Tulsi Gabbard: Who Actually Runs the Government

The power in the United States of America lies in the hands of the people. We, the people is a call to action. Our government exists only with the consent of the governed. They talk about having a government of, by and for the people. When we look at the crackdown on freedom of speech, when we look at the weaponization of the justice system, we look at all of the abuses of power that are playing out before our eyes. They are going to these great extremes because they are so terrified that we may actually use our power to throw them out of power.

I love this podcast because I love talking to friends about how they made their millions and helping business owners solve their problems. It's fulfilling. I love sharing all the secrets. But when I can't meet in person, there's only one tool I use. It's called Riverside. Riverside ensures I can talk to someone anywhere in the world. Recorded in 4k so the quality of the video matches the quality of the humans. You're listening to Riverside records separate audio and video tracks so we can easily cut out those awkward interruptions that are my least favorite part of interviews. They have in platform editing software based off a 99% accurate AI transcription. If that's not simple enough, they take AI one step further for their show notes. It summarizes your entire content into an SEO optimized description and chapters all automatic. Saves me a ton of money so you can use Riverside for podcast interviews, panel discussions, presentations, webinars, more and best of all, it's simple. Try Riverside for yourself with link in the description. Use code Cody for an exclusive discount. I get a deal? You get a deal. I want you to steal one of my rich friends this week. Her name is Tulsi Gabbard and she ran for president. Former presidential candidate. She was a congresswoman from Hawaii. She is an Iraq War veteran and a member of the military. She also wrote a new book for Love and Country and I'm excited to have her on today because I think it's impossible right now to ignore politics completely and we should be really careful about this idea that politics and profit have nothing in common. I don't think that's true, especially in today's day and age. So I wanted to talk to her about Is the American dream dead? What is actually happening behind the scenes with the elites who's running the show? What can we do to make changes in our country? What does she think? As a former Democrat for 20 years that's now become independent and thus kind of doesn't like either party or a lot of the politicians within it. Also, I wanted to hear from her. What do you do with trolls? You know, she has been murdered on the Internet with commentary by Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Barry Weiss. I think a lot of times, sometimes it's helpful to see humans who have stood up against bullies and those who were willing to ruin their name and reputation and have survived it. She's been a subject of Cancel Culture multiple times and yet is still here. In fact, just hit the New York Times bestseller list. So for anybody out there who's wondering, how do I listen to somebody who is not part of either party and thus doesn't have to toe the line, and who has also shown real resilience through war, Cancel Culture. And be it being in politics, maybe we could learn a thing or two from Tulsi today. I don't expect anybody on here to vote one way or the other to be into one candidate or the other. In fact, I think that you guys should make your own decisions. As always, all I want to do is try to find the truth through the noise and have people on here that have hard, real opinions and share them with you. So I'm curious what you guys think. Please leave in the reviews, your comments about what you think about this video, or in YouTube comments. I read every single one of them. If you haven't subscribed, do it. And without further ado, let's go to Tulsi Gabbard. But before we get to Tulsi, if you're digging this podcast like a raccoon in a dumpster, don't be stingy. Share with your friends, your ex, that weird neighbor. Let's get this thing spread like peanut butter on a hot summer day, huh? I think that's exactly what we should be doing. Also, hysterically, I was trying to find interesting ways to tell people to subscribe. You know what I did there? I put into Grok, which is Elon Musk's version of ChatGPT. How would Theo Vaughn tell you to subscribe to this podcast? The results were incredible, and you just listened to one of them. So come on, my little raccoons, make sure that you share this bad boy. Bring the band in.

Let's go.

I thought it'd be fun to talk about some of the really difficult things you've been through. You've been attacked by all sides. You know, I was reading a tweet from Mitt Romney. Really nice, you know, parodying false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives. Hillary Clinton went at you, too. The Internet's brutal In general. But I was just wondering, how do you move through when people say such terrible things about you?

The who is saying such terrible things matters. And in the world of politics and the war mongering uniparty of Washington, the swamp creatures as they call them, I mean, when you look at both parties, what Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney represent is all of that. And so if they're criticizing me, then that's probably a good sign. So that's first of all, second of all, yeah, I mean, the Internet can be such an ugly, toxic place. Walking through this path of politics, it's a game to a lot of people. And they trivialize the very real consequences of the decisions that our policymakers are making and turn it into this, you know, throwing one insult back and forth after another and really taking away from what are the impacts on the lives of everyday Americans, the impacts on, on our country, our economy, our security, the impacts on the world, like Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton for that matter, rather than actually engaging on substance, and in this example they're both talking about foreign policy, they instead reduce themselves to the lowest common denominator and throw out vicious smears and attacks that hit hard against anyone. But for me, again, I have served in our military for over 21 years. I have dedicated my entire adult life to serving our country, deployed to different war zones, and put my life on the line in ways that neither of those individuals ever have. And the fact that they are so self serving so as to wage these attacks that really go to the heart of who I am, what motivates me as a person really says more about them than it does about me. And once again, and we've seen this now increase over time, where do people go when they don't want to have a civil dialogue or even a passionate debate about should we be going to war in this country or not? How does this best serve the interests of the American people? What are the unintended negative consequences that may come about or are likely to come about because of us waging a proxy war here or a regime change war there, waging economic warfare here or there. How are these things actually helping us? These are discussions that they refuse to have. And time and time again I've seen that they resort to the name calling because if they have the substantive discussion, they will be exposed for who they really are and whose interest they are really serving and is not the interest of the American people. So I don't take it personally, but I do take seriously the consequences of these smear attacks because Their intended effect is to scare other people away from acting with courage and speaking the truth. And that is what has a very dangerous impact on the open marketplace of ideas that really is the heart of what should be a thriving democracy.

Yeah, it's a great point. Well, you ratioed Hillary on your response tweet, which basically said, thanks. I think that's a compliment coming from you. I also think sometimes the Internet is undefeated. Like the comments after Mitt Romney's are so good. It's like Jack Poso says, name the numbers of your family on active duty, you know, or how many of your sons served in the military. I do think increasingly for people that are throwing out name calling or ad hominem, the tax, it's like, well, why don't you show me what you've actually done? And your actions really speak so much louder than your vitriolic words. So I agree. Do you ever read the comments on your posts? You just. Sometimes you do, even today.

And mostly it's because, you know, and I'm not, I'm honestly, I'm not great at social media. You are phenomenal. And I look at what you do and it's just the impact that you're making. It's a different lane. But what does it come down to? Social. The social part of social media is a powerful thing. And that social part really, by definition is an engagement between people. And so I am aware of the black toxic holes of ugliness on social media. And I try to, you know, if I dip my toe in, like, yeah, okay, I'm not gonna deal with that. But I really do think it's important to try to take advantage of that conversation and that dialogue that is possible and where positive things can happen. I've seen it, you know, on what was formerly known as Twitter, where. And this wasn't something I was involved with, something I thought I saw, where people, where people was like, one person came in and said something very harshly negative on this position. And this was in response to a post that I had done. And this other person responded and said, well, how can you think that? Because X, Y or Z? And long story short, this turned into like, I don't know, 50 or 60 back and forth exchanges between these two individuals. And at the very end of it, they both walked away saying, thank you for that. I am walking away more informed than I was when I started and realizing that you and I have more in common and than we realized when we started this dialogue. And so, you know, every now and then I'll jump in and get involved in the conversation when it makes sense. Yeah.

I always come when it makes sense. Yeah. Which is. Which is rare. But I do think you're right. I mean, I always kind of giggle sometimes. I imagine when Trump, you know, gets on former Twitter, I sort of imagine like a pond full of fish that I haven't eaten in a while. And he just goes like this. And all of a sudden all the fish are like, yes. You know, he just. He gets the game. I think one of the most interesting parts about you, because we've gotten to know each other over the past couple of months, is one I've met a lot of politicians. They often really, you know, it's almost like you can't talk to them. I have one that I think highly of as a politician. I asked him, I'm like, can you break down more of, you know, the policy about why you're gonna do this in this institute? And he was like, really? Goes back to my mother being my hero. And I was like, shut up. Like, what? Come on. Like, you're not a real human.

Okay, let me flip through the Rolodex and find. What talking point do I need to go back to?

It's wild to watch. And you're like, I can't. You know, he's like, well, I woke up one day and God told me. I'm like, I also don't know about that. You, you know, left the Democratic Party for. And I loved this particular quote. They are an elitist cabal of warmongers fueled by cowardly wokeness, dividing us by radicalizing every issue, you know, working to undermine our God given freedoms. And this quote in general, which we'll put up here, is beautiful because you were a member of that party for a long time. And, you know, Joe Rogan said about you that, you know. Oh, no, it was Tucker Carlson who said, if you don't think that Tulsi Gabbard has very high, you know, opinions and ideals, just look at what she's lost from making that decision. Was that a really dark night? The moment that you decided, I'm going to give up the DNC position, I'm going to move out of this party.

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Wow. It wasn't a dark night. And those are not dark moments that I look back to with any, certainly not with any regret. But as I look back to some of those major decision points that you've just mentioned, what I saw was opportunity. And not at all in a self serving way, but in a way that was focused on the continual question that I asked myself, which is how and where can I make the most possible positive impact in service to our country? The Democratic Party was never involved in any of my campaigns, whether it was at local, state, or my congressional race.

