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Speaker 1: We are live, and I'm thrilled to be joined by

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Speaker 1: my friend Ken Harbaugh. Ken is a former naval aviator.

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Speaker 1: He is the president of Valor Media. He is the

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Speaker 1: producer of the number one rated Apple documentary Against All Enemies.

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Speaker 1: You can find that, download it, watch it on Apple TV.

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Speaker 1: Ken is a veteran's activist and advocate, a democracy advocate,

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Speaker 1: and a democracy activist. Ken is part of the great

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Speaker 1: fabric of America's civil society, where he has stood up

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Speaker 1: for the country, taken the oath, flown off the deck

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Speaker 1: of aircraft carriers, flown into harm's way, and has come

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Speaker 1: home and has entered into another type of harm, which

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Speaker 1: is as a leading voice in a great battle that's

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Speaker 1: taking place as we speak, all across the country between

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Speaker 1: two forces that have long been in opposition in the

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Speaker 1: United States, forces that oppose liberty and those that wish

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Speaker 1: to expand it. And all through our history there have

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Speaker 1: been attempts and attacks against the against the Constitution of

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Speaker 1: the United States. There have been no gentle periods in

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Speaker 1: the American story, and so today we live in a

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Speaker 1: consequential time, and so it's a great privilege to be

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Speaker 1: joined by We're going to talk about some of the

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Speaker 1: activities that are taking place, the large veterans protests taking

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Speaker 1: place on the sixth of June in Washington, d C.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about that. We're going to talk about all

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Speaker 1: of the things that are happening, but we're going to

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Speaker 1: start by talking about the Valor network. And we're going

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Speaker 1: to start by talking about a subject that's of real importance,

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Speaker 1: something that has gone off the rails, and we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about that. I think it's in the last seven or

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Speaker 1: so years, but it could be a little bit before that.

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Speaker 1: But as we begin the conversation with Ken, we're coming

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Speaker 1: up on a Memorial Day, and when we think about

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Speaker 1: Memorial Day, we have to think about the generation of

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Speaker 1: Americans that were sent to war in the twenty first century.

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Speaker 1: But before we do that, I want to talk about

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Speaker 1: the generation that we remember as the Greatest Generation. And

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Speaker 1: I've never liked the name because I'll tell you what,

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Speaker 1: and I think it's clear in this moment that we're

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Speaker 1: going to have to have another great generation of Americans.

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Speaker 1: And I think truly the greatest generation will be the

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Speaker 1: one that makes it to the mountaintop that Martin Luther

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Speaker 1: King saw right that completes the building of the city

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Speaker 1: on a hill. The World War two generation stood up,

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Speaker 1: They were measured, they were counted, They did incredible they

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Speaker 1: did incredible things. You grew up when we grew up

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Speaker 1: as a as a young man I was born in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, there was an arc type of masculinity.

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Speaker 1: And in that arc type of masculinity has been utterly

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Speaker 1: shattered in the last seven years by people who would

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Speaker 1: have been roukeenly regarded by those guys as there's a word.

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Speaker 1: It starts with key, right. It's the key word right,

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Speaker 1: which I can't say, which is too bad, because it's

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Speaker 1: an important concept right in society, and it was something

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Speaker 1: as a young man you were raised not to be.

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Speaker 1: And so when you look at an Andrew Tate, he's

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Speaker 1: a let's call him a pussy cat, right when you

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Speaker 1: when you when you look at it, Joe Rogan, right,

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Speaker 1: another pussy cat. Right. So, if you're sitting there and

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Speaker 1: and you're a person who has an audience of many

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Speaker 1: tens of millions, and you're sitting there and you're like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, Hitler and Kanye West may have a point

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Speaker 1: here about the Jews controlling everything or you tolerate the

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Speaker 1: Nazi apologist, or you wink and nod at the racist

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Speaker 1: or the misogynist or whatever. Indecency doesn't make you tough.

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Speaker 1: It generally it makes either a racist and an imbecile.

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Speaker 1: And those two things typically matched together like round square,

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Speaker 1: round peg. And so those guys, by and large would

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Speaker 1: have been repulsed by the Andrew Caates, by the Joe Rogans,

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Speaker 1: by all of these dishonest snake oil salespeople telling this

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Speaker 1: fake gospel of machismo, because the real thing is collapsed.

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Speaker 1: And so real men, right, are not cruel Right, real

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Speaker 1: men are fierce against cruelty. That toughness is not meanness,

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Speaker 1: and that there's nothing wrong if you're a man in

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Speaker 1: standing up for the little guy, and so so what

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Speaker 1: these people are are classical bullies who've said to be

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Speaker 1: a man is to be a bully, and that's not true.

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Speaker 1: But traditional masculinity has been casket castigated, run down, kicked

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Speaker 1: into the gutter, been politicized, called toxic in the truth

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Speaker 1: of the matter is is we need to raise our

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Speaker 1: young men to be fierce and their patriotism and their

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Speaker 1: respect for other people, for dissent for America's values, and

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Speaker 1: we've done a terrible job as a generation of doing that,

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Speaker 1: and so we've created a vacuum where some of the

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Speaker 1: worst people you can conceivably imagine now hold themselves up

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Speaker 1: as totems of manliness, when in fact they're epic cowards,

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Speaker 1: all of them. They're moral cowards, their physical cowards, and

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Speaker 1: their political cowards. And you have a remedy for that,

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Speaker 1: and that's Valor Media. And i'd love for you to

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Speaker 1: talk about Valor Media. I think this is a great idea,

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Speaker 1: a great network, and I think it's going to be

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Speaker 1: something that really reaches tens of millions of young men

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Speaker 1: in this country with a competing vision about what it

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Speaker 1: means to be a man, and what it means to

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Speaker 1: be a man at the end of the day is

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Speaker 1: to stand up with some integrity. And integrity and manliness

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Speaker 1: are deeply connected, and people who have no integrity, who

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Speaker 1: are bullies and liars, have no claim to masculinity. And

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Speaker 1: so I just want to get you to talk about

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Speaker 1: Valor Media and your vision for it. And thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for being with us today.

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Speaker 2: Well thanks for having me, Steve. It's great to talk

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Speaker 2: to you. Your intro was overly generous. I'm a little embarrassed,

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Speaker 2: but I think you hit the nail on the head

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Speaker 2: when you described these influencers of the so called manisphere

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Speaker 2: as cowards, because at the end of the day, every

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Speaker 2: bully is a coward, right they are, They're projecting, they're

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Speaker 2: compensating for something. And it really gets to me, especially

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Speaker 2: as we're leading up to Memorial Day, when these guys

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Speaker 2: in heroism, when they do the tough guy act, right,

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Speaker 2: when they talk about the need to be strong on

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Speaker 2: the world stage, and somehow every single one of them,

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Speaker 2: the ones we're talking about, the Andrew Tates, the Joe Rogan's,

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Speaker 2: somehow managed to miss out on the longest wars in

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Speaker 2: America's history, right Iraq and Afghanistan. That shows you that

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Speaker 2: they're they're all talk. On the other hand, at Valor Media,

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Speaker 2: we've got a lineup of hosts that I think can

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Speaker 2: reach into this toxic manisphere, this hostile information ecosystem. We've

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Speaker 2: got three seals who are hosts on the network. We've

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Speaker 2: got rangers, We've got an ex Delta Forces guy. We've

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Speaker 2: got two Navy pilots. One of them was a top

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Speaker 2: gun guy. One of them was pilot of the year

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Speaker 2: in PACAPP Pacific Air Force. These are actual.

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Speaker 1: Dudes, right they.

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Speaker 2: I would love to put any one of them squared

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Speaker 2: off with Joe Rogan or Andrew Tap and let people

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Speaker 2: decide what real masculine it is looking at those examples,

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Speaker 2: and it's what you laid out. Strength is actually found

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Speaker 2: in compassion. Masculinity is found in taking care of the

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Speaker 2: least among us. Being a man is not what you

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Speaker 2: do for yourself, which is what is being sold, which

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Speaker 2: is what Rogan and Tate and the others preach. Being

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Speaker 2: a man is what you do for others. And I

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Speaker 2: think there is a political component to this as well,

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Speaker 2: because in failing to address this, we are seating territory

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Speaker 2: that we should rightly occupy. We gave up an entire

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Speaker 2: demo of votes to Donald Trump because we didn't play

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Speaker 2: in that information space. We didn't talk to them, We

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Speaker 2: didn't give them a vision of what a well run

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Speaker 2: country can look like and what's in it for them.

