The Great America Show - BIDEN STUMBLING INTO WAR

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs, and welcome to The Great America Show. Great to have you

00:00:07.940 with us. Do you like mysteries? Well, I hope you do, because we begin today with what is

00:00:12.980 clearly a man of mystery, who's caught up in a web of shadows and intrigue, a think

00:00:18.500 tank official with dual U.S. and Israeli passports. He's accused of being an unregistered foreign

00:00:24.980 agent, working for China, brokering arms sales in Iranian crude oil. And there are new developments

00:00:31.660 in the Department of Justice's eight-count indictment of the vanished, whereabouts-unknown

00:00:37.660 fugitive whistleblower against the Biden family by the name of Gal Luft. There's no doubt Luft is

00:00:44.980 technically a fugitive, because the DOJ has indicted him. But he certainly looks like an innocent man

00:00:51.300 who's the victim of the Marxist Dems DOJ who mean to shut him up. Luft says in 2019 he met with four

00:00:59.560 FBI agents and two assistant U.S. attorneys in Brussels, there to inform them how the Biden family

00:01:06.220 was engaging in a scheme with a Chinese energy company, CEFC. Now, four years later, Biden's

00:01:14.880 Department of Justice has indicted Luft for failing to register as a foreign agent, for working like

00:01:21.160 Hunter Biden, for CEFC. All of this appears more likely to be a straight-out effort to silence Gal Luft

00:01:28.940 for talking with congressional investigators about Biden corruption. The two U.S. attorneys he met with

00:01:35.960 back in 2019 were Catherine Grosh and Daniel Rishenthal. They also now happen to be the two

00:01:43.500 lead prosecutors who've brought the DOJ indictment against him. According to campaign finance records,

00:01:50.960 both Grosh and Rishenthal have contributed heavily to Biden's 2020 campaign and the Democrat National

00:01:58.520 Committee. Grosh made 35 donations in the 2020 election cycle to Biden and the DNC, Rishenthal making

00:02:08.080 campaign contributions to the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign. Both of these assistant U.S. attorneys have

00:02:15.780 investigated CEFC Energy Company since 2017. They were responsible for the prosecution of CEFC executive

00:02:24.360 and Biden associate Patrick Ho. Ho was indicted in 2017 for trying to bribe two African officials

00:02:32.100 on behalf of CEFC and hired Hunter Biden for a $1 million fee to use his FBI connections for intel

00:02:41.280 on the case. According to court transcripts, U.S. attorney Rishenthal asked the judge presiding over

00:02:48.540 the case to redact Biden's name from emails used as evidence. This is what they said, quote,

00:02:55.220 Our view is that the name of that individual is not relevant and could introduce a political

00:03:00.900 dimension to this case that we don't think is worth dealing with. Letting people know that the case

00:03:07.000 involved, Joe Biden and his family certainly would have attracted news media coverage. But they were

00:03:13.620 being awfully cautious for seemingly at the time, not much reason at all. There are 93 U.S. attorneys

00:03:21.060 in the country. They represent the federal government. Yet the same assistant U.S. attorney who protected

00:03:26.980 the Bidens back in 2017 is now the same man presiding over the DOJ case against the Biden whistleblower.

00:03:34.560 Next week, we'll see a lot of big news from Capitol Hill on what the congressional investigating

00:03:40.320 committees have found out from their whistleblowers. Secret Service shuts down its investigation of the

00:03:46.840 Biden White House cocaine caper, saying they can't solve the case, shutting it down in less than two

00:03:52.440 weeks. No suspects. So they're shutting it down. Congressman Greg Stubbe, who's on the Ways and Means

00:03:58.480 Committee, says the Secret Service does know who it is. Here's the congressman's reaction.

00:04:04.560 That's a complete and utter lie. We know darn well. Any reasonable person would know where that came

00:04:11.100 from. Second, just so your listeners understand, I've been to the White House several times when

00:04:16.740 Trump was president. And as a member of Congress, the levels of security checks that you go through

00:04:22.420 to get into that building, especially the West Wing, is phenomenal. You go through multiple different

00:04:28.380 checks, ID, social security numbers, bomb sniffing dogs, different security checkpoints. There's cameras

00:04:35.820 everywhere. They know exactly where people are and when they're there. The only people that don't have

00:04:40.460 to go through that rigorous testing and security protocol is the first family. So there's no way

00:04:46.820 that somebody would have walked into an event at the White House with cocaine on them because they would

00:04:53.100 have seen it through the multiple different sectors of going through metal detectors, having your bag

00:04:58.140 searched, all of those different things. The only people that don't have to do that is the first

00:05:01.860 family. And so now you have the Secret Service, along with all the other agencies in the federal

00:05:05.820 government right now that have been completely weaponized and playing defense for the Biden family.

