Ask Dr. Drew - Journalist Questions White House COVID Narrative, Gets BANNED: Simon Ateba w/ Dr. Kelly Victory – Ask Dr. Drew – Episode 223

Episode Date: May 29, 2023

Simon Ateba joins Dr. Drew to discuss Tucker Carlson's rumored new Twitter show, new CEO Linda Yaccarino, Ron DeSantis' expected presidential campaign announcement in an interview with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces, and Simon's experience of being banned by the White House's Press Secretary. But Ateba's own story is also remarkable. He says he was "attacked by pirates on the Gulf of Guinea with an AK47 to my head, kidnapped in Nigeria, dumped in the woods & left for dead, arrested in Cameroon during investigation & kept in dark cell only to be sidelined at the White House."  Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Follow him at https://twitter.com/simonateba and read his Substack at https://www.dailyletter.us/ 「 SPONSORED BY 」 • PALEOVALLEY - "Paleovalley has a wide variety of extraordinary products that are both healthful and delicious,” says Dr. Drew. "I am a huge fan of this brand and know you'll love it too!” Get 15% off your first order at https://drdrew.com/paleovalley • THE WELLNESS COMPANY - Counteract harmful spike proteins with TWC's Signature Series Spike Support Formula containing nattokinase and selenium. Learn more about TWC's supplements at https://twc.health/drew • BIRCH GOLD - Don’t let your savings lose value. You can own physical gold and silver in a tax-sheltered retirement account, and Birch Gold will help you do it. Claim your free, no obligation info kit from Birch Gold at https://birchgold.com/drew • GENUCEL - Using a proprietary base formulated by a pharmacist, Genucel has created skincare that can dramatically improve the appearance of facial redness and under-eye puffiness. Genucel uses clinical levels of botanical extracts in their cruelty-free, natural, made-in-the-USA line of products. Get an extra discount with promo code DREW at https://genucel.com/drew 「 MEDICAL NOTE 」 The CDC states that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective, and reduce your risk of severe illness. You should always consult your personal physician before making any decisions about your health.  「 ABOUT the SHOW 」 Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Kaleb Nation (https://kalebnation.com) and Susan Pinsky (https://twitter.com/firstladyoflove). This show is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. 「 WITH DR. KELLY VICTORY 」 Dr. Kelly Victory MD is a board-certified trauma and emergency specialist with over 30 years of clinical experience. She served as CMO for Whole Health Management, delivering on-site healthcare services for Fortune 500 companies. She holds a BS from Duke University and her MD from the University of North Carolina. Follow her at https://earlycovidcare.org and https://twitter.com/DrKellyVictory. 「 ABOUT DR. DREW 」 For over 30 years, Dr. Drew has answered questions and offered guidance to millions through popular shows like Celebrity Rehab (VH1), Dr. Drew On Call (HLN), Teen Mom OG (MTV), and the iconic radio show Loveline. Now, Dr. Drew is opening his phone lines to the world by streaming LIVE from his home studio. Watch all of Dr. Drew's latest shows at https://drdrew.tv Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome everyone. Very interesting guest today. We have Simon Atiba. You can follow him on Twitter. Simon Atiba, A-T-E-B-A, one word. You can also read his sub stack at dailyletter.us. And he is the chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa. You can find todaynewsafrica.com, more information there. But this man has been attacked by pirates, held with an AK-47 to his head, kidnapped in Nigeria and left in the woods for dead, imprisoned in Cameroon, but cannot be tolerated. His civil liberties

need to be restricted as a member of the White House press pool. That, this man is intolerable, I tell you. So let's hear what he's got to say, what his ideas are. Whenever somebody is silenced,

my first instinct is to hear them out. We will do so in just a minute. Our laws as it pertained to substances are draconian and bizarre. A psychopath started this. He was an alcoholic because of social media and pornography, PTSD, love addiction, fentanyl and heroin. Ridiculous. I'm a doctor. Where the hell do you think I learned that? I'm just saying, you go to treatment before you kill people. I am a clinician. I observe things about these chemicals. Let's just deal with what's real.

We used to get these calls on Loveline all the time. Educate adolescents and to prevent and to treat. If you have trouble, you can't stop and you want to help stop it, I can help. I got a lot to say. I got a lot more to say. You can spend thousands of dollars trying to look a few years younger, or you can skip all of that hassle and go with what works. GenuCell skincare. GenuCell is the secret to better skin.

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So as I said, Simon Atiba can be followed at Twitter. Simon Atiba, one word. And my goodness, my Twitter just did something very strange. So I hope we're still, nope. I think we dropped off. Mine did the same exact thing. It I hope we're still, nope. I think we just dropped off. Mine did the same exact thing. It looks like we're actually still in the space, but it just completely closed Twitter right now.

