Balloons, 80s Rock, Big Tech, Radicals On The FCC & James Clapper Running Scared

Published Feb 15, 2023, 9:00 AM
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Welcoming as verdicts was Senator Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with your Centator. You're in Washington, DC right now, and I am going to let people know in advance where we're going on the pod today because we have so much news. So we're gonna talk about the balloon and the classified briefing that you just got out of. We're also going to talk about some significant big tech legislation that you were authoring. And then there was an amazing hearing today that deals with the FCC and gig saw and an amazing back and forth. And then we're also if we have time, we're gonna get to this shocking about face from James Clapper dealing with those the Hunter Biden laptop. But before we get to the rest of that, I want to talk about this classified briefing that you got out of today. What can you tell us about what we've learned about the balloon. We've seen a lot of the headlines we now are shooting down things left and right. There's even been some people out there Centator saying, are we maybe overreacting politically because the White House got the first one so wrong that they're shooting everything down? There's even been people speculating that some of the things we may have shut down may have actually been literal space junk. And this is just to try to show, you know, we're tough on balloons and outer space or you know, at sixty thousand feet let's you know, that's kind of where America is right now. It's very weird. So what can I tell you about it? Not a damn thing. So last week on the pod, we talked about the classified briefing that I went to last week that focused on the first Chinese by balloon, the one that spent over a week in American airspace conducting espionage, that ultimately Biden shot down over the Atlantic after it traversed the continental United States after it had completed its espionage mission. Since then, we've had three other objects shot down in space. This morning, I went to a second classified briefing on the new objects shutdown in space. I have to admit I was really curious to find out what they were. Now I can't disclose anything said in the classified briefing, but to be honest, I don't know that there's anything to disclose. It was one of the least satisfying classified briefings I've ever had. Their lips were moving. I'm not sure what they said. I gotta say, I think the American people are quite reasonably asking a whole series of questions. What the hell were the things we just shot down? Where did they come from? Did they come from China? Were they spy satellites or spy balloons or spy drones or I don't know, spy kites. What were they doing? Why did we shoot them down? What was the danger they posed? Those are all really reasonable questions. Those are questions I'm hearing from Texans right now. The Biden administration is answering zero of them. It's not telling the American people. Actually, the moment that I thought was most telling was during the classified briefing when a couple of senators shoot out the administration and said, look, you owe it to the American people to be candid on this, to stand up and say here's what we know. And, by the way, if the answer is we don't know, we shot some damn thing down in the sky and we don't know what it is, we don't know where it came from. It may have been, you know, Jim Bob jettisoned pickup truck into the sky. We don't know if that's the answer say it. But right now, this administration believes it doesn't owe the American people an explanation. And I all right, I gotta ask you something. All right, So, Ben, you're forty three, is that right? You don't have to aige me that much. Forty one? Give me a little bit, right, all right? So I want to test you on something. Did you get the reference from the title of our last podcast? So our last podcast usually I come up with the titles because Ben, he's very talented, but he writes long paragraph titles, and I said they're too long. I want him punch here, and so I come up with more smart assid titles. This is true, this is this is totally accurate. A characterizing that too loosely, that that is one hundred percent accurate. Um. So the last title started out with ninety nine Chinese balloons. And my question to you, which I asked several people on my staff today, do you get the reference? And none of the twenty something year olds on my staff got the reference? So do you get the reference? So when I got it, the first thing that came to my mind was nine nine bottles of beer on the wall. I thought that was pretty good. I'm not gonna lie. That's immediately I was like nine nine bottles of beer on the wall. That's what I thought. Well, then it is the difference. So I'm fifty two, you're forty one. That decade matters. So what is it in reference to some I'm like eighties air band song, I don't know of Yes, all right, well, at least I see I can get there quickly that that's exactly what it was. It was a song that came out in nineteen eighty three by an artist, Nanna, a German artist, and it was ninety nine Luft balloons and it was ninety nine Luft balloons, Bada Da Da, and it was interesting, so I actually pulled it up. It was a protest song about ninety nine red balloons floating in the summer sky. Panic bells, it's red