WEBVTT - The Lefts Totalitarian Embrace 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.880 This is the Buck Sexton Show, where the mission or 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:08.120 mission is to decode what really matters with passionable intelligence. 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.800 Magnorma stake American. Bring you're a great American Again the 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:21.239 buck Sexton Show begins. Remember he's a great guy. No, 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.520 welcome to the buck Sexton Show. This is Ben Weinegarten 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.320 in four buck Sexton, appreciate you taking the time to 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.440 join me on this beautiful Thursday evening here in New 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.919 York and truly the last bashion of freedom because, as 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.280 you may or may not know, the way that freedom 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.320 is defined in New York today is you can commit 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.879 a crime with impunity and you're let go the next day. 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.000 You can commit another crime to let go the next day. 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.720 We are now in a no cash bail city, so 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.839 freedom to commit crimes. If you're a citizen, your freedoms 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.120 are infringed upon. This is truly the last bastion into 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.640 Blasio's New York. As I mentioned, this is Ben Winegarden 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.040 in for Buck Sexton. I filled in several times in 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.720 the past, but if it's your first time listening in 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.440 watching on the first welcome, I'm a fellow at the 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.399 Claremine Institute, a senior contributor at The Federalist. You can 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.440 follow all my work at Benwegarten dot com, subscribe to 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:21.039 my newsletter at bit dot lee slash BHW News. Tell 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.280 you a little bit later about my first book, which 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:24.800 comes out of the end of February. And this may 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.480 be an exclusive first I'll be talking about this in 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.040 any great depth. It's sure to be provocative, and I 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.200 know you're going to appreciate this one. All right. So 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.840 we're in the midst now of a whole bunch of 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.720 different major debates over national security and foreign policy, this 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.480 impeachment charade, which I don't even want to talk about, 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.400 but I feel we do need to talk about it, 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.920 not because of the specifics, but because of the broader significance. 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:51.840 There's some goings on in immigration that you're really not 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.200 hearing about anywhere else that we have to talk about. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.480 And then, oh, yeah, yesterday the President just signed the 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.760 Phase one China trade deal, and so today we're going 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.120 to talk about these topics with what I think are 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.440 some of the finest minds on these various issues. Coming 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.760 up just a bit later in this hour, Michael Doran 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.560 on Iran policy and the Trump Middle East policy more broadway, 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.959 we'll talk with the great Professor John Eastman about all 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.280 things immigration, insanity, and some sanity as well. And then 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.560 last but not LEAs, we'll also talk with Peter Navarro, 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.640 Doctor Peter Navarro of the Trump administration, one of the 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.600 so called hawks on China, to talk about this deal, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.480 put it in its greater context, tell us a little 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:35.359 bit about some of the details. One of the things 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.120 we should look for what's being missed in all the coverage, because, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.280 as I've talked about in this program before, China is 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.920 the greatest threat to our liberty. It is a communist 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.440 power by definition, and it is not a communist power 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.360 that is content to just rule its own people with 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.680 an iron fist. It's hegemonic. It's hegemonic in its ambitions, 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:01.040 and not just regionally but globally. And if it'stalitarian power 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.959 wants to be the dominant world power, necessarily that means 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.320 it has to shrink our freedom and the freedom of 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.160 the westmore broadway. So we will get to all that 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:13.200 and much more today. I want to start with the 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:18.880 Democrats standing with Russia and China and Iran and hear 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:20.760 me out on this and North Korea too. By the way, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.639 if you remember when Trump was portrayed as the reckless cowboy, 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.840 before he was portrayed as the naive isolationist, before he 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.600 was again portrayed as the reckless cowboy when it comes 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.560 to Iran, remember Kim Jong un was considered the rational 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.560 actor at the table at one point. Why is it, 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.840 Why is it that the Democrats stand with all of 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:44.240 these adversaries and point the finger at us and say 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:48.080 we are traders. That really sticks in my craw and 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.760 it should stick in your craw too, because for the 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:58.720 last hundred years, hundred years, Democrats have been the ones appeasing, bribing, coddling, 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:03.120 trying to find moderates in the world's worst regimes, those 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.320 regimes that are truly the most antisocial justice actually just 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:11.200 anti justice, no modifier needed regimes in the world. And 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.160 I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:17.080 of Nancy Pelosi tweeting out things about Moscow, Mitch mcado, 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.240 and same thing with her friend. I believe one of 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.760 the impeachment managers had Keem Jeffreys, Congressman from New York. 