Rick Grenell, former Acting Director of National Intelligence and the founder of Fix California, joins us today to talk about what's at stake in the next six months, and why you need to get woke to defeat the madness that s consuming us right now. Triggered is a new show on the ground floor of the Progressive Era, hosted by Rashida Jones and edited by Alex Blumberg. Produced in partnership with Public Square, Public Square is a space where you can join the conversation about all things political, economic, and social justice issues. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers and use the promo code: "WEAPONS" to receive 15% off your entire purchase at the checkout counter at The Wellness Company, a leading provider of health and wellness products and services, and The Contagion Emergency Kit, a brand new product that s all about taking care of your family in a time of crisis. You can rest easy knowing that you have the emergency meds on hand, along with a guidebook for safe and easy use, to help keep you and your family safe and secure in the event of an emergency. You can't ask for much more than that, and you're not going to get much more. . Subscribe today using our podcast's promo code "Triggered" at checkout to get 15% all day long off your first purchase. Subscribe to our newest episode of the show, "TRiggered! Today's episode is a special bonus episode featuring a special treat for you won't-be-that-you-get-to-see-a-thing-that's-listen-with-it-on-the-real-world-experience-and-you'll-get 15% discount on all of the best deals on all kinds of things you could use in the show. Get 15% OFF your first episode of TRiggered, plus a discount on TWC Health + Wellness and more! Subscribe now! Get all the details on all that you'll be able to watch the show on all major streaming services, plus access to all the best of our social media platforms, plus other perks, and more, including the ability to access the show that's coming soon! You won't want to miss it anywhere else! Want to sponsor the show? Click here to find out more?
00:06:25.000Welcome to another huge episode of Triggered.
00:06:27.000Now, every day I wake up and I wonder whether or not I'm living The Truman Show.
00:06:31.000You know, the Jim Carrey movie where they're filming his life, every aspect of it, and he doesn't know it's happening so that they can create all sorts of crazy stuff.
00:06:40.000The world is burning under Joe Biden and Democrat leadership.
00:06:45.000Ukraine is getting whatever money this country has left.
00:06:49.000We're mortgaging our children's future to protect one of the most corrupt countries in the history of the world.
00:06:55.000We have pro-Hamas demonstrators setting up camps on college campus across the country, not just protesting for the peaceful existence of a Palestinian people, but literally cheering on a terror group.
00:07:07.000that murdered and raped people in the streets of Israel in early October.
00:07:13.000And we have a Roomba wandering around the White House, falling down the stairs of Air Force One, making every mistake imaginable, and he's now wearing special sneakers so he doesn't fall even more often.
00:07:34.000You see, Italian television and so many other countries just openly mocking the incompetence that is exuded from the White House.
00:07:43.000So who better to try to make sense of all of the insanity than former Acting Director of National Intelligence and the founder of Fix California, Rick Grenell.
00:08:22.000The rest of big tech is stacked against us, so we have to work even harder to make sure that we break through all of the noise and actually grow this movement.
00:08:31.000Also, folks, remember, you can go to Spotify, you can go to Apple Podcasts.
00:08:35.000If you miss the show here on Rumble, it's there.
00:09:00.000You know, maybe I let a word or two slip every once in a while, but we live in the real world, and so that's okay.
00:09:05.000But remember, you can watch it on the big screen, in your home, whether you have Roku or any one of those, download the Rubble app there, check it out, that's a great way to view so much of what you're not gonna see from the mainstream media, so much of what you're not gonna see in big tech, or frankly, even on conservative, loosely speaking, conservative TV programming.
00:09:24.000So, we're gonna get to Rick in just a few moments, but first, A quick word from some of our brave sponsors.
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00:12:56.000I mean, look, I think the biggest thing that we've lost through this whole thing is humor.
00:13:00.000There are some really funny jokes about religion, sexuality.
00:13:06.000I mean, there's a whole bunch of things that we used to... My dad, who is like one of the holiest people that I knew before he passed away, he would tell, you know, funny religious jokes.
00:13:24.000I sort of feel like maybe, you know, the ultimate proof of like, you know, not being homophobic is being able to have a gay friend like yourself and say these things totally comfortably.
00:13:33.000Like it's, you know, it's not like, you know, it's when you are changing your vernacular or whatever it may be to accommodate for, you know, to perhaps not offend whatever, like if you have that worry, I mean, how good of friends could you actually be?
00:13:47.000How comfortable could you actually be with that person?
00:13:49.000It sort of feels like, you know, the most anti-racist thing in the world is having real friends that you could joke at any level with and be totally comfortable.
00:13:58.000Well, you know, what you're hitting on is really people can sense authenticity.
