Transcript of Sunday Special with Sean Parnell, Mike Davis, Julie Kelly, Tim Murtaugh, Kurt Schlichter 12/08/24

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In fact, you can get 3 extra months of ExpressVPN for free just by using my special link. Go to expressvpn.com/bongino. That's expressvpn.com/bongino to get 3 extra months free. First up today, we talked with my good friend, Sean Parnell. He's a combat vet and a really wonderful guy from Pennsylvania.

Nobody knows more about the military than Sean. Talking about the attacks, the gross attacks on another friend of ours, Pete Hegset, the nominee for defense secretary. You're gonna wanna listen. Folks, it's a real disgrace what's happening to Pete Hegseth, who is a, combat veteran. What happens to these men who and and women who we we, you know, we put overseas, and these men we put in harm's way, who have to suffer psychological and physical scars for the rest of their lives for having to do do really bad things for us.

We ask them to go out there, and we ask them, you have to take that other man's life because they're going to attack your fellow countrymen, and they are a danger to your friends and family. And they do it. And a lot of them come back, understandably, with a lot of issues that need to be dealt with. That does not disqualify these men and women of character and integrity from public life or anything else. And if you are gonna disqualify them, then you damn well can disqualify me and everyone else.

Here to talk about Pete Hegseth and what's happened to him. He's a good friend, a combat veteran himself, a man who knows and has had the experience. Our friend from Pennsylvania, Sean Parnell. Sean, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

Hey, Dan. Thank you for having me, my friend.

Well, there's no 1, no 1 else to really have on this because I don't have a lot of friends with combat, experience like you do. You've been there. You know what that feeling is like. It is a, you know, I hate the word unique, but it is a unique experience. If you haven't been there, you can comment on it, but you're never gonna comment from experience.

I think it's a damn shame what's happening to Pete Hegseth, these allegations of, you know, improper use of alcohol. 1, because they're fake. I worked with Pete. But second, Sean, you know, there's nothing wrong with, you know, Pete sitting down with a friend and having a beer or a drink sometime to talk about what happened over there. I mean, people do it all the time as long as you do it responsibly, what Pete always did.

That's not a story. And and it's really a shame what's happening, to him, the the destruction of his character.

Oh, and then this is their playbook. They did the same exact thing to me. I don't wanna even go into any of that. But this is very personal to me because, 1, I know Pete. I've known him long before he was even on Fox Fox News.

I worked with him directly when he was at Concerned Veterans for America. I was his senior adviser. So when I saw that hit piece come out from the New York the New Yorker, immediately, I knew it was completely bogus. And then to the drinking thing, did 10 plus years ago, Pete and I go out after a CVA event and have a have a couple of drinks with, you know, the other men and women who served this country front towards enemy in support of America's wars for 20 years? You're darn right we did.

But did anything ever get out of hand? Of course not. I mean, Dan, the entire business model of the VFW is built around veterans getting together and having a couple of drinks together. There's nothing out of the ordinary about this. I mean, your lead in was perfect.

I mean, you go to war. I served in combat for 485 days. Some of my men were wounded twice. 1 person was wounded 3 times. I was wounded as well.

We we served on the Afghan Pakistan border. My platoon killed over 350 enemy fighters, didn't hurt or kill a single civilian that entire time. We're proud of that service, but I would be lying to you if I told you that it didn't affect you in a very deep and profound way. And our men and women come home changed from those experiences, and Pete is a guy who understands exactly what that's like. Because guess what?

He served in Iraq. He served in Afghanistan. He served in Guantanamo Bay looking after the prisoners who were trying to kill him. And now this guy gets the nod for secretary of defense. And, like, we're supposed to believe that despite being in the public eye for 10 years, that all of a sudden the media is all of a sudden going to be honest and saying that Pete's the worst guy in the world.

There is a motivation behind what they're doing and it is protecting the interests of the military industrial complex, these defense contractors who profit off of sending America's sons and daughters into the fight and the lucrative contracts that they get. Pete is a

threat to all of that,

and that's exactly why you're seeing character assassination of that of that man right now.

Well, we're talking to Sean Parnell. Sean, you have a really invaluable perspective here because like me, you've been a candidate for public office, on the federal side. But unlike me, you're a combat vet. I'm not. I was never in the military.

So you've actually seen both sides of this. And if this is really kind of the red line that the communist scumbag hack media and the left wing commies are gonna draw in the sand that, you know, you go overseas, you suffer the psychological and physical ramifications of having to kill our enemies while these media people sit in their cushy office on their fat fat asses here and just write about it. And then if you come back and have a beer once in a while, that all of a sudden you're eliminated from public office, then you are going to get the worst of the worst zeros. Some of the most invaluable American citizens we've had since the foundation of this republic have been people willing to put their asses on the line for others. This is an unattainable standard, and they are only doing this because of what you just said.

He is going to ask the question before we send our men and our women overseas to die on foreign soil. Why? Why are we going? And that's the 1 thing they don't want.

I could not agree with you more. I mean, listen. You know, I know what it's like. I was a combat veteran. I I I had my name on that ballot.

They use the same playbook on me. The VA someone at the VA leaks my medical records. All of a sudden, I'm an angry combat veteran. The media paints this false picture of me like I'm a day away from climbing a bell tower with a sniper rifle, a threat to everybody around you. Oh, he drinks too much.

Oh, he's angry. It's the same thing. And, you know Yeah. I'm okay with a little bit different, and I think president Trump is as well in terms of the direction of the Pentagon. You saw what happened in Afghanistan.

We fought there for 20 years. I mean, Dan, I'm 43 years old. We were at war in Afghanistan for half of my life. What do we have to show for it? A horrifying embarrassing surrender on the world stage.

In Iraq, for just about that same amount of time, thousands of Americans dead, tens of thousands of Americans wounded, hundreds of thousands of Americans in both of those were suffering from the invisible wounds of war, a 1000000 Iraqis dead. What do we have to show for it? 1,000,000,000,000 of dollars in debt. And these very same experts are they've they've embroiled us in a quagmire in Ukraine that if we stay on this path, the end will be exactly the same. So you know what?

I'm okay with somebody that's outside the box. I'm okay with a with a war fighter who knows what it feels like to have bullets

cracked by the

running the show.

Sean. He's not Pete, at no point Pete Hegseth, at no point is saying, hey. Listen. My behavior is beyond reproach. This was all great.

At no point is he said that. He has said, listen. I've had personal problems in the past, and what worries me is they yes. They did the same thing to you because I strongly supported you for office when you ran. They did the exact same thing.

Here's what worries me. I'm not I'm not even a veteran, but I nobody loves their military more than I do. God bless everything you guys have done for us. Guys like you who suffer the unseen scars of war, the things you've seen and have to deal with the rest of your life are now gonna have to do it quietly. Because the first thing you're thinking if you go and actually talk to someone and seek some help, hey, man, this is an issue.

The first thing you're gonna be thinking is this gonna be used as some tactical weapon against me in the future if I'm nominated for a board position somewhere or a government position? It's disgusting.

You are a 100% right. My wife said this to me, my now wife, when I was running for senate, she said, you know what, Sean? Like, you can handle all this. I ended up getting out of the senate race to be with my children and be a father to my children. But she said, you know, the real tragedy here, you can defend yourself.

You've always been able to defend yourself. You're a fighter. But there are thousands of veterans out there who might be trying to evaluate whether or not they wanna get help, and now they won't because they see how you were treated just because you wanted to serve your country. And Pete is the same damn thing. Oh, so the guy leaves think about this.

