Tulsi's turn on the hot seat (01-31-2025--Hour3)

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[00:00:29] All right, so we had a bunch of the confirmation hearings up in Washington, D.C. over the last couple of days. And we had Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., well, Bessent, but that was like last week, I want to say. So I was not able to watch all of them. Cash Patel was yesterday. So wasn't able to catch all of them, but I did watch the Tulsi Gabbard one.

[00:00:56] And you've probably heard some of the sound bites by now if you haven't. Some of these are very good. I don't think that I've pulled any, because I pulled them last night and forgot to write up my cut sheet on it. But I've got the cuts. But I forgot to write the cut sheet.

[00:01:14] But I think most of this stuff is coming from her opening statement. And there was a particular exchange that's got a lot of the coverage, viral videos and the like, where what's his name? Bennett, I think out of Colorado. You know, is Edward Snowden a traitor? Is he a traitor? Is he a traitor? And she wouldn't say he was. And she wouldn't say that he was a brave hero, which she had said in the past.

[00:01:43] And I will tell you, like, I have always been cautious about Snowden. I didn't follow the story when it initially broke. I've never gone back to do like a deep dive on everything. I've heard bits here and there over the years.

[00:01:58] But I was watching last night, Megan Kelly's podcast, and she had Glenn Greenwald on. And Glenn Greenwald was the guy that Edward Snowden gave the documents to. So Snowden took this information. He was working as an NSA contractor.

[00:02:19] He took the information and he handed it off to Glenn Greenwald, who published it over at The Intercept, which went so far woke left that he left the thing he founded, the publication he founded.

[00:02:34] So his take on it, obviously, he's got bias there. But it was interesting to hear his side of this story in the way he was talking about what Snowden did in that, like, I wasn't aware of this, and maybe you are, but most of the stuff that Snowden took has never been made public, which I find to be surprising.

[00:03:02] Like, I thought, because I didn't follow the case closely at the time, I thought that what he took, he handed off and then it all got published. But he apparently told Glenn Greenwald when he saw what the NSA was doing, basically spying on all of us, and it shocked and offended him to the point where he was like, this needs to be divulged.

[00:03:29] And he took the information and he gave it to not a foreign adversary, which I thought was a really good point that Greenwald had made last night in that had Snowden wanted to commit treason, wouldn't he have gone and given the information to an adversarial nation? To me, that's a very logical question.

[00:03:58] And I think it's instructive, right? When he had all of these options for how to put the information out there, did he try to hurt the American government? Did he try to hurt the American people? Or was he trying to alert the American people that the government was hurting them?

[00:04:21] And so his action to hand it off to a media person, and he told Greenwald, according to Greenwald, you know, print what you think is okay. Like, he's leaving it up to the intercept. You guys do with this what you think has to be done with it.

[00:04:45] And so he basically put the intercept in charge as a gatekeeper for them to follow journalistic standards, whatever they might be over at the intercept at the time, and to say, we're not going to publish this. Sources and methods are going to be protected and that sort of thing.

[00:05:04] And so what they focused on was the programs that the NSA was using in order to scoop up and spy on all of us, which they were doing. Right? The stuff that, like, laws were changed because of the leak that Snowden did in order to try to stop what was going on from occurring any longer. Um, I also was unaware.

[00:05:33] I always thought that Snowden had gone to Russia, and that was proof that he was in collusion with Russia. Now, maybe he did keep a copy for himself and he handed all of it off to Russia. That's possible. I don't know. Um, but as Greenwald tells it, he got stuck in Russia. He wasn't trying to go to Russia. He got stuck there. He was passing through on his way to another country.

[00:06:00] Yes, he was fleeing America after the, uh, the, the theft of the, uh, of the data, which Tulsi Gabbard does talk about in the hearing. She did say he broke laws and Snowden from his Russian social media account, because he's still over there. Snowden said, if she needs to call me a traitor, if she needs to say this stuff about me, she should do so. She should call me these things.

[00:06:31] And this was used against her as evidence. Like, you won't even say that he's a traitor, but he says he's a traitor. No, he's saying Tulsi Gabbard is so needed to run the DNI because she will come in and clean it up. This is what America needs is for her to be in that position. And so if she needs to throw me under the bus, she should do that.

