Team 47 - The Importance of the First Amendment
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This is an iHeart Podcast. Team 47 with Clay and Buck starts now. I do think as the situation in Iran has deteriorated over the past several decades of the Ayatollah's leadership, that their pursuit of nuclear weapons does, in my opinion, directly impact many of our safety and security here in the United States. And Aaron Wexler has made a persuasive case

that that is correct. So let me start with a tough one for you, Aaron. I asked Dave Rubin this in the second hour. Do you think that Israel should take out the Ayatollahs? Should they go ahead and finish the job? Or do you cross your fingers and hope that the Iranian people rise up against the Ayatollahs? And if they don't, have to negotiate with them going forward? What's the right result now that the raids, that the attacks have begun?

Well, I think the – and also great to be with you, Clay. But I think the only option for Israel is to decisively win what they have now – well, it has now – not what they've started, but the attacks against Iran need to be conclusively, decisively finished. And so, yes, I do believe it means taking the Ayatollahs out. I do not think that pinky promises from the Ayatollah of not building –

and not expanding their nuclear program is something we should be trusting. And to the point of the Iranian people rising up, I mean, we've seen for decades that they have protested, they have risked their lives, but it is difficult to overthrow a government. And so I think the only option really is to cut the head off the snake.

Okay, so people out there who may be listening to us and disagreeing, they would say, why do we think that who we replace, that is, let's say that the Ayatollahs get swept out, why do we think that what replaces the Ayatollahs will be better?

It's hard to get much worse than where we are right now. But I would say when it comes to the Iranian people, these are deeply pro-Western people. Of course, you are going to have Iranian people who are sympathetic to the IRGC. But in general, we have seen, you know, I would pull up a lot of leftists in America for people in Iran. These women are brave. They show their hair. They get beaten in the street and oftentimes killed. So I think we have seen a resilience increase.

the Iranian people and you know the Persian culture is something that is is very elevated and very motivated and I think we could see a real flourishing in the Middle East if the Iranian people could be who they were before the Ayatollahs. Okay so I agree with a lot of that but I'm going to keep pushing you with tough questions because you're smart and I think you're going to have good answers but also because again a lot of these are criticisms that I would be hearing from people who are listening right now.

A lot of people, I would say, are adopting an isolationist America first philosophy. And they say, why should I care at all what happens in the Middle East? This is not America's battle. We shouldn't be involved in any way. You would respond how?

I would say I'm also America first, but I think there's a real myopia happening right now with what America first means. Somehow we've decided that America first means America alone. And I don't know how we came to that definition. And there's something incredibly simplistic about that. But there seems to be a knee jerk reaction that simply because another country has an interest, we must automatically oppose that interest as if we cannot have

aligning interests with other countries. That makes no sense to me. That's not compatible with so much of our history. And in this case, because it happens to the Israel and there's a lot of sentiment against Israel in the country right now, people have decided that Iran is the good guy. That is where we are in this logic. So, you know, the idea of America first, we've seen President Trump

have to take it back and almost redefine it back to what he meant it to be originally. So a lot of this movement that's, you know, spamming the Internet with America first, no new wars. They're actually directly at odds with what President Trump defines that to be. And so, yes, America first should not mean

America alone, and I very much believe that a country that chants in their parliamentary sessions and when their presidents are sworn in, when they chant death to America, when this is what they teach their children on children's programs, when we have seen through the decades that they will attack American soldiers. How is this not anti-American when they call us big Satan?

I don't understand how not wanting those types of people with nuclear capability, I do not see how that is not America first. Truth of the matter is this. There's a segment of the right that is anti-Semitic. There is a big segment of the left that is anti-Semitic. This has led to rise in anti-Semitism, the likes of which many of us have not seen. One of the attacks, I'm sure it's in my mentions right now,

Aaron. We're talking to Aaron Wexler. I encourage you to go follow her. Aaron, one of the attacks that will be in my mentions right now, I bet, as I'm talking to you, is that the Jews own me. I am not Jewish, by the way, in case any of you are aware. Aaron, do you think that the Jews own me or own Buck or in any way are influencing our opinions based on money? This is an anti-Semitic attack, but I think it's important. I'll put it out there. Do you believe it?

