Nov. 24, 2016 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
36:47
3510 Donald Trump Cabinet Controversy | True News
Mere weeks after winning the Presidential election and becoming President-Elect of the United States, Donald Trump is under criticism regarding his announced and rumored cabinet picks. Includes: Reince Prebus, Steve Bannon, James Flynn, Nikki Haley, Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, Mitt Romney and much much more!Freedomain Radio is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by signing up for a monthly subscription or making a one time donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
Hi everybody, Stefan Molyne from Free Domain Radio.
Hope you're doing well.
Back with our good friend Mike.
Mike, how's your inbox been over the last little while now that Trump is picking out his cabinet?
Has it been gentle, positive, enthusiastic?
full of integrity and good wishes.
Yeah, the overwhelming celebration has turned to what can only be described as concern trolling and armchair quarterbacking in a way, which I can understand and in some ways appreciate.
Not so much the concern trolling, but just the concern of like, ooh, I don't like this pick, or this person's rumored for this.
That would be bad, right?
But it's becoming a bit overwhelming in terms of, I see it online a lot.
These days, you can't hop on Twitter.
You can't read any type of website that's on the right that doesn't have this kind of concern trolling and such going on.
My message to everyone is just, please, good God, take a breath.
Take a breath.
Relax.
Relax.
Maybe we have a different perspective on this stuff because...
We have not been positive regarding political action until now.
Until Donald Trump came along and Donald Trump being different.
We laid out all the reasons as to why he's different and the previous rules and arguments don't necessarily apply to him.
But it's all because of him.
And this is going to be a top-down thing.
Stuff is going to get done and things are going to happen because Donald Trump's at the top, putting people in positions to do certain jobs and they're either going to get those jobs done and they're not and it's all going to fall on Trump.
So either you have trust that Trump is competent to do what he said he's going to do, or you don't.
And if you don't, I don't know why you were enthusiastic about Donald Trump in the first place.
When you hire someone, that's when you go through your vetting process.
Afterwards, let them do their damn job.
There's this micromanagement, and it's not like don't give the guy feedback.
Of course, absolutely.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.
But, you know, he runs a 10,000 – or he ran a 10,000-person operation, and he didn't do that by second-guessing everyone he put into a position of power.
You hired the guy.
And here's the thing.
Okay, maybe you're not so keen on Romney and other of his appointees or potential appointees or whatever.
Okay, let's have that discussion.
But here's the thing.
Is hydrogen Hillary in charge?
Are you currently being drafted?
Are nuclear weapons being pointed at Moscow and Washington?
So if that's not happening, and it's not, let's enjoy this particular time.
And remember, the media's job is to turn you against Trump.
That's all they've got left.
That's all they've got left.
It's just so...
Seeds of discord and hostility and infighting.
That's their job.
And for heaven's sakes, don't fall for their Iago tactics.
Oh, I mean, the same thing happened directly after Trump got elected has happened for the previous 18 months.
You know, the media came out with all these stories.
Donald Trump's transition team is in a state of disarray.
No, it really wasn't.
They got rid of a bunch of lobbyists that were on the crew, made some shakeups, got Christie people out of there because Christie was involved in some pretty hinky stuff.
So, if anything, I look at that as a positive sign.
Hey, look, people that are tied to some levels of corruption are now being put in lower positions of power or gotten rid of completely.
Okay, thumbs up.
I think that's a positive.
But it's in a state of disarray and chaos.
Well, his whole campaign team was in a state of disarray for the entire campaign.
That's what they said.
And he won.
He won.
You know, Trump is interesting in that he hires people and brings people on that are effective at the current stage for the job that needs to be done at the time.
You know, Corey Lewandowski was his original campaign manager.
Corey got him pretty far into the primary.
But when it got to the point where you needed to shore up all the delegates and go through all that bureaucratic process, he brought in Paul Manafort, who, that was his wheelhouse.
So he brought in Paul Manafort to shore up the nomination.
The nomination was shorn up, and then he brought in Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon, who got him the rest of the way.
You know, Steve Bannon, you're not going to find people more connected to the grassroots and an understanding of what kind of the Republican base that's been ignored for so long really, really want.
