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Joe Rogan Experience #1599 - Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard is a Former United States Representative, presidential candidate, and Iraq War veteran. Currently, she serves as the leader of Tulsi Aloha, a political action committee.

Tulsi GabbardguestJoe Roganhost
Jun 27, 20243h 4mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:0015:00

    (drum music) Joe Rogan podcast,…

    1. NA

      (drum music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

    2. TG

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

    3. NA

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music plays)

    4. JR

      Hey. What's up, Tulsi?

    5. TG

      Good to see you, my friend.

    6. JR

      Good to see you too. You got notes. Look at you, you're prepared.

    7. TG

      Yeah, you know-

    8. JR

      What are you, a congresswoman or something?

    9. TG

      ... I was just thinking ... Ah, something like that.

    10. JR

      (laughs)

    11. TG

      I was. I was.

    12. JR

      You were.

    13. TG

      (laughs)

    14. JR

      Does it feel weird to be a former congresswoman?

    15. TG

      (laughs) Um, I don't know. It's, it's, uh, it's a crazy time and I'm back in Hawaii. I'm getting a lot of surf in and (laughs) yoga, meditation, and yeah.

    16. JR

      Does it feel better?

    17. TG

      Y- Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I'm, I'm so grateful to the people of Hawaii that I had the privilege of being able to serve them and represent them. Um, it's, it's getting crazier and crazier to see the divisiveness in the country and the divisiveness in Congress, and unfortunately, it's just getting worse. I mean, it, it seems to be getting progressively worse over the time that I've been there, but, but especially now.

    18. JR

      It just ... The, the thing that really concerns me is that I don't see a way it turns around. Like, I don't ... I s- I don't see a method. I don't see a mechanism where this ship just goes (imitates screeching) and turns, turns back into the port of normal-ville.

    19. TG

      Yeah.

    20. JR

      It seems like once the division becomes so strong and so polarizing, the other side wants to destroy the other side, and th- the two are in, in ... locked in mortal combat, and there's no recognition that we're all part of one gigantic continental community-

    21. TG

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      ... called the United States. I mean, that, that's what it's supposed to be. We're supposed to be a part of this ... We're a country. We're supposed to be a part of a community.

    23. TG

      The United States of America.

    24. JR

      Yeah. We're in the la- We're literally in a non- I mean, non- I don't wanna say completely non-violent, but semi-non-violent civil war.

    25. TG

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      I mean, that's what it seems like.

    27. TG

      It's ... I mean, it, it's not rocket science on, on how and why we got here when you look at, uh, politicians, people in both parties, uh, capitalizing off of this divisiveness for fundraising for themselves, their campaigns, uh, their political parties, um, stoking these divisions so that they can win elections and so on. And then you have so much of the mainstream media doing the exact same thing. Uh, big tech and social media doing the exact same thing, stoking these divisions, fueling that fire because they figured out it gives them better ratings-

    28. JR

      Yeah.

    29. TG

      ... they get more eyeballs watching and, and same thing on social media. They start pushing, uh, so much of this divisive rhetoric towards people that that stokes more of these flames and gets more clicks and more attention and more views, which goes to kind of the heart of, okay, so how do we start to turn this ship? I mean, it comes down to ... It comes down to leadership. It comes down to who we as voters choose through our elections to lead us in this country, people not motivated by, uh, you know, their hunger for power, uh, and also, uh, making decisions about, you know, hey, where, where are we getting our information? How are we responding to kind of this divisive rhetoric and, and, and this hate?

    30. JR

      Yeah. I ... Uh, when I ... I'm in, I'm in the middle of Matt Taibbi's book, Hate, Inc., which is excellent.

  2. 15:0030:00

    Exactly. …

    1. JR

      that.

    2. TG

      Exactly.

