00:04:19.120Actually, that you get from the public.
00:04:20.580And I wanted to be able to say that, you know, I looked at everything we have and I looked at all of the data.
00:04:28.040You know, it's a little bit like what is the definition of is because everybody has in their mind what it means to have life on another planet or an alien or.
00:04:42.020And so I always say to people, definitely UFOs exist.
00:04:48.900It's an unidentified flying object and we don't know what it is and it's flying.
00:04:52.620So, but the latest videos that the Pentagon have confirmed that these ships are doing crazy things and then you're getting the, what do they call it?
00:05:06.620The new patents that the Navy verified, but they're really sketchy.
00:05:13.380Is that technology that we think someone else may have or that we have and we're not saying it?
00:05:20.800Or, or is it, do we think it's otherworldly?
00:05:27.800So the one thing that I'll say is, is the United States of America and our, you know, great technologists are at the forefront.
00:05:38.500So you can rest assured that we are winning.
00:05:42.760I think there's a concern when it comes to this, the outer space satellites that there are some other countries, I'll keep it at that, that are making a lot of progress and beginning to muscle their way into areas that cause great concern for us as the leader.
00:06:07.040I think that you should always remember that what, what President Trump was presented in terms of intelligence and, and technology and kind of the current situation.
00:06:18.680I have been in the room multiple times when he's been presented as to this is where we are in terms of being the leader on this technology.
00:06:40.000So it's a long answer to say, ah, we're still out front and you don't see everything that the intelligence community sees in terms of satellite technology.
00:07:24.860And I am really concerned, uh, who, you know, we know whoever gets AGI first, uh, is going to probably rule the world and, and maybe for a very long time.
00:07:38.020Uh, and you can't put that genie back in the bottle.
00:07:42.940And I used to feel like I want America to be able to have that, but now I don't trust our own government as much as I used to.
00:07:53.240In fact, I, I'm really skeptical of our government.
00:08:26.040And so I'm so relaxed and I, and it feels good.
00:08:28.280Um, so let me just go back a little bit when I was ambassador to Germany and by all accounts, you know, the media kept saying, oh, he's Trump's guy in Europe.
00:08:37.400And so many problems came to me as kind of Trump's guy in Europe.
00:08:44.300Uh, the reason I became the envoy there is because both of them, both of the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia came to me to say, you know, we're not getting enough attention.
00:08:54.620And so a lot of different problems came my way and I would bring them to the president.
00:09:00.520I would put the Chinese technology in that category, especially on Huawei.
00:09:05.860And I, many times would speak to the president about how Chinese technology and intelligence, um, were, were kind of clashing.
00:09:18.360And since I was getting a daily intelligence briefing and would spend a lot of time going into these issues on what the Europeans were doing with the Chinese,
00:09:27.620I would bring these issues to the president pretty regularly.
00:09:31.340He would call and want to kind of bounce things off.
00:09:36.020I became one of the leaders on Huawei.
00:09:39.740I would say anti-Huawei and telling our European allies not to use that technology.
00:09:46.380Um, because I was very comfortable with president Trump telling me, you were not going to be able to share intelligence if they use this system.
00:09:54.340Um, I think our allies, let me just say in Europe, I think our European allies totally understand the danger.
00:10:03.840For instance, the German intelligence services will warn German travelers, whether you're business or personal travel, doing business or personal travel to China.
00:10:14.080China, the German intelligence services warns you not to bring your phone into China.
00:10:20.040Now, if our European allies are warning their own people, don't bring your phone into China, it's because they steal data.
00:10:27.940So, we have European allies who absolutely understand that.
00:10:32.940But, but a country like Germany, which is the largest economy in Europe, also has the pressure of the BMWs, the VWs, the Daimler's, the world's, you know, car leader, who need a new, you know, market.
00:10:51.600And so, they're constantly, they were pushing back on me to say, we don't want to use Huawei.
00:10:58.300We don't want to use the Chinese technology, but what's the alternative?
00:11:01.800And so, we would, I would go back to the American government and say, guys, this is pretty empty when we're pushing, uh, countries to not accept the Huawei technology.
00:11:13.120We need to have an alternative and we don't.
