Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD)

Transcript

Zelenskyy Crashes & Burns-Epic Oval Office Meltdown (SPECIAL Emergency POD) · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Center. We're live here with a very fun crowd at
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Club for Growth at their conference down in Florida. It
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: is verdict with Ted Cruz obviously Ben Ferguson with you.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It is great to be here and this is going
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to be for our audience. So what we refer to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: as an emergency pod outside the normal Monday, Wednesday Friday's schedule,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: we're doing two basically today for Friday because of what
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: we just witnessed in the Oval office with Zelensky showing up,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and it was very clear from what the President said,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: he was not there to work a deal. He was
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: not there for peace. I want to get your initial reaction.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: To this, Well, let me say you and I are
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: both at the Club for Growth conference down in Florida today.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I will say the Club for Growth is an extraordinarily
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: important conservative and free market organization. They support conservative and
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: free market candidates running for the Senate, running for the House.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I literally would not be in the US Senate were
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: it not for the Club for Growth making a big
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: gamble on me.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: They know how to pick winners.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: And by the way, when the Club got behind me
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: thirteen years ago when I first ran, I was.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Literally at two percent in the polls.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: You had to be out of your ever loving minds
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to be backing me. The last job I had been
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: elected to was student council, and the Club leaned in
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: in a big way and shocked every observer. And they
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: play cycle after cycle fighting to elect strong free market
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: principal conservatives. And so I've been to the Club for
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Growth conference many many times. There are extraordinary patriots here,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: and so I just want to say thank you to
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the men and women here, your leadership standing up and
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: fighting to save our nation.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Amen. So let's get into your initial reaction. Then I
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: want to play some clips. But this has gone viral. Obviously,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Zelenski coming to White House, the pretensive or this meeting
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: was to get a deal and to work deal for peace,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and the President, I think learned pretty quickly to the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: point where he said, we're not even doing a joint
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: press conference. Have a good day. You're not here for
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that at all.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: So look, I suspect pretty much everyone here has already
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: watched much of this exchange.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: In what happened.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: What I will tell you is that President Zelensky showed
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: up in the Oval Office and decided he was there
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: to battle Donald Trump decided he was there to insult
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump, decided he was there to attack and belittle
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. And without exaggeration, I believe this will go
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: down as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting in the
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: history of our nation.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Wow, Zelensky had one job.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: His one job was to go there and to try
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: to get the president's support for a peace that leaves
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: his country in a good and strong position. That was
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: his entire mission. And apparently decided that he knew better
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: than everyone else and that President Trump should be kissing
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: his ass. Now, I got to say, look, for any president,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you go back from George Washington to Ronald Reagan, to
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: George w Bush, to Joe Biden.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: To Donald Trump.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Coming into the Oval Office and behaving like an ass,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: insulting and attacking the president with the TV cameras running,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: by the way, doing this for the entire world, for
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: any president, is a dumb ass move.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: It was on purpose too, It was very deliberate. It
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't an accident.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: So there literally is no analog. If you look back,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: you look back. I've been in a lot of Oval
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Office meetings. No foreign leader has ever done what President
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Zelenski did, and it's particularly ironic because it is exactly
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: opposite what he wanted to do. It's exactly opposite what
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: he his mission was. Look, he was there. Number one,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: The United States has given hundreds of billions of dollars
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: to Zelenski.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Let's be queer, not millions.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: You said it will be with a B and and
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: sude you can't find. Zelenski's attitude was why the hell
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: haven't you given us more? And we're entitled every bit
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: of it. Here, I want to play the first clip.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: This is a clip of the exchange between President Zelenski
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: and President Trump.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: Your country is in big trouble. No, No, He've done
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: I know you're not winning. You're not winning this. You
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: have a damn good chance of coming out okay, because
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: of the President.
