The President's Daily Brief - PDB Situation Report | October 26, 2024: Buck Sexton on Election Foreign Policy & China’s Taiwan Warning

Episode Date: October 26, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: We delve into a topic we don’t often cover on the PDB – U.S. domestic politics – with the 2024 election nearing. What foreign policy shifts could a new president bring? Former CIA analyst and co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Buck Sexton, joins us to offer his insights on the impact of potential policy shifts. Chinese President Xi Jinping has traveled to Russia to attend the annual BRICS Summit, signaling strengthened alliances and strategic moves on the global stage. We’ll be joined by Gordon Chang to unpack the implications of China’s provocative actions and what this means for U.S. security and international relations. 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]. 🏅 Patriot Gold: Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide. ☕ Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB 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 brief. Today, we're wading into a topic that we really don't often cover here on the PDB, and that would be domestic U.S. politics. With the 2024 election on the horizon, you may have heard about it, one thing is certain. A new president in 2025 will bring significant changes to America's foreign policy. Well, perhaps.

To break down what those shifts could. look like. We're joined by former CIA officer and co-host of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. Of course, I'm talking about my good friend Buck Sexton, and he'll have his insights and information and wisdom. Later in the show, Chinese President Xi Jinping, well, he's not a guest on our show, but we're talking about him. He was in Russia this week, participating in the annual Bricks Summit. Now, this comes a week after his nation encircled the island nation of Taiwan with warships and fighter jets during a provocative military exercise meant to demonstrate its power. Gordon Chang, author of the new book Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America will stop by to

give his analysis. But first, today's Speedy Beast spotline. We're now less than two weeks away from the U.S. presidential election can it get here any sooner, and the race is tightening. Polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a virtual time. though the momentum currently seems to be swinging in Trump's favor. The two candidates bring, well, let's call them, vastly different approaches to both foreign and domestic policy. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the illegal immigration, of course, has surged with millions crossing the southern border. Meanwhile abroad, the war in Ukraine drags into its third year, and the conflict in Gaza threatens to escalate into a broader regional war. Of course, Trump has promised to return to stricter border policies, and,

stem the surge of illegal migration and overseas, well, the former president asserts that this administration would bring an end to the Ukraine war and ease tensions in the Middle East, but he's offered few specifics on how he plans to achieve that. So, with two very different visions for America's future on the line, the question is, which approach will resonate more with voters as we inch closer to election day? And will Trump's promises of restoring order at home and abroad be enough? Joining me now is the co-host of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show, former CIA officer Buck Sexton.

Hey, man, listen, thank you very much for taking the time to be here on the situation report. I'm honored to be here with you. I got to say, Mike Baker, it's like 007 and Casey Kasem come together, man. You know, you got the voice, but you got the 007. I love it. Yeah, I'm hoping they're going to reboot, you know, Scooby-Doo, and I'll be able to do the voiceover on that. because that as far as I was concerned was Casey's biggest gig.

Okay, so we got a lot to cover, right? But first, I think we've got to get to your P. Diddy story. I can't believe you're throwing me out of the bus like that. By the way, no matter what I say here, we're going to get into serious stuff. No matter what I say, just the fact that we're launching in with a Bucks P. Diddy story is just kind of like, that's the headline. Okay. For those listening and viewing, and we have one. beautiful viewers and listeners here. Let me just explain that we were in the green room before we started

this show, eating, you know, lobster and truffles. And Buck says, hey, I got a Pete Ditty story. I do. So the floor is yours. So look, you know, I'm a young guy and all of a sudden I get an invite. No, I'm just kidding. I was living, I was like a maybe a, I want to say a freshman in high school age. And I grew up on 75th Street in New York City. It's a nice building. It's a very nice neighborhood, you know, just in case anyone's like, oh, and sure enough, there was like this whole scuttlebutt, if you will, that said, P. Diddy has bought the building next door. So I'm like a fresh, and this is when P. Diddy is at his absolute sort of peak of the music. It's like, you know, 19997, 98, right? So it's like post, post, you know, death of Biggie Smalls. And I'm like, wait a second.

P. Diddy is going to be living right next to me now in high school, like right next door. And yeah, he lived at, he lived at 813 Park Avenue. And I lived at 815 Park Avenue as a kid. And I remember there would be a baby blue Bentley that was a convertible with cream interior. It was like the fanciest car I'd ever seen just sitting there outside for him with the biggest security guards I had ever seen like in my life. I mean, dudes who look like they could. could have been starting, probably worse, starting linemen in the NFL. So I used to, I used to see him regularly all, all when I was in high school. I mean, I probably bumped into Pete Ditty's crew on the street in front of my building,

