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The Dan Bongino Show
Are The Walls Closing In On Obama? (w/ Victor Davis Hanson) | Episode 92
00:58:02
Tulsi just made another major move against Obama and the other Russiagate conspirators. All the while the media is running cover, or not running the story at all.
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- [00:00]
Vince
Welcome to Vince. Good to have you with us on a Thursday. Boy, oh, boy. The United States Department of Justice is now officially investigating President Obama and his merry band of corrupt idiots who tried to take down the whole country, tried to stop an entire presidency in its tracks. We've got all of the details on that today. And we are joined by the brilliant Victor Davis Hansen. I've been looking forward to our conversations. I've thrown talked to him a lot of times in the past. Very excited to have him here with us on this program. It's coming up today on this episode of Vince. Great to have you with us today. Hey, have you heard of Caroluma by any chance? No, not a woman called Caraluma. I know the chat keeps saying cara. You mean cara. I went to high school with Kara Luma. No, no, no. Kara Luma is an edible cactus that grows in India. It's believed to be a natural appetite suppressant. Kara Luma is just one of the natural ingredients that doctors have added to to a remarkable weight loss supplement that's called Lean. Lean, which is awesome. Lean is from Brickhouse Nutrition. If you've got a bold summer weight loss goal, but injections are not for you, here's what the doctors who formulated Lean have said. They said that this supplement is as close as we've come to the benefits of those popular injections. And like injections, Brickhouse Nutrition's Lean was created to help maintain healthy blood sugar and help control appetite and cravings. But the rare ingredients in Lean are also designed to help burn fat by converting that fat into energy. And here's the best part. No needles, just real results. Their doctors created a healthier way to lose weight by capturing the power of natural ingredients like Caroluma. She's the best. It's just smart. Let's get you started. With 20% off, just use the code vince20@takelean.com that's code vince20@take lean.com. these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease and is not a substitute or alternative for care from a healthcare provider. Oh, yes. Yes, indeed. Man. How good was Tulsi Gabbard yesterday? The Director of National Intelligence stepping up to the microphone and dropping truth bomb after truth bomb after truth bomb. This comes as President Trump and the people around him are saying that there, yes, was a treasonous conspiracy waged against President Trump from the very moment he was destined to become the President of the United States. Tulsi doing some good stuff here Take a look. Here's Tulsi Gabbard, cut three, saying, yeah, that Russian hit on Trump, Obama ordered it. Take a look.
- [02:44]
Tulsi Gabbard
There is irrefutable evidence that detail how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false. They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true. It wasn't. The report that we released today shows in great detail how they carried this out. They manufactured findings from shoddy sources. They suppressed evidence and credible intelligence that disproved their false claims. They disobeyed traditional tradecraft intelligence community standards and withheld the truth from the American people.
- [03:33]
Vince
Yeah, they did it all. They manufactured the whole thing. They lied to the American people and they withheld the truth from everybody. They just refused to let you know the truth. And in fact, they refused to let the Trump team know that they knew what the truth was. Remember what we talked about yesterday on this program? That original presidential daily brief that was supposed to be published on December 9th of 2016 would declare that the Russians had not in any way altered the results of the election. They had no success whatsoever in meddling in the election, and. And that President Trump won it fair and square. That was all set to be published in that December 9th Presidential Daily Brief, and it wasn't. Why wasn't it? Because if it had been published, both the Obama administration, but more importantly, the Trump transition team would have known about it. They didn't publish that detail in the brief because they didn't want the Trump campaign to know that's what happened. And that's because, of course, President Trump, as the incoming President of the United States, was already receiving those presidential daily briefs. That's the big detail that everybody missed. And I talked to General Mike Flynn about this yesterday on the radio show, and he once again emphasized that's exactly what was going on. I was reading, he said, I was reading the presidential Daily Briefs, and that detail was kept out. That would have been a big deal for us to be given that information. They kept it from the Trump team. And yesterday, Tulsi Gabbard, when she gave this press conference at the White House, she said the very same thing. Take a look. Here's my White House correspondent, Reagan Reese, asking Tulsi Gabbard about this. Cut four.
- [05:19]
Tulsi Gabbard
Are you of the view that that information was kept out of the briefing.
- [05:23]
Vince
Because then President Elect Donald Trump would have seen it?
- [05:28]
Tulsi Gabbard
I don't have any documents that speak to exactly what the new guidance was that was given as the reason for pulling that document, which, by the way, still has never been published until we released it last week, Friday. One could assume that they didn't want President Trump to see a document that came from the intelligence community that would contradict the Russia hoax narrative that began through the Hillary Camp Clinton campaign with the Steele dossier.
- [05:58]
Vince
They didn't want him to see it. They didn't want him to see it. Tulsi Gabbard confirming that detail yesterday from the White House press briefing room. That's one of the biggest pieces to all of this, ladies and gentlemen. You understand that by actively making a decision to hide the truth from the Trump transition team, that that was a signal of their intent. If you are building a conspiracy case against all of these people, you're going to have to look for details like this. And that's a big one. That's a massive one because it demonstrates the intent of the Obama team to hide the truth from the guy they were targeting. And the Justice Department's got a lot to deal with here as they go through all of this. I'm going to get into the way the Justice Department is doing that in just a moment, but I do think that we should dwell on a couple of the other disclosures that Tulsi Gabbard made yesterday. Tulsi Gabbard in particular went after the former CIA Director John Brennan and said that, well, he's a big fat liar. We knew that John Brennan has lied a lot to the public. John Brennan lied about spying on the United States Senate. John Brennan lies like he breathes with ease. And here is John, here's the detail yesterday from Tulsi Gabbard that John Brennan cut five, lied about using the Steele dossier as the basis for all of the public claims that they were making about Trump and Russia with regards to the Steele dossier.
