Loading summary
Julie Kelly
This is an iHeart podcast.
Dutch Vet Sponsor
Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24. 7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.
Katie
I mean, is this, is this what, what your takeaway is?
Tim
Well, not exactly, but I, I don't know. I, I guess I'll be the contrary on this. I think that the Democratic senators handled this basically pretty well. Like you're playing chicken with the other. The other.
Steve Bannon
You're.
Tim
It's like you're playing chicken and the other party wants to crash. Like you're never going to win a game of chicken against Donald Trump.
Katie
So why did he get into this? Hold on. They spent 40 days doing this. And I was talking to Senator Kaine a moment ago, and he basically laid out everything that they could have gotten if they never went into a shutdown. He was worried about SNAP benefits running out. Well, if they never went into a shutdown, snap benefits would not have run out. He was worried about federal workers getting, getting laid off. Well, if they didn't go into a shutdown, they weren't going to get laid off. And so they spent 40 days saying, this is all about health care, all about the ACA and these subsidies. This is the only point we're going to have any leverage on this. And then now they're like, well, we're going to have a separate vote and the American public will get to see where Republicans stand. And by the way, it sounds like the House isn't even going to take it up.
Tim
I hear all that, Katie, but that was the best case scenario from the start, and they had no choice but to do nothing. And here's the reality. If they wanted to get the health care subsidies extended, they needed to win the election last November. The Republicans control all of Washington. Like this expectation that the Republicans are going to wake up one morning and say, you know what we're going to do, the emergency, emergency Obamacare extension, you know, we're gonna make sure that the subsidies for people that are early retirees are gonna continue. It's crazy to think that the Republicans were never going to do that. And the purpose of the shutdown, to my mind, was to demonstrate to the voters as Democrats what their side was on this issue and what the Republican side was. There was not gonna be a tangible policy. The Republicans never even came to the table. The House hasn't been in session for a month. Donald Trump never tried to negotiate. So everybody, when they're saying that they wanted more, they wanted to hold out longer, but this is the longest shutdown in history. I remember back when I was a Republican, the Democrats and people like me and the establishment of the Republican Party said the Tea Party's crazy. Like, these guys at the Tea Party are extremists with the way that they are pushing these shutdowns. This Democratic Senate just held a longer shutdown than the Tea Party ever did. So, I mean, I just think that's like. That is about as much as could have been expected given the real harm that was happening to people with the loss of, loss of benefits, loss of jobs, loss of salaries.
Katie
Did it take, as, I guess, Tim, you're suggesting that much time for the American public to see where the Democrats stood and how they felt about health care and to, and to look at it closely and see that ultimately it was the Republicans that were stonewalling this issue?
Tim
I would have been fine with 30 days. That's not a very popular opinion out there, but yeah, that would have been fine with me.
Julie Kelly
30 days.
Tim
I think the point was made.
Katie
I think, Adam, jump in.
Adam
Yeah, I mean, look, I think the strategy always had an end game problem and sort of what Tim is getting at here, the Republicans were never likely to give Dems their big demands. I think if Democrats were going to cut this kind of a deal, it probably would have been a better idea to have done it a week ago before the elections, gave everybody a renewed sense of momentum before Trump started lobbying Republicans to get rid of the filibuster. And people like me were like, this is interesting.
Mike Lindell
Let's.
Adam
Let's see where this goes. But, you know, I do think that there is an argument for claiming a win here. Democrats were able to drive a conversation about health care and make that a central focus, which is something they've been struggling to do for a long time. And look, if you want to be really cynical about this from a political perspective, by not extending the ACA subsidies, Republicans have set themselves up for a year, next year that is going to be entirely focused on health care and people's premiums are going to go up. Republicans are highly unlikely to extend these subsidies, which is part of why Democrats were demanding that they do it. But that's going to be all on Republicans. It's going to be similar to 2017 when they made it all about repealing the ACA. Republicans have put themselves in a position where all of next year going into the midterms is going to be focused on people's premiums going up at the hands of Republicans in control of Congress.
Steve Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Christians not got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go.
Dutch Vet Sponsor
To share the big lie?
Steve Bannon
MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War Room here's your host, Stephen K.
Julie Kelly
Ban.
Steve Bannon
Monday, the 10th of November year for Lord 2025 is the 250th. Think about that for a second. How many institutions in the world are 250 years old that are not a country? 250th anniversary of the beginning a birthday of the United States Marine Corps in Tun Tavern in Philadelphia today. My co host for the next two hours is the Michael Pack. We're going to talk about a whole lot I've got to get I got the great Julie Kelly is on first. Julie okay, let me lay this out before you get into it. When I've got stalwarts of the MAGA movement and I'm talking first team players, I've got Darren Beatty, Jack Posobic, Julie Kelly, Glenn Beck, Stephen Baker. When people like that are telling me over and over again this pipe bomber thing is not simply big, but it's the key that picks the lock on many different things related to J6, the Fed direction and the deep state. And that I think even Glenn said the other day could be as big as potentially as Watergate. I take that seriously since there's such a depth of premium. Folks and folks that do this for a living are telling me that as you know, over the weekend I was in a location I didn't have great wi Fi or phone, but my phone literally blew up when I got back into the area on Sunday afternoon. About the situation on the pipe bomb and maybe some new revelation on the pipe bomber. Can you get US up to speed on everything that's happening, ma'?
