The Eric Metaxas Show - Vivek Ramaswamy

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

Vivek Ramaswamy shares his important new book: Truths: The Future of America First --> https://a.co/d/9NAKDSP

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show. Back again, eh? Glutton for punishment, eh? When will you ever learn? Now, here's the host that you hate to love, the man who would.

That's the reason your friend sponsored your last intervention, Eric Matt, Texas. Hey, the folks. Welcome to the program. It's Tuesday, September 24th. Chris Himes, I always want to check. Am I getting that right? Is today Tuesday September 24th? Yes, that is right.

That is right. Okay. A lot of things to talk about. First of all, in a couple of minutes, for hour one today, I'm talking to Vivek Ramaswamy, not to be confused with all the other Vivek's in your life. This is Vivek Ramoswamy. He came into the studio yesterday afternoon. He's taller than you think.

He's not extremely tall, but he was taller. I thought he'd be my size, but he's kind of, he's taller. He was like a tennis champion in a previous life. But anyway, Vivek was in the studio yesterday, so I'm going to be talking to him about his new book, which comes out today. a couple of minutes. In our two folks, I'm talking to Ambassador David Friedman, who has a book out about Israel, pretty dramatic stuff. But before I talk to David Friedman, former ambassador

to Israel, we have a segment with our friend Victoria Jackson. Victoria Jackson is coming on the cruise. I can't believe that she's coming on the cruise, but she's coming on the cruise. that's in June. People are signing up like crazy every day. I'm excited to see new names, some that I recognize. You can find out about the cruise by going to Ericmetaxis.com slash cruise. Ericmataxis.com slash cruise. I also want to mention yesterday I interviewed Naomi Wolf,

and it was really interesting, but there's never enough time. she and I were work it seemed like we were arguing but I really agreed with her I think she misunderstood me on a couple of points yesterday so I want to get her back because I'm convinced she misunderstood me she she she really you know uh and then she said you're not listening and I thought no it is you who are not listening because she she she really I was exactly listening to what she said and I was a great with her and she thought I wasn't agreeing with her on a couple of things. But anyway, it was, it was at least interesting. I got to say, so we'll get that video up today. If you're signed up for my newsletter, we'll have that video in the newsletter. We also had our friend Keith Junta yesterday. He has a new article about what's going on at the UN. Horrible news from the UN, as usual. A couple of points that I also want to make. Last night I was with Roger Stone. here in New York City.

He's in New York City for a couple days. I'd hope to get him into the studio, but I couldn't. But he's such a character. Just talking to him, he just knows so much that's going on out there. So we need to get him on the program next week. And two points that I want to make. Chris, tell me if I'm missing anything. But Dinesh D'Souza's movie Vindicating Trump comes out this weekend.

Yes, that's right. We need to help the movie succeed by going to see it on the opening weekend. This is the opening weekend, folks. So please go to see Vindicating Trump this weekend, the opening weekend. And the Bonhoeffer film is coming out November 22nd. Mark your calendars now. Please mark your calendars now. It should have a great opening weekend.

I hope you'll tell everyone you know to mark their calendars. The opening weekend is very, very, very, very important. Please mark your calendar, November 22nd opening weekend for the Bonhoeffer film. I have seen the film. It's fantastic. We're going to do a sneak peek screening of it in New York next week for those coming on the special Bonhofer, exclusive Bonhofer, VIP tour. I'm doing a New York City Bonhofer tour next week.

If you want to know about that, go to Socratesinthe city.com. That's next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so a week from today. So a lot of stuff going on. I also want to mention, by the way, if you follow the news, you know that the left, I mean, honestly, it's so pathetic, but you have to say it. You have to remind yourselves that Donald Trump and JD Vans are doing everything they can to get their message out. They're doing interviews. They're being specific about policies and stuff. Kamala Harris and Tim Walts are doing exactly the opposite.

They're doing everything they can to be vague. If you listen to their interviews, they could not be vaguer. And they're banking on the ignorance and the stupidity of voters. They're saying that they're not going to notice. We're just going to smile our way through it. And we're going to run out the clock till November 5th. And then people will vote for us because we're not going to tell them what we actually believe. And we're not going to tell them that we're contradicting ourselves every time we turn around that we're 100% against guns, that were 100% against fracking.

