Brett Cooper — Trump & J.D. Vance Just Nuked the Conservative Civil War | Episode 95

So Trump and JD Vance have officially entered the conservative civil war that is happening right now. And chaos and outrage is already ensuing online. And why, you might ask? Well, because Trump is supporting free speech and JD Vance is supporting his employees. Imagine that. All right, so as you guys Oh god, I just HIT MY HAND. OH, THAT HURT. All right. So, as you guys know, last week I spent two whole entire episodes talking about how the Trump administration and conservatives at large could lose Gen Z, how they might actually be losing Gen Z right now, and how they, in my opinion, could put more focus and emphasis into addressing the economic issues that really matter to my generation, like what we are actually thinking about as we start our careers, chase our dreams, start families, all of those things.

And I will say I think I was harsh. Those are my opinions. I stand behind them. And so I am extremely excited today to report that we can celebrate something that our president just did because I would much rather be celebrating Trump than criticizing something that his administration is doing or not doing. But before we dive into that, make sure that you like this video, subscribe to the channel if you have not already because I know that the majority of you have not.

So make sure to hit that button and of course ring the notification bell if you want to stay up to date on all of our episodes. All right, let's just dive right in because guys, as of today, as of I guess yesterday, [music] we are so back with Trump. We are so back. I just want you guys to listen to how he responded when a reporter pressed him on the serious issue of Tucker Carlson. And yes, before you guys ask, people online, specifically on X, are still hung up on the issue of Tucker Carlson.

Let's watch. This was Trump's answer. >> Tucker Carlson recently had a friendly interview with anti-semite Nick Fentes. What Tucker Carlson? What role do you think Tucker Carlson should play in the Republican party, the conservative moving forward? >> Well, I found [music] him to be good. I mean, he said good things about me over the years. He's I think he's good. We've had some good interviews. I did an interview with him where we had 300 million hits.

You know that. >> Uh, >> look, I can't tell him. >> Will you let me finish by saying you are the worst. You're with Bloomberg, right? You are the worst. I don't know why they even have you. Uh, we've had some great interviews [music] with Tucker Carlson, but you can't tell him who to interview. I mean, if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don't know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out. Let him, you know, people have to decide.

>> I mean, like, that is Trump at his greatest. And obviously, I could have just played that end part uh for you guys where he's saying, you know, you can't tell him who to talk to, get the word out, you know, people need to listen and make up their own minds. But the entire one minute clip where he's first saying I love he said great things about me like that is Donald Trump's barometer basically like if you've been friendly with him if you have a viral interview obviously he is very loyal to his friends and then you have the moment where the woman is like trying to jump in and interrupt and you can see it's like my favorite Trump face where somebody interrupts him and he's like he's like [laughter] seriously and it's just like so good it's so perfect it's so drunk and then he gets to the end which really is the crux of that clip where he's saying I don't care like you can't tell Tucker Carlson who to interview or who he can't interview.

Let him talk to anybody. Make up your mind. Listen to the interview. That's the most important thing. Like this is the perfect response from an American president. Let Tucker do what he wants to do. Listen or do not listen and then just move on. Because contrary to the belief of many people on the left and now unfortunately on the right, it is not the government's job to police the media and sway them in one direction or another and control their narratives.

Like Trump objectively has far bigger issues to address in the world than Tucker Carlson. And it seems like thankfully his team is very aligned on this. Uh Trump adviser Alex Bersowitz, who many have credited for Trump's incredible 2024 podcast run, his social strategy, he posted this in support of Trump and he said, "It has been weeks since Tucker Carlson interviewed Nick Fuentes. Why is the media still so fixated on it?

Lol." Also, President Trump is right. The cancel culture that is now happening on the right is totally insane. The attempted cancellations are also backfiring. Both Nick and Tucker have only increased their followings since the attempts started. I mean, guys, it's common sense. THAT IS THE STRIAN effect at work. The more you tell people, don't talk about this. Don't talk to this person. Don't listen to this person. The more they're going to look into it, the more they're going to want to listen.

The more they're going to want to talk to that individual. Again, that is just common sense. I think that is just a a part of human nature. But unfortunately, people online just can't be stopped. And they are digging this hole even deeper because now they are even bringing Tucker's family into the mix. And this is where JD Vance stepped in to shine in my opinion because we were already doing mental gymnastics to justify cancelling and deplatforming somebody who platforms somebody that you hate.

And now people have decided that they want to attack relatives for simply being related to somebody that you dislike or who platforms somebody that you dislike. I mean, it is truly just ridiculous. And it all started with people finding Tucker's brother's account. Now guys, this is where it's really going to get complicated, so just stick with me. It started with people finding Tucker's brother's account and saying that he had shared a video from Nick Fuentes recently saying that he agreed with some of what Nick was saying.

