#1295 - Tulsi Gabbard

May 13, 2019

Tulsi Gabbard is a 2020 Presidential Candidate of the Democratic Party and is currently serving as the U.S. Representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district since 2013. https://www.tulsi2020.com/

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Rogan my guest today is a woman who is running for president and she's probably my all-time favorite political candidate Jesus human as they get she's a veteran she's a congresswoman please give it up for Tulsi gabbard

The Joe Rogan Experience Train by day Joe Rogan podcast by night

we're back what's up for every back I love I it is nice to be back here when you first came here you were thinking about running for president now you're out there they're all in it's happening yes be nervous no is it weird no no not a lot of it would you feel like this is like Destiny no I was enough feel weird I'm on a mission I'm on a mission you know there's a lot of issues I think we're going to talk about about why I'm running for president but being out and connecting with people all across this country bringing this message really of ending these wasteful destructive foreign policies that have been so costly on the American people for so long cause the on our troops costly on our veterans ending these wasteful regime change Wars ending this new Cold War and nuclear arms race and taking the trillions of dollars that we've been spending on these programs and that we will continue to spend if the status quo is allowed to continue and investing those dollars

powers back into serving the people in our communities serving the people of this country things like healthcare education infrastructure protecting our environment clean water there's so much that we need to do we've got limited resources to accomplish that these are my favorite things you talked about my question is always though why do we spend so much time and money and at such a Titanic human cost ya for these reasons regime change Wars what do you think is the cause like other than the obvious if we you have a dictator that's in place there's an obvious outcry like Saddam Hussein post 9/11 other than that what it what is the reason why we invest so much time and energy into regime change War so much so that we've just accepted that this is a part of our gross economy like if we're going to take all the money that the United States earns and all the money that goes to taxes we just automatically put a

can't take chunk of that into investing in these wars in other countries widely why is that most without any kind of tradition real accountability six to eight trillion dollars is what's estimated that's been spent since 9/11 alone on these regime change Wars without even taking into account what the cost will continue to be to take care of our veterans those who have gone and fought in these wars and have come home dealing with you know visible and invisible wounds that they'll have to live with for the rest of their lives let's start back you mentioned Saddam Hussein I don't think it was necessarily an obvious outcry Saddam Hussein and the toppling of his regime was done for oil right it was done for financial reasons and The Architects of that Iraq war sold it in the guise of hey Saddam Hussein is working with Al-Qaeda those terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and

going to give them his weapons of mass destruction both of which turned out to be false false intelligence and lies that were sold to the American people sold to soldiers people like me who believed what they said you know I enlisted after 9/11 like so many people in this country to go after the terrorists who had attacked us on that day killing thousands of Americans and they sold this lie for financial gain for oil you look at some of the architects of that Iraq war guys like John Bolton who today is President Trump's National Security Council director and you look at what's happening in Venezuela

almost a very same Playbook being used or they're selling this this regime change effort threatening to use US military force to go in and topple the regime under the guise of humanitarianism when in fact in Bolton has said this on National Television that what we really want to make sure that American oil companies are able to go in and access that oil-rich country in Venezuela so you think that's why there's so much turmoil in that country right now that this is this battle over regime change because of the fact they want to control the oil I think the the u.s. coming in and trying to insert itself into what is happening in Venezuela is what is what is the problem so they're doing that through very very heavy sanctions they're doing that through various means and threatening to use our military to go in and topple the regime there rather than taking the approach that I would take as president which is to recognize that the people of Venezuela like people in other countries in the world

need to be the ones to determine their governance and their future just like we wouldn't want any other country to come in and threatened to use their military to topple our government or to tell us who should or shouldn't be the leaders in our country we shouldn't be doing that in their country there are serious issues that are causing a lot of suffering for the Venezuelan people if we really want to be helpful we should be a force to help move towards reconciliation and peace rather than what this Administration is doing which is throwing fuel on the Flames of a civil war that will be devastating devastating when you say move towards reconciliation and peace how so well you see there's differences right there's the people who are with the current government in Venezuela and there is the opposition clearly they have differences on what kind of future what kind of governance and who should lead that government going forward rather than threatening

use the United States United States coming in and trying to act once again as the world's police which by the way throughout history has not had good results not for the people in those countries what to speak of the cost that we the American people pay rather than saying hey let's let's work towards peace try to push for diplomacy and find what are the conditions that would make some form of reconciliation going forward is there an argument and I really don't know the answer to this but is there an argument that these regime change Wars although terrible we would be weighed worse off if those weren't in place I think that's an argument that proponents for regime change Wars try to make but history shows and proves that the very opposite is true look at Iraq you can look at Libya can look at Syria you can look at Guatemala and Ecuador you can look at other countries Iran where in the past we have I

are overtly or covertly through the CIA gone in and toppled leaders of countries or dictators or regimes and the result has been more suffering for the people in those countries their lives have been made worse off not only in the short term but in the long term and the cost once again to the American people has also taken a toll as we see more and more of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars going to pay for these wars these regime change efforts that are counter to our national security interest counters the interest of the American people encounter with the interest of the people in those countries so is this one of those things is just a counterintuitive thing where you would think that getting rid of someone like Qaddafi would be a good idea he's a terrible evil person but they get rid of them now Libya is a failed State it's horrible what is happening in Libya as a result of that as you can watch slave auctions on YouTube it's insane exactly it's hard to imagine that an error of YouTube and

auctions exist in a place that you know at least some part of the blame has to be on us supporting the rebels that went in and took out Qaddafi like it's not good to have seized one of those counterintuitive things like we're it's not good to have an evil person in control of a country yeah but it's also not good to kill him I think it rid of them and then this power vacuum right yeah it's that it's hard to accept sometimes the reality that there are bad people in the world there are leaders of countries who are doing bad things against their people with the real question is is we recognize this is the world that exists in reality not the world that we wish existed and then the question is for the leaders of our country is

what role should the United States play does it make sense to try to act as the world's police as we have been for far too long both as we look at what is in the best interest of the American people what's in the best interest of our national security as well as what impact will our actions have on the people in these countries and with Libya not only do we see strengthen terrorist groups there are terrorist groups all over Libya now failed State the Libyan people are suffering now far more than they were before but we see the ramifications of that in countries like North Korea where again John Bolton in the Trump Administration is talking about using the Libya model with North Korea as we work towards this objective of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula

one of the leaders in the North Korean government just said the other day the United States government is talking about using the Libya model with North Korea to get them to get rid of their nuclear weapons they don't want to end up like Libya or Iraq where in Libya is you remember the United States went in and told Gaddafi hey get rid of your nuclear weapons program and we're not going to come after you and he did he got rid of it and what happened very short time later the United States and other countries went in and took him out so that action and that decision that policy is directly undermining our national security and our efforts to make us and the world more safe to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula so with the argument for regime change wars being that would it be that if we didn't go over there and if we didn't have a military presence and we didn't make them fight against us they would somehow or another gain more power and they would we would deal with this evil superpower

is this this is like the worst case scenario for the pro interventionist foreign policy I wouldn't even I wouldn't even go that far I mean the the argument that's made by people who are advocating for these regime change Wars is we've got to do something to help people who are suffering that's generally the argument that's made and they sell this to the American people knowing that hey we we we have good hearts and we want to help people if we can but what they fail to do is to tell the truth yeah and be honest about what they are hiding behind this guy's of humanitarianism right and if you look at Saudi Arabia for example and you look at the kinds of atrocities that Theocratic dictatorship is conducting against its own people decapitating lgbtq people persecuting religious minorities being the biggest propagator of this this most extraordinary

dream intolerant ideology of Islam that is fueling terrorist organizations like Isis and Al Qaeda waging a genocide war in Yemen killing tens of thousands of people you know that murder of the journalists in Turkey the list goes on and on and on yet what are we hearing from leaders in our government both Democrats and Republicans Saudi Arabia is a great Ally of the United States but then you look at what's happening in Venezuela ready to launch our military to go in and take out another dictator ready to go and then launch our military ready to go and wage a war against Iran so this is this is evidence of the hypocrisy that exists between those who are waging regime change war in some countries by the way usually countries that don't have nuclear weapons and usually countries where they have some other underlying interests in ulterior motive which is not helping the people of those countries and then when it's convenient for them countries like Saudi Arabia

saddling up to a country whose leadership directly and indirectly supports Al-Qaeda the very terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 who we are trying to defeat your position on Syria is one that I think people have misconstrued why don't you tell me how to get nicely that's trying to put as nicely as possible they've actually said that you were an Assad supporter I know this is not correct but is that one of those things where people just say that in order to sort of diffuse you to categorize you as a ridiculous person right off the bat where no one could take anything else you say seriously yeah it's the usual tactic of trying to smear or vilify me and my campaign and and what I'm advocating for because they don't want to engage on the actual issue itself that I'm pointing out about how devastating and costly their policies are of continuing to wage these wasteful regime change Wars of choosing to support

Port terrorist groups like al-Qaeda in Syria directly in Syria because they are the most powerful force on the ground who's fighting to take out the regime Assad's government so they're so focused on toppling this government in Syria that they're willing to actually use taxpayer dollars to provide direct and indirect support to Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria when you think about how crazy this is it makes me angry I think it makes most people angry it's why I introduced legislation called the stop arming terrorists act why we would need to have such legislation is beyond me but it clearly we do to make it so that we don't have any taxpayer dollars going directly to provide any kind of arms or support or anything to terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda but also to make it so that we are not providing support indirectly through countries like Saudi Arabia who are providing that support to terrorist groups so

what has been said of you about Assad and your your position on Assad that's just been an outright lie virtually everything I mean I'll just tell you what happened I went to Syria to to meet with Syrian people to hear for myself from them about what was happening there while there I was offered the invitation to meet with the president of Syria and I took it because I think it's important for us to have the courage to meet with leaders whether they be friends or adversaries or potential adversaries if our focus is on National Security and on piece so I went and I had that meeting and I asked some tough questions and heard from him his perspective on what was happening and what he was doing in his country and took the opportunity while they're to meet with religious leaders college students members of the political opposition small business owners

you know women who are working to to start their own business to empower other women she has sunnis Muslims Christians Catholics people of all different religions it is because of that and that meeting and my staunch opposition to regime change Wars in Syria and in other countries that political opponents and others have chosen to try to smear me my reputation and my campaign and to label me as you said you know she's a supporter of this dictator well if that's true then anyone who opposed the Iraq war is a Saddam Hussein lover

is a lover of dictators and love Saddam Hussein so if you challenge their logic you see how shallow it is and there's really none there and and what's exposed is their refusal to engage on the facts and to stand behind why they continue to put the American people through these costly regime change Wars and why they continue to wage these wars that are causing incredible suffering for people in different parts of the world you know it also when you're having these conversations which are incredibly incredibly important globally when you choose to distort people's positions like this you're not helping anybody know you're making the whole thing more confusing yeah so for someone like me who's on the outside excuse me and then has to watch all this go down I have to go well why why why do you have reasonable people that make inaccurate statements about someone because they feel like if you do not if you don't refuse a meeting with Assad there's something wrong with you right

like to not want to be in the presence of this person yeah yeah I mean the the there's so much hypocrisy around this you know a lot of these people are the same people who applauded President Obama when he first ran for president in 2008 when he I mean he did he cause some controversy at that time saying yes he would meet with the leader of Iran without preconditions that he would meet with leaders of other countries in that pursuit of National Security and peace yeah so why the double standard here that okay so in order to keep our country safe in order to achieve peace we're only going to meet with our friends and people who we agree with that's not how you accomplish that mission that's not how you accomplish security and peace doesn't make sense now took a social media version of running the world sadly sadly now had you ever met anyone like I said before know what was that like know he was eager to

it you was eager to be heard frankly speak English very well really yeah I think he was educated in Europe a dentist if I'm not mistaken in the meadow maybe he's an eye doctor is not in the medical field and he was you know he was open to any and all questions that I had both about what was happening in Syria you know serious relationship or the lack thereof with Israel a lot of the turmoil that we're seeing in different parts of the Middle East of Sunni versus shh you know chemical weapons being used you know criminal acts being conducted a whole host of these issues how the Syrian government is dealing with the the Kurdish population the northern part of the country what's going on in Turkey there was there's a number of things that you know I asked and he answered

and he shared his View and perspective and really what came out of that was he's he's very narrowly focused on his country

and doesn't want other countries or other people coming in and and meddling in their country and what's what what they're trying to accomplish which is actually the same thing that I heard from his political opposition when I met with them these are some of the leaders who who led the protests that that kind of began this whole conflict in 2011 people who are deeply opposed to the Syrian government some of whom have been held in captivity by the Syrian government and they said there are constitutional changes we want to make yes we would like to see Assad removed from government that they don't want to see it done through military means or through other countries coming in and toppling their government what they want to see is that change coming from the people of Syria saying hey this is the kind of leadership that we want for our future I can imagine there's not a single country on Earth that wants us to invade and take over