We're 100% against the free market and freedom. They're not going to advertise that. They're going to do everything they can to speak. in Blythe, Dippy platitudes. And if you've watched any of the, I mean, if you just follow me on X, I've been retweeting some of this stuff. It's unbelievable. The vagueness and the blathering from Kamala Harris.

It's just astonishing. She's asked specific questions. And then she just comes out with this rehearsed. Like, I grew up in a middle class family, which is a complete lie, you know. It's the whole thing is preposterous. But one of the things they're doing is they are. the left is constantly demonizing Project 2025 and they're saying Trump is going to institute the stuff in Project 2025. We're just going to take us back to the Dark Ages.

Project 2025 is one of the most wonderful things. It's an initiative of the Heritage Foundation. And if you go to 25truth.com, you can read what is in Project 2025. We hope. We really, really, really hope. that Donald Trump will get elected, that he will put into practice what is in Project 2025. Right now, he doesn't seem to know anything about it, but it's a great thing. So look it up, 25,25,252525Truth.com. That's the Heritage Foundation. Also, I want to

mention our friends at the Herzog Foundation, they are the ones who are trying to help people homeschool their kids. Ladies and gentlemen, I think you know this. In case he didn't know it, now you know. You saw it during COVID. You've seen it the last few years. Public schools have become a Marxist indoctrination camp. It's something that I never dreamt could happen in the United States of America. Genuinely. I just didn't think they would ever get that. bad. It is unbelievable. You have teachers, teachers and administrators hiding things about kids from the parents, from their own parents. This is the kind of thing happens, you know, in the former Soviet Union in China. It's happening in America. So if you care about your kids,

you should care about homeschooling or you should at least care about getting them in quality K through 12 Christ-centered education. The Heritage, sorry, the Herzog Foundation is where you need to go for that. So go to herdsugfoundation.org. Hertsog Foundation.org. They also have a website, reed lion.org. It's just tons and tons of great material, which I recommend to you, recommend highly. It's important.

So I hope you'll check it out. The Herzog Foundation. If you're not homeschooling your kids or if you're somehow intimidated, trust me. I know so many people who have done it. You have no idea what's involved. And there's all kinds of ways to get help. And the Herzog Foundation is really the first place that I would look. So herzogfoundation.org.

And before we go, okay, so in a moment, we have Vivek Ramoswamy, as I mentioned. After that, I'm going to talk to our friend Victoria Jackson, who's coming on the cruise to Greece with her husband, Paul. I'm flipped out, excited about that. And then an hour two, my conversation with David Friedman, he's Trump's former ambassador to Israel. He has a very bold proposal that he has put in a book form. The book is just out. But it's very bold. It's going to ruffle a lot of feathers, which is a good thing. So stay tuned, Vivek, Ramoswamy, Victoria Jackson, Ambassador, David Friedman, don't go away. So you're putting money. away saving for the future, for retirement, for your family. You're doing what you're

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noble goldinvestments.com. Hey folks, welcome back. As promised, in the studio, as my guest, right now, someone who goes by the name Vivek, Ramoswamy, welcome. Good to see you. And you really are Vivek. That is me. They're not a lot of Avake's in my life, so I can just leave the last name out.

It's great to be unique. It's good to be unique. It's good to be welcome. Glad to have you. Listen, I'm excited. We were talking earlier. I'm an author. today your book comes out. The title is Truths, the future of America First. Okay, I know what America First is. I know a little bit about you, as my audience does. The title Truths, why is that plural? Yeah, look, I think that there's 10 things that are true that used to be too controversial to say or used to be so obvious to say 30 years ago. But as recently as three years ago, we're too controversial to say in public. And what I want to do is to speak those.

hard truths, not just to conservative audiences. But my goal with this book is a little different. I want to reach audiences who disagree with us. I'm showing up on college campuses to even allowing the people who are reading this book to be armed with the arguments and the facts they can use to talk to their own left-wing friends or colleagues or family members to bring them along on questions from gender ideology to climate science to even the history of the United States and the U.S. Constitution. This book states out, stakes out some hard, uncomfortable truths in the current cultural climate,

but things that are well-grounded, reasoned, and allow everyday Americans to actually be persuaded. So this is the opposite of your truth, my truth, we have our truths. You're actually talking about reality, immutable truths. And is there a list of 10 of them, or is this just what my notes say? Because I'm reading them here, and I'm thinking, I agree violently with all of them. Yeah, there's 10 chapters in the book. And it was based on, so during my presidential campaign, I stated 10 hard truths.