And by not involved you mean that they weren't.

There was no support. There was no, you know, it was just, they were like, cool, congratulations, you won. And so I had zero insight into the inner workings of the Democratic Party machine whatsoever. I knew some of the figures because I'd seen them on tv, maybe I'd met them in passing here or there. So I was surprised when I was asked to serve as Vice Chair of the DNC two weeks after I was sworn in as a member of Congress. But like with most other things, I see an opportunity or a window opens and I was like, okay, is there a way for me to possibly do some good here? If so, I'm going to explore it and try to do my best. My decision to leave as Vice chair of the DNC came during the Democratic presidential primary in 2016. It was the race kind of boiled down to Hillary Clinton versus Bernie Sanders. The party leadership was heavily waiting and tilting the scales and essentially rigging the primary for Hillary Clinton, much in the same manner that we have seen occur in this 2024 election for Joe Biden, where you kind of take away the auspices of a primary, but it's worse now than even it was back then. At least back then they actually had debates. Primary debates.

Yeah. Or had a primary, or had an.

Actual primary where people could actually go out and vote. Unlike now, where they didn't even allow people the opportunity to vote in a lot of states. But what I saw that was most egregious and that drove me to resign as vice chair of the DNC so that I could have a voice and actually influence that primary, was how the pundits on tv, the professional politicians, the Democrat elite, they were all touting Hillary Clinton as the most qualified person ever to run for president in our country's history. That's a lot of people. When you go through the different people who've run for president, who have been president, they said she's the most qualified person ever to run for president in our country's history.

Forget the founding fathers entirely, you know, George Washington, Hillary Clinton, Abraham Lincoln, like.

You go down, you go down the list. So that first of all, and no one pushed back, no one was like, oh, okay, that's an interesting statement. Tell me how and tell me why. And don't just tell me her titles, because titles, titles are titles. A lot of people have carried titles. What have they actually done with those titles? And for me, as a soldier and as an American, as a veteran, she wants to be our Commander in Chief. Well, she's got a pretty troubling track record when it comes to these very life altering decisions related to foreign policy. Choosing war over peace, choosing war over diplomacy and engagement. Even as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, I made that decision to resign as Vice chair of the DNC and endorse Bernie Sanders around that single issue of war and peace. He was largely at that time more of non interventionist view of the world, not an isolationist, but more exercising restraint versus Hillary Clinton. And so I did not feel a sense of loss for a moment that other people saw, oh my gosh, you're giving up this high position in the Democratic Party and look at what you're doing. I saw an opportunity to, to take advantage of a platform to make sure that voters in this country were actually informed about the choice that they had before them. And similarly, in my decision to leave the Democratic Party after being a part of that associated with the party for over 20 years, I felt that I had exhausted all efforts possible to try to reform the Democratic Party and bring it back to the party of the people, of jfk, of Martin Luther King, the big tent party that celebrated free speech and civil liberties, the Democrat elite who are in power and control of the Democratic Party of today had not only no interest in that, they outright rejected those efforts and launched the kinds of smear attacks that you've talked about. And so I left the party, became an Independent and have been and continue to try to use my voice to really bring about the kind of change that I think our country needs to see, which is getting back to the basics of our founding fathers of what does it mean to be an American today? What does it mean to celebrate and defend freedom in this country? How do we bring about a society where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is something that is real and that we cherish and celebrate and preserve and try to encourage? So much of this is lost in the left versus right, black versus white, you know, Christian versus Muslim, or whatever the sides or the tribes may be. On any given day, we have to get back to remembering who we are and the foundational principles of our country and acknowledge that those principles are under attack by the leaders of my former party and that that is what is at stake and that's what we have to stand up to, protect and defend. Yeah.

You know, one thing I think about often is, like, when people say the word they like the elites, you know, the ones in control. One, who are they? Do they just. Do they show up in a conference room? Are they wearing name tags? Like, how does this work? Who are these people? And how do they have control? Because, you know, you and I have both met a lot of people in elite positions. They're not always the smartest. So, you know, sometimes I have a hard time imagining there's this like, big, huge they. And then you see some of the actions and you start to think, maybe so who are they?

It's probably not who a lot of people think. And it's been funny because over the last few days, we've seen President Joe Biden very publicly criticizing the elites within his own party who brought him into power. And many of whom are now saying, hey, we're not giving you money. We're not giving you support. There's the door, buddy. And so it's very revealing in a way, for people who are wondering, well, who are these elites? Because you would think, well, Joe Biden is obviously, he's the head of, at least the public head of the Democratic Party. He's the President of the United States. Of course he's part of this. But it's revealing that the name, and many times the nameless, kind of faceless, unelected powers that be are the ones pulling the strings and making the real decisions in this country. And, you know, these are people, many of whom have been in power for a long time over different administrations, people who are working in the military industrial complex, people who are working in the Corporate media structure that works hand in hand. It's people within the big tech world of the Googles and the Facebooks, people. When you wonder, like, who are these people? It is. It is people who derive their power from the status quo, and the status quo being being in a position where they have leverage to pull the powers of government to serve their interests instead of the interests of the people. And it's not isolated to one party. When we think about who are the Washington elite, the power elite, it crosses over into both parties. And when you look at, well, what's the difference here? That's really the telltale sign of people who are more interested in serving those interests, whether they be corporate interests or powerful interests, or those who believe that the government doesn't exist to serve the people, but the other way around, that we exist as Americans to make money and pay taxes to fuel their existence and reason for being in power. Those are the people who fall within that camp of the elite versus those who are actually understanding of and appreciative of and celebrating the style of governance that our founders envisioned for us. And this is such a critical point because we talk about how we are a democratic republic, and we talk about, you know, both sides saying we have to protect our democracy. And on the Democrat side, they're saying, well, we've got to defeat Trump to protect democracy, and, you know, we'll do whatever it takes, even weaponizing the Department of Justice and, you know, prosecuting him for things that no one ever else in the country would ever be prosecuted for. We have to try to take him off the ballot. We have to try to all of these things in order to protect democracy. And they really believe that they are pursuing this righteous cause. I talk a lot about protecting democracy and in doing so, calling out the truth of those who are destroying our democracy. And so, you know, it's a time where I encourage people to be critical thinkers and be discerning and don't fall for the bumper sticker taglines. Look, as you said earlier, look at their actions, look at what they're actually doing. And don't fall for the distractions or kind of the glittery objects they want us to pay attention to. Instead.

Yeah. See where they make their money? I think falling the money is one of the keys.

That is the key. That is exactly the key.

And the one interesting thing about following the money is you can actually do it for elected officials a lot easier and even for people in, you know, we were talking about it, fundraisers for political candidates, consultants for political candidates. That all has to be disclosed. But the problem is, I think we thought, oh, man, when we have Library of Alexandria at our fingertips, we will understand all, we'll know the world. And instead we just get inundated with so much information, we can no longer determine what's real or what's not or what's important or what's not. I think it's really hard. Now, one thing that I think was interesting is when it comes to, let's say, the indictment in New York for Trump yesterday, I saw Boeing had to pay something like $200 million for killing, what, 220 people through negligence, etc.

Right.

And then Trump had to pay, what, $350 million?

I think it was north of 400.

Yeah, right, $400 million. And so at some point you do say, well, does the punishment fit the crime? Maybe. What do you think about that? Does that seem representative? And do you think that Trump was unfairly persecuted in New York?

Yes, he was on many fronts. You know, the fact that you have even some prominent Democrats. I saw recently, former Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo talk about in an interview about how he, as a former Attorney General of New York, these charges would never have been brought against Trump or anyone else if they weren't named Trump and if they weren't running for president, period. It's pure politics and it is a blatant weaponization of our justice system which has ramifications. You know, this isn't about, well, I hate Trump, so of course he deserves it, or I love Trump and so therefore they're punishing him. We have to take a step back and look outside of the personalities involved and look at the long reaching consequences of what they are doing. They are being so short sighted in their mission to destroy Trump, who really does pose a threat to their power, the establishment, the status quo, because he doesn't bend the knee to any of them and quite vocally talks about tearing apart the corruption that exists within many of these established institutions. Anyone paying attention can understand that that corruption runs very deep. They are so short sighted. Or maybe this is intentional. That's a whole debate and conversation in and of itself. But the reality is that by undermining the rule of law, they are pushing our country closer and closer to a banana republic where we the people have no faith that whatever party happens to be in power is going to exercise fairness and equality in the pursuit of justice. That this precedent has been set where the so called justice system will be used to target those who challenge their authority or who are their political opponents or people who deem them to be threats. We are no longer a free country. We are no longer the United States of America that we love and cherish when we get to that point. And that is the direction, sadly, that we are headed, given what's going on.

What does a banana republic mean?

A banana republic is one where we see in dictatorships around the world, in many cases, where those in power will use their law enforcement, their justice system, their judges to go after their political opponents. And where as soon as the sands of power shift, as they always do, inevitably the very same thing happens in the reverse, where one president may be in power and then as soon as he's out of power, he will be targeted for prosecution or maybe successfully thrown behind bars. And then as soon as the powers shift again, it goes back and forth. And who loses in all of this? The people. Exactly. The everyday American who is just trying to provide for their family, just trying to raise their kids in a safe society and hope that they will have opportunity that is greater than they had for themselves.

