STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka
One grew up in Alaska; the other grew up abroad. One is a Daughter of the American Revolution and a descendant of generations of American veterans; the other, the son of an African immigrant and a descendant of Congolese chieftains. One was a government watchdog; the other, a civil rights activist. Both had parents who were homeless for a while, and both graduated from Harvard Law School.
Like you, they have suffered devastating loss and faced overwhelming challenges. Through it all, they’ve found victory over the hardships of life simply by choosing to Stand. Join Kelly, Niki, and their inspiring guests as they move beyond simply talking about issues and challenges, to exploring how to solve and overcome them. Together, we will build a movement of everyday Americans who courageously take a stand for freedom, truth, and a country led by “We the People.”
STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka
Ric Grenell on Battling Cancer, Corruption, and California's Condition
Stand kicks off its inaugural episode with surprising revelations from Ric Grenell , a man renowned for his commitment to freedom, justice, and standing against corruption as former U.S. Acting Director of National Intelligence and U.S. Ambassador to Germany under President Trump. Brace yourselves for an intimate chat with Ric as he chronicles his personal battle with stage 3 cancer, and learn how his journey through this challenging ordeal fortified his spirit and deepened his faith.
This episode takes an international turn as Grenell shifts focus to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Hear how Biden helped usher in Russia’s war with Ukraine and how Amb. Grenell tried to prevent it. Grenell delves into Merkel's power tactics and the role of the European Parliament. We also touch on Grenell’s unfortunate experience with prosecutor Jack Smith when he was assigned to the Hague. This segment is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the complex workings of global politics.
Finally, we roam to the domestic terrain, spotlighting Grenell's initiative, Fix California (Fix California.org), aimed at revamping voter rolls and increasing voter registration. Discover how Grenell's efforts have already sparked changes in a recent election, and the current political atmosphere in California, where 1 Million illegitimate voters have been removed from L.A. County’s voter rolls. As we reflect on Grenell's government service, his unwavering dedication to justice radiates clearly. Tune in for an episode brimming with insights, inspiration, and thought-provoking discussion.
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Hello America and hello Alaska. Welcome to our very first episode of Stand At Stand. We believe we can't be the land of the free unless we remain the home of the brave. Our goal is to equip, empower and inspire you with fresh perspectives and meaningful solutions to stand up to life's challenges, one episode at a time. I'm your host, Kelly Tshibaka. Before I ran for US Senate in Alaska, I spent my career holding government accountable. I'm joined by my best friend, my husband and co-host, Niki Tshibaka, an attorney, pastor and former federal civil rights litigator. We're broadcasting from Alaska's Last Frontier. Let's give a shout out to our community of standouts who help make this show possible. Subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube. We're at the Stand Show. Tell your friends to check out our website, standshow. org, and follow us on social media, always at Kelly for Alaska. And hey, we've got an exciting announcement To celebrate the launch of our show we're giving out a free sticker stand to one of our audience members who leaves a review for the show. If you want to be entered to win this gift, be sure to leave a review on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube at the Stand Show, and you could be entered to win.
Kelly Tshibaka:Today. We are so honored to welcome Ambassador Ric Grenell to the show. Thanks for being with us, Ric. He's been on the front lines of standing for our freedom from standing up to Russia and standing against corruption in the deep state in Washington DC. He served as the US Ambassador to Germany, presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations and in President Trump's cabinet as Acting Director of National Intelligence. He also was a US State Department spokesperson to the UN during President George W Bush's Ric was considered to be the lead Republican contender in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election of Gavin Newsom, but he chose not to run. Instead, he's championed a truly noble effort called Fixed California, to implement common sense, common good policies that would benefit all Californians, and we want to hear more about that. Ric, we're so delighted to have you with us on stand today. Thanks for being with us.
Ric Grenell:Oh, it's such an honor. Thanks both of you for having me.
Kelly Tshibaka:We're so excited to have you. Let's start off with getting to know the real Ric. I'm sure many of our audience members probably seen you on Fox and Newsmax, at CPAC, the NC on the floor of the UN, you name it. But if you could be remembered for one thing, what would you want it to be?
Ric Grenell:Such an interesting question, a good question. You know I would say this I think my mom is going to want me to answer. Always important, I was a kind, nice person that helped a lot of people and served Jesus Christ as my personal savior. So let's assume that that is the real answer and add to that you know I think I've talked a little bit about this in the past I never, ever, ever want to go through cancer again.
