13 Canadians have been taken hostage by China — but Trudeau doesn’t care enough to call their president.
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Summary
13 Canadians have been taken hostage by China, but Trudeau doesn t care enough to call their president? Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer? I know, because it's my bloody right to do so.
Transcript
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Tonight, 13 Canadians have been taken hostage by China,
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but Trudeau doesn't care enough to call their president.
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It's January 9th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it
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Why doesn't Justin Trudeau care that China has taken 13 Canadians hostage in the past few weeks?
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I have learned about this in the mainstream media, so there's not a total blackout about it,
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but you'd think this would be screaming front-page news and top-of-the-broadcast until it were resolved.
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Here's a Globe and Mail story from a week or so ago.
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So, 13 Canadians have been detained in China since Huawei executive's arrest, says Ottawa.
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13 Canadians have been detained in China since the high-profile arrest of a Huawei executive,
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Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver on December 1st, Ottawa says.
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Global Affairs Canada spokesman Guillaume Berube said in a statement to the Globe and Mail
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that the government is aware that 13 Canadians have been detained in China, excluding Hong Kong,
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Previously, only Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor, and Sarah McIver
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were publicly known to have been detained in China since Canada arrested Ms. Meng,
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chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Company Limited.
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They were taken into custody after China promised retaliation for Ms. Meng's arrest.
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You've probably seen Huawei phones for sale in Canada.
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It's actually China's largest private company, they say.
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but reading the financial press, it looks like Meng herself, his daughter, is regarded
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By the way, Apple, one of the leading U.S. high-tech firms, only has 130,000 employees.
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Imagine if China arrested a senior executive from Apple who happened to be the daughter of
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Of course it's controversial that she was arrested.
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But according to the United States, who asked Canadian police to arrest her when she touched
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down in Canada, they say that she deceived international banks into clearing transactions
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with Iran by claiming that two companies in Iran were independent of Huawei, when in actual
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So it's a banking thing, a securities thing, a fraud thing, a sanctions thing.
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I'm sure it's politically motivated by the United States, as the sanctions obviously are.
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But if it's against the law, it's against the law.
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Chinese companies, and by the way, when I said Huawei is the largest private company
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in China, there really is no such thing as a private company in China.
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They may be technically private, but they are all under the domination of the Communist
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So Chinese companies break the law all the time.
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Our laws, that is, Western laws, international contracts all the time.
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China is the world's largest thief of industrial secrets, of technology.
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Of course they do business in regimes like Iran that are subject to Western sanctions.
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Sudan, for example, is practically owned by China.
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Of course China supports the dictatorship of Iran in important ways.
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When there were global sanctions against Iranian oil, China bought all they could.
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And they did very well off of it because they bought their oil at a huge discount to world
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They got rich by buying cheap, illegal oil from Iran.
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And so I don't know what Huawei did or didn't do.
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This arrest had to do with sanctions and with banking matters.
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But there is also a longstanding accusation against Huawei that it uses its telecom equipment
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to spy on us, to spy on the users, and to pass that info on to China's dictatorship.
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That's why the United States won't let Huawei build any of its new 5G cell phone system.
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That's why America is trying to convince Canada not to let Huawei build critical telecom infrastructure
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I mean, would you ever sign up for a Chinese version of Facebook or a Chinese version of Gmail?
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I mean, Facebook and Gmail spy on you enough as it is.
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It rings true to me that Huawei would spy on its users in the West for its government.
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But in China, everything is linked to everything.
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And thus, the 13 retaliatory arrests of Canadians.
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Now, most of them were let go shortly after they were picked up and harassed to send a message to Trudeau.
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But a number of them remain in detention, including a former Canadian diplomat.
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Even though it was America that requested Meng's arrest and extradition.
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Of course China didn't seize an American citizen.
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Trump has been extremely forceful in repatriating Americans from around the world who were seized by foreign regimes.
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He got North Korea to release this pastor who was illegally detained in North Korea.
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And Trump went and met him in the dead of night when he arrived back in America.
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He actually got North Korea to also send back to America the remains of American war dead from the Korean War.
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That's how adamant Trump is about bringing back Americans from foreign lands.
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The Chinese would never do anything like this to Trump.
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But they know they can walk all over Canada and Justin Trudeau with impunity because we're the weak link.
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Because Trudeau is so weak and so stupid and so in the tank for China.
