General Barry McCaffrey (Replay). America Is The Bad Guy. Can Nato Survive Trump?
Independent Americans with Paul RieckhoffShow Notes
General Barry McCaffrey has seen more war and more national security decision-making than almost anyone alive. A retired four-star, four combat tours, three Purple Hearts, veteran of the National Security Council under three administrations. In this replay, he sits down with Paul Rieckhoff for a no-BS conversation about a moment most Americans still haven't fully absorbed: the U.S. is no longer trusted by its closest allies, our institutions have been hollowed out, and the most trusted institution in American life — the armed forces — is being dragged into domestic politics in ways that should alarm every citizen, regardless of party.
More from Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
Paul Rieckhoff joins Connell McShane on News Nation with retired Air Force Special Operations Commander Glenn Ignazio to call the Ukraine pivot what it is: a 180. Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff addressed Vladimir Putin as a "humanitarian" — a word for a man who has indiscriminately killed civilians from Odessa to Bucha and is still shipping lethal aid to Iran. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Elon Musk himself ordered the Starlink/Starshield throttle that blindsided Ukrainian forces mid-fight, a precedent Glenn calls unprecedented and dangerous: a civilian defense contractor unilaterally shutting off a battlefield capability. Zelensky is signaling openness to freezing the front lines to get to a ceasefire — not to surrender territory — but only if Putin stops the bombing and shows up to the table.
Paul Rieckhoff sits down with retired Marine Colonel Matt Baker, the independent veteran running for Congress in Virginia's 2nd District — a shipyard-and-base-heavy stretch of coastline where readiness is being ridden into the deck and families are watching their sailors cycle in and out of the Iran war. Baker is a Naval Academy grad, a combat veteran of Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and a battalion commander in Afghanistan who's now running against a Republican incumbent and a Democratic former Navy commander — two candidates with roughly $7 million each. Baker's campaign has $6,800. The local paper didn't bother to mention him. There has been exactly one formal debate across all 12 Virginia congressional races. By design.
The independent movement had a breakout weekend, and Paul Rieckhoff walks you through every piece of it. Matthew McConaughey went public with a message that lit up phones across the country — a Hollywood heavyweight planting a flag for the plurality of Americans who refuse to put on a jersey. In a deep-red state most pundits wrote off, independent veteran Brian Bengs is now tied with GOP Senator Mike Rounds at 43-42. And a new report says Elon Musk personally asked Donald Trump to throttle Starlink speeds in Ukraine — hampering drone defenses while Ukrainian kids were dying. If true, it's treasonous. Full stop.
Senator Mark Warner — the top Democrat on Senate Intelligence — just said the quiet part loud: the greatest threat to American election integrity is not Russia, not China, not Iran. It's the sitting president of the United States. On this episode of Independent Americans, Paul Rieckhoff and the panel break down what that assessment actually means, why National Guard troops standing near DC drop boxes should alarm every voter regardless of party, and how the MAGA machine is priming the public to accept a stolen outcome before a single vote is counted.
Paul Rieckhoff hits the news circuit for a rapid-fire breakdown of a week where the wheels came off the Trump foreign policy machine. Elon Musk throttled Starlink in the middle of Russia's winter bombing campaign against Ukrainian civilians — and Republican Senator Thom Tillis called it what it is: participating in mass murder. Putin keeps pumping the pedal down. Zelensky gets a hero's welcome in London while America looks like the bad guy. And one tech billionaire is now the linchpin of a sovereign nation's defense, which is exactly the privatized national security nightmare we warned about.