Transcription
Lin Sunday, we have two great guests this evening: we have Jack Keane and Brent Bozell, two great patriots. Do you see what's taking place in Europe? Do you care? Do you wonder if it has anything to do with you?
The anti-Semitic ride in Amsterdam. Israeli soccer fans speak out about the horrific mob attack in Amsterdam. What Crystal Nacht would have looked like 86 years ago. It was viewed as the Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam chant: "Free Palestine."
Here's one: the inaction is globalized. All right, look, in 2009, I wrote a book called "Liberty and Tyranny." That's 15 years ago, by my calculation, long before there were ever talks of neocons and isolationists, forever wars, and all the rest of the childish labels given to policy discussions.
Fifteen years in, when it comes to foreign policy and security, ensure that all policy decisions are made for the purpose of preserving and improving American society. Reject all treaties and entanglements, institutions, and enterprises that have as their purpose the supplantation of America's best interests, including its physical, cultural, economic, and military sovereignty, to an amorphous global interest.
Ensure that America remains the world's superpower. Ensure that at all times, America's military forces are prepared for war to dissuade attacks, encourage peace, and, if necessary, win any war. You see, this book and I were the first American firsters. This book helped launch the Tea Party movement in 2010.
Now, the American firsters in the 1930s helped cause World War II. They helped disarm America and made it impossible for us to support our British friends when they were under attack by the Nazis. They created a psychology and a political movement in this country, led by Lindbergh among others, that caught us off guard when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. After the attack, Lindbergh apologized; that movement completely collapsed. He then led the bond movement to raise as much money as he could so we could fight World War II.
I don't think we'll make that mistake again, God willing. A warmonger? What's a warmonger? An isolationist? What's an isolationist? A neocon? I know what that is: a pejorative for Jews who support a strong military, a forever war. I guess the Revolutionary War was a forever war; it lasted over seven years.
But I know what's meant by all of this stuff. What's meant is sometimes we make stupid decisions about getting involved in wars we probably shouldn't be involved in. They go on and on with commanders and presidents who don't seem to want to win them or don't seem to know how to win them.
But there have been very long wars that were necessary, wars that we fought for our own survival, for our own existence, for our own creation. So these terms don't mean a damn thing. But let's step back and take a look at what's going on in the world today because I think it's necessary.
The president is picking national security teams, and he's right. The test is what? Common sense! It's what he says all the time, and common sense means prudence, prudential decisions, good judgment. It doesn't mean running around with bumper sticker labels and accusing people of this, that, or the other thing. Either people are prudential or they're not. If they're not, they really shouldn't have any cabinet position or be a general at all.
But let's take a look at what's going on in the world because I don't think this is getting a hell of a lot of attention, and it needs it, because the dark clouds of war are hanging over us. At the same time, we're diminishing the ability of our military to defend us.
North Korea is now in Ukraine, fighting alongside Russian troops against Ukraine. North Korea now has an arsenal of nuclear weapons. For 40 years, the goal with Democrat and Republican presidents was to prevent North Korea from getting a nuclear weapon. We gave them money and helped that regime survive; we subsidized it, we gave them food when there was starvation. None of it worked.
Iran is providing drones to Russia—advanced drones. Iran is providing oil to Communist China. Russia is providing air defense systems to Iran. China is providing armaments to Iran. China and Russia have now signed military agreements with Iran. Iran now has the material to build nuclear weapons.
Wow. China is building the most powerful military on the face of the Earth while we are degrading our military and not funding it properly. They now have the largest navy on the face of the Earth. It has devoured Hong Kong without any pushback. They are going to invade Taiwan; they have told us they're going to in the next three or four years.
We may not have the naval assets in and around the South China Sea to protect Taiwan. China is threatening Japan. Is that okay too? They're threatening the Philippines and they're threatening Australia. They're even threatening Vietnam.
In Europe, it looks like the 1930s all over again. You saw what was happening in Amsterdam, and I'll tell you, by God, where the hell is the outcry by our leaders in the United States? Biden put out a statement, but where are all the leaders? They're chasing Jews in the streets in Europe! We've been there before, just as Jews were chased in the streets of New York and London. The Chief Rabbi in France says there's not going to be one Jew left in France in ten years. The Jews are the canary in the coal mine.
Do you think these forces will be done when they're done abusing the Jews? Are they ever done? These are the same people who hate the West, the same people who hate America—us, we the people. The clouds are forming right in front of your eyes. There's no closing your eyes for this; there's no putting your head in the sand. Because Europe is looking like the 1930s, and the Axis of Evil has formed: Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. They're working with each other; they're exchanging intelligence, weapons, strengthening each other, and financing each other. Their number one enemy is us.
