00:14:50.160I believe that the Ayatollah is not just chanting death to America and leading those chants in Iran because he wants a few good viral moments.
00:15:02.620I think he hates America and would do us ill, and therefore we have to prepare for it.
00:15:07.840Even the most tech-savvy companies have a hard time keeping their customer databases safe from cyber attack.
00:18:21.540So I wanted to address directly some things on the Iran issue.
00:18:25.680First, Trump has been, POTUS, has been amazingly consistent over 10 years that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
00:18:33.340Over the last few months, he's encouraged the foreign policy team to reach a deal with Iran to accomplish this goal.
00:18:39.700Presidents made clear Iran cannot have uranium enrichment.
00:18:43.280And he said repeatedly this would happen one of two ways, the easy way or the other way.
00:18:48.540Then there's an explanation of uranium enrichment.
00:18:51.820And he says, continuing, the president's shown remarkable restraint keeping our military's focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens.
00:19:00.100He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment.
00:19:04.680That decision ultimately belongs to the president.
00:19:07.240And, of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.
00:19:14.460But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue.
00:19:18.280Having seen up close and personal, I can assure you he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people's goals.
00:19:40.020So I'm going to have to disagree with you on behalf of dropping the bunker buster.
00:19:46.160I mean, if there's so many people that are just, you know, in the shadows that are quietly supporting this, then I think they need to help provide some bombs.
00:19:56.000I don't think sending in a major bunker buster is a great idea.
00:19:59.480We've got to remember there was the interview back in 94 with Dick Cheney during the whole desert storm and Kuwait situation.
00:20:07.420We were asked, you know, why didn't we take out Saddam at the time?
00:20:10.640Because he said the word that would be a bad idea because then you destabilize the Middle East.
00:20:36.840Yeah, but so if it is required to stop them from getting nuclear weapons that we use because they have buried much of their their production way underground to try to prevent it from being reached by bombs.
00:20:51.360And if only the United States has the technology and the bomb making ability to reach that, would you leave it alone and let Iran continue to try to produce a nuclear weapon?
00:22:08.920My concern, candidly, is that if we don't end Iran's ability to undertake enrichment to try to produce nuclear weapons,
00:22:19.880if we don't end it once and for all now, we're going to be back at this exact same situation in the years ahead.
00:22:27.460And that's why I use the antibiotic example.
00:22:30.240If you've got a sickness and you start to treat it with antibiotics and you actually don't fully wipe it out,
00:22:36.820you just take a couple of pills or for a few days, then the virus actually can come back much stronger than if you go ahead and wipe it out once and for all.
00:23:36.700That's my concern for people out there who say, OK, why do we care if Iran gets a nuclear weapon?
00:23:42.060I understand why Iran wants a nuclear weapon, because the Ayatollahs believe that much like Kim Jong-un, that will keep them from ever being replaced.
00:24:33.960And you may not have been expecting that this was going to emerge as the tough time that we have now to make this call.
00:24:39.660But what do you think America should do as it pertains to Iran, given what's going on right now?
00:24:48.120To be honest, Clay, I don't think it's a tough call at all.
00:24:52.660I think we should stand unshakably with the state of Israel.
00:24:56.540I think Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon is the most acute national security threat facing the United States today.
00:25:06.080And I think Israel acting decisively to take out Iran's capability to develop a nuclear weapon is overwhelmingly beneficial to America.
00:25:16.460It makes us safer because I think if the Ayatollah were to acquire a nuclear weapon, the risks are unacceptably high that the Ayatollah would use that weapon and potentially kill millions of Americans or millions of Israelis.
00:25:32.460And that's not a risk that we should allow.
00:25:36.840In particular, we're diving into the decision that Trump may have to make.
00:25:40.940If you were president right now or if the president called and asked for your advice, if we need Israel does, if they need our bunker busting bombs in order to get to some of these nuclear facilities, should we should we give that assistance to Israel if asked in your mind?
00:26:00.780Second part of this, should the Ayatollahs be removed in some way, either allowing Israel to do it or potentially America being involved?
00:26:10.740How would you handle those two questions?
00:26:12.240So let's break them down one at a time.
00:26:16.840So right now, Israel is conducting the military strikes.
00:26:19.820The American military is not conducting them.
00:26:23.760We're helping Israel with missile defense in Israel because Iran is firing ballistic missiles and trying to kill as many civilians as possible in Israel.
