Joe Rogan Experience #2225 - Dave Smith

Go to https://expressvpn.com/RoganYT and find out how you can get 3 months of ExpressVPN free! Dave Smith is a stand-up comedian, libertarian political commentator, and podcaster. He's the host of the "Part of the Problem" podcast, as well as a co-host of the "Legion of Skanks” podcast. www.comicdavesmith.com

Joe RoganhostDave Smithguest

Nov 7, 20242h 58mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

150 min read · 30,000 words

0:00 – 2:01
Election night disbelief: “Too big to rig” and polls vs. reality
1. NANarrator
  (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. (drumbeats)
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music)
3. DSDave Smith
  And I couldn't, even after we got off the phone last night-
4. JRJoe Rogan
  You good?
5. DSDave Smith
  ... I was like, "I'm gonna go to bed now."
6. JRJoe Rogan
  I couldn't get either.
7. DSDave Smith
  And then I just had to watch clips of-
8. JRJoe Rogan
  What time did I call you, like 3:00?
9. DSDave Smith
  3:30, something like that.
10. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, I was just sitting in front of YouTube watching professional pool on TV going-
11. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
12. JRJoe Rogan
  ... "What the fuck is going on?" So turns out voting works. It's real. As much as we (laughs) fucking thought they had it rigged, as much as we thought there was shenanigans and bullshit and it's just a, a puppet show and there's no way anybody could buck the system, turns out voting is still real.
13. DSDave Smith
  At least partially.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  At least if it's too big to rig.
15. DSDave Smith
  Yes.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  And clearly he was too big to rig.
17. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. Wasn't it... It, it was crazy because it was like for, for weeks, especially in the close of the campaign, it was one of those things where it felt like... It, it almost felt like, uh, 2008 when Obama was running against McCain and it was just so obvious Obama was running away with this. Everything you could see and, and observe, his crowd sizes, the enthusiasm, the culture, it was all behind him. But at that time, the polls were reflecting what you saw everywhere. Obama's up big. He's about to... John McCain's not gonna win after eight years of George W. Bush. The country doesn't want another war hawk. They want this, you know, articulate young peace guy.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
19. DSDave Smith
  And it was like that with Trump where it's like all the signs are that he's clearly running away with this, but then every single poll told you no, this is the closest election of your lifetime. And then it was just... There was a very interesting feeling to see it and be like, "Oh, okay. I'm not crazy. I was observing all the things I was observing."
20. JRJoe Rogan
  Do you know what, what Trump told me about the polls?
21. DSDave Smith
  No. What?
22. JRJoe Rogan
  He's like, "They're bullshit."
23. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
24. JRJoe Rogan
  "They don't do anything. You give them money-"
25. DSDave Smith
  Oh yeah.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  "... they come back, they have these results you don't know."
27. DSDave Smith
  He was like, "They charge 500 grand-"
28. JRJoe Rogan
  Who are they talking to? Yeah.
29. DSDave Smith
  For... Yeah.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
2:01 – 2:49
Media gaslighting and historical comparisons: dictator rhetoric vs. Trump’s record
1. JRJoe Rogan
  He's right. And the media gaslit us to the, the, the absolute limits of their ability. The absolute limits. Joy Reid spent the entire time she was discussing Trump the other day comparing him to Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, talking about a right wing authoritarian regime.
2. DSDave Smith
  Yep.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  As if he had never been president for four years and didn't behave like any of those things.
4. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
5. JRJoe Rogan
  As if the economy wasn't booming, as if people weren't making more money, as if we weren't involved in any new conflicts overseas, no new wars.
6. DSDave Smith
  And I mean, I could, I could point to a lot of things Trump did in his four years that I think were bad, but they were things that were similar to Obama and Bush. And they-
7. JRJoe Rogan
  Guess what?
8. DSDave Smith
  You know what I mean? It wasn't different.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  I bet he could point to them too.
10. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
2:49 – 4:24
Governing as an outsider: appointments, sabotage, and the Bolton controversy
1. JRJoe Rogan
  You know, when I talked to him about what it was like to actually govern for the first time ever, it's a daunting task.
2. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  He was telling me about the thousands and thousands of appointments he had to make, thousands of people he had to pick. He didn't know who any of these people were. He had to trust people that he knew and he didn't know who was telling him the truth and who was just trying to get the system moving along in the exact same direction. And he got bogged down with a lot of that shit. It took forever for them to weed it out.