do i think you are owned by the jews no that would be incredibly convenient for us i love when people uh would love to say that we control the media the media that loves to hate us i mean i think the press around the jews would be so much better if we were actually in control uh so no that is absolutely crazy and i would say that qatari money is what people think jewish money is in america

It's an interesting argument. And look, I feel fortunate. I've said this before, but I do think some people say, I don't know why, just for people out there, why you would say that you have wealth. I'm talking about myself. I don't have to work. I think that matters. I think it was beneficial for Trump because it's harder to buy people who don't have to work. I mean, this is the reality. Elon Musk came out and actually addressed it directly. People said, oh, you're being bought and paid for. And Elon,

He said, actually, no one can afford to buy and pay me enough because he's so wealthy. Now, I'm not Elon Musk wealthy, but I can say comfortably for everybody out there, there is no one who can afford to pay me because I don't have to work now. But I do think that arguments out there, the way that you pivoted on it is significant.

There's substantial money out there rolling in from Middle East, from Jewish interest, from Saudi Arabian interest, from Qatari interest. I mean, that's how, frankly, I think Qatar got the World Cup was they bought it. Saudi Arabia's got the World Cup in 2036. They bought it. But I actually think it's an interesting angle here.

The thing that actually should unite us, and I'm curious if you would buy this, Aaron, and I think this is why Trump has had some success in the Middle East, is he's not leading with religion. He's leading with commerce and capitalism and the idea of business first for all the Muslims in the Middle East, for all the Jews in the Middle East, to the extent that there is much of a Christian population in the Middle East,

The ability to embrace capitalism and have more successful economic liberation lifts everyone without getting into the nuance of the difference in religion. I think that's why Trump has had some success. Do you buy that?

Yes, I think that's definitely part of it. Also, to your point on not being bought, we saw a rift between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, who at some parts of his tweet essentially was insinuating, I paid a lot for you to win the presidency I would like to be listened to. And Donald Trump said, I'm sorry, I cannot be bought. And actually, and this is something I wrote about in an article on my Substack, which is Substack.com slash Aaron Wexler. Actually, sorry.

That was my mistake. But you can find me also on Twitter at Aaron Wexler, and I have this thread there. I talk about the fact that even the left knows that Trump cannot be bought. That's actually why they hate him so much, because Donald Trump cannot be bought. So everything the man is doing right now in office is because that

That's what he wants to do. That's what he believes. And right now we're seeing a massive splintering. I think probably the first major splintering within the MAGA movement since its inception over everything that's happening with Iran because Donald Trump promised us we would not have a nuclear Iran. That will not be his legacy, and that is why he is helping Israel right now. Yeah, and I think this is actually important. First of all, Trump has said publicly –

Nobody else can define what America first means because I'm the leader and I decided like I've made the arguments about America first. But I do think to the extent that there is a disagreement or splintering in some way on the right about how Iran should be handled. Do we want and this is my argument. I just tweeted about it.

In an ideal world, we would have kept Kim Jong-un in North Korea from getting a nuclear weapon. It is the danger, I would argue, is of anybody that has nuclear weapons, leaving aside terrorists, getting them or something like that. A state having nuclear weapons. Kim Jong-un is the most dangerous right now person with access to nuclear weapons. I think most people out there, regardless of politics, would agree with that.

Do we want Kim Jong-un in the Middle East with a religious-focused fervor

underpinning the desire to have nuclear weapons. That seems like a really bad idea to me for America and the rest of the world. And that is why on a purely rational basis, I think it is in direct American interest to keep a crazy religious group from having access to nuclear weapons. That seems like an easy argument to make. I'm surprised so many are missing it. Yes. Well, I'd like to say two things to that. The first is on the comparison with Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un

is poor. He's poor, okay? They do not have money in North Korea. Iran has oil. They have money from themselves, from Qatar, from Joe Biden. There's a lot of damage that they can inflict if they have nuclear capabilities. That's one thing. The second thing I want to address is, and this is something I'm seeing from a lot of people on the so-called right, where they love talking about

the price of oil if we go to war. They love talking about what it looks like if Israel strikes. By the way, Israel struck and the world is still spinning and oil, you know, gas isn't $20 a gallon and all the things they warned us about, probably being paid by Qatar or two posts, have not happened. But none of them can describe to us what does it look like if Iran actually gets nuclear weapons? What does it look like for America? What does it look like for gas? What does it look like for trade? What happens to the Strait of Hormuz if

