Sept. 17, 2025 - The Benny Show - Benny Johnson
02:28:02
Participants
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Hey, good morning, y'all. | ||
| Yeah, this was a really interesting day yesterday where we learned a lot of new information on this case. | ||
| And we also saw the suspect for the first time appear in court. | ||
| The only time that he spoke was when he confirmed his name. | ||
| He was wearing a special suicide prevention vest, and he showed no emotion as the judge read off the charges against him. | ||
| These are the charges he's facing, the most significant of which is aggravated murder. | ||
| And the Utah County District Attorney says he will be seeking the death penalty in this case. | ||
| Ahead of that hearing, the DA laid out the charges in a lot of the evidence that they have gathered so far against the alleged assassin, including his DNA on the trigger of the rifle used to kill Charlie Kirk. | ||
| Prosecutors also shared text messages between the suspect, Tyler Robinson, and his romantic partner, where Robinson confessed to the shooting. | ||
| Roommate, you weren't the one who did it, right? | ||
| Robinson, I am, I am, I'm sorry. | ||
| Roommate, why? | ||
| Robinson, why did I do it? | ||
| Roommate, yeah. | ||
| Robinson, I had enough of his hatred. | ||
| Some hate can't be negotiated out. | ||
| If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. | ||
| The suspect went on to say that he'd hoped to carry this crime to his deathbed and asked his lover to delete their text and not talk to police. | ||
| Yesterday on Capitol Hill, FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators are tracking down each and every person who the accused killer had been in touch with leading up to and after the shooting, including those that he spoke to online. | ||
| Number of individuals that are currently being investigated and interrogated and a number yet to be investigated and interrogated specific to that chat room. | ||
| So we are very much in our ongoing posture of investigation. | ||
| So others could have been involved. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| At this point, no one else has been charged in this case, but prosecutors say that that could change as this investigation continues. | ||
| The suspect's next court date is September 29th. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, it has been one week to the day since we lost Charlie Kirk. | ||
| And I want to call for something today, Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 on our show. | ||
| I've been noticing something on the right that is happening that has bothered me a great deal, and I want to talk about it off the top. | ||
| I have Mike Davis, who is set to join our program in just a moment, to further pound home and nail this point. | ||
| And it is this: that in all of my dealings with Charlie, he was, at the utmost, a coalition builder. | ||
| At any turning point event, you could see Charlie Kirk constantly uniting disparate voices in the movement, whether that is Candace Owens or Ben Shapiro or Tucker Carlson. | ||
| You know, all three of them would share the stage at a turning point event. | ||
| All of them. | ||
| The bringing together and the fusion of men like RFK Jr. and Donald Trump. | ||
| Don't go back and check and find what RFK Jr. was saying about Donald Trump in the earlier days of his career. | ||
| Charlie Kirk was able to bind them together on stage, as we remember in an extraordinary fashion. | ||
| Charlie Kirk was about focusing on our combined enemy, on the true enemy, those who will spit on our graves and dance on them and laugh demonically in the faces of our orphaned children. | ||
| Those are our enemies. | ||
| That ideology must be tore up, root and stem. | ||
| And we have a generational opportunity to seize this moment and to dispatch that ideology from civil society to demonetize, to defund, to destroy those who wish wanton violence and terroristic actions against us. | ||
| Never in the history of our program, once, ever, even coming close to the line, never have we called for violence or anything other than those who even we politically oppose to live peaceful lives as Americans. | ||
| I can disagree with you. | ||
| That is the purpose of our nation, that we have pressure release valves that do not lead to violence. | ||
| That is what Charlie was all about. | ||
| And he was about uniting the right against that common enemy, those who wished us literal death. | ||
| Charlie told this to me on many occasions. | ||
| And today's show on the memory of Charlie is going to be about setting aside our differences, sometimes with other creators, sometimes in this whole media ecosystem where we're all like everyone's at each other's throats all the time. | ||
| We do our very level-headed best to stay out of it. | ||
| The quartering was attacking me on his channel. | ||
| That's just Jeremy. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| You know, we figured it out. | ||
| And then he was on my channel live, like within the week. | ||
| That I do my best to bury beef because I don't have time. | ||
| Energy is not unlimited. | ||
| I must ensure that we are focused on the task at hand, which is the defeat of the terroristic, bloodthirsty, demonic ideology that wants us dead. | ||
| Before we get to Mike, you'll know your enemies like this. | ||
| Who are the ones that will celebrate your death if something bad were to happen to you? | ||
| And who are the people who would grieve you? | ||
| There are people that have beefs with me. | ||
| I know that those people, virtually all of them, have good hearts and good faith and would mourn if something awful were to happen to me. | ||
| I know that. | ||
| I know virtually everyone in this ego has worked for, with, or shared the stage with virtually everyone. | ||
| On my side, that's what would happen. | ||
| On the left, there would be a non-diminimist contingency of people that would cheer and celebrate and squeeze as they are doing with Charlie. | ||
| That, ladies and gentlemen, is the enemy. | ||
| That ideology. | ||
| The ideology and the monetization vectors and the organization vectors and the media vectors that demonize and dehumanize. | ||
| That, ladies and gentlemen, is what must be ruthlessly earth salted. | ||
| And so I beg of those on my side to use this moment and the power of this moment to ensure that there are not more assassinations. | ||
| When will enough be enough for these demons? | ||
| Well, maybe never. | ||
| So be clear-eyed about your enemy here. | ||
| They put a bullet through Trump's head. | ||
| They killed Corey Comperator. | ||
| They killed Charlie Kirk. | ||
| When will they stop? | ||
| They won't. | ||
| We must be united in our purpose in this moment. | ||
| And I do not like seeing, I do not like seeing everybody fighting for and jockeying and positioning to try and split, split up this movement, this incredible movement that President Trump and Charlie Kirk, in great part, put together. | ||
| Joining me now to talk about how Republicans can do this is the great Mike Davis of the Article 3 Project live right now. | ||
| Mike, I know you have very limited time, but I want to give you an opportunity from a legal perspective to talk about the fear of this moment slipping away and Republicans doing what they always do, which is to link arms and sing Kumbaya and not do anything. | ||
| What must Republicans do in this moment? | ||
| Well, we're seeing this right now in the House, where Elon Omar celebrated Charlie Kirk's death, his assassination. | ||
| This is a father, Christian father. | ||
| This is a Christian husband. | ||
| This was a very good man who was murdered in cold blood. | ||
| And people like Elon Omar, she's celebrating his death. | ||
| Remember when Marjorie Taylor Greene got kicked off of her committee assignments by the House Democrats? | ||
| Why the hell are House Republicans even debating this? | ||
| There's no question they should move forward and vote to kick Elon Omar off of her committees and censor her. | ||
| And that's just the different mindsets that Republicans have. | ||
| We think that we're still dealing with our parents' and grandparents' Democrat Party. | ||
| We think we're still dealing with liberals who love America and just disagree with conservatives on the best way to get there. | ||
| would think after the Democrat operatives tried to put President Trump in prison for life four times for non-crimes, tried to bankrupt him for non-fraud, tried to illegally, | ||
| unconstitutionally take him off the ballot in California, in Colorado, in Maine and elsewhere, tried to take off his head when Joe Biden said that Trump was the gravest threat to democracy and to put a bullseye on Trump's head and then underfunded Trump's Secret Service protection twice, almost getting him killed. | ||
| We saw with the Democrats, including Joe Biden, labeling President Trump and his supporters and Kamala Harris as fascist, saying that we are garbage. | ||
| What do Democrats think is going to happen when you call someone a fascist, label their supporters garbage, put a bullseye on them? | ||
| What do you think is going to happen to people like Charlie Kirk when that happens? | ||
| What do they think is going to happen when you go to the most mentally ill people in society, some of the most mentally ill people in society, people with gender dysphoria, a tragic, severe mental illness when people think they are in the wrong body? | ||
| They think they are in the wrong sex. | ||
| That is the most severe, tragic mental illness imaginable. | ||
| And instead of treating these people for their severe mental illness like you would treat schizophrenia, for example, we want to affirm their mental illness. | ||
| We want to celebrate their mental illness. | ||
| We want to convince them that they are victims of fascist and they're going to get killed. | ||
| And then you load them up with hormones, already crazy people you're loading up with hormones to make crazier. | ||
| You're creating this gender dysphoria among kids where you make kids. | ||
| We have not seen an epidemic of gender dysphoria in this country, a tragic, sad mental illness. | ||
| We have not seen that spike in recent years. | ||
| It is social contagion. | ||
| They are convincing kids that it's cool for little boys to be little girls. | ||
| And then you have their parents, crazy parents, sending them to have pills and surgeries that are destroying their lives. | ||
| And it's making the transgender industry a lot of money. | ||
| Instead of treating mental illness like we should, we're affirming it. | ||
| We're celebrating it. | ||
| We're magnifying their mental illness. | ||
| And then you have this epidemic of transgender murders, transgender violence. | ||
| And then if you talk about it, you're a fascist and you're a transphob. | ||
| This is insanity. | ||
| And this is what I say to the Republicans. | ||
| This is what I've said since the Kavanaugh Confirmation. | ||
| This is what I've said since the Mar-a-Lago raid. | ||
| We need to learn how to fight legally, politically, and financially, because we are not dealing with liberal Democrats of our parents' or grandparents' generation. | ||
| We are dealing with leftist Marxists who hate us. | ||
| They want to throw us in prison for thought crimes. | ||
| They want to banish us from society. | ||
| They want to cancel us. | ||
| They want to kill us. | ||
| And we need to wake up to that reality and we need to start responding accordingly, legally, financially, politically. | ||
| We need to start putting these violent terrorists in prison instead of trying to debate them. | ||
| So, Mike, I know that you are up against a hard out, but since you have been so strong on this issue and since the Trump Justice Department listens to you so closely, and since so many of the people that are pushed by the Article III project are, well, in positions of high power right now, what do you advise Republicans to do? | ||
| And I just want to kick off this question, this final question to you, thusly. | ||
| President Trump called for the classification of Antifa as a terrorist organization. | ||
| I agree with that. | ||
| Yet that is currently being bogged down in the House. | ||
| Republicans can't even muster the courage to call a legitimate terrorist organization domestically run by their political enemies that targets their political friends a terrorist organization. | ||
| The floor is yours, Mike. | ||
| Fortunately, President Trump has assembled an all-star team of bold and fearless warriors for the Constitution, whether it's Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch, FBI Director Cash Battell, Deputy FBI Director Dan Vongino, Harmeets Dylan, the head of the Civil Rights Division, Chad Meisel, the Chief of Staff John Sauer, the Solicitor General. | ||
| So many good people. | ||
| My good friend, Jason Redding Kinones, the new U.S. attorney down in Miami, the Southern District of Florida. | ||
| I think that seems like a very good place to open a criminal probe that we've been talking about on your show, Ben, for the last three years since the Mar-a-Lago raid for conspiracy against rights under 18 U.S.C. Section 241. | ||
| Because when Democrats, Obama, Biden, Hillary, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Weissman, so many others involved with this conspiracy, when you, Jack Smith, when you, Fannie Willis, Alvin Bragg, Tish James, | ||
| Nathan Wade, so many others involved with this conspiracy against rights, J Brat, when you politicize and weaponize intel agencies and law enforcement to go after your political enemies for non-crimes, that is the definition of conspiracy against rights. | ||
| And they would not be so eager to label us fascist and get their deranged supporters out there trying to kill us if they were facing criminal probes and criminal indictments. | ||
| It's a zero-sum game. | ||
| And so I would say that going back to 2016 with Crossfire Hurricane, when Hillary Clinton, as a presidential candidate, worked with Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the top intel and law enforcement officials to make up the Russian collusion hoax, to lie to the FISA courts, to get illegal spy warrants on a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, and then to continue to spy on him as the president of the United States, | ||
| all for the purpose of covering up Hillary Clinton's foreign corruption that was found on her server that was hacked by the Chinese and Russians, most certainly. | ||
| I think that they need to open up this criminal probe ASAP. | ||
| This probe includes all the lawfare against President Trump, two impeachments for nonsense, four indictments for non-crimes, trying to bankrupt Trump for non-fraud, trying to throw him off the ballots, indicting him in four different jurisdictions with, you know, in Georgia, Jack Smith, New York with Alvin Bragg, Tish James with the civil lawsuit, Chris Mays in Arizona, naming him an unindicted co-conspirator and pulling in all these Trump supporters. | ||
| This is a criminal conspiracy against rights under 18 U.S.C. Section 241. | ||
| It goes all the way back to Crossfire Hurricane. | ||
| The statute of limitations is not an issue because continuing the conspiracy tolls the statute of limitations, meaning there's no statute of limitations problem, five years or whatever the federal statute of limitations would be in this case, because it's an ongoing criminal conspiracy. | ||
| Covering up the conspiracy continues the conspiracy. | ||
| So I strongly recommend that my friend Jason Redding Kiñones down in the Southern District of Florida, where Democrats did the Mar-a-Lago raid to get back crossfire hurricane records from President Trump to cover up the conspiracy. | ||
| That seems like a very good place to open up this criminal probe. | ||
| Maybe in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Mar-a-Lago is. | ||
| You know, maybe Judge Cannon can oversee this case. | ||
| That would be a great thing. | ||
| Mike Davis of the Article 3 project. | ||
| Everyone, please follow Mike. | ||
| I know that he has a hard out. | ||
| Mike, you are welcome back anytime to tell our audience, well, the future, as you often do on this program. | ||
| I'm not sure you'll ever get better than the banger of we're going to put Letitia James' fat ass in prison, but well, Mike, you're welcome to try anytime on our program. | ||
| Everyone, follow Mike and support the Article 3 project. | ||
| The links are right there on his X handle that has 500,000, half a million subscribers. | ||
| Thank you, Mike. | ||
| Thank you, Ben. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, Kash Patel is live right now giving an opening statement in Congress. | ||
| We're going to get to that in just one moment. | ||
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| Ladies and gentlemen, Kash Patel is live with his opening statement. | ||
| I want to jump on over here. | ||
| Let's listen. | ||
| We are still, the FBI has that investigation ongoing and it continues to be ongoing. | ||
| And I want to thank the state of Utah and the state and local authorities there. | ||
| And I also want to thank the Attorney General, President Trump, for directing resources to allow us to conduct that investigation as we have. | ||
| Under this administration, the FBI has arrested more than 23,000 violent criminals, 23,000 in seven months. | ||
| That's twice as many year to date last year. | ||
| We've taken over 6,000 firearms off the streets. | ||
| 6,000 guns are no longer in the hands of criminals in seven months. | ||
| We've identified and found and located 4,700 child victims. | ||
| That is a 35% increase year to date last year. | ||
| We have arrested 1,500 child predators. | ||
| That is a 10% increase year to date last year in just seven months. | ||
| We've assisted our partners with countless counterterrorism operations around the world. | ||
