He'll acknowledge that he killed white people, but he won't acknowledge that he killed my grandmother

Obama's violent war on terror and it's beneficiary: Donald Trump

Faheem Qureshi was 14 years old on Obama’s third day in office.

So begins a devastating story by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Spencer Ackerman. His extended family was gathered together and all was set to be a joyous day. And then, all of a sudden he hears this sound like a plane taking off and, like that, he realizes he's on fire.

40 days later, Faheem Qureshi woke up to find himself burned and to learn that much of his family is dead. This was Obama’s first drone strike.

Faheem Qureshi was 14 years old. He wasn’t a terrorist.

Over the course of his eight year presidency and numerous drone strikes, President Obama only apologized once. Not to Pakistanis like Qureshi. Not for killing someone’s grandma. But for when a drone accidentally killed an American and an Italian. “He'll acknowledge that he killed white people, but he won't acknowledge that he killed my grandmother.”

In this extended interview, Ackerman discusses living in New York during September 11th and the anger he felt. The same anger that allowed Bush and Obama to blow up anyone they wished.

“I was thinking in base reptilian brain terms and I wanted vengeance,” he describes. “I wanted someone to suffer for what they done. And the explanations on offer from every leader was precisely because 9/11 very quickly became a cancel culture.”

Plus, embarrassing pictures from Katie and Spencer’s summer camp and the announcement of a third political party: The Useful Idiot Wigged Moose Party.

It’s all this, and more, on this week’s subscriber-only episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out here.