Where's the derivative of banana republic where that came from? That's a good question. I'm guessing somewhere in Latin America might be even, because we instituted some money. Remember how there was like the banana rose?

I think it was called the United Fruit. Well, first of all, the United Fruit Company, I think it was called. The US Came in and I don't remember which country, but basically the country was like, no, we don't want you to come in and create this monopoly over our economy. Or they had a disagreement on the terms of. And I think it was around bananas. And so we launched a regime change in that country so that the United Fruit Company could do business.

You nailed it. Look at this. Yeah, so basically it goes Back to the 1870, when a guy named Lorenzo introduced bananas he bought in Jamaica to the United States, creating a demand for the fruit. The United Fruit Company took over a major proportion of the market. And it was coined by o. Henry in 1901, where he used it to describe the. Our like, takeover of this little, you know, of a fictional country based on. Based on economics, which isn't that difficult. It's not that difficult to conceive because I remember when I was in Latin America and running businesses there, I was in Argentina. We got pushed out of Argentina entirely when Cristina Fernandez came in, took over, nationalized all industry and actually made my business illegal, which was all we did was we have international investments. And so if you want to invest outside of Argentina and US Dollar, which by the way, you probably should, because their currency was fucking atrocious. She made that illegal. And so like in one day we had to leave the country because we would have been potentially jailed. And then I saw the same thing happen in Venezuela, obviously, and in Chile. A lot of the people that we worked with in the financial district were direct descendants of the Chicago boys from, from Milton Friedman's time. And us coming in and sort of backing Pinochet at the time, actually, it's so odd to see it happen here live because, you know, before, at least in Latin America, my clients would say, well, at least in the US there's certainly corruption, but it's not so out in the open.

Yeah.

And now that's, it seems to be that that's no longer the case.

It becomes so brazen. Right. I think there was a headline that came out recently about how Mexico has banned some form of GMO crops. The United States government is intervening and threatening Mexico with economic sanctions on behalf of Monsanto.

Because that's turned out so well for us.

Well, that's exactly. And also, when you're talking about a country making a decision for the health and well being of their people and the United States essentially waging economic warfare on behalf of a private corporation against that other country in a way that does not have a positive effect on the health and well being of their people, it shows you once again when you look at those in power, how twisted their mentality and their mindset is.

We've talked about this before, but, you know, I could never figure out, is it evil? Is it incompetence? Or is it this belief that we, the elites are so much smarter than everybody else that let us just, let us help you because you poor idiots can't do it by yourself. Or is it all three?

I think it's a combination. I think it's a combination. At the heart of it, you know, when you like what is evil, how do you define evil to me? What they are doing, their actions are evil. And it comes from that violation of their promise that whether made explicitly or implicitly, when you are put in this position of what is and should be public service, political office is at its heart about public service. And you are taking actions that are diametrically opposed to the best interests of the quote unquote public, the American people, then your actions are evil because they become self serving and the consequences actually are a violation of that promise that you made when you took that job. Whether you're an elected official or you're a Bureaucrat. In both cases, they are completely undermining their purpose for being in that position. And to me, that's the most offensive thing of all.

Is there really a secret list that you can get on if you get sort of blackballed or say the wrong thing for the elites? Are you on that list? Are these things real?

So I have not seen the list. I have been told I am on the list.

Interesting. So who tells you that and what happens?

So for me, and I'm sure there are others who have their own experiences of this, but the power of the Clinton machine is not a secret at all. Even some of the most mainstream media outlets and newspapers and magazines have detailed the far reach of the, quote, unquote, Clinton machine. And that's in media, it's in finance, it's in business. It crosses over all parts of, of our society. So when I announced I was leaving as vice chair of the DNC and very directly called out Hillary Clinton in that announcement, it was, I made it on Meet the Press on a Sunday morning live. Chuck Todd. I did not tell a single person what I had planned to do. I didn't tell them what I was announcing before I was on the show. I just said, I, I'm coming and I'm making an announcement and give you the exclusive in breaking this news. And I didn't have this conversation with any of my fellow vice chairs because it's Washington. I knew that if I had this conversation with anyone, anyone, even some of my closest friends there, I couldn't trust that it wouldn't be leaked and that, you know, the chess pieces would move around to try to preempt my announcing this decision Sunday morning. The next day I went in back to Congress for votes. And the votes on the beginning of the week, they always happen at 6pm and so I remember going and casting my vote and then walking out and some of my Democratic colleagues basically telling me, like, you just committed political suicide. Hillary Clinton is going to be president. That is going to happen. And you will be Persona non grata to her administration. You will not get a single penny for your constituents in your district in Hawaii, Whether it's a school or a highway or doesn't matter how essential the project is, you will not get a penny. And one of them in particular said, tulsi, trust me, there is a shit list. You are now very much on that shit list. And this person told me from personal experience, he said, it will take you a very, very, very long time to climb your way off of this list if it happens at all. And he was speaking from personal experience because he was one of the very first Democrats to go and endorse President Obama back in 2008 when it was Hillary Clinton's time to win. She was supposed to be the first female president at that time. And then this upstart named Barack Obama came out of nowhere and had the audacity to challenge her. And so, you know, there's never been the bad blood between the Obama and Clinton camp, started way back then. But that's what this guy said. He said I was one of the first people to endorse President Obama. And I've been on the Clinton shit list ever since. And it took me over a decade to finally earn my way off of this list. And I didn't ask like, what did you have to do?

Oh God, I don't want to know. I've seen like how saka. So I don't want any part of that.

Exactly, exactly. And so for me, this was in 2016 when all of this happened. And so it's not a stretch of the imagination for me to look at. That was one of those major junctures where the political elite, the Democrat elite in Washington, in the media and in politics, and across all these different areas, things started to radically shift and change for me where, you know, it's like, oh, you know, she's not invited to this or that or other Democrats don't want to work with me because they don't want to be tainted by me or any kind of association with me. And contrast is significant as we tell this story because just a few years earlier I had been welcomed into Washington by these same Democrats with great fanfare. And Vogue called and said, we want to do a multi page profile piece on you and you know, this Washington correspondents dinner, which is a big deal in that town. Oh, you know, you're invited to go and a lot of members of Congress are not invited, like all of these things.

So Vogue is not calling now.

I haven't heard from Anna Wintour in a long time, put it that way.

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But you know what's interesting is I sort of thought, you know, four, six years ago, I thought a lot of conspiracy theories were just conspiracy.

You and me, both sisters, oh my gosh.

And I would kind of go like, we all have that family member that you go, uncle Brad, like again, you know, take it easy. And you're like, where's the tinfoil hat? Can you get rid of it? But these days it kind of seems like conspiracy theories are just like, they're just early and if you wait long enough, a bunch of them come to fruition.

Or there are either a few threads or like whole pieces of fabric that even if one thing may be off in these so called conspiracy theories, when you start digging, there is some sense of reality that's there, right?

And what I think is interesting is I saw it firsthand. So we got banned on Instagram, a political ban, which, like, you follow my stuff, I'm like, are Laundromats political? I had no idea. And interesting. So that happened. So it was like a permanent ban.

Do you know what triggered it?

So thankfully we had some friends inside of Meta that we basically reached out to and like, it's gone. And they're like, not only is it gone, but you can never have it back. And I was like, well, that's just not gonna work. And so we reached out to them, but it was really interesting because they would never tell us exactly why. And so I was like, did we post something? And they're like, no, it's probably a glitch, let us work on it. But it took weeks and weeks. And then we would talk with all these different people inside of Meta and we have a bunch of businesses. So some of these businesses spend tens of millions of dollars at Meta and ads. And so, you know, we had a few people that were like, no, it probably works in our interest to get you guys back on because you spend so much money with us. Not Facebook, they don't care, we're too little. But, but these buyers and they said that, that they can tell that it was a political ban. And then, interesting. Then we had this period of like, suppression of views. And so we're just very, very mathematical around here. So we, we quantify everything we do, investments, social media, everything. We keep data on a daily, weekly basis per platform. And I was like, God, that's so interesting. Nothing really changed with the algorithm that we can tell or hear about. It's just some suppression. And finally we're, like, cleared out of it. But it seems like there are very few people that aren't getting censored in some way, shape, or form today. And even now it seems. I mean, maybe Biden was the only. Is the only person that hasn't really. Although it seems the tides have turned. Have you had that happen to you.

On social media multiple times? Yeah, multiple times. Primarily on Instagram and Facebook.

It's interesting because Mark's got the flag. He's flying it. We don't buy it.