00:11:16.800That is a long answer to say, we got behind the eight ball on technology during the Obama presidency because we allowed government agencies to think that you could engage with China and still kind of make progress on, on your market, um, and protect our intelligence.
00:11:44.660There's this new idea developing that companies, American companies need to choose.
00:11:50.920Either they're going to work for DOD and they're going to be at the forefront of developing these incredible technologies for, for America and for national, U.S. national security.
00:12:02.200Or, you're going to do what the Chinese want you to do, which is to form a joint partnership with a Chinese firm, which is under obligations of the communist Chinese party to turn over the data at any point that they want it.
00:12:18.000So, the idea that Apple or Daumler or take any company.
00:12:25.240I mean, we had national security meetings on chip makers who were trying to cut deals with Chinese companies that we knew were working with the Chinese government.
00:12:37.980I don't think that we should allow, and this is a big statement, maybe I'm making a little news here.
00:12:45.620I don't think that we should allow U.S. companies who form joint partnerships with China or Chinese companies to have U.S. national security contracts.
00:12:57.200I don't think you can do both, and I think it's really dangerous to think that you can do both.
00:13:05.140I just don't believe I'm a free market guy.
00:13:09.140But I was on vacation when I saw the Huawei announcement, and I think I was alone, and I think I applauded when I heard it.
00:13:19.700But I was grateful that somebody understood the coming technology, because I don't think people either don't get it on how rapidly things are going to change.
00:13:35.200I mean, all aspects of our lives are going to change, and how rapidly we could become a China in all that that means if we're not paying attention to technology.
00:13:53.380Well, you said it best just a little bit ago.
00:13:55.940You said you can't put it back in the bottle.
00:14:16.220Some people will say we're never going to get there.
00:14:18.400Are we close to any kind of artificial general intelligence?
00:14:22.160So what I will say, because we do get into kind of TS stuff, I would say that you can have total confidence that the American entrepreneurs and technologists are at the forefront and understand what needs to be done.
00:15:41.560Well, if it's in the hands of an individual, you can start scanning a crowd and, you know, just picking up people who aren't committing crimes.
00:15:53.180And you can use it for your own information or leverage.
00:16:03.500The Chinese are selling this technology.
00:16:06.220And I have been raising this from long before I started working with any U.S. companies that this is a real concern because like Huawei, like TikTok, where we lost out on TikTok, we need to have American companies that American legislators and American tax dollars support in some way so that we don't get behind.
00:16:31.700We're the responsible version of many of these technologies if we don't get left behind.
00:16:37.080And so a company like Clearview, which was, I think, really pushed on many issues from the left to say this is a reckless, you know, technology.
00:18:34.160And you would know because you live through it.
00:18:36.960I'm not sure our government is in control.
00:18:40.980Yeah, look, I think that's a really good question.
00:18:43.620And I'm not sure I was talking about public private partnerships as much as I was talking about joint ventures with China.
00:18:51.600And, and, and making sure that the U.S. government does things.
00:18:58.040And it's not really, you know, a check or, or, you know, corporate welfare, so to speak, to American companies.
00:19:05.920But to just make sure that they support the technology and understand that we're the better version.
00:19:11.740And I don't mean anything specific like a, like a check, but I do mean, you know, recognizing, say, on a foreign policy level at the State Department or in our intelligence agencies that we make clear to our allies that, that there are certain versions of technology that the Chinese push that are irresponsible.
00:19:33.700And, you know, we, we need our European allies and for any Western ally to understand that they do have a responsibility to make sure that technology doesn't overtake the situation and it's out of control because technology can be reckless.
00:19:53.180And I think government is there to say, this is the non-reckless version and, and responsible nations should support that non-reckless version.
00:20:02.380So, um, help me out because I'm trying to, I really am trying to figure out Silicon Valley, uh, friend or foe and, and all indications are foe, uh, at this point.
00:20:13.360Um, how do you convince those companies when you just use the example of, let's just say for an example, BMW and Daimler, they need that market of China.
00:20:25.320How do you talk to these companies that also need the market of China and have already demonstrated that they'll do really insidious stuff and help China, you know?
00:20:43.960I think that you just hit the heart of what the, the balance is.
00:20:48.260I actually think in life, the answer to every question is always balance, right?
00:20:52.260It's not black and white, but we read in, in color in the middle.
