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Oct. 17, 2025 - The Benny Show - Benny Johnson
01:34:20
DC in PANIC: John Bolton DRAGGED Into Federal Court LIVE Right Now in BIG Classified Docs Indictment
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brett tolman
12:39
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15:18
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chanley painter
01:09
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00:35
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00:24
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00:45
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00:09
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Speaker Time Text
todd piro
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton expected to surrender today after being indicted on 18 counts over the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
carley shimkus
Chanley Painter is here with all the details.
Hi, Canley.
chanley painter
Hey Carly and Todd.
So prosecutors say John Bolton shared over 1,000 pages of classified information, including top secret material and SCI material with two unauthorized individuals.
So according to the indictment, Bolton faces eight counts of transmission of national defense information and ten counts of retention of national defense information, including classified documents regarding intel on future attacks, foreign missile launches, and human intel sources.
Well, prosecutors say the alleged crimes happened between April 2018 to August 2025, during and after his tenure as national secretary advisor.
In a statement, Bolton maintained his innocence, saying this in part, quote, I have devoted my life to America's foreign policy and national security, would never compromise those goals.
These charges are not just about Trump's focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive efforts to intimidate his opponents.
And President Trump denied knowing anything about the indictment while speaking with reporters Thursday.
donald j trump
I think he's, you know, a bad person.
I think he's a bad guy.
Yeah, he's a bad guy.
unidentified
He's too bad, but it's the way it goes.
donald j trump
That's the way it goes, right?
That's the way it goes.
Well I what?
carley shimkus
Have you reviewed the case against him?
donald j trump
No, I haven't.
I haven't, but I just think he's a bad person.
chanley painter
The FBI raided Bolton's Maryland home in August, linked to this probe of mishandling.
Classified documents, guys.
Back to you.
unidentified
John Boldenfly Your mustache, your money Fly and hide Your
mustache, your money John Boldenfly You mustache, your money John
benny johnson
Boldenfly, you mustache, your money Ladies and gentlemen, today is free for all Friday!
We made it to Friday!
unidentified
Yes!
benny johnson
Thank you!
It is October 17th, 2025 My goodness, the time is rip-roaring John Bolden Surrendering live To a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. After the single most devastating indictment yet It has been released, and we will read it through it with you.
18 counts, a hundred and eighty years potentially, facing John Bolton in prison will be joined today by some legal experts, Brett Tolman, some congressional experts, Mike Lauer, and ladies and gentlemen, a mayor that wants to talk about communism.
Scott Stringer from Boca Raton, who wants to say no to Kami Mandami.
who was in a debate last night, along with Jay Jones, with the Virginia Attorney General.
So I'm not gonna conflate those.
The mayoral debate for New York happened last night, and the Attorney General's debate for Virginia happened last night.
We have clips from both of those.
We're not going to a good place here in America.
It's not great.
We have communists trying to run our biggest cities and the cities that are empire cities.
That's not great.
And then we have guys who want to kill and genocide Republicans potentially vying for the top law enforcement position inside of a populist state in an important state where half the federal government resides.
It's not good, but we're going to lock in and talk about all of it.
My name is Benny Johnson, and this is the Benny Show.
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Okay, ladies and gentlemen.
It's amazing the time that we are living in.
We are living in the eff aroundest of times and the find-outingest of times.
And I personally believe that it is the most entertaining thing that has happened over the past nine months.
That those communists who accuse Donald Trump of crimes are guilty of the crimes in which they are accusing Donald Trump.
It is the iron law of wokism.
It is actually part of Solinsky's plan.
It is actually part of the communist manifesto.
Every Bolsheviks that has ever lived has practiced this.
We're against the bourgeois because they're going to genocide us, and then the Bolsheviks go on to genocide half the population, right?
Like we're against the capitalists because they're here to kill you, and then the communists will go and kill half the population, right?
Mao Saiton kills 60 million people.
They will accuse you of the crimes of which they are guilty.
Now, we found this out with Letitia James.
Letitia James accused Donald Trump of real estate and mortgage crimes, and it turns out that she has now been caught cold, committing those exact same crimes, but far worse than Donald Trump ever committed them.
She's been indicted for that.
James Comey went after General Flynn, Donald Trump for lying to Congress, for lying under oath, for lying to the federal government and FBI, James Comey indicted for that exact same thing.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Brennan and James Clapper, they're in very hot water because of what they did, launching the Russia collusion hoax, raiding Donald Trump's house, and so on and so forth.
It turns out that they've hoaxed themselves directly into some real legal trouble.
And we hear that that's going to be heating up quite quickly.
Interesting little birdies tell us this.
But ladies and gentlemen, today we are going to talk about John Bolton.
Because John Bolton was one of those guys who worked beside Donald Trump and then backstabbed him.
These are the worst type of vermin.
I set loyalty.
And most like good men put loyalty on a very, very different plane than any other virtue.
You will like I, you know, in the crash out around the crash out that's happening right now, and that is constantly happening in the conservative media ecosystem.
You will often find that I am deign to engage In any flame wars.
I don't like it.
A lot of these people have done me favors or I've done them favors.
A lot of these people have worked with me.
They've either been in my employment or they've worked aside me, or they've spoken at the same places as I have, and they've rode in the same direction as me.
And if that is, if that is the case, then I am probably not going to flame you.
I will spend my time attacking the communist.
I will take my resources and I will not use it in like dick measuring competitions internally in the conservative movement.
I will use it in order to put full force, full flamethrower against the enemy.