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.560 Some congressmen have said that regardless of what happens with impeachment. 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.560 They're going to continue pursuing Trump Russia ties and links. 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.440 You know, the whole premise of the whole Trump Russia hoax, 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.720 which was really about trying to take down his presidency 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.640 through this wedge issue, which, by the way, Hillary Clinton 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.000 and his team and her team we're talking about within 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.800 twenty four hours after she lost, As has been documented 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:53.320 and reported at length, it is all about saying, this 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:58.080 person's a traitor and therefore illegitimate, therefore dangerous, and therefore 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.479 that justifies us taking the most brazen acts possible to 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.599 undermine him, even if it means undermining everything else that 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.120 the country is based on. I've said of this repeatedly 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:12.039 an articles on air. Who is violating the norms, values, 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.719 and principles and institutions that they tell us are so essential. 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:20.640 It's them who is coddling our worst adversaries. It's them, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.480 And we have seen some of the most shameful examples 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:29.280 of this in light of following the attack that took 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.160 out Caseem Solomani, who I always refer to and I 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.520 think you should refer to him too, as the world's 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.159 leading terrorists, of the world's leading terror force, of the 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:43.359 world's leading terrorist regime that funds, runs, orchestrates everything that 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:47.000 is done by this world's leading sponsor of terror in 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.760 Iran and its molocracy, and we should separate by the 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.680 way that regime from the people, some percentage of which 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.960 are actually out there literally risking their lives because they 0:05:56.000 --> 0:06:00.640 actually do first for real, genuine freedom, not the freedom 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:02.560 that we heard about in Egypt, which was freedom for 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.960 the Muslim brotherhood to run roughshod over Christians and all 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.919 sorts of other ethic minorities and destroy a country. Not 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:11.560 the kind of freedom we heard about in all the 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.600 other Arab spring places where the Arab spring turns to 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.479 the Arab winter very quickly. No, in Iran, there actually 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.880 is some percentage of the populace who, like in nineteen 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.960 seventy nine pre Islamic revolutionary Iran, actually do yearn for 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.599 something approximating freedom and actually could be an ally and 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:35.080 a partner with America and the Westmore Broadway, I want 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:36.839 to go to a couple of clips because some of 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.120 the things that those on the left have been saying 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.600 post Solomani are just absolutely insane, And just like with 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.599 Nancy Pelosi calling Mitch McConnell Moscow Mitch. And by the way, 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.280 his preferred name is Cocaine Mitch. He said this so 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.920 show some respect to the Majority leader, Madam Speaker. And 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.240 when they talk about the whole Russia collusion, hope you're 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.080 a trader, even though it's been disproven, even though it's 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.560 been proven that this was really spygate, not Russia Gate. 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.720 Russia was the excuse to spy on an opposing campaign 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.480 and to weaponize our national security and law enforcement apparatus 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.080 as part of a long running campaign from before the 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.200 man was inaugurated to try to take him down. And 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:22.880 by the way, before I get to I Ran, let 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.160 me just say it is the Democrats. It is those 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.680 who have propagated this Russia Gate, Russia collusion narrative, Russia 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:33.680 treasonous conspiracy narrative. They are doing far more damage to 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.000 our country than Vladimir Putin or anyone in Russia could 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:40.520 ever hope to do to America. And it's sort of 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.480 the same thing with what we're seeing with what honestly 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:48.600 sound like propagandist for the Iranian molocracy of moreaucracy that 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.800 has been at war with America since nineteen seventy nine. 