The Daily Signal - #479: Raheem Kassam Revives Human Events in the Age of Trump

Episode Date: June 10, 2019

On today’s podcast we feature an interview with Raheem Kassam, global editor-in-chief of Human Events. He explains why he relaunced the longtime conservative publication 75 years after its founding.Also on today’s show:• Heritage Foundation senior adviser and spokesperson Genevieve Wood’s commentary on the importance of marriage. “While on the surface this might not seem like an issue that you and I need to care about, the decline in marriage has a significant impact on each and every one of us—from the amount of taxes we pay to the level of crime in our neighborhoods,” she says.• We share letters to the editor from readers John Gullotti and Allen Miller. Your letter could be featured on our show; write us at [e-mail] or call 202-608-6205.• A good news story about a high school senior who bravely proclaimed the gospel during his graduation speech. We play the audio that inspired the audience.The Daily Signal podcast is available on the Ricochet Audio Network. You also can listen on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts.If you like what you hear, please leave a review or give us feedback. 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 Monday, June 10th. I'm Rob Bluie. And I'm Virginia Allen. Today we are featuring an interview with Rahim Qasam, Global Editor-in-Chief of Human Events. He explains why he relaunched the longtime conservative publication 75 years after its founding. We also share our colleague Genevieve Woods' commentary on the importance of marriage. Plus, we have your letters, and Virginia brings us a good news story about a high school senior who bravely proclaimed the gospel during his graduation speech. Before we begin, we'd like to ask you to help us spread the word about the Daily Signal podcast. Please give us a five-star review on iTunes and share this episode with your family and friends.

That will help us make sure we are continuing to grow and reach even more listeners. Stay tuned for today's show coming up next. I'd like to welcome my colleague Kaylee Greenlee, a member of the Young Leaders program at the Heritage Foundation to the Daily Signal podcast. Thanks, Rob. It's nice to be with you. Kaylee and I are joined in our studio by Rahim Qasam. He's the global editor-in-chief of Human Events. And he was previously the editor-in-chief of Breitbart London, as well as the former senior advisor to Brexit leader Nigel Farage.

Rahim, thanks for joining us today. It's a mouthful, isn't it, my bio? It certainly is, but that's always the best. Nobody would guess I'm only 16 years old. Well, you and I have a special connection with human events. I used to work at Human Events as a reporter and managing editor. You, of course, are leading it today. I want to begin by having you chair with our listeners why you decided to bring back this great publication, Ronald Reagan's favorite magazine.

Well, you and I have another special connection as well because Rob Bluie was the first person I met in DC media, really. I was invited to one of the lunches, the bloggers lunches I used to put on. It was fantastic. We got Chick-fil-A and we had a speech and I think I must have been about 22 years old or something back. then, but I was incredibly impressed. We had nothing like that in London. So thank you for ceding this idea with me to try and rebuild one of America's most august magazines. Yeah, you're right. Human Events was Reagan's favorite magazine. It's also one of the oldest in the country. It's 75 years old. And really, I mean, it's two things for me. As is everything, there's a sense of Amor Pop, right? It's my own ego. I have to be in charge of doing these things.

I love to build things. You know, I did that with UKIP and Nigel Farage, did that with Breitbart, London, doing it again here with human events. The other side of it is I was asked to take it over about six years ago just before Salem bought it. And for whatever reason, the whole thing fell to bits. Luckily, I fell up in a way and was made the Editor-in-Chief of Brightbart's London Bureau, which obviously went on to be an incredibly influential outlet. It wasn't when I started there, but who knew? And it's just, it struck us, it's such a sentimental thing, not just for me as a result of that, but I know for the nation, for conservatism. And I also believe that right now, there are, there are news outlets on the right, and they do a great job. But actually, there isn't anything that's defining conservatism in cultural terms. There also isn't anywhere out there that is necessarily, apart from maybe the academic journals and a couple of your very good thinkers here at Heritage.

like David Azarad and so forth, who are defining, you know, what can we keep from Reagan and what has to change under this president and with these new battles we face? So I hope that answers the question. A bit of a loquacious way to do it. But there are so many elements that made us do this. Well, thank you. I mean, it does have such a rich history and tradition. It was an honor to work there when I did. And I was sad to see, frankly, the state that it went in. I I mean, when I was still there, it was still publishing a weekly print edition. Of course, we don't have that anymore. But congratulations on the relaunch, a month strong so far.

