The President's Daily Brief - PDB Situation Report | December 28th, 2024: Ukraine's Weapons Surge & America's Fentanyl Crisis

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: The Biden administration pledges a surge of weapons to Ukraine, doubling down on support as a new administration prepares to take over. Retired U.S. Army General Ben Hodges joins us to discuss the implications for Ukraine's fight and America's strategic role in the conflict. A deep dive into the deadly pipeline of fentanyl—tracing its path from China to Mexico to U.S. streets—and how it became the nation’s top killer. We’ll speak with Dr. Robert Marbut, producer of Fentanyl: Death Incorporated, to explore why this epidemic has escalated into a national security threat. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB   Patriot Gold: Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right. Let's get briefed. We'll start things off in Washington. where the Biden administration, remember Joe Biden? Well, the Biden administration is reaffirming its commitment to Ukraine, promising a surge of weapons, even as a new administration, prepares to take over.

Retired U.S. Army General Ben Hodges joins us to discuss what this means for Ukraine's fight and America's role in the conflict. Later in the show, we'll trace the deadly pipeline of fentanyl from China to Mexico to U.S. streets and why it's now America's top killer. Then we'll talk with Dr. Robert Marbett, producer of the documentary Fentanyl, Death Incorporated, about how this crisis became a national security threat. But first, our BDB situation report, spotlight.

It was a deadly Christmas in Ukraine, as Russian missiles targeted cities across the country, leaving, frankly, devastation and heartbreak in their wake. In light of this holiday carnage, the Biden administration is reaffirming its commitment to Ukraine, pledging a surge of weapons in ammunition. Officials say the aid is essential to help Ukraine withstand escalating Russian attacks, even as the U.S. prepares for a new administration to take office.

But how far can this renewed support go in shaping the conflict? And what might change under new American leadership? Well, to break it all down, we're joined now by retired U.S. Army General, Ben Hodges. He's the former commanding general of the United States Army in Europe. General, thanks very much for joining us again here on the situation where we very much appreciated during the holiday season. Well, thank you for the privilege. I suppose a lot of people are probably wondering this question. We've got a matter of, well, really days, a handful of weeks, until the new administration takes over in the U.S. So is there any way to quantify,

from, let's say, election day in November of this year until now, how much has been allocated or authorized by the outgoing Biden administration for Ukraine? Well, I couldn't put a specific number on it. There has been reporting about, finally, a sense of urgency of delivering what had already been in. approved and authorized. And so to give that delivered, but I don't know how much of what we're seeing now, what's going is something that was approved months ago or in the last few weeks. I couldn't offer any kind of a meaningful quantity.

No, that's actually a really interesting point, and a very important point, I think, is that we hear a lot about this. And the numbers do seem to vary, depending on who you're talking to and how, they're quantifying the aid that's been provided to Kyiv since February of 2022. Some people approximate around $60 plus billion or so. But it's not as if everything lands in Kiev upon authorization. It takes time. I think you raised an important point as to what has actually made its way over in real assets. Well, of course, as you'll know, and your listeners will know there's any number of reasons why it may not go flying off the shelf

or out of the warehouse or out of the factory into Ukraine. It has to be, if it's something that was manufactured in the United States, it has to be shipped over and then received and then transported across Europe into the airport in eastern Poland, which is kind of the portal for everything that then goes into Ukraine. And understandably, nobody's advertising, hey, today we're shipping X number of missiles or vehicles or routes of ammunition. The Ukrainians, of course, don't advertise this because the Russians, this would be the kind of information none of us would want to advertise.

It is interesting to me, though, that the Russians have failed after almost three years since the beginning of the large-scale invasion to destroy a single convoy or train moving equipment and ammunition from Poland to the front lines. Not one time. That's an incredible failure of Russia's Air Force to be, or even their special forces, to be able to do that. Why do you think that's the case? I think we take, we're spoiled in the United States with our Green Air Force and our naval aviators, how good they are, how much they train, the whole system of systems, you know, of command and control and suppression of enemy air defense. offense, the work that we do to make sure that any pilot that shot down can be recovered.

