The Daily Signal - #417: El Salvador President-Elect Outlines His 3 Steps to Destroy MS-13, Other Gangs

Episode Date: March 12, 2019

Last month in El Salvador, a third-party outsider won in a landslide election, defeating his opponents, promising to crack down on corruption, to fight crime, and improve the economy. President-elect Nayib Bukele shares with us his thoughts on immigration, gangs, and how the U.S. and El Salvador can work together. We also cover these stories:•After dozens of countries suspended use of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, President Trump is following suit.•Neomi Rao has been confirmed by the Senate, and will now take Brett Kavanaugh's old seat on the D.C. Circuit Court.•Paul Manafort has now been sentenced to 7 years in prison.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, March 14th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. Last month in El Salvador, a third-party outsider won in a landslide election, defeating his opponents, promising to crack down on corruption to fight crime and improve the economy. Oh, and also, he's 37 years old. I sat down earlier with President-elect Naïbe Bouquet. We talked about immigration, gangs, and how the U.S. and El Salvador can work together.

We'll bring you that exclusive interview. plus a few of our colleagues chime in on Captain Marvel. And before we get to our headlines, just a reminder that if you enjoy this podcast, please mention it to your friends and families. Please subscribe and please leave a five-star review on iTunes. We are here to make sure that busy conservatives can get the news highlights and in-depth interviews they need every day. And we'd love your help in spreading that word. Now on to our top news. Well, after dozens of countries suspended use of the Boeing's,

737 Max 8, President Trump is now following suit. On Wednesday, he announced the FAA would be grounding the plane in the wake of last weekend's deadly crash in Ethiopia, which took the lives of 157 people. That was the second time the plane model crashed in the last six months. Here's the president making the announcement. We're going to be issuing an emergency order of prohibition to ground all flights of the 737 max 8 and the 737 max 9 and planes associated with that line. I've spoken to Elaine Chow, Secretary of Transportation, Dan Elwell, acting administrator of the FAA, and to Dennis Mullenberg, CEO of Boeing, and they'll be available shortly after

our conference today. And they are all in agreement with the action. Any plane currently in the air will go to its destination and thereafter be grounded. The FAA was initially resistant to grounding the plane. It's a rare decision to make. And it turns out that U.S. pilots had actually been registering complaints

about the new 737 model. According to reports accessed by USA Today, between April and December of last year, at least 11 professional pilots filed complaints with the FAA over-perceived safety issues. Boeing announced on Monday that it would be making an extensive change to the plane's cockpit software. Naomi Rao was officially confirmed Wednesday, 53 to 46,

with all Republican senators voting for her and all Democratic senators, but one, who didn't vote at all, voting against her. Rao, who was the regulatory czar for President Trump, and, more importantly to us, a former Heritage Foundation intern back in the day, will now take Brett Kavanaugh's former seat on the D.C. Circuit Court. Well, a Senate Republican proposal to rein in the president's power over national emergencies looks doomed after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House won't consider it. The bill was proposed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah as a compromise measure in place of a bill

to overturn the president's national emergency declaration at the border. He said Congress only had itself to blame for the current situation since Congress handed over national emergency powers to the president in the 1970s. But Pelosi, and now even the president, have come out against the bill. The House already passed a bill to overturn the president's national emergency, and it now looks ready to pass in the Senate, though neither chamber looks able to overcome a presidential veto. Representative John Ratcliffe, Republican of Texas,

tweeted that former FBI official Lisa Page, quote, Department not to consider charging Hillary Clinton for gross negligence in the handling of classified information." End quote. Page, who was at the time having an affair with other FBI official Peter Strzuck, also said, per the transcript released, and these transcripts are from last summer, that the plan was to investigate Trump even if he didn't become president. Quote, if he is not elected then, to the extent that the Russians were colluding with members of his team. We're still going to investigate that, even without him being president, because anytime

the Russians do anything with a U.S. person, we care, and it's very serious to us. Well, Paul Manafort, the president's former campaign manager, received an added three and a half years in prison on Wednesday after a federal judge rejected his appeal and rebuked him for crimes and for lying. The charges were that he misled the U.S. government about foreign lobbying and encouraged witnesses to lie for him. He had already received a roughly four-year prison sentence in Virginia for a separate case. In just minutes after that sentencing, prosecutors in New York filed suit against Manafort on state charges, a move that was perceived to be an effort to guard against a presidential pardon. The president can pardon federal offenses, but not state ones.

