WarRoom Battleground EP 702: Asleep At The Wheel While The Country Is Overrun

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bannon's War Room - Battleground EP 702: Asleep At The Wheel While The Country Is Overrun

Release Date: February 7, 2025
Host: Stephen K. Bannon, WarRoom.org

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1. Introduction to the Crisis in USAID and Federal Budget Management

Steve Bannon opens the episode by questioning Andrea about public misunderstandings concerning the nonpartisan mission of USAID. Mark Green, a former USAID administrator, addresses the influence of political leadership on federal agencies, emphasizing that USAID's direction is often swayed by the White House's foreign policy priorities regardless of party control.

"[…] When the Democrats take, they move it left of center. And the career people didn't resist when I was there. I probably am the most conservative administrator in the history of the agency."
— Mark Green [01:01]

Green defends USAID's management, highlighting its high ranking as the third-best managed federal agency and countering accusations of corruption by labeling them as "a lot of garbage."

2. Accountability and Fiscal Responsibility

The discussion shifts towards the broader issue of federal spending and accountability. Mark Green emphasizes that all aid dollars are meticulously earmarked and controlled by the State Department and Congress, debunking claims of mismanagement.

"The notion that the agency are criminals and all that, that's a lot of garbage. It's a lie. It's an insult."
— Mark Green [02:58]

Steve Bannon and Unknown Conservative Commentator critique the current administration's handling of federal aid and budget allocations, advocating for stringent fiscal measures to curb waste and redirect resources effectively.

3. Defense Spending and Budget Cuts

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around the necessity of cutting defense spending to address the national deficit. Mark Green and Bannon argue that without starting cuts in the Defense Department, any attempts to reduce federal spending are futile.

"Let's have an adult conversation. We cannot continue to spend. We cannot continue to look away. We cannot keep kicking the can down the road."
— Steve Bannon [27:08]

They discuss proposed budget cuts, emphasizing the importance of addressing military expenditures before targeting social programs. The dialogue underscores the belief that defense spending is rife with duplication and corruption, necessitating immediate reforms.

4. Immigration Enforcement and Securing the Border

The episode delves into the challenges of immigration enforcement, particularly concerning the rise of criminal activities tied to sanctuary cities and illegal immigration.

Ben Berkwam, an ICE operative, outlines the difficulties faced in apprehending and deporting individuals involved in criminal activities, citing legal obstacles and the protective stance of local jurisdictions.

"Every single person that we've caught that I've been a part of these operations… and so these guys are picking them up. One of the biggest problems is even if you pick them up, you know that the guys you saw yesterday that we got, they aren't immediately sent out of the country."
— Ben Berkwam [33:53]

Katherine O'Neill adds that improving intelligence, strategy, and infrastructure is crucial for effective immigration control, advocating for increased detention capacity and better data access to track and manage deportations.

5. National Security and the Fight Against Cartels

A critical segment focuses on the escalating threat posed by Mexican drug cartels and the potential for military escalation to combat them.

Katherine O'Neill reveals that the U.S. and Mexican militaries are preparing to take more aggressive actions against cartels, including kinetic operations targeting narcotics depots and fentanyl labs. She anticipates significant confrontations as cartels, heavily armed and deeply embedded, resist these measures.

"I anticipate some fireworks. That's just that these cartels are money hungry, they're brazen, they're incredibly well armed from, you know, making billions and Billions of dollars on the human smuggling for four years."
— Katherine O'Neill [41:54]

Ben Berkwam warns of the widespread impact such military actions will have, predicting violence not only in Mexico but also spilling over into the United States due to the cartels' extensive operations domestically.

"If they go kinetic in Mexico, it's going to be kinetic in the US as well. And there's going to be repercussions all over the place."
— Ben Berkwam [44:51]

6. Political Challenges and Legislative Hurdles

The conversation highlights the political resistance faced in implementing these stringent measures, with opposition from Democratic leaders and certain judicial figures hampering enforcement efforts.

"Every single one of these guys has US Operations as well. So this is going to be, not if they go kinetic in Mexico, it's going to be kinetic in the US as well."
— Ben Berkwam [44:51]

Katherine O'Neill suggests leveraging federal jurisdiction to compel cooperation from local law enforcement and sanctuary cities, proposing that the Justice Department take more forceful action to facilitate deportations and dismantle cartel operations.

7. Call to Action and Future Strategies

Steve Bannon concludes by urging listeners to support these initiatives, emphasizing the need for decisive action to secure national borders and manage federal spending responsibly. He underscores the critical juncture the country faces, advocating for transparency and accountability across all government sectors.

"You either cut or you tax. I'm all for cuts, but we got to get serious."
— Steve Bannon [40:22]

Bannon also promotes upcoming events such as the Force Multiplier Academy and emphasizes the importance of continued vigilance and proactive measures to protect the nation's interests.

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Notable Quotes:

• "The notion that the agency are criminals and all that, that's a lot of garbage. It's a lie. It's an insult."
  — Mark Green [02:58]

• "Let's have an adult conversation. We cannot continue to spend. We cannot continue to look away. We cannot keep kicking the can down the road."
  — Steve Bannon [27:08]

• "I anticipate some fireworks. That's just that these cartels are money hungry, they're brazen, they're incredibly well armed."
  — Katherine O'Neill [41:54]

• "You either cut or you tax. I'm all for cuts, but we got to get serious."
  — Steve Bannon [40:22]

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Conclusion

In this episode of Bannon's War Room, Stephen K. Bannon leads a robust discussion on the urgent need to reform federal agencies like USAID, manage the national budget by targeting defense spending, and strengthen immigration enforcement to combat the growing menace of drug cartels. The dialogue underscores the intersection of fiscal responsibility, national security, and political will, calling for decisive action to address the country's most pressing challenges.

