Former Vice President Joe Biden is running for President of the United States in 2020. In this episode, Joe Biden talks about why he decided to run for President and why he thinks it s a good idea. Biden also talks about the Venezuelan crisis and why the U.S. should not be involved in it. Biden is a former Vice President and served as Vice President between 2001 and 2006, and is now a presidential candidate running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He has been a long-time supporter of Bernie Sanders and has been an outspoken critic of President Trump and his administration's foreign policy agenda, including the use of force to overthrow a democratically elected government in order to bring about regime change in countries like Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, among other countries, as well as the ongoing conflict between the Venezuelan people and the Venezuelan government, and why we should be a force toward peace and reconciliation, rather than war, reconciliation, and the pursuit of political and economic destruction. Joe Biden's campaign website: . Biden2020.org/CandidatePledge . His campaign website is . His biography is here. His website is here . His social media pages are here . . Our bio is here We are part of the VaynerMedia Podcast Network. Our social media accounts are here . Our new profile is here! Our new podcast is HERE! Our newest episode is HERE. We look forward to hearing from you, the VETRO Nation. . . . and we hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you so much for listening to this episode! Thank you for listening and supporting us! - Joe Biden 2020. - Thank you Joe Biden - and much more! - The Best of Joe Biden - The Joe Biden Campaign Thank You Joe Biden, -- Thank you to Joe Biden for being a Friend of VOTER Mentioned in this Episode of VMA! and Much More! - Thank You for Listening to VMA and Support VOTING FOR VOTED FOR VOCAL PODCAST AND SUPPORTING VOTEMOTIONAL SUPPORT & SUPPORTED by VOTES AND PRACTICYOCCOTTERPRODCAST SUPPORTED INCLICK ME AND GIVING ME AND OTHER LINKED TO SOCIAL MEDIA SUPPORTED FOR VIP SUPPORT AND PATREON AND TALKING INCLUDE PRODUCER SUPPORTED
00:00:23.000You know, there's a lot of issues I think we're going to talk about about why I'm running for president.
00:00:28.000But being out and connecting with people all across this country, bringing this message really of ending these wasteful, destructive foreign policies that have...
00:00:39.000Been so costly on the American people for so long, costly on our troops, costly on our veterans, ending these wasteful regime change wars, ending this new Cold War and nuclear arms race, and taking the trillions of dollars that we've been spending on these programs and that we will continue to spend if the status quo is allowed to continue,
00:01:00.000and investing those dollars back into serving the people in our communities, serving the people of this country.
00:01:06.000Things like healthcare, education, infrastructure, Protecting our environment.
00:01:33.000Like other than the obvious, if you have a dictator that's in place, there's an obvious outcry like Saddam Hussein post 9-11.
00:01:41.000Other than that, What is the reason why we invest so much time and energy into regime change war, so much so that we've just accepted that this is a part of our gross economy?
00:01:53.000If you're going to take all the money that the United States earns and all the money that goes to taxes, we just automatically put a gigantic chunk of that Into investing in these wars in other countries.
00:02:09.000Without any kind of real accountability.
00:02:13.000Six to eight trillion dollars is what's estimated that's been spent since 9-11 alone on these regime change wars without even taking into account what the cost will continue to be to take care of our veterans.
00:02:26.000Those who have gone and fought in these wars and have come home I think?
00:03:23.000And they sold this lie for financial gain, for oil.
00:03:30.000You look at some of the architects of that Iraq war, guys like John Bolton, who today is President Trump's National Security Council director, and you look at what's happening in Venezuela.
00:03:43.000Almost the very same playbook being used, where they're selling this regime change effort, threatening to use U.S. military force to go in and topple a regime under the guise of humanitarianism, when in fact, and Bolton has said this on national television,
00:03:58.000that, well, we really want to make sure that American oil companies are able to go in and access that oil-rich country in Venezuela.
00:04:49.000To come in and threaten to use their military to topple our government or to tell us who should or shouldn't be the leaders in our country.
00:04:56.000We shouldn't be doing that in their country.
00:04:58.000There are serious issues that are causing a lot of suffering for the Venezuelan people.
00:05:04.000If we really want to be helpful, we should be a force to help move towards reconciliation.
00:05:12.000And peace rather than what this administration is doing, which is throwing fuel on the flames of a civil war that'll be devastating, devastating.
00:05:23.000When you say move towards reconciliation and peace, how so?
00:05:26.000Well, you see, there's differences, right?
00:05:27.000There's the people who are with the current government in Venezuela and there is the opposition.
00:05:32.000Clearly, they have differences on what kind of future, what kind of governance and who should lead that government.
00:05:55.000That we, the American people, pay, rather than saying, hey, let's work towards peace, try to push forward diplomacy and find what are the conditions that would make some form of reconciliation going forward.
00:06:10.000Is there an argument, and I really don't know the answer to this, but is there an argument that these regime change wars, although terrible, we would be way worse off if those weren't in place?
00:06:20.000I think that's an argument that proponents for regime change wars try to make, but history shows and proves that the very opposite is true.
00:06:35.000You can look at Guatemala and Ecuador.
00:06:37.000You can look at other countries, Iran, where in the past we have either overtly or covertly through the CIA gone in and toppled leaders of countries or dictators or regimes.
00:07:17.000So is this one of those things that's just a counterintuitive thing where you would think that getting rid of someone like Qaddafi would be a good idea?
00:07:39.000It's hard to imagine that an era of YouTube and slave auctions exists in a place that, you know, at least some part of the blame has to be on us supporting the rebels that went in and took out Gaddafi.
00:08:00.000They get rid of them, and then this power vacuum, right?
00:08:29.000What role should the United States play?
00:08:47.000And with Libya, not only do we see strengthened terrorist groups, there are terrorist groups all over Libya now, failed state.
00:08:54.000The Libyan people are suffering now far more than they were before.
00:08:58.000But we see the ramifications of that in countries like North Korea, where, again, John Bolton and the Trump administration is talking about using the Libya model with North Korea as we work towards this objective of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
00:09:18.000One of the leaders in the North Korean government just said the other day, the United States government is talking about using the Libya model with North Korea to get them to get rid of their nuclear weapons.
00:09:29.000They don't want to end up like Libya or Iraq.
00:09:33.000Where in Libya, as you remember, the United States went in and told Gaddafi, hey, get rid of your nuclear weapons program and we're not going to come after you.
00:09:44.000A very short time later, the United States and other countries went in and took him out.
00:09:48.000So that action and that decision, that policy is directly undermining our national security and our efforts to make us and the world more safe to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
00:10:01.000So would the argument for regime change wars being that, would it be that if we didn't go over there and if we didn't have a military presence and we didn't make them fight against us, that they would somehow or another gain more power and we would deal with this evil superpower?
00:10:17.000Is this like the worst case scenario for the pro-interventionalist foreign policy?
00:10:26.000I mean, the argument that's made by people who are advocating for these regime change wars is we've got to do something to help people who are suffering.
00:10:36.000That's generally the argument that's made.
00:10:39.000And they sell this to the American people knowing that, hey, we have good hearts and we want to help people if we can.
00:10:47.000But what they fail to do is to tell the truth and be honest about what they are hiding behind this guise of humanitarianism.
00:10:58.000I mean, if you look at Saudi Arabia, for example, and you look at the kinds of atrocities that that theocratic dictatorship is conducting against its own people, decapitating LGBTQ people, persecuting religious minorities, being the biggest propagator of this most extreme intolerant ideology of Islam that is fueling terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda,
00:11:38.000Saudi Arabia is a great ally of the United States.
00:11:42.000But then you look at what's happening in Venezuela, ready to launch our military to go in and take out another dictator, ready to go in and launch our military, ready to go and wage a war against Iran.
00:11:55.000So this is evidence of the hypocrisy that exists between those who are waging regime change war in some countries—by the way, usually countries that don't have nuclear weapons— We're good to go.
00:12:28.000Your position on Syria is one that I think people have misconstrued.
00:12:42.000But is that one of those things where people just say that in order to sort of diffuse you, to categorize you as a ridiculous person right off the bat, where no one can take anything else you say seriously?
00:12:53.000It's the usual tactic of trying to smear or vilify me and my campaign and what I'm advocating for because they don't want to engage on the actual issue itself that I'm pointing out about how devastating and costly their policies are.
00:13:11.000Of continuing to wage these wasteful regime change wars, of choosing to support terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in Syria, directly in Syria, because they are the most powerful force on the ground who's fighting to take out the regime,
00:13:29.000So they're so focused on toppling this government in Syria that they're willing to actually use taxpayer dollars to provide direct and indirect support to Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria.
00:13:41.000When you think about how crazy this is, it makes me angry.
00:13:49.000It's why I introduced legislation called the Stop Arming Terrorists Act.
00:13:53.000Why we would need to have such legislation is beyond me, but clearly we do, to make it so that we don't have any taxpayer dollars going directly to provide any kind of arms or support or anything to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, but also to make it so that we are not providing support indirectly through countries like Saudi Arabia who are providing that support to terrorist groups.
00:14:16.000So what has been said of you about Assad and your position on Assad?
00:14:27.000I mean, I'll just tell you what happened.
00:14:28.000I went to Syria to meet with Syrian people, to hear for myself from them about what was happening there.
00:14:37.000While there, I was offered the invitation to meet with the president of Syria, and I took it.
00:14:43.000I think it's important for us to have the courage to meet with leaders, whether they be friends or adversaries or potential adversaries, if our focus is on national security and on peace.
00:14:56.000So I went and I had that meeting and I asked some tough questions.
00:15:01.000I heard from him his perspective on what was happening and what he was doing in his country and took the opportunity while there to meet with religious leaders, college students, members of the political opposition, small business owners,
00:15:17.000You know, women who are working to start their own business to empower other women, Shia, Sunnis, Muslims, Christians, Catholics, people of all different religions.
