Stay Free - Russel Brand - “THEY PAID MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR BRIBES” | Vivek Ramaswamy On Ukraine War & Biden Corruption!

00:00:00.000 Hello there, you Awakening Wonders!

00:00:01.000 Thanks for joining me on Stay Free with Russell Brand.

00:00:04.000 Wherever you're watching this, the show in its entirety will only be available on Rumble.

00:00:08.000 And today is a fantastic show because we've got Vivek Ramaswamy, presidential candidate in the Republican primaries, joining us live to talk about his policies, how he'd run the Republican Party, and indeed the United States of America.

00:00:21.000 Also later in the show, in our item, Here's the News, we'll be asking, who's the biggest threat to democracy?

00:00:27.000 Donald Trump or the FBI.

00:00:29.000 We've got an amazing story for you that's going to knock your knickers down and blow your socks straight out the window, because the FBI have been involved in conspiracies that you would not believe.

00:00:37.000 You're not going to want to miss that.

00:00:39.000 But let's get straight into our conversation.

00:00:41.000 Remember, if you're watching us on YouTube, we're only going to do the first 15 minutes.

00:00:44.000 Then you're going to have to click the link in the description Join us in the other place, the home of free speech itself.

00:00:49.000 This is why we're on Stay Free, so we can have open conversations with people whose voices and opinions matter.

00:00:55.000 If you're watching us on Rumble, remember, press the red button on your screen now and join us in Locals.

00:00:59.000 You can join these conversations when they happen live.

00:01:01.000 On occasion, we have to have these conversations not live, just to ensure we get the best guests and the guests we want to hear from, like Dean NJ, Purple Revolution, They're all with us now and they're having a wonderful conversation and they'll have their opportunity to pose their questions to Vivek.

00:01:16.000 Without any more skullduggery, nonsense or tomfoolery, please help me to welcome Vivek Ramaswamy.

00:01:22.000 Vivek, thank you for joining us.

00:01:24.000 It's good to be here, man.

00:01:25.000 I understand this is a very special day.

00:01:27.000 It's quite literally your birthday.

00:01:29.000 It is literally my birthday.

00:01:31.000 You know, I got a lot of criticism now.

00:01:33.000 I was too young.

00:01:34.000 So now I'm not 37 anymore.

00:01:35.000 I'm 38.

00:01:36.000 Happy birthday to you.

00:01:38.000 These are British snacks.

00:01:40.000 Happy birthday to you.

00:01:41.000 This is Britain.

00:01:42.000 This is what it means to Britain.

00:01:44.000 You're one third the age of Joe Biden.

00:01:48.000 Happy birthday to you.

00:01:50.000 We'll eat these in your honour, Vivek.

00:01:52.000 Thank you for joining us on this special day.

00:01:54.000 I really appreciate that, guys.

00:01:55.000 That's very nice.

00:01:56.000 It's been a good day so far and it just got better.

00:01:58.000 So thank you.

00:01:59.000 For the first 15 minutes of the conversation while we're on YouTube, we can keep things relatively light.

00:02:04.000 Of course, over the course of our conversation, I'd love to talk to you about your views on Donald Trump and what he does to your candidacy and indeed anyone who would seek the nomination of the Republican Party.

00:02:15.000 But let's start a little bit with some of the broader points for our audience who are not yet familiar with you.

00:02:21.000 What exactly do you think you can bring to this race?

00:02:24.000 What do you think you can bring to this candidacy?

00:02:26.000 What do you think it's lacking?

00:02:29.000 So, look, I think that the thing that was missing in the field, the thing that pulled me in, is that I see a Republican Party that for a long time has been running from something.

00:02:40.000 I am leading us to start running to something.

00:02:43.000 To our vision of what it means to be an American.

00:02:46.000 To the ideals of the American Revolution that define what this country is all about.

00:02:52.000 And yes, the left is very good at filling the vacuum of purpose and meaning in young people.

00:02:58.000 With race, gender, sexuality, climate.

00:03:02.000 I want us talking more about what we actually stand for.

00:03:06.000 The individual, the family, the nation, God.

00:03:10.000 This is, I think, actually much more valuable than just criticizing and playing whack-a-mole with everything the other side gives us.

00:03:17.000 And I bring some unique attributes to this.

00:03:19.000 I'm not a politician.

00:03:20.000 I'm a businessman.

00:03:21.000 I have lived the American Dream.

00:03:23.000 My parents came to this country with no money.

00:03:26.000 I have gone on to found multi-billion dollar companies.

00:03:30.000 I did it while getting married to my wife, Apoorva, raising two sons.

00:03:34.000 That's the American Dream.

00:03:35.000 It's not a politician's story.

00:03:38.000 And I think it might just take somebody of a different generation to get this job done and actually reaching young Americans, bringing them along, reminding them why we have to be proud of this country, all the reasons we have to be proud of this nation we call home.

00:03:55.000 And you know what?

00:03:56.000 That's a unique combination.

00:03:57.000 Somebody who both comes from the business world but understands the Constitution deeply.

00:04:02.000 Somebody who cares about this country but who has also succeeded in living the American dream and who is young and a member of my generation.

00:04:11.000 That's what I'm bringing to this that I think nobody else is.

00:04:13.000 It is what gave me the duty to, I think, it called me into this race, and we will see what God's plan is for us, but for now, we're gonna keep doing what I believe is my part, and my heart says we're gonna be successful.

00:04:25.000 Jay says on Locals, now we need more senile octogenarians in power. 1.00

00:04:31.000 I think that's some tacit support right there.

00:04:33.000 Now you're currently third in the polls.

00:04:34.000 We had Ron DeSantis, the governor, on our show recently and I get the sense that it must be difficult to find yourself in this position When the conversation is continually dominated by Donald Trump, his easy, oratical brilliance, his status as the perennial outsider, although I recognize that you have a comparable background in enterprise and business, how do you tackle the challenges that he does, that Donald Trump's candidacy continues to represent?

00:05:07.000 In a second, once we leave YouTube, which is just in a couple of minutes, I'm going to ask you outright.

00:05:12.000 Do you believe that Donald Trump legitimately lost that last election in 2020 or fraudulently lost it?

00:05:19.000 But for now, what does he do to you ideologically?

00:05:21.000 What is the challenge of dealing with a man like Trump for a Republican candidate, Vivek?

00:05:26.000 Well, first thing is, isn't it a shame that we have to parse the conversation in this way?

00:05:31.000 It just says a lot about where we are as a country and a culture right now.

00:05:36.000 I'll share with you my perspective.

00:05:38.000 I do think you only get to be an outsider once.

00:05:40.000 Donald Trump was that outsider in 2015, and I think that his victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 was the single most important political event of my lifetime.

00:05:50.000 I'm grateful to him for it.

00:05:51.000 It stopped the inevitable quasi-Marxist march through our government and through our other institutions.

00:05:57.000 And I think he was a great president in many ways.

00:06:00.000 But I'm looking to build on that foundation and take the America First agenda to the next level.

00:06:07.000 And I'm not blaming him for this.

00:06:08.000 I think it's just a fact.

00:06:10.000 That about 30% of this country, probably 30% of the developed world, becomes psychiatrically ill when he is in the White House.

00:06:19.000 And I can't explain it to you, because I think a lot of what he did makes total sense to me.

00:06:24.000 In fact, I'm saying many of the same things.

00:06:27.000 In some cases, I'm going far further than he ever did.

00:06:30.000 I've said I would use the military on our southern border. 0.91

00:06:33.000 I've said I would shut down departments like the U.S.

00:06:35.000 Department of Education, where he appointed figureheads to try to reform them.

00:06:40.000 So in some ways it's funny that I'm going further than he is, in some cases saying the exact same things.

00:06:45.000 But for whatever reason, maybe it's my age, maybe it's my background, maybe it's the way I say them, I'm not having that effect on people.

00:06:53.000 And that will allow me to go further than Trump did, while also, I think, having the last best chance we have of uniting this country.

00:07:04.000 And you know what?

00:07:04.000 That gives me a sense of enthusiasm and excitement.

00:07:08.000 A lot of people want me to sit here and bash Trump.

00:07:10.000 I'm not going to do that.

00:07:11.000 I respect him.

00:07:12.000 I think he was a great president.

00:07:13.000 I just want to build on that foundation to go further.