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Speaker 2: Valor media is about uplifting the real men in our

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Speaker 2: communities who we think can break into those information silos

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Speaker 2: and save some one of these young men who are

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Speaker 2: being sucked into the to the Rogan and Andrew tape

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Speaker 2: Pit of toxic masculinity.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was listening to a podcast and it

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Speaker 1: was Scott Galloway, Professor Galloway and Anthony Scaramucci, and they

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Speaker 1: were talking about masculinity. And I think Scott Galloway is

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Speaker 1: a brilliant guy, makes a lot of a lot of

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Speaker 1: great points. And one of the things he's talking about

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Speaker 1: is that you really have a generation of young men

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Speaker 1: that are terrified to talk to a young woman. They

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Speaker 1: just can't do it right face to face. Have never

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Speaker 1: asked anyone out. You know, Anthony Scaramucci starts talking about,

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Speaker 1: you know this right of passage that you know, I

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Speaker 1: remember well, which is this moment of terror, right when

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Speaker 1: you were trying to call a girl up on the

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Speaker 1: phone and her dad might answer right, and you're trying

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Speaker 1: to sneak around the house tethered to the cord. You're

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Speaker 1: fighting with your sister when it was me right, it

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Speaker 1: was right at the adventity age of call waiting right,

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Speaker 1: and you're you're going through these rituals, and we have

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Speaker 1: young men in this country who were through COVID not

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Speaker 1: in school, miss out on this period of life. And

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Speaker 1: then in the politics of the moment our young men

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Speaker 1: are told that you're dangerous, you're unworthy, you're somehow bad,

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Speaker 1: that in any type of interaction with with a woman,

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Speaker 1: you'll you're the you're on the wrong side of that.

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Speaker 1: Women don't lie. Uh, young men are bad. And so

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Speaker 1: in that space, right, in this gospel of toxic masculinity,

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Speaker 1: people talk about, you know, the excesses of the of

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Speaker 1: the woke era, right people, young men, Right, there's really

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Speaker 1: no more boy scouts. Uh, there is a you know,

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Speaker 1: absence of school. So we see the sports right fall

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Speaker 1: fall apart. And in that vacuum, it's the old saying

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Speaker 1: goes right nature or pores a vacuum. Right, there's fraud

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Speaker 1: steers who rise up and say hey to the dispossessed, right,

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Speaker 1: to the lonely, Hey follow me. And so this kid, right,

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Speaker 1: and that's what we're talking about here, kid, right, is

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Speaker 1: not sitting in a group right of one hundred other

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Speaker 1: kids watching Andrew Kate. Right. This is not a group activity, right,

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Speaker 1: This is a lonely activity. You're sitting in your room. Right.

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Speaker 1: There is no girlfriend to talk to, right, there is

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Speaker 1: no friends. Right, So you have isolated, lonely boys sitting

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Speaker 1: in their rooms right, sitting in their basements, who are

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Speaker 1: being stoked, being provoked, being fed a bunch of lies

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Speaker 1: by these people. And it's metastasizing now in that you

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Speaker 1: have a lot of these fighting clubs, a lot of

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Speaker 1: these mixed martial lates arts facilities have urged with white

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Speaker 1: nationalists politics and have become forums and venues for the

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Speaker 1: spread all of it connected through this manosphere, which is

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Speaker 1: a fundamentally dangerous mix of extremists peddling a message that says, hey,

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Speaker 1: young man, Winston Churchill's the bad guy in Adolf Hitler. Well,

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Speaker 1: he's misunderstood. And so the remedy to this, right is

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Speaker 1: what you're talking about, which is that in the end,

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Speaker 1: that the meaning of life, of manhood is the acceptance

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Speaker 1: of this idea that there are some causes, some things

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Speaker 1: that are bigger than yourself. And to me, for most

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Speaker 1: amongst all of those things that transcend everything is the

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Speaker 1: United States. And so the United States is a project.

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Speaker 1: It's two hundred and fifty years old. We're in our

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth anniversary year. Some great anniversaries. This

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Speaker 1: year we had the anniversary of the United States Army,

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Speaker 1: of the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps.

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Speaker 1: All this all this year, and the Republic turns two

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty next year, the birth of its independence.

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Speaker 1: Thomas Payne talked about liberty, so use some things you

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Speaker 1: can't put a price on them. He's also the first

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Speaker 1: person to come up with the name the United States

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Speaker 1: of America, to write it down on a piece of paper,

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Speaker 1: should be the name of the country. Against all enemies

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Speaker 1: is a important phrase in the Constitution, in the oath

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Speaker 1: that anybody takes to the cost institution a lot of

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Speaker 1: ways to serve the country, not just in the in

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Speaker 1: the military. A lot of people have taken that oath

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Speaker 1: ready to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.

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Speaker 1: Talk about your documentary on Apple that's number one, Why

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Speaker 1: you think it got to number one, And about and

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Speaker 1: about specifically your use of that phrase.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Steve Well. I think it speaks to a lot

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Speaker 2: of what you just laid out, which is a disinformation

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Speaker 2: ecosystem that is so effective at reaching disaffected men, young

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Speaker 2: men in particular. And our focus was on military veterans.

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Speaker 2: I alluded to the longest wars in America's history, right,

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Speaker 2: those had repercussions off the battlefield, and we welcomed home,

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Speaker 2: actually two generations of soldiers back to the country, many

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Speaker 2: of home, and we're looking to recapture that sense of

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Speaker 2: camaraderie and purpose that they felt downrange. The vast majority,

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Speaker 2: it has to be said, do reintegrate successfully into civilian life.

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Speaker 1: But it doesn't take many.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't take a small subset of that, a small

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Speaker 2: percentage who find that sense of purpose and mission through

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Speaker 2: the Oathkeepers or the Proud Boys, or the three percenters.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't take many of those to wreak absolute havoc.

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Speaker 2: And the impetus for the film was me sitting in

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Speaker 2: my driveway on January sixth, twenty twenty one, just in

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Speaker 2: disbelief at what was happening in looking when I finally

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Speaker 2: got my phone out. I first was listening to it

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Speaker 2: on the radio, but I was watching the coverage and

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Speaker 2: seeing the organized stacks, the tactical stacks or lines of

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Speaker 2: people working their way through the crowds, and realizing that's

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Speaker 2: Vets right. And it turned out that a disproportionate number

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Speaker 2: of the people there on January sixth, and certainly of

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Speaker 2: the leaders behind it, the Stuart Rhodeses of this movement

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Speaker 2: had military backgrounds, and we wanted to understand how the

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Speaker 2: heck we got to this point, and so much of

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Speaker 2: it is because of this disinformation ecosystem that pumps lies

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Speaker 2: into people twenty four to seven. And if what you're

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Speaker 2: hearing again and again and again, especially from the mouth

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Speaker 2: of the commander in chief, is that an election was stolen,

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Speaker 2: for example, and we have one hundred examples of lies

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Speaker 2: just as nefarious since then, but let's just focus on

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Speaker 2: that one. You hear the election was stolen. At first,

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Speaker 2: you don't believe it. You hear it again and again

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Speaker 2: and again. You see Fox News playing on the wardroom,

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Speaker 2: in the wardroom TV on your base right, you hear

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Speaker 2: the commander in chief or the former commander in chief

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Speaker 2: saying it, and it twists your mind and you begin

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Speaker 2: to tell yourself, especially if you're surrounded by people who

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Speaker 2: are reinforcing this, that you know what, my oath compels

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Speaker 2: me to do something about it. And that, to me

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Speaker 2: is one of the greatest tragedies of how we lost

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Speaker 2: so many veterans to this disinformation campaign. So many of

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Speaker 2: them thought they were doing the right thing. And one

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Speaker 2: of the things we try to get at in the

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Speaker 2: film is the real onus of moral accountability. Sure, those

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Speaker 2: who broke windows, those who broke into the Capitol deserve

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Speaker 2: to be held accountable. I think the pardons are an outrage,

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Speaker 2: but the real onus should lie with those who provoked,

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Speaker 2: who knew better the Josh Hawley's that Ted Cruzes and

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Speaker 2: we just wanted to plan a flag to set a

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Speaker 2: marker for history that this is something we're not going

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Speaker 2: to ignore, We're not going to turn away from. And

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Speaker 2: I think that message is what resonated. It's what catapulted

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Speaker 2: it to the top of the charts on Apple TV.

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Speaker 2: It's now on Amazon, pretty much anywhere you get your streaming,

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Speaker 2: you're streaming films. But I think that's what the film

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Speaker 2: was speaking to that struck a chord with so many Americans.

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Speaker 1: We have a generation of Americans that were sent to

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Speaker 1: fight in wars. That one was started under a false

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Speaker 1: pretense by the administration that I worked in. I played

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Speaker 1: a senior role in the Bush administration. I was a

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Speaker 1: deputy assistant to the President. Against All Enemies is the

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Speaker 1: name of the film, everybody. I just saw that question

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Speaker 1: Against All Enemies number one on Apple I was a

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Speaker 1: deputy assistant to the President. I was counselor to the

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Speaker 1: Vice president. Again, the name of the film is Against

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Speaker 1: All Enemies, Against All Enemies on Apple Television. And as

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Speaker 1: a political staffer, I spent time in Iraq. Was was

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Speaker 1: sent there on an assignment, you know, for a for

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Speaker 1: a month or so, and got a case of the

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Speaker 1: flavor of what it is like to see the American

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Speaker 1: military deployed fully alongside the British military and our coalition partners.

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Speaker 1: You've either witnessed that, seen it, or have or have not.

