Real Racism, Trump, Fake News, and More | Larry Elder | POLITICS | Rubin Report

[Music] you're not going to believe this but we have to talk about the regressive left today I've actually been trying to get away from discussing the regressive left lately and instead talk about the ideas of Classical liberalism which I believe in but current events keep dragging me back I see on social media that people are using the phrase regressive left a bit less lately and replacing it with terms like biger the control left or the illiberal left whatever name you use for this well-meaning yet painfully misguided set of ideas is largely irrelevant we needed this phrase to identify this backwards ideology which puts groups before people and sometimes you need a label to get people to understand an idea the portion of the left which is no longer Progressive meaning for progress but regressive meaning going backwards has been identified and now we're clearly bringing people to the side of reason all of you who talk talk about this with friends and family who use the regressive left hashtag on Twitter and share these videos are part of this political Awakening yes it seems like these backwards ideas are getting stronger in some circles but at the same time finally for the first time in a long time those of us who are liberal and open to new ideas are coming together and being heard whether or not you like Trump his win was a huge rejection of the identity politics of the left but don't take my word for that Bernie Sanders said it himself the only thing which can replace the regressive dissent of the left is a return to True liberalism a liberalism which defends free speech and expression a liberalism that is for Liberty and rights of the individual and most importantly a liberalism that is won for human Liberty I now believe that this regressive ideology is the biggest threat to freedom and Western Civilization that exists today with the rise of trump and the constant comparisons they make of him to Hitler the left now has the perfect Boogeyman to use to excuse anything if your opponent is a vile racist then you can use violence and any means necessary to stop him the regressive left has already begun using violence as a tactic and I fear that that's just getting started if you're only now getting up to speed on what the regressive left is allow me to recap quickly the regressive control the liberal left whatever you want to call it is a group of people who place identity usually based on immutable characteristics in a pecking order of social importance such as race gender and religion where victimhood is the highest virtue to be had this oppression Olympics allows groups to compete for who is the most oppressed thus the most virtuous and if someone isn't as oppressed as you then you have full authority to oppress them accordingly so black lives matter can protest a gay rights March in Toronto white gay men can be be banned from leading LGBT organizations on college campuses pro-life women can be kicked out of women's rights marches and so on this backwards ideology which demands we judge each other not on the content of our character but on the color of our skin or some other baked in trait puts the collective ahead of the individual it loves all of its minority groups to behave as monoliths so if you're a true individual meaning you don't subscribe to the ideas that the group think has attributed to you based on those immutable characteristics you must be cast out many of the guests on my show have suffered from this backwards backlash Ayan hery Ali Majin noaz Sarah haer and Ali rizy all have felt abandoned by the left because they speak out about the problems within Islam they dare to fight for a more tolerant more truly Progressive Islam in tune with a modern society and basic liberal values and for that they're labeled bigots or Worse the Southern Poverty Law Center even labeled Majid as an anti-muslim extremist in reality Majid's a former islamist who has devoted his life to trying to reform Islam from the inside to try to reconcile his faith with the modern world fighting for gays and atheists and women and any other freeth thinkers living under Theocratic rule for this he is called a porch monkey and other vile names by supposed Progressive while at the same time he's admired by many on the right for being outspoken this is the absolute height of absurdity but it all makes sense when you value groups over individuals the individual must be sacrificed at the altar of the collective so when any of these people dare speak out and call her true tolerance they find their tolerance met with intolerance the left loves diversity in skin color just not diversity in thought of of course this regressive ideology isn't just tied to Islam at all my guest this week is Larry Elder a black conservative who has had every label and smear thrown at him again like with the previous guest I just mentioned these slurs come from people on the left who would rather silence and dismiss their opponents than actually engage them in an honest way people often ask me which interview I've done that's changed my views the most and I almost always say that it was the first time I sat down with Larry Elder he challenged my views on systemic racism as well as the need for a strong family and was one of the people that helped sell me on why small government is important if you haven't seen the video we'll post the link right down below Larry challenged me and I wasn't ready so I can't say that it was my best moment on camera but I listened and learned and just as importantly we didn't edit any of it out so I'm looking forward to picking up where Larry and I left off and as for where we left off this is where I feel there might be nothing left for me on the modern American left you all know most of my positions on important issues I'm for free speech even for white supremacist Richard Spencer to speak and not get punched in the face as happened just a couple days ago and I'm still a card carrying liberal by the way I'm for gay marriage I'm pro-choice I'm Pro legalization of marijuana I'm against the death penalty and the list goes on at the same time though I'm against this suppression Olympics I'm against safe spaces and Trigger warnings I'm against labeling all my opponents bigots and racists and I'm against platforming speakers especially at colleges where ideas are meant to be challenged and debated I'm also for State's rights for following the Constitution and most importantly for having a limited government that gets out of the way so that you can live your life to the fullest I've said a few times on the show that defending my liberal principles has become a conservative position interestingly I've also heard conservatives like Andrew claven and Dennis Prager say that they are conservatives because they really are liberals this is where we might get lost in the definition of liberal in the modern sense verus classical liberal so if you're still confused about that check out a video I did a couple weeks ago called why I'm a liberal we'll put a link to it right down below the point is that if the issues I care about most free speech rights of the individual and limited government designed to maximize Liberty now have almost nothing to do with the modern left my positions basically haven't changed but I've watched as my team has gone off the deep end the Battle of ideas always gets to a Tipping Point and I sense that we're closing in on one right now if we can't re in this madness on the left then Donald Trump will be all too happy to show them his authoritarian side both sides are ramping up for a showdown that seems incredibly obvious to me so while I absolutely believe that the new center filled with liberals conservatives and Libertarians and others is rapidly growing maybe I've lost the left and maybe that's okay but to end this direct message I now kick this back to you guys if if you're liberal is there anything left for you on the left or are you left out is it now the conservative position to truly be liberal let me know in the comments right down below and we'll see if there's anything left to [Music] discuss joining me this week is an author a television pundit host of a nationally syndicated radio show and now most importantly a returning guest in that very chair Larry Elder welcome back to the Reuben Dave thank you for having me I appreciate it well I am looking forward to this because I mentioned at the top of the show that I don't know that any guest that I've ever had on challenged me directly as much as you did and actually managed to change some of my feelings that's got to feel pretty good for you well I had a lot of good feedback from the interview and people complimented me but I said the the compliment should go to you because you were asking questions and unlike a lot of interviewers you really cared about the answer you listened then you responded and so I think that's what made the interview so great so for you to sit down with a liberal and I think last time we literally didn't know each other I think maybe we had met for 10 seconds before you sat in the chair you sit down with a liberal and I think that you were ready to go so when I said something about systemic racism like you were ready to pounce and you did and I and my guy said to me after we had only been doing the show for a few months you know do you want to edit that part out because there's a part where you really kind of Catch Me In Like A a moment where I don't know and we'll link to it right down below I want people to see this I think it's important um how hard is it for you to sit down with liberals generally speaking and and have an honest conversation depends on the liberal if it's an open-minded liberal who really cares about what you have to say it it's pretty easy uh if it isn't if it's somebody who who's already decided what they've decided and believe that liberals that conservatives are mean people rotten people cold people anti-science people then we're going to be in