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The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | December 28th, 2024: Ukraine's Weapons Surge & America's Fentanyl Crisis
01:04:49
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- [00:01]
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- [00:43]
Mike Baker
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start things off in Washington, where the Biden administration remember Joe Biden. Well, the Biden administration is reaffirming its commitment to Ukraine, promising a surge of weapons even as a new administration prepares to take over. Retired US Army General Ben Hodges joins us to discuss what this means for Ukraine's fight and America's role in the conflict. Later in the show, we'll trace the deadly pipeline of fentanyl from China to Mexico to US Streets and why it's now America's top killer. Then we'll talk with Dr. Robert Marbit, producer of the documentary Fentanyl Death Incorporated, about how this crisis became a national security threat. But first, our BDB Situation Report spotlight. It was a deadly Christmas in Ukraine as Russian missiles targeted cities across the country, leaving, frankly, devastation and heartbreak in their wake. In light of this holiday carnage, the Biden administration is reaffirming its commitment to Ukraine, pledging a surge of weapons and ammunition. Officials say the aid is essential to help Ukraine withstand escalating Russian attacks, even as the US Prepares for a new administration to take office. But how far can this renewed support go in shaping the conflict and what might change under new American leadership? Well, to break it all down, we're joined now by retired US Army General Ben Hodges. He's the former commanding general of the United States army in Europe. General, thanks very much for joining us again here on THE SITUATION report. We very much appreciate it during the holiday season.
- [02:34]
General Ben Hodges
Well, thank you for the privilege.
- [02:36]
Mike Baker
I suppose a lot of people are probably wondering this question. We've got a matter of, well, really days, a handful of weeks until the new administration takes over in the US So is there any way to quantify from, let's say, Election Day in November of this year until now, how much has been allocated or authorized by the outgoing Biden administration for Ukraine?
- [03:07]
General Ben Hodges
Well, I, I couldn't put a specific number on it. There has been reporting about, finally, a sense of urgency of Delivering what had already been approved and authorized. And so to get that delivered. But I don't know how much of what we're seeing now what's going is something that was approved months ago or in the last few weeks. I couldn't, I couldn't offer any kind of a meaningful quantity.
- [03:42]
Mike Baker
No, that's, that's actually a really interesting point and a very important point I think is that, is that we hear a lot about this. We, you know, and the numbers do seem to vary depending on who you're talking to and how they're quantifying the, the, the aid that's been provided to Kiev since February of 2022. You know, some people approximate around 60 plus billion dollars or so. But it's not as if everything lands in Kiev upon authorization. It takes time. I think you've raised an important point as to what has actually made its way over in real assets.
- [04:20]
General Ben Hodges
Well, and of course, as you'll know and your listeners will know, there's any number of reasons why it may not go flying off the shelf or out of the warehouse or out of the factory into Ukraine. It has to be. If it's something that was manufactured in the United States, it has to be, you know, shipped over and then received and then transported across Europe into the, the airport in eastern Poland, which is kind of the portal for everything that then goes into Ukraine. And understandably, nobody's advertising, hey, today we're shipping X number of missiles or vehicles or rounds of ammunition. The Ukrainians, of course, don't advertise this because the Russians, this would be the kind of information none of us would want to advertise. It is, it is interesting to me though that the Russians have failed after almost three years since the beginning of the large scale invasion to destroy a single convoy or train moving equipment and ammunition from Poland to the front lines, not one time. That's an incredible player of Russia's air force to be, or even their special forces to be able to do that.
- [05:35]
Mike Baker
Why do you think that's the case?
- [05:37]
General Ben Hodges
I think we take for granted we're spoiled in the United States with our green air force and our naval aviators. How good they are, how much they train, the whole system of systems of command and control and suppression of enemy air defense. The work that we do to make sure that any pilot that's shot down can be recovered, that's, that's expensive. That takes a lot of time. It takes rigorous training. My sense is that the Russian air force never had that level of, of training. They certainly didn't have that level of expertise the or experience. Their war fighting flying was against Syrian terrorist organizations basically, you know, not against an intensive air and missile air defense threat or enemy air. And so because of that, they failed their number one task, which is the number one task of any air force, to achieve air superiority. They failed to achieve that against Ukraine. Even though they had a huge advantage in terms of technology and numbers of aircraft, they never could defeat Ukrainian air defense enough to be able to do what they need to do. Because of that, and because Ukrainians targeted the Russian equivalent of awacs, the aircraft that are up there that can provide command and control, the Russians don't have the ability to loiter in Ukrainian airspace and then go do what we would call dynamic targeting, going after convoys or trains that are bringing in equipment. Now, the location of the railroads and the highways is not a mystery. And they have struck some of the rail terminals. They've never had a single train. That's incredible to me.
- [07:29]
Mike Baker
Let's, if we could, General, if we could step back and kind of look at this now as a sort of a year end wrap up right where we're almost at the end of 2024 again, we're a handful of weeks away from the Trump administration stepping in. What's your assessment of the current state of the conflict?
