Scott talks to Ken Bensinger of Buzzfeed News about the role of FBI informants in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Bensinger explains that informants played a heavy role in the militia group involved and helped motivate members to take violent action. Although none of the fifteen arrested was assisting the government, informants helped provide the group with training, were present for surveillance of Whitmer’s property and were present during the storming of the Michigan...

Scott is joined by Adam Kokesh, who gives his perspective on how much blame cops and soldiers bear for the immorality of their actions. Scott describes the way we seem to cut soldiers some slack, largely because they tend to be younger when they join up, the propaganda is so much fiercer and it can be difficult to quit the military. But Kokesh, a combat veteran himself, is adamant that people can absolutely leave the military once they realize they no longer believe in what's being done. He...

Scott talks to Daniel Davis about his recent Fox News article praising President Biden for standing firm (so far) in his intent to end the war in Afghanistan. Davis explains that although the Taliban takeover and the increase in violence in the wake of the American military's withdrawal is regrettable, it was also predictable. And no matter whether we left ten years ago or if we were to leave in another 20 years, a stable peace in Afghanistan is simply not going to be achieved in the...

Scott interviews Ray McGovern about his decades as a CIA analyst, with a particular focus on U.S.–Russia policy from Kennedy to George H. W. Bush. They also discuss America's growing antagonism toward Russia and China in recent years, and the attempt to expand NATO eastward. McGovern describes not only the many follies of incompetent and hubristic government officials, but also the ways that special interests—like those of the military-industrial complex—are often deliberately advanced at the...

Scott talks to Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi man who famously threw his shoes at George W. Bush in 2008. At the time, Al-Zaidi hoped to bring awareness to the suffering inflicted on the Iraqi people by Bush's war. He has continued his activism in the years since, especially his efforts to help the roughly five million orphans of America's Iraq War. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom;...

Independent journalist Ford Fischer tells the story of Johnny Hurley, a Colorado man who was killed by police after he stopped a mass shooting. Hurley came out of a store after seeing the shooter kill a police officer with a shotgun and then go back to his car to retrieve an AR-15. Hurley killed the shooter, preventing any further deaths, but was then shot by police officers, who claimed he had picked up the original shooter's rifle. Fischer has made a short documentary about these events, and...

Scott and Daniel Larison discuss the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and what it means for America's stance toward Eastern Europe. The main issue with the German pipeline, Larison explains, is that it will allow Western Europe to buy Russian natural gas without having to deal with Ukrainian transit fees. Ukraine has portrayed the pipeline—and the fact that the U.S. is allowing it to happen—as a betrayal by the West, and has lobbied for sanctions on Germany. Larison is relieved that the U.S. government...

Scott talks to Nasser Arrabyee about Yemen, where despite the Biden administration's assurances almost six months ago that the U.S. would be ending its support for "offensive operations," the Saudi coalition continues to terrorize the Yemeni civilian population, with crucial American support. The biggest problem facing Yemenis right now, of course, is the Saudi blockade on the Hodedah port, which prevents food and other basic supplies from making it into the country. Until the blockade is...