4. DSDave Smith
  I-
5. JRJoe Rogan
  Which is the crazy thing about being president. It's the hardest job on the planet and you start it without any knowledge of it.
6. DSDave Smith
  Well that... (sighs) Yeah. And I mean, a little bit of that's on him 'cause there were some people who he probably should have known. What I didn't like in his answer about that to you is that then he kind of pivoted, uh, to talking about how John Bolton was actually really good to have there because-
7. JRJoe Rogan
  'Cause he was terrifying.
8. DSDave Smith
  ... he's terrifying and he's crazy. Oh, this guy wants war with everyone. But the problem is that like, that's not how it went down. John Bolton ruined the North Korea deal. It's not like it, it was successful and the North Koreans were so scared of John Bolton that they wanted to talk to Donald Trump. They were at the meeting, they were willing to talk to Donald Trump and then John Bolton came in and they were like, "Oh, this guy... These guys are psychopaths."
9. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
10. DSDave Smith
  "I don't want to make a deal with them." And so like-
11. JRJoe Rogan
  That mustache alone. (laughs)
12. DSDave Smith
  And I, I will say, look man, I was, uh, I was rooting for Trump last night as much as anybody in this country was.
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Not as much as Tony Hinchcliffe.
14. DSDave Smith
  Okay.
15. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
16. DSDave Smith
  Second, second most. Second to Tony Hinchcliffe.
17. JRJoe Rogan
  Tony Hinchcliffe sure is-
18. DSDave Smith
  Touche.
19. JRJoe Rogan
  "More Puerto Ricans voted for Trump than ever, ever by up 26%." He was so... (laughs)
20. DSDave Smith
  Well, but wasn't it...
21. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
22. DSDave Smith
  What... And wasn't that just one of the-
23. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
4:24 – 7:19
Tony Hinchcliffe, ‘Puerto Rico joke’ outrage, and the comedy-context gap
1. DSDave Smith
  It was... Look, there's obviously a huge series of these things where the, the Democrat establishment and the corporate media, but I repeat myself, uh, they... It's death by a thousand self-inflicted wounds.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Yes. Yes.
3. DSDave Smith
  But it, it is almost as if... It's like their whole thing relies on lies.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
5. DSDave Smith
  It's just all lies. And they are just... They are... Have their eyes shut and their fingers in their ears and they're going, "No, no, no, no, no, no. Nope." We're just-
6. JRJoe Rogan
  Exactly.
7. DSDave Smith
  ... pretending reality is the thing we want it to be.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Exactly.
9. DSDave Smith
  Even... They, they don't want to get slowed down by this, this force that is objective reality. And so all of it, you know, whether it's Joe Biden sharp as a tack-
10. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
11. DSDave Smith
  ... Kamala Harris is joy.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
13. DSDave Smith
  You know. Uh, Donald Trump is Hitler. To- Tony Hinchcliffe was a man at an event who made some comments. Like there's-
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Did you see-
15. DSDave Smith
  He wasn't... Really that wasn't a comedian who was ripping everybody.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Don Jon Jones. Not only that, but an insult comedian.
17. DSDave Smith
  Right.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  A comedian who's famous-
19. DSDave Smith
  Right.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  ... for insulting people.
21. DSDave Smith
  And we're supposed to act like this... It's not 2024? Like we, we didn't all grow up on Don Rickles and we all know exactly-
22. JRJoe Rogan
  Exactly.
23. DSDave Smith
  ... what Tony Hinchcliffe is doing?
24. JRJoe Rogan
  Did you see the clip that the Mothership posted? It's on my Instagram.
25. DSDave Smith
  No.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  So they're talking about the, the comedian who made jokes about Puerto Rico while Tony's on stage on the other screen. So Tony's on st- stage at the Mothership while this guy's talking about what Tony did on CNN and they're going over like the Puerto Rican population (laughs) and how they voted.
27. DSDave Smith
  That's so funny.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  Just pull it up 'cause it's fucking crazy.
29. DSDave Smith
  Oh, that's so great.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  We were watching it and Metzger was back there. The whole green room was packed. We were having the best fucking time. There should have been a camera on the green room last night, it would've been the greatest reality show of all time.
