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March 18, 2021 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
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Do You Meet the New Definition of Insurrectionist? | Rand Paul | POLITICS | Rubin Report
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rand paul
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rand paul
Now the discussion is that we've had this, the greatest insurrection since the Civil War, maybe greater than the Civil War, was this January 6th thing, according to these people.
So now they have to have a new sort of Patriot Act.
They've got to have a new domestic terrorism, you know, catch-all that they're going to go after us.
But I tell people who think that would be great, I tell them to be careful what you wish for, because the definition of what they call an insurrectionist may well be That you teach your kids at home that you voted for Donald Trump or you went to a Trump rally.
It could be that you believe in, you know, being left alone.
You believe in the Second Amendment somehow.
You may own a gun.
God forbid that be in California, but you may own a gun.
And if so, you may well be an insurrectionist.
and then they can look at all of your stuff and see if they can find you or entrap you into a crime.
unidentified
(upbeat music)
dave rubin
I'm Dave Rubin and joining me today is an ophthalmologist, a Senator from the great state of Kentucky
and a man who celebrates Festivus every year, Welcome back to the Rubin Report.
rand paul
Thanks, Dave.
Thanks for having me.
dave rubin
I was hoping you were gonna have your Festivus poll with you, but I guess it's just a seasonal thing for you?
rand paul
If you show up on Festivus, we will do some wrestling, so we'd be prepared.
dave rubin
All right, so you are in D.C., I am in L.A.
Who's worse off right now?
rand paul
Well, we have razor wire that surrounds our campus now.
So the likes of you and any other American citizen that wants to visit their capital, you're not welcome here because you got to call up Nancy Pelosi.
She's got to come out to the fence to get you to bring you in.
And so there's no tourism in D.C.
There are no government workers.
And you want to see some sad people?
There's a local restaurant we go to called the Dubliner around the corner and it's owned by a family.
They're wonderful people.
There's no customers.
Nobody works anymore.
The whole, all DC is like a vacant city.
And now we've got razor wire, razor wire surrounding the Capitol.
So it's really the most uninviting scene you'll ever see.
unidentified
And sad.
dave rubin
Yeah.
Have you made any headway figuring out, you know, I know they extended it, I suppose, this emergency situation, quote unquote, emergency situation for two months or something.
Have you made any headway finding out, like, what do they really think is going on at this point?
rand paul
Well, it's a secret.
It's top secret.
But if I tell you, you won't tell anyone, right?
dave rubin
No, I won't.
And we're not even going to record this thing.
rand paul
It's about optics and on January 6th they weren't prepared for a big crowd and in all likelihood that was Nancy Pelosi making bad decisions about being prepared for the crowd.
And so what is she doing now?
She's overcompensating.
So they were underprepared and now they're overprepared.
There's not a protester within 100 miles of D.C.
In fact, if you come shopping in D.C., Bank of America will give up your credit card information to the Fed so they can search your computer and decide whether or not you're an insurrectionist or not.
So I asked the FBI about this and they won't respond to us.
We've asked them in writing.
Did they demand these records from Bank of America?
Did Bank of America just volunteer to be America's, you know, But to look at everybody's shopping habits and decide that then we'll investigate you if you were shopping on January 6th in DC is abhorrent to the idea that the Fourth Amendment means anything.
dave rubin
How fearful are you that all of the ideas that you've cared about for your whole career, the ideas that your dad put forth, the ideas that the founders put forth about freedom and liberty and all of those things, that they really feel like they're sort of coming to the end right now?
rand paul
Well, you know, the Democrats have admitted this before.
You remember Emanuel saying back when, no crisis go to waste.
This is a crisis once again.
We had a crisis of 9-11, but guess what?
The Patriot Act was written in the 1990s, put on a shelf, and they waited till they finally got a disaster, a real disaster, but they had 9-11, they brought it out, but it was about people control, and it was about control of ideology.
Now the discussion is that we've had this The greatest insurrection since the Civil War, maybe greater than the Civil War, was this January 6th thing, according to these people.