I wonder if it's because of the- I'm wondering if it has something to do with the, yeah. All that traffic going there right now. There's nobody else in there. Wow. Yeah, so for people that don't know, Elon Musk is hosting. Yeah.

Everybody dropped off. He's hosting Spaces with Ron DeSantis. And it's starting right now. Blowing up Twitter. So we're not on Spaces? We are there now again. And I appreciate those of you that are there. We are also on Restream.

We have a new telephone and everything. So it better work. Yep. So we're on it. Let's make sure we can hear the guests. We, of course, rumba rants where you guys uh oh it dropped off again everybody so caleb did you have that as well happen also right now i can't mute myself on twitter spaces so they're probably hearing me talk in the background if the mute button won't work so yeah this this definitely must have something to do with all the traffic of people going to twitter spaces right

now for el Elon's event. Because that happened right at the office in Central. Well, can they hear us right now on Twitter Spaces? It appears that they can, yeah. Okay, so head on over to YouTube, Rumble. You can watch it on Twitter there or Twitch. And just watch the live stream if you're over there on Twitter Spaces. They just keep disconnecting the host. We'll keep it on.

It's kind of comical. I wonder if that's what's going to happen during the DeSantis thing. That's sort of funny, like whether somebody did that. Okay, so here's the deal. That's weird. Kelly is here, of course, today, Dr. Kelly Victory.

We're going to get her in here in just a second. We have Dr. Joseph Latipo in here, Florida Surgeon General, in next week. And the following week, we have a Seymour Hotra. These are the Wednesday shows when Dr. Joseph Latipo in here, Florida Surgeon General, in next week. And the following week, we have Asimul Hatra. These are the Wednesday shows when Dr. Victory kindly joins us. Right now, though, I want to welcome our guest and Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa, Simon Atiba. Thank you for having me. Thank you.

Thank you for having me. It's our pleasure. Did I frame that correctly? I mean, you've been through these hair-raising experiences, which I want to hear more about. But no, no, no, we cannot have you speaking in the White House pool. And people don't know if you go in that White House press area, it actually was a pool that they essentially laid down plywood on top of,

and that now is the press room for the white house which is bizarre but there it is so what happened so it's been tough i've gone through a few a few things in life trying to tell the story i've been arrested in cameroon while doing an investigative report on nigerian refugees in chad and cameroon as you know, a few years ago, Boko Haram terrorist group attacked northern Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. Many people were displaced, millions of people. And some of the people who fled from Nigeria ended up in Cameroon in an isolated area.

And no one went there. I was the first journalist from Cameroon who lived in Nigeria who went there to cover it. And when I got there, I was arrested and accused of being a spy for Boko Haram. I've also been attacked by a pirate on the Gulf of Guinea with an AK-47 to my head. I've been kidnapped from a bus in Lagos, Nigeria, and dumped in the woods and survived. I've also been beaten up by some pastors while trying to do my job. And right now, I'm being sidelined by the White House, which is crazy. It is crazy.

I want to zero in. Pastors beat you up? Were people posing as pastors? Is that what you said? Yeah, pastors. So I went to this church in Lagos, and I was doing a story on Nigerian churches. One of the biggest things in Nigeria are churches. Pastors, they are celebrities. They have millions of dollars. They have private jets. And they are accountable to no one. And so I went there to do a story on them. And they arrested me and they beat me up.

There was a TV station in the UK that came to do a documentary on me. And so it's been a few bombs along the road, trying to be a good journalist, trying to tell the story. And what happened with the White House? What did you do to violate their sensibilities so completely? So when I came to the U.S., I was so happy. I knew that, you know, the reason the U.S. is one of the most advanced, if not the most advanced country in the world is because of the freedom, the freedom of the press, the freedom of expression. And, you know, the first amendment, and I didn't know that I could face problems in the White House. I used to actually be their

friend. Jen Psaki, the former press secretary for President Biden, used to call me a friend because the first question I asked in the Biden White House was a great question in court for them. I asked them if those who called President Biden Sleepy Joe should apologize because we've seen the guy doing his job for a few months now. He's not dead. He's not sleeping. And so they really liked the question. They kept giving me the question until November 2021, when South Africa discovered the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and informed the WHO about the new variant that was also in the UK, in Hong Kong and different places around the world. And the WHO informed the Biden administration.

But how did the Biden administration react? They reacted by banning eight African nations, including six nations that had zero cases of the variant. And when Jen Psaki came to the White House, she tried to justify it by inflating the number of cases in those countries. And I challenged her and I said, well, the information she was giving wasn't true. And from that day, I became the enemy. I went from being our friend Simon is here to we don't want to see him here. And from then on, it became really difficult for me to do my job, to ask questions. In a way, that episode helped me to really do my job better. I realized that

I needed to push more and do the job because it's about the job. I'm not there to be friendly with the people in power. And when I began to do my job, ask the real questions and challenge them, I became sidelined. Early this year, the White House Correspondents Association failed to, did not renew my membership. And because they did not renew my membership, they did not allow me to attend the White House Correspondent dinner that took place in April. Not that I wanted to go to the dinner to eat, but it's a good place to meet people who are in the same industry. And right now it's been almost eight months since the new press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, last called on me.

