Alan Dershowitz's testimony in front of the Supreme Court has been taken out of context and mischaracterized, and CNN tries to make it seem like he's actually arguing a different way than what the rest of the world has seen.
00:03:16.240I am absolutely amazed that CNN continues to do something that you would think just couldn't be done, which is to completely make up news based on taking a quote and a context,
00:03:32.360even when the rest of the context is publicly available and everybody's seen it.
00:03:38.520It's the weirdest thing that they can get away with it.
00:03:40.680They are no longer just reporting news that isn't true in some cases.
00:03:45.260Instead, they've started conjuring reality out of nothing.
00:03:50.760So in the case of Alan Dershowitz's testimony, they continue to take that one sentence out of context where he was talking about a specific example with Lincoln
00:04:02.700to act as though he's generalizing that to Trump, which is not what he was doing.
00:04:08.360He was making, I'm not going to go over the arguments, but let's just say that they completely make a fake argument for Dershowitz.
00:04:15.000And then C.C. Cupp, in writing on CNN.com today, this must be maddening for Dershowitz.
00:04:29.160Imagine seeing that your opinion, the one that you argued so well in front of the world, has been mischaracterized.
00:04:38.020And then after they mischaracterize it, this is so clever and despicable, it's just funny.
00:04:48.580First, they mischaracterize him, and that's only stage one.
00:04:52.700After they've mischaracterized it into something that's ridiculous, then they say, the majority of experts say his argument was ridiculous.
00:05:01.580And you know what? The majority of experts would say that the argument that they mischaracterized is ridiculous, at least the mischaracterization is ridiculous, but not his actual argument.
00:05:17.720To the best of my knowledge, nobody in the world has actually argued with him.
00:05:24.420Well, I can see in the comments that there's something you're missing.
00:05:27.040Doesn't it bother you? Doesn't it bother you? Your addiction is now so deep that you need the simultaneous sip, and all you need for that is a cup or a mug or a glass of tank or chalice or stein, a canteen, a jug or flask, a vessel of any kind.
00:07:02.860And so, this professor apparently has never watched any, I'm just guessing, never watched any news source other than the ones that present the fake news.
00:07:15.800So, at first, this professor thought, oh, this quote from Dershowitz is actually accurate, but it's taken out of context.
00:07:22.840It had to do with one example about Lincoln.
00:08:12.160All right, there's a rumor that, a continuing rumor, that, this is a new one, instead of Hillary saying that she wants to be president, the rumor is, speculation really, more than rumor, that she would potentially agree to be Hillary's vice president.
00:08:31.940I'm sorry, that Hillary would agree to be Biden's vice president.
00:08:42.020Now, here's the thinking, and then I'll tell you why it's cray-cray.
00:08:46.960The thinking is that Hillary so wants to be Trump that she would take the vice president position and then bring the entire Clinton machine to bear, and that would be enough, you know, Biden plus Hillary Clinton.
00:09:03.500And I'm not even saying that wouldn't be a strong package.
00:09:07.280It would probably be a pretty strong package.
00:09:09.820And people, and the speculation goes that she might want to do that because being the first woman who's vice president is still breaking a barrier, so she would own that.
00:09:26.340And she's already said that she's not going to run for president.
00:09:29.400I don't think she would say that directly, unless she meant it.
00:09:33.500And, of course, the play would be that she wouldn't bother running for vice president unless she thought she could run the show from there, or she thought that Biden was going to fade fairly quickly and she would just have the top spot because of constitutional order.
00:09:49.220Here's why that's why that's not going to happen.
00:09:55.020I don't believe that Hillary Clinton, from a psychological perspective, from an ego perspective, I predict that she could not accept running for the second spot.
00:11:00.760I think he would not pick somebody who would be in their 70s if elected, if what he's trying to show is that, well, I've got a backup plan because I'm too old.
00:11:10.480So it doesn't make sense, and it wouldn't get the minority vote necessarily, although Clinton did get a lot, so it wouldn't be terrible in that way, but it wouldn't satisfy having a person of color on the ticket.
00:11:29.280So I say that Hillary is very unlikely to take a second position, and here's the last reason why.
00:14:27.960Is it possible they know that it doesn't transmit as well outside of an ethnic group?
00:14:34.480Now, I'm just going to put that out there because some of the conversation is about whether or not there's something unique about this virus.
00:15:00.640There's, maybe it's me, but there's something about the whole situation that just doesn't smell right beyond the fact that it's an obvious, you know, big problem.
00:15:55.120So here's why this story about immigration and the coronavirus story are actually the same story.
00:16:04.520Because what is the difference between an idea virus and a physical one?
00:16:10.560So the reason for banning immigration from these, you know, so-called banned countries is that these are places that we imagine bad people could be in the mix and we wouldn't be able to tell if they're bad people.
