A Conversation with Matt Schlapp and special guests Pam Bondi, Dr. Tara O, & Grant Newsham

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of CPAC Live. Thank God it's Friday, folks, and next week I'm pretty excited after a great, hopefully great long weekend with the fam. I'm headed out to Iowa. As a Midwesterner, as a Kansan, I always start to breathe a little easier when I get to fly over country and actually land in flyover country, so I'm excited to be joining Matt Whitaker, the former acting Attorney General of the United States, in his home state of Iowa. We're going to be on the Trump bus and we're going to be taking Iowa by storm. After watching the president in Latrobe, I think Trump supporters around this country are ready for this presidential campaign to start in earnest, and we have a great show for you. We're going to have Pam Bondi, who's someone else who's storming the country in the Women for Trump bus and in other ways, and we're going to have a great conversation with Tara Oh and Grant Newsham about CPAC Korea and what's going on in South Korea and what's going on with North Korea and what's going on with China. That conversation is going to be moderated by our great Executive Director, Dan Schneider. So without further ado, General Pam Bondi, thanks for joining us on CPAC Live. Thanks, Matt. And it's Pam, you know that, please. They all know you as Pam, but everyone's got to remember that you have these august titles like co-chair of Women for Trump. Are you having fun in that job? We are having so much fun and I'm spending so much time with your much better half, Mercedes Schlapp. We have been to Wisconsin, we have been to New Hampshire, Maine, all over the place, Nebraska, Iowa, it's been really incredible and you're going to enjoy your time there as well, of course. And I've been on that red bus with Eric Trump and Corey Lewandowski here in Florida, then in a couple weeks we're going to have the big pink bus down in South Florida. So I can't wait to reunite with all my girlfriends, Mercedes, Katrina and Laura. It's going to be a great time. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. We had Rick Grinnell on the bus through Nevada and that was just really a great time. One of my dear friends. Yeah. With every week that goes by, don't you kind of feel like people, their energy level, their excitement is building? I'm sure there's a little bit of that on the other side for Joe Hyden, you know, when he comes out and he gets about 15, 16 people to kind of come together and cheer a little bit for him. But on our side, you can really feel the enthusiasm. Yeah. You know what I really liked when President Trump was landing at the airport hangar yesterday and he said he looked out the window of Air Force One and he saw the crowds waiting outside and he thought those were the crowds inside. Right. So we're starting to see that again because people are feeling more confident that they're going to be safe and they're going to be involved in a safe manner, in a safe place, outside, fresh air. And that's just that's what our campaign needed again. And it's just so great. We've never lost momentum. You know that because we've been on these buses all over the country. But even when it was virtual Trump team online, we're getting what a million hits every night. So we've never slowed down and Joe Biden is barely crawling out of his basement. You know, I give mercy in the comms team over the campaign. Great applause for responding to a bit of shutdown. Yeah. I don't know. But it's still having a presidential campaign where, like you said, a million or two million views. I know I was watching because you just felt like you needed to connect with people. And and I think people feel that today, you know, we had great news on the jobs front. We have unemployed now just over 8 percent. Most people on the left were saying unemployment would be well over 10 percent heading into Election Day. Clearly, Larry Kudlow is right. We're having a V-shaped recovery and not all of America is even open yet. Some of these blue states are really dragging their heels. What do you think is happening in Florida? Do you really feel the economy is coming back? I do. And I think the president referred to it, Matt, as a super V, a super V, because it's coming back so fast, faster than anticipated. Only President Trump could come up with that one. And it's true, though. Yeah. In Florida. Thank goodness. Now you're out. You're driving around. It's getting back to normal. I hate traffic. But it's a good thing now. And we're seeing traffic on the road. People are actually back in their jobs and people are respecting the mask rules, whether you have to or not. When people are in public, they are wearing masks, dinner, social distancing. It's nice to go out to dinner again. People put their mask on when they're eating, of course. They take them off at their dinner table. And it's just it's really, really been great. And of course, we're blessed to be in Florida. Two people are out exercising. You know, I train in the front yard with a trainer and two of my friends socially distanced apart. And it's working out great. It's just a different way of life. Kids are back in school. And I think everybody's doing great here and just praying for the best and praying for a vaccine releasing thanks to Operation Warp Speed. Yeah. You know, my nephew is at the University of Notre Dame and they've had some outbreak. But you know, I haven't read about any of those kids actually getting sick, which is great news. They're back in the classrooms again. So I really praise them for hanging in there and not just canceling school because these kids need to learn in a classroom environment. And I'm very excited. You know, my daughter, Alyssa, and the and the and the two youngers, as I call them, the littles, the babies, the babies, the littles will be in school here next week. And we're really excited about that. You know, fingers crossed with the