She didn't call on me even when President Biden received 50 African leaders in Washington, D.C. for the second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit that took place in December. She didn't even, she doesn't, she didn't call on me when the first lady went to Africa and even when the vice president went to Africa or the secretary of state. And there are many stories and they are doing this at the time when China is increasing influence in Africa, expanding their influence, their footprint around Africa. So it's been really hard for me to do my job, but I am not, I won't be deterred. I keep pushing, keep asking the right questions.

And I also came to realize that while the, during all this time when, you know, I've been sidelined, I realized that it's been a good thing because I sat in the briefing room for eight months and I saw the type of questions that people ask. And I also saw how a lot of lies are being, you know, spread by the White House press corps, including from Karine Jean-Pierre and John Kirby.

You know, today we just learned that the U.S. officials now believe that the Ukrainians were behind the Nord Stream pipeline bombing. And so it shows you that a lot of things that have been said at the White House are not true. And have you had an opinion about the American press and the way they seem to coddle? They seem like really sort of in the bag. There's two things that I want to ask you about. One was that.

And the other was they have been so wrong about so much and yet they've been carrying water for anybody that wants to discuss you know russian collusion or a or suppress uh or you know 100 laptop being russian disinformation or uh covid the way they, and COVID, everything. Everything they do, there's this unison. They just, it comes out of the White House and then there's unanimity of the press. That to me does not seem like the job.

It seems like the job is the job you're trying to do. And they don't seem to welcome that, do they? No. And actually, I wasn't always like this. I was also one of these guys when the officials released a statement, and I believed them. And I go to press and I say, you know, the U.S. official just said this, or the WHO just said that the vaccine works and the lockdowns work and everything works. And then I began to realize that people around me, for instance, even after getting the vaccine,

they, you know, they still caught COVID. I began to realize that when I took my second vaccine shot, I began to have, you know, some complications. And I was this guy who attended every single press briefing from the WHO between 2020 and 2023. Recently, 2023, I attended all the press briefings and I asked questions at almost every single press briefing. And I couldn't believe that, you know, the vaccine wasn't really working the way they said it. But when you make mistakes, you have to accept them and you have to correct them. What is happening now is people refuse to accept that they made mistakes. People refuse to accept the truth. And when you refuse to accept the truth, what you are doing, you are propagating lies. And that's what many of them are doing.

And you can talk about the Russian hoax. Some of them still believe that even after the special council came out recently with the final report, some of them still want to stick to their old positions, COVID, you know, and you name it. And so people are not really doing their job. And I understand them. When you come to Washington, D.C., and you go to the White House, it's a comfortable place. It's a small club. You attend events. You go to dealers. You go to yoga classes. You fly on Air Force One with the president. And now if you begin to do your job, it becomes really difficult. You'll be sidelined and people will no longer invite you

to their social events. And you don't want that. You don't want to be Simon and Tabor. You want to still be the group you want to attend, the White House Correspondents Dina. You want to be invited to the president's Christmas party. You want to be there in the circle. Maybe you should play nice and do a real undercover sort of operation, then come out with a big expose at the end of the things you heard

and saw as a result of playing nice and i and i what do you think i'm we got to bring dr victory in here just a second but what do you think of you said the people that still cling to these clearly incorrect notions what's wrong with them what's going on in their heads no because it's difficult for people to change their mind. There are people who are still wearing masks up till now, even when it's been proven that those masks were not really effective. So it's always been difficult. Once you've said something, you publish something, or you've read it in the New York Times, and, you know, it's true.

The New York Times said it, so it must be true. And many times they've been wrong. And people don't just want to change their mind. Yes. Many times. I played a video yesterday of them repeating altogether all the wrong, just these ridiculous things that they said strung out in a big video. But maybe next Tuesday I'll play the whole video because people, my audience needs to see this.

It is ridiculous. I just wonder how long they can go on being so wrong, so wrong about so many things. It's been six years of defending vigorously, not defending, celebrating positions that proved to be categorically untrue. And I just don't understand how that can continue. My brain won't do that. But you're living in it. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe until a new government comes to power.

In Washington, D.C., usually there's a saying here, reputation. Reputation is more than reality. So it's not about reality. It's about the impression, what people believe that is the truth. And so when the press secretary comes to the White House, even though you can see that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a total disaster, her job is to tell the American people that everything is great, everything is fine, the president to run for a second term. She comes to the White House briefing room and she tells us most people want the president to run.

