Episode 564 Scott Adams: Trump’s Philosophy on Accepting Info From Other Countries

Date: 2019-06-13 | Duration: 21:51

Topics

Fake News illegitimately slamming President Trump Do we really know who attacked the Iranian tankers? POTUS has authority over the FBI…can decide what’s relevant

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Rough Transcript

This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.

Transcript

[0:03]

but I’m pumpin boom boom boom yes it’s a very rare afternoon coffee with Scott Adams doesn’t have to be coffee it’s the afternoon after all unless you for viewing this later then who knows what time it is but get in here we’ve got stuff to talk about and if you’d like to enjoy the simultaneous up just get on it grab your copy or vessel your mug your sign your chalice your flask whatever it is a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid mmm if I sound funny it’s because I just got back from the dentist so I might be dribbling a little bit all right so let’s talk about President Trump saying that he might accept information from a foreign country and then he would decide whether or not to tell the FBI of course you’re watching this story and

[1:05]

of course you’re watching this story and I think you’re having a similar reaction to I am which is screaming at the news the entire time and here’s what I’m screaming every time Trump says well let’s say Norway gave me some information that was his example what does the do say well I guess he’d be okay if the Russian intelligence agency offered him information he wouldn’t tell the FBI or if the Chinese intelligence agency talked to him he wouldn’t tell the FBI no that’s not what he said he said if Norway had some information he’d listened to it first is that not pretty much the opposite of Russian intelligence very different but the news is trying to treat them like they’re the same thing likewise because people don’t have a good memory of what happened with the Don junior meeting with the Russian

[2:06]

Don junior meeting with the Russian lawyer people are conflating in their mind there’s somehow we knew back then that Russia was trying to interfere with the elections and that anybody would have known that this lawyer was saying that somehow connected to Putin but nobody knew that nobody knew much about this lawyer at the time of the meeting she was just a person who happened to be from another country so here’s the other thing I keep screaming at my Intellivision don’t you make a distinction between let’s see reading now from Politico this is their phrase it says it is a crime for a campaign to solicit except something of value from a foreign entity a foreign entity is one person and entity I don’t know I would think that a foreign entity would be something like a foreign corporation a foreign government a foreign intelligence service that seems like an

[3:08]

intelligence service that seems like an entity did they mean an individual if there’s just a guy who knows some stuff and he happens to be elbonian if there just happens to be a guy who just happens to know some stuff and he just happens to be a citizen of another country are you not allowed to listen to it doesn’t sound right to me but here are some other questions I have so the first the first point is that the news is completely illegitimately covering this because they’re they’re acting as though Trump would act the same if Russian intelligence came to him as he would if a person who happened to be from Norway came to him there’s no way that he treats them the same so acting as if he would is pure imagination and mind-reading and it’s bad mind rate so here are some questions I have since it is a crime for a campaign to solicit or

[4:11]

is a crime for a campaign to solicit or accept something of value from a foreign entity how do you determine what’s the value so in the in the context of a campaign you would assume when you that the thing of value is something that the the voters will find out which could change the election isn’t that your assumption now there could be other things but for the most part your standard assumption would be there’s something they know that if I release it to the public it would be good for me because my campaign will have an advantage because of that information in the public what value would you put on that I’ll tell you the value I would put on it zero because if that foreign entity wants that information to be in the public they can do that without you they can just go to the press so the first thing that it I’m not hearing

[5:11]

first thing that it I’m not hearing anybody talk about is the fact that if a campaign got something of value the public would also hear it if not through the campaign then through the entity they gave it him because they wouldn’t give it to you to use in public unless the whole point was to use it in public so what is the value of secret information that you’d know is going to be shared with everybody because that’s what it’s for the secret information would have no value if Trump was the only one who ever heard it it only has value if it becomes then later public so if I were an economist and I said okay let’s put a put of value on this did he get something of value when in fact it was going to be free to everybody no matter what because why else would they even be offering it it must be something they want to be out there let me ask you this

[6:14]

want to be out there let me ask you this suppose suppose Russia knew let’s say they had some information and they wanted to give it to Trump but they knew that that wouldn’t work because of this campaign law that says they can’t give something of value to trump could Russia just find some American just some average American and just say hey average American we can’t give this to a but you can so we’re gonna give it to you average American and here’s your’s Trump’s email address or so yeah I guess they wouldn’t be that but they say here’s the information an average American I can give it to you you’re not in the campaign and what you do with it is up to you you can give it to the press you can give it to a campaign you can give it to the other campaign do whatever you want so given that if you were an economist and you were gonna put a value on this information information only has value if it can be private and

