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The Dan Bongino Show
The Walls Are Closing In On The Deep State | Episode 160
00:59:18
Fmr. CIA Director John Brennan gets embarrassed; NY Attorney General Letitia James under another investigation; The Trump admin strikes another drug boat; and the economy receives some encouraging news.
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- [00:00]
Vince
Hey everybody, welcome to Vince on a Monday. It is great to have you with us. The best audience anywhere. We've got a big show for you. The walls are closing in for real this time on John Brennan, the former CIA director and he is very pissed off about it. I can't love it more. We've got the details ahead on what exactly is going on with John Brennan. We'll explore that. Also, the Trump administration has blown yet another drug boat out of the water. And we've got updates for you on the, well, the government shutdown and the big 60 Minutes interview. President it's a huge show. I hope you had a wonderful Halloween by the way. I hope it was as great for you as it was for me. It was wonderful. Again, great to have you with us today. Hey, every choice that we make is an opportunity to stand up for freedom. Even something as simple as your cell phone service. Here's the truth. Most cell phone providers, well, they don't care a lick about you. They just want your money. Patriot Mobile, totally different. For over 12 years now, they've stood for Americans who believe in faith, family and freedom. They contribute millions of dollars to Christian conservative causes. The best part is this. With Patriot Mobile, you don't have to sacrifice quality or service. Patriot Mobile offers premium access on all three major U.S. networks. So you will enjoy the same or better premium coverage as the major carriers. Think switching is complicated? Nope, not at all. Keep your number, keep your phone or even Upgrade. Patriot Mobile's 100% US based team will get you activated in just minutes. You can stuck on a contract, still owe money on your phone. No problem at all. They have a contract buyout program. So what are you waiting for? Go to patriotmobile.com Vince or call them at 972. Patriot Love Patriot Mobile. Use the promo code Vince for a free month of service. Switch today. That's patriotmobile.com Vince or call 972-patriot. All right. Yeah, you get John Brennan seems to be the next guy up in the parade of awful people who are now being prosecuted in this world. The Trump administration where something's always happening. John Brennan seems very likely to be subject to prosecution. A criminal referral made by Congress to the Justice Department for Brennan's lies to Congress about all sorts of things, including and especially the use of the Steele dossier to go after Donald Trump its inclusion in the intelligence community. Ass. Brennan's got a lot to answer for and with any luck, he will be doing that in a court of law very soon. And Brennan knows that the walls are closing in for real. This isn't like when the left kept saying the walls were closing in on Trump. They're really closing in on John Brennan. And Brennan just went to an event at George Mason University. This is right outside Washington, D.C. and this event was a panel. It involved a bunch of intelligence community people, including Michael Hayden on stage with him. And I've got a couple videos from this. And there was one great American, one patriot, who knew that John Brennan was going to be there. And he decided to confront the former CIA director. This gentleman's name is Thomas Speciale. He's a national security consultant and he's a former senior advisor to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard Thomas. Thomas has worked now for years, decades as a part of the intel community. And here he is directly confronting John Brennan at George Mason University. And pay attention here, because Brennan is so pissed off, he takes his finger, his disgusting finger, and he sticks it into Mr. Speciale's chest. Watch this. And you misrepresented that. We never said it was disinformation. We said it was Russian influence operations, which is what they do. There's a big difference between influence operations and. No, you don't. So you watch there. Brennan, that piece of garbage, putting his finger into this dude's chest. He's lucky he didn't get his finger broken doing that. Putting his finger into this dude's chest, saying, this is a big difference between disinformation and a Russian influence operation. What he's talking about, some of you may have already gathered from the context clues. What he's talking about is that Brennan signed on to the 51 intelligence analysts letter claiming that Hunter Biden's laptop sure looked like a Russian disinformation op, that this was an influence operation by the Russians, heavily suggesting, as you recall, that this was not authentic, that the Hunter Biden laptop was not real, that it didn't include scandalous information about the Biden family, the money that they were generating against the interests of the United States of America. So Thomas Speciale confronts John Brennan. Finally, somebody gets into this guy's face. He's polite, but he goes, why'd you.
- [04:58]
Rachel Bovard
Sign onto that letter?
- [04:59]
Vince
Why did you do that? Why did you lie to the American people? Don't you have any sense of shame about this? And Brennan goes ballistic. He's not used to this. He's not used to this kind of scrutiny while it's long overdue. God bless that man for saying something. And then during the Q and A session at this panel, event. Mr. Speciale also had an opportunity to ask a question. And over the course of several minutes, he established his bona fides. He explained, look, I'm in the intel community. I've been in it for decades. I definitely know what I'm talking about. I was just working with Tulsi Gabbard, so I'm the right guy to ask this question. And he goes on and he asks this question. It's about the inclusion of the Steele dossier, that disgusting package of lies with in the intelligence community assessment in early 2017. Watch his question. And how the whole stage to include John Brennan goes haywire. I would like to hear what your justification was for supporting the dossier that was known to be false, being used as source material in the second ica. I don't know who put you up to this. Nobody put me up to this, or I'm here on my own, what role you played or who you are, but it's a bunch of bullshit that you just passed on. Absolutely.
- [06:12]
Nicholas Ballasi
The emails.
- [06:14]
Vince
The emails are clear. The emails are clear.
- [06:17]
Nicholas Ballasi
The second question I think we're gonna.
- [06:20]
Norah O'Donnell
Is next.
- [06:23]
Nicholas Ballasi
You can.
- [06:24]
Norah O'Donnell
Next. Next.
- [06:25]
Nicholas Ballasi
Look, we can talk about it. Talk about it in the reception.
- [06:29]
Vince
No, we didn't say that it was likely Russian disinformation.
- [06:33]
President Donald Trump
No, we did not.
- [06:34]
Norah O'Donnell
We said.