| We've captured at the FBI four of the most top 10 wanted fugitives in the world in seven months. | ||
| To put that in perspective, that's as many as my predecessor nabbed in the entirety of the Biden administration. | ||
| We got four, we got more coming. | ||
| On top of that, in two weeks, thanks to the help of the CIA, we collected and captured one of the individuals responsible for the horrific Abbey Gate bombing that led to the murder of 13 service members. | ||
| We did that in two weeks. | ||
| They didn't do it in the four years of the entire prior administration. | ||
| Nationwide, we've been executing our Operation Summer Heat, the FBI's national focus on targeting violent crime based on intelligence-driven operations. | ||
| Ask the citizens of Seattle, Miami, Memphis, Charlotte, Chicago, New Orleans, to specifically highlight New Orleans and Nashville. | ||
| There has been a 250% increase in violent crime arrests in those cities alone and other mid-major cities that I've just listed. | ||
| In just a few short months, we have already unleashed 1,000 FBI personnel across this country. | ||
| Every single state across this country is getting a plus up. | ||
| This is a fiction that the FBI is short or that we are compromising the men and women in the field. | ||
| They do not need to be in Washington, DC, so we're sending them into the field to each and every one of your states. | ||
| Because of that, crime is at an all-time low. | ||
| We had to do it because of the explosion of crime. | ||
| And maybe the most important stat for Americans to realize, in just seven months, we are on track to produce the lowest murder rate in modern U.S. history by double digits. | ||
| Those are results, not of mine. | ||
| Those are results of the men and women of the FBI. | ||
| If you want to criticize me, bring it on, but do not attack the brave leaders in the field. | ||
| We are also working 24-7, 365, and on the opioid epidemic that is killing more than hundreds of thousands of people a year. | ||
| We have seen 1,600 kilograms of fentanyl off the streets so far in seven months. | ||
| Year to date, 25% increase. | ||
| To put that in perspective, that's enough to kill a third of the American population, 120 million Americans. | ||
| 100,000 kilograms of cocaine and meth gone off the streets. | ||
| Earlier this year, I highlighted in Cincinnati, Ohio, how we're getting creative to chase down those that were willing to do harm to our citizens, not just by striking at the heart of the fentanyl, but the fentanyl companies in China. | ||
| And we indicted for the first time multiple companies and individuals, not just in America, but in mainland China, that are producing the ingredients that produce and make fentanyl. | ||
| And we are going to keep going. | ||
| Counterterrorism work, cyber attacks, and foreign adversaries are something the FBI must never sleep on, and we are not sleeping. | ||
| In the counterintelligence space alone, this year, year to date, 30% increase in counterintelligence arrests from the DPRK, Russia, Iran, and China. | ||
| And I want the American people to know in this setting, there's a lot of work that the brave men and women in the FBI are doing. | ||
| We just can't get into, but they don't stop. | ||
| Our cyber threats, ransomware attacks, those harming our children online. | ||
| We've nearly a 20% increase in indictments and arrests in seven months alone this year. | ||
| We're going after those that harm our malware infrastructure systems, telecom systems, and energy structure. | ||
| Combating salt and vault typhoons are just a little bit of the examples we're doing. | ||
| Maybe most importantly under the counterterrorism and domestic terrorism umbrella, our nihilist, violent extremists, and those that label themselves 764, who wish to go online and convince children to maim and mutilate themselves and commit suicide. | ||
| And we are producing record numbers of arrests under that umbrella organization. | ||
| We even stopped an individual in a 764 network who wanted to conspire to kill an adolescent girl. | ||
| He is now in custody. | ||
| Transparency remains one of my main priorities at the FBI. | ||
| And this is what I've done in my seven months at the helm. | ||
| We've produced more than 33,000 pages of documents to Congress to a variety of committees, including, I believe, 7,500 to this committee alone, if memory serves me correct. | ||
| To put the 33,000 in perspective, my predecessor in seven years produced 13,000 pages in total to the United States Congress. | ||
| His predecessor in four years produced 3,000 pages in total. | ||
| I repeat, I've produced 33,000 pages in seven years to this Congress and will continue to do so. | ||
| I'm dedicated to restoring the trust and the mission and the integrity of the FBI, and we cannot do so without congressional oversight. | ||
| And I promise you I will continue to do so. | ||
| On the Epstein case, the original sin on the Epstein case was how it was handled by Mr. Acosta when he first brought the case in 2006, seven, and eight. | ||
| The original case had a very limited search warrant, had a very limited search window, had a very limited investigative window. | ||
| I was not there when those search warrants in that investigation was launched. | ||
| I would not have done it that way. | ||
| They were limited to only three to four years of investigations from 97 to approximately 2001 and 2002 to 2005. | ||
| Mr. Acosta allowed Mr. Epstein to enter into a plea agreement where he served weekend jails for trafficking minor women. | ||
| He also was allowed to leave jail to go home on the weekends. | ||
| Plus, he allowed a non-prosecution agreement to be signed as part of that plea deal, prohibiting future investigations from that prosecution and from that evidence and prohibiting the collection of further material. | ||
| That is the original sin. | ||
| We are working with Congress to produce more than any administration ever has material on Epstein. | ||
| And I welcome the challenge to tell us that we are not being as transparent as the law allows. | ||
| We even went to court and asked the judges to lift those prosecutorial agreements and to lift those court order seals, and they denied us three times. | ||
| Congress is welcome to do the same and join the fight. | ||
| And I'd lastly like to focus on operation that the president led in DC. | ||
| Because of this, we are taking this fight in D.C. to every single city across the country. | ||
| 2,100 arrests in the last month alone. | ||
| DC has seen a 60% decrease in gun crimes, 75% decrease in carjackings, and 53% decrease in homicides in our nation's capital. | ||
| And rightly so. | ||
| We're bringing that fight to the streets of America. | ||
| I want to thank you for your support. | ||
| And I'm proud to be the director that leads this FBI into a new headquarters building that they've needed for decades, saving the taxpayer $3.5 billions of dollars and also providing our workforce a safe environment. | ||
| If you don't know the calamity that is a Hoover building, I invite each and every one of you to walk around. | ||
| I'll give you a tour myself, and you can see where the cement falls on the heads of our employees that is only to be saved by netting. | ||
| We should do that too. | ||
| That's a good example. | ||
| Thank you for support to our mission. | ||
| And I do want to highlight one thing about DC. | ||
| It's because the FBI gathered sources and evidence that we were able to, through our source network, identify the horrific murder of the DC intern, Eric Tarpinian. | ||
| And I've spoken to his family, and we are working to bring them justice. | ||
| And Mr. Chairman, in my 16 years, now my 17 years of government service, if anyone has any questions about my service, bring it on. | ||
| Thank you, Director. | ||
| We will now proceed under the five-minute rule. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Heisen. | ||
| Director, delighted to have you here. | ||
| You are a breath of fresh air. | ||
| As you outlined, and I won't repeat it, the accomplishments, you did so with the same resources as your predecessor, roughly. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| I believe so, yes. | ||
| And so, how much of that has to do with taking people out of the backside of the FBI and moving them into the field into doing the job for which we primarily pay the FBI? | ||
| That's exactly what we needed done. | ||
| One-third of the FBI's workforce resided in the national capital region before I got there. | ||
| One-third of the crimes do not happen in Washington, D.C. Not anymore. | ||
| Not anymore. | ||
| So, 1,000 personnel of the FBI were deployed across this country on a permanent basis. | ||
| And every single state in this union is getting a plus-up, not a reduction, a plus-up of 1811s of Intel analysts and support staff. | ||
| And that is why the crime rates are going down in record numbers. | ||
| Thank you for doing that. | ||
| And, you know, it's perhaps the hardest thing for a bureaucrat to do is to lower the headcount around them that support them. | ||
| And I appreciate your willingness to do it different than your predecessor. | ||
| A lot of what you covered earlier was the find, the discovery, and then the prosecution that is done by the DOJ. | ||
| But I want to talk a little bit about the prevent side. | ||
| On the Charlie assassination, sir? | ||
| No, no, no, on all of these. | ||
| Okay, for example, and I'll bring it up before the Democrats bring it up, January 6th. | ||
| January 6th, we now know because of your find that in fact there were people involved who were not just observers but participants who in fact it's been alleged and I personally believe in fact were part of promoting perhaps even the one woman who died encouraging her to walk through a door that led to her death. | ||
| When you see that kind of activity and you know it was done under predecessors with full knowledge, whether it's January 6th, where embedded people cross the line or any other activity, including obviously the Russian hoax that we're now dealing with up in front and center. | ||
| My question to you is what can you or others do to prevent it from occurring again? | ||
| Not on your watch, but on future watches. | ||
| How can we know that this won't happen again the moment you leave the FBI? | ||
| It's simple. | ||
| What I'm doing through our leadership cadre is having FBI agents do what they were trained to do, not what they were not trained to do, not put them in situations that both harm them and the public. | ||
| We're also utilizing our sort networks and prioritizing the threat structure to go after the narco-traffickers, the counterterrorism people, the counterintelligence threats and the cyber threats. | ||
| That's what they were trained to do, and that's what we're letting them do. | ||
| One major question I have, after decades of doing this, each on our side of it, both the chairman, myself, and others, both at Oversight and here, have seen that the FBI and the Department of Justice hide behind non-statutory practices. | ||
| Now, you've changed the interpretation of many of those practices. | ||
| That's why we're getting the discovery that was previously withheld. | ||
| How do we work together to make sure that we never again have false walls, non-statutory walls that say the Department of Justice has a prohibition about giving, quote, you fill in the blank that has led to the chairman not seeing anything until you took over? | ||
| I'm wedded to aggressive constitutional oversight. | ||
| Having been a House congressional staffer, I know that is an important part of securing our democracy. | ||
| And the way we make it an everlasting enduring process is by showing the American people the results of what we are doing and the important work of this committee and putting it out to them so they can see government waste fraud and abuse. | ||
| And then they can demand from our constituents and our electors that they want this process to continue. | ||
| Last major question here. | ||
| Some things are so sensitive that we both would agree they cannot be made public. | ||
| Will you commit to this committee when it is too sensitive to disclose that you would at least make it available for in-camera review by the chairman and ranking members or others designated? | ||
| I have done that and I will continue to do that. | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| This is a breath of fresh air. | ||
| This is the beginning of what we need. | ||
| But my questions today for the director are ones in which I believe that we do need to codify by agreement or by statute, if necessary, the kind of openness and transparency that we're seeing from this administration, the kind of discovery that's allowing us to do our oversight properly. | ||
| And I would hope that that be the follow-up to this, obviously along with the Attorney General. | ||
| And I yield back my four seconds. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentleman from New York is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Welcome, Director Patel. | ||
| In the wake of the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump said, quote, violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and desicable way possible, close quote. | ||
| I would note for the record that Donald Trump has famously demonized practically every person he has ever disagreed with. | ||
| And therefore, using his own logic, he has put their lives at risk. | ||
| I should know Donald Trump continuously puts my life in danger. | ||
| About two weeks ago, when I announced my decision not to seek re-election, many people on both sides of the aisle, including the chairman, offered me well wishes and thanked me for my service. | ||
| Donald Trump, on the other hand, took the true social to call me a, quote, psychopathic nutjob, among other things. | ||
| Yesterday, I received a threatening note filled with anti-Semitic comments and hateful attacks that mimic some of the same language used by the president. | ||
| I am sure many of us on this committee face similar threats every day. | ||
| We have seen political assaults on both the left and the right. | ||
| The attack on Charlie Kirk, the attempted assassination of the president, the murder of the Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota House, the assault on Paul Pelosi, and the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, for example. | ||
| Director Patel, do you agree that there is political violence from both the left and the right? | ||
| There is too much political violence. | ||
| Do you agree, yes or no, that there's violence? | ||
| There is too much political violence based on ideologies from either side. | ||
| From either side. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Are you aware of the study by the Cato Institute, a well-known conservative group, that found that 69% of the violence is from the right? | ||
| I'm not familiar with that study. | ||
| I'm not familiar. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| I would commend it to you. | ||
| Are you aware the administration has threatened to use violence as an excuse to crack down on liberty and freedom of speech? | ||
| Say that again, I'm sorry. | ||
| Are you aware the administration has threatened to use violence as an excuse to crack down on liberty and freedom of speech? | ||
| Nobody at the FBI is doing that. | ||
| I didn't ask you about the FBI. | ||
| I said the administration. | ||
| I speak for the FBI. | ||
| I would like to enter the record an article from today's New York Times titled Trump Invokes Kirk's Killing and Justifying Measures to Silence Opponents. | ||
| In the wake of Charlie Kirk's killing, President Trump and his allies have laid out a broad plan to target liberal groups, monitor speech, revoke visas, and designate certain groups as domestic terrorists. | ||
|
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I ask the unanimous consent to insert this into the record. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Politicizing the murder of Charlie King to go after free speech is not a legacy I believe Charlie King would have wanted. | ||
| Moving on, I want to address another topic. | ||
| The FBI has traditionally played a key role in projects. | ||
| He doesn't even know his name. | ||
| He called him Charlie King. | ||
| But I fear that at a time when the president is accepting planes from Qatar for his post-presidential personal use, issuing pardons to major donors dropping from the office of the presidency, the FBI may be abandoning its commitment to investigating public corruption. | ||
| Since its creation in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Public Integrity Section has been one of the crown jewels of the Department of Justice, investigating and prosecuting corruption among the nation's public officials and acting as a key safeguard against politicized prosecutions. | ||
| This section's work has been supported by an elite squad in the FBI devoted specifically to rooting out corruption. | ||
| But according to reports, the public integrity section has now been decimated and the FBI's public corruption squad has been disbanded. | ||
| I would like to submit for the record a New York Times article entitled, FBI Dismantles Elite Public Corruption Squad. | ||
| Ask the unanimous consent. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| These actions are an invitation to corrupt politicians to break the law since they know that the government is asleep at the switch. | ||
| Last month, Senator Warren and I, along with dozens of other members of Congress, wrote to you and Attorney General Bondi expressing grave concern over your decision to effectively legalize corruption and to politicize prosecutorial decisions. | ||
