
Episode 4721: The Rumble In The West: Texas Redistricting Fight ...
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Natalie
I think that Governor Newsom is absolutely showing us all a master class right now in how government social media should be functioning. It's funny, it's quick, it's culturally relevant, it's cutting through the noise and it's landing. And it's sort of a win win because it's energizing Democrats while really frustrating Republicans. They're sort of not sure how to react to someone meeting them where they are and copying their playbook. And Democrats really aren't used to someone standing up, calling Republicans out constantly and landing punch after punch after punch without flinching. And that's exactly what Governor Newsom is doing right now. And that's why it's just so exciting to see. Just hours from now, Texas Republicans are poised to give Donald Trump exactly what he's been asking for. A new congressional map that adds five Republican seats to the US House, a shift that could help lock in a GOP majority before a single vote is cast next year. Lawmakers are debating the new maps right now on the floor of the Texas House and a final vote is expected in just a few hours. The Republican drawn map breaks apart Democratic strongholds in Austin, Dallas and Houston, while making the battleground districts in South Texas even redder.
Stephen K. Bannon
You're right, it's provocative, it's ostentatious, and it meets the moment. You know, I think if you're looking for something for him to do that is intellectually stimulating, that's great. But what's better is that there's an emotional reaction, even if it's just a laugh, even if it's like that, that's crazy, because it got you to do something and react to politics in a way that you may not have done before. And it is true that it does hold up a mirror to what's happening on the right. Because you have, if you're saying to yourself, why the heck would he do that? Donald Trump, Why would he post that? Why would he do this? To be able to turn it back around and say, would you see how ridiculous this is? This is our politics today. Now, you're right, it is a campaign strategy. I don't know that this works a year from now, but for this moment, given all of the heavy stuff that we're dealing with, it does seem to be breaking.
Natalie
Apparently partisan ones drawn up mid decade by Republicans at the request of Donald Trump, attempting to gobble up more seats in Congress. Of course, the truth of the matter is that today's long awaited result is all but certain, barring lobotomy on the part of the Republicans or some sudden moral awakening. The GOP map in Texas will pass. But the victory for Democrats today may rest not on a near certain result in Texas, but in the fight and the grit and the awakening and the willingness to do whatever it takes now to save democracy and to be seen doing it. That's why images like this one from yesterday are so powerful. Texas Democrats ripping up permission slips, which amount to hall passes. They were made compulsory by Texas Republicans just for the privilege of leaving the building. Of course, the reason those passes were deemed necessary and the reason Texas troopers are following Democratic lawmakers around everywhere they go, including to the grocery store, is because those Democrats made the decision to leave the state to leave Texas to prevent Republicans from having a quorum of this, you know, making fun of Donald Trump, the trolling of Donald Trump. And also anybody who tries to come after him. He's been trolling Fox News, Dana Perino. He's been trolling Kid Rock. I mean, anybody who tries to come after him, he posts back just in the same way that Donald Trump does. How do you take that, though, and then say, this is satire. This is me trying to show you how ridiculous this is. But now listen to me. Be serious now. Listen to my policy. Yeah, there's absolutely a way for him to do that. I think we saw this last week when he held his press conference on redistricting. He's moving forward with it. He's not all talk and not following it up with any action. And I'm sure that they'll continue to balance that. And it helps draw people in. So he, he is doing all of these crazy, ridiculous, fun things. It draws people in and then they're going to see more of the serious from him. He's a very accomplished governor. So people are going to be seeing a lot more of that in their feeds. So the people that are maybe seeing it, Adam, are they, the, are they going to be beyond the Democrats? Is it going to be the folks the Democrats need? The Times had a great takeout today showing that voter registration for Democrats and Basil, I'll get you on this, is plummeting. I mean, they're just hemorrhaging voters every single year. New registration for new voters. They're not coming out as Democratic. They're not taking the Democratic box. So is this, is this reaching those folks? Yeah. You know, what's interesting is I talked to a New Hampshire Democrat, Jim Demers, whose job it is with Stand Up.
August Takla
New Hampshire, to sort of bring some.
Natalie
Of these 20, 28 candidates to this early Primary state. And he told me that in the context of redistricting, Newsom is really breaking through to Democratic primary voters there. They see him as a counterweight to Donald Trump. They see him as a Democrat who is fighting Trump. And this account, I think, is of a piece with that. It's framing him as someone who is taking Trump head on. Two people in the arena. The White House is officially responding to.
August Takla
It with their own memes.
Natalie
And so I think it's breaking through beyond just people who are super online and real early state primary voters are hearing of what Newsom's doing around redistricting. They like it.
August Takla
And the X account sort of dovetails.
Natalie
With that in a way that does break through.
Steve Bannon
The conversations I've had with Democratic governors throughout this country and all of our Democratic elected officials.
Natalie
Sorry, I have to leave. They said it's a felony for me to do this. Apparently I can't be on the floor or in the bathroom. Well, you told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom. No, hang on. Bye, everybody. I've got to go.
Stephen K. Bannon
Hey, that, that's. That is outrageous. First of all, let me tell you something. Representative Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
Natalie
There you.