Now Tucker's brother is named Buckley and he tweeted this quote, "We didn't vote for Trump because he was an obnoxious boomer. We voted for Trump because he was going to put America first." That's a quote from Fuentes. And then he said 100%. Where within this clip was he wrong. Now this immediately went viral. I think at the point that I screenshotted this, it had 1.3 million impressions. Obviously him reposting Nick Fuentes caused a firestorm online.

But Tucker's brother, Buckley, was just the beginning. Because many confused Tucker's brother, Buckley, with his son, Buckley Jr., who is JD Vance's deputy press secretary. And if your head is spinning at this point, if you feel like you have just entered an SEC frat where all of the men are in Vineyard Vine shirts and all of their names are Buckley, I understand. That is how I felt when I was scrolling on X last night.

Everybody online was angry about Tucker and Buckley, but it seemed like everybody was talking about a different Buckley and they thought that the brother was the son and that he was working for JD Vance. It was this whole thing. Everybody was just angry. They were letting everybody know that they were so incredibly angry about what Buckley was doing. But finally, the wires got straightened out and most people realized that that Buckley wasn't the Buckley at the White House who was paid by taxpayers.

However, they did not stop there because now that Buckley Jr. was involved by accident. They decided that they wanted to know what Buckley Jr. That's what I'm calling I don't know if he really is a Junior. I'm just calling him Buckley Jr. for clarification's sake. Anyway, by that point, they wanted to know what Buckley Jr. thought about his uncle and his brother and Nick Fuentes and Israel. And in a now viral post, a journalist wrote this.

She said, "Today, alert, today we learned that Tucker Carlson's brother idolizes Nick Fuentes." I wouldn't say that. He posted one video. I wouldn't call that idolization, but anyway, moving on. Racism and anti-semitism is a Carlson family trait. Is Tucker's son Buckley, who serves as JD Vance's top aid, also a vile bigot? America deserves to know how deep the Carlson's family ethnic and religious hatred runs. And that post at the time that I screenshotted it had 3.2 million impressions and all hell broke loose.

If you thought that there was outrage over Buckley Senior posting something or Trump saying something, this was another level because now people started going back and forth about guilt by association and whether this was a proper inquiry from a journalist, whether this is a question that, you know, the American people actually do deserve to know, whether it was done in good faith. For example, Robbie Starbucks replied and said, "Attacking Buckley is really messed up.

Even if you don't like Tucker, which again, you are free to do. It's a free country. You don't assign your hate for his dad to him and you don't ask sons to disavow their fathers or mothers. Come on now." Another reporter Sloan wrote back and said, "In America, we ask questions about the vice president's closest aids who are taxpayer funded. Tucker Carlson is America's most prolific anti-semite. The vice president is close friends with Tucker, and yet he hasn't weighed in on his targeting against Christians and Jews.

We know damn well if a Democrat vice president hired George Soros's son as an aid, we would want to understand what kind of biases he might hold. Journalists should be consistent about the answers they seek from government officials." Now, that is true, but I do disagree with the comparison that this journalist laid out because George Soros's son, whose name is Alex, has literally taken over his father's business. And George Soros and Tucker are completely different types of people.

And their involvement in US politics is also completely different. One is a multi-billionaire investor who has spent decades and who is spending billions of dollars a year to sway politics in the United States at his son's direction these days because his son literally took over the foundation. And the other Tucker Carlson is an independent journalist and podcaster. And yes, he is wildly influential. Yes, he has the number one podcast in the world.

And you could argue, we can have the argument about whether, you know, money or listeners is the most valuable currency in 2025. But in my opinion, these are still completely different situations. Tucker's son is not his father's mouthpiece. He is not taking over his father's business. He is not a public figure. He keeps his head down. People seem to love him. It seems like he's trying to make an independent name for himself in politics.

He seems like he represents a lot of this younger generation. He's just working hard. He's trying to pave a path for himself. probably trying to buy a house, WHICH YOU CAN do with Fellowship Home Loans because Fellowship Home Loans is making home ownership possible for our generation. And I get it, that feels impossible in 2025 because prices keep climbing. Interest rates are not dropping quickly enough and it feels like you'll never catch up.

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One person said, "If Buckley Carlson is old enough to work in the White House, he is old enough to answer a few questions." Another woman said, "All he needs to do is say, quote, "My views are nothing like my father. Someone who works this closely with the VP has an obligation to do that." Like, I Okay, I'm sorry. I just completely disagree with this. You're saying that Buckley has an obligation to share your views and publicly say those views in order to work for the vice president?

Like, people, this is seriously getting out of hand. This is genuinely crazy. Now, I've also seen people argue against critics and say, you know, this actually isn't a cancel culture issue. this isn't a free speech issue because nobody's getting fired and the government isn't getting involved and telling people who they can talk to. But putting aside the fact that Mark Levid and people like him literally said that they want to deplatform and quote cancel Tucker Carlson.

