00:00:00.000I'm Alex Marlowe, editor-in-chief of Breitbart News and host of the Breitbart News Daily podcast.
00:00:04.000And I'm the author of the book Breaking the News.
00:00:06.000And I'm filling in for Charlie Kirk today as he does me the solid of participating in a CPAC panel celebrating the life of Andrew Breitbart, my boss and mentor.
00:00:14.000It is a huge news day as we're recording this with Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine and the entire world is freaking out over it.
00:00:21.000And I'm joined by international reporter for Breitbart, John Hayward, and we give you all the details you need to know about what this means, why it's happening, and where we're likely to go from here.
00:00:30.000So, as Charlie likes to say, here we go.
00:00:32.000Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:34.000Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:36.000I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:40.000Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:53.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:49.000In the spirit of Andrew Breitbart, Charlie sent in an idea for an article for us to write about 10 years or so ago on the school systems and how there is some level of indoctrination where he was.
00:02:02.000And what we suggested is actually, why don't you just write it yourself?
00:02:06.000And Charlie was shocked, but he decided it was a good idea.
00:02:10.000It landed him on Fox and he kind of got the news bug and then the conservative movement bug.
00:02:14.000And then lo and behold, here we are with Charlie being one of the biggest podcasters around and has been a good friend to us at Breitbart for a while.
00:02:22.000And the reason why Charlie's not in today is because Charlie is doing a panel on Andrew Breitbart.
00:02:27.000Andrew Breitbart passed away almost exactly 10 years ago.
00:02:30.000And we'll have some major commemorations at Breitbart.com that I hope all of you check out, which is our home base.
00:02:37.000And you'll see some of the tributes that are going to be pouring in and they're unbelievable.
00:02:42.000So keep an eye for that next week, March the 1st, is that date.
00:02:45.000And Charlie is at CPAC right now, where he's on a panel with James O'Keefe, Matt Boyle from my team, Larry O'Connor, who's a well-known broadcaster, and Charlie himself, all talking about the life and legacy of Andrew Breitbart.
00:02:58.000Where Andrew hired me about 15 years ago when I was a student at UC Berkeley.
00:03:04.000I think I caused a little bit, probably learned a little bit more in the process.
00:03:08.000And we started trying to build a conservative media empire to bring the conservative movement into the digital age.
00:03:15.000And I think we've been wildly effective looking back on 10 years after Andrew's death.
00:03:20.000So I can talk about Andrew all day, but I do want to first note a couple of places to find me online and then we'll dig into the headlines.
00:03:27.000I've got a daily news podcast called Breitbart News Daily, and it is available wherever you get your podcasts.
00:03:59.000I'm also the author of a recent New York Times best-selling book called Breaking the News, which I think is more prescient than ever because it lays out this sort of democrat media complex that involves the media.
00:04:10.000And I think the media is part of the reason we are in this mess right now with Ukraine and Russia.
00:04:15.000Not to say the United States per se is in the mess, but the world community, whatever that is, the feckless world community is in this mess.
00:04:22.000And partially it is because people just are generally addicted to war.
00:04:27.000And it's not just the contractors who stand to make money.
00:04:32.000It's not just the politicians who stand to gain power and can usurp more power and have the ability to become more authoritarian.
00:04:39.000It is also those in the media business who make their bones walking around with their flak jackets and their helmets on and acting as though something is entirely unprecedented when perhaps similar things have been going on for a long time or worse things are going on in other parts of the world.
00:04:56.000I mean, everyone's got to make a living, but war is good business for a lot of people.
00:05:00.000And I think that is part of why over the last two weeks, we have seen the descent of Ukraine and Russia go from something that was somewhat familiar, those of us who have tracked this, as we do at Breitbart.com, over the last eight or so years to something that now does look quite a bit different with last night, Vladimir Putin dropping bombs all over Ukraine.
00:05:22.00025 or so targets so far have been counted up as we're recording this.
00:05:27.000I'm sorry, 7 plus military targets around 25 cities.
00:05:31.000And Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has said that serious losses have been suffered, though we don't have a clear idea of what those losses are at this time.
