China’s diplomats humiliated the U.S. and Canada in March 2023, with Beijing’s envoy dismissing Blinken’s warnings on Xinjiang ($6B+ repression), Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks, and economic coercion as irrelevant, exposing America’s weakened global stance—Trudeau’s passive response to Spavor/Kovrig’s sham trial (foreign diplomats barred) mirrored Biden’s physical/mental decline, while radical Democrats like Ilhan Omar push policies undermining U.S. sovereignty; Canada’s Conservatives face leadership crises, but Harper’s return could shift the tide against China’s political influence. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I take you through two victories for diplomacy from Beijing.
They had a great week.
On one count, they absolutely humiliate Anthony Blinken, the Secretary of State for Joe Biden.
I'll show you the footage of that.
And boy, do they get away with, well, I won't say murder, but kidnapping in the case of the two Michaels.
I'll show you Justin Trudeau's pitable response.
In both cases, China strong and triumphant, and the West meek and losing.
It's very sad.
I'll show you the video.
I wish you could see the video.
You'll understand what you hear about it, but boy, just to see the faces.
And I'd love it if you saw the video version of the podcast.
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Okay, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, China humiliates America on American soil and humiliates Canada everywhere.
It's March 19th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is government.
But why publish them?
It's because it's my bloody right to do so.
Alaska Diplomacy Clash00:09:58
Did you see this incredible exchange?
It was in Alaska where Joe Biden's new Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, was meeting with his counterpart from the Chinese dictatorship.
So they were on American soil.
And I just want to play a clip for you.
And you tell me who's the top dog here?
Who's the boss?
Who's the superpower?
Who's in charge?
Who's confident and who's on the defensive?
Who's assertive and who's submissive?
Who won and who lost?
Take a look.
We'll also discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion toward our allies.
Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability.
Well, you can't blame this problem on somebody else.
I have to tell you, what I'm hearing is very different from what you described.
I'm hearing deep satisfaction that the United States is back, that we're re-engaged with our allies and partners.
I'm also hearing deep concern about some of the actions your government is taking.
Well, I think we thought too well of the United States.
We thought that the U.S. side will follow the necessary diplomatic protocols.
So for China, it was necessary that we make our position clear.
So let me say here that in front of the Chinese side, the United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength.
There's a lot going on there.
It's not a big thing, but I know that the American aide sitting next to Blinken had her hair dyed purple.
I understand that caused a bit of a ruckus in the White House, excuse me.
Now we live in modern times and you see purple hair and pink hair quite a bit, but I've never seen it in a high-level professional at an international summit between the world's two superpowers at a moment of great tension.
That's a meeting where everything counts, every image, every gesture, every statement, every symbol.
I'm sure they spend time negotiating the shape of the table.
Who would sit where?
Who would speak first and for how long?
Who would enter the room first?
Every single detail was managed or fought over.
And the U.S. sends in someone with purple hair.
That sends a message too, doesn't it?
And as to Blinken himself, he's a smooth, handsome, perfect liberal.
It's like if the New York Times newspaper became a human person and could talk.
And in fairness, he did say some good things.
He mentioned Hong Kong and Xinjiang and Taiwan.
I like that.
But how did you think that was going to go?
Cameras rolling, and a smooth-talking liberal tries to shame China.
Have you ever heard of the concept of saving face?
That's a concept many cultures follow, but it's particularly strong in China, particularly strong for a dictatorship.
And China knew that was coming.
And they smashed him with a prepared reply.
They said, we used to respect you, but we realized that was wrong.
We used to think you were strong, but we realized you were not.
And in fact, they proceeded to throw in their face, the Americans, the Black Lives Matter claim that America itself is bigoted and racist and ethnocentric.
Take a look.
On human rights.
We hope that the United States will do better on human rights.
China has made steady progress in human rights.
And the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself as well.
The United States has also said that countries can't rely on force in today's world to resolve the challenges we face.
