
Episode 5359: Victory Lap For Virginia; FBI Probing Senate Democrats For Classified Leaks ...
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A
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. You're just not going to 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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MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul,
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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.
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War Room here's your host, Stephen k. Banner.
A
Friday, the 8th of May, in the year of our Lord 2026. We're going to start with John Solomon. We couldn't get John on this morning, so you've got this breaking story overnight about Senate, about leaks and investigations into Senate Democrats. But you even got more than you've got to talk to us about. Want to thank you for taking time away for your show. Prep to join us here in the War Room. What do you got for us, John?
C
Yeah, listen, a lot of the weaponization starts with fake narratives, right? The people. People put a fake narrative out, they leak it to the media, the media drives it, and then it creates a weaponized investigation or a weaponized intelligence outcome. This is another example of that. So the FBI has opened a criminal investigation based on a referral from the National Security Agency. So our main Arizon spy agency believes that one of its intercepts was illegally given or provided to the New York Times. And the pool of suspects that the NSA believed had access to it and were in a position in the timeframe when the leak occurred to create the leak appear to be people that work on the Democratic side of the Senate Intelligence Committee. So the FBI has opened a criminal investigation into that possibility. It's steaming ahead pretty quickly and I get a sense that they could have a resolution and a decision whether they've caught their leaker in the next couple of weeks. But it's rare for the NSA to make a. A criminal referral about one of its intercepts. So it's something that matters to them deeply. But here's how it drove a false narrative. So the intercept that was given to the New York Times is two Hezbollah guys talking back in 2017 when Tulsi Gabbard made her famous trip to Syria. And they make a reference to the idea that she had a Chance to meet with the big guy, not Joe Biden, by the way, and the New York Times and others and Democrats who probably were behind that leak, tried to create a false story that the big guy was a Hezbollah terrorist leader, when in fact, that's probably not at all what the conversation is about. In fact, the assessment of the intelligence community is the reference to the big guy was a Syrian ambassador. So. But they leaked that it's a classified leak. They use the media. The media draws the wrong insinuation. A fake narrative is out there. And in this case it was designed to stop Tuls from being confirmed. Now, she got confirmed, but that sort of leak is serious because it is a true intercept. It's an accurate leak of an intercept that was given the wrong interpretation. And so that's what's being investigated. And I want to remind people, in the last few years, the last 15 months, we've had more leak prosecutions than I can remember in a decade. We remember John Bolton was a big one, but just last week there was an army, there were several other intelligence people that have been prosecuted for leaks. They're creating for the first time accountability for leaks. In future, it will probably create a disincentive when people start spending 5, 10 and 20 years behind bars for leaking this stuff. So one of the weapons of the weaponization era is now getting to face accountability and I think a disincentive for future people to do this.
A
John, this is one of the, if not the top way they've come after the Trump, both the first term and the second term is.
C
That's right.
A
You know, they go right to their guys on these staffs. These guys watch it through to the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post. Next thing you know, you've got an entire narrative of someone like Tulsi, she can't be trusted. You know, she's just, you know, she's having meetings with Hezbollah. You can't get it confirmed. But more than that, you smear her. So you can't use her on media or anything like this. This is what they've tried to do to so many Trump people. Correct?
C
They do. It's a wash, rinse, repeat cycle. Right. And remember what they did on the Ukraine whistleblower. The whistleblower complaint wasn't even legitimate. They leaked that it led to impeachment. So they leaked the Carter dossier, Carter Page dossier. And we ended up with a two and a half year fake Russia collusion investigation. This is time tested. And the reason it keeps repeating itself is there've been no disincentive. Kash Patel and Todd really seem right now to be Todd Blanche really seem to be cracking down and getting the sort of cases done quickly. That will create a disincentive in the future. When people start going to prison for this stuff, it's going to be. Now I want to remind people about one other thing about the Senate Intelligence committee back in 18 in the middle of the Russia collusion caper. Remember that it was that committee's intelligence security director who had to plead guilty. He was providing class or information, we don't classify that, but information to a reporter he was sleeping with or having a relationship with. And so this committee has a history of this, particularly when Democrats are involved. The one common person on this committee during that whole time, Mark Warner. Now, I'm not saying that he or his staff are involved yet, but that Mark Warner guy drove a lot of these false narratives that we've now debunked. We'll see where this FBI case goes.
A
John, help the audience out here for a second. The nsa, the puzzle palace out at Fort Meade, the probably the most secret, top secret, compartmented. They don't have a reputation of turning over intercepts where they see intercepts to notify somebody. Hey, we gave that to somebody on the staff or somebody had that because everything they do is so compartmented. How did this come about?
C
I think this one had some concern for two reasons. One, it was a very clear political leak. Right. It was designed to impact the confirmation process. It had nothing to do with providing Congress something that would be beneficial to their understanding and oversight. Right. It was purely, hey, let's see if we can get a reporter to make this look sinister so that we can stop Tulsi Gabbard from being Donald Trump's DNI and having a former Democrat in his cabinet. That's one component. I think the second component is the two people they were monitoring were very sensitive in long term monitored sources. And once that conversation is leaked, they know, oh, darn the way we've been communicating with each other. The NSA is living, listening to us and they go dark and they go onto different devices and that creates a tremendous loss of human intelligence and sigint. And so I think that those two elements drove the NSA to make the referral. Now here's a great example of how the deep state is still somewhat in operation. This referral was made in July of last year. Cash Patel did not know about it until just a few short weeks ago. As soon as he found out about it, man, things went into hyperdrive and the counterintelligence division did its work, but someone grabbed that referral and hid it from the people and the decision makers who could have acted upon it. And I think that's another component, a reminder that as much progress has been made against this, there are still bad actors doing bad things right now in Trump 2.0.