[7:17]

only has value if it can be private and you can have some control over it otherwise it’s public information public information you wouldn’t put a value on it to an individual and if you did you know even though I would have more more value to one than another could anybody get in trouble for public information so here’s here’s the more specific question suppose a country let’s pick Russia had some information that they thought would help one of the candidates and they released it in public if they released it in public would it have the same benefit as if they had given it to Trump or his campaign and they released it it would be exactly the same wouldn’t it since the entire point was to get it into the public otherwise it doesn’t affect the election so would the Trump would the Trump campaign be in trouble if Russia simply made the information that they

[8:18]

simply made the information that they alleged to have public without ever talking to the campaign because it seems to me that would be a very very exact case of a crime it’s a crime for a campaign to slip and solicit solicit sorry just back from the dentist and I don’t have the whole mouth working yet so when it would it be a crime for a campaign to accept something of value from a foreign entity if the way they accepted that value was the other country released it to the public because if you release that information to the public well you and I might arguably get some benefit I suppose maybe not but the campaign would get most of the benefit are they not allowed to read the news if there’s something in in public so I feel as though our media is completely letting us down first by conflating things such as how you would treat

[9:20]

things such as how you would treat Norway giving you some information with how you would treat a citizen from Russia who came in because they know your friend versus Russian intelligence those are three very different situations and it seems to me the president Trump was fully transparent and said yeah I listened to her first and then I decide anybody who disagrees with that is inexperienced in the real world as I said earlier in my earlier periscope if somebody came to me and said I’ve got this valuable information for you can you meet with me it’s valuable information doesn’t matter what it’s valuable to somebody’s telling me they have valuable information for me but they can’t tell me until they get in a room with me do you know what I say of that valuable information its BS I would say that that is almost always say 95%

[10:21]

say that that is almost always say 95% not true this is just somebody who wants to get in a room with me how many times if I had that exact situation to happen a lot a lot when you’re famous people try to get in a room with you to pitch whatever it is they want to pitch it’s a it’s an entirely common situation for somebody to say I got something really valuable let me tell you god it’s got to be a private meeting then you go in the meeting and you hear and you go I already knew that or that’s not really very useful and then they say well why are you here while you’re here let me pitch this other things and since we’re here anyway right the most common thing in business Trump and even probably Don jr. know knows that how many times have they been tricked into meetings that were not exactly the way they were represented it’s a pretty common fact so if absolutely makes sense to hear the information first and then decide whether you’re going to bring the FBI in

[11:24]

whether you’re going to bring the FBI in it’s the only way it makes sense everybody who says it’s it’s obvious it’s common sense that you would do it the other way why would you not listen to information if you could because if it’s not true well you take it over the FBI if it looks like something they care about and if it is true you still want to know it and then you kick it over to the FBI so as long as you’re genuine about your your statement that you would kick it over to the FBI if it was something that mattered that’s sort of all that matters because there is not really a world in which listening to somebody talk could be illegal in a way that a jury would convict you so that’s what’s bothering me about this whole story is that there’s such unclear thinking about how information could be could be illegal all right

[12:26]

illegal all right but I guess it’s good news that that’s the biggest story today except for Iran let’s talk about Iran so Pompeyo has said that because of the the sophistication of the Iranian sorry the sophistication of the recent attacks on shipping vessels that sophistication in in the area that was in tells them that it could only be Iran to which I say and and then the presumed reason is that Iran is putting pressure on the United States without trying to be too overt about it so they’re putting pressure on the United States to I don’t know make a better deal or something but here’s the thing do you believe anything that comes out of even our own government I mean I’m unabated ministrations supporter but even I don’t believe this

[13:28]

supporter but even I don’t believe this news you know I’m willing I’m willing to believe you know the administration on you know directionally true on most things but honestly I’m not saying this false so I’m not gonna state this is not true I’m not going to do that but I think you have to look at a situation like this and say it’s no better than a coin flip that they got the right the right folks now is there any other entity that could pull this off with this level of sophistication because all it was was some minds hatched to the ship right is it that hard to get your hands on some of those minds is it that hard to attach it to where the ship and there’s there really nobody else in the whole world who would like to see some trouble over there I would say there are too many people who could do this who would like to see some trouble there are