And it is a failure to use various means to topple the so-called authoritarian states.
And the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated.
They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter.
It did not come up only recently.
So we do hope that for our two countries, it's important that we manage our respective affairs well, instead of deflecting the blame on somebody else in this world.
That's a tactic the Soviets always used during the Cold War II.
But in a way, the Democrats were asking for it for years, maybe even decades.
Democrats have said that America is immoral.
America is racist, intolerant, sexist, transphobic.
Trump's motto was make America great again.
He believed in American greatness, America first.
The left always says, no, America was never great, and it's certainly not great now.
So why is it surprising that your foreign enemies quote you back to you about how bad America is?
The tactic is absolutely no surprise.
It's what enemies do to Western democracies if they sense weakness.
Do you think that China, like the Soviets, like Adolf Hitler, were suddenly going to be disabused of their deeply held bigotries in some photo op with their enemy, Anthony Blinken?
And what did Blinken refer to?
A rules-based order that maintains global stability.
Is that going to make the Chinese dictators say, oh, gosh, he's got a good point there, guys?
Let's better stop building our fourth aircraft carrier.
Let's better stop spying on the West.
Let's better stop infiltrating Western universities and stealing military and industrial secrets.
And let's get full human rights to Xinjiang and Tibet and Taiwan and the Falun Gong.
And hey, let's go full democratic.
Did they think that was going to happen?
I think the lamest part of the exchange was when Blinken said, I'm hearing deep satisfaction that America is back.
That's like saying, well, I heard from my mom that I'm actually great.
And my mom really loves me.
As the Chinese told him the U.S. cannot speak from a position of strength.
The fact that everyone tells the Secretary of State of the United States that they really like him, as if foreign diplomats don't lie and flatter for a living, as if the world doesn't all see America's weakness now compared to under Trump.
And that's the point.
As Joel Pollack said, Trump was tougher on China than Biden ever was or ever will be.
Yet Trump managed to avoid pointless public confrontations, which in this case ends very bad for Secretary Blinken and Jake Sullivan, who are clearly used to talking within the bubble of comfortable left-wing illusions.
And it's a very clever point by our friend Joel.
Was there anyone in history tougher on China than Trump?
And yet he knew enough about how to get things he wanted, how to negotiate, how to deal with people he hated and who hate him.
Imagine making a living in the casino industry.
Imagine the characters you meet there or the Manhattan real estate industry.
Imagine who you're dealing with.
You're dealing with the world's toughest and even most dangerous dealers.
Did you ever see Trump in a face-to-face public meeting with China make them lose face?
Did you ever see that?
Did you ever see him appeal to a rules-based global order?
Or did you see the opposite?
Trump lavishing praise on his enemies in public while actually gutting them in private.
Trump put hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods while flying over to Beijing and looking like he loved them, and they never dared to speak back to him, did they?
You ever hear them talk to Trump the way they talked to Biden's guy?
Maybe the most Trumpy moment with China, and again, I was reminded of this by Joel Pollock.
Remember when Trump invited Xi Jinping, the Chinese dictator, over to Mar-a-Lago, that's Trump big marina club golf course in Florida, and they were in Mar-a-Lago eating chocolate cake or whatever for dessert.
And literally during that dinner, Trump scheduled a military attack, a bunch of missile strikes on Syria.
Now, put aside the wisdom of that strike.
Think about the timing and what Trump was doing in China relations, the ice in Trump's veins.
That was the point, to casually start a little war and sit down for dinner with another enemy, Xi Jinping, who finds out, probably with an aide coming up to him to whisper in his ear during dinner, what Trump was doing while they were having cake.
Trump was launching missiles while he was, hey, how's your chocolate cake, Xi Jinping?
Imagine the self-control needed for that.
What did that show?
It showed that Trump was cool and calm, that he wasn't afraid to fire off missiles just because, and that he'd do so so casually he wouldn't even miss dessert for him.
That sent a message to Xi Jinping.