The immediate future of the U.K. remains in chaos with Parliament turning down Prime Minister Theresa May's proposed deal on how the UK would say goodbye to the European Union. And then on Wednesday, Parliament said no thanks to legislation that would have allowed the UK to leave the European Union without any deal. Right now, Britain is supposed to leave the EU on March 29th. Pro-life advocates scored a victory on Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled against Planned Parenthood, which was suing the state of Ohio for depriving it of state funding

because it funds abortion. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled by a vote of 11 to 6 that Ohio's policy does not violate Planned Parenthood's constitutional rights. In a state responding to the ruling, Planned Parenthood's president, Leanna Wynn, said, quote, it is unconscionable that politicians continue seeking to restrict people from accessing essential health care, which is a human right, end quote. The decision overturned a lower court ruling in favor of Planned Parenthood. The group did not say whether it would appeal. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has said California will no longer enforce the death penalty. In remarks, Newsom said, per San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO,

I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people. In short, the death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a California. This affects over 700 criminals. President Trump tweeted, defying voters, the governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the always forgotten victims are not thrilled and neither am I. In 2016, California voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have ended the death penalty. Well, next up, an exclusive interview with El Salvador's President-elect. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? Then subscribe to Scotus 101, a podcast breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. Welcome to The Daily Signal. I'm Daniel Davis, and today I have the pleasure of being joined by the President-elect of El Salvador, Naid Buckele.

Mr. President, like, thank you for joining us. Oh, thank you for having me. And thank you for the Heritage Foundation and the people who do. they're watching us. Now, you were elected in February in an overwhelming vote, and it was the first time, I believe, in the last 20, 30 years that a third party candidate had been elected president in El Salvador. You're going to start your five-year term in June, and now you're here in Washington. What are some ways that you hope to build the U.S. El Salvador relationship?

The U.S. and El Salvador has had a relationship for over 100 years. It has been a great relationship, and El Salvador has been an ally of the United States, like forever. We have been, we have a third of our population lives here. We use the U.S. dollar as a currency. 80% of our experts comes to the United States. 80% of our imports come from the United States. But the fact is that the last 10 years, I mean, we had a government that has been eroding the relationship with the United States, siding with Venezuela, siding with Nicaragua, the international organisms. And what happened is that we have been eroding our relationship with our greatest allies.

our greatest friend, and it doesn't, it just doesn't make sense. So that actually gives us an opportunity to fix their relationship. It's a change of government, and it's not only a change of government, but also a change of error for El Salvador. Because after the civil war in the eight, we had a civil war in the 80s that ended in 1992. But after this peace, of course, were assigned, the two sides of the war is still governed, it still continued to govern the country. Arena, one side and the former guerrilla, the FMLN, on the other side, side, they go on and continue to rule the country for the next 27 years.

They're still in government right now. They're leaving in May 30th, 31st. So in June 1st, we're not only a new government's coming in, but also a new era for El Salvador is coming in because we're turning the page on the postwar error. The Salvador has decided overwhelmingly in February 3rd that they want the postwar error to end. And now we have a clean slate. We have a clean page to write on, and we're not abide by the speeches of the 80s. We're not abide by the ideologies of the 80s, by the fight of the 80s.

But a new generation that wants to build something with, we don't need to invent the recipes. The recipes are there. You have the United States. It's an example of that. So we just want to build a country that works with common sense solutions and doing the common sense things. like being in Washington and reaching out to our friends. And we just want to do the common sense things. And we know that as a result, we will have prosperity for our people.