alert. There's something you hear from somewhere else. The war machine springs to life, opens up one eager eye, focusing it on the sky. The ninety nine red balloons go by, and it goes on to say, this is it, boys, this is war. The president is on the line as ninety nine red balloons go by, and it was a German protest song, Everyone's a Captain Kirk with orders to identify, to clarify and classify, Scrambling the summer Sky, ninety nine red balloons go by, and it was this eighties German protests song again against War, about this guy and girl that released ninety nine red balloons into the sky and it feels like they're ninety nine damn Chinese balloons floating. All right, I am going to say something. Okay, if I get prosecuted, Bet, I want you to provide my defense counsel. I'm gonna say something that was said in the classified briefing, but I feel very confident this statement is not classified. One of the generals who was briefing us said that he's been so busy that he woke up this morning and he had forgotten it was Valentine's Day, and he didn't understand why his wife had given him a present. And he said he hadn't gotten anything for his wife on Valentine's Day, and he was worried. A bunch of us called out, said there's a gift shop in the capitol, and one of the Democrats senators leaned forward in the mic and said, my only advice is don't get her a balloon. So that was said this if but I feel confident there's no classification that attaches to it. That's awesome. I have literally three questions that I know everybody else is asking, so I want to ask you those Before I do, I got to tell all of everyone listening about our good friends. Everyone got some precious metals and if you've been saving for your retirement for a long time and you know how important it is to protect your money, they can help you do that with a gold ira. I use Augusta Precious Metals. I have used them for part of my retirement and they are different because not only will they tell you if a gold ira isn't your answer, they will also give you a lot of facts. They do something it's really cool. 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I know this one. Here's the part everybody's gonna know. Ah, there we go, all right center. See, you actually impressed me because you actually went to something in the eighties pop culture that has twenty three million views on this video on YouTube, and then that that came out for that when you were a year old. Yes, and I will tell you it was depressing. I asked my staff, and most of my staffers are in their twenties, and they all looked at me or like, we have no idea what that is. Yeah, we have no idea. If they I would hope if they heard the song they would know it. You ever see the movie? Gross? Point blank? Nope, never saw it. Oh it's great. It's a movie John Cusas Is it in black and white? No? John Cusack is a hit man who goes back to his eighties high school reunion. He's a hit man there. But they played ninety nine Leff balloons. It was sort of a anyway, if you are fifty two years old, that pulls the nostalgius strings. All right, you had a serious question, why are you distracting? Man? Get back to substance. Last question on this, just real quick. When you and your family were traveling when you were a young boy, did y'all stop at hotels? It said color TV? And ac is that? What is that? What it was like when you were growing up? It wasn't quite like horse and buggy? Okay, all right, I just wanted to know. I have a I have a feeling that that that that the dad your dad pulled over at a hotel with you and it said colored television. All right, Um, what do you think I got that? I still remember as the coolest Christmas present ever when I was six years old. So I was six years old, nineteen seventy six. What do you think I got anything with batteries? Yes, okay, I have. I have absolutely no idea because I didn't. I didn't even know they had battery operated to when you were around back then. Actually, technic is a blast for me. And look in the Senate they call me skippy. They think I wear short shorts and a propeller hat because the average age there is one hundred and three. So you know, it's it's all relative. But nineteen seventy six, when I was six years old, for Christmas, I got Pong. It actually didn't use batteries. Oh yeah, that was a great game. It was the first video game ever, so it was before Atari and I you know, I went through the whole birth. I mean, I'm a gamer. But I got Pong for Christmas and seventy six and it was the coolest thing ever. You hooked it up to your TV, you turned the dial and it was table tennis on. It was the first video game that people had at home. Just when I thought we totally lost, you've just redeemed yourself all right. Back to this question, I have to ask you, everybody that I've talked to has been asking me the same thing. Are all these objects just from China? Are there other people that may have been in on the game that we are just now learning about, since his administration really didn't seem to be focused on this at all, and we know for a fact now that the Trump administration was basically left in the dark with balloons that were coming over when he was in office. Yeah, the short answer is, I have no frigging idea. I don't know. I would like to know. I'd like to know what the hell it is we shot down, and I think the administration should stand up and be