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Jan. 17, 2021 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
48:07
Exposing the Reality of Mainstream Media & Local News | John Bachman | MEDIA | Rubin Report
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john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I had actually kind of had grown jaded with the television business, the local news business, because there had been a lot of corporate consolidation.
And, you know, there was less autonomy at the local level for reporters like myself and anchors to pursue stories that, you know, I felt like were really important to our audience.
There were a lot of mandates from the corporate offices and, you know, edicts from on high.
And we're going to focus on this.
And, you know, I think that's problematic with our country right now, where you have a lot less local news, a lot less investment in local news, and you have less coverage of the places where the rubber really meets the road in our democracy.
and that's in your county commission meetings, your school board meetings, your city council meetings.
unidentified
(upbeat music)
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I'm Dave Rubin and joining me today is the host of John Bachman Now on Newsmax.
John Bachman, welcome to the Rubin Report.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Dave, great to be with you.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I felt that I had to do that a little more as a news anchor, because I'm with a news anchor.
Did that seem right to you?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, I appreciate it because, you know, when I have you on my show, I always try to do the reverse and try to be more Dave Rubin-esque, more free-flowing.
You know, maybe I should just unbutton the top collar for this, right?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Unbutton the tie for God's sake.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
We're on YouTube, right?
Maybe I'll unbutton the jacket and we can relax a little bit, right?
unidentified
Let's do it.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Let's settle in.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Calm down if you want to unfurl the hair a little bit.
Whatever you want to do, you're okay here.
Listen, I am glad to have you on.
I feel like you're the right guy to have on sort of just a little bit before inauguration.
We are in a seriously weird time.
And as I often tell my audience, I just have this short list of people that are even remotely sane right now, and I kind of put you on that list.
For the people that have no idea who you are, just give me a little bit of the John Bachman story, and then we'll talk about the news of the day.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, I imagine that's most of your audience.
I'm kind of new to this internet thing.
I'm a traditional TV news anchor type.
I worked for about 20 years in local news.
Started as an intern at WAGA Fox 5 in Atlanta and then went to Augusta, Georgia, the CBS affiliate there, WADA, and then moved down to West Palm Beach, Florida, because I wanted to be kind of on the political fault lines Of American politics, and of course West Palm Beach.
Palm Beach County was one of those areas where you have, you know, a pretty diverse political population.
And it turned out to be everything I expected and more.
You know, I come to Newsmax from that perspective.
I had actually kind of had grown jaded with the television business, the local news business, because there had been a lot of corporate consolidation.
And you know, there was less autonomy at the local level for reporters like myself and anchors to pursue stories that, you know, I felt like were really important to our audience.
There were a lot of mandates from the corporate offices and, you know, edicts from on high.
And we're going to focus on this.
And, you know, I think that's problematic with our country right now, where you have a lot less local news, a lot less investment in local news, and you have less coverage of the places where the rubber really meets the road in our democracy.
And that's in your county commission meetings, your school board meetings, your city council meetings.
You know, and we're seeing this right now, I think, Dave, with the vaccine rollout, where you had a very successful you know, Operation Warp Speed on the federal level.
And then when those resources, whether it's vaccines or money from FEMA,
when they get down on the local level, you really see a breakdown and the ability to execute
these types of national plans.
And, you know, and here I am.
I worked so hard.
This was always kind of my goal to get to a place where I had a national audience.
But now that we're here and you see the pandemic response and the disparate response from California and New York versus Florida and how it's affecting the mental health of people.
You know, you think about other things, too, in Georgia or other states where you had a complete breakdown of confidence in the election system, you realize that this is really where our focus needs to be now.
And so as we kind of reposition ourselves here, looking ahead to the Biden administration and, of course, keeping an eye on that, we have got to also do a better job of introducing America to, you know, state houses and what's going on at a local level.
So that we can understand what's not working in this country.
I mean, this is still a federalist system we have and we're all fighting to protect that.
And we still have, fortunately, we still have this kind of laboratory of ideas when it comes to different policies and prescriptions for problems we have in this country.
And again, we're seeing that with this pandemic.
And completely different approaches from Cuomo and Gavin Newsom versus Ron DeSantis.
And we know, you know, sometimes that doesn't work.
And now I'm sure a lot of people are looking at the Florida model and say, maybe Florida man isn't so crazy.
So that's kind of a winding narrative here.
But, you know, why I'm attracted to you, Dave, and why I have you on our show is because this idea of free thought.
And that's why I'm here at Newsmax now, because this provides me the platform to do the things I couldn't do as a traditional, quote unquote, news anchor.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
It's interesting, I asked you, John Bachman 101, a little bit about your history.
We talked about COVID response, federalism, government, television, the whole thing.
So before we go any further...
You work for Newsmax.
unidentified
Yes.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Isn't that some sort of far-right, crazy, extremist network, John?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
That's what they tell me.
You know, the funny thing is, too, Dave, is it's all that, you know, of course, in some people's minds.
And at the same time, you know, I'm a traitor for saying all the way back in December and just trying to tell the audience that, yes, you know, the bar is very high For Joe Biden not to become president.
I think we talked about this, that at a certain point it was like a space shuttle that had launched into the sky.
And if it didn't make it into space, into orbit, it was going to be some sort of catastrophic explosion that would prevent it.
