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The Global Gaming League is presented by Atlas Earth, the fun cashback app. Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my How We Do It Gaming team take on Gilly the king and wallow. 2, 6, $7 million gaming in an epic Global Gaming League video game showdown. Plus a halftime performance by multi platinum artist Travy McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match right now@globalgamingleague.com that's globalgamingleague.com in partnership with Level Up Expo.
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I'm Josh Hammer and this is the Josh Hammer Show. Sebastian Lai, the son of the wrongfully detained Jimmy Lai over in Hong Kong, joins us later in the program to discuss the plight of his father and the lingering looming threat of the Chinese Communist Party, the biggest threat to the United States and the American way of life. Plus, more on Cuba. Massive protests happening against the communist regime right there, 90 miles off our shores, in addition to the continued shutdown of TSA and large swaths of dhs. Are your airports going to be shut down?
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All that and more later in today's show.
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But for now, we begin with this. On yesterday's show, we spent a lot of time talking about this shadow war that seemingly is happening in the periphery of the podcaster world on the broader American quote, unquote, right? I'm talking here about people like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Min Kelly, and a handful of other actors who seemingly are launching some sort of stealth campaign to undermine President Trump and his MAGA agenda and his MAGA coalition from within. We've been sounding alarm on this for a year and a half, two years, for any number of reasons. There is, of course, the moral rot and the fact that a nation that goes down these dark conspiratorial holes is invariably, invariably looking just at a history book is always going to end up worse than it was before, that there is no country ever that has benefited from going down the road, that these various idiotic ADEL brain podcasters are now trying to urge people on the rights to go down. But there is another reason for that, which is that there is going to be political suicide if the Republican Party and the MAD coalition are ultimately divided at the seams. Donald Trump won a sizable election victory in 2024, no doubt about that. 2016 was a squeaker and 2020 coming out the other way was very much a squeaker as well. There is not a huge margin for victory here when it comes to independent voters, moderates when it comes to swing state voters, suburban moms, all the above. Who in the world wants to vote for a party that is playing footsie with people like Nazis and racists? The question I submit, ought to answer itself. The question though that we want to address squarely on today's show is this. What exactly is the extent of this shadow war? Is it actually happening just in the podcaster universe, as some people refer to this as the podcaster wars, or is it happening also inside the the administration itself? So to back up a little bit, you will recall that over the weekend Tucker Carlson released this bizarre 5 to 6 minute video where he said, and I don't necessarily believe him, but he said that the CIA is surveilling his text messages, which on the one hand he could literally just be making it up to try to wage what has been this shadow war he's been waging against Trump, against MAGA for a year and a half, all trying to establish Tucker Carlson for what I believe to be his at this point, somewhat inevitable 2028 presidential running. But the other possibility, the other possibility here, which we did flag on yesterday's show, is that his texts to the Iranians, whether it's regime high ranking officials, whatever, were actually intercepted, likely by nsa, not by the CIA. So he's probably embellishing them there just for his own self aggrandizing effect. But if these text messages were flagged in the NSA's giant sweeping, the dragnet, the metadata, et cetera, there, that still raised the question as to how Tucker found out about it. It's not like Tucker is just, it's not like you're notified when your metadata, your actual conversations with a FISA warrant. It's not like you're notified when this is actually happening to you. So then the question is, how did he find out about it? And the obvious answer is that it was leaked, that it was obviously strategically leaked to Tucker. And as I explained on yesterday's show, the by far likeliest source of that leak is the office of the Director of National Intelligence, otherwise known as ODNI in Washington, Beltway speak. That's Tulsi Gabbard. That is Tulsi Gabbard's office. Tulsi Gabbard is ideological buddies with Tucker Olson. Tulsi Gabbard is someone who was the former Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii who allegedly saw the light and decided to join forces with maga, with Trump and campaign
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for president for him, just after running
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for president as a Democrat, literally just a few Years prior, in 2020among the problems with Tulsi Gabbard is that she has always had extraordinarily heterodox foreign policy views. She is someone who infamously went to Damascus to meet with Bashar al Assad, the Great Butcher of Syria, while he was gassing hundreds of thousands of his own people. Tulsi Gabbard is very much in, very much in this Russophilic orbit. She is very much someone who is pro Russia. Frankly, large swathes of her resume read to me as something of a Russian information operation. It would not surprise me in the slightest if she has read books from Alexander Dugin, the quote unquote philosopher who often referred to as Putin's brain, a man who is now people are starting to realize just how much sway he actually holds when it comes to certain parts of this area of the so called right. What they're talking here about, Fuentes, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson and so forth there. And the reason that Tulsi Gabbard would leak this information to Tucker Carlson, we
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explained on yesterday's show, is very straightforward.
