When Leaders Get It Wrong, Who Pays the Price?

“They told you there was nothing to worry about—but real people paid the price.” This episode of The Rant Network cuts through two explosive stories that the Left wants you to ignore: intelligence failures that downplayed real threats and policy decisions that underestimated risk, both defended by people in power while ordinary citizens carry the consequences.  The conversation exposes a broader pattern—leaders claiming certainty, dismissing concerns, and moving on without accountability when those claims collapse.  Whether it’s security risks or public safety policies, the message is simple: when officials get it wrong, the cost isn’t theoretical—it’s paid in real lives.  The question isn’t just who was wrong—it’s why no one is held accountable, and how long people are expected to keep trusting narratives that fail them.

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Transcript

The Phrase That Gets People Killed

SPEAKER_01 0:01

You know, from American pizza to Italian meatballs, David and I are here. What can I tell you? All right, let's get right into it. Nothing to worry about. That's what you hear all over the country. That the Democratic states, nothing to worry about here. Everything's fine. Two stories pro this week that have nothing to do with each other on the first half of this rant. Different countries, different agencies, different crimes, but share one sentence. The sentence that we spoke with complete confidence by people in positions of power who really went, you know, were dead wrong. The real people paid for the mistakes with their lives. Remember, the sentence is there's nothing to worry about. Let's start with the Mideast. Israelis police busted an active Iranian intelligent operation, not in the shadowy, classified, buried in a brief operation. We're talking about WhatsApp and Facebook. Iran was issuing, you know, and using consumer social media apps, the same ones your kids are on, the same ones your employees are using at work to recruit spies inside Israel and the United States. Blackmail, coercion, flipping Israeli citizens one WhatsApp message at a time. Now, hold that thought. Because on that exact same day, that story dropped, another bond cell lands. And this one can make your blood run cold. A former US counterterrorism chief confirmed on the record that U.S. intelligence community officials assessment before the war that was Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon. How's that? Ex-counter-terrorism confirmation. Yeah, not developing a nuclear weapon. That assessment is catastrophically embarrassingly and dangerously wrong assessment. The backbone of the JCPOA, it was justification for sanction relief. It was the intellectual foundation for Biden's administration releasing billions in frozen Iranian assets. The people who built that policy looked at the evidence and told the world Iran is not a threat. There's nothing to worry about. Sound familiar. Now let's cross-country from the Middle East to the Midwest. A Chicago police officer is dead. The suspect who killed him has been released under Illinois Safety Act. That's the cashless bail law that the Democrats passed and love, celebrated and defended as a landmark criminal justice reform. Illinois became the first state of the nation to fully eliminate cash bail. The Republicans stood up in Springfield and said, people will die because of this law. They were called fear-mongerers, they were called racists, they were, you know, the data didn't support their concern. There is a widow today in Chicago this week who could tell you what the data looks like and feels like up close in person. Here's what these two stories have in common, and why I'm furious about both of them. Take a breath. In both cases, in positions of authority, made a call. They said, trust us. They said the threat wasn't real. Or the people's risk was manageable, or the people wearing them were just playing politics. Our intelligence community says Iran wasn't building a bomb. Illinois Democrats said violent suspects didn't need to be held before trial. And in both cases, whether it's Israeli citizens being blackmailed through smartphones, apps, Chicago cops who left on a shift never came home. Somebody paid with the price that the people in power never will or will they ever apologize for. That's the pattern, that's the story underneath both of these stories. The people who got it wrong on Iran are still in the green room explaining why their assessments were nuanced. The people it got wrong about the Safety Act are still in Springfield collecting a paycheck. Nobody's resigning, nobody's apologizing. Nobody looks a family in the eye and says, I was wrong, and it cost you everything. They just move on to the next policy, next assessment, next reason you should trust them and stop asking questions. I'm done trusting them after this week, and so should you. David, you know, you've got your own story that you've told. You know, CISIS has been warning about years of Iranian intelligence operations targeting Canadian dissidents and Jewish community leaders on Canadian soil. Trudeau's government dragged them its feet for years before designating IRGC as a terrorist organization. You know, you can keep going, right? Canadian police chiefs went on the record blaming Trudeau's 2012 bill or four amendments, putting violent repeat of embers back on the street. The same exact argument Republicans make about safety acts in Illinois, were dismissed about fear mongering, too, on your side of the border. You know, failure, failure of both of these, the Safety Act and the Iranian institutions, demand public trust be burned. The intelligent community is just a judicial system.

