Leave No Man Behind (Ep. 2488)

Summary

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The Dan Bongino Show – Ep. 2488: "Leave No Man Behind"

Date: April 6, 2026
Host: Dan Bongino
Podcast Network: Cumulus
Main Theme:
A fearless deep-dive into recent American military triumphs, executive leadership, media trust, political hypocrisy, and the vital crossroads facing the nation—framed around the dramatic rescue of a downed U.S. pilot in Iran and its broader implications for American exceptionalism, intelligence, and national unity.

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Episode Overview

Dan Bongino opens with robust defense of Donald Trump’s controversial rhetoric, quickly pivots to a dramatic account of the recent military rescue in Iran, and uses this backdrop to explore the principles underpinning American strength. The episode contrasts U.S. competence and loyalty to its military with bureaucratic waste and ideological drift at home, especially in blue states like California. Throughout, Bongino underscores a fight between visions: American constitutional exceptionalism versus the left’s collectivist power obsession. The show is punctuated by critiques of media bias, Democratic hypocrisy, and a data-driven case for conservative governance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Language and Cultural Double Standards

• Opening Remarks: Bongino addresses outcry over Trump’s use of strong language (“F bomb”) on Truth Social regarding the Iran conflict.

  "The stuff doesn’t bother me…This is how people from New York just talk." (05:28)

• Asserts that outrage over tone distracts from existential threats, equating Trump’s style to historic generals like Patton or MacArthur.
• Notes that criticism of Trump’s language is a diversion from real issues:

  "In my triage of concerns this weekend ... the naughty language in the tweet was not even in the top hundred." (10:41)

2. The U.S. Military Rescue in Iran: A Testament to American Exceptionalism

• Dramatic Recap: Bongino details the perilous rescue mission:
  • Downed F-15 pilot survives alone in hostile territory.
  • U.S. Special Ops, logistical firepower, and advanced intelligence converge to extract him.
  • Describes American military as “balls of stone. You just do. Nobody could pull this off.” (01:38)
• Three Pillars of Success (11:24 - 15:34):
  1. Signals & Human Intelligence: Unmatched global capacity to “be an eye in the sky and an ear in the sky.”
  2. Stealth Tech: “We own the night” (12:38).
  3. Logistics & Experience: America’s military can “set up basically an airfield in Iranian territory...and replace three C-130s at will.”
• Quotes a Fox News segment highlighting the operation’s intricacy, even as Iran offered bounties for the downed airman (08:57 – 10:41).

3. American Exceptionalism vs. Collectivist Ideologies

• Contrast of Visions:

  "We don’t treat our people like expendable suicide/homicide bomber baggage. We don’t do that." (15:24)

• Critiques NATO allies for insufficient support (16:44–18:29), highlighting a viral Ari Fleischer tweet:

  "Western NATO will never be the same. Spain, England, France and Italy have sold us out." (17:38)

• Asserts Democrats’ guiding principle is rage and power, not principle or policy (25:27).

4. Lawfare, Impeachment, and Political Retaliation

• Reviews Rep. Ro Khanna’s statements foreshadowing renewed effort to impeach Trump—this time for “war crimes” in Iran (22:08–25:11).

  "They are prepping war crimes nonsense right now. And I guarantee you that true social post... is probably going to be exhibit A." (22:27)

5. Identity Politics and “Diversity” – Critiques & Data

• Highlights misuse of identity narratives (NASA Artemis Mission segment - 30:05):
  • Guest (Victor Glover, astronaut):

    "...one day we don’t have to talk about these firsts, that one day...this is the human history. It’s the story of humanity." (31:03)

• Cites a 2007 Robert Putnam study:

  "The greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote; the less they give to charity; the less they trust neighbors." (33:27)

• Calls for data-driven arguments, not ideological sloganeering:

  "Diversity, for what? For the sake of what? ...You can’t answer the question." (34:25)

• Skewers media for not demanding evidence for claimed benefits of diversity.
• Highlights record-low public trust in media: “Only 31% have a great deal or fair amount of trust.” (35:24)

6. Media Bias, Gaslighting, & Declining Credibility

• "Some of the conversations you would hear these people having were so humiliatingly stupid..." (37:00)

• Mocks CNN’s Jim Acosta for lacking self-reflection:

  "He actually said [CNN] shouldn’t become a propaganda network. ...The mark of an imbecile is the inability to process new information." (38:20–38:53)

7. Economic Successes & Government Waste

• Trump Policy Achievements:
  • Federal workforce now smallest since 1966 (41:04);
  • Jobs report blows away projections (42:13), with adviser Hassett crediting deregulation & Trump’s tax cuts:

    "The job numbers were 178,000, which blew away projections..." (42:13)

• Failed Liberal Policies: California Case Study
  • CBS ties high gas prices to state taxes, regulation, environmental mandates—"not price gouging" (45:24–46:07).
  • Massive homelessness, inefficient public projects (high-speed rail $125B+, $90B short) (48:46–50:17).
  • Depicts California as "liberal utopia"—in reality, dystopia.
  • Federal spending up 40% with only 6% population growth over a decade (51:45).
• Obamacare: Democrats now admit it failed to cut costs, with premiums higher, not lower.

  "Everything they touch, they destroy because they don’t care." (53:24)

8. The Stakes: National Identity, Security, and Future Policy

• Foresees Supreme Court battle over birthright citizenship—frames as a major security threat (65:04 – 67:07).
• Notes anchor babies implicated in a recent terror case:

  "The Chinese Americans accused of attempting to explode an IED at MacDill in Tampa were anchor babies for illegal parents." (66:09)

• Urges listeners to recognize the country is in an “open conflict of visions.” (27:35, 55:19)

9. The “Girl on the Train” Moment

• Describes societal “gaslighting” (inc. the media isolating citizens from reality), hoping the show is a catalyst for waking up:

  "I am really hoping this show is that moment for you where I can present to you these two visions using data..." (56:50)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On military loyalty:

  "We don’t leave our people behind...the military’s at the top all the time, every time." (01:27)

• On elitist outrage over language:

  "Can you imagine like Patton and MacArthur. You don’t think they dropped an F bomb here and there." (06:52)

• On intelligence capability:

  "We just have the ability to be an eye in the sky and an ear in the sky like no one else." (11:44)

• On allies:

  "We needed our allies in an alliance...and they’re not acting like allies." (17:26)

• On media self-awareness:

  "The mark of an imbecile is the inability to process new information." (38:53)

• On national choice:

  "Do you want more California in Florida?... Do you want more Obamacare subsidies? ...Believe the data." (55:42)

• On practical policy contrasts:

  "Florida, California. People are moving to Florida, People moving out of California. Why?" (50:50)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Trump’s Truth Social Post & Outrage: 00:10–06:52
• Military Rescue in Iran: 07:01–10:41
• Three Things That Enabled the Rescue: 11:24–15:34
• Allies & Ari Fleischer Tweet: 16:44–18:29
• Ro Khanna & Impeachment Plans: 22:08–25:11
• Identity Politics, NASA, and “Diversity” Data: 29:02–34:25
• Media Distrust & Press Anecdotes: 35:24–38:53
• California/Blue State Policy Failures: 44:41–55:19
• Supreme Court, Security & Birthright Citizenship: 65:04–67:07

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Conclusion:

Bongino’s episode is a forceful plea to recognize the stakes at play—from military rescues that define American exceptionalism, to government overreach and collectivist failure at home. The episode paints a picture of a country in the midst of a collision between two visions: one rooted in principle, achievement, and freedom; the other, in power for its own sake, incompetence, and erosion of trust. Bongino’s message: When given the data, history, and a clear-eyed look at results, the choice for the nation’s future is clear.

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For full context and additional details, listeners are encouraged to refer to the specific segments using the provided timestamps.

Transcript

[Dan Bongino]

All America, all the time. Sit down, buckle up and get ready for the Dan Bongino show.

[Justin]

Folks, it doesn't bother me that Donald

[Dan Bongino]

Trump posts on True Social the way he does.

[Justin]

It doesn't bother me at all.

[Dan Bongino]

Now, I mean, listen, I don't say that objectively. I'm obviously a Trump supporter, know the president worked for him.

[Justin]

So I'm not pretending to be some,

[Dan Bongino]

you know, judge or juror in the case. It's completely objective.

[Justin]

And I'm just telling you it doesn't

[Dan Bongino]

bother me at all.

[Justin]

I know there's a big, like Internet

[Dan Bongino]

rebellion over his True Social post about taking out Iranian bridges and possibly ports and open the effing strait.

