00:00:51.000He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:00:58.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:02:01.000So tell us, why did you write the book?
00:02:03.000You know, trying to save the American Dream, that's quite a task.
00:02:06.000Yeah, you know, I was a rural, lower-income kid, and my father, his parents were immigrants from Poland.
00:02:13.000And he always emphasized to us the American dream.
00:02:15.000And that, you know, the reason we're here, the reason we're in this wonderful country is that we're now Americans and that you have to decide what you want to do, but you're going to have to work for it.
00:02:24.000And I had that opportunity and through a lot of good fortune over the years, was able to become a CEO in the early 80s and continue in the energy industry throughout my career.
00:02:34.000And we've really started losing sight of what's made America great all these years.
00:02:38.000And it's our foundation as our Constitution.
00:02:42.000It's our foundation as we the people, as our founding fathers put together.
00:02:46.000And so Adam Brandon and I really felt that it was time.
00:02:51.000I mean, there's a small percentage in there that just describes who we are, but it really takes us through this capitalistic meritocracy called America, the self-healing nation that was formed 246 years ago and how important it is.
00:03:06.000In fact, the American Dream is alive and well today.
00:03:09.000And in fact, America is that exceptional nation that we all know it is.
00:03:14.000So many of our students would kind of disagree.
00:03:27.000I mean, I could just tell our employees here at Turning Point, they're getting poorer every month because of inflation.
00:03:33.000I'm afraid we're losing that kind of, you know, the grasp of the American Dream.
00:03:38.000What do you think we need to do to recapture that?
00:03:41.000And do you believe the American Dream is still alive?
00:03:43.000I do believe the American Dream is very much alive.
00:03:46.000And what we have to do to recapture it is, first of all, the young people in this country, unfortunately, haven't been given courses in civics.
00:03:53.000Our public school system for years hasn't taught much about our Constitution at all.
00:03:58.000I mean, you've got a congressman, Ocasio-Cortez, who described the three branches of government as the Senate, the House, and the President's office.
00:04:07.000You know, that's embarrassing around the world when we've got congressmen that apparently haven't even read the Constitution.
00:04:15.000Our founding fathers presented us with this opportunity that requires consensus.
00:04:22.000They established the Constitution to separate our three branches of government, to have checks and balances, and to amend our Constitution, take 75% of the states to ratify it.
00:04:35.000They recognized that there'd be different populations in each state, so they only had two senators in each state, even though the House is then proportionally represented.
00:04:44.000Today, we've got through the Obama administration and now the Biden administration, they think somehow that we switch to a parliamentary or an authoritarian government where they can just dictate the changes.
00:04:57.000Because of that, they're shutting down the use of fossil fuel without any legislative authority to do so.
00:05:03.000They've caused this enormous inflation through overstimulating the economy.
00:05:08.000I mean, what President Trump had to do when COVID first started to protect American businesses, particularly small businesses, given that the government was shutting them down, perhaps was necessary.
00:05:19.000In hindsight, it might have been more money than we probably should have spent.
00:05:22.000But the amount of money that President Biden threw at it immediately getting into office was purely political.
00:05:28.000It was purely, look, I can do this too.
00:05:32.000And by the way, I'm going to shut down fossil fuel.
00:05:34.000We've got to get back to forcing consensus amongst our folks.
00:05:39.000And by the way, a shout out to Joe Manchin because he seems to be the only Democratic senator that understands the criticality of the filibuster and how it creates consensus to actually force us to think these things through and not just ram them through.
00:05:53.000So what do you think the message to young people should be?
00:05:57.000Because I could tell you, they're incredibly cynical right now.
00:05:59.000The American dream of the country that you grew up in is out of reach.
00:06:04.000I mean, we have 25 to 30% inflation of a generation that is $100,000 to $150,000 in debt.
00:06:11.000So what do you think our message should be from a public policy perspective?
00:06:16.000Because I can understand why a lot of them want to go vote to the left.
00:06:26.000What do you think our message should be?
