The Tucker Carlson Show - Senator Rand Paul

00:00:00.000 the majority of house republicans amazingly just aligned with the biden administration on one of

00:00:16.400 its top priorities to ban the social media app tiktok this amounts to the most far-reaching act

00:00:22.820 of censorship in the history of the united states it's an attack on the right of american citizens

00:00:28.120 to receive their information from any source they choose most of us believe that was a fundamental

00:00:33.360 right but of course almost no one in washington will admit that that's happening that's not at

00:00:37.800 all what's going on they tell us no instead they're framing what's very obviously censorship

00:00:43.160 as an act of self-defense against a foreign adversary and if that sounds familiar it should

00:00:48.700 be it's the same rationale they use to spy on donald trump among other things once they designated him

00:00:54.600 a tool of russia and as always they're doing all of this in the bluntest least restrained terms

00:01:00.860 because it's your fault actually quote voting against the bill is a vote for the chinese communist

00:01:06.880 party proclaimed neocon congressman dan crenshaw the nikki haley of texas quote the opponents of

00:01:13.580 this bill aren't defending free speech they're defending chinese access to american data and

00:01:18.760 american minds not a good look you're a bad american if you don't agree with me says dan crenshaw and the

00:01:26.620 rest of the liars said similar things and maybe some of them believed it that is possible given the 0.95

00:01:31.320 median iq and the congress but just for a moment let's consider their argument rationally let's just

00:01:36.880 assess it for a moment the federal government very much wants to protect us and our children from china 1.00

00:01:42.980 that's what they're telling us now let's assume for a moment that that's true and let's further

00:01:48.100 assume that the chinese government is in fact a greater threat to our happiness and well-being 1.00

00:01:52.760 than our own government is that's a stretch if you think about it in fact it's totally unsupported by

00:01:58.220 evidence of any kind but for the sake of argument let's just stipulate that that is in fact true

00:02:02.840 so if you were in charge how would you go go about protecting the united states from china let's see

00:02:09.920 the first thing you would do is prevent the ccp from buying american farmland and controlling our food 1.00

00:02:16.280 supply that way the chinese government a government they claim is our greatest enemy would not have

00:02:21.900 the power to starve our population to death that would be key you'd get right on that of course

00:02:27.700 you'd also want to make sure that the ccp had zero control over our water or energy or communications 1.00

00:02:34.520 infrastructure basic elemental things things you couldn't live without you wouldn't want the chinese 1.00

00:02:39.220 anywhere near those things you would not allow it those would be the first priorities on your list

00:02:44.140 and then you would make certain that the chinese didn't control your economy you would not for 0.96

00:02:49.860 example export your entire industrial base to china simultaneously making them rich and you poor

00:02:56.200 you would not do that nor would you allow them to hold a meaningful portion of your debt

00:03:01.060 that would be reckless as hell you wouldn't allow the communist party of china to send billions

00:03:07.200 to your most prestigious universities thereby gaining control of the minds of the next generation of your

00:03:12.260 leaders and needless to say you would not allow chinese citizens by the tens of thousands to invade your 1.00

00:03:17.900 country over your southern border that would be insane you would furthermore keep chinese citizens out of 1.00

00:03:24.340 medical scientific and r&d facilities you definitely would not fund their bio labs or cover up for them

00:03:31.180 when they unleashed killer viruses on the world no you wouldn't why would you do that and then in questions of

00:03:37.540 foreign policy you would not spend a ton of time worrying about taiwan it's far away and honestly

00:03:42.800 who cares no because you don't have all the money in the world or all the time in the world you would

00:03:48.880 narrow down your priorities and you would spend your energy and military might on your own hemisphere

00:03:54.560 where you and your population actually live the people you want to protect they live in the western

00:03:59.220 hemisphere so you would not allow the chinese government to colonize pretty much every country in the 0.96

00:04:05.340 americas including canada and mexico no and you certainly wouldn't let the chinese of all people 1.00

00:04:12.280 build the infrastructure in places that you directly control like the supposedly american virgin islands

00:04:18.140 where the roads are paid for by china that would be crazy and humiliating and very easy to stop 0.99

00:04:23.760 you wouldn't have to put up with that so you wouldn't put up with it not for a second and just to make

00:04:30.660 sure that china understood you're doing all you could to protect your own people because that was

00:04:35.820 really your goal because being dan crenshaw you really care about your own people in your own

00:04:40.660 country because of that you would immediately shoot down any spy balloon from china that floated over

