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Speaker 1: This is the buck Sexton Show, where the mission or

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Speaker 1: mission is to decode what really matters with actionable intelligence

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Speaker 1: or mistake American, You're a great American. Again, the buck

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Speaker 1: Sexton Show begins. No, welcome to the buck Sexton Show.

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Speaker 1: This is Ben Weingarten in for Buck Sexton here on

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Speaker 1: New Year's Eve, live in Midtown Manhattan. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if this is this qualifies as the Freedom Hut, given

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Speaker 1: that we are in the Blasios, New York, and it's

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Speaker 1: also just madness outside these studios right now. Maybe it's

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Speaker 1: a safe space for liberty lovers, conservatives and the like.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending your holiday season with

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Speaker 1: me here on New Year's Eve. If this is a

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Speaker 1: time to be thankful and appreciative, and I want to

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Speaker 1: start first by sending out my condolences to the family

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Speaker 1: of one of my colleagues at the Federalist, the late Brepayden,

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Speaker 1: who was taken from us way too young. It's a

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Speaker 1: tragic loss for our company, for family, for freedom itself,

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Speaker 1: and her life should serve as an example for what

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Speaker 1: people in the media should strive for. As I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: Ben Winegarden filling in for Buck Sexton today, Senior Contributor

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Speaker 1: at The Federalist Senior Fellow at the London Center for

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Speaker 1: Policy Research. I'm also the proprietor of The Big Ideas

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Speaker 1: with Ben Winegarden podcast, where we focus on long form

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Speaker 1: conversations with deep thinkers and expert doers. You can subscribe

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Speaker 1: everywhere podcasts are found, and you can follow me on

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Speaker 1: Twitter at bh Winegarden. I also want to start we

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Speaker 1: should appreciate what we have, the freedoms that we have,

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Speaker 1: that we live in this amazing nation. I want to

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Speaker 1: also thank right up at the top, Buck Sexton for

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Speaker 1: giving me this opportunity to spend this time with you

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Speaker 1: and fill his large shoes. Today, given that we are

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Speaker 1: at the start of a new year and in the

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Speaker 1: holiday season, we should talk about how lucky we are

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Speaker 1: to be in this nation and how great we have it.

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Speaker 1: And it's not just the material bounty that we have.

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Speaker 1: It's about the freedom that provides us the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: pursue our happiness however we define it. This is the

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Speaker 1: exception in the history of mankind, the standard in world history.

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Speaker 1: And this isn't just historically. Look at a map today,

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Speaker 1: look at the governments and where the largest population centers

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Speaker 1: in this world exist. Freedom is the exception. It is

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Speaker 1: darkness almost over the entire globe, and that actually is

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Speaker 1: what is normal in the history of mankind. The standard

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Speaker 1: is that you live as a surf under a lord,

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Speaker 1: or as a slave under a slave master, or in

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Speaker 1: a gulag nation like what North Korea is today. Look

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Speaker 1: at a world map, study world history. The reason history

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Speaker 1: is so important, in part, is so that we appreciate

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Speaker 1: the fruits of what we have in this nation. Billions

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Speaker 1: of people throughout human history and including today, have only

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Speaker 1: known totalitarianism and an oppressive state where if you have

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Speaker 1: any rights, you really do have crumbs, like Nancy Pelosi

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Speaker 1: likes to say, and they can be snatched from you

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Speaker 1: at any time. Rule of law non existent, could be

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Speaker 1: gone tomorrow. Property rights, what are property rights in many nations?

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Speaker 1: Take the case of Venezuela for example. In two thousand

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Speaker 1: and one, Venezuela was South America's richest country. Now it's

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Speaker 1: a failed state. It is literally like Iraq when you

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Speaker 1: look at what the metrics are in terms of economics

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Speaker 1: and crime. The collapse all due to bad ideas. Bad

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Speaker 1: ideas can take everything that you've built up over centuries

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Speaker 1: and destroy them. Amazing. One of the benefits that we've

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Speaker 1: had in America from our success, much of which we've

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Speaker 1: taken for granted, and few people even think about all

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Speaker 1: the necessary steps that it took to get to this

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Speaker 1: place today. One of the benefits is that we have

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Speaker 1: it so good that we can take time to explore

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Speaker 1: all the flaws within our nation. We can focus on

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Speaker 1: those flaws to such a degree that we end up

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Speaker 1: tearing at the very fabric that made us into what

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Speaker 1: we are. It's an amazing thing. People have never had

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Speaker 1: things so good, and they want to throw this experiment

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Speaker 1: into the trash band of history. I should tell you

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Speaker 1: I have a child on the way right now. That'll

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Speaker 1: be one of the New Year's gifts. I could be

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Speaker 1: called out of this show at any minute, potentially as

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Speaker 1: a result of where we are right now. And as

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Speaker 1: a future first time parents, one of the things that

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Speaker 1: you think about is what kind of world are you

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Speaker 1: going to bring your child into? How do you inculcate

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Speaker 1: them with the beliefs, the values and principles that you

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Speaker 1: want to dominate in this world. You know, part of

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Speaker 1: it is protecting them, but they also have to live

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Speaker 1: in a reality and what is the reality today? Well,

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Speaker 1: the reality today is that among our elite, the ideas

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Speaker 1: that trickle down and percolate into society are completely antithetical

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Speaker 1: to the ones on which this nation was based. And

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Speaker 1: in a sense, what you have is progressive agitprop progressive propaganda.

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Speaker 1: It's in government and in the bureaucracy, which is its

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Speaker 1: own branch of government, even though it's not treated as such.

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Speaker 1: It's in the media, and it's in our education system.

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Speaker 1: You have highly credentialed people, but not necessarily wise people.

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Speaker 1: Their intelligence, but they're they're intelligent people, but their intelligence

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Speaker 1: leads them to believe they can perfect society, that they

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Speaker 1: have a moral duty to try to perfect society through

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Speaker 1: wielding the power of the state to nudge us deplorable

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Speaker 1: as as cass sunst Obama regulatories are once put it

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Speaker 1: to nudge us deplorables towards the right answer. But who

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Speaker 1: were they to make that decision over us? Why is

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Speaker 1: that the morally right thing to do? They would argue, Essentially,

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Speaker 1: they're morally superior as virtue signalers, and as holders of

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Speaker 1: these values and principles, they should be the ones to

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Speaker 1: point us in the right direction. And what is the

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Speaker 1: impact of these bad ideas well. I mentioned they destroyed

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Speaker 1: Venezuela in a very short period of time, in under

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Speaker 1: two decades. Bad ideas took the richest nation in South

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Speaker 1: America and destroyed it. But those ideas have seeped in

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Speaker 1: here as well. And people look at campus craziness and

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Speaker 1: they kind of shrug it off as well, this is

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Speaker 1: just young people, immature. It's crazy Ivory tower sort of stuff.

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Speaker 1: And when they get onto the real world and see

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Speaker 1: the percentage of tax dollars taken out of their smaller paychecks,

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Speaker 1: then they start to see, oh my gosh, there actually

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Speaker 1: are some pretty negative consequences for me and my family

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Speaker 1: in my future. But it's about much more than just economics,

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Speaker 1: because economics are an outgrowth of our belief system. Free

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Speaker 1: market economics are an outgrowth of a system of values

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Speaker 1: and principles, Judeo Christian Western values and principles, and that

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Speaker 1: free market capitalist system springs from them. It's the result

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Speaker 1: of them, but that's not the end. That's just one

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Speaker 1: of the benefits. There was a recent poll put out

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Speaker 1: by the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness slash you

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Speaker 1: gov and it was called the State of American Patriotism Report.

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Speaker 1: They pulled eleven hundred people, a bit under fifty percent

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Speaker 1: of them between fourteen and thirty seven years old folks,

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Speaker 1: So we're talking millennials and premillennials and maybe a little

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Speaker 1: bit of gen xers as well. Here were some of

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Speaker 1: the findings from that survey. Half of those survey believe

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Speaker 1: the United States is sexist and racist. American exceptionalism is

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Speaker 1: on the decline. According to the report, forty six percent

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Speaker 1: of younger Americans do not agree that quote unquote, America

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Speaker 1: is the greatest country in the world. Thirty eight percent

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Speaker 1: of younger Americans do not agree that quote America has

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Speaker 1: a history that we should be proud of. One in

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Speaker 1: eight fourteen percent of millennials agree America was never a

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Speaker 1: great country and it never will be. So that is

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Speaker 1: the future. Andrew Cuomo constituency. Forty six percent of younger

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Speaker 1: Americans agree that America is more racist than other countries.

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Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, these people have never been to

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Speaker 1: any other country. Probably, It's absolutely mind numbing, both the

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Speaker 1: ignorance and the arrogance, the ignorance to not know and

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Speaker 1: the arrogance to put forth these sorts of views not

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Speaker 1: knowing anything about them. Eighty four percent of Americans do

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Speaker 1: not know the specific rights enumerated in the First Amendment,

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Speaker 1: So how can they be counted on to defend that

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Speaker 1: First Amendment when they don't even know what it is

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Speaker 1: or why it existed in the first place. Nineteen percent

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Speaker 1: of millennials believe that the American flag is a quote

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Speaker 1: unquote sign of intolerance and hatred. My god, Forty four

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Speaker 1: percent of younger Americans believe Barack Obama had a quote

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Speaker 1: unquote bigger impact on America than Orge Washington. So that

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Speaker 1: is what young Americans get out of our education system,

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Speaker 1: out of our media. I mean, you gotta give the

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Speaker 1: left credit. At least with Alexander Hamilton, people know a

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Speaker 1: little bit about him. So you have this ignorant, arrogant

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Speaker 1: young population in America, and that is our future. The

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Speaker 1: bad ideas have consequences. If people hate the very values

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Speaker 1: and principles on which a country is based, how can

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Speaker 1: they be counted on to defend them, to promulgate them

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Speaker 1: to their kids. And we're talking multiple generations of this

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Speaker 1: kind of propaganda. So naturally, in Axios last night, there

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Speaker 1: was an article titled the Coming Reckoning for Capitalism. A

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Speaker 1: quote from that article, one of the most important trends

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Speaker 1: likely to drive the twenty twenty presidential race a growing

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Speaker 1: dissolusion with capitalism as practice and a coming struggle over

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Speaker 1: how to recast this pillar of the Western order. And

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Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. These people like to talk about

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Speaker 1: how Trump is a threat to Western civilization, yet they're

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Speaker 1: the ones that want to throw out the very principles

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Speaker 1: on which Western civilization derives. The article goes on the

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Speaker 1: bottom line, you could hardly challenge a more basic part

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Speaker 1: of who we are as Americans and Westerners. Polling shows

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Speaker 1: a rising number of young Americans prefer socialism to capitalism. Now,

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Speaker 1: I would question whether or not they can define what

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Speaker 1: socialism is and what capitalism is. So the fact that

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Speaker 1: they have an opinion on it is I would say

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Speaker 1: questionable to begin with. But that's staggering because if we

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Speaker 1: won the Cold War, how can it be that half

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Speaker 1: the country believes in socialism over capitalism among the youth.

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Speaker 1: That is a direct failure on the part of those

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Speaker 1: who run our institutions, who are supposed to be the

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Speaker 1: ones safeguarding what this country is based on and the

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Speaker 1: article continues, that's a twelve point decline and young adults

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Speaker 1: as positive views of capitalism in just the past two years,

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Speaker 1: and a market shift since twenty ten, when sixty eight

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Speaker 1: percent of viewed it positively. We're talking about fourteen to

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Speaker 1: thirty seven year old folks, millennials, eighteen to twenty nine

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Speaker 1: year olds. But it starts way before they're even in college,

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Speaker 1: this sort of prop gandizing and effectively brainwashing people, and

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Speaker 1: there's something very sick about that. So there was a

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal editorial that caught my eye recently is

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Speaker 1: titled Reading from Left to Left at Barnes and Noble,

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Speaker 1: and it goes on to talk about a display at

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Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble that this journalist saw called quote unquote

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Speaker 1: Inspiring Books to Empower young readers. What inspires and empowers

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Speaker 1: young readers. While the collection included first Generation, thirty six,

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Speaker 1: trailblazing Immigrants and Refugees who make America Great, which lionizes,

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Speaker 1: among others, Univision anchorman Jorge Ramos, and the first fashion

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Speaker 1: model to wear a he job. The article goes on,

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Speaker 1: there were three memoirs by illegal aliens, two novels whose

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Speaker 1: protagonists were refugees. So any side of my oars, Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court justice, turning pages my life story and we rise,

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Speaker 1: We resist, We raise our voices and anthology that includes

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Speaker 1: a fictional story of a child who is arrested by

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Speaker 1: Immigrations and Custom enforcement agents at school as he endorsed

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Speaker 1: taunts from white classmates wearing Make America gride again. Hats

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Speaker 1: who writes this stuff up? This is the onion, This

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Speaker 1: is a Barnes and Noble but display. This is what

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Speaker 1: These are the books that are pushed on our kids.

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Speaker 1: The article goes on one Portlandia esque title, You Are Mighty,

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Speaker 1: A Guide to Changing the World, is built as a

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Speaker 1: how to manual on build up being an activist. It

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Speaker 1: features Genesis Pelacio, a preteen girl wearing a Vegan power

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Speaker 1: T shirt who became a vegetarian when she was three

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Speaker 1: after learning that quote unquote, animals were killed for her food. Apparently,

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Speaker 1: according to the article, Barnes and Noble stores and other

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Speaker 1: cities have similar displays. The chain's corporate office didn't answer

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Speaker 1: the emails of the author, and the article concludes conservative

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Speaker 1: theme children's book books are out there, but you have

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Speaker 1: to seek out these subversive titles like pornography before the Internet.

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Speaker 1: Liberals are devoted to diversity, but they define it in

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Speaker 1: a particular way, obsessing over race, sex, and sexual orientation

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Speaker 1: while demanding conformity of thought. Une. Let me tell you

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Speaker 1: as a future father or I recently received a book.

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Speaker 1: My family received a book by someone who did not

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Speaker 1: know where I stood on the ideological spectrum. I kid

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Speaker 1: you not. It's called as for Activists. This is a

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Speaker 1: picture book. I'll quote a bit from it, and then

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Speaker 1: we'll go to a correct quick break letter. E Equal rights, black,

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Speaker 1: brown or white, clean and healthy is a right every

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Speaker 1: place we live in play Environmental justice is the way.

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Speaker 1: Letter j J is for justice, YEA for justice, Juanita Jamala,

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Speaker 1: justice for the janitors, Justicia for all. Letter. Oh, this

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Speaker 1: is a great one. Open minds operate best, critical thinking

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Speaker 1: over tests. Wisdom can't be memorized, educate, agitate organized. Now

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Speaker 1: tell me where our response to a book like that is,

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Speaker 1: because I don't think there's AS for America is exceptional.

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Speaker 1: B is for borders and national sovereignty. See is for

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Speaker 1: capitalism and creative destruction. That would be laughed out of

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Speaker 1: the bookstore. But the other side is propagandizing with picture

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Speaker 1: books for young, impressionable children who cannot cannot conceivably grapple

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Speaker 1: with any of these sorts of ideas. It's on imaginable

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Speaker 1: that there's anything like this on our side, and frankly,

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Speaker 1: I don't begrudge us, because it's sick to try to

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Speaker 1: propagandize among young people with this stuff. So what do

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Speaker 1: you do when you're dropping your kid in the middle

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Speaker 1: of a world where everything is insane and where everything

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Speaker 1: is about breeding left wing activism and ignorance. We're creating

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Speaker 1: activists and idiots, useful idiots for an agenda, and we'll

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that agenda right after this

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Speaker 1: quick break. This is Ben Winegarden in for Buck Sexon

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Speaker 1: on the Buck Sexton Show. More next, This is the

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Speaker 1: Buck Sexton Show and this is Ben Winegarden in for

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Speaker 1: Buck Sexton. Happy New Year's Eve to you all, and

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Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today. Follow me on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at b h Winegarden. All right, before the break, we

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Speaker 1: were talking a bit about poisonous ideas and the poisonous

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Speaker 1: consequences they have for society, and it's very hard to

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Speaker 1: kind of quantify or sum up what the impact of

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Speaker 1: multiple generations of this sort of progressive thought policing has

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Speaker 1: been but I think there was a fine example of

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Speaker 1: it this weekend on Meet the Press, where Chuck ta

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Speaker 1: did a full episode on environmentalism, and he stated near

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Speaker 1: the start of the show, and I'll quote here, We're

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Speaker 1: not going to debate climate change the existence of it.

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Speaker 1: The Earth is getting hotter and human activity is a

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Speaker 1: major cause. Period. We're not going to give time to

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Speaker 1: climate deniers. The sciences is settled, even if political opinion

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Speaker 1: is not. Unquote, that's a very scientific attitude there by

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Speaker 1: Chuck Todd, because after all, we know exactly how much

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Speaker 1: human beings have contributed to warming. We know for effect

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Speaker 1: that this isn't just one of another million historical cycles

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Speaker 1: that there have been in terms of temperature. We know

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Speaker 1: the temperature is climate. They're exactly the same thing. He's

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Speaker 1: so confident in his position that anyone who would who

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Speaker 1: would deign to present some countervailing evidence, shut up. And

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Speaker 1: by the way, we're going to call you climate deniers,

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Speaker 1: which is a pretty offensive kind of term, because what

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Speaker 1: they're When you hear deniers use what does that usually

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Speaker 1: bring up, Well, it's holocaust deniers. Chuck Todd is smart

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Speaker 1: enough to know that he probably shouldn't be using that

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Speaker 1: phrase to describe anyone who would challenge of you that

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Speaker 1: is not unanimously held. Look up, the ninety seven percent

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Speaker 1: of climate scientists all agree statistic and it's a bogus statistic.

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Speaker 1: Stand He had Jerry Brown on the California Governor and

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Speaker 1: Jerry Brown said this about climate change. First, he was

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Speaker 1: talking about the challenge from China and then climate change.

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Speaker 1: So I want to put this in context here, he said,

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Speaker 1: and I quote, instead of worrying about tariffs, I'd like

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Speaker 1: to see the President and the Congress invest tens of

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Speaker 1: billions in renewable energy, in more efficient batteries to get

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Speaker 1: us off fossil fuel as quickly as we can. Well,

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Speaker 1: they really love this in France, the green invest He

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Speaker 1: goes on, I would point to the fact that it

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Speaker 1: took lad President FDR many, many years to get America

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Speaker 1: willing to go into World War two and fight the Nazis.