A
Wow. Trump in Trump's FBI. Any update, any thoughts about this Brennan situation down in South Florida?
C
I do. I think that fresh eyes have come in with Joe diGenova, who, you know is one of the most skilled prosecutors we've created in the last half century of federal prosecution. A U.S. attorney took down Marion Barry, the crooked mayor at the time, the cocaine using mayor then was an independent counsel, then a special counsel. Now he's a special assistant U.S. attorney for this. I think there's been, from the work, I can tell, and the buzz in the defense lawyers associate community, I think a decision has been made that they're not going to bring a little tiny case against John Brennan, the perjury case from 2023, and then send it to the Washington, D.C. grand jury, or, excuse me, to the Washington jury for a nullification case. Right. Because the most likely thing is John Brennan would not get convicted in D.C. i think they made a decision that this is the keystone to a larger case where John Brennan's looked at as abusing the intelligence process, one by knowing that Hillary Clinton put the whole Russia collusion fake story together, allowing it to come all the way through without stopping it. And then after the election, taking the career conclusions of the ica, which was that Vladimir Putin did not intervene in the election and changing it to Vladimir Putin helped Donald Trump. I think the lie is going to be viewed as an overt act within the statute, but that they're going to go back and charge John Brennan with a larger conspiracy if the grand jury is inclined. Now, I think that is the sort of thing that is the more adult decision rather than just throw something out to get an effect. And I think that that's a sign of what's happened in Miami since Joe diGenova got there two weeks ago. You're starting to see an experienced prosecutor make experienced decisions and build cases that are lasting, keep them in Florida, not send them to the Washington D.C. jury poll that is 90% Democrat. So my inclination is that may slow down a John Brennan decision by a few weeks to a couple of months, but the sort of case that John Brennan will face will be in Florida and, and it will be a conspiracy case that looks at the full time of what he did as an ongoing conspiracy. When you hijack the ica, when you allow the FBI to go and investigate something you know is a ruse by Hillary Clinton, you've corrupted a much larger part of the intelligence process. And that appears to be where the Geneva team is going based on the buzz that the defense lawyers have right now.
A
That is, that is amazing. The timing of this will be the next couple of months, as they put this conspiracy.
C
Yeah, you got to give them a couple months to get stuff down. Some of the, believe it or not, some of the evidence has still not been sent from John Thune. Senate. We hit that a couple of weeks ago. Jonathan still hasn't gotten the guys all they need. I suspect that Joe DiGenova won't wait any longer and he'll drop a subpoena on John Thune and haul his butt into court if he asked him.
A
We should do that like this afternoon. John Solomon, we look forward to tossing, tossing the ball to you guys. You and Amanda at 6 o', clock, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. Where do people go to get just the news, where they go for your social media?
C
Justthenews.com, jay Solomon reports. And like I said, always lucky to follow you at 6:00'. Clock. Really grateful for that opportunity every day.
A
Thank you, brother. Appreciate you. Great. Update. 50 minutes from now, you'll join John Solomon and Amanda Head right here in Unreal America's Voice. Do I have Sean Spicer? No. Patty Lyman. We're going to play your cold open on the other side, but walk us through what happened. This is just historic. We had some folks on today. We had Jeff Reyer was on Delois Stallman was on the grassroots that dug in here and worked so hard to bring about this and put pressure on people was amazing. Your thoughts, ma'?
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Am?
E
Well, I think we've learned today something that I've learned in a number of years at the rnc. We which is sometimes the tail can wag the dog. And today I knew that the Virginia Supreme Court was going to rule this way. They had to, Steve. The law was so clear and I was unwilling to make a political assessment as some other people did. Just saying, well, they have to get reappointed by Democrats so the justices are going to roll with the Democrats. I, I'm not ready to have that level of diminished view of the Supreme Court, of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I loved many things about the decision. First of all, I think we have shown an awful lot of Big shots all over the place. The little county judge in Tazewell, Virginia didn't just fall off a turnip truck. Judge Hurley's brilliant opinion has stood the test of time. He found four massive constitutional violations. The court chose to focus in particular on one today. But Judge Hurley's brilliant opinion was reaffirmed wholeheartedly today in a 4 to 3 decision. And he knew the law and I knew the day of the oral argument, Steve, and you and I spoke that day. I knew that the justices were prepared, they were educated, they had done their homework, they asked intelligent questions and they got right to the heart of the matter in a way that only native Virginians can do. I think I commented that day that the presentation by the California lawyer sent in to represent the commonwealth, the yes position, one of Mark Elias's, you know, lawyers slash thugs. He was disrespectful, I think in many of his responses to the Virginia Supreme Court justices on the verge of being flippant. And if you look through this opinion, you will see multiple smackdowns of the position of the Commonwealth that reminded me a little bit of Justice Alito taking Ketanji Brown Jackson to school school earlier this week. And I find it delicious.