What are your goals for human events? And what do you see as its unique characteristics in this crowded media landscape? Yeah, look, I don't think the media landscape is actually crowded. And I think we've shown that from our first months in existence. We had over 1.7 million impressions to the site in our first month alone. I think there has been a space for thought leadership on what Trumpism is. I mean, even if he doesn't know himself, somebody has to define it because there are things about this guy and this administration that we're going to want to keep, but there aren't necessarily the political leaders out there right now who are doing the requisite learning or requisite thinking about those things. So we hope to inject a lot of those ideas out there.

You know, some of our biggest traffic stories are about nationalism. They're about free speech. They're about platform access. all these we think of as integral things to free nations with secure borders and identity and culture. And again, as I say, there are some journals out there that do that stuff, but they're not really hissing the audience, the size of the audience that we're going for. One of the things we're doing a lot of is digital marketing behind this. You know, we're active on Instagram and all of the things you have to be active on nowadays,

telegram and so forth, to reach. well, I hate to sound like an old funny daddy, what I say this, younger audiences, right? The people that we hope to pass the torch to and the people that we hope to train. And for us, the goal is really quite simple. I often complain that nobody has bothered to institutionalize the victories of 2016,

whether that was the victory of Brexit in my country or the victory of Trump in this country. And so we hope to become an institution that represents what those two votes meant. I want to ask about the staff that you're putting together to do this great work. So I know you have ambitious plans to grow. Tell us about your team and who some of the writers and contributors are. Yeah, well, look, we're a small team at the moment.

There's only four of us working on the thing. But again, I think human events at one of its most influential peaks, only had 12 people reporting from there. So it's not that far off. We obviously have this idea of growth. And actually, to touch on something you said earlier, to bring back the print edition as well at some point. probably wouldn't be in a weekly paper format, more like a quarterly glossy magazine format,

like a GQ style or a Vanity Fair style thing. You've probably seen if you've looked at the site, we're into big pictures, we're into pull quotes, we're into aesthetic. It's beautiful. And thank you. And the team we've got at the moment, we have a young talented junior editor down in Florida, Sophia Carbone, and she's been integral to us launching the site and actually to giving us a lot of ideas of how to reach younger people.

Well, she's 18 years old, so she would have an idea if anyone does. And this other chap, Ian Miles Chong, and he comes from the gaming world and the gamer gate world and the free speech and the culture wars worlds. And that's something that I have necessarily lacked in over the last couple of years, being much more focused on the politics of everything. My co-owner and our publisher, Will Chamberlain, is a lawyer and a very politically active lawyer who loves to drill down, take the Mueller report as a, I mean, he gets no end of pleasure by going through just the grainy, opaque, legal definitions and terms. And he was one of the first people to lay out in his article, Checkmate, how Attorney General Bill Barr had thought about the Mueller investigation and what conclusions he had come to.