00:06:28.000Their message should be is to learn from what's happened to you.
00:06:31.000Those of you who get conned in to go get going to get an English degree and spending $200,000 to get it just because the government would loan you the money.
00:06:40.000When government tries to interfere in this free enterprise, capitalistic meritocracy of America, they make a mess.
00:06:48.000And, you know, I had to work my way through college.
00:06:51.000There wasn't an opportunity to borrow money.
00:06:52.000And my dad made it very clear to me: make sure you study something that will pay you for that education and then work hard.
00:07:01.000Today, we went through this period where government, no one would loan you $250,000 to buy a Camry if the Camry is worth $23,000.
00:07:11.000But somehow you can go to a very expensive Ivy League school and the government will loan you a quarter of a million dollars to get an English degree, or you can go to the University of Nebraska and get it for $15,000.
00:07:22.000That's just silly, but that's how government looks at things.
00:08:13.000We've allowed the left to turn the tide in this conversation to turn it into class warfare, turning us against ourselves.
00:08:23.000They're trying to make us a tribal nation where, you know, as a Polish American, I'm supposed to denounce being an American and only be Polish.
00:08:31.000Well, my parents wouldn't allow, their parents wouldn't allow them to speak Polish because my grandfather told my father, you're an American now.
00:08:40.000I'll teach you to speak Polish after you speak perfect English because that's the language of our country now.
00:08:45.000And we have to get back to these simple, simple things.
00:08:49.000And parents need to understand that when they teach their kids, it isn't every child does not need to go to college.
00:09:00.000Some like to be electricians, construction workers.
00:09:02.000There's all kinds of, you know, some people want to be artists.
00:09:05.000The American dream isn't just about wealth.
00:09:08.000But what we shouldn't do is criticize those who make a great deal of money by participating in our capitalistic system.
00:09:15.000That's what a capitalistic meritocracy is.
00:09:17.000It isn't perfect, but it's lifted the economies of the entire world, and we're only 5% of that world.
00:09:24.000So something I want to explore with you, and I agree with everything you're saying, is the sustainability of a capitalist meritocracy, because you are going to have winners and you are going to have losers, and then you're going to have people that are going to try to mobilize the losers to have resentment against the winners.
00:09:36.000I just don't know how sustainable it is long-term.
00:09:38.000I know you addressed that in the book because you're going to have people that just want to hate those that have.
00:09:44.000And it's very hard politically to go against that, especially when they misrepresent us as a democracy when we're not.
00:09:50.000The book is America in Perspective: Defending the American Dream for the Next Generation by David Sokol, who is a legend in more ways than one.
00:09:57.000I encourage everyone to pick up a copy.
00:09:59.000And for young people, yes, the American dream is still alive and well.
00:10:17.000I'm Rebecca Hatfield, president of Second Vote.
00:10:19.000We've had uniquely American common sense since 1776, but now we're in the age of common nonsense.
00:10:26.000Today's nonsense comes from the big corporations fighting the Supreme Court.
00:10:30.000They can't accept the conservatives have won three huge victories.
00:10:34.000So they're trying to overpower the court's legitimate decisions.
00:10:37.000And they're using your hard-earned dollars to fund it.
00:10:40.000On life, the court finally overturned Roe versus Wade.
00:10:44.000So some companies are paying for employees to travel to states where they can get an abortion.
00:10:49.000It's the usual suspects like Target, Starbucks, and Dick Sporting Goods, but also others like Macy's, Netflix, and Airbnb.
00:10:56.000On the Second Amendment, the court clarified that we have a constitutional right to carry a firearm.
00:11:01.000So 200 CEOs signed a letter demanding gun control.
00:11:05.000It's just common sense that you have the right to carry a firearm everywhere.
00:11:09.000But woke liberals don't want you to be able to protect yourself.
00:11:12.000On Religious Liberty, the court ruled that, of course, a high school football coach has the right to pray after games.
00:11:18.000So woke CEOs promised to further remove religion from our lives.