7:19 – 12:04
Sponsor break: ExpressVPN and privacy anxieties in the AI era
1. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  ... when that did happen. Everyone's talking about how AI is gonna change the world, but what if that's not always a good thing? What happens if insurance companies use it to jack up your premiums based on your WebMD history? What happens if HR departments use it to make hiring decisions based on your browsing history? What happens if politicians use it to sway your vote based on your online activity? I'll tell you what'll happen. You'll wish you had started using ExpressVPN today. ExpressVPN is an app that encrypts 100% of your online activity and reroutes it through secure servers. That means no one can see what websites you visit or what apps you use. Not data brokers, not shady marketers, not even your internet provider. Your private browsing data can never be used against you because it's totally off the record. ExpressVPN is incredibly easy to use and it works on every kind of device. Phones, laptops, tablets, you name it. It's also extremely fast, so it won't slow down your streaming or gaming. And it even comes with a risk-free 30-day money back guarantee. It's no wonder that the top tech reviewers like CNET and The Verge all rate ExpressVPN as the number one VPN on the market. So, don't wait to future-proof your online privacy. Click my special link down below or scan the QR code on-screen to get three extra months of ExpressVPN's unbeatable protection for free. Just go to expressvpn.com/roganyt. That's expressvpn.com/roganyt to get three extra months totally free.
3. DSDave Smith
  Right.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  I, I was there the day that he won. I was there for the UFC.
5. DSDave Smith
  Right, right.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  So, the next day we're walking down the street in Manhattan and people are chanting. This guy was saying, "Donald Trump KKK, anti-black and anti-gay." He was, like, chanting it.
7. DSDave Smith
  Not a terrible chant. (laughs)
8. JRJoe Rogan
  It was terrible. It was the biggest cuck ever. It was like-
9. DSDave Smith
  No. Yeah. It's the horrible-
10. JRJoe Rogan
  ... the su- super cuck. The guy was a super cuck. He was one of those guys, where you're just like, "Look at you."
11. DSDave Smith
  Of course. Yeah, right.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  I wanted to follow him around. I'm like, "You're amazing. You're a gift."
13. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
14. JRJoe Rogan
  "Keep talking. Just let me listen to you."
15. DSDave Smith
  Like, what's your life like after this?
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Two Black guys started walking towards his way, he starts chanting, "Black lives matter," as soon as he saw the Black guys. "Black guys, Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" I was like, "This is amazing." I snuck right behind him. Me and Cam Hanes, and I think Tony was there too, and we were just, "This is crazy."
17. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  "This is crazy."
19. DSDave Smith
  But they don't seem to have that in the same way.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  It's all bullshit.
21. DSDave Smith
  Like, the, the shock troops aren't there for them anymore.
22. JRJoe Rogan
  It's bullshit. First of all, back then, they didn't know what he was gonna do.
23. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
24. JRJoe Rogan
  And what he did economically... Chamath has the best way of explaining it. He said, "It was the right message. It was the wrong messenger." But if you look at the actual actions and were they good for the economy, were they good for the United States, they were, but it's Donald Trump as the messenger was so polarizing that people lost what's really going on just based on who this guy is, who has... Like, just like Tony Hinchcliffe as an insult comic, D- Donald Trump's entire career is, "You're fired."
25. DSDave Smith
  Yup.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  "You're a loser. Rosie O'Donnell's a loser." Like, that's his whole shtick. And you expect him to course correct once he get into office? No, he's not... That's not who he is. You elected that guy. But along with that, now you get RFK Jr., you get Tulsi Gabbard, you get Elon Musk, and you get J.D. Vance. You get brilliant people who aren't ideologically captured, two of them who used to be Democrats. One of them that probably knows more about environmental polluting-
27. DSDave Smith
  Yup.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  ... and about the problems with pharmaceutical drug companies and health, and the consequences of all sorts of pesticides and herbicides, ingredients in your food that should be banned that aren't banned in another country. You got that guy in there now.
29. DSDave Smith
  Yup. Yup.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  And we got a real chance to make real change.
12:04 – 16:41
Mandate talk: immigration, wars, economy—and the staffing fight (Pompeo/Graham)
1. DSDave Smith
  Um, and, and look, I mean, Donald Trump now, he has a real mandate.Which is like, th- this is kinda what's crazy. This isn't 2016 where, you know, he lost by several million votes in the popular vote, but won the counties that were important and just by the skin of his teeth got in. This is like, he's... I, I mean, the last I looked, he was up by over five million in the popular vote.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, five million in the popular vote.
3. DSDave Smith
  And he-
4. JRJoe Rogan
  And what was it when, when I went to bed, it was 312?
5. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  He had 312 electoral college votes.
7. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, with still I think a few states, uh, Arizona, I think hasn't, uh, you know, finished yet.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
9. DSDave Smith
  And so it might, it might even rack up higher than that.
10. JRJoe Rogan
  But there's-
11. DSDave Smith
  But the mandate is, like, very specific. It's like, the, the basic policies of like, okay, immigration control. Can't have, just have an open border with no control-
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
13. DSDave Smith
  ... of who comes into our country. A desire to get out of stupid foreign wars.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Yes.
15. DSDave Smith
  You know, and, um, and, and obviously the, improve the economy.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Yes.
17. DSDave Smith
  Deal with inflation, things like that. But he's got a mandate to do that right now, and he's got all... Some great people around him. My be- listen, I was rooting for him as hard as anyone except Tony Hinchcliffe last night.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
19. DSDave Smith
  Uh, but, but I will say now, I think now till January 20th, the real, the pressure should be on, on Trump to, to do better on the appointments than he did last time. He's got a lot of better people around him than he ever had in 2016 or 2020, but he was floating out Mike Pompeo as the Secretary of Defense, and he did have Mike Pompeo speak at his final, uh, campaign event. And j- to be clear, Mike Pompeo is Liz Cheney's pick for Defense Secretary. It's Hillary Clinton's pick for D- uh, Defense Secretary. And so much of this will be lost if he puts that guy in there. There's, he, he needs to keep all of the Lindsey Grahams and the Mike Pompeos and all of these guys away from his administration. Bring, bring in the non-interventionists, man. No one wants to fight these stupid wars anymore, and that's what you ran on and won on.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  I want Lindsey Graham to start a podcast.
21. DSDave Smith
  That I'd be fine with. (laughs)
22. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs) We gotta get those minerals.
23. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
24. JRJoe Rogan
  There's some expensive minerals over there in Ukraine.
25. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
26. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs) Tim Dillon was doing an impression of him yesterday. It was amazing. It was amazing.
27. DSDave Smith
  Uh, dude, I don't even, like, maybe I should... No, he deserves it. But there's... Did you ever see the thing when he was running for president where he was talking about-
28. JRJoe Rogan
  Wait, wait, wait, he ran for president?
29. DSDave Smith
  Lindsey Graham ran for president.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  That's amazing.
16:41 – 19:45
Foreign policy fault lines: Ukraine messaging vs. Israel/Netanyahu concerns
1. DSDave Smith
  And it's not Mike Pompeo. It's not the war machine dude. And it's... And also, you know, look, his rhetoric was so great on Ukraine through, through the election. And when he had the courage to just say like, "No, I want the, I want the dying to stop." That was one of the best moments of the entire campaign.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
3. DSDave Smith
  But his rhetoric on Israel has been very bad. And the, the other thing that you can't get around is that like, listen, you can love Israel all you want to and you can, you can pledge to help defend them or whatever, but... No, I'm okay. Uh, but, uh, but Netanyahu is John McCain.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
5. DSDave Smith
  That's who he is.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
7. DSDave Smith
  I mean, he's Mike Pompeo. He's Liz Cheney or Nikki Haley. He's the guy who came over and testified in 2002 before a congressional hearing and advocated that we overthrow Saddam Hussein, and also advocated that we go have a regime change war in Iran, which he still wants to this day. He advocated we had the regime change in, in Libya, in Syria. I mean, he's John McCain. That's not America first. That's not... You know what I mean? That's not this, "We're not fighting stupid wars anymore." So love Israel all you want to, but we're not with Bibi Netanyahu. That's something else. That's the opposite of America first.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah. A lot can get done here, man. He can-
9. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, I think so.
10. JRJoe Rogan
  I think he can listen to those people. He has four amazing people around him, you know, that really have experience. Especially Tulsi, Congresswoman for eight years.
11. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  RFK Jr. knows it inside and out. You've got Vance who's brilliant.
13. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  You've got Vivek who's brilliant. You've got four incredible people with him.
15. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, and then-
16. JRJoe Rogan
  You know, he can... I think he can get through this in a different way than he did in 2016.
17. DSDave Smith
  I, I think he's the... There's real possibilities for it and I think that that's a huge component of it, uh, the team that he's got around him. And I would also put, um, I would put Tucker Carlson-
18. JRJoe Rogan
  Yes.
19. DSDave Smith
  ... in that camp too because I think he is very influential-
20. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
21. DSDave Smith
  ... uh, in- on his thinking.
22. JRJoe Rogan
  For sure.
