Buck’s First Thoughts - Fight The Forever Covid Lockdown

over our nation's capital. Instead of pomp and circumstance, DC is bristling with barbed wire and HESCO barriers and thousands and thousands of National Guard deployed. What's going on here? It's hard to think that national healing is the Biden Harris objective while their underlings transform the streets of DC into a fortress on lockdown. You've no doubt heard the media outlet's talking about how there will be more National Guard deployed in DC than in Iraq and Afghanistan, two

theaters of war combined. They will share this continuously until the moment Biden is sworn in, and then well afterwards, because the whole purpose here is to heighten the public's anxiety of the perceived risk of another insurrection. Oh what

was that insurrection the first time around? You might ask, You mean the one that involved a mostly peaceful protest that then did have a section of it devolved into a riot and one police officer was killed, one protester was killed by direct action of law enforcement and also of participants, depending on which one we're talking about, And they were trying to do what exactly. The belief is

that they were going to overthrow the government. That QAnon Shaman or whatever walking around in a furry hat with a spear was really going to see control of the Congress. I don't think anybody, including that guy, believe that's what was going to happen. But you see, the theatrics that are underway in DC are meant to exceed the actual threat. We've talked about the Capitol Hill ride on January sixth.

It was lawless, it was awful, it was stupid, and anyone who broke the law should be held to account, But there was no real effort to overthrow the government by force. Calling that an insurrection is an exaggeration, and it's an intentional one. It's one with real consequences. The unprecedented martial preparations for this inauguration are meant to look as though they're preparing for a foreign military to invade our nation's capital at any minute. What's the real threat here?

Internet chatter? Do you remember how we were told constantly during the Obama administration about how there were an unprecedented number of threats online against President Obama? And then you also recall that there were people who somehow lost their jobs for mere criticism of Obama or for crossing the press when it came to Obama. Because they create a climate of fear in which everyone gets treated as though they're insurrectionists, as though they're far radical extremists. That's why

they exaggerate all of this all along. They expand out the net. They want to capture everyone. Whether you're reasonable or not, you get lumped in with the crazies. Right and speech equals violence, you see, so your words have to be suppressed. It's not enough merely to say we can have political differences. You are no longer in this country allowed to say what you think happened in the election. They're saying, including the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, for example,

that that has not protected speech. Now, what's the formulation they use for that. Well, if people can say that they think the election was stolen, then people will act on that. They'll be violent because of that, and so we have to stop it. You see, this is what they do. If people can say that they thought that Barack Obama was a socialist and a bad president, a leftist, then there'll be other people who decide to act on that and write in threats, and the Secret Service then

has to investigate it. They lump it all together. They treat it like it's the same. What an effective mechanism of control. They're trying to show us right now what the next four years are going to look like. That's why there are photos of National Guard troops sleeping on the marble floors of the Capitol Building. That's meant to get all of this attention. Very few people have asked, are these measures even necessary? Don't they have sleeping pads and sleeping bags, and why are they on the cold

marble floor of the Capitol building. Doesn't that seem excessive? But the implication is clear. The Democrats want America to c DC as a city under siege, and that means that you have to ask the next question, who is it under siege? From Trump voters. Those are the optics right now. That's what they want people to think and believe about our nation's capital. They are setting up a show of force commensurate with their overblown fears of this

recent right wing coup attempt from Trump voters. They've convinced a large number of Democrats that these extreme measures are necessary because unless they were to deploy twenty six twenty seven thousand National Guard plus all the Secret Service and FBI, unless they deploy all of them, another right wing faction will attempt a second overthrow of the United States government. Hold on a second. There wasn't a first attempt at

an overthrow of the government. There was a riot. There was a protest that got out of control and turned into in part, a riot in the United States capital that did not last very long, was put down, and for which people are being punished, in some cases punished severely. Keep in mind, while all this is happening, that there's actually no there's no intelligence or proof that such a

plot against our government is imminent. There might be some online chatter from people who are upset about the twenty twenty election outcome. They're venting, they're trying to get attention from their buddies. But that's not a serious or credible threat. And there are threats all the time. People who work in media get threats. I get threats. What do you do about this? You go on with life. Unless it's

credible and actionable, you can't worry about it. And yet what we see here is the elevation of bits of internet chatter to being an imminent threat to our very system of government. That's what they want America to thing in DC right now. And let's not forget the four years of Russia collusion lunacy, since we're talking about conspiracy theories here, that was mainstream among elected Democrats and their corporate media lackeys, completely mainstream Russia collusion. You said it,

you got more clicks, more viewers. There was never any punishment for this. There was never any backlash against it from the system, from the elites, from the apparatus. Look, let's be very clear, from a purely security based standpoint, the military preparations this week in DC are an overreaction. DC is the most heavily police and patrolled city in America.