00:11:23.000HR policies will stop employees from celebrating their faith at work.
00:11:27.000And big tech will continue to censor and silence Christian voices.
00:11:31.000These crucial issues are why Second Vote does the research to expose big corporations by scoring hundreds of companies on traditional American values.
00:11:40.000And we want you to use Second Vote research to make better choices with your money.
00:11:44.000So please make sure to arm yourselves every day with the knowledge you need to shop smart and stop funding the left.
00:12:08.000With us is David Sokol, who is the author of a fabulous new book, America in Perspective.
00:12:13.000I encourage all young people, especially, to purchase a copy about the American Dream, Defending the American Dream for the Next Generation.
00:12:20.000So David, I want to ask you what from a public policy standpoint should be done here?
00:12:25.000I mean, we have out-of-control inflation.
00:12:27.000You've been in the business world for decades and have been a remarkable success.
00:12:32.000Have you ever seen inflation like this post-1970s?
00:12:35.000And what does that mean for the future of the American dream?
00:12:42.000In fact, my first mortgage on a house was 16% interest.
00:12:45.000And it's a very dangerous thing that we have going on right now.
00:12:49.000And it's policy-wise, I think the Federal Reserve has to continue to do what it's doing, at least until we see clear signs of the inflation coming down.
00:12:57.000The reason I say that, it's unusual in that we also have this structural problem being created by the Biden administration to actually force energy prices up.
00:13:07.000You know, they act that they really want to try to get gasoline prices down.
00:13:11.000But I think realistically, I mean, I've sat in meetings where progressives have said they hope oil goes to $250 a barrel.
00:13:19.000And it's insane because, you know, I liken it to the fact that on energy policy, the Biden administration has put the port in in a transfusion of a body to take the bad blood out.
00:13:32.000But unfortunately, they don't have the good blood to put in.
00:13:34.000And so, but when you consider that energy prices are going to stay elevated well into the future under this kind of administration, inflation is going to be tough to bring down because energy affects fertilizer.
00:13:46.000It affects farming in all kinds of categories.
00:13:48.000And it affects transportation of every good we buy and sell.
00:13:52.000And so it's going to be difficult, but the Fed's got to do it because there was too much money thrown in last year, $2 trillion of additional COVID relief that was unnecessary, and then a trillion dollars of infrastructure spending that's going to be administered by somebody who has never spent an hour understanding how to administer transportation funds.
00:14:14.000And so they've really got to, unfortunately, they're going to have to slow the economy quite a bit.
00:14:31.000I want to ask you what you think that looks like slowing the economy down because that's exactly right.
00:14:35.000I mean, we lived on this sugar high, this artificial sugar high of cheap money, I think unnecessarily for not just the last couple of years, I think almost the last decade.
00:14:45.000And it just kind of hit, kind of hit a climax in the last year, year and a half.
00:14:50.000And that's all, by the way, that six to seven trillion dollars of spending you just articulated is on top of a $4.4 trillion annual spending budget that the government has that is completely too big and bloated.
00:15:02.000So that's just, that's gravy and icing on top of what we're already doing.
00:15:07.000And I mean, so I know that predicting economic circumstances is very difficult, but I mean, forgive me if I'm being too blunt, but there's going to be some economic suffering coming here.
00:15:18.000And in fact, it's almost necessary, isn't it?
00:15:22.000You know, unfortunately, the lower income and middle income folks, you know, every statistic I've seen says that the average middle income family pays $400 more a month today to do exactly what they did this time last year.
00:15:37.000You know, it's easy for a bunch of politicians that get every benefit in the world and who can trade on inside information to look the other way.
00:15:44.000But the average family, you know, this is a big issue.
00:15:49.000And so, I think people are waking up that this fantasy land that government can just dictate things and everything will be okay doesn't exist.
00:15:56.000And fortunately, the one good thing we have is this incredibly powerful capitalistic meritocracy called the American economy.
00:16:03.000If we don't kill it, it will pull us out of this.
