WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.200 To its credit, Congress did one thing over the last 2 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:05.280 year and Joe Biden did one thing over the last 3 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.800 year that made it seem like we are governed by adults. 4 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:17.280 They passed a federal law to ban TikTok from the 5 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:21.399 American market. I'm kind of astonished that they did it. 6 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:24.199 I don't know. I feel like liberals get sort of 7 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.879 so convinced that something is left wing coded that they're 8 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.000 just going to defend it regardless. And this is something 9 00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:33.759 that President Trump had called for in his first term, 10 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:39.560 even signed an executive order for banning TikTok. And for 11 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:42.359 those who don't know, TikTok is a social media application. 12 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:44.960 It's one of the most popular social media apps. It 13 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:52.359 basically consists of an endless supply of short form videos 14 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:57.520 lasting maybe a minute that you just never endlessly scroll through, 15 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:09.159 a dopamine addiction creation machine. Now, the reason why Congress, 16 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:12.519 why Trump in his first term wanted to ban TikTok, 17 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:16.879 why Congress and President Biden ultimately decided to pass a 18 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:20.599 law to ban it, is because of its clear connections 19 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:26.000 to the Chinese Communist Party. The point of TikTok seems 20 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:32.519 to be more so than simply to be a business 21 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:38.480 that makes money. The point of the app seems to 22 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:44.200 be in large part to collect data, enormous amounts of 23 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:48.560 data on its users in a way that it goes 24 00:01:48.599 --> 00:01:54.159 beyond even what Facebook other American based social media companies do, 25 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:58.319 and for this information to go into the hands of 26 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:06.040 the Chinese. Byte Dance is the Beijing based parent company 27 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:10.680 that owns TikTok. It's based in Beijing subject to Chinese law, 28 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:14.879 and like any major business in China, is tied in 29 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:19.719 inextricably with the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. 30 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:23.520 There are other allegations out there that, based on the 31 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:27.840 kinds of content that's available on American TikTok versus like 32 00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:34.639 the Chinese iteration of TikTok, that the Chinese are deliberately 33 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:39.960 trying to dumb down Americans with it, that the content 34 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:44.599 is so vapid and so you know, dopamine hit inducing, 35 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:48.599 so add d d ddddd inducing, that this is actually 36 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:50.960 a deliberate strategy on the part of the Chinese to 37 00:02:51.000 --> 00:03:01.960 make to weaken their chief geopolitical adversary. Now well, there 38 00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:07.599 have been some kind of dumb libertarian arguments against banning TikTok. 39 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:13.520 The libertarians basically don't seem to care about the fact 40 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:18.919 that this is a foreign company producing a foreign product 41 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:23.639 to suck up people's data. I think the libertarians basically 42 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:26.639 just say, well, the market shouldn't be regulated. It's a 43 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:29.800 free market. Have a free market, don't touch the market, 44 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:32.439 don't interfere with the invisible hand of the market. If 45 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:34.680 if someone's going to make a better product, let them 46 00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:36.759 make a better product. But don't have the government regulated. 47 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:42.879 Because libertarians have more dogmas that they follow. No Catholic 48 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:47.560 has had to bind him or herself to more dogmas 49 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:53.680 than libertarians do. And there are some libertarians say, oh, 50 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:56.520 this is an assault against the First Amendment because it's 51 00:03:56.520 --> 00:04:01.280 a platform where people express themselves, which I think is belowney. 52 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:09.280 Congress has the power to regulate international business, international commerce. 