00:05:11.060 As they say, nothing to see here. Case closed. President Biden back from his almost weeklong trip to

00:05:17.780 London and Vilnius, Lithuania, for the NATO summit. On his way home, he stopped in Helsinki for a meeting

00:05:24.140 with the president of Finland, the newest member of the NATO alliance. There, Biden was asked by a

00:05:29.960 Finnish reporter about America's commitment to NATO. Here's the president's response.

00:05:35.000 In Washington, a bipartisan group of senators has repeatedly failed to pass through Senate a law that

00:05:43.120 would prevent future U.S. presidents from withdrawing from NATO without Senate's approval. What actions

00:05:50.140 will you take to assure Finland that the U.S. will remain a reliable NATO partner for decades to come?

00:05:57.220 I absolutely guarantee it. There is no question. There's overwhelming support from the American people.

00:06:03.440 There's overwhelming support from the members of the Congress, both House and Senate. In both

00:06:08.780 parties, notwithstanding the fact that there's some extreme elements of one party, we will stand

00:06:14.000 together. The American people known for the end of World War II and the formation of NATO, that our

00:06:20.720 security rests in the unanimity among European and transatlantic partner, us. And so this is, you know,

00:06:29.500 no one can guarantee the future. But this is the best bet anyone could make.

00:06:34.520 Hearing this answer that no one can guarantee a future, are you worried that the political

00:06:39.560 instability in U.S. will cause issues in the alliance in the future?

00:06:44.760 Let me be clear. I didn't say we didn't guarantee it. We couldn't guarantee the future.

00:06:49.060 You can't tell me whether you're going to be able to go home tonight. No one can be sure what

00:06:52.660 they're going to do. I'm saying as sure as anything can possibly be said about American

00:06:58.040 foreign policy, we will stay connected to NATO. Connected to NATO beginning, middle and end.

00:07:04.340 We're a transatlantic partnership. That's what I've said.

00:07:08.000 Former President Trump is concerned about Biden's performance and his limitations.

00:07:13.320 The former president says Biden is dragging us into World War III by sending Ukraine

00:07:17.920 cluster bombs. And it gets worse. Upon boarding Air Force One, Biden went even further to say he's

00:07:25.180 now open to sending Ukraine long-range missiles capable of striking Russia. No one can reasonably

00:07:31.800 say President Trump has it wrong, Biden putting world conflict in high probability. Let's bring in

00:07:38.440 our guest today to take all of this up. Joining us now is Army retired Lieutenant Colonel Tony Schaefer

00:07:43.780 and author, radio host and China expert Gordon Chang. Gentlemen, great to have you with us to wrap up

00:07:50.020 the week, an extraordinary week with the president at the NATO summit and all that's ensued. Gordon,

00:07:55.580 your thoughts first on what did come out of the NATO discussions. It seemed like a lot of disappointment

00:08:00.960 for a lot of people. Well, Sweden looks like it's going to become a NATO member, although Turkey right 1.00

00:08:08.100 now is still dragging its feet on a number of issues. But we're moving towards resolution. And of course,

00:08:15.160 if we look at the broader perspective, President Erdogan had actually blocked Finland also. But

00:08:21.360 Finland now is a member. And that's because of some coercive diplomacy on the part of Washington and

00:08:29.280 Brussels. A couple of things about the meeting. One of them is that Ukraine, of course, is disappointed

00:08:35.780 that it has not become a NATO member. But of course, it couldn't become a member in the middle

00:08:41.680 of a war. But I think that President Zelensky is pleased that he did get some undefined security

00:08:49.780 guarantees. And those will be important going forward. In the Nordic meeting, which is now just

00:08:57.620 wrapping up, it looks like the NATO alliance really is solidifying, which is a good thing.

00:09:05.000 And again, in the broader context, Putin has got to be disturbed that his northern flank is now going

00:09:13.680 to be all NATO colored. So it is going to be a very difficult time for Russia going forward. 0.73

00:09:19.880 His northern flank, the eastern flank, as you say, solidified. We have troops, well over 100,000 of

00:09:28.140 U.S. troops deployed along that eastern flank. The NATO conference takes place, the summit in

00:09:34.940 Vilnius, in Lithuania, bordering Russia. I mean, this could be construed as very provocative stuff.

