Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 15, 2023


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


Episode Stats


Length

49 minutes

Words per minute

167.91806

Word count

8,312

Sentence count

251

Harmful content

Misogyny

14

sentences flagged

Toxicity

32

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is in Washington, D.C. for a classified briefing on the Biden administration's decision to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, and a smaller one over the Hudson River.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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? 0.93
00:01:25.000 Not a damn thing. 0.96
00:01:26.660 So last week on the pod, 0.87
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. 0.99
00:03:24.040 We shot some damn thing 0.99
00:03:25.520 down in the sky 0.99
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 0.86
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 0.92
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. 0.62
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. 0.99
00:06:09.980 And it feels like they're 99 damn Chinese balloons 0.98
00:06:13.080 floating. 0.98
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 0.93
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. 0.98
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 0.90
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. 0.90
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! 0.98
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. 0.99
00:14:57.980 Well, hock diggity damn, 0.99
00:14:58.960 wouldn't that be great then 0.99
00:14:59.800 if Russia and Iran 0.79
00:15:01.560 and everyone else
00:15:02.180 sent balloons over us?
00:15:03.100 No. 1.00
00:15:04.260 That's idiotic. 1.00
00:15:05.360 But it's a spin. 1.00
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 0.99
00:15:19.820 just firing at every damn target 0.99
00:15:22.180 in the sky. 0.99
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, 1.00
00:16:45.000 let's shoot a bunch of crap down 1.00
00:16:46.420 to show how tough we are. 1.00
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 0.97
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 0.94
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 1.00
00:27:57.260 political bias which is exactly why it should disqualify her whether she's a republican or 0.96
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 0.99
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 0.53
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 0.99
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 0.88
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 0.99
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 1.00
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 0.98
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 0.99
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 1.00
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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00:40:59.340 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 0.96
00:44:22.380 wrote they intended they intended the useful idiots in the press the corrupt corporate media to go forth 0.96
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 0.99
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 0.75
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 0.98
00:48:25.360 james clapper trying to cover his ass now before he has to come in and testify uh because they said 0.92
00:48:30.560 they're going to give these subpoenas these top people in this letter and they deserve the american 0.97
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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