But that's expensive. That takes a lot of time. It takes rigorous training. My sense is that the Russian Air Force never had that level of training. They certainly didn't have that level of expertise or experience. Their war fighting, flying was against Syrian terrorist organizations, basically. you know, not against an intensive air missile air defense threat or enemy air. And so because of that, they failed their number one task, which is the number one task of any air force to achieve air superiority. They failed to achieve that against Ukraine, even though they had a huge advantage in terms of technology and numbers of aircraft, they never could defeat Ukrainian air defense enough

to be able to do what they need to do. Because of that, and because Ukrainians targeted the Russian equivalent of AWACs, you know, the aircraft that are up there that can provide command and control, the Russians don't have the ability to loiter in Ukrainian airspace and then go do what we would call dynamic targeting, going after convoys or trains that are bringing in equipment. But now, the location of the railroads and the highways is not a mystery. And they have struck some of the rail terminals, but they've never had a single train. That's incredible to me. Let's, if we could, General, if we could step back and kind of look at this now as a sort of a year-end wrap-up, right?

We're almost at the end of 2024. Again, we're a handful of weeks away from the Trump administration stepping in. And what's your assessment of the current state of the conflict? Well, if you're a lieutenant or a captain or a sergeant in Ukrainian armed forces in eastern Ukraine, it's pretty grim. I mean, you're getting pounded every day. You're looking out across at thousands of Ukrainian and, I'm sorry, Russian and now North Korean troops that are attacking. But if you're thinking strategically, at the operational level and strategic level of warfare, it's been over almost a year since the Russians captured Abdivka,

and they've barely moved a few kilometers beyond that while losing over 1,000 trips a day, not to mention the thousands of vehicles and how it serves, et cetera. So I think it sucks if you're, if you're, in that fight, but it's incredible to me how well they have held off Russia for making any sort of breakthrough, any big gains. It's just this constant attrition that they're able to do because we have not given Ukraine the capability to strike deep. We have not given them enough capability to strike deep to knock out headquarters and logistics. And then on the north side of Ukraine, of course, the Kursk bridgehead that Ukraine's established back in August,

the Russians have finally retaken probably about half of that. But even that is remarkable. Since August, there is still a sizable Ukrainian foothold or bridgehead inside Russia. That's not inconsequential. It's costing the Russians' resources that they're having to throw at it. And it also creates a problem if you start getting into negotiations and you're talking about, okay, everybody, keep what you got. Ukraine has a piece of Russia. And so I think all of this factors into the Ukrainian operational thinking. Do you think, is that where we're headed, are we headed to negotiations or are we headed

to another year of this grinding World War I style warfare? I think that the Russians are content to keep doing what we're doing, what they're doing, if they feel that we are going to turn our backs on Ukraine. That at the end of the day, the Russians' only hope is that we quit supporting Ukraine, and then eventually Ukraine would have to come to the negotiating table in a very weak position. So I think that's what the Russians are holding out for. They have no interest in actually negotiating good faith. There's nowhere their history have they ever lived up to any agreement unless they were

absolutely forced to do it. And so I'm not against negotiating, but we should have our eyes wide open about who it is that we would be asking the Ukrainians to negotiate with. The same guys that shoot down civilian airliners that kill innocent people every day of the year, not just on Christmas. Now, frankly, I thought this war could have ended last year if we, the United States, and their allies had made that commitment because just some sort of capabilities of long-reach strike, no interruptions in ammunition, we'd be in a completely different place.

So what Ukraine has achieved is despite our failure to commit to actually helping them win this conflict. If you're talking about going to the negotiating table, And I think you're 100% right. You're on target with terms of Putin and his reliability. But if we are talking about sitting down to the negotiating table, that is what the incoming president Trump has talked about. Do you assess that Ukraine is in a stronger position now to do that?

Or were they in a stronger position a year ago? I mean, I guess what I'm asking is, are we asking them or will we be pushing them perhaps after January 20th to sit down at the negotiating table when they're actually in a weaker position than they have been? I think a year ago there was a hope that the Biden administration and other allies were going to finally realize that it was in our interest to help Ukraine Nationally win. And we were going to do all these things needed. And here we are a year later, and we're still not providing those capabilities that would really make the difference. And in fact, I think that the talk about negotiations is causing some people to think that, okay, well, it's never going to get better from a U.S. or European perspective in terms of

help. So if that's the case, that I would say Ukraine is probably in a history. slightly weaker position. On the other hand, and I hate to say, and wishy-washy, Ukraine's own capability of producing long-range weapons and their munitions has increased, which is remarkable.

They have increased their capability for producing weapon systems. And finally, just yesterday, I think another battalion's worth of Leopard tanks from Germany has arrived. So after a long delay, they're now up close to 100 plus German Leopards, are arriving in Ukraine. So, none of this happens on a straight line delivery schedule.

