Rebel News Podcast - Advice for Andrew Scheer, as the Rebel heads to the Conservative Party convention

00:00:00.000 Tonight, the rebel heads to the Conservative Party convention.

00:00:03.940 I've got some advice for Andrew Scheer.

00:00:06.340 It's August 22nd and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:14.720 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:18.560 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:22.260 You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.

00:00:25.240 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:36.020 As you may have heard, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer has banned rebel reporters from attending the party convention this week in Halifax.

00:00:45.680 He's invited Trudeau's CBC, though, and the Toronto Star.

00:00:49.560 He's invited McLean's magazine and all the left-wing opinion sites like Vice and the Huffington Post.

00:00:56.520 The one media outlet he's banned is us, the rebel.

00:00:59.760 Now, we're going anyways, of course.

00:01:01.420 If we stopped reporting on things just because some politician told us to stop reporting on things, we wouldn't do any reporting at all, would we?

00:01:09.240 And even if we're forced to do our reporting from outside the convention center on the street, you know it's going to be more fair and accurate than Trudeau's CBC will be.

00:01:19.760 I mean, seriously, this is Rosemary Barton, the flagship political reporter for the CBC, taking a girlish selfie with Justin Trudeau, just like a teenager giggling at a Justin Bieber concert.

00:01:33.940 Imagine having a conservative convention and blocking the only media outlet that report on it straight, and imagine choosing to entrust your message to hostile filters like her. 0.98

00:01:46.960 Andrew Scheer banning us is weird, and it's petty, and it's counterproductive, and it's confusing.

00:01:51.640 Of course, Scheer doesn't agree with everything we've ever said here at The Rebel.

00:01:54.900 I mean, we've made more than 9,700 videos, and many of them are controversial.

00:01:59.780 How could you not disagree with some of them?

00:02:01.940 I disagree with some of them myself, but that implies Scheer agrees with the other media he's letting in, I think?

00:02:09.740 That's even more troubling, isn't it?

00:02:11.760 I won't talk more about that here for my full discussion of Andrew Scheer's ban.

00:02:17.020 You can go to letusreport.com, where we also have a petition to Andrew Scheer, and basically we tell him to get real and focus on his real enemies, Trudeau and the CBC.

00:02:26.880 We also ask for your help to crowdfund our trip to Halifax for the convention.

00:02:31.480 If you can help us cover the cost of our flights and rooms, that would be great.

00:02:34.980 We're sending Sheila Gunn-Reed. 0.99

00:02:36.440 I'm going, and we have two staff going also, A-Tan and our videographer Efron.

00:02:41.740 You can help us with that at letusreport.com.

00:02:45.260 Thanks.

00:02:45.500 But I want to talk to you today about something else.

00:02:48.600 I want to tell you what I told a senior Conservative Party MP who called me up this week.

00:02:54.620 I've had more phone calls and emails from senior conservatives in the last week or 10 days than I have had in the past year.

00:03:01.920 It's quite something.

00:03:03.140 And it started before we were banned from the convention.

00:03:06.460 It started when Maxime Bernier started tweeting about Trudeau's extreme multiculturalism.

00:03:11.640 I've done a whole show on Bernier's tweets, so I'm not going to go through them again.

00:03:15.520 But in a nutshell, Bernier teed off of a short video from Trudeau where Trudeau was repeating his incessant message track that diversity is our strength.

00:03:26.440 Bernier just dissected that blather, that completely empty cliche, that hollow soundbite in a way I hadn't seen done before, either in the Conservative media and certainly in Conservative politics.

00:03:36.100 It was a huge hit with Conservative Party members and with severely normal citizens who were just sick of Trudeau's saccharine showbiz shallowness.

00:03:45.460 And the media loved it, too, because it was a real fight, right?

00:03:49.340 I mean, the media were obviously on Trudeau's side in the fight, but at least it wasn't boring.

00:03:54.140 In the middle of summertime August, they need something to talk about, and Bernier gave it to them.

00:03:58.220 And, of course, they also used it to demonstrate how weak Andrew Scheer has been, by contrast.

00:04:06.160 That's the thing.

00:04:06.860 Maxime Bernier, through a few tweets, was able to take up all the oxygen in the room, as they say.

00:04:11.880 He dominated the national conversation for days.

00:04:15.320 He set the agenda.

00:04:16.780 Yes, others were criticizing him, and by others I mainly mean the political media industrial complex,

00:04:22.080 but it was a controversy of his own choosing.

00:04:24.480 And as the new Angus Reid poll shows us, the issues that Bernier was discussing were very much in the minds of Canadians.

00:04:33.260 I mean, support for immigration is an all-time low.

00:04:36.460 So it was great, except that when Maxime Bernier is the star, by virtue of just a few tweets,

00:04:42.760 that means Andrew Scheer isn't the star.

00:04:45.060 No one was reading his tweets.

00:04:47.220 No one cared about what he had to say, 0.53

00:04:49.100 because he, as always, is bland and tepid and lukewarm.

00:04:53.600 As Donald Trump said about Jeb Bush, he's low energy.

00:04:58.080 So here's my pledge to you.

00:05:00.100 I will be a commander-in-chief that will have the back of the military.

00:05:03.980 I won't trash talk.

00:05:06.000 I won't be a divider-in-chief or an agitator-in-chief.

00:05:08.920 I won't be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up.

00:05:13.940 I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter,

00:05:16.400 but send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interests of this country

00:05:20.900 to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world.

00:05:25.280 Please clap.

00:05:28.820 Remember that?

00:05:30.120 Now, Stephen Harper wasn't particularly high energy in his style either.

00:05:33.700 I mean, he didn't holler, he didn't swear, he wasn't extreme or even that vivid.

00:05:39.320 He was no Donald Trump, but he was serious and he was clear and he didn't hide his views.

00:05:44.020 See, that's the thing.

00:05:44.780 You don't have to be high energy to be clear and principled and forceful.

00:05:48.380 Harper was succinct and to the point,

00:05:50.740 I remember when he did his first scrum after becoming prime minister a dozen years ago,

00:05:54.240 I remember a Harper hater.

00:05:55.900 I forget if it was Paul Wells or Don Martin.

00:05:58.060 I mean, they're all interchangeable, aren't they?

00:05:59.320 But one of the wags on Parliament Hill noted that Harper gave the shortest public statement

00:06:05.500 he'd seen from a prime minister in ages.

00:06:07.560 And remember, we just came off the heels of Paul Martin.

00:06:10.960 And yet this Harper hater noted that he said so much more, so succinctly.

00:06:17.500 He said more than that waffler, Mr. Dithers, Paul Martin.

00:06:21.720 So you don't have to be Mr. Charisma to be an effective communicator.

00:06:26.240 No one would look at Stephen Harper and say, he's dashing.

00:06:29.160 He's dreamy, although he's respectable.

00:06:32.120 But they would say he's effective.

00:06:33.480 He's clear, wouldn't they?

00:06:34.320 They'd say he's principled, wouldn't they?

00:06:35.480 When you look at Andrew Scheer, you get the sense that he's obfuscating, avoiding,

00:06:41.260 just trying to avoid being pinned down on anything,

00:06:44.060 just trying to survive in the hopes that Justin Trudeau will fail

00:06:46.700 and the prime ministership will fall into his lap by default.

00:06:51.180 I'm not referring to his actual physical look.

00:06:53.460 I'm talking about his style and his vibe.

00:06:56.420 He's just avoiding.

00:06:59.300 So he's not doing anything or saying anything controversial, is what I mean,

00:07:04.080 which is the real reason that Andrew Scheer is banning us from his convention.

00:07:07.860 It's not that he really disagrees with us.

00:07:10.900 As you probably know, Andrew Scheer's campaign manager, this guy, Hamish Marshall,

00:07:14.600 was the co-founder of The Rebel.

00:07:17.200 And Andrew Scheer came on The Rebel during his leadership campaign.

00:07:21.460 There's him talking with me.

00:07:23.020 Talked with our other reporters, too.

