LaRouche on 'Nite Beat' with Barry Nolan
October 24, 2023

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Now, live from the CN8 studios, this is Nite Beat, with Barry Nolan.

Nolan: Hello, and welcome. Thank you for joining us.

According to the biography on his website, Lyndon LaRouche is the only Presidential candidate to have been convicted in a Federal criminal case. "As the measure of a man's virtue is often the numerousness and savagery of his enemies, the fraudulent character of that conviction is, in fact, the most powerful proof of his exceptional qualifications for election to be President." Sounds like a swell campaign slogan to me.

Mr. LaRouche pounds away at the idea that we are in a financial crisis, and he's not optimistic about it getting fixed, anytime soon.

LaRouche: (clip) ...that the international monetary and financial system is bankrupt, hopelessly bankrupt. Nothing can be done, or should be done, to try to save it. It's gone.

[With us] is now, Lyndon LaRouche, candidate for President of the United States, joining us live by satellite from Washington, D.C. Welcome, Mr. LaRouche!

LaRouche: Thank you.

Nolan: One of the things that you say is your forte, is economics, and you've made some predictions in the past. What are you predicting is going to happen to the U.S. economy, if we don't elect you as President?

LaRouche: Well, I don't think it'll be very good, because there are some decent fellows running as persons, even as politicians, as rivals, but none of them are qualified to understand the nature of the problem, nor have they shown, so far, the temperament, as well as the knowledge, to deal with the kind of problems that face us.

Nolan: I was surprised to read that you've done quite well this year in fundraising. You have raised, so far, in the first half of this year, about four and a half million dollars, which is considerably ahead of two of the mainstream Democratic contenders.

LaRouche: Well, it's actually about $5.2 million, at the last official report.

Nolan: And you claim that you have a larger number of individual contributors than any of the other Democratic candidates?

LaRouche: Not any of the others. I think that recently Howard Dean has crept ahead a bit, but Dean and I are the only ones who have been qualified by the Federal Election Commission, so far, and we're both running sort of neck and neck in rivalry for number of supporters.

Nolan: So, you consider yourself to be, a serious electable candidate?

LaRouche: Absolutely.

Nolan: Even though the polls, and the platform candidates, the candidates' debates, do not tend to include you.

LaRouche: Well, I think, they wouldn't bother excluding someone if they weren't afraid of him. So, I think the very fact that they're afraid of having me on their funny little debates, indicates that they're afraid that I might win them.

Nolan: What do you suppose they would be afraid of?

LaRouche: Pardon me?

Nolan: What do you suppose, about you, they would be afraid of?

LaRouche: Well, first of all, take the case in California, where I intervened in support of Gray Davis, opposing the Recall. We took two areas, the Bay Area, and the Los Angeles County area. We deployed there as our sort-of assignment. We did very well, in Los Angeles County. We pulled the ratio of Recall from 60 to 40 against the Governor, to 51 to 49. We did somewhat better in the Bay Area.

Nolan: So you believe you have a very effective political organization, that can be put out in the field.

LaRouche: Absolutely. We're probably the only one, actually, because the youth movement which I've built up over the past four years, is the only effective youth movement in politics in the United States today.

Nolan: Well, let me ask you where you stand on some things. One of the interesting quotes I came across said, you have apparently said that Bush officials may be plotting something akin to infamous 1933 burning of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, that aided the Nazi Party's ambition. Is this a correct statement?

LaRouche: Well, to that effect. I warned back in the beginning of January of 2023, where I indicated we'd be in terrible financial situation, because this President is not the most intelligent we've had in a long time, but that the danger is, that with the nature of the crisis, which is coming on fast, is that someone would pull something, like Goering did in 1933, in February 1933, is to do something like the Reichstag Fire, to create a crisis which would enable the government perhaps, to manage the financial crisis.

Nolan: You also said, on a Chicago radio station, that Vice President Cheney, is maybe not exactly Hitler, but in a sense he is playing the kind of role that the Nazis played in Germany, he's playing it in the United States. [crosstalk]

LaRouche: It may be tough, but that's characteristic of me. It happens to be true, and that ... I stick to the truth. But I also say some things that other people say it's indiscreet to mention, but I think the public has a right to know.