- [07:49]
General Ben Hodges
Well, if you're a lieutenant or a captain or a sergeant in Ukrainian armed forces in eastern Ukraine, it's pretty grim. I mean, you're getting pounded every day. You're dealing, you're looking out across at thousands of Ukrainian and I'm sorry, Russian and now North Korean troops that are attacking. But if you're thinking strategically at the operational level and strategic level of warfare, it's been over almost a year since the Russians captured Avdiivka, and they've barely moved a few kilometers beyond that while losing over a thousand troops a day, not to mention the thousands of vehicles and howitzers, et cetera. So I think it sucks if you're in that fight. But it's incredible to me how well they have held off Russia for making any sort of breakthrough, any big gains. It's just this constant attrition that they're able to do because we have not given Ukraine the capability to strike deep with. We have not given them enough capability to strike deep to knock out headquarters and logistics. And then on the north side of Ukraine, of course, this, the Kursk bridgehead that Ukrainians established back in August, the Russians have finally retaken probably about half of that. But even that is remarkable. That since August, there is still a sizable Ukrainian foothold or bridgehead inside Russia. That's not inconsequential. It's costing the Russians resources that they're having to throw at it. And it also creates a problem if you start getting into negotiations and you're talking about, okay, everybody, keep what you got, Ukraine has a piece of Russia. And so I think all of this factors into the Ukrainian operational thinking.
- [09:51]
Mike Baker
Do you think, is that where we're headed? Are we headed to negotiations or are we headed to another year of this grinding World War I style warfare?
- [10:01]
General Ben Hodges
I think that the, the Russians are content to keep doing what we're doing, what they're doing if they feel that we are going to turn our backs on Ukraine, that, that at the end of the day, the Russia's only hope is that we quit supporting Ukraine. And then eventually Ukraine would have to come to the negotiating table in a, in a very weak position. So I think that's what the Russians are holding out for. They have no interest in actually negotiating good faith. There's nowhere in their history have they ever lived up to any agreement unless they were absolutely forced to do it. And so I'm not against negotiating, but we should have our eyes wide open about who it is that we would be asking the Ukrainians to, to negotiate with. The same guys that shoot down civilian airliners that kill innocent people every day of the year, not just on Christmas. Now, frankly, I thought this war could have ended last year if we, the United States and our allies had made that commitment, because just some sort of, some capabilities of long range strike, no interruptions in ammunition, we'd be in a completely different place. So what Ukraine has achieved is despite our failure to commit to actually helping them win this conflict, you're talking about.
- [11:25]
Mike Baker
Going to the negotiating table. And I think you're 100% right. You're on target in terms of Putin and his reliability. But if, if we are talking about sitting down at the negotiating table, that is what the incoming president, President Trump, is talked about. Do you assess that Ukraine is in a stronger position now to do that, or were they in a stronger position a year ago? I mean, I guess what I'm asking is, are we asking them or will we be pushing them perhaps after January 20th to sit down at the negotiating table when they're actually in a weaker position than they have been?
- [12:07]
General Ben Hodges
I think a year ago there was hope that the Biden administration and other allies were going to finally realize that it was in our interest to help Ukraine actually win. And we were going to do all these things needed. And here we are a year later and we're still not providing those capabilities that would really make the difference. And in fact, I think that the talk about negotiations is causing some people to think that, okay, well, it's never going to get better from a US or European perspective in terms of help. So if that's the case, then I would say Ukraine is probably in a slightly weaker position. On the other hand, and I hate to sound wishy washy, Ukraine's own capability of producing long range weapons and their munitions has increased, which is remarkable. They have increased their capability for producing weapon systems. And finally just yesterday, I think another battalion's worth of Leopard tanks from Germany has arrived. So after a long delay, they're now up close to 100 plus German leopards are arriving in Ukraine. So none of this happens on a straight line delivery schedule. It comes for different reasons. None of this happens in a vacuum. And of course sitting across the table, you've got a Russia that not only has had hundreds of thousands of casualties, about which they don't care, but their economy is, I think is in trouble. Their ability to produce armored vehicles, howitzer barrels, tank barrels, these kinds of things is severely degraded. And so most of the reporting I see indicates that they cannot go beyond next year in terms of industrial capacity. So if we got serious about this and started stopping it began to really stop Russia's ability to export oil and gas through their so called shadow fleet, then they would have no money left to buy ammunition from North Korea or missiles from China or Iran. That's, you know, I'm not avoiding your question, but it's not that simple. If we want, if the only solution is, well, we just want to stop the fighting, okay, There are things that are worse than no fighting. I mean, if you're a Ukrainian that lives in Russian occupied territory, you'd much rather be fighting. And so, and there are, and there.