Okay, I don't buy it for a second. Yeah, I don't buy it for a second. And gosh, like, what. What an incredible opportunity for a guy like Zuckerberg to actually take a stand for freedom and for our country in today's world. A revolutionary game changer. Given the platforms that he has. He has enough money. If he experiences any loss or blowback, he can handle it. What an incredible opportunity for him to actually be a leader during a time when we really need leaders in every sector of our society. And that's where, like, when I saw his fourth of July thing of, like, wake surfing with the can of beer and the flags, like, come on, guy, give me a freaking break. Like, you are in a position where you can actually do something about this, and instead you choose to bend the knee to those who are in power in Washington. It's really, really quite unfortunate. My first exposure to this was with Google back when I was running for president. Nobody in the country knew who I was. In polls, 3% of Americans had ever heard of Tulsi Gabbard. 3%. And I'm running for president. And I got to figure out the first hurdle, which, as you know very well, at least people need to know my name. Just that name ID is the first major hurdle to go after. And then, of course, what comes next is like, okay, yeah, who's this Tulsi Gabbard? I thought I heard sounds a little familiar. Who is she? What does she stand for? What's her background? Why is she running for president? What does she bring to the table? I came in knowing this, obviously, that this was the biggest challenge. Funding is a huge challenge. But I thought going into this that at least I would have as fair a shot as anybody else running for president to make my case on that debate stage in front of millions of people watching and introduce myself and at least begin to allow for that question. In people's minds to occur. Like, okay, who is she? You see me on the debate maybe for a couple of minutes. Hopefully I've piqued your interest. So you go online and type in, who is Tulsi Gabbard? We planned for that. We had the Google AdSense, all the accounts set up so that people, if they typed that in, would see my website so I could send them where I wanted them to go. I ended up being the most searched candidate of the night, that debate night, which is what I had hoped for. And right at that time of peak interest, Google shut down our AdSense account. With no warning, no explanation, no ability. We tried reaching everybody we possibly could. We couldn't reach a single person who could tell us how to get our account unsuspended. And then magically, once that window closed, the account was activated again. It sucked for me and for my campaign because you get those opportunities are few and far between. And somebody at Google decided to take away that opportunity and make it so that voters didn't see what I wanted them to see. That voters saw whatever Google wanted them to see. Direct interference in our election. Direct interference in our democracy.

Yeah, we don't need Russia. We do have plenty here.

This is completely true. It's completely true. And the fact that this is not more of a focus by the people who are waving the warning flags about foreign interference in our elections, there's again, we should ask, why are they doing this? Why are they pointing the fingers somewhere else? Because they don't want us to see what's actually happening right here at home. And so I ended up filing a lawsuit. The lawsuit was thrown out by a judge, but the lawsuit was to draw attention to this fact. If they can do this to a person running for president, a sitting member of Congress, someone who serves in our country's military, and do it in broad daylight, brazenly, they can just imagine what kind of manipulation they can do to anyone else around anything. When you type in a search for an answer to a question, they will feed you the information that they want you to see rather than allowing yourself, allowing us to sift through the information that we want. And the judge's response in throwing the case out was very telling and exposed his own naivete and saying, well, Google doesn't run our country's elections, the government does. And so how could Google interfere in our election when they don't have anything to do with our election system? And this was, again, this was back in 2020, so not that long ago. But since then, more and more evidence continues to come out as studies are done how Google in particular, but essentially big tech has been proven to divert the vast majority of. You know, if you're a Republican running for office and you're sending out a bulk email, most of those emails for conservatives, Republicans go to spam. The majority of emails coming from Democrats go to your inbox in Gmail accounts. There are so many different examples of this kind of interference. Once again, that just points to the inordinate amount of power that these. And they are private corporations. Yes, they can do what they want, but they are being used directly and indirectly by the people in power.

Yeah. You know, and the problem, I think, is most people think, well, I'm not running for president. It's like, what does it actually matter? It's hard to think about how it applies to you. And I understand that. But, you know, I was talking to a business owner the other day that said her website traffic on Google has dropped by 40% for SEO keywords searches. Because Google is now directing them to their AI search tool and pulling up their responses. And they'll just have a little source at the bottom, but not actually linked, obviously, to their website for the main information. And the problem with that is then they take all the intellectual property from the little guys who are industry experts on different subjects, and they pull them into their ecosystem, but they're not paying them for it. And then her advertising dollars are down 40%.

That's interesting.

So she's taken a business that did $6 million a year, and you're pulling back millions of dollars from a small business. And so I think a lot of times when we hear this happening on high, it's also happening really small. I mean, I was at an event with some Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, and it was right after. Remember when Google had that crazy moment where you couldn't get a white person on their new AI? It was like, no matter what, everybody's a person. And you and I, I mean, I'm a Latina.

You're Polynesian.

You're a Polynesian. Yeah. And so, I mean, fine, I guess more of us are available for photos on AI. But I remember specifically it was a private event. It was right after it. And his commentary was when somebody asked about it. He said, we spent all weekend fixing it in the code so that by Tuesday, it was no longer an issue. And I remember thinking, you think the problem's the code? Yeah, the problem's the culture and your people.

Exactly. The code didn't magically appear out of nowhere, of course.

So it's just going to continue to replicate. So unless you have firings, nothing's going to change.

Exactly.

Which is really, really sad. What's interesting, I think, is the world today has all of these issues that you're at sort of the front lines on. So whether it's tech interaction in politics, whether it's global war expansion, we're sort of seeing these, you know, culminate. One issue that you've been really outspoken on is Ukraine and what's happening there. I was kind of curious as an as like a very novice on this subject matter, do you think that if NATO wouldn't have been on the table, would Putin still have invaded Ukraine? Do you think that we are a little bit complicit in part of the entry point of that war or no?

No. I mean, this is. When you look at all the events that led to Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, again, you have to say it. It's wrong, should not have happened. But these things don't happen in a vacuum. And the United States had a very real role to play in leading up to that. The red line has always been understandably Russia not wanting to have NATO and nuclear missiles and ballistic missiles on their doorstep. We wouldn't want the same on our border, on our doorstep. And with the expansion of NATO, again, there's many, many decades of history, history that go back to the breakup of the Soviet Union that point to Russia's kind of constant refrain of not, number one, when Russia was not allowed to join NATO first red flag that this is going to continue to be an adversarial relationship and therefore not wanting to have NATO continue to encroach and expand and surround Russia. Again, we have to be objective as we look at the circumstances that led to this. And not only did were the promises of no NATO expansion broken that were made to Russia at that time. NATO has continued to expand under both Democrat and Republican administrations. You look under the Biden administration in the weeks leading up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration made very clear that their interest was to bring Ukraine in as a member of NATO. Something that many NATO members that did not even want to happen. Many who saw the eventuality that if Ukraine is brought in as a NATO member, then Article 5 is on the table, which says that when one member is attacked, then every member is required to come to the defense of that NATO ally in some form or fashion. Recognizing that and the very direct and expression explicit statements made by Kamala Harris and others from the Biden administration that their goal was to bring Ukraine into NATO and therefore Russia, seeing that as a direct and existential security threat to them, it was not a surprise that Russia and Putin reacted in the way that they did.

Why would they do that if it wasn't a surprise to that many people? What's the reason? I don't think many Americans are like, the thing is, I really would like Ukraine to be in NATO. Like, I don't think most Americans even know who's in NATO or not, myself included. I couldn't list all of them. So, like, what's the reason?

The goal of the US Government at the heart of this is another regime change war. They want to get rid of Putin. And that's not a secret. Some of the highest leaders, you know, Secretary Austin, Secretary of State Blinken, others within the White House have made it very clear that their goal is regime change, to get rid of Putin. So why should we care about that? Well, what happens in so many of these regime change wars that the United States has led and orchestrated or waged, toppling a leader that they don't like, it ends up undermining our own security interests. And there are so many different examples of Iraq and so Syria and Libya and Afghanistan, how we see how this has in so many ways undermined our own security. And in the case of what we've seen throughout this economic warfare and proxy war that's being waged against Russia, it has hurt our economy and it has made us less safe, and it has pushed us closer to the brink of nuclear Armageddon than we have ever seen before, period. They are doing all of these things that are counter to our own security interests, as it is yet another repetition of what we've seen over time. They never ask the most basic question, which is, okay, let's say you're successful in getting rid of Putin, and however that's done, and there are many different ways that it could happen, who comes next, who replaces Putin, and people who know Russia and who are experts in all the different personalities there, every single one that I have heard speak about this have said that the more radical forces within the Russian government would be the ones to rise to power. They don't like Putin because they see him as too moderate, as too practical and pragmatic. So if we think that getting rid of Putin is going to help our national security interests, the opposite is true.

And.

