Episode 4970: A Conversation With Sam Tanenhaus And The Book Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America Pt. 2

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What does Sam Tanenhaus say about the decline of the regime?

Steve Bannon 0:02
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies, because we're going medieval on these people. I got a free shot on all these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.

How does the media influence public perception in politics?

Unknown 0:24
And where do people like that go to share the big lie? Mega media. I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
Stephen K. Bannon 0:45
War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bann.
Steve Bannon 0:52
You've just had an explosion across the battlefield that is American politics here in the imperial capital. You've actually had a senior editor of, I would argue, one of the most, if not the most influential publication on a weekly basis, before you had cable TV and podcasts and everything like this, the revered Time magazine, accuse... in an open hearing in front of the nation, arguably one of the most respected individuals that had been in government for a long time, had been aide-de-camp to Roosevelt, the first secretary general of the United Nations, just to get the kickoff, and now leading the most prestigious NGO, the Carnegie Endowment of Peace, as being a Soviet agent. What happens?
Sam Tannenhaus 1:39
Well, Chambers goes through about eight or nine names. and mentioned some others, well-known, not as well-known as his, and the others all go silent. Because, well, if somebody accuses you of something, accuse you of being a communist. You've got to remember, Steve, this is an era where if you're accusing someone of being a communist and they're not, that's potential slander or libel, right?
Steve Bannon 2:05
Because it's not... No, no, read the... When you watch the movie Oppenheimer, I mean, we went from allies, quote-unquote, to now mortal enemies, right? And it was not just about geopolitics at the time. These are two distinct... views of how one views humanity, the world, all of it. This is the story of Whitaker Chambers. Goes from a hardcore, if not Trotskyite, you know, Marxist-Leninist atheist to a Christian that his Christianity informs every movement of his life, right? And you see this whole battle right there. That's why this is so big. This consumed post-war America. The war against, they called it the Cold War, but it got hot in many places. This is what consumed us up until all the way through President Reagan's presidency.
Sam Tannenhaus 2:54
Yeah, well, and Chambers insisted it was a moral battle. That's what nobody wanted to hear. It's not just moving chess pieces.
Steve Bannon 3:02
Spiritual war.
Sam Tannenhaus 3:03
Spiritual war. It's a moral war. That's why, you know, when a friend of mine, I think of yours too, Pat Buchanan, tries to say these things. He tried to say them a long time ago.
Steve Bannon 3:13
You know, he's hooted off the stage. Hang on for a second. Hang on a second. How is one of the leading Jewish intellectuals in the country a friend of what they tell us today is the greatest anti-Semite in the nation, Pat Buchanan?

What role did Whitaker Chambers play in the Cold War narrative?

Steve Bannon 3:27
I revere Pat Buchanan, but to hear you say that you're a buddy of his is pretty shocking.
Sam Tannenhaus 3:31
Well, first of all, any journalist who interviews Pat Buchanan knows how straight he is, how direct, how uncensored, and how helpful he will be. And people are shocked by this. There's actually a friend of mine who told me a long time ago, before I interviewed Pat Buchanan, said he's a really nice guy. I didn't believe it. Then I met him, and he is. But there's something else going on here, too. is now we're going to get to something that's in the Buckley book, if we want to switch over there.
Steve Bannon 4:00
Because Buckley now comes on the stage. He does come on the stage very shortly. A big player, but in the wings, but all of a sudden you're going to see the kernels of all this. This is why it's the revolution that changed America. We're now going to get in. It's more than Buckley. It's what Buckley sees down the road.
Sam Tannenhaus 4:15
That's right. And Pat Buchanan, of course, is still a younger guy than Buckley, but he was raised in all this.

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