Ric Grenell:I went through six rounds of chemo for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage three and absolutely cancer made me stronger, like who I am on the other side of it. I'm not sure I could go through it again. I'm not sure I would choose to do chemo again. I think if I got cancer again I might not do it. But right where I am now I seem to be, they never use the word cancer for you. They say no evidence of cancer. It's been 10 years and I'm in check every three months because mine was pretty aggressive. So I think that's a long answer to say my.
Ric Grenell:I think what I want to be known for, what I want my legacy to be, is somebody who fought cancer, beat it and encouraged and motivated people to get tested. It's really important that you can. You can get a blood test with some cancer markers, and early detection is the entire thing. If you detect these cancers early, you can beat it. If you detect it too late, the odds are you might not be able to. So I would say I want to encourage people to get tested, get out and get tested.
Ric Grenell:And then the second thing about that is encouraging people who are going through it or who have gone through it to look at it as a positive, to see how much stronger and better you are. And then I'll finish with this is I sometimes and I can say this to you guys because I know your believers I sometimes feel very guilty when I think about going through cancer, because I was never closer to God than when I was facing death and going through. I prayed more, I was more sensitive to the things of God, I felt like I was in communion with him a little bit more. I probably was nicer. You know you're, I look back and I think it was probably more godly because I was closer to him. And you know, and and I feel guilty that that happened right that I'm not as close or sensitive to the things of God when, when you're not going through these trials and so I'll finish with this is like I've never been more in touch with Job who really.
Ric Grenell:I mean as, as my brother wrote a book called Job, had Twitter.
Kelly Tshibaka:Oh, wow.
Ric Grenell:Oh, phenomenal book of like. Do you play this? All your terrible things out. Or do you have faith of Job and realize that you know when you have these trials and tribulations, you actually it's so difficult and I know it's so naive to be like, oh, you can see the brighter side, but you really can. And sometimes you can't see it until later and you look back and you think, wow, I'm a better person. Again I say I never want to go through it again.
Kelly Tshibaka:Yeah.
Ric Grenell:But I want to be known for at least pointing that out and challenging people who are going through it.
Niki Tshibaka:That is so powerful. And you know, I love, I love the book of Job, and one of my favorite verses from there is where he says though you slay me yet will, I trust in you. And when you're going through something that you were going through, you know you're going through something that you were going through. That was essentially the statement that you were making God. I trust you in the midst of what I'm going through, going through knowing that it could end in me passing from this earth.
Ric Grenell:That's like the ultimate test of faith, I think, and so tonight I'm gonna this is a very random question and I'm gonna. I'm not trying to stump you, but Do you know what the original? Because I don't know the answer to this. Do you know what the original translation is? On though, I slay you because my only hesitation on that verse and I've heard it a million times is like oh, I hope that it's not God giving me these things. No, I think I hope it's not you slay.
Niki Tshibaka:Well, I think what yeah. What he was saying was Even if you allow me to die, I, I trust my life to you. So he I think he was taking it even a step further to say even if you were to be the one to just take me out, I still would trust you. That's how far his, his faith, went.
Kelly Tshibaka:So yeah, I really appreciate you sharing all that. I'm sure that's gonna be encouraging to a lot of our people listening right now who are going through really difficult times and needing some encouragement to stand and face different battles and probably not what they thought they would hear from you, given all the prestigious positions you've held, and I really like that. You just talked about how that spanned the last 10 years, because If you hadn't stood through that battle, you wouldn't have had all the victories in the battles you fought in the 10 years after that, and so we want to start jumping into those.
Ric Grenell:We'll probably only get, please. That's really powerful what you're saying and and let me take it to a political level that I know some people are not gonna like, but it's, it's true. This is just for me personally, going through cancer and Facing death and facing this terrible, you know, but the things that I had to go through, just physically, I think Years later, when I'm being roughed up by the media, and this is something, kelly, you can attest to.
Ric Grenell:Getting roughed up by the media, gave me perspective. When you face death and you face such terrible situations and there's a lot of people who you know grew up in Poverty or grew up with watching death or had something terrible happen to them as a child they also have this perspective. That, oh yeah, criticism from the New York Times. You know my fourth Right New York Times where they write a profile of me. You know saying that in the most awful person.