    3. JR

      And I think there's probably Russian bots that are helping anyone who's contrary to something that they're opposed to. Like, like it, or someone, like if there, if, if there's a bunch of people that want Hillary Clinton to be president, I can guarantee you there's a bunch of people that don't. Now if there's a bunch of people that don't, they're gonna come up with a reason to support or enhance the, the profile of a person that's opposed to her.

    4. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    5. JR

      There's this weird manipulation that's going on with social media that was highlighted by Renee DiResta's work that is beyond, li- if you, if you think, oh, it's probably like a few, no, there's hundreds of thousands of posts they cited-

    6. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    7. JR

      ... that were done and there's millions of interactions. Like this, it has a significant effect of moving the needle, and it's memes and it's pages and they were doing this shit and they were manipulating people to try to cause conflict. And I'm sure there was some of that about every single candidate. And I don't think it's necessarily as much of supporting one individual candidate as another as it is causing conflict. And I think if they're lo- if Russia's playing this long game and China's playing this long game, which historically that's what, that's what they do, right? What they're wa- what they wanna do ultimately is get us at each other's necks. The best way to do that is to just raise up the conflict bar. Like is it at six now? Jack it up to nine. Let's, let's, let's get these fucking people to really hate each other. And that, if, if someone says, "Oh, Tulsi Gabbard's a, a Russian asset." Well, Jesus Christ, you served overseas twice, two separate occasions. You're a congresswoman for six years. Like this-

    8. TG

      Eight years.

    9. JR

      Excuse me, eight years.

    10. TG

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      This is crazy. That's crazy talk. Like do, do you think she's an embedded spy that just like they, they planted it from the moment she was born in Hawaii? Like they said, "Oh, I got a plan. Let's take this little baby and groom her to be a Russian spy. And I got a good idea. Let's have her serve overseas and put her life in danger. Let's ha- let's have her help, uh, wo- wounded veterans when she's over there. Let's, let's have her exposed to the horrors of war so she comes out against these interventionist foreign policies that have led us into these countless endless wars." That's a good way to construct a Russian agent. Like that is, the every aspect of it-

    12. TG

      That is the tinfoil hat speaking.

    13. JR

      It's so fucking dumb.

    14. TG

      (laughs)

    15. JR

      It is so, it's such a dumb thing to say. But they say it like it's nothing because it's one of those things, and I saw them say it on The View, like when Joy Behar's reading off her card. They say it like it's just a, it's a thing that you can say, like, like you're moving a chess piece. You know, like you're doing this and then I'll do that. Russian agent, how about that? You know, oh, you're a toady or you're a this or you're a that. And the, the lack of nuance in these conversations and the lack of understanding like what the, what is happening when you do things like this?

    16. TG

      Exactly. The consequences.

    17. JR

      The consequences are grave for, for all people because it, it's not, like this is what people have said about laws like and one of the things that people said about the Patriot Act is that, um, when Obama was, when they were talking about, uh, mass, mass surveillance and the, the things that Snowden revealed and some of the things that the NSA were doing.... if you got a guy in office that you love, like Obama, and you think it's gonna be fine because he's in office, understand-

    18. TG

      (thuds)

    19. JR

      ... that there's a guy that's probably gonna be there in four years or in eight years that is not gonna be your friend-

    20. TG

      Exactly.

    21. JR

      ... is not gonna be who you like, and he's gonna have access to those same laws. This is why it's so important that we not change these laws. This is why it's so important that we don't give the government massive ability to just look into your emails and listen to your voicemails.

    22. TG

      Yeah. And why it's so important for us, especially now, to stand up for freedom of speech-

    23. JR

      Yes.

    24. TG

      ... for freedom of the press, for that exact reason. And, and that's what's so, uh, disturbing about a lot of what we've seen (claps hands) starting to play out over the last week or two with an increasing call for people to say, "Well, you know, maybe we need to start shutting down certain, uh, new media entities that are promoting or saying things we don't like, or shutting down, uh, people's Twitter accounts because they're saying things that, that we don't like." Um, this is a double-edged sword, and you think that you're putting these things in place because, uh, y- you know, it, it's, it's a good thing, it's a good thing because you only wanna hear from people who you agree with. But as you said, those tables can very quickly, and will likely, turn-

    25. JR

      Very quickly.

    26. TG

      ... at some point.

    27. JR

      Very quickly.

    28. TG

      And if we don't take a stand for freedom of speech, freedom in this country, then, uh, the, the threats that we're experiencing, that some are experiencing, uh, this, this is a threat, this is a threat to us all. And that's something that I and, and, you know, friends of mine, I think all service members understand truly in our heart of hearts. We take that oath to support and defend the Constitution, um, so seriously that we are willing to give our lives to defend people's rights to free speech, whether we agree with that speech, uh, or not.

    29. JR

      And what I was getting into with this Parler thing is, we don't know where those threats emanated from, and, and they easily could be from foreign agents. Those things that people write, when you have an account and anyone can sign up for it-

    30. TG

      Yeah.

  3. 30:0045:00

    Mm-hmm. …

    1. TG

    2. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    3. TG

      ... "Yeah, that, that person, you know, is a good-looking guy or a good-looking girl" or, "They talk good, they talk nice. Sounds smart. Yeah, all right." Check. Rather than like, "All right. What are your capabilities? What are your qualifications?" Like, what kind of judgment will you exercise in making decisions that affect literally every single aspect of our lives as Americans in this country? And so it's terrible that we have-... um, this kind of makeup in our, in our government. But also, like, we as voters have to do a, a much ... The power is in our hands, ultimately, in how we're making decisions, uh, in choosing who gets to work for us. And not forgetting that. Not forgetting that those people who work in the United States capital, they work for us when it comes right down to it. And so we have the power to hire and fire.

    4. JR

      I think that people have developed such a sophisticated way of manipulating folks that r- the, the thing about running for office, uh, particularly running for president, it's, it's one of the weirdest things where the most important job ever-

    5. TG

      Yeah.

    6. JR

      You don't have to be qualified, you just have to be chosen. So you don't have to have any experience in government. You don't even really have to know how government works. All you have to do is get enough people that are willing to give you a try, and you can have the nuclear football. Like, uh, not saying Trump, I'm not saying Biden, but s-

    7. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    8. JR

      ... if someone comes along, some ridiculously popular person that knows absolutely nothing about government, but they're like, "Justin Bieber? He wants to be president? I fucking love that guy."

    9. TG

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      Like, that is not outside of the realm of possibility.

    11. TG

      Ugh. No.

    12. JR

      All you ... If y- if, if you have some incredibly charismatic person and you, uh, you like them over Marco Rubio-

    13. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    14. JR

      ... or whoever the fuck it is, Ted Cruz. And you're like, "Ah, well that guy sucks. This guy can sing his ass off."

    15. TG

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      "Let's go with him." Like, but you're literally giving someone the power to run the greatest army the world has ever known.

    17. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    18. JR

      The, the, the most insanely technologically advanced civilization on earth, and the one with the most weapons, you're gonna let a person who wins a popularity contest ... They can run this.

    19. TG

      Yeah, man.

    20. JR

      Right?

    21. TG

      I mean, and I, I lived through this.

    22. JR

      (laughs)

    23. TG

      I literally just lived through this.

    24. JR

      Like, but what's the alternative?

    25. TG

      (laughs) Well, people, first of all, need to kinda have the veil lifted-

    26. JR

      Yes.

    27. TG

      ... on, on, on what this is and how both political parties play into this and the media plays into this. You know, I saw from, from the very day that I announced my candidacy for president ... You know, I ran for president on, uh, out of concern of, of some very real issues that our country is facing, wanting to bring voice to those issues and actually do something about it. Uh, the, the, the rise of, of North Korea's nuclear capabilities, for example, and how we in Hawaii lived through the reality of that threat when we got that, that missile alert-

    28. JR

      Yeah.

    29. TG

      ... that came through, that caused, you know, families to, to go and, like-

    30. JR

      Tell people about that real quick if they forgot about it.

  4. 45:001:00:00

    Yeah, that was the,…

    1. TG

      playing politics with people's lives. You've got people losing their jobs, people stuck at home, people worried about being homeless, who that one-time check of $1,400, $2,000, whatever it is, that can be the difference for them between food or no food, home or no home. And yet you have people in Washington playing politics, worried about, "Well, if we do this now, it might help Trump." Or, "If we do this now, it might help Republicans."

    2. JR

      Yeah, that was the, the conspiracy theory. The conspiracy theory was that part of the reason why the stimulus checks hadn't gone out, part of the reason why, you know, there was so much stricter lockdown and economic damage because of those lockdowns in Democratic states was because they were concerned that if the economy rebooted and started going back up again, that it would help Trump and Trump would be able to say, "Hey, you know, everything's doing great again. We're gonna make America great once again. We're past this COVID and we're gonna, it's gonna keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger." And people would be like, "Yep, he's right. Hey, he, he really did have the economy booming before that COVID hit. Hey, we really were doing better than ever with unemployment." And that's a terrible conspiracy. It's a terr- it's a terrible thing to even consider and I hate even bringing it up. But m- man, it's crazy how, how much devastation has happened in so many of these communities, in so many of these cities, and how little consideration they've put into the fact that these people are losing everything they've ever worked for.

    3. TG

      Yeah.

    4. JR

      They seem to think this is the only solution. The only solution is this. But you look at other states and you go, "Well, th- that's not true." Other, other states have managed to save far more businesses by allowing people to make their own decisions. And it's a horrible conspiracy, it's horrible to even consider that one of the reasons why the strictest lockdowns have taken place in the blue states, in the blue cities, is because they were concerned with r- the economy rebounding.

    5. TG

      Yeah. I, I wanna talk about the, the lockdowns and COVID. But just on that point that i- it's not such a stretch as to call it a conspiracy because things like this happen in Washington all the time. And, and one of the clearest examples was around this bill called The First Step Act, which was a criminal justice reform bill that essentially, if passed, would result in, um, a lot of people who were in prison for a very long time for non-violent, uh, drug, minor drug violations, or, for example, like the girlfriend of, of, uh, a, of a drug dealer who got caught on conspiracy charges literally because she was in, in the room and around whatever her boyfriend was doing. This bill would've made it so that these people got to go home to their families. As we were working to try to pass this bill, and it was a bipartisan bill, both in the House, uh, and the Senate, and it had the President Trump's support, uh, there were very prominent Democrats who publicly were saying, "Don't support this bill because it's not perfect and because if it was passed..."... then Donald Trump would be able to say he did it, that this was a victory and, uh, you know, a- a feather in his cap, and that he'd be able to go across country and say, "Hey, look what I did." So they were openly advocating for, "Hey, let's not do this right now. Let's wait until after 2020 and then do it," so that it could be done under a Democratic president. Never mind all of the people who were locked up and who have been locked up for over 20 years, away from their families and their kids, unable to see their kids grow up. Never mind the consequences of that. It's about politics, and we don't, we don't want that guy to get a win at all.

    6. JR

      That's crazy.

    7. TG

      It is absolutely crazy. So, I mean, there's a good ending to th- ending to this story in that this bill did eventually get passed. So those people who were advocating for that lost. But it provides a window into that mindset, uh, that dangerous mindset of leaders in both political parties who are willing to sacrifice the wellbeing and the lives of the American people to advance their own political ambition and cause and power.

    8. JR

      It's so disgusting.

    9. TG

      It is disgusting.

    10. JR

      It's so scary too. It's so scary to think that this is something they can justify, these people that are representatives of the American people, they think that this is the way to go about business-

    11. TG

      Yeah.

    12. JR

      ... because, uh, uh, D- Donald Trump is bad. You know, this is their, their mind, no matter what you do, don't help Donald Trump.

    13. TG

      Yeah. And, and, but this, I mean, this, this, we, we've seen this, I think, um, exacerbated over, over this, this past administration, but this is not something new either. I mean, this is something that has, I think, been increasingly becoming more and more of a problem that's gotten us to this point of where we are.

    14. JR

      exhales ] That's so hard to hear. It's so hard to hear because, uh, what you just said should be criminal, because that is not representing people, it's not representing innocent people. It's not representing people that are unjustly accused. It's not representing our legal system in the, the, the best form of it possible.

    15. TG

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      It's, it's awful.

    17. TG

      It is. Um, I just, I, I wanna keep going back to, 'cause I don't, I don't wanna just be all about... We have to be about solutions as well.

    18. JR

      Yeah.

    19. TG

      And I think that if we look back to the country that our founders envisioned for us and those, those foundational pillars that are put in place, uh, the central part of that is, is our democracy. And so as we may feel hopeless at times, like there's like, "What in the world can we do against these powerful forces of darkness and greed and power and so on?" There... The mechanism that is in place for us to change this is, is through our elections. And as many people who, you know, there are. I mean, people feel hopeless, like, "Why even bother to go vote? Why even bother? Because I'm just one person or my voice doesn't have power." This is the power that we have in our hands to start to change this. There is nothing stopping us from going to the ballot box and saying, like, "You guys had your chance, and you have not fulfilled that incredible trust and responsibility that we as voters have placed in you. You're out." And choose leaders who, who are, who are committed to that, that mission of service, that servant leadership, looking out for the best interests of the American people and our country.

    20. JR

      I think there's also a problem where people don't know whether or not their leaders are looking out for the best interests of the people. They, they don't know. They wanna believe-

    21. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    22. JR

      ... and they don't really have enough time to find out either. Most people are filled... Their days are filled, right? They have, they have a job-

    23. TG

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      ... they have a family, they have a mortgage, they have crisises of their own, they have their own hobbies and needs and, and then they have to vote for mayor. Like-

    25. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    26. JR

      ... "Ah, shit." Like, "What, what is this guy doing? What's, what's his deal?"

    27. TG

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      "Oh, I heard some bad things about him. I heard he's a Russian asset." Right? I mean, that, that's literally-

    29. TG

      Yeah, that's true.

    30. JR

      ... the kind of cursory examination that most people have-

  5. 1:00:001:15:00

    Yeah, I completely agree…

    1. TG

      talk about now?" And, uh, yeah, I just, I think the more, the more of us who choose not to contribute, to be a part of that and contribute to that and lend our eyeballs or our mind or our time to that, uh, the more quickly we can try to force the conversation towards things that actually matter to us.

    2. JR

      Yeah, I completely agree with you, but I don't see anybody else agreeing with you (laughs) .

    3. TG

      (laughs)

    4. JR

      This is what bothers me the most.

    5. TG

      There's more-

    6. JR

      You- this is not a-

    7. TG

      ... of us than them, though.

    8. JR

      I think you're right.

    9. TG

      That- that's the thing (laughs) .

    10. JR

      But it's not a popular thing that gets distributed. It's not a popular-

    11. TG

      Yeah.

    12. JR

      ... thing that gets th- th- that, it's not out there.

    13. TG

      Yeah.

    14. JR

      This is not, you know-

    15. TG

      Well, you have a pretty, you- you got a lotta, you got a lotta eyeballs and ears on your platform, sir. So, I think we can spark something...

    16. JR

      I hope so.

    17. TG

      ... to make- make, really seriously, make some real change and point-... take the spotlight away from where it's been and focus it where it should be, which is on, on the people-

    18. JR

      Yeah.

    19. TG

      ... whose voices really have not been heard throughout this time.

    20. JR

      Well, they still would like there to be some representative that they can hang their hat on.

    21. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    22. JR

      Like, someone who's like, "That's my guy. She's my woman." Like this, this makes sense. I like the way they think. And I don't see a lot of that out there right now. I don't, I don't see someone who's not particularly invested in the party, but more so invested in all of these problems that you're talking about. And that, about the, you know, saying that we have to abandon all this partisan bullshit-

    23. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    24. JR

      ... all this, this pettiness, and all this divisiveness that we've lived off the last four years.

    25. TG

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      And particularly these, these organizations, like you were saying, like cable news.

    27. TG

      Mm-hmm.

    28. JR

      Like th- that's their business model. Like, what are you asking them to do? Like s- start becoming a, a charitable organization? Like, what are they gonna do? This is what they do. They, they stir shit up.

    29. TG

      So we can impact that, though. We can impact that by not, by not buying their shit that they're selling.

    30. JR

      Well, I think it's gonna happen-

  6. 1:15:001:22:51

    I don't understand what…

    1. TG

      foresight in Congress to say, "You know what? 2020's gonna be a big election. Gonna be a lot of eyes on it. Critical outcome one way or the other. Let's take sh- action now in order to, uh, prevent people questioning the integrity of our election and therefore democracy." Many of those same people who are, um, complaining or raising concerns about this today are people who chose not to take action that could have prevented us, uh, in large part from being in this situation that we are in. So, holding these leaders accountable and calling them on their crap is essential if we want to actually start to see some change.

    2. JR

      I don't understand what the incentive would be to not pass this. Is there a financial burden that's attached to this? Is it prohibitively expensive?

    3. TG

      I mean, it is not prohibitively expensive. I mean, some, some states just went and did it on their own because they recognize ... I believe Virginia was one of them. Uh, they hold off-year state elections in the odd years, and they recognized the threat of this because there's like a hacking convention in Vegas every couple of years or something, and they bring in, like, all of these even young, you know, teenagers. And they, they had this thing called Election Village, and they showed ... They used replica, um, electronic voting systems from different states. And some of these kids hacked into these systems within 10 minutes, 15 minutes.

    4. JR

      An 11-year-old-

    5. TG

      An 11-year-old.

    6. JR

      ... changed election-

    7. TG

      There you go.

    8. JR

      ... results on a replica Florida state website in under 10 minutes. Look at her.

    9. TG

      Yep.

    10. JR

      Wizard.

    11. TG

      Done.

    12. JR

      (blowing a raspberry) I wonder if that's the real kid, 'cause that's kinda fucked up if it is.

    13. TG

      (laughs)

    14. JR

      That is the real kid.

    15. TG

      Yeah. (laughs)

    16. JR

      Oh, my God. Why are they showing these kids' faces?

    17. TG

      She's probably being heavily recruited now.

    18. JR

      Oh, my God, right? The fucking Russians are right now knocking on her door. (Russian accent) "Good evening. Like to talk to child that's 11 years old?"

    19. TG

      (laughs)

    20. JR

      (laughs)

    21. TG

      But that-

    22. JR

      "We have questions of what you learn and how you learn."

    23. TG

      (laughs) .

    24. JR

      (laughs)

    25. TG

      That right there, though. That is, um ... States like Virginia said, like, "That is a serious problem," and they spent the money, and they fixed it. And, and, uh, it was some Virginia election officials came before Congress and said, "Hey, we did this. It worked really well, and it's the first time we've not had any complaints about the integrity of our election systems."

    26. JR

      Did you ever see Hacking Democracy, the HBO documentary?

    27. TG

      No.

    28. JR

      It's, uh ... It was about the Diebold machines, the same, the same issue that happened, uh, in the past. And it showed on the documentary that they could, uh, adjust the results. They could adjust the results 'cause there was a built-in, uh ... In- into the Diebold systems, there was a built-in access for a third party.

    29. TG

      Wow.

    30. JR

      Yeah. Eh, eh, whatever.

Episode duration: 3:04:13

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