00:20:55.740Um, uh, it's a difficult question, but it's one of the reasons why I think we should be able to take a, a, a firm stance that American companies who decide to work in China and China demands that you have a Chinese partner.
00:21:12.800And so now you're suddenly, that's their back door.
00:21:15.960That's how they get in as the Chinese companies have to turn over the data to the communist party.
00:21:23.040So if an American company forms a joint partnership with a Chinese company, then I believe they're going down the path of an expanded market.
00:22:01.360Do you want to go down the path of, of, you know, having a great market and make a lot of money in China and in other places?
00:22:11.360And you can find your moral line, but you won't get to also then pretend like you can have a Chinese wall against that information to, to bid on, you know, U.S. national security contracts.
00:22:29.360I think that that's okay to make that decision.
00:22:31.780Currently, we're not making that decision.
00:22:33.960Lots of companies are dealing with China and having joint ventures and then also pretending that they can supply this sensitive U.S. national security technology.
00:23:08.000And now, with the way technology is, you know, it's not good.
00:23:14.160The most nefarious will win in the end because of the technology.
00:23:20.260I do want to, I do want to leave our viewers with, with one thing just to say that on this subject is that there are companies like Oracle who just do that.
00:23:29.180There's no rule, but Oracle has taken a strong stance to say we're going to supply U.S. national security technology and they're not going to be in China.
00:23:38.060I think that there are companies that just morally say I can't do it.
00:23:42.000I don't know about you, but I, I feel like I'm either always looking at a screen or somebody I'm with is always looking at a screen and I hate it.
00:23:50.320So whether you're an avid news watcher or in serious need of distraction, unplugging yourself is easier said than done.
00:23:58.500One of my favorite ways is to rest my eyes and use my ears because that gives me the content I'm itching for by putting in my wireless Raycon earbuds and listening to something great, whether I am going into work or whether I'm painting or just hanging out.
00:24:17.100If you're catching up on your favorite news podcast, binging on an audio book, powering through your workout with a pumped up playlist, a pair of Raycons in your ears makes all the difference.
00:24:29.240There's no dangling wires, at least stupid white stems that come out of your ears.
00:24:33.500And they are half the price of Apple and they're stylish.
00:26:48.940We are the greatest country in the world.
00:26:50.520I've traveled the world and I can tell you we are not perfect.
00:26:54.760But what makes us the greatest country is that we know we're not perfect and we immediately try to figure out a way to get better.
00:27:00.860And I think we're going through something right now where we're realizing that the last 20 years we've been on a slide and we haven't done what many warned before us, which was that each generation has to fight to make sure that America is great.
00:27:20.400We are always one generation away from losing that.
00:27:24.240And roughly 250 years marks the completion of every great civilization.
00:27:32.160They've lasted roughly 250 years and they've always imploded, not from a massive war attacking them, but from the inside.
00:27:41.280And I think that what I want to do is be very hopeful that in this time, I believe that we are seeing the mistakes of the last 20 years in the, say, for instance, in the education system.
00:27:55.060The Wall Street Journal has done a good job of highlighting Chinese, you know, academics who work for the Chinese Communist Party and who have infiltrated into our academic institutions.
00:28:12.480I have to say that I think that our academic institutions, institutions of higher learning are really the ground zero problem.
00:28:21.300It's why organizations like Turning Point that Charlie Kirk does is an amazing organization because they recognize, look, we got to go in on these college campuses and we got to fight because we're losing that battle.
00:28:34.840And it's also why I think in Northern California, San Francisco area, you've got not only Gavin Newsom, but Nancy Pelosi and Eric Swalwell, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein.
00:28:48.700They've all been caught doing pro-China stuff, every one of them.
00:28:53.540And you ask yourself why, and it's because the Chinese spies and the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated institutions in San Francisco a long time ago.
00:29:05.280I know that's a controversial statement and people are going to not like it, but it is true.
00:29:08.940Well, I believe Donald Trump passed a or had an executive order drawn up about our institutions and not doing business with these these Chinese educational partnerships that have really infiltrated our our universities.
00:29:25.320And Joe Biden came in and one of the first things he did was reverse that.
00:29:29.140Do we have I mean, I would hate to be you in some ways to have the knowledge and the insight that you have and not be able to talk about it, because I feel that way and I don't have any inside information.