That's what China knows and respects, strength and confidence and a tough customer and missiles that can hit anywhere in the world.
Not a high school debate club champ who's talking about a rules-based order and how everyone tells me I'm nice.
Yeah.
Trump was China's toughest enemy in 50 years.
But they never disrespected him.
They may have hated him.
Biden is completely compromised by China, by the way.
Just look at his son, Hunter Biden, basically a Chinese intelligence asset.
But they just abuse America and Blinken and Biden because they want the world to see it and know it, and they know they'll get away with it.
Michael Spavor's Disappointing Trial00:04:48
But the only person lower than that is our guy, Justin Trudeau.
We're so stupid, we don't even know when they're disrespecting us like this.
Restoring, refreshing, strengthening the Canada-China relationship.
We're quite proud the Prime Minister has been given a font nickname in China.
He is called Pudo, which I believe means potato.
And he is, I can't say the Chinese word, it's Xian, Pudo, Little Potato, because his father, Pierre Elliot Tudo, was senior potato.
Yeah, that was an insult, you fool.
I say this because today the first of the two Michaels, Michael Spavor, was on trial in China.
Now, I say on trial because that's what it's called, but it was no trial.
They don't have real trials in China.
They don't have real judges.
They're show trials.
It's like those elections that Saddam Hussein used to have as dictator, where he got 99% of the vote.
That's not a real vote, guys.
It's just the illusion of a vote for propaganda purposes at home and abroad.
The Globe and Mail's Nathan Vanderclipp was there in China, and I'm glad he was.
I got to tell you, I chide the Globe fairly often, and they're on the take for Trudeau's government bailouts.
But I cannot deny that the Globe and Mail have Canada's most skeptical coverage of the Chinese Communist Party, and I am grateful for their work on the China file, and I say that as a reader and as a citizen.
What can I say?
They're doing great work.
Let me show you some of Vanderklipp's tweets on the subject, because he was there.
Now, he wasn't allowed inside the courtroom.
No one was, because it's not a real trial.
It's a sham.
But let me show you what he tweeted today.
And again, I salute him for this.
It takes a little bit of courage to do this too, by the way.
Trial for Michael Spavor started at 10 a.m.
Over by noon.
No verdict.
Can you imagine a two-hour trial?
It's fake.
Court statement on today's two-hour trial.
Michael Spavor and his defense attorney attended the court proceedings.
The Dandong Intermediate People's Court will deliver its verdict at a later date in accordance with the law.
Yes, sure.
The verdict was written in advance, folks, and it'll be given to the judge to publish.
That's how it works in China.
Here's another tweet.
Foreign diplomats arriving at Michael Spavor trial.
China has denied entry to everyone.
Ten diplomats from eight countries.
Well, I'm grateful to those other seven countries.
I'd like to know who they are.
And then this tweet is both pitiful and enraging.
At the Dandong Courthouse, Canadian diplomats seeking access.
Yeah.
It's 10 a.m.
Trial for Michael Spavor is meant to begin now.
Canadian diplomats and other diplomats and media are still outside.
And then here's a Canadian diplomat locked outside.
Jim Nicol, Canada's charge d'affaire in China at the Spavor trial in Dandong.
We are disappointed in the lack of access and the lack of transparency in the process.
China has said its domestic law overrides international law, which in fact is not the case.
You see people, as Anthony Blinken said, there's this rule-based law.
That's all you got?
You're disappointed, eh?
That's all you got.
An anonymous diplomat.
Have you ever heard of him?
He's not the ambassador.
He's just some guy.
I'm sure he's a good guy, but he's anonymous.
He's a low-ranking guy.
He says he's disappointed.
Listen, I'm disappointed when it's leftovers for dinner again.
I'm disappointed that my sports team lost if I had a sports team.
I'm disappointed that the construction on the road outside my house is taking so long.
That's what the word disappointed is for.
Oh, that's disappointing.