It comes in various, for different reasons. None of this happens in a vacuum. And of course, sitting across the table, you've got on Russia that not only has had hundreds of thousands of casualties about which they don't care, but their economy is, I think, is in trouble. Their ability to produce armored vehicles, howards and barrels, tank barrels, these kinds of things, is severely degraded. And so most of the reporting I see indicates that they cannot go beyond next year in terms of industrial capacity. So, if we got serious about this and started stopping, it began to really stop Russia's ability to export oil and gas through their so-called shadow fleet,

then they would have no money left to buy ammunition from North Korea or missiles from China or Iran. I'm not avoiding your question, but it's not that simple. If the only solution is, well, we just want to stop the fighting, okay, there are things that are worse than no fighting. I mean, if you're Ukrainian that lives in Russian-occupied territory, he'd much rather be fighting. And there are a lot of them living in Russian occupied territory right now.

I mean, basic estimates say that Putin holds approximately 20% of Ukraine at this stage of the game. General Hodge is if you could just stay right where you are, which actually is in Germany. I'll stay where I am, which right now is in Tokyo. Look at that. The PDB situation report is a global effort. But if you'll stay right there, General, we will be right back with that. the Situation Report. Hey, Mike Baker here. Look, if you're tired of the same old coffee from those mega corporations and you know the ones I'm talking about pushing their woke agendas, which they

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Joining me once again is retired U.S. Army General Ben Hodges. General, thanks again for all your time. It's very much appreciated, especially during this holiday season. You mentioned in our earlier conversation, you referred to the North Korean troops, the fact that Kim Jong-un is, and sending troops to aid the Putin regime. Is it, from your perspective, is that sort of a gimmick,

more of a cash and weapons technology transfer ground by Kim Jong-un, or is it having a significant impact for Vladimir Putin? Well, I think from a Russian perspective, they're getting bodies. And, you know, I've seen lots of different numbers out there like you have, and how many have actually then have deployed from North Korea into the theater of war in Ukraine, anywhere from 15 to 50,000. But still, that's not inconsequential, and it probably helps Russia avoid doing what they dread doing, which is drafting men out of Moscow and St. Petersburg and other places like that. So if they're getting fodder for the war, that's a benefit for them as well as getting the majority, apparently, of artillery ammunition they use comes from North Korea. For the North Korean side, I'm not sure what the agreement is. Certainly North Koreans are getting combat experience.

They have none. I mean, there's no Korean soldier that has combat experience, even though. Every general I see on pictures with Kim Jong-un, it has a chest full of medals. They have the companions. So that's worth something to the North Koreans. I just don't know how much they're willing to say, okay, bad luck, we lost 50,000 killed or captured. And I saw yesterday the first captured North Korean soldier. I imagine we're going to learn.

we're all going to learn something from this. I'd like to know what they're thinking about in Seoul, what they're, their Republic Korea, what the Army is thinking about there. Like here you've got North Korea sending away thousands of troops plus huge amounts of ammunition. You know, if I was thinking strategically and in charge of all of it, might be a good time to do a snap exercise in South Korea to put pressure on the north while they're sending away ammunition and troops for Russia. Yeah, I mean, there's interesting this.

different estimates, as you point out, in terms of how many troops have actually been sent from North Korea to aid Putin. And there are also likewise different estimates about how many North Korean troops have been killed or injured in action. The South Korean intelligence services estimated it's around 1,100, 1,200, I think the Ukrainian military is estimating somewhere in that same zone. You have to imagine that Kim Jong-un really doesn't care about the lives of his soldiers. He's essentially bartering lives of his own soldiers, of his own military in exchange for technology transfer for weapons, money.

And it's just one of those shocking developments of 2024, I think, that really very few people, if any, saw coming. Yeah, I would not have guessed that North Korea would be a troop contributing nation for Russia's war against Ukraine, because the whole narrative from Pyongyang had always been that the South is going to attack any day, we've got to be ready, and that sort of thing, and now to send away apparently tens of thousands of troops. Now, there could be huge amounts of money involved in this, or Russian oil and gas being provided to North Korea.

I mean, I'm sure the North would not do it if they weren't getting something really good. You mean, wait a minute. Are you saying, general, that they're not doing this pro bono? That this is not a charity case from Kim Jong-Gun's perspective.