00:16:06.000But we've got to get intelligent energy policy.
00:17:00.000Look, there's a must-see movie you got to check out at salemnow.com called Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Her Plan for Power.
00:17:10.000Film director Joel Gilbert, I know Joel, great American, takes a deep dive into the life of Michelle Obama from Chicago to Princeton to Martha's Vineyard.
00:17:18.000He says Michelle Obama will run for president in 2024 and base her candidacy on a life story that is more racially divisive and nearly as fictitious as that of her husband, Barack Hussein.
00:17:29.000Check out the stunning new movie on Salem Now, Michelle Obama 2024.
00:17:33.000Michelle is following the same formula as Barack to become president, a best-selling autobiography, the keynote convention speaker, and a voter registration organization.
00:17:42.000First, Barack and now Michelle want to transform America.
00:17:46.000Michelle Obama 2024, now playing at SalemNow.com.
00:17:50.000This new movie has stunning, game-changing revelations about Michelle Obama's past.
00:17:54.000The film director says only the truth can stop her.
00:17:57.000Michelle Obama 2024, watch the movie on demand or buy the DVD on salemnow.com.
00:18:06.000With us right now is Darren Beattie from the phenomenal website Revolver.news.
00:18:12.000There was a very bizarre piece written by the New York Times, like a puff piece defending Ray Epps, and you have a response to that piece on Revolver.news.
00:18:27.000And I think it's important to start off with just letting it sink in at how bizarre it is that of all of the January 6 riot participants, the one about whom the New York Times writes a puff piece.
00:18:43.000That's a simple, utterly sympathetic puff piece.
00:18:52.000The one person caught on camera repeatedly urging people into the Capitol as early as January 5th is the one January 6th riot participant about whom the New York Times writes a sympathetic puff piece.
00:19:09.000That's just a motivating starter to understand how bizarre this is, how dirty this is, how corrupt this is.
00:19:19.000The New York Times gained access to this individual who had been, he's a key individual, whether no matter what you think, if you think, oh, this is some evil insurrection, he's an evil Trump supporter, then you still want to talk to him.
00:19:34.000You still want to get to him because he's the only guy caught on camera as early as January 5th dedicated to this mission to go into the Capitol.
00:19:43.000And if you're like me and think, okay, this is deeply fishy, you also want to talk to him.
00:19:48.000So, the New York Times has access to this guy, very special access.
00:19:53.000And they write a whole piece and don't think to ask the following questions.
00:19:58.000Number one, the entire piece, there's no blanket denial of involvement with the federal government.
00:20:05.000There's a reiteration of the very specific legalistic denial he issued through his lawyer, by the way, a 10-year veteran of the Phoenix FBI field office, saying he was never involved with law enforcement.
00:20:17.000Well, of course, that leaves open a number of possibilities, including the Department of Homeland Security, JTTF, military intelligence, and so forth.
00:20:26.000Okay, so no explicit blanket denial in the whole piece.
00:20:29.000Number two, the piece describes Epps as a Trump supporter who wanted to go to Washington, D.C. to support Trump.
00:20:37.000And just as a last-minute thing, he went with his son to D.C. because he wanted to hear Trump's speech about election fraud.
00:20:48.000Well, the only issue with that is that this individual, Ray Epps, apparently on a last-minute whim with his son, traveled all the way from Arizona to D.C. to hear this speech, but he didn't go to the speech.
00:21:01.000And the New York Times piece doesn't even point that out or think to explore: well, shouldn't we report on why he claims he didn't go to the speech?
00:21:12.000It's totally non-existent in the piece.
00:21:20.000And in fact, in the indictments against the Proud Boys, the government itself has said, oh, this is a major indicator that they had some kind of malicious intentions.
00:21:29.000The fact that they didn't even bother going to the Trump speech.
00:21:33.000And the additional thing about Ray Epps is not only did he travel all the way from the guy with the Trump hat, he's wearing the red Trump hat when he tells people to go into the Capitol.
