Tera Dahl - Time for Republicans to Champion Legal Law-Abiding Immigration and Stop the Green Card Jabs

Show notes and Transcript

Tera Dahl joins Hearts of Oak, bringing her deep understanding of policy and her many years experience in the media. 
She has worked on Capital Hill in Michele Bachmann's office in Congress, in the Trump administration in the White House and most recently at USAID. 
Her Media expertise started with Breitbart and she now works with Real America Voice. 
Immigration and foreign policy are two of her areas of unbridled knowledge and she shares with us her concerns that Green Card law-abiding immigrants are being faced with a choice. 
Either they take the COVID shot or their application will not be processed. Green Card or your life. 
But a different story for those entering illegally, they are not forced to take the jab.
The Republicans need to be championing this issue and standing up for law and order and the right to choose what toxins go into your body. 
Tera also shares her concerns at the out of control Fentanyl problem seen in many urban areas in the US. 
We finish by asking why the US have abandoned their role of intervention abroad and retreated from everywhere....except Ukraine.

Article in Gateway Pundit...
'It’s Time for Republicans to Champion the Rights of Legal Law-Abiding immigrants and Stop the Green Card Jab Mandates' by Peter Mcilvenna
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/its-time-republicans-champion-rights-legal-law-abiding/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-time-republicans-champion-rights-legal-law-abiding

Interview recorded 14.7.23

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20 

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Transcript

(Hearts of Oak)

Hello Hearts of Oak and welcome to another interview coming up in a moment with Tera Dahl, who I've got to know over the last few months. She served with Michelle Bachmann as her Chief of Staff. She was also in the Trump administration, National Security Council, and she brings to us a wealth of knowledge of policy, but also from her media background, Breitbart and Real America Voice, and she joins us today to talk about immigration.

This issue that legal immigrants must get a COVID jab. If you want your green card status to be finalised, you must go for medical check and have a COVID jab, despite the mandates all being lifted, despite illegals flooding over the border. And we talk about this issue, why it needs to be a key issue for MAGA and Trump. We talk about immigration being so politicised. Then we talk about other things like fentanyl, the drug issue that's happening in America, how it has blighted American society. And then we end up talking to Tera about her great expertise and understanding of geopolitical events. She's travelled to Afghanistan, Iraq, to many war-torn countries by herself with Michelle Bachmann, but also with USAID and she shares that understanding of geopolitical issues. 

Tera Dahl, it is wonderful to have you with us today.
Thank you so much for your time. 

(Tera Dahl)

Well, thank you so much for having me, Peter.
It is great to be with you. 

Not at all.
For the viewers, Tera and I, I met Tera back when I was over at CNP, actually, on the East Coast.
We had a nice catch up over lunch, connected by a mutual friend, but Tera, former Chief of Staff for Congresswoman, Michelle Bachmann, and she put us in touch with Michelle.
We've had Michelle on twice, talking about education and about the WHO, and Tera is former Deputy Chief of Staff, National Security Council.
I'm going to stop there because Tera, your brief is large and your background is vast.
Could I, before we get into the topic on immigration and wider, can I ask you just to take a moment and introduce yourself.

Yeah, absolutely. So I got into politics when I was in college. I started volunteering with Michelle Bachmann, who was a state senator at the time in Minnesota. She was my representative.
I was at St. Cloud State University, and I heard her speak, and I just had tears rolled down my eyes. I didn't know if I was a Democrat. I didn't know if I was a Republican at that time, but I knew when I heard Michelle Bachmann speak that it resonated in my heart, and I wanted to support her candidacy for U.S. Congress.
So I signed up as a volunteer and just started, you know, calling people, doing phone calls, doing door knocking, doing mailing.
And then I eventually moved to D.C. when Michelle got elected and became, started very, just staff assistant, and worked my way up to senior advisor for Congressman Bachmann and really focusing on terrorism.
She sat on the House Intel Committee, and so I did mostly the national security and the foreign policy for her.
And that's really when I started getting involved with what was going on with the war on terrorism.
I spent time over in Afghanistan.
I spent time in Iraq with the American Red Cross serving our American troops during that period.
Michelle was so amazing. She would let me leave for six months to go volunteer with the American Red Cross in Iraq, come back, work for her.
Then I would go to Afghanistan and come back, and she would bring me back in again.
So I just had opportunities to really, to see first-hand what was going on, on the ground over in the wars.
In the war zones. And I also then, after leaving Michelle's office, I spent time during the Arab Spring under President Obama. And that's where I really, my eyes were very much open to just the false narratives that were coming out of the mainstream media. That's how I got involved with journalism. I never planned on writing. I happened to be overseas in Egypt during the counter revolution, when you had 30 million Egyptians go to the street and ask for new elections against the Muslim Brotherhood government, and so I happened to be on the ground during that time, and I saw how CNN was handling it, New York Times, Washington Post, and I said, this is not what, the reality on the ground is not what is being written by our mainstream media, and that was impacting policy. They were using the articles and the media coverage to be able to impact policy, and so that's how I got involved in journalism. I ended up going back to Northern Iraq during the in the war against ISIS.
I spent time with the Libyans who were in exile in Egypt.
I went to Syria, had gone to Nigeria. So I've just done a lot on the ground, which has really impacted how I have really pushed back then against really trying to write the truth, and countering that false narrative from the mainstream media.
But then I went into the 2016 Trump campaign and National Security Council transition team.
I went into the White House as General Kellogg's Deputy Chief of staff for the National Security Council.
And eventually at the last year of the Trump administration, I was over at USAID as senior advisor in the Conflict Prevention and Stabilization Bureau and working on the women's security issues and the conflict prevention over at USAID.