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Speaker 1: I'm convinced you could be in the military for twenty

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Speaker 1: years and have not seen it and not understand what

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Speaker 1: that is. An It's an incredible thing too. It's an

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Speaker 1: incredible thing to see the power of the country. But

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Speaker 1: what do you think about the political leadership that lost

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Speaker 1: to wars that your friends were sent to That this

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Speaker 1: is what politics is, and there is a reality that

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Speaker 1: Trump rose in a Republican primary so many years ago

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Speaker 1: as the truth teller right about these wars in that

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Speaker 1: hey this was crazy, we lost these wars, and hey,

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Speaker 1: it's your fault politically, And so I understand at a

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Speaker 1: psychological level that if you send the army to war,

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Speaker 1: in the Navy and the Marine Corps, in the Air Force,

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Speaker 1: and in all of the contractors for twenty years, and

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Speaker 1: you lose those wars, and you lose those wars with

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Speaker 1: the images for example, at the end that come out

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Speaker 1: of Afghanistan after twenty years. Right, that there's a moral

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Speaker 1: injury done. Right, that's profound, And I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: you just talk about that moral injury, that grievance, that

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Speaker 1: resentment that takes an American soldier, airman, marine, from defender

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Speaker 1: of the Constitution to the tip of the spear waging

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Speaker 1: a war against it, prodded on by the exact type

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Speaker 1: of person that at one point in their life they

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Speaker 1: would have understood is exactly what the country's against.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm so glad you brought up the term moral injury.

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Speaker 2: Most people aren't familiar with it. It is distinct from

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Speaker 2: PTSD or post traumatic stress, with which most people do understand.

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Speaker 2: But moral injury is an injury to the soul, and

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Speaker 2: it's being increasingly researched and discovered that it can be

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Speaker 2: every bit as devastating as PTSD, and it just leaves

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Speaker 2: a hole in you when, for example, you are sent

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Speaker 2: down range, you're told that you're defending the country, say

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Speaker 2: in Afghanistan, for example, you lose buddies based on this promise,

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Speaker 2: and then you come home and you don't get the

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Speaker 2: support that your country promised you. This isn't a hypothetical.

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Speaker 2: It's happening right now. Look at the Packed Act, which

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Speaker 2: was passed to take care of all of those soldiers

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Speaker 2: down range who are exposed to burn pits. It actually

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Speaker 2: goes all the way back to the Vietnam War and

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Speaker 2: those exposed to Agent Orange who were never taken care of.

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Speaker 2: My dad was exposed to Agent Orange. We lost them

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Speaker 2: a month ago. I'm actually wearing his jacket today. I

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Speaker 2: took my patches off and put them on his jacket.

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Speaker 2: But the first word in the Packed Act is promise.

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Speaker 2: It's a promise to America's veterans, and it has been

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Speaker 2: ripped away because the Republicans, at Donald Trump's encouragement, have

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Speaker 2: taken away the seventeen billion dollars that was committed to

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Speaker 2: take care of those veterans who shouldered the burden that

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Speaker 2: Americans asked them to shoulder. On top of that, you

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Speaker 2: have this talk of sending back afghan refugees, many of

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Speaker 2: whom stood alongside US in Afghanistan risked their own lives,

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Speaker 2: lost family members, interpreted translated for US, fought alongside US.

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Speaker 2: In many cases, those on TPS status in the US

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Speaker 2: are in danger of losing it and being sent back

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Speaker 2: to Afghanistan because Marco Rubio State Department has assessed that

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Speaker 2: it's now stable. Do you know what happens to an

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Speaker 2: Afghan interpreter for the Americans when he goes back to

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Speaker 2: Taliban controlled Afghanistan? Take a wild guess that leaves an

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Speaker 2: injury on the soul of the American troop who's life

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Speaker 2: dependent on that Afghan interpreter. That is what moral injury is.

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Speaker 2: And this administration seems to have no regard for what

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Speaker 2: it is doing to the American veteran.

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Speaker 1: I want everybody to understand what Ken is talking about.

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Speaker 1: This is literally the plot of season six of The

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Speaker 1: Handmaid's Tail. Right, it is, it is, it is, It

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Speaker 1: is remarkable, and that decision, it's a bureaucratic evil that's

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Speaker 1: that's being done. But I want to laser focus on

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Speaker 1: something that that Ken is talking about, which is that

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Speaker 1: this is not Marco Rubio who is doing this, Right,

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Speaker 1: this is this is not Chris know who is who

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Speaker 1: is doing this right, It's the American people who are

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Speaker 1: doing this. When Marco Rubio issues an order, when Christy

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Speaker 1: No issues an order, right, that the burden of that

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Speaker 1: is carried by us, because we are a government of

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Speaker 1: the people, by the people, for the people. And this

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Speaker 1: is what instills in this moment, right, the fierce moral

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Speaker 1: urgency right to stop it, right and to say no.

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Speaker 1: And so what I want everybody on here to appreciate

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Speaker 1: is that Elon Musk is back in Texas, self pitying, crying,

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Speaker 1: right saying no Moss. And the truth of the matter

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Speaker 1: is is that one hundred whatever days into this you know,

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Speaker 1: to today is you know four months in a day,

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Speaker 1: is that you have a lifetime of accountability ahead for

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Speaker 1: a lot of people who have engaged in an assault,

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Speaker 1: in an arson and attack against the United States, against

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Speaker 1: the law across the board, in this administration. And it's

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Speaker 1: going to take a very very very long time for

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Speaker 1: that for that to play out. You know, it's easier

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Speaker 1: to light something on fire than to rebuild it, and

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Speaker 1: that's just the reality of things. But what we're talking

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Speaker 1: about here, the moral injury sustained over twenty years time.

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Speaker 1: As we come into now a period where we're going

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Speaker 1: to see something on June the fourteenth, which is which

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Speaker 1: is I think a desecration on the anniversary of the

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Speaker 1: birth of the US Army. We'll see a brigade strand

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Speaker 1: about six thousand American soldiers marching in a review. Kim

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Speaker 1: John unstyle passed our maximum leader, our furer, the American

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Speaker 1: fueror there Donald Trump tanks, fighter jets, helicopters deeply on

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Speaker 1: American type parade. The United States Army is the greatest

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Speaker 1: force for liberation in world history. You go to the

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Speaker 1: American cemeteries in Europe, what you appreciate there is what

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Speaker 1: Colin Powell talked about, which is that the only territory

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Speaker 1: the United States ever asked for was enough to bury

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Speaker 1: our war dead on And you can see that in France,

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Speaker 1: you can see that in Belgium, these beautiful cemeteries. But

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Speaker 1: how do you think about this June fourteenth parade? How

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Speaker 1: should a veteran look at this? I think you have

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Speaker 1: a lot of people in the country will look for

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Speaker 1: the first time in their lives at a military review review,

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Speaker 1: not not with pride as an American citizen with regard

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Speaker 1: to the American military, but with some fear of the

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Speaker 1: of the power of it. So talk about that where we're,

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Speaker 1: where we're going to be seeing, and how you're going

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Speaker 1: to feel about it as a as a naval officer

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Speaker 1: watching this, watching this play out.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's absolutely shameful, and we know what

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Speaker 2: it really is. It's not a celebration of the Army's birthday.

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Speaker 2: The Army doesn't want this. Nobody marching in that parade.

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Speaker 2: I guarantee you wants to do that. That's not what

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Speaker 2: we're trained to do. We don't do passing in reviews

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Speaker 2: in front of a deer leader like they do in

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Speaker 2: North Korea. This is about Donald Trump puffing himself up.

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Speaker 2: It happens to be on his birthday, right. I don't

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Speaker 2: think that's a coincidence. He is seeing this as a

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Speaker 2: birthday party for himself. The kid who sat alone at

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Speaker 2: the lunch table now right has control of the most

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Speaker 2: powerful military in the world, and he's going to make

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Speaker 2: them bend the knee in full public view of the

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Speaker 2: entire country. Steve, I loved what you said about accountability

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Speaker 2: because I think we need to be talking about that

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Speaker 2: now for a couple reasons. The first is that it's

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Speaker 2: just the right thing to do to record all of

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Speaker 2: these outrages. Look, the parade isn't illegal, but plenty of

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Speaker 2: other things this administration is doing. Plenty of other things

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Speaker 2: are illegal. The renditions al Salvador right, the threats to

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Speaker 2: end habeas Corpus, the list goes on and on. I

430
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 2: think we are lulled into complacency sometimes just because of

431
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 2: how quickly these actions come, and we just move on

432
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 2: to the next one. By talking about accountability, we do

433
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 2: a couple things. We show that we're paying attention, we

434
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 2: are watching what the administration is doing. We're not going

435
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 2: to forget. And it might actually serve as a deterrent.

436
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 2: Not to President Trump himself. I think he thinks he's

437
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 2: going to be in power forever, or at least people

438
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 2: who will protect him will be in power forever. But

439
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:26,000
Speaker 2: maybe the slightly less diluted mid level functionaries will wonder

440
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 2: if Democrats start running on an accountability agenda, maybe what

441
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 2: they're doing isn't going to serve them in the long run.

442
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,360
Speaker 2: Maybe bending the need to Donald Trump, pleasing the alpha

443
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 2: in the White House, though it might feel good in

444
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 2: the moment, and it might elevate one's stature in the moment.