Transcript

[Steve Bannon]

It Andrea, I wonder if you could just take us through what people, what.

[Andrea]

People don't understand about how nonpartisan USAID's mission is.

[Mark Green]

Well, any agency or department of federal government follows the lead of the White House. So the Fox News and other groups are attacking aid for having some social, cultural programs, the culture wars that's ordered by the White, any White House. We had conservative programs when I was administrator and when Mark Green was administrator and the Bush administration, the Trump administration, the first one. And when the Democrats take, they move it left of center. And the career people didn't resist when I was there. And I probably the most conservative administrator in the history of the agency. They showed me how to do it. I trusted them. I treated them respectfully. And they said, if you do it this way, you're going to get into trouble. If you do it this way, it's going to work. I reviewed every single program from the Clinton administration when I took over in 2001. And I ended dozens of programs and I redirected toward our priorities. That took a month. We did it quietly. The career people cost a lot of the Clinton programs dogs because they didn't work and they were, they didn't even like them. But they, they quietly implemented what they under the Clinton years, what they were told to do. And they do the same thing. When I was in office, the notion that aid is not following the foreign policy. Of course it isn't. There's no aid administrator. They haven't appointed any foreign people from the Republican Party to run aid under Trump. So of course it hasn't moved toward their foreign policy. They just took office three weeks ago. It takes a few months, you know, to move any agency or department. But I might add one last thing. The fact is that the State Department in the F office controls every single dollar aid spends. That's what the office was created for. And they've done that for 20 years now. It's not new. And I might add, who controls the appropriation? The Congress does and OMB does, which is controlled by the White House. AID doesn't run out and does do whatever they want. Every single dollar in the aid budget is already earmarked. We don't have a lot of choice. And I might add, there's a federal index of how well managed agencies are. It's a nonpartisan group, independent. On purely a technical basis, AID is ranked as the third best managed federal agency in the United States government. The notion that the agency are criminals and all that, that's a lot of garbage. It's A lie. It's an insult. And what they do keep doing. If you repeat a lie long enough, people will begin to believe it. And I speak as a conservative Republican. I work as a vice president for World Vision, the largest evangelical NGO in the world. I served for 22 years in the Army Reserves. I retired as a lieutenant colonel. I served the first Gulf War. I am not on the left.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going.

[Steve Bannon]

Medieval on these people. I got a free shot.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

All these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that.

[Steve Bannon]

I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

You'Re not going to stop it.

[Steve Bannon]

It's going to happen.

[Katherine O'Neill]

And where do people like that go.

[Steve Bannon]

To share the big lie? Maga. I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

What is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

[Mark Green]

War Room.

[Steve Bannon]