00:05:41.000But it is certainly going to be some levels of casualties that we've seen.
00:05:46.000And this escalation, I do think, is largely because of the hype that came from the West, it came from Europe, that came from the big Joey Biden administration in our American media.
00:05:57.000And the reason why I think that is the case is because they did so much talking, they did so much egging on of Putin.
00:06:03.000They did so much to marginalize Zelensky in Ukraine.
00:06:07.000And they have proven that they don't really have a major ability to push back on Vladimir Putin, or at least they're not willing to do so.
00:06:14.000With all the tough talk and all the threats, there are so many empty gestures made.
00:06:18.000And I think that, first of all, I want to break down a couple of the details about what's gone on, and then I will give you why I think the West is somewhat culpable for this.
00:06:29.000And there's not a lot of good solutions.
00:06:31.000And at a minimum, we're going to be distracted from so many of our problems that are here in the United States.
00:06:36.000I would still submit that what happened with the Canadian trucker convoy, which is now coming to the United States, and the authoritarianism and the massive usurpation of power of China file, Justin Trudeau, in Canada, is one of the most shocking stories of our time.
00:06:51.000The Bidenflation, a term we coined at Breitbart, the sort of trans conversion therapy that is essentially happening in so many of our school systems, which we track on a daily basis, as does Charlie.
00:07:02.000All of these are arguably much bigger issues for the United States at this time.
00:07:06.000The kitchen table issues, the gas prices, which will, of course, be affected by the trouble in the region with Russia because Russia is such a big producer of energy.
00:07:15.000But all that is arguably bigger stories for people in this audience, but we are forced to confront this.
00:07:18.000And largely, it is because of the fecklessness of our own leaders who were not able to navigate the situation.
00:07:25.000And it's not lost on us that President Trump for four years, basically, despite being called Putin's puppet over and over and over again, was largely able to keep Putin at bay.
00:08:50.000And over the last couple of weeks, we've seen Russia move troops, some of them in uniform, some of them not in uniform, sometimes increase troops, sometimes pull troops back a bit, sometimes roll a tank around.
00:09:01.000And the whole world gas in fear that, oh no, Putin is moving troops, acting as though this hasn't been happening, but actually has been happening over the last eight years.
00:09:12.000But now, when he saw that the moves that the world, who was so outraged, they did not have the ability to make major moves, or at least they weren't willing to do so.
00:09:21.000I'll explain how big Joey Biden's reaction, which I do think there might be deep connections to some of Big Joey's past.
00:09:29.000His moves were so weak that I think that this is part of the reason why Russia felt compelled to escalate the situation to where we are today.
00:09:40.000If you haven't heard, the world premiere of Daily Wire Shut In has reached over half a million views.
00:09:46.000That's more than a Don Lamont episode and currently has an audience score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
00:09:52.000The Daily Wire worked night and day, not just to make this film, but to make it one worth watching, and they did.
00:09:58.000While being directed by DJ Caruso, the Daily Wire produced a film and it's really, really good.
00:10:03.000The film is now exclusively streaming for Daily Wire members.
00:10:07.000And if you're not one, then you're missing out.
00:10:09.000Support conservatives making movies, support movies without a woke agenda, and support the Daily Wire and head to dailywire.com/slash subscribe.
00:10:18.000Dailywire.com/slash subscribe and get a membership today.
00:10:21.000Use code Charlie for 25% off your new membership.
00:10:24.000The Daily Wire has some great friends of mine, Candace, Ben, Michael Knowles, Matt, Walsh, and more.
00:11:00.000We were just talking about what's going on with Ukraine and Russia, full-scale invasion as Russia attempts to colonize parts of Ukraine, if not all of it.
00:11:08.000As I've been saying on our show, Bright Burton News Daily, that if Vladimir Putin is breathing, he is thinking about the rekindling and the recreation of the Soviet Union.
00:11:17.000Now, he's a pretty savvy wielder of power, and he's not prone to make huge mistakes on the world stage.
00:11:24.000Other than perhaps Xi Jinping, he's probably the person who wields power the savviest at this time.