23. DSDave Smith
  I think in, in many ways, he's kind of, you know-
24. JRJoe Rogan
  Although he does think demons made nuclear bombs.
25. DSDave Smith
  And look-
26. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
27. DSDave Smith
  ... 50/50 shot he's right about that.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
29. DSDave Smith
  I'm not saying he's... But when it comes to policy, I'm saying, he's very spot on on that.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  I love the guy.
19:45 – 34:59
Corporate media’s shrinking power: Russiagate, COVID, and “no repercussions”
1. DSDave Smith
  Um, but I do, I do think another huge component of why Trump's got such an opportunity right now is because, uh, like, you just... You see it where, like, I was saying, the protesters aren't there anymore.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
3. DSDave Smith
  And there's a whole lot of really interesting reasons I think for why that is. But also, and I was, I was getting in an argument, um, on Twitter the other day with, uh, Michael Tracey, who I do like and respect very much. Um, but I was basically saying that I think this is gonna be a death blow for the corporate media if Donald Trump wins again and this is almost the best thing about him winning again. And he was saying... Which is a reasonable argument, but I disagree with him. But he was saying, "Well, no, Dave, I mean, look, last time he was in for four years, that, that was the best thing that ever happened to CNN and MSNBC and they got a big ratings boost when, when he was in." But I don't think that's gonna work again.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  I don't think it's gonna work either.
5. DSDave Smith
  Well, uh, the thing is that so much of that ratings boost was completely driven by the Russiagate nonsense.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
7. DSDave Smith
  And what they were telling you at the time was that they had the biggest scandal in the history of the United States of America. Like, the, uh, you can't overstate how big that story is. I mean, they were telling you-
8. JRJoe Rogan
  If it was true.
9. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, right. (laughs) If, if it wasn't all completely made up. But they're reporting that a foreign... Hostile foreign power has overturned our election and the sitting President of the United States of America is in on it. He is involved-
10. JRJoe Rogan
  And that he's a puppet. Yeah.
11. DSDave Smith
  ... in a conspiracy with a hostile foreign government.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
13. DSDave Smith
  Like, that's the biggest scandal in the history of America. And they... For, for anybody who wasn't aware at the time of how fake and evil the entire system is, they were like, "Well, look, they got a special prosecutor on the President. I mean, there, there must be something there. And hey, I just heard the, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee tell me he's seen the evidence and that this is... he's guilty of this." And you had the former CIA Director John Brennan saying that Trump and his family are gonna be, uh, hauled off in handcuffs on television once Mueller's investigation concludes. And so for the regular person, especially for the regular person who really hated Donald Trump, it was pretty easy to get sucked into that. But after that was exposed for being a giant fake, and then the big one is COVID.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, but let's pause.
15. DSDave Smith
  I just don't think they can recover.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Let's pause here. No repercussions.
17. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  You wanna talk about misinformation. We have to censor social media because of misinformation.
19. DSDave Smith
  Right.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  You guys spread it, misinformation to the biggest news organization, the biggest news audience in the world.
21. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
22. JRJoe Rogan
  And you did it for three years.
23. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
24. JRJoe Rogan
  You did it for three years and then when it turned out that it wasn't true, you never apologized.
25. DSDave Smith
  And didn't just turn out it wasn't true, but turned out it was actually-
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Funded by Clinton.
27. DSDave Smith
  Well, it start... Right, it started as-
28. JRJoe Rogan
  The Steele dossier.
29. DSDave Smith
  ... opposition research.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
34:59 – 37:42
Weaponizing law and narrative: WMD lies vs. Trump prosecutions
1. DSDave Smith
  That's not on Tony. You know what I mean? And like, so... But that's not what she's saying. And again, it's like, you know, look, if you... To the point you were making before, right? About the, the Russia collusion hoax and no one getting in trouble for it. If you were to look at a... Say the weapons of mass destruction lie that got us into war in Iraq-
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
3. DSDave Smith
  ... killed a million people, cost trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of our bravest young men blowing their brains out. You know, just un, unmitigated disaster. And none of the people who, who sold that, uh, lost their jobs or are... You know, they're not like... I don't know what they should be doing. Maybe like picking up garbage by the side of the road, apologizing to every car that passes them. I don't know.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  Well, let's, let's pause for a second and compare. There's people that said that there was weapons of mass destruction. They willfully created this story.
5. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  It's a, it's a fake story.
