t rid of him. And I would say that if you look to the last several years, anybody who was paying attention could see that I could move the dial. How many would agree with that statement that in the realm of politics that I can move the dial? I can actually change people's opinions in a way that's important, right? So the Locals people mostly say yes. They're a little bit ahead of the — yeah, you see yeses here.

Now those of you who don't agree, like there's some nos, right? So those of you who say no, the only point I'm going to make is look at all the yeses. So I'm not going to say I am or am not influential. I'm just going to say look at the yeses. If the public thinks I'm influential, do you think the CIA thinks so? Do you think the CIA hasn't noticed me? Do you think the CIA, who is an expert on persuasion, doesn't know exactly what I can do and what I can't do? Of course they do. They know exactly how much influence I have and which direction I'm likely to push it. It is not necessarily in their favor.

And then the newspapers canceled me. How many newspapers did it take to create the run on newspapers? It's like a run on banks. Like if the first few newspapers say we must cancel you — let's say the Washington Post. Washington Post was the second big paper. If the Washington Post cancels me, do you think these smaller papers can keep me in the pages? Nope. It really only took the Washington Post because once they took a stand, the other papers just sort of, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the Washington Post is a newsmaker. They decide what is true for the smaller newspapers.

So how much would the CIA have to tweak a knob to get rid of me as a public figure? They needed one editor in one place to write an editorial and say cancel this guy. That's all it would take. One editor in one place. Do you think the newspapers did this on their own because they couldn't? I'm not saying they didn't. It's entirely possible. It's just what you thought. It was public complaint.