- [06:40]
Vince
You know, I just love how uncomfortable they are and they're freaking out. They're squirming. So you get Brennan up there going, that's bullshit. That's bullshit. He's screaming. He's completely emotionally incontinent as he's asked a very real question by a guy who's got him dead to rights. And then Michael Hayden, the other former CIA director up there, keeps going, next, next, next. Because they can't. They can't stand it. They can't stand even a moment of realistic scrutiny. They couldn't treat that man like a human being, like an adult, like an American citizen, like an intel community vet, like somebody who knew what he was talking about because he definitely did know what he was talking about. He's got the facts here cold. And Brennan's going ballistic over this. I love this. Which means he's digging in, he's digging in. And he does not know how to answer these questions because the record is clear. Yes, he advanced lies about the Hunter Biden laptop. Yes, he was the reason that the Steele dossier was included in the intelligence community assessment. In fact, he lied about that before Congress. He claimed the CIA wasn't involved. Wasn't involved at all. Guess who was the one who forced it in? John Brennan himself, the CIA director, was the one who forced it to go in. And remember when he was asked like, wait a second, this doesn't seem true at all, like we don't have any facts to support this. And he goes, but it sounds true, but it sounds true and that's what's important. So they shoved that thing in in order to smear the incoming President of the United States. He was staging a coup, an insurrection. He was staging this kind of treasonous behavior ahead of the arrival of the duly elected President of the United States. And now he's squirming. It couldn't happen to a better guy. After the event, he clearly heads off to the metro station nearby, the subway station in the D.C. area. And he's standing on the subway platform, the metro platform. And that's when he's confronted by an independent journalist by the name of Nicholas Ballassi. Balasee sees John Brennan and he goes, well, I've got some questions for him. Watch as John Brennan tries to stone face his way through the questions.
- [08:52]
Nicholas Ballasi
Look, are you concerned about a possible indictment coming from doj? What do you think about the situation now? Anything you could say, sir? Just want to clear the record, give you a chance to talk. But did you see the sealedac or not? That's pretty much the gist of, of the situation, right?
- [09:20]
Vince
Look at this. He's a child.
- [09:22]
Nicholas Ballasi
You have nothing to say, sir, about it?
- [09:25]
Vince
It's all on the record.
- [09:26]
Norah O'Donnell
All my memoir.
- [09:28]
Nicholas Ballasi
Will you be involved at all in testimony before the Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks?
- [09:35]
Rachel Bovard
Look at.
- [09:36]
Vince
Was he reading Twitter? Is that what he's reading coming months?
- [09:40]
Nicholas Ballasi
Could you just maybe tell us what you think about the direction of the intelligence community now under Trump?
- [09:50]
Vince
He doesn't want to say a word. He's just a child, just a tantrum throwing child. That guy was the head of the CIA. How disgusting is he, by the way? You know, if he had nothing to be defensive about, if he did his job correctly, then he would be as any of us would be. If you knew you were right, you'd be able to, in a very sober way, describe why you were right and to stand up for yourself and to not be defensive and to not be lashing out. That's not his behavior. His behavior is out of control right now. And that's because John Brennan knows that we've got him. I love that. I love it. And congrats to Nicholas Ballase for getting a chance. He corners him and says, hey, come on, answer some questions. Nicholas. Nick Being very polite with him. But these are just perfectly good questions. You gonna testify? You know, do you really stand by this deal dossier? You really believe all that nonsense? He doesn't want to answer the question and that's what we get. So anyway, some good video. Somebody in the chat asked me if we're going to have Thomas Speciali on the program, if we can have an interview with him. I love that you asked me that. I'm trying to do it right now. In fact, literally as I'm speaking to you, I just got a message that he may be available to join me on the radio show today. I'm working on that right now, ladies and gentlemen. So chances are I will have Thomas Speciale on the radio program today. Producer Jim Just a heads up, I think we have the guy. We should have him on today, perhaps in the third hour. So we're aiming for that. So, you know, for those of you listening on the podcast, you may want to check in on the radio show. We do that 12 to 3 Eastern time. You can get your local listings on the vinshow.com but I'm going to have Thomas stop by because the guy is a real deal intel community expert. He's been in for decades. He knows what he's talking about. And he got a great chance to confront John Brennan and he did it this weekend. And for that I'm very grateful. I know our country is too very, very good. So thank you for that. We're working on that very thing. The walls are closing in. Speaking of accountability, we've got some other news for you. President Trump just did the 60 Minutes interview with Norah O'. Donnell. Now, this interview, it's like it's unreal. But just the lengths that these idiots will go to try and start scandals for Trump where there are none. Here's the latest. Remember, James Comey, John Bolton and Letitia James are all being prosecuted right now. And why are they being prosecuted? Because the Justice Department has determined that they violated the law, brought the case to grand juries, and then the grand juries voted to bring indictments against them. That's how our system works. It was a grand jury process necessary. So the thing that they're being subjected to is being done in a very fair and constitutional and orderly way. Now, it's not stopping the left from casting aspersions. They're claiming that Donald Trump's doing something tyrannical here, that he's ordering hits on his political opponents. Take a look at this exchange. This comes to from the 60 Minutes interview where President Trump cut seven, is talking about those three people being prosecuted right now.
- [13:03]
President Donald Trump
Listen, James Comey, John Bolton, Letitia James were all recently indicted. There's a pattern to these names. They're all public figures who have publicly denounced you. Is it political retribution?
- [13:16]
Norah O'Donnell
You know who got indicted? The man you're looking at, I got indicted and I was innocent. And here I am because I was able to beat all of the nonsense that was thrown at me. And yet, when you go after a dirty cop like Comey or a guy like Bolton, who I hear has. I don't know anything about it, I hear he took records all over the place. Who knows? Letitia James is a terrible, dishonest person, in my opinion.
- [13:40]
President Donald Trump
Did you instruct the Department of Justice to go after him?
- [13:43]
Norah O'Donnell
No, not in any way, shape or form, no. You don't have to instruct them because they were so dirty, they were so crooked, they were so corrupt that the honest people we have. Pam Bondi's doing a very good job.