445
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 2: If there's accountability, if we're talking about actually holding people

446
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 2: accountable for breaking the law, then I think it might

447
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 2: be one of the safeguards we've never had to rely

448
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 2: on before. But I think it's a Madisonian observation. Right,

449
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 2: liberty the end of the day resides in the virtue

450
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,719
Speaker 2: of men not help us. But I think we're at

451
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,200
Speaker 2: that point we might actually have to depend on people

452
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 2: and their character standing up to the president instead of

453
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 2: the actual system safeguards, uh and and guard rails built

454
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 2: into our democracy that he is demolishing with every new

455
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 2: executive order.

456
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 1: So when you think about the US military as it

457
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 1: as an institution, and you think about Donald Trump's abuse

458
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 1: of it, and you think about him potentially turning it

459
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 1: loose on the American people in some type of domestic

460
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:44,400
Speaker 1: domestic capacity, do you where where do you look at

461
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 1: the fault line being in the in the military, the

462
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:52,600
Speaker 1: trip wire that says, yeah, we're not We're we're not

463
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,280
Speaker 1: going to do this. A lot of a lot of

464
00:33:55,440 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 1: military officers say to me, well, what makes the military

465
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 1: unique is the NCO core and the nco core of

466
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:14,799
Speaker 1: the US military is not going to is not going

467
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 1: to allow the US military too to be turned loose

468
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 1: against the American against the American people within the United

469
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 1: within the United States.

470
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:34,320
Speaker 2: And well, look, we came closer than most people realize

471
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:37,719
Speaker 2: during Trump's first term. We came much closer than most

472
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:41,360
Speaker 2: people realized to seeing the eighty second arm Airborne deployed

473
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 2: in Washington, DC with fixed banets pointed at American protesters.

474
00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:50,320
Speaker 2: The only thing that stopped that was one man in uniform,

475
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 2: Mark Milly, saying I'm not going to transmit the order

476
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 2: to invoke the Insurrection Act. That to me is a

477
00:34:56,960 --> 00:34:59,800
Speaker 2: is a signal of a systemic failure. It should not

478
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,399
Speaker 2: come down to a single military person in uniform as

479
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,360
Speaker 2: the final safeguard against a constitutional crisis like that. What

480
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 2: scares me is that Donald Trump and the people around

481
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 2: him have learned their lesson. They know not to have

482
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 2: someone like Mark Milly in the way this time. And

483
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,400
Speaker 2: if you look at the people that they are putting

484
00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:23,320
Speaker 2: in those positions of power that would act as a safeguard,

485
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 2: that would act as a check in balance, I'm not

486
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 2: convinced they would. The reason that Donald Trump chose the

487
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:34,799
Speaker 2: new chairman. Whether the chairman actually said this, Donald Trump

488
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,080
Speaker 2: says he said it, and it is counting on it.

489
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 2: General Kin said, I will kill for you, sir, according

490
00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:45,400
Speaker 2: to Donald Trump, right, that's what Donald Trump thinks. The

491
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 2: military's job is to kill for him. I'm not making

492
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 2: that up. Go look it up. That's what Donald Trump said.

493
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 2: General Caine said to him wearing a maga hat. Incidentally,

494
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:57,919
Speaker 2: that part has not disputed him wearing a Maga hat.

495
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,360
Speaker 2: So if we don't have that layer of defense anymore,

496
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 2: do the NCOs or that mid grade or junior officer,

497
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:12,200
Speaker 2: do they have the ability to act as the final safeguard.

498
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,440
Speaker 2: It would take an enormous amount of courage. I think

499
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:17,800
Speaker 2: it might be coming to this, but imagine the courage

500
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:21,960
Speaker 2: it would take to choose between you're out to the

501
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 2: constitution and an order from the commander in chief. That

502
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 2: has rarely been tested in American military history, and more

503
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 2: often than not, because we have such a bias towards

504
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:38,680
Speaker 2: following orders, the decision has gone the other way. In

505
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:41,920
Speaker 2: the military, you're conditioned to follow orders, and I worry

506
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 2: that that conditioning will will not be conducive to disobeying

507
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 2: the President.

508
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's play this out just a just a bit,

509
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,359
Speaker 1: which is that if the eighty second Airborne had been

510
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: deployed a fixed bayonets to Washington, DC, how long do

511
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:06,399
Speaker 1: you think that they would have stayed there.

512
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:10,759
Speaker 2: That's a great question. But it wouldn't take long for

513
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 2: there to be an instigating event, right, It wouldn't take

514
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,279
Speaker 2: long like at Kent State. I don't know how long

515
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 2: those guardsmen were there, but it wasn't days. It was

516
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 2: an afternoon and the day ended with four college kids dead.

517
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:29,880
Speaker 1: Let's so the eighty second Airborne is not National Guardsmen,

518
00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: not a bio campus in nineteen seventy, right, So you

519
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:37,520
Speaker 1: have the United States Armies Premiere Light Infantry Division, ready

520
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:41,000
Speaker 1: to go anywhere in the world, comes to Washington, DC

521
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: and full combat kit as what occupying force.

522
00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:52,160
Speaker 2: I think if you look at the executive orders, if

523
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:55,200
Speaker 2: you look at the way they are testing, militarizing the

524
00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 2: border and these other acts walking right up to the

525
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,799
Speaker 2: line of the inst direction Act, I think the goal

526
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,680
Speaker 2: is to come up with a legal rationale for martial law.

527
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,200
Speaker 2: Should the country rise up, should people say enough is enough?

528
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 2: I don't know what the triggering event is going to be,

529
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:14,960
Speaker 2: but there are going to be mass protests against this administration.

530
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 2: We're barely one hundred days in and you're already seeing

531
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:21,120
Speaker 2: the kind of thing that took years for other administrations

532
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:24,239
Speaker 2: to provoke. I think there's going to be something like that,

533
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 2: and I think it is the Trump administration's hedge to

534
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 2: go to martial law and deploy the eighty second Airborne

535
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 2: as a show of force against the resistance of you will,

536
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 2: the protest movement that is inevitably going to rise up

537
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:45,000
Speaker 2: in response to the illegalities and unconstitutional acts of the

538
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:45,880
Speaker 2: Trump administration.

539
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 1: So there's an active force of about a million, and

540
00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 1: there's a reserve component of about a million on a

541
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 1: continental country of three hundred and fifty two million million people.

542
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 1: So the second Airborne full division, right is going to

543
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 1: be about ten thousand, ten thousand all in. And the

544
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 1: eighty second Airborne doesn't have enough men to occupy Washington, DC, right,

545
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:19,600
Speaker 1: let alone the eastern seaboard of the United States. So

546
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 1: what does that when you think about right? The military

547
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 1: and the American military right until this moment, has not

548
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 1: been conceived of right as a martial force to be

549
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 1: used as the president to constrain the descent of the

550
00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:42,279
Speaker 1: American people. But the American military, which is the deterned

551
00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:46,719
Speaker 1: force to aggression all over all over the world. Right,

552
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:51,279
Speaker 1: if it was all brought home, right, it doesn't have

553
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:56,400
Speaker 1: enough members right to be able to occupy the country.

554
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: And we can we can see how you know, the

555
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:03,280
Speaker 1: United States did is a counter insurgent force in Iraq.

556
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 1: But but right where there were a lot less guns

557
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 1: and a lot less people with proficiency with weapons. But

558
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: what my my, my question about this is that when

559
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:21,719
Speaker 1: you think about the avalanche like coming down that slippery

560
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 1: slope on this right, and I think this is what's

561
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 1: going to happen, right, It's that he's looking for pretexts.

562
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 1: You see this with James Comy. The protests will rise

563
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 1: over the summer. Uh, there will be some violent ignition somewhere,

564
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:44,759
Speaker 1: and there will be an unprecedented type of crackdown uh

565
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:50,240
Speaker 1: somewhere in the country that is deeply that is deeply militarized.

566
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:54,320
Speaker 1: And I just at that point, where where does the

567
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:59,480
Speaker 1: veterans community line up shake out? Where do the people

568
00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 1: who are the valor network, Where do the mid grade

569
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: the senior military officers speak out? Because you know, for instance,

570
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:11,000
Speaker 1: the one the one the most silent and competulant group

571
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:13,360
Speaker 1: of people in this country in this moment, or the

572
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:17,280
Speaker 1: retired four star officer cop right in the United States military.

573
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:20,920
Speaker 1: I mean, they're all on hedge funds, right, They're all right,

574
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 1: it's appalling, right, but where where? So? Just how how

575
00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 1: would something like that break? Like, how do you envision

576
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 1: the dialogue that goes on in the country.

577
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I agree with you one hundred

578
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:38,279
Speaker 2: percent that the US military can't occupy the US, but

579
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 2: I don't think that would be the goal. The goal

580
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,719
Speaker 2: would be the kind of show a force to intimidate

581
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:47,920
Speaker 2: the opposition. You're already seeing that willing their willingness to

582
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,080
Speaker 2: do that with their attempts to intimidate people who speak

583
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:53,959
Speaker 2: out against them, grabbing people at the airport for having

584
00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 2: anti Trump content on their cell phones, for example, threatening

585
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:01,200
Speaker 2: I think it was Tulci Gabbert, the Director of National Intelligence,

586
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 2: said Jim Comey should be in jail. Cash Battel and

587
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:09,560
Speaker 2: Dan Bongino are threatening to investigate them for threatening the president.

