Iran, What's Next? (Ep. 2463)

Summary

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The Dan Bongino Show

Episode: "Iran, What’s Next?" (Ep. 2463)

Date: March 2, 2026
Host: Dan Bongino
Key Guests: Vince Cornell (Co-host), Haley Caronia, Commander Kirk Lippold (Ret.)

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Overview:

In this high-stakes episode, Dan Bongino dives into the aftermath of the U.S.-led strike against Iran’s leadership, analyzing President Trump’s bold foreign policy, the rationale behind the timing and scope of the operation, the response from political opponents and the media, and the broader implications for U.S. security and global power dynamics. With firsthand perspectives from military expert Commander Kirk Lippold, Bongino lays out reasons for the operation, dispels media narratives, and addresses concerns about potential threats and the evolving nature of warfare.

Central Theme:
A pointed analysis and defense of President Trump’s decisive actions toward Iran, with a call for accountability and patience in measuring results—rather than knee-jerk criticism—amid an evolving and dangerous world.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. "Decades Happen in Days"—Trump’s Approach to Longstanding Threats

• Bongino’s Core Argument:
  Trump’s administration has swiftly addressed longstanding U.S. security threats—specifically Iran—where previous presidents hesitated or failed.

  Quote:

  “Decades of unfinished business. Less than a year. Now do you see why again, I can’t bring this up enough how people who have secreted themselves in our movement and their constant attacks on Donald Trump... they don’t even give the guy time. Already the attacks have started.” (03:33)

• The recent operation decapitated Iran’s upper leadership—ending what Bongino calls the “Death to America party.”

2. The Case for Action: Why Now?

Three Main Rationales

• A. Persistent Lethal Plotting

  • Iranian regime and proxies have attempted assassinations on U.S. soil targeting politicians, dissidents, and former officials.
  • “You cannot have President Trump, Pompeo, and others out there being the persistent targets of an Iranian lethal plotting effort and allow it to happen.” (12:09)

• B. Decades of Attacks

  • Iranian terror or proxy attacks have resulted in thousands of American deaths over years—“It’s already happened. The debate is over.” (15:27)

• C. Imminent Threats

  • Recent intelligence on imminent ballistic missile threats against U.S. bases prompted the need for rapid action.

Notable Clip:

• Fox News' Jennifer Griffin details precise Iranian targets struck: Parliament, Atomic Energy Agency, Ministry of Intelligence, etc. (09:19)

3. Media, Critics & “The Doomer Class”

• Mainstream media and some conservatives are accused of having an agenda—either moving the goalposts on what’s considered success or painting Trump’s actions as impulsive or dangerous, regardless of results.

• Media Historic Amnesia:

  “The liberal media changes their mind on Iran every 10 minutes. It’s an existential threat. It’s not an existential threat. Depending on what Trump does.” (23:20)

• Quote:

  “These scumbags in the liberal media lie to you. I get it. Hello, Captain Obvious.” (30:13)

• “Pottery Barn Theory” (If you break it, you own it) is rejected by Trump. U.S. is not seeking long-term occupation or nation-building in Iran.

4. Strategic Layering: Venezuela, China, and Energy

• Trump’s first move was to deal with Venezuela (securing petrochemicals and oil supply), isolating China from critical energy, then moving to neutralize Iran.

• Quote:

  “You think he did that by accident? Secure hemispheric petrochemical supplies first in Venezuela, then ice out China… then Iran.” (19:31)

• China’s energy lifeline is now in jeopardy—this is as much a message to China as to Iran.

5. Asymmetric Warfare & Homeland Security Concerns

• New threat landscape: cheap, easily deployed drones as terror weapons—much harder to track than traditional weapons.

• Concerns over sleeper cells and self-radicalization in the U.S. persist, made worse by the previous open-border policies.

• The “Bourbon Street Problem”: it's not just organized cells, but lone actors using readily available means (drones, vehicles) to conduct terror attacks.

• Quote:

  “It is now very asymmetrically cheap for enemies of the United States via drone warfare... to engage in financial asymmetric terror warfare against the United States.” (38:59)

Good News:

• Summer Heat initiative and border security have enhanced the U.S. intelligence and interdiction apparatus, making coordination by adversaries more difficult, but persistent vigilance remains necessary.

6. Media Integrity, Voter Fraud, and the Future of Free Speech

• The episode ventures into voter fraud claims (with a case study from Alabama), media bias, and how rebalancing the media (e.g., Elon Musk’s takeover of X, potential changes at CNN) will impact U.S. politics.
• The SAVE Act and media reform are seen as essential for “MAGA dominance” going forward.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Results vs. Opinion:

  “I’m not asking you to trust anybody. I’m asking you to trust results. We’re only a couple of days into this operation.” (20:43)

• On Decades of Inaction:

  “Presidents from both parties have failed… Trump fixes it by his appointees. The Iranian leadership... is dead.” (01:45, 02:26, 03:38)

• On the Media:

  “It's all opinion based bullshit where they seek out people to verify their priors, trust results.” (35:01)

• On Pottery Barn Theory:

  “President Trump is testing that now by saying we don’t want to own anything. He said it pretty clearly... We are taking out a regime that wants to kill us, had the ability to do it, has killed our people... and we got rid of them.” (22:23)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Description | |---|---|---| | 00:33 | “Decades happen in days” | Bongino on speed of Trump’s success | | 03:12 | “Persistent, lethal plotting” | Justification for strike on Iran | | 09:19 | Fox’s Griffin: Iranian targets | Military strategy details & targets | | 12:09 | “10x death return” | Bongino’s doctrine of deterrence | | 18:24 | Venezuela, Energy, China | How operation hits China’s interests | | 21:29 | Pottery Barn Theory | Trump’s break from occupation ideology | | 39:16 | Drone warfare concern | Shift in asymmetric threat landscape | | 42:16 | Sleeper cells discussion | Threat assessment post-operation | | 45:01 | “Bourbon Street Problem” | Self-radicalization vs. organized cells | | 57:39 | Voter Fraud segment | Alabama case, SAVE Act importance | | 73:29 | Interview: Kirk Lippold | Commander, USS Cole, on strategic & tactical analysis | | 78:33 | Iranian Navy vs. US Navy | Perspective on military threat | | 81:02 | Pottery Barn theory critique | Lippold & Bongino on strategic change | | 86:27 | China segment | Implications for global power balance |

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Guest Interview: Commander Kirk Lippold (USS Cole)

(73:29–90:15)

• Firsthand military insights:
  • Iran has killed Americans for decades—preemptive action justified.
  • Describes execution of naval operations: “You become focused because you realize, okay, it's now a mission. I need to go execute it to the best of my abilities.” (76:15)
  • Compares Iranian Navy (regional, regime defense only) to U.S. Navy (world-leader, power projection).
  • Emphasizes cyber tools as the new critical front in modern warfare.
  • On Pottery Barn Theory: This is a true test—no interest in long-term occupation, just “take out regimes that wish us harm.”
  • On China: By targeting Venezuela, then Iran, Trump seriously compromises China’s access to energy and signals resolve regarding Taiwan and global sea routes.

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Tone & Language

• Unapologetically combative, direct, and irreverent.
• Heavy criticism of media, Democrats, and “doomer class” conservatives.
• Staunch advocacy for action-based accountability instead of blind trust.
• Direct appeals to listeners: “I’m not asking you to trust anyone… Just give it some time.”

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Conclusions & Key Takeaways

• President Trump’s military moves are framed as long-overdue, necessary corrections to decades of political inaction and appeasement.
• The operation against Iran is justified by persistent threats, direct violence, and imminent missile dangers.
• Most criticism is viewed as shortsighted, agenda-driven, or ignores basic facts about Iran’s record against Americans.
• The new age of warfare (especially drones) requires updated vigilance and intelligence cooperation.
• Calls for time and accountability—judge by results, not narrative or spin.
• Potential repercussions for China, as U.S. actions target its energy security.
• Rebalancing media and securing elections are viewed as parallel necessities for American governance.

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Most Memorable Moment:

Bongino’s refrain: “I’m not asking you to trust Trump—or me, or anybody—trust the results. Give it time. Then judge.” (69:01, 91:13)

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Guest Highlight:

• Kirk Lippold:
  • Offers gravitas through his personal experience of Iranian-sponsored attacks, reiterating why the U.S. can no longer ignore persistent aggression.

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For Listeners New & Old:
This episode is essential for understanding the conservative defense of the March 2026 U.S. strike against Iran, why some see it as a game-changing move on the world stage, and the principles of accountability over trust that Bongino insists should guide American judgment in turbulent times.

For further context:

• Apple Podcast Link
• Rumble Archive

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Transcript

[Dan Bongino]

All America, all the time. Sit down, buckle up, and get ready for the Dan Bongino show. Holy Moses, what a weekend. My gosh. Been back on the air now, the beginning of week five.

[Vince Cornell]

This has been, do you believe, like the US Hockey team won a gold medal. Was it a week ago? Feels like it was like the 1980 Miracle on Ice. I. I don't mean the miracle. I mean the time. Feels like it happened 30, 40 years ago.

[Dan Bongino]

I can't help but think of that line again. Forgive me, I forget the quote, but sometimes decades go by and nothing happens. And then days go by and decades happens.

[Vince Cornell]

That's every day. You know, I'm reading this morning.

[Dan Bongino]

I get up, I get up early and I'm doing my Monday morning workout. Beating up my legs on Monday for a knee that doesn't work. And I'm reading Politico Playbook, the bible of the left, of course, but I

[Vince Cornell]

read it to see what's going on.

[Dan Bongino]

Unlike lefties, I like to see what both sides thinking, not just the, you know, the numb nuts on the left, which is what they do. That's why they live in a freaking bubble.

[Vince Cornell]

And they brought up a pretty darn

[Dan Bongino]

good point, I must say.

[Vince Cornell]

Credit where credit's due, that Donald Trump has cleaned up.

[Dan Bongino]

Think about this. Stop it.

[Vince Cornell]

Stop what you're doing right now.

[Dan Bongino]

No, I'm as serious as a freaking heart attack.

[Vince Cornell]

Please, just for a second, no matter

[Dan Bongino]

what you're doing, because I know sometimes part of the audience, you watch the

[Vince Cornell]

show, like passively tune in, tune out. Just stop what you're doing and listen to this. Although it was in Playbook Politico, this is an amazing point. In barely a year in office, Donald Trump has cleaned up decades of unfinished but necessary business.

[Dan Bongino]

Presidents from both parties have failed to just focus on the Republican Party just for a moment. Leave the Democrats out for. Just for a second.

[Vince Cornell]

Just for the sake of argument, folks, let's be clear.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm, I'm, I love Ronald Reagan, you know, not so much of a fan of at least the policies of George W. And some others. Obviously, we had some issues with prior presidents prior to that as well, Nixon and others.