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Steve, Patty Hanger for one second we're going to hold you through a break. We got a cold open to show the whining and gnashing of teeth by the, by the mainstream media. They're not taking this one lightly. Another victory for the, for the grassroots. If you guys hadn't turned out, hadn't brought all of these issues up in your tough long campaign, Judge Hurley wouldn't have the information in front of him be able to work on it was incredible. Great day in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a a bad day for the forces of anarchy. The constitutional order holds in the Commonwealth. Patty Lyman on the other side after a short commercial break. Everyone's focused on how the conflict in the Middle east is raising oil prices. But there's another grim reality to this contention. Oil isn't the only resource being constrained. About one third of global fertilizer trade happens through this region. And with spring planting season on top of us, American farmers are sounding the alarm. We're with some saying they can't afford to plant their fields. When one piece of the supply chain gets hit this hard, you know what comes next? Higher fruit prices, reduced availability, maybe even panic buying. That's why having an emergency food supply at home makes so much sense. And that's where our friends at My Patriot Supply come in right now@preparedwithbannon.com that is preparewithbannon.com We've set up an entire just site for the war room posse. You go to preparewith Bannon.com that's all one word. Preparewithbannon.com you get a three month emergency food supply. Don't include a free mega protein Upgrade, an incredible $200 bonus you don't want to miss. It's a simple way to protect your family from whatever comes next. Go to preparewithband.com that is prepare with with bannon.com to get your emergency food supply today. That's preparewithbanet.com do it today. Go check it out.
D
James, you did predict this.
F
I did say that it was a plausible argument that the challengers were advancing. And I think it is a plausible argument. It's a close call. Look, the situation is terrible, but when we talked, when this first, the challenge first came up, I said Virginia is not California, even though, yes, they both did it by referendum and the voters did have their say. There are state specific rules. We live in a system of federalism and state constitutions are significant and important. And the Virginia state constitution says quite clearly that in order for a constitutional state constitutional amendment to pass, it needs to pass the House of Delegates. That's their legislature. To house legislature, then there needs to be an ensuing general election and it needs to pass the next House of Delegates. Here voters started going to the polls in September. 40% of the votes that were cast in the House of Delegates election in November were cast prior to there being a proposed constitutional amendment which went before the voters and which was passed by the House of Delegates in late October. That is a serious structural protection. The structural protection existed not for this
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particular want to disenfranchise those voters that already had voted.
F
Right. And that structural protection is to make constitutional amendments hard to pass. It is a structural protection that's been in place for a long, long time. It wasn't put in place for this. This ruling is a close call, but
A
it's defensible if it's a close call
D
and maybe it goes to the Supreme Court, I imagine. No. You don't think so?
F
This is a matter of state constitutional law. There really isn't jurisdiction for the federal Supreme Court to weigh in here. There's not really. So everyone's saying, well, appeal this to the U.S. supreme Court. There's a doctrine called the independent and adequate state ground doctrine. This doctrine, it gets very technical. Basically, it's a state before they got
A
into it in Colorado.
D
Right. Regarding whether Trump could be on the ballot, absolutely.
F
But there. That was a function of the 14th Amendment. There was a federal issue involved, even though there were also state issues involved, too. It's not that the Supreme Court of the United States can't consider state issues. It's that this decision rests basically entirely on state constitutional law, over which the US Supreme Court does not really have jurisdiction.
D
Tennessee just yesterday was allowed to redraw its maps right ahead of their primary, wiping out the lone Democratic seat out there. Louisiana is in the process. How significant do you think this is going to be for the midterms?
G
Well, it is going to be significant for the midterms. I'll get to that in a second. I just. It bears mentioning that the grounds by which this Virginia ballot initiative was overturned, you know, not wanting to disenfranchise voters again, I agree that that's a defensible ground in a vacuum. Here in Louisiana, where I live, we've literally disenfranchised about 42,000 voters. We don't know how many exactly, because the state won't tell us. But the Supreme Court overturning of the Voting Rights act led to Jeff Landry, the governor, declaring an executive order, declaring an emergency, canceling the House elections. But people had already started voting on absentee ballots. So we're literally disenfranchising people that have cast votes here in Louisiana. It's appalling. And the new Tennessee map that they've drawn is a total, as an obvious A to the law there, where they're not supposed to consider race, and yet somehow they've divided up Memphis equally into thirds, where, you know, black voters are divided now into three different districts in equal measure. A third, A third, A third. So just truly appalling what's happening in Tennessee and here in Louisiana in particular, the midterm impact is real. I think the Democrats are still clearly favorites to take the House. I think that this gives the Republicans at least a plausible map, but by which they might be able to protect the House or make the House majority for the Democrats pretty narrow. And so I think it has a meaningful difference. It probably will not be what flips the House, but you never say never in politics. And it's, you know, we don't exactly know what the political environment's going to be this fall.
D
What about, I mean, and Jake Sherman and I have been talking about this when you necessarily. When you redraw these maps and you take one safe Democratic district where you crammed all the Democrats into it, and you've dispersed them throughout the throughout the state are there going to be more competitive places?
G
I do think that there will be some backfiring, but it's like on net there will still be more Republican seats. You look at Texas as a prime example. The Texas Reid gerrymander was premised on the 2024 election map where Trump really overperformed among Hispanic voters. Now if the polls are to be believed about just his massive drop of Hispanic voters and not even really polls. We saw it in the New Jersey election, for example, just in highly Hispanic districts and the 2025 governor's election, you know, those maps that they drew to try to benefit them in places like the Rio Grande Valley, for example, you know, will probably backfire. There's a great Democratic candidate named Bobby Polito down there, for example, I think will win one of those gerrymandered seats. So there will be some backfiring some places. I think maybe this is a risk in Florida as well. But on net I do think the Republicans have advantage themselves.
