Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Facebook Says "We Will STOP Censoring Conservatives", plus Greenland, Panama & Canada

Transcript

Facebook Says "We Will STOP Censoring Conservatives", plus Greenland, Panama & Canada · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Sentater Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: with you and Senator you are back in Washington, d C.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's twenty twenty five. Everything seems to be going in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the right direction. That terrifies me at the same time,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and it's getting so good that even Facebook says we're
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: gonna let conservatives hang out on our platform without us,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: you know, like actually shutting them down every time they
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: say something we don't like.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Trump twenty twenty five, universe.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Well, it's been big news this week. And the week
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: started with Congress coming back and certifying Donald Trump as
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: the winner of the twenty twenty four election. Donald Trump
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: will be the new president on January twentieth. I will
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: say it was really it was remarkable. Poor Kamala Harris
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: had to preside over that had to announce the results.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: I will say I was sitting on the floor of
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the House along with the rest of Congress in a
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: joint session and Congress as they read each state's result.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Every Republican chaired for the states that that that that
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Trump won, every Democrat cheered for the states that Kamala won.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Uh and then at the end when she said, and
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: and the result in the winner is Donald Trump. All
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: the Republicans cheered. I will say, even though you and
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: I were strongly supporting President Trump, I did feel for
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Kamala's standing there as we're all cheering her getting her
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: ass kicked that that that I'm sure was not easy
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: to stand up and do it, and I'll give her credit.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: She kept an absolute poker face the entire time as
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: she was reading the results. I was sitting next to
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Eric Schmidt, UH, senator from Missouri. I turned as they
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: were kind of like uh in in the d's of
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: the States. I turned him and said, hey, I wonder
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: how it's gonna end. Who's gonna win?
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Uh? I will tell you.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: By the way, I also was was joking with with
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: uh uh several several senators. UH. JD Vance was was
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: earlier this week on some pain killers and I asked
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: him how I was doing easy. He said he was fine,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: and I.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: Said, well, JD.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Look, we're gonna know if if you're high, if we
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: go into the certification and you stand up and object
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: your own election.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: He laughed.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Thankfully he did not. He was not in fact high,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: and he did not object.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: By the way, you got a little side bet going
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: with him right now. Let's let's just let's let people
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: know what's happening this week. His side BET's gotten a
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: lot of Twitter attention, and and you challenge him to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a bet because his buck guys are playing your your
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: team in the National Championship playoff.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Well for the semi finals.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: The Cotton Bowl is on Friday, and and UT is
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: playing Ohio State. Ohio State is favored. I think they're
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: up about five and a half six points on the line.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: But but I challenged him and said, look, let's let
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: let's have a friendly wager on this. The loser has
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: to provide food and beer from your home state. And
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: here's the kicker. You got to show up and deliver
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: it in the jersey of the winning team. And I'll
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: tell you that's kind of my standard sports bet. I've
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: made those bets a lot in various World Series games
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: and other National Championships games.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: I will say, I want.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: To make sure everybody knows the menu, because the Texas
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: menu is stellar, and I don't know if Ohio can
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: you keep up with what you're bringing to the table.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: If in fact, there's some crazy reason that you lose
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: this bet.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Look what I said is if I lose, I'll provide
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Texas barbecue and Bluebell ice cream and Shiner Bock beer.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: But I also said, doesn't matter because I ain't gonna lose.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: The Horns are gonna win Texas by five. So that's
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: my prediction, Texas by five. And we'll see. I'll tell you,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Particularly in the World Series. I've made these bets every
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: time the Strows have been in the World Series, and
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I want them and lost of winning them is fun.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Twenty seventeen, when the Stros beat the Dodgers. Actually I
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: made the bet with Kamala Harris, and Kamala showed up
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: in my office. She had seized chocolate uh and and
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: California red wine that she brought, but she was wearing
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Astros gear and she actually Facebook live streamed it as
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: she went to deliver it.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: And then I had a wager with with Tim Kaine
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: when the Stros played the Gnats.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: That really sucked when I showed up and had to
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: pay off to to Tim and and I also had
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: a wager with John oss Off when when the Stros
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: played played the Braves in the World Series. That sucked
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: and I paid off to him. But I had a
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: wager with Pat Toomey when the Stros paid the Phillies,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: and I was quite happy to accept. Pat came by
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: and brought some Philadelphia pretzels and and some I don't
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: even remember some kind of Philly beer uh in Astro's gear.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: And so between the two, I got to say, winnings
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: better than losing. So hopefully it's JD showing up, uh
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: saying ghost ros?
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and what is JD's What does he bring? Do
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: they what beer to even have up there?
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: That's what I want.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I you know, Ohio, I beats the heck out of me,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: like like.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: He's bringing you I know that, it's like what is it?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: What do you even bring?
