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- [00:00]
A
You heard it here first. Actually, you probably didn't, but we will repeat it. It is Election Day in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Texas, or new congressional maps are now in place that were designed to keep a Republican majority in the House. But it is the Senate primary in Texas that could determine the balance of power back in Washington. Surprise. You know, that's the big news, Katie. Here, the turnout is massive. I was crunching the numbers. Just Yesterday, more than 2.5 million people have voted here in the primaries here in the state of Texas. And I've got to say, the enthusiasm is on the Democratic side, because I looked at the past primaries for the past few years, and normally more Republicans vote than Democrats. Not this year. This year, more than 50% of the votes are on the Democratic side, really showing enthusiasm. I asked a political scientist about this, Katie, because I was like, okay, I'm really curious, what's driving this? He said two things. The U.S. senate race between Telorico and Crockett, and also opposition to Trump's policies.
- [01:04]
B
They told me I was at the wrong place, and where I live is far away, and I just wanted to vote here and get back to work. And she told me she wouldn't let me. I was hoping she'll just let me go in. She said, I'm at the wrong place. I can't vote here.
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C
I've always voted here, say eight years in a row. Now I've come to this location, but now they're telling me that I need to go to another location to vote.
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D
Did they explain why?
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C
No, they didn't explain why. And when I went online yesterday, because I knew they were gonna try to do this, I went yesterday online to register and everything like that to find out what my pole. Where my pole is, and it got me nowhere.
- [01:43]
A
And, Katie, I think there was some sound, but we jumped the gun a little bit because that's actually sound related to some of the confusion and the high emotions that we have seen here in the polling place that you see behind me. And let me explain why. Very early this morning, we talked to the election judge on the Democratic side, and he said that more people had been turned away from this polling place than had actually voted. It was very frustrating for these voters showing up, wanting to vote and being told that they had to go to another precinct. Well, I talked to the. The Democratic. Excuse me. I talked to the election department for the county here, where I am in Dallas, and they said that since 2019, people here have been able to vote at any polling place, at any voter place, in the county. And it was that way for early voting. But today people had to go vote to their designated precinct.
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E
Why?
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A
Well, he said that the parties are the ones who decide this. The Democrats wanted to keep it the same. People could vote everywhere. People could decide where to vote. The Republicans wanted to make sure that people voted in their particular precinct. So they pointed the finger at Republicans. I asked the county Republicans for comments and I had not heard that. Give me the lowdown for the gop, Tony.
- [03:05]
C
Well, it is also a very fascinating race because you have of course longtime senator John Cornyn on the ballot. But he could possibly lose his seat to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who, Katie, as you know, has a long history of issues, legal issues, issues, moral issues, ethical issues. And so the big question on the Republican race is whether or not he is going to make it alone tonight with no runoff or whether or not he could possibly face a runoff against John Cornyn. Of course, most of the people following that race very closely think that if it becomes a runoff that that increases the likelihood that John Cornyn could possibly lose his longtime seat.
- [03:53]
A
And in the US Senate, 2.5 million people voted early. More of them, and this is what's unusual, more of them are Democrats than Republicans. If you are a Republican in the Senate in Congress right now, who are you rooting for? So Republicans on the Hill in the Senate absolutely want John Cornyn, the incumbent Republican, very powerful Texas senator, to win this election. Of course there's a three way race race with Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt, which means that it's most likely, Katie, going to go to a runoff. But what Republicans on the Hill really worry about is that if Ken Paxton were to win to be the Republican nominee. He is the current Attorney General of Texas, he's very controversial, he's plagued with scandal, but he is a favorite of the maga, right. If he were to win, Republicans think that Texas could actually be lost for the party and that a Democrat could win. So we'll see how this all plays out. The primary matters, but the Democratic primary matters just as much.
- [05:07]
C
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going to medieval on these people. Reasons I 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. And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
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B
Maga media I wish in my soul,
- [05:35]
C
I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War ROOM here's your host, Stephen K. Band. It's Tuesday the 3rd of March, year of our Lord 2026. It's game day in Texas. And so this whole effort we've had down here to make sure that folks knew about Proposition 10 and the the proposition to prohibit sharia law in the state of Texas got a full hearing on the Republican side. It's on the Republican ballot today along with some other propositions, but also to cover the agricultural commission, Railroad Commission, the attorney general, Attorney general. And the Senate primary are obviously getting national attention and the Senate is getting international attention. It is, I believe, the most just through this first round is the most expensive primary, I think, in the history of the Republican Party. Caroline Wren is going to be on in our second hour. Second hour we're going to do a war room text. So she's going to be on to break down some of the spending of John Cornyn. Richard Barris last night, I thought, broke news and some of the analyses he's doing. And this would anecdotally back up what I've seen here. I think there are not an insignificant number of MAGA voters of grassroots here and the grassroots is very strong that is so repulsed. First off, they know who Cornyn is and they've known who he is for a long time. They're adamantly opposed to what he stands for and really stands for because he's part of the problem in Washington. But I think they're so turned off by the negative nature of this campaign and the ads and the scale and what I call the gross tonnage of the ads that Barra said 30% of the grassroots would not vote for Cornyn. I agree with that. I think if he was to pull this out and at least finish second and go into a runoff, if Ken Paxton can't get to 50% plus one vote, all these pundits and say, well, he's just going to put money in. I think it's very difficult. You're going to see tonight with his results what I believe it's 80 or 90 million dollars. I saw something yesterday, 122 million already spent in this primary. I mean, the numbers, this is from every group. Of course, he's got Senate Leadership Fund, plus all these outside groups that are all over it. Ben Berkwam joins us. Ben, you're going to be at Ken Paxton's headquarters tonight, so we'll see how that goes. But you have stopped on your journey. And as only Ben Berkwan could do, you're in Plano, Texas, sir, Correct me if I'm wrong. Are you in front of the original Epic City? Is that a mosque in the background?