| And he asked unanimous consent to enter this letter into the record. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I don't have time today to walk through all your questions, all of our questions and concerns, but will you commit to answering this letter in short order so that we can understand what factors led to this decision and how it has impacted the ability to hold corrupt officials accountable? | ||
| I will review, I will review your letter with my team and respond as soon as you will respond. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentlemen from Arizona is recognized for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Director, for being here. | ||
| I appreciate that the change in the FBI and the tone since you've been there. | ||
| We heard the ranking member, however, describe the FBI under your leadership as being resorting to political enforcement and you personally as being paranoid. | ||
| I would just suggest that perhaps that is the projections of the ranking member himself and not you, sir. | ||
| I want to refer to something that was said yesterday in yesterday's hearing by Senator Grassley. | ||
| He said, it's well understood that your predecessor left you an FBI infected with politics. | ||
| At your nomination hearing, he gave you records, made public records about whistleblowers regarding something called Arctic Frost. | ||
| Arctic Frost was the FBI case opened and approved by anti-Trump FBI agent Thebol, and Arctic Frost became Jack Smith's elector case. | ||
| The new records show that Arctic Frost was much broader than just an electoral matter. | ||
| In fact, it was expanded to Republican organizations. | ||
| Some examples of the groups that the Ray FBI sought to place under political investigation included the Republican National Committee, Republican Attorneys General Association, and Trump political groups. | ||
| In total, 92 Republican targets, including Republican groups, Republican-linked individuals, were placed under the investigative scope of Arctic Frost. | ||
| On that political list for investigation was one of Charlie Kirk's groups, Turning Point USA. | ||
| In other words, Arctic Frost wasn't just a case to politically investigate Trump. | ||
| It was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and then properly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus. | ||
| I'd ask that, Mr. Chairman, that that document be administered. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So I know that this is under current investigation, but I wish to ask specific questions about this for just a moment. | ||
| What search tools were used in Arctic Frost to view private communications of targets? | ||
| I believe the traditional search tools, search warrants, lawful service of process, and the tools that the FBI has in our infrastructure systems, cybersecurity systems, and counterintelligence systems. | ||
| But generally speaking, if I may, I want to use this to highlight the fact that I'm continuing my promise to work with Congress to produce documents simultaneously and also conduct ongoing investigations. | ||
| I'm giving you as much as I can, and I'll give you more when I can. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Another question regarding that is: were there any directives from the Biden White House concerning the Arctic Frost investigation? | ||
| Were there any, sorry? | ||
| Directives or communications from the Biden White House itself concerning the Arctic Frost investigation? | ||
| I'll just rely on what was turned over to date, sir. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So I want to add here: the search warrants that were used included the seizing of a U.S. member of Congress, his phone. | ||
| I think we all know who that was and how that was taken away and used for political purposes, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Director. | ||
| So we'll leave that for a second and let's go over to the Charlie Kirk case for just a second. | ||
| Let's emphasize this. | ||
| How many hours did it take from the assassination to the arrest of the assassin, Mr. Director? | ||
| 33. | ||
| That seems pretty swift. | ||
| And it was because of the actual release of videos and photographs that you directed to be released, sir. | ||
| That's correct. | ||
| And to put in perspective, the Boston bomber took five days and Luigi Mangion took five days. | ||
| Was the platform discord forthright from the start with law enforcement about the shooters' communications on its platform? | ||
| Great question. | ||
| The platform ownership has been working with our lawful process, and we are obtaining materials from them on a rolling basis. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I want to get back here to Article Frost for just a second, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I'd like to ask about the text messages. | ||
| I've got a special document from the FBI released to be admitted to the record. | ||
| Objection. | ||
| And a document from the Economic Times all should be admitted to the record. | ||
| So I'm going to give you the last 30 seconds. | ||
| We could go on about the Epstein Epstein case. | ||
| I've got a bunch about that. | ||
| But I'm just going to let you, if you wish to respond to either of the two vitriolic questioning or statement from the Democrats. | ||
| The work of the FBI speaks for itself. | ||
| It's on showcase here today. | ||
| Anyone that wants to attack the FBI can attack me, but leave our leadership structure alone. | ||
| When you have 23,000 violent felons arrested, twice as many as this time last year, the work fee speaks for itself. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you. | ||
| Appreciate your good work, Director Patel. | ||
| You'll back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Director Patel, before you joined the FBI, you railed against it for covering up Jeffrey. | ||
| We're going to do one more of these. | ||
| Let me refresh your memory with this clip. | ||
| It has Epstein's list. | ||
| They're sitting on it. | ||
| That's something you should do. | ||
| You're protecting the world's foremost predator. | ||
| Well, that's an evil thing to do, regardless of who may be embarrassed in the release of that list. | ||
| Why is the FBI protecting the greatest pederist, the largest scale pederist in human history? | ||
| Simple, because of who's on that list. | ||
| So you finished that December 2023 interview with the FBI and hardware for Republicans in Congress for not getting the Epstein files out to the public. | ||
| You can see this clip. | ||
|
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Boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. | |
| Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. | ||
| You said you emphasized that the president and FBI director each had complete authority to release Epstein's client list. | ||
| You said Epstein's Black Book is under the quote direct control of the director of the FBI. | ||
| Look at this clip. | ||
|
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This is way off the topic, but who has Jeffrey Epstein's Blackbook? | |
| Black book, FBI. | ||
| But who? | ||
|
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That is, I mean, that's under direct control of the director of the FBI. | |
| All right. | ||
| So you were sworn in as director more than 200 days ago. | ||
| Now the Black Book is under your direct control. | ||
| So why haven't you released the names of Epstein's co-conspirators in the rape and sex trafficking of young women and girls? | ||
| The Rolodex, which is what everybody colloquially refers to as the Black Book, has been released. | ||
| Oh, no, you're talking about what the journalist got five years ago? | ||
| No, that's not what we're talking about. | ||
| We're talking about what you were talking about there. | ||
| The Black book under the direct control of the FBI, director. | ||
| We have released more material than anyone else before. | ||
| The Biden administration, Obama administration had the exact opportunities to release this material and they never did. | ||
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And if you are selling the men and women, the FBI is not going after child creditors. | |
| Hang on, you said we're not going after child predators. | ||
| 1,500 child predators arrested this year, 35% income. | ||
| I'll reclaim my 4,700 child predators. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I'm going to reclaim my time if you could instruct the witness. | ||
| Why have you changed your position? | ||
| There, you were saying it's under the direct control of the FBI director and all of it should be released. | ||
| Everything that has been lawfully permitted to be released has been released. | ||
| And as I told you, the investigation was limited. | ||
| And let me make something crystal clear. | ||
| I never said Jeffrey Epstein didn't traffic other people, other women, and they're not other victims. | ||
| This is the investigation we were given from 2006, 7, and 8, and the search warrants from 2006, 7, and 8. | ||
| That's what we're working with. | ||
| Wait, have you released all of the stuff that the FBI has seized from Epstein's house? | ||
| the computers, the emails, the file cabinets, the documents? | ||
| What about the financial records? | ||
| Have you released all of that? | ||
| Everything the court has allowed us to. | ||
| Which court are you talking about? | ||
| Three separate federal courts have come in and said we're talking about the evidence you've got. | ||
| It's got nothing to do with what those courts have. | ||
| Do you have any law works? | ||
| Do you want me to break the law in a federal judge's order? | ||
| No, I want you to follow your own word, Director Patel. | ||
| You said up there it was under the direct control of the FBI director. | ||
| He had the black. | ||
| Everything I have direct control over, we have gone to court. | ||
| You haven't complete your sentence. | ||
| Everything you have direct control over, you said have gone to court and everything we have direct control. | ||
| Direct control over. | ||
| Complete your sentence. | ||
| You said everything. | ||
| We release the releasing. | ||
| You'd like to complete his answer. | ||
| You began the sentence. | ||
| Everything you have direct control over, I, and then you stopped that sentence. | ||
| You've released everything that you have direct control over? | ||
| I have direct control over and can lawfully release. | ||
| If you're not familiar with the court orders, that's not my fault. | ||
| Oh, I'm perfect. | ||
| Look at that. | ||
| I'm perfectly familiar with them. | ||
| But how did we prosecute Ghelane Maxwell? | ||
| She was prosecuted with the investigatory material that was collected from 2001 and 2005. | ||
| Because of the non-prosecution agreements and the court orders on the investigations and search warrants, we were not able to develop new information. | ||
| And oh, by the way, Jeffrey Epstein was out for 12 years and the Obama and Biden administration did nothing to look at his work, his pedophile network. | ||
| If you want to blame me, that's fine. | ||
| But now you're blaming the men and women who conduct this. | ||
| I'm not blaming anybody other than you. | ||
| You're not keeping your word. | ||
| You said that you would release all of the materials. | ||
| Has anyone released more information on Epstein than I have? | ||
| Has anyone? | ||
| Much more. | ||
| Tommy did Ray. | ||
| Much, much more. | ||
| Excuse me, much more has come out in the days since the American people and Congress have been demanding it, but it's coming out in dribs and drabs. | ||
| Why don't you just release the entire file as you promised to do? | ||
| I literally just told you there are multiple federal court orders. | ||
| I'm not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity. | ||
| You didn't join us when we filed court to release the court orders. | ||
| You could have. | ||
| You have lawyers. | ||
| You could have shown up. | ||
| You didn't do that. | ||
| That's a tiny fraction of the material. | ||
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That is not. | |
| It's a tiny fraction. | ||
| How do you know that? | ||
| Have you seen everything? | ||
| It's all misdirected. | ||
| The time of the gentleman has expired. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
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Incredible. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Director, just to be clear, how many of the Epstein files were released in the four years of the Biden administration? | ||
| Zero. | ||
| And how many have you released? | ||
| I don't have the number, but it's got to be thousands of pages of stuff. | ||
| I was going to ask you to begin whether Americans are safer today than they were nine months ago, but you cited dramatic increases in criminal arrests since you've taken office, a dramatic decrease in crime that's resulted. | ||
| Who would have thought that taking criminals off the streets would reduce the crime rate? | ||
| But somehow we have stumbled upon that new truth. | ||
| But it begs the question, what was the FBI doing during the four years of the Biden administration to see that dramatic an increase in work under your tenure? | ||
| Simple answer is: I'm letting good cops be cops. | ||
| We're working with our state and local law enforcement. | ||
| We're energizing our partnerships. | ||
| We're bringing on more task force officers. | ||
| When you have more cops in the streets, when you're using ground-based intelligence, when you're not weaponizing law enforcement and focusing on DC and focusing on the rest of America, this is what happens. | ||
| It is not a significant mind shift in terms of how we maneuver the FBI. | ||
| They've wanted to do this work since they signed up. | ||
| We're just letting them. | ||
| And we've seen many prominent Democrats oppose your efforts to restore law and order to the streets of our nation's capital. | ||
| I mean, all of us here have seen a dramatic change for the better here in Washington, D.C. Why are so many Democrats attacking you for that? | ||
| Sir, Democrats have been attacking me for a decade, as is the fake news media. | ||
| They didn't like the fact that I exposed the Russia gays host and the largest weaponization of the FBI and DOJ in U.S. history. | ||
| We proved it to be true with congressional oversight. | ||
| I'm wed to that congressional oversight and will continue to do that work. | ||
| Christopher Ray repeatedly warned this committee that the Biden open borders policy had produced a significant increase in terrorist threats that he said kept them up at night. | ||
| A particular concern, he said, is the 2 million gotaways that entered the country during the Biden administration. | ||
| That's an average of 41,000 every month. | ||
| What are the monthly gottaway numbers today? | ||
| Sir, I'll have to get back to you on the exact gotaway numbers, but identifying that there are gotaways is step one. | ||
| Going and manhunting them is step two. | ||
| And that's what we're committing our resources to. | ||
| That's my next question is what progress has administration made in apprehending and removing terrorist threats that came in during the Biden years? | ||
| I think you're talking about, if you're not, let me know, known or suspected terrorists. | ||
| And we've encountered almost zero at the southern border since the southern border has been sealed. | ||
| But the problem that we are running into is our northern border. | ||
| It's largely expansive. | ||
| The enemy has adapted. | ||
| And we need more focus on the northern border to stop known or suspected terrorists from coming in from places like China, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Afghanistan. | ||
| And what can you tell us about the remaining threat posed by potential terrorist cells here in the United States? | ||
| The terrorist threat that continues to be posed by international terrorists here in the United States is one of my highest priorities. | ||
| We are working through our intelligence community partners to identify those individuals, and we've taken down numerous individuals in numerous rings across this country to neutralize that terrorist threat, including places like New York City, Los Angeles, and I believe Dallas, Texas. | ||
| How extensively did criminal cartels like Sinaloa, Jalisco, New Generation, MS-13, Taran Diaragua, and others infiltrate our country during the Biden administration? | ||
| By the tens of thousands. | ||
| And what progress have you been making in combating their presence? | ||
| I think the DHS is best to speak to that, but I think I can't remember the numbers of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of individuals they found that came in illegally and the tens of thousands of associations, the criminal networks have all been deported. | ||
| And that effort is being opposed every step of the way by Democratic leaders in our cities, some of our states, and right here in the Congress. | ||
| Isn't that true? | ||
| Well, we're just working where we can in every single city we can, and I welcome the opportunity to partner with Republicans or Democrats on fighting violent crime like we're doing. | ||
| Mr. Biggs asked about Arctic Frost. | ||
| What else can you tell us about that and what we need to do to assure that it never happens again? | ||
| Continue the congressional oversight work that you're doing on Arctic Frost. | ||
| Let me provide you with more documentation on Arctic Frost and also call in witnesses from the paperwork that we have given you. | ||
| You have that right and the American public deserves to hear what those people have to say. | ||
| As for my ongoing investigation, there's not much I can say. | ||
| What role did the FBI play in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2024 election? | ||
| Off the top of my office, sir. | ||
| I believe the FBI was in possession of verified information from that laptop and it was improperly publicized that they did not have information and masked it as Russian disinformation. | ||
