You Won’t Believe Who’s Really Running the Show - Tulsi Gabbard

The interview opens with Tulsi Gabbard asserting that the real power in U.S. government lies not with elected officials but with an unelected 'cabal' consisting of Democrat elites like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, figures in the military-industrial complex, and billionaires in media. She argues Biden's debate performance exposed the reality that he was never truly calling the shots, nor would Kamala Harris be if elected. Gabbard frames this as a fundamental threat to democracy, since accountability requires that the person voters elect actually governs.

Gabbard explains why she believes Trump is different from this establishment, noting that the relentless legal and media attacks on him stem precisely from his refusal to 'bend the knee' to Washington insiders — from both parties. She acknowledges Trump's first term was hampered by surrounding himself with establishment figures, and warns that neocon Republicans are again trying to encircle him with opposing voices to neutralize his instincts against foreign intervention.

On the question of who wants war and why, Gabbard draws on her military experience to argue that politicians beholden to major defense contractors treat military action as a reflexive first response rather than a last resort, without properly considering the human and economic costs. She criticizes Nikki Haley as the face of neocon warmongering within the Republican Party.

The conversation shifts to Biden's cognitive decline, which Gabbard says was impossible to ignore but deliberately obscured by those around him. She notes that Biden appeared mentally sharp when she debated him in 2020, making the recent deterioration particularly stark. She expresses genuine sympathy for the human dimension of his decline while noting he stubbornly chose to run.

Gabbard discusses her own political trajectory — from DNC Vice Chair to CPAC speaker to leaving the Democratic Party — explaining that her core principles around freedom, civil liberties, and anti-interventionism have remained constant while the Democratic Party has become unrecognizable, abandoning traditional liberal values around free speech, constitutional rights, and religious tolerance.

On the TikTok bill, Gabbard argues it is fundamentally an anti-free speech measure, most dangerously including a provision allowing the president alone to designate any business as an 'agent of a foreign adversary' with no appeal process — a power that could theoretically be used to shut down platforms like X/Twitter. She acknowledges the genuine concern about TikTok's influence on young people but insists the answer must always be more speech, not government-controlled speech.

The discussion covers the Democratic Party's increasing hostility toward religion, with Gabbard arguing this stems from the party elite wanting to position themselves as the ultimate authority on truth — a role incompatible with citizens who derive their moral framework from a higher power. She cites examples including Kamala Harris attacking a judicial nominee for being a devout Catholic.

Gabbard is sharply critical of the Democratic Party's capitulation on biological sex in sports, noting not a single Democrat leader has had the courage to oppose the destruction of Title IX protections. She assesses Kamala Harris as unintelligent, calculating, and dangerously susceptible to manipulation, predicting Harris would feel compelled to demonstrate military strength in ways that could have catastrophic consequences given current tensions with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.