Former congresswoman Susan Molina (D-Hawaii) joins me to talk about her time in Congress and her thoughts on the current state of the country and the divisiveness in Congress. She also talks about her new book, Hate Inc., and her new podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, which is a podcast that explores the intersection of politics, culture, and pop culture. It's a must-listen for anyone who wants to understand what's going on in Washington, D.C. and why it's so hard to get a handle on it. She's a force to be reckoned with, and I'm glad she was able to serve her country for a decade. I hope you enjoy this episode, and that it makes you think about what it's like to be a member of Congress, and how important it is to have someone in office who's willing to speak up and speak out against the hate and division that s going on around us. You're not going to get better at it than that, and you're not getting any easier at it, either. Thank you for listening, Susan! -Joe Rogan -The Joe Rogans Experience is a show about politics, comedy, and all things related to politics and culture. Check it out! on your favorite streaming platform, wherever you get your news and entertainment. Enjoy, and let me know what you think of it! . and tweet me if you have any thoughts or opinions on the topic you d like to have me know about it. I'll be listening to this episode. on the next episode! or any other podcast you're having a good time listening to someone else's podcast about politics and/or are looking for a good one. or want to send me your thoughts on it? or your thoughts or thoughts on anything else? on it's good or opinion on it should I should be sent to me? and I'll get a shoutout! Timestamps: 5:00 - 5:30 - What do you think? 6:15 - What are you listening to? 7:00 8:40 - How do you feel about this episode? 9:20 - Can we turn this ship back to the port of Normalville? 11:00 | What s the best way to turn the ship back? 12:30 - Is there a better ship back in the port? 13:30 | How do we turn it back to normal? 14:15
00:02:30.000Big tech and social media doing the exact same thing, stoking these divisions, fueling that fire because they figured out it gives them better ratings, they get more eyeballs watching, and same thing on social media.
00:02:43.000They start pushing so much of this divisive rhetoric towards people that stokes more of these flames and gets more clicks and more attention and more views.
00:02:51.000Which goes to kind of the heart of, okay, so how do we start to turn this ship?
00:03:52.000Yeah, I've had friends that have written books that have encountered that.
00:03:55.000But anyway, the book is excellent, and it sort of highlights how all these factors Sort of coalesced together and created this tsunami of shit that we're living in right now.
00:04:06.000And it's really confusing because you could sit around with total peace of mind and try to imagine a way that this resolves itself.
00:04:30.000But even that, if you find someone, the other side will find some way to demonize them or distort their positions or take anything they've said out of context and paint them as the worst person that's ever lived.
00:04:50.000Clickbait and the social media algorithms that really fuel hate in the most spectacular way I think that our civilization has ever seen.
00:05:01.000I don't think we've ever seen a force like social media, like the algorithms that people are locked into with Facebook and with all these other platforms that literally send all the things that piss you off your way.
00:05:15.000Because those are the things that we engage with more.
00:05:20.000There's not been a phenomenon like social media that our country, or the world for that matter, has dealt with before.
00:05:28.000It's going to take more than just one phenomenal leader to unify the country and to start to de-escalate the kinds of divisive tensions that we're seeing.
00:05:40.000It's going to take a whole host of Leaders at every level that we as voters choose to serve the people and to serve the best interests of the country and who will then take the kinds of legislative action necessary to start to rein in this almost unlimited power that these big tech monopolies have.
00:06:46.000That can and should be made to this Section 230 provision that essentially gives big tech legal immunity to do kind of whatever they want.
00:06:58.000Why aren't they doing something about it?
00:07:00.000And this is where you have leaders who take money from all these big tech monopolies and raise money from them and all their friends for their campaigns and whatever they're They're almost beholden to them and therefore I don't expect that we'll see any action on meaningful reforms to address this unless we get new people in office or we say,
00:07:21.000you know, hey, you can't take money from these PACs.
00:07:24.000We've talked about this before, about the corrosive and corruptive influence that it has on leaders who are supposed to be serving the people rather than Google or Facebook.
00:07:33.000Yeah, and Google at this point and Facebook have so much money to be on their bad side, to have them support a candidate that's contrary to your position.
00:07:45.000Like if you're in a position of censorship and there's another candidate that's like, listen, we don't have to censor.
00:08:07.000And I see, I legitimately see both sides of it.
00:08:10.000Because when this Parler ban thing came out, I was very concerned.
00:08:15.000But I was also concerned that Parler was allowing these people that were on there that were organizing violence.
00:08:22.000So if there's no moderation at all, and they're on, and they're saying, hey, we're bringing pipe bombs, I don't know what they were saying, but if they were saying something along those lines, we're going to attack the Capitol, we're going to zip tie and kill every politician we have, you should probably do something about that.
00:08:39.000So where does the line get drawn as to what you censor and what you don't, what you report and what you don't?
00:08:44.000And the argument that Tim Cook laid out was that the things that were on Parler, the reason why they pulled it from the App Store, They need some moderation.
00:09:23.000They don't censor anything at Parler, right?
00:09:27.000So I don't know the full extent of their rules, but I've listened to some of the interviews that the founder has done and the CEO has done over the last couple of weeks because I shared the exact same concern that de-platforming an app like Parler could very easily happen to any other Yes.
00:10:29.000I haven't verified all this or looked into it myself, but that's the argument they're making.
00:10:35.000But the bigger argument is, whether it's Parler or this is happening on Facebook or Twitter or any other social platform, is the line is drawn on speech that is protected under the First Amendment.
00:10:50.000And as we're talking with this example...
00:10:53.000That is speech that is inciting imminent violence.
00:11:01.000That's the precedence that's been set with the First Amendment and ruled by the Supreme Court as speech that is not protected under the First Amendment.
00:11:11.000And there are a few other examples on that.
00:11:14.000And I think that's exactly what should happen, because under the law right now, this Section 230 that gives these online companies legal immunity, the language specifically says that they have the power to remove,
00:11:30.000quote, otherwise objectionable content from What does that mean?
00:12:13.000And then change that line that basically says if it is speech that is protected under the First Amendment, you don't touch it.
00:12:24.000If it's outside of the First Amendment, like the example that we're talking about, then you have the power to delete those posts.
00:12:33.000And there's, you know, decades of Supreme Court precedents that can be pointed to as the guideway for these tech companies to make those decisions of, okay, is this something that is a violation of the First Amendment or is not protected by the First Amendment or not?
00:12:50.000Those are the reforms that I believe need to be made.
00:13:52.000While I was campaigning for president, I believe they were cited as a source essentially for stories saying that I was some kind of Russian asset.
00:14:02.000Essentially, that's really what the heart of it was.
00:14:04.000I know she had nothing to do with that, but this was before I believe she even became a part of that.
00:14:20.000Yeah, you know, it starts with people making unfounded accusations like that.
00:14:29.000People like Hillary Clinton, for example, and having that accusation echoed in other parts of the media and by other so-called influential individuals.
00:15:04.000That are helping anyone who's contrary to something that they're opposed to.
00:15:11.000If there's a bunch of people that want Hillary Clinton to be president, I can guarantee you there's a bunch of people that don't.
00:15:20.000Now, if there's a bunch of people that don't, they're going to come up with a reason to support or enhance the profile of a person that's opposed to her.
00:15:29.000There's this weird manipulation that's going on with social media that was highlighted by Rene Duresta's work that is beyond...
00:17:10.000Let's have her exposed to the horrors of war so she comes out against these interventionist foreign policies that have led us into these countless endless wars.
00:17:19.000That's a good way to construct a Russian agent.
00:17:58.000The consequences are grave for all people because this is what people have said about laws.
00:18:05.000And one of the things that people said about the Patriot Act is that when they were talking about mass surveillance and the things that Snowden revealed and some of the things that the NSA were doing...
00:18:19.000If you've got a guy in office that you love, like Obama, and you think it's going to be fine because he's in office, understand that there's a guy that's probably going to be there in four years or in eight years that is not going to be your friend, it's not going to be who you like,
00:18:35.000and he's going to have access to those same laws.
00:18:37.000This is why it's so important that we not change these laws.
00:18:41.000This is why it's so important that we don't give the government massive ability to just look into your emails and listen to your voicemails.
00:18:47.000And why it's so important for us, especially now, to stand up for freedom of speech, for freedom of the press, for that exact reason.
00:18:55.000And that's what's so disturbing about a lot of what we've seen starting to play out over the last week or two with...
00:19:04.000An increasing call for people to say, well, you know, maybe we need to start shutting down certain new media entities that are promoting or saying things we don't like or shutting down people's Twitter accounts because they're saying things that we don't like.
00:19:57.000Friends of mine, I think all service members understand truly in our heart of hearts, we take that oath to support and defend the Constitution so seriously that we are willing to give our lives to defend people's rights to free speech, whether we agree with that speech or not.
00:20:41.000I'm sure a lot of it was people that really did believe that they were patriots.
00:20:45.000And there's a lot of simple-minded people.
00:20:48.000One of the things you're seeing about the people that were arrested, like the QAnon shaman who lives with his mom, who's posted FBI pedophile theories on the internet.
00:21:01.000And they're easily duped, and they're easily led, and they don't have a lot going on.
00:21:05.000And if somebody riles them up, and then they have 30,000 or 300,000 of their fellow morons, and they're all together, crazy shit can happen.
00:21:14.000So it's like, I don't know what the answer is.
00:21:17.000Because on one hand, like, yeah, if there's an organizing place where these people are getting together, and they're really planning to do something as horrific as what happened, Well, you should probably stop that.
00:21:30.000But the problem is if you do shut that whole platform down because of these bad agents, you make it so that any platform can be shut down by any bad agents that come in and start doing something along those lines.
00:21:43.000So if a new competitor to Facebook or a new competitor to Twitter comes along, the easy way to shut them down, you infiltrate them with scumbags.