for for a bumpy night right okay so let's uh I want to just recap a couple of the things we talked about last time for people that haven't seen it and then we'll get to all the new stuff so real quick just tell me a little bit about your political Evolution how do you end up here as a conservative well it wasn't so much an evolution as it was kind of like uh uh a series of things that happened to me people I've met books that I've read and that all together you added up and I ended up being a conservative my father was always a republican uh my mom a Democrat and so at the kitchen table uh they would fight all the time about politics and when I was younger I SED with my mom I think partially because it was just my mom and when I got older I began to side with my father much to my mother's uh consternation so going back that let's say 50ish years roughly uh what what are the types of things that your dad was fighting for as a republican at that time well I remember vividly during during uh Watergate my dad was defending Richard Nixon which I thought was indefensible I thought what Richard Nixon was accused of doing sub suborning perjury and getting other people to lie uh was was deeply wrong my dad thought it was trivial my dad felt that Richard Nixon had not done anything to enrich himself that National Security was not jeopardized nobody died why would you impeach a president over the fact that he was trying to cover up a Breakin to the Watergate that was my dad's position my mom's position of course was that Richard Nixon was a crook and a liar fast forward the polls show that most Americans now believe that Richard Nixon should not have resigned over what he did and feel that what Hillary did was far worse and she did not have to resign yeah what does that say about just sort of how where we've come and and where we were that we're so obsessed with Scandal right now I mean we know right now Trump's been in office for as we're taping this like five days or something and it's like there is just going to be massive scandal after massive Scandal Obama said just a couple weeks ago that he's very proud that his administration got through without a major Scandal now that depends on what your definition of SC I suspect you disagree with that but in terms of like a personal Scandal or some real stealing of something or that kind of thing but but maybe you you don't see it that way I do not see it that way but your question was what does it say about us where are we gone what it says about us is that when it's Republican in office Somebody Like Richard Nixon that people did not like there's one level of scrutiny and one level of judgment when if it's when if it's when if it's when it's a a Democrat somebody like Clinton or like Obama there's a whole different thing for Obama to say with a straight face that I've not had a major Scandal are you kidding me what was fast and furious what was Hillary's U email server what was the denying the nonprofit applications of uh of conserv is with the with the IRS uh what's you can have your doctor you can keep your doctor um and Obama reiterated that line after it was obvious from the from the RS that you couldn't necessarily keep your doctor or you couldn't necessarily keep your plan so that line didn't he basically say that ends justify the means that's sort of what he was saying like I had to sell it and we kind of knew I'm not defending that that particular line but that was sort of his May cult I still think it's a scandal for for you to say that you're going to bend the cost curve down uh people are going to be no worse off uh they're going to to save money and you don't save the money uh when you know full well that you can't keep your doctor if you want to keep your doctor and to say it anyway that to me as far as I'm concerned is a scandal pulling out all the troops out of Iraq over the advice of his entire National Security team Hillary wanted him to keep a stay behind Force his secretary of defense wanted to stay behind Force the CIA director wanted to stay behind Force The Joint Chiefs wanted to stay behind Force our our US ambassador to Iraq advised Obama against pulling all the troops out he did it anyway and the media gave him a path for that and uh Ray odero the um retiring Army general of the joint Chief said that had the troops not been pulled out Isis could have been dealt with that to me is a massive Scandal for which Obama got a pass and still gets a pass so is that one of the situations where we're damned if we do and we damned if if we don't so that had he stayed at most people and I'm guessing you included probably didn't want us to be there forever having left the way he did they were having Democratic elections right before that I mean literally in the months before we left left they were having their first free Democratic elections and now now it's an absolute disaster so is that just one of those situations there was no win in a way for him at the end because either we're going to occupy them forever or we're going to pull out and then some bad stuff's going to happen which is exactly what happen okay now now we're talking about kind of the merits of the Iraq War and and whether or not we should have stayed or not stayed and that's fine um look I I believe that as long as the American public did not have the will to stick it through because what George W bush said was we'll leave when Iraq can stand up as long as the American people did not have the will to do that we shouldn't have gone uh but I'm surprised I think uh George W bush is surprised think Dick Cheney is surprised that over the advice of all the people I just now mentioned Obama pull all the troops out anyway he envisioned a stay behind force uh to make sure that Iraq would be stable I mean we stayed in um in in Germany we stayed in Japan we're still in South Korea it takes a while for pry sure we have 30,000 troops in Germany now or something like that something like that it takes a while for for democracy to take root uh and for us to bail out the way we did was was incredibly irresponsible and I and I thought jeopardized National Security and again I am surprised that Obama felt confident enough to walk into the Oval Office uh and and ignore the advice of all these people so would your argument be basically that these these scandals these issues that you brought up basically he got a pass because the media is sort of in on it with the Democrats is that the basic idea absolutely for him to say as he said many times during press conferences I'm most proud of the fact that I rescued the US economy really the major things that were done tarp and bailing out the auto companies George W bush had set that into motion uh his stimulus program most economists don't believe it did anything Obamacare was a brand new entitlement dropped on the back of the of of job creators uh and and notice how he no longer bragged about things like uh Cash for Clunkers and cash for caers he doesn't even Cash for Clunkers rather he didn't talk about that anymore because they were boond doggles they did not work they cost the American people American taxpayers money okay so I know that a certain amount of people are going to hear what you said there and go that doesn't make any sense and then the other this is going to be a very 5050 split on of where people where people are at before this so let's move to some of the philosophical stuff which I think is where we can get into the real me of this right so racism this is the issue that more people contacted me about when I was discussing you than anything else and it's where you challenge me the most on systemic racism so first off what does any racism exist in America not systemic racism we'll get to that in a second but what racism is real right now we live in a country that's got 330 million people uh roughly 8 to 10% of them believe Elvis is still alive almost half of them believe if you send Elvis a letter he'll get it obviously there's racism there are individuals who don't like other people because of their race no question about it but are there corporations they have a policy of not hiring anybody or are there governmental agencies they have a policy of not hiring anybody uh the answer is no if you can tell me the company I be M Apple that has a policy of of not hiring black people tell me or or brown people tell me who that company is and we can deal with it I don't know what people mean when they talk about institutional racism If This Were the 50s I would know what you're talking about uh when there was when there was uh segregation that was legal segregation in the South where you couldn't marry somebody uh outside your race in certain States but that is no longer the case right now the racism that people talk about right now in my opinion is individual stuff where some individual doesn't like you or some uh individuals don't like you but is it something that is anything akin to what we experienced in the 50s and 60s absolutely not and I think it's insulting to people who have fought hard and died in the 50s and the 60s to to get us to this point to act like things are just the same when you have people like Eric Holder saying as he did when he was AG we now have pricious racism which he said was every bit as bad as the old racism what the hell are you talking about I mean it's it's insulting to me so what do you do to defeat that idea so again this is you you mentioned that in our conversation and really did you know you got me I said something well there's systemic racism and you said well what companies can I just just I I just asked you for an example you got me and so I do agree with you there are racist people there are a certain amount of people that don't like black people that don't like Jes that don't like gays Etc we live in a free country you're allowed to not like people may be OD and and unpleasant but you're allowed to you can't harm them but correct but what do you do to stop the idea of what you're talking about that things have changed for the better and