And, you know, that's what she I don't know how long, but it's sad. Well, Simon Atiba is here. Follow him on Twitter. It's Simon Atiba. The website is make sure I get it right. It's, uh, today, news, Africa, today, news, africa.com. Uh, just before I get to victory in here, one quick thing. When the U S went to Africa recently, when there was a pan African meeting or something, and I, a lot of the leaders were complaining about how the U S was treating African countries. What was that? Do you remember that?

It was about a month ago. Yeah. The, the U S in the U S the African leaders came to the U.S. in December. Oh, it was here? Okay, I wasn't clear if it was here or there. Okay, yeah. And they were very unhappy. Yeah, they were very unhappy because, you know, last December there was the second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.

And that summit had in attendance 50 African leaders. And for those who are watching us now, Africa has between 54 and 55 countries, depending on who you ask, the UN or the AU in Addis Ababa. So when 50 African leaders come to Washington, D.C. to sit down with one president. It's almost like the entire continent of Africa has come to the U.S. And when they came here, President Biden didn't have time to meet with them one-on-one. And so what they said last month, the president of Kenya said last month, next time they won't come to meet, sit down with one president, either in the US, or in Russia, or in China, that he will send the African Union, the head of the African Union to sit down with a country. So they were

very unhappy. They were not, he even said that they were treated like school kids. Aidan McCullen, M.D.: Embarrassing. I'm embarrassed as an American. All right, let's, let's get it to a break here we're gonna uh keep talking to dr to simon simon atiba we uh are unable to take calls twitter is crashing because of the uh elon musk elon can't get his technical he can't get his difficulties yeah people are crashing and crashing and crashing 685000 people were listening and then it booted me out. You should see the lineup though.

Kennedy's there. Megyn Kelly's there. Everybody's there. Everyone is there. If I open up Twitter right now, within seconds, my phone heats up and gets like hot to the touch and then the whole app crashes.

So we're not going to be taking calls. Kennedy's there. Terrible. No calls today, but we might drop in on that twitter spanish caitlyn jenner's there waiting if he solves the problem we may proceed over there and listen to what's going on uh peter mccullough i think that's peter mccullough oh no that's just mccullough peter i think i took a picture of it because i can't get it to come back pretty awesome awesome. All right, we'll take a break, bring back Kelly Victory right after this. A lot of you have been asking for more information about how to counter the adverse effects of the spike protein from COVID infections and the COVID vaccine. The spike protein is not your friend, let's just say that. So I'm glad we have the

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Please welcome Dr. Kelly Victory. Simon, welcome and thank you so much for being here. I would submit that what we are talking about here today with regard to censorship and propaganda and dishonesty within the White House press corps is far more important than anything you're going to hear in a canned presidential announcement today. You'll be able to hear that over and over again. I was interested in what you were saying about Lagos in Nigeria. You talk about these pastors who are celebrities, that they are millionaires, that they are unaccountable and fly on private jets. In the United States, we call those people congressmen.

But interesting that they are pastors in Nigeria. As someone who is a proud American, I always perceived the United States truly as being the land of the free, where free speech reigned supreme, and where honesty, where our government didn't lie to us, where we were allowed to push back on our government, where our government was the most honest. I'm really interested in your experience in the press room at our White House. How pervasive do you think that, frankly, the dishonesty and the propaganda is not just out of the mouth of a Jen Psaki or a Corinne Jean-Pierre, but in terms of the buy-in from your colleagues sitting to your right and your left, how pervasive is the propaganda? Yes, the propaganda is everywhere. And the way journalists cover themselves is by quoting officials.

And so you say, it's not me lying. I'm quoting Dr. Fauci. It's not me lying. I'm quoting the National Security Council. I'm quoting Dr. Fauci. It's not me lying. I'm quoting the National Security Council. I'm quoting the WHO. What if the WHO is wrong? What if you now have evidence that most of the things that they told you were false and wrong? When will you change your mind?

People don't change their mind. It's everywhere. It's not just press secretary Jen Psaki, who was there for a year, or Karine Jean-Pierre, who is now the new press secretary. It's also other officials.

You see it with John Kirby, who comes to the White House and does a lot of background calls. And most of the things that they've said are not true. And the way they do it is either they give you an outright lie or they don't give the real information. The only way you can have the real information in this Biden White House

is through leaks. That's when you really get to know what official thing about the war in ukraine that's when you get to have the real information press briefings with kjp don't give you any newsworthy information don't give you any truth anymore and you may you made a good argument for why your your fellow uh press correspondents don't want to find themselves in your shoes. That said, Sir Edmund Burke once famously said, all that's required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. When you were fundamentally censored, sidelined, silenced, they tried to put you in a box and shut you up. You know, what about your fellow press correspondents?

