Trump's Finest Moment (Ep. 2460)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dan Bongino Show – "Trump’s Finest Moment" (Ep. 2460)

Release Date: February 25, 2026
Host: Dan Bongino (with Vince Colon Ace and Hayley Caranilla)
Guest: Congressman Eli Crane (AZ-02)
Main Theme: Dissecting Trump’s State of the Union (“banger of a speech”), the importance of political optics and contrast, the Democrats’ response, sound bites and snapshots in politics, national security, and an interview with Rep. Eli Crane.

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Overview of the Episode

This episode centers on the analysis of President Trump’s latest State of the Union address, which Dan Bongino proclaims as perhaps Trump’s “finest moment” and strongest speech to date. Bongino argues that not just Trump’s rhetoric, but the optics and the Democrats’ lackluster, even disastrous, reaction constituted a major win for the Republican side. The episode explores the mechanisms of political communication, the pivotal role of contrast (“sound bites and snapshots”), the self-defeat of Democratic messaging during the event, and segues into an in-depth interview with Congressman Eli Crane on national security, threats from drone technology, and child protection online. The show is fast-paced, unapologetically partisan, and woven with anecdotes, rants, and multimedia clips.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dan’s Initial Framing & Partisan Disclosure

• Bongino opens up about his own partisanship, distinguishing himself from “liberal opinion people who pretend to be journalists.”
  • Quote: “I'm obviously a Trump supporter and a MAGA guy...I'm not full of shit like you guys.” (00:02)
• He emphasizes that, despite his bias, he intends to provide “receipts” for his opinions.
  • Quote: “I want to produce receipts that I think the opinion I have that this was his best one, his best speech, one of his finest moments...I think you know I'm right because you can always gauge the success of a political tactic…by your opponent's reaction.” (01:48)

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2. Sound Bites and Snapshots: Political Success Metrics

• Politics is about surface-level imagery and memorable moments, not policy whitepapers.
  • Quote: “Politics is sound bites and snapshots. That's all it is. No it's not. It's white papers, detailed policy… I wish it were.” (05:09)
• Most Americans, Bongino says, judge politics by these optics due to time constraints.
• The Democrat response—their unwillingness to stand on “applause lines” (e.g., for American troops, victims’ families, certain policy stances)—created negative optics.
  • Quote: “The sound bites from last night from President Trump were off the charts... The snapshots were even worse. The pictures, they look like they were going to fall asleep.” (06:16)

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3. Democratic Reaction & “The Trap”

• The show details how Democrats “failed the open book test,” sitting instead of standing for non-partisan applause lines.
  • Quote: “He set this easy trap...It wasn't even complicated...But President Trump knows that the Democrat TDS show your ass problem…” (23:28)
• Trump’s applause line: “Stand up if you support basically the integrity of children's bodies, Democrats like, nah, we'll sit on our asses…” (24:49)
  • [25:00] Clip: “No state can be allowed to rip children from their parents arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents will.”
• Bongino describes it as Democrats walking into a bear trap, hurting themselves politically.

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4. Notable and Memorable Moments

• The Erika Kirk moment: Both Trump and Bongino acknowledge the gravity of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and Erika’s attendance.
  • Quote: “Woman lost her husband. He was shot in the neck for the entire world to see... Oh, shut your pie hole, man.” (36:25)
• Contrast with Biden: Bongino plays a clip of Biden’s previous SOTU, mocking his delivery as “Spaghetti Brains Biden,” (56:39) highlighting the rhetorical contrast.
• Democratic alternative events: Bongino lampoons counter-rallies for being sparsely attended and bizarre, including people in frog costumes and “State of the People” events going awry. (19:33–20:46)

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5. Media and Voter Reactions

• Clips of Democrat strategists and even CNN panelists recognize the effectiveness and showmanship of Trump’s speech. Axelrod and John Karl are both cited as begrudgingly praising the address.
  • Axelrod: “...He used the gallery very skillfully to kind of simulate empathy, which is a thing that he's been lacking...” (49:10)
  • John Karl: “Had the makings of a, you know, they had real high moments of patriotism. Great stories he told. He gave out two Congressional Medals of Honor...” (52:40)
• A Michigan voter expresses shock that Democrats did not stand for protecting citizens over illegal aliens:
  • “...it may have gotten a little muddled… but I think his point is valid. Everybody in that room represents the citizens in this country. And are you doing your job?” (54:43)

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6. The State of the Democratic Party (“Clown Car”)

• Assembly of Democratic candidates for the next cycle is described as a mess:
  • CNN Pollster: “This is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side...Gavin Newsom at 19%. Then you have former Vice President Kamala Harris at 18%...” (59:43)
• In contrast, Trump enjoys 90+% support (“not chaos”) among Republicans.

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7. Interview: Congressman Eli Crane

Timestamps: [82:19–104:54]

Highlighted Topics:

• Drone Threat:
  • Crane, a former Navy SEAL, echoes Bongino’s urgency about the evolving drone threat to homeland security.
  • Quote: “I saw what was going on as warfare was advancing overseas, primarily in Ukraine, with the drones. The battlefield has changed forever, and I knew that was going to come to the states.” (83:15)
• State of the Union Analysis:
  • Agrees Democrats “looked crazy” and were expertly exposed by Trump’s strategy.
  • Quote: “Nobody exposes them like President Trump, and that's exactly what he did last night.” (89:03)
• Voter ID and the Save Act:
  • Crane supports abolishing the filibuster if necessary to push voter ID and electoral integrity.
  • Quote: “If you don’t beat them to the punch, you are a complete fool.” (94:22)
• Online Child Protection (Threat 764):
  • Crane commits to work on stronger laws to fight online grooming and the 764 threat.
  • Quote: “I will commit to work with you on this to try and get and beat that drum so that we can make sure our kids are safe.” (97:40)
• Potential Iran Conflict:
  • Caution about military engagement, advocating diplomacy first, and the importance of post-regime change planning.
  • Quote: “If we do use action against Iran, you know, I want to, I hope it's as surgical as possible...” (100:30)
  • Bongino praises Crane’s service and perspective.

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Timestamped Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Optics & Democratic Reaction:
  • “The sound bites from last night from President Trump were off the charts. The snapshots were even worse. The pictures, they look like they were going to fall asleep...” —Dan, (06:16)
• On Political Traps:
  • “He freaking dog walked them last night into a trap. And I mean like a bear trap 20 ft away, painted black on all white snow with a sign that says this will hurt if you step in it.” (24:22)
• On Applause Lines:
  • “Stand up if it's your duty to protect American citizens, just like you swore in your oath...And these idiots walked right in it again.” (31:43)
• On Democratic Reaction to Medal Ceremonies:
  • “She starts making fun of these military medals. You know, it's like Oprah. You get a medal, you get a medal...” —Vince, (45:48)
• On “Racism” Accusations:
  • “There’s thinly veiled racist language, anti immigrant language in what he was asking. And that was, that was uncomfortable.” —Rep. Janelle Bynum, (47:43)
• On the “Clown Car” Democratic Primary:
  • “This is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side.” (59:43)

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Politics and Media Lessons

• Contrast as Political Weapon: Trump’s team “masters the attention economy” by engineering situations where Democrats’ reactions look bad “in snapshots and sound bites.”
• Commanding Attention: Described as “the greatest superpower in the world,” surpassing all policy or organizational skills. (67:32–68:52)
• Messaging: Biden and Democratic leaders are mocked for disjointed messaging, while Trump’s narrative structure and story-based communication are lauded.

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Congressman Eli Crane Interview: Highlights

• Drone and Homeland Security Threats: The urgency of domestic drone interference and the need for Congressional awareness and action.
• Child Protection (764 Threat): Commitment to bipartisan laws targeting online predators.
• Electoral Integrity: Open support for Voter ID and offensive legislative tactics.
• War and Diplomacy: Advocates exhausting non-military options with Iran; warns of dangers in regime change and highlights need for heavy scrutiny and wisdom in national security decisions.

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Final Thoughts & Audience Engagement

• Bongino repeatedly thanks his loyal audience for their support.
• He stresses to viewers that a story told effectively, combined with good optics, wins modern political battles—emphasizing mastery of new media and attention-holding strategies.
• Encourages family focus, referencing a viral child development video about the dangers of distracted parenting. (65:14–66:36)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Partisan Framing/Opener: 00:02–01:48
• Politics as Sound Bites & Snapshots: 05:09–06:16
• Democratic Reaction/Traps: 22:30–29:43
• Media & Voter Reactions: 48:52–54:43
• Democratic “Clown Car” Segment: 59:43–62:44
• Congressman Eli Crane Interview: 82:19–104:54

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This summary omits all advertisements and sponsor plugs for clarity and focus on primary content.

Transcript

[Dan Bongino]

All America, all the time. Sit down, buckle up and get ready for the Dan Bongino show. Okay, man, listen. No, no, I, I, I think, you know, like I'm obviously a Trump supporter and a MAGA guy, so it's going to be, going to be, it's always hard for me to be completely objective about a speech and unlike other liberal opinion people who pretend to be journalists and objective, I'm not full of shit like you guys.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I'm already telling you I've got a

[Dan Bongino]

certain partizan bias when it comes to political analysis that is a little bit

[Vince Colon Ace]

hard to shake, throwing all of that out.

[Dan Bongino]

I promise you I'm doing my best to take a down the middle approach to this. You just can't deny last night was a banger of a speech.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Is it going to change the course

[Dan Bongino]

of American politics forever?

[Vince Colon Ace]

No, these things tend to be very temporary, even little bumps because the news cycle is like two minutes long now. But I would rather be on Trump's side last night than his opponents. Correct. I think all of you in the

[Dan Bongino]

audience are nodding your head yes. That's absolutely correct. Come on.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I was reading the chat earlier.

[Dan Bongino]

I was in there earlier talking to some folks. What am I? Dan Bongino show. D. Bongino show in the chat. I don't even know my own handle there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I was in there earlier, Chad, and I was listening to you all or

[Dan Bongino]

reading your, your posts in there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You know, it was a banger I saw.

[Dan Bongino]

Last night was epic. Last night was probably his best State of the Union address and it's easy for me to say that, but I

[Vince Colon Ace]

want to produce receipts, facts to show

[Dan Bongino]

I can't prove it to you. It's an opinion. It was the best. You can have another opinion. Hey, I don't think it was the best. Well, whatever.

[Vince Colon Ace]

But I want to produce some receipts

[Dan Bongino]

that I think the opinion I have that this was his best one, his best speech, one of his finest moments. Produce some receipts that I'm right. And I think you know I'm right

[Vince Colon Ace]

because you can always gauge the success

[Dan Bongino]

of a political tactic in a partisan battle, which every speech is. It's a battle of ideas. By what? By what? Who remembers the P1s in the Bongino army?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Your opponent's reaction. Your opponent's reaction. Watch what they do and then do

[Dan Bongino]

the compare and contrast. The diamond on the black background. The diamond always looks like it has a little more luster on a really dark background. Why? It's the same freaking diamond. It's the contrast the brain sees it different. The brain saw the same speech different because of the Democrats reaction last night. That's how we're going to analyze it today. Ms. A second of today's show is going to be a banger. Congressman Eli Crane coming up in about an hour and a half. So don't miss that. Really good guy out of Arizona too.

[Vince Colon Ace]

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[Dan Bongino]

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[Vince Colon Ace]

You don't got to go knocking on a pharmacy window.

[Dan Bongino]

Let me in. In an emergency, you have it in your own house. How do you get these great medications? Go to allfamilypharmacy.com bongino learn more about them. Use code BONGINO10B O N G I N O 10 to save 10% in your next order. Prescription provided. Thank you All Family Pharmacy and our next sponsor, Chapter. I've been on the inside. I've seen some of these broken government programs are horrendous and there's not much more in the government broken than Medicare. It is a mess, folks. It is a really broken system. People rely on this. Most people think they're getting accurate information. Some Medicare agents might push Medicare Advantage plans because that's where the commissions are, not because they're actually best for you. That's why I'm telling you about chapter. Chapter like chapter in a book. Chapter doesn't work for big insurance and they don't take marching orders from Washington. They're independent and they can help walk you through every option. Original Medicare Supplement Advantage Part D. And they'll tell you exactly what you gain, what you give up and what it really costs. One woman, Jill, said her chapter advisor showed her options she didn't even see on Medicare's own website that doesn't that sound like a broken system to you? If you want more clarity, here's what to do. Dial £250 on your phone and say Medicare Help. The average senior who connects with chapter saves about $1,100 a year just by getting honest advice. So if you're on Medicare or getting close, don't guess. Use chapter. Dial pound 250 and say Medicare help. That's pound 250 and say Medicare Help. Thank you, chapter. Fellas, Big loaded show today. A ton to talk about. I'm going to get to the State of the Union in a second. I just want to bounce around a little bit. I'm doing it for a reason because I want to address yesterday's show too. First, regarding the state of the union folks keep this in your head as I talk through the show today. Politics is always a couple of very simple things. If you don't understand this, don't get into politics. Don't. Politics is sound bites and snapshots. That's all it is. No it's not. It's white papers, detailed policy analysis. I wish it were. You were an extremely informed audience. You are.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I'm not kissing your ass for any other reason. I'm just telling you the truth. You guys listen.