And our people are happy and are eager to do that. And we have to work on that. So it's obvious going to work because everybody is on board. And we're trying to send the right signals. And the right signals are being received by the right people and by their right countries. And I think that at the end of the line, we'll have prosperity in El Salvador. And that's only not good for El Salvador, but it's also good for the other country that you see El Salvador as an example

of how an underdeveloped country can have progress and can have economic growth and can solve its problems by doing the right things and the common sense. Thanks. Well, you mentioned that a third of Salvadorians live right here in the United States. Yes. And we also continue to have more migrants. arriving at the U.S. border, but you mentioned in your speech at Heritage that you plan to

end all, I think your words, forceful immigration to the United States in the next five years. What key steps do you plan to take to achieve that? Forcible immigration, which is 95% of our immigration. I mean, you have other types of immigration, right? Like professional immigration or... But you have a forceful immigration, it means when you have immigration caused by other factors. like, for example, lack of opportunities or violence, or both of them, or both of those factors. This is really shameful for our country.

I mean, it should be really shameful. When we talk about, in the immigration debate, we always talk about the borders. We always talk about the countries that get the influx of immigrants. But we seldomly speak about what are we doing in our country for the people not fleeing. I mean, people are not fleeing the States, right? Why people are fleeing our country? I mean, we should be doing things really bad for our own people wanting to flee our country. So we want to end that.

I mean, it's not a favor to the United States. It's just a matter of common sense that our country has to provide the opportunities and the security for people to want to stay in their country. For us, it's not cheap either to be exporting our young population, our population that is willing to work, that is willing to work really hard for their families. I mean, we have a demographic bonus. We have a huge demographic bonus

because we have a huge young population. And that should be, by any observation, that should be the best thing a country can may have. And we're expelling them. Like we want to support people. And that shouldn't be an industry. I mean, exporting people to get remittances This is the worst thing a country can do,

expelling its own population. So we want to change that. And the way to change that is, I mean, it's a gigantic job, but it's actually really simple in the way that it's a common sense thing that you have to provide opportunities, you have to provide jobs, and you have to provide security. Now, some of my may say, hey, really, that sounds good, but how do you provide security, right?

Well, you have to fight the gangs, you know, Saibother. A gang member makes, average $300 a month. They don't make a huge income. So, of course, the state may come and provide better opportunities for them, education, scholarship, sports, culture, art. And we can allure the young people to go into the right path and not into the wrong path.

And we can fight the guys are not sophisticated. They're not like the big, dark cartels. They're not sophisticated. So we can fight them. I mean, they're straightforward with technology, with things that we don't have because the crooks have been stealing the money for the last 40 years. So that's invested money that the people are paying in taxes in services to the people.

And one of the best services we can provide to the people, two companies, to international investors, for tourism to grow. It's investing in making our country safe. And then when you Google a sub-Buller, you will not find gangs, corruption, immigration, caravans where you will find economic growth, tourism, surfing beaches. they are battling corruption. So you will find their right ways, and that will allure people to come in,

to invest, to Salvadorans, to go back to their country, retirees, to want to retire in Osama because we have a nice weather, because we have beautiful beaches, because we have beautiful places to go, because we have summer all year long. So, but we have to do their right things

to change the country. They seem gigantic, but at the same time, it's really simple. I mean, if you could, If you could define it in a minute, it should be simple to do it. And we haven't done it because the previous administration and the current administration has been focusing on stealing money and haven't been focusing on giving ambition to our country and put the money where it should be and put the country in the right path. Yeah, I want to ask you about that.

One of the major issues in your election was corruption. What are some specific ways that's been happening? What are key steps you plan to bring reform and accountability to government? Yes, well, you said it. You have to bring reform in the countervility. In the second, in the first part, we have to reform some laws, and we have to set the example.