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I bet this video clip here, you know you can personalize a ringtone.
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I bet Huawei and the Chinese ambassador to Canada probably uses a Huawei phone.
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I bet his Huawei phone ringtone plays this audio track.
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There's a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.
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He would listen to that every day and think I've got the easiest job in the world.
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The Chinese ambassador to Ottawa, don't you think?
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I mean, when a prime minister says that he deeply admires a country, it's his favorite in the world.
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Not because he likes Chinese food or Chinese people or Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese architecture.
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And what does our ambassador to China have to say?
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Well, here's what he said a few months ago about our trade negotiations with China.
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According to CSIS, there are more than 1,000 Chinese spies in Canada mainly working on stealing our technology.
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But it also trades with us in an abusive, one-way, one-sided, erratic approach.
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They don't respect contracts, they don't respect property rights, they don't allow our goods unfettered entry to China.
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Here's what our diplomat to Beijing, John McCallum, has to say about that.
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Within 24 hours of arriving in China, I was invited to present my credentials to President Xi Jinping.
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And I conveyed to him a message from our Prime Minister that can be summarized in three words.
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Yeah, John, you're supposed to be negotiating for Canada, not for China.
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We still don't have a Canadian advocate over there, do we?
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Imagine starting off by saying, whatever you want, guys.
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All I'm going to say is, whatever you want and more.
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Or, you'll recall that in the revised NAFTA treaty, Trump injected a novel poison pill, at least I'd never heard of it before.
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Did you know that in the new NAFTA renegotiated treaty, Canada must now give the United States notice and disclosure of any substantial trade negotiations with China?
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And Trump effectively has a veto over it under the new NAFTA.
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We're a sovereign country, except we've got to report to Dad if we're talking to China.
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But Trump felt he needed to do that because Trudeau really is like a child, and so is McCallum.
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And frankly, most of the Canadian foreign policy establishment and foreign policy journalists when it comes to China.
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They just keep saying, more, more, 13 hostage, more.
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I don't know if you remember this news story from way back in 2004.
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This is from the Globe and Mail, originally published February 2004.
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Literally weeks after he stepped down as prime minister.
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He immediately went to work with the Chinese government.
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Chrétien builds links with Chinese conglomerate.
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He went to work with the Chinese government with his son-in-law's family, the Demaree family.
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Sorry, don't tell me that that wasn't set up in advance, wasn't discussed in advance, when John Chrétien was still prime minister.
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Don't tell me that John Chrétien didn't tailor Canadian policy towards China with his future lucrative position in mind.
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He joined the Chinese lobby five weeks after stepping down as prime minister.
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And I point out that Justin Trudeau is just as bad.
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His chief in the Senate is a former China lobbyist named Peter Harder.
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And Trudeau's brother, who was his policy advisor during the campaign, Alexandre, he worked for the Chinese government, producing a book of political propaganda for him.
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I mean, Trump is so tough on China, it's almost comical.
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I love this clip put together a couple years ago of Trump just never stopping bashing China.
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you go over to China hr China China China China China China China China China you take
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China China China I love him China China China China China China I have to have my China China
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China China because China China China China China China China China China China China China China
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China, China, China, China, China, China, China.
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China. You know, what's that called? The boxers, the way they work that, is that called the speed
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bag where they go, you know, the really fast boxing practice? That's Trump and China. China,
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China. He never stops. But look at how they treat him. When he went there, they literally
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rolled out the red carpet for him in China, China, China. You know, they have a nickname for him.
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They have a nickname for everyone over there, just like Trump gives out nicknames. They call him,
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I'm not making this up, Donald the Strong. They've never met anyone like him before,
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Democrat or Republican, not since Richard Nixon have they had a real negotiator come over from
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America. And I think they're a little bit afraid of him. And I think they respect him.
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Donald the Strong, they call him. They're worried. Do you remember what their nickname is for Justin
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We're quite proud. The prime minister has been given a fond nickname in China. He is called
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Pudou, which I believe means potato. And he is, I can't say the Chinese word, it's Yan Pudou,
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little potato, because his father, Pierre Elliott, Pudou, was senior potato. So we feel we are off
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Yeah, that wasn't a compliment, Christian. I mean, it's like when Trump called Jeb Bush low energy
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Jeb, or calls Hillary Clinton crooked Hillary. They don't say, he gave me a nickname, guys.