00:26:32.760And I would note there's a huge difference between Israel's attacks, which are targeted military attacks, taking out the senior leadership of their military who are charged with conducting the war, and also taking out their nuclear facilities.
00:26:47.400In contrast, Iran is trying to kill civilians, as many as possible.
00:26:52.960I do not believe under any circumstances we should see American boots on the ground.
00:26:57.840I don't think our military is needed to be on the ground here.
00:27:00.720I think Israel is capable of doing this.
00:27:02.760The one exception is the question you asked of bunker busters, and in particular, most of the nuclear facilities Israel is taking out quite effectively right now.
00:27:12.940The one major exception is a facility that's called Fordow, and Fordow is built into the base of a mountain, and it was deliberately built to make it very difficult to bomb, and Israel lacks the technical capacity.
00:27:25.420They don't have big enough bunker busters to bomb and hit Fordow, whereas America does.
00:27:34.800I've long argued that America should be willing to provide those bunker busters because Fordow was designed to help Iran.
00:27:41.100That's where they're conducting their most sensitive nuclear research.
00:27:43.780And it was designed to help them get a nuclear weapon, which they intend, I believe, to be able to use.
00:27:51.960And the Ayatollah chants, death to America and death to Israel, and I believe them.
00:27:57.340And so I think it is very worthwhile to do what is necessary to prevent them from having a nuclear weapon that could help them make death to America and death to Israel much more of a reality and be used to commit murder on a massive scale.
00:28:16.680Now, on the second question about regime change, in my view, the world would be much better if the Ayatollahs were no longer in charge of Iran.
00:28:27.080I think the Ayatollah is a theocratic zealot.
00:28:32.680He refers to Israel as the little Satan.
00:28:35.560He refers to America as the great Satan.
00:28:37.620And unquestionably, Iran would be better, Israel would be better, America would be better if the Ayatollah were not in charge.
00:28:45.000I don't think that means we should invade Iran and try to topple the Ayatollah, but I think we should use every tool we have, in particular economic sanctions and pressure.
00:28:54.520And indeed, this military campaign directed at stopping the nuclear program, I think, is weakening the regime as well.
00:29:02.600And so we should certainly cheer if the Ayatollah, if the regime falls.
00:29:07.880But whether it does or not, the objective of Israel's attack here is not regime change, but it is to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
00:29:18.600If Netanyahu asked for the ability to kill the Ayatollah, should Trump, in your mind, give that nod, even if we're not directly involved?
00:29:30.740You know, look, that's a difficult question.
00:29:33.940I talked about it on the latest episode of my podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, and we talked about it at some length.
00:29:44.240I don't know independently, but I've read the newspaper stories that say that Netanyahu wanted to target the Ayatollah and the Trump White House asked them not to.
00:29:52.700I don't have a reason to doubt or dispute that reporting.
00:29:57.020And listen, I think it's a close call.
00:29:59.540Generally, in warfare, nations refrain from targeting heads of state.
00:30:04.680It's also complicated by the Ayatollah being simultaneously a religious figure and taking out a religious figure.
00:30:12.900There are risks of making him a martyr and inflaming things further.
00:30:17.260So I think it is a reasonable decision to say, rather than targeting the Ayatollah himself, who's an old man, that what they're doing, and Israel is doing it with amazing precision, is they're taking out the senior military leadership.
00:30:33.780They're taking out the head of the IRGC and the chief of staff, and in fact, then the next chief of staff, they keep taking out the senior leadership of the military that is number one in charge of waging the terror war.
00:30:47.280Iran provides 90 percent of the funding to Hamas and 90 percent of the funding to Hezbollah, and they're taking out the senior leadership that are directing the missile strikes on Israel, that are directing the nuclear program.
00:30:59.740They're also taking out the nuclear scientists.
00:31:02.080I think it makes sense for the attacks to be directed at removing their ability to wage war against Israel and to wage war against America.
00:31:13.720I will tell you also, it is a dangerous time.
00:31:18.440It's a dangerous time for the people of Israel.
00:31:20.620I spoke with a friend of mine on Sunday whose mom is in Jerusalem, and he said his mom – nobody's able to sleep because they wake up at 2 and 3 in the morning every night.
00:31:29.740With air raid sirens going on, and they have to rush to the bomb shelter.
00:31:33.200So, I mean, it is intense when a civilian population is facing constant missile strikes, and there have been significant fatalities, and there may be substantially more.
00:31:42.840So the people of Israel in harm's way – but, Clay, also our servicemen and women.