00:15:29.000It is because of that and that meeting and my staunch opposition to regime change wars in Syria and in other countries that political opponents and others have chosen to try to smear me, my reputation,
00:15:45.000and my campaign And to label me, as you said, you know, she's a supporter of this dictator.
00:15:51.000Well, if that's true, then anyone who opposed the Iraq war is a Saddam Hussein lover, is a lover of dictators and loves Saddam Hussein.
00:16:04.000So if you challenge their logic, you see how shallow it is, and there's really none there.
00:16:09.000And what's exposed is their refusal to engage on the facts and to stand behind why they continue to put the American people through these costly regime change wars and why they continue to wage these wars that are causing incredible suffering for people in different parts of the world.
00:16:27.000It also, when you're having these conversations, Which are incredibly important globally.
00:16:34.000When you choose to distort people's positions like this, you're not helping anybody.
00:16:38.000You're making the whole thing more confusing.
00:16:41.000So for someone like me who's on the outside and has to watch all this go down, I have to go, why do you have reasonable people that make inaccurate statements about someone because they feel like if you do not If you don't refuse a meeting with Assad,
00:16:59.000there's something wrong with you, right?
00:17:01.000To not want to be in the presence of this person.
00:17:05.000Yeah, I mean, there's so much hypocrisy around this.
00:17:10.000You know, a lot of these people are the same people who applauded President Obama when he first ran for president in 2008. When he, I mean, he did, he caused some controversy at that time saying, yes, he would meet with the leader of Iran without preconditions, that he would meet with leaders of other countries in that pursuit of national security and peace.
00:17:31.000So why the double standard here that, okay, so in order to keep our country safe, in order to achieve peace, we're only going to meet with our friends and people who we agree with.
00:17:42.000That's not how you accomplish that mission.
00:17:45.000That's not how you accomplish security and peace.
00:18:16.000And he was open to any and all questions that I had, both about what was happening in Syria, Syria's relationship or the lack thereof with Israel, a lot of the turmoil that we're seeing in different parts of the Middle East of Sunni versus Shia.
00:20:11.000Nor would we want that to happen to us.
00:20:14.000I think that's really what's missing here is, you know, for so long we've seen this imperialistic mentality that still exists in our government where some feel like, hey, well, we should go and tell this country who should lead their government and tell them what kind of policies they should have,
00:20:32.000but no other country should dare even attempt to do that to ours.
00:20:37.000Well, our position is that we're the best.
00:20:39.000And we're running this country the best way.
00:20:41.000And this is the best country that's ever existed, ever.
00:20:59.000I think the problems begin when we go into other countries and try to create little mini Americas and impose it on the people there, whether they like it or not, whether they're ready for it or not, and we end up seeing what we're seeing across the Middle East.
00:21:16.000Yeah, I think we just look at the rest of the world and go, well, I wouldn't tolerate that.
00:21:37.000And this is something that I realized very quickly during my first deployment to Iraq, where I was seeing firsthand the cost of war, serving in that medical unit every single day.
00:21:47.000And I wondered how many politicians in Washington who voted for, advocated for, or championed that war in Iraq were laying awake at night Thinking about my brothers and sisters who were getting killed in combat,
00:22:04.000who were getting severely wounded, getting blown up by IEDs.
00:22:07.000And I learned very quickly that they were not.
00:22:13.000They weren't thinking about the real costs and the ramifications and the consequences of their decisions.
00:22:18.000Jamie, who were we talking with the other day?
00:22:20.000We were trying to say that we think that if you want to be the commander-in-chief, that you should probably have served.
00:22:36.000That's one thing that you have over them, for sure, is that you understand from firsthand experience and sacrifice what it means to actually be in war and to be in combat.
00:22:46.000I mean, I still serve in the Army National Guard now over 16 years.
00:22:51.000I've deployed twice to the Middle East.
00:22:53.000And coupled with my experience in Congress, serving over six years on the foreign affairs and the armed services committees, working intimately on these issues related to national security and our foreign policy, meeting with leaders of different countries in the world,
00:23:10.000it is these experiences and the understanding that I've gained from them What hurdles are you encountering that you didn't expect?
00:23:31.000You know, a lot of what's happening are things that we kind of did expect.
00:23:37.000You know, the smear campaigns, the misinformation campaigns.
00:23:42.000Do you think that someone's doing this on purpose?
00:23:45.000Or do you think this is team mentality in action, where people are supporting a particular candidate and they look at you as being competition in that candidate?
00:23:59.000The establishment, challenging the status quo, challenging the foreign policy establishment, and challenging the political establishment in calling things as I see them, calling it straight and speaking the truth, whether that be calling out leaders within my own party or leaders of the other political party.
00:24:18.000And, you know, I think that strikes fear in a lot of people who are uncomfortable with it, at a minimum, and who are concerned because when, you know, we the people rise up and say, hey, what's really going on here?
00:24:34.000Self-serving politicians in Washington from both political parties who are putting their own political interests or the interests of their party ahead of the interests of the people.
00:24:44.000Or they're putting the interests of, you know, whatever greedy corporation and their lobbyists is writing the biggest checks to their campaigns ahead of the interests of the people.
00:24:53.000So the more this awareness comes out, the more people stand up and speak out and say, hey, this is unacceptable.
00:25:14.000We take no PAC contributions, no lobbyist contributions.
00:25:18.000Every single dollar that comes to my campaign for president is coming from individual people across this country, whether it's a dollar or a thousand dollars, people who are giving whatever they can and joining this movement.
00:26:44.000His last speech as President of the United States, of all the things that he could talk about, he chose to focus on the military-industrial complex.
00:29:14.000A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment.
00:29:19.000Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
00:29:29.000Our military organization today bears little relation to that known of any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
00:29:43.000Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry.
00:29:50.000American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well.
00:29:57.000But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense.
00:30:03.000We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.
00:30:09.000Added to this Three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment.
00:30:17.000We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.
00:30:27.000Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience.
00:30:36.000The total influence, economic, political, even spiritual, is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the federal government.
00:30:47.000We recognize the imperative need for this development, yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.
00:30:56.000Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved.
00:31:01.000So is the very structure of our society.
00:31:05.000In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
00:31:16.000The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
00:31:23.000We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
00:32:12.000And they're going to have a little wiggle room, especially with politicians.
00:32:16.000It's politicians that are in their pocket, and they've spent millions of dollars helping them along the way, and they're going to help each other.
00:32:29.000You see that very directly through contributions that are being made to politicians by different defense contractors and the corresponding votes that are then taken.
00:32:42.000But you also see this corruption that's happening before our very eyes happening within places like the Pentagon.
00:33:23.000This is what we need to change when we're talking about both campaign finance reform, but also reforming this kind of corruption and this revolving door that's happening in different parts of our government.
00:33:35.000You see it happening in Wall Street, too.
00:33:38.000People are supposed to be regulating Wall Street or coming from Wall Street and then going back to Wall Street to work for the very same companies that they were supposedly just charged to regulate.
00:33:48.000This is a big problem that we've got to fix.
00:33:50.000Yeah, there's a fantastic documentary on that called Inside Job.
00:33:55.000You see when he's confronting these guys who are professors who then go and take these jobs and make millions of dollars with the very regulations that they helped put into place.
00:34:06.000And it's happening with foreign policy as well.
00:34:08.000When you look at who are the main people who go and testify in front of Congress, coming from think tanks, very well known think tanks, global think tanks that specialize in foreign policy, they don't have a placard on their desk when they're testifying before Congress saying,
00:34:25.000we receive funding from Saudi Arabia, from Qatar, from the United Arab Emirates, from all these different countries who are spending a lot of money Funding these think tanks that then come forward and push policies or push ideas to leaders in Congress that not coincidentally benefit the countries that are funding them.
00:34:48.000What could be done to stop that, other than someone like you getting into power?
00:34:55.000And what could you do once you get in there?
00:34:59.000I mean, obviously, as president and commander-in-chief, you set the tone for the kind of leadership that we have in this country that will put service above self.
00:35:08.000And this is what I will bring as president, bring those soldiers' values up.
00:35:13.000Of putting service above self, putting service to the American people and your country first and foremost ahead of everything else, ahead of the interests of a political party or a corporation or a foreign country, for that matter, and work to pass legislation in Congress that would close these revolving doors,
00:35:32.000that would require this transparency when you're talking about who is funding who and where is this money coming from.
00:35:39.000I think members of Congress should not be taking PAC contributions, should be relying solely on contributions from people in this country so that they know exactly who is funding their campaigns.
00:35:53.000It's something that's starting to happen organically as more and more people are calling for this kind of reform and saying, hey, look, if you want my vote, then I expect you to not accept those contributions and to run a people-powered campaign.
00:36:09.000How many people are doing that besides you?
00:36:12.000There's a couple who are running for president.
00:36:15.000There is a slowly growing number of people who have run for and gotten elected to Congress.
00:36:21.000But look, it's in the margins compared to where we need to be.
00:36:25.000Now, one thing that exists now that really didn't exist when Obama was running for president is the impact of social media.
00:36:35.000With that also comes this reality that we're living in right now where there's only a few companies that are controlling the discourse in this country.
00:37:14.000Gosh, with Facebook and Google, for that matter, you know, they can set their algorithms, Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, and set his algorithm to control what information is coming across our newsfeed in Facebook.
00:37:27.000What are the stories that we're seeing?
00:37:31.000With Google, they can control when you punch in something, what are the first stories that you're going to see on the first page that pops up?
00:37:40.000When you think about that kind of power of influence that it has on the American people literally being held within the hands of a couple of people unchecked and without oversight or transparency, it's incredibly dangerous.
00:38:22.000Yes, but they're trying to get the best of both worlds.
00:38:27.000The fact that they're claiming to say, hey, this is a free space for open communication for everyone, while at the same time going and saying, actually, you know what, Joe, I don't like what you're saying about this, so we're going to ban you and whoever your friends are from this conversation.