- [08:34]
F
Yeah, that's right, Steve. This is. So some of the audience knows about Josephine, Texas, the big controversy where they called it the Epic City. Well, that's actually Epic City 2. Plano, Texas is Epic City 1. And this is part of that. This is East Plano Islamic Center. You can see behind me, it's 30,000 square feet. Basically what you do is you start coming in and taking over the community, creating all the businesses in the background there as Islamic businesses, and you basically create a separatist town within a town. If you go over to the Collin County Islamic center on the other side of town, that thing is massive, almost 50,000 square feet. And that's what you're talking about, basically a separatist movement within America. You see this all over happening in states across America, but in particularly in Texas. And what starts off as benign then becomes what you see in England and other places like in Dearborn, Michigan, that become no go zones. And that's the concern. It never starts off that way. But once you hit about 25% of the population, that's where it always leads. And that's what Texans have an opportunity to vote on today. If you're a Republican and you haven't voted yet, you have to get out to the polls and vote.
- [09:42]
C
Yeah, I think polls are open until 7pm Central Time, local time. So you still got a couple hours to get out and get it done. Make sure you vote today. If you're anywhere, if you're listening to this or watching it for the next two hours, put us on your phone or whatever. But most importantly, get out there, vote. I saw analysis Day. There's over, I think, 2.5 million Muslims already in the country. More than, excuse me, there's more Muslims saying 5 million. There are more than 24 states in the union. You've seen this from the beginning. In fact, you went, we sent you an assignment to Europe and you're saying we get to 25%. That's when it's over. I mean, London, I think today is close to 20%. Once you get 20%, you can't turn it back. Tell folks you went to Europe and saw this up close and personal, the invasion that's going on there. What did you see?
- [10:39]
F
Well, it's the cancer of woke leftism and communism. They call them useful idiots. But it's the same thing here, where you have jihadists masquerading as a peaceful religion that use stupid people to invite them in as the Trojan horse, if you will. And then they metastasize into the cancer you see in Europe. And what I saw in England. England is gone. France is gone. Paris is gone. In Paris, you have no go zones where the cops don't even go into them. We were there, we were threatened. Our lives were threatened. In England, my life was threatened. I went on the university, London University. I got threatened to get shanked in the neck by a pro Palestinian illegal migrant that had come over, saw me out there just recording, asking questions, threatened to shank me in the neck. This is what's happening every single day. And in Europe, it's worse because you have that direct access across the Mediterranean to North Africa and the Middle East. You have huge numbers. I mean, what we think of as an invasion, we had a massive invasion under Joe Biden. But what you have in Europe is almost exclusively Islamic. And that's the big difference.
- [11:41]
C
You've also been in the border. You went to Darien Gap. You saw the different. You would be down to see the prayer rugs, all of that. This invasion here, you know, Natalie's going to be on. She's written a piece on substack of the. One of the dangers in this war right now. And in Qatar, Qatar just announced that they broke up two terror rings in Qatar of Iranian terrorists. You've seen it from the beginning. This is part of the reason that the 25 million. You're right, the bulk of those are not jihadists. But
- [12:18]
F
I'm getting interrupted here real quick by some security. Go ahead, keep going.
- [12:23]
C
Okay, you've been. You've been. I just want to make sure you're squared away on the security, Ben, they'll give you a hook in a second. You've been a. Ben, you've seen it from the beginning of going all the way down to the Darien Gap. People coming up, you see the prayer rugs, all of it. I mean, how dangerous now? Now it's actually on the ballot. These people are getting more political power every day. Your observations,
- [12:49]
F
it's a death sentence for any nation. And all you have to do. It's so ridiculous that we even have to talk about this. Look at every nation in Islamic nation in North Africa, in the Middle east, anywhere that Sharia law spreads, you've got mass misery and death. And that's even going Islam to Islam. You got Sharia versus Sunni, you've got this attack. You see, obviously with Iran and their enemies in the Middle east, it's a death sentence and it is incompatible with Western ideology. That's the biggest difference. You go to a place, Islam is incompatible with Islam but it's extremely incompatible with anything else. And that's what we're talking about. In a nation that believes in freedom and liberty, if you even allow the seed of Islam, Sharia into your community, it destroys. They cannot coexist. They are oil and water. And that's what we're talking about. When you look, I mean, shoot, look at what we're hearing about today in Austin, Texas. We take out the Ayatollah, the Supreme leader, the Satan on earth that wants to exterminate America. And immediately you have terrorist attacks in places across America and around the world, including in Austin, Texas. And rather than celebrating the cops that killed this jihadist, now these three cops are going to be put on trial, are going to stand in front of a grand jury because the BLM movement in America, it's all connected, woke Leftism is a death sentence for this nation and it's what's invited in Sharia law to America.