00:07:17.000 And I'm pretty happy.

00:07:18.000 I think other candidates might be frustrated.

00:07:20.000 For me, I'm in a different seat.

00:07:22.000 I was at not 0%.

00:07:24.000 I was at 0.0% in March, which is not that long ago when I got into this race. 0.97

00:07:31.000 I'm now polling a third in the Republican primary.

00:07:33.000 We haven't even had the first debate yet.

00:07:35.000 So I'm actually pretty happy with how things are going.

00:07:38.000 I'm on the same trajectory that Trump was in 2015.

00:07:42.000 And in many ways, I'm more similar to Trump in 2015 than Trump today is to Trump in 2015.

00:07:48.000 And I think that's exactly why we're going to win this election, probably in a landslide.

00:07:52.000 And I think that's going to be the single most uniting event for this country.

00:07:55.000 Vivek Ramaswamy claims that he is more Trump than Trump.

00:08:00.000 Trumper than Trump.

00:08:02.000 Trumping Trump on Trumpness.

00:08:04.000 Before we leave you on YouTube, I'm going to position and frame this question, but Vivek will answer it over on Rumble.

00:08:10.000 Why?

00:08:11.000 Because it's the home of free speech.

00:08:12.000 It's the only place where we can be assured that we won't be censored and shut down, and free speech is just one of the issues Vivek and I will be discussing a little later.

00:08:20.000 But the question is this, Vivek.

00:08:23.000 Would you, do you believe that Donald Trump lost 2020 fairly or fraudulently?

00:08:29.000 And the second part of that question is, if elected president, would you pardon Donald Trump in the event that he was indicted and found guilty of the many charges that confront him?

00:08:39.000 But Vivek's not going to answer that question here on YouTube.

00:08:41.000 The answer could have too many consequences for us as a platform and a channel.

00:08:45.000 So click the link in the description.

00:08:47.000 Join us over on Rumble to hear Vivek's answer.

00:08:50.000 Over to you now, Vivek.

00:08:52.000 Was it fraudulent?

00:08:53.000 Or was it fair?

00:08:55.000 And would you pardon him in office?

00:08:58.000 The election was not fair because it was stolen by big tech.

00:09:01.000 And it's funny.

00:09:02.000 This is exactly, literally, Russell.

00:09:04.000 It's almost like a concrete poem we just demonstrated through our actions.

00:09:09.000 We had to switch over to this platform, Rumble, which, by the way, I was a proud early investor in when Rumble was a private company, because I believe in this mission.

00:09:19.000 This is a demonstration of everything that's wrong with our culture.

00:09:24.000 And so, yes, you know who stole the election from Donald Trump?

00:09:26.000 Above all, big tech did.

00:09:28.000 They suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story on the eve of an election.

00:09:34.000 There is hard data.

00:09:35.000 I'm driven by data and evidence.

00:09:36.000 There is hard polling data which demonstrates that that changed the outcome of the election because many people said, independents, they would have changed their vote had they known that the son of the U.S.

00:09:48.000 president was compromised financially by our adversaries in China and also being paid multi-billion dollar bribes from Ukraine, which, as it turns out, They were right to wonder about because we're now paying hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S.

00:10:02.000 taxpayer money to that same nation.

00:10:05.000 So that definitively, I believe, changed the outcome of the 2020, almost certainly changed the outcome of the 2020 election.

00:10:13.000 Combine that with Google search algorithm suppression, soft censorship.

00:10:18.000 This is big tech interference.

00:10:19.000 The largest form of election interference in human history was big tech in the 2020 U.S.

00:10:27.000 presidential election, and we still haven't admitted it.

00:10:31.000 And so that's the truth of the matter as it relates to the indictments.

00:10:34.000 And by the way, I don't believe skirting around questions.

00:10:36.000 I'm not a politician.

00:10:37.000 I'm just going to tell you straight what I think.

00:10:39.000 And if people don't like it, then they don't have to vote for me.

00:10:41.000 I will pardon Donald Trump because I believe that these are politicized persecutions through prosecution.

00:10:48.000 I'm in a unique position to do that because Donald Trump, if you believe years of case law in this country, can't pardon himself.

00:10:55.000 So I would need to be in that office to get that job done, not just for Trump, but for Ross Ulbricht, for Julian Assange, for Douglas Mackey for countless peaceful protesters on January 6th.

00:11:06.000 Anytime there's been two standards of justice where somebody was prosecuted because of their political orientation or because of political circumstances, they will be the subject of a presidential pardon.

00:11:17.000 And for me, that's not an exception for Donald Trump.

00:11:19.000 That's just me following my principle that Donald Trump is on that list.

00:11:22.000 He is being prosecuted under circumstances that an ordinary person would not have been prosecuted for if it was under a different political vantage point.

00:11:31.000 So hopefully, you know, I can keep going into depth, but I believe in giving you direct answers.

00:11:35.000 Those are my direct answers.

00:11:36.000 Good direct answer.

00:11:37.000 And embedded within that are a few points I'd love to pick up on that you say you'd be better for America than Trump, you're Trumpier than Trump, and you'd even be better for Trump than Trump because Trump couldn't pardon himself.

00:11:49.000 Even Donald Trump wins if you win this election.

00:11:53.000 Now, obviously, you're setting yourself up in opposition to the Espionage Act by saying that you would pardon Snowden, Assange, who is currently in our country in Belmarsh prison in the UK without trial, waiting extradition to your company, facing some pretty terrifying charges.

00:12:09.000 How do these figures intersect with the principle of free speech?

00:12:13.000 Where do you think free speech stands in your country, Vivek, at the moment?

00:12:17.000 And what would you do to address this issue?

00:12:21.000 Well, in 1776 and in principle, free speech is the most important bedrock principle of the United States.

00:12:27.000 The idea that whoever you are, whatever your views are, whatever your opinions are, you get to express them as long as I get to express mine in return.

00:12:35.000 That was the bargain of the American Revolution.

00:12:38.000 This is a radical idea.

00:12:39.000 For most of human history, in Old World Europe and in England, it was done the other way.

00:12:45.000 They said that, no, no, the people cannot be trusted to speak their minds.

00:12:48.000 In fact, we, the government, cannot trust the people with the truth.

00:12:52.000 We have to tell them noble lies.

00:12:53.000 And if they criticize us for us, they must be suppressed, because that's what's required to preserve order and structure in a society.

00:13:00.000 In the United States of America in 1776, we fought a revolution to say it's done the other way.

00:13:05.000 I am sad to say, Russell, that that's not the America that I live in today.

00:13:10.000 The America that I live in today is one where the government deputizes private companies to do through the back door what the government could not do through the front door under the Constitution.

00:13:20.000 Indeed, that is why we are unable right now to have this conversation on YouTube. 0.93

00:13:24.000 That is pathetic. 0.98

00:13:25.000 That is shameful. 1.00

00:13:26.000 That is a hollowed-out husk of the country that I grew up in.

00:13:30.000 If George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were walking the streets of this country today, they would not be proud.

00:13:37.000 They would be appalled.

00:13:39.000 At seeing a country that looks more like the kingdom they declared independence from than the country they actually set into motion.

00:13:46.000 And you know what my job is?

00:13:47.000 When I leave office in January 2033, I'll be 47, 48 years old.

00:13:54.000 Twice the age Thomas Jefferson was, by the way, when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

00:13:57.000 People forget that.

00:13:59.000 My son will be just entering high school.

00:14:03.000 Young Americans will once again be proud of those radical ideals we set used to set this country into motion rather than being ashamed of them.

00:14:11.000 Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and George Washington will once again rest in peace.

00:14:17.000 But the only way we're going to get there, the first step we're going to have to take to get there Is to restore the First Amendment itself, and it's in the First Amendment for a reason.

00:14:25.000 We have absolute free speech in this country.

00:14:30.000 There's no opinion that you should not be able to express.

00:14:32.000 That's what absolute free speech means.

00:14:34.000 Doesn't mean you can fraudulently lie to somebody and sell them a product for private gain.

00:14:39.000 Doesn't mean that you can threaten somebody and then follow through on that threat.

00:14:42.000 Those aren't opinions.

00:14:42.000 No, no, no.

00:14:44.000 But free speech above all, if it means one thing, it means that all opinions are fair game and any criticism of the government is also fair game.