Tell us about USAID. That's fascinating and something I know very little about as a Brit.
Tell us about that. 

Well USAID I think has really started out as a good organization, a good concept, but I think what's really happened right now over at USAID, especially after working there, I've seen just a lot of the issues, a lot of the, way that we spend money is being misspent and it's not really in the national security or American interests. And so I could really go down USAID and foreign funding in general, and I think the big question to ask, and I think I would argue, is foreign funding constitutional?
I think that's changed a lot. I think we're spending a lot of money on foreign funding that we should not be spending. And I think a big contrast is President Trump. President Trump has been very outspoken on that and very much using economic leverage for diplomacy, whereas I think right now we're giving a lot of money at USAID and it's going through USAID to
people and areas that it's not being well spent for the betterment of America and I think what really happens with USAID is it's almost like you create a problem and then we give USAID more money to solve that problem that we've already created. So I think you could really get into the funds and how it's spent and there needs to be a lot of oversight at USAID and I guess if I could give an opinion on the foreign funding, I think we really need to dismantle USAID in general and put it under another agency and another department because the money isn't being well spent.
And you're not really seeing the return on investment. If you give money, even a taxpayer dollar, that's taxpayer dollars, what's your return on that investment? I don't think you're seeing that.

Well, we'll maybe touch on that in a little bit, but if I want to maybe start on immigration, I'd put a piece together basically with a number of mutual friends behind the scenes helping that, and it was this time for Republicans to champion the rights of legal law-abiding immigrants and stop the green card jab mandates. Maybe I can ask you what is the, we've had Jaeson Jones and you were amazing on connecting us with Jaeson and he was great talking about the southern border and the issues there. But immigration, I guess, how has immigration become so politicised and what is the situation at the moment?

