The President's Daily Brief - PDB Situation Report | June 8, 2024: Biden's Asylum Cap & Russia's Counter Space Weapon

Episode Date: June 8, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: A look at President Biden's Executive Order placing a cap on the number of asylum seekers at the southern border. Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikorian will join us to give his insight into that story. We take a look at Russia's recent launch of what the Pentagon is describing as a quote "Counter Space Weapon" which can target US Satellites in low orbit. We'll be joined by author Brandon Weichert for some insight on that as well as what he describes as a coming "space pearl harbor." And Iran's Supreme Leader takes flack from Palestinian officials for saying the quiet part out loud. 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. Email: [e-mail]. 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. Let's get briefed. We'll start off today's show with a look at President Biden's executive order, placing a cap on the number of asylum seekers at the southern border. Executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krakorian, will join us to give his insight into that story. A little later in the show, we'll take a look at Russia's recent launch of what the Pentagon is describing as a, quote,

counter space weapon, which can target U.S. satellites in low orbit. We'll be joined by author Brandon Weikert for some insight on that, as well as what he describes as a coming space pearl harbor. And that doesn't sound ominous at all. But first, today's BDB spotlight. President Biden is finally getting tough on the border. Okay, fair enough. Let's not over-egged the pudding.

But you know what? he's at least unveiling plans to enact immediate restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S. Southern border. Yeah, that's a little more measured. At an event on Tuesday, the president signed an order that will temporarily shut down the border if daily crossings exceed 2,500 people per day. You ask yourself, where'd they get that number? They pulled it out of a hat. Here's what Biden had to say during the signing ceremony. Today, I'm joined by a bipartisan group of governors. members of Congress, mayors, law enforcement officials, most of whom live and work along the southern border. They know the border is not a political issue to be weaponized, the responsibility we have to share to do something about it.

They don't have time for the games played in Washington, and neither do the American people. So today, I'm moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border. On my own. Now he's Action Jackson. All right. Since the 2,500 crossings threshold has already been met, ooh, there's a surprise.

The shutdown went into immediate effect at midnight on Tuesday. Now, if daily crossings slide back below 1,500, and you say how'd they come up with that number, they pulled it out of the same hat, the border checkpoints will be reopened. In a briefing call with reporters on Tuesday, a senior administration official said that under the order, quote, individuals who cross the southern border unlawfully or without authorization will generally be ineligible for asylum. Officials added that they anticipate that we will be removing those individuals in a matter of days, if not ours.

Now, to Biden's credit, the plan is not as bad as originally proposed. Early reports suggested that the daily cap on crossings would be put at around 4,000. It marks actually the first comprehensive executive action that President Biden has taken to address the border crisis since taking office. And as we've been reporting, it's almost certainly a political play ahead of the 2024 presidential election. And by almost certain, I mean, there is no doubt that this is being done for politics. They had to do something ahead of the 27 June debate with former president. President Trump and of course ahead of the November election.

As of May, the Border Patrol is averaging roughly 3,800 migrant apprehensions per day, meaning the executive order could have a significant impact. Now, we should also note that the number of daily apprehensions is relatively fluid and was as high as 8,000 apprehensions per day as recently as December. Now, before folks start celebrating this policy shift, right, it's worth noting that the executive of action contains some notable exceptions. And of course it does. For example, it doesn't apply to those using the Biden administration's controversial CBP-1 cell phone app that allows migrants to apply for asylum from within their home countries or at American ports of entry. And that's according to an

analysis by the New York Post. Under that program, which began in January 2023, nearly 530,000 illegal immigrants have been flown into American cities despite having no legal right to enter the U.S. Roughly 360,000 migrants are also entering the U.S. each year under the Biden administration's mass parole program, which will also remain untouched under the executive order. That program, in case you haven't heard about it, allows migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, who pass a background screening, sorry, I wanted to say pass a background screening, being vetted with a straight face,

to fly directly to the U.S. and to be released with work permits and authorization to remain in the country for two years. And each and every one of them gets a pony. We also recently brought you a report that the Biden administration has quietly carried out what is essentially a mass amnesty program. It just never ends, does it,