- [13:54]
Vince
Yeah. So here's the thing. President Trump pointing out, he's like, you wanna talk about unfair? You wanna talk about political targeting? What happened to me? How about you spend some time on that subject, Nora? What happened to me? And let me take you through the logic of the claims the left are making right now, insofar as any logic can be attached to it. Think about this. They're saying President Trump's Justice Department is not allowed to prosecute people who broke the law, who violated their oath of office, who weaponized the government against Donald Trump because they were targeting Trump. So because they chose to target Trump, and by extension, you, his voters, they're immunized from prosecution. Is that really the system that you think we have or you want us to have? Hell, no. There's no way. In fact, we voted for Trump in no small part because these people do deserve accountability for what they did. That's why we send Trump in office, so somebody could finally do something about this. President Trump is there. It's really simple. There's an old expression that the left like to use all the time when they thought that they had Donald Trump in their crosshairs and finished off. Remember the expression, nobody's above the law. Nobody. Nobody is above the law. Okay, well, that applies to James Comey, that applies to Letitia James, that applies to John Bolton, that applies to John Brennan, that applies to all of these people. And they are being credibly prosecuted for laws that they pretty obviously broke. In fact, in Letitia James case, not only does she have this issue with lying. In order to secure a favorable loan, she has to deal with that case. A court just revealed that Letitia James right now is fighting yet another Justice Department investigation. Here's the Daily Caller on that subject. Tish James is right now fighting another DOJ probe for, quote, selective enforcement against Trump's business and the NRA for that matter. According to unsealed documents just out from the court process, New York Attorney General Letitia James is fighting a federal criminal probe over selective enforcement in cases that she brought against President Trump and the National Rifle Association. These are court documents that just came out on Friday. Her effort to block subpoenas from the Justice Department, quote, touch on matters of national concern with implications that stretch well beyond this action. A judge called Lorna Scofield, an Obama appointee. She made these filings public Friday. Unsealing this action is not only permissible, but compelled. One simple fact drives this conclusion. The information at issue is not secret. Okay, so in other words, the Justice Department sent these subpoenas along in order to get information from Letitia James about her decision to prosecute Trump. I'll remind you, when she ran for office, she ran on destroying Donald Trump for what crime? But she didn't have one in mind. All she knew was she was gonna go with the Soviet tactic of show me the man, I'll show you the crime. They wanted to go after Trump and destroy him. Letitia James ran on this. She wins in New York State, she becomes the attorney general, and then she goes about trying to fulfill that corrupt mission, that unconstitutional mission. So now what do we have? Well, the Trump administration is demanding answers about that. The hell? You can't do this. You can't make up crimes to go after people. This is selective prosecution. And so Letitia James is being investigated right now by the Department of Justice for that. The reason we know that that judge just unsealed some of the information. So in case you're wondering, are they all over this woman? Yes, they are. And this is the latest expression of that fun President Trump continued in the 60 Minutes interview. We've got more information for you, including the president's crackdown on criminality in Washington, D.C. the nation's capital's way safer now than it used to be. And you can thank the president for that. The deployment of the National Guard. There's National Guard members all over D.C. right now. They're everywhere. I love it. I'm very happy to see D.C. so much safer. This comes up in his interview with Norah o' Donnell hold on for that. Because Nora attempts to spin this thing and then President Trump turns the tables on her to the point that the President says, you probably should remove this from the interview. I've got those details ahead. All ahead on this edition of events. I want to thank our sponsor, Bone Charge. The Bone Charge infrared sauna blanket and red light face mask are great products. I love them. Allison loves them, my wife. Ever since they sent them to us, we can't recommend them enough. I use that sauna blanket because it's great. I have a sauna at home with a sauna blanket. It helps with muscle recovery and detoxification. It's a total game changer. It's very easy to use. You just wrap yourself up, let that infrared heat work its magic. It's created a huge difference for me. Helps me relax, rejuvenate, feel great. It's great. My wife's got the red light face mask. Allison loves it because it does a bunch of things. It helps your skin's texture, it reduces inflammation. It's created fantastic results. It's like having a mini spot treatment right at home. She puts it on each night and she loves it. Loves it. If you're thinking of trying these products out, you're in luck. Head to bonecharge.com, use the code Vince at checkout, get 15% off. Both of these products have made a huge impact on us, and I'm sure you're gonna love them, too. 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- [19:47]
Nicholas Ballasi
Charge.
- [19:48]
Vince
Okay, so the 60 Minutes interview continued, and the President went the distance. I think they said he went, what, like 90 minutes? It's called 60 minutes. He went 90. Now, they, of course, did not include most of this on the actual television broadcast. They trimmed it down substantially. But the full interview has been posted online. So I went and took a look at this, and there's an exchange here between Norah O' Donnell and President Trump about how much safer Washington, D.C. is now because he intervened. Listen to the President here. I just want to, as I set this clip up for you, listen to the President. He will describe the DC as safer. Nora attempts to tell him it's not safer in every area. It's just in sections. She says. And how do you know that, Nora? Because I live in D.C. she says. Suddenly, she's an expert because she's a resident of the nation's capital. And so the President turns the tables on her and goes, okay, tell me how it is, then compare it and watch as she clams up. Watch this.
- [20:50]
Norah O'Donnell
When I look at DC now, you can walk down the middle of the street. You can have your daughter, who's 10 years old, meet you at the park. She's going to be okay.
- [20:59]
President Donald Trump
In certain parts of murder I live in Moshe.
- [21:02]
Norah O'Donnell
Well, certainly, you tell me, how big a difference is DC now compared to what it was a year ago, right? I mean, you have to be honest with me. People walk. People in the White House, they walk up to me. Young ladies I've never seen. Sir, thank you very much. I know they don't even have to tell me what they're thanking me for, but when I asked why, he said, one girl said, I'd get into Uber and I felt dangerous. Even in Uber, they'd attack the car. Okay? It wasn't even safe then, sir. I now walk to work every day. And I walk. I. I'm so safe. There's nothing going to happen. 100% safe. And you know that, too.
- [21:40]
President Donald Trump
Nora, I want to ask you about.
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Norah O'Donnell
You live here. You know that, too.
- [21:42]
President Donald Trump
I want to ask you about.
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Norah O'Donnell
Do you see a difference?
- [21:44]
President Donald Trump
American Cities in Washington, D.C. i think I've been working too hard. I haven't been out and about.