Two Canadian citizens kidnapped off the streets of China more than two years ago, held in torturous conditions, denied all civil rights and diplomatic visits in a sham trial.
And a junior staffer says, Oh, I'm disappointed.
At least Anthony Blinken is the Secretary of State, not some junior guy.
At least he used words to describe his concerns about Taiwan, Hong Kong, places like that.
He's a weak man fronting an even weaker president, but at least he had a shred of morality to what he said.
Here's what our cowardly prime minister had to say.
Finally, let me say a few words about Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.
Michael Spavor's hearing took place earlier today.
The court has not yet pronounced a verdict.
Michael Kovrig's hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Let me be very clear: their arbitrary detention is completely unacceptable, as is the lack of transparency around these court proceedings.
Our top priority remains securing their release.
We will continue to work tirelessly to bring them home as soon as possible.
Administration's Radical Agenda00:15:35
I want to thank our many, many international partners, friends, and allies for their solidarity and support.
Going forward, we will continue to be in close contact with the families during this difficult time.
To their loved ones, know that today and every day, Canadians are with you and thinking of both Michaels.
Got it.
So, Trudeau is very upset by this.
So upset, but he won't do a thing.
He won't kick out any Chinese diplomats or withdraw Canadian diplomats from China.
He won't stop Canadian foreign aid to China.
He won't stop our Olympic delegation going to China.
He won't stop the 100,000 sons and daughters of Chinese Communist Party officials going to university in Canada, benefiting from our tax money for our universities and also influencing politics on those campuses.
He won't even vote in parliament to condemn their treatment of Uyghur Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
He won't do actually anything, but he'll say he's very concerned about the lack of transparency.
Yeah.
Two humiliations dealt out in one day by China.
They're the new superpower, my friends.
Stay with us for a minute.
That's President Joe Biden stumbling three times on the stairs getting into Air Force One.
Another view of the same thing, more dramatic.
The reason we show you those is not to be unfair, though it was certainly fair in the eyes of the media party and
Anytime Donald Trump stumbled or made a wrong step, he was actually quite sure-footed.
I remember in one moment, he stood and shook hands with American military graduates for well over an hour in the hot sun.
He was known for giving press conferences well over an hour.
The guy had stamina, even though he wasn't in the greatest of shape.
But Joe Biden, maybe anyone would have stumbled on those airplane stairs.
But coming as Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea all snub the United States, it just projects weakness.
As you may know, Vladimir Putin challenged Joe Biden to an online summit, but only if it was live streaming.
Why would he do that?
Well, to show that Joe Biden doesn't just stumble physically, he stumbles mentally.
I do believe that American prestige is receding and loved or hated Trump commanded respect.
That's gone now.
Joining us now via Skype from the United States is our friend Ben Weingarten.
He joined us on the American election night, you'll recall.
He also writes for the Federalist Newsweek and for our friends at Epoch Times.
Ben, great to see you again.
I don't want to be unfair.
Anyone can slip on stairs.
You and I do.
People of all ages do.
But it just fits with the theme of a stumbling, doddering old man who's not strong.
Yeah, I think it's sort of a metaphor for what we've seen.
And I think you correctly identified, which is that all of America's worst adversaries are essentially taking us on, at least rhetorically, with what would be reckless abandon in the face of another administration, but which in the case of this one seems to invite it.
As you noted, the Iranian regime sees the Biden administration offering to come to the table without preconditions to work on a respawn Iran deal with these Chinese counterparts at this debacle in Anchorage, Alaska, attacking America for purported human rights violations and invoking Black Lives Matter and a history of human rights violations on the American side.
When it comes to Russia, as you noted, with Vladimir Putin firing back, demanding a debate, calling the president essentially a killer as well.
And North Korea, of course, threatening potentially something far more nefarious and worse, and maybe even in the face of a, in the form of a nuclear attack or some other kind of military strike.
Put all of this together and it demonstrates by these responses a lack of respect or fear for the Biden administration.