that has allowed another 350,000. migrants into the U.S. since 2022. Essentially, the Biden administration has been dismissing asylum cases and deportation orders claiming the migrants don't have criminal records and don't represent a national security threat. This policy has proved, what's the word? Problematic. Yeah, that's the word. With numerous violent crimes linked to those who were released into the U.S. by immigration courts. In the latest example, a Venezuelan migrant who shot two NYPDs. officers on Monday morning was found to be living in the U.S. illegally since last year. He was arrested but released by authorities in July 2023, and he had his case officially closed

by an immigration court in Chicago on May 6th, apparently because authorities did side it somehow that he was not a national security risk. I suspect the two NYPD officers who he shot may think differently. According to the Post's analysis, between all these Biden-era programs, even if daily crossings are effectively limited to 2,500 per day, that would be, and I think my math is accurate, roughly 1.8 million asylum seekers still granted entry into the U.S. every year. Now, one more thing worth noting about the president's executive action. It completely contradicts previous claims that he had made back in January when he said, quote, I've done all I can do to secure the border while urging Congress to take up a legislation. Well, clearly, that wasn't the case. Oh, and one final note, during his announcement

of the executive order, the president directed some of his comments to his progressive base and the hard left members of Congress. He said that, essentially, to those who disagree with my decision, who don't believe it's the right approach, I say, just be patient. He almost leaned forward with that whisper of his, just be patient. Now, if one were cynical, I'm not saying I'm cynical, you could interpret that to mean that the White House is quietly saying they're just taking this executive action to get them through the election, at which time it will go back to business as usual at the border. But yeah, that would be cynical. Okay, after the break, we'll be back with more on this, with executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikorian. Stay with us.

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For more on President Biden's executive action at the U.S. southern border, I want to bring in Mark Kerkorian. He's the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Mark, thanks very much for joining me today on the Situation Report. Happy to do it. Excellent. Listen, let's start at the 30,000 foot level. This executive action from President Biden, how do you look at it? Where do you stand? Good thing, bad thing? It's a political stunt. I mean, let's face it. Hey, Mark, please don't mince your words. You know, say exactly what you're thinking. Yeah, I try to not to say anything I don't want on the front page of the New York Times. So it's a political stunt.

obviously he had to do something but only because he's looking at his poll numbers immigration is the issue where he's the most underwater with the public the stuff he's doing he said he couldn't do but if he could do it why didn't he do this three and a half years ago i mean it's that's just not even to mention the substance of it which is uh you know lacking and phony i mean if he really did have a you know road to damascus moment and said oh my gosh You know, I should have had a V8, as the old commercial used to be, and totally changed his approach to the issue. Okay, take the win. But that's not what this is.

This is just a talking point for the presidential debate later this month. They're hoping it will be enjoined by the courts so that they will be able to say the president is trying to take bold action, but it's tied up in the courts. And so what can you do? How long could that take for the courts to make a call like that? There's the case about DACA, you know, that illegal amnesty that Obama gave to illegals who came here as kids, that's still in the courts. So it could, I mean, easily drag out long beyond the presidential election, and that's kind of what they're hoping for. I think one of the things that's confused a lot of people about this executive order is the cap. where did 2,500 migrants a day come in?

I mean, how did they come up with that number? It's a good question. They aren't saying. But remember that a Senate bill that failed that the Democrats have been making such a big deal out of said that the special shut off at the border would happen at 4,000 illegal alien arrests between ports of entry per day. So now when the president's doing this, they changed it to 2,500. they're just making these numbers up. And I think, and look, nobody's told me this, but I think it's entirely plausible that they focus group these numbers.

They held focus groups in, you know, in Nevada and Pennsylvania and Michigan and said, you know, how much illegal immigration would it take for you to not vote for President Biden? And they just offered lower numbers and they got to $2,500. I think it's public opinion research is how they got the number. I can't believe you're accusing Washington, D.C. of paying attention to poll numbers or focus grouping anything. I mean, that sounds completely out of character for anybody in Washington, D.C. Call me cynical. Well, I'm going to, and me as well. So walk us through the process. I mean, if you can, I mean, there's been very few details thrown out about this executive action, but

they hit the 2,500 on a daily basis over a week's period of time. And then that drops, that says, okay, that's it. The curtain closes on the border, nothing, until they get to about 1,500 a day on a weekly average, what happens to the folks who are trying to get across, who are stopped? Do they just say, sorry, the door is closed, push them into Mexico, and hope that Mexico is willing to hold onto them? A couple of things. I think probably they've already talked to Mexico and they've expressed a willingness to do this, but they haven't talked about that. They haven't made a point of that. And if they really did have a solid agreement with Mexico to take people back, you think they would have said it. But the important point here is that if this 2,500 illegal crossings between ports of entry happens, which remember, Obama's own DHS secretary said even one was more than the department could handle in a day.