And this was before Bill Barr even ever said anything publicly about it. And then when he did say something publicly about it, he didn't say, to be fair, Will Chamberlain got it right. But what he said was everything that Will had said was the case. So it's an interesting, it's been an interesting month for us because there are things that have worked and there are things that haven't worked. And one of the things that has worked really well is bringing people on as members of the site. You know, we don't have a big endowment from anyone. We're not doing mass mailing to raise money. We are relying on what we call founding fathers.

members who come to the site and they pay $17.76 a month because they believe in the quality and the value of the product. So it's sort of a way, and they get access to us in a private Discord chat channel where they can talk to us 24-7, as long as I'm awake. And what that does for us is it actually kind of democratizes the whole process of what we do because I'll wake up in the morning and jump into the Discord chat channel and say, hey, guys, I think I'm going to write a piece about this today. And we have a thousand members already. And they all sort of pile in and say, oh, well, make sure you don't forget about this. and here's a link to this article. It's sort of, we've sort of got a street team, and they're paying for the pleasure, and we're so grateful for that.

I think it's a great model. It's not too unlike what we have at the Daily Signal and the Heritage Foundation, where we're a membership-driven organization. You know, Andrew Breitbart had a big influence on my life and shaping the vision that we had for the Daily Signal. And I really applaud you for putting together, as you said, another voice, another platform for these ideas. I think the more, the better. So congratulations. I look at it like this, because some people say to me, look, Rahim, is a crowded marketplace. What are you going to do? How are you going to break through? And I look at it like this. I have had no shortage,

this included, of people who want to put me on television and on radio and on podcasts and everything, because they're interested in what we're doing. They're interested in what we're saying. So I think there is, there is gap. There is something there that nobody else was doing. And so, So long may that be the case. Throughout its history, human events existed in a media world dominated by the left. How are you approaching those challenges in the age of social media and some of the anti-conservative bias? Every so often I stumble into left-wing Twitter. My followers, people I follow and my followers are predominantly right-wing, conservatives, nationalists, libertarians, whatever.

Part of the big tent, right? and every so often I'll find myself perusing some hard leftist Twitter again, and I cannot believe for the life of me some of the things these people are saying, whether it's on abortion or transgenderism or Trump or whatever or Brexit, etc., etc. I get lost in just how degenerate, depraved and valueless so much of it is. And then when you take that and you write it large, you realize that the media market is very much the same, when humid events first came along.

It's still left dominated. The journalists at the Atlantic and the New Yorker and the New York Times, they get fed up from the hard left base, and they sort of launder their ideas into mainstream ideas. So I think we approach it in almost the same way. There's a little bit of ridicule of them that we have to do. But unfortunately, and I always say this, I wish I had higher caliber enemies in life.

They are our enemies, however, and we have to assail them. And if we don't assail them, evil takes root and takes over. So I take exactly the same view as Henry Regnery and all the other founding editors and folks at human events did when they started the thing. I want to shift topics. President Trump recently returned from the United Kingdom, a high-profile trip. Brexit was a piece of that. You've been outspoken on this topic. What do you see as the future of Brexit?

Wow, how long have you got? Look, I am naturally, I think, an optimist. You know, there's that song, always look on the bright side of life, right? And you've got to always look on the bright side of Brexit. It happened and the vote happened and there's no way that you can put that tooth base back in the tube. The democratic will of the highest turnout election of any sort, referendum or election in the, in the the country's history and the United Kingdom's history cannot be put back in the tube. And I often remind myself of this.

The Americans declared their independence in 1776. He didn't really get functioning independence until about 1815. So these things take time. Now, I know in today's world we want everything to happen immediately. But it reminds me of that quote when Steve Bannon went on stage at CPAC immediately after the 2016 election. It was the CPAC the next year. and he was on stage with Reince Prebus, and he said, you have to remember, these guys weren't just going to hand you over the keys and said you won, fair enough,

have at it, dismantle everything we've built over the last 40, 50 years. So we're trying to wrestle the keys off the establishment in Britain at the moment and say, you know, the people want us to have the keys now. That's a long process when you recognise that the judiciary is packed full of establishment and establishment leftists. The House of Commons is still packed full of establishment and establishment leftists, even in the Conservative Party, I'm afraid. The media is certainly packed with that.