And this all goes back to again. And of course, the military industrial complex is making bank from this war. And this is the Most heartbreaking part is the Ukrainian people and their lives. Their blood is paying the price. I've been to Ukraine a lot of times. I have friends there, their husbands terrified of being scooped up on the street and being forced to go fight in war. A lot of Ukrainian men have no interest in fighting, not because they don't love their country, but because they don't see, see what's the end game here. This has become a war of attrition. The big defense contractors are making money not only because of weapons to Ukraine, but they've brought in new NATO members throughout this war. What's the number one priority on their list? We got to buy more weapons rearmament. Exactly. And so when you look at, you look at who is benefiting from this, it's not the people of Ukraine. President Biden talks about how this is about defending democracy in Ukraine. Well, let's look at what President Zelensky has done since this war started. Instituted martial law, taken over complete control of the media, total control. It is now merged together under this one 24 hour station that is literally run by the government. He has completely eliminated any major political opposition he has gone after. I believe it's the Russian Orthodox Church that is, I think, the second biggest church in all of Ukraine. You see somebody who is cracking down on free speech, jailing his political opponents, banning their political party. A recent political party is yet another one that came up who had the audacity to question his legitimacy, saying like, well, you just canceled elections so we don't even have the opportunity to run against you and give the Ukrainian people the opportunity to vote. He canceled elections defying their constitution. So if this is the kind of democracy that President Biden and those who are pushing for this war on both sides of the aisle are trying to defend, we should ask ourselves the question of if this is what you view as a democracy, what can we expect? What will you do to our constitution in order for you to remain in power? The cost and consequences of this ongoing war are hitting us very close here at home. And to think that they would not send my brothers and sisters in uniform in to go and fight this war as they continue to push Ukraine to go in as a member of NATO, you are absolutely mistaken. And once again, those who will pay the price and are paying the price for, for this have no connection to the people who are profiting from this, both in power and in money. One of the clearest indicators, I think it was CNN had a town hall with Donald Trump. This was maybe a year ago now. And the woman who was questioning him, she was saying, so you want the war to end and you want Russia to win? And President Trump's response, I thought was the most powerful and clear response I've heard from, probably from anybody. He said, I want people to stop dying, period. And he was excoriated for making that statement, which is such a twisted state of mind by people in the media and people in Washington. Shouldn't peace be something that we want our leaders to strive for? And not as a position of weakness, but coming from a position of strength and knowing that with peace, peace comes prosperity. You cannot be prosperous without peace. And so we should want a leader whose goal it is to bring about peace, not one that we have now, whose goal is to continue to wage war to the benefit of the war profiteers.

You're so right. I've seen it on both sides of the aisle, too. This. This push towards wars that they do not have to fight.

That's right.

And so.

And that they can't articulate why we, the American people, why it serves our interest 100%.

I mean, it's. I think it's a completely different story if our leaders still led from the front of the battlefield, you know, send Congress over to Ukraine, you know, and let people actually put their. There's a huge problem in the government, which is no incentive alignment. You know, they can basically. You have no skin in the game. And really, the only skin that you have is increasing your budget and continuing to spend more and more and more because budget equals power, which is terrible for the average American, because that just means that they charge us all.

It's coming out of our pockets.

Yeah. And if you look increasingly at the makeup of who is in the military, it's minorities, it's poor people, and it's minorities. So if we take this back to what we can take power on, how do we win this political and culture war that we have?

This is, I think, the most important part of what we're talking about here, because I think more and more people are being exposed, given the corruption of brazen abuse of power is happening more and more abroad daylight, it's getting harder for people to not be aware of it. At a minimum, the more we learn, the more aware we become. It's natural to feel hopeless and powerless in the face of, you know, big tech and big media and big government and all of these powers that be. And this is where it's important for us to go back to the basics and where do we find our hope? Where do we find Our voice and, and our power. It's in recognizing the wisdom that our founding fathers had when they constructed the foundation of our country. That's rooted in the Constitution. When we go back, and I encourage people to go back and, you know, read the Declaration of Independence, read the Constitution, read that preamble, because it tells us the answer, which is the power in the United States of America lies in the hands of the people. We, the people is a call to action. Our government exists only with the consent of the governed. They talk about having a government of, by and for the people. When we look at the crackdown on freedom of speech, when we look at the weaponization of the justice system, we look at all of the abuses of power that are playing out before our eyes. They are going to these great extremes because they are so terrified that we may actually use our power to throw them out of power. And so the more they can control the information we see, the more they can limit our choices at the ballot box, the more that they can take away our power or curate what we are able to see and understand and do, the more they feel they can preserve their power. So what do we do? We have to recognize that we are the ones with the power, but we are only powerful if we use it. And so what does that look like? It looks like exercising our right to free speech, not being afraid to the point of self censorship, of challenging them to, you know, call the bluff. Yeah, it might result in shadow banning on Instagram, it might result in these different things, but that should be reason for us to be even more fired up, to stand up and call them out for what they are and what they are doing. At a minimum, it is being informed and casting your vote at the ballot box. That is the ultimate act of what it means to live in a democratic society where we get to choose to send the corrupt politicians home, to send home those who choose their own power over freedom. Those who tell us that, well, we are going to take away your liberty and we are going to take away your freedom. But don't worry, we are doing this to keep you safe. It's bullshit. It's all nonsense. In this election, you and I have had this conversation. I think it was the very first conversation we had in the gym over a year ago when I first met you, that we may not have the choices that we want or hope for in this election, but there is a very clear choice. There is a very clear choice and we have a responsibility as Americans to take a stand for freedom. And the choices are stark. Between a Biden Harris administration, which, by the way, if they win, whether Biden's on the top of the ticket or Harris is on the top of the ticket, this is, this is a race that is about a President, Kamala Harris, who is wholly unqualified to be commander in chief and would be very dangerous in that position. You have a choice between a Biden Harris administration that will continue to wage more wars, make us less safe, push us closer to the brink of nuclear Armageddon, and continue to undermine our freedom and maintain the unelected status quo, the puppeteers who are actually making the decisions, or you have a choice in voting for Donald Trump, who, again, however you feel about him, he is not of the establishment. They are trying to destroy him because he is the greatest threat to their establishment. And he is the guy who has the ability to start to wrestle control of our country out of the hands of the elite and to start working us back towards that path of peace and prosperity. That's the choice and freedom. That's the choice that we have in this election. If you are unhappy with the direction of our country, if you're unhappy with the insanity of. Of what's going on here at home and what's going on overseas, the insanity of, you know, well, a boy can be a girl if he feels like being a girl, just the craziness that we are seeing around us, you have to cast your vote. Because I don't think there's been an election in my lifetime that has been more stark in the options before us. It allows us to be able to begin the process of getting our country back on track and rebuilding and getting back to those basics of being who we are as Americans and celebrating all that we cherish about our country.

You know, you went from endorsing Biden to Trump, which some people see as like, opposite ends of the spectrum. But in some ways, there's some similarities there in the push towards anti establishment, at least when Bernie was originally running. How did you come to terms with coming all the way to Trump from Bernie? Because I think it gives some context for the fact that it's not like you're pro Republican, pro Trump. You've actually just kind of been, hey, pro whoever gives us more freedom and kind of gets your hand out of my pocketbook, my house, my life, my community, a little bit less.

Yeah, you know, it's. The reason why I first ran for Congress was because of the experiences that I had during my first deployment to Iraq and then again my second deployment and experiencing. I served in a medical unit in that first deployment and experiencing in the most visceral way the high cost of war and who pays the price. And I came back from that deployment completely changed. And I couldn't go back to the life I was a state representative before I left and volunteered for that deployment. I couldn't go back to the life that I had left to behind because I felt so compelled to take those lessons, learned the experiences that I had had, and find a way to be in a position to help influence and impact those decisions, to help save the lives of my brothers and sisters in uniform. Make it so we stop going to these senseless, counterproductive wars to take care of our brothers and sisters when we come home. That was the single issue that caused me to endorse Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. And there are other issues, but when you look at the parallel, and this is the thread and the through line that you're pointing out between that decision in 2016 to where we are today in 2024, where once again we are faced on foreign policy alone with a very clear choice between the Democrat elite who have become the party of warmongers. They have become the party of warmongers. President Biden or President Harris will continue to be controlled by this elitist cabal of warmongers. There's no doubt about it, because it's already happening. Versus President Trump, who has made it known both throughout his presidency through 2016-2020, but also in this campaign now, his aversion against more of these senseless wars and how he consistently has chosen peace and diplomacy, going so far as doing things President Obama refused to do through his eight years of presidency, in meeting with the leader of North Korea in the attempt to try to de escalate tensions, to try to try to prevent a nuclear armed North Korea. Trump did that. There are a lot of different examples there. But on this single issue alone, it is a matter of life and death for us as Americans and for us in the world. Given where we sit today, where President Biden has pushed us to the brink of war with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, just to name a few, I choose life. I choose peace. I choose freedom. And that's what's on the line in this election.

You know, you've talked about before how a lot of people don't see it up close and personal. And you know, I think the book, you do an incredible job of breaking down different life experiences you've had that have shown, hey, we don't always get to engage with only people we like. I mean, could you imagine in business if I only did deals with people that I agreed with every single thing that they said, you would never get anything done. If you want to be successful in life, you have to learn how to negotiate and how to do deals. While I'm not really usually a fan of either party, I can see a world in which deal making and the ability to acquiesce on some things and actually come hard on the table is really, really important. So I can definitely see that. One other thing I wanted to talk about was lately. I mean, I shouldn't spend as much time on Twitter as I do, but lately I've been on Twitter a decent amount and I'm starting to see this thing which I've never seen before, which is hatred, hatred for Jewish people. A lot of hatred for Israel, sort of across both parties and then simultaneously a lot of if you disagree with anything Israel does, you are anti Jewish. And so we have these two sides, which is crazy things on Twitter about Jews in the worst possible light. And simultaneously, if you critique Israel at all, then you are anti Jewish. What is going on there?

That's a big question. And I honestly, and I won't pretend to have the explanation or the answer to what is driving this.

Are you seeing this since then?