00:11:30.000I would not include Joe the Biden in that group personally.
00:12:10.000He has launched attacks generally around urban centers.
00:12:13.000It seems like the take on why he's targeting urban centers is to create a level of fear, to create a level of demoralization in the sense that a Russian victory in whichever war takes place is inevitable.
00:12:26.000And this is probably designed to undermine Vladimir Zelensky.
00:12:30.000So if Zelensky, who is trying to rally his people and he has even tried to distribute guns, try to get guns in the hands of people so that they will fight back.
00:12:39.000And he's made pretty great statements that I do like about how if you come to us, you will see our fronts and not our backs, meaning they won't be running away.
00:12:50.000They will be standing up to the Russians.
00:12:51.000But still, this could be perhaps wishful thinking as Putin could use shock and off to demoralize the citizenry.
00:12:57.000And I think this could, he views this as the best way to try to drive a wedge between Zelensky and his people to a quick victory to war here.
00:13:07.000There is now fights breaking out at Chernobyl, the power plant, famous for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which is in Ukraine.
00:13:13.000And Russia, of course, would like to get that.
00:13:15.000And that seems to be where they're at now.
00:13:17.000And there are so many people who are responsible for getting us where we are.
00:13:22.000Comically, in the dark sense of the word, the UN comes to mind first, perhaps, where Russia is currently the head of the UN Security Council.
00:13:30.000So they're having their turn, not just as a permanent member, but they were actually in charge of it right now.
00:13:34.000So they've had to have emergency meetings on Russian aggressions headed up by the Russian Federation.
00:14:09.000And I think that listeners to Charlie's show probably are among the group, which is, I would consider a consensus at this time, that does not have an appetite for a hot war where America goes around the world and tries to defend places that are trying to be democratic elsewhere around the world doesn't directly affect them.
00:14:28.000And I think Ukraine is trying their best.
00:15:05.000And he seems to have been very hostile to him over time.
00:15:10.000And if you're thinking about the Hunter-Biden connection, where a lot of that sweet, sweet burism of cash dried up right as Zelensky was coming into power, I think that is weighing on Joe Biden's mind, at least to some degree.
00:15:22.000I don't know how much, but at least to some degree, I think I would surmise that is a very fair guess at this time.
00:16:04.000And Patriot Mobile shares your values and supports organizations fighting for religious freedom, constitutional rights, and the sanctity of life.
00:16:25.000It's patriotmobile.com/slash Charlie or call 972 Patriot, patriotmobile.com/slash Charlie.
00:16:32.000If you like what you're hearing and you want to support Breitbart, our latest initiative is the Breitbart News Daily podcast.
00:16:37.000Whenever you get your podcast, daily news podcast, typically with a guest or two, sometimes some of the best in the game.
00:16:43.000Charlie's been on a couple of times and is a lot of familiar names and a lot of names that are unfamiliar to you, who I think are pretty brilliant.
00:16:50.000One person, perfect example of this, is John Hayward, who is an international reporter for us at Breitbart and really one of the brightest guys in all of media.
00:16:57.000And he's on the line with me now to talk about what's going on in Russia and Ukraine.
00:17:02.000And I was talking just before you joined me about America's role in this and Joe Biden's role in this.
00:17:08.000And I do want to trace it back to Hunter and the perhaps a burisma connection and some bitterness about Zelensky from Biden.
00:17:16.000But in particular, I want to focus before maybe we go back quite that far to a statement that Joe Biden made, a musing really during a press conference a couple of weeks ago, that I think what you're going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades.
00:17:31.000It's one thing if it's a minor incursion, and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.
00:17:39.000That to me, John, translated is we're not sure we're going to do anything.
00:17:42.000And that, if I'm Vladimir Putin, I'm hearing that and I'm thinking, green light, I can do whatever I want, and there's no guarantee that anyone's going to stand up to me.
00:17:51.000Well, it's a remarkable moment of ambivalence.
00:17:53.000It was immediately recognized as a gaffe.
00:17:55.000The White House frantically scrambled, backpedaled, basically said he didn't mean it.
