Episode 5271: Iran War Opens Up Taiwan To China; Will Todd Blanche Remain AG

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Bannon's War Room – Episode 5271

Date: April 4, 2026
Main Theme:
This episode delves into the escalating Iran conflict, its global ramifications—especially the strategic implications for Taiwan and U.S.-China relations—and examines the political fallout in the U.S. Department of Justice, including the shakeup involving Attorney General Pam Bondi and speculation around her replacement. The episode features expert analyses on military, geopolitical, and legal dynamics, including deep dives into Chinese influence in Pacific territories.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Situation Update: U.S. Air Losses in the Iran War

• [00:00–03:27]
  • Natalie Winters and Stephen K. Bannon report on multiple U.S. aircraft incidents: an F-15 downed near the Strait of Hormuz (pilot rescue ongoing), a Warthog downed, and Iranian attacks on Black Hawk helicopters during rescue attempts.
  • Emphasis on the U.S. devastation of Iranian forces but acknowledgment that Iranian air defenses remain a threat.
  • Discussion pivots to broader implications for the war’s direction.

Notable Quote:

“There’s no such thing as a safe combat operation in an F-15 Eagle.”
— General Barry McCaffrey [00:50]

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2. DOJ Shakeup: The Fallout from AG Pam Bondi’s Tenure and the Epstein Files Debacle

• [03:27–14:56]
  • Natalie Winters introduces Julie Kelly for an in-depth look at Bondi’s tenure as Attorney General.
  • Julie Kelly identifies Bondi’s mishandling of the "Epstein files" as the major factor undermining the administration, calling it the “animating issue” of Trump’s first year.
  • Discussion of broken promises about accountability for weaponization of government (e.g., J6 prosecutions, surveillance of parents/pro-lifers), and structural obstacles such as activist grand juries, resistant D.C. judges, and internal DOJ sabotage.

Notable Quotes:

“The mishandling of the Epstein file situation may go down as one of the worst political comms crises in...American history.”
— Stephen K. Bannon [07:32]

“She faced almost insurmountable obstacles...but as time wore on, her credibility continued to wane within the administration and among the MAGA base especially.”
— Julie Kelly [10:24]

• Julie recommends Lee Zeldin for AG; emphasizes need for a “wartime AG” who can bring discipline and take rapid action.

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3. Lawfare, Internal DOJ Dynamics, & Calls for Radical DOJ Reform

• [16:33–28:16]
  • Peter Tipton joins to discuss lawfare, the DOJ’s state, and the need for hard-edged leadership.
  • Tipton criticizes Pam Bondi for being undermined internally, specifically by Todd Blanche.
  • He makes a case for massive reform: pivoting DOJ's focus from minor offenses/non-governmental persecution toward accountability for “real crimes,” especially relating to election integrity and J6.

Notable Quotes:

“Anybody who doesn’t figure it out at this point that we really are in a war—maybe we’re not shooting bullets at China—but for sure we know their involvement…”
— Peter Tipton [18:18]

“Not only do we need to compensate the innocent people injured in this whole thing...But look at the people that need to be prosecuted that never were.”
— Peter Tipton [20:18]

• Tipton asserts J6 was planned in advance by "deep state" actors, calls for indictments bypassing grand juries, and—rhetorically—throws his own hat into the AG ring.

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4. China’s Strategic Moves in the Pacific: CNMI & Guam in the Crosshairs

• [30:07–38:46]
  • Cleo Pascal presents original, granular reporting on Chinese infiltration in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam.
  • Highlights how visa loopholes and corruption allow unchecked Chinese entry to strategic U.S. territories, facilitating drug, human trafficking, and intelligence risks near sensitive U.S. military assets.
  • Documents the murder and intimidation of local reformers (e.g., sudden death of Governor Palacios); calls for urgent congressional oversight and treasury investigation.
  • Warns that loss of CNMI/Guam in the event of a Taiwan conflict would dramatically benefit China.

Notable Quotes:

“There is such a depth of corruption and fear...which I would argue is the part of the United States that is the most penetrated by the Chinese Communist Party.”
— Cleo Pascal [37:35]

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5. Diego Garcia and the UK’s Wavering Reliability

• [38:46–40:40]
  • Pascal explains the precarious status of Diego Garcia, a critical US-UK military base, as the UK contemplates ceding sovereignty to pro-China Mauritius.
  • Raises concern over the reliability of the UK and other Five Eyes partners as secure allies, especially after recent inability to defend against Iranian drone attacks in Cyprus.

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6. U.S.-Iran War Escalation, Chinese Air Defenses, and Strategic Patience

• [41:22–50:11]
  • Colonel Grant Newsham joins to discuss military and geopolitical implications of the Iran conflict.
  • Notes the evolution of Chinese air defense tech aiding Iran, increasing risk for U.S. aircraft.
  • Emphasizes a need for patience and strategic thinking, warning against American impatience for quick-war outcomes.
  • Highlights how Trump is leveraging the conflict to pressure allies (Europe, Japan, Korea) by withholding sole U.S. efforts to clear Persian Gulf oil routes, forcing them to consider their own defense.