A
Okay, Patty Lyman's with us. I want to go to Sean Spicer. Sean, right there, your comments and observations on how we're. My count is without Alabama, I think we're at 212 according to the Cook report in Alabama this afternoon. Not that we can't get to the 70 but did vote for the 61 map, correct?
B
Yeah, I think I'm at 212 with Alabama, but I think we got to break that down and figure out what districts are considered. I mean the bottom line is whether it's 212 or 211 and the Dems are around 207. 208, you got about 16 toss up districts. And again, here's what annoys the crap out of me, Steve, when journalists say things like and you heard some of those clips, you know the how they're favored to win the House. The you need 218 for a majority. Right. So you have to win six of 16 states to take keep the majority. Six of 16, that's what, 40%. That's not a bad odds. And so when people say things that are based on history like you know, it rains every third Tuesday, that's there's nothing that make that predictable about that. That's just a pattern. You still have to run the races. We have to put up a candidate. They have to put up a candidate. I think I feel really good about the Senate. But these four seats in Virginia puts, you know, Rob Whitman back in in the in the first you've got John Maguire, Ben Klein and Jen Kiggins all now in the second. And those are all now very Republican favorite Jen Kiggins, obviously probably a little bit more of a, of a competitive race, but I think she'll do fine. And then you do look at the four that Ron DeSantis added in Florida, the one in Alabama that you just mentioned, the one in Louisiana. Suddenly we're at a 10. Just off that alone, that puts 10 seats. Remember, we are truly at a one seat majority in the House right now. We ended up with a two because a Democratic member from Georgia passed away last week. But like to go into the midterms and I think we'll probably go in when all is said and done with about an additional, I mean, just in the last like three weeks, we will probably end up with a net 12 seats. That's a big deal. When you talk about 16 seats being toss ups, having a 16 going in with 16 seats, you know, in play, this is the real battlefield. And the media will not tell you this. And that's why it's important. Listen to your show, to listen to my show at six o' clock every night. But like no one wants to actually show you their math. And so to make an offhanded comment that, oh, we're going to win, here's another thing. Actually, I'm going to say two more things. The Democrats blew 80 plus million dollars in Virginia. They went to donors saying we can pick four seats off. Give us your money, give us a million, give us $5 million. Donors in the Democratic Party are pissed. They're pissed at Abigail Spanberger and they're pissed at Hakeem Jeffries. So when they turn around and ask again for money, they're going to say, you didn't treat the first dollars real well. Number two in the world that we're in right now, the Democrats momentum matters. And the Democrats had a crappy between Indiana and what's happened the last couple days on redistricting has been bad for Democrats. Republicans feel emboldened. We need some excitement. We need some momentum. We need something to motivate us. This was it. So I'm just telling you right now, this is a shift. I don't know how long it'll last, but this has been good for Mike Johnson, for President Trump. As you know, Trump 2.0 can only truly, fully continue if we keep a House Republican majority.
A
No, it's like football. Momentum is everything. And the grassroots feel like they're part of this. They feel like, hey, they took the redistricting with Texas last Year. Abbott and those guys didn't want to do it. The grassroots started a firestorm they called a special session. The grassroots loves these redistricting wars and what's happened over the last 48 to 72 hours. My phone's been blown up with people that are so excited, so pumped up, they can see victory here. I mean, cause remember they were talking about 20 or 30 seat blowout. Trump's going to get impeached. We kept saying, hey, hey, don't be a doomer, don't get blackpilled yet. This is a fight now. It's a real fight. The momentum's on our side. And the Democrats totally in the mumble tank. When you watch msnbc, it's like they're at a funeral.
B
And by the way, can I just, can I, can I. One last thing. I mean, the donors are pissed. They're all going to. The finger pointing is going to be epic. Abigail Spanberger has already put out a statement. But there, there's a lot of people pointing the finger at her. She's pointing at other places. Hakeem Jeffrey, rightly so, is bearing a lot of the brunt. But the other thing that watching. And you played some of these clips, them tie themselves in knots. When this vote happened, Hakeem Jeffries literally said f around and find out. And now it was interesting. When they thought they had a plan, they told everyone to go screw themselves. And now it's funny, when Virginia was on the precipice of being the most gerrymandered state in the union, they didn't care about representation. They don't care about it. Massachusetts being zero Republicans, Maryland just being one. Suddenly now, today, the talking point shifted. We suddenly care about, you know, proportional representation. And let's just remember, I know Patty Lyman's coming up. She's been a great advocate for Virginia at the Republican National Committee. Virginia is the most fair state. We're six, five. We have a Democratic majority congressional delegation. That, to be honest, is exactly what it should be based on the current voting patterns in Virginia. That is fair. And it is temporary. To the extent that it's every two years, we get to vote. But it was on the precipice of becoming the most gerrymandered state in the union and not one Democrat cared. So I think, look, I love the fact that the grassroots, you guys on the show have shown your power, whether it's buying my book or getting governors off their butts. We are showing that grassroots can make a difference in our economy and it can make a difference when it comes to legislative action. Now here's my one last thing, Steve. Let's not stop. We got a save act to pass. Let's get it going big time.