00:21:54.000You have these people that jump on board, whether it's Gab or Minds or any of these other alternative social media networks, and you can just flood the gates with hate.
00:22:04.000And then everyone's gonna be calling for them to be censored and shut down.
00:22:07.000And what you're essentially doing, you're reinforcing the monopoly that currently exists.
00:22:18.000My issue is, it is very strange when there is one company that does something, like, you can upload video to it, that becomes the predominant company on Earth!
00:23:09.000I think they're filing a lawsuit against Google right now for that reason, because Rumble.com is maybe one of the...
00:23:17.000I don't know how many alternatives to YouTube there are, but it is a alternative to YouTube, and they're alleging that...
00:23:24.000Google is consistently ranking their own YouTube pages on videos much higher up in a Google search than they would rank a video that's hosted on Rumble.com.
00:23:36.000And that kind of power is why many of us believe that these big tech companies need to be broken up because you do have essentially a monopoly that is difficult, if not impossible, to break through.
00:23:49.000Yeah, that's crazy that they're so intertwined like that.
00:23:51.000And also crazy that I've never even heard of Rumble before.
00:23:54.000I didn't either until like a week ago.
00:23:56.000And then I saw a headline that Rumble.com is suing Google.
00:25:57.000Understand the curation of information to the point where you're actually actively hiding something that's contrary to what the public mainstream idea of what you should be doing is.
00:26:12.000That's what's so dangerous and kind of makes it hard to believe that this is happening in America, that it's supposed to be this beacon of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
00:26:22.000But you brought up this issue of bots and divisiveness, and it's not only the bots, but also just the anonymous, what do you call them, like the couch Twitter warriors or keyboard warriors or whatever, trolls.
00:26:38.000A simple solution could be just that there is a requirement that when you register an account that you are a real person and you use your real name.
00:26:46.000Yes, that's a great, but the problem with that is there's legitimate cases where whistleblowers are necessary in large companies where a person's really worried about the repercussions of this, especially if that large company that's doing something terrible can get away with it,
00:27:01.000and then they actively target the individual that was the whistleblower.
00:27:06.000If they're posting, if the whistleblower is posting information, is that what you're saying?
00:27:09.000Yeah, so if there's some story, say if you're working for some company, And they're doing something awful.
00:27:38.000I think that there, you know, if you look at kind of the route that Edward Snowden took in finding a partner in some form of media, whether it's traditional media or new media, to be able to help be your voice to alleviate that kind of targeting could be an answer.
00:27:55.000It's a legitimate concern, for sure, but a way to protect yourself.
00:28:32.000Was it disappointing, like, being in Congress and seeing that kind of behavior?
00:28:41.000Like, if you have this ideal of what a representative of our democracy is supposed to be, and then seeing people that are petty and that are sneaky and doing little...
00:28:54.000This was my first impression, getting elected.
00:28:58.000Got elected 2012, got there and sworn in in January of 2013. And I remember calling home, I think I was talking to my family, my parents or somebody, and I was like, this place is like high school.
00:29:12.000Even on the House floor, that's the only time we're all together, usually for votes.
00:29:17.000And you've got everybody, all 435 members there, and you see the little cliques gathering in their designated corners, like the cafeteria tables.
00:29:25.000And, you know, one clique is kind of, you know, giving the mean girl's side eye to the other clique.
00:29:32.000And like, oh, if you're hanging out on that side of the room with those people, what's wrong with you?
00:29:39.000I mean, it's funny, but it's so terrible when you understand that this is the power base for decision-making in our country.
00:29:48.000And you're like, how is this even possible?
00:29:50.000It's possible because so often people will vote for a candidate because they have a really cool ad on TV or like, yeah, that person is a good-looking guy or a good-looking girl or they talk good, they talk nice.
00:30:14.000Like, what kind of judgment will you exercise in making decisions that affect literally every single aspect of our lives as Americans in this country?
00:30:25.000And so it's terrible that we have this kind of makeup in our government, but also, like, we as voters have to do a much—the power's in our hands, ultimately.
00:30:41.000In how we're making decisions in choosing who gets to work for us.
00:30:47.000Not forgetting that those people who work in the United States Capitol, they work for us when it comes right down to it.
00:30:54.000And so we have the power to hire and fire.
00:30:56.000I think that people have developed such a sophisticated way of manipulating folks.
00:31:04.000The thing about running for office, particularly running for president, it's one of the weirdest things where the most important job ever, you don't have to be qualified, you just have to be chosen.
00:31:20.000So you don't have to have any experience in government.
00:31:22.000You don't even really have to know how government works.
00:31:27.000All you have to do is get enough people that are willing to give you a try and you can have the nuclear football.
00:31:34.000Like, I'm not saying Trump, I'm not saying Biden, but if someone comes along...
00:32:34.000Well, people, first of all, need to kind of have the veil lifted on what this is and how both political parties play into this and the media plays into this.
00:32:47.000I saw from the very day that I announced my candidacy for president.
00:32:53.000I ran for president out of concern of some very real issues that our country is facing, wanting to bring voice to those issues and actually do something about it.
00:33:03.000The rise of North Korea's nuclear capabilities, for example, and how we in Hawaii lived through the reality of that threat when we got that missile alert that came through.
00:33:18.000Tell people about that real quick if they forgot about it.
00:33:37.000The sirens on television saying, missile incoming to Hawaii.
00:33:50.000And so the response to that was like, holy shit, this could be the end.
00:33:58.000An incoming missile to Hawaii from North Korea was Would literally mean the destruction, not only of Hawaii, but the aftermath and everything else would have a much, much bigger impact.
00:34:09.000So that's how people responded, you know, grabbing their little kids and running in, like, where do you take shelter?
00:34:16.000Like, going into the bathtub and hunkering down.
00:34:19.000There was a video of a father who got his, like, little eight-year-old daughter and Lowered her down a manhole and was, I think he said something in the video, like, if we survive this, try to come find me.
00:34:36.000And there are countless other stories of...
00:34:41.000I heard from a father who he had one child who was in downtown Honolulu.
00:34:48.000The other was on the west side of Oahu, which is a good 45-minute drive.
00:34:55.000And in those moments, he was sitting there knowing he had minutes to live, trying to decide which child he was going to go and drive to and spend those last minutes of life with.
00:35:14.000The seriousness of this is something that has and continues to be lost on the leaders of our country.
00:35:23.000And this was one of the main reasons that I ran for president, so that I could do something to make sure that no other American, no other family went through what we went through in Hawaii on that day.
00:35:37.000I announce my candidacy for president so that we can talk about these very serious issues.
00:35:43.000And on day one, immediately, literally that very day, within minutes, mainstream media starts attacking.
00:36:00.000The building of this caricature of me as something that has nothing to do with who I am, my experience, my background, my capabilities, what I'm advocating for.
00:36:18.000Okay, this is a national stage to be able to raise these very serious issues about the nuclear threat that our country faces, this new Cold War, and what we need to do to walk back away from the brink of nuclear catastrophe.
00:36:52.000Is the ultimate disservice to voters because it takes away their ability to make this informed decision about who should hold the nuclear football and what experience they bring, what kind of judgment they would bring,
00:37:07.000what kind of foresight they bring to this most powerful and important job and responsibility.
00:37:15.000Now, having had the moment to step back away now that all is said and done and time has passed, what do you think was the catalyst?
00:37:25.000Like, why did they immediately attack you?
00:37:28.000Because I've talked to you about this before.
00:38:40.000Well, they refuse to engage on the substance, to argue against or agree with what I'm saying.
00:38:51.000First of all, and second of all, my track record throughout my time serving in Congress pointed to the fact that I'm not willing to play their game.
00:39:02.000I'm not willing to be anybody's puppet.
00:39:06.000That I will speak out for ending these costly, destructive regime change wars.
00:39:13.000I will speak out for ending I'm not taking the money that's coming from all of these different corporate PACs.
00:39:35.000And the political party leadership that they're all in bed with, that ultimately my goal and my motivation is to be a voice for and to serve the American people and actually speak the truth.
00:39:51.000Do you think that it's the unwillingness to take money from PACs?
00:39:57.000I think it's a combination of all of those things that lead to the fact that I'm not going to dance their dance.
00:40:08.000I will not be controlled by anybody else, whether it's the political leadership, the corporate leadership, or whoever it is that's coming in.
00:40:38.000Have you had conversations with people?
00:40:42.000I have not directly been threatened with that or had those conversations because I don't take their money.
00:41:12.000They should have posters up all over the place saying, hey guys, these are the corporations that are paying for this thing that's supposed to be kind of one of the hallmarks of our democracy so that voters can actually see what's behind it.
00:41:26.000Somebody had that in a comedy sketch, right?
00:41:56.000There was one vote that I don't remember what the vote was exactly, but I was not sure on how I was going to vote, and the vote was coming up pretty quick.
00:42:12.000And it's, you know, these votes are often not so simple as, you know, they're usually complex because they're either – the bill is very big and there's – you've got to weigh the pros and the cons and the benefits and the risks and so on.
00:42:27.000And I was not sure how I was going to vote on this bill.
00:42:31.000And a couple of leaders within the Democratic Party pulled me off the side of the floor and said – You really need to vote with the Democrats on this, because if you don't, then you will help the quote unquote opposition beat Democrats in the next campaign.
00:43:40.000It was disheartening because it showed that these people who I had worked with and around for quite some time really had no idea who I was and am and What drives my decisions on the votes that I take,
00:44:00.000for example, and that something like that would not only not work, but would further hurt their cause.
00:44:13.000And it was disheartening because it was yet another indicator of what drives the political decisions being made by some of the most powerful people in our country.
00:44:25.000What's going to win the next election?
00:44:27.000What's going to help us or what's going to hurt us?
00:44:30.000What can we use against the other guys in order to be more successful and either gain power or hold on to power?
00:44:37.000And that's where if you look at, and there is, there's so much legitimate frustration about why isn't Congress doing something about this?
