Brigitte Gabriel and Gordon Chang - December 9th, Hour 3
Brigitte Gabriel, Founder & Chairman of ACT For America and Gordon Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China and The Great U.S.-China Tech War and Former United States Trade Representative are here to discuss what the next steps are for America on the world’s stage. It’s clear that President Trump is regarded as the sitting President. Now with Assad out in Syria and Israel going on offense, we have a very serious situation unfolding in the Middle East, yet again. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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There is a lot of uncertainty regarding Assad's removal, if you will, and the coup that has taken place as it relates to Syria.
But there's certain undeniable truths in all of this.
The fact that Vladimir Putin was so engaged in his war with Ukraine, and by the way, just not a shocker to anybody, but Joe Biden now is sending another billion dollars in additional weapons on his way out the door, just like $600 billion in student loan forgiveness.
This guy just spending money like crazy.
Is it good to see?
Yes.
Am I glad it happened?
Yes.
Does it weaken Vladimir Putin's influence in the region?
It absolutely does.
Does it weaken the Iranian mullahs?
It absolutely does.
Does it raise the prospects for peace in the Middle East and an alliance again to be reestablished with the United States and Israel and Jordan and Egypt and the Saudis and the Emirates that existed when Donald Trump was president the first time?
It does.
Vladimir Putin taking in Assad is interesting.
It was kind of entertaining over the weekend to watch a lot of the rebels that had basically ousted this murdering dictator as they were rummaging through his house and looting the place like crazy.
But anyway, so the people are celebrating.
They're tearing down posters of Assad.
But we don't know yet how this is going to play out.
We don't know what role ISIS had been, for example, in check, and a lot of ISIS prisoners had been held by the Kurds in Syria, in Iraq, and elsewhere.
And we don't want radical Islamists taking over Syria.
And we have to watch for who's going to ultimately take over here.
One thing the Israelis did almost immediately was they took out their chemical weapons site within Syria, not knowing who ultimately will be in charge when things settle down.
You might remember Obama made this comment in 2012 that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would be a red line for us.
And meanwhile, they'd already used them.
We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.
That would change my calculus.
That would change my equation.
It's somehow under.
In a situation this volatile, I wouldn't say that I am absolutely confident.
What I'm saying is we're monitoring that situation very carefully.
We have put together a range of contingency plans.
We have communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region that that's a red line for us and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons.
That would change my calculations significantly.
Well, they had a chemical weapons plant, and thankfully the Israelis took that out.
I don't think any American in their right mind wants any part of Syria's internal conflict here, but we do have interests that we cannot afford to ignore.
The fate of American hostages in Assad's prisons like Austin Tice, as well as the remains of those who died in captivity, that would be a priority for, I'm sure will become a priority for President Trump.
And, you know, taking out any possibility that they could have weapons of mass destruction.
This was one of the better, well, underreported stories.
The Israelis went in years ago and they were able to fly below the radar of the Syrian air defenses and they took out their nuclear sites and nobody knew it, just like they had done in Iraq.
And it was like the most underreported military coup success of all time.
But, you know, I'm sure there's going to be people here in America.
You know, the U.S. military has worked for more than a decade with local partners to dismantle the ISIS Caliphate and prevent ISIS from coming back.
But we do need to be realistic about who these rebels are because it basically was Islamic rebel forces in Syria that marched into Damascus and stormed the palace of Assad on Sunday.
And, you know, that's where they were looting the place.
So it's a little tenuous to say the least.
Anyway, here for analysis, we have Brigitte Gabriel.
She is the founder and chairman of Act for America, Gordon Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China and the Great U.S.-China Tech War.
Welcome both of you.
Brigitte, we'll start with you.
Let's get your take on this.
While I'm happy he's gone, frankly, Putin can have him, and he's a murdering terrorist sympathizer.
We did have ISIS under control.
I wouldn't want to see the re-emergence of ISIS, although with Donald Trump in office, I would imagine that would be handled rather quickly.
Well, thank you, Sean.
I'm glad to be back with you.
And thank you for bringing such an important story and the link to ISIS with what happened in Syria.
And thank God we have President Trump coming into office.
And here is why.
Here is who this group, the rebels, that basically took over the country.
Julani Gilani, the head of the Hayat Tahir al-Sham, he is an al-Qaeda terrorist.
He took over al-Qaeda in Iraq from Abu Mushab al-Zarqawi, who established al-Qaeda in Iraq.
