February 21st, 2023

On Tuesday’s Mark Levin Show, in the face of Russia and China, now is the time when we need real leaders and statemen. There is no Republican Presidential candidate today, announced, or unannounced, insisting we increase defense spending without footnotes. No one is talking about rebuilding the military in a comprehensive way. Those who claim to be concerned about war and provocations are the ones who will create World War 3 and endless provocations. Foreign policy is about realism and about prudence. President Biden went to Ukraine and Poland for politics and the media will defend him as a hero. He’s no hero, he waited way too long to give Ukraine the weapons they needed to defeat Russia. Biden was needed in East Palestine, Ohio. But he doesn’t want to be seen with people screaming at him. Finally, Caroline Glick calls in to discuss the Biden administration’s efforts to interfere with Netanyahu’s judicial reform efforts.

Photo by Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP

The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.

Rough transcript of Hour 1

Hour 1 Segment 1

It’s time to take note, America, of those who are our so-called leaders and those who wish to be our so-called leaders. And it’s this. There are two countries. Where there is a potential war. Russia and China. The great direct threat to us is communist China. So let me talk about that first. It is important for you to take note. Of which congressmen. Which senators? Which presidents? Which would be presidents? Presidential candidates. Get this right. You know, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, people asked, well, how could this happen? We have the experience of Pearl Harbor. The experience of Pearl Harbor and other attacks on the United States to guide us. Now’s the time for real leadership. Now’s the time for real statesmen. And I’m not seeing too many of them, quite frankly. Which candidate today among the Republicans announced or unannounced, is insisting that we significantly increase defense spending without a whole bunch of footnotes about, well, we’re going to make sure this which one? None that I’m aware of. Zero. Which one? It’s very unpopular today with all the problems we face from inflation, from the open border. Critical race theory, what’s going on with our children, the difficulty for so many people in this country to make ends meet. But that’s when you need real leaders and real statesmen. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Our grandparents and great grandparents were in the Great Depression. Were they made of stronger stuff than the rest of us? Because I’m starting to think in many cases, yes. Yes. But in many cases, no also. With the same kind of movement with Democrats and Republicans prior to us being attacked at Pearl Harbor and isolationism. They pacifism, even in the face of imperial Japan, rising, conquering, even in the face of fascist Italy rising and conquering, even in the face of Nazi Germany rising, conquering, spreading. We have to. Except for reality. What’s taking place? Not to start a war, but to protect us. This is not a priority. With senators. It’s not a priority. What Chuck Schumer, who runs the Senate, it’s not a priority with Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, hasn’t been a priority for decades. And it’s best as I can tell, it’s not a priority with many, many people who many of you support in the House of Representatives. Well, we’re pushing Wokeism while we’re doing that. I got it. But that’s not an excuse to accept defeat. Should a war break out? The illogic is unbelievable. Our borders open. So we should be pacifists and isolationists. We have the lousiest. Generals and admirals one can think of out of the Pentagon anyway. And so we should flatline our defense spending. Now, we should remove the generals and admirals as soon as we can. I heard Donald Trump talk about this the other day. Maybe it was today. In a video that he released. But here’s the point. Is anybody who wants to be president, Forget about the idiot who’s in the Oval Office. Anybody going to speak out on the Republican side in a coherent and comprehensive way about the need to rebuild our military? There is no way that communist China should have more ships than we have. No way. We used to have a 600 ship navy under Reagan. It’s now under 300 ships. Under 300 ships. Well, more obligations and more responsibilities throughout the world. We’re running out of ammunition because of the Russia Russia’s war on Ukraine. And so the answer is what to cut off? You know, the answer is we need to build up our industrial ability. To manufacture what we need, whether it’s to help Ukraine, but most importantly, to help ourselves. Recruitment in the United States Armed Forces is at a record low. We’re missing our targets. We don’t have enough