there was another attack in North Carolina, just three people killed in a restaurant. And there are some common denominators. But I do think that all of a sudden, the FBI is absent, the vice president is very calmly just saying this was horrible, but not attaching it to politics. And I think that's actually not bad.
KASPARIAN: That's a good thing.
PHILLIP: That's a good thing. It's a good thing. It should have been that way from the beginning, but it just, you know, it illustrates what's been happening over the last few weeks.
KASPARIAN: I think it's also a good thing that Kash Patel is doing press conferences about this because he kind of bungled, you know, the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination with saying all sorts of things that didn't end up being accurate. But putting him aside, you know, we have a very serious problem in this country with mental health.
Undiagnosed, untreated, this guy who, you know, carried out these horrendous, horrible acts. Multiple deployments in Iraq, we know that, you know, there are ton of war veterans who are suffering with PTSD and all sorts of other mental health issues. You know, there was someone who had had conversations with him recently and he was having all these paranoid thoughts.
We have a serious problem. We're not taking care of our people in this country and that's going to lead to these acts of violence. I'm not justifying it. I want to be clear about that. But in order to prevent it from happening, we need to stop pretending like we care about undiagnosed, untreated mental health issues and actually have our lawmakers, you know, walk the walk, allocate the money, have these mental health facilities that will actually help people.
And it's not just this story. I mean, the story about the refugee from Ukraine who was stabbed to death on a train. I mean, the perpetrator in that case also had severe mental health issues. I believe schizophrenia, according to his mother. We need to do something about this instead of just reacting to it every time it happens.
PHILLIP: Casting blame, which has been happening. I mean, there is an escalation. I think there's no question that violence is absolutely escalating.
(CROSSTALK)
WEST: There's no doubt about it.
PHILLIP: But the blame game, I think, is part of what's happening here.
WEST: I was blessed, really, to have a wonderful conversation with the Grand Russell Nelson, who was 101 years old. He just passed. He's been leader of the Church of Latter-day Saints. He's a very decent brother. And one of the things we talked about was the spiritual blackout, the moral meltdown, and now, of course, government shutdown.
All happening at the same time without social supports in place for the weak and the vulnerable. And that's where Baptists like me and Mormons like him -- Jews, Muslims, secular folk, Buddhists, Hindus have a moral and spiritual common ground. And we need to accent that common ground in order to try to get through this shutdown and the meltdown and the blackout that's happening in the country.
BLUEY: Abby, first of all, thank you for talking about this issue. We have seen a significant, a sharp increase in attacks on Christians and churches. Bishop Robert Barron put the number, I believe, at over 700 percent. The Family Research Council said last year there were 383 attacks on churches.
And so, I think that it's important to recognize that people of faith, as they have for thousands of years, are being persecuted, and Christians in particular. In this particular case, Dr. West, I agree with you, we live in a society and a world with sin and wickedness. We just have to recognize that there are a number of factors that could go into why these individuals are launching these attacks. And there's not probably one single thing that we can point to, Abby, unfortunately.
PHILLIP: But why, you know, I hear you mention the churches. I think that's an important factor. But I mean, I saw people correctly noting that schools, just everyday schools where your kids go for elementary school all the way up to high school are also ground zero for mass attacks, mass violence in this country.
Why isn't that talked about? And why isn't anything being done about that? I mean, that is perhaps more persistent than even this sort of left-right churches, non-churches schools. And the common denominator is crazy people with guns. SEAT: I would say the common denominator is all of us. We have sucked
the joy out of life. And we can't see the difference between disagreement and hatred.
[22:40:00]
And when we have a disagreement with our neighbor or somebody who takes our parking spot at the Walmart, what do we do? We turn to violence. We can't have a conversation. We can't be civil about it. So, every time in the aftermath of the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk or this situation, I know people want to ascribe political motivations, but this isn't always about politics.
KASPARIAN: No, it's not.
SEAT: Yes, there was an attack on the freedom of speech. There's an attack on the freedom of religion. Yes. But we are attacking each other and our humanity and our decency every single day. And so, when we allow politicians to make this about politics, guess what? They're making it about themselves --
KASPARIAN: Well
SEAT: -- because they're worried about being the next victim. And I don't want anything to happen. But it could happen to any of us at any time and we don't focus on that enough.
KASPARIAN: I agree with you wholeheartedly in what you just said. I also think it's a way of deflecting any blame, right? Because this country is not doing well. The ordinary people in this country are not doing well, whether it's due to having difficulty making ends meet, difficulty paying medical bills, difficulty getting treatment for mental health issues, PTSD from multiple deployments to the Middle East. Like, these are real problems that have never really been addressed. And whose fault is that?