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Speaker 1: And he continues here, well, we have an enemy, though different,

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Speaker 1: but perhaps very much devastating in a similar way, and

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Speaker 1: we've got to fight climate change and the President's got

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Speaker 1: to lead that. So what I want to understand. Is

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Speaker 1: is he saying that fighting something that may or may

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Speaker 1: not be transpiring in the environment that human beings may

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Speaker 1: or may not have a disproportioned impact on, is the

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Speaker 1: equivalent of fighting the Nazis? Or is he go bearing

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Speaker 1: the Chinese to the Nazis. I'm not quite sure where

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Speaker 1: he's going with that analogy, but let's sum up what

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Speaker 1: this really is. Climatism is a secular religion, or at

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Speaker 1: least it is a sect in the progressive secular religion,

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Speaker 1: and the state is their church. What is climate change

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Speaker 1: really about for them? It's about sort of in some sense,

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Speaker 1: justifying mass redistribution of wealth. It's about apologizing for our

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Speaker 1: western sins of being industrialized and therefore redistributing the fruits

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Speaker 1: of it to the first and through world nations. It's

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Speaker 1: a form of elite virtue signaling. It's very easy to

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Speaker 1: say I care about the environment and then go trotting

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Speaker 1: around on a jet. You don't really have to deal

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Speaker 1: with the consequences or take responsibility. And oh, by the way,

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Speaker 1: there's also the self interested aspect of this, which is

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Speaker 1: that those who promote this vision oftentimes with the very

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Speaker 1: people who end up personally benefiting from government investments, the Greens,

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Speaker 1: more Cylindras, well Clendras all over the country. If these

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Speaker 1: people are the ones who are allowed to dominate ultimately, though,

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Speaker 1: what progressive insm is about, as I mentioned, is a

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Speaker 1: secular religion. It is about dominance, and the way that

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Speaker 1: you instill that dominance is to propagate these messages starting

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Speaker 1: with little children, starting with toddlers, and working all the

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Speaker 1: way up through college. And how are you going to

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Speaker 1: be able to compete against that when all you have

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Speaker 1: is the real world? This has Ben Winegarden in for

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Speaker 1: Buck Sexon on The Buck Sexton Show. This has Ben

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Speaker 1: Winegarden in for Buck Sexton on the Buck Sexton Show.

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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at bh wine Garden and thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for spending your New Year's Eve evening

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Speaker 1: with me. We've been speaking about the dominance of progressivism

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Speaker 1: in media and academia. We've all followed that sort of

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Speaker 1: running theme. It's a huge challenge, and frankly, conservatives haven't

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Speaker 1: even begun to grapple with just how devastating it's been.

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Speaker 1: The progressive march through the institutions, as Grahams Sheet called it,

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Speaker 1: over one hundred year period we haven't even been we

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Speaker 1: haven't even begun to recognize the extent the nature of

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Speaker 1: the problem, which is imperative to actually then starting to

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Speaker 1: figure out a way to counter it. Maybe something that

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Speaker 1: can help us to remember what our principles are is

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Speaker 1: to look at an adversary who threatens them. It's sad,

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Speaker 1: but it could be that perhaps it'll be an external

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Speaker 1: threat to the US's dominant position in the world that

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Speaker 1: allows us, in part to enjoy the freedom that we have.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's an external threat that we have to look

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Speaker 1: to to summon within the American people who we are

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Speaker 1: and what we really believe in. We're going to do

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Speaker 1: a deep dive now on China. Most people when they

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Speaker 1: think about China today, they think trade war, tariffs, President Trump,

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Speaker 1: Mano Imano with Jijinping. I believe that drastically minimizes what

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Speaker 1: is actually going on in the world. Maybe the most

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Speaker 1: monumental revolutionary shift that has happened in Washington, DC under

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Speaker 1: President Trump, certainly on the national security and foreign policy side,

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Speaker 1: since the opening of the relationship with China under Richard Nixon.

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Speaker 1: We're talking in the seventies here. The narrative has always

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Speaker 1: been that China would peacefully rise, that we would open

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Speaker 1: up trade with China. China would be rich. Rich countries

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Speaker 1: ultimately want to be free countries rather than the other

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Speaker 1: way around, that free countries end up rich, and that

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Speaker 1: any bellicosity, any adversarial nature, any aggression from China would

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Speaker 1: be checked by the fact that, look, they're entering this

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Speaker 1: world trading architecture that the West built, and they are

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Speaker 1: going to be good partners and we'll all get rich

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Speaker 1: together if they got access to the world financial architecture

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Speaker 1: that we built, and it's helped enable them to become

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Speaker 1: the major producer of goods consumed in America and the

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Speaker 1: second largest country economy in the world. It's also funded

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Speaker 1: the world's largest intelligence dictatorship. Something to keep an eye on.

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Speaker 1: They actually have scores where they grade citizens on their

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Speaker 1: patriotism and a massive surveillance system around them. So you

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Speaker 1: could be a bad citizen if they don't like your spending,

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Speaker 1: habits or maybe where you travel or what you say

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Speaker 1: on social media checked as it already is. What we

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Speaker 1: did was we capitalize what was a communist regime and

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Speaker 1: turned it from a third world country into from a

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Speaker 1: wealth perspective, a competitive country in economics, and we allowed

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Speaker 1: it to expand its fear of influenced worldwide. Now, how

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Speaker 1: has China paid us for the privilege of becoming a

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Speaker 1: leading world power. Well, they steal hundreds of billions of

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Speaker 1: dollars worth of intellectual property, in particular from strategically significant sectors.

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Speaker 1: That's real value taken from the West and of course

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Speaker 1: from America, because we're a dominant technological power, So they

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Speaker 1: steal our blueprints. They don't create them themselves. They're not

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Speaker 1: a fair competitor. When the President talks about free, fair

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Speaker 1: and reciprocal trade, part of that is they need to

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Speaker 1: deal on an even playing field, and they don't. This

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Speaker 1: is part of a comprehensive plan of economic aggression, which

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Speaker 1: the White House documented in a June twenty eighteen report

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Speaker 1: from its Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, which is

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Speaker 1: run by Peter Navarro, who's cast as a China Hawk.

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Speaker 1: It lay it out in that strategy that China's goals

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Speaker 1: are to protect its home market from imports and competition,

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Speaker 1: expand its share of global markets, secure and control core

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Speaker 1: natural resources, globally dominate traditional manufacturing industries, acquire key technologies

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Speaker 1: and intellectual property from other countries, including the United States,

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Speaker 1: and capture the emerging high tech industries that will drive

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Speaker 1: future economic growth and many advancements in the defense industry.

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Speaker 1: One of those primary technologies being five G control over

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Speaker 1: all global communications. China is a huge competitor in this space,

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Speaker 1: and there's been an increasing effort among some countries to

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Speaker 1: wean themselves off of potentially Chinese technology when it comes

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Speaker 1: to global telecommunications. China's also engaged in a massive loan

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Speaker 1: to own strategy, where they provide financing to countries to

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Speaker 1: build things like ports, strategically significant things, and then when

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Speaker 1: the country's default on them because they can't afford the terms,

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Speaker 1: China comes in and gobbles them up. So they expand

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Speaker 1: their influence through loaning and then owning you. They've opened

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Speaker 1: up their first overseas military base last year in Djibouti,

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Speaker 1: a strategically significant nation at the entrance to the Red

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Speaker 1: Sea and route to the Suez Canal. A US base

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Speaker 1: is located just miles away. It repeatedly is a base

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Speaker 1: for staging operations against Jihades groups, and of course, China's

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Speaker 1: allegedly directed high grade lasers at American aircraft in Djibouty,

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Speaker 1: supposedly injuring two US airmen. Now China is seeking to

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Speaker 1: have a state owned company manage the port of Jibouty.

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Speaker 1: They threaten access to the freedom of seas by buzzing

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Speaker 1: our ships and the ships of our allies. They militarize

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Speaker 1: man made islands in the South China see even though

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Speaker 1: they promised President Obama they wouldn't. Big surprise, they threatened

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Speaker 1: companies in the West who list Taiwan and Tibet other

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Speaker 1: territories as separate territories on their websites, because China considers

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Speaker 1: it all China. So if you have a dropdown menu

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Speaker 1: on your website and you are a global let's say,

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Speaker 1: hotel chain, China will attack you. You can't list Taiwan

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Speaker 1: Tibet as separate entities. That's all there, that's all China,

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Speaker 1: that soft power. By the way, they will threaten companies

430
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:34,399
Speaker 1: abroad for merely what's listed in a dropdown menu. And

431
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: by the way, companies have cowed to this, and why

432
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:39,119
Speaker 1: in part because they're afraid of losing that business in

433
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:43,639
Speaker 1: the world's second biggest market. In part because they're probably

434
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,920
Speaker 1: afraid of other potential ramifications that could threaten the life

435
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 1: and limb of their employees literally. They also propagandize. They

436
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:54,800
Speaker 1: have publications around the world, propagate their own media. They

437
00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: infiltrate our education system and other education systems through the

438
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 1: use of confusion institutes. I did a podcast on confucious institutes.

439
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 1: By the way, I urge you to check it out.

440
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:08,360
Speaker 1: They use these so called cultural exchange institutes within our schools,

441
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,159
Speaker 1: and what they actually do is they propagandize with the

442
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,640
Speaker 1: Chinese Communist party line, and they also spy on Chinese

443
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 1: citizens or x Chinese citizens who are abroad and potentially

444
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: even engage in espionage beyond just trying to push former

445
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 1: Chinese citizens in wine and potentially threaten them. So beyond

446
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 1: the propaganda, and this isn't just a foreign policy issue.

447
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:35,960
Speaker 1: They also the Communist Party in China. And this is,

448
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,200
Speaker 1: according to Vice President Pence, who give a major speech

449
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: on this, a rewarding or coercing American businesses, movie studios, universities,

450
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 1: think tank scholars, journalists, and local and state federal officials.

451
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:48,480
Speaker 1: They have to toe the party line. According to Vice

452
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 1: President Pence, our intelligence community says China's targeting US state

453
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: and local governments and officials to exploit any divisions between

454
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: federal and local levels on policy. It's using wedge issues

455
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: like trade tariffs to advance Beijings political influence. We hear

456
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 1: a lot about Russian influence and elections well, according to

457
00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:06,199
Speaker 1: Vice President Pence, and this is a landmark speech that

458
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:09,360
Speaker 1: I urge everyone to read. Overlooked by the media, one

459
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:12,119
Speaker 1: of the most important foreign affairs addresses, really one of

460
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,200
Speaker 1: the most important addresses period during the Donald Trump presidency.

461
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: Vice President Pence at the Hudson Institute in the Fall

462
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 1: West President's Pence said, China is also directly appealing to

463
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 1: the American voters. Last week and again, this was during

464
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,440
Speaker 1: the election season. The midterm elections, the Chinese government paid

465
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:31,959
Speaker 1: to have a multi page supplement inserted into the Des

466
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,800
Speaker 1: Moines Register, the paper of record in the home state

467
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: of our ambassador to China, Ambassador Brand's dad and a

468
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: pivotal state in twenty eighteen and twenty twenty. The supplement,

469
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 1: designed to look like the news articles, cast our trade

470
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 1: policies as reckless and harmful to Iowans. Foreign influence in

471
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 1: our elections, folks, right there in the newspapers. As Vice

472
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,679
Speaker 1: President Pence goes on to say, Beijing now requires American

473
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: joint ventures that operate in China to establish what they

474
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,640
Speaker 1: call party organizations within their company, giving the Communist Party

475
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 1: of voice and perhaps a veto in hiring and investment decisions.

476
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 1: They also provide funding, of course, to think tanks and schools,

477
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 1: and with that funding does come strings attached, of course,

478
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 1: So China's engaged in a comprehensive whole of government effort

479
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:18,119
Speaker 1: to become the world's hegemon, and it has a direct

480
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 1: impact on America, not only as an economic competitor, but

481
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,120
Speaker 1: as a national security threat. And I want to read

482
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,399
Speaker 1: just a couple quick excerpts and then we'll talk about

483
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,959
Speaker 1: what the response has been on the nature of what

484
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 1: China is doing in the world. New York Times, so

485
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:35,360
Speaker 1: their credit ran an article in June how China got

486
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 1: Triuanka to cough up a port. Article starts every time

487
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:43,879
Speaker 1: Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa turned to his Chinese allies

488
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 1: for loans and assistance with an ambitious port project, the

489
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 1: answer was yes, yes, though feasibility studies said the port

490
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: wouldn't work. Yes, though other frequent lenders like India had

491
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: refused yes, though Sri Lanka's debt was ballooning rapidly under

492
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 1: mister Rajapaksa. Over years of construction and renegotiation with China

493
00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:03,439
Speaker 1: Harbor Engineering Company, one of Beijing's largest state owned enterprises,

494
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: the Hambantota Port Development Project distinguished itself mostly by failing

495
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: as predicted. With tens of thousands of ships passing by

496
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 1: along one of the world's busiest shipping lands. The port

497
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: ru only thirty four ships in twenty twelve, and then

498
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,600
Speaker 1: the port became China's. Mister Rajapaksa was voted out of

499
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,200
Speaker 1: office in twenty fifteen, but Sri Lanka's new government struggled

500
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: to make payments on the debt he had taken on

501
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,160
Speaker 1: under heavy pressure, and after months of negotiations with the Chinese,

502
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,680
Speaker 1: the government handed over the port and fifteen thousand acres

503
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 1: of land around it for ninety nine years in December.

504
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 1: The transfer gave China control of territory just a few

505
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: hundred miles off the shores of Arrival, India and a

506
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 1: strategic foothold along a critical commercial and military waterway. Okay,

507
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 1: but it's not just in Sri Lanka. So another article

508
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal. Later in the year, Trophy Infrastructure, troublesome debt,

509
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 1: China makes inroads in Europe. The article begins, Europe is

510
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: distracted by internal discord over immigration and its tense relationship

511
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:03,440
Speaker 1: with Russia and the US, and the US seeking to

512
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:05,720
Speaker 1: fill the void, China is taking advantage of a historic

513
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 1: opportunity to wedge itself into the heart of the West,

514
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 1: deal by deal. Applying experience honed in Asia and Africa,

515
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: China is constructing parallel financial and commercial networks in Central

516
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 1: and Eastern Europe to challenge the global order. It has

517
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,560
Speaker 1: taken footholds in more than a dozen nations on the

518
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:22,600
Speaker 1: periphery of the European Union, some such as hungry or smaller,

519
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 1: more marginalized members. Others, including Serbia, are on the runway

520
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: for admission. Article goes on Beijing's offers of trophy, infrastructure

521
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: and financial lifelines to troubled economies, give those countries proposals

522
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 1: they aren't hearing from Washington and Moscow, which both generally

523
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 1: view the region through prisms of national security, and it concludes,

524
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 1: in part, for European politicians, the Chinese alternative promises quick

525
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: results and less fuss over contracts and transparency than typically

526
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: found in the West. The catch is that China's package

527
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: deals are government orchestrated and require borrowing from its banks

528
00:29:53,960 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: to pay its contractors. Another article, Hugely Vital article talks

529
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: about these this port lending in the like as a

530
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 1: trojan horse. It is estimated that stay backed Chinese investors

531
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: state owned at least ten percent of all equity imports

532
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 1: in Europe, with deals inked in Greece, Spain, Italy, France,

533
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, in Belgium. This in addition to a growing

534
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,080
Speaker 1: investment portfolio of at least forty ports in North and

535
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,520
Speaker 1: South America, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and on

536
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 1: and on and on. China's interest in European ports is

537
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 1: defined and driven by the Belt and Road initiative. Folks,

538
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 1: this is the biggest geopolitical challenger to America. And when

539
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: we come back from a quick break, I want to

540
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the tremendous shift back, a

541
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: revolutionary shift to first recognize the nature of the China

542
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: problem and start to push back on them. This is

543
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 1: Ben wangeran in for Buck Sex and on the buck

544
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 1: Sex and show We'll be right back Welcome back to

545
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: the Buck Sex and Show. This is Ben Weingarten in

546
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,480
Speaker 1: for Buck here on New Year's Eve. Thanks for tuning in.

547
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,560
Speaker 1: Before the break, we tee it up a little bit

548
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: part of the China story, which is what has China done?

549
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: The next part is what has America acknowledged, publicly recognized,

550
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: and what is America doing to start to push back

551
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 1: on it? And of course it starts by recognizing the problem.

552
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 1: And there was a vital part of our national security

553
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,640
Speaker 1: strategy that came out last year or this year early

554
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,600
Speaker 1: this year that recognized something that few in the political

555
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 1: establishment would have ever imagined uttering for years a quote

556
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: from it. For decades, US policy was rooted in the

557
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: belief that support for China's rise and for its integration

558
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: into the postwar international order would liberalize China. Contrary to

559
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 1: our hopes, China expanded its power at the expense of

560
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: the sovereignty of others. China gathers and exploits data on

561
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: an unrivaled scale and spreads futures of its authoritarian system,

562
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 1: including corruption and the use of surveillance. It is building

563
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: the most capable and well funded military in the world

564
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: after our own. Its nuclear arsenal is growing and diversifying

565
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 1: part of China as military modernization and economic expansion is

566
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:06,480
Speaker 1: due to its access to the US innovation economy, including

567
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: America's world class universities. So we acknowledge the problem in

568
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: our national security strategy and then in our national defense strategy.

569
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 1: This was written the central challenged to US prosperity and

570
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: security is the re emergence of long term strategic competition

571
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: by what the National Security Strategy classifies as revisionist powers.

572
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 1: It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to

573
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:32,400
Speaker 1: shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model. It goes

574
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: on from there China's leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and

575
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 1: predator predatory economics to coerce neighboring countries to reorder the

576
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 1: Indo Pacific region to their advantage, and it concludes the

577
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: most far reaching objective of this defense strategy, this being

578
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: America's defense strategy, is to set the military relationship between

579
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: our two countries on a path to transparency and non aggression.

580
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 1: Part of that starts with recognizing the nature of the

581
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: problem and call them out. So the Trump administration put

582
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 1: out what's called a three oh one report through the

583
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 1: US Trade Office, and what that did was catalog all

584
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 1: of the unfair cheating that China engages in when it

585
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 1: comes to again to the world economic architecture that we

586
00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 1: the US created, and we're kind enough to give them

587
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: access to. The FBI and the Department of Justice have

588
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: called out espionage in testimony from China in Congress, including

589
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,760
Speaker 1: talking about the malign influence of the Confucius Institutes that

590
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,080
Speaker 1: I talked about before. As I mentioned, Vice President laid

591
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: out a landmark speech that I urge all of you

592
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 1: to read at the Hudson Institute earlier this year in

593
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: the fall. Then lay it out all of the malign

594
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 1: activities of China and what the administration is starting to do.

595
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 1: That's a pretty big deal when the Vice President gives

596
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 1: a landmark speech like that. We've also named and shamed.

597
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: The DOJ has announced a slew of indictments of Chinese espionage,

598
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 1: including in areas that are strategically significant in technology, and

599
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 1: actually Jeff Sessions delivered and address when he was the

600
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,040
Speaker 1: Attorney General saying that China would be an explicit focus

601
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:07,160
Speaker 1: of the Department of Justice prosecuting Chinese espionage and cheaters

602
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: Beyond that we've seen a military build up under President Trump.

603
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: We've seen investment in the Navy and in our nuclear arsenal,

604
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,799
Speaker 1: retooling it. We have potentially we're potentially going to pull

605
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 1: out of the I n F Treaty now that is

606
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,319
Speaker 1: geared towards Russia on its face, but there's actually a

607
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,319
Speaker 1: Chinese impact to that as well, which is that China

608
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 1: is not a party to it, and that's a threat

609
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,120
Speaker 1: to them if we're no longer a party to it.