pilots, for God’s sakes. Who among the Republicans is leading the charge on this? Nobody. Because they’re scared of you. Not you, you. But you know what I mean. This is cyclical that we’re in a period of pacifism. The enemy knows it. The enemy knows our history. The enemy’s on the rise. And they intend to take advantage of this and exploit it. The admiral in charge of our naval forces in the Pacific, he again has warned today we are not sufficiently prepared should China invade Taiwan. We are not sufficiently prepared. Should China take out a U.S. vessel? And nobody knows this better than the Communist Chinese. What are we doing? People can throw around names, War Hawk, neocons, chicken or whatever. I am behind this microphone. I think I have a public responsibility to help protect our liberty and your children and your grandchildren. These wars, big wars, Big wars with big powers and big weapons. Not using satellite wars or proxy wars, the Iraq wars. Our monstrous. Your children and grandchildren won’t be a volunteer army. It’ll be a draft. Monstrous. We should do everything we can to avoid this. But we should never surrender our liberty. That should never be the choice. Our enemies should fear us. They should fear that we are so powerful with the biggest navy on the face of the earth. More planes and pilots, plenty of ammunition to take care of whatever we need to take care of that They don’t even think about taking us on directly or indirectly. But that’s not where we are today. So who are the great leaders and statesmen on this issue? Where are they? Then we turn to Russia. This is embarrassing. The number of people in this country and in the Republican Party and pseudo intellectuals and pseudo conservatives. Who pretend that Russia is benign. Is shocking. How many of you have relatives? Direct bloodline who fought in World War Two in Europe? I do. Do you? Most of you do. Well. We’re not imperialists. We’re not colonialists. We didn’t take all that land and keep it to ourselves. We gave it back. We helped build up these countries through the Marshall Plan. We didn’t take this advice and turn our guns on Russia. I heard some guy, Jerry, somebody’s brother who the host called a superstar for the Wall Street Journal. I don’t know him. It’s a British accent. And he said Russia would never invade Poland or a narrow country. It just wants Ukraine. And we know that because it invaded Ukraine. Now, this had to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in order to get the pole. And they pretty much have to go through Ukraine. But why don’t they listen to what Vladimir Putin says? Why don’t they read what he’s written? Just a just a blow this off the broom. It’s like, well, no, it’s not an issue. She’s not going to act. The fact of the matter is that is his plan. And, you know, who knows it? The Polish prime minister knows it, the Romanian prime Minister knows it. The leader of Finland knows that. The leader of Sweden knows it. The leaders of the Balkan states know it. That’s why they’re providing everything they have to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainian people are fighting for their survival and they’re doing a hell of a job. How many people will we be giving weapons to? What? We’ve actually had to fight their wars. We don’t have to fight the Ukrainian defense against the Russians. They’re fighting it themselves. And if we stop supporting them, they will lose. They will be massacred and the Russians will line up their tanks and anything else they have on the border with these other countries. They know it. The Russians know it. History tells us so. But why would you chance it? The Russians are bogged down in Ukraine. Nobody thought it was possible but the Ukrainians. They’re bogged down in Ukraine. They’ve had, I’ve read, 60,000, 100,000 casualties. And then I hear. Republican. Positioning themselves, trying to figure out what to say about this. And they have mostly settled on we spent enough money. We don’t have a plan for ending the war. This can’t go on forever. It’s gone on one year. So. We need to withdraw our funds. Then what happens? Russia rolls through Ukraine, then what happens? They have no idea. None. Apparently, they don’t care. They thought it out, but they know that many of you. Even though we haven’t lost. Anybody in our war. That you don’t want to do it anymore. What does China say when they do this? China says they think Ukraine stuff. Wait until they see what we do with Taiwan. What does Iran say? Okay, now’s the time to attack Israel. In other words. People who claim to be concerned about war and provocation will create World War three and endless provocations. Peace through strength. What do you think that means? Reagan started it. Trump picked up on it. Peace through strength. It’s not peace through appeasement. Peace through pacifism. I’ll be right back.