00:14:03.000They know when someone is being completely phony and pretending like they're offended or pretending like, you know, you shouldn't use that word because I never would use that word.
00:14:17.000Yeah, I mean, to me, that's where President Trump really took off, is just completely being authentic.
00:14:24.000I know him personally as somebody who not only looks at me as completely 100% equal, but also completely 100% responsible for my actions, and he can hold me accountable.
00:14:39.000He is somebody who doesn't try to take The rainbow table down the hallway and and make all policies go through that.
00:15:06.000I got a zillion stories of the president joking with me about just how comfortable he is and how he loves the gay community and the votes from the gay community.
00:15:17.000And how do we reach the gay community?
00:15:21.000Yeah, because when he appointed you, you know, acting DNI, first you were ambassador to Germany, that was a big deal, but then you were at acting DNI, you know, the first gay man in that sort of level of power, and it was strange, like, you know, I saw no accolades from the media touting the fact that this was the first person, you know, of that sexuality to be put in this power.
00:15:42.000I know, you know, our press secretary, she's the first black, gay, foreign-born lesbian, like, You know, that was a big deal.
00:15:49.000I mean, frankly, that seemed to be her only qualifications because she's otherwise incompetent.
00:15:55.000You know, you would have been the first maybe openly gay person in a cabinet, I think.
00:16:00.000And, you know, they made a really big deal about Buttigieg, who you beat by, you know, a few years.
00:16:09.000Look, I find it actually huge progress.
00:16:13.000Now, the conservatives, I've watched how they've changed on gay issues.
00:16:19.000And what I love about the way conservatives and Republicans treat gay people is because they really, at this point, There's no debate about equality.
00:16:32.000Are you going to be a responsible member?
00:16:33.000Are you going to seek to make our community better?
00:16:36.000Are you part of the group of Americans that are loving this country, feeling responsible for making sure and protecting that it Making sure that it grows and that we protect everybody.
00:16:52.000What I love about that growth is that we started, there's no question the Republican Party started in a terrible place.
00:16:59.0001992 when I was at the convention in Houston.
00:17:02.000It was nightmarish to hear the language.
00:17:05.000But we have completely grown and now, I really believe that you can't be anti-gay in the Republican Party and not be run out of the party.
00:17:16.000Yeah, there'll always be a troll or two, but I mean, you said this to me, and it actually struck home, because it's so interesting with what's going on right now.
00:17:24.000You said this to me, you know, years ago, and it was like, hey man, there's no one tougher than a gay Republican, because we went through some shit.
00:17:58.000But two points on that is that You know, gay conservatives really believe, and I would say log cabin Republicans, really believe wholeheartedly that government needs to be smaller and that its power needs to be limited because, frankly, we're on the front lines of realizing we're not going to get all these benefits if you're trying to, you know, appease all these groups.
00:18:20.000The gay conservatives are going to be the last ones to get anything.
00:18:28.000But like, Because I do want to hear your thoughts on that because that's sort of like, that's like one of those like, it's not about equality, it's actually going so much more.
00:18:35.000They don't want equality, they want much more than equality.
00:18:39.000They want special treatment and they want others hindered so that they get even more special treatment and, you know, I'm sort of curious how that jives.
00:18:46.000You know, in the gay community in general, not even with the conservative gay community, because I probably, you know, I imagine they sort of feel like I do about it, but, you know, within the gay community as a whole, you know, what's going on there, because it feels like that movement has sort of been usurped by the QTIA++++, you know, it just goes on, you know, to infinity.
00:19:08.000And yet it does feel like it's at odds with so much of what the, you know, LGB maybe, you know, had accomplished.
00:19:18.000So what I don't understand about the bees is that that isn't that an admission that there's two
00:19:26.000genders if it's a bi? I'm not sure why they may be okay with it but that that's sort of yeah I mean
00:19:32.000yes that that's definitely a component. I think they're ready to kick the the bis out as well.
00:19:36.000But look, one thing I want to say before I go into that answer is that it's really important for people to understand is that the growth of the Republican Party has been enormous.
00:19:45.000Donald Trump has blown the doors off this process to really welcome gay conservatives in.
00:19:51.000But the gay left does not want to make progress on this.
00:19:55.000The gay left exists to make sure that gays and lesbians think that this is a terrible country to live in, that we're oppressed.
00:20:03.000And what we're left to argue is we've largely achieved equality in this country.
00:20:09.000We need to recognize that there are 69 countries around the world that will criminalize you for being gay.
00:20:15.000And you even go to the point of nine countries will kill you for being gay.
00:20:20.000I just saw that Iraq, we've spent trillions of dollars of blood, sweat and tears to try to move Iraq forward.
00:20:29.000And guess what they just did under the Biden administration?
