Rebel News Podcast - 13 Canadians have been taken hostage by China — but Trudeau doesn’t care enough to call their president.

00:00:00.000 Tonight, 13 Canadians have been taken hostage by China,

00:00:04.060 but Trudeau doesn't care enough to call their president.

00:00:07.400 It's January 9th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:12.480 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:16.280 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:20.360 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it

00:00:23.960 is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:30.000 Why doesn't Justin Trudeau care that China has taken 13 Canadians hostage in the past few weeks? 0.51

00:00:38.300 I have learned about this in the mainstream media, so there's not a total blackout about it,

00:00:44.180 but you'd think this would be screaming front-page news and top-of-the-broadcast until it were resolved.

00:00:51.300 Here's a Globe and Mail story from a week or so ago.

00:00:53.580 So, 13 Canadians have been detained in China since Huawei executive's arrest, says Ottawa.

00:01:03.440 13!

00:01:04.560 Let me read a little bit from this story.

00:01:07.140 13 Canadians have been detained in China since the high-profile arrest of a Huawei executive,

00:01:12.700 Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver on December 1st, Ottawa says.

00:01:17.100 Global Affairs Canada spokesman Guillaume Berube said in a statement to the Globe and Mail

00:01:23.280 that the government is aware that 13 Canadians have been detained in China, excluding Hong Kong,

00:01:29.160 since December 1st, 2018.

00:01:32.040 Previously, only Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor, and Sarah McIver

00:01:35.500 were publicly known to have been detained in China since Canada arrested Ms. Meng,

00:01:41.400 chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Company Limited.

00:01:45.800 They were taken into custody after China promised retaliation for Ms. Meng's arrest.

00:01:52.300 They're talking about this woman.

00:01:53.400 I think I'm pronouncing her name right.

00:01:55.240 Meng Wanzhou.

00:01:56.320 She's the chief financial officer for Huawei.

00:01:59.480 That's a big Chinese cell phone company.

00:02:01.640 You've probably seen Huawei phones for sale in Canada.

00:02:04.160 It's actually China's largest private company, they say.

00:02:07.120 180,000 employees.

00:02:09.260 Her dad was the founder of the company,

00:02:10.820 but reading the financial press, it looks like Meng herself, his daughter, is regarded

00:02:16.020 as competent, not just a nepotistic hire.

00:02:18.640 By the way, Apple, one of the leading U.S. high-tech firms, only has 130,000 employees.

00:02:25.020 Imagine if China arrested a senior executive from Apple who happened to be the daughter of

00:02:29.620 Steve Jobs.

00:02:30.600 That's sort of the analogy.

00:02:31.760 I mean, it's controversial.

00:02:32.880 Of course it's controversial that she was arrested.

00:02:35.160 But according to the United States, who asked Canadian police to arrest her when she touched

00:02:42.540 down in Canada, they say that she deceived international banks into clearing transactions

00:02:48.660 with Iran by claiming that two companies in Iran were independent of Huawei, when in actual

00:02:56.040 fact, Huawei controlled them.

00:02:57.620 So it's a banking thing, a securities thing, a fraud thing, a sanctions thing.

00:03:02.660 Look, I'll be candid.

00:03:03.500 I'm sure it's politically motivated by the United States, as the sanctions obviously are.

00:03:10.740 But if it's against the law, it's against the law.

00:03:13.780 Chinese companies, and by the way, when I said Huawei is the largest private company

00:03:17.960 in China, there really is no such thing as a private company in China.

00:03:21.600 They may be technically private, but they are all under the domination of the Communist

00:03:25.400 Party, of course.

00:03:26.360 So Chinese companies break the law all the time.

00:03:30.260 Our laws, that is, Western laws, international contracts all the time. 0.59

00:03:34.000 China is the world's largest thief of industrial secrets, of technology. 1.00

00:03:38.300 They're the world's largest counterfeiters.

00:03:40.320 Of course they do business in regimes like Iran that are subject to Western sanctions.

00:03:44.540 Sudan, for example, is practically owned by China.

00:03:48.280 Of course China supports the dictatorship of Iran in important ways.

00:03:52.480 When there were global sanctions against Iranian oil, China bought all they could.

00:03:57.940 And they did very well off of it because they bought their oil at a huge discount to world

00:04:01.880 oil prices.

00:04:03.180 And they didn't care.

00:04:04.240 They got rich by buying cheap, illegal oil from Iran.

00:04:08.000 And so I don't know what Huawei did or didn't do.

00:04:11.140 Of course not.

00:04:11.620 How would I know?

00:04:13.180 This arrest had to do with sanctions and with banking matters.

00:04:16.900 But there is also a longstanding accusation against Huawei that it uses its telecom equipment

00:04:23.620 to spy on us, to spy on the users, and to pass that info on to China's dictatorship.

00:04:32.040 That's why the United States won't let Huawei build any of its new 5G cell phone system.

00:04:38.080 That's why America is trying to convince Canada not to let Huawei build critical telecom infrastructure

00:04:43.980 in our country either.

00:04:45.300 I mean, would you ever sign up for a Chinese version of Facebook or a Chinese version of Gmail?

00:04:52.320 I mean, Facebook and Gmail spy on you enough as it is.

00:04:55.440 It rings true to me that Huawei would spy on its users in the West for its government.

00:05:00.500 Doesn't it sound likely to you?

00:05:02.580 Anyways, that's the background.

00:05:04.700 I don't know if Meng is guilty or not.