Even during normal times, just try to cross the street and jaywalk near a Capitol police officer under under normal circumstances, and you'll see the ferocity with which even the most mundane and trivial rules are forced in and around our nation's capital. And it's understandable that there are some concern. There's understandable that crowd control should be taken into account. Let's also remember that in twenty sixteen, Antifa was running riot through the streets of DC and there were no

major charges brought against them. They lit a limousine on fire in our nation's capital in broad daylight on Inauguration Day, and we're screaming, not my president. But that was just fine. There was no real worry about that. According to the Democrats,

that was a mostly peaceful protest. Every American should feel like, on a process level, the continuation of our political tradition of the peaceful transfer of power is important and should be supported, and it almost will be a peaceful, orderly event. Whatever Trump voters think of the integrity of the last election or the policies of the incoming administration, there should be an understanding that this is how it goes right.

And I know our politics are messy. I know people are angry right now, but we have ways to deal with that. But what the Democrat Party is doing right now is intentionally making the inauguration seem like it's occurring under a state of actual siege of our capital, as though this is eighteen twelve and the British are on the way to burn down the White House. This is nuts,

and we know who they blame for this. This is being done for political leverage and almost certainly is going to be the justification for more aggressive surveillance, not against actual extremists or people who are planning violence, but against people with pro Trump anti Democrat views. You see, this is part of the playbook. The Democrats are all posing as aggrieved victims, now terrified for their very existence, so that they can make real victims of their political opponents

later on. This, unfortunately, is likely to work, which means it's a troubling time for the country. The people claiming to be the oppressed, the people claiming to be the ones that aren't allowed to share their politics publicly without fear, are the ones who are actually doing the purges. They're the ones who are actually shutting down news sites, shutting down social media apps, and calling for boycotts and the surveillance state to expand to keep an eye on their

political opponents. That's what's happening right now. We can all see it. And that's why even the pretense of calls for unity from the Biden Harris Camp ring hollow. You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Absolutely, and it's so easily debunked. It's simply false that thousands of dead people voted. It is false that there were thousands of ballot signature signatures

that were fake. It's also false that dominion voting machines switched thousands of votes. None of this is true. And all Republican leaders have to do is to say that the election was not stolen. And if they do that, then they can calm down tension. All you have to do is submit. Congressman Ted Loose says, all if it was bending the knee, say everything you said was wrong, and then we can have unity until we need you to bend the knee again and admit that you're wrong

on something else. Well, why isn't that working better? I don't understand why. Why isn't it really bringing everybody together? Gee, I don't know, Ted, Maybe some people still have questions and they don't trust Democrats who lied about the last election for four years and still do to this day. All Right, they still continue with this nonsense, but it's something that the left wants to hear. They want to believe.

The Democrats want to believe that they have extended a hand to the other side and we're the ones who are slapping it away. The Democrats want to believe that it is conservatives who are being unreasonable in this whole process and are adding fuel to the fire of our political discontent, and the Democrats are just being great, open minded, patriotic Americans, who you know, come on, we see what's

really happening. They're putting people on TV night after night, day after day who are saying that Trump terrorists are more dangerous than al Qaeda. We played that audio for you yesterday. They're actually saying this stuff, that we should increase the surveillance state to look at Trump voters, and that we should scan the National Guard, we should vet National Guard members for Trumpian sympathies. I'm not exaggerating here. You go MSNBC some guy who used to be a

senior FBI official. If that's not terrifying enough, Figliutsi here he has played thirteen. There's more and more evidence develops, Andrea that there were active and former military and police within that insurrections crowd. I think this is a very valid precautionary measure, but I want to also caution that this not be some false sense of security. Well, everyone has been checked out by the FBI. Let's understand something,

and we learned it painfully during the insurrection. Though. Signs of radicalization really are not that someone has a criminal record or that someone is on a terrorist watch list, but rather that they have online postings that indicate radicalization and an intention for violence. The FBI doesn't have those kinds of resources, nor do they have a time the timeframe in this race against the clock to check out twenty five thousand people's social media postings, nor may they

even have legal authority to do so. That's my concern. I just want to point out that this this has been widely reported. I should say this should have been widely reported. It has been reported, but not nearly enough. Hashtag kill Mike Pence was trending for a while on Twitter recently. Okay, that was a hashtag on Twitter, and I just want to do do you think the FBI is going to track down all those people? Do you think they're all gonna all gonna face prosecution for a