In 2006, he was arrested by U.S. troops in Iraq and thrown in jail.
That's where he met the head and founder of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In 2011, Baghdadi sent Julani to Syria to start Jabhat al-Nusra.
In 2012, it became such a great organization, a formidable front.
In 2013, Al-Baghdadi cut ties with Al-Qaeda and went to Syria to establish the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, which means the Levant, which became known as ISIS.
ISIS wanted to absorb Julani and Nusra front, but he resisted, declaring his allegiance to Al-Qaeda.
He did not want the global caliphate.
He just wanted an Islamic state within Syria.
Al-Qaeda didn't do much to help him, so in 2016, he branched off on his own.
His organization became Hayat Tahir Sham, which in Arabic it means the life of the liberation of al-Sham.
And he had one goal, defeat Assad and topple the Syrian regime.
So he established within Syria a mini-state controlled by him and under Sharia law in Idlib, a city of about 5 million people.
They established a civilian front called the Syrian Salvation Government.
They ruled like a state.
They had a prime minister and a government department.
He tried to change his image as a moderate ruler who supports order.
But those who lived under his rule accuse him of silencing opposition, targeting journalists, and imposing harsh restrictions.
He basically ruled a Shia law ruling.
So some Syrians are now questioning whether they exchange one form of an authoritarian regime for another.
He's a dangerous militant jihadist, which will complicate any diplomatic recognition of his government.
We basically now have a melting pot of al-Qaeda and ISIS all together who just took control of Syria and now they have a country that they control.
Well, we'll see how far they get in their radicalism.
Gordon Shang, your take.
Well, this situation reminds me of Henry Kissinger's famous comment from another conflict when he said that he wished both sides could lose.
And yes, there's some very dangerous elements who are coming to power in Syria, and they are going to be ones where we're going to have to deal with one way or another because they'll come for us.
But the important point here, Sean, is that both...
But Gordon, it's not that they're going to come for us.
We know there are known terrorists in the country right now that Harris and Biden let in.
Yes, and Iranian operatives are operating freely in the United States.
As a part of the 9-11 deal last year, Biden actually gave clemency to five Iranian operatives, allowed three of them to stay in the United States at a time when Iran was trying to assassinate Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and some other senior State Department officials.
So we know that they're here, and we know that this is going to give them incentives to move against us quickly.
But the important point about Syria right now is that both Russia and Iran, and as well as China, have lost an important pawn on the chessboard.
And that means we're just a little bit safer for now.
But as you point out, they are going to be, this is going to be a base for terrorism.
Well, I think that's the challenging part.
The only good thing I think you rightly point out, Brigitte, is that Vladimir has been trying to get a foothold in the region and be a dominant player in the Middle East.
And I think that pretty much takes him out of the game, except for his relationship with the Iranians.
Am I wrong in that analysis?
No, you are not wrong.
That does take him out of the game.
But we have another player that just entered the game, and that's Erdogan in Turkey.
Erdogan is the one who supported the rebel groups in Syria because he wanted to stick it to Assad because Assad snubbed him and he did not help him when he needed the help in 2011.
And so Ordogan, who looks at himself as the leader of the Sunni world, he wants to lead and he believes that by defeating the American empire, by defeating the Western Empire, Western civilization, he will usher in into the Middle East a new age of the Middle East, an age where Islam will come back to its former glory.
So he wants now to use Syria to basically establish a name for himself.
Now remember, Ortogon is a power to be reckoned with.
This is Turkey we're talking about.
This is not some offshoot, crazy terrorist organization.
But this is what Ortogon wants to do.
And with Hayat Tahir Hashem, this guy now, this group that just won over Syria, what they're talking about, which is the same goal that Ordogan wants, which is the liberation of Asham, the Levant.
And what they mean by that, that includes, that's the Islamic name of Syria, which not only includes Syria, but also Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel.
So when they talk about, when this guy, Julani, talks about freedom and independence from Sham, he is talking about all these countries.
So now he and Ortogon have that goal and that shared goal together.
So now we have a new problem and paying attention to what Ordogan and Turkey is going to do.
All right, let's go to our busy phones.
You know, I think that Brigitte Gordon is right on the money because Erdogan of Turkey was out there even this weekend.
He's gotten more radicalized every single year he's been in power and praising the efforts of people in, quote, Palestine and Gaza and Lebanon, those that have been at war with Israel and talking about the end of Western civilization and how this new divine Islamist order would rule the entire world.