I think it really has become politicised and it's sad because what's happening is that you're actually under this Biden administration, they're weaponizing the, immigration system. And when I say that, I mean, they're using, they're bringing in all the illegal immigrants, and I believe they're doing it for their purposes, for votes. And instead of supporting legal immigration, this isn't about immigration. This is about legal immigration versus illegal immigration. And you wrote an excellent piece, Peter, on this. And the debate needs to be, especially with the Republicans, has to be on the illegal immigration versus legal immigration.
I think we're not against immigration. No one's against immigration, but you have to go through the ports of entry and you have to do it the legal way. And I think that's what you're seeing right now under this administration is they're allowing hundreds of thousands, millions of illegal immigrants into the United States right now, which is look at the fentanyl that's causing over 100,000 deaths every single year.
You're looking at the crime rate that has gone up. I feel like every community in the United States, I think is seeing and feeling the impact of the illegal immigration that is coming under the Biden administration.
You're feeling it in neighbourhoods that you would never suspect you would see it in.
You're seeing more crime, more people that are on drugs.
I see it in my neighbourhood. I see it everywhere I go, the impact of the Biden administration's illegal immigration policies.
And I think it's impacting, Not only are we losing thousands of Americans because of fentanyl, but our hospitals are being overrun, which is going to increase our health insurance and our access to healthcare.
Our education system is being overrun.
We're having to pay as American taxpayers for these illegal immigrants who are coming in illegally.
And I think that's the big debate. And like you said, Peter, in your article, just to touch on that is, what's going on too is the vaccination requirements with the illegal immigrants that are coming in, there's no requirement for them to be vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine.
They don't have to be.
So you're having hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants coming in that are not vaccinated, and the Biden administration seems to be completely okay with that.
Not only are they illegally entering the United States, but they're not being required to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
But now compare that to what is happening with the legal immigrants who are trying to go through the process legally, who want to contribute to the United States, who want to better our society.
And go through the process, and get the green card, and say the pledge, and assimilate into our nation. Not integrate, assimilate into America. And they're being required to get the COVID vaccine. They have to choose between health, as you greatly said in your piece, Peter, they have to choose between health and freedom. And they shouldn't have to do that. And I think that people are not realizing that. I don't think the Republicans, I don't think Congress, I don't think the American people realize, they think that the Biden administration removed that COVID-19 vaccine requirement, but they didn't. They lifted it almost everywhere else, but these, illegal immigrants who are coming into the United States, and you could say, well, why would they do that? What benefit would that be for the Biden administration to not allow illegal immigrants to be required to have the vaccine, but they're mandating it on the legal immigrants who are coming here and going through the process that no one else is doing. They could just run through the southern border and get in like all the other illegal immigrants, but they're going through it the right way.
And they're being required to do the vaccine. Well, what benefit is that?
Well, I would say because those legal immigrants go through a process where they have to know the constitution, they have to know American history, they have to know the Pledge of Allegiance.
They want to be here. They understand what freedom is. They understand what America means.
And they're doing this and it takes years and years in a very long process to get through, and they go through it and they appreciate America, probably will vote Republican.
So you have legal immigrants who probably will be voting Republican, and they're required to get the vaccine, where the illegal immigrants, probably majority will vote Democrat. And I think that is ultimately why you're seeing this administration completely do treasonous acts and policy. I would say completely treasonous not obeying the law not abiding by the Constitution with their immigration policies, so it's an issue. That's not being highlighted I'm very grateful that you wrote that article Peter and I think a lot of people are not aware of that and it's an issue That we really need to drive to the forefront especially heading into the 2024 elections I think Republicans really need to take on the issue and really say this is about illegal immigration and legal immigration.

Legal immigration and illegal immigration. That's what it is.
And there's legal ways to come into the United States. You can go through the ports of entry and you can go through the process and get your green card.
And that's the way that we need to be doing it. And we need to shut down any illegal ways to come into the United States.

It's weird looking at it as a European, as a Brit.
And we have absolutely failed in our integration via immigration across Europe.
And we've seen the riots in France, which show that we have segregation and not any integration.
And America's kind of prided itself on that integration of people coming from all over, under one flag, under one constitution, under one belief system, and then coming together as Americans.
And we have never really had that in Europe.
We have allowed separate communities to exist side by side as ghettos.
It just goes against the whole American dream, really.

Yeah, absolutely it does. And I know, like, let's look at France right now, what has just recently happened in France, and look at their immigration policies and what it's done to that country.
You know, like, we have to have legal means to come into the United States, but we also have to protect our borders. And I think Europe is a perfect example. I did, when I was doing my master's degree at Regent University, I spent time over at Oxford University, and one of our classes was really studying the European immigration models and looking down each country and the different countries and their different policies. And the concept that we were really looking into is, are the immigrants assimilating into European cultures or are they integrating? And that's the key question. Are they assimilating? Are they adapting to the culture, the constitution? Are they abiding by the constitution? Are they becoming American? That's what, when you used to to come to the United States, it was you become American, right?
You become that culture. You have to abide by that constitution.
And we're not seeing that.
And it was really interesting back in 2007 when I spent that time at Oxford University studying the integration versus assimilation of immigrants in Europe and seeing now where that trajectory has gone and the problems that you have in England, the problems that France is facing.
Look at all the immigrants that are coming over in Italy just recently as well.
And a lot of them, I think, are not Italian-looking people, if you've seen the videos.
They're chanting Allah Akbar when they're coming off those boats, and if you've seen the videos.
So it's a threat that we need to do.
It's for your own countries. They have to be able to have a system, an immigration system, where you are assimilating into that country. And that's why, like, when you have legal immigration in the United States, you have to study the constitution.
You have to pledge allegiance to the United States of America.
You understand the country that you're coming into and you're saying, I am going to live under this constitution, right?
You're gonna contribute to American society. And it's a vast difference between the illegal immigrants who are crossing on the Southern border into the United States and in Europe as well.