00:05:07.840 She's out on bail in Canada.

00:05:09.540 The Americans want to extradite her. 1.00

00:05:10.900 It's a legal matter now.

00:05:12.220 But in China, everything is linked to everything.

00:05:14.520 And thus, the 13 retaliatory arrests of Canadians.

00:05:18.460 Now, most of them were let go shortly after they were picked up and harassed to send a message to Trudeau.

00:05:24.900 But a number of them remain in detention, including a former Canadian diplomat.

00:05:30.060 I should point out the obvious here.

00:05:31.780 That China did not seize any Americans.

00:05:34.920 Even though it was America that requested Meng's arrest and extradition.

00:05:40.260 Isn't that interesting?

00:05:42.360 Of course China didn't seize an American citizen.

00:05:45.240 Trump has been extremely forceful in repatriating Americans from around the world who were seized by foreign regimes.

00:05:53.280 He got North Korea to release this pastor who was illegally detained in North Korea.

00:06:00.260 And Trump went and met him in the dead of night when he arrived back in America.

00:06:03.780 He actually got North Korea to also send back to America the remains of American war dead from the Korean War.

00:06:12.260 From, what's that, 70 years ago?

00:06:15.360 That's how adamant Trump is about bringing back Americans from foreign lands.

00:06:21.080 The Chinese would never do anything like this to Trump.

00:06:25.840 But they know they can walk all over Canada and Justin Trudeau with impunity because we're the weak link. 1.00

00:06:30.820 Because Trudeau is so weak and so stupid and so in the tank for China. 1.00

00:06:34.660 I bet this video clip here, you know you can personalize a ringtone. 1.00

00:06:39.920 I bet Huawei and the Chinese ambassador to Canada probably uses a Huawei phone.

00:06:44.800 I bet his Huawei phone ringtone plays this audio track.

00:06:50.740 Remember this video?

00:06:51.500 There's a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.

00:07:08.140 Ring, ring, ring.

00:07:09.880 I admire China's basic dictatorship.

00:07:12.160 Hello?

00:07:13.140 He would listen to that every day and think I've got the easiest job in the world.

00:07:17.700 The Chinese ambassador to Ottawa, don't you think?

00:07:19.540 I mean, when a prime minister says that he deeply admires a country, it's his favorite in the world.

00:07:28.280 Because they're a basic dictatorship.

00:07:31.480 Not because he likes Chinese food or Chinese people or Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese architecture.

00:07:35.700 He loves a basic dictatorship. 1.00

00:07:37.200 Well then, he's not just stupid. 1.00

00:07:39.580 He's easily taken advantage of, isn't he? 1.00

00:07:42.420 And what does our ambassador to China have to say? 1.00

00:07:47.900 The old fool, John McCallum. 0.94

00:07:50.320 Well, here's what he said a few months ago about our trade negotiations with China. 0.99

00:07:55.020 A country that not only spies on Canada.

00:07:57.460 According to CSIS, there are more than 1,000 Chinese spies in Canada mainly working on stealing our technology.

00:08:05.500 But it also trades with us in an abusive, one-way, one-sided, erratic approach.

00:08:12.680 They don't respect contracts, they don't respect property rights, they don't allow our goods unfettered entry to China.

00:08:19.040 I mean, forget about the trade balance.

00:08:21.200 Here's what our diplomat to Beijing, John McCallum, has to say about that.

00:08:26.740 Within 24 hours of arriving in China, I was invited to present my credentials to President Xi Jinping.

00:08:36.080 And I conveyed to him a message from our Prime Minister that can be summarized in three words.

00:08:42.000 More, more, more.

00:08:43.940 Or in Mandarin, gung-dua, gung-dua, gung-dua.

00:08:46.700 Oh, my God, that's embarrassing, isn't it?

00:08:51.920 Yeah, John, you're supposed to be negotiating for Canada, not for China.

00:08:57.880 They already have the Chinese ambassador here.

00:09:01.140 We still don't have a Canadian advocate over there, do we?

00:09:05.080 Imagine starting off by saying, whatever you want, guys.

00:09:08.400 All I'm going to say is, whatever you want and more.

00:09:11.860 Or, you'll recall that in the revised NAFTA treaty, Trump injected a novel poison pill, at least I'd never heard of it before.

00:09:24.580 Did you know that in the new NAFTA renegotiated treaty, Canada must now give the United States notice and disclosure of any substantial trade negotiations with China?

00:09:35.780 And Trump effectively has a veto over it under the new NAFTA.

00:09:38.940 That is humiliating for Canada.

00:09:41.360 We're a sovereign country, except we've got to report to Dad if we're talking to China.

00:09:45.580 It really turns us into a child, doesn't it?

00:09:48.080 But Trump felt he needed to do that because Trudeau really is like a child, and so is McCallum.

00:09:53.660 And frankly, most of the Canadian foreign policy establishment and foreign policy journalists when it comes to China.

00:09:59.200 They just keep saying, more, more, 13 hostage, more. 0.96

00:10:03.100 The liberals are the worst.

00:10:04.720 I don't know if you remember this news story from way back in 2004. 0.92

00:10:08.520 I remember it.

00:10:09.560 This is from the Globe and Mail, originally published February 2004.

00:10:12.620 The headline is, it's about John Chrétien.

00:10:15.820 Literally weeks after he stepped down as prime minister.

00:10:19.160 Weeks, not months or years.

00:10:20.760 He immediately went to work with the Chinese government.