Notable Quotes:

“It is amazing that we have not lost any aircraft to date. Simply impossible to imagine that.”
— Colonel Grant Newsham [42:25]

“Losing an aircraft isn’t the end of the world. It’s just… part and parcel of warfare. Americans still have free run of the country and are hitting every target they can.”
— Colonel Grant Newsham [46:15]

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7. Looking Ahead: Taiwan, China, and Trump-Xi Summit

• [50:11–50:52]
  • Bannon flags the impending Trump-Xi summit as a pivotal moment, suggesting potential linkage with outcomes in Iran and Taiwan.
  • Colonel Newsham directs listeners to his book When China Attacks for deeper insights.

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Memorable Moments & Quotes (With Timestamps)

• “Big sky, little bullet...in Vietnam we lost 3,700 fixed wing aircraft and over 4,000 helicopters...We've flown over 10,000 sorties in Iran...and lost one aircraft so far due to enemy action.”
  — General Barry McCaffrey [00:50]

• “Jeffrey Epstein will be unfortunately the animating issue of the President’s first year in office…attributed to Pam Bondi’s handling or mishandling.”
  — Julie Kelly [06:56]

• “We want raids just like we saw of J6ers, just like we saw at Mar-a-Lago...We got one. John Bolton...So were they gun-shy? Were they just shorthanded?...there is a locked, armed judicial resistance.”
  — Julie Kelly [09:52]

• “J6 was planned in advance by people in the deep state. And we actually have videos of them planning to break the windows of the capitol building on January 6th.”
  — Peter Tipton [21:15]

• “CNMI is the part of the United States that is the most penetrated by the Chinese Communist Party...full of unexplained deaths, corruption, and fear.”
  — Cleo Pascal [37:35]

• “The UK’s wanting to give Diego Garcia to Mauritius, close to China, just reeks...not just the NATO question, but the whole partnership with Five Eyes...is going to have to be reassessed.”
  — Cleo Pascal [39:35]

• “It is amazing we have not lost any aircraft to date...impossible to imagine...Given the [Iranian] manpads, this was bound to happen.”
  — Colonel Grant Newsham [42:25]

• “President Trump is, I think, making the Europeans, Japanese, Koreans squirm...to see if they want to get involved...They’re the ones who benefit [from oil].”
  — Colonel Grant Newsham [47:06]

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Timestamps for Major Sections

• Opening / War Update: [00:00–03:27]
• DOJ/AG Bondi Analysis (Julie Kelly): [03:27–14:56]
• Lawfare and DOJ Reform (Peter Tipton): [16:33–28:16]
• China in the Pacific (Cleo Pascal): [31:31–40:40]
• U.S.-Iran War Escalation (Newsham): [41:22–50:52]

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For Further Reading/Contact

• Julie Kelly: @julie_kelly2, Substack: Declassified with Julie Kelly
• Peter Tipton: tinapeters.us
• Cleo Pascal: X/Twitter @cleopascal, Getter @realcleo
• Colonel Grant Newsham: grantnewsham.com; book: When China Attacks

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Episode Takeaway:
This episode presents a hard-edged analysis of the Iran war’s risks and ripple effects—most alarmingly, how distractions in the Middle East might open the door for Chinese adventurism against Taiwan. The internal U.S. political struggle, especially around DOJ accountability and Trump’s need for a “wartime” AG, is dissected with candor. The episode exposes vulnerabilities in U.S. Pacific territories, highlighting the seriousness of Chinese infiltration and the challenge of defending the U.S. homeland and national interests in a rapidly shifting global security landscape.

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Transcript

[Natalie Winters]

Crashed near the Strait of Hormuz.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

The lone pilot was safely rescued.

[Natalie Winters]

Ms. NOW has not confirmed this news yet. Joining us former undersecretary of State for diplomacy for public diplomacy and public affairs

[Stephen K. Bannon]

and Ms. Now political analyst Rick Stengel,

[Natalie Winters]

staff writer for the Atlantic and Ms. Now political analyst Ashley Parker, retired four star general and Ms. Now military analyst General Barry McCaffrey and former US army officer, Captain in the JAG Corps and former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, Margaret Donovan. It's great to have all of you.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

General McCaffrey, I'm going to start with you.

[Natalie Winters]

What is your take?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

What are you watching for with this

[Natalie Winters]

story of the downing of a F15 fighter jet?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

What does it signify to you about

[Natalie Winters]

where this war is headed?

[Mike Lindell]

Well obviously it underscores the fact there's no such thing as a safe combat operation in an F15 Eagle. You know it's a magnificent aircraft, twin engine, 1500 miles an hour, two pilots used in ground and air to air action. But they got one and the question may be it was a MANPAD hand carried anti aircraft missile or possibly just a 50 caliber machine gun. You know the saying used to be in Vietnam, big sky, little bullet. But by the way to underscore the political change in the nature of air warfare in Vietnam we lost 3,700 fixed wing aircraft and over 4,000 helicopters. Half of accidents, half of them in combat action. So the change reality. We've flown over 10,000 sorties in Iran devastating air sea campaign and lost one aircraft so far due to enemy action.

[Natalie Winters]

We have absolutely devastated the Iranian forces. General but it it also appears that it is not true as the president

[Stephen K. Bannon]

has stated that we managed to wipe

[Natalie Winters]

out their air defenses and leave them with few options.

[Peter Tipton]

And Niruna's army.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. There's 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 good going to happen.

[Peter Tipton]

And where do people like that go

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

to share the big lie?

[Peter Tipton]

MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

Ask yourself what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my

[Mike Lindell]

country, this country will be saved.