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Tulsi Gabbard, we have it on pretty good authority here, harbors outside shot ambitions for 2028 presidency. She wants to be the Republican nominee for president in 2028, or at least I think she wants me. She might actually want to be a third party candidate, but she wants to run president in 2028. She has an interest in trying to knife J.D. vance, who is the front runner certainly at this stage, although Rubio has really gained traction. But at least when it comes to trying to solidify that lane, this hardcore isolationist, griper adjacent, or at least griper friendly, anti Semite friendly lane, I'm not
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saying that these guys are literally anti
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Semites, but they're at least playing footsie there. I think Tulsi has an interest with trying to knife JD Vance. And as we've been reasoning, what better way to try to knife JD Vance if you are Tulsi Gabbard, than by going after the man who JD has publicly stood with, has publicly defended over and over again, that being Tucker Carlson. So our working theory here is that this leak, and it's likely an NSA interception, not ca, that this leak actually came from the odni, from Tulsi Gabbard or one of her deputies and was strategically leaked to Tucker Carlson. I tweeted that some that evening I
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discussed it on yesterday's show.
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Since I tweeted that two very interesting things have happened. So on Monday, March 16, ODNI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence hired a man by the name of Dan Caldwell. Stop me if you've heard this name Dan Caldwell before. You probably have, because Dan Caldwell, who I personally know in some capacity. Dan goes way back with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. They were colleagues at Concerned Veterans for America. They go way back when it comes to Coke world more generally there. And Dan Caldwell was tapped by Pete Hegseth to be one of his. It's called the Sherpa. You're basically trying to arrange meetings in
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Capitol Hill to try to persuade senators there.
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Caldwell was very involved with Hegseth's confirmation fight. And if you recall, it was a very, it was a very, very grueling confirmation fight. They basically tried to kavanaugh Pete Hegseth. There was all these ridiculous allegations of rape. It was awful, awful stuff. I was personally very proud to defend
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Pete Hegseth in numerous op EDS and
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numerous podcast episodes at that time. So Hegseth brought in his longtime buddy Caldwell, and it was successful. They got the votes there. And Caldwell joined Hexseth at the Pentagon. Well, in the aftermath of the Signal Gates controversy, this controversy that you might have forgotten about, but it was about a year ago last March, where there was this Signal group chat. The Vice President was in there, J.D. vance, Marco Rubio, Hegseth, a lot of folks were on this chat there and they were messaging on Signal about a military operation against the Iran sponsored Houthis, this terrorist group that has been waging a civil war in Yemen for about a decade now. And one of the casualties of the Signal Gate chat was Dan Caldwell. Hegseth accused Caldwell of leaking.
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He called him a leaker there, that
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he's one of the ones involved in leaking the contents of Signalgate, perhaps, among other things that Caldwell allegedly leaked, Caldwell immediately runs to his ideological companion, Tucker Carlson. That was literally his first stop was to run to Tucker's worn bosom and to give a. To let Tucker give a rather fawning sycophantic interview as part of this shadow
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war against President Trump.
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So Caldwell was literally fired by the Secretary of War for leaking. And Just yesterday, on March 16, Tulsi Gabbard hires him, hires him, like literally hires him back there. This is a huge middle finger, huge middle finger to Pete Hexaf. It is a huge middle finger to Donald Trump, the Commander in Chief himself. And it is all part of what we believe here to be this, this shadow war, this shadow war against Donald Trump and against the MAGA agenda. Now that would be juicy if that's where the Story stopped. But amazingly, the story actually goes on even more from there because just this morning, just this morning, Joe Kent, Joe Kent, who is one of Tulsi Gabbard's top deputies. He's the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a man who ran for Congress on something of a hardline isolationist platform. He tragically has some awful personal tragedy when it comes to foreign affairs overseas. His first wife was killed.
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Just an awful stuff.
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And her heart certainly breaks for the Kent family. But Joe Kent put out what can only be described as a deeply tangentious and frankly disgusting resignation letter this morning. So this morning, Joe Kent resigning from being one of Tulsi Gabbard's top deputies. He has resigned from his position as director of the National Counterterrorism center because he says, quote, I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it's clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. So he's blaming Trump, just like Tucker Carlson did, by the way, in his Turning Point USA speech last July in Tampa, Florida conference that I debated Dave Smith at, just like them when Tucker accused Trump of being a tool of Mossad when it comes when it came to the FC files. Now, so Joe Kent, the deputy for the Tucker friendly Tulsi Gabbard, now Joe Kent is saying that Trump is just a tool of Israel. There. There's all sorts of other just outrageous slander in this resignation letter saying that Israel talked George W. Bush into the Iraq war, which is demonstrably false. Ariel Sharon, the actual prime minister, in fact, publicly opposed the war, like literally publicly opposed it, told Bush, you're making a mistake here. The issue in the region is not Iraq. The issue is Iran. So this is just lies.