So he brought in the people that were the best to do the job that needed to be done at the moment it got done.
So, you know, the same thing is probably going to apply to cabinet positions, folks.
Just FYI, put that out there.
But, yeah, the idea, his transition team is a state of disarray.
His campaign was in a state of disarray.
This is just media lies.
Stop believing it.
Calm down.
Take a breath.
You know, when a rocket leaves the atmosphere, the rocket is falling apart.
It's like, no, the stages that are done are falling away.
That's exactly by design.
And in the software, I mean, my entrepreneurial experience is in the software field, and generally the way it works is a couple of guys in a garage write some crappy piece of software that sells well, and then you bring someone professional or basically rewrite the code from scratch so it can be upgradable and modularized and so on.
It's just stages.
And here's the other thing, too.
Donald Trump now, as the president-elect, has access to information that you don't have.
Mike obviously has some of it.
He has access to information that you don't have.
Has he had a look at the 650,000 emails that came off Anthony Weiner?
Weiner's computer, he probably has some idea of what's going on and what the NYPD is looking into.
They might have had some effect on whether he feels it's necessary to pursue Hillary Clinton or whether it might happen of its own accord falsely outside of his wheelhouse.
He's got security information.
He's got information about where people stand privately.
Publicly, it's a throwdown.
There's a lot of insults traded back and forth in the public realm.
But that doesn't always accord with what everyone feels privately.
Sometimes people just say stuff to win.
It's like wrestling.
There's a lot of trash talking and then everyone goes out for dinner.
He's got access to a lot more security information, personal information, organizational information that you don't have.
Now, this doesn't mean that then don't have any sort of thoughts or criticisms or feedback, but just remember, he's got way more information than you do, and he's also one of the smartest people in the world who's been studying this for years.
He's not unprepared, and it just might be possible that he knows a little bit more.
With all this additional information plus his brilliance, he might know a little bit more about what's going on than you do, or I do.
There's this list online that continually gets updated.
It's got like, Donald Trump will never run for president.
He'll never file his papers.
He'll never blah, blah, blah.
And then it's like, Donald Trump will never be president.
And then there's the big arrow that says, you are here.
And then underneath it's, he will never build the wall.
He will never do this.
He will never do that.
We've had to hear so many times, this will never happen.
This will never get done.
This can't, oh, look at this.
There's clear evidence that this is falling apart and never going to occur.
Chill out.
He won, the media lost.
The media was completely wrong.
They completely set fire to their credibility.
They're completely discredited for any reason.
So he was right, Donald Trump was completely right, and the media was completely wrong.
So you know what you now get to do?
Stop listening to the media.
Just stop it.
Well, you know, they came out then after saying, you know, his transition team is in a state of disarray.
Then they took one comment that he made and said, oh, look, he's changing his position on Obamacare, which actually was completely consistent with everything he said previous.
You know, Trump is always – and this is something that I don't necessarily like.
I understand why it's in there.
But he's always, you know, the people that are uninsured, the people that are uninsurable, that they have, you know, these – Thank you.
Thank you.
But that's – say you don't like it, but that's not exactly changing his position.
And there's certainly lots of other things that can be done with Obamacare which are included on his plan, on his website, which are going to bring down the cost of healthcare tremendously if implemented to the point where, okay, maybe there's a massive subsidy for people that have really bad health, made some terrible choices.
That's not great.
It's not going to bring health care costs down and incentivize people to have the best health that they can and to look forward into the future and go, gee, maybe I shouldn't eat the 14th ho-ho after this Thanksgiving dinner.
But if you can bring the cost of healthcare down tremendously, you know, there's subsidies that are far more manageable and likely not to completely crash the system.
But it wasn't something that he said which was inconsistent with its previous statements.
But, you know, it doesn't matter.
The media said that anyway.
And then they did the same thing with global warming.
He said something about global warming.
They said, look at this!
It's completely backing down on what he said about...
No, no, he's...
No, he didn't.
No, he didn't.
This is just, let's pick a quote.
Let's pick something.