[Dan Bongino]

Every day the Bongino army tunes in. We got 41,000 people only what five minutes into the show.

[Vince Colon Ace]

41,000 people at 10am in the morning are watching this show right now.

[Dan Bongino]

Why?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Because you want to be informed about politics. It's not a freakin show about air hockey. You guys and ladies know more than most people about politics.

[Dan Bongino]

A lot of folks are not like that. It's not a knock, it's not an insult. Some folks have, you know some of

[Vince Colon Ace]

their jobs are particularly intense.

[Dan Bongino]

They're going through a stressful time in their life.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They just don't have time to go

[Dan Bongino]

through every single detailed policy analyst and I'll analyze every single policy in detail

[Vince Colon Ace]

so what they see, listen P ones

[Dan Bongino]

you know this Bongino army folks, what they see and perceive as quote politics are just pictures and short sound clips. What we call on this show sound bites and snapshots. A large group of American citizens only get their politics through that because they

[Vince Colon Ace]

just don't have the time. They're doing other things. It's not a knock, it's just a fact.

[Dan Bongino]

There's an opportunity cost to time. The sound bites from last night from President Trump were off the charts. Off the charts.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Hey you guys want to stand if you like Support America.

[Dan Bongino]

Democrats like nah, fuck it, I'm not going to stand.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The snapshots were even worse. The pictures, they look like they were going to fall asleep. I think I saw Swazi.

[Dan Bongino]

The congressman up from New York from Long island or Long island is Sean Farris said it the right way yesterday

[Vince Colon Ace]

Long Island Swazi looked like he was going to fall asleep

[Dan Bongino]

folks, sound bites and snapshots measure your opponent's reaction and the diamond will seem like it's even more lustrous. Even though it's the same diamond. The Democrats reaction was an absolute atrocity. They are usually better at this.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The contrast of Trump's speech if it was to an empty room with Democrats

[Dan Bongino]

screaming Al Green with that stupid sign

[Vince Colon Ace]

f ice pins on the contrast made the speech seem that much better. Always Gauge your success by your opponent's reaction.

[Dan Bongino]

And then when you've got Democrats, I'll get to this in a little bit.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Screaming, that speech was definitely racist. Now you know you won because they don't have anything else. That's their go to line everywhere. I want you to watch this video

[Dan Bongino]

hat tip Daily Wire for this, by the way, before I get into. I'm going to bounce around a little bit for a reason because there's some really important stuff to address yesterday's show, too. However, I want you to again, measure it by your opponent's reaction.

[Vince Colon Ace]

But how could you react to a

[Dan Bongino]

speech that hasn't even happened yet? This is the modern Democrat and this is why I love having an informed audience like you and not like these kids. Check this out.

[Hayley Caranilla]

Kids are telling us Trump's State of the Union didn't go so well. The only problem, it's tomorrow. Rate Trump State of the Union speech one out of ten. One's the worst. Ten's the best. Negatives and why? I think we all know a lot of reasons. What about the State of the Union last night? One to ten?

[Audience Member / Caller]

It was like a one or two.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

I mean, it was all over the place.

[Hayley Caranilla]

Probably just giving a zero. Gonna give it a one. And why do you say one? I just. I don't think he's very articulate. How did Trump do at the State of the Union?

[Dan Bongino]

Zero. I'm gonna be real.

[Audience Member / Caller]

I didn't watch it. Like.

[Hayley Caranilla]

Yeah, yeah, I didn't really watch it much. I watched it for a little bit. But the State of the Union last night, how. How was that? One to ten? No, it was all tonight. That was tomorrow.

[Vince Colon Ace]

No, you're good.

[Dan Bongino]

You passed the test.

[Audience Member / Caller]

Good job.

[Dan Bongino]

My hope in humankind is saved. At least one person hat tipped to that young lady knew that the speech hadn't happened yet. You are an informed audience. You are. Be proud of that, folks. A lot of people are not. They'll gauge a speech that hasn't even happened yet. I'm gonna get back to it in a second, but I wanted to address something. Thank you for all of the. And you know who you are. For whether it was direct messages, emails, texts, yesterday was an important show. You know, I was. Of course, it's part of the business, folks. Just a fact. Not a big deal. But of course, there were some pretty disgusting, gross attacks lobbed at me from a bunch of, you know, drunks and bums and losers and, you know, whatever, man. It's part of the business, you know, it's never A pleasurable experience. But listen, I feel like I was born to do this and it's part of the job. It really is an unfortunate part, but it is. But I brought it up yesterday because, folks, the security environment in this country is deteriorating so badly and people like President Trump are in real, real danger because of hysterical language and other things. Like he had some lunatic on the web yesterday. Same guy who's had people show up at my house. Again, I don't talk about this stuff too much because I don't want to incentivize more of it. But I'm genuinely concerned, having been a threat analyst on the Secret Service side and Protective Intelligence Squad, that something bad is going to happen. It's only a matter of time, folks.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You can have the greatest Secret service

[Dan Bongino]

in the world or protective enterprise surrounding you.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The bottom line is you're always in reactive mode.

[Dan Bongino]

I want you to remember this. When the IRA almost got Margaret Thatcher in that hotel bombing, they said you guys have to be lucky every day. We just have to be lucky. Once the odds are not in our

[Vince Colon Ace]

favor, we can't be out there, whether

[Dan Bongino]

it's about Erica Kirk or someone else

[Vince Colon Ace]

just spinning up insane, crazy theories that

[Dan Bongino]

she had her husband killed and, you know, Donald Trump is Satan incarnate and the son of Hitler.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You can't, you just can't engage with

[Dan Bongino]

that without incentivizing insanity. I'll tell you what I mean in a second. I want to play this clip first.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Here's President Trump. Listen, he, you know, President Trump, he does not get hysterical about this stuff.

[Dan Bongino]

Cuz I think he understands the more he talks about it, the worse it gets.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And President Trump, I talked to him

[Dan Bongino]

after he was shot in Butler at the rnc. I talked to him. I hate that. I'm not, you know, on the I know people stuff. Whatever.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The point is, he was very, kind of very sedate about it. I think he tries, he was calming himself down almost. He's very careful when he mentions this stuff. But I don't know if you guys

[Dan Bongino]

caught this yesterday, this sound bite, but this is important. This is clearly on his mind and it should be given this threat environment check.

[Audience Member / Caller]

I don't know how long I'll be around. Got a lot of people gunning for me, don't I? But I will not forget them. I'm never going to forget them now.

[Dan Bongino]

I pulled that clip from if you saw the bug up in the corner. Not the bug, it's a TV term, rt, Russian television. I pulled it there for a reason.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is Playing overseas, too, folks.

[Dan Bongino]

You don't think there are foreign actors as well that would love to incentivize some lunatic to do something crazy in this country?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Listen to me again, whether you love the show, hate the show, love me, hate me, fine. Fair enough. You don't have to be here. I've got a loyal army of people.

[Dan Bongino]

We're not going anywhere. No matter how many insults you lob or dumb shit you say or morons

[Vince Colon Ace]

show up, it doesn't make a difference.

[Dan Bongino]

We're not going anywhere ever.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Okay, we'll leave. When?

[Dan Bongino]

When I'm ready to go. That's it. But you can't question what I've done and the experience I have. I've been out there. And when you're getting protective intelligence cases, whether it was in the Obama or Clinton or Bush era where I worked as an agent, and you're out interviewing

[Vince Colon Ace]

people, here's the problem.

[Dan Bongino]

Some of these people saying, you know, Erica was involved in, or implying that she was involved in the death of her husband, or implying that President Trump again is Hitler or a Nazi who's gonna kill the second coming of the

[Vince Colon Ace]

Holocaust, all these people. I know what you're thinking.

[Dan Bongino]

If you've never done threat analysis, you're probably thinking, oh, you know, whatever, I can get some clicks off this. And you probably think, oh, this is just fun for me. I can make some money.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Well, you don't understand is there are a group of sociopaths out there, insane people. I've interviewed hundreds of them, hundreds of them who will say straight to your face, like, oh, no, no, that threat

[Dan Bongino]

I sent to President Bush, President Clinton, President Obama, no big deals, just blowing off some steam.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And then an hour later, you know, you'll catch them sharpening their knives to show up at an event to try

[Dan Bongino]

to stab the guy in the neck.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You have to get really good at seeing through this when you're talking like that. There's a group of lunatics out there who don't see this the same way a sane person does. They think it's space aliens beaming a message into their brain. You know, don't laugh at this tinfoil cap thing. We've actually found them where people believe if they insulate their brains against brain waves, that their. Their brain doesn't act like a Norma person's functioning cerebral cortex.

[Dan Bongino]

Folks, my experience scared the hell out of me. Unfortunately, we've been on the receiving end of a lot of this crap. This stuff has a penalty and a consequence. And I'm sorry, I'm not going to let it happen. You want to incentivize this crazy, wackadoodle bullshit behavior, then you better damn well understand there's a consequence for it. The consequences. You're going to have that stuff on your hands if this escalates, and we all hope and pray it doesn't, there is no pathway for political violence in any country without collapsing the entire place in the anarchy. None, zero. And we have consistently and proudly and vigorously stated that for the 10 years I've been on the air doing this show. Okay, getting back to the State of the Union, I wanted to address that. And again, thank you all for the messages yesterday. I appreciate it. Despite the lunatics and the. The drunks and the bums, the State of the Union last night.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Snapshots and sound bites always measure the success of a speech, a political event,

[Dan Bongino]

whatever it is, by your opponent's reaction. The contrast set up one of the things you never want to do in politics ever. Listen, I ran. It was not successful. Almost won horseshoes and hand greens. There's no almost. I'm very proud of that. I ran on principles in a bunch of Democrat districts. And you know, listen, you learn a lot. I wrote a whole book about sometimes you come up short, you dust off, but you learn more sometimes from where you came up short than you do the big W's. And one of the things I learned is you really, really have to never ask a question in politics. You're not sure about the answer. And you should never hold a rally if you're unsure what's going to happen ever.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You know what guy?

[Dan Bongino]

Can you put up political playbook first? I'm going a little out of order, but this is important, folks. Listen to me, if you're ever thinking about running for office. I've been to political events for others. This one guy was running for governor in Maryland one time.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He's like, blow out fundraiser. I was like, yeah, I'll go, I'll

[Dan Bongino]

help support this guy. There were like two people there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And when there's two people there, you

[Dan Bongino]

can't just leave this up a second.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You can't just leave because the two people still paid for the event.

[Dan Bongino]

This poor guy felt terrible for him. Playbook. What Trump got right and wrong last night.

[Vince Colon Ace]

So they had this big, huge.

[Dan Bongino]

They wanted like a no Kings rally protesting the State of the Union last night.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Never ask a question you don't know the answer to. They note that a few hundred people

[Dan Bongino]

brave the cold to gather for the people's State of the Union.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Joining three dozen tools.

[Dan Bongino]

I Mean Democrat members of Congress who boycotted the Trump address. But the new Kings Day protest, this was not, they know, was clear to

[Vince Colon Ace]

just about everyone in the shivering crowd

[Dan Bongino]

that the turnout left something to be desired.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They talked to this lady.

[Dan Bongino]

She says, I thought there would be more people. Don't ask a question you don't know the answer to. This happens to everyone across the aisle. Everyone has a fundraiser.

[Vince Colon Ace]

That's a dog.

[Dan Bongino]

Has a. I was at a political rally once up on Capitol Hill. They asked me to show up. I was some like, I don't know, Tea Party type event against the IRS. There were probably 10 people there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It happens. It never looks good. Don't ask questions you don't know the

[Dan Bongino]

answer to and don't hold a counter rally that's going to create a contrast. Sound bite snapshots. Sound bite snapshot.

[Vince Colon Ace]

That's all politics is for a good chunk of people who vote.

[Dan Bongino]

That's the sound bite snapshot. You want playbook?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Yeah. I thought there'd be more people here.

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah, so did you. So did you when you thought to be.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I thought there was this rage against Donald Trump and all these people going to show for the people's State of the Union. I guarantee you there weren't even hundreds of people.

[Dan Bongino]

There are probably tens of people. Here's the other picture they put out there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Here's their people.

