Tucker Carlson interviews Rod Blagojevich: Kamala’s Corruption, & the Real Cause of the Democrat Party’s Spiral Into Insanity

VERY INTERESTING INTERVIEW...

Show more

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a lifelong Democrat, did eight years in federal prison. By the time he got out in 2020, his party had gone completely insane. He’s now all in for Donald Trump.

Chapters
8 chapters in this episode

Blagojevich’s Prison Experience00:00:00
1. Blagojevich’s Prison Experience
The Left’s Anti-Christian Agenda00:10:10
2. The Left’s Anti-Christian Agenda
What Role Did Barack Obama Play in Destroying Blagojevich’s Life?00:19:50
3. What Role Did Barack Obama Play in Destroying Blagojevich’s Life?
The Real Reason They Jailed Blagojevich00:25:50
4. The Real Reason They Jailed Blagojevich
The Media Covering for the Democrat Elites00:45:50
5. The Media Covering for the Democrat Elites
Will Trump Win?00:50:57
6. Will Trump Win?
What Happens If Kamala Wins?01:01:39
7. What Happens If Kamala Wins?
The Clintons and Foreign Wars01:06:53
8. The Clintons and Foreign Wars
Transcript
Rod Blagojevich [00:00:00] I'll tell you, this is a long way from being inmate number 40892424…..

Tucker [00:00:04] Well, you're I must say, your prison story. I've heard a lot of prison stories. One of the most incredible I've ever heard.

Rod Blagojevich [00:00:09] I'm writing a book about it. You should. And it's an unusual story. It's a story that starts with one President Obama. He started the whole thing because he sent someone to me to make a political deal for the senator. And with Trump and in the yeah, most of it's about a governor in prison with Crips and Bloods, Gangster Disciples, Sinaloa cartel drug dealers who look up to El Chapo. Like my daughters look up to Taylor Swift. Murderers were in there for my first three years, elude a six foot by eight foot prison cell, a far cry from the 50,000 square foot governor's mansion.

Tucker [00:00:37] Well, it's incredible. But what's incredible to me was the fact that you survived it mentally, not just intact, but stronger. And I just find that I mean, if you'd killed ten people, it's not even about. I mean, I think you got screwed. Yes. You know, Thank you. You know, if you hadn't gotten screwed, I would still be in awe of your toughness, emotional, spiritual toughness to come out positive, focused, not bitter. I mean, that's remarkable to me.

Rod Blagojevich [00:01:05] Thank you. Thanks for saying that.

Tucker [00:01:06] No, I mean it. What's so obvious? If I had. How long were you away?

Rod Blagojevich [00:01:11] 2886 days. One month short of eight years. Not that I was counting. I'm sorry to be your. No.

Tucker [00:01:19] No, but it's just. It's remarkable.

Rod Blagojevich [00:01:41] Three years and that six foot by a foot prison cell, you know, in the higher prison where they were squeezing me, you know, with the gangbangers, murderers, bank robbers, pedophiles, transgender people who were half woman, half man. Funded by you, the taxpayer, mermaids. And you can't call them a woman or they'll throw you in the Shu solitary confinement. They take away your good time. So I know what it's like to live in a society that's imposing, which, again, even say, you know, having been there for that time. But no, you're.

Tucker [00:02:12] That's such a smart point. I mean, they're basically trying to turn the country into an open air prison where they control behavior. Your language, your thought.

Rod Blagojevich [00:02:20] Yeah. Well said, Faith. Hope and love. So coming home, Faith, hope and love, you know, And, you know, you get those moments when you're you find yourself in deep despair and you feel like there's no chance the system is so rigged you can't get justice. You can't even get mercy because you fight back. No one even said it took a penny. It was all politics. Request for campaign contributions. No quid pro quo. We knew where the lines were. Trade me twice. And then you put your faith in the appellate court. And then they you know, they can't uphold this. This so-called sale, the sanity. Because if they allow that standard government shuts down because there's all horse trading and that's what they called it. And they were right. So they eventually reversed that. But I'm known for this. The other ones were three fundraising requests made by third parties, not even by me. And they knew not to make any promises or threats, and they criminalized that by using a standard that the Supreme Court said wasn't the law and it was whitewashed by the appellate court to protect them. And, you know, you get those moments, but then you say to yourself, you know, it ain't about you anymore. It's about your daughters. They were little girls when I left home. And your wife, you got to be strong for them. And as long as you have purpose in life, you can survive anything. And Viktor Frankl wrote that book, Man's Search for Meaning Holocaust Survivor. I mean, million times worse than anything we went through. But his point was the last of the human freedoms is our freedom to choose our own attitude in any given set of circumstances. It was very helpful. And I got to tell you, and this is not baloney, am I right now? Yeah. Yeah, the Bible. I mean, I was so alone in the beginning and I reached for that Bible in a way I never did before. I wasn't going to bother with the Genesis or Leviticus or Deuteronomy, get caught up in who's be getting who, because I would always slow me down when I try to read in the real world. I went right to the right, to the Psalms and got inspiration, and then I moved on and went to Isaiah Jeremiah then I went to the Gospels. Paul Of course. And well, all of them speaking.

Tucker [00:04:18] In prison terms.

Rod Blagojevich [00:04:20] Exactly. And Ron Paul did a.

Tucker [00:04:21] Lot of time. He sure.

Rod Blagojevich [00:04:22] Did. And it just gave me strength and and drew me closer to God. I'm not running for anything. Something that, you know, given any best to your listeners, it was just real. And in some respects, I'm not saying it was good, but I'd have moments over the years where I would actually feel, you know, some sort of real unique connection to God. And it was somewhat like what Solzhenitsyn had written when he was in Siberia. And you talked about he said something like, thank you prison for what you did for me because but for what you did, I would not feel as close to God as I do now.

Tucker [00:04:57] But that's just such a remarkable perspective of such a non-American perspective. Thank you for prison.

Rod Blagojevich [00:05:03] Yeah, that's what he said. Yeah, that's right. I'm not quite going that far.

Tucker [00:05:06] But. No, but I think what you're saying is that suffering turned you into a different man. A better man?

Rod Blagojevich [00:05:12] Yeah, I think yes. And I think a greater appreciation for the things that really matter most in life, you know, like the people in your life that you love and the appreciation for the simple things that maybe you were, you know, a little bit less aware of because you were so busy in the race of life to get ahead, right?

Tucker [00:05:28] No, I find must have been nice.

Rod Blagojevich [00:05:30] There was no iPhone in the world at that time. When I left home. When I got home eight years later. What is this thing? Right. Why all changes? And that's another thing is humbling. Is it okay if I keep talking.

