Rand Paul
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
DOGE updates + Liberation Day Tariff Reactions with Ben Shapiro and Antonio Gracias
What's the rationale for getting behind this? Well, one, we should not live under emergency rule. The Constitution said taxes are raised by Congress. Most specifically, taxes originate in the House and come to the Senate. Some against emergency rule. We are richer because of trade with Canada. And so is Canada.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
DOGE updates + Liberation Day Tariff Reactions with Ben Shapiro and Antonio Gracias
Whenever you trade with somebody, when an individual buys somebody else's product, it's mutually beneficial or you wouldn't buy it. If the trade is voluntary, it's always beneficial. There is no Canada versus the U.S. The consumer wins when the price is the lowest price. Tariffs raise prices and they're a bad idea for the economy.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
The Seven Trust Languages for a Better Workplace with Minda Harts
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
The Seven Trust Languages for a Better Workplace with Minda Harts
The reason you have distrust from people at home, why they don't believe anything you say, they don't believe government at all, is you're telling my kid to take a hepatitis B vaccine when he's one day old. You get it through drug use and sexually transmitted.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
The Seven Trust Languages for a Better Workplace with Minda Harts
That's a very small percentage in a red herring. That is not what we're talking about. 99.9% of kids don't have a hepatitis B mom. And could they wait a while? Could they get vaccinated three months or a year? Yes.
Morning Wire
Border Security & Minnesota Turkey Farms | 11.27.24
I don't think it's the best way to do it. It's less clear whether that's legal or illegal. Typically, it has to be done at the behest of the governors. I still don't like a militarization of police, whether it's National Guard or Army. I think there's a lot of FBI. There's a lot of Border Patrol agents. There's a better way to do it, and it needs to be individualized.
Morning Wire
Border Security & Minnesota Turkey Farms | 11.27.24
That doesn't mean I'm any less serious about getting it done. It just needs to be done according to the law and consistent with our traditions.
Morning Wire
Budget Hawks Rejoice & Trump Cancels “Pride Month” | 6.5.25
Parents can certainly rest comfortably knowing that the men would not be allowed in women's sports.
Morning Wire
Budget Hawks Rejoice & Trump Cancels “Pride Month” | 6.5.25
We've opened investigations into the state of Wyoming and into Colorado for violations of their Title IX program in Wyoming. It was relative to a sorority in college, and the sorority was allowing female-identifying members to be part of their sorority.
Morning Wire
Budget Hawks Rejoice & Trump Cancels “Pride Month” | 6.5.25
We've also opened an investigation into Colorado, into Jefferson Public Schools, because on field trips, they were identifying females staying with girls in their rooms, actually sleeping in the same bed without parents having any notification about this. And that's just wrong.
Morning Wire
Trump-Zelensky Feud & MAHA’s Industry Impact | 2.20.25
The PRO Act wasn't just about organizing or enabling unions to organize, which they already have the right to do. The PRO Act was about overturning right-to-work laws in 26 states, half of the country. Most of these states would argue that this would be a horrendous invasion of their prerogatives. Do you still support the PRO Act or don't you support the PRO Act?