Stephen K. Bannon
Is outrageous. What they're trying to do right there is silence an American leader silence a black woman. And that is outrageous. And I hope everybody took note of that. The fact that she can't even let her voice be heard is frickin outrageous.
Steve Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Not got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.
Natalie
And where do people like that go to share the big lie? MAGA media.
August Takla
I wish in my soul, I wish.
Natalie
That any of these people had a conscience.
Steve Bannon
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
August Takla
War room.
Stephen K. Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Natalie
You're in the war room. It's Wednesday, August 20th, in the year of our Lord 2025. We've got an extremely packed show, but we're going to start start with what I think might be the best action, action, action call that the Warren Posse has ever received. I'm honored to bring on our first guest August Takla, who has been tweeting up and doing just an entire media firestorm. Not just about the scam, frankly, the racket that is the whole H1B visa scam, but particularly how Americans can fight back and certainly enrage these big tech companies that are trying to replace us in and yes, Media matters. I'm using the word replace because that's what they're trying to do. It's a little site called Jobs now. You had a great hit. I think it was on Oan I saw Revolver was picking it up, a lot of coverage. But you've really just been dropping truth bombs about the scam that is the H1B visa. Can you sort of run our audience through what exactly Jobs now is and how it is pushing back against H1B visas flooding this country?
August Takla
Hey, Natalie, thanks for having me on. Yeah. So what they're doing is they're posting job listings that primarily big tech companies don't want Americans to find. They don't want them to find them because it disrupts their hiring process for so called perm workers. People who have timed out of the H1B process and are seeking green cards to win American citizenship. When Americans apply, it sets into motion a whole host of effects where it changes how they have to consider their applicants. And the Department of Labor also gets involved in the process to determine if these H1B workers can be granted citizenship on the alleged grounds that these companies can't find qualified American employees. And as we all know, generally there is an American qualified American worker, especially in this economy. That's why they have to go to extraordinary lengths to try to hide these postings. So Jobs now is trying to make those available for people to apply and to make it more cumbersome for these companies to hire foreign nationals without any objection or resistance.
Natalie
They always play an interesting, I think, kind of shell game with the data, particularly on visa overstays. They're very cage about releasing the real data. Obviously the original studies that they used to cite to justify a lot of these weird visa cutouts and carve outs adding on the spouses. It's sort of bogus science. But just from the numbers that we can ascertain, I think, you know, it's 1.7 million. What is it? Chinese, Indians and other foreign nationals working here in the United States. Can you just sort of walk us through of the available data just how vast a problem this really is?
August Takla
Yeah, let me start by saying the 1.7 million figure is not set in stone. We actually don't know because the federal government is not publishing, doesn't publish the overall number. They publish the annual number of applications they've approved and reauthorizations, but they don't publish the overall figure. So it does beg the question, if these people aren't taking American jobs, why can't we have transparency? Why can't we have the number? But you have the proportions correct. India, for the last year, fiscal year 2024, Indians were the primary beneficiaries. They had 283,000 applications approved or renewed. China was, came in second with almost 47,000. So those are the top two beneficiaries. One of them is a totalitarian regime, and they're both allied with the world's worst regimes via brics. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. These are American adversaries. So if these are the countries that the H1B program is benefiting, we should be asking, how does it benefit the United States? It benefits these big tech companies, but does it benefit anyone else? And really, you could say that American citizenship itself is a large part of the compensation that these companies are dangling in front of prospective workers. What is that worth? The Trump administration obviously has put a dollar figure on it of $5 million. So in essence, it seems like they're offering a $5 million bonus package to their workers. And Americans are paying for it in a lot more ways than we can quantify economically.
Natalie
Well, I think that's what's so interesting. I think both the sort of quantitative data, but also the sort of more, you know, abstract in terms of how you conceive of what it means to be an American citizen. The idea, at least mine, of the social contract, and that your government should be actively working to replace you and suppress, depress your wages and, you know, create less safe streets with illegal truck drivers that seem to get rammed through their driving permits, even when they're, what, passing like 2 out of 14 on the driving test? It just makes no sense. And then you compound that with the fact that big tech is, you know, clandestinely posting these job, you know, listings. They don't want Americans to be able to apply to them. It really is a racket. I mean, I call it a conspiracy. We'll throw that into the words you can't use. But how, more importantly, can Americans actually fight back and I'm sure cause a huge thorn in the side to these big tech companies? Can you just walk us through one more time, the site where people can go and how easy it is to apply?
August Takla
Well, you can check out jobs now. That's One thing you can do. But I do think conservatives are in a strong position right now because the Trump administration is not doing, not doing a lot, almost anything to fight back against this phenomenon at the moment. For example, with family members of H1B workers, those make up up to 700,000 of those 1.7 million people. And there's been a lawsuit since 2015 pending over that issue. And the Trump administration has taken the same side as the Obama administration. Pam Bondi's Justice Department has taken the same side in fighting against, against the Americans on behalf of the Indians. So the Justice Department is not doing what it could be there. It also falls on the Justice Department to prosecute or I should say file lawsuits against these companies when they discriminate against American workers. They did that on the last Trump administration in cases that settled under Biden against Apple and Facebook. Apple, by the way, paid a settlement of $25 million over that. And you know, what is that worth? Like three iPhones. So the Trump administration could be doing a lot more to, to pursue these companies in August that are. We're coming up against America.