Here's your host, Stephen k. Banner. Thursday the 6th of February in the year of our Lord 2025. Right there, that's the problem. It's called controlled opposition. Guys sitting there, conservative, former army officer, he runs Evangelical Big Network and saying how great. USAID, it's a group of criminals. They've supported the NGOs that had the invasion of the border. They supported all the nonsense coming out of Europe here and here, to suppress conservative voices. It's a cutout for the CIA. It has to be shut down, all of it. And President Trump's going to test this testimony. I actually oppose putting it up into the Secretary of State. He's right. State has kind of controlled this in the CIA. It's a CIA cutout, a big part of it. It's a slush fund. It's caused nothing but damage. The people over there, many of them are criminals. You have to shut this thing down. It's not even a question. Not even a question. And he's one of the. You've seen the personification of the problem right there. This is how this thing metastasized. Don't ask me. Ask Eli Crane. Don't ask me. Ask Matt Gaetz. Ask those people, mtg. Ask those people, the courageous few, the Andy Biggs of the world that in the middle of the night would argue, as this audience saw into the wee hours of the morning, these subcommittees on appropriations, and this was a classic one, and couldn't get Even close to 50% of the conference vote with them. Just an absolute, absolute disgrace. And this is going to be a, is this going to be a throwdown on usaid? Let's have it. Let's go for it. A couple other things I'm going to go to. You got, you heard Ben Burko in the background trying to get him set up. We got a great thing for Ben. I got to go to Katherine O'Neill. Let's say a couple things. I don't know if we have the, if we have the tweet, if we can put it up or if you can tell me we can put it up. There's a tweet out there from Elon Musk talking about there's billions of dollars in fraudulent payments still going from the Treasury. Senior officials at treasury tell me that's a bald faced lie. They've already kind of won this thing about having them read only but they're telling me they're not billions of dollars going to fraudulent organizations. They have no earthy idea what that means. And President Trump and the people in the White House I think got to get on point here because the Secretary of Treasury particularly what we're going to go into, folks with all these cuts and all this turbulence and all of it, you know, the two people they're going to look to to be steady eddies are Russ vote whose vote on confirmation going to be later tonight. I think of my crack staff can tell me that, that we've pushed for the numbers 202-224-3121. Although I think Russ, we got the votes. But last night they spent all night saying he was the most dangerous man in America. And Scott Bessant, those two are kind of your steady eddies. And the fiduciary, you know, responsibility of the secretary of treasury should not be questioned by anybody in administration unless they have hard facts. And they had hard facts, they ought to go to the Secretary of Treasury. What I've been informed at the highest levels of treasury is they have no earthly idea what this is. And to put that out there is grossly negligent and grossly irresponsible, particularly in the situation where Scott Bessant's got to be a guy at Treasury. So I don't know $7 trillion of government securities, I think the price of gold is going up. Now Scott Bessen gave an interview on Bloomberg and said, hey, President Trump's committed to a strong dollar, a strong dollar. And you know that brings certain elements to it. It obviously makes your exports tougher, makes Them more expensive. But we're strong. You know, we've always been a strong dollar country. So he's dedicated to a strong dollar. Said that today. Great interview on Bloomberg. Talked about this situation with Doge and talked about these, these guys that have read only. But when the secretary of treasury goes up there, you can't put out something that says they have knowingly have billions of dollars of fraudulent payments and haven't done anything about it. I'm just Treasury's telling me that that's not the case. And let me be blunt on something else. March 14th approaches. We can't look away on this. We have to, you know, are we going to have another CR or what you're telling me Capitol Hill is that we're going to kick the can down the road, have a one year cr and that one CR is going to be Joe Biden's numbers. That's what it is. It was created back in the summer of last year. It kind of was. It got us through, you know, as Joe Biden's numbers got us through the last crisis, the end of September, got another crisis in, in December this year. This is Biden's math is that we're going to have the first year of President Trump's presidency is going to be off of Biden's budget, Biden spending. Is that. Is that where we are? And so to get down to it, and I think Doge, I like what they're doing. I think they're putting numbers together to try and get the engineering diagram where cash is. But look, you don't need to go over the National Oceanographic Institute. Right. I'm sure Woods Hole or whatever they manage may be not efficient. And we're going to get some efficiencies that's like in the summer, get across the Potomac and Mike Cernovich, I love you, brother. You've been with us there from the beginning and. But it's not about clearances. They ain't getting enough clearances. And they get people get some clearances. We need cuts at Defense. Let's stop, let's stop kidding ourselves right now. We're not having an adult conversation. Let's have an adult conversation. We were promised a trillion dollars. Well, first off, we were promised $2 trillion in cuts. I did not say that. That's what the doge guy said. $2 trillion on a $6.5 trillion budget. Not over 10 years on that budget. Then it was a trillion dollars on that budget. Fine, it's a trillion dollars. We'll get there somehow. At least directionally. It's okay then. It was not this fiscal year. It's 2026. Well, that's not okay. We need to do this now. We have to address this as a country. We cannot continue to spend. We cannot continue to look away. We cannot keep kicking the can down the road. It's time for an adult moment and to be able to have a conversation where you're. Because you're not going to get to entitlements. And I don't include Medicaid in that and I don't include any of the ways fraud and abuse can be found in Medicare because I'm sure there's a lot. But the type of numbers we're talking about $2 trillion. Or, and, or because you're going to add to what President Trump said today, Populous tax cuts of no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security are going to add bigger to the deficit war room. We love those cuts. We want more for working people. That's a great start. President Trump should be a hat tip to him because nobody else in the past has ever thought about that. But into discretionary spending, you're going to have a firestorm. You had a firestorm last week and kind of quasi blinked a little bit, let's be honest. Blinked a tad. TAD pulled back the memo, but not the content of the memo. The guys in Doral, all the Republican congressmen are freaking out because the constituents are calling. That's just to find out where the money is in the system. Now we have to have cuts. You cannot cut a penny from federal spending unless you start in the Defense Department. Let me say this again. Let's have an adult conversation. Unless you start in the Defense Department, you cannot have any cuts. So the Doge team, you're up the national, you know, oceanographic, wherever the hell you're at, it's all good. Do it. But until you cross the Potomac, it's not real. Until you cross the Potomac. This is like McClellan's army, right? Until you cross the Potomac and go over into Northern Virginia to the Pentagon and put a team and hey, we'll get them. We'll get them as much. You know, they don't need classifications and high security clearances to go through most of the budget. There are black programs or all that. Yes. And you can get them. They should have them. If not, guess what? Maybe we round error that. You know, maybe we just round up to it. Let's get into the materials command. Let's get into the Pentagon. Is rife with incompetence. The Pentagon is rife with duplication. The Pentagon is rife with corruption. Corruption. The defense industry is up to the eyeballs of corruption. Next to the biopharma medical