53 00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:12.120 It's clearly right there in the Constitution. This is an 54 00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:20.920 international based company. It is sucking up American interests. The 55 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:25.560 nature of this kind of social media market is such 56 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:29.720 that even if you ban this platform overnight one there's 57 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:33.240 gonna be an American company ready to take this spot 58 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:39.319 right away. Heck, if TikTok overnight goes away, everyone who 59 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:43.399 utilizes TikTok for content creation purposes. Whatever is just going 60 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:48.800 to go to YouTube or to Instagram owned by American companies, 61 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:52.000 or some new social media platform will arise that will 62 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:58.000 gain popularity, and people just start doing the same thing. Furthermore, 63 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:01.240 the bill that Congress passed the President Biden signed it 64 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:04.560 doesn't actually just call for flat out banning TikTok. It 65 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:08.920 says TikTok will not be available in the American market 66 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:15.959 unless they want to divest and let an American buyer 67 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:22.040 buy it. So Byte Dance, the Beijing based company that 68 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:26.079 owns TikTok, if they want to sell the product to 69 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.680 an American company, they can do that. TikTok can stay 70 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:37.800 on the market. Now, Byte Dance doesn't seem to want 71 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:42.279 to do that. They're they're very resistant, and there's this 72 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:46.040 weird sort of court case that's popped up where President 73 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:49.040 Trump President elect Trump is trying to say no, no, no, 74 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:51.519 I don't want TikTok to I want to have a 75 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:54.600 political resolution to this before this law can come into effect. 76 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:57.680 The law is supposed to come into effect. The problem 77 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:02.360 is the deadline they set was January nineteenth, So if 78 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:07.720 byte Dance doesn't either sell to an American buyer. If 79 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:10.079 Byte Dance does not sell to an American buyer by 80 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:15.160 January nineteenth, it's off the American market. President Trump is saying, well, 81 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:17.560 I'm coming into office January twentieth, let me have a 82 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:21.120 chance to politically resolve this, which I don't know that 83 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:24.360 the Court's going to give any credence to it. I mean, sorry, 84 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:28.639 The fact is, this was a law passed by Congress. 85 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:30.519 It was signed into law by Joe Biden. I don't 86 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:36.279 think a president elect has any ability to protest or 87 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:39.519 stop a law from coming into effect if it's supposed 88 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:46.920 to come into effect before he gets into office. Now 89 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:50.879 Trump gets into office January twentieth. And this is the 90 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:53.399 weird thing about Trump's position is that Trump has done 91 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:56.639 like a total one point eighty on the topic of TikTok. 92 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.519 In his first term, he was super anti TikTok. The 93 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:04.040 whole Republican Party wound up joining him, and it was 94 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:06.160 a lot of a lot of it was like national 95 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:15.959 security concerns, national security concerns. Other conservatives, sort of more 96 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:20.000 social conservatives started to raise the issue of hey, like, 97 00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:22.160 maybe we should also look at this just from the 98 00:07:22.199 --> 00:07:26.319 perspective of this is just bad. The content of it 99 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:30.199 is also bad, and we shouldn't be you know, obviously 100 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:34.160 we have to. You know, there are constraints that the 101 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:37.439 First Amendment puts on the federal government taking action to 102 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:42.079 limit stuff, or certainly modern day interpretations of the First Amendment, 103 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:48.040 the modern day interpretations of the First Amendment put limitations 104 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:51.480 on our ability to regulate this stuff. But this is 105 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:59.040 not good stuff. It clearly coursens the minds of young people, 106 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:01.759 dumbs down the mind of young people. And this is 107 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:03.839 sort of the comparison that people have made. There have 108 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:06.839 been some stories about this, allegations of this that the 109 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:11.720 Chinese iteration of TikTok doesn't have the same kinds of content. 110 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:16.240 The Chinese regulate their TikTok much more strictly and only 111 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:19.399 allow that they allow a lot more like education videos 112 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:23.000 and things like that, whereas the American version of TikTok 113 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:28.360 is you know, a lot of softcore pushing the borders 114 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:35.360 of almost pornography, mindless dumb stuff, mindless skit, mindless comedy stuff. 