About the truth of what happened on January 6th what do we know about that Nashville shooter Manifesto yes we can handle the truth just give me the hard truth it feels like we’re in the cusp of chaos there’s something going on I mean I think we’re like in a 1776 moment in
This country we are driving Russia further into China’s arms as we arm Ukraine further strengthening what I see as the single greatest military threat we are dependent on a tiny island nation off the Southeast coast of China for our entire modern way of life I will not
Send our sons and daughters to die over somebody else’s nationalistic dispute and the Ukraine war reduce our economic dependence on China weaken the russia-china alliance I’m not sure what is controversial about any of that they’re a dumber group than the foreign policy Republicans where are we now
There’s deeper void and vacuum that we have to fill with an affirmative alternative vision of our own and that takes courage the first Republican debate of the season is less than a week away it’s next Wednesday in Milwaukee we have no idea what’s going to happen there of
Course but one prediction we can confidently make is that a man called vague ramaswamy is likely to make an impression the political Outsider with a complicated name who is unaccountably rising in the polls who is this guy is he a BS artist is he for real
We just sat down with him for an hour and found him one of the best versed voices in policy we talked to in a long time that was a surprise this is a conversation worth watching here it is Vivek thanks for joining us it’s good to be here so
Um you the other day made a comment about 9 11 in which you suggested that the US government had not been wholly forthcoming about what happened that day that there have been lying by the federal bureaucracies that seems obviously true um the response was unbelievable it was immediate you were attacked as a
Conspiracy Monger as a lunatic but not just by the left also by the goons that the Wall Street Journal editorial page wrote a whole piece about how you disqualified Yourself by even asking that question what were you saying and why was the reaction as Fierce as it was do you
Think it was fascinating Tucker it was I’ve had many of these moments in the campaign where they said this is the campaign Ender this is over he just blew it this is one of them so and so this is like the four the fifth of those but but
What was interesting about it was right this was not a left-wing chorus right this was mostly actually a right-leaning chorus and Mike Pence and he was deeply disappointed Chris Murphy this Democratic senator guy says something very similar to Mike yes and so it’s fascinating it says there’s something
Going on here so In fairness Tucker I didn’t suggest it I explicitly said that the government absolutely lied to us yeah 911 Commission lied the FBI lied now am I is this a core point in my campaign no it’s not I actually went on a comedy show where some guy asked me
Was the moon landing fake I said I think it was real then he asked me did the government tell us the truth about 9 11 I said no they did not so so in response to a question I’m going to answer honestly yeah and the thing I had in mind was the facts
There’s this guy albayumi now rewind back to 911 in the pre-911 day think of how ludicrous this story is a 42 year old graduate student and there’s nothing wrong with being 42 and going back to school my dad went back to school much later in life but he’s a 42
Year old graduate student who receives the two terrorists two of the terrorists who flew planes into buildings in the United States of America not that long later receives them at the airport in LA takes them to his house spends lots of time with them integrates them into the
Community but the account for what he said happened was he met them randomly at the airport that doesn’t make much sense on the face I happen to be at LAX and really exactly you know you you look like uh you look like guys we might get along with and then suddenly become fast
Friends at the airport so much so that he takes them up just a little suspicious but hey the 911 Commission and the FBI looked into it at the time they said his account is accurate yeah that sounds legit it sounds super legit right now you know these guys came from Saudi
Arabia does this guy who received them have any ties to Saudi Arabia that’s where they landed but now 20 years later in 2021 and 2022 the FBI quietly declassifies documents and they have to 20 years later it’s the deadline that suggests that oh wait a minute they
Did know actually that this guy was a Saudi intelligence operative interesting how that works just slips that right under there 20 years later now there are real consequences for this right now because there’s a federal case of families of victims on 9 11 that want accountability that are determining
Answers so they’re suing the Saudi government and the case turns on whether or not this is true because you know those attackers were from Saudi Arabia the Bush Administration you’d have the 911 Commission bipartisan you have the fact of the FBI CIA everybody’s saying that no this guy was really just acting
Independently here but now we say is a Saudi intelligence operative there’s really the question of whether the Saudi Arabia owes damages to these families so this is a relevant question so is this the main point I’m focused on my campaign no I’m not we have to focus in
The future of the country but if I’m asked a question and I answer honestly based on the facts I don’t think they would have come for me if this was false if this was ludicrous of course is never punished lying is never punished but it’s speaking the truths
You’re not supposed to speak that’s what actually attracts the immune response why I mean I you made a I thought a really wonderful point in one of your responses to this in which you said it’s not okay for the government to lie to Wisconsin democracy it’s poison and it