And he talked about the East versus the West.
And then I'm like, why is Turkey still a member state of NATO?
Why do we have any alliance with this guy at all?
I think he now has emerged as a radical Islamist himself.
Yeah, exactly.
And that's a scary part.
And for the longest time, people did not really pay that much attention to Turkey.
I mean, we heard about Turkey and supporting terrorism when they supported the flotilla.
Remember those years when the flotilla was launched against Israel?
They were going to Israel.
So we heard a little bit about the radicalism of Turkey.
But after the coup, Ordogan had such power.
He has such power right now.
And what makes him more dangerous is, like you said, he's a member of NATO.
He's not some just crazy offshoot, you know, terrorist group that just took control of a country.
He is dangerous, and he has the power, major power, to be able to help those rebels.
And right now he is basking in the victory.
He got rid of Assad, and he feels powerful right now.
Let's get your take, Gordon Chang.
Yeah, I think the most difficult issue for the United States and for the West is what you and Bridget have been talking about.
And that is, what do you do about Turkey?
Because Erdogan has turned into a bad actor.
But unfortunately, he sits on some critical real estate, which is the control of the Bosporus, control of the Black Sea, and also a large portion on the Mediterranean Sea.
And NATO has tried to wait him out, and that has not been successful.
It is one of those things, especially with the war in Ukraine, that has given Erdogan so much more influence throughout the world.
And now he has back, at least for the moment, the winning side in Syria.
I suspect that the forces in Syria now don't need Turkey as much, and so Erdogan will not have as much influence as many people think.
But nonetheless, he's become much more powerful, as Bridget has just mentioned.
Yeah.
Well, I think Erdogan is a real clear present danger to the world.
And if anybody heard his radical speech this weekend, we would know that we're dealing with an enemy and not somebody that should be a part of NATO, in my view.
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So President Trump went on NBC's Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, and he said a lot of things that got a lot of attention.
And, you know, if we really go by Joe Biden and what we know he did, that he leveraged the billion taxpayer dollars to get a prosecutor in Ukraine fired in six hours.
I said, I'm not going to, we're not going to give you the billion dollars.
They said, you have no authority.
You're not the president.
The president said, I said, call him.
I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting a billion dollars.
I said, you're not getting the billion.
I'm going to be leaving here.
I think it was, what, six hours?
I looked.
I said, I'm leaving in six hours.
If the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money.
Oh, son of a got fired.
The prosecutor that was investigating the company, the oil giant Varisma, the energy giant Varisma, that was paying his then-crack addicted son millions and millions of dollars, although he had no experience, in his own words, in oil, energy, gas, or Ukraine.
There's been a lot of misinformation about me, not about my dad.
Nobody buys that, but it buys this idea that I was unqualified to be on the board.
What were your qualifications to be on the board of Barisma?
Well, I was vice chairman of the board of Amtrak for five years.
I was the chairman of the board of the UN World Food Program.
I was a lawyer for Boyce Schiller-Flexner, one of the most prestigious law firms in the world.
You didn't have any extensive knowledge about natural gas or Ukraine itself, though.
No.
But I think that I had as much knowledge as anybody else that was on the board, if not more.
In the list that you gave me of the reasons why you're on that board, you did not list the fact that you were the son of the Vice President.
Of course, that's.
What role do you think that played?
I think that it is impossible for me to be on any of the boards that I just mentioned without saying that I'm the son of the Vice President of the United States.
If your last name wasn't Biden, do you think you would have been asked to be on the board of Burisma?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Probably not.
I don't think that there's a lot of things that would have happened in my life that if my last name wasn't Biden.
No experience at all whatsoever.
And the prosecutor is investigating this.
And he gives him six hours and threatens to withhold a billion dollars in loan guarantees.
And son of a B, they fired them.
Now that coupled with the weaponization of the Justice Department, politicizing the FBI and the DOJ, the double standard when it comes to justice in America, i.e.
the rate at Mar-a-Lago, but no rate on the four locations Joe has top secret classified documents or Hillary Clinton's home or Hillary Clinton's office.
Anyway, Donald Trump was asked about this.
He said it's not his decision.
And yeah, I think if you look at the law, I think a prosecutor could absolutely bring this before a grand jury, and there could be indictments involving Joe and his family.
I do believe that.
Anyway, here's Donald Trump's answer to that.
Well, let me ask you this.
You said President Biden, quote, that you're going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden.