00:44:43.000We saw this around the stimulus checks, the direct checks just a few months ago and how those so-called negotiations dragged on for months and months and months and months.
00:44:55.000All of a sudden, they get an agreement right after the election is over.
00:44:59.000It's literally playing politics with people's lives.
00:45:01.000You got people losing their jobs, people stuck at home, people worried about being homeless, who that one-time check of $1,400, $2,000, whatever it is, that can be the difference for them between food or no food, home or no home.
00:45:17.000And yet you have people in Washington playing politics, worried about, well, if we do this now, it might help Trump.
00:45:22.000Or if we do this now, it might help...
00:45:28.000The conspiracy theory was that part of the reason why the stimulus checks hadn't gone out, part of the reason why, you know, there was so much stricter lockdown and economic damage because of those lockdowns in Democratic states was because they were concerned that if the economy rebooted and started going back up again,
00:46:17.000But man, it's crazy how much devastation has happened in so many of these communities, in so many of these cities, and how little consideration they've put into the fact that these people are losing everything they've ever worked for.
00:46:34.000They seem to think this is the only solution.
00:46:49.000It's horrible to even consider that one of the reasons why the strictest lockdowns have taken place in the blue states and the blue cities is because they were concerned with the economy rebounding.
00:47:02.000Yeah, I want to talk about the lockdowns and COVID, but just on that point that it's not such a stretch as to call it a conspiracy, because things like this happen in Washington all the time.
00:47:17.000And one of the clearest examples was around this bill called the First Step Act.
00:47:48.000In the room and around whatever her boyfriend was doing, this bill would have made it so that these people got to go home to their families.
00:47:56.000As we were working to try to pass this bill, and it was a bipartisan bill, both in the House and the Senate, and it had the President Trump's support, there were very prominent Democrats who publicly were saying Don't support this bill because it's not perfect and because if it was passed,
00:48:22.000then Donald Trump would be able to say he did it, that this was a victory and, you know, a feather in his cap and that he'd be able to go across the country and say, hey, look what I did.
00:49:04.000So, I mean, there's a good ending to this story in that this bill did eventually get passed.
00:49:08.000So those people who are advocating for that lost.
00:49:11.000But it provides a window into that mindset, that dangerous mindset, of leaders in both political parties who are willing to sacrifice The well-being and the lives of the American people to advance their own political ambition and cause and power.
00:49:34.000It's so scary to think that this is something they can justify.
00:49:36.000These people that are representatives of the American people, they think that this is the way to go about business because Donald Trump is bad.
00:49:45.000No matter what you do, don't help Donald Trump.
00:49:49.000We've seen this, I think, exacerbated over this past administration, but this is not something new either.
00:49:58.000I mean, this is something that has, I think, been increasingly becoming more and more of a problem that's gotten us to this point of where we are.
00:50:29.000I just, I want to keep going back to, because I don't want to just be all about, we have to be about solutions as well.
00:50:37.000And I think that if we look back to the country that our founders...
00:50:44.000Envisioned for us and those foundational pillars that are put in place, the central part of that is our democracy.
00:50:54.000And so as we may feel hopeless at times, like there's like, what in the world can we do against these powerful forces of darkness and greed and power and so on?
00:51:08.000The mechanism that is in place for us to change this is through our elections.
00:51:14.000And as many people who, you know, there are, I mean, people feel hopeless, like, why even bother to go vote?
00:51:21.000Why even bother because I'm just one person or my voice doesn't have...
00:51:26.000This is the power that we have in our hands to start to change this.
00:51:31.000There is nothing stopping us from going to the ballot box and saying, like, you guys had your chance and you have not fulfilled that incredible trust and responsibility that we as voters have placed in you.
00:51:46.000And choose leaders who are committed to that mission of service, that servant leadership, looking out for the best interests of the American people in our country.
00:51:57.000I think there's also a problem where people don't know whether or not their leaders are looking out for the best interests of the people.
00:52:05.000They want to believe, and they don't really have enough time to find out either.
00:52:09.000Most people are filled, their days are filled, right?
00:52:12.000They have a job, they have a family, they have a mortgage, they have crises of their own, they have their own hobbies and needs, and then they have to vote for mayor.
00:52:28.000I mean, that's literally the kind of cursory examination that most people have of elected officials.
00:52:35.000This is why it's so important for us to be able to have fair and balanced and unbiased sources of information and media to turn to.
00:52:47.000Because people are busy and they don't have time.
00:52:50.000I go through a ton of different news sources every day and try to figure out the reality of what may be happening here or in different parts of the world.
00:52:58.000Most people don't have the ability to focus on that.
00:53:02.000I introduced legislation called Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine Act, which the fairness doctrine was in place essentially to hold the news media that uses our public airwaves to When was
00:53:54.000It would go a long way towards providing more of that balanced news coming from those, again, who are using the public airwaves.
00:54:03.000And secondly, I think that the more people are aware that we have an incredibly biased corporate media that is driven by profits, not by actually a sense of responsibility to the public,
00:54:19.000then, you know, I think there's opportunities to look for, and I think we've got to do our best to try to create those balanced news platforms that not only just report facts and information, but also represent views from across the spectrum.
00:54:33.000Now, would that apply to only broadcast television, like NBC, ABC, CBS, like that kind of stuff?
00:54:54.000And one of the things that Taibbi outlines so well in his book is what went wrong with the Trump thing.
00:55:00.000Is that initially Trump was this buffoon who was running for president, who was saying a bunch of crazy shit, and everybody thought he was not going to win.
00:55:07.000And so they would highlight how ridiculous he was, thinking that what that would do was going to make people dismiss him as a real candidate.
00:55:17.000And even, you know, respectable newspapers and respectable television shows like CNN and New York Times are saying Hillary Clinton's like 96% likely to win.
00:55:52.000And then once he wins, they shifted gears.
00:55:55.000They go, okay, we have to change and now just attack him at every turn.
00:55:59.000And during that time, this is one of the things of the book where they're describing the record profits they were making because it's extremely profitable to put something on television that everybody's watching.
00:56:12.000If Trump is saying Mexicans are all rapists, everybody's like, holy shit, he said what?
00:57:03.000You know, you just pointed out you've got cable news that hates Trump, cable news that loves Trump, the same thing that they're doing, all that they're doing, ultimately, for ratings, more money.
00:57:13.000You have the same thing happening in Washington with one party that hates Trump.
00:57:20.000And using all of this fodder, you know, reporting like historic levels of fundraising for their party, one party or another.
00:57:29.000All of it centered around this Trump consciousness, this obsession with Trump every single day.
00:57:39.000And we've, you know, we've gone through this now for not only the last four years.
00:57:42.000You go back to the campaigns, the last five, six years.
00:57:46.000That we as a country have lived through this, profiting essentially off of Trumpism.
00:57:53.000And meanwhile, while this is happening, there are incredibly important issues that are not being talked about.
00:58:02.000Not being reported on, not being acted on by Congress.
00:58:17.000You have this basically tearing up and destroying these nuclear nonproliferation treaties that are supposed to keep us in the world more safe from a potential nuclear war.
00:58:34.000And there's a nuclear arms race that is ensuing now and a new Cold War between the US and Russia and China, these two other nuclear-armed countries.
00:58:41.000You have, you know, our agriculture, our environment, you have, you know, bees and bugs and butterflies now being destroyed and posing a great threat to our ability to grow crops, not only here, but around the world.
00:58:56.000There are so many different issues, very, very real serious issues.
00:59:01.000Have you heard much about that at all over the last few years?
00:59:28.000Focus on these real challenges and how we as a country need to come together to be able to solve them and not contribute to the mess and the destruction and the nonsense that we've seen play out over these last several years.
01:00:02.000I think the more of us who choose not to contribute to be a part of that and contribute to that and lend our eyeballs or our mind or our time to that, the more quickly we can try to force the conversation towards things that actually matter to us.
01:00:18.000Yeah, I completely agree with you, but I don't see anybody else agreeing with you.
01:00:40.000To make, really seriously, make some real change and take the spotlight away from where it's been and focus it where it should be, which is on the people whose voices really have not been heard throughout this time.
01:00:54.000Well, they still would like there to be some representative that they can hang their hat on.
01:01:00.000Like someone who's like, that's my guy.
01:01:06.000And I don't see a lot of that out there right now.
01:01:10.000I don't see someone who's not particularly invested in the party, but more so invested in all these problems that you're talking about.
01:01:19.000And about, you know, saying that we have to abandon all this partisan bullshit, all this pettiness, and all this divisiveness that we've lived off the last four years.
01:01:29.000And particularly these organizations, like you were saying, like cable news.
01:01:45.000We can impact that by not buying their shit.
01:01:48.000Well, I think it's going to happen, whether they like it or not.
01:01:50.000And this is where I think we've already seen a trend of people who are taking their attention away from that model and the crap that they're selling.
01:02:02.000And instead, they're looking for new media, alternative media, other voices, other platforms that are actually going in-depth and talking about real things that matter, about real issues that matter, having real conversations.
01:02:23.000Another thing I heard, this is really crazy, that Trump is going to start a third party that he's been talking about starting a party called the Patriot Party, which is like, holy shit.
01:03:32.000Well, I mean, look, there are, sadly, a lot of really important and serious things that we could and should be talking about that should capture our attention.
01:03:45.000And be able to, as the people, provide that pressure to our leadership and hold them accountable to For whether or not they're doing their job and actually working for the people or not.
01:03:59.000But you're talking like a reasonable, responsible person.
01:05:24.000I know, but we don't have a bad guy like Trump.
01:05:26.000But here's the thing, and I agree, people who have been looking forward to January 20th as though this is going to solve all of the problems.
01:05:41.000That our country has faced are missing the reality that the way we got here are because of some deeply seated problems that have pre-existed the previous administration and that still exist in our country today,
01:06:00.000which is why I think it's so dangerous Yeah.