He leaves Fox Fox and Friends, which is a freaking dream jobs, making ton of money there, go see the secretary of defense, huge pay cut. All he wants to do is altruistic intention of serving his country and making our military better. And by the way, you know, our children and grandchildren, this means that they will they inherit a military that is lethal, that is awesome, that is awesome, that is highest breed of corps, that is not getting us involved in these ridiculous endless wars. I mean, this affects all of us. And here's Pete saying, yeah.

I wanna serve my country, volunteers to do it again after having served it once already and put his life on the line. And this is what he has to endure on the behalf of a spoiled, rotten, ungrateful media that does nothing but serve itself. It makes it it makes me sick to my stomach for what this man and by the way, his wife and his children are having to go through right now.

Yeah. Sean, listen. A lot of men are are damaged. And, you know, it's not you know this. I mean, you're a testosterone guy like me.

You know, it's not comfortable to talk about. Guys just aren't like that. We just like, I don't call Sean and I are close personal friends, but I don't call Sean. Sean, I need to talk about what happened this week. Everybody, like, you figure it out.

Like, guys, I'm not telling you to try it wrong, folks. I'm just saying, like, that's not guys typically don't do that. But, you know, this makes me think of this, this student I had when I was, in the training academy as an instructor. He was an Afghan war war vet. He was a marine, this guy, Jason.

And the only reason I say his name is because he told me when he told me it was okay. But he sent me an email probably 10 years after I had an ex experiences with him. When I always said to my, I said, man, this this guy, he just doesn't talk and he was such a good guy. He wrote me this email about his combat experience 1 time, and I gotta tell you, Sean, he was talking about things like the pink mist when bodies explode in front of you, and he said I live with these horrible dreams of awful things happening to my daughter. And he's like I can't get it out of my head, and, you know, the battle buddies who are hurt, and things I saw people doing in the in the desert out there.

And I read this email on the air and I thought to myself, you know, you can deal. You guys are tough. You combat vets are tough. You can deal with, you know, a wound, a gunshot. You know, the modern medical technology, it's gonna suck, but I promise you, you'll deal with it and you'll get through it.

My congressman here, Brian Mast has no legs. He's had both of his legs blown off in an EOD attack. He dealt with it. He's now a congressman. It's not it's a horrible situation, but he got through it.

But those mental scars and what these guys deal with, and now you're gonna attack the guy for having a beer once in a while when no person on the record has said that he's anything other than a man of integrity, who may have went out and legally celebrated with a couple of friends once in a while, it's total bull you get the point.

Yeah. I do. And don't you want somebody who has those experience, those life and death experiences, who knows what it means to make a decision holding someone's life in your hand and and knowing that if you make a bad decision, an America's son or daughter might come home in a body bag, don't you want somebody who's had to make those decisions on the battlefield, calling the shots at the very top and advising the President of the United States on defense matters and national security matters for this country? I do. Does that mean a person like that is not going to have some struggles, especially when they come back from the war?

I mean, we're not even talking about 30 years later. We're talking about years after just a couple of years after he came back from the fight. I mean, to me, these things are qualifiers. And I'm and I he's he's the perfect guy for the he he definitely not a single senate Republican should vote against this guy.

Yeah. If they do, Sean, we really do have to activate the network. This has gotta be a line in the sand for us. This is way Yep. Too important.

They've already taken 1 scalp, and we can't let the swamp win on this 1. There you know, folks, I hate the word literally. I can't stand it. This is literally a life or death matter. It is.

And ever not figuratively.

We figured it.

Sean Parnell, I gotta run. I will get back to you with that thing right after the show we were texting about. But I really appreciate you coming on last minute. You're an invaluable voice. And I said thank you for your incredible service to this country in combat.

A grateful nation really, really appreciates, and I know my listeners do everything you and your colleagues in the military have done. Thank you so much.

You got it, brother. Thank you for having me.

You got it. Folks, it's just hard for me. As a guy who oh, you know, my greatest regret in my life is not going into marine corps. I feel like I let you all down. I do.

I feel like I should have done it. And the NYPD called, and I just I was going broke. I needed the money. I figured I could go back in the reserves later, and they never did it. They never did it.

And that there's no service like our military. And to just beat these guys up for coming back damage. I'm not apologizing for anyone. I'm not telling you that, oh, he should've done this and you should ignore it. I'm not telling you that at all.

Incorporate it into your decision making. But just know this, real men make enemies in life, and real men have to make really hard decisions. And some of those decisions come with secondary effects you didn't intend. And maybe you did some bad things, but that doesn't disqualify you from taking a leadership position. And I'd rather have a guy damaged who knows what that damage looks like, and he'll make decisions to avoid that damage in someone else then some think tank loser with a Harvard degree or whatever has never spent a day on a foreign combat battlefield having a bullet whiz by his head.

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That's shopbeam.com/bongino. Use code Bongino for up to 45% off. Up next, we talk about the lawfare expert of experts, Mike Davis, about the Hunter Biden pardon and what it really means. He's got some really, interesting insights And, as Jim producer Jim knows, he really likes the word scumbag a lot, which applies really well to the Biden crew. Listen to this.

So whenever we wanna dive into lawfare, which is sadly grown geometrically within our former constitutional republic. This is the guy pretty much everyone in the conservative media ecosystem goes to. He's 1 of the 2 Mikes. We got Mike Benz for deep state stuff, and then the great Mike Davis for law fair stuff. Mike, welcome back to the show.

It's great to have you.

Thank you for having me back on.

You know, you're great to have on. Mike works with the article 3 project, also as a law clerk for justice Gorsuch. So, he knows what he's talking about. Mike, this Hunter Biden pardon, is is a fiasco. It really, it may be a great messaging opportunity for the MAGA movement because Donald Trump has been warning about, this broken system of injustice.

However, I think you'd agree it's a disaster for the United States around the world. It makes us look like a third world that, you know, tin pot dictatorship, and I think there are really gonna be long term consequences for United States' prestige overseas. Your thoughts on that part first.

I agree with you completely. And isn't it amazing that Joe Biden, the biggest scumbag to ever occupy the White House, has knocked these Biden Democrats off their high horse when it comes to the justice system. Remember they were saying that basically Trump and his supporters are pariahs and they're all about the rule of law. Well, Joe Biden's pardon and the Biden Democrats' indefensible defense of this pardon just proves that they're all scum.

I played your clip before from Bannon's war room, and, there's no more appropriate word. I mean, what happened over there, Mike, in Ukraine? Ukraine's been used as a piggy bank for a long time. I wrote about it in 1 of my books. I was just discussing it before you come came on.

Pro European factions versus pro Russia factions. This is nothing new. Some Republicans were involved in this too. They're certainly not free of it. But Hunter Biden was knee deep in it for a whole lot of money.

And the issue here is this happened while his dad was the vice president. And I've made the case, and again, I'd like to get your thoughts on this. This pardon isn't really about protecting Hunter Biden. They don't care about Hunter Biden. It's about protecting Joe Biden and Barack Obama because they clearly knew that there was some illicit exchange of information for influence peddling and money that went on while Obama was in the White House?

Yeah. Of course. Do does anyone think that anyone in their right mind would hire Hunter Biden a crackhead doofus to do anything, let alone pay this guy 1,000,000 of dollars?

