Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch does some of the most amazing work in this nation protecting your rights. And actually, Tom, you have a new book out. It’s called Rights and Freedoms in Peril. Welcome, Tom. How are you this morning? James, good to be with you again. How are you this morning? I’m fine, thank you, and I’m glad you’re here. I want to ask you what rights are in, you know, the left keeps talking about democracy is fragile and conservatives, why you people trump, they want to become dictators, they want to take away your rights, they want to destroy democracy.

Many people in this country feel their rights are already being taken away from them. What? Yeah, well, and they’re right. Go for it. And the left wants to do it, they want to kind of do it directly challenging and trying to restrict certain rights and indirectly by destroying the institutions that protect those rights like the Supreme Court. And the easiest description is to what their plan is and what they’ve done to us personally is our First Amendment rights. So when they censor Donald Trump, when they censor users on platforms like Facebook or Twitter back in the day, or YouTube, they obviously are targeting specific people, right? Like me, Judicial Watch, Donald Trump.

I don’t know if you’ve been on the list yet, James. Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m still shadowbanned on Twitter. Yeah, yeah. So your rights are being violated, especially when the government’s involved in telling these big tech companies target these people. But everyone who listens to you, everyone who would otherwise gain access to information from Donald Trump, their information is suppressed. Their right to get access to information, that’s a First Amendment right. You know, the free speech works both ways, the speaker and the listener. So this has been the most significant attack on First Amendment freedoms, the censorship that took place in 2020, and continues in no small measure today.

It’s not just Trump. It’s not just conservatives on these platforms that people know because they’re big names. It’s their users, it’s their followers who are also being censored under this extreme attack on the First Amendment by not only government officials, but by their allies in big tech. I saw, Tom, I saw a video on one of these platforms. A father stood up and started reading at a school board meeting from a book that the school board allowed in. It was pornographic in vivid detail about incest and on and on. And he actually challenged the people at the school board why they’re letting this in.

They immediately brought in three armed officers to escort him out. These things, we see these stories all the time. One school court. Go ahead. No, go ahead, please. I mean, this is another big issue and, you know, we use FOIA, right? To gain access to information. And the First Amendment allows us to talk about that information, right? And the school boards don’t like FOIA. And the other aspect of the First Amendment is the right to petition your government, right? Yes. And that means going to a school board meeting and speaking out and speaking out in a way that, you know, you still have to follow certain rules.

There’s no doubt about it. But the idea that reading material that’s at issue in a school board in terms of the access to children, such as the pornographic material you decide would warrant you getting thrown out of a meeting, is disturbing. Now, if there’s something specific that happened, I’m no lawyer, but, you know, the parents should check in with lawyers who might be able to get them some redress. But this is all to, this is kind of part of it too, because school boards now hate FOIA, right? They hate parents who are asking questions.

They’re seeking to restrict certain public meetings about discussions on these hot button and sensitive issues. So it’s not just in Washington where, you know, you literally get thrown in jail, right, by the Biden administration or their attempt to throw Donald Trump in jail. It’s happening with school boards as well. Now, you just let me answer the next question, which I was going to ask you about the lawfare that we currently see. I know right now that you, Judicial Watch, is seeking information that would kind of give us a heads up as the American public information on what is going on with the Secret Service and why we can’t seem to get answers from the Secret Service on their, I guess, lack of capabilities toward Donald Trump, these assassination attempts.

What are you at Judicial Watch planning in the event of a, I hope I’m not giving away secrets, in the event Donald Trump wins the election, what should we look forward to in terms of the information that we as the American public might finally be able to get? Yeah, that’s a good question. If I were Trump and I won, I’d go on a transparency tear. I exposed the lawfare against him and other innocent Americans by the Justice Department and the FBI. I figured out, I would figure out in order the release of information about what happened to him and who was involved in restricting security for him and denying him security that they now all know he should have received.

It’s quite obvious he should have received it because the proof is the pudding, which is he was nearly killed twice, and who was involved in that decision-making? There’s all this corruption, all these scandals that Judicial Watch has sued on over the last several years that Trump can come in and with not even a pen signature, but just a phone call, get these documents released. That’s going to be a challenge because we already had one Trump administration. You would have administration officials who were more beholden to the deep state than to the rule of law and transparency who would still sit on this material and defend the indefensible.

Let’s hope that changes. You know, I heard Bolton say the other day there is no deep state, that it’s all in the imagination of these, he didn’t say the words coop, but that’s pretty much what he was saying. He conserves a bunch of coops. There is no deep state. Of course there is. There’s a pyramid of bureaucracy. It’s largely partisan. I mean, it’s based here in Washington, D.C. It’s mostly Democrat, largely liberal, especially in the key agencies like the Justice Department. But you know, I remember someone else in the Trump White House kind of echoing what Bolton said, and he was very friendly to the Trump agenda.

And he said, Tom, the problem isn’t the deep state, it’s the top state. And the key point he was making was to be sure that the officials that come in all have signed on to the agenda of transparency and accountability and holding the government accountable, too often the appointees of any Republican president get captured by the bureaucracies and they become, you know, they become literally part of the deep state, or as my friend said, the top state. All right, Tom, the remaining moments we have left, I want you to tell people, number one, how they can get your book.

That’s number one. And then, and then after, please tell people how they can support the amazing work that you do at Judicial Watch. Well, getting the book is a great and direct way to support the work. It’s rights and freedoms in peril, rights and freedoms in peril. And I encourage people not only to read the book, but to read it before the election, because it talks about election integrity and what might go right and wrong vis-a-vis 2020. Do we want what happened then to happen again? And then, of course, Judicial Watch, all this work we’re talking about, all these documents, they’re all available on our website at judicialwatch.org, judicialwatch.org.

You know, the book’s all over. Judicial Watch is all over the internet. And I’ll tell you, if you’re not part of our cause, our movement, you’re missing some key information. And something I think that would reassure a lot of your listeners is like, well, maybe there is a way forward. We need this group, Judicial Watch, to keep on working. Do you feel optimistic about the future? Well, as a Christian, I’m optimistic. But as a citizen, I get nervous. I’m optimistic and outraged at the same time. I’m optimistic in the sense I don’t think a lot needs to be done in the sex of the country.

We need new leaders in key places, and it would be remarkable the changes are. And I’m pessimistic, because even given that small increment in leadership that we need, we never seem to get it. So I get frustrated. So there you have it. Tom, thank you so much for joining us. You must come back. Always enjoy speaking with you. Again, Judicial Watch, you know, I have been following, and I do. I use their website. I go on their website very often. And I would encourage all of you to do the same. Judicial Watch, they just do the most amazing work.

And very often, they’re the only ones. And not on everything. There are other groups. But Judicial Watch has taken the lead on so many issues, trying to get information that no one else is getting on these matters. The law fair, and it just continues. And individual freedom. So very worthwhile organization. [tr:trw].

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