610
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 1: We've taken off the handcuffs by engaging in offensive cyber warfare.

611
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,399
Speaker 1: There's reportedly an executive order which says that the US

612
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 1: will indeed engage again in offensive cyber warfare as all

613
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 1: of our adversaries have done to us. There's, of course

614
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:52,720
Speaker 1: the trade issues, I believe, and Warry Cudlo, for example,

615
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: of the National Economic Council has said that tariffs for

616
00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 1: this presidency are effectively a means to an end, which

617
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,279
Speaker 1: is ultimately free trade. And in this case, it's first

618
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: getting China to stop cheating and then it's to actually

619
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:06,279
Speaker 1: enter a system of free, fair and reciprocal trade. We've

620
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:10,360
Speaker 1: been building bilateral relationships in the Indo Pacific specifically to

621
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:15,359
Speaker 1: counter China's influence, tightening up regulation of business deals with

622
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: foreign entities, including, of course, China promoting arm sales to Taiwan.

623
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:23,880
Speaker 1: China hates that concept. The Build Act to help compete

624
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:28,759
Speaker 1: against China's strategic efforts to build around the world. We've

625
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 1: laid out all of these things, and this is just

626
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:33,359
Speaker 1: the start of a massive shift in US government priority

627
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 1: to counteract China's malign influence. With our next guest, we'll

628
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:41,120
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about China's aims and America's response

629
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:43,320
Speaker 1: to them. We'll be right back on the Buck Sexon program.

630
00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Buck Sexton Show. This is Ben

631
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,719
Speaker 1: Weingarten in for Buck Sexton here at the top of

632
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,319
Speaker 1: hour two, and during the last hour we spoke a

633
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: bit about China's global strategy and this Trump administration's push back,

634
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,280
Speaker 1: which I think is potentially a revolutionary change in American

635
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,000
Speaker 1: foreign policy. Today we're joined by an expert on the subject,

636
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:09,320
Speaker 1: Dean Chang, who's a Senior Fellow at the Senior Research

637
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 1: Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where he specializes in Chinese

638
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,840
Speaker 1: political and security affairs. Dean, thank you so much for

639
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 1: joining us in Happy New Year. Thank you for having me,

640
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: and Happy New Year to you as well. Appreciate it, Dean.

641
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 1: When we look at China's malign activities and also China's

642
00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:28,360
Speaker 1: stated national goals, the question is how does it implicate

643
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:31,560
Speaker 1: us national interests? And the question I would ask is

644
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: to you, what would the world look like if China

645
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: achieved its stated national goals by say twenty forty nine. Well, so,

646
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:44,879
Speaker 1: what we have with China, I think it's important to emphasize,

647
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 1: is not a rising power. This is not imperial Germany

648
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:54,400
Speaker 1: circa nineteen thirteen. In some ways, it's more dangerous because

649
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: it's a returning power. For thousands of years, China dominated

650
00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: all of Asia. It was the Middle Kingdom. It was

651
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 1: also the Central Kingdom. All of its neighbors they never

652
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:10,040
Speaker 1: balanced against China. Instead, they were tributary states. They offered

653
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 1: tribute to China. And I think that's the model of

654
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 1: international relations that China is now bringing to a global stage.

655
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 1: China wants to be China is a returning major power

656
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: and as the number two economy in the world, soon

657
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,799
Speaker 1: potentially to be the number one, that's how it wants

658
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: to be treated. The implications for the United States are

659
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,720
Speaker 1: quite severe. If the so called Made in China twenty

660
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,640
Speaker 1: twenty five project succeeds, for example, then China wants to

661
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:47,320
Speaker 1: be the world's leader in the manufacturing of things ranging

662
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:54,120
Speaker 1: from locomotive engines to aircraft, agricultural products to microchips. And

663
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 1: the question people should be asking is what do you

664
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 1: think the world would look like then in twenty twenty

665
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,839
Speaker 1: six if China. I think the answer to that is

666
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,360
Speaker 1: China would have a protected domestic market that other countries

667
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: would not be able to compete in, but which would

668
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: generate the money for China to then subsidize a global

669
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:16,480
Speaker 1: push on the economic side, to dominate global locomotive trade,

670
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 1: global aircraft trade, global space operations, global microchip manufacturing, and

671
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: as we've seen with Sri Lanka, as we've seen elsewhere

672
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:32,040
Speaker 1: in Asia, when China dominates other countries. Bow what do

673
00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:36,320
Speaker 1: you make of my assessment that the currently ongoing trade

674
00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: negotiations are merely one part of a much more comprehensive

675
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:44,760
Speaker 1: effort to push back on China using some or even all,

676
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 1: elements of US national power, as we've seen embedded in

677
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:52,240
Speaker 1: documents like the drum Administration's National Security Strategy, the National

678
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 1: Defense strategy and numerous addresses, including those by Vice President

679
00:38:56,239 --> 00:39:01,120
Speaker 1: Pence in recent months. Well, I hope you are correct.

680
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 1: The problem I have with that assessment is I think

681
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 1: it's overly optimistic. We seem to have a government that

682
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 1: has distinct trouble coordinating among its various elements. We certainly

683
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 1: have a government where various parts of the Deep States

684
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 1: seem to feel that they are entitled to try and

685
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:29,839
Speaker 1: act against presidential directives and operations. So I'm hoping that

686
00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,360
Speaker 1: there is more of a strategy there being in the implementation.

687
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 1: But I do think you've identified two key documents that

688
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 1: did in fact come out and mark a huge sea change,

689
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 1: The National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy. Basically

690
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 1: say we view China and Russia as our foremost threats.

691
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 1: Not terrorism, not ISIS, not al Qaeda. Those are still bad,

692
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,239
Speaker 1: but the people that we have to truly worry about

693
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,479
Speaker 1: our nation, state level actors who can mobilize a huge

694
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: amount of resources. And in the case of China, they

695
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:07,680
Speaker 1: are mobilizing not just military resources, but economic, political, human, technological,

696
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: and financial. What is the significance Often we hear about

697
00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 1: China's man made islands militarization of those islands, efforts in

698
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,839
Speaker 1: the South China Sea and essentially trying to exert their

699
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: sovereignty over waters that the international community would generally argue

700
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: and certainly the US would argue, are not theirs. What

701
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:32,440
Speaker 1: is the impact of those moves on everyday American life? Ultimately,

702
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: ultimately speaking, we are talking about China trying to expand

703
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 1: its sovereignty over international common spaces. So for the South

704
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:46,600
Speaker 1: China See issue, we're talking about the corroded argy of

705
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:52,040
Speaker 1: global trade. Five point three trillion dollars of goods moves

706
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:58,240
Speaker 1: through those waters every year. If your listeners are listening

707
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: on a on a laptop, if they are going to

708
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:06,400
Speaker 1: later watch the Rose Bowl tomorrow on a flat screen,

709
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:09,280
Speaker 1: if they're going to get a beer or soft drink

710
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: out of a refrigerator, those goods quite likely have passed

711
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 1: through the South China see And if not the goods themselves,

712
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: certainly subparts and components. If China controls those waters as

713
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 1: national waters, then it has the ability to really basically

714
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:30,839
Speaker 1: strangle international trade or at least make it much more

715
00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:34,359
Speaker 1: expensive for all of those goods. There was recently a

716
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: bipartisan report published which essentially said and I will paraphrase

717
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 1: it here that the US might not win in a

718
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: war head to head with China, presumably a conventional war.

719
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: What do you make of that report and how would

720
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 1: you compare overall China's conventional and non conventional capabilities versus

721
00:41:55,200 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 1: those of America. Well, the Chinese have two advantages. One

722
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,120
Speaker 1: is very basic which people forget, which is the US

723
00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 1: is a global military power and we need to be

724
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,880
Speaker 1: because we have global interests. What that means is every

725
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:15,320
Speaker 1: dollar we spend on defense gets spread around the world.

726
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 1: China is still a regional military power, and every reming Bee,

727
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:24,799
Speaker 1: every un it spends it mostly gets this focus at home.

728
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:29,160
Speaker 1: So if we have twelve aircraft carriers in the Pacific,

729
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:32,440
Speaker 1: if we're lucky, we have seven, and not all of

730
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: those are going to be available. China is working on

731
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: its third aircraft carrier and they're keeping all of those

732
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:41,320
Speaker 1: at home. So far, from twelve to three, we're looking

733
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:45,400
Speaker 1: at seven to three and probably less. So that's the basic.

734
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 1: The bigger issue is China knows where it wants to go.

735
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:52,759
Speaker 1: China sees US as a threat. For eight years, we

736
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 1: had an administration that actively work to prevent US from

737
00:42:56,560 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 1: even saying that China is a threat. Had a senior

738
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:03,600
Speaker 1: commander of Pacific Command who said the greatest threat in

739
00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:09,000
Speaker 1: his area of responsibility, meaning the entire Pacific, was climate change,

740
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 1: not North Korea, not China. Climate change. When you have

741
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:18,360
Speaker 1: senior military commanders thinking that way, talking that way, you

742
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:20,360
Speaker 1: can have a lot harder time trying to get the

743
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 1: resources and the war planning done versus an adversary who says,

744
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 1: you know who my biggest enemy is? The United States. Yeah,

745
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:33,440
Speaker 1: one can only imagine what the perception of those comments

746
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 1: about climate change was in Beijing. And meanwhile, it's not

747
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 1: as if there have not been a series of potentially

748
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:45,040
Speaker 1: cataquismic acts that China has engaged in towards the US

749
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,000
Speaker 1: that oftentimes I think are overlooked. Two of them in

750
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 1: recent years being the OPM hack number one and number

751
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:55,640
Speaker 1: two the literal liquidation killing of our intelligence network on

752
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: Chinese soil. Put in context, how devastating those two acts

753
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:06,600
Speaker 1: have been China, somebody once pointed. A major British historian

754
00:44:06,680 --> 00:44:09,799
Speaker 1: pointed out, we should be rewriting the entire history of

755
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,480
Speaker 1: the Second World War now that all of the secrets

756
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,440
Speaker 1: have been declassified, about how we were reading all the

757
00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:20,320
Speaker 1: German codes and all the Japanese codes. That is how

758
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:26,359
Speaker 1: fundamental our ability to read their information was the fact

759
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:29,920
Speaker 1: that the Chinese basically have all of our personnel data

760
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,359
Speaker 1: and we're able to crack our communications to kill off

761
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:37,239
Speaker 1: our network of agents. Gives you an idea of how

762
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:42,760
Speaker 1: much of our mail, email, documents, data flow they are reading.

763
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:47,840
Speaker 1: This is you know, if there is a conflict and

764
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:50,920
Speaker 1: the other side knows your orders, knows where your forces

765
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:54,920
Speaker 1: are going, knows your rules of engagement, you are seriously

766
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:59,759
Speaker 1: up a creek. What is China's end goal and establishing

767
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 1: control of ports throughout the world, including most notably in

768
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 1: Europe and the Middle East. This has been described by

769
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: some as sort of a trojan horse effort to what end. Well,

770
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 1: I don't think it is so that there will be

771
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:21,760
Speaker 1: Chinese troops walking the unter den Linden or occupation forces

772
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:24,480
Speaker 1: in Rome. This is not how the Chinese, I think,

773
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 1: are thinking. I think what it is is to have

774
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:32,319
Speaker 1: enough of control and the influence over key parts of

775
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:35,879
Speaker 1: the global trade and later the global financial system that

776
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:39,280
Speaker 1: when another country, be at the United States or Germany

777
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: or who member says hey, you have to stop hacking

778
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 1: into our data. Hey, you have to start respecting intellectual

779
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:47,680
Speaker 1: property rights. The Chinese said, you know, be a real

780
00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,800
Speaker 1: shame if none of your cranes worked, if none of

781
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,560
Speaker 1: your pipelines worked. I mean, that's the sort of thing

782
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 1: that we are seeing now in Sri Lanka. Apparently now

783
00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:00,640
Speaker 1: in Kenya is where the Chinese have financed ports things

784
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 1: and then they basically say, hey, you sun this contract payoff,

785
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 1: and when the country can't, it's like, okay, well that's

786
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: simple enough, We're foreclosing, We're taking over the port. You know,

787
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 1: when you're talking about a country like Greece, work Hungary,

788
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:21,479
Speaker 1: that is potentially the situation less likely in a place

789
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:25,080
Speaker 1: like Germany or France because they are wealthier, but poor

790
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 1: European countries may someday face the same pipe. What is

791
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:34,480
Speaker 1: the appropriate response to what I've frequently referred to as

792
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:37,480
Speaker 1: sort of a loan to own strategy, That is, China

793
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 1: provides financing that seems to present no strings attached to it,

794
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:45,800
Speaker 1: but then ultimately the financing the dead burden becomes crippling,

795
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 1: and then the foreign nation has to then turn over

796
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,960
Speaker 1: those assets to the Chinese. What is the appropriate response

797
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:56,080
Speaker 1: from the West in general and American in particular. Well,

798
00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: I think one important thing not to do is to

799
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,359
Speaker 1: not get into a competition with the Chinese on who

800
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 1: can loan more people more money, because, as my good

801
00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:08,440
Speaker 1: friend Derek scissors Over at the American Enterprise Institute has

802
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 1: pointed out, you will never outsubsidize the Chinese. Their loans

803
00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 1: and things are not based on financial balance sheets. It's

804
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:19,160
Speaker 1: not based on a good business plan. It is strategic.

805
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 1: It is hey, I want influence in this country. I

806
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:24,960
Speaker 1: don't care if that port never makes money. If I

807
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:29,439
Speaker 1: gain influence, that's my payoff. So on the one hand,

808
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 1: so long as we are operating on a more financially

809
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,600
Speaker 1: sound basis, that's part of what we should be doing.

810
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:38,680
Speaker 1: We should be saying, hey, this port is a good idea.

811
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:41,399
Speaker 1: We should look at it because it will make everybody money,

812
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:44,200
Speaker 1: including the owning country. In the meantime, though, one of

813
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:47,440
Speaker 1: the things we could probably do is, for example, create

814
00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 1: a voluntary core of legal experts so that poor countries

815
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 1: could have advice to say, look, you do you may

816
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:00,719
Speaker 1: not realize this, but these loan terms are terrible. You

817
00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,200
Speaker 1: may not realize this, but they are going to ultimately

818
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 1: charge you an arm and a leg and ahead in

819
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:10,040
Speaker 1: terms of interest rates. Don't sign this contract. We might

820
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:13,800
Speaker 1: even offer to help provide negotiators, and because they would

821
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 1: be paid therefore, you know, they are presumably going to

822
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:21,280
Speaker 1: be working for the government of the other country to say, look,

823
00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:26,720
Speaker 1: you know you may need some actual negotiating advice, legal

824
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:30,839
Speaker 1: advice on before you sign with the Chinese. These are

825
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,480
Speaker 1: things that I think human talent wise, we could be

826
00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 1: helping to develop in these countries so that they have

827
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 1: a better chance of standing up to the Chinese. You

828
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,399
Speaker 1: speak about the sort of illogic from an economic perspective

829
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 1: of much of China's efforts abroad to essentially buy influence,

830
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 1: not actually have prosperous projects domestically. I wonder if you

831
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:54,960
Speaker 1: could speak a bit to the idea that, look, central

832
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 1: planning fails everywhere that it's tried. To what degree has

833
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,200
Speaker 1: central planning hamper the Chinese? And ultimately could it prove

834
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,640
Speaker 1: to be to some degree their downfall, their fatal flaw.

835
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:11,480
Speaker 1: You know, I think that if I were a more

836
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:17,440
Speaker 1: suspicious person, I'd say that Alexandra Ocasio Cortez basically seems

837
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:21,040
Speaker 1: to be a better disciple of Mao than the Chinese.

838
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:27,840
Speaker 1: The Chinese themselves have said, look, central planning doesn't work.

839
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:32,120
Speaker 1: So the Chinese economy today is this weird hybrid. They

840
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:36,640
Speaker 1: call it a socialist market economy where certain directives are

841
00:49:36,719 --> 00:49:40,880
Speaker 1: laid out and state owned enterprises don't operate according to

842
00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:45,320
Speaker 1: making a profit, but resource allocation still does in fact

843
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:48,839
Speaker 1: use the market to sort of get signals through Hey

844
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:51,919
Speaker 1: this is working, this isn't working. So on the one hand,

845
00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:55,680
Speaker 1: your average Chinese person, you know, the restaurants they eat at,

846
00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:58,640
Speaker 1: many of the shops they shop at, those are real

847
00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:08,279
Speaker 1: private commercial enterprises. But steel, shipbuilding, aerospace, those are state champions.

848
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 1: They are given centralized direction, and we're watching a slowdown

849
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:17,840
Speaker 1: in innovation in those areas precisely because they are operating

850
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:22,239
Speaker 1: under an ever heavier dead hand of you know, a

851
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 1: sort of higher level oversight and direction, rather than the

852
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 1: hidden hand of more traditional capitalism. Dianne, we'll have to

853
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 1: leave it right there. Happy New Year's and thank you

854
00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:34,560
Speaker 1: so much for coming on. Thank you again for having me.

855
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 1: We'll be right back on the buck Sexton Show. This

856
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 1: is ben Winegarden in four buck Sexton on the buck

857
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:43,759
Speaker 1: Sexton Show. Appreciate you taking the time to spend it

858
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:45,920
Speaker 1: with me here on New Year's Eve. You can follow

859
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:49,080
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at b h Winegarden. All Right, we've

860
00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 1: been talking a bit about national security and foreign policy

861
00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:56,120
Speaker 1: as well as foreign influence. We've heard about the hysteria

862
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: of foreign influence in the US, primarily from the Russians,

863
00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:02,239
Speaker 1: but also does exist from the Chinese and from all

864
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 1: sorts of other malign actors throughout the world. One of

865
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:11,799
Speaker 1: those actors is Iran and now their proxies. Very interestingly,

866
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:15,719
Speaker 1: Iran has built up a set of Sunni partners, and

867
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,240
Speaker 1: there are plenty of folks in American media and outside

868
00:51:19,239 --> 00:51:22,600
Speaker 1: of American media as well, who, for example, were proponents

869
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:27,040
Speaker 1: of Iran Deal and the Obama administration's policy writ large

870
00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:29,400
Speaker 1: with respect to Iran and the Middle East. What was

871
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:34,719
Speaker 1: that policy? That policy was about enabling the building of

872
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:38,560
Speaker 1: a quote unquote Shiite crescent, a land bridge that would

873
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:43,760
Speaker 1: allow Iran to become the dominant hegemonic player in the region.

