00:05:37.640My only problem with this piece from the Yale Daily News
00:05:40.580is the evidence they use that I'm a terrible threat to democracy
00:05:44.400is they quote me on January 6th of this year saying that we should all remember the wise men who traveled a great distance for their leader,
00:05:52.600the true leader of us all in defiance of an unjust government.
00:05:55.640These Yalies don't get a good Feast of the Epiphany joke.
00:05:59.420What are they teaching them in New Haven?
00:06:02.660Well, there is apparently neither God nor man at Yale.
00:07:14.420This is a great responsibility that you can exercise, that you can use, that you can show up, ask a question of a sitting United States senator.
00:10:04.260Because the central computer makes fart noises in each of the seats.
00:10:08.800And for an 11-year-old and 13-year-old, that is the coolest feature.
00:10:13.360And I got to admit, as a 51-year-old, that's a pretty cool feature, although I don't, I probably shouldn't admit that publicly as I say it and do a TV camera.
00:10:23.140But it is compelling to an 11-year-old and 13-year-old.
00:10:48.460But turning to the realm of pure politics and government, the White House is not happy with how you've been using your free speech.
00:10:56.620You were called out yet again by the White House, this time by Ron Klain, chief of staff to the president, for your claim that Ketanji Jackson, who is a judge who's soon going to be on the Supreme Court,
00:11:07.500will be the farthest left jurist ever.
00:11:14.080If you look at her substantive record, if you look at her record as a judge, if you look at the speeches she's given, if you look at the legal academic writing she's done,
00:11:25.780And I think on every issue, free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, school choice, life, I think she will vote hard, hard left.
00:11:35.860I think she'll vote to overturn the Heller decision, protecting our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
00:11:40.940I think she'll vote to overturn Citizens United, protecting our right to free speech and to participate in the political process.
00:11:47.280I think she'll vote to strike down the death penalty.
00:11:49.600I think she'll vote to strike down every reasonable restriction on abortion, including bans on partial birth abortion, parental consent, parental notification.
00:11:59.760I think she'll vote to strike down every school choice program in America.
00:13:45.720This, not long ago, this is something that people would have known, and they would have actually laughed at the question because it's so absurd.
00:13:53.280So this is why I don't really understand Ron Klain's attack on you, where Ron Klain is saying your claim that Ketanji Jackson will be the furthest left judge that we've ever had.
00:14:07.380And you say, look, if you can't define what a woman is, if you're that radical, then obviously just by the nature of where we are.
00:14:12.420It's the year 2022 that the left has moved so far to the left that, of course, a judge is going to be more radical than one would have been 10, 20, 30 years ago.
00:14:20.780You know, there's no area where her record is more egregious than crime, and this is something that the Democrats and their cheerleaders and the press really lost their minds over is that if you look at her record on crime – and I actually had my team assemble because – so there was a lot of discussion about child pornography, and there's a reason her record on child pornography is really troubling.
00:14:42.880The response that the Democrats gave, the sort of first-order response was, well, she's sentenced below the sentencing guidelines, but many judges sentenced below the sentencing guidelines, particularly on these cases, and that response is actually right insofar as it goes.
00:14:59.600But they said, well, that means that she's well within the mainstream.
00:15:04.360So I actually had my team do some empirical studies of just her overall sentencing.
00:15:09.520So if you look at criminal cases, so all criminal cases between 2015 and 2019 where she was a federal district judge, so the average sentence for all criminal cases by all federal judges in the country, all federal district judges, is 45.1 months, so a little under four years.
00:15:29.780Her average sentence for criminal cases is 29.9 months, so her average is 34 percent less than the national average.
00:15:41.700So it's not just that it's 31 percent less than the guidelines.
00:15:45.280It's 31 percent less than what people are actually seeing in practice.
00:15:51.720That includes Obama judges, Trump judges, Bush judges, Jimmy Carter judges, Bill Clinton judges.
00:15:56.820That's all across the board, every federal district judge in the country.
00:16:00.240She sentences on average 34 percent lower than they do.