- [14:52]
Mike Baker
Are a lot of them living in Russian occupied territory right now. I mean, basic estimates say that the, that Putin holds approximately 20 of Ukraine at this, at this stage of the game. General Hodges, if you could just stay, stay right where you are, which actually is in Germany. I'll stay where I am, which right now is in Tokyo. Look at that. The PDB situation report is a global effort. But if you'll stay right there. General, we, we will be right back with the situation report. Hey, Mike Baker here. Look, if you're tired of the same old coffee from those mega corporations and you know, the ones I'm talking about pushing their woke agendas, which they do. Well. Listen up. It's time to take a stand and support a brand that truly embodies American values. And of course here I'm talking about Blackout Coffee. It's a terrific company. They stand with hard working Americans and they believe in the very basics, family, faith and freedom. They roast some of the most incredible coffee that you'll ever taste. That's the truth. Using only premium grade beans roasted and shipped out to you within 48 hours. Think about that. The beans are sitting in the roaster and then all of a sudden, well, they're in your mug. Bob's your uncle. For the cold brew fans, Blackout Coffee is now also excited to announce the launch of their two new ready to drink cold brew coffee latte options. Look, don't settle for less and less. Make the switch to Blackout coffee, head over to blackout coffee.com PDB and use the code. Are you ready for the code? Here it is, PDB for 20% off your first order. That's blackout coffee.com PDB and again, the code is PDB. Join the movement and taste the difference. Remember, with every sip, you're supporting a brand that stands for America. And as we say around these parts, be awake, not woke.
- [16:37]
Tucker Carlson
Hey, it's Tucker Carlson.
- [16:39]
Sean Stone
We are proud to provide a venue for Oliver Stone's son Sean, who's a friend of ours and also a filmmaker. His latest documentary series called all the President's Men. It's a multi part series in which he explains in vivid detail how the first Trump administration, 2016-2020 was subverted from the very first day by the deep state who picked off one by one members of the then President's inner circle. And some of them are still on the scene. You will see in depth interviews with for example Cash Patel, who is the incoming President's new FBI director, with Mike Flynn and many other people, you know, whose whole stories you may not have heard before. It's an amazing series, all the President's Men by Sean Stone playing right now ontucker carlson.com we're proud to have it. We think you'll like it.
- [17:29]
Mike Baker
Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report. Joining me once again is retired US Army General Ben Hod. General, thanks again for all your time. It's very much appreciated, especially during this holiday season. You mentioned in our earlier conversation you referred to the North Korean troops. The fact that Kim Jong Un is and sending troops to aid the Putin regime, is it from your perspective, is that sort of a, a gimmick? More of a cash and weapons technology transfer grab by Kim Jong Un, or is it having a significant impact for Vladimir Putin?
- [18:14]
General Ben Hodges
Well, I think from a Russian perspective, they're getting bodies. And, you know, I've seen lots of different numbers out there like you have, and how many have actually been. Have deployed from North Korea into the theater of war in Ukraine? Anywhere from 15 to 50,000. But still, that's, that's not inconsequential, and it probably helps Russia avoid doing what they dread doing, which is drafting men out of Moscow and St. Petersburg and other places like that. So if they're getting fodder for the, for the war, that's a benefit for them, as well as getting the majority, apparently, of artillery ammunition they use comes from North Korea. For the North Korean side, I'm not sure what the, what the agreement is. Certainly North Koreans are getting combat experience. They have none. I mean, there's no Korean soldier that has combat experience. Even though every general I see on pictures with Kim Jong Un has a chest full of medals. They have no complex periods. So that's worth something to the North Koreans. I just don't know how much they're willing to say, okay, bad luck. We lost 50,000 killed or captured, and I saw yesterday the first captured North Korean soldier. I imagine we're going to learn, we're all going to learn something from this. I'd like to know what they're thinking about in Seoul, what their Republic of Korea, what the army is thinking about there. Like here you've got North Korea sending away thousands of troops, plus huge amounts of ammunition. You know, if I was thinking strategically and in charge of all of it, might be a good time to do a snap exercise in South Korea to put pressure on the north while they're sending away ammunition and troops for Russia.
- [20:10]
Mike Baker
Yeah, there's, I mean, there's, there's interesting. There's a number of different estimates, as you point out, in terms of how many troops have actually been sent from North Korea to, to aid Putin. And there are also likewise different estimates about how many North Korean troops have been killed or injured in action. The South Korean intelligence services estimated it's around 1100, 1200. I think the Ukrainian military is estimating somewhere in that same zone. You have to imagine that Kim Jong Un really doesn't care about the lives of his soldiers. He's essentially bartering lives of his own soldiers, of his own military in exchange for technology transfer, for weapons money. And it's, it's, it's just, it's one of Those shocking developments of 2024, I think that really very few people, if any, saw coming.
- [21:10]
General Ben Hodges
Yeah, I would not have guessed that North Korea would be a true contributing nation or Russia's war against Ukraine, because, you know, the whole narrative from Pyongyang had always been that the south is going to attack any day and we've got to be ready and that sort of thing. And now to send away apparently tens of thousands of troops. Now there could be huge amounts of money involved in this, or Russian oil and gas being provided to North Korea. I mean, I'm sure the north would not do it if they weren't getting something really good.