Natalie
A break. So I've got to hold you through. I know the audience is jazzed up and the Trump administration needs to be doing a lot more on this. This is the fight itself, what it means to be an American. You can't say you put America first if you're actively discriminated, discriminating against American workers. We'll be right back after this short break.
Steve Bannon
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Natalie
America's Voice Family.
Steve Bannon
Are you on Getter yet?
Alex De Grasse
No.
Brian Harrison
What are you waiting for?
Natalie
It's free, it's uncensored, and it's where all the biggest voices in conservative media are speaking, speaking out.
Steve Bannon
Download the Getter app right now. It's totally free. It's where I put up exclusively all of my content 24 hours a day. You want to know what Steve Bannon's thinking? Go to Getter.
Stephen K. Bannon
That's right. You can follow all of your favorites. Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobi and so many more.
August Takla
Download the Getter app now.
Natalie
Sign up for free and be part of the movement. Welcome back to the War room, where of course, you gotta be checking out birchgold.com Bannon texting Bannon to 989-898. Give Philip Patrick and the team a call. Get the latest installment. Not of the end of the dollar empire, but it is the ultimate guide to gold and the Trump era. A lot of movement at the Fed today. I think we'll have time to get into that on today's show as well. We've got a quick call in, then we're going to wrap the H1B discussion. But we're going to go real quick to Brian Harrison because he has Representative Brian Harrison. He's on the floor in Texas awaiting a vote that you might have to drop. So we had a cold open giving us the latest as to what's going on there with the redistricting fight. Can you give us all the updates we need, please?
Brian Harrison
Yeah, you bet. So the Democrats, after totally sabotaging, I mean, completely victorious, destroyed the entire first special session, have finally come back on their own terms to the state of Texas. And we are now on the floor of the Texas House and the map is before us. So we hopefully will be voting on the map soon. The only problems are we should, we should have voted on this by now. But the Texas House Rhino leadership has been giving the Democrats motions to extend their time. So after the last three weeks where they've been on every media outlet in the world calling us, you know, racist and every other possible pejorative and ridiculous name the Rhino leadership in the Texas House has been given going out of their way to give the Democrats more time to continue calling us racist and attack these maps today so it's. It's just a, you know, one in a long line of indignities where the Republican leadership in the state of Texas is falling down on the job and not fighting the Democrats. Democrats with every tool that we have legally available. But. But the good news is I do think we're probably going to be voting here in very short order. In fact, I may have to drop any second to do that. But the bad news is that even after all of the talk about, you know, arrests, no Democrats were arrested, no seats were vacated. They're all here. And all the talk, including from our governor, saying he we could add 10 more Republican seats in Texas, the map that was filed by the leadership down here only has five new Republican seats. And believe me, five is definitely better than nothing. We should have gotten this done by now, but I think we should have added at least one more Republican seat for every week the Democrats were gone. So it's a little bit of a disappointment that we're only adding five and not at least seven. The Democrat states are fighting as aggressively as they can, and Republican states need to fight as hard for the future as the Democrats are. But that's about as quick as I can make the updates now. I'll know more, a lot more in a few hours for you, but I just want to say a special thank you to the posse. Y' all have been with us since before this became the biggest story, one of the biggest stories in the world. So you guys and the posse and Steve and Natalie, you guys have been just a driver. And I don't think with. I think, I do believe without the pressure from the posse blowing up the phone lines in the Capitol, this might. We might not be doing anything. So major credit and words of appreciation for all of you all.
Natalie
Brian, we'll let you bounce. Good luck. You have kept up the fight. You are the tip of the spear. The posse feels the same way about you. Although humbly, the posse is the best political force that I think exists, not just in MAGA world, but in the political history of this wonderful country. They're the best. You know, they always have your back. One more time if people want to follow you. Get the updates on the vote. Where can they go to do that?
Brian Harrison
Yeah, go to the most hated feed into the Texas Capitol, do your civic duty and piss off a rhino today by following me on Twitter today at Brian E. Harrison on X. Ryan E. Harrison and Ryan E. Harrison. I know I'll be talking with you guys soon, but I really appreciate it, Natalie, everything you all have done.
Natalie
Something tells me you'll be back on pretty soon. Thank you, sir, for joining us.
Brian Harrison
You bet. Talk to you all soon. God bless you all, of course.
Natalie
And speaking of feckless rhino Republicans, I think that brings us back to the previous topic of discussion, which is H1B visas and the cheapening of American citizenship just so big business, big tech corporates can maximize their profits and root out this country and destroy its cultural fabric while they're at it. August, we'll let you go. Sorry we had to interrupt that, but just pick up where you left off. If you were, you know, advising the Trump administration on what they can actually do to make a difference, whether it's publishing the data sets, using the courts, I know there's an issue working its way up to the Supreme Court, I think coming from a lot of the US Tech workers, those, that group of great patriots. But just hit us with what you were talking about before.