blessings of God, everything will be fine. But it really is psychologically such an uplift for for my children to know that they can be back in school. That's important for kids. Well, you and Mercy have amazing girls. I mean, they're and I've been so blessed to have two of them on the bus tour with us to get to know them. And, yeah, they're they're a remarkable girls. And it's great for them to get back in school as all the kids in our country, slowly but surely. So former attorney general of Florida, somebody who understands what these cities are going through around the country as you have these really lawless rioters, you know, just descending like they did on us as we were leaving the White House the other day after the president's acceptance speech. And here you are, co-chairman of Women for Trump. Our major cities are on fire. Even smaller cities like Kenosha are facing this violence. What is how when you talk to women on this on these tours, what's their response to all this? Well, they they care, of course, about our economy, just like men do no differently than men do. They care about getting their kids back in school. But they all agree none of that works, none of it unless we're safe to go to school, to go to work, to go to church, to do the things that we want to do. And we're looking, as you said, you know, out in these war zone cities. And yes, we experienced it in Washington last week when we went to leave the White House, all of us. It was frightening. And, you know, what happened to Rand Paul was despicable. You know, something else I just heard the liberal media, I think it was NBC. They were talking about and it was something that happened last night or the day before. And they were saying the murderer, the murders that happened during the protest, those weren't protests. Those were riots. People. That's right. Those were riots. Those are not peaceful protesters. What we saw outside the White House. Not peaceful protesters. That's right. When you're throwing things, when you have flamethrowers, when you have all this crazy stuff to hurt people, that when you're spitting on people, when you're shooting them birds and screaming in your face and throwing things at buses, that's not a peaceful protest. And, you know, look what happened, Matt, when President Trump sent in the National Guard to Kenosha. Lo and behold, all the violence stopped when he did that. Yet these liberals are saying, oh, we don't want the National Guard. Joe Biden is out. I really can't believe anyone, anyone, even a socialist who would want to be president of the United States would not be out there condemning Antifa and condemning what's happening and saying, yes, we want you National Guard. We want to gain. We want to regain our cities. We want to retake our city. We've got to get this war zone behind us, and they're not doing that. Yeah, no, that's right. You know, the propaganda arm of the Socialist Democratic Party is amazing. You know, I was involved in what is infamously referred to as the Brooks Brothers riot in Dade County during the 2000 campaign. There was a bunch of us associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign that literally went to where they had taken the ballots behind closed doors so that we could no longer witness the counting. And we simply were bringing attention to the fact that they needed to bring, allow witnesses, both Republican and Democrat, to look at the ballots. That was called a riot. We were just chanting in the lobby of a public building. But these people are literally murdering people, burning down churches, ripping down statues, and that is a protest. It's amazing the propaganda arm, and I think the words they choose matter. They should matter. I really was floored. I think it was NBC, it was one of the major networks, and they said, at the protest, all these people were arrested. I said, well, wait a minute. That was not a protest. And the funny thing is, the graphic they were showing on the screen, Matt, wasn't a protest. It was a riot. You know, fires and screaming and throwing things, and it's really remarkable. You're right. You have to choose your words carefully, and, well, I guess they are choosing them carefully to make it look like they're peaceful protests, and there's no way they can do that when they're not. And, you know, the other side, we play fair and they don't. That's the nicest way to put it. Well, I always say only Republicans go to jail, and that seems to be the way it works for General Flynn. They're just never going to let go of his ankle as he goes through the tortures of the day and to clear his name. And, you know, this is one of the president's counsels during impeachment. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer gets a majority in the Senate. Let's say Donald Trump wins this race, and I believe he will win. Don't you think they're just going to do all of this coup business, whether it's fake impeachment or whatever, all over again if she keeps that majority? Oh, of course they will. That's why all these seats are so very important to us, to the American people, and to the president. If we could take Congress back, that would be amazing. I think we're working hard on that, and we've got to hold the Senate because, hey, but if not, we're prepared for impeachment, two, three, four, five. We're going to win. They're going to be fake, like all of them have been, and we're prepared. We're all prepared. I love these folks who are saying the president will never leave the White House if he loses the election. These are the same malcontents that didn't let this man serve as our president for one single moment, 15 minutes after he takes the oath of office. They're accusing him of Russian collusion. They basically accused him of that the whole time. They ginned up this special counsel. I mean, you know, they never let up. I'm trying to make it seem like Donald Trump was corruptly elected president, and I guess that's just the way they're going to do this thing. They are, and we've got some really good Republicans. We don't even have to name them all. Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson's looking into the Bidens, I hear. So I can't wait to see what's going to happen there, and the Durham report. I think it's going to be thorough, and you know, Horowitz didn't have prosecutorial power. No one seemed to get that when the Horowitz report was issued, but what he did was able to pass off great material to Bill Barr and now Durham. So I think the Durham report is going to be very telling, and I'm hoping it's going to be more than a report, especially since one of the lawyers has already entered a guilty plea shock for falsifying documents. If no one goes to jail over this constitutional outrage, it will happen again. It will. Mark my words. Mark Pam Bondi's words. I want you to know, Pam, we appreciate all you're doing, and after leaving the White House with you and John the other day, if I'm ever in this terrible situation of having to wade through a riot, I want to be with you again because you were really taking charge of the situation, shall we say. So thank you for keeping my beautiful wife safe. It was great to spend that evening with you. And Matt, the only reason I knew why is I've been attacked before at a movie theater, and I just, I truly, when we were all walking out together, I saw flashbacks of that. Do you remember? I kept saying, this isn't going to happen again. This isn't going to happen again. And I just feel bad for the people like Vernon Jones and so many others, and this beautiful little senior lady in a pink suit. I don't know if you saw her, treating her like dirt, screaming at her. It was horrible. It was horrible what the other side will do to attack our side. And, you know, Alice Johnson and others, it was just terrible to read about it. But Vernon Jones, I love this guy because I had only met Vernon Jones digitally. He's been on the show. I met him at the Trump Hotel. The man is a brick wall of seven feet tall or something. He's a huge guy. And I saw all those mostly white kids, let's face it, going up to him and calling him these horrible names. And I thought, oh, they don't know. Please don't get Vernon Jones too upset. He was very close. He might be able to defend himself. Vernon was so composed. I love that man. Vernon was so composed. And all he wanted to do, he wanted to get his guests in the hotel safely. And he stayed focused. He did the right thing. He didn't engage them. And so did Rand and his wife. I'll tell you what. Rand Paul's wife is now my new hero because she kept, I don't know if you've seen her, she kept saying when they said, oh, no, these were protestors, she said, these weren't protestors. I am convinced my husband and I would have been killed if the police hadn't come to protect us. No, it's really right. And look, this is a it's a difficult moment for our country. Thank God we have a president who knows how to fight back. And and I'm so thankful that people like you, Pam, are stepping up and doing your part as well, because literally the future of our country is at stake because socialism means to simply chuck this whole idea of an American democratic experiment and start afresh. And I don't want to do that. And I know you don't either. And one of the things, Pam Bondi, we've done at the A.C.U. is travel all around the world and work with other freedom fighters who are trying to push back on this idea of collectivism and statism, communism, Marxism, socialism. Here people like to say progressivism, whatever that means. Right. Socialism. Yeah. It's a euphemism for socialism. And so we were able to reengage with our great friends in South Korea. We had a great online Korea CPAC and coming up next, we're going to have a great conversation with Dan Schneider and talk about what's going on over in Korea. So thank you, Pam Bondi. We appreciate you joining us. Stay tuned, everyone. Well, thank you all for staying tuned to this next section of CPAC Live. As you've seen, the left is very well organized and very well funded throughout America and also around the world. We've done CPACs overseas for a number of years now. And the one thing that we do see is how the radical left wants to destroy freedom in every part of the globe. So today we've got two special guests with us. Tara Oh, who's the president of the East Asia Research Center. And Tara is one of our fan favorites at CPAC. She's been with us the last couple of years at CPAC. And we also have Grant Newsham, who is a senior research fellow with the Center for Security Policy. Many of you recognize the Center for Security Policy. They too have been at CPAC for a number of years. Fred Fleitz is president of it. And so Grant, I also have a warm spot in my heart because you're a former Marine Corps officer. My dad fought in Korea early on after World War II and was shot numerous times defending freedom both for Korea and for America. And Tara, many Americans don't really understand how important, how critical South Korea is as our ally and how important Korea is for freedom around the world. Tara Oh, would you please explain, just give us a broad overview, what is the importance of South Korea? I'd like to point out two things. One is geopolitics and geolocation of where South Korea is. Of course, we have this big country called China on the mainland and we have Japan on that side. This is where sort of the boundary between freedom, the free world and not so free world is. And South Korea is, you know, it's on the mainland, but it's where the freedom frontier is. We know North Korea definitely is now, you know, is on the other side, not on freedom. So it's important that we have the strong ally, South Korea, right on that border with China, which has this ambitions to dominate the world under its own system. So that is one. And the other is that in 1950 to 53, there was a Korean War. And during that time, the United States, along with other