00:09:44.080 What do you think? Well, the problem is that for Putin is that NATO would not have come together

00:09:51.140 were it not for Putin's threatening moves when you go back to Georgia in 2008, Crimea 2014,

00:09:57.760 and of course, the invasion last year. These are sovereign countries, Lou, and they wanted to become

00:10:04.900 members of NATO. And we couldn't force them to. But they see that because of Russian aggression,

00:10:12.360 they really have no choice. So this, I think, is the result of bad policy in Moscow.

00:10:19.020 Tony?

00:10:19.560 So I appreciate Gordon's perspective, but my concern is, and I'm not pro-Russian,

00:10:26.500 that very things we're talking about being very good news for NATO, I think, is going to be seen

00:10:33.620 to inflame Putin and not only Putin, Russian basic fears of being potentially surrounded by those

00:10:44.260 countries which do not share their interests. I'm not pro-Putin. I'm just simply stating that the

00:10:50.380 Russians have a paranoia that goes back to Tsar Alexander, I believe, based on some of the things

00:10:56.960 that happened two centuries ago, back in the 19th century, even before that. So when you see

00:11:07.960 NATO closing in based on the agreement of 1995, I think it was one of the agreements made

00:11:13.540 to basically create conditions for Ukraine to be independent. When you look at that, the agreement

00:11:19.940 was NATO wouldn't move east, it has. Things like that play well to the Russian public. And that's

00:11:29.420 why Putin is so popular right now. A lot of the Russian public believes that Putin is doing things

00:11:34.300 to protect them. And if you can actually point to aggressive things by NATO, by those nations who

00:11:39.880 violated agreements with Russia, Putin is going to win this domestically every time. And again,

00:11:44.520 I'm not pro-Putin. I'm simply trying to call balls and strikes here. And as much as I think

00:11:51.000 this is something that's positive, some of the other things that Gordon said I think do not

00:11:56.520 necessarily bode well for Ukraine. And let me go through this real quick. There was no clear path

00:12:02.360 given to Ukraine. The membership action plan, which is often the path forward for folks, was basically

00:12:09.220 said, oh, you don't need that. The only positive thing that they did to reframe the Ukrainian issue

00:12:14.180 as far as I'm concerned is, and Lou, I think this is laughable, as you and I would agree. I think

00:12:19.280 this is a bureaucratic move to upgrade the NATO-Ukraine study committee from a committee to a

00:12:26.420 council. Oh, you know, now it's a council, not just a committee. And while Gordon correctly said there

00:12:32.460 was conditions and guarantees mentioned, nobody actually defined what the conditions are for

00:12:37.240 membership, nor what the guarantees are going to be. Very dangerous thing. So leaving these dangling

00:12:43.240 participles out there, I don't think serves anybody well. And I think simply, there's too 1.00

00:12:48.660 many, to quote my old friend Don Rumsfeld, too many unknown unknowns to make me feel comfortable

00:12:54.560 with what came out of that. But Tony, if we look at the broader context, if NATO didn't come together

00:13:02.000 now, what would have been the message received in Beijing? And I think one of the important things

00:13:07.140 here is that as NATO does solidify, and I agree with you, it should have, you know, it should have

00:13:13.920 done been more specific on stuff. But the point is that as Europe and the United States draw closer

00:13:20.800 together, as we see a solidification of the alliance, as we see the alliance become more effective,

00:13:27.280 the point is always going to be in Beijing. They don't want that happening to them. And so

00:13:32.380 there is, I think, some beneficial effect there. Now, having said that, it's not good that France 0.78

00:13:38.080 blocked the establishment of a NATO office in Japan. But, you know, we're at a point right now where

00:13:44.660 I can understand where we talk about, well, maybe Russia is going to be upset about this. But we're

00:13:51.320 well beyond that right now, because we're on the doorstep of war, and we need to be making preparations

00:13:56.500 to protect ourselves and our friends and allies. And we're not moving with the requisite speed.

00:14:02.960 This is one of the most dangerous periods in history. And there's a lack of appreciation of

00:14:07.680 that in the United States, not only in the Biden administration, but across the American political

00:14:12.420 spectrum. Well, Gordon, don't don't take my comments as being anti NATO. I'm not. I mean,

00:14:16.700 I know. I'm just saying, you know, I'm just trying I'm trying to get perspective from the Russian side

00:14:21.340 that people need to understand that the Russians don't see things like we do at this point.

00:14:24.720 Well, the Russians at this point are also making a lot of noise from from Belarus. Belarus is now

00:14:32.500 suddenly a very difficult to puppet state to to contemplate. It is certainly has nuclear tactical

00:14:42.880 nuclear weapons have been shipped by Russia to Belarus. They're on the doorstep, if you will, of NATO.

