00:00What did you think about the president's recent banning of CNN and Politico and MS?
00:05Well, can I say this, though?
00:08This is what I meant about a loyal opposition.
00:15It is not only normal but proper for us to have debates,
00:24sometimes really tough debates, about the collective course of this country.
00:34We should have debates about tax policy.
00:37We should have debates about, I don't think we should have debates about whether the planet is warming,
00:44but we can have debates about how to approach the fact that the planet is warming.
00:55We can have debates about what is the right balance that we should strike
01:00between our interests in security and protecting our civil liberties and our privacy.
01:07We should have a very robust debate right now about AI and how do we weigh benefits versus risks.
01:18And so we, this country has never agreed uniformly with everything.
01:26Um, but there are some foundational creeds, some, some, some, some bedrock truths
01:42that are, makes us who we are, that make us American.
01:50And free press is one of those.
01:51And the free press, the idea that the government cannot discriminate against or pick on or bully
02:08or exclude somebody because they don't like the criticism that's being leveled at them,
02:17that is a foundational issue.
02:20And, and, and so I am not surprised that the current president wants to ban
02:37newscasts that are critical of him because he's that guy.
02:45It amuses me by the way, look, we, we can talk about wokeness, but remember when everybody's like,
02:54why is it, you know, these minorities and women are being so sensitive and, and I, I, I'm happy
03:00to weigh in on some of those issues.
03:02I, I, I do think sometimes, uh, the strategies behind, uh, what became term wokeness were not
03:11always designed to bring people together and, and actually advance the cause.
03:15But, you know, the Republicans used to say, you, you can't, uh, you want to silence everybody
03:23because some students were protesting or this is the president of the United States can't
03:29take some criticism.
03:34And I'm not surprised by his reaction.
03:38The fact that you do not have a, as far as I can tell, any substantial group of Republicans
03:46who are standing up and saying, no, you can't do that because we don't want, if there's a
03:54Democratic president to be banning Fox News or, you know, whatever other outlets, uh, that
04:05are going off on Democratic presidents.
04:09It's, it's, it's, you can't do that for, and, and say that you are still living in a democracy.
04:17That, that's foundational.
04:18When I was president, we used to push other countries not to do this.
04:25Part of, if I went on a, if I was meeting with the Chinese or the Russians or anybody,
04:35I would be, I would be championing, you can't imprison journalists, you can't exclude them,
04:41you can't choose a state organ that delivers your propaganda and your messaging nonstop.
04:54And, and, and, and so, um, this should not be a partisan issue.
05:01I want to, I want to, I want to underscore this, this should be something that rises above partisanship.
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