00:14:55.000 And yet that's exactly what the government is clamping down on today.

00:14:58.000 And that's exactly what I will restore as the next president.

00:15:02.000 How do you believe you could transfer those ideals into office when you have agencies like the FBI that have undue, immersive, and ubiquitous power?

00:15:12.000 I'd like to draw to your attention, if I may, Vivek, the case of the Newburgh Four,

00:15:16.000 who recently had their convictions overturned, or at least were granted compassionate release,

00:15:21.000 after it was revealed, if not publicly proven, that their convictions were based on FBI meddling,

00:15:27.000 that essentially the FBI built a conspiracy, cast them in that conspiracy, in this instance,

00:15:32.000 an act of terror, bombings against synagogues, solely that they could arrest these men for that crime.

00:15:38.000 Now, they've subsequently been released.

00:15:40.000 When we turn our attention to the events of January 6th, where we know that the FBI had operatives

00:15:44.000 and agents within that crowd, how can we be certain that the FBI

00:15:49.000 were not participating in exaggerating, amplifying, and encouraging the events

00:15:53.000 that are now subject to so much scrutiny and controversy to this day?

00:15:57.000 And indeed, does this not indicate that along with big tech, agencies like the FBI and the CIA, who deeply penetrated big tech organizations and participated in the manipulation that you earlier described, will still have power?

00:16:09.000 What would you do to limit the power of the FBI?

00:16:12.000 And the CIA and deep state agencies elsewhere and bureaucratic bodies that throughout the COVID pandemic period behaved atrociously.

00:16:20.000 What would you do to limit that power?

00:16:21.000 And if you have time to comment on the particular case of the Newburgh 4, I'd be interested in what you think about that and how it pertains to January 6.

00:16:29.000 Was January 6 an insurrection or was January 6 an FBI construction?

00:16:35.000 So listen, I think you just scratched the surface.

00:16:38.000 This is just part of a broader pattern.

00:16:40.000 I'm going to answer your question.

00:16:41.000 Before I do, I want people to know this is not a partisan answer.

00:16:44.000 And the reason I'll tell you it's not a partisan answer is the examples you gave, Russell, are solid examples grounded in appropriate skepticism and fact.

00:16:54.000 But they will say, no, no, that's just conservative grievance.

00:16:56.000 So let me just give you even further back.

00:16:58.000 The same FBI that will not tell us how many field agents, likely hundreds, if I have to guess, were on the ground on January 6th, is the same FBI that lied to us directly to the face of the people about what happened on 9-11.

00:17:12.000 You think this is third rail stuff.

00:17:14.000 Probably YouTube wouldn't allow this either.

00:17:16.000 But this is hard fact.

00:17:17.000 Look at quietly declassified documents in 2021.

00:17:22.000 The FBI and the 9-11 Commission said that the 42-year-old graduate student from Saudi Arabia, who suspiciously welcomed at the airport two of the hijackers and terrorists, who claimed that he just met them randomly at the airport, the most ridiculous story on earth, the FBI and 9-11 Commission said, no, no, no, that's actual fact.

00:17:40.000 Quietly declassified documents a year and two years ago now say, well, actually, that guy was a Saudi intelligence agent.

00:17:48.000 20 years later, they systematically lie.

00:17:50.000 Same FBI that went back and incorrectly collected illicit tapes about Martin Luther King Jr.

00:17:56.000 threatened him to commit suicide on the back of releasing those tapes.

00:18:00.000 So why do I bring up those examples?

00:18:01.000 Because those used to be so-called left-wing conspiracy theories that we now know to be true.

00:18:05.000 What you raised today are so-called right-wing conspiracy theories.

00:18:08.000 But this goes beyond partisanship.

00:18:11.000 It is still the J. Edgar Hoover building of the FBI that people walk into.

00:18:16.000 And I don't spout off on stuff just because I read it on the internet, okay?

00:18:19.000 I'd encourage everybody to read a book that my wife and I are reading now.

00:18:22.000 GMAN.

00:18:23.000 Stands for Government Man.

00:18:24.000 It's a Pulitzer Prize winning book about the history of this institution.

00:18:28.000 About the history of J. Edgar Hoover.

00:18:29.000 This is a corrupt institution.

00:18:31.000 This is an institution that creates the very sources of crime that they combat or claim to want to combat.

00:18:38.000 So here's what I'll do.

00:18:39.000 There are other people in this race, you've talked to some of them, I gather, who will make sort of false promises of, we'll reform it, I'll fire Christopher Wray.

00:18:49.000 They don't think they're making a false promise.

00:18:51.000 They're good people.

00:18:52.000 They mean well.

00:18:52.000 They're patriots.

00:18:54.000 They want incremental reform.

00:18:56.000 You cannot Incrementally reform these agencies.

00:19:02.000 So you want to know what the right answer is?

00:19:04.000 You have to shut them down.

00:19:08.000 And I will absolutely, on day one in the office, shut down the FBI.

00:19:15.000 We don't need it.

00:19:16.000 I've also offered unprecedented detail of exactly how we will shut down that FBI.

00:19:22.000 I've offered unprecedented detail on the legal authority that who would have ever thought the President of the United States, who runs the executive branch of the government, can actually run the executive branch of the government.

00:19:30.000 Radical idea.

00:19:31.000 Turns out it's grounded in the law and the Constitution.

00:19:34.000 I've also laid out the exact plan.

00:19:36.000 I don't want people to suffer for risk of drugs or child trafficking.

00:19:39.000 There's 35,000 employees in the FBI.

00:19:43.000 20,000 of them are not on the front lines.

00:19:45.000 They sit in the J. Edgar Hoover building at the FBI.

00:19:47.000 That's where the political rot begins.

00:19:49.000 Those people will have to go home and find honest work in the private sector.

00:19:53.000 The 15,000 or so agents who are on the front lines, We will redeploy them at the U.S.

00:19:59.000 Marshals, a separate agency that has not yet been corrupted.

00:20:02.000 They've been very good at child sex trafficking cases in bringing those much more effectively than the FBI has.

00:20:08.000 Put them in the Drug Enforcement Agency, which has been much more effective in fighting the fentanyl spread in this country.

00:20:08.000 Put them there.

00:20:14.000 Put them in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, tackling complex white collar crime and theft. 0.79

00:20:20.000 So this is deeply practical, actually.

00:20:21.000 The FBI, part of the point is it was redundant when it was created.

00:20:25.000 It is redundant today.

00:20:27.000 And when you have redundant bureaucracies, that's actually the formula for systematic corruption, which is exactly what we see.

00:20:36.000 And Russell, I think that gets to the heart of the choice in this GOP primary.

00:20:40.000 There is absolutely a choice that voters will have to make.

00:20:43.000 Do they want incremental reform?

00:20:47.000 Or do they want revolution?

00:20:50.000 I stand on the side of revolution.

00:20:52.000 The American Revolution.

00:20:54.000 If you want incremental reform, go with somebody else.

00:20:56.000 If you want a quantum leap to revolution, that's what I'm actually bringing.

00:20:59.000 Not violent revolution, but a revival of the ideals of the American Revolution.

00:21:04.000 Yes, radical ideals that in 1776 gave birth to this nation.

00:21:09.000 I stand for the radicalism of the American Revolution.

00:21:12.000 And that's very different than the other candidates in this race.

00:21:15.000 Vivek, I can't tell you how much support you're getting here in our locals community.

00:21:19.000 This is exactly the kind of language and the kind of ideas and the kind of authenticity that I think the American political space is craving.

00:21:28.000 When it comes to addressing the challenges of the deep state and their insidious reach across democratic institutions and their ability to nullify the will of ordinary American people, To hear you say that you would on day one disband the FBI is incredibly encouraging.

00:21:43.000 But another part of that totalitarian cuboid nightmare is the relationship between corporations, lobbying, donations, and many measures that are able to bypass democracy.

00:21:55.000 Now, of the fortunes that you have made, my understanding is that some of that fortune, at least, is through biotech and from organizations that are somewhat adjacent to pharma.

00:22:06.000 And the pharmaceutical industry.

00:22:07.000 Now, I know that many people in our audience are deeply cynical about the behaviour of the pharmaceutical industry, not least because of fentanyl that you've already mentioned, although I'm sure you're alluding to the relationship between Mexico and America rather than the sort of fentanyl manufactured, distributed illegally, or at least criminally, ethically, if not judiciously, throughout the United States of America.