- [21:49]
Norah O'Donnell
Oh, that's not a fair answer. You see a difference?
- [21:52]
President Donald Trump
I get in my car and go to work, and I go home.
- [21:54]
Norah O'Donnell
You don't have to use that one. Don't worry. I don't want to embarrass.
- [21:56]
Brooke Rollins
I've been working too much.
- [21:57]
Norah O'Donnell
It's like, you know what the difference is?
- [21:59]
Vince
Like, day and night, you see the move she pulled? She started with, oh, no, no, it's not down. I know that because I live in D.C. i live in D.C. so I know I have some. Some special level of expertise by virtue of the fact that I live here. And so the President goes, okay, do the comparison for me. Then how has it changed? Let me know. You see her tap out instantly? No, you know, I've just been too busy, too consumed with work. I just have no idea. So which is it that you've noticed? The crime issue or you have no idea what's going on? Which one is it? Now? Of course, the actual answer is the latter one. She has no idea what's going on. And why is that? Because she's Nora o' Donnell of cbs. She gets driven to and from work by armed security. She hasn't looked up out of her car window in years. Her head is usually in her phone as she's being taken to and from her air conditioned, pampered workplace. She doesn't have to experience any of this. She lives in the nicest, safest portion of Washington, D.C. she's taken by armed security everywhere she goes. She doesn't even know what's happening in the city. That's the truth. But she started that exchange by trying to downplay Donald Trump's success. Good for the president for turning the tables on her. He just was like, fine, diagnose it for me. Tell me what happened. And then she tapped out. That's how easy it is, by the way. And that's why Republicans are getting better, because they take lessons and notes from President Trump in the way he handles this. And I get it. I see it in the chat. People think, why does he do these? Why does he even Bother doing the 60 Minutes interview after the Leslie Stahl nonsense, after the rigged 60 minutes presentation of Kamala Harris that he filed the lawsuit over? Why does he continue to do this? And I think the answer is pretty straightforward. President Trump just loves an adversarial media environment. It drives the conservative press crazy, by the way, because conservative media, the thought process is like, well, we love the President. We'll give you a fair interview. Come on, anytime. And he does, he does do plenty of conservative media interviews. And for that, I'm very grateful. We had one with him earlier this year. I love having President Trump on the show, but there's something about the fight that President Trump can't stay away from. He loves it. He loves it, and it'll drive his base crazy. People are like, don't do it, don't do it. He's like, no, no, no. I like the challenge. I want to go in there, I want to embarrass them, and I want to take another swing at convincing that audience that I'm on their side. And so he does it. He keeps doing it. So there you go. And he's not going to change. He's not going to change. I'm telling you. That's just the way the guy is. You know, he did put ABC on ice, though, for a little bit, remember? Because George Stephanopoulos treated J.D. vance like crap a couple weeks ago. And then an ABC reporter tried to ask a question at the White House. And Trump goes, no, you're from abc, not after the way you treated the vice President of the United States. No, you don't get a question. So we'll see. They go into timeout, but my guess is at some point they go back, even though they don't deserve it. George Stephanopoulos does not deserve another administration interview at all. Not after his awful behavior with the vice president. Totally disrespectful. Totally disrespectful. Okay, so let me see. There's also this. There's a great moment with the president talking about deportations. Nora o' Donnell tried to turn it into a sob story. She said, you know, it's so mean what you're doing. You're going around, you're grabbing people, and you're deporting them from the United States. Do you feel like it's gone a little too far? The president's answer Cut nine. Great answer. Watch this.
- [25:31]
President Donald Trump
More recently, Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago resident neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far?
- [25:45]
Norah O'Donnell
No, I think they haven't gone far enough because we've been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama.
- [25:54]
President Donald Trump
You're okay with those tactics?
- [25:56]
Norah O'Donnell
Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown out of their countries because they were, you know, criminals.
- [26:07]
Vince
I love it. Do you feel like you've gone too far? No, I don't think we've gone far enough. I don't think we've gone far enough. And by the way, that's a position that everybody who's working on the border and immigration mission inside the Trump administration agrees with. Stephen Miller, of course, considered one of the architects of the mission to clean up the country and eject foreign nationals, wants more deportations. Tom Holman is working on that right now. They're hiring 10,000 additional ICE agents as we speak because they want more deportations. These guys are serious about this mission. So do you feel like you've gone too far? Hell no, we haven't gone far enough. This mission is not over until it's over. And getting people out of the country is priority one. So that's the president answering that question. Great answer to Norah O'. Donnell. And then finally from the 60 Minutes interview, Norah O'. Donnell. It floated a conspiracy theory that the left has been bandying about about how President Trump intends to stick around for yet another term. As fun as that would be. Here is Norah O' Donnell floating the conspiracy theory cut 10. Watch.
- [27:16]
President Donald Trump
Can you set the record straight? You're not going to try and run for a third term?
- [27:20]
Norah O'Donnell
Well, I don't even think about it. I will tell you, a lot of people want me to run, but the difference between us and the Democrats is we really do have a strong bench. I don't want to use names because it's inappropriate, but it's too early.
- [27:32]
Vince
Three people do.
- [27:32]
President Donald Trump
Like when you start talking about whether you like J.D. vance or secondary.
- [27:35]
Norah O'Donnell
I do like J.D.
- [27:36]
Vince
Vance.
- [27:36]
Norah O'Donnell
I like Marco Rubio. I like, I like so many. We have an unbelievable bench.