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They've been told for a very, very
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long time by people with their own agendas. And you can kind of put two and two together and figure out what their agenda is. But the point for present purposes is that you now have Joe Kent, who is a Tuckerite if there ever was one, who is out. Joe Kent is out at the office of the dni Tulsi Gabbard. And he's done so in very public fashion. And now Dan Caldwell is in. And all this is in the context again of Tulsi Gabbard likely harboring 2020ambitions. Joe Kemp, by the way, has been incredibly accused of being an absolutely prolific leaker himself. In fact, Taylor Butovich, who was a former deputy White House chief of staff and in Cabinet secretary under President Donald J. Trump actually tweeted earlier today that Joe Kent is a crazed egomaniac who is often at the center of national security leaks while rarely if ever, producing any actual work.
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Well, if this is true, then Joe
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Kent frankly should be prosecuted now that he is a private citizen. So they clearly have no issue with leakers over at DNI because Dan Caldwell, who's far from leaking, is now back working for Tulsi Gabbard. And now Joe Kent, who is a somewhat infamous leaker, is making this big public stink there, trying to get some new podcasts, book deal, whatever he wants there. So it's awful, awful stuff. And it looks to me like there is a shadow war happening out in the open, both inside and outside the administration against President Donald J. Trump. I have much more to unpack on this, folks. Give us a short commercial break. We'll be right back on the side with much more.
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Welcome back. So much more to unpack when it comes to this, both inside and outside the administration, shadow war against Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda. But for now, just a quick word from our sponsor, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. So Iran has unleashed missile attacks on Israel and across the Holy Land today. Children are watching the skies for rockets. Mothers and fathers are listening closely for red alert sirens, sirens that give you 15 seconds to get to the nearest bomb shelter. The situation is serious. The threat is real. Right now the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground preparing large scale distributions of life saving food, first aid, emergency essentials for civilian security personnel and ensuring hospitals, emergency rooms and shelters are fully stocked with critical and life saving medical supplies aid all focused on protecting Israel's most vulnerable people, the sick, the elderly, children and families in great need. But the fellowship needs your most generous gift today to make this work possible. Now is your time to stand with Israel's most vulnerable. To rush your gifts, call 1-888-488-IFCJ. That's 888488 IFCJ or go online at ifcj.org ifcj.org for the International Fellowship of
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Christians and Jews, an organization, frankly, that Joe Kent seems to not really know.
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So the timing of all this happening at the office of the DNI is additionally fascinating because Tulsi Gabbard is actually set to testify tomorrow to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and later this week on Thursday to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. So how exactly is she going to respond to questions about all that is happening here? Look, to cut to the chase, when it comes to a lot of this, if you are the director of the National Counterterrorism center, you probably should be interested in trying to prevent the world's number one state sponsor of, oh, I don't know, terrorism from actually getting the world's most dangerous weapons, nuclear weapons. If you are the head of the office of Director of National Intelligence, you probably should not be presiding over an office that is leaking like a sieve. And leaking like a sieve. Moreover, to people like Tucker Carlson, who are essentially anti American, anti Western civilization, fifth column, subversive actors, at this point
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there,
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at this point, the office of the dni, if I am at all right here, and I'm pretty sure I am, obviously. But if I made all right here, the office of DNI under Tulsi Gabbard is quickly becoming a national security threat unto itself, especially if these ties with Tucker are as tight as they seem to be. Tucker, after all, is allegedly being surveilled for his coziness with, among other regimes, the Iranian regime there. What is the actual goal? What is the actual goal here of this sprawling shadow war both inside and outside the administration? The goal is to destroy maga, whether it's from without, that's the podcasters, or from within. Those would be the office of the DNI and various other actors here. The goal is to essentially set you up to tell a very convenient tale, at least convenient from their deeply ulterior self serving perspective. The tale goes something like this. Donald Trump ran for President in 2016 on an America First MAGA platform. He was supposed to be the tribute of the people, the nationalist populist candidate, the president who really stuck it to the neocons, but by which they usually mean just the Jews, et cetera, et cetera. And he sold out. He sold out to the globalists, he sold out to the elites, to the donors, to the beltway class, to the Jews. He sold out, he sold out. So this is the tale that they are working themselves into a pretzel to be able to tell you in 2028 when they mount a run for president, like I believe, and I've said this for a long time now, I believe that that presidential run is going to come actually in the form, in the form of Tucker Carlson himself. So that is the ultimate goal. Now, your mileage may vary as to how much of this are asked. People who actually thought that they were signing up for something very different when it comes to maga, some people who actually thought that they were signing up for Ron Paul's foreign policy, which they obviously weren't. Because if you actually go back and watch Donald Trump's very first speech down the gilded escalator in Trump Tower in 2016, he says very clearly in that very first speech, the very first one, June 2015, he says Iran cannot and will not have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump is not an isolationist. He is a realist, a nationalist, realistic. He's not a neocon. He's not an isolationist. He is a realist, really. And a lot really, he's a realist. And a lot of these people that think that they are realists are actually just hardline anti interventionists, just hardline isolationists. There's a big difference, frankly, between those two strands of thought as we've been
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explaining here on the show for a very, very long time now.