that there's a certain amount of people that want that oppression that want the oppression because it it sort of puts them above other people how do you fight that you've been trying to fight it I think for a long time tell the truth that's how you fight it tell the truth I mean or this movement called black lives matter I think we talked about that a little bit um it's it's as bogus and as phony a movement as the notion that OJ Simpson is innocent from having killed two people uh it's a fraud um most cops simply want to do a good job and come home um most cops frankly are more hesitant to pull the trigger against a black suspect than a white suspect there have been a couple of studies that have shown that recently one of them was a an economist from Harvard named Roland frier and he is apparently the youngest tenur professor in the history of Harvard uh and he's a tenur professor in the department of economics and he did a study to find out about police brutality he assumed he would find the opposite and he was shocked he said when he found out that most police officers uh are are are more reluctant to use deadly force on a black suspect than a non-black suspect and the reason in my opinion is pretty obvious if you shoot a black person and there's any question whatsoever about it you're going to be under the gun you're going to be Pro possibly prosecuted maybe lose your pension maybe go to jail um cops are deathly afraid of being perceived as engaging in racial profiling there was a recent poll that just came out and it turns out 75% of cops said that they are more reluctant now to engage with citizens uh than than before before the black lives matter movement yeah so what's the disconnect then when you when you see these uh cities when you see Atlanta and you see Chicago and you see Ferguson and all of these places that are usually under Democratic control they usually have Democratic Mayors the the group think would tell you wait a minute Democrats are are helping black people so where is the disconnect coming from a lot of people are not thinking critically Dave they're just not take take Baltimore Baltimore was run uh by a black mayor she got 85% of the vote what kind of politician gets 85% of the vote yeah I think Gaddafi got 85% I think staling got got 105% um and the top two officials running the police department were black The Command Staff majority black um all city council Democrat majority black the state attorney the one who brought the charges against the six officers uh is a black female and yet and still they're still talking about systemic racism um the fact of the matter is a lot of black uh suspects are engaging in bad conduct and the police are doing their job and often the bad conduct is against another black victim yeah does this all come down to education for you because at the end of the day if you can teach people properly about history and if you can teach them properly about what the role of government is and all those things that that's really how you untie this stuff from just the screeching people on both sides I I I think so and but but it's also all about uh rationally conect connecting the dots is it really true that uh that a young black man is more likely to be pulled over by a cop than a young white man uh and if it is true the another question is why um and you cannot have a meaningful discussion about any of this without talking about Behavior I think maybe the last time we were here we talked about a National Institutes of Justice study uh that's the research arm of the doj uh they did a study uh that came out in 2013 called traffic stops and race and it turns out that whether you're talking about driving without a license or driving while drunk or driving uh with a busted tailpipe or driving without a seat belt or driving without a car seat in the back uh it turns out black motorists were more likely to commit those crimes than a white motorist uh and the study said that the differences in stopping have to do with differences in offending if you can't have a meaningful discussion unless you have a meaningful discussion about Behavior right now I suspect that some people on the left would hear that and they'd say well black people have been oppressed economically so they are more likely to have a tail light out or some other thing you you would just say that's nonsense you would just say that's individual responsibility you got to drive a car that's supposed to be the one that's on the road that's right also there's more poor white people in the country than there are poor black people but it's black people that complain about being disproportionately pulled over yeah um half of all the homicides in this country involve black victims almost all of the black victims were killed by other black people um I don't know what what that has to do with cops uh being racist it has to do with the fact that it disproportionately large percentage of crime is committed by a law a small percentage of of people usually males usually young black males often against their peers and that is because of the lack of fathers in the home I didn't say it Obama said it a kid raised without a father is five times more likely to be poor uh nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in jail the number one problem facing this country is not bad cops uh not Obamacare it is the large uh number of of of children raised without fathers that is a product of the welfare state between 1890 and 1920 1930 believe it or not a black kid was slightly more likely to be born to mothers and fathers married to each other than a white kid so what's the connection there what's the 1920 connection so the welfare state starts and why does that harm the black family more uh the welfare state uh really got kicked off in the mid-60s 25% of black kids were born outside of wedlock in 1960 yeah uh right now it's 73% and what happened is l literally lynon Johnson launched a so-called war in poverty and he sent uh workers literally knocking on on people's doors to apprise women of their right to welfare provided there was no man in the house and so what we've done is changed the culture uh We've incentivized women to marry the government we've allowed men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility it is a neutron bomb dropped on this country uh all because of the war on poverty that was done by Lyon Johnson and the Democrats and with with tased support by Republicans as well one quick thing and we know we know that there's a that there is a negative incentive because in 1996 when Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform Act of 1996 welfare declined by over 50% far steeper than anybody predicted it turned out there was a bunch of able-bodied people en ablm minded people sitting on couches and when the when the uh when The Jig was up they got off the couch and got it got it work yeah do you think the intentions are good so when Lyndon John pushes this when the Democrats sign in the Republicans who got on Bo were their intentions where going to help people get out of poverty or is there really something more nefarious going on no the intentions were quite good uh uh uh uh FDR talked about uh uh the corrosive effect of of government dependency when he launched the the New Deal uh and uh Lyon Johnson talked about getting people off of government dependencies and making them more self self-sufficient by launching the war on poverty those were their stated goals and I believe them um but human nature is such that if you allow somebody an easy out some people will take an easy out and that's what we've done with a lot of people so basically we've said to a certain subset of people and it I guess is a disproportionately amount of black people we've said you can get a certain amount of government handouts and basically your argument is that this is now just leaving people in the status quo because if you can get something subsidize housing whatever it is food stamps and you don't have to do anything you'll just take it that's not a black characteristic that's a characteristic of what of what any human might of human nature and uh there was was a a poll taken in 1986 by the LA Times They asked poor people and non-poor people a bunch of questions um and one of them was do you believe that that poor people have additional children to get additional money from welfare the majority of non-poor people said no they probably thought it was insulting if not racist 64% of poor people said yes also they were asked this question poor people were do you believe that welfare is a crutch Cates dependency or do you believe it's a uh a me means to get you to stand on your own two feet and go forward more of them said it was a crutch that created dependency than it was a means to get you on your own two feet and go forward these are poor people responding to this poll Yeah so basically guilt has a lot to do with this the guilt sort of white liberal guilt in a way has actually subjected black people to a not all black people of course but a certain subset of poor black people to a set of circumstances that they almost can't get out of I think that's part of it but also I think part of it is people that are comfortable and wealthy and well educated look around to figure out how they can uh perfect the world uh and they forget that part of getting anywhere is overcoming obstacles and and struggling uh and if you make things real comfortable for people uh some people are going to take the easy way out so I think it's that kind of mindset that kind of mentality yeah when did we get to that point where fighting for what's yours fighting that no one should give you anything that the government isn't supposed to give you anything and no one should that it is your life to live it is it's your job as a human to pursue what makes you happy and take what you can that doesn't mean destroying everything around you but but finding what makes you happy when did that get crossed up is it all connected to this do you think that's that's a good