industry in D.C. it's the most corrupt. The most corrupt. And so we're just going to sit there? You tell me we're just going to sit here. We're just going to sit here and not avoid that. And people that are putting out these, oh, Pete Hex is the. No, Pete Hex is not going to control. Pete Hex got to run the building right now. And yes, he's got a budget. He's going to look at it. We're talking about Doge. If you're not prepared to do it, just say you're not prepared to do it. If you're not prepared to do it because you got a conflict of interest and that conflict of interest is your space company, SpaceX, fine, just tell us. And if the reason you don't want to do it is the financing you're doing on SpaceX, and I'd like to know the status of that financing. Has a financing close and is it built? I just like a simple thing. Has a financing closed recently and was that financing around numbers that are in The NDAA of $900 billion? Inquiring minds. I'm asking for a friend. I'm asking for a friend, let's stop the games and let's get down to. We're not going to cut the budget until we address the Pentagon. And if you think we are, you're kidding yourselves. And I come at it from somebody that served their country. And that country wasn't South Africa. That country was the United States of America. And my daughter went to West Point and served her country. And that country is not South Africa. That country was the United States of America because that's her real country and this is my real country. I'm not floating around on kind of some, you know, tourist visa and picking a country every couple of years. So let's get, let's get serious. Because all I see when you ratchet down, look at that performance line also, are we not if we're not going to have any cuts by March 14, any recommended cuts, please just tell people now. So then we say, okay, guess what? We can't do it. Let's get a CR and have a CR for the year and work off Biden's numbers. Let's just do it. Let's do it. We're big boys and girls. That's what they're talking about anyway, it's an open secret on Capitol Hill. This is what they're talking about. So don't have some big drama at the end and, oh, we're going to shut the government down. Not shut the government down. Let's just get it out now. Let's have a conversation. Let's get it out now. Let's do it. But still, the fact remains, and the wealthy should understand this, if you don't want your taxes raised to close the gap, to get to Scott Bessen. Not my number. It's Scott Bessen. He's confirmed as Secretary of Treasury. He said to get down to 3% of GDP as your deficit. Hell, in France, they turfed out a government. This is why the front national guys are even there. They turfed out of government, trying to get down and put it on the backs of people instead of all the foreign aid, and they threw that government out. Getting down from 6.5% to 3% is not an easy task. I don't even like the 3%, but it's a start. Besant's giving you a start. And the supply tax cuts aren't going to kick in. The growth is going to be there, just like it was in President Trump's first term. Tremendous growth, up to 3, 3.5%, I think, in 19. But that takes a couple of years to kick in. Remember, hello, the tax cuts came in 17. We're passing 17 and 19 is when it started hitting in last time I looked. That's a couple of years. What are we going to do in the interim? What we're going to do is cut spending. If we can't cut spending, let's face it now, and if you don't go, if you don't cross the Potomac and you don't go to that big building that's right next to Arlington National Cemetery, you're kidding yourself. And so if we're kidding ourselves, let's just have a conversation. Said, oh, it's okay. It's. We're going to find some, you know, waste, fraud and abuse in the boats they're commissioning at the National Oceanographic Society. And we're going to shut down USAID, which I think is amazing. And that's 40 or $50 billion a year. And that's a start. That's a start. We'll find waste, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid and Medicare. I'm sure there's tons of waste and fraud over there. But programmatically. Programmatically is where you're Going to get cuts. And we have to have this conversation on this $900 billion defense bill that's got pork all in it. It's got corruption all in it. It's got incompetence in it. Good God, folks, we just. We didn't win two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spend $9 trillion or net present value from also the care of the wounded and the psychologically damaged and destroyed. So it's not like we're sitting here and it's the Royal Navy in the. In the 17th century, right? Or it's not the victorious American army signing the surrender documents on the deck of the Missouri. That's not what we have now. We don't know how to win. Where's hell? That's the reason Pete Hex is over there. But let's have an adult conversation. If we're not going to cut it, just tell us. That's fine. We're big boys and girls. But if you want to stop the financial crisis, if you want to stop it as an adult, you got to cross the Potomac and tell me what's going to happen in the Pentagon, because you're going to leave it at $900 billion. Write this down now. You ain't going to get one penny of cuts socially. There's not. You look at those Republican congressmen. You think they can take that heat? Are you kidding me? If you looked at this crowd, that's what's going to stand up to the firestorm that's going to come. Are you kidding me? These guys can't stand up to anything. Mike Johnson is going to stand up to that. They went down to the conference and it came up with $318 billion over 10 years. I ain't talking about 10 years. I want to know this year. I want to know next year. I don't have time, nor do I have interest in anything in the third year beyond this year and next year, this year and next year. Am I clear? That's what I want to see, and I want to see it out of the Pentagon. And if you're not prepared to cut, then it's not serious. We should tell the President of the United States it's not serious. And then somebody should have a conversation about whose taxes we're going to raise to close the difference, because you ain't going to grow your way out of here in the next two years, full stop. And if my math is wrong, then somebody show me, because I've looked at every different version of it, and I think I'm right. And I'm the guy that called the two trillion dollar deficit. Everybody's skipping around. Oh, we got the biggest conservative wins. I say if you lost your mind, it's going to be two train a year. It's obscene and absurd, ridiculous and we don't have time to. When Volcker and Reagan saved the country and choked out the debacle that was in inflation and what happened to the country in the late 1970s, the early 1980s when rain came in 80, 81 and choked it down. That took courage and guts and the ability to take a political firestorm. But we're not that country now. Then we were a manufacturing superpower. We had virtually no debt on our balance sheet. The financial condition was totally different. We had, we could leverage things. We can't do that now. No debt, virtually no debt and a manufacturing superpower and a highly educated blue collar workforce that is not these United States of America. So somebody, you either cut it or you tax it. You figure it out. You either cut or you tax. I'm all for cuts, but we got to get serious. And if we're not serious, then somebody should tell the President is not serious on the cuts. Let's go then to the taxes. You'll see some people's heads blown up. You tax these wealthy, you tax, you tax the corporatists, you tax the lords of easy money, the sociopathic overlords. All of a sudden you start seeing cuts coming south of the Potomac. The place is called the Pentagon. It's easy. You can't miss it. It's big, large, incompetent and corrupt. Pete Hexis knows this. I'm sure in his first couple of days that he saw it. Kathryn, the Christian, the E on the Christians, also the pressure and what happens in the White House. You were there. What are these folks going through right now in this intense period? And tell me about this Christian executive order that I think is magnificent. But hey, it tells you where you are in the year of our Lord 2025. You got to put an executive order down. You got to put the head of the doj, the attorney general in charge to ring out the anti Christian and hating on Christians and Christian out of a government that Christians pay for every day. Ma'am.