874
00:51:45,600 --> 00:51:48,240
Speaker 1: These folks, as you would imagine, have not been pleased

875
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 1: by the Trump administration, because the Trump administration's main actions

876
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:55,319
Speaker 1: in the region have been to counteract almost everything that

877
00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:59,920
Speaker 1: the Obama administration did. For example, pulling out of Iran,

878
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:06,080
Speaker 1: you reimposing crippling sanctions, building up an alliance of relatively secular,

879
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:11,640
Speaker 1: authoritarian Sunni Arab nations as a bulwark against Iran and

880
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:14,799
Speaker 1: the Shii crescent that they're trying to build, not just

881
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:19,680
Speaker 1: those nations, but amazingly an Israel US Sunni Arab partnership,

882
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:22,239
Speaker 1: something that most people thought they would never see in

883
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 1: their lifetime. But that actually is the perverse positive, the

884
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 1: perverse benefit of an Obama administration that tried to make

885
00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:33,920
Speaker 1: Iran the strong horse in the region. Now I mentioned

886
00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:37,479
Speaker 1: foreign influence and Iranian foreign influence. How do we see

887
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:41,520
Speaker 1: that in America? Well, we actually see it in a

888
00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:46,440
Speaker 1: media that not only cheerleads, but even it appears is

889
00:52:46,480 --> 00:52:50,920
Speaker 1: a willing participant, is complicit in, whether wittingly or unwittingly,

890
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:56,920
Speaker 1: actual influence operations, information operations that happen to have the

891
00:52:57,040 --> 00:53:03,960
Speaker 1: perverse detrimental result for America, which is putting forth the

892
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 1: Iranian position, pushing back on this alliance that has been

893
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:11,440
Speaker 1: built as a bulwark against it, and ultimately damaging a

894
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:15,279
Speaker 1: relationship with Israel, damaging a relationship with others who are

895
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:19,040
Speaker 1: vital to defending against the world's leading state sponsor of

896
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:24,560
Speaker 1: jihad in Iran. Where is this influence operation most acute?

897
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:28,000
Speaker 1: We see it in the story of Jamal Kashogi. And

898
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:30,160
Speaker 1: up next we're going to talk about that influence operation.

899
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 1: This has Ben Weingarden in for Buck Sexton on the

900
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:36,560
Speaker 1: buck Sexton Show. We'll talk about that influence operation back

901
00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:40,320
Speaker 1: in just a minute. Welcome back to the buck Sexton Show.

902
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 1: This is Ben Weinarden in for bucks Sexton. All right,

903
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 1: before our break, we spoke a bit about foreign influence operations,

904
00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:52,640
Speaker 1: one of them being that of Jamal Kashogi. And to

905
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:56,759
Speaker 1: give you a little bit more context here, Jamal Kashogi

906
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:01,560
Speaker 1: was cast by the media as this liberty loving muckraking

907
00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:04,520
Speaker 1: journalists from Saudi Arabia who was fighting the good fight

908
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:09,000
Speaker 1: against the authoritarian Mohammed bin Salmon MBS and as a

909
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:12,320
Speaker 1: result of his efforts was brutally butchered by that regime

910
00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:15,799
Speaker 1: in Turkey in the Saudi embassy. There, some of us,

911
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:19,400
Speaker 1: including my next guest and his organization as well as myself,

912
00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:24,880
Speaker 1: questioned that official narrative, and suddenly, two months after this

913
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:29,000
Speaker 1: influence operation has had its intended effect, we now find

914
00:54:29,160 --> 00:54:32,719
Speaker 1: that those who were cast as having smeared Koshogi, were

915
00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:35,719
Speaker 1: actually telling the exact truth that the Washington Post has

916
00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 1: just printed where he used to write. Joining me now

917
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:41,560
Speaker 1: on the line is David Reboy, Senior vice president at

918
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: the Security Studies Group. His organization has done tremendous work

919
00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:47,839
Speaker 1: on the Koshogi story. David, thanks so much for joining us.

920
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:52,080
Speaker 1: It's my pleasure. Happy year. Likewise, happened a new year

921
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:55,280
Speaker 1: to you as well. So you contend that the entire

922
00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:59,280
Speaker 1: Koshogi story, and you were following this in real time,

923
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:04,320
Speaker 1: is in effect and information operation don effectively on behalf

924
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:08,279
Speaker 1: of the Qatari government which is aligned with the Iranians,

925
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:12,480
Speaker 1: and thus this whole information operation has benefited the Iranians

926
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:15,920
Speaker 1: connect the dots for us. Sure well, I want to

927
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:19,040
Speaker 1: give you a lot of credit too, because because you

928
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:22,200
Speaker 1: and I were there at the very beginning, as soon

929
00:55:22,239 --> 00:55:24,919
Speaker 1: as this was, as soon as this was breaking, and

930
00:55:25,680 --> 00:55:29,239
Speaker 1: I think we both saw not a lot of people did.

931
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:32,319
Speaker 1: We both saw the stitches on the fastball coming at

932
00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:36,040
Speaker 1: us and um and we recognized this for what really,

933
00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:38,520
Speaker 1: for what it's for what it was. So I want

934
00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:41,520
Speaker 1: to command you on your great work on this as well. Oh,

935
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:46,759
Speaker 1: thank you but sure. But to be brief, UM, we

936
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:52,840
Speaker 1: had in in in the Middle East, especially around these

937
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:57,480
Speaker 1: parts where you don't have a real robust tradition of

938
00:55:58,040 --> 00:56:03,319
Speaker 1: a free, inquisitive non artists and pressed. Um, you don't

939
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:06,479
Speaker 1: even have the aspiration for that. What do you do have?

940
00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:12,959
Speaker 1: You have basically agents of influence or what people people

941
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,759
Speaker 1: who would be called in another context UM, you know,

942
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:21,960
Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, intelligence agents and their job.

943
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:27,320
Speaker 1: You know, some guys are spies, some guys UM do research,

944
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:30,480
Speaker 1: and some guys are journalists. That's just the cover that

945
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:33,760
Speaker 1: they wear. And they go sort of from place to place,

946
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:37,600
Speaker 1: from from gig to gigs, UM advancing the interests of

947
00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:43,640
Speaker 1: their patrons. And Kashogi was a guy who did this

948
00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:47,080
Speaker 1: and applied his his his wares, his whares where we're

949
00:56:47,719 --> 00:56:54,040
Speaker 1: um we're influenced through the medium of journalism UM or

950
00:56:54,080 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 1: writing columns and and he did it on behalf of

951
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:04,560
Speaker 1: Osama bin Laden and the Mushaden in Afghanistan, he did

952
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:08,480
Speaker 1: it on behalf of the prior ruling click in UM

953
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:17,480
Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabia specifically Turkey, Fifaal and and most recently

954
00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:20,080
Speaker 1: he was doing it on behalf of the Qatari government,

955
00:57:20,960 --> 00:57:24,920
Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of interesting how all of those

956
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:29,600
Speaker 1: particular patrons that Kashobi had were sort of of a

957
00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:35,080
Speaker 1: similar Islamist stripe. Well. At some point over the last

958
00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:40,360
Speaker 1: couple of years, this particular point of view, this Islamist

959
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:46,360
Speaker 1: persuasion of Kashobi's, meets up against MBS and the new

960
00:57:47,120 --> 00:57:49,960
Speaker 1: kind of reform movement that's going on in Saudi Arabia,

961
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:53,080
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, his Shogi is the odd

962
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:58,760
Speaker 1: man out. His particular sympathies for the Muslim Brotherhood put

963
00:57:58,840 --> 00:58:04,760
Speaker 1: him far outside of what um of of what Mohammed

964
00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:07,360
Speaker 1: bin Salman and the rest of the young reformers in

965
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:10,680
Speaker 1: the Kingdom um want to go for where they want

966
00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:13,840
Speaker 1: to go with with their society. They're very anti Brotherhood,

967
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 1: and they're also very anti Iran. Maki Shogi was also

968
00:58:17,240 --> 00:58:20,680
Speaker 1: anti Iran, but he was very much pro Brotherhood, so

969
00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:23,840
Speaker 1: um so he was. He was a bit of a

970
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:26,600
Speaker 1: free agent for a while until he found the Kataris

971
00:58:26,600 --> 00:58:33,080
Speaker 1: and the Qataris are our major um rivals and regional

972
00:58:33,120 --> 00:58:37,840
Speaker 1: adversaries to the Saudies, and they bank roll and give

973
00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:42,040
Speaker 1: diplomatic and other institutional support to the Brotherhood and they

974
00:58:42,040 --> 00:58:45,520
Speaker 1: have for for the last you know, thirty forty years.

975
00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:49,120
Speaker 1: And so this so Katar was really a perfect home

976
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:54,360
Speaker 1: for Jamaka Shogi Um. And and sort of that brings

977
00:58:54,440 --> 00:58:59,760
Speaker 1: us to his his his death and you know, his

978
00:58:59,760 --> 00:59:02,520
Speaker 1: his death at the hands is believed to be a

979
00:59:02,520 --> 00:59:06,400
Speaker 1: savvy agent probably almost you know, certainly UM savvy agents

980
00:59:06,480 --> 00:59:11,360
Speaker 1: inside inside Turkey. But the more the more we learn

981
00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:15,480
Speaker 1: about this, the more it seemed like it wasn't so

982
00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:18,200
Speaker 1: much a killing in cold blood as it was an

983
00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:22,920
Speaker 1: attempted rendition. They wanted to bring him home. Um, they

984
00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:26,320
Speaker 1: wanted to to uh to bring him home from from

985
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:29,360
Speaker 1: Turkey back to Saudi Arabia, and he didn't want to go.

986
00:59:29,600 --> 00:59:32,760
Speaker 1: It seemed like there was a fight, a struggle ensued

987
00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:36,400
Speaker 1: and Um and he died. Now that's a terrible thing. Sure,

988
00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:39,920
Speaker 1: it's a terrible thing when when anyone died. But as

989
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:43,560
Speaker 1: I pointed out recently at Security Edit in a new

990
00:59:43,600 --> 00:59:48,240
Speaker 1: article of Security Studies group Security Studies dot orger, Um,

991
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:50,880
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a far different story. You know,

992
00:59:50,920 --> 00:59:54,720
Speaker 1: a spy dying UM on the way to be UM

993
00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:57,880
Speaker 1: to be sort of forcibly taken back to his home

994
00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:02,240
Speaker 1: country is a far fly from the media narrative, which

995
01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:06,040
Speaker 1: is that he was this wonderful freedom loving um journalist

996
01:00:06,080 --> 01:00:09,800
Speaker 1: who was just murdered because Saudi Arabia couldn't stand the

997
01:00:09,880 --> 01:00:13,800
Speaker 1: idea of someone advocating for freedom um, which of course

998
01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:17,320
Speaker 1: is the narratives that both Kataris want to advance and

999
01:00:17,560 --> 01:00:20,200
Speaker 1: and all sorts of the narratives that a lot of

1000
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:23,720
Speaker 1: people on the left and the Washington both want to advance.

1001
01:00:24,200 --> 01:00:28,320
Speaker 1: So we're in a kind of strange situation where could

1002
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:31,160
Speaker 1: show he was a Qatari asset prior to his death

1003
01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:35,640
Speaker 1: and his death um, you know, after his death he

1004
01:00:35,800 --> 01:00:40,400
Speaker 1: sort of transmodified again into a Tatari asset um for

1005
01:00:40,600 --> 01:00:47,640
Speaker 1: use against the saudiast um. You know, once once he

1006
01:00:47,720 --> 01:00:52,000
Speaker 1: had once he had sort of you know, uh departed

1007
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:55,200
Speaker 1: his natural life. So it's a it's an interesting situation,

1008
01:00:55,320 --> 01:00:58,000
Speaker 1: I think, you know. Um, it's by far one of

1009
01:00:58,000 --> 01:01:01,480
Speaker 1: the big stories of the year for a number of reasons. Yeah,

1010
01:01:01,480 --> 01:01:04,960
Speaker 1: and time has made Kashogi one of their people of

1011
01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:07,120
Speaker 1: the year, holding him up, you know. And this is

1012
01:01:07,160 --> 01:01:10,240
Speaker 1: the part of this which is just purely cynical. Politics

1013
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:13,200
Speaker 1: of journalists are under attack around the world, and here

1014
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:14,960
Speaker 1: was someone who was writing in the US for the

1015
01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:18,840
Speaker 1: Washington Post, and thus Trump is responsible or Trump is

1016
01:01:18,840 --> 01:01:22,600
Speaker 1: somehow complicit because he's working with Mohammed bin Salmon to

1017
01:01:22,800 --> 01:01:26,400
Speaker 1: defend US national interest in that region, and Salmon is

1018
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:29,880
Speaker 1: portrayed as the butcher in all of this. But I

1019
01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:32,560
Speaker 1: want to go back to just the basic details of

1020
01:01:33,080 --> 01:01:36,200
Speaker 1: Kashogi's background, and you raise a few of them. He

1021
01:01:36,320 --> 01:01:40,320
Speaker 1: was effectively a quote unquote state journalist for the prior

1022
01:01:40,640 --> 01:01:44,440
Speaker 1: ruling clique in Saudi Arabia. He worked closely with Turkey

1023
01:01:44,520 --> 01:01:48,400
Speaker 1: bin Faisal, who was the Saudi intelligence chief until just

1024
01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:51,160
Speaker 1: before nine to eleven, and then an ambassador after so

1025
01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:54,960
Speaker 1: Kashogi presumably traveled around with him as an advisor. And

1026
01:01:55,040 --> 01:01:59,480
Speaker 1: Kashogi was an Islamic supremacist as well. How did he

1027
01:01:59,560 --> 01:02:02,640
Speaker 1: ever end up allowed into the United States in the

1028
01:02:02,720 --> 01:02:07,200
Speaker 1: first place? But this is an excellent question that nobody

1029
01:02:07,240 --> 01:02:10,600
Speaker 1: seems to know the answer too. I know a number

1030
01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:14,600
Speaker 1: of people at I mean, at first as as we remember,

1031
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:17,040
Speaker 1: the story was that he was a Green card holder.

1032
01:02:17,840 --> 01:02:20,080
Speaker 1: And you know, I reached out to people that I

1033
01:02:20,160 --> 01:02:24,800
Speaker 1: know at DHS and and and others in government, and

1034
01:02:24,840 --> 01:02:27,640
Speaker 1: I said, hey, can you find out for me some

1035
01:02:27,680 --> 01:02:31,560
Speaker 1: of the details about his Green card application and so forth,

1036
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:35,440
Speaker 1: and the responsible of hey, we don't know anything, and

1037
01:02:35,640 --> 01:02:37,640
Speaker 1: you know, and it quickly became clear that he was

1038
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:40,680
Speaker 1: not a Green card holder, but he was in this

1039
01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:46,560
Speaker 1: country legally somehow. And to this date it's been several

1040
01:02:46,600 --> 01:02:48,840
Speaker 1: months and we still don't really know the answer to

1041
01:02:48,920 --> 01:02:50,840
Speaker 1: who was the one that gave him a throng l

1042
01:02:51,160 --> 01:02:55,840
Speaker 1: who was the one that that allowed him to allow

1043
01:02:55,960 --> 01:02:58,360
Speaker 1: him to come in? And and look, I mean, it's

1044
01:02:58,400 --> 01:03:02,240
Speaker 1: it's possible he came in in a diplomatic way because

1045
01:03:02,280 --> 01:03:05,640
Speaker 1: he did for a time, he did work at the

1046
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:10,880
Speaker 1: Saudi embassy in Washington, so it's possible that he um

1047
01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:17,560
Speaker 1: he still had some type of diplomatic credentials, and you know,

1048
01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:22,120
Speaker 1: he was a known guy around town. So it's it's

1049
01:03:22,160 --> 01:03:24,520
Speaker 1: it's reasonable to expect if there was someone in the

1050
01:03:24,560 --> 01:03:29,000
Speaker 1: bureaucracy or the intelligence community that's kind of raised their

1051
01:03:29,080 --> 01:03:34,560
Speaker 1: hand to on his behalf and got him in here.

1052
01:03:34,600 --> 01:03:37,440
Speaker 1: I mean, regardless, somebody who hung out with the mujadin

1053
01:03:37,720 --> 01:03:41,120
Speaker 1: and beIN Lauden in Afghanistan should probably be looked at

1054
01:03:41,200 --> 01:03:46,400
Speaker 1: twice if admitted at all. This is Ben Weingarten in

1055
01:03:46,480 --> 01:03:48,520
Speaker 1: for Buck Sexon on the Buck Sexon Show. We'll pick

1056
01:03:48,600 --> 01:03:51,000
Speaker 1: up this conversation on Jamaica Shogi just after the break.

1057
01:03:52,320 --> 01:03:54,640
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Buck Sexton Show. This is Ben

1058
01:03:54,680 --> 01:03:58,240
Speaker 1: Weinarten in for Buck Sexton. We've been speaking with David Reeboy,

1059
01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:01,320
Speaker 1: senior vice president at the Secure He Studies Group, about

1060
01:04:01,360 --> 01:04:05,120
Speaker 1: the story of Jamal Kashogi. One of the defining stories

1061
01:04:05,720 --> 01:04:09,320
Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen in the view of the media. But

1062
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:13,320
Speaker 1: actually it's defining because it shows the media being complicit

1063
01:04:13,640 --> 01:04:17,640
Speaker 1: in an information operation from hostile powers. Now, David, we

1064
01:04:17,640 --> 01:04:21,000
Speaker 1: were just talking about how Jamal Kashogi was able to

1065
01:04:21,120 --> 01:04:24,480
Speaker 1: enter the United States in the first place. Regardless, he

1066
01:04:24,520 --> 01:04:27,280
Speaker 1: has been held up as a cause, celeb and used

1067
01:04:27,320 --> 01:04:30,560
Speaker 1: on a bipartisan basis in a sense as a martyr,

1068
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:34,440
Speaker 1: as a political symbol for the political establishment to impose

1069
01:04:34,800 --> 01:04:38,960
Speaker 1: its views on the Trump administration. Essentially, what has been

1070
01:04:39,000 --> 01:04:41,800
Speaker 1: the impact of the death of Kashogi? How has it

1071
01:04:41,840 --> 01:04:47,360
Speaker 1: been leveraged? Sure, he's primarily the people who are who

1072
01:04:47,360 --> 01:04:52,840
Speaker 1: are sort of waiting with bloody Kogi shirts, so to speak,

1073
01:04:53,800 --> 01:04:57,120
Speaker 1: fall into one or more of these categories. I think

1074
01:04:57,520 --> 01:05:00,760
Speaker 1: the first is people who are pro if Lamist, pro

1075
01:05:00,880 --> 01:05:05,439
Speaker 1: Muslim brotherhood, It doesn't mean that they are UM. They're

1076
01:05:05,440 --> 01:05:10,800
Speaker 1: either Muslim nor brothers UM. But they think that the

1077
01:05:10,840 --> 01:05:15,000
Speaker 1: best debt for the Middle East is to have UM,

1078
01:05:15,040 --> 01:05:17,640
Speaker 1: you know, is to have what they believe is you know,

1079
01:05:17,720 --> 01:05:24,160
Speaker 1: authentic Islamic democracy, which they think is Sharia law, and

1080
01:05:24,240 --> 01:05:26,920
Speaker 1: they think it's a you know, sort of positive development

1081
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:29,680
Speaker 1: for the region. UM. I think that's crazy. Even I

1082
01:05:29,680 --> 01:05:32,919
Speaker 1: think that's crazy. But you know this, this particular point

1083
01:05:32,920 --> 01:05:36,280
Speaker 1: of view is quite popular in inside the Belble and

1084
01:05:36,400 --> 01:05:41,240
Speaker 1: especially at a CIA and UH and some other intelligence pagencies.