And incidentally, just in terms of the sort of mental acuity questions and then also physical questions, look, why is it that Vice President Kamala Harris is the one taking calls from the top leaders in other countries, principals in other countries, presidents, prime ministers, and the like?
That's something that's very uncharacteristic of any administration that I can think of.
And it speaks to the fact that there are legitimate questions about the fitness of the president generally.
But then also, even if he is fit to be commander-in-chief, whether or not his policies are befitting of a commander-in-chief.
Yeah.
You know, there was a video.
We played a clip of it the other day.
I'll just show it again.
Biden was in an interview with a mainstream media outlet.
It's not even important which one.
He was asked a question and he gave a sort of answer.
And he was the only one in the shot, but his answer wasn't great.
And then, surprise, the angle was widened.
And Joe Biden's wife was there and she patched up Biden's answer.
You wouldn't have known she was in the room.
She was like a nanny for him.
And she weighed in on policy matters.
It wasn't a personal interview.
What are the two of you like at home?
What's your family?
Then you don't understand the first lady being in the interview, but it was like she was his minder.
Here's a quick recap of that.
Mr. President, in the five weeks you've been in office, you have been taking many actions to revert Trump administration's anti-immigration policy.
But today, the Washington Post reports that your administration has plans to open tents at Del Rio, a town close to the border.
Can you confirm that?
Right now, there's thousands of unaccompanied children coming across the border.
In Texas, they opened up one, one that was a former one used in the administration, the last administration.
Our hope and expectation is that won't stay open very long, that we'll be able to provide for every kid who comes across the border safely to be housed in a facility that's licensed.
And this administration is doing it in a humane way.
And that's really important.
I mean, we want to make sure that these children are safe, that they get mental health services, they get physical health services, they get education.
I just think that substantive weakness is being matched with personal weakness.
And I think that's the worst of all worlds for America.
Enemies are thrilled.
Friends are demoralized.
The world gets worse.
I don't know.
That's how it feels from up here.
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
And on one level, it's incredibly disconcerting that the commander-in-chief apparently seems to show these signs of needing assistance, won't take a press conference, won't take any questions from the press.
And then you add the policies to it, and it's just cataclysmic.
On the other hand, I have long felt that the president was essentially a figurehead.
He was a figurehead candidate and not really the one running the show.
And that perception seems to be meeting reality right now.
And maybe the even more disconcerting thing is, what if the reality is that this administration is really being run by the underlings and the administrative state, the deep state, if you want to call it that, and beyond?
I mean, remember, Susan Rice is the one in charge of the domestic policy portfolio.
Secretary Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan were longtime senior Obama administration officials.
Obviously, Kamala Harris is in a position of power.
Perhaps the likes of which we've never seen as a vice president.
So put all that together.
And the thing that's maybe even more disturbing is that it really is sort of the machine running the show, the ruling class running the show.
And Joe Biden is there as sort of a purported, at least superficially moderate frontman, but in reality, overseeing the most radical administration, arguably, in American history.
And I think that's borne out by the fact that you've seen wokeism essentially implemented throughout the executive branch.
You see the filibuster under assault, massive expansion of the courts potentially to come.
Obviously, the open borders policy and the president's response is to tell migrants, illegal aliens, please don't come over the border.
You shouldn't be coming.
And on and on, obviously, the environmentalist policies.
And then, of course, instituting a policy of equity over equality, which really speaks to a sort of critical race theory, identitarian, cultural Marxism infused sort of policy, and all of which, again, is a disaster for the country.
Yeah, you know, having a daughtering, smiling grandpa character as president, I see the strength of it from a PR point of view.
He doesn't say much.
He doesn't get particularly combative with journalists.
He hasn't talked to journalists in nearly two months.
Journalists perhaps hold back their toughest punches.
Donald Trump was so combative, it sort of dared journalists to take him on.
What are you going to ask Joe Biden?
And he'll just sort of grin and say, come on, man, enough malarkey.