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Yeah, little potato's not a compliment. They know we have a clown as a prime minister,
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which is why they knew they could take 13 Canadians hostage with impunity. And Christia
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Freeland would just be thrilled. Speaking of Christia Freeland, it literally took her 11 days,
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11 days, to issue this little tweet, objecting to the first Canadian being taken hostage.
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Hostages were taken on December 10th. It took until December 21. 11 days for her even to,
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oh, you know, do a tweet. What took so long? That was before Christmas.
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Where's our national self-respect? Was the little potato just, you know, on a bender somewhere or
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something? By contrast, and this is important, Christia Freeland and Justin Trudeau himself,
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look at this, 10 tweets, 10 times, day after day after day, about a foreigner, a Muslim Brotherhood
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spin doctor paid by Qatar to undermine Saudi Arabia. His name was Jamal Khashoggi. He wrote
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propaganda columns in the Washington Post, financed by Qatar. He was killed by the Saudis in their
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Turkish embassy. It's a sad story. It's always sad when someone is killed, even if they are a
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terrorist sympathizer. But there was no connection to Canada. He wasn't a Canadian citizen. He had no
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links to Canada at all. It was a battle between the Saudis and the Qataris, with Turkey in there,
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two in the Washington Post. But Justin Trudeau and Christia Freeland went to battle for this
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foreign spy? I mean, here's a picture of the guy posing with the Taliban. That's him there in the
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middle, holding weapons. Why did Trudeau and Freeland make such a fuss about him 10 times,
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but haven't lifted a finger to help Canadian citizens, innocent Canadian citizens taken hostage
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in China? 11 days before Christia Freeland even uttered a tweet about the Canadians.
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And over the Christmas break, what did Trudeau do? I don't know. You know, I mentioned Richard
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Nixon when he would send Henry Kissinger on secret trips to China to negotiate them to break with
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Stalin to turn towards the West. Maybe, I don't know, did Justin Trudeau take an unannounced private
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flight to Beijing? I don't know, to meet face to face with President Xi? Did he even make a phone call?
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Are you kidding? Little potato? He was partying in Whistler. Dude, dude, I'm terribly partying in
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Whistler. I'm snailboarding. And I'm going to guess he was enjoying Whistler's famous marijuana scene.
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Just a guess there. So he was partying, partying, partying, posing for selfies while Canadian hostages
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were entering their second month in prison just for being Canadian. And he still won't call the
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Chinese. What is wrong with him? Why won't he make the phone call? Hey, apropos of nothing, look at
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this news story from Blacklock's reporter. The Department of Finance says it's unaware of a
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single Canadian company to land work as a result of a half billion dollars in federal spending with a
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Chinese investment bank. Cabinet approved the spending in 2017 on the promise of thousands
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upon thousands of Canadian jobs. Yeah, did you know that Trudeau gave half a billion of your
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dollars to a Chinese infrastructure investment bank? What's going on there? Trudeau canceled
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Canada's Northern Gateway Pipeline. Trudeau killed the Energy East Pipeline. Trudeau has put the
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Trans Mountain Pipeline in the freezer. Trudeau has scared off LNG. Trudeau is destroying our
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infrastructure, but he's taking Canadian tax dollars, your money, to China to build pipelines
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and airports and railways there. What on earth, what on earth you'd think that would at least give
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him the confidence to pick up the phone and say, hey guys, hi, it's me. I just gave you a half a
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billion dollars. Can you please release the Canadians or we're going to ask for our money back or at least
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we're not going to give you any more lunch money? Hey, what do you think Donald Trump would do
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if not one, not two, not three, not four, not 10, but 13 Americans were seized by China in what they
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clearly say is a tit for tat? Oh my God, I'd hate to think of what Donald Trump would do.
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And so does President Xi of China, which is exactly why he hasn't laid a finger on a hair
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of an American. He hasn't said a peep about it to Trump, at least not in public.
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So what about our diplomat of the year? The world famous Chrystia Freeland. Well, um,
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she asked the Americans if they could maybe make a phone call for her because I guess
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she's not really the world's best diplomat after all. What's this?