00:14:48.660 They are also right next door to the Baltic states. And the Kremlin is saying straight out,

00:14:58.880 this is a very dangerous move that has taken place and in Vilnius as a result of the summit. And it to me

00:15:08.580 augurs very poorly for constructive pathways to try to resolve both the war against Ukraine and a way

00:15:17.980 forward for the for NATO and a strong, productive alliance with Moscow.

00:15:25.200 Well, well, let me I'll jump in first on this. The nuclear issue to me should be our focus.

00:15:32.020 One of the things that Russia has said, they're not going to lose the war. And to me, that's a kind

00:15:37.640 of a dog whistle for saying we'll use nukes if we have to defend ourselves and quote unquote defending

00:15:43.720 themselves is a pretty broad comment of policy that I don't know if they define that. And I don't think

00:15:50.540 they will. But this is the problem with the current situation. The guy who has to be leading this

00:15:56.580 is Joe Biden. Joe Biden. And let me read you an article that came out last week, Luke, because this

00:16:03.720 is regarding Belarus and I think the overall situation. The Daily Telegraph in the UK did

00:16:09.940 an article. I think it was on Thursday last week before. I mean, I'm sorry, I don't mean to for the

00:16:14.100 time of taping right before the right before the summit. The Daily Telegraph article, the world's

00:16:20.940 worst diplomat, Joe Biden. Joe Biden has a well-earned reputation of being a crude, narcissistic 0.96

00:16:26.900 politician who exudes incredible arrogance with limited understanding of many foreign policy 0.95

00:16:31.080 issues. This is a good news part of the article. He's taken a wreck and ball to America's most

00:16:36.180 important international relationship. So my reason for staying at this point in our discussion

00:16:40.840 is the very guy who has to be the adult in the room to actually help us negotiate and get

00:16:46.200 back to being influential to prevent the potential miscalculations which may lead to a nuclear

00:16:52.560 exchange is a guy that nobody, that even our allies don't depend upon. And this is where

00:16:58.160 I agree with Gordon that it was important for us to show resolve with NATO. But the guy who actually

00:17:03.300 has to show up and do things thinks that Russia invaded Iraq and things like that is just not a good

00:17:08.920 thing. Yeah, let's be direct. I mean, this would be akin, sending Joe Biden to the summit in Vilnius

00:17:18.260 would be just as if the UK had decided suddenly to send Queen Elizabeth to the G20. It makes no sense

00:17:27.440 because we know better than to even remotely contemplate the idea that he's actually in charge.

00:17:33.140 He is not. And his policies are not his. There's someone behind the curtain pulling all of these

00:17:41.940 strings. We're going to continue with Tony Schaefer and Gordon Chang. What is China up to? And just how

00:17:48.560 embarrassed must President Xi be about his strategic partner in Moscow? We'll be right back.

00:17:55.420 We're back with Tony Schaefer and Gordon Chang. And I want to just turn very quickly

00:18:05.800 to the issue for China. Now in economic doldrums, pressures are mounting across sectors and markets

00:18:14.720 in China, as well as a huge embarrassment with President Xi's strategic partner,

00:18:22.740 mired in now a more than 500-day war with a much smaller nation that is, of course, Ukraine.

00:18:32.020 What do you think, Gordon? Is it getting worse for Xi or is this transitory?

00:18:38.580 I think it is actually getting worse for Xi. One of the things, though, it should be much worse than it

00:18:45.360 is because going back to what Tony was saying about Joe Biden's leadership, the United States is not

00:18:51.900 imposing costs on China for supplying lethal aid to Russia. From the very beginning of this war,

00:18:58.960 Biden drew a red line of China supplying such assistance. And from the very beginning of this

00:19:05.080 war, China has supplied such assistance and is supplying even more now. The Chinese know they're 0.99

00:19:11.900 doing that. The Chinese know that we know they're doing that. And so what Beijing is taking away from

00:19:17.820 this is that American warnings on Ukraine are hollow. And we know that when democracies issue hollow

00:19:24.580 warnings, bad things always happen. This is how World War II in Europe started, with Britain and France

00:19:31.600 issuing hollow warnings on all sorts of things, beginning with the remilitarization of the Rhineland

00:19:36.940 in 1936. And we know that from the archives that Germany did not believe the warnings from London and Paris

00:19:44.200 about invading Poland. So I'm not saying that we're going to start World War III in Europe because of Biden's

00:19:51.040 failure to enforce his warnings. But I am saying this is extremely dangerous and anything can happen.

00:19:56.480 And to carry on with Gordon's point, I couldn't agree more with his framing of the issue.