AOC Claims And Red State Data

New York Deficits Crime And Hypocrisy

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Where did this go, David? Okay, Stuart, you know, you know, you brought in Ganon into this, but you can bring in almost any Western society right now. Because once upon a time, because once upon a time, both sides of the aisle cared about crime. Both sides of the aisle actually cared a little bit more about their people and economics and whatever. But what we're seeing right now with one side, and that is the left, your socialists, your hard left Democrats, and even in Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada has literally lost sight of what is critical and important and continues to blame the right for what's wrong in the country, in your country, my country. You talked about the IRGC, Pierre Polyev, the conservative leader here, has been screaming for the longest time. Him, Melissa Lanceman, the whole party. Where are you to stand on Iran? And to continue to deflect, because they don't side politically with Trump, they're saying no, there isn't an issue. No, there isn't a problem. We've uncovered in Canada, Stewart, all kinds of different Iranian cells that have tried to do things here in Canada. And it's amazing you're right that the denial. But let's go back to your side of the border for just a second, because you have an election coming up in a few months. And here in about six months from now, here's the problem. You have people like Alexandria Ocosio-Cortez, your girlfriend, your love, your love affair with this woman. Okay, all she's trying to do is to deflect the problem. That all of the problems of the United States are anybody who supports Donald Trump. That has been the mantra since 2024. Since the election was called and he chased Biden and then a Kamala Harris. The only message Democrats can drive is all problems lead back to Donald Trump. But reality, unfortunately, isn't there. AOC goes on a podcast and says that red states that support Donald Trump are oppressed and neglected. Those are her words, oppressed and neglected. Famous words by the left, oppressed. Right? Everybody's oppressed. Funny how a socialist is pushing the notion that conservative-minded individuals oppress people. Meanwhile, socialism as a whole and the brand that she's trying to push is all about oppressing all the classes. And how do I prove this? Well, let's get real. Red state, blue state. She wants to divide that only blue states are doing great. Really? AOC, can I ask you, can you name for me the top five economies in the United States, the five top five states right now with the best economies? Florida one, Texas two. Ooh, red states. But you said that those are two oppressed and neglected states. Right now, in terms of growth, Florida and Texas are ranked one and two. Florida's ranked number 16 in employment. Texas is sixth. Utah's third, by the way, Stuart. Okay, a purplish state. Idaho is a red state. They're ranked fourth. Arizona's fifth. They're a purple, call it a purple state. What do they all have in common? Growth. When there's economic growth, it isn't about the rich. AOC is stuck. That anything that is good goes only to rich people. That's her mantra. This is the neglected and pressed message she's trying to drive. What is she not telling you? That her own state that she represents is suffering. Why? We're talking about here a five billion dollar deficit in New York City alone. And when was the last time you had a Republican as mayor of New York, Stewart? I can't remember. But frankly, but frankly, since the time of Rudy Giuliani, past September 11th, and you look at who has been in mayor of the New York City, it has gone deficit after deficit after deficit. And now your socialist, racially hateful mayor Mamdani, who I know you ranted about this week, has continued to push the idea that all problems lead back to Trump. I inherited the problem. It's not me. I promised you free services. I promised you all these things. And instead, he delivered a higher crime rate in transit. He's created a bigger deficit inside that. And in places like Seattle, Stewart, okay, where they're talking about, oh, we need to tax the rich. Oh, we need more, we need more, you know, you know, we're we're we need a bigger tax revenue. Instead of thinking of development and growth like Florida, Texas, Utah, Idaho, and Arizona, it's about taxing wealthy people. The mindset of the socialists are all the same. But what they are ignoring, Stuart, is hey, New York has one of the highest poverty rates in the United States at 14.2 percent. I mean, what does that tell you? Your state that you represent has a high poverty rate, but it's Trump's fault. That is where we have to start looking underneath the layers. The media won't give you this kind of information. From Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson to AOC to Mamdani, they're driving the same message. The faults, the problems are Trump and Trump's cronies, and the rich are oppressing you, and you're being neglected by these rich oligarchs, and you have Bernie Sanders running around the country telling everybody that it's all their fault. But go to any blue state and ask yourself the question: what have they done for their people recently? How have they improved the economy recently? How have they done what programs have they put into place? And you'll see again and again reparation payments come up again, racially motivated budgets, as we've seen in some some cities. Stuart, imagine if you will that there's a there's a concept, there's a there's a a politician, a left-leaning politician who is demanding a bud black budget, she calls it. A budget for black people should be instituted if this isn't healthy, Stuart. Okay, no, no, hold on. Let me wrap this up. I'll not all week. I didn't have a chance to speak this week. Okay, let me wrap it up with this.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