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.040 Let's go to quip One. Here's John Kerry talking about Iran. 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.640 It's a sad day when the United States, so America, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.200 has to rely on the decision of the regime that 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:08.280 we neither liked nor trust, to have them be the 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.960 ones who behaved somehow in a way that saves Donald 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.920 Trump from his own decision. They have the ones saving 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.280 Donald Trump from his own decision. This is a man 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.880 who literally admitted that Iran Deal the crown jewel of 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.120 the Obama administration in their second term, non treaty imposed 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.880 upon the American people, imposed upon the world, which we'll 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.200 talk about at great length, and we'll talk about why 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.280 i Ran Deal isn't actually the proper name for the 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.000 deal because that doesn't describe at all what it did. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.920 It wasn't an Iran nuclear deal. It was fake arms control, 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.600 actually about propping up the world's leading state sponsor of jihad. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.040 John Kerry really has some nerve here because this is 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.520 a man who himself has admitted back in twenty seventeen, 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:54.640 some of the more than one hundred billion dollars that 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.920 we release to Iran, and that is comprised of sanctioned 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.320 relief and all that increased trade active video that Iran got, 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.600 and when we pulled off all of these sanctions from them, 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:09.079 he himself admitted that some of that money obviously would 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.600 end up going towards you guessed it, jihad. So John 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:17.480 Kerry was totally fine with the US becoming the world's 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.160 leading state sponsor of the world's leading state sponsor of jihad. 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:23.680 So who the hell is he to make this kind 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:27.440 of comment? I ran saving him. No, Trump is cleaning 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.800 up the mess that preceded him in a resovute and 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.000 a prudent way, in a way that I Ran never 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:38.280 expected because we've been bribing them, appeasing them, not calling 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.400 a spade a spade for decades, and that's under Republicans 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.400 and Democrats. By the way, all right, I want to 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.360 go to another clip. Let's go to EQUIP two. And 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.040 this is a New York Times reporter. Her name is 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:54.080 Rookmena Calamachi, applauding Iran. Let's go to EQUIP two. The 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.360 perception of America right now, I would say in the 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.200 Middle East is that we act outside the law. I 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.600 hear this all the time from iraqis from Syrians who 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.720 do not see a legal process behind what we are doing, 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.040 specifically because of the failure of the Iraq War and 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.839 the tainted intelligence that led to that point. One of 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.520 the takeaways of the past week is that we actually saw, 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.520 in my opinion, Iran act with perhaps more restraint than 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.920 our own government the rocket attacks, that the missiles that 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.960 landed on the basis where there were American troops did 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.439 not kill anyone. That seems like a wise decision that 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.120 they made. Thankfully, our own government has now backed off 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:38.319 as well. Restraint. The Iranian regime is the prudent, sound wise, beneficent. 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.200 They didn't act out of restraint. They acted because they 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.480 knew that if they threatened the life and limb of 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:50.520 our soldiers or our assets threatened to destroy them, that 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.959 a city in Iran would be leveled. Okay, that has 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.880 not been clear to the Iranian regime. They never expected 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:00.240 that from any administration, including this one. They thought they 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:04.920 could tap the Trump administration along continue to poke and pride. 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.960 All they've been doing is provocations towards the US, our 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:13.120 partners and our allies, testing probing, seeing how far could 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.000 they push before they got any sort of a reaction 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.360 from America. And what they got was an overwhelming reaction. 