National Security Expert Elbridge Colby’s Advice to Trump on How to Avoid WWIII & Handle the CIA

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Tucker Carlson Show

Episode Title: National Security Expert Elbridge Colby’s Advice to Trump on How to Avoid WWIII & Handle the CIA
Host: Tucker Carlson
Guest: Elbridge Colby, National Security Expert
Date: [Assumed based on transcript]
Duration: Approximately 71 minutes

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1. Introduction and Context

[00:11]
Tucker Carlson opens the show by emphasizing the importance of honest reporting and free speech. With the U.S. election just three days away, there's a heightened scramble in Washington to secure key national security positions. Carlson introduces Elbridge Colby, highlighting his deep experience in national security and his alignment with President-elect Trump's priorities.

Key Quote:
"I think you're one of the very few people with deep experience in national security who shares the president's priorities on national security, which is amazing." — Tucker Carlson [00:11]

2. The Brink of World War III

[01:29]
Elbridge Colby expresses gratitude for the introduction but clarifies he hasn't assumed any role in the upcoming administration. He underscores the gravity of the current global situation, suggesting the U.S. stands on the "possible precipice of World War Three." Colby criticizes the existing liberal-primaacist alliance and neoconservative policies, which he believes have overextended the U.S. and brought it to the brink of multi-theater wars.

Key Quote:
"I think the President of the United States... is exactly right that we stand on the possible precipice of World War Three." — Elbridge Colby [01:29]

3. Current Global Tensions

[03:51] - [05:01]
Colby outlines the current geopolitical landscape:

• Economic Competition: For the first time in 150 years, the U.S. may no longer be the world's largest economy, competing with China and Russia.
• Military Advancements: Russia surpasses Western allies in artillery production and remains a formidable military power. North Korea continues advancing its nuclear and missile programs, while Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.

Key Quote:
"For the first time in basically 150 years, we are not clearly the world's largest economy." — Elbridge Colby [03:51]

4. US Defense Industry and Reindustrialization

[05:15] - [07:49]
Colby critiques the U.S. response to global threats, particularly the ongoing war in Ukraine:

• Military Overextension: The U.S. has expended significant weaponry without effectively diminishing Russian capabilities.
• Defense Industrial Decline: The American defense industrial base has deteriorated over the past 30 years.
• Reindustrialization Agenda: Emphasizes the need to rebuild the defense industry, a process that will take time, as noted by Senator Vance.

Key Quote:
"One of the most oft-used arguments by a lot of the advocates for the war in Ukraine was that we would sort of degrade the Russian military... Actually, more or less the worst, the reverse has happened." — Elbridge Colby [05:15]

5. Critique of Current Administration's Foreign Policy

[07:49] - [11:06]
The discussion shifts to the effectiveness of the current administration's foreign policy:

• Ukraine War: Colby asserts the war is not going well for Ukraine and criticizes the overextension of U.S. military resources.
• China's Ambitions: Highlights China's significant GDP and military advancements, warning of a potential war over Taiwan by 2027.
• Peace Through Strength: Advocates for a balanced approach—maintaining military strength while being open to dialogue, as exemplified by President Trump's stance.

Key Quote:
"We really stand at a crossroads and I think President Trump has a mandate for peace." — Elbridge Colby [07:49]

6. The Role of the CIA and Intelligence Community

[23:19] - [27:03]
Carlson brings up the CIA, referencing Elbridge Colby's lineage connected to former CIA Director William Colby. Colby discusses the importance of accountability within the intelligence community, arguing that the CIA should not be above reproach. He criticizes current intelligence leaders for undermining trust and emphasizes the need for a CIA that serves national interests transparently.

Key Quote:
"There's a real need for accountability also in the professional military." — Elbridge Colby [25:33]

7. The Military's Readiness and Civilian Control

[27:32] - [34:03]
Colby addresses the state of the U.S. military:

• Readiness Issues: Points out the decline in military readiness and the inadequacy of the current defense infrastructure.
• Civilian Control: Emphasizes that the military should remain under civilian oversight, critiquing recent Pentagon policies that seem to compromise this principle.

Key Quote:
"The military is to defend the United States. Right. So like, that should be, you know, so to me, the core missions of the American military that really need to be focused on is defense the homeland." — Elbridge Colby [34:03]

8. The Ukraine War and Its Implications

[29:08] - [35:46]
The conversation delves deeper into the Ukraine conflict:

• Ukrainian Setbacks: Colby mentions reports indicating that Ukrainians are losing the war and Russian forces are gaining ground.
• European Dependency: Criticizes the European defense buildup's inadequacy, highlighting that only countries like Poland are making significant strides.
• Nord Stream Controversy: Carlson alleges U.S. involvement in the destruction of Nord Stream, which Colby refutes, emphasizing the detrimental impact on European economies.

Key Quote:
"The way that President Trump again has commendably talked about the risk of nuclear war." — Elbridge Colby [34:03]

9. Future of US Foreign Policy and Leadership

[35:46] - [60:00]
Colby provides advice for the incoming Trump administration:

• Staffing with Aligned Individuals: Critical of current candidates, suggesting that most are part of the liberal-primaacist alliance and unable to implement Trump's vision effectively.
• New Generation Leaders: Advocates for younger, pragmatic leaders who prioritize American interests over ideological biases.
• Avoiding Multi-Theater Wars: Warns against engaging in simultaneous conflicts, which could overstretch the military and lead to catastrophic outcomes.

Key Quote:
"If you appoint or put into positions of power people who think that we can walk in, chew gum and do everything and start wars in three different theaters at the same time, not only will that be bad like it was in the Iraq war, it will be far more catastrophic." — Elbridge Colby [07:49]

10. Conclusion

[70:22] - [70:49]
In the final segment, Carlson and Colby reflect on the entrenched establishment in Washington and the challenges of reforming it. Colby remains optimistic about the emergence of a new generation within the Republican Party that aligns with Trump's national security vision. He commends Carlson's role in advocating for common-sense foreign policy and integrity within national security institutions.

Key Quote:
"And I think you're a model of that, honestly. And I'm not just saying that." — Elbridge Colby [70:07]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Tucker Carlson [00:11]:
  "I think you're one of the very few people with deep experience in national security who shares the president's priorities on national security, which is amazing."

• Elbridge Colby [01:29]:
  "I think the President of the United States... is exactly right that we stand on the possible precipice of World War Three."

• Elbridge Colby [03:51]:
  "For the first time in basically 150 years, we are not clearly the world's largest economy."

• Elbridge Colby [05:15]:
  "Actually, more or less the worst, the reverse has happened."

• Elbridge Colby [07:49]:
  "We really stand at a crossroads and I think President Trump has a mandate for peace."

• Elbridge Colby [25:33]:
  "There's a real need for accountability also in the professional military."

• Elbridge Colby [34:03]:
  "The military is to defend the United States. Right."

• Elbridge Colby [35:46]:
  "If you appoint or put into positions of power people who think that we can walk in, chew gum and do everything and start wars in three different theaters at the same time..."

• Elbridge Colby [70:07]:
  "And I think you're a model of that, honestly. And I'm not just saying that."

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Key Themes and Insights

1. Urgent Need for Strategic Reform: Colby emphasizes that current U.S. foreign policy is unsustainable, warning against overextension and advocating for a focus on strategic priorities aligned with national interests.

2. Defense Industrial Decline: The deterioration of the U.S. defense industry is a critical concern that needs addressing through reindustrialization efforts to rebuild military capabilities.

3. Accountability in Intelligence and Military Leadership: Both the CIA and the military require greater accountability to prevent misuse of power and ensure alignment with national interests.

4. Balanced Foreign Policy: Advocates for a "peace through strength" approach, combining robust military readiness with diplomatic efforts to avoid unnecessary wars.

5. Critique of the Establishment: Strong criticism of the entrenched liberal-primaacist alliance and neoconservative influence in Washington, suggesting they are impediments to effective national security policies.

6. Future Leadership and Generation Shift: An optimistic view that a new generation within the Republican Party will emerge to lead a more pragmatic and America-first foreign policy.

7. China and Taiwan: Highlights the growing threat posed by China, particularly regarding its ambitions over Taiwan, and stresses the importance of a strong yet measured response to prevent conflict.

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Conclusion

This episode of The Tucker Carlson Show features a robust discussion between Tucker Carlson and national security expert Elbridge Colby. Colby provides a critical analysis of the current U.S. foreign policy landscape, warning of imminent threats and the dangers of overextended military commitments. He advocates for strategic reforms, emphasizing the need for accountability within the intelligence and military establishments and the importance of aligning national security strategies with America's core interests. The conversation underscores the urgency for the incoming Trump administration to implement these recommendations to navigate the complex global challenges effectively and avoid catastrophic conflicts.