I mean, what the hell do

they think they're buying? What What did the Biden family do for the $23,000,000 in accounting that House Oversight Chairman James Palmer has been able to show through bank statements, subpoenaed bank statements that went into what seems like every scumbag Biden's bank accounts except for the 6 year old granddaughter who they finally claimed before the election and now they've already taken down her Christmas stocking after the election. What did they think that they were buying from the Bidens for this $23,000,000 Was it Hunter Biden's expertise in the geopolitics of Ukraine and Russia? I mean, it's obviously corruption And this this pardon going back conveniently to 11 years to the start of this corrupt deal between Burisma and and Hunter Biden, it's just purely coincidence. Right?

Yeah. We're talking to Mike Davis, article 3 project, former law clerk for justice Gorsuch, expert on government law fair. Mike, I I know you're, you know, probably the soon to be appointed viceroy in the Trump team, and I'm we're all very excited about that position. It's gonna be great to be cleaning up government over there. But so as vice Roy, Scott Jennings, a conservative commentator on CNN, has had a lot of viral clips lately.

Wow. CNN hasn't fired him. I'm stunned because he seems to speak the truth over there a lot. But he made the point recently, and I'd love to get your thoughts on this, that this is not the hill to die on. I mean, I get it that the Democrats are collectivist, socialist, and generally commies that that strain of the party has now taken over since the death of the DLC.

But this is not the hill to die on. I mean, the Biden family has a sorted history of corruption, plagiarism, lying, disgusting personal behavior. I mean, family scandals. They just again, plagiarism, lying about his history in law school. This is not the hill to die on.

They could save their party brand, and I'm not here to give them advice, but they could save their party brand and at least make a political argument by just saying, hey, man. This was just a bad call. It was a stupid call. He shouldn't have done it. He's his dad, whatever, but they can't even do that.

They're still defending this thing.

Yeah. I mean, that's they're like taking the cyanide pills in the bunker with Joe Biden right now. It's amazing that they're still defending this scumbag and particularly his scumbag son Hunter. You know, with Democrats, you thought that once someone's no longer useful to your quest for power, they throw you overboard. So it's surprising that there are still Democrats who are willing to defend Joe Biden at this point.

Maybe they're on the take as well, but I would say this, this pardon of Hunter Biden proves that everything Joe Biden and these Biden Democrats did against president Trump was absolutely unquestionably welfare and election interference.

Mike, you you know a lot about the legal profession. What is your take on Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor? You see him often on Fox. His take about the perjury argument that right now given that Hunter Biden was given the most expansive pardon in modern US history, there's certainly, no no coral that I've seen. This really expansive pardon that he now if he subpoenaed in front of congress about the matters he's been pardoned on, can't plead the 5th.

So he would have to, in turn, speak about the matter. If he were to perjure himself and lie about his dad's role, that that could be that perjury crime would be a new crime. Do do you think that's plausible or is that or or or is that a stretch? Because a lot of my listeners, they don't they don't wanna let this go, and and and I don't either. This was really a disgraceful stain on the American body politic what the Bidens did.

Jonathan Turley is exactly right. Once you give someone a a pardon like this, at least for federal crimes, you can't you cannot assert your 5th Amendment right against self incrimination if you don't face criminal jeopardy. And by giving this pardon to Hunter, he doesn't face federal criminal jeopardy. Now he could argue possibly that if he testifies, it could subject him to state charges for corruption. But as it relates to federal charges, he cannot assert the 5th Amendment for his testimony before grand juries or Congress.

And I would say this to the House Judiciary Committee, the House Oversight Committee, the House Intel Committee, get moving on subpoenaing Hunter Biden, make him testify because this is so much bigger than hookers and blow with this scumbag. This is about the President of the United States being compromised by $23,000,000 in couching to his family members, and they need to do an intel assessment to figure out what did the what did Joe Biden give to these foreign actors, these corrupt foreign actors in exchange for this $23,000,000 to Joe Biden's family.

Yes. Yes. We're talking to Mike Davis. Mike, that that's the point I've been trying to kinda tattoo on the audience's brain. That's the important part here.

This wasn't a simple, hey. Let's get access to Joe Biden through his son operation, you know, maybe some legislation will pass in the United States that'll benefit bill. No. This is more complicated than that. There are very serious allegations that deeply classified bodies of information regarding Ukraine in the region may have made its way to Ukrainian officials via the Biden family.

I mean, the Biden classified documents case is tied into all of this. And if that happened, there is a compelling government interest and an immediate 1 in doing what you just said. A damage assessment and and some, you know, legal retribution for this to make sure that this doesn't happen again and no 1 gets this idea again.

Well, let's think about it this way. We had when President Obama put Vice President Joe Biden in charge of Ukraine and the Biden family went on the take roughly, what did Putin do? He smelled weakness and he invaded Crimea. We had 4 years of peace and prosperity under President Trump. We did not have aggression by Putin in Ukraine.

Biden's back, Hunter's back, the corrupt Biden family's back on the take in Ukraine and now Putin tried to take the rest of Ukraine. How many 100 of 1,000,000,000 of dollars have we spent because Putin smelled Biden's corruption and weakness? This was an avoidable war in Ukraine, and the reason we have a war in Ukraine is because of the Biden corruption.

Yeah. Talking to Mike Davis. Mike, let me switch topics quickly. Kash Patel is nominated, to be the next director of the FBI. Of course, we'd have to fire Christopher a verse who's indicated he is not gonna step down.

His term runs through 2027. That is perfectly within the president's purview to do that. He's done it before with Jim Comey. Christopher Aye, I believe needs to go. He's been terrible as bad as Jim Comey.

But I think they fear Kash Patel for a reason. I always measure the effectiveness of a pick by the media overreaction, and they've been losing their minds. I think what they're afraid of here is there's never been really an honest bookkeeping and an opening in the books about what happened during Spygate and the collusion hoax. Those are not the same thing. They're interrelated.

The collusion hoax was obviously a fabricated fairy tale initiated by Comey and his operators and Fusion GPS, and the spying on the Donald Trump team was a separate matter with the collusion hoax as a pretext to do it. But I think that that book is not yet has not done being written yet. And, you know, Homan Jenkins at The Wall Street Journal has indicated there's a deeper story there about FBI malfeasance. I think that's why they're afraid of Kash Patel.

Well, they should be because they made up the Russian collusion hoax and the crossfire hurricane investigation made wide to the FISA court. They worked with the Steele dossier with the Clinton campaign, Perkins Coie, the Obama White House, Vice President Biden, the AG, the FBI, they made up the Russian collusion hoax because Hillary Clinton had her illegal home server as Secretary of State not only with our nation's most classified secrets but the Clinton Foundation pay for play foreign bribery schemes. The Clinton Foundation is taking tens of 1,000,000 of dollars from these corrupt foreign actors. What did Hillary Clinton do in exchange for that quid pro quo foreign bribery and corruption. They remember she got caught, she destroyed the evidence, she bleach bit at the server, she took hammers to the devices, she thought the evidence was gone but maybe just maybe the evidence wasn't gone.

Maybe our worst enemies, China and Russia, hacked this server and had the evidence and maybe just maybe that's why they came up with the Russian collusion hoax. So, if this evidence came out before the 2016 campaign, the Hillary campaign could point to a campaign dirty trick by the Trump campaign with the Russians and you say, Oh, Mike, that's crazy. How could you think that they did the same thing with Hunter Biden's laptop and the Biden family corruption in 2020. They had the the 51 former intel officials work with the current CIA to say that all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. The whole reason they're trying to take out Trump with this lawfare is because he declassified crossfire hurricane the day before he left office.