And so we have to have sort of our own long march through the institutions now to make sure that Brexit happens. There are ways that we can do it and hasten it like Nigel Farage has recently done with his seven, eight week old launch of the Brexit party and just won a major national election. There are things you can do very quickly in that regard. And there are things that are going to take time and, you know, launching new media outlets and those sorts of. of things are part of that. I happen to believe that Britain will leave the European Union in October

the 31st, whether we have a deal with the EU or not. I also happen to believe that this administration, the Trump administration, is very keen to do a trade deal with the United Kingdom that would serve as a bulwark for us, or a parachute for us coming out of the EU without a trade deal with them, and also, quite frankly, the way your bond markets are looking in the US at the moment as somewhat of a cushion for you guys and what your economy, what portends for your economy next, year. So it works for both of us. And it is in our mutual interest to get a trade deal done between the United States and the United Kingdom as quickly as possible. Why is a US-UK free trade agreement so important for both countries?

Well, I mean, it depends on the way you want to look at it. I tend not to look at things just from an economic perspective, but there are obvious economic gains. There are things that we can both do for each other's economies, and it helps that we both speak the same language. We broadly understand each other. There can be some disagreements at times, like 1776. But we get over those things eventually. For a start, it makes that whole process easier. See, if we negotiate and you guys negotiate with the European Union, there are all sorts of language barriers, there are all sorts of barriers to entry to different markets, you have the Buy American Act, we don't want you nitpicking it our NHS, for instance, and we can mutually agree on those

things quite easily. The reason that the TTIP negotiations, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations failed under Obama so much, is because the European Union did not understand, just could not contemplate why America wanted to protect its defense industries against foreign competitors and corporates coming in and tendering for public procurement contracts. We would understand that sort of thing better with you guys because we hail from the same tradition and we understand where your protectionism in that regard comes from and you will understand where ours comes from on the NHS. It's a national religion now.

Let's not forget about that. It's also, I think, a reset. I think everybody in this building here in the Heritage Foundation would agree that Reagan and Thatcher were two of the greatest figures in human history, in Western Civilization's history. And it was imperative for us to assail evil on a global stage for those two people to work together very well. If we can get a proper Brexiteer Prime Minister, and I'm not saying I think Nigel Farah should be Prime Minister, But if we could get a proper Brexit Prime Minister like that, working in tandem with the president and the two countries are inextricably linked economically and on trade, I think we can do just amazing things in the world together once again. And I really, you know, I tingle when I say that. As someone who is born in London, can you explain how the British people view free speech compared to Americans?

It depends what you mean. Are we talking about the British public's view of free speech or the British establishment's view of free speech? Could we get into a little of both? Well, the British establishment's view of free speech is that it is dangerous. That is dangerous because it has been used to assail them. It has been used to make their arguments null and void. They prefer to have a state broadcaster like the BBC because the government then gets to frame the narrative. And even if people will say, oh, well, it's not really a state outlet.

It's publicly funded outlet. The state and the politicians still have immense power over who the directs. General of the BBC is and how the entire process works. So the establishment is increasingly loathsome of free speech in the United Kingdom. The public wants more and more of it. And it wants more and more of it because we see so many heinous things going on. You know, people are arrested for quoting the Bible in Britain today. People have been arrested for quoting Churchill, you know, hauled into the back of police vans because those things that he said in the River War were either incendiary or hate speech or whatever. I mean, put it this way.

London, the Metropolitan Police in London, employs 900 hate crime officers. And their job is to police feelings. If somebody is hurt in their feelings by something you've said, you can be convicted of a hate crime. Meanwhile, London's knife crime rate is on the rise, robbery is on the rise, rape is on the rise. This is how the establishment has got the whole thing completely on its head.

And this is why you're seeing people flocking to, whether it's Tommy Robinson on the sort of more extreme end of things, or it's the Brexit party on the more moderate end of things. That's why you're seeing such a massive, massive surge away from the established parties. And also, by the way, away from people watching the BBC, which is incredibly troublesome for them, because this is a five billion pound a year organization, $7.1 billion billion dollars, that's spent on state propaganda and state level output. And if nobody's watching it, they lose their rationale for existing at all. Rahim, we've seen some major cultural debates play out in the UK recently,

including a knife ban which you talked about and the tragic death of Alfie Evans. What can we learn about these situations to avoid a similar fate here in the United States? Well, firstly, I have to say this. Godlessness has created a lot of that in the United Kingdom. You know, the rise of secularism has led us to moral vacuums all over the place. And to the point where, and it doesn't make them the most popular person when I say this amongst conservative audiences, but bear with me, in places like Birmingham, there are schools that teach LGBT and transgender stuff to three-year-olds and four-year-olds. And the only people are sailing those things at the moment in the United Kingdom are the Muslim populations. because they don't want that happening.

They happen to be more socially conservative than everyone else. And I think that's a tragedy. You know, we should have more active Christian organizations. We should have more active ordinary families who don't like those things going on, coming together and fighting against them. But we just don't have that. So it has been godlessness in a lot of ways that has led us to that point. And so that's, you know, the primary thing I always remind my American friends is,

what did Obama say? they cling to their guns and their Bibles. Cling to your guns and your Bibles, okay? Make Obama a very happy, a very correct man in asserting that about you guys. The other thing is we allowed the state to pull family life apart. We allowed the state to take full responsibility of our children from kindergarten and really to the grave when you think about the welfare schemes and the NHS and all of those things. The state now is the ultimate arbiter of everything, as we saw in the Alfie Evans case.

The state gets to dictate who lives and who dies. And so we lost a lot of our conservative tradition in the last couple of years. And in no small part, thanks to Tony Blair's strange cultural revolution, this cool Britannia thing, where actually it was, it was statist Britannia that he was interested and he was talking about. So those are the two big things, I think, that have contributed to that. That's why I'm such a massive fan of the American homeschooling idea. You know, we don't really do that in the United Kingdom, although I've tried to talk to people about it.

But, you know, people like the fact that they can just ship their kids off to school and not have to think about it. Only in very, very recent years, I mean, the last two or three years, are you starting to see people going, well, hold on a minute, what the heck are kids learning at school? Well, I'm glad to hear that people are starting to wake up to it. Thank you for raising awareness about those issues and others. Rahim, congratulations on the worth that you're doing at human events.

It's great to have you on the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you for having me. Did you know you can now listen to all of our events through SoundCloud or just by visiting our events page on heritage.org? You now have access to hundreds of events and compelling discussions on policy issues from your car, on the train, or the comfort of your own home. Visit heritage.org slash events for more information or search for the Heritage Foundation on SoundCloud.

Up next, we have a commentary from Genevieve Wood on the importance of marriage. Families are the building blocks of civilization. They are personal relationships, but they greatly shape and serve the public good. Strong families make for strong communities. Conversely, family breakdown harms society as a whole. That's why America's declining marriage rate is a real problem. While on the surface, this might not seem like a problem. issue that you and I need to care about, the decline in marriage has a significant impact

on each and every one of us, from the amount of taxes we pay to the level of crime in our neighborhoods. How do we know? Well, decades of statistics have shown that on average, married couples have better physical health, more financial stability, and greater social mobility than unmarried people. Other studies show that the children of those couples are more likely to experience higher academic performance, emotional maturity, and financial stability than children who don't have both parents in the home. The social and economic cost to family breakdown is paid by everyone. Studies show divorce and unwed childbearing cost taxpayers over $110 billion each year. But the real victims are children. Children raised in single-parent homes are statistically more likely to abuse drugs.

drugs and alcohol, exhibit poor social behaviors, and commit violent crimes. They're also more likely to drop out of school. And when it comes to fighting poverty, there is no better weapon than marriage. In fact, marriage reduces the probability of child poverty by 80%. So what can and should be done? Well, when it comes to public policy, one way government can help is by eliminating the marriage penalty. That's the part of the tax code where two people are taxed more if they're married than if they're single.