Like the President of Mexico just said, you cannot clean the stairs from the bottom up. You have to clean the stairs from up down. So we have to start with leading with the example. I mean, if the President is stealing money, well, all of his cabinet will do the same. But if the President is not stealing money, and he tries to choose, and I say try,

because out of 3,000 people, they may be a crook, right? But if you choose the right people, and then you put in place the checks and balances that will control one of those 3,000 confident posts do you have, if they go, if they stray, somebody will catch them and someone will turn into the justice system and to the authorities and we punish for his crimes, corruption will stop. And one of the things that will do it fast is we have called for International Commission. led by the OAS or by the UN, both organizations are interested in it. Dr. Almagro, the Secretary General of the OAS, just said, were all in in that commission. And an international commission has the benefit, I don't want to sound redundant, but it has the benefit that it's international.

So they don't have the influence of the internal powers or the internal mafias. And you will have an international commission that is totally independent that is going after the crooks, not only the ones in the past, but also the ones in the president, the ones in the future. Somebody asked me in the audience, what would I do with the crooks in the opposition?

And I said, not only the crooks in the opposition, in our own party, if there's somebody stealing money, he will have to pay for what he has done. And that will also dissuade some people of doing things, doing bad things, because they will fear the consequences. Well, earlier you mentioned the problem of gangs, and it's a problem we have here in the United States,

MS-13 is a challenge. That gang has roots in El Salvador, but I want to ask you how that gang has affected the people in El Salvador. And what are some of the key steps that you plan to take to really push back on gangs? Gangs are really bad. They are responsible of 80% of our homicides. They extort money out of poor people. They have control of whole communities controlled by gangs, where if you want to sell something, you have to pay the gang.

they are a quasi-state because they function like they they collect taxes, they provide security, which means I'm not going to kill you, right? Right, right. But the fact is that these are these organizations, they have to end. We have to have to, we have to end these organizations. And the right way to do it is in a three-step. First, we have to compete to get the young people. They're recruiting 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds.

Those kids, you can't. You can't compete them. If you get them, those kids will go in the right way with scholarship, with education, with sports, with programs. You can get those kids. You have the other which are graduated criminals. I mean, you cannot fix them. You have to combat them. But you can do it with technology. You can do it by putting the money in people in combatting them. You know, some of the we don't even have a forensic lab. We're just going to build the first one. But if you go to a crime scene, you can have the fingerprints, you can have DNA, you can have the bullet, the gun, and a letter from the killer saying, I killed this guy. And they wouldn't even know who wrote the letter because they didn't have a, they didn't have calligraphers to match the letters. So the fact is that we are not, we don't even have the common things police departments in the United States have.

So how can we fight the gangs if you're not acquiring the technology and the equipment and the tools that our police, many women in the police, need to fight the gangs? The good thing, or the opportunity, not the good thing, the opportunity is that the gangs are not sophisticated. They're really low in sophistication. They're not like the drug cartels that they have, but really they have the submarines. No, they're very low sophisticated. and they are very low in income. So if we cut their income, it's very easy.

When I was mayor of San Salvo, we just did a plan in the historic downtown district, and we turned the most dangerous area in the country, in the most touristic area in the country. So you can do it in small, you can scale it in big. And the third, there's the second one, come at them. And the third one is reinsertion in the area.

in the jail system. Right now in our jail system, we have, they're practically universities of crime. They go inside because they stole in the chicken, and then they graduate from, they order homicides and extort people from the jails. Because the whole ambit in the jail does that.

Right. But if you turn jails into correctional facilities that actually you are trying to correct people, then a big chunk of those criminals that are getting out, because their sentences are ending, you will get a huge chunk of them in their right path. And if they go astray, well, you get them back

and you send them back to jail. But you need the system to work. I mean, we're not inventing hot water. It's just doing the right things that common sense law enforcement has to do. We have to fix our social fabric so kids don't feel the necessity to go into a gang. And we have to fix our jail system. Well, lastly, I want to ask you about your election.