I'm not wrapping it up. I got something to add. You left out some major fucking headlines. Major, major AOC, you brought her up. The bartender from the Bronx who became the moral compass of the DNC as a friggin' uh communist has once again graced us with her economic wisdom. No billionaires. Her position is no billionaires should exist. Yeah. Let me get this right. Jeff Bezos went to build a garage, you know, built a company out of a garage, you know, employs over a million and a half people, delivers their packages in two days, powers half the internet, puts rockets in space. AOC's big takeaway, he has too much fucking money. No problem. The what, you know, she woke up and is worried about it. You know, not the border, not fentanyl, not the facts over, you know, frozen egg costs. Five bucks, you know, you know, billionaires. Here's another thing you can't, you know, confiscate your prosperity. You can't tax ambition into existence. Every single time history governments decided to put ceiling on wealth. You know what happens? Poverty goes on the floor further. Look at Venezuela, look at Cuba, look at the Soviet Union. Pick your favorite. And let me talk about her second the private files. You know, she wears a designer outfit to a gala that costs$35,000 to$50,000 a plate, tax the rich, written on her back. That was a med gala 60 years ago. That was 29. The dirty little secret about AOC is wealth is an envy machine. Look at her fucking bank balance, it is growing by lips and fucking lips around her fucking mouth. She is the biggest hypocrite next to Nancy Pelosi. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

They're all they're all no, no, no. But they point out to Marjorie Taylor Green, they point out to Marjorie Taylor Green, who was a Republican. Look how her net worth exploded. But don't look at any Democrat. None of them, none of them prospered.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

By the way, the last New York mayor was actually Michael Bloomberg, who later changed to an independent. And so the only true is the late Rudy Giuliani, who was 94 to 2001. There hasn't been a Republican since, nor do I think there's going to be anyone anytime soon. You know, the way I agree with you.

Socialism Arguments And Economic Warnings

SPEAKER_00 15:30

I think that what's going to happen in New York, I'm going to guess this, and I'm going to throw this out there. My prediction. We love being ahead of the curve. No, but I'm going to put my prediction is this Mamdani's going to end up with two terms. That's my assumption. Because, you know, people are slow to learn pain. But I'm telling you, in my mind, the next mayor of New York will not be a lefty or socialist. But Stuart, here's the crazy thing: the Dems buy in so much into their own juice and they drink their own Kool-Aid. You know, if you look at California, they're going to get a new governor. Newsom's out, he's done. What he's done to that state is been is atrocious. Okay. Billions of dollars on a rail on a rail system that has gone to God knows where he was, you know, his party was talking about more, you know, reparations to to seven generations of you know for slavery and you name it. And when they had their their their debate this past week, only the Democrats stood up and said, Oh, we we think he did great.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Not one criticized Newsom, but all the Republicans how bad Trump was and how they're gonna get Trump. That was all but listen, the state that gave us eight dollars of gasoline, 10 cities on Rodeo Drive, a bullet train that, you know, it's been billions under construction since the Obama administration. Let me paint the picture here. One of the most beautiful states in all of North America by design has the highest income tax in the nation, has the highest poverty rate in the nation versus the cost of living. More people leaving than running, businesses fleeing to Texas, Florida. You know, the last helicopter on a Saigon type stuff. And the leading Democrat runs, running into the replace. Gavin Newsome says, we need more of this. Gavin Newsom himself, the man, the lecturer of California with his fucking beautiful podcast, from the COVID restrictions to the French laundry, you know, from the payoffs, the the amount of fraud, waste, and abuse in that state. Lefty Newsome and the mayor of LA, you know, 800,000 is the middle class struggling to pay their bills in California.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Stuart, but if you go back to New York, hold on, hold on, go back to New York, where AOC says, you know, nobody's oppressed in New York, right? It's we're we're we're safe, whatever. Governor Kathy Hochel is sitting there and making a statement. I mean, this is insane, right? That if ICE cracks down on illegals, there'll be more violent crimes. There'll be more violent crimes. And I'm thinking, wait a second, what are you saying? If we crack down on illegal criminals, there's gonna be more violent crime. What do you have now? Like, this is the insanity that you twist. So, what she wants to do is to make sure that local police do not help ICE. You freaking nuts.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