Did anyone come to your aid? Did anyone come to your defense and say, this is wrong? No, even those who came to my defense, they did it in private. They will come and meet me outside the White House. They will send me text messages. But the ones associated with me in public or in the White House, some of them even attacked me. Some even defended the press secretary. And that's not the job. It's about the job. It's about

asking the question that the American people and American allies care about. It's not about becoming friendly with the people in power. And what the people are doing in the White House is a disgrace. It's actually a shame to anyone who respects or loves the First Amendment. They're not doing the job. And so what they did to me was to kick me out of the White House Correspondents Association. And right now, what they're trying to do is to kick me out of the White House on July 31st, because the White House Correspondents Association, which is led by Tamara Kidd, who works for NPR. And so she collided with the White House to change the White House rule to award hard passes to journalists. And so everyone at the White House has to reapply for a

hard pass because of me, because they are trying to kick me out. You can read those stories in the Washington Post, the New York Post, and different other places. And they are trying to kick me out. You can read those stories in the Washington Post, the New York Post, and different other places. And they are trying to kick me out only because I'm doing my job, only because I'm asking the right questions, only because I'm telling them you need to treat people equally, at least be fair to people. Call on people from across the room. Don't just call on the people who are friendly to you, the people who send questions in advance to the president or the press secretary. That's not a press briefing. That's a sham. That's a real press briefing. When you send the exact question in quote topics, the White House says, send us topics, but people end up sending questions.

And those who send questions in advance are called on during the press briefing. And for the people watching at home, it looks like, you know, a normal press briefing with journalists asking questions and the press secretary and the president providing answers. But it's all a sham. It's all rigged. Yeah, this is Kabuki. And frankly, it's Kabuki theater. This is exactly what we saw, really, the source, Simon, of what we saw during this pandemic debacle. When you shut down the voices of anyone who dares to ask a question that they don't want to answer. It's certainly this is the origin of this show that I do with Drew was really because I was egregiously censored as a physician asking pressing questions from the very beginning of the pandemic, pushing back on everything from masks

to social distancing to school closures, and then ultimately vaccines. If we don't allow for open dialogue, we don't allow those questions, the debate to be had, robust, vigorous debate, which is your role as a journalist, your role as a correspondent, then what the American people are getting really is nowhere near what they deserve. And so I'm really disheartened to hear, although it happened to me as a physician, to hear the same things fundamentally happening to you, that your own colleagues would sooner throw you under the bus than to lose their place at the correspondence dinner themselves. And the same thing happened to me as a physician. So I applaud you. I want to ask you if and feel free if you if it's something that you don't know much about, feel free to say. But with regard to COVID, talk about the experience in Africa, Africa as a as a continent and the countries within Africa are not highly vaccinated, with rare exception. They did not buy into the hype. And furthermore, they had ready access to medications like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine

because they use those things routinely for the treatment and prevention of malaria, for example, and for intestinal parasites. So talk if you have any insight or information about how Africa is a continent, I know what I read and what I get from the medical journals, but what's your take on it as someone who hails from that part of the world? Yes, that's a great question. Early this year, I asked the WHO, how do you explain that Africa with 1.3 billion people and with almost between 800 million and 900 million people unvaccinated, 900 million people who have not received a single shot of COVID-19 in their life.

How do we explain that that continent that has less, the lowest vaccination rate in the world, also has the lowest mortality rate? And the WHO doing a live press briefing told me that was a million dollar question. They don't know. Most people in Africa are not vaccinated. Most people in Africa did not get a single shot of COVID-19. Most people in Africa don't have the means to social distance. People live in crowded houses.

At least I used to live that way. But those people died less. And when you ask people at Pfizer, when you ask people at Moderna, you ask people at the WHO to explain why the continent with the lowest vaccination rate also has the lowest mortality rate, no one can tell you. It shows that it has nothing to do with the vaccine. And, you know, usually the answer they try to give you is most people in Africa are young and people in Africa already, you know, but as you said, people are already using hydroxychloroquine for malaria. Most people who live in sub-Saharan Africa have had malaria at least once in their lifetime. And maybe they're immune, but that's the conclusion. And those data, you can find them

at the Africa CDC website. I covered them for during COVID between 2020, 2021, and 2022, 2023. And I was attending the briefing in White House here in Washington, D.C., sometimes at 3 a.m., at 3 o'clock in the morning. Kelly, is there any excess mortality in African countries left over from whatever happened in the aftermath of the pandemic? No, there's not only no excess mortality, Drew. There's no increase in disability. There's no drop in birth rate. None of the things that we are seeing in the rest of the world,

certainly in Western Europe and in North America, none of the things we're seeing around the rest of the world is happening in Africa. And I've been saying this from the beginning. They are unvaccinated. They had no significant crisis of illness during the height of the pandemic. They had no excess deaths and they have not suffered the atrocities that we had have, you know, as a result of the vaccines. And it's not as though they didn't have COVID. They had it.