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The extradition process is a criminal justice process. Uh, this is not a tool that should be
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used for politicized ends. I can't say much about the process because we have a U.S. judicial
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process that is underway, an extradition process that is underway. I can say this, uh, the unlawful
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detention of two Canadian citizens is unacceptable. They, they ought to be returned. Um, the United
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States has stood for that, whether they're our citizens or citizens of other countries. We, we,
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we ask all nations of the world to treat other citizens properly and the detention of these
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two Canadian citizens in China ought to end. Um, it's nice to ask America for help and they are
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the most helpful nation in the world. I actually think even that clip was helpful to have Secretary
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Pompeo speak about it, probably more helpful than anything Trudeau has done. In fact, has,
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has Trudeau even made a public statement about the Canadians like Pompeo did? I don't think he did.
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All of a sudden, weird and childish Canadian moves. Like, remember this weirdness when Chrystia
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Freeland landed in a bizarre t-shirt that she wore during the NAFTA negotiations? Just really,
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really weird. They, it just doesn't seem as effective anymore, does it? Uh, here's Kim Campbell,
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a disgraced footnote in Canadian history. True. But Trudeau has revived her career, appointed her to a
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senior government position, advising Trudeau on the judiciary. So, so she works for Trudeau now.
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I don't know if you know that. And here she is tweeting about Donald Trump, calling him a terrible
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name. She hasn't corrected or apologized for that. That's what she says about Trump in public.
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And Chrystia Freeland, if you recall, went to a campaign event in Toronto called Taking on,
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Taking on the Tyrant. So she's really, really brave, taking on the Tyrant Trump, isn't she?
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But when a real tyrant pops up, the Chinese basic dictatorship, and all of a sudden,
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Kim Campbell has nothing to say about that tyrant. And all of a sudden,
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Chrystia Freeland has nothing to say about that tyrant. And Freeland is running to Trump for his help.
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Pretty embarrassing. Will Trump help Canada? Maybe. I bet he will, actually.
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But Trump has Americans to care about. He believes in America first. He says that,
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and Trudeau and Freeland condemn him for that. But Trump is busy in the highest stakes negotiation
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of our age. He's trying to get a trade deal with China. He talks about it all the time. He has done
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the unthinkable already. He has put hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese imports.
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He has frozen China out of so many things. It's part of the Huawei thing, by the way. He's battling
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China. He's battling against their tech company. He's trying to hurt them. Of course he is.
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He's battling China for the future of North Korea. Of course he is. He's battling China in the
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American heartland, banning Chinese steel and other cheap imports. It's a multi-trillion dollar
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high-stakes battle, bigger even than NAFTA, potentially. And then there's the military rivalry,
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very true, as well. Is Trump going to interfere with his master plan taking on China politically,
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geographically, militarily, economically? Is he really going to interrupt that to help
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some Canadian taken hostage that Trudeau himself won't even pick up the phone for?
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Or what's in it for America if he does? I mean, if Trudeau and Freeland are so smart,
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I don't know, why doesn't Trudeau give some speech about feminism or global warming? That's his
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response to everything, isn't it? Look, I want those Canadian hostages back home. Of course I do.
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And the other 200 Canadians held in China, some of them are real criminals, by the way.
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There are real crimes committed by Canadians. I mean, there's a case of someone charged with
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drug smuggling. They're not all political pawns, but those 13 hostages in the last month sure are
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political. The Chinese say so themselves. And Trudeau is a child who has no clue on what to do.
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Or rather, he knows what to do, but he can't or he won't. Look, this Liberal Party is so deeply
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entwined with China. Peter Harder, Jean Chrétien, Trudeau's own brother, they won't let him get tough.
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They make millions of dollars, probably billions of dollars if you count the Demaree off China.
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They don't want Trudeau to get tough. I mean, so a few hostages are taken. But that's just what a
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basic dictatorship does. I'll say this about Stephen Harper. He was tough with China and tough
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with Russia and tough with Iran. But they never took hostages under his watch because they respected
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them. They disagreed with them. But they didn't do this. This is Trudeau's place in the world.
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An errand boy for dictators and a punching bag for them, too. What a shame that Canadian citizens have
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to pay the price. And what irony that even Trudeau knows only Donald Trump can fake them.
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Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis. And they have refused to provide our brave
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border agents with the tools they desperately need to protect our families and our nation.