Transcript

[Tucker Carlson]

Welcome to the Tucker Carlson Show. We bring you stories that have not been showcased anywhere else, and they're not censored, of course, because we're not gatekeepers. We are honest brokers here to tell you what we think you need to know and do it honestly. Check out all of our [e-mail] here's the episode. We are now three days out from the election. There's a mad scramble, of course, in Washington for people to get positions of power in the new administration. Some of them are good people, some of them are not. You are being widely discussed as potentially the next national security adviser or Secretary of defense taking over dod. I. I don't know what's going to happen. I, I fairly confident you'll play a large and meaningful role in this administration. You're never going to say any of that, but I just, I thought. I thought that the audience might like some context for why we're having this conversation. I think you're one of the very few people with deep experience in national security who shares the president's priorities on national security, which is amazing. There aren't too many. You're, I would say, the leader of them. There's the context. What does this next administration need to do in order to remain true to the president elect's articulated positions on war and peace?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, thank you, Tucker, and thank you very much. First off, for your confidence in me. It means a great deal. I don't. I don't make anything. Well, I know. And that's why I'm deeply grateful and honored, and I clearly don't make any presumptions about any role for myself. But what I would say, and I mean this with all sincerity, is that I think the President of the United States, the president elect, is exactly right that we stand on the possible precipice of World War Three, and we need a fundamental change before we ram right into the iceberg. I mean, I think the election is over, but this remains absolutely true. Is that what I call the liberal primacist alliance? Basically, the kind of policies of President Biden and Vice President Harris aligned with the primacists, I call them, we could have called them. The neoconservatives have led us to a situation in which we're overextended, we're on the brink of war in multiple theaters, and we could lose them. And I really want peace. And more importantly, President Trump ran, to his historic credit, on an agenda. As he said in his sort of victory speech, I don't start wars, I end them. Now, I think my view is that we have to have. How you actually get to peace is a difficult question. And I had the honor of being on your show a few years ago when my book came out, and I remember, I don't recall, but I said I was thinking about your question to President Trump about why is it worth defending allies? And I gave that a lot of thought. And that, in a sense, my book is a response to that question. And I think you do need strength. You do, but of course you need peace through strength. But that that term has become cheapened and distorted to become basically an excuse for an aggressive, expansionist approach to foreign policy. But I think you do, you know, it's real meaning. And President Trump is, in a sense, going back to the great tradition of the Republican Party, the Weinberger Doctrine, the Powell Doctrine. Yes. Nixon, Eisenhower. As Bob Dole used to put it, these are Democrat wars. It used to be Democrats that started wars and Republicans that ended or avoided them. Eisenhower didn't go into Vietnam in 1954. He did not intervene in Hungary in 1956. Again, he. Nobody thought he was a weak guy. So what needs to happen right now?

[Tucker Carlson]

Before you get into that, I just think it might be helpful to describe where we are now, because a lot of Americans, I'm in this category, were so absorbed in the election that we may have lost touch with what you opened your remarks by noting, which is we're on the brink of war in multiple theaters. Just. Will you tell us where we are?

[Bridge Colby]

Absolutely. Well, I think for the first time in basically 150 years, we are not clearly the world's largest economy. We compete for that with China, and they are a far larger industrial power. Russia, in purchasing power parity terms, is a very large economy with enormous industrial production capacity. So North Korea advancing its nuclear and missile program.

[Tucker Carlson]

Russia is a larger manufacturing economy than a lot of us appreciated, I think.

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah. I mean, despite a lot of boasting, they're still out producing the North Atlantic alliance, including the United States in artillery production, which is old technology by like a factor of two or three. Iran's two weeks from a nuclear weapon, according to Tony Blinken and worse, these actors have come together. Now you will hear from the sort primacists and liberals that that means that we have to fight them all at the same time. No, to the contrary, it means they are collaborating together precisely to tie us down and deplete us. And that's what's happened in the war in Ukraine, where we have expended a tremendous amount of weapons Ditto in places like attacking the Houthis and so forth. At the same time, our defense industrial base has wildly atrophied from where it was 30 years ago. And this is why the agenda for reindustrialization is so important. But that's going to take a long time, as Senator Vance has pointed out. Meantime, China.

[Tucker Carlson]

Wait, so can I say it's not. I mean, I thought one of the justifications, the main justification for this wildly inflated Ukraine funding was that it was going to help reestablish America's industrial base.

[Bridge Colby]

In fact, one of the most kind of oft used arguments by a lot of the advocates for the war in Ukraine was that we would sort of degrade the Russian military for a song and restore our defense industrial base at the same time. Actually, more or less the worst, the reverse has happened. The Russian military is larger, and this is, you know, General Cavoli, the sacur has admitted this. The Russian military is larger, it's battle hardened. I mean, our military has not fought a peer adversary well I mean really since World War II, but certainly since Vietnam and Korea. The Russians have gone toe to toe with Ukrainians who are capable and they have a revved up defense industry at the same time. So in a sense we're worse. Meantime, the Europeans have basically been asleep at the switch, not, not going through with their defense buildup with a few, no exceptions like Poland. So, and then you look at China, which is the by far the most formidable challenger, 10 times the GDP of Russia. This administration, Tony Blinken, has said Xi Jinping has given the instructions to their military to be ready for a war over Taiwan by 2027. Frank Kendall, the secretary of the Air Force in the Biden administration, said the other day that he thinks the Chinese military will say they're ready, we have to be ready for this. My view is desperately want peace. The Chinese are going to look at us both in terms of our strength, but also in terms of our political commitments. And this is where I think President Trump has been exactly right, which is being willing to talk to President Xi Jinping, not insulting President Xi Jinping and President Putin and others unnecessarily, not supporting things like Taiwan independence and at the same time being prepared to be strong. And this is where I think if, if, if we appoint or if people are put into positions of power who think that we can walk in, chew gum and do everything and start wars in three different theaters at the same time, not only will that be bad like it was in the Iraq war, and it's Often the same people. It will be far more catastrophic. Tucker, I don't think this is an exaggeration. I think we stand on the precipice of losing a major power war for the first time in our history. So people need to know what time it is. And that really requires focusing on China with the purpose of peace, like we did in the Cold War, which was to say we're going to be strong, we're not going to go over the line like Eisenhower did in 1950. He's not going to go into Hungary, we're not going to go to Czechoslovakia, 1968. But don't come across our line because you see it's not going to succeed for you. So I think we really stand at a crossroads and I think President Trump has a mandate for peace. So don't I just as an American, whatever happens to me, I so hope that we don't end up with the same failed recipe of starting wars all over the place or getting enmeshed in conflicts when we can't afford to do so. They're not in interest the American people.

[Tucker Carlson]

From a non expert position, which is my position, just as someone who's watching kind of. There does seem to be broad recognition that whatever our objectives in Ukraine were, we didn't achieve them and we can't. Zelensky immediately comes out upon Trump's election and says, actually, I'm for peace. That does maybe seem like it's winding down. Who knows, I hope. But the noises are consistent with winding down. So. But at the same time, the very people who are pushing that war all of a sudden like very excited about a war with Iran. Yeah, it's like they just seamlessly move. It's like, oh, Ukraine, whatever. Actually the real problem is Iran and telling us that Iran's trying to murder President Trump, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know what's true. I don't. But how would the, what would happen if we went to war with Iran?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, I mean, I think, you know, look, Iran's a bad regime. We don't want to have a nuclear weapon, we don't want support Israel, we don't want to be able to support groups attacking Israel, et cetera, et cetera. But like, haven't we learned the lesson over the last 25 years about the ill advised nature of very significant conflicts in the Middle east that don't have clear goals and clear connection to American interests? Like haven't we been over like didn't we run this experiment a couple times and it's often the, like the exact same people calling for war with Iran who were involved in the past. And it's like, shouldn't there be some degree of accountability? Moreover, yes, it's like a bad idea in itself. I mean, you know, like I was criticized in the Bulwark by Eric Adelman, who is Dick Cheney's advisor and number three at the Pentagon under Bush. He said my ideas were iconoclastic. And I was like, thank you. I'm delighted that you think my ideas are iconoclastic.

[Tucker Carlson]

How could Eric Adelman be writing with any credibility at all on foreign policy questions after being, you know, intimately involved in the Iraq war and then never apologizing? I don't understand. There should be some international authority that requires contrition, like, like a moral un where you don't get to say another word until you don ashes and sackcloth.

[Bridge Colby]

And apologize who among us is. And I'm certainly not inerrant, I'm certainly not infallible. But like, at least show some, you know, it's like Paul Chicot of the Wall Street Journal a couple, like a year ago gave a speech, I treated the Iraq wars like a mulligan. You know, it's like, I think that's like a big deal. And you know, obviously a lot of people got it, you know, had different views, et cetera. But it's like, it's kind of show the contrition, show the penance, show the, show the learning. And so that I think is, you know, the other thing though, Tucker, is like, it's the same people who are calling for attacking Iran who are also calling for escalating the war in Ukraine or even a no fly zone, recognizing an independent Taiwan or getting in a war with China or attacking North Korea. It's like if we do all those things, we know objectively as a fact that our military is not capable of fighting more than one major war at a time. So even if you did want to, getting in multiple fights with people at the same time is just like foolhardy. And I mean, but, but the way I think about it is the Washington blob establishment can get us into wars and crises, but they can't fix the problem. So it's really important right now. And it seems to me that you're just listening to President Trump and his historic victory, the decisive mandate he got, his leadership, his mandate, his agenda for peace from position of strength. Use the military sparingly, but have it be strong. It's really important not to get enmeshed all over the place. And either bleed ourselves out or in a catastrophic multi front loss.