Ric Grenell:It doesn't happen because it's like this person who wrote the article doesn't even know me and, yeah, everybody around me who knows me is laughing at that person and saying this person is so untouched. So it gave me really good perspective on politics to be tougher and to have like thicker skin or perspective.
Kelly Tshibaka:Right, which gives you that confidence to be able to say to all the people listening now you might be facing something really really horrible, but actually it could be really really good. It's strengthening you, it's giving you a, a breath, if you will, to be able to take on other challenges that a lot of people couldn't withstand and couldn't take. And that's what we're gonna jump into. When we come back after the break, we'll talk about this question, because there's not a lot of people in our country who literally stood up to Russia and Before we all got into the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It's been a while since we've quote been at war with Russia, but you saw this coming and when you were the ambassador to Germany, this was starting to brew and you tried to head off before we got into this position that we're in. So we're gonna take a quick break, but I want to jump into this and kind of get your side of the story and what you did to try to prevent this situation that we're in now. So everyone who's listening stay tuned. And Ric Grenell a little bit like America's Forrest Gump. He was there before there was a there and he'll tell us the story before the Ukraine Russia conflict. Make sure to leave review at the stand show, on YouTube or on your favorite podcast platform. Be entered to win a sticker from stand free gift this week. Stand by, we'll be right back with three.
Kelly Tshibaka:Ambassador Ric Grenell. We're back on stand with ambassador Ric Grenell. So glad to have you with us, Ric. You've had a fascinating career. It's like you've been trying to prevent so many disastrous issues that we're all now reading about in the news. Let's start with the Russia Ukraine war. Germany is a NATO country. It has the largest economy in Europe and during your time as ambassador, germany effectively chose to become energy dependent on Russia. So today, germany and Europe are suffering the consequences of energy dependency and allowing Russia to become their largest energy supplier, since the flow of natural gas to Eastern and Central Europe has been significantly disrupted by Russia because of the Russian-Ukrainian war, they're now in this energy crisis, but it seems like you saw this coming. You go back and read all the articles and well, some would just say criticism of you. Can you please share with us what you tried to do, the steps you took to try and help Germany protect its vital role in NATO and to prevent this current conflict that we're seeing with Russia everything that's going on with Germany's energy crisis.
Ric Grenell:I think you hit it on the head. It was really an energy crisis from Germany that was like in slow motion, and they kept making bad decisions after terrible decisions. I have to say that President Trump was really the visionary here. What he really tried to communicate to Merkel and I was the tip of the spear on some of this is to say just look at what you're doing to your own economy, and a lot of this is politics and people do not understand this, but Chancellor Merkel was making decisions about Germany's energy in order to stay in power. I know that's a big statement, but it is absolutely true. The Green Party in Germany was coming on, the Conservative Party, her party, Merkel's party really fast, the Greens were coming up, and the Greens are not like what we think of Greens in the United States.
Kelly Tshibaka:The Greens in.
Ric Grenell:Germany. Think of soccer moms in Frankfurt. It's a lot of really wealthy individuals who just want what's best for their kids. It's a lot of women. The Greens are wealthy suburbanites is the way that I would say it. And they looked at Fukushima and they saw the disaster in Fukushima and they thought we got to get rid of nuclear energy. It's terrible for us. So they petitioned and they screamed and the Green Party was pushing to get rid of nuclear energy. Merkel decided to co-opt that issue, and so could for the Conservatives, and announced that they were getting rid of nuclear energy. Now that's a terrible idea. To get rid of nuclear energy. First of all, france has it. I think the lessons of Fukushima's don't build your house on the sandy land, don't build your nuke plant on the beach and in an earthquake zone and there's a whole bunch of issues there.
Ric Grenell:But she co-opted the Green Party issue there. She then did the same thing with coal, when the Green Party was saying get rid of coal. So she decided, in order to stay in power oh, the Conservatives are going to be against coal. So imagine a manufacturing-based economy like Germany, the largest economy in all of Europe, dependent upon cars and manufacturing for their entire economy, getting rid of big sources of energy. You cannot run a manufacturing plant, a car manufacturing plant, on wind. You just can't do it. And so she was completely making terrible mistakes. Well, in order to stay in power and get rid of nuclear and coal and all of this big energy, she decided that they needed a gas pipeline from Russia. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Remember, nord Stream 1 is a pipeline that the United States says that should be a part of the energy diversification for Germany and for Europe. But Nord Stream 2 went too far. You were depending too much on Russian gas in order to do that. So our position it's a long answer to say our position in the United States was that Germany should not have a pipeline with Russia. That was a gas pipeline. When you're getting rid of all these other energy sources.