Let's try and get all the supporters and all the people that like Trump scared and freaked out.
Lord knows people that have been involved in the political process for a long time.
They got lots of reasons to be scared, given that just about every politician that ever gets elected is completely backtracked on the majority of his promises immediately and stuck their nose in the damn trough for lots of lobbyist money to enrich themselves personally at the expense of all the people that, you know, he's this is the one.
This is the one that's going to change everything.
And then, well, it didn't end up happening.
You know, part of the reason why Trump is different is he doesn't really need the money, doesn't need fame, doesn't need, you know, the he's already got the earned credibility and earned prominence that, you know, he's not going to get starstruck by, look, people are paying attention to me.
There's a lot of different things about Trump.
And, you know, again, just be aware that the media is trying to fracture and divide people and get people all freaked out.
And, folks, it's not good for your own mental health to just get freaked out nonstop about this stuff.
I mean, I I've been reading it.
I've been seeing it.
It's just like, oh, God.
The end fighting and the back and forth, it's exhausting.
This is why I don't join groups.
Are you a libertarian?
No, I'm a philosopher.
I take reason and evidence where it leads me.
Are you an atheist?
Well, technically, we could talk about whether I believe in God or not, but this whole group of people that call themselves atheists, yeah, I'm not a part of that.
I don't like the end fighting.
I don't like joining groups, and this is why, because the fracturing and this and that, it's so exhausting.
I just invite everyone to take a step back.
Breathe, relax, and go, hey, he's not even president yet.
He doesn't take office until next year.
And then, when he takes office, when all the talk is done and it's up to action, I say then it's fair season.
Okay, what are the results?
These are the results he promised.
These are the results we want.
These are the results that he ran on.
And if he doesn't provide those, then criticize away.
Criticize away.
But at least let the man take office and, you know, have day one before you start going for the throat.
If all he does is deal with immigration, that's more than any other president over the past 60 years.
So he completely backtracks and falls apart on every other one of his problems.
So just, you know, eyes on the prize, big picture stuff.
Now, the other thing too is that he has to get things done.
I mean, this is a truism, but I just want to remind people.
He's got to work with Congress, and Congress is composed of a lot of never-Trumpers.
Now, how is he going to get Congress?
Because, you know, they've got Congress, they've got the Senate, they've got a whole bunch of governorships, the Republicans, and they have the presidency.
But it's a very unusual precedent in that he was a president that a lot of mainstream Republicans really despised and hated.
He's not a dictator.
He's not Stalin, despite what the media is telling you.
He's got to get people to work with him and that means making compromises.
Politics is known as the art of the possible.
What can you get done?
Look, it's fine for us out here in ideal land.
We can juggle these concepts and everything can look pure and good and wonderful and we can not blemish ourselves with having to act in the real world in a very contradictory system like governments as a whole.
But he has committed to getting things done within a system which is composed of the Democrats who hate him and the Republicans who might like him a little bit more now, but were very much against him running.
A lot of them were very much against him running.
In the first place, he's got to work with them.
He's got to find a way to bring them onto his side.
You know, as...
As I think it was Abraham Lincoln said in between generally becoming a fascist, he said, do I not destroy an enemy if I make him my friend?
How are you going to give the Never Trumpers what they want so you have the legislative clout in Congress to get your presidential agenda moved forward?
Remember, the president can't pass laws.
It's Congress's job.
And so he's got to work with these people.
And if you find it unpleasant, that's why he's doing that job and you're typing.
Well, just look at a lot of the picks for these cabinet-level positions.
They have to be confirmed.
They have to go through the Senate.
It's a multi-step process to get these people into the positions.
You can't just pick your first choice and I'm going to get it no matter what.
This is where...
The compromises are likely going to come in.
And, you know, people need to think about this.
I mean, I like the pick of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.
The idea that there's someone who is as rock-solid as rock-solid can be on immigration, which to me is the main issue as Attorney General, that's very comforting.
You know, that's very comforting, and I like that.
And are there things you could say negatives for Jeff Sessions?
Yeah, there's things you could say negative about Jeff Sessions.
But I like what?