question uh I think the founding fathers intended for uh us to uh have what people have characterized as rugged individualism Article 1 Section 8 of The Constitution uh set forth a handful of things the federal government should do uh they did not include Social Security they did not include Medicare they did not include Medicaid they did not include charity but we've gotten away from that I think because as people become more and more affluent um they look around and try to perfect the world yeah would you roll back all of those things I know do do you consider yourself a Libertarian B you're basically a Libertarian right so small L libertarian I'm a Law and Order libertarian so you think there should be driver's licenses of course yeah so you're not like well because it's an important distinction to make because there are plenty of Libertarians that don't so you're so what makes you not a classical liberal then because that's this has become one of themes over the last I am I am a classical liberal in the John Stewart Mill sense of it absolutely I am somebody who believes uh in maximum personal freedom but also you have to believe in maximum personal responsibility and that is to deal with the consequences of your choices yeah uh and and a lot of people don't want to do that uh they want to Shield people from uh the the vestages of of of of the world of Life uh and when you do that uh you also will create some other kind of reaction that that that will be worse my father used to say when you try and get something for nothing you often end up getting nothing for something yeah so what sort of social safety net should there be then or do you not think that there should be and this may be the difference between a small L libertarian and a classical liberal uh I I think most classical liberals will feel the way I feel and that is that uh the safety net should be provided by other individuals not by government but by Churches nonprofits one of the things that um Alexa the Tov wrote about in Democracy in America where where all of these what what were called Mutual Aid societies that were set up this is before Social Security before Medicare before Medicaid uh and believe it or not um a black person living in uh Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s was more likely to have health care insurance than a white person because uh he joined these Mutual Aid societies that provided that all right so let's Circle back to the family stuff because I remember you said the family stuff last time and the importance of a two parent family I was I come my parents are still married 40 some odd years I just went back to my childhood home in New York and for the first time I did have I think I saw a little more tangibly what you were talking about to go to my parents house to feel that it was the same place that I grew up in the same community that I was part of I visited family friends and some relatives that were nearby and it did feel like it connected me to something that was important it's sort of an ephemeral thing it's something that's not quite tangible but something that's important that does it lays your roots so to speak and that you can sort of figure out who you are from that is that really what you're talking about with the family that not it's not just that there's a bread winner but something else something that's sort of bigger than that that really can lay out what a life is supposed to be absolutely it's not just uh additional check as you pointed out it's also being a role model watching your father get up go go to work when he doesn't feel like it watching him live up to his responsibilities and you know the the three arguably biggest leaders in this country black leaders in this country are Jesse Jackson Al Sharpton and Lis farakhan and all of them had difficult huh all of them had difficult if not non-existent relationship with their own fathers Jesse Jackson's mother was a teenager uh who was impregnated by the married man who lived next door and when Jesse Jackson was raised in South Carolina kids taunted him Jesse ain't got no Daddy Jesse ain't got no Daddy because that's how rare it was in those days to be raised without a father Al Sharpton had a nice middle class life until his father abandoned the family and then down to the ghetto and in the case of farakhan his mom was arranged from her husband had a boyfriend took back up with the husband got pregnant didn't want the boyfriend to know and tried to abort uh lisis farakhan with a coat hanger so all three of these men in my opinion have deep psychological issues because of a lack of relationship with their own fathers and that is one of the reasons why in my opinion they're so angry despite the fact that things have gotten so much better in terms of race relations in this country so basically they can't let go of that pain I mean not to fully psychoanalyze them but they're dealing with a personal pain that is extremely painful for sure and they can't let go of that pain so now they're kind of projecting it on to the rest of us via politics in my opinion again I'm not a psychologist if I were that's what I would say um now a lot of people have had bad circumstances and have not been that uh that sour because of it my father I think we talked about him before my father does not know his biological father is the man named Elder was a man who was in his life the longest he was a alcoholic who abused him and abused uh his mother physically uh and my dad was literally thrown out the house when he was 13 years old by his mother's then boyfriend who sided with with uh with uh her boyfriend when uh he and my dad got into a quarrel when he was 13 years old came home came home from school and he was making too much noise the boyfriend got mad my dad said something to him uh his mother sided with the boyfriend out of the house he goes 13 years old Jim Crow South Athens Georgia right at the beginning of the Great Depression my father was never angry though my father uh said to us always us meaning my two brothers and me I picked up the cars I dealt with them the best that I could uh what did he do what did he do series of whatever anybody would pay him to do uh uh cleaning this cleaning that ultimately he got a job with the Pullman Porters they were the largest private employer of blacks in those days and he was able to travel travel around the country that's how he ended up in California he came here one time it was sunny people smiled it seemed more friendly and after the war uh was over my dad um relocated to California to try and get a job as a cook and he was told uh that he had no references which was California's way of saying we don't hire black people right uh and my dad ended up being a janitor worked two full-time jobs at a janitor saved his nickels and dimes started a little cafe uh near the Pico Union area which he ran until his 80s in fact I wrote about this in my last book it's called dear father Dear Son two lives eight hours because my father and I did not get along uh I thought of my father as grouchy and and honory and I couldn't understand why he was so ill-tempered until I got 25 years old we stopped talking to each other when I was 15 we didn't speak to each other for 10 years wow and my dad and I sat down for what I thought would be a 10-minute conversation it ended up being an 8- hour conversation and that's where I wrote the book a dear father Dear Son two lives eight hours about this conversation do you think that despite what you've said about uh President Obama do you think that now that he's out of office maybe he could step into the role that you'd like to see him in so instead of America turning to Jesse Jackson and farakhan and sharp in maybe they can turn to you but if not to Larry Elder but if not to Larry Elder that maybe when you disconnect it from politics can actually talk about some of those things because I mean you addressed it a second ago you said he did mention the family and mention fathers and all that so is there a chance do you think there's a chance for that I'm not optimistic because uh in his last press conference he talked about we still have a great deal to do on Race by the way when people talk about a great deal to do on race all they really mean is how black people feel about white people and vice versa they don't care about Hispanics they don't care about Asians they really care about the relationship between blacks and whites um and Obama has throughout his eight years in my opinion when he could have ignored the race card or put it in perspective picked it up uh whether it's Cambridge Police or whether it's Trayvon Martin if I had a son he would look like Trayvon whether it's invoking Ferguson whether it's hiring somebody like Eric Holder who's lecturing the country on race and racism Obama I think believes that racism remains this huge massive problem in America despite his election and despite his re-election and I don't and so I don't think he's going to say the right thing and do the right thing I think he I think he's encouraged black able to think of themselves as victims as opposed to saying look at me I busted my butt my parents uh made sure I had a good education uh I didn't make bad moral mistakes uh I got married before I had kids follow my model and you'll be fine he has not said that at all what he said is we have real problems in this country he embraced the black lives matter movement uh I mentioned Trayvon Martin I mentioned some of the other things in my opinion the reason that a lot of people voted for Obama was because they thought he was going to do exactly what you suggested which is to heal us put things in perspective tell young black people they ought not be angry when they're pulled over by a cop all the cop is doing is his job instead he did the opposite so I'm not optimistic at all that he'll play that kind of role that you suggest yeah so the way we've demonized hope I'm wrong yeah I I hope you're wrong too I I don't know but the way we've demonized cops as part of this I agree I mean