If we argue, if we accept that premise, and if we argue that it is neither of those things, this is still very reminiscent of the left-wing purity culture that we all have spent years railing against where we dig through people's social media demanding that they apologize for things they have never done and haven't said, asking them to clarify their opinions on stances due to being friends with somebody that you disagree with or being related to somebody.

I mean, it's all just like absurd. And again, these are things that we have spoken out against over the last decade. And it's so funny because we were literally just talking about her a couple of days ago, but all of this reminds me so much of Sydney Sweeney when she attended her mom's Make 60 Great Again birthday party and oh my god, she took a photo with a relative of hers who was wearing a thin blue line t-shirt.

I don't know if you guys remember that. I did a comment section episode about it at the time, but the internet lost their damn minds. They were demanding that she disavow her family, that she explain her political beliefs and make sure that she distance herself from them, demanding that she say those were not real MAGA hats. I mean, it was absurd. We all mocked it. We laughed at it. And what's even more hilarious is that when she did the right thing and she refused to disavow her family, conservatives, people on the right, applauded her.

They said, "Oh my gosh, this is so amazing. This is an inspiration. This is how we should deal with the mob. Never bend a knee. Do not bend to their ridiculous demands." Okay, well, look at us now, folks. Look at us now. I mean, genuinely, the jokes write themselves, and that is just what I'm trying to point out today. Anyway, moving on to other comments. This one was also wild. Like I don't even know why I'm including this other than the fact that it's just so crazy.

This guy said Trump has likely recorded the guy Buckley leaking classified info from the White House to Tucker and now if Tucker ever goes completely rogue against Trump, Trump has the goods to jail his kid. Like what? What? I don't even have words for this one. I don't even know where you pulled that from. But okay. But anyway, moving on. Now we can actually talk about JD Vance and what he did. But at this point, JD stepped in and he defended his staffer, as he should, in my opinion.

He wrote back to this woman and he said, "Slo is a journalist who has decided to obsessively attack a staffer in his 20s because she does not like the views of his father. Every time I see a public attack on Buckley, it is a complete lie. And yes, I notice every person with an agenda who unfairly attacks a good guy who does a great job for me." Sloan describes herself as a defender of Judeo-Christian values. Is it a Judeo-Christian value to lie about somebody you don't know?

not in any church I spent time in. I have an extraordinary tolerance for disagreements and criticisms from the various people in our coalition. But I am a very loyal person and I have zero tolerance for scumbags attacking my staff. And yes, everyone, he makes this very clear. Everyone who I've seen attack Buckley with lies is a scumbag. I mean like that. Our vice president was spitting fire in my opinion. You can tell that this man is over, that he is done, and that this is far from the first time that people have gone after Buckley simply for disagreeing and disliking or hating, if you want to go that far.

Tucker Carlson. And because of what JD Vance said, people are pissed. I even saw commenters, people that I know that I'm mutuals with saying that they were going to stop supporting him for the 2028 candidate. Because of this, because he defended his staffer and in their minds did not properly condemn Tucker, who was a friend of his or Fuentes. Like one person said, "This guy has no core belief." He's talking about JD.

This guy has no core belief of his own and shouldn't be trusted with major decision-making. What? Because he defended his staffer. Now, the thing is, and you guys are smart, so I'm sure you understand this. They're not really upset with him defending his staffer. They're worried that him defending Tucker's son means that he agrees with Tucker or maybe worse is unwilling to take a stand against him. Now, another commenter responded to him basically saying this and said, "You are trying to redirect the conversation to Buckley Carlson Jr.

and it won't work. America wants to know where you stand on Tucker Carlson, his brother Buckley Fuentes, the Groper movement, and the very real rising tide of anti-semitism on the right." Okay. Now, first of all, the first thing you said, redirecting the conversation. JD Vance was not redirecting the conversation. He was literally responding to the conversation and the question at hand, which was whether Buckley was quote a vile bigot.

And I think JD Vance answered that. But yes, to this guy's second point, that is what a lot of commenters wanted to know. And JD Vance seems to have just shut down that conversation entirely. He has already said multiple times in other posts that he is not interested in engaging in this inviting. He is focusing on his work, which I think is a great strategy. I agree with. And so, I'm not sure how you guys feel, but I personally am very happy with this response.

Now, I did see something else pop up that was a part of this whole discourse that confused me at first. Maybe it popped up for you guys, but I saw a lot of people comparing this this whole debate and, you know, defense of Buckley, all of that, to when Tucker talked about Mark Leavvin's stepson, who also works for the admin, which I did not know. This guy said, "Did anybody feel this way when Tucker viciously went after Mark Leavin's stepson?"