But Mike...
I heard that he had positive things to say about the KKK. I wonder if you could help clear that up a little bit, because I'd heard these bad things about him.
Well, we'll probably do the untruth about Jeff Sessions at some point as well, but considering that he fought for the head of the KKK to be put to death at one point in his career, I'd say that he's either the greatest mole of all time for the KKK, or just maybe this is more mainstream media nonsense.
Can you imagine that meeting, right?
He meets with the head of the KKK and he's like, hey man, you know, I'm a mole on the inside, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to put you to death in order to make sure people aren't suspicious.
And the guy's like, yeah, I'll take that for the team.
I mean, come on!
Oh my God.
Yeah, so, you know, Jeff Sessions, I quite like the pick of Jeff Sessions.
And, you know, there's things to be, you know, oh, I don't like Jeff Sessions here or that.
I understand that and that's fine.
You know, again, art of the possible, not everyone's going to be perfect.
We can't clone Donald Trump or someone like Donald Trump to fill every position in his Wait, Trump's vice presidential pick?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ann Coulter was pushing for...
Oh, in the past!
Yes, yes.
Sorry.
I thought he was swapping out the pens.
Okay.
Got it.
My mistake.
Sorry.
Kobach is held in very high esteem by people that are concerned about immigration, and he's actually rumored to be the next head of the Department of Homeland Security, which, okay.
I mean...
Someone who's rock sellout on immigration is the head of the Department of Homeland Security.
I could live with that.
So the idea that, like, okay, you have Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.
Maybe Chris Kobach is the head of the Department of Homeland Security.
Again, that's just rumored.
Who knows?
But maybe, maybe you need to make a compromise then on some other picks in order to get these people through the process.
Because, again, this is why politics doesn't work so well, folks.
This is why it's a mess.
It's a whole lot of backroom dealing.
It's a whole bout of, well, if you give me this, I'll give you that, you know, tit for tat.
Nobody gets everything they want in a negotiation.
That's right there in the heart of the deal.
You got to give and you got to get and you work for a win-win for everyone.
And that means you go in with purity and unwillingness to bend and you simply will walk out empty-handed.
Yeah.
So, I mean, again, I don't like Mitt Romney at all.
There's not much I like about Mitt Romney at all.
Well, that's just because you're not a gel manufacturer.
If you were, he would be your living God.
But anyway, go on.
And if he's appointed to Secretary of State, I'll be like, eh, I don't like it.
I don't like it.
But here's the deal.
He'll be put in that position to do a job, and that job will be handed down to him from the top.
And either he will accomplish that job or he won't, and it's all going to fall on Trump.
Well, then they won't be Secretary of State much longer.
So, this all again comes down to Trump.
And this is going to be Trump's team.
And if you put someone in a job, it's because he thinks that they're the best person that he can get nominated to do the job that he needs done.
And that job may change.
Initially, you might want someone that's a more establishment pick in there to get some of your other picks in.
Doesn't mean that they're going to be in those positions for the long haul.
You don't know.
Again, once a certain task is accomplished, he might reshuffle the deck to put the people in there like he did...
With his campaign manager throughout the course of the presidential campaign, get the people in there.
They're going to be the best to accomplish the job that needs to be done at that given time.
So, I don't look at this cabinet pick as like, oh, look, oh, Lordy, so-and-so has been nominated.
This person said this in the past, and I don't like that, and therefore, they're there to do a specific job.
And again, this will all fall on Trump.
Will the results be provided at the end of the day that he promised?
If not, then criticize away, and it's all on him.
But we don't know yet.
We don't know.
There is a long tradition in U.S. politics of giving Secretary of State to the losing candidate.
Somebody who ran for president and lost before.
I mean, that's how Hillary got the gig.
I mean, other than evil.
But Hillary got the gig because she ran and she lost.
So Romney being Secretary of State is part of a tradition.
And, you know, Romney...
I have my issues as a whole, but...
He was pretty rough on Trump and not on his policies.
Like, oh, I don't agree with immigration.
I don't agree with taxes.
I don't agree with, you know, healthcare or whatever.