1085
01:05:41,680 --> 01:05:44,520
Speaker 1: So you've got that. On the other hand, there are

1086
01:05:44,520 --> 01:05:46,560
Speaker 1: a lot of people who are pro Iran and who

1087
01:05:46,640 --> 01:05:51,240
Speaker 1: still resent Saudi Arabia's role together with Israel and trying

1088
01:05:51,320 --> 01:05:56,360
Speaker 1: to convince the event Obama administration not to not to

1089
01:05:56,400 --> 01:06:01,720
Speaker 1: implement the JCPLA on the random. These guys, I think UH,

1090
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:06,640
Speaker 1: specifically MBS and UH and in particular UM young generation

1091
01:06:06,800 --> 01:06:11,680
Speaker 1: understood very clearly and still do UM that Rahan is

1092
01:06:11,720 --> 01:06:15,680
Speaker 1: a greater threat to their own stability and there was

1093
01:06:15,720 --> 01:06:19,440
Speaker 1: their regime stability and also the stability of the of

1094
01:06:19,520 --> 01:06:23,200
Speaker 1: the Middle East un than Israeli is. So they allied

1095
01:06:23,240 --> 01:06:28,360
Speaker 1: together to UM to combat the Iran deal. They failed

1096
01:06:28,400 --> 01:06:30,960
Speaker 1: in that regard, but the people who push the Iran

1097
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:35,240
Speaker 1: deal very hard still harbor a grudge and they would

1098
01:06:35,240 --> 01:06:38,280
Speaker 1: like to um uh, they would like to get back

1099
01:06:38,280 --> 01:06:41,280
Speaker 1: at the Saudis anyway they can. So then there's a

1100
01:06:41,320 --> 01:06:46,880
Speaker 1: third group of folks who are hardcore fanatical Trump Trump haters.

1101
01:06:46,920 --> 01:06:49,840
Speaker 1: And these people, you know, take a look at the

1102
01:06:49,880 --> 01:06:54,520
Speaker 1: scene and they see, um, they see Jared Kushner's very

1103
01:06:54,560 --> 01:06:58,880
Speaker 1: tight relationship with MBS. They see um, they see Donald

1104
01:06:58,880 --> 01:07:03,360
Speaker 1: Trump's first and visit both to Jerusalem and also to

1105
01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:07,640
Speaker 1: ri Odd and they say, hey, you know, the Saudians

1106
01:07:07,680 --> 01:07:10,920
Speaker 1: are close to Trump. Therefore the Saudis are bad. Therefore

1107
01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:14,480
Speaker 1: we need to attack them. Um, you know, sort of

1108
01:07:14,560 --> 01:07:19,320
Speaker 1: in uh, in every in every venue. And I think

1109
01:07:19,360 --> 01:07:22,720
Speaker 1: those three you know, those those three things sort of

1110
01:07:22,720 --> 01:07:27,000
Speaker 1: explain most of the people who are who are who

1111
01:07:27,040 --> 01:07:30,160
Speaker 1: are going into hysterics about this, which is, you know,

1112
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:32,760
Speaker 1: to be blunt and it sounds you know, people who

1113
01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:35,280
Speaker 1: are not familiar with geo politics, people who are not

1114
01:07:35,280 --> 01:07:39,440
Speaker 1: familiar with the Middle East, um, may think this is

1115
01:07:40,040 --> 01:07:42,760
Speaker 1: rather callous, but the truth of the matter is it's

1116
01:07:43,040 --> 01:07:48,160
Speaker 1: one guy who gets killed in the Middle East, and

1117
01:07:48,720 --> 01:07:52,000
Speaker 1: that stuff. You know, that's like Tuesday. You know, that's

1118
01:07:52,040 --> 01:07:56,680
Speaker 1: that's not um, that's not you know, something something exceptional,

1119
01:07:56,720 --> 01:08:00,360
Speaker 1: and it's certainly not something that is caused to completely

1120
01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:04,680
Speaker 1: reorient our on Middle East policy, which is which is

1121
01:08:04,720 --> 01:08:06,520
Speaker 1: what a lot of these folks would like to do.

1122
01:08:07,000 --> 01:08:10,040
Speaker 1: As I said, they would like to realign towards the Brotherhood,

1123
01:08:10,600 --> 01:08:13,360
Speaker 1: and they would like to realign towards the Iran and

1124
01:08:13,600 --> 01:08:17,679
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia stands in between those two things and opposed

1125
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:23,040
Speaker 1: to those two things. So obviously folks who care about

1126
01:08:23,080 --> 01:08:25,720
Speaker 1: that are going to be taking their shots. And that's

1127
01:08:25,760 --> 01:08:28,560
Speaker 1: pretty much what we've seen over the last over the

1128
01:08:28,640 --> 01:08:31,479
Speaker 1: last couple of months. I'm going to throw in one

1129
01:08:31,560 --> 01:08:36,920
Speaker 1: more interested actor in lovefair Kashogi, and we've just got

1130
01:08:36,920 --> 01:08:40,320
Speaker 1: a minute and a half to talk about this actor Turkey.

1131
01:08:40,760 --> 01:08:44,479
Speaker 1: This happened in a Saudi embassy in Turkey. Turkey has

1132
01:08:44,479 --> 01:08:48,960
Speaker 1: been increasingly aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood Qatar, even the Iranians,

1133
01:08:48,960 --> 01:08:52,920
Speaker 1: even though they're not natural allies by any stretch. Based

1134
01:08:52,920 --> 01:08:55,559
Speaker 1: on what you've observed and what has happened in the world,

1135
01:08:55,800 --> 01:08:59,400
Speaker 1: including in Syria with sort of a reproachemand between the

1136
01:08:59,520 --> 01:09:02,519
Speaker 1: US and Turkey in some regards as partners. Do you

1137
01:09:02,560 --> 01:09:07,560
Speaker 1: believe that there is a substantial Turkish leveraging of kashogi

1138
01:09:07,720 --> 01:09:11,320
Speaker 1: as well to their benefit and what is that benefit? Well,

1139
01:09:11,360 --> 01:09:15,360
Speaker 1: of course, UM, I think of course that's true. Security

1140
01:09:15,400 --> 01:09:18,840
Speaker 1: Study Group we UH, my colleagues Nick Short and Brad

1141
01:09:18,880 --> 01:09:24,120
Speaker 1: Patty wrote a kind of brilliant paper about this UM tracking,

1142
01:09:24,920 --> 01:09:29,160
Speaker 1: the tracking the way the Turks used the slow of

1143
01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:34,200
Speaker 1: information leaking out so very deliberately and very strategically in

1144
01:09:34,280 --> 01:09:38,960
Speaker 1: order to extract maximum benefit and in order to UH

1145
01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:42,640
Speaker 1: in order to generate the most the most painful for

1146
01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:45,479
Speaker 1: the Saudis as as they did so. And you know,

1147
01:09:45,560 --> 01:09:50,479
Speaker 1: we know that the the Saudis and the UH the

1148
01:09:50,800 --> 01:09:56,360
Speaker 1: churchs are are and have been m rivals UM, just

1149
01:09:56,520 --> 01:09:59,200
Speaker 1: as the Tutoris and the and the Saudis hat in

1150
01:09:59,600 --> 01:10:01,559
Speaker 1: and you know, of course they want to take advantage.

1151
01:10:01,760 --> 01:10:04,759
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned the reproach law between the US and Turkey.

1152
01:10:04,840 --> 01:10:07,640
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if that's really the case or it's

1153
01:10:07,960 --> 01:10:14,160
Speaker 1: just sort of a temporal tactical good good feeling UM

1154
01:10:14,200 --> 01:10:17,000
Speaker 1: towards the Turks here. So so that's that's yet to

1155
01:10:17,080 --> 01:10:19,719
Speaker 1: play out. I think, if I think if the President

1156
01:10:20,720 --> 01:10:25,439
Speaker 1: does indeed move closer to Turkey in a tangible way. Then, um,

1157
01:10:25,800 --> 01:10:28,759
Speaker 1: then I think that's that's you know, that's a terrible

1158
01:10:28,840 --> 01:10:31,400
Speaker 1: thing strategically, and it would be it would be a

1159
01:10:31,439 --> 01:10:36,040
Speaker 1: horrible blunder that that. I would be surprised if if

1160
01:10:36,200 --> 01:10:38,479
Speaker 1: John Bolton winning along with that. David, we're gonna have

1161
01:10:38,479 --> 01:10:40,080
Speaker 1: to leave it right there. Thank you so much for

1162
01:10:40,160 --> 01:10:42,000
Speaker 1: joining us today. We'll be right back on the Buck

1163
01:10:42,040 --> 01:10:45,040
Speaker 1: Sexon Show in just a minute. Welcome back to the

1164
01:10:45,080 --> 01:10:49,080
Speaker 1: Buck Sexton Show. This is Ben Winegarden in for Buck Sexton.

1165
01:10:49,200 --> 01:10:53,000
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at b h Winegarden. Also encourage

1166
01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:55,599
Speaker 1: you to read my pieces at Ben Weinegarden dot com

1167
01:10:55,640 --> 01:10:58,639
Speaker 1: and subscribe to my podcast wherever you get your podcast.

1168
01:10:58,680 --> 01:11:02,240
Speaker 1: It's the Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten Podcast. All of

1169
01:11:02,240 --> 01:11:05,800
Speaker 1: this in my Twitter profile. All right, So we were

1170
01:11:05,840 --> 01:11:10,600
Speaker 1: just talking with David Reeboy at length about Jamal Kashogi,

1171
01:11:11,080 --> 01:11:14,600
Speaker 1: national security and foreign affairs writ large. And now I

1172
01:11:14,640 --> 01:11:18,880
Speaker 1: want to transition back to what is going down on

1173
01:11:18,920 --> 01:11:22,120
Speaker 1: the ground domestically and what we're going to see over

1174
01:11:22,160 --> 01:11:24,439
Speaker 1: the next two years. You know, I think it's total

1175
01:11:24,520 --> 01:11:28,519
Speaker 1: folly to try to make ten predictions for twenty nineteen

1176
01:11:28,760 --> 01:11:32,160
Speaker 1: ten predictions for twenty twenty. Part of what being a

1177
01:11:32,160 --> 01:11:37,639
Speaker 1: conservative means is you have to understand human nature. One

1178
01:11:37,680 --> 01:11:40,799
Speaker 1: of the realities about human nature is that we cannot

1179
01:11:40,840 --> 01:11:44,920
Speaker 1: comprehend the millions of variables that go into any of

1180
01:11:44,920 --> 01:11:49,479
Speaker 1: these political circumstances. If that was the case, why we're

1181
01:11:49,600 --> 01:11:52,240
Speaker 1: so few of the quote unquote experts able to see

1182
01:11:52,280 --> 01:11:55,800
Speaker 1: what was coming in the twenty sixteen election. Being a

1183
01:11:55,800 --> 01:12:02,760
Speaker 1: conservative requires humility, It requires understanding our own limitations. That

1184
01:12:02,840 --> 01:12:05,559
Speaker 1: does not mean, of course, that we shouldn't look at

1185
01:12:05,560 --> 01:12:08,639
Speaker 1: what is going on on the ground. And the horse

1186
01:12:08,720 --> 01:12:13,719
Speaker 1: race frankly for twenty twenty has already started just today.

1187
01:12:14,080 --> 01:12:19,519
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts, Pocahontas. You can actually look

1188
01:12:19,520 --> 01:12:21,320
Speaker 1: at the Vegas odds, it's going to be about one

1189
01:12:21,720 --> 01:12:23,160
Speaker 1: and twenty four to one that she will be the

1190
01:12:23,200 --> 01:12:26,000
Speaker 1: next president of the United States. She formed an exploratory

1191
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:31,840
Speaker 1: committee for presidency. She is joined by any number of

1192
01:12:31,880 --> 01:12:36,240
Speaker 1: folks mainly to her left. Amazingly, by the way, amazing

1193
01:12:36,479 --> 01:12:39,040
Speaker 1: that she is not on the firm left wing of

1194
01:12:39,040 --> 01:12:43,600
Speaker 1: her party. Potentially look at someone like Alexandroocazio Cortez. She

1195
01:12:43,640 --> 01:12:46,760
Speaker 1: would probably consider Elizabeth Warren, the equivalent of what we

1196
01:12:46,800 --> 01:12:51,240
Speaker 1: would call Rhinos, who is she joined by? Well in

1197
01:12:51,240 --> 01:12:53,960
Speaker 1: the old Guard, you do have folks like Bernie Sanders.

1198
01:12:54,680 --> 01:12:56,920
Speaker 1: You also have Joe Biden. Joe Biden will be an

1199
01:12:57,000 --> 01:12:59,719
Speaker 1: interesting figure because I think a lot of people believe

1200
01:13:00,280 --> 01:13:02,840
Speaker 1: that he is someone who could peel off some of

1201
01:13:02,880 --> 01:13:07,600
Speaker 1: those what I would call Reagan Democrats, the new Reagan Democrats,

1202
01:13:07,720 --> 01:13:11,240
Speaker 1: call them Trump Democrats in the Midwest, in the Heartland

1203
01:13:11,280 --> 01:13:15,479
Speaker 1: and elsewhere who went and voted for a Republican against

1204
01:13:15,680 --> 01:13:19,040
Speaker 1: many odds, and Trump has sort of tried to reorient

1205
01:13:19,120 --> 01:13:22,719
Speaker 1: the party towards being a workers party, so to speak,

1206
01:13:22,760 --> 01:13:25,120
Speaker 1: the party of labor, the party of the middle class

1207
01:13:25,120 --> 01:13:27,880
Speaker 1: and the lower middle class. This is a dramatic shift

1208
01:13:27,960 --> 01:13:32,000
Speaker 1: in our politics. Reagan did it before, and this is

1209
01:13:32,000 --> 01:13:35,679
Speaker 1: the Trump equivalent of it. So Joe Biden is seen

1210
01:13:35,880 --> 01:13:40,280
Speaker 1: as a figure who potentially could threaten that stranglehold on

1211
01:13:40,360 --> 01:13:44,360
Speaker 1: the middle those voters who swung over and voted Republican

1212
01:13:44,479 --> 01:13:48,519
Speaker 1: and said they've had enough with the establishment Democrats and

1213
01:13:48,600 --> 01:13:53,280
Speaker 1: those like Hillary Clinton. Amazingly, in some ways, you can

1214
01:13:53,280 --> 01:13:57,120
Speaker 1: see parallels almost between Bernie Sanders supporters and Donald Trump

1215
01:13:57,120 --> 01:13:59,640
Speaker 1: supporters and By the way, Bernie is another candidate who

1216
01:13:59,640 --> 01:14:03,559
Speaker 1: will definitely be competing I believe in this next election,

1217
01:14:03,600 --> 01:14:05,840
Speaker 1: although he is not announced yet and he is old

1218
01:14:05,920 --> 01:14:09,600
Speaker 1: to be fair. But let's not be agist here. His

1219
01:14:10,040 --> 01:14:14,920
Speaker 1: galvanizing support during that last election were younger Democrats, the

1220
01:14:15,000 --> 01:14:18,040
Speaker 1: young Turks. But he has some more competition this time.

1221
01:14:21,080 --> 01:14:24,280
Speaker 1: He has folks like Corey Booker, who's already spent time

1222
01:14:24,280 --> 01:14:27,599
Speaker 1: out in Iowa, substantial time on the ground. He's building

1223
01:14:27,600 --> 01:14:30,360
Speaker 1: his national network. He's doing all the things one would

1224
01:14:30,360 --> 01:14:32,320
Speaker 1: do if they were really serious about it. Now I

1225
01:14:32,360 --> 01:14:36,040
Speaker 1: have my doubts about Spartacus. He's shown himself on the

1226
01:14:36,160 --> 01:14:40,640
Speaker 1: national stage to be buffoonish at times. Frankly, he has

1227
01:14:40,640 --> 01:14:44,400
Speaker 1: a likable personality and that's powerful, and Democrats love the

1228
01:14:44,439 --> 01:14:48,479
Speaker 1: idea of rising star candidates. Traditionally, Republicans have been the

1229
01:14:48,479 --> 01:14:50,960
Speaker 1: party of it's the next person in line. You've paid

1230
01:14:51,000 --> 01:14:54,559
Speaker 1: your dues, you've worked your way up, you've ingratiated yourself

1231
01:14:54,600 --> 01:14:57,480
Speaker 1: with the establishment. It doesn't really matter that the Conservative

1232
01:14:57,479 --> 01:14:59,559
Speaker 1: base is where the real energy is in the party.

1233
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:02,320
Speaker 1: It is about paying your dues, working your way up

1234
01:15:02,360 --> 01:15:05,240
Speaker 1: the ladder, and then you were ultimately rewarded for it

1235
01:15:05,479 --> 01:15:09,639
Speaker 1: with your nomination. Clearly it didn't go that way last election. However,

1236
01:15:12,960 --> 01:15:16,600
Speaker 1: Democrats believe in these rising stars. They believe in the

1237
01:15:16,640 --> 01:15:19,479
Speaker 1: people who catch fire overnight. And that's why, in spite

1238
01:15:19,479 --> 01:15:21,559
Speaker 1: of the fact that there is a massive list of

1239
01:15:21,600 --> 01:15:24,559
Speaker 1: Democrats potentially running next time, someone who is not even

1240
01:15:24,600 --> 01:15:28,200
Speaker 1: on the radar could potentially be in play. Just look

1241
01:15:28,200 --> 01:15:34,679
Speaker 1: at Donald Trump's ascendants. Who else is on the left? Well,

1242
01:15:34,680 --> 01:15:37,400
Speaker 1: we have the billionaire class, and this is really interesting

1243
01:15:37,439 --> 01:15:40,720
Speaker 1: because at least one of the two billionaires is going

1244
01:15:40,760 --> 01:15:43,120
Speaker 1: to have a real tough time dealing with the base

1245
01:15:43,200 --> 01:15:49,600
Speaker 1: in his party that fundamentally loads capitalism and loads corporate

1246
01:15:49,680 --> 01:15:54,559
Speaker 1: people besides those in certain more creative industries. So you

1247
01:15:54,600 --> 01:15:56,680
Speaker 1: have Tom Steyer on the one hand. Tom Steyer is

1248
01:15:56,720 --> 01:16:01,280
Speaker 1: someone who probably has I would guess, minimal national name identification.

1249
01:16:02,240 --> 01:16:05,200
Speaker 1: What he does have is a massive bank account and

1250
01:16:05,360 --> 01:16:08,080
Speaker 1: loyalty within his party because he's been supporting the left

1251
01:16:08,080 --> 01:16:11,080
Speaker 1: wing of his party for years with millions of dollars

1252
01:16:11,080 --> 01:16:13,760
Speaker 1: to his name. This is a guy who is an

1253
01:16:13,920 --> 01:16:18,320
Speaker 1: envirol radical, someone who is an arch leftist, who believes

1254
01:16:18,400 --> 01:16:22,719
Speaker 1: essentially in taking the fruits of capitalism. The hundreds of millions,

1255
01:16:22,760 --> 01:16:25,479
Speaker 1: if not billions of dollars that he has earned and

1256
01:16:25,680 --> 01:16:28,439
Speaker 1: using it to in effect take down that very system.