They just didn't hurt anybody. Oh, yeah. You're sure it went through. They're thinner. They're younger. They're more better at vitamin D, perhaps. There's a lot of things going on. But I want to circle quickly back to the South African isolation of the Omicron variant, which is what got you in trouble, Simon. I remember some of the interviews with the researchers in South Africa

that were discussing the variant, and they were very early describing it as a milder variant. They were pretty clear that it was highly contagious, but there's really good evidence that all the clinical data looked like this was mild. That was completely rejected by all the Western organizations, was it not? Yeah, that's true. It was rejected by Pfizer, by Moderna, and all the pharmaceutical companies. Actually, on that day when the WHO first talked about the Omicron variant, I was at that press briefing.

And the same day, Pfizer came out to say that they already had a vaccine for, that their own vaccine was effective against the Omicron variant. And I asked the WHO in a live press briefing, but you just said that you don't know anything about this variant. How do you explain that?

You know, so right from the beginning, the scientists in South Africa and Botswana said that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was highly transmissible but very mild. Yeah. Yeah. That was when things started looking very odd over here. They were so, not just by the way, the government, but the press wedded to disaster. Everything had to be disastrous or they were unhappy. know if you have that handy, but the New York Post has put out something, a headline from the World Health Organization, essentially, you know, proclaiming doom and gloom around the next corner. Not from COVID, just from something else. It's coming, everybody. The end of the world is nigh. Well, the good news is that Africa really as a continent is one huge control group. And the data are irrefutable.

I think going forward, it will become clearer and clearer that they were the big winners in this. They had rampant cases of COVID. They developed herd immunity. They stayed safe for a number of reasons, not the least of which is they avoided the vaccines and they had access, perhaps unknowingly, to some of the safest and least expensive and most well-tolerated medications, namely hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. And so time will tell, but if they can stay away from the mRNA, I suspect that Africa as a continent will stay in relatively good shape. Here's the headline for you, Kelly.

Take a look. Just quickly look at the screen. See this? Next pandemic, even deadlier than COVID, it's coming. World Health Organization. Simon, will you please clobber them over the head? Please. Yeah.

I'm very close to the people at the WHO. I, you know, I know them personally. So I will just say that a lot of things that we thought that were true were, you know, proven to be false. So, you know, the vaccine, COVID, lockdowns, everything. Yeah, we call it fear porn, and it really is. You know, fear is an incredibly powerful intoxicant. It's very easy to control people when they're in a place of fear. And I understand why leaders throughout history

have wanted to keep people subjugated to fear because they do things remarkably quickly. In this country, it was stunning to see how quickly people were willing to give up their civil liberties when they found themselves fearful of a microscopic virus. People handed over their most sacred civil liberties very, very quickly. And we taught our leaders well that we will do it again. Everyone knows that, you know, we now are in the middle of a heating up presidential race. I'm interested in your perspective from, since you have insight to the African leaders, what they are thinking, what are these African countries who came here, despite the fact that

Biden failed to meet with them, what would you say is on the world stage in terms of from Africa, their viewpoint on this upcoming election? How would you sort of characterize the feeling of African nations with regard to President Biden versus Trump versus anybody else who might enter this race? I think the African leaders that I know want a strong leader in the U.S. and they want a strong leader because of what we've seen in Africa. And let me give you examples. While everyone was talking about Ukraine, the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world took place in Ethiopia between 2020 and 2022.

According to US officials, 600,000 people died in Ethiopia during the war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray forces. And we saw the same thing in Sudan recently, where there's an active war going on. And we've seen the same thing in several African nations where some of the soldiers that were trained by the U.S. went back in Africa and over through the government.

And we know that because the head of the U.S. went back in Africa and overthrew the government. And we know that because the head of the U.S. Africa Command testified in Congress here in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago, like one and a half months ago, and they confronted him with the pictures of some of the soldiers who went back to Africa to overthrow their government. So you have a war in Ethiopia. It lasts for two years, 600,000 people die, and we still don't have peace in Ethiopia. You have a war in Sudan where you have total instability. You have government in Africa being overthrown.