I mean it just seems like a bad idea for everybody right nor would we want that to happen to us I think that's really what's missing here is you know for so long we've seen this imperialistic mentality that still exists in our government where some feel like hey well we should go and tell this country who should lead their government and tell them what kind of policies they should have but no other country should dare even attempt to do that two hours you well our position is that were the best and we're running this country the best way and this is the best country that's ever existed ever has the most freedoms it's got the most chaos it's got a lot of things going on it's not that are not good but overall we feel like we're The Shining Light of the World maybe that's not accurate you know maybe it's accurate in a lot of ways and I think the problem the problems begin when we go into other countries and try to create little many America exactly and impose it on the people there

whether they like it or not whether they're ready for it or not and and we end up seeing what we're seeing across the Middle East yeah I think we just look at the rest of the world go oh I wouldn't tolerate that yeah why are they tolerating that who is that guy why does he get to run things they should kick his ass that's literally the American perspective but you know we don't want to send our sons and daughters over there to go do that for now if I put my tinfoil hat we don't we don't we the American people don't but this is the problem and this is this is something that I realized very quickly during my first deployment to Iraq where I was seeing firsthand the cost of were serving in that medical unit every single day and I wondered how many politicians in Washington who voted for advocated for Champion that war in Iraq were laying away at night awake at night

thinking about my brothers and sisters who were getting killed in combat who were getting severely we're getting blown up by IEDs and I learned very quickly that they were not they weren't thinking about the real cost and the ramifications in the consequences of their decisions Jamie who we talking with the other day we're trying to say that we think that if you want to be the commander-in-chief they should probably have served who was that the reason podcast

CT Fletcher yes I believe that it was him yeah who's a veteran as well that's one thing that you have over them for sure is that you understand from firsthand experience and sacrifice what it means to actually be in war and in to be in combat yeah yeah I mean over I still serve in the Army National Guard now over over 16 years of deployed twice to the Middle East and coupled with my experience in in Congress serving over six years on the Foreign Affairs and the armed services committee's working intimately on these issues related to National Security and our foreign policy meeting with leaders of different countries in the world it is these experiences in the understanding that I've gained from them that best equipped me to walk in the door walk into the Oval Office on day one ready to do the job of President and most importantly commander-in-chief what hurdles are you encountering that you didn't expect

you know a lot of what's happening are things that that we kind of did expect you know the smear campaigns the the misinformation campaigns I think that's that's someone's doing this on purpose or do you think this is team mentality in action where people are supporting particular candidate and they look at you as being competition that candidate what do you think I think it's probably a combination you know I'm challenging The Establishment challenging the status quo challenging the foreign policy establishment and challenging the political establishment in calling things as I see them calling it straight and and speaking the truth whether that be calling out leaders within my own party or leaders of the other political party and you know I think that that strikes fear in a lot of people who are uncomfortable with it at a minimum and who are concerned because when you know we the people

he's up and say hey what's really going on here we're calling out self-serving politicians in Washington from both political parties who are putting their own political interests or the interests of their party ahead of the interests of the people or they're putting the interests of you know whatever greedy Corporation and their lobbyists is writing the biggest checks to their campaigns ahead of the interests of the people so the more this awareness comes out the more people stand up and speak out and say hey this is unacceptable this is unacceptable then it's threatening that very power base that they have thrived and lived off of for far too long we should talk about how you're funded to just so people understand your position yeah so people-powered campaign we tender no no Pac contributions no lobbyists contributions every single dollar that comes to my campaign for president is coming from Individual people across this country whether it's a dollar or $1000 people who are giving whatever they can

and joining this movement there's a great joke I think it's from Dennis Miller I hope I'm not misquoting it but it's he was talking about how politicians were patches in their jackets like NASCAR drivers thing that is like you should have to know it's like yeah be so much flavor is there what if I put my tinfoil hat on when I talk about these interventionist foreign policy Wars and regime change Wars the the tinfoil hat thinks military industrial complex people being asked or forced into making decisions that benefit these giant corporations that makes make weapons and profit off of War yeah this is the worst case scenario in terms of conspiracy theories the idea that someone wants War so that they can make money and they don't care if people die even needlessly this is our number one conspiracy fear right if you had to think about of all the things that you hope are not true about the way the world works that would probably be number one

well you can take your tinfoil hat off because the military industrial complex is a real thing this is something that President Eisenhower talked about which is an amazing speech amazing speech his last speech as president United States of all the things that he could talk about he chose to focus on the military industrial complex should we play that right now it is I feel like we should play this just because it leads so that clip it's so crazy and most people have never heard it before and you hear about the term military industrial complex and one thing that has been done that's really interesting is the word conspiracy has become a dirty word and that dirty word or a word that's it's easy to make something silly by calling it a conspiracy yeah even though there are times where people conspire to do things that's right I mean that's why that word exists and it's not like people don't make plans to do things that are illegal of course they do that's why the FBI is around

yeah but this is from the National Archives and this was Eisenhower's speech as he was leaving office and farewell 1961 not get very much attention when a new Pro who's this guy Jamie picked up the wrong version son of a bitch I'm sure there's an actual version of yeah here we go Joe lat January 17th 1961 back when everything was black and white the president of the United States good evening my fellow Americans we now stand 10 years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major Wars among great Nations this is a bad one to Jamie son of a boy while he's looking for the right clip what I think he's just gonna play music in the background that's all its gonna do

what most people don't know is that his his first draft of that speech said Congressional military industrial complex whoa and somewhere between the draft and the speech that was delivered he took out that word Congressional

but he was directly connecting those dots whoa that's some may say oh well that's just a conspiracy theory but he was connecting those dots with the influence that the military industrial complex has on leaders in Congress who are making decisions about how our money is spent and where our troops are sent off into battle Congressional Congressional military industrial complex wow I need extra foil get you a new box it's crazy how they couldn't keep the camera steady back then either here goes good evening my fellow Americans skip ahead a couple seconds here a vital element is keeping the pieces are military establishment

our arms must be Mighty ready for instant action so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction

our military organization today Bears little relation to that gnome of any of my predecessors in peacetime or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea

until the latest of our world conflicts the United States had no armaments industry American makers of plowshares could with time and as required make swords as well

but we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of National Defense

we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions how to do this three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment

we annually spend on Military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations corporations

now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American Experience

the total influence economic political even spiritual is felt in every city every state house every Office of the federal government

we recognize the imperative need for this development yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications are toil resources and livelihood are all involved so is the very structure of our society

in the council's of government we must carve guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military-industrial complex the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist

we must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or Democratic processes okay we should take nothing for granted we did you could listen to the rest of the speech if you want to online but it's very chilling yes because this is the sitting president leaving office and this is what he wants to tell people and a soldier yes he's a guy who had military experience he's a guy who saw firsthand wearing the uniform and then serving as commander-in-chief and this was his final warning to the nation military companies are like most companies they always want to grow companies seek infinite growth the constantly seek better quarters every year they want to make more money than last year that's what they're doing they're in the business of making money they're not just in the business of creating things they they're creating things for a profit that's it and they're gonna have a little wiggle room especially with politicians politicians that are in their pocket and they've spent millions of dollars helping them along the way and you know they're gonna

going to help each other yeah and this long history of helping each other that's right that's I mean you you see that very directly through contributions that are being made to politicians by different defense contractors and the corresponding votes that are then taken but you also see this corruption that's happening before our very eyes happening with in places like the Pentagon where you either have people in uniform or civilians who are working in Contracting for example in the Pentagon laying the groundwork for writing up these contracts major multi billion dollar contracts with these big defense contractors and then lay down the uniform or you retire from service either as a civilian or in the military and then you turn around leave that door and walk into another door working for the very same contractor that you just wrote the contract for

yeah this is happening this is what this is what we need to change and we're talking about both campaign Finance reform but also reforming this kind of corruption in this revolving door that's happening in different parts of our government you see it happening in Wall Street to yes SEC Regulators people are supposed to be regulating Wall Street or coming from Wall Street and then going back to Wall Street to work for the very same companies that they were supposedly just charge to regulate this is a big problem that we've got to fix it is a fantastic documentary on that called Inside Job I don't do you see it yeah it's amazing yeah you see when he's confronting these guys who are professors who then go and take these jobs and make millions of dollars with the very regulations that they helped put into place that's right and it's happening with foreign policy as well when you look at who are the main people who go and testify in front of Congress coming from think tanks very well-known think tanks Global think tanks that specialize in foreign policy

but they don't have a placard on their desk when they're testifying before Congress saying we receive funding from Saudi Arabia from Qatar from the United Arab Emirates from all these different countries who are spending a lot of money funding these thing takes that then come forward and push policies or push ideas to leaders in Congress that not coincidentally benefit the countries that are funding them

what what could be done to stop that other than someone like you getting into Power well and what could you do once you get in there I think I think to two things I mean obviously as president and commander-in-chief you set the tone for the kind of leadership that we have in this country that will put service above self and this is what what I will bring as present bring those soldiers values of putting service above self putting service to the American people in your country first and foremost ahead of everything else of head of the interests of a political party or a corporation or or a foreign country for that matter and work to pass legislation in Congress that would close these revolving doors that would require this transparency when you're talking about who is funding who and where is this money coming from I think members of Congress should not be taking Pac contributions should be relying solely on contributions from people in this country so they know exactly who is funding there

campaigns that really seems like a no-brainer yeah that one seems like a no-brainer and he really wanted what the people want it's something that that's starting to happen organically as more and more people are calling for this kind of Reform and saying hey look if you want my vote then I expect you to not accept those contributions and to run a people-powered campaign

how many people are doing episode 2 there's a couple who are running for president there is a slowly growing number of people who have run for and got gotten elected to congress but look it's it's in the margins compared to where we need to be no one thing that exists now that really didn't exist when Obama was running for president is the impact of social media it's just tenfold what it used to be but with that also comes this reality that we're living in right now where there's only a few companies that are controlling the discourse in this country yeah I mean you really have essentially a Facebook Google YouTube Twitter and Facebook owns Instagram that's right and there's you know a couple other small ones but that's the bulk of our discourse yeah what concerns do you have about these private companies controlling the vast majority of communication between people and social media it's extremely dangerous

it's extremely dangerous when you think about it there's a few things there's gosh with with Facebook and Google for that matter you know they can set their algorithms Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook and said his algorithm to control what information is coming across our news feed and Facebook what are the stories that we're seeing Instagram same thing with Google they can control when you punch in something what are the first stories that you're going to see on the first page that pops up when you think about that kind of power of influence that it has on the American people literally being held within the hands of a couple of people unchecked and without oversight or transparency it's incredibly dangerous talk about Free Speech there's just been news recently about Facebook banning certain individuals from having Facebook accounts because of their speech they disagree with the speech that there

using are the things that they're talking about ideas that they're pushing forward unchecked First Amendment rights going completely out the window and your argument is a don't apply because it's a private company right yes but they're trying to get the best of both worlds the fact that that you know they're claiming to say hey this is a free space for open communication for everyone right while at the same time going and saying actually you know what Joe I don't like what you're saying about this so we're going to ban you and whoever your friends are from from this conversation I think that's that's a big problem at undermines it undermines our first amendment rights and you look at privacy the privacy concerns of all the information that they're collecting and Facebook from us all the information that they're collecting from us with Google and how they're monetizing that and selling or sharing that information with other people with really without our our knowledge or

that's the part right the the agreement that most people didn't understand that your data is a huge commodity that's right and we signed up for these things and who reads terms of service agreements have you ever read one yeah I've never read one of them I just say you okay yeah right I started to get through like the first two paragraphs like okay I hope it's not ugly nothing terrible in there know what I think back to there is a South Park episode that that is specifically about the terms and conditions and I don't watch that a long time ago but every time I see one of those things pop up sign it terms things I'm like oh man yeah that was Cartman right yes yeah something happened yeah I can't talk about it but there's there's the thing that they're doing well there's a couple things are doing but one of the things they're doing with this with your data they find out what you're interested in they find out what you're interested in engaging on yeah and for many people that's outrage so for many people it's the things that piss you off the most