[Unknown Female Guest]

Hi, Steve, thanks so much for having me on. It's a great day in America today for Christians. It's a great day for the First Amendment. And so I'm very happy to see all these wonderful EOs coming down the pike. I mean it's. The wind is in our sails. Steve. On this issue. I was just at the State Department today visiting some old colleagues who are doing a phenomenal job over there wrangling foreign aid and taking a fine tooth comb to every single penny that's going out the door. And as you saw, probably today, they just cut 97% of the USAID workforce, which is a huge victory. I was the White House liaison there at the tail end of the first administration. I was brought in by John McEntee, and we were stymied the moment that we showed up after the election. So I wish this momentum was there the first time around. This is some of the things that we've been wanting, we wanted to do the first time around. But I'm just really, really happy to see them being done now. And it's really a great day.

[Steve Bannon]

Talk about the intensity of the White House, what it's like, what it's like when you're there. You were at State, you came back and helped us. Just being in the administration, the scrutiny, the pressure, and how tough it is to get anything done, ma'am.

[Unknown Female Guest]

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, we. I remember I could count on my two hands how many of us really were there to execute President Trump's agenda that he won on in 2016. As you know, the personnel issues were very strong in the last administration. This time around, I'm not seeing those problems. I mean, there may be nuances, you know, policy nuances within staff, but in terms of getting things done and delivering on the campaign promises, Trump has the team to do that. And I'm so impressed, and I'm so happy. I mean, we were just in the trenches and we had no top cover. No top cover. I would have loved to have this drumbeat that we have on X and on all these alternative social media channels. I mean, it's just phenomenal. The radical transparency is happening. We've been asking for this for decades. The radical transparency on where our tax dollars are going. So I couldn't be happier. I mean, obviously, there's always a fight. We can't let up, Steve. We cannot let up. But compared to what it was last time around, it's just so much better.

[Steve Bannon]

At the start. You saw that, and I want to thank you. You're in the war room today in D.C. you saw the top, the head of the world vision of the evangelical, but sitting there and defending usaid. Usaid. I mean, and this is the problem. You have these, quote, unquote, conservative Republicans that are really not. That are controlled opposition. This is one of the reasons the USAID Thing is a rat's nest. It's a total rat's nest. Tell me about it. And your relation at State. Give us. Give me some details, ma'am.

[Unknown Female Guest]

Yeah, well, this is the thing, Steve, is that, you know, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, you see every 10 minutes, I see, you know, a new revelation of where the taxpayer dollars have gone. But the problem is that, you know, he made the argument, well, okay, well, we earmark for X, Y and Z. But the problem is that through USAID, they would give to NGOs, and then NGOs would then further distribute those funds and then those funds would be distributed even further. So is this huge gravy train that was totally untraceable and unaccountable. So, yes, maybe their earmarks, of course. But where's the money? Where's the money? That's all we're asking and they can't prove it.

[Steve Bannon]

It's unbelievable. Doge is doing very good. Look, I support you guys. We should be supported. I love what you're doing. Chipping away. I don't like the fact that maybe a Treasury you're blaming people are not there. Just stick get. You got your lane. Drive, drive, drive. USA ID is fantastic.

[Unknown Female Guest]

Absolutely.

[Steve Bannon]

You must cross the Potomac. You must cross.

[Unknown Female Guest]

Absolutely.

[Steve Bannon]

I want you to hang around, ma'am, okay. Because I'm also dreaming about taking a job at the. She's an entre. She's. She's, she's an entrepreneur now. She's one of the great ones. You know, we got Natalie and Grace and Mo, Jane Zirkel. I'm so proud of these. They're really very young people. Battle hardened, though, battle tested. These people have been at tough jams. Plus production team, couple of producers already over at the White House and the agencies grinding away, working late nights. Of course, we're proud of Russ. Vote and pay a Letta and Bassett and all of them votes tonight. The vote on vote. It's amazing. Steady bare hands, Birch Gold. What I'm trying to avoid and tell people, hey, we make these cuts is going to get more turbulent. You're going to have the convergence of the deportations, meet the cuts. This is why it has to be defense. Can't be all social programs. You're going to have to think this thing through. You got to think downrange. Gentlemen, Ben Berkwam and Bensman are going to be here and give you a reality check in the war room in a moment.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

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[Steve Bannon]

We're living in unpredictable times.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

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[Ben Berkwam]

Going after the worst of the worst in criminals.