Tucker [00:05:40] Like I hope you will?

Rod Blagojevich [00:05:41] Yeah. It's like you ain't so good. You ain't so great, man. Like the world waits for you. You just keep spinning around, man. Yes, that is true.

Tucker [00:05:49] In the end, all graves go unvisited that you see on everybody's refrigerator. Wow. Your party changed very much. On to how. What did you notice when you go back?

Rod Blagojevich [00:06:00] Well, I noticed this whole new thing called Wokeness and cancel culture, which I wasn't aware of before I left. I noticed the intolerance of the far left of the Democrat Party. I noticed that my daughters, my little girls grew up and became vegans. Not that they're, you know, far left, but that was weird.

Tucker [00:06:25] I think, you know, I'm not against, you know, whatever, whatever you want or whatever you, you know, don't eat what you don't want to eat. On the other hand, that's that's like the fear of every father that your girls are going to become vegans because it feels like it represents something else.

Rod Blagojevich [00:06:36] But has nothing to do with diet. It's that they, you know, they feel like it's wrong to. He'd need to kill an animal. And it's a very sweet cane thing. And their point of view is.

Tucker [00:06:46] I agree.

Rod Blagojevich [00:06:48] And then, you know, I came home to a, you know, working class neighborhood in Chicago. I mean, we lived a nice little neighborhood, but where the local Democrat Party began to turn socialist and, you know, the local city council people, we call them aldermen in Chicago, I think in 2019, my sister in law was the alderman in our world. She had inherited that seat from her father, had been there for a long, long time. And she got beat by a socialist, lost by 12 votes. But a socialist, that was like shocking to me that some of the other long standing members of the city council were defeated by socialists. And so suddenly that was this new realization that the Democrat Party at the grassroots level was radicalized.

Tucker [00:07:30] Where they going to governing the socialists.

Rod Blagojevich [00:07:32] Now they're terrible at governing. And now we're going to get a major property tax increase in Chicago. The mayor, Brandon Johnson, just announced then and as I read that this morning, I was thinking driving here, geez, I wonder if we have any risk of getting carjacked up here in Bethel, Maine, Right. Because of Chicago. You got to think about those things.

Tucker [00:07:50] It's just funny. I mean, it's you know, people have all these ideologies and I'm a this or I'm in that. I believe, you know, here's my my worldview. But I don't know, on some level, it's kind of about, do you make the town, the state, the country better to live in or not? And you're saying that the people who took over Chicago did not improve life?

Rod Blagojevich [00:08:08] No, They've made it more unsafe. They're unwilling to have any kind of open minded discussion about the fact that the schools have been failing for generations. And most of the poor kids that are suffering are the black kids. Yeah, for sure. They talked a big game about being the side of the black people, but they won't even give a black mother a choice or a chance to maybe try another school because the public schools are so locked in to what the teachers unions want. And I'm not here to say that I wasn't exactly, you know, part of that Democrat Party and the unions and the teachers.

Tucker [00:08:36] You you were part of it. That's why it's so interesting. Yeah, Well, yeah, you're a product of you're a governor of the state, right? And you came out of that world. I did so well. That's why it's worth asking you about this, because you've seen you've seen the whole scope of it from the Daley years to present.

Rod Blagojevich [00:08:49] That's right. And you know, the Democrat Party that I was in the party of the second Mayor Daley, the party, the first Mayor Daley, practical, you know, practical governance, just make people's lives better.

Tucker [00:09:00] The best snowplowing in the United States. That's it. And it snowed. Chicago got plowed before the suburbs. It was I saw it. It was amazing.

Rod Blagojevich [00:09:07] Yes, that's right. And not too stuck on ideology, but there were certain values that were fundamental to traditional Democrats. What were they love of country or faith, family, love of country. And this Democrat Party is none of those three. And there is an assault on faith in America by these Democrats, by the more radical Democrats. And it's something that has grown over the last couple of decades, something I saw when I was a Democratic member of Congress. I hope I don't turn your listeners off, but I supported Pelosi to be the right leader when I was there. I saw even the beginnings of that when they were trying to take God out of the, you know, the the in God we trust her.

Tucker [00:09:48] Well, she's a Catholic girl from Baltimore, son of the mayor. Yeah. She was very I mean, she was the son of Baltimore's Mayor Daley, like kind of old school machine Democrat, right?

Rod Blagojevich [00:09:58] That's right.

Tucker [00:09:59] But she changed her.

Rod Blagojevich [00:10:01] Because she's a practical politician. And so she's gravitated towards that energy in the Democrat Party today, which is that far, far less socialist Democrat party that wants to re change America. And you say this and I'll repeat what you say, and that is to force us and make us to try to believe things we know. They're just not true. Yes. Right. And that's this dictatorial Democrat Party.

Tucker [00:10:21] But you saw hostility to Christianity when you were there. The idea growing.

Rod Blagojevich [00:10:26] Yeah, in the late 90s. I did. You know, once in a while there be a congressional resolutions to take got out of the the chamber of the House chamber and then there was the judge in Alabama, Roy Moore Yeah. I'm proud to say that back in the late 90s, as a Democrat congressman from the city of Chicago, I supported that judge. Why can't he put the Ten Commandments up there in his courthouse? What's wrong with the Ten Commandments? That's the foundation of our laws is the foundation of our values.

Tucker [00:10:52] So I said, that's literally true. It is the foundation. Sure. Yes. Yeah.

Rod Blagojevich [00:10:55] Yeah.

Tucker [00:10:56] So why were people so hysterical about Judge Roy Moore? I mean, they destroyed Judge Roy Moore. Yeah, I know. As a person.

Rod Blagojevich [00:11:02] I saw that from afar. Yeah, the deep, dark valley. I watched all that because there's a, you know, there's an element in America and it's found a home in the Democrat Party that's all about science and absolutely nothing about religion. I think the part of the coalition is the Democrat Party, and I've been supportive of LGBTQ issues, but I think they feel threatened by Judeo-Christian values. And so they've become, in many respects, antagonistic to those traditional values. And these are some of the practical considerations that are part of why a lot of these Democrats have left. The traditional Democrat, you know, working person's view of God and have become more apt to embrace science. And, you know, and one of the. I'm not saying there's any advantages to being present for a long time. Yeah. But when you got all that time and you got to kill it, you either try to use it constructively or it'll kill you. Yes. And it's a good place to catch up on your reading. Yeah. And I used to read a lot of the sermons from Martin Luther King, and one of his sermons was really powerful. He talked about what science can do the good things, but it's got its God that provides the conscience to God's side to guide science. Yes. And, you know, science creates the medicines that cure people, which is great. Also created the nuclear weapons that can destroy the world. What is it that's going to guide then? Are we going to trust in people? I know how people can be. I know how wicked they can be. The best and brightest can be corrupt because I know what they did to me and to my family. It was shocking to me that U.S. attorneys could be so dishonest and corrupt and that the judge would be in on it, just go along with it. And so my faith is not in people. So you.