So there's that goofy, harmless grandpa guy who's not actually the decider, but he's a decoy.
He's, you know, in magic.
It's all about misdirection.
It's not real magic.
Just have everyone look over there at the figurehead president while we're over here quietly doing the real work.
That's scarier, I think, because people are lulled by the decoy.
I think he's a decoy.
And I don't even think he's a Manchurian president.
I don't think he himself has some compromised mission.
You know, I think his son Hunter Biden wants to cash in, sure.
But I think Joe Biden just isn't there.
It really feels like that old goofy comedy movie, Weekend at Bernie's, where they prop up a guy just for its own reasons.
I don't know.
How's it going to end?
Like, will it?
I suppose it might end if he injures himself truly.
If he has a, God forbid, a stroke or falls.
Like, you can imagine if he fell and stumbled all the way down that staircase, that could have hurt a guy.
That would hurt someone half his age.
I think that there's a real chance that there will be a critical health issue, maybe even within a year.
It's disturbing to even entertain these kind of scenarios and that we're even talking about them.
And it's funny you mentioned weekend at Bernie's and I described his campaign as sort of a weekend at Biden's campaign.
And really, you know, look, he ran his campaign essentially from a basement, never really interacting with people in any sort of natural organic setting.
And he was basically this Septuagint, hermetically sealed candidate.
He's a Septuagint, hermetically sealed president.
Clearly seems brittle.
And that's on both the physical side as well as his, again, sort of mental quickness and acuity.
And so to your question, I mean, look, I've long held the theory that in a perfect world from the Democrats' perspective, Joe Biden would stay in office for two years and one day, and then Kamala Harris would succeed him.
Why do I say two years and one day?
Well, per the Constitution, technically, Kamala Harris could serve out this final just under two years and then actually be re-elected twice.
You could serve as president for a maximum of 10 years.
It's sort of a quirk of the language.
So consequently, I think that would be in the Democrats' perfect world how the trade-off would happen.
I assume likely they wouldn't want to make it literally two years and one day because it would just be so obvious and contrived.
But I do think ultimately from the Democrats' perspective, that's the best case scenario.
Yeah, and they can get through the midterm elections with Joe Biden as president and then just have the switcheroo.
I think that that is unfortunately a likely outcome.
Let me ask you, how are things looking in the Congress?
I mean, both the Senate and the House are in the hands of the Democrats.
It's been not quite two months yet, so they're still very early.
Do you think that the more radical elements of the Democratic far-left agenda will be manifested before the midterm elections of 2022 that I think will see some perhaps the House, perhaps the Senate go back to Republican hands, some sort of check and balance?
Because right now you've got the presidency in both houses of Congress.
You could do a lot of crazy things.
You mentioned packing the courts.
Do you think that there's enough conservative Democrats?
Do you think there's enough natural inertia there to slow down the craziest ideas?
Well, I'm very concerned about this.
Interestingly, Politico this week ran a story about how Ron Clain, the president's chief of staff, held a meeting with the top leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including Ilhan Omar, who we've talked about at length in the subject of my book, and others.
And Politico said this really demonstrates just how far the Congressional Progressive Caucus has risen in terms of its power and ability to potentially shape an agenda.
So leaving aside for a moment what happens on the legislative side, I do believe that the executive branch will do everything it possibly can to put forth the entire radical agenda that the president's already done so in a number of areas in terms of purportedly expanding voting access, which is not really what the executive or relevant executive order is about.
Or of course, going back to the Paris Climate Accord, myriad other policies.
Similarly, we just talked before about equity versus equality, and that sort of infused the whole litany of policies that the president oversees Keystone Pipeline, obviously, as well.
So, but beyond that, on the legislative side, to your point, the president himself has indicated a willingness to rethink the filibuster.
Who could have seen this coming?
And I suspect many in the Senate as well, including those moderates, all the pressure in the world, and to a degree, also a lot of leverage, sits on Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema and others.