Morning Wire
Trump-Zelensky Feud & MAHA’s Industry Impact | 2.20.25
So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right to work laws? Yeah.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So if a million people went and bought TVs at Walmart and they all came from, let's say, Korea, and they get their TV and they've gotten it because it was good quality and lower price and they saved money, all million, every person, every one of the million people are satisfied with their trade.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
But then somebody comes and draws a circle around how much goes to China or how much goes to Korea, how much comes back, and they say, oh, well, we buy all this stuff from other countries and they don't buy it from us, so we have a deficit. But the fallacy is this. Every person who bought a TV was happy or they wouldn't have done it.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
This is the definition of free trade or voluntary trade is as long as it's voluntary, it's always mutually beneficial or the trade doesn't occur. The only trades that occur in a voluntary free market are done because people want to trade.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So the fallacy is each individual of the million people who bought TVs were all happy, but then you draw a circle artificially between two countries and say, oh, we're being ripped off. Well, how can we be ripped off if all million customers were satisfied? It'd be the same way if we drew a circle around Kentucky and Ohio and said, well, we have a trade deficit with Ohio.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
We've had it since the Civil War. What does that mean? Well, it means nothing. The other thing about trade deficits is think about the United States and Bangladesh. Do you think Bangladesh is ever going to be rich enough to buy as much stuff from us as we can buy from them? Rich people and rich countries have greater trade deficits.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So a major league baseball star that makes $25 million a year has a bigger trade deficit than your average teacher. with everybody because they buy a lot of stuff. They have so much money. So a trade deficit is just a meaningless accounting ledger domain. The second fallacy is that the middle class is being hollowed out. It's just frankly not true.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
If you look at household income for the last 70 years, what you will find is that the lower income, below 50, and middle, 50 to 100, have gotten slightly smaller over time. But it's because they've all moved to the upper class. Over $100,000 in constant dollars has grown threefold while $50,000 to $100,000 is slightly smaller over 70 years. They migrated to the upper class.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
They didn't go to the lower class.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
A lot more than you would guess. Four voted with me to end the emergencies. And some of that's a constitutional question, whether or not Congress should vote to raise taxes or whether a president can raise taxes. And some of that's on tariffs. But if you went around my caucus, I mean, you'd find probably 15 to 20 who will still tell you, oh, we're free traders, we're free traders.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
They fear going up against the president of their party. If this were President Biden doing it, probably over 50 would because a lot of them vote simply on partisanship and not on principle or not on economic calculation. But there still are a bunch of them from farm states. Look, the Farm Bureau is a very mainstream, solid organization. It's been around probably over 100 years.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
They're a very significant force in my state, and it's part of their manual. They are for trade because 20 to 25 percent of their crops are sold overseas.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
He already has. I think we're already having an influence. Many in the media come up and say, how does it feel to lose? And since we actually won in the Senate, but then lost because it didn't become a law. But what you find is that he's already backed away. So everybody's China, China, China, let's stop trading with China. But then he exempted iPhones.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Well, that's one of the biggest products that comes out of China is iPhones. With the car tax, he put a 25% tax on cars. And then with a lot of our complaints and with the automobile people complaining, he said, well, we'll make it only 10% if you finish the car in the United States. So what will happen is people have to play tricks and games to adhere to the whims of whoever's in power.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So really, the way I imagine it is your car may be made other places, but the lug nuts are going to be put on in America so it's finished up in America to avoid this tax. But this is true and really makes the idea of tariffs more galling is the fact that it depends on how good a lobbyist you have. and how loud you are, and how big you are.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
But if you sell the lug nuts, and that's all you sell, or you sell toasters, and you get them from China, you know what? You don't have a big enough voice to get an exemption. iPhone's going to get an exemption because they're big. Toaster's probably not so much. And so this is why this kind of industrial kind of policy, conservatives traditionally opposed because we always said...
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
This is picking winners and losers. This is government deciding who gets an exemption from these tax and who has to pay these taxes. But I would say we have won in the sense that he's backed off. He did a 90-day pause. That's not just me, but that's the marketplace sending him a $6.6 trillion signal. when that much money was lost in two days when he announced the tariffs.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And so now that he's backed off, the market's recovered a little bit, but I think they're waiting somewhat anxiously to see what happens when the 90 days expires.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Well, I'd probably start with the previous administration. I mean, what the Biden administration did is they sent the FBI and Homeland Security to meet with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and told them to take down constitutionally protected speech.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So I actually have a bill that I've introduced to protect free speech, and it says to government, doesn't tell Twitter anything, doesn't tell Facebook anything, because I think privately owned tech companies really have nothing to do with the First Amendment. The First Amendment has to do with government. But I don't think government should be allowed...