Tucker [00:12:42] Were shocked. I mean, obviously you're distressed it happened to you, but you were shocked that it happens.

Rod Blagojevich [00:12:47] Yes, I thought they were the good I was a cook prosecutor when I started out in a in a low level.

Tucker [00:12:52] Yeah.

Rod Blagojevich [00:12:53] Daley The second Mayor Daley at the time was elected Cook County State's attorney, and he was my boss. So he's way up high and I'm a traffic court rate just turning out to 800 of US assistants, big, you know, big office and up with the misdemeanor branch court. And then I went into private practice. So I never met him when I worked for him. It was only until I became an elected official. And then in ten short years, I became the governor. He was the mayor. He still thought I worked for him, by the way.

Tucker [00:13:18] But that's a fraught relationship always between Chicago mayor and Illinois governor anyway, isn't it?

Rod Blagojevich [00:13:25] Yeah, I think so. But I think that he's practical. And, you know, these Democrats, you know, have programs and stuff that they want to pay for. And, you know, bloated budgets are not a priority. And even the old school Democrats, that's not a priority. It's, you know, jobs and, you know, opportunities for people who've helped and that kind of thing. But the point I want to make about Daley was when I worked in that state's attorney's office, you know, I learned a lot about how, you know, prosecutors operated and they were all right. Mostly good. But I imagine that the federal U.S. attorneys who wanted the better schools, you know, I could never have a chance to be one of them. Right. Grades. I was a gentleman c scholar in law school that these people had to be really smart, really bright, and they had to be super honest compared to the local Democratic prosecutors, many of whom, you know, had some political backing to get their jobs. And I discovered they are, in my case anyway. And I know I speak generally about everybody, but they're so corrupt you can't get a fair trial if they're.

Tucker [00:14:27] Look at Andrew Weissman, you know, at the very top was a truly evil man. Evil. And, you know. Weissman, I'm sure as it was smart, clever anyway, and certainly well credentialed and has almost unchecked power. I mean, it's crazy that that exists.

Rod Blagojevich [00:14:42] So he destroyed Arthur Andersen with fake law. That's a legitimate, fake law. They just make it up. They just move lines to get the convictions. Supreme Court took the case and Weissman standard that used to destroy Arthur Andersen, it cost all those people jobs nine to nothing. Supreme Court ruled he was wrong. That wasn't the law. Yeah. Yeah. So he destroyed the. And what does he get for that? He gets rewarded by being some big commentator on CNN. And people listen to this guy like he's like he's honest.

Tucker [00:15:08] I it's disgusting.

Rod Blagojevich [00:15:10] It is disgusting.

Tucker [00:15:10] What? Not to get sidetracked. What are the what is the daily fame? I think we're still. He still alive? Yes. Yes. What do they think of the modern Democratic Party? Kamala Harris? Joe Biden? Like what do they think of that?

Rod Blagojevich [00:15:20] So. Bill Daley.

Tucker [00:15:21] Yeah, yeah, of course.

Rod Blagojevich [00:15:22] Ran for mayor of Chicago while I was in prison and shockingly got his ass kicked in New Chicago. And that's when Lori Lightfoot was elected. Yeah, the new kind of mayor in Chicago, right. She's a big failure, and she got defeated soundly. But the fact that a Daley could lose in Chicago was another reminder that, boy, times have changed.

Tucker [00:15:41] Different population in Chicago, very different demographic.

Rod Blagojevich [00:15:44] Now, the city that used to be, you know, diverse racially, you know, a very strong still, you know, black population still in the poor, bad, rough neighborhoods, a big Latino population. But it was a city of white working class white ethnics.

Tucker [00:15:59] Yeah. Central Eastern European.

Rod Blagojevich [00:16:00] Peoples. Right. Large Polish population, Slavs. That's right. That element is gone now. You know, they two, three generations, they worked hard to build better lives for themselves. They take advantage like our friend Phillip over here. Yeah. Working hard to make the American dream. They've moved upward out of the city and into, you know, more affluent suburbs.

Tucker [00:16:21] But they were the basis of the city.

Rod Blagojevich [00:16:22] They sure were. And they've been replaced by these young, you know, young new generation. Not very politically aware, you know, probably driven by the social issues more than anything else. You know, a woman's right to choose those kinds of issues.

Tucker [00:16:39] Right. So they've been replaced by affluent, white, inherited money kids.

Rod Blagojevich [00:16:44] That's right.

Tucker [00:16:44] And illegal aliens.

Rod Blagojevich [00:16:46] Generally speaking. That's exactly right.

Tucker [00:16:48] Right. So that's that's always the model. It's rich white women and illegal aliens working in tandem to destroy civilization. It is in cities across the country That is the model, the unhappiest people. And the most, you know, the the people with the least power who just can be used as cannon fodder for the program of the unhappiest people. So but do you know what the deal is? Think of this like watching their city become a joke.

Rod Blagojevich [00:17:14] Well, look, I know that I know Rich Daley better than Bill Daley, and I know both. And then there's John Daley, the younger one and the father. I mean, this is not their Democratic Party. No. And Mayor Daley, who's in his early 80s now, he hosts a Christmas party every year. And I get invited. I get to see him. And he's had a couple of strokes and he hosts a Saint Patrick's Day parties.

Tucker [00:17:36] You can horse. He does.

Rod Blagojevich [00:17:39] I think he's quietly going to vote for Trump.

Tucker [00:17:41] I'm sure. Yeah.

Rod Blagojevich [00:17:42] And Bill Daley? Maybe not, because he's sort of you know, he was more like Bill Daley didn't win elected office. He was more of appointed guy, you know?

Tucker [00:17:49] Yeah, He worked for Bill Clinton, actually, still.

Rod Blagojevich [00:17:51] That's right. And well, I don't want it to mean him, but he doesn't have the same kind of artistic inability. You got to have to be in the arena, be good at it, you know what I'm saying?