And it corrodes the system that we Revere democracy so um but why would the Wall Street Journal take time out of its busy schedule of Defending low capital gains taxes to attack you over this you know what’s interesting is I think that there’s a bipartisan consensus in this country right now that
We the people we can’t handle the truth it’s like Jack Nicholson at the end of the movie right yes you can’t handle the truth you need me on that wall my view my basic view in this campaign is no we don’t need you on that wall and yes we can handle the truth
Covid-19 what was the origin what did we know about the vaccines before we mandated them what do we know about Hunter Biden’s dealings before we systematically suppressed that story what do we know about the truth of what happened on January 6th what do we know about that Nashville shooter Manifesto
The transgender individual who shot up a bunch of people in a Christian School that’s why I went to Nashville not that long ago because Bill Lee a republican governor of Tennessee now wants to pass a red flag law in Tennessee without releasing that Manifesto the whole point
Is the public can’t handle the truth and so I had offline discussions that we were talking with you know big donors in the Republican Party big folks in media Executives and otherwise who said Hey listen okay even if what you’re saying is true this is not helping you
He said why is that the first question that should go through my mind right I mean personally I think the way I’m running this campaign is I’m not thinking about what’s helping me or not before I say it so far at least that actually that approach does seem to be helping me yeah
We’re doing all right but even if I were I’d rather lose some election than to play some political Snakes and Ladders of what we’re supposed to say and I think that that’s really one of the questions at issue today as it was in 1776 do we believe that the public
Can be trusted with the truth whatever the truth is just give me the hard truth I mean I I have a friend of mine her father died recently she talked about actually her experience of her father having heart attacks even when she was a
Kid he went on to live as far as he did but she said the one thing she just wanted from the doctors from her dad Etc is you know she’s 12 years old at the time I can handle the truth just just tell me like is my dad going to die
Is my dad likely to die before he goes in for the next procedure don’t just tell me he’s going to live because you think that’s what I need to hear just tell me the truth and I can handle the truth I think most of us are this way I
Think we as free human beings badly what makes us human beings and not animals is the belief that we can believe in something bigger than ourselves and that we can handle the truth from those who are in power and I think that’s the moment we live in
Today was the moment of the American Revolution that we the people can be trusted and I think we now live in a moment where the government and not just the government but a broader establishment in our country believes that citizens of this nation cannot be trusted with the truth so when
You describe the way that people who run the country feel about voters are describing the way parents treat small children that’s right that’s right I think that that’s actually worth understanding because there’s one school of thought that says the government the people in charge are fundamentally
Hostile to the people if only we’re so easy actually I think the reality of what’s going on is far more dangerous where the people who are in charge have actually what they think of as a benevolent view of the people that we’re doing what’s actually right for you for
Me for the populace at Large and then if you look at this throughout history Tucker for most of human history that’s how it’s been done for most of human history before 1776 in the old world the vision was the people cannot be trusted to sort out their own
Differences one person one vote that’s that’s such a laughable idea it has to be church leaders and labor leaders and Business Leaders that decide in the back of Palace Halls what’s right for the rest of society at large and then we had this weird departure in 1776. that said no no
Actually we the people can be trusted in a system where every person’s voice and vote counts equally with free speech and open debate in the Public Square whatever it is sometimes we might get it wrong sometimes we get it right but whatever it is that’s the way we do
Things in this new thing we call the United States of America but then every once in a while and we’re in one of those moments that ugly monster rears its head again that says no no the people can’t be trusted it has to be now in the back of Palace halls in
The back of three letter government agencies in Washington DC or in the back of blackrock’s corner office on Park Avenue in Manhattan whatever it is it’s that the enlightened have to make sure that the public is protected from the truth just like a parent protects a child
And I think it’s that parental Instinct it’s not the kidnapper’s Instinct right it’s not the guy who wants to you know kidnap and kill the child no it’s actually almost what they think of as being the Instinct of a parent who’s doing for you what’s better for you than
You know for yourself and I think that’s what gives it actual staying power because it’s not what somebody thinks of as evil who’s committing evil they think of it as actually a moral obligation to the public which explains the bipartisan nature of when somebody speaks the truth
About what really happened on 9 11. no hush keep that under the rug because Republican or Democrat we know that the people can’t be trusted for that it’s not good for the the children are listening lower your voice the kids are listening yeah do you get the sense as
