WarRoom Battleground EP 784: Remembering D-Day 81 Years Ago

Summary

Bannon's War Room – Episode 784: Remembering D-Day 81 Years Ago

Release Date: June 6, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Bannon's War Room, host Stephen K. Bannon delves into a critical analysis of China's declining economic power and its strategic pivot towards high technology. Concurrently, the episode pays homage to Bernie Kerik and commemorates the 81st anniversary of D-Day, intertwining geopolitical discourse with historical remembrance.

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China’s Economic Decline and Strategic Shift

Dave Bratt opens the discussion with a focus on the current state of the U.S. economy, highlighting positive indicators such as rising wages (3.8%) surpassing inflation (2.3%) and a robust job market. However, he swiftly shifts the conversation to the challenges facing China:

Dave Bratt [03:50]: "China's GDP is down from 10 to 5, and that may be fake data, maybe 2%. People are in the streets complaining about not getting their wage rates, not getting their checks."

Bratt underscores the severity of China's economic contraction, emphasizing widespread discontent among its population and the substantial debt burden at 300% of GDP.

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Guest Analysis: Rich Stern of the Heritage Foundation

Invited to provide expert insight, Rich Stern examines the root causes of China's economic downturn under Xi Jinping:

Rich Stern [04:54]: "China is now built on a house of debt."

Stern attributes China's slowed growth to Xi's reversal of market reforms, transitioning back to a Marxist-Leninist economic model. This shift has led to massive government subsidies, estimated at $2 trillion annually, primarily aimed at propping up uncompetitive industries.

He further explains:

Rich Stern [05:48]: "They are at least being strategic in propping up industries that would allow them not just to make the material of war, but to supply a war front."

Stern highlights that much of China's subsidy spending is covert military expenditure, aiming to enhance strategic industries essential for potential conflict scenarios.

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Geopolitical Implications and Future U.S. Strategy

Dave Bratt raises concerns about the broader geopolitical ramifications of China's economic and strategic maneuvers, especially amidst ongoing tensions like the Russia-Ukraine war. He questions the U.S.'s preparedness and strategic vision in countering China's advancements.

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Guest Insight: Bradley Thayer, China Expert

Bringing additional depth, Bradley Thayer discusses the internal crises within China exacerbated by its economic policies:

Bradley Thayer [17:16]: "China's policies prioritize military spending despite internal economic failures."

Thayer emphasizes that China's relentless focus on military and security enhancements poses a direct threat to the U.S. and its allies, calling for a unified and long-term U.S. strategy to address these challenges.

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Tribute to Bernie Kerik and D-Day Remembrance

The episode transitions to a heartfelt tribute to Bernie Kerik, former NYPD Commissioner, honoring his legacy and contributions. This segment seamlessly blends into a commemoration of D-Day, featuring insights from military historian Patrick K. O'Donnell.

Patrick K. O'Donnell provides a detailed recount of the D-Day invasion, emphasizing the immense sacrifices made by American soldiers:

Patrick K. O'Donnell [36:29]: "These men did extraordinary things; ordinary Americans transformed into heroes on the battlefield."

Stephen K. Bannon shares poignant stories from his interviews with World War II veterans, highlighting acts of valor and the profound personal losses experienced during the Normandy invasion. A particularly moving moment involves Colonel Louis Mendez presenting a Bronze Star to Francis Lamoro for his bravery during the invasion:

Stephen K. Bannon [51:48]: "Francis Lamoro has the Bronze Star pinned on his jacket... an incredible story of how a single individual can change the course of history."

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Notable Quotes

• Rich Stern [05:54]: "China is now built on a house of debt."

• Bradley Thayer [17:16]: "China's policies prioritize military spending despite internal economic failures."

• Patrick K. O'Donnell [36:29]: "These men did extraordinary things; ordinary Americans transformed into heroes on the battlefield."

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Conclusion

Episode 784 of Bannon's War Room masterfully intertwines a critical analysis of China's economic and strategic challenges with a solemn remembrance of historical sacrifices made on D-Day. The discussions underscore the urgent need for the U.S. to develop a coherent and strategic approach to emerging geopolitical threats while honoring the legacy of those who have defended the nation's freedom.

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Transcript

[Steve Bannon]

This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. There's not got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything world to stop that. But you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And where do people like that go to share the big lie? MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.

[Steve Bannon]

Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

War room here's your host, Stephen K. Band.