| We now know that was categorically false. | ||
| I don't know why the FBI did that when they did that, but we've released all the materials related to that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from New York is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Coleman. | ||
| Mr. Patel, does Donald Trump appear anywhere in the Epstein files? | ||
| I'm sorry, could you say that again? | ||
| I'm gonna listen to this. | ||
| A complicated question: Does Donald Trump appear anywhere in the Epstein files? | ||
| I didn't say it was a complicated question, I just didn't hear you. | ||
| So, my apologies. | ||
| Um, we have released uh, where Mr. Where President Trump's names in the Epstein files and everybody else, um, and all credible information that we are illegally allowed to release has been released. | ||
| All right, so let's go through that. | ||
| You're you're referring to court orders that prohibit you from releasing grand jury testimony under Rule 6E. | ||
| Is that what you're referring to when you say as the law allows? | ||
| That's a piece of it. | ||
| Really? | ||
| What other evidence does the do those three court orders you cited prohibit from being released? | ||
| Information that was collected pursuant to those search warrants that were limited fashion. | ||
| Wrong. | ||
| That's not what the court order says, and that's not under 6E. | ||
| And you're talking, and I said that's 6E, and I said there were others, and I'm answering that. | ||
| There are sealed court order documents, there are protective orders. | ||
| They are unsealed as part of discovery given to Ghelane Maxwell. | ||
| They are no longer sealed. | ||
| That's just not true. | ||
| We can argue about it all you want. | ||
| Okay, well, you agree that there are. | ||
| So, wait, your testimony here is that the reason why you are not releasing all of the videos that you have acknowledged, there are so many, and that the FBI spent thousands of hours of reviewing the photographs, all of the photographs that you have. | ||
| You're saying that you're not releasing those because there's a court order requiring them to be sealed. | ||
| Is that your testimony? | ||
| Never said that about the videos. | ||
| On the totality of the videos of the thousands of images that were seized pursuant to the search warrants executed at the time, the overwhelming majority of that video is pornographic material that was downloaded from the internet and child sexual abuse material. | ||
| We will never release that. | ||
| Well, as you should not release the victims, but if there are videos that relate to others who Epstein trafficked to, such as maybe Prince Andrew, or photographs that you have total control to release, yes. | ||
| And if it exists, so why haven't you released it? | ||
| Why are you supposing that that is a fact when in fact it is false? | ||
| Are you saying that none of the videos relate to anything relevant to the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking rules? | ||
| Every single video that we have collected pursuant to the prior search warrants has been examined for the last 10 years, and every single video has been utilized for whatever prosecutions were able to be legally brought. | ||
| I'm not asking about prosecutions, I'm asking about why you aren't releasing the full Epstein files, including the names of people who were involved in the sex ring that you promised to do before you became FBI director. | ||
| I just told you, I'm not going to release downloaded pornography. | ||
| I'm not asking about that. | ||
| Fine, I'm asking about all the other files. | ||
| What other videos? | ||
| Tell me. | ||
| Tell me. | ||
| That's what I'm asking. | ||
| Tell me. | ||
| You're saying there are no videos that would be relevant to anyone else involved in the Jeffrey Epstein sex. | ||
| Pursuant to Mr. Acosta's collection of information based on the search warrants. | ||
| That's all we have in our possession. | ||
| And I'm asking you, that stuff. | ||
| That's all we got. | ||
| I'm not asking all you got. | ||
| I'm asking you in that stuff, there's nothing that's related to any other sex traffic, any other people engaged with Epstein in underage sex. | ||
| That's correct, to my knowledge. | ||
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No. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Let's talk about the witness interviews, 302s of witness interviews. | ||
| Those are not subject to the court order. | ||
| Those are not subject to any fictional sealed order for a search warrant. | ||
| Why aren't you releasing those with the redacted names of the victims? | ||
| We are releasing as much as legally allowed. | ||
| That's why we went back to the past. | ||
| How is that not legally allowed? | ||
| Sir, do you know how court orders work? | ||
| Do you know how protective orders are actually? | ||
| I was a prosecutor, a real prosecutor for 10 years. | ||
| I know exactly how to do nonsense. | ||
| And I want to understand what the court order prevents you from releasing witness statements that the FBI took. | ||
| You should know that as a real prosecutor, when the court hand downs a protective order and a motion to seal, the material is sealed. | ||
| Unless that is that all of those witness statements are under a court order, a protective order. | ||
| We are providing everything we can legally provide. | ||
| No, that's not my question. | ||
| My question is: why are those witness statements that are not grand jury testimony that if they were under a protective order are no longer under a protective order? | ||
| Why are they not being released? | ||
| How are they not under protective order? | ||
| Why are you not going to the court like you did for the grand jury testimony to unseal those records? | ||
| The DOJ did go to the court. | ||
| No, not on those records. | ||
| Why aren't you going? | ||
| You just went on grand jury. | ||
| Time of the gentleman has expired. | ||
| You are hiding the Epstein files, time of the gentleman has expired. | ||
| You are part of the cover-up. | ||
| Can I respond? | ||
| Sure can. | ||
|
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Yes. | |
| Any allegations that I'm a part of a cover-up to protect child sexual trafficking in victims of human trafficking and sexual crimes is patently and categorically false. | ||
|
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And the work of my so I hope you will talk to them when you're retired to speak with you. | |
| Because the victims have reflected the rest of the world. | ||
| You are not responding to them. | ||
| Goodness. | ||
| Director, yes or no? | ||
| Is the FBI still spying on parents at school board meetings? | ||
| No, sir. | ||
| Is the FBI still targeting Catholics? | ||
| No, sir. | ||
| Is the FBI still spying on President Trump? | ||
| I don't believe so. | ||
| Is the FBI still censoring Americans? | ||
| No, sir. | ||
| Is the FBI still targeting Americans for shopping at Cabela's or purchasing Bibles? | ||
| Nobody is targeted for their faith. | ||
| Is the FBI still targeting Americans who are pro-life? | ||
| Nobody is targeting anyone for their beliefs. | ||
| Is the FBI still cooking the books on crime data? | ||
| The crime data is real. | ||
| Is the FBI still purging agents for conservative viewpoints? | ||
| No one at the FBI has asked their viewpoints on politics. | ||
| Is the FBI still labeling the Betsy Ross flag, the flag of the American Revolution, a hate symbol? | ||
| No. | ||
| Well, maybe that's why you've been able to, what was the number? | ||
| 23,000 bad guys you've arrested, a huge increase from the same time period in the previous administration. | ||
| I think you said 1,400 predators, 4,000 children rescued. | ||
| Were those effects? | ||
| 4,700, 35% increase on children rescued. | ||
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Yeah. | |
| And you got the guy that Abby Gate. | ||
| We got the Abby Gate guy. | ||
| The guy from the 4th District of Ohio lost his life there serving our country. | ||
| We appreciate that. | ||
| Maybe when you're not focused on politics, you can actually do what the FBI is supposed to do. | ||
| Go get the bad guys, right? | ||
| That's what the men and women of the FBI do. | ||
| Director, did John Brennan lie to Congress? | ||
| Let me just read a couple things actually before you answer that. | ||
| Two years ago, we had Mr. Brennan in for an interview, and I asked him, How did you learn about the dossier in December of 2016? | ||
| Mr. Brennan replied, I received a copy of it from the FBI, and the CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the steeple dossier in the intelligence community assessment. | ||
| That's what John Brennan told the United States Congress. | ||
| Seven weeks ago, the director of national intelligence told us this: John Brennan lied and denied using the dossier in the intelligence community assessment because he knew it was discredited. | ||
| CIA officer told the House Intelligence Committee, Brennan refused to remove it. | ||
| And when confronted with the dossier's main flaws, he responded, yes, but doesn't it ring true? | ||
| John Brennan lied to us. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I won't stylize the evidence. | ||
| What I will say is that the intelligence community assessment, those that created it, and any individual involved with it is an ongoing investigation. | ||
| There's an investigation into what took place in December and January of December 2016, January 2017, when this whole thing started, this grand conspiracy. | ||
| That is being investigated. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
| That has been publicly announced by the department. | ||
| That's been announced by the department. | ||
| Did Chris Ray hide documents from this committee? | ||
| You would know better than me, sir. | ||
| Well, I think you told us like 700 pieces of information you've given this committee since you've been director relative to just one incident, the Catholic memorandum from the Richmond Field Office. | ||
| I can give you the comparison, sir. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| The Catholic memo, I believe we turned over 750 documents. | ||
| In Mr. Ray's tenure, I believe they turned over 19 pages. | ||
| 19 pages. | ||
| You give it a 700. | ||
| Why would Chris Ray hide information from this committee? | ||
| You don't want to hazard a guess? | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Hazard a guess why he would do that? | ||
| I don't know, sir. | ||
| I think maybe it was because they were FBI was spying on a priest, trying to get him to break the priest-penitent confidence that exists. | ||
| I think maybe that was the reason. | ||
| You'd have to ask him, sir. | ||
| Yeah, we'd love to do that. | ||
| I want to read a few names here. | ||
| RDK's Tropic Vortex, Riding Hood, Foggy Falls, Echoes, Fate, Sirens, Lur, Janae, Christmas. | ||
| What are these code names about, Director? | ||
| You know? | ||
| Not off topic. | ||
| Well, RDK's Tropic Vortex. | ||
| Mine are saying these are code names for leak investigations of classified information from the year 2017. | ||
| Does that ring a bell? | ||
| In terms of leak investigations, many of those are classified and many of those are ongoing, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| But we are working with you to produce documents as we close those investigations or as we declassify them? | ||
| Let me ask you this question because this is something I've wondered about the way the FBI used to work. | ||
| Way this whole thing kind of, so many of these things unfolded. | ||
| Seems to me you had all these people in government leaking information that then gets reported in the press. | ||
| There's a story written about it. | ||
| And then that article is then used to further the investigation and move forward with what they want to do. | ||
| Did that take place back in 16 and 17? | ||
| That's the exact scenario that took place in the FISA application for Carter Page and the rest of the Trump campaign. | ||
| And that is frightening because that's what the CIA is supposed to do in foreign countries. | ||
| It's not supposed to happen to Americans, but it did, didn't it, Director? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And not just any Americans, it happened with the President of the United States. | ||
| Is that accurate? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| Yeah, and you were the key guy in helping expose that. | ||
| And I think our country will be forever grateful for what you did to let the country know that was going on involving Americans, which is not supposed to happen. | ||
| And not just, again, any American, but the President of the United States. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from California. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I'm concerned by reports that FBI agents have been diverted from their important work on anti-terrorism matters that are not critical to our safety. | ||
| We have some news to break during our show and some guests that I want to have comment on this during the show, but who are here to talk about how we will ensure that left-wing violence is something that we rip up root and stem in our country. | ||
| Cashel obviously answering a lot of questions about Epstein and about FBI staffing right there. | ||
| So here's what I can promise you. | ||
| We're going to get to our guests. | ||
| We're going to have our production team locked in with this hearing, and they will be monitoring, clipping, and getting us anything of note. | ||
| We won't miss a thing on this program, but I do not want to miss our guests. | ||
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| Not telling you not to pay your bills, but I mean, that's just like usury, honestly. | ||
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| AmericanFinancing.net slash Benny is the website. | ||
| And ladies and gentlemen, now to Charlie Kirk's friend, the congressman from Arizona, an incredible man, a Navy SEAL, and somebody who really deeply understands this moment and has seen extremism up close many times, sometimes with me. | ||
| His name is Eli Crane. | ||
| He joins us live now. | ||
| Congressman, forgive us for being late here. | ||
| What was happening with cash in the House was nothing short of remarkable. | ||
| You and I walked the bloody field together in Butler, Pennsylvania, and we saw the left-wing terroristic violence that nearly took the life of the president of the United States and took the life of Corey Compertore. | ||
| And we said there must be resolve on the right in order to fix this, otherwise it will spiral and get worse. | ||
| And now we have seen, unfortunately, the inability for the right to properly adjudicate and to dismantle left-wing violence. | ||
| Now it has gotten worse and has stolen the life of our friend, Charlie Kirk. | ||
| I'd like to give you the floor, one, to potentially to eulogize Charlie. | ||
| I know that you had a very close working relationship with him in Arizona. | ||
| And then to talk forcefully about what Republicans must do to ensure that this does not continue to happen again and again and again to our generational leaders and presidents. | ||
| Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, Benny. | ||
| And I know Charlie was a dear friend of yours. | ||
| You know, last week, like a lot of Americans, I was heartbroken. | ||
| You know, I remember I was sitting here in my office. | ||
| I saw it pop up on the news and I called Tyler Boyer immediately to see if I could get an update on Charlie's condition. | ||
| And he told me it did look good and he was very choked up about it. | ||
| And I just remember praying and asking God for a miracle for Charlie and this guy who not only was led by his faith, but was one of the biggest truth seekers I've ever met in my life. | ||
| He's definitely one of the most intelligent men that I've ever met in my life. | ||
| I know you know that. | ||
| Anybody that's talked to Charlie or listened to him for five seconds can quickly deduce that. | ||
| And one of the things that always just impressed me so much about Charlie Benny was the fact that myself and many other conservatives and Republicans had abandoned academia a long time ago. | ||
| We just thought it was too far gone. | ||
| It was a lost cause, but Charlie didn't believe that for a second. | ||
| He had a vision and he had the courage and the intelligence to go in and debate with these young college students. | ||
| And I know it started out really rough for him. | ||
| You know, the crowds weren't big. | ||
| I know that, you know, he and his crew got assaulted and disrespected all the time. | ||
| But as you saw him continue to put the work and the sweat equity in and continue to win debates and just do it in a loving way, those crowds started to, you know, really swing his way and they started to grow. | ||
| And you started to see Charlie build this movement that many of us thought was not even possible. | ||
| And so, you know, America obviously lost a treasure. | ||
| And when I look at, you know, the fallout from this event, obviously you have the death of just an amazing American patriot, but you also have exposure on the left of, you know, so many of these videos of, you know, leftists celebrating his death. | ||
| And I never thought I'd see that in this country, Benny. | ||
| I never did. | ||
| I mean, whether, regardless of, you know, what side it happens on, political violence is never okay and it should absolutely never be celebrated. | ||
| But I do want to mention, you know, some of the polling that I've seen come out, and I know you've seen it too, you know, the polling that shows how much greater of a percentage of Democrats and leftists, you know, believe that political violence is okay and that Charlie's murder was justified. | ||
| It's just shocking and it's disgusting. | ||