The jihadist Islamists have migrated into Europe by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, changing the demographics of many European countries—especially the smaller ones—changing the culture, changing the politics of these countries in a completely significant way.
It's a problem in our country. Biden is said to be a warmonger by the isolationists. He's no warmonger; he's a coward. He's an appeaser. He surrendered Afghanistan. He surrendered it to the Taliban, which is now working with the Communist Chinese and the Russians. He appeased Putin; he appeased him. That's why Putin invaded Ukraine.
He saw Afghanistan; he saw Biden appeasing him, and he invaded Ukraine. It wasn't because Biden's a warmonger. So, Putin invaded Ukraine, and despite the billions, billions poured into Ukraine, there were conditions. Just like he puts conditions on Israel, you cannot win the war; you cannot go on offense; you have to fight a defensive war.
So all these Ukrainians are slaughtered; 30,000 of their children are taken hostage into Russia to be raised by Russian families. Their women are being brutalized and raped.
Now, I know there's a big contingent of people in this country who say: "What does Ukraine have to do with us? What does Taiwan have to do with us? What does Israel have to do with us? What do the Philippines and Japan?"
And wow, that's crazy! One day, we're going to look around and this Axis of Evil will be more powerful than we are. They're going to have allies all over the world. They're moving into Central and South America. China is already here; Russia's threatening constantly Alaska. You think Fort America can handle all this on our own? Then you don't know history; you don't understand how militaries work.
It's crazy, but that doesn't mean we have to go to war with everybody. What did Donald Trump say? "Common sense." And what does common sense mean? Prudence. You don't need to be ideological about this. Your eyes need to be wide open; you got to use your brain. You got to see what's going on.
Biden is said to be a warmonger; he's an appeaser. He funded Iran; he funded the terrorists—directly and indirectly—because he was trying to appease Iran, trying to persuade Iran. He, Blinken, and the other reprobates giving them money, doing whatever they could to get them to what? To stop being Iran?
Insane! That's not a warmonger; that's a coward. It's even worse. He's funding the enemy in order to try and buy off the enemy. It doesn't work with jihadists and Islamists; that's not what they're about.
Israel is at war in part because of the Biden-Harris administration, Blinken, Sullivan, and of course, the jihadis and the Islamists. They're defending themselves; they're kicking their ass. Hamas, Hezbollah, they are prepared to take out Iran's nuclear sites. Who's stopping them? Mr. Appeaser?
Biden says no; Israel would be done with Hamas. They'd be done with Hezbollah; Iran wouldn't even exist anymore. The people would have overthrown it if Israel had been able to do what it wanted to do.
But no, Mr. Appeaser said no. So, we're not even getting our bumper sticker labels right. Joe Biden's not a warmonger; he's a war provoker. That's quite different. And now we have Amsterdam.
What a mark! You know, it's as if it's not even happening with the silence in our country and by both parties. I'm ashamed of it. Amsterdam isn't just a Jew thing. What's going on in the Middle East isn't just a Jew thing. What's going on in France isn't just a Jew thing. What's going on in New York and these universities—this isn't just a Jew thing.
We've been here before. Anyone who knows even a summary edition of modern history knows we've been here before. The war against the Jews, I repeat, is the war against humanity. It's the war against the West, the civilized society.
Our enemies are building up their militaries; they're strengthening their alliances; they're sharing intelligence, resources, armaments. They're fighting our allies: Ukraine. Yes, it's an ally. Israel. Europe is weaker than ever before and getting weaker by the day. Our military is being underfunded and yet stretched by Mr. Appeaser.
We better wake up to what the hell's going on! I'll put my marker down: we will be in World War III whether we like it or not in 5 or 10 years. If we don't start to act like a country that seriously is concerned about its security, about its national security, and our alliances with our allies—not because we're a warmonger nation.
The American people are not warmongers because I believe in America first, as I wrote in my book 15 years ago. All our actions should be taken because they are in America's best interest. Having enemies collaborate, share weaponry, share resources for the purpose ultimately of either attacking us or cutting off our economic avenues and navigable waters—that's not acceptable. It's simply not acceptable.
80 million people died during World War II; almost half a million of our troops died during World War II. The movement before us, being attacked at Pearl Harbor, ensured that we were not prepared for that war, and it cost us an enormous number of lives until we could build up our resources, build up America's psychology, and do what had to be done.
I thought this needed to be said, and I still don't hear people condemning what took place in Amsterdam—not enough. More of it's going to occur.
I want to address one other subject: the American media. I want to read something to you:
"The mood in Washington, the Washington press corps is bleak and deservedly so. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that, with a few exceptions, we were all tacitly or even explicitly for her—that’s the other candidate—which has led to a certain anguish in the face of Donald Trump's victory. More than that, and more importantly, we also missed the story after having spent months mocking the people who had better sense of what was going on.