And in the past, they've said that they would resist.
But who knows?
I mean, you can foresee a scenario where some event happens and it's used to say, well, look, the Republicans are just so intransigent, such a threat to democracy, so extremist that in this scenario, we have to blow up the filibuster for the good of our democracy.
Aaron Toole's Rise?00:04:31
You could very easily see that kind of narrative being crafted based upon a specific situation that crops up.
And obviously, you know, if you look at where the whole ballgame lies, and there are any number of issues where this could be court packing is one, DC and Puerto Rico statehood is another, and an amnesty of sorts, if not du jour, is another area in which you could potentially see the makings of a permanent Democrat majority potentially of voters.
Beyond that, HR1, the first bill out of the House, poses an existential threat to the Republic, I would say, because it would essentially enshrine all of the election integrity, shattering, undermining, eroding policies that were implemented under the pandemic emergency standards.
So extraordinary measures.
And it will make all of them federal law, federalizing our elections in the first place, which is arguably unconstitutional.
But then, second of all, creating a scenario where all of the most corrupt and dubious policies that we saw take place in 2020 would happen writ large across the country.
And that I believe is the point of HR1.
Again, is to ensure that if it's ever close, Democrats will always be able to, as we talked about on election night, win given the margin of fraud, given their ability to organize when ballot harvesting is allowed.
They're very good at machine politics.
And to the extent that they completely systematically erode voter integrity in this country, so we get as far as possible away from people voting on one election day, identifying themselves with a signature at a voting station that favors Democrats writ large and in perpetuity.
So that bill is in some ways the whole ballgame.
But of course, the Democrats are pressing on every single possible path that they can to achieve electoral dominance.
Yeah, well, no wonder China is feeling so confident these days.
I mean, just the wins for China are racking up everywhere.
And even on the domestic side, the weaker the United States is, the stronger China is by comparison.
Ben, it's great to see you again.
I want to give a shout out to your YouTube series called Bad News, co-hosted with Emily Jashinsky.
From time to time, we embed those videos on our website.
We'll continue to do so.
Great to see you again.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Our pleasure.
There you have it, Ben Weingarten.
His own YouTube show is called Bad News.
And I think it's well named.
That's the era we're in these days, my friends.
Stay with us.
On my show last night, Bruce writes, I love your initiative, Ezra.
Stephen Harper would be the man to lead the Conservative Party back to victory as well as sanity.
Look, tell me someone who could match up.
Like, Donald Trump is 74, and I'm worried that by the time 2024 comes along, he might be too old for the job if he's thinking of running again.
There are younger contenders.
I love that Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.
But in Canada, Stephen Harper's just 61.
That is young for prime ministers.
He absolutely could run next time.
And don't tell me he's loving being a consultant.
I just don't think he is.
Jane writes, cancel culture didn't exist when Harper was in government in 2015.
I don't know.
He will have to deal with that.
Yeah, but he just feels like a grown-up, doesn't he?
I just think Canadians miss that now.
Gilly writes, Harper making a comeback is an exciting proposition.
Yeah, I mean, obviously I didn't talk to him about it, but I will send that petition to him when the time is right.
And I think he should come back if necessary.
I think Pierre Polyam should have thrown his hat in the ring last time.
I wish he did, but he chose not to.
Maybe it's time to bring in the guy who won a bunch of elections and gave Canada pretty good government.
Not perfect, but geez, pretty good.
And right now, I take pretty good over the crushing loss that's about to be dealt to the Conservatives.
That's the show for today.
By the time you see this, Sheila Gonride and I will have done a live stream of Aaron O'Toole's speech to the Conservative Party.
We're starting that at 5 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Mountain Time.
So when you're done watching this, feel free to click on over and watch Sheila and I have a watch party and talk about Aaron O'Toole's speech.
You'll be able to find that elsewhere on our website or our YouTube channel.
All right, until Monday, on behalf of all of us here at Rubber World Headquarters to you at home.