00:31:48.240We have a large number of servicemen and women that are in the Middle East, and I think it is exceptionally important.
00:31:55.960And I spoke with President Trump on Sunday, and I called him just to say that I thought he was doing exceptionally well, and standing with Israel and his leadership was really important.
00:32:06.420And I said in particular thank you for making unequivocally clear to Iran that if they attack and kill U.S. servicemen and women that they will face very significant retaliation from the United States.
00:32:20.100I think that is protecting the lives of our servicemen and women, and that is what a strong commander-in-chief does.
00:33:33.040We're following a lot of different stories.
00:33:35.800Ongoing uncertainty about exactly what the United States' actions and responses will be as it pertains to Iran.
00:33:44.680We'll talk about that with Senator Rand Paul right now.
00:33:46.820Also, continued fallout of the big, beautiful bill and where that is headed.
00:33:53.380But let's start with the number one question that is out there right now.
00:33:58.740Senator Rand Paul, if President Trump called you and he said,
00:34:02.940Hey, what do you think I should do about the situation in Iran, your response would be what?
00:34:09.940You know, the president's had good instincts traditionally on this.
00:34:13.580And his instincts have been for restraint, for thinking things through,
00:34:17.620and hopefully for not getting us involved in this war.
00:34:20.820I think it would be a bad idea for us to be involved directly in the war.
00:34:24.820I think the chance of negotiation pretty much goes out the window with the first U.S. bombs dropping.
00:34:30.940Even as it is, we're so closely linked with Israel, I think that it's almost depicted as a joint action now.
00:34:37.460But I think it is a step for the worse if we actually are involved actively with bombing.
00:34:42.580The other thing in our country is we have this thing called the Constitution that says you can't go to war with countries without permission.
00:34:49.700So if he did decide and he told me he's absolutely made the decision,
00:34:53.480I would recommend to him that he has to come before Congress, ask us for permission,
00:34:57.480and we'll have a vote the same night on whether or not to go to war.
00:35:01.900Do you, yourself, are you concerned about the idea of Iran having nuclear weapons?
00:35:08.040Do you think that's a threat to the United States?
00:41:59.180And you have to tell them what it takes to get to yes.
00:42:01.660And that's why despite getting some credit from some of the, you know, attack dogs at the White House, I've been very clear to the president.
00:42:52.720You know, I've known him for quite a while.
00:42:55.700Is your relationship with the president, sorry to cut you off a little bit, but is your relationship with the president a little bit of a roller coaster?
00:43:02.020Because sometimes it seems like you guys are thick as thieves, and then other times it's like you're kind of at each other a little bit.
00:43:08.120Do you feel like a little bit over the decade that you've been a roller coaster with the president?
00:43:12.920Well, it's kind of funny because I personally like him, played golf with him a dozen times.
00:43:17.820I played golf with him before he was president, probably 2013, 2014.
00:43:22.260I asked him to support some of my mission trips when I did surgery in Guatemala, and I believe it was 2013 or 2014.
00:43:29.200And then in Haiti, he supported both trips.
00:43:32.220And so I've gotten to know him over time and actually enjoy his company.
00:43:36.340I was probably one of his biggest defenders on the impeachment.
00:43:39.980But, you know, there is a mercurial nature to it, though, that, you know, I think those were very important things to defense on that.
00:43:47.740I think this bill is just a policy difference.
00:43:50.660And I'm not changing anything I'm for.
00:43:52.760I've always been against raising massive raises of the debt ceiling, whether it's Biden or anybody else.
00:43:58.660But I think some of his attack dogs at the White House simply, you know, it's my way or the highway kind of stuff.
00:44:05.880But the last time I talked to him, we had a good conversation.
00:44:08.080It was after the big, beautiful parade, and he was in good spirits.
00:44:12.480And, you know, I reiterated what it would take and that my goal is not to defeat the bill.
00:44:18.700My goal is to, you know, present a conservative bill that I can be happy to support and a lot of the bill I like.
00:44:25.060All I got to do is separate out the debt ceiling or shorten it, and they could well get my vote.
00:44:30.640But, yeah, the relationship's up and down.
00:44:33.060But I think still a lot of, you know, respect on my part.
00:44:42.200You know, I know looking ahead to 2028 is a ways away.
00:44:45.540We still have to get past the midterms.
00:44:47.460But there's a lot of talk about Andy Beshear in your state running for president.
00:44:52.560He was one of the worst governors in America, certainly the worst governor, I would say, of a red state during COVID.
