Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 15, 2023


Balloons, 80s Rock, Big Tech, Radicals On The FCC & James Clapper Running Scared


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

14

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.680 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.620 Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:06.960 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:08.220 Senator, you're in Washington, D.C. right now.
00:00:10.460 And I am going to let people know in advance
00:00:13.380 where we're going on the pod today
00:00:14.760 because we have so much news.
00:00:16.580 So we're going to talk about the balloon
00:00:18.120 and the classified briefing that you just got out of.
00:00:20.580 We're also going to talk about
00:00:21.840 some significant big tech legislation
00:00:23.660 that you are authoring.
00:00:25.180 And then there was an amazing hearing today
00:00:28.140 that deals with the FCC and G.G. Saund
00:00:31.080 and an amazing back and forth.
00:00:33.500 And then we're also, if we have time,
00:00:34.920 we're going to get to this shocking about face
00:00:37.760 from James Clapper dealing with those,
00:00:40.020 the Hunter Biden laptop.
00:00:42.000 But before we get to the rest of that,
00:00:44.200 I want to talk about this classified briefing
00:00:47.060 that you got out of today.
00:00:49.400 What can you tell us about
00:00:51.340 what we've learned about the balloon?
00:00:52.740 We've seen a lot of the headlines.
00:00:54.380 We now are shooting down things left and right.
00:00:57.500 There's even been some people out there,
00:00:59.300 Senator, saying,
00:01:00.220 are we maybe overreacting politically
00:01:02.400 because the White House got the first one so wrong
00:01:04.640 that they're shooting everything down.
00:01:06.100 There's even been people speculating
00:01:07.340 that some of the things we may have shut down
00:01:09.420 may have actually been literal space junk.
00:01:12.800 And this is just to try to show,
00:01:14.840 you know, we're tough on balloons in outer space
00:01:17.160 or, you know, at 60,000 feet.
00:01:19.340 Let's, you know,
00:01:20.160 that's kind of where America is right now.
00:01:21.880 It's very weird.
00:01:23.300 So what can I tell you about it?
00:01:25.000 Not a damn thing.
00:01:26.660 So last week on the pod,
00:01:30.060 we talked about the classified briefing
00:01:31.880 that I went to last week
00:01:33.080 that focused on the first Chinese spy balloon,
00:01:36.300 the one that spent over a week
00:01:37.540 in American airspace conducting espionage
00:01:39.780 that ultimately Biden shot down over the Atlantic
00:01:42.620 after it had traversed the continental United States,
00:01:45.220 after it had completed its espionage mission.
00:01:48.400 Since then,
00:01:49.280 we've had three other objects shot down in space.
00:01:52.100 This morning,
00:01:54.120 I went to a second classified briefing
00:01:56.380 on the new object shut down in space.
00:01:58.200 I have to admit,
00:01:58.760 I was really curious
00:01:59.820 to find out
00:02:01.920 what they were.
00:02:03.820 Now,
00:02:04.380 I can't
00:02:06.320 disclose
00:02:06.820 anything
00:02:07.680 said in the classified briefing,
00:02:10.220 but to be honest,
00:02:12.620 I don't know that there's anything to disclose.
00:02:14.980 It was one of the least
00:02:16.460 satisfying
00:02:17.760 classified briefings
00:02:19.500 I've ever had.
00:02:22.020 Their lips were moving.
00:02:23.480 I'm not sure what they said.
00:02:25.960 I got to say,
00:02:27.720 I think the American people
00:02:29.780 are quite reasonably asking
00:02:32.100 a whole series of questions.
00:02:34.440 What the hell were the things
00:02:35.940 we just shot down?
00:02:37.600 Where did they come from?
00:02:39.100 Did they come from China?
00:02:41.000 Were they spy satellites
00:02:42.620 or spy balloons
00:02:43.560 or spy drones
00:02:44.680 or,
00:02:45.260 I don't know,
00:02:45.760 spy kites?
00:02:49.340 What were they doing?
00:02:50.700 Why did we shoot them down?
00:02:52.140 What was the danger they posed?
00:02:53.920 Those are all really reasonable questions.
00:02:55.700 Those are questions
00:02:56.320 I'm hearing from Texans.
00:02:58.560 Right now,
00:02:59.360 the Biden administration
00:03:00.280 is answering
00:03:01.220 zero of them.
00:03:03.520 It's not telling
00:03:04.620 the American people.
00:03:05.700 Actually,
00:03:05.900 the moment
00:03:06.280 that I thought
00:03:07.700 was most telling
00:03:08.660 was during the classified briefing
00:03:10.200 when a couple of senators
00:03:11.760 chewed out
00:03:12.840 the administration
00:03:13.500 and said,
00:03:14.180 look,
00:03:14.700 you owe it
00:03:15.500 to the American people
00:03:16.540 to be candid on this,
00:03:18.180 to stand up and say,
00:03:19.740 here's what we know.
00:03:20.840 And by the way,
00:03:21.520 if the answer is,
00:03:22.780 we don't know.
00:03:24.040 We shot some damn thing
00:03:25.520 down in the sky
00:03:26.340 and we don't know what it is.
00:03:27.360 We don't know where it came from.
00:03:28.560 It may have been,
00:03:29.260 you know,
00:03:30.200 Jim Bob jettisoned
00:03:31.320 his pickup truck
00:03:32.000 into the sky.
00:03:32.660 We don't know.
00:03:33.660 If that's the answer,
00:03:35.360 say it.
00:03:36.860 But right now,
00:03:37.960 this administration
00:03:38.640 believes
00:03:39.280 it doesn't owe
00:03:40.220 the American people
00:03:41.280 an explanation.
00:03:43.340 And I,
00:03:43.900 all right,
00:03:44.180 I got to ask you something.
00:03:45.360 All right,
00:03:45.600 so Ben,
00:03:46.060 you're 43,
00:03:47.860 is that right?
00:03:48.740 You don't have to age me
00:03:50.060 that much.
00:03:50.780 41,
00:03:51.420 give me a little bit
00:03:52.060 of a break here.
00:03:52.500 41, all right.
00:03:53.120 So I want to test you
00:03:54.640 on something.
00:03:56.200 Did you get the reference
00:03:58.120 from the title
00:03:59.960 of our last podcast?
00:04:01.560 So our last podcast,
00:04:02.620 usually I come up
00:04:03.540 with the titles
00:04:04.120 because Ben,
00:04:05.840 he's very talented,
00:04:06.740 but he writes
00:04:07.160 long paragraph titles
00:04:08.360 and I said,
00:04:08.920 they're too long.