The enemy is who is here to take and steal the lives of our children to utterly and totally upend this country, salt the earth with it, leave it into a pile of ashes, and create slavery system, a global slavery system for us and our children.
Like, that is the enemy.
They want to confuse, disorient, butcher our children.
unidentified
They want to confuse, disorient, butcher our children.
benny johnson
Whether that's through gender bending or whether that's through literally butchering our children, like Jay Jones, the attorney general candidate of Virginia, who says he wants to kill Republican children.
Like that's actually the enemy.
So if you are rowing in the same direction as me, even if I have personal disagreements with you, I am going to try and like keep the battlefield pointed in the right direction.
Because that is the war in which we are fighting.
Matt Walsh very recently said, I am willing to put aside all grievances and all grudges and all petty differences to unite with anybody on the right in order to fight the left that wants to kill us.
And we found that out the hard way at with our with our family and with recent news and what's what's been going on.
Like we've it's been tough.
It's been tough.
Listen, it's just a matter of fact.
You know, you gotta like really think about your security these days.
Because there are people that are out there and there are left-wing billionaires that are funding militant groups to come and kill us.
So these are the like while Democrats are getting their feelings hurt, the real hurt are like the bullets that are being shot at the heads of Charlie Kirk and President Trump.
So if you're helping me fight that evil, then I'm gonna do my best to be loyal.
I'm gonna do my best to be on your side.
I'm gonna do my best to make sure that you can continue to operate in that fight with me.
And that is why I do not engage in flame wars on the right.
Because I see the enemy for what it is.
I wish more, I wish more pundits, I wish more conservatives in this space actually did that.
However, there are those who, even though President Trump plucked them from obscurity, gave them a shot, gave them opportunities, and gave them quite a bit of fame and renown.
You know, I'm not sure anybody would really know who John Bolton was were not for his work with President Trump for two years as national security advisor, very important position.
A position that Trump didn't have to give this guy.
Same thing with Mike Pence.
Same thing with Chris Christie.
It is so dishonorable, the disloyalty.
Like, okay, so you have a difference with Trump.
Like, can you see clear-eyed the actual enemy here?
Don't you understand what we are facing?
The cultural Marxist?
Do you not see the future that they have set about for our children?
Have you not listened to the debate from mayor in New York?
Do you understand what is happening there?
Fully defunding the police, full seizure of all firearms, full legalization of all sex work.
The big viral clip out of that debate was like, how many mosques have you visited?
You go, what, like what cut what like what country is this exactly?
This is a guy.
This this Zorhan Mandami is a guy who on his website right now says, my goal is to tax white people more.
You know, he's only been in America like a couple of days.
My goal Is to tax whites more.
That's his that's on his website.
I want to tax whiter neighborhoods more.
They should have let me do the debate.
I would have destroyed that guy.
Like, seriously, I will do the Zorham and Dami debate.
Like I like at any time.
Like the view, invite me on.
Like, we're we're ready.
Let's go.
But I but like these people, they don't.
It is indefensible what they believe.
And what's also indefensible is people that are getting dragged down in these petty little flame wars internally on the right, and that's what they want.
They want us to all fight amongst each other.
And they want guys like John Bolt, useful idiots like Bolton and Pence, Christie, and those are just the ones that come to mind.
Romney's amongst that group to attack President Trump because they know how effective he is.
They want those attacks from the right, so they can say, ah, look, look, Republicans hate him too.
That's actually not true.
Donald Trump has record high approval numbers with Republicans.
And I'm not going to engage in that.
And that disloyalty, you know, it's my rant will be over after this, but you know you just shut your mouth.
You know you don't have to talk about Trump.
We did a we did a debate with the Democrat this week.
Dude was on the show.
Rokana.
And he was like, Trump this, Trump that.
I'm not here to speak for Trump.
You know, you could you can go ask Trump.
You live in DC.
You're a member of Congress.
You go ask Trump what you think about him.
Okay.
Like, I Trump speaks for himself.
You don't have you don't have to betray Donald Trump.
You don't, if you're Mike Pence, if you're John Bolton, you're these guys, and Donald Trump has done so much for you, you don't have to attack him.
You can go about your day and do your thing, and you just brush off those questions.
They choose, they chose to act, vociferously, go after Donald Trump to damage him and hope and pray, as they did on live TV, that his career would be over.
Why?
Because President Trump held on to historical documents from his presidency when he had the full and total plenary right as a president sitting or former with his security clearance to keep those documents.
Donald Trump will have a right for the rest of his life as the chief executive officer vested with the full power of the executive branch to have the nation's top security clearance.
He will be entitled to security briefings every day for the rest of his life.
President Trump will maintain the highest security clearance available for the rest of his life.
President Trump has every right to have a classified document and to see a classified document.
Yet they raided his house with deadly force in order to try and pry classified documents from his from his hands, which he had a legal obligation and actually a right to hold and keep.
And John Bolton, in one of the greatest acts of cowardice that I've witnessed my entire political life, went screaming over to the news cameras, Cheering that this is the end of Donald Trump because he mishandled classified information.
Luckily, we actually have that clip.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's rewind the clock back a couple years and listen to John Bolton talking about this heinous crime.
john bolton
Then he has committed very serious crimes.
This is this is a devastating indictment.
I speak here as an alumnus of the Justice Department myself, uh, because not only is it powerful, it's very narrowly tailored.
They didn't throw everything up against the wall to see what would stick.