This is all symptomatic of modern journalism's great moral and intellectual failing: its unbearable smugness. Trump knew what he was doing when he invited his crowds to jeer and hiss the reporters covering him. They hate us and have for some time.
And can you blame them? Journalists love mocking Trump supporters. We diagnose them as racists in the way Dark Age clerics confused medical problems with demonic possession. Journalists at our worst see ourselves as a priestly caste. We believe we not only have access to the indisputable facts but also a greater truth, a system of beliefs derived from an advanced understanding of justice.
This is all a whitewash. You see, Trump voters—they're racist, they're sexist, so there must be more racists and sexists than we actually realized. Journalists increasingly don't even believe in the possibility of reasoned disagreement and, as such, ascribe cynical motives to those who think about things a different way. As a direct result, we get it wrong with greater frequency.
Out on the road, we forget to ask the right questions. We can't even imagine the right questions. We go into assignments too certain that what we find will serve to justify our biases."
That was written November 11, 2016, after the first Trump race.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, the American media haven't changed, and they won't change. Why? Because massive corporations, conglomerates that aren't even necessarily in the media news business, own these companies. Paramount is an entertainment company. What does it own? It owns CBS. You have Comcast, a cable company that owns MSNBC and NBC. You have Disney that owns ABC and so forth down the line.
These are massive conglomerates. These little platforms, whether it's CNN, MSNBC, or even the networks, mean nothing to these big companies, so they don't police them. These are all publicly-owned companies. Not a single one of these journalists, so-called—not a single one of these hosts—are going to be held to account by that corporation and removed.
Joy Reid will continue to have a prime-time slot on MSNBC where she spews her bigoted bias, her poison endlessly. The whole lineup of MSNBC, most of the lineup at CNN, the same thing. They're not going to change because their stripes don't change.
Unless these massive corporations, these conglomerates take steps to clean up what's coming out of the mouths of so many of these hateful, so-called journalists, it's not going to happen. They all live in the same communities; they're of the East and West coasts, and they do not have access to—and don't want access to—what the American people are thinking.
That's not what the American Press is supposed to be about. They are propagandists, and I will pursue this more later in the program.
There's nobody better in the country to talk to about what's going on in the world today than retired four-star General Jack Keane, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom—much deserved—from President Trump and is the Chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, essentially a brilliant military mind.
General Keane, a couple of things here: we have a new administration coming in, and it looks like some of our enemies—I’ll call them what they are—some of our enemies are taking notice and are a little nervous about it: the Iranians, the Chinese, and some of the others. So, what do you make of this?
Yeah, well, absolutely right. I just want to congratulate you on your opening comments here; I mean, they were just spot on in terms of describing the global security challenges that we're facing. They are the most serious, the most dangerous, and the most challenging we have had since World War II.
I do believe that we're in a pre-war era leading to global war—that is the status that we're facing. The good news here is that all these adversaries—China, Russia, Iran, North Korea—who are cooperating, collaborating, and coordinating together is a degree that exceeds the expectations of all our intelligence agencies, by the way. And they have been honest about that appraisal.
The fact of the matter is they have to reassess, Mark, based on this election that's taking place because they have been acting so aggressively, so assertively, because they believe that our leadership in the United States is weak, that we've lost the political will to confront them, much less go and fight them.
It's not isolated that Putin moved into Ukraine; it's not isolated that Iran operationalized all its proxies to destroy the state of Israel and drive the United States military out of the Middle East. President Xi has stepped up his game over the last three and a half years, intimidating and coercing Taiwan, the Philippines, and our other allies in the region.
This is all collectively happening because they believe they're going to be able to get away with it. And that's why this election has been a seminal event.
I'm convinced that President Trump knows that World War III is in the future, as you just described it, and that we have got to take action to restore deterrence in dealing with our adversaries. And one of those actions is rebuilding the military; it has to be done.
We have to fix how the Pentagon does its business, or we're going to be throwing taxpayers' money away. We absolutely have to support our allies who are fighting these adversaries. Israel is fighting a major adversary—give them everything they need to finish it as soon as possible.
Ukraine is fighting Russia—give them everything they need and finish it as soon as possible. These are investments in our security when our allies are fighting our adversaries.
So well put, and you know, General Keane, the Monroe Doctrine has been violated over and over again by China, Russia, and Iran. Right now, they're in our hemisphere; they're in South America, they're in Central America. So, people who think all these things are going on 7,000 miles away, 12,000 miles away—no! They're going on now; they're taking positions right in our backyard.