[Justin]

I'm not telling you what to think.

[Dan Bongino]

I just want to be absolutely clear.

[Justin]

This is not like the Dan Bongino

[Dan Bongino]

show where we have to align 100% of the time on everything.

[Justin]

That's not this show. This show is an opinion based show. I have an opinion. You can have yours. It just doesn't bother me. I want to get to that in the beginning of the show. Also.

[Dan Bongino]

Obviously an amazing rescue this weekend. We don't leave our people behind. Name the show that today. We just don't. Our American military. This is why I just, I'm telling

[Justin]

you, man, I have nothing. But when I have my hierarchy of

[Dan Bongino]

groups of people I respect, love and

[Justin]

adore, the military's at the top all

[Dan Bongino]

the time, every time.

[Justin]

No one is going to displace them

[Dan Bongino]

in the pole position there. No one.

[Justin]

Because you guys and ladies out there just have balls of stone. You just do. Nobody could pull this off. However, obviously you've heard the story.

[Dan Bongino]

Rescue of the airman, the pilot and the WS and the wizard WSO weapons system officer.

[Justin]

But there are three things that enabled

[Dan Bongino]

us to do this. No other country on earth could have done it. There are three very specific things. I'm gonna get to all of that stuff. Big show for you today on a Monday. Welcome back. Hope you all had a happy Easter and a wonderful weekend. Spring's coming around. Nice weather is out in Florida this weekend. Got a little bit of too much sun if you can probably see in my face.

[Justin]

Hey, free speech.

[Dan Bongino]

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[Justin]

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[Dan Bongino]

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[Justin]

Folks, I don't really care about language.

[Dan Bongino]

I know a lot of people do. That's why I've been trying to kind of tone down the language, the expletives on the show. I'm really trying my hardest. Okay, I explained this to Jasmine this week, did I not? And not an excuse. Jasmine doesn't curse. Or either does Paula, by the way, Justin, once in a while.

[Justin]

But when you grow up in New

[Dan Bongino]

York like I did Donald Trump did

[Justin]

in New York, not an excuse. I'm just telling you advance cursing's not like a thing. I don't know how to. It's just like cursing is just like how people talk. It's almost not like cursing. It's just like I'm not telling you it's a good thing so people get upset. Oh, not presidential. Whatever.

[Dan Bongino]

The stuff doesn't bother me. Put the true social post up that caused all this pseudo controversy. You know, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. Tuesday, obviously being Tomorrow there'll be nothing like it. Open the effing straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell.

[Justin]

Just watch.

[Dan Bongino]

Praise be to Allah. President Donald J. Trump.

[Justin]

People lost their minds over this.

[Dan Bongino]

This is how people from New York just talk. People from Boston tend to do it too. Sometimes people from big cities, they just curse. I'm not making excuses for anyone. If you're offended by it, you're allowed to be offended. I'm just telling you it doesn't bother me. We are dealing with the world's largest terror regime. A group of people trying to acquire a nuclear weapon who have killed thousands of Americans in terror attacks around the world, who would kill you tomor if you dared enter their airspace as a civilian with your LGBTQIA pride flag. You'd be thrown off a building instantly. You wouldn't even land in a plane. They blow the plane out of the sky.

[Justin]

I didn't even realize, like cursing was

[Dan Bongino]

a bad thing till I moved down to Maryland and I was at a house party one time and I accidentally

[Justin]

dropped an F bomb and everybody stopped

[Dan Bongino]

talking and looked at me like, oh my gosh, did he just say that?

[Justin]

He's dealing with savage thug. The savage thug, the mullet theocracy over there. These are folks, these are animals.

[Dan Bongino]

These people he's dealing with in the, in the Iranian Muller class.

[Justin]

I just don't care. It doesn't bother me. I just threw it out there in

[Dan Bongino]

beginning of the show because it was.

[Justin]

I couldn't believe it.

[Dan Bongino]

This weekend, all these people like, oh my gosh, you believe this guy? Dropping an F bomb in a true social post.

[Justin]

I mean, can you imagine? Imagine like Patton and MacArthur. You don't think they dropped an F bomb here and there.

[Dan Bongino]

All right, moving on. So an unbelievable mission this weekend, folks. This is like storybook stuff. Like what happened? We're engaged in this. Unbelievably successful now. What is it? Five, six weeks, seven week military operation in Iran. We've taken out most of their navy good chunk of their ballistic missile capability. We've decimated their air defense sector.

[Justin]

However, they do have equipment on the

[Dan Bongino]

ground that can still obviously take down our airplanes. It's still very dangerous. If you, you know, yes, we do have air dominance. You know, when you see the amount of sorties and missions they've flown over Iran relative to the amount of enemy contact. Like what happened this weekend when they took down, well, in F15, the percentage

[Justin]

is so unbelievably low.

[Dan Bongino]

That is what air dominance looks like.

[Justin]

However, air dominance doesn't mean zero risk.

[Dan Bongino]

It's not zero risk. Okay. We lose this, this pilot. Good Friday. Rescued by Easter Sunday in incredibly what

[Justin]

reads like it's not even like a

[Dan Bongino]

Netflix show because you believe that's.

[Justin]

That's too much. That's too much.

[Dan Bongino]

No one's ever going to believe. Well, it happened. It's not a Netflix show.

[Justin]

It's real.

[Dan Bongino]

Pilot was injured, winds up secreting himself into a mountain crevice, stays alive.

[Justin]

Special operators go in there.

[Dan Bongino]

We wind up taking fire and some helicopters, an A10 take some fire and

[Justin]

showing you we leave no one behind.

[Dan Bongino]

They were taken out roads.

[Justin]

They were jamming signals. They were making sure that no Iranian

[Dan Bongino]

terrorist got anywhere close to this pilot and they got him out.

[Justin]

It's an incredible story.

[Dan Bongino]

Here's a quick Fox News hit by Trey Yings discussing what happened. I want to talk about on the

[Justin]

other side of this, three things that enabled this to be possible. Cuz there's no other military on earth,

[Dan Bongino]

none that could have pulled this off deep in Iranian territory. Check this out.

[Jennifer Griffin]

Yeah, absolutely. This was an incredibly complex operation. I've been speaking with Israeli officials asking what role the Israelis played in this operation. Operation. And they continue to just give credit to the American forces, saying that when one pilot in the region is shot down, it's everyone's pilot and job to rescue them. What took place was nothing short of extraordinary. The CIA was using deception tactics on the ground to make the Iranians think that they'd already located the pilot. Remember, this second crew member was inside of enemy territory for almost 48 hours. And the Iranians were not only actively looking for this crew member on the ground, but they were also offering a reward of thousands of dollars to any Iranian civilians who could capture him and then take him into IRGC hands. The United States knew this was taking place. And so as these Iranian forces approached this crew member where they were hiding along a mountain ridge. According to Fox's Jennifer Griffin, there were strikes that took place against the Iranians to not only ensure that these forces couldn't reach the crew member, but also ensure that the ground, they couldn't get forces close to this location. Remember, when these pilots or crew members are ejecting from a plane, they have the systems within them that allow intelligence to track their location. But they have to be very careful, understanding they often just have a sidearm with them and they're not able to defend themselves solely on the ground. But what the president talked about last night in his post on Truth Social was that this crew member was Never alone. The United States, States of America, including the President himself and top military leadership each and every hour at the White House, tracking the location of this crew member and then sending in hundreds of special forces, dozens of US military planes to identify the exact location and ultimately rescue this US service member.

[Dan Bongino]

Pretender 2020 in the chat, I'm more concerned about the plane being shot down than the naughty language in the tweet.

[Justin]

Yeah, me too, me too. In my triage of concerns this weekend, over this holy weekend and the Christian calendar, I promise the naughty language in the tweet was not even in the top hundred. Was like, hey, we got this guy on the ground, this American Patriot pilot. Can we just get him out? And like, who cares about the language

[Dan Bongino]

in the tweet or the true social post?

[Justin]

Who cares? My gosh, we're in like this existential crisis with people trying to acquire nuclear

[Dan Bongino]

weapons who would love to blow up the United States and destroy a major city, and we're worried about him dropping an F bomb.

[Justin]

Folks, there are three things that enable

[Dan Bongino]

us to do this. Number one, our ability to intercept and manipulate signals intelligence is just unlike anyone else on earth. Obviously the details of it are not for public consumption.

[Justin]

You can probably figure it out.

[Dan Bongino]

It's not. It's a well known secret.

[Justin]

We just have the ability to be an eye in the sky and an

[Dan Bongino]

ear in the sky like no one else.

