WHISPER WHEN YOU SAY CHINA
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Summary
Welcome to The Great America Show with Lou Dobbs, always in the fight for truth, justice, and yes, our American way of life. This podcast will take account of both political parties and do its best to keep America great.
Transcript
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Great America podcast with Lou Dobbs, always in the fight for
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truth, justice, and yes, our American way of life. And now here he is, the Peabody award-winning
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voice of truth, the great Lou Dobbs. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Lou Dobbs podcast,
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the Great America show. That's right, great America. I believe America is great. It has
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been and always will be. Here, you and I will hear the thinking of elected officials and politicians.
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This podcast will take account of both political parties and do its best to keep America great.
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I've always believed that education is the single strongest force for equality in our society.
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We'll hear from educators, parents, teachers, even from politicians and academics who are in the fight
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to ensure, of course, the best opportunities for all Americans. And we're here to ensure that all
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Americans have an equal and square shot at the American dream. We'll focus on the issues and
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events that matter most to working Americans, small business owners, the American family,
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and the governance of our great nation. I'm one of the millions and millions of Americans who's had
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the good fortune to live the American dream. Both my parents worked and taught me the value of hard
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work, to respect anyone who worked, no matter their job or their pay, and to be grateful for all that
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America has afforded generations of Americans, opportunity for education and work and safety for
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their families and security for this nation. To be grateful for our freedom, our individual liberties,
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the freedom to fulfill our dreams to succeed. We sometimes stumble, we sometimes fail, but we
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always strive to be deserving of our many gifts and opportunities. To try hard to help our country
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and our families to build on all the achievements of generations of Americans who preceded us. I've been
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in the public arena for more than four decades now. I've always worked as a journalist, opinion host of
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TV and radio shows. I've authored columns and a few books. Among them, War on the Middle Class,
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Upheaval, Exporting America, Independence Day, and the Trump Century. All deal with life in America,
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work, politics, and economics. Central to this podcast will be the welfare of American workers,
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their families, and of course, the threats to our way of life and this great republic.
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So let's begin, taking up the issues that matter most to Americans and this great nation.
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We'll start with the single greatest challenge and threat to U.S. national security and global
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stability. Of course, I'm talking about communist China. China's Air Force is carrying out an
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unprecedented number of large-scale, intrusive, and provocative missions into the Taiwan defense
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zone. And the Chinese Navy continues to assert Chinese dominion over the South China Sea and a
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number of islands that are claimed by a number of Asian nations in addition to China. And the U.S.
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Navy is continuing its freedom of navigation missions to support our allies and to keep shipping lanes
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open to Western fleets and commercial transport of critical global oil supplies. And as tensions rise in
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the South China Sea, the Chinese are building their nuclear arsenal at a rapid rate. They're quickly
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catching up to Russia, to Europe, and of course, the United States in space launches. And China appears to
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have taken the lead in development of hypersonic missiles. And in their most recent test, shocked
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Western intelligence agencies when they flew a hypersonic missile around the planet, a missile that
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missed its target by only 25 miles. U.S. news media is paying little attention to these developments,
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focused as they are more on, we'll call them cultural issues here at home. And of course, supporting the
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Biden administration agenda, no matter how wrongheaded or subversive of U.S. interests, whether in
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economic, social, or national security policies. But no one studies the communist Chinese threats to this
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country and our allies with a deeper understanding of their motives and strategic goals than does
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Gatestone Institute's Gordon Chang. Gordon is a lawyer, author, columnist. He worked and lived in China and Hong Kong
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for almost two decades. And I've known him for the better part of 20 years. Gordon, it's great to have
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you on the show. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on. This is just such a great
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honor for me, Lou. Yes, you're right. The United States is not acknowledging it. Biden talks about China
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as a competitor. China is not a competitor. It's not even an adversary. It's an enemy. And we know that,
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Lou, because that's what China calls us. In May 2019, in People's Daily, the most authoritative
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publication in China carried a piece that declared a, quote unquote, people's war. In August, there were
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a number of pieces that in People's Daily and Global Times, which People's Daily controls, which
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went after the U.S. in the most malicious terms. There's no question about it. China believes that they
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have a war against us. They want to subvert our society. They want to take down America.
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And we're not acknowledging it. Not acknowledging it, but our intelligence agencies, our Department
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of Defense, of all people, absolutely stunned when the Chinese launched a hypersonic missile
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missile. And it went entirely around the globe and then fired to hit a target. It missed that target
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by only 24 miles. And our intelligence agency were sufficiently brave to admit they had no idea that
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they could do that, the Chinese. And it was an admission that I found almost as stunning as the fact
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that the Chinese do have a hypersonic missile. Well, this highlights that the U.S. intelligence
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community has completely failed when it comes to China. And it's completely failed for a number of
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reasons. But the most important one, though, is political direction, that we've had a series of
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presidents, especially the current one, who doesn't see China as the main threat. You know, Biden talks
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about climate change. You know, Obama talked about Russia. Well, it's not climate change. It's not
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Russia. It's China. China is so much more of a threat to the U.S. And we didn't see this hypersonic
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glide weapon because we didn't want to see it. Well, we know that that some of our military industrial
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complex is involved in building a hypersonic missile manufacturing one. The design race is obviously
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on, at least within the complex. But right now, there is no indication whatsoever that we have
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anything remotely competitive to what the Chinese Communist Party just demonstrated worldwide.