[Dan Bongino]

State of the Union rally. Here's Senator Chris Murphy gets up on stage boycotting.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Don't ask questions you don't know the answer to.

[Dan Bongino]

And I guess, listen, I don't recommend. Again, security stuff is important. Whatever. However, this is not the sound bite and snapshot you want at your people's State of the Union.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He's giving some stupid speech and a guy jumps up on the stage. He's like, yeah, man, you guys basically suck. This is the sound bite and snapshot they get.

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out. Is the reason that she came here to the United States to speak truth

[CNN Panelist]

to power, to explain the trials and tribulations that every immigrant, that every refugee

[Dan Bongino]

goes through to get here and to press this country.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I stuck in the border. Go Trump. Go Trump. Hey, Murphy.

[CNN Panelist]

Thanks, man.

[Dan Bongino]

Thanks, buddy.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Sound bites and snapshots, kids. There it is.

[Dan Bongino]

Don't ask questions you don't have the answer to. That was the people. State of the Union with tens of people at it. Tens, not hundreds, tens.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Here was their other rally they had

[Dan Bongino]

last night in defiance of the State of the Union. Uh, I don't even know how to explain what this is.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They have a bunch of people in frog costumes on a stage. Folks, I don't.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It's a talk show.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm at a loss for words.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It happens sometimes. I'm just going to display the visuals on this and you can process the inputs and form your own output. Is this really the answer you wanted to your question last night about Trump's State of the Union?

[Dan Bongino]

Are you sure about that? Check this out.

[Hayley Caranilla]

I'm a mother, I am a physician and I have a flag. And I am the proud representative for organs 3rd congressional district. Yes, thank you. Thank you. And tonight I defy Trump and his authoritarian project by standing in joyful, radical, peaceful resistance with the Portland Frog Brigade.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Folks, I gotta tell you, I don't

[Dan Bongino]

even know like what they were, what that was about or what they were thinking.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I just put it up.

[Dan Bongino]

I saw it on Chaya's account, libs at TikTok, because I thought it was just hilarious.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Listen to Dan on this one, please.

[Dan Bongino]

Talking to myself in third person. Bob Dawson, listen to me. Everyone's going to give you analysis today about the highlights and I'm going to get to that too.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Trump knocked it out of the park.

[Dan Bongino]

I say that as objectively as possible was a great speech,

[Vince Colon Ace]

but if I don't give you a deeper analysis, you're

[Dan Bongino]

just going to hear the same thing

[Vince Colon Ace]

over and over again. I want you to view it through this lens. The purpose of this show is a little bit different today. The Democrat reaction is as important as the Trump speech because it makes the

[Dan Bongino]

parallel lines appear that they're leaning in towards each other.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It makes the same speech seem that

[Dan Bongino]

much better when you contrast it with

[Vince Colon Ace]

the Democrats absolute face plan.

[Dan Bongino]

Look at some of these pictures from last night's speech. But that was. It's from Tyler.

[Vince Colon Ace]

We're talking about this array of photos. Remember, this is the imagery that people are going to see. Not everyone stayed up last night like we did to watch the whole speech.

[Dan Bongino]

This is Tyler Bauer.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Here's some of them.

[Dan Bongino]

I think that's swazi. Look at it. Here's the Democrat congressman from Long Island.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I don't know what he's doing right there.

[Dan Bongino]

He's got his face like you're not interested. It's the state of the Union. It's not the state of the Republican Union, it's the State of the Union. There's Suozzi. There's Ilhan Omar screaming next to Rashida Tlaib. There's Liz Warren. It looks like she's in the process of. Maybe she's been there too long. Needed a bathroom. I don't know, next to coons. This lady looks totally uninterested in what the hell's going on in this.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I mean, these are the snapshots you want. Don't ask questions you don't know the answer to, folks. I'll address this with Congressman Crane coming up later. But this was an open book test. The State of the Union is the

[Dan Bongino]

same thing every year, okay?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Republicans don't like it when Joe Biden

[Dan Bongino]

was up there and Barack Obama. Democrats don't like it when it was Trump or Bush.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You just go, you go. They say God bless America, you clap. It's an open book test. Do you understand how hard it is to F up the State of the Union? You don't have to get up for everything. Republicans don't do it either. But if freaking Obama or Biden gives

[Dan Bongino]

some applause line like, you know, we

[Vince Colon Ace]

love our troops or whatever, you get up, you clap. Because it's just the right thing to do. Nobody is going to remember you getting up and clapping for the troops because it's the right thing to do. It happens all the time. However, they will remember you sitting on your Twinkie eating ass and doing absolutely nothing while like, hey, salute our troops. This woman's child was murdered. Maybe we should, you know, recognize her.

[Dan Bongino]

No, I'm not going to recognize.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It's an open book test, you dipshits. How do you screw this up?

[Dan Bongino]

This is where Trump last night, President Trump absolutely dog walked the Dems.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He set this easy trap. It wasn't even complicated. I'd love to tell you it was four dimensional chess. It wasn't. It was no dimension. It was just so easy for them to pass this test. But President Trump knows that the Democrat TDS show your ass problem I discussed yesterday.

[Dan Bongino]

Listen to yesterday's show. If you want to detail what that

[Vince Colon Ace]

is, is so real that they can't even pass an open book test on grade one math. He freaking dog walked them last night into a trap. And I mean like a bear trap 20ft away, painted black on all white snow with a sign that says this will hurt if you step in it. The Democrats like, let me try that out. It like the Ren and Stimpy episode

[Dan Bongino]

with the don't press the red button. We haven't mentioned Ren and Stimpy in a long time.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And Stimson JC had he can't stop. They can't stop. They walked right in the trap. Here's what I mean, here's President Trump. He's asking a pretty simple question. Most sane Americans do not want to see men's penises in the women's room

[Dan Bongino]

and they don't want kids bodies mutilated.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It's pretty popular amongst Americans to stop

[Dan Bongino]

that kind of stuff for obvious reasons. Walks them right in the trap.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Hey, you guys want to stand?

[Dan Bongino]

If you support basically the integrity of

[Vince Colon Ace]

children's bodies, Democrats like, nah, we'll sit

[Dan Bongino]

on our asses right here. This is not going to look good in campaign ads at all. Check this out.

[Audience Member / Caller]

No state can be allowed to rip children from their parents arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents will.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Who would believe that?

[Audience Member / Caller]

We've been talking about. We must ban it and we must ban it immediately. Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you, they're crazy.

[Dan Bongino]

Amazing.

[Audience Member / Caller]

Gentlemen. Boy, oh boy, we're lucky we have a country with people like this. Democrats are destroying our country. But we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we?

[Vince Colon Ace]

He just dog walked you. I'd say that with the deepest sense

[Dan Bongino]

of sincerity, pulling myself out of the argument.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Nobody wants men's penises in the women's room. Nobody wants kids cut up. You want to be an adult, you want to cut your body up, it's your choice. I don't think it's smart, but whatever, man.

[Dan Bongino]

Do your thing.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Nobody's. And what do you do? You sit on your wrist. This was a ground ball. He just dog walked you. Bear trap, 20ft ahead. Don't step in it.

[Dan Bongino]

Hold on, let me test this out.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Oh, shit.

[Dan Bongino]

That hurt.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He just dog walked you idiots. It's an open book test, man. And he did it over and over. Now you may say, dan, all right,

[Dan Bongino]

but the Democrats are married to this trans thing. There are still some lunatics on the left, and you're not wrong, that actually support, you know, cutting off your unit and your nuts and throwing them in a jar somewhere. And some kids, some liberals love this stuff. They love nut cutting and slice them off kids, that's their thing.

[Vince Colon Ace]

So they're not going to stand up.

[Dan Bongino]

All right, whatever.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Well, then how do you explain this one?

[Dan Bongino]

You've got the mother of Ms. Zarutska who was tragically killed and murdered on a bus in North Carolina. So they recognize the mom who's obviously just still devastated over this brutal knifing. You all saw it on the, on the bus. They bring the mother into the chamber basically to say, we're gonna do everything we can to bring justice. We're focused on public safety. You're living in A safer America. Now, folks, on a very serious note. No, no, no messing around. Not that we were before, but on this. This was a bunt. This was a bunt. There's nothing partisan about this.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Only the craziest of absolute sociopathic lunatics

[Dan Bongino]

on the left would be upset if you get up and just acknowledge that this woman's been through hell still. Nope. And I don't even. I'm going to tell you something. I don't even think this was any attempt to trap anyone. I don't.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I really don't.

[Dan Bongino]

I think President Trump was just acknowledging this woman's tragedy and expected just the Democrats. Well, this. Clearly, they're not this crazy. No, they are. Check it out for yourself

[Audience Member / Caller]

on that train. No one will ever forget the expression of terror on Irina's face as she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life. She died instantly. She had escaped a brutal war, only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America. Came in through open borders. Mrs. Zaretzka, tonight, I promise you, we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter Irina. How do you not stand? How do you not stand? I'm asking this Congress,

[Vince Colon Ace]

what do you

[Dan Bongino]

even say to that? And I want to applaud the President, too, for making sure the audience understands, listening at home, that these absolute slime

[Vince Colon Ace]

bags didn't want to even get up

[Dan Bongino]

and acknowledge the horror this poor woman's been through.

[Vince Colon Ace]

How do you. It's an open book test. I swear to you, I don't even think he was doing. I think he was doing that to acknowledge that he's serious about crime and wanted to make sure people think in stories and narratives that they saw an example of what can happen when national

[Dan Bongino]

security and public safety breaks down.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I don't even think that was a trap. That was a trap.

[Dan Bongino]

That's even worse than the bear trap example.

[Vince Colon Ace]

That's the Democrats walking in the snow, putting their own bear trap out and then stepping in their own trap. He didn't even put it out there. Can you screw this thing up anymore? Don't tell me I don't.

[Dan Bongino]

Listen, I'm going to play some reaction in case you think, gosh, you pretended to be objective. You're full of it. You love Trump. Whatever.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I'm going to play reaction from lefties,

[Dan Bongino]

Axelrod, John Carl activists and media people

[Vince Colon Ace]

who had the same reaction I did,

[Dan Bongino]

by the way, that a man like, maybe this was a pretty good moment for Trump and you probably should have just let it go. This was definitely a trap. And of course, the dumb asses walked right in it.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Contrast. Contrast. This is a simple question. Easy bunt ground ball, man.

[Dan Bongino]

President Trump knows they're going to sit on their asses and do nothing because they're the Democrats. When he gives applause lines, even basic applause lines.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Hey, do you like America?

[Dan Bongino]

Stand up, Democrat. Screw it.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is another one. Stand up if you think it's your

[Dan Bongino]

duty to protect American citizens over illegals.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Folks, last time I checked, when I

[Dan Bongino]

swore in to the FBI job and

[Vince Colon Ace]

the Secret Service job, you swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, I thought that was the oath, like you swore to it, right? This is an easy one. You've already given the oath, correct? Am I crazy, folks in the chat? Am I nuts? Pretty much everyone takes the same oath. If you don't want to take the oath, then don't take the freaking job. This was a grounder, but he set

[Dan Bongino]

them up beautifully with this one. And these idiots walked right in it again.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Stand up if it's your duty to

[Dan Bongino]

protect the American citizens, just like you swore in your oath. Watch this.

[Audience Member / Caller]

I'm inviting every legislature to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

[Vince Colon Ace]

How do you.

[Audience Member / Caller]

Pardon?

[Vince Colon Ace]

How do you fuck that up?

[CNN Pollster]

How?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Just get up, do a golf clap. Nobody's going to remember it. If someone says, oh, in a campaign

[Dan Bongino]

ad in a primary for the Democrats,

[Vince Colon Ace]

this is you golf clapping for President Trump, your response should be, and I'm not giving Democrats campaign advice. Listen, I swore an oath to protect the American citizens. I don't care if you're a Democrat, say, I love illegals too, but my first duties to the American citizen. There's an easy response. It's not hard, man. There's a freaking bunt. This is the ball on first and inches to get into the end zone and you don't score a touchdown. You don't score a touchdown. And they're missing two players on the field due to injury. How do you mess this up? How do you mess this up? He gave it to you. The silver platter. Get up, golf club. Talk about the biggest colossal F up.

[Dan Bongino]

Snapshots, sound bites, contrast.

[Vince Colon Ace]

If you're looking at politics any other way, you're doing it wrong.