00:07:25.600 It's just that he's so much more risk-averse now because he already got what he wanted from

00:07:30.000 our viewers, their votes.

00:07:31.620 So now that he's won the leadership, he's more concerned with other people,

00:07:36.600 namely not offending the Wendy Mesleys or the Paul Wellses of the world.

00:07:42.500 Your campaign manager now, Hamish Marshall, was directly involved with building Rebel.

00:07:48.460 Why did you choose him to run the campaign?

00:07:50.660 Are you not at all worried about messages of sending out now,

00:07:54.420 I mean, that Rebel has gone so far down this white supremacist path?

00:07:57.640 Why is he working with people who were associated with Rebel Media and Ezra Levant?

00:08:02.940 Your campaign director, Hamish Marshall, was a director of the corporation

00:08:06.260 until he became your campaign director.

00:08:10.200 Stephen Taylor is working on social media with you, was also associated with Rebel Media.

00:08:15.260 To what point are you taking on the baggage of Rebel Media when you work with folks like that?

00:08:21.880 Could you imagine submitting to that?

00:08:24.020 Anyways, so with that preamble asides, let me give you my own thoughts on what Andrew Scheer

00:08:30.820 should actually do.

00:08:33.240 Not just my criticisms or my analysis of what he's doing wrong.

00:08:36.660 That's easy.

00:08:38.000 I mean, that is helpful a little bit, I guess.

00:08:40.400 You have to diagnose the problem, but then you've got to give a prescription.

00:08:43.520 What advice would I give Andrew Scheer if he wasn't blackballing us from his convention?

00:08:49.840 I'll tell you, because I've received more phone calls and emails and private messages

00:08:54.220 on Twitter from conservative MPs and staff in the past week or so than I have in the past

00:08:59.000 year, including senior allies of Scheer, including senior MPs in his shadow cabinet,

00:09:04.760 and including senior party staff, frankly, people who Scheer has told not to come on our TV show.

00:09:10.920 And let me say the first thing about all of this, about all these people.

00:09:16.420 None of them are mutinying.

00:09:19.180 None of them are looking to throw Scheer overboard.

00:09:21.740 This is not a Patrick Brown moment yet.

00:09:25.540 Patrick Brown did so many outrageous things and had such a huge double life.

00:09:29.320 He truly was a ticking time bomb of personal scandals.

00:09:33.160 And he was running the party so poorly, so much political corruption, so many shenanigans,

00:09:37.240 even just in the nomination.

00:09:39.140 So he really had to be thrown overboard, and thank God he was.

00:09:43.040 That's not the case with Andrew Scheer.

00:09:44.560 He is not immoral.

00:09:46.360 Like Patrick Brown, he has no affairs with young girls.

00:09:49.320 Like Patrick Brown, he has no corrupt business deals.

00:09:52.560 What you see is what you get with Andrew Scheer.

00:09:54.460 He's the anti-charisma guy.

00:09:56.240 He's the anti-scandal guy.

00:09:58.060 In that way, he reminds me of Preston Manning, which is a good thing.

00:10:00.860 So there's no emergency reason to throw Andrew Scheer overboard, as there was with Patrick

00:10:05.960 Brown, and there was no long-standing reason to either, like with Patrick Brown's corruption.

00:10:12.000 And more to the point, Andrew Scheer's only been the leader for 15 months, and the election

00:10:16.760 is less than a year away, so he still has time to improve.

00:10:19.920 And more to the point, there is no real time to replace him unless there was a Patrick Brown

00:10:25.180 style emergency, which I don't think is going to happen.

00:10:27.060 So what's notable about every single conservative insider who has approached me is that none

00:10:32.500 of them want Andrew Scheer gone.

00:10:35.340 They all just really, really want him to do better than he's doing.

00:10:40.060 But the fact that they're talking to me, an outsider, about that is unusual.

00:10:44.480 As I said to one MP, why are you talking to me about this?

00:10:49.160 He's your leader, I said.

00:10:51.180 I'm not in caucus like you.

00:10:52.800 I'm not in shadow cabinet.

00:10:54.460 And seriously, what advice would I have about internal party dynamics?

00:10:58.620 That's not my thing.

00:11:00.820 But maybe that's a symptom of a problem right there.

00:11:02.900 Maybe there aren't frank enough internal discussions in the party around the shadow

00:11:08.640 cabinet table, around the caucus.

00:11:10.640 Confidential, behind-closed-doors conversations.

00:11:13.160 No media.

00:11:14.100 No staff.

00:11:14.960 Just heart-to-heart conversations by these MPs and senators who would say,

00:11:19.420 Andrew, you've got to start firing on all cylinders.

00:11:23.600 Fifteen months have gone by and you haven't really made your mark yet.

00:11:28.040 And that's the thing.

00:11:28.880 Many of the calls and emails I've received have been sparked by Maxime Bernier.

00:11:32.920 And these are not Bernier campaigners or loyalists.

00:11:36.080 These aren't people who want to do over, at least not before the next federal election.

00:11:40.780 It's sort of the opposite.

00:11:41.640 It's people who see the ease and skill with which Bernier is tackling issues that really

00:11:47.160 connect with the conservative base and expand that base and take on the media party and dominate

00:11:52.700 the national conversation and hold Trudeau to account and rev up party loyalists as in

00:11:57.620 leadership that is conservative.

00:12:02.460 These people who call me want both of those things.

00:12:04.860 They want someone who leads, someone who inspires, but they want it to be done in a principled

00:12:08.820 way too.

00:12:09.220 It's tough to do both things, right?

00:12:10.960 So it's a wistful complaint.

00:12:12.600 They don't want to replace Scheer with Bernier because that's logistically and temporally impossible

00:12:18.800 now, other than through a crisis like Patrick Brown.

00:12:21.400 It would shake the party to his foundations to do that now.

00:12:24.320 No one wants that now.

00:12:25.380 It would look like a mess now.

00:12:27.280 So what do you do?

00:12:29.420 How do you solve a problem like Andrew Scheer?

00:12:31.860 Well, step one, talk about it internally.

00:12:34.460 If you're so desperate as an MP or a senior staffer to have a conversation about Andrew

00:12:41.360 Scheer that you're calling an outsider like me, that's a bad sign that you don't have a

00:12:46.380 healthy internal conversation in the party.

00:12:49.280 And if you're talking to me, I'm guessing you're also talking to other journalists too.

00:12:56.040 If I'm being included in this Ottawa gossip, you can bet that other less sympathetic journalists

00:13:00.540 are being included too, especially the more gossip-driven journalists like John Iverson

00:13:05.580 of Post Media, for example.

00:13:08.000 But the second obvious point, besides the fact that Scheer is actually not cementing the

00:13:13.120 support of his own caucus, I don't think he's talking to his MPs or senators often though,

00:13:18.120 is that the party is riveted.

00:13:20.700 They're fascinated, as we all are, by Maxime Bernier.

00:13:23.960 And that's not going to stop.

00:13:25.400 As I said to everyone who called me or emailed me, Bernier isn't actually really doing anything

00:13:31.860 abnormal.

00:13:32.400 He's not a shadow cabinet critic.

00:13:34.420 If he were, you'd expect him to focus all his energies on that portfolio and be quiet

00:13:38.280 about other things.

00:13:39.460 I mean, he used to be, but Andrew Scheer fired him for talking about supply management.

00:13:43.900 Okay, fine.

00:13:44.460 So you fire one of your most talented MPs.

00:13:47.820 And do you think he's just going to sit there like a potted plant?

00:13:50.980 Of course he's free to opine on the stories of the day.

00:13:53.900 He's not mowing any other critics' lawns, in particular, when he talks about Trudeau's

00:13:58.780 diversity is our strength blather.

00:14:01.500 I mean, that's so general, that's so generic.

00:14:03.160 It's fair game for any MP to talk about it, don't you think?

00:14:06.040 I mean, the CBC smeared Bernier the other day, remember that?

00:14:09.060 So, of course, Bernier fired back at the CBC.

00:14:13.240 And it was magnificent.