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Can you imagine what you would think if after this interview, before you aired it, the government came to you and you had a meeting with the FBI after the interview to see what they thought was misinformation and disinformation? I mean, how repulsive that would be to you. It's the same, though, if they do it to Twitter or Facebook, and they did for years.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And so that's been probably the biggest affront to the First Amendment since... the beginning of the country. Now, this administration is also putting forward things that I think abridge the First Amendment. One is going after speech on college campuses. So they attempted to pass a bill that I've had trouble with for a long time, an anti-Semitism bill.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Well, I think anti-Semitism should be as a thought or a theory or speech should be condemned universally by people in polite society. But the First Amendment, the most formative case on the First Amendment is Brandenburg v. Ohio. And Brandenburg was an admittedly despicable person, a Nazi Ku Klux Klan guy who said terrible things about African Americans and Jews.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
But the great irony is that the ACLU defended his right to say these, and the two lawyers that won the case, one was Jewish and the other was Eleanor Norton Holmes, who's a longtime African-American representative from D.C., and they defended language that was not only despicable but repulsive and offensive to them personally, but they thought that speech was so important that it needed to be defended.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
With the new bill, they're saying that if you make stereotypical comments about Jews, it would be regulated and possibly banned on campus. But this is exactly why some Jewish comedians don't go to college campuses. Jerry Seinfeld famously said he won't go there. So during the hearing recently on this, I introduced a list of 479 Jewish American comedians
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
comedians who had all made stereotypical jokes about Jewish people. And I said, well, what are we going to do? Are you going to send the police after them, the college campus police, if any of them were to appear on campus? So no, it's just a terrible idea. But it comes out of people, rah, rah, rah, look at me, I support, and I'm against these other people. And
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
but without being very thoughtful about the First Amendment. And my fear is we become like Europe, where if you say anything about the Holocaust or if you say Johnny who thinks he's Susie is still Johnny, they'll put you in jail for all of that stuff. So they are doing that in Canada. They're doing that in Europe. And I don't that's not the kind of country I want to live in.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So I think really even speech that we despise has to be protected precisely because that's the nature of the First Amendment is to protect all speech.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
I wrote a book, Deception, the great COVID cover-up about this. Gain-of-function research is research where you take a virus and then you adapt that virus to make it either more transmissible or more lethal in humans. And we have been funding this. Anthony Fauci approved the funding in Wuhan, China, but also around the world. There are dozens of labs.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Across the United States, there are dozens of labs doing this type of research. It's very, very dangerous. As dangerous or as bad as COVID was, and you saw how we reacted to COVID, 0.3% of Americans died. That's about a million. So I'm not downplaying it. I'm just saying 0.3%. There are viruses in the lab that can kill 50%. but they're not very transmittable from human to human.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So for example, avian flu, which you've heard a lot about, is dangerous, but you mostly get it directly from the birds. So people who handle chickens or handle birds have gotten this in the United States, a handful. But they don't transmit it to another human because it's an animal virus and doesn't transmit very well.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
I think to take avian flu, though, and work on it in the lab and pass it through animals over and over again to adapt it so it attaches and infects humans is a death wish. I think it's because accidents happen. Even the safest labs have accidents.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Alison Young wrote a book a few years ago, and she documented 1,500 different accidents just in our country, and we're probably the safest on the planet. And still these inadvertent accidents happen. So, no, I think particularly if it's taxpayer money, we need to have oversight of this.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And so I have a bill called the Risky Research Review Act, which would create a presidential commission of scientists that would oversee and determine what should be funded and what should not be funded.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
You know, I can't speak directly for him. Many of his administration do, and they'll have to speak for themselves. But I can tell you, I've discussed it with Robert Kennedy, Jay Bhattacharya at NIH, as well as Marty McCary at FDA. I've discussed it with a lot of scientists. The debate over this issue is interesting. Didn't start with COVID. Started with the avian flu in 2010.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
but even went back another decade and started with, they resurrected the Spanish flu. And so the Spanish flu killed 50 to 100 million people back in 1918. And the idea of having the Spanish flu being manipulated in lab and made to be either more dangerous, infectious is worrisome. But this debate's been going on about 20 years.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
We've shown our bill to many scientists, and our bill is heavy on not an absolute ban, but letting scientists who are experts in this field look at it and make a judgment. The problem with Anthony Fauci is he had scientists looking at this, but he was buttering their bread. I mean, they were all receiving grants.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And so one of the biggest supporters of Anthony Fauci, after he signed off on saying this couldn't have come from lab, these people are crazy, got an $8 million grant. And so there's a conflict of interest. We want the council to be comprised of people that aren't getting money directly from somebody that they would want to be pleasing them with their opinion.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
How do we defeat the Washington machine? First, send career politicians home by enacting term limits. Next, require Congress to read the bills they vote on. Then stop wasteful spending by requiring a balanced budget by law. Stop lobbyists from taking our tax dollars and then using that money to lobby for more. Most importantly, expand our liberty by downsizing big government.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
I'm Rand Paul and I approve this message because government is the servant, not the master.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
He would say, what a good-looking young man that was.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
But, you know, we don't think we age until we look back at ourselves 10 or 12 years ago. You know, I still believe all of those things. And one of the things I talk to a lot of student audiences that I try to convey is, you know, Some of the words of the founding fathers that at first when you hear them are startling from someone in government.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense, talked about government being a necessary evil. And it was read, I think it was purchased by 500,000 people when there were only 2.5 million people. That's a good selling book. We can all try to emulate that as authors.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