This really is a rifle shot, and I I think it's uh it should be uh the end of Donald Trump's political career.
benny johnson
This is a very serious crime.
This will be the end of his career.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, Karma is Such a biatch because look at this.
Here's John Bolton this morning, surrendering to federal authorities for his own crimes of you guessed it, mishandling classified documents.
How do you like them, Apples, John?
carley shimkus
Moments ago, former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton arriving at a United States district court in Greenbelt, Maryland.
He is expected to surrender after being indicted on 18 counts over the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Bolton faces eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.
The documents contained intel on future attacks, foreign missile launches, and human intel sources.
benny johnson
So sad, ladies and gentlemen.
unidentified
Let's go ahead and play that sad.
benny johnson
Oh, John.
Give me one more.
Give me one more trombone for John.
You remember John Bolton.
Just a minute ago was on your TV, was on your screen saying that this is the end of Donald Trump's career.
These are very serious crimes.
This will ruin Donald Trump.
How dare he mishandle classified documents?
Let's go to the article, shall we?
Bolton surrenders to the feds to face charges of sharing classified information.
Now they got James Comey on two counts.
They got John Bolton on 18.
Holy moly.
Do you know that one of the things that John Bolton was doing was actually sharing classified information about nuclear weapons?
Oh, wow, where have I heard that before?
So they accused Trump of doing.
They actually have it in John Bolton's indictment.
We'll read it in just a second.
Former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton surrendered in federal authorities on Friday after being indicted on 18 counts related to improper handling of classified materials.
Photographers have snapped images of Bolton leaving his home at Bethesda, Maryland, and then he arrived at the federal courthouse in DC.
When asked by Fox News at the scene if he had a comment, Bolton walked into the building.
Bolton was indicted on eight counts of transmission of national defense information.
That's transmission.
Transmission, do you understand?
He's giving it to people.
I don't know if he's selling it.
I don't know if he's doing access.
Hey, Alex, you have that funny photo of John Bolton, like just wandering the streets of Qatar.
What's that about?
Remember when this dude was like in a taxi in Qatar, he's like, it's John Bolton!
unidentified
He's just walking through the streets of Qatar.
benny johnson
He did this the week after he was fired by Trump.
The week after he was fired by Trump, John Bolton is like in his giant mustache, is like walking around the dusty streets of Qatar.
There it is, right there.
What the hell's going on?
This was like right afterwards.
I'm not I don't know.
I don't know what he was doing, man.
But what the federal indictment says is that he was transmitting national defense information.
There it is.
There's some dudes filming from a taxi.
And here's Bolton.
What the hell are you doing, Bolton?
Just slepping, schlepping through the streets of this Middle Eastern country, literally minutes after being fired by Trump.
As National Security Advisor.
Okay, dude.
He does look like the Lorax, doesn't he?
unidentified
Okay.
benny johnson
Well, now he's schlepping into the federal courthouse.
Uh let's read from the indictment here, shall we?
From or about April 9th, 2018 through at least August 22nd, 2025.
John Bolton abused his position as national security advisor by sharing more than thousands of pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the national security advisor, including information relating to national defense, which was classified as top secret SEI level.
Two unauthorized individuals, namely individuals one and two, the indictment reads.
Bolton also unlawfully retained a documents, writings, and notes related to national defense, including information classified at the top secret levels in his home in Maryland.
Uh, who is individuals one and two?
Nobody knows.
We're not sure.
Some people speculate that it's his family, could be his business partners, could be like he's trying to write a book.
Could be that he's trying to sell information.
We don't actually know who individuals one and two are.
ALX, let me know by for by for any reason we actually do know.
But as far as I know, as of time of recording, we don't.
My goodness, they're singing again.
Oh no.
Okay, let me read you the indictment and then and then we'll go, we'll go to our libs singing outside of is this outside of the Bolton courthouse?
Oh no.
I'm so sorry.
Uh well, Bolton transmitted uh the documents that Bolton transmitted were unauthorized to view classified documents.
Those documents, according to the indictment, reveal intelligence about future attacks.
Uh they unveil uh reveal sensitive information about the U.S. intelligence committee.
Intelligence foreign adversary was planning a missile launch in a future, a covert action foreign country related to sense of intergovernment agencies along with this information.
They also include nuclear secrets.
Goodness gracious.
The FEI's investigation revealed that John Bolton transmitted top secret information using personal online accounts, a personal server, and retained the documents at his house in direct violation of the law, says Cash Patel.
These cases are based on a meticulous work, dedicated career professionals at the FBI who followed the facts without fear.
Weaponization of justice will not be tolerated.
FBI will stop at nothing to bring justice to anybody who threatens national security.
Bolton's home was raided along with his office, was raided.
They found classified documents according to reports at both.
So there you go.
John Bolton.
Another in a very long line of total and complete humiliations.
The indictment right here.
unidentified
Well, we should show you the uh show you the indictment.
benny johnson
Uh you'll see a lot of different U.S. codes that have been violated here.
It's the uh criminal indictments here.
Again, it is a truly remarkable thing that John Bolton was such a little attack dog, such a such an attack dog against President Trump, as it pertained to President Trump, legal retention of classified information.
And yet here he is.
President Trump uh speaking of an absolute classic, an absolute master, when uh offered the information that John Bolton had been indicted on 18 counts, 10 years per count, 180 years in prison.
Yikes, John Bolton is in his 70s, so goodness gracious, facing the absolutely the rest of his life in jail for this.