But he was like – I've got a couple of quotes here.
He said Trump's promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.
Called him a fraud and a phony.
And he said to – I think back in March in Salt Lake City, hey, he gave a speech in Utah.
That's unusual.
Romney said, his is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader.
His imagination must not be married to real power.
Okay, that is like the worst rap diss in the history of the universe.
I just wanted to point that out.
Both sides would beat you up at a rap contest about that.
But so he did go after Trump personally.
And whether Trump is going to...
Overlook that and just give them anyway is something that will be decided.
The other thing too is that Trump's Secretary of State is going to be a whole lot less important than Secretary of States have been in the past because Trump is running on a nationalist, not an internationalist or globalist platform.
If you're running on a globalist platform, then the Secretary of State is enormously important.
If you're running on a nationalist platform, the Secretary of State becomes somewhat ornamental.
And Romney is fairly ornamental.
Look, good-looking guy.
And it's just less important.
He's not going to be negotiating the trade deals, like the nuts and bolts of the trade deals.
That's going to be Trump's ferocious, you wouldn't want to have dinner with them, people that he knows from his business world.
Well, if he is, I think he's going to realize that Trump has 13 years of very public experience firing people in full view of everyone, and I think he'll find that out very quickly.
And, of course, Romney brings a lot of Romney's not just a guy.
Romney is like the tip of the iceberg because he was, of course, a 2012 presidential GOP candidate.
And so the GOP love Romney.
Now, if you can put Romney in a public position, which is largely ornamental because of your nationalist tendencies...
And gain all of the allegiance of everyone who supported Trump, which was the GOP majority.
Sorry, everyone who supported Romney, which was the GOP majority.
That seems like a pretty good deal.
I mean, don't look just one step ahead.
You've got to play like chess, like deep blue plays, like look dozens of moves ahead or more to figure out what's going on.
Well, you can say another ornamental position, which some people were upset about.
And again, I don't like the person that was nominated in Nikki Haley and nominated to be the UN ambassador.
But I wonder exactly what the UN ambassador is going to be doing in a very nationalistic United States.
It's one of those positions where I know there's some important stuff will be discussed and there'll be back and forth and all that.
But if you're putting America first and you're kind of being an economic nationalist, I don't know that the back and forth at the UN is going to be as important as it had been previously.
Right.
Maybe it will be, you're fired, get the hell out of New York.
Could be one thing.
Not many people know that the charter of the UN was originally written by a Soviet spy working for the American government.
It's not a very...
Decent organization at all.
But anyway, so yeah, I mean, I think it's a strategy.
I think it has a lot of benefits to what he wants to get done.
And the man is a pragmatist.
He has his ideals, don't get me wrong, but he's a pragmatist.
The building needs to go up and whatever.
And it's funny because the people who say, well, of course, Trump donated to Democrats.
That's how you play the game.
And now attacking him for compromising with the never Trumpers.
It's like, well, it's the same damn thing.
It's politics.
You have to find a way.
I can't do it.
Like, I'm not that way inclined.
I have no disrespect for people who are.
I'm not that way inclined.
I'm more of a purist, which is why I'm here and not there.
But I understand that other position, and I understand what he's trying to get done, I think.
Oh, likewise.
I completely agree.
Now, the other thing...
Sorry, I just wanted to think before we move on.
The only thing that I really, really want to see, and I don't have a lot of strong opinions because, again, I'm not on the inside of the club...
But Mike, there is one glorious headline that I want to see, which is this.
Donald Trump appoints Cliven Bundy as head of the Bureau of Land Management.
That is all I want.
That's my Christmas present.
That's all I want to see going forward.
Oh, that would be beautiful.
I think so.
Well, there was another bit of a...
I've had a kerfuffle lately with the comments coming out regarding the prosecution of Hillary Clinton, which initially came from Kellyanne Conway, which struck very similar to me as this whole, you know, remember when Trump was softening on immigration?
That whole thing that went down, you know, Kellyanne Conway was the first person to come out and make comments that led people, oh, Trump is softening on immigration, oh goodness.