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So we will see how this all plays out there. I would not be surprised if Tulsi Gabbard is the next to resign, because again, if I'm correct, then she is potentially in the crosshairs of getting fired. And if she wants to forestall the possibility of being fired, it would make some degree of sense that she might end up just trying to get ahead of that and resign because for now, she seems to be waging a shadow war against Trump. Frankly, the fact that she publicly hired Dan Caldwell after Caldwell was just fired by Hegseth last year makes it less of a shadow war and pretty much more of just a naked out in the open war, actually. So we'll see how that works out for Tulsi Gabbard.
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Frankly, I don't think it's going to work out all too well for her.
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And the reason a lot of these people are are sputtering, a lot of the reason is that the war has been a staggering success. The war still has been a staggering success. So as the ever wonderful and ever readable Lee Smith tweeted this morning, Trump ended the argument over Iran with the start of the campaign and the success. This makes the other Arguments irrelevant. So there's nothing left for opponents of the campaign to do but to melt. So they're melting down. They're publicly melting down. That's why Megyn Kelly has this bizarre anatomical fixation with a rather private part of Mark Levin's anatomy. That is why Tucker is doing this self aggrandizing stunt about the CIA surveilling him. He's playing the victim card. That's why Joe Kent is doing this stupid tangent's resignation letter blaming the Jews. Okay? It is all because they have lost the argument. And the argument is being won in real time by the United States and Israel. So just overnight, actually literally just overnight, big developments happening over in Iran. One of the top security heads of the entire regime, a man by the name of Ali Larajani, he was taken out by the idf. The head of the Basij, which is the SS Gestapo esque paramilitary, the secret police source for Iran, he's been taken out. All of this is done with an eye towards trying to actually enable the Iranian people to ultimately take matters into their own hands. The big issue since the start of this war has been that they don't have these small weapons, these small arms, the actual rifles and so forth that they need, and they don't really have that yet. I continue to hold that hope that there is someone who knows more than I do and has a plan to actually get more small arms into the hands of people who God willing, know how to use them. But we're not quite at that point yet. And the fact that we're not at that point yet is indeed starting to raise a lot of questions as to how long this is, this is going to go on. I don't want to overstate this. So Joe Kent, in his disgraceful resignation letter describes this as an endless war. Dude, this has gone on for barely over two weeks. Okay, this is a two, this is less than two and a half weeks old. So this is not an endless war. But you would like at some point to hear a very coherent, concise articulation as to when would be a viable time to ultimately wind this thing down. But the key is that unless and until that criterion is reached, and I would like to hear a very coherent explanation as to what it is from the President, ideally sitting at the Oval Office in the Resolute desk looking at the camera. That explanation, in my estimation, I think would go a long way towards helping his cause. But the key thing to do is this, at least until that's hit you finish the job and continue the mission. You don't start wars unless you intend to finish those wars. This is a tale as old as time. If you stop short of that, if you stop short of finishing the job against Iran, Iran will just come back. They will just come back. It's like whack a mole, you whack a few people without taking out the actual structure or enabling the Iran people to actually then take the structure into their own hands. They're just gonna come back. So all of this, I presume, was factored into the equation before the commencement of these military operations. If not, then someone gave Donald Trump some very bad advice. But I think that he's a smart enough man to understand this. There a man who has been saying very bad things about this Islamist regime in Tehran for 47 years now, frankly, since the regime took over during the Jimmy Carter presidency. So at this point, one Mr. President, articulate what the end goal is here, but just as not more importantly, finish the job on your own stipulated terms. A lot of folks saying that all that day is going to come where the US and Israel diverge. And maybe it will, maybe it actually will. The political calculus at home is not identical for Netanyahu and Trump there. Maybe that day will come. But for now, they're still entirely aligned. The US has now confirmed over 7,000 targets hit inside Iran. There big things happening. So for now, clean up ODNI and the rest of this shadow war from within the administration. Those who are trying to knife you from within, cut them out, Mr. President. Additionally, just importantly, see the job through
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on your own stipulated terms.