You travel the country talk to people speak um that were on the it feels like we’re in the cusp of chaos I think we’re in the cusp of something I’d like to think of it as a revolution in a positive sense of that word I think that you know I try
To be an optimist at times you feel like this is oh there’s something going on I think we’re like in a 1775 spring of 1776 moment in this country actually I think that people are hungry now the form I want to see it play out in is Reviving those shared ideals that
You notice that set the nation into Motion in 1776 that I think are innate to our nature as human beings As Americans I think that there’s a hunger for a Revival of those ideals that’s where we are but there’s a lot of ways that energy could go
The way I would like to play my small role in helping channel that energy is not all gonna be done by the US president but there’s role to play is to channel that energy towards a positive Revival of that which unites us across our diverse attributes or divides
But if it doesn’t go that way there’s a there’s a dam that’s going to break and the river’s going to go somewhere I hope it leads towards a national Revival rather than you know other places where this could go How concerned are you about an economic
Like a real economic reset in the next year quite concerned I think that 2024 is going to be a year where I it’s not going to take a lot of guts for me to make this prediction because I’ll tell you why it’s easy to make we’re on the cusp of a major economic
Downturn next year we live under conditions of a deeply inverted yield curve I mean these are topics that may put people to sleep and so we don’t have to can you explain get into it yeah I mean it’s basically you would expect in the long run right long run interest
Rates on long-run bonds are higher compared to interest rates on short-run bonds because there will be higher risk of being repaid back that’s how things are supposed to work there are a wide range of factors that can occasionally cause that to tilt in the other direction we’re in one of
Those conditions right now where the interest rates on short-term bonds are significantly higher than they are on Long Run bonds and every time that’s happened in the last 40 years that has predicted a recession that followed in the year or so that came later and there’s lots of complicated reasons for
Why and economists can debate it but what’s not debatable is that that’s exactly what happens that’s where we are now which is why we’re I think in the Calm before the storm Biden will put up low unemployment numbers well that misses the point that we have a deeper structural deficiency
Where our real problem is there are twice as many jobs open as there are people looking for work right that’s the actual deeper structural failure as it relates to the labor market people have stopped looking for work people have stopped looking for work absolutely I mean people are being paid more or have
Been habituated more to staying at home than to go to work people also don’t have the skill sets required to actually show up to her because they have four-year college degrees that were subsidized by the U.S Department of Education without actually having the skill sets that many employers badly
Need in order to grow their business whether it’s a big business or a small one you know the inflation numbers they’ll point to saying hey the rate of inflation is coming down inflation’s cumulative things are still 16 20 more expensive than they were in 2020 and
Wages have not gone up in the same way over the same period and so there are deep structural issues with our economy I mean the national debt interest payments are going to be the biggest portion and line item of the federal budget very soon but I think that that short-term numbers
That we look at right now belie the reality that we’re going to have a reckoning I think that Reckoning is likely going to the timing of these things is hard to predict but I think that likely Reckoning 2024 could be a pretty good prediction but that’s not
Just an economic Story I mean people have psychologically I think a very hard time moving backward yes right it’s it’s one thing to be poor it’s another thing to be poor having been Rich yes very hard for people to metabolize that and so if that happens to hundreds of
Millions of people at the same time people get radical especially against the backdrop of already having deep distrust right in my opinion appropriately deep distrust in our existing institutions including the government in this country and so I think there are two ways this could break right sometimes you go through hardship
And you’re strengthened by that hardship I was thinking about it as an individual in my life like I’ve gone through a hardship in my life my father’s been through hardship in each of those cases that led us to become stronger for having gone through that and did things
That we otherwise would have never done created things in the world that otherwise would have never existed and that’s the positive version of this and it’s the version I want to see for our country but there’s a very different way this could break too is I think that if we
Don’t channel that frustration in a direction that creates something Anew right a sort of Reincarnation of our American experiment which is what’s going to be required then I think this ends the way that many other revolutions do is not the creative kind but the destructive kind
And I think the economic collapse that I think Calamity that I think recession at least that’s coming could just be the Catalyst you know we’ll blame it on that’ll be the final match that’s lit but it’s the kerosene on the floor that we have to pay attention to in the
Meantime and that’s why I think when people ask me are you focused on are you a culturally shoes guy or are you an economy guy are you focused on foreign policy it’s missing the point these things are each symptoms of a deeper they’re of a piece there’s no doubt no doubt about it