[Dave Brat]

All right everybody, Dave Brandt sitting in with the great Stephen K. Bannon. Just action packed news all day today. I'm sure you're just buried in the news like we are. Started off the morning with a tribute to Kerrick in the morning shows. I was with Steve. He wanted me to get into the economy a little bit. We ran out of time. But good economic news today, right? Wages are up 3.8%, inflation's only 2.3%. And so when the wage rate is higher than the inflation rate, you're getting a real wage raise. That's great news. The jobs were good, better than expected. The, the good buried lead in there is government. Federal jobs were down and so you won't hear any of this reported anywhere. Of course the stock market was up. Bunch of good news coming in. We don't pay attention to the stock market. That's not our guiding light. Guiding light is the fundamentals, the real economy. And we want to get into that. I in particular want to hit China today for a reason, right? Ukraine, the never ending war camp, the globalists, the euro folks, the NATO folks, Lindsey Graham, Blumenthal, all of them. And a lot of the House and a lot of the Senate voting for these endless wars continue to vote to fund it. It's just stunning to us. And so now Ukraine bombs the Russian triad. The triad are the three ways that Russia can deliver nuclear warheads. And of course we do not like Russian nuclear warheads in any way, shape or form. But taking out those that triad with US guidance perhaps we don't know that. We don't have the full reports on the CIA, any of that yet. But that makes us all think. And we have to ask the question, how big is China in the background? Right. Because our response to Russia should depend greatly on China, which is a much bigger, much More fierce enemy and competitor. Not competitor, enemy. Right. They've declared war on us. They're taking every advantage of us. So today's shows, I've asked two experts to come on and help us answer that question. I think you all follow the war room. You know the basic stuff, right? China's got ghost cities. Their GDP is down from 10 to 5, and that may be fake data, maybe 2%. People are in the streets complaining about not getting their wage rates, not getting their checks. The debt is 300% of GDP. And I've been reading, you know, the manufacturing is kind of going down. But now there's, I've seen some other reports that say the advanced manufacturing, a few high tech verticals are emerging, they're shifting and they don't care about their people. Right. They just take money and park it wherever they want. So they're going away from manufacturing. And that's linked to the wage rates of a lot of Chinese people. So I don't know if this is sustainable. And so I asked Rich Stern of the Heritage foundation to come in with us. Rich, why don't you take it away? Give us, give us what? Your read on how strong is China relative to the United States and are they, are they increasing in power or decreasing?

[Rich Stern]

Well, thank you for having me on, of course, to talk about this. You know, I think we're all concerned about China. It's a huge country. They have four times our population. But, you know, some of the interesting facts of the matter here, right, is that, you know, until Xi Jinping took over, you had four decades, really a little bit over four decades of reform in China. They moved more towards a market economy. They brought in Western capital, but frankly, they reduced taxes, they got rid of punitive regulations, they streamlined their processes. They tried the clone, frankly, our economic model. And what you had was massive success in China.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah, that's right. Denver Rich. Did Rich freeze up on us? All right, folks, I think I'll just follow up by, and continue, I think where Rich was going with that. And then if we get Rich back in, in a minute or so, we'll go back to him and otherwise we'll switch over to Bradley Thayer. But roughly speaking, the story I wanted to say is that, you know, Rich was saying they copied our model under Deng Xiaoping and now under Xi, Xi Jinping, he gave in his speech a year ago, he said, we're going to go full on Marxist Leninist, no more economic reforms. And I think that's where Rich was going. Market reforms mean using markets. So they're no longer going to use the price system and they're no longer going to use free markets to guide themselves. So they're going internal. And Rich is back with us. And so Rich, keep going where you were.

[Rich Stern]

Thanks. I'm going to blame the Chinese for obviously getting in the way of.

[Dave Brat]

Exactly.

[Rich Stern]