00:38:47.000It undermines our First Amendment rights.
00:38:51.000Then you look at privacy, the privacy concerns of all the information that they're collecting in Facebook from us, all the information that they're collecting from us with Google, and how they're monetizing that and selling or sharing that information with other people really without our knowledge or agreement.
00:39:51.000But there's a thing that they're doing.
00:39:55.000There's a couple things they're doing.
00:39:56.000But one of the things they're doing with your data, they find out what you're interested in, they find out what you're interested in engaging on.
00:40:06.000So for many people, it's the things that piss you off the most.
00:40:09.000Like if you have a real problem with Catholic priests getting away with having sex with little boys, you will think that that's happening every minute of every day all across the world because it's going to be in your newsfeed constantly because they know that's what makes you engage.
00:40:22.000So your algorithm, the algorithm is your feed is going to be very different than my feed because I engage on different things than you do.
00:40:30.000And the problem with that is even if they're not calculating, if it's not on purpose, they're not trying to get people outraged.
00:40:37.000It's not like they're trying to rabble-rouse, but what they are doing is they...
00:40:41.000Because they have an ad-supported model, they gravitate towards the outrageous because that's what people get excited about, and that's what people make multiple posts about, and that's how they make their revenue.
00:41:00.000And the tribal boundaries between the two sides on these issues are more tense.
00:41:07.000And you would think that discourse and the ability to freely communicate would kind of open that up and people would kind of understand each other better.
00:41:21.000Like you can't post anything about anything and there's people just jumping on people and it's It's a crazy thing that has happened that we gravitate towards the outrageous.
00:41:31.000I don't think that should be rewarded financially.
00:41:35.000If this is just what people go to organically, that's one thing.
00:41:40.000But when you're cultivating feeds, or at least your algorithm is cultivating feeds so that people get pissed off, you're making the country a shittier place.
00:43:59.000I think what's happening is there was some serious concern that Facebook was used to influence the last election, whether against their knowledge or in a way where they were negligent about the type of filtering they use that stops people from posting propaganda and particularly stops...
00:44:20.000These things like the IRA, the Internet Research Agency in Russia, that literally creates thousands of profiles and pages, and they'll have a Black Lives Matter page that's just designed to fuck with cops, and then they'll have a pro cop page that's just designed to fuck with Black Lives Matter.
00:44:46.000Renee DiResta, who had been on my podcast, went over the details of how it's set up and how they do it and the memes and the memes that they create.
00:44:53.000This is an organized effort that they channeled through Facebook in particular and then Instagram and a couple other social media sites.
00:45:01.000You know what's interesting about Renee?
00:45:12.000This company, New Knowledge, that the DNC has tapped as one of their disinformation campaign experts and cyber experts, was the very same company that created false accounts and pretended to be Russian bots in order to influence a U.S. Senate election in Alabama.
00:45:53.000Well, I've never met her, but I know that that company is one that is often cited as a so-called expert and was a company that was cited to try to smear my campaign as somehow being an engine for the Russians or something like that,
00:46:11.000which to me, again, just points to, well, let's look at the so-called experts that you're citing in this company, New Knowledge, and the kinds of actions that they've been taking.
00:46:23.000The very same ones that they're criticizing others for doing.
00:46:31.000It is a wild west in the sense that, I mean, I think there should be regulation.
00:46:36.000Like, I mean, I don't think you should be able to put child porn everywhere.
00:46:39.000I don't think you should be able to dox people.
00:46:40.000But it's like, where does that border stop?
00:46:43.000Where does that regulation border stop?
00:46:44.000And I think it's a very good question.
00:46:46.000Do you think that these social media platforms, whether it's Google or Twitter or whatever, Facebook, do you think that they should be treated as a public utility where everyone essentially has the right to use them?
00:47:06.000I do think that they should be regulated like that, and they should be subject to the very same antitrust laws that have been used to make sure that we don't have other monopolies in other industries or in other areas to break them up.
00:47:22.000And I think that was something that Chris Hughes outlined in his article.
00:47:26.000The very first step that could be taken is just to say, hey, you've got Facebook needs to let go of Instagram and WhatsApp.
00:47:55.000Any kind of competition and squashing that competition from coming up and saying, hey, you know, you've got Facebook and then you've got this other new social media technology.
00:48:04.000They've got better privacy standards and better service for the consumer than Facebook.
00:48:09.000But anytime that tries to happen, you know, they're quickly squashed by companies like Facebook or Google for that matter.
00:48:20.000The big concern is that there's just not enough variety.
00:48:25.000And there's also a big concern that—I have a big concern—that there's a bunch of people that don't seem to understand the consequences of what they're calling deplatforming people.
00:48:37.000Taking people out of the public discussion.
00:48:40.000And when you do that and you create a bubble or you create a one-party leaning institution, one-party leaning conglomeration of human beings, you're going to develop some real anger on the other side.
00:48:56.000And it does the opposite of what you want it to do.
00:49:00.000What you want it to do is make the world a better place.
00:49:02.000Let's take some of these angry voices out of the mix and let's make the world a better place.
00:49:10.000Encourage these kinds of conversations where you can engage with people who might have a different view on an issue or might have a different experience that they bring to the conversation and to do so that actually helps increase the knowledge and understanding that we have.
00:49:25.000Yeah, I think we have to reward civil discourse as well.
00:49:29.000I think we have to be kinder to each other.
00:49:30.000We have to be more upset at people that are acting like shitheads online for no reason.
00:49:37.000You think that it's just online, but what it is is communication.
00:49:42.000And if you're interested in shitty communication online, you're just a shitty communicator.
00:49:48.000All this calling it being a troll and all these different things.
00:49:52.000Labels that people put on to make it cuter and whitewash it.
00:49:57.000And if people could figure out how to be less angry in their online lives and communicate about issues, I think we'd find that we meet more in the middle than we think we do.
00:50:10.000I think there's also a problem that people have where they become married to their ideas.
00:50:14.000And they dig their heels in and they support their ideology and they're very rigid about it.
00:50:19.000And that is only strengthened when you silence people.
00:50:23.000It does the opposite of what you're hoping it's going to do.
00:50:59.000And that is where this path ends up, this path that we're on of this hyper-partisanship, this extreme divisiveness, where it's either you're in my tribe or you're in the other tribe and the arrows are pointed at each other without any willingness to,
00:51:15.000once again, let's just have a conversation.
00:51:17.000Let me hear where you're coming from, hear where I'm coming from.
00:51:19.000We can disagree without being disagreeable.
00:51:22.000We can even have a heated conversation and a debate.
00:51:24.000And I would say that what you're saying is patriotic.
00:51:46.000And as you said, it's extremely dangerous.
00:51:48.000And the American people are the ones who ultimately lose in all of this.
00:51:53.000This has been one of the most frustrating things that I've seen and experienced throughout my over six years in Congress that really started when I first went up after I got elected, where after every election happens, the new members of Congress, they go and they have what's called new member orientation.
00:52:32.000And what we're told right off the bat is, look, this is about getting wins for our political party.
00:52:40.000And if you work with a Republican, then that's going to hurt the party, especially if you work with a Republican that the Democratic Party is trying to take out.
00:52:52.000And this happens on the opposite side as well, Republicans with Democrats.
00:52:55.000Both political parties are guilty of this, where they're really putting the interests of the political party ahead of the people who just voted for us to go and serve them.
00:53:06.000And not just the Democrats who voted for me, but yes, the independents and the Republicans, both who voted for me or who didn't.
00:53:13.000But who I serve as part of my constituency.
00:53:18.000And I've continued to see this, where you'll have a bill that because it's a Democrat bill, Republicans will vote against it, substance aside.
00:53:28.000Or a Republican bill, Democrats will vote against it just because it's a Republican bill.
00:53:32.000But then, hey, if they come in and a month or a year later introduce the same bill or a similar bill, but now because it's a Democratic bill, okay, everybody, hey, let's go and support...
00:53:44.000You can imagine why there is so much gridlock in Washington, why nothing really gets done, and ultimately how this divisiveness and this hyper-partisanship is hurting the ability for...
00:54:00.000The needs of the American people to be served.
00:54:02.000When you talk about people like yourself that are completely funded by the public and you have this very logical and objective way of discussing this gridlock, do you think that the future is in young people like yourself getting involved in politics,
00:54:20.000that they're not connected to this old world for 35, 45 years?
00:54:25.000This world, it sounds like this is just what you do.
00:54:42.000Well, I think it's evident where we see those who are very entrenched in this broken system feel very threatened by the rise of people-powered campaigns, individual contributions coming in,
00:54:57.000and supplanting the big money that they get from the PACs and lobbyists.
00:55:05.000And there's fear there because they see their whole world being disrupted by people like me or others who are coming in and saying, no, we're not buying into any of that.
00:55:16.000And we're coming in to actually fulfill the mission that we've been charged with by those who voted for us to serve the people, all the people of this country.
00:55:29.000I think that Trump plays a part of that because I think he was the first guy to come in basically self-funded or being funded through his own means and not listening to the rest of the Republican Party saying, hey, I'm going to take over and I'm going to do this my way.
00:55:46.000And then knowing that he could do that and knowing that there were so many Republicans against him and knowing that there are so many Democrats against him as well, but yet he's still the president.
00:55:54.000People are like, Jesus, this is a fragile system.
00:55:56.000This system is—what they've done to acquire power is still very vulnerable, even though they have this deeply entrenched system of weird little relationships that it's not good enough.
00:56:09.000That if the people do rise up and they decide, hey, we want to put Tulsi in as president— You're going to have a different situation.
00:56:16.000A lot of you clowns are going to be out of work.
00:56:18.000And that's the message that we're carrying to living rooms and town halls and communities across the country is Washington continues to underestimate the power of the people.
00:56:31.000And that's the thing is our founding fathers had this vision for our country that our government would be of the people, by the people, and for the people.