00:14:14.580 He called them fake news.

00:14:17.440 He called them despicable.

00:14:19.820 Again, there's nothing wrong with him doing that.

00:14:21.420 But any member of parliament who was attacked by the CBC can and should say that.

00:14:25.420 That's not out of line.

00:14:27.180 I suppose Bernier was touching on immigration issues a bit, but not particularly at odds

00:14:31.700 with the party's official line on the subject.

00:14:33.620 He was just more clear and more powerful in his communication style than most of them are.

00:14:37.240 I see that this morning, the official critic for immigration, Michelle Rempel, had a press

00:14:43.180 conference.

00:14:44.460 Bernier noted, rather roughly, that it was her and other colleagues who were criticizing

00:14:50.020 him just a few days ago for being too aggressive.

00:14:53.040 Now they're playing catch-up to him.

00:14:54.740 I say again, he's got more energy.

00:14:57.020 He comes across as having charisma and leadership.

00:14:59.780 So, as I've told any conservative who asks me, one of Scheer's challenges is, what are

00:15:05.300 you going to do with Bernier?

00:15:07.480 This is not the first time in history that a prime minister or a party leader has had an

00:15:11.880 ambitious rival in caucus.

00:15:13.880 In fact, it's rare that they don't.

00:15:16.540 Yesterday, Lauren Gunter and I talked about how Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin quarreled for

00:15:20.240 a decade.

00:15:20.920 Now, we focused on how Jean Chrétien finally handed over the reins of the Liberal Party to

00:15:25.060 Paul Martin, but put in various poison pills to wreck it for his successor.

00:15:30.160 But the real lesson is that Jean Chrétien managed to harness Paul Martin's strengths and keep

00:15:35.520 it together for a decade before it all fell apart.

00:15:40.100 He knew Paul Martin was ambitious and connected and had a strong reputation with certain

00:15:45.140 constituencies.

00:15:46.100 And Chrétien found a modus vivendi, a way of living together with his rival that was successful.

00:15:52.120 Isn't that, in a way, one of Chrétien's most significant achievements?

00:15:56.440 Only in that it allowed Chrétien to have any of his other achievements.

00:16:01.780 Imagine if instead Paul Martin would have bolted from the party or behaved in a mutinous manner.

00:16:06.600 I mean, he did to some degree.

00:16:08.180 He built up a rival organization for years.

00:16:10.760 He slowly colonized all the levers of the party.

00:16:13.440 But he kept his political gunpowder dry for a decade.

00:16:16.340 He didn't shoot at Jean Chrétien until the very end when he felt their agreement had expired.

00:16:21.000 Isn't that the analogy here?

00:16:24.020 Isn't Andrew Scheer's first job to unify his party behind him, to not only make himself

00:16:29.740 the true leader in reality as well as in form, but to find out how to deploy Maxime Bernier's

00:16:34.900 strengths to the benefit of the party itself, to Scheer's own benefit?

00:16:40.340 Yes, yes, we know they have policy differences, especially on supply management.

00:16:44.120 How odd that Andrew Scheer would let that obscure, weird issue derail party unity, especially

00:16:50.980 when, what, 80% of the party knows that supply management of dairy cartels is the wrong policy.

00:16:57.540 It's weird and stubborn of Andrew Scheer.

00:17:01.080 Imagine making a deal with Bernier on that.

00:17:04.320 Imagine if Andrew Scheer made a deal with Bernier and let Bernier himself be the point man on that

00:17:10.300 file. As in, imagine if Andrew Scheer said to Bernier, okay, tough guy, you want the

00:17:14.720 Conservative Party to take on the Quebec dairy industry? Literally the sacred cows, sacred

00:17:20.140 milk cows that can't, are fine. Imagine Andrew Scheer saying, fine, I agree with your idea,

00:17:25.320 I accept your idea, but you have to execute it. Your job, Maxime Bernier, is to come up with

00:17:31.160 the new policy and to be the salesman for it in Quebec. Go in and do the heavy lifting

00:17:36.000 yourself. You want it? You got it. Would that be smart? I think it would be. It would take

00:17:42.520 away Bernier's policy grievance. It would give Bernier a very busy job to keep him occupied.

00:17:49.500 And it would actually use Bernier's talents and skills, his Quebec reputation, his French

00:17:54.140 fluency, his confidence and knowledge in the file. And if Andrew Scheer really thinks it's

00:17:59.460 political suicide to take on the dairy cartel, why, what better gift to give to his rival Bernier?

00:18:06.000 Now, I'm just brainstorming here, but really, Jean Chrétien put Bay Street Paul Martin onto

00:18:12.460 the toughest file he could, selling the GST to the country after promising he'd scrap it,

00:18:18.560 reducing the deficit, fixing the country's finances. That was probably the toughest job

00:18:23.620 in the government in the time. So Chrétien not only relied on Martin's talents, but he kept

00:18:29.380 him busy and gave him the tough job. Isn't that an obvious template here? There are other

00:18:35.720 scenarios, of course. I don't know, make Bernier the co-leader for Quebec. Give him the title,

00:18:41.020 deputy leader. Give him the job of going around Quebec and digging up the political backyards

00:18:45.880 of liberals and the NDP. Again, what a great fit, including Bernier's views on immigration

00:18:51.700 and culture. Because remember from the Angus Rea poll we saw yesterday, Quebec is the province

00:18:57.500 where literally 51% of people want less immigration. It's the highest number in Canada after Saskatchewan.

00:19:03.280 Bernier is a total fit for that file. While the Anglo press in Canada has been savaging Bernier,

00:19:09.400 the Quebec press is almost unanimous in support of him. Great. Send Maxime Bernier out with the

00:19:15.620 mission of winning 25 seats in Quebec, 35 seats. Why not? Go take them from the NDP. The Bloc Quebecois is

00:19:24.480 dead. Look at how Justin Trudeau badmouths old stock Quebecois. I think Maxime Bernier could do

00:19:30.900 it. Now that's just brainstorming. Cut a deal with Bernier. Use his talents. You don't like him?

00:19:40.680 You don't want to compromise with your rival? That's odd. Andrew Scheer compromises on everything

00:19:46.700 else. He talks to the media who hate him. He submits to them. He submits to dairy farmers,

00:19:52.120 whatever. But he won't compromise with the guy who won 49% of the vote last year and who has a

00:19:56.640 larger public presence than he does. You'd think compromise would be Scheer's strength. It's what

00:20:01.200 he did for a decade as the Speaker of the House. As I told any conservatives who complained to me,

00:20:07.020 there are two other options with Maxime Bernier. You could fire him from the party.

00:20:12.960 Good luck with that. That would cause a rift. That would demoralize the party.

00:20:19.060 De-energize it. Especially in Quebec. I mean, it's one thing for Andrew Scheer to bravely ban

00:20:26.940 the grassroots rebel, but to ban Bernier. That's really telling 49% of the party to leave.

00:20:34.420 And on what basis? Because he's cutting into the leader's celebrity action? Because he's taking the

00:20:39.160 media limelight? Sorry, media attention is earned. It's not given. Andrew Scheer won't get any more

00:20:45.800 media coverage if he sacks Bernier. The opposite. Bernier will completely be unleashed. He will not

00:20:51.240 be restrained at all. He'll be the daily go-to source for the media on anything, including to

00:20:56.040 criticize Scheer. I mean, I guess Scheer will get more press than he ever has before, but it'll all

00:21:00.760 be about how the party is splitting up, how he's dividing the right after Stephen Harper united it.

00:21:06.400 So yeah, firing Bernier probably won't work. And Andrew Scheer's default policy has been what you'd

00:21:15.560 expect. Passivity, inertia, indecision, hesitation. He's just closing his eyes and ears and hoping that

00:21:23.740 all this bad stuff will go away. That's called denial, and it's not working very well, is it?

00:21:29.860 So the first solution for Andrew Scheer is to strike a deal with Bernier like Chrétien did with Martin.