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: You know, in Cincinnati they claim they make chili. I'm
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: not sure about that, but but but I'm told that's
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: that's something they talk about. So so I don't I
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: don't know what he'll bring, but I look forward to
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: finding out.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: You'll be eating it.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: It may you may wish you're getting the barbecue in
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: that moment, and we'll see what happens there. So we've
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: got this big news of Facebook, uh that is it
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: has come out, But there's also a lot of chatter,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and I know you wanted to keep previewing for people.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: We're going to cover two other things in this podcast
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: today as well.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Look, number one, Facebook has announced a brand new set
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: of policies and it says it is now going to
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: stop censoring conservatives. That's a big, big deal. We're going
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: to talk about it. We're going to talk about what
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: specifically they announced, what it means, uh and and and
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: what it what, what what to expect, how it's likely
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: to impact the free speech and then the world of
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: online conversation. We're also going to talk about Donald Trump's
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: press conference in mar A Lago. It was quite the
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: tour to force. He covered a lot of things, but
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: in particular, we're going to talk about Greenland and Panama
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: and Canada.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: All of that is coming up in this pod.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be a fun one.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to you real quick about the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and the new year
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: is a time of reflection on the past year and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: also hope for the year to come. Last year was
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: an incredibly turbulent time for Israel and the Jewish people,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: with the devastating and ongoing multi front war and unprecedented
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: rise in global anti Semitism and the loss of many
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Jewish lives.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: On top of that, well, we've.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Also seen an uprising of love and support from you,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the listeners, and through the partnership with the International Fellowship
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: of Christians and Jews, we had an incredible impact for
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the people that are hurting in Israel in twenty twenty four.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Your support of IFCJ has saved lives, it's answered prayers,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and thanks to the generosity of so many of you, we
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: have actually been able to put in bomb shelters that
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: have been built and placed where they are needed the most.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: We've been able to give life saving food and emergency
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: supplies that have provided for evacuees and those in critical need,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and we've also provided protective gear and medical equipment, including
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: armored ambulances. Bulletproof ambulances have been used to evacuate and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: save the lives of many who have been hurt in Israel.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: This is exactly why I'm asking you to stay involved.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: There's still more work to be done, and that's why
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I want you to join the movement of those who
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: have raised their voices to support Israel.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: And the Jewish people.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you to continue to pray for
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the people in Israel, and also about supporting IFCJ. You
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: can go to SUPPORTIFCJ dot org. That's one word, support
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: IFCJ dot org. That support IFCJ. All right, center rarely
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: to you and I Nazie eye to eye on issues,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and I am going to be a pessimist on the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Facebook part.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Here is my argument.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: You say this is a big moment, I would agree,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: but I also think this is just crap and this
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: is temporary and as soon as Democrats get back in charge,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: they're going to undo everything that Zuckerberg vows to restore
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: free speech, which by the way, is also him admitting
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: that they were censoring and silencing people with free speech.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: And I go back to this. Let me remind you
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: of what Zuckerberg allowed to happen. They allowed a sitting
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: president of the United States of America to be taken
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: off the platform while he was the President of the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: United States of America. They gave over information to the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: FEDS when they came knocking looking for different intel on conservatives.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: They also silenced and censored information about COVID nineteen, and
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: they took orders from the government the Biden heirs administration
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: on people to shut down, to silence and to make
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: sure that their post did and see the light of day. I,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: by the way, was one of them. So when I
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: see this, I am not like, oh, this is an
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: amazing day to me. It's like they read the tea leaves.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's in charge. Republicans have power in the Senate,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: they have power in the House. They are the majority,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and they realize they got to make a business decision.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: And so that's why all of a sudden he comes out.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: He's like, I'm in favor of free speech. That's my take.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Your reaction, well, look, I think every word you said
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: is accurate. Facebook has been a very bad actor. They
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: have engaged in rampant censorship of conservatives, and you're right.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: They engaged in censorship when it came to COVID. They
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: engage in censorship when it came to making the argument
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: that COVID originated in China and the Wuhana Institute of Virology,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: which minds you, this podcast did right at the beginning
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: of the pandemic, when when very few other people were
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: laying out those facts, they actively and aggressively suppressed news
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: on the Hunter Biden laptop in the twenty twenty election,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: they targeted and suppressed posts from conservatives. So their behavior
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: on free speech has been quite terrible. That being said, look,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: look there's several broader dynamics, and I want to talk
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: about the context and why I've got some degree of
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: hope here, and then I want to talk about the
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: specifics of what they announced. But let's look at the context.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Number one, you said they're kissing up to Trump. That's
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: clearly true, and we're seeing all across corporate America, corporate
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: America freaking out recognizing that Trump is coming back in
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: the White House. There's a Republican Senate, a Republican House,
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: and we're seeing corporate America at least saying their changing paths.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: We're seeing companies announcing that they're abandoning their DEI policies.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: It's fairly dramatic. I think that is a real driver
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: here that Facebook suddenly realized that that that that that
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: there was a new sheriff in town, and that they
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: were on the wrong side of things. I think that's
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: one piece. I think secondly, there is a dynamic in
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: big tech that that that that is flowing from elon