00:18:09.000I mean, he's shelling Kiev, but he's saying that we're just going to secure these two independent republics and maybe a little buffer zone around them.
00:18:52.000And I think that's when these plans were begun to be late.
00:18:56.000It is something where you could, if you took a very cynical and very anti-Biden approach to it, you could almost see it as an invitation.
00:19:03.000I'm not personally going quite that far, John.
00:19:05.000I'm just saying that you could see the fact pattern and you could see that and think that it's almost like he wants it.
00:19:11.000And here's the thing: if you look at the way the American media has behaved, if you look at some of the fetishizing of war that we've seen, the enthusiasm for war, even though they don't like Putin, they don't seem to be overly fond of Ukraine.
00:19:24.000And I think they do like the idea of us going to war and having to talk about war and having us think about war and having us think about Joe Biden's leadership and not think about the stuff that's really affecting us at home.
00:19:35.000The destruction of our cities, the crime waves, the transist area, the oil prices, the Biden inflation, all the things that are affecting our families day to day.
00:19:45.000Now, all of a sudden, and even we have to do it on this show because I want people to know what to talk about if they're water coolers.
00:19:51.000It's we're talking about Ukraine and Russia.
00:19:55.000And Biden is the kind of politician, and his advisors are the kind of people that very much do think a war is just what you need to perk up your flagging approval ratings.
00:20:04.000They think that's what the Bushes did.
00:20:08.000They think that both of the Bushes started wars just to get their approval numbers up.
00:20:12.000And they think the Bushes instantly got this huge pole bump from the rally around the flag effect.
00:20:17.000The elder George Bush had something like 90% approval ratings at one point.
00:20:21.000So, yeah, Biden and his brain trust are exactly the kind of people that would think, sure, we need a nice foreign crisis.
00:20:26.000And then we can start screaming that everybody who criticizes Joe Biden is a traitor and you're pro-Putin and you love the Russians and you're a monster and on and on and on.
00:20:36.000You've been hearing it all week and you heard it double in volume 10 seconds after the first Russian missile let fly.
00:20:41.000They really think an event like this will pump up his poll numbers because it will end criticism of the president and rally everybody around the White House.
00:20:48.000And lest people think that I'm purely anti-Biden and trying to rag in our own country, the world community, so to speak, has been utterly pathetic in all this per usual.
00:21:01.000The Boris Johnson in the UK, tough talk, but no real substantial action.
00:21:06.000But I want to take a look at Germany in particular.
00:21:08.000Germany made the most newsworthy move by shutting down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline development.
00:21:14.000But the problem is, John, from my vantage point, and you know this issue even a bit better than I do, the real problem is Germany becoming overly dependent on Russian energy over the years and basically propping up Putin by doing so much business with them so that they're utterly dependent.
00:21:29.000And it makes some of these moves just, it makes you want to roll your eyes at them in some ways.
00:21:34.000Well, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, just a couple of days ago, he snorted with derision and said, let's see how Germany likes paying huge amounts of money for their gas throughout a number.
00:21:45.000He knows he's got them, you know, by the short hairs.
00:21:48.000They know we're not in a position to keep these sanctions on them in the way that we're talking about and win an economic stare done with them.
00:22:17.000They used the filibuster and stopped every effort to put sanctions on Vladimir Putin's gas pipeline.
00:22:22.000So Putin got every signal in the world that he was going to be left in a dominant energy position.
00:22:28.000And with that out of the way, what else is there to discuss?
00:22:30.000Whether the sanctions doesn't really have to worry about in any kind of a long-term problem, a few minor annoyances.
00:22:37.000The Russians are saying they gamed all that out and they're ready to deal with it.
00:22:40.000There's more policies from the Biden administration in particular that are connected here.
00:22:44.000I think that the fact that we've shut down gas lines, the fact that we've stopped drilling, the fact that we are doing everything we can to not harvest our own natural resources, aside from, of course, the magical wind and solar, which will save us all, John.
00:22:59.000It seems like all of this makes it so that there'll even be more of a squeeze at home if we want to do anything to perhaps push back on Putin that might affect us in our pocketbooks.