| And I do believe the origin of it, Benny, probably just like you is spiritual. | ||
| I mean, this is 100% evil. | ||
| This is 100% evil to me. | ||
| There's so many scriptures that talk about our enemy, the devil, who prowls the earth like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. | ||
| And he's devoured so many of these young souls and so many of these young kids. | ||
| And it just, it breaks my heart as a father myself who has have, you know, I have one that's getting ready to go to college. | ||
| I have another one that, you know, is getting ready to start high school. | ||
| And it, you know, just, and I know I'm not the only one. | ||
| I know there's a lot of parents out there that are just so beside themselves on, you know, do I even send my kids to school? | ||
| I mean, what feels like you're playing Russian roulette by sending your kids to these universities that are just filled with Marxists, leftists, communists, indoctrinization. | ||
| And, you know, that's something that Charlie fought against and he gave his life for it. | ||
| And, you know, for me, that will always make him a hero. | ||
| And one of the most amazing things that I've seen come out of this is how many young Americans in college and high school have responded and requested to start their own turning point chapter at their college and their high school. | ||
| And it just shows me that, you know, darkness cannot defeat light. | ||
| It cannot. | ||
| We may have setbacks. | ||
| We may have martyrs. | ||
| We may lose some of our best like Charlie, but you cannot, just like with the early church, you know, every effort was taken to try and destroy the early church and Christians and the apostles and the followers of Christ. | ||
| But what happened, Benny? | ||
| It just took off like wildfire. | ||
| Not only is there truth in the gospel, but when others see that you believe in something so much that you're willing to die for it and it means more to you than life itself, that has just a magnetic pull that most things never will. | ||
| And so I'm grateful to Charlie for his example. | ||
| It makes me want to be so much stronger in my own faith and just fighting for truth like he did. | ||
| But it's also, I'm also heartbroken at the same time. | ||
| Just very quickly here, Congressman, because I know that we're up against a hard out here, you hold a position of great authority and great respect in Congress. | ||
| Everybody knows your history as a Davy SEAL fighting extremism, radicalization, and terrorism. | ||
| Now that has been domesticated in the left. | ||
| It has been insulated and incubated by a media ecosystem that dehumanizes us, by dark money left-wing groups that promote and fund this activism. | ||
| And then, of course, the actual terrorists themselves who go out and commit these violent crimes. | ||
| What are you going to be doing in Congress to ensure that there's not another Charlie Kirk assassination of your scope on the right again? | ||
| Yeah, I mean, we'll do everything that we can, Benny. | ||
| I'm honestly, I don't believe that the solution honestly is going to come from Congress. | ||
| I do believe more of the solutions will come from the administration and just the agencies that they can control and, you know, like the DOJ. | ||
| And I've seen some very, very strong messaging put out from the DOJ and the FBI and others that they will be, you know, looking into these radical left-wing groups and, you know, going after anybody who continues to promote violence. | ||
| I mean, you know, you're seeing this interesting debate take on, you know, right now, whether about free speech, right? | ||
| And we're all for free speech. | ||
| I'm all for free speech. | ||
| You know, the best way you know if somebody's for free speech is if they support speech that they don't like, right? | ||
| But that's not what we're talking about here with a lot of these groups. | ||
| We're talking about a lot of these groups that are promoting for and calling for political violence. | ||
| And that is not the same, right? | ||
| That is not the same. | ||
| That's in a category of its own. | ||
| And so I think you're going to see this administration not only go after those that are calling for these things, but also those that are funding these things. | ||
| And I think that that's going to be massive. | ||
| And honestly, Benny, if there's anything that we can do in Congress, whether it's oversight or to support this administration all about it, I just think that the I think that the solution is going to come more from the administration than from Congress. | ||
| Congressman Vich, very quickly, Republicans could take a united stance against Ilhan Omar and kick her off committees for the many of the repulsive things that she said and done. | ||
| But especially since she giggled and teeheed over Charlie Kirk's assassination, she did this live on camera virtually celebrating it. | ||
| This seems like an obvious choice. | ||
| Why haven't Republicans done this? | ||
| Well, and that's why I led with, I don't think this will come from Congress, Benny. | ||
| I mean, you don't have to go back more than five or six months ago when La Monica MacGyver assaulted an ICE agent. | ||
| And I was begging the speaker to kick her off her committees. | ||
| You know, she's still on the Homeland Security Committee, Benny. | ||
| Not only is she still on the committee, she's a chairwoman at times, or she's the, I'm sorry, she's the ranking member at times. | ||
| And Republicans, we just had a vote to kick La Monica MacGyver off committees. | ||
| And enough Republicans broke with our own party and accountability and justice and voted with the Democrats. | ||
| So she's still on her committees. | ||
| And that's why I don't think it's going to come from Congress, just because we have so many weak and pathetic members of Congress. | ||
| Sick. | ||
| What about classifying Antifa as a terrorist organization, according to Annapolina Luna, that must pass through a Judiciary Committee? | ||
| Your thoughts on that? | ||
| I'm all about it in 100% support of it. | ||
| I wish it would have happened sooner, but I am all about it and will be in 100% support of that. | ||
| Okay, and you'll be fighting for Republicans to do that. | ||
| I mean, again, if you are allowing this terrorist, you are encouraging and inciting and providing material support to these terrorist networks if you simply just allow them to continue to be funded and allow them to continue to threaten the lives of conservatives. | ||
| So, you know, if that's what you wish to be known as as a Republican, no matter how pathetic or cucked you completely are, if that's what you wish to be known as, then know that we will label you as that. | ||
| And you will have absolutely no future. | ||
| You will not be able to fill a coffee shop and you will have no fundraising. | ||
| We will come and we will ensure that you have no future in the Republican Party. | ||
| If you do not vote to make Antifa a terrorist organization, if you do not vote to have Ilhan Omar stripped of her committees and properly punished for what she did to giggle in the face of Charlie Kirk's political assassination, then there will be consequences. | ||
| We will understand what this means. | ||
| This means that you want to be part of the Democrat Party. | ||
| That means that you want to unite with them. | ||
| So we'll go ahead and make sure that that happens. | ||
| That's your only pathway. | ||
| And so please enjoy the rest of your life with David Hogg and Harry Sisson. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you, Congressman. | ||
| Sorry about that little rant at the end there. | ||
| Blood pressure is hot right now. | ||
| And we're going to make sure that in honor of Charlie's memory that we unite Republicans to be strong and not weak. | ||
| That was what Charlie was all constantly wanting to do. | ||
| Yep. | ||
| Yep. | ||
| Here's the Congressman's social media. | ||
| Please follow Eli Crane. | ||
| Hundreds of thousands of Americans already do. | ||
| Make sure that we're fighting with the people who fight for us. | ||
| Godspeed, Congressman. | ||
| Thank you, brother. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, something demonstrably evil happened on Jimmy Kimmel's show. | ||
| I know that is an evergreen headline and an evergreen comment that we could make pretty much every week of the year. | ||
| But given the fact that this is coming at a time when the audiences that Jimmy Kimmel regularly radicalizes and lies to, given the ABC News platform, which, by the way, is taxpayer-funded with luxurious and lavish gifts from the federal government to ABC, | ||
| the broadcast network that have major legal stipulations to them, which are to tell the truth. | ||
| Please put up the tweets, Klein. | ||
| ABC News must tell the truth. | ||
| They must operate in the public interest. | ||
| This is in their broadcast charter given to them by the federal government. | ||
| I'm going to play you a clip of Jimmy Kimmel victim blaming Charlie Kirk for his own assassination. | ||
| This is precisely what happened. | ||
| It cannot be categorized any other way. | ||
| This is Jimmy Kimmel blaming Charlie lying about the nature of his assassin, who is a steeped far-left political extremist, transgender ideology advocate, live-in transgender boyfriend. | ||
| That is who killed Charlie. | ||
| He hated Charlie Kirk. | ||
| Here's Jimmy Kimmel saying it's actually the right that killed Charlie Kirk. | ||
| And what that is, is saying that Charlie Kirk deserved it and that Charlie Kirk actually created the conditions he's to blame for his own assassination. | ||
| Listen to this. | ||
| New lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. | ||
| In between the finger pointing, there was grieving. | ||
| On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism. | ||
| So, this is what Jimmy Kimmel had to say: Jimmy Kimmel saying that one of the killer was obviously one of them. | ||
| This is a clearly and wholly demonstrable, malicious lie. | ||
| Now, let me explain. | ||
| The prosecutor yesterday, who's prosecuting this case in Utah, went on camera before the world and set to bed forever the lie that Tyler Robinson was of the right. | ||
| Now, here are the prosecutor, ladies and gentlemen, explaining the motive. | ||
| Please load. | ||
| But also, I want to like establish something very quickly. | ||
| You had the post-up, the tweet up, please. | ||
| About the legal ramifications. | ||
| And do we have that clip-loaded? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Great. | |
| This is a clear-cut violation of the FCC's policy against news distortion and is punishable by the revocation of the offending broadcast license under 47 U.S. Code 312, or at least a hearing of punitive action under 309 section. | ||
| As organizations granted broadcasting licenses will serve in the public interest's convenience and necessity, as deliberate news distortion is seen here, contrary to the public interest. | ||
| What you'll find in this clip is that as Jimmy Kimmel goes on to make fun of Charlie Kirk's political assassination, he's making fun of it. | ||
| He's using it as an opportunity to attack President Trump. | ||
| He's standing on the grave of Charlie Kirk, lying about his assassin, saying Charlie deserved it, and then using Charlie's assassination, the murder of a father, the orphaning of his children, the widowing of his wife, the dispatching by left-wing terrorism, what would have been possibly one of the greatest presidents in American history. | ||
| That was the path that Charlie was on. | ||
| We all knew it. | ||
| Jimmy Kimmel is taking it as an opportunity to lie to his audience and victim blame. | ||
| It is the sickest behavior I've seen yet, platformed to the greatest extent. | ||
| Trust me, we are going to go after a number of people who are doing this. | ||
| And ladies and gentlemen, I want to just play for the record before we welcome on the commissioner of the FCC, Brendan Carr, to comment on this. | ||
| It's just that all the facts are straight, and then we'll get to the commissioner. | ||
| Thankfully, he's able to join our program today to elucidate for us what the FCC can do now when it comes to ABC News. | ||
| Let us get the facts straight. | ||
| Here is what the prosecutor says was the motive of Charlie's political assassination. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go. | |
| Robinson's mother explained that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented. | ||
| She stated that Robinson began to date his roommate, a biological male who was transitioning genders. | ||
| This resulted in several discussions with family members, but especially between Robinson and his father, who have very different political views. | ||
| In one conversation before the shooting, Robinson mentioned that Charlie Kirk would be holding an event at UVU, which Robert Robinson said was a stupid venue for the event. | ||
| Robinson accused Kirk of spreading hate. | ||
| When asked why he did it, Robinson explained there is too much evil, and the guy referring to Charlie Kirk spreads too much hate. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Does that sound like one of them, Jimmy Kimmel? | ||
| Does it sound like one of them? | ||
| Does it sound like one of Charlie's followers? | ||
| The guy living with his transgender boyfriend whose entire family says hates Christians, hates conservatives, hates Charlie Kirk, hates President Trump. | ||
| This was a political assassination, a targeting in their own words, and according to all of the prosecutors. | ||
| So ABC News is maliciously lying about the single worst act of political violence in American history. | ||
| Arguably. | ||
| Certainly in modern history, left-wing extremist violence. | ||
| And these are the kind of lies. | ||
| I want to just state this before we bring on the commissioner. | ||
| Correction chairman, my apologies. | ||
| Brendan Carr is the FCC chairman. | ||
| These are the kind of lies, omissions, victim blaming, slandering, malice, libels that targets on the back of President Trump, Charlie Kirk, of me, of my family. | ||
| That not a miticum or a scintilla of sympathy can be shed for those who have just lost their father, the children who just lost their father, a wife who just lost her husband, a movement that just lost a generational leader. | ||
| And that ABC News has monetized and has asked the American taxpayer to pay for these libels through their broadcast license is one of the single greatest insults I have seen in my entire time in the media industry. | ||
| If not, the greatest insult. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, here to speak authoritatively on this issue is the chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, joining us live now. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for being on our program. | ||
| This is something that obviously has concerned a great many number of people about Jimmy Kimmel's monologue. | ||
| What does the FCC's stance on this certainly is a heightened moment in American history where you do not want to see copycats, you do not want to see further radicalization, but by slandering and maligning and distorting what happened to Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel seems to be inviting it. | ||
| Yeah, well, first off, Benny, I don't think, you know, you and I haven't had a chance to talk yet since Charlie Kirk's death. | ||
| And I think I just obviously want to join everything that you've been saying about Charlie, his life, amazing man. | ||
| I think what was so revealing in the last few days is I think what dawned on so many people is that, you know, everyone, I think, knew that Charlie Kirk had said something kind to them, had lifted them up when they were at either a low point in their career or at no point in their career. | ||
| when you saw so many people conveying their stories with Charlie, you saw a sort of a connection across hundreds and thousands of people that you knew he meant something to you, but you didn't know that he had somehow found the capacity to be that sort of meaningful inspiration for so many people. | ||
| I think that's why there's sort of a dawning on people and a reflection in the last couple of days that's been so meaningful to see. | ||
| You know, when you look at the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel, it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible. | ||
| As you've indicated, there are avenues here for the FCC. | ||
| So there are some ways in which I need to be a little bit careful because we could be called ultimately to be a judge on some of these claims that come up. | ||
| But I don't think this is an isolated incident. | ||
| I mean, you go back to Representative Swalwell, and he had a tweet out last week where he was saying that, you know, emphasizing that Charlie Kirk's killer was a straight white male from a Republican family that voted for Donald Trump. | ||
| In some quarters, there's a very concerted effort to try to lie to the American people about the nature, as you indicate, of one of the most significant newsworthy public interest acts that we've seen in a long time. | ||
| And what appears to be an action, appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican motivated person. | ||
| If that's what happened here with his conduct, that is really, really sick. | ||
| And I've been very clear from the moment that I have become chairman of the FCC. | ||
| I want to reinvigorate the public interest. | ||
| And what people don't understand is that the broadcasters, and you've gotten this right, are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication. | ||
| They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. | ||
| And we can get into some ways that we've been trying to reinvigorate the public interest and some changes that we've seen. | ||
| But frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. | ||