And then it led to, you know, lots of attention for his speech where he He came out very strong against illegal immigration, laid out his full plan, and was a speech that I believe Ann Coulter said that she would listen to every night before she went to bed so she could sleep soundly, which tells you how strong it was on immigration.
So, very similar to that, in my opinion, Kellyanne Conway comes out and says, you know, I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but it's not high in the priority list.
Whatever for prosecuting Hillary Clinton.
Now, I can understand the criticism that Trump appointing a special prosecutor to look into Hillary Clinton, who is his political opponent, that that would be politicizing the Justice Department.
So given that Obama was criticized for politicizing the Justice Department, I don't know that I can criticize Donald Trump for not politicizing the Justice Department.
Well, and how about the entire politicization of the IRS targeting conservative groups and swinging the election?
I mean, good lord.
I didn't notice a lot of people in the media going nuts about that.
But then, of course, as soon as it's targeting one of their sacred cows, it's a monstrous dictatorial.
Right.
So, you know, there was criticism come out.
And of course, everyone's like, Trump's going to be a tyrant.
He's going to be a dictator.
And, you know, he's going to prosecute a political opponent, which is not what it was in any way, shape or form, essentially saying that Hillary Clinton will be held accountable for her crimes.
So if you have, you know, an attorney general, And people in positions of power that don't stand in the way of an honest investigation being done.
And investigations are still being conducted, folks.
And we've had Charles Ortel on the show discussing the stuff at the Clinton Foundation, which is in many ways much more damning than the email stuff.
And that tells you, you know, just how bad it is.
And a lot easier to prove.
I mean, it's an open and shut case as far as he describes it.
Yeah, and there's stuff there that you don't even need it to go to a federal level.
It helps, you know, to get some...
For information gathering to have the Attorney General and such on the same page, but, you know, there can be statewide charges placed for some of the Clinton Foundation stuff, which, you know, implicates Chelsea, Bill, Hillary, the whole inner circle.
It's going to be a mess.
So, you know, I don't really care that Trump is not, you know, I'm not going to immediately make it priority one to appoint the special prosecutor and instruct the Attorney General to appoint the special prosecutor.
You know, in some ways, it's really not his job.
And, you know, the Attorney General, if it's Jeff Sessions, I can't imagine he's going to stand in the way of an honest investigation into Hillary Clinton.
I can't imagine that there's going to be someone heading the FBI that's going to stand in the way of honest investigations.
Trump is the law and order candidate.
I can't imagine Jeff Sessions meeting Hillary Clinton.
at an airport with bill clinton during this time like as long as that's not happening i think there's a way forward yeah so i don't look at that oh my god he's gonna let you know hillary off scott free he's not interested in prosecuting her and all the stuff that came out and then you know again the media blew that up and then trump came out with the comments and they're like you know are you saying you won't prosecute her and he's like no you know so again well you know you know who else is not going to prosecute hillary clinton Me.
Or Mike Cernovich's dog.
Because we don't have the legal authority to do so.
I mean, he can't throw her in jail.
He's the president.
He's not.
Anyway.
Everyone's been told that Donald Trump is Nazi.
He's a Hitler.
He's, you know, whatever.
And then when he acts in ways that are not totalitarian, are not complete dictator, people go, oh my god, this is terrible.
Can you pick a point?
Well, the other thing too, if...
Sorry to interrupt, but if he said, I'm going after her, full tilt boogie, both barrels, then Obama would be much more likely to issue some sort of blanket pardon.
And whether that could be done for all, I've heard contradictory things for all crimes or just for federal crimes or whatever.
That's why the state stuff is kind of important regarding the Clinton Foundation, because I don't believe he'd be able to pardon anything for state-related crimes.
So they would be on the hook for that.
But yeah, this is a giant back-and-forth game right now, and there's lots of pressure on Obama to pardon Hillary just not to go through that.
If stuff leads up to the top with him, he's going to be weighing on the side of pardoning Hillary just so he doesn't get dragged into things.
Then again, pardoning someone who obviously committed some criminality and may come out later and likely will come out later that there's a lot more in there that's even more nasty, not even talking about the Clinton Foundation stuff.