So it's a huge issue for 2024. And I think you're seeing the candidates right now in the United States, like President Trump in 2016, that is what he ran on.
He ran on the wall. He ran on building a wall.
And at that time, a lot of people weren't even focusing on immigration.
They were looking at the border as immigration and immigration only, and not through the lens of national security.
And I would argue that we need to be looking at the immigration issue, not through legal and illegal immigration, but also it's a national security issue right now.

We could have met up 15 years ago then, as you were around the corner in Oxford, but anyway, it's taken 15 more years.
The issue of, because this should be a perfect issue for MAGA and Trump, but I separate that from the Republicans, because the Republicans are generally far away from MAGA as an institution, And we've had guests on before talking about Trump, I guess, redefining the Republican Party in his image of putting America first.
But that America first policy, I guess is key. And it fits in perfectly with the immigration issue.
And I think Trump last time talked a lot about the border, talked a lot about building the wall.
But this issue of actually those who go through legally, because those who try and break into your country, those are the last people you want involved.
Yet those who go through the process, who do things legally, who study what has to be done as a law-abiding citizen and go through those steps, those are exactly the people you want because you know they will fit into society, they will do what has to be done, they will care for their communities, they will actually care for their neighbours.
Those are the people that actually kind of want to fit into that American dream.
So this issue of legal immigrants getting a fair treatment is like a red meat issue really to MAGA and Trump. 

Yeah absolutely and I don't think you're seeing the Republicans take hold of that narrative as they should be.
That's why your article is very good because you're laying it out.
And to be honest, this was a new issue to me too.
I just took it for granted that when the Biden administration lifted all of the requirements on the COVID-19 vaccination, I assumed that would include all legal immigrants.
And this was something that reading your article, it was new to me to be able to, that I didn't know that that was, that they were withholding green cards for those people that have probably taken years and years to be able to finally get that green card. It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of time, and the process is not easy to get that green card. And when they finally can get it, now they're saying, the Biden administration is now saying you either have to get that COVID-19 vaccination or you don't get your green card.
So, that's a big issue. It's a big issue for Republicans to take hold of that and to say that we should have to make these legal immigrants who have done the right thing by going through the legal process, it makes them a very small number, percentage of those who are coming illegally into the United States, you know, when they had the chance to come illegally with everybody else, but they're doing it the right way and they should be honoured and they should be to be able to get that green card 100% without any requirement to get that COVID-19 vaccine, especially when we're seeing all of the negative effects from the COVID-19 vaccine.
I've seen people in my family, my loved ones, my relatives, who after the COVID vaccine, we lost them.
And so if that was a situation where I had a loved one that had to choose between getting a green card and getting the vaccine, you can't make that decision.
There's no way that you could force me, myself, to get that COVID-19 vaccine, just because of the health risk of that.
So that is something I don't think Republicans understand. I don't think people realize that that is going on.
So your piece was really good, Peter, to really highlight it because I think a lot of times just bringing things into transparency, when you shine a light on issues, it does so much more because then people understand what is going on.
And I think this is an issue they were trying to just hide under the rug because they made it look like that it was lifted and it's not. 

Well I pay credit to my ghost-writer but if I can ask how does that fit in with the with the Republicans, possibly RINO, you can touch on that, but having partial control of Capitol Hill. I'm assuming that immigration issues lie solidly with the White House.
But please correct me. So what is the situation, how much noise and, well less noise, but how much movement can actual Republicans on Capitol Hill make on this issue of a fair treatment for legals as opposed to illegals? 