August Takla
Yeah. So in terms of what, you know, what we can do to call attention to this issue or get some movement on it, there is a lawsuit pending with the Supreme Court because the DOJ is still contesting it, Pam Bondi's doj. But since they have time to work on that, we should also call on them to investigate Apple, Microsoft, and some of these other companies that are using so many H1B workers. Amazon, which has 40,000 H1B workers. There are just so many questions about why these companies need these people. You know, for one, Microsoft has offices in India. They could hire these people in their own countries. But again, it seems like they're dangling a $5 million bonus in front of them in the form of American citizenship. If the Justice Department has time to prosecute Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and a lot of other patriots, they should have time to look into this. Look into National Public Radio. They've had more than 30 H1Bs in the last seven years. Are you telling me you can't find American journalists to do that work? I know plenty of journalists who are not fully employed right now. I think there is strong cause for an investigation into those organizations. That's one thing that we should be doing. The second question we should ask is, why do H1BS lead to green cards at all? That doesn't need to be the case. So if that really isn't part of the compensation package, why doesn't the Trump administration just end employment based citizenship? That's the second thing we could be calling for. A third thing is this goes beyond the scope of H1BS. It goes into H2AS. But these are agricultural workers. Those visas aren't, are, don't have any cap at all. They're unlimited. All of the people we're deporting could come back and apply for that visa and get into the country legally if they want to fill out the paperwork. Why is that the case? And calling for a cap on that is something we should think about doing. And the fourth thing is transparency. I have Freedom of Information act requests in to find out the number of H1Bs in the country and the number of their family members right now, because we don't have that information. And we'll see if the Trump administration wants to provide it. But if they don't provide it to me, they should, at least in the long term, begin to make that number public because we need more transparency on these issues. So I think those are a few simple steps that the Trump administration could be taking to help make this problem better. And that's just the lowest hanging fruit, but it's not being done.
Natalie
Thank you so much for being at the forefront of this. If people want to follow you and stay up to date with everything you're working on, where can they go to do that?
August Takla
Rudy tackle on twitter.com or x.com thank.
Natalie
You, sir, so much for coming on.
August Takla
Thank you.
Natalie
Frankly, I would add too, that I don't even think we want caps. Or maybe we'll make the caps zero. I think people who are coming in, let alone from some of the most hostile countries, are so sworn foreign adversaries, particularly China, which like I always say, is the second highest recipient of these H1B visas, while our big tech overlords try to lie to us and spin to us that the reason why we need to import a bunch of Chinese nationals is so we can have a better edge over China. It's absolutely asinine, especially when you compound that with the fact that China's Article 7 of their National Intelligence Law literally demands that any Chinese national, for whatever reason, whatever purpose, wherever they may be, whatever they may be doing, can be requisitioned by the state, by the Chinese Communist Party for national security purposes to help achieve whatever ends they want. Gee, I wonder why the Chinese Communist Party is always caught with their hand in the cookie jar stealing IP theft from virtually every single American company. And I'm sure you guys saw the story, right? What is it about how Microsoft was outsourcing not just their any work, but work with the DoD, work with the Pentagon to a bunch of Chinese engineers in Shanghai? Because that makes sense. Well, I guess it also makes sense that Windows China Government Edition. That's right. They actually built the operating system that the Chinese Communist Party uses to administer all of China. And in the press release where they announced that they were contracting and working directly with the highest levels of Beijing leadership, that they were actually using the same technological systems that they had set up here in the United States. It's really disgusting. And for all of the talk that we've heard from the Trump administration about how important these tariffs are to secure the American worker, their wages, their rights to a decent living, securing the border, it all goes to two sides of the same coin, right? Immigration is not just something that's about taxes and fiscal policy and obviously the negative impact that a bunch of illegals have on this country, but it's cultural too. And the H1B stuff gets to the heart of that, right? In the same sentence, in the same breath, where we're pushing tariffs because we want to protect American workers, you can't then justify expanding H1B visa caps. Frankly, any H1B, I'd deport all of them. I'd deport all of them yesterday. And I'd throw in the Chinese students while we're at it. And probably all Chinese nationals too. Because you know why? We don't need these people and we never did. And America wasn't built because we imported a bunch of Chinese nationals and a bunch of Indians and a bunch of people who don't speak this language. It's the spirit of the American worker, of the American people. And it's extremely disgusting that these big tech companies are running roughshod like they have for decades and continue to and feel the need. They get away with hiding the job postings. They know what they're doing. They have blood on their hands. They know exactly what they're doing. They're purposely posting these certain jobs on a website that you, as an American, someone whose taxes built these stupid companies from the ground up that you can't even apply for. And now, oh yeah, sorry, tech bros. Yeah, you're America first. I don't think so. Screw you guys. There's no issue that gets me more upset because it's so disgusting, disgusting and just evil than what happens on the H1B visa front when you see what American workers and the American people are going through. It's jobs now. You, your grandkids, your children, your friends, send it around and give a big middle finger to the people who deserve it most, the people who want to replace you and replace your grandchildren with a bunch of Indians. And Chinese? No, thank you. I prefer to be American. We'll be right back after this short break.