Tucker [00:18:00] Run. Chicago is not an easy thing as the current mayor is proving. Yeah. Right. You know, until not that long ago, the 1990s, the US government classified encryption as a form of munitions and strictly controlled its use. In other words, encryption was considered a dangerous weapon. Well, technology and law have changed a lot since then. But it's still true that encryption is a powerful weapon against a defensive weapon, against an entire army of bad actors who want to invade your privacy on the Internet and then profit from it or control you. Thankfully, today you have the right to use encryption to protect yourself. You don't have to be a sophisticated computer programmer. You don't have to code in order to do it. Instead, you can use a simple app called Expressvpn Express. VPN automatically encrypts and reroutes his internet connection through secure servers, and that makes everything you do online private. No one can monitor, record, manipulate or profit from what you do online without getting your consent. You have your freedom back. Without encryption, your Internet service provider can legally sell everything you do, your browsing history to whomever they want. And data brokers can track your activity across every site you visit and then sell that information to marketers. But Expressvpn makes it very, very easy to shut out all of those third parties, which is why we use it here. You tap one button and when the app turns green you are private. Your connection cannot be seen. And Expressvpn works on every device. You have your phone, laptop, tablet, you name it, it works. So if you get it today, you can add extra three extra months of expressvpn for free. Just by using the special link you go to expressvpn.com/tucker that's express vpn.com/tucker and get three extra months for free and begin to protect yourself. So what role did Obama play? I mean I think most people thought Obama was like a sign that America was getting healthier, healing from, you know, past trauma and all that. He was a sign of hope and then it just got super evil. But when did you realize that Obama was not what he seemed to be and what role did he play in the disaster in your life?

Rod Blagojevich [00:20:16] He started the whole thing. You know my story that the book that I'm writing is a story that started with him on election night in 2008. It was magical, you know, first black person, half black and. Yeah, yeah, man from Kansas, dad from Kenya, elected president. I've known him since 1995. We both came up together in politics, had good relationships. I was introduced to him by a guy by the name of Tony Rezko. I think that name is familiar to you, who's not nearly the guy who's been portrayed. I mean, business man, very practical, extremely generous to Obama and good Obama. Helpful to both of us raising money and things like that. And when I was elected governor, he would come to me with requests from Obama. And, you know, a lot of it were appointments to tie positions in state government. I was two years ahead of Obama in terms of going to the next level because I was the first Democratic governor elected in Illinois in 2002. And with this long and hard to pronounce last name, which was kind of cutting edge at the time, because for the most part, Illinois was electing guys with Anglo names, Russian names. You know, we had Thompson, we had Edgar, and we had Ryan before me.

Tucker [00:21:18] All those guys went to prison.

Rod Blagojevich [00:21:20] Well, Ryan did. Yeah. Thompson put Governor Kerner in prison. That's another story. But.

Tucker [00:21:27] And then I was like being a first lieutenant in Vietnam. The odds are bad.

Rod Blagojevich [00:21:30] Right. Exactly right. Yeah, the death. Right. But I think in some respects, I'm you know, I should apologize to the American people because I might have had something to do with Obama's success, because I think he saw that if I won and I could win downstate the rural areas and, you know, deep southern Illinois, which is the American South, a guy like me from Chicago, he could do it with a name. You can't say his name. He could do it. And two years later, he did. And he got the opportunity to give that speech in Boston, which was his William Jennings Bryan moment, right? Yeah. He electrified the crowd with that.

Tucker [00:22:00] I was there. Yeah.

Rod Blagojovich [00:22:02] So was I. I turned to Bobby Rush, the congressman from a Black Panther. I said, Bobby, just think about that. As soon as you get out that speech, you're the only guy there are beaten that guy in an election because Obama challenged him in 1998. But no, I thought Obama was all right. You know, kind of cold and impersonal, but okay. And I was happy to be helpful. But he's one of the more selfish people in politics on a one on one level. And he's not pure like the driven snow in the sense of his ethics or morality. And, you know, Tony Rezko is the guy who bought this lot next to Obama's home. And one of the things I write about in my book is that when I was governor. First and then I'll be Barack 1 or 2004. I was asked to make a phone call on behalf of Michelle Obama because as soon as she won the Senate race, she wanted a job either at Northwestern University or the University of Chicago hospitals for 2 to $300,000 a year. The wife of the new senator and I was asked, would you call and was.

Tucker [00:22:58] She specific about how much she wanted? Yeah. I can't speak about salary.

Rod Blagojevich [00:23:02] Yeah. And I think to Northwestern, we should double check this, but I think my recollection is is good. I think Northwestern was willing to pay $200,000 to hire her. This is the wife of the new U.S. senator and federal money for, you know, Medicaid and Medicare and things like that. And then. They got a better offer at the University of Chicago, which is in Hyde Park, where they're from. 300,000. And she ended up working there. And and I called to help because, you know, you help people in politics and the guy whose wife wants a job, I'll make a phone call. But he didn't get it that she didn't get it because of me. But it didn't help to have didn't hurt to have the governor call it.

Tucker [00:23:40] The second Obama gets elected, Michelle says, I want a job at one of two hospitals for between 2 and 3. Three.

Rod Blagojevich [00:23:47] That's crazy. Yeah. And she ended up working at the University of Chicago Hospital, up almost $300,000 a year. And so Rezko was really helpful, really helpful to Obama. And and so. When the investigations against me heated up. It had to do with fundraising. And Tony was part of that. And I got to say this. Tony suffered. He spent eight years in prison. I don't know whether those things that they said he did were even legal based on what they did to me. I'm not so sure they were illegal. It had nothing to do with my administration. They were business matters. But. Obama just ran from them and did nothing to help them. And, you know, pretends like he never knew them. And yet the moment he became senator, she gets that $300,000 a year job with a little help, tiny little bit of help from me with a phone call. And then they buy this mansion in Kenwood neighborhood, which is Hyde Park, Chicago, beautiful old mansions where the family of Leopold and Loeb they lived. Yeah, right.

Tucker [00:24:47] So a lot of sickos in that neighborhood gone back 100 years.

Rod Blagojevich [00:24:50] Well, those guys, those two boys were. I was a bastion of within a liberal America there, Jackie Loeb. So what happened was the Obamas bought this mansion. Now he's the new senator. The first thing they do is buy a match. I guess he felt like I was getting a match because I was the governor wasn't mine. But I got the use of a 50,000 square foot governor's mansion. I guess they wanted their own. So they could only afford 750,000. So they they purchased. The lot with the house on it, the mansion on it, but they couldn't afford the adjoining lot, so the rest go to pay for them. And he did. And my understanding of the federal investigations with me were also connected to Obama, that these guys were apparently looking into that and some other things along the way. The dynamic changed and Obama started moving up in the presidential race. And I here again is something I like to take back. But I was the first governor in America to endorse him for president. I'm going to personal relationships from Illinois. And he's running against Hillary. So it was hard.

Tucker [00:25:55] Yeah.