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Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary VGW Group. Voidware prohibited by law. 21/ terms and conditions apply. So we spent much of today's show talking about foreign policy, always a popular
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topic here on the Josh Hammer show.
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And it's all about that we haven't discussed yet today, but we often do is the ever thorny issue of China,
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which we refer to here as the
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first, second, third, fourth and fifth greatest threat to the United States and the American way of life. One of the many ways that China is a threat, sadly and tragically, is
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the Chinese Communist Party takeover of Hong Kong. And I want to bring on someone very special to discuss that, as well as the particular plight of his father,
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and that is Sebastian Lai.
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Sebastian Lai is the son of Jimmy Lai and the leader to try to free Jimmy Lai, who is the longtime publisher of the Apple Daily publication there in Hong Kong and has been wrongfully tried, prosecuted, jailed by the Communists in Hong Kong for years. I've been following the story for a very, very long time, actually. So, Sebastian, thank you for joining the Josh Hammer Show. We really appreciate it.
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Why don't we just start off at a higher level?
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Let's pretend that not everyone knows all the details of what is currently happening there.
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So I saw that there have actually
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been some developments just over the past few weeks, actually.
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So where do things currently stand? What is your father actually being charged with doing?
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And where do things currently stand in his legal process?
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Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, so my father was the publisher of the biggest newspaper in Hong Kong, but more importantly, it was a newspaper that believed in freedom and democracy. And so they unwaveringly supported democracy throughout the years. And then when they passed the National Security Law after the pro democracy protest in 2019, they used that law to arrest my father and then sent 500 police officers to raid the officers and essentially shut the newspaper down. And since then, my father has been in a solid confinement in a maximum security prison for five years. His trial has just finished. Some of your listeners might be surprised. How has it been five years if his trial's just finished? Well, this whole time he's been kept there and had multiple sham charges brought against him. But the big one, the National Security Law trial, ended and he was given 20 years. After five years in those conditions, he. I don't even know if he has two years left, to be honest, because he's 78, his health is failing, as you could expect, and he now has heart issues. His nails are falling off, his teeth are rotting. This is incredibly heartbreaking. But at the core, this is a man who has given everything that he has for freedom. And then when he was given the opportunity to leave at 72, before the national security or crackdown, he decided to stay and defend his colleagues. And for his act of bravery, for his act of selflessness and act of standing up for his principles, he's now being tortured.
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It's just horrific stuff.
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And thank you very much for all you do to try to free him.
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And I guess that's my next question.
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Sebastian again, Sebastian Lai is the son of the wrongfully Detained Jimmy Lai over in Hong Kong.
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Sebastian, what can the world do? What can the United States do?
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What can President Trump do? The Congress?
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What more can and should the United
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States in particular, or perhaps be doing when it comes to this issue?
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So we've been so incredibly grateful by all the support that we received in the US Particularly from the President. The President has said on multiple occasions that this is something that he cares about and that he wants to see my father free. As you know, the President has an incredible track record of freeing political prisoners around the world, you know, reminding all Americans what unites us, you know, uniting the nation against tyranny, against injustice. So, you know, I just. I want to take this chance to thank him from the bottom of my heart. But, you know, it is bringing more attention to my father's case. We are now in a situation where his health is failing, and frankly, you know, he's been there for five years. They've taken everything away from him. What's there left to do? And now they have this man who is essentially, if he passes away, is going to be a martyr. He's someone who has given everything and more for the liberties that he fell in love with after having escaped Communist China to Hong Kong. So, you know, as Americans, as Congressman Centers, as a president saying, this is someone who, if we were in the same situation, we would have done the same thing. We are proud of this man, and this man deserves to be free as much as anybody else in the world.
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No doubt about that. And certainly we hear on the show we wish your father absolutely nothing but the best. And God willing, this story will have a happy ending, happy resolution, sooner rather than later.
