EDITOR’S NOTE: In this September 28, 2026 episode of Judging Freedom, Judge Andrew Napolitano speaks with Prof. Jeffrey Sachs about reports that Netanyahu was warned ahead of October 7th, President Trump’s remarks about Iran at the UN General Assembly, and the history of U.S.-Iran relations. They also discuss whether the meeting between President Trump and President Xi accomplished anything.
TRANSCRIPT:
Reports That Netanyahu Was Warned Before October 7th
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:00:28 – 00:01:51) Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, September 28th, 2026. Professor Jeffrey Sachs joins us now. Professor Sachs, a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you very much.
I want to spend a little bit of time asking you about the meeting last week between President Trump and President Xi and whether anything was accomplished or whether it was a social visit. But before we get there, some disjointed questions, if you don’t mind. This morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that both the United Arab Emirates and Egypt warned Prime Minister Netanyahu about October 7th weeks in advance, and he did nothing about it. Does this surprise you?
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:01:52 – 00:05:15) We’ve been hearing this report from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz for several days. Netanyahu says he’s going to sue the reporters, but the reporters know what happened. It’s not quite right to say Netanyahu did nothing about it. What he seems to have done is taken off the guard when he heard this. I think it’s becoming increasingly likely that Netanyahu invited an attack so that he could retaliate in the way that Israel did. This is what is suggested by these reports. I’m not making any conclusion, and I certainly have zero inside information. So I want to be clear on that.
But it is quite clear that Netanyahu heard repeatedly from the Egyptians and from the Emiratis that an attack was imminent, that it would be serious, that Hamas was signaling that this was going to happen, and that Netanyahu let down the guard rather than raising the guard. So it’s extraordinarily serious. This man is one of the most unprincipled persons in the world, and everything is possible in this case. But one thing is certainly possible, that this was meant to be an attack that would then lead to an annihilation of Gaza, which is what actually occurred. In other words, this was a setup for a genocide.
And whether we ever get to the bottom of this, I don’t know. One of the things you learn in life is that the lying is nonstop and relentless. Everything is falsified, everything is lied. And so we hear the reports, they have a great deal of credibility, they check out in many ways. It’s now reported, by the way, that Netanyahu secretly flew to the Emirates just in the last days in order to ask the leader, “Don’t disclose this information,” and met for an hour at the airport with the Emirati leader to make the appeal face-to-face, “Support me.” So a lot is going on.
I would not have any surprise at any depravity of this man. I was with a senior former Israeli official, I won’t say more, in the last few days who had actually been in Netanyahu’s party, who said the man has absolutely no values whatsoever, and that this person who was a co-partisan with Netanyahu in Likud said that he will have nothing to do with him because he is a man of absolute no principle whatsoever.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:05:15 – 00:05:19) I don’t know how he can face the families of those who died.
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:05:21 – 00:06:03) The man is without shame. How can he face the world and stand and rant as he did at the UN General Assembly after he has murdered tens of thousands of people in cold blood? These are women and children that he has been slaughtering. He has been giving the orders. He has been delighting in this bloodshed. He’s been quoting the Old Testament to give himself the power of God to kill all these people. So I don’t think that the question of how he can face these people comes up with this man. This is an absolutely heartless person.
Trump’s Remarks at the UN General Assembly
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:06:04 – 00:06:25) What does President Trump’s threat at the United Nations General Assembly to murder 91 million Iranians do to the concept of American diplomacy when an American president sounds like you never heard a head of state sound in that forum?
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:06:25 – 00:07:41) Sounded worse than Hitler at a rally because Hitler didn’t say how many people he was going to kill in that way. Trump said we’re going to annihilate, or he says he has a difficult choice. Maybe he’ll make the country great or maybe he’ll annihilate them. Of course, it shocked the whole world. I’m not in any place anywhere in the world that doesn’t know now the reality of the United States.
Some people hope that we’ll get over it somehow. Some people say they have a nostalgia for America as it once was. But everybody in the world heard Donald Trump. Nobody approved. Nobody thought it was normal. And nobody thought that this is a way that anybody in a position of power anywhere in the world ever should speak. So what he said, while he may have been expressing his views or he may have been talking to his base, reverberated around the world as a disgrace for the United States of America.
Meeting With Iran’s Leaders and the “Doomsday War” Remark
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:07:42 – 00:08:08) You and I were at a gathering hosted by the president and the foreign minister of Iran last week. It was fascinating to listen to them speak. By the way, I have to tell everybody, I know you’re going to be embarrassed, but I say this with the utmost of praise for you.
When you left a few minutes early, I think you had another commitment.
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:08:08 – 00:08:10) I had to host a conference.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:08:11 – 00:08:45) Yes. As you waved goodbye to all of us, the president of Iran stood up and bowed toward you because everybody, Jeff, and people have such respect for you. The person sitting next to the president of Iran was Foreign Minister Araghchi, who when asked over the weekend, “Are you preparing for this war to resume?” gave this rather dark answer. Cut number five.
VIDEO CLIP BEGINS:
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (00:08:45 – 00:08:48) “Are you preparing for this war to resume?”