You're absolutely right. That's where I was going to go was just in the time that Xi Jinping has been in charge, their economic growth rates have been cut in half. But more than that, you know, prior to him coming in, virtually no Chinese firms were underwater. Right now, close to a third of Chinese companies, including an enormous amount of manufacturing, are on life support, surviving on subsidies from the Chinese government. Let me tell you one other statistic. Now, you know, we all know it's hard to believe any numbers coming out of China, but the value of their industrial subsidies might be as high as $2 trillion a year. That is close to the entire value added of the entire US Manufacturing industry. And so you might be looking at China stealing from the future, running up the massive debt you're talking about and stealing from productive industries to throw more good money after bad into their manufacturing sector that's no longer globally competitive, where they're seeing their own industrial base being sent to India and Vietnam and in Poland of all places. So, you know, when you look across the board, that move away from market fundamentals, a move back towards dictatorship and communism, it is neutered the economic growth in China to the point where they are now built on a house of debt.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah. And I buy all of that. And then recently I've been stumbling on some fairly intelligent analysts out there. You know, they're not household names or whatever, but they're talking about, you know, the shift over in these high tech verticals with lasers and chips and all this. Have you seen any of that? Because that is worrisome. Right. I think your, your basic narrative is right. Right. 60 Minutes this week they had, you know, they're doing the belt and road now around Australia, six island chains. They're paying for all this. How in the world do you have that much money to be paying for? The US doesn't have that much money. We can't be subsidizing. We wish we could help around the world, but we can't anymore. And that's, that's the Trump but strategy. And so do you see China pivoting at all toward this high tech strategy as a way of making up for the loss of basic manufacturing?

[Rich Stern]

Absolutely. And what I would say is there's really two components to that. So one is there are real innovators in China. It's a country of 1.4 billion people. So there are real entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers in China who are trying to build the industry of the future. And then there's the government. And you and I both know whenever the government gets in, whether it's a good thing or not, the government ruins the party. So, you know, part of what's happening here is that the government is trying to take over good industries there. As I was talking about, you know, moving subsidies over from all these other sectors to proppy up industries that the government's favoring. So it's hard to know how much progress they're making. It's one thing for the government to say that, look, we want to switch industrial bases, but can you do it in a way that's truly profitable? And what we're seeing here is that as much as there's some real innovation, there's also theft. They're trying to smuggle in Nvidia chips so they can make server farms and build large language models that are competitive. The government is pouring just enormous amount of money in the propping up solar panel, EV production, chip production that probably is decades, not decades, but years behind where the state of the art is. That's behind in terms of efficiency, frankly. They're creating industries that wouldn't survive without the government subsidies. Now to your question of where are they getting the money? They're stealing it from the four and a half decades of good economic growth they had before. And you know, the US has been stealing on two centuries of good economic growth over the last 50 and 60 years. So China's got more room to steal from that. But they're doing what all the developed countries are doing. They're rejecting the methods that produced a robust economy and falling in prey to a large government that just shuffles deck chairs around the Titanic.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah, one or two minutes on the close. The reason, you know, we're interested in this is because of this Russia, Ukraine war. And we're supposed to be pivoting to the Pacific away from the Atlanticists, but the Atlanticists have a slush fund in the hundreds of billions of paid for by the US Taxpayers, which is sickening. And so what you're, when you're doing the geopolitics of this, as Steve would, you know, what's your prognosis on the US Strategy moving forward with China? Are they strong enough to take on a Taiwan? Are they strong enough to be in a position to want to go after us. And the part that was sickening to me this week is when I saw them negotiating with Trump and it looked like they had leverage on us on the rare earth refining in particular. Right. Because. And we care about our people, right? So we, we, we are dependent. We'll admit it. Our government's transparent. They're not. And so it's like they get an advantage on us because of their corruption and their, you know, the oppression of their people. So in a minute or two, Rich, just close us out on the geopolitics and how we. The best guesses as to how we approach China going forward.

[Rich Stern]

So one of the key things about this is that in the US and in Western governments, look, politics is corrupt. And you have politicians who will steal from hardworking people and productive sectors to finance their friends and other industries. The thing that's unique about China is that they do that, too. They've got their friends, they've got their political corruption, but they channel it in a militarily strategic manner. And I think we all know that's not what the west does. It's not what the US Does. Our governments waste the money on industries that politicians, donors like in China. You can actually think of an enormous amount of those industrial subsidies as closet military spending. Their industrial subsidy, they're really military spending masquerading as industrial subsidies, but it's really military spending because what are they doing? They're building up the critical mineral processing technologies.

[Steve Bannon]

They.

[Rich Stern]

They're building up car industries with the aim to destroy ours and Europe's car industries. They've taken over nearly half the world's ship production. And it's things like that where you can see that while they're inefficient, while they're sapping their future growth, they are at least being strategic in propping up industries that would allow them not just to make the material of war, but to supply a war front. And that has given them a strategic advantage. And it just goes to show you that, you know, government corruption is bad all the way around. They're at least strategic with them.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah. And so that logic leads you to one basic question. They got to feed 1.4 billion people on that strategy. What do you make of that? What's the. How many, you know, years. They're, they're eating off their parasitical on their past growth, like you said. And it's kind of like our analysis of our bond market. I would have thought the bond market vigilantes would have come 10 years ago. And I've been wrong the whole time. I'm just stunned at how undisciplined. And we have no strategy. I think that's the key point you just made. We don't have a strategic vision as a Congress. Trump kind of came in finally with some vision and some, you know, bullets that we ran on. But the Chinese is it. I'm kind of asking the same thing every time, but how many people are in the streets getting upset these days?

