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Welcome Back to the PodForceOne podcast. I'm Miranda Devine in New York City, and joining me today is retired General Michael Flynn, who served a short stint as the National Security Advisor in President Trump's first term before he was sabotaged by the original Russiagate rogues. He's also author of the book Pardon of Innocence, an inspiring story of faith and freedom. General Michael Flynn, thank you so much for joining us on Pod Force One, and congratulations on your new book, Pardon of Innocence. I wanted to ask you initially because we're at this momentous moment where at last it seems that some of the wrongdoers of the Russiagate disaster that ensnared you and, of course, President Trump, some accountability may be being brought to them. I'm speaking particularly of John Brennan, former CIA Director under Obama, your nemesis, and also Jim Comey, the former FBI director. And there are now referrals to the FBI for criminal charges of perjury, potentially. We don't know how that will pan out, but at least someone is trying to bring them to account. What do you make of that?
B
Yeah, so a couple of things and a little bit of background and context for your audience and anybody else that listens to this. And there's actually a very famous picture of me testifying in front of Congress. Me, Jim Clapper, John Brennan and Jim.
A
Comey, and Jim Clapper, who was the.
B
Jim Clapper, who. Who will be brought into this investigation.
A
And he was the dni.
B
Jim Clapper at the time was the Director of National Intelligence. And I actually worked for Jim Clapper at different times. So when I was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is one of the largest intel agencies in the world, and they work directly for the Secretary of Defense, but also the President of the United States at the time, Barack Obama, who appointed me into that position. The. My counterparts, my nemesis, right. My counterparts in the CIA was John Brennan and the FBI was Jim Comey. And of course, the Director of National Intelligence at the time was. Was Jim Clapper. So what a cast of. I mean, I, and I work with. I work with these gentlemen on a daily basis at a leader level, senior leader level, you know, to include, you know, the White House. And, and this was in the 2012-2014 time frame.
A
How did you get on with them?
B
I actually got along. I get along with anybody. I'm one of these guys. It's like, you know, if I have a mission to accomplish and I know what the objectives are, and it's clear, and I will always ask for clarification. You know, I spent five years of my nearly 34 years in the military, five years in direct combat operations overseas, whether it was in Central America, the Caribbean, Southwest Asia or Central Asia. So, you know, you don't get to the levels that I got to. Or you don't operate where I operated by being, you know, and I don't know what kind of language you can use on this, but by being a bullshitter, you know, you cannot. On the battlefield, especially as an intelligence officer, you have to be brutally honest. Never make any difference who your. Who your bosses are, what they want to convey to their time. So they're, you know, they're political leaders.
A
I can't imagine that the truth would have gone down particularly well with someone like John Brennan, who seems to lie as easily as he breathes.
B
No, Brennan, Brennan's, you know, and we, we talked earlier, too, about, you know, Brennan's background. But tell us about Brennan. Yeah. So, well, for, you know, everybody always sees, you know, Brennan voted for, you know, the communist president. You know, the person was running for president, United States on the communist ticket.
A
Yeah.
B
When John Brennan voted for that person back in the probably the late 70s time frame. And, you know, and. And got. Still got hired by the. By the CIA, which is amazing, you know.
A
Yeah.
B
So Brennan was a guy who wanted to be an operator inside the CIA. You know, he rose to the, you know, to be incoming. The director, but it was for political purposes and political reasons, not because of his quality or skin.
A
He wanted to be an actual.
B
He wanted to be an operator, wanted to be a case officer. He wanted to be a spy.
A
Yeah.
B
And he went off to, you know, the. The spy camp that they have the father down in. Down in Virginia. Perry. Perry. And he basically got booted out of that program. He got. He failed that program.
A
Why is that?
B
He failed it emotionally, intellectually, not. Not so much, you know, physical tests and all that kind of stuff, but it was because he just didn't have a moral. Moral disposition that is required for that type of character. The types of character traits that they look for in case officers. What we call case officers in the world of spies. Right. Because that's where you go to be trained as a case officer. When I was heading up DIA and even before that, in my world of special operations, I work with many case officers, many exceptional case officers, and I sent many great, talented people to that camp to be case officers to the farm. To their farm. Right. What they call the farm. So. So Brennan didn't pass that. So what did they do? They they saw that he was smart enough to be in the, in the. As an analyst, so they kept him as an analyst. Analysts don't typically rise to the level that he rose to. So, you know, you follow his career path. And some of the people that he got close to, never mind Barack Obama, but George Tenet was one of them.
A
Who was the CIA, who was the.
B
CIA director who sat behind Colin Powell. And when Colin Powell, I think a Secretary of state at the time, Colin Powell, briefed the world that there was weapons of mass destruction.
A
UN.
B
That's right, at the UN And George Tenet, very famous picture, very famous presentation sitting right behind him. And that was a, that was a fabrication.
A
So George Tenet was the CIA director. George Tenet was the CIA director with those fabricated intelligence.
B
Right. That, that, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
A
That got us into that.
B
So you have a guy like Brennan who, who gets on the coattails of that kind of a group. And then of course, he gets on the coattails of, of the left, particularly the, the socialist left in this country. And one of those included Barack Obama. So when rock. They were very close. They were very close. When Barack Obama came in to be the, to be the president, he brought Brennan in to be his Homeland Security advisor because he couldn't get through the. Well, they.
A
Confirmation.
B
Right. They thought at the time, and he probably couldn't have because it was too raw. This has to do with interrogations. Yeah, early, early interrogations that were conducted by the CIA water in the post the 911 time frame was. It was still. Yeah, waterboarding and such. It was still very raw. And so there was a thought that they couldn't get him through confirmation, but they still brought him into the White House and he still became a close personal advisor to Susan Rice and to Barack Obama on a daily basis. He was the Homeland Security advisor to Barack Obama. And at the time they began to really change a lot of the makeup of the bureaucracy. So Barack Obama with the, with the likes of Susan Rice and John Brennan, they really started to hone in on internal issues and internally reconstructing, if you will, the bureaucracy, focusing on two elements. One was the United States Intelligence Community, and the second was the Department of Justice. Remember, Eric Holder is in there as the, as the, as the Attorney General at the time, and then Loretta lynch the second term. So, you know, you again, you fast forward and when Barack Obama wins again, there was momentum for him. You know, a guy who a lot of people will know, Dave Petraeus was, was removed or had to step down.
A
And Overseeing the surge in. In.
B
Right. Yeah. Dave betray his great, great, you know, storied career in Iraq and, And then went back over to the professor. Afghanistan. Right, exactly. Exactly. And I, I know him very well. I work with him a number of times and worked for him a couple of times. So when all that problematic stuff happened with Petraeus, with the, you know, with all of the, the problems that he had Right. At the time.
A
With a girlfriend.