| These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. | ||
| What kind of action would you see? | ||
| I, at the very least, would like to have an on-air apology from Jimmy Kimmel to the Kirk family, to all of those who he slandered because he did say that Charlie Kirk, he is effectively saying that our movement did this, our movement killed Charlie, that Charlie was deserving of this, effectively. | ||
| And we've seen that rear its head. | ||
| This happens quite regularly, actually, on MSNBC and on other networks where they're trying to victim blame. | ||
| And what that does, Mr. Chairman, respectfully is continues the lie and continues the threat level to say effectively that we have no share in this problem at all on the left. | ||
| This is a clear-cut case. | ||
| What would you like to see done at ABC? | ||
| Well, look, I think what you said there strikes me as a very reasonable minimal step that can be taken. | ||
| I mean, obviously, look, there's calls for Kim to be fired. | ||
| I think, you know, you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this. | ||
| And again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at. | ||
| And again, you know, we may ultimately be called to be a judge on that. | ||
| But this also strikes me as sort of conduct that to some extent shows some sort of desperate irrelevance. | ||
| I mean, we're sort of exiting an era where the three main broadcast legacy broadcast networks could control and dictate the narrative to the American people. | ||
| And one of the things that President Trump did when he ran for office, he ran directly at that legacy media establishment. | ||
| He smashed the facade that they get to control what we say, what we think, the narrative around events. | ||
| And we're seeing a lot of consequences that are flowing from President Trump doing that. | ||
| I mean, look, NPR has been defunded. | ||
| PBS has been defunded. | ||
| Colbert is retiring. | ||
| Joy Reid is out at MSNBC. | ||
| Terry Moran has gone from ABC and sort of now admitting that they are biased. | ||
| CBS has now made some commitments to us that they're going to return to more fact-based journalism. | ||
| And so I think you see some lashing out from people like Kimmel, who are frankly talentless and are looking for ways to get attention. | ||
| But their grip on the narrative is slipping. | ||
| That doesn't mean that it's still not important to hold them to the public interest standard. | ||
| That's what we're going to have to do. | ||
| So we did elucidate and enumerate a number of statutes that could be used against ABC. | ||
| If you would, Mr. Chairman, would you just explain for us what broadcasting in the public interest means? | ||
| I don't think most people understand actually the depth of how important it is that ABC, NBC, CBS have these gratuitous broadcast privileges granted to them by the American taxpayer. | ||
| Yeah, the right way to sort of explain this to people so they understand it is in the media landscape as relevant here. | ||
| There's two main buckets of actors. | ||
| One, you've got what we call national programmers. | ||
| So that's what Comcast is, Comcast NBC. | ||
| That's what Disney is, Disney, ABC. | ||
| They're the ones that effectively create and produce these shows. | ||
| They then provide those shows to individually licensed TV stations. | ||
| And those TV stations are, in the main, owned by independent companies independent from Comcast and Disney. | ||
| But Disney and Comcast both own some televisions themselves. | ||
| So start from the idea that you have national programmers that create the show, including the Kimmel show, and then they're given to and distributed over licensed TV stations. | ||
| It's the licensed TV stations that have the public interest standard, including those TV stations that Comcast and Disney own. | ||
| So FCC regulatory action focuses on those individual stations. | ||
| And one thing that we're trying to do is to empower those local stations to serve their own communities. | ||
| And the public interest means you can't be running a narrow partisan circus and still meeting your public interest obligations. | ||
| It means you can't be engaging in a pattern of news distortion. | ||
| We have a rule on the book that interprets a public interest standard that says news distortion is something that is prohibited. | ||
| Likewise, we have a rule that addresses broadcast hoaxes. | ||
| And so, again, over the years, the FCC has stepped back from enforcing it. | ||
| And I don't think it's been to the benefit of anybody. | ||
| Just look at the credibility of these legacy media. | ||
| It's absolutely through the floor. | ||
| They used to be able to say at least they were more trustworthy than Congress, but now they're even less trustworthy than Congress. | ||
| And so I think as a business matter for them, something has to change. | ||
| And at the FCC, you know, we need to reinvigorate this. | ||
| So again, there's actions that we can take on licensed broadcasters. | ||
| And frankly, I think that it's really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, listen, we are going to preempt. | ||
| We are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we, we licensed broadcaster, are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion. | ||
| So I think, again, Disney needs to see some change here, but the individual licensed stations that are taking their content, it's time for them to step up and say this garbage, to the extent that that's what comes down the pipe in the future, isn't something that we think serves the needs of our local communities. | ||
| But this sort of status quo is obviously not acceptable where we are. | ||
| Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for explaining it that way, because I don't think that a lot of people quite understand the regulatory nightmare that a company like Disney is under in a situation like this. | ||
| Because you have one, you have a company, Disney, that obviously appeals and markets to children in a constant basis. | ||
| And they are having one of their companies that they own that is now maligning a hero of so many of those kids. | ||
| Charlie Kirk was a Gen Z hero. | ||
| So many of those kids that were raised on Disney and Disney products look up to Charlie, looked up to Charlie, and to lie about his death and to not be forthright about the forces that killed him culturally is a and that threaten other children, obviously, on a day-to-day basis, as we are constantly seeing, is a massive liability. | ||
| Well, Disney should get very serious about threats to children. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, Disney's got a lot of trouble. | ||
| I mean, look, we've launched, I don't know that we've talked about this publicly yet, but we have launched, have launched and are continuing to run an investigation into Disney for their DEI practices for potentially violating the own FCC's equal employment opportunity rules. | ||
| We've issued Disney a letter of inquiry on that. | ||
| We've received some documents from them. | ||
| Again, we haven't talked, I don't think, publicly about that before, but that is a very active investigation that's underway into Disney on that conduct. | ||
| And again, to your point, I mean, step back for a second. | ||
| If the public interest means anything, if we're going to enforce this thing, I mean, just look at the number of hoaxes that have been run on the American people with the aid of a lot of these broadcasters. | ||
| You've got, you know, you've got this, you know, the Whips at the Border story. | ||
| You've got Covington Catholic. | ||
| You've got Juicy Smolette. | ||
| You've got Hunter Biden's laptop. | ||
| You've got, you know, Joe Biden is sharp as attack. | ||
| You've got, you know, fake stories about hospitals being overrun by ivermectin overdoses and therefore people dying of gunshots, mostly peaceful protests. | ||
| I mean, the list goes on and on and on. | ||
| And again, I think whether it's the FCC through our public interest enforcement actions, whether it's as a business matter, these people need to sort of change course, or frankly, the fact that they're increasingly irrelevant because President Trump has run right at them. | ||
| Most politicians that just said, okay, I'll accept the narrative that mainstream media is pushing and President Trump hasn't done that. | ||
| And frankly, I think not that there's a great part of the deplatforming of conservatives, but if there is any silver lining to that, I mean, look at what you've built. | ||
| Look at what Charlie built. | ||
| Republicans, conservatives were forced to build alternate channels of reaching out directly to the American consumer. | ||
| And you are winning the battle of ideas by doing that. | ||
| And the legacy media is struggling and they're lashing out. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for saying that. | ||
| Obviously, that is what made Charlie so profoundly powerful is his capacity to reach directly to the millions of grassroots supporters and then also to reach physically those supporters at large-scale events, many of which we were at together. | ||
| And those are the kind of things that made him, he was able to do an end round the gatekeepers that typically would keep someone like Charlie from ever having an audience. | ||
| It actually is a remarkable moment. | ||
| It's what made him, frankly, so dangerous to so many that wanted to see his life cut short. | ||
| To honor his memory, we thank you for ensuring that the FCC is going to be enforcing these rules. | ||
| A final question to you. | ||
| Do you believe that what Jimmy Kimmel said rises to the level of news distortion? | ||
| Look again, the FC could be called upon to be an ultimate judge in that. | ||
| But at this point uh, I think it's, you know, clear. | ||
| It appears to be clear that uh, you could make a strong argument that this is sort of an intentional effort to mislead the American people uh, about a very core, fundamental fact, a very important matter. | ||
| At the end of the day uh, if we do get called upon to to cast a vote on this, Disney will have a chance to put in uh their arguments and explain it. | ||
| But um, you know, this is a very very, you know, serious issue right now for Disney. | ||
| Yes, thank you very much uh, mr chairman, please follow chairman Brendan Car Here on x, the Federal Communications Commission chairman. | ||
| This is Brendan Carr, FCC. | ||
| Also, we have his official uh chairman's account as well. | ||
| Um, I don't know if we have that handy uh but, ladies and gentlemen, you can find him here on x 170 000 followers uh here and, ladies and gentlemen, also his official account as well. | ||
| Godspeed, mr chairman. | ||
| Yep, thanks so much, buddy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you all. | |
| Right, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Uh, I believe that in the Kash Patel, if you can pop this up, leave it in this Kash Patel uh, hearing and testimony uh that they are going to be going to Eric Swalwell soon, and so we very much look forward to uh engaging uh back into this testimony from Cash uh, I look forward to that. | ||
| You heard Eric Swalwell's name uh mentioned there by the FCC chairman, the FCC chairman saying that Eric Swalwell was one of those individuals who pushed the lie that Charlie Kirk's shooter was Maga, and so we won't be allowing for that on this program. | ||
| We will be fighting against it and we will not quit our friends who assist in us continuing to speak the truth and do so boldly and strongly throughout the nation. | ||
| Patriot Mobile. | ||
| Patriot Mobile is the only conservative Christian wireless provider. | ||
| In a time where free speech is under attack, in a time when cancellation runs rampant, at a time when they don't want us to speak, ladies and gentlemen, ensuring that we are speaking freely and boldly there is no greater and more important time for that. | ||
| Today, Patriot Mobile ensures that we are able to speak and that we are able to have excellent wireless connections all throughout the country. | ||
| As we upload our program, as we do our program from the road we will be traveling this weekend. | ||
| Um for Charlie's funeral service, go to Patriotmobile.com, slash Benny, call 972, patriot and use the promo code benny for free month of service. | ||
| Today here's Eric Swalwell on Cat And Kash Patel sparring the amount of children that are being trafficked and the number of files. | ||
| You said you don't know the number of times Trump's name appears in the files, so it could at least be a thousand times. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
| The number is a total misleading factor. | ||
| We have not released anyone's name that. | ||
| We have not released anyone's name in the future files. | ||
| That has not been credible, director. | ||
| We have released every piece of legally permissible information. | ||
| Okay, you can characterize the numbers however you want it. | ||
| Claiming my time director, it sounds like if you don't know the number, it could at least be a thousand times, which is not. | ||
| It's not. | ||
| Is it at least 500 times? | ||
| No, is it at least a hundred times? | ||
| No, then what's the number? | ||
| I don't know the number, but it's not that. | ||
| Do you think it might be your job to know the number? | ||
| My job is to provide for the safety and security of this country. | ||
| My job is not to engage in political influences so you can go out to the sticks and get your 20 second hit and your fundraising Going, reclaiming your time because the people of California are being underserved by your representation. | ||
| Why not release everything that involves we have released everything the president and anyone else's side that is credible and lawfully be able to be released? | ||
| Your fixation on this matter and baseless accusations that I'm hiding is disgusting. | ||
| Anyone that says that needs to look at the stats alone and go back to the state of California, who's receiving the biggest surge in FBI resources through my redeployment because the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Princess. | ||
| Director, remembering your oath to tell the truth, did you ever tell Donald Trump his name is in the files? | ||
| I have never spoken to President Trump about the Epstein files. | ||
| Did you ever tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? | ||
| The Attorney General and I have had numerous discussions about the entirety of the Epstein files and the reviews conducted by our did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files and we have released where President Trump is a simple question. | ||
| Did you tell the Attorney General that the president's name is in the Epstein files? | ||
| During many conversations that the Attorney General and I have had on the matter of Epstein, we have reviewed the question is simple. | ||
| Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Why don't you try spelling it out or no? | ||
| Director. | ||
| Use the alphabet. | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| No? | ||
| ABC? | ||
| Director, it sounds like you don't want to tell us. | ||
| Did you tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? | ||
| Why don't you try serving your constituency by focusing on reducing violent crime in this country and the number of pedophiles that are legally harbored in sanctuary cities in California? | ||
| I work with you on that. | ||
| Do you want to work with us on that? | ||
| Director Reginald. | ||
| I belong to the gentleman from California. | ||
| Did you tell the Attorney General that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? | ||
| Question has been asked and answered. | ||
| You have not answered it, and we will take your evasiveness as a consciousness of guilt. | ||
| Director, did Donald Trump ever say to you, just find and release the entire truth? | ||
| Don't worry if I'm in it. | ||
| The instructions from the administration were to release all credible information, and we have done that. | ||
| Did Donald Trump ever provide information about Jeffrey Epstein as an informant? | ||
| Donald Trump has not been, and I can only speak for the FBI, an informant of the FBI. | ||
| So, Director, you've played this cute shell game where you say you can't release everything because the court has said that it legally is not allowed to be released, but the court calls bullshit. | ||
| Judge Richard Berman said that when you went to the court, quote, information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales, pales in comparison to Epstein investigation information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice. | ||
| So let's move on, Director. | ||
| You wrote a book called Government Gangsters. | ||
| You identified 20 individuals in that book. | ||
| You put me on that list at the top of the list. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My children find it flattering. | ||
| 20 of those individuals have been investigated or have had adverse actions. | ||
| Director, considering that you have identified these people as, quote, government gangsters, will you recuse yourself from making any investigation decisions about these individuals? | ||
| Anyone that has been terminated at the FBI has been done so that you can fail to meet the muster unconstitutional work on the audiovisual capabilities. | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm going to borrow your terminology and call bullshit on your entire career in Congress. | |
| It's been a disgrace to the American people. | ||
| You can reclaim your time all you want. | ||
| Chairman, you're going to allow a witness to speak this way. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, would you recuse yourself? | ||
| The gentleman has no time. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, would you admonish the witness not to insult members? | ||