00:20:37.000We were making progress because we were holding people to a standard that just simply said, don't criminalize it, don't put people in jail, don't kill gay people.
00:20:46.000Well, it doesn't seem like a big ask, you know, in the civilized world, but you know, but But that's the problem, right?
00:20:52.000Our elite, you know, the adults were back in charge and they're so pro-LGBT in the Biden administration and yet, you know, Anthony Blinken gets up there with a straight face after the disastrous withdrawal of Afghanistan and, you know, literally before Congress.
00:21:03.000I say this all the time because it's so, like, mind-blowing to me that, like, the adults who are back in charge could be this incompetent.
00:21:10.000He was, and I quote, shocked and dismayed that the Taliban, I mean, you know, the Taliban did not install a more Diverse and inclusive government.
00:21:18.000Was there going to be a little trans-Taliban coalition?
00:21:20.000They threw them off buildings last week, but now they have a seat at the table.
00:21:25.000Is it just about optics and just saying it and they get the full credit?
00:21:42.000But they are, but I mean, there's Gaze for Palestine, right?
00:21:44.000I mean, I'm seeing, I'm like, wait, you don't, I mean, you don't have to be, like, an avid follower of the news.
00:21:50.000You don't have to wake up like me and, like, scroll truth on Twitter to see what's going on in the world for hours on end, and then rant about it at night on your own podcast.
00:21:57.000Like, you have to be able to, like, open a newspaper.
00:22:01.000Like, it's this daily stuff that's happening.
00:22:03.000I mean, they do this, and then one of the, you know, one of the activists over there that is Gaze, you know, literally murdered for it, and it's like, no, it's different.
00:22:10.000It's like, Well, I think what we have to start with is that, you know, I've become an expert on the gay left and what their motives are, and their motives are money and jobs.
00:22:21.000They really are not concerned about the issue, because if they were concerned about the issue, they would declare victory and pack up and move on to something else, like international issues or something, where gays and lesbians literally are being criminalized.
00:22:37.000They continue raising a lot of money from corporate America, which is one of the things that I'm going after, is to remind corporations that when you give to the gay left, you're giving to a partisan organization who want, they collectively want, There to be conflict on this issue.
00:23:02.000And let's take the issue of trans because you asked about it.
00:23:07.000There's a very common-sense solution on the trans issue, but the gay left is absolutely against this because then it takes the issue away and they can't raise money off it.
00:23:19.000Log Cabin Republicans are at the forefront of this solution, which is if you're under the age of 18, We don't let you put tattoos on your body.
00:24:04.000I mean, I don't know how that happens.
00:24:05.000But yes, at three, you could decide to change your gender permanently and be on life-altering drugs for eternity.
00:24:10.000Yeah, and look, what log cabin gay conservatives say is that's not right.
00:24:14.000We should protect kids under the age of 18.
00:24:17.000No one should be able to get life altering drugs into their body like that, or surgeries or make any permanent decisions like that.
00:24:25.000That is an absolute protect kids protect Bathroom spaces.
00:24:31.000What we have to be able to do is if you're under the age of 18, protect kids, even when they and their parents say, no, this child is ready to go forward and change their gender.
00:24:42.000I don't believe that the child has the wherewithal to stand up to a parent.
00:24:46.000I think the parent is pushing the child into this situation.
00:24:52.000There's a reason every other family out of Hollywood has a trans baby.
00:24:58.000You know, no, but math and statistics don't work.
00:25:00.000Like, just, you're artsy, therefore you passed on a trans gene.
00:25:31.000Well, I got in trouble with this during the primary, right?
00:25:33.000Because everyone will find outrage, they're being paid by another campaign, and I go, you know, sort of jokingly, I said it on the show, I go, hey, listen, I'm pretty liberal on the issue, I guess.
00:25:40.000Like, if you're 18, you know, whatever legal age we come up with, like, hey, have at it.
00:25:47.000I don't want to hear about it ad nauseum.
00:25:49.000And, you know, stay the hell away from my kids.
00:25:53.000Like, I don't know, as a conservative, if we're trying to keep government and all these rules out of your lives, let people make decisions, that's fine.
00:26:00.000Again, I don't want to have to pay for it.
00:26:05.000The trans community makes up a very disproportional portion of the military relative to their per capita, you know, thing in society.
00:26:11.000I'm like, yeah, because our military is now paying for sex change operations, and then once you're on the drugs after the sex change operations, you're not allowed to be on the front lines.
00:26:20.000So we've created a system that has scared away anyone who'd actually want to be in the military that would actually fight well, and basically given out free sex change operations where there's no risk of actually having to be on the front line.
00:26:30.000You just be like, hey, I took care of this.