candid with the American People's That's what a lot of us were urging was, Look, tell the American people. I think it's a little weird that we've shot four objects down in the last ten days and Joe Biden hasn't addressed the American people. Look. Look like that's an odd dynamic to say, Okay, here's what's going on. We're shooting things out of the sky. I did see on Twitter a picture of a guy and full body cast who said all I was doing was floating along on my balloon at forty thousand feet and out of nowhere. Bam bam. Yeah, it is. It is surreal to see them not deal with this publicly. Like you mentioned, it has disrupted US air travel. A lot of people have not talked about that either in the media. I mean, this is a significant event that's happened over several different states now with shutting down airspace and and planes being grounded for several hours. That disrupts people's lives, and still not a word from the President. I have to ask you, and again it's going to be your opinion, obviously, but is this go back to the issue that this president time and time again refuses to stand up to China. At what point does that concern you from a national security standpoint? Well, Ben, I think it's it's a combination of things. Number one, when it comes to foreign policy, and in particular standing up to the bad guys, standing up to our enemies, whether that means China, whether that means Russia, whether that means a rand, whether that means North Korea, whether that means Venezuela, whether that means Cuba. Joe Biden and this foreign policy team is consistently weak if you're an of an America, if you're an enemy of America, you can count on weakness and appeasement from Joe Biden. We saw that with balloon number one. Balloon number one, for over a week it was allowed to be over US airspace to conduct espionage, and they did nothing. That was weakness. But here's the second component. It actually explains this whole thing, which is after weakness, they view all of foreign policy through the lens of public relations. It's a communications battle. It's politics. It's not actually about protecting the country. It's about pr So what did the administration lean in vigorously on giving you all of these reasons why it was fantastic that we let the Chinese spy balloon conduct espionage over America for over a week. They said, Oh, it's really great because we got to spy on them while they were spying on us. Well, hawk diggity damn. Wouldn't that be great then if Russia and Iran and everyone else sent balloons over us? No, that's idiotic. But it's a spin. It's the It's the kind of thing a twenty six year old political staffer types out as a talking point and they lean in vigorously. That also explains the stage they're at now where where they're like, you know, Yosemite, Sam just firing at every damn target in the sky. And you know, I said in the last pot pod that I was glad that that Biden finally grew a pair and shot these things down, which is what he should have done with the first one. I'll say I got a little bit of blowback from from some I guys going well, yeah, but we don't know what it is he shot down. That's a fair point, to be honest. I think there's there's a there's a lot of speculation today that's been happening on national news that we may have actually been shooting down some stuff that they referred to as a literal, literal uh space junk. It's I will say I got a text from from a buddy of mine who I was making a joke about this, and he said, well, I'm at least comforted that that means it was little green men in UFOs preparing to land. And I can't tell you it wasn't little green men in UFOs preparing to land, but I can tell you if it was, I don't know it. So you know, if that's happening, the Biden administration is keeping that really close to the vest. But it does make you think that this is being driven not by a level headed view of the national security needs of the United States, but rather by the desire to tell a political pr communications narrative. And so right now they're like, Oh, we looked weak. Let's shoot a bunch of crab down to show how tough we are. I want to move to something else. It's a pretty big deal, and that is the fact that you have launched sweeping big tech oversight investigation. You are the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, and you've put together this new oversight investigation, a big tech talk a little bit about what you hope that this will accomplish and how it will hold big tech accountable. So in this new Congress, I am now the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee. What does that mean. I'm the senior Republican on the Committee of Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over about half of the US economy, So it has jurisdiction over all of telecom, it has jurisdiction over the Internet, it has jurisdiction over Aviation. It has jurisdiction over transportation, and as jurisdiction over the Federal Trade Commission, and as jurisdiction over the Commerce Department, and as jurisdiction over the Department of Transportation, the FAA, the FCC, it has jurisdiction over the alphabet soup of a whole bunch of different agencies, pipelines and trucking. And so my role as the ranking member is I'm the senior Republican. It means that I'm in the process right now of hiring staff on the committee and basically doubling the size of my Washington staff. When