00:56:40.000And instead, what we have is a government of the rich and powerful by and for the rich and powerful, of the special interests and corporations by and for the special interests and corporations.
00:56:51.000And, you know, we the people get left behind.
00:56:54.000And they continue to talk to us like they're in control.
00:57:12.000It's evident of that huge disconnect between the bubble that is Washington and the reality of the lives that we live every day, people all across this country.
00:57:21.000That's always the case, though, when people get in control of things.
00:57:25.000They always meddle, make it easier for them, make it better for them.
00:57:28.000What can I do to make this a little easier?
00:57:50.000I would love to pretend to be a banker, to put a lizard skin face mask on and go sit with those bankers and listen to one of those conversations that Hillary Clinton got paid a quarter million dollars to talk to.
00:58:50.000I would have him on the show and do it in Colorado because they decriminalize mushrooms.
00:58:56.000It's just this role of being the person that is in control of this country has always been this impossible task.
00:59:06.000And when I see a person like you who wants to do it, I say, listen, you have some of the best ideas and the most healthy perspective that I've ever heard from anyone that's ever running for president.
00:59:16.000But why would you want to do that to yourself?
00:59:18.000Those are the two things that I think of.
00:59:22.000And it's not to be in control of the country and the people.
00:59:26.000It's to serve the people and our country.
00:59:29.000It's a continuation of this mission that I've chosen for my life to be of service, to find different ways to do that.
00:59:36.000You know, it started in Hawaii with gathering my friends as a kid and going and picking up trash off the beach on the weekends and experiencing even then at a young age that that made me happier and Yeah.
01:00:11.000Serving that same flag that represents the American people with that laser-like focus on putting service above self.
01:00:20.000And that's what I seek to bring to the White House, to restore those values of integrity and honor and respect, to make it so that that White House is a beacon of light for the American people, to know that that White House belongs to them and represents them and their interests and their interests alone.
01:00:37.000Does anybody, even a person like you who's on the outside, do you think anybody truly knows what it's like to run the country until they get in there?
01:00:46.000Can you even have an idea of how impossible a task it is to be in control of the economy, the environment, the infrastructure, the military, our position in the world?
01:00:58.000It seems like the most insane duty to require someone to run all those things, to be aware of all those things, to be responsible for all of the successes and all of the failures.
01:02:19.000And you do get to change the way we spend money and stop spending money on these regime change wars, what would be the first thing you invested in in this country?
01:02:30.000And how would you go about doing that?
01:02:35.000I'd want to give that some thought because there are a whole host of challenges that we're facing.
01:02:40.000You know, I mean, healthcare is among the top of the list.
01:02:43.000And, you know, we've talked a little bit about that the last time I was here.
01:02:46.000Our crumbling infrastructure continues to be something that's not only just uncomfortable every time we're driving over potholes, it's actually threatening people's lives and well-beings.
01:02:58.000I was in Iowa a few weeks ago and we visited a few communities that were completely inundated and devastated by the flooding that took place there, gosh, about three or four weeks ago now.
01:03:12.000Many of them have not been able to return to their homes.
01:03:17.000We were tearing down drywall and ripping up the floors and underneath the wood and the floors there was still like tons of water.
01:03:24.000And they were talking about how even with the aid from FEMA and SBA loans, that they are unwilling to put a single dollar back into rebuilding their homes because they're hearing from the government and the Army Corps of Engineers that That it may take two to four years to fix the levees that broke down and caused that flooding.
01:03:49.000So why would they go and try to pour their life savings back into rebuilding their homes when they could get flooded again in a year or in two years?
01:03:59.000Because we're not making the kinds of investments in our infrastructure that we need to make.
01:04:06.000I mean, there's a whole host of issues that I think we need to look at how we can best provide the resources that are necessary to improve those services to the American people and also look at how we're doing business and fixing the problems that exist within those different agencies.
01:04:24.000There's always been a call to help countries in need in the world.
01:04:28.000There's always been a call for the United States to step in and do something, but yet there's problems in this country that never change.
01:04:39.000There's bad communities in this country that are impoverished and crime-ridden that have been the same way for decades.
01:04:46.000There was a former Baltimore police officer named Michael Wood who came on my podcast, and he was talking to me about the time when he was in the Baltimore Police Department.
01:04:55.000They found a piece of paper that was documenting various crimes from the 1970s, one of the years from 1970-something, and it was the same exact crime in the same exact area that they were having problems with now,
01:05:11.000whether it's homicide, Narcotics, whatever it was, they were having the exact same issue in the exact same places.
01:05:18.000And then he realized, well, there's no effort put to change this.
01:05:22.000If you're talking about decades and decades and decades, why wasn't there money funneled into this community?
01:05:30.000Why isn't there some community centers that help children?
01:05:33.000Why isn't there an emphasis on better education?
01:05:36.000Why isn't there more police officers or at least Mm-hmm.
01:05:59.000The weakest parts are the people that are born in a shit situation.
01:06:26.000If we can help Iraq, if we can invade Syria, if we can do some of the things that people either want us to do or we have done, why can't we do that?
01:06:48.000Imagine what could be done with those dollars and those resources in communities like Baltimore, in communities like Flint, Michigan, where people are still being poisoned by their water, where they're being lied to and cheated by their leadership,
01:07:03.000where the governor sent in these inspectors and cleared the water saying, hey, everything's fine.
01:07:08.000What he didn't tell people was that when those inspectors went in, I think?
01:07:39.000And where our money is going and how it is counter to our national security.
01:07:45.000It's counter to the interests of our people and the people in those countries.
01:07:48.000But this is why I talk about this everywhere I go because it's central.
01:07:52.000It's central to our ability to address these domestic challenges that we are facing, we in this country are facing in communities across the country, dealing with health care, affordable housing.
01:08:05.000In both urban cities and rural communities, people who are not able to afford to put a roof over their heads, people who are working full time, maybe one, maybe two jobs even, still can't afford to put a roof over their heads.
01:08:17.000There are serious issues that we need to address here, but to think that somehow we'll have the resources to do so without addressing where trillions of our dollars have been going now for the last several years is a lie.
01:08:32.000When you talk about people that are working full-time jobs and they still don't have enough money to get by, what could you do to change that?
01:08:40.000Well, I think there's not one single action that can fix that.
01:09:31.000The argument against that would be that small businesses would go under or hire less people or that somehow or another it would be bad for business.
01:10:08.000I'm really looking at the universal basic income and seeing how that could be a tool to help deal with a lot of these poverty-stricken communities and people who've been struggling and still unable to dig themselves out of a hole there.
01:10:23.000And seeing how that potentially could replace a lot of the bureaucracy, a lot of the money that we're spending on bureaucracy and a lot of social welfare programs, perhaps to both save money and to provide support directly to people who need it.
01:10:38.000So I think that's an option that we've got to consider.
01:10:41.000It's not simple, and so I'm doing the research and figuring out how exactly that would work and how exactly we'd pay for it.
01:10:48.000But we also have to look at affordable housing.
01:10:50.000I think not accepting the fact that the high cost of housing is what it is, is not the solution.
01:10:59.000There's a lot of money that goes into our Housing and Urban Development Department, but is it really having the effect that we needed to have to make it so that, you know, whether it's cops or teachers or firefighters, people who are working in these public service jobs are able to afford to live in the communities where they're working.
01:11:17.000We had a town hall there yesterday and took a tour with the mayor, city council members, community leaders around a lot of the areas that were completely devastated by the fires.
01:11:50.000And you don't even get to own the land that your trailer sits on.
01:11:53.000And so this is a real problem that they're facing is people who are teaching in that area, the firefighters who are working in that area, they're not able to afford to live in the community that they serve.
01:12:32.000Some communities are doing the same thing for first responders, for firefighters and others.
01:12:38.000So this is a problem that a lot of city councils and local communities are trying to deal with and solve.
01:12:45.000But I think it also points to a bigger problem that we have nationally, that there is just not enough affordable, truly affordable housing for working people in the country.
01:12:57.000But a place like Malibu has always been this exclusive community because there's just not that much Malibu, right?
01:13:04.000It's right next to the water, so it's more valuable.
01:13:15.000That was one of the things they said that has been, you know, people look at Malibu and they're like, well, that's where a bunch of multimillionaire rich people go and buy their beach homes.
01:13:24.000But there has always been, you know, the basis of that community was really founded on those who worked to build the community.
01:13:32.000You know, middle class people who are increasingly being pushed out.
01:13:37.000If you're not living in the home that, you know, your grandfather, your great-grandfather built, then you're not going to be able to afford to stay there.
01:13:45.000So, you know, we didn't get into the details on what they're looking at, but this is something that the city council and the mayor are grappling with now, to be able to attract workers who want to work in the area, but who don't want to have to drive two hours or three hours just to get to their place of work.
01:14:04.000Yeah, I just don't know how you would ever do that, especially with all those...
01:14:15.000And that's where a lot of, I mean, a lot of the folks we were talking to yesterday, they live, you know, up on the mountain or in the valley or...
01:14:23.000The thing about being by the beach is people can just kind of hang out in your backyard, like right there, like right where your bedroom is.
01:14:30.000There can be people that are cooking out four feet away from your head.
01:16:18.000Well, we have our forefathers to thank for their foresight, like Theodore Roosevelt saw this in advance and met with great resistance from a lot of big businesses that just wanted to put apartments up everywhere and start building factories.
01:16:33.000And we created this incredible system of public land in this country that's unprecedented.
01:16:38.000I mean, only Canada has something that rivals us.
01:16:41.000I mean, I guess Australia's got a lot of public land too, but it's just, there's other countries that have it, but it's amazing what we have here.
01:16:48.000And in terms of our diversity of scenery and where you could go too.
01:16:53.000I mean, you could go to the desert or you could go to Idaho and, you know, go to Coeur d'Alene.
01:17:27.000You turn on the news or you talk to politicians in Washington about, okay, we've got to protect our environment and it becomes like a political talking point.