00:29:47.380We were doing work on Hunter Biden two and a half, three years ago, and there is no doubt in my mind that this is a family bought and paid for by Chinese operatives.
00:30:05.380Yeah, there's there's there's no there's no question.
00:30:07.980Let me first just say, I don't think that you can be the director of national intelligence or the acting director of national intelligence or maybe the head of I was going to say the CIA, but but maybe I maybe that's not true.
00:30:25.540But the president of the United States or vice president of the United States and not believe in God, because after you see this information, you quickly just realize, OK, we are humans and we have to look to the creator for the solutions, because this is pretty overwhelming.
00:30:42.580The information that you do see does create sleepless nights.
00:32:42.320Because they have their spies all over our politicians.
00:32:47.540And we have had so many defensive briefings for politicians who were caught, basically, most of them, and this is an important point, most of them not knowing that they were caught in this strategy, but were nevertheless caught.
00:33:07.500And we had to tell them what was going on.
00:33:09.380And my point in saying this is that China is a crisis.
00:33:41.640He said the United States, he came out and said this openly, I think, in 1998 or 99, the United States was about to go into a moral and financial collapse and that Americans would start to be pitted against each other.
00:33:59.640And we would break up into five or six regions.
00:34:03.800And I remember specifically reading this back in the 90s and talking about it at the time.
00:34:11.280And now here we are and you're hearing much of the same kind of talk here in our own country of of breaking up and and being at each other's throat.
00:34:47.360And let me just start with a little bit of hope and positive message, because I think what the question you're asking is very serious and very heavy.
00:34:55.120And can maybe be viewed as as giving people depression.
00:35:06.360So in this last election, you have never seen more first and second generation Americans supporting conservatives like you just saw.
00:35:16.720It was something that I think that in my lifetime, I've really wanted to see as a president be more like Ronald Reagan and that he appealed to the working class.
00:36:07.860And I one of the reasons why I jumped on and and supported President Trump the way I did was because of that, because I saw it as real America.
00:36:20.940And so I leave with that hope of the future is better for the conservative movement because we are transforming the party and it's becoming a party of real America.
00:36:36.040What conservatives lost and therefore I think is the problem of of America right now are those Americans that have been here for a very long time, whose families have been around for a very long time.
00:36:50.940And they're really comfortable in America and they've probably done really well and they have the system that works for them and they have become very vocal in favor of identity politics because of their guilt and because they support this cancel culture.
00:37:15.000They are creating and they are creating and teaching children a sense that America isn't good and you've got to change it dramatically and you've got to, you know, upend the entire system.
00:37:29.260And I think that that goes to the heart of who we are.
00:37:35.540Most people in this country really love America.
00:37:39.320Most people in Washington, D.C., don't like America and they want to change it.
00:37:45.960And it's this you see it in foreign policy where Donald Trump said America first and everybody said that's racist.
00:37:52.880Everybody in Washington, I should say.
00:37:55.600And I see I spent eight years at the U.N., you know, one hundred and ninety three countries.
00:38:01.040I see every country, every single one doing what's best for them.
00:38:06.840They're not worried about other countries.
00:38:09.040I mean, Chancellor Merkel is a great leader for Germany.
00:39:23.900And when that's your crowd and you care about that, you don't want them to say bad things about you.
00:39:28.780You you want to give them the ability to water down our policies so that it's consensus.
00:39:35.140Now, I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but consensus should never be the goal.
00:39:42.660The goal is for our American policy to be potent and protect Americans.
00:39:49.640Americans and we utilize consensus as a tactic when needed.
00:39:55.580But if if all foreign policy was to have an American show up and say, this is our policy and a German diplomat show up and say, this is our policy.
00:41:20.780But I think that's I mean, it was really refreshing because I think common sense in America says, you know, what we've been doing for the last hundred years is not working.
00:41:30.700You know, hey, we don't torture, but we'll ghost plane you over to Saudi Arabia, you know, or to to Egypt where they'll interrogate you and use every tactic.
00:41:40.720Getting involved in everybody's war, trying to I don't know, trying to be dad at the table all the time.
00:41:51.520And it seems to make things much worse where, you know, we had countries, you know, we had Germany painting the crossing of the Delaware and we had France giving us the the Statue of Liberty.