You said that the campaign.
You said that on Truth Social, June 12th, 2023.
I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden and the entire crime family.
Are you going to do that?
Are you going to go after Joe Biden?
I'm really looking to make our country successful.
I'm not looking to go back into the past.
I'm looking to make our country successful.
I want to pause here because what you're saying is significant.
Because you wrote on Truth Social in 2023 that you're going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden.
Now you're saying you're not going to do that.
I will say this.
No, I'm not doing that unless I find something that I think is reasonable.
But that's not going to be my decision.
That's going to be Pam Boni's decision and to a different extent, Kash Patel, assuming they're both there, and I think they're both going to get approved.
But while you ask me that, what they've done to me with weaponization is a disgrace.
Then he was asked if we're subsidizing these other countries, like he's talking about Canada.
And he said, why don't we make it the 51st state, the state of Canada, which I think is hilarious.
A lot of people on the left, they just don't know what to make of Donald Trump.
It cracks me up.
Here's what he said.
I think we will.
I'm a big believer in tariffs.
I think tariffs are the most beautiful word.
I think they're beautiful.
It's going to make us rich.
We're subsidizing Canada to the tune of over $100 billion a year.
We're subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion.
We shouldn't be subsidizing.
Why are we subsidizing these countries?
If we're going to subsidize them, let them become a state.
We're subsidizing Mexico and we're subsidizing Canada and we're subsidizing many countries all over the world.
And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field.
I mean, the media is so humorless.
And the other thing that he pointed out is, and this was made during the campaign, well, he's going to put tariffs and he's threatened tariffs, for example, on Mexico and on Canada if they don't secure their border.
And he said he might leave NATO if, in fact, other countries don't pay their fair share.
And then he rightly pointed out on the tariffs question that it will cost Americans nothing, that they made this country money when he was president.
For example, the tariffs they put on China.
It also, what he's doing when he mentions tariffs is he's getting their attention.
And Mexico and Canada do need to secure their border and do their part.
It's called the negotiation.
And when you have unfair trade practices like China has, and intellectual property theft like China has, and you have China threatening our allies as they've been doing with Taiwan, there's got to be consequences for that behavior.
And the best way to get their attention is to hit them in the pocketbook.
Anyway, here's Donald Trump talking about how tariffs cost Americans nothing and how in his first term they actually made the country money.
How do you make sure that these CEOs, that these companies don't, in fact, pass on the cost of tariffs to their consumers?
They cost Americans nothing.
They made a great economy for us.
They also solve another problem.
If we were going to have problems having to do with wars and having to do with other things, tariffs, I have stopped wars with tariffs by saying, you guys want to fight, it's great, but both of you are going to pay tariffs to the United States at 100%.
And they have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used.
I don't say you use them like a madman.
I say properly used.
But it didn't cost this country anything.
It made this country money.
And we never really got the chance to go all out because we had to fight COVID in the last part.
And we did it very successfully.
He's not wrong, but trust me, this is all a negotiating technique.
All of this is everything with Donald Trump is transactional and it's all for negotiation purposes.
The issue of immigration came up and he said a number of things about it.
He said on deportations, the only way not to break up families is keep them together and send them all back.
And then he said he would try to end birthright citizenship.
And when asked this question, it was not asked the right way, but let me play his answers.
Let me ask you about another group of people, the estimated 4 million families in America who have mixed immigration status.
So I'm talking about parents who might be here illegally, but the kids are here legally.
Your borders are Tom Holman.
You're talking about separation?
Well.
Well, I mean, there are two aspects to this.
Your border czar Tom Hohmann said they can be deported together.
Is that the plan?
Well, I don't want to be breaking up families.
So the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.
You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one.
Is that still your plan?
Yeah, absolutely.
The 14th Amendment, though, says that, quote, all persons born in the United States are citizens.
Can you get around the 14th Amendment with an executive action?
Maybe you have to go back to the people, but we have to end it.
We're the only country that has it yet.
Through an executive action.
You know, we're the only country that has it.
Do you know, if somebody sets a foot, just a foot, one foot, you don't need to own our land.
Congratulations.
You are now a citizen of the United States of America.
Yes, we're going to end that because it's ridiculous.
Through executive action?
Well, if we can, through executive action.
I was going to do it through executive action, but then we had to fix COVID first, to be honest with you.
Now, Senator Mike Lee on the second part of this actually put up on X, and he's right about this.