115 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.480 Some stuff is fine and good, but a lot of 116 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:48.080 it is pointless, stupid nonsense. We also have seen evers basically, 117 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:52.279 since the iPhone and social media became a dominant force 118 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:56.200 in our culture starting around two thousand and nine, the 119 00:08:56.360 --> 00:09:02.720 mental health of teenagers in America has taken a massive noseedive. 120 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:06.679 Much higher rates of teenage suicide, much higher rates of 121 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:09.879 teenage depression, much higher rates of teenage anxiety, much higher 122 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:13.960 rates of teenage mental illness. And it all starts in 123 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.320 two thousand and nine, right when the smartphone and social 124 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:28.840 media became these enormous forces in our culture. Now, why 125 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:34.600 has Trump flipped his position on it? It's tough to say. 126 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:37.120 There are some people who are trying to argue that 127 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:39.840 Trump has people close in his inner circle who are 128 00:09:40.679 --> 00:09:44.519 bite edance investors that they don't want to see their 129 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:46.879 investment die, so they're trying to push President Trump to 130 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:54.039 be pro TikTok. The other theory is that Trump massively 131 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:58.360 benefited from TikTok in the twenty twenty four election, which 132 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:04.240 probably he did. Trump realized he's making these kind of 133 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:10.000 generational gains with young male voters, and he sees that 134 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:13.240 people in their twenties and under don't want TikTok to 135 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.000 be banned, which, by the way, I got to applaud 136 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:19.120 Congress for having a real like adults in the room moment, 137 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:22.559 saying of even Democrats in Congress. I mean, obviously this 138 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.720 wouldn't have happened without Democrats in the Senate voting for 139 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:31.320 it and President Biden getting on board, coming to the realization, Hey, 140 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.200 this is just a bad This is just bad. This 141 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:37.320 is bad for American national security, this is a geopolitical 142 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:41.639 foe just vacuuming up tons and tons of information about Americans. 143 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:45.320 Just not good and acted like adults in past this law. 144 00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:57.440 But I think President there is real political shrewdness behind 145 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:00.960 what behind this position Trump is trying to take of 146 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.000 trying to do anything in his power to save TikTok. 147 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:10.519 Now it's political shrewdness. Again, I still think they're moral, ethical, 148 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:15.399 childhood development reasons that I want to see TikTok thrown 149 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:18.039 in the trash, although I do acknowledge even if TikTok 150 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:23.480 goes away, if you TikTok completely is annihilated tomorrow, it's 151 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:29.080 not gonna fundamentally change things. Instagram just has properties that 152 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:32.039 are every bit as addictive. YouTube has properties that are 153 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:35.440 every bit as addictive. Some other social media company that 154 00:11:35.559 --> 00:11:38.080 is American based could come up. That's every bit as addictive. 155 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:41.919 If bite Dance sells to an American company, TikTok will 156 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:43.759 continue to be and will continue to be just as 157 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:49.320 bad as it is. And by the way, the fact 158 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:53.159 that byte Dance isn't selling, I mean, one of the 159 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:59.840 basic principles of appropriate corporate activity is, well, you look 160 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:04.279 the interests of your shareholders. That has to be if 161 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:08.360 you're a CEO of a company, you ultimately have to 162 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:11.360 make your decisions in the light of what is in 163 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:14.519 the best interest of the shareholders. That is sort of 164 00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:17.399 your mandate. And a lot of American laws kind of 165 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:20.960 premised around that, a lot of theory of business is 166 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:23.679 premised around what is in the best interests of the shareholders. 