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One of the reasons that I've long
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followed this story on a personal note is not just that I view the Chinese Communist Party as America's foremost national security threat, which I apologize. But also on a personal note, Sebastian,
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to give you a little more color, one of my best friends from law
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school actually was a native of Hong Kong.
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I traveled there to his home.
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We stayed in his home there. I went with him, spent, I don't
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know, about a week, give or take,
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there in Hong Kong.
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I immediately fell in love with it. It is one of the most special places, unique places, just absolutely amazing. I have extraordinary memories, frankly, it's just magical, frankly. I mean, where is there an island in the world with waterfalls and rainforests and skyscrapers built into the sides of the mountains with food and drinks? It's just a remarkable. Frankly, it's just amazing. And this is in 2016. So that's why I bring it up
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there, because a lot's happened since 2016, the National Security Law. Your father's been unjustly detained.
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What is Hong Kong going to look like 15, 20 years from now? Will it be indistinguishable from Beijing, Shanghai? Talk to us a little bit about that.
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F
Yeah, I mean, one of the really incredible things about Hong Kong was everything you described. It was this place that had the freedoms that a lot of people associate with the West. The freedom to speak your beliefs, freedom to publish. And all that unfortunately has changed. Some might say it's even gotten beyond what's allowed in China. I mean, there are people who are in Hong Kong who have been arrested because they liked social media posts abroad. My father's case is, you know, case in point. This is a man who most of the world celebrates for what he's done and he's being tortured for it in Hong Kong. His treatment is worse than other people in maximum security prison. We're talking about, you know, people who have killed others, who have done naturally horrible things. My father campaigned for democracy and did it peacefully. And this is what Hong Kong now, this is the new Hong Kong. It's a place that tortures men who are heroes for many around the world. This is a place that will send 500 police officers to raid a newspaper and then turn around and say we still have press freedom. This is a place that says that we still have the rule of war and then drag my father through the courts. And you know, and in this trial there were allegations of tortured witnesses, which obviously is a no go, torturing witnesses to testify against my father, no jury, three government appointed judges, occasions where they have shouted at my father, yet they will tell you that they still have a very strong rule of law. It's a city that lives in lie, and I think that's what it is. In the end, it's someone who comes from there. It's an incredibly heartbreaking thing to see.
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Heartbreaking indeed.
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C
Especially, as I said, it's most heartbreaking, of course, for you and the rest of his family. But even for someone like me who just has such a fond memory there, I worry that I will never frankly see that Hong Kong again. Sebastian, just about a minute or so before we have to let you go. And again, folks, I'm chatting with Sebastian Lai, the son of the wrongfully detained and jailed Jimmy Lai over in Hong Kong.
- [31:46]
B
Sebastian, I guess one question.
- [31:48]
C
America's foreign policy debates are always so far fractious.
- [31:50]
B
And one question. I have my own answer, but I'd
- [31:54]
C
love to hear your answer is why should the median American care about your father's wrongful detention in particular?
- [32:00]
F
I think it's always worth reminding ourselves the cost of the freedoms of this country, what makes being American special is that you are united against tyranny, united for democracy and goodness. And I think that's why it's so important that you know, when the President has already mentioned multiple times that he wants my father free and hopefully when he does go over to Beijing, I hope that that is something that the Chinese Communist Party will see, that this matters to both the President, but to all Americans and that this is something that they could do, you know, for them administratively, relatively easily. Putting a 70 year old man who's in ill health on a plane and sending him back here. And to say this is, you know, we understand this is something that matters to all of you and this is something that we can do. And I think that's, that would be a, that would be a wonderful day.
- [32:55]
C
Amen and very well said. Look, I've personally followed this story for a very long time. It's been really been an honor to have you on the program again, folks. Sebastian Lai is the son of Jimmy Lai, the longtime publisher of the Apple Daily, a pro democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. Wrongfully detained, wrongfully jailed, his life being ruined by the Chinese Communist Party. Sebastian, God bless you. We wish you all the best, truly made this, have a happy resolution asap.
- [33:15]
F
God bless you. Thank you, sir.
- [33:22]
B
Just horrible stuff when it comes to the unjust prosecution and unjust attainment of Jimmy Lai, the publisher of the largest
- [33:30]
C
newspaper in all of Hong Kong, the Apple Daily.