I don't know, 50 times. I, you know, it's just like a regular thing. Good guy. And we're all like, oh, man. Did you ever, did you ever bump into him at the CVS pharmacy buying baby oil or anything like that? I think he had people that probably did that for him. but I but I do remember I'm trying to think of what else you did you know the neighborhood uh the neighborhood

was there weren't a lot of hip hop stars living on the Upper East Side at the time so it was quite a you know it was it was it was very noticed that people like oh wow because it was like some of the buildings um you couldn't actually you had to like get through a committee to get into that's how it works in Manhattan in some of these buildings it's a called a co-op right so it's a cooperative. But the building that he bought was a condominium. It was just, you know, you write the check, you can buy, and it was supposed to be apartments. He just bought the whole, he just bought the whole building. So yeah, and then they read, they used that years later, I think for, I never watched it, but like making the band or something. But I, yeah, I used to see,

I used to see Puff on the street all the time. I was like, yo, what's up? Puff? Wow. I got to tell you something, Mr. Sexton. I had no idea, first of all, that you were this posh. Look at you, living in the lap of luxury in New York City as a young man. And now this whole celebrity connection, although, frankly, I'd keep that underwrapped at this stage of the game. I've got better celebrity stories. Anyway, there can't be a better one than that. It's certainly not more timely. Anyway, look, okay, we're going to move on. We're going to move on. I know that people tuned in for the P. Diddy news of the day. But I want to talk about, look, you follow this a lot more than I do.

And you're extremely well versed on what's happening with U.S. politics right now. But I want to focus on it from the perspective of the foreign policy differences that exist. If Harris wins, if Trump wins, I know this is a really big playing field that I'm sitting in front of you. but lay out what you see as the key differences between those two potential administrations from a foreign policy perspective. You know, it's fascinating because this is one place where you've seen the really a merger occur, Mike, of the old cheney neocon wing of the Republican Party and the Democrat uniparty party interventionists.

I know that that's kind of a lot of jargon. but effectively, the Democrat Party is the party of the machine state, and that includes certainly the federal bureaucracy, which you and I come out of, where we are anomalies, just so everybody knows. I mean, most of my, I mean, Mike was with the cool kid, but I was with the analyst and, you know, a bunch of, like, cringing betas down in the basement,

writing reports and stuff. They were all either Bernie Sanders or Compa or... Wait a second. I got to stop you right there, man. The way you just described that makes it, makes it sounds like it was the jocks and the nerds or like somehow the ops guys were walking by giving you guys wedgies over in the

in the D.I. And that is not the way it works. No, that wasn't the way. Case officers were by there. Case officers are like, write me another report. No. We were always impressed.

We were always impressed with how smart you guys were. I will say my office. I worked in not to get, not to get too far afield here, but the Iraq office, which you had to sort of like internally, you know, you had to be chosen for it. Like you had to apply and they, because they were kind of sifting out and, you know, you basically had to say, I'm willing to go to Rock.

I'll help any way I can. So the Rock Office was actually a lot of X-Mill guys. We had S-F guys. We had Marine Recons who came in and were analysts. So I am kidding, but there are a lot of cringing mutants who are analysts. That's in some of the other offices. Anyway, put that aside for a second. Back to the differences in the party and where I see a huge amount of daylight.

I mean the... How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount. New vehicle discount. Storage discount. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply.

Pepsi prebiotic cola in original and cherry vanilla. That Pepsi taste you love with no artificial sweeteners and three grams of prebiotic fiber. Pepsi prebiotic cola. unbelievably Pepsi. The Republican Party's, I think, most painful lesson of the last 20 years has been the legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan. And I think that Donald Trump has been a big part of learning that lesson in a, not just learning it, but applying it in a meaningful way in terms of the foreign policy philosophy of the right. It has moved not just to an America first posture, but to a highly non-interventionist posture. meaning unless there's a critical U.S. interest that will be achieved by the force of arms, we should not be involved.

The Democrats do not take that perspective. The Democrats, as we know, whether it's the Obama administration and the numerous foreign policy debacles there, including their role in Libya, we all saw 13 hours and what happened in Syria, the Syrian Civil War. The beginning, I might add, of the Russia invasion of Ukraine was that people forget this, but it stretches back to, I'm trying to remember even the year. year now, like seven or eight years going back now. And it also, the seizure of Crimea occurred, you know, through referendum under Barack Obama's tenure, right? So these are all lessons that I think have been reflected in the way Trump approaches things. You know, with Kamala Harris, you get this, it's weird, right? Because on the one hand, you have all these beta males like the current Secretary of State, Lincoln, and, and this multilateral, um, international institution-based view of how the U.S. should operate in the world, but also

the deployment of U.S. troops and or U.S. material, you know, money in places where it's not really clear what our objective is. You can make sort of a human rights or human policy argument about it. So do you know what I mean? I think that there's been a massive philosophical shift where the Democrats are now much more inclined to get us involved in military adventurism abroad that doesn't have a clear U.S. interest because they haven't learned the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan and others. And so that's where I think the main switch is. That's kind of a long answer, but I think it's an important topic. Yeah, no, it's, I think it's actually right on the money. If I'm not mistaken, I think Nikki Haley, when she was talking about her switch

over to the Republican Party, he said, you know, one of the reasons was because she felt the the Democrats have become the party of war. And, you know, it is, you know, it is, you know, It is for those of us old enough to remember, you know, it is quite the switch, you know, in terms of how the parties are perceived on the international front when it comes to conflict. With Ukraine, there's a lot of talk about if Trump wins, right? The, what that means for Ukraine, what that means for the EU in terms of their support for Ukraine. How do you view that? What do you think he would go with it?