When the president said he intends to end birthright citizenship, people say, well, it's in the Constitution.
It's in the Constitution.
And he rightly pointed out they selectively omitted a key part of the 14th Amendment and a question about birthright citizenship.
And when he was asked about a number of changes he intends to implement as president, well, it included the plan to end birthright citizenship.
Under the 14th Amendment, someone born in the U.S., born in our country, is granted citizenship regardless of where their parents come from.
And this was, you know, years ago, we were talking about this issue.
People would come from other countries while they were pregnant.
They deliver their child in America for the purpose of gaining birthright citizenship.
Anyway, under the 14th Amendment, that happens.
However, as he points out that the 14th Amendment states all persons in the U.S. are citizens, can you get around the 14th Amendment with executive action?
Now, what Lee shared is a clip, all persons born in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
Those are very important words in our Constitution.
All persons born in the U.S., subject to the jurisdiction thereof, shall be citizens of the U.S.
Those words matter.
And then the senator continued to break it down.
He said, and Congress has the power to define what it means to be born in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
And he's 100% right constitutionally on that issue.
100%.
Anyway, back to the president.
Well, I'll tell you what, why don't we get to our phones in the meantime?
Let's say hello to Sarah in North Carolina.
Sarah, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hey, Sean.
First of all, y'all, I have to say real fast that you are one good-looking man.
And second of all, the reason I...
Well, hang on.
Hang on.
Linda, did you hear that?
I did.
I think I'll make that on a loop for you.
You can hear it every day.
Get your day started, right?
Sarah, you just made my day, but I will have to get your glasses fixed.
I feel like, remember the scene in my cousin Vinny when an eyewitness couldn't see 50 feet away?
Yeah, because of the dirt.
That was, well, that guy, and then there was this elderly woman who had her, you know, very thick glasses.
And how many fingers do I have up?
The judge goes, two.
And he goes, for the witness only, how many fingers do I now have up?
And the lady got it wrong.
Yeah, I remember that.
I love that movie.
That was so good.
What I was calling about today is it occurred to me with all the talk that's going around about Biden, about Joe Biden giving Hunter a pardon.
It kind of occurred to me that maybe it's not as simple as it seems.
Maybe Hunter told his dad, you know, if you don't get me out of this mess before you're out of office and I go down, you're going down with me.
What do you think about that?
I think there's going to be more pardons to come.
I mean, Democrats have been talking about this and they have a list of people, retribution, although Donald Trump said he has no interest in retribution.
He said retribution is success.
Correct.
Wow, I could hear it.
However, if laws are broken, you got to enforce them.
And I would argue that what we know, what Joe Biden himself has admitted to, and the amount of money that he benefited from while he was vice president, I think that would warrant an investigation.
However, I think that I don't believe Donald Trump has an appetite for it, but it won't be his decision.
It's going to be Pam Bondi's decision.
It'll be Kash Patel's decision.
But we'll see.
We have a lot of other work that we got to get done.
There's no doubt about it.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too.
But hopefully they'll find out the truth and be able to put it out there.
I appreciate the call, Sarah.
Thank you.
Linda, you remind me of that movie, my cousin Vinny.
I was going to jump in because he actually says to her, maybe you're ready for a new thickness on your glasses.
That's actually the line that he says to her.
But it's a great, the whole movie is fantastic, to be honest with you.
The two utes.
What's the utes?
But what was the movie he, not the movie, the judge was from the Munsters?
Oh, yeah.
The Monsters.
Yeah, he passed away.
He's so.
But it was like, it was wild to see him in that.
I mean, what a voice.
My God.
And what do you call this on the windows in the screen?
You can shout it out dirt.
That's right.
Shout it out when you know him.
Shout it out.
Shout it out when you know the answers.
And what are these things over here that obstruct the view to the Sack of Suds?
Oh, the trees?
Very good.
Keep shouting about these bushes.
Yeah, very good.
It's so funny.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
A great Hannity tonight, 9 Eastern on the Fox News channel.
Pete Heg Seth, former colleague, friend, and up for Department of Defense Secretary, he will join us.
Also, Alan Dershowitz, Greg Jarrett will join us.
And Paul Morrow, Nicole Parker will talk about, obviously, the Penny verdict and the assassination of this United Healthcare CEO.
Also, Laura Trump out at the RNC.
Will she be senator next?
New Kingrich, Jimmy Phela, Nine Eastern, set you DVR.