like if you have a real problem with Catholic priest getting away with having sex a little boys you will think that that's happening every minute of every day all across the world because it's going to be in your newsfeed constant because I know that's what makes you engage right so your algorithm the algorithm is your feet is going to be very different than my feed yeah because I engage on different things in you do yeah and the problem with that is even if they're not calculating if it's not on purpose they're not trying to get people outraged not only the trying to rabble-rousing but what they are doing is they because they have an ad-supported model they gravitate towards the the outrageous because that's what people get excited about and that's what people make multiple posts about that and that's how they make the revenue it's a bad ad model it's an ad model that inadvertently supports outrage yeah and it makes people think the world's worst plastic and all of it and this the the tribal boundaries that between the the two sides on these issues are more tense and you would think that

course and the ability to freely communicate would kind of open that up and people would kind of understand each other better but it's not happening it's like think Twitter is a garbage fire all day long it's just fire like you can't post anything about anything and there's people just jumping on people and yeah it's it's a crazy thing that has happened that we gravitate towards the outrageous yeah I don't think that should be rewarded financially I think that's not if this is just what people go to organically that's one thing but when you're cultivating feeds so the or at least your algorithm is cultivating feeds so that people get pissed off you're making the country a shittier place like you're literally like making things worse yeah

yeah I mean this is one of the reasons why I think a couple of things should happen and and I think his name is Chris Hughes who co-founded Facebook with Zuckerberg saw that yeah you see his article that's calling for Facebook to be broken up yes and which is crazy yeah you hear about the person who founded it and he's saying this is out of control and that's the point right now is seeing how powerful as you said guys like Mark Zuckerberg have become and and how out of control things are some of it just doesn't make sense like here's one they just band Alex Jones yeah not only do they ban Alex Jones but you can't talk about Alex Jones if you wrote Alex Jones might be nuts but damn is he cute if you wrote that it would you would get a message that says only you can see this message this message is stopped at the border from entering into the Facebook Universe like what the fuck is it you can't just like what if you want to say something funny

yeah can't say something funny know you can only say something if you're criticizing him right this is what they've said so they're telling you how to think which is fucking insane it is insane because that's not just free speech that's not just like a violation of free speech you're literally directing speech yeah like that's insane so you're not even blocking people from doing something hateful or evil you're blocking people from saying something that you disagree with that's right which is that people have sent me messages that said God bless Alex Jones and they say yeah you could only see this message Facebook sends them a thing blocking that message wow that's fucking crazy yeah like the idea that you think you can do that yeah that is nuts yeah mean being able to ban anyone arbitrarily without any just violated terms of service there you go what does that mean yeah okay be specific and how come I mean they've they took a bunch of people out right like Louis Farrakhan was one Alex Jones

Joseph Watson was like what did that guy ever do mean people don't agree with them like I think what's happening is there are some serious concern that Facebook was used to influence the last election in again whether against their knowledge or in a way where they were negligent about the type of filtering they use that stops people from posting propaganda and particularly stops these things like the IRA the internet research agency in Russia that literally creates thousands of profiles and pages and they'll have a black lives matter page that's just designed to fuck with cops and it'll have a Prokop page is just designed to fuck with black lives matter all they want to do is create anger and they're doing this engineering these arguments this is this is a hundred percent proven fact Renee duress te who had been on my podcast went over the details of how its set up and how they do it and the memes and the means that they create like

this is an organized effort that they channeled through Facebook in particular and then Instagram a couple other social media sites you know interesting about Renee she worked for new knowledge right I do not think she was the director for new knowledge they this company new knowledge that the DNC has tapped as one of their I don't know disinformation campaign experts and cyber experts was the very same company that created false accounts and pretended to be Russian bots in order to influence a US Senate election in Alabama yeah I'd heard that right that so it's something that she was not a part of but it had I don't know her as a director of research it says that new knowledge right and that's but that's post this happening correct I don't she sent me an email about it I because I questioned her about it after it happened yeah and I don't think she's full of shit Yeah well yeah

I've never met her but I know that that company is one that is often cited as a so-called expert and was a company that was cited to try to smear my campaign as somehow being a an engine for the Russians or something like that which which to me again just points to well let's look at let's look at the X the so-called experts that you're citing in this company new knowledge and the kinds of actions that they've been taking the very same ones that they're criticizing others for doing it's a dirty world out there on the internet it is the Wild West in the sense that I mean I think there should be regulation like I mean I don't think you should be able to put child porn everywhere I don't think she'll be able to Doc's people but it's like where does that border stop yeah where does that regulation border stop yeah and I think it's a very good question do you think that these social media platforms whether it's Google or Twitter or whatever Facebook do you think that they should be treated

needed as a public utility where everyone essentially has the right to use them you have the right to use water you don't have the right to take a hose and smash your neighbors window and fled his house right I do I do think that they should be regulated like that and they should be subject to the very same antitrust laws that have been used to make sure that we don't have other monopolies in other Industries or in other areas to to break them up and I think that was something that that Chris Hughes outlined in this article the furry First Step that could be taken as just to say hey you've got a you've got it Facebook needs to let go of Instagram and WhatsApp because that was some thought that acquisition created an even stronger Monopoly that really shouldn't have been allowed to take place in the beginning and so there are there are concerns about the kind of power being you know Consolidated into the hands of a very few people as well as how that's

acting any kind of competition and squashing that competition from coming up and saying hey you know you've got Facebook and then you've got this other new techno social media technology they've got better privacy standards and better service for the consumer than Facebook but any time that that tries to happen you know they're quickly squashed by companies like Facebook or Google for that more bought up or bought up exactly yeah that's that's that's the big concern is that there's just not enough variety and there's also a big concern that I have a big concern that there's a bunch of people that don't seem to understand the consequences of what they're calling D platforming people which basically censoring people taking people out of the public discussion and when when you do that and you create a bubble or you create a one-party leaning institution one party leaning conglomeration of human beings you're going to develop some

real anger on the other side yeah and it does the opposite of what you wanted to do what you want to do is make the world a better place let's take some of these angry voices out of the mix and let's make the world a better place it just makes them more anger and encourage encourage discourse encourage these kinds of conversations where you can you can engage with people who might have a different view on an issue or might have a different experience that they bring to the conversation and to do so that actually helps increase the knowledge and understanding that we have the I think we have to reward civil discourse well I think we have to be kinder to each other and we have to we have to be more upset at people that are acting like shitheads online for no reason like you're just you think that it's just online but it what it is is communication and if you're interested in shitty Communication online you're just a shitty Communicator okay all this column it being a troll has different thing all these different labels that people put on to make it

here and whitewashing it's not good it's not good for anybody yeah and if people could figure out how to be less angry and their online lives and and communicate about issues I think we'd find that we meet more in the middle than we think we do I think there's also a problem that people have with they become married to their ideas and they dig their heels in and they support their ideology in the very rigid about it and that is only strengthened when you silence people yeah it's it does the opposite of what you're hoping it's going to do it makes the world a worse place and makes look if people are saying things that you don't like you don't have to read that but if you tell people that no one can read that they'll they're going to go why do you get to decide and who are you exactly who are you you are regular person how wise are you yeah how many steps ahead of you played this game that's right because I'm looking at this game I'm looking at Civil War yeah I'm looking at worst case scenario this goes to that that goes to this this guy attacks that that guy attacks this they

talk anymore you got people fight in the streets makes that happens exact that's a human characteristic that's right that's right and that's that is where this path ends up this path that we're on of this this hyper partisanship yeah this extreme divisiveness where it's either urine My Tribe or you're in the other tribe and the arrows are pointed at each other without any willingness to once again just let's just have a conversation let me hear where you're coming from here where I'm coming from we can disagree without being disagreeable we can even have a heated conversation at a debate and I would say end of what you're saying is patriotic yeah this is patriotic and I think it's unpatriotic to be partisan because I think we're supposed to be on a team together yeah this is supposed to be Team America Right Glee what are we doing Chloe we're fighting over nonsense in mrs. mischaracterizing people's positions just to suit our own ideas that's right it's it's foolish the it's foolish and as you said it's extremely dangerous and the American people are the ones who who ultimately lose in all of this

this has been one of the most frustrating things that I've seen and experienced throughout my over six years in Congress that really started when I first went up after I got elected we're after every election happens in new members of Congress they go and they have what's called new member orientation and give you these books and here's the maps and here's where your offices and you know all the all the administrative and logistical stuff but very quickly I would say within the first few days you know where we first come in together as Democrats and Republicans immediately okay Democrats go this way Republicans go this way immediately separated and what we're told right off the bat is look this is about getting wins for our political party and if you work with the Republican then that's going to hurt the party especially if you work with a republican that the Democratic party is trying to take out forget the substance of the idea forget the substance of the bill and this happens on the opposite side is

Republicans with Democrats both both political parties are differ are guilty of this where they're really putting the interests of the political party ahead of the people who just voted for us to go and serve them and not just the Democrats who voted for me but yes there were the independence and the Republicans both who voted for me or who didn't but who I serve as part of my constituency and you just you continue to have continued to see this where you know you'll have a bill that because it's a Democrat Bill Republicans vote against it substance aside or Republican bill Democrats vote against it just because it's a Republican bill but then hey if they come in and you know a month or a year later introduced the same bill or a similar bill but now because it's a democratic Bill okay everybody hey let's go let's go and support this legislation you can you can imagine why there is so much gridlock in Washington why nothing really gets done and ultimately

now this divisiveness and this hyper partisanship is hurting the ability for the needs of the American people to be served when you talk about people like yourself that are completely funded by the public and you have this very logical and objective way of discussing this gridlock do you think that the future is in young people like yourself getting involved in politics that they're not connected to this old world for 35 45 years this world it sounds like this is just what you do yeah I mean I watched House of Cards I get kind of get it sort of what that that seems like chaos it seems like there's no way to fix that it's almost like these people have to stop being politicians they have to be voted out or die off I think it's evident where we see those who are very entrenched in this this broken system feel very threatened by the rise of

people powered campaigns individual contributions coming in and supplanting the big money that they get from you know the packs and Pacs and lobbyists and and and there's fear there because they see their whole world being disrupted by people like me or others who are coming in and saying no we're not buying into any of that and we're coming in to actually fulfill the mission that we've been charged with by those who voted for us to serve the people all the people of this country and would you say that would you this is my position I think that Trump plays part of that because I think he was the first guy to Camp the come to come in basically self funded or being funded through his own means and not listening to the rest of Republican party saying hey I'm going to take over and I'm going to do this my way and then knowing that he could do that and knowing that there was so many Republicans against him and knowing that there's so many Democrats against him as well but yet he's still the president

now people like Jesus is a fragile system this system is it's what they've done to acquire power is still very vulnerable even though they have was deeply entrenched system of weird little relationships that it's not good enough yeah that if the people do rise up and they decide hey want to put Tulsi in his president you going to have a different situation a lot of you clowns going to be out of work absolutely I mean and that's really that that's the message that were carrying two living rooms in town halls and communities across the country is Washington continues to underestimate the power of the people and the most to work for you exactly and that's the thing as you know our founding fathers had this vision for our country that our government would be of the People by the people and for the people and instead what we have is a government of the Rich and Powerful by and for the rich and Powerful or of the special interest in corporations by and for the special interest in corporations and you know we the people

behind and they continue to talk to us like they're in control yeah they're one of us and they're supposed to be public employees that was supposed to be servants that's right of the public they don't talk like that now they talk like people who are in a position of power and influence and it's not healthy it's not a healthy perspective it's evident of that huge disconnect between the bubble that is Washington and the reality of the lives that we live everyday people all across this country that's always the case though when people get in control of things they always metal make it easier for them make it better for them what can I do to make this a little easier is there another way how can I help write myself here how can I make sure that when I get out of office I can do these public speaking tours and make a quarter million dollars a pop yeah what I hear about the money those guys make to just go and talk yeah what who is paying for that it was paying to listen to Hillary Clinton getting out of it what are you getting out of that's right can I listen I would love to like pretend to be a banker to put a lizard skin