00:04:09.520 I want them punchier.
00:04:10.340 And so I come up
00:04:11.060 with more smart ass titles.
00:04:13.460 This is true.
00:04:14.420 This is,
00:04:14.780 this is totally accurate.
00:04:16.020 Am I characterizing
00:04:17.200 that too loosely?
00:04:18.220 That is 100% accurate.
00:04:22.400 So the last title
00:04:24.320 started out
00:04:24.980 with 99 Chinese balloons.
00:04:26.880 And my question to you,
00:04:28.400 which I asked several people
00:04:29.360 on my staff today,
00:04:30.900 do you get the reference?
00:04:32.060 And none of the 20 something
00:04:33.420 year olds on my staff
00:04:34.520 got the reference.
00:04:35.240 So do you get the reference?
00:04:36.220 So when I got it,
00:04:38.160 the first thing
00:04:38.720 that came to my mind
00:04:39.720 was 99 bottles
00:04:40.620 of beer on the wall.
00:04:43.720 I thought that was pretty good.
00:04:45.520 I'm not going to lie.
00:04:46.380 That's it.
00:04:47.400 Immediately I was like,
00:04:48.320 99 bottles of beer
00:04:49.220 on the wall.
00:04:49.600 That's what I thought.
00:04:50.920 Well,
00:04:51.520 then it is the difference.
00:04:53.580 So I'm 52,
00:04:54.600 you're 41.
00:04:55.560 That decade matters.
00:04:57.320 So what is it
00:04:58.320 in reference to?
00:04:58.940 Some like 80s hair band song
00:05:00.500 I don't know of?
00:05:01.480 Yes.
00:05:02.180 All right.
00:05:02.500 Well,
00:05:02.680 at least see,
00:05:03.380 I can get there quickly.
00:05:04.780 That's exactly what it was.
00:05:06.620 It was a song
00:05:07.320 that came out in 1983
00:05:08.680 by an artist,
00:05:10.040 Nenna,
00:05:10.520 a German artist.
00:05:12.320 And it was 99 Luftballons.
00:05:15.600 And it was 99 Luftballons.
00:05:19.840 Da da da da.
00:05:21.080 And it was interesting.
00:05:22.500 So I actually pulled it up.
00:05:24.420 It was a protest song
00:05:26.560 about 99 red balloons
00:05:29.560 floating in the summer sky.
00:05:30.940 Panic bells,
00:05:31.520 it's red alert.
00:05:32.280 There's something here
00:05:33.060 from somewhere else.
00:05:33.940 The war machine
00:05:35.240 springs to life,
00:05:36.540 opens up one eager eye,
00:05:39.200 focusing it on the sky.
00:05:40.760 The 99 red balloons go by.
00:05:43.080 And it goes on to say,
00:05:45.160 this is it, boys.
00:05:46.040 This is war.
00:05:46.800 The president is on the line
00:05:48.120 as 99 red balloons go by.
00:05:50.060 And it was a German protest song.
00:05:51.900 Everyone's a Captain Kirk
00:05:53.200 with orders to identify,
00:05:55.200 to clarify and classify,
00:05:56.740 scrambling the summer sky.
00:05:58.480 99 red balloons go by.
00:06:00.300 And it was this 80s German protest song
00:06:04.200 against war
00:06:05.020 about this guy and girl
00:06:06.360 that released 99 red balloons
00:06:08.200 into the sky.
00:06:09.980 And it feels like they're 99 damn Chinese balloons
00:06:13.080 floating.
00:06:14.760 All right.
00:06:16.900 I am going to say something.
00:06:18.940 Okay.
00:06:19.180 If I get prosecuted,
00:06:20.520 Ben,
00:06:20.640 I want you to provide my,
00:06:21.960 my defense counsel.
00:06:25.980 Done.
00:06:26.440 I'm going to say something
00:06:27.480 that was said in the classified briefing,
00:06:29.000 but I feel very confident
00:06:30.360 this statement is not classified.
00:06:33.080 One of the generals
00:06:34.100 who was briefing us
00:06:35.180 said that he's been so busy
00:06:37.340 that he woke up this morning
00:06:39.420 and he had forgotten
00:06:41.340 it was Valentine's Day
00:06:42.640 and he didn't understand
00:06:43.540 why his wife
00:06:44.160 had given him a present
00:06:45.040 and he said he hadn't gotten
00:06:46.300 anything for his wife
00:06:48.140 on Valentine's Day
00:06:49.220 and he was worried.
00:06:50.040 A bunch of us called out,
00:06:51.060 said there's a gift shop
00:06:51.800 in the Capitol.
00:06:53.440 And one of the Democrat senators
00:06:56.080 leaned forward in the mic
00:06:57.240 and said,
00:06:57.700 my only advice is
00:06:58.620 don't get her a balloon.
00:06:59.500 So that was said in the skiff,
00:07:04.660 but I feel confident
00:07:05.620 there's no classification
00:07:06.660 that attaches to it.
00:07:08.000 That's awesome.
00:07:08.820 I have,
00:07:09.380 I have literally three questions
00:07:11.200 that I know everybody else
00:07:12.660 is asking.
00:07:13.420 So I want to ask you those
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00:08:26.980 All right, Senator,
00:08:27.820 my question for you first is,
00:08:29.900 we've been focusing so much
00:08:31.340 on the 99 balloons, right,
00:08:32.780 to go back to the song here,
00:08:35.300 being from China.
00:08:36.520 And actually,
00:08:37.120 before we get
00:08:37.960 to your substantive question,
00:08:39.540 I want to do something
00:08:41.020 for the cultural enlightenment
00:08:44.140 of Benjamin Ferguson.
00:08:46.120 I know this one.
00:08:55.940 Here's the part
00:09:15.160 everybody's going to know.
00:09:17.960 Ah, there we go.
00:09:19.900 All right, Senator,
00:09:20.680 see,
00:09:20.980 you actually impressed me
00:09:22.740 because you actually
00:09:23.740 went to something
00:09:25.240 in the 80s pop culture
00:09:26.400 that has 23 million views
00:09:29.020 on this video on YouTube.
00:09:31.220 So I have to give you
00:09:32.100 a little street credit for that.
00:09:33.520 And Ben, that came out
00:09:33.540 when you were a year old.
00:09:35.220 Yes.
00:09:36.180 And I will tell you,
00:09:37.420 it was depressing.