[Peter Tipton]

WAR ROOM here's your host. Stephen K. Band Foreign.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You're in the WAR room It's Friday, April 3rd, in the year of our Lord 2026. It's Natalie Winters hosting, filling in for Stephen K. Bannon today. But as you can see, even from this morning's wonderful show, it seems like there's news breaking not just every hour, every minute, but every second. Obviously, the F15 down in the Strait of Hormuz with one of two pilots, at least now at the time of doing the being reportedly found, they're still looking for the second. And it is our belief there's reporting that was the second video that we played that during the rescue mission, likely Black Hawk helicopters that were doing those missions to try to find the downed pilot, that they were then hit, not totally downed, but by Iranian strikes. And then we also have a separate aircraft, I believe a Warthog that was also downed around the Strait of Hormuz. There is a lot going on. President Trump, I believe he's meeting with his national security, you know, cabinet officials of the lake as, as we speak, obviously threading the needle very closely. We're going to get into the, I think, broader discussion of the implications. Also, I think like we saw in Venezuela, obviously, Chinese air defense not doing a very good job there. But in Iran, they use similar technologies. But obviously you're seeing some sort of evolution going on there. We're going to have Cleopascal and I believe Colonel Grant Newsham to walk us through the China angle to all of this and give us an assessment of what is going on in the ground there. But, you know, we are America first here in the war room. So we will start with what is going on here in the United States. Obviously, a shakeup over at the doj. So we thought best to bring on the one and only Julie Kelly, who has been writing wonderfully about everything that's gone down with Bondi. The, the weird never Trump crowd, they're like zombies or Medusa or whatever the Greek thing is where, you know, you cut the head off and they, they come back with more of a vengeance. I thought Ron Desantis, we agreed that wasn't going to happen. But now he's being floated for ag. I've been enjoying your commentary on that. But, Julie, let's just take a step back and can you kind of give us your broader assessment of what we're seeing go down at doj, your assessment of Bondi's tenure and what you think the path forward looks like?

[Julie Kelly]

Sure. Hi, Natalie. Always good to be with you. Happy. Good Friday. Thanks for having me on. You know, this was, I believe months in the making. It was no secret and the president himself has said so. His dissatisfaction with Pam Bondi, I think she had some solid accomplishments that she should be proud of. However, the Epstein matter debacle, files, whatever you want to call it, just became a dark cloud that still hangs over this administration, unfortunately to this day. And a lot of that was prompted early on, shortly after she was confirmed in February of 2025 claiming that, you know, with those binders had Epstein files, that this was going to be the first of an ongoing production of so called Epstein files. Then she was kind of caught on camera saying that they had tens of thousands of videos of Jeffrey Epstein with children and child pornography, kind of alluding to a client's list a few times, really amping up the expectations that were then of course turned around on the administration by Democrats in Congress. The never Trumpers that you're talking about, including people like Tom Massey, who then leveraged this, I think, and made this unfortunately, Natalie, once we look back at 2025, the Epstein files, Jeffrey Epstein will be unfortunately the animating issue of the President's first year in office. And I think some of that is attributed to Pam Bondi's handling or mishandling of it early on.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I'm curious, Julie, kind of taking a step back. I agree. I think the mishandling of the Epstein file situation may go down truly as one of the worst political comms crises in modern maybe all of American history from start to finish from, you know, Bindergate. I think it persists to this day. But do you think, think that that is emblematic, maybe making it less of a one off or an edge case, but of what really I think was the kind of final nail in the coffin for AG Bondi, which was this idea that I think we've seen sort of permeate through a lot of corners of the Trump administration, if we're being honest, which is there's a lot of talk, but there's not a lot of accountability. There's some, but I don't think it's what exactly President Trump, who is of course in charge and has the right to hire and fire as he so pleases, ran on and I think once and frankly deserv. Do you think it's fair to say that the broader department was sort of failing to meet that mark, or do you think that the Epstein situation was more of sort of just an aberration or an anomaly from an otherwise successful department, but he just couldn't get past that?

[Julie Kelly]

Yeah, great, great question. And look I, I cautioned to people early on, and I know that Steve and I talked about this and you and I talked about this. There was an expectation. And of course part of this was also created by Pambani when she established that Weaponization working group. And she laid out in that memo, we are going to look at Jack Smith, we are going to look at the persecution of J6ers, we are going to look at the surveillance of parents protesting at school boards and this Catholic memo of allegedly FBI agents surveilling people attending Catholic Mass. So she laid out in detail what that was going to look like. But just like our Weaponization Subcommittee, you'll recall that, Natalie, established by House Republicans in 2023, this all apparently went nowhere now. But I did caution people early on because I covered these judges in Washington D.C. for so long and I saw how rigged the system was and you saw how these judges were flipping 180 degrees from rubber stamping anything that the Department of Justice wanted to, reversing everything and overturning and blocking whatever the DOJ wanted as soon as Trump won office. So I said, these things just are not going to happen quickly. And they weren't. So she, to the extent that she did, and then Ed Martin as Acting D.C. u.S. Attorney, and then the team around her, and even we see this with Jeanine Pirro. I mean, there is a locked, armed judicial resistance, especially in the D.C. district Court, to sabotage anything that this DOJ wants. And that extends even to grand juries. Natalie, where you have activist groups in Washington right after Trump won, counseling and coaching people if they were selected to serve on a grand jury, here is how you undermine the DOJs. Speaking of a federal criminal indictment and returning a no true bill, which we now see in unprecedented numbers coming out of not just DC but other blue cities as well. So she faced almost insurmountable obstacles. And we can go into detail about all of them, not just the judges, but this flood of lawsuits for the immigration policies. I mean, it was like whack a mole at the DOJ every single day. So I'm sure she was doing her best. But knowing that the President's priority and the maga's base priority was we want to see serious indictments, charges, investigations. We want raids just like we saw of J6ers, just like we saw at Mar a Lago, we wanted FBI raids. We got one. John Bolton, I think, was the only one. So were they gun shy? Were they just shorthanded? They were dealing with internal uprisings as well. Saboteurs who were DOJ prosecutors, including U.S. attorneys, who were, you know, resigning and quitting in dramatic fashion. So there I want to fairly identify all of the uphill battles that Pam Botany and her team had from the get go. But as time wore on, more importantly, Natalie, as time is ticking away on this Congress and the first half of the president's term, I think his frustration just built every single day and her credibility just continued to wane within the administration and among the MAGA base especially.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Yeah, it always kind of blows my mind how Democrats are able to put people away when there are no crimes yet with our side there, extensive crimes committed crimes at the highest level. And it seems like these people seem to always get away with it. And their consulting fees, I'm sure, only, only skyrocket. But like you said, Julie, I think the, the most important part here is that the time is, you know, ticking away. You know, Bondi, it's not about bashing her. It's more importantly, which is, I'm curious to get your thought thoughts on moving forward. What would your advice be to the next ag, to the acting AG as to how to actually rectify those more systemic problems that you're talking about?