you're the ranking member of a full committee, you have resources to bring in staff. And so that's really potent because I'm bringing in very serious lawyers, economists, policy experts to drive an agenda. And with more resources, we're able to engage in a lot more issues. And so the first big thing that I've done is the ranking member of the Commerce Committee is launched an investigation of big tech censorship. And so I sent letters this week to the CEOs of Google and Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Google's the parent of YouTube and and also TikTok and asking a whole series of specific and detailed questions focused on recommendation algor rhythms, the algorithms where they say you're on YouTube and they say, hey, you might like this next, and it drives an enormous amount of traffic where they suggest the content you might want. And right now, the question of recommendation algorithms and whether it falls within the protections of Section two thirty of the Communications Decency Act, which is the immunity big tech companies get from liability. That's a question before the US Supreme Court, and so I filed an amicus brief urging the court to interpret the immunity narrowly so as to not give a safe harbor for censorship and instead to encourage free speech. So this oversight letter is going in and asking very specific questions about how they determine what to recommend, what communications they're having with the federal government with Democrats in Congress, what they elevate, what they suppress, and over the next two years, I'm going to engage in a system at a careful investigation of the wholesale censorship of conservative speech we see on big tech. Last week I spent a half hour on the phone with Elon Musk doing a deep dive into what he's found at Twitter, and I think what he has made public and what he's revealing for me is serving as a roadmap for the investigation for the Commerce Committee, because all of the other big tech companies are going, holy crap, how can Elon reveal this? They at all assume that they would remain all members of the small billionaires club that are masters of the universe that get to decide who to censor and who to silence and who not to And Elon is spoiling the party by making it all public. And so my hope is that the results of this investigation that we see real and meaningful transparency that will make public to the American people what's going on, and that we see real and meaningful accountability. And we're going to devote a lot of time and energy to fighting for free speech online because I think big tech censorship is the greatest threat in America to free speech and the greatest threat to free and fair elections. Are there any Democrats in the Senate that you're working with right now on this that say they agree or is this a totally partisan issue? Where Democrats say, we got what we want. We own big tech, they work with us. We get these communication channels behind the scenes. We can tell me to silence, to the censor, who to throttle what to you know, we can push out, like you said, in these algorithms, things that we want you to see and make sure that we bury the things of the right. Or there's some Democrats that actually understand how Unamerican this really is and what a threat this is. I would argue to our freedoms in this country. Yeah, maybe is the answer to that. I don't know. I would just say that didn't sound promising. Listen, I'm trying to convince Democrats that they should care about this. Today's Democrat party is much more comfortable with censorship than the Democrats of yesteryear. But I'm trying to convince Democrats. So some of the arguments I'm giving. There a number of Democrats that care about the media and they want free and independent journalists. And I've been pointing out to them. Listen, big tech bullies the media. You look, for example at the Hunter Biden fiasco where they forced they block the New York Post, they d platform the New York Post because it shared a story, it wrote a story they didn't like. They bullied political reporters who dared talk about the New York Post story. The degree to which the traditional media is becoming just captive to an obedient to big tech ought to scare you if you want a free and independent media. And what I've said, secondly to a number of Democrats, I've said, look, I get that right now. Maybe you agree with the political views a big tech. You agree with what they're promoting, and you agree you disagree with what they're censoring, so you might be happy substantively. But the question I asked him, I said, look, are you sure you want to embrace a system where a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires have complete and unfettered power over what anyone is allowed to discuss politically in the public square in America? I mean, today you agree with them, but maybe tomorrow you won't. And by the way, Elon Musk is there, now you've already decided you don't agree with him. How would you feel if suddenly they start censoring your views. I don't want any billionaires or anybody else to have the power to censor other Americans. I want free speech I want everybody to be able to speak in the marketplace of ideas to decide. And I will say, look, are Democrats persuaded. Not necessarily, but I'll point to last year. You and I talked about this before. In the Senate Judiciary Committee. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat, had legislator and focused on local media, small newspapers, small local stations to enable them to collectively bargain with big tech, to force big tech to pay for their content. And it was in the Judiciary Committee and I introduced an amendment that was targeted at censorship. My laser focus on all of this a censorship and it served to restrict big tech from engaging in political censorship. And initially in the Judiciary Committee, my amendment was adopted and Klobuchart, the Democrats pulled down their bill. They're like, oh crap, we can't take it with this amendment. It was one of the more surreal moments I've ever seen in a committee where literally I get an amendment in and so the author of the bill pulls it down. Well afterwards, I went to Amy's office and we sat there with a notepad and wrote an amendment together, and she accepted a substantially similar amendment from me that was targeted at big tech censorship, trying to rein it in, and the Judiciary Committee passed her bill with my amendment. Now, the bill ultimately didn't pass on the Senate floor, so it's not law, but we did get bipartisan agreement to take a step against censorship, and I think that's the beginning, and I'm going to keep working at it incrementally and with ferocious determination because I think the danger to free speech is existential. Yeah, no doubt about it. I want to I want to talk about what's happening also in Washington as you're there with a very interesting a lot of fireworks today with an SEC nominee at gig Song. We're going to deal with that in a moment before I want to tell you though about my friends over at Chalk. We've talked a lot about age tonight on the show, and if you are feeling a little bit fatigued, there is a great company that can help you. I'm talking about helping you feel like a real American man again. That you can maximize your masculinely masculinity by boosting your testosterone levels up to twenty percent over ninety days. I'm talking talking about Chalk and the Mail Vitality Stack. This is something that a lot of people. I'm taking it, Jesse Kelly, several others are taking it, and it will help you maximize your testosterone levels and that is something that will make you feel like you're a good old American man again. 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You're not supposed to have partisan hacks sitting there on the FEC regulating so many different things that deal with content. Well, that's exactly right. Gigisone is Joe Biden's nominee to be on the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC has five commissioners, three from the majority party who's ever in power, ever has the White House, and two from the minority party. Gigisone is Biden's nominee. She is from the far left. She has been a left wing liberal activist and radical her whole life. She's a true believer. I'll credit her. She believes in what she's doing. She is a woman of the left. She is passionate, but her record is extreme. You know you talked about you're afraid of the FCC. You should be because gig soone has attacked conservative media. She says Fox News is destroying democracy. She describes Fox News as state sponsored propaganda. She argued to the FCC they should revoke Sinclair's licenses. Sinclair's a major conservative TV outlet. She has been vocal in using government power against conservative voices. In addition to that, she's got enormous conflicts of interest. So we had today her third confirmation hearing. Now that's amazing. Usually people have one confirmation hearing. In her instance, she had one two years ago. At that first confirmation hearing, she hid that she had been on the board of directors of a company that was engaged in litigation against the major broadcasters for piracy, for stealing their content, and the company she was on the board of lost that litigation, settled that litigation, and she actively misled the Commerce Committee into thinking that the settlement was for thirty two million dollars. In fact, the settlement was for seven hundred thousand dollars, so it was two percent of what was public. She misled the committee about it, she misled the White House about it. So we had a second hearing last year where that became public how she'd misled the committee. And now today with the new Congress, we had a third hearing. She did not get confirmed in the previous congress. It was a fifty fifty Senate and there were number of Democrats who had express concerns. A lot of folks thought Biden would withdraw this nominee because it's really doubtful she'll get confirmed. She may or may not, but I think the far our left wants her so much. They believe she will be so aggressive in attacking conservative speech that they're willing to fight this fight. So as the ranking member on Commerce, my responsibility was to lead the fight against her and to lay out her record why she's not suitable for the FCC. Yeah. One of the one of the I think shocking moments today, it was you just calling out not only that she was helping organizations and individuals that were attacking conservatives, but also those on the left, including Joe Manchin, Gary Peters, John Tester, and Christen Cinema. And this was part of this exchange with you back and forth. I want everybody to hear it because it was just incredible to hear. And then, by the way, all