00:09:38.400 I asked my staff,
00:09:39.520 and most of my staffers
00:09:40.520 are in their 20s,
00:09:41.380 and they all looked at me
00:09:42.420 and were like,
00:09:42.880 we have no idea what that is.
00:09:44.520 Yeah, we have no idea.
00:09:45.540 I would hope
00:09:46.400 if they heard the song,
00:09:47.240 they would know it, though,
00:09:47.940 at that point.
00:09:48.080 Did you ever see the movie
00:09:48.740 Gross Point Blank?
00:09:49.900 Nope, never saw it.
00:09:50.780 Oh, it's great.
00:09:51.900 It's a movie.
00:09:52.420 John Cusack is a...
00:09:53.480 Is it in black and white?
00:09:55.220 No.
00:09:56.240 John Cusack is a hitman
00:09:57.700 who goes back
00:09:58.480 to his 80s high school reunion,
00:10:00.160 and he's a hitman there.
00:10:01.280 But they play 99 Luftballons.
00:10:02.880 It was sort of a...
00:10:04.400 Anyway,
00:10:04.840 if you are 52 years old,
00:10:07.880 that pulls the nostalgia strings.
00:10:10.640 All right,
00:10:10.880 you had a serious question.
00:10:12.000 Why are you distracting us, man?
00:10:13.200 Get back to substance.
00:10:14.140 Last question on this,
00:10:15.340 just real quick.
00:10:15.960 When you and your family
00:10:16.940 were traveling
00:10:17.700 when you were a young boy,
00:10:18.660 did y'all stop at hotels
00:10:20.180 that said color TV and A.C.?
00:10:21.820 Is that what it was like
00:10:23.640 when you were growing up?
00:10:24.820 I just want to know.
00:10:26.020 It wasn't quite like horse and buggy.
00:10:28.820 Okay, all right.
00:10:29.680 I just want to know.
00:10:30.620 I have a feeling
00:10:31.700 that the dad,
00:10:33.600 your dad pulled over
00:10:34.820 at a hotel with you
00:10:35.940 and it said colored television.
00:10:38.260 All right.
00:10:38.520 I'm just going to...
00:10:39.020 I'm going to go out
00:10:39.680 and a limb on that one.
00:10:40.360 Here's a guess.
00:10:40.640 What do you think I got
00:10:44.320 that I still remember
00:10:46.040 as the coolest Christmas present ever
00:10:48.900 when I was six years old?
00:10:51.220 So I was six years old in 1976.
00:10:53.080 What do you think I got?
00:10:54.200 Anything with batteries?
00:10:56.220 Yes.
00:10:57.260 Okay.
00:10:58.720 I have absolutely no idea
00:11:01.840 because I didn't even know
00:11:03.160 they had battery-operated toys
00:11:04.480 when you were around back then.
00:11:06.100 Actually, technically,
00:11:06.980 it wasn't batteries.
00:11:07.560 It's just so fun hazing you
00:11:07.820 on your age.
00:11:08.680 I know.
00:11:08.980 This is a blast for me.
00:11:10.020 And look,
00:11:10.760 in the Senate,
00:11:11.440 they call me Skippy.
00:11:12.680 They think I wear short shorts
00:11:14.080 and a propeller hat
00:11:14.980 because the average age there
00:11:16.140 is 103.
00:11:17.560 That's true.
00:11:17.960 So it's all relative.
00:11:19.720 But 1976,
00:11:21.960 when I was six years old,
00:11:23.100 for Christmas,
00:11:23.860 I got Pong.
00:11:25.120 It actually didn't use batteries.
00:11:26.100 Oh, yeah.
00:11:26.460 That was a great game.
00:11:27.620 It was the first video game ever.
00:11:29.560 So it was before Atari
00:11:30.600 and I went through
00:11:31.740 the whole berth.
00:11:32.680 I mean, I'm a gamer,
00:11:33.740 but I got Pong
00:11:35.540 for Christmas in 76
00:11:37.460 and it was the coolest thing ever.
00:11:39.600 You hooked it up to your TV.
00:11:41.160 You turned the dial
00:11:42.480 and it was table tennis.
00:11:44.400 It was the first video game
00:11:45.880 that people had at home.
00:11:47.220 Just when I thought
00:11:48.360 we totally lost you,
00:11:49.400 you just redeemed yourself.
00:11:50.600 All right.
00:11:50.940 Back to this question
00:11:51.880 I have to ask you.
00:11:53.500 Everybody that I've talked to
00:11:55.140 has been asking me the same thing.
00:11:57.100 Are all these objects
00:11:58.580 just from China?
00:12:00.460 Are there other people
00:12:01.380 that may have been in on the game
00:12:02.940 that we are just now learning about
00:12:05.380 since his administration
00:12:06.420 really didn't seem to be focused
00:12:07.940 on this at all?
00:12:08.780 And we know for a fact now
00:12:10.340 that the Trump administration
00:12:11.860 was basically left in the dark
00:12:13.660 with balloons that were coming over
00:12:14.880 when he was in office.
00:12:16.780 Yeah.
00:12:16.960 The short answer is
00:12:18.020 I have no frigging idea.
00:12:19.280 I don't know.
00:12:20.900 I would like to know.
00:12:22.660 I'd like to know
00:12:23.660 what the hell it is we shot down.
00:12:25.980 And I think the administration
00:12:27.440 should stand up
00:12:29.040 and be candid
00:12:30.180 with the American people.
00:12:31.520 That's what a lot of us
00:12:32.500 were urging was
00:12:33.420 look, tell the American people.
00:12:35.220 I think it's a little weird
00:12:36.500 that we've shot four objects down
00:12:39.800 in the last 10 days
00:12:41.120 and Joe Biden hasn't addressed
00:12:43.020 the American people.
00:12:44.660 Like that's an odd dynamic
00:12:46.600 to say, okay,
00:12:47.500 here's what's going on.
00:12:48.780 We're shooting things
00:12:50.220 out of the sky.
00:12:52.040 I did see on Twitter
00:12:53.460 a picture of a guy
00:12:55.520 in full body cast
00:12:56.840 who said,
00:12:58.320 all I was doing
00:12:59.520 was floating along
00:13:00.480 on my balloon
00:13:01.120 at 40,000 feet
00:13:02.360 and out of nowhere,
00:13:03.540 bam!
00:13:04.380 Bam, yeah.
00:13:05.900 It is surreal
00:13:07.260 to see them not deal
00:13:08.460 with this publicly
00:13:09.320 like you mentioned.
00:13:10.320 It has disrupted
00:13:11.720 U.S. air travel.