00:16:28.460It's exactly the same as a plain load of people coming in from China, you know, regardless of where they're born or what nationality or ethnicity they are.
00:16:40.160It's a plain load of people that we can't tell who might be infected with the virus and who can't.
00:16:46.340So how do you treat it if there's a big potential risk and you can't tell who's innocent and who's not?
00:16:51.880Well, if it's a virus, you quarantine and you temporarily block until you can figure out what's going on, get a handle on it.
00:17:01.800If it's the idea virus of being a terrorist, it's exactly the same in effect.
00:17:15.280Most of them you assume are fine, just like with the virus.
00:17:18.640A plain load of people come in from China, almost all of them are going to be free of the virus, but you don't know which ones.
00:17:27.540So why is the medical situation so different from the idea virus situation when they both have those same qualities?
00:17:37.300Now, I don't like to argue from analogies, but I'm not even sure this is much of an analogy.
00:17:43.640It's so exact in terms of how you would handle it, and now the fact that the United States is handling those two situations roughly similar.
00:17:54.120In other words, we're doing something bad for 99% of the people so we can stop that 1%.
00:20:23.460Yes, can you tell me more about how this all, the coronavirus, yes, can you tell me how that all relates to this anti-vaccine?
00:20:37.420Oh, so the question is, how does the coronavirus relate to the vaccination and anti-vaccination?
00:20:45.640I'm not sure that we should make too much of that.
00:20:51.420I appreciate the argument that says, if you're going to be cautious about one thing, you should be cautious about another.
00:20:59.440So, I think, you know, there's a little bit there to make a political argument, but I think you could ignore one when you're working on the other.
00:21:07.240So, I would just treat them as separate.
00:21:10.120There's a little bit in common, but not enough to make something of it.
00:21:43.480So, tell me what you're going to sell, and I'll tell you if I want the pitch.
00:21:47.060I was going to make the argument that capitalism is already dead, because I have some friends that they're more socialist on the socialist side or outright communists.
00:21:56.860And I want to get this into a sales pitch form to kind of convince people to kind of drop that a little bit.
00:22:04.140Yeah, I don't think the audience is ready for that, but let me engage on that topic.
00:22:09.120I have a theory, hypothesis really, that the people who are pushing the deep socialism that borders on communism and the anarchy and stuff like that, I feel like they're treating it more like a lifestyle and more like theater.
00:22:27.200And that if you actually sat anybody down with no witnesses and say, oh, look, look, Bob, I hear what you're saying, I get it, you like to march and stuff, you hate the president, I get it.
00:22:37.580But do you really think this system would work for the country?
00:22:42.540I don't think anybody really thinks it.
00:22:47.800I have a hard time taking it seriously.
00:22:49.720And I'm pretty sure that the serious people in the government don't take it seriously either.
00:22:57.700Now, I suppose we could get caught off guard.
00:23:01.220It could be that there's a whole generation that's brainwashed to the degree that they don't know it's not serious and that they've bought into it.
00:23:21.480So, the reason I didn't want to do that is I know most of you are watching these periscopes because you want to hear more from me and wherever that's the case.
00:24:21.380So, you know, as I'm reading the books, I've read all your recent books with you.
00:24:27.300And can you just tell me which one has been your favorite and which one you think they would be good for my kids as they were growing up to read?
00:25:23.280I mean, such kinds of improvements that it's a little bit mind-boggling and I don't even know how to process it.
00:25:30.460It's more than I would have ever imagined.
00:25:32.860Now, why I like that, not just because people are having great experiences by it, but I wrote it for that purpose.
00:25:40.040And there was sort of a deeper purpose on top of that.
00:25:45.480I mean, it was meant for anybody to read to improve their life and it appears to be working very well for that.
00:25:52.260But it was written specifically for my, at the time, 14-year-old stepson as a way to capture everything I knew in a friendly form that I thought I could get him to read.
00:26:03.320He did not finish that book before he died of a fentanyl overdose, but it was written for him for a very special purpose.
00:26:13.920So I guess I had more of my heart and soul into that book because even though I was writing it for the public,
00:26:20.600it's often the case that you write a book for one audience, an audience of one, with the assumption that that is generalizable.
00:26:29.040And it was written for that one person, my stepson, and he's not with us anymore.
00:26:33.440So when I hear other people whose lives have been changed, it gives meaning.
00:26:42.360It gives meaning to my stepson's life.
00:26:45.060Because I'm not sure I would have written it the same or maybe as well if I hadn't been writing it for somebody that I cared about that much.
00:26:53.100So that one's the most meaningful for me, and if you were going to sort of looking for a starting point for my books that are non-Dilbert books, that's where I would go.
00:27:04.860Yeah, that's the one that I read as I started my real estate journey, so thank you for that.
00:28:12.540You've probably, at some point, you could correct me if I'm wrong, talked yourself into the fact that you could never be happy, you know, again, because, you know, you found that one love and it didn't work out.