They're talking about 2,500. So if that happens, they don't get to apply for asylum. That's what happens when this trigger is pulled. But guess what? There's two other kinds of statuses. One's called withholding of removal. The other is called protection under the Convention Against Torture that have different sort of standards.

They can apply for those. and do you think this administration isn't just going to rubber stamp that? So it's not clear that this does anything at all other than a handful of people at various times won't be able to get a particular kind of photo ID from the government before they'll let go. They'll get a different kind of photo ID from the government before they let go. The whole thing is phony. And now let's talk about some of the other loopholes or the workarounds that the Biden administration has to get around this 2,500 cap.

So you've got this fact that since 2022, I believe it is, about 350,000 asylum cases were just arbitrarily closed because they determined somehow that the individuals were not national security threats. Will those types of actions continue as a result of this executive order? Well, they'll continue despite the executive order. Of course they will. I mean, those aren't, those aren't even asylum cases. Those are just deportation cases. And then what you do is when you're in a deportation case, you make an asylum claim as a defense to avoid being deported. Not everybody does. So that kind of thing is going to continue and what will also continue is this administration has created what they call new lawful pathways into the United States. And the word lawful there actually means illegal because they are flying, they are allowing people from abroad to fly in and be paroled, be let go into the United States. Likewise at the ports of entry, the legal crossing points, the same kind of thing.

Those things are not affected in any way by this. Are you talking about the CB1 or the CBP one app? Yes, the CBP1 app is what's used mainly at the legal. land crossing points, but then you also use that for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. And of course, there's no chance any problematic people might come from those countries to just fly over the border into airports in the United States. All of that just continues. This has nothing to do. Doesn't stop that at all. If you could explain briefly, just in case folks aren't aware, of the special exemption for those four countries for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Venezuela. The administration cooked up this plan that has no connection to the law. It's just totally made up where people from those four countries, wherever they live, and a lot of them are actually flying in from Europe or other countries, can apply online and say that they need parole, they need to come to the United States to apply for asylum. And they get an okay, and they just fly into the United States and are paroled in, which means you are let go. and you get to apply for a work permit, and then they're supposed to apply for asylum at some point. But if they don't, nothing happens. And if they do and get turned down, nothing happens. So it's just letting in an extra 300,000-plus people a year on top of everything else that you're seeing at the border. Yeah, I think it's interesting because,

and I'm glad you mentioned the numbers involved in that exemption for those four countries, you know, people have been doing the math. on this, on this executive order. And they said, okay, with the cap, we're looking at all things being equal, roughly 1.8 million, right, individuals. Under this executive order, that are allowed.

But that doesn't include these other exemptions that we're talking about. And it doesn't include what I think also confuses people is this concept of known godaways. What's your estimate? Because that number seems to fluctuate based on who you're talking to. What's your estimate?

of known Godaways on, say, an annual basis or just even during the Biden administration tenure? Now, to make clear, a known got away isn't just a totally made up number. It's people who got across the border and were detected one way or another. There are remote control cameras. Sometimes there are sensors underground that people walk over and trigger. So there's different kinds of evidence. And the Border Patrol basically comes up with an estimate. which is an estimate, but it's not all made up. During this administration, the number of known gotaways is now approaching two million people.

Now, some of those people may have come back and forth, like they were drug runners or something, but let's say it's only one and a half million people. These are people who just aren't vetted, aren't checked, and the vetting is a joke anyway, but even that joke level of vetting isn't happening. If they're not turning themselves in, these are people who don't want to be caught.

And that doesn't count the unknown gotaways, the people who snuck past without setting off a ground sensor or getting caught on camera. And we don't have a clue as to what that number is. Yeah. So you're upwards with the known gotaways, you're upwards of 2 million or so. Okay, so obviously, and I agree with you 100%.

There's a reason why they're not turning themselves in. Not all of them have nefarious intent, obviously, but from an operational perspective, and that's typically where I view things, you have to game this out. You have to plan for worst-case scenarios. And the idea that somehow there are not individuals in there with significant nefarious intent is absurd and shows either just a willful ignorance or just someone being naive. But if you look at those individuals coming across that do encounter, that do turn themselves in, that do encounter law enforcement, How good, from your perspective, is the vetting, is the background work that's done before they're released into the U.S.? I'm sorry, I know. I know. I tried to, look, I tried to do that with a straight face.