167 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:29.440 The fact that this company is byte Dance, again based 168 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:33.600 in Beijing, the fact that byte Dance is not willing 169 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:39.600 to divest to allow for an American owner of the 170 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:47.639 American app store iteration of TikTok suggests that something other 171 00:12:47.720 --> 00:12:51.200 than making money is afoot. Something other than shareholder interest 172 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:56.440 is what this Beijing based Communist Party tied company is 173 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:00.799 concerned with. If the point is not to have a 174 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:06.360 platform with advertising that makes money, which is the point 175 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:08.879 of all other social media entities. But something else that 176 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:12.960 that almost proves the point of what Congress and President 177 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:15.759 Biden and you know what, first term President Trump were 178 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:18.960 saying that the point of TikTok isn't actually to operate 179 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.679 like a normal business. The point is to gather up 180 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:27.320 people's data. The point is some kind of nefarious geopolitical 181 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:32.360 motive that the Chinese Communist Party has. That that's the 182 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:38.120 actual point. If if they were just interested in the 183 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:41.200 interests of their shareholders, they would try to keep the 184 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:45.200 company afloat. They would try to find for their for 185 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:48.720 their most valuable market, they would try to find a 186 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:52.879 buyer so that the shareholders wouldn't suffer a tremendous loss 187 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:57.720 by just losing the American market. But that's not what's 188 00:13:57.799 --> 00:14:07.519 That is not what's happening. So I mean, I guess 189 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:10.519 I could understand now. The thing is, though, I you know, 190 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:12.799 I'll deal with this in the next segment when we return. 191 00:14:12.840 --> 00:14:17.080 I want to talk about the political shrewdness of Trump 192 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:23.639 trying to preserve TikTok, trying to be the guy that 193 00:14:23.879 --> 00:14:26.600 young voters look to as a kind of savior, and 194 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:29.519 why Republicans would be smart to think about stuff like this. 195 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:34.200 That's next on the John Girardi Show. President Trump is 196 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:37.919 trying to do what he can to prevent the social 197 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:43.519 media app TikTok from being unavailable in the American market. 198 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:48.360 He's trying to save TikTok. I'm not sure that he's 199 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:49.639 going to be able to do it. He's trying to 200 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:54.679 the American law to either ban TikTok from the American 201 00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:58.279 market unless they divest and find an American buyer for 202 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:02.159 the app is set to go into effect before he 203 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:05.320 takes office. I don't know what interest he can bring 204 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.080 to the court to say, well, I should have a 205 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:10.519 say in stopping this before the deadline. Well, no, you're 206 00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:15.440 the president elect. If you become president after this law 207 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.159 comes into effect. Sorry, you know you're out of the 208 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:22.120 picture that you don't really have a role here. But 209 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:24.720 I will say I think Trump is really shrewd for 210 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:28.000 wanting to preserve it. Now, let me explain why this 211 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:31.879 reminds me of a lot of the debate about student loans. 212 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:36.960 I said this a lot during the whole federal student 213 00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:41.039 loan Should President Biden forgive Federal student loan debate? I 214 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:49.360 don't think it's crazy to forgive student loans student loan debt, 215 00:15:49.480 --> 00:15:54.559 although it raises the question why are student loans special? 216 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:58.919 Why not forgive people's credit card debts or you know, 217 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:04.200 mortgages that people got that were lousy, or any other 218 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:06.639 kind of debt that people take on in ways that 219 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:11.919 they got taken advantage of or something. Actually, people with 220 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.279 student loan debt are financially much better off than a 221 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:16.039 lot of people in a lot of other categories because 222 00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:18.559 they all have college or many of them anyway, have 223 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.639 college degrees. And some of the worst cases of student 224 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:24.159 loan debt are people that we're going to wind up 225 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:28.320 paying for anyway. It's usually people who got some pointless 226 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:31.639 master's degree, so they're gazillions of dollars in the hole, 227 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:34.919 and they don't have any job skills that would allow 228 00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:38.360 them to pay that debt back. So we're going to 229 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:42.000 eat the worst of those examples. Anyway, My thought had been, 230 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:49.080 like a Republican administration should actually try to forgive student loans, 231 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:54.559 but fix the root problem. I wouldn't want student loan 232 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:58.360 debt just to be forgiven without fixing the root problem. 