They're threatening Alaska constantly. They're challenging our fighter jets; they're challenging our bombers in our own area, around our own country, and so forth. They don't plan to just stay put, do they?
No. I mean, the fact that this is a global comprehensive threat that you just mentioned is absolutely the case. China has an economic relationship with every single Latin American country—no exception.
Every single one of them. And why is that? Because they want to have geopolitical influence over those countries. The same thing in Africa, where Russia has a very heavy hand dealing with training and arms. The relationship is the same. They see this opportunity, Mark—where the United States and like-minded democracies have been controlling, dominating, and influencing the world post World War II—and they see weakness and the opportunity to change that dimension where they will be more in control and the United States will be undermined.
They believe the United States is in decline. I don't agree with that; I think we've had some terrible policies, but that from which we can recover. But the reality is they have had this momentum and aggressiveness, and we've got to turn it around.
I want to pursue this further with you, General, when we return. We'll be right back.
We're here with my buddy Brent Bozell, the head muckety-muck of the Media Research Center and NewsBusters. They do such a fantastic job of policing the media, which is why we wanted you here. Brent Bozell, just another lousy cycle of phony media, with their phony coverage.
The Democrat Party left-wing media is insulated from the American people, based primarily on the East Coast, with a few places in L.A. and Chicago. They have a complete disconnect with the American people.
My theory is this: they don't care. The corporations that own these platforms, they don't care; it's of no consequence to them. They are a poison to the body politic as they get more cancerous with their propaganda.
Your take on what just took place in this election with the media?
I got to tell you, Mark, that I've never seen anything like this. I've been involved in politics for 45 years. The Media Research Center has been around for 37 years. I've never seen anything like this. We've never seen a situation where the American news media had a lesser appreciation for the worldview of the American people.
But by contrast, we've never seen a situation where the American people had a greater appreciation for the left-wing worldview of the American media.
I think you can argue that the press played a pivotal, and I think the ultimate role, in the election of Joe Biden in 2020 by simply covering up all the scandals around him. They tried it again in 2024; they went with the same level of hostility—actually even more hostile than ever—while also covering up Kamala Harris.
And it backfired. I'll show you how it happened: with Donald Trump, it was 85% negative. Now, this is after someone shot him in the head—someone—and some other person almost killed him, and still they did nothing but attack him for two years.
Meanwhile, with Kamala Harris, it was 76% positive coverage. She got so day and night that they got okay.
So what happened? Gallup took a poll at the start of this campaign. They found Trump’s positive was at 41%; his negative was at 55%. That's a negative four. When it was all said and done, with his positive was 44%, his negative was 54%. That's a negative ten.
Donald Trump went up in the polls, not down! And then there's more interesting data. Gallup then took another poll of the American news media themselves to ask if they were trusted—the trust factor.
Get this, Mark: the trust factor in the news media after 85% negative attacks on Donald Trump is 31%. The lowest in recorded history. On top of that, another poll from YouGov, an organization that goes into a deep analysis, found only 7% of the American people trust the news media today.
The attacks on Donald Trump backfired in 2024, and you're right; you and I have been around a while watching these things. The level—it's real hate speech!
And then attacking half the country. The Democrat Party and the media are so totally disconnected from the public. See, they don't want to know what the public thinks; they want to impose their views on the public.
That's the real difference here.
But, Bozell, as long as these mega-oligopolies own these platforms, do they really care? I mean, CNN means nothing to this massive company. Paramount? CBS means nothing to them. Comcast? Okay, MSNBC—it's like a gnat on my neck, and all these other things.
Not a single outrageous person, like Joy Reid, is ever fired. They're not held to account. I mean, at least Bezos said: "Hey, look, my newspaper is going to have a little bit more balance; if you people don't like it, get out."
And they resigned, like a normal business. What do you make of this disconnect?
Well, I think the news media are the only industry in America today where management is not allowed to control its employees. The management of Comcast, the management of all these companies—they know what I just said. They know the dishonesty and everything that is going on with the national news media, but they don't dare get involved in the newsroom because of the backlash.
Look what happened with Jeff Bezos in the Washington Post. Even a left-winger like Jeff Bezos has seen the catastrophe in American journalism today when he just suggested we need to bring in some conservatives just to bring balance to this.
Oh my God! Nothing's going to change. These people hate conservatives; they believe—just like she believes—they believe that in America, conservatives are racists, they're misogynists, and they want to end democracy!
When they attack Donald Trump, Mark, they're attacking you. They're attacking me. They're attacking every conservative in America; that's what they believe.
When we come back, Bozell, so what does a nation do when we have a media that's not a free media, that is a propaganda operation for the hardcore left in one party in a republic?
The republic suffers! What’s up?
Hey, look, I got to find... [Music]
Ready?