00:21:37.720 And if he can't do that, doesn't that say something about his abilities as a political leader? If he

00:21:44.380 can't handle Bernier, how could he, as a future prime minister, how could he handle bigger, tougher

00:21:50.920 challenges like, oh, I don't know, John Horgan, the recalcitrant premier of British Columbia,

00:21:55.920 he was blocking the pipeline unconstitutionally? Or how could he possibly handle Donald Trump in an

00:22:02.860 after negotiation? If you can't handle Bernier, you can't handle Horgan or Trump. It's a test. You bet

00:22:09.080 it is. I think there's still a lot of goodwill towards Andrew Scheer in the party. I still have

00:22:15.400 goodwill towards him, too, despite how he's treated us here at the Rebel. Of course, we want him to win

00:22:22.540 over Justin Trudeau. Of course, we don't want Bernier to split the party. That would just give

00:22:26.520 the liberals another 10 years in power. But Andrew Scheer, the conservative leader, has not been very

00:22:31.860 conservative, and he has not shown a lot of leadership. Politics can be a centrifugal force,

00:22:37.120 you know what I mean? Things falling apart. Stresses and grievances and issues can pull a party

00:22:42.840 apart, can pull a caucus apart for sure, and grassroots members. The leader, his job is to hold them

00:22:48.400 together through a common sense of mission and action and through example and by inspiration.

00:22:54.860 I don't think Andrew Scheer is ticking those boxes yet. When senior party staffers working in his office

00:23:04.580 are contacting me, telling me they agree with their criticism of Andrew Scheer,

00:23:11.100 that's not good. His own inner team isn't even gelled yet. How are you going to inspire the country

00:23:18.700 if you can't inspire your own staff? But let me end with my long-standing criticism, because I think

00:23:24.560 it all goes, well, I mean, it goes to all these other issues, and that's Andrew Scheer's fear

00:23:30.220 of the mainstream media. I had a phone call with a very senior member of Scheer's team,

00:23:37.020 I'm not going to say who, and I said, why are you guys boycotting us? Why are you banning us?

00:23:42.760 Why won't you even, why are you telling all your MPs not even to talk to us? And forget about me,

00:23:47.760 I mean, it's not personal. How about talk to David Menzies? How about talk to Sheila Gunn-Reed?

00:23:50.920 How about talk to any of our people? And my senior, senior connection said, because if we interact

00:23:59.020 with you, the rebel, that in itself becomes a media story for a whole week. And it's true, he's right.

00:24:08.200 All those gossips on the lobbyist panels, on the TV shows, they would go nuts. The Trudeau fangirls

00:24:14.860 of the CBC would go nuts. What my connection said to me is completely true. But it is also completely

00:24:23.360 pitiful and not conservative and not leaderly. It's an admission that Andrew Scheer and the people

00:24:31.760 around him care more about what the gossip girls say than they do about their own internal compass

00:24:37.660 about what's right and wrong and how to govern, let alone their own party's base. On any given day,

00:24:44.540 we hear the rebel have more viewers than the CBC's show The National, their flagship news show,

00:24:50.520 has on TV. So it's not even like the CBC is a real threat. And those viewers, they're not voting

00:24:56.360 conservative anyway. So the only threat here is psychologically, emotionally, Andrew Scheer

00:25:04.880 is actually being bullied, being pushed around, being peer pressured by a small group of people who

00:25:13.040 hate him. It's, it's a kind of battered women's syndrome, kind of Stockholm syndrome. He keeps

00:25:22.120 thinking that maybe if he just appeases the CBC and McLean's and the Toronto Star and the Huffington

00:25:28.240 Post, maybe they'll really like him and be kind to him next time. And maybe even they'll cheer for him

00:25:34.720 in the next election. No, that's not going to happen. Other than the Toronto Sun, the rebel will

00:25:42.360 be the only media in the country who gives him and the conservatives a fair shake. But as long as he

00:25:48.440 seeks the approval of the media party, he will be hamstrung. He won't be able to clearly articulate

00:25:54.180 conservative ideas. He won't be able to take on sacred cows like the Quebec dairy cartel. He'll be

00:26:00.320 afraid of dealing with conservative leaders like Maxime Bernier. And he'll continue his weird

00:26:05.920 boycott of the biggest conservative media outlet in Canada. That's my advice for Andrew Scheer.

00:26:12.280 I've given it to, I don't know, half a dozen of his MPs and senators and staff.

00:26:17.800 I wonder what they'll do with it. Maybe I'm wrong. I mean, after all, I'm just an armchair critic,

00:26:22.600 right? Easy for me to say these things. But if I'm wrong, can you tell me a better strategy?

00:26:28.660 In fact, can you discern any strategy at all, other than the old Patrick Brown rope-a-dope? Stay

00:26:36.920 quiet. Stay quiet. Take the pounding from the CBC and just hope it all works out to plan.

00:26:47.600 Stay with us for more.

00:26:58.660 How would you feel if Paul Bernardo or Carla Homolka had a pleasant tour of Parliament Hill?

00:27:14.480 What if they went inside the buildings? Would you ask what they were doing? Who they met with?

00:27:19.100 Why would Paul Bernardo be allowed on Parliament Hill? Well, that's a question I think we should

00:27:25.220 be asking about another convicted, confessed, sadistic murderer named Omar Khadar. And look

00:27:32.280 at this photo. That's Omar Khadar and his wife having a happy walk on Parliament Hill. Joining us

00:27:41.360 now to talk about this is our friend Andrew Lawton, who is a fellow with the True North Initiative

00:27:46.300 and a columnist with loony politics. Andrew, talk about loony politics. Omar Khadar is a sort of hero

00:27:54.260 to the left. And I think there's a bubble in Ottawa that actually thinks he's a good guy.

00:28:00.140 Justin Trudeau is part of that bubble. He gave him a public apology in $10.5 million.

00:28:05.100 Do you think my analogy of Carla Homolka or Paul Bernardo is too much? Do you, or do you think that the

00:28:11.420 truth is somewhere in between? How would you characterize Omar Khadar and his visit to the

00:28:16.260 Parliament? Well, quite frankly, Ezra, the comparison I would make is if, let's say, in an alternate

00:28:21.240 universe, Michael Zeehoff-Beebo were alive and free, a man who killed a soldier in the name of Islamic 0.70

00:28:29.180 terrorism. If Michael Zeehoff-Beebo were alive today and were allowed to walk on Parliament Hill, that would

00:28:34.460 be reprehensible to people. And it's not a hugely distinct scenario here that Omar Khadar, who killed a

00:28:40.860 soldier, confessed to it, and on the record is convicted. I mean, we're not even talking about

00:28:45.900 one of these weird scenarios where, let's say, he got off. I mean, he was convicted. And that is on

00:28:51.140 the books today. So when you're going into any secure government facility, whether it's Parliament

00:28:55.340 Hill, whether it's the Toronto Courthouse, or whether it's the county clerk's office in rural Alberta,

00:29:00.860 there are risks associated with letting security be so lax. And Parliament Hill, especially after the

00:29:08.780 2014 shooting, has clamped down a lot. It's a lot more secure there than when I worked there

00:29:13.540 almost a decade ago. And the fact that anyone with a murder conviction, especially Omar Khadar,

00:29:18.700 should be allowed to just waltz in there, should concern Canadians. 0.99

00:29:21.740 Yeah. Well, I want to show you three images in a row. The first one is Jaspal Atwal. He is a convicted

00:29:30.820 terrorist. That's what the judge called him. He was convicted of attempting to assassinate a cabinet 0.99

00:29:37.780 minister from India who happened to be on vacation in Canada. So that's terrorist number one. Here's 0.92

00:29:44.280 another image of Joshua Boyle, who was married at one point to Omar Khadar's sister and took his

00:29:53.200 subsequent wife to Afghanistan, where they were captured or met up with the Taliban. And he's

00:29:59.460 currently being charged with a variety of serious criminal offenses in Ottawa. So that's the second

00:30:05.780 person affiliated with terrorism that Justin Trudeau has met with. And now we have Omar Khadar

00:30:11.620 on Parliament Hill. I think it raises the real question, Andrew, who did he meet there? Because

00:30:18.140 it's possible to tour Parliament and just look at it like a building. I mean, you could walk through it,

00:30:23.680 you could look at the view. But let me quote to you from the Globe and Mail story on this subject,

00:30:28.220 because I find this distressing. This is an official quote from the Prime Minister's office.