Whoa. You ran for president? Yeah, I ran for president last year. I got to say, I missed that. No, seriously. It was an adventure. It was an adventure. Any endorsements you want to make on this program?

You know, I endorse America. Of course, I've endorsed Donald Trump to be the next president and a lot of Republican senators across the board. But I do that because I endorse the core premise the United States of America was founded on. And that's what this book is about. What are some of those ideals that unite all of us? We live in a country where if you work hard, get ahead. best person you get the job, not based on your gender or your race, or country where you get to your mind openly as long as I get to in return. So these are basic principles that country was

founded on. But the book lays out 10 hard truths that were based on some of the core principles I ran on for U.S. President, my candidacy for U.S. President on, but which makes some arguments that hopefully will win over even those who may be undecided or even on the left. How do you think we got to a play where people are challenging what are to most, to most people, obviously true things. We're talking about reality. I mean, to me, it's almost like saying, like, I think the periodic table is racist. We're going to dispense with that. We're going to invent a new periodic table.

You'd say, wait a minute, it's the periodic table. Like, there's some basic things you can argue. But how did we get to a point where things like gender, things that until three minutes ago were accepted? by pretty much everybody are suddenly questioned. Well, that is, for example, one of the chapters in the book is entitled, There Are Two Genders. The fact that that's controversial today, it says how far we've fallen. Right.

Yeah, I explain a little bit of what's going on. There's some paradoxes at the heart of this. So in that chapter, one of the things I give people is the toolkit to say, you know, if you have two X chromosomes, you're a woman. If you have an X and a Y, you're a man. Yeah. But the irony is the same LGBTQIA plus movement. There's so many letters they put a plus thing.

You're actually the only person I've ever heard. Go all the way. Get all of them. But they just put a plus at the end because there can be many more yet to come. But the same movement that says the sex of the person you're attracted to is hardwired on the day you're born. That's the same movement that now says your own biological sex is totally fluid over the course of your life. That doesn't make sense. Now, take that one step further.

It's even less sensible than you think. The one that they say is immutable at birth as the sex of the person you're attracted to, yet there is no such thing as a game. gene, and yet you do have two definitive sex chromosomes, yet that's the one that they say is completely fluid. You have other paradoxes in this movement where on one hand they'll say, you know, I happen to believe, and I've said this before, and it's quoted some controversy. When I say that if you're a child who says your gender doesn't match your biological sex, that means you suffer from a mental health disorder.

People came at me for that. But can you imagine we're at a place where even when you say that, even I'm like, whoa, because even though I agree with it, even though it's obvious, we live in a world where people who don't like that are very, I mean, even saying very vocal, they're more than vocal. They're hostile. Physical, they can be physical and violent about it. They're not accepting. They're not even accepting of your saying that. Well, one of the things I want to do is to highlight the logic of this, because let's say you disagree with me on that.

then that must mean that you believe that gender conversion surgery should not be covered as a medical benefit as opposed to cosmetic one. Right. And yet, the argument that many trans activists have made is that it's covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act when it comes to actually getting payment. Actually, now I've just learned something. You've just, that's very interesting what you just said. It's a hard fact, actually. It's a big trans rights victory. Right.

But they call it Americans with disabilities. And pursuant to that statute, they said that gender conversion. surgeries need to be covered. So what I'm trying to do here is lay out a number of, forget where you are in the debate. Let's just take these facts. You can't believe both of these two things at the same time if you're operating according to principles of logic or science or reason. But you can believe two contradictory things at the same time if you're subscribing to a kind of cult. And so what's going on with this cult, quasi-religious cult? Here's what's going on is, in the first chapter in the book is entitled, God is real for a reason. When you say,

stop believing in something bigger than yourself. When you stop believing in God or country or even your family, you start believing in new substitutes instead. And I think that's the origin of the climate change agenda, what I call the climate cult. That's the origin of the transgenderism movement. It's the origin of the racial wokeism movement. These are substitutes for purpose and meaning in our lives. I'm sure you're right about that. Who was it that, I guess it was Bob Dylan said you've got to serve somebody. I think you've got to worship somebody. You got to worship something. We are built by God, I would say, to worship him. And if you don't worship him, you will find a substitute. And when you talk about climate change, it has all the trappings of faith.