00:10:23.220 Look at that headline.

00:10:23.980 Chrétien builds links with Chinese conglomerate.

00:10:26.420 He went to work with the Chinese government with his son-in-law's family, the Demaree family.

00:10:31.620 Sorry, don't tell me that that wasn't set up in advance, wasn't discussed in advance, when John Chrétien was still prime minister.

00:10:39.420 Don't tell me that John Chrétien didn't tailor Canadian policy towards China with his future lucrative position in mind.

00:10:46.020 He joined the Chinese lobby five weeks after stepping down as prime minister.

00:10:51.720 And I point out that Justin Trudeau is just as bad.

00:10:55.280 His chief in the Senate is a former China lobbyist named Peter Harder.

00:10:59.880 And Trudeau's brother, who was his policy advisor during the campaign, Alexandre, he worked for the Chinese government, producing a book of political propaganda for him.

00:11:11.360 He always does that.

00:11:12.360 He did that with the government of Iran, too.

00:11:14.680 So how does this compute?

00:11:15.780 I mean, Trump is so tough on China, it's almost comical.

00:11:19.780 I love this clip put together a couple years ago of Trump just never stopping bashing China.

00:11:26.020 Remember this clip?

00:11:27.120 Let's say China.

00:11:28.260 China.

00:11:30.240 China.

00:11:30.960 China.

00:11:31.500 China.

00:11:32.100 China.

00:11:32.540 China.

00:11:33.160 China.

00:11:33.400 China.

00:11:33.940 China.

00:11:34.360 China.

00:11:35.340 China.

00:11:35.660 you go over to China hr China China China China China China China China China you take 0.61

00:11:46.760 China China China I love him China China China China China China I have to have my China China 0.89

00:11:53.120 China China because China China China China China China China China China China China China China

00:12:01.400 I'm China now!

00:12:02.120 China, China.

00:12:03.240 You know, China.

00:12:04.380 I know China very well.

00:12:05.860 China, China, China.

00:12:07.580 China, China, China.

00:12:08.980 China, China, China.

00:12:10.780 Northwest Wisconsin where I'm from.

00:12:12.360 It's China to me. 0.65

00:12:13.920 China, China, China, China, China, China, China.

00:12:17.420 You want to buy from China?

00:12:18.580 That's great.

00:12:19.160 Buy from China.

00:12:19.920 Buy toys from China.

00:12:21.000 China in particular.

00:12:22.000 China, China.

00:12:22.920 I have people that I know in China.

00:12:24.640 China, China.

00:12:25.960 China, China, China.

00:12:28.620 China. You know, what's that called? The boxers, the way they work that, is that called the speed 1.00

00:12:34.240 bag where they go, you know, the really fast boxing practice? That's Trump and China. China, 0.74

00:12:39.320 China. He never stops. But look at how they treat him. When he went there, they literally 0.98

00:12:48.640 rolled out the red carpet for him in China, China, China. You know, they have a nickname for him.

00:12:55.140 They have a nickname for everyone over there, just like Trump gives out nicknames. They call him,

00:12:59.700 I'm not making this up, Donald the Strong. They've never met anyone like him before,

00:13:06.860 Democrat or Republican, not since Richard Nixon have they had a real negotiator come over from

00:13:11.360 America. And I think they're a little bit afraid of him. And I think they respect him.

00:13:17.340 Donald the Strong, they call him. They're worried. Do you remember what their nickname is for Justin

00:13:26.760 Trudeau? Here.

00:13:28.440 We're quite proud. The prime minister has been given a fond nickname in China. He is called

00:13:35.340 Pudou, which I believe means potato. And he is, I can't say the Chinese word, it's Yan Pudou,

00:13:42.420 little potato, because his father, Pierre Elliott, Pudou, was senior potato. So we feel we are off

00:13:51.340 to a great start.

00:13:54.440 Yeah, that wasn't a compliment, Christian. I mean, it's like when Trump called Jeb Bush low energy

00:14:01.600 Jeb, or calls Hillary Clinton crooked Hillary. They don't say, he gave me a nickname, guys.

00:14:08.080 Yeah, little potato's not a compliment. They know we have a clown as a prime minister, 0.95

00:14:14.500 which is why they knew they could take 13 Canadians hostage with impunity. And Christia 0.98

00:14:19.820 Freeland would just be thrilled. Speaking of Christia Freeland, it literally took her 11 days, 0.94

00:14:25.660 11 days, to issue this little tweet, objecting to the first Canadian being taken hostage.

00:14:31.000 Hostages were taken on December 10th. It took until December 21. 11 days for her even to,

00:14:36.320 oh, you know, do a tweet. What took so long? That was before Christmas.

00:14:42.440 Where's our national self-respect? Was the little potato just, you know, on a bender somewhere or

00:14:48.780 something? By contrast, and this is important, Christia Freeland and Justin Trudeau himself,

00:14:54.360 look at this, 10 tweets, 10 times, day after day after day, about a foreigner, a Muslim Brotherhood

00:15:03.680 spin doctor paid by Qatar to undermine Saudi Arabia. His name was Jamal Khashoggi. He wrote

00:15:11.420 propaganda columns in the Washington Post, financed by Qatar. He was killed by the Saudis in their 0.92

00:15:16.740 Turkish embassy. It's a sad story. It's always sad when someone is killed, even if they are a

00:15:20.780 terrorist sympathizer. But there was no connection to Canada. He wasn't a Canadian citizen. He had no

00:15:25.020 links to Canada at all. It was a battle between the Saudis and the Qataris, with Turkey in there,

00:15:29.680 two in the Washington Post. But Justin Trudeau and Christia Freeland went to battle for this

00:15:34.460 foreign spy? I mean, here's a picture of the guy posing with the Taliban. That's him there in the

00:15:40.180 middle, holding weapons. Why did Trudeau and Freeland make such a fuss about him 10 times,

00:15:50.060 but haven't lifted a finger to help Canadian citizens, innocent Canadian citizens taken hostage

00:15:56.760 in China? 11 days before Christia Freeland even uttered a tweet about the Canadians.