Yeah, it is shocking, though, when you see that, it's just interesting. You know, I've been trying to assess as to just how significant the impact of those North Korean troops are from Putin. perspective, and I take your point, it does perhaps postpone that day when he may need to do another large-scale conscription if he ever decides to do that, because I think you're right,

that's the one thing that he desperately wants to avoid. If we could, General, I wanted to touch on a couple of other topics. The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft that went down, Have you heard anything further about the cause of that crash? You know, two or three things that I would want to address right up to top. First of all, what courage and skill of these pilots that managed to get that aircraft on the ground in Kazakhstan after it was hit. And after they were denied the ability to land somewhere on the western side of the Caspian, and they then were diverted across Caspian and crash landed in Kazakhstan.

That's incredible. I mean, as I've listened to aviation experts talk about what had any loss of controllability that the pilots could keep that thing even in the air to get to land. And apparently about a third to a half of the passengers survived that terrible crash. It was incredible. And I think that credit goes to those pilots. Secondly, why was the Grosny Airport still open? There have been reports coming from the Russian side that there were drone,

Ukrainian drones all around Grozny Airport, you know, part of this ongoing series of Ukrainian strikes deep into Russia. And so typically I know I live near the airport here in Frankfurt. Anytime some knuckleheads out with his own personal drone, they shut down the whole airport. So why would the Grosney airport still be open so that this airlider from Azerbaijan would be trying to land there? been diverted long before that. Finally, I think there's no doubt that this aircraft was hit by Russian air and missile defense. Of course, there'll be an investigation. Of course, I'll have to do it

as they should. But just look at the footage that you and everybody else has looked at, those are those are not bird strikes. Yeah, well, thank you for that. I know the investigation is ongoing. It is, it's tough. And the last thing we want to do is speculate. But I appreciate your your insight and your update there. The other thing I wanted to touch on, and this is sort of outside the focus of our conversation, as you mentioned, you're based in Frankfurt. What's your perspective on this latest Christmas market attack that took place well outside of Berlin? Yeah, the city of Magneburg.

So, of course, it's terrible if you watch the video of this car slamming into the crowd and as most of your listeners know in Germany, it's famous for its Christmas markets, and people are out there and it's cold. And, you know, it's a nice, I mean, it's a classic Christmas sort of ambience. But after the attack on the Berlin market, Christmas market back about, I think it was four or five years ago, they started putting up the stanchions or other sorts of balustrades, I think, it was four or five years ago, they started putting up the stanchions or other sorts of balustrades. I think they're called to review in a vehicle for being able to drive into an open-air place. Now, it looks to me in this case that they didn't have those in this particular market. I don't know that for a fact, but that's the kind of thing that the minister of the interior, the federal Ministry of Interior, and then that the state level Ministry of Interior would have been

looking at why were they not better protected. Now, once, you know, the initial response would have been, oh, my gosh, there's another, an arrow, or a Muslim. It did this. And so the knee-jerk reaction was going to be AFD alternative for Doersland, which is the right-wing political organization in Germany, was going to seize on this because, you know, there's federal elections coming up in 23 February here in Germany. But it turns out, in a strange twist, the gentleman who was driving was a guy who's

a legitimate migrant, he's a doctor and has been here for years and he's pro FAAFD against illegal immigrants. I mean, that's a harm to piece together. But nonetheless, it still will be seized

on by different groups. Why didn't the government do a better job of protecting people anyway? And that's one of the underlying things of extremist organizations. It's a really key point. that is so important, it's difficult for people to do, but anytime you have something like this, right, the tendency is to kind of jump to a conclusion, right? And nobody really has the

patients or wants to have the patients to wait for an investigation to play out, right? To determine motivation, determine plans and intentions of whomever the perpetrator is. And so it, you know, it is, it's difficult to do. But any time there's an incident like this, typically my phone blows up and you know I get calls from outlets saying you know would you you know do you want to come on and talk about this this latest incident and usually my reaction is not really because the investigation's ongoing and all we'd be doing is speculating about motivations of the perpetrators so yeah this one this one was extremely complex incredibly sad as they always are but but very complex sir if

if kind of to wrap up the the conversation to be mindful of your time as we make our way to the very end of this year, which seems to have blown by, it's going to looking forward with the Ukraine conflict after all this time. And I don't want to put you in a tough position to say, okay, this is what the incoming administration in the U.S. is going to do. But what's your gut feeling? What's your perspective on this? Where do you think this is going? And I'm not going to hold you to it, although I hope you'll come back on in a month or two, and we can talk about it more. Well, I was encouraged by the selection of General Kellogg to be the envoy for the Trump