[Steve Bannon]

The individuals that we're looking to pick up today associated with Ms. 13 foreign terrorist organization. Put your hands up. You see your hands. Don't move. Drugs, guns, human trafficking, worst go first. We are just trying to make the community safer. We're with you 100 for more law and border. Scan the QR code. We go where others won't. Okay, Ben Berkwm joins us. Ben, amazing you've, you know, put yourself in harm's way in. In central, in, you know, the daring gap and in Mexico, and expose yourself to the cartels, all of it. Benjamin's going to be here to talk about the kinetic activity, but. But you've been on these raids. Are we building momentum? Is the legal part stopping us? Pam Bondi's in there now. Emil Bove. Bovey. What's the current status? We understand the guys on the front line are incredibly courageous, but are we scaling this thing up?

[Ben Berkwam]

Well, that's the biggest problem right now, Steve. Every single person that we've caught that. I've been a part of these operations with ice. I was in Chicago, I was in New York. We reported from New Jersey, from that Elizabeth detention center, and then yesterday in Baltimore. Every single one of these guys had been previously incarcerated, had been in a detention center, had been. Had an ICE hold on them, and was released by a sanctuary community, back out into the community. And so these guys are going and getting them. These guys are picking them up. One of the biggest problems is even if you pick them up, you know that the guys you saw yesterday that we got, they aren't immediately sent out of the country. They, most of the time, if they get sent out, they get deported, It'll take about 60 days. But we even have judges that will protect these guys, known Ms. 13 members, known Trendero members. And they're protecting them, saying, well, if we send them back, they might be mistreated in their home country. Bukele might mistreat this MS.13 member if he gets sent back. And so, I mean, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions of illegals we have right now. God bless our ICE guys, God bless everybody who goes out there every single day. But no, it's not enough. It's not enough to stop the bleeding, stop the self destruction of our own country, the suicide that the Democrats have put us on. Until we get the Justice Department to go after the sanctuary communities, prosecute some of these sanctuary jurisdictions and defund them and then start mass deportations, it's, you know, four years from now, it'll look like nothing happened.

[Steve Bannon]

Let me get, Is Bensman up? Let me get Bensman in here with Ben. Because you've got people, this is expensive. You got people putting themselves in harm's way. I think we need to highlight more of these judges. You've seen this in the past. Benjamin, what's the situation? What can Pam do about it? Look, the resistance, they're hitting us on every side, right? We see this on everything. President Trump's trying to effectuate everything that Elon Musk and the team at DOGE are trying to effectuate. They're going to federal court, they're trying to chop blockers, they're trying to slow down, they're trying to stop momentum, they're trying to stop muzzle velocity. Muzzle velocity kind of thing that drives, you know, you're able to get through and accomplish things and get things done. You can see this on the deportations right of the box. What can be done, Benzeman?

[Katherine O'Neill]

Well, they just have to keep grinding on in those blue jurisdictions just like they have. But they need to ramp up detention space and they need to have intelligence and they need to access databases of local law enforcement and also DHS databases to figure out where people might be because they're being released, as Ben just said. So it makes it harder. So you just need better intel, better strategy, better tactic and more infrastructure. Some of These guys, they've had to release three or four hundred of them just because they didn't have bed space where they were. And that's going to take a little bit of time. They're working hard to get more bed space. It's that simple. Sometimes infrastructure tactics.

[Steve Bannon]

But if Pritzker.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

Hang on a second.

[Steve Bannon]

If Pritzker. You talk about getting data and getting access. So Berquhm. If Pritzker's. If Pritzker's. He's already out there. He's telling you I. And he's running on 20, 28 on this. He says, you're not touching a guy in a state prison in Illinois. Johnson's. Mayor, Johnson's up in your grill. The sanctuary city of Chicago. Hell, the state legislature in California is passing $50 million bill to fight Trump on anything. The big thing is this is the. And they want all this money to redo the Palisades, but they're going to remain a sanctuary city in LA and San Francisco. Berquam. The attitude of people inside, when are we going to get tough and say, hey, here's the problem, we're going to arrest Pritzker and Johnson and the guys at the prisons or wherever, you know, the authorities, whoever doesn't turn these people over, give us the data. Guess what? Cuff them and take them off. Because then you'll send a signal, sir.

[Ben Berkwam]

Yeah, yeah. And you'll save millions and millions. You talk about saving money. Usaid, wasting all this money on inviting the invasion and paying for basket weaving in Guatemala. But you want to talk about saving some money, not having to go out and track these guys down in their home communities, not having to do what we're doing, you know, getting a dozen of these guys in an operation where you spend $20 million, you're going to save a ton of money if you can simply pick them up in the jails. And that issue has to be forced to Todd's point, a lot of that information is there. So there is constitutionally, there's federalism, where the jails have to share some information about the inmates they have incarcerated. But that doesn't mean that they have to cooperate with ICE detainers. There hasn't been a fight there yet. And I think this is where Emile Bove comes in and says, we have to take this. This is a federal jurisdiction issue and we have to take this and force their hand. And ultimately it's Pam Bondi going in. And as you said, I don't know if they're going to arrest Pritzker. I sure as hell would love to see it. I don't know if they're going to arrest Johnson, but what I do think they can do is just simply go into the prisons and say, we're taking these guys. You're not releasing them, and force those jurisdictions to fight them back in the federal courts. The bigger problem, though, is, again, we're talking about tens of millions of dollars to capture a handful of guys. The scale that we're talking about having to deal with, when the American people talk about mass deportations, you know, they think we're talking 10 million people. There is just no possible way under the current rules of engagement, under these current administrative warrants, the way they're being processed, you know, where you knock on a door and all of these guys have been coached by the Catholic Charities and all of these other NGOs that are also paid for by USAID, that they simply don't have to open the doors. It's not going to cut it. So we've got to do criminal warrants, we've got to get away from these administrative warrants, and we've got to be able to pick these guys up in jail. So ultimately, it really does come down to the Justice Department saying, screw you guys. We're coming in, we're taking the bad guys. Get in our way, and we're going to arrest you. I mean, until we do that, it's, you know, again, it's good that we're doing what we're doing. We're just wasting a hell of a lot of money doing it.