countries under the UN command, helped keep South Korea free through blood. So this is somewhere where we really sacrificed. And after that, South Korea, which was war-torn, had only about $60 per person GDP at that time, has grown to be one of the strongest countries in the world in terms of economics and also democracy, liberal democracy. So it would be a huge loss if we lose that kind of our success in democracy and freedom and freedom for the people. Right. It's really, Korea is really an amazing success story. Its economic turnaround has been spectacular. I don't know that any country has progressed so quickly economically, and the people of South Korea prospered in terms of their political freedom as well. In the last 20 years, just extraordinary growth. Yet, the current Moon regime, and President Moon looks like a sophisticated Westerner. He wears fancy suits and looks sharp. But his alliance seems to be more with North Korea and China than with America. Grant Newsham, you've just spent almost a month investigating the April elections in Korea to see if, in fact, there were stolen elections. What are your findings? Because your findings could be very important to the future of freedom around the world. My findings, after looking into it and talking to a lot of people and trying to examine the evidence like a lawyer would, is that I think there is a pretty good chance the election was rigged. And I do see it as an effort to, as one step, in moving South Korea to a one-party state, as you noted, aligned with North Korea and even more aligned with China at the expense of the United States. Wow. Tara, if, you know, I'm sitting here conceptualizing South Korea almost like, you know, the old Berlin Wall, a wall, an iron curtain, where South Korea and Japan and America are on one side promoting freedom and on the other side are the evil forces of communism and totalitarianism. And it sounds like the wall is being moved, that South Korea could be absorbed into the radical left. What is the significance if this progresses? It would be bad because we would be able to give a huge victory for China. For China, South Korea is a big, I don't want to say it's like a prize, but it would be a major victory, especially because they're trying so hard to take over Hong Kong. And there's a lot of negative publicity and resistance towards that. But in South Korea, there's hardly any resistance because a lot of people just don't know that that is in progress. And so that is very dangerous, but it also increases the chances that South Korea could turn towards North Korea. Now, having said that, of course, the government, Moon Jae-in government is doing that, but the people are, they don't want to be a vassal state of China. So this is a very serious matter. Right. Well, so, you know, one of the things that South Korea is known for is technology. And that's where China is starting to really dominate. Americans, just in the last year or two, have really learned the name Huawei, Tencent, TikTok. Grant, how are these giant social media companies and tech companies in China used, both for our elections and then for the Korean elections? And what can we then learn about the threat that these giant tech companies in China pose to freedom around the world? Well, there's certainly been a lot of attention paid recently to the threat which these tech companies pose to the United States, to our allies, and really throughout the world. And so that's become much clearer than it ever was. And that one, there's evidence in Korea that in part of the election that they were involved in capitalizing on the vulnerabilities of some of the electoral hardware, the electronic ballot machine, for example. So the technology in the case of the Korean election just might have been one of the tools that was used to shift the vote in ways that were just statistically and naturally improbable. I read the report by the renowned University of Michigan researcher, professor, who looked at the numbers. He's not an Asian specialist, doesn't know Korea, but he's a statistician and he knows elections. And he wrote one of these very sophisticated peer-reviewed journal kind of pieces showing statistically that these anomalies were so significant, you can't explain them by any means other than intentional fraud. Grant, Tara, are you familiar with this study? Can you explain a little bit better what this study means? So quickly, I did watch the Professor Mabane study. He used a forensic statistical model that he developed, and he used the data from the National Election Commission. And he ran it about six times, each time adding even more data to make it more robust. But each time, it showed that election fraud has occurred. He defines fraud in a different way. But one thing that I was really surprised by was that there were more than 1 million votes that were manufactured, and over 360,000 votes that were stolen from other candidates. It was a shocking study. And what is so disturbing to me is that some of the same Chinese companies that were involved in that are here in the U.S. too. And we've got our own election in less than two months. We certainly know that foreign governments are always trying to disrupt the way of life in America, and they've been involved in trying to disrupt elections for decades. But this time, it seems like their efforts are more focused and more determined to cause mayhem in America, even just to cause doubt in America. That could really be a disaster in two months' time if Americans do not have confidence in how this election comes out. I know that both of you are Asia experts, but do you have comments on what the future of America looks like with all of this controversy? Well, I think in terms of pre-votes and use of the electronic machine for vote counting, it's very dangerous because when frauds occur, using that kind of methodology, it's not observable to human eyes. Some are, but you have to be extremely vigilant. But most of them are