administration to Ukraine to deal with the, how do you bring this war to a conclusion? Because General Kellogg understands the strategic significance of this, and he also is very clear-eyed about Russia being somebody you can. can't trust, and that Ukraine's sovereignty is important. So this, that gave me some optimism. And also, I think Mr. Walts, the National Security Advisor also is a, is a realist about how, who and what Russia is. I think that I'm also encouraged by the fact that most of the senior Republican leadership in the Congress, House and Senate, are pro-NATO. They understand the significance of the transatlantic relationship for the United States and why it's important

that we help Ukraine. So I think the administration will seek to do what they can to, as the president elected, talked about. But the reality is just getting an agreement is not going to do anything to help make America safer or help our allies. And so I think as the reality of that sets in, and especially since most of the administration is so focused on China, what better way to tell the Chinese that we're not goofing around

than to demonstrate that we have the political will and the capability to help Ukraine defeat Russia to shut down Iran, to shut down North Korea, and then the Chinese would have to take note of that. Yeah, that's a terrific point to raise. They have obviously been watching the U.S. and our allies' response to the Ukraine conflict, being mindful of their interests in Taiwan. So I think you're absolutely right. Everything's connected, right?

The world is shrinking still, and nothing happens in a bubble. So I appreciate that point. General, I just listen. As always, thank you very much for your time. I hope you've had a tremendous holiday season so far. I hope you managed to find some time to, rest and relax for the rest of the year. And I hope that the next time we call, you'll pick the phone up again and agree to come back.

Well, I really appreciate the privilege, and 2025 is going to be a doozy. I'm sorry, General. Was that a military term? Dozy? In some parts of the Army. Excellent. General, I just thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

All right. Coming up after the break, we'll explore how fentanyl became the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. It's really a sad and tragic story. Dr. Robert Morbett, a producer of fentanyl, Death Incorporated, a very, very worthwhile documentary, joins us to explain just how this crisis is flooding across our borders and why it's not just an issue of public health, but also of national security. We'll be right back.

Hey, Mike Baker here. Well, it happened. America just pretty much got done with a historical election. Perhaps you heard something about it. Now, sure, there's going to be some changes in the White House, and that always happens when there's a change in the administrations. But the fundamentals haven't changed, and the problem is that the dollar, well, it's in decline. With the U.S. adding $100,000 in debt every second, think about that, $100,000 in new debt every

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The fentanyl epidemic has become the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, claiming thousands of lives every year. Now, this synthetic opioid, 50 times stronger than heroin, is flooding the U.S. with devastating consequences. But how is it getting here? Well, the journey begins with precursor chemicals from China, sent to Mexico, where cartel, use them to manufacture the deadly drug. From there, fentanyl is smuggled across the southern border, often hidden in shipments or mixed with other substances, making it nearly impossible to detect.

It's cheap, it's potent, and it's deadly. To understand the full scope of this crisis, we're joined by Dr. Robert Marbett, producer of the eye-opening documentary Fentanyl Death Incorporated. The film dives deep into the origins, trafficking, and human cost. of this epidemic. It's available now, on Salem now, offering a close look at one of the greatest threats facing America today. Doctor, thank you very much for taking the time and joining us here on the PDB Situation Report. Thank you so very much for having on. And more importantly, thank you

for caring about the Fetmo crisis. Really appreciate it. What led you to producing this documentary? Talk to me about that journey from the point where you you said something has to be done. Let's try to get this out there to the public. Talk to me what that whole trek was like. Well, I had been President Trump's first homelessness czar, and so I was very involved with everything going on on the street, and I saw how Ventel was really starting to hit the street. But then over the last year and a half, two years, the numbers just skyrocketed and to give you an idea how this is an existential threat to the United States. This was the number when I when I sort of was doodling it together. I said I got to

do something about it. I got to produce that. And here's the number. More people have died in fentanyl in the last five years than adding up all 100 years of wars of uniform service, intelligence service for U.S. Americans, men and women. So add up the fatalities of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, Gulf War II, Afghanistan, Iraq, global war on terror, a few UN actions, a couple other other ones in there, add all up together. More people have died in fentanyl in the last five years than all-American war fatalities in last hundred years. Good God. Was there any sense of that from the, I don't know, the authorities, the government,

was there any awareness of the scope of this problem at the outset of your journey to produce this documentary? I think with the current administration of Biden and Harris, there was none. it was I don't know if it's neglect or sleep at the wheel or incompetence. I don't know what it was, but they were not acting like a house was on fire. This is the biggest existential threat to United States I think we've had since Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini. And we are not acting like that. Now, I mean, there's obviously, there's a lot of complexity here.