It's our lawmakers who just refuse to address them and instead get into these, like, ridiculous squabbles, political theater, endless hearings, whether it's in the House or the Senate, that doesn't ever lead to anything. We need to start holding our politicians accountable. And this is not me blaming the left or the right. Both parties are responsible for essentially neglecting their duties. That's how I feel about it.
WEST: I think it's beyond politics and even elected officials. You're talking about a culture. I think you're talking about ways of life that no longer put a premium on integrity, honesty, and decency and preoccupied (ph) with the 11th commandment, thou shalt not get caught. So, survival of the slickest. No society can survive with that kind of spiritual vacuity no matter what. And that's where that spiritual level that you're talking about, brother.
And I agree with you on this, I can tell you that. We might disagree on a whole lot of other things, but he's hitting the issue here because as human beings, if we don't get beyond these political troubles and partisanship, we're going to lose the planet, we're going to lose the democratic experiment, the empires take over, and next thing you know we got the Race Makers running around the world.
PHILLIP: Rob, the last couple of weeks have been characterized by partisan finger-pointing. Is it time now to move forward in a way that actually gets to some of underlying issues that Ana was talking about?
BLUEY: I think you could, but again, will agree with my friend Dr. West here. I don't know that the answers all lie in politics or legislation or executive orders. I think that fundamentally, what we've seen is people have abandoned religion and faith and the belief in Jesus Christ. We have moved away from some of those very foundational principles that not only were instrumental in the creation of this great country that we live in, but have guided us for thousands of years.
And so, I wouldn't necessarily always look to Congress or the White House for answers, Abby. I think there are steps that they can take. I used to serve as the senior warden at my church. And we took steps years ago to harden the facility and make steps. And I know that you asked the question about schools. Schools have done the same thing. And still, people find ways.
PHILLIP: And I think you're right. I mean, there's obviously the cultural problem. But I also think that we have a very concrete mental health problem.
KASPARIAN: We do. Yeah.
PHILLIP: That's -- it's very straightforward, very concrete. People that are very sick are roaming the streets.
KASPARIAN: Yes, exactly.
WEST: Absolutely.
PHILLIP: And they're carrying out their lives. They just have a gun in their homes and they go and they shoot up an LDS church. I mean, that's a concrete problem. That is -- I wouldn't describe that as cultural. I would describe that as a societal problem. Like we actually need to do something about that.
WEST: Absolutely. But the fight back is, if we had a mass movement of people who cared about those precious brothers and sisters and siblings who are out there on that street, then we would still have a much better place.
PHILLIP: Yeah, perhaps.
WEST: Absolutely.
PHILLIP: All right, everyone, coming up, music superstar Bad Bunny will be headlining this year's Super Bowl halftime show. But his previous political statements already has MAGA world throwing challenge flags. We'll discuss next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:48:53]
PHILLIP: Tonight, MAGA is in meltdown mode after the NFL announced Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny will headline its halftime show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: The Grammy winner is seen as a controversial pick and he has made it clear he is not a fan of Trump or his policies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson complained that Bad Bunny doesn't have any songs in English and right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec suggested that Obama is somehow to blame. Because, of course, Obama.
KASPARIAN: Thanks, Obama.
PHILLIP: It must be Obama's fault.
BLUEY: Conservatives love beating up on the NFL.
PHILLIP: I mean, I'm going have you explain this one because these are your people.
BLUEY: Well, so --
(LAUGHTER)
BLUEY: I would say the - couple of points here, Abby. The NFL has made a series of missteps in the eyes of conservatives over the course of the past decade. Let's face it. There was the whole controversy over kneeling and Colin Kaepernick.
PHILLIP: Yeah, because free speech is not a thing in America.
[22:50:01]
BLUEY: But I think at the heart of this is actually a capitalist move on the part of the NFL commissioner. He just said a couple of days ago that he wants to take the NFL international, he wants more teams playing games across the globe. And so, what better way to maybe appeal to a broader audience beyond the domestic United States audience than have somebody like Bad Bunny do this.
PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean look, he is the third biggest streaming star in the globe, on the whole planet, okay? And he doesn't speak English -- he doesn't sing in English. He does, in fact, speak English. He doesn't sing in English. But why is that so threatening? I mean, there are plenty of non-Spanish speakers who love Bad Bunny, okay? And his cultural appeal has to be pretty far and wide. So, why are conservatives picking a fight with them?
SEAT: Well, thank you for the question. I am a huge Bad Bunny fan.
(LAUGHTER) PHILLIP: I knew you'd be.