So now they have to have a new sort of Patriot Act.
They've got to have a new domestic terrorism, you know, catch-all that they're going to go after us.
But I tell people who think that would be great, I tell them to be careful what you wish for, because the definition of what they call an insurrectionist may well be That you teach your kids at home that you voted for Donald Trump or you went to a Trump rally.
It could be that you believe in, you know, being left alone.
You believe in the Second Amendment somehow.
You may own a gun.
God forbid that be in California, but you may own a gun.
And if so, you may well be an insurrectionist.
And then they can look at all of your stuff and see if they can find you or entrap you into a crime.
This is coming.
It's become a bizarre place in D.C.
It's a military camp.
And essentially, we now have people who have receded into their own camps.
And I fear what's coming, really, because of how radical the left wing has become.
And they're not willing to take no for an answer.
So it used to be they said, well, we don't have 60 votes in the Senate, so we won't get everything we want.
Now they're going to they're going to they say they're going to hold off on the filibuster.
My prediction is within six months, they'll get rid of the filibuster.
And by brute force, they'll ram through their entire agenda.
which is farther to the left than most people in America could really imagine.
dave rubin
Okay, so the million dollar question.
I'm with you.
I think everyone that is sensible is worried about all of this stuff.
Do you think Joe Biden is in charge of the Democratic Party?
rand paul
Joe, Joe, who's that?
Who are you talking about?
dave rubin
Joe, the guy that gets up there.
rand paul
The figurehead over in the White House.
Yeah.
Now, I think it's a mixture.
No.
Do I think he's actually the president and in charge?
Yes.
But what I would say is that there's a great deal of influence coming from the left wing of his party.
I don't think he has maybe the fortitude he may have had 15 years ago to stick with positions that he might disagree with the left wing mob on.
So I think that largely policy will come from the left side.
The energy of the Democrat Party is coming from the socialist crowd, coming from the woke crowd.
And so I think they will dictate most of what goes on there.
And that's what we're going to see over time.
But I don't think you're going to get a moderate president.
It's sort of like the idea of, you know, whether or not they could give our kids, you know, cross gender hormones without our permission.
That's not a moderate position.
That is a far out extreme position.
Even if you're a Democrat, most Democrats, if you talk to them, would say that children really shouldn't be allowed to have surgical procedures without their parents' permission.
They're arguing that even if their parents say no, the government's allowed to intervene to say yes.
So this isn't a moderate crowd or a middle class woke I mean, this is really the woke crowd you're gonna see.
dave rubin
Yeah, so to that point, you got into it with Rachel Levine.
What's the position she was going for?
Is it deputy health secretary?
rand paul
Yeah, she'll be the assistant.
And my question to her was basically that.
If a child says they wanna change their sexual appearance and the parents say no, would the government intervene to involve themselves and side with the child?
And the answer basically coming from these people is yes.
The other answer that comes from them, kids between the ages of 3 and 10 go to these clinics.
Older kids go too, but 10% of the kids are between the ages of 3 and 10.
When they get there, do you think anybody's counseling them against this?
unidentified
Right.
rand paul
No, everybody there has already undergone the procedure themselves or is an activist for this This, uh, you know, decision and they, there is no counterpoint there.
So the kids are given, you know, reassurance until this is a great thing and you need surgery and you need these hormones.
And if your parents say, no, we're not going to tell them.
You even have schools that used to not give a kid a Tylenol are willing to give these kind of powerful hormones
that have life altering changes to the body, willing to give these to kids without telling the parents.
That is alarming, and I think most parents who think through this would be alarmed about this.
dave rubin
Yeah, I agree, obviously, and I think most parents do.
They just seem to be afraid to speak up.
But I know you're crunched on time, so let's just do four questions, like two or three minutes each, because you have a couple of bills coming that I think are really interesting.
But first, real quick on the lockdowns at this point.
You know, I'm still in a lockdown state and city here, California, LA.
What's your position, basically, at this point, now that states are slowly opening up?
rand paul
I think if you want to go out and eat, you should become better friends with Governor Newsom.