Last month, as we mentioned, you were elected by wide margins, a third-party candidate, and you've got a huge social media following as well. I understand you're 37 years old, is that correct? Okay. So what do you think most resonated with your campaign with the people? I think it was a couple of different factors. One of them, I was mayor of the capital, in Salvador. And when we ended up, when we ended our term, we ended.

we ended with an 84% approval rating. So people like our promises, but also people know that we will keep our word and their promises because we have done that already. That's for one. The second is I think we connect better with most of people that are, I mean, most of people are watching their phones,

more times that are watching their TVs. So, I mean, it's good to have ads on TV, but it's better to connect people via social network. in our times. Right. And the other thing is that I think people were also fed up of the status quo, of the two-party system that have been the crooks on one side and the crews on the other side that has been ripping off and stealing the people's money.

And you will see former presidents with $300 million, $400 million from the public money. And the country with no medicine, with schools, with no roofs with the schools, we have 80% of our schools that don't have internet access. I mean, people were fed up of that. So people wanted to change. And right now, we had a huge electorate. We won in the 14 departments. We wanted the 59 of the 60 most important cities. We won in 200 of the 262 cities in the country.

We won in every sector and every niche. But right now, that transforms into a responsibility because the expectations are so high that if we don't fulfill those expectations, it could be really bad. So we have to fulfill or exceed the expectations of people having us. Well, President-elect, Naïbe Buckele,

we really appreciate you taking the time to join us at the Daily Signal, and we hope you'll join us next time. Do you own an Alexa? You can now get the Daily Signal podcast every day as part of your daily flash briefing. It's easy to do. Just open up your Alexa app, go to settings, and select Flash Briefing. From there, you can search for the Daily Signal podcast and add it to your flash briefing so you can stay up to date with the top news of the day that the liberal media isn't covering.

Okay, well, we're here to discuss Captain Marvel, but there's one problem. Neither Daniel Davis or I have seen it. So we're joined by John Cooper, media guru of all things foreign policy at the Heritage Foundation. And he's making a face. I think that should be his official title. And The Leah Ramper. Wow. So the issue I just had with the Leah's last name, listeners should know, is that her actual last name is Rampersad, but she also goes by Rampor Mad and other terms.

And I forgot which one it was for a second. Well, it's not Rampor Happy. And it's definitely not Rampor Mad. It's 100% Rampers'A. Anyway, the important thing about The Lia. is that she is part of the video production team and she too has seen Captain Marvel. So, John and The Leia, I understand

you both hated this film. Yeah, I guess that's a way to jump into it, right? Why did you hate it? Hate is a strong term for me, but I definitely did not like it. Okay, so why? Either of you. Yeah, I guess I'll jump in.

So I might be even farther down the spectrum than Thalia is. for me, I want my Marvel movies to be really just, I want them to be good movies. I want them to be entertaining. I want them to have great actions at pieces, but I also want them to have some good character development and good story arcs.

And short version, Cap'n Marvel had basically none of that. And I know that some people would probably fight me on that. But at the end of the day, there just wasn't enough of what has made a lot of the other hits in the Marvel universe so successful. And even some of the lesser, you know, the less successful movies, maybe like Thor Dark World that weren't as acclaimed or frankly as good of a movie as

like Thor Ragnarok or Infinity War or the original Iron Man. This film did not have even some of some of the fun aspects and the visuals, maybe that some of those lesser movies did. So that's kind of where I come down on it. So for me, you have to think about where Captain Marvel is falling in the spectrum of the MCU movies. And that's Marvel Comics Universe for those of you like me who are not. this familiar with it. And who aren't nerds like John and I for MCU? I mean, I'm a nerd

in a different way. So you have to think about where Captain Marvel falls in all of these films. This is right at the head of the release of Endgame, which comes out next month. And supposedly, Endgame is the sequel to Avengers Infinity War. So all of the fans are supposed to find out what has happened to all of the superheroes who have disappeared when Thanos snapped his fingers. What happened to those superheroes after the snap? Has been the big controversy for the past year and a half. And so we're trying now to figure out where Captain Marvel fits into that storyline. And with Captain Marvel, the talk and what I've seen amongst the reviews is that she is supposedly