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The federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only because Democrats will
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not fund border security. My administration is doing everything in our power to help those impacted
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by the situation. But the only solution is for Democrats to pass a spending bill that defends
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our borders and reopens our borders and reopens the government. This situation could be solved in a 45-minute
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meeting. I have invited congressional leadership to the White House tomorrow to get this done.
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Hopefully, we can rise above partisan politics in order to support national security.
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That is an excerpt from Donald Trump's first ever Oval Office address to the nation. It's amazing to think
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that in two years, he hadn't done that before. A very emotional speech. You didn't see a lot of emotion
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in that clip there. But he touched on the emotions of defending people who have been murdered and raped and the
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massive amounts of drug trafficking across the border. I thought it was actually a touching speech.
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But I'm a Canadian. How did it go over in America? Joining us now, our top American political correspondent,
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our friend, Joel Pollack, the editor-at-large at Breitbart.com. Great to see you again. Joel,
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I thought it was a brilliant speech. I thought it was a case that Americans needed to hear from
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the president. It was a compassionate case for a barrier on the border. And he pointed out that
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Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, had supported a barrier on the
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border in the past. So I think it was very effective. He talked about the victims of crimes by illegal
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aliens. He talked about the dangers to the migrants themselves. He talked about the drug problem in the
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U.S., including heroin, 90 percent of which comes from our southern border or smuggled across our southern
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border. So I thought a very effective speech. The Democrats chose to rebut that speech
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afterward, which I think was a mistake. They should have waited until the next day because they could not
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compete with the setting of the Oval Office. And their message was all about politics, whereas Trump's message was
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about people. And it was an absolute knockout by the president. I think the Democrats did themselves no favors.
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Today, they're scrambling to catch up. I think Trump put his case very well. And already a plurality of the
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American public believes or believed before his address that there is a crisis at the border.
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I think he strengthened that case. And I think it will have an effect in the long run on this
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negotiation. But it's going to be a long run. This is not going to be over soon.
00:27:26.100
Yeah. You know, he had some good lines, as he always does. He said, look, we build walls because we love
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the people within them, not because we hate the people out. And he pointed out that fancy people,
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Democrats, have walls around their own homes. These are sort of obvious points. But he made them. He
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talked about the impact of cheap foreign illegal labor on American citizens, especially black and
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Hispanic Americans. I thought it was a good speech, but I wasn't hard to persuade. Last time you and I
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spoke, you said that for Republicans, this is a top of mind issue, but not for all Democrats and
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certainly not for those who would be far enough for not for all Americans, not even for all
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independents and certainly not for those not near the border. I think I recall our conversation.
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You said that. Do you think this will help flip the switch on for independents or even Democrats
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I don't think the speeches are going to have that kind of impact. I think what is really going to
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decide the fate of this negotiation is ultimately the fact that the Democrats have an alternative to
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their current position and Trump does not have an alternative to his. There is no way Trump can
00:28:49.080
compromise on his demand for border wall funding. He has staked his entire presidency on it. And so
00:28:54.420
if he compromises, he will lose his political support and Democrats will be able to basically
00:29:00.700
steamroll him on every other issue. So he's going down with the ship if this thing does not work out,
00:29:06.820
whereas Democrats could compromise on this and they would still retain their support because what
00:29:11.560
motivates their base is not this particular issue, but the desire to get rid of Donald Trump.
00:29:17.340
So they could do a deal and still walk away and fight another day. I think ultimately the fact
00:29:22.640
that Democrats can compromise and Trump cannot is going to decide this particular contest in Trump's
00:29:29.860
favor. What the result is in the long run, that remains to be seen. But I think Trump, ironically,
00:29:35.820
by leaving himself no alternative, has created a very strong bargaining position in this negotiation.
00:29:42.260
You know, I enjoy Ann Coulter. I think she's smart. I think she's a provocateur sometimes on purpose.
00:29:50.140
She's an entertainer sometimes on purpose. But I think she was one of the few people to early on
00:29:55.980
grasp Trump's chances and his appeal. And of course, she wrote a hagiography of him almost
00:30:02.620
in Trump We Trust. She has essentially said, if you don't do the wall, you've lost me forever.
00:30:08.840
And she's been critical of some of the people in Trump's team, including Trump's son, Jared Kushner.
00:30:16.440
So she, I think, in some ways represents the Trumpiest part of the Trump base. She seems,
00:30:23.060
and I'm not putting everything on Ann, but I think she's a very good elocutor of this point of view.