[Steve Bannon]

Benzeman, your thoughts about this is this what has. Do you agree with Ben Berkwam, this has to happen this way, that we got to, you know, get back to justice and kind of rethink this thing.

[Katherine O'Neill]

Yeah, and I think that there are also some tools. I mean, you mentioned a couple of them. You know, it's not beyond the pale that there could be an arrest of an elected official somewhere. It was interesting to me that there was an Assistant Attorney General present in, I believe it was Chicago on some of the ICE raids, just kind of overviewing what was going on. You're not going to have an Assistant AG out there for any other reason than to contemplate, who can I arrest? What are my authorities out here? What are they doing to get in the way? And also, we're already starting to see, you know, serious talk and probably to be followed soon by action of cutting government grants to these. To these blue cities and making them pay for it that way. So I think There's a little bit more, you know, some more string to pull on those kind of tactics as well. But I agree it's expensive the way they're making them do it, but it's got to be done. Like Homan said one time, you know, what price do you put on national security?

[Steve Bannon]

Speaking of national security, I know you're doing a summary and it's going to come out, I think, tomorrow. Talk to me about the cartels, Mexico kinetic activity. The audience was all jacked up yesterday about, about what you're talking about. Is this going to be real? Are we going to take the fight? We're going to take the torch to the enemy down there.

[Katherine O'Neill]

I mean, here's what's going on. You have the Mexican, the 10,000 troops that Trump leveraged out of his tariff threat that are deploying right now in places like Tijuana and Juarez. And they're going to be deploying all over. They're putting them right. And the purpose of this is to stop the drug smuggling and officially to dismantle the drug. Drug cartels that are moving fentanyl. That is unlike any other Mexican deployment that I've seen. And I've seen a few of them. Now they're putting them right in the smuggling lanes, right in the middle between the cartels and our border right there. And remember, those cartels have been cashing in and that cash cow is dead now because on the human smuggling, there's hardly anybody coming across there. You know, we've got the border pretty well hermetically sealed. Got to keep the pressure on in every possible way. But that really hit those cartels in the pocketbook like you wouldn't believe. They were making sometimes more money than they were on drugs out of that. And now that's gone. The only thing they have left now is fentanyl and drugs. And now you got Mexican military guys getting right in between them and back of them are the US Marines with reapers and all kinds of surveillance stuff. So I think things are going to go kinetic. I have a source that's a really good source. I'm not going to obviously say it is telling me that there is tabletop planning right now for the immediate future to using, using US Intelligence and certain Mexican units to go kinetic on narcotics depots, on fentanyl labs and places like that. When that happens, I mean, get ready, there's going to be fireworks. That's just that these cartels are money hungry, they're brazen, they're incredibly well armed from, you know, making billions and Billions of dollars on the human smuggling for four years. What do you think they did with that money? They invested it in arms and they are armed up to the teeth. And they're not going to just sit back there and let and lose their drug business. They're not without a fight. So I anticipate some fireworks.

[Steve Bannon]

This is, I want to make sure our staff pulls this. This is big breaking news. A source is telling you preparations are underway to potentially go kinetic and do it in the short term. Benson, I know you're writing that Berquam, you spent time down there. If it goes kinetic with the Mexican military, the Mexican marines, all that and maybe a little help by guys like us north of the border. How huge is that going to be in northern Mexico, sir?

[Ben Berkwam]

Well, it'll be all across Mexico. Obviously. You know, some of these guys are. Their headquarters are all all over, but it'll be big. I mean, I do a lot of traveling to Mexico and I'll probably avoid that for a little while unless we're in an armed entourage. Because these guys, as Todd said, they're not going to go quietly. And it'll be the soft targets that will be real easy for these guys to go after. So we think they're terrorists now. Wait till they start picking off civilians and taking advantage of the soft targets. And then the other side of that is on the US Side. You know, every one of these cartels we're talking about has US Operations as well. So this is going to be not if they go kinetic in Mexico, it's going to be kinetic in the US as well. And there's going to be repercussions all over the place. So this is a long fight that's a long time coming. And I think we're just, we've barely scratched the surface of how bad it and how violent it's going to get. And again, all preventable, all 100% preventable and all driven by leftists who have sold this country out. And unfortunately, people on our side who were just asleep at the wheel until President Trump came.

[Steve Bannon]

Ben, where do people go to get your new special, all your reporting, it's been incredible. Where do people go?

[Ben Berkwam]

America's Voice. Everything has been releasing. We're doing a lot of editing to protect people's identities as we're doing this. But everything's under social media. Erica's voice on X on Instagram. And then our next episodes of Law and Border will be on AmericasVoice News. We're working on those as we speak in the next few Weeks we'll be getting those out. And my social median, Berkwam as well. And then frontlineamerica.com.