- [33:32]
B
As you heard, I thought, quite stirringly, quite, quite emotionally, quite powerfully indeed from
- [33:37]
C
Sebastian Li, the son of the wrongfully
- [33:39]
B
disputed, detained Jimmy Lai. Freedom is not free. We think of it as free. We oftentimes just take it totally for granted, especially here in the United States. We have the 250th anniversary of the signing of the declaration this summer. This country, God bless it, has been going on for a very, very long time. And with time comes a lot of things. But you run the list of just simply being satiated and just not thinking, not thinking about what it is that you are actually exercising on a daily basis Here on this show, we speak into this microphone, we look into the came and we tell you what we think. And we are not worried usually, except
- [34:16]
C
maybe when some democrats are in charge,
- [34:17]
B
but we're usually not worried about any kind of negative repercussions. From it when it comes to prosecution, when it comes to tortures, interference, defamation, xyz, you name it. Now, frankly, it's not even the communist world. It's actually even some of the quote unquote, first world that does not have some of these same protections. I think about the direction that the UK has been heading in for far too many years now. They have outrageous, outrageous prosecution laws when it comes to hate speech, outrageous laws when it comes to defamation in there. If you call Keir Starmer, the adel brained Labour Party Prime Minister of the uk, if you have the temerity to call him two tier Kier, a lawyer friend of mine over in London told me one time, you actually could run the risk of being sued over that for defamation, allegedly, even here in the United States. That hasn't really stopped me from calling him to Tier Keer. But your mileage may vary as to
- [35:04]
C
whether or not it will.
- [35:05]
B
It will ultimately disincentivize you. The point is that our freedoms are not free. And this, as I think Sebastian and like quite persuasively argued, is one of the reasons we all should care about
- [35:15]
C
what is happening to Jimmy Lai halfway around the world there in the island of Hong Kong.
- [35:19]
B
Much closer to home though, Cuba, Cuba, part of this broader foreign policy conversation. We've talked on the show since the start of Operation Epic Fury about how Donald Trump is remaking the geopolitical map. He's going to have this upcoming meeting, by the way, with Xi Jinping over in Beijing. That meeting was actually just postponed, was supposed to be on March 31, just a couple of weeks or so. They postponed that meeting likely until early May, give or take. We will see. It was going to be Donald Trump's first trip actually to the Chinese mainland to go siege Xi Jinping. A lot riding on that particular meeting there is being postponed in light of the Iran war. But much closer to home, Communism is not just a foreign phenomenon, folks. Cuba, 90 miles off of the shore of Florida, just across the Strait of Florida. They are protesting in Cuba like they haven't done in entire generation or two. Frankly, in my entire adult lifetime of following politics and following current events, I have no reckless recollection of anything like this. It seems that the Cuban people are attempting to seize the moment for themselves, as they should. As they should. So they see what happened to Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Delsey Rodriguez, who took over from Maduro, Venezuela. Is she the best thing since sliced bread? No, she is a Marxist, Leninist, very much in the vein of Hugo Chavez. And Nicolas Maduro. But Delicio Rodriguez is cooperating with the United States. So too do the people of Cuba see what is happening halfway around the world. In the country of Iran, they see that the United States and Israel are engaged in this war against the Iranian regime. And the people of Cuba are trying to take matters into their own hands, while the island of Cuba is just totally collapsing. So the power grid, the electricity is just totally out. For most people in Cuba today, like literally say on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, for most people, the lights did not come on. I'm sure if you're a crony of the communist regime, then you managed to get some power from the undoubtedly state owned electricity power company there. But for most people across the deeply impoverished island of Cuba, the lights literally did not come on. And these images are starting to come up there, these videos of the people going out there. They're storming the local Communist Party of Cuba office. They're banging on pots, anything they have in their homes there, just to make noise, to try to make the world hear them. They have deeply, deeply suppressed Internet there. I've actually been to Cuba, I've seen this there. It is deep, deep censorship there. So they're just trying to get the word out. Easier said than done there. Donald Trump, he was asked about Cuba there and he had a rather Trumpian answer.
- [37:43]
C
Let's say, let's go ahead and play that clip.
- [37:45]
G
When will the United States do it? I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of taking Cuba. That'd be good. That's a big honor, taking Cuba. Taking Cuba in some form. Yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I could do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth? They're a very weakened nation.