Yeah, I couldn't keep a straight face either. Now, look, they do, they run them through U.S. criminal database. So if they've been here before, if they've been deported before, if they've committed crimes, that sort of thing that will show up in the FBI database, yes, They will find them out. But how many people like that are there? The whole point is they're coming here to be illegal aliens. They weren't already here. And it's not like Venezuela is giving us information, if they even have it, about people. It's not like Haiti or Somalia even has a functional state for us to get information for me. The Chinese aren't going to be telling us, oh, yeah, this guy is an agent for the people's liberation army.

I mean, it's the whole idea that these people are vetted is fake. It's just it's security theater and it's not even very good theater. What do you make of one thing that struck me during President Biden's announcement of his executive order was, okay, first of all, very predictable. He started off by blaming Congress, by blaming Republicans, blaming Trump for all of this. And then he announces the executive order. And then he goes back to saying, you know, I just hope that, you know, Republicans get on board with me and my desire to do something serious here and protect our nation. And then he talked about bringing in more agents, border patrol agents, you know, adding additional resources to the border. Does any of that make staffing up, adding resources?

Does any of that make a difference if your policies are the same? No, in fact, it's worse. We definitely need more Border Patrol agents. There's no question about it. I mean, there are something like twice as many New York City Police Department officers, people with badge and guns, as there are Border Patrol agents for the entire 2000, not 2,000 mile border, but the Canadian border too and everything else. So, yes, we need more Border Patrol agents, but if the policy is the same,

and they're just waving people in who turn themselves in, they're released, then more agents just means they release the illegal aliens quicker. It speeds up the revolving doors, all it does. And that's not any kind of solution. Do you have any sense? Obviously, the election just took place down in Mexico and incoming new president, Claudia Scheinbaum, taking over from AMLO.

Do you have any sense of what level of cooperation we could get from Shinebom's administration? I just did our podcast, not to sort of advertise, petition, but if you go to cIS.org, we did an interview with Trump's ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, who's a knowledgeable guy, very good, and he was actually kind of optimistic. And the reason is she is going to continue, she doesn't take over until October 1st, but she's likely to continue her boss's, you know, policies because she's the protege of the current

president. But also, in 26, met the, uh, trade agreement we have with Mexico is up for renegotiation. And especially if Trump is president, she does not want to mess that up. So I actually am cautiously optimistic that the new administration done in Mexico starting in October is likely to be cooperative. The current one is even cooperative with Biden, but they kind of have him over a barrel. Biden's worried about losing the election. So they've said, well, if you give us billions of dollars, we'll help you get reelected.

And that's kind of what they're doing because the numbers are lower. They're still ridiculously high, but they're lower than they were, say, in December. And that's because the Mexican army is actually trying to interfere and trying to block some of these people from coming over. We just have time for just a couple of brief questions. What's your assessment of the performance of the Biden administration's? borders are, Vice President Harris, because if they win again, there's every likelihood she becomes President Harris. So I'm wondering how effective she's, I'm trying to say this again with a straight face. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But how do you assess her performance as the borders

czar? Yeah, it's about as good as her performance and everything else. I mean, she's, remember, when they made that announcement in the White House about borders are, she immediately said, no, no, no, I'm not the border czar. I'm the root causes czar. Her job is to try to make things improve in Central America so that fewer people will come. Well, now, frankly, half of the illegal aliens aren't from Mexico or Central America now. They're coming from not just Venezuela and Haiti. They're coming from Tajikistan. And you name it. In fact, I think there's only a handful of countries around the world that aren't sending people. So what are we going to fix the root causes is everywhere in the world. No, no, she's done the same bang-up job in dealing with immigration

as she's done in everything else, which is a scary thought. No, and let's not forget the tens of thousands of Chinese nationals that have come across the border, particularly through the San Diego sector in recent times. And I'm sure the Xi regime in China, the Communist Party, you know, has our best interests at heart. So there could be no problems there. Yeah. Not at all. Mark, listen, Mark McCoyan, executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies,

thank you very much for taking the time. I hope you'll come back and talk to us, because I suspect the border is going to remain an issue for a period of time. Happy to do it. And if it all gets fixed, that's okay. I won't come on the show again. And we'll have you to talk about something else. Thank you again, Mark. I appreciate you.