[Tucker Carlson]

I think that's the last thing Donald Trump wants.

[Bridge Colby]

Certainly seems that way, right?

[Tucker Carlson]

I mean the arc of his life is just, is so remarkable the redemption that we just saw on Tuesday, without precedent really in American history. And so if you wanted to destroy his presidency, his second presidency, what's, you know, what's the one foolproof way to destroy it?

[Bridge Colby]

No, no president has ever lost a great power war. Donald Trump has run to his enormous historic credit. He has been shot, he has been had lawfare conducted against him and he has had the bravery and the vision and the persistence and the commitment at great personal physical cost, but also to his reputation, his family, et cetera, to stand up for these principles that the United States desperately needs. Putting Americans interests first, peace, prosperity, et cetera, reindustrialization. Now is the time to put that into practice. Whoever it is, I just, I can't stress how, how important that is. And if you're thinking about a historical legacy, Joe Biden's going to leave a legacy that's terrible. I mean we're, you know, for all the things, you know, you mentioned the war in Ukraine, two and a half years in. Julian Barnes, New York Times just reported that the intelligence community is reporting that the Ukrainians are losing, that it's not a stalemate. So after all that, after all the preaching, after all the moralism, the Ukrainians are losing the war and the Russians are making enormous progress and we're unprepared, we're unprepared for a war with China. The Middle east is in the worst situation in years. We can't even stop the Houthis like a third or fourth rate power and we're not prepared. So they've left us on the precipice, they've put us on a, you know, the Titanic is, is directing towards the iceberg. It's going to take a sharp turn. And the way I think about this, and when I worked for the Brown Order work for President Trump in his, in his first term, when we worked on the defense strategy to try to get us to prioritize again in my view with the same logic, very consistent with what President Trump I think was trying to lay out, that was like, you know, we were a couple miles from the iceberg back then. Now we're like right up, you know, we're a few thousand yards and it's not easy to turn the Titanic and if you turn the Titanic 90 degrees, people are going to fall out of their bunks. Chandeliers and beautiful, you know, plates are going to get broken, but that's where we are. But that is the fault of what I call the liberal primacist alliance. That is the fault of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the primacist sort of old school Republicans who if they pursued that policy further, would lead us to catastrophe.

[Tucker Carlson]

Then how is it that from what I can tell, pretty much every person in the running for the big national security jobs other than you, is part of that alliance? And I know them all and I like some of them. A couple sitting US Senators who I think are really nice guys, but they're tools of the people you describe completely. There's no doubt about it. How is it that there are so few people on the Republican side in national security with experience who agree with the president elect who leads the party?

[Bridge Colby]

So I've thought a lot about this because I've been fighting, as you kindly gesture and a sort of a lonely battle within the sort of blob to put us on. Like to me, what is common sense. Exactly.

[Tucker Carlson]

That's right.

[Bridge Colby]

And yet so few people do it. And why is that? It's so weird and honestly, so much of your insight and commentaries both on this show and your other podcast interviews and your shows, et cetera, because I think it's like, I think there's a human sociological element, I mean, not to get. And one of the things that's kind of bizarre is that I think like today people like us, we can learn a lot from the New Left of the, of the 60s and 70s. Like there's something wrong with the establishment and the way the establishment now, I believe there's always an establishment. There's an establishment in Ma China, but we need a better establishment.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, that's it.

[Bridge Colby]

You know, you're a friend of, you're a fan of Teddy Roosevelt too. Like, the idea that like the establishment just does what it used to do is like. No, the point is the establishment is supposed to serve the people. Right, of course. But I think there's an element and I try to give credit because like, yeah, there's money and stuff, but there's other ways of making money. I think it's this psychic kind of like network benefit of being part of like essentially functionally an imperial capital.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah.

[Bridge Colby]

And everybody comes to, you know, this, right. They come to the capital and say, you're so wise, we need your leadership. You're so, you're so moral and your vision. And it happens in Congress where people come. They probably not thought about foreign Policy that much. There are all these structures set up to kind of acculturate them. And again, like, I don't want to sound too new left, but like, you know, this is kind of what happens. And so you need, I think, a clear eyed view of how to change and frankly, a willingness to buck the system. And this to me is like. And I'm certainly far from the only person to make this point. I think you have as well. It's like President Trump ran against the system and that is so important because it's the system, the liberal primacist alliance in other things like trade and economics, et cetera, that need to be a fundamental change. And already he's paid the price, literally, and shown the bravery and commitment to go through that. And so now it's about like capitalizing. And frankly, my hope is if that happened, a lot of these people, especially in the younger generations, would follow. And I forgive me for a little bit of patting myself on the back, but I think it's an apropos comment. I was out at a thing a few months ago and this young guy came up, you know, strong guy, whatever, and he said, hey, you know, Mr. Colby, I'm going in the Marines and I just want to say all the young Republicans love what you're saying. And I said to him, I was like, well, that's good, because all the old Republicans hate it. And he's like, yeah, that's the point.

[Tucker Carlson]

Boy, do they.

[Bridge Colby]

Boy, do they, they do they. And that's like, to me, I always, I think of myself, I'm like the first line not to. If this is. Although, you know, there are people out there you wonder about, but like, this is, this is not like actually getting shot, but it's like I'm trying to think about how do we protect Americans from not getting shot.

[Tucker Carlson]

Of course.

[Bridge Colby]

Right. And so, and so I think the young people can see it. You know, the young people who are like, you know, who were not bought in to, you know, who have not been kind of acculturated, worked for ex senator on this committee for 10 years and then went to that think tank and blah, blah, blah. I think, I think if you build it, they will come. But it's like the first echelon. We take a lot of, we take a lot of metaphorical flack, hopefully. Metaphorical.

[Tucker Carlson]

I just, and I won't go on about this, but I am a little bit distressed by it. Very distressed by it. But like someone like Mike Pompeo, I'll just say the name. Who I don't think is going to get a job in this administration. I would pray that he's not. I think he's a criminal. I've said that plotted to murder someone who hadn't even been charged with a crime. That's a criminal act. Should be arrested for that. That's my view. But even if you don't believe that he's been anti Trump for eight years, worked against Trump and he's a crazed neocon and he's still being talked about and promoted again, I don't think he's going to get the job. But promoted to run the national security establishment in the United States. How can that even happen?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, look, I mean, I think it's. If I were advising President Trump, I would say, especially now that the mandate has happened.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yes.

[Bridge Colby]

Why pick some. Anybody who's not aligned with what you're trying to do. I mean, I saw the last ad that President Trump ran. I mean, it was a stirring ad like, and it won. Who was in that ad? You? Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Vivek and Vice President Elect Vance. That is the mandate, you know, so like my hope is that he will own that and that is the way for. That's the way for peace. And there's going to be debates about various policies and how to emphasize this or that. But why go back, especially in a situation where as successful as the first term is. The situation that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are leaving President Trump in January is. I cannot stress how dangerous it is. And he's right. I mean, the way that President Trump again has commendably talked about the risk of nuclear war. I worked on nuclear issues a lot. My kind of starting point a lot was like working on nuclear weapons and nuclear strategy and arms control. I worked on arms control with the Russians. We should be afraid of these things. You know, a salutary fear. Not like an, you know, unmanning fear, if you will.

[Tucker Carlson]

Right.

[Bridge Colby]

But like a salutary fear in the beginning of wisdom is fear or whatever the Bible says to that effect. I should, I should know that. But it's true. It's true. Right? Is under understanding and calibrating. And to me, one of the like touch grass kind of things about a lot of the people who are calling for like no fly zones in over Ukraine and intervening against the Russians and escalating and allowing US Weapons to be overtly used to attack Moscow and Russian strategic, you know, forces sites like that. That is, that is obviously crazy. It's like time out like that is. Obviously there are many Republicans. Yes. In fact, some of the Republicans. That's why I think that the arguments within the Republican Party in some ways are fiercer because my hope, Tucker and I, this is something you've been, you know, on for a while, but it's like the Democrats are like, they're sort of inherently out of position right now. Like, where is the left? Where, where are the people who are like, anti war? Where are the people who say the CIA is not above reproach or the FBI is not above reproach? Who are the people, you know, Wright Mills or whatever, the power elite and all this stuff? Those people have, those movements have to come back. And I think that that's something where, especially given the mandate that President Trump has been, has won that hope. I mean, you know, whatever you think of Bernie Sanders, the fact that he said, like, we're out of, we're out of position, you know, and others are saying they're out of position from. My hope is that Democrats will go back. In a sense, the kind of arguments that I'm making that I think you could have heard a Democrat make 10 minutes ago. Right. Or 30 years ago or 40 years ago. Hey, we need, we've got to be able to talk to our opponents. We have to have a strong military but not get into unnecessary wars.