00:30:28.220
She's still worried that there are forces around Trump that would cave in in a second.
00:30:32.620
In the Senate, Jared Kushner, his son-in-law himself, you seem to think there's no way
00:30:47.400
I couldn't hear everything you said, but I think, just to comment on Ann Coulter,
00:30:54.300
she essentially laid out the shape of Trump's address. She said he should make the compassionate
00:31:00.520
case for the wall, and he did. In terms of her criticism of the administration, I think, look,
00:31:06.440
it's a repeated refrain among conservatives, this idea we're going to be sold out by the people we've
00:31:12.760
elected to office and the people they've hired to advise them. I think, given the history of the
00:31:17.900
last several decades, especially on this issue, that's a reasonable fear. And I'm not saying that
00:31:23.700
her criticisms are necessarily unwarranted. But I think the White House is pretty unified on this
00:31:29.940
issue. The Senate Republicans are united on this issue. Ironically, because Democrats won the midterms
00:31:36.340
in the way they did by wiping out the moderate Republicans, there's going to be very little dissent
00:31:41.820
from Republicans on this issue. Maybe one or two senators, maybe one or two representatives.
00:31:47.120
But you would have seen a couple of dozen, maybe, agitating for an end to the shutdown before border wall
00:31:52.780
funding had been provided. So ironically, the Republicans, by losing so many seats in moderate
00:31:58.600
districts in the House, don't have the same degree of internal opposition and are basically in lockstep
00:32:06.240
with the president on this. They also realize their own political fate hinges on his success in this
00:32:10.720
negotiation. The idea of a government shutdown is not an idea that we are familiar with in Canada,
00:32:18.620
because the nature of our parliamentary system, it just wouldn't happen. The checks and balances
00:32:24.980
aren't there. What we would perhaps have is what we call a vote of non-confidence and the government
00:32:29.760
would fall and there would be an election. So this kind of government shutdown is fascinating and also
00:32:35.480
strange to us. Of course, we have viewers around the world, but many of our viewers are based here in
00:32:41.120
Canada, Joel. Can you tell me how this plays out? I saw a report that when Chuck Schumer met with the
00:32:50.520
president, Chuck Schumer, the senior Democrat senator from New York State, that he said Trump threatened to
00:32:59.560
have the shutdown take months or even years. Is that even possible? How does it work? Is the entire
00:33:08.680
government shutdown? How does it end? Right. So right now, it's a partial government shutdown.
00:33:19.580
The reason they call it a shutdown is basically federal agencies can't operate unless the funding
00:33:24.840
to operate those agencies has been appropriated by Congress. They can't pay their employees. They
00:33:29.980
can't buy office equipment. They can't do anything. So what typically happens is both sides agree to fund
00:33:36.920
the military. So that will be funded. There are also laws requiring some federal employees to go to
00:33:44.220
work whether or not they are paid. They are called essential services. That tends to cover most federal
00:33:50.660
employees. So even in a total government shutdown, the most essential parts of the government will
00:33:55.860
still function even though the employees won't be paid. They will be paid eventually once the shutdown
00:34:00.180
ends. They're given back pay. But what happens is the budget has to be approved every year for all
00:34:08.100
federal agencies. Republicans have approved the budget for something like three quarters of those
00:34:13.240
federal agencies through September, through the end of the fiscal year, which ends September 30th.
00:34:18.120
So actually, this is only a partial shutdown. And it's covering a few agencies. It'll spread a little bit
00:34:25.940
over time. This could last months into the next budget talks, which would be scheduled for the fall
00:34:31.580
of this year. And if there's an impasse still, this could go into next year. I think, Ezra, this could go
00:34:38.120
well into the presidential election. And then you'd see the government basically not functioning except
00:34:43.740
for basic services. And those employees wouldn't be paid. It would become a pretty serious situation.
00:34:51.140
But I just don't think Trump is going to give in on this. I think the first priority of government
00:34:55.340
is national security. He has framed the border issue as an issue of national security. If you
00:34:59.980
can't deal with national security, there's no point to opening the government because the purpose of
00:35:04.340
government is to provide national security. So I think Trump will hang on. I think this could go
00:35:09.360
until the summer of next year. I'm not joking. And this could be an 18-month shutdown until finally,
00:35:14.760
with a presidential election looming, the two sides might agree to come together or not.