All right. Coming up, after the break, Russia has recently launched what the Pentagon is describing as a countering counter space weapon. You actually have to say that like Dr. Evil. Hello number two. It's a counter space weapon, potentially capable of taking out U.S. satellites in low orbit. That was the worst Dr. Evil impersonation. When we come back, we'll talk to author Brandon Weikert about what this technology means for the future of space warfare. Stay right there. This is a Bose moment. You've been there. Small talk's going nowhere, but then the Bose speaker kicks in.

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Command reported this week that this Russian spacecraft is currently trailing a U.S. spy satellite in orbit. A spokesman for U.S. Space Command told Reuters. We have observed not nominal activity and assess it is likely a counter space weapon, presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit. Well, the Kremlin has acknowledged the launch, but has been tight-lipped. That's not like them, about what it launched, with Russia's state space agency, only saying that it was done in the interests of the defense ministry of the Russian Federation, and I'm sure for good of the overall global community as well. Joining me now for a more in-depth look at the recent launch and what he calls a potential Russian space pearl harbor is Brandon Weikert.

He's a national security analyst at the national interest and the author of a great book, Winning Space, How America Remains a Superpower. Brandon, thank you very much for taking the time. Look, I know you're a busy man, but we've got a lot to talk about here. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Excellent. Listen, let's start with the counter space weapon.

know about it, what can you reveal to us? Yeah, so back in the day, they used to call this as Stribytel-Sputnikov in Russian. This is an old concept. Basically, it's a small, highly maneuverable satellite that can, as you noted, trail behind or tailgate are sensitive satellite systems and either tap into them or physically push them out of their orbit, and that would basically render those systems useless. and it actually, because they can push them out of orbit, ground controllers for those satellites

might not realize that actually they're under attack. They might think that the system was just down. And so that creates a window of opportunity on Earth for Russian or allied to Russian military to exploit. Okay. Now, I think people will hear this, right? And their first thought was, oh, my God, you know, they're weaponizing space.

But it seems like that's already happened, right? the horses already left the barn. Yeah. Yeah, so in my book I outlined, we've definitely everybody's already militarized space. But now, yes, we for the last 20 years or so have been weaponizing space, not just the Americans, but the Russians and the Chinese. In fact, I argue in the book that in space weaponization, because of these dual-use systems that China and Russia are both deploying, they're actually ahead of the Americans in space

weaponization, specifically with these counter space weapons. And what that means is counter space is a specific term. It basically means the ability for a country like Russia or China to deny access to space for another country. So Russia can deny America access to its space assets, which are critical for our national military as well as for our national economy. Okay. For those of us who are rocket scientists, right, like you and me, We understand the significance of this, but for folks out there who don't spend a lot of time thinking about this, I just called myself a rocket scientist, Brandon. Explain why this would be critical in, say the next massive global conflict. If we're behind Russia, if we're behind China, why is that important?

Well, because the military, our military is the most dependent on satellites than any other military in the world. That may change over the next decade with Russia and China becoming more dependent, but right now we're more dependent. And what that means is those satellites are very vulnerable to attack and disruption. Our military operates what's known as over the horizon. We're an expeditionary force. Thankfully, we don't fight in our own country or near our own country. We go overseas to Eurasia. And so we need those satellites to help move us around, position us, coordinate attacks,

and also to kind of get an eye on, get an idea of what the enemy is preparing with those surveillance satellites. The Chinese and the Russians are developing systems that can completely negate those satellite capabilities, which means they can render the U.S. military deaf, dumb and blind, and therefore combat ineffective. Right, taking out communications, too, obviously. Now, if that happens, right, that also impacts the civilian community. And just to bring this home for all the younger viewers, you might lose TikTok. Yeah. Correct. Yes, it'll knock everything out. And then you're also going to be probably if China or Russia goes full bore, they would also pair this with a cyber attack. And we're already seeing that with China's vault typhoon. We saw that in 2020 with the solar winds hack that Russia was supposedly behind. So you're going to have a kind of a comprehensive attack on our satellite networks plus our cyber networks, which will be designed to the whole country, deaf, dumb, and blind, giving a window of opportunity for either Russia