233 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:01.480 I think that's more important is fixing the problem at 234 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:05.799 the source. Stop allowing the federal government to give out 235 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.759 so many federal student loans. The fact that you had 236 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:12.680 so much easily accessible federal funny money available to anyone 237 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:15.799 who wanted to get a higher degree anywhere, and they 238 00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:18.279 were giving out these loans without any of the assessment 239 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:19.960 of risk of oh, we're going to give you one 240 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.480 hundred thousand dollars for a master's degree in underwater basket weaving, 241 00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:30.680 ballet gender studies. You know, if it were a normal 242 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:33.400 bank looking at a normal investment in a normal business, 243 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:35.880 they would say, no, that's a terrible business plan. But 244 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:38.480 because it's the federal government, they're like, sure, go for it, 245 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:41.000 with no thought that this person is never going to 246 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:44.079 be able to pay that back. That's what I would fix. 247 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:47.039 I don't mind paying back, I don't mind for giving 248 00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:51.359 student loans if you solve the root problem. And I 249 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:54.640 sort of thought it would make sense a Republican would 250 00:17:54.640 --> 00:18:00.319 be wise to make a deal like that saw the 251 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:06.799 root problem while also ingratiating yourself with a new generation 252 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:12.000 of voters. I wonder if this is what Trump is 253 00:18:12.039 --> 00:18:17.200 trying to do. Trump sees, hey, I got a whole 254 00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:21.200 bunch like what has always been the Republican parties problem. 255 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:24.759 Young voters vote for Democrats, older voters vote for Republicans, 256 00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:27.880 and you're always struggling with that dynamic of, Okay, how 257 00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:33.160 do we get more young people to vote Republican. Republicans 258 00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:36.799 have been struggling with this pretty much for I don't know, 259 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:41.680 for the last seventy years. It's like the old Winston 260 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:46.359 Churchill quote, if you're not a communist in your twenties, 261 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:48.960 you have no heart. If you're still a Communist in 262 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:54.359 your fifties, you have no brain. Trump reversed that trend. 263 00:18:55.119 --> 00:19:00.960 He got a big percentage of gen Z mail to 264 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:06.759 vote for him. He's giving the Republicans like a head 265 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:11.319 start on the next twenty years of elections because instead 266 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:15.640 of all those voters being liberals being Democrats, they're already Republicans. 267 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.279 Gen Z can start coming into the Republican fold faster 268 00:19:21.880 --> 00:19:27.519 than most prior generations. And what does gen Z like? 269 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:34.640 They like TikTok. They use TikTok all the time. Trump 270 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:37.599 won the twenty twenty four election in no small part 271 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:41.839 because of clips of interviews he did, podcasts, he did 272 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:52.440 stuff he said getting shared widely on TikTok so I 273 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:57.680 kind of think he's smart, politically shrewd. You know, I 274 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:00.880 still think the national security side of it is terrible. 275 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:05.160 I think, you know, I don't agree with him doing this, 276 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:11.680 but I think politically he's wildly like a fox to realize, Hey, 277 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:15.519 I want to position myself. I want to position the 278 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:20.720 Republican Party to still be the party that this generation 279 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:25.319 keeps pulling the lever for. We're not going to do 280 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:31.160 that if we eliminate this social media platform they really like. So. 281 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:34.480 I again, I don't agree with him. I think it's 282 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:37.640 bad to keep TikTok afloat. I think TikTok in and 283 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:42.480 of itself is just a bad thing. But he is 284 00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:47.720 politically shrewd, and I guess I applaud him for having 285 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:52.480 a kind of political foresight that most Republicans totally lack. 286 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:58.519 When we return, the Liberals are getting more and more 287 00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:04.240 of a normal white guy problem. Next, on the John 288 00:21:04.279 --> 00:21:09.079 Girardi Show, I didn't watch too much of the Pete 289 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:15.440 Hegseth confirmation hearings from yesterday. Pete Hegseth is President Trump 290 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:20.720 President elect Trump's nominee to be the next Secretary of Defense. 