But my point is, is that government being a necessary evil means that we have to have some government, but it's a necessary evil because you have to give up liberty. So I give up some freedom by paying taxes. If I had 100% tax rate, I think I would have no freedom of using the fruits of my labor.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So the argument from a libertarian point of view is always we want the least amount of government that we can possibly have because we want to maximize our freedom. And it's not an argument for no government, but it's always an argument for minimizing government. So whenever somebody proposes something, whether from the right or the left,
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
We're looking, is there a possibility, is there something we could do to allow this to be done in the private sector as opposed to having government take over it? And the second point that I make is what Milton Friedman used to always say. He said that nobody spends somebody else's money as wisely as their own. That's a profound statement because politicians never are very good.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
They tend to fail at what they spend money at because they don't have the feedback loop of profit and loss. So you don't want them to be involved with most things. It's also not their money. So they spend it much more freely. And where I had to ask the young people in an audience if they would give me $1,000 for an enterprise or for a business,
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
they would all have to think very carefully about how many hours it took to earn that money, and they will spend it and make their choices at least much more heartfelt than a politician does. But these are all arguments for smaller government.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
You can also make all these arguments for having a state government versus a federal government, or a local government versus a state government, because government, the smaller and closer to the people, the more efficient, And the better able they are to make wise decisions, mainly because they have to balance their budget.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Your county government, your city government, for the most part, they balance their budget every year. Most states have limitations. The only government without limitations is the federal government. There are some limitations, but they're enormous, $36 trillion. But because of that, the federal government makes unwise decisions at a much greater rate than any other form of government.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
I think Donald Trump. There was a movement that I think my father was at the head of probably 2007, 2008, 2009, which became the Tea Party movement. And the Tea Party movement wasn't all Ron Paul, but Ron Paul was a part of this new wave, talking about the Constitution, talking about limited government, balanced budgets.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
The Tea Party movement got even, I think, bigger than my father at some point and became this bigger movement, but it was still talking about Constitution and balanced budgets. We elected a lot of people in 2010.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And unfortunately, we didn't get the things accomplished because we didn't have enough votes or some of the people turned out to not be as faithful to the Constitution as we would have hoped. The MAGA movement's a little different. It's more centered on the person of Donald Trump. It has many conservative aspects.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
It has libertarian aspects, but it also has some populist aspects such as raising taxes on imports. During COVID, the response was to shut the economy down and give checks to everyone. There's nothing very libertarian about shutting the economy or writing checks to people, particularly because it has to be borrowed.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
It's why when the subject of like doge checks has come up, I've said, well, why don't we talk about that after we balance the $2 trillion we're in the hole this year, and then maybe after we've paid back the $36 trillion, then we can talk about rebates. But absolutely, we shouldn't be talking about anything about that until we actually can balance an annual budget.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
You know, as far as the people that I think are incredible and the best, I would probably say, and they're both physicians too, so I'm kind of biased, you know, Marty McCary at FDA and Jay Bhattacharya at NIH are, I think, incredible disruptors, but also just, you know, very, very talented people. Both of them have, I think, about... 200 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Very smart, but also want to reform and fix some of the problems in government. Some of the problems they see, it's interesting, if the left were more open, they might find common ground, is that I think a lot of those folks, including myself, see
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
too much corporate influence, and corporations have influenced the regulations for their profit, and that a lot of the science that comes out of government, people want to say, oh, this is objective science, but it's actually corporate science because it's done at the behest of large corporations making billions and billions of dollars. Those two I'm quite fond of.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
On the foreign policy side, Tulsi Gabbard is somebody who believes, I hate to characterize other people's beliefs, but I think agrees with me that the intelligence agencies have gotten too much power, too much secrecy, and that some of that has been directed inwards towards American citizens instead of outward towards our enemies.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
In the first administration, often the president would call me and he would usually say to me, well, they told me to call you. I don't think you're going to change your mind. Do whichever you think's best. But you know, the thing is we had a good relationship. So when it came to political questions, like impeachment. And if it comes to that, again, I'll be his strongest defender.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
The second impeachment, I think I largely derailed on day one by pointing out that it's not constitutional or not expected to impeach someone not in office. It's a special kind of trial for an officeholder. It isn't, you know, I can't impeach you. I can't impeach people that are outside of government. And so I will again, and I think they understand that, and we agree when we can,
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
But I think it would be wrong to be elected by an entire state and to be a lapdog and not to voice an opinion, particularly like on the question of tariffs, because all the feedback I get home from business is they don't want the tariffs. I actually wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention to the public and to the president also the inconsistency with conservative policies.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
positions that we usually don't want more taxes, we want less. And it boggles the mind that conservatives who traditionally want less taxes are actually for more taxes here. It's a bit inconsistent with where we've been historically. But I think I have a decent relationship with the president.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Not really. Not so much. I've had some communication with the president, usually with groups and some individual messages, usually in all caps, telling me why I should be supporting the tariffs. But I think there's a mutual respect. And I think sometimes strong individuals like the president admire people who actually will. He may go after us, but I think he admires people who don't wilt like...