- [27:42]
Vince
He also, he would go on in that interview to say that maybe these guys could get together. The names he does Keep referencing are J.D. vance and Marco Rubio. It seems, I mean, not to read the tea leaves too much, but, but why not? It's a fun game. We talk about it at home with the family and like, hey, you heard the president. He keeps talking about JD And Marco. It does seem like at this early stage, we still got some time left. Of course, in this, in this already great term, it does seem like President Trump at this moment would be excited to see those two men run together. And it would be hard for me to reject that as a ticket. That seems like a pretty good ticket as far as I'm concerned. So far, so good. But look, gentlemen, you want to convince us, keep putting wins up on the scoreboard. We're watching. We're watching. All right, hold on. I've got the great. Rachel Bovard is going to join us coming up in a moment from the Conservative Policy Institute. We've got a lot of discuss the. We've still got a shutdown going on. And Democrats, as far as I can tell, all they're doing is stepping on rakes with each passing day. We'll get the latest with, with Rachel Bovard. Hold on for that. Before we get there, though, I got to tell you about Brick House Nutrition and their incredible product, Lean. Lean. You know about this? Here's the thing. Lean is a great product because a lot of Americans do something called weight cycling. Weight cycling. Half of Americans, in fact, do this. If you do it enough, you're at risk of diabetes, liver damage, heart attack, stroke. Weight cycling is when you lose 10 or so pounds and then gain it back again. And this can lead to some serious health issues. The bottom line is simple. Most people need help to stop that cycle. And here's a great way to do it. Non prescription Lean by Brickhouse Nutrition. It's created by doctors. Lean is an oral supplement. It's not a GLP1 injectable. 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Whether you're into bold, dark roast flavored coffee or even instant, Blackout's got your back. Real coffee, no compromise. Blackout coffee.com Vince get yours now. Thank you To Blackout Coffee, wonderful sponsor of this program. All right, happy to say joining me now is the wonderful Rachel Bovard. She's the Vice President of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute. She spent over a decade on Capitol Hill on a ton of different capacities in the House and the Senate. She was legislative director for Senator Rand Paul she's served as the executive director of the Senate Steering Committee, which is chaired by Mike Lee. She's seen it all. She knows how it all works. Rachel, great to have you back on the program. Let me just. Because, of course, you're with the Conservative Partnership Institute. I just want to start with one of the reasons that your organization's in the news in the past week, which is that Jack Smith was spying on you guys, that you were one of the organizations that were subjected to this out of control spying on the conservative movement. What did you think when you found this out?
- [32:08]
Rachel Bovard
It's been a wild week because we didn't find any of this out until these whistleblower documents were released. You know, we were subjected to a number of subpoenas we did know about for Executive Level Communications, and like so many other organizations in the conservative movement, spent millions of dollars complying with these subpoenas. Because that was the point. Right? The point was the process is the punishment. But only now have we found out the extent to which we were targeted, not just by the FBI, but by who was apparently taking intel about our president at Corrigan, which, if you read some of the redacted emails released by Cash Patel, it's hilarious. Fever Dreaming by the FBI. A friend of mine calls it Weaponized Blue Anon because it's literally conspiracy theories that they just sent up the chain at the FBI, but they also secretly subpoenaed our bank records, they subpoenaed documents from our HR companies. Any communication we might have had with media, this, you know, to. To put a very fine point on it, you know, because there's so much going on in the news, and I know people are paying attention to so many different things, but Arctic Frost really represents the biggest and most meticulous and systematic effort to take out the political right in this country. And they would have succeeded had not Donald Trump won in 2024. That was literally the only thing that stopped them. Because two years of this, Jack Smith didn't find a crime, but he was prepared to harass us, bankrupt us, smear us out of existence.
- [33:33]
Vince
So one of the obvious reasons I come to the same conclusion you do is because your organization, its mission is in its name. The Conservative Partnership Institute you represent, your organization represents kind of a bridge on the right that you're kind of the arteries through which conservatives communicate with each other, various conservative organizations. And if Jack Smith, led by the Biden administration, is going after you, what they're really trying to do is disable the entire conservative movement.
- [34:01]
Rachel Bovard
Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's, you know, you read some of the things that they were. The FBI was saying about us. Oh, they're pro Putin, they're anti Biden. They have plans that are not good for the FBI guys. I spend 50% of my day teaching Senate staff how cloture works. Right. Like, I am not a threat. Except, as you point out, that we do. We're a networking hub for the movement. A ton of the conservative movement passes through our doors. We're an organization designed to help and support the movement succeed. And that was a threat. That was the threat. Nothing beyond that.
- [34:32]
Vince
Do you want to see Jack Smith prosecuted? Do you want to see anybody prosecuted here for this behavior?
- [34:37]
Rachel Bovard
I absolutely do. And, you know, to ensure this doesn't happen again, because someone asked me recently, well, what laws were broken? The entire system of laws was undermined. Right. This wasn't. This was a weaponized system of government. They used the authority of the federal government to try and eliminate their political opposition. The only way that you can ensure this never happens again is if the scale of the accountability matches the scale of what was done. So it shouldn't just be Jack Smith. It should be everyone that was that signed off and participated in this obvious political weaponization of the justice system. I'm talking about disbarments, impeachments, terminations, potentially jail if laws were broken. But things need to. This can't be a traditional Republican exercise where they have a press conference, get really angry, send a few letters, and then move on. This has to be driven to ground.
- [35:28]
Vince
You know, I will say, I mean, you're familiar with United States senators. They're notoriously cautious about the extent to which they finally do the things that voters want them to do. And so, for instance, this past week, you saw a number of Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz, calling for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg for signing off on all of these spy warrants against United States senators. And the reaction among certainly this audience, I think conservatives across the country is like, well, good. That's good that senators are on board. But why did it take you being spied upon to finally arrive at this conclusion like the rest of us have already been there?
- [36:08]
Rachel Bovard
Yeah. You know, like, I am fine with whatever motivation it takes these guys to get up and do something if it's, you know, fine. They were spied on and that's enough so we can finally do something. Okay. But, yes, like, it was much bigger than just, you know, spying on the phones of senators, which is such A breach of the separation of powers. That alone should constitute, you know, a complete examination of what went on. But it was far broader than that. I mean, you are talking about activists throughout the country. You're talking about network of organized groups. Any single person that materially supported the MAGA movement was targeted. And people don't have the resources and platforms of United States Senators. Right. These are innocent people who are engaging in their First Amendment rights, who are intimidated, shamed, bankrupted, smeared by their government. Right. This was done in their name. And that's just what's so outrageous about it. So, you know, to members of Congress, like, this is what your representative function is, is standing up for these people who can't stand up for themselves.