[Dan Bongino]

Here is another unbelievable moment, and I bring up this yesterday in light of yesterday's show as well. Erica Kirk, obviously Charlie's wife, was at the State of the Union yesterday recognized by President Trump. And I never miss an opportunity to recognize both Erica and Charlie, God rest his beautiful soul. I never miss an opportunity to recognize his contributions to the movement. I don't want you to ever forget, folks, a lot of people knew Charlie. A lot of people had a piece of Charlie's life. Charlie was very generous with his time with people. Charlie didn't like making enemies. Charlie preferred to build bridges. It's going to be missed. That bridge is gone, and it's going to take a lot of effort. And I said this. I was at the Arizona memorial service for Charlie, and I was talking to a friend of mine in the cabinet, and I was talking to Pete. I mean, what it's worth. But Pete agreed. I said to him, you know, there are some figures that are not replaceable. And unfortunately, I've seen this twice, having taken over Rush Limbaugh spot on the radio on many of the stations. I. I acknowledge from day one, guys, if you're waiting for Rush Limbaugh, the sequel, like, tune out, because I'm not it. I'm no Rush Limbaugh and I'm no Charlie either. Charlie. There was no more effective communicator out there on college campuses. And to get in on use. You know, I remember saying him once, talking to him about. We had this big, long conversation about socials and stuff, and he said, I can't get off. We were talking about a website. He goes, I can't get off, because a lot of young kids find us there. To him, it wasn't about the money or anything like that. He won't be replaced. And I said to Pete that day, I said, we shouldn't talk like that because. And he agreed. Because a lot of people were saying, oh, we're gonna have to find someone. But there's no replacing him. There's none. It's gonna take collective efforts from a bunch of people to try to build that bridge again. It was President Trump recognizing Erica last night.

[Audience Member / Caller]

My great friend, Charlie Kirk. Great guy, great man. So last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really martyred for his beliefs. His wonderful wife Erica is with us tonight. Erica, please stand. Thank you, Erica.

[Dan Bongino]

And I get it. I get it. You're going to get a bunch of assholes and losers today. I don't like what she wore. She didn't cry enough. She cried too much. The angle of her chin was off. She should have done this, really.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Was your husband shot in the neck?

[Dan Bongino]

How did you respond, you fucking piece of shit? There a textbook for that I am unaware. If it's a textbook for that, I don't want to read it. Her ear was dipped at a slight angle and I analyzed it with my complete lack of any behavioral analytical skills at all. Ah, shut the fuck up. Woman lost her husband. He was shot in the neck for the entire world to see in all of its disgusting, horrifying detail. The outfit was black, but it should

[Vince Colon Ace]

have been a darker black because.

[Dan Bongino]

Oh, shut your pie hole, man. Stupid ass.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I get Israel, I get the Jews. I get it.

[Dan Bongino]

I get it. I understand you think it's my first

[Vince Colon Ace]

rodeo with you dipshits.

[Dan Bongino]

I know exactly what you're doing. So tired of it, man. And I'm glad to see yesterday was a unified stance against this continued bullshit. Just insanity. And thank you, President Trump, for taking a stand and bringing Ms. Erica Kirk to the State of the Union. I've got a couple more clips from this, but I want to get to this because this is the most important part of the show. I've got one more from the speech. There were a number of great moments, by the way. You saw the Olympic team, you saw National Guardsman Wolf get his medal. Just amazing moments. These are incredible. They're worth your time, but you've probably seen them a lot. I want to get to one more clip I thought was really important because, again, it just highlights the contrast. And then I want to get the most important part of the show, which

[Vince Colon Ace]

is the reaction, because even hardcore Democrats,

[Dan Bongino]

Axelrod, John, Carl, these, you know, these are activists. They pretend to be media people and analysts, not Axelrodies, but they're kind of acknowledging the same thing.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Hey, man, this was a really good moment for Trump, and maybe the Democrats just should have shut up, let him

[Dan Bongino]

have his moment, because you're not going

[Vince Colon Ace]

to win and not fail the open book test and then move on. People forget about everything. Even great speeches.

[Dan Bongino]

They couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. They shit the bed last night. All right, quick break. We'll get back to the show. A lot happened while I was back in D.C. like, gold jumping over 60% in the past year. You've been watching it? I track it every day. Keep it on my home screen. Not the gold, the price. That'd be pretty tough. Gold's heavy.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I'm going to be honest, I'm feeling

[Dan Bongino]

pretty good about buying gold from Birch Gold, B, I, R, C, H. Right about now. And I'm really grateful they're back with me as a sponsor. A lot of you know the story. I didn't want to endorse a gold company. But Paula convinced me she's been a huge believer in gold as I have for a long time. So we took on Birch and we're proud to have him for a long time as a sponsor. I got to learn more about the need for financial diversification from Birch Gold. Worked out well for me. I started buying gold from Birch Gold. I became a huge believer. I've always talked about gold on the show. It's nothing new, but this is a really great company. I'm proud to have them with me. There's freedom in financial diversification and Birch gold is the only gold company I choose to do business with and have for a few years now. But I encourage you to learn for yourself. Text my name, Dan, my first name to the number 989898. Birchgold will send you a free info kit on how to convert an eligible IRA or 401k into an IRA in physical gold. That's right, own gold in a tax sheltered account. Again, text my first name, Dan, to the number 989-898 and see if owning gold is right for you. Message and data rates may apply. Thank you, birchgold. Really appreciate it. Our next sponsor, Patriot Mobile. Patriot Mobile been with me forever. America's about to celebrate its 250th anniversary. What better day to be a patriot? And what company out there has supported patriotic American values since their inception?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Patriot Mobile.

[Dan Bongino]

They love American patriots. That's why it's in their company name, Patriot Mobile. Listen, a lot of these wireless companies don't care about who you are, what you believe. Many probably just don't even like you. Not Patriot Mobile. They love American values. A lot of these companies just want your money. Patriot Mobile is different. For more than 12 years, they stood with Americans who believe freedom is worth defending. Supporting the Christian conservative movement when others stayed quiet. And here's the deal. You don't have to give up quality or service when you switch to Patriot Mobile. They deliver premium priority access on all three major U.S. networks. So you get the same or better coverage than you have today. You can't lose. You think switching is a hassle? It's not. Keep your number, keep your phone or upgrade their 100%. US based customer support team can activate you in minutes. Still paying off a device, no problem. Patriot Mobile even offers a contract buyout. This is a defining year. We gotta work together to save our country. So go to patriotmobile.com dan or call 972 Patriot. Use promo code DAN for a free Month of service. It's a great deal. That's patriotmobile.com dan or call 972-patriot and make the switch today. Thank you, Patriot Mobile. Okay, here's my last clip from the President's speech before we get to the reaction component, which is just as important. Always remember, measure success by your opponents reaction. And the freak out on the left was apparent. He was President Trump last night, absolutely roasting the Democrats in the behavior in the chamber. Excuse me. By painting the contrast himself.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is genius.

[Dan Bongino]

It wasn't just the bear trap he set that these idiots walked in despite the warning. Here's a bear trap. Don't step in it.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You have to paint contrast.

[Dan Bongino]

Contrast matter, they make the same thing seem that much same diamond seem more lustrous on a different background.

[Vince Colon Ace]

So here's what he does here.

[Dan Bongino]

He talks about his policies, but then

[Vince Colon Ace]

he roasted Democrats to their face. Talking about what he saved you from

[Dan Bongino]

in the prior Biden led Democrat administration. This is what Americans need to hear. Check this out.

[Audience Member / Caller]

Decades before I came along, we had the exact opposite. From trade to healthcare, from energy to immigration, everything was stolen and rigged in order to drain the wealth out of the productive, hardworking people who make our country great, who make our country run. Under Biden and his corrupt partners in Congress and beyond. It reached a breaking point with the green news scam. Open borders for everyone. They poured in by the millions and millions from prisons, from mental institutions. They were murderers. 11,888 murders. They came into our country. You allowed that to happen. And recognize record setting inflation that cost the typical family $34,000 in just a speck of time. Now the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly used the word affordability. A word. They just used it. Somebody gave it to them knowing full well that they caused and created the increased prices that, that all of our citizens had to endure. You caused that problem. You caused that problem.

[Vince Colon Ace]

We were at 9% inflation. 10 million people crossing the border illegally. Street crime was not out of control, was coming down, but was not anywhere near the levels of control Donald Trump implemented.

[Dan Bongino]

The economy wasn't growing.

[Vince Colon Ace]

There was government red tape left and right. You had DEI in locker rooms. You had men swinging their units around in women's locker rooms. And lefties like, yeah, this is freaking great. You have to remind them where we came from. That's how you create contrast.

[Dan Bongino]

Nobody understands this better than this White House messaging machine. Nobody.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Nobody's done it like this guy.

[Dan Bongino]

No one.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You think you've done better? Show me. Tell me A president and the Republican

[Dan Bongino]

side in the last 40 years who scored these kind of wins with the minority community in traditionally Democratic states. He won Pennsylvania, he won Rust Belt states.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This stuff doesn't happen on a regular basis except with President Trump, because the messaging is just better reaction. How do you know the speech was a success? Because you measure it by the opponent's reaction.

[Dan Bongino]

That is always the way to gauge a successful political whatever, speech, event, whatever it was. Here's Representative Robin Kelly on this panel on a podcast here talking about last night. And you want to talk about just. I don't want to call this a meltdown. That's like a Democrat thing. Sometimes there is a meltdown. We use it in the title too, when they.

[Vince Colon Ace]

But this was just like, how do

[Dan Bongino]

I downplay President Trump celebrating National Guardsman Wolf and others, These military heroes. You saw a bunch of medals given.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is the kind of thing Representative

[Dan Bongino]

Robin Kelly apparently doesn't get. You just say, hey, listen, I, She's. I mean, damn. Obviously you come out and you say,

[Vince Colon Ace]

hey, I don't like President Trump, whatever it may be.

[Dan Bongino]

His policies make, maybe make some, you know, mention of the military or whatever,

[Vince Colon Ace]

but we love our military.

[Dan Bongino]

Was a nice moment. You move on.

[Vince Colon Ace]

How do you fail this test?

[Dan Bongino]

Here's how you fail it.

[Vince Colon Ace]

She starts making fun of these military medals. You know, it's like Oprah. You get a medal, you get a medal. Total complete loser stuff right here.

[Dan Bongino]

He again, just dog walked them right into this.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The answer was easy.

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out.

[Hayley Caranilla]

I was there and it was as

[Dan Bongino]

horrific as I thought it would be.

[Hayley Caranilla]

Did you leave early? Absolutely.

[Dan Bongino]

It was like an award show.

[Audience Member / Caller]

You get a medal, you get a

[Dan Bongino]

medal, you get a medal.

[Hayley Caranilla]

That's literally Mo just said, you get a car, you get a car. Y' all are on the same page.

[Dan Bongino]

That was what state of the people show. If that's the state of the people, good luck. Good luck on the other side of the aisle. That's your message. It's like Oprah Winfrey giving away cars. The guardsman was almost, was almost murdered and his partner was, was a ground ball man. All you had to do was thank them for their service and move on. You couldn't even do that. Now. What is the key capstone project for Democrats? Stupidity. Every single time, whenever you hear the CIS card come out, you know they

[Vince Colon Ace]

effed up because it's the only thing they have. Now. If you're listening this go.

[Dan Bongino]

No way they tied fake racism charges.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And what about the speech could have possibly be perceived as Racist. It doesn't matter. This is Representative Janelle Bynum. Here she is commenting on the speech.

[Dan Bongino]

This is how, you know, he won last night.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They got to dig up phantom charges of racism because they just don't have anything else.

[Dan Bongino]

This is always, always the exclamation point on we screwed up last night. Check this out.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Think about that moment when the President was asking Democrats to stand up for American citizens during that part of the speech when he was talking about immigration and immigration enforcement efforts.

[Hayley Caranilla]

I think you can agree with the what, like standing up for American citizens, but I disagree with the how. And so it's always about how do we bring our country together but not stand on the backs of others. There's thinly veiled racist language, anti immigrant language in what he was asking. And that was, that was uncomfortable.

[Dan Bongino]

It was. She was uncomfortable, fellas. She wasn't uncomfortable. She's making that up. That is it. Telltale sign. Bookmark it whenever you hit rage. You know it, you know, they dropped

[Vince Colon Ace]

the L big time. L, you may say. Okay, let's hear some.

[Dan Bongino]

This is a. David Axelrod is a hardcore political activist. If you don't know Axelrod or Ax as they call him, Axelrod was basically President Obama's and Senator Obama before he was, before he was president. He's his consigliere.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This guy was his political strategist.

[Dan Bongino]

It's his right hand man.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Whenever Axelrod or AX is talking, you

[Dan Bongino]

can assume it's Obama, like a puppet with them, you know, the marionette with the puppet strings.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is really, whenever he's talking, Obama's talking. Here's Axelrod himself. You're not going to be more hardcore,

[Dan Bongino]

like pro Obama guy.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I mean, not totally capitulating, but being pretty candid that, you know, what a pretty good speech. Again, is it going to be transformative? Are we going to win, you know, 350 seats in the House? No. But if I'm picking a team after last night, I sure as shit want

[Dan Bongino]

to be on Trump's team and not the Democrats f icepins team. Check this out.