So what they want is strong partnership. And at the same time, they also want to be able to do business with other countries, China and Russia. The reason they want to do that is because they realize that the U.S. has been retreating, while China is building bridges and roads and the things that people really want. The U.S. usually talks about democracy and human rights and gay rights and all those rights. All those rights are great, but if your people don't have water to drink, they don't have roads to travel. And so we go with the person who is doing that,

even though the person who is doing that lacks transparency, doesn't believe in democracy. And so that's why we founded Today News Africa, because our publication focuses on ties and interactions between US and Africa, because we are seeing the changes. And people like the press secretary, who has probably not traveled a lot, apart from since she became press secretary and worked in the Biden White House, she's now gone to Africa to see how the U.S. is treating, how China and Russia and the rest are expanding. And so they are seeing the US not being as strong

as it used to be. And they know that because recently in Sudan, for instance, the US called for a ceasefire. No one respected that. And they had to send troops to evacuate the US embassy in Khartoum. And they even had to burn some of the passports of Sudanese who had applied for visas. So now they are trapped in the country and they can't travel anywhere.

When is the last time, Simon, that a U.S. leader or somebody at the level of the president or the vice, I mean, for the love of God, our vice president can't even make it to our own Southern border. And she's the border czar. You know, she certainly hasn't gotten on a plane and gone to Africa. When's the last time a U.S. leader went? No, she actually traveled to Africa. She, yeah, she recently, yeah, she went to the country. But while she was there, she told them about the iPhone and, you know, climate change and how they can use the iPhone. Most people don't have the iPhone. Most people can't afford it. So she didn't do her homework. When she came back, what officials in Africa told me, like, she didn't do her homework.

She didn't understand the culture, the needs of the people. And she came, she went there empty-handed, and she came back with nothing. Talk about, you mentioned China and Russia. What do you perceive, or what is the influence, I should say, of China in Africa? God knows, you know, they are our greatest geopolitical foe, I believe, here in the United States. They clearly have their tentacles deep into every part of American life, our universities, our health care system, our farmland, our industry. What is the relationship in most African countries with China, if there's a relationship at all. Okay, great. So when the head of the US Africa command, General Landy, actually the US Africa command is not even based in Africa, is based in Germany, but the focus on Africa.

So when he came to Congress, one more than a month ago to testify, they asked him, what is the US greatest threat in Africa? And he said China. And he gave three examples. One example was mineral resources. 40% of the mineral resources used by US rare resources, rare minerals, 40% of the rare

minerals used by US companies come from Africa. And right now, China is building military bases around all those mineral resources. And so very soon, we drive out the U.S. Africa has African leaders, not Africa. African leaders have a good relationship with China because China doesn't care about corruption. China doesn't care about human rights. China doesn't care about transparency.

When they give loans or when they build those roads or bridges, most African people don't really have the details. And so they love that because you can actually challenge them. But the relationship seem to be that of exploitation. You build this infrastructure and if African leaders or African can pay, you take over the entire continent.

And they do that because the US, the EU, and the West has been retreating for several decades. And that's why when I came to the White House, I thought that it would give me the opportunity to ask questions because it's in the US and the African interest to have good rapport or a good relationship with Africa because of many things, democracy, freedom, and some of the things that we have in common. But I was surprised that in the White House, the press secretary didn't really understand the danger and how China is taking over by, you know, the African continent, building bridges, road, even loan, driving out the U.S. And it's sad what's going on. I understand they're more than just building roads, that they're actually

sort of setting up shop, like they move down there, they bring their families in, they become part of the community. They're really infiltrating, so to speak. Is that accurate? Yes, and they become part of the community. And also, even when they build these roads, most times they bring people from China. So the local population doesn't always get the job that they need. They bring people from China to do the job in Africa, and now they're everywhere. They're producing

things that Africa can't produce. But the US and the West, they're not helping. And that's why they're sidelining me. That's why they're oppressing me. That's why they are trying to drive me out of the White House. That's why they're changing the rules of the White House. How can you change the rules to kick out Simon when I'm actually trying to do the right thing, asking the right questions?

Do you write about this in your newspaper, in the Africa Today? Do you talk about how they're treating you and how outlined they are? Yes, and if you go to our newspaper, you realize that we focus on what we consider really important. If you go to the paper today, the cover of our paper, we talk about the humanitarian assistance that the U.S. is granting, you know, some countries in North Africa, Sudan, and other countries because of instability, drought, and some of the things going on there. When it's good, we say that is a good thing because people really need assistance. But when it's bad and we ask the question

that we need to ask, we are punished. And it shouldn't be. The First Amendment is there to protect free speech and not the good speech. But do you speak out about this on the paper? Do you editorialize about it? Do they know what you're going through? Do your readers understand what's happening?