00:44:57.960Is it kind of staggering to you that he would be a national political figure based on what you have seen of his leadership in Kentucky?
00:45:05.100I've yet to see that he'll be any kind of national figure.
00:45:09.240I think he lacks the, you know, charisma.
00:45:12.840But he also, the things that he did to us in our state, I mean, shutting down churches, shutting down gyms, shutting down, you know, stores, you name it, limiting how many people can show up anywhere, banning travel.
00:45:25.620I mean, the authoritarian things he did in our state are what many other Democrats did, too.
00:45:30.920Whitmer did some of the same stuff in Michigan, but I don't think that'll be popular.
00:45:35.260I think he fools himself into thinking, well, if a Democrat had won in a Republican state, all Democrats like that think they're going to be the next Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton.
00:47:47.520I think now that President Trump is in office, it's fair to say that we have seen maybe a little bit of unfairness from ABC, CBS, NBC, among others.
00:48:00.160They have a government responsibility based on the fact that we have given them a license as a country.
00:48:08.220How fair, now that we're through the election season, do you think news coverage has been?
00:48:13.660What could occur from your perspective to make it fairer?
00:48:18.080Because they're supposed to be, as a part of getting a license, you can correct me if I'm wrong, not providing some form of biased news coverage.
00:48:25.420But I think most people that are listening to us right now would really roll their eyes at the idea that ABC, NBC, and CBS are providing in some way fair and balanced news coverage.
00:48:37.240You know, look, if you step back and you think about speakers in this country, you've got, you know, the guy in the soapbox gets to say whatever he wants.
00:48:43.720You've got cable channels, which are lightly regulated.
00:48:45.780But when it comes to television stations, those are licensed by the FCC.
00:48:50.620And they are required by federal law to operate in the public interest.
00:48:55.340Now, if you step back over the years, the FCC and regulators in Washington, I think, have walked away completely from enforcing that public interest obligation.
00:49:03.420I don't think we're better off for it.
00:49:04.880To your question, if you step back, I don't think the national programmers, if you look at ABC, CBS, NBC, they own some stations.
00:49:11.340But in the main, they program content that goes out through licensed stations.
00:49:15.340I don't think they've been fair at all if you step back and look at their coverage in terms of Republicans or President Trump.
00:49:21.260And frankly, that's not just my opinion.
00:49:23.220If you look at trust in that national programmers, again, focusing on ABC, CBS, NBC, trust is at an all-time low.
00:49:30.940Again, Jeff Bezos, of all people, did an op-ed not that long ago saying that these national media outlets have lost the thread when it comes to where the American public is.
00:49:43.340When you talk about the actual local broadcast TV stations, the ones that actually hold the license by the FCC, when they run programming, it's actually really trusted by local communities.
00:49:51.560So the biggest policy that we're running at the FCC in terms of media right now is how do we empower the local broadcasters to serve the public interest and allow them to get some distance from the national programmers that are really just generating content in Hollywood, in New York, and sort of force-feeding it out there.
00:50:09.820So I think there's actually a lot the FCC can do that addresses this issue and, again, focusing on that unique public interest obligations that TV channels have.
00:50:19.080That is super interesting because I think most people out there listening to us right now, when there is a major thunderstorm, for instance, and they are at home, they trust their local news to provide them accurate coverage about danger, tornadoes, everything else.
00:50:32.240But they certainly don't trust the national news to provide them.
00:50:35.640So I hadn't really thought about that dichotomy.
00:51:08.460If you looked at a cross-section of the listeners and viewer to NPR and PBS, you'd get a pretty decent cross-section of the country as a whole.
00:51:16.160And at some point not that long ago, things changed dramatically, and it appears that NPR and PBS have been appealing to a very narrow, bespoke, almost a seller, corridor portion of the country.
00:51:27.780And you can do that, right, as a First Amendment matter.
00:51:30.060But if you are going to Congress and saying, I want you, Congress, to force people to take money out of their pocketbooks, send it to Washington, and then send it to subsidize that,
00:51:41.340I think it's entirely legitimate for people to be asking questions about that.
00:51:44.440And to your point, recently a rescission package passed the House that would save about a billion dollars from that funding.
00:51:52.960The FCC, we've launched actually an investigation into NPR and PBS, and here's why.
00:51:57.900They are unlike any other station, like a station here, a commercial station.
00:52:01.260They're non-commercial, which means they get special benefits above and beyond those that regular broadcasters get.