[00:06:58] I give you my permission, not that you need it, but I give you my permission to do it. I thought that is an interesting piece of evidence, right? Why would you lie about this stuff? Also, I do not like the fact that the vote to confirm or reject her is going to be in closed session. That the Senate Intelligence Committee, that they're going to be voting on her in private.

[00:07:28] I want to know who voted for her and against her. Should have the courage. Like, you guys conduct all this stuff in secret, and you're going to have this public hearing, and then you're going to reject her, or I guess maybe confirm her. I don't know. But those votes should be public. You should have to stand in front of us. You work for us. You should stand in front of us and say yes or no. And tell us why. That's it.

[00:07:57] So Trump's nominee to be the nation's spy chief faced three hours of intense questioning from lawmakers at a feisty and sometimes contentious confirmation hearing. As Democrats peppered former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard with questions about her experience in the intelligence field, and judgment about international affairs. Gabbard, a former Democratic House member, strongly defended her record and fitness to head the office of the director of national intelligence.

[00:08:23] Still, even some Republicans on the majority Republican Intelligence Committee were not wildly enthusiastic about Trump's unorthodox pick. Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, and she cannot lose a single Republican vote in the committee. She is considered to be one of the most vulnerable of Trump's nominees. This is according to an article at The Washington Times by Mike Glenn.

[00:08:53] Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, accused her of blaming NATO for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And she made comments on Twitter the night that Russia invaded, and she was pointing out that Russia views NATO expansion as an existential threat against it.

[00:09:18] Now, you can disagree with that, but that doesn't mean that Russia doesn't view it like that. And her pointing that out, I think, is exactly what you would want somebody who's advising on intelligence matters to tell the president. Hey, this is what Russia views this as. Because Russia has always said, you know, no nukes in Ukraine, no NATO expansion all along our borders and all this stuff. They've been saying all of this stuff for a very long time.

[00:09:47] And NATO has continuously encroached and encroached and encroached and taken in more and more countries. And that's why people say this is the fault of NATO. Like, I don't necessarily agree with that. Like, this is the reason. I think Putin has expansionist, you know, views and wants to try to reassemble the USSR. Yeah, like, he's got his own grandiose plans.

[00:10:12] But it does provide a helpful justification if you're trying to sell this to the public, right? When you're going around invading all of your neighbors and stuff, Georgia, Crimea and all that, it does make it easier to say, like, we've been telling them no expansion and look at them. Here they are expanding again. And remember, it was America. I believe it was Bill Clinton. Maybe it was Obama. I forget who.

[00:10:39] We told Ukraine, get rid of your nukes and we'll look out for you. And they did. And that was a terrible piece of advice. Because we're not, right? Like, they're not part of NATO. And so maybe this is like, well, why we keep sending them all this money. We feel bad because they got rid of all their nukes. Had they had the nukes, they might not have gotten invaded. I don't know. Maybe it would have been a nuclear war. I don't know.

[00:11:06] But her pointing this stuff out doesn't disqualify her. Not at all. I don't see that. And then, oh, the Assad thing. She went on the trip. She debriefed everybody when she came back. Like, again, just because you go on these trips and you talk to these world leaders, like, her main foe is al-Qaeda. The people who attacked us on 9-11. And now you look at what's happening in Syria and they've got a new government coming in

[00:11:36] that's freaking al-Qaeda. Like, ugh. So I got some audio. You'll hear it in her own words. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain? And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big ol' reunion, Cabins of Asheville

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[00:13:00] This is Tulsi Gabbard opening statement at her confirmation hearing. I'm honored and grateful to President Trump for his trust and confidence in nominating me to serve our country as the Director of National Intelligence at a time when trust in the intelligence community unfortunately is at an all-time low. Chuck Schumer admitted a few years ago, quote, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. Correct.