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Musk's buying Twitter. That was you and I have talked
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: about multiple times. I think the most important step for
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: free speech in decades. And Twitter has now become the
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: public square because Elon stopped censoring and began allowing people
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: to speak. The pressure it is put on Facebook and
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: other platforms is enormous. And I think this is also
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: the consequence of competition from X via Elon Musk.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: And and and Look.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: One of the ways this manifested was last week Meta,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Facebook's new name and parent company, Meta announced that they're
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: old head of policy globally, guy named Nick Clegg was
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: on his way out. And Nick Clegg, I've met him
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: and visited with him. He's a nice enough guy. But
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: he was a liberal British politician. He was a member
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: of Parliament. He was a liberal and he was the
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: one in charge of global policy. Well, last week Facebook
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: announced Dick Clegg was gone and they were elevating two people.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: They were elevating Joel Caplan and Kevin Martin. Now who
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: are Joel Kaplan and Kevin Martin. Well, they're both Republicans.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Joel Caplan was the deputy head of OMB under George W.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Bush and he was the Deputy Chief of Staff in
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: the White House under George W.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Bush.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Joel Caplan was also before that, a law clerk to
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Justice Scalia. Who's Kevin Martin. Kevin Martin was George W.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Bush's chairman of the FCC, the Federal Communication Commission. Now,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you both Joel and Kevin have been friends
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: of mine for twenty five years. And in fact, Joel
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: and Kevin were both with me and with Heidi on
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: the two thousand Bush campaign. We were on the campaign together.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: I know both of them really well.
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: When Meta was making this announcement that they actually reached
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: out and they asked me, hey, would you be willing
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: to say something positive about this announcement? And it's interesting, man,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: I actually had a debate internally with my staff, and
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: a lot of my staff were skeptical. They said, you
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: shouldn't that Facebook's been a bad actor. Don't say anything positive.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: And when I ended up telling my team, I said, look,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I hear you. I agree with everything you're saying. At
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: the same time, Joel and Kevin and I go back
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: a long way. So I decided I put out a
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: tweet and I said, listen, I'm going to make it
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: personal just given our own history. But I'm also going
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: to make it aspiration. I'm going to say this is
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: what I hope it means. I don't know that it does,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: but this, this is what I hope their promotion means.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: So here's what I tweeted. Congratulations. Both Joel and Kevin
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: have been friends of mine for twenty five years, and
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: I am hopeful that their promotion signals a renewed commitment
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: to free speech online. For the past decade, big tech
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: has been far too eager to censor in silence. I
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: hope that Meta will now join x in fighting to
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: protect free speech for everyone. Now I sent that, and
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: then I'll tell you yesterday, I started the day by
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: having a call with both Joel and Kevin where they
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: previewed what Meta was going to do. It was before
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: their public announcement, and they asked to set up a
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: call and lay out their steps. And I'll tell you
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: what I told them. I said, listen, I like what
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: you're saying. I think it's positive. I am glad that
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: you are making efforts to move in the direction of
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: free speech. I said, given Facebook's history, you will forgive
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: me if I'm skeptical and In fact, I told both
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: of them, you will not be surprised. My attitude is
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: going to be borrowed from Ronald Reagan. Trust, but verify.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: I like what you're saying. The steps you're laying out
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: are positive, but the proof is going to be the pudding.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: The proof is going to be do you allow real
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: free speech or are you suppressing and silencing conservatives? If
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: they follow the lead of X and genuinely defend free speech,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: that is a massive, massive victory and something we've been
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: fighting a long time. So I'm going to welcome them
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: that they're at least saying the right thing. At the
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: same time, we are going to watch very closely to
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: see if their actions match up with what they're saying
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: they intend to do.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: All right, So let me play Devil's advocate for everybody
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: that is angry like I am. I spoke out against
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Facebook for censoring and silencing conservatives.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: As f I many times, and I.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Got on a point after making that speech at spack
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: down and Florida during COVID, I landed to my entire
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: account being shut down. They went back five years to
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: find things to ding me on so they could then
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: shut it down, and it completely changed everything that I
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: was doing in the radio space. So many other concertis
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: had that. So the worry now is, well, they saw
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the writing on the wall. So they're hoping that Donald
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Trump and Republicans will move on from holding them.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Accountable for their actions.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And we're getting played by a company that has no
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: intent to really do this as soon as Democrats get
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: back power, So they're hoping for a free pass with
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: this new Congress when there could be real regulations on Facebook, Meta, Instagram, etc.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Your response to that.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, their behavior, as I said, has been despicable.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: And I'll tell you I've spent a fair amount of
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: time with Mark Zuckerberg, and look, Zuckerberg is very clever
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: at positioning Facebook so that there are other juicier targets
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: around him. So so previously you have number one Google,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: which is massive and is the most dangerous and horrific. Uh,
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: I think country company on the planet and the most
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: dangerous company in the.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: World for free speech. Uh.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: You had Twitter when Jack Dorsey was CEO. That was
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: just malevolent. That that that they I mean Dorsey looked
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: like a troll under a bridge with a beard down
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: to his knees. That that would almost cackle at censoring
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: the views of conservatives, and and Zuckerberg was very good
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: at saying, look, we're not as big and bad as
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: as Google, and we're not as malevolent as as Twitter.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: And by the way, TikTok, they're Chinese. And you know
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: that combination was pretty good, but that that Facebook managed
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: to be to point at others.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Are they trying to do some of that here?