[Tucker Carlson]

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[Tucker Carlson]

You mentioned CIA. Now is probably a good time to address it. Your last name is Colby. That is familiar. That's a familiar name to anyone who knows the history of the Central Intelligence Agency or grant grandfather ran it William Colby. And there so there are two interesting things. One is I'm sure this will set off just explosions of theorizing on the Internet. So what is your view of CIA? How is that why. I think that's why your family's in Washington. Because you're.

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah, well actually my, my great grandfather was a career army officer so I come from a kind of a national security, you know, background. I mean my dad not, not so much but. But you know look my view on the intelligence community and I worked on this stuff myself when I was kind of early in my career. Although on the commission that looked at why I rocke intelligence is wrong. I didn't agree with my grandfather for everything. With everything. I didn't know him super well. I mean I know a lot about how he approached things and how he, you know, his record and so forth. One thing where I do really agree with him and where his legal training and the fact that actually as Jim Schlesinger said he was the first liberal to become director of Central Intelligence was that he thought and I agree with him that you need a CIA, you need a national security establishment. But it's not above reproach and it needs to be accountable and that's what he wanted. You know, the interesting thing about him, and you know, just to stress that I don't take any credit for it. Like, I'm just telling just because you asked me. But, you know, he was in World War II. He was then a field guy. He was in Europe, and then he was in Vietnam for a long time. And then he kind of ended up as director by happenstance, as these things sometimes do during Watergate. And so. And he had not been really involved. He wasn't one of the inside club of like the, you know, I see you got Dick Helms book, the man who Kept the Secret. He was the kind of ultimate insider Washington operator, kind of. My grandfather was out. Unlike me, I'm more of a, you know, D.C. d.C. Type, policy type. But. But I think he came in and he said, there's a chance that. I mean, remember this? The Democrats at the time, the congressional class of 1974, very left wing, a lot of them were thinking, let's just get rid of this place. Let's get rid of the intelligence community. And his view is like, that's not good for our country, but it's not good that they're spying on Americans. You know, I gotten debates on some of these on Twitter sometimes about, like, whether the American government is funding some of the stuff, you know, in Europe or whatever, NATO, blah, blah, blah, that's reverberating back into the American political system. It's like, yeah, it's happened, you know. Right.

[Tucker Carlson]

For a long time.

[Bridge Colby]

For a long time. So it's like, it's not unreasonable. And by the way, sunlight is the best disinfectant. And by the way, who were some of the people who were opposed at that time? Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, you know, they were opposed to any kind of Henry Kissinger, any kind of accountability for the intelligence community. And so that's how I look at it. I think there's a real need for accountability also in the professional military. What is this going on with four star officers, recently retired, who have no political vetting? They haven't been elected dog catcher. Weighing in on extremely sensitive points on American calling one of the presidential candidates a fascist. That is wildly inappropriate. There needs to be a fundamental change. First of all, it's wrong. Second of all, it's not consistent with our constitutional order. Remember that our founding fathers who had gone through the revolution, who had fought a war against a great power and wonderful. They were like the nasty Politics is a feature. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson talking about each other's mother Fine standing military. We only built a serious standing military. American military officers wore civilian clothes into the Pentagon as late as World War II, maybe even after. So we have come. This is since 1947 or since World War II, basically. And I think we need it, given what's happening. But it needs to be accountable. The third point I would make about this group is where do they get off? Like has our military been successful? Have our political military goals been achieved over the last 25 years?

[Tucker Carlson]

Call me when you win a war.

[Bridge Colby]

If you're Dwight Iser. And by the way, most of that guilt goes towards the liberal primacist alliance. The politicians who did it. Yes, but also the war leaders who, for instance, HR McMaster wrote a book called Dereliction of Duty about how the generals in Vietnam did not tell Lyndon Johnson they couldn't successfully prosecute that war. Okay, I agree with you. How is the senior military done? So I think some humility, getting back to basics and staying out of politics is really needed.

[Tucker Carlson]

It's infuriating. It does challenge the idea of our constitutional order. I agree completely. But it's also ominous. So when you read that the Pentagon now has a new policy where at the direction of civilian leadership, they can kill Americans in the United States. What is that?

[Bridge Colby]

Look, there's a lot of things that need to be taken a look at where we have gotten, especially after 9, 11, where it's just, just metastasize, right where we need to ask ourselves what is the right? And I think you've done this like commendably where you're saying, look, you know, I was here on this position here and I'm same same thing where like, you know, but look at, look at the costs and people like, you know, who were, we would say on the old new left who would have said, oh my God, this is going to be abused. And people like us were like, ah, don't worry about it. And now they were right. So let's take a new look at that. Again, I think we need to have the capabilities, but I also think this is where this group, I mean practically speaking, not only former, I mean former CIA leaders, implying that President Trump was a Russian agent is a wild abuse of the trust because it's a special trust with classified information and special authorities. And it's almost like a religious obligation where there needs to be a self discipline and an understanding that there's certain things you can't do. And that's been deeply violated. And I think frankly Republicans agree that a lot of Democrats or independents or Whatever voted for President Trump, they've delivered a verdict on this issue. So I think you need people who have that balance, which to me is the American way is to say, look, the people have spoken. This stuff got out of. Got out of hand, and we need to have a balance, but we need to preserve what we need for our security.

[Tucker Carlson]

What do you do in Ukraine?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, one is, I hope the President is successful and leans forward on his plan to end the war. And I just say, I don't know what that is, but. But nobody knew what Dwight Eisenhower was talking about in 1952. Nobody knew what Richard Nixon was talking about in 1968, and nobody knew what Ronald Reagan was talking about in 1980. You already see indications that players, including President Putin, might be changing, and the Ukrainians, for that matter. So I hope there's a basis what exactly that looks like. I don't think, you know, you're not going to, like, liberate Crimea. Right. That's obvious. And the war is not going well. I think that's step one. And I think the Europeans needed. I mean, this is something I've been banging on. It's just so common sense. And by the way, you want to talk about who's helping Biden and Harris, you know, would go to Europe and say, you don't need to worry about anything, but so would kind of primacist type Republicans. They would go to Europe and say, don't worry, we can do everything. We're leading. They didn't do the Europeans any favors. They didn't do the Ukrainians any favors, let alone, you know, anybody else, let alone the American people, because they promised things they couldn't deliver. And this is something where, you know, and I said this, I was. Russ doubt that. We had an interview right before the election in the New York Times. You know, where I'd get, oh, isn't it. Ross didn't say this, but it was sort of like questioning the morality of what President Trump's saying. I don't think there's been a stronger case, a more important time for foreign policy that is more moral than what you see, which is the moralism, which is all intention. You see it on the left from Tony Blinken, just saying, oh, the Ukrainians are fighting for freedom, so we need to do X, Y, Z. And then failing. The way I think about it is like, no, we need a foreign policy that's more like, how does a parent think about the responsibility of the child?

[Tucker Carlson]

Exactly.

[Bridge Colby]

Or let's say you're on the board of an Orphanage. You know, you might have a really good guy. He goes to church every Sunday. He's like, you know, but never cheats at cards or whatever. But he sucks at handling the money. You know, you're going to hire a guy who's actually going to take care of the orphans.

[Tucker Carlson]

Exactly.

[Bridge Colby]

And that is. And, well, by the way, if all.

[Tucker Carlson]

The orphans die, it doesn't matter how much you love them.

[Bridge Colby]

Exactly. Or claim that you do, you don't actually love them.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, of course you don't, because the purpose of a system is its effect. And what's the effect of the war in Ukraine is to depopulate Ukraine and now to allow foreigners, including many Americans, including Blackrock, to buy the soil of Ukraine.

[Bridge Colby]

I mean, it's certainly not. Whatever this has happened has definitely not been beneficial.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, the Ukrainians just lost Ukraine, but not to the Russians, but through the encouragement of the Biden administration. That's my view of it. But how close do you think we have come to a nuclear exchange with Russia during the last.

[Bridge Colby]

I think it's close. I mean, and Woodward for, you know, I mean, I'm not sure how reliable he is on everything, but I think the reporting that the Biden administration, which was against interest, was very worried about Russian nuclear employment in later 2022 is very, very concerning. I think it was. It was quite real. And the people who are blithe and insouciant about it, I think is a incredibly irresponsible and should not be near serious decisions.

[Tucker Carlson]

Who are those people?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, I think you see this kind of liberal premises. There's a lot of people who, who signed the no Fly zone or who made comments on Twitter or otherwise around that time and have said since, have said, oh, you know, lift all the restrictions on the employment of U.S. forces. And by the way, what's very clear is a lot of these people, if given the opportunity, if they thought the political environment would bear it, would support direct intervention, which if we go to war with the Russians directly, the Russians are very prepared to use nuclear weapons. So we have to be realistic about what that entails.