00:21:43.000And yet the man with the Trump hat doesn't even bother to listen to the Trump speech that he traveled across the country for.
00:21:52.000And furthermore, this is very important.
00:21:54.000And furthermore, not only does he just mosey around anywhere when he's skipping the speech, he happens to be positioned right there at the Peace Monument, which is the site of the initial breach of the Capitol.
00:22:09.000And he's hanging out there before the Proud Boys even get there.
00:22:12.000And it's the official story that the Proud Boys.
00:22:16.000What a coincidence that he just happens to end up at the right place at the right time after having skipped this speech that allegedly he crossed the country to attend.
00:22:25.000And no, no exploration of what his excuse is for this.
00:22:31.000And then the last and most egregious omission in the piece: the piece doesn't explore where did you get this idea, Mr. Epps, to urge everyone to go into the Capitol.
00:22:45.000And why are you so doggedly insistent on pursuing this mission when the buying temperature of the crowd was extremely negative?
00:22:53.000In fact, it was so out of place on January 6th that the crowd immediately accused him of being a Fed.
00:22:59.000So where did you get this idea to go into the Capitol?
00:23:03.000Which is, by the way, the central question that the January 6th committee is allegedly exploring.
00:23:08.000And so this New York Times has access to this guy and is in a position to explore these deeply important questions to everyone, no matter what your perspective on January 6th, and instead foregoes exploring these questions and attempts a sympathy piece, which is the only sympathy piece on any January 6th participant the New York Times has ever done.
00:23:31.000I will add to that: Epps' most wanted poster was taken down off the FBI's website.
00:23:38.000Also, Epps whispered into somebody's ear just seconds before the barricades come down, very suspiciously.
00:23:45.000Now, look, I will admit, I would not be able to use this in a court of law, nor could you, but it kind of gets 10 out of 10 on the Richter scale of, you know, something's up on suspiciousness, right?
00:23:56.000It's not, it's not verifiable evidence, but it's circumstantial, where he's whispering into somebody's ear almost as if he's in on it, right, Darren?
00:24:04.000Like there's some for there's some knowledge.
00:24:07.000He's directing traffic with almost alpha male confidence and military precision.
00:25:18.000A couple of very important things to say there.
00:25:20.000First of all, I wish you'd had a little bit of a longer clip there.
00:25:25.000There are two clips on January 5th where he very emphatically urges people to go into the Capitol.
00:25:31.000And you gestured toward this quite correctly, which is the scripted, almost artificial quality of his intonation and cadence.
00:25:43.000And both times he prefaces it in a very interesting way.
00:25:48.000He said, I probably shouldn't say this because I'll go to rest, get arrested.
00:25:53.000The next time he says, I probably shouldn't say this because I'll go to jail for this.
00:25:58.000Both times, this same structure as though this is some rehearsed speech, it's a very bizarre thing.
00:26:04.000And these are the sort of subjective aspects.
00:26:07.000When you look at how calm he is, he's an expert in crowd control.
00:26:12.000It doesn't look like he's really personally invested in this.
00:26:15.000He's not somebody who's caught up in the emotions of it.
00:26:18.000He's someone who's very methodical in the way that he conducts himself with the crowd, controls the crowd, and so forth that suggests some kind of professional operation.
00:26:29.000And I know this is silly, but honestly, it looks like he bought that hat at some sort of third-rate store on the way.
00:26:35.000I mean, I only say that because the majority of people who wear Trump hats, they're kind of, it's part of their identity.
00:26:42.000They've been to many rallies with them, and it just looks very artificial, but that's a side point.
00:26:47.000One quick thing, if I have time, just really quick and important.
00:26:50.000You say that, oh, this the whispering in the ear and these things wouldn't hold up in a court of law.
00:27:38.000And by responding, no, no, not yet, that is said by the government to establish a conspiracy between those two individuals to assault an officer.
00:27:46.000There's another clip that's in the Revolver.news piece of Ray Epps telling somebody, he says, when we go in, leave this here.