The FBI, the CIA ran to Mark Meadows, the Chief of Staff and said you can't put out these declassified crossfire hurricane presidential records because you're going to violate the Privacy Act, you're going to reveal sources and methods. But Mark Meadows said okay, the day they left office January 20, 2021, do your Mark Meadows issued a memo. Do your privacy act review. Get out these documents. Well, guess what?

They didn't do the privacy act review. They didn't get out the documents. They did the moro lago rate instead. That's gonna come out with cash Patel.

Yeah. There you go, folks. And by the way, that is not your theory there. It's, I believe, absolutely spot on. And there are a number of other Spygate collusion hoax, investigative reporters, credible people you and I both know who are leaning in that same direction.

That Jim Comey knew all of this the entire time, and that classified appendix, Jenkins talks about all the time in the Wall Street Journal. That when that comes out, it's gonna be an eye opener for a lot of Americans. Mike Davis, thanks so much for your time. Article 3 project, a law clerk for justice Gorsuch, and a generally good guy. Mike, we really appreciate it.

Thanks for coming on.

Thank you.

Mike Davis, man. Like I told you, you wanna talk law fair? That's the guy to do it. Another interesting interview next, but let's hear from our next sponsor first. Hey.

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Now there is a nexus between this disastrous story of the Hunter Biden pardon, and it is. It is a an absolute threat to our government, institutions, everything. There's a messaging opportunity to clean it up, but it's a mess. And January 6th. And whenever there's a nexus to anything January 6th, I bring on the person who wrote the book titled Jim.

What's the title of the book? January that's it's crazy. January 6th. Julie Kelly, Julie, welcome back to the show. Always good to have you.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Dan. And I like to keep things easy. You know, we don't need complicated titles. January 6th, that's all we need.

Do you know how many people they say, yeah, Dan. You mentioned the book a few times, like, the title and, like, January 6th. Yeah. You know, I know that's what No. No.

That's the title. January I love that. Keep it real simple. That's a brilliant marketing story. I love it.

But the book's amazing. Gives you the real story, and I'll get I'll get to the nexus between you know where I'm going with this, but I wanna hit you up with the general kind of pardon first. Julie, I said in the first hour of the show, and I want your take on it, that, yes, this is a tremendous opportunity for us to message against the deep state. We we know what you and I have known as real for a long time. Now it's absolutely irrefutable.

But let's be candid. I mean, this is really terrible for our country. We're an embarrassment on the international stage. Faith in institutions now is totally collapsed. No serious person, that's not a die hard ideologue believes, like, you know, justice is blind or any of these other tropes anymore.

This this this Obama Biden regime has really decimated faith in institutions across the board.

It absolutely has. And, you know, there's recent polling that bears this out. There was a Gallup poll released in September that shows historically low trust factors by the American people in our major institutions. And a few of the institutions with the lowest approval ratings are the Department of Justice and the FBI. And that is precisely because starting with Obama, and of course you wrote the book on crossfire hurricane, starting with that weaponizing, and politicizing the DOJ first against Trump campaign advisors, the president himself, his family members, and then now more than 1500 of his supporters who are ensnared and caught up in unprecedented vengeful prosecution of the events of January 6th.

So they are directly responsible, and this is just the latest thumb in the eye of, you know, mister rule of law and, you know, our threats to democracy, Joe Biden has been warning about for 4 years. And now at the end of the day, pardoning his son not just for the crimes for which he has been convicted, but crimes he apparently, committed over the past 4 years while his father was president. Just a breathtaking scope of this clemency, protecting Hunter Biden from his criminality and, of course, his family's as well.

Julie's got a great substack. We're talking to Julie Kelly. Julie_kelly2, on x, and you can check out her substack. You've been all over January 6th. Like I said, you wrote the book about it.

However, I don't want people to forget that you've been all over the document scam in Mar a Lago too. The raid of Melania Trump's underwear drawer by federal agents who magically couldn't seem to find another way, to get these I mean, even though cooperation was happening. But this goes back to my point that, yes, acknowledging this is awful for the United States, period. Full stop, aroo. This should not have happened.

We look like idiots. But if Biden is going to engage in this type of corruption, then damn well we're gonna expose and message it. And this has been a gift for people like you, screaming the deep state is real. Just like the documents case, where Biden's DOJ was like, oh my gosh. Trump stole these documents even though he had the declassification authority.

And then what does it turn out? Biden's got stolen documents. I mean, this guy cannot get out of his own way. Government's weaponized and he pardons his kid for, importantly, Julie, a potential crime in Farah that Biden himself is involved in.

Right. And, I mean, I think you just raised a very important point. The charges that were finally brought against Hunter Biden were slap on the wrist compared to the international crime racket that Hunter Biden at the direction of the big guy, his father, helped direct dating back to his days even before he was named to the Burisma, quote, unquote, board of directors, which of course he was not a board member. He was a lobbyist, and he never registered as such similar to his business dealings with other foreign adversaries including China and Russia. So, you know, this is the minimal kind of prosecution that could have been brought against Hunter Biden.

So he's gonna get away with all of this. And to your point, at the same time, the FBI conducted that armed raid of Mar a Lago 9 hours under the rules of trying to find government papers, rummaging it really violating the terms of an already very broad search warrant by rummaging through Melania's personal suite and Barron Trump's bedroom. At the same time, we now know Joe Biden's top associates were scouring Penn Biden Center and and Biden's home looking for similar documents, knowing that this investigation was underway by the Biden DOJ and knowing that it was going to result in some sort of indictment. So and I know this from covering the documents case. There's proof, Dan, of collusion between the Biden White House, his general counsel or deputy general counsel, Jonathan Hsu, working with officials at the DOJ and the National Archives to concoct a documents case dating back to the spring of 2021.

This was always their plan. And so here, once again, just a brazen slap in your face, double standard of justice, where not only was Joe Biden never held accountable for holding national defense information and his ghostwriter destroying evidence at the same time. You know, now now we have his his son off scot free.

We're talking to Julie Kelly, the author of the book January 6th. I I wanna get to the Kash Patel appointment in a minute in relation to what you just said, the collusion between the Biden White House and the DOJ, but I I just wanna kinda put a bow on this. My opinion, and and I'd like to get your thoughts on this, is that this is really not about protecting Hunter Biden. Joe Biden doesn't care about his son. If he did, he wouldn't have sent him overseas with a crack problem.

So please spare me, like, the good dad arguments. I'm not interested. I told you to tell my audience, if if you're a Republican and you're gonna go with that, like, you are being gaslit into the phantom zone. But I believe this is about protecting Obama. Obama and Joe Biden.

You have to remember, people forget that it was Obama that made Biden the point man on Ukraine. You can't tell me, Julie, with a straight face, with the mounds of evidence saying otherwise, that Obama didn't know what Biden was up to with this money laundering scheme for information using his family as conduits. Obama had to know. They're not protecting Hunter. Hunter probably threatened or implied or winked and nodded at the family.

Hey, man. I don't get a pardon. It'd be a real shame if I, like, wrote a book or something. This is about protecting Obama and Joe not Hunter.

Absolutely right. And you know who else turned a blind eye to all of this as it was unfolding during the Obama years? Jack Smith, the special counsel who was head of the public integrity unit from 2010 to 2014, end of 2014 when the Bidens were flying around on air force 2 taking Hunter to China and other locations, you know, vacuuming up all of this foreign money to put into the Biden family bank account. Jack Smith turned a blind eye. And now where is he?