I think Congress, you know, we have the three different branches of government, but our legislative branch is the most powerful branch because it's closest to the people, right? And it holds the power of the purse. And our founding fathers created a legislative branch that way to be the most influential and powerful because it is closest to the people. And that's why it does hold the power of the purse. And when you have the power of the purse, you can leverage that, and you can do a lot of, you have a lot of influence. For a perfect example, even when I was over at USAID, when we wanted to be able to cut some of the programs that were not benefiting any kind of American interest in any way.
You know, we had to go, we got calls from the Senate, we got calls from the Congress, even though it was under a Republican Trump administration, Congress still had leverage, the Senate still had leverage, so I think even with immigration, even though it would be, we have Biden in the White House, there's a lot that Congress can do, I think for one thing, bring transparency to the issue, hold a hearing on it, hold a congressional hearing it, look into it, Look at all the identify all the cases right now where green cards for legal immigrants are being held up because of the vaccine requirement. That's something that Congress can definitely do. You can, have a subcommittee look into it immediately starting today to start making phone calls and start tracking all of the legal immigrants who are coming into the United States who are being required to get vaccines if they're being held up from their green cards. That is something they can do right now. That's a debate that's going on right now with the defence authorization bill.
Congress is saying that you can't do a lot of the things that the Pentagon wants to do, but they're holding it up. So they have a lot of leverage right now. There's a lot of that's what's going on with the Pentagon too, with the vaccine requirements where the Pentagon had fired thousands of servicemen because they didn't get the vaccine. And now they're at a point where where they're pushing back and they're filing lawsuits saying that they were illegally, unconstitutionally let go from the military and they want to serve again.
So that debate right now with their vaccine requirements is going on right now.
So this is a great, just another example of the Biden administration overstepping their boundaries and overstepping what they can constitutionally do, which you've seen them do over and over.
Every single day they're breaking the constitution, every single day they're breaking the law, but hold them accountable and push back and say, no, you can't do that.
You don't have, you cannot require the COVID-19 vaccine for the legal immigrants.
I think that is something they definitely can do.

You mentioned fentanyl. Let me, I want to ask you about the the drug issue, a little bit off topic, but I was, I've never seen drug abuse as visible until I went to the U.S. last year, and that was predominantly in L.A., where sadly I don't think I'd ever want to go again on the west coast.
And just people out of it, wandering through the streets, zombie-like status, people lying all over the pavements, needles everywhere.
I've literally never seen anything like that in all my travels on nearly every European country many times.
Tell us about this fentanyl issue because it does seem to be completely out of control. And we've had, maybe in the last year, we've had UK media doing large reports, large stories, not only in newspapers but on TV, actually reporting the literally out of control situation of drug abuse in the US.
Is that a fair assessment, kind of, what are your thoughts as an American to the current situation.

Yeah, I think you're seeing the impact, and you're seeing it every single area.
You're hearing it from people who have lost loved ones.
It's becoming way too common where somebody's son, daughter, mother, father, brother, sister was killed by fentanyl, from fentanyl, and it's happening too often, and it's too close to home for most Americans.
And you see it, even like I was saying. You're seeing the crime and the impact of the illegal immigration policies under the Biden administration in your local community.
But a lot of that, like I've seen a change in my area where I live in Florida.
I've seen a change just from last summer.
We're seeing a lot of people on the streets that are on, you know, there are on drugs, they are hunched over and you can tell that and they are, you know, they're homeless, they're on drugs. You're seeing that and it's impacting people no matter where you live.

Doesn't matter if you live in the most elite neighbourhood your area will be impacted by the increase of fentanyl in the United States and it's the largest number of death, more people die from fentanyl than any other thing between 18, and 34 years old in the United States I think it's around 34, 40 years and younger but that's the largest the cause of death for Americans in the United States. So it has to get, we have to be able to address it and I think there's a lot more that can be done, Ultimately, I know you had Jaeson Jones on here. He's the number one expert on the cartels on the southern border.
You can't get anyone better than Jaeson Jones. But he talks a lot about the cartels and that's where you have to really be able to go after the cartels. Designate them as a foreign terrorist organization and get to the core underlining cause of what is allowing all this fentanyl to come into the United States and go after it and basically you know cut the snake's head off and that's where you're gonna see, be able to really address the fentanyl issue, but it has to be addressed.
You never know who's going to be impacted, your closest friends.
I know people close to me who lost a loved one because of fentanyl, and it is a big issue.
And I'm surprised to hear that you saw that the most when you came to the United States.
And that says a lot.

And why is that? Is that a mixture of, you've got open borders, completely open borders, even in so-called Republican states. You have, I guess, lax punishments, and you have a number of states legalising drugs higher and higher level. I guess you've got lack of church involvement, and both of us are strong Christians, and the church really should be taking a role in some of these issues which damage society and they're not. Or is it just simply politicians engaged in other things, busy with more pressing issues for them than this? How has it slipped in to American society?