01:17:35.000But I'm so grateful to have grown up in Hawaii and that talking point is actually a way of life.
01:17:43.000Like this connection that we have with nature, with Mother Earth is something that's real and it's cultural and it's passed down from generations and I think?
01:20:07.000Which I want to give a shout out to one of the guys I met yesterday in Malibu, a guy named Keegan.
01:20:12.000He organized, I don't know, 20 or 25 of his friends.
01:20:17.000And they went and they just started fighting fires in people's houses all on their own, organized aid stations and food stations, getting generators in.
01:20:27.000But I told him I was coming on your show today, and he just said that Joe Rogan and his show has made such a deep impact on my life because he went from somebody who was really triggered, was the word he used,
01:20:43.000by people who were saying things that he disagreed with, and you inspired him to kind of open his mind and his eyes to And to recognize that we are stronger and we are better when we have this kind of respectful discourse and we're open to hearing from and trying to understand people who may have a different view rather than being triggered and running away in the opposite direction or reacting in a negative way.
01:21:12.000I just wanted to pass that on because you made a big impact on him and on a lot of his friends and a lot of people in the country.
01:21:21.000And that's having a positive impact on our culture.
01:21:55.000And I wasn't necessarily that nice all the time.
01:21:58.000And when I examined my life over time, I realized that The things that always felt the worst were conflicts that were unnecessary, and particularly the things that I judged myself the most harshly weren't my mistakes or failures in my attempts at doing things.
01:22:18.000It was my misbehaving, my just being a jerk.
01:22:24.000Where it wasn't necessary or having an opportunity to be nice and not taking it or escalating things where I could have used diplomacy.
01:22:30.000And I just learned over time that a lot of it is the way I was communicating with people where I was failing was how I was approaching their thoughts and that I was immediately trying to be right rather than listen to them.
01:22:45.000And I was thinking about them differently than I think about myself.
01:22:50.000One of the things that happened to me when I had children was I started thinking of people like babies that grew up.
01:23:01.000I was passing by this old lady smoking cigarettes, playing bingo or playing roulette, rather, slots, whatever the fuck it is, whatever waste of money it is.
01:23:10.000And I'm watching her do this and I'm like, God, that was a baby.
01:23:22.000But my perspective has radically shifted.
01:23:29.000And as I've gotten older and then started this podcast, the thing that I realized was that I needed to get better at talking to people when I was doing the podcast.
01:24:08.000If you want to look at the left or the right, I share so much in common with so many people in both the left and the right that I almost want to put a graph down of like, how do you live your life?
01:24:24.000Do you have good friends that you care about?
01:24:26.000Do you have buddies that could call you at four o'clock in the morning and say, you got to drive two hours and pick me up, and you would immediately do it?
01:24:53.000And then it gets down to Political and social issues.
01:24:58.000And it gets down to the heavy ones, things like abortion and war and freedom of religion.
01:25:04.000And these things, I think, are the ones where we should all just be communicating as calmly and as objectively as possible.
01:25:13.000And we should discourage this tribal perspective, discourage this idea of being married to your own ideas and trying to win these arguments, which you see in Congress, which you see In political campaigns, which you see in Television news is a fucking dumpster fire.
01:25:33.000Every single time they have the panel with the three people, it's just...
01:26:14.000And I think we're not aware of how much all of this conversation and all of our analyzing the world around us has shifted over the last decade or so.
01:26:33.000They're less likely to just accept at face value what they're seeing on TV or what they're hearing, which I think is a positive thing.
01:26:42.000And I think we do need to look at the leadership of this country to set this culture for civil discourse.
01:26:52.000For making it okay and encouraging, actually, those kinds of conversations.
01:26:58.000And that's where if you watch C-SPAN one night when you can't fall asleep, you'll see in the floor of Congress, you've got the Democrats who are all sitting on one side.
01:27:07.000You've got the Republicans all sitting on the other side.
01:27:10.000And Unfortunately, not often enough do you see intermingling in conversation and people going to the other side of the aisle and actually getting to know people.
01:27:21.000That was something that when I first got elected, I was told, look, as a new member of Congress, serving in the minority with Republicans in charge, coming from a small state like Hawaii, you will never get anything done.
01:27:45.000So my mom and dad, they're small business owners, and they have this macadamia nut toffee business.
01:27:53.000And so I called home and I said, Hey, Mom, can you make 434 boxes of your toffee for every single member of Congress, all the Democrats, all the Republicans?
01:29:11.000Outreach of Aloha opened the doors to these relationships that enabled me to be able to pass my first piece of legislation, like my first six months as a member of Congress from a small state in the minority as a Democrat.
01:29:24.000And it's because just treating people with respect, treating people with Aloha and saying, yeah, we can disagree even on nine out of 10 things.
01:29:32.000But on that 10th thing, like, hey, let's talk.
01:33:35.000And you're not gonna, you know, if you addressed all the people that are upset at you all the time, you would never get anything done, right?
01:34:41.000And the experience that I bring is different from any other candidate who's running for president, serving as a soldier for 16 years, serving in Congress on these committees of importance and national security.
01:34:54.000I've served the state legislature and the city council.
01:34:58.000And look, when you look back, we talked about our founding fathers.
01:35:02.000Most of them who crafted the Constitution and who wrote the Declaration of Independence were under the age of 40. Many under the age of 30. But people who lived to be like 40 back then.
01:35:31.000But we do wonder, right, like when has a person had enough life experience?
01:35:39.000But then again, the question is, what is that life experience?
01:35:42.000Is it life experience, like you said, that leads you to be an immature 70-year-old?
01:35:46.000Or is it the life experience of someone who's served in combat and has been in Congress for six years and someone who understands how this government works and has a better perspective of human beings?
01:35:57.000Yeah, it is that experience and it's what you draw from it and the conclusions and the judgment and the kind of leadership that you would exercise.
01:36:06.000There were a lot of folks in 2016 who said Hillary Clinton was the most experienced candidate ever to run for president because of the jobs she had held or the experience that she had had.
01:36:19.000My problem was with her judgment and the kinds of decisions that she would make as commander-in-chief, decisions that would continue to send people like me and my brothers and sisters in uniform to continue to fight in these wasteful regime change wars that actually dishonor the oath that we all take when we volunteer to serve,
01:36:40.000to serve to protect and defend our country and the American people.
01:36:43.000And instead sending us on these missions that are counter to that promise, that undermine our national security, that undermine the great sacrifice that our troops and their families make.
01:36:56.000It's the experience and the judgment that I believe we need to look for in the next commander-in-chief.
01:37:02.000It's what I bring to the table, and it's what I challenge voters to ask the other candidates and to hold them to account on both of those fronts.
01:37:12.000To walk into that Oval Office on day one and to serve our country as commander in chief.
01:37:17.000One of the messages that Trump was very successful in getting out was that he wanted to drain the swamp, that we all realize that there's just this tangled web of bureaucracy.
01:37:57.000How do you avoid Communicating like a politician, when you're doing this in mass, when you're communicating with giant groups of people, when you're having these big speeches in these big places, how do you do it and still let people know you're just a person?
01:38:16.000Because that's, I think, what people are longing for and what they don't see in many candidates.
01:38:21.000You see this act, like, oh, he's pretty good at his act, but I see the act.
01:38:28.000Being myself, speaking the truth, and standing up for what I believe in and why I'm offering to serve our country.
01:38:37.000Really, there's no other way to do it because if I start like, okay, how am I going to convey myself as a real person?
01:38:43.000The only way to do that is to actually be a real person and who's speaking truthfully and honestly and respecting The American people and the responsibility that I'm asking them to bestow upon me, that mission that I'm asking them to charge me with.
01:39:01.000You've said you've always been drawn to service.
01:39:08.000What does this feel like to you, this idea that you are going to be the commander-in-chief of the greatest army the world has ever known, the leader of the free world, in a sense?
01:39:20.000The grave responsibility that that job carries and the seriousness with which I would bring my experience and my judgment to fulfilling that job.
01:39:34.000You know, this is, I think, one of the problems that we have too often in our politics is that people, self-serving politicians, are more interested in keeping their job or in getting the next job or, you know, in lining their pockets, getting ready for the,
01:39:49.000you know, the afterlife or whatever when they leave their political office, that that somehow is important.
01:39:55.000Is defining of who they are rather than recognizing that to be able to serve the people is a great honor and it's tremendous responsibility.
01:40:08.000And that's how I approach serving in the local, the state level and at Congress.
01:40:14.000And how I approach being able to serve the American people as president and commander-in-chief.
01:40:20.000And I will never forget for a single moment who I serve and who I work for.
01:40:28.000What is your take on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange?
01:40:35.000What happened with his arrest and all this stuff that just went down recently?
01:40:42.000I think poses a great threat to our freedom of the press and to our freedom of speech.
01:40:49.000We look at what happened under the previous administration under Obama.
01:40:54.000You know, they were trying to find ways to go after Assange and WikiLeaks, but ultimately they chose not to seek to extradite him or charge him because they recognized what a slippery slope that begins When you have a government in a position to levy criminal charges and consequences against someone who's publishing information or saying things that the government doesn't want you to say,
01:41:23.000sharing information that the government doesn't want you to share.
01:41:27.000And so the fact that the Trump administration has chosen to ignore that fact, to ignore how important it is that we uphold our freedoms, freedom of the press and freedom of speech and go after him, it has a very chilling effect on both journalists and publishers.
01:41:45.000And you can look to both those in the traditional media, but also those in new media.
01:41:50.000And also on every one of us as American.
01:41:53.000It was kind of a warning call saying, look what happened to this guy.
01:42:29.000And not only that, but I think it was Secretary Pompeo, Secretary of State, who said that they wanted to designate WikiLeaks and Assange as a foreign intelligence agency.
01:42:43.000So once you do that, then you're talking about a whole different category.
01:42:47.000So they're pushing out information once again that the government didn't want pushed out.