Ric Grenell:By the way, the European Parliament agreed with us. The European Parliament said we don't want Germany to have Nord Stream 2. All of Eastern Europe was with us as well. That information right there, the European Parliament, most of the European countries and Eastern Europe being with the Trump administration. You didn't hear that from the media in the United States. All you heard is Trump is mean to Merkel and so we were pounding them on Nord Stream 2. Don't allow that to come into operation. We sanctioned it. We did everything that we could to stop it. It did not become operational under Trump. We knew that this would be a gift to Russia. By doing this and, by the way, at the same time that Germany is doing this they're not paying their NATO fair share, their NATO obligations. So, president Trump, he respected Merkel. He was never rude, but he was blunt with her and he said you're feeding the beast.
Ric Grenell:You're feeding the beast.
Kelly Tshibaka:It's anti-NATO behavior?
Ric Grenell:Yeah, and she was, and so we were on to this, trying to get rid of Nord Stream 2 or freeze it out, and it never really became operational, as I said. But at the end of the day, the German Chancellor, chancellor Merkel, went to the Biden administration and she made the same argument that she made to us and said drop the sanctions, mr Biden, on my Putin pipeline, because we need this energy, and if you do, you're going to be celebrated in Germany, we're going to like you more. You're going to have this consensus approval from the Europeans, especially from Germany, if you do this In order to please Merkel. Biden made the decision and the Senate Democrats voted to drop the sanctions on Nord Stream 2. That is a fact, and I believe and could argue that they are the ones, the Senate Democrats, by showing Putin this weakness and dropping the sanctions as a favor to Merkel, that Joe Biden, who calculated consensus with the Europeans, ushered in the war in Ukraine.
Kelly Tshibaka:I think that's exactly how that lines up. Thank you for sharing all that. Let's jump into your other fascinating role as Acting Director of National Intelligence To set this up. We might have to take a pause in the middle of this, but Spice Terrace weapons and mass destructions are all in the intelligence community and this is something unusual you and I share in common. It was one of the original employees to help stand up the Director of National Intelligence and then, after I left, you were appointed to serve as the Acting Director of National Intelligence, so we overlap in this interesting organization that oversees now 18 intelligence community federal agencies.
Kelly Tshibaka:But, along with millions of Americans, I'm really upset and concerned about the miscarriage of justice and the abuse of power that I've seen play out by the hands of certain intelligence community officials. This has really hurt innocent people. It's undermined public trust in the intelligence community, which is also sad because a lot of really hardworking, ethical people are in the intelligence community. I want to get your thoughts on all this. So one thing we know is that this Russia investigation against President Trump was initiated based on evidence that the intelligence community had reason to believe was false. So they got fabricated FISA warrants to illegally spy on Americans.
Kelly Tshibaka:The Department of Justice Inspector General, who oversees the FBI and the FISA court, found and reported to Congress that quote we are deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked investigative teams. Goes on to say we believe this circumstance reflects a failure by FBI senior officials. Of course this was all repeated and found in the Durham report. So at some point you have to conclude that this Russian investigation that went on for years was government interference with an election. This of course affected how people felt and voted. Ric, what steps did you take when you were in the middle of this storm to do what was right? Because you were there when all this was going on too.
Ric Grenell:Yeah, that's a perfect way to lay it out. Look, I think that the intelligence community we have to understand that their job is to give us assessments of what they believe is happening and they are the ones who are supposed to give it to public policy officials. I had my first intelligence briefing in 2001. And I became an expert over all of these years of what an intelligence briefing, a good one and a bad one, and a useful one and a not useful one. And I'll say it that way and as public policy officials, that is the whole reason to have intelligence is to feed the system so that we make better public policy decisions to protect America. So ultimately, that is the job of the collectors.
Ric Grenell:The media in Washington immediately jump in and miss this boat. When I was appointed, of course, they said he's the most inexperienced Intel official to ever lead an agency. And I was left to say wait a minute, I've been receiving intelligence briefings for 15 years. Who better than someone who is the expert on how to consume intelligence than to lead the intelligence agencies? They scoffed at that and then Joe Biden turned around and appointed Bill Burns to run the CIA, who was a diplomat just like me who had been receiving intelligence briefings. He wasn't part of collecting intelligence, so the hypocrisy was not missed on me.