[Justin]

So there's almost nothing you can do when you. Sigyn is short for signals intelligence.

[Dan Bongino]

Most of you know, I'm sorry, I mean to sound like condescending human is human intelligence. There's all kinds of mazint. There's other stuff as well.

[Justin]

However, when you combine human intelligence on

[Dan Bongino]

the ground and signals intelligence, basically there's

[Justin]

nothing the Iranians can do.

[Dan Bongino]

Very little they can do without us having a good idea and in advance when it comes to rescuing this pilot.

[Justin]

So that's number one.

[Dan Bongino]

That's a staple of US intelligence gathering technology.

[Justin]

And it's peerless. It's peerless.

[Dan Bongino]

We have no equals in it.

[Justin]

Combine that with our stealth technology.

[Dan Bongino]

Now this was daytime op. We, you know, we own the night.

[Justin]

The United States and the special operators

[Dan Bongino]

will tell you these guys own the night. They just do.

[Justin]

This was a day op, but still you still want to be able to avoid certain, certain enemy detection systems.

[Dan Bongino]

We have stealth technology like no one else.

[Justin]

We just do. When you combine that with the ability to read and process intelligence and kind of know what the enemy is doing on the football field, you know, it's

[Dan Bongino]

a Run, play before the enemy even snaps the football.

[Justin]

It's just hard to beat us.

[Dan Bongino]

Not.

[Justin]

Not impossible. I told you, there's still risk in all of this.

[Dan Bongino]

It's war.

[Justin]

And then when you layer on top

[Dan Bongino]

of that item number three, signals intelligence, intelligence in general, stealth technology, and you overlay logistics capabilities.

[Justin]

Ladies and gentlemen, the United States has

[Dan Bongino]

military experience like no one else on Earth. I'm not telling.

[Justin]

You have to agree with every single theater mission we've been in.

[Dan Bongino]

I certainly was not a supporter of the Iraq war. I've said it many times.

[Justin]

However, it is invaluable experience.

[Dan Bongino]

And when our people in combat are in combat, I'm rooting for them.

[Justin]

That experience matters.

[Dan Bongino]

I'll never forget, you know, the last

[Justin]

year being in government.

[Dan Bongino]

People, you know, coming in and talking about all kinds of drone technology.

[Justin]

And we had this contact at another agency who said, I don't want to

[Dan Bongino]

hear anything about drone technology unless you've

[Justin]

tested in Ukraine, because everything you're telling us, it's going to do.

[Dan Bongino]

There's 100 variables on the battlefield you haven't taken into account yet. Well, how do you take into account those. Those variables?

[Justin]

You got to get it on the damn battlefield. That's how you get battlefield experience. That our military is second to none at. They have the logistics capabilities to do these things.

[Dan Bongino]

The beans, the bullets, all that stuff. The supply lines.

[Justin]

Think about it. They set up basically an airfield in Iranian territory to get this hero pilot out. We got one of our planes stuck. They wound up blowing up. I think it was two C130s and then replacing them with three more. How many people can do that? But it goes to show you the extent to which our United States government and the Trump administration, we will. There's no amount of money or logistics we won't expend to get our people out. We're not the death to the. To America Muller crowd.

[Dan Bongino]

They don't give a damn about their people like that.

[Justin]

That's us, man. That's us. We are different. American exceptionalism is real. You're different, too. You live in the greatest country on earth. We don't treat our people like expendable

[Dan Bongino]

suicide homicide bomber baggage. Kill yourself.

[Justin]

We don't do that. These three things make a world of difference.

[Dan Bongino]

And you're going to see moving forward as the operation starts to wrap up, likely in the coming weeks or maybe a couple months, I don't know. Again, I'm not in on the war planning, obviously. However, President Trump has been pretty clear that he had a limited set of goals. A lot of those goals have been met. I think we're going to hear it today at 1 o'. Clock. Some additional guidance going forward and hopefully we wrap it up relatively soon.

[Justin]

Well, what about the street, ladies and gentlemen? The Straits.

[Dan Bongino]

Important.

[Justin]

No doubt about it.

[Dan Bongino]

I get it.

[Justin]

The Straits of Hormuz are really important.

[Dan Bongino]

Global petrochemical traffic, hugely important.

[Justin]

However, if our partners. Did you see that Ari Fleischer tweets are.

[Dan Bongino]

I don't mean to get off topic, but Ari Fleischer used to be the old White House press secretary in the Bush era.

[Justin]

Did you see the tweet?

[Dan Bongino]

It went nuclear this weekend. Everyone was talking about it. Ari Fleischer, who's not known as like a big bomb thrower at all. He's like a Bush era Republican guy. Nice enough guy. I know Ari, very nice guy. I don't, I don't think we share all the same politics, but he put

[Justin]

out this tweet basically saying, hey, man,

[Dan Bongino]

to NATO out there, not helping us

[Justin]

out with the stray, not letting us use airspace and bases we built in your country to keep your country safe. Like, this is it, man. Again, this guy's not a bomb thrower at all.

[Dan Bongino]

Ari Fleischer.

[Justin]

Not even like a little bit if you ever met him. He's the most calm level, you know, he doesn't get emotional about anything. He was like, hey, Donald Trump is right about this. These NATO countries that are not helping us out, like this may be the red line for us.

[Dan Bongino]

And gave Trump a bit of a

[Justin]

pat on the back, suggesting that he's the first one to call out what this is.

[Dan Bongino]

This is not an alliance anymore.

[Justin]

We needed our allies in an alliance. Alliance, allies.

[Dan Bongino]

And they're not acting like allies. Oh, there you go. I didn't even put it in the show. This is the tweet, if you want to see. It was April 3, 6:15pm he basically

[Justin]

notes, when this is over, Western NATO

[Dan Bongino]

will never be the same. Spain, England, France and Italy have sold this out.

[Justin]

I'm telling you, like, this is a huge thing for him to put out. He is not a bomb thrower at all. And he's telling you the truth. This is not an alliance if they

[Dan Bongino]

don't act like allies. And folks, it's about time we started speaking the truth. Really frustrating when the United States I, you know, haven't seen it on the other side.

[Justin]

Like 80% of the heavy lifting in the law enforcement, counterterror, counter espionage space and in the military space are done by the United States. And what do we get back. We don't even get back 20% of the effort. We get back like no percent of the effort.

[Dan Bongino]

That's bullshit. And I'm glad he called it out because there were people on the, whatever you want to call it, establishment side of the Republican Party who may not, you know, listen to me or others, but they're certainly listening to him on X. And that's why it's important to get allies in this movement, ally, actual allies ideologically, who start to call this stuff out for what it is. This is a big moment to change. I'm going to take a quick break and I want to get back to this, folks.

[Justin]

When the Democrats tell you who they are, please listen to them.

[Dan Bongino]

Ro Khanna, that Democrat goon congressman who is the biggest fake by the way out there, total loser. This guy is a complete thug. Don't buy his nonsense at all. This guy pretends to be this bipartisan, like free speech guy. This guy's nothing but a congressional thug like everyone else.

[Justin]

He's already talking about what they're going

[Dan Bongino]

to do if they take back the House.

[Justin]

And you better listen to him.

[Dan Bongino]

Quick break.

[Justin]

I'll get to that.

[Dan Bongino]

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[Justin]

Not as a scary topic, but as

[Dan Bongino]

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[Justin]

Okay, when the Democrats tell you who

[Dan Bongino]

they are, especially lunatics like this guy Ro Khanna, who's one of the biggest fakes up there by the way, Ro Khanna. I've never heard a peep from this guy again when all that stuff was going on. He claims to be like this big warrior for transparency. He's full of crap.

[Justin]

Here he is telling you hey man, Donald Trump, they are going to impeach him. The reason I'm bringing this up here,

[Dan Bongino]

by the way, in context of the true social post in the beginning is they are prepping war crimes nonsense right now. And I guarantee you that true social posts, everybody's offended about the language. Whatever. I can guarantee you that's probably going to be exhibit A. Why?

[Justin]

Because they basically tell you what they're going to do.

[Dan Bongino]

You should just listen to them. Check this out.

[Lee Zeldin]

When the House and possibly the Senate in November, there's a better than even chance Donald Trump gets impeached again. Absolutely. He should be impeached now. I mean he's taken us into a disastrous war threatening war crimes in Iran in terms of the knocking out people plants and knocking out electricity and the Democrats will impeach him once we take back the House and Should impeach him for all the things he's done. And depending on the Senate, he may face conviction if we get to 60, especially if the his numbers keep going down and the Epstein issue continues to be a vulnerable.