00:04:46.580 montana obviously that's some of what you would do and yet somehow the u.s government even dan

00:04:53.600 crenshaw who really cares about your children protecting him from china has done none of that and has no plans

00:04:58.760 to do any of that ever so china still makes our antibiotics and our vitamins but what dan crenshaw

00:05:07.040 is doing is banning a social media app and probably not the first social media app dan crenshaw will call

00:05:14.660 for banning or the biden administration with the help of republican leaders will try to ban

00:05:19.620 so what is this about well it's not about china it may be about other foreign countries it's definitely

00:05:26.280 not about china because pay no attention to what they say watch carefully what they do

00:05:32.240 rand paul of kentucky who's of course a sitting united states senator seems to be one of the very

00:05:37.180 few in washington who's watching what they do not what they say and so he is opposing this effort to

00:05:43.060 ban a social media app not because he is a tool of china though of course they're doubtless calling him 0.97

00:05:47.380 that now but because he is a dot connector from way back and we are honored to have him join us now

00:05:52.840 senator thanks so much for coming on thanks for having me tucker i'll go ahead and presume to speak

00:05:56.740 for you too i don't think most people are really that in favor of tiktok or the chinese government

00:06:01.380 i assume you're not i'm definitely not um but republican leaders seem to believe two things that

00:06:06.780 contradict one another one they believe that on some evidence that um joe biden is like kind of

00:06:13.480 controlled by china and that joe biden is pushing transgenderism and yet and that is true but they're 0.86

00:06:19.300 aligning with joe biden who is suddenly claiming that tiktok is bad because it's too chinese and

00:06:24.200 it's pouring filth into the minds of our children now he can't be sincere about that obviously so why

00:06:29.700 would they be joining him in this do you have any idea you know my concern has always been with the

00:06:34.000 centralization of power with giving up power i don't care whether it's a republican or a democrat

00:06:38.400 president i don't want any president to have the power to ban apps that are sold on an app store

00:06:43.360 and that's essentially what this is going to happen 180 million americans uh put dance videos up and

00:06:49.380 whatever else is on tiktok and they choose the terms of those service the same way people on facebook do

00:06:54.720 and does facebook scrape your data sure does google scrape your data do all of these soft these giant

00:07:00.500 tech companies scrape your data they all take your data but the thing is is there are now accusations

00:07:05.640 they say oh tiktok's owned by the chinese government the chinese communists own it well that's not even

00:07:12.000 true you can't say stuff just over and over again that's not true tiktok is owned by about 60 of it's

00:07:18.260 owned by international investors from all over the world 20 is owned by the two chinese software

00:07:24.760 engineers that created the app and 20 is owned by the employees of tiktok which 7 000 of them are

00:07:31.540 americans so there's a significant nexus of americans in the ownership and then there's a significant nexus

00:07:37.040 of americans using this and they say oh well the chinese government owns it it's just frankly

00:07:41.980 not true now the company that owns tiktok also owns something like tiktok that is censored and

00:07:48.740 the chinese let that be broadcast throughout china the chinese government does have a member of the

00:07:54.860 board it's called doyen it's the chinese tiktok but they don't have a member of the board of byte dance

00:08:00.900 they don't control byte dance and the data is now kept in oracle cloud uh centered in texas and this

00:08:07.660 has been done because the company wants to try to exist it's a very popular app they it has a great

00:08:13.720 deal of value so they're doing anything they can to comply and yet the hysterics in the house are just

00:08:20.620 shut them down shut them down communism this communism that look i've written two books about chinese

00:08:26.540 communism and what it does both during the covid leak and also what it did during mao's reign so i am

00:08:32.380 no fan of chinese communism but at the same time we can't sort of like you know emulate the chinese 0.78

00:08:39.320 to try to protect our way of life becoming like the chinese and banning things tiktok is banned in china

00:08:45.220 they don't have tiktok they have a censored version in china that the chinese government does control but

00:08:50.600 they don't control tiktok over here if we ban tiktok we're simply becoming and acting like the chinese 0.92

00:08:56.080 so there is a hysteria afoot but you in america there are things that protect you can't just take

00:09:02.640 people's stuff in america if you have a company i can't come take tucker carlson network just from

00:09:07.780 you because one of your investors is from chinese from china i have to go to court i have to prove that

00:09:13.300 somehow you're a chinese communist and that you're giving data to them these are all allegations they

00:09:19.000 may or may not be true but you can't take someone's company worth billions of dollars without

00:09:23.960 proving it in a court of law likewise you can't take the rights of freedom of speech of 170 180