01:42:52.000And if the government then says, oh, well, now we're going to reclassify you as a foreign intelligence agency, then there's a whole different set of rules of engagement that apply there.
01:43:02.000Then you're no longer protected under the freedoms that we hold dear, the freedom of the press.
01:43:08.000It's just such a disgusting way of framing things.
01:43:11.000Like, you know he's not a foreign intelligence agent.
01:43:14.000He's a guy that got information and released it to the general public that the government wanted to keep private.
01:43:30.000I don't think we—I remember the very day that I woke up in D.C., looked at my phone, started looking through the headlines, and saw those headlines about how the NSA was mass surveilling all of us.
01:43:48.000In collecting our phone records, collecting our cell phone records, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and I was shocked.
01:43:56.000So that was something that Snowden uncovered and released, something that I don't know that even as members of Congress we would have been aware of.
01:44:05.000So now that we were aware of it, then, hey, we can take action to close those loopholes, to change those policies, to protect our civil liberties, to protect our Fourth Amendment constitutional rights as Americans.
01:44:18.000But was the NSA going to disclose that information voluntarily on their own?
01:44:37.000But he was one of the first ones to discuss this.
01:44:39.000This was post 9-11 when they first started doing it.
01:44:42.000But Snowden was the guy that really made it abundantly clear to everybody that not only are they doing that, but they're also lying about it.
01:44:50.000And even Obama was talking, oh, we're just collecting metadata.
01:45:03.000And you had, I think he was the director of the Department of National Intelligence at that time, James Clapper, who sat before a committee in the United States Senate and blatantly lied.
01:45:24.000And yet he's somebody who you see on TV almost every day as an expert in this country without any consequence lying to the American people.
01:45:33.000And I think that if you polled the American people and you asked us to vote on it, I think it would be a gigantic landslide victory for Edward Snowden to be exonerated and brought back to the United States.
01:45:44.000They've got this guy, he's in Russia now, hiding.
01:45:48.000It's crazy that he lives over there and he can't leave, and if he does come over here, they're immediately going to lock him up.
01:45:56.000One thing that I think, I want to answer your question, but one thing that I think speaks to the dangerous nature of this culture that we're living in now, the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had done an interview on,
01:46:11.000I don't know, one of the major networks, and I think he was talking about Trump when he said, be careful, you don't want to challenge the intelligence agencies.
01:46:25.000I don't know if you can pull that exact quote up, but I was shocked when I heard him say that.
01:46:30.000Because it basically makes out that these intelligence agencies are their own...
01:46:34.000Separate branch of government and that if any one of us as Americans or elected leaders in this country dares to challenge or exercise oversight over them, then we will suffer the consequences.
01:46:47.000So as president, I would change that culture of leadership.
01:46:53.000And when you have people in positions of leadership who continue to perpetuate that culture of unaccountability, of complete disrespect and disregard for the Constitution, of not understanding that yes, we need to keep our country safe,
01:47:10.000We also need to protect our constitutional rights.
01:47:13.000This is not a choice between the two which is so often how it's framed.
01:47:17.000Well, if you want to protect us against terrorists, you've got to give up all of your rights as Americans and your civil liberties and your privacies and just let these intelligence agencies run free and run roughshod over us.
01:47:29.000And so that's the kind of change in leadership that I'll bring.
01:48:06.000Did you ever listen to that Kennedy speech about secret societies?
01:48:12.000Kennedy had a fantastic speech before he was assassinated where he was discussing this very thing, and he apparently had notions of disbanding the CIA, and he was very concerned with the power of people like J. Edgar Hoover.
01:48:32.000And that this was all happening while he was president, and he felt like there were people that were involved in these secret societies and these secret Meetings and that there was a lot of conspiracy going on and he thought the very idea was repugnant.
01:48:53.000But this has always been the real concern that people have that when you give someone the ability to surveil the general population, they're going to use some of that information to aid in their allies and to work against their enemies.
01:49:14.000And I mean, this is what, unfortunately, we've already seen.
01:49:16.000This is what has been revealed by some of that information that was released by Snowden.
01:49:22.000And how, for example, the FISA court, as we have it now, is a secret court that has been abused for that purpose, allowing for that surveillance of Americans, violating our civil liberties and privacies.
01:49:45.000It's basically a secret court that was appointed, I believe, or created back in the 70s with the initial objective of providing oversight over the executive branch mass surveillance that was happening at that time or illegal surveillance that was happening at that time.
01:50:07.000Unfortunately, especially since 9-11, now you have this FISA court that is both used to approve surveillance and surveillance programs on foreign targets, but also on Americans as well.
01:50:56.000And the information being provided by the government is the only information that's being given to the judge.
01:51:02.000So this is one of the big problems there.
01:51:05.000And we've seen over decades now, and especially since after 9-11, that there have been very, very, very few We're good to go.
01:51:41.000To exercise oversight over the executive branch and not allow them to conduct this surveillance, you know, willy-nilly, as they please.
01:51:52.000So it's figuring out exactly what are the best reforms to meet that objective of providing that oversight, making it so that those warrants are given, you know, as needed and making sure that all the information is being presented.
01:52:08.000And again, that FISA court was initially put in place to get warrants to conduct surveillance on foreign targets, not Americans.
01:52:18.000And that's been one of the biggest problems here with a lot of this mass surveillance is it's collecting our information as Americans illegally and unconstitutionally because you can't do that unless you go through this process and you actually get a warrant based on evidence.
01:52:34.000What would you do about Julian Assange?
01:52:36.000What would you do about Edward Snowden?
01:52:39.000As far as undoing, dropping the charges?
01:52:42.000If you're president of the world right now, what do you do?
01:53:45.000And I think we've got to address why he did the things the way that he did them.
01:53:52.000And you hear the same thing from Chelsea Manning, how there is not an actual channel for whistleblowers like them to bring forward information that exposes egregious abuses of our constitutional rights and liberties Period.
01:54:11.000I mean, there was not a channel for that to happen in a real way, and that's why they ended up taking the path that they did and suffering the consequences.
01:54:19.000There's a great Bill Hicks bit about what happens when you become president, that they bring you in a room filled with smoke, cigar smoke, and these industrialists, and they play a video of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you never saw before.
01:54:35.000And he had this bit, and I thought about this bit when I thought about Obama, because Obama, when he had his Hope and Change website when he was running for president, one of the things they addressed is whistleblowers and how much they would provide a platform for whistleblowers to expose illegal activity.
01:54:52.000That was still on his website while he was president and while Julian Assange was getting arrested and while all this was going down.
01:55:03.000And they wound up taking it down off of the website once somebody pointed it out.
01:55:15.000Do you think that they're full of shit and they're just saying what we want to hear so they can get elected?
01:55:20.000Or do you think that there is something that happens to them once they get into office?
01:55:25.000Do you think that it's possible that...
01:55:28.000They're given information that shows the real threats that the world has.
01:55:33.000And there's things that the general public is just not privy to, and these are what influences people's decisions to go against all the things that they were saying when they were running for president.
01:55:46.000Look, I haven't been with them and been in those rooms, so I won't speak for that which I do not know.
01:55:54.000But what I do know is this is what happens when you have people who are elected to serve in this job as president, whose most important responsibility is commander in chief.
01:56:08.000And they lack the experience and the understanding to be able to make the right kinds of decisions that serve the American people and end up, even those going in with the best of intentions, end up being very influenced,
01:56:25.000whether it be by the military industrial complex or the foreign policy establishment, That as we've seen over decades has crossed both political parties.
01:56:35.000Both political parties in these areas often end up making the very same decisions about continuing these wasteful regime change wars and acting as the world's police and therefore listening to them because they lack that experience or that backbone and understanding themselves and then just continue the status quo.
01:56:57.000You know, Trump was somebody who during his campaign talked a lot about ending the stupid wars, talked about going after Saudi Arabia, that they're the biggest supporters of terrorism in the world.
01:57:10.000You know, in his administration, what he called draining the swamp, he's turned that swamp into a cesspool.
01:57:17.000You look at the people he surrounded himself with.
01:57:20.000Some of the biggest war hawks that our country has seen, guys like John Bolton, people like Mike Pompeo, people who've wanted to go to war against Iran for a very long time, people who have been cozy with Saudi Arabia for a very long time.
01:57:33.000You see who he's nominating to be Secretary of Defense, longtime defense contract career man, like over 30 years I think working for Boeing.
01:57:44.000You see the kinds of people who he surrounded himself by.
01:57:48.000And so it doesn't take a lot to figure out how he has been influenced by them in continuing these regime change wars.
01:57:57.000This regime change is still going on in Syria now, threatening regime change in Venezuela, threatening regime change and disruption in Iran.
01:58:08.000Quite bluntly, between me and other people who are running for president is that experience and understanding that I bring to be able to walk into that office, to do that job as commander-in-chief on day one, and to not succumb to the establishment that I have both felt the effects of as a soldier as well as seen in action as a member of Congress.
01:58:32.000I'm going in with both eyes wide open and understanding the situation as it really exists, and most importantly, understanding who I work for, that I work for the American people.
01:58:43.000Do you think when someone like Trump radically shifts his position, he's doing so because he's been influenced to change his position, because he's been given more information, or do you think they become compromised when they're in office and they, I scratch your back, you scratch mine?
01:59:00.000I imagine that there's probably some of both.
01:59:04.000But if you don't have the strength of your convictions and your understanding about what kinds of policies actually best serve the American people, then you can see how easily you'd be swayed and influenced by others.
01:59:18.000You saw Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail about Saudi Arabia, against Saudi Arabia, against United States support for Saudi Arabia, calling them out for what they are.
01:59:26.000And now refusing to end U.S. military support for this genocidal war in Yemen that Saudi Arabia is waging that's created the worst humanitarian crisis of our generation because, he says,
01:59:42.000well, he doesn't want to risk a multibillion-dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
01:59:49.000So, you know, you can see, at least in that respect, what he's really motivated by.