[Steve Bannon]

Thank you, brother. Stay safe.

[Ben Berkwam]

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

[Steve Bannon]

Oscar Blue Ramirez. Ben's whole team. Very brave. Ben, before I let you go, Burkhram just said, hey, look, I don't think it's going to stay in Mexico or northern Mexico. It'll blow back across here because the cartels are deeply embedded from the Rio Grande Valley to South Texas, Arizona, up to Chicago, Dallas, all over. Every town's a border town. Every state's a border state. Sir.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

Thoughts?

[Katherine O'Neill]

Yeah, I agree. My first experience covering the border was from 2006 to 2009, and that was Calderan's war on the cartel. That's the last time we had a real war in Mexico. And it did spill across the border. I covered it for three years straight on both sides of the border, and it was nasty, ugly, horrible. I mean, you know, torture houses. The cartels were fighting the Mexican marines and each other, and they were spilling over onto the US Side. They were killing people on this side that thought were snitches. We were finding headless bodies. All sorts of. That kind of stuff can happen on this side as well. Homan was out today. He was asked, I think it was ABC News said, you know, what are they. What's going to be the American reaction if, you know, those cartels try to attack Americans? And, you know, Home said, you know, he's a madman. He's going to go crazy on those cartels. It's going to go, you know, big time kinetic. I don't know if that's actually going to happen, but I think there's a reason why he's messaging.

[Steve Bannon]

I don't know. I would. I wouldn't cross Homan and I wouldn't cross Miller, and I certainly would not cross a guy named Donald J. Trump. We got to bounce. Benzema, I know you work on this big story. We want to have you back on when it's up because you've got a massive scoop there. Sir. Where do people go to track you on social media?

[Katherine O'Neill]

Yeah, go to bensmontoddex. I'm at Getter and I'm at Truth Social. Those are the main things. Toddbensman.com if you want to sign up for my free newsletter.

[Steve Bannon]

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Benzeman saying, we're going to Connecticut.

[Unknown Conservative Commentator]

He's got it.

[Steve Bannon]

From the top, Katherine. We got a bounce. Tell me about. You can't go in because you got to run the company we understand that. Tell me about the company. Give me a minute on a special. What do you got for us?

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[Steve Bannon]

So great. One more time. Where do they go? And I love it. I love it. Show me the sign again. Can you show me the sign again? What's the signage?

[Unknown Female Guest]

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[Steve Bannon]

They do hot girls. They do Merryweather Farm shows. One more time.

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[Steve Bannon]

What a heckle. What a heckle. Love you girl. Keep fighting.

[Unknown Female Guest]

Love you too, Steve.

[Steve Bannon]

One of the best. One of this new generation of fighters. She's great. Total heckle. Love it. Let's go to the. I don't identify the island in the South Pacific. Let's go to the. Your dad's, I think gone by there in a ship before. I think maybe Mo Bannon finishing your birthday trip and returning back to join us this week in a big event we've got at Harvard. How's it been, ma'am?

[Andrea]

It's been great here. A very relaxing birthday trip. But I don't want the war room posse to think that I took any time off because there's no time off in the war room. So I have been working while I've been here in the South Pacific. But I want to remind everyone that cpac.

[Steve Bannon]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You've been working. I've been. I've been lighting you up. I've been lighting you up all to all hours of the night. Hey, is this done and said she knows Mo's put in a good 1214 hour day but.

[Andrea]

But in the sun and I'm 5 hours behind the East Coast. So while I will come home with a. With a tan while everyone else is enjoying the 30 some degree weather back on the East Coast. But I encourage everyone to. If you have not gotten your tickets for CPAC go to cpac.orgwarroom to get your tickets. The War room posse gets 20% off. Your tickets are $76. And once you sign up for CPAC, sign up for the Force Multiplier Academy on Wednesday the 19th. You'll get to see a lot of amazing speakers. The War Room Posse. You'll get to see the War Room team. And in order to sign up for that, you go to ppe.com wfma or you can also go to war room.org to the events tab. And it's the first stop on the dropdown of the events tab. But I encourage you to go to both. I will be back just in time to hear you speak at Harvard. And then also for cpac.

[Steve Bannon]

We're gonna actually workshop all day for the Force Multiplier Camp. You don't want to miss it. CPACs 76 bucks. They've given us a special deal. They want as many Boardroom Posse members. And we're going to make it the day before. And we're throwing in a free lunch. We're going to spend the whole day, maybe even do a gonzo war room in the morning right there with audience participation. Audience participation. The whole thing. At cpac. Real America's Voice. All of us are going to be there. It's going to be amazing. We're actually going to be in a special space this year so we can kind of. They've had noise complaints of the Warren Posse. I'm so shocked. I'm shocked that the posse gets in and gets a little loud. And that's in the. That's the morning show name to start drinking tonight. Mo social media. Where do people get you? Ma'am?

[Andrea]

You can get me on Twitter and get her at Maureen Bannon and also on Instagram at Real Maureen Bannon. And maybe I'll bring this view back with me to the east coast so maybe we can have this view on a green screen at the Force Multiplier Academy.

[Steve Bannon]

We need it. We'll see you Tomorrow morning at 10:00am Eastern Standard Time in the war room.

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