B
With the girlfriend, right. And classified information. It was also classified information. Well, that was the time when they saw an opportunity. They being the Obama administration and particularly Obama and Susan Rice and others and John Brennan and as well as some of their cohorts inside of Congress, particularly in the Senate. So when he wins that second term, they knew that they could get Brennan confirmed because it was so, you know, we're in the midst of war still. Afghanistan's going on, Iraq is raging. There was so much other noise. Now's the time. Let's get him in there and let's make him the director. Well, that was, that was 2012. Right? Time frame, I think, right. Or 20. Yeah, 2012. The election was 2011. The time. Time frame was 2012. Time frame. Well, that's when I came in to be the director of Defense Intelligence Agency. So, I mean, what was your relationship.
A
Like with Barack Obama? Who did.
B
I didn't have a relationship with him.
A
Oh, you didn't.
B
Did not have a relationship with Barack Obama.
A
But didn't he do you down in the end?
B
Yeah, Barack Obama actually appointed me twice. So when you get to a certain level in, particularly in the intelligence world or in the world of what we call flag officers, generals and admirals, once you get to the three and four star level, those are appointments. The last promotion that you ever get. If you're for those that are close to the military or study the military, the last promotion that you can get as an officer is to two star major general. The next series of. Of appointments are appointments. And they're appointed, but you're appointed by the president and they do a vetting of you. So, you know, we have, we kid ourselves when we think all these generals and admirals are unbiased. Now they look at your, you know, they look at what your political affiliation is. Okay, I know this. And, and they also look at your background so they can have the right, what they want are the right people around them. So when they need to make political decisions that are not necessarily honest decisions, they have the right people around them. So, you know, in walks Mike Flynn. So I'm Twice appointed by Barack Obama. Because I had a very, I had a very good career up to that point. I had never really served in Washington D.C. i made it, so I made it to two star.
A
Were you political? Were you.
B
Not at all. Never. I've never. I was a Democrat. I was a registered Democrat and all that. I never voted for, for President, United States because I always looked at the President as my Commander in chief. So I don't want to sit there and go, I didn't vote for that guy. Yeah. So I just, I stayed out of that. And, and I stayed in the field and like I said, just briefly, I went into Washington D.C. as a two star, as a major general and because before that I had served in operational assignments, principally special operations or combat operations or in, in what would be considered field assignments. Central Command, U.S. central Command down in Tampa, 82nd Airborne Division, 18th Airborne Corps. So some very storied.
A
All the best.
B
Yeah, yeah, they're really great, great units. So here I get appointed as the Assistant Director of National Intelligence by Barack Obama and Jim Clapper. Jim Clapper goes to bat for me. So I come in and I work for Jim Clapper for a short period of time, almost a year. And during that period of time, I was told that we are going to. The president's going to appoint you. Obama is going to appoint you to be. Come. The next director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. So I'm like, this is great. You know, I'm thinking, you know, I come back to, you know, Washington, D.C. and, and my family can be together. And, and, and that's One of the.
A
17 now 18 different intelligence agencies.
B
It's still, it's one of the largest ones.
A
And it's from the Pentagon.
B
Yep.
A
And it's what makes up what we know as the intelligence community.
B
Yeah, it makes up. Yeah, it makes up the whole of the intelligence community for, for different audiences that, you know, are trying to come to grips with this mess that we have. But we have a large assemblage of intelligence agencies. The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI. All of them have intelligence components that are huge. DIA is. The Defense is supposedly the Defense Departments.
A
Right. It's the Defense Intelligence Agency and it's the largest.
B
It's actually the defense component of the U.S. intelligence system is the largest. It actually entails 70% of, of the whole.
A
Really?
B
Okay. So all of the services have intelligence. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, they all have intelligence components. They all like the budget that I had. So this is kind of how things operate. In D.C. right. Is how much money do you get? Right. So the budget that I had is national programs and there's military programs. Right. We'll get into all the weeds of that. But, but that's how the DIA director has leverage over all of the services as well, because some of their budget, a large chunks of their budget comes through me. Yeah. Comes through that, that position. So the DIA director has a lot of authority and you have a lot of leverage. Now if you're a type of guy like me, where I had been, you know, in the world of intelligence my whole career, but certainly the, the last 10 years prior to coming into diagnosis, I'm out overseas fighting the war on terror. I am looking at China. I've been, I've been a big sort of China watcher my whole career. Never mind, you know, the former Warsaw PAC and all that sort of business. And I talk a lot about that in the, in the, in the book. I talk about how the accumulation of my career came to put me in this place that I'm describing right now. And then what happened.
A
Yes, because let's fast forward to where you gave some advice that Barack Obama didn't like.
B
Right. So we had, it's a very famous testimony to an open hearing of Congress. And what it has to do with is, it has to do with the narrative that the Obama administration wanted. And they wanted the narrative that you remember, you know, Barack says bin Laden's dead, Al Qaeda's on the run. Yeah, right, right. So they wanted jv. Right. Their JV team. Right. They, they wanted that narrative. And we were getting ready to go into a worldwide intelligence update to Congress. And my, my testimony was just the opposite. So we write our own, we put our own testimony together, each agency, CIA, FBI, the dni, and also another little, you know, not well known one, but the National Counterterrorism center as well at the time.
A
What was your view of Al Qaeda?
B
My view was that it was growing rapidly and it was in like 25 nations. And we, we clearly saw it and we had been presenting that to the leadership of the country. Secretary of Defense, you know, Leon Panetta at the time, another very famous name. Another person who signed the letter, signed.
A
The dirty 51 letter.
B
51 letter, right. Barack Obama and all these other characters and hoodlums that we've been talking about. So I like that. Oh, no, no. My, so my, my testimony, which has to be, you know, it gets routed through the intel community before you testify, gets routed to all the leaders, and it gets route over the White House, you know, it came back, change. And I was like, I told my congressional liaison officer, a guy, great guy by the name of Cal, and I said, I'm not changing that. I said, bullshit.
A
Who changed it?
B
It came back from the White House changed.
A
Right.
B
So who exactly? I don't know to this day. But I mean, literally, like red, you know, get rid of this really? Oh, yeah. It was like, we can't say these things. Right. And I'm like, well, then that would not be the truth. Yes. And so I put that, you know, so now that testimony. So I basically took my original testimony and you turn that into Congress. So Congress gets that. That's a. And so all those are available. And then you, of course, you go through a Q and A question and answer period with these, with these members. And as we got questioned about the rise of ISIS or the, whatever the narrative that the White House wanted, they went down the line. And I was the most junior guy on that table at that table. It's a very famous picture. So it was Brennan, Brennan Comey and Clapper me, right? And when they went down the, down the line and they were saying, so is Al Qaeda. You know, president says al Qaeda's on the run. Is they on a run? Yes, yes, yes, no. And, and then I said, and I said what? I said, which was they were actually all over the. They were all over Africa pretty much, from the Central Africa on up to the, to the Mediterranean. Isis, isis. All over the Southwest Asia and all over Central Asia. The rise of ISIS was staggering, stunning. And now at that time, this is 20. It's like 2013, I think, was the.
A
They hadn't started burning people alive on camera and beheading people.
B
Ye. Yeah. There. Yeah. So they, they hadn't, they, they had done some stuff. I mean, but it wasn't in the public. It wasn't as. It wasn't as public. People weren't paying attention to it. You know, you can go back to the.