- [14:14]
C
Hang on one second. I know you got to bounce, you got scurry there but I want you to hold through. I want to talk about tonight's coverage. You're going to be at Ken Paxton's headquarters. Ben Berkwum are the best field reporter and investigative reporter ever that is specialized in the border and what happened on this invasion. Every town a border town, every state a border state. Today is election day in the great state of Texas and they were correct. Two and a half million votes already. Two million people already voted in early voting. I think the Democrats were ahead in early voting or people requested Democratic ballots, but I think almost 250,000. Big turnout for the Democrats. Republicans, not bad. But it's like a midterm election. They're like a presidential cycle. Shortly, a new year means new financial goals like making sure your savings are secure and diversified. Will this be the year you finally listen to me and talk to someone from Birch Gold Group? Honestly, they're great people. I appreciate their educational approach and their understanding of macroeconomics. There are forces pushing the dollar lower and gold higher which is why they believe every American should own physical gold. So until February, if you are a first time gold buyer, Birchgold is offering a rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases to claim eligibility and start the process, just text Bannon at 989-898. Birch Gold can help you roll an existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold and you're still eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000. Make right now your first time to buy Gold and take advantage of a rebate of up to $10,000 when you buy by February 27th. Text my name Bandit 989-898 and claim your eligibility today. Remember, text Bannon B A N N O N to 989-898. You've got to the end of February, the 27th of February to qualify up to a $10,000 rebate. War room here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon. Folks, you see Ben Berkwam standing there. There are over 200 mosque in the north Texas area. Ben standing from I know it's absolutely mind blowing. Ben, real quickly, I know you're taking off right now. There's the moss right in value. Great reporting. We're going to have you on this show tonight. Grant Stinchfield, myself be co hosting the RAV War Room Stinchfield show election coverage in Texas. You're going to be at the Paxson headquarters. What's your social media, sir?
- [16:57]
F
Ealam voice on all social and my personal en berquham frontlineamerica.com and our foundation to support ICE and Border Patrol. Frontlineamerica foundation.org or frontlineaf.org Ben, we'll see
- [17:10]
C
you on the show later tonight. Thank you. Let's Godspeed getting down there. Ben Berkhom, always a cutting edge. Okay, Natalie's going to join us. We got a cold open about what happened in the war this afternoon. Let's play it. We're going to bring in Natalie G. Winters.
- [17:24]
A
So why did we go to war? Yesterday Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave yet another justification, you just heard it that Israel was going to attack. So we had to attack to protect ourselves. Today though, the president said it was actually the other way around.
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C
No, I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. And we have great negotiations, great people, people that do this very successfully and have done it all their lives, very successful and based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first. And I didn't want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced Israel's hand.
- [18:14]
G
So what's the goal here? The goal is to make sure that when this is over, this regime cannot build ballistic missiles to hit America or terrorize the region. That when this conflict is over, they cannot continue to support Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, the terrorist network. And they can never go back in the nuclear business. One of the things that really got President Trump going the most was after Midnight Hammer, we found that they were trying to regenerate their nuclear program after basically months of negotiation. It was pretty clear that they're wedded to the capability they need to inflict terror, that the regime's goal is always to inflict terror and to push their religious agenda through force. And the missile buildup is designed to give them immunity in terms of developing their nuclear program. If we waited much longer, they're doing 100amonth. The idea of imminent threat to me is an odd thing. Who wants to let a homicidal maniac be able to get to the imminent stage of hurting you? If somebody is threatening my family, wants to rape your wife and burn down your house and kill your children, I don't want to wait till they get to the gun store and the gas station. Since 1979, this regime has been dedicated to chaos through their religious agenda. In 1983, 200, 120 marines were killed by Hezbollah in Lebanon. 18 sailors, 100 injured. Roadside bombs coming out of Iran. It's maimed and killed hundreds, if not thousands of Americans. They mean it when they say death to America. I'm glad we didn't let it go further. I'm glad we didn't let them build more missiles. I'm glad we didn't let them regenerate after Midnight Hammer. So the idea that you're going to let a homicidal maniac get to the imminent stage to me, is misplaced. So I've never felt better about how this ends. It's not if they fall, it's when they fall. It's not. It's not us alone, it's us with the region. Europe is now getting into the game. So I want to compliment President Trump for starting something that the world is now gravitating to.
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D
We have breaking news into cnn. A source in the Middle east telling CNN that the US Consulate in Dubai
- [20:34]
A
was struck and now is on fire.
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C
CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood is
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F
with us, along with CNN political and
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C
national security analyst David Sanger.
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B
Kylie, first to you, what are you
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C
learning about this news?
- [20:44]
D
Yes, what we're learning from a source in the UAE right now on the ground is that the US Consulate that is in Dubai. This is more than an hour from the US Embassy which is in the uae. It is on fire at this moment. There are videos on social media that are coming in of that this was hit by a suspected drone. This obviously comes after last night we were tracking drones that had hit the US Embassy in Riyadh. So this is a very dangerous situation on the ground, of course for you know, all the people who are living there, but also the Americans who are at these embassies.