You know, I think that, I know this is like a favorite, a favorite, topic of a lot of the particularly I think the never Trump right I mean they still act like Trump's BFF relationship with Vladimir Putin is somehow both disqualifying for Trump to be commander chief again and then also goes to a lack of loyalty to America I mean I'm just saying that that's the argument that certainly you get from Democrats on the Russia collusion and you know Putin stuff but you also get that from sort of that cheney old school Cheney interventionist Republican Bush air G-WAT folks. And here's, you know, here's what I would say about the way that we can break all this stuff down. Russia, yeah, Trump has this, I think you could call it a respect. He says it.

He's told me that before in interviews. He has a respect for Putin's abilities. He's sort of a worthy adversary. But you look at what happened while Trump was president vis-à-vis Russia, right? Mike, you look at things like, I think it was 50 or 60 diplomats expelled from the U.S., which to a lot of people that's like, who cares, in diplomatic relations, if you're going to talk about what the State Department can do, that's a pretty strong move. I'll give you something stronger than that, though. The Barack Obama's administration, and I spoke to Obama's, I debated Obama's national security advisor on Ukraine issues. I mean, it was like Eurasia. I forget. He was the National Security Council guy for Eurasia. focusing on Ukraine, Obama's team wouldn't give lethal munitions to Ukraine. And when the first invasion happened, right, they were sending blankets and helmets. Trump comes along. People forget this now.

And actually says, okay, look, if we're going to do this, let's actually do this. Let's not, you know, mess around. And he sent the javelin missile system, which was critical, especially as the Russian armor was so far beyond the capabilities of the Ukrainians at that point to resist. and also sent long-range sniper rifles, which as you know, Mike, the warfare over there is effectively trench warfare. It's like this hybrid of new tech with the drones and the digitized, you know, our artillery, it's like a game of risk with artillery shells going on and everyone using digitized communication to pinpoint with pinpoint accuracy. And then you have guys in trenches like it's the First World War, long-range rifles, dragging off sniper rifles, things like that. Trump gave that to Ukraine.

Obama wouldn't do it. So when, and then there's the, I want to call it, 150-some-odd Russian paramilitaries, Wagner group guys, Wagner group guys that they took out in the Syrian desert. I mean, you know, I know this, but I just think for people to hear this and remember, Trump is the guy that will bend over and do anything for Russia, but he's expelling the diplomats. He's giving lethal munitions through Ukraine, and he's giving the okay as commander-in-chief for operations that include blowing hundreds of Russians out of the sand. You know what I'm saying?

Like, so this is, this is, I think, an important part of the history that people need to remember. And then for how this plays out for the EU, for NATO and for the conflict right now with Ukraine and Russia, I would just say there's going to have to be a negotiated settlement and Putin isn't going to negotiate. Putin is never going to feel pressure from the Democrat administration of Kamala Harris to do anything. I think he just views her as last.

I think that Joe Biden, even with senility, is a more formidable statesman, despite the dementia than Kamala Harris is. I think with Donald Trump, you can sit down and say, look, what's it going to be to stop this? If you don't, I'm going to find ways to turn the heat up that actually bother you. Not enough that you're going to be able to get away with a major military escalation, but I'm going to make things hurt more. You know I can. Let's get a deal done. Let's stop the killing. That's how I see a Trump administration on Ukraine, Russia, moving forward. And on, you know, NATO and EU stuff, they were saying this, remember Mike the whole time? Oh, NATO, NATO allies needed to pay more. He was right. He's right. One thing about Trump is you can't rip him off, right? I mean, whatever's in the contract, he's going to expect that money to get paid. Like, you're not going to get away with that. And these European countries were getting a free ride, and he called them out, and he was right. But I don't see there as being any harm done to the transatlantic relationship or anything like that under Trump, if anything. I think that calling them to account strengthens things over the long term.

Yeah, I think you're pointing to an important part of this, which is people have to be able to look at what actually has happened, right, the facts as opposed to the political narrative. But I don't know that we live in an environment where that happens very often right now because, I mean, obviously the Democrats have been banging the same drum for some time, right? Trump is a Putin puppet. Trump is going to get us out of important international. alliances, you know, he's going to stop support for Ukraine, whatever it is. But again, I think you've laid out very, very clearly that if people just look, we've already got, we're in a very

unique situation here going into this election, right? We've got a candidate on the Democrat side who we know from now almost four years as vice president and working within the Biden-Harris administration, and we've got an individual who was president for four years that we can look at a track record, right? That almost, you know, would mean that people are obligated. They have to step back and say, let's look at the facts of those two administrations, of those two periods of time, and just discard the political narratives, which are just flying around and now they're getting crazy. Listen, this last two weeks are going to be insane. But I will get off my soapbox right now. Buck, we've got some tremendous sponsors. We're going to have to listen to just a few of them.