| The gentleman has no time. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, just the committee will remember. | ||
| Point of order. | ||
| Could the gentleman be extended an additional 20 seconds to complete his thoughts since the witness decided to interrupt him and the witness will be able to respond if he wants. | ||
| We'll make sure it's time to do that. | ||
| My question is: Will you, Director, recuse yourself, yes or no, from investigating or making decisions about the 60 individuals, including myself, that you identified as government gangsters? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Time of the gentleman has expired. | ||
| The witness may respond if he would like. | ||
| And the answer was no, as I heard. | ||
| Correct. | ||
|
unidentified
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Okay. | |
| The gentleman from Wisconsin, the gentleman yields back to the gentleman from Wisconsin's recognition. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, thank you, Director Patel, for being here today. | ||
| I wanted to talk a little bit about the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the FBI's subsequent investigation. | ||
| I know it's really sensitive, and you can make the call as to whether or not, obviously, it's something that you can respond to, but I think it's still fresh on many people's minds. | ||
| I want to congratulate you and Utah law enforcement for the work you did in identifying the suspect and apprehending him. | ||
| According to public reports, and I think this is what maybe it's I still have questions about, and maybe the public does. | ||
| According to public reports, the alleged shooter arrives on the Utah Valley University campus nearly four hours before the shooting. | ||
| Was that your understanding? | ||
|
unidentified
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Is that kind of I'll let the public reports reflect themselves. | |
| I don't have the exact timeline. | ||
| Okay, so we don't have any idea kind of his prep or how he set up or how he utilized that time when he first showed up on campus. | ||
| All of those are being currently investigated through our cell phone analysis and through our witness interviews. | ||
| And the state of Utah has now announced charges seeking the death penalty against this suspect. | ||
| So we're a little limited in what we can continue to see. | ||
| Sure, I understand. | ||
| And the suspect, like you referred to, is then captured on security footage jumping off the roof of the alleged shooting location, the Losey Center. | ||
| Do we have any idea how the suspect got up on the roof in the first place? | ||
| I think for members of Congress, especially after Butler and Pennsylvania, it's just unimaginable that there could be some type of security breakdown prior to an event of that size where somebody could access a rooftop. | ||
| So, not commenting on the case, but having gone to the crime scene and walked the steps that we believe were taken, the roof was actually readily accessible through an exterior stairwell, so anyone could have gotten on it. | ||
| Okay, okay. | ||
| The suspect flees on foot to kind of this wooded area where he drops the rifle, wraps it in a towel, and then proceeds to his staged vehicle and basically drives home. | ||
| So, do we have any idea what the towel was about? | ||
| Was it used later to identify a place where the firearm was left? | ||
| Or do we sorry? | ||
| What we can tell you is the towel, there was a screwdriver found on the rooftop, which DNA was collected off of, and the towel was found wrapped around the firearm in question in a wooded area next to the campus. | ||
| All have been processed for DNA. | ||
| And then, according to the suspect's roommate, there were allegedly messages on instant messaging platforms, specifically Discord, suggesting the towel may have been used to identify that weapons location. | ||
| So, the public reports have suggested that the shooter acted alone. | ||
| Do we still believe that that's true? | ||
| Do we have any idea as to whether or not those Discord messages led us to believe that the shooter may have had help in any way or assistance? | ||
| I can only speak to the FBI's investigation, and our investigation is ongoing. | ||
| We are interviewing any of those individuals involved in that chat and other individuals in the area. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| And if, so my suggestion, if there are accomplices, I'm sure this is something that the FBI is gonna continue to investigate fully and thoroughly into the future. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| The reason I ask that is because I don't know that that was necessarily the case with Butler, Pennsylvania. | ||
| So thank you so much for your persistence kind of in this matter. | ||
| There's still a lot of public questions that need to be asked. | ||
| Let me shift to another topic very quickly. | ||
| On July 31st, 2025, the DOJ and the CIA declassified the annex to special counsel John Durham's 2023 report on Operation Crossfire Hurricane. | ||
| The 29-page Durham Annex contains previously classified information about, among other things, the investigative referral of the Clinton campaign plan. | ||
| Why would somebody place documents in a burn bag related to this case? | ||
| That case is very much ongoing, so I can't comment on the stylization of the evidence we're collecting. | ||
| Can you comment at all on the Durham Annex as I described it? | ||
| The Durham Annex, which has been publicly released thanks to the FBI's commitment to transparency, is one of the documents that's being utilized. | ||
| And in general terms, speaking for a burn bag, sir, a burn bag is what you use to put classified documents into generally, because that is literally how you destroy them. | ||
| So it appears that efforts were made by the Clinton campaign to reach out to the FBI agents or the Clinton sympathizers in the intelligence community in order to lead more credibility to the Clinton campaign plan. | ||
| Do you think that's an accurate characterization? | ||
| Again, I'm not going to characterize that material because it's part of an ongoing investigation. | ||
| Thanks for being here today. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Director Patel, for being here today. | ||
| The FBI searched Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan residence, correct? | ||
| I believe that happened in 2018. | ||
| I think there was two locations, sir. | ||
| 2019. | ||
| And in that residence, the FBI found a safe, correct? | ||
| I don't have the catalog of evidence in front of me. | ||
| In that residence, the FBI found a safe, correct? | ||
| I'll accept your representation. | ||
| And in that safe, the FBI found topless and lewd photographs of girls, correct? | ||
| Again, sir, I'll accept your representation. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| It was all over the media at the time. | ||
| There's a New York Times article that says Jeffrey Epstein is indicted on sex charges as discovery of nude photos is disclosed. | ||
| Dated July 8th, 2019. | ||
| And the Times reports a trove of lewd photographs of girls was discovered in a safe inside financier Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion. | ||
| Author Michael Wolfe has conducted numerous interviews of Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| I'm going to play for you a video clip of what Michael Wolf said Epstein told him was in the safe and what he showed the author was in this safe. | ||
| So let's please play that clip now. | ||
| Collected. | ||
| And I was sitting talking to Epstein and he said, wait a minute, I got to show you something. | ||
| And then he went into his safe and he came out with photographs. | ||
| They were Polaroids, I think. | ||
| And he kind of kind of spread them out like playing cards. | ||
| And it was Trump. | ||
| I mean, I think there were a dozen of them. | ||
| And it was Trump with girls of an uncertain age at Epstein's Palm Beach house, where all of the things that he would ultimately be accused of took place. | ||
| And I remember very vividly three of them. | ||
| There are two in which Trump is, the girls, topless girls are sitting on Trump's lap. | ||
| And then a third in which he has a stain on the front of his pants. | ||
| And the girls are kind of pointing at it, sort of bent over. | ||
| I want to note something. | ||
| Melania Trump has sued the Daily Beast for broadcasting that sickline bastard. | ||
| His name's Michael Wolfe. | ||
| The Daily Beast has had to print a full and total retraction and delete all podcasts with him and delete all of the sourcing and evidence. | ||
| So I'm going to allow cash to continue, but I need to frame how thick it is that they are playing a Michael Wolf clip here in Congress. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
| Would have been brought to light by multiple administrations and FBI investigators over the course of the last 20 years. | ||
| Well, you know what? | ||
| That's just not true because no one knew about the creepy birthday message that Donald Trump wrote to Jeffrey Epstein until the Wall Street Journal disclosed it. | ||
| And then all of a sudden, the Epstein estate provides it to Congress. | ||
| Certainly, you weren't there at the search. | ||
| You don't know what Epstein may or may not have done with those photographs, even prior to the search. | ||
| Maybe someone has it. | ||
| Maybe the Epstein estate has it. | ||
| You raise a great point. | ||
| So I'm going to ask you, have you asked to talk to Michael Wolfe? | ||
| You raise a great point. | ||
| I haven't personally asked to talk to the FBI asked. | ||
| But the FBI, I'll get back to you if the FBI still has to do with the question. | ||
| So Michael Wolfe has about 100 hours of testimony of Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Wouldn't it be good for the FBI to interview Michael Wolfe? | ||
| I'm not saying they haven't. | ||
| I just don't know. | ||
| Has the FBI subpoenaed the tapes that Michael Wolfe has conducted of Jeffrey Epstein? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| All right. | ||
| So if you could provide us an answer, that would be terrific. | ||
| Well, let me ask you this question then. | ||
| Have you looked at all the photos in Epstein files? | ||
| I have looked at all the information that the investigators who investigated this case have provided to run out credible leads. | ||
| And in the Epstein file, was there that creepy birthday message that Donald Trump had written to Epstein? | ||
| No, this is what I was trying to tell you. | ||
| You raise a great point. | ||
| The estate of Jeffrey Epstein has a voluminous amount of information that they have not released before. | ||
| Okay, so that's great. | ||
| So wouldn't it be great if FBI subpoenaed the state of Jeffrey Epstein for all that information? | ||
| The estate is under no obligation to provide that material, even pursuant to a subpoena. | ||
| That's a great point. | ||
| Yeah, that's just, that's just false. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| It just false. | ||
| You're the frickin FBI. | ||
| You can subpoena the information from the estate, and you better do that. | ||
| That's literally not how it works. | ||
| I'm going to move on now and talk about Epstein's client list. | ||
| Oh, my God. | ||
| You confirmed that it exists. | ||
| Attorney General Pam Body confirmed earlier this year that it exists. | ||
| I just want to ask you a simple question. | ||
| Is Prince Andrew on Epstein's client list? | ||
| The material related to Prince Andrew has been made public. | ||
| Is Prince Andrew on the client list? | ||
| We have released the index of names that were in Jeffrey Epstein's. | ||
| Is Donald Trump on Epstein's client list? | ||
| The index has been released and the index will speak for itself. | ||
|
unidentified
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So I'm going to say that there's a huge red flag. | |
| The FBI director could not answer whether Donald Trump was on Epstein's film. | ||
| Gentlemen's time has expired. | ||
| I do not recognize the gentleman from Virginia. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I want to thank the director for being here and for his work over the last several months, removing the taint of partisanship that has infected the intelligence community over the past several years under the last administration, under the last several directors, standing up for law enforcement, standing up for the brave men and women who work in your agency. | ||
| But to set the record straight, you know, we have to correct the record. | ||
| And the record, early days of the first Trump administration saw a dramatic spike in news stories that contain sensitive and sometimes classified details about the FBI's bogus Russia probe, about a leak a day. | ||
| It's unacceptable that senior FBI officials coordinated to leak classified information to try and harm President Trump. | ||
| Documents produced to the committee in August of this year revealed that the FBI interviewed a former intelligence committee staffer who gave details on a systematic process through which leaks of classified information were affected by then chairman, now Senator Adam Schiff. | ||
| Were these findings escalated within the Bureau's chain of command, and if so, to what level? | ||
| Sorry, were the findings that were given to us escalated within the Bureau's chain of command? | ||
| And if so, what level did you receive this information? | ||
| That entire matter is currently under investigation by the people of the FBI that handle leaks of classified information. | ||
| All right. | ||
| It's good to know that there is an ongoing investigation. | ||
| Can you tell me whether these leaks to the media compromise any ongoing FBI investigations during the Trump-Russia probe? | ||
| I can tell you, generally speaking, the leaks of classified information are detrimental to any work the FBI is doing. | ||
| Now, former Director James Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had never been an anonymous source nor authorized anyone to be an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation. | ||
| Was Comey's testimony true in reference to Director Comey? | ||
| Um, I'm very limited in what I can say because of what the current status of those matters are with the FBI and the Department of Justice. | ||
| When I am able to make those public, I will. | ||
| Can you tell me if there's an ongoing investigation there? | ||
| Again, without identifying any individuals related to the information you're generally speaking about, there is an ongoing matter that has been under review by the Department of the FBI for some time because we know that all right, ladies and gentlemen, last month revealed ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Uh, Glenn Beck is hosting Charlie Kirk's show today. | ||
| I want to, I know that we have a breaking news show and we do our very level-headed best to honor breaking news. | ||
| There is some breaking news here. | ||
| I do want to obviously raid, meaning send you over to Charlie's stream so that those who are taking his chair and broadcasting can get an opportunity to just remember Charlie. | ||
| I think that what they're doing there is profound and important, and I always want to be respectful of it, especially this week. | ||
| Most importantly, this week. | ||
| And so, again, Glenn Beck will be hosting Charlie Kirk's show today, much like JD Vance hosted on Monday. | ||
| That was really a sight to behold. | ||
| But we do have breaking news. | ||
| Here we go, James Comer, saying that they are going to be subpoenaing the CEOs of Discord, Stream, Twitch, and Reddit to testify at an oversight committee hearing on left-wing radicalization and violence from their online forums and instances of open incitement to commit politically motivated acts. | ||
| This is huge. | ||
| This is huge. | ||
| We are going to be fighting the war against those who are overtly calling for violence. | ||
| I want you to have free speech. | ||
| You are free to say anything you want. | ||
| I'll leave it up to the lawyers to decide what is criminal incitement. | ||
| However, I'm a free speech absolutist. | ||
| As we have enumerated many times on this program, we live in a civil society, and the basic underlying bolts of that society say: if you celebrate a father's assassination and death, then there should be a punishment for you. | ||
| You will lose your job. | ||
| You will be ostracized from that civil society. | ||
| That is a sick thing to do. | ||
| You have freedom of speech to say whatever you want. | ||
| You don't have freedom from consequences. | ||
| You don't get a right to be a demonic, spittle-mouthed hobgoblin and to lie like Jimmy Kimmel did about Charlie Kirk's left-wing assassin for political. | ||
| He's doing that, by the way, for political cover. | ||
| The left is constantly doing this without consequence. | ||
| Are the consequences going to be legal? | ||
| Are the consequences simply going to be societal? | ||
| I'm in favor of societal consequences. | ||
| That means that people lose their job and leftists by the thousands have lost their job over celebrating Charlie Kirk's assassination. | ||
| And I think that we are just getting started, actually. | ||
| So I'm just going to make that very clear: that the stance of this program is freedom of speech to its logical conclusion, which is speech that is monstrous and despicable, but not freedom from consequence, because we still live in, thank God, a moral society that says it is wrong to desecrate the graves of good men and to laugh in their children's faces like demons. | ||
| So those who are caught and found doing that, we will be assisting in ensuring that the maximum possible societal consequences happen. | ||
| Demonetization, deplatforming. | ||
| This is monstrous behavior that, by the way, creates further vectors of violence. | ||