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30 seconds. Where do people go for the 15th? Where they go for the book? Where they go for your social media
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and your show at six o' clock, Trump Kennedy Center. You can find out all the details May 15th at the Trump Kennedy Center. Sean spicer.com My show on YouTube. YouTube Sean M. Spicer. You can always follow me on Twitter at Sean Spicer. But go get go to Come join us at the Kennedy Center May 15 for one of the last Trump Kennedy center events before it closes. It's a free event and continue to buy Trump 2.0. We got to keep it on the bestseller list.
A
On the bestseller list next week. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Sean Spicer. Patty Lyman, on the other side, The dollar's convertibility into gold ended in 1971. Gold was fixed at $35 an ounce. Well, fast forward to today and the US dollar has lost over 85% of its purchasing power. Gold, on the other hand, is increased in value by over 12,000%. That's why Central banks are buying gold at record levels. That's why major firms like Vanguard and BlackRock hold significant positions in gold. And that's why I encourage you to consider diversifying your savings with physical gold from Birch Gold Group. But it starts with education. Birch Gold just announced their Learn and Earn Precious Metals event. This free online event rewards you for learning the basics of investing in precious metals. Sign up to get a free silver on your next purchase. Get even larger incentives as you go. The more you learn, the more you can earn. But you must act now as this special event only runs through April 30th. The dollar lost its anchor in 1971. You don't have to lose yours. Text my name, Bannon B A N N O N to the number 989-898 to join Birch Golds who Learn and Earn Precious Metals event by April 30th. Text Bannon B A N N O N to 989-898 and do it today.
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War Room.
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Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
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Philip Patrick's going to be with us in a moment to wrap up Wild week everywhere in the Persian Gulf war and commodity markets, the capital markets, redistricting. I mean, there are decades in which nothing happens and there are weeks in which decades happen. Welcome to one of those weeks, folks. Birch Gold, take your phone out. Text Bannon B A N N O N at 989-898, get the free with no obligation manual on investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump. No obligation, totally free. You get to Philip Patrick and his team and they talked about all the methodologies, tax deferred IRAs, 401ks, all of it. Most importantly, you'll find out and talking to Philip and his team of why gold has been a hedge for 3,000 years, a man's recorded history and is a hedge now as Lula and the Chinese Communist Party and the BRICS nations put all this pressure on the petrodollar. Get to Philip in a second. Patty Lyman, you're a hero. You're a steady hand. You're steady Eddie. You're like Scott Bess and Dave Brad. All these guys are steady Eddies. You sat there after the oral argument, said Steve, I know it's hard to believe, but I think this is so black letter. I think Judge Hurley, what he's written is so brilliant. I think even, even Democrats on this, even though they got reappointed by the state senate, I think we're going to be fine here because I think justice is going to prevail. And you called it, ma'. Am.
E
Well, you know, I did start practicing constitutional law in 1997, although I know I look young. And it was just so clear to me from the beginning what was right and what was wrong. And you know what, Steve? That's who we are as Republicans. We care about what's right and wrong. That's who we are as Virginians. And what we saw today with the responsible way that the court approached this case was the Virginia way. And the commonwealth and the west coast attorneys they had speaking for them did not understand the Virginia way and what our values are. The court ruled that it's as if the referendum never happened. But let me tell you what did happen. We revolutionized.
A
We just lost her. Okay, let me go to Phillip. Patrick, hopefully get Patty back up if we can. Philip Patrick, Kobiesa Newsletter Many people putting up about these record another record running purchase of gold by central banks. We can put that tweet up. And we've also got a chart from you. You mentioned the other day you said, hey, look, I think we have like you had that great analysis coming out of the Rio reset. They said, hey, look, on the surface, these guys are gonna try to appease Trump and that's what you saw out of Lula yesterday. But behind the scenes, they're cutting side deals, they're doing these trade deals so they can they can get off the US Dollar. You said, I think we have an, a structural issue of how they're going about this structurally. You told me the same thing the other night when I sent you some of this material. Say, hey, look, I think this is not about central banks buying something that's going to yield. I think this may be structural and if that's the case, this is a very big development. Now, we've been going on a couple of years of this. Walk me through your theory, the case about the structural nature of these central banks continue to buy record rates of gold. Sir?
H
Yeah, I mean, it's happening. In the first chart that we pulled up. You can see a couple of, I think, really interesting things. First of all, we can see how central bank gold buying is more than doubled on average over the previous five years than it did from the decade before. Secondly, we can see when it started it was very specific. Specifically, you know, second half of 2022, immediately after Biden weaponized the dollar against Russia. And of course the headlines today, central bank set a new record in the first quarter of this year. It was 244 tons of gold. And I want to point out that's not gross buying, it's net after sales.
A
And let's get to that in a second. I want to go back to that chart because you've got this low period which is Trump, and then all of a sudden you've got this explosion which is Biden. Can you just point people to that again? And that was folks understanding that the purchasing power of the dollar was about to get crushed with the spending that he had.
H
It's exactly that. You can see the spike in the second quarter, end of the second quarter in 22, immediately after sanctions were approved. Spikes up more than doubles from the previous layer and it hasn't let up. In fact, the first quarter of was the biggest nominal value of gold buying in world history. But it was very clear from that chart what the catalyst was. Very, very clear.