00:23:10.000And that has not stopped Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to multiple times say Americans will feel pain over this crisis, which I don't really want to feel pain over this crisis, John.
00:23:18.000I feel pain for the, I feel literal pain, you know, emotionally for the Ukrainian people.
00:23:23.000But just about that, I don't want to feel any pain from this.
00:23:25.000And Biden and Kamala Harris are saying it must be so.
00:23:29.000And the more darkly conspiratorial critics will tell you this is what they really want.
00:23:33.000This is their excuse to crank gas up to $8 a gallon, like Barack Obama used to dream about.
00:23:38.000And then we can all be forced into the green energy future and blah, blah, blah, which means we're all going to be buying solar panels from China, Russia's friends, Russia's partners, China, are the dominant force in solar energy and all of that.
00:23:48.000So we'd all become even more dependent on China than ever in the future that these Democrats are envisioning.
00:23:54.000We need to slam on the brakes as fast as we can, spin this whole thing around, start becoming energy independent again, develop our gas resources, take away Russia's power, and stop listening to the climate change cult.
00:24:19.000And China just signed a deal with Russia to import more of their coal for their giant coal-burning power plants that are blotting out the sky with greenhouse gases.
00:24:27.000And meanwhile, the climate change guys are just yelling at you and me and telling us we need to ride around in crappy electric cars.
00:24:32.000They are objectively making the authoritarian powers of the world more powerful and influential with their agenda.
00:24:38.000One other thing that's quite frightening to me is looking at how the world props up climate change hysterics, and they love to do it.
00:24:46.000Of course, St. Greta Thunberg comes to mind, who is a Swedish girl who dropped out of high school.
00:24:51.000But then she went back to high school for anyone in the SOAS-funded freaks monitoring the show.
00:24:56.000So, but she, her, Al Gore, others who have lobbied the world to try to not have as much fossil fuels, they've all ignored Russia and China because they can't do anything because China and Russia don't care about Greta Thunberg.
00:25:10.000And this has just made them more powerful.
00:25:12.000It's made the OPEC nations more powerful.
00:25:15.000They were flexing on Joe Biden last week, also controlling their supply and going against the wishes of Biden.
00:25:21.000And this is one of these things where to think that some of this is because of all of these climate nut jobs is very bothersome to me, John.
00:26:38.000And the authoritarians find that very, very useful to their agenda.
00:26:42.000John, I want to ask you about what this would look like if President Trump was president.
00:26:46.000I spoke to Secretary of State Bright Pompeo about this on our show, Breitbart News Daily yesterday.
00:26:50.000He kind of gave me some of his insight.
00:26:52.000But, you know, as much as everyone said, Trump was Putin's puppet.
00:26:55.000Well, Trump kept Putin from making these types of moves.
00:26:57.000And I think that what resonates with the Russians is strength, that they're not the sort of, let's say, Joe Bidenification of Foreign Balsy does not mean much to them.
00:27:10.000But can you strike the contrast to me?
00:27:13.000Yeah, I think President Trump had a very blustery verbal style, as we all know, with Twitter and his public pronouncements.
00:27:18.000But his White House was pretty focused on things it wanted to get done.
00:27:22.000And people like Pompeo were very good at going to the Russians and the Chinese and others and saying, this is what we really care about.
00:27:52.000And although the rhetoric was often very confrontational and alternately very flattering, we know that that combination that President Trump does behind the scenes, his administration was pretty good at saying, we're serious about this.
00:30:00.000I do appreciate Charlie as well as producer Andrew letting me fill in today.
00:30:04.000First one, it does seem like Putin's got a playbook here.
00:30:07.000And this is the Georgian War from 2008.
00:30:09.000It seems like he's following it almost to a T. Can you explain what that means and what you think this could mean for the next few days?
00:30:17.000Well, in the case of Georgia, Russia was doing exactly the same thing they're doing now with a region called South Ossetia, which is very similar to these new independent republics that Putin claims exist in Ukraine.
00:30:28.000And the Russians did the same exact steps.