He is going to be the target of a DOJ investigation and congressional Republican investigation into abusing his authority and committing probably several crimes in the process, obstructing justice, for example, fabricating, tampering with evidence that we know happened with the Mar a Lago rate, destroying evidence which came out during the classified documents court proceedings. So he turned a blind eye as well. And to your point, yes. Once again, all of this points back to the reign of Barack Obama, the weaponization of the DOJ, and the wink and the nod of the Hunter and Joe and Jim Biden and Sarah Biden, all of them, family crime racket.

Right. Talking to Julie Kelly, follower on x. She's at Julie_kelly2. Check out our Substack. Julie, let's skip to January 6th, an area you again, you wrote a book about it.

You have a lot of expertise on the matter. There is now 0 argument to be made, to not pardon people for these abuses of justice where grandmothers walking into the Capitol, who at at best I'm not even I'm not telling you this woman. But even at best should have been said, you know, it was a trespass thing, whatever. We're gonna let it go. A lot of confusion.

I think, no criminal charges should have been filed against anyone at all. To even make them get an attorney for that is obscene. There are people rotting in the gulag now. The case against a pardon for abuses of justice now against the the j 6 political prisoners is now completely, utterly gone. I don't wanna hear a peep from the left wing media about it.

You've been advocating, for this for a while, but your thoughts on this now that your approach to it has been totally vindicated.

Absolutely, Dan. And I think the any upside and, yes, it is a disgrace another humiliation to our country by Joe Biden, what he did with his son's blanket, pardon last night for 11 an 11 year time period. But the only upside is that this completely justifies a similarly broad clemency offer by president Trump to every j 6 defendant. Even if they are accused of violence, a scuffle with police, or or physically getting into some sort of confrontation with police, they were still subjected to a hyperpartisan rig legal judicial and jury system in Washington DC. Think about this, Dan.

Not a single j 6 defendant has walked out of a jury trial acquitted of all charges. DOJ has a 100% conviction rate in Washington DC for j6ers. Why? Because it's completely rigged against them. So, yes, I think a blanket pardon is absolutely appropriate.

Dan, they're holding 3 trials of j sixers in Washington today. Today, they are still bringing charges and putting these people before Washington DC voters who voted 93% for Kamala Harris, in the November election. So regardless of the offenses, the charges, it has been a rigged system from the start. And I think if Joe Biden's gonna talk about selective prosecution and targeting his son because of his political views or affiliations, Donald Trump now has, the words that Joe Biden offered and the media and everyone else who wants to oppose these pardons can eat those words directly out of Joe Biden's mouth.

Well well, Julie, they've given up. They've given up entirely the political argument initiative they've lost. Corinne Jean Pierre, we played the audio at the beginning of the show today, just said in the air force 1 gaggle, she just said that Joe Biden believes that the politics of the DOJ may have basically exacerbated this case against his son. So they're not implicitly, but explicitly acknowledging that politics she even used the word I believe infected, have infected the DOJ. So you just nailed it.

Like, there's no political argument to be made either. Oh, the no one's above the law. You just said politics have infected the DOJ.

Right.

It's your spokesperson's words. They have no political argument.

They don't. And and that actually is that's the same verbiage that Joe Biden wrote in his pardon order last night that it's been infected with politics. So we're supposed to believe it's only infected, politically on 1 side. And important to remember too the nexus here, not just Obama, but Matthew Graves, the US attorney for the District of Columbia appointed by Joe Biden at the end of 2021. He is the prosecutor who declined to cooperate with special counsel David Weiss in bringing tax charges against Hunter Biden for evading taxes and lying on his tax form from 2014 and 2015.

This is the same Matthew Graves to this day who is putting his line prosecutors in DC courtrooms presiding over trials and continuing to bring charges against j Sixers, which he will do until January 19, 2025 guaranteed. That is another, avatar of the politicization of the Department Justice. Matthew Gray's right there. Yeah. Yeah.

Julie, nobody

knows the case better than you. Folks, she's Julie Kelly. Give her a follow on x@julie_kelly2. Nobody knows more about these cases. The documents case for January 6th, you've done a great job.

And check our subs, stack out in her book. It's called January 6th. Julie, thanks for the time. We always appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Always happy to be on, Dan. Thanks.

There you go, folks. Whenever we've got any there's just there's a significant tie in here. You can no longer argue that January 6th defendants in these cases were treated fairly if the president of the United States has just acknowledged, I quote, politics has infected the DOJ. It's over. It's over.

Your political argument is done. Make all the moral ethical arguments you want. It's a legal case. The legal and political arguments are now finished. Finally, a great voice for the Trump administration, up next.

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This company's been with me for a long time in the show, in the Bongino Army. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. You know, Tim Murtaugh, he's a fantastic guy. He's a really compelling life story and is a really high level adviser to Donald Trump.

He came out to talk about the changing landscape of media after the election. You're gonna like this. Check it out. Folks, I try to bring you the best guests with expertise on the inner workings of the Donald Trump orbit because although he is the going to be, at least, the unitary executive as a president, there's obviously support group around him. It's good to know what happens, on the inside and what people are thinking.

So we try to bring you guests to give you some color on that. Tim Murtaugh, wanna welcome him to the show. Tim is a was a senior adviser in 2024 to president Trump on the campaign. Also works with Line Drive Public Affairs. Tim, welcome back to the show.

It's good to have you again.

Good to be with you, Dan. Good to talk to you as always. Thanks for having me.

Of course. I I watch you all the time on on cable. You do such a great job defending the Make America Great Again agenda. So I'd asked Jim. I said, we got we we gotta get him back.

And the first thing I wanted to ask you about today is I'm sure you've seen the clip of Axios CEO, Jim Vanderhigh, hilariously melting down in front of a crowd of liberal morons, claiming somehow that they're, you know, they're they're they're still the media. They put in the hard work. People on x don't deserve the time of day, and I, you know, I was making a point. I'd love to get your opinion on it having worked around Donald Trump. You know, for years, Tim, we were told you don't fight people who buy ink by the barrel.

The media is always gonna win. Donald Trump is the 1st significant conservative Republican figure in decades who I think we could say conclusively has defeated these people at their own narrative game.

Yeah. I think there's no question that that is absolutely true. I mean, Donald Trump has just decided that he's and he's the first 1 to really pioneer this method of dealing with the media and that we're just not gonna play your game anymore. We're not gonna accept the premise of your questions. We're not gonna accept the questions themselves.

We're gonna tell you about how we think things should be interpreted and what we think the news should be. Because, I mean, the fact is the the first amendment protects the rights of the of the press to write and print what they what they so choose. There's no question. We all have that same first amendment right. It is not the exclusive domain of people who appoint themselves the 4th state members of the media, Time Magazine, NBC, whoever they happen to be.

The constitution doesn't name them and give them any authority. It just says they can't be interfered with. And so who defines what the press is? I suppose the people do. Donald Trump may, but you might, Dan.

I mean, we all might. That's why x is really such the great, great equalizer. And what Elon Musk has done there is let's not let's not forget him. It's fantastic. And I think that Donald Trump has shown the way.

Do not accept their premise. Do not accept that the world is the way the corporate mainstream media says it is.

We're talking to Tim Murtaugh. He is the principal of Line Drive Public Affairs and, was intimately involved in the 2024 Trump campaign as a senior adviser. You know, Tim, I I bring up the point often on the show that early Twitter now acts, even Facebook, even though it's run by Liberals, you know, we we were censored a lot, but we still would sneak in a true idea once in a while. That the democratization of media has really changed the ecosystem for conservatives, and the best day the liberal media ever had was yesterday. It's not gonna get any better.