I am. I am. And I've been in and around in parts of these different conversations. I've had people very critical of me coming from both sides for stating the truth of what's really happening in Israel right now and what's happening in the war that continues to be waged. That this October 7th attack was not just the latest skirmish in the territorial battle that's gone on for generations between Israel and Palestine. That this is the latest front of the Islamist terrorist war and threat for dominance over the world. Hamas is of the same brand of Islamist radicalism as ISIS and Al Qaeda and Boko Haram and Al Shabaab and all of these different Islamist terrorist groups around the world. And their goal is the same. They have different names, but their goal is the same, which is Islamic rule over the world. Islamic Islamist rule over the world is a direct threat to freedom and freedom loving societies. They want us to not recognize that threat to freedom and civilization and instead focus on the divisiveness and the US versus them, when really we should be standing with Israel and others in the world in this fight against what the Islamist terrorists are trying to accomplish. Yes, it's the extermination of all Jewish people, it is the elimination of Israel, and it is this next step in their effort towards dominance. President Biden refuses to speak the truth on this. Other presidents from both parties in our country have refused to speak the truth on this, much of it being motivated by their own fear of being called an Islamophobe or being called different names or losing different votes or this or that, or just coming from a lack of confidence in being able to wage the ideological warfare that's necessary. There's a military component that's essential, but also there's an ideological warfare that has to be waged in order to stop this threat. Because of that failure, you're seeing what we've seen in our college campuses, where you've got college kids going out there and essentially doing the work of Hamas for them and doing so in direct opposition to freedom and what it means to live in a free society. It is the greatest short and long term threat to freedom and our security in the world. And it will continue to grow. This threat will continue to grow so long as we have leaders who lack courage to call it out for what it is and to defeat this threat.

Now, simultaneously, a lot of people don't want to get involved. From a manpower, a military manpower perspective in Israel, what is your thought? Like, do we go over there and go to war on their behalf or.

I think first, first, it's just important to point out that Israel is not asked for that. So I think it's a bit of a moot question when that request has not been made. They have a very robust active and reserve military and they are waging this war. I'm glad you brought this up because I think from both political camps in America, those who often call for restraint in foreign policy, or who call themselves anti war or call themselves non interventionists, in my view, they are not seeing how we should not be isolationists. That is not good for our country's economy and it's not good for our security. Security, first of all, second of all, the foremost question we should ask and do we get involved or not? And whatever that may look like, there's a lot of different ways that that may look. It should be in response to our analysis in answering the question, would our involvement serve our own best interests? Again, from an economic standpoint or a security standpoint, I'm just speaking broadly because there's a lot of different things happening in a lot of different parts of the world. And these foreign policy decisions, frankly, in many cases are not being made around the answer to that question. Does this serve the best interests of the American people? Any responsible leader of any country should be making their decisions around what best serves their own people in their own country. That's natural. You would expect that it would be problematic if they were making decisions to serve another country's interests rather than our own. And so in the case of Israel, what I just talked about is a reason why we should support Israel's war to defeat this Islamist terrorist organization. Right now Israel is focusing on the military front. I think it's a big problem that there is not a focus.

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This at all on the ideological front.

Which wouldn't put our American soldiers at risk, correct? This is a culture war.

Correct. So no, I am not at all advocating for our troops to go. It would not serve any positive interest. I think it would be counterproductive. But first and foremost, I mean there's going to be, unfortunately with the many warmongers in both parties in Washington, we will continue to be confronted with this question do we get involved in this war? Do we go and wage that war? Should we wage this regime change war against a nuclear armed country? This foremost question is what should be the major deciding factor on do we get involved or not? For those who are extreme non interventionists who are saying we shouldn't get involved in anything anywhere at any time, I don't believe that those people live in the real world, which can be an ugly world at times, we have to exercise that restraint, pursue all avenues of diplomacy before we start considering the avenue of war and see it as a last resort, but also recognize that it must meet that criteria. Does this actually serve the best interests of the American people or not?

Agree I think a lot of times for outsiders like myself or maybe people listening, you know you see Nikki Haley sign a bomb, you know, with love, and you just think, come on, this isn't who we are. And it is this push towards more war. And I think some of what's happening here is people are saying, hey, we need to be able to question our allies just like we question anybody else, just like they question us, by the way, all the time. And simultaneously, we need to be rational about the fact that Israel definitely does not want to annihilate us, but there are other groups of humans who do. What's interesting and fascinating for me to watch, and I gotta stop watching it. Also on Twitter was Le Pen. And what happened in the most recent election. What's your take on that? And are there any importance of it that we should be watching when it comes to our election coming up this year?

We have to be very, very vigilant in our own election. You know, we're roughly four months, a little less than four months away from our own election. When we see everything that's already been done again in broad daylight, I think we've got to be extremely vigilant at all of the things that are coming our way and the tactics that that may be used all the way up until that last vote is cast and beyond with the legal fights that will inevitably come, no matter the outcome of the election. Because we have people who are more interested in preserving their power than preserving our Constitution and our freedom and our democracy. And that really is the greatest risk. I think what we saw play out in France's recent election should serve as a big red flag that if the powers that be are seeing a great threat from the voices of the people, that they will shift and maneuver and do whatever they feel they need to do in order to win. And I haven't followed the minutiae of all the maneuvering that took place, but I think it's. It's pretty interesting that they literally pulled out all of the stops in order to prevent, you know, the more conservative, what appeared to be the majority from being able to actually win in that majority. And instead they've gotten the exact opposite in what some people are calling the communist elements of France's government. So it's just taking the stand. And this is what's interesting, is when people talk about democracy, democracy should represent the voices of the people and the interests and the decisions of the people, which is all fine and dandy until they don't like what the people are actually saying. And then they try to shift and maneuver around to protect democracy while actually destroying it in the process, but feeling completely justified in doing so. And this goes back to what you said before. Why? Because they and only they feel like they know what's best for us silly, ignorant, stupid people who don't know actually what's good for ourselves. That again is the mindset of a dictator, not the mindset of a president or a prime minister or political party that actually believes in a true democratic republic.

Yeah, I mean I think you nailed it. I think really figuring out who tries to limit overarching power and give it back as often as possible is who you want to want to move towards. Because we humans, we love power and we're incredible self rationalists. If you've ever been in a fight with your significant other, you decided to marry this human being. You love this human being. You don't think they're a crazy psychopath and yet in some moments you are sitting the same worldview and yet you couldn't believe their perspective less. Why? Because we see things from our lens and we self rationalize. And so both sides we think we can be incredibly right. And so how do we limit any of our ability to have ultimate power? Because it's not even that it corrupts. I think it's just we are built to self rationalize our own behavior.

And again, I go back to the wisdom of our founding fathers because they foresaw this. They understood how fragile a democracy is. They understood how people in power too often are tempted to abuse that power. Which is why we have these three co equal branches of government to serve as checks on that abuse of power. And yeah, it's not perfect and yes, we have a lot of room to improve, but this is where we have the opportunity to use our power to throw out those who have chosen to abuse their power and undermine our constitution in doing so.

I think it's brilliant that you've chosen to not label yourself too. I mean, isn't it a bizarre phenomenon that we go I am a Republican, I am a Democrat. No you're not. You weren't born that way. Those are like, those are fake names. They don't even really mean anything. They've switch swapped roles throughout the test of time. Why would we allow ourselves to be labeled that way? And I think you in writing this book and coming out from either political party have said, listen, I may believe in this instance in this candidate or this candidate or the platform held by either party at this moment, but I am not either.

Yeah. And I've always been an independent minded person. I've never been a party Insider ever. Even as a vice chair of the dnc, I was not a party insider. Insider. What's funny to me is since leaving the Democratic Party, and again, I'll go in and look at the comments sometimes on social media and I'll see from people be like, I used to like you when you were a Democrat, but not anymore. Or others who say, I like everything you're saying, but I would like you more if you were a Republican. And it's just funny to me because people are like, well, like, essentially they're saying, well, whose team are you really on? I'm like, I'm on Team America. That's whose team I'm on. And you know, the fact that you may like me, like, what I'm saying is the same. I'm talking about freedom and security and peace and liberty. These are things I've been talking about for years. But because you're seeing it through a different lens now, you either like what I'm saying more or you don't like what I'm saying more. How about let's just like talk as people, as Americans and then find our way through and regard. Yeah, okay, great. If you want to. If you call yourself a Democrat, you can call herself a Republican. Fine, no issue. But we should be able to have that dialogue based on substance and not fall into what the Democrats mantra has been for so long, which is vote blue no matter who, which is such a dangerous, like, why would you encourage blind following of any or any kind of group? Think. And then you have, you know, and I've been called a bunch of names by Republicans as well, of, oh, she's a demon rat or a libtard or whatever the name are that people throw out. It's elevated.

Exactly.

It's like, what about the country? What about freedom? What about peace? What about being able to live and raise your kids in a safe community? What about all of these things that are affecting not just you in one party or another, but are affecting all of us? And I really believe, and why I'm still hopeful is that there are many more Americans in our country, regardless of their political affiliation, who really do have more common ground than they may realize, who are afraid of the same things and who want to be hopeful about a better future, a safer future, more prosperous future. And we have the opportunity to inspire those conversations and those connections, whether they be in person or online or whatever it may be through the choices that we make. You have a lot of influence. I have a big platform, but what I share with people all the time is, you may not have a podcast or a big social media following, but don't underestimate your influence because you have a circle of people around you. I tell people, just look through your phone. How many people do you have phone numbers in your phone or email addresses for who you know, Facebook, friends, whatever it is. Those are relationships that you have with people who know you and trust you to one level or another. Don't underestimate your ability to influence and inspire every one of those people towards these kinds of conversations, towards the clear choice we have to make in this election, towards how do we choose freedom? How do we as individual Americans take action to defend freedom in our everyday lives? Not thinking, well, somebody else is going to do it for us. The responsibility is ours.

