TBOR Action President John Pudner recently returned to Des Moines, Iowa, the heart of presidential primary country, for an in-depth, exclusive interview with guest host and Star Network Political Editor Matt Kittle, wherein both not discussed the Penn-Biden Center scandal, but also about the need for real election reform, including and especially Final Five.
The following transcript from this interview is presented in its entirety with minor edits:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Biden, campaign finance, Chinese, pay for play, Wisconsin.
SPEAKERS
John Pudner and Matt Kittle.
Matt Kittle 00:00
The House Committee on Education last week held a panel discussion on whether the University of Pennsylvania violated any laws as a result of classified documents being found at the Penn-Biden Center in Washington DC. There are more issues than the declassified documents, that's a big one to be sure, but as we have found out in recent weeks, the Penn-Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement feels a lot like a smorgasbord of special interest for Joe Biden, his closest allies, and a lot of foreign entanglements, surprise, surprise. Once again, he's involved and there are concerns rising again of influence peddling and clear encroachments on campaign finance laws. Joining us right now on the big show, John Pudner, President of Take Back Our Republic Action. John has been long warning about all of this, and we welcome to Need to Know with Jeff Angelo and Matt Kittle. Hello, good morning, sir. How are you?
John Pudner 01:13
Oh, fantastic. Thanks for having me.
Matt Kittle 01:15
Absolutely. I know that you have been very concerned, your organization has been very concerned about this, and going back a couple few years, you did indeed warn about these kinds of entanglements, this kind of influence, campaign finance, all of that sort of thing. Did you know that it would become this big thing involving classified national secrets or at least documents?
John Pudner 01:41
I did not. We connected most of the dots a couple of years ago, which was the president of U-Penn collecting over $50 million from China for the University of Pennsylvania. They claim none of that was designated for the Biden center, but I'd say the money spends one way or the other, and then getting herself a $4 million salary, I'm sure because of her fundraising prowess, paying Joe Biden $930,000 as a private citizen for a no-show job, and then staffing this Biden center with what turned out to be ten people that ended up working on this campaign in senior roles. So, you have $50 million in Chinese money, I'd say it all comes out in the laundry, and then the flip of that is, last year, Biden actually appointed U-Penn's President to be Ambassador to Germany. So, all those dots were in place, and to find out there were actually classified documents in a place that, you could argue indirectly, the Chinese had paid to keep up and running, was just the final piece of the puzzle.
Matt Kittle 02:47
It is a tangled web here, no doubt about it. John Pudner, President of Take Back Our Republic Action. We're gonna talk a little bit more about his group, what they have been doing, what they want to do, and their vision of America as it relates, in particular, to campaign finance. But, you mentioned it...speaking of campaign finance, you've got campaign workers working in this office on Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, John, but that sounds like an encroachment on campaign finance law, is it not?
John Pudner 03:26
It is, and beyond that, remember, the University of Pennsylvania is a 501c3, which means it's allegedly 0% political. I'll just to make a slight update on my title...so my old title at Take Back Our Republic was Executive Director, I'm actually President of Take Back Our Republic Action, and I say that to let you know that the reason we did that is the old group we had was a 501c3. We were starting to feel pushed into some things that seemed political, and we didn't want to, in any way, endanger our 501c3 status, so we broke off to only do Take Back Our Republic Action, a 501c4, where we can spend half our time on political issues. We took those steps to make sure we weren't violating the laws that U-Penn clearly had complete disregard for. I mean, they ran the whole thing through a 501c3, meaning all contributions are tax-free, and you can't do that for political purposes. So, for these groups who try to play gotcha, occasionally, I'm thinking one group may have accidentally moved some money into something's political group, but to have those same people just turn a blind eye to U-Penn just doing this out in the open.
Matt Kittle 04:41
We have this going on all over the place on the Left, in particular. I mean, they invented the term "dark money", and that's their term, and now they are engaged repeatedly in dark money operations, and that is what is so frustrating. But, let's play this out to its logical end, and I think these are logical questions, important questions that our listeners are asking, have asked, these are important questions we need to ask of this administration. If so much money from China is coming into the Penn-Biden center, and it is being used to further the interests of Joe Biden, then how can we, as average Americans, be convinced that when, say, a Chinese spy balloon, will come over America, and that spy balloon isn't shot down until a week later as it floats over America, or say that we have a government that is, at every turn, trying to say, "No, it's a crazy conspiracy if you think that Covid came from a lab in China"...You see, where I'm going here, John, what is, ultimately, our response to President Biden and his administration's handling of China, which feels a lot of times like kid gloves?
John Pudner 06:17
Yes, I mean, to have a compromised leader with an adversary is the worst thing you can have in a country. And, you know, the Hunter Biden deal he cut with Bank of China affiliates in China, while the Chinese president was basically meeting with his dad in the same week when he was VP, you've got money going directly there as well. So, it's not only Joe Biden's $937,000 a year paycheck for a no-show, professor spot, it's the kid getting whatever his cut is out of the billion-dollar transaction. So yes, when you have leaders that are compromised, and we talk about Russia was our main ally, that they like to fight, that the Chinese like to win. I mean, they're planting the seeds, you know, four or five, six years ago, to get a favorable view from someone who might be president, was vice president during that time with Hunter Biden, so it's just a compromised position.
Matt Kittle 07:19
No doubt about it. John Pudner, President of Take Back Our Republic Action, and he explained the reasons why, going into more of the political realm as well, what is it that you folks want to see, because I know for a long time, you've been talking about campaign finance, and this Penn-Biden center is a perfect example of the kind of influence peddling that we've seen in massive campaigns spending, of course, going into politics in America today.
John Pudner 07:55
We do. Anything that's pay for play, or potential pay for play, or compromising, and we also want to add systems that are set up to seemingly get foreign money in, and we start with Act Blue on that, the system which raised billions for liberal causes, but not in a process that does not allow their processors to do the normal checks on the real origins of money, that's child's play if you're a Chinese programmer, so we want to cut off those avenues too. We do look at election systems as well. I think a big problem in the country is the spoiler system. I mean, the liberals are playing that very well, where they find a third-party candidate to peel off a couple percent, which you can see in Trump losing Wisconsin and Georgia based on other conservative candidates peeling it off, which let Biden win the states with less than 50%, that's happened in seven states in the last four years. I do think you need to look at some kind of Final Five system there, where you can have people cast their real vote, cast a protest vote if they want for some other conservative, but in the end, make that choice between which direction they want, you don't keep having liberals win with under 50% of the vote. I think, with that, we can have a better-represented country.
Matt Kittle 09:20
Well, we know how much money is involved. I think about some areas of the country... I'm covering one of the most watched elections in this country in a state Supreme Court election in our neighboring state of Wisconsin, which is going to turn out to be, without a doubt, the most expensive Supreme Court race in the nation, and it's going to be that way because the people in Wisconsin in April are gonna determine whether that Supreme Court is led by conservatives or liberals, and it doesn't just have a stake to play in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is an important battleground state that could ultimately affect what goes down in 2024, so you see all of this stuff playing out, you see all the money involved, and you know why all the money is involved, something's going to have to give. I don't know exactly what that is, I don't know if it's the plan you're talking about, but something's gonna have to give. I appreciate you taking the time and we will have to have you back on real soon my friend.