[Tucker Carlson]

What does that entail?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, I mean, I think the Russians. One thing about Putin that's, that's important. And again, like, you don't have to like the person to understand that we need to take this guy seriously. Right. Is he, you know, as he was, as he assumed power and took over from Yeltsin, which in the Russian mind was a catastrophically disastrous period. One of the first things Putin invested in was the recapitalization of the Russian nuclear forces and the way Putin talks about Russian nuclear weapons and nuclear strategy indicates that he has a quite sophisticated understanding of nuclear strategy. And of course, you know, a lot of it is speculation because thank God they've only been used once or twice. But it says to me this guy's credible and he has an idea of how to use him. You don't start by blowing up Washington D.C. you start potentially with something like battlefield use, selective strikes against things like places in Europe or more peripheral targets. But it can go up there and then you manipulate risk. And if weapons are used in that way, you can see millions of people. I mean, and we have almost no defense against. That's why I think President Trump, for instance, like, having a better shield would be great, but right now were pretty much denuded.

[Tucker Carlson]

I just don't understand. I mean, I guess it's kind of late in the game to whine about it, but we provided, you know, a missile defense shield to another country, but we don't have one. Like how, how did that happen?

[Bridge Colby]

I don't know. I mean, I think, I think that's something that we can work on. I mean, it's technically very difficult, but I think having something better than what.

[Tucker Carlson]

We have now, we're always bragging about, you know, the use of the sophisticated use of our defensive missile technology abroad. Like, did it occur to nobody that the purpose of the US Military is to defend the United States?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, it is. And by the way, up until the ABM treaty was signed in the late 60s, you would go around American cities and there would be Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules nuclear tipped missile defense interceptors and other kinds of NORAD and all these kinds of things. So I think having a stronger defense of the American homeland makes sense. And also, like, you know, people talk about the American military being used, you know, in relation to Mexico, it's like. Well, I think Mexico is like a, you know, and the immigration issue is very, very complicated and everything. But like, you know, the American military is to defend the United States. Right. So like, that should be, you know, so to me, the core missions of the American military that really need to be focused on is defense the homeland, preventing China from becoming the hegemonic power in Asia. Because I think we'll never re. Industrialize, we'll never be autonomous and be what America needs to be if China dominates Asia. But I hope and think we can do that without a war, working with others that pull their own weight and then, and then having an ability to make sure that we don't have a replication of 9, 11. Now, some of that is like being smarter about how we use our military. But. But I think some of it is, you know, you got to keep tabs out there. And then I think it's like, about supporting, you know, people say Trump is anti ally. I think that's totally wrong. It's just a different model of allies that's obviously, A, is much closer to the Cold War model and B is common sense is like permanent.

[Tucker Carlson]

Trump is anti ally. So our, of course, most important ally in Europe is Germany.

[Bridge Colby]

Yes. Which is totally.

[Tucker Carlson]

And we just destroyed. And so. But by the way.

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah.

[Tucker Carlson]

We had a direct hand. This is not speculation. I'm willing to say it's fact in blowing up Nord Stream. So I know we're blaming the Ukrainians, but, like, we did that. I'm just going to say that. No, that's not true. It is true. So how exactly do we get to launch an act of industrial terrorism against our closest NATO ally? How is that allyship?

[Bridge Colby]

Well, the thing that's. That's weird. And this gets, I think also into the context of, like, who benefits? You know, cui bono? Right.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah.

[Bridge Colby]

Is like, so since the Ukraine war broke out, the European economy and particularly the German economy has been like, in freefall. So there was this kind of cute argument for a while that we had somehow like, benefited from Europe sucking air after the Ukraine.

[Tucker Carlson]

I've heard many people say that.

[Bridge Colby]

And it's like, well, no, no, wait, hold on. Our point, if you go back to like, Dwight Eisenhower and like, common sense is like, no, we want them to stand on our two feet. Like, I don't get a rise out of, of lording it over the Europeans. This is sort of this mindset that.

[Tucker Carlson]

Like, well, this is still fundamentally a European country. This was a European colony. So Europe is basically allied with the United States on a very fundamental level, or certainly has been for 250 years. So destroying Europe. Well, right, with some exceptions. But in general, you fight them with.

[Bridge Colby]

The people closest to you.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, that's right. But I mean, like Christian Europe, right. It's basically our ally. And destroying Western Europe, which I think we've done. How does that help us? I don't understand.

[Bridge Colby]

I don't think that it's. I mean, the interesting thing about that is, I mean, you know, obviously we're, you know, settled, you know, originally by Europeans, now we have people coming from all over the world, etc. But the thing is, actually, if you look back at our early history, we stayed out of Europe.

[Tucker Carlson]

Oh, I know.

[Bridge Colby]

We were actually more involved in the Western hemisphere, particularly the, you know, Caribbean and Asia actually. So people say, oh, you know, you never, we're never going to get focused on Asia. I don't think that's true. Who opened the black, who the black ships opened Japan.

[Tucker Carlson]

Exactly.

[Bridge Colby]

People were trading in a lot of the early American fortunes. You know, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, that was the China. Right. People trading in Canton, sometimes with opium, you know, and then like Samoa, Hawaii, et cetera. So I'm not saying like we have, we have a strong interest in Europe.

[Tucker Carlson]

Philippines.

[Bridge Colby]

The Philippines, of course. Thank you. In fact, my great grandfather, we were talking about our families. Like I, he was an army officer in the interwar period and he was stationed at the American. There was like a concession in China, not China's proudest period, but you know, that we were, we were present. So what that, what I think that means to me is a couple things. One, if you actually go back to American history at our best and really kind of, you know, the first kind of really until 1989, we did pretty well with the exception, I think, to things like Vietnam and stuff like that. But it was pretty hard nosed. Like you go back to Washington's farewell address, Hamilton, et cetera. It's like we're looking after number one. So this idea that America first is somehow inconsistent, it's like, like, by the way, a republic is supposed to be in the interests of everybody, right? Like, that's the definition. So when people say Trump is transactional or whatever, I'm like, good, right? We need, he's like the, you know, the CEO of America and the board is saying, hey, look after our interests, right? That's actually what you want. And then on Europe, it's like we don't actually benefit. I mean, it's been a disaster. I think objectively, the policy over the last two and a half years in particular has been a total disaster. Germany is in real economic straits. The Ukrainians are losing the war. They haven't built up their military. But you know, hey, Joe Biden got a medal from Olaf Schultz, who's probably going to be out of a job as well. I hope so in a few months for their sake. I mean, I don't believe in like in intervening. Apparently the Europeans, Schultz himself, feel free to intervene in our politics. Schultz endorsed Biden. Do your job. I was, I was at the Republican convention, as you were a couple months ago, and I was getting lectured by a few members of the Bundestag, the Germans, Congress, Equivalent conservatives, putative conservatives. And they were like, why can't you do what Reagan did? And I said, you know what, there's some problems with that, et cetera. Like, great debt to gdp, our military. How about you start out by spending as much on defense as the American people do? Like, why don't our.

[Tucker Carlson]

Like that?

[Bridge Colby]

That, to me, is like, what President Trump. And against the whole foreign policy establishment. Why? Because the foreign policy establishment likes the dependency model.

[Tucker Carlson]

Of course, they like the welfare model in the United States. They want people in public housing.

[Bridge Colby]

Right. And that's what I've said to the Europeans. It's part of my message to the Europeans is like, hey, it's not just your fault. I'm not just castigating you as responsible, you are. It's also our fault, especially our establishment. But if you look at the message from the American people, it's, we don't want more of that establishment. And that's, again, why it's so important to have the right policies and vision. Well, we've got the vision. The question now is implementation.

[Tucker Carlson]

So the problems for the president elect are the same as they were in the first administration. I would say, how do you staff this thing with people who are aligned with you? And how do you keep the people who presently occupy every position of power, who operate the levers of power, how do you keep them from wrecking the project secretly?

[Bridge Colby]

And the thing that's different is that the international situation that he's being left with is truly dire. And so there's no room for kind of like sort of delay or there's no.

[Tucker Carlson]

I'm sorry, I don't want to start attacking people, but I just know everybody, as I know you do.

[Bridge Colby]

Well, they have.

[Tucker Carlson]

No, no. I mean, the people who want these jobs in The Trump, the second Trump administration, and there's no. They act like it's 1985.

[Bridge Colby]

That's the thing.

[Tucker Carlson]

They have not updated their files. These are the dumbest people, I think I've ever.

[Bridge Colby]

In the debate when he said to.

[Tucker Carlson]

Pence, why shouldn't he Secretary of State?