00:30:34.060 The Prime Minister did not meet with Omar Khadar, nor did any senior ministers, PMO, Prime Minister's

00:30:41.700 Office spokeswoman Eleanor Catanaro said. It's shocking, Andrew, that we actually need confirmation

00:30:50.220 that Trudeau didn't meet with a terrorist murderer. But everyone knows he very well could have,

00:30:58.120 given his affection for terrorists. But what struck me, and put that up just for one more second,

00:31:02.880 what struck me is look at the use of the lawyerly wiggle words. No senior ministers met with him.

00:31:10.120 Doesn't that immediately ask the question, well, did any junior ministers meet with him? Did any back

00:31:16.500 to start defining? And when you need to start qualifying, I would say if I were Justin Trudeau,

00:31:21.220 he didn't meet with anyone connected to our party, anyone connected to our government at all. And

00:31:25.580 that would be certainly what I'd hope was the case. But as you mentioned earlier, Ezra,

00:31:29.760 Omar Khadar has cemented himself as somewhat of a folk hero among Canada's left. And despite Justin

00:31:36.240 Trudeau's proclamation that the $10.5 million was just this regrettable inevitability,

00:31:41.760 it was something that he chose to do. They chose to go to bat for Omar Khadar. And if he has any type

00:31:48.160 of audience with a representative of the federal government or even a backbench MP, that is

00:31:52.800 something that at the very least Canadians should know about. And if he and his wife were just

00:31:56.440 deciding to take a stroll on Parliament Hill just out of a civic pride or something like that,

00:32:01.300 I don't know if he has any, then that's one thing. But it's quite another that him getting into

00:32:06.040 the building had no checks and balances or the worst case scenario, which is that it did get

00:32:11.060 reviewed and someone said, yes, he's good to enter. And that would happen if there was a meeting on the

00:32:15.400 Hill. Yeah. What I'm curious about also is Omar Khadar, I think, lives in Edmonton. I'm not sure. I

00:32:22.280 know that's where he went to school. That's where some of his legal cases were. So to get from Edmonton

00:32:27.720 to Ottawa, there's different ways to do. You can drive, but most people would fly. I'm curious if

00:32:33.800 Omar Khadar is on Canada's no-fly list. He's a convicted, confessed Al-Qaeda terrorist. I don't

00:32:42.040 know what the risk of him reoffending is. I know it's not zero. I wonder if he flew on WestJet or Air

00:32:50.100 Canada, and I wonder what the other passengers felt like being on an airplane, if he did indeed fly,

00:32:57.280 with an Al-Qaeda terrorist. The fact that he can go into our House of Parliament, and I suspect he did 0.99

00:33:05.620 fly, shows the moral inversion of our world today. What do you think? Yeah, and I would be very careful

00:33:13.120 for a lot of people weighing in here. This is not me saying that I think Omar Khadar is posing a risk

00:33:19.020 on Parliament or posing a risk on an airline. But as I mentioned earlier, he is on the record,

00:33:23.820 he is on the record a convicted felon, a convicted murderer, and a convicted murderer of a terror-related

00:33:29.840 offense. That should mean something when it comes to security. And the thing about Parliament Hill in

00:33:35.320 particular, and airline security, is that the people that truly suffer from all of these bizarre and

00:33:41.280 absurd measures are typically people that cause no harm to anyone else. When, you know, little old

00:33:45.880 ladies have to take off their shoes, and people get patted down and groped and all that, and at 1.00

00:33:50.700 Parliament Hill, where you can sometimes be waiting hours to get through. So the fact that all of these

00:33:55.280 measures are there for everyone, but someone who is a confessed murderer can just waltz right in there

00:34:00.940 is exactly the problem. And again, this is not me saying that Khadar poses a threat, but if that is

00:34:06.940 where the bar is set, that even being convicted of a terror-related offense doesn't keep you on the

00:34:11.820 front lawn instead of inside Parliament, there is a big security discussion we need to have here.

00:34:16.780 Yeah. Well, I find it troubling, and I know that if the shoe were on the other foot, if, let's say,

00:34:24.640 a neo-Nazi, not even a violent terrorist, because, you know, the phenomenon of white terrorism, I can't 0.62

00:34:32.600 even think of it. I suppose you could talk about the IRA in Northern Ireland back in the day, or the

00:34:37.800 mafia or something, the Red Brigades. But if some right-wing white supremacist like Richard Spencer

00:34:44.300 came to Ottawa and was photographed on Parliament Hill, you know that the Globe and Mail would

00:34:49.440 literally phone every single MP's office and say, did you meet with him? Did you meet with him?

00:34:54.020 Even though Richard Spencer, although he's a racist, he's not a terrorist, there is no such

00:34:59.160 curiosity here. I wonder if Ikra Khalid or Omar al-Jabra or other lower-level MPs or staff met with

00:35:08.560 Omar Khadar. There's no such curiosity at the Globe and Mail. Last word to you, Andrew, what do you think?

00:35:12.880 Yeah, and I think that's the big question here. I mean, what the security procedures are, what it

00:35:17.480 actually takes to get banned from entering is a big question here. I would also direct people to

00:35:22.800 the language used by Dennis Edney, the former lawyer of Omar Khadar, who said that anyone who

00:35:27.760 raises an issue with this, so you and I right now, Ezra and the Conservative Senator Leo Housakis,

00:35:32.780 anyone who takes issue with this is doing it from a place of Islamophobia. So we didn't know one of the

00:35:37.880 unintended consequences of M-103, as even terrorists should be allowed to waltz into Parliament.

00:35:43.000 That's the true Canadian dream there. Yeah, and if you complain about terrorism,

00:35:47.020 well, you're obviously just racist. Yeah. Well, Andrew, it's great to have you back on the show.

00:35:50.520 You keep up the fight. Likewise. All right, there you have it. Andrew Lawton, he's a fellow with the

00:35:54.640 True North Initiative, along with our friend Candace Malcolm, and he's a columnist with Looney Politics.

00:35:59.600 Stay with us. More Head on the Rebel. What does election interference look like in the age of

00:36:16.620 high tech? Well, if you listen to liberals, it looks like Russian trolls brainwashing the state

00:36:23.780 of Wisconsin not to vote for Hillary Clinton or something like that. That's the theory, at least.

00:36:30.340 And of course, Robert Mueller has been investigating this Russian collusion for more than a year and a

00:36:34.440 half and has found nothing other than some minor cases of tax evasion unrelated to the election.

00:36:41.180 But I think we can take a guess at what actual election meddling through technology looks like,

00:36:47.580 because it's happening before our very eyes every day. And I bring your attention to a new article

00:36:52.780 on Breitbart.com, written by our friend Alan Bokhari. Let me tell you the title of it. It's called

00:36:57.660 This is What Election Interference Actually Looks Like. And let me read to you the first sentence of it.

00:37:04.760 The purge of the right on social media was once a slow trickle, with high-profile bans happening only

00:37:09.640 occasionally and then subsiding with just three months until the midterm elections. The masters of

00:37:14.780 the universe in Silicon Valley have turned online censorship into a cascade. And joining us now via Skype

00:37:20.740 from the United Kingdom is our friend Alan Bokhari, who's the senior technology correspondent

00:37:25.340 for Breitbart.com. Alan, you've really brought together a lot of strings and threads that we've

00:37:32.400 been talking about for months, haven't you? They're really picking up the tempo as we get closer to the

00:37:38.780 November elections. They absolutely are. And this whole thing we've been hearing from the Democrats

00:37:45.580 over the past year about election interference, even anti-Trump political psychologists admit

00:37:52.360 that the fake news and propaganda put out by Russian bots had virtually no impact on the election because

00:38:00.700 the small amount of ads they were putting out through Facebook, it was a tiny amount.