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Sure?
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: But you know what, I will accept a change in
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: behavior if, if, if their behavior actually changes. So do
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: not misunderstand me, Ben, I'm not saying I'm just going
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: to take their empty words at face value. I'm going
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: to expect real action. And one of the things I
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: made clear to them as of today, actually, I am
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: now the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and the
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over forty percent of the US economy,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: including big tech, including the Internet, and it is going
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: to be a major priority of the Commerce Committee to
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: defend free speech online. And I told them, well, you
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: could expect hearings on this. You're going to have the
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: opportunity to explain what you're doing. You're going to have
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to demonstrate transparency. In the past Facebook has
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: been terrible in responding to requests from me for information,
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: and so I fully expect to keep pressing them for
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: greater transparency. But all of that being said, listen, anouncement
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: is significant, and listen, there were six different elements that
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: they said that they were doing that they announced. Number one,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Facebook is eliminating fact checks.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: That's huge, by the way, because that's how they shut
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: down conservatives. Just so people understand how it works, You
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: get strikes against you, they say that something you post
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: is partially false, and then they give you the quote
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: opportunity to appeal the decision. I've never want to appeal
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: my entire time on Facebook. So then they say you
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: are punished and you are reduced in your reach. So
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: you can have five million followers and maybe five hundred
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: will see your post once they put you in jail,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: which is how they limit you before elections.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: You're right, and they were relying on quote fact checking
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: organizations that were wildly biased left wing organizations. PolitiFact is
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: a hardcore left wing, dishonest editorial operation. I've talked to
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: I think in multiple books I've written just how dishonest
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: PolitiFact is. And so they're eliminating it. They're no longer
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: going to do fact checks, and they're going to replace
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: it with community notes, which they said they're explicitly borrowing
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: from X, so that if there are significant counterfacts, rather
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: than suppress something, they'll place a community note. I think
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: community notes on X are actually quite helpful and it's
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: a good good way to provide balance. It is actually
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: reminiscent of the approach you know. John Stuart Mill said
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: the best cure for bad speech is more speech, and
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: so look, if people say things that are factually inaccurate,
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: I think community note is a good way to provide
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: counterfacts to it. But eliminating the fact checks that that
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: is a meaningful step. Secondly, they said they're changing their
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: content policies specifically on gender and immigration and so previously
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: if you posted there are only two genders, man and women,
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: this book would suppress that. They told me they will
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: not suppress that anymore, that they will allow statements like
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: that to be made to be discussed. Now people can
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: disagree with it, they can say no, no, no, they're forty
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: seven genders. If they want to do that, they can
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: have debate. But they said they're going to stop censoring
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: statements like that. The third thing they said is they're
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: going to focus content filters on finding illegal content, not
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: low level policy violations. And a significant component of that
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: is they said, right now they rely on AI and
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: algorithms to find and suppress posts, and they said, there's
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: a significant error rate that the algorithms, the AI gets
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: it wrong and suppresses posts accidentally. And they said they're
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: going to stop using AI, and they're going to rely
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: on people focusing on things like child porn, like selling drugs,
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: like promoting terrorism, on clearly illegal conduct, rather than an
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: algorithm that also certainly seems positive on its face. Beyond that,
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: they're going to return political content into their algorithm. So
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: several years ago, Facebook made a decision to de emphasize politics,
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: and they just phased it out of their algorithm because
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: they wanted people to post on Facebook, you know, happy,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: go like Lucky, I like m and M's Bluesmrcer Great,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: rather than actually talking about the issues that of public
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: policy and democracy of the day. They're going to return
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: it back and they said, the algorithm is if you
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: engage on Facebook, ben if you click on political content,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: their algorithm is going to show you more political content.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: So for people that demonstrate an interest by engaging with
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: political content, they'll get more of it.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: That's a significant shift.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: Facebook used to be much much more important for politics
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: than it's been recently because they've de emphasized political content.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: They're also moving their content review teams from California to Texas,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: and they said they're not going to have people in
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Silicon Valley engaged in content review because Silicon Valley has
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: such a significant political bias. Each of those steps, look,
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: they ain't nothing now. Yeah, if they don't follow through
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: on it, you and I are going to be the
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: very first to call them to task. If they abandon
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: them in the future, you and I will call them
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: to task as well.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: But but those are real.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: Meaningful steps, and and and so, so I want to
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: I want to take the chance to just celebrate that
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: they're they're at least promising to do things that are good.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I go back to Reagan, Trust but verify and I
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: and trust may be strong, listen, but verify maybe maybe more.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: My approach to this final question on this is does
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: there still need to be legislation while the Republicans are control,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: yes and empower when it comes to regulating big tech
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: In general because of their abuse a pairing the past.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I understand trust, yes, yes, yes, but what would that
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: look like now? And does any of that change with
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: them voluntarily doing this, I would argue preemptively.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Well, I fully expect again the Commerce Committee to take
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: up and have hearings on exactly what legislation would look
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: like I've talked about. I think one of the most
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: important things is Section two thirty, the Communications Decency Act,
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: gives an immunity from liability to big tech companies that
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: has shielded a lot of bad behavior. And at the
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: time it was passed, it was passed under an assumption
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: that that big tech companies would be neutral, they would