This is AOC, the self-appointed queen of the of the Bronx. You know, let me tell you something. The the the median income has fallen to 40,000 in a one-bedroom apartment, right? That you know, that runs three thousand dollars a month. Hang on a second. If you if you if your annual median income is forty thousand dollars and your your average apartment runs in three thousand, a district where the public schools are crumbling, where the subway crime is through the roof, where small business owners are boarding up the fucking windows, and they're saying, God bless Florida and free America. Well, look at the same thing. Nobody's oppressed, nobody's oppressed in New York. It's the same woman who built her entire political brand identity on the concept of systematically racist structural oppression rigged from the top machine, and you know what? She's the fucking top machine, and she's the hypocrite, she's another Bernie Sanders, another racist, another piece of shit. And you want to know something? They talk all this shit about Donald Trump, they talk all this shit around DeSantis, they talk all this shit around all these Republicans, dude. These are the most racist people I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Stuart, I don't remember the name of the company that is picking up and leaving New York. Uh, what's it called? The leaving New York to move to Florida. He's doubling down on it because of Mamdani filmed a video in front of his apartment building. And and he blamed Ken. Sorry? Yeah, Ken. Ken Griffin. So here's an example of blame the wrong people. Here's what Mamdani and and and these lefties are proving. You blame the wrong people. You're gonna you're you're sidestepping your mistakes, you're sidestepping that you fucked up, that you're causing more of a problem. So this is what socialism does, Stuart, to your point, and with this, we'll wrap it up. Here's what you've done. You've taken a financial firm, an investment firm, that was ready to employ thousands and thousands of employees. Yes, the owner benefits, of course he does. He put all the risk in that AOC doesn't understand. AOC doesn't has never been an entrepreneur, doesn't understand the notion of risk.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

She was a fucking booby bartender. You don't know. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Stewart, I I love your enthusiasm, but my point is this AOC and a lot of these politicians have never really worked a life like this, and they're critical of these billionaires who succeeded. But these are billionaires who employ people. So if you take out thousands of jobs out of New York and they bring them to Miami, guess what's gonna happen? Blame the rich for abandoning New York. This is what else happened. Blame the rich for abandoning New York and they ran off to Florida.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

And how dare they do that and abandon the that's where comes the like Canadian version, which will soon be announced in New York, the exit tax, like the half a million dollar Canadian exit tax that they want to have. They want to do the same shit in New York. Listen, there is nothing nice to say other than the plastic surgery that AOC and Mandami have, because they're just full of shit. And that's it. And if you're dumb. Enough to believe them, you're dumb enough to go with that. No, you don't need the balls.

Final Takeaways And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 22:08

What you gotta wrap up with people, you gotta look at this. Why is it that socialism has failed? I just came back from Italy, people. I want to tell you something. You talk to people who live in these socialist-driven countries, they're watching their wealth disappear, they're watching the retirement opportunity disappear, they're watching their livelihood disappear because they believe that the left can bring them the prosperity. The left isn't bringing them prosperity, it's sucking it out of the system. And it's their benefiting while you're losing. So whether it's on international affairs or economic domestic affairs, wakey wakey people. Let's wake, let's wrap this up, my friend.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

David, I'm gonna let you say goodbye because you were missing MIA. Not in Miami either, all week long.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Had a business trip in Italy, loved it, learned a lot. But hey, good to be back home, my friend. Have a good weekend, everybody. We'll catch you on the other side. Take care.