00:13:13.560 A lot of people
00:13:14.180 have not talked about that
00:13:15.360 either in the media.
00:13:16.620 I mean,
00:13:16.780 this is a significant event
00:13:18.380 that's happened
00:13:18.900 over several different states now
00:13:20.540 with shutting down airspace
00:13:22.440 and planes being grounded
00:13:24.560 for several hours.
00:13:25.660 That disrupts people's lives
00:13:26.820 and still not a word
00:13:28.200 from the president.
00:13:29.000 I have to ask you,
00:13:30.180 and again,
00:13:30.660 it's going to be your opinion,
00:13:31.900 obviously,
00:13:32.760 but is this go back
00:13:34.240 to the issue
00:13:34.780 that this president
00:13:35.680 time and time again
00:13:36.960 refuses to stand up to China?
00:13:39.480 At what point
00:13:40.340 does that concern you
00:13:41.480 from a national security standpoint?
00:13:43.560 Well, Ben,
00:13:43.940 I think it's a combination
00:13:45.380 of things.
00:13:46.200 Number one,
00:13:46.920 when it comes to foreign policy
00:13:48.380 and in particular,
00:13:49.360 standing up to the bad guys,
00:13:50.640 standing up to our enemies,
00:13:51.820 whether that means China,
00:13:53.760 whether that means Russia,
00:13:54.780 whether that means Iran,
00:13:55.820 whether that means North Korea,
00:13:56.940 whether that means Venezuela,
00:13:58.100 whether that means Cuba.
00:14:00.060 Joe Biden
00:14:00.740 and his foreign policy team
00:14:02.140 is consistently weak.
00:14:03.680 If you're an enemy
00:14:04.440 of an America,
00:14:05.560 if you're an enemy of America,
00:14:06.580 you can count on weakness
00:14:07.800 and appeasement
00:14:08.480 from Joe Biden.
00:14:09.760 We saw that
00:14:10.640 with balloon number one.
00:14:11.760 balloon number one
00:14:12.800 for over a week,
00:14:14.360 it was allowed
00:14:14.980 to be over U.S. airspace
00:14:16.500 to conduct espionage
00:14:17.880 and they did nothing.
00:14:19.380 That was weakness.
00:14:21.040 But here's the second component.
00:14:22.680 It actually explains
00:14:23.660 this whole thing,
00:14:24.720 which is after weakness,
00:14:27.160 they view all of foreign policy
00:14:29.320 through the lens
00:14:30.280 of public relations.
00:14:32.880 It's a communications battle.
00:14:34.640 It's politics.
00:14:35.240 It's not actually
00:14:36.200 about protecting the country.
00:14:38.060 It's about PR.
00:14:39.520 So what did the administration
00:14:43.120 lean in vigorously on,
00:14:44.500 giving you all of these reasons
00:14:46.240 why it was fantastic
00:14:48.140 that we let the Chinese spy balloon
00:14:50.960 conduct espionage
00:14:52.000 over America
00:14:52.560 for over a week?
00:14:53.740 They said,
00:14:54.200 oh, it's really great
00:14:55.000 because we got to spy on them
00:14:56.460 while they were spying on us.
00:14:57.980 Well, hock diggity damn,
00:14:58.960 wouldn't that be great then
00:14:59.800 if Russia and Iran
00:15:01.560 and everyone else
00:15:02.180 sent balloons over us?
00:15:03.100 No.
00:15:04.260 That's idiotic.
00:15:05.360 But it's a spin.
00:15:06.260 It's the kind of thing
00:15:08.560 a 26-year-old political staffer
00:15:10.460 types out as a talking point
00:15:11.760 and they lean in vigorously.
00:15:13.480 That also explains
00:15:14.520 the stage they're at now
00:15:16.360 where they're like,
00:15:18.240 you know,
00:15:18.780 Yosemite Sam
00:15:19.820 just firing at every damn target
00:15:22.180 in the sky.
00:15:23.560 And, you know,
00:15:25.280 I said in the last pod
00:15:26.540 that I was glad
00:15:27.560 that Biden finally grew a pair
00:15:29.320 and shot these things down,
00:15:30.580 which is what he should have done
00:15:31.380 with the first one.
00:15:32.640 I'll say I got a little bit
00:15:33.920 of blowback
00:15:34.460 from some of my guys going,
00:15:36.020 well, yeah,
00:15:36.420 but we don't know what it is
00:15:37.280 he shot down.
00:15:38.980 That's a fair point,
00:15:40.100 to be honest.
00:15:41.000 I think there's a...
00:15:41.780 There's a lot of speculation today
00:15:43.560 that's been happening
00:15:44.260 on national news
00:15:45.520 that we may have actually
00:15:46.900 been shooting down
00:15:47.660 some stuff
00:15:48.260 that they referred to
00:15:48.960 as literal space junk.
00:15:53.040 It's...
00:15:53.680 I will say
00:15:54.600 I got a text
00:15:56.500 from a buddy of mine
00:15:58.140 who I was making a joke
00:16:00.040 about this
00:16:00.640 and he said,
00:16:01.100 well,
00:16:01.960 I'm at least comforted
00:16:03.260 that that means
00:16:03.960 it wasn't little green men
00:16:05.300 in UFOs
00:16:06.640 preparing to land
00:16:07.580 and I can't tell you
00:16:09.480 it wasn't little green men
00:16:10.520 in UFOs
00:16:11.060 preparing to land,
00:16:11.760 but I can tell you
00:16:12.360 if it was,
00:16:12.860 I don't know it.
00:16:14.420 So,
00:16:15.500 you know,
00:16:16.700 if that's happening,
00:16:18.940 the Biden administration
00:16:19.700 is keeping that
00:16:20.600 really close to the vest,
00:16:22.300 but it does make you think
00:16:24.760 that this is being driven
00:16:27.320 not by
00:16:28.540 a level-headed view
00:16:31.200 of the national security needs
00:16:32.580 of the United States,
00:16:33.420 but rather by the desire
00:16:35.020 to tell a political PR
00:16:39.140 communications narrative
00:16:40.500 and so right now
00:16:42.280 they're like,
00:16:42.900 uh-oh,
00:16:43.480 we looked weak,
00:16:45.000 let's shoot a bunch of crap down
00:16:46.420 to show how tough we are.
00:16:48.040 Canadian women
00:16:48.900 are looking for more,
00:16:50.240 more to themselves,
00:16:51.300 their businesses,
00:16:52.240 their elected leaders,
00:16:53.180 and the world around them.