[Rich Stern]

Oh, I mean, millions. Look, you know, again, the slowdown in manufacturing economic growth in China. You now have labor union protests. You have workers coming out. But part of this is you also have people in China who are just tired of the oppression, who were following their government transitioning to. More like frankly, the transition out of a military dictatorship that South Korea made decades ago that, you know, many countries in Europe have made. And so there's a real revolt against the reversion here, against the sapping of growth. But, you know, the other country I'd tell you is, you know, the global bond market vigilantes. They're always looking for among governments. The one eyed man in the world of the blind. And, you know, we, we talked in the 90s about Japan and they came close to overtaking the US economy. Frankly, if China had committed 50, 60 years ago to the kind of economic system we have, we wouldn't even be close. They would have triple our economy right now. They have more people. You know, so at the end of the day, and you and I both noticed, we talked about this a lot. Governments always find a way to screw it up sometimes. It's an advantage. When it's a government like China's, we got to be on the lookout for both here and.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah, yeah. Excellent, Richard. Thank you for the analysis. Always great having you on. Heritage Foundation. The great Kevin Roberts up leading that ship. Make sure you say hey to Kevin for the war room. We love him. Thanks, Rich.

[Rich Stern]

Will do. It was a pleasure. Thank you for having me on.

[Dave Brat]

All right. You bet. You bet. Thank you. All right, let me. Let's go to a couple reads. We want to thank our friends at Birch Gold for their support. And let me get pull up Denver if you can. Pull up the. The Rio reset, a new currency alliance that could wipe out your wealth and Burch Gold. This is what we're covering today, right? The assessment of risk in a very chaotic world. The China threat, the Russia threat, the Ukraine bombing, the Russian nuclear triad. It's time to examine your portfolio. Right. We don't make sales. We don't say it's investment, but it is a a way to obtain some stability in your portfolio. So please reach out to birchgold birchgold.com Bannon birchgold.com Bannon or text Bannon 298-9898 Text Bannon to 989-898 for a free copy of the Ultimate Guide for Gold in the Trump Era. And then also Denver before we close out, we better thank our friends at home Title lock Go there Also home title lock.com promo code Steve home title lock.com promo Steve check out their million dollar triple lock protection 14 day free trial. You see them come on the show every day. You could wake up in the middle of the night, be sent emails, text notifications that you have lost the text title to your home. When that happens, it's like going to the DMV and the dentist at the same time. You do not want to be left in that predicament. Right. So call our good friends at home title lock hometitle lock.com promo Steve all right. With that, we're going to bring on Bradley Thayer, our resident China expert. And Brad, I'm not going to do any introductory remarks as you heard Rich and I discussing the China threat. And I just want to get your comments and analysis of the same issue. How strong is China right now? Are they fading? Are they pivoting toward a new strategy and can they pull it off? Bradley Thayer, thanks for being with us.

[Bradley Thayer]

Hi Dave, Great to join you again.

[Dave Brat]

Thank you.

[Bradley Thayer]