Second, government assistance programs should provide temporary help to families in need, not welfare that spans generations. For too long, these programs have encouraged the formation of single-parent families by taking the place of bread-winning fathers or mothers. But more family-friendly public policies like these are only part of the solution. society, including community organizations, schools, and places of worship must do its part to make sure the next generation understands the hard facts about the benefits of marriage and the cost of broken families. Armed with that knowledge, people can make better choices. Marriage

remains America's strongest anti-poverty, anti-crime, pro-health institution. It's an undeniable fact that the best chances for financial success, emotional well-being, and good health for both parents and children happen when the parents are married and families are intact. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters at daily signal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show and in our morning bell email newsletter. Virginia, who do you have? have first. John Galati writes, Dear Daily Signal. First, thank you for Kelsey Bowler's video report

on the transgender high school runners. I am a gay male, and I do realize that I am not transgender. Regardless of how one identifies, this is completely unfair to all women. There's a reason why pro sports, such as tennis, golf, and swimming are not mixed. It is not because women aren't good enough. it would take days to list every woman who could beat me in those sports. But these sports are not mixed because of the unfair advantage for men. This is a real issue, as there are girls who will not have a chance at scholarships who would be in the running if it weren't for this new rule. And honestly, it is not an LGBT issue. Alan Miller of North Aurora, Illinois, writes, Dear Daily Signal,

I read Fred Lucas's article on the movement by some to subvert the electoral college by having, a group of states passed laws, requiring that their electoral votes go to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote, no matter which candidate, wins the state election. The premise that this is fair is totally preposterous. If there is an interest in fairness, we need to eliminate the winner-take-all premise and have electors vote based upon who wins the race by congressional district and by state. Your letter can be featured on next week's show. Send an email to Letters at DailySignal.com, or leave you. leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205.

Tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger government, become a part of the Heritage Foundation. We're fighting the rising tide of homegrown socialism while developing conservative solutions that make families more free and more prosperous. Find out more at heritage.org. Virginia, each Monday you bring us a good news story. What do you have to share with us today? Thank you, Rob. Well, it's the season of graduations, and Trey Vogan Reiter just graduated from Patriot High School,

a large public school in Noakesville, Virginia, located about 40 miles west of D.C. As president of his class, Trey was given the opportunity to make a speech at his graduation ceremony to his 670 classmates and their families. Trey's remarks centered around the importance of having strong relationships in our lives and overcoming fear, but he ended his speech by boldly sharing about his faith in Jesus Christ. In closing, I would regret if I failed to tell you about the most important relationship in my own life, and that is with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate source of hope for me because he died on the cross for me and for you.

One of the... Thank you. One of the verses I used to conquer my fear in my life is John 1633. In that Jesus says, I've told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I've overcome the world. The great writer and theologian C.S. Lewis said, you are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

Graduating from high school is the end of one chapter of your life, but it is actually the beginning to the rest of your life. As we go off into the world, we will be faced with answering the question, what now? God has given us all dreams and talents, and as you leave Patriot today, go out and use your dreams and talents to make an impact on the world. It is so encouraging to hear a young person speak with boldness about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to also boldly practice their First Amendment right, especially in a part of the nation that does tend to lean very left. Trey is planning to attend Liberty University in the fall, and we want to wish him all the best and say congratulations to Trey and to all of those who have just graduated this spring. Thanks for sharing that story, Virginia. It was also nice to hear the audience applaud when they did and recognize the words that Trey was saying. So proud of what he's been able to do here and wish him the best in the future.

Yeah, thank you, Rob. We're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast comes to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio. at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurccei Audio Network, along with all of our other podcasts. All our shows can be found on daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review or give us feedback.

It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to others. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the DailySignal News. Have a great week. 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.