[Dan Bongino]

Oh, here we go again with the Epstein issue. And this guy who, by the way, I never heard from when the thing was going on and we were busy processing all of that, never heard a word. Amazing how all these people care now when it comes to impeachment. Incredible.

[Justin]

The guy's the biggest fraud out there.

[Dan Bongino]

Folks, I promise you, if they win back the House in this midterm election, there will be another impeachment.

[Justin]

Now, some of you, I've been, I read some of your, your feedback, whether

[Dan Bongino]

it's email or on the website or comments, and I've hear some people fairly enough say you may have seen this.

[Justin]

You think, no, they're not going to do that again. It backfired.

[Dan Bongino]

After Trump, 45, all of these criminal trials basically got him reelected again in 47. I don't believe, I think he would have got reelected regardless. I think he's got a gift. He just does politics. He just has a nose for this stuff. However, there's no question it didn't help. If it would have helped, you know, he probably wouldn't have swept like he did in that presidential election. All the swing states, they do they,

[Justin]

you got to understand, like folks, that is a ridiculous assertion.

[Dan Bongino]

I don't mean to be a jerk about it.

[Justin]

You're pretending the Democrats are principled.

[Dan Bongino]

If you believe that, like, surely they wouldn't do that again. It backfired the weaponization and lawfare so badly.

[Justin]

Trump kicked their ass in a presidential election again, damn. Not thinking that way. These people are not thinking that way. They're thinking in terms of power and retribution. Because to be a Democrat is not to think in facts and data. It's to think. It's to. Excuse me, it's to not think and embed yourself in emotion only in rage. That is what it's about. They don't care about, hey, you did

[Dan Bongino]

X and Y happened.

[Justin]

You weaponized the government.

[Dan Bongino]

You engaged in prolonged warfare against Trump. He kicked your ass in election, therefore

[Justin]

don't do X again. That led to. Yeah, that's not how they think now. Why, why do they think only in

[Dan Bongino]

rage and power and retribution?

[Justin]

Because it sells to their base. There is something about Donald Trump people call tds whatever. There is something about Donald Trump that

[Dan Bongino]

leads to this, what I call show your ass theory where if you want to be Credible and have, like, street cred. You want to be down whatever in the Democrat Party. If you want to be seen, like AOC and Bernie, like, you're, you know, you're an authentic. Or you're, you know, you're it. You're genuine. You're the real deal.

[Justin]

You have to say increasingly deranged things about Donald Trump. You have to basically show your ass to the public and then people will

[Dan Bongino]

celebrate you on Twitter and elsewhere, which

[Justin]

has become dominated by rage bots. So people get this artificial elevation of,

[Dan Bongino]

like, I call Donald Trump Hitler.

[Justin]

And everybody said they love it, so everyone must love that. They don't. They are going to go out and impeach this guy. You're dealing with a party that deals only in emotion. They are not anchored in any principles. They will flip their principles on a dime. I was just reading an article, was

[Dan Bongino]

it Friday in the Wall Street Journal about it.

[Justin]

Do you remember that salt deduction, state and local taxes?

[Dan Bongino]

The salt deduction was a tax cut for wealthier folks on their state and local taxes. They could write them off.

[Justin]

Now you say, well, why would the

[Dan Bongino]

hell would the Democrats want a tax cut for wealthy people?

[Justin]

Because it was blue states that have really high state and local taxes. I thought the Democrats don't like tax cuts. The Democrats don't have principles. I'm trying to tell you this. The Democrats care about power. A lot of rich liberals in these blue states were bitching about their salt

[Dan Bongino]

deduction not being high enough that they

[Justin]

had to pay more taxes, and they changed their mind. The only reason I bring it up is now there's another what? A bill moving through in New York that's going to limit the salt deduction again to make them pay higher taxes. What the hell? First they don't want tax cuts, then

[Dan Bongino]

they want a tax cut, now back

[Justin]

again, they don't want the tax cut. They don't believe in anything. They believe in rage and power. That is the whole bedrock of collectivism, the idea that you should organize and centralize power to abuse it.

[Dan Bongino]

Folks, we have this contrast of visions going forward. As Thomas Sowells pointed out in his

[Justin]

book, we got to make a choice

[Dan Bongino]

in these midterms and these presidential elections. I had a friend reach out to me this weekend and said, you know, you know who you are. He's a pretty famous guy, but he was an athlete, super nice guy. He was talking about, hey, do we

[Justin]

feel like all this is fixed?

[Dan Bongino]

I said, hell, no. Is this fixed?

[Justin]

Government's never fixed. If men were angels, you know, Federals 51, we're not. You get another group of people in power, ladies and gentlemen, they bring their own people in there. People are policy. The only thing you could do with government is put guardrails on them and hope they hold. Bad people are going to do bad things. The only thing you could do is get rid of as many bad people as possible. We have this massive conflict of visions going forward, and I've never seen it

[Dan Bongino]

more summed up by the whole leftist blanket ideology on race and identity politics.

[Justin]

Ladies and gentlemen, they don't give a

[Dan Bongino]

damn about any of this stuff, okay? They don't care about lgbtqia. They don't care about American Indians versus Asians versus Jewish versus Muslims.

[Justin]

They don't care. They care about pitting people in corners and getting them to fight each other so that in the midst of the

[Dan Bongino]

chaos, they can come in like the government and rescue everyone.

[Justin]

There's this article from last week by this guy in the Wall Street Journal.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm gay, but that doesn't make me queer. Talking about how he's like, hey, man, I'm gay. And I took all these courses in college and stuff and learned.

[Justin]

And I started to realize they're full of crap.

[Dan Bongino]

They don't care about gay rights.

[Justin]

These terrorists in the Middle east throw gays off a building.

[Dan Bongino]

They love them. Here it is summed up in two quick videos, back to back. First, I want you to listen. You know, we have the Artemis mission now. They're out there. We're doing just amazing things out there in space, thanks to the Trump team and Isaacman and formerly Sean Duffy, who was running NASA. And we're back to doing things the United States does. Big, bold missions. A lot of it's in conjunction with the private sector, which I think is a good thing. I don't think the government should be the lead agency on a lot of this stuff. But there is a role for space when it comes to defense, and there's no doubt the government has to be involved. Space is the new warfare frontier. Trust me. The government needs a footprint in space. Here's Sky News covering the launch on Artemis. And I want you to notice what they're focused on on the launch. And tell me if this is a party you want to be a part of. Check this out.

[Lee Zeldin]

Yeah.

[Dan Bongino]

And they are going for all humanity this time. You know, Apollo was all white men, and this time it's not. And I think that really speaks volumes for the journey that NASA has been on. And this is a much more representative crew. And you can Feel emotional about that. Holy Moses, folks, do you have any idea how many minorities have been to space?

[Justin]

Not that it matters, cuz this guy doesn't give a damn. He doesn't care. This is all these people care about. And it's not because they actually care about minorities or people who are gay. They see it as a weaponization tool, keep people pissed off as victims so that everybody hates each other and they can come in as the government and fix it all through social welfare programs and other things. Now I want you to listen to

[Dan Bongino]

one of the astronauts, this gentleman, Victor Glover, he's asked kind of a similar question about this identity politics stuff.

[Justin]

And he's like, hey man, can we just start like focusing on like human beings and stuff, like doing big things like what the hell do we. Which vision? I don't know this guy's politics.

[Dan Bongino]

I don't care.

[Justin]

I'm just asking you a question as

[Dan Bongino]

my audience, trying to prove the point.

[Justin]

These people don't care on the left

[Dan Bongino]

about any of this stuff. It's all about inducing rage in you. Oh my gosh, white men in space,

[Justin]

it's all they talk about all the time. They don't have anything else.

[Dan Bongino]

There's no principles here, check this out.

[Victor Glover]

It is a big question. And I want to highlight, I guess maybe one facet of this is the tension. I call it. I live in this, you know, this dichotomy between happiness. That a young woman can look at Christina and just physicalize her passion or her interest, or even if it's not something she wants to do, she can just be like girl power. And that's awesome. And that young brown boys and girls can look at me and go, hey, he looks like me. And he's doing what? And that's great, I love that. But I also hope we are pushing the other direction, that one day we don't have to talk about these first. That one day this is just. And I listen to this, that this is the human history. It's about human history. It's the story of humanity. Not black history, not women's history, but that it becomes human history.