He apparently is allowed to go out to eat.
And apparently it's pretty good food.
dave rubin
Oh yeah, French Laundry ain't bad.
rand paul
Some of the best wine in Napa.
So you just need better friends, Dave.
Or you can come visit another state.
It is night and day as you travel the country.
If you go to Florida, which has a lower death rate than California or New York or New Jersey, it's wide open.
You hardly see anybody wearing a mask.
You still have people freaking out saying, I saw a person at the beach.
I saw someone at the beach and they didn't have a mask on.
Oh my God, what's going to happen?
But they don't chase down surfers like they do in California.
You know, they don't send the Coast Guard after someone on a paddle board.
But there really is a difference between the states.
And I think that it's getting to the point, though, that where the statistics are so overwhelmingly good that this disease is leaving us, they're going to be hard pressed to really make up some sort of narrative that we have to go on.
But they will.
You know, Fauci's still saying wear a mask into 2022.
But if you look at the daily incidence of disease, it's a straight downward line.
And I'm thankful for that.
And I think it's a combination of both natural immunity and the vaccine that's bringing it down.
The deaths are coming down.
And, you know, there was a doctor in The Wall Street Journal about two weeks ago from Johns Hopkins.
And he's predicting by the end of April this could be gone.
Nobody knows for certain, but I would take his counsel in mind as much or more than Fauci, who says, oh, there's gonna be another worldwide, you know, surge, and it's all but over, and we're gonna have to, you know, the planet will be uninhabitable in another 10 years.
These doomsday people, really, we need to hear countervailing opinions, that's for sure.
dave rubin
Senator, are you saying that I might be able to celebrate with my family before July 4th?
I might be able to see my parents before Independence Day?
rand paul
As long as there's two or three of you and no more, and you have to put it on Zoom so Dr. Fauci can watch your celebration.
And make sure you only do the, what are the sticks that light up?
Don't do any explosives.
dave rubin
Oh, sparklers, sparklers, no sparklers.
rand paul
Sparklers only.
dave rubin
Yeah.
rand paul
Sparklers, but no explosive fireworks for you.
dave rubin
In a weird sense though, as you've seen the states do such wildly different procedures, Does that prove that federalism kinda does work?
I mean, I know you don't want the federal government telling everyone what to do, but as you've seen, just Florida do what's right for Florida, and then the people that are stuck in Cali are just stuck in Cali.
Like, it kind of is how the system's supposed to work, right?
rand paul
Well, I think the interesting thing is, is you have all these different sets of data, because you had 50 states doing 50 different policies, but you also had hundreds of different governments around the world doing different policies.
And if someone will objectively look at this, we have more data on this disease than anything we've ever had in the history of man.
But the one thing that is for certain is the highest death rate for any governmental unit is New York and New Jersey.
So they were probably the most restrictive, you know, in towns, but they had the highest death rate.
Sweden did most of these voluntarily and has one of the lower death rates.
In the end, the death rates all sort of coalesced.
And I think in the end, the argument could be made that man had very little effect on the trajectory of this until the vaccine.
And even the vaccine right now, I think it is definitely helping, but I think that, uh, the huge incidence of disease in December and January, also the natural immunity is a big part of this disease coming down.
So it's natural immunity plus, uh, you know, the vaccine that's really doing a trick.
I'm getting the question I get in the hall four times a day now is, are you going to take the vaccine?
Are you going to take the vaccine?
And I'm pro vaccine.
I'm for people who are at high risk taking the vaccine.
But I tell them, look, 30 million people in America have had the disease like myself.
There's maybe a handful.
And some of these are questionable.
There may be a handful of people who got it twice.
But guess what?
There's zero hospitalizations from anybody getting it the second time and zero deaths.
And so like Can we not just let somebody else have the vaccine?
You know, I'm perfectly content.
I've had it.
Do you have to harass me every day saying I need to be vaccinated because Dr. Fauci wants me to vaccinate him?
But realize that's another noble eye on his part.
He only wants to be vaccinated as an example, as a model.