00:26:32.000And they're doing it like, They're the greatest patriots in the economy.
00:26:35.000I'm like, no, they're gaming a system designed by morons.
00:26:47.000If you're going to go through a gender reassignment after the age of 18, and you are going to decide that this is what's best for you, I actually think that you've got to figure out how to go through that without asking the public to pay for it.
00:27:06.000I just don't believe that you have the luxury of saying, I'm going to make this decision, I'm going to make the public pay for it.
00:28:38.000I mean, I think there's also probably conversations about, you know, levels.
00:28:40.000You see these guys, they keep the, you know, the male body parts, they're female, and it's like, well, I committed a crime, so I'm trans, and I'm in a female prison, and they seem to be having a great time impregnating the rest of the inmate population.
00:28:57.000Like, what's the... Yeah, you know, there's a great study... You can't really have your cake and eat it, too, here, boys, girls, whatever, you know, Zimzer, like, whatever you are, right?
00:29:07.000There's a really good study from the Independent Women's Forum.
00:29:09.000You should have one of the experts on your show because they went into the prison population and they looked at this issue in detail and there's amazing stories that really show the problem and they have been leading the way on figuring out within the prison population how it's being manipulated with gender ideology.
00:29:46.000The lobbying power that they have, it feels like they're the only group in society that's like totally like, you can't, oh, you can't mess with them.
00:29:55.000You know, totally off limits to mess with anything.
00:29:57.000And so it's sort of a fascinating one.
00:29:59.000But yeah, I'll have to do that more offline.
00:30:00.000This is because this was totally off track of where I wanted to talk with you, but given everything else that's going on, because obviously, you know, you're from California.
00:30:08.000Uh, there's new data out that actually showing really big increases in the number of registered Republicans.
00:30:15.000Uh, this is directly because of your efforts in California with, like, Fix California, people understanding what's going on, people with, you know, believing their lying eyes.
00:30:43.000I don't know that you're going to win California in the presidential, but like... I think if you give us five or six years, we're on our way.
00:30:50.000About three years ago, I decided to do something about it.
00:30:55.000People can go to FixCalifornia.com or FixCalifornia.org.
00:30:59.000We are spending $50,000 a month right now to register conservatives who are sitting on the sidelines.
00:31:09.000So we found, and we have a database of 1.4 million Unregistered Californians who we know are conservatives and who were just trying to convert.
00:31:21.000So we're spending this money and we're doing a really good job.
00:31:24.000President Trump, your dad has really believed in this and has helped us raise money for this effort in California.
00:31:31.000The way that I like to say it to people is imagine, you know, 15 years ago, Florida was a purple state.
00:32:08.000I will say this because you've got a lot of gun owners that watch your podcast.
00:32:13.000If you're in California and you're a gun owner, You probably aren't registered to vote.
00:32:17.000And we really need to start pounding that.
00:32:19.000One of the reasons that gun owners don't like to register to vote is they don't want to give a blue state management system like Gavin Newsom.
00:33:01.000But, yeah, but imagine flipping a couple school board seats and, like, not having the indoctrination of your children or, you know, the other stuff we're talking about.
00:33:09.000Yeah, sure, your rainbow-haired teacher says you're trans.
00:33:12.000I'm three, I'm gonna listen to my teacher, I must be trans.
00:33:14.000Like, you know, imagine what you could do at that level.
00:33:17.000So, you know, it's funny, when you look at California, it's like some of the most conservative people I know actually live in California.
00:33:21.000I think as a population, it's like the second largest conservative state in the country.
00:33:26.000It's just, you know, you got a lot of lunatics on the coast.
00:33:29.000But, you know, you go about a mile inland and it's basically, you know, ag land, it's farmland, it's everything that you, and it's, you know, rodeo.
00:33:37.000And like, wait a minute, I'm like, how is it possible?
00:34:04.000Is that just an example of statistics?
00:34:09.000What we're doing is we're digging deep and finding all of those conservatives for the last 15 years that gave up on Los Angeles and gave up on voting.
00:34:17.000We have a whole bunch of people sitting on the sidelines.
00:34:20.000Remember, Don, only about 50% roughly, and the numbers are a little bit rough, But roughly 50% of society is even registered to vote, and then only roughly 40% of people registered are actually voting.
00:34:35.000So we've got massive amounts, more people on the sidelines, watching the process.
00:34:40.000And what I'm saying up and down the coast in California, and I don't get paid to do this, I do this out of my own pocketbook, But I travel the state telling people we cannot be an ATM for the rest of the country.
00:37:18.000And the Hague continued to spend American dollars.
00:37:22.000American taxpayers are paying for this.
00:37:24.000To continue spending another couple of years, Jack Smith, researching and trying to get to war criminals.