A
Now when you talk about and if we put the Kobayasi tweet up, here's an interesting thing. There's many different countries. This is just not the same. It's China, it's Russia, it's Saudi Arabia. It's pretty interesting how this kind of fever has gotten many central banks throughout the world. You talked about, hey, I don't think they're buying this for yield. I think they're buying this structurally. What do you explain to the audience what do you mean by that and why is that important when they're now coming and talk to you guys about making gold par. Physical gold, the ownership of physical bouillon. Right. Why that is so why that structural change may be very important.
H
Yeah, look, so you pointed out. So first of all, they're buying these countries at all time highs. Right. Or close to. Right. Which tells you they're not chasing a trade. This is something different. Secondly, as you point out, we've talked a lot about the BRICS nations, but this is much broader than this. This is Poland, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, Guatemala, Cambodia, the uae. This is countries all around the world. These are very different countries with very different economies, governments and cultures. But they're all reaching the same conclusion. They want less paper promises and more physical gold. Why? Well, I think it's becoming increasingly clear where the dollar is heading. The trajectory is unsustainable. We got to remember that every new dollar bill printed simply devalues all other dollars in existence. Right. We're running today a multi trillion dollar annual deficit. The federal debt just broke 39 trillion. Five months ago we were talking about it just breaking 38 trillion. Right. The deficit is, is absolutely exploding. Now we got an administration in the form of Trump, unlike every previous administration in recent history that understood what the problem was and they made it a priority. Right. Fiscal responsibility, debt reduction, doge tariffs, all of it was designed to get a handle on it and even they weren't able to do it. The deficit, at least for now, has expanded. And I think what it shows us is the problem goes beyond anyone's ability to solve. Today what we have is a self perpetuating debt machine. And that's why countries are moving to gold. It has no counterparty risk. It cannot be printed into oblivion. But I think ultimately, if I want to summarize the structural shift, we are entering today a new financial world. The old one was built on faith in US debt and the dollar system. The new one is increasingly about who controls real assets. Central banks today are seeing the same risk as Americans and they are just taking steps to present it. Listen, countries still use dollars for trade. We're seeing it right. Countries need dollars, but what they are doing is moving away from dollars as a long term store of value. Because ultimately given our trajectory, they are not good for that. And gold is. And when I talk about a structural shift, that that's what I'm referring to.
A
Given that you're not going to see the end of the dollar anytime soon, what you're saying is that to the degree they can possibly do it, they're going to be Shifting into assets that does not have the exposure to the decrease in purchasing power that the dollar, it looks like, may have. Just you look at the math. I mean, we're in this war now. It's 25 billion for the first couple of weeks. First they put a proposal together for 200 billion, then it was 100 billion. But you've got the $1.5 trillion defense budget. And when Scott and these guys put together the entire budget, you just do the math. Unless you catch a real break on growth, in real growth, you're looking at a one and a half or $2 trillion deficit. And you're saying that the central banks throughout the world, that every person there all went to Stanford Business School or Wharton or Harvard Business School, they can work an HP12C calculator, right, to get net present value. They're sitting there going, hey, boss, I think we might have been, I think we got a load up on gold. And the guy's going, well, hangover a second, it's near an all time price. What are you doing? They go, look, I think we got longer term issues here. Let's go ahead and buy some. Is that basically the theory of the case?
H
It's exactly. And if you do a deep dive into the numbers, you can see why they can't find the solution. Listen, this isn't going to come from taxation. You could tax everybody who earns over a million dollars a year 100, 100%. It's not going to do it. Right. So, you know, the only thing that can really is really curbing spending. If they want to go for Social Security or Medicaid, which politically is not viable, is the only way to do it. But in terms of growth, it would need, you know, exponential growth from where we are to grow our way out of it. Curbing spending is tough. Is going to be politically an absolute disaster. So listen, I'm glad I don't have the job. They're doing about as good as they possibly can. But it's, it's a disaster when, when
A
you've got, I tell people, when you've got Russ vote and you've got Besson and you got Trump and we still haven't been able to crack the code yet. This is the whole problem in the House. I mean, when Russ goes up, he's putting up a $5 billion rescission package. I mean, $5 billion, what they spend in an afternoon and they're yelling and screaming on msnbc. So unless you had somebody went in there with a consensus, we had to do it don't think you're going to cut spending to the degree you have to cut it. And that's why the world right now is looking at the situation and making some decisions that I think are structural in nature. Where do people go? What I want over this weekend and next week is folks to get access to you and your team because this takes some, you know, going online and talking to people about and making sure they understand exactly what they're doing. You got all kind of great. We got the end of the dollar empire, which gives you a bigger picture thing historical but also with a lot of math. You've got then the, the ultimate guide for Investing Gold and Precious metal was a little more concise and to the point about hey, make it. If you're going to make a decision today, all of this is free. It's all, no obligation. This is our partnership with Birch goals to make sure we immerse people in information. So when they make these decisions they, they kind of have a framework of how they make it. But how do they get to you and your team?
H
Really simple. It's birchgold.com Bannon again. Birchgold.com Bannon or for those who prefer they can just text Bannon to 989-898. That will give them access to all of the free information that you're referencing. And as we say many, many times, you know, the, the more informed somebody is, the better decisions they make. And ultimately whatever they are is whatever they are. But get the information, inform yourself. It will make things much easier. It'll, it'll help in decision making. From there they have access to people like myself that can guide them through. So Bannon to 989-898 or birchgold.com forward slash Bannon.