[CNN Panelist]

He also basically kept control of himself, which I think will be a great relief to his strategists and aides there. But the question, I mean, and I think he did well from their perspective for the reasons that you say, John. And he used the gallery very skillfully to kind of simulate empathy, which is a thing that he's been lacking and that's sort of a surrogate for that. The question is, he started off the speech by saying we've gone, this is the turnaround for the ages. And as you know, because you're traveling around the country, people don't think the direction is right. And I don't think this cured that. So we'll see. But I don't think a lot of the people who needed to be persuaded probably were watching this speech.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I didn't want to be accused of

[Dan Bongino]

taking him out of context like they do for us.

[Vince Colon Ace]

So I left a piece in at

[Dan Bongino]

the end where he's critical as well. He's like, well, it wasn't so much of a turnaround.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Well, obviously, I disagree. If you watch yesterday's show, even the

[Dan Bongino]

New York Times hit piece on President

[Vince Colon Ace]

Trump had to acknowledge that everything he said about inflation, immigration and crime, crime

[Dan Bongino]

and the economy is correct.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The jobs numbers, you just don't like it. But I want you to remember something

[Dan Bongino]

about politics, because Axelrod's right. You don't have to like him. And I certainly don't like his politics. I think that's pretty fair assessment. Correct. He's not wrong. Politics is about telling a story. And the reason Obama was so effective and really, I mean, decimated our country, his political effectiveness, folks, you can't deny it. His policies were a freaking disaster. Ruined the place, set up the whole DEI bullshit, the destruction of our military. I mean, economic takeover by the G.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I mean, just a mess. But Axelrod always told Obama, make it about a story. Politics are about a story. And he's right. He used the chamber to tell the American people a story. Folks, anybody can get up there with

[Dan Bongino]

spreadsheets, like mom dummy did when he wanted to raise your taxes and he's looking to raise your taxes in New York. He's.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Here's the spreadsheet of expenses. Listen, I'm going to tell you something. Spreadsheets can actually be effective if they're part of a larger story.

[Dan Bongino]

I knew a candidate in Maryland that used one really well, but he would

[Vince Colon Ace]

pull out this spreadsheet and he wouldn't read you the spreadsheet. It was a spreadsheet of Maryland finances. But he would explain to you how, with simple math, we could win. He made it part of a story. Trump did that masterfully yesterday, and it's

[Dan Bongino]

why the Democrats are reacting the way

[Audience Member / Caller]

they did

[Dan Bongino]

his pretend journalist, John Carl, because they're not really journalists, they're opinion guys. Let's get over it. Just admit your opinion guys.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Not that personal. It just is the way it is. Here's John Carl, though, from the other

[Dan Bongino]

side, in case you think I'm Full of shit. You're just overly optimistic about. President Trump's speechless.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I'm just telling you what the other

[Dan Bongino]

side say it too. Here's John Carl, ABC saying, hey man, you know what?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Pretty effective. Did a good job.

[Dan Bongino]

Listen to their perspective on it. Check this out.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Had the makings of a, you know, they had real high moments of patriotism.

[Dan Bongino]

Great stories he told.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He gave out two Congressional Medals of Honor. He gave out a Medal of Freedom. He gave out two Purple Hearts. He gave out a Legion of Merit. He had, you know, great stories to tell when he, when he, when he recognized people like Buddy Taggart, who's going to turn 100 on the 4th of July. Carl is correct. If you ever run for office or you're an activist, make sure people think in narratives. Make sure you tell a story. Tell a story. Come in there with an over, overarching narrative where the chapters fit in with the theme of the book and you'll win. If you go in there and you're just completely disjointed, pulling out spreadsheets, talking about math all the time, you're probably

[Dan Bongino]

going to lose the debate.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Now, I don't know about you, but I like to hear from voters too. So here's a panel they put together.

[Dan Bongino]

You're going to hear this Michigan voter.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And here's how regular, normal, everyday people reacted to, again, proving the point I brought up in the beginning of the show. Snapshots, sound bites, contrast, that's it. That's how most of America is going

[Dan Bongino]

to see last night's speech.

[Vince Colon Ace]

If you don't understand that, get out of the politics game.

[Dan Bongino]

It's not for you.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Here's a regular on the ground voter

[Dan Bongino]

in Michigan talking about how, man, I can't believe they didn't get up.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Like this was an open book test. You totally flunked.

[Dan Bongino]

I told you, man, this was a mess for the Democrats. Last night they asked a question they did not know the answer to. Check this out. Part of the speech that's probably going to live on for most Republicans is when he asked the Congress, stand up if you think your duty is first to American citizens before illegal aliens. Republicans stood up. It gave him his most sustained applause for the night. I suspect, man, you're going to see this in a lot of campaign ads that Democrats wouldn't stand up. What did you all think of the showmanship of that or of sort of the spectacle of trying to get Democrats to stand up for that?

[CNN Panelist]

Well, I think the point, I think that, that, you know, it may have gotten A little muddled, but, you know, in the showmanship. But I think his point is valid. Everybody in that room represents the citizens in this country. And are you doing your job? He should, you know, the governor ask, is Trump doing his job? Trump asked, are all of you doing your job?

[Dan Bongino]

That's just a regular voter man on a CNN panel like, hey, guys, you work for us. Is that really the look you want out there? One final contrast, and I want to get to. I want to move on to another really important topic, the Democrat clown car. You'll see what I mean. I'm not my. Well, yes, it is a clown car, but it's not my terminology. It's not mine. It's going to be important in a second, so don't miss it. But here's the biggest contrast of all, contrasting presidents with presidents. I saw this on X yesterday. I got to tell you, I didn't.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I don't even know if this was real.

[Dan Bongino]

Hat tip. The great Miguel Fornia had this up there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I don't even know if this is real. This was one of the prior State of the Union addresses by a prior president.

[Dan Bongino]

And even this is a test.

[Vince Colon Ace]

If you're watching live on Rumble right

[Dan Bongino]

now, you'll know right away, obviously.

[Vince Colon Ace]

But if you're listening on Apple and Spotify, even if I were just to change the voice here, you would know

[Dan Bongino]

exactly who this was. Here is a prior State of the Union. Talk about a contrast. The diamond on a black background.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Imagine listening to this again.

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out.

[Vince Colon Ace]

My predecessor came to office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned. He's the reason it was overturned.

[Dan Bongino]

And he brags about it. Look at the chaos that has resulted.

[Vince Colon Ace]

What the hell was that? What is that even English? What is that, Swahili or something?

[Dan Bongino]

That was Spaghetti Brains Biden the last time.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned. He's the reason we overturned. Play the beginning again.

[Dan Bongino]

That is resolved. Play it again. One more time. I want to.

[Vince Colon Ace]

My predecessor came to office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Okay, I think I got my. Did he say, my predecessor came to office to see if Roe v. Wade was overturned? Is that what he.

[Dan Bongino]

I had to hear. I don't know. Andy's inside. Like, I don't freaking know. Justin's got the. Justin's got this sweater.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He never takes the.

[Dan Bongino]

Are you cold?

[Vince Colon Ace]

Are you dying? Do you have, like, influenza?

[Dan Bongino]

I'm actually okay right now. But you keep it at 65 in here. I do. It is cold, right? I do keep it at 65. It is. It's freezing cold inside, cold outside.

[Vince Colon Ace]

9,000 in the chat.

[Dan Bongino]

Chat today.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Yes, yes.

[Dan Bongino]

Bongino army, you guys. I didn't even notice that I didn't look at the chat in a few minutes. I'm sorry.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Democrat clown car. Not my words. Although I agree you think we got a bunch of problems.

[Dan Bongino]

Listen, I'm going to bring this up with Congressman Eli Crane in about 25 minutes. Great. Congressman is going to be a really good interview. I'm going to ask him about the military presence over in the Gulf and in the Red Sea and a potential attack in Iran.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Why? Because it's really important we as Republicans,

[Dan Bongino]

you know, can openly debate this stuff.

[Vince Colon Ace]

However, you know, there's a lot of

[Dan Bongino]

schisms on our side and sometimes we

[Vince Colon Ace]

tend to think, oh my gosh, it's total chaos. It's not total chaos. When you poll the Republican Party, Donald Trump has upwards of 90 plus percent support. It's not chaos. All these people in doomers going, Trump is finished. If he doesn't do what I want month. He's never going to do what everybody wants all the time because everybody wants different things. The debate is healthy. That's a good thing. I only bring this up because please do not think for a second that this is like siloed in the Republican Party. The Democrats are a total complete mess. Donald Trump, there's unified support for him. 90 plus percent. You're never going to get a better number. You always ask a kid in school

[Dan Bongino]

like, you know, who wants homework?

[Vince Colon Ace]

One kid always raises it. You're never going to get 100% of anything. 90% is amazing. The Democrats are only three years away, actually two years away.

[Dan Bongino]

Probably less in campaign season terms from

[Vince Colon Ace]

a presidential election primary season. And the Democrats have no idea what they even want. They have a bunch of garbage candidates. Kamala Harris, who just got her ass

[Dan Bongino]

handed to her in the election by Trump.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Gavin Newsom, who runs California.

[Dan Bongino]

Enough said.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Boot.

[Dan Bongino]

Edge.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Edge, who couldn't even run the Transportation Department. These are their candidate AOC who It's

[Dan Bongino]

the queen of word salads.

[Vince Colon Ace]

What do you think about Taiwan? Where'd I get the clown car line from cnn? Not me. They did a poll of Democrats. They're not unified. They're all fractured. They don't know where the hell they're

[Dan Bongino]

going to go in this next election. Check this out.

[CNN Pollster]

This is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side. I mean, just take a look here. Top choices for the 2028 Dempres nominee. You have a leader, but it's not

[Dan Bongino]

really a clear leader.

[CNN Pollster]

It's within the margin of error. You have Newsom at 19%. Then you have former Vice President Kamala Harris at 18%. Quite a weak number for her given that, of course, she was the nominee last time around. Pete Buttigieg, who of course is run before 13%. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez at 12%. This is just a total clown car. It is a total mess. There is no clear front runner at this particular point. On the Democratic side. Who the heck knows who the nominee is going to be in three, two years?

[Dan Bongino]

Now we're at 91 5. So nice, Grant. Good to have you all back. Gosh, I love you all.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I It's not my words. It's Harry Anton, the pollster guy at cnn. Imagine the CNN audience hearing this.

[Dan Bongino]

They know the Republicans are in chaos.

[Vince Colon Ace]

We're not in chaos. Republicans have different ideas on taxes. We all like low taxes.

[Dan Bongino]

Correct.

[Vince Colon Ace]

But people have different ideas.

[Dan Bongino]

Someone wants president likes no tax on tips. Some people like a flat tax.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Some people like a fair tax. You ever want to start a fight

[Dan Bongino]

on X, I'll give you a tip. Having run for office a couple times,

[Vince Colon Ace]

go out there on Twitter and say,

[Dan Bongino]

I prefer the flat tax over the fair tax.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I prefer the fair tax. However, watch how many people there are people who are really passionate about it. It doesn't mean they hate Donald Trump. It just means within our tent, we're not all freaking robots. The Democrats all agree on the same thing. Cut kids nuts off, put men's penises in the women's room. Confiscatory wealth taxes, steal people's money. Government controls your health care. Defund the police, cut military funding. It's unified. It's unified and stupid. However, they have such poor messengers, they can't even decide. You're going to run Gavin Newsom? Are you freaking serious? You're going to run Gavin Newsom? The guy ran California into the ground. You're going to run Kamala Harris again. I'm not telling you who to vote for, man.

[Dan Bongino]

But that is one awful candidate she

[Vince Colon Ace]

could not get out of her own way. She was handed a billion dollars and the nomination. She had no primary at all and got absolutely freaking smoked. Smoked Buddha judge. That's your guy.

[Dan Bongino]

He's the king of word salads. AOC is the queen of neologisms.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He makes up words.

[Dan Bongino]

AOC and that video the other day,

[Vince Colon Ace]

her talking, it looks like she was on a bender with someone snoring in the background. I was like, what is going on here?

[Dan Bongino]

This lady, have a big meal before,

[Vince Colon Ace]

like, what is going on?

[Dan Bongino]

I'm like, oh, it's a guy snoring. Really?

[Vince Colon Ace]

That's your candidate? We've got this insanely good bench of probably five to 10 people who could run. Not telling you anything's gonna be an easy win.