face mask on and go sit with those bankers and listen to one of those conversations and Hillary Clinton got paid a quarter million dollars to talk yeah never release the transcripts what is that about look who it is it's some weird sneaky deal that they make yeah we're in Italy wants to pay that like go to that in Madison Square Garden see many tickets - all right exactly that after Bill and Hillary doing like a speaking tour thing right now I am baffled as to who is going to pay to go see Bill and Hillary bullshit them that's right they're doing it together now right yeah those sold wasn't just come clean you know I would love to get that guy and just get them drunk and put them on the I just like have them just talk about life know you only got like a few years left everything's falling apart in your body what are you regrets what'd you do wrong what could you have done differently stop all this bullshitting yeah like what you know have him on your show I would love to I would love do mushrooms with him that's what I wanted to I would have won the show and do it in

because they decriminalized mushroom it's just yeah this role of being the person that is in control of this country as always been this impossible task and when I see a person like you who wants to do it I say listen you have some of the best ideas in the most healthy perspective that I've ever heard from anyone that's ever running for president but why would you want to do that to yourself those are the two things that I think of because it's not for myself and and it's not to be in control of the country and the people it's to serve the people and our country it's a continuation of this mission that I've chosen for my life to be of service to find different ways to do that you know it started in Hawaii with Gathering my friends as a kid and going in and picking up trash off the beach on the weekends and experiencing even then at a young age that that made me happier than than anything else then you know going and playing video games with my friends or anything like that

that that mission that that was deeply ingrained in me further with my service in the military serving as a soldier where you know I'm serving alongside people of all walks of life as you know every race religion ethnicity or orientation everything every one of us wearing that same uniform serving that same flag that represents the American people with that laser like focus on putting service above self and that's what I seek to bring to the White House to restore those values of integrity and honor and respect to make it so that that White House is a beacon of light for the American people to know that that White House belongs to them and represents them and their interest in their interest alone does anybody mean even a person like you who's on the outside do you think anybody truly knows what it's like to run the country until they get in there do they could can you even have an idea of what how impossible a task it is to be in control of the economy the environment

the the infrastructure the military our position in the world it seems like the most insane duty to require someone to run all those things to be aware of all those things to be responsible for all of the successes and all of the failures yeah it's an awesome responsibility there's no question about that and I think it fulfills that that higher that higher that higher calling that this is not about any kind of selfish interest this for me is not about any kind of ambition that I've had I've never had any kind of thought well I want to be president one day or even I want to be a member of Congress one day it's always been about how can I how can I best be of service and how can I make a greater impact and that's what I've seen throughout my time in Congress where I've served on these committees I've served on the foreign affairs in armed services committee's I've been been calling for and fighting for an end to these wasteful regime change Wars and

into this new Cold War nuclear arms race there's only so much I can do as a member of Congress to be able to serve as president and commander-in-chief I know that I can make that kind of impact and sea change in our policy that keeps our country safe that moves us closer to that future of peace and prosperity and that's where I hope to be able to make a difference if you become president I should excuse me when you become president go sorry and you do get to change the way we spend money and stop spending money on these regime change Wars what would be the first thing you invested in in this country and how would you go about doing that good question I think there's I'd want to give that some thought because there are a whole host of challenges that we're facing you know I mean Health Care is among the top of the list and you know we've talked a little bit about that the last time I was here our crumbling infrastructure continues to be something that's not only just uncomfortable every time we're driving over potholes it

actually threatening people's lives and well-beings I was in Iowa a few weeks ago and we visited this a few communities that were completely inundated and devastated by the flooding that took place there gosh about three three four weeks ago now many of them have not been able to return to their homes we went and helped out one family we were tearing down drywall and ripping up the floors and underneath the wood and the floors there was still like tons of water in place and they were talking about how even with the you know the aid from FEMA and and SBA Loans that they they are unwilling to put a single dollar back into rebuilding their homes because they're hearing from the government and the Army Corps of Engineers that it may take two to four years to fix the levees that broke down and caused that flooding so why would they go and try to pour their life savings

can to rebuilding their homes when they could get flooded again in a year or in two years because we're not making the kinds of investments in our infrastructure that we need to make so there's in education I mean there's a whole host of issues that I think we need to look at how we can best provide the resources that are necessary to improve those services to the American people and also look at how we're doing business and fixing the problems that exist within those different agencies there's always been a call to help countries in need in the world there's always been a call for the United States to step in and you know and do something but yet there's problems in this country that are that never change there's bad communities in this country that are impoverished and crime-ridden that have been the same way for decades there was a former Baltimore Police Officer named Michael Wood who came on my podcast and he was talking to me about the time

when he was in the Baltimore Police Department they found a piece of paper that was documenting various crimes from the 1970s for someone one of the years from 1970 something and it was the same exact crime in the same exact area that they were having problems with now whether it's homicide narcotics whatever it was they were having the exact same issue in the exact same places and then he realized like well this is there's no effort put to change this there's no if there's if you're talking about decades and decades and decades why wasn't their money funneled into this community why isn't there some community centers that help children why isn't there an emphasis on a better education why isn't there more police officers or at least some sort of Civilian presence that helps out people and stop some of this crime and gives people a better place to live and then fix a lot of this what you're seeing decade after decade

if we want to make America better the best way to do that is to fix the weakest parts the weakest parts of the people that are born in a shit situation they don't get a good break they got a bad break there born in a crime-ridden environment and they have to figure out how to be a better person while dealing with all this and then you've got people that are aloof to this that I like a figure it out for yourself I did yeah like as if we all start from the same spot in this crazy game called life because we don't know those people are in the worst spot why can't we fix the worst spot it seems like we could if we can help Iraq if we can invade Syria if we can do some of the things that people either want us to do or we have done why can't we do that exactly and that's that's what I often remind people is that right now today we spend four billion dollars every month in Afghanistan

four billion dollars every month every single month imagine what could be done with those dollars in those resources in communities like Baltimore and communities Like Flint Michigan where people are still being poisoned by their water where they're being lied to and cheated by their leadership where the governor sent in these inspectors and cleared the water saying hey everything's fine but he didn't tell people was that when those inspectors went in they turn the faucet and let the water run for five minutes before they tested it to clean all the crap out of the pipes and create this false conclusion that somehow the water is clean when the people who live there know that it is still not safe to drink and for some folks they can't even take a shower in their own homes and so that's why you're not going to hear any other presidential candidates talking about the cost of War

and where our money is going and how it is counter to our national security is making us less safe it's counter to the interest of our people and the people in those countries but this is why I talk about this everywhere I go because it's Central it's Central to our ability to address these domestic challenges that we are facing we in this country are facing in communities across the country dealing with Health Care affordable housing there's a homeless crisis in both Urban cities and Rural communities people who are not able to afford to put a roof over there if people are working full time maybe one maybe two jobs even still can't afford to put a roof over their heads there are serious issues that we need to address here but to think that somehow we'll have the resources to do so without addressing where trillions of our dollars have been going now for the last several years is a lie it's just not true when you talk about people that are working full-time jobs and they still don't have enough money to get by what could you do to change

that I think there's we there's not one single action that can fix that you know I'm pushing for a living wage I think it's important that what do you think that should be it's going to be different in different places you know I'm a co-sponsor of the Congressional legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 at the federal level you know there has not been an increase in the federal minimum wage for a very long time and I think that's that's a step that can be taken but you know Los Angeles is like Hawaii where a $15 an hour job is not going to be enough to pay the rent You Got High Cost of Living so living wage is going to be higher and in communities like ours than it is in smaller communities are so what would you West what would you suggest for Los Angeles $20 an hour I don't know what the answer is here it would have to be more I think so the argument against that would be that small businesses would go under or hire less people or that the somehow or another it would be bad for business

I think there's a I mean the cost of living here is higher and so what we are paying the employees who work in these industries in these service jobs has to match that it has to correlate with that higher cost of living it costs more to go out to eat here than it does to go out to eat in a restaurant and I don't know Alabama for example so I think we've got a we've got to recognize people who are doing the work that correlates with the higher cost of living that we're seeing already I'm really looking at the universal basic income and seeing how that could be a tool to help deal with a lot of these poverty-stricken communities and people who have been struggling and still unable to dig themselves out of a hole there and seeing how that potentially could replace a lot of the bureaucracy a lot of the money that we're spending on bureaucracy and a lot of social welfare programs perhaps to both save money and to provide support directly to people who need it

I think that's an option that we've got to consider there's it's not simple and so I'm doing the research and figuring out how exactly that would work and how exactly would pay for it but we also have to look at affordable housing I think not accepting the fact that the high cost of housing is what it is is not the solution there's a lot of money that goes into our Housing and Urban Development Department but is it really having the effect that we needed to have to make it so that you know whether it's cops or teachers or firefighters people who are working these public service jobs are able to afford to live in live in the communities where they're working we were in Malibu yesterday we had a town hall there yesterday and took a tour with the mayor City councilmembers Community leaders around a lot of the areas that were completely devastated by the fires and that was one of the things that they mentioned is that they pointed out a trailer park traditionally where a lot of those First Responders live that's where the workforce in

Malibu have lived in that trailer park and they said that it's not unheard of that one of those trailer homes go for a million bucks a million bucks and you don't even get to own the land that your trailer sits on and so this is a real problem that they're facing is people who are teaching in that area the firefighters who are working in that area they're not able to afford to live in the community that they serve but how could that be fixed that's a supply and demand thing there's not that much beachfront area these I mean you know there's there's land in the valleys and other areas but some communities are dealing with this both in the private sector there's there's hotels in Hawaii for example who are recognizing that they can't attract workers to work in the hotels because they can't afford to live near where they work and they're starting to buy a properties to actually provide that Workforce housing at an affordable cost to be able to attract those workers some communities are doing the same thing for for First Responders for firefighters and other so this is

problem that that a lot of you know City council's and local communities are trying to deal with and solve but I think it also points to a bigger problem that we have nationally that there is just not enough affordable truly affordable housing for working people in the country but a place like Malibu is always been this exclusive Community because there's just not that much Malibu right it's right next to the water so it's more valuable yeah like if is there a way to do anything that would change that well this that's what I was asking the mayor about and that and that was so that was one of the things they said that has been you know people look at Malibu and they're like well that's where a bunch of multi-millionaire rich people go and buy their beach homes yeah but there has always been you know the basis of that Community was really founded on those who worked to build the community you know middle middle class middle class people who are increasingly being pushed out if you're not living in the home that

you know your grandfather your great-grandfather built then you're not going to be able to afford to stay there so you know he didn't get into the the details on what they're looking at but this is something that the city council and the mayor are grappling with now to be able to attract workers who want to work in the area but who don't want to have to drive two hours or three hours just to get to their place of work yeah I just don't know how you would ever do that yeah especially with all those Fat Cats the living in Malibu mean it's a crazy place to live yeah those houses on the beach or like ridiculously expensive yeah and that's where a lot of I mean a lot of the folks who were talking to yesterday they live you know up on the mountain or in the valley or that's a better spot anyway I think that the thing about being by the beach is people could just kind of hang out in your backyard like right there like right where your bedroom is Stephanie people that are cooking out four feet away from your head yeah that's so much privacy got none it's the beach it's everybody's yeah

like if people have tried to kick people off of it to which gets really strange yeah there's been a lot of those cases where they hire private security yeah but it's like trying to kick someone out of a park because you decided to have a picnic that's a grown man this beach is everybody exact that's the ocean stay that way yeah it has to stay that way I have a problem with this is a personal problem with with municipalities that charge you to go to the beach crazy so if I have no money in my pocket you're going to Bar me from going and putting my feet on the sand and going for a surf in the ocean that's just wrong it's insane wrong it is wrong right I mean I could see if you had a donation box to help people clean up the beach that's all I could say donations yep that's all throw some money and I need like I'll pay for my parking sure sure no don't stop me from coming on the beach like I'll catch a bus if I don't have any money I'll get the bus to the beach Poor People's you've gotta like that's the whole reason we have these national parks zactly National Wilderness areas

anybody anybody can get in there yeah that's the beautiful thing about one of the best things about the the system that we have in place in America yeah is that there's so much public land and people don't understand that they've never been to other countries where that's just not the case everything is private in many many countries you can't just go camping can't just take a raft and go down the river you can't just do that and what happens when those public spaces are lost it's harder lost their lost forever you pave over them when you develop them yeah you know when your beach has become trash with pollution and others like that's a treasure it's a treasure that's lost well we have our forefathers to thank for their foresight like Theodore Roosevelt saw this in advance and met with great resistance from a lot of big businesses that just wanted to put apartments up everywhere and start building factories yeah and we created this incredible system of public land in this country that's unprecedented yeah