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Yes, you're right. Even before we knew that they could orbit something, we were years, probably a
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half decade behind what we thought China had. Now, you know, we could be as much as a decade. And
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remember, this hypersonic glide weapon actually can drop down with virtually no notice and nuke an
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American city. So we don't have any warning that this is coming. And clearly, we are now very much
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at risk. You know, we have ballistic missiles. They got nuclear weapons at the tips. This can deter
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China. But deterrence is eroding because China is miles ahead of us. I think it would be an interesting
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poll, don't you, to ask the American people if they think this president would respond to an attack
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by the Chinese against the United States. I think there's great doubt out there that this president
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is capable of protecting the interest of American citizens, the interest of the United States.
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We know that he isn't. I mean, just look at the fall of Kabul. We saw a president who purposely decided
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not to rescue and save American citizens who were trapped in Afghanistan. And now we're getting all
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sorts of excuses from him, from the Secretary of State. This is one of the worst episodes in American
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history. This is just shameful, Lou. And this has adverse geopolitical consequences that we will feel
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for years and years and years as we've emboldened enemies and we've disheartened our friends and our
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allies. And the nation is all but ignoring it. And when I say the nation, I'm referring to the
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left-wing national media, ignoring the threat that China poses to the United States, even as we
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read the headlines that a man and his wife, a federal contractor, sought to sell secrets about the
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submarines, nuclear submarines, to an unknown nation. We all have some suspicions, of course, about which
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nation. But this is the kind of thing that's going on almost weekly. And they did so, they say,
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out of a motivation because they didn't like Donald Trump. That displeasure on their part
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extended, obviously, their hatred of America to do such a thing, to even contemplate it, let alone
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carry it out, which they had begun doing. Your reaction to the threat that China poses to the United
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States and the reasons why our national media are so impervious, so unaware, or at least
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in denial about those threats. Yeah. You know, we need to be clear. You know, Chinese leaders have
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been telling us for more than a decade that they believe that China is the world's only sovereign
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state, which would make the United States subservient, essentially a colony. And we know that China has
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tried to foment violence on American streets. They did that last year. That's more than just
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subversion, Lou. That's an act of war. But also, we got to remember that however COVID-19 started,
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Xi Jinping turned this into a biological weapon by lying about contagiousness, by pressuring other
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countries to not impose travel restrictions and quarantines on arrivals from China. So he deliberately
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spread this disease beyond China's borders. That's about 730,000 American deaths now.
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4.9 million deaths worldwide. Fentanyl deaths last year, Lou, about 53,000. That was purposeful on the
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part of the Chinese regime, which has backed these criminal gangs. So China's killing Americans,
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and I don't understand why this media doesn't understand what's occurring.
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And to Gordon's point, when he talks about fentanyl, the most dangerous drug being produced
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anywhere, there are variants of it that are actually even more lethal, believe it or not,
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than the fentanyl that they are based upon. But all of them are being shipped to us courtesy of the
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CCP. The communist Chinese are shipping those deadly drugs into our society. And anyone who doubts that
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is for an absolutely declared purpose of disrupting the U.S. society and killing as many Americans are
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naive indeed. Go on, Gordon. I just wanted to make it very clear that that is a Chinese import.
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Oh, it certainly is, Lou, because the Communist Party runs a near-total surveillance state.
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And these fentanyl gangs are international. They're far-flung. They are well-organized. They are
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visible to the Communist Party. And there's also suspicions that the party actually takes a percentage
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of the take. But in any event, we know that China also money launders for these fentanyl gangs through
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Chinese state banks. I mean, the list goes on and on of Beijing's direct involvement in this.
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So last year, we don't know exactly how many people died, but the estimate is so far 53,000
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from fentanyl. And we should consider every fentanyl death a murder. And the murderer is the
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People's Republic of China. The idea that the Chinese can continue to get away with this
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and there to be no reaction, no discussion, no hasty national security meeting called by the
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President of the United States. No congressional hearings. But we will have a hearing on January 6th,
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I'm told, the January 6th demonstrations and riots. This is a country right now in absolute denial of
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what China threatens. What are your thoughts about what we should do?
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We should be cutting trade. We should be prohibiting investment. We should not
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permit technical cooperation agreements with China. So for instance, we shouldn't be teaching
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the Chinese how to manipulate the coronavirus to make it even more deadly to humanity.
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We shouldn't allow China to buy our tech companies. We should not permit China's agents to operate on
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our soil. We shouldn't allow China to use its nationals to commit espionage against us. And we
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must demand reciprocity. If we can't, for instance, have a Reagan Institute in China, they shouldn't have
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Confucius Institutes in our country. And they should never have these Confucius classrooms, about 500 of
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them, in our secondary schools. We need to have a complete re-evaluation of our China policies.
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President Trump started to do that. He broke five decades of misguided engagement policy.
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But the Biden administration has gone back to what clearly didn't work and what is clearly
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It's a highlight what Gordon has just said. In 2019, President Trump ended the Chinese
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conglomerate container company and storage company, Costco, from taking over a terminal in Long Beach,
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California. That Long Beach port, by the way, is the second largest on the West Coast. It is also the
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number one port for the import of Chinese goods. It is critically important to the Chinese. A third of
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their economy, which, by the way, is based on, of all things, trade. He stopped it. And now we learn
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President Biden has turned a blind eye to the fact that the Chinese now have influence through a
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management company owned by the Australians. Give us your sense of what is happening and why and how that
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could possibly happen on such an important national security issue.
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Yeah. China Ocean Shipping Company, which is better known as Costco, was not permitted during the Trump
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administration to buy terminals at Long Beach. And what happened was Macquarie, an Australian company,
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was able to purchase it. But then Macquarie turned around and gave the management contract to Costco,
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which was prohibited from operations at the port. And Costco right now is managing that port. And that
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gives Beijing the ability to sabotage operations in the port because no company in China, especially a
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state-owned company like Costco, can ignore a Communist Party demand. So we are at risk at a critical port.