00:09:29.860 million people who want to express themselves so i think the courts will rule against this they did

00:09:35.240 twice in the last four years in federal court and they just recently overturned the montana ban so i

00:09:41.420 think there's a very good chance this is unconstitutional but that doesn't seem to be deterring any of

00:09:46.120 my colleagues in the house hillsdale college offers many great free online courses including a recent

00:09:56.460 one on marxism socialism and communism today marxism goes by different names to make itself seem less

00:10:02.800 dangerous names like critical race theory gender theory and decolonization no matter the names this

00:10:09.560 online course shows it's the same marxism that works to destroy private property and that will lead to 0.90

00:10:14.660 famines show trials and gulags start learning online for free at tucker for hillsdale.com that's tucker

00:10:24.220 f-o-r hillsdale.com tucker says it best the credit card companies are ripping americans off and enough is

00:10:34.080 enough this is senator roger marshall of kansas our legislation the credit card competition act

00:10:40.760 would help in the grip visa and mastercard have on us every time you use your credit card they charge

00:10:47.340 you a hidden fee called a swipe fee and they've been raising it without even telling you this hurts

00:10:52.960 consumers and every small business owner in fact american families are paying eleven hundred dollars

00:10:59.080 in hidden swipe fees each year the fees visa and mastercard charge americans are the highest in the

00:11:05.980 world double candidates and eight times more than europe's that's why i've taken action but i need

00:11:11.900 your help to help get this passed i'm asking you to call your senator today and demand they pass the

00:11:18.460 credit card competition act paid for by the merchants payments coalition not authorized by any candidate or

00:11:24.140 candidates committee www.merchantspaymentscoalition.com

00:11:27.980 their argument doesn't even make sense i mean they're saying that tiktok is foreign controlled

00:11:35.700 i'm willing to believe that and that they're spying on us i i definitely believe that but google and

00:11:41.780 facebook are spying on us on a much greater scale and they're foreign controlled too they're run by people 1.00

00:11:47.360 who hate the united states demonstrably they say so so google and facebook are not a threat but

00:11:53.620 tiktok is so if you're making that case like i know you're lying immediately right and the thing

00:12:00.760 is is that the bill is written such that if 20 percent of ownership is foreign that's about what

00:12:07.260 tiktok is or if you're controlled by a foreign entity but that's someone's opinion they're just

00:12:12.220 saying it's controlled by a foreign entity um i think it's probably controlled by profit like most

00:12:16.620 things in the marketplace they want to make a profit they've spent about a billion dollars trying to

00:12:21.200 comply through this organization called cifius which has to do with companies that have some

00:12:26.680 foreign ownership trying to comply and have an american board have the data kept over here they've

00:12:31.840 done nothing but try to comply and the hysteria goes on and on and on but the first amendment's more

00:12:38.220 important than anything they're talking about and so is the fifth amendment but there are many people

00:12:42.480 including some of your former colleagues at fox who believe that there's an exception to the

00:12:47.300 constitution that it doesn't apply when there's national security the problem with that is there's

00:12:52.440 always a national security for any excuse for anything you want to do and so i don't think you

00:12:57.900 throw out the constitution when there's allegations of some kind of connection you have to prove that

00:13:02.540 before you take someone's stuff and before you take someone's first amendment privileges well and of

00:13:08.160 course it's not so we know it's not what they say it's about um obviously and i know there's a

00:13:13.200 furious lobbying campaign by various investors hoping to scoop up tiktok cheap and from competing

00:13:18.640 companies that want to crush a competitor i get all of that and some people are really bought and

00:13:24.220 paid for in washington i don't want to blow your mind but that's true but there's also an ideological

00:13:28.640 battle here and a lot of the people voting to ban tiktok object to the messages on tiktok like

00:13:37.400 that's true yeah it's content once you start objecting to content what you're objecting to

00:13:43.840 is speech and i object to a lot of it i don't use it i've never been on tiktok i read about what's on

00:13:49.140 tiktok but i don't use i don't use tiktok but the thing is is everybody wants the government to be the

00:13:55.220 parent they're like oh my my teenagers they've got phones and they're on all this stuff i just can't

00:14:00.700 deal with it will you help me by taking stuff off of there but once you start doing that there's a

00:14:06.320 whole host of things that can be taken off of there what about you know people who say that

00:14:10.920 you should have religious liberty or that we shouldn't teach transgenderism in the in the

00:14:15.600 elementary schools you know those are you know heretical views as well should those be taken down