[Bridge Colby]

I think the fake would be an amazing, amazing. I mean, he's there. He was out hustling for the president. You know, he's, he's. I mean, we all say we know what time it is, but he, like, delivered these memorable lines against Pence in that debate. And then he debated John Bolton, I think, at vmi. And it was just like, it was a very human point. I saw the segment where he's just like, you grew up and that's being generous, honestly, to John Bolton, frankly, which. So I admired Vivek on that point, but said, you grew up in the era of Apollo 11. And I grew up in the era. And he's younger than I am. The global financial crisis, Iraq, failed wars, increasingly fractious society, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it's like, like, you know, nobody. There's a friend of mine who, who was interviewed in one of these stories about the new right and so forth, and he said, nobody under the age of 30, I know is a conservative, treats the neoconservative idea with anything but derision and scorn. Something like that. And it was just like, I'm confident where things are heading, but we don't have time. Because if China, like, and, and I'm not a fanatic on China, right? Like, my view on China is, and I think the Chinese understand this, my view is we need to be strong, but we also need, like in the Cold War, there's like a line and there's. We don't cross it, and we need to be able to decouple the thing, you know, get reindustrialized things. Lighthizer and Navarro, et cetera, are talking about, which is bring back industry, have more autonomy, but at the same time, you know, there's a line, but we're not going to go. And regime change. There are people who served in the first Trump administration who are talking about regime change in China, who are talking about primacy over China, like, dominating China, like that is so dangerous. And often they're the same people who are supporting total support of Ukraine, which makes zero sense, Zero sense. So my view is you got to do the things you're talking about, but you've also got to say, we got to. And Senator Vance has made. Vice President Elect Vance has made these points very well. Reindustrialization is critical, but it's going to take some time. In the meantime, given that the Biden team has used up so much of our weaponry and so forth, we got a husband, what we have. And again, to me, that is with the purpose of not getting into wars.

[Tucker Carlson]

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[Bridge Colby]

So my, you know, it's interesting. I think again, maybe I'm too optimistic but like, you know, I deal with, you know, I was, I dealt with a lot of four stars when I was there. When you worked.

[Tucker Carlson]

When you worked, when I worked the Pentagon.

[Bridge Colby]

Because the thing about my job, I was like a sort of, my formal title was a little bit kind of middle, upper middle tier but basically I was running the strategy. So I had a lot of exposure. I was kind of operating above my, the sort of normal level. So I had, I got a lot of experience and I've stayed in touch with these people. I watch, I watch them. Here's the thing. And you know, there's a good. Kissinger I don't think was that great of a statesman, but I think he was a brilliant writer and sort of observer. He said something like big strategic shifts don't take place just by acts of virtuosity. They reflect underlying trends. And I think you talk to people in the military and I keep in touch with a lot of them. They know what I'm saying is like common sense for military people. They know our readiness is down. They know our defense industrial base is in trouble. They know the Chinese are moving like gangbusters. They know the Russians aren't a joke. They know we can't afford to get into another big Middle Eastern war. So if you show at the top level clarity and courage as president Trump has in charting the direction and he has people under him who are genuinely trying to put that into place. I think if you build it, they will come. And here's the other thing. Bear in mind that since 2008, the Democrats have been in control almost the whole time and under before that it was the Iraq war group. So a lot of the people who've made it to the top of a very flat pyramid, they know how to like. Here's the thing about the military and you look at people like John Kelly being out there, you know, moralizing and calling President Trump a fascist, which is like absurd and appropriate and terrible on its face. But it's also like the military. We should respect military service. I certainly do, especially in people in combat and so forth. But you know, the military, there's careerism, there is promotion, people are looking after their own interests, et cetera. The people at the top of the pyramid often are people who have satisfied the criteria for promotion and selection. That's fine. You know, people respond to incentives, but it is the most ruthless selection process. And bear in mind, talk about the Republic, the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps predate the Constitution. So these are very deeply embedded institutions. People live their entire adult lives in them. If they get to be a four star. So you just got like again, going to like a new left thing. You look at it sociologically, you're like, this is going to have some pathologies. Obviously it's a really important institution, but you got to like. But I think at the end of.

[Tucker Carlson]

The day this is going to have some pathologies. Nicely put.

[Bridge Colby]

There are people in there who want to do the right thing, you know, or they can be motivated to do the right thing. That's fantastic. People in the military and if they're rewarded for it, they will go, they will get. Because a lot of the guys who would have wanted to do that, they cash out as a colonel or a Navy captain or a one star, you know. But if we put the President Trump and his team, I should say they put the right incentives, I think, I think it'll get better, I must say.

[Tucker Carlson]

It's just having spent my life in D.C. and just running into them a lot or living near them, it was always so noticeable. I met so many bright, energetic, wise, I would say colonels. Yeah, but far fewer. You know, I can think of one Marine two star. I knew Marine general who I thought was so impressive. I'll even say his name, Vinnie Colonnays. Wonderful man. But you know, didn't meet a lot of Other flag officers that I thought were anything other than politicians, I think.

[Bridge Colby]

I think, I'm sure they exist. I mean, I think real. I'll put it this way. Most of the real. There's some brilliant defense guys I'll mention, a Democrat I have a lot of respect for. Bob Work, who served in the Pentagon, is a great guy who's a Marine colonel, retired. Andrew Krepanovich, who was another brilliant guy, an army guy, retired colonel. Often the guys who are really the highest horsepower, real strategic thinkers, they cash out at that level because that's what the selection is for. It's not to say that other people aren't. Aren't smart, but like the people that. And, you know, there's so noticeable. And there's a mismatch between how people think. Like, oh, you know, he has four stars. Ergo, he's like a strategic genius. No, no, that's not how the selection process works. You know what I mean? Like, they, they're promoted for like running a large. A corps, an army corps, you know, or fleet. That's different than. That's fine. But let's, let's understand what we're dealing with.

[Tucker Carlson]

But shouldn't the process. Isn't the point of promotion to, you know, winnow out the less capable and elevated.

[Bridge Colby]

Well, it depends on what you're selecting for. Well, I guess that's it. But I think, hey, how about selecting for winning? You know, hey, like, how about that? As opposed to like, you know, kind of like playing the game and saying the right things and, you know, we don't know. That's the other thing about like, you know, I love the meme of Mark Milley and Eisenhower and their chests, like, I just, it's so perfect, you know, it's just, it's just you could speak for 10 hours and I watched her.

[Tucker Carlson]

Millie, in that famous now famous hearing, talking about white rage. I thought, this is a guy who doesn't have any idea what he's talking about. He's saying words he thinks he's supposed to say. Doesn't seem terribly bright. He seems weak. Above all, he seems like the product of a bureaucracy to me, which probably shouldn't surprise me.

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah. And I think there's. And again, to this pathology point, you know, like if you read McMaster's memoirs, for instance, he's almost kind of lecturing the American people about their need to like, double defense spending and stay in Afghanistan until the second coming. And it's like, it's that touch grass kind of thing where like, you don't have political accountability, like direct. I mean, for instance, not only they're not elected, but people who are civilian appointees go through political vetting, so they have a kind of indirect political accountability, you know, where the elect, you have to demonstrate loyalty and, you know, you're on, on the team, et cetera. You have to be aware of that. The military, they, they really don't have that ostensibly, although I wonder about the left in kind of through the back door importing some of those things. But so, so you get to this point where you think that you're like, well, I'm speaking in front of a large group of people because I'm a four star general. And it's like, actually you really have no standing to talk about that issue at all, you know, because that's a domestic issue that you like, don't have any political finger feel for, and you're supposed to be much more careful and modest about that anyway.

[Tucker Carlson]

But they have no moral authority, right, to speak about anything like that. Because they have no authority apart from that granted them by the President.

[Bridge Colby]

Exactly.

[Tucker Carlson]

Because we have civilian control. And the President's authority comes from voters.

[Bridge Colby]

Right. And by the way, and if somebody has authority and it's like the Audie Murphy guy, the guys that you talking to who are like out there in the field of Fallujah or whatever, they have authority, you know, but I'm always like, you know, another guy, Frank McKenzie, who's out there a lot, who's constantly hammering, you know, these points. And I was like, well, he was the CENTCOM commander when the Afghanistan withdrawal happened, and he didn't put his stars on the, you know, if he thought there was a better way, why didn't he put his stars on the table? So, like, why are, you know, like, okay, I mean, I personally supported the Afghanistan withdrawal. I believe President Trump still does, but it said that it's done terribly and that which I think is clear. But it's like, you know, you could say Dwight Eisenhower had a kind of moral authority. But the other thing about Dwight Eisenhower, I mean, he was actually a smart guy, but if you look at like his Guildhall speech, I don't know if you remember this, but like the. He, unlike MacArthur, for instance, he had a real feel for the American people's civilian army, you know, like they were, they were offering the award of the City of London. He said, I can't accept this. I accept this only on behalf of the great human forces. He said, you know, which is like, yeah, it's like regular guys you know, and that's, to me, that's. I try to have that mindset about, like, I don't want people to get torn limb from limb in a war with China that we could avoid, let alone another, like, or evapor. Evaporized in a nuclear explosion with Russia. Of course, that means you don't just, like, do whatever they want. Duh. But you've got to, like, calibrate that balance. Always thinking about, as President Trump has said, going back to, like, what's in the concrete interest of the American people.

[Tucker Carlson]

You've referred repeatedly to a potential war with China. I assume that would be over Taiwan.

[Bridge Colby]

I think. Yes. I think Taiwan would be the focal point. But what I think is very scary about the Chinese, and I don't think the Chinese are behaving in it, frankly. If you apply the way, like, you were in Washington from the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Right. Or a little bit after. Right.