It's so true. Well, and also to be, I think one of the most impactful things you can do as an everyday American is like, be proud of being an American. Be proud of the work that you do in this country. Be proud of what your heritage, whatever it is, black, white, brown, female, male, like, be. And try to do the same thing that you want of your politicians, which is give more power back to others than you take for yourself. You know, that's why our platform, that's kind of what we obsess on. Like, we could have gone and built the next, you know, blackrock, Blackstone wannabe. But the problem is that I'm no better than the guys I don't like that much. And it's very alluring. It is very alluring when people call you and say, hey, do you want a hundred million dollars to go invest in all these small businesses? And instead I got to kind of check myself because I do have an ego and I do think I'm kind of good at this and say, like, actually, no, it's not better for communities, even for my family, for us to do this instead. Yeah, let's own stuff locally here. Let's build a big, huge business. But we don't have to own everything, in fact, and it's probably not good if we do. And so I think it's really important. A lot of times people don't want to talk politics, which I get. But the problem is, you know, we fought a war over a 2% tax. We're at 40% now. You know, we are really only able to conduct business at the power of regulations. And they can come after you at any point in time. And so I think for people listening that are in business, this idea of what can you do? Which is like, be Involved and engaged in your local communities, inspire those around you. Not saying you have to vote Republican or Democrat, but here is why I'm doing it. Just my opinion, one way or the other. And not be scared to say the quiet part out loud. I think a lot of people are still scared.

I completely agree. And I just so much appreciate the choices that you're making and how you're inspiring others. It all does come back to our foundation of individual empowerment, taking ownership and responsibility. And in doing so, not because you're motivated by greed, but all of the jobs that you're able to create. How you can be a leader in your own community and provide a great service, be that hub for other people and inspire others to do the same. Politics doesn't live in a vacuum. It impacts every single part of our lives. And I really believe in the individual responsibility that we have as Americans, all of us, no matter what our path or vocation is in life, to take that responsibility seriously, to be that servant leader, to be that positive influence and encourage that mindset of a limited government that exists to serve the interests of the people and us, taking ownership of the individual liberty and responsibility that we have. And that means telling your story, sharing your concerns as a business owner, telling the truth to people who may not have that experience about how. Here is how politics impacts your bottom line, impacts what you were paying at the grocery store, impacts your cost of living. I mean, in every single way. There's a very direct connection there. And the more we have politicians who are out of touch with the everyday lives of Americans, the more detrimental their decisions will be to our lives. It's so true.

I want to close on two things. One, I usually typically try to not call out individual politicians one way or the other, because I think you can have cults on either side, cults of personality. But I do think that watching California is an incredible example of what we do not want to have in this country. And so seeing like the most recent tax that Newsom put on gas regulation and what that does to most Americans, where, you know, second or third behind their rent and their groceries is their gas costs, especially in a state as big as California where community is incredibly normalized and there's no fucking public transit because these idiots can't even figure out how to get one mile of a railway done without spending billions of our taxpayer dollars. And I think we do have to get a little bit madder. If you're in a trying situation, you don't have enough cash and your husband or wife goes out and they spend a bunch of money recklessly and they waste it. What do you do? You push back on them. You fight. And I think we don't do that enough with our government. We gotta watch what they do with the money. But I was curious, your take on who comes next. Do you have predictions like, is it. Well, it can't technically be Newsom if Kamala stays on the docket because of the, whatever, the 12th Amendment right, which is from the same state. You can't have a president and a vp. But like, who comes next? Is Biden going to fold under all this pressure? Will somebody else come on? Is it too hard to guess?

Yeah. First, I want to say something about your comment about fighting that we need to be a little more angry. I feel like people aren't more angry because they feel so hopeless and feel like, well, okay, I can get angry, but it's not going to make a difference because they have all the power and we don't. It's wrong. It's wrong. Especially when each of us recognizes the power of our own individual voice and we lift up all of our voices together. We should be more angry about how egregiously they're abusing their power and putting their hands into our pockets, taking away hard earned money that people are breaking their backs over just to be able to survive. We should be more pissed off about this and not sit back silently and just think like, we're doomed. We are not doomed. We are not doomed, but we've got to. Exactly. And that is where they derive their power, from us feeling hopeless and defeated. And all the while they're blaming the other guy for the consequences of the decisions they're making. As far as the election, I think anybody who says they know what's going to happen, know what they're talking about. This is the most important election of my life because of what is at stake and because of how egregious the abuse of power has become. I think it is absolutely critical that we remain vigilant, we pay attention and we stay engaged and exercise our voices at the ballot box. These elections are often decided and I think the polls are showing that there are. The Trump supporters are not going anywhere. There's a big chunk of Biden supporters or never Trumpers who aren't going to go anywhere. And so the election's going to be decided by a relatively small number of people. Yeah. And I think that, you know, who are they is maybe shifting and changing. I think that rational, common sense Americans are recognizing that President Biden is Incapable of being our president and commander in chief. Kamala Harris is incapable of being our president and commander in chief. And that whoever, whether it's them or they put somebody else up, it's going to be more of the same. I hope that people are clear eyed for those who have not yet made up their minds about what's really going on, what's at stake, and that this election is about the future of our country and our ability to live in a free and peaceful society. That's what this election is really about.

I love it. Okay, I want to end with some rapid fire term limits. Should politicians have them?

I'm not an advocate for term limits. Two quick reasons. Number one is we've seen in states that have implemented term limits how it's really about money. So when you look at powerful incumbent politicians, they are powerful because of the big lobbyist and corporate money that goes to incumbents. You implement term limits, the power, the money and the attention shifts from the special interests away from the elected politician and towards the unelected chiefs of staff, professional committee staff members, those who stay on regardless of who the elected official becomes. And when you have this forced rapid turnover of elected officials, then you see them come in, say, hey, maybe it's Cody Sanchez. She's a phenomenal business owner, never worked in government before. You come in and you're like, okay, I need to talk to some people who know how the machinery of this place works. Maybe you go and you hire a chief of staff who's been there over five different previous representatives and you get your advice from this person or this professional staff member or this person or that person, the moneyed interests are funneling through them who will never be held accountable rather than the elected official who has that forced transparency that many of our laws require. And number two, it takes away what I believe our founders intended, which is the right of us to choose who we want to hire and fire. And so let's say you have Senator Cody Sanchez. You're doing a freaking phenomenal job. All of a sudden a term limit says that you're fired and I don't even get to have a say. I like what you're doing. You are actually representing us. You are being a courageous voice for truth and freedom. You are standing up to the big powers that be. I don't want you to be forced to go home and I don't even get to have a say in that. So interesting, I think to solve the problem that term limits is trying to solve. Term limits doesn't actually solve it you got to solve the money problem, and that is big special interest corporate money and lobbyists influencing our politics. You take that out of the equation, then you have a very level playing field where you could go and run against a Nancy Pelosi and actually be competitive and win because she wouldn't have the advantage of the hundreds of millions of dollars of special interest corporate money that was.

My next one was how should fundraising be allowed? So, like, what tactic? When people say special interests money, does that mean get rid of PACs? Does that mean not allow even corporations or entities to do a certain amount of dollar donations? Corporations are also smart. They're going to figure out as many loopholes as they can. Is there a real solution to that?

I think the beginning is the corporate political action committee money and the lobbyist money. If you get that out of our politics, you will see many things shift and change. You will see the ability for a person who has no background or political connections or personal wealth can actually be competitive in raising money to challenge an incumbent. You'll see a change and shift in how members of Congress spend their time. On average, a member of Congress will go to a breakfast lobbyist fundraising event, a lunch lobbyist fundraising event and a dinner lobbyist fundraising event and walk away with pocketfuls of checks from all of these special interest groups. And in between those, you spend hours on the phone calling all these lobbyists, inviting them to these events and talking through whatever issue they happen to be pushing on any given day of the week. Sure, you can have lobbyists going and lobbying for their different interests or issues all day and all night. That's fine. It's a free country. But once you introduce members of the Armed Services Committee getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from big defense contractors, you really think they're going to be saying, yeah, no, we should be spending less money with Raytheon. We should be spending less money with big defense contractor X, Y or Z. Are they going to be giving that guy money so he can stay in office and stay in power? No, they're not. That's not how it works. So that is the first step. I'm not going to say it's going to solve that is the first step.

That's smart. It goes back to the proximity bias, too, which is just the number of times you meet somebody and engage with them. And then if you compare that with getting funded by them, you have skin in the game, plus proximity bias, which probably means that you end up doing more of what these other people want. What about insider trading? Should that be allowed?

Barred. Should be prohibited. I introduced legislation when I was in Congress that would prohibit members of Congress from trading in any stock, prohibit their spouses from trading in any stocks. Talk about loopholes and workarounds.