588
00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 2: I mean that is using the levers of government power

589
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:17,040
Speaker 2: to intimidate and threaten the opposition. The military is the

590
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:20,759
Speaker 2: ultimate lever of government power, and I think what they

591
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:23,800
Speaker 2: are looking to do, They're laying the groundwork now is

592
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 2: use the military not to occupy the country, but to

593
00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:32,399
Speaker 2: provoke the kind of demonstration of force that will cow

594
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 2: the opposition. I think between now and then, we have

595
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 2: to figure out an infrastructure communications policy thresholds. We have

596
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:49,360
Speaker 2: to decide which red lines are triggers for us, and

597
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 2: then be able to communicate to the people in the

598
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:55,960
Speaker 2: military that we have their backs. Should they make that

599
00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:00,920
Speaker 2: horrible decision to have to abide their oaths in opposition

600
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 2: to an unlawful order. That's happened very few times in

601
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 2: military history, and I think we can anticipate it, and

602
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 2: we need to tell those that NCO if you will,

603
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:13,719
Speaker 2: that we have his back.

604
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:17,520
Speaker 1: Do you think it's important for there to be an

605
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 1: advertising campaign that reaches the enlisted soldier outside of Fort Bragg,

606
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:29,279
Speaker 1: outside of Fort Benning, outside of Fort Campbell, outside of

607
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,719
Speaker 1: Fort Hood, right, that speaks to them, as you took

608
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 1: an oath to the Constitution, not a man. Is that

609
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:43,719
Speaker 1: illegal orders are illegal orders, and like following orders does

610
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:48,640
Speaker 1: not excuse you from accountability from an illegal order. And

611
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:52,160
Speaker 1: to start telling that telling that story is that something

612
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 1: that's necessary. I think we have to be finding done.

613
00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:59,640
Speaker 2: Yes, because in all of my training, and granted I

614
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 2: was OCS guy, that's officer candidate school, I didn't go

615
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,840
Speaker 2: through the academy, but never once did I take a

616
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:09,719
Speaker 2: course on what to do in the event of an

617
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 2: illegal order. I wasn't even asked to read the document

618
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 2: that I swore allegiance to the Constitution. Now they do

619
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,840
Speaker 2: read it at the academy. They do read the Constitution

620
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:25,080
Speaker 2: in ROTC, but most illsted programs don't make you understand

621
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,759
Speaker 2: the Constitution that you are pledging your life to. I

622
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 2: think we need to We need to have some kind

623
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:35,719
Speaker 2: of refresher on the obligation to disobey an illegal order.

624
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:38,960
Speaker 2: I don't think most people realize that it's not just

625
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:43,640
Speaker 2: you're not just given the right to disobey an illegal order.

626
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:48,320
Speaker 2: You are bound to disobey illegal orders. But the UCMJ

627
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:53,520
Speaker 2: talks almost exclusively about obeying orders and the consequences for

628
00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 2: not obeying orders. There is very little attention paid in

629
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:01,560
Speaker 2: military training in the UMJAY, in military law to disobey

630
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:04,840
Speaker 2: illegal orders. And we have to address that because I

631
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 2: think that moment is coming. Do you.

632
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:14,160
Speaker 1: Do you have faith in the military at a rank

633
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 1: and file at a dangerous moment as they receive an

634
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:21,680
Speaker 1: illegal order from this president.

635
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:26,960
Speaker 2: I do, but I don't think our country should depend

636
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 2: on gestures of faith, right It is a roll of

637
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:33,560
Speaker 2: the dice At this point, I am fifty one percent

638
00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:36,440
Speaker 2: confident that our military will do the right thing in

639
00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:39,200
Speaker 2: a moment of crisis. Would you bet the democracy on that?

640
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 1: I don't.

641
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:45,520
Speaker 2: I'm not prepared to do that. And would you bet

642
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:49,320
Speaker 2: the democracy on the generals that Trump has now surrounded

643
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:52,520
Speaker 2: himself with telling him no, I'm not willing to do

644
00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:55,520
Speaker 2: that for now. I'll give the military the benefit of

645
00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:57,800
Speaker 2: the doubt. But I do think we need to prepare

646
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:02,800
Speaker 2: for the worst, to prepare for the inevitability that Donald

647
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:07,120
Speaker 2: Trump is going to ask the military to do something unconstitutional.

648
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:10,800
Speaker 1: Do you have a sense of the chaos and the

649
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 1: pentagon right now around the Secretary's office? How bad is it?

650
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:16,239
Speaker 1: It's bad?

651
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:20,919
Speaker 2: It's bad. I mean the very fact that his own

652
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:24,600
Speaker 2: senior advisors are either fleeing or being fired. Look, I

653
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:28,719
Speaker 2: think the best anecdote is this separate signal group he

654
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:34,320
Speaker 2: had that wasn't exposed by adding an Atlantic reporter to it.

655
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:36,880
Speaker 2: I think it had twelve people on it, including his

656
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,720
Speaker 2: brother and his wife. He was sharing the same highly

657
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,400
Speaker 2: highly classified information on that signal chat, and four people

658
00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:47,320
Speaker 2: leaked it. Four people out of twelve leaked the existence

659
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 2: of that chat to the media. That is the side

660
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 2: of an ill disciplined senior Pentagon apparatus in absolute disarray,

661
00:46:56,719 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 2: with no respect for the secretary. And look, I'm chuckling

662
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:06,680
Speaker 2: because I think Pete Hegseth deserves every bit of this humiliation.

663
00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 2: But it makes America less safe, and it puts my

664
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:11,720
Speaker 2: buddies lives in danger.

665
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:21,360
Speaker 1: So it's not funny. So I think about Project twenty

666
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:29,759
Speaker 1: twenty nine, which is good, the democracy restoration agenda, and

667
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 1: so I think about fundamental ethics reform, and you think

668
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:43,000
Speaker 1: about the one hundred thing. I know, the first thing.

669
00:47:43,840 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 1: So at some level, I don't think Hamas won the

670
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 1: billion dollar gift from Qatar is ever going to fly.

671
00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:03,279
Speaker 1: That being said, pretend it did, right, Let's pretend I did.

672
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,520
Speaker 1: And let's pretend I was the chief of staff to

673
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 1: the next president. Right, I at the moment of the inauguration,

674
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:20,279
Speaker 1: whatever airbase that landed at to bring Trump home would

675
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 1: be seized. The plane it would be on a navy

676
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:31,120
Speaker 1: barge by four pm and it would be dropped by

677
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:34,960
Speaker 1: a crane off of mar A Lago to become an

678
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:41,240
Speaker 1: artificial reef. Right where the President's program for low income

679
00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:45,359
Speaker 1: children to learn diving off of mar A Lago, right, Well,

680
00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:47,759
Speaker 1: like would begin the next day on the reef and

681
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:52,279
Speaker 1: we go from there right to clean up exercise. So, Mike,

682
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:58,239
Speaker 1: what do you do right in the Pentagon after four

683
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,360
Speaker 1: years of this of this insanity? What what do you

684
00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: do that now? And when you think about the military,

685
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 1: this is this is true. This is I swear to God,

686
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:18,960
Speaker 1: this is true. There were more generals and animals in

687
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: Baghdad in two thousand and seven then there were in

688
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: Europe on v E Day, the day we want to

689
00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:32,160
Speaker 1: work more two It was with a sixteen million person

690
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 1: with a sixteen million person army. Right. So when so

691
00:49:35,600 --> 00:49:39,319
Speaker 1: when Pete HEADSA says, right, we gotta we gotta get

692
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:41,360
Speaker 1: rid of the generals, right, we didna get rid of

693
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:44,200
Speaker 1: like twenty percent of the generals. Right. This is not

694
00:49:44,360 --> 00:49:47,280
Speaker 1: a bad idea. Right, This is like a bro clock

695
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 1: being right twice a day. Right, Your average major general

696
00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:57,719
Speaker 1: is is rolling like they're a Persian raj right from

697
00:49:57,800 --> 00:50:01,640
Speaker 1: the from the seventeenth century, and so so all of

698
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 1: these things are true, what how do you clean this up? Right?

699
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 1: What is the next Democratic president? So, for example, right,

700
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:17,640
Speaker 1: I would say, under no circumstances, if I was a

701
00:50:17,719 --> 00:50:21,719
Speaker 1: Democratic senator, would I vote for another retired four star

702
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 1: officer to be Defense secretary? I would not vote for

703
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:29,719
Speaker 1: the waiver? Right. Believe in civilian control, right, whether it's

704
00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:32,480
Speaker 1: the passage of a bill in the Congress going back

705
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:36,319
Speaker 1: to some regular order, right, or restoration of how things

706
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 1: are supposed to function and work right, and how important

707
00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:42,480
Speaker 1: that is. But where what do you where do you

708
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:44,879
Speaker 1: even start? Look?