00:38:08.440 They were only reaching voters, they were only reaching partisan voters, voters who had already made up their mind.

00:38:13.460 So it wasn't actually reaching undecided voters.

00:38:16.920 The main, I think the best theory with regards to Russia is that the reason they make these sort of very small

00:38:22.340 investments in Facebook ads around election time is to create sort of panic and discord

00:38:27.480 in U.S. politics rather than influence votes directly. And in terms of creating panic, we know Russia 0.78

00:38:34.460 succeeded, but largely thanks to the Democrats, they didn't actually impact voters with propaganda.

00:38:42.360 There was one famous case on Facebook, and this comes from the vice president of advertising himself,

00:38:48.600 who reviewed all the Russian ads. And he gave an example, I think it was in Texas,

00:38:52.780 of Russian Facebook ads promoting literally both sides of a street rally.

00:39:01.760 So you had two street rallies competing against each other, and only a few dozen people attended.

00:39:08.940 Russia paid for both sides. It was a trivial little bump in the road, and it was in Texas, 0.85

00:39:15.060 which of course is as red a state as it gets.

00:39:17.420 It's weird, but to say that that influenced a billion, a $2 billion election campaign is a joke.

00:39:25.000 Yeah, it misses the point. And the reason they fund both sides is to create uncertainty and panic in political culture. 0.83

00:39:33.020 So if Russia is, say, funding both sides of a rally, then both sides of a rally will sort of not treat each other in good faith,

00:39:38.700 they'll accuse each other of being paid off by the Russians.

00:39:41.020 Like Democrats and Republicans will both start to doubt their own movements and wonder if their movements are legitimate.

00:39:49.020 So it has all these other effects, but it doesn't really affect voters.

00:39:53.340 It isn't really designed to favor one side of an election. That sort of misses the point.

00:39:59.260 What is designed to...

00:40:00.300 Sorry, please go ahead.

00:40:01.020 What is this sign to...

00:40:03.860 What does seem to be designed to favor one side of an election is what Facebook and Twitter

00:40:08.520 and all these other social platforms are doing on their own, these mass suspensions of conservatives.

00:40:14.740 Well, I mean, our former colleague, Gavin McInnes, who's gone on to CRTV, and we still keep in touch with him.

00:40:20.920 I mean, he's hilarious. He's crazy. He's a gonzo journalist. He's a comedian. 0.87

00:40:25.560 But he's also, underneath it all, a conservative folk philosopher.

00:40:31.240 And, I mean, he's an interesting character, but I would say he's similar to liberal late-night comedy hosts,

00:40:38.500 who they've got a shtick, they have some talents, but underneath it all, they have an ideology.

00:40:43.760 And, you know, they go too far. They get crazy. I mean, they do things that are rude.

00:40:48.380 But underneath it, they have a liberal point of view.

00:40:50.440 I see that as Gavin on the right, but he was deleted, and he had more than a quarter million,

00:40:56.980 about a quarter million followers, and all of his followers, who call themselves the Proud Boys,

00:41:02.460 they had all of their accounts deleted at once, no notice, no warning, no appeal, no explanation.

00:41:10.360 Millions of followers amongst all of his Proud Boys combined.

00:41:15.200 That level of censorship, when you're in the million censorship mark,

00:41:20.660 that has more effect than anything the Russians did.

00:41:22.980 That's my view. And that's just one guy.

00:41:25.080 That doesn't even talk about other voices on the right.

00:41:28.000 I mean, Alex Jones, perhaps the biggest censorship target of them all.

00:41:32.120 He had 2.4 million YouTube subscribers.

00:41:35.160 Alan, we've been working here at The Rebel for three and a half years.

00:41:37.780 We're very proud that we just hit the million subscriber mark on YouTube.

00:41:41.140 Alex Jones had 2.4 million, and I'm not here to endorse all his messages.

00:41:46.100 I think he's an entertainer also.

00:41:48.340 There's a whole level of humor and showbiz and schtick there too.

00:41:53.820 But again, underneath it, he has the ideology of skepticism and dissent

00:41:58.840 and being distrustful of big government.

00:42:02.440 And I think there's some value there.

00:42:04.300 Poof. Gone. 2.4 million followers. Gone.

00:42:08.140 That's bigger than anything Russia ever did. 0.62

00:42:09.920 Yeah. And, you know, these Silicon Valley giants, these masters of the universe,

00:42:14.900 have no respect for alternative media or alternative journalists.

00:42:18.920 They even banned one of our graphics artists who does work for the Breitbart

00:42:22.280 who actually designed the header image on that article.

00:42:25.120 And as he said, you know, what this really does before an election is severely hamper,

00:42:33.860 almost cripple the rights ability to organize online.

00:42:37.620 I mean, the digital space is where sort of grassroots movements are now sort of incubated and built.

00:42:43.880 And as he said, they didn't just ban Gavin McInnes.

00:42:46.740 They banned his last relation that he founded, the Proud Boys.

00:42:49.800 You know, this is a pro-Western organization.

00:42:51.560 And they banned it for a ridiculous reason. 0.94

00:42:52.960 They said it supports violence.

00:42:53.960 So it explicitly disavows violence.

00:42:56.500 There have actually been many instances where the Proud Boys have been attacked by Antifa,

00:42:59.820 by far-left activists.

00:43:01.660 And they've had to defend themselves.

00:43:03.000 But they certainly don't advocate violence and silence.

00:43:06.620 Yeah.

00:43:07.200 They're sort of like the Guardian Angels that would go in New York subways in the 80s.

00:43:15.060 They would be like to stand against the muggers.

00:43:18.260 It would be shocking to have the Guardian Angels arrested, but not the muggers.

00:43:24.560 I want to ask you a question.

00:43:28.000 Have you, I mean, you study this more than anyone else I know.

00:43:30.560 Have you, in all of your travels, in all of your research, in all of your surfing the

00:43:35.840 net, come across a liberal or leftist who has been censored?

00:43:41.700 Let's show the image from your story here.

00:43:44.960 I mean, we know some of these faces.

00:43:46.420 We see Tommy Robinson, one of our alumni.

00:43:48.980 We see Lauren Southern.

00:43:51.600 I mean, it's funny how many rebel or rebel alumni have been censored.

00:43:56.400 We see the Rebel Reunion Party.

00:43:58.140 That's right.

00:43:59.120 We see Robert Spencer in the top there.

00:44:02.560 So lots of conservative figures.

00:44:06.000 Have you ever encountered a liberal figure who has been censored from social media?

00:44:12.720 Even one.

00:44:13.480 Can you name even one?

00:44:15.260 Well, it's an interesting question because it depends how we define liberal and left-wing.

00:44:19.560 So you look at someone like Sarah Jong, who's been embraced by the liberal establishment,

00:44:24.600 you know, given a cushy job at the New York Times.

00:44:27.560 She made dozens upon dozens of tweets that would clearly violate Twitter's hate speech 0.99

00:44:33.160 rules if they were said about any other group.

00:44:35.620 But, you know, she said she made these comments about white people.

00:44:37.940 So not only is she allowed to keep her account on Twitter, she's actually verified and not

00:44:42.120 even asked to delete tweets where she says things like, you know, white people are groveling 0.95

00:44:47.040 goblins. 1.00

00:44:48.160 Their opinions are like dogs pissing on fire hydrants. 1.00

00:44:51.280 She says she feels joy when being cruel to old white men. 0.99

00:44:54.820 And she, Twitter hasn't even asked her to delete these tweets and they've verified her account

00:44:58.980 now.

00:44:59.840 So that's a perfect example of Twitter's double standard check.

00:45:02.600 However, there actually was an example a few days ago, just right after I published this

00:45:08.160 article, of, let's see if I can find her name.

00:45:11.900 It's Sarah Johnston, Caitlin Johnston.

00:45:15.160 It was an anti-war left-wing journalist.

00:45:18.000 Not a very big name.

00:45:19.580 The name actually escapes me.