not, because it just happens over wires, you know, ones and zeros. So in order to make the process transparent when electronic system is involved, you have to take an inordinate amount of measures, which I don't think that has been done. So really, the best way, really the most transparent way is to go back to analog, the old-fashioned way. But if we are using electronic means, we have to insert some sort of test to see whether the outcome is valid. But I don't think we are there yet. And that's the problem. No, I would say that first, you really have to, one, believe it's possible. And it's funny that we're told throughout our daily lives to be aware of cyber theft, cyber intrusion, to have our virus software updated, have firewalls. And yet when it comes to elections being rigged, we somehow think, well, that couldn't happen for whatever reason. But you have to be aware of it as a possibility and take it as just a mortal threat. And as Tara said, you have to do that. But also, the simpler, the better. There's a sense that, well, the convenience of electronic voting is better. But the paper works good, and it makes it much harder to tamper with. And in the Korean case, you have basically a national election. You don't have these local bodies that run it. So it was actually, looking at it from an offensive standpoint, it's actually a fairly simple thing to pull off, where you have access, you have the hardware, you have the technical know-how. And if you have some local cooperation, it's easy. But America has got to take this threat seriously. And I'm not entirely sure that we do. So Grant, you served in the Marine Corps, the U.S. Marine Corps, for a long time. You retired from the Marine Corps. You know what our enemies are capable of, and what our enemies' intentions are. Are we already involved in a war with the People's Republic of China, with the Chinese Communist Party, and it's just warfare of a different form? Yes. If you ask them, they'll tell you that. We've just gone out of our way for decades to admit it's not. But the Chinese have been very clear about what they're up to, what they intend to do. We just need to take them seriously. That's an advantage for us. It really has just taken an administration to finally wake up and actually stand up for American interests. I mean, it's about that simple. I hope we can keep it going. If I can add regarding China and technology. So South Korea, Samsung, we all know Samsung. They produce wonderful products. They also lead when it comes to 5G technology patents in the world. They have the most. And it has all kinds of cutting edge technology. And currently, South Korean government has been investigating Samsung nonstop, from one agency to a tax agency to all kinds of different places in order to harass. And right now, they are looking at putting Lee Jae-yong, who is the vice chairman of Samsung, in jail again. And they're doing this to press them. Now, this is what they have done in the past. You may have heard of the OLED technology for TV. That they basically, the ruling party made that information that came out of the court that was supposed to be secret and kept not public. They publicized it. They made it public. Basically, they gave that away free to China because Chinese companies start producing that several months later. And this is something that looks like not only are they trying to sort of take over Samsung, but they really appear to want to give all this advanced technology to China. And that is problematic because China really needs, for example, for Huawei 5G, it needs certain components from Samsung and other countries. And we, United States, have placed sanctions so that Samsung or other companies cannot sell those chips to Huawei. But if China somehow becomes owner of Samsung, then they can just take the technology. So again, it's yet another danger that I'd like to point out. President Moon of South Korea is a radical. He is not our friend. He is a radical leftist. He is using the power of his police state to attack private enterprise, to attack private property, to attack the rights of the South Koreans to run their own government. This is a terrifying thing. Yet Americans still need to wake up to this, this threat, this danger. Grant, you've got one last question or comment? Yeah, to comment. And one thing that I noticed when I was in Korea was, and I'd noticed even before, but I really got a closer sense of it, is the extent to which opposition to the Moon administration is being pressured. They have libel suits brought against them. They're being charged with interfering with the electoral process. And it reminds me very much of the Venezuela when Hugo Chavez took over, or Erdogan in Turkey, is the degree to which the people who are speaking up are being, they're trying to silence them. And he's effectively taking his stiletto to free speeches in Korea. And the foreign media doesn't seem to care much. Instead, they write stories about K-pop boy bands. But this is as serious as you can imagine. And I wouldn't know just how people in Korea who are speaking up about this are. This is like taking on old Richard Daly's machine in Chicago, but probably a bit worse, I should think. Well, Grant, Tara, thank you so much for your time. I'm going to close with the same way I opened. The radical left throughout the world is hellbent on destroying freedom. They do not like when people can govern themselves. They do not like when people can choose what to do with their own property. They do not like when people can choose whether to go to church, to mass, to synagogue, to temple. The radical left wants to destroy freedom, not only in the U.S., but around the world. We have to stick with our allies and our friends all across the globe. Because to win, for freedom to win out, we have to know who our friends are and to fight with our friends against our enemies. Thank you so much for another edition of CPAC Live. Stay strong, stay healthy, and stay free.