So you said something when I saw you in Iowa earlier this summer you said something really really interesting about donors and you are an interesting figure because you’re effectively from the donor class you’re a rich guy running for president now you’re dealing with donors from the other side
And you said that your views on Ukraine had given a lot of them pause yes I there’s no doubt that I have lost otherwise willing and interesting interested donors or potential Mega donors to my campaign over my position on Ukraine which is fascinating because I don’t think there’s any particular
Self-interest at issue it’s not like somebody saying oh well I own you know right big chunk of Raytheon or something like that and I’m going to have my interests harmed therefore I’m not gonna back you because that will harm myself interest that’d be an easy and fun and facile
Explanation but that’s not what’s going on I think there is a deeper bipartisan institutional consensus the same consensus that said we can’t be told the truth about 9 11 that effectively says that we can’t confront some of the same facts about Ukraine and I try not to be reactive Tucker because
It is a natural impulse where of course at least you know at least the way I’m wired is you know if somebody tells you not to do something there’s almost a natural temptation to go in that direction right so so I I would like to think and I and
I believe my position here is grounded in fact and not that reactive emotion but it’s interesting that it makes me doubly committed to making sure that I’m really speaking the truth about what’s going on here at least because it means that the rest of the field absolutely is
Not right I mean the rest well that’s kind of the entire Republican field not one of Donald Trump we could say they want to say in the Warriors and exactly how but save for Trump right nobody on the debate stage certainly for the Republican party has a principled
Position on Ukraine partly because they understand those are the directions they’ve been given so you think it’s a that’s it’s interesting because there are a couple of Fairly smart but I know them people running for president right now in the Republican field whose positions on Ukraine are like
Idiotic or indiscernible and right it didn’t make any sense I’m an idiotic the idiotic one is this we have to arm them to the teeth give them as much money as possible because we stand with Ukraine the indiscernible ones are the ones where they’ll tell you one thing and
Then they’ll tell their donors one thing and then don’t know where they actually stand because they’re being buffeted but that’s but that’s a that’s the effect of donor pressure right it is it really is it really is absolutely I mean I think that there’s you know I I think there’s
Finger and wind candidates and I think that exists so there’s finger and win candidates on Ukraine but I think that there are also separately candidates who just believe that this is the way that we do things in the United States of America we don’t stop until we have
Taken down what we have decided is our enemy forgetting that the USSR doesn’t exist anymore and believe that that’s the only source of Victory and so my view I start from a different premise and there’s pros and cons right you know on one hand I don’t have National ads
Running because my Super PAC is the superpac affiliated with me is Tiny compared to those affiliated with you know other candidates in this race that have television ads blaring and lifting their numbers up in the polls because they’re buying a bunch of TV ads the flip side is I’m unconstrained by what
I’m able to say and that allows me to speak truth that a lot of people in this country recognize to be the truth which is that we have no discernible National interest at issue in Ukraine the truth is that as much as we will fetishize and debate the 1994 Budapest memorandum
Which the U.S wrote you know UK and Russia were also parties to it with Ukraine which I believe we have more than fulfilled our obligations you don’t hear a peep about James Baker’s 1990 commitment his not one inch commitment to the NATO would expand one inch Beyond Germany No discussion of that
Against the backdrop of the reality that we face which is we are driving Russia further into China’s arms as we arm Ukraine further strengthening what I see as the single greatest military threat that the United States certainly has faced since World War II you could make
A case that the United States has ever faced if you actually look at where this could be going and that yet we are actually the ones responsible for driving that russia-china military Alliance and so one of my advantages is that I am not some people say well you don’t have
Foreign policy experience and I’ll say yes I don’t have foreign policy experience and that may actually be an advantage in bringing a rational American so you’re not responsible for the war in Iraq yeah that’s a bad thing yeah well I I I think we could debate
Whether it’s a bad thing or not but if you if you break the car you don’t turn over the keys to the guy who broke it that’s what I would say and so you know I think that we are on our way to Ukraine turning into another Iraq or
Another Vietnam all over again except this time I think it could be worse because there’s nuclear weapons at issue there’s an alliance with China an economy that we depend on for our modern way of life that’s also at issue and the irony is I think a lot of people
Today believe that somehow world leaders make their decisions by analogy so Xi Jinping is going to say oh well because Vladimir Putin walked away with a piece of Ukraine that he didn’t have that somehow means that by analogy I’m going to be judged more favorably if I go after Taiwan and walk
Away with a piece of Taiwan that I didn’t have when I don’t I basically don’t think that’s how autocrats or any Global leader should or at least does make decisions to the contrary I think what’s actually more likely to happen is we’re going to put Xi Jinping in a more likely position