00:45:21.480 But they were anti-war.

00:45:22.600 Or they said something unkind about John McCain.

00:45:27.000 I don't think it qualified as hate speech.

00:45:29.760 And I think they were then subject to a mass flagging campaign.

00:45:33.480 So this is like an anti-war, anti-establishment journalist, anti-Hillary Clinton, I would say.

00:45:40.460 Sort of in the mold of Glenn Greenwald, but a little bit less high profile.

00:45:47.220 And she had her account banned on Twitter for a few days.

00:45:50.320 Eventually reversed, thanks to press coverage.

00:45:52.600 But there have certainly been some examples.

00:45:55.680 But I think it's mainly happening to the anti-establishment left rather than the mainstream left.

00:46:00.880 Right.

00:46:01.140 That's a very good point.

00:46:02.100 I want to ask you, because Donald Trump has finally weighed in.

00:46:07.360 He had a series of tweets the other day, and we showed them on the screen.

00:46:11.040 I thought they were very thoughtful.

00:46:12.540 He said that he would rather abide the fake news of CNN than to enter into a world of censorship.

00:46:22.480 Because he said he'd take CNN with a grain of salt or he doesn't watch it at all.

00:46:26.760 He would prefer that world than the world of censorship.

00:46:29.700 But he clearly was criticizing the censorship by the social media companies.

00:46:34.860 I'm glad that Donald Trump has finally weighed in on the subject.

00:46:38.620 But so far, he's just outlined his philosophy and his sort of sentiments or feelings.

00:46:44.780 He has not announced any legislation, any executive orders, any prosecutions, any commissions.

00:46:54.400 He's just mused.

00:46:56.160 And he's a great Twitter muser.

00:46:58.420 And a lot happens sometimes from his musings.

00:47:01.700 It's his musings, I think, that led to the detente with North Korea.

00:47:08.000 So let's not poo-poo his musings.

00:47:10.480 But do you think that his musings will be followed up with any action,

00:47:15.000 especially given how imminent the midterm elections are?

00:47:18.240 Well, a lot of people who know more about what's going on in the White House than me say there is going to be some sort of action.

00:47:28.000 Some are even saying there might be an executive order.

00:47:31.100 It's impossible to know that for sure unless you're in Trump's head.

00:47:35.120 But certainly he'll be having some pushback from sort of free market advocates who say you should just leave these companies alone.

00:47:43.120 They're private companies, which would be a huge mistake, in my opinion, for Republicans if they want to actually survive the midterms and, indeed, future elections.

00:47:53.380 Because the amount of power these companies have to swing elections is vast.

00:47:59.240 And we're already seeing it deployed.

00:48:02.160 I think, actually, what Donald Trump said yesterday at his rally was quite smart.

00:48:08.040 He spoke of how the internet has sort of turned everyone into journalists.

00:48:12.260 He has specific words for everyone, sort of their own newspaper now.

00:48:16.680 And that's absolutely correct.

00:48:17.740 And actually, liberal news organizations like CNN and The Guardian before 2013 and 2016 used to celebrate the fact that, you know,

00:48:27.020 the web and unlock this era of citizen journalism where anyone with a Twitter account could report the news.

00:48:33.700 Of course, now they've turned on that idea and they want to reinstall themselves as the gatekeepers of these social media platforms where they're favored

00:48:43.460 and where other users have their content downranked and given a low trustworthiness ranking.

00:48:49.640 But Donald Trump was actually making a point that these news organizations themselves used to make,

00:48:54.860 which is that the internet has turned everyone into a citizen journalist.

00:48:57.880 And Trump's point is that if everyone's a citizen journalist, then everyone should have the same free speech rights.

00:49:01.720 CNN should not have more likes to propagate their message than, you know, an average Joe.

00:49:06.940 I saw that comment by him.

00:49:08.460 It was very thoughtful.

00:49:09.760 And what it did is it captured some of the only free speech energy in the media is for they themselves.

00:49:16.760 They don't care.

00:49:17.820 The legacy media deeply cares about free speech for them.

00:49:21.560 And that's where it ends.

00:49:22.580 So Trump was very thoughtful.

00:49:23.820 He said, well, we all have the same status as you legacy media types.

00:49:28.340 Anyone with a cell phone camera?

00:49:30.240 That was very clever.

00:49:32.160 He's a smart man.

00:49:33.160 I hope he takes action soon.

00:49:34.760 I want to leave with one last question.

00:49:37.140 I think it was one of your colleagues from the UK, in fact, Tomlinson, if I'm not mistaken.

00:49:42.760 I'm sorry, I forget his name right now.

00:49:44.720 Or Montgomery, who had their Airbnb account canceled for political reasons.

00:49:53.040 Does this ring a bell?

00:49:54.340 Do you know what I'm talking about?

00:49:55.480 I think it's a fellow Breitbart journalist.

00:49:58.840 And forgive me, Jack Montgomery, that's who it was.

00:50:04.320 Just Airbnb, which for our viewers who don't know, that's you can rent out like a spare room in your house for 100 bucks.

00:50:11.800 And it's basically like Uber, but for spare rooms.

00:50:16.520 And you can rent someone else's room.

00:50:18.680 So it's a cheap alternative to hotels.

00:50:20.800 And it allows people to make money.

00:50:22.260 So Jack Montgomery had his Airbnb account suspended for political reasons.

00:50:28.200 He raised a fuss and they backed off.

00:50:29.840 But what scares me, Alan, is not just the political censorship, but when they start going after your things that are unrelated to politics whatsoever.

00:50:38.500 Airbnb, they went after Robert Spencer's MasterCard account.

00:50:43.060 That's terrifying because that destroys your ability to live a normal life.

00:50:49.120 Go ahead.

00:50:49.540 Yeah, I think that social media actually feeds into a much wider, more serious problem, which is the political segregation of the entire economy.

00:50:59.760 What's happening is that we have far left radicals who are pressuring big corporations to essentially make conservatives and Trump supporters second class citizens.

00:51:09.140 You can't access basic services like bank accounts and spare rooms and social media.

00:51:18.980 You know, even restaurants.

00:51:20.360 We had Red Hen, that restaurant in Virginia, kicking out Sarah Sanders because she worked for the Trump administration. 1.00

00:51:27.540 I've actually heard the other day of a comic book store kicking out a guy who supports Comicsgate, which is sort of like this game of age style movement around comic books.

00:51:37.660 So there's a real – the partisan divide in America is extremely strong at the moment, and it's now being outsourced into the economy because, you know, America has a First Amendment.

00:51:52.140 You aren't allowed to take control of the government and just censor people.

00:51:55.300 And in any case, the left doesn't have control of the government.

00:51:57.180 So what they're doing is they're trying to take over these huge corporations instead, which now have, you know, so much control over our lives and aren't really bound by any rules which say they can't discriminate on the basis of politics.

00:52:08.680 So I think we're – I think this is one of the reasons why the James Damore case is so important because it's about political discrimination.

00:52:14.940 It's about whether a company can fire you for political reasons.

00:52:20.240 I think there needs to also be a conversation about whether companies can just deny you service for political reasons, whether that's a social media company or MasterCard or Airbnb.

00:52:31.840 Very interesting.

00:52:32.880 And, of course, you're talking about James Damore.

00:52:34.480 He's the former Google employee who was fired for daring to criticize their obscure gender theories.

00:52:40.040 Alam, it's great to catch up with you.

00:52:41.220 I don't say it just to flatter you.

00:52:43.700 I truly believe that your journalism on this subject is not only the best journalism in its field, but this field of journalism, studying how Silicon Valley has become politically radicalized and weaponized.

00:52:58.640 I believe it is the leading issue of our day because through social media we perceive the world and react to the world.

00:53:04.980 And that is why it's the choke point for those who seek to cut us off and affect our politics.

00:53:11.300 I'm really glad that you do what you do.

00:53:13.860 And it's always a pleasure to have 15 minutes of your time on the show.

00:53:17.020 Thanks for being here today.