A
It was like 2015, 2014.
B
Oh, I know. I. Believe me, I've seen so many beheading videos. I've, I've, you know, seen bodies with no heads. I mean, it's just, it's, it's horrific, but people just didn't come to grips with it. Didn't come to grips. This is, this is post now. This is in that early time frame of 9, 11.
A
Well, they probably didn't come to grips with it because their government was lying.
B
No. And the government and the media and everybody. I mean, you know, the intelligence community so back to this, this story about this testimony. Yeah, because it all, it all plays into what we're talking about here. And this is where I'm trying to, I'm trying to teach the American people because I write a lot about this. I, I go all over the country to talk about it, and I'm going to continue to beat this drum that the American people need to understand that we are in a place right now in this country. We are fundamentally changing. Now, Barack Obama said he basically wanted to fundamentally transform America. And so what did that mean? Well, what that meant was he saw America as more of a socialist system, as a society, as a culture. And, and he went about trying to do that for eight years. And, and we can't. You know, this is not something that I read about on the Internet. This is like for real. These are real people who are, who have this desire to change America because, you know, in, in sort of in their likeness. Right. So when I talk about socialism or Marxism and I've written a book on fifth generation warfare, you know, the, the kind of components that we were involved in. So that very famous session that I'm sitting in front of Congress and I'm, I'm telling the truth about the rise of isis, who we now have all kinds of evidence and, and certainly all kinds of indications that maybe CIA was part of the development of isis, fueling them with weapons sales and weapons trafficking and, and trying to undermine other societies. Right. In Africa and in places like Syria. So these are things that we now know. So if I'm sitting there saying, no, ISIS is on the rise, it's really bad. Right? Which is essentially what I said then, then all hell was going to break.
A
Loose on moi because it reflected badly on the side.
B
It wasn't the narrative, it wasn't the political narrative that they needed. They being the White House at the time, Barack Obama, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and then the hoodlums that were sitting to my right in that very famous picture. Right. Comey Clapper and, and Brennan. Yeah, Brennan and I. So, so keep that picture in mind because those three, I call them soldiers, they're not really, they're not really commanders of this cause of this effort, because you got to have soldiers who will be loyal to a fault to you in order to execute the kinds of things that you have to execute the objectives that you're trying to achieve.
A
And are you saying Obama was their general Ob.
B
One of the, one of the generals. He's one of the leaders of this body of people that want to get the resource, this revolution that's going on in this country, this Marxist revolution that's going on in the United States of America.
A
Who are the other generals?
B
Well, there, there are others. There are others. Like when you, when you take it up a notch to the, you know, the body of the World Economic Forum and the George Soros or now Alex Soros. Right, George Soros. I think his health is not so good these days, but Alex Source is worse. And, and you have people like Klaus Schwab who was the head of the World Economic Forum. I don't know what his health is these days. Doesn't seem to be too good. But there's others that are part of that and they're very, they're very dark. They're very, you know, sort of mystical and mythical. Right. But they're real people and they have a lot of money. And one of the other elements of this Miranda is China. So the Chinese. And, and in a, in a book I wrote a long time ago, first book I wrote, it's called, it's called Field of Fight, how to Win the War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies. And the allies are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. And I talk about all this and that, that was a national bestseller book. And people, if you want to read a book that's very current, go, go grab that one instead of this one. Yeah. Because it'll tell you that there's an alliance that's formed and it's not loose. It's a very strong alliance. And they're the most.
A
They're anti American.
B
Yeah, they're totally anti American. They're totally anti Constitution. And, and they see themselves like, especially China. China sees itself as the, as the dominant player this century. So like the United States of America rose to power in the last hundred years. Right, that, so China, they look at long term things. They see themselves and their plan, which was a classified plan, was declassified In I think 1996 or 1998 time for the late 90s. Declassified. That plan basically said by 2049 it was 100 year plan one. It was great. A guy that used to work for Trump wrote a great book on it. Michael Pillsbury.
A
Yes.
B
So the 100 year plan. Well, that 100 years was 2049. So it was 1949. 2049. So China has been at this for a while. Did you know using your browser in incognito mode doesn't actually protect your privacy? Take back your Privacy with IPVanish VPN, just one tap and all your data passwords Communications, browsing history and more will be instantly protected. Ipvanish makes you virtually Invisible Online. Use IPVanish on all your devices, anytime you go online, at home, and especially, especially on public WI fi. Get ipvanish now for 70% off a yearly plan with this exclusive offer@ipvanish.com audio. Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy alliance today.
A
So, John Brennan, I'm very interested in particularly your. You sat next to him every day. What was your interaction? What did you divine of who he is? Because he seems to be at the heart of every, you know, bad plot against President Trump. And you were patient zero.
B
Yeah. So he's very arrogant guy. You know, he always looks down his nose at you. You know, he'll say good things about the military, but he's, he's almost spiteful about military people. Some cases he's devious. He is. And so how do I know these things? Because, you know, not every day do we work together, but there's a, there's one of the boards that I sit on that I sat on. I've actually was the co chair of it with John Brennan sitting right next to me. It's called the Counterintelligence board and we would meet once a month. And it's very detailed board. It's a very detailed understanding of the counterintelligence operations that are going on against the United States of America or that we are conducting against other nations and other actors.
A
And was very engaged and on top of the detail.
B
He, he's, you know, he's the type of guy where like, he's the smartest guy in the room. He thinks he'll always be the smartest guy in the room.
A
Right.
B
Or, you know, he thinks he's the smartest guy. Right. He is very condescending and the arrogance just oozes out of him. He's actually. That arrogance oozes out of him worse than it oozes out of Jim Comey.
A
Here's the other one I wanted to. And I think we can then fast forward to how Jim Comey actually entrapped you. You were picked by Donald Trump to be his National Security advisor. And pretty much before you'd even got your feet under the desk. Comey sends around some goons.
B
He sends two guys, Peter Strock and who was the deputy head of Counter espionage at the time, and a guy named Joe Bianca. And what I'm hoping for is that Cash Patel and Dan Bongino pulled Joe Bianca in because Joe Bianca is still on the books in the FBI and he's working out in San Francisco. So, I mean, and Peter Strock is, and Peter Strock is an infamous, horrible, horrible person. Very. Yeah. And you know, Peter Strock, we learned all this after the fact. But so, so Comey sends those two guys in and it was, but, but it was based on a plan that was hatched only a few weeks prior in the oval office on 5th January of 2017, led by Barack Obama.
A
That famous meeting, very famous meeting.