- [21:46]
Mike Baker
You mean. Wait a minute. Are you saying, General, that they're not doing this pro bono? That this is not, this is not a charity case from, from Kim Jong Un's perspective. Yeah, it is. It is shocking though, when you see that. It's just interesting. You know, I've been trying to assess as to just how significant the impact of those North Korean troops are on, from Putin's perspective. And I take your point. It does perhaps postpone that day when he may need to do another large scale conscription if he ever decides to do that. Because I think you're right, that's the one thing that he desperately wants to avoid. If we could, General, I wanted to touch on a couple of other topics. The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft that went down, have you heard anything further about the cause of that, that crash?
- [22:39]
General Ben Hodges
You know, two or three things that I would want to address right up the top. First of all, what courage and skill of these pilots that managed to get that aircraft on the ground in Kazakhstan after it was hit, and after they were denied the ability to land somewhere on the western side of the Caspian, they then were diverted across the Caspian and crash landed in Kazakhstan. That's incredible. I mean, as I've listened to aviation experts talk about what loss of controllability, that the pilots could keep that thing even in the air to get to land. And apparently about a third to a half of the passengers survived that terrible crash was incredible. And I think that credit goes to those pilots. Secondly, why was the Grozny airport still open? I mean, there have been reports coming from the Russian side that there were drone Ukrainian drones all around Grozny Airport, you know, part of this ongoing series of Ukrainian strikes deep into Russia. And so typically, I know, I live near the airport here in Frankfurt. Anytime some knuckleheads out with his own personal drone, they shut down the whole airport. So why would the Grozny airport still be open so that this airliner from Azerbaijan would be trying to, to land there. It should have been diverted long before that. Finally, I think there's no doubt that this aircraft was hit by Russian air and missile defense. Of course there'll be an investigation. Of course they'll have to do it as they should. But just looking at the footage that you and everybody else has looked at, those are, those are not bird strikes.
- [24:22]
Mike Baker
Yeah. Well, thank you for that. I know the investigation is ongoing. It is, it's tough and the last thing we want to do is speculate. But I appreciate your, your insight and your update there. The other thing I wanted to touch on, and this is sort of outside the, the focus of our, of our conversation, you're, as you mentioned, you're based in Frankfurt. What are your, what's your perspective on this latest Christmas market attack that took place. Well, outside of Berlin.
- [24:51]
General Ben Hodges
Yeah. In the city of Magdeburg. So of course it's terrible. If you watch the video of this car slamming into the crowd and as most of your listeners know in Germany is famous for its Christmas markets and people are out there and it's cold and you know, it's a nice, I mean it's a classic Christmas sort of ambiance. But after the attack on the, on the Berlin Christmas market, back about, I think it was four or five years ago, they started putting up the stanchions or other sorts of balustrades I think they're called, to prevent a vehicle from being able to drive into an open air place. Now it looks to me in this case that they didn't have those in this particular market. I don't know that for a fact. But that's the kind of thing that the Minister of the Interior, the Federal Ministry of Interior and then at the state level Ministry of Interior would have been looking at why were they not better protected. Now once you know, the initial response would have been oh my gosh, there's another an Arab or a Muslim that did this. And so the knee jerk reaction was going to be AFD Alternative for Deutschland, which is the right wing political organization in Germany was going to seize on this because you know, there's a federal elections coming up in the 23rd of February here in Germany. But it turns out in a strange twist, the gentleman who was driving was a guy who's a legitimate migrant, he's a doctor and he's been here for years and he's pro AFD against illegal immigrants. I mean, that's a hard one to piece together. But nonetheless it still will be seized on by different groups. You know, why didn't the government do a better job of protecting people anyway? And that's, that's one of the underlying themes of extremist organizations.
- [26:57]
Mike Baker
It's a really key point that is so important. It's difficult for people to, to do. But anytime you have something like this, right, the tendency is to kind of jump to a conclusion and nobody really has the patience or wants to have the patience to wait for an investigation to play out, right, to determine motivation, determine plans and intentions of whomever the perpetrator is or, and so it, you know, it is, it's difficult to do. But anytime there's an incident like this, typically my phone blows up and you know, I get calls from outlets saying, you know, would you, you know, do you want to come on and talk about this, this latest incident? And usually my reaction is not really because the investigation's ongoing and all we'd be doing is speculating about motivations of the perpetrators. So yeah, this one, this one was extremely complex, incredibly sad, as they always are, but, but very complex. Sir, if kind of to wrap up the conversation to be mindful of your time as we make our way to the very end of this year, which seems to have blown by, is sort of looking forward with the Ukraine conflict after all this time. And I, I, I, I don't want to put you in a tough position to say, okay, this is what the incoming administration in the US Is going to do, but what's your, what's your gut feeling? What's, what's your perspective on this? Where do you think this is going? And I'm not going to hold you to it, although I hope you'll come back on in, in a month or two and we could talk about it more.