00:29:07.320I can tell you that the first year after being married, when I could wake up and do anything I wanted, just anything I wanted, as long as it was legal, was an amazing feeling.
00:35:52.200In the book, you say there's about a dozen opinion shapers in the country, about six on either side.
00:36:01.200You revealed on Twitter that Zucker is probably one on the left.
00:36:05.700Can you talk about who the opinion shapers are?
00:36:07.560Well, it was more of a conceptual point, and it's based on observation.
00:36:14.660One of the things that happens when you start dealing in politics and you become, let's say, somewhat notorious, as has happened to me in the last few years, is you start learning things about the nature of reality that are very disturbing and can't be communicated.
00:36:36.980So there are things I know that I just can't tell you, and I know they're true.
00:36:41.420I mean, they are, by their nature, something you can determine to be true independently, and you don't have to wonder about it.
00:36:48.260But the real way the world works is that there are just some people who determine what the news is, and then within politics, a few people who determine who's going to run, who gets what money, et cetera.
00:37:02.480Now, there are lots of people who are playing in that game, hundreds and hundreds and thousands.
00:37:08.300But I believe that the ones who are best at it and the ones who have the positions where they have the most influence, like Jeff Zucker at CNN, he can literally determine what CNN considers the news that day.
00:37:23.120You know, as I was talking earlier in the Periscope, they've decided that their news will be to misinterpret what Alan Dershowitz said, so they can continue the fake news that the impeachment was illegitimate, et cetera.
00:37:38.080And probably somebody at the New York Times has that power, probably one or two people at MSNBC, and then, of course, Washington Post.
00:37:49.100So you very quickly, after the first, you know, five or six media outlets, you get down to people who are just not that important.
00:37:58.720You know, once you're down to, you know, the third or fourth level of news outlet, they're not news makers.
00:38:06.240The firms like CNN and New York Times and Washington Post are considered the ones who decide what the others cover.
00:38:16.340So, yeah, there are about six on each side.
00:38:18.380Now, Trump, of course, is, you know, one of the people who just is shaping reality.
00:38:24.340And they're probably, I don't know, I couldn't name them, but they're probably half a dozen people who advise him or have some influence on the process.
00:38:34.460You know, somebody at Fox News, obviously, et cetera.
00:38:37.760So, yeah, something like 12 people are the ones who have the most influence over everything.
00:38:43.480Not the only influence, but by far the 80-20 influence.
00:39:50.980Sometimes I joke and at least say it's 400% or whatever.
00:39:54.080But I can't see a scenario where he loses because the illusion is that the Democrats have an idea of an ideal candidate, which might have a name.
00:40:08.080They might say my ideal candidate is Bernie or Biden or whatever.
00:40:11.900But they have sort of an idealized version of their team.
00:40:17.680As soon as Trump has one individual target, and more importantly, all of the opposition research has one target, and it's going to be a bloodbath.
00:40:28.720I think Trump is going to just destroy whoever it is.
00:40:33.840Now, at the moment, he's laying down suppressive fire.
00:40:37.620He's sort of hitting everybody who does well in the polls.
00:40:40.140So he's going after what he calls mini Mike Bloomberg now, who, as Trump said at his rally, I've had it up to here with him.
00:40:51.420So apparently he's going after mostly his height.
00:40:56.140Now, if somebody had said this 10 years ago, that a politician is going to strictly focus on his opponent's height, you'd say, well, he's not going to win with that.
00:41:07.620But we did watch him take out the entire Bush dynasty with one word or two, low energy.
00:41:15.280So could the height thing work against Bloomberg?
00:42:21.300All right, so I've learned from the master, obviously, but I want to know when in Trump's second term do we seriously start talking about repealing the 22nd Amendment?
00:42:41.260We're never going to talk seriously about that.
00:42:43.520No, you know, I could easily see Trump supporters and even Trump himself running that as a four-year practical joke because it would be a practical joke.
00:42:57.220At least half the country would believe it's true.
00:58:22.400Yeah, you know, I would say I'm not an expert on anything south of our border, but I've had the same feeling that you have, which is that it would be in our best national interest to make sure that our closest neighbors are doing as well as possible, and there's less crime and cartels and stuff.
00:58:42.800So, it does feel like our resources have been in the wrong place.
00:58:47.620Now, there was a reason for that, because we needed oil, but now that we're not dependent on Middle East oil, I would say the natural arc of history is that we'll move out of there, and I think we're going to end up getting more interested in things south of the border, but maybe that's wishful thinking.
00:59:09.000But I agree with you. We should be working more directly on improving things south of the border for our own self-interest. That's where our greatest interest is. Thanks for the question.
00:59:21.640All right. I think I've done it all for today. I hope you're going to enjoy the Super Bowl, and I'll be maybe dipping into that a little bit and watching it. And thanks for watching, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.