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And as you point out, this is the port that handles the trade with Asia, specifically China. So I don't know
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how the Biden administration could permit this to continue, but it has.
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And as we're talking, there is no initiative, no public discussion even, of a response to the
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belligerence, the ongoing belligerence of the Chinese Communist Party in this country, whether it's Costco
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and its efforts to take over ports and to position themselves for military advantage throughout the
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Pacific, and indeed moving toward Europe itself. We are at the very, it seems to me, the very nexus of
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what is an expansionary policy that is quickly turning into an assault. And the refusal to acknowledge
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that, whether in academia, in our national media, or whether in the Capitol, in the Senate, the House,
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or as you say, the White House, and President Biden. Americans should be deeply disturbed by all of
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this, should they not? Yes. And we have a chance to rectify this. That's November of next year,
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as well as November of 2024. We need to hold our leaders accountable. And Biden is not defending us
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from China. Just to give you an example, in July of last year, President Trump withdrew from the World
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Health Organization, which helped China propagate his false narrative that COVID-19 was not transmissible.
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Of course it was. It was the most highly contagious disease we've seen in a long time. So what did
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Biden do after taking the oath of office on January 20? On that very day, he put us back into the WHO.
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And remember, Lou, Biden had a two-hour phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in February. And by
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Biden's own admission, he did not raise the question of the origins of COVID-19 even once. This is just a
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complete failure to protect the American people. Let's lay this out in very clear terms. Over 700,000 Americans
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killed in the COVID-19, or as I call it, the Wuhan virus pandemic. It was without any doubt, irrespective of the
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cause and the origin of the virus. It was known to the Chinese communist Xi Jinping that that virus was
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deadly. It was very transmissible, very contagious. And it was on its way to every nation in the world.
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And there was no warning. And that warning could have come three months before the first known fatality
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in the United States. That is, by any definition, murder. You can call it what you will. But the
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Chinese are morally responsible for the deaths of 5 million people around the world, and more than
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700,000 Americans. And no one seems to want to say that out loud. Why? You know, I think that it's very
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difficult for Americans to grasp the concept of evil, to grasp the notion that there are evil regimes
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around the world. And Lou, you're absolutely right. China committed murder because it deliberately
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spread this disease beyond its borders. COVID-19 should never have escaped the central part of China.
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It should have been an epidemic confined to that country. It has, however, become a global pandemic
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because the Chinese leaders lied about contagiousness. They forced other countries to
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take arrivals from China. If you go back to January 31st of last year, President Trump imposed those travel
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restrictions and quarantines on arrivals from China. And he took grief from and severe criticism from
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Beijing and from somebody who was running for president at the time, whose name is Biden.
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Yeah. Remember, Biden called President Trump xenophobic for trying to protect the American people
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from this disease. Americans seem to be more outraged, some half of us, over the fact that the
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president was saying it was a China virus instead of a COVID virus. They thought that was offensive.
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And the Chinese were objecting to such harshness of language. In fact, it was the China virus. In fact,
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it was the Wuhan virus. And in fact, I declared it a pandemic. Think of this. I declared it a pandemic
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on my show two weeks before the WHO and the CDC would do so, even though then it was already
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in some 15 countries, possibly more at that point, which is the definition, the very definition of a
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pandemic. And they did so because of the massive influence of the WHO and the condescension of the
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CDC toward the Chinese, that they didn't want to offend China by doing so. Your thoughts?
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You know, you're absolutely right. When we go back and look at the timeline of what occurred,
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you know, you have President Trump recognizing the danger. You have President Trump taking measures.
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And clearly, you know, you have an American media and the Democratic Party criticizing him
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for these measures that ultimately saved American lives. And it's, you know, I don't know what to
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say, Lou. This isn't a tragedy. This is partly an American-made tragedy because of American political
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elites could not understand what President Trump was saying. And you're absolutely right. We should
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be calling this the Communist Party virus, the Xi Jinping virus, Wuhan virus. But clearly, it was murder,
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as you say. This was every death outside China should be considered a murder.
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And with that, we're in a Cold War. And it's a war that's being waged viciously by the Chinese
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as we speak. Flights, overflights of CCP warplanes over the skies of Taiwan. The threats,
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the direct threats to Taiwan. And the question is, what will the United States do if the Chinese
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were to try to make good on those threats? Do you have any doubt that the Chinese mean to take
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control of Taiwan in, I will call it, the near future?
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I think that they will try to, Lou, one way or another. Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler,
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has been very clear. He's said Taiwan is a problem that cannot be passed down from generation to
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generation. And he made the taking of Taiwan a core element of his legitimacy as the ruler of China.
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He may not be able to do it, but he's certainly going to try with all his might,
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because he's staked his rule on absolutely doing so.
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And he is, right now, according to all reports from China, engaged in rewriting the history
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of China and writing himself large into its future as what will be nothing less than an emperor,
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No, I'm not surprised. As they say in China, the future is certain. The past always gets rewritten.
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And Xi Jinping is even more relentless in his rewriting of this. He has changed, for instance,
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this whole notion of the reform era, which began in late 1978. He's made his father,
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who was a Communist Party senior leader, responsible for good things that occurred.