1257
01:16:28,479 --> 01:16:31,960
Speaker 1: There's something sickening about that. It goes back to my

1258
01:16:32,040 --> 01:16:36,160
Speaker 1: opening monologue. Today. You have these people who have been

1259
01:16:36,200 --> 01:16:40,799
Speaker 1: gifted this unbelievable system that has enabled them to flourish,

1260
01:16:40,840 --> 01:16:43,559
Speaker 1: to pursue their self interests, to pursue their happiness, to

1261
01:16:43,600 --> 01:16:45,800
Speaker 1: pursue their dreams. And what do they do with it?

1262
01:16:46,080 --> 01:16:47,880
Speaker 1: They say, I hate this system, and I want to

1263
01:16:47,880 --> 01:16:50,000
Speaker 1: put millions of dollars of my own money and to

1264
01:16:50,120 --> 01:16:52,840
Speaker 1: turn it on its head, to repudiate everything that the

1265
01:16:52,880 --> 01:16:56,600
Speaker 1: country was built on. So Tom Stier's won. Then you

1266
01:16:56,640 --> 01:16:59,800
Speaker 1: have Michael Bloomberg, New York Democrat, New York by way

1267
01:16:59,800 --> 01:17:05,640
Speaker 1: of Buston Democrat, built a tremendous company, a dominant company

1268
01:17:05,680 --> 01:17:08,479
Speaker 1: in the news and information space. In the financial space.

1269
01:17:08,640 --> 01:17:11,600
Speaker 1: I used to work in finance years ago, everyone had

1270
01:17:11,640 --> 01:17:15,680
Speaker 1: a Bloomberg box. It remains the monopoly in finance. So

1271
01:17:15,960 --> 01:17:18,000
Speaker 1: he learns how to build a better widget than anyone

1272
01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:21,800
Speaker 1: else and developed contracts and ties that would ultimately allow

1273
01:17:21,880 --> 01:17:23,680
Speaker 1: him to be a dominant player in the marketplace. And

1274
01:17:23,720 --> 01:17:26,120
Speaker 1: for that he should be commended. He's been a fantastically

1275
01:17:26,160 --> 01:17:32,280
Speaker 1: successful business person, but his politics are god awful. I

1276
01:17:32,400 --> 01:17:36,200
Speaker 1: believe that he will be portrayed the way Democrats would

1277
01:17:36,200 --> 01:17:38,840
Speaker 1: have loved to portray Donald Trump but couldn't, which is

1278
01:17:38,880 --> 01:17:42,559
Speaker 1: as an out of touch billionaire, but not only that,

1279
01:17:42,760 --> 01:17:45,479
Speaker 1: someone who is at odds with his party fundamentally, because

1280
01:17:45,680 --> 01:17:48,479
Speaker 1: he would be cast as a moderate quote unquote. You know,

1281
01:17:48,520 --> 01:17:50,720
Speaker 1: he was sort of a Republican in New York and

1282
01:17:50,760 --> 01:17:55,840
Speaker 1: then an independent because he couldn't really win as a Republican, etc. Basically,

1283
01:17:55,920 --> 01:18:00,600
Speaker 1: what he is in many respects is a classic Democrat

1284
01:18:00,640 --> 01:18:03,040
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. You know, he's most known,

1285
01:18:03,160 --> 01:18:08,000
Speaker 1: probably nationally, for backing these campaigns to clamp down on guns.

1286
01:18:08,200 --> 01:18:12,920
Speaker 1: Second Amendment is his issue. I believe that what he

1287
01:18:13,000 --> 01:18:16,360
Speaker 1: thinks are moderate common sense stances, and which he may

1288
01:18:16,479 --> 01:18:20,600
Speaker 1: articulate in a moderate common sense sort of way. I

1289
01:18:20,680 --> 01:18:22,920
Speaker 1: believe it's not going to fly nationally, and I think

1290
01:18:23,640 --> 01:18:28,200
Speaker 1: his jabbing jousting with Donald Trump, that Donald Trump is

1291
01:18:28,240 --> 01:18:30,160
Speaker 1: going to wipe the floor with him ultimately if it

1292
01:18:30,200 --> 01:18:33,120
Speaker 1: ever came to it. You saw what he did to

1293
01:18:33,160 --> 01:18:36,000
Speaker 1: his Republican opponents and then Hillary Clinton, and I think

1294
01:18:36,160 --> 01:18:38,720
Speaker 1: before it even gets to that point, Mike Bloomberg is

1295
01:18:38,760 --> 01:18:40,760
Speaker 1: going to have challenges within his own party, and he

1296
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:43,000
Speaker 1: may run as someone who acts as if he can

1297
01:18:43,120 --> 01:18:45,600
Speaker 1: unify the two parties. But if that's the case, he

1298
01:18:45,680 --> 01:18:48,200
Speaker 1: doesn't really have a good perspective on where the Republican

1299
01:18:48,240 --> 01:18:52,400
Speaker 1: and conservative basis today. Certainly, even among the most ardent

1300
01:18:52,479 --> 01:18:55,840
Speaker 1: never Trumpers, it's hard to imagine them being probe Bloombergites.

1301
01:18:57,400 --> 01:18:59,920
Speaker 1: They probably rather not vote. I would guess maybe I'm wrong,

1302
01:19:00,160 --> 01:19:04,400
Speaker 1: maybe I'm being overly optimistic here. Then you have others

1303
01:19:04,439 --> 01:19:07,519
Speaker 1: like a Julian Castro, or a Kamala Harris, or an

1304
01:19:07,520 --> 01:19:11,280
Speaker 1: Amy Quoba car or my personal favorite of all, Robert

1305
01:19:11,320 --> 01:19:18,000
Speaker 1: Francis O'Rourke aka Beato. I think Beato is going to

1306
01:19:18,080 --> 01:19:21,160
Speaker 1: have some problems too, because, and this is really one

1307
01:19:21,160 --> 01:19:23,320
Speaker 1: of the sickening things about where the left is and

1308
01:19:23,320 --> 01:19:25,960
Speaker 1: where Democrats are today. You see this in Twitter, and

1309
01:19:26,120 --> 01:19:28,960
Speaker 1: Twitter is not an accurate representation by any stretch I

1310
01:19:28,960 --> 01:19:31,200
Speaker 1: think of where the country is. The people who use

1311
01:19:31,280 --> 01:19:34,439
Speaker 1: Twitter actively are self selecting. A lot of them are

1312
01:19:34,479 --> 01:19:37,120
Speaker 1: political junkies. Many of them say things in Twitter that

1313
01:19:37,160 --> 01:19:39,519
Speaker 1: they would never say to someone's face in person. But

1314
01:19:39,600 --> 01:19:43,280
Speaker 1: there's been an active campaign on the left about saying

1315
01:19:43,320 --> 01:19:46,200
Speaker 1: that a white male cannot be the left's nominee, which

1316
01:19:46,360 --> 01:19:49,120
Speaker 1: goes against everything the country is based on. You want

1317
01:19:49,160 --> 01:19:51,720
Speaker 1: to talk about the idea of judging people on the

1318
01:19:51,720 --> 01:19:54,240
Speaker 1: basis of the content of their character, not the color

1319
01:19:54,280 --> 01:19:56,639
Speaker 1: of their skin or something they have no control over

1320
01:19:56,720 --> 01:20:00,400
Speaker 1: in their sex. It's absurd, it's asinine. There's one party

1321
01:20:00,439 --> 01:20:03,240
Speaker 1: that is really obsessed with all of these intangible qualities

1322
01:20:03,520 --> 01:20:05,759
Speaker 1: that reflect nothing about who you are as a person

1323
01:20:05,840 --> 01:20:09,000
Speaker 1: and what you're made of, or about your individuality. They're

1324
01:20:09,040 --> 01:20:13,679
Speaker 1: all about collectivizing groups of people, and then they're about saying, well,

1325
01:20:13,920 --> 01:20:17,240
Speaker 1: you up and hit certain boxes, so you may be problematic,

1326
01:20:17,320 --> 01:20:19,880
Speaker 1: quote unquote, that's the word they like to use. Problematic.

1327
01:20:20,280 --> 01:20:23,519
Speaker 1: Robert Francis O'Rourke I believe is problematic because he goes

1328
01:20:23,960 --> 01:20:27,759
Speaker 1: by the moniker beato. He's a cultural appropriator. He tries

1329
01:20:27,800 --> 01:20:30,640
Speaker 1: to portray himself as something he is not on an

1330
01:20:30,680 --> 01:20:34,160
Speaker 1: identity politics basis, as if he is a Latino Democrat

1331
01:20:34,240 --> 01:20:37,160
Speaker 1: from Texas. And by the way, of course, that's tremendously

1332
01:20:37,240 --> 01:20:39,400
Speaker 1: valuable from the perspective of the left, because if they

1333
01:20:39,400 --> 01:20:43,120
Speaker 1: flip Texas they believe they will have flipped the country permanently.

1334
01:20:45,479 --> 01:20:48,559
Speaker 1: The other ground, of course, is immigration. Fled the country

1335
01:20:48,600 --> 01:20:51,360
Speaker 1: with illegal aliens, give them mass amnesty, and it's their

1336
01:20:51,400 --> 01:20:54,200
Speaker 1: belief that then they will have a permanent democratic majority,

1337
01:20:54,520 --> 01:20:58,280
Speaker 1: which is incredibly cynical on the one hand, it's sort

1338
01:20:58,320 --> 01:21:00,280
Speaker 1: of and it's an evil plan on the other And

1339
01:21:00,280 --> 01:21:04,400
Speaker 1: they're never really honest about it. They're never really honest

1340
01:21:04,400 --> 01:21:07,679
Speaker 1: about it. We're gonna take a quick break, but before

1341
01:21:07,680 --> 01:21:09,719
Speaker 1: we do, I want to talk to you about Black

1342
01:21:09,880 --> 01:21:12,479
Speaker 1: Rifle Coffee Company. You know, in the midst of all

1343
01:21:12,720 --> 01:21:16,479
Speaker 1: this whining and frankly hysteria coming from the left, many

1344
01:21:16,479 --> 01:21:18,840
Speaker 1: of the folks I was just talking about whether it

1345
01:21:18,840 --> 01:21:24,760
Speaker 1: comes to the climate crisis, identity politics, toxic masculinity, folkahuntas,

1346
01:21:25,240 --> 01:21:27,759
Speaker 1: you have to wonder why in the world would anyone

1347
01:21:27,800 --> 01:21:30,680
Speaker 1: act this way. My guess is they're not getting their

1348
01:21:30,760 --> 01:21:33,360
Speaker 1: daily dose of Black Rifle coffee. I am a once

1349
01:21:33,400 --> 01:21:36,680
Speaker 1: a day coffee drinker. I'll probably end up twice a

1350
01:21:36,720 --> 01:21:38,360
Speaker 1: day or maybe three times a day in the next year.

1351
01:21:38,520 --> 01:21:41,400
Speaker 1: I might have mentioned earlier, I'm about to be a father, actually,

1352
01:21:41,439 --> 01:21:43,519
Speaker 1: so I'm going to need that extra energy. And what

1353
01:21:43,600 --> 01:21:46,280
Speaker 1: I like about Black Rifle or a few things. For

1354
01:21:46,360 --> 01:21:49,800
Speaker 1: one the flavor and for two the variety, but also

1355
01:21:50,200 --> 01:21:53,080
Speaker 1: that it's a company that represents conservative values and it

1356
01:21:53,120 --> 01:21:56,799
Speaker 1: has a pro veteran mission, all things worthy of supporting.

1357
01:21:57,320 --> 01:22:00,679
Speaker 1: Black Rifle Coffee is a roast to order coffee guaranteing

1358
01:22:00,720 --> 01:22:04,599
Speaker 1: you fresh, delicious coffee with every order. Black Rifle Coffee

1359
01:22:04,600 --> 01:22:06,559
Speaker 1: gives a portion of their sales to veteran and first

1360
01:22:06,600 --> 01:22:10,840
Speaker 1: responder cough causes, and Black Rifle's Coffee Club makes things easy.

1361
01:22:10,920 --> 01:22:12,760
Speaker 1: Just pick your blend and the amount you want, and

1362
01:22:12,840 --> 01:22:15,559
Speaker 1: Black Rifle ships your coffee right to your door every month,

1363
01:22:15,600 --> 01:22:19,439
Speaker 1: hassle free. Nothing cures a bad attitude quite like starting

1364
01:22:19,439 --> 01:22:23,120
Speaker 1: your day with the most American coffee ever, Black Rifle Coffee.

1365
01:22:23,280 --> 01:22:25,840
Speaker 1: Visit Black Rifle Coffee dot com slash buck and receive

1366
01:22:25,920 --> 01:22:29,479
Speaker 1: fifteen percent off your order. That's Black Riflecoffee dot com,

1367
01:22:29,520 --> 01:22:33,600
Speaker 1: slash buck for fifteen percent off Annoia Liberal Black Riflecoffee

1368
01:22:33,640 --> 01:22:36,400
Speaker 1: dot Com slash Buck. This is ben Winegarden in for Buck,

1369
01:22:36,439 --> 01:22:38,519
Speaker 1: sexon on the Buck, Sex and Show. We'll be right back.

1370
01:22:39,880 --> 01:22:41,760
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Buck Sex and Show. This is

1371
01:22:41,800 --> 01:22:45,200
Speaker 1: ben Winegarden in for Buck Sexton follow me on Twitter

1372
01:22:45,320 --> 01:22:49,400
Speaker 1: at b H Winegarden. Before the break, we were talking

1373
01:22:49,400 --> 01:22:52,400
Speaker 1: about the horse race which has already started in Earnest

1374
01:22:52,840 --> 01:22:56,799
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty, and we were focusing on President Trump's

1375
01:22:56,920 --> 01:23:04,479
Speaker 1: foils on the left, the assumed competition. Then there's, of course,

1376
01:23:04,880 --> 01:23:07,920
Speaker 1: the Trump agenda itself. There's the opposition, and then there's

1377
01:23:07,960 --> 01:23:11,519
Speaker 1: the positive, which is what will President Trump be running

1378
01:23:11,520 --> 01:23:14,920
Speaker 1: on in a couple of years, What will the public

1379
01:23:15,000 --> 01:23:18,880
Speaker 1: perceive as the most vital issues, what will motivate them?

1380
01:23:19,880 --> 01:23:22,880
Speaker 1: Will you be able to summarize the question? Will you

1381
01:23:22,960 --> 01:23:25,400
Speaker 1: be able to respond easily to the question are you

1382
01:23:25,479 --> 01:23:28,360
Speaker 1: better off than you were four years ago? One of

1383
01:23:28,360 --> 01:23:30,839
Speaker 1: the things that I think was missed in the campaign

1384
01:23:31,000 --> 01:23:34,200
Speaker 1: between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is that you knew

1385
01:23:34,240 --> 01:23:40,000
Speaker 1: exactly what the Trump agenda was. You could not define

1386
01:23:40,120 --> 01:23:43,840
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton's agenda. A candidate needs to be able to

1387
01:23:44,360 --> 01:23:48,320
Speaker 1: define themselves. They cannot allow the opposition to define them,

1388
01:23:49,240 --> 01:23:51,760
Speaker 1: and they also can't be defined by just being in

1389
01:23:51,840 --> 01:23:59,920
Speaker 1: opposition themselves. We've seen Trump derangement syndrome as the unifying etho,

1390
01:24:00,560 --> 01:24:06,200
Speaker 1: the unifying philosophy for democrats. Can you describe what the

1391
01:24:06,280 --> 01:24:09,360
Speaker 1: democratic agenda is today? You kind of know what direction

1392
01:24:09,400 --> 01:24:12,480
Speaker 1: they want to go in any of a number of issues, economics,

1393
01:24:13,080 --> 01:24:17,240
Speaker 1: maybe national security, and foreign policy, although it's probably somewhat ambiguous.

1394
01:24:18,760 --> 01:24:22,920
Speaker 1: Maybe in trade, maybe not environmentalism. Yeah, you can, you

1395
01:24:22,960 --> 01:24:32,759
Speaker 1: can define that, regulations, healthcare, size of government. Democrats cannot

1396
01:24:32,760 --> 01:24:36,440
Speaker 1: easily define these things. They are defined by their hatred

1397
01:24:36,880 --> 01:24:40,599
Speaker 1: of the president. And you see that the older hands

1398
01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:44,120
Speaker 1: in the House, for example, like Gerald Nadler, the incoming

1399
01:24:44,120 --> 01:24:47,320
Speaker 1: House Judiciary Chair, who would be the person overseeing a

1400
01:24:47,400 --> 01:24:51,960
Speaker 1: potential impeachment of Donald Trump in the House, you see

1401
01:24:52,000 --> 01:24:55,040
Speaker 1: that they are kind of trying to slowly lead along

1402
01:24:55,479 --> 01:25:01,640
Speaker 1: the more radical, energized, animated elements, hostile elements towards the

1403
01:25:01,640 --> 01:25:05,320
Speaker 1: President within their caucus. But on the other hand, they

1404
01:25:05,360 --> 01:25:08,680
Speaker 1: cannot upset where their bases and the bass is in

1405
01:25:08,880 --> 01:25:12,599
Speaker 1: Trump hatred mode they have been since before day one.

1406
01:25:15,840 --> 01:25:20,480
Speaker 1: Will that Trump derangement syndrome lead the left the Democrats

1407
01:25:20,520 --> 01:25:26,439
Speaker 1: to overstep presumably Nancy Pelosi and others in leadership, The

1408
01:25:26,520 --> 01:25:29,680
Speaker 1: old hands will say no, because they'll view it as

1409
01:25:29,680 --> 01:25:33,200
Speaker 1: potentially devastating in twenty twenty for them to have not

1410
01:25:33,360 --> 01:25:37,479
Speaker 1: learned the lessons from Republicans back in ninety eight ninety

1411
01:25:37,520 --> 01:25:41,440
Speaker 1: nine when it came to Bill Clinton. I've pointed out

1412
01:25:41,479 --> 01:25:44,719
Speaker 1: and I urge you to read this in an editorial

1413
01:25:44,760 --> 01:25:48,160
Speaker 1: at The Federalist, I wrote about Gerald Nadler what Gerald

1414
01:25:48,240 --> 01:25:50,920
Speaker 1: Nadler said back then, because guess what, he's a swamp creature.