[Dan Bongino]

Amen, man. I mean, I don't. If the media would start calling this out, which I know is ridiculous, the media is obviously on the other side. Large chunks of it are left wing ideologues. If they would start calling this stuff out for what it is, unnecessary division and total bullshit, I think we could move on. But we can't because they love it too, because it fits their ideological, you know, power grab. They're part of this whole movement. I saw this interesting tweeted and wokeness. Now this is a 2007 study to be clear but I saw this and

[Justin]

if diversity right diversity guys everyone in

[Dan Bongino]

the audience pay quick and close attention to this.

[Justin]

If diversity has benefits, it should show in research facts correct. You should be able to show data, data show data, show us some evidence diversity, all that this produces some tangible benefit.

[Dan Bongino]

Put that tweet up. This is fascinating and wokeness put out there. I wonder why this study got buried. This was just from the screen but the study's an older study back from 2007. They found in this study and I wonder why did it get buried?

[Justin]

Listen to the conclusion.

[Dan Bongino]

The greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and less likely they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do do in homogeneous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

[Justin]

Anyone in the chat surprised by this? That when you're in a community of people you chose to move in who are like minded, civic mind, this got nothing to do by the way, if

[Dan Bongino]

they look like you.

[Justin]

So just cut the bullshit. We're talking about just people who feel the same way in a community. Is it shocking to you that you

[Dan Bongino]

would feel a greater bond to a

[Justin]

community of people who feel kind of the same way you do about faith, family and freedom? This is not unusual, this result.

[Dan Bongino]

Diversity.

[Justin]

Diversity for what? For the sake of what? Answer the question. For the sake of what? You can't answer the question. You have no evidence to back this up at all. And again, I can't emphasize enough.

[Dan Bongino]

If we had a sane media ecosystem

[Justin]

that would call these people out and

[Dan Bongino]

ask basic questions like that, by the

[Justin]

way, I would say, hey, you keep talking about diversity. What exactly do you mean?

[Dan Bongino]

What do you mean? You mean like skin color, religion?

[Justin]

What about socioeconomic status?

[Dan Bongino]

What about country of origin, where you came from?

[Justin]

What about that? What kind of diversity you talking about? And can you produce to me evidence that that actually does anything? They can't. This is why trust in the media is at an all time low. Again, these are facts folks. This show produces actual data.

[Dan Bongino]

Put up that rabbit hole. This just about pop this weekend too.

[Justin]

I told you these nobody trusts these people because they see in their real lives that everything they've been told is true by these folks is nothing more than a media talking point share of people who Said they had a great

[Dan Bongino]

deal or fair amount of trust in mass media. Look at it down to 31% folks. That is stunning.

[Justin]

Think about what this chart indicates here.

[Dan Bongino]

For those who process information and use reason, that is this audience, right?

[Justin]

You're talking about 7 out of 10 people who go and analyze media, information, media.

[Dan Bongino]

Their one job, the American media is to get you facts, inputs to process a proper output, right?

[Justin]

That 7 out of 10 people have no trust in these people at all. You would think this would be a

[Dan Bongino]

wake up call for these folks, but

[Justin]

they have no ability to self reflect at all.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm going to tell you one of the most illuminating experiences I had in my early career in government. On the Secret Service side, when you were a new agent, right, on the President's detail, forgive me if you've heard the story before, but they stick you with the press. When you're on what they call ppd, Presidential Protective Division.

[Justin]

They stick you with the press because

[Dan Bongino]

it's where you could do the least damage. Until you get a feel for kind of the flow to go with the flow of how the President's detail works, you can do the least damage with the press. You spend a lot of time with the press as a new agent, like a lot folks, some of the conversations you would hear these people having were

[Justin]

so humiliatingly stupid that I swear if it was said in front of a

[Dan Bongino]

camera you'd never trust the media again.

[Justin]

These people put off this air that there's this highbrow air, nose in the air air that they have a set of facts you don't have when in fact they have nothing. They're really stupid a lot. Not all of them, but a good chunk of them. Some of the stuff they'd be. I couldn't believe it. And just the stuff they would do

[Dan Bongino]

on like the oh gosh, like the press playing and stuff. They don't do it anymore. Cuz the cell phone carriers, these people are horrible here. We haven't heard from this guy in a while.

[Justin]

They have no ability to self reflect

[Dan Bongino]

at all and say hey, how are we contributing to this malaise that the left wing media says we're in?

[Justin]

Here's Jim Acosta.

[Dan Bongino]

We haven't heard from this guy in a long time.

[Justin]

He's apparently upset at some possible leadership changes at cnn. Concerned, get a load of this.

[Dan Bongino]

That they may become a propaganda channel.

[Justin]

I'm not kidding. This is actually real talk about a

[Dan Bongino]

lack of self reflection. Check this out. That's something to be worried about because it doesn't Take a genius to figure out that they're gonna try to impose

[Lee Zeldin]

that same kind of top down editorial mandate over at cnn that, hey, we're gonna be a little bit more maga, we're gonna be a little bit more Trumpy. And you know, I mean, I think that's dangerous.

[Dan Bongino]

You know, we don't need to have propaganda networks in the us. Holy Moses, is this real? And the answer is yes, it is real. He actually said that this man has no ability whatsoever to process new inputs and create an additional output.

[Justin]

He probably still believes the Russia collusion hoax is real. He can't shake his priors no matter what. And I'm telling you, the mark of an imbecile is the inability to process new information. As life chronologically moves on, new information

[Dan Bongino]

and stimuli comes in correct.

[Justin]

Every day you learn something new. If you cannot change an opinion no matter what, based on a set of facts contrary to your prior opinion, you are the problem. A propaganda network, folks, There's a reason 7 out of 10 people don't trust him. You would think that would be a moment of reflection. I mean, think about this.

[Dan Bongino]

In your business, this. Imagine like Justin had. He always wears hooded sweatshirts, this guy. He loves his hoodies, right?

[Justin]

Justin starts.

[Dan Bongino]

Justin, hoodies or whatever it is. Thermostat is 64 right now. What's that? The thermostat is currently 64 degrees. That's why I'm wearing hoodie. He said he doesn't like it that I keep the studio at 64 degrees.

[Justin]

I'm always getting.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm sorry, I got them in Italian blood and it runs a little hotter. I'm sorry.

[Justin]

So he is always.

[Dan Bongino]

It's Florida. Justin always looks like Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back in the beginning.

[Justin]

What is that thing?

[Dan Bongino]

Is it a tauntaun or something?

[Justin]

Andy, put Justin in. Get the lightsaber. Put Justin in the tauntaun.

[Dan Bongino]

Warm him up. Imagine he starts this hoodie company selling Justin's hoodies.

[Justin]

And seven out of 10 emails he

[Dan Bongino]

gets on the customer service line like,

[Justin]

hey, those hoodies really suck. Justin's a smart guy.

[Dan Bongino]

Well, what sucks about it?

[Justin]

I don't like the drawstring. It keeps breaking and you change it. The media has been at roughly 30% approval for eons now, and they have no capability to say, maybe we should

[Dan Bongino]

start doing facts and get away from the propaganda. They don't. They don't care. Here's another great story the media will likely ignore. By the way, in the Trump era,

[Justin]

it's okay to say you don't agree, by the way, media folks, with the

[Dan Bongino]

Donald Trump economic policies, with his war policies.

[Justin]

That's the job of the job of the media.

[Dan Bongino]

A fair media is not to be, you know, a mockingbird. It's not the parrot things.

[Justin]

But you should also put out the other side of the argument, too.

[Dan Bongino]

This tweet this weekend, I saw a rapid response from the Trump team out there.

[Justin]

The paring down of the government workforce, something that's been talked about by Republicans, Tea Party folks and others forever and has really never happened, is finally happening. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a piece of Good news.

[Dan Bongino]

Rapid response 47.

[Justin]

Under POTUS Trump, the federal workforce has been reduced to its smallest level since 1966, the lowest share of the total

[Dan Bongino]

labor force in over a century.

[Justin]

Folks, that's an amazing story. That has never happened. That hasn't happened, excuse me, in decades. Since 1966, we've had a bloated federal workforce forever. You've got this guy and everybody's worried about. He dropped an F bomb in a tweet. How about producing actual data?

[Dan Bongino]

The jobs numbers that came out on Friday.

[Justin]

I want you to smile a little bit today.

[Dan Bongino]

It was Easter weekend. Everybody's coming back. Spring breaks kind of over.

[Justin]

So people are filtering back to work, filtering back into the chat. It's good to see you back here. Put a smile on your face. We are in an unbelievably good spot right now. Yes, there's a war going on. Yes, we should keep our eyes open. Yes, there's a dangerous terrorist situation. Yes, the economy's got some bumps in the road, but the jobs numbers that came out on Friday, if you missed the show, were just staggering.