7. DSDave Smith
  100%.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  No one got in trouble. Trump paid off some lady, says he fucked her.
9. DSDave Smith
  Yep.
10. JRJoe Rogan
  And, uh, made a book kicking error. So he got hit with 34 felonies.
11. DSDave Smith
  Yep.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Now, if you wanna just be that person that says, "He's a convicted felon," and just repeat it over and over again, understand that now you're changing what the law means because you don't like a guy, and that can be used on you. This is what happens in dictatorships. This is what happens when communism takes over a country and you get a military dictatorship. They just throw the laws at you.
13. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  And they're doing it right in front of your face, and you're okay repeating it. "He's a convicted felon. He's a convicted felon." He's a convicted felon for 34 misdemeanors, which are all the same thing.
15. DSDave Smith
  Which weren't really felonies, even.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Which weren't felonies and were past the statute of limitations. So-
17. DSDave Smith
  Yes.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  ... how much do you hate freedom?
19. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, it's not... Listen, none of the Trump, uh, uh, legal charges were, um, an example where...... look, the, the former president of the United States of America clearly broke the law. And, uh, we don't wanna politicize, you know, the, the legal system here.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  No. No.
21. DSDave Smith
  But it's so obvious he broke the law that we have to prosecute him. It was, we're coming up with a novel legal theory that we've never prosecuted anyone under before, and if you interpret it this way, then we could interpret this misdemeanor that's past the statute of limitations as a felony that... So, so, there's-
22. JRJoe Rogan
  Now how does this not freak out liberals who are obsessed with criminal reform?
23. DSDave Smith
  (laughs) 'Cause they've never... 'Cause that's not their side of the issue. Yeah.
24. JRJoe Rogan
  Do you know how naive that is?
25. DSDave Smith
  It is. It is.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Just think about how naive that is. One of the best things that I do on this show is when I have Josh Dubin on, who used to work with the Innocence Project-
27. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  ... and now does things on his own, where they're trying to find people that have been unfairly prosecuted by bad judges and by bad prosecutors and get them out of fucking jail.
37:42 – 43:13
Libertarian ask: Ross Ulbricht pardon, entrapment, and FBI stings
1. DSDave Smith
  Oh, can I just say real quick, dude? 'Cause if I don't... I, I wanna make sure I say this while we're here. But to, uh, President-elect Donald Trump, dude, he, he came to the Libertarian Party convention, uh, this year, and he promised us... And a whole bunch of people, myself included, like, supported him, um, for this, and he, he did carry, I think, the libertarian vote. Um, and he promised us he was gonna, uh, free Ross Ulbricht on day one. And like, if you're listening, (laughs) Mr. President, if this gets to you, please, please come through on that promise, man. This kid has done over a decade in jail already. His... He was guilty of creating a website, you know? He... It, it, it was like a dark web type thing, and I guess some people sold drugs on it and stuff. But lit-... He, he's done 10 years, over 10 years, for-
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, have you ever seen the documentary on that?
3. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. Yeah.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  It's interesting because it does seem-
5. DSDave Smith
  I'm friends... I know his mom. Um-
6. JRJoe Rogan
  It seems like he was railroaded.
7. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, 100%.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
9. DSDave Smith
  They-
10. JRJoe Rogan
  It seems like they, they came up with some sort of a phony murder for hire charge.
11. DSDave Smith
  Well, they... So they accused him of that, but then they withdrew that charge.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
13. DSDave Smith
  He was never convicted of that.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
15. DSDave Smith
  He's g-... He got life without parole for making a website. And I've just... I've gotten to know his mother, uh, Lynn, over the years, and she's like the sweetest lady, and she's just in the middle of this nightmare. Like, her whole life has been a nightmare for the last 11 years or whatever it's been. And just... I really... Just please come through on that one. There's no political capital even to be spent on it. It's one of the best things he did when he was president last year, was, uh, or last time was, you know, freeing people who were just in jail on BS and way over prosecuted. And he said he was gonna do it on day one, and I'm just saying, we... A lot of people supported him for that. I really hope he comes through. That would be amazing. Uh-
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Well, we're gonna know a lot about what he's gonna do whether he comes through or not.
17. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  That, that'll tell us a lot. If he comes through, I think a lot of people will be able to hear. Wouldn't you love to see him on a podcast? Wouldn't you love to talk to him on a podcast?
19. DSDave Smith
  Would love to, yeah.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  And ask him questions about what actually happened?
21. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
22. JRJoe Rogan
  Well, look, now that we know what we know now, like the FBI did this whole internal thing with him, and they, they used people and agents to trap him.
23. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
24. JRJoe Rogan
  But now what we know about what they did with the kidnapping case for Gret- Gretchen Whitmer, we didn't know that before. We didn't know that you could have a kidnapping case where there's 14 people and 12 of them are FBI informants. So you got 12 people working with the FBI, two retards, and you convince these dumbasses that they should go and kidnap the fucking governor, and they're like cosplaying. These guys are idiots. They, they might as been playing fucking b- b- game of Dungeons and Dragons in the woods.
25. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  They're idiots.
27. DSDave Smith
  Well, it's a... There's an old saying-
28. JRJoe Rogan
  They're gullible people.
29. DSDave Smith
  There, there's an old saying, uh, it goes something like, uh, "The FBI always gets their man because it's always their man."
30. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
43:13 – 48:11
Snowden, deep state resistance, and why pardons matter strategically
1. JRJoe Rogan
  Okay. So, we both agree on this, but let me ask you... Okay, what about Snowden? Do you think he has the balls to pardon Snowden?
2. DSDave Smith
  Well, okay. So the thing about Snowden, right, is that... And now, the Julian Assange case has kind of been taken off the table, even though I guess technically he could still pardon him. Um, but, uh, that takes real political capital. Now, I think he should pardon Snowden.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  How so?
4. DSDave Smith
  But... Well, I'm just saying that, like, Snowden pissed off a lot of very powerful people. The NSA are furious about him. The CIA, they don't like him.
5. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
6. DSDave Smith
  And they do not want to set the precedent that you can release the fact that we're doing a bunch of illegal shit, that we are lying to the American people about, and then you can go tell them that we are in fact doing the thing that we lied and said we weren't doing. They don't like that. There's gonna be powerful forces that'll oppose you. Ross Ulbricht doesn't... It's not like that.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  No, no, no. I, I completely understand.
8. DSDave Smith
  You could ju-... Now, if you, if he were to pardon Snowden, that would be a real signal that he is willing to take on the deep state. He's willing to take on the real powerful entrenched interests. Now again, I'm not claiming to... It's obviously the right thing to do, morally speaking. But I'm... You gotta have a really smart strategy if you're actually gonna do this. You know, I remember one time, uh-
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Like-
10. DSDave Smith
  ... during the Ron Paul, uh, presidential campaign, I think it was in 2012, and someone asked him, you know, like a question about like, "When you're in there and you're president, are you gonna tell the CIA, like, 'Hey you, you guys are done, and you're this and you're this.'" And he went, "Well, I might say it a little bit nicer than that." (laughs) He was like, like... (laughs)
11. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
12. DSDave Smith
  He was like, "Listen, I, I am trying to abolish the CIA, but let's be cool here." And-
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Well, let's just fa- face... Let's look at this for what it is. So, if Edward Snowden, if he really did expose things that were illegal, that were not supposed to be done, and the fear of bringing him back is that the people that did the illegal things wanna continue doing ill- illegal things, and don't wanna have any repercussions for doing illegal things, that seems like a crazy thing to support. Even for them to defend it-
14. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
15. JRJoe Rogan
  ... sounds insane. They should want internal accountability. They should wanna make sure that no one colors outside the lines, and no one does anything without congressional approval. All the stuff you're supposed to do when you're doing certain things. But the problem is now with the, uh, the FDAA and FISA, and all these different laws that have been passed that allow surveillance to be done warrantless, like, it's kind of a moot point almost at this point. Like, the things that you... Like, back then, he exposed that they could listen to every calls, the, the, they, they have data centers.
16. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
17. JRJoe Rogan
  We all know that now. Like, it, he's, it's... Everything's still functioning, but we all know that now. The guy that exposed all that, leave him alone.
18. DSDave Smith
  Right.
19. JRJoe Rogan
  You guys were... You're doing illegal shit, and now it's kind of legal, and we still should be outraged, but now you can kind of just do it.
20. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. Well, a- and, and also, and one of the things that was so disappointing about Trump not pardoning Julian Assange and Snowden in his first term... And, and again, a lot of that is because it's like when... He told you. When... Why didn't he release the, the JFK files? Well, because he was listening to Liz Cheney's pick for defense secretary-
21. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah. But also-
22. DSDave Smith
  ... Mike Pompeo.