I see a lot of times people are just screaming about how evil cops are and they're hunting people down and all this stuff I don't know a ton of cops but I knew some in New York and I know a couple here I mean generally they're trying to do good right I mean do you have any experience in which have you ever been pulled over and had a I probably have been pulled over maybe more than almost anybody you know I got my driver's license when I was 15 and a half my Learners permit and then when I was 16 I was able to drive by myself and I probably looked like I was 12 so I got pulled over probably a hundred times and with the exception of one or two instances uh the encounter was brief and professional uh one time a cop told me to take my head out of my ass that was the first time I got pulled over by the way yeah I was driving and there was a light behind me and I knew I hadn't done anything anything wrong so I just kept going the guy pulled over and screamed at me and he goes why didn't you pull over and I said what I said to you well officer I didn't I didn't think I did anything wrong and he said whenever you see some lights behind you you pull over get your head out of your ass and he was right I should have had my head head of my ass but um you know um uh the instances in which cops kill blacks has declined 75% in the last 45 years according to the CDC while the instances in which cops are cops kill whites has pretty much flatlined and so it's going down it is very very very rare for the cops to kill anybody let alone an unarmed black person of the 965 um people that were killed by the police uh in 2015 less than 4% were white cops killing an unarmed black man it is very rare by contrast 400 people were injured by lightning last year but only 250 people were killed black people were killed by police so it's very very rare so how much of this I know you talk about fake news and I want to get to that but how much of this is because the media is complicit in all this so for example just this morning I think the Oscar nominations were put out I haven't even seen them yet but apparently there are more minorities this time I guess there are some more Latinos and Dev Patel and and some more black people and you know for the last couple years there's been this Oscars so white thing to me and I can only speak for myself this is like keep your eye is just off the ball you're just paying attention to the wrong thing where it's nice to have people nominated for these things but they're Irrelevant in the scheme of what's important uh and what you should be caring about is education and all that but the media has made such an importance out of this that it's like it's getting the black community's eye off what's actually important which would be education and family and some of the other I I I couldn't agree with you more um I have an actor friend and I said why is this important to you and he said because it provides role models it enhances the self-esteem of black people that's what he said mhm M I said are you aware that black boys and black girls have higher self-esteem than white girls and white boys this has been tested for decades it's been the case for a long time and there are very very few Asian actors and actresses yet uh asian-americans Japanese Americans Chinese Americans and korean-americans on a per capita basis make more money than virtually anybody else in this country so it's utterly irrelevant yes and for us to pay attention to this and it's also not true if you look at the last 15 years or so roughly 10% or so of the for the major categories have been black people they've been a couple of years where where there's been a shut out uh but um add it all up it's it's about parody with population right so that's the irony it actually it's within a couple percentage points it actually has been a parity and and and Jamie Fox who got an Oscar for for Ray right uh said uh in in in connection with this Oscar U so white movement he said act better be better MH raise your game don't demand don't yell don't scream get better act better he got an Oscar and and and and I think part of the reason he said that is because it kind of demeans his Oscar right because then it means like you're complaining that that Oscars are so white how did I get one I was lucky yeah maybe just maybe I was excellent yeah MH so do you think that at times visibility is important so for example I have I've had Jack a Harry on here she was the first black woman I think she won for best supporting actress in 227 uh around I guess it's around 1989 or so at that time do you think that a certain amount of Vis visibility may have been more important than it is now like cuz finally a black person did it even if you don't think that the thing in and of itself is is important I don't think so I remember uh some years ago there was an Olympic uh black uh skier named Debbie uh Debbie Thomas I believe was her last name and she was the first um uh black Olympiad in in uh in in ice skating and and she was constantly asked who are your role models who are your role models who inspired you and finally to me out of out of exasperation she said I don't need to see somebody black do something before I think I can do it and that's how I feel if I want to do something uh what's holding me back from doing it other than my own insecurities or or or or or inadequacies just get up make it happen yeah how exhausting is this conversation to you I don't mean this literal conversation right now but just this thing you know so much what you talk about has to unfortunately be framed around something that you don't even think is is real you know what I mean it's something that you think should be put behind us that actually is behind us and yet you have to talk about it a lot just on a personal note how does that feel for you doesn't bother me I I think there's a lot of uh feeling that race and racism remain major problems in America uh and I think that that you're approaching this with with with sincerity and and and and and real concern uh I just don't think it's that big of a deal yeah by the way I've emailed der massen to him on who's the lead I think the Quasi leader of black lives matter he hasn't responded but I will I will ask him again so I'm not doing I'm not just playing favorites here you know I'm just putting that out no no no problem um this is America there there are Cubans who are braving shark infested waters to get here there are people from Central America coming up here why do people come here why do so many people want to come to America and is because it is the land of the free and the home of the brave it is a place where you can go from nothing to something uh faster than at any time uh and anywhere than in all of human history that's why we're here and um to me again you are are almost uh giving the forefinger to all the people who fought struggled worked hard and died for people to sit around in 2017 and moan and whine about race and racism yeah I suspect I know your answer to this but what do you make of all these people that now want to look back on history and label everyone racist from back then you know I was at Montello which was Thomas Jefferson's home Thomas Jefferson who owned slaves who was sleeping with at least one slave I think several who they by the way at Montello I took the tour this only about a year and a half ago they fully owned up to everything they did not I thought it was incredible what they did they said this man was writing the laws to free the slaves at the same time he was sleeping with the slaves which I think you could probably make an argument was rape in a certain respect because they weren't equals right now I'm not saying he's a rapist in the conventional sense but you can I can see that argument being made but what about that concept that we're going to look back that what I think the left is now trying to do is look at all of our founding fathers and take them out of the give our 2017 morality to them who lived very complex lives I mean without Thomas Jefferson the slaves do not get freed as quickly as they did well I I I think the idea of going back and airbrushing history and and looking at history through the through the filter of today's uh morality is pretty silly I think all a a state can be it's just in its own own time and that's what we're trying to be and trying to do right now uh and people are right to call uh slavery Americans America's original sin but without a compromise you wouldn't have had an America and um and there was 750,000 people both sides who died in order to free the slaves and people don't really have an understanding of of of of the the the scale of the sacrifice that people made 750,000 people at a time when this country was just 10% the size of what it is so that's like 7.5 million milon people dying uh in order for there to be an outcome with slaves are freed and that's those are the people that died not the ones who have been injured it was a horrific thing uh that that America went through uh and and on the other side comes the 13th Amendment the 14th Amendment the 15th Amendment uh the civil rights movement and and all the things that have happened since then but but this was a country that went to war over this proposition yeah what do you make of this intersectional thing that we have going on now and I think we saw a lot of it at the women's March this this past weekend where there's a certain amount of people that are trying to conflate trans issues with black issues and then Muslim issues with women's issues and just this whole thing where you know I talk about all the time this oppression Olympics and now we're all they're all tied together by this oppression but they all have to kind of beat each other in oppression to be the winner this is a toxic mess huh it is it's it's a it's what I call the victicrat culture where everybody has a grievance uh and everybody's making a demand on the government to solve that grievance uh when in fact uh we have far more in common than we have apart and