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Deng Xiaoping, who was generally credited with this, is put into the background. But, you know,
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the more important thing is that Xi Jinping has been rewriting Chinese history to rehabilitate
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Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic, the man who was responsible for anywhere between 30
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to 70 million deaths of Chinese, the person who's responsible for more killings and more death than
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any other figure in history. Because Xi Jinping reveres Mao, he's trying to return China to something
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that Mao would be familiar with, a total surveillance state, one which the Communist Party absolutely
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controls. This is a very dangerous development, Lou, especially because Xi Jinping starts to see a
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closing window of opportunity because of the problems in China right now. And he believes that
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he must move in order to achieve what he believes are China's historic missions. And he needs to do that
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in his mind while China still has the ability to intimidate others.
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As interesting as it will be to read Xi Jinping's rewrite of Taiwan's history,
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the future of Taiwan now, very much in question. Is it your judgment that the United States will support
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Taiwan fully and align itself, if necessary, militarily to do so?
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I don't know what the Biden administration will do. I don't even know if the Biden administration knows
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what it would do in that type of situation. We got to go back a couple weeks ago when Biden came back
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from a trip to Michigan. Reporters asked him about the Taiwan situation. And he said, essentially,
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don't worry, I've had a phone conversation with Xi Jinping, and he agrees to the, quote unquote,
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Taiwan agreement. Now, in official U.S. discourse, Lou, there is no such thing as the Taiwan agreement.
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There is the three communiques, Reagan's six assurances, the Taiwan Relations Act, and our
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One China policy. When Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson, was asked, what is the Taiwan
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agreement? Ned Price just went through all of those. In other words, what the State Department was trying
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to tell the American people was that Xi Jinping agreed to the American formulation of Taiwan policy.
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That can't be true. In other words, the Biden administration's not leveling. It's not telling the
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truth to the American people. And therefore, we've got to be really concerned what it would do
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if there were to be the advent of hostilities across the Taiwan Strait. Are you absolutely
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without hope that the Biden administration and the U.S. government it now controls will do anything
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to protect U.S. military technology, business secrets, and intellectual property from the Chinese
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as they continue to plunder the American economy and society?
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Well, the Biden administration has taken some steps to do that, but they're wholly inadequate
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considering the circumstances. President Trump started to impose some severe measures on China
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and Chinese entities. And the Biden administration has sort of let up and taken its foot off the accelerator.
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And that's really unfortunate because the situation has gotten worse during the last several months.
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And I think the Biden administration would be very well advised to look at the President Trump's
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playbook on this. And certainly one of the waypoints to look at for all Americans as we
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navigate these troubled times will be what the Biden administration does to secure both Taiwan,
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our national security and prevent the Chinese from taking further, further advantage of what has
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been a benign U.S. posture toward the outright aggression of the Chinese Communist Party.
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Gordon, as always, it is greatly informative and educational to talk with you and always to talk
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with a good friend. Thanks so much, Gordon. Gordon, thank you so much, Lou.
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Turning now to our next guest. No president since Franklin Roosevelt has arguably accomplished more
00:30:37.300
in one term than did Donald Trump. No president since Abraham Lincoln, however, has been more harassed,
00:30:45.340
harangued, hounded, and persecuted by the Democratic Party. The radical left, it's now clear,
00:30:52.580
conspired with the campaign of Trump's 2016 opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, to stop his election and
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then to try to overthrow his presidency. Democrat harassment and persecution, of course, has not
00:31:07.760
ended with the president's departure from the White House. And in my opinion, the Republican Party is
00:31:13.580
doing far too little to defend the man who was subjected to two unsuccessful efforts to impeach him
00:31:20.760
into an almost two-year-long special counsel investigation. Both, as the former president said,
00:31:28.640
were hoaxes. Joining us now, a man who supported the president throughout his four years, first as
00:31:35.020
chairman of the Freedom Caucus, and then as the 29th White House Chief of Staff, former Congressman
00:31:41.500
Mark Meadows. Good to have you with us. And your reaction to what surprised our intelligence agencies
00:31:49.880
and our Department of Defense every bit as much as the average American woman and man walking the
00:31:59.140
streets of America. Well, Lou, it's great to be with you. And sadly, it was a surprise to our
00:32:05.960
intelligence community, but it wasn't a surprise to one particular person. That's Donald J. Trump.
00:32:11.920
I happened to be in the Oval Office when he was talking with both some of his CIA briefers and
00:32:21.180
military advisors. And he said, listen, we've got to be very vigilant. They're going to be able to
00:32:27.980
use hypersonic missiles in a way that, according to him, are 17 times faster than anything else that
00:32:37.340
we've seen. And they kind of just, you know, gave me the gentle push off where they acted like, well,
00:32:45.880
that's fine, Mr. President, but that's not something we need to worry about. And so obviously today,
00:32:50.620
they're worrying about it. And the American people, the people that are tuned in right now should be
00:32:55.040
worried about it because it's one more, you know, I guess, step up that ladder where we look at China
00:33:04.360
and Russia is really battling for supremacy. But China in particular, when you look at whether it's
00:33:12.400
on, as you mentioned, the artificial intelligence side of things or hypersonic missiles, or just
00:33:18.120
bluntly trying to control rare earth minerals for everything that we do, they are putting themselves
00:33:26.820
right in the center of the supply chain. And, and they need to be taken seriously. And as you know,
00:33:32.980
Lou, they, they don't have a whole lot of respect for Joe Biden. They feared Donald Trump,
00:33:38.260
and they don't fear Joe Biden or this administration.