Julie Kelly
Am. Yes. So this is a report on Blaze Media, and this was authored by Steve Baker and Joe Hanneman, two reporters who have covered January 6th. And this was teased last week to your point by Glenn Beck and Steve Baker, that this was going to be the greatest political scandal of all time. That this would implicate high level Trump administration officials, including perhaps CIA Director John Radcliffe, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard and others related to who these reporters believe they have identified as the individual seen on that very grainy, low quality surveillance video of a hoodie suspect walking around Capitol Hill on January 5th that evening, which is the time frame that the FBI and law enforcement believe those two dummy explosive pipe bombs were planted outside the headquarters of the RNC and the DNC, only to be conveniently and coincidentally discovered 17 hours later to coincide with the start of the joint session of Congress. So this article took over social media and the Internet all weekend, and it was supposed to not just identify this pipe bomber, but also expose this big scandal. Well, the article, in my opinion, fell far short of providing enough solid evidence to almost Definitively, they said 98%, based on this gait analysis, which we can kind of talk about, meaning the walking mannerisms and style of a Capitol Police officer.
Steve Bannon
You mean gate. You mean gate like a horse would have a gate or like a human would have a gate? The way. The way you would walk. Correct. The way you would propel yourself forward. Okay, keep going.
Julie Kelly
Correct. So G, A, I, T, not G, A, T, E gate.
Steve Bannon
Right.
Julie Kelly
So apparently what happened is Steve Baker was looking at video from January 6, Capitol Police officers who were using what they call non lethal munitions on the crowd. You and I have talked about that. And he apparently saw a Capitol Police officer who he thought had the same gate pattern as the site. This individual on January 5th, who still has not been identified. January 5th, 2021.
Steve Bannon
It's unique enough. Is there something unique enough about the suspect? Because this is like the Magruder film kinda. You and Beatty and Posobic and Glenn Beck's team and many others for hours and hours and hours have gone over all this grainy footage. I mean, Beatty was on the show one time. You talk about Glenn and his team. I mean, Beatty was on the show one time for an hour. And I think we went over this thing and he had like every movement of this, and I didn't have a suspect at the time. But why this was so important, why couldn't. Why the official narrative was A lie. And how this was going to be something that would explode the whole fedsurrection. Ma'. Am.
Julie Kelly
Right. Well, as Darren Beatty has said, and I think Darren Beatty and I have uncovered the most information evidence, shady circumstances related to the pipe bombers, both at the DNC and rnc. But what Darren always said is if you expose the truth about the pipe bombs, the entire January 6th narrative unravels, because that was the incident that those two incidents really initiated the panic that day.
Steve Bannon
And I think that's what Glenn's talking about. If you solve the identity of this pipe bomber, or you can get the idea that the feds knew a lot more about this pipe bomber, even maybe being part of them or knowing about it, this gets to be Watergate level, because then the entire official narrative collapses. Correct?
Julie Kelly
Correct. And this is something we've talked about for years, and Darren Beatty and I have suspected. Four years. And you and I have talked about this as well, that this was an inside job, that law enforcement in some capacity was tied to the planting of one or both of these devices. I just had a report out last month that you and I talked about more suspicious surroundings related to the woman who discovered the RNC pipe bomb. She worked for FirstNet, which, of course is a law enforcement agency, and then the dnc. So it's not exactly news that this is an inside job, that law enforcement was somehow involved in one capacity or the other. I think this might be new to Glenn because of how he's talked about it, but it certainly is not to us. So if this individual. And we won't name her name, because you could see people are already backing off this report as they identified this woman who now is under police protection, by the way, based on, I think, really dubious.
Steve Bannon
Naturally. Because naturally. Because naturally, the. Naturally, the MAGA people would seek immediate vengeance. Correct. Revenge.
Julie Kelly
Well, look, it's really irresponsible to float someone's name without enough substantive evidence that confirms that this is the absolute identity of this suspect. I mean, this is a very controversial issue. It's one of great public interest and one of great consequence to both the individual and anyone else who would have been involved. So.
Steve Bannon
So is the evidence that they put for the evidence they put forward was they actually put pictures of her up there and they compared the grainy footage of the suspect or the unidentified person walking its gate versus her gate. So you could actually compare and contrast.
Julie Kelly
We don't know because the article did not embed any video clips that had been used as samples for this gait analysis. So we don't know what video, this one analyst or the software that was used, but we certainly don't have the video clips. What I think is also a little bit questionable here is that in the article they say they did not use the FBI grainy footage that we've all seen for years, that they used different footage that was clearer and had a more accurate timing to it. Now, as you know, Darabady years ago broke down how a lot of that video, especially the video captured by the DNC security footage, how it was purposefully slow, that it had such a slow frame rate as to suggest that it's somehow been manipulated. So what footage did they use? We don't know. They didn't put the video clips in the piece, which I feel like from a journalistic standpoint, if you're going to call someone's name out, you better provide the public with the evidence that you're using as a basis of that conclusion.