01:59:55.000That he doesn't, he would rather continue to support the senseless and devastating deaths of innocent people in Yemen and using our U.S. military, my brothers and sisters in the military, to do that because he doesn't want to risk an arms deal with Saudi Arabia,
02:00:12.000a theocratic dictatorship that actually directly supports terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.
02:00:18.000It's hard for people to imagine that that's the case, that it's an arms deal and they want to make sure that this deal goes through and that it continues to be financially productive for both nations.
02:00:42.000My challenge to him and to the American people is if the best our president can do to help support the creation of jobs in this country is to build weapons that are being dropped on innocent people in countries like Yemen, then we need a new president.
02:00:58.000We need a new commander in chief that will actually help serve the best interests of our people and work towards the interests of peace, peace here at home and peace abroad.
02:01:13.000I mean, there's consequences to these jobs.
02:01:18.000You were talking about universal basic income earlier, and you were saying it in regards to dealing with impoverished communities.
02:01:25.000But one of the big issues that people think we're going to need universal basic income for is automation, something that Andrew Yang has built his whole platform on.
02:01:35.000Elon Musk has talked extensively about it.
02:01:38.000We are in a situation where there was an article today about Amazon using these I forget exactly how they described it, but essentially robots that are packaging things and automation is going to start taking over many non-skilled jobs.
02:01:56.000And this is true with the travel industry, with trucking, with moving things, shipping.
02:02:03.000That we are going to see less and less of these unskilled jobs and we're going to see millions of people out of work and that universal basic income may be the only way to bridge that gap between them finding some sort of viable new source of income.
02:02:19.000Yeah, I think that's certainly part of it.
02:02:35.000Making those kinds of investments in how do you train a whole new workforce and in what new areas.
02:02:41.000So you're taking people who are working in really tough labor jobs.
02:02:46.000You hear all these stories about people who are working at Amazon, very long hours, very stringent timelines.
02:02:53.000And so if they're now being replaced by automation or robots or whatever it is, let's look at our economy and see how we can help train folks for jobs that pay more money and hopefully help offer a better quality of life.
02:03:11.000And I think that's overall when we look at this, I think that's the way that we should be addressing this, is not just a job is a job is a job is a job, but really looking at the quality of life of people in this country.
02:03:26.000That a job does not equal happiness or fulfillment.
02:03:31.000But really looking at parents who have a child and who want to be able to spend some time at home raising that child or someone who wants to start a small business and work out of their home to be able to hang out with their kids more or whatever the case may be.
02:03:47.000I think as we look at this and how we make this transition in a positive way in this country, we've got to look at it from this comprehensive approach.
02:03:58.000Yeah, the idea of these people that are working in these fulfillment centers being happy seems pretty ridiculous.
02:04:06.000They're not happy they have those jobs.
02:04:08.000Those people are in back-breaking, incredibly stressful positions where if you read the reports, I mean, I don't know how accurate they're reports of what the job is like, but they literally run from one place to another.
02:04:29.000The idea that companies are supposed to constantly make more and more money.
02:04:34.000As you get ruthlessly competitive people looking at the bottom line, every single aspect of that business, and one of the things that suffers is human satisfaction.
02:04:45.000Their sacrifice has to be greater because they have to find a way to justify their position in the company.
02:04:53.000And so they get paid very little, they work very hard, and now they're getting replaced by robots.
02:04:57.000And meanwhile, with a company like Amazon, not only paying no taxes, I think this is for the third year in a row, and also getting, I think this last year was over $125 million tax credit.
02:05:19.000And it's what people who lean socialist point to when they talk about unchecked capitalism without any sort of regulation that can stop something like that from happening and stop workers from being exploited in that way.
02:05:34.000And people say, hey, you don't have to have that job.
02:05:37.000If you don't want that job, don't take it.
02:05:39.000But no one should have to have that job.
02:05:42.000How about, if there's a job that makes you have timed bathroom breaks and run from one place to another, you should get paid a fuckload of money for that job.
02:05:51.000That job should be something that, it sucks all day long, but dude, I make $5,000 a week.
02:06:18.000So that's where I think this automation really changing our economy is something that I think we're behind the curveball on because it's already happening.
02:06:30.000But let's try to see the opportunity in that, where if robots are going to start taking over those back-breaking jobs, then let's try to find new and innovative ways for people to work and to earn a living that's actually bringing value to them.
02:06:48.000That sounds awesome on paper, but how would one ever do that?
02:06:52.000And I'm not saying, hey, there's a government solution to this and snap your fingers and it's all done.
02:06:58.000No, I mean, government has a role, a private sector, private business has a role, and we've got to work together because this is all of our futures, ultimately.
02:07:07.000Have you imagined any possibility, any potential solution?
02:07:14.000Well, I think there's pieces of it, right?
02:07:17.000I mean, it's making sure that we close these tax loopholes that allow companies like Amazon to get away with paying no taxes and to get this much money back as a tax credit.
02:07:31.000I mean, our tax code is so complicated.
02:07:33.000It has to do with the write-offs and how many years and depreciation and all of these different things that they plan for and they exploit in order to pay no taxes and to get money back in return.
02:07:47.000And it's this crony capitalism that's really at the heart of this problem.
02:07:52.000How do they get that kind of sweet deal when you look at the tax code that's written?
02:07:57.000We look at the tax bills that are passed.
02:07:59.000Who are the people who are helping influence and write those bills?
02:08:02.000They're the big paid lobbyists that Amazon has in Washington who are saying, hey, this is something that we want to see in there.
02:08:08.000And working with lawmakers who they're cozy with to get that legislation in there.
02:08:12.000Well, this is one of the things that has come out about Trump over the last week or two, is that he lost a billion dollars over the course of X amount of years.
02:08:55.000And people are like, what the hell is that?
02:08:58.000And he's like, look, that's what I was trying to tell you.
02:09:00.000He was basically trying to say, look, this is something that I was telling you people about when I was running for president, that the system is rigged.
02:09:07.000I know because it was a part of the rigged system, and I paid these people off.
02:09:30.000Sheriff with an army of people in this country mobilizing, saying this government was put in place to serve us, to serve the people.
02:09:40.000And as much money and high-paid lobbyists as these guys have, ultimately it is the people of this country who cast the votes and it is ultimately the people in this country who have the power if we choose to use it, if we choose to make sure that our voices are heard.
02:09:53.000And that is the way that we make this change.
02:09:56.000Would you have to simplify the tax code?
02:09:58.000Would you have to make things heavily?
02:10:26.000Because it's these corporations are influencing how our tax laws are written, and it's written to benefit them, the ultra-rich and the 1%, and people who are working very hard every single day are struggling.
02:10:39.000They're still struggling just to get by.
02:10:41.000What kind of dirty tricks do you think they will pull out against you if you try to fix the tax code and try to make corporations accountable and make sure that they have to pay?
02:10:51.000If they're coming after you now and you're just making waves and getting ready for 2020, it could be pretty gross.
02:11:32.000But the idea that Amazon's figured out how to weasel that out, that's I mean, you hear stuff like Warren Buffett talks about this, about he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.
02:11:47.000Because he has, look, he's figured out all of these holes within the tax system that he can benefit from to pay lower taxes when most people don't have that ability.
02:11:56.000And as a business person who's also fairly ethical, you have to be perplexed.
02:12:19.000Ultimately, what you're saying, as business owners, whether it's small business owners or these large corporations, I mean, look, it is these large multinational corporations that are exploiting the system and exploiting the people and represent the worst of these crony capitalist policies.
02:12:37.000And so when I talk about changing this culture of leadership at the top, it's bringing...
02:12:45.000This has to happen within our government, but we as a society need to encourage ourselves bringing these values of service above self to our businesses, to every sector of our community.
02:12:58.000Because just because you run a business and you make a profit doesn't mean that you can't be a servant leader.
02:13:04.000And to think about, hey, how can I make a positive impact?
02:13:06.000Yes, for my employees and for their families, but on society, on our community, on our environment.
02:13:12.000And I think for the people that are running these corporations, there would be real value in appreciating the fact that we're all in this together.
02:14:23.000And when automation really kicks into focus in, you know, however X many years, when millions and millions of jobs go away, we're going to be confronted with this new world.
02:14:34.000And this is what a lot of people are very concerned with when they talk about the next couple of decades.
02:14:39.000They're very concerned with automation and they're very concerned with artificial intelligence.
02:14:46.000Artificial intelligence and that it's not just going to take away skilled or unskilled labor, but it's also going to take skilled labor away.
02:14:54.000There's going to be no one answering phones anymore.
02:14:57.000They're very close to being able to do that right now, where a computer will have a legitimate conversation with you and you don't even know that you're talking to a computer.
02:15:07.000Are you concerned with sentient artificial intelligence in terms of its military applications, in terms of there's a lot of concern that what we're experiencing now, particularly when you talk about Yemen,
02:15:34.000I'm very concerned about artificial intelligence and how quickly this technology is evolving.
02:15:42.000With very little oversight or even understanding at the highest levels of our government about both what the opportunities are that it presents and also the very real dangers of this technology being weaponized and how quickly that could spiral out of control.
02:16:05.000What could we do to stop artificial intelligence from spiraling out of control?
02:16:12.000In particular, what could we do to stop autonomous weapons?
02:16:17.000What a lot of people are really concerned with.
02:16:40.000If we don't do it first, we could have a situation where our soldiers are in some sort of a situation facing off against robots.
02:16:47.000It sounds like a science fiction movie, but it's not that far away from reality.
02:16:52.000I think this is one of those things that leaders in the global community have to recognize that just like with the nuclear arms race, Once you start on this race, there are no winners in a nuclear war.
02:17:11.000And I think there's a similar approach that needs to be taken to the dangers of artificial intelligence being weaponized and coming together as a global community to say, hey, this is something that...
02:17:47.000Then is that creating a situation where our national security is at risk or our troops are at risk?