If Iran has nuclear weapons, right, the oil choke point of the world, you want a nuclear Iran in charge of the oil choke point of the world. That is absolutely preposterous. And I have not seen a single personality and I'll call it personality, not authority on Twitter actually explaining what it looks like if that happens. Yeah, I think that's super important. I also would just point out that 24 years ago,

They flew planes into our buildings based on a misguided, bastardized version of what religion should look like, according to these crazy Muslim terrorists, right?

The Ayatollahs having nuclear weapons, the idea that they're going to in some way be rational in the way that they use them based on the history of what we have seen when it comes to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. It's crazy to me that anybody would even be arguing, hey, it's going to be OK. We should just stay out of this and let them get nuclear weapons.

Yes. Well, this assumption that's coming from so much of the right right now is assuming that it's possible for us to negotiate with good faith actors as if they're, you know, Putin. Putin is an evil guy. He is rational and predictable. And, you know, when you talk about international security and like all those theories, right, like you're actually dealing with a highly rational actor. When we talk about Iran, there is absolutely

a fanaticism, a radicalism with religion that I think a lot of Americans really just can't understand. They refuse to acknowledge. It really, it just makes no sense for them to assume that we can deal with someone as if realpolitik is something that is possible within that conversation. They will not be pragmatic. It will not work with the Ayatollahs.

I think that's right. I appreciate the time. I want people to be able to follow your work because you're smart, funny, and I think connecting with many different people out there who may not be connecting with sort of rational thought, unfortunately, on Instagram or TikTok or wherever else it is. So let me give you those channels. And why do you think it's so important to be speaking on those channels? A lot of people, millions listening to this radio show. A lot of people watch Fox News. But traditional media podcasts,

otherwise for younger people very much is collapsing. Yeah, no, I appreciate that, Clay. Thanks for having me on. Everyone can find me at Aaron Wetzler. It is a tough name. It is A-R-Y-N-N-E.

W-E-X-L-E-R. I did not come up with my first name. I've actually had it since birth, so I can't take credit, and you can't blame me for that spelling. Do you blame your parents for spelling Erin that way? Is this a unique Jewish spelling of Erin? I've never seen it before. God, it's like let's have a therapy session for 20 seconds. No, my parents wanted to name me Erin for some reason. A-R-O-N is a boy's name. E-R-N is Catholic, and they thought, that's confusing. What I guess they didn't think was confusing was naming me

with giving me a spelling that looks like the Aryan race as a Jewish woman. So I get hated by everyone and I confuse everybody. And some people also think it's a kind of black spelling, which is also fun. So I confuse the left because they think I'm ethnic and they can't really say anything against me. So hopefully that explanation will help you all remember how to spell it, which is A-R-Y-N-N-E. And yeah, I think it's really important to speak, especially to people who are on Instagram and Twitter, which are my main platforms, because most...

Most people have TikTok bring these days. A lot of like you mentioned, I mean, I don't even have cable news in my own house. So a lot of people in my generation are not watching mainstream media. And it's important that we still make sure they are seeing the seeing facts and getting other opinions other than the left.

Thank you, Aaron. By the way, I was with a friend group over the weekend and I was sitting with a dad. He had his 21 year old daughter and his 17 year old daughter there. So we had a big table and she asked me how she could find the show for

She had never listened to a show on radio. I was, I was, I mean, I just thought it was, it was really crazy, but I understand for people out there who are listening to us right now, you've been listening to radio your whole life. This 21 year old girl, college girl was like, so how does that work exactly? Like she doesn't have a car. She rides around in Ubers by and large, like the idea of how to get

radio, I was having to explain. Anyway, there are a lot of people out there like that that are super active on TikTok, super active on Instagram, but are not necessarily going to be listening to a show like this. So thank you. All right. Thanks so much, Clay. Great to be here.