| When those who commit and espouse political violence, when nothing happens to them, and what I mean by that is I mean no societal consequence. | ||
| When they are promoted and encouraged and paid for doing this, and when those lies continue to fester, then you create the self-licking ice cream corn, the vortex of left-wing hysteria that leads to what we saw with Charlie Kirk. | ||
| We have talked about this until our voice cracked. | ||
| We've been speaking about it forcefully, not just in this last week, but for years. | ||
| There is a major problem with left-wing radicalized violence and the allowance of it. | ||
| We have some polling to put this up. | ||
| I'm pretty frustrated at Republicans that play the both sides of the game. | ||
| I'm not going to be playing the vote size of them game. | ||
| Not going to be doing it. | ||
| Because to say that Charlie, to say that it's both sides is one, to say that Charlie Kirk had a hand in his own assassination. | ||
| I refuse to do it morally. | ||
| I will never do it. | ||
| I don't care what you do. | ||
| I will never say that. | ||
| And then two is to ignore the actual polling. | ||
| I had my producers poll some polling. | ||
|
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I'll pop it up on stream. | |
| What all, and this is the correct answer to it's both sides. | ||
| Oh, really? | ||
| Why don't you answer for the polls that show that Democrats are three times more likely to say that political violence should be a tool? | ||
| Democrats, twice as likely than Republicans to say that the death of somebody that I politically disagreed with should be celebrated. | ||
| The preponderance of violent acts, politically violent acts on the left, are obscene. | ||
| And you have to remember something. | ||
| That no one was prosecuted at all. | ||
| There were probably millions, millions who were committing violent criminal political acts during the BLM. | ||
| Hysteria, and none of them were prosecuted. | ||
| So, these numbers are bullshit that they put up. | ||
| Oh, it's a both sides thing. | ||
| No, it is a left-wing thing. | ||
| And you can find anybody in our cohort and any person that broadcasts on the right, myself included. | ||
| You can go through. | ||
| I've been live for hundreds of thousands of hours, maybe millions of hours of content on all my channel. | ||
| Can't find one, not one, not one single instance, nothing where I even insinuated or won't go up to the line or like even remotely approach the line of calling for any violence whatsoever or any harm whatsoever. | ||
| It will never happen, and I will never ever do it. | ||
| That is the difference between us and the animals. | ||
| So, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to be locked in on this channel. | ||
| We've had some major builds, and we are very proud of what we are creating here. | ||
| Partly because we wish to carry on that mission of conversations, nonviolence, sharing of thoughts and opinions, and ensuring that we're doing that in a way that isn't lying to everyone, like Jimmy Kimmel has done, and obviously in a way that creates harmony in our nation. | ||
| What does that mean? | ||
| You're never going to agree with agree with everyone. | ||
| You need pressure release valves. | ||
| The more people talk, the less bullets get shot. | ||
| The more people are conversing and having open and free debate, the more the temperature lowers. | ||
| This is what this entire experiment in America is about: it's about lowering the temperature, pressure release valves. | ||
| It's what we're building here. | ||
| Helping us build it is Shopify. | ||
| We want to thank our sponsors. | ||
| It's been a tough week. | ||
| Shopify has helped us. | ||
| Here's how. | ||
| And here's how they're helping us in the future. | ||
| We created a Christmas ornament last year, and we frankly didn't know how to get it out to everyone. | ||
| It was a really cool Christmas ornament. | ||
| Get ready for our Christmas, get ready for our Christmas store this year. | ||
| It's going to be exciting, fun. | ||
| And Shopify was there to assist not only in the digital and back end, but also in the shipping. | ||
| And we shipped 100,000 at least Christmas ornaments. | ||
| I'm the number one Christmas ornament salesman in America. | ||
| And it's thanks to Shopify. | ||
| And in this Christmas season, we are going to be continuing to use Shopify. | ||
| We're going to continue our Christmas store. | ||
| We're going to continue our traditions. | ||
| And ladies and gentlemen, we're thankful for their partnership. | ||
| Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world. | ||
| 10% of all e-commerce in the United States goes through Shopify. | ||
| They helped us, and they can help you turn your dreams into Shopify reality. | ||
| Sign up for your $1 per month trial. | ||
| Start selling today. | ||
| Shopify.com/slash Benny. | ||
| Go to shopify.com/slash Benny. | ||
| Shopify.com/slash Benny. | ||
| Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| It is an important opportunity for us. | ||
| I want to just check with my Premier Jai Paul. | ||
| Was that a did cash go flames on? | ||
| What producer was watching that? | ||
| And please put this up. | ||
| Please want to show you guys our Christmas ornament that we are going to have this year. | ||
| We're going to bring back the electoral map Christmas ornament, and we have a lot of other exciting things in store. | ||
| So please know that this is a season that we're going to be spreading joy and cheer for a country that so desperately needs it. | ||
| All right, we're going to be doing our best to ensure that we have a Merry Christmas. | ||
| It's tough. | ||
| I want to just end the program here. | ||
| Sort of how we began. | ||
| And then I want to obviously direct you over to Charlie's channel. | ||
| And I'm sorry that we've gone late here by a few minutes. | ||
| Charlie's channel on Rumble, where Glenn Beck will be hosting his program today. | ||
| There it is, right there. | ||
| They're on a commercial break right now. | ||
| So I'm going to wrap this up. | ||
| I have watched Charlie Kirk do the miraculous. | ||
| I've watched him unite a party to win. | ||
| And the way that you win is you take from your enemy. | ||
| You demolish them on the field of battle. | ||
| You steal their lands, their properties. | ||
| You desecrate their temples. | ||
| You smash their idols and so on. | ||
| Metaphorically, right? | ||
| In the sense of a battle. | ||
| And it is a cultural war. | ||
| And in order to do that, you must unite the clans, Braveheart style. | ||
| I can see Jerry already spinning with like the Charlie Kirk Braveheart memes. | ||
| Go for it, Jerry. | ||
| I know everyone, man. | ||
| I'm friends with everyone. | ||
| You won't find flame wars. | ||
| I try my hardest to stay out of them. | ||
| I'm begging those on the right to unite right now, to put aside the bickerings, to put aside the problems that every clan seems to have with another clan, and to state with one voice and to unite with one purpose, | ||
| to use the energy that we have right now for good. | ||
| What does that look like? | ||
| Share, ladies and gentlemen, in the mission to defund the left, to demonetize the left, to eliminate the dark money groups that fund the left, | ||
| Remove from the bloodstream the money, the cash that flows in to this Frankenstein's monster that creates Antifa and Queer Trans FOR Liberation Militia that we talked about yesterday, that's currently under federal investigation, and so on. | ||
| They create these groups, they create these factions, they train up these terrorist groups, they incite, they push their followings they, they engage in hysterics and slanders and libels, as you saw on Jimmy Kimmel's show and many others. | ||
| And, ladies and gentlemen, we must unite now to go after the monster that is that organ on the left. | ||
| It is the time to do it. | ||
| We have the energy at our backs, we have the cause and the mission, we have the purpose that we can carry forward, and so that's what we are going to be doing on this program that will also have a post about this this weekend, and I will say it now, live on the stream. | ||
| I hereby set aside all grudges, I hereby set aside all beefs, I hereby recant. | ||
| Anything that would prevent me from uniting with my side, the side that would mourn my death as I would mourn yours in the purposeful mission of eradicating the criminal terroristic left-wing ideology that sent a bullet through the head of our president. | ||
| Hitting the president in the head with a bullet, attempting to assassinate him again and again and again and assassinating Charlie Kirk. | ||
| Why don't we demonstrate our point here? | ||
| Right now, there is a bomb threat outside of Turning Point USA campus in Phoenix, Arizona. | ||
| I want to put this up right now. | ||
| This is breaking news. | ||
| Now, it is terrifying because currently right now, Charlie Kirk is live from a studio that is on this campus. | ||
| Charlie Kirk's program is live and Glenn Beck is there. | ||
| And as you can see right here, I was going to raid this, meaning send everyone over there in just a moment, but this is all breaking right now. | ||
| At the time of us talking about this, using this opportunity to describe left-wing violence, now allegedly a bomb has been found. | ||
| I want to point to this being breaking news right now that is happening. | ||
| Let's read, give you obviously the most important breaking news on this. | ||
| Production team, please gather it. | ||
| Bomb robot is on the scene outside of Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. | ||
| Co-founded by Charlie Kirk, fatally shot. | ||
| News Max's John Huddy posted a video from the scene, reported a suspicious bag outside of the facility. | ||
| Yellow police tape around the scene. | ||
| Law enforcement vehicles nearby. | ||
| Phoenix police have posted on X this morning, Phoenix Police was notified of a suspicious bag in an abundance of caution for the safety of those in the area. | ||
| The location has been cleared and the bomb squad has responded. | ||
| There is not a threat attached to the incident. | ||
| There is footage of the make, there is a memorial that was created outside of Turning Point's headquarters. | ||
| And that memorial, people were leaving flowers and memory, various Charlie Kirk, you know, memorabilia and so on there. | ||
| And let's go ahead and watch the video on X, please, of what seems to be a bomb-sniffing dog and potentially police in hazmat gear, the bomb squad outside of Turning Point. | ||
| I don't know what was raised to the level of a suspicious package, please. | ||
| Here is also the footage from what looks like a helicopter. | ||
|
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So that is a bomb tech on scene right now. | |
| There was a bomb robot that was doing an initial inspection of the bag. | ||
| I'm going to scoot over here. | ||
| Suspicious bag left outside the Turning Point USA campus. | ||
| Right there. | ||
| Here's another footage here, ladies and gentlemen, from local news, ABC 15. | ||
| You can see there the bomb robot and what looks to be the bag potentially. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Again, this is breaking news. | ||
| Perhaps that large black bag. | ||
| There's a tent there where people were mourning. | ||
| You can see also the TV news stands there. | ||
| Who does that TV news stand belong to? | ||
| Well, I know exactly where that corner is because I've been to Turning Point headquarters about 100,000 times. | ||
| That is right across the street. | ||
| Please put up the footage one more time. | ||
| That is right across the street. | ||
| And you can see the TV news stands were where Fox News were doing their live hits from. | ||
| Outside of Turning Point. | ||
| This is where Fox News was broadcasting from. | ||
| Now we know that a Fox News news van in Utah had a bomb attached to it. | ||
| They want you to forget about this. | ||
| A bomb attached to it that was lit. | ||
| It did not detonate, thank God. | ||
| But two individuals are in prison right now in Utah. | ||
| Please just grab me an article on this, producers, so that we can, because the news has happened so quickly. | ||
| FBI nabs two men for allegedly placing incendiary device on Fox News van. | ||
| And now this suspicious bag was found. | ||
| I have no idea if this bag was just a random bag. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But it sure follows a trend here. | ||
| Boy, I wonder who it was. | ||
| Maybe Jimmy Kimmel can tell us. | ||
| Jimmy Kimmel, were these right-wingers? | ||
| Oh, okay. | ||
| They have anti-Trump signage in their yard. | ||
| They have a sign in their yard that says, is he dead yet? | ||
| One of the signs in the yards of the two men who were arrested for lighting a bomb under a Fox News van. | ||
| Adib Ahmed Nasir and Adil Justice Ahmed Nasir, 58 and 31 respectively, were both booked in the jail on multiple charges, including threat of terrorism, possession of a weapon, mass destruction, possessing explosive devices. | ||
| I checked with HHS. | ||
| Looks like they became naturalized American citizens from Pakistan. | ||
| These two in like the 80s. | ||
| One of them's 31, so it wouldn't have been the 80s. | ||
| But Adib Ahmed Nasir, 58, like so quite a while ago, were in from Pakistan. | ||
| And so, you know, I was, you know, you, what is this? | ||
| Well, homegrown terrorism, then. | ||
| Left-wing terrorism, been in the country for decades, had left-wing iconography in their yard, the Taco Trump sign, and then the Is He Dead Yet sign. | ||
|
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There they are, remarkable. | |
| Sick. | ||
| Evil. | ||
| That's all we have on Turning Point. | ||
| Please pray for everybody there. | ||
| Again, Charlie Kirk is Charlie Kirk's show. | ||
| Is live. | ||
| Glenn Beck, guest hosting today, Charlie Kirk's show live, Glenn Beck guest hosting. | ||
| This is the stream. | ||
| I encourage you to go over and check it out right there. | ||
| Rumble.com/slash Charlie Kirk. | ||
| I encourage you to go check it out live, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
|
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Rumble. | |
| That's where you should go after this stream. | ||
| I thank all of you for watching this stream. | ||
| And I simply want to reiterate one more time. | ||
|
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I beg of you. | |
| Unite against our common enemy. | ||
| That enemy which wishes to dispatch us from this earth by violent means. | ||
| They talk about it. | ||
| They glorify it. | ||
| They venerate it. | ||
| And that is what we on the right must do. | ||
| I hereby cast aside any differences or grudges with anyone who wishes to unite with me in common cause to ensure that that ecosystem faces as much damage as possible from a legal, judicial, financial, and platform standpoint. | ||
| We must defund the left-wing terrorist organ. | ||
| Otherwise, it will come for all of us. | ||
| So this is what I pray for. | ||
| Ashley on our team, we call her the amazing Ashley. | ||
| One of these days, she'll join the stream, the amazing Ashley. | ||
| She manages our Instagram. | ||
| Obviously, all of our platforms are something that we build. | ||
| We want to be able to reach as many people as possible on as many platforms as possible. | ||
| And our Instagram just passed 2 million subscribers, and Ashley is asking me to say thank you to those watching on Instagram. | ||
| We do broadcast live on Instagram. | ||
| And we're doing our level-headed best to ensure that we speak the truth and post the truth, post our family values on that platform. | ||
| And if you follow, if you are on Instagram, go ahead and click over for a follow. | ||
| We'll be doing our absolute best to promote light on this platform and on every platform and to decry evil. | ||
| In the end, as a Christian, be clear-eyed about this. | ||
| It's not red versus blue. | ||
|
unidentified
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It's not black versus white. | |
| It is not the forces of this earth. | ||
| It is the principalities of the spiritual that we are fighting. | ||
| It is good versus evil. | ||
| It is darkness versus light. | ||
| And we are on the side of light. | ||
| And we are on the side of good. | ||
| And we will fight. | ||
| We are called to do it. | ||
| And we're called to do it together. | ||
| So it is an honor to have you joining us in this movement. | ||
| Godspeed. | ||
| God bless you. | ||
| And please join Turning Point, the single fastest growing political organization on planet Earth with over 54,000 new chapters. | ||
| Requests, new chapter requests. | ||
| I'm not even sure if they can, if 54,000 new chapters even probably is. | ||
| Charlie's dream was 20,000. | ||
| 50,000 new requests for chapters, 54 to be exact. | ||
| Turning Point USA, now the single largest political, it's the single fastest growing political organization on planet Earth. | ||
| There is no even close second. | ||
| We'll continue to honor the legacy of Charlie and carry forward his mission most importantly. | ||
| Okay, it's your boy Benny. | ||
| Remember, in the end, we win. | ||
| Thank you for fighting with us. | ||
| See ya. | ||
| The evildoers responsible for my husband's assassination have no idea what they have done. | ||
| They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God's merciful love. | ||
| They should all know this. | ||
| If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. | ||
| You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world. | ||
| You have no idea. | ||
| So I want to tell you that we'll never surrender. | ||
| We never will. | ||
| Ever. | ||
|
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We'll be right back. |
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