00:20:03.440 One of the other things that I think this administration, the Biden administration has been

00:20:07.480 fabulous in is making excuses for their own failures. Like Gordon said, they will not enforce

00:20:12.500 the very policies that they are important to them. And if you examine the Afghanistan format, how they

00:20:20.640 failed. I don't believe that failure was was accidental. That wasn't a failure. It was a planned demolition of

00:20:29.880 the Afghanistan policy, as well as leading that war in a way that that created chaos. And I fear the same for the

00:20:39.700 Pacific. And let me give you something to think about. First off, they publicly acknowledged there's been 41, 41

00:20:47.800 draws from our strategic national stock. That is to say, if we go to war, we have a very big military,

00:20:54.700 as we all know. That military requires beans, bullets and high tech weapons. We have raided the

00:21:02.300 pantry, Lou, to the point of where we have nothing left. Jake Sullivan's admitted this. Joe Biden's

00:21:07.820 admitted this. We have nothing left for our own forces should we be faced with a contingency operation

00:21:12.900 to go into the Pacific, into Taiwan. This concerns me. I'm sure Gordon shares my concern. But I don't

00:21:19.820 think this is accidental. I think they have raided the pantry for purposes of creating a crisis within

00:21:26.440 our own ranks for to use the excuse if they have to. Oh, see, we can't really defend Taiwan because 0.93

00:21:32.860 we've already we've already given all of our stuff away. We don't want to jeopardize American lives by not

00:21:38.960 being prepared. They have purposely made the policy of not being prepared a centerpiece of their of what

00:21:44.580 they're doing. And this is where I think we need to be very concerned. And again, this didn't happen

00:21:48.720 overnight. If people go back and look at the tapes, we've been talking about this for at least a year

00:21:53.560 about the fact that there was the appearance that the Biden administration was using our muscle,

00:21:58.500 our military muscle to support a non-NATO ally. And I think now it's come to the point of where,

00:22:04.380 Lou, if China after after Tony Blinken said we don't care about the democracy in Taiwan and now we're faced

00:22:12.800 with military lack within our own system that's been acknowledged. I am not a neocon, as I always say,

00:22:21.260 but I don't believe in weakness that would would encourage an adversary to be aggressive.

00:22:25.900 And I think that's what we see here with this this really wackadoodle foreign policy that the Biden

00:22:30.340 administration has in place. And we are, of course, fully cognizant of just how impaired

00:22:36.960 and what a puppet this president is. But we're left with, as you say, Tony, staring all of us in

00:22:43.740 the face, a purposeful drawdown of the strategic petroleum reserves and some of that oil going to

00:22:50.100 the people's republic as well, on top of everything else. The Biden administration has not made a

00:22:56.280 rational or even a weak attempt at explaining to the American public why they've been drawing those

00:23:03.460 reserves down. There is no need to do so. There is adequate oil. Prices are low enough. It's a very

00:23:10.980 strange position. But at the same time, the ammunition and the munitions that have been drawn

00:23:17.740 down by the U.S. military, this is irresponsible. And President Biden this past week, making a clumsy,

00:23:26.600 stupid remark about the fact we would we wouldn't be sending cluster bombs if we had more of the 1.00

00:23:32.900 ammunition we really need. But we don't. Exactly. I mean, I mean, it's incredible that he made that 1.00

00:23:37.940 that statement. And even the military acknowledged it was revealing intelligence that should never have

00:23:44.100 been released to the public. Your thoughts, Gordon?

00:23:47.740 Oh, absolutely, Lou. And to go back to one of your earlier points about the Chinese economy,

00:23:55.100 I believe that war is becoming more and more likely. And it's the time frame for China is moving up. 0.96

00:24:04.140 And the reason is we are seeing some dire numbers come out of China. So, for instance, on Thursday of

00:24:10.580 this week, you know, the wrap up for the week, China's trade numbers were released and they were much

00:24:17.120 worse than anybody thought. Exports fell something like 12.4 percent year on year off of a very low

00:24:25.280 base in 2022. But even more significant, imports fell 6.8 percent year on year, again, off of a low

00:24:33.800 base. And imports which show domestic demand have now been down for nine straight months and 10 of the

00:24:41.020 last 11. And that shows the Chinese economy is contracting. This confirms very weak price data

00:24:48.120 that has come out of China also this week. And so basically, Xi Jinping has a choice now. He can

00:24:54.740 let the economy erode and let the Communist Party fail or he can go to war. And while he's facing this

00:25:03.700 choice, he's actually trying to pick a fight in the Philippines, in Reed Bank, in the South China Sea,

00:25:09.880 trying to seize those features from Manila. So this is one of those extraordinarily dangerous times where

00:25:17.620 we can find ourselves in a fight immediately. Because remember, the Philippines is a treaty ally.