- [37:02]
Vince
And also, I mean, if you look at the details of why AT&T did not hand over Ted Cruz's phone records, they said he was protected by the speech and debate clause, which is true, he is. But that's a privilege reserved to senators and congressmen. That's not. If. If I'm an AT&T customer, I don't get that privilege. As a civilian, I don't get that privilege. So. So even members of Congress have special protections here. And again, it's just to. To kind of make your point. It's like, you know, if these guys can be targeted in this way, what chance do the rest of us have?
- [37:32]
Rachel Bovard
No, that's exactly right. So, gosh, I hope that this gets them off their butts, because I have this. This the size and scale of Arctic Frost. I think we are just going to continue to find out how bad it was. It's nothing like this. I've. I've never seen anything like it in.
- [37:47]
Vince
It's unreal. Okay, so Congress is also dealing with the government shutdown right now. Democrats are basically stubbornly continuing to keep the government shuttered for no good reason whatsoever. None of this makes any sense to me, Rachel, from a political standpoint, because they have not been the political beneficiaries of all of this. The American public are siding with the President. They are convinced by virtue of reality that it's Republicans who are looking to get the government back open with each passing day. Why are we, at this point, we've gone a full month now, just over a full month with the government shutdown. And Democrats are completely beholden to the most radical and unpopular elements of their party. How do you score it?
- [38:33]
Rachel Bovard
I have never. Again, going back to things I've really never seen before, I am actually really heartened by how unified Republicans have been in the face of this because they are just simply saying, no, we will not negotiate with you. This is a clean cr. We are not making any demands except that you keep the government open. And that kind of unity is usually not how we do things. Right. But Republicans are standing together on this. And I think you're seeing Democrats just crumble. They are so disorganized they cannot get behind a message and their allies are starting to turn on them. Right. You've seen the association of Federal Employees come out and say, guys, it's time to open the government. And even leading Democrats in the Senate were like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's. Well, they're our friends. This is something we now have to consider. You know, you're seeing airlines like Delta start to publicly pressure them. You know, it's, it's kind of, they don't have a choice. They're going to run up against continuing to not pay the troops, continuing welfare benefits, now shutting off. Right. There's a litigation right now about whether SNAP can continue to be funded. And this is at the feet of Democrats. So, you know, kudos to the gop. This, this kind of message unity is not typically something that we have been able to sustain, but they're doing it. And that's under the leadership of the.
- [39:45]
Vince
The President has not just suggested, but outright called for an end to the modern filibuster. The filibuster in the Senate right now is, as you well know, is done not in the traditional sort of you stand up and give a big speech for hours on end arguing your point. Nowadays it's just like a legislative maneuver and you have to move on. But the President's saying it's time to end, that we need to restore the filibuster to what it used to be, that if you want a filibuster something, you gotta stand up and speak. You can't just block all of the progress of the United States Senate right now. What do you make of the President's call for that? There are some Republicans who are concerned about this. They think that this is a bad idea because it would empower Democrats. But the reaction from the President is it doesn't matter. Democrats are gonna do it anyway, so we may as well do it now. How do you view it, Rachel?
- [40:31]
Rachel Bovard
Well, every, every president has low key wanted to nuke the filibuster. This is not new, but I would just say this. There are ways to overcome the filibuster in the United States Senate that don't involve changing the rules. And it is doing exactly what you just suggested there is nothing preventing Republicans from forcing Democrats to stand until they cannot stand any longer. And then you can put the vote at 51. Right. This idea that things can only pass the Senate by 60 votes, that's simply how you break a filibuster. The easy way. The easy way is to invoke cloture at 60 votes. The hard way is what you just suggested. Forcing Democrats to talk themselves silly. And the reason Republicans don't do it is because it's physically difficult. Right. All 51 Republicans have to be in the chamber and wait the Democrats out. That's, that's basically the extent of it. And it's. This is the used to be. Previous Senates in prior generations understood this. Trent Lott, a former majority leader has this great quote where he says there's actually only two rules in the Senate. Exhaustion and, and unanimous consent. And you only get to the second once you've gotten to the first. You have to physically exhaust them into submission. There is nothing preventing Senate Republicans from doing that.
- [41:40]
Vince
Yes.
- [41:41]
Rachel Bovard
Except for laziness. So they could still what the President wants to happen can happen without breaking the rules.
- [41:47]
Vince
The current 60 vote threshold and the non speaking filibuster is all. Is a very recent invention. It came about in the 1970s and people have operated as if this. Oh, it's been here since the founding of the country. No, it's like it's a very recent thing. And my sense of this, and Rachel, you've worked with the Senate so you'll know better than I will. My sense of this is that the dirty secret in Washington is that even senators in the majority kind of like it because it means they don't have to take difficult votes. That they don't have to be that attentive to what the voters are calling for because they have the convenient excuse of saying well it's been filibustered so I can't deal with it.
- [42:26]
Rachel Bovard
No, it is absolutely true. And we've seen that it abused, you know, it becomes a foil in that respect. Oh, I can't do it because we don't have 60 votes. Votes. But my point is the power has always existed to be able to grind the minority into submission.
- [42:40]
Vince
Yes.
- [42:40]
Rachel Bovard
To your point, the filibuster wasn't or the cloture wasn't actually in the senate rules until 1917 and it was at 67 votes. In the 70s it was reduced to 60 votes. But this is a modern invention. Senates previously overcame obstruction like this by forcing the minority to speak until they couldn't anymore. Nothing has changed. That still is the case. So, you know, you could tell the President, we don't actually don't have to change the rules. You just need 51 Senate Republicans to man up and stay in the chamber.
- [43:08]
Vince
So that's so really, it's that simple. So in other words, like the rules currently exist, so we could. We don't have to change a thing right now. And a simple majority vote would force Democrats to have to speak to defend the position they've taken.
- [43:19]
Rachel Bovard
There are only three things that can ever happen on the Senate floor. A quorum call, a speech, and a vote. And if voting and quorum calls aren't taking place, speeches have to happen or you can vote on the question. Right. That is what the essence of a filibuster is. It's a delay. It's speaking to delay the vote. Okay, so if you have a quorum present, if 51 Republicans are present in the chamber and no Democrat is speaking, you can put the question.