Yeah. The People's Republic of China, the PRC's in economic crisis. Millions have lost unemployment, as Rich mentioned, ten tens of thousands of businesses have closed. The real estate market has collapsed. The local party, local Communist Party is stressed because their revenue dependent, of course, on the real estate market. And that adversely affects not just the party, of course, but the Chinese people for whom the value of their apartment is most of their wealth. It also stresses the financial sector, which is known to be corrupt. So when we're talking about the economy of the People's Republic of China and the numbers that the Chinese themselves are generating, we always want to keep in mind the Mary McCarthy rule, right? Every word is a lie, including and in the yeah. And she famously dismissed Lillian Hellman and her writings. So whatever the PRC is saying, we want to keep that in mind. They're going to be lying about the numbers that they generate. And finally, Dave, the Trump administration's tariff and investment denial policies are really hurting the economy. So as Rich mentioned, there are really strategies that they're seeking to develop to get out of that first is investment, that is internal investment, which doesn't seem to be working. Second, as Rich stressed, there is the idea of new technologies to, to develop. And I think the certainly an element there. But we also want to keep in mind, of course, they're not reducing military spending. So there. They certainly have prioritized the military, and that has not changed whatsoever. So even when they're in economic crisis, they're still going to maintain utmost military spending against us. The final point, Dave, is to mention what the party is talking about. The Chinese Communist Party is talking about what they've announced as their two priorities. And their two priorities as they identify them, are first, the execution of key national strategies, and second, the enhancement of security capabilities in key sectors. Now, both of those are ominous for us. So we need to think through really what they're conceiving, what they're thinking of when they talk about two priorities. And Dave, we need to understand that power is relative in international politics. So one thing that hurts, that helps China and the Chinese economy is hurting us. So if they can damage us, that actually is helping their economy, if you will, in a relative sense. So when they're talking about two priorities, we want to keep in mind that a part of that is certainly going to be doing their utmost to damage our economy, either through attacks on Taiwan or secondly, unhinging our alliances, as in South Korea, or direct economic attacks on our infrastructure or cyber means. The, the. The salt Volt typhoon, essentially cyber attacks that we've. That have been unveiled or through other means, Dave, to hurt our economy. So that's very important to keep in mind. Fundamentally, the Chinese Communist Party rules for itself, does not rule for the Chinese people. And the Chinese people will incur the costs whatever the Chinese Communist Party essentially imposes upon them. And their targets remain us and, and our allies in the Indo Pacific region.

[Dave Brat]

Right. Let me close it out in a minute or so. You know, I am so angry at our policymakers. We don't seem to have any strategic vision. You know, 10 years out, 20 years out, 30. The Chinese are very good at that. Even if they, Even if their machinery is not working and their economic machines run out of energy, they still have a strategic vision. Who should we be mad at in the United States for not having this strategic vision laid out? Where we miss China for 30 years, as you so brilliantly show in your book.

[Bradley Thayer]

Well, Jim Fennell and I wrote a book on that. Embracing Communist China, America's greatest strategic failure, where we look at this was decades in the making, but it was really A product of the genius of the political warfare strategy of Deng Xiaoping to make the west his partner, to make American businesses and politicians his partner so that we help the Chinese Communists survive and thrive.

[Dave Brat]

So unreal.

[Bradley Thayer]

We got to blame our enemy, but we also have to blame those in the west and the United States in particular. Wall Street. Of course.

[Dave Brat]

Yes. And now who's responsible, though? Wall Street's responsible for making money. 30 seconds. Who's responsible for our national security? Who? Name, name, names and offices. Who. Who blew it?

[Bradley Thayer]

Well, every presidential administration. Bill Clinton's presidential administration blew it by abandoning any type of human rights commitment to renewal of Most Favored nation status and putting them on the path to the World Trade Organization. So that's Bill Clinton and Robert Rubin, who are unbelievable. Yeah, yeah.

[Dave Brat]

Hey, Bradley, I'm going to get you back on on this because I really want to drill. This is absolutely crucial stuff, and you're. You're the best at it, so we thank you. And then I also thank Natalie Winters, who, you know, called out this show from hers. She's also great China analyst. And I want to thank everybody for watching the War Room all day long. We get great comments from all of you every day. Please share this platform. Right. Share this platform with everyone you know, because we want to help Steve. Steve is the mastermind. Right. That is the strategic thinker we all follow. So share this. And we want to give a special call out and a special transition over to Bernie Carrick right now, the War Room. We followed the funeral this morning, but what a great man. And so here we go with the War Room's tribute to Bernie Kerik.

[Rich Stern]

Former NYPD Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik is dead. He passed away Thursday at New York's Presbyterian Hospital, surrounded by family and friends. A new era begins for the New.

[Bernie Kerik]

York City Police Department as Mayor Giuliani.

[Steve Bannon]

Passes on the Golden Gate badge to.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

A new top cop.

[Rich Stern]

Today, Mayor Giuliani said he was simply overqualified for the job, citing the fact that he is a former police detective and a proven administrator.

[Bernie Kerik]

He brings a quality of leadership that.

[Steve Bannon]

I believe can give us the opportunity.

[Dave Brat]

To build on a record that is.

[Steve Bannon]

A very, very difficult one to match.

[Rich Stern]

Congratulations.

[Bernie Kerik]

This is something I never dreamed of, I never thought would happen.