[00:13:26] For too long, faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence have led to costly failures and the undermining of our national security and God-given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. Correct. The most obvious example of one of these failures is our invasion of Iraq based upon a total fabrication or complete failure of intelligence. Hmm. This disastrous decision led to the deaths of tens of thousands of American soldiers, millions

[00:13:53] of people in the Middle East, mass migration, destabilization and undermining of the security and stability of our European allies. The rise of ISIS, strengthening of Al-Qaeda and other Islamist jihadist groups and strengthening Iran. Here are just a few other examples. The American people elected Donald Trump as their president not once but twice. And yet the FBI and intelligence agencies were politicized by his opponents to undermine

[00:14:20] his presidency and falsely portray him as a puppet of Putin. Title I of FISA was used illegally to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page using a Clinton campaign-funded false dossier as their so-called evidence. Yes. Biden campaign advisor Tony Blinken was the impetus for the 51 former senior intelligence officials letter dismissing Hunter Biden's laptop as disinformation specifically to help

[00:14:49] Biden win the election. Former DNI James Clapper lied to this committee in 2013 denying the existence of programs that facilitated the mass collection of millions of Americans' phone and Internet records. That's true, too. It was never held accountable. That's true. Never. Under John Brennan's leadership, the CIA abused its power to spy on Congress, to dodge oversight, lied about doing it until he was caught, and yet has never been held responsible. Yeah, Brennan's a commie.

[00:15:18] Under Biden, the FBI abused its power for political reasons to try to surveil Catholics who attend traditional Latin mass, labeling them as, quote-unquote, radical traditionalist Catholics. Rad-trads. Personally, just 24 hours after I criticized Kamala Harris and her nomination, I was placed on a secret domestic terror watch list called Quiet Skies. Sadly, there are more examples. Sadly, there are more examples. The bottom line is this. This must end.

[00:15:44] President Trump's re-election is a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure, end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community, and begin to restore trust in those who've been charged with the critical task of securing our nation. If confirmed as DNI, I will do my very best to fulfill this mandate and bring leadership to the intelligence community with a laser-like focus on our essential mission, ensuring the

[00:16:14] safety, security, and freedom of the American people. As the president's principal intelligence advisor, I'll begin by leading by example, checking my own personal views at the door, and committing to delivering intelligence that is collected, analyzed, and reported without bias, prejudice, or political influence. So, I don't know who I heard this from. It may have been one of the members on the committee.

[00:16:43] If we are to expect, right, all of the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, oxymoron joke right there, but if we are to expect all of them to engage in partisan squabbling and sniping and all of that, you know, out in public, but then, you know, when this stuff really matters, we check our politics at the door, we go into these closed sessions, and we learn

[00:17:10] all of this stuff, and we're all on the same page, we're all on the same team, America. Well, then why doesn't she get that same allowance? Right? Are you saying that she is unable? That she is not capable of checking her own biases or opinions and just going where the truth and the data and the evidence leads her? But you are? You're more capable of doing that than she is?

[00:17:39] I find that to be, well, let me just say, hard to believe. I find that hard to believe, that Mark Warner is able to do it, but Tulsi Gabbard is not. I find that difficult to believe. Tulsi Gabbard has said what she believes to be true and has suffered consequences for doing so, and that is a person of courage.

[00:18:09] And I esteem that. I value that. Right? Now, others may not. That's fine. But I do. And I feel like that is indicative of how she might approach her job, that she may have to say things that she doesn't agree with, you know, her opinion or politics or whatever, but if this is the evidence, if this is what we have, then I'm going to give it to you.

[00:18:34] Even if I don't agree, although, like, I think at some point you're doing assessments and in your judgment it's this or whatever, but I don't understand why she's being held to a standard that these people that are deciding on her post that somehow or another they can, they think that she can't do the thing that they are doing? I'm not buying it. Not buying the cover story.

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[00:19:57] Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at Create A Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485, and online at createavideo.com. I'm listening to some of the highlights of the Tulsi Gabbard hearing yesterday for her confirmation as Director of the National Intelligence, DNI Chief, and there are a couple of Republicans.

[00:20:25] There are a couple of Republicans that are potential no votes. Susan Collins is one of them. But Tom Cotton is not. Tom Cotton seems supportive of her. He said, I am dismayed by the attacks on Ms. Gabbard's patriotism and her loyalty to our country. Let me remind everyone, Ms. Gabbard has served in our Army for more than two decades.