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: We're staying in Yawa country, staying strong. From the very
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: beginning of the war, we've been alone, and we are thankful.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: I said, thanks, Cabinet, we gave you this stupid president,
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: three hundred and fifty billion dollars. You will we military equipment.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: You and you met are brave, but they had to
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: use our military one of ours. If you didn't have
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: our military equipment. If you didn't have our military equipment,
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: this war would have been over in two weeks.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: So let's read the transcript of it, and if we
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: get clipped to you, they let us know. But eqlip
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: number one. If you want to read what the president said,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: it said, I mean, look, your country's in big trouble.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: You're not winning. You have a damn good chance of
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: coming out okay, because of us. You haven't been alone.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: We gave you, through our stupid president, three hundred and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: fifty billion. We gave you military equipment. If you didn't
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: have our military equipment, this war wouldn't have would have
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: been over in two weeks. That was like point number
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: one from the President. I think it's a pretty solid point,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: by the way.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Look it clearly is. And I want to give an example.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Let's say you're running a business.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: All right, let's play it.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Take a right a lot of questions.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: Let's start from the big sure fills to wall. During
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: nice soution and don't feel now, but you will feel it.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: You don't know that.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: God bless You're not blessed.
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: You don't know, don't tell us what we're gonna feel.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: we're going to feel, because you're in no position to
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: dictate that.
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: Remember this, you're.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: In no position to dictate what we're going to feel.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: We're gonna feel very good.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: We're gonna feel very good and very strong. You're, right now,
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: not in a very good position. You've allowed you.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: From the beginning of the war, not in a good position.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: You don't have the cards right now with us. You
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: start having right now, you don't know your playing. You're
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: with world War three. You're gambling with World War three.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country,
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: this country.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I mean center. You look at that and it's a shocking. Yeah,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: you can clap for the president, there's no doubt about
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: it and the way you hit it, but you're right,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: it was shocking because look, we know world leaders come
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: in and have things maybe they disagree with. They do
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: it in private. They don't do it that way.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: There are meetings where world leaders disagree and disagree, sometimes
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: with a great deal of candor. One hundred percent of
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: the times the TV cameras are turned off. Behind closed doors,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: world leaders can have very frank discussions, and I have
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: been in on many of those discussions with President Trump
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and world leaders. But when the TV camera turns on,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Zelensky's putting on a show. And see you heard him say,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: you know, I have much respect. You're wearing a sweatshirt.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: For Pete's sakes, it's the Oval office of the White House,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: the office of the President of the United States. Put
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: on a friggin jacket and tie, wear a suit.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, especially when you're asking for three hundred
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: fifty billion, right, it's obnoxious.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: And he's acting like a performance artist. He used to
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: be a comedic actor, and his costume is the sweatshirt.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Look.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: He came and addressed a joint session of Congress a
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: few years ago. He stood on the dais of the
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: House of Representatives. I was there for those remarks. He
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: wore the same damn sweatshirt. I will say at the
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: time there was a fairly amusing meme that went around.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I remember that it was Zelenski trying to explain what happened.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: He said, I'd planned to wear a suit and tie.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: But then an official from the Biden administration stole my luggage.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: And if you.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Remember this odd transgender official in the Biden administration who
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: was arrested for going to airports and stealing stranger's luggage, it.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Was weird stealing women's clothes.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Well, there is that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: But this the arrogance that Zelensky brought to this, and
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: I actually want to credit Trump. Trump doesn't get mad
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: in this exchange. He could get angry, but he doesn't.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: But it's just astonishing. You know, yesterday I met with
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: the Foreign Minister of the European Union, so the number
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: three official in the European Union, the former Prime Minister
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: of Estonia.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: She came to my office.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: We spent about an hour talking about Ukraine and Russia
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: and what's happening in Europe, and she was expressing concerns