1415
01:25:51,200 --> 01:25:54,720
Speaker 1: He has been in the House since before nineteen ninety eight,

1416
01:25:54,800 --> 01:25:58,519
Speaker 1: so he was there when impeachment proceedings conversations were going

1417
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:03,479
Speaker 1: on in the House. What he said during that time period,

1418
01:26:03,640 --> 01:26:08,480
Speaker 1: and I'm going to paraphrase here, was the following. Perjuring

1419
01:26:08,560 --> 01:26:13,720
Speaker 1: yourself over something personal, over something sexual in nature, is

1420
01:26:13,920 --> 01:26:17,799
Speaker 1: not an impeachable offense. What are impeachable offenses? Impeachable offenses

1421
01:26:17,800 --> 01:26:21,479
Speaker 1: are high crimes and misdemeanors that actively gum up or

1422
01:26:21,600 --> 01:26:26,480
Speaker 1: thwart or betray the Constitution and actually threaten the separation

1423
01:26:26,520 --> 01:26:29,360
Speaker 1: of powers and checks and balances. In other words, for

1424
01:26:29,439 --> 01:26:32,720
Speaker 1: the most part, we're talking about besides the most egregious

1425
01:26:32,720 --> 01:26:37,240
Speaker 1: potential acts, what we're talking about here is violating your

1426
01:26:37,280 --> 01:26:43,280
Speaker 1: office in the sense of destroying the constitutional imperatives. He

1427
01:26:43,360 --> 01:26:47,320
Speaker 1: specifically said, perjuring yourself over personal matters essentially non factor.

1428
01:26:49,680 --> 01:26:53,200
Speaker 1: At the same time, he goes on television after the latest,

1429
01:26:53,400 --> 01:26:57,240
Speaker 1: you know, the last Michael Cohen revelations about oh, a

1430
01:26:57,320 --> 01:27:01,640
Speaker 1: potential campaign finance violation, and then did the president But

1431
01:27:01,720 --> 01:27:03,479
Speaker 1: he wasn't president at the time, So can he really

1432
01:27:03,520 --> 01:27:05,600
Speaker 1: be impeached if he wasn't even a president when the

1433
01:27:05,600 --> 01:27:09,800
Speaker 1: acts occurred that the president was involved in a conspiracy

1434
01:27:09,880 --> 01:27:14,879
Speaker 1: to commit a campaign finance violation. Regarding alleged hush payments,

1435
01:27:18,000 --> 01:27:22,280
Speaker 1: gerald Nadler created two very different standards for Bill Clinton

1436
01:27:22,640 --> 01:27:25,479
Speaker 1: and for Donald Trump over something which is not even

1437
01:27:25,960 --> 01:27:29,800
Speaker 1: we don't even know, we don't even know what a

1438
01:27:29,840 --> 01:27:33,760
Speaker 1: campaign finance violation is when you have a payment that

1439
01:27:33,800 --> 01:27:37,800
Speaker 1: would have been made before you were president, first of all.

1440
01:27:38,280 --> 01:27:41,479
Speaker 1: Second of all, over something which really was separate and

1441
01:27:41,520 --> 01:27:44,439
Speaker 1: apart from politics. You could certainly make that argument. Democrats

1442
01:27:44,439 --> 01:27:48,320
Speaker 1: would argue on the other side, but is it is

1443
01:27:48,360 --> 01:27:51,439
Speaker 1: it an in kind contribution for there to be an

1444
01:27:51,479 --> 01:27:54,800
Speaker 1: alleged hush payment? Well, Gerald Nadler today says yes, he

1445
01:27:54,880 --> 01:27:57,519
Speaker 1: was speaking a different tune twenty years ago, and frankly,

1446
01:27:57,600 --> 01:28:02,720
Speaker 1: he made very solid, mery notorious arguments about the gravity

1447
01:28:02,760 --> 01:28:08,519
Speaker 1: of raising something like impeachment, why it's politically perilous, and

1448
01:28:08,560 --> 01:28:11,160
Speaker 1: why is it politically perilous because to accuse the president

1449
01:28:11,160 --> 01:28:13,880
Speaker 1: of committing high crimes and misdemeanors and then potentially pass

1450
01:28:13,960 --> 01:28:15,960
Speaker 1: those papers up to the Senate to get to the

1451
01:28:16,000 --> 01:28:20,400
Speaker 1: point of removal is essentially the most radical act that

1452
01:28:20,439 --> 01:28:25,840
Speaker 1: the legislative branch could take versus the executive branch. But

1453
01:28:25,960 --> 01:28:28,720
Speaker 1: the energy in his party is so strong they'll be

1454
01:28:28,800 --> 01:28:32,280
Speaker 1: marching out in the streets if Donald Trump is not impeached, probably,

1455
01:28:32,360 --> 01:28:34,559
Speaker 1: and if we get to twenty twenty and Donald Trump

1456
01:28:34,640 --> 01:28:36,479
Speaker 1: is elected again, and I think if he follows through

1457
01:28:36,520 --> 01:28:40,960
Speaker 1: on its agenda, he will be elected again. He's got

1458
01:28:40,960 --> 01:28:43,000
Speaker 1: a real problem. Gerald Nadler and the rest of the

1459
01:28:43,040 --> 01:28:46,040
Speaker 1: Democrats in the House, they really do. And you have

1460
01:28:46,120 --> 01:28:49,920
Speaker 1: to ask yourself the question, will they push things too far?

1461
01:28:50,080 --> 01:28:52,960
Speaker 1: It's not just about what is President Trump's record, It's

1462
01:28:53,000 --> 01:28:55,559
Speaker 1: not just about who his opposition is going to be.

1463
01:28:56,080 --> 01:28:58,680
Speaker 1: But there's a serious question about what the Democrats are

1464
01:28:58,680 --> 01:29:00,439
Speaker 1: going to do in the House. Is it just going

1465
01:29:00,479 --> 01:29:04,040
Speaker 1: to be subpoena after subpoena and essentially try to run

1466
01:29:04,040 --> 01:29:07,880
Speaker 1: out the clock on this presidency, create this smoke and

1467
01:29:08,080 --> 01:29:11,120
Speaker 1: lead people to believe that there's fire there. It's yet

1468
01:29:11,160 --> 01:29:13,040
Speaker 1: to be determined. After a quick break, we're going to

1469
01:29:13,120 --> 01:29:16,400
Speaker 1: talk with my guest, Tammy Bruce, about the horse race,

1470
01:29:16,600 --> 01:29:19,720
Speaker 1: about the Trump presidency itself. This is Ben Weegarton in

1471
01:29:19,800 --> 01:29:21,840
Speaker 1: for Buck Sexton on the buck Sexton Show. We'll be

1472
01:29:21,920 --> 01:29:25,559
Speaker 1: right back. Welcome back to the buck Sexton Show. This

1473
01:29:25,600 --> 01:29:28,439
Speaker 1: is Ben Weingarten in for Buck Sexton. Right on the

1474
01:29:28,479 --> 01:29:31,200
Speaker 1: line right now is my guest, Tammy Bruce, someone who

1475
01:29:31,240 --> 01:29:35,880
Speaker 1: I've come to admire as a shrewd commentator, delightful personality,

1476
01:29:35,960 --> 01:29:39,160
Speaker 1: Fox News contributor, President of Independent Women's Voice, a national

1477
01:29:39,160 --> 01:29:43,240
Speaker 1: advocacy organization. Tammy joins us. Now let's jump right into

1478
01:29:43,280 --> 01:29:46,559
Speaker 1: it now that we turn the calendar forward to twenty nineteen.

1479
01:29:46,800 --> 01:29:50,000
Speaker 1: Clearly the horse race has started already, and there's just

1480
01:29:50,040 --> 01:29:52,720
Speaker 1: an amazing confluence of events going on in the world

1481
01:29:52,840 --> 01:29:54,439
Speaker 1: right now. On the one hand, you have a US

1482
01:29:54,479 --> 01:29:59,559
Speaker 1: economy that in terms of growth, wage growth GDP growth,

1483
01:30:00,040 --> 01:30:03,080
Speaker 1: employment rates being at lows not seen since the sixties.

1484
01:30:03,439 --> 01:30:05,920
Speaker 1: Things look great. On the other hand, financial markets had

1485
01:30:06,040 --> 01:30:10,000
Speaker 1: a tumultuous twenty eighteen and people are certainly concerned about that.

1486
01:30:10,200 --> 01:30:13,759
Speaker 1: On the national security side, you have a Chinese quote

1487
01:30:13,840 --> 01:30:18,360
Speaker 1: unquote trade war and increasing hostility generally, there you have

1488
01:30:18,479 --> 01:30:22,960
Speaker 1: North Korea supposed denuclearization, jumping out of Irando, there's immigration issues,

1489
01:30:23,040 --> 01:30:27,040
Speaker 1: cultural issues, and then of course there is the large

1490
01:30:27,080 --> 01:30:31,160
Speaker 1: resistance versus the Trump administration. Of all these factors, what

1491
01:30:31,200 --> 01:30:33,599
Speaker 1: do you see being the most critical over the next

1492
01:30:33,600 --> 01:30:38,920
Speaker 1: two years. Well, the critical thing is the recognition that

1493
01:30:39,080 --> 01:30:43,080
Speaker 1: Trump is a man alone, if you will, a single

1494
01:30:43,120 --> 01:30:45,920
Speaker 1: firefighter with some people who back him up, trying to

1495
01:30:45,960 --> 01:30:50,839
Speaker 1: put out the largest house fire that's ever existed, and

1496
01:30:51,360 --> 01:30:53,479
Speaker 1: it's going to take some time. I think the most

1497
01:30:53,479 --> 01:30:57,920
Speaker 1: critical thing is going to be President Trump remaining vigilant

1498
01:30:58,840 --> 01:31:03,200
Speaker 1: and focused on what his mission is. It was clear

1499
01:31:03,640 --> 01:31:06,240
Speaker 1: from the beginning. I mean, Trump is not a man

1500
01:31:06,320 --> 01:31:09,280
Speaker 1: who came from the outside and had no idea what

1501
01:31:09,360 --> 01:31:13,080
Speaker 1: was going on with government, So it was obvious, especially

1502
01:31:13,120 --> 01:31:16,160
Speaker 1: with who he's known through his life, what he was

1503
01:31:16,200 --> 01:31:20,440
Speaker 1: going to face. I think he's a bit of an idealist.

1504
01:31:20,640 --> 01:31:24,439
Speaker 1: I think to be a creative person in certain ways

1505
01:31:24,479 --> 01:31:27,120
Speaker 1: you have to be. But he also has had enough

1506
01:31:27,160 --> 01:31:30,080
Speaker 1: experience to know what he was going to be facing.

1507
01:31:30,120 --> 01:31:32,840
Speaker 1: In all of this, I think the American people have

1508
01:31:33,000 --> 01:31:37,800
Speaker 1: been a bit more surprised at the depth of the

1509
01:31:39,160 --> 01:31:43,240
Speaker 1: revulsion of an outsider coming into the system, and that

1510
01:31:43,680 --> 01:31:46,880
Speaker 1: in some ways has been frightening because it indicates that

1511
01:31:47,000 --> 01:31:50,759
Speaker 1: the corruption of what's now been termed the deep state,

1512
01:31:51,120 --> 01:31:54,200
Speaker 1: which is the system, is perhaps deeper than we thought.

1513
01:31:54,360 --> 01:31:57,240
Speaker 1: We've seen behavior of the FBI and the dj which

1514
01:31:57,280 --> 01:32:01,639
Speaker 1: has been shocking, and I think that part of this

1515
01:32:01,760 --> 01:32:05,439
Speaker 1: is because it indicates that there's a lot more that

1516
01:32:05,560 --> 01:32:10,120
Speaker 1: the establishment needs to hide than we realized. So the

1517
01:32:10,200 --> 01:32:12,559
Speaker 1: other reason why there seems to be so many things

1518
01:32:12,560 --> 01:32:15,880
Speaker 1: happening at once is that we finally have someone in

1519
01:32:15,920 --> 01:32:19,839
Speaker 1: the White House who is not invested in the system

1520
01:32:19,920 --> 01:32:22,640
Speaker 1: moving along as it has been. He's not invested in

1521
01:32:22,680 --> 01:32:25,519
Speaker 1: the status quo. So you might look at it as

1522
01:32:25,560 --> 01:32:28,559
Speaker 1: being that we had been effectively in a coma in

1523
01:32:28,600 --> 01:32:34,280
Speaker 1: a way managed by machines, kept alive through a process,

1524
01:32:34,920 --> 01:32:38,680
Speaker 1: and we've had people give nice speeches and like no

1525
01:32:38,760 --> 01:32:42,519
Speaker 1: drama Obama, the system moved along in a predictable way.

1526
01:32:42,560 --> 01:32:44,800
Speaker 1: But underneath, as we saw at the end of the

1527
01:32:44,840 --> 01:32:49,720
Speaker 1: Bush administration, there were things happening that weren't discussed, that

1528
01:32:49,880 --> 01:32:52,360
Speaker 1: even they might not have been aware of, and so

1529
01:32:52,400 --> 01:32:56,320
Speaker 1: we had a massive financial collapse. Because the system was

1530
01:32:56,360 --> 01:33:00,280
Speaker 1: supposed to be moving smoothly. What's happening with Trump is

1531
01:33:00,320 --> 01:33:04,000
Speaker 1: that you've got you've you've we've awoken from that coma,

1532
01:33:04,080 --> 01:33:08,519
Speaker 1: and so any activity is going to be unusual and

1533
01:33:08,600 --> 01:33:13,479
Speaker 1: yet not necessarily unexpected. It's called life. And so the

1534
01:33:13,600 --> 01:33:17,200
Speaker 1: stock market is responding to activity. Trump is a man

1535
01:33:17,240 --> 01:33:20,439
Speaker 1: of action, and so things are occurring we're not used

1536
01:33:20,439 --> 01:33:24,519
Speaker 1: to because the previous presidents have not acted in a

1537
01:33:24,560 --> 01:33:30,680
Speaker 1: way that has engendered a kind of action that of

1538
01:33:30,720 --> 01:33:33,960
Speaker 1: course you get reactions too. And I think it's a

1539
01:33:34,000 --> 01:33:38,120
Speaker 1: good thing, it's a healthy thing. It's necessary as we

1540
01:33:38,240 --> 01:33:41,719
Speaker 1: are beginning to get our to get back on our feet,

1541
01:33:42,360 --> 01:33:44,599
Speaker 1: we should expect this. And so I think the key

1542
01:33:44,640 --> 01:33:47,720
Speaker 1: element is for the president. And I think he knows

1543
01:33:47,760 --> 01:33:50,920
Speaker 1: this because he's been running a massive business of course

1544
01:33:51,000 --> 01:33:55,200
Speaker 1: most of his life, his adult life, so he knows

1545
01:33:55,240 --> 01:33:59,599
Speaker 1: about the back and forth. People in Washington Art don't

1546
01:33:59,600 --> 01:34:02,800
Speaker 1: like it, and the American people we have two generations

1547
01:34:02,800 --> 01:34:05,960
Speaker 1: now who are unfamiliar with it, and I think the

1548
01:34:06,080 --> 01:34:08,720
Speaker 1: communication is going to be key and him sticking with

1549
01:34:08,800 --> 01:34:12,559
Speaker 1: his priorities. I think the critical point that you make,

1550
01:34:12,600 --> 01:34:15,080
Speaker 1: and you make a number of critical points there is

1551
01:34:15,120 --> 01:34:18,599
Speaker 1: the idea that the president is in some sense a

1552
01:34:18,600 --> 01:34:22,600
Speaker 1: party of one. And when people talk about the resistance

1553
01:34:22,880 --> 01:34:26,519
Speaker 1: and like you said, the revulsion of our political class,

1554
01:34:26,720 --> 01:34:31,120
Speaker 1: it's actually not a partisan issue. It is a bipartisan issue,

1555
01:34:31,360 --> 01:34:36,000
Speaker 1: a bipartisan revolt against someone who would threaten the livelihood,

1556
01:34:36,160 --> 01:34:39,840
Speaker 1: the prerogatives, the credentials of those who have been, in

1557
01:34:39,880 --> 01:34:42,559
Speaker 1: a sense, the ruling class over time. What do you

1558
01:34:42,640 --> 01:34:45,280
Speaker 1: make of the sort of irony and all of this

1559
01:34:45,760 --> 01:34:48,960
Speaker 1: that it took someone like a Trump to be to

1560
01:34:49,120 --> 01:34:52,280
Speaker 1: expose the fact that those in power would be willing

1561
01:34:52,320 --> 01:34:56,040
Speaker 1: to act in the most lawless, violating norms, going against

1562
01:34:56,040 --> 01:34:59,840
Speaker 1: the institutions sort of fashion of anyone. I think that

1563
01:35:00,360 --> 01:35:03,519
Speaker 1: when you look back on the photographs of President Trump,

1564
01:35:03,600 --> 01:35:07,920
Speaker 1: like with his marriage and the guests being Bill and

1565
01:35:08,000 --> 01:35:12,120
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton, everybody knew Donald Trump right he was part

1566
01:35:12,120 --> 01:35:16,080
Speaker 1: of the system. There was I think a general understanding

1567
01:35:16,120 --> 01:35:19,559
Speaker 1: amongst the rich and powerful, and we do have that

1568
01:35:19,640 --> 01:35:21,479
Speaker 1: group of people. I want us all to become rich

1569
01:35:21,479 --> 01:35:24,960
Speaker 1: and powerful. Of course, that they that I think either

1570
01:35:25,000 --> 01:35:28,360
Speaker 1: a direct understanding or a silent one, that everyone would

1571
01:35:28,400 --> 01:35:32,040
Speaker 1: go along and get along, that everyone would be benefiting

1572
01:35:32,280 --> 01:35:35,679
Speaker 1: based on a status quo with the American people, though

1573
01:35:35,760 --> 01:35:39,400
Speaker 1: becoming the collateral damage, and I think what they did

1574
01:35:39,439 --> 01:35:45,200
Speaker 1: not expect. And there's a term politically for people, even

1575
01:35:45,200 --> 01:35:50,160
Speaker 1: including like a Fdr Franklin Roosevelt, of men and women

1576
01:35:50,280 --> 01:35:53,920
Speaker 1: who are traitors to their class, people who come out

1577
01:35:53,960 --> 01:35:58,320
Speaker 1: of a system and turn on that system that perhaps

1578
01:35:58,400 --> 01:36:01,800
Speaker 1: has rewarded them in the past because something has struck them.

1579
01:36:02,240 --> 01:36:05,680
Speaker 1: And Trump fits within that framework. He's a traitor to

1580
01:36:05,800 --> 01:36:08,519
Speaker 1: his class. Now his class is, of course the rich,

1581
01:36:09,800 --> 01:36:12,880
Speaker 1: the powerful, and those are the people that also then

1582
01:36:13,280 --> 01:36:17,759
Speaker 1: are supposed to understand and you know, accept the nature

1583
01:36:17,760 --> 01:36:20,679
Speaker 1: of what has been going on. His crime is that

1584
01:36:20,760 --> 01:36:23,839
Speaker 1: I think he fell in love with the country at first.

1585
01:36:24,320 --> 01:36:31,800
Speaker 1: It was perhaps a genuine the effect of what we

1586
01:36:31,800 --> 01:36:36,280
Speaker 1: were all experiencing of the government having gone kind of

1587
01:36:36,320 --> 01:36:40,120
Speaker 1: haywire the direction that it was going in with Barack Obama.