Do you want it on your legacy, first black president, to have pardoned someone that is so terrible and evil?
So this is the giant way game back and forth, pros and cons that's going on right now.
And if Trump was coming out saying, full bore, you know, we're going to put her in handcuffs, put her in jail, you know, we're going to bury her under the prison, you know, like going full bore like that, there'd be even more pressure on Obama to pardon her, which, you know, would lead to her not being held accountable, possibly, if that pardon isn't issued.
So again, folks, this is not necessarily like, this is my stance on it, 100%.
This is politics.
This is a game.
This is lots of stuff being said, lots of smoke being thrown up, and until Trump is president, you don't know what the plan is.
So again, I encourage people to think a couple steps ahead and not take stuff immediately at face value because this isn't a face value game.
This involves lots of moving parts.
It involves lots of complicated things.
I think Trump came out for his speech after Hillary conceded and said, Complicated game, folks.
Complicated business.
It's a complicated game.
It's a complicated business.
And again, don't take stuff at face value and freak out, oh my god, he's not even president yet.
So there's a lot that you don't know and there's information that we don't have, but we will have that information in time.
And if you want to criticize them, if then stuff happens, feel free.
But now really isn't the time, folks.
And depending where Pizzagate goes, you just may not want to be dangling any kind of...
I can't eat deep dish without feeling guilty now.
I wish I never had to look at that stuff.
I wish I didn't, but got to keep doing good.
Now, let's talk a little bit about Betsy DuVos.
We were just talking last night.
Mike and I were just talking last night.
We found out that they had a Blackwater Eric Prince.
This is his sister.
She's married to one of the heirs of the Amway fortune, which is quite a lot.
Now, she's really big on school choice, and I have for many, many years said that that's one of the most fundamental things that needs to change in order for society to become more free.
So I got a quote from her from a 2013 interview with the Philanthropy Roundtable, and she said, quote, I'm most focused on educational choice, but thinking more broadly, what we are trying to do is tear down the mindset that assigns students to a school based solely on the zip code of their family's home.
We advocate instead for as much freedom as possible.
And if that's not enough for you, I give you a quote from Randy Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers President.
This was just recently called DeVosa's Pick.
The most ideological anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a cabinet-level Department of Education.
Well, that's gripping stuff.
In nominating DeVos, Trump made it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding, and destroying public education in America.
DeVos has no meaningful experience in the classroom or in our schools.
The sum total of her involvement has been spending her family's wealth in an effort to dismantle public education in Michigan.
Every American should be concerned that she would impose her reckless and extreme ideology on the nation.
Now, all I need to know is that Randy Weingarten hates this woman, and she's got my complete and total support.
She's also talked very positively about homeschooling in the past, that level of choice for parents, which is certainly a thumbs up from this side of the table.
This is one of those things, too, where immediately after she was announced as being nominated, people came out and said, I think she's pro-Common Corps.
I don't believe.
So again, folks, like, can we not freak out about, you know, let's troll through quotes of people to find, you know, oh, they said, you know, five years ago, they said something that could be vaguely believed to be pro-common core.
You know, oh my goodness, let's believe that Donald Trump has completely flipped on all his promises, and oh my god, he's a neocon right now, oh my god!
You know, like, freak out, take a breath, chill out, someone's in a position to do a job.
You might not even know exactly what that job is just yet.
I think you have an idea with Betsy Dubois what her job is going to be, and when you have...
Teachers unions and, you know, all those types freaking out specifically because of this appointment.
I take that as a thumbs up and a pro.
So, yeah, just let stuff play out before you freak out.
You know, that seems to be the word and phrase of the day.
Her support for Common Core, that's going to be thoroughly gone over in the Senate confirmation hearing.
So be patient and figure things out.
And here's the other thing, too.
Like putting myself in Trump's shoes, I would look at it this way.
If I have the choice between somebody who's opposed to Common Core and somebody who's pro-school vouchers or pro-school choice or whatever, I'm going to go with the pro-school choice person.
Why?
Because guess what, folks?
Common Core, not a federal program at all.