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: and I said, look, number one, this war was unnecessary.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It was caused by Joe Biden's weakness. It was caused
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: by his unwillingness to stand and be strong.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: His weakness caused this war, and in.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Particular, Joe Biden waived the sanctions on nord Stream two.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Nordstream two is the undersea pipeline Russia was building from
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Russia to Germany. And the reason Russia was building Nordstream
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: two was to be able to get natural gas directly
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to Europe without having to go through Ukraine. The entire
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: purpose of Nordstream iiO was to enable Russia to invade Ukraine.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: In December of twenty nineteen, I authored sanctions legislation that
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: shut down Nordstream two. Putin literally stopped building that pipeline.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: The day that President Trump signed my sanctions legislation in
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: the law Your work, It worked.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: It prevented war. Joe Biden came in.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: He was sworn into office on January twentieth, twenty twenty one.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Putin resumed deep sea construction of Nordstream two four days
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: later January twenty fourth, because Biden had foreshadowed weakness. That
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: foreshadowing was accurate, because several months later he formally waived
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: those sanctions on Russia on Putin effectively gave him billions
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: of dollars that caused the war in Ukraine.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Without the funding so that people understand that they're listening.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Without having that money come in from the from oiling gas,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: they couldn't fund the war right, So it was an
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: easy way to keep war in check. Keep them in check,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: because without that funding, there's no way they could do
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: this for three years.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Listen, if Donald Trump had been president the last four years,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: there is no war in Ukraine. Putin does not invade,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: but Biden's weakness. You remember Biden's disastrous withdraw in Afghanistan,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the absolute debacle that was there. I said the day
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: that happened, I said, the chances of Russia invading Ukraine
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: have just risen tenfold because a weak commander in chief
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: in the United States that our enemies are not afraid of.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: It emboldens them.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Now what I told the EU's Foreign minister yesterday, I said, Listen,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Zelenski is behaving catastrophically badly. Zelenski for the past two
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: weeks has been running around to the European press and
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: has just been shooting his mouth off and attacking President Trump.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: And I told the EU Foreign Minister it's not complicated,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. If somebody attacks him, we'll punch back every time,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: one hundred percent of the time, with no exceptions.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: In every instance. This is not a secret.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not revealing top secret classified psychological profile.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: The sun rises in the morning it goes down in
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the evening and Donald Trump, if you punch him, will
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: punch back.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: And by the way, show me one person in a
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: negotiation with Trump that thinks the thing to do is
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: just go in and be a jackass and just insult
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: him publicly and ridicule him. And by the way, I'm
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: there asking for hundreds of billions of dollars at the
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: same time I'm going to insult him. It was staggeringly bad.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: And I actually want to give a contrast. So we
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: actually had the day before, we had the Prime Minister
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: of the United Kingdom, Ker Starmer, who came and met
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: with President Trump. Now, look, Kier Starmer is a leftist
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: in UK politics. Kier Starmer's politics are markedly different from
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: President Trump's. He not a conservative in any way, shape
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: or form. Sadly, the Conservatives in the UK have been
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: obliterated politically right now and the left is in control
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: in the UK. And by the way, Kier Starmer has
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: a terrible record on things like free speech, where he's
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: willing to send in and arrest people for social media
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: tweets he doesn't like. So his record on free speech
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: is abysmal. Nonetheless, ker Starmer understood exactly what his job
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: was coming there, which was to respect the President of
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: the United States, which was to strengthen his friendship with
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: the President of the United States.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I want you to listen to this.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Exchange where a reporter tries to get kir Starmer to
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: criticize and blast President Trump.
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: Earlier today, you told me that you believe that foreign
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: countries pay tariffs, But Americans, who were concerned about higher prices, believe,
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: as most people do, that they're paid by consumers and
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: importers when they import things into this country. Can you
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: explain how you came to this belief that foreign governments
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: are paying tariffs? And for the Prime Minister, did you
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: discuss with President Trump his repeated statements of desire to
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: annex Canada? And has the King expressed any concern over
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: the president's apparent desire to remove one of his realms
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: from his control.