threat against the federal official and interstate commerce? No they are not. Oh wow, it's almost like there's a huge double standard here. Political violence is something the left excelled in through all of twenty twenty. But there was one incident that they can attribute to the right at the Capitol Building after the election in the beginning of twenty twenty one. And we're supposed to forget who was burning down buildings all summer. We're supposed to forget who was

rioting a atacking police. Attacking a federal courthouse is also an attack on our system. For example. Yeah, I know, it's not the Capitol Building, but it's also, you know, not an outhouse in the middle of a field somewhere that no one cares about. It's a federal building. They try to light it on fire in Portland, but don't you don't see any effort to Oh no, Antifa's just an idea, they say, it's not even a movement. It's not even a real thing. They're not scanning people social

media enough. What what'll get you, what'll get you tossed off social media? What'll get you in trouble? These days? You already know you can't say the election was stolen, which is that that is First Amendment protected speech. But you can't say it. If you do, they'll take action against you. And how far a leap is it from you are now kicked off social media to you are now on the radar? I just have to remind you

of this. They used informants, they use used agents, you know, people acting on behalf of the government to go after George Papadopoulos. And they used FISA warrants on carter page. What was that all about? Trying to get after Trump and go after Trump people? But those are completely absurd, fabricated cases, you don't think. And they paid no real penalty for this. A few people the FBI lost their jobs or their pensions. Nobody went to prison. Andy McCabe,

former acting FBI director, lied about it. No real consequences for him. So what's the message. What's the lesson? More importantly, what's the lesson that we take from this? They can get away with stuff like this, but now they're they're bringing pressure, they're mobilizing all across society for the suppression of what you could say is Trumpist ideas. Okay, they're they're trying to destroy Trumpist ideas, not even just repudiate Trump the man. And so what are you even allowed

to say online? Are you allowed to say that the Russia collusion investigation was a hoax? I'm saying it, But is that now? Is that? Do independent fact checkers disagree with me? They're gonna shut that down too. They're going to rewrite the history. In fact, they're even telling us they plan to rewrite our history. Play sixteen. They will not write their history. We will write their history, and

their shame will last forever. They are carved like they are carved, like etching into granite, granit onto history's list of villains in this country, Mark Meadows, Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, Josh Holly, Ted Cruz, Looe Brooks, and two man and match it. There will be no forgetting, There will be no forgiveness. We do not seek retribution, but we do seek accountability and justice for an assaultant attack on the

government of the United States of America. They killed six people, and for the first time in the history of our count from one hundred and fifty years after the end of the Civil War, the Confederate flag at long last reached United States Capital. It was braided through the road funda as this liberal fascistic mob desecrated the floors of the House of Representatives in the state. They don't get to rewrite what happened. I want to be very clear.

They do seek retribution. Don't forget that. This is the Buck Sexton Show podcast. Follow Buck on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Historically, we will find out who he's beholden to, who pulls his strings. I would love to see his phone records to see whether he was talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our capital. But we now know that not just him, but his enablers, his accomplices, his

cult members have the same disregard for democracy. Do you think we need an eleven type commission to investigate and report everything that they can pull together and explain what happened. I do. Let me again to your point of who is he beholden to? As I've said over and over, as I said to him in that picture with my blue suit right as I was leaving. What I was saying to him, as I was pointing rudely at him,

with you, mister president, all roads lead to Putin. I don't know what Putin has on him politically, financially or personally, but what happened last week was a gift to Putin because Puttin wants to undermine democracy in our country and throughout the world. And these people, unbeknownst to them, maybe are Putin puppets. They were doing Putin's business when they did that at the incitement of an insurrection by the

President of the United States. So yes, we should have a nine to eleven commission, and there is strong support in the Congress to do that. You need to hear this because this is what is going to happen. That's hurry and Nancy Pelosi podcastle commission. Chardonay. Nancy strikes again. She's sitting there with Hillary and they're having this chit chat about Putin, Putin's role in this. She says she wants to pull the president's phone records. You heard it.