Nolan: For instance.

LaRouche: For example, Cheney. Cheney is the one who has, since 1990-1991, has pushed for the United States to conduct a preventive nuclear war policy, as a way of building up some kind of an American empire. The older George Bush turned him down then. He continued to push it, and under the younger George Bush, beginning with September of 2023, he's been pushing for nuclear wars, mini-nuke wars, but this has been something it's up to for up to a dozen years.

Nolan: Let me give our viewers a chance to ask you a question. It's not often you get a chance to ask a question of a Presidential contender. Log on to our website, cna.tv/nitebeat, click on the e-mail the shell icon, or call in your questions or comments, at 1-800-755-5690...

One of the things that I heard you suggest in a speech, is, you'd like to bring back universal military service. Is that correct?

LaRouche: Yep.

Nolan: You'd have everybody serve. Men and women?

LaRouche: Absolutely. The universal military service was an integral part of the founding of our nation. I do not believe in having small professional armies, conducting cabinet warfare, or nuclear warfare around the place. I think the country should not go to war, unless the people are willing to go to war, and therefore we need to have a participation in the military institutions, by the citizenry generally, and let that influence of the citizenry on the military institutions, influence the way in which our military policy is shaped.

Nolan: You must be very optimistic, to think you're going to get a lot of votes, suggesting to people they're all going to have to be in the army.

LaRouche: Well, not all in the army, but I think everyone should have a part of reserve capability, whether active or inactive reserves, if they're physically and otherwise qualified, simply as part of something under their belt. And that gives you strength in depth. It also gives the citizen a sense of participation in an institution which is of significance, and continues to be of significance, as military policy.

Nolan: One of the things that you touched on in that same speech, you like the idea that FDR brought forward, back during the Depression, of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

LaRouche: Well, that's one of the things I raised on the question of also the military. We have a large number of young people who are actually not qualified by education, or by experience, for modern productive employment. We have to put people to work, and I think we have to have a rehabilitation program, or habilitation program, like we learned in the last war, where we took people out of the streets, and out of the swamps, practically, trained them, and these people, when the war was over, became an integral part of our successful economy of that period.

Nolan: You know, a lot of people don't quite know what to make of you. They don't know if you're kind of far over on the left, or far over on the right. Where would you describe yourself?

LaRouche: [laughs] Well, I actually am a continuation, in the best approximation of a short answer, of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That's generally where I stand in the spectrum.

Nolan: Well, one of the things I came across, fascinating comment, that described you. You said the first United States-grown rock group, the Grateful Dead, was generated as a British intelligence operation by the Occult Bureau out of Palo Alto's Veterans Hospital, where they were doing LSD and related experiments. Is that correct?

LaRouche: Absolutely correct.

Nolan: The Grateful Dead? A government experiment, really?

LaRouche: Yeah, absolutely. Governments do these kinds of things.

Nolan: Well, I'll be hornswoggled.

LaRouche: They're a little surreptitious, but that's the way that some agencies of government, try to manipulate, manipulate society.

Nolan: Well, we're going to take a quick break. But let me tell our audience, you've been listening to Mr. Lyndon LaRouche for a few moments. If you have a question, or a comment, about his views, log on to our website.... [advertisements]

We're back, talking with Lyndon LaRouche, who is making his sixth campaign for the office of President of the United States. Mr. LaRouche, let me ask you about a subject which is one of the most central to our political campaign now, your take on the war in Iraq. Was it justified?

LaRouche: No. It was immoral, and what Cheney did, among others -- and I've been calling for his impeachment since September of 2023, on the basis of the lying which he was organizing, trying to get us into the war. There was no need to do it. It's a mess. Afghanistan is also a mess. We had no exit strategy. We went in, against all advice. He wanted the war, and he was able, with his neo-conservative friends, to persuade the President to go along with it. And now we're in a mess.

Nolan: On Sept. 12, 2023, what would you have done?

LaRouche: Well, I would have done ... what, in 2023?

Nolan: Right after Sept. 11.