Well, I think, number one, open borders. I mean, our borders are completely open. We have no operational control at the borders. It's basically run by the cartels. Operational control is by the cartels. So we definitely have to get control of our borders. That is number one.
But number two, I'm glad you hit on, Peter, the role of the church, especially in American society, right? We have basically self-rule government, where we want a limited government that stays within their jurisdictions. And I'm always, as the American way, government's not going to solve your problems. Government needs to get out of the way. Government needs to be able to create kind of like a sidewalk. They need to be able to create space so that people can live freely and just protect that space. And so that's where like the role of the church comes in.
You can never change. Government can't change people's hearts. Government is not going to be the solution for America. God is going to be the solution for America because only God can change the hearts of the American people. And that's what the founders believed.
And that's why they created our system of government that way, is that the government is meant to protect the church, right? So that we can have that freedom of religion, and government will protect our freedom of worship. Wherever religion we choose, government is to protect that. That is a right that Americans have in the United States, and that government cannot interfere in that. And so that's where the role of the church does need to step in. Government can't fix it. Yes, we do need to secure our borders, absolutely. But on the other hand, exactly what you said, the church needs to step in, absolutely needs to step in, and we need to be able to have, if you look at our statistics for those that go to church and believe in God, it's sad, and we're seeing a decline in the United States of that.
But I also believe that we're on the greatest verge of a revival as well.
I really do think that as well, and that's what ultimately is going to solve the fentanyl problem.
We can only do what we can do policy-wise, but ultimately God has to change our hearts too.
Government is meant to create the situation so that we have the ability to be able to make those changes, the ability to be able to do what we can do and not interfere in that. So we do definitely need to have the Church step up into helping with programs for fentanyl and just getting to know God, getting to know the Lord, having a personal relationship with Him that's gonna transform your heart. 

100% nothing beats a personal relationship with Jesus.
That changes a lot. 

No, absolutely. 

Tera, can I just ask you personally, you've had, we've touched on, immigration, we've touched on the drugs issue and you, I guess, as someone who has been in Congress, served with a Congressman, your time in the White House, then you've also had in media with, certainly in the Breitbart days and more recently with Real America Voice. So you've got a perspective from the policy side but also from the media side. How do you with those two hats, how do you look at what's happening and what are the issues which you, as an American personally are most concerned about.

I think that's really key points because those are the two key, It's policy and the media drives policy, And I really saw that as I mentioned earlier in the show Peter, the reason I even got into journalism was because I was on the ground in Egypt, during the counter revolution in 2013 when you had 30 million Egyptians go to the streets.
to remove the Muslim Brotherhood from government and CNN covered the Muslim Brotherhood, the terrorists who were tied to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations who were committing violence on the street.
It was very similar to what happened with BLM here in the United States back in 2020 when you had CNN and you had mainstream media standing in front of burning buildings saying, You know, here's a BLM, you know, protest, but it's mostly peaceful when you had the building burning behind you.
Well, that's what I saw when I was on the ground over in the Middle East during the Arab Spring.
The mainstream media was completely lying and driving a false narrative.
And that false narrative was impacting our policy.
That's what the Pentagon watched. That's what members of Congress watched.
That's what impacted the Obama administration. Then when they came out and they were going to cut aid to Egypt for removing a terrorist organization who was in power, who was terrorizing and destroying Egypt.
And so I saw the impact that media has on our policy. So when I was coming from a policy field heading, you know, I had worked in Congress, I had been on the presidential campaign with Michelle Bachmann during the 2012 presidential election, and coming from that field I saw how much media matters. When you give a false narrative, that is what they use to make their policy. And another perfect example that I went through that same way where they use the media to impact their policy was the Mueller investigation. I worked in the White House. I came in the first day of day one. I worked at the National Security Council. And I remember watching, I was in my office and I remember watching CNN and they said they were launching the special counsel, the Mueller investigation, the special counsel on President Trump and his ties to Russia.
And I remember thinking, you know, that Russia, like, you know, obviously that's not gonna have anything to do with me. There's no impact there." Well, I was wrong because the Mueller investigation actually, it really impacted anyone who served on the campaign, anyone who went into the transition team. And when we look back at that, how did the Mueller investigation start? The Mueller investigation started because they were leaking false narratives, false articles in the media.
And then what happened? Well, the FBI was the one leaking those articles and then they launched an investigation using those articles. So what's happened today in our culture and Europe and England, all over CNN International, all mainstream media, and you have it just as bad as we have it.
And thank you for doing what you do because you're a voice of truth against the mainstream media who's just projecting a false narrative, but that false narrative is actually a political arm of the Democratic Party.
That's what's happening. The media has turned into the political arm of the Democratic Party.
So they create a narrative, or they follow with a narrative.
And so I really was able to see the impact that the mainstream media has on our policy.