FOREIGN MINISTER ABBAS ARAGHCHI: (00:08:49 – 00:08:52) “We are fully prepared for the time.”
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (00:08:52 – 00:08:53) “For the war to be resumed.”
FOREIGN MINISTER ABBAS ARAGHCHI: (00:08:53 – 00:09:45) “And I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war. But at the same time, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose. He wanted unconditional surrender in the previous war in 2 days, and now it’s 8 months that they are fighting with no result. A new aggression would be certainly the same. We are fully prepared for that. We have learned our lesson from the 2 previous wars and we have corrected our tactics. We have changed our tactics and we are fully prepared to do that.”
VIDEO CLIP ENDS:
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:08:53 – 00:09:45) Phrase that terrifies me, Jeff. I know you heard this. “Even if it comes to a doomsday war.” What does he mean? Even if they explode a nuclear device over Tehran?
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:09:47 – 00:10:28) First, I think we should share with people something about President Pezeshkian. He is a soft-spoken, mild-mannered heart surgeon. You and I have heard him on several occasions now. I’ve seen him repeatedly. He says repeatedly, and I think everybody should hear it, he said, “I am a heart surgeon, a thoracic surgeon. My job is to save lives. When somebody’s on the operating table, I don’t care who they are, a man or woman, or religion, or race, or ethnicity.”
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:10:28 – 00:10:29) This is something—
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:10:29 – 00:10:31) “I’m there to save lives.”
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:10:32 – 00:10:33) From him the other day, Jeff.
A History of U.S.-Iran Relations
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:10:33 – 00:18:25) Yes, “I’m there to save lives.” I feel so sad, actually, because I’ve been to Iran, of course. I’ve worked with Iranian officials. I’ve studied this country’s history for more than 40 years. This is a civilization. This is a civilization that has been one of the glories of world civilization for more than 2,500 years. Indeed, Cyrus, the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, was regarded as a savior of the Jewish people. And he was the one that sent the Jewish scribes back to rebuild Jerusalem after they had been exiled by the Babylonians and then the Persians. The Iranians conquered Babylon and allowed, not only allowed, but encouraged the Jews to go back to rebuild Jerusalem. These are distinguished people.
When you watch Foreign Minister Araghchi speak, he is an extraordinarily intelligent man. He’s very soft-spoken. He is a consummate diplomat. As he expressed in our meeting, he said, “I don’t have confidence. They keep trying to kill us when we negotiate. They claim that they will annihilate us,” which is what Trump said at the podium of the General Assembly. He said, “But my job is diplomacy, so I try. So I don’t have illusions. But I try.” We want to negotiate. People should understand that Iran has tried to negotiate for decades with the United States. The United States wants to kill the Iranian leaders and choose a puppet regime. It’s done that in the past.
In 1953, the United States overthrew a democracy in Iran and installed a police state and backed that police state for 26 years. When the Iranians had a revolution in 1979 against that police state, the United States immediately armed Saddam Hussein. Remember him? The one that we killed later. They armed Saddam Hussein and on pretty good evidence they armed him with chemical poison gas or watched as they understood that he would use poison gas against the Iranians. And the United States backed a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians.
Why? Because Iran stood up to the United States, said, “We don’t want you to impose a police state on us. We want our own system. We want our own government. We don’t want one that is imposed by you.” So the United States immediately went to war with Iran. That wasn’t about nuclear weapons or any of the claims that Trump may make. This is a hatred that goes back to the fact that Iran was a democracy that was overthrown by the United States. Then after suffering American-backed oppression for decades, then said, “We want to govern ourselves.” That’s intolerable to people in Washington. How dare a country decide that it’s going to govern itself rather than to be governed by a puppet put in place by the United States?
We’ve spent since 1979. We’ve spent 47 years trying to topple this regime. Mr. Bessent, our Treasury thug, because he’s not really a Treasury Secretary, he’s an enforcer to break currencies of other countries. That seems to be his only job in which he has any interest, not helping the American economy. He has said that the goal was to crash the economy, break the financial system, bring people out onto the streets to overthrow the regime.
And when Iran has tried to negotiate, they reached an agreement, of course, in 2015 with not only the United States, they satisfied all of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany with an agreement in which Iran said, “We will subject ourselves to rigorous inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.” Well, Netanyahu and Trump weren’t having any of that. They’re not concerned about nuclear weapons. They want to overthrow Iran. That’s all. And so Trump ripped up the agreement in 2018. He destroyed the negotiated agreement. Then they started assassinating Iranian leaders. They tried to amp up this economic warfare, which again, Bessent seems to have a certain proclivity.
Then in 2025, they said, “Well, let’s negotiate again.” So they negotiated. And as we were entering the 4th round of negotiation, they started bombing them. And then they did it again this year. Because why were all the Iranian leaders assembled with the Supreme Leader at his place when they killed him on February 28th, 2026? They were assembled there because they were discussing the next round of negotiation that was to take place in Vienna on the following week. And Mossad said, “Oh, they’re all going to be meeting in the Supreme Leader’s place.” So Trump and Netanyahu, as just murderers, said, “Okay, let’s kill them.” This is called foreign policy of the United States.