Yes, everyone understands, readers and even the people who follow me on Twitter, on social media. They understand what's going on. This is such a pervasive issue, Simon. This isn't just happening to you in the White House press room. I mean, as I said, this happened to physicians and is continuing to happen to physicians. Listen to the FBI whistleblowers. They will stop at nothing to destroy the lives and livelihoods of people who dare to speak out. This is something, honestly, we have had some conversations recently, Drew and I have, with Bobby Kennedy with regard to how to eradicate this level of corruption within the United States government because it has reached a fevered pitch. U.S. government, the federal government colluding with big tech to write algorithms to specifically

censor certain people and kick them off social media platforms to rob them of their voice. And for you, it's happening on a very personal level. You know, literally, it's palpable when you watch, I watch you in the press room, and they will, it's as if you are invisible to, you know, Corinne Jean-Pierre. She will not, you know, allow you a voice. What is your strategy if you have one, if you can share it for moving forward, or do you just intend to sort of stay the course and hope to wear them down with time? Yeah, I don't know who will be president in 2024. It seems that we are going to have a new government, but I don't know. Before I get to the White House and raise my hand, I do everything I can. I send emails when I attend the background calls with John Kirby, even when they are discussing Africa, even when the first lady is going to Africa or the vice president is going to Africa or the secretary of state is going to Africa to unveil the new U.S.-Africa policy for Africa. They don't call on me. In the White House, when I raise my hand, they don't call on me. When I send them email to discuss, to ask questions about the Nigerian election, for instance, as you know, the president-elect of Nigeria, Bola Metinobu,

is going to be inaugurated in five days. And Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, the most populous Black nation around the world. They don't respond to my email anymore. They used to when I was their friend, but now they don't. And it's sad what's going on. I will continue to do the job. It's about the job. Even if they don't call on me, I will just keep doing my job.

I don't call on me, I will just keep doing my job. I don't know. I'm also writing a book. Long after today, maybe when I'm no more, the people will remember that I did everything that I could to do my job, ask the right questions, strengthen relationships between U.S. and Africa, and leave this place a better place. It's sad that they are going after the wrong person. Yeah, it is very

sad, disturbing. It's like monarchical France or something in the 19th century or even 17th century. It's very, very bizarre, odd. I never thought I would see anything like this in this country and why the entire country is not

upset about this is more than i can understand i'm just i'm just so confused by it but uh i and i've heard i've heard simon say more than once that he's just he has given up on this administration he's waiting for the next one and uh and so i guess that's that uh in the meantime just keep fighting the good fight kelly we're sort of running out of time here last questions for you yeah no I just a last comment Simon all I can say is you will you will clearly land on the right side of history it may not be a much consolation now in the heat of it because I've been living this as well you will you will land on the right side of history in the words of John Milton,

virtue untested is no virtue at all. You are being tested and you are standing up to that test. And I give you a lot of credit if there's anything we can do, those of us who understand what's going on in terms of pushing back, bringing exposure to it, giving you this platform or others to actually expose what's going on, because it's critically important to Americans to know that what they are hearing has been pre-digested. It is filtered. It is not truth. It is propaganda. And we are no different now from Cuba or North Korea or the old Soviet Union if we buy into this and allow it to happen. So God bless you and thank you for what you're doing. I think Barge sent me an Alexander Solzhenitsyn quote, to do evil, or was it you maybe sent it to me, to do evil, a human must

first of all believe that what he is doing is good. That's what we're into these days. People believe they're doing something good and they're doing untoward harm to the system and so many. Simon, anything you'd like people to know before we let you go? Yes, I want to ask everyone watching us to keep praying for me.

Pray for me to keep doing the right thing. Pray for me for wisdom, understanding, strength. Sometimes it can be really hard when you try to do the right thing. You try to strengthen ties between you as in Africa and they come after you and it can be lonely when you do the right thing. And I just want people to pray for me and follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my sub stack. There you go.

We're familiar with the loneliness of trying to do what's right. We have an understanding of what you're dealing with. We've both been through this and it's just been very, it gets very confusing when your heart is in the right place and you can sort of sit in the middle and see the landscape. Okay, and then Kelly, you're back with me next week with Joseph Latipo, Surgeon General at-

Yes, from Florida, yeah. And then Assim Malhotra the following week. Tom Wren's coming back on June 28th, he's returning. We'll look more at the counterespionage activity going on with Peter Daszak and the EcoHealth Alliance, which he tilted at. Both of our mouths were open like, what? We'll have to get more to that, hopefully. And again, Tuesday, I will play that video for everybody that I've been referring to today.

You'll want to see this, about just the compilation of all the ridiculous things. No one is safe. It was no one is safe. No one is safe is what they kept saying. No one is safe. That was the first minute. It's a 12-minute video. There's 30 other things that they chant over and over and over again.

Right. All right, Kelly, Simon, Atiba, we thank you so much. Kelly, we thank you. And we will see everyone, I believe, yeah, we'll be out tomorrow and Friday. We'll see you next Tuesday at three o'clock Pacific time. Sounds good. Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Caleb Nation and Susan Pinsky. As a reminder, the discussions here are not a substitute for medical care, diagnosis or treatment.

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