When I went overseas during the Arab Spring under the Obama administration, I was on the ground in Egypt when you had 30 million Egyptians come out to the streets to call for early elections against the Muslim Brotherhood regime and the Morsi regime, who were tied to Al-Qaeda, who were committing terrorist acts, who were persecuting Christians, who were making women wear the hijab and cut their hair and the Egyptians said we've had enough and well what I saw was CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, all reported completely on the side of the Muslim Brotherhood and they ignored the 30 million Egyptians who were in a line, who stood with American values, like they wanted to have freedom, they wanted to remove a terrorist organizations who we were still at war with, America was still at war with in Afghanistan and Iraq, we were still losing American troops to Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, and yet the media was portraying it that it was a military coup, that was not the truth, and that impacted our policy, where then the Biden administration wanted to cut aid to Egypt.
That was what was happening, and I saw it on the ground, and I thought that's when I started writing. That's when I started speaking out because I saw the impact that the media has and nobody else was on the ground. No journalists were there. I was the only journalist basically pushing back that was on the ground with real footage with the truth to say this isn't what's happening, this isn't the truth and that's going to impact our policy. And that's what really began my journey where I went from all these different Arab Spring countries to be able to really get on the ground and to be able to really see first-hand what was happening because I saw how important it was because I came from the policy field and I saw that they were watching CNN at the Pentagon, they were watching Al Jazeera at the Pentagon, and that was impacting their policy. And so what I did then after that, because I saw how much it matters for people to see first-hand and get the truth, we had delegations. We sponsored delegation after delegation after delegation that included members of the mainstream media, that included former generals, people that had a voice that they could see for themselves.
You see it yourself, and then you go back and you say what you saw.
But don't listen to The New York Times, don't listen to The Washington Post.
You see it first-hand, because this is going to impact America's national security for, a very long time. And that was prior to the ISIS taking over in the ISIS caliphate that was prior to that the Islamic caliphate that happened in Iraq and Syria. So just imagine if what had happened, if people didn't push back from the Arab Spring. You would have had Egypt fall to the Islamist. You would have had Libya fall. You would have had Syria fall. Tunisia would have fallen So just think of how different that policy would have been had the mainstream media had their way, had the Obama administration had their way. But the point is, is that I've seen it first-hand, the impact, and when I worked for President Trump on the Trump campaign, then following that, my time on the ground with the Arab Spring, I saw the same actors coming against President Trump, and that was before fake news was fake news. So I was calling out fake news before any, before other people were labelling it fake news, and I saw how the New York Times would write about Trump.
And I saw how Washington Post would write about Trump and CNN, and that was all new. Like at that time, people didn't quite realize how the media had really turned in to a political arm of the Democratic Party, right? It was, we didn't really tie that together, that it was so strong, because that really happened, I think, under the Obama administration, is when you just had this complete turnover to the Democratic Party. They just used the Democratic Party's talking points. You know, there's really no freedom or liberty within the mainstream media anymore. They basically just go off their political talking points. I think the DNC might just email them their talking points of the day and that's what they use because they all have the same points on every single show. And so that's where I saw like when when the same people were coming after Trump I thought yes he's the right guy, he's the right candidate, and this is the person that I want to support. And then we saw just how fake news completely into the Trump administration, I dealt with it over and over again, the fake news and just how they are, they're so, they're so manipulating the American public.
But thank you for doing what you do because you are a voice of truth.
And I'm sure that's a similar story with the need for having real, true media. It matters.

Oh, it does, and we lack it. The US, I think over there, stateside, you've got much more established alternative media sources. We are still playing catch-up massively.
But just to finish off, can I just ask you again on that international side, on that. You've got a grasp of geopolitics of the international side, and we may in the UK mock the Americans for never venturing beyond the borders of the US, not having passports, all of that. And yet, being the world's policeman, although we may mock it, I think in Europe, Europe relies on America being a strong voice of reason because the EU don't have the ability, don't have the capability, don't have the money, don't have the organizational ability, everything. They just don't have it. So the EU, Europe as a whole and the UK look to America for buying that stability and God forbid we have China take that role which looks like what is going to happen and watching the Afghanistan debacle, you kind of shake your head. Where does it leave the U.S. at the moment for being that voice of reason, that moral framework, that world's policeman in effect throughout the world?