of those senators you mentioned are Democrats. Every one of the ones you listed are all Democrats. Senators. Yeah, and she's attacking them as well through these radical groups on the left. And as a podcaster, this is my worst nightmare. If she gets confirmed and the Biden administration seems to help been on doing it. Take a lishim though this back and forth for me today, I thought it was brilliant, Misson. I think you have a long and consistent career as a zealous partisan advocate. There is a role for partisan advocates, it just doesn't happen to be on an independent agency charged with overseeing communications in the United States. You also have a consistent pattern of being unable to perceive conflicts of interest, whether it is deceiving this committee in the White House about the Sweetheart Settlement that you signed the day after your nomination was announced, or whether it is being the only nominee I've seen in a decade to make contributions to senators who are voting on your nomination while your nomination is pending, or whether it is bizarrely supporting an extreme group that blasts multiple senators from both parties. Now, I asked you about Joe Mansion and the group Fight for Our Future, where they ran billboards saying Joe Mansion is corrupt. You said you didn't agree with that. I asked you whether you agreed with them that John Tester is corrupt. You said you didn't agree with that. I asked you whether you agreed with them that Gary Peters is corrupt. You said you didn't agree with that. Well, I didn't get to finish. Wait, are you gonna go to me? Oh I am okay, because she's attacked you too. But that was Maria can't well the chair. I think an organization the group, but not just belong to be queer. When you said that is Maria can't rad the chair, that's Democrat? Am I right? Yes, that's a Democrat from Washington State who's the chairman of the Commerce Committee. So she jumps in and asks are you going to call her out for attacking me? And I said, oh yes, I am, so keep playing. So so this group also ran the following billboard. It is a picture of Senator Senator Cinema, also a member of the committee, and it's not subtle. In case you want to miss the message they're trying to convey, it's in bright red right at the top. It says Cinema is corrupt. Do you agree with their sentiment that Senator Cinema is corrupt? Of course not, of course not okay, you say, of course not. So that billboard went up in twenty nineteen. At the end of twenty nineteen, what did you do? You sent out a fundraising email for this organization at the end of twenty nineteen. So after they had put this billboard up, did you know about the billboards they put up attacking mansion and peters and testers and Cinema. I only actually knew the one about Centator Cinema. I didn't know about the other ones here, okay, So you knew they'd called Senator Cinema corrupt, and after they called Senator Cinema corrupt, you asked people to contribute to them. Is that correct? I asked people, could you bean not because of all that? Yes? Or no? Que time? Yes? I did? Okay, So you knew they were calling Senator Cinema corrupt and you asked them to contribute afterwards, and by the way, the next year, so this is twenty nineteen. You know these tactics, You don't mind you were aware of them. You've testified you knew about them, at least with regard to Senator, sent them on, and you wanted people to support them. You also did it again in twenty twenty, and Chairman can't well asked if I was going to ask about her. I'd like to point out this same group sent a letter to Chuck Schumer demanding that Chuck Schumer removes Senator Cantwell as the chairman of the Commerce Committee. Why because this committee hadn't confirmed you yet. Now, I think that's a pretty extreme proposition. I gotta say, I've never seen a nominee or a group that the nominee fundraises for, demand her own party's chairwoman be fired because you haven't been confirmed yet. Do you understand why this seems one heck of a conflict of interest. I don't see how it's a conflict of interest, Sir. Does it seem impartial or does it seem an extreme partisan willing to burn burn everything down if either party doesn't do what you want? Senator I don't agree with all the Fight for the Future's tactics, however, except you raise money for them. You know about the raise money for them. You send tweets every year asking people to contribute. When you ask people to contribute, that's called raising money. Let me ask, I mean, Senator, this woman, how in the hell did they even think she had a shot? And then the second question is does she actually have a shot even after you lit her up this with the facts the way that you just did. Look, of course she has a shot. She has a shot if Democrats decide to support her. I think there's I think it's quite likely this domination is going to be defeated. I think it should be defeated and it's gonna come down. I have a high level of confidence that Republicans will stand together, that we will have forty nine no votes. The question is where a handful of Democrats going to be? Where is Joe Mansion going to be? Where is Cinema going to be? Where is John Tester going to be? Where is Rosen going to be? Where's courts Masto going to be? By the way, many of these are the same senators that the group she's supported and raised money for has blasted by name and called corrupt. So