B
Joe Biden and, and from my, from my case that we fought back and where I, you know, I pulled my guilty plea and we ended up, my case ended up being dismissed. We pulled out a whole bunch of evidence about that meeting. And in that meeting they were, you know, these were things that, because there was that meeting. And then Comey went back and had another meeting at the, at the FBI. And these guys are talking about, you know, what are we trying to do here? We trying to, I mean, sort of the good guys. Yeah. Bill Priestap is one of them and he's very famous piece of evidence of what are we trying to do here? Like you wrote it down. We're trying to trap, Trying to trap, trying to get fired, you know, what are you trying to do? Yeah, it was almost like they do. Yeah. So what they did. So they, so they came into my office and I go into detail here and we also present some of the, some of the evidence that came out in my, in my case. So they came into my office, asked me some questions. I was like, sure, come on. It's like a couple of days in, I'm like, I'd been working with the FBI for the better part of like 15 years closely, especially in the world of counterterrorism, as friends, big time friends, you know, like, come on. And I got nothing. Hide. You know, you're, you're, I'm going to give you some time, which is valuable as you're, as the national Security advisor. But I said, sure, no problem. And so it was a couple of questions and a lot of people still don't realize it, but even during that meeting and they actually said on their notes, which we had to extract in, as, as a Brady material evidence. In their notes it says, no indications of lying. Right, Right. So even they say, and they go back to.
A
And what were they interested in?
B
They were, they were interested in Russians. They wanted to know you know, why was I. So why was I talking to the Russians so often? I said, guys, I talked to almost a hundred countries in the last, you know, whatever month, month and a half. I mean, I was on the phone. I. I was on the phone probably more with the Russians because they were, you know, they're a nuclear power. And I know that President Trump was big isis. Oh, Syria. We were working with the Russians in Syria. Yeah. The Russians had a. An entire fleet, naval fleet for the first time ever in the eastern Mediterranean. Okay. And I knew. I knew that the Chinese were working very hard to pull Russia into their sphere of influence, and they've done it.
A
Biden made that.
B
Well, Obama let it happen because this is the 2016, 2017 time frame. You know, remember the very famous. The Ukraine war? Remember Obama when he's whispering to Medvedev and he says, don't want. Don't worry. When I get reelected, everything will be fine. Yeah. So they came in and their questions were, you know, I kind of looked at him like, you know, nope. Yes, Nope, nope. Okay, good. Have a nice day. And I thought that was the end of it. And then all of a sudden, the next day, that was the 5th of January. It's very important for people to understand. I described this in detail. So that's five. January 2017 is an Oval Office meeting. 6 January, there's a meeting up in Trump Tower. 5 January meeting was the. Was the conspiracy to. To develop the plot to get Flynn. Then we go. Then we get Trump. The 6th of January is the. Is the meeting up in Trump Tower where Jim Comey and I was in that meeting until. Until we all were asked to leave. And then Jim Comey tells Trump that we have tapes about you steal dossier. Yeah. Stupid stuff, right? Well, we actually, we got a briefing on the dossier too, but Comey stayed a couple extra minutes to tell Trump. We have videotapes of you peeing on. Know, whatever. Yeah. So now, now then Trump takes over on the 20th of. Of January. I think it was the 20th. Like, literally, that's a Friday, like the 24th or 25th. And don't hold me to the exact date the FBI agents come into my office. That was plotted back on 5 January in Barack Obama's office. So that's what. That's.
A
So they wanted to take.
B
That's what time. Yeah. And so why. And why is that? It's all these other things that I've been talking about for the most part.
A
It's.
B
It's the it's the standing up against the, The Obama administration. It's the fact that when I went into the Defense Intelligence Agency, one of the first things I did was I audited. I did an audit of, of dia, and it was a horrendous outcome. I mean, this is like. So now we all hear about DOGE doing these things. I, I want DOGE to stay, like, intact. Right. So I was kind of doing a doge like, operation back in 2012 of the Defense Intelligence Agency, because I, I knew I was going to go into that organization for almost a year. And so I started to study the organization. And you study human resources, you study finances, logistics, because I knew intel.
A
So they found that a threat, a.
B
Huge threat, because I, I had said publicly that if I were ever. If Trump wins and I ever get in there to do anything, I wanted to audit the U.S. intelligence community. And I wanted to really look at some reforms, some radical reforms.
A
And what, what were they trying to charge you with?
B
They tried. Well, eventually they tried to charge me with all kinds of stuff. Farah. Yeah. You know, foreign, Foreign agent registration, violation of Foreign Agent Registration act, which, you know, I never had to do that. I never had to do it. And they knew it. Yeah. But they still tried to stick that out there in the media. So their cohorts in the media from that, from that meeting in the White House with those two agents. Then what happened was, I call it the kill shot in the. The book. Back to these hoodlums. Jim Clapper calls up David Ignatius.
A
Right.
B
Okay. The Washington Post, and tells David Ignatius, okay, take the kill shot. Yeah. Basically on Flynn and, and, and that's what they called it. And so David Ignatius, then a couple of days later, very famous article by David Ignatius, Washington Post. He says, we have nine sources that say all these things. Right. They, they claim the Logan Act. Right.
A
So that was Joe Biden's idea in that.
B
Yeah. In the five January meeting in the Oval Office. Yeah. I mean, Joe Biden is like, where'd the Logan act come from? So, so you can't make this stuff up.
A
Where's the Logan Act?
B
The Logan act is. Goes back to, like, the beginning of the country where somebody, if you're in government somewhere, and forgive me, because I don't know the exact reasoning for it, but if you're in government somewhere and you're, you're doing something with a foreign country, you're not allowed to do it. I mean, that's kind of the essence of it, but it just ridicules. You are doing it's totally ridiculous. I was the appointed national security advisor. The national advisor for the President of the United States does not have to be confirmed. So the day he appointed me, I was the national security advisor for him.
A
And didn't they threaten your son?
B
So later on. So as time went on, Mueller Invest, you know, investigation kicks in, and, and now they're like, they're coming at me hard because they did not. They knew that they had nothing. I mean, they had nothing. You know, I mean, you know, in hindsight and fast forwarding now that I, you know, now that with everything out, I mean, they couldn't find, you know, and I'm so. It was crossfire Hurricane. I'm crossfire razor, right? So they couldn't find an unpaid parking ticket, right? Because, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I'm a boy scout, but, you know, I'm one of these guys. It's like served my country. I grew up in a tough family. You know, you take care of your problems, right? You, you know, you, you, you pay your bills on time, all that kind of stuff. So I was just always that kind of a person. And so they couldn't find an unpaid parking ticket on me. There was no record. That's the wrong guy. They picked the wrong guy. So, so they went after my son. And this is really where it became very, very personal and very emotional for my family. And because my son was, you know, and Michael's talked about this publicly. My son Michael, who's with who they came after, he's, he's had mental health issues for a long time. And it's actually, he's been very helpful to other people in the world of mental health that have mental health issues now because of what has been exposed. And instead of him collapsing.
A
Yes.
B
You know, it actually, now that things have played out the way they played out, it's actually made him stronger. But at the time, they knew this. So when they look at your whole bio and your background and they, they try to find some weakness in you, right? That was my weakness.
A
Right.
B
And my weakness was my, was my son, in this case, my son Michael. And they, they came in and they, they threatened to basically indict him. And I said, for what? You know, and, and then it's, you know, well, we're going to do all these things and we're going to bring him in. And at the time, I was always trying to protect anybody else in my family from having to get lawyers and pay millions of dollars.