00:52:06.480But as a consequence, they can't run advertising.
00:52:09.780But what it looks like they've been doing is running programs that appear to be very close, if not to advertisements themselves.
00:52:16.560So we've launched an inquiry at the FCC to make sure that they're not violating the law.
00:52:21.400Because really, you can't have it both ways.
00:52:22.480You can't be getting public funding and claiming that you're non-commercial and then potentially at the same time running commercial.
00:52:28.380So we're looking at that as well right now.
00:52:29.960CBS News, in the news a lot, you got the transcript released of 60 Minutes, the interview that they did with Kamala Harris right before the election that was edited in many different ways, potentially beneficially to her.
00:52:43.620What can you tell us about the investigation into 60 Minutes, and how does that impact the larger, paramount idea they're trying to sell to Skydance, I believe?
00:52:53.260Where is all of that from your perspective?
00:52:55.080Yeah, right before January 20th, in fact, right around January 10th, I believe, the prior administration, the Biden FCC, summarily dismissed a news distortion complaint that had been filed against 60 Minutes based on claims of editing around that answer to Kamala Harris in the 60 Minutes episode.
00:53:13.480They dismissed it without actually doing any real inquiry, without doing any due diligence.
00:53:18.260And so one of the very first things that we did was we restored that complaint against CBS.
00:53:22.280We've put it out for public comment. And to your point, we obtained the unedited transcript and video of that interview.
00:53:28.300We've put it all out there. I think sunlight is the best disinfected.
00:53:30.820So right now, the American people are participating in this process.
00:53:33.240We haven't made a final decision, but we are weighing whether, in fact, it is a news distortion or not.
00:53:37.900And that's under active investigation at the FCC.
00:53:40.820Separate from that, we do have a transaction before the FCC where the owners of CBS are looking to sell.
00:53:46.440And as of right now, we're just running our normal course review on that and no significant update as to where we are on that.
00:53:52.280When you look at the spectrum, and I know people think about this a lot.
00:53:58.020I was out in San Francisco recently, got to go in a Waymo.
00:54:45.440Maybe they think it's magic or pixie dust.
00:54:47.780But it's these invisible airways that you need to power everything.
00:54:51.900And when you look at the future of technology, whether it's autonomous vehicles, whether it's AR, VR, AI, the data demand to carry data traffic wirelessly is just like a hockey stick through the roof.
00:55:03.300And right now, China has leaked out to a really significant lead over the U.S.
00:55:08.500If you go back to the first Trump administration, China was ahead of us early on, and President Trump stepped in, showed strong leadership, and the U.S. closed the gap.
00:55:16.400That's why you saw 4G and 5G explode in the U.S.
00:55:19.480Now, President Biden stepped in, and we just fell into a deep malaise when it comes to freeing up spectrum.
00:55:26.220And President Trump recently has articulated that he wants the U.S. to lead again, and we're going to do it.
00:55:30.060So one of the things that the One Big Beautiful Bill does is it restores the F.C.'s authority to free up these airways, which last during the Biden years.
00:55:38.780Senator Cruz, Chairman Cruz, has been phenomenal in leading on this.
00:55:42.280But we are hundreds of megahertz behind where China is right now.
00:55:46.320And to your point, our commercial sector needs it.
00:55:50.420But I think ultimately right now where we're short is commercial spectrum for high-power use.
00:55:55.140President Trump and Chairman Cruz have been clear, but it's national security, it's economic growth, and it's bridging the digital divide because we use that spectrum to connect people, to connect communities.
00:56:03.760Your job, to a large extent, I would think, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, is to try to allow the marketplace of ideas to work at the best of its manner and ensure that the government is not putting a hand or a finger on the scale to allow one side to have an advantage.
00:56:22.180How fair do you think the overall media environment is, from your perspective as FCC chairman, when you look at it across the scope of all of the different arenas that you are monitoring right now?
00:56:35.540Do you think we have a fair system in place right now, or do you think there's still a lot of things that need to be done?
00:56:41.180Well, I think there's still significant ways to go in terms of making sure that broadcasters in particular live up to their public interest obligation.
00:56:48.520Again, the studies and survey in terms of lack of trust speak to that.
00:56:53.220But if you step back, particularly during COVID, we saw this massive acceleration of censorship in this country, and a lot of it took place on social media and on big tech platforms.
00:57:02.780Silicon Valley was deciding whether you got to stay on the digital town square, what you could say.