[Julie Kelly]

I mean, it's going to be tough. Whoever is put in there. I think there are some really good names floated. As I said, I strongly object to the suggestion that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should be in the Trump administration. Certainly as Attorney General, I explained why on X. But I think there are other good names and people who can, I think, I don't want to say, run a tighter ship at doj, because I know that Pambandi was very well liked, but I think, you know, instituting some more discipline and oversight as to not just what was happening at main DOJ, but all of these different U.S. attorney's offices, you know, making sure that we're leveraging whatever jurisdiction we can for whatever these potential crimes are. We do know that things are happening in Southern Florida, which is very encouraging. So, you know, they have a much greater shot of something happening there. But I think just, I don't want to use the word grown up because I don't want to demean Pambani or certainly Todd Blanch or anyone, the higher levels there. But I mean, somebody who is going to really crack the whip every hour, every day on this. And you know, I really, I think Lee Zeldin is a tremendous. I think he's one of the unsung heroes of this administration. And I think that he would be a guy who would go in there and do exactly that because he's already dealt with a lot of these issues at the epa.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Julie, we've got a bounce. I think maybe I'm going to put forth adjective a wartime ag, maybe that if people want to read the substat, get all your wonderful tweets. Where can they go to stay up to date with everything you're working on?

[Julie Kelly]

Thanks, Natalie. So I'm on Julie Kelly 2. I've got a piece about Pambon the on my subject declassified with Julie Kelly. And

[Stephen K. Bannon]

thank you. You too. We'll have you back.

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[Peter Tipton]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You're back in the war room where of course you've got to be checking out Birch Gold. That's of course birchgold.com Bannon or you can text Bannon to 989-898. You can get your free info kit on gold. They're always running a special promot promotion for I think their favorite audience. You guys. Obviously with everything going on in the world, for all the times we've said that now I think it's truer than ever. You gotta make sure you are always using gold as a hedge, which it has been for all of history. That's birchbold.com Bannon or text Bannon to 989898. We love the guys over at Birch Gold. You are back in the war room here with Natalie Winters. We got another guest, Peter Tipton. We weren't sure if we were going to have you. You're a very busy man. So we're glad you could make some time for the war room posse. Of course, they want updates on all things Tina Peters. But before we get to that, I wanted to really open the floor for you for the discussion I was just having with Julie Kelly. You've obviously fought this lawfare firsthand and to some extent won. I'm curious your assessment of the situation there, not just as an outsider, but someone who's kind of interacted with that DOJ and who you think good replacements would be.

[Peter Tipton]