00:14:21.080 so i think it's the opposite with tiktok i think they're promoting a lot of left-wing things

00:14:25.340 but then there's also people on tiktok and my wife's always telling about the liberals of tiktok

00:14:30.320 these people that are exposing the liberals on tiktok and apparently they're pretty good

00:14:34.200 investigative i think it's a woman that does this and she's pretty damn good at finding things out 0.99

00:14:39.880 and exposing things but the bottom line is the more information the better if you don't like it

00:14:44.120 don't use it that's what happens in a free country but it happens in an authoritarian country when you're

00:14:48.900 connected to government if you don't like something and you shut it down and that's what's happening now

00:14:53.600 they don't like the content they make an allegation that is controlled by the chinese government

00:14:58.380 which there isn't objective evidence of and you probably have to go to court to prove something like

00:15:03.280 that yeah but i don't know i'm disappointed by this area because there are some people who have

00:15:08.620 been relatively good in looking at government and the constitution who actually on this go completely

00:15:13.420 uh insane and just throw out all rules and say oh we got to do something about chinese communism and 0.91

00:15:19.340 this isn't the way emulating chinese communists is not the best way to combat chinese communist yeah 0.78

00:15:25.140 and they're almost exclusively neocons which should tell you a lot but last question um

00:15:29.880 this action is supported by like the you know the left the real left um and by the neocons

00:15:40.200 it seems to me if this precedent stands then the next target for shutdown by the government or for

00:15:48.260 sale by the government would be x which is of course the platform they hate most because it's the freest of

00:15:52.640 all the platforms in the world and so what would stop the congress or the next administration from saying

00:15:59.820 you know elon musk is effectively a tool of russian disinformation doing what they did to him

00:16:04.980 what they did to trump to him and forcing a sale of x i mean what would stop them the thing is is i

00:16:12.100 don't know enough about x to know who his other investors are probably some of them live in foreign

00:16:16.380 countries but think of the whole list of countries that have unsurvy things i'm not a big fan of egypt's

00:16:22.180 government they don't have elections they have indefinite detention they prosecute political and

00:16:27.460 religious opponents so do most of the countries in the middle east but i'm not about uh i wouldn't

00:16:32.660 give i wouldn't give each of any more military money frankly but i wouldn't ban your ability to

00:16:37.140 trade with them if you want to trade with egypt having embargoes is different than me not giving

00:16:41.940 them free money so i'm not forgiving most country including china any money i don't want to give china 1.00

00:16:46.140 research money i don't want to share secrets with them i don't want to share arms with them there are all

00:16:50.380 kinds of things i don't want to do with china but i'm not ready to forbid people trading with them 0.97

00:16:54.840 and that's sort of where we're headed from this but you can see the potential of look a lot of

00:16:59.880 people have saudi arabian investors but saudi arabia did some things that i don't find you know

00:17:04.560 they don't really have a free country they killed a journalist they chopped him up and threw him out

00:17:08.360 of a plane so these are things i object to but i'm not sure i want to prevent anybody from having a

00:17:13.720 saudi arabian investor like uh you know live golf or something we're going to say they can't exist

00:17:18.660 because we don't approve of the saudis and so that's what we're headed towards though and there's

00:17:24.160 every bit the argument that a regime like saudi arabia collects data on their enemies you think

00:17:29.200 any shiite muslims in saudi arabia don't are not followed by the police and don't have their data

00:17:34.440 being collected so all the things we accuse china of of doing are being done in dozens and dozens

00:17:39.680 of countries vietnam's a communist nation are we going to say that nobody does business with vietnam

00:17:44.740 most people argue that it's a little better since we do business with vietnam even though they still

00:17:49.660 don't have the basic freedoms that we have people would actually even argue that the the trade with

00:17:53.920 china overall that the people are freer than they were under mao it's gone backwards a little bit in

00:17:58.980 recent years but it's still way better than it was under mao and their level of living is better in

00:18:03.720 china and their level of freedom is probably better than it was but to say we're going to get rid of 1.00

00:18:08.540 all that and have no trade you can't own anything with these people is really a recipe for war when you

00:18:13.660 quit trading with people and you forbid interactions with other people or that's when war occurs yeah

00:18:18.600 and we should keep our own country free it seems like that would be a top priority uh senator rand paul

00:18:23.940 of kentucky thank you very much for joining us and good luck with us

00:18:27.160 you

The Tucker Carlson Show - March 14, 2024

Senator Rand Paul

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