Steve Bannon
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Stephen K. Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
Natalie
Welcome back to the War room, where of course, you got to be checking out birchgold.com Bannon text Bannon to 989-898. Get the latest installment of the ultimate guide to Gold and the Trump Era. Something tells me if you get Philip Patrick and the team a call, you'll actually speak to an American. Yes, Philip may have an accent, but I think he's an American. But certainly no H1B visa recipients. Definitely not. We love Birch Gold. Give them a call. Bannon to 989-898. Mike Howell, you have been waiting patiently while I wax on about the horrors of the H1B visa program. It is my personal enemy. It's just the absolute worst thing that I think exists in this country, frankly, in the world. But speaking of other very bad things that exists, that is the concept, the newfound concept of preemptive presidential pardons. Of course, it's the Biden regime that came up with that one. But Ed Martin over at DOJ has been really pushing forward, doing some great work uncovering some documents that you guys are highlighting over at the oversight project. Can you walk us through on the auto pen front what we've discovered?
Stephen K. Bannon
Right. So yesterday we put out Some bombshell documents, and they were produced to us by Ed Martin quickly on him. You know, I know a lot of the posse have been frustrated in the pace and lack of accountability in this administration, but so long as Ed Martin is there, there is a fighting chance, whether it's Letitia James, Adam Schiff, and now the auto pen. And so basically, the auto pen has been at a little bit of a standstill. There's been these announcements of government investigations, but no real progress. But then walks in Ed Martin, who is the pardon officer and has access to these documents and produces to the oversight project an email from one of Merrick Garland's top, if not the tippy toppest career official in the Department of Justice, who the day after Joe Biden issued these sweeping pardons to what he was saying were nonviolent criminals, this lawyer on a Saturday morning pulled the fire alarm, issued this lengthy email saying, this whole thing is bogus. It can't work for all these different legal reasons. The president, not an auto pen, needs to actually weigh in and answer these things. And, oh, by the way, you should stop saying that these are nonviolent criminals, because guess what? They're some of the worst violent criminals that you're actually releasing. So that's the document we put up. This breaks the thing wide open again. And I think the Trump administration is poised for action now because they have, guess what, the Biden administration agreeing with them in their own doj.
Natalie
Well, speaking of the DOJ and transparency, I know you guys have also been at the tip of the spear on all things Epstein. I'm just curious if you guys have gotten any documents or any movement on that front.
Stephen K. Bannon
So no is the short answer. You know, we were obviously very vocal. We thought that the rollout of the announcement to close it down was. Was clearly botched. And I think that's not even controversial to say right now. I think everyone agrees it was botched. But there was a development today. You might recall a month or so ago, there was this theory that was put out there that DOJ would ask a grand jury to release documents and to take everyone's kind of eye off the ball for a little bit. And then today, the judge overseeing that basically said, hey, guess what, guys? There's not really any documents here. There's no witnesses who even testified to the grand jury or victims, rather, only one government witness who had no idea what was going on. There's only a few dozen pages of documents. And furthermore, hey, Department of Justice, you're the one who have all the information you can release it if you want. Now they've, you know, said the doj, they're going to start giving things to comers. As I've long been saying, this thing's a mess. It'd be great if the US government could just come clean if Epstein was an intel asset of either ours or somebody else. I think everyone kind of knows what's going on at this point and it wouldn't hurt just to be candid about that. You know, one very basic fact and maybe a little promise never to take advantage of a sex trafficker in this regard.
Natalie
Again, I'm curious what you make of the appointment of former aggressive Andrew Bailey to the co deputy director of the FBI.
Stephen K. Bannon
Yeah, well, look, A.G. bailey is a superstar. He, you know, actually was involved at the beginning of our Autofit investigation because he brought the issue back to the forefront when he challenged all of Biden's basic actions based on competency issues. So I've long been a fan of his. I'll say it's highly unusual for there to be a co deputy director of the FBI. So I think it kind of points to a potential shake up there. You know, there have been some, some, you know, missteps along the way. We haven't seen the FBI substantially reforms. Instead we've kind of been told it. It's great now that there's new leadership there and we shouldn't worry and we should just applaud. That's not to say Cash and Dan haven't done some good things, but when you bring in a new senior leader at this point, I think it, you know, tends to confirm what it looks like, that there's going to be some changes at play. I don't know if that's ultimately personnel. I don't know if that means the FBI is going to change the tactics and actually work towards some serious prosecutions instead of just, you know, papering over old things. But I'm hopeful in Bailey we trust and we've trusted before though.
Natalie
I was walking around D.C. yesterday, I saw a bunch of the trucks, the MRAPs, the National Guard. I think FBI agents, they were pulling and talking to each other and I think sort of dispersing around. I'm curious how you think they are doing and the rollout of what is making D.C. great again.