Rod Blagojevich [00:25:56] But. What ultimately happened was, you know, he when he started rising Axelrod David, who used to work for me and then went on to Obama, I knew what they were doing. They were for political reasons. They were, you know, influencing the media to pretty much let Tony me up more than than than Obama. I was more toned it up. And Tony was a supporter and a friend. And he was and I liked Tony in spite of everything that happened to him. But Obama knew him and loved him longer. And Tony had done more for Obama over the years than he did for me. And ultimately, politically and in the media. The media just conveniently ignored Rezko's relationship to Obama. They'd give it very little coverage, and it was all about me and Tony.

Tucker [00:26:43] So Axelrod worked for you?

Rod Blagojevich [00:26:45] He did when I was a congressman, when I ran for Congress.

Tucker [00:26:47] He like.

Rod Blagojevich [00:26:48] He's very smart. You know, I like him a lot. His son was an intern for his son, Michael. He's great kid. He's grown up now. Now, I like David a lot, but he's a very practical guy and he's very ambitious politically. And, you know, it's a rough and tumble business. And, you know, when his interests collide with yours, you know.

Tucker [00:27:04] That is one out.

Rod Blagojevich [00:27:06] He will exercise what's in his interests. Yeah. And I think a lot of the political consultants are that way. He denies saying this, but he did when when Kerry had been beaten by Bush in 2004 and the Democrats all felt like Kerry was going to win. In fact, Kerry was getting some massage in Boston that night, election night. And and what the guy's name is to write speeches for Ted Kennedy.

Tucker [00:27:30] Bob Shrum.

Rod Blagojevich [00:27:31] Shrum, Shrum watching this a lot and told him something like, I hear this stuff from the Democrat world. You know, let me be the first one to congratulate you, Mr. President. Right. Remember that then the next morning was finally concluded that Bush won Ohio. Right.

Tucker [00:27:45] I knew them all very well. And Shrum, you know, had good qualities. He was smart. But what a toady, what a professional full of politicians is just really disgusting.

Rod Blagojevich [00:27:58] So that was a Tuesday, right? And of course, Wednesday I get a phone call about six in the evening. I'm at home. The election's over. David Axelrod, he denies this, but it happened. And he said, you know, the Democrats, Hillary's the frontrunner in 2008, but he put two liberal, two disliked. Kerry should have won. He couldn't. We're looking for a new face, somebody from the heartland of America. That's what he called it. Any have an open mind about thinking about running for president and challenging Hillary in 2008? Now, at that time, he had Obama. Obama was his candidate for the Senate. He had been a consultant. Obama wanted he was had they give a great speech. And, you know, he was. But I think David wasn't quite sure that maybe America was ready to elect a black person. So he's in the business of being a consultant and he wants to make sure he has he has a horse in the race because the Clintons really have their people. He had Edwards in 2004 and General. Well, yeah. So he's looking for candidates for president. So Vilsack, remember that name very well for me in Illinois and Obama, the three of us. And he was he was probably positioning himself to see which one of us might have the the better chance. And he picked the right horse eventually because Obama was the right one. And of course, Obama's successor and my calamity, a parallel. Right. And so you ask me this is a long answer to your question about 55 minutes ago, Wolf, that what did Obama have to do with my my problems was election night, were there and a labor boss by the name of Tom Balanoff, Service Employees Union, big supporter of both of us, came up to me the Grant Park in Chicago, beautiful weather, magical, historic night. And he said, Barack called me last night. He wanted me to talk to you about Valerie Jarrett. He'd like her very close friend of Michelle Obama, by the way. He'd like you to appoint her the United States Senate, because the governor has to appoint a senator. And he wanted me to ask you what you would want. Can I call you and come and see you and make an appointment? I said, Of course. Call me tomorrow. We'll set something up this week. That's how it started. And then the next day I got done running. I went out, ran like eight, eight miles that day. Seven miles. I'm just loosening up. I'm playing on my little family room floor stretching on my back. And I'm talking to one of my aides. And I said a Balanoff called, apparently Obama. Senator Obama said to me he wants to make a deal on the Senate seat. What should we do? What should we think about getting pretty legal stuff, not, you know, give me cash or anything which would be illegal political horse trading, which eventually is what the Supreme Court, the appellate court said it was. And then I say, and, you know, that's I do something, you know, significant. This will be in my obituary, I said. So I suggested that we just kiss his ass and get whatever he wants. But that seems like that would be political malpractice. And we have a golden opportunity. We have a real opportunity here to, you know, do something meaningful. And then I said, I know what this is f ING golden. I'm not given enough or enough. Right. I'm known for that.

Tucker [00:30:57] And you didn't realize this was being taped?

Rod Blagojevich [00:30:59] I didn't realize it. But let me say something to your listeners. When you're in Chicago politics and the ethics in that place and the way they do business and the way the feds not broadly necessarily try to set people up to see whether or not they're they'll take a temptation. They send people and they give you all for your cash and stuff like that. You'd be an idiot if you don't think they may be listening. It wasn't. I'd been under federal investigation for five years. I knew it because of the Rezko stuff and some other stuff. People who who were supporters of mine and Obama. I mean, I thought it's all very possible. And everything I'm talking about doing is legal. And I was super careful because I was under such intense federal investigation at that time to make sure that anything I talked about doing, I checked with my governor's lawyer and lawyers and my lawyer was on the call on average. And all these FBI tapes, they taped my calls. To this day, 98% of those tapes were covered up under a court seal. The judge would not allow us to talk about how my lawyer was on those calls three times a day, because at that point, you know you know, you know they're coming. You want to be absolutely careful that whatever you do on the Senate seat is legal.

Tucker [00:32:01] All right.