709
00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 2: I I like some of that, right. I certainly like

710
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:52,920
Speaker 2: not passing another waiver and going back to normal order.

711
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:59,279
Speaker 2: And I really support the idea of accountability, so that

712
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 2: we can and have some reckoning for the crimes being

713
00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:06,480
Speaker 2: committed now, and so that we signal to those contemplating

714
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:10,800
Speaker 2: committing more of them that there will be consequences. What

715
00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:14,399
Speaker 2: worries me most of all, though, is that this administration

716
00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:18,840
Speaker 2: is acting like they'll be in power forever and that

717
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:21,200
Speaker 2: they don't have to worry about that kind of thing,

718
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:25,879
Speaker 2: and that if you look at countries that have had

719
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:31,680
Speaker 2: that democratic backslide into autocracy. That is the flashing red light.

720
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:36,040
Speaker 2: That is the real warning. To borrow the name of

721
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:40,120
Speaker 2: your show, Steve, that is what we should really be

722
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:43,000
Speaker 2: focusing on. Why do they think they're going to get

723
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 2: away with all this? Well, they think they're going to

724
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 2: get away with all this because they'll never be held accountable,

725
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:54,120
Speaker 2: because either Trump or Trump's philosophy of governance will be

726
00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:57,440
Speaker 2: in power forever. And that, to me, is the surest

727
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:01,719
Speaker 2: signal that something is on the verge of breaking in

728
00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:05,400
Speaker 2: our democracy. I worry about that a ton. Look, we

729
00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:10,440
Speaker 2: can fix the policy screw ups at the VA and

730
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 2: the d D in good time, but if we lose

731
00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 2: the democracy, all of those debates become moot. And that's

732
00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 2: what Valor Media is focusing on, countering the disinformation that

733
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:23,240
Speaker 2: is propping up an autocrat.

734
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:30,760
Speaker 1: It is an amazing aspect of all this. I talked

735
00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:36,480
Speaker 1: about this at length with Jake Auchincloss, who is a

736
00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:43,440
Speaker 1: phenomenal member of Congress, just talked about some of the

737
00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:48,320
Speaker 1: things that Democrats need to do in Time magazine. I

738
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:52,960
Speaker 1: am Jake auchenclass your run for president, and I think

739
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: he'd be a top tier presidential candidate. But we talked

740
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:06,800
Speaker 1: about the self evident arrogance of all of these people

741
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:13,200
Speaker 1: who clearly do not believe that there will ever be

742
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:17,359
Speaker 1: a day where they don't hold the power that they hold,

743
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:23,759
Speaker 1: like Christino, and it's incredible. Now, the truth is, they're deluded,

744
00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:27,479
Speaker 1: and none of them appear to be particularly that bright

745
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 1: to me. And there is an arrogance that they are

746
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 1: drunk on drunk on power. And there will be a restoration,

747
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:43,200
Speaker 1: there will be an accounting for the breaking of American law,

748
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:47,000
Speaker 1: for the assaults on the Constitution, and.

749
00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:53,200
Speaker 2: The the.

750
00:53:56,120 --> 00:54:00,320
Speaker 1: Excesses of this, of this, of this era. I have

751
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:04,439
Speaker 1: a question. I saw somebody UH had a Navy Seal question.

752
00:54:07,640 --> 00:54:10,600
Speaker 1: You're a Navy officer, you have a couple of Navy

753
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:15,600
Speaker 1: Seals on the show. If what did the Navy seal

754
00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:20,040
Speaker 1: say about the Navy sealed dipshit caucus that has assembled

755
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:26,359
Speaker 1: in UH in the United States Congress. Because right if

756
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 1: you were to judge the Navy Seals in the Congress

757
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:34,760
Speaker 1: right against against the unit, you'd say, something really broken

758
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 1: in the Navy Seals. What's what's what's going on? And

759
00:54:39,640 --> 00:54:43,680
Speaker 1: so I think that part of part of the issue Right,

760
00:54:43,760 --> 00:54:45,640
Speaker 1: that we're dealing with is we've had a lot of

761
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:52,800
Speaker 1: fetishization of the military by a civilian population that's a

762
00:54:52,920 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 1: strange from it. Right, it's it's one percent serve. So

763
00:54:56,840 --> 00:54:59,680
Speaker 1: there was a time when, for example, there were a

764
00:54:59,719 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 1: lot of television shows like A. McHale's Navy a mash Right,

765
00:55:04,680 --> 00:55:08,120
Speaker 1: because serving in the military was a common experience, and

766
00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:12,360
Speaker 1: people share the absurdities of it, right at some level,

767
00:55:12,480 --> 00:55:18,719
Speaker 1: the comedic aspects of it. And right, I think you know,

768
00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:21,600
Speaker 1: you go to a baseball game, right, you have the

769
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 1: pro forma veteran brought out on the field. Everyone collapsed,

770
00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:29,719
Speaker 1: Thank you for your service. Right. The first thing that

771
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:34,200
Speaker 1: I would stop right in a new administration, Right, I

772
00:55:34,280 --> 00:55:36,680
Speaker 1: call the NFL commissioner. N if I was president, I

773
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:38,759
Speaker 1: say it's over. I say it will not be a

774
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:42,480
Speaker 1: fucking American service member appearing in one of your fucking

775
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:48,800
Speaker 1: stadiums in uniform. Ever again during my presidency, there's no flyovers,

776
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:54,080
Speaker 1: there's no jump ins. Right, that jingoism is not patriotism.

777
00:55:54,520 --> 00:55:58,799
Speaker 1: And these partnerships right have have been a disaster. Right,

778
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:01,040
Speaker 1: But when you look at the seals, when you look

779
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:03,759
Speaker 1: at a Ryan Zinki, when you when you look at

780
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:05,920
Speaker 1: these guys in their in their service, what are the

781
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:09,120
Speaker 1: seals like on the valor network. There's got to be

782
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:12,279
Speaker 1: a divide obviously when you look at some of the

783
00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:15,480
Speaker 1: pro Trump, some of the MAGA veterans right that have

784
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:19,320
Speaker 1: been co opted by all of this, right, and you know,

785
00:56:19,480 --> 00:56:22,520
Speaker 1: all sorts of people that you know have been virtuous

786
00:56:22,719 --> 00:56:26,360
Speaker 1: and physically brave, but have been moral cowards in a

787
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:30,360
Speaker 1: in a moment where political courage has been required. How

788
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:31,160
Speaker 1: do you think about that?

789
00:56:31,719 --> 00:56:34,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I definitely want to tackle that because I

790
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:38,239
Speaker 2: have thoughts. But a nod to your old boss. I

791
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:42,360
Speaker 2: believe it was John McCain who called out the military

792
00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:47,640
Speaker 2: buying these spots at NFL games, Uh, paying the NFL

793
00:56:47,960 --> 00:56:50,880
Speaker 2: to to applaud the veteran on the field, right, That

794
00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:54,560
Speaker 2: wasn't a gesture of patriotism. That was a transaction. And

795
00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 2: I am with you one hundred percent that that is

796
00:56:57,120 --> 00:56:59,719
Speaker 2: not the kind of patriotism I subscribe to when it

797
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:04,879
Speaker 2: comes to the seal community. Look, I think a lot

798
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:08,000
Speaker 2: of that is cultivated. First of all, there is division

799
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 2: even within the teams. I'm not going to speak as

800
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:12,680
Speaker 2: a seal, but I can speak as a Navy pilot.

801
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:15,240
Speaker 2: I can speak as a vet. It's a diverse community.

802
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:19,200
Speaker 2: There are Conservatives and liberals, there are Republicans and Democrats.

803
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:23,840
Speaker 2: What the Republican Party has done really well is cultivate

804
00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:29,360
Speaker 2: that Seal brand and elevate those guys into positions of

805
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:34,040
Speaker 2: real leadership within the party. And they know they sometimes

806
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:37,439
Speaker 2: pick the worst of the worst, but Seals are nothing

807
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 2: if not ambitious and capable, so they have an ability

808
00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:43,600
Speaker 2: to rise to the top in ways others don't. I

809
00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:46,000
Speaker 2: will tell you the Seals on the Valor Media network

810
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:49,840
Speaker 2: are embarrassed when these guys claim to speak for the community,

811
00:57:49,920 --> 00:57:52,280
Speaker 2: when they claim to speak for the country, when they

812
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:56,040
Speaker 2: claim to speak about patriotism, because a lot of them

813
00:57:56,240 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 2: are out for themselves. I think your other observation is

814
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 2: really important here that it turns out there isn't a

815
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:09,880
Speaker 2: direct correlation between physical courage and moral courage. And in

816
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:14,080
Speaker 2: this day and age, with the tests that our country

817
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:17,560
Speaker 2: is now facing, it is the moral variety that we

818
00:58:17,720 --> 00:58:21,880
Speaker 2: are in desperate short supply of, and I think we

819
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:26,960
Speaker 2: need to elevate those moral leaders like Jake Auchencloss who

820
00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:29,600
Speaker 2: have the ability to speak truth to power and to

821
00:58:30,080 --> 00:58:37,840
Speaker 2: stand up and fight a righteous moral cause that hopefully

822
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:40,439
Speaker 2: does not require the kind of physical courage they also

823
00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:42,160
Speaker 2: demonstrated at one point in their lives.