Ric Grenell:But what I learned through working with people who collect intelligence is that, look, this is an art, not a science. You have people who make assumptions or analysis from facts and they're like opinion writers. They are gathering information and then they're giving you an opinion, and an analyst is somebody who analyzes the data and gives you their opinion. This is very, very important to understand. Intelligence analyst is giving you an opinion after reading raw intelligence. Imagine having an op-ed in the New York Times written and you have no idea if that opinion piece was written by Max Booth or a scientist that knows nuclear code.
Kelly Tshibaka:Let's pause right there, Ric. We gotta take a quick break. We're gonna come back right after this with more of Ric Grenell's assessment on the intelligence community and its role in the Russia investigation. Stand by, you're back on. Stand where courage is contagious. We're talking to Ric Grenell, who's chatting with us about his experience in the intelligence community and the Russian investigation. We'll pick up where we left off, Ric.
Ric Grenell:Please continue, so really what I wanted to just emphasize is that the intelligence analysts are writing pieces that are really largely opinion pieces, and if you don't know who's writing them, obviously we can't. I'm not suggesting that we put names on them, but to know who's writing them is to know the bias.
Kelly Tshibaka:And what?
Ric Grenell:I found very clearly is that the China team was very judicious and very, very, very, very, very judicious, slow, methodical, behind I would say, and the Russia team was extremely political, dramatic and emotional, and I didn't like that, and I was trying to get them to understand the implications of what they're writing. I mean, they were saying things that turned out to be wrong. And look no further than the Israel team, which literally told public policy officials that if President Trump moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, there'd be World War III. And I had to chastise them later on. I didn't know if any other DNI had done it, but I wanted to let them know that they have a credibility problem because the opposite was true. Not only was there not World War III, but he ushered in President Trump, ushered in peace, world peace, and so they were totally, totally wrong, and there needs to be consequences for wrong intelligence, I think, and that means that the CIA director or the DNI needs to make changes a lot faster. Here's the problem, and I'll finish with this, is that these intel folks many of them who are political and dramatic and emotional, go to their friends in the media or go to their democratic friends, give partial information, erroneous information, and then the receiver goes out and tries to get a big headline and a click or a partisan jab.
Ric Grenell:And so I had somebody who was supposed to brief the gang of eight the heads of the intelligence committees on both the House and the Senate and the leadership, and I had this person actually there were three people, because the first person came to me and said I don't wanna brief the gang of eight because every time somebody does their careers ruined because those people leak. And then it comes back to me and everybody knows that I did it and they take my words out of context and it's not good for my career. These are career people. I went through three people who told me I'm not briefing the House or the Senate leadership, I'm just not doing it because it's a career killer. That is because of Adam Schiff and that story has never really been out there. Adam Schiff has never really faced the consequences of his manipulation and lies and what it did to career officials who all know. Everybody inside that DNI building knows Adam Schiff and his team were manipulators and they wanted to stay away from him.
Kelly Tshibaka:Wow, it's a really big deal that we protect and keep classified is really the correct word for it intelligence we keep that secret and top secret and protect the people behind it because, like you said, it's not just careers, it's actually safety too. You learn all that when you're inside the community and, like you said, I spent my entire career holding people accountable, doing inspected journal work or civil liberties and privacy, and there does need to be accountability for abuse of your position and your authority. We want to transition to other things that you're passionate about and involved in Niki. Do you want to talk about the upcoming election?
Niki Tshibaka:Oh, I love talking about the upcoming election because I'm excited.
Niki Tshibaka:It's saving up to be a barn burner, but no, this is in all seriousness. This election is bringing to the surface a lot, a lot of stuff that was lurking deep beneath and that a lot of people in the deep state and bureaucrats aren't happy about. But we need this kind of airing. Unfortunately, president Trump is taking all this incoming for all of us. However, it looks like we have a real opportunity here where Americans across the board independents, moderates and even Democrats a lot of them are really disappointed with the Biden administration, his performance.