[00:20:51] She has multiple combat tours, and she still wears the uniform to this day. Cotton noted that Gabbard had undergone five background checks from the FBI and answered every question and called her, quote, clean as a whistle. He acknowledged that some of the nominee's views might be unconventional. He said that outside-the-box thinking might have helped the U.S. avoid foreign policy quagmires,

[00:21:19] such as two decades of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says maybe Washington could use a little more unconventional thinking. During her opening statement, Gabbard warned the American public about some of the attacks against her that we might be hearing. Now, before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home. You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love

[00:21:49] for our country. Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States, accusing me of being Trump's puppet, Putin's puppet, Assad's puppet, a guru's puppet, Modi's puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.

[00:22:17] The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed. The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change. The fact is, what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad or Gaddafi or any dictator. I just hate Al-Qaeda.

[00:22:42] I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels. As Jake Sullivan said to Hillary Clinton, quote, Al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria. Well, Syria is now controlled by an Al-Qaeda offshoot, HTS, led by an Islamist jihadist who danced in the streets on 9-11 and who was responsible for the killing of many American service members.

[00:23:10] Democrat senators in the past resorted to anti-Christian bigotry against some of President Trump's judicial nominees like Amy Coney Barrett and Brian Boucher. I condemn those actions as a Democrat in Congress at the time as religious bigotry must be thoroughly condemned by all of us, no matter the religion. Unfortunately, there are some Democrat senators who still don't understand the principle of freedom of religion and Article 6 of the Constitution.

[00:23:38] Quote, no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. Unfortunately, they're once again using the religious bigotry card, but this time trying to foment religious bigotry against Hindus and Hinduism. If anyone is sincerely interested in knowing more about my own personal spiritual path of

[00:24:03] Hinduism, I welcome you to go to my account on X where I'll share more on this topic. If confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, I will continue to live by the oath that I have sworn at least eight times in my life, both in uniform and as a member of Congress. I will support and defend our God-given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

[00:24:32] And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. Okay, so I have to admit, is there something about Hinduism or followers or Hindus like that make them unsuited to be D&I? I miss that. I mean, I took religion classes. We did a whole thing on Hinduism. And I admit, I was not informed that her being a Hindu would somehow or another prevent her

[00:25:02] from assessing intelligence. I was not, that was not one of the, that was not one of the pillars, I recall. But I could have missed it. It's possible. She said she is there to clean up the intelligence community. Okay, that's what she is going in to do because that's what Trump said he would do because he was victimized by a weaponized intelligence community.

[00:25:26] I'll work to end the politicization of the intelligence community and ensure there is a clear mission focus in the IC on its core mission of this unbiased apolitical collection and analysis of intelligence to secure our nation. I'll work to rebuild trust through transparency and accountability. This is a national security imperative.

[00:25:48] And I'll work to assess and address efficiencies, redundancies, and effectiveness across ODNI to ensure focus of personnel and resources is on our core mission of national security. And in my meetings that I've had with many of you, you expressed bipartisan frustration about recent intelligence failures as well as the lack of responsiveness to your requests for information.

[00:26:12] Whether it's the surprise October 7th Hamas terrorist attack to the sudden takeover of Syria by Islamist extremists, failures to identify the source of COVID, anomalous health incidents, UAPs, drones, and more. If confirmed, I look forward to working with you to address these issues. Oh, by the way, remember the drone story? Remember that one? Yeah, like people were talking about it. It was a while ago.

[00:26:41] But yeah, like I remember that story. Apparently, the White House says that they were not adversarial drones. So it's nice to learn after the fact, I guess. I mean, maybe you don't believe that. Or maybe you do believe it. Maybe you believe it because it's a Trump administration. Or maybe you don't believe it because it's a Trump administration. I don't know. But why did it take so long for that information to finally be delivered to us?

[00:27:10] What's up with that? I don't. Yeah. Oh, and then the UAP issue just in general, like they call them UAPs, but it's UFOs. You'll always be UFOs to me, okay? UFO sounds way scarier. I don't know why. Maybe in another 50 years or something, UAP will sound scarier. UAP sounds like an accounting software to me.