00:16:01.380 And over the Christmas break, what did Trudeau do? I don't know. You know, I mentioned Richard

00:16:05.400 Nixon when he would send Henry Kissinger on secret trips to China to negotiate them to break with

00:16:11.560 Stalin to turn towards the West. Maybe, I don't know, did Justin Trudeau take an unannounced private

00:16:18.540 flight to Beijing? I don't know, to meet face to face with President Xi? Did he even make a phone call?

00:16:23.460 Are you kidding? Little potato? He was partying in Whistler. Dude, dude, I'm terribly partying in

00:16:34.220 Whistler. I'm snailboarding. And I'm going to guess he was enjoying Whistler's famous marijuana scene.

00:16:39.760 Just a guess there. So he was partying, partying, partying, posing for selfies while Canadian hostages

00:16:48.060 were entering their second month in prison just for being Canadian. And he still won't call the

00:16:54.640 Chinese. What is wrong with him? Why won't he make the phone call? Hey, apropos of nothing, look at 1.00

00:17:01.500 this news story from Blacklock's reporter. The Department of Finance says it's unaware of a

00:17:07.800 single Canadian company to land work as a result of a half billion dollars in federal spending with a

00:17:13.440 Chinese investment bank. Cabinet approved the spending in 2017 on the promise of thousands

00:17:19.400 upon thousands of Canadian jobs. Yeah, did you know that Trudeau gave half a billion of your

00:17:25.040 dollars to a Chinese infrastructure investment bank? What's going on there? Trudeau canceled

00:17:31.200 Canada's Northern Gateway Pipeline. Trudeau killed the Energy East Pipeline. Trudeau has put the

00:17:35.860 Trans Mountain Pipeline in the freezer. Trudeau has scared off LNG. Trudeau is destroying our

00:17:40.660 infrastructure, but he's taking Canadian tax dollars, your money, to China to build pipelines

00:17:46.440 and airports and railways there. What on earth, what on earth you'd think that would at least give

00:17:51.740 him the confidence to pick up the phone and say, hey guys, hi, it's me. I just gave you a half a

00:17:56.380 billion dollars. Can you please release the Canadians or we're going to ask for our money back or at least 0.97

00:18:02.060 we're not going to give you any more lunch money? Hey, what do you think Donald Trump would do

00:18:07.740 if not one, not two, not three, not four, not 10, but 13 Americans were seized by China in what they

00:18:15.420 clearly say is a tit for tat? Oh my God, I'd hate to think of what Donald Trump would do.

00:18:22.360 And so does President Xi of China, which is exactly why he hasn't laid a finger on a hair

00:18:28.980 of an American. He hasn't said a peep about it to Trump, at least not in public.

00:18:35.760 So what about our diplomat of the year? The world famous Chrystia Freeland. Well, um,

00:18:44.780 she asked the Americans if they could maybe make a phone call for her because I guess

00:18:50.280 she's not really the world's best diplomat after all. What's this?

00:18:54.880 The extradition process is a criminal justice process. Uh, this is not a tool that should be

00:19:01.740 used for politicized ends. I can't say much about the process because we have a U.S. judicial

00:19:06.800 process that is underway, an extradition process that is underway. I can say this, uh, the unlawful

00:19:11.720 detention of two Canadian citizens is unacceptable. They, they ought to be returned. Um, the United 1.00

00:19:16.780 States has stood for that, whether they're our citizens or citizens of other countries. We, we,

00:19:21.160 we ask all nations of the world to treat other citizens properly and the detention of these 0.83

00:19:25.580 two Canadian citizens in China ought to end. Um, it's nice to ask America for help and they are 1.00

00:19:32.160 the most helpful nation in the world. I actually think even that clip was helpful to have Secretary

00:19:38.100 Pompeo speak about it, probably more helpful than anything Trudeau has done. In fact, has,

00:19:42.500 has Trudeau even made a public statement about the Canadians like Pompeo did? I don't think he did.

00:19:48.620 All of a sudden, weird and childish Canadian moves. Like, remember this weirdness when Chrystia 0.98

00:19:56.060 Freeland landed in a bizarre t-shirt that she wore during the NAFTA negotiations? Just really,

00:20:03.740 really weird. They, it just doesn't seem as effective anymore, does it? Uh, here's Kim Campbell,

00:20:10.900 a disgraced footnote in Canadian history. True. But Trudeau has revived her career, appointed her to a

00:20:16.900 senior government position, advising Trudeau on the judiciary. So, so she works for Trudeau now.

00:20:21.920 I don't know if you know that. And here she is tweeting about Donald Trump, calling him a terrible

00:20:28.240 name. She hasn't corrected or apologized for that. That's what she says about Trump in public.

00:20:36.680 And Chrystia Freeland, if you recall, went to a campaign event in Toronto called Taking on,

00:20:41.940 Taking on the Tyrant. So she's really, really brave, taking on the Tyrant Trump, isn't she?