Niki Tshibaka:They're concerned about how they've violated American civil liberties. They don't just believe civil liberties are for themselves, because if they were, then they're obviously going to be useless because at some point somebody else can just take them back and say they're putting them down. They're just taking them back and saying they're for me now. So they're concerned about civil liberties for all of us and the implications of what some of this administration has been doing. So we have a real opportunity here to draw more people into the Republican fold or into supporting Trump. We've seen some of this with the black community. I'm sure you've been following, but we're curious to know how do you think we can really capitalize on this and persuade more folks to join the Republican Party in its efforts to rebuild and restore the promise of America. I've said to Kelly I want to see Make America Great Again, but I'd really be happy just to see us Make America America Again.
Ric Grenell:I love that. Look, I have to start by just talking philosophically about the media for a second, because I think it's really important. When Twitter was invented, it was kind of like a disruption for the banking industry, where you didn't have to go to the bank teller anymore. You could go to that ATM all by yourself or do it on your phone in your own privacy, without ever going through that person at the bank. The media just had experienced that. With social media, we no longer had to go to reporters to have our story told.
Ric Grenell:The First Amendment is about the freedom of the press and freedom of speech and the idea that the press is really the conduit to the public. The whole concept is to educate the public, to get information to the public, not to the press. But the idea back then was we have to go through the press in order to get to the public. You no longer have to do that, and social media really disrupted that whole system. So why they kicked off Donald Trump, to be honest, is because he was taking his message straight to the people and the New York Times and the Washington Post and AP and CNN were not needed as much Because they didn't have the power to listen and then translate and then broadcast someone's message. That message was going straight out there. So in my Twitter feed, in my social media feeds, I can have a New York Times reporter right next to my friend down the street with 12 followers, and my friend is giving out information and opinion and so is the New York Times. They are the same that disruption the media hates. They're trying to kill it. So it's a long answer to say. Every election going forward is getting more transparent because we have all of these citizen journalists and people on the front lines who are just giving their information. So what does that mean? It means and I think this is where, many times, social media companies are struggling to say well, how do I differentiate between good news, bad news or whatever? I don't think they have to.
Ric Grenell:I think the idea is, the responsibility is on the consumer of the news. I hear all the time from my friends and so if I go to a cocktail party, you know what I'm hearing bad ideas and bad opinions and misinformation and old news all of the time. I don't sit there and say, gee, catherine, you're totally full of it, or that's not true. Once in a while you have a debate, but if you're a nice person, you just kind of listen and then you give your opinion and you go to the order table.
Ric Grenell:The reality is we got to get back to that. We got to get back to the consumer of the news is responsible. I don't believe Mark Zuckerberg has to employ people to figure out who's right and who's wrong, because they're biased. And that's just another creation of a newsroom, that's another editor to kind of figure out how to decipher information. I think we have a country where you get to say whatever you want and you can mock people if they have misinformation. If someone is giving out that information, mock them, get rid of their show, be transparent and show how not credible they are. That's more important than canceling them.
Kelly Tshibaka:That's a good point, Ric. You do that really well on your social media pages, by the way, but that's a really good point.
Ric Grenell:I'm nicer in person than I am on Twitter.
Kelly Tshibaka:I have been with you multiple times and you're one of the nicest people I've ever known. But, to be fair, on social media forums, which are vicious and brutal, you get attacked all the time. I think putting ups and defense mechanisms is fine, but I see your point. We don't need to support, cancel culture when we can all just be a check and balance on each other to say I mean, that used to be the point of an academic environment, the marketplace of ideas. It used to just be called debate. Now we have to erase people from society because we don't agree with them. It seems so extreme.
Kelly Tshibaka:I appreciate the approach that you take when you call people out. I've seen some of the things you said recently where you're doing like what you're doing right now. The story that hasn't been told is this is actually what my experience was when I left the committee room or when I was in this position, and I really appreciate that. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we want to jump into what you're actually doing with Fixed California, which I think is fascinating, and hear more about how one person can really make difference. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things in their local community. Stand by Remember if you leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, you can be our lucky winner this week to win a sticker from stand. We'll see you in just a minute.
Niki Tshibaka:We're back with former ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, who also served as Trump's acting director for the national director of national intelligence. For the offices of director of national intelligence, Ric, let's pivot to your efforts at home in California, where you live. We'd all agree that California needs some fixing, as do the many thousands of Californians who have fled the state under governor Gavin Newsom's leadership. Tell us what inspired you to start the movement Fix California and what is Fix California focusing on right now.