supposed to save all of these superheroes that have disappeared with Thanos Snap. For me, when I go into a movie with that much expectation, I want to know that I am going to enjoy the film. I don't want to be skeptical going in, and I was before I stepped in. And when I left the theater, I was sorely disappointed because, like John was talking about, the storyline is extremely weak. You're thrown into the story from the beginning. You're not really sure what's going on. And then throughout, of course, it kind of unfolds her story and who she is and where she's come from. And I'm not going to give any spoilers away for those who haven't seen it yet. But essentially, for me, it was a huge letdown in terms of what her story was.

And I also left the movie somewhat confused in terms of who was still good on her side and who was bad. And that revolves around the idea of Marvell and whether or not where she stood in the good versus evil fight. And of course, I'm just an MCU fan. I'm not a comic book fan. But I think those two entities can be separated in terms of. of the film critics versus the comic book critics. And so me, just as an MCU fan, I was sorely disappointed, and I really, really hope she is not the end-all, be-all to invent Avengers endgame.

So actually, I want to follow up on what you just said about how it was sort of ambiguous, if I understood you correctly, who was good and who was evil. And I think one reason that superhero movies have been so popular in, you know, gosh, the past two decades, let's say, at this point, is because it's very clear that's good versus evil. I think that's one reason conservatives really love them for the most part. Did this movie kind of blur that? Well, without giving too many spoilers away. I will say that the film, most of the dramatic tension in the film was completely cut, you know, at the knees halfway through the film by some of the writing decisions that were made by the various screenwriters on this film.

It was also directed by two, you know, two directors and that show. it, that's usually not a good thing, unless you're the Russo brothers who have directed some of the best movies in the Marvel universe. Yeah, so there were major problems with the antagonists in the story and really undercutting a lot of the dramatic tension. But frankly, even too, I think one reason why it was so weak as a film was because you had these very, very sporadic bursts of action at the very beginning of the film, about five minutes into the film, you're dropped into this set piece that I'm sitting there thinking,

wow, this is going to be really exciting, the way that they're setting up this mission. It's kind of cool visually. And then even the action was so, was edited so chopily. You couldn't tell where anything was going on, what was happening. And then the action just stopped. And we had about 30 minutes of just like exposition and talking and introducing the characters that we already know, things like that. And it was really just, it was really odd to go through that.

So you have Captain Marvel trying to. to figure out who she is. How does she have these powers? How should she use her powers? And it was almost like, you know, you hear lots of criticisms like of the Walking Dead to go to the TV universe where there's sporadic action that's really cool that fans like. But then there's like 45 minutes of talking for the rest of the episode. Captain Marvel was like the cinematic version of the Walking Dead.

And I think, you know, whether you're liberal or conservative, you want to watch a good movie. You want to have a good time, especially, you know, for fair. fans of the Marvel universe? I don't, I don't really care what your political, you know, perspective is. We want to, we want to watch a good movie. And even with all of the, the pre-film publicity, you know, Brie Larson caught a lot of flack for, you know, feminist quotes or whatever, like, I don't care about any of that. It's all just dumb to me. Because at the end of the day, is the movie good? And, you know, whether you're conservative, again, conservative or liberal, moderate, don't care about politics at all, because let's be honest, most Marvel fans

probably don't care about politics, so good on them. But we want to see a good film that advances the storyline. And the analogy I kind of thought of as I was leaving the theater last weekend was, so with Infinity War, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is coming to an end with end game. You know, we're rounding third with Infinity War. And instead of, you know, racing home to score that game-winning run, Captain Marvel kind of like tripped over third and now it's going to be a close play at the plate because I still have faith that endgame is going to be awesome and blow everyone's minds,

and Ant Man is actually going to be a huge factor in saving the universe. But now there's some doubt. They've really cost themselves some momentum. My predictions for Endgame is that Ant Man is going to go subatomic into one of the Infinity Stones. That is my... You just do you heard it here. You heard it here, folks. That is my prediction.