00:20:50.580 But when a real tyrant pops up, the Chinese basic dictatorship, and all of a sudden, 0.95

00:20:56.260 Kim Campbell has nothing to say about that tyrant. And all of a sudden,

00:21:00.380 Chrystia Freeland has nothing to say about that tyrant. And Freeland is running to Trump for his help. 0.99

00:21:06.080 Pretty embarrassing. Will Trump help Canada? Maybe. I bet he will, actually.

00:21:15.020 But Trump has Americans to care about. He believes in America first. He says that,

00:21:21.040 and Trudeau and Freeland condemn him for that. But Trump is busy in the highest stakes negotiation

00:21:24.860 of our age. He's trying to get a trade deal with China. He talks about it all the time. He has done

00:21:30.160 the unthinkable already. He has put hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese imports.

00:21:34.220 He has frozen China out of so many things. It's part of the Huawei thing, by the way. He's battling

00:21:40.540 China. He's battling against their tech company. He's trying to hurt them. Of course he is. 0.88

00:21:45.240 He's battling China for the future of North Korea. Of course he is. He's battling China in the 0.92

00:21:50.160 American heartland, banning Chinese steel and other cheap imports. It's a multi-trillion dollar

00:21:56.180 high-stakes battle, bigger even than NAFTA, potentially. And then there's the military rivalry,

00:22:02.440 very true, as well. Is Trump going to interfere with his master plan taking on China politically,

00:22:09.940 geographically, militarily, economically? Is he really going to interrupt that to help

00:22:15.640 some Canadian taken hostage that Trudeau himself won't even pick up the phone for?

00:22:23.760 Or what's in it for America if he does? I mean, if Trudeau and Freeland are so smart,

00:22:31.060 I don't know, why doesn't Trudeau give some speech about feminism or global warming? That's his

00:22:35.680 response to everything, isn't it? Look, I want those Canadian hostages back home. Of course I do.

00:22:39.680 And the other 200 Canadians held in China, some of them are real criminals, by the way.

00:22:44.660 There are real crimes committed by Canadians. I mean, there's a case of someone charged with

00:22:48.920 drug smuggling. They're not all political pawns, but those 13 hostages in the last month sure are

00:22:55.720 political. The Chinese say so themselves. And Trudeau is a child who has no clue on what to do.

00:23:03.740 Or rather, he knows what to do, but he can't or he won't. Look, this Liberal Party is so deeply

00:23:08.100 entwined with China. Peter Harder, Jean Chrétien, Trudeau's own brother, they won't let him get tough.

00:23:14.740 They make millions of dollars, probably billions of dollars if you count the Demaree off China. 0.93

00:23:20.900 They don't want Trudeau to get tough. I mean, so a few hostages are taken. But that's just what a

00:23:28.660 basic dictatorship does. I'll say this about Stephen Harper. He was tough with China and tough

00:23:33.480 with Russia and tough with Iran. But they never took hostages under his watch because they respected

00:23:39.820 them. They disagreed with them. But they didn't do this. This is Trudeau's place in the world.

00:23:49.120 An errand boy for dictators and a punching bag for them, too. What a shame that Canadian citizens have 0.80

00:23:57.000 to pay the price. And what irony that even Trudeau knows only Donald Trump can fake them.

00:24:04.620 Stay with us for more.

00:24:05.680 Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis. And they have refused to provide our brave

00:24:27.740 border agents with the tools they desperately need to protect our families and our nation.

00:24:34.980 The federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only because Democrats will

00:24:43.520 not fund border security. My administration is doing everything in our power to help those impacted

00:24:52.720 by the situation. But the only solution is for Democrats to pass a spending bill that defends

00:25:01.120 our borders and reopens our borders and reopens the government. This situation could be solved in a 45-minute

00:25:08.860 meeting. I have invited congressional leadership to the White House tomorrow to get this done.

00:25:17.160 Hopefully, we can rise above partisan politics in order to support national security.

00:25:23.560 That is an excerpt from Donald Trump's first ever Oval Office address to the nation. It's amazing to think

00:25:31.360 that in two years, he hadn't done that before. A very emotional speech. You didn't see a lot of emotion

00:25:38.060 in that clip there. But he touched on the emotions of defending people who have been murdered and raped and the

00:25:46.020 massive amounts of drug trafficking across the border. I thought it was actually a touching speech.

00:25:52.620 But I'm a Canadian. How did it go over in America? Joining us now, our top American political correspondent,

00:25:59.900 our friend, Joel Pollack, the editor-at-large at Breitbart.com. Great to see you again. Joel,

00:26:05.760 what do you think of the speech?

00:26:06.520 I thought it was a brilliant speech. I thought it was a case that Americans needed to hear from

00:26:12.300 the president. It was a compassionate case for a barrier on the border. And he pointed out that

00:26:19.120 Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, had supported a barrier on the

00:26:24.240 border in the past. So I think it was very effective. He talked about the victims of crimes by illegal 0.85

00:26:30.660 aliens. He talked about the dangers to the migrants themselves. He talked about the drug problem in the

00:26:35.580 U.S., including heroin, 90 percent of which comes from our southern border or smuggled across our southern

00:26:41.240 border. So I thought a very effective speech. The Democrats chose to rebut that speech

00:26:47.220 afterward, which I think was a mistake. They should have waited until the next day because they could not

00:26:52.620 compete with the setting of the Oval Office. And their message was all about politics, whereas Trump's message was

00:26:58.380 about people. And it was an absolute knockout by the president. I think the Democrats did themselves no favors.