[Vince Cornell]

However, the threat from the Iranians is one of probably 10 or 15 examples of generational problems the Republican parties had. Issues we've tried to solve. Roe v. Wade.

[Dan Bongino]

Trump fixes it by his appointees.

[Vince Cornell]

Venezuela, Chavez, Maduro, Communism. In our sphere, I'm not telling you the problem solved. This isn't some mission accomplished moment. I'm just telling you, like Maduro's no more. No more in Venezuela, he's rotting in a US prison. People have talked about cutting government forever. Every Republican president, we're going to cut government. The federal workforce is now down 10%. I've never seen anything like it. I'm not telling you to love it or hate it, folks. You're all independent beings. We're not freaking automaton automatons in this party. You are perfectly entitled and your opinion is welcome in the chat if you hate everything that happened. But you cannot deny the fact that a generations have been threatened. Generations of U.S. citizens, U.S. soldiers, U.S. law enforcement personnel have been threatened by the Iranians. And now the entire leadership of the Death to America party is dead.

[Haley Caronia]

Dead.

[Dan Bongino]

Decades have happened in days,

[Vince Cornell]

folks. The history books when written with clearer eyes. When the tds hopefully Trump derangement syndrome

[Dan Bongino]

wears off just a little bit,

[Vince Cornell]

any

[Dan Bongino]

honest telling of history is going to read that this was the most transformative president in 50 plus years, maybe more. You call it whatever you want, but you know what I just told you is true. Decades of unfinished business. Less than a year. Now do you see why again, I can't bring this up enough how people who have secreted themselves in our movement and their constant attacks on Donald Trump, they don't even give the guy time. Already the attacks have started.

[Vince Cornell]

We're not even three, four days a

[Dan Bongino]

week in to this decapitation mission.

[Vince Cornell]

We're not even a weekend is already

[Dan Bongino]

people calling him a traitor. Impeach him.

[Vince Cornell]

Oh, it's out there.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm not even going to. They haven't earned my time to talk about who they are. It doesn't even matter. You haven't earned my time or my audience's time. Traitor. You realize the Iranians and their proxies have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans in theater, in terror attacks. You understand that, correct?

[Vince Cornell]

And you know, one of the great ironies, and I don't mean great good,

[Dan Bongino]

I mean great in measure.

[Vince Cornell]

Some of these same people, whether it was assassination attempts on President Trump or other, have made all these like foreign connections. And then the minute this happens, like, oh, they haven't done nothing, any of those foreign connections.

[Dan Bongino]

Well, you can't have it both ways, can you? That's your argument, not mine. I'm just telling you, just go back in and listen. At least we give you the truth. We're going to talk about a lot today. I've been getting hit up by every media entity on the planet about sleeper cells and things. We're going to get to all of it. I got a really, really loaded show for you today, obviously a ton. So stay tuned. I'm I the language on the Friday show, by the way, just a quick. I get it. But it was a passionate show. If you missed it, I'm not. Just go back and watch the beginning. It was an important moment and it relates to what happened over the weekend as well. All right. Because not all this criticism of President Trump is honest. I promise if it didn't have anything to do with Israel, some of this criticism would go away.

[Vince Cornell]

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[Dan Bongino]

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[Vince Cornell]

that problem's been solved because they're dead. However, there are some problems that are ongoing and I want to be clear. I. And I'll get to this a little more later. I am not asking you to blindly trust anybody, ever trust, but verify, wait for results and then judge it.

[Dan Bongino]

That's all I'm asking.

[Vince Cornell]

But you may be asking fairly enough.

[Dan Bongino]

This is the question I know many people had.

[Vince Cornell]

Okay, well, why now? Why did President Trump, he is the CIC Commander in chief. Why engage in this decapitation exercise for

[Dan Bongino]

the entire upper level hierarchy of the Iranian debt to America leadership? Why now? I want to play a Fox clip from when this first broke. It's quick and I want.

[Vince Cornell]

You're going to notice here that this was targeted very, very deliberately at specific places in the beginning stages. It'll make sense in a second. But listen to Jennifer Griffin on Fox

[Dan Bongino]

talk about the specifics of the attack early on. Check this out.

[News Reporter]

I've just received a list of some of the early targets that have been attacked inside Iran. Let me read to you from that. There have been attacks on the Iranian Parliament, the National Supreme Council, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency. This and also cyber attacks on news agencies such as irna.

[Vince Cornell]

Leadership was target immediately because once you

[Dan Bongino]

destroy the command and control operation in the upper level hierarchy. The problem with the Iranians is they're not as sophisticated a military even close as the United States. The Iranian military was designed for one thing. Anyone telling you otherwise is full of shit.

[Vince Cornell]

They were designed for regime preservation. The Iranian military's ability to project force

[Dan Bongino]

outside of their territory. That territory being the Middle East. They've had some luck through proxies and elsewhere. But to project force wider than that is nil and almost non existent.

[Vince Cornell]

Anyone with weapons is dangerous. They were designed to preserve the regime. What am I getting at, folks? In the chat?

[Dan Bongino]

Where am I going with this?

[Vince Cornell]

Can you make up for it?

[Dan Bongino]

Tell me where I'm going with this.

[Vince Cornell]

If the freaking military is. Was almost solely designed to preserve the regime. And Guy, what's wrong with the regime now? They're dead. Yes, correct. What does that tell you about their capacity? No bueno. Guy speaks Spanish. All of a sudden they can't even do that. So why now, folks?

[Dan Bongino]

Obviously I have to be careful. You paid me to do a job in the FBI. So I have to speak within what's in the public domain. I think you all understand that about, you know, paid to go out there and divulge the nation's national security secrets. But some of this stuff you've seen in open source reporting and some of it's been a persistent problem that's not classified because it already happened.

[Vince Cornell]

Why now, first, folks, the persistent lethal

[Dan Bongino]

plotting against political figures in the United States after Baghdadi, Soleimani and others.

[Vince Cornell]

The lethal targeted attempts at assassinations in the United States, not just of political figures, I want to be clear about this, but also of Iranian dissidents. There's a case going on right now about this.

[Dan Bongino]

It's, it's an FBI DOJ case.

[Vince Cornell]

Obviously, the targeting of Iranian dissidents on our soil, along with political leaders and folks who were involved in targeted strikes

[Dan Bongino]

in Iran is unacceptable.

[Vince Cornell]

We cannot have this. You cannot have President Trump hook Pompeo and others. You cannot have them out there being the persistent targets of an Iranian lethal

[Dan Bongino]

plotting effort and allow it to happen.

[Vince Cornell]

It's going to make it really difficult for the United States government to act if the Iranians are given free rein on our soil. We've already seen this. This. At some point, this has to stop. You have to tell them, any you touch any of our people, there is going to be a 10x death return. On what we do to you. Think about like an investment, but an investment in death. Every death you try or think you're going to try or get, we're going to give you a 10x death return. It is the way to mitigate this stuff. The persistent assassination plotting and lethal plotting against people in the United States who they just don't like has to stop.

[Dan Bongino]

As Donald Trump said to ABC News in what may be the quote of the week, they tried to get me, but I got them first.

[Vince Cornell]

Second thing,

[Dan Bongino]

and I'll address this with Commander Kirk Lippold. He was a Commander of the USS Cole, tragic terror attack there back in 2000. Knows a lot about the military. Obviously, we'll address this with him later.

[Vince Cornell]

This is not new. The Iranians. Do you ever see that scene in

[Dan Bongino]

the, you know, movie Some of All Fears? Movie's not that great. It's one of those Jack Ryan movies, whatever.

[Vince Cornell]

But we used to put the quote

[Dan Bongino]

on the radio show all the time where there's an exchange of attacks by the Russians in the US and the guy's arguing about a first strike.

[Vince Cornell]

You guys, there's already been a first strike. They already Hit us, Folks, there has already been a series of strikes over the course of decades against the United States. You know, I am not a traditional kind of interventionist hawk. I think you know that I ran for office in Maryland against basically the sustained presence in Iraq. I didn't think it was a great idea. That's on the record, that's documented.

[Dan Bongino]

I put my name on a ballot

[Vince Cornell]

and ran on it in a blue state because I did not think that

[Dan Bongino]

forever wars were the option.

[Vince Cornell]

But that's not what this is, not forever. It's not even a freaking week. We don't have a sustained long term military presence in Venezuela, folks. Every single thing that was told to us about Donald Trump's interventions.

[Dan Bongino]

I'll go into this again in a little bit.

[Vince Cornell]

From the Abraham Accords to the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem, from Tel Aviv to getting Maduro every single time. Andrew, am I right? World War Three, World War Three, it's not happened yet. So clearly someone's wrong and someone's right because it's already happened. And on the Iranians, there has already been a first strike and a second strike and a third strike. IEDs overseas and war theater and war theaters designed by Iranian proxies. The Beirut barracks targeting on U.S. soil of foreign ambassadors. It's already happened. Linejad, all these kids. It's already happened. What I'm getting at is you are perfectly entitled in the chat and elsewhere, I welcome it to say I don't like the attacks and here's why. I want to hear it. Bring it on. Let everyone in the chat argue it out. We're a republic. I love your opinion and value it. But what's not open for debate are simple facts about historical events that have already happened. You can't say, well, we shouldn't have attacked them because they've never attacked us. They have attacked us. These Iranian proxy groups, there is a documented objective link, financially and ideologically and hierarchically through the Iranian. The heads of heads of state in Irania. Of Iran, excuse me, of Iran and the mullahs. The Iranians have already killed Americans. That part is not open for debate. Discuss it all you want. The debate is over. So, first, why now?

[Dan Bongino]

Persistent, lethal plotting and attempted assassinations. Second, decades of terror attacks against our soldiers and U.S. citizens. Third, again, I read this in open source, just like many of you did. There was a briefing that happened.

[Vince Cornell]

Apparently there was an imminent ballistic missile

[Dan Bongino]

threat against bases in our region. I'm attributed to open sourcing based on some briefings that have happened.

[Vince Cornell]

But folks, what are we going to do? Are we going to wait for the Iranians with a stockpile of ballistic missiles and the ability to produce upwards of 100 of them a month to fire ballistic missiles at our bases and kill more? We've already had multiple US casualties and death. You're just going to wait for them, let them kill people and then respond back? So the third reason, imminent threats right now that require executive leadership. And President Trump. Trump had the moose balls to do something about it. Instead of this dilly dallying around, licking his fingers, seeing where the winds are going, I'm just going to play in

[Dan Bongino]

the press and elsewhere

[Vince Cornell]

again. There's already been a first and a

[Dan Bongino]

second and a third strike. There's that VO played before his voiceover. But you see there's some video of some Tomahawk missiles that were launched. Also you see some of this footage from the idf. Obviously we did this operation in conjunction with our Israeli partners who had exquisite intelligence in the region. You're seeing some of this folks. They just don't have the Iranians the military capabilities to deal with either the Israeli military, the IDF or our military. They just don't. We completely own the skies over their country.

[Vince Cornell]

Their Russian air defense system and everything

[Dan Bongino]

else is just totally failed. Here's another component of this I don't want you to forget. Think about this.

[Vince Cornell]

Think about the brilliance of how President Trump structured this attack. First he takes out Maduro, grabs him.

[Dan Bongino]

He's sitting in a US prison.

[Vince Cornell]

Maduro was a problem for a number of reasons. However, one of the big reasons is they are an enormous Venezuela.

[Dan Bongino]

Venezuela that is obviously they are an enormous supplier of petrochemicals and oil and energy.

[Vince Cornell]

Energy to enemies.

[Dan Bongino]

They control a good portion of the US's, excuse me, of the world. World petrochemical supply. They were trying to grab more from other countries in the region as well. Water based assets.

[Vince Cornell]

So what does President Trump do? Takes out Maduro and does whatever he can to secure the energy supply in that region first so it doesn't go

[Dan Bongino]

off to our enemies.

[Vince Cornell]

See where I'm going with this? Who's one of the major energy suppliers,

[Dan Bongino]

petrochemicals, oil to China, our biggest threat on the globe. Yeah, the Iranians.

[Vince Cornell]

China's in real trouble now. You think he did that by accident? Secure hemispheric petrochemical supplies first in Venezuela, then ice out China from.

[Dan Bongino]

From Iran's oil as well.

[Vince Cornell]

By deposing the regime. None of this is by accident. This was as much a message to China that you better think twice about causing World War three. I thought about World War Three. He's trying to stop World War three from China jumping the straight in Taiwan by ice and out their energy supplies. Everybody forgetting about that. You don't think China's thinking twice right now? Shit.

[Dan Bongino]

What do we do now? We need some oil and stuff, huh?

[Vince Cornell]

I want to bring up another point. There are understandably.

[Dan Bongino]

Listen to me. Understandably. I'm not here to attack people on our side. That's not my job. On our side. Not people faking on our side like the doomer class. They're not on our side at all. Never have been. They've got an agenda and I promise it ain't yours.

[Vince Cornell]

But there are a lot of people I respect.

[Dan Bongino]

So one of them post about, you know, trust Trump is not a good idea or something like that.

[Vince Cornell]

I want to be clear. I'm not asking you to trust anybody. I'm asking you to trust results. We're only a couple of days into this operation.

[Dan Bongino]

There have been casualties, there has been death. There's been a more death on their side. Thank the good Lord.

[Vince Cornell]

The Iranian regime and the hierarchy has been almost entirely decapitated. Where is that going to go? We're going to see. But folks making comparisons to nation building forever wars and what's known as the

[Dan Bongino]

Pottery Barn theory, which I've cited many

[Vince Cornell]

times, are not accurate at this stage. We're not there.

[Dan Bongino]

We have not occupied Iran.

[Vince Cornell]

The Pottery Barn theory is a Colin

[Dan Bongino]

Powell generated theory that has dominated, you know, geopolitics and warfare for the last two decades plus.

[Vince Cornell]

It's the idea that after what happened

[Dan Bongino]

in Iraq and a number of the failures afterwards, we tried to nation build that if you break it Pottery Barn, you own it.

[Vince Cornell]

In other words, you attack, you own

[Dan Bongino]

it no matter what happens after.

[Vince Cornell]

President Trump is testing that. He's testing that now by saying we don't want to own anything. He said it pretty clearly. Secretary Warhead just got off the air in an amazing press conference.

[Dan Bongino]

He did a great job with, with Dan Cain.

[Vince Cornell]

They did an incredible job and he was very clear. He said, did you hear me when

[Dan Bongino]

they asked about, well, we going to be occupying this country for something like that, you know, Iraq war analogies.

[Vince Cornell]

We are taking out a regime that

[Dan Bongino]

wants to kill us, had the ability

[Vince Cornell]

to do it, has killed our people in the past, is trying to develop a nuclear weapon to kill more of us and we got rid of them.

[Dan Bongino]

The Pottery Barn theory is going to be put to the test because President

[Vince Cornell]

Trump doesn't want to own it. He's been clear it has scared people

[Dan Bongino]

off from isolated military actions in the past. We're going to see,

[Vince Cornell]

folks, as I

[Dan Bongino]

said before, we've already tried a number of different approaches through Republican and Democratic presidents and leadership in the past in this country, including the don't approach. The don't approach, which he got all excited about the show. I'm going to get to that in a second. Let me just take a quick break here. I want to get back to that and show you how there's only a

[Vince Cornell]

couple of honest sources of truth in this. You have conservative leading cable news channels.

[Dan Bongino]

You have conservative outlets.

[Vince Cornell]

The liberal media changes their mind on Iran every 10 minutes. It's an existential threat. It's not an existential threat. Depending on what Trump does. I'm going to show you the videos.

[Dan Bongino]

Hat tip maze more for some great ones. We'll get back to that in a second. A big show. A lot more to talk about. Kirk Lippo coming up later. Great analysis on naval assets in the region and kind of this pitch and catch thing they're doing over there.

[Vince Cornell]

Hey, if you looked at your credit

[Dan Bongino]

card statement lately, you're working 40, 50 hours a week just to buy groceries and gas, things you used to be able to afford. And the credit card companies are charging you over 20% interest for the privilege. Think about that, over 20%. It's designed to keep you financially underwater. You don't want that. American Financing, our friends there at American Financing, great company, been with me a long time, they're doing something that these other folks at the credit card companies hate. American Finance is actually helping you. The people they have mortgage rates now in the fives. In the fives, they're showing homeowners how to take their hard earned equity to wipe out that high interest debt. Stop throwing money away. The average savings is $800 a month. That's a lot of savings talking to thousands, thousands of dollars a year.

[Vince Cornell]

Talk to a salary based mortgage consultant.

[Dan Bongino]

No upfront fees, no obligation to see how much you can save. Do it today. If you start today, you could delay two mortgage payments. Big savings for you. So give American Financing a call. Here's the number. Write it down. 888-994-7660. Again, the number is 888-994-766. Give one of their consultants a call. Give it a shot. Or maybe you want to Visit online. It's a.net address.

[Vince Cornell]

Check them out online.

[Dan Bongino]

American financing.net Bongino that's American financing.net Bongino take advantage of Some of those available potential savings today. American financing.net Bongino Thanks American financing. We appreciate it, folks. We already tried a number of approaches with Iranians who just Iranian leadership. The people are a separate story. I think we've been clear on that in the past and I will be right now.

[Vince Cornell]

We've tried all of these approaches before.

[Dan Bongino]

Hat tip was this was. I don't know where we saw this one, but this is. What is it? Wall street apes. Wall street apes. Hat tip to you. We got a hat tip. This is a comparison of what you saw with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden with the weakness approach that just incentivizes further terror strikes and attacks against U.S. citizens and military members. Right. Versus the Donald Trump approach.

[Vince Cornell]

That's why I said just give the guys some time.

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out. The message to Iran, don't.

[Haley Caronia]

What is your privilege to Iran in this moment?

[Kirk Lippold]

Don't. I'm going to bomb the shit out of them.

[Vince Cornell]

It's true. I don't care.

[Dan Bongino]

I don't care.

[Vince Cornell]

I play that clip for a couple

[Dan Bongino]

of reasons as guy knows. Well I actually sent that Donald Trump clip. I'm going to bomb the shit out of him, which is from 2016 separate earlier in the show. And then I saw that clip, Wall street apes had that clip up and I thought it's even better embedded between this Democrat sandwich of idiots, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.

[Vince Cornell]

It's even better because there are people

[Dan Bongino]

out there now claiming again you are

[Vince Cornell]

fair to have whatever opinion you want on the military strikes in Iran, period. Chime away in the chat. But you can't deny the fact because

[Dan Bongino]

I've heard this often and I think

[Vince Cornell]

that clip immediately, I don't think, I know immediately discredited. Well, Donald Trump didn't run on this stuff, folks. That's from 2016. Don't tell me like you were taken by surprise. He ran against forever wars, but he senses a persistent acute threat against the United States of America. He's given them, folks, it's 2026. Just by simple math. It's been 10 years since 2016. He's given them 10 years.

[Dan Bongino]

There was the Biden period in between. I understand.

[Vince Cornell]

However, it's been 10 years. It's not like the Iranian regime even they were. There's no way they could have been caught off guard. I mean yes, they were probably at the timing of the attack but there's no way they didn't understand that they were under serious threat from this guy and they still did this double barrel middle finger. I Want you to understand that the Iranian regime was giving zero material concessions whatsoever on their nuclear program. Do you understand that? They said, you can't enrich past this percentage because once you hit that percentage, you can develop a nuclear weapon like that. The Iranians said, go yourself. Also. Centrifuges. They wanted centrifuges. Well, we're not going to let you have those centrifuges because they'll help you build a nuclear weapon. We want them anyway. Then the Iranians were like, well, we want a civilian nuclear program. So the United States, Donald Trump's administration, Witkoff and others went over and said, okay, how about we talk about a civilian program? We can even, like, assist you in the development. We're just not going to let you develop a weapon. They were like, no, we still want to develop a weapon. It's not like the Iranians did a damn thing to make this problem go away. President Trump, I used to drive home on the Long Island Expressway in New York, exit 62. He gave them 62 freaking exits to get off the highway. And they said, go yourself.

[Dan Bongino]

Let me just throw this in there quick, because I got to tell you something.

[Vince Cornell]

If you're the Cuban regime, I would

[Dan Bongino]

be sitting there in a soiled diaper right now, too. Even the Hill picked up on this one. If you're the Cuban higher ups, I listen. I'm just telling you. Laura Kelly, the Hill Cuba faces zero hours.

[Vince Cornell]

Trump, Rubio, put the squeeze on the regime.

[Dan Bongino]

There's.

[Vince Cornell]

You're the Cubans. I don't know, man.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm making sure I got my.

[Vince Cornell]

What are those adult diapers in Depends or something?

[Dan Bongino]

You better depend on those Depends. This guy's not screwing around. I think he's been crystal clear.

[Vince Cornell]

He's given these people who are a

[Dan Bongino]

threat to us both in the hemisphere now an option. You can stop effing around or here's

[Vince Cornell]

what's going to happen.

[Dan Bongino]

And it happened and now they're dead.

[Vince Cornell]

They didn't have to be dead. They could have negotiated in good faith. They chose not to. One of the purposes of this show

[Dan Bongino]

early on has been to give you some objective truth, whether you like it or not, and then we can talk it out on our side. Fair enough.

[Vince Cornell]

But folks, relying on left wing media for analysis, it is a total waste of time. These scumbags in the liberal media lie to you.

[Dan Bongino]

I get it. Hello, Captain Obvious.

[Vince Cornell]

However, it's important you understand this because we have some Democrats who watch this show.

[Dan Bongino]

I know. I get their hate mail.

[Vince Cornell]

And sometimes we actually convert them it happens. I always bring receipts. The media can't get their message straight. You're going to see people like, you

[Dan Bongino]

know, Jen Psaki who. It's hilarious. Like, I go back to my show,

[Vince Cornell]

the liberal media loses their mind.

[Dan Bongino]

I can't believe it. I was the deputy director of the FBI.

[Vince Cornell]

I'm back doing his show. One I promised him a year, crushed it over the year, did what we had to do, came back to my show. They don't care that Jen Psaki is

[Dan Bongino]

over there at msnow.

[Vince Cornell]

By the way, here's a clip of Jen Psaki when she was the White House press secretary talking about how immediate the Iranian threat is. Watch msnow change their perspective on it now only because it's Donald Trump who

[Dan Bongino]

engaged in this military action as the commander in chief. Check this out.

[News Reporter]

Has rapidly accelerated its nuclear program and reduced cooperation with international inspectors. Their breakout period is down from about a year, which is what we knew it was during the deal, to just a few weeks or less.

[Dan Bongino]

Hat tip again. The great maze. More on X for polling. That one.

[Vince Cornell]

What is it? They can't get their message straight.

[Dan Bongino]

This one's even better. Another maze clip here. This is Aaron Burnett in a series of three separate clips. If you're listening on Apple and Spotify, it's three separate cuts from three separate

[Vince Cornell]

times where the Iranians are an imminent threat. They're not an imminent threat. The nuclear program has been taken care of at a seven. They'll never give you the straight story. I absolutely adore the fact that I

[Dan Bongino]

have an audience that is always skeptical

[Vince Cornell]

and says don't trust anybody. Trust results. I adore that. Me included. I love that. Blibs no such thing. A bunch of stupid borg like automaton, like robots who think with a hive mind, who can't get their freaking story straight. You want perspective and you're going to them.

[Dan Bongino]

You're getting nothing but bullshit. Check this out.

[News Reporter]

This timeline of Iran being a few weeks away from a nuclear bomb is in direct contradiction to CNN's reporting. According to U.S. intelligence assessments, Iran is three years away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon if they wanted to. So the facts on Iran getting a nuclear weapon do not bear out the claim. At the heart of what has put the world on the verge of world war, Iran's uranium may still be intact and In Iranian control, 408 kg of it now enough theoretically, according to experts, to make nine nuclear weapons only set back the Iranian nuclear program by months. We got to call it like it is. It's a big Deal. Sources tell CNN there is no US Intelligence that Iran is building missiles that could soon hit the United States. That's a really big deal, folks.

[Vince Cornell]

It's exhausting, frankly, keeping up with this. And I know it's a persistent theme of my show, finding honest sources and

[Dan Bongino]

calling out dishonest brokers of bullshit.

[Vince Cornell]

However, it's important we do that because I don't want you to mistakenly tune into one of these channels one of these days and think you're getting some objective truth.

[Dan Bongino]

I've given you the upsides, the downsides.

[Vince Cornell]

I'm going to give you more in a couple of minutes. I have concerns. Look, they're right here in the book. Concerns, legitimate concerns about going forward, what could happen. And I think the president would be candid about you and tell you we share the same concerns. I know Peaches said the same thing, but if you're going to these people to get any objective truth, I'm telling you this having seen classified briefings and sat in them for a year behind the scenes. These people don't know shit. They don't know anything. Zero. They have this, I used to know

[Dan Bongino]

this journalist guy, I wrote about him, one of my books.

[Vince Cornell]

And they have this thing where they go out and they see quote machines.

[Dan Bongino]

I saw this Washington Times piece earlier by it's Kerry Pickett piece. I hope I get to.

[Vince Cornell]

It's the same thing. You have a preordained conclusion and you go to someone who's going to tell you what you already want to write rather than going someone to give you the objective truth. They're called quote machines. They do this all the time. Hey, Trump took out the Iranian leadership. We need to frame this as being shitty.

[Dan Bongino]

You got someone, let's go to this guy.

[Vince Cornell]

He's already told someone else it's shitty. What about someone else who has an alternate perspective?

[Dan Bongino]

Let's leave that out.

[Vince Cornell]

These people don't know shit. I don't understand like why if you call yourself a journalist, you're supposed to be put on some objective truth based pedestal because you've titled yourself that these people don't know anything. Zero. It's all opinion based bullshit where they

[Dan Bongino]

seek out people to verify their priors, trust results.

[Vince Cornell]

If this goes badly, if this breaks bad over the course of the next four to five years because it's going to take an enormous amount of time to judge in total what happened here. There's going to be a thousand white papers and academics and bullshit media people who are going to have a thousand different opinions on this thing. And you're going to hear about it. It's a free country. It's only been a couple of days, folks. I mentioned this earlier in the show. Predictions at this stage, at this stage of the anti Trump TDS crowd and the doomers where everything sucks all the time have been wrong. Call me crazy. Am I, am I right or am I right? I went through. Let's just go to a couple. Maduro in Venezuela. This timeline is four or five years long. Will gauge what happened there, success or failure. So I'm very clear on this. I'm not willing to say, oh absolutely, totally a mission accomplished. I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying we're now a couple months past. It was the last thing that happened when I, in my prior jobs, my

[Dan Bongino]

day, I, the weekend I left, that was the last thing I dealt with.

[Vince Cornell]

We go and grab Maduro. The anti Trump crowd told you, oh my gosh. Regional instability, World War three, whatever. No, none of that's happened yet. None of that's happening. So you were wrong up to this point. Correct. Think about what happened in the Middle East. We moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in Trump 45.

[Dan Bongino]

Oh my gosh.

[Vince Cornell]

The threats of World War II, the global apocalypse, nuclear annihilation. Folks, none of that happened. None of that happened. I think we have a fair timeline

[Dan Bongino]

now to gauge that.

[Vince Cornell]

None of that happened either. Trump is crazy. I can't believe he moved the embassy. Even Republican presidents didn't want to do it. Yeah, because a lot of them didn't have the balls. They just didn't. Trump wrapped up their business and now we are on that four to five year timeline. We can pretty much say your predictions about that particular incident were freaking wrong. Just be honest. Trump takes out Soleimani Al Baghdadi. World War 3, that didn't happen either. It said, tell me I'm wrong. Did I miss something? Was there a world war I missed? Midnight Hammer, the taking out of the Iranian nuclear enterprise. I thought that was going to result in World War 3 too. What happened there with the Abraham Accords? Oh, we can't, we can't sign trade agreements with Middle Eastern partners in Israel. Be responsible for refereeing that the United States will be a terror attack. That didn't happen either. Give the man a chance. I'm not asking you, I cannot be clear about this to trust anybody. I'm asking you to trust results. And when you say A is when A happens, move the embassy. B is going to happen World War 3 and that doesn't Happen. Your stated results didn't happen. You were wrong.

[Dan Bongino]

Folks, a lot of these people don't know shit. They don't. Now, I do have some very serious concerns going forward, and I'm sure that these are shared by people in the law enforcement and military infrastructure of the United States government.

[Vince Cornell]

Folks, one of them, we're living in

[Dan Bongino]

a different world now. It is now very asymmetrically cheap for enemies of the United States via drone warfare explosives technology to engage in, you know, financial asymmetric terror warfare against the United States.

[Vince Cornell]

I say financial because you can put on a $500 drone explosives that takes

[Dan Bongino]

$100,000 missile sometimes to take out. The technology is getting better, getting better,

[Vince Cornell]

and we're getting there. But the availability of cheap drone technology is going to change warfare going forward. And that's why I say to you, give it some time. We are going to see what happens.

[Dan Bongino]

Look at what happened in the, the airport in Kuwait. The Iranians just did basically an instinct, an extinction burst of behavior.

[Vince Cornell]

This is what they, they know.

[Dan Bongino]

They, they were extinguished.

[Vince Cornell]

The Iranian leadership is now dead. So they said, basically, screw it, we're just going to go bomb everyone all the time.

[Dan Bongino]

Everywhere you see the aftermath there. Here's another thing that it's the airport in Kuwait. Hat tip FAI TUX network via X. You can check that out yourself. What worries me here is when it comes to the purchase of explosives, traditional explosives and explosive precursors, there are well defined global tripwires.

[Vince Cornell]

If someone goes in and tries to

[Dan Bongino]

purchase, you know, a large quantity of

[Vince Cornell]

explosive precursors, there are a number of

[Dan Bongino]

very sophisticated programs and tripwires, you know, where people will generally notify and especially if it's a buyer they haven't seen before. I think it's fairly obvious, folks, with

[Vince Cornell]

drones, that's more difficult.

[Dan Bongino]

We're going to have to work on that moving forward. Is developing a global information network on

[Vince Cornell]

drones where we respect civil liberties in the United States. But also we, you know, we kind of heighten our alert towards suspicious purchases because this is going to create a

[Dan Bongino]

real problem going forward. You saw this strike in Dubai with these Iranian, Iranian drones. This is, this is not that expensive to cause this type of chaos, but it is expensive to interdict it. You have that video from Dubai. This is Dubai. I mean, Dubai. Insurance costs in Dubai now are going to get really expensive, really quick in the, in the UAE because they were, you know, building out what they thought was a business safe environment for folks. Now you got this stuff going on. The Iranians know what they're doing, they're going to cause chaos. If they're going to go down, everybody's going down with them. Total extinction burst. You see this video in Bahrain. The Iranians know exactly what they're doing.

[Vince Cornell]

So my biggest concern out of this

[Dan Bongino]

is the growing evolving drone warfare environment that involves financial difficulties, technology, technological problems and a life cycle.

[Vince Cornell]

You know, missile technology is slow to develop. Drone technology, two weeks to a month. They figure out new ways to do it. You interdict one method, they jump to another one.

[Dan Bongino]

Another concern I want to bring up and this directly involves, you know, my prior experience in both jobs folks. Obviously the Iranians are going to do whatever they can to make sure not just their Middle Eastern co located countries suffer to Bahrain, Qatar and elsewhere. Because they want to bring everyone in this. They're going to try to do their best obviously to incentivize attacks on U.S. soil. I got a ton of questions this weekend about things like sleeper cells. I'll address what I can here. I just wanna play this segment quick. This is David Spunt on FOX about Cash, the Director of the FBI obviously putting out a statement about how the FBI is on alert. I'll explain to you but open source wise what that means. I'm not trying to, I don't wanna say put anyone at ease, but I wanna just reduce everybody's anxiety a little bit on how this actually works. Check this out.

[FBI Director Kash Patel]

While Secretary Hegseth and Secretary Rubio and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and others have been briefing the President here at Mar A Lago in Palm Beach, FBI Director Kash Patel putting the counterintelligence teams with the Bureau on high alert across the country. Patel along with AG Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem updating senior leadership at the Washington House on matters keeping our homeland safe. Now what Patel did means that according to a law enforcement source, the Bureau has increased surveillance of priority suspects. FBI Director Patel posting online we ask everyone to please report anything that may seem suspicious to law enforcement. You can call 1-800- call FBI or submit a tip at tips. FBI thank you to all the military service members, federal partners and law enforcement who continue to put mission first.

[Dan Bongino]

So again, I'm not trying to in any way downplay the threat. I just told you that it is a very real threat. However, what I consider to be in addition to the possibility of sleeper cell elements, a co equal threat is the threat of incidents like this. Our decapitation of the Iranian regime encouraging

[Vince Cornell]

lunatics who are here who don't share

[Dan Bongino]

our values, who may have been brought to the country, some legally self radicalizing. We've seen this over and over in a number of terror attacks. I call it the Bourbon street problem.

[Vince Cornell]

I used to bring this up with

[Dan Bongino]

FBI leadership all the time, all the day probably. It probably got tired like. I get it, the Bourbon street problem. I'll explain to you what I mean in a second. But I'm going to give you both sides. There is obviously so one side there is a threat and it's a very real threat that self radicalized lunatics will use.

[Vince Cornell]

This event.

[Dan Bongino]

We'll have the Bourbon street problem also with sleeper cells. I'm going to talk about that in a second.

[Vince Cornell]

But these things are threats. But I want to give you the good news first. We have a couple of things working

[Dan Bongino]

for us in our favor. I'm not telling you it eliminates all the threat, but this is the stuff that happened, you know, when I was there, that's now in the open arena and you can read about it yourself, folks. The Summer Heat Violent Crime initiative where we, we locked up tens of thousands of criminals. Violent criminals you may say. What does that have to do with the counterterror threat in the Iranians, folks? Criminals tend to hang out with other criminals. It's not a mystery. It's not, you know, you don't have to watch a bunch of Netflix spy stories to figure that out. Criminals don't hang out in choir groups. They don't hang out with the Tupperware club.

[Vince Cornell]

Criminals, whether terrorists or not, have to.

[Dan Bongino]

They have to work with other criminals, whether they're cells or otherwise.

[Vince Cornell]

And in an enhanced surveillance technology environment. It is not as easy as it

[Dan Bongino]

was 10 or 15 years ago to coordinate attacks anymore. It's not by any means impossible.

[Vince Cornell]

I'm not diminishing the possibility of any

[Dan Bongino]

organized group, but as you saw with the breakup of that operation out in California, we were involved in a couple of months, I think it was like three, four months ago when I was there. I was up late on a weekend night with that one. It's not easy to coordinate this stuff anymore. Not impossible, but not easy. I bring up Summer Heat cuz we

[Vince Cornell]

locked up so many violent criminals and did so many briefings. Whether it was through Summer Heat, whether it was through the deportation initiatives and our cooperation and emergency removal operations of illegals. A lot of these were interviews as well. And a lot of good solid intelligence was developed that would not have been

[Dan Bongino]

there if you didn't speak to bad

[Vince Cornell]

guys you arrested who knew about other bad guys. You get what I'M saying President Trump's order to go get these shitheads off the street, these violent criminals produced an incredible body of intelligence we would not

[Dan Bongino]

have had had under Biden's FBI.

[Vince Cornell]

That happened.

[Dan Bongino]

I know, I was there. We have that going for us. Second, the prior leadership of the FBI had focused on a lot of this agave and I'm not telling you again

[Vince Cornell]

that there isn't a real threat from folks who are out. They had definitely misallocated resources in an

[Dan Bongino]

opportunity, a failed opportunity cost manner towards

[Vince Cornell]

threats that I believe were exaggerated on their end in lieu of threats that are very real.

[Dan Bongino]

Islamo, fascist radicals,

[Vince Cornell]

left wing motivated terror groups. We threw that out, folks. Again, I know the bullshit, nothing's happening crowd.

[Dan Bongino]

You can go yourself.

[Vince Cornell]

You don't know what you're talking about. You didn't live it, you didn't do shit. All you did is talk on Twitter. We were there every single day.

[Dan Bongino]

A new reform was initiated in the National Security Division space between counterintelligence and counterterror.

[Vince Cornell]

That's why arrests were up so dramatically

[Dan Bongino]

in the counterespionage space and elsewhere.

[Vince Cornell]

I'm not telling you this is going to solve all the problems. I'm just telling you the FBI now,

[Dan Bongino]

now as it stands under this director and this president is focused on threats

[Vince Cornell]

in a properly triaged way.

[Dan Bongino]

The third thing we have going for

[Vince Cornell]

us, President Trump has locked down the border. That is an indisputable fact, folks. This is what, this is kind of

[Dan Bongino]

the good news, bad news story.

[Vince Cornell]

The good news is the border is secure. It is very difficult to secrete into

[Dan Bongino]

the country bad actors, a lot more difficult than it was under the open border policies of President Joe Biden.

[Vince Cornell]

The downside is Biden's open border let in probably anywhere from 15 to 20 million people into the country. And as I said on Laura Ingraham's

[Dan Bongino]

show on was it Saturday night, I did a hit on Fox, had a tie on which was kind of weird. I was at a charity event but still managed to get the hit in.

[Vince Cornell]

Folks, when you let 15, 20 million

[Dan Bongino]

people into the country, it is the

[Vince Cornell]

old Rumsfeld unknown unknown that bothers me. You don't know who's here. If they're got aways because they got away, you don't know. So I'm not going to be the one to tell you. Oh, that thread of cells is nonexistent. I'm just telling you that we were on it, we had shaken every tree and there is a, let's say a laundry list of Things that happen that are planned out in advance when fire alarms get pulled. Does that make sense? I came in and I think week

[Dan Bongino]

one or so I said, you know, what happens if there's an, you know, a threat of an imminent terror strike?

[Vince Cornell]

Like what, what's the, the go by list of items? I want to see every single thing and go through it. There is a laundry list of things that happen when the commander in chief makes the call.

[Dan Bongino]

This stuff is happening now. Now I said I would mention the Bourbon street problem because I want to talk about my concerns as well. The attack in New Orleans on Bourbon Street. Guy turns his vehicle down the street, mows down people, you know about it. It was really, what was, it was a bowl game happening. It was just a disastrous tragedy. I brought up the Bourbon street problem probably every day I was there. And the Bourbon street problem is this. Yes. The idea of a cell in the United States is always something. The FBI is going to be concerned about. Everyone. The President as well. We talked about it all the time. What bothers me as much as are individual actors who use something like this to radicalize themselves and then they go and make a, you know, right or left turn down a street like Bourbon street and they kill a bunch of people.

[Vince Cornell]

What's the answer to that? The answer to that is you can't

[Dan Bongino]

make right turns illegal or left turns illegal.

[Vince Cornell]

You can't make vehicles illegal. And it's the same way the Bourbon street problem applies to drones too. Drones are here, they're never going away. They're the transportation vehicles of the future

[Dan Bongino]

for people, logistics, everything else.

[Vince Cornell]

They're not going away. So if you can't make them illegal and they're going to be used as

[Dan Bongino]

attacks, vehicles for attack, just like regular land based four wheel vehicles, cars, automobiles

[Vince Cornell]

will be, then what do you do? Can't make cars illegal. Can't make right turns illegal.

[Dan Bongino]

Can't make drones illegal either. Folks, the only answer is information warfare. And I promise you, during our time there, not a day went by we did not have some meeting about this, how to within constitutional guidelines. That's number one. You trade liberty for security, you will have neither. And that is a fact. And I promise you that liberty component was involved as the first thing in every meeting. However, the enemy has communication tools and technologies right now that we were forced to adapt and adapt quickly. And in my opinion, the Biden led FBI had not done that. A lot of the agents pushed for it and met were met with a number of different obstacles. Information warfare is the only way. If you don't intercept this plot before it happens. You can't make a right turn on Bourbon Street. You can't make it illegal. It's. You missed, You see that with drones. So I'm very worried about the self radicalization problem. So I'm going to be talking about, I'm going to be on Hannity tonight. I'll be talking about a lot of this during the week, obviously within proper boundaries. I just want to assure you I'm not telling you to lower your guard or anything like that. There is a battle plan going forward and a lot of these scenarios about what ifs have already been discussed. Thank you to the 87,000 people here. This is why I bring up all the time, folks. I am very concerned about the doomerism, not so much. The welcome analytical process within our party. Again, disregard the left. I showed you the Aaron Burnett Jen Psaki clip. They're just lying to you all the time. I welcome the analytical process within our party where people question a lot of this stuff. It's okay, it's good, it's welcome.

[Vince Cornell]

That's what our party is. We're not freaking robots. What bothers me is the doomer class

[Dan Bongino]

with an agenda that I promise you if this did not involve Israel, Middle

[Vince Cornell]

Eastern partners and elsewhere, it would be a totally different debate. We're, we're less than a week into this. We're not even a couple of days into this and already you've got the doomer class. Look it up folks. You think I'm making this up? Trump's a traitor. We should impeach Trump.

[Dan Bongino]

Go.

[Vince Cornell]

You don't know. Are you serious? By the way, look at the resumes

[Dan Bongino]

of some of these idiots commenting on that.

[Vince Cornell]

They have absolutely no experience in law enforcement, intel, the military, the G. Elsewhere. They have no. Why would you. They have zero experience. They know shit. Why would you take their advice on anything? And I get really ticked off with the doomer class too on everything that's happened during our time at the FBI where Cash and I spent the basically the entire year preparing for moments like this.

[Dan Bongino]

Here's a Wall Street Journal piece again,

[Vince Cornell]

you know, are you guys going to measure results or are you just going

[Dan Bongino]

to comment on like Cash Patel is testing FBI norms.

[Vince Cornell]

The articles, another ridiculous piece about how like hey man, listen, Cash didn't wear, he wore a hoodie once overseas. This is like in the piece. Are you even remotely concerned about what's going on at the FBI? Results wise.

[Dan Bongino]

Wait, bring that back in a second. The other one.

[Vince Cornell]

I just want to talk about this piece. Are you concerned about that at all? Total complete distraction stuff.

[Dan Bongino]

Here's Washington Times a Kerry Pickett piece

[Vince Cornell]

where again I don't understand like she writes two separate things it seems all the time.

[Dan Bongino]

Turmoil at FBI amid firings by Patel.

[Vince Cornell]

Whistleblower Action Olympics. Now you're upset about cash firing people who are not aligned with the mission. I thought he wasn't firing enough people. What freaking story is it? I don't understand like the doom and gloom crowd, what story is it? What bothers you more that he's firing people who he believes did not meet FBI standards for employment or that he didn't fire enough people? Because you seem, these folks seem to write the complete opposite story on any given day. It's almost like they have an agenda and the quote machines they use are completely biased. Folks who are Ray Comey era people who were just pissed off and don't like this guy and his pace of change.

[Dan Bongino]

Patel,

[Vince Cornell]

it's such freaking bullshit, man.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm going to tell you something. I get, I just get freaking furious dealing with the whole thing because

[Vince Cornell]

if it's all bad all the time and you're never going to discuss the results and you're just going to engage in

[Dan Bongino]

endless subjective opinion about I don't like

[Vince Cornell]

the sweater he wore, anything like that, how are you going to give people

[Dan Bongino]

the proper inputs to gauge an output

[Vince Cornell]

and give them the ability to form

[Dan Bongino]

a, you know, a well reasoned decision on outputs, on what you think of the people who are doing the job now? Bullshit. I want to get to a couple more things. There was a lot going on. I got Commander Kirk Leopold, he was a commander of the USS Cole which was the subject of a tragic terror attack back in October of 2000. I remember it well. I was, I got up in early morning, I was headed into work, was sitting on a treadmill and I couldn't believe the news. So he is a really brilliant military analyst. Coming up in a little bit we're gonna talk about a lot of this, a lot of what happened over the weekend. But I had a couple more things I wanted to get to as well. There were a lot more news items that peaked over the course of the weekend and on Friday. And I don't wanna leave em on the table because there is a lot going on. There are really important things. We still got things like the SAVE act, we have voter fraud issues. So this happened this past week. While we're on the subject of the SAVE act and voter fraud. You know, I thought again the liberal media who can't get their stories straight on what's going on with the Iranians and the nuclear threat. I thought, you know, they told us that voter fraud was a non issue.

[Vince Cornell]

Did you miss this story out of Alabama? Now, not only will the liberal media

[Dan Bongino]

lunatics, the same ones I just played for you, tell you that voter fraud is a fairytale.

[Vince Cornell]

The degree of it is overstated. It's almost never decided a race. Really? Is that a fact? Because this story happened in Alabama and

[Dan Bongino]

I'm not going to let you miss it on a Monday even though we got a lot going on.

[Vince Cornell]

Because I'm getting tired of hearing from these lunatics how voter fraud's not a thing.

[Dan Bongino]

You know, mail in ballots aren't an issue.

[Vince Cornell]

Even though the New York Times in 2012 wrote a whole article about mail in ballots being an issue.

[Dan Bongino]

This happened out in Alabama. Can someone on the left please explain to me how this happened? That voter fraud is not a thing? Check this out.

[Haley Caronia]

Documents filed today in Monroe county reveal a grand jury indicted 67 year old Sharon Denson, 46 year old Samantha Kyles and 59 year old Sarah Bennett for illegally filling out and submitting ballots during the Frisco City municipal election in August of 2025. Those same records show Denson changed seven people's ballots, Kyles altered four people's ballots and Bennett changed nine people's ballots. The criminal charges follow a civil lawsuit that was filed last September by former Frisco City Mayor Allen Lang, who lost the August election. In it, Lang is challenging the vote count saying 131 illegal absentee ballots were counted which changed the results.

[Vince Cornell]

I thought that never happened. I thought that never happens. I thought that never happens. Can you explain to me again why we shouldn't be concerned about the SAVE act and voter ID and voter fraud and voter integrity measures when you're telling us it doesn't happen? In a news report, Alabama told us it happened again. Here's another one for you. Here's the Michigan Secretary of State.

[Dan Bongino]

Now listen, a little disclaimer. It's not a language disclaimer. Guy is a perfectionist with the audio because some of you listen on Apple and Spotify audio only. So if you're not watching the lips, it's hard to hear. So it's not the greatest audio ever. If you're watching on Rumble, you shouldn't have any problems.

[Vince Cornell]

However, here's the Michigan Secretary of State

[Dan Bongino]

asked a simple question about illegals on the ballot, basically non citizens.

[Vince Cornell]

Why can't you just answer the question? If it's not a problem. Then it's not a problem.

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out.

[FBI Director Kash Patel]

Can you assure Michiganders that there are no longer any non citizen voters on the voter roll?

[News Reporter]

We've actually done a lot, frankly more

[Vince Cornell]

than any other state to ensure.

[FBI Director Kash Patel]

So are there any other non citizen voters on the voter roll?

[Vince Cornell]

Well, I understand all you need to

[Dan Bongino]

know if the audio is. The audio is not great there. We understand that.

[Vince Cornell]

However, I want to put that in there because if there's none on the voter roll, you clean up then just answer the question. Why can't, why can't you answer the question?

[Dan Bongino]

Folks, you combine these two things, two things I'm about to talk about here quickly. And the MAGA movement will dominate US politics for the next two decades because we're on the right side of it. The SAVE act, which will implement voter integrity measures and voter id, which will prevent cheating like you just saw, although the Democrats tell you it didn't happen. And a rebalancing of the media environment. The media environment right now, which I showed you especially on the left, is hapless. I absolutely resolutely support freedom of speech. I free press. You're free to say what you want, but you're also free to have an opinion in the media opinion space. And the opinion space in media, which is most of it on the left, is dominated by liberal lunatics who never

[Vince Cornell]

tell you the truth.

[Dan Bongino]

That's why they're freaking out over this over at CNN about the acquisition by a non liberal lunatic and this, you know, this Warner Paramount potential symbiotic business relationship.

[Vince Cornell]

CNN people are freaking out because Larry Ellison may get control of CNN and

[Dan Bongino]

he is not a liberal lunatic.

[Vince Cornell]

Why are they freaking out? Because they don't want a rebalancing of the media. You combine a rebalancing of the media

[Dan Bongino]

ecosystem with the implementation of the SAVE act, the Democrats have a tough time winning an election anytime going forward because their bullshit will be exposed. Remember, by the way, the meltdown when Elon bought X?

[Vince Cornell]

You remember that one? Why was there a meltdown? Because the left had used X under Dorsey's leadership in the past to segregate and silo out conservative ideas and make sure that they isolated you from the truth so you'd never see the truth. So a lot of numbnuts continue to vote Democrat because they never got the other side of the argument.

[Dan Bongino]

Here's a quick clip from When Elon bought X and the freakout that happened there too. Check this out.

[News Reporter]

Twitter will no longer enforce a policy designed to counteract Covid misinformation on its platform. Doctors suggest to the Washington Post that the change is a huge step backwards and will lead to more deaths. So now Twitter is going to be flooded with COVID disinformation. Yeah, if you don't have rules, you don't, you don't. You don't have rules. And that's just the way it is. And therefore you're not in trouble if you don't find it. And that's more problematic when it comes to child safety or, or child pornography content and things like that. And that's where it gets concerning, I think, and Covid misinformation. Twitter has now purged everyone in charge of protecting children and child abuse content. And then in the delusional world which Musk's appears obsessed with placating and ple. Planet Q, you've got this fictional fantasy world of pedophiles when in the real world Elon Musk is making Twitter far more hospitable to them. What's going on?

[Dan Bongino]

I find Elon Musk reprehensible and frankly,

[Vince Cornell]

the advertiser is going to have the

[News Reporter]

last say on this.

[Dan Bongino]

You can't, you can't have a major

[Vince Cornell]

brand in this country and be putting

[Kirk Lippold]

your ads on platforms like this that are unsafe for children, that are spreading

[Dan Bongino]

misinformation about COVID that's actually killing people.

[Vince Cornell]

The killing people stuff. They are so freaked out in a

[Dan Bongino]

rebalancing of the media ecosystem in conjunction with the SAVE act because their bullshit

[Vince Cornell]

is going to be exposed. They've also fed you a number of bullshit lines about the whole folks they are working with.

[Dan Bongino]

Listen to me here. I should have put this in the last segment about the FBI with the freaking doomers who drive me crazy. They drive me freaking bananas because they're

[Vince Cornell]

just full of shit. They're constantly telling you nothing is happening. And then something happens and then you move on to the next thing they

[Dan Bongino]

tell you didn't happen. And.

[Vince Cornell]

And then that happens to. Remember the Minnesota when they burst into

[Dan Bongino]

the church, the Don Lemon crowd, they

[Vince Cornell]

burst into the church, all these innocent folks were in there praying, getting accosted

[Dan Bongino]

by a bunch of crazed lunatics trying

[Vince Cornell]

to interrupt their freedom, their constitutional freedom to practice their religion. Remember when they told you, oh, nothing's going to happen. The doomers and the liberal nothing's going to happen. Nothing's going to happen. Oh, look, now something happened. Then all of a sudden they move on to the next thing they say

[Dan Bongino]

is not going to happen.

[Vince Cornell]

You ever notice that how the Doomer class, no matter what happens, they always have to shit on the administration. I don't know if you missed this on Friday, but the thing you said didn't happen, actually happened. Any corrections for any of that stuff?

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out.

[News Reporter]

The DOJ has put together a superseding indictment modifying this case. MSNL legal affairs reporter Fallon Gallagher is here with us.

[Fallon Gallagher]

What are the details, Fallon? Yeah, Ana, we have very few details at this point because this indictment, right, remains under seal. But we know that the DOJ has to return a new superseding indictment in the case involving Don Lemon because the DOJ filed a motion asking the judge to unseal that. So we have yet to see the contents of this indictment, so we can't speak specifically how it's changed yet, but we have a few hints. We can see online that the docket has changed. The case name has changed from US V. Levy Armstrong, of course, that first co defendant in the case, to US Voice sealed. And so that implies that there may be a number of new co defendants who have been arrested in connection to that church protest who are added to this case. We don't know if the charges have changed, but we would imagine that this case should be unsealed very soon. What's interesting here is that our affiliate CARE in Minneapolis is reporting that nine new people have been arrested in connection to that church protest. So it could be that they're adding those nine new defendants to this case, but at this point, you know, we don't know. What's really notable here, though, is that this new superseding indictment comes after the judge denied the government's request to make this a complex case because there were so many co defendants. There are nine original defendants in this case. So if they add nine new additional defendants, that makes us very thorny.

[Vince Cornell]

I thought. I thought nothing was going to. I don't understand. I thought nothing was going to happen. You see why These bullshit doomer pieces, they're only meant to put a black cloud over the MAGA movement because some of these people, whether pseudo journalists or other bullshit artists, I'm telling you, they have an agenda. They are not out there searching for truth. They have a preexisting narrative in their head. I want to make sure in 2028,

[Dan Bongino]

certain people have no chance at an avenue to the presidency. I want my person in there.

[Vince Cornell]

So what I have to do is

[Dan Bongino]

I have to implant early a black

[Vince Cornell]

cloud mentality that nothing is happening so that we can use it against said people later. It's clear as day. Once you See it, you'll never unsee it, because there's no search for truth at all.

[Dan Bongino]

Nothing's going to happen in Minnesota. Well, actually, what are 39 now? Indictments and the Bureau investigation with the DOJ. Man, oh, man. Well, okay, that happened.

[Vince Cornell]

Well, nothing else going to happen tomorrow. And then when the other thing happens tomorrow because the justice process takes time, then they just move on to the next thing. That doesn't strike you as odd? There's never any walk back. There's never any, hey, okay, well,

[Dan Bongino]

I got to be accountable, too. Maybe I should correct what I said before. It is none of that.

[Vince Cornell]

Here's the tell

[Dan Bongino]

the tells. That Washington Times article I told you

[Vince Cornell]

about, where the same people will write about one issue in two different ways

[Dan Bongino]

depending on the day.

[Vince Cornell]

Some of the same folks out there in this whole media space, they'll attack the leadership of the Bureau or the Trump administration for not moving fast enough. And then when they move, they'll call someone to go, hey, can you find a way to shit on them for moving too fast?

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah, sure, no problem.

[Vince Cornell]

Which one's true? Moving too fast, moving too slow. What is it? Just tell the truth, man.

[Dan Bongino]

Nothing's ever happened and it happens, and then they move on. I'm going to take a break in a minute, and I'm going to get to Commander of the USS Cole, Kirk Lipov. We're going to talk about again what happened over the weekend. But, folks, a couple of things I just want to make sure, you know, you don't forget. I am not asking you. Listen to me. Beam in, please.

[Vince Cornell]

I am not asking you to trust anybody. Stop. Stop saying that. Our government was not built on trust.

[Dan Bongino]

It was built on accountability and results.

[Vince Cornell]

That's what a representative democracy is. We are a republic.

[Dan Bongino]

We choose representatives in the executive legislative branch.

[Vince Cornell]

We choose them and they go enact our popular will.

[Dan Bongino]

If we vote and they do what we say or what we want, if you have that ability to do that. Sometimes we lose elections and we lose that ability because the psychos take over.

[Vince Cornell]

But in this representative democracy, we don't build it around trust.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm not asking you that.

[Vince Cornell]

I'm telling you that President Trump has finished business that has been going on in the United States through Republican and Democrat presidents since I was. I'm. I was born in 1974.

[Dan Bongino]

Since I'm a little boy, since the

[Vince Cornell]

takeover of the Iranian embassy. You know, 47 years ago, he stopped it. He put these people to death using the most powerful military in the world. I am not asking you to trust anything. I'm just saying to you, the responsible thing to do is to give it some time. It's a longer horizon, but even in the short term, give it two or three weeks. We see what happens and we reevaluate, just like the president's doing. He is not a Pottery Barn theory guy. He's throwing that out the window. He does not subscribe to this theory that we have to own anything. He knows the world changes in moments like that. And would you rather have the death to America guy in charge or take your chances with someone else before they have their finger on a nuclear button

[Dan Bongino]

as they try to rebuild their nuclear program?

[Vince Cornell]

Even Playbook recognized it this morning. Politico, Roe v. Wade Trump's appointees Embassy being moved to Jerusalem Trump, Abraham Accords Trump Maduro in a prison Trump

[Dan Bongino]

the Ayatollah Dead Trump. Give it some time. Give it some time. All right, quick break here and then I've got some great analysis coming up for you here. You're not going to want to miss this interview. Folks have always thought censorship is destructive. It'll destroy our republic if we let that cancer fester. Rumble Wallets away here. It's happening everywhere. The censorship is still there. Many platforms are controlling the narrative again, deciding what you see and what you hear. We gotta fight back. So I've always stood with Rumble. You know, I'm an investor. They're the only platform that's consistently stood for free speech. They've got the receipts over time. Been under attack for a long time by global censors everywhere. Rumble's taken the fight to the financial world with Rumble Wallet, a wallet they can't cancel, freeze or control. No banks, no middlemen. Just your money and your freedom and liberty. With Rumble Wallet, you can tip creators and tip the shows, show included instantly. No fees, no waiting weeks to get paid. You can also buy and save digital assets like Bitcoin, Tether Gold and now usat. Tether's brand new US Regulated stablecoin. Tether Gold is real gold on the blockchain. Actual gold bars you can own. USAT keeps your money steady and protected from inflation, all without relying on banks. So let's take control back. Do it today. Don't trust the sensors out there. Go to wallet.rumble.com or search rumble Wallet in your App Store. Download it, open your account. Move your money where it belongs, in your hands. Stay away from the censors. Don't trust these people. Wallet.rumble.com or search the Rumble Wallet in your App Store. Download it Open the account, move your money where it belongs. Like I said, back in your hands. Rumble Wallet's a technology provider only and not a custodial service. See [e-mail]. Really honored to have on the show today the commander of the USS Cole will which suffered a tragic terror attack, I remember well, all too well in October of 2000. Kirk Lippold, sir, thank you very much for spending some time with us. We appreciate it.

[Kirk Lippold]

Thank you, Dan. Wonderful to be on the show.

[Vince Cornell]

Sir, we were chatting a little bit

[Dan Bongino]

earlier about what we were gonna discuss on the program, and you had mentioned not only were you the commander of the Cole when it was tragically attacked, but also for those out there saying about the Iran strikes, you know, that the preemption or the predication wasn't properly there. You have some also additional tragic experience

[Vince Cornell]

in Beirut, where an Iranian proxy group killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers, something this

[Dan Bongino]

generation I hope remembers. I know I do.

[Kirk Lippold]

Absolutely. I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1981. And in early 1983, I was on a tank landing ship supporting the Marine artillery battery above the Beirut airport as we were part of the multinational peacekeeping force. And I went downtown for a tour with the Marines and was exchanged money in the embassy. That was only a few days before Hezbollah blew the face off, killing 17Americans, a number dear to my heart on USS Cole. And then tragically, that fall, I lost the Naval Academy classmate Dave Nairn in the Beirut barracks bombing. So Iran has been killing Americans for decades. And for those that sit there and say we didn't have justification for doing this, we shouldn't have done it, how about all the IEDs in Afghanistan, in Iraq that killed hundreds of Americans there? And my only question to people like Senator Kaine and others that are trying to carry this banner about the Constitution, what's the number? Seriously, what's the number? How many Americans have to die before you're going to be willing to to do something about it? Well, guess what? The time is now. And President Trump is doing it.

[Dan Bongino]

He is. He has been the first president in the generation. I started off the show today talking about, sir, how President Trump has cleaned up decades of unfinished business, whether politically on the Roe v. Wade side, which is not the subject of this conversation, whether it was dealing with Chavez and Maduro and the communist regime in our hemisphere, whether it was dealing with the ayatollah and their constant death to America, not only threats, but action, as you precisely indicated, he has cleaned up just decades of unfinished business from leaders in both parties who weren't able to get it done. That's exactly accurate.

[Vince Cornell]

I wanted to get to this because

[Dan Bongino]

you were obviously, as I said, commander of the USS Cole.

[Vince Cornell]

What does it look like?

[Dan Bongino]

Walk our audience through kind of the behind the scenes. You're on the Ford or the Lincoln, whether in the Met or, or right off in the Gulf, and you're, you're sitting there for three weeks to a month under the CIC Commander in Chief's orders. You, you have a battle plan. It's obviously not ad hoc and you know what's going to happen, but what

[Vince Cornell]

happens the moment go time, when you

[Dan Bongino]

get that order from the Commander in Chief on down, it's time to go.

[Vince Cornell]

Walk us what that, walk us through

[Dan Bongino]

what that looks like from the naval perspective.

[Kirk Lippold]

Well, the naval perspective, I think like it's anyone that's going to go into combat, you're anticipating, you are leaning forward, you have trained, you're ready for it. But you also have that cold pit in your stomach because you're about to go risk your life. And when that moment comes, what happens is you calm down. It's almost like you become focused because you realize, okay, it's now a mission. I need to go execute it to the best of my abilities. Yes, I am willing to sacrifice my life for the sake of my fellow Americans and the national security interests of my country. And it's amazing. You become somewhat calm, you're focused and you know that you've got a job to do. And your total being focuses on those moments when you're out there doing that job because it is your life on the line and you want to make sure that you do it well. And when you trap aboard the aircraft carrier or you finish with whatever mission you have, there's a sense of satisfaction. And then, guess what, you get ready for the next mission. You get briefed and you build that focus back up again to go do that sortie. Risk your life. But know that you're doing it for the right reason. And best of all, you're doing it for our fellow Americans.

[Dan Bongino]

Give us an idea comparison wise. Our, our Navy is obviously the finest in the world. That's an objective statement of truth based on power, weaponry, ships, ship capacity, technology. We all understand that every enemy's dangerous. As long as you have one gun left on a boat, you can still kill people. Fairly obvious. The Iranians have done a lot of damage with swift boats and some explosives. However, the Iranian navy, which we did significant damage to, is already threatening and Iranian terror. Terror leaders over there are threatening to Mine the strait to basically disrupt world, you know, world traffic through via water.

[Vince Cornell]

But give us an idea.

[Dan Bongino]

The Iranian Navy compared to the US Navy, you know, this is, is, this is obviously night and day. Not to diminish the threat, but comparisons and objective truth do matter.

[Kirk Lippold]

Navy specifically designed for regional power projection. The Iranians for decades have practiced what they needed to do that should they be attacked. Their job is now to block the Strait of Hormuz and cut off the world's oil supply coming from the Middle East. So when we go in there, number one, first thing we want to do is degrade, if not take out their complete command and control structure next to what we're doing. Target the leadership that can actually order the deployment of those forces and do what we were doing starting yesterday and will continue for the next several days. And that's going to be take out the vessels that can actually get underway. Take out the Iranians ability to project power anywhere coming off of their shores that might threaten the shipping in the Strait of Hormuz or elsewhere in the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman.

[Dan Bongino]

We're talking to the former commander of the USS Cole, Kirk Lippold. Sir. You know, when I entered into duty early on as an agent, the Secret Service had responsibility for a lot of the electronic crimes that we had, the task force and things like that. And then obviously with the experience in the FBI decades later, cyber warfare has evolved even from the time you were patriotically serving your country in the United States Navy as commander of the coalition. But those cyber weapons, now the United States is a world leader now we have rivals obviously with China and Russia who are not to be slept on at all. However, the United States technological capacity is leagues ahead of everyone else. We're at the stage of warfare now, aren't we, where I don't know, 10, 15, 20% of the battle is going to be determined before the first Tomahawk is even launched or the first sortie

[Vince Cornell]

due to cyber's ability to shut down

[Dan Bongino]

command control and communications, correct?

[Kirk Lippold]

Absolutely. And that's what we want to leverage to our advantage, is to be able to minimize the amount of defenses that are going to be coming against our forces as we go in. Whether they're aircraft, Tomahawk missiles, you want to make sure that their air defense systems are confused because what you're trying to do is create that small gap in time that is now going to allow us to get in and strike first before they have an opportunity to perceive what's going on, to be able to react to it. And then by then, let's hope the bomb's gone off, and that's what we do. So it's. It's trying to build that small space in time that allows our forces to strike first and eliminate the threat.