00:57:08.020And the evidence also shows that the Biden administration was effectively colluding with a lot of these social media companies to shut down free speech.
00:57:14.880And it didn't just happen here in the U.S. It's spreading globally in Brazil.
00:57:18.940There's this Justice de Moura, this government official there that's been censoring social media in Europe.
00:57:23.580They're passing laws to sort of force U.S. technology companies to abide by their version of censorship.
00:57:29.320And so to some extent, we are on the backside of that, meaning as the government controls with COVID rescind, we see free speech reemerge.
00:57:37.840If you're going to have massive government controls that came with censorship, that came with COVID, you necessarily have censorship as well, because free speech is a check on those types of government controls.
00:57:46.600And President Trump has come in and very clearly said that he's going to restore free speech in this country.
00:57:50.900So whether it's the work of the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission is doing great work on this.
00:57:55.060The DOJ, we're looking to sort of break up that collusive conduct that really amounted, in my view, to a censorship cartel.
00:58:03.000There's still work to do, but I think we're finally turning the tide on that.
00:58:06.420Yeah, and I'm sure a lot of people out there listening right now, listening to us on traditional radios, podcasts, certainly still watching some news broadcasts, CBS, ABC, NBC.
00:58:17.100But for my kids, they get almost all their news from TikTok and YouTube.
00:58:21.460So to your point on the power of media, the dynamic has shifted in a big way.
00:58:27.520Like, I don't even know that my kids could find local news on television other than watching sports.
00:58:33.540But everything through YouTube, and I'll give you an example on this program, YouTube wouldn't allow our interview with President Trump to be posted.
00:58:41.780We just had Rand Paul on at the top of the hour.
00:58:45.520They wouldn't allow our interview with Rand Paul to be posted because they said something that YouTube didn't like.
00:58:51.500But in an election universe, in a democratic universe, should it, at a bare minimum, everything that a political figure says be distributed as widely as possible and not restricted and censored?
00:59:04.820One of the things that I focus a lot on is this concept of user empowerment.
00:59:07.980Look, we don't want any one single centralized authority, whether it's a Silicon Valley company or otherwise, deciding who can participate in the town square.
00:59:16.000What can they say in the digital town square?
00:59:19.440So if you don't want to see Rand Paul, great, don't follow him.
00:59:21.720If you don't want to see this video, okay, block or unfollow the show.
00:59:25.080But we need to sort of get those decision-making decisions back into the hands of individual users and take it out of the hands of the big corporations.
00:59:34.420For instance, on social media, you know, one idea we've talked about is should we have content filters that you can choose?
00:59:39.180Like, let's say you want, for reasons that escape me, but you want MSNBC to filter your feed for you.
01:00:04.300Like, when you couldn't talk about the origins of COVID-19, when you couldn't talk about the costs and benefits of masking young children who were trying to get speech development at that point in time.
01:00:13.100So there's very real harms that flowed from the censorship that we live through, let alone, you know, electoral consequences with a hundred-byte laptop story that was on.
01:00:21.060The last question for you, AI is taking off at a rapid rate.
01:00:27.000And we have fun with AI memes that people will post of me playing the flute, like, and all sorts of ridiculous things out there.
01:00:34.300But it's rapidly evolving to the point where I think being able to determine what's real and what's fake is going to become really very difficult.
01:00:44.040Because it's one thing to restrict something that we know is real.
01:00:46.920But how in the world do we have the ability to let people know what is true and what is false and what someone's actually said and not said?
01:01:09.120I mean, look, I think we'd be very careful here.
01:01:10.940During the last administration, President Biden had the FCC propose putting labels on political speech, political ads, that were generated in any way with AI content.
01:01:22.340And really, it just became a way of sort of slowing down the use of AI because they viewed it as, in my view, Republicans were being more successful in the meme wars than they were.
01:01:31.200So I think there is some harm, as you noted, but I think we have to be very careful that we don't stifle this early on because ultimately it can start to look a lot like censorship.
01:01:38.980So I do think that people need to be vigilant and we need to educate people.
01:01:43.000And it's, I think, easier for younger folks.
01:01:44.560I think older people can get, you know, fooled a little more easily.
01:01:46.340Well, if you're just stepping back and looking at online scams in general, but I think this is an area where we have to proceed very cautiously and I'd be very, you know, skeptical of regulation at this point.
01:01:53.560FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, I appreciate the time.
01:01:56.240Appreciate you coming in video, coming in studio with us, sitting on video here.
01:02:00.720And we hope to talk to you again soon.