• 14:30
  Speaker 7: So I'll go ahead the first part. The tariffs are
• 14:33
  Speaker 7: necessary because we've been treated very unfairly by many many countries,
• 14:37
  Speaker 7: including our friends friend Info. But I will tell you
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: it's going to make our country rich and it's going
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: to stop us from being a laughing stock all over
• 14:47
  Speaker 7: the world because we have been taken advantage of, like
• 14:51
  Speaker 7: no country has ever been taken advantage of. Thank you
• 14:53
  Speaker 7: very much.
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: And look, we had a really good discussion, a productive discussion,
• 14:58
  Speaker 8: a good discussion, as a result of which our teams
• 15:01
  Speaker 8: are not going to be working together on an economic deal.
• 15:04
  Speaker 8: Our team is going to be working together on security
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: in Ukraine. You mentioned Canada. I think you're trying to
• 15:10
  Speaker 8: find a divide between us that doesn't exist with the
• 15:14
  Speaker 8: closest of nations. And we had very good discussions today,
• 15:17
  Speaker 8: but we didn't Canada.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you. That's a pro move.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: That's actually a head of state who understands the mission,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: who understands what he's there for.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: And you see a reporter.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: By the way, it's very similar to what the media
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: is trying to do with President Trump and Elon Musk,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: where they're desperately trying to get Trump and Elon battling.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: You know, Time magazine was so clottish. They put out
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: a picture of Elon at the resolute desk. They're like, oh,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: this will work, this will piss Trump off.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I will just throw them out of the ovoy instantly
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: with this article.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: And listen, I spent an hour with Elon yesterday. It's
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: not working. It's not working with Elon, it's not working
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: with Trump. But in this instance, you had a report
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: that was trying to say, mister British Prime Minister, would
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: you attack Donald Trump please? In the White House and
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: ahead of state who actually knows what the hell he's doing,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: says no, we are close, good friends, not just close.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: The closest of friends, is what he said. And he understood.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: He has a mission and by the way, I promise
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: you behind closed doors, they had some issues of disagreement,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: but once the cameras came on. That's what heads of
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: state do with the President of the United States, particularly
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: when you're at the White House and listen. I think
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: there are a number of consequences of what happened today.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: So the plan today was to announce an agreement with Ukraine,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: an agreement that would have given the United States an
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: entitlement to significant portions of the rare earth minerals that
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: are in Ukraine as a way of paying back to
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: the money that had been spent funding the Ukrainian War.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: That was the initial plan, and that was the press conference.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: It's now been canceled. There was a press conference Donald
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Trump canceled the press conference, so the agreement on rare
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: earth veneralds was not signed. Trump essentially said get the
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: hell out, and in fact, I'm going to read the
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: truth social that Trump put out after the meeting. He said, quote,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: we had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Under such fire and pressure. It's amazing what comes out
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: through emotion. And I have determined that President Zelensky is
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: not ready for peace if America is involved, because he
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: I don't want advantage. I want peace. He disrespected the
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: United States of America and its cherished Oval office. He
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: can come back when he's ready for peace.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way, you look at that last line,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: and I think this is part of you know what,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's really good at the art of the deal,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of the negotiation. He didn't say see you later and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: we're done. He said he can come back when he's
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: ready for peace. The door's open, but not if you're
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: going to come and act the way that you just
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: did and basically come on false pretense, which was we
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: were gonna get a deal done, and now you're saying no.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Look that there's an image.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: There's a picture from the meeting in the middle of
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: the meeting, and it's the Ukrainian ambassador to the United
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: States holding her head in her hands, like what am
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: I watching? And she's looking at her boss. Crap the
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: bed on global television. That's a technical diplomatic term, and
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: I will say, by the.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: Way, let me just do it aside. This is one
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: of the great things about podcasts.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: If you're used to watching Meet the Press, Yes, people
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: rarely use phrases like crap the bed on Meet the press.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Now the host often will crap the bed on the press. Okay,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: rarely will We'll describe it thusly. The virtue of a
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: podcast is you talk directly to people. If you're doing
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: this right, it should feel like you're sitting at at
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: a coffee shop or a bar and having a conversation
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: about what the hell, man did you see? What just
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: happened and how, and that that's the whole power of
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: this medium, is that there's not that there's not a
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: press intermediary that decides here's what you get to hear,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: here's what you don't this will go down. Look, you