[Steve Bannon]

So important for Bernie Kerik, but. But it's also about the aspect of remembrance, the Christian faith, Catholicism. What ties us together as Christians, what ties us together in the Judeo Christian West. The remains of Bernie Kerik, our dear friend, have arrived with the honor guard.

[Bradley Thayer]

Rudy Giuliani and Bernie Kerik are historic.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Figures for all of New Yorkers.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

These events where the community gets together to honor people. This is iconic.

[Steve Bannon]

He was a colleague and a friend, but also a major part of the MAGA movement and a major part of the history of just not New York City, but the entire country. Given the 911 attack.

[Rich Stern]

Kerik was known as America's cop following the 911 terror attacks.

[Bernie Kerik]

Bernie Kerik is one of the most accomplished and effective leaders of law enforcement in America. As Police Commissioner On September 11, 2001, Bernie Kerrick arrived at the World Trade center minutes after the first plane hit.

[Rich Stern]

A passenger flight ran into the north.

[Steve Bannon]

Side of the World Trade Center.

[Bernie Kerik]

He was there when the Twin Towers collapsed. He knew the faces of the rescuers who rushed toward danger. He attended the funeral of the officers who didn't come back. Bernie Kerik understands the duties that came to America on September 11th. The resolve he felt that morning will guide him every day. There isn't a day that has passed since the morning of September 11th that I haven't thought of the sacrifices of those heroes and the losses we all suffered. I promise you, Mr. President, that both the memory of those courageous souls and the horrors I saw inflicted upon our proud nation will serve as permanent reminders of the awesome responsibility you place in my charge.

[Rich Stern]

Bernie kerik dead at 69 years old.

[Steve Bannon]

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[Dwight D. Eisenhower]

Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force, you are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months, the eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you in company with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts. You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely. But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940. 41. The United nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats in open battle. Man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck. And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

[Dave Brat]

While we were walking, we came to a place where apparently they collected the bodies. And there was quite a few, few of them there.

[Steve Bannon]

And.

[John F. Kennedy]

Some of them looked like probably.

[Dave Brat]

A tank had run over them and stuff like that. That gets your attention to me.

[John F. Kennedy]

My fellow Americans, last night when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer. Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true. Give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. They will need thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard, for the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again. And we know that by thy grace and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

[Dave Brat]

Back in the war room, Dave Bratt.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

With D Day coverage today with, of course, America's greatest military historian, Patrick K. O' donnell. I'm surrounded by Irishmen up here in the war room. And so always a privilege to get to speak with Patrick K. O' Donnell, on a day of this, you heard the solemnity in the words of the president there as he was giving a speech the night before with our boys going off to certain death and calling on the public, the religion, our civilization, the young boy's faith, the treasure of our country, these young men, we take a lot of this for granted today. We don't even teach it in the schools. We should be more thankful. And so you can just feel the heartstrings, the greatness there. And there's nobody better that's interviewed and has more friends among this great generation than Patrick K. O' Donnell. So, Patrick, welcome to the show and thank you for being with us on this D Day. And why don't you just start framing it? Let's start at the end maybe why don't you tell young people where can they go to follow your work, other work of major significance in history and then lead them through what is D Day and then the interviews and the work you do as a historian. Thanks for being with us. Patrick.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It's an honor to be here. Dave. My you can find me at Combat Historian on Twitter and then also Getter, all my books are on, you know, at Barnes and Noble. They're typically prominently played or on Amazon.com it's really a great place to get the books. You can always get them quickly, right. For since 1992, Dave, I started interviewing World War II veterans. It was a passion of mine. I was there to preserve and collect their stories. And you know, these men entrusted me with stories that they had never told their, their families. Most of them had buried these stories for decades. And they gave me the the privilege of talking to them. And it began with the 82nd Airborne and the 101st Airborne and then it moved to the Rangers and the OSS and many others. I've collected probably the largest private collection of oral histories on World War II elite units, thousands of them in private hands. For me. I watched for the first time in about 20 years, my first book signing, which was a reunion of these men and I posted it on Getter and X and C Span taped it. We had hundreds of men from the books that were in a book I wrote called Beyond Valor, which is best selling book by Simon and Schuster and it's their oral histories of the Rangers and Airborne. And they took us back in time, Dave, to their war. And it was a powerful, powerful presentation where they told their stories live. And one of the men in there was a pathfinder with the 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment. These Pathfinders were some of the first troops into Normandy. They, they guided the way they, they set up radar sets and lights and panels to guide the rest of the C47s in. And Francis Lamoro was one of those early men.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Hey, before you dig right in there for the young people watching who may not be educated, just give them a brief overview of what you're describing here.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