01:06:27.000The reality of how dangerous that train of thought, I think, is going to continue to reveal itself unless, look, you know, Joe Biden gave a very unifying speech for his inauguration.
01:06:49.000For the country's sake, I wish him well in working towards that.
01:06:55.000But it's not going to be an easy task.
01:06:57.000And ultimately, he will be held accountable for his own actions.
01:07:03.000In whether he is able to be that unifying force or if we end up seeing and address some of these deeper-seated problems.
01:07:12.000He said in his speech that whether you voted for him or not, that his goal is to serve you, the American people.
01:07:21.000Again, the pressure will be now on him to actually show that is true through his actions and actually actively reaching out to those 70-plus million people who didn't vote for him.
01:07:33.000Yeah, I mean, it would be wonderful if we all got together united and said, let's wish him well and let's cheer him on and hope he does a fantastic job.
01:07:46.000And all of you Trump supporters who thought that he was a puppet of the institution, wish him well.
01:07:54.000Be happy if he's right and you were wrong.
01:07:57.000My concern is that one of the things that Trump did that was really...
01:08:01.000What was disturbing was this narrative that the elections were stolen and that he won by a landslide and even using certain things as an example that were easily disproven.
01:08:17.000Like one of the things that he used as an example, Kyle Kalinske actually discussed it on the show.
01:08:22.000We did an election day show and Kyle Kalinske was explaining Pennsylvania.
01:08:27.000And he said the way Pennsylvania works is the first votes they count are the walk-up votes, the people that actually go to the polls.
01:08:35.000Those votes are going to lean heavy in Trump's favor because he's put out this narrative, go vote in person, whereas the Democrats have put out this narrative to mail in your vote.
01:08:47.000So the first votes that get counted are going to be the votes of the people that walk up.
01:08:50.000It's going to skew heavily towards Trump.
01:08:52.000But then once they count those, And they start counting the mail-in votes, it's going to lean much heavier towards Biden.
01:08:59.000And people are going to call shenanigans, but this is why it's happening.
01:09:03.000So Kyle Kulinski lays this all out on the show day of the election.
01:09:08.000It plays out exactly, exactly like he said.
01:09:13.000Trump was way ahead, then they start counting in the mail-in votes.
01:09:16.000The mail-in votes lean very heavily towards Biden.
01:09:25.000We go to bed, and all of a sudden, you know, we go to bed way ahead, and then all of a sudden, they magically find all these votes, and then it leans towards Biden, like, no, no, no, no, no.
01:09:36.000If you are a political pundit, and you understand the system and how it works, this was how it's going to go.
01:09:42.000So all the people that are the same people like, oh, I heard she's a Russian asset, the people that give a cursory examination of all these different things that don't have the time to go on these deep dives, They're all going to hear that story and go, did you hear what they did in Pennsylvania, those sons of bitches?
01:09:55.000In the middle of the night, they came in with trucks of fucking ballots and all went to Biden mysteriously.
01:10:01.000Or the thing that happened in Georgia when they were saying, oh, they were hiding ballots underneath the table.
01:10:07.000And then when the people that were observing left, then they pulled the ballots out.
01:10:11.000But no, you hear from the actual Georgia official, and he goes, that's not what happened at all.
01:10:41.000It gets talked about by Rudy Giuliani and all these other people like, oh, this is this nefarious plot.
01:10:47.000They hid these ballots underneath the table.
01:10:49.000And if you're just looking at the video footage from a surveillance camera and you don't know exactly what happened, that scenario makes sense to you.
01:10:57.000So there's so many people that have this distorted perception of what went down and they really believe that this was all stolen.
01:11:39.000You see how political parties use certain narratives to their advantage depending on if it is.
01:11:46.000If it's their name, their party, their candidate that's on the block or not.
01:11:54.000And again, this goes back to how dangerous this hyper-partisan divisiveness is when you've got people in positions of power and influence manipulating the narrative according to serves their own interests.
01:12:10.000The hypocrisy of this is very evident, and the hypocrisy of these same leaders in making a big stink about these things when it serves their interest but turning a blind eye when it doesn't.
01:12:48.000In theory, if any of these systems were hacked in any kind of way where you could manipulate the outcome of, you know, manipulate people's votes to swing the election one way or the other, there would not be an auditable paper trail that, you know, election officials could use to point to,
01:13:06.000okay, well, this is actually how many people voted for this candidate or that candidate, but this is where the electronic system was manipulated and got it wrong.
01:13:38.000I've gone and I used the machine there before and you punch it in and before you submit your ballot, it's got a printout that says, okay, these are all your candidates.
01:13:47.000If it's correct, you submit and they keep that paper backup on hand or you just use a paper ballot.
01:13:52.000Either way, you have an auditable paper trail and it would have provided federal funding for states to be able to implement this and put it in action.
01:14:00.000Made the case to Republican and Democratic leaders.
01:14:06.000We want to make sure that we reduce the amount of vulnerabilities that exist and maintain the integrity of our election so that people aren't raising these concerns.
01:14:16.000There should be any question in people's minds that these electronic systems have any vulnerability at all.
01:14:35.000There were no legitimate arguments against it.
01:14:38.000I heard some states saying like, oh, well, we don't know if we want to change it or whatever, but if the federal government had the ability to go in and that's what my bill did, it tied this change to federal funding to administer the elections,
01:14:55.000So the point is, To have some foresight and have leaders with foresight in Congress to say, you know what, 2020 is going to be a big election.
01:15:04.000Critical outcome one way or the other.
01:15:07.000Let's take action now in order to prevent people questioning the integrity of our election and therefore our democracy.
01:15:17.000Many of those same people who are complaining or raising concerns about this today are people who chose not to take action that could have prevented us in large part from being in the situation that we are in.
01:15:33.000So holding these leaders accountable and calling them on their crap I don't understand what the incentive would be to not pass this.
01:15:46.000Is there a financial burden that's attached to this?
01:15:51.000I mean, it is not prohibitively expensive.
01:15:53.000I mean, some states just went and did it on their own because they recognize—I believe Virginia was one of them— They hold off-year state elections in the odd years, and they recognize the threat of this because there's like a hacking convention in Vegas every couple of years or something,
01:16:10.000and they bring in all of these, even young teenagers.
01:16:14.000And they had this thing called Election Village, and they showed, they used replica electronic voting systems from different states.
01:16:22.000And some of these kids hacked into these systems within 10 minutes, 15 minutes.
01:16:27.000An 11-year-old changed election results on a replica Florida state website in under 10 minutes.
01:17:44.000Let's talk about pronouns, because that's what's important.
01:17:47.000The amount of distractions that people are subject to today, too, is also unprecedented because of social media.
01:17:54.000So concentrating on these key issues and really important things like murder hornets, it's hard.
01:17:59.000It's hard to do because there's so much shit going on.
01:18:02.000It's like your news feed is constantly inundated with things.
01:18:07.000You look at the first thing that this new Congress did, the 117th Congress, right after being sworn in the first week of January.
01:18:19.000Instead of, say, passing a bill that would mandate that limited resource of vaccines that we have go directly towards the most vulnerable seniors who are right now dying at the highest rates because of COVID,
01:18:35.000instead of doing something real and important that would actually save people's lives and Reduce hospitalizations in this country.
01:19:48.000Well, if you're on Twitter, that is the most important thing, or the least important thing, depending upon what Twitter feed you follow.
01:19:55.000I'm concerned, and like I said, I'm concerned about the way Trump rejected the election results, that they're similar to the way a lot of the Democrats rejected the 2016 results, and that I understand that they want their side to win,
01:20:15.000but I don't think they understand The ultimately corrosive impact this is going to have on the confidence that people have in democracy.
01:20:37.000Republicans that believe the election results were illegitimate.
01:20:41.000I think it was in the 70s, which is just bananas.
01:20:46.000I mean, even if you asked Democrats after 2016, I don't think it would be that high.
01:20:51.000Maybe if you said how many people believe Russia had a part in Donald Trump being elected, maybe that would be a little higher.
01:20:57.000But at least they probably thought that the people that voted, voted.
01:21:02.000Like, that it was probably ultimately representative of how the people voted.
01:21:06.000They thought those people had been misled.
01:21:08.000They probably thought propaganda was involved and there was a bunch of, you know, really incorrect stuff that was said that led people to vote the wrong way.
01:21:16.000But I think they probably more or less believed that Donald Trump won.
01:21:51.000The danger of overall eroding people's confidence in our elections and the integrity of our elections.
01:22:00.000And I think the whole kind of cancel culture goes along with this.
01:22:06.000And the censorship and the suppression of people's free speech is because if they feel that they don't have a voice to speak properly, Right.
01:22:43.000And this is the dangerous consequence of where this partisan divisiveness takes us.
01:22:51.000And it also points to the dangerous normalization of this kind of politically driven violence where one side kind of says, well, it's okay if I agree with your motivation for going and burning down buildings and rioting and looting and whatnot.
01:23:12.000But it's not okay if I disagree with the motivation of these other people.
01:23:18.000And that normalization of taking kind of the conflict culture that exists online and is now being embodied and manifested in reality in different ways, again, as a symptom and a byproduct of this hyper-partisanship and this divisiveness,
01:23:38.000This is the dangerous reality that is coming about because of people who are more interested in their power than they are interested in the wellbeing of our country, our freedom, and the American people.
01:23:51.000So much of this just comes down to leadership.
01:23:55.000And people who are more interested in serving their own selfish interests rather than fulfilling this huge obligation and responsibility to serve the interests of the people first.
01:24:06.000Not just selfish interests, but also tribal interests.
01:24:12.000That's, like I said, what I'm really worried about with the way Trump is addressing his loss is that this January 6th thing that we saw is indicative of that.
01:24:22.000And then, you know, I mean, and then he, like, denounced the people who did it.
01:24:26.000Like, he's telling them that you have to be strong.