I mean only Canada is something that rivaled us well I guess is Australia's Got a lot of public land to but it's just it there's other countries that have it but it's amazing what we have here and in terms of our diversity of scenery and and where you could go to mean you could go to the desert or you could go to Idaho and you know gorgeous vehicle Kano in Hawaii yeah well I think you guys have an advantage I really do and I've said this about many people that are faced with incomparable Beauty and this inarguable sense of your perspective and I think if you're living on a volcano in the middle of the ocean you're five hours by plane from anywhere like you guys have a different vibe you know and I think yeah you know I mean you go to you you turn on the news or you talk to politicians in Washington by okay we've got to protect our environment and it's becomes like a political talking point but I'm so grateful to have grown up in Hawaii and

you know that talking point is actually a way of life hmm like this connection that we have you know with nature with Mother Earth is something that's real and its cultural and it's passed down from generations and it's it's actually living out that that saying that Mahatma Gandhi had that the Earth provides enough for everyone's need but not everyone's greed and what a powerful thing that is and we think about both how we live our lives personally in being respectful and being thoughtful about our impact on other people and on our planet and then of course for policymakers who are making those decisions about how our natural resources are used stopping them from being exploited or polluted or lost for you know short-term monetary profits or gains there's a certain thing that happens in Hawaii as well where people are more accountable because you can't get away from anybody that's right somebody's uncle

Auntie is going to see him be like hey Junior what's going on - you're on an island where you going you gotta be nice I can't drive like a dick yeah I worked for senator akaka who is a u.s. senator from Hawaii for many like decades in Washington and I worked for him in Washington for two years between my two deployments but he was a guy who embodied that Aloha Spirit his wife who we call Auntie Millie she's got a she's a firecracker she's a little feisty but even she's like a you don't talk think about anybody in Hawaii because you never know you might be related to them yeah but you know it's good words to live by whether you're related or not just hey don't talk stink don't talk trash about somebody show respect yeah sure that Aloha even if even if you're different even if you disagree show that respect that's that's what my boss did that's what Senator akaka did and and

no he passed away a couple of years ago but people in Washington still remember and talk about him Democrats and Republicans it's just the kindest human being I've ever known the problem with people is talking stink is fun especially when there's nobody around here right it's like a national Pastime in many ways but yeah this spreading of bad vibes discouraged in an area where you kind of have to know most of the people around yeah you know yeah which I want to give a shout out to one of the guys I met yesterday in Malibu a guy named Keegan he organized like I don't know 20 or 25 of his friends and they went and they just started like fighting fires in people's houses all on their own organized like Aid stations and food stations getting generators and they did incredible work but I told him I was coming on your show today and he was he just said that that Joe Rogan and his show has made such a deep impact on my life

because he went from somebody who was really triggered was the word he used by people who were saying things that he disagreed with and you inspired him to kind of open his mind and his eyes and to recognize that we are stronger and we are better when we have this kind of respectful discourse we're open to hearing from and I'm trying to understand people who may have a different view rather than being triggered and running away in the opposite direction or reacting in a negative way so I just wanted to pass that on because you made a big impact on him and on a lot of a lot of his friends and a lot of people in the country and that that's having a positive impact on you know our culture well that's very nice and shout out to Keegan I appreciate that um I think that's something we can all learn how to do and I learned how to do it yeah it's not something I was naturally I didn't know

we gravitate towards having good conversations with people yeah it was a dickhead when I was young and I was fighting all the time yeah most of what I did was involved with I was involved martial arts so I was always involved with competition was always very intense and I was very competitive and I wasn't necessarily that nice you know all the time and when I examined my life over time I realized that the things that always felt the worst were conflicts that were unnecessary and particularly the things that I judged myself the most harshly work my mistakes or failures in my attempts at doing things it was my misbehaving the my just being a jerk where was it necessary or having an opportunity to be nice and not taking it for escalating things where I could have used diplomacy right and I just learned over time that a lot of it is the way I was communicating with people where I was failing was

I was approaching their thoughts and that I was immediately trying to be right rather than listen to them and I was thinking about them differently than I think about myself one of the things that happened to me when I had children was I started thinking of people like babies that grew up I think of everyone like old people like freaks me out when I go to the I was in a casino yesterday I was passed by this old lady smoking cigarettes playing bingo or playing roulette rather slots whatever the fuck it is whatever wasted money and I'm watching her do this and I'm like this is those a baby that was someone's baby now here it is barely hey what happened between who the fuck knows right maybe that's what she likes to do maybe I'm just an idiot but my my perspective has radically shifted and as I've gotten older and then started this podcast the thing that I realized was that I needed to get better at talking to people when I was doing the podcast need to get better at listening

and then I needed to have less bias

perspectives May less biased points of view and just try to understand what someone saying and I disagree disagree and try to be as nice as possible while also being accurate about how much something bothers me yeah but being nice like the we could do that we could all be better off that way you know and I share a lot of but let me know when you get to these like if you want to look at the left or the right I share so much in common with so many people in both the left and the right that I will almost want to put a graph down of like what how do you live your life like are you nice to people are you are you friendly do you have good friends you care about do you have buddies it could call you at four o'clock in the morning say you got to drive two hours and pick me up and you would immediately do it yeah like what what do you like okay then what's bothering you what's bothering you in the news what's bothering you and why do these things exist and how many of them are bullshit

and for me it's like there was a lot of them that were bullshit I was like what am I wasting time and effort and thinking about what do I care what people do I don't I don't care I want you to be nice and that's it and then it gets down to political and social issues and it gets down to the heavy ones things like abortion and War and you know freedom of religion and then these these things I think are the ones where we should all just be communicating as calmly in as in as objectively as possible and we should discourage this this tribal perspective discourage this idea of being married to your own ideas and and trying to win these arguments which you see in Congress which you see in political campaigns which you see in television news is a fucking dumpster fire every single time they have the panel with the three people is just black how much it anymore it's nonsense thank you for your time what did you what what

waste is this is just people shouting over people you never find out what the fuck anybody really believes just hear their their talking points blurted and vomited out right and this acts the news what's actually happening is completely lost and it's so it's so limited and this is how a lot of us are getting our view of the world yeah and I feel like things are changing I think the world is a different place than it was even just 10 years ago I think I think so too I think humans are different and I think we just were not aware of how much all this conversation of on all of our analyzing the world around us has shifted over the last decade or so yeah people are looking I feel like people are looking for for the facts they're looking for more information they're less likely to just accept at face value what they're seeing on TV or what they're hearing which I think is a positive thing and I think

I think we do need to look at the leadership of this country to to set this culture for civil discourse for making it making it okay and encouraging actually those kinds of conversations and that's where if you look at it you watch C-SPAN one night when you can't fall asleep you'll see in the Floor of Congress you've got the Democrats who are all sitting on one side you've got the Republicans all sitting on the other side and unfortunately not often enough do you see intermingling and conversation and people go into the other side of the aisle and after getting getting to know people that was something that when I first got elected I was told look as a new member of Congress serving in the minority with Republicans in charge coming from a small state like Hawaii you will never get anything done so just accept it just accept that reality that you're not going to get anything done wait several years or whatever but one of the first things that I did was I got to get to know

people I got to make friends so I my mom and dad they're small business owners and they have this macadamia nut toffee business and so I called home and I said hey Mom can you make 434 boxes of your toffee for every single member of Congress all the Democrats all the Republicans she's like wow that's a great idea yeah sure I'd be happy to and then I said well I got one more one more request can you make a bigger box 435 bigger boxes of toffee for the staff of every member of Congress because they're the ones who make shit happen and she said okay that's gonna save me a little bit longer but yes I think that's a great idea so you know I started writing handwritten notes to every one of my colleagues introducing myself and as we started delivering these little gifts of Aloha to their offices it was amazing how quickly I saw while on the house floor casting votes have Republican chairman of powerful committees

making their way across from the Republican side to the Democratic side saying thank you so much I really appreciate it was delicious I need to get more from you because I ate it all I got to take some home to my wife or my husband and then saying tell me what's going on in Hawaii tell me what issues your constituents are worried about I'm the chairman of the transportation committee the agriculture committee or whatever it is let me know how we can work together just that one small Outreach of Aloha open the doors to these relationships that enabled me to be able to pass my first piece of legislation like my first six months as a member of Congress from a small state in the minority as a Democrat and it's because just treating people with respect treating people with Aloha and saying yeah we can disagree even on nine out of ten things but on that tent thing like hey let's talk let's get something done was that eye-opening for you and when did you at that moment I realized like hey I not only can I make an impact here I can do this the way I want

yeah I can be a kind person and reach out and I mean and I don't have to listen to these people that are entrenched exactly it directly disproved what we were told in those first days as new members of Congress in Washington and further affirmed what I already knew both from what I learned from Senator akaka what I knew from growing up in Hawaii with the Aloha spirit that this this ability to transcend all of The Superficial divisiveness whether it be based on politics like you said or religion or race or ethnicity or or any of these other things is what has the power to bring us together as a country that's a beautiful thing to hear like that it's true that's what people want to hear they want to hear someone who thinks that way yeah and that like oh we're okay we're going to be okay like we can move forward and be okay and do this like like human beings not like politicians yeah exactly there's a politician way of talking and I

to avoid at all costs I want you to never do this thing with your thumb don't do that because I'm also talking to someone and they did that thing with your thumb I'd be like hey bro what the fuck's wrong with your hand if you're not you didn't just have a stronk your goddamn hand down II never realized it until I started watching like myself give speeches on TV that I do talk a lot with my hand that's fine but don't do that thanks one yeah this it's just as offensive as if you just started putting up your dukes like if you started like we're gonna go out there and like what are you doing man you fighting people exactly this is a we're worse yet talking down like this is a teacher move right I feel like this is a teacher move in the military they call it the knife hand you see like the drill instructors are like come on private yeah but he'll be back at some drill instructor exactly you're supposed to listen to fucking public servant is like it a half a fist yeah like there's no reason ever put your hand like that this is not a good move like unless you're trying to poke somebody in the artists are only reason why you should have your thumb up like that even know where that comes from that's a Clinton move

Clinton I think was the first guy to do it really that was his shit he's to do that funny what we're going to do here he's to have this thing he would do to some yeah would drive me crazy I feel like this is such a bizarre thing he doesn't want to be forceful she doesn't want to have a fist and he doesn't want to do this method just stick one finger out that that D escalates who's making fun of that Beto Guy what's his name yeah is hand movements got some wacky hand stuff that he does you can't be named Beto I'm sorry it's too close to Beta just everyone should have told him that you one vowel way from being like the most mocked thing in society when it comes to males can't do that I don't even know if he's a good guy or not and you can't do that yet again guy he's a friend of mine change name homie yeah it's too late you gotta get out and get plastic surgery come back with a different social security number it's too close yeah and don't be skateboarding no no what's wrong with keep our know what you're doing is you know what he's doing it I was just

around young Duty probably knows what he's doing and look I get it okay look sloppy I didn't see it was pretty sloppy

but it's a thing that people do with I'm one of you haha come on I'm gonna you guys come on it's like get out of here with that will ya this is I don't know sometimes like you know I'll post a little little videos that Abraham takes this GoPro of us out surfing hmm and sometimes I get that people like oh like why are you trying to pretend some things I'm like dude I just love the ocean I love surfing I want to share this with everybody yeah it's a simple thing people are funny like that and they don't want you to be fake so angry they also don't want you to be real oh that's true too right yeah that's true yeah so it's I don't know it's some kind of in between or something I don't know well I think there's just certain people that are malcontents yeah you're not going to you know as you addressed all the people that are upset at you all the time you would never get anything done right yeah how are you recognizing that though because you're how old are you 38 you're not that you know you're very young in terms of like

someone is going to be president yeah that's Young when I got your dirties I'll be I'll be you're not that young not that yeah 38 for the president's that's young is show how old was JFK when he got elected if you like 41 yeah 42 old and use them like that barely I'll be like I'll be 40 when I'm sworn in sworn in as President right right around there okay but like I say when but exactly confidence look look at look at Donald Trump though right so what he's in his mid 70s right but his maturity is of an adolescent he's a Kennedy best he's ever felt that he should have been a comedian telling you the guy would have been killing it yeah comic instead of a real estate developer great timing yeah that's true yeah he's very important but my point is maturity maturity matters yes experience matters and that the experience that I bring is different from any other candidate who's running for president of serving as a soldier for 16 years of serving in Congress on these on