00:16:04.320But when you look at child pornography, it gets even more disturbing.
00:16:07.860So for possession of child pornography, the average sentence nationally is 68 months, a little over five years for possession of child pornography.
00:16:25.700That is 57 percent less than the average.
00:16:31.460There's another category of child pornography cases, which are distribution.
00:16:35.320And just like a drug dealer where selling drugs is punished more severely than just possession, the same is true with child pornography, that if you're distributing child porn to other people, it's punished more severely.
00:16:47.180The national average, as every federal district judge in the country, the average for distribution of child pornography is 135 months, so 11 years.
00:17:25.560No judge has the authority to deviate below that.
00:17:27.960That means, on average, federal judges across the country sentence those who distribute child porn to 75 months more than the mandatory minimum, and Judge Jackson sentences them to 11.9 months more.
00:17:46.300This pattern, 100 percent of the cases where she had discretion, she sentenced way, way below what the prosecutors asked for, and the response of Ron Klain, who's the White House chief of staff, the response of Democrats on the committee, the response of the media is to scream and yell,
00:18:10.220well, this is horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, this attack is terrible, why are you being so mean to her, and you must be a racist for saying this.
00:18:21.980Well, this point is really important, Senator, because Dick Durbin, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he came out and he said, I'm so sorry, I'm embarrassed by some Republicans who have said vile things about you, Judge Jackson,
00:18:37.260vile things before your family and your parents and your kids.
00:18:42.540Now, of course, we remember genuinely vile things being said about Brett Kavanaugh, which were smears manufactured completely out of whole cloth without any evidence whatsoever.
00:18:51.460In most cases, no evidence that Brett Kavanaugh had ever even been in the same state as some of the people who were making claims.
00:18:58.460In this case, the vile things that were being said about Judge Jackson were just quotes from her own record, were quotes from her own court decisions.
00:19:08.360I was visiting with a reporter last week, and I made the point that there's a big difference between this confirmation hearing and the political circuses that Democrats have put on over and over and over again with Robert Bork, with Clarence Thomas, with Brett Kavanaugh.
00:19:23.000By the way, do you know who the chairman of the Judiciary Committee was with Clarence Thomas during that horrible smear?
00:19:29.820I actually do happen to remember, although he may not, that would be our president, Joe Biden.
00:19:35.600OK, and do you know who the chief counsel for the Judiciary Committee was when Joe Biden was chairman of the committee and they were smearing Clarence Thomas?
00:21:14.260I suppose it could be a conspiracy, but whatever it is, it demonstrates very poor judgment.
00:21:18.640So then I have to ask, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I guess I sort of do.
00:21:23.480Why are some of your Republican colleagues voting for this woman, the most radical left wing woman to ascend to the high court?
00:21:32.600I'm speaking about a certain senator from Utah, and I'm not talking about Mike Lee, a certain former governor of Massachusetts, a certain liberal Republican whose name rhymes with Ritt Momney, and he's going to vote for this woman to make it to the Supreme Court.
00:21:51.300Three Republicans have said they're going to vote for her.
00:21:54.440I can tell you we had vigorous conversations at our lunches all last week and all the week before.
00:21:59.740And I and several other Republicans in the Judiciary Committee described in detail what occurred.
00:22:07.600I that chart I gave you that actually came out of those lunches where a couple of the Republicans said, well, gosh, they're saying that others depart below the sentencing guidelines.
00:22:18.520How does she sentence compared to other judges?
00:22:20.800So that was a question that that some of my colleagues asked me.
00:22:23.700So I went back and did that research and the chart that I just read you, I did in response to questions from fellow Republican senators.
00:22:31.300And I'm not surprised at the outcomes because I read the transcripts of her sentencing.
00:22:37.900And by the way, I made copies of key portions of the transcripts and I sent them to the fellow Republican senators.
00:22:44.760I said, just take 20 minutes and read them.
00:22:48.600To be honest, two weeks ago, I think we easily could have seen five or 10 Republicans vote for.