00:27:04.920 Today, they're scrambling to catch up. I think Trump put his case very well. And already a plurality of the

00:27:12.240 American public believes or believed before his address that there is a crisis at the border.

00:27:18.180 I think he strengthened that case. And I think it will have an effect in the long run on this

00:27:22.900 negotiation. But it's going to be a long run. This is not going to be over soon.

00:27:26.100 Yeah. You know, he had some good lines, as he always does. He said, look, we build walls because we love

00:27:32.560 the people within them, not because we hate the people out. And he pointed out that fancy people,

00:27:38.300 Democrats, have walls around their own homes. These are sort of obvious points. But he made them. He

00:27:44.340 talked about the impact of cheap foreign illegal labor on American citizens, especially black and

00:27:52.940 Hispanic Americans. I thought it was a good speech, but I wasn't hard to persuade. Last time you and I

00:28:00.820 spoke, you said that for Republicans, this is a top of mind issue, but not for all Democrats and

00:28:06.960 certainly not for those who would be far enough for not for all Americans, not even for all 0.98

00:28:12.580 independents and certainly not for those not near the border. I think I recall our conversation.

00:28:17.560 You said that. Do you think this will help flip the switch on for independents or even Democrats

00:28:23.380 for whom this was not a top priority issue?

00:28:28.940 I don't think the speeches are going to have that kind of impact. I think what is really going to

00:28:35.700 decide the fate of this negotiation is ultimately the fact that the Democrats have an alternative to

00:28:43.600 their current position and Trump does not have an alternative to his. There is no way Trump can

00:28:49.080 compromise on his demand for border wall funding. He has staked his entire presidency on it. And so

00:28:54.420 if he compromises, he will lose his political support and Democrats will be able to basically

00:29:00.700 steamroll him on every other issue. So he's going down with the ship if this thing does not work out,

00:29:06.820 whereas Democrats could compromise on this and they would still retain their support because what

00:29:11.560 motivates their base is not this particular issue, but the desire to get rid of Donald Trump.

00:29:17.340 So they could do a deal and still walk away and fight another day. I think ultimately the fact

00:29:22.640 that Democrats can compromise and Trump cannot is going to decide this particular contest in Trump's

00:29:29.860 favor. What the result is in the long run, that remains to be seen. But I think Trump, ironically,

00:29:35.820 by leaving himself no alternative, has created a very strong bargaining position in this negotiation.

00:29:42.260 You know, I enjoy Ann Coulter. I think she's smart. I think she's a provocateur sometimes on purpose.

00:29:50.140 She's an entertainer sometimes on purpose. But I think she was one of the few people to early on

00:29:55.980 grasp Trump's chances and his appeal. And of course, she wrote a hagiography of him almost

00:30:02.620 in Trump We Trust. She has essentially said, if you don't do the wall, you've lost me forever.

00:30:08.840 And she's been critical of some of the people in Trump's team, including Trump's son, Jared Kushner.

00:30:16.440 So she, I think, in some ways represents the Trumpiest part of the Trump base. She seems,

00:30:23.060 and I'm not putting everything on Ann, but I think she's a very good elocutor of this point of view.

00:30:28.220 She's still worried that there are forces around Trump that would cave in in a second.

00:30:32.620 In the Senate, Jared Kushner, his son-in-law himself, you seem to think there's no way

00:30:40.240 Trump can compromise. Is that true?

00:30:47.400 I couldn't hear everything you said, but I think, just to comment on Ann Coulter,

00:30:54.300 she essentially laid out the shape of Trump's address. She said he should make the compassionate

00:31:00.520 case for the wall, and he did. In terms of her criticism of the administration, I think, look,

00:31:06.440 it's a repeated refrain among conservatives, this idea we're going to be sold out by the people we've

00:31:12.760 elected to office and the people they've hired to advise them. I think, given the history of the

00:31:17.900 last several decades, especially on this issue, that's a reasonable fear. And I'm not saying that

00:31:23.700 her criticisms are necessarily unwarranted. But I think the White House is pretty unified on this

00:31:29.940 issue. The Senate Republicans are united on this issue. Ironically, because Democrats won the midterms

00:31:36.340 in the way they did by wiping out the moderate Republicans, there's going to be very little dissent

00:31:41.820 from Republicans on this issue. Maybe one or two senators, maybe one or two representatives.

00:31:47.120 But you would have seen a couple of dozen, maybe, agitating for an end to the shutdown before border wall

00:31:52.780 funding had been provided. So ironically, the Republicans, by losing so many seats in moderate

00:31:58.600 districts in the House, don't have the same degree of internal opposition and are basically in lockstep

00:32:06.240 with the president on this. They also realize their own political fate hinges on his success in this

00:32:10.720 negotiation. The idea of a government shutdown is not an idea that we are familiar with in Canada,

00:32:18.620 because the nature of our parliamentary system, it just wouldn't happen. The checks and balances

00:32:24.980 aren't there. What we would perhaps have is what we call a vote of non-confidence and the government

00:32:29.760 would fall and there would be an election. So this kind of government shutdown is fascinating and also

00:32:35.480 strange to us. Of course, we have viewers around the world, but many of our viewers are based here in

00:32:41.120 Canada, Joel. Can you tell me how this plays out? I saw a report that when Chuck Schumer met with the

00:32:50.520 president, Chuck Schumer, the senior Democrat senator from New York State, that he said Trump threatened to

00:32:59.560 have the shutdown take months or even years. Is that even possible? How does it work? Is the entire

00:33:08.680 government shutdown? How does it end? Right. So right now, it's a partial government shutdown.