we ought to celebrate our similarities and and we're not doing that okay so let's move to Trump then I think what you said there is an interesting segue to Trump so there seems to be this feeling that the white supremacists are back they're back in business and white boys are back and it's and it's CU of trump so I saw this did you see this video of this guy Richard Spencer who's the alt-right guy got punched he he got punched I tweeted out that I this guy has obviously bad ideas I've had family members on both sides of my family killed in the Holocaust so I am not a Nazi sympathizer in any way but I have to defend his right to free speech without being punched because the that's the whole point you can't just defend it when it's easy you got to defend it when you don't want to and that's but I saw a lot of people on the left a lot of famous people a lot of people with a lot of influence saying no it's okay to punch Nazis which if you just follow their logic through well he could have killed him because you could accidentally kill somebody and then if it's okay to punch a random person because of their beliefs can we blow up his car can we bomb his house I mean this is this is a horrifically slippery slope right of course it is is it okay for me to to to burn up a building uh because I'm unhappy with because of the way the police treat me uh are riots perfectly okay uh would it be okay if somebody walked up to John Lewis and punched him because they feel that John Lewis should have attended the Donald Trump inaugural where do we where do we go with this are you kidding me yeah and and believe me it would have been a huge story if that had been somebody like John Lewis who had been punched as opposed to this Spencer guy uh that the media doesn't care about uh and feels it's loome I understand that but I I would have thought there would have been a little more coverage of it but there wasn't very much yeah so I know a certain amount of people are going to watch this and go wait a minute wait a minute here's a black guy and a Jew somehow defending a Nazi's right to free speech he wants to I'm pretty sure he'd want to kick both of us out of the country or or something close to that but it's tough to have principles right I mean isn't that isn't that the Crux of what you're saying basically the through line of all this is you got to have some principles wasn't volter who said I disagree with what you said but I would defend to my death your right to say it I mean we're talking about principles here yeah free speech so do you and by the way it's not unlawful to to hate somebody you can hate somebody as you pointed out earlier you can't put your hand on that person but you have every right to dislike somebody for whatever reason you want yeah so I sense that a lot of people think though that white supremacy is back that they that they feel that there was a link to Trump somehow I don't really see that link but there there was a link that somehow he Unearthed this and now Pepe the Frog and and harambe the monkey and the white supremacist they've been unearth and now they feel it's okay so their only response is to hit back I would argue which I think what you would argue which is you beat them with better ideas let this idiot talk and guess what he's going to show what a fraudulent bigot he actually is right um but do you think there's any Resurgence of actual white supremacy I mean is that a real issue I'm not seeing it uh Donald Trump got a higher percentage of the black vote than Mitt Ramy did than John McCain did he got a higher percentage of the Hispanic vote than Mitt Ramy did um he got a smaller percentage of the white vote than his U than his prede than his the the the Republican who ran before him so I'm not seeing it I I am seeing a Resurgence in the uh assertion that white supremacy is is back but I'm not seeing it look U one of Donald Trump's um surrogates was Dr Ben Carson is Dr Ben Carson uh somebody that's going to Cozy up up to somebody who's a white supremacist uh one of my friends uh Steven Miller uh is the young uh Speech writer who wrote Donald Trump's inaugural speech and wrote his RNC speech he's about 30 in his early 30s I've known him since he was a teenager he is not uh somebody who's going to work for for a white supremist he happens to be a Jew yeah um so Donald Trump's a wrong vehicle to to Peg that on and John Lewis said that he was not going to attend his his inauguration the first time in all of his years being in Congress he's not going to attend the presidential inauguration false he he he did not attend George W Bush's inauguration now with George W bush a Nazi was he was he a fascist was he a racist what was your argument Mr Lewis if you were here I'd ask him for not attending George W Bush's inauguration I understand Donald Trump but explain George W bushes to me right so is that the crazy position that a lot of people have painted themselves into now they've screamed and ranted and raved that Trump and this whole movement is is vile and racist and all this stuff we now if he does any good they're going to have to lash out in crazy ways because you can't have a guy that you've been calling Hitler for a year suddenly you can't suddenly admit that he's doing some good stuff right so they've put themselves in a really tight intellectual box here I I think they have and again Donald Trump is a bad vehicle uh to to do that with because if you look at some of his points of views they are quite populous and and quite leftwing he and Bernie Sanders were completing each other's sentences on free trade and when uh Donald Trump had that interview with 60 minutes and he was asked about U same-sex marriage he said it was settled law he could have said the same thing he said about abortion which was I'm going to put on a Justice who ultimately would turn over roie Wade he didn't say that but that's really what what what he wants to happen but he could have said that regarding gay marriage because uh gay marriage is less settled law than abortion uh abortion has been on the book since 1973 the the gay marriage decision just now came down oh so your argument is that he's actually more for gay marriage than then he is for abortion yes on gay marriage he said to Steve Croft that issue's been settled really he could have said I'm going to put on justices that that that will look at the Constitution and will have all these issues go back in the stat like abortion but he didn't he said same-sex marriage is settled law which was his way in my opinion of signaling to all of the people in the country especially his critics that I am okay with same-sex marriage and on as I mentioned on and on on free trade he and Bernie Sanders were were identical and on infrastructure he wants a trillion doll infrastructure uh investment uh Chuck Schumer just now said that he's okay with that yeah when you have Chuck Schumer smiling it seems to me you ought to be worried but the point is this these are leftwing kinds of things yeah and they felt that Obama's stimulus was too small and this is bigger than that so they're they're giddy over all over all that so why Donald Trump is engendering all of this hostility when he has so many uh Centrist if not leftwing points of view is beyond me well I think it has to do with just the way he speaks I I think you know my concern concerned about him from day one as I've said a thousand times on the show I don't know what his moral Center is but I don't know that you know what a lot of these guys moral Center is at the end of the day a lot of them speak a lot cleaner so you you think you know it and then you don't know it you'd probably argue that about Obama but for Trump I don't know what it is that being said I think the answer to your question is I think the left no longer has the ability to understand the difference between words and actions so they see his Gruff language and some poorly phrased things and that he speaks not that well and then they think that translates into action when in fact he actually did a lot of things that brought them more Center I think it goes back to what we said earlier and it's just a lack of critical thinking I think when it's are at the end of your name uh all of a sudden there are certain sets of of views uh that people assume you have uh and they they go after those views um you I look at his his his moral Center I look at Donald Trump's family uh these kids adore him he's had three different marriages it's complicated to put all that stuff together three different marriages uh children from all three of the marriages and they all get along and they all worship their father how bad a guy can he be you know it's funny I had Donald Trump Jr on my SiriusXM show talking about how he was for gay marriage this is about a little bit before it got passed about let's say three years ago four years ago talking about how he personally was 4 game marriage even though his dad wasn't and that his dad said you go out and tell people whatever you want so I thought that was that's actually a nice marker of of sort of what a father should be um do you fear his authoritarian side of it all because as you said small L libertarian so you want the government to scale back I sense he is going yeah he's going to lower taxes and they're already doing some stuff with regulations that you're probably for and that kind of stuff but do you sense there could be an authoritarian side even controlling what businesses can do overseas and that kind of stuff that you may not like there are there are things he said that I don't like uh I don't know that I would label them authoritarian I would label them as stupid for example uh saying I'm going to put on a 30 or 40% tariff on Goods that come in this country if you've left the country and started a factory all you're doing is discriminating against cheap prices and hurting American consumers I as a business person have an obligation to maximize sh shareholder return and if my biggest cost is labor and I can go somewhere else and and build my widgets