Donald Trump pulled the Ruth Bader Ginsburg card, which is Chef Kiss.
donald j trump
I didn't know that.
You told me for the first time, but I think he's you know a bad person.
Uh I think he's a uh bad guy, yeah.
He's a bad guy.
benny johnson
Too bad, but you know, boys, I'm not gonna miss the flashback here.
I'm not gonna miss it.
We gotta get you gotta get me, you gotta get me, Tiny Dancer.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I can't you can't miss the flashback.
It's one of the it's one of the best Trump clips ever.
Thank you, ALX.
He had it right in the pocket.
Danny and ALX.
Great, just uh such excellent producers.
Had it right in the pocket.
Here we go.
President Trump, thing a legend.
So he guessed says you just to uh uh John Bolton's been indicted.
Oh, I didn't know.
You're telling me for the first time.
Where have I heard that before?
unidentified
She just died.
Well, I didn't know that.
I just uh telling me now for the first time.
She led an amazing life.
What else can you say?
She was an amazing woman.
Read it.
Whether you agree it or not, she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life.
Um sad to hear that.
I am sad to hear that.
Thank you very much.
benny johnson
I'm walking off.
It's pure keynote.
It's pure cinema.
Where's Martin Scorsese?
Cinema.
That was cinema.
I don't even know.
It it is there a more political is there a more perfect clip in the history of politics than this?
It is the most perfect clip in the history of political filmmaking.
Period.
This is our rosebud.
This is our citizen cane.
This is it.
This is Citizen Kane.
Wow.
You're just telling me now for the first time.
And then Elton John is belting it out in the background.
And you can see Trump like, I'm gonna get another Supreme Court justice.
I'm gonna be able to strike down Article 2 of the voter rights act.
Fantastic.
Goodness gracious.
You know, I wouldn't like be I wouldn't be as gratuitous in our criticism of Bolton if he hadn't done stuff like this.
There are thousands of hours of John Bolton dunking on Trump, attacking Donald Trump for these exact same things.
John Bolton was never president.
John Bolton was never president.
Donald Trump as president.
He's just one of like 40 dudes that have ever been president.
Donald Trump in that position has these very special privileges.
Yes, becoming president makes you special.
You get secret service for the rest of your life, even if you're just Jimmy Carter putzing around in a dusty peanut field.
You get secret service for the rest of your life.
You can get classified briefings for the rest of your life.
You can get a daily presidential brief for the rest of your you are entitled to that.
You don't have to take it, but you're entitled to that.
A man will show up with a binder to tell you about the threats of the world in a very classified manner.
Donald John Bolton damn well knew this.
And knew that Donald Trump had a right to maintain top secret documents.
And John Bolton still attacked President Trump.
Here's another example.
john bolton
Any given moment.
But I don't think he cared about the classification system.
I don't think he appreciated the sensitivity of this information.
And he didn't uh appreciate the sensitivity of uh how it was often acquired, the so-called sources and methods.
So this had been briefed to him before I arrived.
It was repeated frequently.
I think it simply had no impact on him, whatever.
john heilemann
There's a couple of different ways that people think about this.
Uh and people who are not friendly to the president, who think about what's happened here.
And one of them is, you know, Donald Trump master thief, you know, criminal uh running some kind of elaborate conspiracy to bring things out of the White House and keep them secret, uh, for potentially for political or financial gain.
There are other people who added attitude is Trump is chaotic, he's careless, he's not that smart.
He just he wants he took these things almost by mistake, and now he's basically stamping his feet and saying they're mine, I don't want to give them up.
Give me a sense of where you think the truth lies with respect to Trump's intelligence, carelessness, and the degree to which he might have brought motive to bear on taking these documents out of the White House and keeping them for this long at Mar-a-Lago.
john bolton
Well, I I don't I I it's very hard to speculate on motive other than that he liked cool things, he saw things that he so he wanted to take them, and he was pretty much able to take them uh uh and not just on classified information matters, on all kinds of things that crossed his desk.
Some days he liked to eat a lot of French fries, some days he took classified documents he wanted them.
Why did he want them?
Because he could get them.
john heilemann
Right.
benny johnson
What a jerk.
You know, he's just a jerk.
You're being a jerk.
The dude hired you.
unidentified
It's disloyalty.
benny johnson
It is, and it is disloyalty in a manner that really affects the country.
Because what you're doing is you're taking all of your credentials that you've gotten through your years of service, and uh John Bolton's been working in the federal government for decades, right?
Since the since the 80s, you're taking all that credentialism, you're lying on President Trump's name, and then you're saying that the president's a criminal for doing something that he has every legal right to do.
And in fact, an obligation.
I don't like Barack Obama, but Barack Obama has a right to secret service for the rest of his life.
I would never ever criticize that policy.
And Barack Obama also has a right to get security briefings about the state of the world since he, well, for better or worse, helped craft the state of that world and will be will be threatened one way or the other by the state of the globe.
Okay?
And and so I don't argue with that.
John Bolton damn well knows that.
He's going on TV and he's lying about Trump.
Now you can you can sort of like see some of the warning signs here as a good example.
Here's a uh photo of John Bolton holding up a grenade.
Pretty uh pretty interesting.
Not AI.
Why is John Bolton holding a grenade here exactly?
Is there some backstory that could potentially tell us about where John Bolton's true allegiances lie?
Let's listen.
john bolton
I think a lot of Republicans right now just wish Cash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and a number of other Trump nominees would just go away.
benny johnson
No, no, no.