Okay, that's great. First of all, Pam Bondi, I think that she was basically left out. Okay? I mean, she had somebody that was running the department, which was Todd Blanche, and I think he basically took over the department. I think that he was the one operating everything. And I think that the problems that Pam Bondi had was that she trusted the man and that she was basically undermined. I think she needs to answer one question to herself and perhaps the public. Who is it that gave her that line to say that those client lists were sitting on her desk? If she came up with that all on her own, then she's got nobody to blame but herself. But if that was given to her by the people that were helping her, even helping writing her speeches and so on, she needs to wake up and smell coffee and realize that she was badly used. In terms of the doj, your previous guest, and you are absolutely right, look, the name of your show was the War Room. And anybody who doesn't figure it out at this point that we really are in a war, maybe we're not shooting bullets at China, but for sure we know their involvement. And Serbia's involvement, Iran's involvement, Venezuela's involvement in terms of the election fraud. Somebody's trying to take over our country. Somebody did take over our country for four years. Our DOJ is wasting its time going after minor offenses by people and treating them as major crimes. The whole DOJ needs to be revamped. And people, we need to get rid of all of that BS and stop going after Americans who are basically the fabric of our country, because they're maga, which was happening under Biden, because they're parents of children, where they went to PTA meetings or not pta, but Board of education meetings. When we are talking about doctors who prescribed Ivermectin. The weaponization under Biden was immense. And part of that is because there's too many police, too many prosecutors that they. And they have to rationalize their existence. We had 25% more crime than we have now when marijuana and other drugs were criminalized. Now that they're decriminalized, we did not by about 25%. We have not reduced those forces. So in order to keep people employed and for them to keep their jobs, they have to come up with things. And what I've been seeing with the weaponization is just horrendous. So if we could get rid of those cases and start applying these AUSAs, the Assistant US Attorneys, and start applying these prosecutors to the crimes that we need to look at now. One of the things we need to see, like, for instance, take a look at January 6th. Not only do we need to compensate the. The innocent people that were basically injured in this whole thing where they lost their businesses, they lost their spouses, they lost their freedom, they were put in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, and they've got major claims. But not only do we need to basically go after making sure that's done, but look at the other side. Look at the people that need to be prosecuted that never were. I mean, it's not just like we have the J6 committee that, that. That destroyed evidence. Who's looking at that? Oh, forget it. We don't need it. Of course we need to look at these things. But there were actually. J6 was planned in advance by people in the deep state. And we actually have videos of them planning to break the windows of the capitol building on January 6th. And these videos go back to September of 2020. Nobody's going after these people. It's okay, I guess, to be an insurrectionist and to destroy our country, but J6 was intricately connected to and planned by the same people that participated in rigging the election of 2020. So we need an AG that's ready to really fix what needs to be fixed. You know, because of what I know about, you know, for nine months, Donald Trump had me, you know, basically marshaling the evidence regarding January6, you know, in 2022, 2023. Because of my experience and what I've done, so on, I feel that, you know, we need to have somebody that really knows how to make this thing happen and happen fast. Lee Zeldin, I think, is a great man. I don't know him personally, but from everything I've seen and heard, anything you need to put the man in It's a good thing to put him in, but at the same time, he doesn't know the intricacies of what is going on here and what has been going wrong and what needs to be fixed. So, frankly, I threw my hat in the ring about three weeks ago and, you know, let you see what happens. I don't give me the highest of chances because I'm not, you know, for some reason, I'm just a lawyer that. A trial lawyer that works hard and makes things get done. But there are people that may be of a higher level in the inner circle and so on. That would be somebody that Donald Trump trust. Donald Trump would trust to be able to handle this level of work. I mean, it's a big department. It's got 115,000 people employed there. It's 40 different agencies, and it's. It's quite a handful for somebody to take and then make something of. I mean, I would see that you got to even get out of the building and maybe set something up in a. In an army base or whatever needs to be done to make sure this whole thing happens. Because I wouldn't be surprised that part of the reason there's been inaction is because people are afraid of threats to themselves and their families and so on. So, you know, it's going to take somebody that's not afraid to die, not that they will die, but that they can't be afraid. They have to be able to move this whole agenda forward and start getting the people that committed crimes against this country prosecuted. It has to start. And in terms of, you know, like we heard, oh, my goodness, we can't get indictments because the grand juries aren't. Well, you don't need a grand jury. There's something called an information, and for some reason, we're afraid to do that. We're afraid to fill out the form and start the prosecution. The heck with it. That's what needs to be done. You gotta find the way to make sure that the mission is accomplished, because this country depends on it right now. Our survival as a free country depends on it.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You've obviously taken this fight up firsthand with everything you've been doing with Tina Peters. Obviously, our audience has been following that very closely. I know you guys are still assessing some strategies and working out some specifics, but can you give our audience an update on all things related to Tina's case?

[Peter Tipton]

All right, I'm happy to, but I don't want you to know. I act for Joseph Altman. I act for Stephanie Lambert. For Patrick Byrne, for others in this fight, too, on a number of different election cases. And in regard to January 6th, we've got, between ourselves and Mark McCluskey, we've got about 450 people that we represent in terms of January 6th. So we're well aware of what is going on in this country and what the war is all about. Because once you realize that the election was rigged, who rigged it? Is the question. Once you answer that, you understand where we really are. And thank God we have a president that gets it. So in terms of Tina Peters, you're right. We're working on our next moves. Were disappointed at the feckless decision that we got from the Court of appeals. You know, we're surprised because, you know, the way they were asking questions, they were cognizant of reality and things that were. That did not show up in their decision, let's put it that way. At least they realized the sentence is too great. Everybody realizes that. But then they want to send us back in front of the same judge that gave us the crazy sentence in the first place. And the name calling, you know, I mean, what a biased judge. You know, calling her a charlatan and calling her a liar. You know what the whole liar thing is all about is because in a hearing, the prosecutor accused Tina Peters of recording the hearing on her iPad, and she denied it. And they took the iPad and then they were able to actually get a conviction for contempt on the prosecutor saying that she recorded, even though she was denying it. And then eventually they returned the iPad. And when, as soon as they returned it, the lawyers at that time that were involved, they took that iPad, they gave it to experts who were able to. To determine that nobody ever recorded any. Any hearing on that. It was. It was fiction out of the mouth of a lying prosecutor.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And, Peter, we're coming up against the. The end of the show, or, sorry, the end of this block. So I'm gonna have to drop you. We gotta get to all things going on in Ron and China.

[Peter Tipton]

No, no, do it, do it. You're doing a great job.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Want to stay up, Stay up to date with everything you're working on. Where can they go to follow you and do that? Although I don't think we have Peter anymore. If we do, please tell the audience. There we go. You're back.