00:37:32.000But it wasn't until I announced that Hašim Thaci, the president of Kosovo, and President Vučić, the president of Serbia, were coming to the Oval Office to meet with Donald Trump, because we were about to negotiate and sign a historic agreement between the two.
00:37:52.000Right after I tipped off the Department of Justice and told them that we had agreed, the two parties, Kosovo and Serbia, had agreed to get rid of the Hague Tribunal Court.
00:38:07.000I tipped off DOJ and said, just want you to know in the final agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, they've agreed to get rid of the Hague, which is Jack Smith's job.
00:38:17.000They agreed to get rid of the criminal court, the international court at The Hague that Jack Smith was running.
00:38:26.000And the DOJ individual's name is Bruce Schwartz.
00:38:29.000I still have a voicemail from him on my phone from four years ago.
00:39:23.000I mean, that's the same thing with Trump, right?
00:39:25.000Right now it's, you know, keep him off.
00:39:28.000Uh, you know, keep him off the campaign trail because, you know, if he's out there talking to Americans, they'll realize, uh, the, let's just say, rather stark contrast between our incompetent leader, Joe Biden, and, and Donald Trump.
00:39:38.000Uh, and, you know, the, the numerous, you know, he can't, he's not allowed to talk about this.
00:39:42.000You can't talk about the facts of the case because then the American people would see that it's all bullshit.
00:39:47.000And so, you know, today, you know, we may put you in prison for violating a gag order because you can't exercise your First Amendment rights in America anymore, even if it's, you know, something that the vast majority of people believe is a political persecution, which of course it is.
00:40:02.000It seems like this is textbook for the Marxist.
00:40:05.000There's one more angle to this, and I want to be very clear that I don't know the facts, but the facts are absolutely worthy of tracking down.
00:40:16.000What I do know is several people involved in what I'm about to say have confirmed individual parts of the story as true.
00:40:26.000And so I'm competent enough to say Individual parts of this story are true, enough to where there's definitely smoke and people need to investigate, and yet they're not investigating.
00:40:37.000And here's the allegations, and I tweeted them today.
00:40:41.000There is a businessman from Kosovo who is very close to Russia, and he did a lot of business dealings in Russia.
00:40:51.000He has said that for a year and a half, he and Jack Smith talked regularly, and that he was being pushed by Jack Smith to help him find individuals that would accuse Hashim Thachi.
00:41:12.000In that negotiation, this businessman was facilitating $16 million to Jack Smith in exchange for dropping US sanctions and prosecutions on two Russian businessmen and that Jack Smith took the money.
00:41:33.000Now, again, this is the allegation from others.
00:41:38.000It's been reported since last December People have been looking into this, and yet no one in the United States has dug into this to report on it.
00:41:49.000I find it to be outrageous that we haven't gone and that this individual businessman in Spain who's from Kosovo, who's making this allegation, and by the way, there are recordings with Jack Smith's prosecutors Uh, where I've heard these recordings and individuals have challenged the whole process to say, that's not what I said.
00:42:13.000You're, you're, you're putting words in my mouth.
00:43:21.000So I live in Los Angeles, and if somebody came to Los Angeles in an official capacity some way, maybe a politician, maybe a businessman, Maybe a newspaper person.
00:43:33.000But if somebody came to Los Angeles and said, I have a great idea.
00:43:40.000The entirety of Los Angeles is going to say, kill that person.
00:43:45.000Because everyone in Los Angeles knows someone who works at a studio, who works as a subcontractor to a studio, actor, agent, a union, the entirety.
00:43:56.000We go to school, we go to church with people whose livelihoods are all about the movie industry.
00:44:37.000You must vote for term limits of yourself.
00:44:40.000Yeah, everybody in that city is going to be like, kill them.
00:44:43.000So what we have to do as conservatives who want to make Washington more responsible to the rest of the country, and we want to make Washington, D.C.
00:44:53.000less powerful over our lives, We have to send people to Washington who aren't from Washington, who don't have a future in Washington, whose job is never gonna be surrounding Washington.
00:45:05.000We need regular people to stand up and run, go to Washington, vote to shrink that city, leave, go home to go to church, have a social life in Wisconsin or North Carolina or California, wherever you're from, and not be a part of Washington.
00:45:19.000You can't go to Los Angeles and say, let's get rid of movies.
00:45:23.000Okay, but by that logic though, how many guys do you know?
00:45:25.000Cause I know plenty, frankly on both sides.
00:45:28.000They go in, you know, I was in Montana this weekend and we're, you know, doing a thing for, you know, Tim Sheehy running for Senate there against Jon Tester.
00:45:35.000I was literally staying with my buddy.