00:22:55.820And I think the work that a handful of us did on the Senate Judiciary Committee laying out her record caused several of the people who would have been wobbling, who would have wanted to vote for because they would have wanted to get the praise for the press.
00:23:12.820I think her record was so extreme that that we're holding 47 of the Republicans, but but but not all 50.
00:23:20.500She she has underperformed. She in the sense that she hasn't had good answers to these questions.
00:23:27.060The stuff that's come out about her record is pretty troubling.
00:23:30.520It was funny. Whoopi Goldberg on The View, where we turn for our understanding of politics and philosophy.
00:23:36.720Whoopi Goldberg said this, of course, is because Republicans hate black women and don't think black women can do the job.
00:23:42.360And she she had to phrase it in exactly that way, because if she said Republicans don't think black people can be on the court, she would have to explain Clarence Thomas, probably our favorite judge on the court as far as the conservative base goes.
00:23:54.600And if she said we don't think women can do it, you'd have to explain Amy Barrett.
00:23:58.180It was the last conservative judge who was put up there.
00:24:00.380So I agree. It's it's silly. It's just sad to me when I see a Republican U.S. senator refuses to endorse Mike Lee, a conservative senator from his own state and voting for Ketanji Jackson, this radical leftist jurist.
00:24:17.340I'm just disappointed, I guess, is all I would say on that. I know a lot of conservatives are.
00:24:22.040I do have a question for you, Michael.
00:24:23.420How does the show, The View, figure out who can be their hosts?
00:24:29.560The View is structured to be a show with only women as hosts.
00:25:05.300So I submitted to her after the hearing 239 written questions.
00:25:11.540By the way, the reason that was 239 is it was one fewer than the 240 written questions that Senator Dianne Feinstein gave to Brett Kavanaugh.
00:25:19.420And so I thought that was an appropriate level for the questions.
00:25:23.800But one of the questions was I asked her about natural rights.
00:25:29.020And do you believe do you believe in the position that that people have natural rights?
00:25:37.260Her response to that is, I have no view on that topic.
00:25:43.500I have no view on whether or not people possess natural rights.
00:25:47.420Now, as you know, in the Declaration, Jefferson wonderfully penned one of the greatest proclamations of humanity and human liberty ever written.
00:25:59.580We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
00:26:11.000It literally is the central portion of the document declaring our independence from Great Britain and forming our nation, setting up the Constitution.
00:26:22.980And she has no view on whether you or I are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights.
00:26:30.940That is a stunning and radical position.
00:27:01.080You do need to have an answer to that.
00:27:02.760And if you don't have an understanding of natural rights, if you don't have a view on natural rights, how can you view our jurisprudence?
00:27:10.660How can you view our country, which is predicated on that idea?
00:27:13.440By the way, one of the most disturbing cases was a case called Make the Road versus McAleenan.
00:27:20.760That was a case concerning the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security.
00:27:25.560The rules they set up for removing illegal immigrants from the United States, people here illegally, the rules they set up for deporting them.
00:27:36.760Now, the statute explicitly says that this question is given to the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, and it is unreviewable by federal courts.
00:27:47.120It is not subject to review by federal courts.
00:27:51.140She ignored that and said, I'm going to review it.
00:27:54.420It's not clear that he has this authority or not, even though there's no way to write the statute that is more clear than the way Congress wrote it.
00:28:04.060She issued a nationwide injunction against the removal of illegal aliens.
00:28:09.400That case went on appeal to the D.C. Circuit.
00:28:12.260The D.C. Circuit is a left-leaning liberal court.
00:28:15.440Unanimously reversed her as her decision was contrary to the plain language of the statute.
00:28:21.680But it was consistent with a political outcome.
00:28:25.620That's one of the reasons I say that I am convinced she will prove to be the most liberal justice ever to serve as a decision like that is a results-oriented political decision.
00:28:38.600Just like a refusal to say what a woman is, is a results-oriented indicium of a focus on your preferred politically correct outcome rather than the ordinary use of language.