- [43:47]
Vince
So we could get the government open if 51 Republicans just show up on the Senate floor right now?
- [43:52]
Rachel Bovard
Yes, well, yes. And they have to wait out the Democrats. Right. It could take several days. If you were actually playing the scenario out, what I expect would happen is you'd attempt to put the question. Democrats would send their young guns in. Right. You'd see Cory Booker do a 24 hour speech and then you'd see, you know, Ed Markey or, you know, any of these other younger senators would come down and give long, long speeches. You would have to wait until these are done. But the age of this of Democratic senators is approximately the age of the Republican senators. They can't sustain it. So you have to wait them out. And as soon as they cannot speak any longer, you can put the question.
- [44:27]
Vince
Okay, somebody please clip this. Somebody please clip the exchange we're having right now because the President of the United States should be posting this to Truth Social. Because what this takes is just get Republicans to do their jobs, what we pay them a lot of money for. Show up on the floor of the Senate, get the government open, force the Democrats to have to speak. What am I missing here, Rachel? This does seem like the obvious path.
- [44:51]
Rachel Bovard
It does. But the modern Senate is not. 51 of them being in one place for days. Right. They all have fundraisers. They're all running for different things now. They're running for higher office. They have constituents they want to meet with. They have a million. They have family obligations. They do not want to have to sit on the floor for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is hard, right? I don't want to undersell it. It's hard, yeah.
- [45:11]
Vince
It's very tough. You know, it's like. It's way tougher than being, you know, a young enlisted person with a family who's not getting a paycheck for weeks on end, you know, or air traffic controllers or immigration guys, or the SNAP benefits that are going to people who deserve them, not the people who don't deserve them. So in other words, yeah. Okay. Get on the floor. Get to the floor. I'm so glad you're saying this, because I'm for restoring the Senate's filibuster rule to the pre1970 level. I think that's the way it should be done. But even so, if it just takes 51 Republicans right now to get to the floor and force Democrats to run their mouths, do it. Because then Democrats are gonna have to explain themselves to the American people on the microphone on C SPAN for hours on end until they exhaust themselves.
- [45:57]
Rachel Bovard
Yeah. No, the talking filibuster still exists. It just has to be forced. And we haven't seen a majority enforce it on a minority in a very, very long time, but they could do it.
- [46:09]
Vince
Okay, well, let's see. Let's get it done. I'm loving this. All right, Rachel Bovard, thank you, as always, for all of your wisdom. Appreciate you. And please stay in. And with any luck, you know, we'll see Jack Smith, prosecutor, and I'll bring you back when you. When that happens, too. Thank you very much.
- [46:24]
Rachel Bovard
I can't wait. Great to see events.
- [46:26]
Vince
Great to see you. There's the great Rachel Bovard. Isn't that fun? That's interesting. So, yeah, do it now. Get to the floor. Get to the floor. 51 Republicans. And I know it's like herding cats. You got like, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. There's, you know, there's some sidewinders in there, but just get them there. Just. What's the deal? Are you gonna whip the Republicans? Get them to show up and force this thing open? Let's do it. Let's do it now. We've got the opportunity. Let's do this thing. Let's talk about the food stamp thing. So, as you know, there are people who are really on the edge right now about whether or not they're gonna get the food assistance that they rely on to keep feeding their families right now. And there are definitely Americans who could use the support, who are hungry, who are poor. Who need the food stamps as a means to subsist. And those are people that we should be looking out for. We also have a program that is rife with fraud, that is overwhelmed by people who have been drawing on it forever, who are able bodied, who have just become completely dependent on government who settled into that position. We also have illegal aliens who've been drawing from that system. So it's a system that's in desperate need of reform. And for more on this, I wanna play a clip for you. This is about food stamps. As the United States Department of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, she said, we arrived on the scene this year and we discovered that there are thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens who've been taking money from food stamps. Take a look here. Cut five. Watch this.
- [48:06]
Brooke Rollins
There's been a lot of miscommunication out there on the program. But the first, this is one of the first things we did when I walked in the day, day one of USDA February 13th is we sent letters to every governor in America being very clear that no illegal aliens can use SNAP.000. We asked every state for the first time in history, and this was in February, to send us their data and let us with DOGE and a war room actually start going through this data to better understand how this explosion of SNAP benefits happened under Joe Biden. We increased almost 40% on this program in just a couple of years under the Biden administration. And since we have asked for that data, 29 states have complied. Complied of course, almost all the red states, couple of the, you know, a couple blue states too. But in that data, and I haven't talked about this yet publicly, in that data we have found, we studied about $100 billion dollars in spend. We have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card. We have been moving people off of snap. We've got almost 700,000 people. I think we've moved off just since the President took office. We've arrested about 118 people. So this has been ongoing.