A
Yes.
B
Is what it ended up costing me. So. But so that. That moment when they made that threat to me without anything, and I'm like, trump, where's the evidence? What are they going to do? And they hadn't indicted me yet. In fact. In fact, Miranda, I was never indicted.
A
Right?
B
I was never indicted.
A
Right.
B
They said, if you don't do this. And there's a. And it's in the book and it's in the documentary that we did. There's a deal that was cut between my lawyers, Covington and Burling, and I'll mention them here, and. Which is a big white shoe law firm Eric Holder is a part of. And people always give me shit about, why did you take them? You know, I never had to have a lawyer in my life, right? So.
A
And there's not much choice in Washington.
B
And there's not, you know, for, like, I'm thinking, you know, fill out some Farah paper. Yeah, yeah, right. So when they threatened my son, and like I said, there was a deal between the Mueller investigator, Brandon Van Grack, who was my principal nemesis in the. In the Mueller case, he was the prosecutor and my lawyers. A deal that they cut. And. And it was basically, we won't go after his son if Flynn takes a guilty plea. So I did. Right. And. And we eventually brought all that out. Now, those two. Those two elements, Brandon Van Grack and my lawyer, Rob Kellner, they actually went in front of a judge and they lied in a federal court multiple times to say, was there any deals? Because the judge has got to go through a litany of questions. And that question comes up basically, is, are there any deals that were cut? You know. No, your honor. There's no deals cut.
A
What a terrible ordeal for you to have gone through, especially. You didn't know at that time about the lawfare that was.
B
Nobody did. Yeah, no.
A
So, yeah, your. Your reputation, everything that you'd worked for, what, what, you know, what did people think of you at the time? And how hard was that on you and your family?
B
It's very hard on my family. Uh, very. In my, My, My family, you know, like I always tell say to people, I, you know, grew up in a family of nine children. Uh, my mother and father both deceased. Thank God they were deceased, actually, for all this mess. My mother would have been. My mother was so tough. She would have been all over. She would have gone after Brennan Obama anyway, so it affected. And my wife's family has seven. She's got. She's one of seven. And her mother's still alive. Still alive. Today.
A
Yeah.
B
And so they're, you know, they got the media knocking on their door. They're at, they're saying all these nasty things about, you know, our brother, their, you know, their cousin, their son in law. All these nasty media was horrid. I've been on the, I've been on the front cover of every major news outlet in the world. Yeah. In the world.
A
Not sure the scalp that they were going to use to bring down Trump.
B
Like you said, patient zero.
A
Patient zero.
B
It was an Annie McCabe said it, you know, when he, when he said we're going to, first we're going to F. Flynn and then we're going to F. Trump. Okay. And, and it pretty much worked.
A
I mean, because without you.
B
Yeah.
A
Being able to warn Donald Trump about the people, how bad they were coming after him, what was he.
B
Yeah.
A
So, so he was blind and then he sacked kind of.
B
He was very blind. He was Trump, Trump. And I've said this, you know, multiple times. Trump did not know at that time the ways of Washington D.C. i mean, I think he visited D.C. like eight or nine times, mostly to check on his hotel, that beautiful hotel that he had. You know, maybe he'll buy it again.
A
Yeah.
B
But, so he didn't know the ways of Washington. And I frankly, you know, I could say, sit here and say maybe I was a little bit too naive too, to think that maybe the FBI is just not as corrupt as they are. But, but in fact, they're worse. And people like, like Obama and like Brennan, really, and Susan Rice and others that are around them, they really do want the country to turn into, they want the country to be socialist or communist.
A
I mean, is that Comey? I mean, he was a Republican Comey. Was he just weak?
B
Comey is weak. He's a weak man. Incredibly arrogant. Was known to be arrogant when he was a prosecutor, when he was a deputy attorney general. Oh, you know, he's, I mean, his nickname, you know, is the Cardinal and because he walks around like a big prima donna and, and he really is, you know, he's, he's an arrogant excuse, my Irish. And everybody has seen that in him. So people see that in him. But, but these aren't so, you know, back to this, this pleading guilty, which is a big deal. It was a huge deal for me. I mean, I had to, I was on the phone the night before calling like my every brother and sister that I had, everybody that I knew that was very close to me saying, hey, I'm, I'm going to be pleading guilty tomorrow. To a felony. And the, the charge was a charge of lying to the FBI. It was a one double, oh, one charge.
A
Because they couldn't get you on any.
B
Because they could get me on anything else. So they, so they made it up. And there's a 302 documents called the 302 that the FBI is supposed to fill out. Okay. To this day, as I sit here with you to this day, nobody has ever seen that 302. Really never been exposed. It's never been. It's. We don't know if it still exists.
A
Because I think perhaps viewers wouldn't understand that when the FBI interviews you, at least in your case, they don't record it so that both sides can see what really was said. They just have someone taking at least two.
B
Right. It's least in the case of this very high profile case, they had two agents and they both, you know, took basically longhand while they're in the, you know, they're in my answers to the questions. And they both said, that's no indications of lying.
A
Right.
B
He's not lying. Yeah, that's what the two agents said. They go back and they said, no, we can't have this. So the 302 file, the 302 document is fascinating part of.
A
And that's the corruption of those two. They take their notes and they write up a story of what happened.
B
Those agents, because they were in their interview, those agents then have to fill out a 302 of an official document. The notes are official too. Yeah. Because they have to go with, with the file. Yeah. So they fill out the 302 file. And they're not supposed to let anybody else edit it. Okay. Because the other people that are looking at it, you know, they, they weren't there. So the most that anybody can do is read it and go, I don't understand, you know, did you know the sentence structure here doesn't make sense. Oh, let me take that back. And they. Only those two can touch it while other people touched it, namely Peter Strock's lover. Right. And Page, Lisa Page. And the lawyer who was also also the number two lawyer at the FBI who worked directly for Andrew McCabe. So she's not just some, some affair that he had off, you know, off in the woods somewhere. This is the number two lawyer at the FBI who worked directly for Andrew McCabe. And they were all in on this together. She actually saw that the 302, you know, the 302 is supposed to be turned in five days later. Within five days that's the rule. She saw it like a couple of weeks later and actually made comments on it. It comes back. And this is the very famous text messaging that goes back and forth. So this is wild stuff. I was the appointed National Security Adviser to a duly elected President of the United States of America. So take Flynn out of it, take Trump out of it. So here you have somebody who is a cabinet level official who has probably, well, you know, who has the ear of the President on a daily basis. Very, very powerful position, Very powerful position in not only in the United States of America, but in the world. Yeah. And I had already been on the. I'd already, you know, I know a lot of people around the world because I had my time in, you know, campaigning. And I'm not talking about political campaigning, I'm talking about war campaigning.
A
Yes.
B
And, and then as at the DNI and a dia, I knew a lot of world leaders. I know kings, prime ministers, all these guys.
A
So what was the significance of taking you out?