00:22:29.000 I'd love to ask what you would do about Big Pharma's hold, how Big Pharma would be punished I wonder, are you willing, Vivek, to apply the same kind of definitive discourse and punitive measures to the pharmaceutical industry as you would to deep state corruption within the FBI, particularly given your relationships within pharma?

00:23:00.000 Well, it's just an extension of the deep state.

00:23:01.000 I just want to say something, Russell.

00:23:02.000 Actually, this is a good chance to address it, because many people, and I understand where they're coming from, because if I didn't know better, I'd be saying the same thing.

00:23:09.000 Oh, did this guy make his money off a biotech company, and is that tied to big pharma?

00:23:15.000 That is about, my relationship to Big Pharma is like the equivalent of saying Rumble's relationship to Big Tech, okay?

00:23:23.000 I started a company that challenged Big Pharma on the terms of its own corruption.

00:23:28.000 This is why most people in Big Pharma despise me.

00:23:31.000 I mean, that's just a hard fact.

00:23:33.000 I called a lot of their bluffs and used it to also develop medicines that they claim deserve not to be developed, which are actually helping thousands of people today that they systematically didn't develop. 0.99

00:23:43.000 And by the way, it's also why I like to back businesses like Rumble.

00:23:46.000 So, I just wanted to address that out of the gate.

00:23:48.000 It is good when someone like Chris starts Rumble to stand up to YouTube.

00:23:53.000 It is good when people like me at least set out to start biotech companies to challenge the way big pharma behaves.

00:24:00.000 They don't love me very much, but a big part of the problem is the tie-in with government.

00:24:04.000 And there's no way I was going to address that by being one biotech startup, even though that's a bigger company now.

00:24:10.000 It's tiny compared to Big Pharma.

00:24:12.000 There's no way it's going to be addressed without extricating the linkage with government itself.

00:24:18.000 That's really where the problem rests.

00:24:20.000 And so a big part of that corruption starts at the FDA.

00:24:23.000 And I'll get to the vaccine point in a minute where I think absolutely was there corruption?

00:24:26.000 Yes there was.

00:24:27.000 Was there systematic lying?

00:24:28.000 Absolutely there was.

00:24:29.000 But you got to understand it deeply.

00:24:33.000 So just think about this on its own terms.

00:24:34.000 Nobody can argue with the point I'm about to make.

00:24:36.000 I don't believe so.

00:24:37.000 Not even people who claim to disagree with us.

00:24:40.000 The same FDA That made it take boatloads of money for me to develop the medicines that are approved now.

00:24:46.000 I can tell you right now, those medicines could have been developed for a tiny fraction of the price, which means they could cost a tiny fraction of the price.

00:24:53.000 That FDA says, it has to take 10 years and a billion dollars to develop any medicine, and we won't even let you try it.

00:25:03.000 That you or I, in a fully informed way, after it's gone through thousands of patients, no, it has to be tens of thousands, we can't even have the right to try it.

00:25:12.000 Unless it's been through that process because it can't be deemed to be safe or effective enough.

00:25:17.000 Now, I actually take issue with that.

00:25:19.000 I'm a strong libertarian when it comes to this.

00:25:21.000 If I want to take it, I'm going to take it.

00:25:22.000 I don't want you getting in the way, especially if I have a life-threatening disease, God forbid.

00:25:26.000 There are people who are left to die rather than to be able to take that risk for themselves.

00:25:30.000 And by the way, I believe the same thing when it comes to veterans who suffer from PTSD, who turn to fentanyl, who could be going to ayahuasca or ketamine or other psychedelics that are far better options than fentanyl.

00:25:42.000 This is something that, again, the FDA and the DEA and the federal government step in and say, no, no, no.

00:25:46.000 You don't even have the right to actually make the choice.

00:25:51.000 That's the same FDA that said now we have in the same federal government with the FDA that says we're going to shepherd in and push vaccines for COVID in less than one year.

00:26:03.000 And to top it off, it's not that you only get the choice to take it, which I have no problem with, but that you have a mandate to take it, which I do have a problem with.

00:26:11.000 I also have a problem with the lies they told in that approval.

00:26:14.000 So those two things, you can't believe those at the same time, right?

00:26:18.000 The same agency that stops you from even having the right to try medicine, say you have no right but not to take it in the case of a vaccine that's part of a favored political class, that's part of the lobbying industrial complex.

00:26:30.000 And so, you know, I see it in this election as well.

00:26:32.000 I'm the only candidate in this race, save for Donald Trump, but the rest of the candidates.

00:26:37.000 Same thing happened in 2015.

00:26:39.000 Who's not a Super PAC puppet?

00:26:41.000 Millions of dollars flowing into Super PACs propping up the other candidates.

00:26:45.000 I don't even have TV ads up in most of the country.

00:26:47.000 There are TV ads being paid for for every other candidate.

00:26:50.000 If you look at the per percentage point in the polls, how much is somebody spending?

00:26:55.000 For Jeb Bush, Scott Walker last time, for every one of the other candidates this time, millions of dollars being spent on TV ads per percentage point in the polls.

00:27:04.000 For Donald Trump in 2015, for me this time, tens of thousands of dollars, right?

00:27:08.000 That's organic.

00:27:10.000 So I would make a deal with anybody in this race to say, I'll do this deal with Joe Biden in the general election.

00:27:17.000 If you agree to turn down Super PAC dollars, I will do the same.

00:27:20.000 You know, it's not technically you turn it down, but you shun them.

00:27:24.000 Okay?

00:27:24.000 You don't participate in their fundraisers.

00:27:26.000 You say you don't want their ads on TV.

00:27:27.000 Then they won't put them up.

00:27:29.000 I will make that deal publicly with Joe Biden in the general election.

00:27:32.000 It probably won't be Joe Biden, actually.

00:27:34.000 I doubt they're going to let him run against me.

00:27:35.000 It'll be whoever, whichever other puppet they put up.

00:27:38.000 But I will make that same deal in this Republican primary.

00:27:40.000 If the rest of this Republican primary field agrees to say that we will shun Super PAC money, I will do the same thing.

00:27:47.000 Because I think it's a corrupting influence.

00:27:49.000 And the largest lobbying organization in human history is none other than Big Pharma.

00:27:54.000 And I think that we need to extricate capitalism from democracy.

00:27:57.000 Okay, I have no problem with innovators.

00:27:59.000 Not only I have no problem, I'm proud to be one of them.

00:28:02.000 Innovators who take risks, develop medicines, are honest about it.

00:28:06.000 Say when they work.

00:28:07.000 Admit when they don't work.

00:28:08.000 I've had instances of both.

00:28:10.000 Be honest about it.

00:28:11.000 But when the ones that do work, work, let it not be the product of government corruption.

00:28:15.000 Just tell the people, here's the value proposition.

00:28:17.000 It's your choice whether you take it or not, rather than applying mandates, as opposed to the backdoor mechanism of hiding myocarditis risks, pushing something through, and saying that we're not confident enough being able to convince the public To take it on their own value proposition.

00:28:31.000 So we need you, the government, that shepherded this uniquely through, to also be the one that mandates it while we get paid in the process.

00:28:37.000 That is corrupt.

00:28:38.000 And yes, I will put an end to it.

00:28:39.000 And one specific thing I can tell you on day one that's doable is roll back the special liability protection that was enshrined in law for vaccine manufacturers during the COVID-19 pandemic to say that they can't be sued for product liability.

00:28:54.000 It's like the equivalent of Section 230 for big tech.

00:28:57.000 It's crony capitalism.

00:28:58.000 It's corruption.

00:28:59.000 You don't need special forms of liability.

00:29:01.000 Everyone should play by the same set of rules.

00:29:04.000 That just gives you a sense for where I'm at on this.

00:29:05.000 That's great.

00:29:06.000 So you would end crony capitalism in the instance of Big Pharma, in particular by revoking the avoidance of liability that was sanctioned and enshrined in the measures taken around the beginning of the pandemic.

00:29:19.000 Similarly, you would end the crony capitalism around big tech.

00:29:22.000 Of course, the other abiding industry that dominates American culture, perhaps like none other, is the military-industrial complex, with the undue influence that they are able to assert on Americans.