Rod Blagojevich [00:32:02] And so you you've thrown out all kinds of ideas because you do have this f and golden opportunity. We talked about Oprah for a couple of days, all the crazy ideas and everybody wanted it. Everybody wanted me to point them, as you can imagine. And, you know, and through third parties are suggesting deals that were political. They weren't illegal. Some had suggested money and campaign funds, which would have been illegal. And. But I would talk to my lawyer, you know, three times a day. And and he was advising me, in fact, one call. I say something like, you know, well, we're discussing a creative way to create a nonprofit political action committee to help support the advancement of access to health care, which was a big issue for me when I was governor. And Obama was talking about doing Obamacare and all this at the federal level. And some of the people that had put our health care plan together in Illinois went on to work for Obama. And so the question was whether or not there was something that we could do to be helpful, to push it further in Illinois and do something. And can we put together A501C 3 or 5 A1C for Obama, Get some of these big rich Democrats who give money to him to put into our thing. And can we, you know, perhaps make the deal on the Senate side for something like this? And so I say to the lawyer and to one of my aides, I say, I mean, how do you do a deal like that? I mean, it's got to be legal. Obviously, I'm on the tape saying that. A couple of years go by. I'm at my second trial because they failed to convict me on their charges, the first trial, and that they're going to play that tape against me. And they actually charged one of my crimes. It was that phone call. How do you do a deal like that? I mean, it's got to be legal, obviously. I'm asking. I don't even know if you could do it. I'm just thinking out loud and decriminalized it. But surely I'm going to get acquitted on this. But the jury instruction was custom tailored to fit these conversations, to tell the jury that those things were criminal and they can convict anybody. If they do that, if they decide, for example, that this conversation you and I are having. And they you know, they charge us and then they got to prove it before a jury and they got a judge is willing to do anything they wanted them to do. All they got to do is just write up a jury instruction. 12 layman average, everyday, ordinary people aren't lawyers are in politics. Just tell them this is against the law. And they'll make the right decision. They'll convict you of this conversation because we're told by the judge and the prosecutors it's against the law.

Tucker [00:34:28] So, big picture, why do you think they did this to you? The Democratic establishment did this to you.

Rod Blagojevich [00:34:34] Well, they were Bush prosecutors that started it. Here's what I think happened. So it's.

Tucker [00:34:38] Gerald.

Rod Blagojevich [00:34:38] That's right. Okay. So dirty and rotten and corrupt.

Tucker [00:34:41] I've noticed.

Rod Blagojevich [00:34:42] Yeah. Here's what they said. They came at 6:00 in the morning and arrested a sitting governor. I mean, I was Roger Stone years before Roger Stone. Right. My little girls are sleeping at, you know, going to get up shortly for school and my little one at the time. Was five and she was in bed with us and I got up at six. I was going to go run out but weren't sure I was going to go around and my running clothes laid out. Phone rang and I thought it was a friend of mine. The guy says, I had a warrant for your arrest and agent so-and-so and I state police security all the time as the governor. And I thought it was a friend of mine. I say this a lot because he's like that weight. I really did. I said, come on. State Senator Jimmy DeLeo. And I said, Come on, Jimmy, stop f in around 6:00 in the morning. But it wasn't him. It was really the FBI with a warrant. I think they got me, handcuffed me, drove me to their facility by four hours later, by 10:00, they were good cop and they had me in. And you're not a bad guy. We listen. All your tapes are just the product of Chicago politics. They wanted me to cooperate. I believed my interpretation was they wanted me to talk about Obama. I don't think they were ever going to go after Obama at that point, first black president. But I think they wanted to see whether or not I would. Here's a prison term snitch and the president elected to go back and hint to him and say that they probably told him that anyway because they lie. In any event, I said there's you know, I was it never involved any wrong to have him. I don't know whether he he's involved in anything of that sort. I can tell you I'm not and I got nothing to talk about it. Whatever I discussed was politics. And then they got it. They changed their attitude. They shipped me to another facility, the court building, and put me in a small little cell. And they had me next to this really angry guy all caught up on PCP, you know, screaming and MF, and he had no clue that he was right next to the governor. You know, I'm doing pushups in there because I'm thinking this is really this is really a bad day. This is going to be really bad. And mate. But maybe at some point I want to be able to say that while I was in the heat of the moment, I still was strong enough to do some pushups in my cell. So I did push ups in there. So I can say that I did it right after.

Tucker [00:36:54] Plus, if you're going to join a gang, you need to be buff.

Rod Blagojevich [00:36:57] Yeah, there's some truth to that. Yeah. Anyway, so I think and then I went to Obama the next day and they did. They interviewed him. They call him three or two's FBI three or two's. Every criminal defendant is entitled under the Constitution to have evidence that could exonerate him or her. And. Obama's retweets are relevant, directly relevant to my case. To this day, they won't give it to us. What Obama said. And he publicly contradicted what the Labor boss Balanoff had said that he'd come to me the night before because it all started that way. And Balanoff testified under oath twice in two trials that he said that Obama had called him and he sent him over to me. And, you know, it was about talking about a political deal. And Obama publicly said no. What he said in those FBI three photos might contradict that. I don't know if you lie to the FBI. You know, it's a crime. So I think what what happened was because it's unusual and you know this the new president doesn't keep the U.S. attorney from the previous president, especially if it's the other party, of course. But suddenly now they made a deal with Obama, will leave you alone. You keep us here until we get him. And it wasn't until they got me at the second trial, years later, that they all went into private practice and became partners of big firms making millions of dollars. One lady, one of them became a judge. But Fitzgerald's a partner in a big law firm, the Reed Prize, the lead prosecutor partner in a big law firm. And the moment that they got their convictions against me in the second trial, that's where they went. And I think the reason Obama did nothing to be helpful while I'm in there and after being in prison for well. Five and a half, six, six and a half years. I was unusually unlike. Honor 51,000 federal inmates. I was probably the only guy who was able to get this is the vernacular prison. My paperwork in front of two presidents. Axelrod was getting my request for a commutation from Obama on Obama's desk. He gave him letters from, you know, my two daughters, my young daughters to the president. Obama's daughters are the same age as mine. And I was six and a half years asking for clemency. And we recognize the politics of him and, you know, his image. And walking out of the White House on January 20th, 2017. So we're not even going to have it be where someone might have a, you know, a screenshot of him leaving the White House and believe in the big house at the same time because we were connected to the case. But why don't you just cut my sentence in half from 14 years? I never took a penny request for campaign contributions and a political deal you wanted to make, right? Just cut my sentence from 14 years to seven, which would be higher than anybody governors ever gotten from Illinois who's been in prison probably maybe the longest actual time served of any governor. And I'll limp out of prison in October of 2017, and it should look promising in the days leading up to that, because a few days before that, he had provided released from prison a member of the FLN, the Puerto Rican terrorist group that was blowing up federal.

Tucker [00:40:07] Building should have been a Puerto Rican terrorist.