To go after Taiwan sooner because he knows that Russia’s in his Camp because they’re in a more solid Alliance yeah on Taiwan you mean yeah yeah I mean I think that that’s mostly right now my view is this is also another heresy that I uh I think have recently managed to
Cross last night which is that I think our commitments to go to war in that situation or to at least even militarily engage in that situation should change if it’s before or after we have semiconductor Independence in this country oh yeah I mean I think so so I would say
Completely but I uh um for people who aren’t following this extreme what you mean yeah yeah so this is a you know long history here but for historical circumstances that you know are long and unfortunate we are dependent on a tiny island nation off the Southeast coast of China for our
Entire modern way of life these lights wouldn’t work the phones in our pockets wouldn’t work these you know TV screens and cameras wouldn’t work if it weren’t for Leading Edge semiconductors that are manufactured by basically one company and a set of companies around them tsmc on Taiwan that power our entire modern
Way of life that’s just a hard fact how we got here it’s a long story I think it’s sad that we are where we are but we are where we are China has two reasons to want to go for Taiwan okay one is a nationalistic reason which is that back in 1949 they
Had this complicated yeah yeah you know went to Taiwan and claimed that that was actually where the real Republic of China was based and Mao Zedong said no no it’s the Communist Party of China out of Beijing and for the longest time actually the US and the
UN recognized actually the real china as being run out of Taipei but at some point along the way switched to saying no it’s actually run out of Beijing and so there’s this nationalistic thing going on that’s super complicated history over there but there’s a more modern motivation for
Xi Jinping which is wait a minute if I now have control over that Island I have control over the entire United States because I now have the economic Leverage to get to a deal that the U.S wouldn’t have said yes to and I think what Xi
Jinping is going for is the basic deal where he says I get to make your stuff as long as I get all of your IP and everything else in return and right now if he says that to the us we’re not going to go for that deal but if he’s
Squatting on the semiconductor supply chain well then that’s how we ultimately get to parity consummate the co-dependent relationship and I think that’s step one of a broader conquest of of the modern West how hard would it be to achieve as you said semiconductor Independence in the United States it’s
Not going to be easy but I’m confident that with Focus I can lead us there by the end of my first term in office and my basic rule of thumb on this one Tucker is just to be very practical looking at this from American interests I do not consent to Xi Jinping holding
An economic gun to our head and lording that over for the next hundred years of the future of the United States but if we’re no longer dependent on that tiny island nation then I will not send our sons and daughters to die over somebody else’s nationalistic dispute how
Definitely I mean it’s it’s interesting and you said there’s a complex history that I’m not familiar with uh behind it but how complex is it to build your own semiconductor it’s complicated because a lot of it relies on know-how so it’s not just raw production capability but it’s
The know-how of how you actually make it and so I think that requires pulling people from you know dsmc in Taiwan to the United States and I think that that’s something that we should be intensely focused on right now there’s new you know giant projects manufacturing projects in Arizona near
Where I live actually in my home state of Ohio that are going to be steps forward in that direction I also think that like it or not a relationship with South Korea and Japan is going to have to play a role in speeding up our semiconductor self-reliance as well
Samsung is the next best leader it’s not even an American company after dsmc there’s like a big jump down then it’s Samsung then there’s a big jump down there’s Intel and everybody else here so I think that it’s going to require and I don’t like multilateral trade agreements
But if we’re going to have to do them let’s keep it bilateral bilateral agreements with Japan with South Korea that’s a big part of what’s going to be required and so my view is let’s think about first term in office as it relates to this dimension of foreign policy
And the Ukraine war on terms that help pull Russia out of China’s hands that’s going to require rebuilding a lot of trust I think I’m up for that job and I believe that Putin can trust us to follow our self-interest as long as we trust him to follow his reopen economic
Relations with Russia freeze the current lines of control make a permanent commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to Nato but in return we can if not disband that russia-china Alliance I’d get India back on side and you know if there’s a guy who’s going to rebuild
Trust with India it better be a guy with the name Vivek ramaswamy who might be up for that task but you know getting India on on side to say you know what we’re going to be making sure that in a conflict situation in Taiwan that we’re
At least on side with the United States but then more importantly get Semiconductor self-sufficiency in the United States reduce our economic dependence on China if we’re there by the end of my first term by the end of 2028 the stakes are now just a lot lower with respect to
What’s actually happening in Taiwan and if you know is it preferable for China to Annex Taiwan even after that scenario no probably not but that’s a different bar for whether or not we’re going to actually be willing to send our sons and daughters to die over it and in the