Committees of importance to National Security you know I've served this state legislature and the city council and look when you look back we talked about our founding fathers most of them who crafted the Constitution and who wrote the Declaration of Independence were under the age of 40 many young people ages of 30 like 40 back men still still we're talking about experience and maturity here I know your your know you're defending yourself I fully support you I think you could be president 38 I really do I don't think it's a problem and at 40 for sure you'll be 24 years older or 24 months older you going to be wiser you'll have it nailed but we do Wonder right like how when has a person had enough life experience and what but then again the question is what is that life experience is it life experience like you said that leads you to be an immature seven-year-old or is the life experience of someone who's served in combat

and has been in Congress or six years and someone who understands how this government works and has a better perspective of human beings yeah it is it is that experience and it's what you draw from it and the conclusions in the judgment and the kind of leadership that you would exercise yeah you know there were a lot of folks in 2016 who said Hillary Clinton was the most experienced candidate ever to run for president because of the job she had held or the experience that she had had my problem was with her judgment and the kinds of decisions that she would make as commander-in-chief decisions that would continue to send people like me and my brothers and sisters in uniform to continue to fight in these wasteful regime change Wars that actually dishonor the oath that we all take when we volunteer to serve to serve to protect and defend our country and the American people and instead sending us on these missions that are counter to that promise that

our national security that undermine the great sacrifice that our troops and their families make so it's that judgment it's the experience and the Judgment that I believe we need to look for in the next commander-in-chief it's what I bring to the table and it's what I challenge voters to ask the other candidates and to hold them to account on both of those fronts would they be ready to walk into that Oval Office on day one and to serve our country as commander-in-chief one of the messages that Trump was very successful in getting out was that he wanted to drain the swamp that we all realize that there's just this tangled web of bureaucracy yeah and that he did a good job of connecting Hillary to that bureaucracy and say this woman is just completely entrenched in this world she's never going to get out she's not even a real person anymore she's just a professional politician and he would highlight all the different things that she did and lied and all called her crooked Hillary and that just got stuck what made him

one of the things that made him very attractive to people said he seemed like a person didn't seem like a politician I seem like a person how do you avoid communicating like a politician when you're doing this in Mass when you're communicating with giant groups of people when you're you're having these big speeches in these big places how do you do it without being how do you do it and still let people know you're just a person because that's I think what people are longing for yeah and what they don't see in many candidates you see this act like always pretty good at his act but I see the ACT yeah I don't see a person yeah

being myself speaking the truth and standing up for what I believe in and why I'm offering to serve our country and there's no really there's no other way to do it because if I start like okay how am I going to convey myself as a real person the only way to do that is to actually be a real person and who speaking truthfully and honestly and respecting the American people and the responsibility that I'm asking them to bestow upon me that mission that I'm asking them to charge me with does this

you've said you've always been drawn to service yeah does this seem like a calling to you like what is this feel like to you this idea that you are going to be the commander-in-chief of the greatest army the world has ever known the leader of the Free World in a sense yeah what does that what does that seem like to you the the grave responsibility that that job carries and the seriousness with which I would bring my experience in my judgment to fulfilling that job you know this is I think one of the problems that we have too often in our politics is that people self-serving politicians are more interested in keeping their job or in getting the next job or you know in lining their pockets getting ready for the you know the afterlife or whatever when they leave their political office that that somehow is is defining of who they are rather than recognizing

that to be able to serve the people is a great honor and it's tremendous responsibility and that's how I approach serving in you know the local the state level and a Congress and and how I approach being able to serve the American people as president and commander-in-chief it is a grave responsibility and I will never forget for a single moment who I serve and who I work for what is your take on Wikileaks and Julian Assange

what happened with the with his arrest and all this stuff that just went down I think poses a great threat to our freedom of the press and to our freedom of speech we look at what happened under the previous administration under Obama you know they were trying to find ways to go after Assange and Wikileaks But ultimately they chose not to seek to extradite him or charge him because they recognized what a slippery slope that begins when you have a government in a position to Levy criminal charges and consequences against someone who's publishing information or saying things that the government doesn't want you to say the government doesn't sharing information the government government doesn't want you to share and so the fact that the Trump Administration has chosen to ignore that fact to ignore how important it is

we uphold our freedoms freedom of the press and freedom of speech and go after him it has a very chilling effect on both journalists and Publishers and you can look to both those in the traditional media but also those in New Media and also on every one of us as American it was it was a kind of a warning call saying look what happened to this guy it could happen to you could happen to anyone of us what's very transparent to because there's no real compelling crime for them to be going after him the way they are there's not one thing that stands out and the latest one is hacking and some what's not even hacking it's conspiracy a conspiracy charges that doesn't make any sense that they would spend that much time going after that guy for those charges yeah it's obvious and very transparent that there's another ulterior motive an ulterior motive is that he leaked a bunch of things that were incredibly embarrassing that's right and not only that but I think it was secretary Pompeo Secretary of State who

said that they wanted to designate Wikileaks and Assange as a foreign intelligence agency so once you do that then you're talking about a whole different category so they're pushing out information once again that the government didn't want pushed out and if the government then says oh well now we're going to reclassify as a foreign intelligence agency then there's a whole different set of rules of engagement that apply there then you're no longer protected under you know the freedoms that we hold dear the freedom of the press did you such a disgusting way of framing things like you know he's on a foreign intelligence agent yeah he's he's a guy that got information and released it to the general public that the government wanted to keep private it's really that simple yeah Edward Snowden yeah

was it similar similar situation similar situation I don't think I don't think we I remember the very day that I woke up in DC looked at my phone started looking through the headlines and saw those headlines about how the NSA was mass surveilling all of us in collecting our phone records collecting our cell phone records and Verizon AT&T T-Mobile and I was I was shocked so that was something that Snowden uncovered and released something that I don't know that even as members of Congress we would have been aware of so now that we were aware of it then hey we can take action to close those loopholes to change those policies to protect our civil liberties to protect our fourth amendment constitutional rights as Americans but was the NSA going to disclose that information voluntarily on their own absolutely not and then we would have had no idea we would had suspicions but then

and we'd have tinfoil hats on and there was a gentleman who is who left the NSA very early on Hill was that was his last name but he was one of the first ones to discuss this is post 9/11 when they first started doing it but Snowden was the guy that really made it abundantly clear to everybody that not only are they doing that but they're also lying about it and even Obama was talking about we're just collecting better data yeah metadata no you're not she was reading messages you could do anything exactly this is just not an accurate assessment of what was going on no and it was outrageous to notable and you had I think he was the the director of the Department of National Intelligence at that time James Clapper who sat before a committee and the United States Senate and blatantly lied yeah he was asked very directly are you collecting this information and he said no yeah are you collecting this information on American citizens and he said no and yet he's somebody who you see

TV almost every day as an expert in this country without any consequence lying to the American people and I think that if you poll the American people and you asked us to vote on it you know I think it would be a gigantic Landslide victory for Edward Snowden to be exonerated and brought back to United States we've got this guy he's in Russia now hiding like it's crazy that he lives over there and he can't leave and if he does come over here they're going to immediately going to lock him up yeah what would you do as president one thing that I think I want to answer your question but one thing that I think speaks to the Dane the dangerous nature of this culture that we're living in now the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer had done an interview on I don't know one of the major networks and I think he was I think he was talking about Trump when he said be careful you don't want to challenge the intelligence agencies

basically putting out that threat I don't know if you can pull that exact quote up but I was shocked when I heard him say that because it basically makes out that these intelligence agencies are their own separate branch of government and that if anyone of us as Americans or elected leaders in this country dares to challenge or exercise oversight over them then we will suffer the consequences so as president I would change that culture of leadership that that leadership starts at the top and when you have people in positions of leadership who continue to perpetuate that culture of unaccountability of complete disrespect and disregard for the constitution of not understanding that yes we need to keep our country safe we also need to protect our constitutional rights this is not a choice between the two which is so often how its framed well if you want to protect us against terrorists you've got to give up all of your rights as Americans and your civil liberties

privacy's and and just let these intelligence agencies Run Run free and run roughshod over us and so that's the kind of change in leadership that I'll bring there's a whole host of policies that we can look at for example with the Patriot Act the Patriot Act is up for reauthorization in Congress this year there have been different sections of it that we have worked to try to change and reform to make it so that agencies like the NSA cannot collect our private information as Americans without a warrant but there is far more that has to be done to undo the damage that that we've already seen the abuse of our of our rights and privacies that we've already seen did you ever listen to that Kennedy's speech about secret societies Kennedy had a fantastic speech before he was assassinated where he was discussing this very thing and he apparently had

Notions of disbanding the CIA and he was very concerned with the power people like J Edgar Hoover course and that this was all happening while he was president and he felt like there were people that were involved in these secret societies in these secret meetings and that there was a lot of conspiracy going on and he thought the very idea was repugnant it's a fantastic speech just as it in the Press is what it's like yeah title it's a fantastic speech I'll check it out but this is always been the real concern that people have that when you give someone the ability to surveil the general population when you give us a they're going to use some of that information to Aid in their allies and to work against their enemies yeah that is I miss a valid concern yes and I mean this is what unfortunately we've already seen this is what has been revealed by some of that information yeah that was released by Snowden and

for example the fisa court as we have it now is a secret court that has been has been abused for that purpose allowing for that surveillance of Americans violating our civil liberties and privacy these and that's something that we've got to fix that whole that whole fisa Court from top to bottom and how the different judges to explain waited to people it's it's basically it's a it's a secret court that was appointed I believe they're created back in the 70s with the initial objective of providing oversight over the Executive Branch Mass surveillance that was happening at that time or illegal surveillance that was happening at that time unfortunately especially since 9/11 now you have this fisa court that is both used to approve surveillance and surveillance programs on foreign targets but also

so on Americans as well the one of the many problems with this is it's a secret Court where you have a judge and you have someone representing the government whether it be one of the Intel agencies or the dod or whatever coming before this court in making their case to try to get this warrant approved by the judge there is no Advocate there for the people there is no civil liberties or privacy Advocate there it's a one-sided conversation and the information being provided by the government is the only information that's being given to the judge so this is one of the big problems there and we've seen over decades now and especially since after 9/11 that there have been very very very few applications for these surveillance warrants that have been rejected by the judges so you know a rubber stamping of these applications

warrants is really what appears to be happening you know there's a few different ways that we're looking at trying to fix this there are some who are arguing to take away the fisa court completely one of the concerns about that is that if we do that then there has to be some other entity in place to exercise oversight over the Executive Branch and not allow them to conduct this surveillance you know willy-nilly as they please so it's figuring out exactly what what are the best reforms to meet that objective of providing that that oversight making it so that those warrants are given you know as needed and making sure that all in all the information is being presented and again that that fisa Court was initially put in place to go after to get warrants to conduct surveillance on foreign targets not Americans and that's been one of the biggest problems here with a lot of this Mass surveillance has its

our information as Americans illegally and unconstitutionally because you can't do that unless you go through this process and you actually get a warrant based on evidence what would you do about Julian Assange what would you do about Edward Snowden

as far as what would you do when I'm doing dropping the charger president of the world right now what do you think the charges you drop the charges but they're still going after him for something from Sweden and Julian assange's case yeah and so Edward Snowden would be the only one that you would be able to write Because unless you would influence the charges that the Trump Administration is on Julian Assange right exactly and it remains to be seen whether or not they will push for extradition there's another charge that was I think it was today the Sweden decided to go after him again for some sexual thing they had decided to go after many many years ago Edward Snowden

what he's doing right now is essentially living day to day hold up in Russia yeah in hiding and the charges against him stem from again this illegal operation that he in many ways he's very patriotic me he let us know and it's a great cause yeah so you would give him a pardon yeah yeah and I think address we've got to address why he did the things the way that he did them and you hear the same thing from Chelsea Manning how there is not there is not an actual channel for whistleblowers like them to bring forward information that exposes egregious abuses of our constitutional rights and liberties

period there's there was not a channel for that to happen in a real way and that's why they ended up taking the path that they did and suffering the consequences there's a great Bill Hicks bit about what happens when you become president that they bring you in a room filled with smoke cigar smoking but these industrialists and they play a video of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you never saw before and they say any questions and he had this bit and I thought about this bit when I thought about Obama because Obama when he had his hope and change website when he was running for president one of the things that they dress is whistleblowers and how much they would provide a platform for whistleblowers to expose illegal activity that was still on his website while he was president and while Julian Assange was getting arrested and while this all this was going down and they wound up taking it down off of the website once somebody pointed it out like hey you had this what what