824
00:58:44,160 --> 00:58:45,760
Speaker 1: I want to as we come to the end of

825
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:48,240
Speaker 1: the hour, I want to I want to give it

826
00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:51,960
Speaker 1: to you to close out and talk about this coming

827
00:58:52,080 --> 00:58:56,440
Speaker 1: Memorial Day, which is a difficult day I know for

828
00:58:56,560 --> 00:59:02,800
Speaker 1: this generation of veteranto. It's a it's a day of

829
00:59:04,600 --> 00:59:11,560
Speaker 1: remembered sacrifice, uh not not a not a day where

830
00:59:11,680 --> 00:59:21,600
Speaker 1: we are so far removed from. And before I do that,

831
00:59:21,720 --> 00:59:25,400
Speaker 1: I just want to share this story about a great

832
00:59:25,520 --> 00:59:34,760
Speaker 1: American hero, a Master sergeant named uh Roderick Emmonds Edmunds

833
00:59:35,720 --> 00:59:40,160
Speaker 1: from Knoxville, Tennessee, and he was twenty seven years old

834
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:44,920
Speaker 1: prisoner of war during the Battle of the Bulge and

835
00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:51,520
Speaker 1: he uh was the ranking American out of seven hundred captures.

836
00:59:51,560 --> 00:59:55,760
Speaker 1: There were no officers, UH and there were about approximately

837
00:59:55,880 --> 01:00:01,080
Speaker 1: three hundred Jews in the in the form of prisoners,

838
01:00:02,560 --> 01:00:09,640
Speaker 1: and the German ss Nazi colonel came out demanded that Edmunds,

839
01:00:09,680 --> 01:00:13,520
Speaker 1: who was at the head of the formation, turnover the

840
01:00:13,680 --> 01:00:19,760
Speaker 1: Jewish prisoners, and he refused to do so. It is

841
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:25,480
Speaker 1: the situation escalated Sergeant Edmunds made the point that they

842
01:00:25,520 --> 01:00:29,919
Speaker 1: were all Americans and that he could shoot all of them.

843
01:00:30,200 --> 01:00:33,640
Speaker 1: And when they asked for the Jews to identify themselves,

844
01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:38,600
Speaker 1: all the men stepped forward. And so that that story

845
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:45,400
Speaker 1: on that day is the type of story about loyalty

846
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:52,120
Speaker 1: and moral courage, and courage in uniform. Courage in life

847
01:00:53,680 --> 01:00:58,120
Speaker 1: does not always manifest itself right in the in the

848
01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:02,280
Speaker 1: taking of a life right or in the battle right

849
01:01:02,480 --> 01:01:06,640
Speaker 1: when when life is at when life is at stake,

850
01:01:06,840 --> 01:01:10,040
Speaker 1: right in that in that kinetic moment. And so these

851
01:01:10,200 --> 01:01:16,080
Speaker 1: moral choices are of of the deepest importance. That everything

852
01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:20,640
Speaker 1: that's happening in the country right now, that is happening

853
01:01:20,720 --> 01:01:23,720
Speaker 1: in our name right is something we have to we

854
01:01:23,840 --> 01:01:28,160
Speaker 1: have to understand. I was joking around. I was joking

855
01:01:28,240 --> 01:01:31,439
Speaker 1: around the other day, and I I truly I don't

856
01:01:31,560 --> 01:01:35,520
Speaker 1: understand why there's not a daily news conference event that

857
01:01:35,680 --> 01:01:40,040
Speaker 1: the Democrats have, UH that is able to communicate to

858
01:01:40,120 --> 01:01:43,560
Speaker 1: the American people, UH, that is able to meet Trump

859
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:46,080
Speaker 1: where he is and deal with the excess and the

860
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:48,960
Speaker 1: and the absurdity of it. But but one of the

861
01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:51,880
Speaker 1: things that that if there was a news conference of

862
01:01:52,040 --> 01:01:55,520
Speaker 1: that and and there was someone who was participating, I

863
01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:59,400
Speaker 1: would counsel them to say, you know, for example, after

864
01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:03,240
Speaker 1: playing some videos of Trump, right, I would say, one

865
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:05,960
Speaker 1: of the things that that that Donald talked about a

866
01:02:06,040 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: great deal during the campaign was the most important threat

867
01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:15,520
Speaker 1: facing America, which was Hannibal Lecter. And we we caught him.

868
01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:18,320
Speaker 1: We got him, and I would I would have a

869
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:21,880
Speaker 1: guy wheeled out on a dolly right on the on

870
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:24,720
Speaker 1: the strap to it, right with the with the straight

871
01:02:24,840 --> 01:02:27,480
Speaker 1: jacket on and the Hannibal Lecter mask, and I'd say

872
01:02:27,520 --> 01:02:30,560
Speaker 1: we got him, and I'd wheel him out, and I'd

873
01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:33,560
Speaker 1: say everybody, I want everyone to understand this concept, because

874
01:02:33,560 --> 01:02:36,920
Speaker 1: we got doctor Lecter, right, and he's the he's the worst.

875
01:02:37,160 --> 01:02:40,320
Speaker 1: And I want you imagine, right, he's having a threesome

876
01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:44,720
Speaker 1: dinner with Corey Lewandowski and Christy Nome, Right, there's all

877
01:02:44,800 --> 01:02:49,400
Speaker 1: three of them together, right, doctor Lecter and Christy Nome

878
01:02:49,440 --> 01:02:54,600
Speaker 1: and Corey Lewandowski, and they're having the dinner doctor Lecter

879
01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:58,960
Speaker 1: before Christy Noman can shoot him like her dog, right

880
01:02:59,080 --> 01:03:03,080
Speaker 1: and appreciate that she may want to. Right, He's got

881
01:03:03,160 --> 01:03:05,760
Speaker 1: to stand in front of a judge, right, because it's

882
01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:09,360
Speaker 1: the United States, right, So he's got to be wheeled

883
01:03:09,400 --> 01:03:12,320
Speaker 1: in front of a judge. And I don't know how

884
01:03:12,480 --> 01:03:15,320
Speaker 1: else to say it to all of you good people. Right,

885
01:03:15,400 --> 01:03:18,560
Speaker 1: But that's just the way it is in America. Right,

886
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:23,040
Speaker 1: And so these things that we're talking about, right, are

887
01:03:23,120 --> 01:03:26,720
Speaker 1: not up for debate. Right, does Trump have the power

888
01:03:26,840 --> 01:03:30,040
Speaker 1: to suspend heybeas corpus he does not. Right, there is

889
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:34,120
Speaker 1: no civil war, There is no invasion. Venezuelan gangs are

890
01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:37,440
Speaker 1: not invading the United States. Tappening in the United States

891
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:41,920
Speaker 1: as prices are going up, costs are going up, taxes

892
01:03:41,960 --> 01:03:47,880
Speaker 1: are going up, things are getting more expensive. Jobs are disappearing.

893
01:03:48,240 --> 01:03:52,400
Speaker 1: There is no investment coming. It's all lies, it's all bullshit,

894
01:03:52,560 --> 01:03:55,400
Speaker 1: it's all nonsense. None of it is true. There is

895
01:03:55,520 --> 01:03:59,360
Speaker 1: no five trillion of investment coming from Saudi Arabia. What

896
01:03:59,520 --> 01:04:02,760
Speaker 1: there's is there's a lot of suffering, a lot of pain,

897
01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:06,200
Speaker 1: a lot of breaches of faith, a lot of breaches

898
01:04:06,280 --> 01:04:10,800
Speaker 1: of agreement. Right. So, the young guy who risked his

899
01:04:10,920 --> 01:04:15,120
Speaker 1: life and his family's wife, the woman in Afghanistan who

900
01:04:15,200 --> 01:04:19,000
Speaker 1: trusted in that American flag, right, it took the side

901
01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:21,320
Speaker 1: of the United States for a better life. They're all

902
01:04:21,400 --> 01:04:25,480
Speaker 1: being betrayed. Right, That sick kid in Africa the least

903
01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:29,280
Speaker 1: of us right on the whole planet, rotting food on

904
01:04:29,400 --> 01:04:32,440
Speaker 1: the shelves. Right, that's caused by Marco Rubio. It's caused

905
01:04:32,480 --> 01:04:35,840
Speaker 1: by Elon Musk. All of that is happening. All of

906
01:04:35,920 --> 01:04:38,720
Speaker 1: it is happening right now. It's all being done in

907
01:04:38,840 --> 01:04:42,000
Speaker 1: our name, every bit of it. And we have a

908
01:04:42,080 --> 01:04:45,040
Speaker 1: moral obligation to stop of it, to stop it. So

909
01:04:45,480 --> 01:04:49,880
Speaker 1: we have a day that we remember the sacrifices of

910
01:04:50,280 --> 01:04:54,160
Speaker 1: a million Americans over the course of the history of

911
01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:57,680
Speaker 1: the country who died in the uniform of the country

912
01:04:57,760 --> 01:05:01,160
Speaker 1: and service to the nation, gave of what Lincoln called

913
01:05:01,240 --> 01:05:05,800
Speaker 1: the last full measure of devotion. There have only ever

914
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:10,040
Speaker 1: been seven hundred million Americans since the beginning of the country.

