Wednesday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon discussed the House Judiciary Committee recommending the prosecution of former CIA Director John Brennan for lying to Congress about “Russiagate.” After that, the group discussed the Beltway media panic over President Trump remodeling the East Wing of the White House to build a gilded ballroom, and another candidate, Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner of Maine, was embroiled in controversy over a Nazi-adjacent tattoo. They also review a Washington Post op-ed by Mouman Al-Natour, a lawyer from Gaza who was held as a political prisoner by Hamas: “A Better Gaza Is Struggling To Be Born” And finally, Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI, joins the show to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, safety concerns, and how it could be regulated. You can listen to the show weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** First, the panel discussed the possible indictment of former CIA Director John Brennan on charges of lying to Congress about the 2016-era Trump-Russia fiasco. Is this Trump’s revenge or justice being served? “Of all the people who have been part of this ‘revenge tour,’ the one I’m most comfortable with is John Brennan,” Tom Bevan commented. “Comey, Clapper, and Brennan ran the three most powerful agencies in our national government. And it looks like at least two of them lied, leaked, schemed, and did weasel moves. Do they have any responsibility for that? Should they be held accountable for any of that at all?” “Brennan is hard to love, even in a Christian sense,” Cannon joked. “But where does it end? It’s just endless escalation. Sometimes you have to be bigger than your opponents, even if you’re technically in the right.” “When Democrats take back power, they’ll be under tremendous pressure from their activist base and their donors to do the same thing,” he warned. “One of the potential answers to how we avoid this in the future is we find better people,” Bevan concluded. “The fact these guys ended up on top and were the ones calling the shots-this is an indictment of them, but it is an indictment of all these agencies and the bureaucracy in general. They were all Obama picks, by the way.” *** Starting at minute 9, the group discusses President Trump’s plan to tear down the East Wing of the White House to build a new state ballroom and why so many people are so upset about the impact on this historic building. “I think it’s obscene, but that’s just a matter of taste,” said longtime White House reporter Carl Cannon. “He’s acting like it’s his property. He’s acting like it’s Mar-a-Lago, and I’m very uncomfortable with that.” “I could see a Democrat running on restoring the White House to its [original state], and they’ll just tear the thing down,” Bevan suggested. “He’s got the arch he’s building, now the White House, I’m sure he’ll get to the Kennedy Center eventually.” *** In the next segment, around minute 14, Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner of Maine was revealed to have a chest tattoo that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol. He claims he didn’t know when he got it as a Marine in 2007. Is this guy’s political career over before it started? Tom Bevan commented on the way this oppo dump came to light, saying, “Graham Platner’s folks gave this video of him singing in basically his boxers at his brother’s wedding to the Pod Save America bros. And he went on their podcast and basically explained this, to try to defuse the story, because he knew it was going to come out.” “He says he went on shore leave in Croatia and he picked out something that looked like a skull and crossbones,” he explained. “You can believe him if you want to, but it’s the S.S. skull.” “And he’s one of these anti-Israel guys,” Cannon added. “If this was a Republican, he would be disqualified.” *** After that, at minute 23, the group discusses what we can learn about the political divisions inside Gaza from a Washington Post op-ed by Moumen Al-Natour, a Palestinian lawyer and the co-founder of the “We Want To Live” movement who was held as a political prisoner by Hamas: “A Better Gaza Is Struggling To Be Born” Could the fall of Hamas lead to a civil war inside Gaza, and would it be left to the U.S. to do something about it? “This op-ed was both encouraging and disturbing at the same time,” Carl Cannon said. “It’s nice to know that people-and he describes it almost like it’s half the enclave-dislike Hamas, are certainly willing to live in peace with Israel, and envision a future of the kind articulated by President Trump. The discouraging part is that Hamas is clearly not willing to do any of that, and in order to forestall civil war in Gaza, someone has to go in and disarm Hamas. And who’s going to do that?” “We’ve had peacekeeping forces there before, and it hasn’t worked. This might be considered a hot take-but civil war might be necessary,” Bevan replied. “To end slavery, it took 600,000 Americans dying to crush it and subdue it.” “Palestinians who want to live in peace and freedom might have to take up arms and be the ones who disarm Hamas and subdue them to the point where they are no longer a political force or a military force,” he said. *** Finally, at minute 30, Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI, joined the show to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, safety concerns, and how it could be regulated. “I’ve always had skepticism for big government and big business, especially when the two collaborate,” Steinhauser began. “The best outcome would be for them to regulate themselves, but we haven’t seen evidence that they’re going to do that.” “Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on nearly anything-but they can agree on AI safety and security,” he said. “This is a whole new level of technology we’ve never seen before.” “There’s a critical role for states to play. For example, in Texas, they passed a bill preventing state agencies from using AI to spy on citizens, discriminate, or create a social credit system. In Ohio, they’re leading on a bill to prevent ‘personhood’ for AI-basically banning marriage between robots and humans.” “But as I’ve talked to U.S. senators and House members, we recognize that certain things-national security and international affairs-are more appropriate for the federal government,” he said. “These issues fall into three buckets: domestic, national, and international.” “From first principles, I do worry about developing an artificial species of machines that are thousands of times smarter and faster than us. As AI merges with robotics, we will enter really strange territory. There are people lobbying now for personhood and rights for robots. So, it may be too late-or it may not be,” he said. *** Don’t miss an episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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