LaRouche: Oh, well, I would have done, as I said at the time, it was on the 11th, I was on a broadcast out in Utah, radio broadcast, live, and the word was coming in at 9 o'clock then, at the time. And I said exactly what I thought, that this was obviously, from the characteristics of the operation as reported, during that hour, the crucial hour, it was obvious this was a very sophisticated operation, which had taken some period of planning, maybe a year, year and a half to plan an operation. It was an attempt to destabilize our government, and to provoke us into something....

Nolan: Let's take a phone call from a viewer right now. Wayne is on the line, from Hopkinson, Massachusetts. Welcome, Wayne.

Caller: Good evening, gentlemen.

Nolan: Do you have a question for Mr. LaRouche?

Caller: Yes, I do. I've been checking some of the websites Mr. LaRouche's Schiller Institute has on the web. I have a question for him about his plan to save the financial system by organized bankruptcy, or controlled bankruptcy. Could you elaborate on that a little bit, please?

LaRouche: Well, look, we are bankrupt. The world system is bankrupt. Our banking system is bankrupt. The Federal government is bankrupt. Look at our debt, look at the current account deficit, look at what's happening to banks in Europe. Look at the real estate bubble about to pop. We have to be very serious now, about how this thing is going bankrupt, and government must take the responsibility for dealing with the crisis. We cannot allow chaos.

Therefore, government must intervene, under the provisions of the Preamble of the Constitution, the general welfare clause, we must intervene to make sure there is no chaos. We must put the bankrupt systems into bankruptcy reorganization, that is, not shut them down, but keep them functioning.

Nolan: Is the U.S. system a bankrupt system?

LaRouche: Absolutely.

Nolan: So, the U.S. would declare bankruptcy, and the people that hold bonds would get what? Pennies on the dollar.

LaRouche: No, no, no. It doesn't work that way. The Federal government ... this is a state affair, this is not a local court decision. The world system presently is bankrupt, that is, the international monetary-financial system presently of the world, is bankrupt. It is now blowing. The date it's going to blow, we don't know, but we know it's coming. Therefore, under those conditions, the United States government, in concert with other governments, must, in effect, put the IMF system into bankruptcy reorganization -- that is, into receivership, and reorganization. We must keep the nation, the United States, functioning. We must keep banks open, as Roosevelt did, in a banking crisis. We must keep employment up. We must actually increase employment, and build our way out of this crisis.

Nolan: Let's take another call, for you, from Quincy, Massachusetts. Bill is on the line. Welcome, Bill. Do you have a question?

Bill: Yeah, I wanted ... you mentioned that you have a significant youth movement unlike the other candidates. What is your message to the youth of America, and how does that fit with your strategy for winning the election?

LaRouche: Well, the point is that we went through a change, as probably you experienced yourself, from about 1963-64, in the wake of the Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination, Indo-China War. We shifted from being the world's leading producer society, into becoming step-by-step, a consumer society, living on cheap labor of other countries. Now, we're bankrupt. As a result of this change, the generation which was adolescent at the time, is now about in the fifties or even their sixties. This generation has in a sense, withdrawn from the idea of producer society.

We've got a bunch of young people, say, the 18- to 25-year age group, which is [] the university eligible age group. They're looking at their parents' generation of the world, and saying, "We have no future." My view is, we have to organize these youth, give them a perspective, and let them, inspire their parents' generation, to get serious, and get optimistic again, and we can build our way out of this.

Nolan: Let me ask you a question about something that concerns a lot of people, as I read different postings about you on the Internet, and come across printed articles. Some fear that you are, at heart, anti-Semitic, you use codewords around it, but that you basically believe that a Jewish cabal is in control of the world. Is that a fair statement, or...?

LaRouche: No, this is garbage from people like--you've got them up in Boston there, Chip Berlet and his friends.

Nolan: Tell me something good about Israel.

LaRouche: Well, what's so good about it? We're trying to keep Israel from dying in the middle of a Palestine-Israeli crisis, which is going on now. There's right now in Geneva, there's a meeting of a former Israeli official, a very significant political figure, Beilin, and they are organizing at Geneva, a group-to-group Palestinian-to-Israeli effort to get a peace negotiation going. I would hope they succeed. I've been associated with people with that cause, oh, actively, since 1974.

Nolan: But it would be unfair to characterize you as being anti-Semitic?

