
In this episode, I'll explain why I changed my mind about the death penalty. Also, what you should know about the elections held across the country last night
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Dan Bongino
All America, all the time. Sit down, buckle up and get ready for the Dan Bongino show. So warning in advance, today's show is gonna be quite an emotional roller coaster because I, I don't, I don't change my mind on topics often. And that's for a reason. I don't mean topics about parenting and kids. You learn new things every day. I'm talking about on politics now. Why is that? Well, I believe in conservatism, you know, conservative ideas. The whole essence of conservatism, if you're ever explaining it to friends or your kids want to. Dad, what does it mean to be a conservative Is the idea that there are timeless principles. Economic liberty, political freedom, you know, tax oriented, growth oriented tax policies, respect for life from conception to natural death, the idea that the right to bear arms is given to you by God to defend your life, the idea that you're free to practice, your right to assemble, to petition religion, all of that. These are timeless principles. They're not supposed to change like lick your finger. Where are the political winds going? I changed my mind. I don't believe in freedom of religion anymore. The First Amendment, the right to speak out, you either believe in this stuff or you don't. They are timeless principles. They don't change with time. That's what timeless means. But folks, that doesn't mean you have to be iron headed either. And I've had a major, major kind of life changing revelation and it, it's happened over the course of time. It's not this one thing, but there was, if there was a Road to Damascus moment, it. So I don't want to prolong, I'm not trying to tease it or anything, I'm going to get to it in a minute. But there's kind of going to be some good news, bad news. Beginning of the show. It's the case of Athena Strand, the six year old young girl brutally murdered by the FedEx driver. You probably aware of the case, folks, it's, I haven't discussed it for a reason. Why? It's unleagueable. No, no, I'm not involved in the case at all. I just can't. It's, it's such a. I struggle for the words to describe the scale of the tragedy in the case. I mean you rarely see cases where the whole courtroom is crying at the same time listening what happened. It's just so without. I'm going to get to that because I'm not that. I don't want to like pride before the fall is the worst thing. And I'm wrong on that. I am. And I'm gonna explain to you why my position on the death penalty has definitely changed. And this is if there was a road to Damascus knocked off the horse moment, this was it. I have that. I got some good news to start though. However, I don't want to just hit you with all of this emotional overload. You know how the show is. I got Vince Colonnaise, also, the great Vince. You know, we love him. Part of the Bongino family there. Bongino Inc. Family coming up later too. We're gonna talk about all kinds of things. We love vids. So we got a big show for you today. Some good news to start. Okay. Before we get to the tough stuff, hey, if we're serious about making America healthy again, you need a pharmacy that's making it happen. Get 10% off at allfamilypharmacy.com Bongino use code BONGINO10 prescription provided if appropriate. I've been using them for NAD, methylene blue, all of it. Allfamilypharmacy.com BONGINO code BONGINO10 check them out today. Today's show also brought to you by my favorite cell phone service, Patriot Mobile for a couple reasons. Number one, I'm putting this first because it matters. I'm a business guy. It's just damn good cell phone service. But number two, they're always going to have your back. They have been longtime backers of this show. The Christian conservative movement, economic freedom and liberty. They have been in the parallel economy as long as it's existed. It's a critical moment in our history. The opposition's growing fierce. There's been a lot of infighting going on in the party. But now with Patriot Mobile, they've been standing on the front lines fighting for freedom for more than 12 years. I've been with this show for a long time. They deliver top tier wireless service. I can vouch me and Paula both have it. They're activists. They're proud of it. They care about the country. Patriot Mobile offers prioritized premium access on all three major US Networks. You don't want to see zero bars, get yourself Patriot Mobile giving you the same or better coverage in the main carriers. It means fast speeds and dependable nationwide coverage backed by 100% US based customer support. They also offer unlimited data plans, mobile hotspots, international roaming, super easy to set up and more with simple seamless activation. You can switch in minutes. Keep your number, keep your phone. You can upgrade too. Here's the difference. When you switch to Patriot Mobile, you support a company, provides a powerful stream of giving to help the Christian conservative movement. Can't beat that. Great service, great cause. Take a stand today. Go to patriotmobile.com dan or call 972-patriot and use promo code DAN for a free month of service. Great deal. Don't wait. That's patriotmobile.com dan or call 972-patriot. Thank you, Patriot Mobile. All right, fellas, let's go. As always, a thank you to the best, greatest, most solid, loyal audience in the business. I love you guys. You've been there for me the entire time. Through the show, through the TV show on Fox, through the radio show at the FBI, back here on the podcast with you. You have always been there for me. I am ferociously loyal to you. I cannot thank you enough for riding the wave. Good times, bad times. You've always been there for me. I just saw this on stream charts on Twitter the other day. This one's not about me. We were the number one Rumble live streamer this month. Great. Fantastic. Who cares? I love it. However, the loyalty component. Look who just cracked the top 10 Bongino report. Who's on the Bongino Report channel? Vince and Haley. That is just after just a year or so in business with Haley Carony at noon and Vince at 8. The Bongino armies made him a top 10 rumble channel by peak viewers. And you're up there with some ringers, man. You, Tim Pool, Steve Crowder, you got some just rock stars up there. So thank you so much. Bongino army for support. And you can see them at the Bongino report rumble channel. Rumble.comvince rumble.com Haley goes there too. So thank you guys so much. Really appreciate it. On the good news front, ladies and gentlemen, I am cautiously optimistic that we may be able to preserve in the midterm elections a hopefully pretty decent outcome if we don't fall prey to the doomers like nothing is happening. Don't show up and vote. Cut that bullshit out right now. Why? Folks, receipts matter. Bring the receipts or shut up. I'm just telling you. Here's where we stand today. A thousand things could change. But don't fall into this. There's going to be a blue wave thing. Don't get into red wave stuff either. But don't fall. Just go out and do the do matters Talk is bullshit. Okay? Talk is great. You got to do stuff. You have to do stuff. You have to go vote. And bring 10 people with you. YouGov tweet on Congress. I thought we were told we were getting smoked. Everything sucks. Nothing's happening. Trump's historically unpopular. It's over. Really? YouGov no friend of the Republican Party here, by the way, if the midterms for US Congress are being held today, who would you vote for in the district you live? Democrat candidate 44. Republican candidate 41. However, look at the trend line. Last week it was Democrats 46, Republican 41. It's not great news that we're down a couple points here, three points. However, it's starting to converge as some of the economic activity starts to pick up, as the war in Iran starts to, you know, slowly tail off and resolve. They announced yesterday, you know, the end of offensive actions over there in Iran. Now you're starting to see the fruits of a lot of this. Factory orders picking up, the economy picking up, you know, inflation still relatively tame compared to the Biden years. Job numbers look good. GDP numbers look pretty good. Now you're starting to see this. All the gas prices and gas futures, oil and gas futures down today on potentially some resolution with the straight. Don't fall into the panic, man, please, I'm begging you. Not to mention put up a playbook first. I know I'm a little out of order, but the Trump endorsement and the MAGA movement, ladies and gentlemen, I'll get into this with Vince again later. Is gold. Nobody votes for endorsements, period. Except for Donald Trump. They don't. Who was an endorsement you voted on the past. No, I'm dead serious. Like you only voted on the endorsement. Maybe 10% of the audience will say yes, I, I vote for who other people tell me to vote for. People don't vote for endorsements. They're nice to have. They may give you a temporary bump. They just don't vote for endorsements except Donald Trump. Indiana Republicans thought it would be a good idea not to redistrict the state to make a more fair map and get more Republican seats. Donald Trump warned them. Hey man, no surprises here. Redistrict the state or we're going to primary you. It's our choice. We're going to pick different people. Playbook. Biggest takeaway from last night's primaries in Indiana. Pre midterm southern state redraws became a whole lot more likely after the Supreme Court ruling they say gutted the voting. I get the bullshit there. The Indiana Republicans last night who voted against redistricting their state, most of them lost. Hat tip James Blair, by the way, for an amazing political operation up there from the Trumps from the Trump team. Those Southern states. Redistricting is looking a lot more likely now. You want fair maps, then you damn well better be willing to fight for. Not only do we have a guy in charge right now in the White House, a president who has just massive political power, this MAGA movement is not going anywhere. You can keep wishing it and trying to make Fetch happen. It's not happening. Donald Trump's movement that he started, the MAGA movement, is not going anywhere. You can keep telling yourself that it's not happening. Tell Gretchen Fetch is not happy. It's not happening. Man, look at this guy, by the way. Here he is in the Oval Office yesterday. President Trump. This is why this. This president, he's just hard to get away from the movement. The bench is strong. The MAGA movement is strong. There's going to be some ups and downs in the poll numbers. You get good news and bad news. It always fluctuates in politics. But when you get a guy like this in the White House who's just so relatable, he's going to be hard to beat. His endorsement's going to be hard to beat, and whoever he endorses in 2028 is going to be hard to beat, too. Check this out. I don't think we have to worry about you. Yes, sir. You're going to do good. Are you a strong person?
Marco Rubio
Yes, sir.
Dan Bongino
Good. You think you can take me in a fight? That would be embarrassing. I play that cut for a couple reasons. Yeah. It's funny why he's playing funny stuff. We can watch it anywhere. Okay. Get past the relatable. Funny part. Being relatable is a huge part of politics. Ask Bill Clinton, whose saxophone appearance on Arsenio hall is widely thought to have turned the course of that election. You can just Google that yourself if you're bored. I remember it when I was in. When I was in. Was I in college when that went down? He's sitting there on the saxophone playing on Arsenio. Everybody's like, wow, look at this, a cool guy. Whatever. Being relatable matters. But that's not why I played that clip, too. I played it for another reason. Donald Trump understands that this Maha movement, Secretary Kennedy, this Make America Healthy Again movement, which we're going to get to, by the way, today, we're going to cover that just relentlessly. There is a huge pocket of voters, folks who are now voting on basic lifestyle issues for them. Don't poison me with pharmaceuticals that don't work. Don't poison me with food additives. That are maybe destroying my health. Let me choose my own healthcare freedom. Moving forward. It's a huge movement. Donald Trump, by reinstituting this presidential fitness test, having Bobby Kennedy around this Make America Healthy Again movement fully understands the politics of building coalitions moving forward. Bank on it. You think this stuff is an accident? You think Trump's stupid? He just has him in there. Go. Because he cares about a presidential fitness test. He knows exactly what he's doing. And the bench is deep. The bench is deep. Stop what you're doing unless you're driving. Don't stop that. I need you to listen to this. Marco Rubio. Yesterday, Secretary Rubio was filling in for Caroline Levitt at the daily press briefing. Folks, this may be the single best answer about the profound, unparalleled greatness of America I've ever heard given off the cuff. I've seen really good answers in written speeches in advance. He doesn't know this question's coming. He's not. He's not reading off any notes. If you're listening on Apple and Spotify, watch the video yourself. But you can just believe he's not reading off. He's just. Watch Marco Rubio respond to this answer. It's about a minute, but this is worth your time. Stop what you're doing and listen to this and tell me how the Republican Party MAGA movement is gonna, like, die with President Trump. It's not. He has started a revolution in America that is going to be Donald Trump's legacy. If he ever makes it to a Mount Rushmore status is gonna be everything he did, but everything that happened after him, that he started. Check this out.
Marco Rubio
My hope for America is what it's always been. I think it's the hope I hope we all share. We want it to continue to be the place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. Where you're not limited by the circumstances of your birth, by the color of your skin, by your ethnicity. But frankly, it's a place where you are able to overcome challenges and achieve your full potential. I think that should be the goal of every country in the world, frankly. But I think in the US we're not perfect. Our history is not one of perfection, but it's still better than anybody else's history. And ours is a story of perpetual improvement. Each generation has left the next generation of Americans freer, more prosperous, safer. And that is our goal as well. But it is a unique and exceptional country. And as we come upon this 250 year anniversary, I think we have a lot to learn and be proud of in our history. It is one of perpetual and continuous improvement where each generation has done its part to bring us closer to fulfilling the vision that the founders of this country had upon its founding.
Dan Bongino
Chat's going nuts right now. Who just said it? Someone in the chat. Rubio is amazing. Patty 84 JD Vance Rubio, 2028. DJ Marco Rubio is doing us proud. Scratching McGroin. Scratch you, McGroins. You guys got the best names out there. Is there anything Rubio kid Justin's video today. I didn't know he's going to pick that one. It's way too early in the show. But he said, that must be really good. You haven't even seen the other videos. He's like, yes, I had. I did the show prep. It doesn't matter. You got to play it on the show before it's official. Is there anything this guy can't do? I told you folks, the bench is deep. Deep. Brandon Gill and the congressional side. Vance Rubio. We've got just studs in this administration. Notice he's not looking at. Someone said in a chat to forgive me. I saw her. He don't need no binder. You don't need the binder. Remember the binder that was just off his head? Top of his head, you know, and trust me, I'm not comparing myself to Marco Rubio. Got it. I don't want anyone to think I'm making this about. No, I'm just telling you, I don't write speeches down myself. I try to keep just bullet points in my head. And I was at a dinner one time and someone asked me, well, how do you do that? And I said, well, I just love what I'm talking about. I mean, if someone asked you, hey, tell me how great your kids are and why you love them, do you need to write a speech? You just say it. That's why I'm rubioj. Tell me why America's great. He just loves the topic. Boom, boom. No notes, no binder. Folks, politics. Listen to me. Politics are two things. Chad, help me in, help me out. What are the two things in politics? What it matters more than anything. You got to know this. You're a P1. You know, it's sound bites and snapshots. That's it. You don't know that. Don't get into political space. It is about sound bites. And why are you doing that to the audience? Bringing back bad memories. There's the binder. Just politics is snapshots like that and soundbites that's what it is, folks. White papers are great. I love the idea that people think things through on white papers and proposals. But politics are snapshots. That is photos and sound bites. That is it. People, right now, this younger generation through TikTok, Snapchat and elsewhere, the attention span for content in this massive pool of content out there, it's not like it was back in the day. Abc, NBC, cbs, everybody tune in for half an hour. Watch Walter Cronkite. That's not the way we roll anymore. People are getting their news from X, Facebook, Instagram, reels, Snapchat. They're on the web, they're off the web. They're every cable news. Some people still read old school newspapers. My father still buys the newspaper. He needs to look at the newspaper. In this fragmented environment, you need a snapshot and a sound bite. Why do I say that? Guys, I don't live in la, but I do cover, you know, obviously politics. If you're not following this Los Angeles mayor's race, you are missing out in what could be a PhD course in politics. I know. You're like, what do I care about the LA mayor's race for? You should, because there's a guy running named Spencer Pratt. He was in a reality show earlier on in his lifetime. The guy's house burned down in the Palisades fire. He's now running for mayor against Karen Bass. Kind of an entrenched Democrat, establishmentarian, far left liberal. I don't know who put this ad together. It's obviously a. I don't think it was his campaign, but this thing went nuclear yesterday. If you have not seen this, I don't want to call it an ad because I'm not sure. I think someone just generated an AI. But it was all over this ad about the California mayor's race. If you're listening on Apple and Spotify, you need to go back and watch this immediately on the show. I want you to check this out. Maybe one of the greatest things I have ever seen and remember the entire time. Snapshots and sound bites. And you'll see why this is so effective. Check this out. Please, I'm begging you.
Vince Colonnaise
There's homeless drug addicts in front of the schools. My children aren't safe.
Dan Bongino
Look, if you were a transgender migrant, I could get you a free.
Vince Colonnaise
Let's move the drug addicts closer.
Dan Bongino
Bass already solved crime. I endorse her. Next. Please. I just want to rebuild my home. It's been over a year. Mom, look,
Vince Colonnaise
This is a machine. If we want to burn this town to the ground.
Dan Bongino
You can do it, Spencer. Holy Moses. That's the greatest thing ever. Even Justin's not even a dancer. Justin's like a six foot two gringo. He's getting. He's got hips like a fire hydrant. You know, Shakira's hips don't lie. Justin's hips lie all the time. And Justin's up there dancing. That is the single greatest. I can't call an ad because I don't. I don't think it was. I think someone just put it together, do AI. And you may be like, well, it's over the top. The Batman thing. No bullshit. That thing was everywhere yesterday. Look at the chat. Going effing bananas. And I didn't. I just said, I'm trying to get a hold of you got monthlys in there.
Alex Carrick Atanis
You.
Dan Bongino
We haven't seen that. You got to break the chat at Rumble. You're going to break it again. I haven't seen a chat move like this in days. Going freaking bananas. Monthly's every. That is the single greatest thing I think I've ever seen. I. Absolutely incredible. That line by Gavin Newsom. In the beginning, you look at it, you're transgender. I could get you a new cat. Snapshots and sound bites. Kids, you may not know a thing about Spencer Pratt. You may not know a thing about Karen Bass. You busy living your own life. You may not live in la. I don't blame you. You got your own things to worry. Man, that chat is. I can see it out of the corner of my eye. Still going banana now. It's really going so great to be here with you every morning. I told you, you know, I was chatting with Vince earlier this morning about his success. Look at that thing. Look at that chat. And why? See it right on the corner of the screen right there. And I said to him, you know, haven't done radio like he's doing now, and podcasts. But back to just the podcast. I look at it still going crazy. The best part about being here every day at 10am for the live stream, you know, I appreciate you watching On Demand too, though. It's like having, what do we have, 52,000 people, 24 minutes in? It's like having 52,600 callers into a radio show at the same time. It's your show. Look at snapshots and sound bites, fellas. Ladies, that's what it's all about. And this Spencer Pratt, Karen Bass race. If he pulls this mega upset off, I'm going to say, like, shame. For not paying attention because it is a PhD. You know what it reminds me? It's a PhD course in politics. Should have finished my thought. You know what it reminds me of? And I'm not comparing the candidates, I'm just comparing the tactics. I want to be clear because I don't know a lot about Spencer Pratt. It reminds me of Trump 2016, the renegade tactics. It just does. It's just like move fast and break stuff. Try what works. Now, showing you that this stuff matters because, yeah, we can show you ads and we can mutley them and laugh about them, but this isn't funny. This is the exercise of raw political power. The LA mayor seat is probably one of the five most powerful positions in the world. Head of Russia, head of China, mayor of New York, mayor of New York City, US President, like mayor of Chicago. These are like top five top ten most powerful positions in the world. You can move world markets with announcements. That's the exercise of raw power. This race does matter. Mark Penn is a Democrat, political pollster was on Fox the other day and Mark Penn was talking about something you need to, you know, I always say it. Brain tattoos. You need to tattoo this on your brain if you're ever going to get involved in politics as an activist, a candidate or elsewhere. There are basically two ways to create a winning environment in an election, and one of them is a contrast. A contrast. You can't just say, we're great, we're great, we're great. You have to paint for your audience the contrast of why the other guy or woman is so bad. And that's what that ad does so effectively. Listen to a pollster. Guy's a Democrat too. He's a Democrat. He's not one of us. Explaining exactly how this works. Check this out.
Mark Penn
Closer than people think it is. People are unhappy with the economy, they're unhappy with the Republicans, but they're also even unhappier with the Democrats. And so you have to say, is this election going to be a referendum on the Republicans, in which case that's bad, or is it going to be a choice? And are the Republicans going to be able to make it a choice if they do that? When I ask, who do you have more confidence in to handle the economy, Trump and the Republicans or the Democrats in Congress? Trump and the Republicans win that 53 to 47. So, yes, people are really suffering in terms of the way they perceive the economy, but. And they're unhappy with the way it's going. But the Democrats haven't stepped up and shown that they will do a better job. And that's why I think this election, although usually the in party goes out, is still closer than most people think.
Dan Bongino
I saw some of you in the chat commenting on that video. I think it was Charlie B. Curran on X, that Spencer Pratt video. But this point by Mark Pennsylvania is brilliant. I don't care. He's a Democrat. He's correct. We cannot make this election a pure referendum on Republicans. Why? Because there are a lot of people out there, Democrats, Independents and some folks who just didn't want any kind of hostilities in Iran at all, who just aren't happy. It's always going to. You never going to have. Donald Trump has really high approval, no doubt about. But Donald Trump's not on the ballot in every state. If it was Donald Trump running in every Senate congressional seat, I'm perfectly happy with where we are right now. But he's not. We can't make it a referendum purely on Republicans. We have to engage in part two. We have to make contrasts. We have to paint a picture of what the other side looks like too. Full circle. That's why this Spencer Pratt video, I'll call it, is so powerful. You're reminded that even if you don't know who Spencer Pratt is, you know who the hell Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass are, and they suck. We can't make this midterm a pure referendum. I'm comfortable in our record, happy with our record, but some people just have a different policy position on stuff. But once that policy position, well, I don't like the war and Iran. Okay, you want Joe Biden inflation. You want Joe Biden open, but. Well, I don't want that. Okay, we win. I'll take it. You get it. Listen to me, brain tattoo. Referendum choice. Referendum choice. You always want to make it a choice election because we are just better than them. Our solutions are better, our policies are better, our growth policies, our policing policies, public safety policies, all of it. Brilliant by Mark Penn. All right, I'm going to take a quick break and this is going to be a little difficult because I. I don't like being wrong about stuff, but I'm pretty convinced I was. I'll find out one day from the Almighty and so will you. And hopefully I'm on the right side of that. But I don't change my mind often. But I did about this. All right, man. Sorry. It's going to be a tough one. I'm just preparing for it, folks. Spring's always around the corner. Spring cleaning, you know you dial in. You want to clean up the house. But before swapping furniture or tackling a full reset, fixing your mattress changes everything. Get a good night's sleep. The greatest life hack of all is good sleep. Everything else is a distant second and third. If you're waking up, you have sore mornings, your shoulders are hurting, your neck's hurting, your back's hurting, you probably have a really bad mattress. You don't even know about it. You get lower back pain. Nights don't fully settle you down. You wake up feeling not rested. Helix Helix mattresses H E L I X are a game changer. I just hate going to hotels now because I'm not on my Helix mattress. 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We are going in and pulling violent animals off the street. So if you haven't heard about this case and you're not ready for this, I understand if you want to tune out now because it's not an easy segment. And no, I'm not going to play the video of the FedEx truck. I'm sorry, I'm not doing it. I can't. I don't want to see it. And I. But there is a. An animal and I don't want to say animal because Lucy's an animal. And a demon by the name of Tanner Homer, who was sentenced yesterday to death for the murder of Athena Strand, a six year old young girl who was kidnapped, put in the back of a FedEx truck where this individual was a driver. What happened to her was caught, some of it on video, some on audio. The audio was apparently so disturbing, the cries for help and elsewhere, it's just hard to talk about, man. I'm really sorry that the people in the courtroom were all in tears. So I'm just going to play this for you. This is the judge. The sound is not amazing. It's a little low, but it's worth your time. It's about 30 seconds of his sentencing where this demon is sentenced to death. So just take a look at this. You will be caused to die in
Vince Colonnaise
accordance with the rules and regulations established by the Texas Department of Criminal justice until you said Tanner Horner are dead.
Dan Bongino
Said execution procedure shall be determined and supervised by the director of the Texas
Vince Colonnaise
Department of Criminal Justice.
Dan Bongino
The clerk of this court shall issue a death warrant in accordance with this sentence directed to the director, Director of
Vince Colonnaise
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Dan Bongino
For that purpose, clerk shall deliver such warrant to the sheriff of this county and to be by him delivered to the director of the Department of Criminal
Vince Colonnaise
justice together with you.
Dan Bongino
And you will remand to the custody of the Tarrant County Jail to await transportation. Tanner Horner. Ups. I don't even want to mention this. This. This. I. I don't. I don't. I don't know. I. I don't know. It's a talk show. I don't. I don't. I don't really have the adjectives or adverbs to describe this level of evil. I'm not playing what happened. I. It's A conscious choice, if you want. I suggest you don't watch it. I I. Or listen to it. I really do. Because it will scar you forever, like it has me. Ladies and gentlemen, this case has so deeply impacted my life that every time I go onto Twitter, I've had to, like, mute words. That's how disturbing it is now. In the past, I have not been a supporter of the death penalty. And I'll tell you, there have been, there have been really very few shows over the years where my own audience has kind of rebelled against a position that's okay. This is not a monarchy. Dan Bongino show. We're not collectivists. I am not your boss. I'm not your king. I'm none of that. I'm one of you. I'm just a guy with an opinion that may differ from you. And I was not a supporter of the death penalty. And I think I owe you an explanation as to why I've explained in the past, but some of you are new to the show. I felt that given this modern technological advancement we have of sophisticated incarceration, that if there was even a mild chance at salvation, that being a Christian, albeit not always a great one, but I try, that if Jesus wanted to save someone, that we should give them the shot. That was my reason. However, I think that's a luxury modern society affords us that our ancestors didn't have. When you didn't have technologically advanced prisons and human beings were living in tribes and small communities, the chance of someone getting out and escaping like this individual and doing this again was great, was high. So sometimes, a lot of times they had to take drastic action and make harsh decisions like the penalty of death. I think I've been. Satiated by that luxury that, oh, yeah, you know, one day Jesus could save them. And Jesus can do what he wants. He's omnipotent. But this is an evil so great that the only solution is death. The only solution is death. That is a malignancy so dangerous that the idea you could contain it in some kind of a capsule is so unfair to other kids. If that capsule were to break and this were to happen again, the blood would be on the hands of people like me who did not support extinguishing it. And it is really unfair to the audience to continue to support that position. I can't. And maybe it's because, like I said, this has been a gradual change. I've been thinking about this for a long time. I don't take policy positions like the death penalty, which is obviously tautologically final. Lightly. Ever. I've been thinking about this for a while, but if there were some Paul getting knocked from the horse on the Road to Damascus moment, if there were me watching that video and listening to that sound, There's some evil so profound that the risk is just too great. It's one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. So, as I said to you before, as my audience, you deserve the truth from me. And when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. And I was wrong about that. And I should have probably listened to some of your feedback. I forget when I did the show. It doesn't matter, three or four years ago. But I had mentioned. I was. I just mentioned it casually. I don't even think it was the subject of a segment. And, man, we got so many emails. And some of your emails were spot on. I remember one I saw often, and I don't even like to say, but what if it was a member of your family? And I said, you know what? You're right. That's kind of hypocritical because I'd be the first one out there, you know, probably violently killing this person to get my own retribution. But then when it's someone else's, it just. You were right. So I want to thank you, the audience, for number one, staying on top of me and not treating this show like I'm some kind of, you know, special deity. I'm not. I. I'm not. I have no X Men superpowers. I'm just a guy. I do politics and issues for a living because I enjoy it. However, this has been one of the more unenjoyable but necessary segments I think I've ever done. Folks. Having said that, I'm going to tell you something. I have never in my life been prouder ever about accepting the role I took over the past year. And having seen a lot of this stuff, I'm just here to tell you to the public safety moms and dads out there who see this story and say, that better never happen to my kid. This stuff happens a lot. It's not caught on video and audio as often as it doesn't get the media attention. But this is not an isolated case. I'm not just talking about the kidnapping. I'm talking about violent crime in general, to women, to men, to kids, to teens. Some of the stuff we would hear every day in FBI headquarters will change your life. And I'm not talking about for the better. We've got a choice coming up in the midterms as well. And ladies and gentlemen, law and order is non negotiable. So I am begging those public safety, law enforcement, safe streets, moms and dads to please make a choice. Because when you see crime like this up close and personal, all that defund the police shit, you can roll it up in a ball and shove it right up your. Chai. Over at Libs, a TikTok put out this tweet yesterday. It was about police body cams. Again, going back to the video, the FedEx, the FedEx demon with the young girl, she notes police body cams ended the entire BLM grift. This might be the greatest backfire in history. You are damn right. Look at some of the imagery from police body cams. We were told about all these. This is. Everything's racist to them. There's nothing to do with racism. The majority of this crime is perpetrated on minority communities, including the black community. Look at some of the images from police body cams. These are years ago, before police body cams. Greatest backfire in history. And I had said this, you know, as if you listen to my show. I've said this over and over. There were some, some people, a small group of people on the right. Body cams are intrusive. They're going to be abused. And I said the body cam is the greatest invention ever. Because I know cops. I've been with the nypd, the Secret Service and the FBI. I think I'm the only person ever done those three. I've seen it all. And the cops out there, I know are good guys. And when you see those images, put those back up there. You're going to tell me like this was racism. I'm not telling you there's not use of force incidents that shouldn't have happened and we should prosecute those vigorously and harshly. I'm just telling you, forget the stupid race arguments and all this crap. There was a video I saw on X yesterday. I think his name is, forgive me if I'm saying it wrong, Alex Carrick, Atanis, he's talking about this body cam issue. How liberals are now so disturbed that their racist cop, racist cop narratives are falling apart. Because people are saying, seeing it, they're seeing it now. They're like, gosh, I would have done the same thing, defended my life. They're seeing what crime looks like. You even have the mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson, wants to pull down police cameras in the street because she doesn't want you to see what's going on. Because she knows you'll never vote for the defund the police Democrats again. Here's this guy Carrick Atanis freaking out about police body cams because they're realizing their entire defund the police grift is going away. Check this out.
Alex Carrick Atanis
In the wake of Michael Brown, we'll market it to low information people in the public, to well meaning liberal people. We'll market it as accountability and transparency. And so they totally shifted. And then they were able to get hundreds of millions of dollars toward their goal of outfitting every single cop in the United States with a mobile surveillance camera that the police control. They control when it's on, when it's off, what it captures, when something is captured, is released to the public. So if the police capture, let's say, an undocumented immigrant committing some crime, that's out on Fox News in the New York Post within hours. But if they capture the police doing something horrific, the public may never see that video. So body cameras are a mirage. And as I write in the Copaganda book, and this is, it's really critical to understand exactly how it happens. Not only do they not reduce police violence, but they have been an essential propaganda tool in convincing so many well meaning people across our society that the authorities care about police violence, that they want accountability, that they're doing something right. And it distracts people from the core important kinds of changes that we need, which is to reduce the size and power of these bureaucracies.
Dan Bongino
You believe this bullshit? This guy's not concerned about reducing the size and power of the criminal workforce. He's concerned about reducing the police bureaucracies. A euphemism for defund the police. Why? Why does he hate police body cameras so much? Because the truth has always been the enemy of liberalism and progressivism. Always. Every single thing they tell you is bullshit. Bumper sticker politics. Defund the police, tax the rich, health care for all. You're like, well, Dan, those things all sound great if you're a liberal until you realize defund the police results in people getting killed quickly in the street. Tax the rich and they leave and you have no jobs. Health care for all means, health care for none as they start to ration health care. See, we've had to tell people the truth. And the body cam. The body cam and crime have completely destroyed the left wing narrative on policing in America. There is no body cam for tax the rich. There's not a liberal mayor with a body cam at the border of Florida watching, you know, Katie Wilson watching a Washington resident cross over and on body cam. Hey, I'm Katie Wilson, the mayor of Seattle. Why did you leave Washington? Because of your shitty tax policies. You don't see body body cam evidence of that. The liberal racist cop defund the police argument is entirely collapsed. And now the same liberals who swore body cams where the solution, the panacea, the elixir are now freaking out because the story they told their people about the racist cop violently mowing down unarmed black men in the street turns out to be a total fabrication impulse. So now they want to hide it. Now they want to hide it. Folks, the greatest honor of my life was that last year. I'm telling you, man, there's nothing like it. I was up in D.C. and maybe I'll show you sometime. Cash gave me this nice little plaque he had put together. It's really kind of warmed my heart a little bit. I wasn't expecting that. I was up there for someone else. But he's still knocking it out of the park, man. When I say he, I mean him and the agents doing the work. I want you to look at this. Yesterday, Operation Iron Pursuit. A lot of people out there claiming to care about kids and child abuse. I don't understand why they don't want to talk about this stuff. We've rescued thousands of children from criminality. Thousands. Here we had enduring justice, restoring justice. Here's another opinion. I'm obviously out. This was his. I'm not taking credit for it. I've been out for three months. However, Operation Iron Pursuit. 200 plus child victims located. 350 subjects arrested. The highest number on a similar op in the last 14 months nationwide. Child abuser takedown. All 56 FBI field officers participated. Lives saved, families reunited, violent criminals crushed. You want to save kids or not? Or you just want to talk about it on X? This stuff is happening. This is on the ballot. What do you mean, Cash? No, Cash isn't on the ballot. The Trump agenda is on the ballot. In the midterms, you want to go back to, you know, endless subpoenas for Trump officials for cracking down on child predators rather than actually going out there catching child predators. Vote for Democrats, because that's what you're going to get. Cash was on Hannity's podcast, Hang out with Hannity, and here's about a minute he was talking about the violent crime push. Folks, this is real. You do not want another incident like that incident with the FedEx driver. I can't look at another one of those. I can't hear about it. That's. That's the end is that's got to stop right now. You got a guy in charge now who gets it. He understands the assignment. Here he is talking about what we did on violent crime. The numbers are staggering. Check this out.
Cash (FBI official or spokesperson)
In 2025, in one year under President Trump's leadership, this FBI arrested 40,000 violent criminals. That's not the total arrest the FBI had. That number is closer to 80,000. But the 40,000 violent criminals we arrested, Sean, was 112% increase from. From 2024. 112% increase. If this FBI under Donald Trump did nothing else but that, that is the only thing the mainstream media would be talking about if it was a president. Kamala Harris. Now go behind the numbers. How can there be 40,000 violent criminals to arrest by just the FBI in one year? Break that down by state, 50 states. You do the math. We're talking murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang bangers, terrorists, everybody that wants to harm our way of life. That President Trump stood up and ran on and said, we are going to crush violent crime. That's what we did. That number alone is emblematic of two things. One, President Trump is the absolute most successful president in US History in reducing crime in the history of America. And two, why are there so many violent criminals in the United States of America? And you hit on it. The open borders policy and the lax rules laid out by the opponents of President Trump to be pro crime. Remember, these are the defense defund the blue movement people to defund law enforcement. Trump resourced law enforcement and the FBI. So that number 40,000 violent criminals, 112% increase in the first year under President Trump.
Dan Bongino
Hat tip over to News for cutting that for us, folks. The reason I played that clip of Cash is a couple of things. Number one, notice how he puts credit where it is. You guys voted for President Trump. You didn't vote for me or Cash. That's just a fact. President Trump appointed people, but it's his mission. We just put the pieces and the tactics together to do it. I appreciate him doing that. You. You met people. Yes. Well, thank you, Justin. It's very nice of you to say, but votes are. He said people are policy, but votes are policy, too. You voted for President Trump. You guys made this happen. Those violent criminals will be on the street right now. That's a fact. And you'd see other cases like Athena Strand. But second, a part I frequently leave out is President Trump was adamant. And Cash brought up part two. It's not just getting the violent criminals. He says, why are they here, A lot of them are here because of Joe Biden, Obama and others. Weak kneed Republicans in the past and their unwillingness to do anything about illegal immigration where a lot of these gang bangers were coming into the country. President Trump said, no, get him the hell out. And now you're seeing massive reductions in the homicide rate and crime across the board. Folks, that is all on the ballot in November, make no mistake. You want safe streets or you want endless congressional subpoenas, it's your choice. You voted for this change and thank you for doing it. You want to see what's on the ballot too? I'm not going to be a hypocrite. Right? I told you. Well, Dan, paint some contrast. You just told us the good news. Violent crime, getting crushed, all of this stuff that was accomplished under President Trump's DOJ and FBI. Great. You want to see the contrast? I saw this video of Ilhan Omar. Ilhan Omar, she's like a goddess on the left. They love her, small G. Here she is talking about what the Democrats are going to do if they win with the courts. You want the Supreme Court packed? The supreme, the Democrats, they're not hiding it, they're not dancing around it. They're not using euphemisms. They're outright saying, we want to pack the courts. What does pack the courts mean to you? Packing the courts means every single level of the federal court system will be populated by liberals who, who don't believe in the rule of law, legislate from the bench. Every victory we've had, budget victory, school choice, abortion, guns, all of it, pro life movements, all of it will get thrown out because the courts, I told you, through judicial activists, are now the most powerful branch of government because they've usurped power from the other two. Here she is, here's Ilhan Omar just talking about it. I don't need to use my words, just listen to hers. Check this out. Congress can change the number of justices on the court at any time and has done so seven times throughout our history. Since 1989, the last time the court was expanded, the US population has grown by over 800%. Yet the court has stayed stagnant at 9. Justice in the face of a stolen seat, a civic justice implicated in a coup attempt and a dangerous crisis of legitimacy. This content, this common sense reform, should absolutely be at the table. Who do you want in the midterms governing? Do you want Ilhan Omar as a chair of a committee in Congress? You know, subpoenas for impeachment again, or do you want Bessant, Rubio, Vance, Trump, people like Brandon Gill out there? It's your choice. You have made the right choice over and over. Thank you, the American voter, for picking Donald Trump and Donald Trump for picking people. Justin's correct. Who are instituting policies leading to a better America now. But you gotta. That concrete has to dry. That concrete has to dry. Do you want that Ilhan Omar, a PAC Supreme Court, or do you want the Trump administration and all of the positive news about the border, about the economy, public safety, violent crime? It's your choice. We got to get out and do talk is no good. Here's another contrast. You want to make the United States more like California. California is part of the. It sure is. California has picked a certain direction. Here is a CNN segment where they almost accidentally stumble on the truth. Remember I told you Democrats never tell you the truth. Defund the plea. That's why body cams don't work for them, because body cams showed you what crime actually looks like. And the whole racist cop narrative went out the window. Here's a CNN segment that's like a body cam on liberal Democrats complaining about gas prices. Oh, gas price. Meanwhile, the Biden administration's had a far bigger problem with gas prices than the Trump team, and they've only been acute and temporary. Why is California struggling with high gas prices? Maybe it's because California taxes the shit out of their citizens at the pump. Watch CNN just back into this and be like, well, you want a contrast? Keep voting for Democrats and you will California the United States and you will be paying more for the pump no matter what happens in this strait. Oh, my goodness gracious.
Harry Enton (CNN commentator)
I mean, just take a look at the price of gasoline. For a gallon of gas, the national average right now is $4.48. But you think that's bad? Go out to the left coast top in the United States, $6.13. There's even a gas station out there where the cost is about $10 per gallon. And of course, if you've ever been out there, you always know that the prices in California for a gallon of gas are just, simply put, absolutely outrageous, running well ahead of the national average. The folks in California really getting hurt by this increase in gas prices.
Dan Bongino
Part of the reason for that is they have a.
Vince Colonnaise
They have a higher gas tax, right?
Harry Enton (CNN commentator)
That's exactly right. One of the big reasons why you see this big difference right here is in fact, the gas tax out in California and our partners at USA Facts help provide this data for us. Take a Look here. The state gas tax and fees per gallon. You know, in the average state, it's 33 cents. California again, the top in the nation. More than double that. It's 71 cents.
Dan Bongino
That's an economic body cam. Police body cams debunked the racist cop narrative. That's a CNN economic body cam. Live time footage of why you're paying a lot for gas in California. You're paying way more in tax than an acute temporary hike due to the. What's going on in the Strait has ever caused you pain in your wallet? It's your state government, your blue state government helping you by taxing the shit out of you. There's cnn, like, walking backwards into it. Well, you mean it's because of the gas tax? Yes. You have a choice. Just like Spencer Pratt and that video player. You have a choice. You want Karen Bass, Gavin Newsom, Ilhan Omar, aoc, Bernie Sanders, Liz Warren. You want more powwow chow? You got a choice, brother. You got a choice, sister. You got to go out and do. Your country's not going to take itself back. You have to do it. You got to do it, man.
Harry Enton (CNN commentator)
Oh, my goodness gracious.
Dan Bongino
Oh, I heard them inside. There's like a little bubble in there. It's hard to hear. I heard Justin. Oh. Oh, my goodness gracious. Harry Anton, man, I really enjoy his segments on cnn. Not all great. Sometimes the poll numbers aren't good, but he seems to be giving you a pretty balanced picture. Folks, this movement is real, man. I'm telling you, we have an opportunity here to take the country back and let the concrete dry. Don't give up. By the way, on the Virginia gerrymander, the Virginia gerrymander here is a liberal commentator just for everyone's about to freak out. We're gonna lose all these seats in Virginia. There is a chance this may get wiped out in the Virginia Supreme Court. It's not a great chance, but it's a chance. I want you to listen to Dan Torrentine talk about exactly this. There's a shot that could get thrown out to which would be even worse for the Democrats in the midterms. Check this out. I talked to some of those same
Vince Colonnaise
people yesterday, and what I was told
Dan Bongino
is they now think it's less than 50% that the court will let the certification go through. And what really triggered it, they said,
Vince Colonnaise
was when the court didn't rule by Friday afternoon, they, they. The. The time they don't believe is on
Dan Bongino
their side and what apparently transpired over the weekend and this person would know they're in contact with the people. I'm about to say is that the governor's staff is now snipping at the
Vince Colonnaise
Senate majority leader and House SPE that they warned them last fall this would not pass legal review.
Dan Bongino
Okay, one more piece of unbelievably good news for you, which the pillars and the doomers don't want to hear about for the midterms that you need to go out and vote in and take your country back. Here's a quick Fox segment. Not only may they lose in Virginia and not get the four seats they thought they were going to get Democrat seats in Virginia in the midterms due to the Supreme Court now making illegal racially discrimination discriminated districts, which the Democrats love. And I'll talk to with Vince in a minute about Fox is reporting that some redistricting efforts in Southern states may net us a couple more seats in the midterm. So I don't want to hear the doomerism. Check this out. We're looking at a situation where Democrats may not actually pick up the seats that they wanted to pick up in Virginia and Republicans might end up picking a total of five if you include Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana. Obviously in Louisiana, that was the court case that the Supreme Court ruled on where they have no choice but to go back and actually change those maps. And they could be looking at changing those maps to down to just one Democrat district. Folks, don't give up. Don't give up, please. Oh my goodness gracious. Do not give up. Get out there and do 10, 10 and 10. Get 10 people to the polls, email them, call them, make 10 social media posts. That's our job. Your forefathers sacrificed a lot to give you this amazing country that's finally on the right track again. Let the concrete dry. Give President Trump two more years. Give Cash two more years. Give Besson two more years. Give Ratcliffe two more years. Hegset two more years. They need it, folks. When there are supply constraints out there on commodities, well, what happens, you know, you've seen it. Prices surge, the laws of economics. You saw it with fuel prices, with the straight, the blockade there. And you know what else is a limited commodity? Gold. One of my favorite investments. It's been a staple of mine over time. They mine it out of the ground and when it's gone, it's gone. Governments can't print more gold. That's why everyone from central banks to savvy savers are diversified with gold. I'm a big believer in gold, have been for a long time. If you've been thinking about it for years but have still never moved some of your savings into physical gold, Birch Gold is here for you. That's who I trust to help you. I use them as well. Now through May 29, Birch Gold is giving first time gold buyers a rebate of up to $10,000 on coin qualifying purchases. It's a big deal. For details and a free information kit on diversifying into gold, text my first name Dan D A N to the number 989-898. Birch Gold B I R C H. Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in physical gold. Text Dan to the number 989898. Don't miss out. See if you could qualify for a first time gold buyer rebate of up to $10,000. Again, text Dan to 989-898 today. Message and data rates apply. Welcoming back to the show. We're lucky to have him every other Wednesday and I do his great radio show every Wednesday. So one of us is on each other's show every. Every week. The great Vince colon. Aces@rumble.com. vince. Vince, thanks for joining us today. I appreciate it.
Vince Colonnaise
Dan. Oh my gosh. As always, thanks man for having me.
Dan Bongino
Well, I have to thank you. Listen, it's been such an honor to work with you. You know, brought you on board with the team. You were gracious enough to fill in for me when I was gone. I just saw this from stream charts yesterday. The Bongino Report channel which you anchor. Number 10 Rumble Video Channel by peak viewers. So you're just absolutely crushing it. Listen man, you're in, you're in a. You're in a spot. You kind of own the 8am spot, but it's not the easiest spot in the world and you pretty much dominate there. So congratulations man. Really great work on that.
Vince Colonnaise
I love it. I mean I love doing it. I love the audience. You know, we, we really have such great, a great audience, Dan, between the two of us. And I love that right now we're bookending Rumble. It's like the whole Rumble chart is, is controlled by us right now. But I'd like to, to nestle my way up even closer to where you are. I feel like you need some company up there, so I'm heading my way up there, buddy.
Dan Bongino
You're getting there. Listen, it's not that I think, you know, we could kind of both acknowledge that this is like the livestream environment for politics right now is good, but it's not great. It's kind of like right around election season, midterms, and, you know, three, four months prior. And for a presidential, that's like the super bowl, that's when political talk radio just explodes. Your radio ratings are going to go bananas. They're already great, but they're just better. And the analogy I try to give people is you can be the most interesting political commentator in the world. Imagine just trade out politics for sports a week after the Super Bowl. I don't really care. You could be Mike and the Mad Dog or whatever. People are just like, kind of done for, like, Super Bowl's over, you know. So I'm really proud that you've succeeded, pulling a massive audience and that the Bongino army continues to show up. And, I mean, I think we have to. To be candid, having Donald Trump in the White House doesn't hurt. Like, this guy's just a news machine every day.
Vince Colonnaise
He is. Let me, Let me also add one other element. And I don't know how interesting this is, the audience, but I just want to say this. I haven't said this to you yet, but I learned a lot about this format by sitting in your chair for the year that I did, because I thought I knew what I was getting into. And the truth is, I really didn't. You don't know it until you do it. And radio is a different. Is actually a very different. Different vehicle. Like, I had, I've had success in radio. I understand the format. I. And, and what people especially have relied on me for in D.C. was news. Like, I was bringing them the latest news. I'd give them some analysis. But in podcasting, what's different is the relationship you have with the audience is so essential, it's so intimate. And, And I had watched you for years. I had seen the way you had done it, but I hadn't really internalized why you were such a success. And I started to piece it together after I started doing this for a time. And I'm a slow learner, but as I started doing it, I realized, well, Dan personalizes this. Dan, you. You let people into your life in ways that other mediums don't and certainly other hosts don't. People know your wife's name. They know what her interests are. They know all sorts of details about you. And these were not things that, That I had. I had ever really done. I had. I kind of guarded against that because I thought it was. I thought it was too inward looking. I thought it was too, like, kind of Talking about myself is not what I'm supposed to do do. But it turns out there's. There is a middle ground. People want to know the person they're dealing with. They want to know what kind of person they are and what kind of life they lead. And so for the first time ever, I started saying Allison's name on the air. I started talking about, like, my personal life, my dogs, and, like, and the things that animate me. And that connection with the audience, that's something I learned from you, Dan. And as a result, I think it's paid off. I think what they come to me now for is not just the news. They can get that on X. People can. Can turn on a social media feed on Truth Social, and they can scroll it. What they want from us is that connection and also that analysis, that sense of, okay, what does this really mean? And where is it going from here?
Dan Bongino
Yeah, they're tuning in to hear a guy they know. They know it's an asymmetric relationship. They know you, but you don't know all them, but they know you. You talk about Allison and what, you know, date night on the weekend, and you had a good time watching some movie or something, or you. They know you. And you may not know every one of them, but they have. Tuning in for Vince's take you.
Harry Enton (CNN commentator)
Right?
Dan Bongino
Anybody can get the news. Go to Bongino, report, Judge report, Breitbart, whatever. I mean, whatever. It's not that they want to hear what you think about it. That's different. And also with the live stream, which is different than radio. Radio livestream is like having, you know, if you have 20,000 streamers, it's like having 20,000 callers on the show at the same time participate. It's totally different than radio. It just is. And I think. I think you.
Vince Colonnaise
The other piece of that is I had to learn not to respond to every critique like, I'm seeing in the. So, like, we got a lot of great people in our chat. We have all these great people in our chat. But I remember early on when I was hosting it again in your. In your time slot on. On Rumble, I'd see somebody say something, like some troll came in and say something nasty. And then all of a sudden, my attention is just, like, totally thrown off, and I'm, like, dunking on the guy for the next 10 minutes, and I was like, what am I doing? Why am I beating up on this?
Dan Bongino
Move on, brother. Move on. He'd be like, we get it, Dan. We get it. Like, yeah, troll. 672 in the chat said you're a D bag. Like move on. Like I'm glad you figured that out. So listen, move on to the some really sad tragic news of the day. I discussed this in the beginning of the show. I don't really change my mind that often and it's not that I'm hard headed. It's just the whole essence of conservatism, Vince, is conserving good ideas. And if you believe in good ideas, they should be longitudinally valid. You shouldn't change your mind all the time. However, I've been considering this for a long time. I was not a death penalty supporter. I believe that while we have incarceration as an option, if we can isolate the problem and there was a chance at salvation, we should take it. However, having long considered this because my audience really did not like that position. And that's okay, we don't have to agree on everything. But watching this Athena Strand case, I just, it's hard for me to even discuss the 6 year old girl murdered by the FedEx driver who got the death penalty yesterday. Discussed it earlier. There's some evil on this planet, Vince, that it's the shot at salvation is not worth the risk of an escape or something like that. And another horrific, horrific, atrocious demonic tragedy like this.
Vince Colonnaise
I agree with you and in fact I kind of think I've gone through a similar evolution. Although I don't know if I was ever hard and fast on the subject, but I always had a temptation to feel like, well, there's always some path for somebody even if they've done something horrible and who are we to judge in the end and that kind of thing. I've gone through all of that, but stories like this forced me to arrive at the same conclusion that you've arrived arrived at, which is that there are some people that we need to kill. We need to kill and we need to administer the death penalty in a just way. We need real deliberation. We need to be certain that this is the right person. We can't be in any way doubtful that we've got the right person. I hate to see any mistake made in this front at all because this is an irreversible mistake if it's made. But a guy like this, that soulless, that disgraceful, that disgusting, that much callous indifference, it requires real consequence. There are some people who just deserve the death penalty. And this is, and by the way, as a theological matter for the Catholics out there, I'm Catholic. This has been something that the church has wrestled with forever for obvious reasons. There's a reason that this has been a big wrestling match because it's about the dignity of the human person. How do we uphold, fundamentally, how do we uphold the dignity of the human person? And if you impose fatal consequences on people who commit the very, the most vile demonic acts on humanity and rob people of their, of, of, of their lives, well, that's, that's a good correction. And this is one of those, those areas where I'm like, hey, let God sort them out. Let God sort them out. Because yeah, at this moment I think
Dan Bongino
it's, I'm convinced I'm watching you on the screen here, struggling to find the words to describe this incident. Just like I was like, what? Atrocious. It's not beyond tragic, beyond. It doesn't. Nothing sums this up. Matter of fact, I see the, I didn't even put it on the show, but the grainy black and white footage from the FedEx truck where this atrocity, again, I can't even happen and I have to scroll past it. But I've struggled with this for a long time, Vince, because I thought to myself, modern society has given us the luxury of this question. I think this through like we're back in the 1800s. You're in a village of people, a tribe, a village, whatever it may be. You have a guy like this who does this to a 6 year old in the village. There's no like incarceration option comfortable. You're not going to have a maximum security, but what are you going to tie him to a pole and like feed him everything? The risk of him doing this again is so great. There really was no choice. You had to kill them. Like it wasn't a luxury because the immediate threat was there. We have this modern society luxury of supermax prisons and others where it provides us a level of comfortability where we're like, well, at least the person be locked away. Maybe there's a chance. And I think I kind of use that as a backstop too much. And I think that's kind of like you brought in the theological component. This kind of goes to the argument with between Pope Leo and President Trump right now. You know, Pope Leo, I think is oversimplifying these, these military action in Iran. You know, God doesn't look kindly on those who wage war. Yeah, I get that, like death is obviously a bad thing if it's not natural. However, sometimes, like you said, sometimes we just have to kill people to prevent a larger mass killer.
Vince Colonnaise
How do you uphold the dignity of the human person. That's the question. How do you do that? And you take out the bad guys. You have to. And lower level offenses require lower level consequences. But this is the highest level offense. It deserves the highest level consequence. And you're so right about, like, you know, what did the world used to be like? How would you just go to the simple math here? If this was my daughter and I found out somebody was doing this to my daughter, oh, yeah, I would kill you myself. Yeah, of course I would kill you myself.
Dan Bongino
Right.
Vince Colonnaise
And so you don't even care if
Dan Bongino
you were given a death penalty. You're like, that's fine. I'll trade my life just to make sure.
Vince Colonnaise
No, that's exactly right. So under those circumstances, as. As an individual, you assess that, which is sometimes why I'm kind of. I like, I'm gratified by street justice and rare occasions. Like, I'm like, I'm glad somebody took that guy out. I'm glad. I'm glad there was a good guy with a gun to take that guy out at that moment. Forget the justice system. We took them out, then that's fine. But this is why we have a civilized justice system to handle this and a civilized response, a truly civilized response is to put this man to death.
Dan Bongino
You know, it's weird too, how we as human beings, we have this, you know, it's kind of good in a way. We have this impulse to want to seek salvation. We always see that guy on, you know, the good Thief on the Cross story from. From the Bible. And we always think salvation's around the corner. But the hard reality is we're very primal. I mean, when you and I watch Denzel and Man on Fire, when he's, you know, he's the bodyguard for the young girl, gets kidnapped, and he goes out and just like, kills. Every single. All of us are quietly in a movie. The reason the movie was so popular is every one of us was like, yes. So it's like we're kind of being a little. I know it's a movie at all, but we are very primal in that respect. And that.
Vince Colonnaise
No, that's true.
Dan Bongino
We kind of seek our own retribution. Let me.
Vince Colonnaise
No, I know. I mean, even John Wick, man. Even the John Wick movie. John Wick, his dog gets killed.
Dan Bongino
He kills everybody, kills the guy's dog. The guy wipes out the whole Russian mob. No, you're so right. So on a. On a more positive note, that being a horrible story, obviously. I know, because I was just chatting with you briefly before we came on the air this morning about your success and everything. This Trump endorsement in Indiana. So, so, long story short, the Indiana, a bunch of Indiana Republicans at the state level did not wanna vote to redistrict the state, which would've been a real positive, net positive. Donald Trump comes in, says, come on, let's get to it. Like, Democrats are doing this too. Primary last night just cleans up. I think it's what, six out of seven he wins. And a lot of these were incumbents. Vince, you've been involved in politics a long time. It is really, really hard to unseat an incumbent. But that Trump endorsement is as like solid gold as you're going to find in politics.
Vince Colonnaise
It's a sign of energy, I think, from two important groups of people. One is, I say it's a group, it's the President of the United States, but the other group is us, it's maga. It's people who care about the country.
Dan Bongino
Yeah, there's energy.
Vince Colonnaise
You know, Kurt Schlichter, I showed a post from Kurt Schlichter, I like Kurt, this morning on my show. And Kurt said, you know, if any, Rhino, if any of these establishment people think that this goes away when President Trump is done, it's not going away. This energy's staying. The American people now have a very long memory for the people who've betrayed them. And we will come. There will be consequences for you. There'll be real political consequences for you, because we want to stock up the leadership of this country with people who care about it as much as we do. And so in Indiana, just remind people of the stakes here. If you. Stephen Miller had an assessment, Stephen Miller at the White House, he had an assessment earlier this week that upwards of 40 plus seats right now in the House of Representatives have been stolen by Democrats by virtue of what they've done through election rigging, through bringing in illegal aliens and through these racist districts that they've drawn. It's just a disaster. So over 40 seats. What were we asking Indiana to do last year? Two, we were asking for two Republican leaning seats in the state by virtue of trying to regain some of that ground in the way the maps were drawn. That's what President Trump was asking for. And he actually made a promise. He said, on the day of the vote in the state Senate, he said, anybody who votes against this, you should know that in the spring a primary is coming your way. Just to, just to give you a sense of the stakes here, they didn't listen. They voted no.
Dan Bongino
And sure enough, it wasn't a surprise. Vince, he warned them and they did it anyway.
Vince Colonnaise
Sure enough. And so you get this. This is a massive story and this is, this is not only a big victory for people who believe in saving this country and who actually know what time it is and know precisely how the left plays, which is not by the rules at all. They don't have an appealing thing for voters so they have to rig the system. This is a warning shot to the establishment in Washington as well. If you're a senator right now who's still sitting on your ass and not passing the Save America act and think the rest of us are going to go away, I'm going to tell you something right now. You're going to be out of a job, you're going to lose, you're going to be thrown out and we're going to put somebody in who will actually get the work of the American people done. So yesterday is not merely some one state event. This is a clear sign to anybody who sits inside of the status quo Republican party who thinks they can go along to get along, who's happy to be in the minority, who's happy not to have to do anything for the American people, we are going to fire you. Just wait for your turn.
Dan Bongino
Now folks, if you're enjoying Vince's content like I do, rumble.com Vince give him a follow. It is free. You can join him live every day at 8am 0800 Eastern Time. You can also watch him on demand anytime. You know Vince, that gets me thinking about a couple things. The Republican bench, which I'll get to in a second. But second, I had addressed yesterday a multi point plan that we're already halfway home that if we were to enact you would have generational victories for the Republican party. We just haven't been able to hold. The Reagan revolution, the Tea Party, it all got a lot of momentum and then boom, Democrats come back, we get Obamacare and all this other crap. We're already through with the racial gerrymanders, the Louisiana case, so we're good there. Seal the border, we're good there. You don't get an influx of illegals. Census reform, we need that in 20, 30. Can't count illegals, you don't count illegals, all of a sudden you get an accident, accurate population of U.S. citizens. Democrat blue states where people are leaving are gonna lose power. Save act you just mentioned, get the Save act through, you're not gonna have any more of this garbage ballot harvesting, cheating nonsense. Gonna enforce Citizenship and id, dump the filibuster. I know, kind of there's some different opinions on that. That was part of my plan, at least a talking filibuster and some filibuster reform. You do that, Vince. Steve Miller, I saw that tweet about the 40 seats that the Democrats have immorally and unethically gained in Congress. We would have a Republican House, probably a Republican Senate, and because of the Electoral College ramifications of population loss in blue states, probably a Republican President. We could have it for 15, 20, 30 years.
Vince Colonnaise
Yes, and you'd have a better Democrat party. You'd have a party that actually would have to appeal to voters. Yes, if, if, if the rules of the game are enforced, you have to play by them. That's the point. So if you want a two party system that functions, that's an actual exchange of ideas, that's competing on the margins, just about okay, which one of these options is better for the country? You should want everything that Dan Bongino just laid out, all five of those elements. And I mean Democrat voters, I mean lifelong Democrat voters. You should want everything that Dan Bongino just laid out because the current system is not working for you. This Democrat Party party right now again bears no resemblance to the average American voter. The average American voter does not want open borders. The average American voter doesn't want to mutilate children. They don't want to convince them they were born in the wrong bodies. They don't want them illiterate by third grade. They don't want them unhealthy. The average American voter wants a sound economy. They want crime to not happen in their community. They want the law to be enforced. Why is it that all of the common sense positions are only held by one political party right now? One, the other doesn't care about any of those things and in fact is working against all of them. And that's what the Democrats are doing right now. And the only reason they're in a position to do that, they're playing to their radicals in their party is because they think that that chaos is a ticket to power. The more chaos we have in the United States, the more people are going to fall on their knees for big government. And the other element, of course, the biggest element of all, is that they're rigging our elections. They're rigging our elections through racist districting, through importing illegals. I've gone through the list before. Everything you just said, Dan, would improve the quality of both political parties like that. And the country would be headed in a great direction.
Dan Bongino
Yeah. And I saw a piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday where they were arguing. Was it Jason Riley or something? Was arguing that it's not doing the black community in America at large any benefits either by isolating them into these little pockets, insisting they vote Democrat, and not forcing candidates into appealing to a more. It's ironic that the Democrats are all about DEI diversity, but they don't want to appeal to a diverse group of voters. They want to just appeal to a pocket of black voters. They want to lay upon their backs the anchor of phony victimization, which most of them are waking up to now as they start to move to the. To the Republican Party. It's not helping black voters either. They get a bunch of pandering, garbage candidates, and the candidate's not actually forced to articulate why what he would do would matter to the broad populace, which is what a representative supposed to do.
Vince Colonnaise
It's hard to envision a more permanently shameful organization than the Democrat Party in American history. You know what I mean? Like, the entire history of that party. Party. Has been using race as a means to gain political power. The entire history of that party and the entire history of the Republican Party has been an effort to reject that and to recognize that we need a colorblind meritocracy that recognizes the values of each human individual in the United States. So you look at this and you're like, why would anybody associate with the Democrats? In fact, I remember the madness of 2020, when the Democrats were tearing down anything that they claimed that at any point in American history had represented something racially toxic. And I kept thinking, why aren't they getting rid of the Democrat Party? Why does the Woodrow Wilson Bridge still exist in Washington, D.C. woodrow Wilson, the guy was showing KKK films in the White House. Like, this idea that, like, the Democrats are like, the party of inclusion. It's also crazy. So what we just saw from the Supreme Court last week, Dan, is once again, we are removing a racist weapon that the Democrats are using. And as a result, Democrats are losing power. So wait, you're telling me that if you get rid of the racism, Democrats lose power? Yes. Every single time. It's the story of our country. Get rid of the racism, Democrats lose power.
Dan Bongino
Yeah. No, you are absolutely accurate. And I think, you know, Donald Trump is really the first Republican president based not on my opinion, but on the pure number of black voters he attracted to his MAGA movement to just fracture that wall and just be brutally honest with people like, hey, listen, the racism's real. It happens. However, it's being used as a cudgel to get from you and steal from you political power where it'd be far more advantageous to you to spread your political power around and make both parties cater to your needs in a representative democracy. And that's just not what happened. Well, Democrats, the black voters listening. And I want to ask you about the debt, too, but I got to just get your thoughts because you really kind of spurred me on this. The black voters listening. Number one, our party, we are here for you. It's an open door. We would absolutely love to have you. We don't look at you like black voters. We look at you like voters. However, the Democrats have got a lot of people thinking in identity politics. The Democrats don't give a shit about you. They just take your vote for granted. They don't care about you at all. I mean, if illegal immigration were to wipe out every black job in a primarily black community in Virginia or Maryland, in the Delmarva region you live in, they don't give a shit. They know you're gonna vote for them anyway, or they assume it. They do nothing to help you at all.
Vince Colonnaise
Democrats have been a part of orchestrating the entire destruction of the black family. I mean, that's been their project. I mean, ever since Lyndon B. Johnson. I mean, the whole concept was to divide the black family. And they did. They had a lot of success in doing that. It was just really unfortunate. It's been totally destructive. Creating more government dependency out of black Americans has been the program of the Democrat Party, and it's just been. It's been sickening to absolutely watch. And I've seen a lot of black Americans who've been waking up to this. You just saw Harry Enton, the numbers enthusiast over on cnn, saying it this week. He goes, look, I'm telling you guys. Ladies and gentlemen, Ladies and gentlemen, black voters are heading towards President Trump. Said, Harry, and. And people should pay attention to this. He's had a lot of movement on this. By the way, voters of all races have been moving towards President Trump. There's a reason that Hispanic voters are now considered a coin toss in the United States is because of the coalition that President Trump has built. And, you know, it's just this constant betrayal of black voters by Democrats. It's long past time that everybody wake up to what's going on here. They just are trying to create dependency on the Democrat Party, and they go into black churches, they try and scare black voters into color compliance by saying that the other side is going to be racist towards you. The, all the, all the other side wants to do, the Trump side wants to do is give every American an equal chance at success in this great country. That's it. That's all this. That's the program. That's the big scary side of this, which is everybody has the same chance. That's it. And it's just really sick that the Democrats continue to rely on the lowest form of division in order to accrue power.
Dan Bongino
Well, you know, it worked for them and you're right, it's just not anymore. I put a poll up earlier in the show from Open Source Zone covering how Hispanic voters, the Democrats are now plus two. They were like plus 40 something just, you know, a couple decades ago. So it, that that message is dying a rightful slow and thankfully a death death here because we need it. I want to just get your thoughts on this because it's a topic not enough people are talking about. We are in a. And this has been a bipartisan problem. I'm not, you know, of course, hoisting it at anchors all solely on the back of Democrats. The national debt's out of control. Wall Street Journal ran a piece about it the other day. We're going to be paying more in interest than we are for our military soon. And in the piece they talk about the actual, real, tangible, touchable downsides to this. You know how the old adage goes about bankruptcy. It happens gradually. And then all of a sudden the Journal notes how interest rates could spike, how private capital is basically going to be wiped out. Capital for private investment is going to be sucked up by interest payments on the debt. You have increased risk of a financial crisis. This is, you know, the cbo, which is not known as a particularly, you know, right wing outlet over there. But this is accurate. I mean, this is just pure math. We're in real trouble. I also worry about the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Every time there's a transaction in dollars outside of the United States, it's basically like a free loan to the United States because they're using our money. So it enables us to print more without having a massive inflation crisis. That's the bad news. The good news, put up that tweet by that Kobisi letter. The US Dollar is still the world's preferred currency because there is, there isn't a second best option, however, that you see here. The world's using more dollars than ever. Dollar deposits are now 14.5 trillion. But, Vince, this doesn't have to last forever, you know, and when a bankruptcy crisis hits, it hits fast, it hits hard. And we need a bipartisan effort right now to get this under control or we could be looking at a real catastrophe.
Vince Colonnaise
Yes. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And there's a bunch of obvious reasons. I think it was hard for Americans, I think, for years to internalize what it meant to have this out of control spending and how it affected you directly. I know for years we've all sort of said out loud that we were concerned about the state of the national debt. But to feel the real world experiences of COVID I think was an unfortunate but useful lesson in how the economy actually works. If the government prints too much money, everything becomes more expensive. We all experienced this aggressive inflation as the government was cutting these ridiculous checks that were sent out to the whole country. And there's too many dollars chasing too few goods. Suddenly everything gets a lot more expensive. Now just imagine hyperinflation. Imagine if we were in a situation where everything is just completely out of control. Then you're really feeling it. And chances are it's going to be your children and your grandchildren are going to be destroyed by this. Is that really the future you want to leave them with? $40 trillion in debt is where we're heading right now. We're getting closer to that now. $40 trillion in debt. And the only way we're going to get that under control is if we get our expenditures under control. It's always been the most basic, obvious thing. Is there any attempt to do that? Yeah, there's been some. There's been. You've had the Doge operation by the President. You've had the rescissions that they've issued, scaling back some of the federal spending. That's. That's been good. But again, that's just chipping away at this massive, massive problem. The other piece is going after the flag fraud. I don't think people realize how big the fraud is. The fraud is huge. Like, we could start right away in securing a couple trillion dollars every 10 years in massive cost savings just by going after the fraud. You're looking at hundreds of billions of dollars of Medicare and Medicaid fraud that are taking place each year that the Trump administration is very serious about tackling. It's why J.D. vance is there. It's why they just appointed a new Assistant Attorney General who reports directly to JD Vance to prosecute these, these monsters. And I love them going after this. But we've got to reign this government in, Dan, because this is not going to go on forever. If we lose the American dollar as the global reserve currency, we also lose leverage over every country who uses the dollar. It is a huge national security advantage for us.
Dan Bongino
Yeah, I didn't even mention that. You're 100% correct. I mean the whole petrodollar anchor we've had forever that collapses. Forget about the others, just energy alone. Alone, we're totally screwed. Interest rates go up to 20% tomorrow as you have to think of like a money machine and like a sponge sucking it up on the other end. The reason the money machine we're printing right now is not causing even greater inflation than it did in the Biden years is you're right. At least the Doge efforts paring down the federal workforce by 10%. It sends a message to the bond market. But if you don't have that international sponge and that demand for dollars, they have to flood into an economy somewhere. And they're going to flood into our economy and that's when you're going to see double digit inflation.
Vince Colonnaise
And it just goes back. Remember when people were saying the media was like, what do you mean inflation's higher here, it's higher everywhere. It's not Biden's fault. Yes, it is. The global reserve currency is the dollar. When Biden prints billions of them and sends them out the door, it affects everybody.
Dan Bongino
Correct. Rumble.com Vince is where you can find him every day, 8am don't worry if you can't make the live stream. However, we love the live. It's a big audience. Like I said, it's like a big call in show. We appreciate it. You can watch him on demand anytime. You can also check him out from noon to 3 on radio stations across the country, including my favorite, the great WMAL in DC. It was his home. It was my home. It's where we both got our start. The big talker in D.C. vince Colonnaise. I will see you Wednesday on your show which you can listen to on WMAL at 2 where I do my regular call in. Thanks for joining us today.
Vince Colonnaise
Thank you, Dan.
Dan Bongino
You got it. Vince Colonnaise, folks. You can also check out haley karanilla@noonumble.com haley another top live streamer on the Bongino Report channel. We really appreciate it. She's been bringing in some big numbers lately. Really appreciate it. Thanks folks. Download the Rumble app in the App Store. It is free or go to rumble.com bongino on the web. Click that follow button. It's absolutely free. Join us. The Dan Bongino show, as you can see there, every single day at 10am Eastern time. Video on demand on Rumble anytime. I'll see you back here tomorrow.
Harry Enton (CNN commentator)
Hey there.
Dan Bongino
I'm Vince. I'm Hayley Caradilla, host of Vince, host of Scrolling with Haley.
Vince Colonnaise
You can always catch my show right here. Right here on the Bondino Report Live, 8am Eastern weekday mornings, weekdays at noon.
Dan Bongino
If you miss it, no worries. The show will always be right here
Vince Colonnaise
and anywhere you find a podcast.
Dan Bongino
Guys, thanks for watching.
Date: May 6, 2026
Host: Dan Bongino
Guest: Vince Colonnaise
In this charged and emotional episode, Dan Bongino confronts a major personal shift on a core policy issue: the death penalty. Sparked by the tragic case of Athena Strand, a six-year-old girl murdered by a FedEx driver, Dan takes his audience through the evolution of his thinking from opposition to strong support for capital punishment in particularly heinous crimes. The episode also covers the health of the MAGA movement, current election dynamics, effective political tactics, law enforcement debates (especially police body cams), ongoing redistricting battles, and the threat posed by the escalating national debt. A significant segment features Bongino’s conversation with Vince Colonnaise, in which they reflect on the power and relevance of modern conservative media, audience connection, and policy priorities.
Timeless Values (00:02–03:00):
Dan Bongino opens by reaffirming his belief that conservatism stands for "timeless principles"—economic liberty, respect for life, the right to bear arms, freedom of speech, religion, and assembly.
“The whole essence of conservatism... is the idea that there are timeless principles... They don't change with time. That's what timeless means.” – Dan Bongino (02:00)
Triggering Event—Athena Strand Case (03:00–08:00):
Bongino discusses the Athena Strand murder, describing it as a “life-changing revelation.” He connects the horror he felt over the crime to his changing perspective on the death penalty.
Changing His Mind (32:58–36:00):
Dan admits he was wrong in his previous opposition to the death penalty, explaining how the prospect of even a minuscule risk of recurrence outweighs potential for criminal salvation.
“This is an evil so great that the only solution is death... the idea you could contain it... is so unfair to other kids. If that capsule were to break and this were to happen again, the blood would be on the hands of people like me who did not support extinguishing it.” – Dan Bongino (34:10)
He credits his audience for challenging his views and thanks them for their honesty and pressure over the years.
Guest Reaction – Vince Colonnaise (68:10–73:19):
Vince reflects on his own evolution and supports Dan, emphasizing deliberative justice but standing firmly for capital punishment in genuinely “demonic” cases.
“There are some people that we need to kill. We need to administer the death penalty in a just way. We need real deliberation. We need to be certain... But a guy like this, that soulless, that disgraceful... it requires real consequence.” – Vince Colonnaise (68:30)
Trump’s Unique Political Relatability (11:10–14:56):
Bongino credits Trump's authentic, relatable persona for fueling the movement’s longevity.
“Being relatable is a huge part of politics... This Make America Healthy Again movement, which we’re going to cover... there is a huge pocket of voters, folks, who are now voting on basic lifestyle issues.” – Dan Bongino (11:45)
The Conservative Bench (14:06–15:00):
He points to younger figures like Marco Rubio, JD Vance, and Brandon Gill as evidence that “the bench is deep” and the MAGA revolution is not ending with Trump.
“Donald Trump’s legacy... if he ever makes it to a Mount Rushmore status, is gonna be everything he did, but everything that happened after him, that he started.” – Dan Bongino (14:40)
Marco Rubio Soundbite (14:06–14:56):
Rubio delivers an impassioned statement about American exceptionalism and generational progress.
The "PhD Course in Politics" – LA Mayor's Race (17:00–22:00):
Bongino highlights the viral, AI-generated ad in the LA Mayor's race featuring Spencer Pratt, illustrating modern communication: “snapshots and sound bites.”
“It reminds me of Trump 2016, the renegade tactics... Try what works.” – Dan Bongino (22:00)
Mark Penn Explains the Power of Contrast (25:13–26:09):
Democrat pollster Mark Penn clarifies that successful elections are not referendums but contests of choice and contrast.
“You have to say, is this election going to be a referendum on the Republicans... or is it going to be a choice?... Trump and the Republicans win that 53 to 47.” – Mark Penn (25:20)
Bongino responds, stressing that “referendum vs. choice” should be tattooed on activists’ brains (26:09).
The Athena Strand Case and Public Safety (32:00–36:00):
The horrific child murder anchors Bongino’s renewed call for law-and-order policies.
Police Body Cams: The Ultimate Backfire for the Left (39:00–44:00):
Bongino argues that widespread body cam footage has destroyed left-wing narratives about systemic police racism.
“The body cam is the greatest invention ever. Because I know cops... the cops out there, I know are good guys... The liberal racist cop defund the police argument is entirely collapsed.” – Dan Bongino (43:24)
Alex Carrick Atanis critiques body cams, calling them propaganda tools, prompting Bongino to counter that truth is the "enemy of progressivism" (43:24).
Operation Iron Pursuit & Violent Crime Stats (47:33–49:11):
Guest “Cash” (FBI official) details child rescue efforts and a 112% year-over-year increase in violent crime arrests under Trump.
“In 2025, in one year under President Trump’s leadership, this FBI arrested 40,000 violent criminals. That's 112% increase from 2024.” – Cash (47:35)
Indiana & Southern States (53:00–55:00, 76:00–78:24):
Trump’s influence leads to the primary defeat of Indiana Republicans who opposed redistricting in favor of GOP seats.
“If you’re a senator right now... not passing the Save America act... I’m going to tell you something right now. You're going to lose, you're going to be thrown out and we’re going to put somebody in who will actually get the work of the American people done.” – Vince Colonnaise (76:13)
Good News for GOP in House Races (57:49–58:32):
Bongino remains optimistic, citing shifting court rulings on redistricting in Virginia and potential pickups in Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana.
Gas Prices Expose "California-ization" (54:46–55:46):
CNN’s Harry Enton accidentally “walks backwards” into the truth about why California pays more for gas: state taxes drive costs.
“That's an economic body cam. Police body cams debunked the racist cop narrative. That's a CNN economic body cam.” – Dan Bongino (55:46)
Warning on the National Debt (85:14–90:00):
Bongino and Vince discuss the accelerating national debt and its real-world ramifications for inflation, interest costs, and US currency dominance.
“We’re getting closer to [$40 trillion] now... And the only way we're going to get that under control is if we get our expenditures under control. It's always been the most basic, obvious thing.” – Vince Colonnaise (87:38) “If we lose the American dollar as the global reserve currency, we also lose leverage over every country who uses the dollar. It is a huge national security advantage for us.” – Vince Colonnaise (89:17)
Audience Loyalty & Activism (05:00–08:00; 57:00–59:00):
Bongino repeatedly thanks his audience for their unwavering loyalty and urges them to get out and vote—"10, 10, and 10" (bring ten people, make ten calls, post ten times).
“You have to go vote. And bring ten people with you... You’ve always been there for me. Through the show, through the TV show on Fox, through the radio show at the FBI, back here on the podcast with you. You have always been there for me. I am ferociously loyal to you.” – Dan Bongino (05:08)
Audience Connection in New Media (63:00–66:00):
Vince Colonnaise describes what he learned from Dan about building a genuine connection with the audience, saying people “want to know the person they are dealing with” and respond to authenticity.
Policy Prescription for Long-Term Dominance (76:53–78:24):
Bongino lays out a five-point plan—address gerrymandering, border security, census reform, enforce the Save Act (election reform), and filibuster reform—to secure “generational victories” for the Republican party.
Diversity and Democratic Dependency (80:09–85:14):
The hosts criticize Democrats’ identity politics, arguing for a true colorblind meritocracy and decrying the historic and ongoing harm to the black family and voter base by Democrat policies.
On Conservatism & Consistency:
"They're not supposed to change like lick your finger. Where are the political winds going? I changed my mind. I don't believe in freedom of religion anymore. The First Amendment, the right to speak out, you either believe in this stuff or you don't."
– Dan Bongino (02:15)
On the Power of Trump’s Endorsement:
"Nobody votes for endorsements, period. Except for Donald Trump."
– Dan Bongino (09:20)
On the Necessity of the Death Penalty:
"The only solution is death. That is a malignancy so dangerous that the idea you could contain it... is so unfair to other kids. If that capsule were to break... the blood would be on the hands of people like me."
– Dan Bongino (34:10)
On Political Messaging:
"Politics are snapshots and soundbites, that's what it is, folks."
– Dan Bongino (15:10)
On Contrast in Campaigns:
"You always want to make it a choice election because we are just better than them."
– Dan Bongino/Mark Penn discussion (26:09)
On Audience Role:
“It’s like having...52,000 callers into a radio show at the same time. It’s your show.”
– Dan Bongino (24:00)
Dan’s Candid Emotional Struggle:
“I don't like being wrong about stuff, but I'm pretty convinced I was... this has been one of the more unenjoyable but necessary segments I think I've ever done.” (36:00)
Vince on the Death Penalty:
“There are some people that we need to kill... There are some people who just deserve the death penalty.” (68:30)
Bongino on Connection:
“They know you. And you may not know every one of them, but they have. Tuning in for Vince’s take.” (65:50)
This episode stands out for its raw honesty, as Dan Bongino shares a consequential evolution in his worldview on capital punishment. Drawing on recent headlines, robust political analysis, and an engaging conversation with Vince Colonnaise, the show weaves together personal conviction, policy argument, and actionable encouragement for conservatives heading into the pivotal 2026 midterms. For new listeners, it offers a deep dive into the values, tactics, and narratives currently driving the American right. For regulars, it’s notable for Dan’s willingness to admit getting it wrong—and his gratitude for an audience rooted in both loyalty and accountability.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, or Rumble for the full conversation.