B
By taking the National Security Advisor out, they could then begin their plan to undermine the presidency of the United States of America. That's what this is about. So when they, when they came after me and I looked at it, you know, and now fast forwarded to, you know, here where, where we're sitting today and we have this unbelievable document that just came out of the CIA, you know, a little while ago that is just another, another level, another stamp of vindication, if you will. But it's also to tell the American people what you've always believed about the corruption in our government.
A
Here's the evidence.
B
Here's the evidence. And it's very real.
A
And this is just to explain to everyone, this is John Ratcliffe, the CIA director got a review done by the career professionals in the CIA of that original intelligence community assessment that Barack Obama ordered James Clapper, John Brennan and Comey to conduct into Trump's collusion with the Russians, alleged which the Mueller report found never happened. Right, but, but the thing about it was that was in December 2019. And what John Ratcliffe's review found was that John Brennan drove, that he, he met, he rushed everybody.
B
2016, actually.
A
Sorry, sorry.
B
2016.
A
Thank you. December 2016, just weeks before he was due to office. And so John Brennan drove that, rushed it, had to get it done before the transition and hand picked the analysts and sidelined the National Intelligence Council, which is meant to coordinate that. And There were only four of the then 17 intelligence agencies involved.
B
Right.
A
So that is completely untrue.
B
Lord, it's it's totally against everything that the intelligence community is supposed to do. I've been involved in a lot of these assessments. Right. The first time I saw that assessment, I was like, it's a piece of garbage.
A
Right?
B
I mean, I, look, I read it, I read the thing, I read the.
A
Whole thing, but that was the predicate.
B
For everything I said. I said it's a piece of garbage. The, the report itself, the, the appendix, total piece of garbage. And I, and I, so I was like, okay, I mean, let's move on.
A
Yeah.
B
Not thinking that what they're going to do now is they're going to take that document and then they're going to work very hand in glove with the media. Yes. And this is how. Because we didn't have alternative forms of media at the time. I mean, you know, you, and I'm, you know, the, the Fox News was out there and there's people on Fox News reporting stuff, but even Fox News at times was, was not strong enough. We didn't have the alternative media that we have now. And this is where the truth. And I, and I'm so, I'm a big fan of the alternative media, but.
A
Also the body of knowledge at the bad. I'll give you an example that Trump opened up.
B
Trump. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example. So Afghanistan, right. I had just come out of Afghanistan and come out of the theater and we were doing a National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan. Every agency, all 17, have to stamp that, you know, their level of confidence in this assessment. And I, as the Director of Defense Intelligence Agency, who spent three years of my life in Afghanistan, I said, I don't agree. The DIA does not agree with it. My analysts at the defense side, who are pretty much living out there and breathing out there, they're actually very solid analysts. And it was done in an appropriate period of time. Right. It was done over about a six month period of time is to basically inform the presidency and reform the country and inform the people of this, of the United States. How were we doing in Afghanistan? And my thing, my agency's assessment was we were losing. Okay. This is back in 2013 time frame. So that was the first time when I, when it was like, okay, we can't, you know, Flynn's being a hard ass. You know, I'm not being harassed, I'm being honest.
A
Yes.
B
So fast forward to this document that you just described. What should have happened was they should have taken probably months to really review this and it should have looked at you Know, all these other agencies that are, that have a stake in it. Right. Partners, you know, stakeholders they call the. MY agency DIA was one that was not even given.
A
Not even.
B
And there's some extraordinary, very, very smart analysts over there. So there's a reason they, so, and they, and they. And Brennan picked the analytic team. And then Brennan, he influenced the analysis in the outcome. I mean, it's very clear. And it was done in a very short period of time, and particularly after Trump won. After Trump won, it was like, turn up, you know, like, turn it up the thermostat and turn up the.
A
Use that assessment to then inform the Russiagate. Every hoax against him. The Mueller investigation crippled his presidency.
B
It. Absolutely. And so when you think about the things that Trump was able to accomplish in his. In it as the 45th president, it's extraordinary because he was beat about the head and shoulders so much on a daily basis about Russia.
A
And why is that?
B
Because. Yeah, good. That's a great, great question. And this, you're probably one of the first ones that, in all the conversations I've had that really raised this issue. And I, I try to bring it out because we faced 40 years of the Cold War, and this is, this is really super important. Why Russia? Why is Russia, you know, why is it so that the CIA and everybody. We had 40 years of the Cold War, Warsaw Pact. Russia was the, you know, the leader of that. So that's 40 years of budgets, okay? And there's something called the black budget. This is really important because the black budget is something that only a very few people in the government are even aware of. My guest sitting here today with you is that Trump has never been briefed on the black programs because they'll keep it from them. Because what are they the black programs are based on, principally on presidential findings. So the CIA comes to the President. Some of these go back. Some of these go back like to the 50s. So once you get a presidential finding, it gets resourced with money. Okay? Lots of money.
A
You mean a, like a, an order from the president.
B
An order from the president. A finding that says, go overthrow this country.
A
Right.
B
Go hypothetically, go overthrow country X. Is the president assassinate somebody?
A
Is the president always involved or hasn't this happened?
B
The president should be involved. The President of the United States. That's why they call him presidential findings. But the CIA has become so rogue. So rogue. So when you think about Hillary Clinton and Libya and weapons trafficking to Syria and, and, and answer all Islam and, and, and the guys that were operating in Syria, the ISIS elements in Syria. I mean, there's so many things there that these people are just operating on their own. Jfk, it's un. I mean, JFK is, is a classic example of how deeply corrupt the CIA has been for so many years. Okay. And getting away with it. But back to this, to this 40 year time frame, why Russia? Because there's so much money and if Russia becomes an ally. Okay, which, which, you know, where does Mike Flynn stand on all this? I'm looking for more friends. Yeah. You know, when, when, when the times are tough, you need friends. And I don't want, and I do not trust the Chinese to, you know, as much as I can shake a stick out of. I mean, the, the Russians have a, a more historical alliance with the United States of America. People can say what they want to say about their ideology or their underpinnings or Putin is this or that, and he's a pretty shrewd guy. But what we want is, we want, we want a partnership, we want a friendship, if you will. Now, we've been working with.
A
Because China is the.
B
Hey, we've been working with the Russians for so long. We had, we were doing joint combat operations in Syria with the Russians.
A
Right.
B
We were doing joint naval operations in the Eastern Med with the Russian fleet. First time in our history.
A
Wow.