Ric Grenell:Well, thanks for that question because it's important. When I came back from the Trump administration, came back home to California, here, a lot of people were asking me to run for governor because we had the recall effort. If you remember, kelly referred to it in the beginning and you know it's intriguing to think about being the governor of the state that you love, the largest state in the country. I'm a huge California fan and you know, as a young kid, in elementary school in the San Francisco Bay area, the fact that I'm, you know, even mentioned or considered as somebody who could run for governor was really humbling. This is an amazing state that's been ruined by Kevin Newsom and the Democrats. We have a supermajority in Sacramento and I think when I look at you know I'm a data guy, I like to look at problems from a data perspective and Republicans have been wiped out in terms of voter registration and the numbers are just not there. No Republican could win in California and that's been proven over and over. We have a lot of Republicans who are on the sidelines, and so what I decided to do was play a long game and do something for the state that I'm passionate about getting conservative policy positions, conservative values back to California. I don't believe California is a liberal, crazy blue state all of the time. I think that we have too many people on the sidelines that have given up and we decided to empower them to try to get back into the game.
Ric Grenell:So Fixed California is a voter registration and voter role initiative where we put early on every single county in California, put them on notice to clean up their voter roles.
Ric Grenell:We have worked with Tom Fitton's group Judicial Watch, which is an amazing organization who sued Los Angeles County before we got going and they sued to clean up their voter roles and they've removed more than a million people Imagine more than a million in Los Angeles County alone were on the voter roles and shouldn't have been there because of residency.
Ric Grenell:Now when you take that and Gavin Newsom decides, because he's got a super majority, that no one can vote in person and we've got to vote via mail and so the mail, us mail is going to send every single person on the voter role a ballot. We already know that in Los Angeles County there's a million people that got a ballot that shouldn't have. Think about that. That's outrageous, and yet you also have to know just from practical experience in life that not a lot of people are checking their US mail very often, and we even have a system right now where the postal service is warning Americans don't send cash in the mail because it's not safe. So you have all of this information, but yet Gavin Newsom has decided to send mail ballots to every single person in California.
Ric Grenell:That was a recipe for disaster. So what I decided to do is clean up the voter roles, challenge all these counties to make sure that they were cleaning up their voter roles as required by state law and federal law. And then, two, to go on a massive voter registration drive. Encourage people to register. We found through this digital that we're working with 1.4 million conservatives unregistered, and that's just a drop in the bucket. These are people who own guns and they don't want to register because they don't want the government to know who they are. They think it's a waste of time. They think their vote doesn't count. We're going through now and encouraging people to get involved. Get off the sidelines. We've registered tens of thousands of people and made a difference in last election.
Ric Grenell:This next election in 24, we're going to make another big dent in many races. I keep telling our donors and I think Kelly has heard me say this before I tell our California donors that they must invest in California. It's going to take five or six years. It's not going to happen overnight. This is not a sexy campaign for somebody running for governor and it's going to dupe you into thinking that we can win. It is a long-term effort, but judge me on every election cycle that we're getting better than the time before. I think that that is the case. That is true. We're winning races that we weren't expected to win. You give us a little more time and we're going to make a big dent in Sacramento, but we're not giving up. We are going to Fix California. I would just tell people if you can support us with a little bit of money, go to FixCaliforniacom or FixCaliforniaorg.
Kelly Tshibaka:FixCalifornia. com or FixCalifornia. org. I think one of the things we can say about you, Ric, is your leadership speaks for itself. We want to walk through this history with Germany and Russia, and fuel Fuel policy used to be esoteric. Now fuel policy is family policy. We all have to go to the gas pump once a week. Now we all care about Germany and Russia and Ukraine.
Kelly Tshibaka:What happened with all these abuse of power by government agencies? We didn't use to talk about it. You were on to the weaponization of government long before any of the rest of us were. I like that. You're taking a long-term strategy.
Kelly Tshibaka:Campaigns are flash points in a two-year cycle and everybody gets excited, but we have to understand conservative Republicans haven't been winning elections now, for we're going on to our eighth year. Now, right, if we don't fix something at a root cause issue and get to the heart of it, we're not going to actually start winning anything. I agree with you, having gone through the results of the 2022 elections. Whether it was my race, it was Adam Laxalt's race in Nevada, so many others across the country, it came down to simply Republican voter turnout. We could put a lot of adjectives and reasons behind it, but you're getting to the root cause. It's get out the vote and it's voter registration FixedCaliforniacom. If you would like to see California be a place where crime isn't legal and you can go visit safely, that'd be great.