And it never happened.
I mean, we're here now.
And, you know, I think, you know, when you're taking flack from the extreme right, as we are, when people calling me a traitor for calling Joe Biden the president-elect, or from the far left Because, you know, we just want to do something simple as carry the president of the United States speech, which I think we were the only major network to do that this week when the president was down at the border.
I mean, he's still the president of the United States and his words still matter.
And nobody really wants to do that.
You know, that's just.
You know, what we tried to do is kind of chart a different path and provide information that wasn't being provided for a lot of people.
And that, somehow, Dave, has become a radical idea.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Do you find it sort of tough to be a news anchor in a time when not only is there cable news, obviously, and sort of the dying dinosaur of the, you know, the big three cable news channels, But now there's a whole bunch of other channels like Newsmax, then there's like the gajillion people on YouTube and podcasts and everywhere else, that finding a niche that actually makes sense, that's still true to who you are, is sort of tough, just business-wise and everything else.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Yes, I do.
I think it is tough in some respects.
I mean, I think, you know, there are very few places that can provide me this type of opportunity or other great people we have that work for us.
I mean, you know, Chris Ruddy, our CEO, really is a believer in the idea of a big tent and, you know, individuality and, you know, the, you know, competition of ideas.
And, you know, that's what he promotes.
And it was kind of a random way that he and I met.
I talked about my background as a TV news reporter.
I remember one day specifically, I woke up, was reading the newspaper, the Palm Beach
Post, and I read a little blurb.
There was a great political reporter who no longer works in local news.
He's gone on to do other things.
His name is George Bennett.
He wrote about the fact that Sarah Palin was going to a place called Newsmax to visit.
This was after the 2008 presidential election.
She was obviously a lightning rod.
And I wanted to go meet Sarah Palin.
I was fascinated by her, her story, her appeal to conservatives.
And so I showed up at Newsmax, not knowing much about Newsmax.
And I worked the parking lot, met some of the people who showed up to meet Sarah Palin and asked them why they were interested in her.
And they liked her outsider philosophy.
And, you know, at that same time, that's when I met Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax.
And he and I struck up a conversation.
He and I talked about a lot of things I had expressed at that point, kind of my disillusionment with, you know, the local news business.
And he gave me his business card and said, hey, let's go to lunch sometime.
And at that point, I was interested in what he had to say about the business.
And, you know, long story short, that was 10 years ago.
And he had mentioned at that lunch the idea of starting A cable news network because he felt like there was a vast portion of America that even with Fox News and other conservative outlets that were not being reached.
And so, you know, here we are all these years later to have this opportunity to be on your show, to have this, you know, new audience find us as an alternative and a complement, you know, to the spectrum of conservative media that's available is just really humbling.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Isn't that actually the cool part that it's like, there are all these networks popping up,
you know, right-leaning or conservatively networks.
And I don't sense that, although obviously at some level there's competition,
there's only so many ad dollars to go around or whatever it might be.
But it's like, there's the blaze, there's Daily Wire, there's Newsmax, there's more and more,
there's independent guys, there's the whole thing.
And it's like, everyone's kind of helping everybody.
I go on everybody's shows, I'm happy to promote everybody.
And it's like, man, we just need more and more.
If I find a new voice that's good, I'm like, man, come with me.
Come with me on this adventure.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I'm with you a hundred percent.
And the way I kind of look at this, and forgive me because I have some southeastern conference bias here, you know, congratulations to Alabama and everything.
I'm a Georgia grad, but I consider conservative media almost like the SEC, like the elite of the media.
And you know, you may be Alabama and I'm Georgia here, but when it comes, we might compete in our league, but when the time is right, when it really matters like on election night, you know, we're going to be in position to really have the best ideas because we compete with our ideas.
And I think, you know, in the long term, you know, you ask You know, people of a certain age are more conservatives, you know, at the later end of your lifespan than the younger folks.
It's because conservative ideas eventually do win out over time.
When you have the advantage of perspective and longevity and history to look back on, you realize that the things that got us here to where we are as a country have worked.
And most of those things, whether it's federalism or, you know, checks and balances, those kind of old school ideas, It's really conservatives that have continued to talk about those things and really defend those principles throughout history.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
And it's very exciting because we have those things for another seven days.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, I honestly think, I mean, this is scary for a lot of folks here, but I'm reminded of many times in history when we've talked about how bad things could be.
I try to take stock in the fact that we do have the most divided Congress basically we've ever had in our history, almost as evenly split as it could be in the House and the Senate.
And for somebody like Kamala Harris, who is the deciding vote, the tiebreaker in the Senate, she has an enormous amount of responsibility.
And I think and I hope that she will weigh that responsibly because it's going to be
on her shoulders.
You know, they're talking about eliminating the Electoral College now.
That's their big thing.
And does she really want that on their record?
You know, eliminating all the history and all the positive things that that has done
to thwart the tyranny of the masses, the things that could have, you know, if it weren't for
the Electoral College, you know, slavery would have existed probably much longer.
So these are the things they want to tear down.
We know it's kind of symbolic at this point.
And I'm really hopeful while at the same time skeptical that they actually want to do this stuff because they know based on what happened like, you know, the Supreme Court, for example, that there are unintended consequences and it usually comes back to bite them in the ass.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, listen, I hope you're right.
I do hope you're right, but I actually think they wanna do absolutely everything that they say they wanna do, and the electoral college stuff, the PAC and the court stuff, whether it's post-impeachment of Trump, like just whatever crazy bananas thing someone puts up there, I think they wanna do all of it.
I just see, do you see any reason to think, is there anything in the movement right now that, It comes up as like a roadblock for you that they're like, oh, well, maybe they'll turn around now.
I mean, they are seeing the cliff over there.
I mean, maybe that this one.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, you know, I had hoped so.
I had Mark Halpern on my show today, you know, kind of looking at the public opinion polling available on this impeachment issue is pretty weak right now.
But there are polls out there that showed us the same thing as it showed us last time when they were talking about impeachment.
The country is evenly divided on this.
You know, and I still believe in the collective, you know, kind of power of the individual, of course, but, you know, the American public, too.
And there were a lot of promises made about $2,000 stimulus checks from the Democrats, especially those who recently won those seats in Georgia.
If they fail to deliver on that, you know, I think there's going to be enormous blowback from this country, again, because they're being disingenuous
about their true motives.
And the American public is a lot smarter than I think Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden
and Kamala Harris give them credit for. And again, that's why I'm optimistic still at the end of the
day, David, is because we still have, you know, 75 million people in this country who appear sane.
And you know which side I'm talking about.
And again, I don't want to pretend like I'm a partisan here, but when you look at the comparison, it's a stark contrast.
And it's hard for me to see how people went the other way sometimes.
But again, that's just my opinion.
I guess I can say that here in this forum.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
No, well, I'm curious, though.
How do you balance that on a day-to-day basis?
Like, when I do your show, it's pretty obvious to me that you are a professional newsman.
Do you consider yourself a traditional journalist still?
Because it's obvious to me that you have opinions, and you're not afraid to say them, but you are presenting news.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I think there's almost an expectation now from the audience not to give your opinion, but to be honest about where you're coming from.
And I always talk about, this isn't necessarily my opinion, it's more or less my perspective, you know, giving people some insight on where I'm coming from.
You know, I grew up in the deep south, but my parents are from the northeast.
I consider myself a first generation southerner, you know, even growing up in the 80s and 90s, Catholic in the deep south with northern parents you'd have friends and they'd be somewhat skeptical of what you know Are you a carpetbag what's going on here that type of thing?
But again, it's a diverse kind of background to have and a different way of thinking at things.
And that's kind of just always shaped my perspectives.
But people expect you to kind of be honest with them where you're coming from on these things.
So I like to say I do two things here.
I'm gonna lay out the facts for you.
And then I'm gonna tell you why, specifically, we chose those set of facts,
because I have a limited time for my show.
So there are only so many facts I can provide in there.
And there are other news outlets that focus on other facts.
But these are the facts that I think are the most important facts.
And those facts come based on my history, where I grew up, what I believe,
the books I'm reading, the movies I'm watching.
And so I do try to give the audience insight on those things so they have kind of perspective on where my perspective is coming from.
And that, you know, I talk about this with my college journalism professor all the time, David Hazinski, who used to work at NBC News.
He is admittedly a liberal and we argue about politics all the time.
But when it comes to the practice of journalism, You know, the rules are still the same at the end of the day.
Trust your sources.
Give attribution to where your information comes from.
Only choose sources that are really trustworthy.
Tell people the truth, what has happened, you know, and don't speculate too much.
And you stay within those lines.
It's not hard.
I mean, it is hard.
It's difficult.
But you can do both, Dave.
Give people the facts.
Be honest with them about what's going to happen.
Don't be afraid to call him the president-elect when you know it's going to upset the audience because they might be upset with you for a day or two and some people might change the channel.
But come January 20th, when I was honest with the audience about what historically and constitutionally the limits were for what actually were going to happen and that You know, Lin Wood might not be right.
Long term, when you are right, they gravitate back towards you, and they respect you for being honest with them.
And that's what you're able to do with your audience.
That is what I hope the internet still provides.
You're still on YouTube.
Thank God for that.
I think you're about to cross 1.5 million followers on YouTube, and YouTube would be nuts To take that platform away from you because it would really upset or piss off, I can say, 1.5 million people.
So, you know, just like I have faith in the overall population of the country, you know, I have faith in those 1.5 million people who follow you on YouTube and that they would pick up the phone or do something to force YouTube to make sure that you still have this platform.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, I hope you're right.
You know, I'm usually the optimist on these interviews when I bring on people who give me like, uh-oh, the whole world's going to hell in a handbasket, but you're giving me the optimist approach here.
Do you think it's kind of funny when, you know, like CNN, for example, like none of their anchors, not that they ever really do interviews, But that, if they did an interview, I don't think that Wolf Blitzer, or Don Lemon, or Jake Tapper, or Brian Stelter, or whatever the other made-up names are, pretend humans, I don't think that they would admit the biases that you just admit there.
I think they would say, no, we're calling balls and strikes, and it is what it is.
Even Chris Cuomo, the biggest clown in cable news, I think he would say, no, I'm not a Democrat or a Republican, I'm not left or right, I'm a newsman.
And it's that sort of fraudulent nonsense that people can't stand.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
You know, my kind of test for a news anchor, I like to ask them, how much time did you spend out on the street as a reporter?
How many doors did you knock on?
You know, how many pairs of shoes did you ruin stepping in things you shouldn't step in because, you know, you're a reporter and maybe you shouldn't have been there?
You know, and I think, like, that's kind of what's missing a lot of times from our news anchors is they haven't talked to enough regular people.
You know, the emphasis in this business is on get to the top as fast as you can.
you know, young and, you know, shiny objects, that type of thing.
But I agree with you. Not that Wolf Blitzer is one of those guys.
It's that they would tell you with a straight face that they are giving you the facts.
And maybe that's what they believe because they're in that sphere.
But I think the thing that's really hurting the media industry today
is that it's hard for Chris Cuomo to go out and have a dinner with his family
and be a normal person or go to a grocery store and buy groceries without being accosted, you know.
And I don't agree with a lot of what Chris Cuomo says.
I don't know if you saw that exchange with him and Don Lemon.
Don Lemon doesn't have a law degree, but Don Lemon schooled him the other night on, you know, free speech.
It was kind of interesting to see.
But, you know, I worry not just about, you know, our celebrity news people or our celebrity lawmakers.
I, you know, I worry about people being able to have real live, you know, interactions with humans and really find out from the guy at the deli or the shoeshine guy or the guy that cut your hair how their life is impacted.
And, you know, these news anchors, most of them don't really live normal lives.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
In Chris Cuomo's defense, he did leave the house when he had COVID to get into the fight with the bicyclist at his $20 million mansion in the Hamptons.
So it's not that he's not getting out there.
Come on now.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Yes.
I mean, it's good work if you can get it.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
It is.
You mentioned you're a child of the 80s and 90s.
One of the reasons I like doing your show is you get all of my references.
If I make a Total Recall reference or a Naked Gun reference on your show, you actually understand it.
I can talk about Cobra Kai on your show and you get it.
When I make those references on Fox Daytime, sometimes they don't get it.
They kind of nod, but I know they don't get it.
Give me your best 80s action movie.
I'm really flipping the script on you right now.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Oh, well, I'm gonna go Top Gun.
I mean, you know, I know almost every single word from that movie.
I saw it seven times in the theater in the 1980s.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Seven times in the theater?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, I wanted to be a Top Gun pilot afterwards until I found out that you have to be very smart.
You know, a lot smarter than you have to be a news anchor to be a pilot.
Yeah, it's a great movie, you know, and it was one of those things, and since we're on YouTube, I'll tell this joke, and hopefully I won't get in trouble for saying this, but, you know, I remember sitting in the movie theater with my dad, my best friend Gil, and his dad, we, all four of us, and you know, actually Gil had two brothers, so we were there as well, and I was with my dad, and there's that scene, You know, when they're in the bathroom, or in the bar, right?
And, you know, they're talking about, oh, the list is long and distinguished, right?
Kazansky?
And he goes, yeah, well, so is my Johnson.
And I leaned over to my dad and I said, Dad, what's a Johnson?
And he just laughed.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
You can make that sort of comment on YouTube.
Look how free you are right now.
unidentified
You've never been happier than you are right this very moment.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I say that, though, because it was like a simpler time.
And I think nowadays, you know, in context, it was just a movie, right?
But nowadays, you know, your parent might get arrested for bringing their kid to a movie and being exposed to something like that.
There's just so much judgment.
And, you know, a lot of times they make this stuff a lot more provocative than it is by trying to crack down on it.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, well, the outrage thing.
I mean, it's like, that's gotta be a tough part for you.
I mean, one of the things, you know, I'm doing this daily direct-to-camera, telling people what I think about the world thing now, and one of the things that I really try to do, I only do about three stories a day because I don't want people to feel like they're in that hamster thing all the time.
When you sit down with your producers or your team in the morning to go through what you're gonna talk about, I sense you don't want people in that either, but you have to give them more stories as a true news show.
What are your processes to make sure you're not gonna make everybody completely psychotic by the end of listening to you for an hour?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, I mean, you have the responsibilities, you know, the compulsory stuff that you have to cover, the information.
I think that's critically important.
But I, you know, always try to find something to differentiate myself.
And today, I didn't even actually get it on the air.
I'm going to try to do it, you know, at some point this week.
But I'm fascinated by the story about the death penalty, you know, because, you know, You know, growing up Catholic, you're taught to, you know, respect life from conception all the way to natural death.
But, you know, over time, as a libertarian-leaning thinker, kind of, you know, pursuer of information, you read stories about the death penalty, how many times people are released from death row because DNA has cleared their names.
And we have this new case now, or not a new case, it's an old case, but the execution has been stayed this week of this woman.
You know, this would be the first federal execution of a female inmate in 70 years.
And so, you know, not a lot of coverage on that, you know, writ large.
And so that's something that I'm focusing on this week.
And, you know, I try to look at our coverage across the network, maybe on our website as well, and some other conservative media, and say, what do I think is interesting and maybe not getting the attention it deserves?
And that is just an example of one story this week that my producers were like, whoa, Really?
You want to talk about that?
Because, you know, it's not necessarily right in the bullseye of conservative news topics to think about, but the issue of the death penalty to approach from kind of a thought experiment.
And does this really work?
You know, from a conservative standpoint, it costs more money.
Innocent people have proven to be killed.
Yes, there is a natural human instinct to want catharsis after something terrible happens.
But, you know, you talk to some of the people who have actually lost family members and have witnessed the murderer be executed and they don't feel any catharsis after the fact.
they feel the hollowness and emptiness and they don't get the closure they deserve.
And I'm not saying it's right or wrong or should we have the death penalty or not.
But when it comes to thinking about things critically and is this right, do we agree with this?
It hasn't happened in seven years, that right there makes it newsworthy.
Those are the types of things that get my brain going on should we put this in the show today?
So that's just a little look into that.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, I mean, on that one, as a guy that's kind of new to the conservative thing,
it's like I take the more libertarian approach that you just laid out there.
I just don't want to give the state that extra power, and we do know that they screw it up sometimes, but I get it.
You know, I've debated it with Shapiro and with Prager and some other conservatives who are traditionally more Pro-death penalty.
But you know what?
We don't try to kill each other after.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
All huge influences of mine too.
Dennis Prager, Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, you, everybody there at the Daily Wire.
I mean, and in this, like what you were saying before, you know, a lot of times when you are a conservative or, you know, especially when you are, as I was once a conservative inside, you know, a mainstream media newsroom, you really do need inspiration sometimes because you think you're going crazy when everybody else thinks the same way.
I don't see it that way.
You know, you want to be the guy standing up and saying, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, this isn't right.
You know, you and all you guys over there have been huge inspirations over the years for me, you know, entering this space.
So hats off to you guys.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I was just going to let you continue for a little while while you were talking about what an inspiration I've been.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
It's always easy.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
When Trump, over the last couple of months, especially right before the election, was shining a lot of light on you guys, and telling people, you know, watch Newsmax, Fox in the morning is crazy, watch Newsmax, they're doing good stuff, and then he'll point people to OAN, and then the next day he hates this network, and suddenly he likes these guys.
How sort of aware is everybody that like, oh, Trump's watching now, and we better, I don't know.
Act accordingly?
Ignore it?
What?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Everyone's very aware, obviously, and you know, it's just kind of strange knowing that they have us on at the White House and that, you know, again, something you say might actually matter inside that building.
And that again, there are times I just can't believe that's actually the case.
Now, that said, You know, we do try to make sure that we do not become Trump TV.
That's not the objective here at Newsmax.
You know, the former mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, had that saying that, you know, if you agree with me 80% of the time, great.
You know, if you agree with me 100% of the time, you need to get your head checked out.
No politician is right 100% of the time.
And as I tell people, and I encourage my staff, as much as you may love Donald Trump, and I have to be reminded of this myself, because I really did think the Trump presidency could be transformational and consequential, and it has been.
And it's disappointing that there will not be another four years, because you think about all the good things that happened, what could have been continued.
But again, you just have to really tell people that once you bubble in that bubble and choose somebody to represent you in elected office, they're not your friend anymore.
It's not your sports team.
You don't support them like that.
You've got to hold them accountable.
And we can compliment the things that Donald Trump does right, and we can criticize the things that he does wrong.
It's the only way you can really Honestly, consider yourself, you know, a check on the powerful.
And if you don't do it, eventually, for somebody like Donald Trump, or be honest with his supporters, you don't really have the moral authority or the credibility to do it to Joe Biden.
And we've seen that, you know, with other people.
You have to find some place.
You can agree with the opposition, but also disagree with your own side.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
In a weird way, do you think that that'll make your job a little bit easier, having a Biden administration?
Because people will know, okay, you didn't want Biden, but now you can sort of be more openly critical.
Like, I got you, you weren't pulling punches.
But that in a weird way, conservatives are almost set up to be the against team.
unidentified
You know?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, I mean, they're making it kind of easy on us.
If they're really gonna pursue this push to get rid of the Electoral College, if they're
really going to try to pack the courts, if Joe Biden's not going to stand up and stop the
impeachment, then yeah, I mean, it does make our job easy. If they pursue these radical
policies that most of America, outside of major metropolitan areas, don't support, it is going to
make our job easier. If they continue to call for defunding the police.
And we watch once great cities like Los Angeles and Philadelphia and New York and Portland, Oregon and Atlanta continue to decline and become places of decay.
It's going to make our jobs easier.
And I'm not hopeful for that.
I definitely want to see the best for America.
But if they continue to pursue these policies, if they do what they tell us they were going to do during the campaign, then I'm sad to say that our jobs will be much easier.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, God.
And as I said before, I hate to tell you, I think they're gonna do it.
My take is just that they're gonna do it.
There's just nothing too crazy, which is a very weird thing.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
And again, this is where I come back to the American people.
They're not gonna let them do it, I hope.
I was reading about this today.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Well, what if big tech just stops the American people from letting them connect?
We can't let them.
I go on your show and talk about this a lot, yeah.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, you know, the thing is, is we existed without big tech.
And I don't want to diminish the risk that this poses.
And, you know, you hear about things like email providers cracking down on Donald Trump's ability to reach his supporters through email and radio networks telling, you know, their radio hosts.
And I just yesterday I was saying, look, They're coming for us on big tech, but there may still be those other avenues where conservatives used to reach their audiences, and I am concerned about that.
But I do have faith in the American public.
In Bartow County, Georgia today, I was reading about local elections officials there and the county commissioners there, and they're doing a recount.
a hand recount of all the ballots there from the Georgia Senate runoffs.
Not that they need to.
It didn't qualify.
You know, the race was not within the margin that they require the recount.
But what they're doing is they're using this as an opportunity to build confidence and
show the people who want to participate that it was a legitimate process, complete transparency.
And they're also using it to train people how to be poll watchers and how to process
the ballots next time around.
So, you know, I gave that long monologue last week when you were on my show about the real fight is at the local level, getting involved, people rolling up their sleeves, going to the school board, going to the county commission, becoming poll watchers, becoming poll workers.
And, you know, I'm so encouraged to seeing that happening.
And again, you have 1.5 million people that can be really mad If something happens to your show, you know, we got to pick our battles to make sure they can't do this to us.
We got to hold our lawmakers accountable because they pass these laws that they're not willing to enforce.
You know, if they're not going to do that, get those laws off the books.
President Trump was right for trying to repeal Section 230.
You know, it's a law from 1996, David.
Can you imagine trying to use a computer from 1996 in today's technological world?
They need to get rid of this law.
It's expired.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Are you saying my Apple IIc?
Or I guess that was, that was probably 1986, not 1986.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Did you have Quark?
The game Quark?
What was it?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
That was Quark.
Oh no, I'm thinking Qbert is the guy jumping on the... I know Qbert.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Who's Quark?
Quark was some game on my Apple IIe, I think.
And there was Winter Olympics too.
I love that game.
Winter Olympics was... Oh, I remember.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I definitely remember Winter Olympics.
I had that on Nintendo.
But what about Lemonade Stand?
Did you have that?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Lemonade Stand was great.
And speaking of the Winter Olympics in the 80s, how great were the Winter Olympics in the 80s when you had the Eastern Bloc?
If the United States did not beat the Eastern Bloc in whether it was downhill skiing or any sport, it was like, oh, what does it say about us as a nation?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
You know, I will tell you this.
I've said this on my show a couple of times.
I think that, like, if you think of Rocky IV, you know, against Drago, right?
He's fighting Drago in Moscow on Christmas Day.
We knew as Americans who our enemy was, right?
It was Russia was the enemy.
Now that's, you don't want to live in a perfectly polarized world, but I think that thing where we were fighting the Russian empire, we were America for capitalism, they were for communism.
It was like, that was the thing and it sort of helped define ourselves.
I actually think that one of the reasons we're so out of whack right now is we don't know who our enemy is.
We don't know if it's external or internal.
We don't know if the good guys are the good guys or the bad guys are bad guys.
Did Russia affect our election, hate Trump, or help Trump?
Is China, like, none of it makes sense.
So people often define themselves by what they're against, and we don't know what we're against right now.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I know, and you think about that movie, you think about Red Dawn, or you think about, there was this movie called Ruskies, remember that one?
About a, you know, all the people that used to defect.
And this is another thing about, you know, sports is, you know, people from Cuba or Russia or Eastern European countries that used to defect To the United States, because we all believed this was the best place for freedom.
And now it feels like only half of this country believes that this is a place you should actually defect to if you're an athlete.
But if you're an immigrant, they want to open up the door and let everybody in.
And it's just so strange to hear that.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
It's a little odd that nobody leaves America, although I think that may be changing kind of soon, right?
I mean, if it was as bad for all of these years as they'd said, you'd think somebody would leave.
The only people who leave are the rich guys who put the money in the Cayman Islands and disappeared to the Galapagos Islands.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
That's right.
They've got someplace else to go.
I love this list of people.
I'm leaving if Donald Trump wins.
Of course, they never left.
Love it or leave it, really, is it?
This is where I wish more Americans actually would travel around the world and appreciate how great it is to live in this country still, to this day.
How much better we have it than anywhere else.
I mean, you know, we talk about big tech cramping down on us and, you know, I was just really repulsed to see a Chinese communist newspaper saying, oh, look what's happening in America.
It's dangerous to crack down on free speech.
I mean, they're signaling to their population that America, the idea of America and freedom and liberty, you know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness isn't real.
And the fact That doesn't get more coverage.
You don't have a universal response from this country.
In fact, you have some news outlets actually unwillingly, not unwillingly, but unknowingly taking money from the Chinese Communist Party and propagating their propaganda without knowing it.
You would think, to your point, that there would be more awareness about how dangerous the enemy is, and that's China.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, well, as a sports guy, it's like, you know, you watch the NBA, which I didn't, I literally, for the first time in my life, did not watch one minute of one game this entire season.
I'm in L.A.
The Lakers won the championship, from what I understand, but I did not watch one minute of it.
But the way that the coaches and players won't criticize China under any circumstances, and who was it?
It was the assistant GM of the Rockets or something that basically got destroyed.
He was the one guy that said something anti-China.
And yet Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich can rail all day long about how evil America is, and they're carrying him around on their shoulders.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I did an interview with Enes Kanter, the basketball player for the Celtics.
I think he's on the Celtics now.
I do not follow the NBA at all.
But he's a Turkish dissident.
We were talking about the Hagia Sophia.
Again, there used to be a secular tourist landmark, which was converted into an Islamic
mosque by Erdogan as the virtue signaling of the Arab world, I'm sorry, of the Muslim
world.
That's what he's doing there.
And I asked him a question about, look, you of all people should appreciate how dangerous
it is to not be able to speak out about this stuff.
Can you comment about what the NBA and their inability, and I showed the video of the people,
and this was, you know, again, offensive to me, that you had fans in our nation's capital
who wore free Hong Kong t-shirts inside an NBA arena and they were not allowed to do
so.
They were escorted out of the arena.
And it shows you how China has been able to reach into America and influence our lives.
I don't understand how more people aren't offended by that.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, that was one of those moments that I was just like, how really perverse is this?
Like, United States of America, for people that haven't seen it, you can pause this video and just quickly search it on YouTube, Hong Kong shirts at NBA game.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I'm sure a zillion videos show up.
I have not.
We've tried to do subsequent stories and that stuff is stripped off the internet.
It's hard to find it.
So, you know, that's again, this is what we're up against.
China has control over YouTube in this.
And I guess maybe this will be cut.
I don't know.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Us just talking about it, right?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I can probably say the dirty jokes from Top Gun, but I can't talk about people wearing free Hong Kong t-shirts in the NBA.
That's scary.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Actually, I didn't want to tell you, but I'll do a very newsman thing.
I'm getting information in my ear right now.
They will not allow us, YouTube will not allow us to play that Johnson joke that you made earlier.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Okay, probably for the best, probably for the best for my, we can put a bleep or something in there and you can just tell people, John Bachman said a dirty joke one time, quoting a movie, not my dirty joke, but probably for the best, Dave, thank you.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
It probably is for the best.
Yeah, so everything sort of feels upside down.
What else are you interested in beyond just like the political stuff?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I love the ocean.
You know, I live in Florida.
I try to get to the beach as much as possible.
I love to fish.
I love to surf.
You know, I love catching, you know, something I've done recently with my small kids.
I started fishing with them a little bit.
And as a parent, Watching your young son release a fish into the water, something that I did with my dad, something that my dad did with his grandfather, and his grandfather did with his father, etc.
You know, this is a family tradition.
That, to me, is the ultimate right there.
So, the outdoors, being with my family, and then food.
I think we share that in common.
Food is the other thing.
I basically live my life from meal to meal.
I love to cook.
I'm greatly inspired by your, you know, your steaks that you cook.
I have so many questions for you on that front.
Are you a versier guy?
I mean, we can talk about that some other time.
But yeah, those are the things I'm interested in my family.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
So you're a Florida guy.
Wait, wait, let's pause for a second.
We'll get to family in a sec.
But you're a Florida guy.
The day I got to Florida a couple weeks ago, I think you were leaving.
You were headed to Georgia, I think.
Florida, it's free.
You're living in a free state.
I live in a not free state.
That's got to be very exciting for you.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
You know, I don't take it for granted.
In fact, you know, talking to you and talking to so many people who are down here for the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit from all over the country, and you know, they had an ability to get out and do something normal.
you know, for just a few minutes and you really see, and you know, our conversation about this,
how important that is to your life. Just, you know, there is a almost human right to sit down
at a table and break bread with someone you love or a friend or a, you know, business, you know,
colleague, something like that. Have somebody bring you the food, you know, pay a little bit
more money for it and then they take it away and you don't have to clean it up. I mean, that is...
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
It's a beautiful thing.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
It is a beautiful thing, and I'll never take it for granted, considering that Governor Ron DeSantis made the very strong and bold decision to keep this state open, and he is a hero to a lot of people for doing that, because mentally, Florida seems to be the most sane place in the country right now, if you can believe it.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Would you have ever thought that the state that was known for Florida, man, you know, people wrestling alligators with cigars in their mouths while saving the dog, very impressive guy, by the way, who should probably get into politics, that Florida would go from, you know, that to like having the governor that, you know, pretty much every sane person now wants to be the president.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, I think a lot of people underestimate Florida, man.
It gets a bad rap, obviously, for all the criminality.
But, I mean, there is something called a Florida Cracker.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I've always loved Florida, for the record.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
There's something called a Florida Cracker, right?
And it's not a derogatory term.
It's a term for a cowboy.
Florida actually has one of the oldest and largest continually operating cattle herds in the country, if you can believe it. They use whips. But
these are the old Florida pioneer prospectors. It is a real hardy type and they are very
useful. And I think that is kind of the underlying spirit of Florida. You have a lot of
diversity, obviously, and that breeds competition of ideas. You've got strong family values because of all
the Latino influence down here as well.
And Florida has kind of reached a maturation point going from, you know, a retirement state to now really a fully functioning state.
And I think that's what you're seeing reflected here.
And don't knock Florida men.
There's a lot of great Florida men out here that love it.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Listen, you saw my tweets.
I was like, I hadn't been that happy in a long time.
I mean, the state was open, people were smiling.
You know, everyone I see here is in a mask.
Not that I see anyone, because everything's closed anyway.
I walk my dog, people pull their dogs across the other way.
The dogs are starting, I'm not kidding you, the dogs are starting to go crazy here.
Because they can't be around other dogs.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Dogs can pick up on human behavior and they know.
I mean, I think that's an excellent point.
If your owner is freaking out, the dog's gonna be freaking out too.
So I'm sure that's a real thing.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I always say, you know, there's no bad dogs, there's just bad people, right?
Like, it's like every time someone, I'm walking the dog, and then someone pulls the dog, oh, he's not friendly.
I'm like, well, it's not really the dog, you know?
As you just yanked the dog and, like, freaking choked it and everything else.
Do you sense that, uh...
If we get through inauguration, that the rest of the states will start opening, even Andrew Cuomo has now started hinting that he might open New York.
Basically, I mean, he's not really admitting it, but it's a basic, complete admission that his policies have been awful.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, I mean, I think Democrats like Andrew Cuomo are learning the limitations of their ability to outsource the blame to the federal government because- Yeah.
You know, I've started to take a closer look at this, and Operation Warp Speed is a miracle.
The fact that, you know, less than a year after we have a completely new virus, you can have a vaccine, but when you get down to the local level, the rollout of the vaccines has been disastrous, and Andrew Cuomo is now trying to cover for that.
He wanted to make it available to frontline workers.
Frontline workers didn't want it.
And so they had doses of the vaccine going bad outside of the freezer.
And now I think he's just trying, flailing to save himself.
And he can't blame Joe Biden a week from now.
So, you know, he's got to do something.
And his state is dying.
And, you know, I would hope for your sake and for everybody out there in California that Gavin Newsom sees the writing on the wall and, you know, follows suit.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I think you were the first guy.
Was it you that were the first guy to ask me if I was going to run for governor?
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I think so.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I joked about it on your show.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
I think so.
And then I went to... You must have tweeted something that gave me that idea because, you know, I'm pulling for you to come over here, Dave, and hang out with us.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I literally joked about it on Twitter.
Then you asked me about it on your show.
Next thing you know, I'm in Florida and everybody, everywhere, and they asked me about it on Fox.
And yes, I think my future would be much happier in Florida than as the governor of California.
I think that's probably fair to say.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, you know, we need guys like you not in politics, right?
Because if you're in politics and you can't comment on politics, we need, you know, and everything, for some reason people always ask me if I'm going to run for office and I'm like, absolutely not.
I have, it's a Sherman-esque answer.
I would never, ever run for office.
I like criticizing office holders too much.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, exactly.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Well, hey, listen, Trump ran for office and criticized it, so... Well, I don't think we should ever... I mean, Trump is like...
You know, one of a kind.
And, you know, for all he has done to change the Republican Party, for anyone who tries to recreate that, I think it's going to be just a fool's errand.
Because he's a one-of-a-kind historical figure.
And it's going to take a long time, I think, for any of us to really understand what we've just experienced over the last four years.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
John Bachman, I feel I should give you one more opportunity to make an 80s reference.
Favorite comedy, somewhere between 85 and 95.
How about that?
There's a very obvious answer to me.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Ghostbusters?
Does that count?
Goonies?
unidentified
Is that in that time range?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
But Goonies, not in terms of funny.
Pure funny.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
You don't think Goonies is funny?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
No, Goonies is funny.
There's some funny moments, but that's not pure funny.
Ghostbusters.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Spaceballs?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Ghostbusters is funnier.
Spaceballs could be in there.
I mean, to me, I think I mentioned it earlier, Naked Gun, to me, is 19, it's perfection.
It's Leslie Nielsen perfection.
Like, it's airplane at its peak, basically.
But, interesting, Goonies.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Yes, I remember Goonies.
I just recently watched Goonies with my kids over the holiday break.
And I remember going to see Goonies with my grandmother in the movie theater, and she did not like Goonies.
And after watching it with my kids, I realized, maybe this shouldn't be PG.
It's hard for them to avoid the things we were able to avoid as kids.
from the movies back in the '80s.
And what's PG now?
I don't know if that would fly.
But anyway, I think it was cooler back then.
You had a better relationship with your parents.
They could explain things to you.
And you didn't have stuff.
I really worry about the kids today because they're just bombarded with stuff on the internet.
It's hard for them to avoid the things we were able to avoid as kids.
It's hard for them to maintain their innocence.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
Bachman, I hope you enjoyed loosening the tie.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
Go all the way down, yeah.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
And speaking freely on the interweb.
I will see you soon, I assume, on your show, and eventually I will grill a steak for you in Florida.
I will sear the hell of a steak for you in Florida.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
What's your cut, by the way?
What's your preferred cut of steak, Dave?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
I've been loving these tomahawks lately, you know, just like the Fred Flintstone style tomahawk.
I did like a four pound one the other day.
Now, I know that in California, technically you're not allowed to have people at your house and I don't want to say too much, but let's just say it was...
You know, people ate it.
I don't want to get into the numbers in case Gavin's watching, but man, it was just perfection.
john bachman ▲ ● ▼
We'll just say it like this.
None of it was wasted, right?
And they can appreciate that, hopefully.
Dave, I appreciate it.
Thanks so much.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
John Bachman, the host of John Bachman Now on Newsmax.
If you're looking for more honest and thoughtful conversations about the media instead of nonstop yelling, check out our media playlist.
And if you want to watch full interviews on a variety of topics, check out the full episode playlist.
They're both right over here.
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