Stephen K. Bannon
Yeah, I think it's largely performative. Unfortunately, there is an opportunity for the Trump administration really to take control of Washington D.C. in a full throated way. And that opportunity kind of diminished last Friday in court when to the DOJ's lawyers. Yakov was one of their names. And Paul Perkins went in there and kind of, you know, lay down is from what it looked like from the outside where they basically told the judge they had no issues with the constitutionality of home rule, which is a little complicated maybe for those who haven't been following it. But if you're teeing up the reassertion of federal constitutional control of D.C. you certainly should take an issue with the constitutionality of a statute that takes it away. And they left court with a basically co parenting agreement with mpd. And then you have Attorney General Bondi speaking in terms such as partnership, having a barbecue with the mpd. You have these watered down agreements and you aren't seeing kind of the full throated broken windows policing enforcing that D.C. needs. You're seeing photo ops and some stats that are questionable in nature. There's still time to fix it and it should be fixed. This is the capital city. It's a federal responsibility. America's 250 scumming up and it needs to be cleaned up. But it's not going to be cleaned up with this kind of weak willy nilly co parenting. The photos are great. I live and work in D.C. it doesn't look like a federal takeover, I'll tell you that much.
Natalie
I remember the post January six days, the fencing and not that I'm calling for that to come back, but I've seen the city be essentially taken over federally. Mike, last question before we let you go. Bringing it back to, I think the other issue. You're getting all the good topics today on the issue of deportations. We've seen some new detention facilities opened, but you have some numbers on how many people they can actually detain there and how this is actually going to roll out. Can you kind of walk the audience through where we stand on that regard.
Stephen K. Bannon
Where we're living through what I'll call mass communications, not mass deportations. The numbers are low, their Obama level low. Instead we're seeing this focus on, I'll say quality over quantity. It's like the Department of Homeland Security only wants to talk about, well they say is the worst of worst. And look, they need more detention beds. They're getting some, but they're wrapping in fanfare of this new announcement out in Nebraska. And I, I was excited. I love deportation beds more than Joe Biden loves ice cream. But I clicked the press release and I see the numbers 280. That's not a lot of detention beds. And then I read a little further and see it's only to house what they'll call criminal, illegal, worst of the worst. Translation, it's not for mass deportations, which obviously expands far beyond this really subset of illegal allies of the country who go on to rape and murder or do other crimes. I mean, Nebraska has a lot of illegal farm labor. And so they're basically saying like those people won't be in this Nebraska facility and they're just going to try to meme their way through it on a very online way. I want to see commas in my deportation numbers. I want them in the millions. Right now. We're not close to that. I think President Trump wants to get there, but it's not going to happen until the policy changes where they have this really narrow Obama and Biden strategy of focusing just on, quote, unquote, criminal illegals. It needs to be mass deportations.
Natalie
Mike Howell always bringing the fire. If people want to follow you, stay up to date with everything you guys got going on over there. Where can they go to do that?
Stephen K. Bannon
We're on X at it's your gov and I am at Mhowell tweets.
Natalie
Thank you, sir, for joining us. Thanks for having me, of course, and happy to bring you guys a little bit of good news on the deportation front. Huge Trump victory. The ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has just given President Trump the green light to revoke legal status for 60,000 migrants, legal aliens, whatever you want to call them, from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal. Paul, this was previously blocked by a Biden era judge, Trina Thompson. So I guess we can say bye bye, fire up those deportation planes and let's get on it. We are joined now by Alex De Grasse. Alex, we had Brian on. He was live from the floor. I think they might even be voting right now. Can you sort of hit us with the latest where we stand on, on that redistricting front?
August Takla
Yeah.
Alex De Grasse
So they're on the floor. Looks like obviously, like Brian mentioned, they're voting, which is huge. You've got California, which I know Steve has been talking about. They're gearing up that's going to face voters on the ballot. It's sort of imperative that we defeat that. I think there's a lot of videos coming out. Obviously the dccc, I mean, this is hardball. Just like, you know, Steve's been saying. The dccc, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee, actually, they're so blatant. They openly said they even drew the lines actually in California and sent them over to Newsom and sort of the state legislators, while legally they're Claiming they drew the lines. Of course they didn't. And so that's the whole thing. And that will be on the ballot. So actually if we can defeat that in the polling, some polling had the maps being defeated by 30. Now Newsom's pollster has come out and says that, you know, they're winning by 10 points. So that will face the voters. And those are very high stakes for Newsom, of course, that Steve's been focusing on sort of, you knew, some obviously trying to run for president. So we've got the, where this is getting passed on Texas, which is huge. You saw Indiana, it looks like, you know, Senator Jim Banks came out strongly in support of President Trump's effort. I believe the governor did as well. And you saw the congressional delegation come out in support of, you know, mid decade of redistricting in Indiana. Florida is talking about it. So these states that we've been talking about are some of the starting to come online. But I think it's imperative that people move faster. Natalie, like everything else, obviously.
Natalie
Can you talk to us too on sort of the flip side of it, what Democrats could potentially be doing to sort of push back? Like, do you have any insight on what their efforts to redistrict, for example, in California could look like from a, from a seat perspective?