Let's try to take it and break it down into its various components. if we look at outside players, let's set aside the issue of demand, right? You always hear that sometimes when you're talking to other countries about the, you know, the narco-trafficking issues. They always say, well, look, you've got to solve your own problems. But let's talk about the outside actors. Can you start with China? Well, everything starts with China.

That's where the precursors initially started coming from. actually some of the finished product started coming from China. And then now it's the pre-precursors. And they got an alignment, strategic alignment, with the Mexican cartels initially. And to be honest, they filled the void of what Purdue Pharma they had done. We all know about Purdue Pharma. You know, that was talked a lot about. And you had millions of people taking prescriptions, hundreds of people.

thousand addicted. And when all the lawsuits happened and they started taking that down and they started saying, you can't get that prescription, the doctors stopped giving it less. The Mexican cartels, and they're insidious, really bad people, but they're good business people. And they saw a void and they jumped right in. They already had the distribution network. They were already doing illicit of drugs of all different types. They had human trafficking already going so they knew how to get across the border. So it was made ready for them. And they just jumped into that void. And that's phase one of the crisis. It is literally China, we're given the Mexican cartels to fill the void, the supply void that occurred because of Purdue Pharma. When we talk about

about the coordination between China and the cartels. To what degree in your assessment is the Chinese regime culpable, or are we talking about criminal elements within China coordinating with the cartels? Both, and I think initially it was purely about money. I think it was the criminal bad actors seeing this as a way to fill that supply void, if you will, and make a lot of money. Then over time, I think the regime, the Communist Party of China, sets there and goes, hold on a second. We're making hard cash, we're getting greenbacks to come into our economy, and now we're weakening our adversary. And so they were able to make some money initially, but they now have that extra benefit of weakening their adversary. And so I think initially,

Initially, it was probably about money. And then they realized, wow, we got even maybe a better benefit of weakening our adversary than just the money bringing it. Yeah, and I take your point. The cartels kind of moving over to Mexico, the cartels, they identify revenue streams extremely well, right? I mean, they fill those gaps wherever there's an opportunity. And I don't think people understand just how.

entrepreneurial, the cartels can be. But they've proven it. Now, I suppose, there's a lot to unpack here, doctor, but when we talk about this coordination between the Chinese government or criminal elements and Mexican cartels, have you seen, even in the short term, let's say the past two years. Have you seen any improvement in U.S. policy in terms of trying to mitigate this crisis? To be honest, over the last four years, I saw very little being done at all. More has been done since President Trump-elect has gotten elected, to be honest, that the fact he reached out and talked to both the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada, look, he has had the Prime Minister of Canada fly down to Mara Lago within two days. And I can't remember when

they met with President Biden on this crisis. Amit, our house is on fire and we're not acting like it. But President Trump has gotten more action in the last four weeks than the prior administration's done in the last four years. But look, Mexico had two of their biggest drug busts against the cartels just in the last month. The cartel up in Canada, and a lot of people don't talk about how bad Canada has gotten now, but up in Canada, they've had their biggest drug bust in their history of their country the week of the election. So we got Canada's attention now. We got Mexico's attention now. We sort of have China's attention now, you know, and President Trump knows how to get their retention. You have to have that. That's the first step. And so the fact that more has been done

in the last four weeks and he hasn't taken office is more than the last four years combined. There's a hint of optimism there, but there's also that's a really sad statement to have to make. Talk to me about the top line numbers. If we look at this crisis, both from the health perspective and from national security, but talk to me about the top line numbers. How many, how many fatalities are we talking about? What's the impact on our society in the U.S.? Well, you know, the big takeaway in the last five years, the number I gave earlier. More people have died of fentanyl in the last five years than all 100 years of war for Americans.