B
You know, I had in my classes back in the Command and General Staff College in the early 90s, Russian, a Russian officer in my class. Because we were into the world of perestroika. Yeah. But what the intel community didn't want is the intel community didn't want that budget line, that budget stream to stop. So they kept it hidden. Okay. And all. There's always a black, the black budget. And it's only brief to the Gang of eight. Right? Gang of eight. Right. Which is, which is a. Members of Congress in the House. And there's a very small group and sometimes they, you know, depending on who they are, and you got to look at those people and you kind of like Devin Nunez was a member of the Gang of Eight. And Devin actually very honest, very strong character. And Devin was one that finally came forward on Russiagate. And what did Paul Ryan do? Paul Ryan sacked him. He took him off the chairmanship of the House. Paul Ryan a Republican. He sacks the Republican chairman of the House Intel Committee because he went over to the White House and said, this is all bullshit. It's all a lie. So this budget now, this budget right now, the overall intel community budget is probably, you know, I'm guessing a little bit but it's. It's close to the Defense Department's budget. It's probably close to $1 trillion. So these. These black programs. And Trump needs to get a briefing on this. So if Tulsi Gabbard is listening and she's. She's great, and, and I have, you know, I have been back and forth with her on different issues. They need to sit down, sit the President down and go, here is what is happening. You know, here are the government. When we have a presidential finding, right, and that presidential finding continues from, let's say, Eisenhower to Trump, right. Then that means that. That he. Trump, may as well have his. Has. Have his name on the presidential finding. That goes back to the late 50s and early 60s. They're still operating because the President. It's the President of the United States. Doesn't make any difference whether it was Kennedy or Eisenhower or Johnson or whoever, or Obama. It's. It's the president.
A
I just wanted to finish with two questions. One is, how do we fix this problem? You've said we're in the middle of a revolution that many people wouldn't be understanding. How do we fix it?
B
So the first thing in warfare that you have to understand and you have to do is you have to clearly define your enemy. So you have to really clearly define what it is that we're up against. And we're up against a. Essentially a communist takeover of the United States of America. And it has partners, it has influencers. China is probably the principal one. And China has grown in capacity for a long time. You have your. I call them, you know, sort of fellow. Fellow journeymen or, or fellow travelers inside of the government that are communist. Okay. And others who are. Who are aligned with that belief system. So there'll be, you know, maybe a. A soft socialist. But they believe in. In bigger government. They believe in that. This idea. If we're up to Obama, he'd have changed the Constitution overnight. You know, the big plan was eight years of Obama, eight years of Hillary, and you and I wouldn't be having this conversation. So. So where are we today? And, you know, what do we need to do? People need to understand that this is going on. This is very real, and it's a revolution that is occurring. It's been going on for quite a while. The American people have really started to wake up. And I think really only in, you know, I would say maybe the last seven or eight years. The Russiagate thing really kind of did it. Yeah, initially. And everybody's like, how can this be? I mean, I got people that I know that still think I serve time in prison and I was indicted for being a traitor.
A
Right.
B
People that I know because the media. So propagandize them. Yeah.
A
And they've never rescinded, they never said not surprises.
B
So no. And none of that stuff. So then you have another, you know, so Trump goes through his presidency, which was brutal, his first presidency, and then you have a rigged election in 2020. Okay, that's going to, you know, I know the DNI, today's DNI, is conducting an investigation of that and there's some people relooking that. But.
A
So you have the law fair again.
B
So you have a rigged election in 2020.
A
Yeah.
B
Okay. Uncle Joe comes into, comes into office. Everybody knew he had mental health issues. Not mental health, but dementia issues at that time. The auto pen stuff, all, everything. So then the plan was big. These are, these are the big ticket things. This is getting back to what do we do about it and what do we need to understand? So then the plan was we're going to open up the borders, we're going to open it up, we're going to open this country up to.
A
And why is that?
B
Because what it does is it changes the nature of the country. It changes. Changes the fabric of our culture in the, in 20, 20, 75, or, I'm sorry, 1975, was a, was a census taken. And at that time in our country, one in like 20 people or one in 21 people were, were foreign. Okay. One in.
A
Born overseas.
B
Four. Yeah. One in 21 in 1975. So sitting here today, it's one in six. Wow. Okay, that's a massive change. And so if they don't come in and assimilate and see the left in our country, the socialist movement, the, with the huge Chinese influence, right? And they have their allies, but it's principally the, this Chinese influence, this loose alliance with the Islamist, the radical Islamist crowd. I mean, Hezbollah and Hamas are not just over in the Middle East. They're right here inside of the United States of America in a big way, in a huge way. People don't know that. And they've been here for well over a decade, okay? And they, and they, they build, they build into the fabric. This is, this, is this irregular warfare that the Chinese have written about. And you know, they have their. It's very famous book, it's online. People can get it, these two Chinese colonels who wrote it. And it's basically to take over the United States of America without firing a shot idea, right? So China is sort of like the, the, the sugar daddy, if you will, of this movement. But what they do is they co opt these fellow travelers. Right. John Brennan and, you know, and here we're sitting in, you know, New York City. You have others here. You had aoc, who's from New York. Yeah, you know, Mamdani. I mean, so these are people that, and there's many cities in our, in our country. Many cities. I mean, you know, Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, I mean, places in Houston and Dallas, so Texas, you know, and even Florida, you know, these places up where we think, oh, I'm safe down here. So this is what's going on. You have to define that. And I think that, you know, I think it's been defined. People just have to now understand that this is what we're up against.
A
But hasn't the 24 election and the, the second Trump presidency, isn't that the counter revolution?
B
Yeah, it is. And, and when Trump uses the phrase too big to rig, there was a lot of work done to fix things at the local level. And this is kind of how do we, how do we beat this? Right. And so there was a lot of work done by people in counties and precincts and voter rolls and voter registration and all these different things. And the message to, by the by, Trump was, you know, vote, get out and vote. As, you know, early get into, you know, let's vote. Let's make sure that we don't leave it to just voting day. Right. Because the voter turnout's usually abysmal in this country. And that's one of the sort of, the, the things that I want people to take away from this is that we all have a duty and responsibility as citizens of this country to vote. Right. So, so, so, yeah, so Trump, he really worked hard and, you know, with the voices of many, especially the alternative media sources, and then a lot of us that were out there running around the country like crazy chickens with our heads cut off saying, people, we got to get involved. We got to get involved.
A
And now he's in there. What, what are the, what does he have to look out for that he'll be sabotaged? Last time, you know, it was the, the Russiagate hoax, right? Where, what is it this time?
B
So this time the, the unelected bureaucracy and the deep state is much more entrenched. So he's not facing what he faced in his first in, in his 45th presidency.
A
It's worse, is it?
B
It's far worse. It's far worse. Obama left, stay behind. Minefields, traps okay, People, you know, so that's a metaphor for the people that they left behind in critical plate places. They basically turn them into what's called special government employees or highly qualified experts, or they just turn them into government employees and they put them into really critical positions.
A
He's cleaning a lot of those out.
B
Yeah, he's trying. He's trying. But then you had, so Russiagate, you had the stay behinds of the Obama administration and then you had the stolen election and then you had, whether people want to believe it or not, and then, then you had four years of Biden. So what they continued to do is they continued to build into two components, the U.S. intel Community and principally the Department of Justice. That's where the real thickness of their elements are. There are some over in the Department of Department of Defense as well, but principally the USIC intel community and the Department of Justice. So Trump is facing that they can't get rid of enough people, as far as Mike Flynn is concerned, out of the Department of, of justice and frankly, any FBI. So when I say Department of Justice is. People think that DOJ is over here and the FBI is over here. The FBI works for the Department of Justice. Okay. And so, so there's go. There has to be a lot of house cleaning. And so where we sit today. So Trump just recently got his big beautiful bill passed. Wonderful. I don't agree with all of the stuff in it, but he got it passed. And now we can continue to protect our borders, we can build our military up, we can cut taxes and all this sort of stuff. But now the next big effort, because he got elected on this, is accountability. And maybe that's why we're seeing this, this revelation of the, of the potential FBI investigation into, you know, or. Yeah, Comey and Clapper and Brennan. Right, or Brennan and Comey. So, so maybe that's why we're seeing that, you know, at this time frame, Trump knows he has got to figure out how to hold people accountable.