We played the wrong clip.
Here we go.
Nope, that's all right.
john bolton
I might say I've I've got some personal experience here.
I was uh in charge of policy and budget at USAID during the Reagan administration when we undertook a major effort to fix it.
And I'm going to show you my farewell present from AIDS.
You can see it's a hand grenade, and it says on it, John R. Bolton, truest Reaganaught, AID 1983.
This is a style of government.
And uh uh and that's the way we approached it.
unidentified
So hang on.
benny johnson
Wait a second.
So you got an award from the peacemaking people.
That's a grenade.
The USAID.
Remember, the people that are just there to build schools in Botswana and deliver bags of grain to hungry people.
Here's your grenade that you got from that peaceful organization.
Got it.
Okay, John.
Got it.
John Bolton's a very creepy, disloyal, bad person.
I'm glad that he's indicted.
You know, you actually love to see it.
It's a uh, you know, it's gonna be a massive warning sign to people.
And also I wanted to cover sort of the uh, you know, the the Mike Pence angle here.
I wanted to like just note a couple of things about the way that internet rumors work.
There is a rumor out here that Mike Pence will be next.
I want to pop that up.
Uh, there's just some of the yeah, sure.
Uh, former vice president Mike Pence has been implicated in the DOJ's investigation, a former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Uh, this tweet is going viral.
I had my team run this down.
We have a great research team here and our production team.
Uh, and now while this has done 20,000 reposts and millions of views, and while I would, I guess I wouldn't be surprised if that ended up being true.
As of right now, we don't have any evidence that there is any classified document sharing indictment in the wings for Mike Pence.
DOJ did close a Mike Pence classified documents investigation a couple of years ago.
Mike Pence did turn over some documents that would be considered classified to the DOJ.
That's the updated status there.
We've reached out and haven't gotten anything back from the DOJ or from federal law enforcement that Mike Pence is currently uh under investigation or a target of this.
Maybe there's things they can't tell us.
I don't know.
I'm not trying to tell you that this can't be true.
Uh, but it is worth saying that in 2023 they did a full investigation into Mike Pence and handling the classified information, and it is it did not turn up to be something that he would be indicted over.
Mike Pence didn't, I guess, turn over some documents that would be considered classified.
So I guess everyone has them, right?
Okay.
Uh very interesting times.
Very interesting times.
Uh there is a massive sense of F around and find out.
A massive energy of FAFO.
That I it is, you know, Trump says you're gonna get sick of winning.
Like, like it's almost like amazing to watch what's happening right now.
It'll make your head spin.
I mean, I guess we've had Comey, Letitia James, and John Bolton in the time span of less than two weeks.
Stay locked in with your news.
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We'll be speaking at that uh tomorrow.
I'm very much looking forward to a father to hosting a fatherhood panel there.
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Rock and roll.
Democrat Attorney General candidate Jay Jones grilled over reckless driving conviction by GOP opponent.
Jay Jones, the guy who has been sending text messages saying that he wants to kill Republicans, finally was dragged on stage yesterday, and here's what he had to say.
jay jones
And you're also going to hear from my opponent about text messages that I sent that I deeply, deeply regret.
Let me be very clear.
I am embarrassed, and I'm sorry.
I am sorry to Speaker Gilbert.
I'm sorry to his family.
I'm sorry to my family.
And I'm sorry to every single Virginian.
I cannot take back what I said.
But you have my word that I will always be accountable for my mistakes.
And you also have my word that I will spend every waking moment fighting for you.
benny johnson
What a prick.
What a jerk.
Said that he wanted to kill Republicans and their little fascist children.
Jason Miaras had a fantastic response.
He's friend of the program.
He's the uh current attorney general of Virginia.
Let's listen.
jason miyares
And I find it a little bit stunning that today you say one of the pillars of your public safety platform is protecting children.
Were you protecting Jennifer's children?
When you said you wanted to see them die in their mother's arms?
How can anybody who's ever worked in any of the crimes against children, all of the areas of federal and state local law department, how they can they ever take you seriously, be the top prosecutor, knowing that you view that children should die to advance a political agenda.
It's unconscionable, and if you were truly sorry, you would not be running for this office because you disqualified yourself.
benny johnson
Beautiful.
Well done.
Well done.
I uh I don't I don't know what else, you know.
I'm like, I'm going back and forth on how to message this because it's a crazy timeline right now where there are Democrats running for high law enforcement office that want to actually kill Republicans, and they're saying it publicly, and it's like part of a platform.
And it's actually how you get disintegrationism as a nation.
It's actually how you create a zero stress society.
Secretary of violence and civil war.
And so this was like a perfect opportunity for Republicans to disavow this, and we have, and for Democrats to disvow it, but they haven't.
And they won't.
And that's because they approve of it, actually.
And they approve of it because it gets them political power.
And it shows you sort of precisely where that party is, and it's a place of desperation.
It's extremely sad to see.
And the fact that this individual, I mean, I guess for on some level, it's nice that he's like, it's nice that he's still running because he's collapsing in the polls.
He's exposed the Democrat Party for exactly how low they will stoop for power.
It is grotesque.
But if he if he were to just bow out, that would have solved the issue for them.
Him staying in stubbornly actually creates an opportunity for us to show the difference.
Sometimes I wonder, ladies and gentlemen, if we're doing enough to demonstrate the difference, we're going to be setting our hearts like Flint on ensuring that the nation knows what the difference is between the two parties.