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Team 47 with Clay and Buck. We are joined now by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. He's in studio with us here in Washington, D.C. And I know you've got a ton of different things on your plate. So I'm going to hit you with questions. You may try to dodge some of them just because I understand you guys are pretty good at that. So let's start off here. I think now that President Trump is in office –

It's fair to say that we have seen maybe a little bit of unfairness from ABC, CBS, NBC, among others. They have a government responsibility based on the fact that we have given them a license as a country to

How fair, now that we're through the election season, do you think news coverage has been? What could occur from your perspective to make it fairer? Because they're supposed to be, as a part of getting a license, you can correct me if I'm wrong, not providing some form of biased news coverage. But I think most people that are listening to us right now

would really roll their eyes at the idea that ABC, NBC, and CBS are providing in some way fair and balanced news coverage. Yeah, thanks so much. Great to be with you. You know, look, if you...

step back and you think about speakers in this country, you've got the guy in the soapbox gets to say whatever he wants. You've got cable channels, which are lightly regulated. When it comes to television stations, those are licensed by the FCC. Yes. And they are required by federal law to operate in the public interest. Now, if you step back over the years, the FCC and regulators in Washington, I think, have walked away completely from enforcing that public interest obligation. I don't think we're better off for it. To your question, if you step back,

I don't think the national programmers, if you look at ABC, CBS, NBC, they own some stations, but in the main they program content that goes out through licensed stations. I don't think they've been fair at all if you step back and look at their coverage in terms of Republicans or President Trump. And frankly, that's not just my opinion. If you look at trust in that national programmers, again, focusing on ABC, CBS, NBC, they're

Trust is at an all-time low. Again, Jeff Bezos, of all people, did an op-ed not that long ago saying that these national media outlets have lost the thread when it comes to where the American public is. But the good news is this. There's another side of the coin. When you talk about the actual local broadcast TV stations, the ones that actually hold the license by the FCC, when they run programming, it's actually really trusted by local communities. So the biggest problem

that we're running at the FCC in terms of media right now is how do we empower the local broadcasters to serve the public interest and allow them to get some distance from the national programmers that are really just generating content in Hollywood, in New York, and sort of force-feeding it out there. So I think there's actually a lot the FCC can do that addresses this issue. And again, focusing on that

unique public interest obligations that TV channels have. That is super interesting because I think most people out there listening to us right now, when there is a major thunderstorm, for instance, and they are at home, they trust their local news to provide them accurate coverage about danger, tornadoes, everything else.

But they certainly don't trust the national news to provide them. So I hadn't really thought about that dichotomy. It's interesting. NPR PBS, we have seen the vote barely get passed in the House to take away their funding as it pertains to government dollars. I've always thought it's crazy.

To my knowledge, we don't get a massive amount of government support. We compete with NPR. This show does the premier networks all over the country. And it's always felt like an unfair competition that they get these dollars. We don't. What do you think? What kind of optics does the FCC have on those issues?

It really wasn't that long ago. If you looked at a cross-section of the listeners and viewers to NPR and PBS, you'd get a pretty decent cross-section of the country as a whole. And at some point not that long ago, things changed dramatically. And it appears that NPR and PBS have been appealing to a very narrow, bespoke, almost a cellar, corridor portion of the country. And you can do that, right, as a First Amendment matter. But if you are going to Congress and saying, I want you, Congress, to fully

force people to take money out of their pocketbooks, send it to Washington and then send it to subsidize that. I think it's entirely legitimate for people to be asking questions about that. And to your point, recently, a rescissions package passed the House that would save about a billion dollars from that funding. The FCC, we've launched actually an investigation into NPR and PBS. And here's why.

They are unlike any other station, like a station here, a commercial station. They're non-commercial, which means they get special benefits above and beyond those that regular broadcasters get.

But as a consequence, they can't run advertising. But what it looks like they've been doing is running programs that appear to be very close, if not to advertisements themselves. So we've launched an inquiry at the FCC to make sure that they're not violating the law, because really, you can't have it both ways. You can't be getting public funding and claiming that you're non-commercial and then potentially the same time running commercial. So we're looking at that.

as well right now. CBS News in the news a lot. You got the transcript released of 60 Minutes, the interview that they did with Kamala Harris right before the election that was edited in many different ways, potentially beneficially to her. What can you tell us about the investigation into 60 Minutes and how does that impact the larger Paramount idea they're trying to sell to Skydance, I believe? Where is all of that from your perspective?