00:33:19.580 The reason they call it a shutdown is basically federal agencies can't operate unless the funding

00:33:24.840 to operate those agencies has been appropriated by Congress. They can't pay their employees. They

00:33:29.980 can't buy office equipment. They can't do anything. So what typically happens is both sides agree to fund

00:33:36.920 the military. So that will be funded. There are also laws requiring some federal employees to go to

00:33:44.220 work whether or not they are paid. They are called essential services. That tends to cover most federal

00:33:50.660 employees. So even in a total government shutdown, the most essential parts of the government will

00:33:55.860 still function even though the employees won't be paid. They will be paid eventually once the shutdown

00:34:00.180 ends. They're given back pay. But what happens is the budget has to be approved every year for all

00:34:08.100 federal agencies. Republicans have approved the budget for something like three quarters of those

00:34:13.240 federal agencies through September, through the end of the fiscal year, which ends September 30th.

00:34:18.120 So actually, this is only a partial shutdown. And it's covering a few agencies. It'll spread a little bit

00:34:25.940 over time. This could last months into the next budget talks, which would be scheduled for the fall

00:34:31.580 of this year. And if there's an impasse still, this could go into next year. I think, Ezra, this could go

00:34:38.120 well into the presidential election. And then you'd see the government basically not functioning except

00:34:43.740 for basic services. And those employees wouldn't be paid. It would become a pretty serious situation.

00:34:51.140 But I just don't think Trump is going to give in on this. I think the first priority of government

00:34:55.340 is national security. He has framed the border issue as an issue of national security. If you

00:34:59.980 can't deal with national security, there's no point to opening the government because the purpose of

00:35:04.340 government is to provide national security. So I think Trump will hang on. I think this could go

00:35:09.360 until the summer of next year. I'm not joking. And this could be an 18-month shutdown until finally,

00:35:14.760 with a presidential election looming, the two sides might agree to come together or not.

00:35:20.000 That's incredible. I mean, that's incredible to me. And I need to, I mean, we don't have time to do

00:35:27.140 it today. And I know you've got to get back to things there. But the idea of, you know, people

00:35:32.060 not being paid, eventually they would have to leave to find other work. I mean, the idea of

00:35:36.860 a semi-permanent shutdown is so fascinating. And the fact that you say it's a real possibility is

00:35:42.780 amazing to me. I have one last question for you. I've been looking into the powers of the president

00:35:50.200 under a national emergency and what the president can do through the military. And I want to ask you

00:35:58.320 if you think it's realistic that President Trump can just say, look, I'm not getting anywhere with

00:36:04.900 the Democrats. They're the ones who are dragging this out. I'm going to act using my constitutional and

00:36:11.540 legal powers, statutory powers. And I'm just going to build the wall myself using the, using the army.

00:36:16.180 And we're just going to do it. I mean, in Canada, we use our army for social purposes all the time.

00:36:22.300 At one point in time, they actually shoveled snow in a big snowstorm in Toronto. It was a

00:36:26.520 national humiliation, I must say. But this is really a national security job, as you say. Do you

00:36:31.900 think it's likely that Trump will say to heck with it? I'm just going to do that, do this. I'm going to

00:36:37.300 take the action. I'm a man of action and I'm a builder and I can get it done.

00:36:41.540 I think he could do it. I think he would do it if the political cost of keeping the government

00:36:47.240 closed became really big. I think he would do that. There's a dangerous precedent, of course,

00:36:52.100 because once Democrats control the White House, they'll just declare national emergencies for

00:36:55.520 everything. They'll call climate change a national emergency and just force coal plants out of

00:37:00.460 business on that basis. So you don't want to create that precedent. But I think Trump could do it

00:37:07.240 if the government shutdown becomes a big political problem. It isn't yet. People are used to these

00:37:12.360 shutdowns by now. We've had them for almost a decade. They don't change anything at all. The

00:37:16.980 inconvenience of a few people for a few days or a few weeks, that's it. If this goes on and on,

00:37:21.860 yes, Trump could do it. And I think he'd be entitled to do it. I'm not sure it's a good precedent.

00:37:26.880 Very interesting. Well, Joel, we're so grateful to you for giving us the feedback.

00:37:31.480 Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

00:37:33.300 Well, it's a pleasure. And there's going to be a lot to talk about in 2019. Give us 30 seconds on

00:37:39.980 some of the new incoming congressmen. I know you've got to go, but you've got Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

00:37:44.920 in New York. And you have two Muslim congressmen, Ilhan Omar, if I'm saying her name right, from

00:37:52.200 Minnesota, and another congresswoman from Michigan who actually called Trump a mother, F-U-C-K-E-R,

00:38:01.720 on camera. Shocking. What does this portend for the Democrats going forward? Just give me 30 seconds

00:38:08.740 on this before we say goodbye to you. Well, I think the Democrats are fast losing control

00:38:14.800 of their caucus. And I think privately they're frustrated because the radicals in the new

00:38:21.100 House majority are saying things that frighten voters. 70 percent tax rate, that's what Alexandria

00:38:27.860 Ocasio-Cortez is proposing for her green program, whatever it is. She can't even tell you what it

00:38:33.480 is, but it's going to cost you 70 percent of your income above a certain level if you are a high earner.