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
you know, a five day old flower and just sort of, you know, let him run rough shot over him. He wants his way. But I think some people who have great strength of character also admire people who will resist that. And I try to resist it in a pleasant fashion because You know, there are things about Donald Trump I like, and both of us were elected by wide margins in my state.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And so I do try to be both respectful and when I disagree, do it in an agreeable fashion.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
I have yet to have one Kentucky business come to me and say, please put the tariffs on. But I can tell you a handful right off the bat, our biggest industries in Kentucky have come to me and said, please don't put tariffs on. The farmers sell about 25% of their crops overseas. They don't like tariffs. They don't like the response of other countries to tariffs.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
They still sell farm goods and crops to China, and they want to. Bourbon industry gets retaliatory tariffs from Canada, from Europe, from other places, and they also export quite a bit. We have large cargo shippers, UPS, DHL. We have the pilots who fly those planes. None of them are interested in the tariffs. We have three automobile manufacturers, Toyota, Ford, and General Motors.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
They're not interested in the tariffs. Even the home builders and realtors come to me and say, a significant portion of the lumber for a new house comes from Canada, and this will add to the price of houses. Combining that with house prices already going up and with interest rates going up, it's making it difficult for young people to get into houses.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So really no organized business interest in Kentucky has come to me thinking the tariffs are a good idea. So if I'm getting any pressure, it's from people who think tariffs are a bad idea.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
I think families, there are people who are very, very supportive of President Trump, as I am, but they're so supportive that they blindly say, just do whatever the president tells you to do and don't do too much thinking about it. But they haven't felt the impact yet.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
But when you do surveys of people, most people will say, if you ask them, should we make China pay a penalty if they're not trading fair? Should we make them trade fair? People will say yes. But then if you ask people, are you willing to pay $300 more for a TV? They'll say, hell no. So we haven't seen the expense yet.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And I think as people start to see the increased expenses, because tariffs are taxes that are paid for by the people who buy things. And so people often think, well, the United States is trading with China. That's actually not true at all. People in the United States, people in Kentucky go to Walmart or Target or shop on Amazon. That's who they're buying from.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
And then those companies buy maybe from China, maybe from Korea, maybe from Vietnam. But each of those individuals who makes those purchases are actually satisfied with it. And that's when the tariffs come in, those are the people who will see the prices. Those are the people you're going to feel the pain. And my guess is they won't love tariffs once they start to see prices rise.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
Well, there are two big fallacies. The number one fallacy is that a trade deficit means something. So we've had a trade deficit with China since I think every year since like 1974, 75. And yet we have continued to grow. We've had enormous growth since then, and so have they. So the only time we've ever seen the trade deficit go down is when we buy less stuff during a recession.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Why Stephen Miller and JD Vance Have All the Power, Plus Rand Paul's Favorite Trump Admin Disruptors
So really, the trade deficit going up has gone up in times of prosperity, and trade deficits go down in times of economic downturn. So it's really the opposite of what people think. And the reason is this. As I was saying previously, The United States doesn't trade with China. Individuals do.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2173 - FALLOUT: Stock Market Drops, Trump Pushes On
Taxation without representation is tyranny. bellowed James Otis in the days and weeks and years leading up to the American Revolution, it was non-negotiable. This was what sparked the revolution. And yet today we are here before the Senate because one person in our country wishes to raise taxes. Well, this is contrary to everything our country was founded upon.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2173 - FALLOUT: Stock Market Drops, Trump Pushes On
One person is not allowed to raise taxes. The Constitution forbids it.