I really do hope that he is the savior of all and not Captain Marvel, in my personal opinion. but also too, John, I wanted to ask you, what were your thoughts on not having a romantic storyline in Captain Marvel? How did you feel about that? Because personally, that's something I look for in a Marvel character. Yeah, I didn't miss it. I mean, honestly, the whole plot line between her and her, you know, fellow airman, Rambo, was really, it was the friendship relationship story. You know, the Rambo was her, the emotional connection, I guess, that. whether it's a romantic relationship or a friendship or whatever it is, that really carried through the whole film.

And they actually, they pulled that off pretty well. And I thought that was enough to kind of help the story along in that regard. The problem was they then failed to develop the rest of the story in terms of, you know, what kind of set pieces are we going to do? What kind of, you know, how are we going to really build out a fleshed out villain? I mean, for crying out loud, for the Guardians of the Galaxy fans, you know, with Ronan in the first film, he's a great villain. and I'm a huge Lee Pace fan. If you don't know who Lee Pace is, look him up and watch everything he does because he's great,

you know, whether it's the fall or he was in the Hobbit films, Halton Catch Fire on AMC. But he is brought into the film for about five minutes near the end of the film and just complete waste of a villain, of a great character or great actor.

So there were just all these other kinds of problems. But the easy answer to your question is that, yeah, I thought their relationship was good, but eh? So last question. You know, the hero being a woman was something that's pretty unusual for superhero movies. Wonder Woman, I don't know if that was last year or the year before. Of course, did really well. I personally really enjoyed that one.

What did you guys think about it being a woman? So, yeah, I'll tell you what I think. I don't find it as compelling to watch a woman save the entire universe. I would find it much more believable to see a strong male lead come in and save the entire universe, someone of a Thor stature to try and convince me that Captain Marvel being who she is is going to come in and rescue Thor and the Hulk and Iron Man and all of like Black Panther, all of these guys. That is very, very difficult for me to understand and kind of accept. Yeah, and for me too, the comparison to Wonder Woman is really a good comparison because

Wonder Woman I think was so successful. One, because Galacadot is such a great actress. and just can really demonstrate a lot of range and also as a very physical actor and she's just really good at what she does. And that film was grounded in, it was grounded, one, in reality, and it was also grounded in a lot of her interpersonal relationships. I thought they pulled that off really well.

This movie, they did not accomplish any of that because honestly I kind of, you know, Brie Larson, at least in this film, was a charisma black hole. Wow. I agree with that. I 100% agree with that. I did not care about her at all.

She was the most unempathetic person we have yet seen by far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What's so ironic about that statement, though, is that from the very first opening scene, we see Jude Law telling Brie Larson's character, don't let your emotions control you. And yet they gave the audience no time to understand the character or what even emotions he was talking about. Yet they were just shoving down this, don't let your emotions control you, don't let your emotions control you, theme throughout the film portraying and propelling the idea that women's emotions shouldn't be

accepted and should be put aside for what their strengths essentially. And to me, personality versus emotions are two different things and they did not differentiate that within the film at all. And there was zero indication anywhere in the film that she was this person that was like prone to overreact emotionally or anything like that either. It was just like, you're just, this is comic book speaking. It's dumb. It's poor writing. Okay. Well, I mean, that's a bit disappointing to hear because, you know, as I said, I enjoyed Wonder Woman and one of the things I enjoyed about it, unlike Thalia, being pro-women, saving the world, is they still made her very feminine. She was not a masculine character.

And you saw that her strength was different than a guy's strength. But anyway, if you check out the movie, let us know what you think. That'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us a review or rating on iTunes to give us any feedback unless you hated how we reviewed this movie. We'll see you tomorrow. You've been listening to the Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis,

sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.