World War II, what we're describing here. Norman, greatest invasion in history.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

This is the, the invasion that will change the course of World War II. It's, it's June 6, 1944. And, you know, for many, many years the Axis had been on a run. And now the Western Front in France is being opened up by the allied forces. 156,000 allied troops will land in Normandy by air or by sea and begin the reconquest of Europe. And this is a close in thing. Eisenhower even prepared a letter with the potential defeat of Allied forces. That was a real scenario much of it had. It was based on surprise and the ability to trick the Germans into believing that we're going to land in a place called Calais, which was, well, you know, many miles away from Normandy. And there were a number of deception operations to convince them that that was the case. But nevertheless, the Germans still believe that we might land in Normandy. And they moved an entire air division, air landing division, the 91st in, to deal with paratroopers in particular, men like Francis Lamro, that were leading the way. And at that, at that reunion, you know, he told a story about how they came in that night. There was flak hitting the, you know, his plane, planes went down around him. He lands and they, they set up the Rebecca, they called it a beacon to home in on the other planes. But the landings were, were in many cases, way off. Many of the paratroopers landed in different places. They were scattered throughout Normandy. And they had to sort of induct themselves in many cases in small groups or one man teams to accomplish their missions, which they did, you know, very successfully, despite having been scattered very significantly. And at the reunion, it was really. Francis had received the Bronze Star for his actions on Normandy that night of June 6th. And he had never received it for over, you know, 55 years. And really I spoke with General Shelton, who was the command, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and another gentleman, Dave Barry, who was the historian. And we got Francis his Bronze Star and it was presented at the reunion by his commanding officer, Colonel Louis Mendez. And it's an amazing moment that's captured on film of these Two men seeing each other, you know, for the first time in decades.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Unbelievable. Hey, give me, give. Give the audience a sense of how massive this operation was. You've interviewed kind of the top commands, the elite regiments. What's the totality of the entire operation that you're describing here?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

This is. I mean, the first phase of it is 156,000. But then at sea you have another 200,000 men. And in the air, there's tens of thousands of more men. And then on the ground, the Germans have tens of thousands of troops and are, in some cases entrenched or in a position to quickly move towards the beachhead. And it's, you know, here behind the lines. The oss, the Office of Strategic Services, has been parachuted in in three man groups called Jedburghs. And these men help organize, train and lead the resistance elements to slow down the German effort to reach the beachhead. And they're very successful at doing that.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Yeah, that's.

[Dave Brat]

And so you, you interviewed. Give us a.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

A sense of who you interviewed and the story that you want us as Americans to understand. And why is this story so important, that you spent the passion of your life, you know, working on this story. And as you say, you've never worked a day in your life because you just love. You love it because there's so much meaning attached to it. What is that meaning to you?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

The meaning is it's about average, ordinary Americans that did extraordinary things. The men that I interviewed in Beyond Valor and the other books that I've written, Dog Company on the Rangers, these are all just regular guys in many cases. The focus of my books have always been on the privates, the NCOs, the men that are actually at the tip of the spear doing the action. There's a scene right there with Delbert Kuhl, who is a chaplain in, you know, wearing his original uniform, you know, from World War II. He was a chaplain in the Crossing of the Wall at Nijmegen, the Bridge Too Far. He was in the movie saying the Lord's Prayer. And then as he gets on the other side of the river at Nijmegen, he's a first aid man receives the Silver Star. Louis Mendez is seated. Is the colonel that I mentioned. Francis Lamro has the Bronze Star pinned on his. His jacket and then edges. Warski, who's on the far left, was with the 507. And they were at a place called Lafayette Bridge, which is some of the hottest action in Normandy. And it's at this bridgehead where the Germans are about to pierce the allied defenses and potentially roll into the beach. At the airborne makes a stand first to hold the bridge and then they have to take it. And Ed was there on the assault across the causeway. And I'll never forget him telling me what combat was like when the bullets whiz and snap next to your ear. And it's that close.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Wow.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

And I was in Iraq, in Fallujah, and I felt that I couldn't believe what he was telling me when I felt it myself. And I was crawling down a drainage ditch for hundreds of meter under, under direct sniper fire. And I knew exactly what Ed meant when he told me that in his story. But these were, in my view, the men that picture all rock stars, incredible individuals. And at the time, nobody was interviewing them. This is before Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation. I was just trying to gather their stories to provide a means of what they had done, which is so amazing. And it inspired a lot of other families to dig deeper into their own veterans pass and preserve their legacies. And that's what, that's what all been my work has been about really is been preserving and sharing these stories of men in combat, which for me, that those stories began interviewing some World War I veterans all the way to men and women in today's conflicts.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Yeah. Well, thank you for your tremendous lift and huge life's work. When you were describing the guys parachuting in and working almost alone in small units, how much were our American troops trained in for this? You know, the war for us was relatively new versus the Germans. Was there some miraculous work going on here? I mean, it just seems astounding.