00:38:39.680 Yes. Then Rashida Klaib, one of two women Muslim members of Congress, 0.60

00:38:44.220 the first two female Muslims in Congress, she's been tweeting anti-Semitic things and 0.99

00:38:49.920 calling Trump names that you can't repeat on the air. All of it very bad for the Democrats. They've

00:38:56.520 got off to a very difficult start, left the wrong impression, I think, in the minds of many voters.

00:39:01.800 It's clear they just want to get rid of Trump. It's clear they have no agenda, and so the vacuum is

00:39:07.160 being filled by the radicals. It's clear they have no interest in civility, which is why they use

00:39:11.100 foul language. They're just about impeachment and destruction, and they're going to have to 0.81

00:39:15.640 turn it around pretty quickly to change that impression, but the shutdown is making it hard

00:39:18.580 for them. Very interesting. Joel Pollack, senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com. Keep up the

00:39:23.220 fight down there. Look forward to your updates throughout the year. Thank you. Happy New Year.

00:39:27.160 All right. Thanks, you too. Well, isn't that interesting? And we'll do more reportage on those

00:39:32.180 two congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib. I forgot her name temporarily. She's from Michigan. Very radical. 1.00

00:39:38.720 Palestinian heritage. And Ilhan Omar. And when Joel calls them anti-Semitic, he's just not messing

00:39:45.800 around. I mean, these women have said extreme things, and now they're in the heart of Congress

00:39:50.780 itself. Stay with us. My final thoughts ahead on The Rebel.

00:39:55.440 Hey, welcome back. It has been far too long since I've been in the studio. I took a little bit of a

00:40:12.280 break over Christmas, and then I had a little bit of business to do, if you can believe it,

00:40:15.980 over the last couple of days. So I was traveling, and it just added up to too much time away. But I

00:40:19.840 am thrilled to be back. It's so good to be back in the Rebel World headquarters. And what do you think

00:40:24.700 of our fancy schmancy new set? Now, as you probably know, it's not actually a glamorous glass and steel

00:40:33.440 loft studio overlooking the CN Tower. No, that's all a computer-generated background in front of what

00:40:41.960 we call a green screen. We just thought we'd freshen it up with a new look for the new year.

00:40:47.000 It does feel pretty fancy, though, doesn't it? Look, I think 2019 is going to be an amazing year for

00:40:53.060 the Rebel and an amazing year for Canada. But amazing doesn't necessarily mean great.

00:40:57.580 I think it's going to be a terrible year by certain measures. I think Justin Trudeau will

00:41:02.220 proceed with his plan to nationalize the Canadian media. By that, I mean his $595 million plan to

00:41:07.500 effectively nationalize the few remaining private journalists in the country. He's not going to

00:41:12.940 outright buy Maclean's or outright buy the National Post. But with that slush fund, he'll say,

00:41:17.540 if I can trust you, you'll get the money. If I can't trust you, you won't get the money. And oh,

00:41:21.960 believe you me, I know journalists enough to know they will all take the money, all of them.

00:41:28.100 So I think you're going to see the colonization of the few remaining political reporters in this

00:41:33.340 country. I think you're going to have that carrots matched with a stick. I think you're going to see

00:41:39.660 litigation against independent voices under the guise of hate speech or, I don't know,

00:41:45.540 we know Justin Trudeau is pressuring Facebook to crack down on what he calls fake news, which is

00:41:50.360 what he calls anyone who disagrees with him. I think you're going to see an attack on the rebel

00:41:56.180 ramp up from Trudeau in the year ahead. They've already done that. I think you're going to see

00:42:01.060 an insane collusion with the media and Trudeau in the 2019 election campaign, which has officially

00:42:07.540 begun. And Rachel Notley, too, in Alberta, although I think it's quite certain she's going to lose no

00:42:12.280 matter what the media does there. So that's the rebel. I think we have a very important place,

00:42:18.280 certainly an important role to play in both the Alberta and the Canadian election campaigns.

00:42:23.500 I think it's critically important that we cover the substantive news, but it's

00:42:26.680 just as important that we live to be a dissenting voice to tell the other side of the story.

00:42:31.100 I think having one voice telling the other side of the story is an enormous antidote. I guess what I'm

00:42:38.160 saying is even if there are a thousand lying paid-off journalists over there, even just

00:42:44.240 having one voice telling the truth makes all the difference as opposed to no voices telling the

00:42:49.960 truth. That's what we're going to try and do. In the months ahead, I hope to unveil and reveal to

00:42:57.180 you new talent that we're going to hire at The Rebel. In fact, one of the things I was doing out of town

00:43:01.860 the last few days was meeting with one of those prospective talents, and I was on the phone this

00:43:06.000 morning with another. So we hope to add to our team of journalists in 2019. I think it's going to

00:43:10.860 be a good year. Of course, it always comes back to you. We depend on you to keep us alive because

00:43:16.500 YouTube has demonetized us, and Trudeau, well, we're not going to take his cash. It's down to you,

00:43:21.460 my friends. And if you think that this mission is important, as I do, please continue to support us

00:43:26.980 not only with your monthly $8 subscription fee for our premium services, but also for our crowdfunded

00:43:33.120 campaigns. All right, we've got a lot of work to do. It's great to be back, and we'll keep on doing

00:43:38.220 it. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:43:42.320 good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - January 10, 2019

13 Canadians have been taken hostage by China — but Trudeau doesn’t care enough to call their president.

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