Alex De Grasse
Yeah, so in California. So I think the reason why there's this massive panic in that what we talked about is the Democrats have tied their hands to an extent on two fronts. A, they've already really redistricted themselves to the maximum capacity for the most part. Okay. And then the second thing is states like New York, states like California, they've got this extra step of constitutional sort of requirement on the independent, quote, unquote redistricting. And so that's why in California they're facing, they have to face the voters because they essentially have to tear apart their constitution which forces an independent process. And so, you know, that's being challenged in court and that's interesting. I think in California you're going to look at five or six seats wiped off the board. And I think that we, so it kind of nets out on Texas. Right. And that's why these follow up states were so important. You know, the Missouri, the Indiana, Florida, you're looking down the south in general. So I think that is what's really key. I think New York, they can't, they're looking at two cycles from now or, sorry, the next cycle. So you know, 2027, there'd be a ballot referendum to then open up the redistricting process for 2028. And so that's why they're panicking is because they don't have the tools to really answer. And so we have the ability, if we fight this out to pick up, you know, about 10, 15 seats if we lose in California.
Natalie
Alex, if you can hang with us through the break, I got a few more questions. I know the posse is eager to call burn down the phone lines of all we need another redistricting fight since apparently our most of our elected rhino Republicans won't do that for us. Warren Posse, in the meantime, make sure you're checking out Tax Network USA. That's tnusa.com Bannon or you can call 1-800-958-1000 for a free consultation. You're gonna have a busy next couple months making these phone calls so these rhinos get their act together. We'll be right back after the short break.
Steve Bannon
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Stephen K. Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
Natalie
Welcome back to the War Room, Denver. Giving me a little bit of attitude in the breaks. We press on. We still got Alex Degrasse. Alex, obviously the big news too with what President Trump is doing on the mail and ballot front trying to get rid of them. And I loved all the adjectives he used to describe the voting machines. Walk us through what you think that looks like. And just the details there.
Alex De Grasse
Well, I think it's national Voter ID is very important. And I think you'll see some of these states crumble politically. California, New York, where they don't require it. I mean, for the New York posse members, I mean, it's totally wild. You go in there to vote, they don't ask anything. They ask you to sign, but there's no verification process. You can't even really challenge the votes. Now because of the way the election system works with the bipartisan board of elections, they can kind of cancel each other's vote out in order to, like, proceed with any type of questioning of a ballot. So the crux of everything, you know, as well with the illegal immigration issue is obviously the voting system. And I think a lot of people are hoping, you know, that President Trump can get this done. And I believe he can, of course, because it is, is one of the core issues facing this country is we have to clean the voting rolls, we have to secure the elections, we need the paper ballots. And of course, look, we support legal absentees. If our people can't vote, their people can't vote. You've got something going on, you're sick. There needs to be a process. You need to have checks on that, submit an application, say where you're going to be on all that type of stuff. But these sort of unregulated, unfeathered mass mail in ballots, where in New York State, you can go online and just go on a website and just get a ballot sent to you. I mean, that's what it is now. You go online and you get a ballot sent to you. As long as, you know, all you need is your birth date. I mean, there's nothing stopping criminals and bad actors from going in and requesting, I mean, little, you'd have no idea. Obviously, it's illegal, but there's no enforcement mechanism and there's no way to really protect against this stuff. And you've got California, New York, you know, these major, major states that are the crux of a lot of seats for Congress. And we looked at what happened with California last election and people, we were going crazy on the show and we were on the ground doing the best we can. And a lot of people have actually confronted me and said, hey, you guys don't have a handle on it. And I would agree, of course. But you look at California, where the ballots are coming in from like a month, a month and a half ballots appearing, I mean, you don't need a postmark. So people say, hey, it's states rights, they've got, you know, and it's clear on that. But honestly it's not the case. And you have a federal right here looking at Congress looking at people's equal representation across all the states, just like with the census and the reapportionment on the redistricting where, yeah, there's a federal angle and if your state is allowing illegal immigrants and canceling out the votes and representation of Congress of legal citizens elsewhere, it sort of is a legal issue. So I think there is a federal angle for President Trump to take and I think he is. And I'm very excited about it because it really, if we can get national voter id, if we can get, you know, guardrails up on the absentee ballot process without sort of mass unfeathered mail ballots right then and they're saying, oh, he wants to ban absentees. That's not true. He's talking about the mass mail in ballots where you don't need anything and they're just sent out the door. I mean, it's really crazy that it's come to this in this country. Nowhere else is like this. Natalie, Obviously no other first world country.
Natalie
I always say it's actually, I think insulting to third world countries to compare it to third world election systems. Alex, I think we've got it bounced to our next guest. We got a few minutes left in the meantime before we have you back on. Where can people go to follow you and stay up to date with everything you're working on?
Alex De Grasse
Thank you, Natalie. So I'm at Degrasse 81 on X on Getter Truth. Thank you guys. Thank you, Natalie. You're doing great. I look forward to being back on, of course.