Let's pull the president's phone records to see if he's talking to Putin. On the day of what happened at Capitol Hill. These people are insane. This has nothing to do with Putin or Russia. Nothing. And yeah, you could always make the case that any day that's a bad day for America, any day of riots or lawlessness. And we know this is true. China also benefits from that. Any country that is an adversary of the United States likes to see unrest, destabilization, dissension, you know, at the

deepest levels divisiveness. Yeah, they benefit from that. But that's not you nique to the situation at all. On behalf of Putin, really quwan'm shaman or whatever running around there with the furry had on. He was doing this on behalf of Putin unbeknownst to him though. Look, this is one of the reasons that I was so and I know people the initial reaction was, but buck, people are so upset, they're so angry, And I said, I know, but this is you know, it's it's like the boss

in all the movies. You know, this was really you saw this a lot in nineties movies, nineties action movies. There's this you know, smug jerk of a boss. And this is often true in like the cop movies, and you know the rogue police officer who's trying to get the job done, and what he really wants is to get up in the in the hero's face and just antagonize him and be so you know, unfair to him that he finally just you know, pops them one in

the face, punches them right in the jaw. And as much as that may feel like it's a reaction that's been building up over time, guess what. And it's hand in your badge and your gun. You know, now your job's in jeopardy and this smug bureaucrat gets what he wants. I knew that this Capitol Hill riot was going to be used to the maximum by the Democrats. The moment that it started happening, I said, oh my god, what is going on here? First of all, that it was

just it was just upsetting. It should not have happened on any level as an American. But beyond that, I said, they're they're going to take something that's you know, on the scale of let's say, on the scale of insurrection, one being a person standing on a street corner with a sign that says, you know, overthrow America by himself and ten being you know, battalion level armed insurgency guys with machine gun and heavy weapons making a move to

secure government buildings and opening fire. Right, that's a ten. That's a straight up coup. You know, this was like a I don't know, a four or five maybe, and they're treating it like it was a nine. That's the point. They're treating it like it went far beyond, like this was we just barely maintained control of the Capitol. They're grossly exaggerated, but I knew they would because there's political benefit in it for them. And some of you saying buckets,

it's a two or three. You know, you understand what I'm saying that they've taken this and made it a They've treated it like this was a Trump backed full on. They're calling it an insurrection. I mean, you know what that means. I mean, there's a reason we have something called the Insurrection Act. It's to put down armed rebellions

within our own borders. That's what they The history that Democrats are writing right now is they they just avoided thousands of people on the Capitol on Capitol grounds that they've said kidnapping and even executing members of Congress, you know, opening fire and seizing the Capitol building and creating a military confrontation. They're treating it like it's that's what happened. That is not what happened. Okay, it was a riot. It was people being stupid. They got rowdy, and some

people got hurt, some people got killed. Shouldn't have happened. But this is not an open coup effort against the United States government. But because they're setting that narrative in place, the Democrats are solidifying that narrative right now as they're also taking power of the government. Their reaction to this, and this is what I'm trying to tell you, this

is what I'm trying to warn you of. Their reaction, as unfair as it is, as wrong as it is, is going to be based upon treating this as an actual armed insurrection again the United States government, do you see, Yes, we're going to argue against us and try to convince as many of our fellow Americans as possible. Come on, guys, it wasn't what they're saying it is. It was a riot, it was wrong, but it wasn't a real concerted effort called on by the actual president United States to overthrow

the government. But all the all the pieces they're putting in place right now, all the things that they're talking about, expansion of surveillance of their political opponents, changing laws and statutes to focus more on right wing extremism. It's geared toward that. They've now created a narrative and they're going to execut. Look what they were able to do with

Russia collusion. It was a fabrication. It was all based on some guy collecting rumors from people that were Russian disinformation, Christopher Steele, and they used this to go to the They took this to the top of the FBI. They had the FBI director, they had other people, they had the CIA director, all spun up, all freaked out about Russia using Trump as a pawn and there was there must be deeper ties. You just heard Hillary and Pelosi. Clinton and Pelosi talking about this on a podcast. I

can't believe Hillary Clinton has a podcast. What's a listen to Hillary Clinton? Good God, But they're still going with this, this whole Putent's puppet thing. It was never true, it doesn't exist, it's not real. But look what they were able to do with that. Now they have something, make no mistake about it. This gives them an opening, This gives them an opportunity to push for the most tyrannical suppression of conservative speech, ideas, and ideology in my lifetime.

That's what we're going into right now. That is the storm that we are steering right into the center of. And people still, I think, are stuck in a state of belief. They can't imagine that their fellow Democrats would really do that, or or perhaps they can't imagine it, but they think that Trump has a plan and Trump is going to swoop in and save us. No, we have to take what Trump represented, and we have to

be the ones. We have to be the Americans who represent those ideas and that style of pushing back against the establishment, the swamp, and the elites. It's now on all of us, you know Trump. You know. In ancient times, sometimes they would send forward a champion. Have you ever seen the movie the movie Troy with you know, Brad

Pain and a bunch of other famous actors. This was this was practice sometimes where you would send forward a champion and whoever won the battle would then the other the other army would submit right and depending on whichever side won that one v one battle. You know, I understand for a lot of people, Trump was the champion sent out before the conservative and I'm speaking metaphorically here,

of course, the conservative army, so to speak. And he was vanquishing foes left and right, and that was the perception. And I'm here to tell you that Trump is no longer in that position. We don't we don't have one person standing in the front of the rest of the movement, who is blazing the trail, who is pushing back, and who who is invincible. We had a sense that Trump was invincible. I understand politically they could not stop him,

and now they just did. And we can talk about the election and integrity and and the media and the suppression of the Hunter Biden story and the suppression of the truth about COVID lockdowns, all these different things, and we will, but we also need to take stock of where we are right now. Who's standing for conservative values ideas constitutionalism in this country? Right now? You are to all of us, there is no hero, There is no champion right now who is the great defender of any

of this. Perhaps one will emerge, but in the meantime, it's on you. It's on me, and it requires us to understand exactly what we face from the opposition, because they are mobilizing to use the apparatus of the state to use the media's bitterness about Trump for four years you Interestand they don't just want dominance in the ratings back. They don't just want the ability to be the narrative creators. They want payback. They want to go after people that

they think stole their glory from them for years. Here, that's what's happening. This is why all the DP platform and everything else that's going on is something we must pay attention to. And of course, while they do all this, there are still some who are pretending that, yeah, Democrats are calling unity. I will say this, if you submit, you will be unified in a sense. You'll just give up who you are as part of that unity. That's the choice they offer. You just admit that everything you

believed in was wrong. Every vote that you cast for the last four years, or every idea that you shared that was in any way echoed by or perhaps you were echoing Trump, Trump's ideas. Anything you did with that, you have to pay penance for that. Now you have to repudiate it, you were totally wrong, bend the knee, beg forgiveness, and they're hoping you don't figure out that they still want to destroy you even after you do all that. But maybe they'll let you think you've got

unity for a day or two. But they still want to make you give up that part of yourself, abandon those ideas, admit you were wrong and you were less than for thinking what you did. That's that's the unity the left is calling for right now. So you do have a choice. I have a choice. We all do. I could turn right now on the whole Trump movement. Oh my gosh, become one of these celebrated former conservatives. You know, I'd spend six months. Oh, I'd get a

book deal. I'd spend six months going on MSNBC and CNN. That oh buck, you all of us, What made you come to realize that everything Trump ever said or stood for was awful and evil and wrong? You know, tell us more about this. Liberals at home saying he's still disgusting and I hate him, but this sex and guy at least woke up the Trump Now, I say no, I don't. I don't back off the ideas. I don't

back off what the movement stood for one bit. I just have never put that much stock or faith in any one man or any one persons as the embodiment of a political movement. This is a movement, It is not a cult, and the movement continues on. That's where our focus has to be. Now, what are the ideas that really mattered? What can we do to support them today?

Because the other option is submit, bend the knee, you know, and if you want tell, tell all your liberal friends about how you've you've totally changed your outlook here, and they'll patch you on the head for a day or two, and then a week later they'll still think that you're some some rube, some easily fooled buffoon who fell, who fell for the Trump spell. I say, no, bring it, We're not done yet. You're in the freedom hunt. Thanks for listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast. Get the

latest from Buck at buck Sexton dot com. And so I just want Senator Schumer to understand that he is the right person at this time for this moment to deliver the relief that hopefully President elect Biden and Vice President Lex Harris will bring forward with the support of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer so that we can heal this country, and he is well poised to do that job extremely well. Yeah, Schumer. When I think heal the nation, when I think bring everybody together, the first name that

comes to mind is Chuck Schumer. Sure, that's one way to go, That's one approach with all of this. Let's let's hear from the man himself. He's telling us let's heal, but first, let's just continue to trash the former president in place seven. Well, it's tremendous responsibility, and there's so many things we have to do to make this country better.

We have to recover from all of the treatise that the Trump administration has left, but even more important than that, we have to recover from the COVID crisis and then move America forward so that every working person, every family, every person in America feels they have a real chance to advance. That has been that feeling hasn't been very strong in the American people over the last while, and we must do everything we can in our power to

restore it. Well, I'm glad Biden's in the White House either way, But the bottom line is I will as Majority leader I'll try to help him get his agenda done. Schumer in charge, Pelosi in charge, Biden Harris in charge. And I think you're gonna hear the Biden administration is going to be a hyphenated administration. You know, people take a hyphenated name once they marry something. And you know, I mean, I don't know, that's not not not, not

my move. And again I've never been married. But it's good. It's not just the Biden administration. It's gonna be the Biden Harris administration because she's gonna have a much larger role in this. Because I still believe they're gonna pass this off to her. I don't know how soon I've said to you, maybe before the mid terms, but the more I thought about it, it it might make more sense to win until after the mid terms and that way. Yeah, and Biden at one point said he was only gonna

run for one term. This has now been all forgotten, but there was a there was time at which he was kind of admitting, yeah, I'm really old and I don't know if I can do this, but you know, I'll pass it off term two. Now it's oh no, he's gonna last all eight years. I just don't think. Look, the percentages are not on his side that he'd be in a physical capacity to go eight years from where

he is right now. But you see this, there's this generation of politicians who never, never want to not be important and be powerful, never want to let it go. They'll they'll be the one you know, they'll they'll go into their hundreds if they can. I mean Pelosi certainly is one of them. Same thing with Joe Biden. This is Buck's first thoughts. The news You need to get through your day in forty five minutes. Make sure you subscribe on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Harsani time everybody our friend David Harsani from National Review in the mix Good or Nashview dot com to read his latest David Good to have him. Man, let's jump right into the free speech issue. I do not think it is even a little bit of an exaggeration. In fact, I would just pause it right now that this is the most dangerous time for the suppression of speech in the country in my lifetime. I think even more so than post nine to eleven because of the implications of

what's being said right now. What do you make of it. Yeah, I agree with that. I think it's the worst time for free speech since maybe Withdrew Wilson in the First World War, Suedition Act and stuff like that. I think that people have figured out a way around the First Amendment suppressed millions of people and the things that they say. I'm not sure that I have any sort of good, you know, ideas and how to stop them. But I do know that people who are whose inclination is to

shut down speech do not care about free expression. They don't care about the First Amendment. I think I've noted this on the show before, but simply saying I believe in the First Amendment doesn't mean anything if you don't believe in the values that gird all of that. Lots of places don't have a First Amendment. That doesn't mean we don't believe in their freedom of speech as well. It's a value that we share, but we don't share it anymore. We have CNN and Oliver Darcy and other

people like that. We're just authoritarians who want to shut down their competitors. I want to shut down people who say things they don't like, and the media is the biggest defender but I think the Democratic Party's pretty bad,

and I think it both's very poorly moving forward. I think there are people, I think there are a lot of powerful corporations and voices who would very much like to return to a time when they're well, I mean, they don't view it as I think people have gotten used to Fox News being dominant in ratings, for example,

in cable. But there are a lot of folks out there who remember, you know, if you work at CBS News or something, you remember that there was no Fox News until nineteen ninety six, and we could go back to a country in which there is no full spectrum, district abution conservative cable channel. I mean they're they're already also going after Newsmax and and Oan and pressuring the cable providers with and unlike Fox. Those are those are two channels that they might actually be successful trying to

get them to get carriage pulled. I mean that's and and other cable personalities are calling for this. They of course they are, yeah, and listen, I don't you know. The argument is these people are saying dangerous things like the election was stolen. First of all, I don't care that they're dangerous things. I think you'd be able to say whatever you want, whatever you want as want, and if if you're saying something that's slander, someone should sue you,

you know, or or or whatever. So I don't care if there's a cute and non cable network, right, I think they deserve to be on the air now people, because people are always like trying to make, you know, offer some line on what's acceptable or not. That's not the point. It's a neutral principle. I am for free speech and just because it's difficult to defend doesn't mean I'm not for it. And the idea that we and like you mentioned, they're going after o an or whatever

it's called, but they're also going after podcasts. I saw I think I forget where it was USA today at a piece about how podcasters are finding a like a loophole in which to speak about certain things. Is that a loophole to speak about certain things? You're just an authoritarian censor the loophole. There is an no loophole. The loophole is the one that they are using to shut down speech they don't like. And so anyway, it's just

a dangerous way to think about the world. To start saying this is acceptable and this isn't you know, people always mentioned yelling fire in a theater. You can yell fire in a theater. That was from a Supreme Court decision around World War One that allowed Withdrew Wilson to throw social anti weere socialists into jail. Yeah, Shank v. Us. It was pure authoritarianism and the Holmes the Holmes decision was an abomination. But people still yell this like it's

an argument ender. I know. So anyway, so we're in degree is yeah, I mean, I look, I'll give you an example even today. You know how I feel about lockdowns, and I'm sorry it is. My view of this has always been if we're even having and I just mean in general society is even having a debate about how effective lockdowns were, that means they weren't effective. Because we got put into this with the belief that it would

be it would be, it would be clear. I mean, you saw the Atlantic and all these different experts, these people were writing in major journals and publications back in May and June. You know, we'd have a sixty percent, eighty percent reduction in the virus. And now you look

at places like California all time record, right. I mean, so, if it's not obvious that lockdowns are really effective, they're clearly not effective enough to justify and by the way, I would argue even an even more extreme position than that, but clearly not effective enough to justify the abuse of

power and authority. But but here we are. I was just trying to tell I was just trying to tell people my thoughts on this, and and David I got a I got dinged on on Facebook for writing after covid let's match and put this in quotes after covid let's mask up during Flu season two. It's already starting. Just a few voices here there are in support of this comment, but it will grow and grow until mask up forever. It's the polite thing to do, is the

new mantra. There are people right now who are starting the you know, guys, we probably should actually wear masks after this, because it's so effective and we want to stop the flu as well. Look what we've done to flucases in this country. I'm making an argument about a future policy. I'm not even negating or questioning mask effectiveness. I'm just saying that. And I get a you know, this is dinged for you know, you have to go

to the CDC for more information. And the way this works now is I'm I'm going to be shadow band on Facebook for the next month for what for pointing out what is true? There are people advocating for masking even after the mass vaccination happens. The argument for masking after you've been vaccinated is insane, but people are making that argument still. Yeah, I mean, I don't even understand, Like you can't say the election was stolen, Like why can't I say those words? It's ridiculous. But I'm a

mask thing. I mean, I'm pretti radicalized on this now in the sense that I'm sorry that I supported any lockdowns ever at all. I mean, I just don't think the government has the right to tell you not to go to church or not to go to your business. If people want to lock themselves down, that's their business. If people want to tell you not to want to tell you to wear a mask in their place of business,

that's fine. But I shouldn't be forced to do it, you know, to be fined if I'm walking in the street, et cetera. There's just no government has no power to do that. And I mentioned it again on this show. You have governors who act like dictators, and I mean that in the most literal sense. In the Roman Empire, they had dictators and times of emergencies that have full power to do whatever they wanted. And that's exactly what we have now for almost a year in states in

Michigan and Virginia and in other states New York. It's just an American and I just can't believe that the Supreme Court allows them to do that. There is just no precedent for it in American history. I'm furious as well that not only has there been all this overreach and as you point out, the tyranny of these governors and primarily Democrat governors, although there are some Republican governors that have really been way too willing to go along

with the the Fauci consensus on this stuff. That guy, doctor Fauchi, I mean, I don't care what anybody says. He's a disaster. I mean, this guy is not helpful, his ideas are not sound, he does not have good judgment, but he's used as this he's almost this uh you know this you know, superhuman figure that we all if you challenge him, You're this guy was wrong about the risks and spread of HIV for years in years when he was a top public health authority about that. That That

was decades ago. He's been wrong about this time and time again. But you see in Europe, David like, there was just a protest in the Netherlands and there's a photo of a guy jumping on this police machine that's essentially like a water cannon, you know, anti protest vehicle, and he's he's on the windshield. This protesters jumped on the windshield. He's, you know, putting out the middle finger to the sky. And I was like, where is that

in this country? They've had huge anti lockdown protests in Spain, in Germany, in the Netherlands, I mean, in the UK, you know, thousands of people gathering together. Here in America, we just sort of sit around like, yeah, you know, maybe one day the vaccine, Well, what's it gonna take. I don't know. That's an interesting that's an interesting thought. Maybe people are less inclined to listen here as it is in many places, So I don't I don't know.

You know, when you have urban areas with tons of people, it probably becomes more you know, apparent or maybe they're enforcing it or harsher, but those are just guesses. I don't know why. I don't know why Americans aren't more upset by this. I think they've been. There's a lot of scare mongering going on. And again, I'm not diminishing what's happened. We know what's happened. Hundreds of thousands of

people have died. But the idea that we should just shut everyone down when mostly this is a disease that affects older people, we could have protected them, We could have protected other, you know, parts of the population that we're suceptible to it and allowed us, you know, allowed the economy to move on and to go on, and it just didn't happen that way. And you're right with Saint Fauci. You know, my problem with him isn't even

that he's wrong about a lot of things. My problem is that he treats people and American citizens as children, like he will tell us, you know, oh, I had to say that what was it? Herd immunity is going to be at sixty five percent, because I didn't want to scare people and say it was ninety like that's not up to you. You're a public official, you need to tell us the information that you have and then

we make decisions. This is why him when people say scientists should be running things, scientists do not balance out, you know, in their thought process, all the things that go on in society. It is dangerous to allot run things, to allow them to lie to people. Saint Fauci David the the the original sin for me of Saint Fauci was and I do not I believe this is bs. I do not believe that this is even really true.