1588
01:36:40,400 --> 01:36:44,160
Speaker 1: I think that he felt inherently and had been speaking

1589
01:36:44,240 --> 01:36:48,000
Speaker 1: publicly and on Twitter and in other ways for years,

1590
01:36:48,960 --> 01:36:53,680
Speaker 1: you know, rejecting and questioning and being extremely critical of

1591
01:36:53,680 --> 01:36:56,360
Speaker 1: what was happening in government. And I think that there's

1592
01:36:56,400 --> 01:37:00,240
Speaker 1: a point where whether it's an Alexandria Occassio quartet or

1593
01:37:00,320 --> 01:37:04,160
Speaker 1: Donald Trump who says, well, wait a minute, maybe something

1594
01:37:04,160 --> 01:37:07,800
Speaker 1: else can be done and maybe it's maybe it's me,

1595
01:37:08,800 --> 01:37:13,519
Speaker 1: and it's that decision that spark that then made him

1596
01:37:13,560 --> 01:37:17,040
Speaker 1: realize there was something larger than him. As he moved

1597
01:37:17,040 --> 01:37:20,599
Speaker 1: into his seventies. Maybe one part of it was boredom

1598
01:37:21,120 --> 01:37:23,719
Speaker 1: and he wanted something new to do. But in order

1599
01:37:23,720 --> 01:37:28,360
Speaker 1: to be willing to commit to really going against your

1600
01:37:28,479 --> 01:37:32,040
Speaker 1: team in a way, which was the establishment, I think

1601
01:37:32,040 --> 01:37:34,280
Speaker 1: it had to be more than that. And then the campaign,

1602
01:37:35,000 --> 01:37:37,040
Speaker 1: I think he really fell in love with the country

1603
01:37:37,400 --> 01:37:39,280
Speaker 1: and he did get to know it. I think he

1604
01:37:39,360 --> 01:37:43,040
Speaker 1: became a changed man in that process and in the end,

1605
01:37:43,160 --> 01:37:46,479
Speaker 1: And this is what for me, as a person of faith, well,

1606
01:37:46,479 --> 01:37:49,760
Speaker 1: I don't like organized religion very much. I find it

1607
01:37:50,200 --> 01:37:55,160
Speaker 1: not surprising that this nation has brought forth the perfect

1608
01:37:55,280 --> 01:37:59,799
Speaker 1: person in our particular history up till now, the perfect

1609
01:37:59,800 --> 01:38:04,080
Speaker 1: man and to address what this country is needed. Whether

1610
01:38:04,160 --> 01:38:09,679
Speaker 1: it's Washington or a Lincoln or a Reagan and now

1611
01:38:09,760 --> 01:38:15,160
Speaker 1: Trump now all very very different men, but astanding trajectories

1612
01:38:15,520 --> 01:38:18,400
Speaker 1: and at the right place, at the right time, making

1613
01:38:18,400 --> 01:38:22,479
Speaker 1: the right decision and at the correct junction when it

1614
01:38:22,479 --> 01:38:26,160
Speaker 1: comes to what the American people need. Now. Now all

1615
01:38:26,200 --> 01:38:30,880
Speaker 1: of them, you know, also faced unique problems and have

1616
01:38:31,000 --> 01:38:36,240
Speaker 1: had to be very aggressive in certain ways. But the

1617
01:38:36,720 --> 01:38:40,200
Speaker 1: moment for Trump and the irony of what is going

1618
01:38:40,240 --> 01:38:43,680
Speaker 1: on as you put as you put it is necessary

1619
01:38:43,840 --> 01:38:49,400
Speaker 1: and perfect because it strangely only Donald Trump could do it.

1620
01:38:49,400 --> 01:38:51,760
Speaker 1: It would be a man or a woman with enough

1621
01:38:51,800 --> 01:38:55,840
Speaker 1: money to where it wouldn't matter what, they wouldn't need

1622
01:38:56,040 --> 01:38:59,640
Speaker 1: their next job, not interested in the approval of a

1623
01:38:59,640 --> 01:39:05,000
Speaker 1: certain crowd, except the American people, genuinely wanting to make

1624
01:39:05,040 --> 01:39:09,320
Speaker 1: a difference separate from what their lives were or could

1625
01:39:09,320 --> 01:39:12,920
Speaker 1: have been, separate from politics. The difference between Trump, of course,

1626
01:39:13,000 --> 01:39:15,439
Speaker 1: and and the other men I mentioned, with the exception

1627
01:39:15,479 --> 01:39:21,439
Speaker 1: perhaps the President General Washington, is the lack of uh,

1628
01:39:21,800 --> 01:39:26,520
Speaker 1: you know, obviously Reagan and Lincoln politicians, you know, consummate politicians,

1629
01:39:27,400 --> 01:39:35,080
Speaker 1: but clearly the kind of person America creates in a romantic, deliberate,

1630
01:39:35,160 --> 01:39:39,839
Speaker 1: kind of creative, almost reckless way of moving into the future.

1631
01:39:40,280 --> 01:39:45,320
Speaker 1: But this country, but this country system requires that kind

1632
01:39:45,400 --> 01:39:50,679
Speaker 1: of of kind of boundless optimism and willingness to face

1633
01:39:50,720 --> 01:39:54,679
Speaker 1: the monsters to fix the future. That's what we bring

1634
01:39:55,200 --> 01:39:59,599
Speaker 1: to the American story, but to the story of really

1635
01:39:59,600 --> 01:40:03,000
Speaker 1: the human in condition. And I find this all to

1636
01:40:03,080 --> 01:40:09,639
Speaker 1: be very predictable and necessary if the nation was to survive.

1637
01:40:10,240 --> 01:40:14,280
Speaker 1: And it happened, and it's it's a very exciting time.

1638
01:40:14,840 --> 01:40:18,120
Speaker 1: What do you see happening with this democratic field? Is

1639
01:40:18,160 --> 01:40:21,040
Speaker 1: this is this a circular firing squad where everyone tries

1640
01:40:21,080 --> 01:40:23,280
Speaker 1: to go to the left of everyone else, or is

1641
01:40:23,280 --> 01:40:25,479
Speaker 1: there something that maybe we're not anticipating that we should

1642
01:40:25,520 --> 01:40:29,080
Speaker 1: be looking at. Well, I would point to a lot

1643
01:40:29,120 --> 01:40:32,120
Speaker 1: of people. The Democrats like to point at Connor Lamb,

1644
01:40:33,160 --> 01:40:37,600
Speaker 1: who uh you know, positioned himself as you know, a

1645
01:40:37,720 --> 01:40:40,400
Speaker 1: centrist and all of that, and they said, well, that

1646
01:40:40,400 --> 01:40:43,679
Speaker 1: that's the kind of Democrat who can win. The problem

1647
01:40:43,720 --> 01:40:46,800
Speaker 1: with that race for the Democrats was he faced no

1648
01:40:46,920 --> 01:40:52,840
Speaker 1: primary competition, so there was no leftist, no progressive to

1649
01:40:53,160 --> 01:40:56,080
Speaker 1: challenge him and to push him and to have that

1650
01:40:56,160 --> 01:40:59,719
Speaker 1: fight in public. And when that happens, that's where everything

1651
01:41:00,000 --> 01:41:02,760
Speaker 1: go off the rails. This is this is where the

1652
01:41:02,840 --> 01:41:06,759
Speaker 1: Democrats have their problem. Now the Republicans have already faced

1653
01:41:06,800 --> 01:41:10,600
Speaker 1: that that problem, if you will. The benefit though for

1654
01:41:10,640 --> 01:41:14,200
Speaker 1: the Republicans is that the fight was between Donald Trump,

1655
01:41:14,200 --> 01:41:18,760
Speaker 1: who's a businessman, wildly successful, uh knew what he was doing,

1656
01:41:18,880 --> 01:41:21,479
Speaker 1: has had a background of knowing what you know, within

1657
01:41:21,640 --> 01:41:26,839
Speaker 1: at least a conservative ideal about finances and personal freedom,

1658
01:41:26,840 --> 01:41:30,439
Speaker 1: et cetera. Uh, regardless of what you think of him personally,

1659
01:41:30,439 --> 01:41:32,800
Speaker 1: he had he had a business background that indicated to

1660
01:41:32,840 --> 01:41:36,240
Speaker 1: the American people he could handle running the country. The

1661
01:41:36,280 --> 01:41:40,719
Speaker 1: problem for the Democrats is, uh, it's Alexandrio Occassio Cortez

1662
01:41:40,880 --> 01:41:45,920
Speaker 1: versus Clare McCaskill. Right, it's people who have ideas that

1663
01:41:46,040 --> 01:41:49,440
Speaker 1: are that make no sense, that have been proven unworkable

1664
01:41:50,000 --> 01:41:54,679
Speaker 1: in historically. Uh, that will destroy elements of the country

1665
01:41:54,720 --> 01:41:59,479
Speaker 1: like well, Medicare for all single payer nobody knows, you know,

1666
01:41:59,520 --> 01:42:02,280
Speaker 1: when Cassio Cortez has asked, how would you pay for

1667
01:42:02,320 --> 01:42:04,080
Speaker 1: single payers? So, well, you just pay it like you

1668
01:42:04,120 --> 01:42:07,120
Speaker 1: pay your rent. I mean, this is the problem for

1669
01:42:07,160 --> 01:42:11,840
Speaker 1: the Democrats. Uh. And I think that this is what

1670
01:42:11,880 --> 01:42:14,839
Speaker 1: they're really going to find. And I'm you know, they're

1671
01:42:14,920 --> 01:42:18,479
Speaker 1: already trying to set up and limit the number of debates, uh,

1672
01:42:18,520 --> 01:42:22,080
Speaker 1: and how how public these kinds of arguments will go.

1673
01:42:23,080 --> 01:42:27,760
Speaker 1: But that's what's going to be problematic of how far

1674
01:42:27,840 --> 01:42:31,880
Speaker 1: to the left certain candidates get pulled in that fight

1675
01:42:31,960 --> 01:42:36,200
Speaker 1: and really, in fact, who might win or who become

1676
01:42:36,439 --> 01:42:39,800
Speaker 1: you know, who is that shorter lineup of the Democratic

1677
01:42:39,840 --> 01:42:43,439
Speaker 1: nominees and whether or not the American people will look

1678
01:42:43,439 --> 01:42:46,719
Speaker 1: and say this does not look good. I've I've equated

1679
01:42:46,800 --> 01:42:49,640
Speaker 1: this as being like sending the Hindenburg to pick up

1680
01:42:49,680 --> 01:42:53,120
Speaker 1: the passengers of the Titanic. Uh. This is That's what

1681
01:42:53,160 --> 01:42:56,479
Speaker 1: the Democrats offer, Like which vehicle are you going to

1682
01:42:56,560 --> 01:42:59,439
Speaker 1: want to get on with them? And this is where

1683
01:43:00,160 --> 01:43:04,160
Speaker 1: the president of course, and I believe that they'll be

1684
01:43:04,160 --> 01:43:06,759
Speaker 1: able to do this is articulate to the American people

1685
01:43:07,680 --> 01:43:11,519
Speaker 1: because the legacy media won't do what has been working, Um,

1686
01:43:11,560 --> 01:43:14,080
Speaker 1: what still needs to go, what still needs to work.

1687
01:43:14,120 --> 01:43:17,080
Speaker 1: I think it's unfair that he's been attacked for not

1688
01:43:17,160 --> 01:43:21,040
Speaker 1: accomplishing everything he promised in two years. I mean, he

1689
01:43:21,160 --> 01:43:26,800
Speaker 1: is a man alone effectively creating historical change. But for

1690
01:43:26,840 --> 01:43:31,160
Speaker 1: the Democrats, um, you know, and I'm still a Democrat,

1691
01:43:31,280 --> 01:43:38,720
Speaker 1: registered Democrat in California. Uh, regular grassroots Democrats want you know,

1692
01:43:38,840 --> 01:43:41,879
Speaker 1: they want normal governing. They also care about their families,

1693
01:43:41,960 --> 01:43:43,760
Speaker 1: they care about you know, they want to make sure

1694
01:43:43,760 --> 01:43:46,360
Speaker 1: they've got somebody who knows what they're doing, and they

1695
01:43:46,400 --> 01:43:49,360
Speaker 1: want something new. They don't want Hillary. We know that

1696
01:43:49,439 --> 01:43:54,240
Speaker 1: because they don't want what has been and so if

1697
01:43:54,520 --> 01:43:57,240
Speaker 1: if they think they're they're they're going to be offered,

1698
01:43:57,720 --> 01:44:01,080
Speaker 1: you know, Joe Biden and then see Pelosi's out there.

1699
01:44:01,120 --> 01:44:04,240
Speaker 1: All of these young people and others who want something different,

1700
01:44:04,240 --> 01:44:08,439
Speaker 1: like the Republicans wanted something different, They're in a lot

1701
01:44:08,479 --> 01:44:13,479
Speaker 1: of trouble because nobody's presenting themselves as the unifier that

1702
01:44:13,640 --> 01:44:17,599
Speaker 1: can bring all of those individuals together. And it certainly

1703
01:44:18,600 --> 01:44:22,160
Speaker 1: is not. I don't envy them. It's going to be

1704
01:44:22,200 --> 01:44:25,840
Speaker 1: fascinating to watch. And in the meantime, the president is

1705
01:44:25,840 --> 01:44:28,440
Speaker 1: still also going to have to deal with never trumpers

1706
01:44:29,160 --> 01:44:32,080
Speaker 1: and individuals who are more committed to the establishments than

1707
01:44:32,120 --> 01:44:34,280
Speaker 1: they are to the progress of the country. Temmy, we're

1708
01:44:34,280 --> 01:44:35,840
Speaker 1: gonna have to leave it right there. Thank you so

1709
01:44:35,920 --> 01:44:38,120
Speaker 1: much for joining us in Happy New Year, Welcome back

1710
01:44:38,160 --> 01:44:41,000
Speaker 1: to the Buck Sexon Show. This is Ben Weingarten in

1711
01:44:41,320 --> 01:44:43,840
Speaker 1: for Buck Sex and appreciate you taking the time to

1712
01:44:43,880 --> 01:44:46,360
Speaker 1: spend your New Year's Eve with me. All right, before

1713
01:44:46,400 --> 01:44:48,280
Speaker 1: we wrap up today, I want to talk a little

1714
01:44:48,360 --> 01:44:51,840
Speaker 1: about Global Verification Network. If you're a business owner or

1715
01:44:51,840 --> 01:44:55,320
Speaker 1: otherwise hiring, or maybe a property renter or someone else

1716
01:44:55,400 --> 01:45:00,280
Speaker 1: looking for vetted quality employees, Global Verification Network is the

1717
01:45:00,320 --> 01:45:04,879
Speaker 1: only dual certified veteran owned background investigations and vetting company.

1718
01:45:05,160 --> 01:45:09,280
Speaker 1: You can visit Global Verification Network at MYGVN dot com.

1719
01:45:09,280 --> 01:45:12,559
Speaker 1: That's MYGVN dot com, or you can call at eight

1720
01:45:12,600 --> 01:45:16,360
Speaker 1: seven seven six nine five one one seven nine. Global

1721
01:45:16,439 --> 01:45:20,080
Speaker 1: Verification Network is federally certified as a veteran owned small business.

1722
01:45:20,560 --> 01:45:23,880
Speaker 1: It's independently certified by the National Veteran Business Development Council,

1723
01:45:23,920 --> 01:45:27,200
Speaker 1: which is the only minority spend certification recognized by the

1724
01:45:27,240 --> 01:45:31,519
Speaker 1: Billion Dollar Roundtable. These are risk mitigation experts who work

1725
01:45:31,560 --> 01:45:35,280
Speaker 1: with startups to Fortune one hundred companies. No data or

1726
01:45:35,360 --> 01:45:38,240
Speaker 1: client information is ever off short, so there's privacy here

1727
01:45:38,880 --> 01:45:43,200
Speaker 1: and all employees are located throughout the United States. Visit

1728
01:45:43,200 --> 01:45:46,800
Speaker 1: Global Verification Networks website ATMGVN dot com or call at

1729
01:45:46,800 --> 01:45:50,920
Speaker 1: eight seven seven six nine five one one seven nine.

1730
01:45:51,600 --> 01:45:53,240
Speaker 1: All right, I want to conclude today. You know I

1731
01:45:53,280 --> 01:45:57,639
Speaker 1: started in our opening monologue with an emphasis on being

1732
01:45:57,680 --> 01:46:00,920
Speaker 1: grateful for what we have and want to first start

1733
01:46:00,960 --> 01:46:04,000
Speaker 1: by thanking you, dear listener, for spending this day with

1734
01:46:04,080 --> 01:46:07,439
Speaker 1: me and talking about and thinking about some vital issues

1735
01:46:07,560 --> 01:46:10,240
Speaker 1: for this country. I also want to thank Buck Sexton

1736
01:46:10,400 --> 01:46:13,559
Speaker 1: for giving me the opportunity to fill in here on

1737
01:46:13,640 --> 01:46:16,800
Speaker 1: this New Year's Eve. It's been a pleasure, you know.

1738
01:46:16,800 --> 01:46:19,080
Speaker 1: As we go out today, I would leave with a

1739
01:46:19,080 --> 01:46:22,320
Speaker 1: couple parting thoughts. One is that this is the greatest

1740
01:46:22,400 --> 01:46:27,000
Speaker 1: nation ever invented in American not just American history, obviously

1741
01:46:27,040 --> 01:46:30,080
Speaker 1: been in world history. It is exceptional. And it's not

1742
01:46:30,160 --> 01:46:33,799
Speaker 1: exceptional because we have all of this bounty and material wealth,

1743
01:46:34,000 --> 01:46:37,160
Speaker 1: but because we have the freedom to pursue our happiness.

1744
01:46:37,640 --> 01:46:40,800
Speaker 1: This is uncommon. This is an uncommon nation, This is

1745
01:46:40,960 --> 01:46:43,839
Speaker 1: an uncommon lot that we have, This is an uncommon

1746
01:46:43,880 --> 01:46:45,880
Speaker 1: time period for all the stresses in a day to

1747
01:46:45,960 --> 01:46:48,600
Speaker 1: day basis. It's the most comfortable time to ever be

1748
01:46:48,680 --> 01:46:52,080
Speaker 1: alive in the history of mankind. And there's no nation

1749
01:46:52,120 --> 01:46:54,960
Speaker 1: in world history that has ever had this freedom. But

1750
01:46:55,080 --> 01:46:58,240
Speaker 1: this freedom can go away overnight, very quickly, and we

1751
01:46:58,320 --> 01:47:02,000
Speaker 1: see that in places from Venezuela to what Cuba once was.

1752
01:47:02,479 --> 01:47:05,559
Speaker 1: We see it throughout the world. There are external foes,

1753
01:47:06,120 --> 01:47:08,800
Speaker 1: but in reality, the most important thing is for us

1754
01:47:08,800 --> 01:47:11,720
Speaker 1: to be strong, for us to understand our values and

1755
01:47:11,760 --> 01:47:15,920
Speaker 1: our principles, and to defend those values and principles from

1756
01:47:16,000 --> 01:47:20,679
Speaker 1: enemies both external and internal. This has been Weingarten, having

1757
01:47:20,680 --> 01:47:22,639
Speaker 1: filled in for buck Sexton today. This is the Buck

1758
01:47:22,680 --> 01:47:25,040
Speaker 1: Sexton Show, Happy New Year, Thank you so much,