Natalie
Thank you, sir. We'll have you back on soon. And hey, all I'm saying from the narrative warfare perspective, what was it, I think today, what was it just two days after President Trump's true social post declaring no more election fraud. Lot of steps to get there. But you know, all of a sudden the New York Times, there's a long winding, long winded profile piece about how Democrat voter registration across like every, every state is hitting record lows. Almost like they're pre gaming the narrative when we can finally see that all of these ghost votes that never actually existed aren't there. Well, they're going to blame, I guess it's believable that the Democratic Party is so out of touch. The registration is record low, which of course it is. But they're also. What is it? I think we've never been able to find, what is it, the 10 million missing votes from 2020 to 2024. Yeah, I won't hold my breath on that one. Well, we'll leave it at that. But we've got Trevor Comstock. You are one of, I think our audience's favorite companies. They love the grass fed beef liver, all things Maha. Can you hit us with the latest deals and products you got going on?
Alex De Grasse
Yeah.
Trevor Comstock
Great to see you, Natalie. So as you, as I'm sure most of you know, we launched our new towel moisturizer but we have been getting a good amount of people just reaching out, just kind of asking how it compares to to other skin creams out there on the market. So I just wanted to touch on that real quick. But compared to most commercial skin creams, the issue with those is that they're usually full of synthetic ingredients and things like alcohols, fragrances and other cheap fillers that can actually damage your skin barrier over time. So although they may be somewhat effective, you know, the standard skin cream usually just contains a bunch of chemicals and it's usually just mass produced where the overall quality is pretty questionable. So in turn, our formula is just clean and simple and it doesn't contain any artificial junk. And again, our moisturizer is just made with the two ingredients which is the 100 grass fed and finished beef tallow and then the raw manuka honey from New Zealand. And also on top of that all every jar is handmade so we really don't cut any corners when it comes to quality. And like I mentioned, it has been flying off the shelf which I'm super happy about. And again, it's great for using for daily skin hydration or if you have any skin irritation. It works great in that scenario as well. And it is intended for both men and women, which is great. So you can put it on your face, you can put on your neck, your body, wherever you see fit. But I also encourage people to check out some of the reviews on our website as well. You know, we've only been selling it a short time, just a few weeks now and we already have a ton of reviews and emails coming in, people just raving about it. So I'm very happy about that and obviously thank you so much the war room for all the support.
Natalie
And one more time hit us with where they can go to shop all the products you guys got.
Trevor Comstock
Yeah, you can go to sacredhumanhealth.com and then you can also use code war room for 10% off any one time purchase. If you do subscribe you're locked into the 10 discount for all orders until you cancel. So we got you covered there. But yeah, go to sacredhumanhealth.com and you'll find us.
Natalie
Thank you so much for joining us.
Trevor Comstock
Thanks, Natalie.
Natalie
And while you're at it, Warren Posse, you should go to jobs.now and give, like I said, a big middle finger to all of these horrible America last corporations that want to replace you, your grandchildren, your children, your neighbors, your entire communities. Like I always say, this whole immigration thing, it's not just about economic impacts. It's a cultural thing. And I don't know, call me a radical, call me. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of attacks that they will hurl at me. Call me whatever you want. I believe there's something worth preserving about being a legacy American, a heritage American, and no corporate oligarchs are going to take that away from me. So screw you. H1BB soldiers. Have a good one.
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Date: August 20, 2025
Host: Steve Bannon
Key Guests: Natalie, August Takla, Brian Harrison, Mike Howell, Alex De Grasse, Trevor Comstock
This episode of Bannon’s War Room dives deep into the intensifying Texas redistricting battle, Democratic and Republican campaign strategies, and the political implications of immigration—particularly the H1B visa program. The show features on-the-ground updates from the Texas House, heated critiques of "RINO" (Republican in Name Only) leadership, and wide-ranging discussions on broader election integrity, big tech influence, and U.S. sovereignty. The episode is marked by its confrontational, urgent tone, energizing the War Room audience to engage in political advocacy.
Natalie opens by praising California Governor Gavin Newsom's aggressive use of social media ("masterclass in government social media"), arguing it energizes Democrats and unsettles Republicans. Newsom is positioned as a direct, punchy counter to Donald Trump, employing satirical mimicry but following up with substantive action, specifically referencing his press conference on redistricting ([00:00–04:49]).
Steve Bannon agrees that this emotional, provocative approach “meets the moment,” though he questions its long-term efficacy ([01:14]).
Natalie and August Takla extensively discuss the H1B visa program, attacking big tech for allegedly undermining American wages and hiding job postings from Americans. They frame the issue as both economic and cultural, accusing the government of complicity and urging more aggressive prosecution of companies using the program ([08:26–14:37]; [20:40–24:12]).
Policy Suggestions from Takla (21:23):
| Speaker | Key Contributions | |:--------------:|:-----------------------:| | Natalie | Co-host; advocacy and analysis on Newsom, H1B | | Steve Bannon | Host; Texas politics, populist rallying | | August Takla | H1B critic, JobsNow advocate | | Brian Harrison | Texas Rep; live redistricting updates | | Mike Howell | DOJ and DC Oversight, Epstein updates | | Alex De Grasse | Election integrity and redistricting strategist| | Trevor Comstock| Product update/funder segment |
The episode calls its grassroots “posse” to action repeatedly—be it phoning legislators, campaigning for “America First” policies, or supporting JobsNow. The language, especially on immigration and elections, is confrontational, nationalist, and mobilizing. The show celebrates “heritage Americans” and demands aggressive GOP action at every political level.
For further context: