Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican Presidential Candidate in the Republican Primary, joins us live to talk about his policies, how he'd run the Republican Party and the United States of America. Also, who's the biggest threat to democracy? Donald Trump or the FBI? We ve got a story 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 want to miss! Stay Free! is a show where we have open conversations with people whose voices and opinions matter. If you're watching us on YouTube, remember, press the red button on your screen now and join us in Locals, where you can join the conversation when they happen live. Remember, if you re watching us, you can only watch the first 15 minutes of the show while we do the rest. You can t watch the whole thing live, so join us for the rest of the conversation on Rumble, where we'll be doing the rest in the other place, the home of free speech itself. - Russell Brand and stay free! - Stay Free, whereverver you are watching this, the show in its entirety will only be available on Rumble. If you re not watching the full show on Rumble yet, then you ll have to click the link in the description to watch the entire thing live on Rumble where they'll be available in the next 15 minutes, so you won't miss out on the rest! . Remember, press only gets the full episode of Stay Free with Russell Brand's Stay Free. . . . and if you want to be a part of the Stay Free community, you'll have to join in the conversation, then head over to Rumble where you'll get access to the full version of the entire Stay Free conversation, wherever you're listening to the show and all the great conversations happening in the world. Stay Free and all that's happening on Rumble! - RUMBLE. - stay free, wherever you re listening to this is available. Stay free! And if you're not watching this and you can do so, tweet me to say hi! and I'll send me an or text me what you think about it! ;) - Timestamps: Timestamp: 8:15 - What's your favourite thing you'd like to hear from Russell Brand? 9:00 - Who's the Biggest Threat to the USA? 11:30 - Is Donald Trump the Bigger Threat to Democracy? 13:00 16:00 | Is the FBI a Threat to America's Most Powerful Person? 17:40 - Who s the Bigest Threat to The United States Of America?
00:00:01.000Thanks for joining me on Stay Free with Russell Brand.
00:00:04.000Wherever you're watching this, the show in its entirety will only be available on Rumble.
00:00:08.000And 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.
00:00:21.000Also later in the show, in our item, Here's the News, we'll be asking, who's the biggest threat to democracy?
00:00:29.000We'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.
00:00:37.000You're not going to want to miss that.
00:00:39.000But let's get straight into our conversation.
00:00:41.000Remember, if you're watching us on YouTube, we're only going to do the first 15 minutes.
00:00:44.000Then you're going to have to click the link in the description Join us in the other place, the home of free speech itself.
00:00:49.000This is why we're on Stay Free, so we can have open conversations with people whose voices and opinions matter.
00:00:55.000If you're watching us on Rumble, remember, press the red button on your screen now and join us in Locals.
00:00:59.000You can join these conversations when they happen live.
00:01:01.000On 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.
00:01:16.000Without any more skullduggery, nonsense or tomfoolery, please help me to welcome Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:01:59.000For the first 15 minutes of the conversation while we're on YouTube, we can keep things relatively light.
00:02:04.000Of 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.
00:02:15.000But let's start a little bit with some of the broader points for our audience who are not yet familiar with you.
00:02:21.000What exactly do you think you can bring to this race?
00:02:24.000What do you think you can bring to this candidacy?
00:02:29.000So, 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.
00:02:40.000I am leading us to start running to something.
00:02:43.000To our vision of what it means to be an American.
00:02:46.000To the ideals of the American Revolution that define what this country is all about.
00:02:52.000And yes, the left is very good at filling the vacuum of purpose and meaning in young people.
00:03:38.000And 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.
00:03:57.000Somebody who both comes from the business world but understands the Constitution deeply.
00:04:02.000Somebody 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.
00:04:11.000That's what I'm bringing to this that I think nobody else is.
00:04:13.000It 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.
00:04:25.000Jay says on Locals, now we need more senile octogenarians in power.
00:04:31.000I think that's some tacit support right there.
00:04:33.000Now you're currently third in the polls.
00:04:34.000We 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?
00:05:07.000In a second, once we leave YouTube, which is just in a couple of minutes, I'm going to ask you outright.
00:05:12.000Do you believe that Donald Trump legitimately lost that last election in 2020 or fraudulently lost it?
00:05:19.000But for now, what does he do to you ideologically?
00:05:21.000What is the challenge of dealing with a man like Trump for a Republican candidate, Vivek?
00:05:26.000Well, first thing is, isn't it a shame that we have to parse the conversation in this way?
00:05:31.000It just says a lot about where we are as a country and a culture right now.
00:05:38.000I do think you only get to be an outsider once.
00:05:40.000Donald 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.
00:08:12.000It'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.
00:08:23.000Would you, do you believe that Donald Trump lost 2020 fairly or fraudulently?
00:08:29.000And 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?
00:08:39.000But Vivek's not going to answer that question here on YouTube.
00:08:41.000The answer could have too many consequences for us as a platform and a channel.
00:09:04.000It's almost like a concrete poem we just demonstrated through our actions.
00:09:09.000We 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.
00:09:19.000This is a demonstration of everything that's wrong with our culture.
00:09:24.000And so, yes, you know who stole the election from Donald Trump?
00:09:36.000There 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.
00:09:48.000president 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.
00:10:37.000I'm just going to tell you straight what I think.
00:10:39.000And if people don't like it, then they don't have to vote for me.
00:10:41.000I will pardon Donald Trump because I believe that these are politicized persecutions through prosecution.
00:10:48.000I'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.
00:10:55.000So 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.
00:11:06.000Anytime 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.
00:11:17.000And for me, that's not an exception for Donald Trump.
00:11:19.000That's just me following my principle that Donald Trump is on that list.
00:11:22.000He is being prosecuted under circumstances that an ordinary person would not have been prosecuted for if it was under a different political vantage point.
00:11:31.000So hopefully, you know, I can keep going into depth, but I believe in giving you direct answers.
00:11:37.000And 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.
00:11:49.000Even Donald Trump wins if you win this election.
00:11:53.000Now, 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.
00:12:09.000How do these figures intersect with the principle of free speech?
00:12:13.000Where do you think free speech stands in your country, Vivek, at the moment?
00:12:17.000And what would you do to address this issue?
00:12:21.000Well, in 1776 and in principle, free speech is the most important bedrock principle of the United States.
00:12:27.000The 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.
00:12:35.000That was the bargain of the American Revolution.
00:12:53.000And if they criticize us for us, they must be suppressed, because that's what's required to preserve order and structure in a society.
00:13:00.000In the United States of America in 1776, we fought a revolution to say it's done the other way.
00:13:05.000I am sad to say, Russell, that that's not the America that I live in today.
00:13:10.000The 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.
00:13:20.000Indeed, that is why we are unable right now to have this conversation on YouTube.
00:13:59.000My son will be just entering high school.
00:14:03.000Young 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.
00:14:11.000Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and George Washington will once again rest in peace.
00:14:17.000But 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.
00:14:25.000We have absolute free speech in this country.
00:14:30.000There's no opinion that you should not be able to express.
00:14:32.000That's what absolute free speech means.
00:14:34.000Doesn't mean you can fraudulently lie to somebody and sell them a product for private gain.
00:14:39.000Doesn't mean that you can threaten somebody and then follow through on that threat.
00:14:44.000But 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.
00:14:55.000And yet that's exactly what the government is clamping down on today.
00:14:58.000And that's exactly what I will restore as the next president.
00:15:02.000How do you believe you could transfer those ideals into office when you have agencies like the FBI that have undue, immersive, and ubiquitous power?
00:15:12.000I'd like to draw to your attention, if I may, Vivek, the case of the Newburgh Four,
00:15:16.000who recently had their convictions overturned, or at least were granted compassionate release,
00:15:21.000after it was revealed, if not publicly proven, that their convictions were based on FBI meddling,
00:15:27.000that essentially the FBI built a conspiracy, cast them in that conspiracy, in this instance,
00:15:32.000an act of terror, bombings against synagogues, solely that they could arrest these men for that crime.
00:15:38.000Now, they've subsequently been released.
00:15:40.000When we turn our attention to the events of January 6th, where we know that the FBI had operatives
00:15:44.000and agents within that crowd, how can we be certain that the FBI
00:15:49.000were not participating in exaggerating, amplifying, and encouraging the events
00:15:53.000that are now subject to so much scrutiny and controversy to this day?
00:15:57.000And 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?
00:16:09.000What would you do to limit the power of the FBI?
00:16:12.000And the CIA and deep state agencies elsewhere and bureaucratic bodies that throughout the COVID pandemic period behaved atrociously.
00:16:20.000What would you do to limit that power?
00:16:21.000And 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.
00:16:29.000Was January 6 an insurrection or was January 6 an FBI construction?
00:16:35.000So listen, I think you just scratched the surface.
00:16:38.000This is just part of a broader pattern.
00:16:41.000Before I do, I want people to know this is not a partisan answer.
00:16:44.000And 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.
00:16:54.000But they will say, no, no, that's just conservative grievance.
00:16:56.000So let me just give you even further back.
00:16:58.000The 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.
00:17:17.000Look at quietly declassified documents in 2021.
00:17:22.000The 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.
00:17:40.000Quietly declassified documents a year and two years ago now say, well, actually, that guy was a Saudi intelligence agent.
00:17:48.00020 years later, they systematically lie.
00:17:50.000Same FBI that went back and incorrectly collected illicit tapes about Martin Luther King Jr.
00:17:56.000threatened him to commit suicide on the back of releasing those tapes.
00:18:39.000There 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.
00:18:49.000They don't think they're making a false promise.
00:19:16.000I've also offered unprecedented detail of exactly how we will shut down that FBI.
00:19:22.000I'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.
00:20:54.000If you want incremental reform, go with somebody else.
00:20:56.000If you want a quantum leap to revolution, that's what I'm actually bringing.
00:20:59.000Not violent revolution, but a revival of the ideals of the American Revolution.
00:21:04.000Yes, radical ideals that in 1776 gave birth to this nation.
00:21:09.000I stand for the radicalism of the American Revolution.
00:21:12.000And that's very different than the other candidates in this race.
00:21:15.000Vivek, I can't tell you how much support you're getting here in our locals community.
00:21:19.000This 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.
00:21:28.000When 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.
00:21:43.000But another part of that totalitarian cuboid nightmare is the relationship between corporations, lobbying, donations, and many measures that are able to bypass democracy.
00:21:55.000Now, 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.
00:22:07.000Now, 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.
00:22:29.000I'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?
00:23:00.000Well, it's just an extension of the deep state.
00:23:01.000I just want to say something, Russell.
00:23:02.000Actually, 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.
00:23:09.000Oh, did this guy make his money off a biotech company, and is that tied to big pharma?
00:23:15.000That is about, my relationship to Big Pharma is like the equivalent of saying Rumble's relationship to Big Tech, okay?
00:23:23.000I started a company that challenged Big Pharma on the terms of its own corruption.
00:23:28.000This is why most people in Big Pharma despise me.
00:23:33.000I 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.
00:23:43.000And by the way, it's also why I like to back businesses like Rumble.
00:23:46.000So, I just wanted to address that out of the gate.
00:23:48.000It is good when someone like Chris starts Rumble to stand up to YouTube.
00:23:53.000It is good when people like me at least set out to start biotech companies to challenge the way big pharma behaves.
00:24:00.000They don't love me very much, but a big part of the problem is the tie-in with government.
00:24:04.000And there's no way I was going to address that by being one biotech startup, even though that's a bigger company now.
00:24:37.000Not even people who claim to disagree with us.
00:24:40.000The same FDA That made it take boatloads of money for me to develop the medicines that are approved now.
00:24:46.000I 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.
00:24:53.000That 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.
00:25:03.000That 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.
00:25:12.000Unless it's been through that process because it can't be deemed to be safe or effective enough.
00:25:19.000I'm a strong libertarian when it comes to this.
00:25:21.000If I want to take it, I'm going to take it.
00:25:22.000I don't want you getting in the way, especially if I have a life-threatening disease, God forbid.
00:25:26.000There are people who are left to die rather than to be able to take that risk for themselves.
00:25:30.000And 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.
00:25:42.000This is something that, again, the FDA and the DEA and the federal government step in and say, no, no, no.
00:25:46.000You don't even have the right to actually make the choice.
00:25:51.000That'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.
00:26:03.000And 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.
00:26:11.000I also have a problem with the lies they told in that approval.
00:26:14.000So those two things, you can't believe those at the same time, right?
00:26:18.000The 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.
00:26:30.000And so, you know, I see it in this election as well.
00:26:32.000I'm the only candidate in this race, save for Donald Trump, but the rest of the candidates.
00:26:41.000Millions of dollars flowing into Super PACs propping up the other candidates.
00:26:45.000I don't even have TV ads up in most of the country.
00:26:47.000There are TV ads being paid for for every other candidate.
00:26:50.000If you look at the per percentage point in the polls, how much is somebody spending?
00:26:55.000For 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.
00:27:04.000For Donald Trump in 2015, for me this time, tens of thousands of dollars, right?
00:28:11.000But when the ones that do work, work, let it not be the product of government corruption.
00:28:15.000Just tell the people, here's the value proposition.
00:28:17.000It'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.
00:28:31.000So 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.
00:28:39.000And 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.
00:28:54.000It's like the equivalent of Section 230 for big tech.
00:29:06.000So 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.
00:29:19.000Similarly, you would end the crony capitalism around big tech.
00:29:22.000Of 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.
00:29:33.000Policy, 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.
00:29:47.000The military remains loved, and yet all of us know that the Pentagon are incapable of passing an audit.
00:29:52.000All 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.
00:30:01.000Are 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?
00:30:16.000And 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?
00:30:27.000Well, I think the Ukraine-Russia conflict is a direct consequence of corruption in our own government.
00:30:33.000There'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.
00:30:42.000It's a lot harder to take a long, hard look in the mirror as a nation and identify that corruption at home.
00:30:47.000So, big tech, government collusion, done.
00:30:50.000Big pharma, government collusion, done.
00:30:53.000Military, private, industrial, military with government, done.
00:31:01.000I 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.
00:31:13.000I mean, the lobbying is really where a lot of this begins, and I have a lot more solutions beyond this.
00:31:18.000I 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.
00:31:33.000Somebody shouldn't be able to work for the federal government for more than eight years continuously.
00:31:36.000That's when the corruption and the rot and the entitlement and the ossification of bureaucracy begins.
00:31:42.000And so if we can continue, I could give you a list of policy prescriptions, shutting down agencies, legal authority to do it.
00:31:49.000I've done this elsewhere, but this is not incremental reform.
00:31:53.000This is revolution when it comes to that deep state.
00:31:56.000Now, as it relates to Ukraine, we now see just one of the symptoms of how this corruption manifests itself.
00:32:01.000One symptom is the fentanyl crisis across this country.
00:32:04.000One 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.
00:32:15.000Now we're just moving to another symptom of that corruption, right?
00:32:19.000Another symptom is suppressing a story, right, on the eve of a presidential election by big tech that changed the outcome of the election.
00:32:25.000Another 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.
00:32:48.000So 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.
00:33:05.000The 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?
00:33:22.000Now, NATO was created to deter the USSR and to contain the USSR.
00:33:29.000NATO has expanded far more after the fall of the USSR than it ever did during the existence of the USSR.
00:33:36.000Yes, 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.
00:33:46.000To 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.
00:34:03.000So 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.
00:34:14.000We've been arming Ukraine to the teeth for years under Republican and Democrat administrations alike.
00:34:20.000Putin asked for a hard commitment that NATO would not admit Ukraine.
00:34:25.000It is after Victoria Nuland and others in the U.S.
00:34:28.000have 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.
00:34:37.000Against 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.
00:35:07.000Sending 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.
00:35:46.000Has 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.
00:36:17.000Now 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.
00:36:36.000President, Joe Biden, that's sending over that aid.
00:36:42.000Under any other circumstances, even just imagine this was Donald Trump.
00:36:45.000The same thing, except substitute Donald Trump for Joe Biden and Ivanka Trump for Hunter Biden.
00:36:52.000There is no doubt that everybody in the world, including in the U.S.
00:36:56.000media and the British media along with it, would be drawing that link, that this is a repayment for that bribe.
00:37:02.000But today, if I'm saying that in a speech in Iowa, it's beyond the pale.
00:37:06.000And MSNBC can trot out Chris Christie to pretend to be bipartisan.
00:37:11.000You 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.
00:37:44.000And yet we have a neocon establishment in both parties.
00:37:49.000Sometimes 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.
00:38:02.000And it is just another symptom, Russell, of that deeper corruption.
00:38:07.000And 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.
00:38:17.000But when their donors pat them on the back, say, well, you know, I didn't really mean what I said about Ukraine.
00:38:23.000And 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.
00:38:31.000Even though the media has had its own backlash against you, you guys continue to speak.
00:38:35.000In the political world, that doesn't exist, actually.
00:38:38.000Everybody else just lines up like pawns, like supplicating lapdogs, when the moment calls and the Super PAC class says you've gone too far.
00:38:47.000And I'm not dependent on that super PAC class.
00:38:53.000And that's the choice we actually face.
00:38:55.000And what you represent, or what Tucker Carlson represents, which is essential, or even Jordan Peterson represents in the world of media, that is vital.
00:39:04.000That does not exist even in the Republican Party today, let alone in the political establishment.
00:39:11.000And that is what gives me my sense of duty to see this through.
00:39:15.000What 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.
00:39:32.000Now, 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.
00:39:49.000Are 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.
00:40:13.000Are you confident that the 2024 elections will be fair, not fraudulent, that a candidate such as yourself would be allowed to win?
00:40:22.000Are you confident there would be no electoral meddling?
00:40:25.000Can you safely say that were you to gain sufficient votes, you would be the candidate that ascends
00:40:32.000on the dawn of this new revolutionary era that you describe?
00:40:35.000Or do you imagine that these institutions and machines would do whatever's in their
00:40:39.000power - and we know what's being discussed at the moment, you know what would be subjudicial
00:40:43.000even to discuss in the case of Donald Trump - that perhaps what
00:41:31.000But 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.
00:42:14.000The threshold for making the Republican debate stage, which others like Vice President Pence just barely skirted past, was 40,000 unique donors.
00:42:24.000But 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.
00:42:40.000Normally, that number is 2% for a normal Republican.
00:42:45.000We'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.
00:43:36.000How shutting it down will revive the economy, will make your life better, put more dollars in your pocket.
00:43:41.000More importantly, restore accountability in government, restore a three-branch constitutional republic that we fought a revolution for, that our founding fathers fought for.
00:43:50.000Explain that and we win this election in a landslide.
00:43:52.000It's not about Republicans and Democrats and about the radical Biden agenda.
00:44:57.000Okay, 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.
00:45:10.000Funniest expression you'll hear, and there's so much wrong with it.
00:45:13.000We live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy.
00:46:12.000If it's really that much of a threat to our democracy, this should be a very practical solution to deliver.
00:46:17.000Paper 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.
00:46:43.000That's good stuff mate, that's good stuff.
00:46:44.000So 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.
00:48:01.000Security Council is staffed by the likes of Venezuela and North Korea, it is a joke.
00:48:06.000And we have to call out that farce for what it is.
00:48:08.000I'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.
00:48:15.000In 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.
00:48:28.000It'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.
00:48:43.000And 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.
00:48:50.000And the international institutions, WHO, all the way up to and including the UN, are absolutely on that list for me.
00:48:56.000Deaf by bureaucracy appears to be one of the mantras of our day.
00:49:00.000Hetty Hope says simply, I'd vote for him.
00:49:03.000We've got lots of questions and inquiries that I hope you guys think that we've covered.
00:49:08.000Vivek and myself, I mean by this, Hey Navigator, talked about your Big Pharma connections.
00:49:13.000We 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.
00:49:23.000All is to big tech, and we need more competition, is the answer.
00:49:26.000So we covered that there, hey, Navigator.
00:49:28.000Liam asks about electoral integrity, which we've covered.
00:49:32.000Blessed Old Bird wants to talk more of a personal question, and then I've got one more of my own.
00:49:38.000Blessed Old Bird wants to understand your business background and where you made your money and how you made your money.
00:49:44.000Is that something you're happy to talk about, mate?
00:49:48.000I made most of my money through building a biotech company that I built from scratch.
00:49:53.000Oversaw the development of drugs that Big Pharma had literally, and Big Pharma behaves in a coordinated way.
00:49:59.000They 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.
00:50:05.000It's almost a form of, it's like a cartel.
00:50:07.000It's coordinated behavior, and it's a regulated industry.
00:50:10.000That created an opportunity for me to say, there are drugs in areas that Big Pharma has abandoned.
00:50:15.000I'm going to call their bluff and develop them.
00:50:18.000And 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.
00:50:27.000Five of those are FDA-approved products today.
00:50:29.000We spent far more money and time than we had to because of a cumbersome FDA, but we got through the process.
00:50:35.000One'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.
00:50:53.000I also founded a company called Strive.
00:50:56.000It'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.
00:51:06.000The 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.
00:51:17.000The 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.
00:51:27.000Make products and services, maximize value, that's it.
00:51:31.000That's been, thankfully, a success as well.
00:51:33.000The first fund launched last August strives close to crossing a billion dollars in assets under management.
00:51:51.000That's been my formula for building multiple successful companies.
00:51:55.000And that's how I live the American dream.
00:51:56.000What 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.
00:52:06.000Not 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.
00:52:18.000Would you do anything to prevent people in Congress buying and selling stocks in companies that they're involved in the regulation of?
00:52:27.000I actually talked about this in my second book, Nation of Victims.
00:52:30.000I just think it doesn't make any sense.
00:52:32.000And 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.
00:52:58.000These are not people who should be trying to tinker around in the stock market.
00:53:01.000The only way they're going to make money is if it was based on information that they have that's asymmetric.
00:53:06.000Otherwise, they're going to do worse than a monkey throwing darts at a target.
00:53:10.000So, a monkey would be better picking their stocks than they would be, unless it was for corrupt reasons.
00:53:16.000And so why even foster the appearance of that corruption?
00:53:19.000That's part of what public service is about.
00:53:21.000I'm open to a conversation to say that, OK, well, should their pay increases keep up with inflation?
00:53:26.000You know, I don't love that, but that's a small, tiny fraction of the federal budget.
00:53:30.000And 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.
00:53:37.000That's going to be a good thing for the country.
00:53:47.000In the early weeks of this campaign, I published 20 years of my own tax returns.
00:53:51.000I 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.
00:53:59.000I've invested millions of dollars in companies like Rumble at an early stage with their private companies.
00:54:40.000The 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.
00:55:01.000I wonder though, when you talk about The void that perhaps woke politics is filling, like a need for purpose and meaning.
00:55:10.000Many of the ideas that you have conversationally referenced are traditional ideas.
00:55:20.000But 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?
00:55:37.000Something for American people to walk towards?
00:55:41.000Yes, so I think there's a few basic principles.
00:55:48.000That 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.
00:55:57.000The unapologetic pursuit of excellence.
00:55:59.000Let that, once again, be part of what it means to be an American.
00:56:02.000Whether 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.
00:56:10.000You don't need to wear a hair shirt and flog yourself.
00:56:13.000You don't need to make up an apology for the carbon emissions you created along the way.
00:56:22.000But 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.
00:56:34.000That'll lead to economic growth, it'll lead to prosperity, it'll lead to greater self-confidence.
00:56:39.000Something that we lack in our country, something that our youth badly lacks is actually that sense of self-confidence.
00:57:04.000Citizenship isn't just about inheriting a bunch of rights, it comes with duties attached to those privileges as well.
00:57:11.000I 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.
00:57:22.000I think that that should be tied even to earning the civic privileges up to and including the right to vote.
00:57:27.000I think that it is important for people to know something about a country.
00:57:30.000And if they don't know that country, then at least serve that country in some minimal way, whatever that is.
00:58:10.000Sometimes when two parents get into a struggle, a little tussle, they run roughshod over each other.
00:58:14.000Sometimes you need to keep them apart.
00:58:16.000And so I think the right answer is not to force capitalism and democracy to share the same bed.
00:58:20.000What we actually need is maybe a clean divorce, maybe some social distancing between the two.
00:58:26.000But that's the vision I'm running to, a revival of both rugged individualism, unbridled pursuit of excellence.
00:58:32.000Yes, 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.
00:58:42.000Both of those are what it actually mean to be an American.
00:58:45.000And I know that's a little philosophical, but just gives you a sense for where my headspace is.
00:58:50.000We have all kinds of practical ways to make that real.
00:58:53.000But, you know, I think you're asking me to go a little deeper there, and that's where my head is.
00:58:57.000That's a fantastic way to conclude our conversation and what a wonderful way to end our week on Stay Free with Russell Brand.
00:59:05.000Thank 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.
00:59:25.000Let me know in the chat what you believe and what you feel.
00:59:28.000Next week, I'm going to be joined by Dr. Peter Attia.
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