the interesting question is are these Democrats senators going to vote for her anyway because she's a darling of the left wing of the Democrat Party. I hope not. I will say it was I thought fairly remarkable testimony that she admitted admitted on the stand that she knew about their attacks on Cinema and still raise money for anywhere And look I actually on some level respect gig soone. She's a left wing activists, like, I love her questions or did you know about it? Oh yeah? And did you raise money afterwards for it? Oh? Yeah? Like she's not apologetic about it, She's like, yeah, I'm a left winger. I like, I want to beat the heck out anyone Democrat or Republican that doesn't embrace left wing policies. Listen, that's fine if you're an activist, it just doesn't give you comfort as someone who's going to be a regulator of communications in this country. I will tell you also, while I was while I was laying that out, in particular about how the group that she raised money for called for Maria kent Well to be fired, Maria sitting next to me, and what you didn't get in the audio, but if you were listening to it you got is Maria's cracking up laughing as I'm laying it out. I mean, it really is weird. I've never seen a nominee who has this kind of record, So I think we have a good shot at defeating this. And actually, what I've said is I'm not sure why the Biden administration is wasting everyone's time with this nomination, because I think in all likelihood she's not going to get fifty votes. But the reason they're wasting people's time with it is because they are captive to and care what the radical left wing of the party says. And the radical left wing wants gigs. Yeah, that's what they want, and that's and that is obviously concerning. But the fact that they would even nominate her just tells you how far gone we are from what in their certain positions. As you mentioned earlier, they're supposed to be nonpartisan positions. We need those desperately to stay nonpartisan. And that doesn't mean you find the most extreme partisan person you can get your hands on. All right, Santa. Before we get into that, I do want to tell everybody about Patriot Mobile. If you have not checked out Patriot Mobile, you need to. Patriot Mobile is the only Christian conservative cell phone vider in the country. And every time you use your phone, every time you send a text, every time you make a phone call, you're making a difference, sending up for what you believe in. Why Because they take a portion of your bill every month and they actually give it back to conservative and Christian causes that stand for what we believe in. I'm talking about protecting the rights the unborn. I'm talking about saying up for first and our Second Amendment rights. I'm talking about helping with adoptions for people that want to adopt, especially since the overturning of Rov Wade. These are the things that when you use your cell phone, you're going to be supporting. Now here's the other great thing for a lot of people listening. You're actually going to save money on your cell phone bill over what you're paying right now. So why not switch and put your money where your values are and stand with other concernatives as we actually make a huge difference. Go online to Patriot Mobile dot com slash verdict. That's Patriot Mobile dot com slash verdict. You can keep your same cell phone. You can keep your same cell phone number as well. You can also call them use promo code verdict, and you can make the switch. If you have a small business, they can switch all of your lines over and again. You'll probably end up saving money over what you pay right now while standing up four values you believe in. As they make donations every month of portion of your bill eight seven eight Patriots and number eight seven eight Patriot. That's eight seven eight Patriot. Lastly, very quickly, I do want to get your reaction to James Clapper. He's making a lot of headlines. James Clapper is now angry. The Accenttel Chiefs has basically come out and said that the reporting on his letter that he signed with fifty plus other top intelligence officials right before the elections the presidential election, claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop was story from the New York Post was actually Russian disinformation. He's now saying that it was well taken out of context. To use his words, he said that Politico, who was the one that first got the league letter that they all signed, clearly leaked on purpose. Otherwise why would you sign the letter? He says that Politico deliberately distorted the letter that he signed. He characterized the Post reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop is part of a Russian disinformation operation. Now Clapper is in trouble. Now. I think it's fair to say he's trying to cover his tracks. Republicans are looking into him and the other top people that were on this letter, and they are all going to apparently be suppeining to come before Congress with these hearings on the House side, and he said, quote, all we were trying to do was raise a yellow flag that this quote could be Russian disinformation. And then he said, Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear, he said quote in paragraph five of his letter. Now, almost everybody, even moderates to liberals in the media basically turned on him in the last twenty four