Steve Bannon
Hang on. Want to take a break if you can? I know you're under tight schedule. Our next guest is also under a tight schedule. It's the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Marine Corps at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia. As Continental Continental Marines, I think they started recruiting naturally. If you're going to recruit Marines, what better place to recruit them than a tavern? Hard fighting Devil Dogs. We're gonna get to all of this for the next two hours. Julie Kelly. Julie, can you just stick around for a minute or two? On the other side I know you get a bounce. Birch Gold Take your phone at text Bannon B A N N O and 989-898. Get the Ultimate Guide for investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump. Find out about your IRAs, your 401ks, tax deferment, all those complexity. Talk to Philip Patrick and the team today.
Dutch Vet Sponsor
Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24,7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.
Steve Bannon
Phil America's Voice Family Are you on Getter yet?
Colonel Scott Cuomo
No.
Julie Kelly
What are you waiting for? It's free, it's uncensored and it's where.
Katie
All the biggest Voices in conservative media are speaking out.
Steve Bannon
Download the Getter app right now. It's totally free. It's where I put up exclusively all of my content 24 hours a day. Want to know what Steve Bannon's thinking? Go to get her.
Michael Pack
That's right.
Steve Bannon
You can follow all of your favorite Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobi, and so many more.
Michael Pack
Download the Getter app now.
Steve Bannon
Sign up for free and be part.
Julie Kelly
Of the new pin.
Steve Bannon
Okay. Welcome back, Julie Kelly. This is also important as the engine room, the war room, engine room informs me that Kamala Harris might have also been jeopardized because now we know. I guess I don't know if it's fake news or not. I don't know what to believe. Kamala Harris might have been in jeopardy. Or heck, maybe she was the pipe bomb woman. But you broke something the other day. I just want people to get up to speed and remember this on the RNC side. What was it?
Julie Kelly
Yeah. So first of all, with Kamala Harris, she was at the dnc, inexplicably. Why? We don't know. She mentioned it one time in her book. She said she went there to call contributors and donors, which still doesn't make any sense. And Barry Loudermilk's committee, new J6 committee, today, is asking for testimony from her Secret Service agents, who missed this device, by the way, that was planted right outside of the entrance to the dnc. At any rate, I've also been covering for, since late 2021, the circumstances of this discovery of the RNC device, which was found by a woman named Carlyn Younger. She was working from home that day. She worked for FirstNet, which is a private public partnership that oversees broadband for first responders during disasters, emergencies, etc. She Just so happened to go do her laundry in the middle of the day. And it's this sort of outdoor access it from outside. She lived right next to the Capitol Hill Club, a popular hangout for Republicans, as you know, in the headquarters of the rnc, as she's going to do her laundry, her second trip there, she looks down and notices a device by a recycling bin and goes to alert security, first at the Capitol hill Club, then RNC. So this was around 12:40. Steve, on January 6th, 20 minutes before the joint session convened, RNC and DNC headquarters, as you know, just a few blocks away from the US Capitol. So the discovery of that device, now, both devices were not going to be active. They weren't active. They were dummy devices. They were never going to explode. So I Have two pieces up declassified with Julie Kelly that talk about more suspicious surroundings as to her discovery, which I think has more evidence of. Maybe we need to question this person then certainly the evidence that was provided in the Blaze article over the weekend.
Steve Bannon
But to Glenn Becks and Scott Baker and you, they're coming at it with getting information and try because they understand you. This is the key that could pick the lock, right? There's something been weird about this from the beginning. This is why Darren Beatty was obsessed by this. You've been going at this right in a different direction, but have very compelling, at least circumstantial evidence right now. Is the Justice Department, the FBI, the Secret Service, anything that we consider a actual government apparatus that should have access to absolutely everything? Are they working with the Glenn Beck team? Are they working with you? Is there. Can we just get the. Why do we have to have two of our smartest investigative units spending an incredible amount of time burning a lot of daylight doing this? When isn't a lot of this information there that could be shared by the FBI, the Secret Service, the D.C. metro Police, the Capitol Hill police, or anything, ma'? Am?
Julie Kelly
Well, I mean, I don't know if the Blaze and Steve Baker have shared their gate analysis or their video samples with the FBI if, I mean, the FBI didn't come up with.
Steve Bannon
No, I'm saying. No, no, hang on. I'm saying something totally different. Hang on. I don't. This is my point. Glenn Beck and Steve Baker are on the outside pushing in. Julie Kelly's on the outside pushing in. You guys are coming around this. And clearly now more than ever, people realize there's something very suspicious here, right? And you get it back up into the public conscience, right? Is the government, is the FBI, the people that should know all the information have absolutely everything and have every, you know, foot people walk because they had drones up or they had, you know, every piece of technology. You can't walk a foot in D.C. that you're not monitored by 100 cameras, have the official government apparatus? Because what frustrates me is Tom Fintan, Judicial Watch, Julie Kelly over the substack, Glenn Beck at the Blaze, all these people, the Revolver team, you guys are spending time, money, effort, and hey, there's, you know, this is a Trump administration run by Trump people. This should be something that we should get to the bottom of, like, immediately. Every piece of information. I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of pieces of information about this just in all the different details of how technologically you're tracked in the current era. So why are we not getting any information that are helping you helping Beck helping Revolver helping. You know, Judiciary told me Finn the other day who's my hero told me he's got more FOIA requests. He's fighting harder than in the Obama administration. Forget Biden. He said Biden were nothing compared to this is back to Holder. So why is that? Why are we not getting full cooperation by the official apparatuses we control?
Julie Kelly
Ma'? Am? Well, I mean I haven't heard a lot from my sources on this particular story. I think there is work being done looking into whatever is publicly available. But I share everyone's frustration that we don't have better answers that we're coming up on the five year anniversary of January 6th and you have statute of limitations expiring on certain charges certainly for whoever planted the pipe bomb and obscured any sort of investigation. But we know from testimony that this investigation was basically shut down in spring of 2021 and there really was not much happening. So the question is and we know that this continues to be an ongoing problem at the FBI and DOJ and DNI and everywhere else is that evidence was hidden, evidence was buried. We had testimony that the cell phone data from January 5th was corrupted. And then I think that they've been digging into that trying to see if they can access cell phone data from that night. That seems completely impossible to believe. So I do trust that there are I know that there that investigation is still active and ongoing. Not sound like an FBI spokesman. There's. But I share everyone's frustration that we don't have answers and that's why unfortunately that vacuum can be filled with bad information which is what this report represents.
Steve Bannon
60 days. Within 60 days we're going to be on the on the fifth anniversary of this 60 days. Unbelievable. Julie Kelly, where do people go? You've got a couple of great pieces up on Substack. You do an analysis of all this. Where do folks go?
Julie Kelly
So my substack is declassified with Julie Kelly. I post a lot on X as you know Julie underscore Kelly too. I have some thoughts and criticism about that piece on there and then of course also have pieces up on Real Clear Investigations.
Steve Bannon
Fantastic job. Thank you so much Julie for joining us tonight.
Julie Kelly
Thanks Steve.
Steve Bannon
The last 600 meters tonight. Tonight after 17 years. Is it 17? 17 years. It will have its national broadcast at 10 o'. Clock. I think it's a great honor to the men in the film, in the mission they were on that PBS would think that this is emblematic of kind of the heart of what the Marine Corps does.
Julie Kelly
Right.
Steve Bannon
And we have. And we have one of the great warriors from that Scott Cuomo is on. Tell us about Scott before we bring him on.
Michael Pack
Well, Scott was in the section on the battle of Najaf, as you know, the film does. The first battle of Fallujah in the north against Sunni insurgents. Then battle of Mujaf in the south against Shia militia and then back to the second battle of Fallujah in the north again. And Scott was, I think a lieutenant at the time, he can correct me, but he was one of these guys that had to follow these orders. He was. He tells the story, I should have him tell it of when he was called and he had to kind of.
Steve Bannon
Just go ride to the sound of the guns.
Michael Pack
Ride to the sound of the gun.
Steve Bannon
One of the most powerful parts of the movie. Scott, you join us now. First off, your feelings. You were there live when we did the premiere a week or so ago and it was amazing your guys participation and how great it was with the audience afterwards. Talk to me about the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps, of how few institutions have been around for 250 years and that PBS has decided after 17 years to show this film as his primetime representation of the United States Marine Corps. Sir.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Steven Mike, thank you so much. Especially on this day, Veterans Day tomorrow. What do I think? Just grateful that that would be the Marines who fought Najaf both. And then the documentary covers obviously Fallujah 1 and Fallujah 2 as well. And just to tell the story of the young warriors that busted their ever living butts to execute some incredibly demanding missions. So I'm just incredibly grateful that I'll be on PBS this evening and America will get to learn, you know, for 250 years you send the Marines, you got the hardest missions in the world that need to get executed. You need us to do them and we're going to do them, period.
Steve Bannon
Scott, can you hang on with us? I want to spend some more time. I think you got a few more minutes. We're going to take a break. Do we have the. We're going to go out in every section of this Michael pact in honor of the film and in honor of the 250th anniversary with the Marine Corps hymn tonight at 10pm I want to make sure everybody in the audience and spread the word. Let's be our first multiplier then Amazon starting tomorrow. Amazon starting at 10pm you're getting to be pretty entrepreneurial we finally taught PAC 10:00pm Eastern Standard Time tonight and I believe it's going to be in your time zone as it goes around the country. It'll still be 10:00pm Eastern Standard Time. Tonight, the premiere of the Last 600 Meters, the Battles of Fallujah, First Fallujah, Najaf and Second Fallujah told through the eyes of Marine rifleman, which is as Jan Becker Bender Bender says in there, everybody's a rifleman in the Marine Corps. He was a combat, he was a combat photographer. He's got a great line in there about being on the trigger. Lieutenant Scott Cuomo joins us. We're gonna take a short commercial break. The Marine Corps him will take us out. We'll be back in a moment in the war room.
Tim
If the army and the Navy ever.
Michael Pack
Look on heaven and see, they will find us.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Greeks ON Marty.
Dutch Vet Sponsor
Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24,7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.
Steve Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. Michael Pack, the great filmmaker is riding shotgun. We're going to talk about Abby Gate, the new film you're working on. But tonight the premiere at 10pm Eastern Standard Time on your PBS station, totally free. Check it out. The last 600 meters. Colonel Scott Cuomo joins us, who was a lieutenant at the time. Tell us about Najaf and why on the 250th anniversary of this institution that has lived longer than the Roman Republic that why why did pbs, when they looked at who were not fans of this film, initially think it was emblematic enough of the work of the Marine Corps to put it up tonight on the 250th birthday? Sir.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Yeah, no, Mike and I'm sure cover the details of what led to the decision there a little bit differently but specific to the battle. I am grateful to have the opportunity to just talk with you guys about it. You know, hot, intense, close quarters, intimate, very personal. You know, for, for me and the Marines that I had the privilege to serve in that battle. It started with a helicopter, Huey helicopter getting shot down. We were in another province and got a fragmentary order of frago as we call it in the Marine Corps to get our butts in a job immediately and go help out our teammates and to go fight. And that was very early on the morning of the 5th of August. And for the next 22 days it was just battle nonstop in weather that is almost up to that point in my life, it was never experienced anything like that. And then the battlegrounds. We had trained in urban environments a lot before going over. I had the privilege to be a rifle tune commander on the march to Baghdad. So I had fought, but never in a, in a cemetery that's 15, 20 square kilometers depending on the way you measured it. So yeah, I'm just grateful that PBS put that out or will put it out later today so that America gets to see what do Marines do? What have Marines done for 250 years? No matter the challenge, batter our butts off to do whatever we need to do to help keep America safe.
Steve Bannon
What the temperature was, correct me If I'm wrong, 100 to 115 degrees during parts of the day that you guys were fighting through this vast cemetery. And folks, you'll see tonight, it's a cemetery like you would see in New Orleans. A cemetery that's above ground where the, I guess esophagus or all the tombs are actually above ground, one on top of each other.
Michael Pack
But there's also a huge subterranean. So it's just vast, both up and down. Catacombs blow up.
Steve Bannon
Unbelievable. Scott, what was it like to fight through that at those temperatures?
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Yeah, no, during the day it was not uncommon for it to be 130 degrees. At the time I was, it was called cat or a heavy machine gun anti armored platoon commander. So we had infantrymen and riflemen, we had machine gunners, we had missile men. And so we were one of the forces that could maneuver because we had vehicles. Sometimes we were clearing buildings, sometimes we were maneuvering, providing supporting fires. But you know, what was it like? It was just more personal up close for all the Marines. It was about 1200 Marines in our unit. At some point in the battle, most all of them got involved and it was just one of those, it was almost impossible to describe. They're obviously throughout history, Marines have fought, you know, in some very, very close, up close environments. I think this was, you know, just thinking about it now, 21 years later, I don't think we've fought in cemeteries, but nothing like this. Nothing in this proximity. This density, the catacombs, the roads that moved in and out of the cemetery were just very narrow. So yeah, so it was intense. In short, intense.
Steve Bannon
The reason that you take that people, I think, take such pride when they see this film, no matter how bloody it is. In the second, excuse me, in Najaf, you're essentially fighting in what is the Vatican of the Shiite religion. And to the degree that you guys are told by your senior officers and that you're promulgating to the troops that the mosque, which is like St. Peter's Cathedral to the Shiites, it's their Vatican, you've got to take extra care with that. I mean, particularly extra care of that, even to the degree that you might put some Marines in danger. Tell us about that.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
That was incredibly tough. The enemy we refer to as rules of engagement, or ROEs. The enemy knew what ours were. And so many aspects of their command post, their mortar firing positions, their casualty collection points were at times inside the Imam Ali Mosque complex. And like you're saying, it is huge, multi kilometer complex. So it was very difficult to be struck by mortar barrages that were launched from inside the complex and then to have to find other ways. Because the rules of engagement as the battle progressed, initially they were very restrictive, as the documentary lays out, and as the days went on, very similar to, you know, something if for those, for the Way city veterans from 1968, you'd find the same thing, the opening days of the battle, much more restrictive rules of engagement than it went on. So it was very, very challenging. That said Marines, as we've done, you find a way to adapt. You attack the enemy in a different direction, you attack them with a different weapon system. But, yeah, it was definitely, definitely challenging.
Michael Pack
I mean, yeah, it is very moving just to hear their stories. I mean, it was so hot. Colonel Mayor describes how they would have. They would have IVs in their arm, they'd come out of the fighting in the cemetery and they'd have to be hydrated with IVs and they leave the IV stints in so that they can come in and out faster. And you can see them in the film lying there, nearly passed out, getting hydrated. I mean, it's a surreal kind of landscape. And then the mosque, I mean, in the end, you know, the Marines pushed them out of the cemetery into the mosque where they couldn't attack. They were going to send in, because of course US troops can't go into the mosque because as you say, it's one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. So they were going to send in Iraqi commandos and they were all set to do that when another Shiite Leader Sistani shows up and boom, they cut a deal. And Sadr gets away. Sadr and the Mahdi army, you know, survive to escape another day. And you can hear the frustration in some of the Marines at that moment that they didn't get a chance to finish the job and deal with the Mahdi militia that actually plagued Iraq for a long, long time. Even to today, I believe my solder is still active still. So what was that like, Scott? We didn't talk about that too much with you in the film. And what was it like to sort of suddenly, the thing is over, the thing you're preparing for doesn't happen, and the thing ends?
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Yeah, no. You joked when we were offline a little bit about the difference in interviewing two years after, and then reflecting on it now, you know, in short, incredibly frustrating. You know, the Marines, and I'm confident I speak with all the guys that were in BLT1 4. You fight your butts off 22 days in that heat, and you finally, finally get the enemy. You kind of got the bull by the horns, if you will. Or, you know, we've got him with our hands right around his neck, you know, and get ready to finish the job. And then the Ayatollah Sistani. I'm not exactly sure what happened between the night of 25 and 26 August. I just knew we were ready to go into the very final assault. And we got word to stand down and some agreement had been reached and. Or met. And it was frustrating at the time. Ready to launch? Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Michael Pack
But, yeah, you know, you mentioned that I joked about how you guys were different 17 years ago, but you still have the fight. I was really impressed. I think I mentioned this in the break, too, about what you said in the screening, that Marines can win any battle. You know, they can't make the strategic decisions, they can't make the deals with.
Steve Bannon
But they can't lose.
Michael Pack
They can't lose. You said that they can't lose. Send us in there. We can't lose. You said that just a couple weeks ago. So I think everyone in the audience was impressed. There's some truth. There's truth to that, right, Scott?
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Yeah. No, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, just reflecting on this now, having a privilege to serve for almost 25. So 10% of the Corps history had served Marines in three different combat environments. And the missions are hard, but no matter what happens, if you need Marines to do something, it doesn't matter how hard it is, is we will find a way to get it done. We will work together. We will depend on non commissioned officers. And this isn't just, this is just what Marines do. Steve, you asked about why 250 is so important. Because literally for 250 years, non commissioned officers, junior officers, staff, non commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, just find a way to get it done. The missions are. Combat is chaotic, it's uncertain, it's nasty, but it doesn't matter. We learn from those who've gone before us. Our instructors train us really well and we depend on each other and. Yeah. What was it like on a scale of 1 to 10? A million. Infuriating when we were finally ready to close. Yeah, but it's not uncommon throughout history, the course history. And so our job, when you all tell us to go, you know, for those who are watching this, you tell us to go. We are going to go and we are going to attack 100 miles an hour. And if you tell us to stop, we're going to stop, as frustrating as it might be. But yeah, if that answers your question.
Steve Bannon
Mike, you know, Michael was, Mike was going to, Michael was going to make a film about high technology and how it changed the battlefield. And he came back and said after doing his research, he realized that what was happening in Iraq was, was a war that was being fought by teenager infantrymen with nine commissioned officers that are not much older above them. And these junior officers, first lieutenants, second lieutenants and captains, and that's what comes out. And you do have a few generals sprinkling in there, but the first person participants are all teenagers or in their early. How old were you, Scott, when you were in Najaf?
Colonel Scott Cuomo
20. What was I? 22, 23? I'm trying to think I was born 22 or 23.
Steve Bannon
Yeah, it's, I'm telling you the whole. This is one of the powers of the film. These are such young people talk about that battle.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
The majority of the Marines are. Yeah, I'm sorry, Steve, go ahead.
Steve Bannon
No, no, go ahead, Colonel.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Yeah, I was saying the majority of the Marines in the battle, 19, 20 years old. When you're seeing the scenes that Michael and the team recorded just so powerfully inside fighting, whether that be from Tombstone to Tombstone or inside the catacombs or inside the old city at the end. These are 19, 20 year old Americans, predominantly, they're non commissioned officers, you know, plus or minus 21 to 24 years old. And they are, they're intense, they're young, they're angry. When you click us off, safe as we say in the Marine Corps, they're angry and they're going to do whatever they have to do to protect America, to protect each other.
Steve Bannon
Colonel, do you have social media? Is there any way people can can get your coordinates?
Colonel Scott Cuomo
I generally speaking I'm not on social media, but yeah, be careful. Yeah, I'm still I'm still have the privilege to serve and do my best to just to serve Marines and do what we got to do. So yeah, I don't know Michael. Michael's got my contact info. I'm sure I'll figure out if someone wants to reach out.
Michael Pack
Yeah. It was nice of the Marines to give Scott permission to talk as a private person not representing the Marine Corps.
Steve Bannon
Colonel, want to thank you very much. I'm sure we're getting a lot of feedback tomorrow. It's a magnificent film and you guys represent the best of this country. So sir, thank you so much.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
All right. Happy birthday fellow Marines out there. Semper fide. Thank you.
Steve Bannon
Remember we're in talk about we come back why PBS? Why this is been 17 years. When Michael first turned this in, this film was very powerful. Of course we were still in the Iraq war and it wasn't that they didn't like the political message because some the things said well hold the political side look totally screwed up. It's the fact that they could not believe that you just went into this group and that these were typical standard Marines.
Julie Kelly
Right.
Steve Bannon
They refused to believe that they thought that you had actors or that you're curated and just gotten the best of the best.
Michael Pack
That's right. That's what they did. They think they thought I curated.
Steve Bannon
They thought you curated just it wasn't you just went in and got the best.
Michael Pack
He's Scott Cuomo.
Adam
What am I going to do?
Steve Bannon
Not going to change. Short commercial break Michael Pack we got Jack Bovic going to catch up on some news. A lot going on today. Believe it or not as mind blowing as is. Yes. The super Syrian, the ISIS leader I guess in Syria in the White House today we'll talk all about short break. Back in a moment.
Dutch Vet Sponsor
Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24,7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch you'll get more time with your Pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Peru.
Steve Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. There are very few institutions in world history that have lasted for a quarter of a millennium. Very few. 250 years. Pretty amazing. Older than the country. PBS, when they first saw this film, rejected it. I shouldn't say rejected. They just put it into the lockdown bin. We're never going to show it. In fact, if President Trump had not won twice. I'll tell pac's story in the next hour. Michael Pack is one of my all time heroes. You talk about tough as boot leather, Pack as tough as bootleg because they tried to literally destroy him. But this film and I hadn't seen on a big screen in a long time, it was so overwhelmingly powerful when I saw on the big screen with the sound and how beautiful the photography is or how stunningly it's so realistic. And see the photography, when you see, you're so proud of these guys that you could understand PBS with their kind of political slant. When they first saw it, they go, pac had to gun deck this. This could not just be the average Marines that fought in these three battles. It's just two because each the first Fallujah crowd's amazing, the Najaf crowd's amazing, and second Fallujah is amazing. They had to think in their mind this thing was gun decked. Right?
Michael Pack
That was one of the things. I mean, look, we've tried to get it on every few years for 17 years. We've gone through lots of different heads of programming at pbs. So they all say different things and who knows what they really think. But one of the things that they said was I used, I was like a central casting that I called for particular.
Steve Bannon
You curated?
Michael Pack
I curated it and I looked for ones that looked good on camera, but I really didn't. I found the footage first and although Colonel Cuomo compliments me, I'm not entitled to those compliments. Jan Bender, who's going to be on later, was one of, was one of the combat cameramen whose footage I used and we used some still photographs by commercial photographers like Lucian Reed. And they're the brilliant. It's their eye that's brilliant. Lucian Reed risked his own life in hell house to take these photos.
Steve Bannon
Extraordinary photos.
Michael Pack
And Jan Bender in the second battle of Fallujah. And so I've seen a lot of combat cameraman footage. Most of it is because these guys are scared. Not great footage. Jan's footage was actually good footage. So I rely on them and I had the footage, and then we look for the people in the footage. You know, once you found Jan Benner, you got to go with the footage people. His squad, that's in the footage. I can't cast them. I can't pretend different people are in them. I had, like, no power over that. You know, PBS attributes more power to me than I've got. But they said other things, too. They would say at one point that it was too pro military. Not sure what that meant. At one point they said, even though this is contra to the essence of the film, that I needed to put in more political, historical background. I needed to interview politicians, should we or shouldn't be in the war? So they wanted me to do that. The film was already 90 minutes. Right. They wanted me to add whatever, 15 more minutes. And they want to give me any money to do it. I didn't want to do it anyway. And so who knows? I mean, a lot of these things were fancy ways of saying no. The thing they never said and couldn't say is it isn't a good film. And I've had 15 films on broadcast nationally on PBS, including another one with you on Admiral Rickover after, you know, after this one was finished. And so they couldn't say it was a bad film. So they had to think of things to say. And these are the things they said. But I do think it's courageous of the current president, Paula Kurger, to reverse those 17 years of Nos and give us a yes, as you say, on the 250th birthday of the Marine Corps and the day before Veterans Day. And she did that knowing that part of the story would be the 17 year delay.
Steve Bannon
Yes.
Michael Pack
And that it's not a good look for pbs. And she did it anyway. So I think that's a courageous stand on Paula's part.
Steve Bannon
Very courageous. Incredible. We're going to have Lindell in a second. We got a whole second hour to go here. And I think Poso, we're going to try and get Posa was up at Philadelphia today. A very moving commemoration of the Marines. 251 of the groups that fought in Vietnam had a memorial at the Vietnam Memorial for all the fallen. All the kias, all their brothers in this band of brothers had died there. And they read the individual names and they rung a bell every time. It was incredibly moving in the cold and in the rain. Jack Posobec was there. And then Jack was able to interview some of the individuals, Ernie Priet and his team, which is just the camaraderie those guys have, you know, what, 50, 60 years after the, after the event is just absolutely extraordinary. So we're going to get to that in the second hour. One of our new sponsors, All Family Pharmacy, look, you know, the difficulty of breaking the supply chain coming out of the CCP to get all your medications. And All Family Pharmacy sells ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, all of it. Now they've got physicians. You go online, you get total licensed physicians that talk to you and give these prescriptions. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com Ben and do it today. Go online. What I love about this, they got all the information of over 300 medications, including all your antibiotics, everything that you need. Allfamilypharmacy.com Bannon 20% off. Put in Bannon 25. You can get 25% off today. So go check it out. Really like these guys. I love what they're doing. And I gotta tell you, the response we got from the, from the Warren posse members went there the other day is pretty overwhelming. So go check it out today as we say, we all, our sponsors are going to inundate you with information and make sure that you make right choices for yourself. All family pharmacy.com Bannon and put in the code Bannon25. Get a big discount. Check it out. Mike Lindell. Today, the, they gave the pardons for the, for the Trump electors. Right? Now these are federal pardons, not state pardons. We had Ed Martin in at the beginning. Ed Martin was dropping the hammer. He's the pardon czar. Sir, you've been so involved in this. Tell me what you think and then I need the, the war room posse needs your Veterans Day special, sir.
Mike Lindell
Well, I mean, the parents are great, but the, you know, everyone's been texting me, Mike, are you going to get pardoned for all your battles and you can't get pardoned for lawfare? So the lawfare against me, though, all that stuff still sitting out there, you can look@mypillowtrial.com MyPillow has been sued over and over again for defamation. And that's what we keep fighting daily and then and that and plus Arctic frost against us. So I wish, I wish I could get pardoned for all that, for, for just speaking up against our government private contractors. But what we do, we just keep fighting back. And the way we fight back is to give you the specials. You guys, this is a war room Made in America sale especially for Veterans Day tomorrow. You guys, you can get as many as you want. 14.98. We brought back the MyPillows 1499,98 for the standard queens and kings. Just a few dollars more, but if you go to mypillow.com war room, you guys, there it is, the Made in the USA sale. These are all the products we make right here. My body pillows, bolster pillows, travel pills, the, the, the bed toppers, the Made in America socks. Our mattresses. You guys have all been getting our mattresses. The best mattresses ever. And I, I want to say all of our products right now because of Christmas. You can buy them now. And we're extending our two for two months. Our guarantee goes all the way to March 1st of 2026.
Colonel Scott Cuomo
Promo code, war room.
Adam
Yep.
Steve Bannon
Okay, we'll see you tomorrow in the 10 o' clock or 11 o' clock hour on Veterans Day. Stick around. The second hour of the war room is about to commence.
Dutch Vet Sponsor
Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24. 7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.
Julie Kelly
This is an iHeart podcast.
Date: November 10, 2025
Host: Steve Bannon
Key Guests: Julie Kelly, Michael Pack, Col. Scott Cuomo, Adam, Tim, Katie
This episode of The War Room is split into two major thematic segments:
“The purpose of the shutdown, to my mind, was to demonstrate to the voters as Democrats what their side was on this issue and what the Republican side was.” (01:40)
“This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people.” (04:50)
“This pipe bomber thing is not simply big, but it's the key that picks the lock on many different things related to J6, the Fed direction and the deep state.” (06:01)
“Well, the article, in my opinion, fell far short of providing enough solid evidence...they said 98% based on this gait analysis.” (07:06)
“You mean gate like a horse would have a gate or like a human would have a gate? The way...Correct. The way you would propel yourself forward.” (09:01)
“It's really irresponsible to float someone's name without enough substantive evidence that confirms that this is the absolute identity of this suspect.” (12:42)
“If you expose the truth about the pipe bombs, the entire January 6th narrative unravels...” (10:26)
“...this was an inside job, that law enforcement in some capacity was tied to the planting of one or both of these devices.” (11:21)
"Why are we not getting full cooperation by the official apparatuses we control?" (20:09)
“Evidence was hidden, evidence was buried. We had testimony that the cell phone data from January 5th was corrupted...I share everyone's frustration that we don't have answers...” (21:56)
“So my substack is declassified with Julie Kelly...I post a lot on X as you know Julie underscore Kelly too...” (23:42)
“You send the Marines, you got the hardest missions in the world that need to get executed. You need us to do them and we’re going to do them. Period.” (25:40)
“The enemy knew what [our rules of engagement] were ... so many aspects of their command post...were at times inside the Imam Ali Mosque complex...” (33:23)
“You kind of got the bull by the horns, if you will...and get ready to finish the job. And then the Ayatollah Sistani...some agreement had been reached...it was frustrating at the time.” (36:05)
“These are 19, 20 year old Americans...they are, they're intense, they're young, they're angry...going to do whatever they have to do to protect America, to protect each other.” (39:57)
“No matter what happens, if you need Marines to do something...we will find a way to get it done.” (37:39)
“At one point they said...that I needed to put in more political, historical background. I needed to interview politicians...The film was already 90 minutes.” (45:11)
“She did that knowing that part of the story would be the 17 year delay...And that it’s not a good look for PBS. And she did it anyway. So I think that’s a courageous stand...” (47:00)
Steve Bannon, on the pipe bomber story’s stakes:
“If you solve the identity of this pipe bomber, or you can get the idea that the feds knew a lot more about this pipe bomber...this gets to be Watergate level, because then the entire official narrative collapses.” (11:00)
Julie Kelly, on journalistic standards:
“If you're going to call someone's name out, you better provide the public with the evidence that you're using as a basis of that conclusion.” (13:31)
Col. Scott Cuomo, on Marine ethos:
“If you need Marines to do something, it doesn't matter how hard it is, is we will find a way to get it done.” (37:39)