915
01:05:10,680 --> 01:05:15,680
Speaker 1: That's less than the population of current day India and China. Right,

916
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:18,520
Speaker 1: So that's it, Right, Half of all Americans who've ever

917
01:05:18,680 --> 01:05:23,680
Speaker 1: been alive are alive right now in this moment. And

918
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:30,480
Speaker 1: so we have this day where across the world, in Europe,

919
01:05:30,600 --> 01:05:34,240
Speaker 1: American graves that face west back across the Atlantic that

920
01:05:34,360 --> 01:05:38,440
Speaker 1: they didn't cross, those graves will be decorated with American

921
01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:44,120
Speaker 1: flags and flowers. In American cemeteries that are overgrown in

922
01:05:44,240 --> 01:05:47,720
Speaker 1: places like Vicksburg, Mississippi, that are that are forgotten. The

923
01:05:47,880 --> 01:05:51,880
Speaker 1: Union dead on the hillside there you know that you

924
01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:54,880
Speaker 1: know aren't tended like those places in Europe. Of course,

925
01:05:56,080 --> 01:05:59,800
Speaker 1: in Arlington National Cemetery, Section sixty, you know where this

926
01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:04,720
Speaker 1: generation of America's war dead many are buried, but in

927
01:06:04,760 --> 01:06:08,360
Speaker 1: the small towns across the country. Your friends, how do

928
01:06:08,480 --> 01:06:16,080
Speaker 1: you think about this day, in this moment when everything

929
01:06:16,800 --> 01:06:20,840
Speaker 1: that you raise your hand to defend is being contested

930
01:06:21,520 --> 01:06:25,640
Speaker 1: by a force that seeks to co opt those values

931
01:06:25,760 --> 01:06:30,600
Speaker 1: while desecrating them. How do you process all of that? Well?

932
01:06:30,640 --> 01:06:33,840
Speaker 2: I am processing it differently this year than I ever have,

933
01:06:34,280 --> 01:06:38,840
Speaker 2: because it feels different. Memorial Day this year is going

934
01:06:38,920 --> 01:06:42,640
Speaker 2: to feel different in the past. I usually wake up

935
01:06:42,960 --> 01:06:45,280
Speaker 2: early before the sun's up. I head to the water.

936
01:06:53,160 --> 01:06:55,080
Speaker 2: I sit by the water, and I watched the sun

937
01:06:55,160 --> 01:06:59,000
Speaker 2: come up. Sorry, Steve, And I think about my buddies.

938
01:06:59,200 --> 01:07:01,520
Speaker 2: Memorial Day is about those who didn't come home, right.

939
01:07:01,560 --> 01:07:04,440
Speaker 2: It's different than Veterans Day. Veterans Day is about us.

940
01:07:04,600 --> 01:07:08,440
Speaker 2: Memorial Day is about them, and it is a somber day.

941
01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:11,360
Speaker 2: And then I try to spend the rest of the

942
01:07:11,480 --> 01:07:14,960
Speaker 2: day thinking about the good moments with them.

943
01:07:15,440 --> 01:07:16,520
Speaker 1: And I'm not one of those.

944
01:07:16,560 --> 01:07:18,400
Speaker 2: I don't begrudge this at all, but I'm not one

945
01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:21,360
Speaker 2: of those who bristles it the happy Memorial Day. I

946
01:07:21,440 --> 01:07:23,120
Speaker 2: think most of my buddies would want me to be

947
01:07:23,200 --> 01:07:25,920
Speaker 2: happy on Memorial Day because it's what they fought for, right.

948
01:07:26,080 --> 01:07:28,880
Speaker 2: I don't like when it becomes a day about mattress

949
01:07:28,920 --> 01:07:32,240
Speaker 2: sales and cookouts alone. That's why I spend that time

950
01:07:32,320 --> 01:07:35,919
Speaker 2: in the morning thinking about them. But I do try

951
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:39,200
Speaker 2: to be happy and with my family on that day

952
01:07:39,360 --> 01:07:42,960
Speaker 2: in honor of them. This Memorial Day, I'm going to

953
01:07:43,000 --> 01:07:48,200
Speaker 2: be in Ukraine. I'm going to be delivering ambulances donated

954
01:07:48,320 --> 01:07:52,160
Speaker 2: not by the American government but by other governments to

955
01:07:52,880 --> 01:07:58,240
Speaker 2: frontline units in Ukraine because democracy is under threat and

956
01:07:58,360 --> 01:08:00,840
Speaker 2: what my buddies fought and in some case has died

957
01:08:00,920 --> 01:08:05,960
Speaker 2: for is under threat, and I think the country as

958
01:08:06,000 --> 01:08:10,680
Speaker 2: a whole is going to increasingly look to veterans to

959
01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:14,000
Speaker 2: set the example for how you defend a democracy when

960
01:08:14,040 --> 01:08:17,120
Speaker 2: the threat is from within, and that is a It

961
01:08:17,280 --> 01:08:18,240
Speaker 2: is a chilling thought.

962
01:08:18,439 --> 01:08:19,280
Speaker 1: But I hope next.

963
01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:22,080
Speaker 2: Memorial Day I am back to just spending it with

964
01:08:22,200 --> 01:08:24,360
Speaker 2: my family thinking about better things.

965
01:08:25,479 --> 01:08:30,439
Speaker 1: Well, Ken, I can't thank you enough Again. Against All

966
01:08:30,880 --> 01:08:38,919
Speaker 1: Enemies is the number one documentary on Apple Against All Enemies.

967
01:08:39,280 --> 01:08:43,000
Speaker 1: That's Ken Harbaugh. Find that Ken is the president of

968
01:08:43,240 --> 01:08:49,479
Speaker 1: Valor Media and Valor Media. Everybody is important, right, It's

969
01:08:49,520 --> 01:08:52,400
Speaker 1: important to connect the young men in your life to it.

970
01:08:53,080 --> 01:08:57,000
Speaker 1: Listen to those guys. Not these guys. These guys are dipshits.

971
01:08:57,080 --> 01:08:59,920
Speaker 1: Those guys aren't right. That's how you got to talk

972
01:09:00,120 --> 01:09:02,120
Speaker 1: to the young men in your life. Keep them away

973
01:09:02,200 --> 01:09:07,280
Speaker 1: from the dip shits, the Joe Rogan's, the Andrew Kates. Right,

974
01:09:07,520 --> 01:09:11,519
Speaker 1: each one of these dipshits has the potential of poison

975
01:09:12,160 --> 01:09:15,439
Speaker 1: a young man who you love and is close to you.

976
01:09:16,439 --> 01:09:19,720
Speaker 1: And they ought to have a Ken Harbaugh on one

977
01:09:19,760 --> 01:09:24,120
Speaker 1: of their shows and see what happens. I doubt it

978
01:09:24,200 --> 01:09:28,519
Speaker 1: will happen, but we ought to see what could happen

979
01:09:28,600 --> 01:09:32,720
Speaker 1: if if that was but watch Ken, watch the documentary.

980
01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:38,360
Speaker 1: Subscribe to Valor Media and remember this memorial Day that

981
01:09:39,280 --> 01:09:45,400
Speaker 1: the sacrifices that have been made are your burden and

982
01:09:45,920 --> 01:09:52,840
Speaker 1: your obligation and your duty to preserve through good citizenship.

983
01:09:53,520 --> 01:09:56,679
Speaker 1: And that's what that day is about. It's about memory,

984
01:09:56,800 --> 01:10:00,200
Speaker 1: it's about gratitude, but it's also a summons and a

985
01:10:00,360 --> 01:10:03,960
Speaker 1: call to the protection of the Republic. And so thank

986
01:10:04,040 --> 01:10:06,240
Speaker 1: you all for taking the time in the middle of

987
01:10:06,360 --> 01:10:10,599
Speaker 1: this Wednesday in May. As we get closer to June,

988
01:10:10,720 --> 01:10:13,519
Speaker 1: four months and a day into the Trump presidency, we'll

989
01:10:13,560 --> 01:10:17,439
Speaker 1: have a lot more to talk about over this historic

990
01:10:17,600 --> 01:10:21,040
Speaker 1: period of time of American crisis. Thank you all, and

991
01:10:21,200 --> 01:10:25,080
Speaker 1: good day to you. Thank you, Steve. I'm Steve Schmidt.

992
01:10:25,320 --> 01:10:27,840
Speaker 1: This is the warning. I invite you to join this

993
01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:32,280
Speaker 1: community where I promise to be honest, blunt and direct

994
01:10:32,640 --> 01:10:36,519
Speaker 1: about what is happening in this country. America is in crisis.

995
01:10:36,840 --> 01:10:40,760
Speaker 1: Follow and subscribe to this channel and on substack. Thank you.