And the major takeaway from this debate in Virginia that Jay Jones, just like it, just like the race in New Jersey, the main goal will be prosecuting Donald Trump.
This is it.
This is all the Democrat Party has.
jay jones
Again, Virginians are just waiting for you to prosecute a case against Donald Trump.
People are hurting right now.
What do you say to those federal workers who are at home who got fired illegally earlier this year?
What do you say to those people who are going to lose their health care based on a plan that you wrote a few years ago, by the way?
What do you say to those families who are struggling right now because the tariffs that have also been declared illegal have destroyed their bank accounts?
If you're going to prosecute a case, you should prosecute the president.
But you're too afraid, you're too scared, and you're too weak to stand up to him.
I have no problem.
I cannot wait to see Donald Trump in court and protect Virginia to put us first and get what we deserve.
benny johnson
Okay.
Protect Virginia, says the guy that wants to kill the little fascist kids of Republicans.
unidentified
Got it.
benny johnson
Ladies and gentlemen, my children in my home are protected.
Obviously, we have castle law here in Florida.
There is uh, let's just say there are many mechanisms of protection in this second amendment state that I'm very proud to practice.
But you also want to make sure that you're protecting your children's uh overall, total, holistic health.
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But today, seed oils make up like 20% of the average American's daily calories.
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Ladies and gentlemen, somebody who may be picking up the bag in New York City, Zorhan Mandami, Kamium Dami, was out last night on the debate stage, I guess.
Andrew Cuomo.
I don't know, man.
I saw that I watched the debate.
He just uh completely outclassed Cuomo and just bought, you know, he just guy now, according to all available polls, is just uh on a romp to become the next mayor of New York City.
Joining us now is a member of Congress from New York to talk about it.
Uh Representative Mike Lauer is the representative from New York, District 17, and is well, had a uh had a very interesting conversation with Hakeem Jeffries recently.
I hope I I want to make sure that we play that clip.
Um but I want to figure out what the hell's going on in New York City.
So the Congressman is on to chat with us about that.
unidentified
Let's go.
you you Thank you.
benny johnson
Hey, Congressman, how are you doing?
Uh, I love I I I loved that.
I love your greatest hits with Hakim Jeffries.
Uh that was fun.
I don't know what the status is on the shutdown.
Little birdies on the hill tell me that they're gonna try and hold off to the no kings rally that's gonna happen this weekend, and then they're all gonna capitulate.
Is is that is that what they're saying for the government shutdown?
mike lawler
Well, thanks for having me on, Benny.
Appreciate it.
Appreciate the work you do.
Uh Look, based on uh everything we've seen, the Democrats uh are hellbent on holding out through uh this weekend for their uh No Kings rally.
Uh it's going to be fascinating to see uh what the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party uh has to say at this rally, given that they demanded a ceasefire and President Trump delivered on that.
Um, you know, uh my gut reaction to it is that uh they'll find new talking points uh to rage about because the reality is this was never about uh a ceasefire and it was never about uh freeing Palestine.
It was always about eradicating the state of Israel.
Um but uh they have no interest uh in opening the government back up.
And so I think this is going to drag on for quite a while, frankly, because uh for their far left base, uh Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are trying to appease them.
They are petrified of a primary from the left.
Uh Hakeem Jeffries uh is worried about a New York City councilman Chi O say, uh, who's a strong supporter and close friend of Zoran Mandani.
Uh and Chuck Schumer is is absolutely horrified at the prospects of losing to AOC.
Uh and so, you know, they are doing everything they can uh to appease this radical base.
This is not about health care, it's not about spending.
Uh, it is about politics.
It is about trying to show their base that they are fighting back against Donald Trump.
That's it.
That's all it's about.
benny johnson
So here we have up on screen, Congressman.
You approaching Hakeem Jeffries with these exact criticisms.
I loved it.
And I'd love to have more actual debate in Congress and sharing of ideas.
Hakeem Jeffries, man, he just ain't it.
You know, like they keep trying to make fetch happen here.
He's just like not charismatic.
He's he's really lame and he just has no inspirational ideas.
He does uh face tune and photoshop uh his own hips, which is weird.
Uh, I don't know why he does that, but he does that in tons of of photos.
It seems a little creepy for like a grown man to do that as well.
I'm not sure if that's exactly what you were here to debate him on, the amount of like um editing he does to his own photos.
But it was very unimpressive, uh, his argument with you, and he didn't really have a great response.
What was this like?
mike lawler
Oh, it was quite remarkable.
Uh, you know, first of all, he described himself later after the interaction, you know, as Brooklyn Hakeem.
Uh he he accused me of thinking that I was, you know, coming up to Beltway Hakeem, but I got Brooklyn Hakeem.
Uh, really, it was more dollar store Obama than anything else.
Um, but the fact is that he had no argument.
And he knew I was there.
I had told his deputy chief of staff that I was going to ask him point blank.
Will you sign on to this bill?
Uh, since you say it's about health care, sign on to this bipartisan bill to extend the ACA subsidy by one year.
Uh, and so he knew, and he came charging out uh as if somehow he was gonna intimidate me or uh you know overpower me in the conversation.
He was so arrogant.
Uh and what made me laugh about it is it's like, bro, we both represent 780,000 people, and we both have one vote.
You're no more important, you're no more special.
Uh the fact is um that you have failed as a leader.
Uh and he couldn't answer a single question.
All he could do was stutter, stammer, yell, pound his uh, you know, poke his his finger at me uh and you know, talk about Donald Trump.