00:29:38.340So there are a couple of bills pending before the Senate right now that limit what big tech companies can do with data.
00:29:45.460And one of the options that's under consideration is giving you, the consumer, the ability to opt out, to make the decision whether or not you want them to collect your data and for what purposes.
00:29:58.960And I think the more we can empower consumers on that, the better.
00:30:04.320I'm not aware of anyone that has had just a blanket prohibition on anyone ever collecting data, and I'm not sure you'd want that.
00:30:12.340I mean, look, when, you know, you log on to a website and you're, you know, ordering your Argyle socks for your Yale reunion, you'd like them to remember that you wear a size extra small.
00:30:25.400I mean, that you want built into the website.
00:30:27.620Thank you for remembering my size, Senator.
00:30:32.780There are some reasons why you would want a tech company to be able to collect some of that data.
00:30:38.380We just don't want them taking our political views and targeting us and silencing us.
00:30:43.660And so the more you can empower consumers, the better.
00:30:47.740I'll tell you, I actually met today with some of the senior company leadership at Facebook and had about an hour-long conversation in my office that was lively.
00:30:58.140And we had significant disagreements on censorship.
00:31:01.800We had significant disagreements on the policies of Facebook.
00:31:04.500But at the end, something I suggested to them, I said, look, because they were saying, well, consumers want us to do this.
00:31:13.780It actually are consumers on Facebook show they don't like political information.
00:31:18.320They don't like things that are divisive.
00:31:44.360Ask me, do I want you, Facebook, to censor my feed for political views that you think will be troubling to me because I'm a very fragile flower?
00:31:59.500Or even for things that you determine to be false.
00:32:03.220Do I want you making that decision or am I willing to put on my big boy pants and actually read views from both sides or multiple sides and make my own determination what is true or not?
00:32:15.880And I said, by the way, that includes do I want to choose to be able to see Donald Trump's social media?
00:32:22.360And if I opt in, I say, you know, damn it.
00:32:25.440I may not agree with everything he says, but I've decided after a good stiff whiskey that I'm strong enough to read a Trump post and not have heart palpitations.
00:32:37.900And at least the Facebook guys, they're like, well, you know, maybe that's an intriguing idea.
00:32:45.480But if they did, if they gave you and I the ability to opt out of their political censorship and moderation, that would be a big, big, big step in the right direction.
00:34:03.820So, but, you know, real estate certainly historically has proven to be a pretty good investment.
00:34:10.040And then gold, look, gold is principally a hedge against inflation.
00:34:16.840There's certainly a lot of folks that choose to invest in gold or silver.
00:34:21.680I think that's one of the major things that's driving Bitcoin and driving crypto is Bitcoin is really digital gold.
00:34:29.140I'm invested in Bitcoin for that reason.
00:34:32.620And I think as a hedge against inflation, you know, there's no doubt that this administration is printing money like crazy, spending money like crazy and deflating the currency.
00:34:43.360And so whether your inflation hedge is Bitcoin or real estate or gold, I think you do want to think about how you protect yourself against inflation somehow.
00:34:57.080That's the extra category is crypto, which at some point you're going to have to educate me on.
00:35:02.320We'll have to do an episode on crypto.
00:35:04.200But that time is not right now because we've got to bring on our friend Liz Wheeler to talk about what will be coming up in the cloakroom.
00:35:11.100You know, I almost didn't want to come on this episode tonight because I read somewhere from a very reputable source that you both, Senator and Michael, are guilty of chipping away at democracy.
00:35:20.400And I wasn't sure I wanted to be associated with the likes of you.
00:35:25.820We do have some good topics on the cloakroom.
00:35:27.960We have one funny topic and one very serious topic.
00:35:30.400We're going to talk a little bit about the fox hunt that happened outside of the Capitol this week.
00:35:35.700I don't know if I should be laughing at this.
00:35:50.680And the Washington, D.C. police are not interested in investigating, even though it appears that there could be lawbreaking activity that were involved in the death of these these unborn, these beautiful unborn children.