I mean, this is the stuff of scripture almost across many major world religions. The golden calf is the symbol of that, right? Moses isn't gone for very long. By the time he's backed down, the golden calf is built. We have a need to bend the need of something. Blaise Pascal, I quote him in the book, he was a famous scientist of nearly 400 years ago. He famously said that if you have a hole the size of God in your heart and God doesn't fill it, something else will instead. And I think the mistake that meaning the conservative movement have fallen into is often to say, we're going to play whackamol. We're going to stamp out that poison one at a time. But without actually offering our own alternative vision of what actually fills that void.

And so that's one of the warning calls in this book. is that, you know, we had this red wave that never came in 2022. Why is that? They tried to blame abortion. They tried to blame Donald Trump. I say none of those things is really responsible. I think the reason we didn't have that red wave in 22 is that railing against the radical Biden agenda is not enough. We have to offer an alternative vision of our own. And the left, say what you will, they're very good at this, actually.

The left will feed you race, gender, sexuality, climate. well, I personally believe that the individual family, nation, and God beat race, gender, sexuality, and climate. But the problem is we as conservatives don't have the courage right now to stand for it. We at least haven't for a really long time. And that's one of the things that, you know, certainly I'd like a change in this country, but it's one of the calls to action coming out of this book as well is giving those everyday Americans. And probably, let's be honest, right, to center Americans here, the toolkit to be able to not only push back, but to articulate our own alternative vision. That's what I hope to do through

this book. Well, your first chapter is titled God is real. And that's interesting because so many people mean different things about God, but I think we're living at a time, I've been saying this for about three years now, that what we're seeing, what we've seen, most people have never seen anything like it. And so the word evil comes up. Now, as you say, this isn't just political differences. We're seeing a level of madness, a level of coercion. We've never. ever seen this kind of authoritarian thing in America, what is happening? And I think it's not too much to say that it feels evil. So I think a lot of people as a result of that are turning toward God, even if they're not sure what that means. They just know if there's evil, then God has to be

the answer. And so Tucker has been much more expressive about, you know, things theological. A number of people who weren't there just a few years ago are going there. And it seems to me that when you talk about, you know, Elon Musk describes it as the woke mind virus. It's, it feels like a kind of madness that has taken over the culture, such as happened in Germany in the 30s. And it seems to me that it's ultimately a rage against God. At least that's how I would frame it. Yeah. Look, I think that we are seeing a kind of new awakening in the country. And in the West, I think there's a hunger to belong to something bigger than ourselves. That's, that's, that's a, What makes us different than other animals, by the way?

Right? I mean, we as human beings are wired to believe in something bigger, a greater purpose. I mean, without that, what are we? Right? We're a different looking group of two-legged higher mammals walking some geographic space that we call a country. Actually, on our iPhones. I want to come back to the subject of country borders. I'm talking to Vivek Ramoswamy, the new book, brand new truths, the future of America first.

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So you just touched on the nation, and I said there's a chapter here called An Open Border is Not a Border. This is more of the madness. In other words, a few years ago, you know, I heard somebody say, oh, we've got to defund the police. I thought, what? Like, that's madness. You're kidding, right?

They weren't kidding. The idea of an open border, it's madness. I mean, most people know that these things are just crazy, destructive. So it's almost comedic that we have to reassert things as basic as we should have a border. Well, it's one of the chapters in the book is entitled, An Open Border is not a Border. And the fact that we have to say this, see how far we've, says how far we've fallen. But it actually ties in with even some of the other chapters.

So we were talking about the LGBT movement earlier. So one of the people, it tells the story of actually a Russian border crosser into the United States who came in claiming that she was the subject of Putin's persecution against LGBT persons and that she was an LGBT person. Turned out later when she was pressed on in court, she crumbled, she started crying, she says, I'm not gay. In fact, the truth is, I don't even like gay people. So she had just lied as a way of creating a persecution victimhood tale.

Right. And it reveals who are immigrants. system rewards right now. So the immigration system sets up incentives for certain types of people to come in. You might imagine one that's based on randomness or chance. You might imagine one that's based on merit or intelligence or willingness to work hard or knowledge of American culture or the English language. None of those is the immigration system we have right now. The immigration system we have right now rewards one quality above all others, and that is your willingness to lie, actually. Your willingness to say that you are seeking asylum in.

in this country, that you're fleeing political persecution when in fact you are not. That is the single easiest and most effective way to get into the United States of America. And literally millions, if not tens of millions in recent years have taken advantage of it by checking the box of saying they're being politically persecuted, when in fact they do not at all come anywhere close to meeting the definition laid out in the law. So then now think about this. We've designed an immigration system in the United States that selects for one human attribute above others, which is your willingness to lie. Turns out that if your first act of entering this country breaks the law,

you tend to be more likely to continue to break the law when you're here as well. This is not speculation. It's hard fact. It's hard data. It's hard science. So to me, I think the question is, what do we do with that immigration system? I'm not somebody who just likes to observe a problem without laying out a path to solve it. So one of the things I am to do in this book as well.