- [21:21]
B
As I came in, I also saw the media reports about Dubai's consulate. The last update I had with say seconds before getting before these cameras was that a drone unfortunately struck a parking lot adjacent to the Chancellery building and then set off a fire in that place. All personnel are accounted for. As you're aware, we began drawing down personnel from our diplomatic facilities in advance of this. In the cases for example of Beirut, we basically drew down to bare bones as well as in Baghdad and in Erbil and in a couple other posts as well. So we've been very fortunate, obviously. But our embassies and our diplomatic facilities are under direct attack from a terroristic regime. With an update, I will obviously refer you to the Department of War. Suffice it to say that our objectives remain as they've been identified from the beginning and by the President laid out clearly yesterday. Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. And we will now not allow Iran to hide behind the immune system of a massive short term ballistic missile inventory or the ability to make them or launch them. And so CENTCOM in a joint operations is carrying out a systematic destruction of their missile belt, destruction of their launchers and destruction of their ability to make these as well as the destruction of their navy. From what I've been told by the Department of War, everything is on or ahead of schedule and proceeding on these objectives. We have every confidence in in the world that these objectives will be achieved. The last point I would make is, and I said this yesterday, and I repeat what's about to, you know, you're about to see, you know, we're going to unleash Chang on these people in the next few hours and days you're going to really begin to perceive a change in the scope and in the intensity of these attacks as frankly the two most powerful air forces in the world take apart this terroristic regime and defang it and take away its ability to threaten its neighbors or hide the behind a zone of Immunity that allows them to develop their nuclear ambitions. This terroristic radical, cleric led regime cannot be ever allowed to have nuclear weapons. We saw what they were willing to do to their own people. They were willing to slaughter their own people in the streets. Imagine what they would do to us. Imagine what they would do to others under President Trump. That will never, ever happen.
- [23:35]
G
This regime is in its death throes. The amount of firepower coming in the next day or two from us is going to be overwhelming. And when you add to the mix the Arab capability, then it's going to be overwhelming. The demise of this regime is at hand and the goal is to make sure they can never be a threat like they were before.
- [23:55]
D
Yesterday you told us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that's why we needed to get involved today. The Presidency said that Iran was going to get.
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B
Yeah, your statement is false. So that's not what I was asked very specifically, were you there yesterday?
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D
Yes, I asked the question.
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B
No, did you? Were you the one that. Because somebody asked me a question, did we go in because of Israel? And I said, you were asking me that follow up. And I said, no, I told you this had to happen anyway. The President made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ability to conduct these attacks. That decision had been made. The President systematically made a decision to systematically destroy this terroristic capability that they had. And we carried that out. I was very clear in that answer. This was a question of timing, of why this had to happen as a joint operation, not the question of the intent. Once the President made a decision that negotiations were not going to work, that they were playing us on the negotiations and that this was a threat that was untenable, the decision was made to strike them. That's what I said yesterday. And you guys needed to play it. If you're going to play these statements, you need to play the whole statement, not clip it to reach a narrative that you want to do. All right.
- [24:59]
G
You know, in World War II, they didn't ask how long would it take. They said, we're going to go to Berlin, we're going to go Tokyo. We're going to protect our life. See what you got to understand that the regime in Iran would kill everybody in this room if they could. It's not about Republicans or Democrats. It's about Americans. They're religious fanatics. They want to kill all the Jews. They want to destroy Sunni Islam. They want to come after us. So we need to have the approach to this like we did in World War II. This is a terrible mothership of terrorism. Regime that's killed Americans since 1979, terrorized the region, and it's on the verge of collapse. And I want to congratulate Donald Trump and his team for putting together the most impressive military plan I have ever seen. What's coming in the coming days from us is going to be a lot bigger than it's been in the last couple of days. The Arabs are in the fight now, so stay tuned. What's coming toward the remnants of the regime is going to be overwhelming. The liberation of Iran is at hand. The gateway to peace is about to open. Things that I've been working on with President Biden can now materialize. The biggest prize in the region would be the end of Arab Israeli conflict. That will never happen as long as Iran is around. October 7th was designed to stop what President Biden and I were trying to do, build on the Abraham Accords. Iran's worst nightmares. The Arabs and the Israelis make peace because they're not a peace loving people. It's a cult of death. We're going to take up where we left off when this regime collapses. And I think the biggest prize of all from taking the regime down is, is that those who want to make peace in the region will be able to do it without being threatened by the mothership of terrorism.
- [26:45]
C
Okay, we only got 90 seconds here. Natalie joins me. Natalie, first off, World War II. The Japanese attacked us, declared war on us. President Roosevelt the next day went to Congress and got a. I think everybody in the House of Representatives voted for except for one person I believe in Montana. And the Senate voted unanimously and a declaration of war. We didn't even declare war on Hitler that day. Three days later, Hitler declared war on us and we're born, too. I hope Lady Lindsay's not arguing that. Let me be blunt. The people in South Carolina, Natalie, did he make a Freudian slip? Did he say, my family and your wife?
- [27:24]
E
I don't.
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C
I don't want to get too snarky.
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D
Descriptors here in the war room. No. No conspiracies. No coincidence.
- [27:33]
C
Folks in South Carolina, the fate of the Republic is in your hands. There's a primary, I think, in April or May or June sometime. Well, Natalie G. Winners, now we're gonna have you break all that down. Plus you got a couple amazing investigative pieces up on Substack. Natalie Winters, one of the things she's saying is, hey, as the cutter guys found a couple terousels after years of having open border and an invasion, how tough does it make to secure your country? Take a short commercial break. By the way, Birch gold. Take your phone out. Text Bannon at 989-898. The Ultimate Guide for investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump. Particularly now. Find out what gold is. A hedge against times of geopolitical turbulence. If you're a homeowner, you need to listen to this. So listen up. In today's artificial intelligence and cyber world, scammers are stealing home titles with more ease than ever. And your equity, the equity in your home, your life savings is the target. Now here's how it works. Criminals forge your signature on one document, use a fake notary stamp, pay a small fee with your county, and boom, your home title has been transferred out of your name. Then they take out loans using your equity or even selling your property. You won't even know it's happened until you get a collection or foreclosure notice. So let me ask you, when was the last time you checked your home title? If you're like me, the answer is never. And that's exactly what scammers are counting on. That's why I trust home title lock. Before I met them, I never checked on this. Now I'm safe and now I'm secure. Use promo code steve@hometitlelock.com to make sure your title is still in your name. You'll also get a free title history report, plus a free 14 day trial of their $1 million triple lock protection. That's 24,7 monitoring of your title, urgent alerts to any changes and a fraud should happen. They'll spend up to $1 million to fix it. Go to hometitle lock.com now. Use promo code Steve. That's hometitle lock.com promo code Steve. Do it today. Do it now. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. So, Natalie, first I'd like to get your response. Maybe Rubio will deal with tomorrow. That sounds like he was trained by the Jesuits, but Lindsey Graham and the rest of it. Your thoughts and observations first on your cold open. And then we'll get into all your amazing analysis and investigative reporting.
- [30:22]
D
Ma', am, I'm going to start logging on after you play the cold opens because I think I share the audience's frustration with that one in particular. I think you're trying to set me off. But look, I mean, I don't think you can come away with any other conclusion than that the messaging is all over the place. And look, I'm as MAGA as it gets. We love President Trump, but there's nothing wrong, I think, with wanting more clarity about why we're standing in a position where I'm not saying we've already put ourselves in a forever war position, but we're certainly, I think, on the brink. I think history will tell us in the next coming days if we're going to look back on this week as something that was decisive and stunningly successful, or if it was the start of something that we know all too well, which is sort of this dragged out, kinetic style conflict in the Middle east, which I think we can all say in a very open and very clear way, that's not what we voted for, regime change, a forever war, certainly not in the Middle East. And I think that some of the frustration, which is totally okay to ask for more clarity comes from these sort of shifting goalposts, right? First it was the nukes, then it was the weapons, the missiles, then it was the Navy, then it was the Ayatollah, then it was the entire irgc. And again, putting the actual kinetic efficacy aside, the actual strikes, I just think President Trump's kind of unique ability, comparative advantage from the second he came down the escalator was speaking directly to the American people, not to the Iranian people. And I'm sort of struggling, I think, to understand the calculus for this. And the other variable that I would put in there is the Chinese Communist Party is the existential threat that the United States faces of paramount significance. And that is a phrase, a word not just that we hear, I think concerningly less day by day, at least in the existential threat framework that it should exist in. But when you're talking about Iran and their missile buildup or whatnot, the weapons, the ammo, all that China plays a very large part in that, of course, the economic development, too. And I would think that if you were making the MAGA case for wanting to go into Iran, that China is at least something that you would hear occasionally. Which is why I think with some of the reporting that you've seen, not just from the New York Times, but even from Secretary Rubio himself, right? All of this objection that we have to bearing the brunt, this rejection of burden sharing, right? It's why you want NATO to pay up to 5%. It's because the United States gets to do what the United States wants to do and is not going to be told, certainly by countries that we put their defense bill you know, what kind of activities we're going to engage in, when and where. And I think that perhaps that might be why some of this messaging is a little bit all over the place. Because I think the truth of it that, you know, Israel, and I'm not saying this in a conspiratorial way, but again, in the words of Secretary Marco Rubio, they were going to roll and the United States got on board. But enough of my analysis, because I think that the best way that we can sort of understand this is by looking at the administration's own documents, right, which is the National Defense Strategy and the National Security Strategy, which came out just a few months ago. So post Midnight Hammer and let's just
- [33:45]
C
lay it out for people. So you put the National Security Strategy out first. It's about a 32 page document. It's unclassified. So the whole country can kind of see in a general sense, the framework for how you think of national security. Then the Secretary of War is obligated a couple of months later to come out and basically put a defense strategy that matches the national security strategy. So these are official documents that by law, the administration, every administration, whether it's Obama, Biden or Trump, have to put out within some sort of close period of each other on an annual basis, Correct?
- [34:19]
D
Correct. And, you know, the Trump administration hailed these documents, rightfully so is really, I think, you know, showing a new age era in American foreign policy, certainly through the domestic policy lens, by focusing on the homeland. But even if you take that macro perspective out, sure, you can turn any threat into a homeland threat. Though I don't necessarily think that the reason why Iran is a threat to the homeland is because of hostages that were taken 22 years before I was born. I'm not discounting that. But if that's the primary messaging point that we've been hearing from the administration, then we should have done something like we did, you know, sanctions and all that stuff. But then why didn't, you know, Trump won. Why didn't they go after Iran in a kinetic way then? But that aside, you know my opinions on everything, we obviously don't have all the intel reports. I'm not pretending to be an armchair expert, but if you read these documents, Steve, I think it leaves one more perplexed as to why, again, not saying we're in a forever war, but why we are standing on the precipice of one, frankly, because of the depiction that they portray Iran. First of all, we're hearing that Iran was such a threat that they were going to preemptively attack us and they have all these capabilities. The list goes on. Well, the national defense strategy was quite clear, quote, Now Iran's regime is weaker and more vulnerable than it has been in decades, end quote. The national security strategy is, is also very clear, saying that conflict remains the Middle East's most troublesome dynamic. But there is today less to this problem than headlines might lead one to believe. Iran, the region's chief destabilizing force, has been greatly weakened by Israeli action since October 7th. And President Trump's Operation Midnight Hammer, which significantly degraded Iran's nuclear program, which, of course, you know, they use the word obliterated in other press releases. And if you continue to read this National Security Strategy, it really depicts a whole different and frankly, better future for the Middle east, which I think is just very different from, like I say, the precipice of another quagmire. You read this quote. As this administration rescinds or eases restrictive energy policies and American energy production ramps up, America's historic reason for focusing on the Middle east will recede. Instead, the region will increasingly become a source and destination of international investment and in industries where well beyond oil and gas, including nuclear energy, AI and defense technologies. And then when you get to the regime change component of this, again, it leaves you scratching your head, quote, but doing so will require dropping America's misguided experiment with hectoring these nations, especially the Gulf monarchies, into abandoning their traditions and historic forms of government. We should encourage and applaud reform when and where it emerges organically without trying to impose it from without. The key to successful relations with the Middle east is accepting the regions, its leaders and its nations as they are while working together on areas of common interest. We can and must address this threat ideologically and militarily without decades of fruitless nation building wars. And the other key point here, Steve, and that's coming from the National Security strategy, but from the National Defense strategy, and this is the Iran section, is this idea, which I think it's sort of the Middle east, you know, counterpart to this idea of Europe and NATO, but is empowering our allies and partners in the region to do what we just saw go down, that went down at the hands of the United States, quote, this creates even more opportunities for us to enable individual partners to do more for their defense. It will also enable us to foster integration between regional partners so that they can do even more together. Now, I'm not saying that, you know, shut the history books. We're in another forever war but this type of rhetoric that you're hearing described, this idea that we're not focusing so much on the Middle east is just very different from the rhetoric that we're hearing now that apparently Iran is like the greatest existential threat to the United States for decades.
- [38:14]
C
Hang on, hang on. This is what, let's go back to this. Because the national security, national security strategy memo, the national defense memoir, were totally coherent and actually fit in with each other perfectly. It had about hemispheric defense, it had about the civilizational erasure NATO and Europe were on. The strategy memo came on page 29 of 32. I told the folks in Europe when I talked to him, I said, that should be a tell about where that stands. This whole thing, it all hung together around hemispheric defense and getting out, particularly wars in the Middle East. In fact, as you remember, Natalie, I spoke at the National Conservative Conference, whatever that was, and I said, look, the Middle east is a sideshow and the Israel situation is a sideshow to a sideshow. It's just not. When you talk about the existential threat of the Chinese Communist Party and what we have to do and particularly what they've done in this hemisphere and the 25 million invaders we had in this country, those are existential threats. And as Peter Schweitzer has said in his book, they're kind of inextricably linked. Right. That's the problem. And as you document all the time, the color revolution, that is what's taking us out. This is why we're in Texas. Right. We're not here. All of that is of a piece this and what we've done particularly, and I understand that, and supposing the next 48 hours we're going to get a massive wave that's going to make everything clearer. Because now our Arab allies that are getting attacked by the Iranians and others, I think are going to join together for a major assault. And maybe that'll make it clear. But it kind of came out of nowhere. Correct. Because these memos that really set the policy were coherent and actually fit each other.
- [39:59]
E
Ma'. Am.
- [40:01]
D
Well, yeah, I'll read you the concluding line on the Middle east section. But the days in which the Middle east dominated American foreign policy in both long term planning and day to day execution are thankfully over. Not because the Middle east no longer matters, but because it is no longer the constant irritant and potential source of imminent catastrophe that it once was. And look, Steve, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head too. I mean, another Sort of thing we've heard here is, and I think this links to Texas, right, is this idea that this is the Venezuela template, this is some like new non quasi regime change. Regime change. Well, I'll say the elephant in the room, besides all the geographic dissimilarities between the two countries, Iran is also a radical Islamic theocracy, a religion and ideology that hates the west, chants death to the west and prides, celebrates people who kill and murder Westerners and Americans. So it's a little different from Venezuela starting and that's of course the sleeper cell threat that we're talking about. But we're not anti forever war, I think just because of the forever qualifier on it. It's the war, it's the sustained just degradement. This idea that American people, our dollars and our best and brightest, our young men have to be human and venture capital for this kind of foreign adventurism that it seems like is not even being spearheaded by the United States or junior partners to a country that we're subsidizing a lot of their defense bill for it. It's a little mind boggling. And I think when you compound that with two, like you said about the China threat, I mean, you want to talk about how you actually reassert American hegemony, global hegemony, you fix the problem that is the military industrial complex. You fix our missile shortages which are years long. You fix the FMS delays, you fix the fact that every country that buys weapons from us, even in the Middle east can't even get the jets that they're buying. So they have to go buy the Chinese counterparts. Because you know, rtx, I know the new Raytheon rebrand, maybe people won't know that it's actually Raytheon. And they're so far behind on creating any of these actual defensive or offensive capabilities that if I were the Chinese Communist Party, frankly I would be going around country by country and trying to spread bad intel that all these nuclear programs are popping up because apparently you're going to get the United States to decline and destroy and decimate their weapons and missile reserves to the tune of even after midnight Hammer. What we did in Qatar was like upwards of we only have 25% I think, what was it of the Patriot interceptors. I mean it takes us at this rate it's like three years to build any of the Thaad missile systems. That delay, getting fixing, that delay would do more for securing American national security, global hegemony and supremacy than taking out the Ayatollah and I know that might be a very wild statement to say, but it's absolutely true. Not just from the lens of confronting the Chinese Communist Party, but from the lens of us being able to actually have the operational capability, durability, to actually engage in conflict in a meaningful way and not be so tapped out by the time we're done by engaging with Iran, which pales in comparison to the threat of the Chinese Communist Party that if they were to roll on Taiwan or even against the United States, we wouldn't even have the option to really decide to meaningfully engage because all of these defense primes and these military defense industrial based contractors are so delayed they don't even have competition. We should be focusing on fixing that instead of standing on the brink of another forever war.
- [43:42]
C
Amazing. And today the Koreans, remember, the Koreans said, hey, you bait and switched us. We can't have you take back the thaads and the patriots. We need them. And remember, the Korean situation is a little dicey to begin with. Japanese are also starting to say, what are you doing here? Short break. Natalie winters, on the other side, imagine having the world's most connected financial insider feeding you vital information, the kind of information only a handful of people have access to and that could create a fortune for those who know what to do with it. That's exactly what you get when you join our frequent guest and contributor Jim Rickards in his elite research service Strategic Intelligence. Inside Strategic Intelligence. You'll hear directly from Jim and receive critical updates on major financial and political events before they hit the mainstream news. He'll put you in front of the story and tell you exactly what moves to make for your best chance to profit. As a proud American, you do not want to be caught off guard. Sign up for Strategic Intelligence right now at your our exclusive website. That's Rickards War Room.com Rickards War Room.com you go there, you get strategic intelligence based upon predictive analytics. Do it today, right now. Rickards war room.com war room here's your host, Stephen K. Band. Welcome back. Natalie. Some closing thoughts here. That was magnificent. We'll make sure we push that out because I think that's a message people have to listen to and take it on board.
- [45:23]
D
Ma'.
- [45:23]
E
Am.
- [45:24]
D
Well, I think the point is obviously there's a lot of back and forth. I see the chat. There are a lot of strong opinions, but time will tell. I've never said we're in a forever war yet, but I don't think, I think we can all be honest. I don't think we voted to be standing on the brink of one. And frankly, the rhetoric that we're hearing from the administration does not give me a lot of confidence that this doesn't have the potential to turn in to something much worse. We've already said we're not ruling out boots on the ground. And I would just say I don't think we dismantled USAID's Color Revolution regime change playbook just so we could replace that with missiles instead of NGOs. Right. I think the point was that we're focusing here on the homeland and that we voted for regime change here in the United States. A regime change against the kind of people that have no remorse for sending young Americans to die in foreign battlefields. Systemic change, whether it's maha, mass immigration. And I would just say if we're going to now all of a sudden be okay with taking the risk to do things that are edgy, politically unsafe, a little untoward and a little out there. I just wish that we would use that. I think gusto is maybe how I would say it on the American people for the purposes of mass deportations as opposed to the freedom of foreigners. And sure, call me myopic and shortsighted. I think that that's what the legacy media used to say when they would have meltdowns over using the phrase America first. I think that we are allowed to point out that we have not seen what we want on the mass deportation front. And I would put a little more, maybe forever deportations is something that I would pursue and a little less regime change abroad, all through the lens of their systemic problems that DOGE and those similar entities that mindset was supposed to fix at the Pentagon, which was fixing these missile shortages, making it so we didn't have to get involved. Like I said, it's too soon to tell, but I voted for regime change here in the United States. I did not vote to be on the same side as Lindsey Graham or John Bolton.