[Dan Bongino]

Here's Kevin Hassett, one of Donald Trump's economic advisers. Very smart guy.

[Justin]

Here's Hassett discussing a couple critical items

[Dan Bongino]

as to why this happened.

[Justin]

Cuz it's not an accident. The job numbers were 178,000, which blew

[Dan Bongino]

away projections that expected 60,000 jobs.

[Justin]

That is a huge number, an enormous number. But he talks about a couple of things I've mentioned over and over that should put a big darn smile on your face. The fact that Donald Trump has removed

[Dan Bongino]

mounds of red tape that cost you money to get your business going. He has deregulated large portions of the

[Justin]

economy and he's also focused on a

[Dan Bongino]

growth environment rather than this oppressive Joe Biden big government environment by creating more federal jobs and fewer private sector jobs. Check this out.

[Lee Zeldin]

Can say that this is an absolute blockbuster number. It's one of the best numbers that you've seen in a long time. And what it shows is that all of the cumulative policies that President Trump has pushed, the no tax on tips, no tax on overtimes, making the Trump old Trump tax cuts, permanent deregulation, $18 trillion in new investments in the US through our trade deals, all of that stuff, plus a big reduction in the trade deficit, has created enormous amount, amount of momentum for the U.S. economy. And so that momentum cannot be upended by a temporary Middle east skirmish.

[Justin]

Okay, I want to get to that again. These are the things the media won't

[Dan Bongino]

tell you, I promise. When we get blips in the economy, if there's some obstacles and some bad job numbers, we'll cover them. We'll explain to you the reason why

[Justin]

and let you formulate an output yourself. This is the fact show.

[Dan Bongino]

It's not the show you want that

[Justin]

you can watch mainstream media outlets, folks.

[Dan Bongino]

We do have this conflict of visions going forward, though. And you have a choice to make in November.

[Justin]

Now, I don't. I. This is a global show.

[Dan Bongino]

We have a good audience in Australia. We have an audience in Canada. We have an audience in Asia. It's a global show and it's focused on basically US Politics. Fairly obvious. Hello, Captain Obvious. Thank you. I don't typically get into too many, like, parochial regional politics issues. However, this bit on California here is important because it's not a regional parochial issue. When I discuss, as I've been for this show, this conflict of visions moving forward, the weaponized ideological left obsessed with power and the free market constitutional right, obsessed with prosperity and growth. That conflict of visions is best summed up by showing you a real world example of data. When one vision is fully implemented.

[Justin]

California.

[Dan Bongino]

Can we all agree? Everyone. Jasmine, everyone else. California has a super majority of Democrats. Republicans have almost no political power whatsoever in the state of California outside of isolated pockets.

[Justin]

None.

[Dan Bongino]

Not in the legislature, certainly not in the governorship. The court system is dominated by liberals. California is their liberal air quotes utopia. It's a dystopia. But they'll tell you it's their utopia. Gavin Newsom's going to run for president. You have the governor of California, of course.

[Justin]

You have this example right here.

[Dan Bongino]

Here is subset of data A, red states here, subset of data B, which is blue states like California.

[Justin]

Why would you want this? Here's a tweet by CBS Sacramento.

[Dan Bongino]

Cbs, cbs.

[Justin]

Not a right wing outlet. Okay, finally acknowledging that the reason you're in California paying $700 for a gallon of gas.

[Dan Bongino]

Hyperbole. But you get the Point is not

[Justin]

price gouging like the liberals keep telling you. This is cbs. They note, here's why. And no shocker, it's California gas taxes,

[Dan Bongino]

labor and business costs, environmental programs, red

[Justin]

tape regulations and the state's unique fuel blend.

[Dan Bongino]

They're driving up baseline prices.

[Justin]

Now it's. You're sitting here on the show going, no Sherlock. There are liberals reading this for the first time. You have a choice in the midterms. Do you want keep that up a second, Justin. Do you want more of this? Cuz this is what happens when you have a super majority of liberal lunatics. Do you want higher taxes? If the answer is yes and you want to pay more for gas, vote for Gavin Newsom in the left in this election. Do you like high labor and business costs?

[Dan Bongino]

Yes, I love paying more for labor.

[Justin]

And okay, vote for the Democrats. Do you like excessive and ridiculous environmental programs? Vote for the left. What about red tape and regulations? That's your guy. Newsom and the Democrats, you have a test case in front of you. You have a natural experiment right now. This is what liberal quote, utopia looks like here. You want another example? President Trump put this video on his true social. This is a woman in California at a fire hydrant. You're like, what is she doing?

[Dan Bongino]

And he's like, is she putting out a fire?

[Justin]

She is not if you're listening on Apple or Spotify.

[Dan Bongino]

Thank you. I always enjoy the audio show as well. Should check that out.

[Justin]

But you should tune in at the

[Dan Bongino]

48 and a half minute mark where

[Justin]

you can watch this lady apparently like doing like her laundry in a fire hydrant or something. This California not telling you.

[Dan Bongino]

Red states don't have a homelessness problem and don't have the things like this happen everywhere. But the question is not do they happen or not? The answer is yes, everywhere.

[Justin]

The question is to what degree on the margin. California is one of the worst homeless problems in the country. I thought this was utopia. Your gas prices are the highest, you're being suffocated by red tape. You got people doing their freaking laundry in a fire hydrant. They have like a tide pod in there. I mean they didn't even wash it. Where's the detergent?

[Dan Bongino]

Oh, so what? Ladies doing a wash and a fire hydrant and they pay $5,000 a gallon. Again, what's the big deal, folks?

[Justin]

Even the things they do. Even the things they do that they

[Dan Bongino]

claim are like no brainers. California's like, man, we should have high speed rail like the Japanese. High speed. Everybody loves high speed. Rail. They do.

[Justin]

So if they love high speed rail

[Dan Bongino]

so much, then how come the high speed rail project they've done in California, they can't finish it. It's way over budget.

[Justin]

And by the way, the customer base

[Dan Bongino]

for this thing is probably going to

[Justin]

be crap because if people wanted it,

[Dan Bongino]

a private sector company would have already moved in. This is just a quick snippet from

[Justin]

60 Minutes, no less.

[Dan Bongino]

Ever since Bari Weiss went over, they've been doing more of these like mainstream stories. It's still CBS, so you know, you gotta be cautious.

[Justin]

However, here's 60 Minutes interviewing these two

[Dan Bongino]

knuckleheads in California about the high speed rail project. When you see the price tag on this thing, why? Because the government's paying for it.

[Justin]

And when the government takes people's money

[Dan Bongino]

and gives it to other people, takes tax money and gives it to a, you know, whatever, a construction company for

[Justin]

real, they don't care about the cost,

[Dan Bongino]

it's not their money.

[Justin]

And they don't care about the quality of the project cuz it's not theirs either. They're not buying anything for themselves.

[Dan Bongino]

The famous Milton Friedman line. Listen to the price tag on this thing. And there's still 90. 90 billion with a B short. Check this out.

[Lee Zeldin]

As we speak right now, are the funds there to complete L A to San Francisco?

[Dan Bongino]

The entire amount of money we need? Not there today. But do we believe we can get those funds to get the project done? Absolutely.

[Lee Zeldin]

How much do you estimate it's going to cost to connect high speed rail San Francisco to LA today? We estimate with the right optimization, just over $125 billion. I think $126 billion is the current estimate for that. That's more funding than Amtrak has received in its history and still leaves a shortfall of roughly $90 billion. That's a big gap to fill. It is a big gap to fill, but again, we have an understanding of how to get there and to fill that gap.

[Justin]

Do you believe 100? A little bit. We got a little gap. 120 billion. Another 90. 90 folks, you could have rebuilt basically a quarter of the infrastructure of the entire state of California at those costs. This is your utopia. Can you guys in California, the Democrats who are running this state to the ground, can you guys do anything right? Folks, you have a test case, a natural experiment in front of you right now. Florida, California.

[Dan Bongino]

People are moving to Florida, People moving out of California.

[Justin]

Why?

[Dan Bongino]

Well, taxes are just one of the reasons.

[Justin]

Yeah, you're right.

[Dan Bongino]

Quality of life, cost of living.

[Justin]

Janie, bag of Donuts, not with a using a tide pod to do a washing.

[Dan Bongino]

The fire hydrant on the corner,

[Justin]

I get.

[Dan Bongino]

Which one? Oh, gosh. Probably far less than that. That's a good point. The wall. Yeah, probably a fraction of what this freaking.