LaRouche: It would be insane.

Nolan: Let me ask you, I came across a quote that's attributed to you: "The laws of Moses and related materials in the Old Testament are not part of Israelite religious tradition, but the product of international counterinsurgency operations in 5th and 6th Century B.C. Babylon." I have no idea what that is about.

LaRouche: I don't know where you got that from. I don't know what it is.

Nolan: Okay. There's a lot of stuff out there about you.

One of the things that was interesting, was, I came across, the notion that you had designed an idea for a colony on Mars. Is that part of what you see in the future?

LaRouche: Not exactly a colony on Mars. What I designed in 1985-86, I was associated with a famous space pioneer--several of them in fact--and on his death, I was involved in a conference, and I proposed out of that a space exploration program, which meant putting a scientific team on Mars, over a period of about 40 years--that is, a 40-year program to develop all the things required for that, as a science driver, and an economy-driver for the United States. At that time, that was done as a by-product of the work I was doing with President Reagan, in what he called the Strategic Defense Initiative. It was a by-product of my cooperation with scientific and other circles, in the United States and abroad....

Nolan: So, if you were President, you would be very supportive of our space program, and eventually be supportive of a colony of Mars?

LaRouche: A science colony, not trying to populate....

Nolan: Not a suburban development.

LaRouche: No, not exactly. I think the Sahara's a more likely place right now....

Nolan: Let's take another call from Boston. This is from Tom. Welcome, Tom.

Tom: Hi, thank you.

Nolan: Go ahead. Do you have a question for Mr. LaRouche?

Tom: Yes, I had a question. I received e-mails in regards to his campaign, and during the 9/11 attacks, some of the literature was saying that the 9/11 attacks were caused by the Jewish, or the Israeli government, and the U.S. government, and I just wanted to see how....

LaRouche: You never got an e-mail like that from me, or from my people. Never. Misinformed.

Nolan: So, basically, your position is that the 9/11 attacks were al-Qaeda, it came from Afghanistan, it was Osama bin Laden, no?

LaRouche: No, of course not, Osama bin Laden doesn't have the capability of doing that.

Nolan: Who did it?

LaRouche: That's what we'd like to know. We're supposed to have an investigation, but the investigation is largely in suspension. There is an investigation, which is there in the works, which was suspended shortly after the attack....

Nolan: But hasn't he basically been on al-Jazeera, saying, "me and my boys, we did it, we're going to do more."

LaRouche: I don't care what he said. The man ... I know what the man is, and I wouldn't take his word for anything.

 Nolan: Let's take another phone call, from Lawrence, Massachusetts. Tom's on the line. Welcome, Tom.

Tom: Good evening.

Nolan: Jump in.

Tom: Hi, I have a question for Mr. LaRouche. In the 1990s, Bill Clinton signed what's referred to as NAFTA and GATT, and it resulted in factory closings and job losses. I was wondering what Mr. LaRouche would do to change the effects of NAFTA and GATT, and what efforts he tried to make, to try to bring these factories back?

LaRouche: I opposed NAFTA, and I still do. It has to be scrapped. The only way an economy can function, an economy has to regulated, it has to be protectionist in the sense, we have to protect our essential industries. We have to maintain fair prices, to maintain and protect the capital, production, and employment in our country. We do not engage in this kind of "beggar your neighbor," who can produce it cheapest. This did no good for Mexico, it did no good for the United States, it never should have happened. I despise Al Gore -- that was one of the reasons why I despised him, although I did have a friendlier relationship with Clinton, and regretted very much that Clinton went along with it.

Nolan: So, you would scrap NAFTA. Correct? You would scrap NAFTA?

LaRouche: Oh, absolutely. It's insane.

Nolan: Next week I have to interview Presidential candidate Kucinich. If you were conducting the interview, what should I ask him?

LaRouche: Kucinich?

Nolan: Yeah.

LaRouche: Oh, Dennis is not a bad guy. He's not Presidential material, but he does some useful things in the Congress. He also takes up some issues which are useful, and I have personal respect for him.

Nolan: Well, I'll pass on your kind regards. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Mr. Lyndon LaRouche, candidate for President of the United States. Thank you for your time.

LaRouche: Thank you.

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