One of the things I talk about is, look, moving our military to the southern border, using our own military to protect our own border, aquatic barriers in the Rio Grande. Those are basic physical steps we can take, complete the wall. But we also have to fix the incentive structure, end funding for sanctuary cities, end birthright citizenship for the kids of illegals. And I go into the constitutional and legal basis for how we could do that. And then one of the things that I, you know, people make a very difficult problem of the question of what we do with legal immigration.

it turns out that if we actually fix and dare I say end the welfare state in this country, we will have fixed 75% of the immigration problem right there. And the real problem even in today's conservative movement, it's easy to point fingers at the Dems and I do plenty of that too. But taking a look at even the conservative movement, you have a lot of people who complain about the immigration crisis and the mass migration crisis, but when push comes to shove are reluctant to touch the nanny state and the domestic nanny state and the entitlement state right here at home.

Fix that entitlement state, shut down that nanny state, require English as a language that you have to know to enter the country. 90% of our immigration problem is solved right there. But it takes a new generation, I think, of conservative leadership that actually has a spine to see that through rather than just writing, you know, indignant tweets, which is what it's become. How did you get to where you are now in terms of worldview, political worldview. Were you raised in a conservative home? I mean, I'm the son of immigrants,

and I feel that if you're raised in a family where the people raising you didn't have what you have, they help you and understand that what we have in America is not normal. It's a gift. And so I've had that innately, even though it's been, it's taken years for me to really work it through. But how did you come to think the way you now do? Well, like you, I'm also the kid of legal immigrants to the country. You know, my parents were conservative, certainly in the way they lived their lives. They were apolitical, largely,

certainly when I was growing up, but they were conservative in the sense that they believed in hard work. They believed in self-determination. They believe that that's how you get ahead, and they believe in merit, which is something that you call it a Protestant value, you call it an American value,

is certainly a value that my parents coming from India shared when they came to the United States as well. And so I learned much more from their actions than I did from their words. That being said, I think that we have lost some of that character of that. I mean, just even take the value of hard work. I think the culture we live in today is one that actually penalizes excellence, penalizes hard work.

You're taught to hide your achievements rather than to be proud of them. And that's what we're now passing on to our kids in their generation across the country, very different than the kinds of values that my parents imparted to me. But I don't want to sit here and just bloviate about that. I think the goal is to potentially, I believe we can, just turn the tide to revive who we are. The pursuit of excellence in America is something that I think we're longing to revive. And that, too, is one of the truths that I cover in this book. You were at Yale Law School with J.D. Vance.

And having come out of that world as an undergraduate, it's not a good place to talk about the kinds of things we're talking about. Now, even when you were there, which was not five minutes ago, but the point is that it's pretty lockstep in terms of wokeism. Sure. It was there in the 80s when I was there. When we come back, I want to ask you about that, because a lot of these elite institutions have just been pushing the madness for decades, which is why I think we find ourselves where we do.

But we'll be right back talking to Vivek, Ramoswamy. The book is Truths, The Future of America First. Hey there, folks. Once again, My Pillow has been canceled by another box store. So they're passing an incredible offer exclusively to my listeners. That's you. The standard My Pillo retails for 4998, but for a limited time you can have one for only 1498. Don't miss out on this amazing deal while supplies last.

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So I was just saying you were at Yale Law School with J.D. Vance. And I always think, you know, can anything good come out of Yale? Mostly not. But you and he seemed to be dramatically grounded. And, you know, at the time that you were there, did you discern that you had to be careful what you said or maybe you weren't where you are now then? Look, I was different from my classmates.

I funny thing is I didn't even know what J.D.'s political persuasions were. He and I used to watch Bengals games. But for my part, I was certainly contrarian in the class. I believe I got a better education because of it. Yale was a different institution back then, though, than it is today. It's always leaned left. But it didn't have the censorship climate. The censorship climate is something else altogether.