[Peter Tipton]

Go to tinapeters us. That'll tell you all you need to know about Tina Peters, including the briefs, that you'll be able to make up your own mind about. What a lousy job the court of appeals. Did you?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

We need a wartime ag and I gotta say you sound like one of those sir. Thanks for joining us Warren. Posse. We'll be right back.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

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[Peter Tipton]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You're back in the war room where of course you got to be checking out birchgold.com bannon or texting band into 989-898 with everything going on in the world, everything going on in the in the middle east upcoming China meeting, it's very clear the globalists and their authoritarian henchmen are on the prowl to reset the global order. De dollarization. Some people would say maybe that's good. We here in the warm think it's bad for the producers over at the Maddow show who like to cut the ad we do here and say that we are not on team America. Preposterous. We obviously are and we know you guys are too. That's why gold has always been a hedge against these crazy plans that the globalists have for this wonderful country. That's why you gotta be checking out birchgold.com bannon or texting Bannon to 989898 and with that, welcome back to the war room. We are going to go to Cleo Pascal who does just wonderful Work the very dark, very scary underbelly of PRC infiltration, not just here in the United States, but abroad. I think you may have some charts for us, which gets me very excited. But you have some new stories, some new work I believe, from the Northern Marianas and also Diego Garcia. So I will just tee it up to you because you know more than the PRC probably knows about the ops they got going down there. But hit us with the latest.

[Natalie Winters]

Thank you. So we're going to go back to the story that you and I covered a while back about what's going on in the Commonwealth of Northern Marian Islands. And there is a map which might be helpful. So this is a part of the United States of America that's an eight hour flight west of Hawaii there. It's circled there in dark blue. So everything in dark blue on that map is the United States of America. So the thing in the upper right hand corner, that's Hawaii, the Hawaiian Islands. And then what's circled over on the left, that's the Commonwealth of North America Islands. So CNMI is the acronym and it's just north of Guam. And what's in green is Taiwan. So it's actually about half as close to Taiwan as it is to Hawaii. And if the balloon goes up in Taiwan, the Chinese are going to have to take Guam and the Marianas offline. There's a lot of different ways that that could go. But the US Military is building up in both Guam and the Marianas. These are separate US Territories. The island of Tinian is in the Commonwealth of Northern Marina Islands. That's where the major air base was towards the end of World War II, which had the B29 bombers taking off from Japan. It's where the Enola Gay took off from. That airfield is now being rebuilt. And of course Guam is also seeing a lot more activity before. So the Chinese, I look more like you do at the political warfare component to this. And they're on the ground seriously trying to destabilize the US from the inside so that if there is a move on Taiwan, both Guam and the Northern Marianas won't be operational. One of the ways, and this has come up in the context of what's going on in the Supreme Court is Chinese can still arrive without a visa on US soil in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. So this has been obviously a birth tourism issue. But also the woman that ran the Bureau of Motor Vehicles there was convicted of selling U.S. driver's licenses along with a Chinese co conspirator specifically to Chinese. The Chinese that come in without a visa aren't supposed to leave the Marianas, but at least in the hundreds. We think they've been taking the boat illegally, going by boat from the island of Rota, which is in the south of Marianas, to Guam, which is about 60 miles away. They've been showing up in Guam selling drugs, human trafficking and wandering around the US bases. There was just a Chinese tourist who was convicted of taking photos of Anderson base in Guam. They're also very heavily in deeply entwined into the economy of the Northern Marianas. And this is something that's coming up again right now because they are trying to make the case and people who are pro no visas for Chinese, which includes the woman who represents the Commonwealth of North Americas in the US Congress, that this should stay, that Chinese tourism is the bedrock of their economy and should be expanded. And until just a few days ago, they were even pushing for unlimited direct flights on Chinese carriers from China into Guam and the Marianas. This is how far it's gone. They were pushing not just for visa free access for Chinese into the Marianas, but for unlimited flights on Chinese carriers into the Marianas and into Guam. Now they've just pulled that request because they are in negotiations with the US Government for money. They say they're broke and they need federal government bailout. So they've realized that the unlimited flights was a bit of a bridge to China too far. So they've pulled that, but they're still sticking with the unlimited visa free access for Chinese tourists. And they're not going after the estimated 1.6 billion in funding that the late Governor Palacios from the Northern Marianas said was not properly accounted for when he came into office in 2023. Now viewers of War Room may remember that there was this governor who came in in 2023 who tried to pivot the Marianas away from China. And he also repeatedly requested the federal government to come and investigate what was going on in the Marianas. He said he had proof to hand over to the FBI about high level corruption. He requested treasury come in. He requested basically anybody who would come in and help to do investigations into what was going on. Because the degree of Chinese money that has come in to the Marianas through first the garment sector and then the casinos and now they're looking at a stablecoin and online casinos has been off the charts and it's completely distorted the economy of the Northern Marianas. And so the politics of Northern Marianas and Governor Palacios, Mr. Tickton called, said, talked about people who are willing to die to fight for what's right. And Governor Palacios was one of those. He knew that calling for these investigations would put him at great risk. And coincidentally or not, he died suddenly last summer. And the War Room live streamed both the funeral and the mass. And I was there for the funeral. And the level of fear among the Americans, remember, these are Americans living in the Northern Marianas, was such that, you know, I had people coming up to me during the funeral and kind of brushing past me and saying thank you in the context of thank you for the coverage and then walking on. They didn't want to be seen with me because it's an environment that's so dangerous. There have been unexplained, whether it's suicides that people think are suspicious. There's such a depth of corruption and fear in this part of the United States of America, which I would argue is the part of the United States that is the most penetrated by the Chinese Communist Party, that they feel like they can't be seen in public with people who are trying to tell their story. So I'm very grateful to the War Room for giving time and I know to cover it. What's going on in this frontier of the United States and to viewers of the War Room who've been very supportive individually on this story. And I would just request to keep a very close eye on it because it is getting worse. It still needs the investigations. And maybe before sending out more money to these people in the Marianas who are still pushing for these Chinese entries, maybe there should be a full treasury investigation into what happened to the over billion dollars that went there the last time. And some investigations and prosecutions would be extremely helpful.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And Cleo, we've got only a few minutes, but can you just sort of loop in the Diego Garcia situation, get our audience up to speed on that?