I mean, it's developed by governors, it was developed by state superintendents, and state by state it was adopted, of course, at the state level.
Now, of course, they bribe with federal money and all of that, but it is a state standard.
It is not a federal program.
So you're going to have much more like effecting change within the school system by controlling or introducing more school choice than you ever will at the federal level trying to oppose a series of state programs.
So just relax.
It doesn't matter fundamentally what her opinion about Common Core is.
If you get school choice in, Common Core is going to be dismantled of its own accord because – Parents don't like it.
So just, you know, big picture, long view, everyone.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So is there anything else, Steph, any other big positions or whatnot that you want to get across in the confines of this show?
So Ben Carson is in line, perhaps, to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
And that's pretty clear as to why, you know, and I hate to sort of bring race politics into it, but that's going to be dealing with a lot of dysfunctional black communities and having a black guy in charge, It's just going to help a little bit.
And, you know, I think he's a competent guy.
He's a smart guy.
He doesn't have a lot of experience there, I guess, except getting out of the ghetto.
But I can certainly see the reasoning behind that.
Yeah, we have the truth about Ben Carson, which we kind of do a deep dive into Ben Carson's past statements history.
And, you know, there's some stuff in there that kind of raises concerns for me.
But, you know, Ben Carson seems like a jovial, nice guy that, you know, doesn't want to cause any trouble.
And having him in a position like that where he's going to be interacting with Yeah, so I can certainly see that if having him in charge of housing and urban development does something to help black communities in these ghettos, I'm all for it.
I mean, the guy could have tentacles growing out of his nose, and I'd still be all for it.
Yeah.
I think that's interesting.
So, yeah, just everyone relax.
You've done the work.
You've given him the post.
You've trusted in his competence.
He is the most skilled politician in, I think, forever in America.
And you could say the founding fathers, but of course, they had to have a violent revolution to get their presidency.
And he's an extremely competent person.
He's going to fulfill on his legacy.
He is in it for the legacy and he's in there to do good.
It's not about vanity.
It's not about money.
It's not about anything.
He's not trying to create a dynasty or anything like that.
It's not about corruption.
Trust the man.
Relax and be curious.
See what's going to happen.
This doesn't mean don't provide feedback and just, oh, whatever he says is perfect or anything like that.
But relax.
Learn how to delegate.
That is a very, very important skill to have in life.
Learn Yeah, if the media wants you to do something, folks, odds are you probably shouldn't be doing it.
Just think about that for a second.
And there will come a time...
where I'm sure we will have criticisms of Trump and other people have criticisms of Trump.
But let's actually base it on what he gets done or doesn't get done compared to his stated objectives when he's actually president, as opposed to barely two weeks after he actually became president-elect and is still in the throes of putting together his administration and dealing with the completely tangled as opposed to barely two weeks after he actually became president-elect and is still in the throes of putting together his administration and dealing with the completely tangled cobwebs that is trying to deal with a politicized environment, of which there is no greater politicized environment than trying to appoint your cabinet and
So step back again.
Sit back, relax, take a deep breath, and we'll see what happens next year when he's actually president.
But right now, yeah, say I think it would be great if so-and-so was in this position because of X, Y, and Z.
Come out, say that.
That's great.
But, like, the full-throated meltdowns, I can't believe Trump would betray me by appointing this person.
I'm not there.
I don't think it makes too much sense to be there.
And I encourage people, again, to just relax, see what happens, and we'll take things as they come.
Enjoy the ride.
You know, we all worked pretty damn hard to get here, and let's just enjoy the ride and see what shakes out.
So thanks, Mike.
Thanks, everyone, of course, for watching and listening to this philosophical-slash-political-gab-fest podcast.
FreedomRadio.com slash donate to help the show out.
Donations, of course, have dipped a little bit after the election.
Please, please help us continue to do the great, great work that we do in the world at FreedomRadio.com slash donate.
You can follow me on Twitter at Stefan Molyneux.
And, of course, if you want to use our affiliate link, it doesn't cost you anything.
If you've got a little shopping to do, you can go to FDRURL.com slash Amazon.