[Tucker Carlson]

But like, no, I was there. I was there that day.

[Bridge Colby]

You were there dead. Okay. Right, Exactly. I know you've talked about this. If you apply the same kind of behavior that we exhibited over the 25, say, 20 years after that, and you apply that model to a China that is not constrained, that's very scary. Right. Like, so we just have to apply the same model to them. Because, again, to me as like a conservative, and I don't think we're reaching.

[Tucker Carlson]

I know exactly what you're saying, but maybe that's too subtle. Yeah, we explained precisely what you're saying.

[Bridge Colby]

We went. And from being in the 1980s, you had the Weinberger doctrine of President Reagan, and Reagan almost getting impeached because he was trying to help just a proxy group with the Contras because people were so afraid of getting in another Vietnam. And the biggest thing that he would do would have meetings with the Soviet premier on nuclear weapons, because people were like, this could happen, and I really don't want it to happen. Right. Fast forward 15 years and we're invading Iraq. And as you recall, the people who were, were biggest fans of invading Iraq. The plan was also to go after probably Syria and Iran and so forth, informally or not.

[Tucker Carlson]

I, I worked for those people at the time.

[Bridge Colby]

So, you know, so, I mean, that was not. That was just the starting point.

[Tucker Carlson]

Oh, I'm, I'm aware.

[Bridge Colby]

So.

[Tucker Carlson]

And, and that was the new American century.

[Bridge Colby]

The way I interpret that is you're going to have people like that because we're human beings and that's how we socialize or whatever. And if there's no constraint. No. You would have been, like, sent to the loony bin in 1982. If you're like, oh, let's invade Iraq. 2003. If you said we shouldn't invade Iraq, you were like, even if you were Brent Scowcroft, you were castigated.

[Tucker Carlson]

Oh, right.

[Bridge Colby]

So.

[Tucker Carlson]

And never rehabilitated, by the way.

[Bridge Colby]

Interesting. Well, I have. I mean, I don't agree with him on everything, but I had. I mean, that sort of mindset.

[Tucker Carlson]

I agree, but I'm just saying.

[Bridge Colby]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Tucker Carlson]

It wasn't like, you know, Brent Scowcroft got rich or more respect. I mean, he said those things, you know, to his own detriment.

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah. And I just. On the China thing, what I would say is they care a lot about Taiwan, but I think it's very clear they're building a military to go beyond Taiwan. They're building a basing architecture to go well beyond Taiwan. I think that's, in a sense, almost indisputable. And I think they have interests to go beyond Taiwan. This is what worries me is I actually fear, ironically, that China is living out the Leninist theory of imperialism, which is they need captive export markets for their overproduction. And, of course, they need natural resources and other things to import, and so they have a rational incentive to what the Japanese created the Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere. Every empire, formal or informal, is not everyone. But, like, a lot of them start out as basically commercial zones, of course, and that's what I worry about. And again, the good news is I think we can negotiate with China about that. That's why I think President Trump's against a lot of criticism. His willingness to be open to negotiating a deal with President Xi is good, because we don't. We don't have an implacable hostility or rivalry. We don't have to change. I hate communism, but, like, that's up to them. And we. The last thing I want is Americans dying, trying to impose our form of government on them. Hopefully, that's pretty uncontroversial. But I think if we just, you know, Taiwan's a tough issue, because the point I've been making, and I've gotten some plaque from, again, good quarters from the Wall Street Journal last couple months is like, I've been saying we should focus on defending Taiwan and they need to step up. They haven't done it, and we haven't prioritized. So I think Taiwan is on the knife's edge right now. Now, I think we want to avoid a war over that if we possibly can. And President Trump has said a war, an attack on Taiwan, isn't going to happen under my watch. So I think it is absolutely incumbent upon whoever is working for him to make sure that doesn't happen. Combining a strong shield with a rational defensive policy and kind of political message to China that convinces them that, look, you're better off with peace.

[Tucker Carlson]

The Wall Street Journal attacked you.

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah. So they.

[Tucker Carlson]

How long will the Wall Street Journal kind of be considered the preeminent place where, quote, conservative intellectuals explain their views?

[Bridge Colby]

I think they're in. I think they're actually in trouble. Honestly, I read them, but. But they are so far out of whack. I mean, so on my. On the kind of national security, foreign policy issues, they are total premises in the same breath. Often they'll say, our military is in terrible shape, but we need to have aggressive policies in, like, four different theaters. Makes no sense. It's incoherent. Right on. You know, they're way out of step on the conservative Republican views on, like, trade, where, like, Lighthizer and Navarro and the President are. They can't stand. You know, they've been repeatedly criticized. People like you, like, like Vice President Vance. So I feel like I'm honored to be in this company. So it's sort of like, you know, obviously they reflect a certain part of the, you know, American population, which is sort of, you know, wealthier professionals who are probably more socially liberal, the Acela Corridor, New York, et cetera. But I think a lot of people read them because they matter. Right. But at some point, you get so far out of whack that you actually become a liability. You know, and they were big backers of Nikki Haley and so forth. So, you know, I think we need. But then with the rise of new media, I mean, you've been a pioneer in this, but others, you know, and Elon and what he's done with X and, you know, and David Sachs and these kind of people, I think there's hope that, like, not only does it not going to matter as much, but it may become less and less relevant.

[Tucker Carlson]

It seems like the Drudge Report to me. You know, you have in your mind that this. No, I mean, Drudge went from. Well, Drudge was, of course, sold to left wingers. They've never admitted that, but I believe that's true. But the Wall Street Journal in some sense has been also. I mean, they don't. I don't know, people who imagine the Wall Street Journal is conservative or sort of like, haven't been paying attention.

[Bridge Colby]

It's like the socially liberal fiscal conservatives.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah, they're there, and they were, like.

[Bridge Colby]

Mocking President Trump in the interview. I thought that was pretty lame and kind of.

[Tucker Carlson]

It's a really dishonest newspaper, and I'm rooting for its demise. I just want to say that. I mean that I hope it could.

[Bridge Colby]

Get reformed, but, you know, you're right.

[Tucker Carlson]

No, you're totally right. We've seen enough institutions destroyed. I just, just. I do think it's really a garbage newspaper. And, And I wish more people realized that. I can't control myself. Sorry. Out of control. So when do you think it'll be clear, like, who's administering Trump's foreign policy?

[Bridge Colby]

I mean, I, I just. I honestly don't know. I mean, it's up, obviously up to him, but you know what, What I would say is I hope he makes, you know, picks people who will implement the vision that he ran on and that, you know, you and others have supported him so ably about. I. As. Just as sincerely as an American. I mean, even if I'm not part of it or I'm dog catcher or whatever, I mean that. I think if, honestly, if the primacist types who could get us into multiple wars get in there, you're going to have to get to a more realistic foreign policy eventually.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, they'll destroy Trump. People like Pompeo, whom I know personally, hate Trump. They hate Trump, and I don't care what he says or Lindsey Graham says, oh, he's so great. They suck up to him on Fox News, but they hate him. And they're working to undermine him. And they did, throughout his four years in office and the four years that followed. They undermined him because they hate him. So I just hope that there is a new generation in the Republican Party of people who maybe aren't even ideological.

[Bridge Colby]

But just put Americans exact common sense. Yeah.

[Tucker Carlson]

America's interest. America's interest is the whole point of our government.

[Bridge Colby]

I think there is a new generation, people in their 20s and 30s. I'm very hopeful. I mean, I talk to a lot of them. What I'm worried about is, I don't think there's any. I mean, you maybe like, and, And Trump is like an exception, but, you know, you look at a guy like Vice President Vance, he's only, I think, 40.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yes.

[Bridge Colby]

You know, a lot of the best senators, you know, are. Are much younger.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yes.

[Bridge Colby]

You look like Eric Schmidt.

[Tucker Carlson]

Eric Schmidt is amazing.

[Bridge Colby]

Jim Banks, you know, younger guys, like, you know, and the problem is people just naturally like, well, we need somebody who's 65 or whatever. And it's sort of like. But I think it's even worse than what you're suggesting because like, you know, let's say we get in a big Middle Eastern war and you have people who are talking about an independent Taiwan or regime change in China or regime change in Russia and we get bogged down. Why wouldn't the Chinese attack? Like just, I mean, thinking about, think, apply how we behaved, the Project for New American Century style thinking and just think that those people will be in the ascendancy in Beijing. The way I think about it, Tucker, is like, we're like a heavyweight boxer and China's another heavyweight boxer. Russia's like a middleweight and maybe North Korea and Iran are like, you know, welterweights or featherweights or whatever. Those guys can, they can tear you out and China can call us to a match at any time, at any time. And if we're not ready, that is like terrible, you know. And so at that point we would have to put a more realistic foreign policy. But my view, and this is I think a real point to the kind of people who read the Wall Street Journal on bed page. The point that I would make to them is if we go down this path of aggressive policies in three or four different theaters of the world without the backing, we will end up bloodied and bruised. We will have catastrophic defeat, lots of Americans will be killed. And the American people may very well say, I'm done, I'm done. This is, you know, all the rules based international order. This is what it led to. Forget about it. And that if you want to save it, if you want to save something, like I think, I think mine is like the reform rather than the radical upheaval. Mine is like, hey, no, I believe in the post war. I just don't believe in the post 1989 absurd hubris going around the people.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah, we can.