00:16:54.420 And that's why we're thrilled
00:16:55.380 to introduce
00:16:56.020 the Honest Talk podcast.
00:16:58.140 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:16:59.060 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:17:00.560 And in this podcast,
00:17:01.700 we interview Canada's
00:17:02.660 most inspiring women,
00:17:04.160 entrepreneurs,
00:17:05.000 artists,
00:17:05.660 athletes,
00:17:06.280 politicians,
00:17:06.920 and newsmakers,
00:17:07.860 all at different stages
00:17:08.920 of their journey.
00:17:10.060 So,
00:17:10.400 if you're looking to connect,
00:17:11.860 then we hope you'll join us.
00:17:13.280 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast
00:17:14.660 on iHeartRadio
00:17:15.660 or wherever you listen
00:17:16.640 to your podcasts.
00:17:18.560 I want to move
00:17:19.600 to something else
00:17:20.420 that's a pretty big deal,
00:17:21.580 and that is the fact
00:17:22.420 that you have launched
00:17:23.340 sweeping big tech
00:17:24.540 oversight investigation.
00:17:27.240 You are the ranking member
00:17:28.640 of the Senate Committee
00:17:29.860 on Commerce,
00:17:31.220 and you've put together
00:17:32.560 this new oversight
00:17:34.560 investigation of big tech.
00:17:36.380 Talk a little bit
00:17:37.320 about what you hope
00:17:38.740 that this will accomplish
00:17:40.280 and how it will hold
00:17:41.540 big tech accountable.
00:17:43.140 So,
00:17:43.820 in this new Congress,
00:17:45.760 I am now the ranking member
00:17:47.460 on the Senate Commerce Committee.
00:17:48.760 What does that mean?
00:17:49.400 I'm the senior Republican
00:17:50.720 on the Committee
00:17:52.500 of Commerce,
00:17:53.700 Science,
00:17:54.240 and Transportation.
00:17:54.740 information.
00:17:55.720 The Commerce Committee
00:17:57.180 has jurisdiction
00:17:58.900 over about half
00:18:00.320 of the U.S. economy.
00:18:02.040 So,
00:18:02.380 it has jurisdiction
00:18:03.060 over all of telecom,
00:18:04.480 it has jurisdiction
00:18:05.140 over the Internet,
00:18:06.260 it has jurisdiction
00:18:07.180 over aviation,
00:18:08.180 it has jurisdiction
00:18:08.780 over transportation,
00:18:09.940 it has jurisdiction
00:18:10.520 over the Federal Trade Commission,
00:18:12.280 it has jurisdiction
00:18:12.960 over the Commerce Department,
00:18:14.880 it has jurisdiction
00:18:15.440 over the Department
00:18:16.060 of Transportation,
00:18:17.560 the FAA,
00:18:18.620 the FCC,
00:18:19.180 it has jurisdiction over the alphabet soup of a whole bunch of different agencies pipelines and
00:18:27.940 trucking and so my role as the ranking member is I'm the senior Republican it means that that I'm
00:18:35.300 in the process right now of hiring staff on the committee and and basically doubling the size of
00:18:42.380 my Washington staff when you're the ranking member of a full committee you have resources to bring
00:18:47.040 in staff and so that's really potent because I'm bringing in very serious lawyers economists policy
00:18:53.740 experts to drive an agenda and and and with more resources we're able to engage in a lot more issues
00:19:00.360 and so the first big thing that I've done is the ranking member of the commerce committee
00:19:06.540 is launched an investigation of big tech censorship and so I sent letters this week
00:19:14.740 to the CEOs of Google and Meta the the parent of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter
00:19:23.060 Google's the parent of YouTube and and and also TikTok and asking a whole series of specific and
00:19:31.200 detailed questions focused on recommendation algorithms the algorithms where they say you're
00:19:37.180 on YouTube and they say hey you might like this next and it drives an enormous amount of traffic
00:19:41.980 where they suggest the content you might want and right now the question of recommendation algorithms
00:19:50.240 and whether it falls within the protections of section 230 of the communications decency act
00:19:56.680 which is the immunity big tech companies get from liability that's a question before the U.S.
00:20:02.680 Supreme Court and so I filed an amicus brief urging the court to to interpret the immunity narrowly
00:20:09.120 uh so as to not give a safe harbor for censorship and instead to encourage free speech
00:20:14.940 so this oversight letter is going in and asking very specific questions about how they determine what
00:20:21.860 to recommend what communications they're having with the federal government with democrats in congress
00:20:26.820 what they elevate what they suppress and over the next two years I'm going to engage in a systematic
00:20:35.180 careful investigation of the wholesale censorship of conservative speech we see on big tech
00:20:42.400 uh last week I spent a half hour on the phone with Elon Musk doing a deep dive into what he's found at
00:20:48.800 Twitter and and I think what he has made public and what he is revealing for me is serving as a
00:20:54.960 roadmap for the investigation for the commerce committee because all of the other big tech companies are going
00:21:00.700 holy crap how can Elon reveal this they had all assumed that they would remain this this all members of
00:21:07.680 the small billionaires club that are masters of the universe they get to decide who to censor and who to
00:21:12.580 silence and who not to and Elon is spoiling the party by making it all public and and so my hope is that
00:21:21.640 the results of this investigation that we see real and meaningful transparency that will make public
00:21:27.640 to the american people what's going on and that we see real and meaningful accountability and we're
00:21:33.320 going to devote a lot of time and energy to fighting for free speech online because I think
00:21:39.040 big tech censorship is the greatest threat in america to free speech and the greatest threat to free and
00:21:45.060 fair elections are there any democrats in the senate that that are that you're working with right now
00:21:50.760 on this that say they agree or is this a totally partisan issue where democrats say we got what we
00:21:58.440 want we own big tech they work with us we get these communication channels behind the scenes we can tell
00:22:05.260 them who to silence who to censor who to throttle what to you know we can push out like you said in
00:22:09.920 these algorithms things that we want you to see and and make sure that we bury the things of the right
00:22:14.500 or there's some democrats that actually understand how un-american this really is and what a threat this is
00:22:20.440 i i would argue to our freedoms in this country yeah maybe is the answer to that i don't know
00:22:27.880 i was just saying that didn't sound promising listen i'm trying to convince democrats that they should
00:22:33.240 care about this today's democrat party is much more comfortable with censorship than the democrats of
00:22:39.380 yesteryear but i'm trying to convince democrats so some of the arguments i'm giving there are a number
00:22:44.760 of democrats that care about the media and they want free and independent journalists and i've been
00:22:50.500 pointing out to them listen big tech bullies the media you look for example at the hunter biden fiasco
00:22:57.900 where they forced they blocked the new york post they deplatformed the new york post because it shared a
00:23:03.420 story it wrote a story they didn't like they bullied politico reporters who dared talk about the new york
00:23:08.900 post story the degree to which the traditional media is becoming just captive to and obedient to
00:23:17.420 big tech ought to scare you if you want a free and independent media and and what i've said secondly