Rod Blagojevich [00:40:10] This guy got released by Obama a few days before, and I'm thinking, Ooh, that's a good sign for me, right? Yeah. Then the guy got 35 years in prison for treason against the United States. His name was Bradley Manning. He went into prison as Bradley Manning came out of prison. Chelsea manning. Through the largesse of the taxpayers, Obama could him cut her loose after six years or seven years? I'm thinking I'm easy compared to these two. And and I had members of Congress, Democrats who had served with Axelrod asking him to do it and he didn't do it. And I think it's because he made a deal with them. They were basically said, we'll leave you alone. You don't interrupt. You get get involved in any of this and you don't help him. That's what I think. But here's what's interesting, and it shows a lot about the kind of person Trump is. And all through this process, these long, hard years and the years of, you know. Dashed hopes and expectations because there was no way we could lose her appeal. These things are legal. Then you figure. Then they. Then they reversed the Senate seat from the president for three and a half years and vacate my sentence. Now I have no sentence. So I went from 14 years to no years for a year, which was easy, easy, easier time to do. Because when you look in, you know, you walk in the prison in March of 2012, March 15th, and your exit days, May 2024. Right. That's a long, hard road. So you've try to break up psychologically. You try to break up that time, right? So you say, okay, let's get from here to the first the appeal. Where can I have hope that we can win that, though? Deep down, you just know you've seen enough of the system to know you're dead right. But you all cling to that hope. They can't uphold the Senate seat. They reverse it. Now, I have no sentence I discuss with my attorney. When do we go back to recess in? They're going to give you a sentence. You go back to the same judge. Let's just wait a year. I'll just stay here. I'll keep, you know, working out, reading and just trying to grow. And then we'll go back to this judge when I will have served almost five years more than just about anybody. I mean, nobody in American history other than me has served a single day in prison for a fundraising violation. And this wasn't even a violation. But let's assume the worst that it was. No one had did a single day. And my lawyer presented this to the judge. There's not a single case and letters. My little girls are grown up. They gave beautiful presentations in court. I'm video from Colorado in prison for the re sentencing August 9th, 2016. Okay, so I go from no sentence. The centerpiece of the case was a big lie to begin with was never a crime. No sale of the Senate seat, no sentence back before the judge. I've been a well-behaved inmate with some well over 100 letters from my colleagues, guys that I helped good guys. I'm criminals. But I learned a lot of these guys aren't bad guys. Some are really bad, some are pretty good. Guys are just, you know, have gone the wrong way and got bad habits. We submit the letters and. There's real expectation that I'll go home. It puts me back at 14 years and I hear my older daughter sobbing in the courtroom after they gave these beautiful presentations on my show. My little girls have grown and I'm so proud of them. And look how, you know, how sweet and nice and smart they are. And boy, Patty did a great job raising, you know, all these things. I'm thinking at this re sentencing. But here's where God comes in and this whole miracle of how I eventually got home and the Donald Trump would be the instruments. This is part of what I write about my book. I got to know him a little bit on Celebrity Apprentice, a show I never watched. But after they took everything away from me and I had no income and I was an honest governor and didn't get rich in the business, I was getting these opportunities to do these things, you know, in one place that you can actually make a living when you got this. Leprosy is an entertainment. Yeah, exactly. No one wants to come near you when you got it. Understand it.

Tucker [00:44:21] But you're better than Diddy. So you can still. You can still get paid.

Rod Blagojevich [00:44:24] Yeah. So, yeah, I turned down a bunch of really bad stuff, like being a greater at an HBO show called The Bunny Ranch. It's a whorehouse in Henderson, Nevada. They offered me six figures. They thought I was perfect for the role because I was such a scoundrel and the media upright, I turned it down. The guy's name was Dennis Hof.

Tucker [00:44:40] I knew him well. Yeah.

Rod Blagojevich [00:44:40] Yeah. Nice guy. Yeah, But I couldn't. I got two little girls. I'm not doing that anyway. But Trump's show can't call him because he saw me on television fighting back. And so I did Celebrity Apprentice. This is October 2009 that we tape it. It airs in like March 2010. My first trial is June 2010. And he was so good to me. You're so sympathetic. He was so kind. People don't realize on a personal level, Trump's a kindhearted person, very different from most politicians and a direct opposite of a cold, selfish, completely practical. Obama Right. So when Obama passes me by. Better re sentencing on the 9th of August. The judge puts me back at 14 years. My daughter's sobbing in the courtroom. I can't see her, but I hear it. Hope is gone now. Right. But here's how God works. He sends me more hope because that afternoon, Trump's given a speech in North Carolina to running against Hillary. And he starts talking about crooked Hillary. Right? And before the audience are chanting, lock her up. Lock her up, he says. And then there's this girl from Illinois, blah, blah, blah. They just gave him 14 years again, 14 years. He's a choirboy next to hell or something like that. Crimes got going on his radar. Right? And I'm thinking because I believe I know politics, I think he's going to beat her even from afar in prison. I thought he was going to beat her because he was different and was standing up to stuff. He wasn't backing down like typical politicians do. And I thought, wow, So if Obama doesn't do it, who knows? And he was so good to me on that show. Well, he didn't do it. Obama the 20th of January, one month later, Trump's been president for one month. I get called into the case manager's office. And they they have a form I have to sign. It's a waiver. I have to if I agree to allow the White House pardon office to get my prison records. Of course. I said, What do I sign? Right. So I sign it. Two things. Trump's looking out to want to see whether or not, you know, as a well-behaved inmate, there's a way perhaps he can send me home. And Obama was never going to do it because they never asked for my records. And what that did for me was it gave me hope for the next couple of years. And then at the Supreme Court, didn't take our case. God bless you, my friend. Me and my homies in prison are watching my wife on your show. On a Monday in the spring of 2018. Supreme Court turned me down that weekend. That Monday evening, you had Patty, my wife, Patty on the. I'll never forget it. Yeah. And and you were fantastic. And I am really grateful to you.

Tucker [00:47:17] My gosh. Well, there's nothing more beautiful than a loyal spouse.

Rod Blagojevich [00:47:22] Yeah, she's amazing. And she.

Tucker [00:47:24] Yeah, I agree with that strongly. So when you see going through everything that you did, when you see the FBI raid Mar-A-Lago in the summer of 2022, what do you think?

Rod Blagojevich [00:47:34] Déja vu all over again here. These lying scumbags. Yeah. Weaponized their politicians, their political agents, KGB, Soviet style police. They politics in America. And the Democrats have embraced it. The Bush administration started it. But it's Fitzgerald is his own guy. And Comey and Fitzgerald are real close. Of course they are. And there's no doubt in my mind that what they did to me at the triple-A level to a Democrat governor, they said, we can get away with this. Let's do it to Trump, a Republican president at the Major league level. And that's exactly what this whole Russian collusion bullshit was all about. I don't watch this from prison, and I know all of it. I recognize it. I know the tactics and all that stuff they say to the media, how they leak stuff and how they lie. Their political operatives. Our country is on the crossroads on a threshold. I mean, so elect Trump for a thousand reasons. This might be the most important one of them, because if we lose this, the ability in America to elect our leaders without the intervention of prosecutors criminalizing things that aren't crimes for politics, the voters don't have any choices. Free and fair elections don't matter. It's all rigged like they do in like the old Soviet Union. What a period. Say, show me the man. I'll show you the crime.