[14:29]

would like to see some trouble there are too many bad actors so I would say don’t believe it for now but it might be convenient for our government to act as though they believe it because it puts pressure on Iran and maybe that’s the play it could be that the play is simply to act like we believe it’s them because it puts pressure on them and maybe that looks like a good deal but I’m not gonna say believe it yet now here’s the thing that looks suspicious if it had been if that tanker had been compiled a ‘test - if they had been completely destroyed I would say wow that sounds like you know terrorist act Iranian sort of thing but is it not suspicious that the damage was not that bad or are you not are you not suspicious of a mind that was above the waterline you know maybe there’s some reason that’s the only place they could put it but it seems to me that if you wanted to really take a ship out you

[15:31]

wanted to really take a ship out you probably put that money below the water line would you it feels like especially because of a from Japan was talking to Iran and he was there and these ships had some goods for Japan and nobody got hurt really nobody got hurt and the Iranian Navy apparently rescued him none of this quite fits it’s a ram now it doesn’t rule a ran out so I’m not gonna say they didn’t do it a lot of bad stuff happens over there people do dumb things people do things that are so clever I can’t understand why they do them so possible but I would say no more than a coin flip 50-50 I’d give this one and you would be wise to keep your skepticism to hold it all their clothes and by the way when Pompeo says that given the complexity of it it seems to

[16:34]

given the complexity of it it seems to point to a nation-state such as Iran how complicated is it to attach a mine to a ship does that complicate it I mean I don’t know it seems like all you need is some kind of small vessel and you know you kind of creep up to it and attach one of those minds I can’t believe that in this world where you can buy any kind of weapon you know if you’re a country or a terrorist group you can get a hold of any kind of normal weapon somebody’s gonna sell it to you so it shouldn’t be that hard to get a mind it shouldn’t be that hard to find a vessel that’s you know getting this being loaded it shouldn’t be that hard to attach it it just doesn’t seem to me like the explanation that it was too complicated to be teres I don’t know feels like could have been a lot of different people that’s all I’m saying all right I just wanted to pop on and say those things but watch how muddled

[17:38]

say those things but watch how muddled and Yellin sort of irrational the conversation is about the president saying he would accept the information before he decided what to do oh I saved my best point for last you ready for my best point this is completely stolen bite from somebody on Twitter whose name I forget so I feel bad about it but this is not my original idea and the thought was president Trump is the boss of the FBI right President Trump can decide what is classified and what is not he is the great decider of what information is private confidential and what is not in this special case where the person who’s talking is the President of the United States and the FBI works for him in that special case which is the case we’re talking about is it really a crime for the boss to get

[18:38]

it really a crime for the boss to get the information before the boss’s employee first time you’ve heard that right has anybody asked that question besides me and I stole it from somebody on Twitter so if you look at the tweets I like you’ll find out who did it wasn’t anybody that I knew yeah it seems to me you know I’m no Alan Dershowitz but it seems to be that the first person who should see that information would be the boss right now if he were in the campaign he wouldn’t be the boss but as the president if we’re talking about let’s say re-election he is the boss here’s here’s the second point that’s my own suppose the information from this other government implicated Hillary Clinton and by extension wait for it what if it implicated the FBI what if

[19:42]

what if it implicated the FBI what if the information that came from this foreign intelligence source said that the US intelligence services were dirty and that they were doing something with Clinton who should see that first the people who have just been blamed as being traitors or their boss who knows he’s not who do you go to first if you don’t know what the information is you want to hear it before you give it to the people who might actually be implicated by the information so who asks that question yet yet have you heard that question no now of course I’m also accidentally conflating so let me stop doing that if if it’s somebody in a campaign who is not the boss of the FBI that’s got to be a different situation than someone who’s running for re-election and is the boss of the FBI so Trump was speaking from his current context it sounded to me and in his current job he’s the boss he does

[20:46]

in his current job he’s the boss he does get to see him first right because it wasn’t about him if the information was about him you can imagine well you know I’m I I’ve got self interest here you know the conflict of interest or something so you can imagine some special case but if the information is about his opponent he’s the boss the boss gets to see the information not just first but anytime he wants anytime she wants the boss is not precluded from seeing the information that the underlings have all right yeah and and just in general I think it can’t be illegal to listen to stuff I just can’t imagine any but it would go to jail for listening to stuff before they know it has value all right those are a few points I’ve now seen in the press maybe someday we will but that’s all I got to

[21:48]

someday we will but that’s all I got to talk about now I’ll talk to you later