And there were tons of comments very similar to this one. Another person said, "It is worth pointing out that Tucker Carlson dedicated an entire episode of his show, which is often ranked as the number one political podcast in America, to defing Mark Leven's stepson, who is also a Trump admin's official. The Crybully Act is sad and beyond hypocritical." And I'll admit that got me at first. Like, for a second, I thought, "Okay, wait.

All right, let me take a step back. Is this hypocritical? Is this too overblown?" But then I decided to do what we all should do. Take a minute, take a breath, and actually look into it. And in my opinion, we are once again dealing with apples to oranges here. And I went back and I found this episode in question and it was about somebody that Levin's stepson who works under my cuckabe in Israel allegedly got fired and how his stepson allegedly overstepped in his position in government.

Here's a Woe headline about that exact same story that Tucker was talking about. State Department fires official after internal debates over Israel. And then on top of that firing, some say that David Milstein, who is Leven Stepppson, had subverted authority on an issue back in the spring. So here's a headline about that. How a littleknown embassy aid hijacked USI Israel policy. David Milstein, top adviser to ambassador Mike Huckabe, has stoked a culture of fear at the State Department, current and former officials say.

And that came out in September of this year. And so Tucker, he wanted to talk to this employee who had been fired. That was the main crux of this issue. But basically, as I understand it, the story goes that Huckabe, senior adviser, who was Leven's stepson, and this State Department employee, who was the lead press officer for the Israeli Palestinian Affairs, had continuously buted heads throughout the conflict. And then that State Department employee was fired with no explanation.

And Tucker brought him on to the show. They wanted to talk about that. They talked about the State Department, what was going on with the conflict, everything in Israel. This was not, in my opinion, an entire episode dedicated to viciously attacking Mark Leavvin's stepson. Now, I will say that the stepson was brought up and here is a clip where they talked about him. >> So, you were marched out of the state department two weeks ago.

You left involuntarily. What did you do there? I was a press officer in the near New York Eastern Affairs Bureau. So, a reporter with XYZ outlet submits a question and it's our job to use cleared lines or cleared meaning approved lines and send them back to uh the reporter. So David Milstein, who is Mark Leven's stepson, is a political guy working now for Mike Huckabe in Jerusalem and he was going through your lines.

>> Correct. >> Okay. >> You'd push a certain agenda that was very aligned with Israel that I found very problematic. Why I was fired. I had a line pretty standard and kind of not the not very specific, but it said we support stability in the West Bank. He changed the stability line to we commend Speaker Johnson for visiting Judea and Samaria. So we as a government >> What's Judea and Samaria? >> It's a term that is like religious.

It's it's it's about Israel's land grab of the West Bank. >> He added this to the statement. Correct. >> Okay. So as you can see in that clip, David Milstein is referenced and Tucker uses Mark Leven's name. He connects the two. He also uses Mark's name in the title of that clip on YouTube. And so you could argue that Tucker, you know, shouldn't have done that. That that was a step too far. That he should have judged and highlighted the stepson's actions independently away from Mark Leven.

But the point is, the reason why I'm bringing this up and what I didn't know at the time until I looked into it is that there were actions to evaluate. They are actions that interest Tucker and obviously are connected to something that he is talking about a lot right now. And so it makes sense that this would come up. And I don't think that Tucker would have simply avoided the story because he didn't want to bring Mark Leven stepson into it because he's Mark Leven's stepson.

Because Leven's stepson already was the story. He was the crux of what Tucker was talking about. And in contrast, in my opinion, there is no reason to slander Tucker's son other than because he is related to Tucker and he is related to his uncle who is saying things online that people do not like. And because of that, JD Vance was absolutely right in my opinion to defend a member of his staff. Does JD Vance agree with Tucker?

Does he disagree? Will he ever tell us? Who knows? Like, we I genuinely have no idea. JD Vance has seemed determined to try to reunify the Conservative coalition. And I also think that he is in an almost impossible situation right now. He is threading a very delicate needle because he does want to unify the party. That is how we win the midterms. That is how he gets elected in 2028. He is also publicly very good friends with Tucker and I'm sure he listens to him, but also I'm sure that he doesn't agree with Tucker on everything, especially considering his publicly stated opinions on Israel.

And guess what? That all makes sense to me. That's all totally fine. I am not sweating any of that. Like, I am more concerned with JD Vance's ability to try to hold the pieces of conservatism together and working on making our country great with Donald Trump, especially for the younger generation. That is where my attention is right now. And it seems like that's what he's focused on, too. So, that is a win in my book.

A good day to be a supporter of Donald Trump and JD Vance. If you made it all the way to the end of this episode, thank you so much for watching. I had so much fun putting it together and I hope that you enjoyed it, too. If you did, make sure to hit that subscribe button because this channel only exists because of you. And if you're in the mood for more, I've got even more episodes right here that I think you'll love.