He knows it's of no value to me.
And if he were in private, he would admit as much.
But he's once again lying to us, telling all the people who've had it, you have to take it again because it's about examples.
It's about conformity.
It's about submission.
Has nothing to do with science.
dave rubin
What would you say to the average, say, healthy 44-year-old who has not had it?
Should they be going to get the vaccine?
Once it's available?
rand paul
You're saying like a healthy 44-year-old or someone like you?
dave rubin
Yeah, well, in effect, you know, someone, yeah, someone like me.
Well, just a relatively healthy, relatively young person.
rand paul
For the sake of argument, we'll say that you're both of those relatively young and relatively healthy.
We'll stipulate to that.
Anyway, I think you weigh the risk, and I don't want to be too much trying to enforce my opinion on a 44-year-old.
If you want to make the decision, you base it on the rate of death for your age group and your body type versus the risk of the vaccine.
So, for example, right now, if I were in Europe, And you told me I could get the AstraZeneca vaccine or be 44 year old and healthy.
I'd stay the hell away from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Sounds like there's enough complications.
There's a lot of cities, a lot of countries going away from it.
And here's the other question for our country.
And people don't want to bring this up because it has to do with the truth and you'd have to think through it.
I believe the AstraZeneca is a adenovirus.
I think Johnson and Johnson is an adenovirus.
So I would ask a question before I took the Johnson & Johnson in our country, how is it different than the AstraZeneca vaccine and how is it the same?
Because I don't know if we've had enough people yet.
Are we going to have the same problem with the Johnson & Johnson?
I'm sure they'll be calling me after this.
I don't know if it's true, but I think it's worth it.
Can somebody at least ask the question?
The other ones, the mRNA vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, now we've had millions of people take them.
There are some complications, but if you're over 80, without question, It's much better to take the vaccine than not.
If you're over 70, in all likelihood, yes.
With each successive decade down, it becomes a more marginal benefit.
The other thing that's happening is the disease is coming down dramatically right now from both natural immunity and the vaccine.
If you're unsure, wait a month and make a decision.
Of course, Dr. Fauci will be mad at me for saying that, but in a free country, it's your decision to make, and there isn't an absolute right or wrong.
I know for myself, I've already had it.
I'm not taking it again.
If you tell me in the next two months that a lot of people who had it start dying, I'll probably reevaluate.
I'm not going to be adamant that I'm not taking it.
But right now, there's nobody who's died from a second infection.
And I know of nobody who's been hospitalized from a second infection, so I'm a little cautious with wanting to get revaccinated since I've already been vaccinated the old-fashioned way.
dave rubin
It's just incredible because you're giving me a much more robust and honest assessment than anything that we're hearing out of Fauci.
But all right, I just wanna talk quickly about two bills that you've introduced because I'm not a big fan of bills, but every now and again, something comes in to actually restrict the power of the government over the people.
Talk to me about the REINS Act.
rand paul
The Reins Act says that when unelected bureaucrats want to write a regulation that would injure the economy or cost the economy over $100 million, that lo and behold, they shouldn't be allowed to do it without Congress approving of that regulation.
This is one of the most amazing things that I learned when I got here, is that most of the onerous, costly, expensive regulations are not written by your legislators, they're written by bureaucrats.
The legislators write a survey, or sort of a shell of a bill, that lets the regulators write all the teeth of the regulations.
Like under Obamacare, there were 1,500 references to the Secretary of Health shall decide at a later date.
So really, Obamacare was written by the Secretary of Health.
So same way with these.
So under the REINS Act, if it passed, these major regulations would be created by bureaucrats but sent back to the House to be voted on.
To my mind, this is one of the best reforms that's out there For trying to restrain big government.
So far we have, let me think, zero co-sponsors from the Democrat side.
Probably 20 or 30 Republicans.
We may have had one vote in the past and we get most of the Republicans on board and almost no Democrats.
At one time Manchin was a co-sponsor of this.
I don't know if he'd vote for it now, but at one time he was a co-sponsor.
I don't think we have him on it anymore.