and or China to exploit closer to their shores. Okay. Shifting gear is just a little bit, right? Still talking about the end of the world, though, because it's such a cheery topic. In the old days, the Cold War and everything, everything was, it was the ballistic missile issue, right? So, you know, a national defense was built around that, right? And those are very predictable flights and routes. And so we felt as if we were secure with our air defense systems to some degree. Talk to me if you can about sort of the next iteration of what that could look like, not necessarily just from space, but I'm getting us towards hypersonic weapons and aircraft. Yeah. Well, as my colleagues at the Western Air Defense sector and Eastern Air Defense sector know,

we don't have any viable defense against hypersonic weapons attack. There's no active defense right now. We are developing defenses, space-based defenses especially, but we're years away from that. We're really behind the curve when it comes to hypersonic, specifically defending against those hypersonic attacks. But also our hypersonic weapons program is actually behind China's and Russia's. Russia has fielded their own hypersonic cruise missile. They're deploying their own longer range hypersonic weapons as well.

China two years ago tested the world's fastest hypersonic glide vehicle in the Gobi Desert, got within 20 miles of its intended target. That's pretty impressive considering this is radical new technology. So we don't have a defense against that. And basically our whole air defense network for the country is rendered obsolete by hypersonic weapons attacks. Now, so the implication is that China and Russia are ahead of us in material science and propulsion. Is that what you're saying?

In some respects. So, for instance, China is developing a capability for their hypersonic vehicles to be able to communicate with ground control, even during its terminal phase. That's always been a downside of hypersonic weapons as they're entering the atmosphere, the friction caused, cuts those systems off. from control, which could render them useless. So China's using laser technology to try to keep direct linkage with their incoming hypersonic vehicles throughout the phase of flight. Russia, they have shorter range, the cruise missiles, they've used them a few times in Ukraine.

They're effective. The fact of the matter is both China and Russia have working models in the real world. America is still pretty much sort of in the theoretical phase. That's not a good place to be in. What's more, Hillary Clinton, when she was Secretary of State, helped to offload U.S. hypersonic weapons research to Russia as part of that deal that she oversaw that included the selling of uranium to Russia. And also the U.S. government for years has allowed for the Chinese to pilfer our high-tech secrets, including hypersonic weapons. Wait, wait, wait, wait, Brendan, are you saying that the Chinese regime has been engaged in the theft of intellectual property and research and development?

development? Bigly. Bigly. Huge. Yeah. Now, for those that are wondering, because you said something just a short while ago that's critically important, hypersonic weapons render our current air defense systems basically, I don't want to say useless, but ineffective. And can you explain in layman's terms? Again, understanding that I know a lot of big words. But for other, Others, can you explain why that's the case? You always want the best for your family, and that means only Egglands Best Eggs in your kitchen. Compared to ordinary eggs, Egglands Best Eggs contain six times more vitamin D, 25% less saturated fat, more than double the omega-3s, 10 times more vitamin E, and more than double the vitamin B-12.

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Or really admired vehicle? Oh, or really awesome vehicle. It really is the recreational activity vehicle. The stylish 2026 Toyota RAV4 Limited. What's your RAV for? Yeah, so basically all of our early warning systems, those are the systems we use to track incoming missile attacks, first of all, they're angled at different trajectories.

Hypersonic weapon can come in at unpredictable speeds and unpredictable angles of attack. So a conventional missile, it's going to come, you know, probably if it's from Russia, it'll come over the North Pole. We have early warning systems that can see those missiles coming in, and we could deploy systems that can knock those missiles out. However, a hypersonic weapon is far more unpredictable, and they can launch them, an enemy could not just across the North Pole,

they can launch them across a southern polar trajectory, in which we don't have many systems sort of geared toward tracking. What's more, they're coming in so fast, we can't knock them out. our systems that are designed to defend the country don't fire fast enough to knock out those incoming hypersonic weapons. Okay. So you combine that fact and the idea that we may be trailing behind in our development of those systems to Russia and China.

You combine that with what you said earlier about how we're also trailing in the development of counter space weapons. What's your assessment of the current state? to play within the U.S. government and military. Do they understand the serious? I'm sure they do. Look, I don't want to, you know, again, there's some very, very good, smart, bright people working at the Pentagon. They understand the seriousness of it, but do you get the sense that they're focused on devoting the sort of resources and abilities to it that we need? No, they're more interested in DEI initiatives right now. I think. Brandon, say what you, say what you think, Brandon. Don't sugar-coded

here on the situation report. I've lost a lot of speaking gigs with the military because of these views, but I don't care. It needs to be said. There is a contingent of really top-notch people in pretty much all the branches who are being restrained by this administration. They recognize the danger, but they're not being allowed to fully develop the resources and capabilities needed to overcome the danger. And, of course, as you know, we don't have limitless time.