[Justin]

And no one's gonna even ride the damn thing.

[Dan Bongino]

Here. This tweet went nuclear this weekend to someone, Marie Davidson, just again to show

[Justin]

you how insane government spending by Democrats

[Dan Bongino]

and to be honest, a lot of Republicans have contributed to this debacle too.

[Justin]

Okay, here is the extent of how

[Dan Bongino]

badly government spending has gotten out of control.

[Justin]

In case you think like this is

[Dan Bongino]

austerity or anything like that, put that tweet up. This one nuclear this weekend. U.S. population grew 6% in the last decade.

[Justin]

Okay. Federal spending grew 40%.

[Dan Bongino]

Well, it's not adjusted for inflation.

[Justin]

Yes, it is. It's real money.

[Dan Bongino]

Not as bad as California, but you have to ask, where did all the money go?

[Justin]

There it is. There's the chart. Where'd all the money go?

[Dan Bongino]

The same place all government spending goes.

[Justin]

Because the government doesn't care about cost or quality. It's the Milton Friedman problem, folks. They're not spending their money, it's yours. So they don't care about the cost. But the problem with government is they're not even buying anything for themselves. They're buying these third party items, high speed rail, all this. So they don't care about the quality either. If I steal your money and buy

[Dan Bongino]

something for myself, I don't really care about the cost because I stole your money.

[Justin]

But if I'm getting a hotel room for it, I want a damn good hotel room. At least I care about the quality. The government's buying a hotel room for someone else. They don't even give a about the quality. I mean, is this a hard math problem to figure out?

[Dan Bongino]

Here was another little bit of tragic comedy this weekend.

[Justin]

The Democrats are now finally admitting decades later that Obamacare that they told you was going to bring costs down.

[Dan Bongino]

I wish I had that maze more. I should put it in the show. Obama over and over, we're going to

[Justin]

cut costs, make health care more affordable. Yeah, that was bullshit. Showing you how everything the government touches

[Dan Bongino]

on the economic front, they destroy.

[Justin]

We do the military and law enforcement pretty good. Everything they touch, they destroy because they don't care. They told you Obamacare was going to reduce cost.

[Dan Bongino]

High quality health care.

[Justin]

Everyone was going to. You got a car, you was like the Oprah show. Here's a piece in the Wall Street Journal quoting Democrat senators now admitting everything they told you about Obamacare was crap because when the government takes over health care and taxes people to give other people money for health care, they don't care about the cost of the health care and they don't care about the quality of health care because it's not their health care either.

[Dan Bongino]

The Democrats Obamacare quagmire.

[Justin]

They note in 2008 Obama pledges health

[Dan Bongino]

care plan would lower premiums by $2,500 a year for the typical family. But Senator Peter Welch, who signed the Wyden letter, conceded last fall that we did fail to bring down the cost of health care, of health care.

[Justin]

The solutions the letter outlines would also

[Dan Bongino]

fail to bring down costs.

[Justin]

The senators proposed reinstating costly enhanced subsidies.

[Dan Bongino]

Just stop right there.

[Justin]

So the solution for Obamacare, what he

[Dan Bongino]

told us is we're going to tax the shit out of people, give the money to others to buy health care.

[Justin]

So the solution, when that failed to

[Dan Bongino]

control costs, obviously the third party payer problem I just described with cost and

[Justin]

quality, their solution is to tax people more to give people more subsidies or other people's money. Oh, by the way, they also propose exploring the benefits of giving all Americans access to Medicare type choices for health. That's a great idea. You're. That's working just great. Medicare, which is going bankrupt by their own nonpartisan actuarial standards. That's a great idea. Let's jam everyone into Medicare now.

[Dan Bongino]

Folks, I told you we have this conflict of visions, man. It's sitting there right in front of you. We have these natural experiments. You can look at yourself. I know the liberals out there who only care about power and don't care about principles. You're beyond persuasion. But to the rank and file working Democrats out there who are interested in an alternative to the crazy. I'm just asking. You don't believe me?

[Justin]

Believe the data.

[Dan Bongino]

Do you want more California in Florida. Do you want more California in Alabama?

[Justin]

Do you want more Obamacare subsidies? They said, why would we need more subsidies? I thought it was supposed to control costs. Subsidies are a cute name for tax

[Dan Bongino]

dollars subsidizing other people with your tax dollars. Here was Lee Zeldin. I bring up Lee Zeldin for a couple reasons. Again, I want to show you how this conflict of visions, how the media feeds into this, how the media gaslights by isolating you from the truth. I was upstairs with my daughter last night. We were watching a movie. And that movie, the girl on the train popped up. So she's younger, so I had to turn up. But it made Me think. You ever see A Girl on the Train? It's a movie about gaslighting and how this husband's a crazy guy and he isolates his wife from the truth. So he gets his wife to believe she's the crazy person.

[Justin]

And the way the whole thing breaks,

[Dan Bongino]

in case you haven't seen the movie,

[Justin]

is the wife runs into some lady on a plane who used to work

[Dan Bongino]

with the husband, who goes, hey, that never happened.

[Justin]

All of a sudden, it all makes sense. I am really hoping this show is

[Dan Bongino]

that moment for you where I can present to you these two visions using data and say, do you want more of this? Because if you do, vote for Gavin Newsom. You want Tide Pod lady and the fire hydrant. He's your guy in the midterms. Democrats are your guy. Or you can complain about foul language in a tweet. Here's Lee Zeldin on cnn. Lee Zeldin's EPA administrator. I bring him up also because there's some discussion of him being the next attorney General. I covered that show on Friday. I think right now we're probably down to.

[Justin]

I wrote down four names, and I'm

[Dan Bongino]

just telling you what I've been reading and hearing from a couple folks. Donald Trump, President Trump's gonna pick who he wants. He doesn't need Dam Bongino for this. I'm just saying. I think you could probably narrow it down right now to Todd Blanche, who's acting. He may stay Lee Zeldin, who you're gonna see in a second. Jeanine Pirro, Judge Jeanine, who's the United states attorney in D.C. and I've seen Alina Haba's name creep up. I love Alina. I think she's fantastic. Just a great person. Just telling you what I've read in the media. But here's Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator. He's on cnn. And I want you to notice the gaslighting technique here. She's trying to tell him, hey, listen, this endangerment finding about basically pollution that bad pollute. Like, I can't believe you guys are challenging this. Like, what do you want?

[Justin]

Pollution? And then he notes a really simple, elegant point back. Hey, the graphic you keep showing about pollution from smokestacks had nothing to do with Donald Trump's executive orders and the

[Dan Bongino]

administration's policies on the endangerment filing.

[Justin]

It's from moving vehicles, not smokestacks. Like, you may want to tell people that.

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out.

[Jennifer Griffin]

I do want to start with the fundamental question that's at the heart of all this. I mean, do you accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that these greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest drivers drivers of man made climate change?

[EPA Official]

Well, it's great to be on with you. First, it's worth pointing out that all eight or so images that you just posted on the screen have nothing to do with this week's announcement. What the 2009 endangerment finding had to do with was with regards to mobile sources vehicles. This week's proposal to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding was with regards to mobile sources vehicles. CNN's been using a lot of photos where they show smokestacks of stationary sources like power plants. That's not what we proposed.

[Justin]

This is how. When you see how these liberals are stuck in the girl on the train

[Dan Bongino]

moment where she thinks she's the bad guy and it's really the husband, this

[Justin]

is how they do it. They isolate you from the truth so you can never have your eyes opened ever.

[Dan Bongino]

Vanilla Scott, open your eyes. What about B.G. gruff?

[Justin]

What about Justin for A.G. Mr. President? Justin's interested. Throw his name. He's too busy running his hoodie company.

[Dan Bongino]

You should start that. It's a good idea.

[Justin]

You see how the gaslighting and the isolating people from the truth.

[Dan Bongino]

Let's put up a picture of smokestacks and people like, oh my gosh, Lee Zeldin at the EPA loves pollution from smokestacks.