Yep, we've seen that one.

It would also prohibit trading in stocks by senior level staff members who have, I would say, just as much, if not more access to insider information than your elected leaders. And of course, there was no interest in the leadership of either party of passing the legislation when I introduced it. We've seen other people introduce legislation since. It's become more prominent because of frankly, some of these Twitter social media accounts that are exposing day to day trading that's going on there.

Yeah, that trading happening right before COVID Yeah, I mean, criminal front, running a national pandemic. And you can see it all right?

And nothing has happened.

Nothing has happened.

Nothing has happened.

What's also crazy about that is in finance, you know, they locked our trading accounts. You're not even going to hold our politicians to the level we hold our financial professionals. That's wild. I mean, I would have a window in which we were allowed to trade in individual securities that would open up, I don't remember how often due to whatever license I had, and I could trade within that window and that was it. And all other time it was blocked. And if we had a position in any of our investments in that company, I couldn't trade in it, period. Which would be the same thing. So you just say, what kind of conflicts of interest do they have? I think it's really, really smart.

And that's the thing is you'll talk to them and. Or what some of them will say is like, oh, I'm not, I'm not. You know, this was just a random coincidence. Maybe you're telling the truth, maybe you're not. But the reality is, perception is reality. You do have access to information that no one else in the country has, or before other people have access to that information. We should be able to trust that our elected leaders are doing what's best for, for the country, not what will make them a multimillionaire, which many of them magically become the longer they serve in Congress 1,000%.

And it's, you know, I think as all humans we know it's a lot harder to not eat the cookies if they're in your cabinet. Yeah, just take the fucking cookies out of the cabinet.

That's it.

That's all we're saying. You know, I just don't have them there because I Don't have the willpower. And a lot of these people, when power gets in there, willpower diminishes because everybody else is doing it and self rationalization. So remove the cookies. I agree. What about mail in ballots? And no ID is required to vote an election.

We should require id. There is parallel to this. There is legislation right now that Republicans have introduced in Congress to require not just an id, but proof that you are a US citizen. Democrats are strongly opposing this, which is a very telling thing when you look at their open border policy. I guess they're advocating for some kind of honor code, which again, we have to be able to trust the integrity of our elections. And the fact that they are against requiring IDs and against requiring proof of citizenship. Two major, major big red flags.

What do you say about their response? That doing that is racist? That, you know, minorities and poor people cannot figure out how to get an id?

I think it's the most offensive thing in the world. I think it was Kamala Harris, and I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure it was Kamala Harris who said that black people in rural communities came can't get ID cards because they don't have access to copy machines. I find it horrifically offensive and demeaning for those who they claim don't have the knowledge or wherewithal to get an identification card. Number one and number two, you need an ID for just about everything in your life. To get a job, to rent a car, to get on a plane, to drive. The position they've taken has never made sense to me. For as long as I was a Democrat and in office, it never made sense. And I challenged people on it. I never ever got a good response that I maybe would have disagreed with. But like, at least it made sense. Not a single time. Because it doesn't make sense. And again, it reveals their hand.

Yeah, just divert like, you know, the next half mile of that California light train to getting people IDs that don't have time off work or something. Okay. And then mail in ballots.

I have serious concerns about how you preserve integrity with mail in ballots. So that is an area that, you know, there's like, oh, well, maybe you match signatures or maybe it's this, maybe it's that. I have serious concerns about that. When you, when you look at the ballot harvesting and the ballot stuffing and all of this stuff that takes place when I was in Congress and we stayed in dc, the house that I lived in, the previous owners had been deceased for several years. Election time would come around and we would get ballots, mail in ballots in their names. People who had been dead for over seven years prior to that election taking place. So again, people saying that this thing does sort of thing doesn't happen, it does happen. We don't know exactly. You know, when you say like, okay, you should purge the voter rolls of people who are deceased, they're against that. I mean, these are things that are happening to the numbers, to the degree, I don't know. But in these elections that are, that are decided by very slim margins, another more scrupulous person or unscrupulous person would maybe get those ballots and maybe like, cool, I'll vote on my ballot and then I'll vote for these three other names that I have mail in ballots for. Who's going to check it? Nobody's going to check it. So saying that this is a very real problem that needs to be fixed. However, in this election, all of the tools that are available to vote should be used to make sure that every single vote that can legally be cast is counted. I think it's a big problem for people who are saying that people should only vote on election day when you have all of these other means available to vote are handicapping their ability to actually win in this election. We've seen it over and over. Life happens sometimes on election day. Maybe your kid gets sick and you gotta go and spend the day in the hospital. Maybe you get called into work and you're not able to get away. Every single vote counts. We can't reform and fix the integrity of our elections unless we get the right people in office. You can't win unless you're using every tool available to legally cast your vote.

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That seems reasonable. I really like mail in ballots for myself but I can see where some of this you just have to do individually what's better for the electoral system. You talked about hope. So where I want to end is A lot of people think the American Dream's dead. A lot of people think that we have no hope. A lot of people think that all politicians are out to get us and that America's best days are behind us. What do you think?

I am hopeful. I am hopeful because of the people promise and the vision and the potential that the founders of our country saw for us while we are worse off and our freedoms are being eroded in a way that I never ever imagined would occur, at least in my lifetime. All hope is not lost because we the people have the ability to turn this country around. There are far more of us than them and they are abusing their power to the extent they are because they are terrified of our power. The American Dream is not lost. You still find people around the world who see our country and see opportunity, see the ability to be able to come and make your own decisions for yourselves about how you live your life and what you want to do, what path you want to pursue. Saying that if we sit back and do nothing, this country that we love and the freedoms that we cherish will be lost. So my hope is not based on some unrealistic altruism. It is based on the power that we have in our hands to be able to save our country, defend our freedom and get us back on that right track that our founders envisioned for us as a people and as a country.

Thank you Tulsi Gabbard.

Thank you Cody.

I want to break down how the wealthy politicians actually make their money. We always talk about how salary is not how people get rich and that's true. The current salary for the President of the United States is 400K. The VP earns 230,000. This is interesting, but where most people make their money is speaking, writing, consulting and media deals. Bush got paid between 100 to 175,000 per speech. He wrote four books. He actually got a second 7 million dollar advance for one of his books. Check out the Obamas. Their wealth is wild between 2005 and 2016. They got $16 million from his books, according to Forbes, and supposedly tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars from their varying media deals. If you look at Trump, you can also see that he made millions of dollars in speaking fees. But what's maybe more interesting than speaking fees is this video from Vivek. I want you to watch it really quickly. Here's a trut fundraising actually works. There's a tiny group, it's an oligopoly of people who raise money, bundling and otherwise, who get to keep a large percentage, sometimes up to 10%, of what they actually raise. That doesn't make any sense. But if that's the system we're going to have, my view is let's democratize that and make it possible for everybody to make money as well. So if you're supporting me and you're part of this movement and you want to help us actually raise that money, join my Kitchen cabinet. We're breaking the system. First time this has ever been done. The first wave of people who do it are likely to be the most successful. Welcome to the Kitchen Cabinet. What's interesting about this video is that most people don't know this, that there is an elite group of fundraisers who fundraise for political candidates, and they take a 10 to 20% commission on every dollar they raise for political candidates. So Vivek actually did something really interesting. He offered 10% commission to anybody who fundraised. He saw this as a way to democratize the political fundraising establishment by allowing normal humans to go out and raise money for their favorite candidates. Right now, most fundraising is done by a very small amount of people who give huge dollar amounts. A bunch of the big Democratic donors are saying, I will keep my $30 million I was going to donate to the Biden campaign unless they step down. Since when do the elite with a ton of capital get to tell a sitting president that he has to step down or he's not going to get their money? And when do they get to use that against politicians? Now, whether or not you're a Biden fan or think that he has, you know, mental incapacity issues, of which I do, I think that a very rich person being able to threaten the president with holding their pocketbook is something we have to pay attention to. That is, that is the mark of a dictatorship or an oligopoly in the hands of the few, not in the hands of the many. One of the things I took away from this episode more than anything else from Tulsi is that there is hope. Because they are scared of you. They are scared of not you individually. They fucking hate you. They hate you. They want you to shut up, pay your taxes, give them all regulatory oversight and power. Not going to question anything they do. Fill yourself up with their terrible food and their terrible medical system and follow along like a really good sheep. But they do not like you as an individual. They are not scared of you as an individual. They are scared of a collective you. They're not idiots. They know that mathematically, there's a lot more of us than there are of them. That is the few who rule. And so I do think if you took one thing away from this week, it should probably be this. That despite all the craziness happening in the world today, even coming from former presidential candidates, they see it happening firsthand. And yet, if we all push back to allow a little bit more freedom for the little guy and a little bit less control in the hands of the big guy, we will win. And so I hope you do not lose hope. Because the only way that we lose this country, our individual freedoms is by giving up hope. Because hope leads to action. Thank you for being with us this week on the Big Deal podcast. If you're not subscribed, please do. If you haven't left a review, I think you should. But maybe most importantly, share the pod. Don't be stingy. If you're enjoying this more than a raccoon in a dumpster, as Theo Vaughn says, make sure you pass along some trash to somebody else. See you next week.