- [07:27]
Tulsi Gabbard
We now know that one of the source documents that the Obama administration used in the creation of this intelligence assessment in January of 2017 was none other than the discredited, unverified Steele dossier. The House intel report states, quote, contradicting public claims by then CIA Director Brennan that the dossier was not in any way incorporated into this intelligence assessment. The dossier was referenced in the intelligence assessment's main body text and further detailed in a two page assessment annex. John Brennan lied and he denied using this dossier in this intelligence assessment that President Obama ordered because he knew it was discredited. It was a politically motivated manufactured document. He directed senior CIA officials to use it anyway. CIA officer told the House Intelligence Committee staff as they investigated this, quote, the director of the CIA, John Brennan, refused to remove it and when confronted with the dossier's many flaws, responded, quote, yes, yes, but doesn't it ring true?
- [08:37]
Vince
Yes, but doesn't it ring true? It feels true. Ish. So let's include it. And of course, that was nothing more than a smear campaign against President Trump. And he lied about it because it was a vicious conspiracy against President Trump. That's the reason he was lying. Otherwise, why wouldn't you just tell the truth about it? He didn't. He lied. My buddy Chris Plant calls him Penitentiary Face Brennan, and we'll see. He may actually go to a penitentiary at some point. We'll see. Maybe that face will finally find its home. John Brennan overruled CIA experts objections to including the Steele dossier in that bogus intel assessment. Brianna Lyman over at the Federalist with this excellent piece summarizing what you just heard Tulsi Gabbard talking about. Newly released documents do show that the former CIA director included the debunked Steele dossier in the 2017 intelligence community assessment, despite the warnings from the intel experts that it was garbage. This is garbage. I don't care. Included. Anyway, he says Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a very important 2020 report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday, and it showed that members of the intel community were very concerned about that early 2017 ICA, which said that Trump was colluding with Russia, that Russia interfered with the election. According to the newly declassified report, CIA analysts and operations officers struggled to even explain how that assessment could have included the dossier without identifying and vetting any of the sources and without explaining the political circumstances surrounding why the report was produced and funded. Of course, you know by now that dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Two senior CIA officers contended that the dossier should have been omitted from the assessment because it, quote, failed to even meet basic tradecraft standards. A senior officer at the meeting said, according to this report. But according to that same senior officer, Brennan, when, quote, confronted with the dossier's many flaws, said, quote, yes, but doesn't it ring true? He shoehorned it in. He shoehorned in Hillary Clinton's campaign lies into the assessment of the 2016 election and Russia's alleged involvement in stealing it for Trump. That's what Brendan did. And then he lied about it. He lied about it a lot Actually, here is John Brennan lying to, let's see the media. Here's cut six. John Brennan lying to NBC.
- [11:21]
John Brennan
When did you first learn of the.
- [11:23]
Vince
So called Steele dossier and what Christopher Steele was doing?
- [11:26]
John Brennan
Well, it was a, not a very well kept secret among press circles for several months before it came out. And it was in late summer of 2016 when there were some individuals from the various US news outlets who, who asked me about my familiarity with it. And I had heard just snippets about it. I did not know what was in there. I did not see it until later in that year. I think it was in December. But I was unaware of the providence of it as well as what was in it. And it did not play any role whatsoever in the intelligence community assessment that was done, that was presented to then President Obama and then President Elect Trump.
- [12:08]
Vince
Oh, is that so? It played no role in the intelligence community assessment. He just straight up lies about this. And in fact, as I just pointed out, they used the Steele dossier without identifying or vetting any of the primary sources, without explaining the political circumstances surrounding why the report was produced and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was used to inform both the body of the intelligence community assessment and it was cited in the annex of the intelligence community assessment. And there you have the former CIA director saying it wasn't used at all. It played no role. It had no influence now lying on NBC. Well, as a piece of evidence for a conspiracy, that's useful, that's a useful event that he lied about that because that helps us as we pursue him with handcuffs. But it wasn't just lying to NBC. He also lied to Congress. Take a look. Cut seven. Here he is lying to Congress. And pay attention to who's sitting in the background behind Trey Gowdy. The man over Gowdy's, let's see, right shoulder would be the future director of the FBI.
- [13:24]
Victor Davis Hanson
Did the CIA rely on it?
- [13:26]
John Brennan
No.
- [13:27]
Victor Davis Hanson
Why not?
- [13:29]
John Brennan
Because we, we didn't. It wasn't part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. It was, it was not.
- [13:49]
Vince
Was there a conspiracy? Was there a cover up? Did the people behind all of this lie through their teeth about it? Yes, they did. That's John Brennan lying to Congress about what is well known now, which is that that intelligence community assessment was definitely informed by the Hillary Clinton lying campaign research. No question whatsoever. And seated behind Trey Gowdy in that image, of course, is now FBI Director Cash Patel. Who was a critical researcher on that House Intelligence Committee. And in fact, one of the reasons that we know anything about any of this, because that's how dogged he's been on this issue through the years, and now he's in a position to do something about it. So there's John Brennan lying, lying, lying. Amazing. So that, that's, that's the Brennan component to all of this. Additionally, Tulsi Gabbard revealed something that you may have already known. Hillary Clinton is a psycho. Did you know about this? Yeah. So Tulsi's revelations yesterday include the fact that Hillary Clinton is a psychopath. I know. I, I can't. I can't love this enough. I, I think it's probably important for us to just go back in time a little bit. First, though, Tulsi's revelations about all this. Remember what Hillary Clinton had to say about Tulsi Gabbard? Fellas, if you could pull up my screen here. Here is what Hillary Clinton said now about five years ago in the midst of the 2020 campaign. This is when Tulsi Gabbard was running in the Democrat primary and Hillary Clinton was trying to destroy her. Hillary Clinton, a lot of people during.
- [15:40]
Hillary Clinton
A podcast interview where she gave this.
- [15:43]
Vince
Ominous forecast about the 2020 presidential election. Take a listen.
- [15:47]
Hillary Clinton
I'm not making any predictions, but I think they've got their eye on somebody who's currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate. She's the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far. And that's assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not, because she's also a Russian asset.
- [16:16]
Vince
So most people say she's clearly talking about candidate Tulsi Gabbard and some other candidates are defending Tulsi getting called out. So Hillary Clinton decided to make an enemy out of Tulsi Gabbard. She's my enemy. I want to hurt her. I want to destroy her. She used the same routine she's used against everybody, that she has to go against. Donald Trump, everybody else. They're a Russian asset. You're a stooge of Vladimir Putin. Hillary Clinton declared attacking Tulsi Gabbard. Well, oh, boy. Tulsi Gabbard. She's in a position now to make Hillary's life a living hell. And yesterday, well, she kind of did that a bit. Take A Look here. Cut 8. Tulsi Gabbard talking about how mentally ill Hillary Clinton is.
- [17:04]
Tulsi Gabbard
Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign. There were high level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary's, quote, psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression and cheerfulness. And that then Secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers. Then CIA director.
- [17:28]
Vince
Psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of rage and cheerfulness. Boy, I don't. Do you remember the last uncontrolled fit of cheerfulness that Hillary Clinton had? I don't remember that, but I'm going to take Tulsi Gabbard's word for it. What Tulsi was describing was that the Russians had information about Hillary's health up to and including the fact that they were pumping her full of horse tranquilizers to keep her going every day. Now, for those of us who were paying attention to Hillary, not really a mystery. This was very much like Joe Biden. We knew that he was ill and we knew that she was ill. You remember this moment. Cut 12. Remember this is September 11th of 2016. Hillary Clinton being slung into a van like a sack of potatoes because she passed out. She collapsed on September 11th at that memorial. They throw her in the car and they're done with her. And remember what happened with Hillary in that case? They didn't take her to the hospital. They didn't take her to the hospital. They took her to Chelsea Clinton's apartment. Now, if you were in a medical emergency, no matter your station in life, just any regular American or presidential candidate, you go to the hospital, you go to see a doctor. They didn't do that. They took her to Chelsea's apartment because why? Because they didn't want anybody to know what was really going on. Apparently the Russians did. The Russians knew about her psycho emotional problems. They knew that she had uncontrolled fits of rage and cheerfulness, and they knew they were pumping her full of horse tranquilizers and they didn't release it. In other words, what Tulsi's explaining is that there is no underlying evidence to support the idea that the Russians meddled in the election to the benefit of Donald Trump, that they did not aspire for his victory, that they were trying to make that happen. There is nothing to support that except, as Tulsi explained yesterday, a fragment of a tiny sentence that suggested that that might be the case, that Putin might want that. That's hardly evidence. That's hardly enough to establish any sort of strong confidence as the intelligence community lied to you. And so what they had was damaging information, derogatory information about Hillary Clinton. And they Never deployed it, they never used it. In fact, you and I never got to hear that report. Well, until yesterday when Tulsi Gabbard shared it, which is hilarious. And I love how angry Hillary Clinton must have been by that yesterday. How much box wine do you think she chugged last night as a result of all of this? Probably a lot. Probably a lot. So what comes next? What comes next? Where are the prosecutions in the midst of all of this? We've now pretty well established and we continue to get more evidence of the scheme to subvert the entire country done by the most powerful people in the country. What's it going to take to lock them up? I've got updates on that subject coming up in just a moment. It's difficult now for the current administration to take your personal finances into account when they're trying to do what's right for the country. You've got to do that. And that's why tens of thousands of Americans are buying gold right now from Birch Gold. Here are the facts. In the past 12 months, the value of gold has increased by as much as 40%. Many central banks continue to bolster demand for gold by buying it in record quantities. And global instability and tension could actually be the highest it's been in decades. But you can find peace of mind in gold. Birch Gold makes it extremely easy to convert an existing IRA or a 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in physical gold. Or just buy some. You can store it at home. Just text my name, Vince, to 989898 and Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on gold. There's no obligation, only useful information with an A plus rating. With the Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers, it's time for you to take control of your savings today. Text the word Vince to 989-898. Data and message rates apply. Let me see here. All right, so let's talk now about what is going on with the United States Department of Justice. What role are they playing in all of this? And I have to tell you, I was encouraged to see this come out yesterday afternoon. So the conclusion of Tulsi Gabbard's commentary, all of her disclosures from the White House. Yesterday, the Justice Department announced what they're saying is the formation of a strike force to assess the evidence publicized by odni. In other words, Tulsi Gabbard. So Tulsi Gabbard makes a criminal referral to the Justice Department every time Tulsi talks. I'm pretty sure I hear the word accountability within every other word she utters. Thank God. And she says, look, these guys need to be prosecuted. They need to be held accountable. They need to be arrested for what they did. And the Justice Department has this. Today, the Department of Justice has announced the formation of a strike force to assess the evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps, which might stem from Dni Gabbard's disclosures. This department takes alleged weaponization of the intelligence community with the utmost seriousness. Upon the formation of the strike force, Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated, the Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend, Director Gabbard, and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people. We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice. Now, I want to point out some other features here. This, as much as this looks like they just launched it yesterday, we already know that that's not the case. We know, courtesy of reporting from places like John Solomon and Paul Sperry, that there's already been a grand conspiracy investigation underway at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that the weaponization group at the United States Department of Justice, led by Ed Martin, have clearly already been digging into all of this. We also already know that two weekends ago, there was a massive summit that involved a whole bunch of top Trump administration officials to include Justice Department officials ahead of all of these public disclosures. And you don't involve the Justice Department unless you intend to bring prosecutions. The President Trump. President Trump has accused President Obama of treason. He said it's treason. You've got Cash Patel and Dan Bongino who are leading the charge at the FBI. These guys are obsessed with the details here. There's no question they're trying to pursue charges in the midst of all of this. And now you have a Justice Department strike force that's been assigned to take all of this and turn it into actionable prosecutions. This has to happen. So glad to see this. Is this the end? Hell, no, it isn't. You and I are sitting here after all these years without seeing meaningful prosecutions. It's maddening. A plane has to land here. It has to. Who will that plane land on is the question. Of course, we want everybody arrested. We want everybody who's violated the law to be held accountable. But who is it going to be first? Who is it going to be first? Well, based on what we're seeing right now, we have some indication that the people who are being talked about. Here are lawyering up. James Clapper, who himself used to be the director of national intelligence under Obama, announced last night on CNN that he is lawyering up in preparation for potentially being arrested. Cut to take a look. James Clapper last night. So what will you do if they come after you? What is your plan? Well, I'll lawyer up, I suppose. Already have. You've already hired attorneys in case of in anticipation that this Trump Justice Department could try to prosecute you. We've had sort of pretty perpetual attorneys since I left the government in 2017. We've had sort of perpetual attorneys since I left the government in 2017. Jim Clapper, very much a part of that intel community that turned its weapons against President Trump and by extension the people who voted for President Trump in the first place. I want to remind you of some things back in 2016 that really matter in the midst of all of this. Never forget that it was Chuck Schumer who said out loud In January of 2017 the following fellows, if you could pull my screen up, here's Chuck Schumer with Rachel Maddow at the time.
- [26:33]
Chuck Schumer
Take on the intelligence community. They have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. So even for a practical, supposedly hard nosed businessman, he's being really dumb to do this.
- [26:44]
Hillary Clinton
What do you think the intelligence community.
- [26:46]
Vince
Would do if they were motivated?
- [26:47]
Chuck Schumer
I don't know. But from what I am, they are very upset with how he has treated them and talked about them. And we need the intelligence community. We don't know what's going, look at the Russian hacking. Without the intelligence community we wouldn't have discovered it.
- [27:02]
Vince
Do you think he, the intel community, by the way, has low confidence in that assessment, has an agenda to try.
- [27:06]
Hillary Clinton
To dismantle parts of the intelligence community. I mean this form of taunting hostility.
- [27:10]
Chuck Schumer
Let me tell you, whether you're a super liberal Democrat or a very conservative Republican, you should be against dismantling the intelligence community.
- [27:17]
Vince
Yeah. All right. So there was Chuck Schuber mounting a defense of keeping the intel community around because you should be scared of them. That was the position that he took as the leading Democrat in the Senate. He said, you mess with them, they will hurt you. They are very upset at Trump. So Chuck Schumer in a, in a candid moment was describing the viciousness of the intel community. Oh, we've seen it. We've seen it. We know what that looks like. And now we're looking at the people who are on top of the structure to try and fight back. One other for you from that time frame when President Trump became the nominee at the Democrat National Convention. Then Senator Harry Reid, in a clip that's now going viral, once again said that the intel community should actively work to lie to President Trump, which, of course, we now know that's exactly what they were doing. Here's Harry Reid suggesting it in public.
- [28:16]
Harry Reid
And what I've suggested if now, because he's the nominee for the party and he gets, he's entitled to briefings from the CIA, for example, I told, I said publicly, give him fake briefings. Pretend you're briefing. Don't tell him anything that you don't want to get out.
- [28:31]
Vince
But as a Republican nominee, isn't he entitled to get those briefings?
- [28:35]
Harry Reid
Give him fake briefings?
- [28:36]
Vince
What does that even mean?
- [28:37]
Harry Reid
It means they'll tell him stuff. He won't know the difference.
- [28:39]
Vince
You're basically telling the intelligence community to lie to him.
- [28:42]
Harry Reid
No, no, I, I, I'm not going to lie to you. But I just don't have to tell you everything.
- [28:48]
Vince
Not going to lie to you. I just don't have to tell you everything. Give him fake briefings. Where did we start today? Remember the Presidential Daily Brief, the one that said Russia did not aspire to get Trump elected, didn't meaningfully meddle in the election at all, that the election was decided fair and square, that Trump won on the merits. They refused to tell the Trump transition team that in December 9th of 2016, in the Presidential Daily Brief, they were following the guidance that Harry Reid gave them. Lie to him. Lie. Lie by omission, whatever it takes. Then President Obama led an entire operation. These disclosures now show, in order to salt the earth for the incoming President of the United States, what Tulsi Gabbard calls a treasonous conspiracy. What to make of all of it? We'll ask our next guest. Victor Davis Hanson is here. We're gonna have a lot to discuss with him. All ahead on this edition of. Vince, glad you're with me for it. Let me see here. Hey, I want to tell you about Bone Charge, great sponsor of this program. Bone Charge is awesome. They've got this infrared sauna blanket that they sent. I love this thing. I never had a sauna in the house. Now I have an infrared sauna blanket and it works wonderfully. It's great for muscle recovery, detoxification. Pretty good, actually. After a workout, get the sauna in. It's great. It's been a total game changer for me in my life. Very easy to use. I just wrap myself up, let the infrared heat work its magic. It's created a real difference for me and how I relax and how I rejuvenate, how I feel afterward. The red light face mask. Equally impressive. My wife loves this thing. My wife Allison's Alison wears this thing every single night. Helps your skin's texture. It reduces inflammation. She's seen fantastic results. It's like having a mini spot treatment right at home. If you're thinking about trying either of these things out, you're in luck. Head to bone charge.com and you can use the Code Vince at checkout to get 15% off. It's great. Both of these products have made a huge impact on us and I'm sure you're going to love them. To use the Code Vince at Bone Charge, that's b o n charge.com to save 15%. These statements and products have not been evaluated by the fda. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition. Thanks as always to Bone Charge for sponsoring the program. Love these guys. And then also I want to tell you this episode is sponsored by Pocket Hose. Pocket Hose is also really, really good. And the reason I love the pocket hose is because it's so easy to use. You know who has time to be constantly uncoiling, recoiling, carrying the hose around trying to figure out the kinks? You have this pocket hose. This thing shrinks down to nothing as soon as you're done using it. It's awesome. It's the world's number one expandable hose. Old fashioned hoses can get all those kinks and creases at the spigot. But the Copperheads Pocket Pivot, that swivel goes 360 degrees for full water flow. Freedom to water with ease all around your home. And when you're done, it's rust proof. It's anti burst. This hose shrinks all the way back down to pocket size for effortless handling and tidy storage. Plus your super light and ultra durable pocket hose. Copperhead is backed up with a 10 year warranty. The brand new Pocket Hose Copperhead with Pocket Pivot is a total game changer. I love it. I water all the plants with ease and boom. Cleanup's a cinch. For a limited time, my listeners can get a free Pocket pivot in their 10 pattern sprayer with the purchase of any size Copperhead hose. Just text Vince to 64,000. That's Vince to 64,000 for your two free gifts with purchase. Vince to 64,000 message and data rates may apply. See terms for details@pockethose.com our thanks to pocket Hose. Yeah, baby. All right. I'm very proud to say. Joining us right now is the senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a man I've turned to many times over the years, and I'm very grateful for our conversation today. Victor Davis Hansen is in the House. Sir. Good to see you.
- [32:43]
Victor Davis Hanson
Good to see you, Vince.
- [32:45]
Vince
Great to have you here. I want to get just your impression. You've been talking relentlessly through the years about the way the left has schemed to take down President Trump and stop his progress. What do you make of Tulsi Gabbard's many disclosures this past week?
- [33:01]
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, I think all of them, and I mean, by that Comey, Clapper and Brennan had so much culpability that this is sort of the coup de grace. I mean, if you take Brennan, for example, he lied to under oath and told the House Intelligence Committee that he had no idea what the dossier was. And when he had already consulted it, he lied to the Senate and said that the CIA did not tap into Senate staffers. He lied again when he said that there was no collateral damage with these Predator drone assassinations along the Afghan border. He lied. He was one of the 51 architects of that crazy intelligence authority that said that Hunter's laptop was Russian information. Then there's Clapper. He lied and said, you know, the NSA didn't spy. And he said, I gave the least truthful answer. He called Donald Trump a Russian asset, a Russian puppet. He also was One of the 51, of course, Comey pled amnesia 245 times. The House Intelligence Committee. He did the crazy 86, 47 rock, whatever that was a threat to Trump. And he leaked a classified, or maybe just a confidential, but it was probably classified conversation, private conversation with the president to the New York Times via third party. And remember, he. He also lied to the president, said, you're not an object of an FBI investigation when it was already. So these people have so much culpability that, that I, I think that finally people just got frustrated and said, they're rogue people. They're out of control. They go on cable news. They had used until recently their clearances to wink a knob that they had knowledge that they didn't have. So they're kind of a group of scoundrels that tell you the truth.
- [34:48]
Vince
They absolutely are. We're hearing a lot of legal conversations right now about how to go after these guys. The phrase that Tulsi Gabbard keeps using is treasonous conspiracy. The President of The United States has said treason. We've heard, of course, this idea that maybe we'd use RICO statutes and conspiracy charges against them. You know, as I think about the big picture here, and I know you always do, we've seen a lot of people pursued by the left for being involved in so called conspiracies that were fraudulent. Michael Flynn had his. General Flynn had his life completely upended by the lies that are now being fully revealed here. We saw January 6th defendants who were charged as being a part of various seditious conspiracies without any basis that looks anything like this. It does seem the facts are very much on the side of holding these people accountable.
- [35:40]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, I would look at especially things and you'd have to be cognizant of the statute of limitations, but I would be very cognizant of things that they testified under oath. They have a bad habit. Even Andrew McCabe, the interim FBI degree director, remember he on three or four occasions lied to federal authorities about leaking and he should have been prosecuted. And I don't know why the first, Bill Barr let him off. But once you let these people off, they continue. They continue to lie, you know, all the time. The clap Clapper is a very interesting person because he's on record as saying that he would. They wouldn't have even used the intelligence authorities to, to go after President elect Trump during the transition if it hadn't been for Barack Obama. That shocked them and said, you know what, you really gotta do this. That was a really damning admission. So we'll see what happens. But it's very ironic they're saying that they have to lawyer up as if that's something that they haven't done to Donald Trump for nine years.
- [36:44]
Vince
Yes, yes, indeed. What do you make of the media's reaction to all of this? I was struck by the fact that they basically ignored Tulsi Gabbard going through the weekend or downplayed whatever she was disclosing. But when President Trump sat in the Oval Office and accused Obama of treason earlier this week, I knew instantly this is how the media is gonna finally start talking about this story. And sure enough, it's been wall to wall. Of course they're attacking Trump for using the word treason to describe this. But what do you think of their behavior in the midst of all of this?
- [37:16]
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, I mean, they don't really have any credibility because when they tried to get Trump off the ballot in 25 states, they raided Mar Lago, they impeached him twice, they tried him as a Private citizen. They indicted him in state, local and federal courts. 93 indictments. They all cheered this on. They thought it was great. And a lot of us at the time said, be careful. You're creating precedents that's going to boomerang because you have more legal exposure, given what you did, than Donald Trump ever did. And that's exactly what's happened. I think they're very frustrated because they created the very precedents that put them in legal jeopardy, because we had never raided a president's home, we never impeached a president twice. We had never used the investigative authorities to investigate ex presidents. We never tried to take them off the ballot. We never impeached them twice. They did all of that. And now they're looking and saying, well, he's a fascist, he's a Nazi. But no, he. You destroyed all of the guardrails. And now it's sort of schadenfreude or karma or what comes around, goes around. And I think that's why they're so angry. That and the fact they have no political power, no House, no Senate, no White House, no Supreme Court. And they're very frustrated.
- [38:26]
Vince
Yeah, for sure. And then as far as the media is concerned, I saw on CNN yesterday, Jeff Zeleny is a reporter who, as soon as Tulsi Gabbard was done speaking, they come back to cnn, and Jeff Zeleny says that we shouldn't even cover this as a network. We shouldn't dignify everything that just came out of the mouth of the Director of National Intelligence. But I went back and I looked Victor Davis Hansen, and I saw that Jeff Zeleny relentlessly breathed life into the Trump Russia collusion claims. For the last decade, he's been doing that like crazy. And he's not alone, is he?
- [39:01]
Victor Davis Hanson
No, he was one of the worst. But you gotta remember, when Trump first was elected, people like Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times, Christian Amanpour, Jorge Ramos, they all came out and said, journalism, as we know, is not working, so we're going to have to be biased. There's nothing wrong with being biased and prejudiced because this guy represents an existential threat to the republic. And once you do that, then you have, then everything is okay. And they destroyed their credibility. They were on record of saying there's no such thing as not just there is no such thing, there should be no such thing as a disinterested media. And so no one really believes them anymore. They were the ones, if you look at it in the long range, that created the entire podcast like this one, before they lied and destroyed their reputation. They had audiences and now they don't have audiences. And the conservatives are dominating a new genre. And I think that's getting them upset because some of these podcasts have more audiences than all of them put together. And I think they created it by the distrust. They.
- [40:06]
Vince
So that's right. Yeah. No, people are looking for answers because they weren't getting them from the media who were lying to them over and over and over again. Okay, so in terms of the account, going back to the accountability question for a moment, one of my concerns is like, I. I have a lot of faith in a bunch of the people who are in the administration. I have faith in the president. You know, it's why I keep voting for him. I have faith in Tulsi Gabbard. I think she's demonstrated that she's sincere and really getting after this. She was the victim of the intel community. She was the victim of Hillary Clinton's venom, and now she's in a position to do something about all of these injustices. I also have faith in Cash Patel and Dan Bongino because these guys both are obsessed in particular with this subject and have for years dedicated their lives trying to bring it to a conclusion. Inclusion. I'm concerned, though, about Pam Bondi. I'm concerned that the prosecutions. I'm not yet convinced that she's gonna be tough. Help me. Either help me feel better or give me your assessment of whether or not you think the Justice Department's fully on board here.
- [41:07]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, it depends. That was true certainly of the Trump first term with Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr. And part of that reason was that the people within the Justice Department, three or four hundred attorneys, were actively opposing the Attorney General. I don't know to what extent they have recalibrated that department. And there are people in there that are fair minded and they're not just as, you know, the Bruce or type people that we saw the first term. But that'll. That'll makes a difference and we'll see. One of the things, though, I think they've got to. I'm a little worried with the Epstein thing and this thing and other things that they've got to get the message out that we have never seen things that are going on in the economy. $15 trillion of promised investment, low inflation, good job growth, absolutely no illegal immigration, no problem with military recruitment, the trade war that didn't happen, the stock market at record highs. These are all, I think, sensational news. And They've got to get that out because ultimately the midterms are going to hinge on that.
- [42:20]
Vince
Yes, I think you're right. Well, let's talk about the successes then for a moment. What climbs to the top of the list for you? I will say on a personal level, I of course voted for a great economy and I'm glad we're headed in that way. And I voted for a secure border and man, I tell you what, on that one, I'm shocked by how effective they've been. I was hoping they would get close. They didn't just get close, they locked that thing down tight. What do you, what are you measuring as the big success here?
- [42:47]
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, I think you're absolutely right. That's the biggest success. One million, nearly a million self deportations. And they put to rest this myth that you had to have comprehensive immigration reform, which was a euphemism for amnesty. But here at ground zero in southwest Fresno county, you can see the difference. The Fresno B, the McClatchy liberal newspaper is lamenting that ERs and medical facilities have enough people now. In other words that only citizens now for don't have to stand in line. This is terrible. And you can see it's, it's already making an effect. The military recruitment, I think has been underestimated. We were told by our Pentagon grandees that you could not get 50,000 recruits. We were short, they were too fat, they used drugs, they were in gangs. There's too much competition. Trump comes in, changes the whole DEI nexus. The ads change and basically said you middle class rural people who die at double your numbers in the demographics in Afghanistan, Iraq, we want you and we're going to stress and that was amazing. They've already met the recruitment and that was not supposed to happen. May was a very strange month. We were told that revenues always go up in May and debits always go down. So the fact that we had a surplus plus in May doesn't matter. But we hadn't had one in eight years, not since 2017. May was actually a month when the federal government took in more money and we don't know the effect of $15 trillion coming into this country in the next two years. We do not know the effect of these tariffs because it seems like some of these countries were making so much money there was a magic number that a 10 or 15% tariff they could live with and not increase prices as a price as the cost of staying in this market. So we don't. All these things are new and you know, taxes on Endowments, taxes on remittances, all this stuff. We don't know what's going to end up at the end of the year, but there's a good chance with the, you know, green lighting, federal leases, Doug Burgum talking about three weeks to get an energy lease rather than two years getting rid of a million illegal aliens, most of whom had some sort of state or local support. That's a great cost saver. And so we, there's all, I guess it's 3, 360 degrees. All these things are happening and many of them have never happened before and nobody can really calibrate the effect of them.
- [45:14]
Vince
Yeah. And it's also, as you point out, hard to appreciate how much success there's been because there's so many, so much success in so many arenas. On the tariff thing, I've found it interesting that all of the establishment economists and especially the people who hate Trump were all rooting against this to begin with. They were claiming that calamity was ensuing, was going to come and now they're all scratching their heads, what is going on here? Why aren't we seeing prices rise? And yet the treasury is taking in, they say, over $50 billion already in tariff payments. There's been a lot of success there and a lot of people who are eating crow who were straight up saying it was going to be a disaster.
- [45:53]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. I went back and looked at the March news division accounts in the Wall Street Journal. It was amazing. They said we were going to have a stock market collapse, we were going to be in a recession, the trade war was going to give us stagflation, job growth would collapse. None of that happened. And there's no explanation why they were wrong. But again, Scott Besant just said I could not believe what he said. He said if things were to go as they are now, we could get a third of a trillion dollars in tariff revenue. The Wall Street Journal keeps saying, well, that may be true, but it's going to hurt gdp. But so far it hasn't. So you get the impression that these countries like Germany or Japan or especially China were making out like bandits. They had maybe a 20 or 30% profit margin coming into this market, our consumer market, with not letting us in. And now Maybe they're making 10% truck and they're eating the tariffs and not raising their prices because if they do, they won't be competitive. So they haven't spurred inflation like we were assured they would.
- [46:55]
Vince
Yeah, no, that's been, that's been fascinating. Okay. Also, you're A student of foreign policy. I just want to move to that arena for a moment. The President did launch those strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. He has established what appears to be kind of a tenuous peace between Israel and Iran, a cease fire of sorts, of between them. He's having trouble bringing a conclusion to the Russia, Ukraine war right now. He's frustrated, it seems right now a lot more with Putin than previously. But he's certainly frustrated with both sides of that equation. How do you grade him and his efforts here?
- [47:31]
Victor Davis Hanson
It's very good. In the Middle east, he really threaded the needle. He was able. The MAGA people got angry at him, but he was only in Iranian territory 35 minutes. The left got angry and no sooner did he destroy that infrastructure for five or ten years, then he declared a ceasefire. Then when they did that ceremonial performance art attack on our base in Qatar, he just, he didn't reply. He said, they didn't do it. We knew they were coming. They had to get it out of their system, make Iran great again. It just shocked everybody. And so right now, Iran's safety depends on the mood of American President or an Israeli Prime Minister. They have no air defenses, they have no air force, they have no navy, they have nothing. They don't have a nuclear. So, you know, it's pretty strange when we go into Iranian airspace, we have to ask the permission of the IDF to get go in. So that I think that's the biggest revolution we've seen. And the Arab community, the moderate Arab regimes wanted us to do this and they wanted Israel to do this, but they didn't want to say that. So I think you're going to see a lot of movement. The Ukraine thing is interesting because Trump thought that he had a special knack for dealing with Putin because Putin had not invaded any other country during the last four administrations. He had not invaded during Trump's administration, but he had the other three before and after. But I think now Trump, it might work out well for Trump that he can say, I was the only one that lamented the million and a half casualties. I'm sorry, sick of the human costs. I tried to deal with Putin, but you can't deal with them. And at some point, Putin, I think his problem is he's got a million Russians dead, missing or wounded and he's got to explain to the apparat in Russia that it was worth it. And apparently just reifying the fact that he got Crimea. He already did Donbass. He already did. They never were going to get a NATO. He's going to say that he kept him out of NATO. He doesn't think that's enough. Maybe 50 or 60 miles beyond where he was. So that's the, they're going to have to find a DMZ somewhere. But I think that's the point. And the more pressure that's put on Putin, I think the more likely he will, he will see that he has no choice. His economy is really starting to hurt and he's lost too many Russians for nothing.
- [49:51]
Vince
You know, the president has had a lot of success in getting Europe to carry more of the weight here though, too, because the United States had carried everything virtually. Europe was doing something, but not to the level that it should have been, given how approximate the threat was. And now Europe, 5% GDP being expended on military. Now, this is a massive change from the relationship that the European countries had with President Trump in the first term.
- [50:18]
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, it was when he came in. Only 6% were making their 2014 promise to pay 2% of GDP. And then now it's 24 of the 30 have already made the two. The others, except for Spain and Canada, will do it very shortly. The 5% will be interesting because I like the idea they promise. But when you look at their economies, their energy costs with this crazy, basically they have a new green New Deal methodology and you look at their open borders, they got 16% of their population in places like France, France or Germany of illegal immigrants, many of them hostile to, to the West. And then in addition, their energy costs are about double ours. So it's, it's you, you just. And they have a fertile fertility rate of about 1.45 less than 1.5. And you wonder how those economies are going to spin if you to go from 2 to 5%. 5%. 5%. You're talking, you know, a trillion dollars or $2 trillion. I hope they can do it. But even Canada is only spending 1.37 of GDP, 1 point closer to 1.4. And they don't seem to be able to do that. They're talking about that, well, how can we spend another 50 or 60 billion dollars? So I hope that they're not waiting Trump out that when he leaves office they are hoping for a Democratic Party president and then they'll backslide. But for now, it's good news.
- [51:51]
Vince
Well, President Trump told him, you don't have to spend any more money. Just join the United States and we'll keep doing what we've always done. We've protected you. Victor Davis Hansen, really appreciate you. Thank you so Much for spending some time with us today.
- [52:03]
Victor Davis Hanson
Thank you.
- [52:05]
Vince
All right, there he is. Victor Davis Hansen. Always great to get from him. And yes, sneaky. Gemini points out that vdh, like rfk, knows details about everything. Yeah, he does. He does. He literally knows everything. Okay, let's bring in someone who knows everything. Victor Davis Hansen. He's perfect for that. All right, let's see. I've got some various. I got some Epstein stuff to hit. We mentioned Epstein in the interview. The judge denied yesterday the release of the grand jury documents that the Trump administration is seeking. They want to get various grand jury files out about Jeffrey Epstein. The judge refusing to do that. The big piece yesterday, though, that the media is going gaga over is a Wall Street Journal piece that says the Justice Department told Trump in May that his name is among many in the Epstein files. Done. Done. Done what? His name is among the files. Are you telling me that Donald Trump knew Jeffrey Epstein at one point? The evidence on that question is abundantly clear. Of course they knew one another. The president, of course, has acquitted himself really nicely in his relationship, whatever that was, with Jeffrey Epstein, because, let's see, he banished Epstein from Mar? A Lago, kicked him out because Epstein was harassing the daughter of one of Mar? A Lago's members. A lawyer who represented a ton of Epstein victims said that the only person who produced the most helpful contributions to his efforts was Donald Trump. I called Trump and I said, hey, will you help me? He goes, I'd give you anything you need. What do you need? President Trump got on the phone and helped him out. President Trump has, of course, condemned Jeffrey Epstein. Yet the media are desperate for a distraction. They're desperate for a distraction from all of the Obama revelations that are coming out. And so they're trying to cook the books against President Trump. They're trying to make it seem like something vile happened between President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. That's the game plan. Don't fall for it. They say when Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a truckload of documents related to Epstein earlier this year, they discovered Donald Trump's name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials. In May, Bondi and her deputy informed the president at a meeting at the White House that his name was in the Epstein files. Okay, what does that mean? Many other high profile figures were also named. Trump was told being mentioned in the records isn't a sign of wrongdoing, The Wall Street Journal eventually admits. They say the official said it was a routine briefing. It covered a number of topics and Trump's appearance in the documents wasn't even the focus. Oh, so this is a story about nothing. This is a story about nothing. Now it has the media up in arms. There. There is, there is a piece, a tweet yesterday in the midst of all of this that came out from the. The Miami Herald reporter who was the beat reporter on the Jeffrey Epstein story to begin with. She said her name's Julie Brown. She said that this is much ado about nothing. Nothing. Julie Brown writes that Trump's name, along with many other names, was on Epstein's plane logs, his name in his black book, phone directing, and his name was on phone message pads seized by police from Epstein's Palm beach home in 2005. All of these have long been a part of the federal investigation into Epstein. So the idea that Trump's name would be in the files is not new. And having your name in the files in and of itself doesn't implicate him in any wrongdoing. That's Julie Brown. Now, in fact, these, this attempt to turn it into a scandal for Trump is so ridiculous that even Morning Joe over on MSNBC today is making the case that there is really no reason to think this is damaging for President Trump. Take a listen. Here is Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough this morning saying, yeah, okay, whatever. You know who else is in the Epstein files? John Kerry.
- [56:26]
Victor Davis Hanson
Now listen, what does that mean? John Kerry's name is in the Epstein files. There's a million people's names in the Epstein files.
- [56:33]
Vince
He's not listening. John Kerry. What's Kerry doing on the Epstein files? Lurch himself. You know, old Botox faces in the. The Epstein files. Well, now I'm curious. What did Jeffrey Epstein do? Let's start a whole. Sorry, what did John Kerry do? What did John Kerry do? Let's start a whole news cycle on that question. Let's get to the bottom of Kerry's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Love to know more, Love to know more. But that's the position that they're taking over on msnbc. Finally, let me point out what should be abundantly clear. If there was actually derogatory information about President Trump, if that's the point of the, quote, cover up that the left wants you to pretend like is happening. If that's the case, well then why didn't the Biden administration release that information? You know, they would have. In fact, the Washington Post straight up this past week said if there was actually damaging information about Trump, it would have already leaked. The Washington Post declared there is no damaging information about Trump in this. Even the Washington Post, of all places. All right, I got a big radio show coming up today. We've got the 12 to 3 nationwide, the Vince Show. You can find your local listings on that@thevinshow.com or just watch us. We do it live on rumble. Rumble.com Vince, always so good to have you with us. Best damn audience in media.