A
The secrets of success. I ask everybody, and I know you yourself have been enormously successful and you've met a lot of successful people. And also you're a great surfer.
B
Yeah, I love surfing. Yeah, you're an all Australian. Australia's a good surf.
A
Yeah, it's great surface surfing country. But you're, you're an amazing surfer. I've been a surf since you were like a child.
B
Yes, I can remember surfing when I was 6 years old. I still own 10 surfboards. I don't surf as much as I like to these days. But I try. I try.
A
What's your favorite surfing place?
B
My favorite surfing ever that I've ever done was Hale Eva, up in the North Shore of Hawaii. But I actually grew up on the east coast, Rhode Island, Rhode island, which is a rocky coastline. And we would surf in the wintertime.
A
Wow.
B
Some of the big nor' Easters and some of the big storms and. And we have a couple of places. One we call it Secret Spot and another we call Ruggles Avenue. So anybody that's up in that part of the world, and there's a lot of. There's a lot of world class surfers that have. That have come to those locations and they're just.
A
Because they're so difficult.
B
They're so difficult. They're so big. They can become. They can get really big and they're just perfect surf. It's just beautiful, beautiful surf that would.
A
Have engendered a lot of physical courage as a child.
B
Oh, my God.
A
You must have almost drowned many times.
B
Yeah, I've been knocked out. I've been knocked out surfing. I had to get pulled out of.
A
The water by your brothers.
B
Well, Benny, Benny. A guy, we used to call him Benny Dead. Great surfer. He could barely swim. But he pulled me out of the. Pulled me out of a place called around the Corner, which is near. Which is in Rhode Island, Giant Day. It was probably 10, maybe, maybe 10, 12 foot. Just great rights. And I was bottom. I was coming in on a bottom turn and another guy, you know, we used to use different names for him, but I won't use it. He cut me off and he literally came down on top of me and the board hit me in the head. And then there's only a few of us out at the time because it was big. And I bubbled up to the surface. I had a shock cord on, so I'm attached to my board, thank God. And I bubbled up to the surface. I was full wetsuit, so that probably.
A
Helped me Unconscious come up.
B
I was totally unconscious. I didn't wake up until the next day. And a buddy by the name of Benny Landers, a good guy, we used to call him Benny Dead. He was paddling out and he saw me in the, like. I was still kind of pushed a little bit out of the lineup, but close to where the surf was still breaking, he came over, grabbed me, pulled me all, you know, out of the lineup and, and basically took me in and got me home. And how I was. I was skipping school that day, so I was probably about 15, 16 years old. Yeah, yeah.
A
Amazing.
B
A long time ago.
A
Yeah.
B
And I, you know, I've served some good spots.
A
So what have you learned about life? I guess surfing and also secrets.
B
Yeah. Well, I always say that's not the, it's not the wave as much as how you ride it in life. Right. That's kind of a good way to look at life. And that's how I look at life. I talk about, and I teach this, too, to people at times about leadership. And I talk about control. Right. So control is important to understand about what you have in life. Right. And don't worry about the things you can't control. Worry about the things that you can control and then take control of them. And I think that's a good piece of advice for anybody because. Because I can't control what Donald Trump is going to post on True Social. I can't control what Congress is going to vote on, but I can control the decisions that I'm going to make about the direction of my life and about my, you know, my family or the things that I'm doing in, you know, in my community. I can control those things. And a lot of people don't realize that. Some people never realize that. Some people realize it too late. And look, life. And so, particularly for young people, you know, for any young audience out there, when you're listening and you're looking at all this, the noise around you, what is it that you can control? And when you, when you come to grips with that, then take control of it. And when you do take control of it, it is such a. It's like a relief. It's like you're going to all of a sudden go, man, I wish I had known this, you know, five years ago. I wish I had known this yesterday. Because it will suddenly it will embrace you as much as you embrace that. And when you do that, you'll have a much more fulfilled life.
A
Terrific. Well, thank you very much, General Flynn.
B
Great.
A
Wonderful to talk to you.
B
Thank you very much, Miranda.
A
Thanks for watching Pod Force One. We'll be back with another episode next week. Hit the subscribe button so you don't.
Guest: General Michael Flynn
Host: Miranda Devine (New York Post)
Date: January 7, 2026
Episode Title: General Michael Flynn, Russiagate's Patient Zero, Talks “Black Budgets,” Deep State Overreach and the Trump Counter Revolution
This episode features a candid and revealing discussion with retired General Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor and author of "Pardon of Innocence." The conversation delves into Flynn’s firsthand experiences at the heart of the Russiagate scandal, the internal workings and political shifts of the US intelligence agencies, the phenomenon of “black budgets,” and what he sees as the larger “Marxist revolution” underway in America. Flynn reflects on the efforts to hold former intelligence officials accountable, his own ordeal with the FBI, the resilience of the “deep state,” and the significance of the Trump “counter revolution” in the 2024 election. The episode closes with personal insights into Flynn’s life philosophy, leadership, and passion for surfing.
On the Russiagate Assessment & Deep State Overreach
"The first time I saw that assessment, I was like, it's a piece of garbage." — Flynn [45:25]
"By taking the National Security Advisor out, they could then begin their plan to undermine the presidency of the United States of America." — Flynn [43:15]
On Personal Ordeal
"I was never indicted...they said, if you don't do this [plead guilty], we'll go after your son." — Flynn [35:35, 36:00]
On Bureaucratic Power and the “Black Budget”
"The black budget is something only a very few people in government are even aware of...My guess is Trump has never been briefed on the black programs." — Flynn [49:53]
On the 2024 Trump Win "When Trump uses the phrase 'too big to rig,' there was a lot of work done to fix things at the local level." — Flynn [59:03]
On Life and Leadership
"It's not the wave as much as how you ride it in life...don't worry about things you can't control..." — Flynn [66:20]
"When you do take control of it, it is such a relief...you'll have a much more fulfilled life." — Flynn [66:40]
The episode delivers a sweeping insider’s perspective on post-9/11 intelligence politics, the origins and fallout of Russiagate, and outlines a worldview in which bureaucratic "deep state" actors, foreign influences, and a compliant media threaten American democracy. Flynn, drawing from both personal ordeal and professional experience, positions the Trump presidency as an existential battle over the country’s future—and stresses the enduring importance of individual resilience, civic engagement, and personal leadership.
Recommended For:
Listeners interested in intelligence and political intrigue, government transparency, deep state theories, Trump-era Washington politics, and personal stories of resilience in public life.