02:17:53.000I think it's one of those things that, you know, this world is a small place and we would have a shared interest with leaders of other countries in the world to provide the right kinds of checks and balances on this technology so that it doesn't become something that's a danger to humanity.
02:18:12.000And the real fear would be that someone would not think that at all.
02:18:16.000That there would be whatever country, figure out what the country is, that some country would be like, fuck you, we're going to do whatever we want.
02:18:22.000Look, you guys took over this world because of nuclear power.
02:18:25.000We're going to take over this world because of autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence.
02:18:28.000And we're going to design it to go kill Americans.
02:18:39.000You end up with that scenario where this race begins and then there's no way to stop it and it's too late.
02:18:47.000Unlike China, the United States has at least...
02:18:51.000In perception, a clear differentiation between business and government.
02:18:58.000And one of the concerns that when I've talked to experts in China and their electronics and their technological innovation is that they're inexorably connected to their government in some way, shape, or form.
02:19:13.000And that it's one of the main reasons that makes it incredibly difficult to compete with them on a global marketplace.
02:19:19.000When you see that our State Department has told people to stop using Huawei devices because Huawei, which is the number two provider of cell phones in this world now, they're connected to the Chinese government.
02:20:06.000What can you do to mitigate what's already happened?
02:20:09.000You know, ultimately, you can't stop every single individual with what they're purchasing.
02:20:14.000I think that, you know, you can regulate what is sold here in the United States.
02:20:21.000I think there's a role that government can play, especially as we're talking about artificial intelligence and that kind of technology.
02:20:27.000Again, first in understanding it, and then playing, being that responsible party.
02:20:34.000To make sure that what is being developed is not something that's going to result in these unintended negative consequences.
02:20:44.000So obviously our government doesn't have ownership over private business in this country, but we still do have sensible regulations and responsibility that government has to play in regulating what businesses can and can't do.
02:21:00.000What's interesting to me is this competition aspect between dealing with essentially just the private sector here in America versus the private sector in China that's combined inexorably with the military and that they have much more influence over what gets done and how things get done.
02:21:20.000Did you pay attention at all to the State Department's call for a boycott of Huawei products?
02:21:29.000You know, I think there is a concern about that technology being used to get our information.
02:21:37.000You know, so that can be enforced within the federal government, right?
02:21:43.000So if the State Department is saying, hey, the federal government is not going to purchase any Huawei-produced products or cell phones or whatever the technology is and encourage other people in the private sector to do the same.
02:21:56.000What people are worried about over here is that what they're trying to do is stifle the development of this gigantic company.
02:22:05.000Because Huawei went from having a tiny share of the marketplace about five years ago to being the number two cell phone provider in the world next to Samsung who just surpassed Apple.
02:22:16.000And that this is a Chinese company and that because this Chinese company is connected to the Chinese government, the worry is that they're making ungodly sums of money and it's enhancing the Chinese government's ability to perform surveillance or just to just compete, just financially compete on a global scale.
02:22:33.000And tech nerds seem to be siding with Huawei, which is interesting to me.
02:22:38.000I've read a lot of tech blogs from people that are experts, and they say that there's no evidence that these cell phones have anything in them or doing anything, but that there has been some evidence of network devices.
02:22:50.000And some of these network devices do have some sort of a third-party input or some ability to extract information that shouldn't be there.
02:23:02.000It's like when you're dealing with a situation where you're competing with a country that also controls these companies that are the biggest cell phone and electronics providers on the planet.
02:23:35.000A friend of mine is a small business owner, and he saw the news this morning about China retaliating with Trump's escalation, I think with another increase of their tariffs, and how he's thinking like, my gosh, that's going to impact my small business.
02:23:51.000I've got, I don't know, probably less than 15 employees and trying to figure out how it's going to impact the pricing and production, manufacturing and everything, every step of the way.
02:24:00.000What's so dangerous about what Trump is doing with this trade war that he's escalating is that these trade and economic wars can very easily turn into a hot war.
02:24:14.000And we're talking about a nuclear-armed country in China.
02:24:19.000So while there are trade differences and issues that we've got to address with China and issues with intellectual property and other things, the way that Trump is going about this, I believe, is very irresponsible and dangerous, creating a huge amount of uncertainty for American businesses while increasing tensions with one of the biggest nuclear powers in the world.
02:25:11.000Well, I mean, you can point to probably a whole host of issues in trade policy.
02:25:17.000I don't think it's any one single incident.
02:25:21.000That has created that imbalance and that, you know, I'm in Iowa a lot these days and a lot of farmers have been struggling with that and would like to see it fixed a lot in the tech community, would like to see these issues fixed, especially related to intellectual property.
02:25:37.000But the way in which Trump is doing it is having a very negative effect on On these American businesses and jobs that Trump is supposedly advocating for, both really in the uncertainty that is being set,
02:25:53.000where it looks like they're on the brink of a deal.
02:25:56.000Just the other day, it looks like, hey, okay, the United States and China, they've been working through these issues.
02:26:02.000And all of a sudden, Trump sends out a tweet saying, nope, we're going to increase these tariffs from 10% to 25%.
02:26:08.000And now China is left like, okay, I thought we were close to working things out, and now left in a situation where they have no other recourse but to retaliate, as they did this morning.
02:26:21.000So you can see quickly how this thing is spiraling so out of control and increasing these tensions between our two countries, not being done in a way...
02:26:30.000That, to me, is strategic, providing us with the certainty of that path forward to reach a specific objective of correcting this trade imbalance, which is how this whole thing began.
02:26:45.000It's hard to explain, because it doesn't make sense.
02:26:47.000It doesn't actually serve us and our economic interests of meeting that objective.
02:26:53.000I don't know if he thinks this is part of his masterful negotiation skills, but it's got a very dangerous effect.
02:27:00.000And the fact that we have nuclear strategists in this country who remind us that we are at a greater risk of nuclear war now than ever before, it's because of these kinds of things that are increasing tensions globally.
02:27:40.000And you really think that this could be set off by these financial negotiations and by Trump saying something like that and just changing his offer in a tweet?
02:27:49.000If you threaten a country's economy and their economic security, where does that logically lead?
02:27:57.000You threaten their ability to provide for their people.
02:28:01.000You threaten their ability to provide that stable environment, which China, so much of what they do is just like, hey, they look for that What other recourse is there other than the threat of military force?
02:28:15.000And in this case, when you're dealing with two nuclear-armed countries, this is what's at risk.
02:28:21.000And it's something, you know, it's hard for a lot of people to conceive of, like, okay, my gosh, nuclear war?
02:29:00.000That was the message that was blasted out to over a million phones all across our state, on the radio, scrolling across the television, and people immediately, like, seek immediate shelter.
02:29:31.000There are no nuclear bunkers, which really, I mean, and for people in this administration and politicians who are ratcheting up these tensions with these nuclear-armed countries, bringing us to this new Cold War...
02:29:43.000They are not saying, okay, well, because we're doing this, we're going to invest not just trillions, but hundreds or thousands of trillions of dollars to make sure that every single American in this country has a nuclear bunker within 10 minutes of their home or their place of work or their school,
02:30:00.000because that's how much time we'd have.
02:30:02.000That's what we would need in order to deal with the consequences of the decisions that they're making and the failed leadership that they're providing.
02:30:11.000And so this is an issue that I'm raising awareness about because of what's at risk.
02:30:17.000I mean, this is the greatest threat that we face, and it requires strong leadership to walk us away from this brink of nuclear war, to be able to work with other countries based on cooperation rather than conflict,
02:30:32.000de-escalate these tensions, work out our differences, And walk us back from the brink.
02:30:40.000Stop this nuclear arms race that's making us and the world less safe.
02:30:44.000The last thing I wanted to ask you about was the opioid crisis.
02:30:58.000Our government is not doing enough right now to solve it.
02:31:03.000And I point to one very simple thing that could drastically help those who are dealing with opioid addiction and trying to walk down that path towards recovery, and that is ending the federal prohibition on marijuana.
02:31:18.000There has been a correlation in states that have legalized either Medical use or adult use of cannabis, a direct correlation in a reduction of opioid addiction, as well as opioid-related deaths.
02:31:34.000This is one thing that Congress can do now to help make progress in dealing with this opioid epidemic.
02:31:43.000Another thing, we've got to put a lot more resources towards treatment and on all of the things that need to happen after that detox, that initial detox with folks who are dealing with opioid addiction and have lost everything in their lives,
02:32:00.000then are at the place where, okay, well, if they have gotten through that detox, now they've got no place to live, they've got no place to work, they've got no money.
02:32:09.000And to be able to provide that helping hand up as they start to put back the pieces of their life is something that we as a society need to do better at.
02:32:21.000And the third thing I'll say is we've got to go after the culprits responsible for this.
02:32:27.000When you look at companies like Purdue Pharma, who have intentionally deceived and lied and cheated the American people into taking these opioids, saying, No, you know, they're not risky.
02:32:41.000These highly addictive opioids creating this situation that we are in, they are still not being held accountable in the way that they need to.
02:32:51.000I think it's the Sackler family has made tons of money off of selling these opioids that have ruined and devastated people's lives.
02:32:59.000Our legislation, the Opioid Accountability Act we introduced in the last Congress, we're going to be introducing again soon, would provide our federal prosecutors with the tools they need to hold companies like Purdue Pharma and others responsible for this proliferation of opioids criminally accountable.
02:33:18.000And another thing that baffles me is this constant changing of the dosage, this fentanyl and this new thing that's even more powerful than fentanyl.
02:33:27.000The fact that they're developing these incredibly potent opioids.
02:33:48.000Like, why are they insisting on letting these companies patent these superior and even more lethal versions of something we already have a problem with?
02:33:59.000And I think it speaks to the huge influence, the huge influence that these pharmaceutical companies have over regulators and lawmakers both.
02:34:09.000So much of this comes back to money, Joe.