00:35:20.000
That's incredible. I mean, that's incredible to me. And I need to, I mean, we don't have time to do
00:35:27.140
it today. And I know you've got to get back to things there. But the idea of, you know, people
00:35:32.060
not being paid, eventually they would have to leave to find other work. I mean, the idea of
00:35:36.860
a semi-permanent shutdown is so fascinating. And the fact that you say it's a real possibility is
00:35:42.780
amazing to me. I have one last question for you. I've been looking into the powers of the president
00:35:50.200
under a national emergency and what the president can do through the military. And I want to ask you
00:35:58.320
if you think it's realistic that President Trump can just say, look, I'm not getting anywhere with
00:36:04.900
the Democrats. They're the ones who are dragging this out. I'm going to act using my constitutional and
00:36:11.540
legal powers, statutory powers. And I'm just going to build the wall myself using the, using the army.
00:36:16.180
And we're just going to do it. I mean, in Canada, we use our army for social purposes all the time.
00:36:22.300
At one point in time, they actually shoveled snow in a big snowstorm in Toronto. It was a
00:36:26.520
national humiliation, I must say. But this is really a national security job, as you say. Do you
00:36:31.900
think it's likely that Trump will say to heck with it? I'm just going to do that, do this. I'm going to
00:36:37.300
take the action. I'm a man of action and I'm a builder and I can get it done.
00:36:41.540
I think he could do it. I think he would do it if the political cost of keeping the government
00:36:47.240
closed became really big. I think he would do that. There's a dangerous precedent, of course,
00:36:52.100
because once Democrats control the White House, they'll just declare national emergencies for
00:36:55.520
everything. They'll call climate change a national emergency and just force coal plants out of
00:37:00.460
business on that basis. So you don't want to create that precedent. But I think Trump could do it
00:37:07.240
if the government shutdown becomes a big political problem. It isn't yet. People are used to these
00:37:12.360
shutdowns by now. We've had them for almost a decade. They don't change anything at all. The
00:37:16.980
inconvenience of a few people for a few days or a few weeks, that's it. If this goes on and on,
00:37:21.860
yes, Trump could do it. And I think he'd be entitled to do it. I'm not sure it's a good precedent.
00:37:26.880
Very interesting. Well, Joel, we're so grateful to you for giving us the feedback.
00:37:33.300
Well, it's a pleasure. And there's going to be a lot to talk about in 2019. Give us 30 seconds on
00:37:39.980
some of the new incoming congressmen. I know you've got to go, but you've got Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
00:37:44.920
in New York. And you have two Muslim congressmen, Ilhan Omar, if I'm saying her name right, from
00:37:52.200
Minnesota, and another congresswoman from Michigan who actually called Trump a mother, F-U-C-K-E-R,
00:38:01.720
on camera. Shocking. What does this portend for the Democrats going forward? Just give me 30 seconds
00:38:08.740
on this before we say goodbye to you. Well, I think the Democrats are fast losing control
00:38:14.800
of their caucus. And I think privately they're frustrated because the radicals in the new
00:38:21.100
House majority are saying things that frighten voters. 70 percent tax rate, that's what Alexandria
00:38:27.860
Ocasio-Cortez is proposing for her green program, whatever it is. She can't even tell you what it
00:38:33.480
is, but it's going to cost you 70 percent of your income above a certain level if you are a high earner.
00:38:39.680
Yes. Then Rashida Klaib, one of two women Muslim members of Congress,
00:38:44.220
the first two female Muslims in Congress, she's been tweeting anti-Semitic things and
00:38:49.920
calling Trump names that you can't repeat on the air. All of it very bad for the Democrats. They've
00:38:56.520
got off to a very difficult start, left the wrong impression, I think, in the minds of many voters.
00:39:01.800
It's clear they just want to get rid of Trump. It's clear they have no agenda, and so the vacuum is
00:39:07.160
being filled by the radicals. It's clear they have no interest in civility, which is why they use
00:39:11.100
foul language. They're just about impeachment and destruction, and they're going to have to
00:39:15.640
turn it around pretty quickly to change that impression, but the shutdown is making it hard
00:39:18.580
for them. Very interesting. Joel Pollack, senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com. Keep up the
00:39:23.220
fight down there. Look forward to your updates throughout the year. Thank you. Happy New Year.