[Dan Bongino]

It's not. The midterms are gonna be tough. I'm just telling you again, I'd rather be on this side of the fence than theirs. All right, this is an important clip. I do these timeline cleanse videos once in a while because Jasmine likes em, but no, because I, I like them too. We do a lot on this show, but I, you know, I don't do a lot of culture stuff. However, when something catches my eye, I want to put it out there. And I put it out there when it affects me too. Folks, we talk about politics on this political show all the time and how new media, how mastering Twitter and Snapchat and TikTok and everything from Reddit forums and elsewhere, learning how to process this information matters. If you don't understand snapshots and sound bites, you're going to lose. And you have to understand new media. However, new media, it's great, democratizes information. The downside to it is we're all married to our phones all the time. Folks, I'm on this matter of fact, Haley's show scrolling.

[Vince Colon Ace]

She puts up her screen time. It's like 23 and a half hours. I don't know when she sleeps. That's the name of her show.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm on a lot. I average about nine hours a day as I have to. I don't want to miss anything. I have the fear of missing out a little fomo. I don't want to miss a good story. I just don't. These guys know I send them. We have an email for the. I must just set it live. The email. We have a show prep email. I almost just outed it. I mean, we get a thousand emails.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I'm sending them stuff at 11 o'

[Dan Bongino]

clock at night on a Saturday sometimes because I don't like to miss stuff. But I'm going to tell you, as a dad, I've fallen a little short on this sometimes a lot short. Man, you gotta get your face out of this phone. And I'm talking to me too. This is not me trying to, you know, be anyone's sociologist here or family therapist. I do this too. Especially with young kids. They need to see your face. So I saw this tweet the other day and it was about a study they had done with a mother staring at a child's face and how that face to face eye contact for babies and even, I would say, toddlers and young children, that matters. Your attention matters to them. Watch this quick video and listen. This is for me, too. Again, I'm not trying to be anyone's family therapist. I have made this mistake as well. Your kids are the most important thing in your life. They're a gift from God. When they're talking to you, I've made it a concerted effort to drop that phone. Look at the difference. When the mom isn't staring, check this out.

[Child Development Researcher]

She gives a greeting to the baby. The baby gives a greeting back to her. This baby stories pointing at different places in the world, and the mother's trying to engage her and play with her. They're working to coordinate their emotions and their intentions. And then we ask the mother to not respond to the baby. The baby very quickly picks up on this. And then she uses all of her abilities to try and get the mother back. She smiles at the mother. She points because she's used to the mother looking where she points. The baby puts both hands up in front of her and says, what's happening here? She makes that screechy sound at the mother, like, come on, why aren't we doing this? Even in this two minutes, when they don't get the normal reaction, they react with negative emotions. They turn away. They feel the stress of it. They actually may lose control of their posture because of the stress that they're experiencing.

[Dan Bongino]

Gosh, that's so sad to watch. I've had two young children. They're older now, but I just throw that out there because me, that's for me. And hopefully it helps a few people, too, because, you know, we do. We live busy lives. We're like, oh, I'm just gonna look at this thing while they're talking to us. Just put it down. I'm gonna try better myself. I've been guilty of this, really guilty of it. And you watch that video, tell me that doesn't sting. That's like a tattoo on the brain you won't forget. So I thought I'd throw that out there. And now that we've extended the show, I'm able to do more things, and I'm really proud of that. Interviews and other stuff. I'm really enjoying the new lengthened format of the show. Congressman Eli Crane coming up in about 10 minutes. But let me get back to business right now, folks. What's the greatest superpower in the world? I've said this over and over. Those P1s in the chat. Bongino army, folks. What is the greatest superpower in the world that's achievable? I'm not talking about, like Cyclops, laser vision out of the eyes.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The greatest superpower in the world is

[Dan Bongino]

not the ability to squat 800 pounds. The greatest superpower in the world is not the ability to bend metal.

[Vince Colon Ace]

The greatest superpower in the world is

[Dan Bongino]

the ability to command attention.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It's why Donald Trump, even in the

[Dan Bongino]

45 to 47 break, when he was

[Vince Colon Ace]

a former, was still the most powerful

[Dan Bongino]

Republican on the planet.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And he will be even in the post presidency, because he has an ability

[Dan Bongino]

a lot of politicians don't.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I don't know how to describe it.

[Dan Bongino]

The French call it the general of sais quoi.

[Vince Colon Ace]

He's got this, I don't know, ability to command attention. Listen to me. I'm not messing around. It is the greatest superpower in the world. The reason I bring it up a

[Dan Bongino]

lot is when I agreed to go in the government to serve for the year, I was. I had to be quiet. I brought this up a couple times about things because it's not about you. It's about the administration.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You got to just shut up and do your job.

[Dan Bongino]

And I was proud to do it.

[Vince Colon Ace]

But when you've been in the business

[Dan Bongino]

of a microphone for 10 years, where

[Vince Colon Ace]

you have the attention of people and you want to speak out, I got

[Dan Bongino]

to tell you, man, it rips at

[Vince Colon Ace]

your soul sometimes and you realize you

[Dan Bongino]

the power of it hits you that much contrast right. Right back to the beginning of the show. Microphone, no mic. You see the contrast right there?

[Vince Colon Ace]

The greatest superpower in the world is

[Dan Bongino]

the ability to command attention. Nobody understands this better than not just President Trump, but the people he surrounds himself with. President Trump has got some messengers there who I'm telling you, have just nailed this attention economy.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They've nailed it. They pick people who understand how to grab people, grab their emotions, command their attention. They know it's the greatest superpower in the world. It's an even bigger superpower than a

[Dan Bongino]

supermajority on both sides. Here's what I'm talking about.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Did you see this new ad release

[Dan Bongino]

by the White House? These guys are just kicking ass and racking up W's. This is just great. We played the ICE ad the other day. Here's another banger. Check this one out.

[Vince Colon Ace]

2.5 million illegal immigrants leaving the US

[Dan Bongino]

over the past year.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Nearly 600,000Americans arrest over 600,000 deportations, nearly

[Congressman Eli Crane]

2 million voluntary self deportations.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And get this, eight months of zero releases at the border.

[Hayley Caranilla]

President Trump's border policies are serving as a deterrent at the US Southern border as illegal crossings have hit another record blow.

[Dan Bongino]

It is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted a staggering decline. I see says they can finally do their jobs. This is truly an extraordinary turnaround at

[Vince Colon Ace]

the US Mexico border because President Trump is sitting in the Oval Office. Every American put their head on the pillow tonight knowing that border on that border. Stopping all threats coming across most secure border history of this nation. ICE agents and FBI agents are working 24, 7, 365 every hour of every day taking public safety threats and national security on top of street Sleep well

[CNN Panelist]

America because we're keeping America safer.

[Vince Colon Ace]

If you think we're doing good now, you just wait till this coming year.

[Dan Bongino]

Every time, every time.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It's like one banger after another.

[Dan Bongino]

It's like an album with a, with 100 hits on it. It's like Pink Floyd the Wall before Roger Waters went crazy. It Comfortably Numb and I still, still gets me.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They just get it notice on that.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm not going to play it again, but if you're watching on Rumble VOD video on demand later obviously not live.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Now rewind the tape and watch it again. Notice the imagery.

[Dan Bongino]

Pause it every few seconds. Notice how the images were carefully selected because they understand the snapshot and soundbite culture better than anyone. No one's done it like this. Nobody.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Donald Trump is not running for reelection. But he wants the American people to

[Dan Bongino]

understand the taxpayer, what their government is

[Vince Colon Ace]

doing in their name now. And I applaud them for doing it.

[Dan Bongino]

These videos are not expensive to produce, by the way.

[Vince Colon Ace]

It just requires a good eye for

[Dan Bongino]

snapshots and sound bites. And nobody does it better than them

[Vince Colon Ace]

because they've got the results to speak about what they're saying about the border. You heard Homan at the end. This is just the beginning is accurate. The border is effectively shut down for

[Dan Bongino]

the first time in, Gus, I don't

[Vince Colon Ace]

know, 50 years, maybe more

[Dan Bongino]

here.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Don't take my word for it because you may think, oh, you got a

[Dan Bongino]

vested interest in this. You served in the FBI. Of course you're going to talk about crime. Lower.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Yeah, of course I've got a vested interest. I'm also an American citizen who doesn't want to get dead. Want some lunatic showing up to mug me outside of the studio here. Knife and me in the kidneys either but don't take my word for it.

[Dan Bongino]

I pulled this clip off, went viral yesterday. I saw it on social media. This is Claremont County, Ohio. This is the sheriff out there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is him. It's not me. Talking about the massive effort, President Trump

[Dan Bongino]

on down to support law enforcement through

[Vince Colon Ace]

federal, Federal support, state support, local support, help them all at every level. Here. He's talking about overdose deaths. It's a quick clip, but I want you to listen to the numbers here. And he's telling you himself the difference between the Biden years and now. These numbers don't lie.

[Dan Bongino]

Check this out.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Joe Biden's first term, we experienced 74 drug overdoses in 2025, after President Trump took office, we had 14. So in our county, that was historically low. We're off to one, possibly two this year. So it's continuing to decrease.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They're just numbers, folks.

[Dan Bongino]

They're just numbers, but they're not just numbers, they're lives. They're not just numbers, they're lives. You can crap on President Trump's record all you want, but those people are alive right now because of him.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I'm going to tell you what the

[Dan Bongino]

second greatest superpower in the world is. I don't think I mentioned this before, and a lot of us fail at this. This is tough. Any guesses out there in the chat? No, not money. Money is pretty powerful, but that's not it. The second greatest superpower in the world that's attainable for anyone with enough skill is surrounding yourself with a network of good people. Oh, that's too. No, no, I'm serious, folks. It is really, really hard to do that because good people don't have a scarlet letter on their head that says score. Letters were Esther Prynd. Well, I should say bad people don't wear this. That's probably a better way to phrase it. They don't have, like a B on their forehead, Esther Prynne style. Look, I'm bad.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Bad people never tell you they're bad people. And some bad people with sociopathic tendencies, as I told you in the beginning

[Dan Bongino]

of the show, talking about my experience interviewing lunatics who had threatened the President

[Vince Colon Ace]

are really damn good at hiding their bad people. Even the best, most intelligent people in

[Dan Bongino]

the world sometimes pick a bad football coach. Man, I was watching this show about the cowboys in honor of producer Jim, who loves the cowboys, and Jerry Jones was talking about how he just sometimes got it wrong with the whole coach situation.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Jerry Jones made a lot of money in business. Sometimes you just screw up.

[Dan Bongino]

I told you, Adorin, when I was doing the show before I left. I told you that the benefit of a Trump 47 term when the election was going on between him and Kamala Harris is the fact that it's his last term and he's not going to be constrained by any pressure to get reelected.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And I said, second, do you guys remember this?

[Dan Bongino]

You p ones out there?

[Vince Colon Ace]

I said, another thing is, I know

[Dan Bongino]

he learned a lot of lessons from 45.

[Vince Colon Ace]

His 45 term, where he tried to

[Dan Bongino]

be kind of a team of rivals. Let me, you know, bring in Tillerson and others and people who are.

[Vince Colon Ace]

And it just didn't work out. But he learned from that. And in his second term, he picked the freaking Avengers and went out there, and that's how this stuff got done and got done quick because he got people and put people in positions who were gonna do it. Here he is talking to, on a

[Dan Bongino]

sports show podcast about exactly that. How this, this, this. This knack for picking good people is so important. This is the second greatest superpower in the world.

[Audience Member / Caller]

World.

[Dan Bongino]

And a lot of us have a tough time with this one. Check this out. Thousands of people in the business world, you've vetted people for cabinet positions, but you've sat across from them, like we're doing right now.

[Audience Member / Caller]

Right.

[Dan Bongino]

What do you look for in someone to know? That's the characteristic I want. That's a guy or that's a girl

[Congressman Eli Crane]

I want on my team.

[Audience Member / Caller]

Well, I have it a little bit now in my ship. I have a great staff. I have, you know, really good people working for me. I would say first term, I had never done it before. I won. You know, I came out of business. Business. And I had some very good people, but I had some people that I wouldn't have chosen had I had a little more experience. Once I got all that experience, now we have an unbelievable cabinet. And, you know, experience really helps you see people under fire when you go in there and you don't have that feel. Not good. But there's a great deal of experience. I think there's also an instinct. I've had a good instinct for people. I think I've had a good instinct for athletes. For athletes. But Hershey, Herschel's a special guy. I think Herschel did really well. He tried really hard with his run, his Senate run, and I think he did really well. He got some. I think he got some unfair treatment, frankly.

[Dan Bongino]

It's hard, man. That's really, really difficult. I told you, given my. Where I just came from, people don't advertise if they're bad actors, you have to find, investigate, take action. It's not always easy to do. No one comes in and advertises, hey, I'm part of the weaponized portion of the place. No one does that. They do their best to hide it. And not everybody was eager to help. All right, I got Congressman Eli Crane coming up. Navy Seal, represents Arizona District 2. I had him on as a guest because he's really good guy, but, you know, I'm not in the good guy business. One of the things that stuck out about him is when I was over there working for you all, there were people who would actually reach out to us, and there were others.

[Vince Colon Ace]

We'd reach out to them, and it

[Dan Bongino]

would take forever to get someone. Just ignore us. Congressman Crane would reach out all the time. How can I help on this? How can I help on national security threats? How can I help on drones? How can I help on this? 7, 6, 4. If you don't know about 764 and the network trying to get at your kids, we're gonna talk to him about that, too. His office was great on that. So that's coming up in a minute, but I just want to remind you again, the Rumble Shorts.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Please download or update the Rumble app.

[Dan Bongino]

You will get Shorts in there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You'll see right here, Rumble Shorts.

[Dan Bongino]

It is basically a free speech TikTok. You know, rumble's always supported free speech. That's why I love it. People come on the platform, love me, hate me. It's not about me. It's about free speech, having an opinion. I get to respond back. That's what's great about the marketplace of ideas.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Rumble Shorts, you can see, gives you

[Dan Bongino]

these short, digestible short videos like. Like TikTok style. It's taken off tens of thousands of views on a lot of these videos and enables you to share segments from the show if you want. If you don't, that's fine. But without clipping them yourself, Rumble Shorts, please go and download or update the Rumble app. Also, if you want to watch the show on tv, Rumble has on your smart TV an app available. Just search the apps on your tv. Rumble download and you can watch on your tv. A lot of people choose to watch it that way, so we really appreciate it. All right, great interview with Congressman eli crane. The 764 threat and other things, including drones. You know, I'm obsessed with this because, folks, it's gonna happen, and when it happens here, every single person's life is gonna change. You're gonna walk out of your house and anytime you hear a buzz, everybody's gonna go like this. It's a very serious threat. Whether it's my time working in the government or getting back behind the microphone, one thing that keeps me going is a quality good night of sleep. You need sleep. The restorative properties of sleep are unmatched not only for mental clarity but physical health as well. That's why I rely on Helix mattresses. H E L I X Paul and I have had a Helix mattress for years now. We've had a couple of them actually. We're happy we made the change. Helix matches you with the perfect mattress based on your personal preferences, not one for someone else and your sleep needs too. It makes buying a mattress super easy and personalized to you. You can have confidence with your match with seamless returns and exchanges. The Happy with Helix guarantee offers you a risk free customer first experience designed to ensure you're completely satisfied with your new Helix mattress. My guys here in the studio have them too. They're hooked on their Helix mattress after getting their match on their preferences. So go to helixsleep.com dan for 27% off site wide it's h e l I x helixsleep.com dan get your new mattress today 27% off sitewide.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Make sure you enter our show name

[Dan Bongino]

after checkout so they know we sent you again. Helixsleep.com Dan really appreciate it. Helix and Kalshee Listen, you know I'm not a huge gambler but I've been having a lot of fun looking at marketplace predictions for everything from politics to sports. It's a trip. And Kalshee's where I get the best insights on predictions from sports to politics to finance or any variety of markets people are monitoring. Calce.com is a bookmark you need. You really should check it out. I featured them in my last election special and they were spot on. Our president was elected as predicted. Calce.com is one of the only places where you can trade on real world events in all 50 states. Go to Kalshee. It's K-A-L-S-H-I.com Bongino and get a free $10 credit when you trade $100. And it's not just politics or economics. They've got markets on everything from sports to pop culture to climate predictions. Kalshee has a pulse on what the world thinks is going to happen. Go to calshi.com bongino and get a free ten dollar credit when you trade $100. That's K-A-L-S H I kalshi.com bongino. You must be 21, and the purchaser must be present in the state where the trade is placed. See Important [e-mail] Kalshee is subject to US regulatory oversight by the CFTC. Welcoming to the show today, a congressman who has worked extensively with me, the FBI, and the government, national security apparatus on all the pressing issues at the time. Great guy. American patriot, Navy SEAL, represents Arizona Congressional District 2. Congressman Eli Crane. Welcome to the show. Good to have you. You.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Hey, Dan. Thanks for having me on.

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah. Hey, listen, I wanted to have you on in the first month on the air because you and I had the opportunity to work together in the federal government. I'm going to get to State of the Union in a minute. But one of the things, you came in early and you reached out to us. I want people to understand there are some congressmen up there that are there for the parties and the lobbyists and whatever, the tea and crumpets. You're not one of them. You actually reached out early and said, dan, this drone problem, it's a really, really pressing big deal. How can I help? I said, you wanna come on over? You said, I'm there, and I think you came over the next week. We met over in the FBI headquarters building.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is a real threat.

[Dan Bongino]

You were a Navy seal. It presents really obvious issues. It's the tactical high ground. Human beings can't fly. They're tough to intercept. The technology's evolving. I'm really worried about this. How many colleagues of yours up on the Hill understand the problem like you do and are ready to do something about it?

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Well, thanks, Dan. I. I think it. That it's growing. The awareness is growing thanks to, you know, efforts from many of us to beat this drum and sound the alarm. I remember I went to Iraq three times as a. As a seal, and you don't have to be a SEAL to know this. Any Marine or Army guy, you know, that was in country knew that the easiest way for us to get killed was with I. IEDs, improvised explosive devices. And I remember coming back to the States and I would tell anybody that would listen, you know, because I understand terrorists. I understand, you know, that they consider us the Great Satan. They would love to destroy us and install a global caliphate around the world, and they'll. They'll do anything they can to take down the west, the United States. And so I would tell anyone that would listen, Dan, friends, family members, anyone that IEDs were going to be a problem just because I saw overseas how destructive they were and how hard it was, you know, for us to deal with them, even with all the technology and weaponry that we have. And I remember, you know, it wasn't long after that where you had the Boston bombings, you know, where, you know, a couple individuals that were radicalized, you know, used, you know, some little microwave, you know, mini ovens to blow up a bunch of just peaceful folks that wanted to run in a marathon or watch a marathon. And I saw something similar. And it doesn't take rocket science to see this, but I saw what was going on as warfare was advancing overseas, primarily in Ukraine, with the drones. The battlefield has changed forever, and I knew that that was going to come to the states. And so I wanted to do everything that I could to make sure that my colleagues in Congress understood that that was going to be a very real threat in the future. And, you know, I started reaching out to anybody and anybody, everybody that would take a meeting with me. And I'm grateful to you. And Cash, you know, at the FBI, you got guys always were great about letting members come in and talk to you guys. And, you know, I remember telling you that story when I came over the FBI, and it wasn't lost on me that you were very well aware of it. And you had a team of guys that you brought in that was dedicated to this threat. And so we talked through, you know, the. The different threats, you know, tethered drones, you know, our mitigation efforts. You even told me you had somebody from the NFL in the week before to talk about what they're doing about it. So I knew that you were on top of it. But I also know that a lot of times in Congress, Dan, even if somebody's interested in an issue or they're concerned about it, it kind of stays siloed it. And they did. There's not a lot of reach out. There's not a lot of team effort. And so I wanted to do everything in my power to, you know, ask you what I could do to help you guys keep the country safe. And you guys gave me some things that you were struggling with. And unfortunately, like many of the problems that we have in this country, the problem is right here in Congress and members of Congress just not understanding the threats or, you know, getting in little political fights over something or bipartisanship to where we're not focused on these threats that are coming to the United States. And we've seen them already come. You know, you saw a major airport, you Know, have to shut down a couple weeks ago because of, you know, drones. It's just a matter of time. And you brought up, you know, one of the things that I was pushing for, and I brought this up to you, was that, you know, if we're going to have these FIFA World cup games, you know, and we had the committees of jurisdiction come before Homeland Security, let's try and have all these events in a dome. Because if you're in a dome that, you know, that mitigates almost 95% of the drone threat right there. They can't just fly these things into drone, into domes. You know, unfortunately, I found out that probably wasn't a reality because these games had been planned so long in advance. But, you know, do everything you can. That's what the people who sent me to Washington expect me to do. Do everything I can to keep them safe, to put them first. And, you know, that's what it's all about.

[Dan Bongino]

Well, I really appreciate you taking the bull by the horns on that and some initiative, because the threat is real. And you're right, you know, you're a war fighter. Many members of Congress are, but many aren't. And this is not the kind of thing you want to wake up on a Saturday morning after a Friday night drone attack and go, hey, man, we didn't see it coming. You did see see it coming. Everybody saw it coming. Or it's not the future. It's here now. So I'll get back to the national security picture in a minute. Given your expertise in the space, but

[Vince Colon Ace]

the State of the Union last night, I chose to take a different route.

[Dan Bongino]

Earlier in the show, in my coverage, it was an enormously powerful speech by President Trump. Listen, on my show, I'm not pretending to be objective. I'm obviously a MAGA supporter, but. But in my best attempt to be objective, I've seen quite a few of these. You have as well. I thought it was his best performance. I thought it laid out what I consider the golden year of politics for President Trump. But I covered a different angle of it, that you can always gauge the success in politics of whatever you did, a speech, an event, by your opponent's reaction.

[Vince Colon Ace]

If they ignore it, you generally kind

[Dan Bongino]

of flopped because they just want the story to keep going. They. So they let the media cycle run with it. They couldn't. They had counter events on the lawn. I think, like, 12 people showed up. They had frog shows. They had people with f ice pins on. You had Al Green get thrown out for some ridiculous racist sign up. There. I mean, what a disaster for the Democrats in an environment of snapshots and sound bites. This did not look good by any objective measure.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

No, it didn't, Dan. And, you know, there were a lot of members from the Democrat Party that didn't show up. And they'll. They'll sit there and tell you that the reason that they didn't show up is because President Trump is a racist or he's this or he's that. The bottom line is, Dan, many of them are very smart and they know. They know that nobody does a better job of exposing how crazy they are than President Trump. So they know that they're going to be a room for an entire. In a room that's being watched by 20 or 30 million Americans for an hour and a half. And President Trump is going to put them in the hot seat multiple times as he talks about his vision, what, you know, what this administration has done. And then he's going to make. He's going to make them either stand or sit. Right? And that's what he did a masterful job of last night was once again, Democrats. Dan, you and I both know Democrats don't need any help being crazy or looking crazy. Nobody exposes them like President Trump, and that's exactly what he did last night. So the ones, the Democrats that did show up, they put themselves in the hot seat. You know, they were the ones that, you know, supported all these policies, like the open border policies, the trans policies, mutilating children. And so they had a choice last night. They could stand up and clap for, you know, President Trump, you know, awarding, you know, the Congressional Medal of Honor or, you know, acknowledging a gold star mom who was in the audience, or even asking them, you know, hey, stand up. If you think that it's the government's primary responsibility to prioritize the safety of Americans over illegal immigrants, it was brilliant. And none of them stood up for that one. I think that was one of the ones he did. And he just did a masterful job and exposing to the American people who these people really are.

[Dan Bongino]

Congressman, talking to Congressman Eli Crane. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, he is running for reelection. Fantastic. Congressman, Arizona Congressional District 2. Please get out and support him. Congressman, what's your website, by the way? If you want to look you up, just want to make sure you get that in there.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Yeah, they can find me, crane.house.gov on. On the official side, you know, if they want to find me on social media, you know, Congressman Crane, you know, Eli Crane, CEO Any, any of those ways will get you to me.

[Dan Bongino]

Check them out. So, Congressman, having dealt with the, the Democrats for a long time, whether it was as a candidate, myself at one point or having seen various administrations come and go, I'll give them this. Their, their message is always wrong. You know, high taxes, government controlled health care, open board. We get it, we all know what's wrong.

[Vince Colon Ace]

But their messaging, listen, they win.

[Dan Bongino]

They win a lot. They don't win all the time, thank

[Vince Colon Ace]

the Lord, but they win a lot

[Dan Bongino]

because their messaging is good, but their message always sucks.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They know the way to frame an argument.

[Dan Bongino]

They got the liberal media on their side.

[Vince Colon Ace]

They are usually better at this.

[Dan Bongino]

You just brought up a key point.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Last night was such an open book test. You couldn't have possibly flunked this. You've got this poor woman, Ms. Sarutzka. Mother lost her daughter in a brutal

[Dan Bongino]

caught on camera murder.

[Vince Colon Ace]

This is a ground ball.

[Dan Bongino]

This is a bunt.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You get up, you acknowledge the tragedy of the situation.