At some point, we're not going to be able to build the countermeasures needed before a Pearl Harbor type or 9-11 type attack is, you know, befalls us. And so there is a cadre of people who are really top tier, both in the intel community as well as the defense department. But they're not being allowed to do their job. And they're not being given the direction from political authorities to do their job. So we're going to keep doing, you know, what we're doing now, which is next to nothing, while our enemies, arm up and close that gap with us. How important is the cooperation or coordination between the private sector, the commercial world and the military, the government, in terms of developing these abilities?

Well, it's key, but again, it's sort of directionless right now. You know, I've argued for a trillion dollar investment over the next decade into fourth industrial revolutionary technologies, things like quantum computing. biotechnology, new aerospace design, space weapons. Of course, that's going to require political will that frankly neither party really has either in Congress or in the Biden administration. And until we do that, we're not going to get anywhere. China has a military civil fusion.

And that's how they're able to not just keep up with us, but in key areas like hypersonics, quantum computing, even biotech, they're able to outpace us. and that gives them critical strategic advantages in the aggregate over us. Okay. Well, I'd argue Arslo, that it's not just their efficiencies in their system, right, because it's an authoritarian environment. But they've also perfected the ability to steal information, right? And over the decades, they've saved themselves enormous amounts of money and enormous amounts of time in bypassing the heavy lift of research.

and development. So they've taken advantage of what we've been doing here on the home front. Yeah, and we don't do anything to protect our information. And even today, I do, I do some work with Silicon Valley. And the mentality there, for the most part, is like otherworldly. They're not, they don't care about the threat. In fact, they want to do business with China. So like, until that changes, you know, we're going to keep having these problems. I've recommended in the past to Senator Paul and some of these other Republicans, they should be making, tech transfers from U.S.-based firms to China illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That never went anywhere because COVID hit right when I was starting to gain traction with that.

But COVID's another example. I mean, we're doing gain of function research with China in their biotech sector. My wife was a PhD in genetics at Yale, and the Thousand Talent Program was trying to recruit her and her fellow Yale PhD in genetics because they wanted that next generation of research. So we have a real problem in this country where academia and research institutions and tech firms are not shoring up their own intellectual property and their own people against Chinese infiltration. Yeah. And I think people, because it was the previous administration, right, the Trump administration that really shined a light on this problem. But I think because of that, and it hadn't really been discussed in the past very much, people assume it's a new issue. And this has been going on for decades and decades.

Oh, yeah. Essentially how they have climbed their way to the position that they're in right now. So talk to me just briefly. We don't have a lot of time left, but I wanted to touch on the issue of AI and how it can impact the next battlefront, what it can mean in terms of theater of war. Not so much like, can I write my essay or can I write a better profile for a dating app? But I want to talk about how it impacts military efficiency and effectiveness. Yeah.

Yeah. So basically, artificial intelligence is sort of the end point for what's known in the Pentagon is data dominance. And so basically we're giving out all of these different information points about ourselves, about our country, into the Internet that's then sort of collected by companies and countries and they put it in a cloud computing and they need greater computing power, and that leads them all down to the AI pathway. AI takes that data, and in the case of the military,

they can then create highly robust automated weapons systems. They can then attack targets with greater efficiency and speed than human capabilities allow for. That could augment the force employing AI. It can augment them on the battlefield, and allow for them to win to defeat the non-AI power. And so what we see here today is AI is a priority of both the United States and China. But China, because of that military civil fusion approach,

because their system does allow for long-term planning in a way that, unfortunately, ours does not, the Chinese are able to get ahead of us in certain areas. Now, the one thing holding them back is the Trump-era tech war. We imposed sanctions on high-end computer chips going into China. China has struggled to produce their own indigenous advanced computer chips. However, in the long run, that is not going to be the thing that saves us because China is already now indigenously developing seven nanometer chips. There's a Chinese car company, an EV company that's using five nanometer chips.