Yeah, right before January 20th, in fact, right around January 10th, I believe, the prior administration, the Biden FCC, summarily dismissed a news distortion complaint that had been filed against 60 Minutes based on claims of editing around that answer to Kamala Harris in the 60 Minutes episode. They dismissed it without actually doing any real inquiry, without doing any due diligence. And so one of the very first things that we did was we restored that complaint against CBS.

We've put it out for public comment. And to your point, we obtained the unedited transcript and video of that interview. We've put it all out there. I think sunlight is the best disinfected. So right now, the American people are participating in this process. We haven't made a final decision, but we are weighing whether, in fact, it is a news distortion or not. And that's under active investigation at the FCC.

Separate from that, we do have a transaction before the FCC where the owners of CBS are looking to sell. And as of right now, we're just running our normal course review on that and no significant update as to where we are on that. When you look at the...

spectrum, and I know people think about this a lot. I was out in San Francisco recently, got to go in a Waymo. I felt like I was in the future. Before all the Waymos started getting burned. Before all the Waymos were getting burned. Get out of there, Clay. We got out safely there. Doing research on that, the

the amount of spectrum that's going to be required for autonomous vehicles actually pretty extraordinary. The government, I'm sure a lot of people out there understand this may not, has control of the wireless spectrum universe out there.

Is there enough to be able to handle all the technology coming? What would be beneficial in your mind as you look at the auctions of this spectrum and the utilization of the spectrum? Yeah, this is a really important issue. It's a practical issue. It's a national security issue. Most people, when they pick up their smartphone or they hop into a Waymo, they just assume it works. They don't know how. Maybe they think it's magic or pixie dust, but it's these invisible airwaves that you need to power everything. And when you look at the future of technology, whether it's

autonomous vehicles, whether it's AR, VR, AI. The data demand to carry data traffic wirelessly is just like a hockey stick through the roof. And right now, China has leaked out to a really significant lead over the U.S. Didn't used to be this way. If you go back to the first Trump administration, China was ahead of us early on, and President Trump stepped in, showed strong leadership, and the U.S. closed the gap. That's why you saw 4G and 5G explode in the U.S. Now, President Biden stepped in, and we just fell into a deep,

malaise when it comes to freeing up spectrum. And President Trump recently has articulated that he wants the U.S. to lead again, and we're going to do it. So one of the things that the One Big Beautiful Bill does is it restores the FCC's authority to free up these airways, which lapsed during the Biden years. Senator Cruz, Chairman Cruz, has been phenomenal in leading on this, but we are hundreds of megahertz behind where China is right now. And to your point,

Our commercial sector needs it. DOD uses it as well. But I think ultimately right now where we're short is commercial spectrum for high power use. President Trump and Chairman Cruz have been clear, but it's national security, it's economic growth, and it's bridging the digital divide because we use that spectrum to connect people, to connect communities.

Your job to a large extent, I would think, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, is to try to allow the marketplace of ideas to work at the best of its manner and ensure that the government is not putting a hand or a finger on the scale to allow one side to have an advantage.

How fair do you think the overall media environment is from your perspective as FCC chairman when you look at it across the scope of all of the different arenas that you are monitoring right now? Do you think we have a fair system in place right now, or do you think there's still a lot of things that need to be done? Well, I think there's...

There's still a significant ways to go in terms of making sure that broadcasters in particular live up to their public interest obligation. Again, the studies and survey in terms of lack of trust speak to that. But if you step back, particularly during COVID, we saw this massive increase.

acceleration of censorship in this country. And a lot of it took place on social media and on big tech platforms. Silicon Valley was deciding whether you got to stay on the digital town square, what you could say. And the evidence also shows that the Biden administration was effectively colluding with a lot of these social media companies to shut down free speech. And it didn't just happen here in the U.S. It's spreading globally in Brazil. There's this Justice Day moray, this government official there that's been censoring social media in Europe. They're passing laws to sort of force people

US technology companies who abide by their version of censorship. And so to some extent, we are on the backside of that, meaning as the government controls with COVID rescind, we see free speech reemerge because you can't have both, right? If you're gonna have massive government controls that came with censorship that came with COVID, you necessarily have censorship as well, because free speech is a check on those types of government controls.