The Dan Bongino Show
The Trump and Elon Tag Team Rock The Deep State (Ep. 2421)
Ultimately, what they're doing at USAID is going to require Congress to rescind that money. So my hope is they send half of it back or most of it back to us and say, we're not going to spend it. But then Congress, to make this all lawful and legal, is going to have to vote on what's called a rescission package.
The Dan Bongino Show
The Trump and Elon Tag Team Rock The Deep State (Ep. 2421)
But the good news is it can be done by simple majority privilege vote, meaning there's no filibuster. So if the Trump administration says we're only going to spend half of the USAID money or we're only going to spend a tenth of it, we're going to give 80, 90 percent back.
The Dan Bongino Show
The Trump and Elon Tag Team Rock The Deep State (Ep. 2421)
A simple majority, which would mean only Republicans in the Senate and the House can rescind that money and we can start saving it. So people need to realize this isn't the end of the deal. Doge is the beginning. Congress has to act. And you have a lot of facts. Peckless Republicans up here who, if you watch closely, love USAID, love all the welfare, love all the foreign aid.
The Dan Bongino Show
The Trump and Elon Tag Team Rock The Deep State (Ep. 2421)
And so we have a big fight on our hands. And the people who watch your show need to realize they need to watch like a hawk their Republican representatives and make sure they will actually vote and cut this spending when it comes back.
The Glenn Beck Program
Senate Republicans Just Caved on Cutting Inflation | Guest: Daniel Horowitz | 2/21/25
Why are the decisions of this body so awful? Because there's a printing press. I had a conversation with one of my Democrat colleagues and he said. I said, we have to make a choice. You've got to decide whether you want to help the poor in our country or you want to help the poor in Ukraine or help whoever you're paying in Ukraine. He says, we shouldn't have to make a choice.
The Glenn Beck Program
Senate Republicans Just Caved on Cutting Inflation | Guest: Daniel Horowitz | 2/21/25
Well, it's like, you do have to make a choice. The fact that you think you don't have to make a choice is why we're $36 trillion in the hole. You have to make choices. Which comes first, Ukraine or America? You can't do both. Because we don't have enough money. We only have enough taxes coming in to pay for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps. Everything else is borrowed.
The Glenn Beck Program
Senate Republicans Just Caved on Cutting Inflation | Guest: Daniel Horowitz | 2/21/25
So maybe able-bodied people need to go back to work. Maybe there needs to be a work requirement. Maybe, for goodness sakes, food stamps shouldn't buy sugar drinks, chips, ding-dongs, and Twinkies.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
Do you still support the PRO Act or don't you support the PRO Act?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right to work laws? Yeah.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
That's a yes?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
Okay, that's fine. Perfect.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
I'd love to do it right now.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
You stand your butt up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Furious World Leaders Destroy Trump on Trade War
Tariffs have also led to political decimation. When McKinley most famously put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50% of their seats in the next election. When Hot Smoothie put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years. So they're not only bad economically, they're bad politically.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congresswoman Bynum On Defeating MAGA
Well, Bynum says it's an honor to win this election, and she's excited to continue the work that she started here at the Oregon Statehouse, but now on a national stage over in D.C.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Congresswoman Bynum On Defeating MAGA
So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right to work laws?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Red States Freak Out as Trump Royally Screws Them
Almost every industry in Kentucky has come to me and said it will hurt our industry and push up prices of homes, cars.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Red States Freak Out as Trump Royally Screws Them
Very amazing. You should get rid of the CHIP Act and whatever's left over. Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MAGA Mike Gets Bad News as Bill Blows Up on Live TV
Well, in 2010, I sprang out of the Tea Party movement. And as I did parades, I would shout, this is a fight for freedom. We are mortgaging our children's future. It's wrong. It's immoral. It has to stop. I haven't changed. My campaign promise in 2010 and every campaign after that was to stop mortgaging our children's future. It's immoral. It's wrong. It has to stop.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MAGA Mike Gets Bad News as Bill Blows Up on Live TV
And so he may not be worried about that. I am extremely worried about that. That is my primary goal running for Congress. This is our moment. We've witnessed an unprecedented level of increased spending, 58% since 2019, other than World War II. This is this is our only chance to reset that to a reasonable pre pandemic level spending. And again, I think you can do it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MAGA Mike Gets Bad News as Bill Blows Up on Live TV
And the spending that we would eliminate people wouldn't even notice. But you have to do the work, which takes time.