And I think that's really where this story takes a dark turn. I went to Harvard for undergrad, Yale for law school, both liberal. I was conservative. I was libertarian leaning, and I still have strong liberty-leaning instincts today. But that was very different than the campus climate. But I actually ended up getting more of my money's worth out of the expensive, and it was expensive to be able to go to both those places. I got more out of it because I was challenged every day.

Today it's different, where you can't engage on many of these campuses on the type of debate in the open. And, you know, I think one of the last chapter of the book goes into this. It's called the U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of liberty in human history. And the reality is I explore what's going on in Columbia's campus today. I mean, it's a betrayal of the cultural value. The Constitution isn't just about, to me at least, it's not just about the legal constraints and limitations on government. It's also about the kind of culture we wish to create.

And in many ways, the Constitution on legal grounds is good at protecting against a tyranny of the majority. But it's not a tyranny of the majority that governs in the country today. It's a tyranny of the fringe minority. It's a cultural tyranny, and it's not going to be the legal aspects of our Constitution that save us from that. It's going to be a revival of that founding culture of our country, which is going to have to come as much from outside of government as from within. You're singing my song. I wrote a book essentially about what you just said called If You Can Keep It, because it is fascinating. The Constitution is ultimately just a piece of paper.

It can't keep itself. And if you don't have a culture of people who understand what this is, and what it requires, it doesn't happen by itself. Yes. And you can't legislate it. John Adams spoke about this extensively. Our Constitution was made for a moral people. And I think capitalism in some ways is a system that is made for a moral people too.

There's no quite, I actually. Virtuous upstream of capitalism. No, I actually say that in the book. Now, there's both capitalism, the free market and people getting to vote, both can go wrong if the people in that system want bad things. Right. Right. If the free market can amplify. The free market can give you better pornography and drugs. It'll give you whatever you want.

So if the people want that, and the same thing with we can vote in tyrants or... Sure. And it's one of the undercurrents in this book is that virtue is an upstream condition of capitalism. Is even an upstream condition of our Constitution. Yes. And I think that that's something we've forgotten. One of the probably most important chapters in the book is about the nuclear family to that regard, which is a society that loses its grounding in the best.

basic pillars of virtue, including family formation, I think has no chance, even if it's granted the best of free markets in a U.S. Constitution. Well, it's interesting because a lot of neocons or hidebound conservatives, including George W. Bush, they clearly didn't get that. They really thought that we, you know, we can export our way of life easily, that if people in Afghanistan can vote, they'll vote. And suddenly, you know, or China. Everybody is, or China. Actually, that's a big one. China is the better example because the naivete of saying that, hey, if we help them get the free market, whatever, not really thinking that it can go very, very wrong.

Right. He was this myth. Somehow you're going to export Big Macs and Happy Meals, and that's going to spread our core value set abroad. It didn't work out that way. But I'm not about just blaming those who came before us because, who knows. You know, you might have made that we all might have made the same mistakes under similar circumstances. But if we don't learn from those mistakes, then we're actually. doomed. And so that's what this book I aim to do is to give us a North Star for what our

conservative movement actually stands for. What are we running to? Not just what are we running from. And this is also something of a warning call. I was pretty intent to publish this before the election. There's a reason this is coming out in late September before November 5th is if this wake-up call is at least able to wake people up in the month and a half that we have to what could be a history-defining election, that I think that too will be, I think, a positive in the dialogue in the country in the next month. Do you think there's any question that it's a history-defining election? I mean, I think that we've never ever seen anything as history-defining. I think we're in an existential crisis. If we don't, if we don't re-elect Donald Trump, we don't even have a chance

to fight our way back. Look, I think that that's a precondition. I mean, the way I look at it is November 5th isn't even a destination. It is the starting line. Okay. So there are many ways. for the other side to win. I don't want to fall into this trap by saying that just because we win one election for one seat in November, then it's saved. No, no, no, that's table stakes. But that's really when it begins. I still am going to be highly alert to making sure that once he's elected, the agenda isn't subverted. I mean, that's also a big risk as well.

So we have to be aspirational here. We can't just look at November as a fetish, but it is a clear, necessary first step to save this country. And so I'm in it to do my part. but it's not just in the realm of politics. You educate people, give them the toolkit to make the arguments themselves. That's what this book does. You also have a title, facts are not conspiracies. We just have a minute left, but I'd love to hear you talk about that.

So we traced the last few years, where the origin of COVID-19, was the Hunter Biden laptop story on the eve of the last election actually real? One of the conspiracies I was accused of propagating during the Republican presidential campaign in the primaries was that Joe Biden was not. not going to be the nominee. Well, it turns out that if you analyze incentives, okay, analyze the incentives of any actor, that's the best way to predict what's actually going to happen. So people ask me, how do you predict many of these things? I haven't been 100% right, but the incentives generally point you to what's going to happen. Those are grounded in hard facts. And again,

you know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Don't be full twice. So this book lays out a lot of that recent history, particularly in that chapter, to say that just because somebody calls you a conspiracy theorist doesn't mean you're wrong. The sad part is in today's environment, it might even mean that you actually have a greater chance of being right or on to the right set of questions. And that's a big part of the end of that chapter ends with what's the right prescription? It's not less speech, it's more speech. If someone's trying to silence you because they say what you're saying is a conspiracy or it's disinformation or it's hate speech, well, look, the right answer to bad speech is not less speech, it's more speech. And that is truly

the American way. And anybody who wants to read more about that can read Milton's Aeropagitica from the 17th century. In the meantime, may I recommend Truths by Vivek Ramoswamy? A joy to meet you, Vivek. Thanks for coming on. Good to be here. Thank you. Teach your children well. Their father's help. Hey there, folks. Before we go, I want to mention tonight, I'm going to be on Flashpoint. part of the Flashpoint Army, or even if you aren't, check out Flashpoint tonight. I should be on there for the whole hour tonight on Flashpoint. Earlier today, I was on Newsmax with John Bachman.

This weekend, I'm preaching at King's Church in New York City. Look up King's Church. That's my dear friend, David Englehart, who's the pastor there. But I'll be speaking on my book, Religionless Christianity. If you haven't read that yet, I think it will bless you. Religionless Christianity. It's the sequel to Letter to the American Church. I should also say you can go to letter to the American church.com to watch the film letter to the American church.

I want to mention that. I also want to mention that I'm going to be traveling everywhere this month. So I recommend to you, please go to my website, Erictaxas.com. look at my speaking schedule because I'm probably coming near you. I mean, I'm coming to so many different places that it's, it's unbelievable. I have a very, very busy October. I covet your prayers, as we say in the Christian church. I covet your prayers because it's a battle. There's a lot going on. A lot of exciting things going on. Before I forget, I want to say two more things. I want to remind folks about the Heritage Foundation, they are sponsors on this program, and they are the ones

that are behind Project 2025. Every time a conservative administration is poised to come in to power, so obviously we hope Trump will be reelected. If he's not, it's over. But they create like a raft of initiatives and policy stuff and personnel. And they've labeled this one, Project 2025, and it enables a Trump administration to hit the ground running. And you can imagine how tough it would be that you're out of power and then suddenly, boom, now what? And so the project 2025, the idea behind it is to help a conservative administration hit the ground running with immediate policy proposals and stuff. So if you want to learn what's in it, because the left is trying to demonize Project

2025, because they're scared of it as they should be, go to 25truth.com. 25truth.com. And, man, we got a lot of exciting guests the rest of this week. I want to say Chris Himes,

before we forget, a number of people have been writing to us at the website, ericmetaxis.com. And folks, I recommend you go there if you want to write an email to me. But next, either this week or next week, I want to read some of these emails because some of you have written the sweetest emails, the most encouraging emails. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

And it means a lot to me. If you want to comment on the radio show, go to metaxis talk.com. We'd love your questions. I would love to do an Ask Mataxis with your question. questions, but you have to go to submit your questions at Metaxistocotocot.com. Chris Himes is checking that. And if we get your questions and they seem like something that I can answer, we'll do it. We'll do it on the air.

We just have seconds left. Let me remind you, folks, if you're interested in signing up for the cruise, we just found out that there's like a window of opportunity for the people signing up to come on our portion of this cruise. They have a number of rooms reserved on the ship. And so you have to get in early. And they told us by October 31st is the deadline. So if you're thinking about it, think hard about it so you can make your decision because I don't, you know, I don't know what happens after October 31st.

But I know that they told us that that's the date where they're holding a certain number of rooms. So you want to go to Eric Mataxis.com slash cruise. Ericmetaxis.com slash cruise. We'll talk to you tomorrow.