uh for less money I have an obligation to do that and if I don't do that my competitor will and for a business person like Donald Trump to tell another business person I'm going to punish you for for seeking profits to me is outrageous I understand and support his idea that a lot of the reason people go overseas is because we have onerous regulations and high corporate tax once you lower the regulations and lower the corporate Taxation and I as a CEO have made a calculation that I can make more money by putting my Factory in a third world country how dare you tax me for for doing that what gives you the right to do that right so you would basically argue that if he lowered the corporate tax rates did everything he could to unregulated business here you wouldn't need that tax on the overseas stuff right because it would be humming and purring nicely here well well you wouldn't you wouldn't need to leave the country to set up a factory because you would stay here what we have right now are all these environmental rules and regulations designed to fight climate change we have a very high corporate tax rate the highest in the industrialized world uh you deal with those kinds of things and you'll take away the incentive that some CEOs have uh to move outside the country but assuming you take all those away uh you lower the lower the uh the regulatory burdens that CEOs have to deal with and they still want to put effect somewhere you have absolutely no right uh to stop them from doing that yeah in my opinion do you think it's hilarious how we look at certain companies that do the exact same things as other companies some are okay some aren't so for example Trump made his ties in Mexico which I kept saying all along this isn't something you're getting him on he you're he's proving the point he's proving the point that it's cheaper to do there change the regulations and then he wouldn't have to at the same time a company and Trump was mocked relentlessly for doing that right at the same time Apple designs their stuff in cotino as they say and it's all made in China and they hide all kinds of stuff taxwise but we're all walking around with iPhones how come some companies are able to is that's just the cool factor of Apple I I think so and uh I think Al Gore was on the board of directors of Apple at one point if if he isn't now uh and here they are manufacturing stuff in China um yeah some companies have better PR than other companies he also sold current TV to Al jazer which is owned by Qatar one of the biggest exporters of oil in the world but you know but yeah let's not but we digress dwell on that that's right um okay let's let's move over to fake news because I this is so tied into what's happening with Trump the outrage machine and then the fake news machine all of this you've been all over this I I am just UHA apoplectic I'm apoplectic about what's going on with this because I see the mainstream media crumbling I see online media growing but I see risks in that too because anybody can put on a tie and pretend there's somebody and get a desk and that's you know it is what it is uh how bad is this scorge of fake news I think we've always had really bad fake news it just got passed off as CBS NBC or ABC um uh there have been lots of stories in my opinion that have been fake news stories uh one of them was um uh when Obama was pushing Obamacare he said over and over again uh that his mother uh who was suffering from cancer as she Lay Dying on her hospital bed in Hawaii had to fight with her insurance carriers to pay for her medical bills and her hospital bills turns out it is not true he said it over and over and over again a book came out by a woman named Janny Scott used to work with the New York Times therefore it must be a good book and she said that those bills were promptly paid the only quarrel was that Obama's mom had taken out a um uh a policy uh so that if she got sick she would be entitled to money and the the law is that if you have been diagnosed you and you try to take a policy out like that uh we can we can challenge it and that's what they challenged but regarding her medical bills hospital bills they were paid promptly but he said it over and over and over again and it helped to drive the narrative that if my mother got jacked over and she has a PHD and has a son from Harvard with a law degree imagine what these insurance carriers will do to you it turns out complet completely not true another fake news I said I think I said earlier when Obama said during his many pre press conferences I am most proud of the fact that I rescued the economy really tarp was done by George W bush the bailouts were done by George W bush uh and many of the things that Obama has done including stimulus actually hurt the recovery didn't help it yet he says this over and over again with a straight face and the failure of the media not to ask challenging questions when he raises that to me is fake news so that's the issue so not to split hairs there but that's the issue that we've had basically a lap dog media so there's the idea I think when when the left talks about fake news they're talking about these right-wing sites that are just making up things and they they push a lot of that on on breit Barton we can talk about that if you want uh but that's different than what you're talking about which is just a media that just simply got cozy they got cozy with the people in power so they just stopped doing their job you're calling that fake news ABS but these are two separate types of fake news absolutely I talked earlier about Obama pulling completely out of Iraq over the objection of his uh of his uh Team he also then said well the reason I did that is because George W bush had negotiated a an agreement that required me to leave at the time I did completely not true George W bush did negotiate an agreement but he fully expected his successor uh to negotiate a stay behind force and again Obama has said this over and over again and the media hasn't said anything about that that to me is fake news right so I remember when that happened and I remember thinking when Obama said it yes they had they had set the date but obviously Obama had plenty of political Capital at the time if he had wanted to stay he could have stayed so that's right this is just a it's just a conflation of poor media practices and we saw a lot of this with Hillary right not just poor media practices I expect politicians to the will the willingness to look the other way because it's a guy that you're pulling for when Obama came into office he uh riged on a deal that George W bush had negotiated he negotiated a deal with Poland and with the Czech Republic to for them to get missile defense Russia didn't like it Obama thought that he could Curry favor with Russia by riging on the deal and he did um the failure of the media to bring this up and to bring up him saying him him pushing the reset button and him saying to Medvedev uh when I get reelected I have more I have more flexibility the failure of the media to bring this up when they're hitting Donald Trump for being too cozy with Putin is another example of fake news yeah so so that to me is the monster that we've created they did nothing for so long now because they don't like Trump they're trying to be professional suddenly which I want them to I want them to do true investigative journalism I want them to fight the power but they seem almost ridiculous doing it now because they're watching tweets and getting outraged before weekend right I I just wrote a column about all of this this and what I've said is that the media has rediscovered their mission now that the Republican is back in the White House yeah but before that in my opinion they didn't do their jobs yeah is it almost too late for them have they because I think they've lost so much cred that even now as they Scurry to get their cred back I mean for example uh yesterday the day before I watched the second Sean Spicer uh press conference not not the quick one where he was bickering about the first official one I watched the first official one right I think it was Monday right and I watched the entire thing I was doing cardio the only way I can watch it I got have to be moving you got to run from the so I'm watching this thing okay I thought he basically did a pretty decent job he took a gajillion questions he answered them in pretty much the same way that all press people do which is you know half answers partially move on next and that's what they do but suddenly I saw all the headlines first off the the main Twitter moment headline was saying that he was focusing on the numbers of people there that was just a small portion and it was only because they kept asking him that same question right so that's also fake news right where they just keep framing something a certain way not just that not just what is said but that you can take an hour and a half thing and go well this was the part that was important when you know it actually wasn't the part that was let me say a couple things about that uh Spicer not only quarreled with the idea that Trump's uh audience was larger than what the media reported uh he also talked about the fact that a reporter from Time Magazine not not the buck tussle Gazette time mag said that um Donald Trump removed the bust of MLK from the Oval Office now that to me is a major story if it were true it is not true Time Magazine uh uh reporter for Time Magazine tweeted it and it went around the world rather than focus on that fake news part they talk about what Sean Spicer said about the crowd size because that's something they could probably make an argument about but the MLK thing they can't make an argument about that so we haven't even talked about that yeah and we found out because of WikiLeaks David how many of these reporters were in bed with the DNC in bed with Hillary I mean a New York Times Reporter is doing a massive story on on Hillary and and gave her veto proof over quotes she doesn't like a a a power that she that she in fact used