00:25:23.280 We have an Article V obligation to defend the Philippines. And China right now is trying to break

00:25:28.820 apart that archipelago. So this is a this week type of thing, not something that, you know,

00:25:35.080 we can talk about in 2025 or later. So, yeah, while the president is drawing down strategic reserves,

00:25:43.560 as Tony said, we're getting closer and closer to actual combat. Well, that your statement about

00:25:50.700 timeframes, we don't have a week, we don't have a month. Going back to those hysterical

00:25:56.380 comparisons that both of you made concerning European wars in, you know, more than a half

00:26:05.200 century ago, going back centuries, this the important distinction is not simply the technology,

00:26:11.200 not simply the power structure of a global order. But the fact is, there won't be a year and a half

00:26:20.060 for the United States to ramp up from civilian production to military production, munitions,

00:26:26.880 all sorts of advanced weaponry, that either we have it, and we're ready to use it because this

00:26:33.640 will be a flash war. I believe it will be a flash war because of hypersonic missiles, because of all

00:26:40.240 of the forward positioning of tactical weapons, as well as strategic ballistic missiles. And I'm talking

00:26:46.660 about nuclear missiles, of course, as well, because the United States doesn't have a conventional

00:26:52.920 option. If we go to war with China, it will be without any doubt whatsoever, in my mind, Tony, 0.87

00:27:00.440 a nuclear war. So that's one of the reasons we pull out of the INF Treaty, wisely, I believe,

00:27:07.740 the INF Treaty being that which we signed in the late 1980s under Reagan, reducing the intermediate 0.99

00:27:14.040 range missiles. And we lived up to that. Unfortunately, the Russians and Chinese did not. 1.00

00:27:18.760 So I think the tactical, that intermediate nuclear weapon that we did not have, they do. So we've

00:27:24.220 reintroduced that. And at that point, Lou, yeah, I think we have a real danger of having to deal with

00:27:29.560 something we are not prepared to deal with. And within the context of history, the United States

00:27:36.520 spent a great deal of time thinking through a war with Japan during the 1920 to 1940 timeframe.

00:27:43.600 We do not have similar strategic thinking going on right now that I know of in any military college

00:27:50.740 or within any office of the Pentagon, which I am literally talking to former general officers

00:27:57.560 about trying this to change. And I'm not convinced that the Pentagon wants to be prepared this time

00:28:02.820 based on what I'm seeing.

00:28:04.320 Whatever their motivation or whatever their capacities, it is two things are clear about this

00:28:09.780 very dangerous, this perilous moment in which we live. We have the weakest civilian leadership of

00:28:15.660 our military in this country's history. We have the weakest military leadership in this country's

00:28:21.560 history. That is not anything less than an awful thing to contemplate. We'll be back with Tony

00:28:29.680 Schaefer with Gordon Chang. Stay with us.

00:28:37.660 We're back now with Tony Schaefer and Gordon Chang. Gordon, let's turn to what seems to be a mixed 1.00

00:28:44.860 signal emanating from Beijing. The bellicose rhetoric, all of the chest pounding that they've been doing.

00:28:53.500 And suddenly she is talking about how important trade is, trying to convince and persuade trading

00:29:00.400 partners that trade is critically important to China. Of course, he's right. But he's acknowledging

00:29:05.600 it publicly, emphasizing it. And this now sounds like an entirely different path he's on over just

00:29:11.460 the last three, four weeks.

00:29:13.320 Yeah, well, it's interesting. There's two Xi Jinping's right now. There's the one who is saying,

00:29:17.800 I need foreign money. And, you know, in China right now, they're talking about this being the year of

00:29:22.860 foreign investment because their situation now is dire. And there is, you know, they've got structural

00:29:30.340 problems that they can't deal with. Essentially, what's happening is in 2008, they decided not to

00:29:35.480 have a downturn. So they embarked on what I think is the biggest stimulus program in history. And now

00:29:41.180 they're having their 2008 and they don't know what to do. But at the same time, Lou, we hear another

00:29:46.720 Xi Jinping. And for instance, last week, when on the day that Janet Yellen arrived in the

00:29:52.840 in Beijing, which was the Thursday, Xi Jinping himself put on military green, he went to the

00:29:58.980 Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army. That's the command that would lead the

00:30:03.780 invasion of Japan, Taiwan, or the Philippines. And he gave another one of his, let's go to war

00:30:09.960 speeches. So right now, I think that we have a China which could probably start some sort of 0.83

00:30:18.040 conflict because the Chinese leader realizes how bad the situation inside the country is.