01:24:54.000And not only that, calling it the Patriot Party, but it's almost like what I would expect out of whoever's writing this goofy fucking script for this wacky show we're on.
01:25:21.000There's so much fear that's out there.
01:25:26.000There's a lot of pain, a lot of frustration.
01:25:31.000And my hope is, I want to be really optimistic here, my hope is that by getting to a place where we can see each other once again as Americans, And not one side—and you talked about tribalism,
01:25:48.000like my tribe is the good guys and your tribe is the bad guys.
01:25:53.000We're not—is that when we can get back to a place where we see each other as Americans and respect each other— And go back to the fundamentals of this country, then we have the ability to have a real dialogue and not to say that we're going to agree on everything,
01:26:14.000not to say we're not going to have fierce debates on substance around how we solve the great problems of our time.
01:26:19.000But when we come from that place of saying that we know we need to solve these problems for the sake of the people in our country, Then we know we will end up in a good place with a positive outcome.
01:26:31.000One thing that does give me hope is online pundits.
01:26:36.000The ones that are not beholden to these gigantic corporations, the ones that aren't a part of a network, they can speak more freely and more honestly.
01:26:47.000One of my favorite shows is The Hill, Rising on the Hill.
01:28:05.000We want to have opportunities for our businesses.
01:28:08.000And we want to have the freedom to express ourselves and the freedom to practice whatever cultural rituals or religions that you choose to practice.
01:29:04.000Because around so many of these issues, like healthcare, for example, what it boiled down to was while people had different ideas on the best way to, like, what our healthcare system should look like, it came down to, like, if your child is sick,
01:29:20.000You want to be able to make sure that your child gets the best care possible.
01:29:24.000That if your mother comes down, is diagnosed with cancer, that her job or your job or your social status is not going to affect her ability to get the best care possible.
01:29:40.000With education, tell me one parent that doesn't want their child to get a good education.
01:29:58.000And so, you know, the economy, you know, what person doesn't want to have You know, just a great opportunity to earn a good living so you don't have to fear for yourself or your family's safety and economic security.
01:30:13.000So yes, we are going to have wildly different ideas perhaps on how we can achieve these things, which is okay.
01:30:29.000And maybe there's some good ideas that came from mine and from yours, and we can kind of figure out, you know, the right path forward for all of us.
01:30:37.000And this is where, you know, it all stems down to being able to have the conversation.
01:30:42.000And that is so much of what's missing in Washington.
01:31:37.000It's such a great way to, I mean, for me, it's such a great way to start the day, you know, kind of clean the slate and get that physical exertion out.
01:31:46.000I mean, yoga, for me, it's yoga, meditation, and working out that...
01:32:30.000And it all was centered around just kicking each other's ass in the morning and talking shit and all the other stuff that happens in the gym.
01:32:37.000But what I was going to say is one morning there was a yoga class happening in there, and then Speaker Boehner was participating in the yoga class, and I saw him on the house floor later.
01:32:49.000He was walking down the main aisle, and just as he was about to leave, I was like, I saw you in yoga this morning.
01:32:57.000I put my hand up and I high-fived him and he smiled and laughed a little bit.
01:33:02.000But as this was happening, there was another Democrat who was waiting to pass and we were getting in her way.
01:33:10.000And when she passed, once the high-five was done, she started muttering something to her staff.
01:33:18.000She's like, I can't believe Tulsi would do that and gave me the look of like utter absolute disgust that this simple basic human interaction was the ultimate offense going back to once again how unfortunately so much of Congress is like high school and how at a most basic level like come on we're people let's treat each other like people And,
01:33:48.000you know, you can have, and there's a number of things that I disagree with John Boehner on, on issues, but let's have those conversations and also be able to say, you know what, I recognize that you're a person too.
01:34:01.000And yoga is a good thing for everybody.
01:34:04.000But that's just, you know, it's one example of many.
01:34:07.000It's a good thing for everybody and it's also a good thing to find out what someone's made out of.
01:34:11.000Because you could kind of like be a man and go work out hard and grunt and everything like that and like, oh, that guy really works out hard.
01:34:19.000Go to a yoga class and you find out how long you hold that pose for before you quit.
01:34:37.000You know, just stop and find that focus and that peace in yoga breathing, yoga meditation, and like stop looking in the mirror and checking out how big your muscles are.
01:36:16.000And, you know, the thing about them treating it like high school, the problem is most people live their fucking lives like it's like high school.
01:36:36.000I can't believe her husband lets her go out like that.
01:36:39.000It's like fucking high school, you know?
01:36:42.000That is a whole other thing about humanity, responsibility, and awareness, and the effect of our actions and our words on other people, and especially if you're a parent, on your kids, what kind of example you're setting.
01:36:57.000It's also just not seeking growth as a human being.
01:37:02.000Being satisfied with the mindset that you have 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, and just maintaining that nonsense for the rest of your life.
01:37:13.000They're literally like a 55-year-old baby man and that's out there treating life like they're a 12-year-old storming temper tantrums and acting like an idiot.
01:37:43.000And to be alive and to be in a place where, look, we have so many blessings and opportunities and comforts that people in a lot of other parts of the world don't have.
01:37:56.000And it's unfortunate to waste all of that opportunity.
01:38:33.000Because it was like knowing someone who got bit by a vampire.
01:38:36.000Like, watching his whole life wrap around this drug and selling it and then just withered away, lost a bunch of weight, looked all fucking scrawny and shit.
01:38:46.000You can learn from other people's failures.
01:39:40.000And speaking of learning from other people's experiences, I think this is, you know, what we've gone through as a country and as a people, this is a teachable moment.
01:39:52.000Like, if you don't like what's happening around you right now, take a moment, pause, and whether it's individually, ourselves, or, I mean, really collectively, stopping for that introspection to say, how did we get here?
01:40:13.000It doesn't happen because one person has been elected president.
01:40:18.000It happens when we collectively start to make those better choices about the impact that we are making on others, the kinds of things we're saying, the things that we're tweeting out.
01:40:30.000And, you know, instead of just like, whatever you're thinking on social media or whatever, you know, just taking that, like, okay, just think about it.
01:40:39.000What kind of impact do you want to make?
01:40:42.000This is where I think we have the opportunity to shift.
01:40:46.000And this is something that I want to be able to, that I plan to be able to help contribute to now that I'm not in Congress, is to be able to kind of create a platform for sharing real in-depth information.
01:41:03.000So that people have a place to go to look at different issues that we're dealing with at any given time, share my own insights based on the experience that I've had on both the problem as well as how we can work towards a real common sense solution, but also just have a platform for these kinds of real conversations,
01:41:24.000much like the ones that I've had throughout my presidential campaign, throughout my time in Congress, throughout my time in the military, both with people here and around the world, That show, when it comes right down to it, when you actually sit across from someone, maybe over a meal, that we have so much more in common than we realize.
01:41:42.000Just like my friends I work out with in the morning in the gym.
01:41:44.000We have so much more in common than we realize at the superficial level.
01:41:49.000And so this is one of the things that I'm going to be doing is launching a podcast show.
01:42:04.000I think it was the last time I was here with Jocko, right?
01:42:07.000That was the last time I was on your show.
01:42:12.000You're like, Tulsi, you should do a podcast.
01:42:14.000And actually have a long-form platform to talk about issues because, you know, as we saw throughout the debates and other things, it's the soundbite, it's the tweet, it's the superficial.
01:42:25.000And at that level, there's only an interest in soundbites and caricatures and not an interest in actual real conversation and in-depth focus on substance.
01:42:41.000It's the only way to find out how a person actually thinks.
01:42:44.000You can take a little snippet of things, you can mischaracterize it, and that's the problem with Twitter.
01:42:51.000I see so many people arguing with people on Twitter, and I watch them argue, and I go, I gotta believe if they were alone in a room, they wouldn't be...
01:43:01.000They'd probably find some common ground.
01:43:03.000Hopefully, they'd be able to communicate in a way where they would be able to relay each other's thoughts without having to insult each other and say horrible shit.
01:45:28.000And this is something I started to do at these town halls where to make people feel more comfortable, I said, okay, I want to see a show of hands.
01:45:42.000I said, okay, raise your hands if you're a Republican.
01:45:45.000And it usually started with one person kind of like looking around, raising their hand, and then slowly more hands started going up and everybody's sitting up a little taller and they're like, oh my God, I'm not alone.
01:46:36.000Like, you slowly but surely, and you could see Joy Behar, her glasses were shaking, she's pulling out her cards, and she had notes of different things, insulting things to say to you.
01:46:47.000And you kept your shit together, and you just calmly refuted all that and explained who you are, and That kind of energy that you brought to the table as a presidential candidate was very exciting to me.
01:47:00.000And that kind of energy at a town hall, I guarantee you, is a large part of why people were willing to have these reasonable disagreements and discussions.
01:47:21.000Most of what we agree on or disagree on is we can work these things out.
01:47:29.000And a lot of people that either are on one side or the other, they decide that they're a part of this tribe because they don't want to be out on their own.
01:48:02.000Yeah, and being able to create those spaces like you do here.
01:48:07.000I mean, I lost track of how many people who came to my campaign because, like, I heard you on Joe Rogan.
01:48:14.000You have all kinds of people that you bring in here to talk to and have meaningful discussions with, which is, I think, what draws people to your show because...
01:48:23.000They know that it will be a fair and open and respectful dialogue, whether you agree with who you bring in or not.
01:48:31.000It's kind of not even really the point.
01:48:34.000But so many people came and people from across the spectrum.
01:48:39.000There's this one woman who came At the end of the town hall and she's like, I don't know, maybe 70 years old.
01:48:45.000She's like, Tulsi, I'm here because I saw you on Joe Rogan.
01:48:51.000I don't think you're the kind of person people think of when they think of the Joe Rogan audience, but it just shows that there's such a cross-section of Americans, again, who are hungry for this dialogue and to be able to reach out and to hear different perspectives.