You know, you and I are in roughly in the same cohort. Back in the day, if it wasn't mentioned by Brokaw or Brinkley or Cronkite, it it didn't happen. Like, if you didn't read about it in your local paper, see it on the nightly news, it effectively disappeared. The old tree falling down the forest, analogy people use. Right?

But that's not possible anymore. When Kamala Harris tells people in a symposium that she wants to support taxpayer funded sex changes for transgender individuals in prison. That's not going anywhere. Like, liberals, you're stuck with this. So the question I have for you is if they don't have a massive sea change, which I don't see happening anytime soon with the radical left, they're doubling down on this crazy.

We have a good opportunity in this Trump era era to demographically and and otherwise to change the politics of the country possibly for a decade or more.

Yeah. And I believe that's true. I I think you're exactly right about that. And, you know, Dan, I I think I would hazard, to say that you're already doing that. You personally, your partnership with Rumble, I happen to know about, and you're doing live streams on there all the time aside from all the millions that you reach with your radio show.

But the stuff that you're doing on Rumble is is really groundbreaking, and you're a leader in in the streaming game and and podcasting game as well. Always high ranked, always leading Rumble. And it's it shows that the the media landscape has been obliterated as far as what we used to think that the media was. It is now so and people the the word fragmented sounds negative, but I don't mean it with a negative connotation. There are so many different places where people can get their news.

And then you have the the news media, the traditional legacy news media, who is apparently actively still in the process of committing mass suicide. I mean, if you take a look at what was going on here during the most recent campaign, they actually 1 of the things that they are so proud of is their role as fact checkers. Right? Anybody and they always fact check they always fact check just people on the right or just Trump or just Trump and his supporters, and they weaponize their fact check. And in the case, you mentioned the the reassignment surgery, gender reassignment surgery for prison inmates or illegal aliens, who are under detainment.

That was an actual policy position that Kamala Harris took, and she's on tape, and she filled it out in an ACL questionnaire. It is beyond reproach as a as a a point to point out this is how radical her beliefs are. It's a fact. Right? Donald Trump brought it up during the presidential debate in Philadelphia this cycle.

And what happened? Time Magazine, of all things, wrote a fact check that said Donald Trump claims that she supports taxpayer funding of sex change operations for prison inmates or illegal aliens entertainment. That is false. That's what they said. Time Magazine.

They reported it as false because they thought it sounded so outrageous. It couldn't possibly be true. They didn't even check, Dan. They thought it was so nuts that it had to be fake. And so what they've done is they've used their own prestige as news organizations to put behind their fact checks, which then undermines their prestige.

I don't know if they quite get the irony of all this, but the fact check phenomenon is really what I would point to that says, this is a prime indicator of the circling, spiraling death spiral of the mainstream legacy media.

Yeah. And it's glorious to watch. Talking to Tim Murtaugh, 20 24 Trump campaign adviser, principal at Line Drive Public Affairs. Tim, you mentioned the word fragmented, and you're right. It's not a negative.

The idea that the the media has been broken up into streamers, VOD, video on demand, OTT, over the top, traditional cable broadcast. Hey. Some people still use rabbit ears. Rabbit ears are actually making a comeback. So you can get your media radio, you know, satellite.

I mean, there's a 1,000 different streams of information for the consumer to put on what they call their bookshelf that they're gonna consume every day. I would argue that the smart people, and I appreciate the compliment, but the Rogans, the Tuckers, the Megan Kellys, it's made them better because they understand what you just said. Like, there's no monopoly anymore where CBS and say, oh, wait. I I technically but there were only 3 real competitors in the day. CBS, NBC, and ABC before cable.

That's not the case anymore. You've got thousands of streams. And you guys gave a president-elect, a a former president, soon to be president Trump, brilliant advice. You told him to hit the podcast circuit, Tim, and everybody made fun of you guys. Podcast bros.

This guy's an idiot. He's wasting his time. You guys did everyone from Rogan to The Undertaker to our show. And, man, that that was absolutely brilliant. The other side laughed at you.

Were you in on some of those conversations where you were suggesting these forums? Like, hey, man. This is where the information is now out there in the podcast ecosystem?

Well, I certainly was was I I had some talks about it, but I there's no way I'm gonna claim any credit for that. There was there was a different group of guys who were who were sort of curating the podcast that they would then present to president Trump for his approval and decide that he's the 1 ultimately who decided that, yes, this is a good strategy, and, yes, these are the shows that we should go on. I think the credit really ultimately, should go to him. And I think it was just another factor is that the the the point of that whole thing was that it helped showcase Donald Trump, these long form situations where you go into Joe Rogan and you're gonna do more than 3 hours. That's where he can shine, really.

I mean, he does well in all interview situations, honestly, but these long form formats are where he's great. And it also had that it was a double edged sword for the Kamala Harris thing because it was good for Trump, and there's no chance that the her team was gonna put her subjected to, you know, a 180 minute interview. There's no chance. 5 minutes was probably too long for their liking. And, you know, it it really does show that there there are new sheriffs in town as far as the media landscape goes.

And how do you reach people? How do you reach the most voters all at once and in the manner of their choosing? Right? You listen to a podcast at your own convenience as the listener. If you're gonna be paying attention to the legacy evening news, if you're busy at 6:30 PM, then you're gonna miss what they have to say.

A Joe Rogan podcast can be with you for weeks before you get to listen to it, and I think that's what people like about it. It's it's really a different a different frontier in media, and I think it's 1 that Donald Trump, personally, he himself understands. And I think the Democrats are just catching up.

Yeah. You said something there that kinda, sparked a little neuron in my brain there. You know, the long form interview, you're right. He does well in interviews generally, but I think the long form format works for him well because, you know, you and I know him in a in a different way. I don't wanna exaggerate my friendship with him, but you and I have seen him behind the scenes and he's the exact same guy.

You know, he'll sit there at a out in Bedminster on the patio, and people come up and say hello, and he's he always wants to make you feel good. You know what I'm saying? Like, he you know, I I'll never forget. I'm sitting there in Bedminster. Sure.

And I said to him, I I enjoyed Kid Rock's music. He said, oh, let's get him on the phone. Like, he he really wanted me to talk to Kid Rock. And I thought, like, this is unbelievable. Like, the president wants to he wants me to talk.

That's that's the kind of guy he is. But when I saw him on the Theo Von podcast, that's when it that was a special moment. At some point, the the the topic of substance abuse came up. Theo Vonn was talking about his experience with illicit drugs. And you know that's an important issue, to the president-elect.

It's impacted his family. And I gotta tell you, Tim, that was 1 of those really special moments where I think a lot of non believers and independents who didn't see the MAGA cause or the real president Trump, I think that was 1 of those moments where that really humanized them, and they say, you know what? Maybe all these media narratives about them, maybe that stuff ain't so true.

Yeah. I do think that was a really powerful moment, and and that meant a lot to me also because I I personally have a history of substance abuse. I battled alcohol for a very long time, and and, I'm coming up this this May will be 10 years sober for me. And, Donald Trump knew about that when he hired me on the campaign back in 2019 for his 2020 campaign. And, I know he takes it very personally, issues like that.

And, because of his brother, he blames alcohol for the death of his brother. And it's not a thing that he talks about very, very much, but, I mean, he is willing to talk about it, and he and he brought it up on Theo Vaughn's podcast. And and I that's 1 of the things that I really admire about Donald Trump is that he he understands that people have gone through and and individuals and their families, everybody, really has been touched in 1 way or another, I I would say, by the issue of substance abuse. Like, I even wrote a book about it. My book is called swing hard in case you hit it, and it's partly about the 2020 campaign, but it's also about my, my battle with alcohol and how I went from waking up in jail and to flying on Air Force 1 with Donald Trump in less than 4 years time.

And and I really owe a debt of gratitude to Donald Trump for giving me a chance, even though I had that in my history. And I I really respect that he understands that he himself has never touched alcohol or even smoked a cigarette. But he understands the issue, and he understands, the families that go through it. And I think for the for the millions of people who heard him on that podcast, it was extremely powerful. And then on the other side, Dan, if you talk you talk about credibility and who do people listen to and what stories are they really tuning into?

That Theo Vaughn podcast is 1 of, of an example of people tuning into. But if you take the the mainstream media as a whole, people know that they spent, a couple of years lying to the entire world, really. The entire media news industrial complex lied to the entire world about Joe Biden's mental abilities and mental faculties. Right? And then when it was exposed to everybody that he really was almost confirmed and he he was on his last legs mentally in that debate where Donald Trump just absolutely cleaned his clock, the media just like, woah.

This guy's gotta be replaced. The lie has been exposed, and then they just moved on as though they hadn't been caught in the world's biggest lie. They just moved on and pretend like it hadn't happened. That's why people don't trust them and would rather get their views and news from a podcast like Donald Trump on Theo Vonn.

Yeah. The book is pretty amazing. Tim's being, really humble about it, but it's by Tim Murtaugh, m u r t a u g h. He was a 2024 advisor. He's, to president Trump.

And, the book is called Swing Hard in Case You Hit It. I actually have a copy of the book. Tim was kind enough to send me 1 a while ago. It is a, pretty amazing story of, yeah, what it's like to wake up in jail 1 day, and then and then wake up from an app on Air Force 1 years later. It's quite a journey.

Called swing hard. In case you hit it, you should check it out. Hey, Tim. Thanks a lot for joining us today. I hope we can have you back sometime.

You're, always great. Your insights and your hits on cable news are just priceless. You do an amazing job. Thanks a lot.

Well, Dan, thank you very much. You are an American treasure. You're doing great work on behalf of people of this country, and I thank you.

God bless you, man. Thanks a lot. That means a lot to me. Tim Murtaugh, folks. It's a great book.

Swing hard in case you hit it. Yeah. If you've seen him, go look up some of his clips on accent truth and elsewhere. You'll see, like, he doesn't he doesn't let the liberal media goons get away with anything, and that's what you need. These people deserve no respect whatsoever.

Anyone who's gonna call me or infer or imply that I'm a Nazi or a fascist, Yeah. That ain't happening. You deserve no respect, and you'll get none from me. And folks, I got a special gift for you. This is a late addition to the weekend show.

Matter of fact, it happened on Thursday. We interviewed the great Kurt Schlichter, army veteran, lawyer. He gives he's gonna give you the opening answer. He gives 1 of the best answers you have ever heard in the radio show. Matter of fact, I told him as much.

When asked about why Pete Hegseth is the guy for defense secretary, Just listen to the answer. It speaks for itself. Check this out. Alright. I wanna talk about, the effort to sabotage the disgusting, grotesque, malign, malicious, pathetic, running out of adjectives and modifiers, ever to destroy Pete Hegset's life because he's a change in the mill change agent in the military with someone who's been in the military himself.

He's guest hosted the show. He's a good friend of mine, Kurt Schlichter. Kurt, welcome back. Haven't heard from you. Well, it's always good to have your opinion on these things.

Well, it's great to be back, Dan. Happy belated birthday.

Oh, thank you, brother. It's, I I just found out something. Jim said that, you were actually a little bit older than me, and, I'm not trying to throw out an unnecessary compliment, but I thought we were roughly the same age. So you're doing okay there, brother, yourself. So, 60 is was kinda rough.

Well, you know, my 80th birthday has been a real transition.

Get it. 80. 80 my arse. You ain't no 80 years old. Kurt is what well, he's a military veteran himself.

And, Kurt is very vocal about these kinds of things when it when it comes to issues involving the military. So I wanna have you on. Kurt, you're you're an attorney, military veteran. The there is a lot of money, as you know, because you spent your life fighting this stuff in the woke DEI business. And sadly, as both an attorney and a military veteran, you've seen DEI infect, and I use that word purposely, infect and destroy our military.

A military that should be focused on 1 thing, killing freaking bad guys. Pete Hegseth has been vocal that this is his goal to get rid of this and make our military the most lethal in the world again. There's a lot of money in that stuff, though, and I think that's 1 of the reasons a lot of people really don't like the idea of getting Pete in there as defense secretary.

Look. Dan, there are a lot of people who are gonna get their rice bowls kicked over when, when Pete Hegseth walks into the Pentagon. Look. Pete Hegseth and I wrote about this in my town hall column, I think, a couple Mondays ago. Pete Hegseth is a combat arms officer.

He is an infantry officer just like me. He knows what it means to take command. Okay? I've taken command many times, from a company level, act up to acting brigade commander. You've got you you know, you sign a piece of paper that says you assume command, but you don't assume command.

You have to go take it. And I gotta tell you, in the combat arms, it's the land of wolves. Alright? These guys, the guys you presume to order about are not just going to give you their respect. Oh, they'll salute you and everything.

But you've got to go in and take charge. You don't take no for an answer. You don't allow a quotation. You don't allow expectations. You set out your attempt.

You set out your expectations, and you enforce them ruthlessly as a combat arms officer, as an infantry officer. Pete Hegseth gets it. He understands what it means. And, you know, I don't know Pete Hegseth personally. I've never met the guy.

I've never had a beer with him. But I know him because I served with guys just like him. And I'd like to think that I'm a guy just like him, a guy who will walk in and say, hey, generals, admirals, here's how it's gonna be. There's no more DEI. You're getting rid of it, all of it, gone.

And you're gonna come back Friday, and you're going to tell me you've gotten rid of all of it. And if anybody when I ask you, have you done what I ordered you to do? And your answer is anything but an unequivocal yes, sir. I'm going to relieve you for cause, and you're not going to retire as a 4 star because you have not served adequately in the 4 star rank. Don't leave my office until you understand my intent because I intend for you to fulfill it.

That's the beauty of HEGSAT. That's what's got them so scared.

Wow. Dude, that may be the best answer to a question. Can we Jim, can we swap out the weekend interview or head that? I'm not kidding, Kurt. Like, that may be the most fully dispositive answer to a question.

I mean, I didn't I do not know about combat arms officers. I was on the military at all, but to have it explained that way, now it makes even more sense. Like, that's that's probably why they're upset too that Pete was a results oriented guy in a in a in an in an MOS where, Kurt, if if you screw up, you know, I hate the word literally, but literally, like, people die. Like, people will get killed.

Your guys die, and that's why you have to go in and take command because the guys will know that if you're incompetent, you're going to get them hurt or killed. And and this is this is why it's so scary to those generals because he's gonna come in and say, here's what you're gonna do, and you're gonna do it. It's gonna happen. I guess the only question is whether you general and you general and you admiral are here next week to watch the results or your deputy sitting in that chair. Okay.