Well I think Afghanistan is a perfect example right now. I spent time in Afghanistan, I spent time out with the Marines in Helmand province. I've seen, I've have been at the bedside of our troops that have come back into the hospitals.
So I've been there, I've seen it. And to see what happened in Afghanistan under this administration is completely treasonous.
There was no reason that we needed to abruptly depart Afghanistan the way that we did.
No, we should have kept Bagram. I think we basically gave Bagram over an airfield right to China.
And it was a very strategic location, Bagram. It's by China.
By Iran, it's by Afghanistan. It was a very strategic location for us to have that airfield.
And that is something I know that under a Trump administration, that's the difference that you see between these administrations. So the Biden administration completely, that was, it was it was treasonous in my opinion to leave it after all the investment that the United States has done over 20 years and we basically handed it over to China, Russia and Iran. That's where we're seeing it and I think what's happening though is you really have a continuation of the Obama presidency right now in the Biden presidency. So they're continuing and this is according to Obama's own words when President Biden took office in a New York Times article, President Obama said that 90% of the people working for Biden are from his staff, are from his administration, and they're just continuing the policies from the Obama administration.
And what you saw under the Obama administration was really a policy of leading from behind.
We were showing weakness. We were emboldening our enemies and alienating our allies.
And it was like that was the foreign policy that we saw under the Obama administration.
And it's the same policies that are being under the Biden administration.
And it's not a good time for America when we look at, I mean, it's a hopeful time because I think we're looking at 2024, we have the Republicans in Congress.
I think we're seeing, there's a lot of hope. I think we have more religious freedom than we've ever had with some of these Supreme Court cases.
Like we have a lot of amazing things happening in our country, but we have a lot of dangerous things as well, especially that's coming in from our southern border.
And when you have a weak administration and you're portraying a sense of weakness, look at what happened when Russia invaded Ukraine.
That happened immediately when the Biden administration took power.
That never would have happened if the Biden administration didn't pull out of Afghanistan and portray a sense of weakness. That's what happened.

They showed weakness. Russia took advantage of it and went into Ukraine.
And now what are we looking at? We're probably looking at China invading Taiwan.
And the next threat that we're going to look at, I believe, is China going to invade Taiwan.
And that's going to critically impact the United States at home, it's gonna impact Europe, it's gonna impact the world.
But I think that's the threat that we're facing right now, and we're looking at the threat coming in from the southern border.
We've seen a 900% increase in Chinese nationals coming through the southern border.
That's almost 10,000 Chinese nationals, and a majority of those, out of those almost 10,000, 8,200 of them are Chinese military-aged men.
Coming through our southern border just in the last fiscal year.
So that's about the last seven months where we used to see very low numbers.
We used to be like around, I think, believe years prior, 100, 200, and now we're seeing almost 10,000 in this fiscal year already.
And so the threat from China at our southern border is as a big... Cuba, let's look at Cuba, they're building a spy base right now in Cuba, 80 miles away from Florida, where I live right now.
So we're seeing this emboldening China right now, and I just don't think that if you don't have a strong defence like Ronald Reagan, right, peace through strength, build a strong military so that you deter your adversaries.
And that's not what we're doing, that's not what we're prioritizing.
And so when I think when we look at Ukraine right now, you really have China wanting us to be involved in Ukraine because they're going through our supplies or using our resources so that when they can take our eye off the ball of them and focus on Ukraine, and then they'll have an opportunity to invade Taiwan.
But it's all because the administration is portraying this sense of weakness.
And you can't do that. America is the number one strongest nation in the world, and we cannot portray weakness because when we do, it impacts everybody.
And that's where I think you're seeing these other allies, especially our Arab allies, are starting to look under the Obama administration, when we really abandoned them, we abandoned them and they're looking at China and they're looking at Russia.
And so we're pushing our allies towards our enemies and that policy is just a trajectory in the wrong direction.
And so I'm just really hoping for 2024 and really hoping that we have a new administration to steer us in the right direction.

100% and I got my Trump hat behind me so I've nailed my colours to the mast.
Not that it matters, I'm not an American, so I don't have a right to vote.
Tera, it's been wonderful having you on. I really appreciate your insights on all of these issues.
And I've enjoyed watching you on Frank Gaffney, on War Room with Steve Bannon.
Are you going to be on our screens more often then?

Well, let's see, I'm not sure. 

I hope so. Tera, thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you, Peter. God bless you.