00:33:42.700
And to that, to that point, Vladimir Putin, a few days ago said, quite simply, that the Chinese do not
00:33:51.720
need would not be required to invade Taiwan, to take it over. Your thoughts about that comment
00:34:02.880
Well, I mean, obviously, as Taiwan starts to get mentioned more and more, whether it's by Russia
00:34:08.800
and Vladimir Putin, you know, talking about certainly their ability to control what goes in and out of,
00:34:15.000
of Taiwan, literally, figuratively, and logistically, they can control that. The only thing that's been
00:34:23.820
holding them back has been a strong US presence, and, and quite frankly, a strong US position. Now,
00:34:31.660
while that US position hasn't changed, obviously, the resolve within the White House has changed. And
00:34:38.440
when you start seeing Apology 2 or 2.0 is what I call it, where Joe Biden is going out and trying to
00:34:46.360
be one of one of the good old boys, just slapping, you know, our European and foreign leaders on the
00:34:54.340
back, pretending to be an equal. We're not an equal, Lou, as you know, America is not only known for its
00:35:01.580
greatness, but for its strength, both economically and on the military side of the equation. And,
00:35:07.980
and we need to act like it. And, and along with that comes great responsibility. But,
00:35:13.380
you know, you see how provocative Russia got with Crimea and some of the areas in and around Russia,
00:35:20.860
I fully expect that we'll start to see that happening more and more with China, in addition to,
00:35:29.900
you know, their presence in the, in the China Sea realm.
00:35:34.100
And as, as we've learned over the course of the, particularly the past two decades,
00:35:40.420
the economy is the foundation of national security. We're on the verge, many economists fear of
00:35:47.480
stagflation. Inflation is reaching levels not seen for more than a decade now. And the, the prospect of
00:35:57.020
stagflation is concerning many of those economists. At the same time, Joe Biden is pushing a three and a
00:36:04.640
half trillion dollar spending bill, call it infrastructure, call it a payoff to blue states,
00:36:12.860
call it what you want. We're looking at $30 trillion in national debt and limiting our children and our
00:36:20.440
grandchildren's futures immensely. Uh, we're also, uh, diminishing our own prospects for prosperity,
00:36:28.000
uh, in the next year, uh, and, uh, and beyond your thoughts about Joe Biden, his economics, his politics,
00:36:36.080
and, uh, the difference between what the GOP, uh, is, uh, considering, uh, as the future and particularly,
00:36:45.300
uh, uh, a fellow by the name of Donald Trump. Well, Lou, uh, you know, it's interesting that you, you, uh,
00:36:52.160
talk about the economics part of that. And for those that are tuning in, perhaps they knew, uh, Lou Dobbs from,
00:36:58.960
uh, you know, some of your previous roles, or maybe they're just tuning in, uh, to this particular, uh, uh,
00:37:05.680
broadcasts and podcasts. Uh, but, but you can speak to that probably as well as anybody, uh, not only in, uh,
00:37:13.920
New York or Washington DC, but, but certainly speaking to what ultimately it will do to our
00:37:21.200
nation's economy. And, and, and so here's, here's my take on it. Um, the only thing that Joe Biden has
00:37:28.300
is to spend more money. He doesn't have policy that people will, will come around. In fact, most of his
00:37:34.760
policy, uh, he's, uh, having a difficult time implementing it. Uh, he gets beat up by unaffiliated
00:37:42.400
voters, uh, and Republican voters alike, uh, in terms of what he's doing in foreign policy on the
00:37:48.560
border, uh, with regards to oil prices. And so his answer to that is, is let's spend trillions of
00:37:55.260
dollars that we don't have. Let's borrow it from China and other, other, uh, uh, people in, in the
00:38:01.320
world. But the, the sad part about that is, is there's two groups of people that love to spend
00:38:07.580
money in Washington DC, Lou it's Democrats and Republicans and, and, uh, therein is the problem.
00:38:15.660
So there's a number of us that are fighting back, uh, privately. And I appreciate you raising it
00:38:20.980
because what we have to do is slow this process down. Uh, you know, it's whether it's $30 trillion
00:38:26.860
in debt or whether it's another, uh, three to $5 trillion in additional spending. You and I both
00:38:34.300
know, um, uh, unfortunately, both of us have enough gray hair to remember, uh, the Jimmy Carter days
00:38:40.500
and, and what happened with interest rates and inflation rates and, and, uh, and candidly an
00:38:47.340
economy that was, uh, uh, just in, in, in tatters until, you know, a guy by the name of Ronald Reagan
00:38:55.140
came along, uh, Donald Trump recognized this very well. And while he was willing to spend money and
00:39:01.660
willing to put, uh, some, uh, money in the economy when, when we had the artificial shutdown during
00:39:08.100
COVID, uh, you know, this is, this has been just, uh, really an addiction by the Democrats to say just
00:39:16.280
more, more, more spending. And yet when you talk even to Democrats, their fear is that Washington DC
00:39:24.280
will spend too much money. Uh, at the same time, they're voting for some of these people that, uh,
00:39:30.280
are out there, uh, pushing it here, here's, here's my take on what I think will happen.
00:39:34.820
I think at the end of the day, um, I, I think that there'll be enough sand that will be put in
00:39:41.340
the gears that, uh, the, the ultimate package that passes will probably still be an obnoxious
00:39:47.760
$2 trillion or a slight above that, but it will pass. And what will happen is, is that they will
00:39:55.080
actually play around with some of the length of the programs and, and by playing around with it,
00:40:00.900
what they'll do is instead of saying that this is a five-year program that we're funding,
00:40:04.600
we're only going to fund it for six months or nine months. And so the problem is they'll
00:40:09.840
institutionalize a lot of these social programs, bringing the price tag down, but knowing that
00:40:16.060
Congress will never push back in it. And so it's essentially still passing a five to $7 trillion
00:40:22.380
package, just doing it with, uh, bows and ribbons that make it seem to be a little bit more appealing
00:40:29.100
than it is. Uh, I can tell you the conservative partnership we're working with conservative
00:40:33.140
senators, uh, and, and even, uh, some moderate Democrats, uh, on the house side to try to, uh,
00:40:40.960
show how it's going to affect those people that are coming along. But, uh, but it is a scary time.