Meantime there’s one aspect of Our National Defense that’s the president nobody’s talking about Tucker which is actually our National Defense of the Homeland where we have actually badly missed the plot for super EMP attacks cyber attacks nuclear defense you know we help Israel build an iron
Dome how about an equivalent of an Iron Dome for the United States and our own Homeland and so that’s where I’m focused in my first term if I on foreign policy if I can get us to semiconductor Independence if I can get us to significantly reduced if not total
Economic independence from China weaken the russia-china alliance by ending the war in Ukraine that actually keeps China at Bay from not having an economic gun to our head over our modern way of life at which point we then have a different set of commitments where after that we’re going
To be in good shape no matter what happens and so I wasn’t you know planning to get into some foreign policy detour but that’s that’s the way I’m thinking about the first term that all of that makes sense you think so I’m not sure what is controversial about any of that yeah
How far those priority it’s weak that’s what I’ve heard yesterday yeah I mean from whom well from a lot of Republicans actually and is there a dumber group I mean then then the foreign policy Republicans I’m not talking about Republican voters I mean the members of Congress the low IQ guys from including
Your state I hate to say it Texas who make their entire career about seeming strong and quoting Reagan and under whose watch the country has become demonstrably weaker it has become and that doesn’t lead to strength actually where are we now and the funny part is our transgender Army like seriously well
People also miss this Tucker and this makes me uncomfortable as they get very upset when I say this I think there’s a chance that if we enter war with nuclear Allied Russia and China the United States as we know it we may take a risk of it ceasing to exist of course
Okay I’m glad you appreciate that that’s good because many people are like what are you talking about the United States ceased to exist no I actually think well in a nuclear conflict yes well because we don’t have nuclear defense capabilities no you know defense National Defense has not been about
Defense for a very long time right and so by the way super EMP capabilities take out our electric grids we have you know 60 Chinese Transformers that are in the midst nodes in our own electric grid they could shut down our modern way of life with that you want to talk about
Actual Cyber attack capabilities we’re better on offense we have no defensive capabilities and and so you know when I think about a modern foreign policy vision I’d revive a modern Monroe Doctrine you don’t mess with the United States on our own soil we are not okay with a Chinese
Spy balloon flying over half of our country we are not okay we do not consent to a Chinese spy base off the Southeast coast of the United States or in Cuba spying on the Southeast Corridor of the United States we’re not okay with intentionally pumped fentanyl you know
The the raw materials literally coming not making stuff from Wuhan two Mexican drug cartels that are intentionally being pumped across our Southern border as part of really a one-sided Opium War no we’re not okay with that or with interference in the Western Hemisphere or with China having control over the Panama Canal something
That people forget as well no we’re not okay with that but that is also our top priority protect the Homeland and the interests of citizens here at home that’s how America is strong and actually leads on the global stage and so the irony is at least like the you know the Reagan
Version of this was yes all of that projection piece through strength but Strategic Defense Initiative nuclear defense here at home now we’re in the worst of all worlds where you have a generation of people who vaguely remember the slogans and feel like they want to Puff their chest but can’t
Really do it super confidently so they’re like doing it as like a second language well all together forgetting about the actual defense of the Homeland it’s even worse because the peace through strength part well the strength part actually provokes that which we’re not even prepared to handle back at home
You know so I end up talking to a lot of neocons actually in terms of you know bolstering me up because they don’t have the right strategic Vision but they know all like the names of like you know what an Ohio class ssgn versus ssbn is and I
Don’t know these things all the war porn they love that I mean I wasn’t born with this knowledge but I’m gonna be US president I better darn well and train to know it and so I’m probably talking to more liberal hegemony neocon people training me not because I’m taking their
Views I deeply disagree with them but they you know know the Lexicon and so you know I want to put myself in a position where it’s easily dismissable this guy doesn’t know what a what an Ohio class ssgn versus a versus a ssbn is well okay well now I do it turns out
It took all of about 30 minutes to get that one under our belt but it doesn’t matter you’re missing the plot if you’re actually failing to actually Advance is there a single neoton with a happy personal life like imagine I haven’t drilled into it dinner at Bill Crystal’s
House the misery do you know what I mean like it doesn’t seem like I don’t want to pick it psychoanalyze here but it it does seem like their project has nothing to do with helping the United States in any way and it is psychosexual or something they’re they’re for there is there for
War war as long as other people fight it I mean it’s all very it’s like a syndrome I’ve never seen anything like it there is a certain titillation you see when they’re using words like Virginia class this or Ohio class that or tomahawks facing you know there’s a