Hour 1 Segment 2

The Soviet Union was defeated. Without a direct warning. How did that happen? I really credit, among others, Reagan, Weinberger, and Kirkpatrick. Three truly great leaders and people. What do you think they would say today? What do you think they would say? Pope John Paul the second. Tremendous man. Lady Thatcher. Tremendous. Woman. Helmut Kohl. Great. Chancellor Germany. That’s who defeated the Soviet Union by building up our militaries. Other than Rome, obviously building up our militaries, working together, not taking back steps and economically crushing them. More on this when I return.

Hour 1 Segment 3

The attack on Pearl Harbor. How did we not see it coming? Some did see it coming, but they were silent. They were intimidated. They didn’t have a platform. I believe China is going to engage in a military conflict with the United States. They wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing if they weren’t. They don’t need to build up their armed forces the way they have, quite frankly, to control the South China Sea or even their whole entire region. And they’re the bases they’ve built far outside their own region. The effort to control the Panama Canal. Solomon Islands. West Africa. Those are all aimed at us. Stealing our technology to use it against. I mean, I don’t know what else we need to slap us in the face here. I mentioned Reagan and Weinberger and Kirkpatrick. I mentioned Margaret Thatcher, John Paul, the second chancellor, Helmut Kohl. I should mention it, State Haig and then Shultz. This was the greatest foreign policy team in modern history. Both in our country and outside our country where they globalists. Now, they were realists. Foreign policy and national security is not about ideology. It’s about realism. It’s about prudence. Same thing, frankly, is the way law enforcement should be handled. It shouldn’t be about ideology. Same thing about the right to bear arms shouldn’t be about ideology. It’s a right. You have to protect yourself. They’re evil forces are evil people are evil countries. There’s evil regimes. That’s the way it is. We have evil in our streets. And so have laws against those evil acts. It doesn’t stop at the border gets worse. Much worse. If China were to attack Taiwan today, what would we do? What would we do? China would surround Taiwan. I’ll tell you right now, with its navy, it would have surface to air missiles a whole lot. They won’t run out of missiles. They have a mass of infantry. Taiwan’s only about 90 miles away or less. And they were overwhelmed. An island, as some of you might say. Why does that matter to us? Why does Ukraine matter to us? What is anything mad at us? And these are the people who will get us into World War Three. These are the people who will get us into World War Three. Look what happened after Afghanistan. Our surrender there. What it Putin do. He invaded Ukraine. I don’t believe he would have, but for what we did in Afghanistan. Imagine what would happen if we just. Walked away from Ukraine. How all our enemies would would view that. Just incredible. Soviet Union was defeated by people who understood national security, foreign policy, defense of like mine. Statesmen, leaders. Reagan. Thatcher. Kohl. John Paul. The Second. Weinberger. Kirkpatrick. Haig. Shultz. Not a pacifist among them. Where are they today? In our country. Where’s Reagan? Oh, get over Reagan. I’m told by the geniuses at Newsweek and in Texas. Oh, okay, Weinberger. Forget about Weinberger. Kirkpatrick. Forget about all these people. They brush history. They have all the answers. The barely pubescent. Want to be experts. Want to be popular? I want to be known. I want to be famous. They have all the answers. Just like the Marxists. All the answers. Forget about knowledge and experience in history. And of course, close your eyes to the threat regime. Close your eyes to the threat. A Putin. Well, I’m not going to do it. I don’t care what it costs me in terms of listeners and viewers and read, I don’t care. 90% of the chips that we use in this country, computer chips are made in Taiwan. 90% to big problem. And so there is an effort underway in the United States to try and. Fix that so that we can build ships here. But they’re nowhere close to that yet. We talk about shortages of food, shortages of oil and natural gas and electricity. If we don’t have computer chips. Nothing works. It’s almost like taking down the electrical grid. Computer chips are in everything. Including everything respecting our national security, our communications, our businesses, our vehicles. Mobility. Our GPS systems. Everything’s been, quote unquote, modernized from farming to ranching. Well, that comes to an end. Did you know that China is quickly trying to build its own chip industry? Was stolen technology from the United States and assistance from U.S. companies. Why do you think they’re doing that? And this idiot in the White House, The Manchurian President. He wants us to rely on China for batteries, for transportation, for our vehicles. Because we don’t have the capacity to make those batteries because we’re not mining even areas where we have some of these materials, but most of it is overseas, in the Congo, in Afghanistan, in Ukraine, in China. We’re going to come from China will blackmail us. China will control the South China Sea. China will threaten us. What are you going to do about it? They’re going to say. I am very, very gravely concerned about the the ability and the competence of this administration when it comes to anything, let alone national security. But I am deeply troubled. By my own party. And some of the individuals who would dismiss. The lessons we learn from the greatest practitioners of national security. And defence, whether it be Thatcher or Reagan, are there. Well, there they’re appointees. So, you know, you want to know how to win a massive landslide vote. Pay attention to what Reagan did. The Democrats embrace Franklin Roosevelt. Individuals like their. We blow off Ronald Reagan. Who got massive popular vote. Massive Electoral College vote. Restarted the American economy and brought capitalism back, which was under attack from decades of Democrat rule. Muscled up the United States military. Our spending on defense. Averaged under Reagan 5.7% of the gross domestic product. Our spending on defense today is about 2.7%. It’s less than excuse me, it’s it’s less than half of the GDP that we spent when Reagan was president. And China is on the rise. While we spend a lot more in China, we really don’t know what China spends. China lies about what it spends. We take their information. And on top of that, it would be impossible to compare the. Two because China doesn’t pay its people the wages we do, even though we don’t pay them enough. I worry about medical care and pensions and all the rest. But even worse, China’s military is its civil society. That is, private companies are not private. They’re part of the military. Everything’s part of the military. That’s not true here. So when I started the program, what I said to you was this. And then we’ll move along. I want you to write down the names of the people who are running for president. As this process goes on. Who do not bring to your attention the threats that we face. Or who just spew the pacifist pablum about. We don’t need to be helping Ukraine. We spend enough on the military. Write those names down. Because when it comes to a head one day, whether it’s next year or five years or eight years, whatever it is. You’ll remember they were in the Neville Chamberlain’s. They were the people who provoked World War. They’re the people who forced your kids and grandkids into a draft. Many of whom won’t come home. History does repeat itself. Nobody knows that better than Zhi. He cites Chinese history and empires all the time. Nobody knows that better than Putin. Even though he does it illegitimately. He cites Russian history all the time. We’re busy destroying our history and. Even those who claim to want to know our history. For some reason, they forget all about the twenties and the thirties in the forties. For some reason they forget all about the Cold War and how Reagan and Thatcher and John Paul, the second Weinberger, Kirkpatrick and the rest defeated the Soviet. If you dare to bring it up now. The spit pilots are out there. What about our border? What does our border have to do with this? What about what’s going on in Ohio? It’s horrific what’s going on in Ohio. What does that have to do with this? I’ll be right back.