[Dan Bongino]

We're talking to Kirk Lippold, former commander of the USS Cole. Sir, this is, this is a test. I had mentioned this earlier in the show. The. The Colin Powell Pottery Barn theory, which is I've addressed many times in my show, which has dominated geopolitics and warfare in the United States for a long time. The idea, if you go into a country and, quote, break it, you own it. You know where the Pottery Barn comes from.

[Vince Cornell]

However, this is a real test.

[Dan Bongino]

Donald Trump does not subscribe to that. His foreign policy is not about forever wars. It's not about, you know, sitting there and taking over a country, trying to build democracies. He's a transactional guy. You know, they want to kill us.

[Vince Cornell]

Death to America.

[Dan Bongino]

We're going to kill you first. Maduro is, you know, wants to kill us and wants to dominate in our hemisphere via communism. Well, you're going to go and we're going to go get you. This is a real test of that moment, though, correct? I mean, if that has dominated our politics for a long time. But Donald Trump is definitely not a Pottery Barn guy. He doesn't plan on anything long term. He's been pretty clear on this.

[Kirk Lippold]

Absolutely. Dan, when you really look at it, what President Trump did is before we even started to build up of forces over there, we already worked with the Israelis, had people on the ground. For example, we were flowing the satellite connections to be able to give the Starlink terminals for the Iranian people to have an outside source of information so that they would not be able to do it. We had agents on the ground that were trying to give us, hey, where are their forces located? Where are they hiding weaponry, in tunnels, etc. So he created the conditions that when this buildup finally came to a point that we would execute, we were going to be able to do so. And like he said, the Iranian people stay safe, do not go out. The time is not now. But at some point, what he's done is create the conditions so that when the time does come, the government is no longer going to be in power. The military knows that if they resist, they will be destroyed. And the Iranian people, some of the most educated and wonderful people in the Middle east, are going to be able to step into that vacuum and be able to take over their government, their military, and then begin to truly build the destiny for their country for the future.

[Dan Bongino]

Sir, I've watched a lot of your commentary. I've known you for, gosh, over a. Well over a decade at this point, since I lived in Maryland. I think I've been through about seven different lifetimes since we originally, we were a lot younger in some of the pictures I still have on my phone, but that's for another time.

[Kirk Lippold]

However, Dan, I'll just tell you, you got to remember, with some folks, gray hair is a choice. With men, it's always bad lighting.

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah.

[Vince Cornell]

Bad light. That's right. And you just asked me that for a second. You look great.

[Dan Bongino]

You look great. Considering what we've, what we've been through, you know, everything seems to be going all right for us.

[Vince Cornell]

But when you look at the naval

[Dan Bongino]

picture and the assets over there in the region, I've been watching a lot of really insightful commentary, both on X and platforms and on cable tv. I noticed that there's a heavy buildup in the Med, too, off Haifa and elsewhere. The Ford, I believe, is out there. And then you've got the Lincoln and other assets in the region. It looks like what they've done is they've created kind of a pitch and catch scenario where you're going to pitch the offensive weaponry obviously closer to Iran near the Gulf region, with assets there like the Lincoln. And then anything that comes the other way in a potential counter strike towards our allies, Israel and elsewhere. Looks like they have catch mechanisms set up there as well with the Ford and elsewhere. Pretty brilliant strategy when you look at it as a way to kind of intercept any effective counter strike.

[Kirk Lippold]

Absolutely. When you see the positioning of forces, let's take a larger strategic view. All of the Gulf countries did not want this fight, but they also knew the threat that Iran represented to the region because it was a destabilizing force between Hamas, Palestinian, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah for decades, the Houthi rebels, they were destabilizing so to find a way to be able to take Iran off the map. When you look at what Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE are all doing, they want to build the Middle east as a destination point where businesses are willing to invest, where people are willing to come do tourism. And now that Iran is no longer going to represent a threat where people need to fear for their lives, that that region literally has the opportunity to flourish. When you look at the placement of forces and why they're there, it truly is to be able to react to what we were expecting, a larger response by Iran. It's Still a deadly threat, even with the ballistic missiles being shot. But when you look at it, those initial strikes going in have been extremely effective. Given the limited response that Iran has done. Are they going to be able to continue? Absolutely. We should be prepared for that. Unfortunately, we may lose more lives as a result. But at the end of the day, degrading that capability from a strategic perspective is the priority. And when you get in close to the tactical, how we position the forces who are conducting those strikes, that is what's really going to make the difference in this weeks long to come campaign.

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah. Now, I agree, Kirk.

[Vince Cornell]

One last question.

[Dan Bongino]

China, obviously an enormous threat, an enemy like we haven't seen before, you know, we could argue about. The Soviets obviously were very prominent still. You know, you have the Russian threat out there now. However, an economy of that size, with that many people, given current technology develops and whether it's quantum computing, material sciences, you know, Mirved missiles, nuclear capacity, fusion, all the stuff, you know, you see emerging, this is a, this is a serious existential threat.

[Vince Cornell]

Having said that, this was as much

[Dan Bongino]

a strike on China's interests as it was almost on Iran, because Iran is the energy supplier for China. You can't ignore that in this calculus. President Trump was very tactical in the way he structured this. Get rid of Maduro first in Venezuela so we can secure energy supplies from that region that may have been diverted to our enemies. Brilliant. Even though we're still dealing with a lot in Venezuela. Problem's not solved. He's iced that portion of it out, then move on. Take out the Iranian leadership, that's the oil supplier to our enemies, and now

[Vince Cornell]

you pretty much, you know, ice them out.

[Dan Bongino]

They have Russia and others, however, but it's going to complicate China's territorial ambitions as well. And their, their navy is something to be concerned about, especially the pace at which they're building.

[Kirk Lippold]

Absolutely. The one thing we have to worry about with China, as with any military, you really need three things. You need capability in what your forces are able to do and the technological superiority that we could bring to the table. But you also have to have it into, in the quantities that you need so that it can be placed at around the world to be able to respond. China is really beating us when it comes to the quantity. We still have that qualitative edge, but at the end of the day, the one thing you also have to have, and President Trump is demonstrating, you have to have the credibility that you're willing to exercise both the quantity and the capability in order to safeguard US national security interests. So while China may be threatening Taiwan, oil supplies may be disrupted. I would ask people take a step back because China is no longer a competitor or an adversary. They are the enemy. And while decoupling may take time, we have to begin that process to safeguard it. And we start with making sure that let's stop educating Chinese students in our universities, but more importantly in the South China Sea. They are continuing to militarize islands throughout the South China Sea and claim that as that's their territorial waters when international law only recognizes 12 miles. So at the end of the day, China, they may get Taiwan. We as the United States needs to ensure that we take out every one of those militarized islands because then the world is able to have safe flow of economies through the South China Sea and around the world. And that's what's going to be the larger strategic picture. When we took out Maduro, yeah, it was Venezuela, the drugs and oil supplies, but it was also a more important signal to Shein bomb in Mexico. Stop the flow of drugs through Mexico and we will help you. And if you don't, then we will take care of the problem. Taking out Iran is the signal to China. You may push the edge of the envelope when it comes to a free nation like Taiwan. They may have their own internal conflicts, but at the end of the day, don't think for one minute that we're going to allow you to take over the South China Sea without a fight.

[Dan Bongino]

Kirk Lippo, folks, commander of the USS Cole, been through a lot in his life, as you can see. Just a brilliant and insightful analysis. So glad we got you on the show today. Of course, you're welcome back anytime, sir. Thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.

[Kirk Lippold]

Thank you, Dan. Great to reconnect.

[Dan Bongino]

Fantastic. Thank you, sir. Indeed. Kirk Lepold, I've known him a really long time, folks. This was a big show today. There's a lot going on, obviously this weekend. I, I, you know, I woke up to a lot of this like you do. You know, it always seems like, you know, the world is kind of in turmoil. But the hard reality is Donald Trump, as I said to you in the beginning of the show, is cleaning up the turmoil that decades of shit leadership have left us with. They just have.

[Vince Cornell]

And you're seeing a lot of it

[Dan Bongino]

cleaned up very quickly now. Do you see why? And I just appeal to you passionately. I am all about objective fact based analysis and accountability. No one's asking you to trust anyone.

[Vince Cornell]

I'm not asking you to trust Trump,

[Dan Bongino]

to trust Rubio, to trust Hegsett, to trust me, to trust.

[Vince Cornell]

I'm asking you to trust the results.

[Dan Bongino]

Just give this action time to bear

[Vince Cornell]

fruit and see what happens.

[Dan Bongino]

And if it doesn't, there'll be a

[Vince Cornell]

thousand white papers written about it and we can all as talking heads and I'll criticize later, but we don't even know the results yet.

[Dan Bongino]

We're not even a couple of days in.

[Vince Cornell]

I experienced it from the other side too with the doomer class. No matter what you do, nothing's happening. Then something's happening and don't agree with it. And they don't agree with it before the thing that happened even had the opportunity to produce the fruit that they said was going to happen. Just give it some time.

[Dan Bongino]

Give it some time. As I said this weekend, let the man cook a little bit and we'll see what happens. And if you don't like the results, that's in a republic, you're absolute and welcome. Right to do so to criticize it. Thank you so much for tuning in folks. Please go to the show rumble.com bongino

[Vince Cornell]

on rumble click that follow button.

[Dan Bongino]

It is free. I actually showed a lady how to do it this weekend. I was eating at a local Italian restaurant. A lovely lady came over and wanted to know how to get on R I kid you not, her phone and did it. Not one of those fake liberal stories for real. Rumble.com Bongino Click that follow button. It's free. You can watch the show every day live at 10am Please download the Rumble app.

[Vince Cornell]

You got Rumble shorts on there too?

[Dan Bongino]

It's like a free speech TikTok right there under the shorts tab. You can share the stuff if you'd like. I so appreciate it. Upwards of 24 close to 25 million views just in the last month thanks to your support. Please check out Hayley after the show too. Rumble.com Haley and then Vince Cornell colonise every day at 8am rumble.com Vince thank you folks for tuning in. See you back here tomorrow at 10am hey there, I'm Vince.

[Haley Caronia]

I'm Haley Caronia, host of Vince, host of Scrolling with Haley.

[Dan Bongino]

You can always catch my show right here.

[Haley Caronia]

Right here on the Bongino Report Channel Live.

[Dan Bongino]

8am Eastern weekday mornings, noon weekdays.

[Haley Caronia]

And if you miss it, no worries.

[Fallon Gallagher]

The show will always be right here,

[Dan Bongino]

anywhere you find the podcast.

[News Reporter]

Thanks for watching

[Vince Cornell]

Sa.