00:29:33.000 Policy, American life, right up to and including the behavior of the American military, one of the few institutions that remains popular in a country and a culture where people are cynical about government, cynical about media, cynical about the deep state.

00:29:47.000 The military remains loved, and yet all of us know that the Pentagon are incapable of passing an audit.

00:29:52.000 All of us know that a considerable amount of money, over half of all budgetary expenditure, ends up in the hands of companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc.

00:30:01.000 Are you saying that in the same way that you would stymie and end Big Pharma's ability to influence through corporate capitalism, you would introduce measures, policies and legislation that would end the ongoing power of the military-industrial complex?

00:30:16.000 And if you will permit me, sir, how would you apply that mentality to the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia and its ongoing rolling funding?

00:30:27.000 Well, I think the Ukraine-Russia conflict is a direct consequence of corruption in our own government.

00:30:33.000 There's a lot of corruption in Ukraine, where they're siphoning off our money to enrich a lot of people over there, but it's actually easy to point the finger at somebody else's corruption.

00:30:42.000 It's a lot harder to take a long, hard look in the mirror as a nation and identify that corruption at home.

00:30:47.000 So, big tech, government collusion, done.

00:30:50.000 Big pharma, government collusion, done.

00:30:53.000 Military, private, industrial, military with government, done.

00:30:57.000 That's the short answer.

00:30:58.000 We have an anti-competitive arena.

00:31:01.000 I think that anybody who has Worked in the government should have a 10-year hiatus at minimum to work in an industry that they've been responsible for contracting with or regulating.

00:31:11.000 That's just basic table stakes.

00:31:13.000 I mean, the lobbying is really where a lot of this begins, and I have a lot more solutions beyond this.

00:31:18.000 I personally believe that if I, as the next US president, can't work for the taxpayer and collect a paycheck from them for more than eight years, which I think is a good thing, Then neither should pretty much any of those federal bureaucrats reporting into me either.

00:31:33.000 Somebody shouldn't be able to work for the federal government for more than eight years continuously.

00:31:36.000 That's when the corruption and the rot and the entitlement and the ossification of bureaucracy begins.

00:31:42.000 And so if we can continue, I could give you a list of policy prescriptions, shutting down agencies, legal authority to do it.

00:31:49.000 I've done this elsewhere, but this is not incremental reform.

00:31:53.000 This is revolution when it comes to that deep state.

00:31:56.000 Now, as it relates to Ukraine, we now see just one of the symptoms of how this corruption manifests itself. 0.68

00:32:01.000 One symptom is the fentanyl crisis across this country.

00:32:04.000 One symptom is hiding from the public the truth about the origin of COVID-19, the truth about what's known about myocarditis risks from the vaccine, the truth about how vaccine mandates came to be, the truth about special liability protection.

00:32:15.000 Now we're just moving to another symptom of that corruption, right?

00:32:19.000 Another symptom is suppressing a story, right, on the eve of a presidential election by big tech that changed the outcome of the election.

00:32:25.000 Another symptom is systematically lying to the public about what we know about UFOs, which they now call UAPs, which is the polite way you're supposed to say it, what they've said about the Jeffrey Epstein client list, the truth about the Nashville shooter manifesto.

00:32:37.000 The list just goes on.

00:32:39.000 But yes, one example of this Is what's really going on behind the U.S.

00:32:44.000 government's support of Ukraine.

00:32:48.000 So if I told you this is a ridiculous set of facts, but it's not a set of facts, it's just actual history, and then I give you one additional fact that makes it all make sense, what I'm about to tell you probably would be uncouth, maybe intolerable on YouTube as well.

00:33:05.000 The establishment Republicans are furious at me for even intimating this the other day in a speech in Iowa, but I'm just going to lay out some facts, okay?

00:33:15.000 The USSR does not exist anymore.

00:33:16.000 That's fact number one.

00:33:18.000 Sometimes people need to be reminded of that.

00:33:20.000 It fell back in 1990.

00:33:22.000 Now, NATO was created to deter the USSR and to contain the USSR. 0.88

00:33:29.000 NATO has expanded far more after the fall of the USSR than it ever did during the existence of the USSR.

00:33:36.000 Yes, we have a 1994 Budapest Memorandum that said in order for nuclear disarmament in Ukraine, the US and the UK, along with Russia, will help protect their boundaries.

00:33:46.000 To a certain extent, and we have more than lived out the commitments of the Budapest Memorandum, but we also had a 1990 commitment that James Baker made to Gorbachev which said that we would expand NATO not one inch, that was the exact language he used, not one inch past East Germany.

00:34:03.000 So against this backdrop, We now have a little bit of a conflict in Ukraine where this is following Angela Merkel saying that the Minsk agreement was really just a matter of biding time.

00:34:14.000 We've been arming Ukraine to the teeth for years under Republican and Democrat administrations alike.

00:34:20.000 Putin asked for a hard commitment that NATO would not admit Ukraine.

00:34:23.000 And then Putin invades.

00:34:23.000 We didn't give it to them.

00:34:25.000 It is after Victoria Nuland and others in the U.S.

00:34:28.000 have openly been caught admitting that we meddled with elections, talking about election interference, in the 2014 situation in Ukraine, the Euromaidan protests and everything else.

00:34:37.000 Against that backdrop, yes, we have a struggle with a really complicated history where Russia has made the decision to invade Russian-speaking and Russian-heritage-oriented parts, separatist parts of Ukraine.

00:34:50.000 The U.S.

00:34:51.000 has no national interest here.

00:34:53.000 There's no national interest at issue.

00:34:56.000 We have an invasion across our own southern border.

00:34:58.000 And I don't use that word lightly.

00:35:00.000 There are literally armed cartel gunmen crossing, invading our own southern border.

00:35:05.000 And yet we're doing nothing there.

00:35:07.000 Sending hundreds of billions of dollars in aid in military equipment to protect this random invasion across somebody else's border in a disputed territory in the first place.

00:35:18.000 Why?

00:35:20.000 A lot of U.S.

00:35:20.000 This doesn't make sense.

00:35:22.000 taxpayers don't know this.

00:35:23.000 U.S.

00:35:24.000 taxpayer dollars, literally today, are being used to pay the paychecks of not just the U.S.

00:35:31.000 deep state, but the Ukrainian deep state.

00:35:34.000 Literally, the Ukrainian government bureaucrats, their payroll is being processed by money that U.S.

00:35:40.000 taxpayers are sending to Ukraine.

00:35:42.000 Why?

00:35:44.000 Nobody has given me a good answer.

00:35:44.000 Answer the question.

00:35:46.000 Has given the American people, more importantly, a good answer on what national interest we're advancing by using hundreds of billions of dollars of our own money to pay and protect the random disputed border of this random Eastern European nation.

00:36:03.000 That's not some model of democracy.

00:36:05.000 He's banned 11 opposition parties.

00:36:06.000 He's consolidated state media.

00:36:08.000 You know, he's got issues of his own, targeting the church in his own, targeting and persecuting religious minorities in his own country.

00:36:15.000 So why?

00:36:17.000 Now I tell you, against the backdrop of that otherwise inexplicable set of facts, that that same country, a state-affiliated company in that country, paid multi-million dollar bribes to the sun Of that U.S.

00:36:36.000 President, Joe Biden, that's sending over that aid.

00:36:40.000 Just process that for a second.

00:36:42.000 Under any other circumstances, even just imagine this was Donald Trump.

00:36:45.000 The same thing, except substitute Donald Trump for Joe Biden and Ivanka Trump for Hunter Biden.

00:36:52.000 There is no doubt that everybody in the world, including in the U.S.

00:36:56.000 media and the British media along with it, would be drawing that link, that this is a repayment for that bribe.

00:37:02.000 But today, if I'm saying that in a speech in Iowa, it's beyond the pale.

00:37:06.000 And MSNBC can trot out Chris Christie to pretend to be bipartisan. 0.83

00:37:11.000 You know, guy who comes out every four years like a bear from hibernation to, you know, growl and complain about, you know, whatever MSNBC tells him to complain about, to talk about me.

00:37:20.000 They won't have me on air.

00:37:22.000 But it is exactly, and that's just in the last week, an example of how the establishment recoiled at my saying so.

00:37:29.000 This is the most parsimonious explanation of what's actually happening.

00:37:33.000 It's Occam's Razor.

00:37:35.000 Use the most parsimonious explanation you can to otherwise explain an inexplicable set of facts.

00:37:42.000 That is absolutely what's going on.

00:37:44.000 And yet we have a neocon establishment in both parties.

00:37:49.000 Sometimes in this Republican primary, I feel like I might as well be running against Joe Biden and Liz Cheney, because the rest of the field, even though as much as they'll pay lip service to criticizing Joe Biden, is really just saying the same thing.

00:38:00.000 That's really what's going on.

00:38:02.000 And it is just another symptom, Russell, of that deeper corruption.

00:38:07.000 And so I don't like it when other Republicans, you know, talk a big game and then when push comes to shove, you know, we'll tell, you know, maybe Tucker Carlson what he wants to hear when Tucker still had his show.

00:38:17.000 But when their donors pat them on the back, say, well, you know, I didn't really mean what I said about Ukraine.

00:38:21.000 We just need people who have a spine.

00:38:23.000 And I think we've lacked that for a very long time, and I appreciate that about people like you, or Tucker, or otherwise, in the world you're in.

00:38:31.000 Even though the media has had its own backlash against you, you guys continue to speak.

00:38:35.000 In the political world, that doesn't exist, actually.

00:38:38.000 Everybody else just lines up like pawns, like supplicating lapdogs, when the moment calls and the Super PAC class says you've gone too far.

00:38:47.000 And I'm not dependent on that super PAC class.

00:38:50.000 I'm not a super PAC puppet.

00:38:51.000 I'm a patriot who speaks the truth.

00:38:53.000 And that's the choice we actually face.

00:38:55.000 And what you represent, or what Tucker Carlson represents, which is essential, or even Jordan Peterson represents in the world of media, that is vital.

00:39:04.000 That does not exist even in the Republican Party today, let alone in the political establishment.

00:39:11.000 And that is what gives me my sense of duty to see this through.

00:39:14.000 Excellent.

00:39:15.000 What that suggests to me is that you indeed, in order to deliver on just the content of our conversation today, on your birthday, Vivek, would have to stand on a manifesto of revolution rather than reform.

00:39:32.000 Now, how can we be confident, given many of the conversations that have taken place since 2020, That a candidate with such an egregiously anti-establishment offering would be granted a judicial and fair electoral process.

00:39:49.000 Are you confident that in the event that you were running, saying that you're going to shut down the FBI, you're going to punish Big Pharma, you're going to close down military-industrial complex's ability to have favourable wars as business as usual for America, That the Democrat establishment and the deep state establishment and the media establishment would allow and enable a fair election.

00:40:13.000 Are you confident that the 2024 elections will be fair, not fraudulent, that a candidate such as yourself would be allowed to win?

00:40:22.000 Are you confident there would be no electoral meddling?

00:40:25.000 Can you safely say that were you to gain sufficient votes, you would be the candidate that ascends

00:40:32.000 on the dawn of this new revolutionary era that you describe?

00:40:35.000 Or do you imagine that these institutions and machines would do whatever's in their

00:40:39.000 power - and we know what's being discussed at the moment, you know what would be subjudicial

00:40:43.000 even to discuss in the case of Donald Trump - that perhaps what

00:40:47.000 Do I have confidence?

00:40:47.000 The answer is no.

00:40:48.000 correct. I'm certainly not making that that claim because I like to protect

00:40:52.000 myself legally at all times where possible. So do you believe that if

00:40:55.000 elected you would be that you that the the votes would be counted and that

00:41:00.000 justice would be issued electoral justice at least? No. Do I have confidence?

00:41:05.000 The answer is no. But that is why this answer also is important. We have to

00:41:11.000 deliver a landslide election.

00:41:13.000 This cannot be a 50.1 margin.

00:41:16.000 It's probably the most important reason it has to be me and not Trump as the nominee.

00:41:21.000 Donald Trump, I actually do believe, unlike many Republicans, I believe he can beat Joe Biden.

00:41:25.000 I think most Republicans in this race can beat Joe Biden.

00:41:27.000 I think if I'm the nominee, they won't let Biden run.

00:41:30.000 They will put up some other puppet.

00:41:31.000 But whichever puppet they put up, I think I'm the only candidate in this race that can actually deliver a landslide election, a Reagan 1980 style landslide.

00:41:42.000 And that's what it's going to take.

00:41:44.000 A 50.1 election where the following Monday after the Tuesday when votes are cast, when MSNBC trots out who the likely election winner is?

00:41:53.000 No, this can't work that way.

00:41:55.000 That's the stuff of national divorce. 0.87

00:41:57.000 We do not want to get there.

00:41:59.000 This has to be a moral mandate, a landslide election.

00:42:03.000 That is what I am in a position to deliver.

00:42:05.000 And we already have the facts.

00:42:06.000 I'm not making this up, right?

00:42:08.000 I had no political donors.

00:42:10.000 I had no donor lists.

00:42:11.000 I was at 0.0% in March.

00:42:14.000 The threshold for making the Republican debate stage, which others like Vice President Pence just barely skirted past, was 40,000 unique donors.

00:42:22.000 We have over 70,000 already.

00:42:24.000 But 40,000 of them are first time, excuse me, 40% of them, it's about 40, you know, 40% of the donors I have, are first time ever, ever in their life history, donors to the Republican Party.

00:42:40.000 Normally, that number is 2% for a normal Republican.

00:42:43.000 For me, it's 40%.

00:42:43.000 So what does that say?

00:42:45.000 We're already bringing people along, especially young people, who would have never thought of themselves voting for a Republican, because my ideas aren't really Republican ideas.

00:42:53.000 They're pro-American ideas.

00:42:54.000 I think most people in the Republican Party act like a bunch of partisan hacks.

00:42:58.000 I often say, stop criticizing Joe Biden.

00:43:00.000 It's boring.

00:43:01.000 We have to offer an affirmative vision of our own.

00:43:04.000 That's why the Republicans did so poorly in the 2022 election, as it was all about criticizing the radical Biden agenda.

00:43:10.000 Nobody wants to hear that.

00:43:10.000 That's not inspiring.

00:43:11.000 It doesn't mean anything, especially to young people.

00:43:14.000 We have to say this is what we're running to.

00:43:16.000 This is what we actually stand for.

00:43:19.000 Republicans haven't done that in a long time.

00:43:21.000 And by the way, it also misses the plot because Joe Biden isn't running the country.

00:43:24.000 Neither is Kamala Harris.

00:43:26.000 They're puppets.

00:43:27.000 It is the managerial class in the deep state that's actually running the show.

00:43:30.000 And so we have to explain to the public why you can't just reform that deep state.

00:43:34.000 We have to shut it down.

00:43:36.000 How shutting it down will revive the economy, will make your life better, put more dollars in your pocket.

00:43:41.000 More importantly, restore accountability in government, restore a three-branch constitutional republic that we fought a revolution for, that our founding fathers fought for.

00:43:50.000 Explain that and we win this election in a landslide.

00:43:52.000 It's not about Republicans and Democrats and about the radical Biden agenda.

00:43:56.000 That's so boring.

00:43:57.000 It's super lame.

00:43:58.000 And that's exactly the way Republicans talk and behave.

00:44:02.000 And so I think it's going to have to take an outsider.

00:44:05.000 And you brought up the Democrat establishment, the media establishment, the big pharma and the corruption establishment.

00:44:09.000 There's the Republican establishment, too.

00:44:11.000 You were almost too charitable in leaving them out on your list.

00:44:15.000 But do I believe that every part of that establishment is gonna let me through and roll out a red carpet for me?

00:44:21.000 No.

00:44:22.000 They're gonna try to build the wall to keep me out.

00:44:23.000 They already are.

00:44:25.000 But I think it's going to take we the people get to decide who runs this country.

00:44:30.000 We live in a moment where that has to be decided by a landslide margin.

00:44:35.000 And I'm the only candidate by far who has even a chance at delivering it.

00:44:41.000 And then once I do, here's how we'll fix voting in this country.

00:44:43.000 I laid this out yesterday.

00:44:44.000 Yesterday was Election Day.

00:44:46.000 I voted in my home state in Ohio yesterday.

00:44:48.000 And when I came out, I just felt it was simple.

00:44:51.000 It was a paper ballot.

00:44:52.000 It was government-issued ID that I brought with me.

00:44:55.000 Here's the thing that we need.