It's done. Kurt we're talking to Kurt Schlichter, attorney military veteran himself. Talking about Pete Hegseth. Kirk, 1 of the things I find particularly grotesque and offensive about the attack on Pete Hengseth and his character and his family and his kids and his mom, I mean, these are things that are actually happening, is as a veteran yourself, you know, you know, I'm not a veteran. I was not in our military.

Can't say it enough, but sometimes it turn I'm not suggesting there's any issue here at all, but sometimes there are people in law enforcement space that I am familiar with that see a lot of bad stuff. I'm not comparing them to the military at all. It's different, but you see a lot of bad stuff. Respond to kidnapping cases, people who are raped, and home invaded, really horrible things and you're surrounded by it all the time. So I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying sometimes guys in that space, women too, will go out with other people in the space who've seen this bad stuff because they're the only ones that can relate.

I'm not a combat vet. I'm not gonna pretend to Pete Hanks that, oh, I know what it's like to be in combat. I I don't know squat about what it's like to be in combat. But I know what it's like, you know, to get in a foot pursuit after a guy shot at you in the street. It's pretty damn traumatic.

So you go out with your guys, you responsibly have a couple of drinks, and you know what? The next day, you watch a football game, whatever. That they're attacking this guy's character because he may have come back with some maybe some emotional scars from what he did for what he did for this country. He certainly didn't do it for money. Sets up a standard that no veteran's gonna be able to meet.

I wouldn't even if I'm a combat veteran with some the issue I brought back from defending our country, I'm a I gotta be honest with you, brother. I'm afraid to even talk to anyone about it because now I'm held to a totally different standard than everyone else.

No. That's absolutely correct. He he was in 2 combat tours. Look. I was not in combat.

My first my first war, I ran a heavily armed car wash, but I also saw, a guy die for the first time in front of And I also understood that, you know, I I was responsible for these 20 folks and that we might have to go into a chemically contaminated area, where my guys could die. And I gotta tell you, even that even that which is nothing compared to what, Pete Hegseth or millions of other guys did. I'm not saying it did. But that weighs on you, and it has an effect. And, yeah, if he wants to have a beer or 2, that's fine.

Okay? Yeah. That's fine. And, look, the guy has, gotten through it. He's got a beautiful family now.

He's doing what he should do. But to I find it disgraceful to attempt to leverage the the the way that this guy dealt with the horrors and the and the stress that he experienced. Okay? Because he was a leader. Right?

It's not just you. You know, I'm not a brave guy, but I was never afraid for myself. I was afraid I was gonna screw up and hurt my guys. And that way a humble guy, Curt.

You're you're you're a humble guy. I would ask you to help out. No. No. You you are.

Like, you you know, you served in our military. You know, I I know you're being funny like the glorified car wash. But you know what? You you certainly weren't doing it to get rich. And, you know, when you when when your ass is overseas in some some some horrible battle zone where you could die any day, you know, I appreciate your humility, but, and the audience does too.

But you you listen. What you did, you deserve recognition for it too. Speaking of which, I wanna bring up something else about this too because I'm hearing some getting some traffic, and you and I kinda run-in the same circle, so you're probably hearing the same thing. Kurt has a great column at town hall. By the way, if you ever wanna read his columns, they're always sugar coated heavily.

He never really gets to the point. So if you like of course, I'm being sarcastic. If you ever wanna read a column where you're like, holy Moses, that's what I was thinking. Read Kurt's work. You will not be disappointed.

But to have people like senator Joni Ernst, and Lindsey Graham who's backtracking a little bit, and, you know, life losers like Lisa Murkowski from Alaska wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for her last name. Right? To have them questioning Pete Hegseth after he's been a public figure for 10 years about anonymous allegations and acting like, well, we're gonna do a thorough investigation. You know, it's interesting. I'd like to see a thorough investigation into Joni Ernst.

I'm sure she's never had a beer with anyone or anything like that. I mean, you know, god forbid she's done it or had any personal issues in the past. Kurt, you know these senators, they're all above reproach. You know Lindsey Graham too, definitely.

Well, look. Lindsey Graham was a colonel in the air force. He was a JAG. I'm not gonna hold either of those things against him. Joni Ernst, commanded a transportation company in Iraq.

I can only imagine the pressure of having a 100 people, out on those roads whose lives depends on you. So I I respect that, and I hope that they will come through. I have seen a lot of the regime media tell me those 2 are wavering. I refuse to believe that a fellow officer is going to betray another officer until I I hear it from their own mouths. And I know that Joni Ernst has been there and done that.

I know that Lindsey Graham, as a colonel, has an understanding of what's what needs to happen. And I I I can only hope that this is just fog out there and that they will come through and they will stand up for a guy who is prepared to move the Pentagon back to what it should be focused on 1 thing and 1 thing only. If you brilliantly bought brought up, the ability to stack bodies of America's enemies. So so Yeah. Hopefully Kurt,

this is the only time I disagree with you. The only time I'm ever gonna disagree with you, I think, because you and I really are simpatico on a lot of things, but you have way too much hope and way too much faith in these people. They are I'm telling you right now, they are not doing us right. And, I agree with you on 1 thing. I absolutely respect anybody's military experience even if I have political disagreements.

I've said that often, and I will continue to say that. I did not serve in the military. God bless you for doing it. But that does not mean your judgment's beyond reproach and, I'm I'm absolutely convinced these 2 are behind the effort to sabotage Pete Hegseth, and I find it absolutely disgusting. I mean, I'll I'll just give you a quick corollary.

When I you know, Bob Mueller, the Mueller investigation. Uh-huh. Bob Mueller had a decorated career in our military. He did. And and I thanked him for it over and over.

Nobody's written more attacking Bob Mueller's credibility than me because it does not mean for the rest of your life that every single thing you do is gonna be on the correct moral arc of history, and they screwed it up. I mean, they are they are people, but it's not the Democrats, Kurt, that bother me. It's the freaking Republicans. Yeah. You've already taken a scalp in Gates.

Fine. You took your scalp. I don't agree with it. But this 1, the Pete is a good and decent man, and this effort to crush him on our side, we can never forget if we lose this guy who did this on our side.

Well, Dan, I think we need a carrot and stick approach. You're definitely the stick. I'll be the carrot. I will show them the path to honor. I will show them the path to success.

I will show them the path to their duty, and I hope that they follow it. But if they don't, if they refuse to, there's gonna be a primary. And I'm gonna be there, and you're gonna be there, and all of us are gonna be there. And they're gonna say, oh, you can't primary an incumbent. Wanna bet?

We did in the Tea Party revolution. It's true. And Kurt, they said that. Remember in the Tea Party revolution? They told us the same thing.

Oh my gosh. You can't you can't party the Utah primary, the Utah senator with this guy, Mike Lee. Who's this guy? And Kentucky? You got this guy, Rand Paul.

What are you guys? Crazy? And you know what? We got an upgrade. So we will do it again.

Kurt, unfortunately, I gotta run. This is always a pleasure to hear from you. Yeah. Come back again sometime. We really like your that was the best answer to your commentary there that I think I've ever heard on my station.

I'm not kidding. So thanks a lot, brother. We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me, Dan. Merry Christmas and again

Merry Christmas, buddy. Thank you, my brother. Merry Christmas. So thanks for listening to the podcast. I hope this answers a lot of questions for you today.

We love these weekend shows. Make sure you tune in Monday at Rumble at 11 AM live and on the radio show starting at noon EST every single day. Check us out at bongino.com/stasonfinder to find a station near you. See you on Monday.

You just heard Dan Bongino.