Tucker [00:48:40] Exactly. Yeah. When we started this show, we were looking for a very specific sponsor. We wanted to find a company that could send us good meat. Better than anything you could buy in a grocery store. They didn't have a lot of weird hormones in it or chemicals, just good meat from the United States. And we found one and we are proud to partner with them. They're called Merriweather Farms and they produce all natural beef and we are proud to be in business with them. We eat it. Our viewers have been buying it and loving it. We've got all kinds of positive reviews. Again, this is a sponsor we're proud to have. So Meriwether farms out a new product in addition to the steaks that we have almost every night here and the burgers all shipped directly to your house, they have a new line of snacks, including single serve beef sticks, one of which is right here on the table. Unlike store bought alternatives that you can buy it. Convenience stores these are made the United States in Wyoming at their facility and they're free of nitrates and MSG mystery meat and other weird stuff you don't want in your mouth. Like all the products that Meriwether Farms makes, they are made fresh. They've got simple ingredients, all of which you can pronounce and recognize. And they're delicious and good for you if you use our special promo code Txn 24, check out. They're about a buck 50 apiece. It's a perfect on the go protein boost if you need one or if you've got kids or sports. Want something to keep in your car truck. Super easy and good for you. Check out Meriwether Farms today. You will taste the difference. It's again better than anything you can buy at the grocery store and it comes right to your house. So I mean. We have a media protected, you know, first line item in the Bill of Rights, as you know, in order to push back against the abuse of power by the government. And they don't seem to be playing that role. Their assigned role there. You know, there is the role that duty would compel them to play. They seem to be covering for the people in power.

Rod Blagojevich [00:50:44] Man. Duty would compel them to play. Yeah. The fourth estate, A free press and a free society. You don't have the power to check power. Yeah. You're dead right. So. That's kind of what I naively thought. But I'm sit in the back seat of the FBI vehicle, handcuffed behind my hands. I'm the governor of Illinois, the fifth largest state in America. Right now they got me. And I said, what was this about? And the guy said, the sale of the Senate seat. I said, What? First of all, you got to be a horse's ass to think that you can get away with something like that. I'm rusty. I'm going to sell Obama any presidency. But Obama at that time was a demigod elevated by the media. Okay. All superficial bullshit about how great he is. But I'm going to be that stupid or I'm going to actually try to sell his Senate seat. And I'm already under intense federal investigation for Rezko and some of these other guys and, you know, activists and politics and stuff. They're trying to find crimes. They can't find it for five years. So now this I'm thinking the media interests are great, but the media certainly kind of laughed them out of court before they get into court. It would be so stupid to do something like that. And the reality was they were all over it because it was just too super sensational to pass up. It sold newspapers. It was good for ratings. So they're more into the storyline than the truth. Abrogating their responsibility to all of us as citizens to keep an eye on the power. And the governor has no power. And these federal prosecutors have all the power, unchecked power not foreseen by our founding fathers when they divided our government. They didn't know that there'd be a branch out of the executive part of the government, a an agency out of the executive branch that would grow like a cancer. They're originally going after the Al Capone's of the world. Right. And they're taking that power to all kinds of levels to turn it into a political.

Tucker [00:52:39] And it becomes the secret police.

Rod Blagojevich [00:52:41] There you go. Yeah. This is why the work that you do, Tucker, not me. You're so nice to me, but I'm grateful to you for what you do. And others like you are fighting for freedom. And Elon Musk and these guys, which.

Tucker [00:52:51] Is so corrupt. I mean, and I think it's important to say out loud what it is, which again, is corrupt and evil.

Rod Blagojevich [00:52:57] Corrupt and evil. Yeah.

Tucker [00:52:58] So does I mean, does Trump have a role in a fair election? Do you think Trump will win?

Rod Blagojevich [00:53:05] Yeah. If fair election, he wins every one of those battleground states with some cushion. Yeah. It's another thing I want to say to your listeners. They should listen to me on this sort of stuff. You know, in a fair election, one thing I've been good at in life is winning elections. I run 14 of them. 7 or 8 were really hard primaries, really hard against other Democrats, you know, run against Republicans for governor in Illinois, been the first Democrat to win after 26 years. Those are really competitive races. So I'm giving me high marks. I'm an expert witness when it comes to politics, understanding the mood of the voters sense in them, not just what the polling says. Actually, it's more instinctive what you saw at Madison Square Garden when you gave that great speech. I saw the crowds there. They're not Nazis, you know, They're they're white people. They're black people. Exactly. Hispanics. And they're Asian. They're old and they're young. They're good, decent, hardworking. Forgotten Americans. Yes. And there's more of them. All right. And they've learned to know what's being done to them and how our country is. Setting the priorities that go against their interest now so blatantly. For those who don't legally come to the United States, they're not stupid. And I believe if this election is run fairly, it's going to be a. 19, 20, 24 version of 1980, when the country made a choice between Reagan and Carter by the first or second week of October and started shifting and going towards Reagan, ended up winning, you know, maybe 49 states or something. That won't happen now because the demographic in America is different. The ball games, those battleground states. But if I'm right about this trouble, sweep all of them and might be competitive in states like Virginia, maybe or Minnesota even keep an eye on that. We'll see. But I'm very hopeful. And as Reagan used to say, cautiously optimistic.

Tucker [00:55:00] Well, it does seem I mean, I'd bet my house on the proposition that Trump is more popular than Kamala Harris and more people in those seven states will vote for Trump than Kamala Harris. But that doesn't mean that he's going to be president. What do you think will actually happen?

Rod Blagojevich [00:55:21] Well, that's a good question. I couldn't imagine what happened to 2020. You can't really talk about it. But I have tremendous skepticism about all of that. I was asked after that election about, you know.

Tucker [00:55:32] You literally can't talk about it. And if we talk about that, will this will be taken off YouTube? Yeah. But why do you think that is? What do you I mean, if somebody says, you know, we can talk about anything you want except this one thing. Yeah. Well.

Rod Blagojevich [00:55:48] Look at those FBI tapes, I want to play 98% of them, right? Yeah. They want to. Wouldn't let me play my record even to prove my innocence. Right.

Tucker [00:55:56] If you're hiding something, there's a reason they're the.

Rod Blagojevich [00:55:58] Ones that are lying. You know, of course they're the ones who did it. But I think that. I think that so much I think there's such a movement for Trump, right. That I think it's such a movement against what's happening. And I think the testicular virility that great courage

Show less