00:44:57.000 Okay, if the left really believes the reason we can't have this conversation on YouTube is that supposedly even talking about the subject of election integrity is a threat to our democracy, as you'll hear on a given day of the week.

00:45:10.000 Funniest expression you'll hear, and there's so much wrong with it.

00:45:13.000 We live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy.

00:45:15.000 Our democracy.

00:45:16.000 Whose democracy, exactly?

00:45:18.000 But that's what you'll hear.

00:45:19.000 It's a threat to our democracy to even have this conversation.

00:45:23.000 Well, here's a truce in terms of how we move forward.

00:45:26.000 I don't want a national divorce.

00:45:28.000 I want a national revival.

00:45:29.000 Here's what I'll say when I'm president.

00:45:32.000 Here's how we'll do it.

00:45:34.000 Paper ballots.

00:45:35.000 Single-day voting on Election Day.

00:45:38.000 People have work, they say.

00:45:40.000 Fine, make Election Day a national holiday so everyone has an equal opportunity to do it.

00:45:45.000 And government-issued ID to match the voter file.

00:45:49.000 That's it.

00:45:50.000 If we reach that achievement, you have my pledge.

00:45:52.000 The people of this country have my pledge.

00:45:55.000 That I will lead all Americans, including all Republicans, to move on to stop complaining about ballot fraud or election interference.

00:46:04.000 We're done with it.

00:46:04.000 I will keep that promise.

00:46:05.000 I will say we're done with it.

00:46:06.000 We will not be victims.

00:46:08.000 We refuse to wallow in our own victimhood.

00:46:10.000 But just fix the basics here.

00:46:12.000 If it's really that much of a threat to our democracy, this should be a very practical solution to deliver.

00:46:17.000 Paper ballots, single-day voting, on Election Day, which I'm open to make a national holiday, And government issued ID to match the voter file.

00:46:25.000 With that, we're done.

00:46:27.000 We move forward as a country.

00:46:29.000 And the fact that that is controversial smokes out what's really going on here.

00:46:33.000 And I think that it takes a candidate who is willing to actually engage, not in grievance, but on principle, to move this nation forward.

00:46:41.000 And that's why I'm in the race.

00:46:43.000 That's good stuff mate, that's good stuff.

00:46:44.000 So inherently an inability or an unwillingness to hold, let's call them analogue elections that are trackable and observable, suggests that there is the potential and has been the potential for electoral corruption digitally undertaken.

00:47:00.000 That's really interesting.

00:47:01.000 I'm going to read some of the comments from our community here on Locals.

00:47:05.000 And if you're watching us on Rumble right now, remember, press the red button.

00:47:07.000 You can join us on Locals where we prioritize your questions.

00:47:10.000 It's easier to read them here and stuff for me.

00:47:12.000 This is from Sheila Dean.

00:47:14.000 What about the global or international agreements and the other tethers and strings from abroad on our economy, Vivek?

00:47:23.000 Like the WHO, CDC and BRICS health data exchanges on genetic data.

00:47:28.000 Could you comment on that for us, mate?

00:47:30.000 Yeah, I also love this person for including the CDC as an international organization, because it is technically a U.S.

00:47:36.000 organization, but it actually is a great question.

00:47:38.000 That person probably really knows what they're talking about, because it is basically an extension arm of the WHO.

00:47:44.000 I think we need to stop funding organizations that are hostile to the sovereignty of the U.S.

00:47:49.000 That includes the WHO.

00:47:51.000 That may very well include the U.N.

00:47:53.000 I am perfectly open to re-evaluating the U.S.' 's continued involvement in the U.N.

00:47:59.000 itself.

00:48:00.000 If the U.N.

00:48:01.000 Security Council is staffed by the likes of Venezuela and North Korea, it is a joke. 0.99

00:48:06.000 And we have to call out that farce for what it is.

00:48:08.000 I've already said I would shut down the CDC, that's on my list of three-letter agencies, that I would shut down here in the United States, here at home.

00:48:15.000 In my general view, this is, I'm only saying half-jokingly here, but if it comes in an acronym, chances are we should be skeptical of it.

00:48:22.000 FBI, ATF, IRS, CDC, WHO, ESG, CBDC, UN.

00:48:28.000 It's funny, I say that in a joking spirit, but the truth to it is that if it's designed to be boring, If it's designed to sound technocratic and put you to sleep, they want to bore you into submission for a reason.

00:48:43.000 And so my general rule of thumb is the more boring it sounds, the more attention we actually have to pay to it to preserve our liberty.

00:48:50.000 And the international institutions, WHO, all the way up to and including the UN, are absolutely on that list for me.

00:48:56.000 I agree with you.

00:48:56.000 Deaf by bureaucracy appears to be one of the mantras of our day.

00:49:00.000 Hetty Hope says simply, I'd vote for him.

00:49:03.000 We've got lots of questions and inquiries that I hope you guys think that we've covered.

00:49:08.000 Vivek and myself, I mean by this, Hey Navigator, talked about your Big Pharma connections.

00:49:13.000 We talked about that at some length and talked about Vivek as a disruptor in that space rather than compliant and his willingness and happiness to shut down the kind of easy relationships that have existed between Big Pharma and stuff.

00:49:23.000 All is to big tech, and we need more competition, is the answer.

00:49:26.000 So we covered that there, hey, Navigator.

00:49:28.000 Liam asks about electoral integrity, which we've covered.

00:49:32.000 Blessed Old Bird wants to talk more of a personal question, and then I've got one more of my own.

00:49:38.000 Blessed Old Bird wants to understand your business background and where you made your money and how you made your money.

00:49:44.000 Is that something you're happy to talk about, mate?

00:49:46.000 Yeah, happy to talk about everything.

00:49:48.000 I made most of my money through building a biotech company that I built from scratch.

00:49:53.000 Oversaw the development of drugs that Big Pharma had literally, and Big Pharma behaves in a coordinated way.

00:49:59.000 They decide that they all want to fail in the same ways or succeed in the same ways so that no one stands out from the pack.

00:50:05.000 It's almost a form of, it's like a cartel.

00:50:07.000 It's coordinated behavior, and it's a regulated industry.

00:50:10.000 That created an opportunity for me to say, there are drugs in areas that Big Pharma has abandoned.

00:50:15.000 I'm going to call their bluff and develop them.

00:50:18.000 And there are some individual good people who inside those companies were sounding the alarm, we actually brought with us, all of whom actually had the chance to work on those drugs under my umbrella.

00:50:27.000 Five of those are FDA-approved products today.

00:50:29.000 We spent far more money and time than we had to because of a cumbersome FDA, but we got through the process.

00:50:35.000 One's a life-saving therapy in kids, 20 of whom die of a genetic disease every year if they're not treated, one of which is for prostate cancer, a bunch for women's health conditions, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, one for psoriasis, And that's a $9 billion public company today.

00:50:51.000 That's how I made most of my money.

00:50:53.000 I also founded a company called Strive.

00:50:56.000 It's an asset management firm that competes with the likes of BlackRock and State Street and Vanguard by offering an alternative set of index funds.

00:51:06.000 The index funds offered by the big guys, they all push these companies to advance ESG values, environmental and social left-wing agendas, in corporate America's boardrooms through their votes.

00:51:17.000 The index funds that I launched, or that Strive launched, that's the company I co-founded, tell these companies, no, knock it off with the politics, just focus on value.

00:51:27.000 Make products and services, maximize value, that's it.

00:51:31.000 That's been, thankfully, a success as well.

00:51:33.000 The first fund launched last August strives close to crossing a billion dollars in assets under management.

00:51:39.000 J.P.

00:51:40.000 Morgan took two years to reach that same milestone when they got into the same line of business.

00:51:46.000 And so, I believe in taking on bureaucracies.

00:51:48.000 I believe in succeeding.

00:51:50.000 I believe in winning.

00:51:51.000 That's been my formula for building multiple successful companies.

00:51:55.000 And that's how I live the American dream.

00:51:56.000 What do you think about people in Congress trading in stocks and shares that they regulate, or even the sort of, if not nepotistic, somewhat uneasy expenditure of, for example, the Pelosi's.

00:52:06.000 Not that I'm alleging that anything corrupt happens between Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi, but his ongoing investment and success in big tech companies when she has the regulatory capacity that she does within Congress around those institutions.