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.800 That destabilized and already wobbling regime. So why did the 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.360 malocracy respond the way that they did with their tail 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:31.079 between their legs. Because they knew that we pose an 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.160 existential threat to their existence for the first time in 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.520 a long time, certainly since the start of the Obama presidency, 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:41.640 and frankly arguably since probably decades before that. And there's 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.280 a case to be made that they are on weaker 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.600 ground today than they've been in at least a decade, 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.120 and potentially far more. We'll talk a little bit about 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.680 that as we proceed in this first hour, but I 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.800 want to point out why it is that the Left 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.120 sides with whoever is an enemy Trump and in this case, 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:05.720 all of our adversaries. It's not just that they hate Trump, 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.520 and it's not just that they have this naive worldview 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.400 that all of our worst enemies can be appeased, or 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.040 at least that that's the better thing to do, that 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.680 actually confront reality as it is and deal with a 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:24.079 complicated world that's full of murderous thugs, that not everyone 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:28.240 is by nature necessarily good, that there are people that 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.920 actually do want to infringe upon our daily life and 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.960 our freedoms as we've seen time and time again and 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:36.600 that you don't try to appease a bully because that 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:44.240 only emboldens that bully. What the Democrats have done is 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.600 they have an effect aided, a better than enabled, all 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.640 of our worst adversaries. They are the ones who have 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.679 so discord in our politics to an unprecedented level. I mean, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:57.040 certainly relative to the Obama years. They have corrupted our 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.520 system of checks and balances and separated powers and everything 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:05.320 from impeachment to the way that leftist judges have gone 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.000 about blocking entire administration policies. One random federal judge we'll 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.840 talk about this a little bit later, can stop clearly 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.520 lawful presidential policies across the entire country. Think about the 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.800 tyranny of that, that judicial supremacy. They have violated the 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.000 individual liberties of Americans in the way that they've gone 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.720 about the entire Russia Gate perpetration and then the cover up, 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:31.040 which has been in part impeachment in some ways, the 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:35.520 so called Mullar Special Council investigation and everything associated with it, 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:42.280 the millions of subpoenas that they've issued. They've weaponized our 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:46.559 law enforcement mechanism. They've sought to cover up the abuses 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.760 of the intelligence apparatus and law enforcement. And they've cheered 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.280 on an administrative state that's tried to sabotage the president, 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.920 who gives that administrative state its power. All of these 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.000 rogue officials and all of these agencies that come out 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:02.640 and snipe at the president, they only have power because 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:08.280 the presidents delegated it to them. Democrats cheer this on. 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.440 Imagine you can't even imagine. You can't conceive of a 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.720 scenario because there aren't enough conservatives in the administrative state 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.880 and they would never act this inappropriately. Of course, in 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.600 the first place, you can't conceive of a scenario where 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.680 the Obama administration did something and he was sabotaged by 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:28.160 rogue conservatives conspiring within the administrative states. It would never happen. 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.280 It would be laughed out of the room, couldn't even 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:34.160 be conceived of. They are the ones who are trying 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.120 to purge all dissenting views from public life. And we'll 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:39.920 talk about that a little bit later. Anything that dares 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.960 challenge the progressive orthodoxy, unacceptable voices should be shut out. 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.600 And why why do they side where their adversaries and 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:50.920 why do they in affect Aida bet and enable them 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.400 with their actions while claiming that we're the traitors and 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:58.080 we're the ones undermining institutions. They think that the America 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.400 that we understand, that we believe in, that we understand 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.680 the founders to have crafted for us, built for us. 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.520 They think that America is inherently evil. It's the scores 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:12.280 of the earth. And so if you hate that which 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.800 is evil, you believe yourself good, then the only way 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:17.360 to fix it is to turn it on its head, 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.000 repudiate all the principles, run rough shot over them, because 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.520 the ends justify the means for them, and the ends 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.400 ultimately are power. It's power for them if they sometimes 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.240 they say this outright. And some of these comments from 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:35.200 these reporters and Obama administration officials praising the Iranians, it 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.240 reminded me of a New York Times op ed writer 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.120 Thomas Friedman. Sure you're familiar with his work, he wrote 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.400 