[Bridge Colby]

The Cold War. And I keep going back to it, but just like, like I just. Because like, you know, Senator McConnell will talk about Eisenhower all the time and I'm like, dude, Eisenhower thought that if there were US troops in Europe at the end of the 1950s, it was a failure. He's the one who came up with the uncle sucker line, not President Trump. So you want to talk about the Cold War legacy? We were pretty ruthless. You know, the Germans attacked us, or excuse me, sound like John Belushi. The Japanese attacked us in 1941 and we let the Soviets do the bulk of the fighting and we put Germany first. Why? Because, and I'm Glad as a descendant of people who are in the European theater of operations, I'm glad that the Soviets. But George Schultz, when he went and dealt with his counterpart, he went, he visited, he wrote about this very movingly. He went to the cemetery in Leningrad and he offered a somber salute and I had the honor to meet at Schultz a couple times and this was not a, you know, he's, he had strong views and so forth. But I think you can respect that, you know and understand that we can be hard nosed and look at your opponents and say we don't want a war.

[Tucker Carlson]

We've told you before about Halo. It is a great app that I am proud to say I use my whole family uses. It's for daily prayer and Christian meditation and it's transformative. So with everything happening in the world right now, it is essential to ground yourself. This is not some quack cure. This is the oldest and most reliable cure in history. It's prayer. Ground yourself in prayer and scripture every single day. That is a prerequisite for staying sane and healthy and maybe for doing better eternally. So if you're busy on the road headed to kids sports, there is always time to pray and reflect alone or as a family. But it's hard to be organized about it. Building a foundation of prayer is going to be absolutely critical as we head into November. Praying that God's will is done in this country and that peace and healing come to us here in the United States and around the world. Christianity obviously is attack, under attack everywhere. That's not an accident. Why is Christianity the most peaceful of all religions under attack globally? Did you see the opening of the Paris Olympics? There's a reason because the battle is not temporal. It's taking place in the unseen world. It's a spiritual battle obviously. So try Hallow. Get three months completely free at Hallow. That's Hallow.com Tucker if there's ever a time to get spiritually in tune and ground yourself in prayer, it's now. Hallow will help personally and strongly and totally sincerely. Recommended hallow.comtucker what happened to all the Bush people? You were here for that. Yeah, not just the president. Bush and his family are pretty clear were for Kamala Harris but all the people who staff that administration. Do all of them still buy Those ideas? Those 20 year old ideas or have any come around to your position?

[Bridge Colby]

That's a. It's a great question because I know a lot of it's like you. I like a lot of them, you know and some of them know I admire some. I don't admire others. And people are going, you know, a lot of them put flags in the ground with the foolish and inappropriate never Trump letters in 2016. And they're kind of. So their hands are a bit tied. So I don't know how they would behave in a vacuum. I think you see sort of various stages of grief. I mean, various people kind of adapting in different ways or not adapting. Some people are kind of, like, unreconstructed. Some are kind of, like, resigned to where things are going. You know, what's funny about the Bush. I mean, I don't. I mean, you remember this better than I do, but I remember, like, Bush ran on a more humble foreign policy.

[Tucker Carlson]

I know.

[Bridge Colby]

You know, I mean, actually, what Trump's saying is not that radically different from the kind of Bush vibe, which was against the crusading progressivism of Bill Clinton. Now, he ended up totally abandoning that, unfortunately, to his eternal discredit. And in a sense, he was a progressive. He was armed progressivism. Bill Kristol is let's fight the end of history, basically, which is like, that's not in any way. And I mean, conservative. I'm not like Angela dancing on the head of a pin. It's not common sense. Right. But I think a lot of those people, it's probably. It's going to be hard to incorporate them. You know, there's sort of two. And sociologically, again, it's. They're invested in the old model. And so I think we're going to need. The trouble is that all the credentialing has been on that side. And so all of it. Almost all of it. I mean, I'm not to make anything myself, but, like, I'm a rare. And I was. I was teetering on the. Maybe passing over to the edge of respectability or whatever the mainstream is, you know, for years. And, you know, I think what I find, though, encouraging, Tucker, is I. And this is where. I mean.

[Tucker Carlson]

Wait, can I say, you went to Groton and Harvard, right?

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah.

[Tucker Carlson]

Okay.

[Bridge Colby]

Yes.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, so are you the only person in the world who went to Groton and Harvard who voted for Donald Trump?

[Bridge Colby]

You know, I don't think so. Actually. My Groton, Harvard roommate was indicating. I think there are a few others. I mean, I. You know, but I mean. Okay, so you got me. You know, people say this sometimes, and I think they say it about you, too. It's like, oh, you're from the elite background. How can you not support the elite? And I'm always like. Like, the Elite is supposed to work for the public interest. And by the way, that was the model. Teddy Roosevelt was behind the founding of Groton School, which I went there. I have very fond memories. A lot of people who are associated with that hate Donald Trump and everything. I proudly support him. But I think the whole point is to serve. You know, service is perfect freedom. The idea is public service is putting the interests of the public ahead. And so I. To be honest, I find the current establishment, I look at Morning Joe or something, and I'm like, this is not what America deserves.

[Tucker Carlson]

Okay. So I have the same perspective, and I would say more broad, the identical perspect perspective, and I would say that nobody reforms the system who doesn't understand the system.

[Bridge Colby]

Yeah, you're always going to have it.

[Tucker Carlson]

Teddy Roosevelt saved capitalism in the United States by restraining.

[Bridge Colby]

And he was hated by his peers.

[Tucker Carlson]

By restraining the monopolies.

[Bridge Colby]

Exactly.

[Tucker Carlson]

And the only reason he was able to do that was because he was pushing back against his own class. He understood them. Right, right. So, no, I'm not attacking you for going to Pride in Harvard. I'm rather saying I think it's essential that you understand. J.D. vance hated Trump, went to Yale Law School, started going up to the Aspen Institute to speak in the summer, found the people there so repulsive.

[Bridge Colby]

He's like, oh, he was totally that.

[Tucker Carlson]

He has become their nightmare.

[Bridge Colby]

Exactly.

[Tucker Carlson]

Because he knows who they are. He had dinner with David Brooks many times.

[Bridge Colby]

Exactly.

[Tucker Carlson]

So anyway, totally, totally.

[Bridge Colby]

And I think, like. And I think, like, that's, you know, I love this. This clip of Maggie Goodlander getting called out by this. You know, it should be challenged. If you're like, anybody should be subject to challenge. And that's what's so great about, like, X and podcasts.

[Tucker Carlson]

Did Maggie Goodlander win? I'm embarrassed.

[Bridge Colby]

I think so. I'm not sure. And I'm, like, not picking on her particularly. But, like, you know, this is a fair point, but I mean, my view is. And it's apropos because the other woman I think was in. I think she's. Her family's from China. But, you know, even under Mao, I mean, the ultimate egalitarian system, there is an establishment, there is an elite, of course. And of course, Xi Jinping is a product of that.

[Tucker Carlson]

Elite dogs create hierarchies. You're always going to have a hierarchy. So the question is not, do you have a ruling class? You're getting a ruling class.

[Bridge Colby]

Is it good?

[Tucker Carlson]

Is it, do you have a good ruling class? Or do you have Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken, that's the best way.

[Bridge Colby]

Here's the other thing, you know, and I don't want to cry too much of a river here, but, like, they are the establishment and they act so in, like, a sociologically conservative way, they're all going to leave office and they're all going to get great jobs on Wall street and they're all going to go to law firms and whatever. And it's the people who are taking on the establishment and are taking the slings and arrows and hopefully metaphorically alone. But to me, that's the point. That's what you're supposed to do if you, if you know, as the Bible says, to whom much is given, of much is expected.

[Tucker Carlson]

I strongly agree with that.

[Bridge Colby]

And I think you're a model of that, honestly. And I'm not just saying that.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, no, I, but I believe, I, I really believe in that. And I'm just, I'm just so offended by, I'm so offended by the mediocrity and selfishness and stupidity of our ruling class that I just can't. And I don't care if they kill me, I will never stop feeling that way.

[Bridge Colby]

And that's your incredibly courageous.

[Tucker Carlson]

So Bridge Colby, I, I am rooting for you fervently. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows who you are and what you think. This process is taking place privately, as it has to. But I also think that people who voted for Trump because they want a calmer world, they don't want the United States or him to be destroyed in wars. I think they should know what's going on. So I hope this provides a little sunlight.

[Bridge Colby]

Thank you very much, my friend.

[Tucker Carlson]

Bless you. Thank you.

[Bridge Colby]

Thank you.

[Tucker Carlson]

Thanks for listening to the Tucker Carlson Show. If you enjoyed it, you can go to tuckerCarlson. To see everything that we have made the complete library. Tucker Carlson.com.