So this is what’s sad when we are sitting in a room with these people. They are diplomats, they’re a heart surgeon, they are measured. President Pezeshkian said many times, and I felt bad because I did want to speak to say something in this context, he said, “I just can’t figure it out. We’ve offered peace. I don’t understand it.” But it’s easy to understand, actually. President Pezeshkian and these people are murderers. Netanyahu, without flinching, murdered tens of thousands of people just now. Trump delights in the idea that he will run Iran. So it’s as crude as that.
I think it is shocking to an ancient civilization that has a history of governance that is 10 times older than the United States to come in the face of this kind of behavior. I do think it is shocking. I think they are deeply, truly puzzled. But this is where we are.
Congress and the Power to Declare War
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:18:25 – 00:18:35) But what do you think Foreign Minister Araghchi meant in the clip I just played when he said, “Even if it comes to a doomsday war”?
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:18:36 – 00:20:53) Well, Israel has nuclear weapons. Israel is in the hands of people who have lost their minds. So maybe he thinks that. Maybe he observes Trump. Who knows what Mr. Trump will do when he stands at the podium of the United Nations, the president of the United States, and says, “It’s my choice whether to make Iran great or to annihilate it.” And to send the people to hell. And I’m quoting, right? This is a president of the United States. One sentence is enough to disqualify this person. This is a violation of every sacred responsibility as well as of his constitutional order.
And what I bemoan about all of this is that these absolutely useless, pusillanimous Republicans don’t say a word because the Democrats have been saying, “Well, take back the power of war from this person before he gets us all killed.” And the Republicans say, “Oh, no, no, no, we won’t do that. We will not exercise our constitutional responsibility.” It’s not a choice for Congress. It’s their job. You want your job, you do your job, damn it. And that’s your job. Article 1, Section 8. Only the Congress can declare war.
It’s not the job of an American king to decide on the survival of another civilization. It’s the job of Congress to govern this country when it comes to the declaration of war. And it’s only Congress’s job. It can’t abdicate it. It can’t give it away. It can’t give it to the president of the United States. It’s Congress’s job. I say vote them all out of office, the people that refuse to do their job, because this is bringing us to the brink of complete disaster.
Was Anything Accomplished at the Trump-Xi Meeting?
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:20:53 – 00:21:22) I didn’t hear a single Republican condemn that phrase that he made that you just quoted. Let me jump to President Xi before we finish. What, if anything, was accomplished over the weekend? Donald Trump seemed to be bored. Took him on a helicopter ride. They spent time at the National Archives. He gave a tour of the construction in the ballroom. Did President Xi really come here for that?
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:21:23 – 00:22:19) Yes, in one sense, which is that given the madness that can happen in Washington, this was an excellent summit. And by that I mean Trump didn’t do anything stupid to bring the world closer to annihilation. He didn’t make any threats. He didn’t launch new trade wars. Frankly, Judge, I’m grateful. No, I don’t think they discussed anything at depth. I don’t know whether the president of the United States could do so anyway, but he was very happy to host a dinner. I counted 19 U.S. billionaires at the dinner. That’s Trump’s favorite milieu. He was in his element. He was having a glorious time. Fine. He wasn’t launching a new war. He wasn’t bringing us closer to destruction. He wasn’t making threats to China. I thought it was just wonderful, frankly.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:22:19 – 00:22:35) Everything you say is true, but it manifests a degradation of American diplomacy if we rejoice because the president did not do damage rather than rejoicing because they came to some constructive agreement.
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:22:35 – 00:24:12) Well, look, this is not a serious government. This is a show. There’s nothing serious about any of the government right now. It’s all improv time. It’s all whatever Trump decides in the middle of the night to post on Truth Social. It’s all whatever war of whim he decides. This is not a functioning government. I’m sorry to say it. It’s not. Nothing is done by law. Nothing is done by serious study. There is no serious diplomacy. There is no search for solutions to very challenging issues.
Last week, the heads of the American artificial intelligence companies, both Anthropic and OpenAI, came to the UN Security Council, to the world’s chamber of security, and said, “This is out of control.” And since they’ve been saying this and they said it to all of the permanent members of the Security Council and the other 10 elected members, Trump hasn’t shown the slightest interest for one second in understanding anything. This is whimsical, what is happening right now. That’s why a summit in which nothing happened is a huge relief.
Closing
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:24:13 – 00:24:24) All right. You persuaded me, Professor Sachs. Thank you very much. I know it’s the middle of the night where you are. You’re always so gracious to come on when we need you. Thank you for your time. Safe travels.
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:24:25 – 00:24:25) Thanks a lot.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:24:25 – 00:24:27) See you again soon. All the best. Wonderful.
PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: (00:24:27 – 00:24:27) Thanks.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: (00:24:27 – 00:24:50) Of course. Coming up tomorrow, Tuesday at 8 in the morning, Ambassador Chas Freeman. At 9 in the morning, Professor John Mearsheimer. At 10 in the morning, Aaron Maté. At 2 in the afternoon, he’s been away for 2 months. I can’t wait to chat with him. Matthew Hoh at 3 in the afternoon, Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski. Just in the Paul channel for Judging Freedom.
Related Posts