00:30:47.000And then a couple of days later, they attacked with them.
00:30:48.000They just marched across the border and did the exact same thing that they're doing now.
00:30:52.000And they justified it in exactly the same way.
00:30:54.000They said they had to move into South Ossetia because the ethnic Russians who lived there were being oppressed and could be subjected to genocide if Russia didn't move in and protect them.
00:31:04.000That's exactly what they're saying now with respect to the Ukraine.
00:31:07.000And it's also what they said in 2014 when they went after Crimea.
00:31:11.000The cause supposedly for annexing Crimea was that ethnic Russians living there were being oppressed by the mean Ukrainians and the Russians had to move in and take the area to protect their rights and their interests.
00:31:32.000It seems like the endgame would be, I think, I guess ideally short term would be to get a puppet in there instead of a Zelensky who doesn't like Putin very much and is an opponent of Putin's.
00:31:42.000And this seems like something that can be done because it seems like people who stand up to Putin end up rotting in jail.
00:31:47.000And if you're at all connected to the former Soviet Union, and those who are Putin puppets seem to have a nice long life being an oligarch.
00:31:55.000I strongly suspect that is the endgame.
00:31:57.000I think the way Putin wants this to end, since he and his people keep saying they're not going to occupy Ukraine, I don't think they will in the traditional sense.
00:32:04.000They're going to knock off the Ukrainian government.
00:32:06.000They'll either kill him or they'll drive him out of the country.
00:32:08.000They'll replace them with a Putin-friendly puppet, like the one who used to be the president of Ukraine before the Euromaidan revolution.
00:32:32.000I really think that's the most likely endgame.
00:32:34.000You know, one thing that's also a parallel with 2008 is the Olympics were that year in Beijing, as they were this year, the Genocide Games, refer to them at Breyport News.
00:32:44.000China is a big player in this, and they might not be all that happy with their usual allies in Russia.
00:32:51.000There are tensions between China and Russia.
00:32:54.000There are ways they could come apart at the scenes in the near future, quite a few of them.
00:32:57.000But for right now, China has a very great interest in making sure that sanctions are no longer an instrument of foreign policy.
00:33:04.000They endly criticize the Western world for using them for human rights and so forth.
00:33:07.000They want to dismantle the sanctions weapon.
00:33:10.000And this is a perfect way for China to do that by backing up Russia, by having their six covered on this.
00:33:15.000And whatever sanctions damage Russia takes, China will work deals with them to compensate it.
00:33:19.000One of the sanctions being discussed is blocking Russia out of SWIFT, the international financial transaction system.
00:33:25.000If we do that, Russia and China might team up and create an alternative to it and start inviting all the bad actors of the world to be in that financial system instead of ours.
00:33:34.000That's the kind of leverage China, because they've become rich from globalism over the last 30 years, can bring to the table.
00:33:39.000It really blunts our advantage in economic warfare, and Putin knows it.
00:33:43.000A lot of people have their mind on Taiwan, whether or not this could be a playbook for an invasion of Taiwan from Beijing.
00:33:54.000I think the Chinese are probing Taiwan.
00:33:56.000They've been doing it for a long time.
00:33:58.000There are reports that they did it again today.
00:33:59.000They fly planes near Taiwan, just enough to be annoying and alarm the Taiwanese and force them to respond.
00:34:05.000They've been thinking about taking Taiwan by force for a long time.
00:34:08.000They're often looking for a cause, a reason.
00:34:10.000Much like Putin will claim genocide and he has to stop it.
00:34:13.000The Chinese will say the Taiwanese are about to secede and we had to move in and stop them.
00:34:17.000They can pull that trigger anytime they want to.
00:34:20.000And the only thing that's ever really been stopping them is their sense that the international community would not let them get away with it.
00:34:25.000It would make them pay too high a price.
00:34:27.000Well, they're about to find out whether it can be done.
00:34:29.000And if territorial conquest by force is back on the table, why shouldn't China play?
00:34:36.000Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:34:38.000Email us your thoughts as always freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:34:40.000If you want to support our show, go to charlikirk.com slash support.