291 00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:24.480 And the Senate under Republican control is trying to move 292 00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:28.839 expeditiously to get Trump's appointees confirmed. So even before President 293 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:32.039 Trump takes office, they're starting to have confirmation hearings on 294 00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:41.000 Trump's nominees. So here's Pete Hegseth testifying and these confirmation hearings. Basically, 295 00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:44.599 for most of these different cabinet officials, the way it 296 00:21:44.680 --> 00:21:48.559 works is they have their confirmation hearings where they have 297 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.079 witnesses giving testimony for and agains, they take questions and 298 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:57.720 stuff that the nominee him or herself takes questions. This 299 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:02.240 is all happening in the context a Senate committee, So 300 00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:05.880 it doesn't happen in the context of here's the nominee 301 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:08.079 for Secretary of Defense and they're just on the floor 302 00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:09.960 of the Senate and all one hundred senators you get 303 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:13.680 to ask them questions. No, it happens. Basically. The process is, 304 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:18.359 you're nominated for Secretary of Defense, the Senate Armed Services 305 00:22:18.359 --> 00:22:23.799 Committee does your first round. They do your vetting basically, 306 00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:30.039 so they ask him questions. He presents his information to 307 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.759 the Armed Services Committee, he takes questions from senators on 308 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:36.079 the Armed Services Committee. The Armed Services Committee votes up 309 00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:39.559 or down to confirm him, and then his nomination goes 310 00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:41.799 to the full Senate, where all one hundred Senators have 311 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:49.880 the opportunity to vote up or down. Now, let me 312 00:22:50.039 --> 00:23:00.880 give you the roster of Senators in the Armed Services Committee. Now, 313 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:03.039 the way it works with committees in both the House 314 00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:11.079 and the Senate is the majority party gets to determine 315 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:13.920 who is a member of the committee, and the majority 316 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:20.200 party basically gets to allocate their x number of seats 317 00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:23.240 within the committee x number of members of this committee, 318 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:27.599 and the majority party in the Senate gets a majority 319 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:34.279 of members also in this Armed Services Committee. So there 320 00:23:34.359 --> 00:23:35.279 are let's. 321 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:44.119 See two, four, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, 322 00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:48.119 twenty two, twenty four, twenty six, twenty seven. 323 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.799 They're twenty seven members in the Senate Armed Services Committee, 324 00:23:53.079 --> 00:23:58.880 with Republicans having the majority. Let's go through the list 325 00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:06.559 of Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Jack Reid, 326 00:24:06.920 --> 00:24:09.480 a Democrat from Rhode Island, is the ranking member. Then 327 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:16.440 Gene Shaheen from New Hampshire, Kirsten Gillibrand Gillibrand from New York, 328 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:23.039 Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hrono. Total Moron, the Democrat from Hawaii, 329 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:28.240 Tim Kaine from Virginia, Angus King from Maine, Elizabeth Warren, 330 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:34.480 Gary Peters from Michigan, Tammy Duckworth from Illinois, Jackie Rosen 331 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:44.359 from Nevada, Mark Kelly, and Elisa Slotkin from Michigan. Now, 332 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:54.359 much of the time, as a result, in Hegseeth's confirmation 333 00:24:54.400 --> 00:25:01.960 hearing was dominated by Democrat female senators berating him. Kirsten 334 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:05.240 Gillibrand was yelling at him, Mazie Herona was asking a 335 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.079 bunch of stupid questions like she always does. Elizabeth Warren 336 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:11.079 is trying to posture because probably she's thinking she wants 337 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:17.559 to run for president or Pocahontas herself. And this huge 338 00:25:17.559 --> 00:25:24.960 percentage of the Democrats on this committee are women. Of 339 00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:30.160 the let's see, of the twelve Democrats on the committee, 340 00:25:30.519 --> 00:25:35.839 there are one, two, three, four, five, six seven