00:45:37.000It was like, dude, well yeah, growing up, like Jon Tester was like my godfather.
00:45:40.000Like if my parents were killed in a, by a truck, like I was going to move in with him.
00:45:43.000And he was like, yeah, he was a school teacher and a meat cutter.
00:45:46.000And then he went to Washington DC and he ain't ever come back.
00:45:51.000And so, you know, over a 25-year career, you know, you may have come in with the right intentions, but now, you know, Jon Tester in Montana, a pretty conservative state by all standards, you know, is voting 100% of the time with Joe Biden.
00:46:07.000He's for, you know, males in women's sports with the trans issue, for open board, just like across the board.
00:46:14.000I mean, one of the most liberal people in the United States Senate, and he's also become I guess the number one recipient of lobbyist dollars in all of Washington.
00:46:22.000And this is a guy that started off as a school teacher and a meat cutter from Montana, but over 25 years became the swamp.
00:46:28.000How do we prevent that from happening?
00:46:30.000Obviously, term limits, it's an idea, but I don't know that any one of these people, because you're not going to get them all at once, are going to vote for term limits.
00:46:36.000And while I may love the idea, it ain't happening anytime soon.
00:46:39.000Yeah, there's no way that they're going to vote to limit their own power.
00:46:43.000And we've got to stop asking them to do that.
00:46:46.000I think the rest of us outside of Washington has power, and we need to flex it.
00:46:52.000I think term limits are a great idea, and here's why.
00:46:55.000I get the argument, the philosophical argument, that we should be able to vote for anyone we want.
00:47:01.000And so on paper, the idea that you're limiting terms seems like you're taking away people's right and you have the simplistic view that people should just be able to vote for who they want.
00:47:13.000The problem is, is that money in politics has become so huge.
00:47:17.000And the power of incumbency has become even bigger that it's not a level playing field anymore.
00:47:24.000Mitch McConnell is super out of touch, but he controls the purse strings of the Senate.
00:47:29.000No one can get elected by going against Mitch McConnell.
00:47:32.000And once you take the money, he owns you for life.
00:47:34.000Yeah, so I do think that the term limits are going to be important, but here's one caveat.
00:47:40.000If we just limited the terms of politicians and we left their staff and the bureaucrats in Washington to be there for 25 years, they are going to become more powerful.
00:47:50.000and the politicians are going to turn into puppets.
00:47:53.000So it's really important that we figure out how do you get limited government?
00:47:59.000How do you make sure that their power is taken away?
00:48:03.000And I do think that that requires a president when they're running the federal government
00:48:09.000of putting people in cabinet jobs that are there to reform, not just cut, but reform.
00:48:21.000And that means rethinking the way that you, you, uh, do services, but it also means Hiring people who aren't from Washington, who can withstand the media hits and the lobbyist hits and all of that, because they don't want their city to become less powerful, but everybody else outside of Washington does.
00:48:40.000The rest of America does want Washington to be less powerful.
00:48:44.000I think there's a component of that's why they're also going after Trump so hard.
00:48:48.000Someone who doesn't need Washington, someone who didn't need Washington.
00:48:52.000It's not just that they're going after him, it's that they're putting a marker out there for anyone else who's exactly what you're talking about.
00:48:58.000Someone where, like, going to Washington DC, you know, whether you like it or not, even, you know, it's kind of a downgrade, not an upgrade.
00:49:04.000You know, the people that sort of become part of the swamp, it's because, you know, they became a congressman because it's like, you know, the Distinguished Gentleman, the Eddie Murphy movie.
00:49:13.000It's like, they have the same name as the guy that sat there for 30 years, so they get elected into Congress, and now they're in the big leagues, you know, from, you know, years of working in the state and making no money and getting crushed, and now they're a congressman, and people are kissing their ass, and they're invited to, you know, this and that dinner, and they're seeing, you know, celebrities every once in a while, and it's like, they ain't ever leaving.
00:50:23.000And I think forever, we need to send outsiders to Washington, D.C.
00:50:27.000Stop, you know, I'll finish with this is that, you know, I do a lot of traveling like you do to help candidates.
00:50:34.000And I hear a lot of the time when you pick somebody new, like Bernie Moreno, who's never been involved in politics because he's been literally out building businesses, creating jobs.
00:50:45.000But you hear people constantly say, well, I've never heard of Bernie.
00:50:49.000My point is, that's the whole idea of this game.
00:50:54.000If you haven't heard of them, it's because they've actually been creating jobs, not running for office for 40 plus years, like Sherrod Brown.
00:51:48.000I'll just concentrate on two of them right now, that are incredibly powerful with the pro-Israel, pro-evangelical wing, as well as Arabs and pro-Palestinians.