[Dave Brat]

How were these guys trained in.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

When you talked to them, what were.

[Dave Brat]

They trained to do? Or were they just such.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

They were courage and valor.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

They knew what to do.

[Dave Brat]

Yeah.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Punishing training, Dave, that was just unbelievable. You know, for the Airborne, these guys were told that they could lick five guys that were not airborne. And they go over to places like Phoenix City in Alabama and try to pick fights. Sometimes they won. Most times they did. But, you know, they, they, they believed in themselves, in that belief in themselves carried through on the battlefield. You know, an excellent example is Dog Company, which is a situation where one man or two men can change the course of the entire invasion. These are the boys. Appoint a hawk that scaled the 90 foot cliff under direct machine gun and rifle fire, you know, being thrown real potato masher grenades down. You know, these guys do it. Len Lamel, who's one of my great, great friends, when he was Live. He was the one that urged me to write Dog Company on their unit. He was hit by a. A German MG42 bullet on his side.

[Dave Brat]

He was.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

He still kept climbing up the rope. Then they were on top of the cliffs, which was a complete maze of entrenchments and bunkers. They fought their way through that and then land. They were armed with thermite grenades. And there were. There were six guns on top of point D Hawk, 155 millimeter guns that had a range of about 13 miles or so. They could reach out to the sea as well as hit either beachhead in Point Dhark is a cliff peninsula that is between Omaha and Utah Beach. And those guns had to be neutralized. They threw everything at it, Dave. Air wow, you know, naval bombardment. But it's Len Lamel in his thermite grenades that they find five of those guns under, you know, nets in an apple grove, and he disables them. You know, it's an incredible story of how, you know, a single individual can change the course of history. And that's another aspect of my books that, you know, runs through each one of them.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Yeah, I hate to be a downer on this thing. We got about three minutes left, but.

[Dave Brat]

You know, on this show in the.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

War room, Stephen K. Bannon, you know, has military life. I do not. I used to work for the Army a little bit in a technical aspect, but nothing like this. But give us a sense of the losses and how these men have endured after. I mean, you describe it. How many of their friends did they lose? The magnitude of the loss of life of young, promising American lives, you know, men of faith, the highest character. Describe that loss a little bit so we can comprehend how thankful we ought to be.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You know, for. On Point to hoc, for instance, 225 men went in on the first. First wave, and only 90 were standing. They had been hit by counterattack after counterattack and somehow. Somehow destroyed the guns and even cut the road that. That spanned the two. You know, went between the two beaches. Just amazing stuff. I mean, in Omaha beach, where the 5th Rangers and elements of the 2nd Ranger Battalion land, there's 2,400 casualties. Many of them are dead. You know, this is a situation where, you know, men would tell me the stories about, you know, Roy Elm, for instance, who was from Chicago, 2nd Ranger Battalion lands on Dog Green beach. And there's literally blood in the water, bodies. It's. It's a charnel house. But the 5th Ranger Battalion lands on the white beach, Dog White, and leads the breakout and wow, you know, the rest is history, man. At the right time, the right place.

[Dave Brat]

You got a minute to go? Close us out with the best story, the best news, the most uplifting piece to send us off on D Day.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Thankful.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Let's say that my favorite story is from Luis Mendez, who pins the bronze star on Francis Lamoro. And you know what he said to me when I first. He said my motto was love and respect. Love and respect. Love your fellow man and respect them. And at first I was a little bit, you know, he becomes one of the first Hispanic Americans, Mexican Americans, to actually enter West Point Point. And he becomes a commanding colonel. Amazing man that just. That holds with me every day and how I treat people. Love and respect.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Yep. Unbelievable.

[Dave Brat]

Patrick K. O' Donnell, thanks for being with us on D Day. You do it like no one else can do.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

America's preeminent military historian.

[Dave Brat]

God bless you. Keep up the great work. We can't wait to see you next time.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Thank you, Patrick.

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