00:42:04.580Now everybody hates us because we're in their stuff and in their faces all the time.
00:42:10.480And I think people know that and they know this isn't working.
00:42:16.000But the State Department doesn't care.
00:42:19.280And I don't even think I think we got close to a place with Trump where they didn't even care.
00:42:25.040I don't even think I shouldn't say close.
00:42:27.360We arrived for the first time that I am aware of at a place to where the establishment or deep state, if you will, the State Department didn't give a flying crap who the president was.
00:42:40.800They were just going to do their thing.
00:43:31.740But I have written on this and thrown out some ideas of how to transform the State Department.
00:43:37.620I think our embassies should become mini USA branded institutions.
00:43:43.600I don't think that we should have, we call them political officers, but they're anything but political.
00:43:48.400The political officers at the State Department who are employed around the world will go into each country that they're assigned and they will go to the conventions of the local parties and then come back and write long reports on who did what and this political analysis of the situation.
00:44:08.820I think it's a waste because most of that you can read in the newspaper two or three days later.
00:44:44.840And Condi actually, Condi Rice tried to solve this by asking people to go to more danger posts.
00:44:50.960I think that our European embassies should drastically shrink.
00:44:55.300We don't need big, huge imprints in places where we have great relations unless we need to create more U.S. jobs and we need our foreign service officers to be more business centric and trying to deliver on jobs.
00:45:15.800I think the system that is the current system that was created many years ago is archaic and it's not useful.
00:45:23.160We also need foreign service officers who are trained and comfortable to parachute into crisis situations.
00:45:33.260For instance, on Syria, we should not have had boots on the ground as fast as we did.
00:45:40.420And we shouldn't have ignored the political issues.
00:45:43.060Many of those issues were things that the Europeans should have cared more about.
00:45:48.060Our Arab allies should have cared more about.
00:45:50.960And so why couldn't we have diplomats that parachute into crisis situations who go to the table and talk about solutions rather than, you know, send U.S. military?
00:46:04.600We have created the world to be very comfortable with the United States military coming in with guns into every conflict and being there to solve it and to talk it through.
00:46:21.280And everybody takes a step back because we're waiting for the Americans to come in.
00:46:25.000And once they do, then they're in charge and they pay for everything.
00:46:27.420And so we don't have people in other countries rising up to solve these problems because we've trained them that America is going to come in and do that.
00:46:36.220I'll give you an example of just the peacekeeping operations at the U.N.
00:46:40.060We have some peacekeeping operations that have been going on for 50 years.
00:46:44.640We have some peacekeeping operations at the U.N. that roll over every year their budget and it increases and it's more than a billion dollars, which means the American taxpayer pays 26 percent of that.
00:46:59.880So two hundred and sixty million dollars every single year rolled over, getting bigger and bigger that the Americans pay for in the Congo alone.
00:47:19.180Let's talk a little bit about our spy agencies, the State Department clearly out of control.
00:47:26.640Well, you know, as I was doing my investigative work on the the situation in Ukraine with Biden, it became very clear that there was a there was a group of American.
00:47:45.920I don't know, operatives that were involved in that in the State Department level with the DNC.
00:47:52.740There were just there were just there were many moving pieces and you couldn't quite put it all together.
00:47:58.220But it didn't seem like everybody on our side was on the up and up.
00:48:05.520The problems with our intelligence gathering services.
00:48:10.520Is that a clean house or, you know, a radical change or is it not as bad as it seems it is?
00:48:19.060We could do a whole nother hour on this one.
00:48:26.360So I was only acting director of national intelligence for a couple of months.
00:48:31.480But one of the things that I think that bothered me the most is the whole Washington narrative about, you know, what what I was coming into.
00:48:42.560And the the Washington narrative was Rick Grinnell has zero experience.
00:48:49.300And what is he doing to to run these these spy agencies?
00:48:53.420And there were I don't think anyone that was able to to break out of that groupthink in Washington and say, wait a minute.
00:49:00.980His first intelligence briefing was in 2001.
00:49:04.280He's had tens of thousands of briefings since he's an expert at consuming intelligence and he's an expert at using intelligence in a public policy driven way with our allies.
00:49:19.780Certainly at the U.N. I used it from issues, you know, North Korea to to Iran, to Iraq and Afghanistan on a weekly basis.