it's when you become president what do you think happens and why do these do you think that there are full of shit and they're just saying what what we want to hear so they can get elected or do you think that there is something that happens to them once they get into office do you think that it's possible that they're given information that shows the real threats that the world has and there's things that the general public is just not privy to and these are what influences people's decisions to go against all the things they were saying when they're running for president yeah look I haven't been with them and been those rooms so I won't speak for for that which I do not know but what I do know is this is what happens when you have people who are elected to serve in this job as president whose most important responsibility as commander-in-chief and they lack the experience and the

understanding to be able to make the right kinds of decisions that serve the American people and end up even those going in with the best of intentions end up being very influenced whether it be by the military-industrial complex or the foreign policy establishment that as we've seen over decades has crossed both political parties both political parties in these areas often end up making the very same decisions about continuing these wasteful regime change Wars and acting as the world's police and therefore listening to them because they lack that experience or that backbone and understanding themselves and then just continue the status quo you know Trump was somebody who during his campaign talked a lot about ending the stupid Wars talked about going after Saudi Arabia that they're the biggest supporters of terrorism in the world and you know what happened now

you know in his administration what he called draining the swamp he's turned that swamp into a cesspool you look at the people he surrounded himself by some of the biggest war hawks that our country has seen guys like John Bolton people like Mike Pompeo people who wanted to go to war against Iran for a very long time people who have been cozy with Saudi Arabia for a very long time you see who he's nominating to be Secretary of Defense long time defense contract career man like over 30 years I think working for Boeing you see the kinds of people who he's surrounded himself by and so it's it it doesn't take a lot to figure out how he has been influenced by them in continuing these regime change or this regime change is still going on in Syria now threatening regime change in Venezuela threatening regime change and disruption in Iran and that's the difference that's the difference quite bluntly between me and other people who are running

for president is that experience and understanding that I bring to be able to walk into that office to do that job as commander-in-chief and on day one and to not succumb to the The Establishment that that I have both felt the effects of as a soldier as well as seen in action as a member of Congress I'm going in with both both eyes wide open and understanding the situation as it really exists and most importantly understanding who I work for that I work for the American people do you think when someone like Trump radically shifted his position he's doing so because it's been influenced to change his position because he's been given more information or do you think they become compromised when they're on an office and they I scratch your back you scratch mine

I don't know how to I imagine that there's probably some of both mmm but if you're if you don't have the strength of your convictions and your understanding about what kinds of policies actually best serve the American people then you can see how easily you'd be swayed and influenced by others you know you saw Trump's rhetoric on the campaign Trail about Saudi Arabia against Saudi Arabia against the United States support for Saudi Arabia calling them out for what they are and now refusing to end US military support for this genocide 'l war in Yemen that Saudi Arabia is waging that's created the worst humanitarian crisis of Our Generation because he says well he doesn't want to risk a multi-billion dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia

so you know you can see at least in that respect what he's really motivated by that he doesn't he would rather continue to support the senseless and devastating deaths of innocent people in Yemen and using our US military my brothers and sisters in the military to do that because he doesn't want to risk an arms deal with Saudi Arabia Theocratic dictatorship that actually directly supports terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda it's hard for people to imagine that that's the case that it's an arms deal and they want to make sure that this deal goes through and that it continues to be financially productive for both Nations well that's a you know this is Trump's argument he's like well you know that's American jobs building those weapons that were selling to Saudi Arabia that's what's at risk my challenge to him and to the American people is if the best our president can do to help support the creation of

in this country is to build weapons that are being dropped on innocent people in countries like Yemen then we need a new president we need a new commander-in-chief that will actually help serve the best interests of our people and work towards the interest of peace peace here at home and peace abroad yeah the idea that it's just jobs it's not just jobs I mean there's consequences to these jobs

you were talking about Universal basic income earlier and you were saying it in regards to dealing with impoverished communities but one of the the big issues that people think we're going to need Universal basic income for is automation something that Andrew Yang is built this whole platform on Elon Musk is talked extensively about it we are in a situation where there was an article today about Amazon using Automotive these forget exactly how to describe it but essentially robots that are packaging things and automation is going to start taking over many non skilled jobs and this is true with the travel industry with Trucking with moving things shipping the we're going to see less and less of these unskilled jobs and we're going to see millions of people out of work and that Universal basic income may be the only way to bridge that gap between them finding some sort of viable new

source of income yeah I think that's certainly part of it I think that's a I mean it's a strong argument we got to figure out how we pay for it and how it actually you know achieves that intended objective but also look at making that those kinds of investments in in how do you train a whole new Workforce and in what new areas so when you're taking people who are working and you know really tough tough labor jobs you know you hear all these stories about people who are working at Amazon very long hours very stringent timelines and and so if they're now being replaced by automation or robots or whatever it is you know let's look at our economy and see how we can you know help train folks for for jobs that pay more money and and hopefully help offer a better quality of life and I think that's overall when we look at this I think that's that's the way that we should be addressing this is

not just a job as a job as a job as a job yeah but really looking at the quality of life of people in this country that a job does not equal happiness or fulfillment but really looking at you know parents who have a child and who want to be able to spend some time at home raising that child or you know someone who wants to start start a small business and work out of their home to be able to hang out with their kids more or whatever the case may be I think as we look at this and how we make this transition in a positive way in this country we've got to look at it from this comprehensive approach yeah the idea of these people that are working in these fulfillment centers being happy seems pretty ridiculous yeah they're not happy they have those jobs those people are in back-breaking incredibly stressful positions where if you read the reports I mean I don't know how accurate their reports of what the job is like but they literally run

from one place to another they're timed and have them brakes yeah yeah time limits yeah this part of the problem with

the idea that companies are supposed to constantly make more and more money as you get Ruth ruthlessly competitive people looking at the bottom line every single aspect of that business and one of the things that suffers is human human sacrifice at satisfaction and their their sacrifice has to be greater because they have to find a way to justify their position in the company yeah and so they get paid very little they work very hard yeah and now the guy always perfect company like Amazon paying not only paying no taxes but I think this is for the third year in a row yeah and also getting I think this last year was over a hundred twenty five million dollar tax credit that's on top of this Jeff Bezos has how much I got a hundred fifty billion dollars is going to give 75 to his wife and write the whole thing is ridiculous and it's what people who are lean socialist point to when they talk about unchecked capitalism without any sort of Regulation that

and stop something like that from happening and stop workers from being exploited in that way yeah just and people say hey you don't you don't have to have that job if you don't you know you don't want that job don't take it but no one should have to have that job how about that yeah how about if there's a job that makes you have timed bathroom breaks and run from one place to another you should get paid a fuckload of money for that job that job should be something that it it sucks all day long but dude I make $5,000 a week and people are what yeah man eight hours a day five thought you gotta run yeah but when at the end at least save up your money man you make a lot of money that way yeah people would go okay yeah and Amazon would still make a shitload of money yeah if they did it that way but automation barely making I mean they're barely making minimum wage it's crazy I mean so that's where I think we you know is as and look that this automation really changing our economy is something that I think we're behind the curve ball on

because it's already happening but let's try to see the opportunity in that where if robots are going to start taking over those back-breaking jobs then then let's try to find you know new and innovative ways for people to work in to earn a living that's actually bringing value to them that sounds awesome on paper yeah how would one ever do that's what we've got to work out and and it's not I'm not saying that hey there's a government solution to this and snap your fingers and it's all done now the I mean this is government has a role and private sector private business has a role and we've got to we've got to work together because this is all of our futures how you imagined any potential any possibility any potential solution

well I think there's there's pieces of it right I mean it's making sure that we close these these loopholes that tax loopholes that allow companies like Amazon to get away with paying no taxes and to get this much money back is the tax credit how do they do that oh gosh I mean our tax code is so complicated you know it has to do with the write-offs and how many years and depreciation and all of these different things that they plan for and they exploit in order to pay no taxes and to get money back in return it's just so easily it is and and it's this crony capitalism that's really at the heart of this problem how how do we how do they get that kind of sweet deal when you look at the tax code that's written we look at the tax bills that are passed who are the people who are helping influence and write those bills they're the big paid lobbyists that Amazon has in Washington who are saying hey this is something that we want to see in there and working with lawmakers who their cozy with to get that legislation in there well this is

of the things that has come out about Trump over the last week or two is that he lost a billion dollars over the course of x amount of years and that this is not really accurate but that this is how he set like thing he say that we declare based business basically did basically said it's sport is when said his description was that it's sport wow so essentially he was playing within the rules no one's accusing him of doing anything illegal but the way he framed his taxes the way he it turned out to be more than a billion dollars worth of losses over a period of something like a decade yeah and you know people like what the hell is that he's like look that's why I was trying to tell you he was basically trying to say look this is something that I was telling you people about when I was running for president that the system is rigged I know because it was a part of the rig system and I pay these people off yeah it is rigged but how

would you get in without getting assassinated how do you get in and say hey all you billionaires that are making all this money you're going to make less money now because of Tulsi president Tulsi is coming in there's a new sheriff in town yeah sheriff with an army of people in this country mobilizing saying this government was put in place to serve us to serve the people and as much money and high-paid lobbyist is these guys have ultimately it is the people of this country who cast the votes and is ultimately the people in this country who have the power if we choose to use it if we choose to make sure that our voices are heard and that that is the way that we make this change so would you have to simplify the tax code would you have too many things have a heavily simplify the tax code and you know I'm working with my team we're doing our research to figure out exactly what that would look like but I think we do have to simplify the tax code because it is so many of these loopholes and massive corporate deductions that have brought us to the place where we are

a where you know most folks are not getting any kind of meaningful deduction most folks certainly are not getting the kinds of tax breaks that these corporations are getting because it's these corporations are influencing how our tax laws are written and it's written to benefit them the the ultra-rich in the 1% and you know people who are working very hard every single day are struggling they're still struggling just to get by what kind of dirty tricks do you think they will pull out against you if you try to fix the tax code and try to make corporations accountable and make sure that they have to pay if they're coming after you now and you're just making waves and get ready for 2020 and it could be it could be pretty gross yeah yeah but I just I don't underestimate the power of people that's what I tell them you know and they've been playing these dirty tricks for a long time there is more and more people I think in this country who are paying attention

and we're calling him out on it don't underestimate the power of the people you know what I think too I think it'd be better for them

like Jeff Bezos you know you fucking people over not paying taxes bro so much money you and I'm sure he pays taxes I don't know what he pays but you know the idea that Amazon's figured out how to weasel that out but that's preposterous I mean you hear stuff like you know Warren Buffett talks about this about he pays a lower tax rate yes that his secretary as the famous line how is that because he has look he's figured out all of these holes of than the tax system right that he can benefit from to pay lower taxes when most people don't have that ability and as a business person who's also fairly ethical you have to be perplexed look like what do I do here do I just do the right thing and give give more money to charity and balance it out or do I just take these Cuts where they are and let everybody know hey look how much money I Pace not just how broken the system is this shit's this shit's whack yeah I mean like ultimately what you're saying you know as business

so this small business owners of these large corporations I mean look it is these large multinational corporations that are exploiting the system and exploiting the people and represent the worst of these crony capitalist policies and so when I talk about changing this culture of leadership at the top it's bringing these values of service above self this has to happen within our government but we as a society need to encourage ourselves bringing these values of service above self to our businesses to every sector of our community because just because you run a business and you make a profit doesn't mean that you can't be a servant leader and to think about hey how can I make a positive impact yes for my employees and for their families but on on Society on our community on our environment and I think for the people that are running these corporations there would be there would be real value in a

getting the fact that we're all in this together yeah and you're not going to live that long you just don't have that much time nobody does now 100 years if you're lucky and you probably if you're running a corporation you probably on death's door I've got kids and you've got kids who have kids Generations who will live with the repercussions of decisions that are being made and the argument is that if you force them to pay more taxes than there's going to be less jobs because they're going to have to make Cuts yeah but that's that's seems like a ridiculous argument to me it's the one that's been made all along it's just you're used to it that's all it is you're used to these loopholes you're used to it so you want to keep them there and if they take away those loopholes you're going to punish other people because you don't want to be punished yourself financially that's what's really going on yeah and you know and this is coming from me who's a financial dummy I don't spend any time analyzing the financial situation in this world yeah but I could see that yeah that's pretty obvious it's a glaringly clear and the impact that it's having on people is also glaringly clear people are seeing