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: be the town square, they would not be putting a
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: finger on the scale. Big tech made a decision to
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: behave very, very differently, and so I've long supported legislation
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: that would say you do not get Section two thirty
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: immunity if you engage in political censorship. That censorship vitiates
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: your immunity. I still think that's important. I can't promise
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: we'll get that passed because many, if not most, if
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: not all, Democrats will oppose it. Uh, but you can
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: be sure we are going to have hearings, and we're
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: going to examine and I'm going to push for legislation
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: to address that. Uh. And I think that's important to do.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: But I also think Facebook joining with X, particularly if
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: they're real, if they're genuine, if they follow through on this,
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: that's going to put real pressure on on on the
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: granddaddy of them all, Google, and they own YouTube and
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: and and both Google and Search and and and YouTube
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: engage in rampant censorship and suppression of conservative speech. And
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: and It's one thing to have X alone, but having
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: now Facebook join that, and also Facebook owns Instagram, and
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: so having Instagram, if they follow through, listen, X has
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: done a remarkable job opening it up to free space
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: each Now, Elon is is I think a true believer
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: in free speech. Zuckerberg clearly is not, because he has
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: been far too willing to censor for him to be
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: a true believer. That being said, what he's articulating right
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: now is that he wants to change his conduct, and
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: I want to encourage him to do that because Facebook
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: changing their conduct and Instagram changing their conduct is very
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: very good for free speech and very very good for
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: democracy in America. If if they follow through and actually
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: do what they're claiming they're going to do.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Bonus question here because it's in the same realm TikTok.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: You look at TikTok right now. TikTok is banned in
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: China but owned by them. Can't use it there if
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: you're the living there. There is these moves to force
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the sell of TikTok in the US so that.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: It won't be run by China.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: We know how these algorithms have worked, and they've been
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: harmful to kids.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: You've talked about that.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Do you I think we are going to see a
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: day now where it's there's a chance that free speech
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: is live and well on Facebook obviously the leaders X,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: but TikTok will also go in the hands of Americans
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: and not in the hands of Chinese anymore.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: So I hope.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: So Congress has passed legislation I voted for it that
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: would ban TikTok unless they are sold by China, unless
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: they are no longer under Chinese ownership or control. That
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: legislation is effective on January nineteenth, so we are very
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: close to that legislation going into effect. Now there's litigation ongoing,
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: so it's possible the courts could stay the effect of
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: that legislation. But if the Court Stone issue an injunction,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: TikTok shuts down. On January nineteenth, and I'll tell you
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: as you know, I spent New Year's Eve at mar
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Lago Heidi and the girls that I went by the way.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: It was an amazing time, just a wild party. At
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: my table, one of the people I was sitting with
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: was don Ki King, the legendary boxing promoter ninety three
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: years old now, and you know, Don King loves Trump,
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: and it was very cool. He actually gave me he
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: had a photograph of himself as a young man with
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: that white hair sticking straight up, along with Muhammad Ali
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: when he was a young man, the two of them together,
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: and Don King gave me a signed photo of that,
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: which is really cool. I'm gonna frame and put up
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: just because holy crap, that's Don King.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's incredible.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: So that was cool.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: But I'll tell you Catherine, our fourteen year old she
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: had told me her intention at the party was to
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: lobby Donald Trump not to ban TikTok. And look, she's
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: in eighth grade. And if you're a fourteen year old
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: girl in eighth grade, every eighth grader is addicted to TikTok,
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: and they're all doing these dance videos back and forth
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: and back and forth and back and forth. I will
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: tell you Catherine is one hell of a lobbyist. She
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: visited a little bit with Trump, but she didn't really
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: get the chance to lobby its.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: She just hello, and she said she said.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Hello to Milania and Elon too, but she didn't get
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: the chance to do the lobbying she wanted to do.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: There is a very real possibility, however, that TikTok is
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: banned on January twentieth, and Trump undoes the ban on
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: a TikTok's ban on January nineteenth, and Trump undoes it
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: on January twentieth.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: It is not clear.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: He has not been explicit about what he's going to do,
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: and I don't know what he's going to do on that.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: I hope the purpose of the ban is not to
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: ban TikTok. It is to force China to sell TikTok.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: I hope that's the outcome, but I genuinely don't know
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: what happens here.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: It's going to be interesting. We'll keep covering it.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I want to move to the other big news, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: that is I never thought I'd be saying these three
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: things together. Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal all have
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: something in common.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Right now, they are.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: The focal point of a grand debate and conversation about
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: moving forward on big issues with Donald Trump. Trump has
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: talked about, hey, Canada, we can lower your taxes. We'll
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: give you safety and protection from Russia. You guys aren't
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: doing that great right now. Maybe you should become part
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: of America. He also has made these conversations about Greenland.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Maybe we should, you know, have Greenland come into America
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: and we could work a deal. And then Donald Trump
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: also called out Panama as he described it, for selling
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: out to China and then still asking the US for
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: money for repairs Centater. I love these conversations. I think
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: this is exactly what a president should do. Start grand
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: debates on issues that have been, you know, off, Oh,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: you can't touch these issues for years.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: They've been saying that like, oh, you can't do that, you.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Can't talk about this, you can't call out other countries
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: for taking advantage of us. And when you find out
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: that Panama's charging more for our boats to come through
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: than other countries, that obviously seems incredibly unfair.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I love this.