00:52:02.000He doesn't have to change his message.
00:52:03.000And the message there is, this war wouldn't have happened if I were president.
00:52:07.000We would have had more Arab-Israeli peace agreements.
00:52:11.000And two, you can't fund Iran and not expect to have terrorism and war.
00:52:59.000They're still trying to negotiate with Iran.
00:53:02.000They still don't understand October 7th and what happened.
00:53:07.000And they're trying to play both sides.
00:53:08.000They're not even concentrating on getting the hostages out.
00:53:11.000That should be the very first thing you do.
00:53:13.000Release the hostages, bring home the Americans.
00:53:16.000Then we can talk about what's next, getting rid of Hamas leadership, rebuilding Gaza,
00:53:21.000all of that appropriate conversations, but that comes after you get the hostages back.
00:53:27.000I mean, listen, it seems like every American adversary is just flagrantly taking advantage of Joe Biden's weakness.
00:53:33.000If you end up, God forbid, what would a second Biden term look like?
00:53:38.000I mean, it feels like the next natural progression is China invading Taiwan and we lose our semiconductor business.
00:53:46.000But there's no other plausible explanation because of the weakness that we've exuded for so long.
00:53:52.000Look, if Joe Biden is reelected and he continues on these policies, we're going to have to have the draft because we are going to be fighting a lot more wars.
00:54:02.000And we already know that Joe Biden has really failed to recruit a volunteer force into the military.
00:54:09.000Our recruiting numbers are at the lowest they've ever been.
00:54:14.000But at the same time, we're picking fights around the world, and it's getting more dangerous.
00:54:18.000And we're getting involved in a lot more places.
00:54:21.000So if you just take the trajectory of both of those, fewer people volunteering, more conflict, We absolutely are going to have to have a draft, and I know I'm going to get hit by people for saying that, but I think it's the truth.
00:54:38.000Get ready for a draft, because these policies cannot continue without recognizing that we don't have enough people to fight, and there's a lot more conflicts to fight.
00:54:49.000So, you know, a big one that we saw in the last couple weeks, you know, was, you know, the renewal of FISA and all of that.
00:54:56.000You understand exactly how FISA works.
00:54:58.000I mean, you're, you know, the Director of National Intelligence.
00:55:01.000Can you explain the, you know, the civil liberties issues at hand so that people understand the nuance?
00:55:07.000Because everyone's like, no, you got to renew FISA so that you can spy, you know, on foreign adversaries.
00:55:12.000And like, I'm fine with that, but like, they spied on 370,000 Americans too, like, Yeah.
00:55:16.000You know, like, I don't have a feeling that 370,000 Americans had somehow real terror links, but it's like, ah, well, we signed a warrant, so it's fine.
00:55:24.000So, you know, we've shortchanged all of it to basically be able to go after Americans.
00:55:31.000How easy is it ultimately for Biden's administration, his weaponized DOJ, the FBI, etc., to spy on whoever it wants to through FISA?
00:55:43.000It is very easy, and I'm very uncomfortable with people who don't know about this process just saying, oh, we've got to have Pfizer to get the terrorists.
00:55:52.000Look, if you want to stop the terrorists right now, close the border, because we know there's a whole bunch of terrorists coming through the border.
00:55:59.000So, it's hard for me to take anyone very seriously who are screaming about the terrorists when they're not screaming about an open border.
00:56:09.000The second point is, look, there are a lot of good people within the intelligence community who are working hard gathering intelligence.
00:56:16.000But one of the things I've talked about this before, one of the problems that we have in Intel, are the analysts.
00:56:22.000Because now you have Intel gatherers who get the information, maybe they're listening and they're doing all sorts of ways to get the raw Intel.
00:56:32.000But then you have a group of people who look at the pieces of raw Intel and they come up with an analysis.
00:56:38.000They say, ah, I see this A, I see this B, and I see this C. You know what's going to happen?
00:56:42.000It's D. So then they give this warning, this analyst warning across the Intel community saying, this is coming.
00:56:50.000Now that's based on raw intelligence, and we need to do a better job of holding the analysts to account.
00:56:56.000Because remember, the analysts are the ones who said if you move the embassy, From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
00:57:20.000Imagine if you opened up a newspaper and you went to the editorial section and you had no idea who wrote the editorials because nobody signed them.
00:57:29.000So you don't know if you're dealing with a total partisan or a total expert.
00:57:35.000You have no idea who is writing this, and that's what the analysts are doing to us.
00:57:40.000Well, it feels like, you know, two parts, right?
00:57:42.000It feels like you could solve a lot of this if there were, like, actually severe criminal penalties for those who took some liberties with these things, right?