[Dan Bongino]

They're playing it now on the screen.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You know, Congressman, no one is ever. I don't understand what, when you're weighing the pros and cons, what is the con, the downside of just getting up and acknowledging what this poor women woman want to. It's almost like you just said like Trump flipped the stupid switch in these people and they just can't transition back to sanity.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Yeah, well, the con for them, Dan, is, you know, if they do get up and clap like actually John Fetterman, a lot of, you know, this is something that I witnessed just being in, you know, on the House floor last night. John Fetterman actually got up a lot and clapped for the president. And he was one of the only ones who would have thought that John Fetterman would be the most in, you know, sane Democrat, you know, three years ago. But the, the downside for them is if they get up and clap, then their radical base flips out and goes nuts. You know, that, you know, they showed some, some type of public support for any policy of the president because he did a masterful job in tying all of those things to, you know, the policy decisions and agenda of this administration. And so that's the downside for them. As you can see last night, once again, they failed miserably and showing the American people what exactly they do stand for.

[Dan Bongino]

Talking to Congressman Eli Crane. C R A N E. Look him up. Give him a follow. Arizona Congressional District 2.

[Vince Colon Ace]

Congressman.

[Dan Bongino]

I know the filibusters, obviously on the Senate side, you're on the House side. However, you represent a substantial portion of the great state of Arizona. Your opinion matters. The Save Act. I don't think we're going to be able to save the country's electoral process without an integrated system of voter id. It's just again, the same thing to do. Upwards of 80% of voters across demographics and across parties support voter ID because it just makes sense. We all saw the joke with mom dummy. You need two forms of ID to shovel snow, literally. But he doesn't want ID to vote. That's absurd. Where do you stand? I know you support the same act, obviously, but where do you stand on pushing it through with either enforcement, forcing a talking filibuster again, I know it's on the other side. Or scrapping the filibuster altogether.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

I'm in supportive of that.

[Dan Bongino]

Dan.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

If we're going to save this country, we've got to play offense for far too long. I think one of the biggest problems on Capitol Hill is because you've got, you know, a bunch of Republicans who their primary responsibility has just been to manage the decline of this country. Right. We're, this is no longer the old Democrat Party, you know, the old politics in the United States, big taxes versus little taxes. These people are trying to destroy the country, they would say fundamentally transform it. But when you look at where they come from and you know, with their socialistic tendencies and policies, you know, their Marxist policies, right. Even you've got communists within their ranks and you know, now they're aligning themselves with Islamists jihadists. You know it. You got to choose where you're at. Do you want to help save this country or do you not? And if you do, you got to go on offense. And I will remind your audience, I know that they know this, Dan, you know, because you know, they're a very well informed audience. But it wasn't long ago that the Democrats were in control of Washington D.C. and they tried to get rid of the filibuster. And the only two people that stopped them were Joe and Chris Cinema. And those people are gone now. So I'm going to tell you again, Republicans right now, they are going to do this the moment that they get back in power. And if you don't beat them to the punch, you are a complete fool. If you don't do everything possible, if we don't do everything possible to push for the SAVE act and voter id, you know this country is going to continue to decline and go go the way of a lot of these third world hell holes that people are fleeing from every single day to come to the United States from. That's just a fact.

[Dan Bongino]

Yeah, Congressman, that is a fact. And I wish people would make that argument like you just did. It's not about what's. What's good or bad. Okay. That it's about what's worse or worser or worse. This making up words.

[Vince Colon Ace]

There's no good call here.

[Dan Bongino]

Yes, I agree. Dumping the filibuster is going to make the Democrats who love bigger programs and more government, it's going to make it easier for them. However, that's not the choice we have. The choice is can we preempt the effectively do something about it before they do that and enact our own limited government agenda. I couldn't agree more.

[Vince Colon Ace]

I wanted to switch gears a little bit again, given your space in national security.

[Dan Bongino]

This is something we took very seriously in the FBI. It's a growing threat. I've been warning parents about it over and over and over again using the show, social media. And your office could not have been more helpful. You've got an amazing staff. This 7, 6, 4 threat, it's this group of semi organized, sometimes very organized, sometimes loosely organized group of animals. They go and they target kids in these chat rooms, gaming chat rooms and online. They get these kids, they groom them, they get them to do disgusting things. Congressman, I know you've seen some of the stuff. I'm actually hesitant even talk about it. So gross. Cutting themselves, doing horrible things to animals. And it's probably really shocking to the public to hear this, but there's actually not a good solid menagerie of federal laws to stop this stuff. There's actually stronger laws against torturing animals than there are getting kids to go and do these things to themselves. But your office has been really great and this is a very real threat. We got to protect the kids.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Yeah. Dan, you know, I'm going to commit right now to work with you and anybody else to, you know, get some of these stronger laws on the books. Right now. You know, I didn't get a chance to. But I also want to give you a shout out. You know, the president brought it up last night in his speech, you know, as he went through, you know, the differences between the Biden administration and the Trump administration. Crime and, you know, murder, the murder rates being down 20%. That did. That did not just magically happen. Okay. That happened. And I've heard you and Cash talk about it before, you know, by bringing in people who are willing to let law enforcement and cops be cops. Right. And do the job that Americans expect them to do. And so, you know, I want to applaud you for that. I want to applaud the Trump administration for that. That, that's massive. That's going to save so many lives. You know, and we got to see some of the families that were, have been affected last night at the State of the Union, you know, some of whom the Democrats wouldn't even get up and clap for because they know deep down that they caused these very problems. But I will commit to you, to work with you on, on this issue. You know, as somebody who worked exclusively, you know, in law enforcement, I'm always down to, you know, take advice from those that are professionals in a field. And I have heard about this, you know, 764, you know, threat and what goes on in there. I won't claim to be an expert on it, but I will commit to work with you on this to try and get and beat that drum so that we can make sure our kids are safe.

[Dan Bongino]

Oh, that's, that's, that's just fantastic to hear. I'll take you up on that, Congressman. I really appreciate. There is that. And I just wanna give a quick shout out to the passionate group of online folks on Twitter and elsewhere who have been highlighting the magnitude of this horrifying problem and doing a ton of legwork on it. You all know who you are. I've got limited time with the congressman. I mentioned you all by name, but you all know who you are. Congressman, last question for you again. You have a extensive array of experience in the national security space. There's an armada in the Middle east right now sending a don't mess around message from President Trump after he disabled the Iranian nuclear program. President Trump has always sought diplomacy first. He's not the kind of shoot now, ask questions later president. He's just not, he's trying diplomacy. Diplomacy with the Iranians has never really been very successful. They're the death dwarf America crowd. You don't deploy those kind of assets into the Middle east, you know, air assets, waterborne assets and else and more. You don't deploy those kind of assets without the intent to use them. If the Iranians don't move on this program.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Yeah, Dan, you know, this is something that, you know, I tend to be a little cautious on. And I'll tell you why. As somebody who went overseas, lost a lot of friends, and then looks back on that situation, I know we spent a lot of blood and treasure overseas, primarily in the Middle east over the last couple decades. You Know, I take these things very seriously because of how many gold star mothers that I personally know, how many friends that of mine that didn't come home. You know, I'm very cautious, you know, when, when it looks like there's a chance for us to go to war. I want to make sure that we've exhausted all options, you know, and our primary focus was on, you know, handling it any diplomatic way that we can. But if we do use action against Iran, you know, I want to, I hope it's as surgical as possible. I hope that we do not make a foolish mistake and get into some long, you know, drawn out war where we're losing, you know, you know, thousands or thousands of young Americans with their futures in front of them, spending money that we don't have. And so that, that, that is my message. That needs to be the last, you know, that needs to be the last chip that we play if we have to play it. I hope, and I pray that we don't have to play that ship because you know, I've seen, and you know, there's a lot of people watching your show that lost a loved one in Afghanistan or Iraq. And when I look back, when I look at where those places are now, you know, and that, that has to be something that's factored into the decision making. Okay, you take out a regime, what's next, right? We do not have a good track record in the United States of America of, you know, regime change. And then, you know, that said country, you know, becoming some beacon of freedom, you know, that's no longer a threat to the United States. So we have to be level headed about this. You know, I know the President's been presented many plans. We have to pray for his wisdom and discernment and making these very tough decisions. I hope it doesn't go there, Dan, but if it does, I hope it's surgical, you know, something like, you know, we saw in Venezuela. I don't, those are two completely different battle sets and battle problems there. Iran is no Venezuela, let's make no mistake about that. But you know, I just, I, I want us to be as, as careful as possible to make sure we don't get in some extended drawn out, you know, World War 3, you know, in Iran or anywhere else.

[Dan Bongino]

You know, Congressman, that's why I asked you the question. I, you know, I have tremendous respect for you and this is a healthy debate within the Republican Party. This is a, this is a debate that needs to happen. Unlike the Democrats that act like a bunch of robots and Automatons. We're talking about something you just said. You know, it gets me emotionally sometimes. We're talking about human lives, young, you know, men and women who, who are going to go over there and potentially risk their own lives that, that. You're right. All avenues should be exhausted, and this has to be a deliberate process. But it's easy for guys like me who never served and I didn't. I, I. In a different capacity, but it's not the same. And I appreciate everybody who says I did not serve like you did. I'm not even close. If you haven't, you know, seen combat, your opinion's valuable. It's a republic. We all should express an opinion. But it doesn't carry as much weight as someone who's seen the scars of combat. And that's why what you said, I think, is going to resonate with my audience. And that's why I wanted to end with that question. I want to thank you for your service not just to the Navy SEALs, Congressman, but also in the last year. Again, you were one of the few guys, a handful of guys, that reached out directly. I'm going to impugn others. We reached out to others, and they got back to us. But you were very proactive. What can I do? How can I help? And I just want the audience to know that, that not everybody's up there, you know, sitting on their ass, drinking Sanka. There are people out there doing the work of the people, and you were one of them. So I really appreciate it. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate it.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Dan, thanks for having me on, and thanks for being willing to go back into service. I know it's. I know it's not easy, you know, to come back and to the, you know, one of the most swampy, wicked places on earth in certain countries, and. But I appreciate you doing it, brother. I'm glad you're back on the airwaves. I want to give a shout out to Rochelle Martin, who's a massive Dan Bongino fan in Arizona. God bless you, brother.

[Dan Bongino]

Love you, Rochelle. Thanks, Congressman. Talk to you soon. That was Congressman Eli Crane. Yeah, well, definitely one of the good guys, folks. I try to bring you, you know, a wide array of. Of folks from the Senate House side, political figures, thought leaders, and others. And I think so far, we've been doing a pretty good job. We had a pretty good guest list, and we're working on some more coming forward. Got some big names. We're getting ready to line up for you. Thank you again for Joining us live, folks. Again, I reminded you earlier in the show. I'll remind you again. Please update or download the Rumble app. We launched Rumble Shorts just the other day. The Rumble app is live now on iOS and the Google App Store. You'll see. This is what Shorts looks like again. I showed you before. That's the Rumble Web presence. You'll see the Shorts tab right there.

[Vince Colon Ace]

What is Rumble shorts?

[Dan Bongino]

It's like TikTok but with free speech. So it's taken off the views on these things. Some of you like to share small snippets of the show. You don't have to do clipping or cutting.

[Vince Colon Ace]

You can just go to Rumble Shorts

[Dan Bongino]

and share from there. So download, download the Rumble app or just update the Rumble app you have now. And if you'd like to watch the show on TV on your television, you can. There's a Rumble app for your app for your smart TV too. You can watch the show every day. Tune in live at 10am rumble.com bongino on your TV or on the Rumble app. It is free. If you wouldn't mind, click that subscribe button. It is free as well. We've been adding tens of thousands of new followers. Yesterday's show did Bonkers numbers really. Appreciate it. And make sure you check out Haley and Vince at noon and 8am Vince Colon Ace on Rumble and then Haley at noon as well. I will see you back here tomorrow. And before I go again, thank you very much for all the amazing support yesterday. I don't want to leave today without telling you that. I don't think you guys know how much that meant to me. I really appreciate it. Bongino, army man, loyal for life. Thank you all. See you back here tomorrow.

[Congressman Eli Crane]

Hey there.

[Dan Bongino]

I'm Vince.

[Hayley Caranilla]

I'm Hayley Caranilla, host of Vince, host of Scrolling with Haley.

[Dan Bongino]

You can always catch my show right here.

[Hayley Caranilla]

Right here on the Bongino Report Channel

[Vince Colon Ace]

Live, 8am Eastern weekday mornings, noon weekdays.

[Hayley Caranilla]

And if you miss it, no worries. The show will always be right here and anywhere you find a podcast.

[Dan Bongino]

Thanks for watching.