s and when automation really kicks into focus and you know however X many years when millions and millions of jobs go away we're going to be confronted with this new world and this is what a lot of people are very concerned with when they talk about the next couple of decades they're they're very concerned with Automation and they're very concerned with auto artificial intelligence artificial intelligence and that it's not just going to take away skilled or unskilled labor but it's also going to take skilled labor away there's going to be no one answering phones anymore it's all going to be computers they're very close to be able to do that right now where a computer will have a legitimate conversation with you and you don't even know that you're talking to a computer it's crazy he's crazy are you concerned with sentient artificial intelligence and in terms of its military applications in terms of there's there's a lot of concern that what we're experiencing now with is particularly

when you talk about Yemen with drones yeah with these piloted things that you're going to have is autonomous yep weapons in the future where you just going to be able to literally release Killer Robots I'm very concerned about artificial intelligence and how quickly this technology is evolving with very little oversight or even understanding at the highest levels of our government about both what the opportunities are that it presents and also the very real dangers of this technology being weaponized and how quickly that could spiral out of control what could we do to stop artificial intelligence from spiraling out of spiraling out of control in particular what can we do to stop autonomous weapons so what a lot of people are really concerned with did you watch that show Black Mirror it's a great show

it's on Netflix but a lot of it is dystopian stories about the future and one of them is called heavy metal and about this woman being chased by these little intelligent robots that are trying to kill her yeah it's terrifying because this is something that could be implemented in the battlefield yeah we could have if we don't do it first we could have a situation where our soldiers are in some sort of a situation facing off against robots yeah it sounds like a science fiction movie but it's not that far away from reality yeah I think this is one of those things that kind of leaders in the global Community have to recognize that some some just just like with nuclear the nuclear arms race once you start on this race I mean there are no winners in a nuclear war everybody loses in that scenario and I think there's a similar approach that needs to be taken to the dangers of artificial intelligence being weaponized and coming together as a kind of a

mobile Community to say hey this is something that in date could potentially if put in the wrong hands in danger all of us and find the best approach to deal with that because my concern is as we see with so many of these other Weapons Systems if it's just one country that's doing it then you have well my gosh if everyone else is weaponizing but were the only ones who are doing the right thing then is that creating a situation where our national security is at risk or our troops are at risk so I think it's one of those things that you know the world is a small place and we would have a shared interest with leaders of other countries in the world to provide the right kinds of checks and balances on this technology so that it doesn't become something that's a danger to humanity and the real fear would be that someone would not think that at all yeah that there would be whatever country figure out what the country is it some country but like fuck you we're going to do whatever we want

good look you guys took over this world because the nuclear power we're going to take over this world because of autonomous weapons in artificial intelligence and we're going to design it to go kill Americans yeah I think that that's why it's important that we take that we take a global approach to this yeah and because otherwise I think you do you end up with that scenario and where you just you know this race begins and then there's no way to stop it and it's too late unlike China the United States has at least in perception a clear differentiation between business and government and one of the concerns that I want to talk to experts in China and their electronics and their their technological innovation is that their inexorably connected to the government yeah some way shape or form and that it's one of the main reasons that makes it incredibly difficult to compete with them on a global Marketplace yeah when you see that

is our state department has told people to stop using Huawei devices because Huawei which is the number two provider of cell phones in this world now they're connected to the Chinese government like how do you take that what what do you do about that situation and how they shape between the private sector and government here in particular with the competition what when it comes to data and we're very concerned about people sharing data we've done it ourselves we spied on we've proven through the Edward Snowden case govern our governments doing as well to us we're worried the Chinese are doing it to us or so we're saying don't buy Chinese stuff they're going to steal your data and steal your information still your your business Secrets yeah what can you do to stop that what can you do to mitigate what's already happened you know ultimately you can't stop every single individual with what they're purchasing I think that you know you can regulate what is sold here in the United States I think there's a role

government can play especially as we're talking about artificial intelligence and that kind of Technology again first in understanding it and then playing being that responsible party to make sure that what is being developed is not something that's going to result in these unintended negative consequences so obviously our government isn't you know doesn't have ownership over private business in this country but we still do have sensible regulations and responsibly the government has to play in regulating what businesses can and can't do what's interesting to me is this competition aspect between dealing with essentially just the private sector here in America versus the private sector in China That's combined inexorably with the military and that they have much more influence over what gets done and how things get done what did you pay attention at all to the

Apartments call for a boycott of Huawei products what did you think about that well I understood it you know I think there is a concern about that technology being being used to to get our information you know so that that can be enforced within the federal government right so if the state department is saying hey the federal government is not going to purchase any Huawei produced products or cell phones whatever the technology is and encourage other people in the private sector to to do the same what people are worried about over here is that what they're trying to do is stifle the development of this gigantic company and that what they're trying Huawei yeah of Huawei because Huawei went from having a tiny share of the market place about five years ago to being the number two cell phone provider in the world next to Samsung they just surpassed apple and that this is a Chinese company and that because this Chinese companies connected to the Chinese government the worry is that

they're making ungodly sums of money and it's enhancing the Chinese government's ability to perform surveillance or just to just compete just financially compete on a global scale and Tech nerds seem to be siding with Huawei which is interesting to me I've read a lot of tech blogs from people that are experts and they say that there's no evidence that these cell phones have anything in them or or doing anything but that there has been some evidence of network devices and some of these network devices do have some sort of a third-party input or from the building to grab some ability to extract information that shouldn't be there that's interesting what this it's like when you're dealing with a situation where you're competing with a country that also controls these companies that are the biggest cell phone and electronics providers on the planet yeah we how do you handle that like what is diplomacy with China like well we can see what's happening right now with trumpets it's not

you're very well yeah you know this trade war that that frankly President Trump is escalating I think is really really dangerous it's having a negative impact on domestic producers manufacturers Farmers a friend of mine is a small business owner and he saw the news this morning about China retaliating with Trump's escalation I think with with another increase of their tariffs and how he's thinking like my gosh that's going to impact my small business it got I don't know probably less than 15 employees and trying to figure out how it's going to impact the pricing and production manufacturing and everything every step of the way what's so dangerous about what Trump is doing with this trade war that he is that he's escalating is that these trade and economic Wars can very easily turn into a hot war and we're talking about a nuclear-armed country in China so while there are trade differences in

choose that we've got to address with China and issues with intellectual property and other things the way that Trump is going about this I believe is very irresponsible and dangerous creating a huge amount of uncertainty for American businesses while increasing tensions with one of the biggest nuclear powers in the world that's a scary thought it is and and the ramifications possible is that could lead to a nuclear war that this trade War could lead to something military yes yes what is Trump's argument is his argument essentially is that China has been treating us unfairly and that the rates that we're getting there are they're not they're not even yet I mean Trump is recognizing a problem that exists that trade imbalance with China is is a real issue why does that trade imbalance exist well I mean you can point sociably a whole host of issues and trade policy I don't think it's any one single incident that has that

has created that imbalance and that you know I'm in Iowa a lot these days and a lot of farmers have been struggling with that and would like to see it fixed a lot in the Tech Community would like to see these issues fixed especially related to intellectual property but the way in which Trump is doing it is having a very negative effect on these American businesses and jobs that Trump is supposedly advocating for both in really in the uncertainty that that is being set where you know it looks like they're on the brink of a deal just the other day it looks like hey okay the United States and China they've been working through these issues they're on the brink of a deal and all of a sudden Trump sends out a tweet saying nope we're going to increase these terrorists from 10% to 25% and now China is left like okay I thought we were I thought we were close to working working things out and now left in a situation where they have no other recourse but to retaliate as they did this morning so you

see quickly how this thing is spiraling so out of control and increasing these tensions between our two country not being done in a way that that to me is strategic providing us with the certainty of that path forward to reach a specific objective of correcting this trade imbalance which is how this whole thing began why do you think he's doing that why would he make a great look that it's hard to explain because it doesn't make sense it doesn't actually serve us in our interests of our economic interests of meeting that objective I don't know if he thinks this is part of his masterful you know negotiation skills but it's got a very dangerous effect and and the fact that we have nuclear strategist in this country who remind us that we are at a greater risk of nuclear war now than ever before it's because of these kinds of things that are increasing tensions between the United States and China other things that are increasing the tensions between the United States

and Russia you know a country that we're we still have nuclear missiles pointed at each other that can be set off at a moment's notice literally leaving us as people with just minutes before a nuclear Holocaust a nuclear disaster nuclear war and you really think that this could be set off by these Financial negotiations and by Trump saying something like that and just changing his his offer in a tweet if you threaten a country's economy and their Economic Security where does that logically lead you threaten their ability to provide for their people you threaten their ability to provide that stable environment which China so much of what they do is just like hey they look for that stability what else what other recourse is there other than the threat of military force and in this case when you're dealing with two nuclear-armed countries this is what's at risk and it's something

it's hard for a lot of people to conceive of like okay my gosh nuclear war really I mean this is something that you know back during the Cold War with the you know kids going under their desk these drills and and you know okay where do you go find a bunker but this is something that that's a reality that we're facing today and it's something that you know we in Hawaii in January of last year went through with that missile alert yeah that was crazy it was it was terrified fake missile alert nuclear weapons on its way right missile inbound towards Hawaii seek immediate shelter this is not a drill that was the message that was blasted out to over a million phones all across our state on the radio scrolling across the television and people immediate like seek immediate shelter okay where do I go where do I take my kids where do I take my family at college kids sprinting across campus at the University of Hawaii trying to find shelter says seek immediate shelter but the

sick Insanity of all of this is that there there is no shelter there is no shelter and no nuclear bunkers know which which really I mean and for four people in this Administration and politicians who are ratcheting up these tensions with these nuclear-armed countries bringing us to this new Cold War they are not saying okay well because we're doing this we're going to invest not just trillions but hundreds of thousands of trillions of dollars to make sure that every single American in this country has a nuclear bunker within ten minutes of their home or their place of work or their or their school because that's how much time we'd have that's what we would need in order to deal with the consequences of the decisions that they're making in the failed leadership that they're providing and so this is this is an issue that I'm raising awareness about because of what's at risk I mean this is this is the greatest threat that we face and it

our strong leadership to walk us away from this brink of nuclear war to be able to to work with other countries based on cooperation rather than conflict deescalate these tensions work out our differences and and walk us back from walk us back from the brink stop this nuclear arms race that's making us in the world less safe the last thing I wanted to ask you about was the opioid crisis yes and what are your thoughts on it this is an epidemic that is continuing to ravage the country and we are not doing enough our government is not doing enough right now to solve it and II .22 one very simple thing that could drastically help those who are dealing with opioid addiction and trying to walk down that path towards recovery and that is ending the federal prohibition on marijuana there has been a correlation in states that have legalized

our medical use or adult use of cannabis a direct correlation in a reduction of opioid addiction as well as opioid related deaths this is one thing that Congress can do now to help make progress in dealing with this opioid epidemic another thing we've got to put a lot more resources towards treatment and on all of the things that need to happen after that detox that initial detox with folks who are dealing with opioid addiction and have lost everything in their lives then or at the place where okay well if they have gotten through that detox now they they've got no place to live they've got no place to work they've got no money and to be able to provide that helping hand up as they start to put back the pieces of their life is something that we as a society need to do better at and the third thing

I'll say is we've got to go after the culprits responsible for this when you look at companies like Purdue Pharma who have intentionally deceived and lied and cheated the American people into taking these opioids saying no you know they're not risky they're not dangerous don't worry about it these highly addictive opioids creating the situation that we are in they are still not being held accountable in the way that they need to this this thing it's the Sackler family has made tons of money off of selling these opioids that have ruined and devastated people's lives our legislation the opioid accountability act we introduced in the last Congress we're going to be introducing again soon would provide our federal prosecutors with the tools they need to hold companies like Purdue Pharma and others responsible for this proliferation of opioids criminally accountable and another thing that baffles me is this constant

changing of the dosage this Fentanyl and this new thing that's even more powerful than fence know the fact that they're developing these incredibly potent opioid is the FDA has approved like I don't understand right I don't understand why do you need them right what are they for their their toxic their fatal and Incredibly small doses yeah and it's not like we don't already have Oxycontin I'll codeine all we have all these pain medications like why are they insisting on letting these companies patent these Superior and even more lethal versions of something we already have a problem with exactly right it makes no sense and I think it speaks to the huge influence the huge influence that these pharmaceutical companies have over regulators and lawmakers both

so much of this comes back to money Joe you say all the right things I love I love talking to you I really great to wish all the best thank you is you know it's a we live in a crazy time you know and you're a breast breath of fresh air so thank you appreciate you and I wish you well thank you so good luck to you appreciate it alright folks on the road good luck take care

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