- [28:32]
General Ben Hodges
Well, I was encouraged by the selection of General Kellogg to be the envoy for the Trump administration to Ukraine to deal with the. How do you bring this war to a conclusion? Because General Kellogg understands the strategic significance of this and he also is very clear eyed about Russia being somebody you can't trust and that Ukraine's sovereignty is important. So that gave me some optimism. And Also I think Mr. Waltz, the National Security Advisor also is a realist about who and what Russia is. I think that I'm also encouraged by the fact that most of the senior Republican leadership in the Congress, House and Senate are pro NATO. They understand the significance of the transatlantic relationship for the United States and why it's important that we help Ukraine. So I think the administration will seek to do what they can, as the president elected talked about. But the reality is just getting an agreement is not going to do anything to help make America safer or help our allies. And so I think as the reality of that sets in, and especially since most of the administration is so focused on China, what better way to tell the Chinese that we're not goofing around than to demonstrate that we have the political will and the capability to help Ukraine defeat Russia, to shut down Iran, to shut down North Korea, and then the Chinese would have to take note of that.
- [30:20]
Mike Baker
Yeah, that's, that's a terrific point to raise. They have obviously been watching the US and our allies response to the Ukraine conflict, being mindful of, of their interests in Taiwan. So I, I think you're absolutely right. This is, everything's connected. Right. The world is shrinking still and nothing happens in a bubble. So I appreciate that point, General. I just, listen, as always, thank you very much for your time. I hope you've had a tremendous holiday season so far. I hope you managed to find some time to rest and relax for the rest of the year. And I hope that the next time we call, you'll pick the phone up again and agree to come back.
- [31:00]
General Ben Hodges
Well, I really appreciate the privilege. And 2025 is going to be a doozy.
- [31:04]
Mike Baker
I'm sorry, General, is that a military term?
- [31:06]
General Ben Hodges
Doozy in some parts of the Army.
- [31:12]
Mike Baker
Excellent. General. I just thank you so much for your time. Thank you. All right. Coming up after the break, we'll explore how fentanyl became the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. It's really a sad and tragic story. Dr. Robert Morbid, a producer of Fentanyl Death Incorporated, a very, very worthwhile documentary, joins us to explain just how this crisis is flooding across our borders and why it's not just an issue of public health but also of national security. We'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Well, it happened. America just pretty much got done with a historical election. Perhaps you heard something about it now. Sure. There's going to be some changes in the White House, and that always happens when there's a change in the administrations. But the fundamentals haven't changed. And the problem is the dollar. Well, it's in decline with the US adding $100,000 in debt every second. Think about that. $100,000 in new debt every second. Meanwhile, BRICS nations have introduced what they call the unit. It's a new global currency pegged 40% to gold and 60% to BRICS currencies, which could mark the beginning of a global monetary reset. So you ask yourself, what can I do about it? Well, my suggestion would be that you call the proud Americans of the Patriot Gold Group today before it's too late. Mention PDB and you'll always get Best in Class service from Patriots Protecting patriots. Patriot Gold Group has the no fee for life IRA. Well, your IRA or 401k can be in physical gold and silver and you may be eligible for the no Fee for Life Iraq on qualifying rollovers. Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide. And here's another important point. Patriot Gold Group is consumer affairs top rated gold IRA dealer for seven years in a row. And that, frankly, is a lot of years in a row. Call 1-888-870-5457. Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report. The fentanyl epidemic has become the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, claiming thousands of lives every year. Now this synthetic opioid, 50 times stronger than heroin, is flooding the US with devastating consequences. But how is it getting here? Well, the journey begins with precursor chemicals from China sent to Mexico, where cartels use them to manufacture the deadly drug. From there, fentanyl is smuggled across the southern border, often hidden in shipments or mixed with other substances, making it nearly impossible to detect. It's cheap, it's potent and it's deadly. To understand the full scope of this crisis, we're joined by Dr. Robert Marbit, producer of the eye opening documentary Fentanyl Death Incorporated. The film dives deep into the origins, trafficking and human cost of this epidemic. It's available now on Salem now, offering a close look at one of the greatest threats facing America today. Doctor, thank you very much for taking the time and joining us here on the PDB Situation Report.
- [34:33]
Tucker Carlson
Thank you so very much for having on. And more importantly, thank you for caring about the fentanyl crisis. Really appreciate it.
- [34:41]
Mike Baker
What led you to producing this documentary? Talk to me about that journey from the point where you said something has to be done, let's try to get this out there to the public. Talk to me what that whole trek was like.