Certain type of yeah of uh satisfaction if your wife respected you you probably wouldn’t have to talk that way um so uh no I think everything you said is is self-evidently sensible and it’s hard to If by the way if you took a poll on what you just said your defense priorities as
You just articulated I can’t imagine you get under 90 for that like what how could you disagree with that um but I haven’t taken a poll um if I’m wrong maybe I’ll get wiped out in the election I want to play it and you’re busy you got to go campaign um
But I just want to play one I wanna play a sound bite a shot as we say uh from you on the campaign Trail this is an exchange which I think just says a lot uh where you’re approached by a self-described pansexual here’s what happened next what were your opinions
Well I don’t think it’s one community yeah I mean how could it be just Mash together in alphabet soup trans is fundamentally intention with gay if you ask me but what’s your opinion I am personally and pansexual so I was just wondering what your views on same-sex couples wear I don’t have a
Negative view of same-sex couples but I do have a negative view of a tyranny of the minority so so I think that in the name of protecting against the tyranny of the majority and there are times in this country’s history where we have had a tyranny of the majority
We have now in the name of protecting against tyranny of the majority created a new tyranny of the minority and I think that that’s wrong I don’t think that somebody who’s religious should be forced to officiate a wedding that they disagree with I don’t think somebody who is a woman who’s worked
Really hard for her achievements should be forced to compete against a biological man in a swim competition I don’t think that somebody who’s a woman that respects her bodily autonomy and dignity should be forced to change clothes in a locker room with a man that’s not Freedom that’s oppression and
So I believe that we live in a country where free adults should be free to dress how they want behave how they want and that’s fine but you don’t oppress you don’t become oppressive by forcing that on others and that especially includes kids because kids aren’t the same as adults
It’s just a beautiful answer in so many ways but I I just want to parse your initial answer three parts about it I love she comes up and says what are your opinions in the LGBT community first you question the premise of the question itself how is it a community
Trans is fundamentally in tension with gay as you say that’s not I agree with Andy second um you’re completely common you explain yourself and third you say What’s your opinion yeah and you throw it back to her but to the first thing trans is fundamentally intention with Git I have
Not heard anybody say that in public what do you mean well I mean first of all it’s just starting with the L and G most lesbians don’t like gay men and vice versa but then now you keep adding I don’t think you can say that it’s
Still true and then he sort of like further start playing this out trans is this totally weird separate thing that’s like so like you’re just like matching this like alphabet soup just to create enough versus them destruction of modern orders or I should say I I someone in
The studio is nodding Who would know well you just said is true it’s the truth I mean really and so the the the truth is let’s just take I mean we could we could have a lot of fun with this one but just take some of the suppositions
Here and see if this logically makes sense right like one of the suppositions in the gay rights movement it which you know totally open to this but it’s just partly of how we created gay rights in this country is that the sex of the person you’re attracted to is hardwired
On the day you’re born even though there is no gauging that’s this now if you make it one movement the LGBT movement that’s the same movement that also now says that your own sex is completely fluid over the course of your life even though there is a definitive sex chromosome like you can’t
Believe these two things at the same time they’re fundamentally it’s nonsensical and so and so that’s what it reveals what’s going on Tucker is that these are cult-like belief systems right because if it’s a religious cult then you don’t have to I mean you don’t have any obligation to logic if you’re
Subscribing to religion and the worst religions are the ones that fail to recognize themselves as religions I think religious religion can be a great thing you and I are both pro-religion Pro faith if we recognize that we’re actually exercising faith but the most dangerous religions of all are those that claim to
Be secular but are actually religious in their conviction and one of the ways you can smoke out that it’s religion is just these inherent tensions that then you give it a flag then you give it a symbology you give it an idol the first Idol was not good enough the rainbow
Flag then they had to make the trans flag the upgraded version the golden idol they started with the silver one and so this is what this is about is a form of idolatry in the trans flag that is a symbol of a broader religious conviction
It’s kind of the same thing you see in the climate movement actually is like I I kind of enjoy this because you get to the bottom of what’s going on by exposing the illogic of it right like on the client there’s a parallel for what’s going on with LGBT with climate
You think two different issues what are you talking about well the same people who are antithetical to carbon emissions here in the United States are perfectly fine with shifting those carbon emissions to China even though it was supposedly global warming that we’re addressing or the same people who are hostile to
Carbon emissions are also hostile to nuclear energy which is the most productive form of carbon free energy production known to man you can’t believe both of those things at once unless you’re subscribing to a broader religious worldview and I think that religion is actually it’s the same religion whether it