00:30:23.620 And just to mention, you know, Tony's friend, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, you know,

00:30:30.280 Rumsfeld is famous for saying many things. And one of them is you go to war with the military that you

00:30:36.760 have at the moment. And as Tony has just said, the military we have at the moment is not the military

00:30:43.740 that we really want right now. Because as you said, at the end of last segment, this is not a time

00:30:50.440 where you can actually do what we did in the 1930s. And during the first years of World War Two,

00:30:57.100 which is to build up the military to fight that same war. As you point out, this is going to be a

00:31:03.000 flash war. And it's go back to 1991, that the last time the United States won, clearly won a military

00:31:13.840 conflict against smaller adversaries, the Iraq-Persian Gulf War. And to imagine that we would

00:31:24.940 have time to position a half a million service members halfway around the world, I think is pure

00:31:34.760 nonsense. This country either has the sense to understand, our leadership has the sense to

00:31:40.340 understand what these limitations are and what the responsibilities are. We're in very big trouble.

00:31:47.320 I vote very big trouble is what we're in because of the quality of the leadership in the military and

00:31:52.140 the civilian leadership. And to think that Russia is going to just continue to put up with what is

00:32:01.180 now, by the way, I should just point out, we've just got a wire in that Biden is now considering

00:32:09.020 long-range missiles being sent by the United States directly to the Ukraine. I mean, this is

00:32:14.700 approaching outright madness, Tony.

00:32:16.980 So, I've said before on this program, I say it again, because I think it's appropriate. Tactics

00:32:22.720 without strategy is the noise before defeat. That's what Sun Tzu said. That's what we see

00:32:26.760 being executed. We're just throwing stuff into Ukraine. Well, let's try a tricycle. Let's see 0.99

00:32:32.980 if tricycles will threaten the Russians. It's insane. It's without purpose. And I, again, go back to my

00:32:39.560 original premise in the first segment of the show. They're doing this purposely to weaken us.

00:32:42.960 They're just throwing stuff out there and hoping for the best. And I don't think they want to win.

00:32:46.980 If you, you know, and I've said this, I'm, I am neutral. I don't believe we should be supporting

00:32:51.620 either side. But if you're trying, if you are one of those that believes we ought to be helping Ukraine

00:32:55.760 win, they ain't doing it. They ain't, they purposely are not helping, trying to help Ukraine win. And I

00:33:01.740 would argue that going the other way, when you examine the lack of focus on what we know we should be

00:33:08.740 focused on, it's a, it should be concerning all Americans. And as Gordon said, as you said,

00:33:14.480 Lou, we, during the, the, the, the between war years of 1920 to 1940, there was at least exercises

00:33:24.480 done to examine what would happen. And as much as I disagree with much of FDR's policies, at least he

00:33:30.680 had allowed the military to move forward with being prepared to go to war. And I know that he's

00:33:36.460 supposedly wanted to keep us out of the war. I'm not convinced he actually did, but they at least 1.00

00:33:41.620 had put together contingency plans. Something called Plan Orange was the, the, the agreed upon

00:33:47.740 response that we United States would take should Japan do something. We, it was effective. We 0.78

00:33:54.080 actually had our military industrial might kind of ramped up and ready to go. By the way, that's one

00:33:58.840 of the reasons we're so far behind is because Russia never fully abandoned a wartime contingency for their

00:34:05.700 economy. They're, they're back on war footing and they're producing all sorts of stuff. We couldn't

00:34:09.560 do that to, to your point and Gordon's point. We have no ability to generate the, an adequate amount

00:34:15.640 of strategic materials or weapons or ammunition to actually meet the needs of the Ukrainians. Think

00:34:21.640 about this. This is, this is not even a full war and we can't meet the requirements, let alone the

00:34:26.400 idea that we would actually take on a near peer or peer as regarding China. So we are not prepared.

00:34:33.220 And I don't think it's by accident. I don't think we're weak by, by inattention, Lou. I think

00:34:39.340 we're weak by policy. It's a policy to be weak at this point in time.

00:34:43.780 Yeah. When, when an administration regime, if you will, the Biden regime annihilates the Southern

00:34:50.900 border invites in whoever would like to cross without, without any kind of inspection. We don't

00:34:58.940 want to slow anyone down as they go to work, you know, God knows where as the Biden administration

00:35:04.220 is, is distributing, uh, all of these millions of people have come in and just two and a half

00:35:11.040 years and millions more expected. Uh, we also have a military that is facing 25% gaps in their recruiting.

00:35:21.620 They haven't, they're not getting the people they need. They're losing the people they desperately

00:35:27.380 need talented, experienced service members, officers, non-coms, as well as enlisted who should

00:35:34.640 be staying. And they're leaving because of the ignorance of this administration. And this is,

00:35:40.420 this is a national news media that is complicit. This is a Republican party that has been acquiescent.