01:49:09.000And so, yeah, I mean, this is something that I want to be able to help contribute to being that voice for common sense and facts and truth and freedom and to create that space where we can actually get to know each other better.
01:49:26.000Well, the world needs a whole lot more of that.
01:50:48.000Yeah, we'll get to do in-person ones when it's a little bit more safe to do it.
01:50:52.000But in the meantime, you know, it'll be a mix of...
01:50:55.000It's not going to be primarily conversations.
01:50:57.000It'll be conversations, but it'll also just, you know, North Korea, for example.
01:51:01.000I'm going to do a piece just talking about North Korea and really getting into depth about how we got here and the failures that have caused us to reach this point.
01:51:25.000Because there's a lot of podcast networks out there and there's a lot of...
01:51:31.000Production houses that put together podcasts and they'll lure you in with talks of, we already have advertisers, we can do this, or we'd like to offer you 60% of the revenue and we'll take the rest.
01:51:48.000I think with everything happening, especially now, but even leading up to what we've seen in the last few weeks, just putting yourself in a position where someone else has the power to tell you, like, man,
01:53:29.000Oh, yeah, we're going to have to demonetize that.
01:53:32.000There was a lot of weird stuff like that.
01:53:33.000And so I was like, listen, they're great overall, but the arbitrary decisions that are oftentimes done by people that work there, right?
01:53:43.000So someone has the ability to decide whether you make money off something or whether you don't make money off something.
01:53:50.000And it's not the primary concern, but it points to an issue.
01:53:58.000And the issue is someone being able to dictate what you can or can't talk about, or someone incentivizing you to talk about something or not talk about something.
01:55:23.000But the danger, like you said, the danger of the principle of the matter is that, let's say they don't have the means to, I don't know how their process works, but let's say somebody clicks on your video or my video and reports it as,
01:56:42.000I mean, ultimately, it comes down to being able to make sure that these big tech monopolies are making decisions about content, like we talked about, based on the principles of the First Amendment.
01:56:57.000There's literally decades of precedence for this which provide very clear guidelines and markers that big tech or frankly any platform can look to and have those be the boundaries that are transparent and clear to everyone so that users or content creators aren't left questioning and wondering like,
01:57:36.000So my thoughts of going with Spotify, besides the money, was that it seemed like it made more sense to have someone who has a vested interest in the show succeeding, and they have no interest in pulling me off their network.
01:58:31.000No, I mean, there's just some of the things that, like, we talked about a lot of things that I was hoping to talk about and some things that I wanted to be reminded of.
01:59:04.000It's the primary way that most people express themselves in a public forum.
01:59:08.000And one of the dangers of this right now is just the, you know, casting broad aspersions against people.
01:59:19.000We were talking about this as I was walking in this morning of, you know, people are talking about racism a lot, but they're not referring to kind of the racism and assumption of guilt against like white male Americans right now.
01:59:38.000That clip from Congressman Steve Cohen on CNN from the other day.
01:59:43.000Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
01:59:44.000So Congressman Steve Cohen was on CNN talking about potential insider threats from the National Guard who are deployed to our nation's capital right now to over 25,000 of our National Guard soldiers, I believe from every single state.
01:59:59.000And the point that he was making was that because only 20% of white males voted for Joe Biden...
02:00:09.000And, well, that means, you know, the rest obviously voted for Trump.
02:00:13.000And the military is still a predominantly white male.
02:00:37.000In saying that, he says, well, therefore, given the military is predominantly white male, it's safe to assume that 75% of the Guard has likely voted for Trump, and therefore could not be trusted for to uphold their oath to support and defend the Constitution and fulfill the mission that they've been tasked with in our nation's capital.
02:01:02.000And the troubling statement that he used was given these numbers, quote, the suspect pool is large.
02:01:11.000So casting doubt and suspicion on the vast majority of the National Guard in this case because of their race and their gender and who they may have voted for as though they cannot be trusted directly.
02:01:31.000To uphold the responsibility and the oath that we all take for wearing this uniform is one example of this.
02:03:22.000And everybody blew a fucking gasket, because that is really a crazy thing to say.
02:03:26.000Well, the problem is, I don't remember the name of who said it, but all members of this advisory committee supported it, except for one guy who was like, this is not based on science.
02:03:38.000Because if you look at the statistics, over 80% of people dying in this country from COVID are people over the age of 65. Yeah, if you want to save lives, you would give it to them.
02:03:48.000And like 50% of people being hospitalized.
02:03:50.000Over 65. So yes, if you want to save lives, if you want to make it so our ICUs aren't at max capacity, then prioritize the vaccine based on age instead of occupation.
02:04:04.000There is a concern, though, that essential workers are the ones who spread it more easily because they have to be in contact with people.
02:04:53.000I've gone back and looked at the applications and the data that was put forward to the FDA to get approval from Pfizer and Moderna, and these vaccines have been scientifically established to largely prevent serious health complications and death from COVID once you're vaccinated.
02:05:17.000That has been scientifically established.
02:05:20.000Nowhere in their trials was it scientifically established that these vaccines would prevent the transmission of the virus.
02:05:27.000And so I see it almost every day, and it's incredibly dangerous where media outlets and some people who are healthcare professionals are propagating this.
02:05:44.000But they're basically saying that, that, well, you know, people who have to go and work in these jobs that are essential workers, they need to get vaccinated so they don't spread it.
02:05:56.000We had a local news station in Hawaii who shared a really emotional interview from a...
02:06:01.000First responder, younger woman who had just gotten vaccinated, and she said, like, finally, I can go and visit my grandmother and not be worried that I am going to give her the virus because I'm taking care of people who have COVID every day.
02:06:20.000And what is so dangerous about that is she got the vaccine.
02:06:24.000If she has then gone and visited with her grandmother, she She could still, and Dr. Fauci's talked about this and others, because this virus lives inside your nasal passage...
02:06:39.000You can be vaccinated and you can still pass it on.
02:06:42.000And it could have a devastating effect on someone, for example, who is elderly and who is vulnerable to this and who has not gotten the vaccine.
02:06:52.000So anyone who is saying that, well, we have to vaccinate these people or those people based on their occupation because we don't want the virus to spread, it has not been scientifically established that the vaccines prevent that.
02:07:09.000And this is why Fauci and these other guys, they're like, even if you're vaccinated, you have to still wear the mask, you still have to do social distancing, because of the potential for that.
02:07:20.000So I think that's such an important thing for people to know, especially as people are getting vaccinated, not to have this false sense of security that just because you've gotten the vaccine, now you can go visit grandma in...
02:07:33.000The nursing home because you're not going to expose her potentially or put her at risk.
02:07:40.000But the second issue is, is if you actually go on the CDC, I've gone through all the CDC slides that the advisory committee put forward on who is a frontline essential worker and who's an essential worker.
02:07:51.000So healthcare professionals and first responders, obviously, yes.
02:07:59.000They should be getting the vaccine right alongside our elderly, over 65. But if you start getting past them and the people who are listed as frontline essential workers, according to the CDC, you're talking about anybody who works in manufacturing.
02:08:56.000And making decisions based on who gets the vaccine first, not based on who is most likely to die or get seriously ill, but instead based on occupation.
02:09:13.000I kind of understand why you would want the people that are forced to work to get vaccinated before people that are not forced to work.
02:09:42.000It is because, again, let's say you have that example.
02:09:46.000I mean, people over 65, my parents included, you're pretty much stuck at home because of the very real danger that if you go out and you get infected, you could die.
02:09:58.000The danger of this fact about how the vaccines have not been scientifically established to prevent the transmission of the virus, that that's not being directly told to every single person who gets it, Is a real problem because then they go home.
02:10:17.000Or they go and visit their parents who they haven't seen for a long time or their grandparents and could be carrying the virus and transmitting it unknowingly because they think like, I'm good now.
02:10:32.000I mean, to me, there's a direct scientific correlation based on facts that if you look at the people who are dying and who are being hospitalized, predominantly they are people over 65 years old.
02:10:47.000If we want to reduce those numbers, those are the people who should be prioritized to get this limited number of vaccines that we have first, then followed by younger, healthy people.
02:11:00.000I mean, to me, and by doing that, really, we could reduce the numbers of COVID-related deaths by about 80%.
02:11:08.000Reduce the numbers of COVID-related hospitalizations by, I think it's like 48-49%.
02:11:15.000That would have a massive, massive effect on people's lives and on our country.
02:11:29.000I've been pushing both our state leadership in Hawaii and also the Trump administration.
02:11:36.000So the Trump administration, just in the last few days, I think it was January 12th, I think, the Department of Health and Human Services did actually adjust their recommendations.
02:11:50.000And they said vaccines need to urgently go towards people over 65. It is something that they have strongly recommended to the states.
02:12:00.000At this point, it's up to the states to choose whether to implement it or not.
02:12:09.000But at this point, kind of the lives of our parents and grandparents are in the hands of the decisions being made by the governors and state health officials in each state.
02:12:20.000How has Hawaii had a quarantine for a long time, right?
02:12:27.000Recently, that quarantine is lifted for travelers, whether you're a resident or a visitor, if you're coming in with a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours prior to arrival.
02:13:01.000But, you know, I think this is an approach now that, you know, I think anybody coming to the U.S. now from a foreign country now has to do something similar.
02:13:10.000So it's not 100% protection, but it provides that layer of protection to make sure that, yeah, people shouldn't be getting onto airplanes if you're sick.
02:13:31.000I think there may have been, I don't know the exact numbers, but you know, it's kind of, the numbers are quite small.
02:13:38.000The spikes that we've seen in our daily reports seem to come after, you know, holiday weekends, times when people are gathering in large numbers and so on.
02:13:51.000Is there any discussion in Hawaii about health and nutrition and exercise and the importance that that plays in the immune system?