00:49:30.500And then in Germany, of course, you know, using it to to further our policy in Hezbollah on a variety of different issues in Europe.
00:49:41.780And I think who better to come into some of these intelligence agencies than somebody who has been a consumer of the product who can know its usefulness.
00:49:53.900And so when I came in, I was and this was not it, it didn't leak out one of the rare things that I did that didn't leak out.
00:50:06.580But I tried to put a stamp in my short time on exactly what you're saying, which is we got to get the intelligence right and we've got to stop the politics within intelligence.
00:50:19.160And so I'll give you the example of the Russia team is very dramatic, very leaky, extremely political.
00:50:35.920And we'll take every little piece of unverified intelligence and immediately prescribe analytical arguments on it that I think really push the limit and are not IC wide views.
00:51:00.020Whenever you see a leak in The New York Times or The Washington Post, which you saw a lot, I'll give you the example of Kim Jong-un is brain dead, which went around for a very long time.
00:51:12.300And we we were laughing because all these people that were saying we've got intelligence.
00:51:21.540I can't go into great details about that.
00:51:24.660But the reality is, is we knew that that wasn't true.
00:51:27.540And yet we didn't correct it because we couldn't.
00:51:32.660And sources and methods were were a part of that analysis.
00:51:36.940But but my point on the Russia team is that they leak everything and they they really push the boundaries.
00:51:43.020The China team is very slow, thoughtful, doesn't leak, very judicious in trying to come to an analytical point.
00:51:52.640And I think the comparative of the two is a problem.
00:51:57.380And so I tried to make progress without having the criticism that, you know, the political appointee was beating up on the career people and changing it, which I actually think is your job to to change.
00:52:11.760But they're highly sensitive about anything.
00:52:19.400The one area that I also made some progress on is on the Israel team, because I told them it wasn't very popular position.
00:52:29.140But I said, you know, from the standpoint of someone who consumes intelligence, you all get it wrong a lot of the time and you're kind of burning your credibility with public policy.
00:52:42.680People, you know, let's just take, for example, you told us that there would be World War Three if we moved our embassy to Jerusalem.
00:52:49.880Right. Not only was that not true, but I can show you the Abraham Accords, peace deals that were done when America takes a strong stance.
00:52:58.640And so I think that we've got to do a better job on the analytical side.
00:54:48.960I had been offered the job multiple times and I just wasn't something that I wanted.
00:54:54.020But when the president called me in Berlin and asked me to step in as acting director right away, I could hear it in his voice that he needed me right away.
00:55:04.140And it was an acting job and I would be there for, you know, the term until they got somebody confirmed.
00:55:12.020And I knew that that might take time, but I was hoping that it would be, you know, 60 days and it turned out to be around four and a half, five months.
00:55:20.720But when I came in originally, I asked to see certain files and I wanted to see everything we had on the Russian collusion narrative.
00:55:31.500So they brought me everything and I spent the weekend and I read it all.
00:55:36.120I looked at everything that we had and all of the reports that were classified and not classified.
00:55:42.280There were a lot of footnotes from reports that were classified, which was very puzzling to me of why footnotes would have to be would have to be classified.
00:55:50.660But I looked at everything and then I did something on my own, which was I went to YouTube and watched some of the public interviews on CNN and MSNBC from some of the people that testified under oath.
00:56:08.180And I would watch the interview publicly and then I would read the transcript and it made me very sad for our country because what was said under oath in the basement of the house with a lawyer sitting next to them was fundamentally different than what they said on CNN.
00:57:49.380I was trying to push a bureaucracy in an agency, not a person, to recognize that they needed to come clean.
00:57:56.540And transparency is not political and it shouldn't be a partisan issue.
00:58:01.900And so I pushed hard and pushed through many of the arguments.
00:58:05.480I did listen to the career staff when they were adamant and when I said, they have a level of truth there that maybe this could be spun as a source or a method.
00:58:43.060You can go to, you know, people can go look at them themselves.
00:58:45.960The problem is, is that the information is now out there.
00:58:50.340You know, the FBI changed information.
00:58:55.640Didn't leave out, actually reversed the information from a positive to a negative or one way or the other and went to a FISA court, lied knowingly.