00:53:19.460 Thanks, Mr. Great to be on.

00:53:20.740 All right.

00:53:21.220 There you have it.

00:53:21.700 Alan Bokhari.

00:53:22.680 He is the senior technology correspondent for Breitbart.com.

00:53:25.980 And I encourage you to read his latest article on Breitbart.

00:53:29.160 It's called This Is What Election Interference Actually Looks Like.

00:53:33.880 Stay with us.

00:53:34.440 More ahead on The Rebel.

00:53:45.760 Hey, welcome back.

00:53:46.960 On the direction of the Conservative Party under Andrew Scheer, Peter writes,

00:53:50.440 The worst thing right-leaning voters can do this coming federal election is to not vote. 0.99

00:53:55.460 The Conservative Party of Canada is the one that can boot the current narcissistic fool out of the office. 0.98

00:54:00.180 And the CPC needs all the votes they can get. 0.99

00:54:02.680 We have to get rid of Trudeau 2.0.

00:54:05.260 You are correct, Peter.

00:54:07.500 And what I really think is going on is that Andrew Scheer says,

00:54:10.480 All right, I've got the right-wingers.

00:54:12.520 I've got the rebel.

00:54:13.840 First of all, I had them when I needed them to win the leadership.

00:54:16.560 And now, really, where are they going to go?

00:54:18.160 They've got no one else to vote for.

00:54:20.360 That's the Patrick Brown strategy.

00:54:22.660 Win the party leadership by tacking to the right,

00:54:25.360 and then go back to the left and try and win the approval of the CBC and the Star.

00:54:30.460 Yeah.

00:54:30.920 I think the problem with that is, first of all,

00:54:33.940 Maxime Bernier is actually better known and better liked in the party than Andrew Scheer,

00:54:37.820 who's still a relative unknown.

00:54:40.260 And second of all,

00:54:42.380 you could just flip off the energy, enthusiasm,

00:54:46.900 volunteering, and other commitment from the party base.

00:54:49.760 And maybe you have lower voter turnout.

00:54:53.480 And maybe people just don't put in the energy to convince people.

00:54:57.580 I love this Andrew Scheer at parties, over coffee, at the office.

00:55:01.280 Maybe you just flick off the lights in 100,000 warriors who would have been volunteer ambassadors for the party.

00:55:08.540 So demoralizing your base, it's not a good idea, especially when you're starting behind 5% to 10% in the polls, as Andrew Scheer is.

00:55:18.540 Let me throw that at you. 0.93

00:55:19.460 Doug Ford just won the election in Ontario.

00:55:23.580 Why isn't Andrew Scheer leading in Ontario?

00:55:26.680 Jason Kenney is about to crush it in Alberta.

00:55:28.840 Well, of course, Scheer is leading in Alberta.

00:55:30.580 But how about in Quebec, where you have a provincial party that's going hardline against immigration?

00:55:36.540 If Andrew Scheer is not going to lead after all of Justin Trudeau's gaffes and these successes on the provincial level,

00:55:42.340 do you think he's going to be in the lead in the polls when the liberals finally rev up their campaign?

00:55:46.900 He's got to get a better strategy than he has now.

00:55:49.180 Liza writes,

00:55:52.160 The conversation with Lauren was very good, wishing isn't going to make Bernier leader as much as I want it to be so.

00:55:58.820 But Scheer is walking a very thin line with his base and should start paying attention.

00:56:04.400 Banning the rebel is going to be that last straw for a lot of conservatives.

00:56:09.140 You could be right. You could be right.

00:56:11.060 And look, we're not a political party and I'm not a political leader and I don't have to make the decisions with the responsibilities of Andrew Scheer.

00:56:18.000 I laid out some strategies in my monologue today.

00:56:22.240 I said, number one, you're obviously not talking to your MP, senators and staff enough if they're calling me.

00:56:28.080 And if they're calling me, they're gossiping to other people, too.

00:56:31.380 Number two, if you can't deal with Maxime Bernier the same way that Chrétien dealt with Paul Martin,

00:56:36.400 then you're not quite ready to be prime minister because dealing with rivals and challenges is what prime ministers do every day.

00:56:43.480 Chrétien managed to deploy Paul Martin to the benefit of Jean Chrétien

00:56:47.440 and to the benefit of the country for a decade.

00:56:50.480 Surely, a man with Maxime Bernier's talents and geographical support and popular support

00:56:56.040 can be put to a use that he accepts and that's good for the party and that's good for the country.

00:57:01.460 And so far, Andrew Scheer's just avoiding all that.

00:57:03.500 And my third piece of advice, and you know it,

00:57:05.800 is he's got to stop caring about what the CBC and the Star says

00:57:08.400 because it's hampering his ability to think clearly.

00:57:11.020 That's my advice, and I don't think it's self-serving advice.

00:57:14.940 I think that's genuine advice, and it's frankly what I told these Tories who called me up.

00:57:19.920 On my monologue yesterday about that new Angus Reid poll revealing that only 6% of Canadians want more immigration,

00:57:25.060 Paul writes,

00:57:25.540 Yeah, I think you're talking about Christian Arabs, and I think you're talking about Yazidis.

00:57:41.400 Weirdly, Justin Trudeau takes anyone from the region without sorting them between the lambs and the wolves.

00:57:48.520 He takes as many wolves as lambs.

00:57:50.680 In fact, he sort of has a ban on taking lambs.

00:57:53.160 At least under Stephen Harper, they focused on at-risk minorities, mainly Christians,

00:57:57.500 and Trudeau wiped that away.

00:58:00.020 But I think the real answer is to find a solution in the region.

00:58:04.540 It makes much more sense for Syrian migrants to be repatriated to Syria, 1.00

00:58:10.480 where they speak Arabic, and everything from the climate to the food to the job skills to the traditions,

00:58:16.340 it's their place, it's their home.

00:58:20.460 And by the way, if you worry about economics, as anyone who pays taxes should,

00:58:24.200 a dollar goes a lot further there than it does over here.

00:58:28.580 I think the answer is not to bring the Middle East problems here or anywhere else around the world.

00:58:34.380 It's to, if we can, help out a little bit over there.

00:58:37.860 Japan, when I was in northern Iraq,

00:58:39.920 I saw the government of Japan was sponsoring a refugee camp for Christians.

00:58:45.700 I saw it with my own eyes.

00:58:46.840 I saw the government of Japan logo.

00:58:48.640 Japan ain't taking Iraqis. 0.73

00:58:50.920 I think the total number of refugees that Iraq, sorry, that Japan took in the whole year was under 50.

00:58:59.780 But they'll help in Iraq.

00:59:01.500 Don't you think that's something we should consider too?

00:59:03.160 I think we need to spend some more time absorbing the million migrants we've taken in over the last three years. 1.00

00:59:10.240 Well, very interesting times.

00:59:11.980 I will be in Halifax tomorrow.

00:59:15.620 My friend David Menzies will be covering the show tomorrow.

00:59:19.580 I'll be doing a show from Halifax on Friday.

00:59:23.160 And of course, we will be putting YouTube videos up.

00:59:25.400 I don't know if Andrew Scheer is going to let us in.

00:59:27.720 I don't think he will.

00:59:28.560 I think he is much more aggressive and stubborn towards us than he is towards Justin Trudeau.

00:59:34.860 And that's just a shame.

00:59:36.360 I mean, grow up, big guy, and focus on the real prize.

00:59:41.080 Quarreling with the rebel.

00:59:43.200 I don't know.

00:59:43.780 I mean, maybe the cool kids like Wendy Masley and Paul Martin give you a thumbs up.

00:59:48.860 But I don't think that's going to move you any closer to becoming prime minister.

00:59:52.160 Take on the big game, Justin Trudeau.

00:59:54.280 Take on the real problems, and that's your only way to win.

00:59:59.580 On behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters and around the world,

01:00:04.100 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

01:00:06.480 We'll see you next time.

Rebel News Podcast - August 23, 2018

Advice for Andrew Scheer, as the Rebel heads to the Conservative Party convention

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