02:14:04.000It's, you know, I think because it's Hawaii, there's, I mean, being outdoors, surfing, hiking, swimming, you know, this is such a big part of life.
02:14:16.000But, yeah, I mean, this has not been a focus by our health department or in Hawaii, and I think even nationally, it's unfortunate that just basic health and wellness has not been more of a focus in talking about prevention.
02:14:32.000Yeah, well, the economic impact for the state has to be insane.
02:14:36.000Because so much relying on tourism, right?
02:14:39.000I mean, it's the number one driver of our economy.
02:14:41.000And it's not just the people who are working in hotels, right?
02:14:44.000It's all of the other people in that economic chain, you know, all the way to the farmers who are growing food, who usually are able to sell to the restaurants in the hotels, the restaurants in the community.
02:14:59.000Yeah, it's had a really devastating effect.
02:15:03.000And for a state like Hawaii, it seems like the only way that it bounces back is to let tourism back in.
02:15:12.000If that's the number one driver of the economy, it's not like there's a bunch of other variables that can be put into play, right?
02:15:21.000Well, first of all, I think a lot of local people are saying it's kind of nice not being flooded with millions of tourists every day, and maybe there's a way to take a more balanced and sustainable approach to welcoming people back into the state.
02:15:37.000Um, that also is more, more sustainable in that, you know, uh, marine life are thriving.
02:15:45.000Our reefs are doing much better than they ever have.
02:15:48.000Um, it's just the environment in Hawaii.
02:15:52.000Like, you know, people were out in the water every day.
02:15:54.000They're like, my gosh, it's like mother earth finally got a chance to breathe.
02:15:57.000That's so great, but also so disappointing.
02:16:01.000And so, you know, they're having conversations like, hey, maybe there's like a month out of the year or some period of time where we should just kind of maybe put a pause on things, let the environment reset.
02:16:20.000And this is really just the beginning, right?
02:16:21.000If you left Hawaii alone for 10 years, then you would see what's up.
02:16:27.000I have a giant concern with fishing practices and what's happening with the ocean because I don't think it's nearly being regulated enough and it's terrifying.
02:16:40.000And when you think about the possibility of them literally pulling every fish out of the ocean inside of the next 150-200 years, that I mean, that's really possible.
02:16:50.000We could see the numbers that things are down.
02:16:54.000There was a documentary that I watched about a Japanese tuna fisherman.
02:16:59.000And they were talking about what it used to be like when they would have these tuna hauls and they would come in and the sushi restaurants and all these different places would come in to look at the fish versus what's available now.
02:17:11.000And it's a radical decrease in the population of fish.
02:17:17.000I mean, I think a lot of what's happening with, you know, I don't know all of the mechanics of how they do it, but it's kind of like the ocean version of factory farming, essentially, where you see, in both cases,
02:18:00.000There has to be a change in the policies and the laws that govern these industries because otherwise we're going to get to a place, like you said, there just won't be any more fish in the sea.
02:18:15.000It's such a crazy thing to think of that a giant percentage of the Earth's surface and we suck all the living things out of it and stick them on plates.
02:19:11.000So this podcast that you're doing, when you launch this and you, especially after COVID, relaxes and you take it on the road, do you have an end goal with this?
02:19:25.000Is there something you're going to do in...
02:19:28.000In addition to other things that you're planning on doing with your time?
02:19:32.000Yeah, this I think will end up being one of a number of things that I'm doing.
02:19:38.000Really as a means, taking the experience that I had, especially from my campaign, where my interest and goal was to really talk about and focus on the great issues of our time.
02:19:50.000But finding that the mainstream media is really only interested in creating a caricature and the soundbite and the smears, that's kind of what motivated me to create this platform as a means to, that's why I called it,
02:20:42.000I think can have a really positive effect in inspiring people to do the same, to dig deeper, to look for the truth, to maybe challenge their own perspective or view on something by considering someone else's, and to spark those conversations in their own circles.
02:20:59.000We are just so fortunate that there's an opportunity now that you can express yourself like that, where you can't be misrepresented.
02:21:07.000And if people want to misrepresent you, other people just have to listen to you and go, that's not who she is at all.
02:21:15.000You don't listen to This is Tulsi Gabbard.
02:21:24.000It's interesting that you say the mainstream media misrepresented you because don't you think that the mainstream media had to have been guided to misrepresent you?
02:21:32.000It's not as simple as they just decided to pick on you.
02:21:35.000There are some other We're good to go.
02:22:17.000I just said I want him to live forever.
02:22:20.000But if I have to make a bet to how long he's going to stay in office.
02:22:23.000Well, you saw that one conversation that he's had where he was talking about him and Kamala, that if they had a disagreement, he would just say that he had an injury or an illness.
02:23:47.000But all kidding aside, it's a matter of the thing, we are simpatico on our philosophy of government and simpatico on how we want to attach, approach these issues that we're facing.
02:24:06.000She'll say, I think we should do A, B, C, or D. And I'll say, I like A, don't like B and C, and let's go, okay.
02:24:13.000And like I told Barack, if I reach something where there's a fundamental disagreement we have based on a moral principle, I'll develop some disease and say I have to resign.
02:26:51.000I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.
02:26:53.000I mean, look, there's health issues and complications that can contribute to people gaining weight.
02:27:02.000And I have friends and I know people who have other underlying issues that make it difficult for them to either follow a certain diet or be physically active or whatever.
02:27:13.000So it's not to make fun of people, but...
02:27:15.000But it's to encourage overall health and well-being.
02:28:47.000Give us the truth and let us take actions based on that information.
02:28:54.000And just like this, there are serious health complications and issues that are there if you are morbidly obese.
02:29:02.000That is a fact that's based on science.
02:29:05.000You know, early on in the COVID pandemic, when they were saying like, oh, masks won't do anything to help protect you or others from getting COVID. And obviously it comes out later that,
02:29:23.000oh, well, he only said it because there weren't enough medical grade masks to go around.
02:29:29.000He had his own motive for saying it, even though he knew it wasn't actually true.
02:29:34.000Just give people the facts and the information.
02:29:45.000Back in March, you said no one should have to wear a mask.
02:29:47.000And it's just like the, you know, well, you can't, you know, COVID spreads more rapidly if you have people gathering in close quarters, shoulder to shoulder, large groups of people.
02:30:22.000But all of these things, like these things, and then, you know, you have Gavin Newsom going and having dinner at a fancy restaurant, and then you have freaking surfers getting arrested for going out and surfing by themselves on the beach.
02:30:33.000Literally police chasing them down the beach, like trying to arrest this guy who's not in a large group of people in a public place.
02:30:41.000This is the hypocrisy that people absolutely lose faith and trust in the decisions that they're making.
02:30:50.000And again, points to like, well, this is what happens when you have people who are incompetent in positions of power and leadership.
02:30:59.000Well, it's also their attitude towards everyone else.
02:31:03.000They don't want to follow the rules they're asking other people to enforce.
02:31:06.000This is the same man that was telling people to wear a mask in between bites of food.
02:31:10.000And he also lied about being outdoors.
02:31:51.000And what we were talking about earlier, the people that are in the restaurant business really feel like political pawns.
02:31:58.000They don't feel like it makes any sense.
02:32:00.000There was another one I saw in California where this woman had been told to shut down her restaurant.
02:32:07.000I think it was when they shut down both indoor and outdoor dining not too long ago.
02:32:12.000And her restaurant was right next to some big film production that was feeding the crew and doing what they're doing, going on with their production, but her little restaurant was not allowed to keep their doors open.
02:32:37.000And to see her crying and furious that she spent all of her hard-earned money that she didn't even have because she was locked out for so long of her business.
02:33:49.000These are people that are exercising and working out hard.
02:33:52.000Where you're getting it from is people in tight groups where they're on top of each other like you're forced to be when you're stuck at home.
02:34:01.000Yeah, the leadership that is making decisions, not based on science or basic common sense, but instead making these decisions that are seemingly completely arbitrary, and not only making arbitrary decisions,
02:35:55.000But that politicizing of this crisis has been a major contributor to the problems that we are seeing, you know, and...
02:36:06.000Yeah, I mean, so many of these things we're talking about, they kind of all go back to this same root cause where we have people, whether they're elected or the bureaucrats that the elected people put into power, making decisions not based on what's in the best interest of the people.
02:36:24.000Whatever the motive is, power, party politics, campaigns, money, you know, all of these different things, it all points to that same place where The concept of servant leadership, people in these positions actually being motivated to make decisions based on how they can best serve the people in our country,
02:37:38.000But it just made a world of difference to me to get back home, be on the ground, be able to go out and see people, listen, see what's going on, get in the ocean, and just have that reset as often as possible so that I never wanted to get in a place where I felt comfortable in Washington.
02:38:10.000I don't ever want to feel that way because, unfortunately, Washington is like this bubble that's so disconnected from reality that it makes it so that these decisions that are being made are disconnected from reality.
02:38:28.000The reality that people are living every day.
02:38:30.000Do you plan on living the same way when you're doing your podcast?
02:39:09.000So give me the optimist perspective of how you think this country bounces back from COVID. From the lockdowns, from the economic disaster that we're currently enveloped in.
02:39:21.000My optimism points to the hope that we find, and this is what I hope happens in Hawaii as well, is that we find some innovation and ingenuity in how we can move forward together as a country and In Hawaii,
02:39:45.000having a predominantly tourism-based economy is a recipe for failure should something like this happen.
02:39:53.000And it happened before, after 9-11, where everything tanked because people weren't flying.
02:39:59.000So the lives and the livelihood of people in places like Hawaii, and there are others...
02:40:05.000We cannot be dependent on a massive event like this.
02:40:10.000Let's look at how we can invest in new industries, entrepreneurs, innovators in different areas and different sectors.
02:40:20.000So from an economic perspective, I hope that we come through this maybe with different ideas on how we approach things and how we can better harden ourselves.