women, 341 00:25:35.960 --> 00:25:39.720 So seven of the twelve are women. It's not a 342 00:25:39.880 --> 00:25:43.200 huge majority, but it's a lot. It's more so than 343 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:46.000 on the Republican side, and they have tended to be 344 00:25:46.039 --> 00:25:49.680 the most vocal voices on the committee. Now, the hilarious 345 00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:52.799 thing is that Richard Blumenthal is on this committee. Richard 346 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:55.640 Blumenthal who lied about being a Vietnam veteran for most 347 00:25:55.680 --> 00:25:58.759 of his adult life. Would kind of completely outrageous that 348 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:07.039 he's still on this committee. But I digress. Now, the 349 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:09.839 fact that you had all these female senators yelling and 350 00:26:09.880 --> 00:26:13.839 shrieking at Pete Hegseth and shrieking is not too far 351 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:18.759 off yelling quite a bit at Pete hegg Seth. I 352 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:21.640 think it's highlighting a problem that this guy I follow 353 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:24.519 on Twitter named Will Chamberlain, who's a senior counsel at 354 00:26:24.559 --> 00:26:34.000 the Article three Project, which is some conservative judicial entity. 355 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:39.319 He writes, One underdiscussed issue for the Democrats is that 356 00:26:39.400 --> 00:26:43.640 they lost a number of their quote, normal white guys 357 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:53.200 in the Senate. They're normal white guys. Here are some 358 00:26:53.240 --> 00:26:57.119 of the normal white guys who are now not in 359 00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:00.759 the Senate on the Democrats side. Bob Casey, he lost 360 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:04.400 his reelection bid, Sharad Brown lost his reelection bid, John 361 00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:08.519 Tester from Montana, Bob Casey from Pennslvania, Shrod Brown from Ohio, 362 00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:11.200 John Tester from Montana. They all lost their seats, so 363 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:17.240 they're out. Joe Manchin retired, Tom Carper retired, Ben Carden retired. 364 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.440 Manchin was replaced by a Republican. Carper and Carden were 365 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:28.559 replaced by women. As a result, Chamberlain writes, you wind 366 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:32.279 up with hearings like the Hegseth hearing. Women like Maizie 367 00:27:32.359 --> 00:27:36.359 Herono and Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand who have zero 368 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:43.119 relevant military or intelligence experience are on the Armed Services 369 00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:47.640 Committee berating a combat veteran. It's a bad look, and 370 00:27:47.720 --> 00:27:53.240 the Democrats don't really have any way to fix it. 371 00:27:53.240 --> 00:27:58.400 It's a brilliant inside I thought, because it's true. I 372 00:27:58.440 --> 00:28:02.400 think Democrats are going are they are Certainly they've got 373 00:28:02.680 --> 00:28:12.480 a white male problem. They are so committed to the 374 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:15.920 left just embraced so much all the millennials who were 375 00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:18.720 young in the Obama era, and they learned this lesson 376 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:26.279 from their college professors, learned all this lesson of learned 377 00:28:26.319 --> 00:28:29.759 all these lessons from their college professors about using woke 378 00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:37.359 coded language and embraced the whole panoply of intersectionality ideologies 379 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:41.119 that white males have to give space for black female 380 00:28:41.240 --> 00:28:44.160 voices and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And 381 00:28:44.440 --> 00:28:49.960 the Democrat Party really seriously has embraced this. By I mean, 382 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:52.359 you can see it reflected in their numbers. They just 383 00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:56.079 don't have as many white guys in the Senate and 384 00:28:56.119 --> 00:28:59.000 in the House as the Republicans do. Now, that's not 385 00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:05.000 a bad thing in and of itself, and I'm not 386 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:07.880 trying to be like prescriptive that you should have more 387 00:29:07.880 --> 00:29:12.839 white guys. I'm not saying that. What I am saying 388 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:17.319 is this, white guys are still a pretty sizable voting 389 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:22.799 block in this country. White voters are still the majority, 390 00:29:24.599 --> 00:29:30.359 and there is more than a little bit of fairness, 391 00:29:31.240 --> 00:29:34.680 especially among white guys who are literally at the bottom 392 00:29:35.240 --> 00:29:39.400 of the left wing intersectionality. They're not literally at the 393 00:29:39.400 --> 00:29:43.880 bottom there figuratively and actually reading more about totem poles, 394 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:45.839 I think actually your most important thing is at the 395 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:49.480 bottom of the totem pole. Anyway, regardless, white males are 396 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:57.559 at the bottom of the intersectionality hierarchy. The absolute bottom 397 00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:04.079 of the hierarchy with role, intersectionality, politics, cultural ideas is 398 00:30:04.839 --> 00:30:07.240 the most important people that we have to give the 399 00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:12.400 most time and energy and attention to listening to are 400 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:21.079 you know, disabled, LGBT, African American, queer, transgendent whatever. The 401 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:28.079