So they're getting closer and closer to being able to produce their own chips that are as advanced as the Americans. And once the Chinese can do that, then they can get ahead of us in AI. And this is going to happen, I think, very soon, very soon. Yeah, I worry mostly when we're talking about this. And I know this is a little bit theoretical. But I worry about when we're talking about AI, the willingness, perhaps, of the Chinese regime, or the Russian regime, because the Russians have done it in the past, in the old days they had something called the dead hand system,

their willingness to remove the human element from decision-making when it comes time to push a button, launch a missile, whatever. I suspect that in the U.S., for a very long time, we'll continue to have this debate, we'll never be comfortable with taking the human out of it. But I suspect that those who don't have our best interests at heart may not feel the same way as they're developing AI. Yeah, definitely.

I worry about the kind of regime that China has and with all this new technology that we're helping them develop, by the way, you know, our companies are. And so, you know, people forget that before World War II began, Nazi Germany was actually technologically in many respects ahead of the allies. And my concern is that China is in a similar position

And the difference is, you know, Germany was the size of Florida. Ultimately, we could overcome them, especially when we had Russia on our side. We are not going to be in a position like that if a third world war breaks out with China. China has mass. They have an industrial base. They have a highly capable human capital base. They have a robust industrial espionage base. And by the way, they now have Russia on their side.

And so this is sort of not a good position to be in if you're the United States staring down World War III. Yeah. Well, Brendan, I got to tell you something. This has been delightful. And when was the last time? You had someone describe your conversation as delightful. Certainly not my wife. But no, listen, this is fantastic. We haven't even talked about UAPs yet, you know. I'm happy to address that. Oh, you know what? The viewers are going to demand it that we have a segment where we talk about UAPs out there. But listen, Brandon Weicker, author of a terrific book, go out, get it. It's winning. space, how America remains a superpower. We appreciate you giving us your time today. Yeah, let's do it again. Absolutely, man. Take care. All right. We'll close out today's show by examining recent comments from Iran's supreme leader that reveal the Islamic Republic's true intentions behind its support for the October 7th brutal Hamas attacks on Israel. We'll be right back.

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There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. I wanted to close today's show by examining a public split between Palestinian leadership and the Iranian regime stemming from some recent comments from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. At the outset, it's worth noting that this split is limited to the Palestinian

authority, which currently runs the West Bank and has been willing to criticize Iran in the past. However, the PA's criticism does a very good job of pulling off the veil on the Iranian regime's true intentions in Gaza. Speaking at a ceremony, marking the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death in Tehran, Hamani offered praise to Hamas for the October 7th attack on southern Israel. He praised it. Of course he did. He said the attacks, get this, were quote, exactly what the region needed. And that Israel had, quote, suffered setbacks from which it will not recover. Hamani went on to say that the Hamas attack successfully disrupted a plan by the United States, Israel, and quote, some regional countries to change the dynamics in the region. Now, that last part

is what I want to focus on. As the kids say, Khomeini said the quiet part out loud. As we've noted here on the president's daily brief in the past, Iran's support for the October 7th attacks was, in large part, an effort to derail U.S. broker negotiations that would normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and draw the kingdom closer to the United States. As Khomeini indicated, that would indeed change the dynamics in the region in a big way, and it would undoubtedly hamper Iran's off-stated objective of destroying Israel. So in short, what Iran's supreme leader was saying was essentially, hey, Palestinians, thanks for being useful pawns in our game, right?

Of course, the pawns would be Hamas, a terrorist proxy built, funded, trained, and resourced by Iran. While Hamas might be basking in the glow of Khomeini's praise, other Palestinians, while they thought otherwise. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas released a statement highlighting the devastating consequences of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, including the death and injury of thousands of Palestinians, the destruction of Gaza's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and the displacement of thousands of Palestinians. He described Hamini's remarks as sacrificing the blood of Palestinians and thousands of Palestinian children, women, and elderly.

In a similar statement, one of Abbas's top advisors, Mahmoud al-Habash, alleged that Iran was trying to extend its influence in Palestinian territories and using Palestinian lives for its own gain. During an interview with Saudi-owned Al-Arabir TV, al-Habash condemned Iran's involvement in the October 7th attack, stating that Iran had backed all Hamas's actions since the war in Gaza began. He also held Hamas directly responsible for the situation that the people of the Gaza Strip currently face. And he's not wrong. All right, that's all the time we have for this edition of the PDB Situation Report. If you have any questions for me, please reach out at PDB at thefirsttv.com.

And as always, if you want to listen to the podcast of this show, add free, well, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. It's that simple. I'm Mike Baker. And you know the drill. Until next time, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.

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