02:40:32.000Some of it is not possible, but I hope that there are new ideas and I hope that...
02:40:39.000I really think that we as a people are becoming more health aware because of this.
02:40:45.000And we'll look at our own health and that of those around us so that we are better protected as people in situations like this.
02:41:54.000And I think that's part of the problem is that we expected it to be far worse when the pandemic was first arriving on our shores, and then we never really made the adjustments to treat it for what it really is.
02:42:06.000Yeah, and that focus, both for the short term and the long term, on health and wellness, I think is at the heart of all of this.
02:42:14.000I think it is, you know, you've done a lot on this show to talk about vitamin D, for example, and how important it is that, you know, we're taking it, that we're taking these different supplements that help strengthen our immune system and protect us specifically from this virus,
02:42:32.000but just help us be healthier overall.
02:42:35.000I went and looked on the CDC website to see what they had to say about it.
02:43:15.000I mean, there really should be, and we have talked about this in the podcast, and I had Dr. Mark Gordon on recently, and he talked to me about quercetin, which is an ionophore, and zinc, and the two of them in combination.
02:43:27.000I could send you this study, but there's...
02:43:29.000A peer-reviewed study on quercetin and zinc, and apparently zinc, when you take it, zinc has powerful antiviral properties to it, but it's difficult for it to get in the cells.
02:43:41.000But with an ionophore, like quercetin, it allows it to get into the cell more.
02:43:46.000And he said this also could be the case for curcumin and turmeric, which are, you know, they have anti-inflammatory properties, and they could also help Absorb it together, but he recommends quercetin, and you can get it from Amazon, from any vitamin store, whatever.
02:44:02.000It's a normal vitamin, but you take 1,000 milligrams of quercetin and 30 milligrams of zinc.
02:44:09.000My friend Andrew Marr, who is here with him, he does jiu-jitsu, and he did jiu-jitsu with a guy who was feeling like shit, and he got tested after he was rolling, and he felt weak and fatigued.
02:44:21.000And so after he's rolling, he went to the doctor, got a test, and then called Andrew and said, dude, I'm sorry, but I'm positive for COVID. Andrew never got it because he's taking quercetin and zinc.
02:44:32.000And Andrew is a veteran, and he's a part of – Mark Gordon works with him on the Warrior Angel Foundation.
02:44:40.000It's basically treating soldiers with traumatic brain injuries.
02:44:44.000Treating him with a series of anti-inflammatory nutrients as well as some, you know, different hormones and medications that helps these guys.
02:44:54.000But one of the things that he recommends highly is quercetin and zinc.
02:45:45.000You know, come back and are struggling with the side effects of that and are just given like these hardcore prescription drugs that aren't ultimately helping address the underlying problem and just end up causing more sickness or side effects and more drugs and more side effects in that endless cycle to be able to have a really holistic response to be able to help.
02:46:16.000It's quercetin is a part of Dr. Gordon's protocol.
02:46:20.000He's a large protocol of different nutrients and vitamins and things that will help these guys.
02:46:28.000And one of the things that happens to a lot of these soldiers that have experienced traumatic brain injuries or they've been hit by blasts from kicking open doors and things along those lines is a lot of inflammation.
02:46:41.000Inflammation is like the root of evil.
02:47:15.000But he's a brilliant guy who, you know, when he's on the show, he just rattles off study after study off the top of his head and explain why these things work well in conjunction.
02:47:30.000That's something that just before I was leaving Congress, I was talking with some Department of Defense officials who are responsible for health and wellness, and they're starting to shift more.
02:47:43.000They're talking about shifting more towards a holistic approach to care, both preventive care for service members as well as how people are being cared for when they come back.
02:47:55.000After having gone through TBI and a whole host of other physical issues, overexposure to different metals and everything else, I think there's a long way to go, but I was really pleasantly surprised to see at least the language is starting to change,
02:48:12.000the mindset is starting to change to say, the amount of money that we as taxpayers spend on healthcare for our service members alone is pretty astronomical.
02:48:24.000We need to provide our service members the best healthcare possible.
02:48:28.000The healthcare that's being provided right now is not the best healthcare possible.
02:48:31.000In many cases, it's just like, okay, here's more drugs, rather than actually solving, figuring out why are so many of our service members getting sick?
02:48:42.000Why are so many service members coming back from multiple deployments, maybe in their late 30s, getting sick and dying from cancer?
02:48:50.000Or coming down with serious respiratory problems.
02:48:52.000Like actually, you know, there's now, okay, toxic burn pits are a serious issue that's contributing to this.
02:48:59.000How do we try to minimize or prevent the ramifications of this exposure and stop, you know, you can't mitigate every single risk.
02:49:08.000Obviously, if you're going in a war zone, there's going to be some things you're exposed to, but how do you try to minimize and mitigate the impacts of those things?
02:49:18.000Let's do this right away and not wait 5, 10, 20 years like our Vietnam veterans did who were exposed to Agent Orange and then so many dying off from cancer directly related to that exposure.
02:49:31.000So that kind of change in mindset needs to change within the DOD as well as the VA. Yeah, I wasn't even aware of toxic burn pits until people on the podcast explained.
02:49:58.000When you look at the millions of troops who've deployed not once but multiple times, we had a massive toxic burn pit on the camp where I was that soldiers were literally assigned to pulling security around this burn pit.
02:50:11.000So their place of duty every day was next to this burn pit breathing everything in.
02:50:17.000And that was literally everything from paints, plastics, construction waste, human waste, metals, everything.
02:50:25.000And it just, you know, I mean, there was a huge, like, what do you call it?
02:50:31.000Just a huge cloud of this ashy soot kind of fog that was over our camp all the time.
02:50:54.000And the DOD and the VA have not done anywhere near enough that To acknowledge that this is a problem and to link that acknowledgement with actually providing care and support to service members who are getting really sick because of that exposure and their family members,
02:51:13.000husbands and wives who are quitting their jobs because now they have to become full-time caregivers.
02:51:19.000I've introduced Congressman Brian Mass from Florida, who's also a veteran.
02:51:27.000He was an explosive ordinance disposal guy.
02:51:31.000He and I have worked together on this, introducing legislation, basically pushing for more transparency so we know exactly how many people.
02:51:51.000Now before I let you go, we have to talk about our boy, Max Holloway.
02:53:19.000And Punahele Soriano, he also had a great fight that same night.
02:53:26.000These fighters coming out of Hawaii, obviously, we love and we're proud of them because they're coming from Hawaii.
02:53:30.000But you look at Max, and he represents what we call aloha.
02:53:36.000Which is that respect and that kindness and like, no, you ain't rolling over for anybody, but like when it's time to fight, you're going to fight.
02:53:47.000But you don't lose that sense of respect and aloha and that kindness through it all.
02:55:10.000Watching that fight, I watched it again yesterday, I was like, this is bananas!
02:55:14.000The amount of strikes he's landing on an incredibly dangerous guy in Calvin Cater.
02:55:23.000And he's still under 30. This is the thing, Khabib Nurmagomedov watched the fight, and Khabib said Max Holloway has the potential to be the greatest fighter ever.
02:55:46.000And I kind of lean towards Jon Jones because of his accomplishments, because he's beaten more people over a longer period of time, but Khabib has barely lost a round.
02:55:58.000He locked like a couple of rounds in his whole fight, in his whole career, never been dropped, dominated everybody, and he's undefeated at 29-0, which is madness in a division like 155. Is he still, is he retired?
02:56:12.000Because I thought that last fight, I thought he was like, this is it.
02:56:14.000That's what he said, but he's decided that if something spectacular happens on Saturday night with Conor and Dustin Poirier, he might make a comeback.
02:57:12.000Conor, I know a lot of people that have witnessed his training camp and I've seen a lot of videos and I've seen a lot of conversations about his training for this.
02:58:32.000And I was surprised in some of his post-fight interviews when he started talking about how he wasn't really sparring in his training for the fight.
02:58:42.000And to have that kind of performance without sparring and why he said he's not sparring, right?
02:58:49.000Well, I think he had decided, I think possibly after the Dustin Poirier fight, that he had taken too many shots in sparring and that it was not necessary.
02:58:58.000He's like, I already know how to fight.
03:00:15.000Yeah, they're like mirror images of each other.
03:00:18.000Even the opposing fighters, almost mirror images of like Big Miss.
03:00:24.000That was nuts in the last round when he dropped his hands and was talking to the commentators like, I'm the best boxer in the UFC, while he's dodging punches.
03:00:43.000He did, I think this was after he first got the belt for the first time, came back, and they organized a hometown parade for him in Wyanai.
03:00:54.000I went just to congratulate him and just celebrate him and Yancey Medeiros, who had fought that same night.
03:01:02.000But it was the coolest thing to see Max at home, in his hometown, and to see how many kids and young people were so inspired and so excited to see one of their own go out and frickin' get it done.
03:01:54.000I want to tell you about a new project that I'll be launching very soon.
03:01:59.000Over the last several years, one of the most beautiful things that I have experienced and appreciated throughout my service in public office and in the military are the people I've met from all across the country, from around the world, and the incredible conversations that we've shared.
03:02:17.000So whether it was visiting a farmer in Iowa or a pastor in South Carolina or a small business owner in Syria, We are all connected.
03:02:29.000Children of God, brothers and sisters, and we have so much more in common than we may realize.
03:02:37.000Now more than ever, during these dark and divisive and dangerous times, we have the opportunity to be a positive force, to help heal the divide, to treat each other with aloha, with respect and love,
03:02:55.000So on my show, I will go beyond the soundbite and share in-depth information, insights, and thought-provoking discussions.
03:03:06.000And I'll answer your questions, whether they are about foreign policy, politics, the environment, or maybe just questions you have about life, yoga meditation, music, surfing, or food.
03:03:21.000We will tackle the great challenges of our time together.
03:03:25.000We will go where others won't, gain new perspectives, and we will never shy away from the tough conversations.