00:23:23.700 to a number of democrats i've said look i get that right now maybe you agree with the political views
00:23:30.540 of big tech you agree with what the with what they're promoting and you agree you disagree with what
00:23:36.780 they're censoring so you might be happy substantively but the question i asked him i said look are are you
00:23:42.920 sure you want to embrace a system where a handful of silicon valley billionaires have complete and
00:23:51.220 unfettered power over what anyone is allowed to discuss politically in the public square in america i mean
00:23:58.780 today you agree with them but maybe tomorrow you won't and by the way elon musk is there now you've
00:24:04.000 already decided you don't agree with him how would you feel if suddenly they start censoring your
00:24:08.920 views i don't want any billionaires or anybody else to have the power to censor other americans i want
00:24:16.560 free speech i want everybody to be able to speak in the marketplace of ideas to decide and i will say look
00:24:23.380 are democrats persuaded not necessarily but i'll point to last year and you and i talked about this before
00:24:29.440 in the senate judiciary committee amy klobuchar democrat had legislation focused on local media
00:24:36.820 small newspapers small local stations to enable them to collectively bargain with big tech to force
00:24:43.860 big tech to pay for their content and it was in the judiciary committee and i introduced an amendment
00:24:49.200 that was targeted at censorship my laser focus on all of this is censorship and it served to restrict
00:24:56.740 big tech from engaging in political censorship and initially in the judiciary committee my amendment
00:25:02.080 was adopted and klobuchar the democrats pulled down their bill they're like oh crap we can't take it
00:25:08.020 with this amendment it was one of the more surreal moments i've ever seen in a committee where
00:25:13.080 literally i get an amendment in and so the author of the bill pulls it down well afterwards i went to
00:25:19.020 amy's office and we sat there with a notepad and wrote an amendment together and she accepted
00:25:24.280 a substantially similar amendment from me that was targeted at big tech censorship trying to rein it in
00:25:31.000 and the judiciary committee passed her bill with my amendment now the bill ultimately didn't pass on the
00:25:37.900 senate floor so it's not law but we did get bipartisan agreement to take a step against censorship and i think
00:25:44.260 that's the beginning and i'm going to keep working at it incrementally and and with with ferocious
00:25:51.360 determination because i think the danger to free speech is existential yeah no doubt about it i want
00:25:57.420 to i want to talk about what's happening also in washington as you're there with a very interesting
00:26:02.880 a lot of fireworks today with an scc nominee gg son we're going to deal with that in a moment
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00:27:24.440 the fcc i am afraid of the fcc because if you do what i do every day on radio you know the power
00:27:30.640 of the fcc uh you understand that they could they have a lot of influence over the airwaves
00:27:35.820 and they're supposed to be a non-partisan non-biased group of individuals that is something
00:27:43.400 that has been fought for years uh with the fcc they have a lot of power a lot of people don't know who's
00:27:49.380 on the fcc uh but this is a new woman who is been nominated and you've called her out for extreme
00:27:57.260 political bias which is exactly why it should disqualify her whether she's a republican or
00:28:02.580 democrat you're not supposed to have partisan hacks sitting there on the fcc regulating so many
00:28:08.720 different things that deal with content well that's exactly right gg soan is joe biden's nominee to be on
00:28:15.440 the federal communications commission the fcc has five commissioners three from the majority party who's
00:28:21.180 ever in power ever has the white house and two from the minority party gg soan is biden's nominee
00:28:27.280 she is from the far left she has been a left-wing liberal activist and radical her whole life she's
00:28:34.000 a true believer i'll credit her she believes in what she's doing she is a woman of the left she is
00:28:40.280 passionate uh but her record is extreme you know you talked about you're afraid of the fcc
00:28:46.760 you should be because gg soan has attacked conservative media she says fox news is destroying
00:28:54.680 democracy she describes fox news as state-sponsored propaganda she argued to the fcc they should revoke
00:29:02.100 sinclair's licenses sinclair is a major conservative uh tv outlet uh she has been vocal in using government
00:29:11.180 power against conservative voices in addition to that she's got enormous conflicts of interest so
00:29:18.540 so we had today her third confirmation hearing now that's amazing usually people have one confirmation
00:29:24.520 hearing in her instance she had one two years ago at that first confirmation hearing she hid
00:29:33.160 that she had been on the board of directors of a company that was engaged in litigation
00:29:40.220 against the major broadcasters for piracy for stealing their content and the company she was
00:29:46.920 on the board of lost that litigation settled that litigation and she actively misled the commerce
00:29:53.120 committee into thinking that the settlement was for 32 million dollars in fact the settlement was for
00:29:59.760 seven hundred thousand dollars so it was two percent of what was public she misled the committee about
00:30:06.320 it she misled the white house about it so we had a second hearing last year where that became public
00:30:12.180 how she'd misled the committee and now today with the new congress we had a third hearing she did not
00:30:18.500 get confirmed in the previous congress it was a 50 50 senate and there were a number of democrats who'd
00:30:24.240 expressed concerns a lot of folks thought biden would withdraw this nominee because it's really
00:30:30.460 doubtful she'll get confirmed she may or may not but i think the far left wants her so much they believe
00:30:37.740 she will be so aggressive in attacking conservative speech that they're willing to fight this fight
00:30:43.920 so as the ranking member on commerce my responsibility was to lead the fight against her and to lay out her
00:30:50.780 record why she's not suitable for the fcc yeah one of the one of the i think shocking moments uh today
00:30:58.880 it was you just calling out uh not only that she was helping organizations and and and individuals
00:31:06.700 that were attacking conservatives but also those on the left uh including joe manchin gary peters uh john
00:31:14.120 tester and kristin cinema and this was part of this exchange with you back and forth i want everybody to
00:31:19.320 hear it because it was just incredible to hear and then by the way all of those senators you mentioned
00:31:24.320 are democrats every one of the ones you listed are all democrat senators yeah and and she's attacking
00:31:30.340 them as well through these radical groups on on the left and as a broadcaster this is my worst nightmare
00:31:38.660 if she gets confirmed and the biden administration seems to help in on doing it take a listen though to
00:31:44.420 this back and forth from you today i thought it was brilliant mrs soan i think you have a long and
00:31:50.040 consistent career as a zealous partisan advocate there is a role for partisan advocates it just doesn't