- [34:59]
Tucker Carlson
Well, I had been President Trump's first homelessness czar. And so I was very involved with everything going on on the street. And I saw how fentanyl was really starting to hit the street. But then over the last year and a half, two years, the numbers just skyrocketed. And to give you an idea how this is an existential threat to the United States, this was the number, when I sort of was doodling it together, I said, I gotta do something about it. I gotta produce it. And here's the number more people have died in fentanyl in the last five years. Then adding up all 100 years of wars of uniform service, intelligence service for us Americans, men and women. So add up the fatalities of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, Gulf War II, Afghanistan, Iraq, global war on terror, a few UN actions, a couple other ones in there. Add all up together. More people have died in fentanyl in the last five years than all American war fatalities in the last hundred years.
- [36:16]
Mike Baker
Good God. Was there any sense of that from the, from, I don't know, the authorities, the government? Was there any awareness of the scope of this problem at the outset of your journey to produce this documentary?
- [36:34]
Tucker Carlson
I think with the current administration of Biden and Harris, there was none. I don't know if it's neglect or sleep at the wheel or incompetence, I don't know what it was, but they were not acting like a house was on fire. This is the biggest existential threat to the United States I think we've had since Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini. And we are not acting like that now.
- [37:01]
Mike Baker
There's, I mean, there's. Obviously there's a lot of complexity here. Let's try to take it and break it down into its, in its various components. If we look at outside players, let's set aside the issue of, of demand, right? You always hear that sometimes when you're, you're talking to other countries about the, you know, the, the narco trafficking issues, they always say, well, look, you got to solve your own problems. But let's, let's talk about the outside actors. Can you start with China?
- [37:27]
Tucker Carlson
Well, everything starts with China. That's where the precursors initially started coming from. Actually, some of the finished products started coming from China and then now it's the pre. Precursors. And they got in alignment, strategic alignment with the Mexican cartels initially. And to be honest, they fell, filled the void of what Purdue Pharma had done. We all know about Purdue Pharma, you know, that was. Talked a lot about and you had millions of people taking prescriptions, hundreds of thousand addicted. And when all the lawsuits happened and they started taking that down and they started saying, you can't get that prescription. The doctors stopped getting it. Less the Mexican cartels and they, they're insidious, really bad people, but they're good business people. And they saw a void and they jumped right in. They already had the distribution network. They were already doing illicit drugs of all different types. They had human trafficking already going, so they knew how to get across the border, so it was made ready for them. And they just jumped into that void. And, and that's phase one of the crisis. It is literally China working with the Mexican cartels to fill the void, the supply void that got, that occurred because of Purdue Pharma.
- [38:58]
Mike Baker
When we talk about, about the coordination between China and the cartels, to what degree in your assessment is the Chinese regime culpable or are we talking about criminal elements within China coordinating with the cartels?
- [39:17]
Tucker Carlson
Both. And I think initially it was purely about money. I think it was the criminal bad actors seeing this as a way to fill that supply void, if you will, and make a lot of money. Then over time, I think the regime, the Communist Party of China sits there and goes, hold on a second. We're making hard cash. We're getting greenbacks to come into our economy, and now we're weakening our adversary. And so they were able to make some money initially, but they now have that extra benefit of weakening their adversary. And so I think initially it was probably about money. And then they realized, wow, we got even maybe a better benefit of weakening our adversary than just the money bringing in.
- [40:11]
Mike Baker
Yeah. And I take your point. The cartels kind of moving over to Mexico. The cartels, they identify revenue streams extremely well. I mean, they fill those gaps wherever there's an opportunity. And I don't think people understand just how entrepreneurial the cartels can be, but they've proven it. Now, I suppose there's a lot to unpack here, Doctor, but when we talk about this coordination between the Chinese government or criminal elements and Mexican cartels, have you seen, even in the short term, let's say the past two years, have you seen any improvement in, in U.S. policy in terms of trying to mitigate this crisis?
- [41:08]
Tucker Carlson
To be honest, over the last four years, I saw very little being done at all. More has been done since President Trump elect has gotten elected. To be honest, the fact he reached out and talked to both the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada. Look, he had the Prime Minister of Canada fly down to Mar a Lago within two days. And I can't remember when they met with President Biden on this crisis. I meant our house is on fire, and we're not acting like it. But President Trump has gotten more action in the last four weeks than the prior administration's done in the last four years. Look, Mexico had two of their biggest drug busts against the cartels. Just in the last month, the cartel up in Canada. And a lot of people don't talk about how bad Canada has gotten now. But up in Canada, they've had their biggest drug bust in their history of their country the week of the election. So we, we got Canada's attention now, we got Mexico's attention now. We sort of have China's attention now, you know, and that President Trump knows how to get their att. You have to have, that's the first step. And so the fact that more has been done in the last four weeks and he hasn't taken office is more than the last four years combined.
- [42:37]
Mike Baker
There's a hint of optimism there, but there's also, that's a really sad statement to have to make. Talk to me about the top line numbers. If we look at this crisis both from the health perspective and from national security. But talk to me about the top line numbers. How many, how many fatalities are we talking about? What's the impact on our society in.