- [38:09]
B
Isn't just the best folks, he's just the best. Trump trolls like no one can troll. He had true social posts talking about Venezuela's success thus far in the World Baseball Classic, this big baseball tournament happening here in Miami and South Florida. And he said, Venezuela, they've got their act together when it comes to the World Baseball Classic. Maybe they should be the 51st state. What do you think of that? I mean, this, this dude trolls like no one else. And it's one thing to troll and not to take action there, but he takes action. Donald Trump is a man of action. And all around the world he is establishing himself for the record books as one of the most consequential foreign policy presidents in American history. That is not an exaggeration that is exactly what is happening when it comes to the first term, when it comes to isis, when it comes to the Abraham Accords, all the way to the second term when it comes to Iran and Venezuela. And looks like Cuba in some capacity is probably gonna be next there. I don't know what that'll look like there. Frankly, no one knows. But what we do know is that the Potemkin president, a member of the name of Diaz Canel, as he has confirmed, as has the 94 year old brother of Fidel Castro, Roll Castro, they both confirmed the regime there in Cuba is in talks with the United States, probably with Marco Rubio or one of his deputies there. We don't know exactly what that's going to look like there. But surely, surely we can all unite in hoping for the story to have a very sound ending.
- [39:27]
C
Much like Jimmy Lai over in Hong
- [39:28]
B
Kong, the Cuban people have suffered immensely, immensely for decades, decades and decades. 20 years that regime's been in power longer than the Iranian regime, than the Islamic Republic over in Tehran. That revolution was in the late 1950s. My goodness gracious. There a Cuba that is free of the yokes of tyranny and that is no longer in the Chinese sphere of influence. No longer buddy, buddy with Hezbollah and the narco terrorists and Russia and China, all the world's worst actors. A Cuba that is 90 miles off our shore, that much like Venezuela, we can actually work with. There's.
- [40:00]
C
That would really undoubtedly be an amazing
- [40:02]
B
result, incidentally, here on the home front there are all sorts of issues going on as well. This outrageous partial DHS shutdown continues. Democrats refusing to fund the remainder of the Department of Homeland Security. The latest, the latest thing that could be on the chopping block is not just TSA security, but allegedly, allegedly, according to the acting deputy administrator of tsa, Adam Stahl, allegedly, whole airports actually might shut down. Go ahead and watch this.
- [40:31]
H
We're fully stretched. And so frankly, there's not much else we can do as the weeks continue, if this continues. It's not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports, particularly smaller ones, if call out rates go up. And we can't. A lot of these officers can't afford to come in. I talked to one officer this week. She's a single mother and she has a special needs child and she can't afford to pay for her special needs child's childcare. So again, we're, I believe it's frankly unconscionable that we have Senate Democrats that are Playing, you know, they're holding our folks financial livelihood hostage over political games, political partisanship. So we really need to get back to normal order.
- [41:12]
B
So this is staggering. This is absolutely staggering. I can't recall a time when the possibility of literally shutting down airports was ever discussed as something that could viably, legitimately happen. This is absolutely nuts. And to the deputy administrator's point, why are the Democrats seeming to escape with this? I don't see a whole lot of people, especially out there in the corporate press, NBC, ABC, etc. I don't see a whole lot of people talking about how Democrats are shutting down dhs. If I cannot fly out of the airport next week, when I fly to Texas, speak at seatback. If you cannot fly this week, next week, whenever your flight is there, I think we know who's to blame here. This is not exactly a debate. Republicans are trying to fund dhs, they're trying to fund tsa, they're trying to fund the airports. John Thune, Mike Johnson. They have shepherded through numerous bills, bills that have already passed the House and are just stalling in the Senate because Chuck Schumer is not playing ball at all. And by not playing ball on this one, they are playing ball very much, unfortunately, with your own security. At a time like this where radical Islamic terrorism is very much on the march here on the home front, don't you think that the Department of Homeland Security ought to be funded? Yeah, I certainly think that. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Republican side of the aisle in the Senate there, we could be in for a bit of failure theater this week as well.
- [42:35]
C
As mentioned on yesterday's show, looks like
- [42:36]
B
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is indeed planning to hold a new vote here on the Save America Act. The key thing here, folks, is that he has to force the Democrats to have a talking filibuster. That is a tool in his arsenal. Whether he wants to admit it or not is the only way this bill will get passed. Donald Trump amping up the pressure. But it's really important in situations like this, I think, to actually make sure your voice is actually heard. So among my hats, as I'm senior counsel at the Article 3 project, we have an action center where you can actually go to article3project.org and go to our action center where you can tell the Senate to actually get the Save act pass.
- [43:08]
C
Go ahead and check that out.
- [43:09]
B
Article3project.org really important stuff there.
- [43:12]
C
This legislation has to be passed, folks,
- [43:14]
B
and we will see ultimately if it does.
- [43:15]
C
Color me skeptical for what it is worth.
- [43:17]
B
Unfortunately. Folks, have a great rest of your evening.
- [43:19]
C
Josh Hammer signing off now. We'll be right back tomorrow.