A
Thank you sir. Appreciate you coming on.
H
Thank you. Steve.
A
Did we get. Thanks Philip. Do we get Patty Lyman? You were, you were, you were talking to us. All sudden you dropped. Can you pick up where you were?
D
I certainly can. The referendum may have been wiped out, but the revolutionary change that has taken place in the Republican Party of Virginia because of the referendum, the way we work together, the way we transformed our party from a failed top down control experiment to a bottom up party, which is what Jeff Reyer, our new chair, has been able to do. We had people working together that for years, Steve didn't work together because they couldn't stand each other. But we had a united front here and we're going to keep the pedal on the gas. We must keep all of our Republican seats this year in Virginia we must keep them. One of, one of them's in trouble. But you know, if a few adjustments get made, I think we can win that. But then, Steve, immediately, as soon as the midterms are over, every single seat in the General assembly, the House of Delegates and the state Senate, those are all up next year and we can win back the General assembly and that's how we stop Spamberger for the next two years. So we are not stopping with this. What I've seen has literally inspired me and reminded me again why Virginia is like no other state. And they thought that they had us and they didn't.
A
Yeah. Hang on one second. We're taking a short commercial break. Patty Lyman on the revolutionary changes in the Commonwealth Republican Party. And I think it's close to the 250th anniversary of the dissolving the House of Burgess. All that next. Fellow patriots, the Federal Reserve has betrayed America for over a century. Printing fiat, inflating away your savings, serving globalist masters. But President Trump is ending it. President Trump is wielding a 112-year-old law to reclaim control from the rogue Federal Reserve. He's replacing Jerome Powell. Slashing rates, igniting America's re industrialization. Now this is not theory. Government backed industry plus low rates unleashes slow super cycles. History does repeat. Gold's already exploding. Miners are up over 400% in the last year. What Rickards is calling Trump's gift is wealth for American patriots, not global handouts. Now it's America's turn. Jim Rickards, former CIA and Pentagon veteran says act now go to insider2026.com that is insider2026.com to get Jim Rickards Strategic Intelligence newsletter today. Strategic intelligence based upon predictive analytics. It's what chairman and CEO throughout the world read and you should too.
B
War Room here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
A
We just had the Patty I think from 1619, 1776 the House of Brad Purchase was the lower was the assembly in the in the crown colony of Virginia. They just 250 years ago I think this previous week it dissolved understanding that Virginia was taking the lead with Thomas Jefferson and others Massachusetts to write the Declaration of Independence. They understood they were going to they were at war with the British and they're going to war so no no longer needed to have something associated with the crown colony. Very historic this happened this week. Your closing thoughts on this, ma', am, this revolutionary movement in the Commonwealth Virginia.
D
Yeah, it is extremely historic. That anniversary is today and that's why our Slogan here in Virginia this year is America made in Virginia. Because it was. I want to. There were all kinds of talk during this, all kinds of noise. But the signal during this whole process is I knew that fidelity to the law would carry the day here in Virginia. And it did. And I can't say so many people wanted us expected massive multimillion dollar checks to come from the RNC and other places, which they're not even allowed to do. But the RNC came through for us in the way that mattered the most. They funded our litigation. In this case, we had four or five active lawsuits. One of them was decided today, was dispositive. The rest are moot. But I can't thank them enough, the Republican National Committee, for coming through and being there. Election lawyers are expensive and they were there for us. So we asked people to thank you to the posse for praying for us. This is the goodness of God 100%. And we ask them to if they want to support us, va.gop and my Twitter is x. Excuse me. Patty Lyman, 2p a t t I l y m a n 2 at x. And I have my Facebook page. Patty Lyman, RNC National Committee woman for Virginia. And I am a proud, proud Virginian today. And Steve, you stood with us 10,000%. And I'm happy to stand with you as a fellow Virginia. We love you.
A
Well, thank you, ma'.
F
Am.
A
And the grocery was just an amazing victory. Now what we have to do now, folks, is those four seats which we got through divine providence of working through the agency of these lawyers, the great Judge Hurley and the Commonwealth of Virginia Supreme Court. Now it's incumbent upon us that we hold all four seats right. And a couple of them are going to be tough. But we know how to do hard things. Patty Lyman, you're a hero. Thank you for coming on and being in this fight.
D
Thank you, Steve. Back at you.