- [42:57]
Tucker Carlson
The U.S. well, you know, the big takeaway in the last five years, the number I gave earlier, more people have died of fentanyl in the last five years than all 100 years of war for Americans. Another way to think of it right now is a 737 crashing every single day, literally every single day. And we know what happened when two 737s crashed over about a six week period. They grounded the entire Boeing force worldwide. And we're not acting like that, but that's how many are dying. If we had seven plane crashes the next seven days, and I sure hope we don't, but seven plane crashes in the United States, it would be like we'd be, is it terrorism? Who's doing it? What's going on? We would have the whole response of the national government dealing with it. But that's what's going to happen with fentanyl over the next week here we're going to have the equivalent of seven airplanes, seven 37s crashing, and very little is going to be talked about or done about it.
- [44:07]
Mike Baker
Dr. Marburt, if you stay right there. We've been fortunate. We've got some terrific sponsors here on the PDB situation report. We're going to hear from a couple of them right now. But if you'll stay right where you are, we'll be right back.
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- [44:48]
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- [44:52]
Mike Baker
Back to the PDB Situation Report. Joining me once again is Dr. Robert Marvin. He's the producer of a very, very worthwhile documentary that you need to check out. It's called Fentanyl Death Incorporated, and you can find that on Salem now.com Dr. We, we're just talking about the human toll, the magnitude of the fentanyl crisis. Why? I guess the top line question here is with it being so bad, when we're talking about the human toll being so bad, why the inaction from your perspective from the US Government, I think.
- [45:33]
Tucker Carlson
The last four years, the Biden and administration and the Harris administration were afraid to take on fen because that interrelated with the legal immigration. And for some reason they just have not had any desire to tackle illegal immigration. And let me speak quickly to my friends on the left in the middle. You can't talk about fentanyl without talking about illegal immigration. And there are three reasons why there's a direct tie between illegal immigration and fentanyl distribution. Number one, people coming across illegally are either forced to bring fentanyl across or incentivize and say, we'll cut your cost of going across the border if you take the fentanyl and get this to the guy in the van. So that's number one. Number two, and we talk about all this in the movie. Number two, they'll flood a sector. The cartels have five vertical products. They sell sex trafficking, human trafficking. They do coyote services, take across the do illicit drugs. Now they're doing fentanyl. So they'll flood a zone with people. And people really take a lot of officers, a lot of state, local authorities, federal authorities. So they like hit Laredo and then Del Rio is available or Brownsville is available, El Paso, you can just walk it across. So they sort of flood a zone with people and then walk the fentanyl across. And we got video in this, in our documentary. And the third that a lot of people are not aware of is on the northern border. We have border Patrol agents in their sector in their office, but they're processing people from the southwest border. So they're on Zoom calls all day long doing paperwork with people on the southwest border and they're not patrolling the northern border. We have big gaps in the northern border. Cause initially because of the problems of the southwest border and I think they were afraid to talk about this, I think that somehow politically they made an early mistake and said we're going to be open border, we're going to be a fluid border. And they never got off that position. And sadly fit all is so interconnected with the illegal immigration and we need to be honest about it, they're directly connected.
- [48:10]
Mike Baker
From your perspective or what you've seen in your experience, has there been any efforts government to government? Let's just take Xi Jinping's regime in China to address the problems, to get them to seriously deal with it. Whether it's through sanctions or were other negotiations.
- [48:33]
Tucker Carlson
I think Biden, President Biden did one meeting that got initially some positive verbiage or talk, but nothing ever followed through. It was, they said something nice, they released some information, but it turned out he did not follow through. And I hold President Biden responsible for not holding him to those commitments. He said the right things but didn't take any action. And I'd rather have action than words at this point with so many people dying. And again, that's why I think President elect Trump, the fact he's gotten everybody's attention threatening tariff and nobody wants a tariff war. I mean, let's be honest, we all know we don't want that. But if that's what it takes to get their attention, if Saint Chinz is what it takes to get their attention, then we have to do it again. If we really believe this is a threat and in my heart, I really do, we have not been threatened in our country just thinking pure death numbers Since World War II with Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini. And we need to act like that. We need to have a national whole of government response. We need to have a total complete change of attitude. And to me, if you're a sovereign country, we need to know who's going across our border and what's going across our border. It's that simple. You wouldn't want, if you think of it in your own house, you wouldn't say let anybody walk into your house, just willy nilly bring in what they want, take out what they want. We would never allow that to happen at our own houses. Why are we letting that happen in our own country?