Another way to think of it right now is a 737 crashing every single day, literally every single day. And we know what happened when two 737s crashed over about a seven, seven, sevens crashed over about a six-week period. They grounded the entire Boeing force worldwide. And we're not acting like that. But that's how many are dying. If we had seven plane crashes the next seven days, and I sure hope we don't, but seven plank crashes in the United States, it would be like, is it terrorism? Who's doing it? What's going on? We would have the whole response of the national government dealing with it. But that's what's going to happen with Thignol. Over the next week here, we're going to have the equivalent of seven airplanes, 737s

crashing, and very little is going to be talked about or done about it. Dr. Marbett, if you stay right there. We've been fortunate. We've got some terrific sponsors here on the BDB Situation Report. We're going to hear from a couple of them right now. But if you'll stay right where you are, we'll be right back. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Because behind every headline is a bottom line. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings,

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It's calling your name Save on the stay Oh And free waffles are yours to claim Book direct at storeshilltails.com Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report Joining me once again is Dr. Robert Marbit He's the producer of a very

Very worthwhile documentary that you need to check out. It's called Fetinal Death Incorporate And you can find that on Salem Now dot com. Dr. We were just talking about the human toll, the magnitude of the fentanyl crisis. Why, I guess the top line question here is, with it being so bad, when we're talking about the human toll, being so bad, why the inaction, from your perspective, from the U.S. government?

I think the last four years, the Biden and... administration and the Harris administration were afraid to take on fentanyl because that that interrelated with the legal immigration. And for some reason, they just have not had any desire to tackle illegal immigration. And let me speak quickly to my friends on the left in the middle. You can't talk about fentany without talking about illegal immigration. And there are three reasons why there's a direct tie between illegal immigration and fentanyl distribution. Number one, people coming across legally are either forced to bring fentany across or incentivize and say, we'll cut your cost of going across the border if you take the fentanyl and get this

to the guy in the van. So that's number one. Number two, and we talked about all this in the movie, number two, the flood a sector. The cartels have five vertical products. They sell sex trafficking, human trafficking. They do coyote services take the cross. They do illicit drugs. Now they're doing Fittal.

So they'll flood a zone with people. And people really take a lot of officers, a lot of state, local authorities, federal authorities. So they like hit Laredo and then Del Rio is available or Brownsville is available. At El Paso, you can just walk it across. So they sort of flood a zone with people and then walk the fentanyl across. And we got video in this in our documentary.

And the third that a lot of people are not aware of is on the northern border. We have border patrol agents in their sector, in their office, but they're processing people from the southwest border. So they're on Zoom calls all day long doing paperwork with people on. on the southwest border and they're not patrolling the northern border. We have big gaps in the northern border clause initially because of the problems of the southwest border. And I think they were afraid to talk about this. I think that somehow politically they made an early mistake and said, we're going to be open border, we're going to be a fluid border, and they never got off

that position. And sadly, Fittal is so interconnected. with the illegal immigration, and we need to be honest about it. They're directly connected. From your perspective or what you've seen in your experience, has there been any efforts, government to government, let's just take Xi Jinping's regime in China to address the problems, to get them to seriously deal with it, whether it's through sanctions or other negotiations? think Biden, President Biden did one meeting that got initially some positive burbage or talk, but nothing ever followed through. It was, they said something nice, they released some information,

but it turned out he did not follow through. And I hold President Biden responsible for not holding him to those commitments. He said the right things but didn't take any action. And I'd rather have action than words at this point with so many people dying. And again, that's why I think President-elect Trump, the fact he's gotten everybody's attention threatening terror. And nobody wants a terror for it. I mean, let's be honest, we all know we don't want that. But if that's what it takes to get their attention, if St. Shins is what takes to get their attention, then we have to do it again. If we really believe this is a threat, and in my heart, I really do. We have not been threatened in our country, just thinking

pure death numbers since World War II with Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini, and we need to act like that. We need to have a national whole of government response. We need to have a total complete change of attitude. And to me, if you're a sovereign country, we need to know who's going across our border and what's going across our border. It's that simple. You want it. Yeah. If you think of it in your own house, you want to say, let anybody walk into your house just willy-nilly bring in what they want, take out what they want. We would never allow that to happen at our own houses. Why are we letting that happen in our own country? Yeah, it's a terrific point. Look, we address this situation, the border situation, national security on the PDB on a regular basis. And our point tends to

always be the same, which is you can't have national security. You can't do your primary function as a government, which is to protect your citizens and protect national security interests if you don't know who's coming across the border. I agree with you, 100%. It's a, I agree with you, 100% it's as simple as that. If you don't have a secure border, then you're failing in your primary objective as a government. Part of the problem also, I think, as you pointed out, is, look, the primary outside players, the Mexican cartels the Chinese regime in some fashion, whether it's, you know, the criminal elements or whether the Chinese regime is complicit in some fashion to some degree. The problem with the Chinese regime is, of course,

they only act when it's in their best interests. You could argue that a lot of countries do the same thing, but they tend to be primary proponent of that concept. If they don't see this as being an issue for them or in their best interests, then we're going to be hard-pressed without taking serious action, whether it's tariffs, whether it's actual serious sanctions, to get the Chinese regime to change. I remember during the Obama administration, they had that famous, you know, state meeting where