He was dismissive about the public wearing masks, and we're told because he didn't want us to all run out and buy the N ninety five masks and there wouldn't be enough for healthcare providers. That means this would be like someone telling you, as a doctor, don't take that antibiotic because I'm worried that somebody else who might need it more to say their life, won't have it. That is what he did. That is immoral, It is wrong, but he gets this pass on it. He gets this

pass and you know what the truth is. It's because he knew that the data up until then, and he knew that the science up until then did not support the trade off of what he now tells us is obvious, but he can't say that, so he says, oh, I made this what this idea that he lied to us

for our own good about masks? This is awful. But people think that this is an excuse like their children, and and you know, and and there's there's a piece in the Times I think today or yesterday where they talk about vaccines and how a lot of these public officials in government are downplaying the effectiveness of vaccines for I don't know why, because they think that, you know, people are gonna act I responsibly or whatever. That's not

up to them. We act. This is a free country or was, and we can act in any way we feel like within the law. And it's not for them to treat us like children. The next it's also it also go ahead, go ahead, dated policy because yeah, I'm sorry, because politicians are not as bright as everyone thinks. I hope and or I mean, I hope they don't think that, but they aren't bright, and they make policies on what foult she says. The governor of Michigan is not bright.

She just does whatever Foult She says, so if he's lying, she's basing public policy on his lies, and that's dangerous or not just him, other CDC officials and government officials. And we're speaking to David Harsani of National Review. Read his latest. He's a clear thinker and he actually cares

about free speech at National Review dot com. David, the next the next fight, And you're already seeing the start to happen because this CAMS comes up in that New York Times article, This idea that we should all mask up after we're vaccinated, that is rooted in a premise that they'll start to lose control of making people mask and so maybe then we'll all be safer if we all mask until we're all sure. But but on an

individual basis, it is irrational. It is irrational to tell someone they have to wear a mask after they've been vaccinated because of I mean, in the Fiser trial, one out of thirty thousand people actually got sick, didn't die, got sick with COVID after being vaccinated. If you have a one in thirty thousand chance of getting sick, which means a one and thirty thousand chance of even getting it and passing it to anybody else. So now that's not you know not, you still have to work. These

people are insane. I mean, this is crazy. They like to control you, and you know they're gonna say, why is you know, why is it okay to fifty thousand people a year die of flu and we can just stop flu and put masks on as if we're supposed to walk around being safe from all things all the time. It's ridiculous. As soon as I get that vaccine, I'm not wearing a mask anymore. I hate wearing a mask now, and I don't think it's good for society to wear a mask. I don't want to get into the specifics,

but just interactions with people are weird. No, it's dehuman It dehumanizes, it dehumanizes all of us. There's a reason why the Taliban dresses women like beekeepers. There's a dehumanization to the depersonalization of your appearance in this way. It is not good for society, and I mean this is

a I'm gearing up for this fight. I'm gonna get banned from social media for it, though, David, I'm gonna get kicked off of platforms for saying post vaccine, you should not have to mask, and Fauci, if he had any any guts whatsoever, would say that. But we still have about forty percent of New York City schools closed down because he doesn't have the guts to say it's outrageous that they still have schools shutdown. He won't he

doesn't want to offend the lib CNN watching consensus. But have you have you noticed the psychs a shift in sort of the shutdown stuff since Biden won the election, with Cuomo saying we can't go on doing this forever and oh yeah, for liberals, I think you're going to yeah, I think now because it's not useful to them. And people call me a conspiracy theorist about that this, but I don't think I am. I think that you'll see people being more positive, putting more positive spins on things,

wanting to open things up. They don't want the economy failing under Biden, and but they do want to keep controlling you. So I think that will be interesting, especially with the masks. But more than that, the speech. The speech bothers me more than anything. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to say the election was stolen because you know what, maybe it was maybe one day it will be and what I can't say those words because

it offend someone. It's it's it's also this sort of they've used the Capitol Riots to sort of smear everyone. Jake Tapper does it all the time on seeing it to smear everyone as some kind of radical conspiracy theorists for having any questions that do not comport to his worldview. And h and it's it's it's it's a way to sort of chill debate. And I think it's it's it's dangerous. R Sonny. We're in this. We're in this one together, my friend. Thank you so much for joining us National

Review dot Com. Read David's latest, please support his work, follow him on social media before both of us get kicked off. David, thanks so much. Thank you,