Relates to the climate Battle of MOA that relates to lgbtqia plus ISM whether it relates to racial localism it’s a broader Vision that defines itself in opposition to the American Vision to the American way of life that says we are individuals individuals who are members of these units we call families families which
Are embedded in the substructure of this thing we call a nation and a nation which exists under the broader blessing of God individual family Nation God that is one world view and the thing we’re describing here is an alternative world view grounded in race in gender and sexuality in climate
And one of the things that I feel for some of the people who subscribe to this religion someone felt for this woman right she wasn’t you know there are others like her there’s another one actually at the Iowa State Fair who had similar beliefs that did not comport
Him or her or they self whatever this individual was in the same civil manner that this woman did uh he was he had a cowbell and it was ringing and was uh you know was um you know antithetical to having conversation this one was at least
Having a conversation I kind of felt for her because what I saw in her eyes for sure was she is not she’s not an evil person who’s trying to be a crusader for some Faith to put the other side out of business those people exist she was just lost actually
Right I don’t know if it was harder to see on the on the camera but I was face to face with her and when I see that it’s why I also thanked her I said thank you for being civil in your exchange and I’ll give you the same courtesy in
Return let me shoot you what early 20s best my guess she’s lost there’s a void there yeah right it’s it’s so so I asked her the question back there’s a Blank Stare you get in a response it’s almost the same Blank Stare as if I get asked most young
People on a given day what does it mean to be American that same Blank Stare that’s the void it’s like a beer and a headlights and I think that this is Our Moment our duty our job as leaders it’s a job of the next U.S president
Might be the most important one of all to fill that void with an answer to the question of what does it mean to be an American what does it mean to be you what does it mean to be an individual rather than riding a tectonic plate of group identity what
Does it mean to be a member of a family a nuclear family with a mother and a father that by definition brought you into this world what does that mean what does it mean to be a citizen of this nation not some nebulous vague Global citizen fighting climate change but a
Citizen of this nation on this land with these ideals what does it mean to believe in God to be a nation under God I think that’s our moment and I believe that if we fill that void with an actual affirmative Vision we will dilute these other poisons to irrelevance they are symptoms they’re
Symptoms of a deeper cancer that cancer itself is a void a black hole fill that void with an actual affirmative vision of who we really are that’s got to be how we win and the thing that frustrates me most actually about the Republican Party Tucker isn’t even
You know the neoconism in our foreign policy and I mean it frustrates me deeply but this this feels solvable through an alternative set of policies right I can go do deals on a global stage and let’s hope I’ll be successful if I’m in that seat I think I will
But this is actually the deeper challenge you can only stand up with the spine abroad or an economy or whatever if you at least first know who you really are and I think that is the far more difficult question it’s not going to happen through policy but somebody
Doesn’t have to be a U.S president it could be it could be someone who has a as a media Outlet it could be a religious figure but it could be a parent maybe it’s not one person maybe which is what I think the real answer is
Going to be maybe it’s going to have to be leaders in the different spheres of Our Lives each stepping up and speaking with conviction to the question of answering who we really are and I think the U.S president has a role to play there in answering who we are as Americans
And the thing that really frustrates me back about the Republican party is you know I wrote woke Inc a couple years ago you were kind enough to help me launch that book with you and we had a great conversation and a lot of people read it and and then the Republican Party Starts
Reciting memorize chapter and verses from you know not just my book but maybe others like it but mine included but without actually knowing like what they’re even talking about they understand the word they’re uttering the words but they don’t really understand the phenomenon they’re addressing which stops you from actually getting to the
True solution which is actually understanding that there’s a deeper void and vacuum that we have to fill with an affirmative alternative vision of aronetics Courage that takes Vision that takes some level of imagination of what is actually possible you have to imagine it too much it’s
Been true for most of our history so he can maybe just draw from that that’s how I do it I want to reinvent the wheel let’s maybe just borrow from the people who set this thing into motion they had a pretty good idea of what they were doing
But that’s what this moment calls for and either we rise to that occasion and we take that 1776 spring spirit and we Channel it into a Revival of that once more or else we will be the Israelites lost in the desert asking to go back and be ruled by the Pharaoh
And that’s exactly what this nation is otherwise on a march to actually towards being ruled by you know quietly becoming a people of sheep so our government can be a governmental Perfect Analogy thank you very much good luck in the debate thank you why on Kennedy’s motorcade foreign