[Natalie Winters]

Yeah, sure. So Diego Garcia is this US UK base, which is in the Indian Ocean, which President Trump wanted to use as part of the planning for the Iran operation. And the UK said no, initially at least. And along with the bases on land now, the UK has been trying to offload the base onto Mauritius, which is very close to China. And the whole thing just, just reeks. And the sort of one potential positive outcome of the Iran thing is it's called attention to the weakness of the European partners and also specifically to what may be about to happen to this base. The legislation to sign the agreement with Mauritius is stuck in the British Parliament and unless it's ratified by the end of the month it may time out, which would be a good thing. But. But again, it's another area where attention needs to be paid. Very close attention that the uk, especially this Keir Starmer government, which has very unusual connections to China, doesn't try to slip it through. But it raises this larger question because this isn't the only base. The uk also an Iranian drone struck a UK base in Cyprus and the UK wasn't in a position to defend it. And reportedly there's US NSA capabilities there as well. So I think that not just the NATO question, but the whole partnership with Five Eyes, various Five Eyes countries is going to have to be reassessed so that you don't have these, you don't have London or Paris or others putting a chokehold on U.S. decision making at critical times of

[Stephen K. Bannon]

conflict, strangling us by our own systems. I think I have heard that one before. Clio, if people want to follow you, keep up to date with all of the truly intrepid reporting that you're doing. Where can they go to do that?

[Natalie Winters]

Sure. I'm on X, just my name, Cleo Pascal. C L E O P A S K A L and on Getter at real Cleo because there is apparently an unreal Cleo there who's got my name. I wish they would post like interesting

[Stephen K. Bannon]

things at least, but it's probably a Chinese boss.

[Natalie Winters]

What?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It's Wu Mao and they wanted to get your handle before you could. I know you're the real Cleo here in the War Room.

[Natalie Winters]

Thanks very much.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Thank you for coming on. Good to see you. Colonel Grant Neuscham. Want to go to yet another wonderful China expert that we have here in the War Room. I want to get your thoughts on everything that's going down in Iran. It seems like the doomsday scenario that everybody talks about when we are dragging our feet to ensure that this doesn't turn into another forever war is this idea of almost unintentional escalation. Right. A plane being shot down which then spirals and snowballs and then the rescue team like we're seeing now. Right. A helicopter getting I think struck to some extent by Iranian capabilities. Air fire. I think the Chinese air defense systems that they use there evolving certainly from what we saw go down in Venezuela. It's allegedly an F15, not an F35. Your thoughts on everything that's going down there right now?

[Colonel Grant Newsham]

Sure. Well, sometimes it seems as though Americans have sort of the attention span of about 5 year olds really expecting a war to end. In about 24 hours, 72 hours. Sometimes it takes a little time and also some context helps as well. It is amazing that we have not lost any aircraft to date. Simply impossible to imagine that in a sense it gives you a good idea of just how we've beaten down the Iranian, Chinese, Russian air defenses there. This was bound to happen at some point, particularly when it comes to the shoulder fired surface to air missiles, the so called manpads that are all over the place in Iran. They must have a ton of them. These are very hard to detect, if not impossible to detect. And it wouldn't surprise me if somehow they got a shot off at one of the American planes, hit it, brought it down. It's bound to happen. The major air defense systems, those are a little easier to take out but. But if you think of a manpad or a shoulder fired weapon is like having a rifle and they're easy to hide, hard to spot. So it doesn't surprise me. You can see the Americans move heaven and earth to get those pilots back. They've got one apparently. I hope they certainly hope they get the other one. But they'll do everything they possibly can. But in the grand scheme of things, the air campaign against the Iranian regime.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

I'm going to stop you there because we gotta jump to break. But I promise to both you in the audience after this break, I will let you continue explaining what is going on there. I guess I tease the audience with the cold open detailing everything that's going on there, but there's a lot to get to here on the home front too. We'll be right back after this short break.

[Stephen K. Bannon (Ad/Promo Voice)]

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[Stephen K. Bannon]

You're back in the war room where you always got to be checking out vertical.combannon or texting ban into 989-898. Give Philip Patrick and the team a call. They love talking to you. They got all the info kits, a lot of deals, a lot of specials, usually free gold, silver, something like that. They can always convert existing IRAs or 401ks into programs that work for you. And for them, that's virtual.com Bannon or texting Bannon to 989898. Colonel Newsham, you're still with us. I want to let you pick up where you left off. I know the audience gets mad when I got to cut you off. It's not my choice. It's the break, it's the show clock. Pick up where you left off. Help the audience make sense of what's going on over there.