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: and I we did. We did another emergency podcast. We
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: don't do many emergency pods. We only do it when
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: when the breaking news is of sufficient magnitude to justify it.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: But you and I did an emergency pod the night
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: of the first and only debate between Donald Trump and
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: And as soon as that debate ended, you and I
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: he immediately recorded a podcast, put it out an hour
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: after the debate was over. We said that night that
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: this will prove the most consequential presidential debate in the
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: history of our country. Why and what I said that
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: night Joe Biden will not be the nominee. This debate
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: was so bad that he's done. He will be pulled
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: from the ticket. He will not be the nominee that
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: obviously ended up proving accurate in this instance. We open
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: this by my saying this will go down in history
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: as the most disastrous oval office meeting in history. I
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: think that's going to happen as well. I think this
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: meeting could easily end President Zelenski's tenure.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: That's what I was going to ask you, is how
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: consequential is this going to be as he's flying back
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to Ukraine or wherever he's going, because it obviously changed
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the way the rest of the world's looking at him.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: You go from a guy that had this massive rise
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: to fame. He was calling into award shows. If you
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: guys remember it was it was like the Oscars where
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: he called into was early on and everybody stood and clapped.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was a hero of the quote world.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Then now you look at this and he leaves.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: What happens then, look, the media loves sim the hard
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: left loves him. He's decided he wants to be a
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Hollywood celebrity rather than a world leader. And I will
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: say at the outset of this war, he had moments.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: So for example, Joe Biden was so weak that when
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Russia invaded, Biden's like, you can't win it all, and
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: he offered, we'll send a plane to get you President Zelensky,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: so you can flee the country. This is in the
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: first week of the war, and Zelensky had a comment
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: that at the time was an extraordinary comment. He said,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I don't need a ride, I need ammunition. And that
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: leadership at the time rallied his country behind him and
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: he ended up fighting with significant resources from the United
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: States and Europe fighting against Putin and slowing down the
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: onslaughts significantly.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: What is strange.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Look, you and I did a podcast in last and
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: it was when Zelensky came to the United States, and
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: it was during the presidential campaign, and Zelensky made the
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: bizarre decision to do what was essentially a campaign event
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: with Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania, and he simultaneously did interviews
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: attacking Donald Trump and attacking JD.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Vance.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: And this is in the middle of the campaign.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Here was campaigning, and you and I did a podcast
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: at the time and we said, what the hell is
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: this guy thinking. Look, he is ostensibly leading his country
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: there at war. Their most important ally in this war
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: has been the United States of America, and either his
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: instincts or the advisors around him think it's a really
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: good idea to pick a partisan side and go all
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: in and attack the other side. And we both said, listen,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: if Trump wins, which both of us believed he was
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: going to, Zolensky is going to deeply regret doing so.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: And what's amazing is he keeps doubling down. I think
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: there's a very good possibility as I said that Zelensky
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: does not politically survive this, and within days that he's
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: out of office. I also think, look, it's not complicated
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: that President Trump campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: This was not a mystery. Every voter who went and
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: voted in November understood that if you elect the Democrats,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: the Ukraine War goes on and on and on and on,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: and we keep pouring billions into it forever. And every
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: voter understood if you vote for Donald Trump, this war
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: is going to come to an end.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: I think it is important. This is something I have
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: urged President Trump repeatedly. I think it's important that this
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: war come to an end in a way that is
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: a clear and unmistakable loss for Russia, a loss for Putin.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: I think Russia losing benefits the national security interest of
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: the United States. I got to say, by the way,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Zelensky's performance was so bad that I think it not
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: only harmed his own country, but I think it harmed
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: world peace. And that's that's I cannot imagine the plain
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: flight back right.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Now, No, I neither can.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: I mean you and I I assume Zelenski's in the
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: air right now, flying back.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: What I don't know what is he landing to.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Are his advisors sitting there blowing smoke at him? Oh
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: wonderful job, mister President. You showed him it certainly.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Won't be the ambassador because she was.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Like this, I mean, listen, this war needs to end.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: It needs to end promptly. I believe it is going
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: to end promptly. And as I said, it is important
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: in that it ends in a way that is a
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: clear discernible loss for Russia. I also think the direction
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: President Trump was going of signing an agreement where the
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: United States gets significant benefits from rare earth minerals in Ukraine.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: That has a lot of upside to it, but not
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: when they have a world leader coming in into the
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Oval office telling the President of the United States essentially
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: screw you. Look an analogy, if you think about it,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of small business owners in the room.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: If your business is in crisis and you're facing a
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: moment where you've got to lay off a thousand employees,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: you've got to go under, and you go to the
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: bank and you say, I got to borrow fifty million
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: dollars or my business goes under and the bank lends
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you fifty million dollars and you save your business, you
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: don't fire your employees, and then a week later you
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: go to the bank and say, you damn jerk, why
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: didn't you give me more Like, it is not complicated
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: that if you went to the bank and they gave
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: you the capital you needed to save your business. Even
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: even the person with the lowest EQ on planet Earth,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: even the person with no sense of other human beings,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: would say, maybe, if someone is providing me the only
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: financial lifeline that is keeping me alive, maybe I have
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the sense to.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Be nice to them.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Zelenski, I just think you know, he's been in Vanity Fair,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: he's been on People Magazine. I think he thinks he's
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: he's he's Brad Pitt or Taylor Swift and uh. And
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure he's not dating uh Travis Kelson.
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: No.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Uh. And if he is, I really know about it.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I don't want to know about it.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: But listen, So let me ask you this moving forward,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: final question. This I want to do some Q and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: A obviously, and and that is you've got a joint
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: session of Congress on on Tuesday night. How much are
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the speech writers changing what Donald Trump may say to
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the world because you are You're not, You're not just
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: talking to Congress. Will that anything change? Ers? He say,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I move on.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: I don't think dramatically.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I think almost all of what the President is going
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: to talk about is the domestic agenda. I think what
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: the President is going to talk about on Tuesday Night
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: his promises made, promises kept. I will say this, we're
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: forty days into a new administration. In our lifetimes, there
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: has never been a president who has hit the ground
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: running as fast and furious as this president. It is breathtaking.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: It is wild right now. Elon Musk is obviously integraly involved.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: That is driving democrats in the media crazy, and it's
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: embodying the old Silicon Valley adage of a move fast
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: and break things. I think that's what we'll hear Tuesday
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: night is we made promises to secure the border.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: We're securing the border.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: We made promises to unleash American energy.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: We're unleashing American energy.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: We made promises to unleash the economy and bring back
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: jobs and small businesses. We're doing exactly that. We made
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: promises to make America safer. Hamas has been releasing hostages,
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: and I think the President will say we will end
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: the war in Ukraine. But I I'll be surprised if
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: the President it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't even
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: use the word Zelensky in the speech. I think his
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: approach will be, we want to end it. What he said,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: the Oval Office spoke for itself, but I for one,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: am damn glad we have a commander in chief with
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: a backbone and that our enemies are afraid of America
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: as much safer as a result.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Ay a mint of that. Don't forget. We do this
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: show Monday, Wednesday Friday, so if you're listening, make sure
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: you hit that subscriber auto download button. I want to
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: say big thank you to Club for Growth, you guys
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: for having us here today as well. Check them out online.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: If you don't know about them, you should. They do
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: amazing work like getting people like you elected. How many
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: years ago is that? Thirteen thirteen years ago? There you go,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: and thanks for having us all, you guys for having
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: us here today.