But it shows that there really is a difference between the parties.
It doesn't mean all Republicans are good, but it doesn't mean that no Democrats are any good on regulation.
dave rubin
So when you introduce a bill like that, and you know it's not gonna get any bipartisan support and struggle within your own party, are you doing it more just because you want people to understand these ideas?
I mean, you want people to at least hear about some of this stuff?
rand paul
Well, because if it passed, this is how we would fix our government.
And I think people want to have solutions.
The other thing is, is that perhaps somebody running for, you know, Senate in Arizona decides, well, it's a great idea and I'm going to run my campaign on this issue, that regulations should have to be approved by Congress.
I think it's something that could be a motivating force for people in election cycles.
It's the same reason I oppose, you know, sending stimuluses to dead people, even though I know everybody up here is for it.
But I'm not really for sending stimulus checks, even though I'm not going to win.
I'm not for sending stimulus checks to dead people.
Last summer, over a million dead people got stimulus checks to the tune of over a billion dollars.
So I introduced legislation to fix it.
It passed by unanimous consent.
But a Democrat senator came running to the floor and said, no, I object.
But he was too late.
And so it got passed and then it went to the house, but he was mad because we passed it over his objection.
So he got his buddies in the house to stop it.
And then when they finally did get around to, they said, well, we're really kind of for this.
We kind of made a big, but some dead people's relatives could use this money.
And, and so they did pass it, but they said, we will only end the process of sending checks to dead people in three years.
So this is how ineffective your government is.
They can't even immediately.
And sending checks to dead people takes them three years to unravel the complexity of mailing checks to dead people.
dave rubin
I believe this is what we call the swamp.
All right, the other piece that you're trying to get past is the National Right to Work Act.
rand paul
Yeah, I think that you shouldn't be fired for the choice of whether you join a union or not.
It should be up to you, and we shouldn't sort of have federal legislation that encourages businesses to fire people who say, ah, I just decided I don't like Let's say you're pro-life and you don't want all the money going to, you know, Planned Parenthood or something.
You say, I don't want to send money to my union because it sends money to the Democrats for this.
And so I think that should be your choice.
So this national right to work law doesn't really add new law.
You should like this.
All it does is take away law.
So some of the labor law from the 30s and 40s mandated this protectionism for unions and all it does is strip that away.
It's not anti-union.
In fact, I think there are times When the smaller players should be allowed to come together to use their leverage to strike a better deal, whether it's wages or prices, frankly.
So I'm for, like, consumers forming a union or a co-op to negotiate with big insurance and big tech and everybody else.
I think there are ways that we could get the consumer to have more leverage.
So I'm not against the idea of union, of collectively trying to go there.
But I think you should have a choice.
dave rubin
How, as basically one of the few people that actually cares about limited government and all of the principles that I'm constantly espousing on the show, do you just not go crazy while working for the government?
Like, especially now as it's gotten so out of control.
Like, truly, how do you just, like, manage to have a smile on your face and be funny and fun and happy and the rest of it while in the midst of that thing?
rand paul
You know, when a golfer gets the shanks, he has to get a sports psychologist.
I have a couple of sports psychologists on the payroll.
They follow me around.
And what we've also decided to do is go with the science, Dave.
And I can't believe you don't do this.
Here's what the science tells you.
dave rubin
Tell me, please.
rand paul
The National Science Foundation says that if you will take a picture, a selfie of yourself smiling, And look at it later in the day, you'll be a happier person.
And so that's what the science says, Dave.
And if you will do that and not get on Twitter, but look at selfies of yourself smiling, you'll be a much happier person.
And don't talk politics either.
You gotta give up on talking politics.
dave rubin
That's the most sensible thing I've heard anyone in politics say in a long time.
Senator Rand Paul, I appreciate the time.
rand paul
All right, thanks, Dave.
dave rubin
If you're looking for more honest and thoughtful conversations about politics instead of nonstop yelling, check out our politics playlist.
And if you want to watch full interviews on a variety of topics, watch our full episode playlist all right over here.
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