[Julie Kelly]

Sure.

[Colonel Grant Newsham]

You know, losing an aircraft isn't the end of the world. It's just, it's part and parcel of warfare. As I said, it's amazing this hasn't happened earlier. The Americans still have free run of the country and are hitting every target that they can, particularly ones related to the Revolutionary Guards, the Basids, the militia, the real street level thugs. And they're also going after them with drones down to a very low level. The things to watch out now for is what happens in the the Straits of Hormuz. Does oil start flowing again? And President Trump is doing it in a way nobody ever imagined. What he's doing, I think, is letting the Europeans, the Japanese, the Koreans and others who depend on this oil, whereas we don't. He's making them squirm. Normally what they would do is they would issue these muscular statements, criticize the Americans, bite our ankles and then wait for the US Navy and Air Force to go clean out the Persian Gulf so that the oil starts flowing. He's making them sort of, as I said, swing in the wind and figure out if they want to get involved here on the grounds that, well, they're the ones who benefit from this, how this is going to play out. We should know in a few days. So I think things are going to get very interesting after about a week down in the, say in the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf. And also it's very interesting to see the Gulf area Arab states are the ones who are most all in on this fight and they're the ones closest to the Iranians and they want us to finish it off. And always there's so much that goes on behind the scenes that we don't know and no commentator knows. The negotiations, for example, nobody's really got any good insights into that. And things are working and we'll see how this plays out. But it's one where you have to have a little patience and give the people in the ring who are running it at a little time and the ability to actually do their jobs and get things done. The admiral running this, Brad Cooper, is excellent. And so far things are moving along according to a plan. And it is important to keep in mind that it's only been about a month that this fight has been going on and the results to date have been unbelievable. Largely cost free, unless you're obviously one of the people who's gotten hurt. But in terms of the previous wars, we've had other fights. This one is moving along. And as I said, we do have these short attention spans. Sometimes you wonder how our parents and grandparents generation were able to withstand the casualties that we took and the setbacks we took in places like, well, World War II, just all over the place. But that's the nature of modern society. I think we're all wired a little differently these days. But there's a few things to keep watching there, particularly Persian Gulf, Straits of Hormuz, hopefully get that last pilot back and then the negotiations and also the effort that is being taken to destroy the, as I said, the coercive infrastructure that have really tormented the Persian people, the Iranians, for so long. The only legitimacy they had comes from having killed 45,000 or so Iranians a couple months ago who wanted nothing more than the right to choose who governs them. And it is a nasty regime that has killed a lot of Americans, tortured in the case of Bill Buckley, the CIA station chief back in 84, 85, they caught him in Beirut, tortured him to death, sent videos of it back to the Americans so they could watch it. And that's the kind of regime we're dealing with. It hasn't changed. So I'm very interested to see how this all ends up and whether or not the regime is allowed to continue in some form. Or another one would hope that it isn't. But we'll see how that turns out

[Stephen K. Bannon]

and how it will all segue with President Trump's upcoming meeting with Xi Jinping. I think that'll be something to watch. We'll have to get you back on to get your assessment of how what's going on there will affect that. But unfortunately we are running out of time. But if people want to get your wonderful book, which I think probably has a lot of answers to that existential question, where can they go to get that and where can they go to follow you and keep up with everything you're working on?

[Colonel Grant Newsham]

Well, the book When China Attacks is easily found on, on Amazon. It's an excellent book, I must say, but I can be found on Newsham Grant [e-mail] that'll get you to everything that I write.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Thank you, sir, for joining us. I appreciate your time.

[Colonel Grant Newsham]

My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Of course. And Warren posse. It would not be a war room show if we did not finish Good Friday with the one and only Mike Lindell, who I'm sure has a bunch of wonderful deals and probably some wonderful news for the posse. So Mike, you got two minutes. Take it away.

[Mike Lindell]

All right, everybody. You guys, we're doing, we switched our campaign for governor. We're doing rallies in my own rallies and town halls all across Minnesota. You guys go to mike Lindellgov.com check it all out, help us out and put donate to the rallies in these town halls. We're going to get the word out. We're going to get people engaged. Most critical election midterm election in history. But in the meantime, you guys all know we moved our factory. The big woke company came in and bought our building and wouldn't renew our lease. But we did the impossible. My employees, we moved it in less than eight weeks. So here's what we have. We have semis that we're not going to bring in that were this warehouse moving sale and I'm going to list some of the products. We have flannel sheets, sandals, hoodies, pajamas, all my pillow clothing, couch pillows, shams mattress protectors, knitted hat, scarves. You guys up to 80% off. And this is a war room exclusive. You guys go to mypillow.com and then you're going to see that first square. This is the last, this is the, this is it for the Giza dreams sheet sale we had for just a couple days. You guys get Those queen size 69.99 king size only 79. 9. And that's more than half price. But there you're going to see all those other products to click on so we don't have to unload them. We're going to allow them right in. Shipping, shipping right to your front door. And Natalie, what I'm going to do is good Friday, I'm going to add free shipping to your entire order tonight. Right now. Order it. Free shipping right to your front door. The big ticket items, the little items don't matter. It's free. It's on my pillow and my employees. If you want to talk to one of my employees, 800-873-1062. They speak English and they love the War Room Posse promo code. War room.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Mike Lindell, thank you for joining us. Warren Posse, thank you for joining me this wonderful Good Friday. I will see you guys soon. Have a good one.

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