00:40:48.020
Anytime that Congress is in session, uh, the American people are, uh, potentially in harm's way
00:40:54.360
without question. And, and everyone listening to your voice right now, I'm sure, uh, hair stood up,
00:41:02.440
uh, on end for them, uh, as it did me because the idea of five to $7 trillion, uh, it means not only
00:41:10.780
that the radical Dems have gone mad, but the Rhino leadership of both the house and the Senate,
00:41:17.300
uh, will be accomplices in this, uh, in this fiscal disaster. You're exactly right. You're exactly
00:41:25.660
right. And if we let them do that, uh, Lou, there should be consequences at the ballot box,
00:41:31.220
even for the Republican side of the aisle. And, and that is the contest. Now you were saying earlier,
00:41:39.700
there are only two parties that are interested in spending more Republicans and Democrats,
00:41:44.000
but there's a, there is a, uh, fifth column effect, if you will, uh, for, uh, for rhinos who
00:41:52.600
take up seats, uh, in the Senate and the house with, uh, ours, uh, next to their, their names and titles.
00:42:00.180
Uh, it's, it's getting very disturbing to think of the power, uh, that, uh, that is the power void
00:42:08.060
left by the president, uh, not in the white house and the rhinos. Mitch McConnell has suddenly
00:42:14.120
very emboldened, uh, talking very big about what he wants done, uh, and will he succeed?
00:42:22.360
Well, uh, generally, uh, Mitch McConnell has not been one that has been long on delivery. He's been
00:42:29.800
long on rhetoric and not as much on the delivery side of the equation as you and I both know, uh,
00:42:35.680
you know, um, I've got a, a book that's coming out in the, in the not too distant future called
00:42:41.400
the chief's chief. And, and in there, I talk about how it's so disappointing. It was so disappointing
00:42:47.580
for, for president Trump, uh, because he thought that everybody with, uh, on the Republican side
00:42:53.820
would unify, come together and fight, especially if he was willing to fight. And yet some of the
00:42:59.920
biggest opposition that we get actually comes from our side of the aisle. And so, uh, we need to put
00:43:06.840
some real pressure. You, you heard what, uh, uh, Mitch McConnell said about the debt ceiling and that
00:43:12.820
he's not going to give the votes the next time around. Well, that's what they always say. They
00:43:17.440
always say, we're not going to give you the votes just after they pass something where they gave them
00:43:21.920
the votes. And, uh, you know, this was 11 people, uh, here, here was my take on it. They shouldn't
00:43:28.660
have, have given it. I'm not one that believes that we should default on our debt. Uh, you and I both
00:43:33.880
believe that we've, we've got to make sure that we have sound fiscal policy, but here's the
00:43:39.240
interesting thing. The Democrats could have done that on their own. It had they done it on their own,
00:43:44.420
it would have taken up weeks and weeks of calendar time. So instead of them debating a three or
00:43:50.520
five trillion dollar, uh, stimulus, uh, the way that they would put it, uh, instead of them debating
00:43:57.340
this whole new package of, of leftist, uh, wishes, they would have been tied up on doing the debt
00:44:05.780
ceiling. And it would have allowed us to, to move the debate, at least into January of next year,
00:44:12.800
the closer you get to election, the less accountable any politician wants to be. And so it was a bad
00:44:19.700
strategic, uh, and tactical move. Uh, and yet at the end of the day, uh, you know, I think some of
00:44:27.220
the Republicans, even some that you would put in the more squishy category, got very, very nervous
00:44:33.020
about, uh, giving Democrats a vote. Well, that's that list. Unfortunately, Republicans, I think of
00:44:40.500
as somewhat squishy as you put it, uh, it seems to be getting longer by the, by the week. Uh, it's the
00:44:47.920
idea that, uh, rhinos right now have so much influence within the Republican party. The
00:44:54.800
establishment Republicans are the essence of, uh, Republicans in name only. And my judgment,
00:45:02.420
uh, the RNC controlled by the establishment, uh, Republicans, uh, pretending as they have so often,
00:45:11.040
uh, to be, uh, supporting Donald Trump, uh, and America first policies, uh, what, what will happen?
00:45:19.640
Are we going to see this, uh, this conflict break into open warfare in the Republican party?
00:45:26.720
Well, uh, we could, but I will say that at least even some of the more establishment swampy Republicans
00:45:35.120
realize that Donald Trump is still very, very popular across the country. Uh, you mentioned a,
00:45:43.000
you know, I've been traveling all over the country and that the biggest thing that people want us to
00:45:47.480
deal with is making sure that we have, uh, well, six words, uh, that it's easy to vote and hard to
00:45:54.080
cheat and, and that we need to put into places, you know, an audit program and making sure that only,
00:45:59.840
uh, those votes that should be counted, get counted. And, and that's the number one issue,
00:46:06.220
but the number two issue, uh, literally is, are you for Donald Trump or not? And, uh, I can tell
00:46:13.760
you, you can tell that the swamp realizes that Donald Trump brand, and he continues to sell because,
00:46:20.700
uh, the NRSC, which is the, uh, uh, national Republican Senatorial Committee, which raises money
00:46:27.740
primarily for McConnell handpicked candidates, continues to use the president's name, uh, each
00:46:34.900
and every day. I mean, volumes of emails. In fact, so many that I get emails from people saying, why,
00:46:40.800
why is the president letting them use his picture and pretend like that they're on his side when
00:46:46.160
they're not, uh, which is a valid question. And, uh, and yet I think at the end of the day,
00:46:52.260
they thought that Donald Trump would go away and that, uh, quote, they could get their party back.
00:46:57.740
Uh, but the, the, the party is forever changed and it's the, the party of the forgotten man and
00:47:03.480
woman. And Donald J. Trump is going to stick around to remind us of that. One of the great battles out
00:47:09.400
there right now is, uh, is for money donors, uh, time 10 attention and, uh, and moolah. Uh, it's,
00:47:18.900
it's, it's, uh, actually reached, reaching a pace. I've seldom seen this early, uh, going into either,
00:47:25.420
uh, uh, uh, uh, congressional election or a presidential election. This is really tough stuff.
00:47:32.740
And I'm hearing a lot of talk about how tough, uh, the president's people are being, uh, and how,
00:47:40.880
uh, well, how irresponsible other fundraisers are being it's what's going to happen here because
00:47:48.880
this looks like an all out battle for donor money in the Republican party itself.
00:47:53.840
Well, it is. And, and obviously the Democrats are raising, uh, a lot of money as well, but you're
00:47:59.740
right. It's interesting. You point that out Lou, because, uh, you and I have, uh, you know, it's
00:48:05.200
not our first or second rodeo. We've been around to see a few rodeos and, and in doing so, uh, what,
00:48:12.000
what I'm finding is the insane amount of money that's being raised, uh, for candidates, uh, both on
00:48:20.040
the Senate side, but even on the house side, I mean, uh, some of the, the money that's being
00:48:24.440
raised, uh, these are levels that, uh, not only I've never seen, but they're levels that actually
00:48:31.400
would be hard unless you're having an all out battle, uh, for the hearts and souls of the American
00:48:38.060
people. Uh, it is, uh, well, part of that is, is Biden did driving part of that because they're
00:48:45.040
seeing how could it got, have gotten this bad this quickly, uh, with Joe Biden. And so that's
00:48:50.520
driving part of it. The other part is they say, well, gosh, we just need to take over one branch
00:48:55.180
of the government. So they're going to give on the Senate side, they're going to give on the house
00:48:58.280
side. Uh, but they do need to be prudent. I can tell you the president Trump and his team and, uh,
00:49:04.580
his affiliated, uh, uh, fundraising mechanisms, uh, are trying to make sure that they save those hard,
00:49:12.100
uh, earn dollars for the right fight at the right time. Uh, sadly, a lot of times that doesn't happen
00:49:19.440
in Washington, DC, as you know, but I do think it will be a battle for a few States. And, uh, you know,
00:49:26.340
uh, you, we all know what that short list of States might be, but, um, uh, it, it's not voting well
00:49:33.560
for Democrats, uh, because of the amount of money flowing into Republican coffers.
00:49:39.340
And one of the conflicts has not gone away. And that is between the national left-wing media
00:49:45.600
and the Republican party and Donald Trump. There's as much acrimony, as much, uh, outright hatred,
00:49:53.900
uh, of the former president as ever, it seems there, but he's winning those battles when it comes
00:50:00.760
to the test of time and truth. Uh, he's been proved right on trade. He's been proved right on Biden.
00:50:06.440
Uh, he's been proved. And even on a hypersonic missile, you know, but you're right. He is winning
00:50:13.780
those battles, but it, it, it comes at a real cost. You know, what happens is the, the left-wing
00:50:18.940
media is trying to make any mention of Donald Trump toxic. Uh, so even some of the people who
00:50:26.540
quietly will come up and whisper to me, you know, keep, keep going, you know, tell the president,
00:50:31.840
we love him and to, to, you know, to stay fully engaged, they're doing that a lot more quiet than
00:50:37.980
they did before. So it is having an impact. You know, there's fewer MAGA and make America great
00:50:43.260
hats out there being worn. And yet I can tell you just traveling the country, there are more and more
00:50:49.540
people that, uh, still would, uh, be glad to do a boat parade or wear that MAGA hat, uh, had,
00:50:57.660
had they not had, uh, you know, the left-wing media coming after them each and every day.
00:51:03.040
And the left-wing media now is they've been hoisted on their own petard goes the old,
00:51:10.380
uh, saw or cliche, if you prefer, uh, CNN, uh, caught with, you know, in every kind of, uh,
00:51:19.120
misrepresentation. I'll be kind and avoid the use of the word lie. Uh, they, they are there for all
00:51:27.540
to see the same is true of MSNBC. Uh, I think truly the American people are wise to what they
00:51:35.940
are and what they've become and what they intend, apparently, irrespective of whether Donald Trump
00:51:41.500
is president or not, they intend to, uh, carry on the politics of media destruction.
00:51:48.680
Well, and that's a sad part about it because journalism, even if it had a left leaning, uh,
00:51:54.320
or a right leaning kind of, uh, tilt used to be all about getting the facts and making sure that
00:52:00.820
you have, uh, you know, your sources down and that you do your fact checking. Now, what we have
00:52:06.640
are, you know, people, you've got groups like CNN who will do their own fact checking on their own
00:52:12.400
fact checking so that that way that they can authenticate it and say that it's been fact
00:52:16.960
checked now. And, and, and yet they're playing to a smaller and smaller audience Lou. And that's,
00:52:21.900
uh, you know, that's the interesting thing is, is you and I will probably be listened to
00:52:26.640
more, uh, on this particular medium than, than CNN will have, uh, on one of their peak days,
00:52:34.360
you know, and, and, uh, when you see that, uh, you know, it, it's, it's less than a million people
00:52:40.580
now that, that are tuning in because they, they want something that's authentic, uh, and, and
00:52:46.820
candidly, even on the CNNs and they're hiring all kinds of reporters, but they'll go only with one
00:52:52.440
source. And, you know, Lou, when you go with one source, you get one opinion, you, you, uh, it is
00:52:58.360
a real journalistic, uh, faux pas, in my opinion. Yeah. You know, there is something in the trade.
00:53:05.040
One source is never enough. And many times two sources is not adequate. I've actually been in a
00:53:12.820
situation where I had, uh, two sources on a very important national security. I won't go into it
00:53:17.960
story. Uh, and both, uh, both of those sources turned out to be wrong. And that's, uh, you know,
00:53:25.340
that's just something that happens, but there is no humility in the media. Now you can be wrong,
00:53:32.060
admit you're wrong, correct it and move on, but they don't care about being wrong. And in fact,
00:53:37.240
uh, CNN, MSNBC, it seems to me, at least those two are intent upon being wrong. And that's what they
00:53:46.640
prize, uh, is their perspective and their ideology of both above fact and reality. Well, they, they,
00:53:53.900
uh, may apologize, but they only, uh, apologize if it's a major faux pas. I mean, if it's a
00:54:00.240
interpretation, the way that they view it and, and, and that may be unfair to some of the reporters over
00:54:05.820
there, uh, you know, some of the people that you and I both know, but when you look at, at their,
00:54:11.760
their, uh, normal lineup, even if they make a mistake, it is, uh, conditioned in such a way
00:54:18.740
that they try to present it as not a mistake, or they made the mistake because, uh, uh, a rational
00:54:25.920
person would have viewed it that way. Listen, it's all about the reason why, uh, journalists, uh,
00:54:33.540
continue to lose support broadly is because people want the truth. And that's, uh, what I
00:54:40.180
appreciate about you bringing, bringing forth, uh, different perspectives and, uh, letting the
00:54:46.280
people decide for themselves. Well, I appreciate you, uh, saying that. And, uh, I take that as a high
00:54:52.980
compliment. Uh, and I want to say to everyone listening, Mark Meadows is on this podcast because
00:54:59.780
he's one of those people who talk straight, uh, is a, uh, uh, devout patriot. And, uh, I always learn
00:55:08.160
something from him and, uh, appreciate your time, Mark being with us. I want to give you the last word
00:55:14.000
here, if I may, uh, the half of America right now is trying to figure out what happened on, uh,
00:55:22.280
on election day in 2020. And we also have people wondering why 700,000 Americans, uh, died as a
00:55:32.660
result of, uh, COVID-19, why we continue to have a border that's not secured. And that, uh, literally
00:55:43.060
this year, about 2 million illegal immigrants will come into the country. Uh, we have a government that
00:55:50.300
in the minds of many Americans, if not most is simply out of control. Is that going to change
00:55:57.420
enough for Republicans to take back, uh, the Congress, this, the Senate, uh, in 2022?
00:56:05.460
You know, uh, great question. And I'll finish with this here. Here's the concern that I have. Um,
00:56:12.080
uh, we can, we need to continue to work on the election integrity side of the equation. There's a
00:56:18.000
whole lot of people that are disenchanted and believe that they were disenfranchised, uh, in the
00:56:23.920
November 3rd, uh, election of 2020. And so we need to continue to work on that, uh, to make sure that
00:56:30.580
we have that. However, the other issues that you mentioned, whether it's, uh, people coming across
00:56:36.020
the border illegally, you know, to the tune of, you know, 2 million a year, or some of the, uh, the
00:56:42.820
other issues where, uh, Joe Biden seems to turn a blind eye. In fact, I would say is turning a blind
00:56:50.000
eye, uh, will actually have a, a more positive effect on people turning out. Uh, you have to
00:56:56.660
look backwards. Uh, you have to look at what, uh, China did in this whole COVID pandemic, hold them
00:57:04.360
accountable. You have to look at supply chains. You have to make sure that, that China doesn't control
00:57:09.800
everything that we buy and purchase and consume. And yet, uh, the Biden administration is, uh, AWOL
00:57:18.780
absent without leave. And, and, uh, I'm, I'm optimistic that patriots across the country,
00:57:24.160
those that are tuning in right now will, will continue to stand up and, uh, stay engaged.
00:57:29.240
We face difficult things in the past and we will face difficult things in the future. Uh, but there
00:57:35.840
will always be leaders who will come along and, and say the forgotten man and woman needs to be the,
00:57:42.160
uh, the voice, uh, for what is right and for freedom. And, and I'm optimistic that that'll happen.
00:57:49.820
Great having you with us, Mark Meadows. We thank you so much. Senior partner at the conservative
00:57:55.220
partnership Institute. And he has a new book called the chief's chief. It comes out, uh, in December.
00:58:02.740
You can order it pre-order that book at Barnes and Noble, amazon.com in bookstores, worthy bookstores
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all over the country. Thanks to Lou. Appreciate it. Take care. God bless you too, Mark. Thanks so
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much. Mark Meadows. Join us again tomorrow for the great America podcast. Stay in the fight. Truth,
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justice, and the American way will prevail against all enemies, against all odds.