back in September two thousand and nine. Something that sticks 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.240 with me, it should stick with you two and it 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.440 really represents where the left is, he said. One party 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.800 autocracy certainly has its drawbacks, but when it is led 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:58.040 by a reasonably enlightened group of people. As China is today, 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:02.000 it can have great advantages. Beijing wants to make sure 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.560 that it owns that in industries and is ordering policies 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.880 to do it. Our one part, from the top down, 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:14.440 our one party democracy, quote unquote, is worse. They want 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.360 they want to rule everything because they don't want us 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.520 to have a voice, because they disagree with this entire experiment, 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.520 and they'll undermine it any and every which way they can, 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:28.360 including siding with our worst adversaries. This has Ben Winegarden 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:30.040 in for Buck Sexon on the Buck Sex and Show. 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:35.160 We'll be right back after this. You're in the Freedom Hunt. 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:42.320 This is the Buck Sexton Show podcast. Welcome back to 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.960 the Buck Sex and Show. This is Ben Weinegarten in 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.320 four Buck Sexton. We've been talking about the left, siding 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.520 with our worst adversaries, and a little bit specifically about Iran. 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.080 And in my next segment, I'm going to interview someone 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.120 who is, in my view, one of the finest experts 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:03.280 on national security and foreign policy generally in the Middle East, 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.720 specifically in Iran. I think he's written some of the 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:12.359 most prescient, deep probing, insightful pieces on not only what 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.399 the strike on Solomany means for American national security and 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:20.000 foreign policy, but also what it means in context of 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.440 US Middle East policy more broadly, and where the Trump 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.600 administration stands on it, because a lot of people, frankly, 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.840 are hysterical when it comes to anything the Trump administration does, 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.320 but in particular do not understand that there actually is 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.439 a coherent method to all that we've been doing from 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.879 the Middle East to China, to Western and Eastern Europe 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.240 and beyond Russia as well. And so we're going to 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.119 talk with Michael Durant of the Hudson Institute about a 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.000 number of these topics. He actually altees this a little bit, 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:55.240 has floated that the Obama administration, as I understand it, 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.840 may have written love letters to Cosseem Solomany and I 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.480 talk in jest here, but actually did communicy directly potentially 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:03.960 with Solomony, and not to deliver the kind of message 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.760 that the Trump administration did, which is knock it off 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.200 or else. We'll talk about that right after this. Ben 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:12.919 Wangarton in for Buck Sexton on The Buck Sexton Show. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.680 Thanks for listening to The bus Sexton Show podcasts. Remember 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.520 to subscribe on Apple podcasts. The iHeartRadio app or wherever 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.399 you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the Buck Sexton Show. 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.040 This is Ben Wangarton in for Buck Sexton, and we 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:28.800 have on the line right now. As I just mentioned, 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:30.760 what I think is one of the finest scholars when 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.119 it comes to national security and foreign policy in the 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.640 Middle Eastern general and Iran in particular, Mike Duran. He's 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.120 a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He formerly held 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.720 positions in both the Department of Defense and on the 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:46.760 National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration. Mike, thanks, 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.480 thanks so much for coming on the program. Thanks for 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.119 having me Ben, and thanks for that very generous introduction. Well, 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.520 it's well deserved and been a longtime fan of your work, 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:58.960 and we've discussed many of these issues at length, and 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.040 I thought bucks Audi deserves to hear from someone who 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.840 was in a policy making position, who has grappled with 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.840 the adversaries that we're dealing with today, and in particular, 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.199 I wanted to start with something that you sort of 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:14.359 teased out on Twitter and was later corroborated by Lee Smith, 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.160 another great writer on national security and foreign policy. We've 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.080 had on the program before, were you discussed the fact 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.000 that a little birdie told you, essentially that the Obama 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:27.520 administration had drafted some letters to the world's weading terrorists, 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:29.919 of the world's reading terror force, the cuts force, of 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.920 the world's weading terror regime, of the Iranian molocracy. What 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.960 else can you tell us about that? Well, actually, I 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.119 don't know much more than that. It was absolutely a 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:45.080 little birdie. Somebody who I happen to know, and who 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:50.840 happened to know is in a position to know this 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:56.080 fact firsthand, said Hey, did you know that under the 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:03.320 Obama administration we sent letters plural to cause some solo money? 