hours, saying, you don't get to rewrite this, I want to get your reaction to it. Well, first of all, it's worth noting that everyone understood that the letter that Clapper and the other so called Intelligence Committee the Intelligence Community members signed was arguing that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. What Clapper's saying now is obviously spin, and it's spin to try to cover his own rear end because he is now subject to subject to scrutiny from the House majority. And Okay, so the headline, here's the headline Politico ran about Clapper's letter, quote Hunter Biden's story is Russian disinfo. Dozens of former Intel officials say so that was the story Politico wrote because they leaked the letter to Politico, and then lots of other media outlets, CNN and others covered the Politico story. Now Clapper at the time, did he issue a clarification this story is false. No. Did he go on TV and say this is not true. I didn't say it was Russian disinformation. No. The reason they wrote the letter, the reason they leaked the letter is they intended Politico to write exactly what they wrote. They intended the useful idiots and the press, the corrupt corporate media, to go forth with their lie. And we now know it was a lie. That it wasn't Russian disinformation. The laptop was true and real. But James Clapper wanted that story written two weeks before the election because he didn't want anyone to focus on what was in in the Hunter Biden laptop. Well, and he even claimed Senator in the last twenty four hours that he was quote unaware that Biden brought up the letter in his final debate with former President Donald Trump and called the Post story a bunch of garbage. He said, also, you know he said that I didn't know about him, that I don't believe him. I think he is lying to us. Well, and let maybe clear. So Clapper was the head of the Department of National Intelligence under Barack Obama. Clapper has been a partisan his entire life. He's an extreme partisan, and he has a record of dishonesty. In March of twenty thirteen, Clapper was testifying under oath and Senator Ron Widen, a Democrat, asked Clapper whether the United States government was acting quote any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans. Clapper paused and said, no, sir, not wittingly. Three months later, Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing that the National Security Agency was in fact collecting bulk domestic call records on millions of Americans. So Clapper, under oath to Congress, flat out lied. That lie became public. It prompted legislation that I co sponsored and helped write along with Senator Mike Lee, called the USA Freedom Act that significantly restricted the ability of the federal government to intercept the communications of law abiding American citizens. But Clapper was never held accountable. He lied to Congress under oath, and he's had a pattern of lying when it advances partisan interest. I would point out that clapper partner in crime, the director of the CIA under Barack Obama was a guy named John Brennan. John Brennan is such a partisan he makes James Clapper look moderate. John Brennan has famously told the story of when he was interviewing with the CIA, they asked him a question during his polygraphy, you ever associated with anyone who's called for the violent overthrow of the government of the United States? And he described how he panicked because he realized that the truthful answer to that was yes. So in nineteen seventy six, John Brennan was a young college student fresh out of college, and there was a presidential election, a presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, and young John Brennan looked at Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford and decided, Jimmy Carter is not liberal enough for me. I need someone more liberal than Jimmy Carter. So what did John Brennan do in nineteen seventy six He cast a vote for Gus Hall, who was the candidate for President of the United States of the Communist Party of the United States of America. So he went in and voted for the communist to be president of the United States because he thought Jimmy Carter was too conservative. That's who Barack Obama named as his head of CIA. That was James Clapper's compatriot. Clapper had lied previously under oath to Congress, so it should be no surprise that in the twenty twenty election these same partisan players are comfortable lying and they continue doing so well. I hope that they are terrified, and I hope that the House Republicans hold them accountable for this. They're obviously, especially James Clapper, trying to cover his ass now before he asked to come in and testify, because they said they're going to get these Sapians, these top people in this letter, and they deserve the American people is to get these answers, and now him trying to rewrite history before he gets there. I think it's a good sign the Republicans are making headway there. Centator always a pleasure. Want to remind people we do this podcast three days a week. Make sure that you hit that subscriber auto download button wherever you're listening to this podcast. Please take our episodes, hit that little forward button and share this podcast wherever you are on social media, and don't forget if you can run. It's a five star review to help us reach more people, and we will see you back here in a couple of days.