President Obama and Xi Jinping stood side by side, and President Obama talked about how Xi Jinping had promised to stop engaging in cyber shenanigans, and they just doubled down on it, right? So because, again, it wasn't in their best interest. So I guess what I'm getting to in a rambling way, doctor, is from your perspective, how would you deal with this? How would you work, if you were in charge, if you were the fentanyl czar on day one, what would you start doing? Well, and I spent three weeks in China prepping for this movie almost three weeks. And the good news is China knows how to take care of this for themselves. There's almost no fentanyl use nationwide in China.

So the highest populous country of the world has almost no use. And what they have done is they've criminalized hard drugs and they hold accountable and it's certain. So right out of the box, if you were a distributor, old seller of it, they have very strict punishment, very strict. It's very certain. It's very fast. So compare that to us in the United States that's doing things like arm reduction. And I don't think you can reduce any harm. I call it so-called arm reduction because there's no.

way you can make fentanyl safe or the fentanyl supply chain safety. You can't make it safe. Yet in California, there are places like San Francisco spent $28 million on a safe consumption site, a block and a half from city all out in the public square where they funded where you can go take your fentanyl and provided you with straws and foil and paraphernalia. Think of that versus China. China has strict punishment. and there. In another area where I'm actually hopeful, California legislature has been decriminalizing all type of drugs, high-end drugs, every part of it, not prosecuting for a long time. The citizens of California three weeks ago, and a lot of this is sort of the rest of the country

did not maybe pay attention because they're tied up watching the election, but the citizens of California, a left-leaning group of voters voted two to one to recriminalize high-end drugs against their legislature. So even the citizens of California are waking up and saying, we've got to start using common sense. And you can't say we're going to decriminalize, especially hard drugs. I get there's a conversation around weed and alcohol and lower-end drugs. But fentanyl is the deadliest drug we have ever seen in the world. It's a synthetic opioid that's 100 times more powerful than morphine. One 15th of a rice kernel will kill you of fentany.

Or two to three grains of salt. It's like dust almost. That's why the zero to four H group, this is the fastest growing death rate in America is zero to four. children, they're not calling an addict. They're not calling it. They're not an addict. They're not calling a dealer. They are just getting poisoned because of fentanyl powder out on restaurant, tabletops, park benches around the house, and they put a sandwich down, they pick it up, and they die. I can't tell you how deadly this is. In California, Washington State, parts of Hawaii, Oregon, many cities have either chosen to say, we're going to legalize this, or they choose not to

prosecute it. And both are just as bad. Dr. We've got a lot more to talk about when it comes to this subject. And unfortunately, we have no more time. I do hope you'll come back on the show again so we can pick up this conversation. And I also encourage all our viewers. to check out the documentary. It's called Fetinal Death Incorporated. You can get it on SalemNow.com. Take the time.

It's important. It's a tragic, sad story. And I applaud your efforts, Doctor, for trying to shine a light on this. And listen, thank you again for joining us. And I hope that you find time to enjoy the holiday season. And happy holidays to you. And I would encourage anybody,

if one hour is worth it, if you're a parent, if you're a child, if you're a policymaker, you'll learn more in one solid hour than you'll ever know about fentanyl. And we need to raise education. We got to do that almost before we start to take these other policy initiatives. Absolutely. Dr. Rob Cormat, thank you very much again for your insight. I look forward to having you back on and I appreciate your time. All right.

Well, that is all the time we have for the PDB situation report. And by the way, I do hope that you're having a terrific holiday season as well. Seems like it just flown by. If you have any questions or comments or if you have humorous anecdotes or maybe you've got a limerick or two, I don't know if people still do limericks. Reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttb.com. Of course, every month we take the comments and your questions. We smash them all together into an episode that we call Ask Me Anything.

We've got another one in the hopper about ready to launch. So keep the cards and letters coming. Also, as you may have heard, to listen to the podcast of this show ad-free. Well, it is simple. You become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. And please don't forget check out our YouTube channel. You can find that at President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker.

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