00:57:48.000You actually put some consequence up there, and there's not.
00:58:14.000They're lying to the, like, does anyone believe that these reports mean anything other than to have the desired effect of, let's call it, big war or the military-industrial complex?
00:58:25.000It's like, yeah, I could craft a report to, like, if you read this as the gospel, oh, we gotta fund Ukraine for the rest of eternity, otherwise, you know, the world is gonna explode.
00:58:33.000You know, just like, you know, Russia, Russia, Russia really happened.
00:58:36.000It wasn't, you know, a concoction of the FBI who leaks to the New York Times.
00:58:40.000New York Times writes an article, FBI uses the article as the precipice to investigate
00:59:12.000And what I've learned through this process is When the person, when your briefer is sitting in front of you giving you this information, you got to ask questions.
00:59:21.000You got to say, where did you get that?
00:59:26.000If you don't know how to dig down, it can be pretty flimsy.
00:59:31.000And I think the crisis that we have in the Intel community is what we're giving as top secret classified information, or what we're giving in the briefings.
00:59:42.000It's found somewhere online, or it's going to be online in a matter of days after you tell us.
00:59:50.000We've got to do a better job on the collections and the analyst process.
00:59:55.000But I will say that a lot of people who look at Intel and can get manipulated by it, it's because they haven't been through enough briefings to know, I better ask some questions.
01:00:07.000Yeah, I mean, I feel like they roll the Republicans with this every time.
01:00:10.000Like, we have where we want to be, we understand what it is, and... I changed my mind entirely because someone gave me a briefing that conveniently covers every point that Big War would want, or whatever it may be.
01:00:22.000It feels insane, and again, that's probably because a lot of people in Congress, you know, they've just been bureaucrats.
01:00:28.000Maybe my eyes are open because I was targeted by these people, so it's like I'm a little bit more skeptical of everything these days, as everyone should be, but they don't seem to be in Congress, which is weird.
01:00:37.000Yeah, look, Congress is not briefed that often.
01:00:40.000They don't get regular Intel briefings.
01:00:42.000So, you know, it's very rare for them to now, some individuals might request to go to a SCIF and get it.
01:00:49.000But still, what they're given then is not Uh, is not detailed enough because if you're getting a briefing every day and you're involved in the dynamics of it, and it's very dynamic where you're asking questions and you're directing the team on the information.
01:01:08.000If you're not doing that on a daily basis, then you're not really getting a real feel for what's happening.
01:01:14.000You're going to get a picture rather than a video.
01:01:17.000And it's really important to get a video picture in real time of what's happening, what changed yesterday, what changed today.
01:01:26.000And that's where I think Congress really lacks.
01:01:33.000What can you talk about that you witnessed as Director of National Intelligence that perhaps shocked you the most?
01:01:38.000I mean, you've had probably some of the highest clearances available.
01:03:03.000Now, we've got to make sure that they're protected and that they're not going into dangerous situations, but they also sign up knowing that it is dangerous, and we've got to allow them to do their job.
01:03:15.000Yeah, I mean, you know, I'd expand because that, you know, that was sort of the intelligence side of it, but you served as our ambassador to Germany.
01:03:21.000And, you know, unlike it felt like so many of our ambassadors, you know, when Trump was like, hey, I need you to do this, you know, Germany wants us to pay for NATO indefinitely and pay for all of it.
01:03:31.000They're not kicking in their share, but they want us to up it because they want protection from Russia while they're simultaneously negotiating a pipeline deal with Russia.
01:03:40.000To get cheaper energy, so I'm like, you're enriching the enemy that you want us to protect you from, and there's no accountability, and you went in there and were like, no, this doesn't work, and that had to be an uncomfortable situation, but, you know, why is it that it feels like so many in that diplomatic corps and ambassadors, well, I would rather be liked by the press than do what my job is, which is to serve your president and ultimately your country.
01:04:01.000Yeah, I think you just got to remember that you work for the American people and that and that's your job is to make us safer.
01:04:07.000Remember, the three things that President Trump and I were pushing in Germany were Nord Stream 2, stop it, stop the pipeline, pay the 2% fair share.
01:04:17.000And the third thing was stop having German companies work with Iran.
01:04:23.000All three of those things have been proven right.
01:04:25.000Now, I don't expect to have an apology from Chancellor Merkel.
01:04:29.000I don't think we're going to have an apology from the German media.
01:04:32.000But I will tell you this, the German government has changed their position on all three of those, and their position is now Donald Trump's position.
01:04:40.000He was an early mover on this, and they should have listened to him.
01:04:44.000Well, it feels like, you know, with some common sense and with some action from the American people, we can get back to that kind of policy, because God knows we don't just need it as a country.
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