Hour 1 Segment 4

Joe Biden goes to Poland and he goes to Ukraine. He meets Zelensky, then he goes back to Poland, gives a big speech. Joe Biden did this for politics. In the media in there defending him. The various media platforms are attacking anybody who says that he’s done it for politics. These will wind up in Joe Biden commercials. Now, why am I saying this? Biden was very late. To give weaponry to the Ukrainians as Russia was building up its forces on the border. Very late. And that helped provoke them to. He’s not giving today Ukraine the kind of weapons it needs to defeat the Russian army. I don’t mean to go in to Russia. They had one arm tied behind their backs. I’m not talking about the amount of money. I’m talking about the type of weapons. He’s always too late by two or three months. And that costs a lot of lives in Ukraine to look at Taiwan. We know Taiwan’s going to be invaded. We know it’s going to be attacked. Taiwan knows it. Taiwan paid us $19 billion for weapons and they have been waiting for 14 months for Biden to deliver and then the weapons they already paid us for. That’s in our bank account. And he won’t do it. I don’t want to hear about Biden, the hero. He’s not a hero. He doesn’t act like a man who really wants to put an end to this thing. Biden, the hero. Listen to this. He’s in Poland today. Cut five, Go. The kind of possibilities that come when people who live not in captivity, but in freedom. Freedom. Freedom. There is no sweeter word than freedom. There is no nobler goal than freedom. There’s no higher aspiration than freedom. Americans know that, and you know it. It is a word that he never uses in the United States. And I have pointed this out on multiple occasions. Freedom. Because when it comes to freedom, you don’t think of Joe Biden when it comes to the iron fist of government. You think of Joe Biden when you when it comes to executive orders that trample separation of powers. You think of Joe Biden, that freedom when it comes to free speech, you don’t think of Joe Biden. You’d think a censorship. Freedom. Freedom to protest at abortion clinics. Is that what Joe Biden believes in? Freedom to run a business and not be harassed by the bureaucracy. And I’d have to pay confiscatory taxes as I would Joe Biden believes in. Freedom for little babies that are aborted at the last second. Is that what Joe Biden believes in? How about the Declaration of Independence? When’s the last time he’s read that? Or the Constitution. Freedom. Joe Biden doesn’t believe in freedom. Believes in tyranny. In my view. Now they’re trying to compare him. You won’t believe it to Abraham Lincoln. To James Madison. To George Washington after his visit. Kiev to Kiev. Michael Beschloss, who has has had so far. Biden’s assets coming out is right Nordstrom. No offense. Abraham Lincoln. The Great Emancipator. James Madison, the author of The Constitution, George Washington, The father of our country, Joe Biden. Is this a joke? Tom Nichols, The low I.Q. Mouthpieces at the Atlantic, often on the morning show show. Speaking of praising Biden, very active and vital guy Biden for walking through an actual war zone. You know, Trump did that on several occasions. The Santos fort. An actual war zone. So to pump on. They don’t get that kind of treatment. Remember when Biden went to the southern border and they cleaned everything up so wouldn’t look so bad? You’re not allowed to say those sirens went off. It’s a war zone. The sirens hadn’t gone off for five days. I don’t trust any of this. I don’t trust any of these guys. Sorry. Maybe they went off for real. Maybe not. I’ll be back.