00:52:18.000 Would you do anything to prevent people in Congress buying and selling stocks in companies that they're involved in the regulation of?

00:52:26.000 Yes, I don't think it's right.

00:52:27.000 I actually talked about this in my second book, Nation of Victims.

00:52:30.000 I just think it doesn't make any sense.

00:52:32.000 And this is why, even though it's not legally required, you know, even before I started this presidential campaign, I put my personal investment portfolio, I put a third person in charge of it who trades that portfolio.

00:52:43.000 Because why?

00:52:45.000 Why?

00:52:45.000 It's not like most of these people, by the way, I'm almost giving them helpful advice.

00:52:50.000 They'll probably do better.

00:52:52.000 If they actually leave those decisions to a third party, I know these people.

00:52:57.000 I know most of these congressmen.

00:52:58.000 These are not people who should be trying to tinker around in the stock market.

00:53:01.000 The only way they're going to make money is if it was based on information that they have that's asymmetric.

00:53:06.000 Otherwise, they're going to do worse than a monkey throwing darts at a target. 0.95

00:53:10.000 So, a monkey would be better picking their stocks than they would be, unless it was for corrupt reasons.

00:53:16.000 And so why even foster the appearance of that corruption?

00:53:19.000 That's part of what public service is about.

00:53:21.000 I'm open to a conversation to say that, OK, well, should their pay increases keep up with inflation?

00:53:26.000 You know, I don't love that, but that's a small, tiny fraction of the federal budget.

00:53:30.000 And if that's a trade for actually keeping out the corruption that otherwise finds itself in for people to say, well, I need to make money through the back door instead.

00:53:37.000 That's going to be a good thing for the country.

00:53:39.000 And I practice what I preach.

00:53:41.000 I believe in total transparency, even though it hasn't been legally required.

00:53:45.000 This is unprecedented.

00:53:47.000 In the early weeks of this campaign, I published 20 years of my own tax returns.

00:53:51.000 I just want to set the example that I want to see of other people in government and You know, I'm proud that people can see the investments that I've held.

00:53:59.000 I've invested millions of dollars in companies like Rumble at an early stage with their private companies.

00:54:04.000 That's great.

00:54:05.000 That is how I've made my money.

00:54:06.000 I've built Roivent.

00:54:07.000 I've built Strive.

00:54:09.000 And I'm proud of that.

00:54:10.000 But I think that people deserve to see it transparently.

00:54:14.000 And I think that in Congress, I just don't think that the culture of hiding is good for building public trust.

00:54:19.000 And I'll tell you something else that's quite good is that I didn't know that about you.

00:54:22.000 I didn't know you'd invested in Rumble.

00:54:23.000 And like, as far as I know, no one's gone to us.

00:54:26.000 Get Vivek on!

00:54:27.000 He's an investor!

00:54:28.000 You know, like this is the first I've heard of it.

00:54:30.000 You know, like Chris, I'm in contact with Chris Pavlovsky, who's the CEO.

00:54:33.000 It's the first I've heard that you've invested.

00:54:35.000 So congratulations and thank you.

00:54:37.000 Hey, one final inquiry, Vivek.

00:54:40.000 The revolutionary agenda that you espouse, in particular with regard to destabilizing, disbanding the deep state, a reckoning around Big Pharma, redressing the forever wars of your great nation, these all seem radical policies and ideas and all ideas that I agree with.

00:55:01.000 I wonder though, when you talk about The void that perhaps woke politics is filling, like a need for purpose and meaning.

00:55:10.000 Many of the ideas that you have conversationally referenced are traditional ideas.

00:55:15.000 I don't mean that in a derisory way.

00:55:17.000 Traditions are very, very, very valuable.

00:55:19.000 Where would we be without them?

00:55:20.000 But in terms of a forward-looking vision for America, aside from reverence for the great ancestors and for parents of your nation, What in particular do you regard as being new about American civic life and cultural life that you would offer?

00:55:37.000 Something for American people to walk towards?

00:55:41.000 Yes, so I think there's a few basic principles.

00:55:45.000 Meritocracy.

00:55:46.000 Put merit back in America.

00:55:48.000 That you get ahead and get however far you want to, not in the color of your skin, but in the content of your character and your contributions.

00:55:55.000 Do not apologize for your success.

00:55:57.000 The unapologetic pursuit of excellence.

00:55:59.000 Let that, once again, be part of what it means to be an American.

00:56:02.000 Whether it's a kid in a classroom who's at the top of his class, or somebody who succeeds through the system of free market capitalism, no, you don't have to hide your success.

00:56:10.000 You don't need to wear a hair shirt and flog yourself.

00:56:13.000 You don't need to make up an apology for the carbon emissions you created along the way.

00:56:17.000 Success and excellence is unifying.

00:56:20.000 That is something we're running to.

00:56:22.000 But at the same time, that individualist, rugged individual being free to achieve, unshackled by whatever the government tells you to do, that's one part of the American identity that I want to revive, create, run to.

00:56:34.000 That'll lead to economic growth, it'll lead to prosperity, it'll lead to greater self-confidence.

00:56:39.000 Something that we lack in our country, something that our youth badly lacks is actually that sense of self-confidence.

00:56:45.000 That's half the story.

00:56:47.000 The other half of the story is actually what helps us do it.

00:56:51.000 Which is also the revival of civic duty.

00:56:54.000 That we can each be individualists or capitalists to the fullest extent we want, but in our separate capacity, we're also citizens.

00:57:01.000 With civic duties to a nation.

00:57:04.000 Citizenship isn't just about inheriting a bunch of rights, it comes with duties attached to those privileges as well.

00:57:11.000 I think every high school student in this country should be able to pass the same civics test that an immigrant has to pass, is today required to pass, in order to become a citizen of our nation. 0.99

00:57:22.000 I think that that should be tied even to earning the civic privileges up to and including the right to vote.

00:57:27.000 I think that it is important for people to know something about a country.

00:57:30.000 And if they don't know that country, then at least serve that country in some minimal way, whatever that is.

00:57:35.000 But that's civic knowledge.

00:57:36.000 Young people don't value a country that they just inherit. 1.00

00:57:42.000 They only value a country where we actually have a stake in that country, where we know something about that nation.

00:57:47.000 And so I think that You know, the Wealth of Nations and the Declaration of Independence, both of them were actually written in 1776.

00:57:53.000 Funny enough, both of those, individualism and unity, capitalism and democracy, both of those are America's parents.

00:58:03.000 And I think we're going to need to run to both of those values once again, in some ways actually by separating one from the other.

00:58:09.000 Right?

00:58:10.000 Sometimes when two parents get into a struggle, a little tussle, they run roughshod over each other.

00:58:14.000 Sometimes you need to keep them apart.

00:58:16.000 And so I think the right answer is not to force capitalism and democracy to share the same bed.

00:58:20.000 What we actually need is maybe a clean divorce, maybe some social distancing between the two. 0.99

00:58:26.000 But that's the vision I'm running to, a revival of both rugged individualism, unbridled pursuit of excellence.

00:58:32.000 Yes, capitalism and free market capitalism is a part of that, but also reviving the civic duties we have as citizens and our capacity as citizens in a constitutional republic.

00:58:42.000 Both of those are what it actually mean to be an American.

00:58:45.000 And I know that's a little philosophical, but just gives you a sense for where my headspace is.

00:58:50.000 We have all kinds of practical ways to make that real.

00:58:53.000 But, you know, I think you're asking me to go a little deeper there, and that's where my head is.

00:58:57.000 That's a fantastic way to conclude our conversation and what a wonderful way to end our week on Stay Free with Russell Brand.

00:59:05.000 Thank you so much all of you that were watching on Locals and if you want to join us on Locals, why don't you click the red button so you get first and exclusive early access to conversations like this one with Vivek Ramaswamy explaining a clear Vision for a new America and answering, I think, some fantastic questions with great clarity and openness.

00:59:25.000 Let me know in the chat what you believe and what you feel.

00:59:28.000 Next week, I'm going to be joined by Dr. Peter Attia.

00:59:31.000 Join our locals community for access to content like this.

00:59:34.000 Until next time, stay free.

Stay Free - Russel Brand - August 11, 2023

“THEY PAID MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR BRIBES” | Vivek Ramaswamy On Ukraine War & Biden Corruption!

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