00:27:56.000Ironically, referring to a can of bear spray.
00:27:58.000But the when we go in indicates a knowledge that they're about to go in.
00:28:03.000And the guy he talked to actually did go into the Capitol and is one of the more egregious participants in the riot.
00:28:12.000So the parallelism between that suggests very strongly that the same type of conspiracy case they're using to railroad an individual called Tanios is readily available to them in the Epps case.
00:28:24.000And for whatever reason, this very vocal participant whose behavior was so egregious that he was put on the FBI Most Wanted list.
00:28:32.000He was featured on a New York Times' own video documentary on the thing.
00:28:38.000And now he's the only January 6th participant about whom Adam Kinsinger has nice things to say.
00:28:44.000And the New York Times will write puff pieces for it.
00:28:46.000Makes you wonder what his role really was.
00:28:48.000Darren, I'm going to ask you to speculate a little bit.
00:28:51.000Why does Ray Epps matter so much that the New York Times has to deploy their best propagandist to frame him as a victim?
00:28:59.000In fact, the headline of the Ray Epps story is quite fascinating.
00:29:04.000It is how Ray Epps became the victim of a January 6th conspiracy theory.
00:29:11.000And it had a picture of him and his wife outside of a trailer.
00:29:14.000It says Ray Epps and his wife, Robin Epps, became the face of a conspiracy theory that rocked their lives as it spread into the mainstream.
00:29:22.000So we're supposed to feel sorry for him, even though every other January 6th defendant gets labeled as an insurrectionist.
00:29:46.000And I'd like to preface the answer by reminding the audience that in the New York Times' own video documentary on January 6th, titled The Day of Rage, Ray Epps is a star.
00:30:00.000And in fact, Ray Epps is depicted directly as one of the quote handful of rioters who plan to storm the Capitol all along.
00:30:10.000The New York Times' own video documentary, and they're going out of their way.
00:30:15.000They're looking for the most egregious clips that they can.
00:30:19.000And Ray Epps appears multiple times in their very own documentary.
00:30:23.000And this is the same outlet that later on, when Ray Epps really is clear, he's the smoking gun of the entire Fed surrender.
00:30:32.000And, you know, people understand what an operation this was.
00:30:37.000Now, the New York Times is all of a sudden in aggressive damage control mode.
00:30:42.000I think they understand that the Ray Epps situation is so embarrassing and so devastating to the narrative.
00:30:49.000And I anticipate material coming out that further undermines the official narrative and that relates to Ray Epps as January 6 cases kick into gear.
00:31:03.000And you got maybe a reference to it in the New York Times piece itself in the reference to this text message that Ray Epps regrets.
00:31:10.000And I think this is likely front-running even more damning evidence to come out in the coming weeks and months.
00:31:18.000And they want to make any talk of Ray Epps that is not sympathetic so toxic that you just have to shut up.
00:31:28.000I have to read from this story, Darren.
00:31:29.000It says here, Ray Epps has suffered enormously in the past 10 months as right-wing media figures and Republican politicians have baselessly described him as a covert government agent who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol last year.
00:31:44.000Okay, just putting all that aside, New York Times, why don't you mention in your piece that he says we need to go into the Capitol repeatedly?
00:32:05.000No, they and they had to say, oh, the obscure outlet, Revolver.news, the obscure outlet that helped to bring the case of Ray Epps to national attention and how egregious it was.
00:32:28.000So I don't think this necessarily relates to whatever, to Ray Epps' participation in the January 6th riot, but it's an interesting detail that in any other circumstance, the New York Times would include in his description of Epps.
00:32:43.000And that is he was the former president of the Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers, the most condemned and vilified militia pertaining to January 6th.
00:32:53.000Well, and also, I don't mean to cut you off, Darren, but by the way, we're going to put your book up.
00:32:58.000You're writing the forward to the January 6th report 262.
00:33:01.000Darren, also, when asked directly, Ted Cruz asked the FBI directly whether or not he was a Fed.