SEAT: As you all know, I have it on repeat. I'm always listening to Bad Bunny. I can't understand a bit --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: You were in Puerto Rico the other day.
SEAT: Yeah. Well, cause he won't come here because he's worried that ICE is going to raid the venues, which he has actually said that is not a joke. The NFL had to see this coming. They saw some of the backlash that came from the remembrances of Charlie Kirk, which they allowed the teams to decide that was not a dictate from the NFL. They are making this decision. They had to know that he is opposed to the President, that he supported Kamala Harris, that he has made these comments about ICE.
At the end of the day, I don't care. Sing, entertain, do what you do best. But we live in a politicized world, and the NFL can't be sitting there saying, well, we didn't know this was going to happen. We didn't know this would be the response when it was the most predictable response.
PHILLIP: I mean, they probably don't care.
KASPARIAN: They don't care. The controversy means we're talking about the NFL and that's probably what they want.
SEAT: And Bad Bunny.
KASPARIAN: You know, so they're probably thinking, darling, let's go for it.
(CROSSTALK)
WEST: It's about big, big money -- about money.
(CROSSTALK)
KASPARIAN: I mean, he's -- he's an entertainer. He's fun to watch. I like some of his music. Not everything needs to be politicized. I get that were in a very politicized moment in this country. I'd like to move away from that at least a little bit when it comes to entertainment. Just a little bit.
BLUEY: That's sports.
KAPARIAN: That's sports. Yeah.
PHILLIP: There's no question that politics is infecting everything. I mean, sports, entertainment. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if President Trump showed up at the Super Bowl. He likes -- he showed up at the Ryder Cup this weekend. You know, it's going both ways. I mean, I think sports would like to be away from politics, but politics is trying to get into sports and entertainment. WEST: In a moment in which there's such spiritual emptiness, sports is
a certain form of religion. For some people it's a dominant form of transcendence. They get a little distance from the fact that they're living paycheck to paycheck and trying to get a little joy in life before the worm gets their bodies.
So, the sports is constitutive of the American way of life, but it's money, money, money. And I just say let Bad Bunny go, Puerto Rico forever. And a lot of these hip hop artists, you can't understand the words anyway.
(LAUGHTER)
KAPARIAN: True.
PHILLIP: That is actually -- that is actually true.
(LAUGHTER)
WEST: Yeah, and a lot of people forget Puerto Ricans are Americans.
KASPARIAN: Yes, that's exactly right.
WEST: And human beings, more importantly.
PHILLIP: I mean, the part -- I think you remembered Bad Bunny had endorsed Kamala Harris after the garbage joke at a Trump rally here in New York City. But that joke was offensive to a lot of Americans and a lot of Republicans at that time just thought it was a nice ha-ha moment. And I think this almost feels like turnabout.
BLUEY: Yeah, it could be. I mean, it's interesting that you bring that up because a year ago, everyone was worried that that was going to sink the campaign in the closing days. Turns out it didn't have much effect, I don't think in terms of how people voted. And I think ultimately, Pete, I agree with you. I mean, let them sing.
SEAT: You say it so pained.
BLUEY: Well, I'm not going to watch the halftime show anyway, so for me, and I think there are people who tune in for the Super Bowl, just for the entertainment factor. There are others who tune in because they want to watch a good football game between the two best teams in the NFL.
And I that's probably ultimately how it's going to play out, Abby. And ultimately, I do think that one thing that sports gives us, it's an opportunity to take a break from politics. So, I'm hopeful that people don't politicize this even more than it's already become.
PHILLIP: Yeah, I'm not sure that there's any need to kind of antagonize Bad Bunny.
KASPARIAN: No.
PHILLIP: He is insanely popular -- insanely popular. And that's not possible unless you're reaching a whole lot of people who are crossing a lot of kinds of demographic groups and categories that we like to put folks in. But thanks for that, everyone.
Coming up next, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth set to address America's generals and admirals tomorrow as a new report says those leaders are raising questions about his military strategy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:59:35]
PHILLIP: In just a few hours, hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world will hear from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He's expected to deliver an address to outline the administration's new defense strategy, as well as discuss new standards for military personnel.
But it comes as "The Washington Post" is reporting that some of those very leaders are raising serious questions about Hegseth's priorities. The Post reports that the leaders are critical of some of the abrupt changes that he outlined.
[23:00:03]
And that includes moving troops back to the United States to focus on homeland defense. The tone of the document is also reportedly more partisan than previous ones, saying the Biden administration hurt the military.
Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight". You can catch me anytime on your favorite social media -- X, Instagram and TikTok. "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