00:31:56.680 happen to be on an independent agency charged with overseeing communications in the united states
00:32:02.200 you also have a consistent pattern of being unable to perceive conflicts of interest whether it is
00:32:09.200 deceiving this committee and the white house about the sweetheart settlement that you signed the day
00:32:14.600 after your nomination was announced or whether it is being the only nominee i've seen in a decade
00:32:21.720 to make contributions to senators who are voting on your nomination while your nomination is pending
00:32:28.620 or whether it is bizarrely supporting an extreme group that blasts multiple senators from both parties
00:32:37.280 now i asked you about joe manchin and the group fight for our future where they ran billboards
00:32:42.000 saying joe manchin is corrupt you said you didn't agree with that i asked you whether you agreed with
00:32:47.240 them that john tester is corrupt you said you didn't agree with that i asked you whether you agreed with
00:32:52.460 them that gary peters is corrupt you said you didn't agree with that well i didn't get to finish
00:32:56.600 wait are you gonna go are you gonna go to me oh i am okay because she's attacked you too but
00:33:02.800 that was maria can't well the chair i think an organization the group that that but not just
00:33:08.020 but not even money for to be clear when you said that is maria can't well the chair that's a democrat
00:33:13.620 am i right yes that's a democrat from washington state who's the chairman of the commerce committee
00:33:18.720 so she jumps in and asks uh are you going to call her out for attacking me and and i said
00:33:24.200 oh yes i am so so keep playing for so so this group also ran the following billboard it is a
00:33:32.340 picture of senator senator cinema also a member of this committee and it's not subtle in case you want
00:33:38.700 to miss the message they're trying to convey it's in bright red right at the top it says cinema is
00:33:44.240 corrupt do you agree with their sentiment that senator cinema is corrupt of course not of course not okay
00:33:51.880 you say of course not so that billboard went up in 2019 at the end of 2019 what did you do
00:33:59.080 you sent out a fundraising email for this organization at the end of 2019 so after they
00:34:04.900 had put this billboard up did you know about the billboards they put up attacking mansion and peters
00:34:10.800 and testers and cinema i only actually knew the one about senator cinema i didn't know about the
00:34:15.240 other ones okay so you knew they'd called senator cinema corrupt i did and after they called senator
00:34:20.640 cinema corrupt you asked people to contribute to them is that correct i asked people to contribute
00:34:25.780 not because of all that's a yes or no one time yes i did okay so you knew they were calling senator
00:34:31.300 cinema corrupt and you asked them to contribute afterwards and by the way the next year so this
00:34:35.120 is 2019 you know these tactics you don't mind you were aware of them you've testified you knew about
00:34:42.960 them at least with regard to senator cinema and you wanted people to support them you also did it
00:34:47.860 again in in 2020 and chairman cantwell asked if i was going to ask about her i'd like to point out
00:34:53.600 this same group sent a letter to chuck schumer demanding that chuck schumer remove senator cantwell
00:35:02.020 as the chairman of the commerce committee why because this committee hadn't confirmed you yet
00:35:06.020 now i think that's a pretty extreme proposition i gotta say i've never seen a nominee
00:35:12.740 nominee or a group that the nominee fundraisers for demand her own party's chairwoman be fired
00:35:19.780 because you haven't been confirmed yet do you understand why this seems one heck of a conflict of
00:35:29.580 interest i don't see how it's a conflict of interest sir i guess does it seem impartial or does it seem
00:35:35.140 like an extreme partisan willing to burn burn everything down if either party doesn't do what
00:35:42.420 you want senator i don't agree with all the fight for the future's tactics however except you raise
00:35:49.280 money for them you know about them and you raise money for them you send tweets every year asking
00:35:54.020 people to contribute when you ask people to contribute that's called raising money let me i mean senator
00:36:00.740 this woman how in the hell did they even think she had a shot and then the second question is does
00:36:08.080 she actually have a shot even after you litter up this with the facts the way that you just did
00:36:13.260 um look of course she has a shot she has a shot if democrats decide to support her uh i think there's
00:36:23.260 i think it's quite likely this nomination is going to be defeated uh i think it should be defeated
00:36:29.060 and it's going to come down i i have a high level of confidence that republicans will stand together
00:36:35.880 that we will have 49 no votes the question is where are a handful of democrats going to be where is
00:36:43.720 joe manchin going to be where is kirsten cinema going to be where is john tester going to be
00:36:48.940 uh where is rosen going to be where's cortes masto going to be by the way many of these are the same
00:36:55.340 senators that the group she supported and raised money for has blasted by name and called corrupt
00:37:01.360 so the interesting question is are these democrat senators going to vote for her anyway because
00:37:06.740 she's a darling of the left wing of the democrat party i hope not uh i will say it was i thought
00:37:13.200 fairly remarkable testimony that that she admitted uh admitted on the stand that she knew about
00:37:23.820 their attacks uh on cinema and still raise money for anywhere and and look i i i actually on on some
00:37:31.840 level respect gigi soan she's a left-wing activist like i love her questions are did you know about it
00:37:37.320 oh yeah and did you raise money afterwards for it oh yeah like she's not apologetic about it she's like
00:37:42.760 yeah i'm a left-winger i i like i want to beat the heck out anyone democrat or republican that doesn't
00:37:50.500 embrace left-wing policies listen that's fine if you're an activist it just doesn't give you
00:37:57.320 comfort as someone who's going to be a regulator of communications in this country i will tell you
00:38:02.620 also while i was uh while i was laying that out uh in particular about how the group that she raised
00:38:11.340 money for uh called for maria campwell to be fired maria's sitting next to me and and what you didn't
00:38:18.840 get in the audio but but if you were listening to it you got is maria's cracking up laughing as i'm
00:38:25.080 laying it out i mean it really is weird i i've never seen a nominee who has this kind of record
00:38:31.920 so i think we have a good shot at defeating this and and actually what i've said is i'm not sure why
00:38:36.840 the biden administration is wasting everyone's time with this nomination because i think in all
00:38:42.880 likelihood she's not going to get 50 votes but the reason they're wasting people's time with it
00:38:49.600 is because they are captive to and care what the radical left wing of the party says
00:38:55.560 and the radical left wing wants gg soan yeah that's what they want and that's and that is
00:39:01.780 obviously concerning but the fact that they would even nominate her just tells you how far gone we are
00:39:07.740 from what the what in their certain positions as you mentioned earlier they're supposed to be
00:39:12.860 non-partisan positions we need those desperately to stay non-partisan and that doesn't mean you find