- [47:47]
C
Natalie, your substack's on fire. I want to get to a couple of these pieces in the next few days. Also, there's been a bunch of Steve Mosher, who's going to join us tomorrow, wrote a big piece exclusive in the New York Post about how Trump is aiming at Iran, but his real target is China. So I want you to break all that down. We'll get back to you. Where do people go in the interim?
- [48:09]
D
Man well, I'd like to hear the word China then maybe said in the rationale a bit. Nataliegwenters.substack.com, just read it, take a look at the NDS quotes. You'll find it interesting. And Steve, thank you for having me.
- [48:22]
C
No, this is important because this national security strategy of which I think were the only show to go through in detail a couple of times and the defense strategy was fantastic. And it was really, they should be very, very, very proud of that because it hung together about hemispheric defense. Mike Lindell, there's already been some issues on voting throughout Texas. I don't know how big these are, but one of the reasons the MAGA base does not come out for early voting. Although the numbers here for a midterm election were up. It's just the Democrats put a presidential year numbers. There's been some issues. We'll talk about those in Warham, Texas throughout the night. Warham, Texas is going to be next. Then at 8 o' clock Eastern time, when the polls close in Texas at 7 o', clock, Grant Stinchfield and myself will pick up coverage. We'll take you through the evening till we know how this thing plays out. Mike Lindell, you're running for governor. Now, your first thing you're going to do as governor of Minnesota is ban sharia law. But talk to me, give me a minute about election systems, everything you've done, all the years of your life that you've dedicated. Of course your guy Kurt Olson's in the White House. Give me a minute on that before we talk about deals.
- [49:36]
E
You know, in five years, everybody. I put in upwards of $80 million. Now everything I had in my life savings into securing our election platforms, that is getting the paper ballots hand counted. I built the Election Crime Bureau, which you can check out@lindaleplan.com we built the cause of America. Over 300,000 people strong in all 50 states. In the second year, in the year 2020, late 2021 and early 2022, I flew around this country, put on 750 hours on an airplane by myself, wearing out the pilots, meeting with secretary of State, attorney generals, everyone, to get to what other countries have. 132 countries have banned electronic voting machines and over 100 countries have banned early voting and mail in voting. We have the worst election platforms in the world. So I've been fighting for this. This is why I've been attacked relentlessly. And this is breaking news, you guys. I just got this from my attorney. It says, mike, I just learned that Keith Ellison's political targeting of your charities is preventing charitable brokers, donation brokers, from allowing donations to the Lindell Recovery Network Steve it doesn't end. They keep attacking me because they know I want to secure our elections and get to paper ballots hand counted and I'm not going to stop. And I'm running for governor. You guys in Minnesota, they say, well, Mike doesn't. He carries too much baggage. That baggage is the receipts. I know where things are, the corruption in Minnesota and starts with the elections there and all over this country. So Steve, that's one of the, it's the tip of the spear there too. With, with that. So everybody, if you guys could help my, my campaign there, it's going to help the country. That's Mike Lindell gov.com Mike Lindell gov.com Also, if you want to check out the Lindale Recovery Network.org that's a C3. This is what Keith Ellison is attacking and you guys can help out there. I need to fight this guy off. He wants to shut it down because I, a conservative Christian and running for governor. I believe it's a combination of all three now, Steve But I will tell you this, everybody, you know, we're still standing. I'm still standing. My pillow's still standing. And right now I do have the good news. We're moving factories. And by the way, I'm going to be at my factory tomorrow or the next day. You guys live here on this show right from the new Factory 4. But in the meantime, we are giving you all these specials. The mattress toppers and our mattresses because we don't want to move them, we just discounted them and we're going to put free shipping on them for you guys as low as 99.99, over 10,000. Individual comfort supports the best USA made products ever. And if you go to mypillow.com war room there, you're gonna see our factory sale. There you save 80% up to 80% on all the products that we don't want to move to the new pet. We're closing them out. This is a war room exclusive promo code. War room free shipping right to your front door. 800-873-1062. Promo code WAR ROOM.
- [52:48]
C
Mike, I'll text you. I'd like to get you up in the next hour in War Room Texas and also throughout the evening as you do the primary in Texas. Okay, short commercial break. When we come back, Chris Wilson, one of the top pollsters. Caroline Rent, Cliff Maloney, Nino Rodriguez, John Guandino, all next. Listen, folks, I want to tell you about this particular pharmacy because they're actually doing things right now. For the American people. They're the real deal, not another corporate chain. If you're tired of fighting a broken system or begging for prescriptions, you need All Family Pharmacy. When someone in your house gets sick at 2am and the pharmacies close, you need All Family Pharmacy. Order online and get it fast. If your doctor refuses to prescribe Ivermectin after everything we've seen, you need All Family Pharmacy. This is a real American family business with licensed doctors, fast shipping and the meds families rely on. It's simple. Place the order online, the doctor reviews it, and your meds arrive in a few days. War room listeners keep saying how smooth the process is and how much they love this, how grateful they are to finally have a pharmacy that gets them. These folks at All Family Pharmacy are breaking the control of these big pharmaceutical distribution systems. So if you haven't already, check them out. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com bannon and use code BANNON10 for 10% off your essential medications. Check these folks out. You will love working with them. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com Bannon and use code BANNON10.