23. JRJoe Rogan
  ... he was saying-
24. DSDave Smith
  And he was... People convinced him-
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
26. DSDave Smith
  ... not to do it. But it's like, at a certain point, you're like, okay, first of all, the spying that Snowden exposed was weaponized against you.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
28. DSDave Smith
  Like, they spied on you. So, you kind of... I would think you have some, like, stake in being like, "Yeah, that should be exposed and, and should be abolished."
29. JRJoe Rogan
  But don't you think he didn't pardon him because he wanted a second term, and he wanted to, like-
30. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. I think that was part of it. Yes.
48:11 – 1:09:00
2020 vs. 2024 vote totals: turnout charts, mail-in ballots, and fraud suspicion
1. JRJoe Rogan
  What do you think about that thing I sent you today that compares the number of people that voted in 2020 versus the number of people that voted in 2024, and in 2016?
2. DSDave Smith
  Sure does look strange.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  And in 2012. Did, have you seen it, Jamie?
4. NANarrator
  Yeah, it's-
5. JRJoe Rogan
  I, I... It's crazy.
6. DSDave Smith
  I would say-
7. JRJoe Rogan
  I can send it to you if you wanna see the exact chart.
8. NANarrator
  They're still counting votes, though.
9. DSDave Smith
  That, that is-
10. NANarrator
  That's why I was kinda looking through.
11. DSDave Smith
  ... a fair point. There are still votes out there.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
13. DSDave Smith
  I'd like to take a look at that again after 100% of everybody has been reported, but it does certainly seem weird.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Let's not get technical, and let's just enjoy it.
15. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
16. NANarrator
  (laughs)
17. JRJoe Rogan
  I'm gonna, I'm gonna send you this, Jay, because it's so bizarre that I can't, I can't really believe it's real. When did I send it to you? Earlier today? Hang on a second, I'll find it. It's so crazy. You look at it and you go, "There's... Is this real?" Oh, here it is.... because it doesn't seem to make any sense because this is, like, one of the most consequential, uh, elections ever. I think everybody's pretty aware of that. And everybody is very dug in on their side. The left, he's Hitler. The right, he's saving us. And so more people voted, at least, at least the indication would be as much people voted in 2020, if not more. Probably more people voted. But let's look at the numbers. Like, look at the difference in how many people voted for Biden in 2020. It's unprecedented. It's way higher than any other time since 2012. And I'm, I'm sure probably before that, there was less people back then, right? So if you go back to when I was a kid, there was only like 200 million people in this country.
18. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. And, and to be clear, 2012 and 2016 were not low turnout years.
19. JRJoe Rogan
  No, no. They're all consistent.
20. DSDave Smith
  Right? Yeah.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  This is what's crazy. They're consistent. Look, they're all like 60... Look at, look at where the number is. It's all like 65 million. Is that what it says?
22. NANarrator
  Mm-hmm.
23. JRJoe Rogan
  So that's all the same, every fucking time, except 2020. In 2020, it goes way the fuck up. Look at it. It's like 80 what? Is it 82? Is that what it was?
24. NANarrator
  I think it was like 81 and change, something like that.
25. JRJoe Rogan
  81.
26. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  So it goes up a fucking sizable chunk, and only once.
28. DSDave Smith
  And it does seem like even with getting all the other votes in, you're not gonna get to that.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  But it's also like, look how many votes Trump got. He got even more in 2020 than he did in 2024.
30. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
1:09:00 – 1:12:09
California governance rant: slow counting, high taxes, and regulation culture
1. JRJoe Rogan
  So it might get close to the 80 million mark. That'd be interesting to see. 'Cause that, that, then that's a misleading chart. I didn't know that there were so many that hadn't turned in their votes yet. That doesn't surprise me about California. Get your shit together you fucking dorks.
2. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, they can't do anything.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  They're charging 14% in state taxes-
4. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
5. JRJoe Rogan
  ... then another 1% if you live in Los Angeles, the city of Los Angeles. You get hit with another 1%. Dude, that's, like, agent and manager fees. You know?
6. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  You imagine? Like y- you make a good amount of money. Like say, let's say you make $100,000 a year, you have to pay $140,000 to the government for what? For what?
8. DSDave Smith
  It's-
9. JRJoe Rogan
  And then if you move to Tennessee, zero. Move to Texas, zero.
10. DSDave Smith
  And they wonder why people are flooding out of their state by the hundreds of thousands.
11. JRJoe Rogan
  And you can't even count the votes in time you fucking-
12. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.