00:39:18.840 the most extreme partisan person you can get your hands on all right senator before we get into that
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00:40:03.900 especially since the overturning of roe v wade these are the things that when you use your cell phone
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00:40:59.340 bill 878 patriots the number 878 patriot that's 878 patriot lastly uh very quickly i do want to get
00:41:08.200 your reaction to james clapper he's making a lot of headlines james clapper is now angry the x intel chief
00:41:17.080 uh has uh has uh has has basically come out and said that the reporting on his letter that he signed
00:41:23.260 with 50 plus other top intelligence officials right before the elections presidential election
00:41:29.560 claiming that the hunter biden laptop was story from the new york post was actually russian disinformation
00:41:36.760 he's now saying that it was well taken out of context uh to use his words
00:41:44.360 he's he said that politico who was the one that first got the leak letter that they all signed
00:41:50.820 clearly leaked on purpose otherwise why would you sign the letter he says that politico deliberately
00:41:55.940 distorted the letter that he signed he characterized the post reporting on hunter biden's laptop as part
00:42:01.680 of a russian disinformation operation now clapper is in trouble now i think uh it's fair to say he's
00:42:10.400 trying to cover his tracks republicans are looking into him and the other top people that were on
00:42:15.980 this letter and they are all going to apparently be subpoenaed to come before congress with these hearings
00:42:21.500 on the house side and he said quote all we were trying to do was raise a yellow flag that this quote could
00:42:30.060 be russian disinformation and then he said politico deliberately distorted what we said
00:42:34.940 it was clear he said quote in paragraph five of his letter now almost everybody even moderates to
00:42:44.080 liberals in the media basically turned on him in the last 24 hours saying you don't get to rewrite this
00:42:49.320 i want to get your reaction to it well first of all it's worth noting that everyone understood
00:42:58.140 that the letter that that clapper and the other so-called intelligence committee uh the intelligence
00:43:08.260 community members signed was arguing that the hunter biden laptop was russian disinformation what clapper's
00:43:17.480 saying now is obviously spin and it's spin to try to cover his own rear end because he is now
00:43:27.400 subject to uh subject to uh subject to scrutiny from the house majority and okay so the headline
00:43:38.520 here's the headline politico ran about clapper's lower uh letter quote hunter biden's story
00:43:46.060 is russian disinfo dozens of former intel officials say so that was the story politico wrote
00:43:54.720 because they leaked the letter to politico and then lots of other media outlets cnn and others
00:44:01.160 covered the politico story now clapper at the time did he issue a clarification this story is false no
00:44:08.860 did he go on tv and say this is not true i didn't say it was russian disinformation no the reason they
00:44:16.000 wrote the letter the reason they leaked the letter is they intended politico to write exactly what they
00:44:22.380 wrote they intended they intended the useful idiots in the press the corrupt corporate media to go forth
00:44:28.480 with their lie and we now know it was a lie that it wasn't russian disinformation the laptop was true
00:44:35.400 and real but james clapper wanted that story written two weeks before the election because he didn't want
00:44:41.900 anyone to focus on what was in uh in the the the hunter biden laptop well and he even claimed
00:44:49.380 senator in the last 24 hours that he was quote unaware that biden brought up the letter in his
00:44:55.440 final debate with former president donald trump and called the post story a bunch of garbage he said
00:45:02.700 also uh you know he said that i didn't know about it that i don't believe him i think he is lying to us
00:45:09.280 well and let me be clear so clapper was the head of the department of national intelligence under barack
00:45:16.920 clapper has been a partisan his entire life he's an extreme partisan and he has a record of dishonesty
00:45:24.920 in march of 2013 clapper was testifying under oath and senator ron wyden a democrat asked clapper
00:45:32.540 whether the united states government was collecting quote any type of data at all on millions or hundreds
00:45:40.460 of millions of americans clapper paused and said no sir not wittingly three months later edward snowden
00:45:52.140 leaked documents revealing that the national security agency was in fact collecting bulk domestic call
00:45:58.320 records on millions of americans so clapper under oath to congress flat out lied that lie became public
00:46:07.020 it prompted legislation that i co-sponsored and and helped write along with with senator mike lee
00:46:13.940 uh called the usa freedom act that significantly restricted the ability of the federal government
00:46:19.460 to intercept the communications of law-abiding american citizens but clapper was never held accountable
00:46:26.020 he lied to congress under oath and he's had a pattern of lying when it advances partisan interest i would
00:46:33.240 point out that clapper's partner in crime the director of the cia under barack obama was a guy named john
00:46:40.660 brennan john brennan is such a partisan he makes james clapper look moderate john brennan
00:46:47.660 has famously told the story of when he was interviewing uh with the cia they asked him a question during his
00:46:57.260 polygraph have you ever associated with anyone who's called for the violent overthrow of the government
00:47:01.420 of the united states and he described how he panicked because he realized that the truthful
00:47:06.880 answer to that was yes so in 1976 john brennan was a young college student fresh out of college
00:47:14.300 and there was a presidential election a presidential election
00:47:18.280 between jimmy carter and gerald ford
00:47:22.280 and young john brennan looked at jimmy carter and gerald ford and decided
00:47:27.260 jimmy carter is not liberal enough to for me i need someone more liberal than jimmy carter so what
00:47:36.040 did john brennan do in 1976 he cast a vote for gus hall who was the candidate for president of the
00:47:43.800 united states of the communist party of the united states of america so he went in and voted for the
00:47:50.180 communist to be president of the united states because he thought jimmy carter was too conservative
00:47:56.140 that's who barack obama named as his head of cia that was james clapper's compatriot clapper had lied
00:48:04.780 previously under oath to congress so it should be no surprise that in the 2020 election these same
00:48:12.160 partisan players are comfortable lying and they continue doing so well i hope that they are terrified
00:48:18.760 and i hope that the house republicans hold them accountable for this they're obviously especially
00:48:25.360 james clapper trying to cover his ass now before he has to come in and testify uh because they said
00:48:30.560 they're going to give these subpoenas these top people in this letter and they deserve the american
00:48:34.800 people deserve to get these answers and now him trying to rewrite history before he gets there i think
00:48:39.580 is a good sign the republicans are making headway there senator uh always a pleasure want to remind
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