Elon Musk now owns Twitter – but the investments from Saudi Arabia shouldn’t leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Plus, nearly three-quarters of Americans want to have age limits for politicians. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Elon Musk now owns Twitter, but the investments from Saudi Arabia shouldn’t leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Well, okay, let me, Farron, I saw this Newsweek, I have almost zero confidence in Newsweek. I mean, zero. It has become nothing more than a, you know, a polarized propaganda rag. What I hated about this story is they act like this is something new. Okay. Twitter was, Saudi Arabia already owned huge interest in Twitter.
Farron Cousins: They had spies at Twitter.
Mike Papantonio: They had spies.
Farron Cousins: We talked about that.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. We did a story on it. Not only they owned, they, they had huge shares in Twitter. So they roll it over to him, to, to Musk and Newsweek goes crazy about it. Like, oh, this is, this is something new. It’s not anything new. They’ve been owning part of Twitter.
Farron Cousins: Right. It, it’s definitely not new, but it certainly is terrifying that, you know, the Saudi Royal Holding company has $2 billion now invested in Twitter. They are the second largest investor behind Elon Musk.
Mike Papantonio: Mm-hmm.
Farron Cousins: And of course, the danger with that, as we have talked about plenty of times, is that Twitter, or not Twitter, Saudi Arabia puts people in jail for their tweets. An American citizen is now in jail in Saudi Arabia for 16 years.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. For a tweet.
Farron Cousins: For criticizing the kingdom on Twitter.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: And, and, and we can’t have these people who will kill you over your tweets having any stake in it. That’s the danger.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. The story we did on this, I, I just, it was weeks and weeks ago. I, I don’t remember exactly, but part of that story was Twitter knew what was going on.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: The folks at Twitter knew that they had Saudi spies that were doing this, and they did nothing about it. And it wasn’t Elon Musk, it was the owners before Elon Musk that said, yeah, that’s okay because Saudis are giving us so much money. This mutt, the prince, the Saudi prince who is an absolute mutt, a wild bear, they describe him, is a guy that is going to do everything he can to influence the, the, the messaging there for $2 billion, just like the government does. We’re gonna do that story today. Just like, just like, just like all these agencies have done with social media. This is a great avenue for the Saudis, isn’t it?
Farron Cousins: It, it is. And again, I can’t stress enough how dangerous this is for the people of Saudi Arabia. Now, I got tons of issues with Musk buying Twitter. I don’t want the oligarchs out there holding the public town hall. That’s dangerous in and of itself. But having people that will literally kill you for your tweets, that’s even more dangerous.
Mike Papantonio: But Farron, do you see the point I’m making? Newsweek acts like this is, okay, this is something new. It’s not anything new.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: The Saudis we’re already in control of Twitter to where the, to where the folks at Twitter knew they had spies, didn’t do anything about it. And now this American is in prison for 16 years because of
Farron Cousins: Well, part of the reason this is treated as something new is because the Royal Holding company came out and bragged about it.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, yeah.
Farron Cousins: On Twitter, they put out this big post like we’re now the second. So they’re drawing attention to it because now they think, oh look, we can be open about what we’ve been doing for years at Twitter. So if, if they’re willing to come out in the open, that again, super scary because now they feel like we don’t have anything to hide.
Mike Papantonio: But is Newsweek suggesting that the folks at Twitter are so stupid that they didn’t know that the Saudis were already in control of Twitter when they were in charge? You see, you got, you gotta, you gotta call balls and stripes.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. People don’t understand that it’s not that they just put the money in.
Mike Papantonio: No.
Farron Cousins: It’s that they’re, they already had the investment and they’ve just rolled it over.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. And put in a little more, I’m sure they’re gonna put in more depending on Elon, what Elon Musk does.
Mike Papantonio: Nearly three quarters of Americans want to have age limits for politicians. Oh this, this to me was such an uplifting story. Wasn’t it? It was just so great to hear across the demographics, young people, middle aged people, old people, they all agree on one thing, the politicians are so old that they’re senile and they’re doing a terrible job. So pick it up from there.
Farron Cousins: Yeah, it is great because again, you’ve got more than 70% of Democrats, of Independents of Republicans, it’s one of the few issues that unites everybody in this country is let’s get rid of the aging gerontocracy that has been ruling this country for decades.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: We all agree.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: And we do need that. I mean, look, you and I have sat here many times and talking about this very issue of people like Dianne Feinstein, who doesn’t know who she’s talking to anymore.
Mike Papantonio: That’s not. Okay. People might think you just made that up. You didn’t.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: There’s report after report where Feinstein is talking to somebody she’s known her entire life.
Farron Cousins: Yeah, for decades.
Mike Papantonio: And does not know who she’s talking.
Farron Cousins: She will stop and introduce herself in the middle of a conversation with somebody she’s known for 30 years.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Or whether it’s Pelosi or, I mean, just go down the list. It’s, it’s for some reason and I, I think it has to do with the way the political, the Democratic organization works, it’s worse in the Democratic organization. The numbers are much, much worse because they, it’s like the story we just did on Podesta. You just hang on. Yeah. You just, all you gotta is hang on. Hang on and we’re gonna run you for president. Hang on and you’re gonna be Secretary of State. It’s, it’s, it seems to be, well, it’s statistically worse with the Democrats. Not to say that Republicans don’t have a bunch of old codgers. But I mean, Maxine Waters, Pelosi, Schumer, Feinstein, you know, our president, it goes on. We’re talking about people in their eighties.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: We’re talking about people that are way, way overdue to go home.
Farron Cousins: Well, exactly. And, and the Republicans have actually been doing, to their credit, a good job of getting younger people. Like who are the rising stars in the Republican party today? Dan Crenshaw, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene. These are all people who are under middle-age.
Mike Papantonio: You might not like ’em.
Farron Cousins: Right. I hate ’em, personally.
Mike Papantonio: But what. Yeah, yeah. You, every day you do a story that exposes them. But your point being is it’s long game.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: Right. It’s long game.
Farron Cousins: Like with Trump’s judicial appointments, he was putting people in their early thirties on the bench, they’ll serve for 50 years.
Mike Papantonio: Completely, completely.
Farron Cousins: But they understand it with, in a way the Democrats do not.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. And I mean, when they drill down, they’re just, it’s not that they’re just old. They think that people are old, they’re senile, they’re ineffective and they’re doing this country harm. That’s when you read those numbers, that’s what we’re, that’s what we’re talking about here, right?
Farron Cousins: And I agree with ’em a hundred percent.
Mike Papantonio: Farron, thanks for joining me. Okay.
Farron Cousins: Thank you.
Mike Papantonio: That’s all for this week but all these segments are gonna be available this coming week right here on this channel and you can follow us on Twitter @AmericasLawyer. I’m Mike Papantonio and this has been America’s Lawyer, where we tell you the stories that corporate media won’t tell you every week because their advertisers don’t allow for it or their political connections don’t allow for it. We’ll see you next time.