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: Well, listen, I agree.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: I think these are incredibly important topics and I don't
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: think they're all the same. So in my view, Canada, Panama,
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: and Greenland all exist on a continuum, and I think
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: his comments about the three are are very very different
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: and should be under understood differently. Let's start with Canada.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: Canada.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: I think he's just trolling Canada. I think is Canada
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: going to become a state?
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: No?
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: I do not believe that is going to happen. But
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: he said this initially when he was having dinner with
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: Justin Trudeau down at mar A Lago, and he basically
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: he said, you know what, why didn't Canada become a state?
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: You could become a governor. And I think he was
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: just trolling the guy. I would have paid money to
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: be sitting at that table. When Trump said that, the
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: expression on Trudeau's face, I mean he basically looks at
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: him and goes, why are you even a country?
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: Like like, why are you possibly here?
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: You know, it reminded me, you know, way back in
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: the twenty sixteen presidential debates where we were all standing
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: on stage and he looks over at Ran Paul and
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: He's like, why the hell are you even on this stage.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: You don't belong on this stage, and it was Look,
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: it's classic Trump. It was just trolling. And to be clear,
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: this may be the most consequential troll in history. His
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: comment and public ridicule of Trudeau and saying that Canada
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: should become a state. It literally toppled justin Trudeau. He
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: announced this week he is resigning as Prime minister, and
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: it is entirely Trump. Look, he was already in a
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: weak position, and he was already unpopular, but Trump just
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: utterly humiliating him, literally knocked him out of his role
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: as the head of the government of Canada. That is
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: an epic troll.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: It also, by the way, inspired I think the people
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: in Canada to say, we can do better than this guy.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: We don't have to be stuck with him, and we
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: can get servatives back in charge and hold the left
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: accountable for what they did did.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: A lot of this started with the truckers.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Movement, yes, and the overreach there, and then him basically
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: saying if you don't do what I tell you to do,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna come arrest you and vote emergency powers. That
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: is all coming back to haunt the liberals, not just Trudeau,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: but the liberals that are in the government.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Well and listen, Trudeau has been rampantly oppressive. The Trucker
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: convoy was an amazing and powerful moment, and Trudeau responded
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: just with brute force. Trudeau has been an absolute totalitarian
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: when it comes to free speech, going after Jordan Peterson
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: and others, being willing to just use government power to
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: silence anyone he disagrees with. And I think this is
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: those chickens coming home to roost. But in terms of
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: the comments, I think the Canada comments are a troll.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: I think the Greenland comments are something very different. I
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: think the United States acquiring Greenland is a very very
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: good idea. To be clear, Trump talked about this his
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: first term in office, and at the time a lot
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: of people, particularly in the media, dismissed it. They said, oh,
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: it's Trump talking, It's just some crazy idea. But I'll
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: tell you, acquiring Greenland has enormous advantages to the United States.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: Number One, Greenland's location on the Arctic is incredibly important
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: from a national security and defense perspective. If you look
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: at the Arctic, if god forbid, we ever get in
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: a shooting war with Russia or China. ICBMs from Russia
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: or China will come over the Arctic and right over
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: where Greenland is. Greenland is situated in an incredibly important location
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: to defend the United States of America. We also see
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: the Arctic, particularly with some snow melt, we're seeing possible
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: trade routes that are opening up of the Arctic, and
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: again Greenland is ideally located for that. In addition, Greenland
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: has very significant reserves of critical minerals, critical minerals that
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: are vitally important for semiconductors, for for high tech, for electronics,
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: for defense equipments, and and and so the United States
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: acquiring Greenland, making Greenland an American territory would have very
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: important benefits for America from both the national security perspective.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: Control of the Arctic is going to be incredibly important,
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: and Greenland has a really pivotal location. Uh and and
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: I think there is also a real potential that that
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: that that is beneficial to the people of Greenland uh
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: to be in an American territory. UH that brings a
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: lot of benefits. They are right now governed by Denmark.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: Uh and and many Greenlanders are not happy with Denmark
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: and and so, uh, you know, it is.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: A significant.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Is there a real opportunity for this to actually become
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: a reality.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: And by the way, you look at the history of America.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: You look at the Louisiana purchase where America bought almost
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: half the country from France. It was a purchase. You
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: look at Manhattan where the settlers purchased Manhattan. You look
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: at Alaska. Alaska was what we bought Alaska, and it
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: was dismissed at the time as Seward's folly. It proved
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: enormously consequential buying Alaska. So I would put it in
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: that broader history. And I think, now, will it definitely happen?