00:39:27.160
All right. Thanks, you too. Well, isn't that interesting? And we'll do more reportage on those
00:39:32.180
two congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib. I forgot her name temporarily. She's from Michigan. Very radical.
00:39:38.720
Palestinian heritage. And Ilhan Omar. And when Joel calls them anti-Semitic, he's just not messing
00:39:45.800
around. I mean, these women have said extreme things, and now they're in the heart of Congress
00:39:50.780
itself. Stay with us. My final thoughts ahead on The Rebel.
00:39:55.440
Hey, welcome back. It has been far too long since I've been in the studio. I took a little bit of a
00:40:12.280
break over Christmas, and then I had a little bit of business to do, if you can believe it,
00:40:15.980
over the last couple of days. So I was traveling, and it just added up to too much time away. But I
00:40:19.840
am thrilled to be back. It's so good to be back in the Rebel World headquarters. And what do you think
00:40:24.700
of our fancy schmancy new set? Now, as you probably know, it's not actually a glamorous glass and steel
00:40:33.440
loft studio overlooking the CN Tower. No, that's all a computer-generated background in front of what
00:40:41.960
we call a green screen. We just thought we'd freshen it up with a new look for the new year.
00:40:47.000
It does feel pretty fancy, though, doesn't it? Look, I think 2019 is going to be an amazing year for
00:40:53.060
the Rebel and an amazing year for Canada. But amazing doesn't necessarily mean great.
00:40:57.580
I think it's going to be a terrible year by certain measures. I think Justin Trudeau will
00:41:02.220
proceed with his plan to nationalize the Canadian media. By that, I mean his $595 million plan to
00:41:07.500
effectively nationalize the few remaining private journalists in the country. He's not going to
00:41:12.940
outright buy Maclean's or outright buy the National Post. But with that slush fund, he'll say,
00:41:17.540
if I can trust you, you'll get the money. If I can't trust you, you won't get the money. And oh,
00:41:21.960
believe you me, I know journalists enough to know they will all take the money, all of them.
00:41:28.100
So I think you're going to see the colonization of the few remaining political reporters in this
00:41:33.340
country. I think you're going to have that carrots matched with a stick. I think you're going to see
00:41:39.660
litigation against independent voices under the guise of hate speech or, I don't know,
00:41:45.540
we know Justin Trudeau is pressuring Facebook to crack down on what he calls fake news, which is
00:41:50.360
what he calls anyone who disagrees with him. I think you're going to see an attack on the rebel
00:41:56.180
ramp up from Trudeau in the year ahead. They've already done that. I think you're going to see
00:42:01.060
an insane collusion with the media and Trudeau in the 2019 election campaign, which has officially
00:42:07.540
begun. And Rachel Notley, too, in Alberta, although I think it's quite certain she's going to lose no
00:42:12.280
matter what the media does there. So that's the rebel. I think we have a very important place,
00:42:18.280
certainly an important role to play in both the Alberta and the Canadian election campaigns.
00:42:23.500
I think it's critically important that we cover the substantive news, but it's
00:42:26.680
just as important that we live to be a dissenting voice to tell the other side of the story.
00:42:31.100
I think having one voice telling the other side of the story is an enormous antidote. I guess what I'm
00:42:38.160
saying is even if there are a thousand lying paid-off journalists over there, even just
00:42:44.240
having one voice telling the truth makes all the difference as opposed to no voices telling the
00:42:49.960
truth. That's what we're going to try and do. In the months ahead, I hope to unveil and reveal to
00:42:57.180
you new talent that we're going to hire at The Rebel. In fact, one of the things I was doing out of town
00:43:01.860
the last few days was meeting with one of those prospective talents, and I was on the phone this
00:43:06.000
morning with another. So we hope to add to our team of journalists in 2019. I think it's going to
00:43:10.860
be a good year. Of course, it always comes back to you. We depend on you to keep us alive because
00:43:16.500
YouTube has demonetized us, and Trudeau, well, we're not going to take his cash. It's down to you,
00:43:21.460
my friends. And if you think that this mission is important, as I do, please continue to support us
00:43:26.980
not only with your monthly $8 subscription fee for our premium services, but also for our crowdfunded
00:43:33.120
campaigns. All right, we've got a lot of work to do. It's great to be back, and we'll keep on doing
00:43:38.220
it. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,