and took out a quote that she' made about Sarah Palin yeah you're not making this up by the way was Washington Post uh was doing a story on John podesta and found out some conflict of interest regarding money and and gave him a head up and told him don't worry about it we'll bury it in in the in the story uh staffers for for Jake Tapper and for Wolf Blitzer of CNN contacted the DNC and said we're about ready to interview some Republicans you have any questions for us Dana Milbank is a columnist with the Washington Post he did a story a column called the 10 most outrageous things Donald Trump has ever said he contacted the DNC and said I'm about ready to do this column on the 10 most outrageous things Donald Trump ever said do you have any suggestions they gave him 10 suggestions he used eight yeah are you kidding me you didn't even mention the mostre egregious one in my opinion which is the whole Don of Brazil thing which is to me the heart because that one is the heart of how corrupt media and politicians have become but at least CNN fired her but the D DNC hired her as interim uh chair even after she was outed as as having conspired with Hillary to make sure that Bernie Sanders uh got did did not win so what does that say demat but I think the most out one of the most outrageous ones is um a guy named Kurt ien Wald yeah he writes for news week and tweeted that Donald Trump had been put in a mental institution for some time no evidence for it whatsoever he took the Tweet down pretty quickly when it was debunked but he wasn't fired or or even suspended or even chastised so this is where people talk about post truth now I know we don't want to be in a post truth Society post truth but well post truth that at this point you know any idiot who's amassed 150,000 Twitter followers has as much influence in a lot of respects as news I'm almost at 150,000 than thank you for calling me an idiot I just went above it that's why I mentioned that number cuz I'm any idiot that could have as much influence but but really you could have a set you could figure out how to do the social media game and somehow because of that you got a little blue check too now now you're an authority on this stuff and there so that I do see as a major risk that while I wanted the mainstream media to to get the lashing it deserved the fact that it's now everyone's just picking their truth wherever they can find it is a huge problem it's it's both a problem and a blessing it also means that the uh the traditional establishment media can be can be gone around uh you can get your ideas out uh and um and nothing can stop you from communicating to people uh but you're right it means that anybody can communicate and whether or not he or she is credible uh is left to you as a consumer to figure out is there any way that you think Trump can reconcile this relationship with the media CU I think it it's almost the most important important thing right now more important than the policies because it's one thing to just rail against the media all the time again I don't like what the media the mainstream media has done but do you think he can get to a point where he'll actually do some real sitd Downs do some real press conferences and not do the same things you know be willing to sit down with an interviewer hopefully it'll be me but maybe it'll be somebody else and not demand the questions in advance you know be better than all the reasons that you just said the Democrats well I don't I don't think it's Donald Trump's job to uh to Curry favor with the media I think it's the media's job to be fair um and as far as I'm concerned he has very little risk um he is disliked more than Reagan more than George W bush uh in my opinion uh they're out to get him and for him to have a more confrontational attitude towards the media to me makes perfect sense because there is no upside in him doing it any other way they're going to to go after him like nobody's business they just they dislike him because of his attitude about about um immigration uh they think of him as a racist you think of him as a as a as a bigot as a as a tyrant if that's your attitude and you're not going to cut me any slack why should I kiss your butt and so I I have no problem with what Shawn did uh his Sean Spicer his first uh uh informal press conference when he when he blasted the media the way he did and it does turn out that Donald Trump's audience which is the word he used uh to watch the inaugural was was bigger than any audience in history in part because of social media right so a lot of people on Twitter were angry me over that because I didn't say anything about it but if you listen to actually what he said he said audience meaning he and then he clarified it on Monday he said I mean people that are streaming it on Facebook and watching on iPads and all that stuff but everybody wants everyone to get outraged all the time it's exhausting isn't it it also turns out apparently that when you look at the the the uh the pictures of of uh Obama's inaugural and trumps trumps does look thinner but my understanding is part of that is because of security measures there's certain places you can't stand anymore certain place you can't go through anymore so a lot of people couldn't get to the main area because of all these security requirements so you're comparing uh not Apples to Apples and so but you'd agree all that is just Sideshow nonsense right like it's actually completely irrelevant whether the amount of people I'm talking about not not the lying about it but just whether they were x amount of people or Y it's just irrelevant completely irrelevant except that he's putting media on notice that you have to be fair to me yeah do you think the media regrets you know it's hard to categorize all the media but when they look back at the way they treated McCain who now looks like the most moderate Republican of all time you know and they they they were times calling him racist and I think he has an adopted black daughter if I'm not mistaken or when they to look at Romney and the binders of women and made it sound like he hates women that they in a way they created Trump because any Republican was going to get the cries of racism was going to get the cries of of misogyny and the cries of xenophobia and homophobia and all that so he brings up Peter teal he still hates gays he has uh uh Ben Carson he still hates black people so in a way he was the only answer to this absurd equation right uh I think you're right I think the media did did help to create Donald Trump uh people resent the idea that the media has gone after Republicans in a way that they've not gone after Democrats and so there's a a distrust and when Donald Trump talked about political correctness and how how he was no longer going to be politically correct a lot of people took that to mean I'm no longer going to going to think of myself as a racist as a sexist simply because I've got normal views and normal ideas that any other guy has and I think Donald Trump has given people like that a certain amount of uh of comfort and credibility yeah all right so one more for you which will sort of wrap this whole thing up what happens over the next four years where do you really see this all going do you see this endless clash between between Trump and the left is there a way to get the media straight out can we get some of this societal stuff to to shake out or is it just going to be more battling CU it seems I thought there was going to be a couple days after the election where everyone would take a breath right it seems like everyone's just ramping up more and more now no people see things differently we disagree we disagree about abortion we disagree about same-sex marriage we disagree about taxes about spending about foreign policy as long as we have those disagreements we're going to have these kinds of disputes but I think what will happen uh hopefully uh is that we have 4% GDP growth uh like we did under Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was overwhelmingly reelected not because people agreed with him they disagreed with him about uh his nuclear proliferation they disagreed about uh his U going into South America and trying to roll back some of the Communist movements there if you go down list by list there was an article in the New York Times in 1986 it talked about all of these points of views and how Americans disagree with Ronald Reagan but they respected him and overwhelmingly reelected him because ultimately it comes down to the economy comes down to pocketbook and 70% of the American people felt that we were on the wrong track economically uh and that is the primary reason in my view why Donald Trump won worst economic recovery since 1949 this has been a 2% recovery the average recovery is 3% and the difference between 2% and 3% is 1 million jobs times the length of the recovery so if Obama had done nothing had worked on his putting we' had 7 million more jobs than we have right now yeah well he did work on the putting yeah we'd have 10 million more that you go all right well Larry it was a pleasure we're going to do a little bonus segment for our patreon uh audience and I thank you for coming back pleasure and we're going to link to the original one and people can see if maybe I changed you in some ways too who knows uh well I felt I felt the same way leaving as I felt coming how's that fair enough all right for more on Larry check out his website larryelder.com [Music]

Channel: The Rubin Report

Views: 600,035

Keywords: rubin report, dave rubin, idw, current events, free speech, intellectual dark web, critical thinking, rubin, the rubin report, david rubin, us news, political news, us politics, political science, political, political party, Larry Elder, Larry Elder interview, larry elder black lives matter, black conservative, black republican, black lives matter, systemic racism, conservative, libertarian, larry elder racism

Id: aFrfV-y_VC8

Length: 71min 53sec (4313 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 27 2017