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: Of course not. We don't know that.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: You know, is Denmark? Will there be some resistance? There
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: absolutely will the Greenlanders ultimately want to do this.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Is this one of those things that would come down
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: to a vote and they would vote on it?
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: How does this actually work? I mean, is there a
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: purchase price?
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: Is?
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, explain to people the reality if this moves forward,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: what it looks.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: So in all likelihood there would be a purchase price
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: paid to Denmark, because Denmark has controlled Denmark governs Greenland
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: right now, and and so it would be a purchase
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: price like the Louisiana purchase, like buying Alaska. And there's
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: a long history of countries buying territories one from the other,
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: and and so that you'd have to go and negotiate it.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: We saw this week, uh, Donald Trump Junior flew to
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: Greenland and and went there and and and reported back,
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: reported back that that he had a tremendous reception, that
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: people were cheering him on, that they were wearing Maga hats.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: You know, I've heard multiple reports that the locals can't
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: stand Denmark, that that they're treated as second class citizens
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: by the Danes, and and and that you know, if
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: if you're a young Greenlander the opportunity to become an American,
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: that's a big deal in terms of your future. If
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: Greenland becomes an American territory, the investment from the United
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: States that goes into Greenland is suddenly very significant. And
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: so that could well be appealing. Now now, I would
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: think there would be a real likelihood that you'd probably
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: have a referendum of Greenlanders if they want to do it.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: It's not clear that you would, but I think there's
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: a reasonable chance of that, and so you'd have both
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: Denmark and Greenland to contend with. But I will say
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: from America's perspective, there would be enormous advantages to Greenland
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: becoming an American territory. And I will say just this week,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: interestingly enough, John Fetterman, Democrat senator from Pennsylvania, he was
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: on Fox News and and he was he brought up Greenland.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: It's very interesting. I want you want you to listen
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: to what John Fetterman had to say on this topic.
• 38:48
  Speaker 6: Like, there's a lot of talk about Greenland, for example, now,
• 38:51
  Speaker 6: and I know a lot of there's a lot of
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: freak outs, you know, and of course I would never
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: support taking it by force, but I do think it's
• 38:58
  Speaker 6: I do think it's a responsible conversation if they were
• 39:00
  Speaker 6: open to acquiring it, and you know, whether they're just
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: buying it out right, I mean, if anyone think that's bonkers,
• 39:06
  Speaker 6: it's like, well, well remember the Louisiana purchase. I think
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: Alaska was pretty pretty a great deal too, fifty million dollars,
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: I think it was. It was recorded, it was it
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: was referred to as as Seward's folly. And now that
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: was Alaska. Now, so I mean, you know, open having
• 39:21
  Speaker 6: all kinds of conversations as well. And now I don't
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: think we it's not helpful to freak out. But some
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: things might work out, some may not. But that's part
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: of ongoing dialogue. But he hasn't even take office in
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: two weeks, and you know, we really need to pace
• 39:38
  Speaker 6: ourselves if we're going to freak out over every least
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: tweet or every less conversation or press conference.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: But I love this demeanor there. It's like, well, should
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: be having this conversation. There's nothing wrong with it. Now
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: the conversation, A lot of people listening are going to say,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: a Center, what are we thirty five trillion in debt?
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: How can we afford to buy Greenland? So how does
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the economics of that work?
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: Well, look, I don't know what a purchase price would be.