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:05.440 And I said, no, I didn't know that, and it's 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:10.560 very interesting, and so I put I put that out 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:14.560 on Twitter, you know, so I pretended to be I 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.680 joked that I was an anonymous whistle blower, the joke 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:21.280 being that everyone in Washington, DC knows that Eric Jarmella 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:26.240 is the anonymous whistleblower on the Zelinsky conversation that Trump 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.800 is being impeached over. And you know, he's been walking 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.280 around town all since this thing began, and you're not 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:35.920 allowed to supposedly, you know, you're not allowed to say 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:37.680 his name if you write his name on Twitter, you 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.720 get deep platformed and uh and so on. I thought, Wow, 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.080 that's really cool. I'd like to be an anonymous whistle 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.400 blower too. Uh. You know, people need to walk into 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:49.200 restaurants with people point at you and say, hey, there's 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.880 the anonymous whistle blower. So I'm I'm anonymous here. I'm 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.480 not when I talk to you about when I talk 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.480 to you about the letters to Solo Money, I'm not 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:03.480 Mike Duran at the Hudson Institute. I'm anonymous. Okay, I'll 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.119 neither confirm nor denied that I'm Mike Duran. As long 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.480 as we're talking about this, well, we'll make sure not 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.480 to weak your name to the Washington Post and the Times. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.560 And I think it is significant though to the extent 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.080 they did write letters to Solomony, and it's eminently believable 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:23.360 because the administration took the Obama administration took sanctions off 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:25.840 of Solomany as part of the so called I Ran 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:27.959 Nuclear Deal in the first place. But it's quite an 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.919 interesting contrast that they were probably writing letters hoping to 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.680 come to some sort of agreement or accord with Solomany, 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.600 whereas the Trump administration secretary Pompeo drafted a letter to 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.720 Solomany which basically said, knock off the malign activities or else, 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:48.560 and the RLS actually happened exactly exactly. I mean, the 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.520 let's start with the last point first. The letter that 0:21:53.800 --> 0:22:00.040 Pompeo sent to Solomony, actually he did so on the 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:02.800 instructions of Donald Trump. I noticed for a fact as well. 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.639 Trump saw something in the intelligence early on in the 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:12.159 administration that worried him, and he said, I see that 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:15.920 this guy Solimani is organizing to kill Americans. I want 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:17.639 to send him a letter, and I want to put 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:19.480 him on notice that if he harms the hair on 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:24.520 a single American that there will be immediate and drastic consequences. 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:29.119 And I don't know how the decision was made. I guess, 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:31.560 you know, maybe his advisor said, actually, mister President, I 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:34.399 don't think you should be the one talking to Solomoni. 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.880 So it fell to Pompeo. And Pompeo's letter was very 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.160 short and very sweet, and it basically said I don't 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:43.040 know the exact wording, but it busically said just what 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:46.560 I said, if you harm the hair on one American, 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.880 that will be held a pain and that's the origin. 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.720 That's the origin of the of the of the attack 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:58.919 on Solimani. I mean, he was he was warned, and 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:01.719 he was warned time and again, and he ignored it 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:03.240 and he paid a price for it. And that's the 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.680 way it should be. Solomoni is portrayed, and I think 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:11.520 accurately so, as sort of the architect of really in 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:16.040 some sense that the Shide Crescent and Iran's jihadest activities 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:19.199 around the world, and also obviously has the blood of 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:23.119 hundreds of Americans on his hands, and orchestrated the attack 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:25.280 on our embassy, which is an act of war, and 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:30.159 according to the Administration, was planning on orchestrating other ones 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:34.879