Kelly Tshibaka:I want to double back to a name that we now all know, but a name that I became familiar with in the early 2000s and a name that you became familiar with early in your career Jack Smith. I have my Jack Smith stories. You have your Jack Smith stories. You're one of the few people who do this is the DOJ prosecutor who's brought indictments against President Trump. But could you please tell us about your personal experience with Jack Smith, handling of prosecutions prior, when you were the special envoy for Serbia and Kosovo? What was it like? What was your experience with him when you were in that position? We only have a couple minutes, but if you could just give us an overview, I think stories about Jack Smith are interesting to people right now.
Ric Grenell:Yeah, I'll try to be quick. It's not my forte, but let me try.
Ric Grenell:Jack Smith was the prosecutor at the Hague and he was in charge of the Kosovo court after the 1989 war between Kosovo and Serbia. The international court was created to find war crimes and to prosecute individuals who committed war crimes. So Jack Smith is there. He's taken over from a prosecutor who left and said there's nothing else to do here, there's no more indictments. So basically he was saying we should close the court. But they didn't close the court, they appointed Jack Smith. Jack Smith comes in he's years years looking at and analyzing the Kosovo-Serbia situation from 1989.
Kelly Tshibaka:And what year was this now?
Ric Grenell:So this is Jack Smith just a couple of years ago, just like three or four years ago.
Ric Grenell:So the fact is he's looking back at a crime from 20 years ago, or a possible crime or a conflict, and trying to come up with who should be prosecuted when somebody else already gave up. But I step in and I'm doing this. Kosovo-serbia negotiation. We're getting close. President Trump is getting this big economic agreement together between the two countries and then we have an announcement of a big Oval Office meeting to come to the White House the leader of Kosovo, the leader of Serbia, and we're going to do final negotiations. That leader in Kosovo, hashem Fachi T-H-A-C-I Fachi if anybody wants to look up this story is indicted by Jack Smith out of the blue a rushed job, because Jack Smith wanted to stop President Trump from getting a big win in Kosovo-Serbia. That is a fact.
Ric Grenell:I'm sorry, but even the media in the Balkans are all reporting on the recklessness, the cavalierness the political nature of Jack Smith's indictment when he was at the Hague, and our US media is completely uninterested. They're not looking at this issue at all, and it's a shame because Jack Smith has a history of being extremely political and anti-Trump, and so he went from the Hague and Joe Biden appointed him from the Hague after he indicted Hashem Fachi. By the way, look this up Joe Biden called Hashem Fachi, the leader of Kosovo, the George Washington of Kosovo. Well, the.
Ric Grenell:George Washington of Kosovo is sitting in a Hague prison three years later, still in prison because of some phony indictment that Jack Smith has put forward, and he has not faced the consequences for that. So this is a very highly political man who does not look at facts but races to his political judgment, and now he's going after President Trump.
Kelly Tshibaka:I could talk a long time.
Ric Grenell:I could go on and on. There's five things in my head that I'm thinking of, but that's the summary.
Kelly Tshibaka:Yeah, and to derail such an important foreign policy goal.
Ric Grenell:That would have been beneficial for the world and international policy and again, the guy before him, the prosecutor before him, quit and threw up his hands and said there's no more. There's nothing. I looked at everything and there's no indictments. How is it that prosecutor says there should be no more indictments but Jack Smith comes in slam dunk, does it? And he does it when Hashem Tachi, the leader of Kosovo, is literally on his way to Washington DC to meet President.
Kelly Tshibaka:Trump.
Ric Grenell:That's a fact.
Kelly Tshibaka:Thank you, Ric. We're so honored to launch stand with a brave American and patriot like you. We're glad to have you on any time. We've just started to touch on your stories and I'm sure this is encouraging for our audience. Keep us updated on your work to Fix California. Please support Ric at FixCalifornia. com. That's it for today. Everyone, please subscribe to our podcast. Youtube channel is at the stand show. Leave a review to win a free stand sticker on your podcast platform of choice or on YouTube. You can follow us on social media under Kelly for Alaska and our website is standshow. org. You can share this episode, invite friends to join and remember the difference between those who take a seat and those who take a stand is simply a choice, like the choices that Ric Grenell told you about. We'll see you next week. Stand firm and stand strong Awesome.