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: We'd have to see, but I do think the mineral
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: reserves there are significant, and the national security and geopolitical
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: advantages are significant, and so we invest in policies that
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: make a difference, that make America safer and make America
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: more prosperous. And it is certainly possible, and in fact
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: even likely, that Greenland would do that now. Again, I
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: don't know what the price would be. It's something that
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: would have to be pursued. But it's interesting since Trump
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: started talking about this, you've seen Greenlanders talking about wanting independence,
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: wanting to be their own country. And from Denmark's perspective,
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: they may be sitting there going, well, wait a second,
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: America could buy Greenland from US and we could get
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: a crap ton of money, or Greenland could just declare
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: their independence and they leave US and we get nothing.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: And so the incentives for Denmark may have changed because
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: Trump is bringing this up and bringing it up in
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: a context that it's driving real conversation. But I think
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: we should lean in and pursue this, pursue this with
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: Denmark and Greenland, because I think there are major advantages
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: to the United States if we were to succeed in this.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: And I think this is a this is a serious possibility.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: It's a serious possibility, all right. So with that serious possibility,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: let's move to the third. You know, Panama, big story, Panama,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: the Panama Canal. Donald Trump making it very clear we're
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: being taken advantage of.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: Well, that's right, and look you look at Panama and
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: the Panama Canal. Jimmy Carter Number one, America built the
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: Panama Canal. We lost many American lives building it. We
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: invested major money building the Panama Canal, Teddy Roosevelt is
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: one of the most significant things he did as president.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: Jimmy Carter gave it away, gave it to Panama, and
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: it was egregious of you know, this week is Jimmy
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: Carter's funeral, and when we did did our remembrance of
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: Jimmy Carter. I tried to find positive things to say
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: about him, not to speak ill of someone who had
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: just passed, but I will say, Jimmy Carter is giving
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: away the Panama Canal was one of the most egregious
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: foreign policy mistakes in the history of our country.
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: It was horrific.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: It undermined the safety and security and economic vitality of America.
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: It made no sense. Now, can it be undone? I
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: don't know.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: I think the likelihood of us getting the Panama Canal
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: back is significantly lower than the likelihood of US acquiring Greenland.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: It's not nearly as low as the likelihood of Canada
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: joining America. As I said, I don't think that is
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: at all possible. I think that was purely a troll.
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: I think Greenland is quite possible, and I put Panama
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: somewhere in the middle. And Trump's argument is important this
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: which is which is that when when when Jimmy Carter
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: gave it away, Panama entered into an agreement with the
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: United States, a legal agreement, and and and I could
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: tell you I and my team right now are examining
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: the contours of that agreement to see exactly what Panama
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: committed to. But Trump's argument is that Panama has has
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: broken the terms of that agreement, that they are not
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: living up to, they are violating that agreement, and in
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: particular that they have have have essentially sold significant parts
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: of the Panama Canal to China. That Chinese companies now
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: control both ends of the Panama Canal, and they've seeded
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: control to China. That's incredibly harmful. And Trump is also
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: arguing that that that that Panama charges American ships egregious prices,
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: and and and look, we we we need to dig
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: in more to the facts behind that. But that is
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: a legal argument. I'll tell you what I think Trump
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: is really doing is negotiating on price. And I think
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: the outcome of this is going to be that America
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: gets much more favorable prices, and it may also be
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: a significant diminution of China's involvement in the Panama Canal.
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: Both of those are very likely. But I want you
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: to listen to what Trump had to say about Panama
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: and mar Lago earlier day.
• 44:19
  Speaker 5: The deal was that, you know, they have to treat
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: us fairly. They don't treat us fairly. They charge more
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: for our ships and they charge for ships of other countries.
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: They charge more for our navy than they charge for
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: navies of other countries. They laugh at us because they
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: think we're stupid, but we're not stupid anymore. So the
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: Panama Canal is under discussion with them right now. They
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: violated every aspect of the agreement, and.
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: It's they morally violated it also, and they want our
• 44:50
  Speaker 7: help because it's leaking and not in good repair, and
• 44:55
  Speaker 7: they want us to give three billion dollars to help
• 44:57
  Speaker 7: fix it.
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: I said, well, why don't you get the money from China,
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: because China's basically taking it over. China's at both ends
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: of the Panama Canal. China's running the Panama Canal.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: China's running the Panama Canal.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: And and he says, they laugh at us because they
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: think we're stupid. We're not stupid anymore when you hear
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the basics. They're charging us more in our navy more
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: than others. Now they want us to give them a
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: bunch of money to fix the thing. He's got points
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: that aren't political, they're just.
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: No, those are serious and and and I think we
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: we're going to see a significant change, I believe in
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: the conduct of Panama concerning the Panama Canal. Will it
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: result in the canal coming back to America. I don't know,
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: uh that that that is a difficult hurdle to clear,
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: but I am very glad President Trump is leading in
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: on this issue. It's incredibly important. And China's growing influence
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: over the Panama Canal is just stupid.
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: It is unacceptable. And and and and.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: That's that's leadership that frankly, can you imagine in a
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: billion years Joe Biden or Kamala Harris making the East
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: Points you can at all? Because they don't defend America.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: They're they're celebrating, uh and I'm sure they cheered on
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: when it happened. Jimmy Carter is giving it away to
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: begin with and and and and it's it's the opposite
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: of America first. Where where where Biden and Harris are?
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: It's America last. And I'm very glad we're going to
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: have a president that again puts our country first.
• 46:22
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• 46:23
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• 46:26
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