00:35:47.520 And all of this blame cannot simply be put at the feet of Joe Biden, although he is the principal

00:35:53.320 actor. It is also the, the Marxist Dem led democratic party. And as I said, the quiescent, uh, retiring,

00:36:02.380 uh, rhino Republicans, uh, who have just basically knelt down, uh, before these idiotic policies and lack 1.00

00:36:10.760 of strategies. Your thought, Gordon. Yeah. I'd like to just pick up on what you said about the border 1.00

00:36:16.940 Lou, because, you know, we're seeing an unprecedented surge of Chinese migrants. You know, most of them 1.00

00:36:23.520 are who they say they are. They just, they've given up on China and they want to move someplace else.

00:36:29.620 And, you know, these are not poor Chinese. These are people who can afford to pay $35,000 ahead to

00:36:35.280 the cartels in addition to other costs of getting here. But among that group, Lou, are packs of males of

00:36:42.880 military age. They're groups traveling in groups between five and 15. Um, some are known to have

00:36:49.460 Chinese military affiliations. They're pretending not to speak English. And some of them are engaging

00:36:55.780 in Chinese military rituals. Um, and these folks are just being led into the United States. Um, 0.96

00:37:03.800 I don't think there's any efforts to track them once they're, um, let's say, get through the border

00:37:08.840 processing. And by the way, we are starting to see Chinese migrants trying to sneak into Guam

00:37:14.560 where they're, um, critical American military installations that would, uh, be, uh, involved

00:37:21.480 in a war in Asia. So, um, the Biden administration is just allowing these individuals to come in the

00:37:27.540 United States. And these are saboteurs. I believe these are the people who are going to be assassinating

00:37:33.400 our officials and blowing up our grid, poisoning our water, detonating bombs in shopping centers, 0.67

00:37:40.760 releasing pathogens, and God knows what else. Well, Tony, uh, your concluding thoughts, uh,

00:37:47.120 is, is we, you both wrap up, uh, uh, this episode of the great America show. We appreciate you both

00:37:54.200 being with us, Tony, take it away. So I agree with everything Gordon just said. We have to recognize

00:37:59.300 the Chinese decided as a policy, PRC has decided as a policy, they're at war with us. It doesn't

00:38:04.240 matter what we think, it's what they think. And we are not responding adequately to understand

00:38:08.160 there's a existential threat that we are ignoring. Um, and not only is Gordon correct regarding the

00:38:13.660 immigration, migration, uh, into the country illegal or otherwise by the Chinese. The one thing 1.00

00:38:20.000 that we continue to ignore that every community in the United States is being affected by is what I

00:38:25.260 call the mass weapon of weapon of mass destruction called fentanyl. Not a single community is, is,

00:38:31.460 has been immune from it. People are dying, uh, in numbers that are unimaginable. And, and to me,

00:38:37.740 that's an act of war, but it seems to me we're only a handful of us are talking about the realities

00:38:44.100 which we face rather than, uh, the fiction that the Biden administration seems to be, uh, pushing on

00:38:49.920 the American people. So I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you and with you, Lou and Gordon.

00:38:55.120 I, I, God bless you, Gordon. I always appreciate our time together talking about this, but I wish,

00:39:00.620 I hope we can continue to try to wake people up to the real issues and threats we actually do face

00:39:05.960 as a nation. Well, we're certainly going to keep trying. Tony Schaefer. Thanks so much. Gordon

00:39:10.120 Chang. Thank you very much. And we appreciate it. God bless you both. Thanks, Lou. Tony Schaefer,

00:39:16.740 Gordon Chang. Thank you both for taking the time to close out the week with us here on the Great

00:39:20.760 America show. Our guests next week include Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, former DC police

00:39:26.680 chief Stephen Sund, who witnessed January 6th up close. Businessman Chris Tagani, who went to prison

00:39:34.180 because he donated to the Bidens, prosecuted by the same U.S. attorney who gave Hunter Biden a pass.

00:39:41.880 Please join us. It's a big week next week. Follow me on Twitter and Truth Social at Lou Dobbs.

00:39:46.780 That's at Lou Dobbs. And on Facebook and Instagram at Lou Dobbs tonight. That's at Lou Dobbs tonight. And be

00:39:54.540 sure to check out our all new website, loudobs.com for all your latest news and headlines. Thanks,

00:40:01.100 everybody. God bless you. May God bless America.

The Great America Show - July 14, 2023

BIDEN STUMBLING INTO WAR

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