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And as we say around here, be awake, not woke. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a recess. Like this commercial break, did you need 15 seconds away from music? Or 15 seconds to eat or Reese's? Perhaps it's true. everything happens for a recess. Welcome back to the PDB situation report. Joining me once again is the co-host of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show,

former CIA officer and man about town, Buck Sexton. But earlier, we were talking about the sort of what you perceive as a top line, the 30,000 foot view on the differences between a potential Harris administration and a Trump administration from a foreign policy perspective. We were talking about Ukraine in particular. I want to get your opinion on some recent news that's come out. And that is that North Korea, Kim Jong-un, right, in his growing bromance with Putin, reportedly has dispatched possibly thousands, some reporting points up to 10,000 North Korean soldiers to not only train in Russia, but to serve on the front lines next to Russian troops in the fight against the Ukrainians. Do you think the reporting

is accurate, credible? What do you make of this? And what's the potential for a real problem should they get in the firing line? You know, this is really interesting to me because it brings a few things together. One is that any move that North Korea make at some level is is approved of and okayed by China. Right. So this is the, and so whenever you're talking Russia, North Korea, you're also these three things connect, right? China could effectively cut off and starve out North Korea

more than it's already being starved, unfortunately, tomorrow if they want it to, right? Without the assistance of the Chinese state and the, you know, the willingness of the Chinese state to allow North Korea to exist, it would effectively just wither up

and become absolutely nothing. But back to the, so I just think that's worth noting as you talk about the Russia North Korea relationship, you're also, I'm also wondering how Xi Jinping and Putin are talking, like there's no way this is happening without Xi's knowledge. And I would argue probably his acceptance of this, you know, this is just not a thing that would occur without there being a few players involved, in my opinion. As to the North Koreans being getting involved, there's like a good

news, bad news component of this, right? The thing is, at least when you're dealing with North Korea and Russia, normally with North Korea, if they're sending troops somewhere, like a the North Koreans were sending people to go help out in Hamas against Israel, right? In Gaza, you've got advanced missile technology, you've got nuclear technology. You know, you've got things that all of a sudden, you wonder like, hold on a second, is there a proliferation concern here, a nuclear proliferation concern? Obviously, Russia has, I think, more nukes still than we do. It's got thousands of nukes.

So that's not a part of it that's concerning to me. the part that is perhaps encouraging maybe, although, you know, I don't know, I mean, we're now just like looking at body counts as encouraging is if they're going to rely on North Korean special operations troops. And, you know, my understanding is that they're also trying to have them. They're going to put them in unit that are comprised of eastern Siberian Russian, right? And people, Russia cover something like, what is it? Mike, is it nine time zones or something?

some crazy number, 11 time zones. I don't even know. If you go far east enough in Russia, the Russians look kind of like Chinese and Koreans. A lot of them, right? This is just a fact of the geography. So they're trying to take these North Koreans and put them in Russian, indigenous Russian units and then have it look, you know, to make it seem like they're not necessarily, because if they have to call upon North Korea to do their fighting, what does that mean about their manpower concern? And I think that's what is, again, like I just want the bloodshed to stop and the fighting to stop. I don't want any more Ukrainians going home in body bags. I don't want Russian reservists being called up from all over Russia to fight in a war that, you know, they feel duty bound to fight in, but they have, you know, no hatred of the Ukrainians and no interest in getting killed.

So I think that there's obviously a lot of loss that has been sustained by the Russians and they're going to second and third tier. manpower reserves to do it. The part of it that I guess is just concerning to me is whenever you're involved, you know, you're sort of strengthening this non-aligned axis. And as I said, China is always in the background of anything North Korea is doing. And so you got Russia, China. And they've been obviously, Xi Jinping and Putin because of the sanctions have gotten a lot closer. There's been a lot. So once you start pulling all these entities together, that's not, that to me, is not good for the rest of the world. Like I can't give a specific why that's going to translate into something that's of greater concern to us,

other than you don't want all your enemies feeling like their backs are together and they're facing out against everyone else. And I think there's more and more of that going on right now. I mean, do you see the North Korean manpower thing the same way? I just view it as if Russia was kicking ass and not worried about it, they wouldn't be calling a North Korean spec. Because really, it's not like they bring some advantage to this, right? It's not like the old school, you know, you're a classics guy too, Mike. You know, they're not bringing. slingers in from the Belaric Islands or or you know Welsh longbowman or some kind of like new if dudes with guns we're going to be in trenches and operate you know and trying to shoot each other

at distance basically and operate some drones you know first person view drone yeah I think there's there's a lot of layers to this one of them is is Putin is is loath to do another conscription right he really needs to avoid that and so I think and and and from North Korean perspective, look, it gives, you know, Kim, you know, he gets an opportunity to send some of his troops and get some real world battle experience, right? And so there's, I, and also, again, everything that Putin's doing basically is designed to prop up his economy and his war machine. I think without North Korea, without Iran, without China, without India, in terms of energy, you know, Putin, I don't believe, would have been able to survive the past three years. He's,

He's essentially selling cheap energy and weapons technology in order to keep his war machine ticking along. And he's got a handful of comrades in that effort. And I agree with you. I don't think there's any way that Xi Jinping won't go up one morning read the headlines and said, what? You've got to be kidding me. There's North Korean troops in Russia.

Yeah, of course he knew. He might have helped negotiate the deal, Mike, honestly. He might have been like, all right, you know, you talk to Kim, let's get this going. Yeah, yeah. And I think, look, from the Chinese regime's perspective, you know, the one thing that they definitely don't want and it sort of drives their strategy with North Korea is the idea of millions of North Korean streaming across the border in the event of a hot conflict with South Korea, right? That chaos. So there's a lot of complexity to this. And sometimes the unfortunate reality is that in today's world, you know, everybody wants a very immediate piece. beginning, middle, end story. And so I do worry that, you know, that because we've all got ADHD, right, we're all chasing the next shiny object, that when it comes to things like, you know, choosing your next president, you know, it's, I think people need to take the time, right, to do a little bit of this research and to understand the complexity. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't,

I didn't get too sorry. We're having a little, you know, there's a little, yeah, does this, Does this involve P. Diddy again or no? No. I promise. Let me go on the record. That is my only P. Diddy story that I already shared. There's no other P.Ditty stories, okay? When I was a young CIA guy, I never got invited to a party at a mansion anywhere.

No. I tell you, I tell you something. I tell you something. I'm trying to talk about policy. Michael, let me. Can you see this? I'm trying. Look, you bring that up.

You bring up the P. Ditty story during your initial. entrance polygraph you're not getting in so i assume you kept that to yourself there you go yeah yeah yeah um well but you got to remember back in the day he was he did he used to hang out with uh you know the Hillary and the obamas an winter he was toast of the town man he was considered the big no oh my god i mean you know innocent and so proven guilty but uh looking pretty bad um so wait okay okay can i ask you can i ask you let me let me let me let me let me ask you a question but Sorry. I keep interrupting you, but you know what?

Mike's a man. This is the PDB situation report with Mike. With Mike Baker. No, I'm not going to. I'm not going to, I'm not going back to the ditty. What I did want to ask you was, because we mentioned the agency again, is, and this is completely off topic, but I'm really enjoying this conversation. What possessed you to apply to the agency?

What was your motivation? What drove you there? So funny. Tom Clancy books, 9-11, and not wanting to be some Wall Street students. That's really it. All those three things together. I mean, 9-11 happened. And I had a grandfather who was in the military.

I mean, it was in the Navy in World War II. I mean, a lot of people obviously had grandparents who served in that war or grandfather to serve in that war. But we didn't have any military or anything like that in my family. So I kind of thought, I was like, maybe I'll do military. It just felt, I mean, I went to, I went to Amherst. It was one of these schools where, you know, we're talking early 2000, obviously, I'm talking about 9-11. It's like the whole school was just one other than the drinking and the partying and everything, which, I mean, college is mostly a joke.

I mean, people pretend like it's not. But for 90% of people who go, it's like socializing and just getting through it and then actually trying to be a real productive member of the human race. But everyone was trying to go, Mike, into investment banking or consulting. I mean, that was, yeah, there were some people that went to law school, wanted the corporate lawyer thing. I mean, there were some people that did teach for America, and they had some stories. But for the most part, it was just everyone wanted to go to McKinsey or Goldman, and how do you get there as fast as you can? And I just felt like, I mean, look, after 9-11 happened, I'm a kid who, like I said, I loved the Tom Clancy books. I just, on my own, I would just go, Tom Clancy, I've talked to, I talked about this on my radio show before, but Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton were sort of my first experiences.

This was in grade school, so I don't know if like a lot of fifth graders are reading this stuff, but I like to read. read. Those are my first experience of like instead of watching TV or movies or something, I was like, I want to go read my Tom Plancy book. I just thought he was amazing, you know. And so that was really how I learned about the CIA. No one had ever talked about the CIA in my house or anything like that. I just, I had seen Patriot games. I knew there was this thing called the agency. I had read a book or two on the agency. I'm trying to remember Kessler. You remember Kessler's book in the CIA? I read this guy Kessler who's, he was a journalist, not an agency guy, but he kind of kind of did a top to bottom.

I read Sawyer's Imperial Hubris. Do you remember that one about Afghanistan? And he's like, not going to end well and he actually was right.

So anyway, I kind of just found my way into it post 9-11. It felt like trying to just be some guy who's better at spreadsheets than sitting in an office for 80 hours a week, like wasn't interesting to me anymore.

And I just, I was the, Mike, I can tell you, it was the first job I applied for senior year. year and it was the job that I wanted. And yeah, I got my conditional offer that summer after graduation and it was off the races. So just got started. That's, that's fantastic. You know, it's stunning how from so many people, right, 9-11 was essentially seen as a call to the duty,

to honorable duty. And whether it was the military, whether it was the CIA, whether it was wherever, it was the motivating factor for a lot of folks that I know. So, you know, can I just say, Mike? I think that a lot of people now think of it in terms of, you know, we had to like, we had to go get the bad guys there so they, you know, for sort of justice purposes. But you also, I know if you remember this, the mindset was actually what's next? Like, what are they going to hit us with next? You know, there was a real sense.

when they can run those planes into the buildings as they did kill almost 3,000 people in one day, and there were, and the agency was involved in some of it, and obviously special operations community was real busy in those early GWAT years all over the world. There were other mass casualty plots underway. Like we were, I think that people lose that sense of urgency now, right? They lose that sense of, oh, 9-11 happened, but then, like, we did these things and these wars, and we eventually got bin Laden. And the story was really much more 9-11 happened.

Like, when's the next 9-11 going to happen? Now, when's the next? And is it going to be 10,000 people? Is it going to be 100,000 people? Is it going to be a dirty bomb? Now, maybe some of that got to the point of almost a, you know, too much anxiety, you know, and maybe even a hysteria. But that was a very widespread sentiment after what we saw.

And I'll just say, I mean, I think that's how the Israeli people now feel rightly so after October 7th, right? It's just it's on now. Oh, no, absolutely. I think, and, you know, I want to have you back to focus on the Middle East at some point here in the near future. But yeah, you're right. Look, the sad fact is that it takes a tragic event. It takes a moment like a 9-11 or like a 7-October to create this unity, right? I mean, that was one of the striking things after that. It was one of those few moments, I think, for people in that time to experience what, you know, occurred during World War II as an example, where we were all Americans. It didn't matter, you know, what political party you were in. You know, that divide just shrunk all of a sudden.

People were back into the center and working together. Well, you knew this from the agency side. I mean, it's people ask me to like, how could you, because now in recent years, because of like Russia collusion and, you know, you know, complete jerks like what Clapper and these other guys have come out and made fools of themselves, the media and the laptop is fake and all the stuff that we've seen hyper-partisan stuff from these guys. Not all of them have done it, but a lot of the recent directors and everything else. People ask me, like, how could you ever work the CIA? I was like, in 2004, 2005, when I was getting in the game, it was like, we're working here

because we need to stop them from blowing up our planes and buildings and killing women and children. And like, it was a very clear sense of mission to your point. And then nobody was showing up there. It wasn't like some partisan crybaby fest about like, well, your side and who's your president. That stuff was really very much in the background. And I think, unfortunately, that from what I hear is not as much the case these days, but it certainly was the case then. Yeah, absolutely. And it's hard to recall those feelings, right, in today's hyperpartisan world.

But listen, Buck, this is, I really enjoyed this conversation. It's been a real pleasure. And I want to say, listen, thank you for taking the time. Buck Sexton, co-host, as you know, is everyone. knows of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. You know, frankly, I would make it the Buck Sexton and the Clay Travis show. I don't know how you got seconded here. He's older. He's older. Okay. There you. There you go. That makes sense. Just think about that though. When you're re-upping your contract. Just think about the changing that around. Anyway, Lixon, thanks very much for joining us. When we call you back,

I hope you come back. Thanks so much. Anytime, man. Great for you with you, Mike. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Take care, man. Well, all right. Look, coming up next. China flexes its muscles in the Far East, engaging in large-scale military exercises surrounding the island of Taiwan in what it called a warning against independent. Author Gordon Chang, our good friend, gives us his analysis when we come back. Now's the time to protect your retirement savings, right? That's an important thing to talk about. And Paypeer Gold Group, well, is here to help.

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Try Welch's fruit snacks today. Welcome back to the PBB Situation Report. China's president, Xi Jinping, was in Russia this week, attending the annual BRICS summit, alongside leaders from two dozen countries. Now, the BRICS group originally comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and if you take the first letter from each of those countries, they cleverly spells BRIC, among others now, because they've expanded the group, aims to strengthen economic and political ties among nations, seeking to counterbalance Western dominance on the global stage.

This year's summit saw discussions on expanding membership, boosting trade through alternative currencies, and reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar, all central to challenging Western power and hegemony. Notably, this summit comes just one week after China's military engaged in provocative large-scale exercises around Taiwan, during which Chinese warships and aircraft encircled the island in a clear show of force. Beijing called it a, quote, warning to Taipei. reiterating its stance that Taiwan is part of China's sovereign territory and that any move toward formal independence would not be tolerated. The timing of these two events, the military drills and Xi's participation in the BRICS summit,

reflects China's two-prong strategy, asserting its power militarily in its immediate region, while diplomatically strengthening alliances to challenge Western influence globally. Now, for more on this, let me bring in our friend Gordon Chang. He's the author of the brand new book, Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America. Gordon, thank you very much for joining us again today on the Situation Report. Thanks, Mike. First of all, congratulations on the book.

It is a little alarming. And when I say a little alarming, I mean, it's very alarming. Tell us sort of top line, 30,000 foot, the reasons why you wrote the book and kind of what you want people to take away from it if you could. American leaders and policymakers fundamentally misunderstand China's assault on the American Republic. So, for instance, you've got President Biden saying, oh, we can cooperate with China in areas where we have common interests. Well, no, you can't have common interest with a regime that is trying to destroy your country. And that's, unfortunately, the situation. The Communist Party believes it is in an existential struggle with the United States.

And it's because not of anything that we say or do, but because of who we are. An insecure regime in Beijing is worried about the inspirational impact of our values and form of governance on the Chinese people, which means that we will never have amicable relations with China as long as the party rules it. And that also means there's only going to be one survivor. It'll either be the People's Republic of China or the United States of America, not both. I know that Americans don't want to confront that. But if we don't confront that, we're going to lose our country. It's interesting because you're essentially saying, and we've talked about this before,

but you've laid it out in this book, that we're running on, the two countries are running on two separate tracks where the U.S. tends to think that we're in a competitive stance with China, but yet we somehow have mutually shared interests at times and somehow exist in the same community of nations. what you're saying about the Chinese regime is they're essentially on a war footing. Yes, and they've made it very clear. May 2019, People's Daily, which is the most authoritative publication in China. When People's Daily speaks, that's China speaking. May 2019, People's Daily carried a landmark editorial declaring a People's War on America. Now, People's War is a phrase

which has great resonance in Communist Party thought. It's total war as the DLA Daily, an official publication of the Chinese military told us last year, total war. And that means things like fentanyl, that's just not criminal activity. That's the Communist Party trying to kill Americans, which means that somewhere between 70 and 75,000 Americans each year who die from doses of illicit Chinese fentanyl, they are murdered. And we have a political system that will not come to that conclusion, which means China will continue to kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. And I think also that sort of the ways in which, again, to use this concept of the regime is at war or on war footing, the various ways in which they're doing this. People shouldn't just think of it as a, okay, we're going to get in this kinetic war, this hot war with China, perhaps over Taiwan.

But they're engaged in a variety of things, whether it's cyber shenanigans, whether it's disinformation, whether it's impacting elections at a lot of. at a local and a state level. And that to me, I mean, look, one of the things that I do is I run a company that does a lot of work around the world collecting information, investigations. And we have seen over the recent past. We've seen instances where the Chinese regime is trying to impact local, meaning city and state policies and regulations. Because I think they've realized that it may be tough to.

change federal policy in the U.S. through various means, but if they can work through cutouts, if they can work through seemingly unconnected organizations at a state or local or federal or sorry, a city level, then they can impact regulations, whether it means for mining, energy, agriculture,

whatever it is, and those things benefit the Chinese regime in a way. Yes, and this election cycle, China is very active down ballot. So, for instance, in June, in New York State, they were trying to affect the outcomes in Democratic Party primaries. And so that shows you to the extent that China's involvement is pervasive. This time, they're also trying to disrupt the United States by using fake posters,

talking about all sorts of divisive issues to get the American people to fight among themselves. And we know that Iran actually hacked the Trump campaign and gave the material to Harris's. So they've been involved. And, you know, when you go back to 2020, China actually was extremely decisive. They supported Biden over Bernie Sanders and the Democratic primaries. They supported Biden over Trump in the general election. And they got exactly what they wanted. Gordon, if you'd stay right there, we've got some sponsors.

We're going to take just a quick break. Gordon Chang, author of the brand new book, Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America. Hang with us, Gordon, we'll be right back. Start the spring season off right with a new pair of Toccovas Western boots. Hand-crafted and over 200 steps from genuine leather. They're built to last and feel broken in the moment you put them on. From cowhide to exotic leathers, Ticovus blends timeless style with all-day comfort.

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Joining me once again is the author of Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America, Gordon Chang. Gordon, when you look at the upcoming election, you've probably heard about it. We're going to have this election in the U.S. coming up in a little less than two weeks. from a perspective of how a Harris administration would deal with the Chinese regime or a Trump administration would deal with the Chinese regime. Can you lay out what you would see as the principal differences, the pros and cons? Yeah. Harris, we know, is not interested in foreign affairs.

So she basically doesn't have principles when it comes to China. But also we know that every American president, when they start out, gives China a grace period. Sometimes it's months, sometimes it's more. But she was probably going to do that. Now, Trump has already been president, who's already been burned by the Chinese, is probably not going to give them much of a grace period, if anything at all. The other difference on the Harris campaign is that they've got a guy named Tim Walts, who looks like a communist sympathizer.

And we know this from his continuous contact with the Communist Party's United Front Work Department, contact which he had in the 1990s and which has continued through his being governor of Minnesota. So this covers now spanning four decades. With Trump, you know, Trump does a lot of things the Chinese actually like. But the point is, they don't want him anywhere near the Oval Office because he does a lot of things they don't like. And also, most important, he's unpredictable.

The Chinese can deal with a hostile American president, but they can't deal with someone they think they cannot control. And they know that they cannot control Trump. And this is something that we saw going back to April 2017, when Xi Jinping was actually at Moralago and over that most beautiful piece of chocolate cake, Trump stands up and says, I've just ordered a missile strike on Syria, which is a Chinese friend. And Xi Jinping was completely flummoxed. And by the way, he was relatively well-behaved for the four years of the Trump administration. And as soon as Biden took over, the Chinese went on a rampage.

Well, I mean, to be fair, to Tim Walts, wasn't he in Tiananmen Square? stand in front of the tanks? I don't remember what the story was. And he doesn't either. Actually, he's actually lied to the American people about it. I mean, he actually said that he was in Hong Kong during the Tenement Massacre. When he wasn't even in Hong Kong, he didn't come until August of 1989. And I don't know how he could have misremembered that, because that is something that was graphic. I mean, we all know, I mean, people who were in Hong Kong in 1989, they knew where they were when they heard about Cinnamon Square. Tim Walts was just lied consistently about his relations with China to the American people.

And I'm not a Republican, but I can say that his presence on the ticket means that no American should vote for Harris because Tim Walt looks like a communist and he'll be just one heartbeat away from the Oval Office. And God forbid, he actually could end up being president of the United States. Yeah, yeah, although I'm not sure that I'm not sure that facts anymore count that much when it comes to the U.S. politics. I just don't know. I think we're in a dysfunctional state and I'm not sure how we walk that dog back, but that's me being cynical and I don't want to disappear down that rabbit hole. Gordon, let's talk about, if you could, the recent military exercises that China just engaged in around Taiwan. Now, it came kind of hot on the heels of the Taiwanese president giving a National Day speech.

And, of course, they refer to them as a dangerous separatist. But do you think that the military exercises, were they reactionary to that? Or were these a long time in the planning and they're part of a bigger picture, a longer-term strategy? And also, you know, what's your takeaway from this? I mean, is that, I guess what I'm really asking here, Gordon, is, and this is almost impossible to answer is, what's that timeline look like? We've talked about this before. In terms of Taiwan, how do you perceive a timeline for Xi acting on their ambitions? On your first question, it wasn't reactionary to President Lai's 10-10 speech.

That's the National Day in Taiwan. I mean, these things had to be planned long time in advance, and these occurred just four days after that speech, which is actually quite a mild one. What we have seen over the last week, because that was Monday and Tuesday of last week. Then on Tuesday of this week, we're the live fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. Last Thursday, we heard from state media that Xi Jinping was giving a pep talk to the rocket force, which controls almost all of the country's nuclear weapons, where he's saying that they need to be ready for combat, which is an implied threat to start a nuclear war. So the timeline can be anytime.

Now, Taiwan officials have been telling visiting foreigners that they expect China to impose a quarantine on Taiwan within six months. So that's sort of like the outer limit. Because when they institute a quarantine, they're going to probably fail at that, which means that they need a blockade. That's an act of war. Blockade brings in Japan for various reasons. Japan brings in us. So, you know, that is your outer edge. But, you know, generally speaking, we should be prepared for anything at any place at any time.

Because this regime in Beijing is under a lot of internal pressure. Xi Jinping can take us by surprise. And we are not thinking about this in the way that the Chinese are. They talk about war all the time. They're preparing for it. We've got a Biden who just couldn't care less. He's just checked out. We've got so much more that we could talk about it.

I've got a long list of questions. I'd like to throw your way. but I want to be mindful of your time. And so I hope when we knock on your door again, you'll open the door and come back. Gordon Chang, author of Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America. If you don't have your copy, go get one.

Thank you so much for joining us again today. And look forward to talk to you again soon, hopefully, Gordon. I would love to do that, Mike. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. Well, that is all the time we have for today's BDB situation report. Look, if you have any questions, you know, or comments or humorous, anecdotes that you'd like me to talk about on the air.

Reach out to me at PDB at thefirstTV.com. The mailroom at the PDB's global corporate headquarters is absolutely chockful of overstuffed mailbags containing your questions and your pithy comments and your suggestions. And once a month, what we do is a select group of PDB executive. They gather in the conference room. They choose a batch of your questions. And then we mash them all into an episode that we call Ask Me Anything. So please keep your cards and letters.

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