[Justin]

And then you find out the endangerment finding challenge 8 before has nothing to do with smokestacks at all. I'm telling you on this show because

[Dan Bongino]

we cut through the bs. I got another clip coming up as Eldon, who I think would be an excellent choice for ag. I think all of them would be good. It's not my choice, it's presidents. But him going at it with Adam Schiff, an absolute clown. This is just for your comic relief. I got some more stuff coming up. Quick break here. I'm going to get to that, folks. Simplisafe. Listen, you're looking at a home security system. Please consider Simplisafe. Let's be honest. Traditional home security companies can make protecting your home way harder than it needs to be. You don't need it to be really hard. You need it to be really easy. Long contracts, expensive monthly fees, and waiting around half a day for a technician. That's why I recommend SimpliSafe. Producer Jim recently received his SimpliSafe setup, has it installed in his home. He loves it. They gave him great customer service and he talks about how easy it was to install. Don't lie awake at night listening to every bump and noise or stressing out while you're away from home wondering if you've locked everything up. You need total peace of mind. Arm the system at night. See that system armed light and sleep peacefully. And when you're away, you can check the cameras in seconds and know everything's fine. It's all backed by 24. Seven professional monitoring, ready to dispatch help if something happens. Best part, no contracts, no hidden fees. SimpliSafe earns your business every month by working for you, not by locking you in. I want you to experience the same peace of mind I do, which is why I partnered with SimpliSafe to offer an exclusive discount to my listeners. Right now, you can get 50% off 50% off your new system by visiting simplisafe.com danbongino that's simply with an I S, I m, P L I simplysafe.com danbongino that's simplisafe.com danbongino for 50% off. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Thanks. Simply say, here's Lee Zeldin again. I really like Lee. Again, disclosure. I've known Lee for a long time. I did an event with him once. He's a great guy. Ran for governor of New York. Almost pulled off a huge upset, probably in the final four for pun intended, games national championship game on that. What is it? Michigan and UConn tonight, right? Michigan, UConn for the championship. So we'll see what happens there. But however, he's probably one of the final people in the running. Here he is going at it with Adam Schiff. You know, just pencil neck, clown. I can't stand this guy. Shift. Check this out.

[Lee Zeldin]

What is it about this grant that you and EPA believe is problematic enough to freeze this funding and put potentially 31,000 children at risk?

[EPA Official]

Senator, which who is the grant applicant?

[Lee Zeldin]

This is to the city of Santa Ana.

[EPA Official]

You have the big.

[Lee Zeldin]

And are you.

[EPA Official]

You're the biggest state. So I don't have to go through every single list of the grant. Well, by the way, with that wind up. By the way, I understand that you were an aspiring fiction writer. I see why.

[Lee Zeldin]

Oh yeah. Well,

[Justin]

I had to cut it there because. Did you guys.

[Dan Bongino]

You guys get.

[Justin]

You see the shift response?

[Dan Bongino]

You can see how he's totally caught off guard. Oh yeah. He's like trying to be a smart ass. Meanwhile, he knows he just got completely wrecked. I like Zeldin a lot. I think all of these folks would bring a lot to the table, however.

[Justin]

So I'm gonna tell you, I don't

[Dan Bongino]

think President Trump is in any particular rush right now. He's got the DAG Todd Blanche acting in that role now. So there's not a continuity problem. These investigations are ongoing. I'm reasonably confident over the course of weeks and months, you're gonna see more of these things that people say aren't happening, happening. So I don't think he's in any particular rush. It is, you know, I will say, just having direct experience, it's probably the most difficult job in D.C. because you got to understand, like when you're a cabinet head or a cabinet head equivalent, you know, you can kind of just top down push things through. That's not the way it works in the Justice Department. The justice system is designed to work slowly. It's designed to work slowly. So it is a difficult job. But those people are, are really competent. We'll see where that goes, folks, whoever the President winds up picking for the spot. One of the most challenging problems we're going to have moving forward is this anchor baby issue and birthright citizenship. I've been discussing it in the course of the past week because the Supreme Court is looking at this now. It hinges on those words, subject to the jurisdiction thereof. We are going to have a really, really big national security problem. I can't emphasize this enough in the United States. If the Supreme Court rules that you being born here, even to people who are here illegally, creates a constitutional right to citizenship, we're in a world of trouble. I played that clip by Theo Wald on Jesse Kelly show last week where he suggests we may need a constitutional amendment backing that up. The question is, will we be able

[Justin]

to even get that through?

[Dan Bongino]

I'm not so sure. I hope so. This would be a huge problem. Think about what could happen here.

[Justin]

You have these foreign enemies of the United States.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm going to show you this tweet in a second, so stay tuned. This is important in case you think, like, I'm just making this up and being overly dramatic. We can all agree the Chinese Communist Party is a known, near existential threat to the United States if they had unlimited power. They hate us. Just like the Iranian mullah class. They do. What a gift it would be to them to say, hey, get a couple of your citizens legally, illegally, doesn't matter. Find your way onto some U.S. territory or soil somewhere, have a baby, and basically you have the right to citizenship, the right to vote, the right to join the military, all of this stuff,

[Justin]

you get the full portfolio of American

[Dan Bongino]

rights, whether you did it the right way or not.

[Justin]

The national security problems there are endless. The Supreme Court doesn't need lectures from me. I'm just telling you, like, please think this through. The threat here is real.

[Dan Bongino]

Put up that tweet if you have the the counterintelligence case. So this is Jenny Terre on X Huge. The Chinese Americans accused of attempting to explode an IED at MacDill in Tampa were anchor babies for illegal parents, as reported by Mary Margaret Olahan. DHS nabbed the duo's parents on March 18 for illegal entry. Parents applied for asylum in 93, but were denied by an immigration judge who issued them a deportation order in 98.

[Justin]

The Board of Immigration Appeals repeatedly denied

[Dan Bongino]

their attempts to have their case reopened.

[Justin]

Despite the repeated denials for status, they remained in the United States. Folks, you don't think there are other foreign countries watching this and paying close attention? The Constitution is not a suicide pact. As has been said many times, this is a huge national security issue.

[Dan Bongino]

There's the article by Mary Margaret you can check out at Daily Wire. Folks. The last year, man was a big eye opener. I got to tell you, ignorance is never bliss. But when I talk about things on the show with appropriate context and with limitations and guardrails for obvious reasons, a lot of it's based on the experience over the last year. When I say things like, hey, the US Government is going to need good, solid private sector partnerships in space because space is that new frontier for warfare, I'm not kidding. We have to have some role in it. When I tell you that this anchor baby issue is going to open up a bunch of enemies of the United States, a way to just basically come in here and gain access to our institutions through a US passport, I'm not kidding. They've already thought this through. The Constitution was not a suicide pact. You've got this conflict divisions. You've got these natural studies. You saw the Biden open border years versus the Trump closed border years. You see the economic growth now versus the 9% inflation under Biden. You've seen the California, you know, 5, 6, 8, $10 a gallon gas, the tide pod lady in the washing or washing her clothes in a fire hydrant. You've seen that.

[Justin]

You've seen the U haul costs from

[Dan Bongino]

California to Florida versus Florida to California, which I don't think happens at all. You have natural studies right now on Obamacare. We passed Obamacare.

[Justin]

You can study what happened in the natural world. What happened. Costs went up so bad they need more of your tax money to pay for the exploding costs. You've seen it

[Dan Bongino]

now. It's time you had the Girl on the Train moment where you meet that person who finally tells you the truth. I hope this show is that person for you folks.

[Justin]

Thanks again for tuning in.

[Dan Bongino]

I really appreciate it. Please download the Rumble app if you don't mind. It is absolutely free.

[Justin]

Go there. Follow our show. It is free.

[Dan Bongino]

The Dan Bongino Show. You get a notification every day at

[Justin]

10am if you want to do it

[Dan Bongino]

on the web too, you can go to rumble.com bongino justin put together this handy dandy graphic. You can always check out Haley at noon as well. Rumble.com Haley and Vince Colon Ace look at Is that a new picture of Vince? They are right. Look at Vince with the tie on. He looks like presidential timber right there.

[Justin]

Did you see that?

[Dan Bongino]

Vince is on 8am and is that

[Justin]

a new picture of Haley?

[Dan Bongino]

She's got a little smirk going there. See, that's a new picture. Good job guys. Good job. By our photo department. They're like, we don't have a photo department. I'm like, well, I guess we do now. Thanks again for tuning in folks. I will see you back.

[Justin]

Speaking of the photo department, you're supposed

[Dan Bongino]

to be Han Solo. No, no, because Luke goes. That's right. Good point, guys. Good job on the page. That was quick how you did that during the show. Well done. I'll see you guys back here tomorrow at 10am I'm Hailey Caradilla, host of

[Justin]

Vince, host of Scrolling with Hailey.

[Jennifer Griffin]

You can always catch my show right

[Justin]

here, right here on the Bongino Report

[Jennifer Griffin]

live, 8am Eastern weekday mornings, weekdays at noon.

[Justin]

If you miss it, no worries. The show will always be right here and anywhere you find podcast. Thanks for watching.