- [49:25]
Vince
The Biden administration imported people into our country by the millions. By the millions. And when they did, they put everybody on public assistance. A lot of people, a lot of federal tax dollars flowing to people who should not be receiving that money. I want to remind you about the way people came into our country under Biden. They kicked open the borders and they said, go ahead, cross the Rio Grande, pour into the country, come across the border. And when people did, first and foremost, they illegally immigrated. They came across the border illegally. And then after they did, they would turn themselves into border patrol and they would claim a, quote, credible fear. They were coached into these claims despite the fact that they did not in any way qualify for asylum in the United States. They would begin the asylum process. And so the next step would be that they were paroled into the country. They were already in the country illegally, but they were given a parole status to be able to stay here while their asylum claim was adjudicated. Well, that filled up. That filled up the public dependency rolls. People started taking massive numbers of food stamps. And so what you're hearing Brooke Rollins describe is we found millions upon millions. Thousands upon thousands. Millions upon millions, you can safely conclude, of illegal aliens on food stamps. Biden did that. And so that needs to end. We've got. Look, we have a country of over 300 million people. As you probably well know, over 40 million people in the United States right now are on food stamps. Many of them are not citizens of the United States. 40 million people, that's greater than 10% of our entire country's population is on the food stamp rolls right now. So if there's one area of government spending that desperately needs to be fixed and right sized and preserved for people who are actually here, who live here, who are American citizens who need in desperate need of help, we need to fix that program for them. We had a court over the weekend indicate that the president needs to find ways to give money to this program right now. And the president even posted to Truth Social, he said that he is working hard to make sure that food stamp benefits can still go to Americans who need it. The president posted to Truth Social that his government lawyers right now don't think we have the legal authority to just pay snap, that is food stamps with certain monies that we have available. And we now have two courts who have issued conflicting opinions on this. He says, I don't want Americans to go hungry just because radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and reopen the government. The president says he's instructed his lawyers to ask the court to clarify how we can legally fund food stamps as quickly as possible. It's already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the government closed through the monthly payment date. And even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while states get the money out. He says it will be his honor. It will be my honor to provide the funding just like I did with military and law enforcement pay. So the president is pointing to the fact that there are definitely Americans out there who do need food stamps right now who could use the help who could use the food for their families. And he said that my job is to make sure that they get fed. And so he's looking at creative ways to fund the people who need this. So food stamps, he's trying to find funding. Military, he's been working to find funding. Law enforcement, he's been working to find funding. The president is trying to triage this situation to figure out a way to take care of the people who most desperately need it right now. And it doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. And I would, if I'm the White House right now. I'm taking Rachel's advice. You might think that everybody knows this. It's not the case. Not everybody knows these Senate rules down to the level that, say, Rachel Bovard does, including people within the White House who may not even be aware of what's available to them right now. That is a great piece of advice. Encourage these Senate Republicans to get 51 people on the floor and force these Democrats to have to ramble until they don't have anything else to ramble about until they're exhausted, and when they're done, that government gets reopened. Please do it. Please. By the way, I want to talk to Rachel about that some more. Does that mean we could get nominees through on that basis, too? Because that seems like a good tactic, doesn't it? We can get U.S. attorneys approved. We can get a bunch of people through without having to deal with all this garbage. Might be worth it. It might be worth it. Okay, so we have the food stamp stuff. Here's Scott Besant saying the President's working very hard to solve all of this right now. Here's. Do I have that, fellas? I wanna make sure. Yes, I do. Cut 11. Here's Scott Bessant, the Treasury Secretary. Watch.
- [54:22]
Scott Bessant
President Trump just truthed out that he needs to hear from the courts how this is gonna be done. And, Jake, as you know, the best of way for SNAP benefits to get paid is for Democrats, five Democrats to cross the aisle and reopen the government.
- [54:36]
Vince
Right? But there is this contingency fund, and as recently as September 30, the Agricultural Department had a memo saying that these funds, the contingency funds, I think it's about five or six billion dollars, could be used to pay these benefits. Now, it only be two or three weeks, but that's a lot for people who need the. Who need the food.
- [54:52]
Scott Bessant
Well, President. President Trump, just as I said, President Trump. Trump just truthed out that he's very anxious to get this done. And it's got to go through the courts. The courts keep jamming up things. Democrats are in the middle of a civil war and they should just open the government. That is the easiest way to do this.
- [55:08]
Vince
The easiest way to get people fed is for Democrats to stop prolonging human suffering for their own cruel advantage. Pretty straightforward from the Treasury Secret how great is Scott Besant been, by the way? Hasn't he been wonderful? He's been what a talented asset to have in that administration, the treasury secretary. He's been great. They could solve this right now. In fact, Scott Bessen revealed something this weekend that you may not have known. He said that the first year of the Trump administration has actually gone a long way towards reducing the deficit. They're spending way less money this year than Biden did in his final year in office. Take a look. Here's Scott Bess in Cut six explaining a little bit of fiscal responsibility on the way in the Trump administration.
- [55:54]
Scott Bessant
I believe that we are in a transition period here. As we are seeing the Trump administration has cut back on government spending. Jake, what has gone unnoticed during the shutdown is for the fiscal year that in September 30, the government spent less than it did the year before. And because the GDP, GDP grew, the GDP which had been 6.4, the deficit to GDP which had been 6.4, 6.5% deficit, the highest when we weren't at war, weren't in a recession ever, we were able to bring it down to 5.9%.
- [56:33]
Vince
How hard have they been fighting to cut spending? How hard has this administration been fighting to achieve that? It's been difficult. They've faced all sorts of headwinds. Congress refuses to help them. You know, you've got like things like rescissions where the president's been able to cut some spending, but he's getting a lot of pushback from Congress as he attempts to do that. They're trying to impound money. They're trying not to spend as much. They're firing people at the Department of Education. They've been firing federal workers during the shutdown until a judge, an Obama judge, dived in the way. They've been trying very hard to reduce the spending that this government does. And fortunately, we get that information that he's spending less than Biden did, which is not a shock. But it is good to hear. I hadn't heard an update on that, and there I have it from the treasury secretary. That's very cool. Let me end with something kind of wonderful. The Vice President of The United States, J.D. vance, is hilarious. He's a good American. And there have been memes that have been going around for some time of JD Vance with like curly hair and a big fat face, like kind of a. Like a chunky sort of hilarious, sort of bizarre looking version of J.D. vance. So it should come as no surprise to you that on Friday for Halloween, the Vice President chose to dress up as his own meme. Take a look. Happy Halloween, kids. And remember, say thank you. It's so funny. It's so good. It's so good. I was. I was laughing to myself this weekend. I had to show my wife. I was like, alison, come here, look at this. Look at the Vice President. Look what he's up to. He's really good. And, you know, with any Luck, the 48th president of the United States. There he is. You know who doesn't like that? The left. The left hates that. The left. They've already got JD Derangement syndrome. Is it jdds? Yeah. There he is. There's the meme. We put the meme on screen. I love that. It's not too far off. He's in better shape than his meme is. But that's. I think that's by design. Hey, I got a big national radio show coming up today. I believe we have. Let me verify. Yep, we've got confirmation. I will have Thomas Speciale on today, the Intel Community guy who confronted John Brennan. He's on the radio show today, so be sure to tune in for that. We'll have him in the third hour today. And I'm always grateful to have you. You're the best audience anywhere. God bless you. Great to have you with us today. I'm back with you tomorrow.