- [50:25]
Mike Baker
Yeah, it's a terrific point. Like we, we address this situation, the border situation, national security on the PDB on a regular basis. And our point tends to always be the same, which is you can't have national security. You can't do your primary function as, as a government, which is to protect your citizens and, and protect national security interests. If you don't know who's coming across the border, I agree with you 100%. It's as simple as that. If you don't have a secure border, then you're failing in your primary objective as a government. Part of the problem also, I think, as you pointed out, is, look, the primary outside players, the Mexican cartels, the Chinese regime, in some fashion, whether it's, you know, the criminal elements or whether the Chinese regime is complicit in some fashion to some degree. The problem with the Chinese regime is of course they only act when it's in their best interests. Right. You could argue that a lot of countries do the same thing, but, but they tend to be the primary proponent of that concept. If they don't see this as, as being an issue for them or in their best interests, then we're going to be hard pressed without taking serious action, whether it's tariffs, whether it's actual serious sanctions to get the Chinese regime to change. I remember during the Obama administration they had that famous, you know, state meeting where President Obama and Xi Jinping stood side by side and President Obama talked about how Xi Jinping had promised to stop engaging in cyber shenanigans and they just doubled down on it, right? So. Because again, it wasn't in their best interest. So I guess what I'm, what I'm getting to in a rambling way, Doctor, is from your perspective, how would you deal with this? Right? How would, how would you work if you were in charge, if you were the fentanyl czar on day one, what would you start doing?
- [52:29]
Tucker Carlson
Well, and I spent three weeks in China prepping for this movie. Almost three weeks. And the good news is China knows how to take care of this for themselves. There's almost no fentanyl use nationwide in China. So the highest populous country of the world has almost no use. And what they have done is they've criminalized hard drugs and they hold accountable and it's certain. So right out of the box, if you were a distributor, wholesaler of it, they have very strict punishment, very strict. It's very certain, it's very fast. So compare that to us in the United States that's doing things like harm reduction. And I don't think you can reduce any harm. I call it so called harm reduction because there's no way you can make fentanyl safe or the fentanyl supply chain safe. You can't make it safe yet in California. There are places like San Francisco spent $28 million on a safe consumption site, a block and a half from city hall out in the public square where they funded where you can go take your fentanyl and provided you with straws and foil and paraphernalia. Think of that versus China. China has strict punishment in there. In another area where I'm actually hoping helpful. California legislature has been decriminalizing all type of drugs, high end drugs, every part of it. Not prosecuting for a long time, the citizens of California, three weeks ago, and a lot of this is sort of the rest of the country did not maybe pay attention because they were tied up watching the election. But the citizens of California, left leaning group of voters voted 2 to 1 to recriminalize high end drugs against their legislature. So even the citizens of California are waking up and saying we gotta start using common sense. And you can't say we're gonna decriminalize especially hard drugs. I get there's a conversation around weed and alcohol and lower end drugs, but fentanyl is the deadliest drug we have ever seen in the world. It's a synthetic opioid that's 100 times more powerful than morphine. 1/15th of a rice kernel will kill you. A fentanyl or two to three grains of salt, it's like dust almost. That's why the 0 to 4 age group, this is the fastest growing death rate in America, zero to four children. They're not calling an addict, they're not calling it. They're not an addict, they're not calling a dealer. They are, they are just getting poisoned because of fentanyl powder out on restaurant tabletops, park benches around the house and they put a sandwich down, they pick it up and they die. I can't tell you how deadly this is in California, Washington state, parts of Hawaii, Oregon. Many cities have either chosen to say we're going to legalize this or they choose not to prosecute it. And both are just as bad.
- [55:56]
Mike Baker
Doctor, we got a lot more to talk about when it comes to this subject and unfortunately we have no more time. I do hope you'll come back on the show again so we can pick up this conversation. And I also encourage all our viewers to check out the documentary. It's called Fentanyl Death Incorporated. You can get it on Salem now dot com. Take the time, it's important. It's a tragic, sad story. And I applaud your efforts, doctor, for trying to shine a light on this. And listen, thank you again for, for joining us. And I hope that you, you find time to enjoy the holiday season.
- [56:40]
Tucker Carlson
And happy holidays to you. And I would encourage anybody, one hour is worth it if you're a parent, if you're a child, if you're a policymaker, you'll learn more in one solid hour than you'll ever know about fentanyl. And we need to raise education. We gotta do that almost before we start to take these other policy initiatives.
- [57:02]
Mike Baker
Absolutely. Dr. Robert Marbut, thank you very much again for your insight. I look forward to having you back on. And, and I appreciate your time. All right. Well, that is all the time we have for the PDB situation report. And by the way, I do hope that you're having a terrific holiday season as well. Seems like it just flown by. If you have any questions or comments or if you have humorous anecdotes or maybe you've got a limerick or two, I don't know. People still do limericks. Reach out to me at pdb@the first tv.com of course, every month we take the comments and your questions, we smash them all together into an episode that we call Ask Me Anything. We've got another one in the hopper about ready to launch, so keep the cards and letters coming. Also, as you may have heard, to listen to the podcast of this show ad free. Well, it is simple. You become a premium member of the President's Daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com and please don't forget, check out our YouTube channel. You can find that at President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, and until next time, and from some other part of the world, well, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.