And President Trump has come in and very clearly said that he's going to restore free speech in this country. So whether it's the work of the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission is doing great work on this. The DOJ, we're looking to sort of break up that collusive conduct that really amounted, in my view, to a censorship cartel. There's still work to do, but I think we're finally turning the tide on that. Yeah, and

I'm sure a lot of people out there listening right now, listening to us on traditional radios, podcasts, certainly still watching some news broadcast, CBS, ABC, NBC. But for my kids, they get almost all their news from TikTok and YouTube. So to your point on the power of media, the dynamic has shifted in a big way. Like, I don't even know that my kids could find local news on television other than watching sports. They never watch it.

Everything through YouTube, and I'll give you an example on this program. YouTube wouldn't allow our interview with President Trump to be posted. We just had Rand Paul on at the top of the hour. They wouldn't allow our interview with Rand Paul to be posted because they said something that YouTube didn't like.

But in an election universe, in a democratic universe, shouldn't at a bare minimum everything that a political figure says be distributed as widely as possible and not restricted and censored? Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that I focus a lot on is this concept of user empowerment. Look, we don't want...

Any one single centralized authority, whether it's a Silicon Valley company or otherwise, deciding who can participate in the town square, what can they say in the digital town square. We need to empower individuals. So if you don't want to see Rand Paul, great. Don't follow him. If you don't want to see this video, okay, block or unfollow the show. But we need to sort of get those decision-making –

decisions back into the hands of individual users and take it out of the hands of the big corporations. For instance, on social media, you know, one idea we've talked about is should we have content filters that you can choose? Like, let's say you want, for reasons that escape me, but you want MSNBC to filter your feed for you. Okay, plug that in and do it. If you want, you know, this show to have one, great. If you want Fox News to do it, great. But let's get that power back to individuals and less this centralized, because when you make a mistake at a system-wide level like that, like,

The consequences are very serious. People think about, well, there's harm that comes from hate speech, which obviously is protected by the First Amendment. But think about the other side of it. When you couldn't talk about the origins of COVID-19, when you couldn't talk about the costs and benefits of masking young children who were trying to get speech development at that point in time. So there's very real harms that flowed from the censorship that we lived through, let alone electoral consequences with a 100-byte laptop story that goes on. Last question for you.

AI is taking off at a rapid rate and we have fun with AI memes that people will post of me playing the flute like and all sorts of ridiculous things out there.

But it's rapidly evolving to the point where I think being able to determine what's real and what's fake is going to become really very difficult. Are you concerned about that? Because it's one thing to restrict something that we know is real. But how in the world do we have the ability to let people know what is true and what is false and what someone's actually said and not said?

Yeah. Have you seen these these AI generated videos of the podcasters that are in the baby? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hilarious. Yes. Very, very fun. I don't think they've had any of those use of you or not. But I think they may think I'm a baby already. Yeah. I felt on a meme hole at one time looking at all those. I thought they were hilarious. I mean, look, I think we'd be very careful here. During the last administration, President Biden had the FCC propose putting labels on political candidates.

speech, political ads that were generated in any way with AI content. And really, it just became a way of sort of slowing down the use of AI because they viewed it as, in my view, Republicans were being more successful in the meme wars than they were. So I think there is some harm, as you noted, but I think we have to be very careful that we don't stifle this early on because ultimately it can start to look a lot like censorship. So I do think that people need to be vigilant.

And we need to educate people. And I think it's easier for younger folks. I think older people can get fooled a little more easily. Well, if you're just stepping back and looking at online scams in general. But I think this is an area where we have to proceed very cautiously. And I'd be very skeptical of regulation at this point. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, I appreciate the time. I appreciate you coming in studio with us, sitting on video here. And we hope to talk to you again soon. Yeah, good to be with you. Thanks. For sure. Thanks for listening to Team 47 with Clay and Buck.

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