A
Inspiration for the country. Alabama went 6:1 this afternoon. Now there's some information going to come out. The 7:0 in Alabama is still, although the rhinos don't like to hear this is still on the table. I'll try to explain more tomorrow on tomorrow morning's show. And we're going to have a lot more updates in this redistricting, a lot more. We're actually going to have an Update from Peter McElveen and others on what happened in England the other night. Another huge victory for everyone. Nigel Farage, I think, teeing himself up really to be the next prime minister of the United Kingdom and couldn't be Prouder of Nigel having started the Reform Party from scratch, Nigel Farage, first off, got his country's sovereignty back. This is why I say he's one of the biggest political figures in the history of, of the United Kingdom, in the history of it. I mean, I think this guy is at the level Disraeli or more got their sovereignty back through Brexit. And I saw that that was 100% Nigel Farage putting it on his shoulders. And of course, Raheem was there with him as one of his top aide de camps. Raheem, in fact, has been back over this entire time helping with this situation. It's just been magnificent. So I want to give a hat tip to everybody associated with reform and everything that's going there. We've got so much news is going on, a lot about AI Today. Some stories breaking the Daily Mail, others, instead of me doing my primal scream here on a Friday afternoon, we're going to get organized and I'll make, I'll walk you through the logic of it to understand what a major role you're having in really crafting the probably the most important debate we're having about the future of this technology and the future of the human species. And I couldn't be prouder of the war in Posse. A couple things specials that these company, our sponsors are providing you all Family pharmacy. It's promo code Bannon35. That's 35% off. This is a totally free consultation. You go online, you get, you know, you talk. You can talk to a licensed professional, a pharmacist. This is an online pharmacy. And they're passing savings onto you by the overhead they're cutting and they're, and they're giving you your medical freedom because you're not at the beck and call of the big Pharma, the big McKesson distribution network and or the drugstore chains. They give you an alternative. Get your medical freedom. Just go to allfamilypharmacy.com promo code BANNON35. You talk to these professionals. You see what they got. I think they have 400 different medicines. You check it out. Then you have a pharmacist and or a licensed medical professional for your state. Make sure that you have it. So or can get if you can't, Michael Kunzman and the team will work with you. So all family pharmacies providing that special also my patriots apply. Well, look, this is the number one company in the space. They kind of created this space of preparation. They've set up a special page for us preparewithbannon.com if you go there right now, they got all kind of specials, all kind of sales. Preparewithbannon.com Right now they have the family starter pack. As low as 100 bucks per family member for a full week of survival food. So go check it out. This company is, like I said, the axe in the space. That kind of created this years ago where people were going, hey, do I have to be a prepper? I said, absolutely not. This is about planning ahead, right? And it's just incredible. So they got major discounts. Prepare with Bannon.com you get your own landing page. That's what these companies are doing. Either giving us their own landing page or your own direct number tomorrow. Also, break down more about the US Dollar, some of the things that Philip said today. So the show tomorrow morning is going to be packed. Our own Ben Harnwell is going to follow us for a report on international in Europe. So much on fire, it's unreal. Also, Mike Lindell. Mike Lindell for an entire day.
F
Can't.
A
Come on. He's running around Minnesota in the heat of that race to become governor. On, he's got the Mother's Day special. MyPillow.com promo code. War room. You get free shipping. Free shipping. Everything you order. So, hey, half my back. I told Lindell, dude, I can sell this as well as you can. Let's see if that's a fact. It all gets down to the math. When it comes to Lindell, you get free shipping. Free shipping on mypillow.com okay, Ben Hornwell is next. Wow, what a week. Tomorrow morning, we're going to break it all down for you and get you ready for next week. Do not miss it. We'll see you back here at 10:00am Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow for my favorite show of the week, the Saturday show. And right now, you're going to get Ben Harwell from Rome, head of our international bureau. See you tomorrow morning at 10. If you're 65 or already on Medicare, listen up, folks, and grab a pen, maybe even a number two pencil. Call 8, 4, 5, war room. That's 8, 4, 5, war Room. Call it right now. I'm serious. Call it now. Here's why. The insurance companies and their lackeys in the Washington swamp have built a Medicare system designed to confuse you and rip you off. Rising premiums, denied, claims, fine print. Nobody but a lobbyist understands. Millions of American seniors are paying too much and getting too little. And worst of all, most don't even know it. Hey, that could be you. That's why if you're already on Medicare or will be soon, you need to talk to our friends at Chapter. They have a team of advisors trained to serve American seniors, not the insurance companies. In under 20 minutes, they can find you the best plan for your needs at the lowest cost. Why? They're a data company. They have all the data on every plan. It's totally free. There's no pressure, no bs Just straightforward, honest help from fellow patriots. So don't wait. Call 845 War Room right now. That's 845 War Room. Tell them Bannon sent you. Now, listen. In the first couple of days of the launch of this company with the Warren Posse, Posse members saved tens and up to hundreds of thousands collectively of dollars in these fees. Go check it out today. That's Chapter. Call 845 War Room. Do it today.
Date: May 8, 2026
Host: Stephen K. Bannon
Guests: John Solomon, Patty Lyman, Sean Spicer, Philip Patrick, and others
This episode dives into two major topics:
Guest: John Solomon (Just The News)
Time: [00:50] – [10:47]
Nature of the Leak and Investigation:
Weaponization of Leaks:
Pattern of Behavior:
Deep State Bureaucracy & Delays:
Potential Charges Against John Brennan:
Guests: Patty Lyman (VA GOP, RNC National Committeewoman), Sean Spicer, Others
Time: [11:05] – [47:55]
Legal Background & Significance:
Grassroots Triumph:
State vs. Federal Jurisdiction:
Political Implications – Midterms and Congressional Control:
GOP Structural Reformation in VA:
Historical Resonance:
Guest: Philip Patrick (Birch Gold)
Time: [31:26] – [41:53]
Surge in Central Bank Gold Buying:
Structural, Not Opportunistic, Shift:
Fiscal Realities and Limits of US Policy:
This episode is highly relevant for listeners interested in the intersection of law, national security, electoral politics, and economic preparedness. It not only provides insight into current major events but positions them within historical and structural contexts, focusing on implications for the 2026 midterms and the future of US financial dominance.