[00:27:36] But UFO, like it just automatically conjures up the X-Files tune. You know, in my mind, UFO is something that will snatch you up. A UFO is going to be doing probes on you. Ew. But that's what a UFO is. Usually round two. And, you know, aliens with big eyes and big heads. Very little bodies.

[00:28:00] I feel like it's because of evolution that they end up with the very big heads and the small bodies because you don't need, you know, because you get so smart. You can do everything. And then the body just kind of atrophies. So they get the really small bodies. Either that or they're just working off of, you know, pictures and drawings from the actual aliens that they caught at Roswell. Now we're going to find out about that too. I read about Roswell, gosh, 30 years ago.

[00:28:30] I was a kid. I found some book on some shelf about the Roswell incident, I think it was called. And I read that book. And ever since then, I'm like, yeah, that sounds like it probably happened. And no, no, no. The president really did have to go to a dentist for a chipped tooth in the middle of the night in Roswell, New Mexico. Sure. Yeah, that really happened. But maybe we'll get that along with the JFK, RFK, MLK data. By the way, have they released that stuff yet?

[00:28:59] I feel like they should have already released it. Nobody's really talking about that, though. I don't know. We'll see. I say give her a shot. Right? She's not going to do any worse than what we've already been seeing. Right? Unless she's going to, like, orchestrate some sort of a, you know, fake Russian collusion hoax against some Democrat. I don't know. Like, it seems like the bar is pretty low. You know? All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too.

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[00:29:53] I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link, and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:30:19] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Pete Callender here. One final segment before I'm out of here for the weekend. I'm not rubbing that in. I'm just letting you know. It's a programming note. 7045-701110. But honestly, not really going to take any more calls because I don't have any more time, and I have another sound bite to play, which I probably won't even have time to play because I've been rambling right now, and now I can't play it. Okay.

[00:30:46] So I got an email from Mark to Pete at the PeteCallenderShow.com about the acronym UAP, which is now replacing UFO with the UAP, and I've never been on board with this. Just like I was not on board with reclassifying Pluto. Pluto. Like, it's a planet. I don't care. You can say whatever you want about whatever. I don't care. To me, it's a planet.

[00:31:12] I know too few planet names already, and like, I know that one. So don't be now telling me that I can't call it that. I'm going to call it whatever I want to. Look, if Trump can call it the Gulf of America, then I can call Pluto a planet. Okay? No. Well, no. I mean, look, the reason I don't know a lot of planet names is because there are so many of them. And no, it's part of my birthright.

[00:31:42] Americans are not required to know geography. And honestly, knowing planet names is kind of geography. It's like part of the same thing. So that's how I view it. But, oh, I just deleted it. Mark's email. I didn't even read Mark's email. UAP. He says, UAP sounds like another Middle Eastern country that we cannot find on a map. That's probably right. It does. Yeah, it's right over there next to Saudi Arabia.

[00:32:12] Oh, and then I just saw this. Journavix. Journavix. J-O-U-R-N-A-V-X. Journavix. The first FDA-approved pain medication in decades that does not rely on opioid receptors to manage pain. Wait a minute. That's impossible.

[00:32:36] Are you telling me that we can manage pain without getting addicted to drugs and turning to a life of crime and heroin and death? That's nuts. Surely the pharmaceutical industry would not have created some sort of marketing campaign. And by the way, look, I know I give big pharma a lot of guff. I do know that. But they do a lot of good, too. I have been accused of being a defender of the pharmaceutical industry because I don't think that they're all bad. They do some good things.

[00:33:05] A lot of people's lives have been saved by a lot of medications. Okay? So, it's not all one or the other. Again, false choices. Reject the false choices. So, apparently this new drug blocks proteins responsible for triggering pain signals before they reach the brain. That's very interesting. That's very interesting. Okay, so there's that. Back to the Tulsi hearing.

[00:33:33] Mike Benz, who is a former State Department cyber guy, he says regarding the fact that the vote's going to be held in private on whether to confirm or recommend confirmation for Tulsi Gabbard. He says, nothing says you can totally trust the intelligence community like having to have a secret vote on who can run the intelligence community. Right? Yeah. Yeah, trust us on this. She's going to be great or not.

[00:34:02] Like, you can trust all this, but we can't tell you how we're voting on her. It's just, it's not a good look. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So, if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.