Um and my point was look, if you're saying it's about healthcare, sign on to this bill.
We passed a clean CR to keep the government open and funded.
You voted to shut it down.
It's that simple.
You're petrified of AOC, you're petrified of Zoran Mondani.
And by the way, why won't you endorse him?
Why haven't you endorsed him yet?
What are you afraid of?
Go ahead.
He's the he's the leader of your party now.
And uh, you know, they they have no answer to anything except to yell about Trump.
Uh, and that's really all this is.
It's it's one big show for them.
benny johnson
It's pretty embarrassing when you're so insecure as an adult man and as someone who is leading one of the major parties in the House of Representatives when you have to do this in your photos.
You know, we we talk a lot about the sombreros that were put on Hokeme Jefferies, but we don't talk enough about uh Photoshop Gate where he was caught photoshopping.
I mean, what I don't know if he's trying to be run DMC here or what.
But like you can see that you see how the bench bends.
You know, that means that he's like trying, he's like what do you call a man who's this insecure?
Like, dude, you're in your 50s.
Like, why are why are you Kardashian level photoshopping uh uh photos of yourself?
And there's a lot of these actually.
There's like there's they were able to go and invest they they found like him doing this to like virtually every photo, posted in it online.
You should also not be posting photos of yourself as a 50 year old, like you know, on Instagram.
So what the hell is wrong with you anyway?
But whatever.
Like was this something that came up in your conversation, or were you sticking to just healthcare?
mike lawler
No, I was I was calling him out on the hypocrisy of their position.
But it it kind of speaks to uh the, you know, you look at Schumer, he's he's updated his glasses.
He's trying to appear trendy now.
I I mean, that this is their uh way to try and appeal uh to I guess the younger generation, uh, and they're just failing miserably at it.
Uh and uh you can see why they have a real challenge.
The Democrats are in search of a leader, they're rudderless.
Uh and Jeffries and Schumer ain't cutting it.
Uh, and you know, they're both from Brooklyn.
Uh, you know, they're supposed to be uh, you know, hip and trendy, and it's just it's actually it's embarrassing.
It's it's it's quite pathetic, frankly.
benny johnson
So we have your Democrat opponent, you have a Democrat running against you who looks like he's made in a laboratory for soy boys.
I've never seen anyone so so this guy looks like if the McDonald's soft serve machines like actually worked, like this guy is so soft, and he's such a he's like exactly who people thought were prosecuting January 6th cases at the FBI.
And we've roasted this guy before on the channel, but he's just this like doughy lispy dude who's like, I've you know, I'm a federal agent, and I'm here to make sure that Donald Trump's not a Russian agent.
Like I mean, like he puts it his ad like I like I went after grandmothers on January 6th.
He's total cringe, but now it looks like he's been caught saying he wants to defund ice, which is uh wildly unpopular, but I guess in line with the um I guess in line with the modern Democrat Party.
I your your comments on your uh Democrat opponent here, uh who's who's running against you.
A lot of great memes of this guy, too.
So I guess I'm glad he's running, but the floor is yours.
mike lawler
They're uh well, there's eight of them right now.
I have eight Democrat opponents announced.
It's uh uh it's it's insane.
And my other guy, yeah.
My my district's one of the most competitive in the country.
I have uh, you know, Kamala Harris won my district by half a point in 2024.
Joe Biden won it by 10 points.
It's home to the Clintons and George Soros.
So by no means a uh a Republican bastion.
But you know, uh this guy moved up from Virginia, another candidate, Kate Conley moved up from Virginia uh to try and run here.
You got a former uh, you know, news anchor uh running here.
He he's calling to defund ice.
Kate Conley uh says that we need to cut ICE's budget.
Um, you know, they they don't want law enforcement to do their jobs.
Uh and it's really remarkable when you think about uh where the Democratic Party is.
You have Zoran Mondani that wants to defund the police that wants to shut down prisons, that wants to legalize prostitution.
He was asked in the debate last night about legalizing prostitution, uh, and he tried to say, well, you know, we're not gonna enforce the law against them.
This is the fundamental problem.
They don't want to enforce the law against criminals.
They want to go after law abiding citizens.
They want to take away constitutional protections for law abiding gun owners, for instance, but they don't want to prosecute criminals who use guns in the commission of a crime.
Zoran Mandani was asked by Martha McCown the other day, should Hamas lay down its arms?
And he said, I have no opinion about that.
But he wants to arrest Bibi Netanyahu if he comes to New York City.
I mean, this is the absurdity of today's Democratic Party.
It's the absurdity of the policy positions that they are taking on the radical left, and that their leadership, quote unquote, is kowtowing to.
They're bending the knee to people like Zoran, to people like AOC and Bernie Sanders, uh, because they are petrified that that's where the energy is on the left.
That's where the base of their party is.
And so when you get people like Mike Sachs uh coming out and saying, you know, they want to defund ICE, or Kate Conley saying she wants to cut ICE's budget.
Um, it's just wrong.
It's fundamentally wrong.
But this is this is where their party is, this is where the base of their party is.
When they say, oh, we're not trying to give illegals health benefits, of course they are.
In New York State, Kathy Hokel expanded Medicaid to allow illegal immigrants to get health benefits.
And I got her on record before Congress testifying to that point.
So when Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer say, no, no, we're not trying to do that.
Meanwhile, the governor of their home state is actually doing that.
It's all a bunch of nonsense.
And so they try to to bob and weave, they try to say they're not advocating for these policies.
But the fact is they don't believe in enforcing our immigration laws.
They don't believe in supporting ICE agents.
They have no problem with uh citizens or protesters getting in the way of ICE performing their duties.
They don't believe those folks should be prosecuted.
Hell, we have members of Congress that have assaulted ICE agents.
They don't care.
And that is a fundamental problem.
benny johnson
The number one viral clip out of the debate last night is not what I wanted it to be, which would be this section of Zoran Mandami's platform on his website, which says that he wants to tax white people more.
It's a fascinating thing to just straight up admit it.
On some level, it's like, I'm glad you're just admitting it.
Like, okay, you know, I have some honesty, I suppose.
Uh, but this didn't get asked sadly.
Uh, hopefully I'll be able to moderate the next debate.
But the but an attack factor was like, how many mosques have you visited?
Which I think it was like utter what was fascinating.
So what does that say exactly?
You know, Zoran Mandami, like he just arrived here a couple of years ago, right?
In in in America.
mike lawler
So it became a citizen in 2018 of the United States and got elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020.
Uh, I served with him one term in the state assembly uh before I came to Congress.
Uh and these policy positions that he's espousing, he espoused when he ran.
Uh his assembly district underlays AOC's congressional district.
He came in on that AOC wave once she got elected.
She started recruiting and mobilizing these socialist Democrats to run for city council, to run for state assembly, to run for state senate.
And they've grown significantly.
And so when you hear policy positions like he's espousing, where he talks about wanting to tax white wealthy neighborhoods at a higher tax rate uh than other neighborhoods, solely based on race.
Uh, it's outrageous.
But he's also advocating for seizing control of private property, for banning private property ownership, for freezing the rent uh for free busing.
He wants to raise taxes by $9 billion.
Um, you know, these are the policies of Marxism.
This is what he is is advocating for.
And I give him credit insofar as to your point, he's being honest about what his positions are.
Um, but it is insane to think that he is on the verge of becoming uh mayor of New York City.
And Andrew Cuomo, uh, you know, I've said this many times.
Andrew Cuomo is not a solution here.
Andrew Cuomo is the one who signed cashless bail into law.
Andrew Cuomo's the one that made New York a sanctuary state.
He's the one that banned natural gas and shut down Indian Point and signed the CLCPA, which has skyrocketed energy prices.
Um, so he's been a he's been a disaster in New York uh for years.
Uh but this is the the awful choice New Yorkers are making.
And so then Zoran gets into a fight about whether or not somebody visited a mosque.
I mean, look, I represent a very diverse district.
I go into every community in my district.
I've been to Moss, I've been to synagogues, I've been to churches.
Uh I'm a practicing Catholic, Irish Italian descent.
But that's not what this election is about.
This election is about the policies and the policies that he is advocating that will destroy New York.
And what folks across the country have to understand, I get the the uh you know arguments against New York and the anger that people have towards New York uh from around the rest of the country.
But the fact is what happens in New York does not stay in New York.
And New York is the financial capital of the world.
And despite all of these disastrous policies, it is still an economic engine for the country.
And if you have an avowed socialist implementing these anti-capitalist policies, going after private property ownership, going after the financial services industry, trying to raise taxes by $9 billion on an annual basis, uh, talking about freezing the rent, uh, you know, legalizing prostitution, defunding the police, um it creates a situation that will lead to a mass exodus out of New York.
And while that may benefit other states in the immediate, it will create a financial crisis around the country.
benny johnson
Well, I mean that's interesting.
It would be interesting to develop that.
I'm not sure if we have the time, but like financial crisis around the country.
I'm not sure about that, Congressman, because I feel like that it'll just move.
Like the fluidity of the markets and the liquidity will just simply go to Miami and Boca, as it's already done, right?
It's like it's like fake, you know.
It's like you know, my office is in New York, but we're really in the brickle, obviously.
And it's it's if anybody who has open eyes can see what's happened with Ken Griffin and every other hedge fund in the world, and you just travel the eastern shoreline from Miami to Palm Beach, and you can see where all the hedge funds and all the Wall Street bankers have moved.
And now it's affecting the West Coast too, because now this is the number one inflow.
JP Morgan tells me this is the number one inflows of accounts uh from New York are actually here on the western side of Florida where we're broadcasting now.
Like it's already happening.
Now, my intention here, my contention here is not like I hate New York City.
I actually like believe in my heart that you can't rebuild New York.
There's not like another New York, there's not another San Francisco or Chicago.
Like these are places that should be preserved, actually, because it's neat to go there.
It's nice to see there are landmarks and things that are historic.
I'm not like burn it all down, right kind of guy.
But I'm, you know, I'm I'm failing to see a path forward here, like with the city, if they're gonna elect a guy like this, you know.
mike lawler
Well, to your point, I mean, this has been happening uh in terms of the out migration.
Bill de Blasio uh really undid 20 years of strong leadership from Ruby Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg that really built New York uh into uh the the economic engine uh that it that it is.
And what you've seen, obviously, is the the hedge funds have gone to Palm Beach, a lot of uh the financial services industry, especially the banks have gone to Dallas.
Um the fact that JP Morgan Chase now has more employees in Dallas than it does in New York speaks volumes to that, despite the fact that they're building this huge building in midtown Manhattan uh as their headquarters.
So it's it's a challenge.
And the the point that I make about this being a problem for the country, look, there's a reason that the US has thrived, all right.
When when this ties to foreign policy, part of what has made the United States uh the power that it is is our financial markets and our capital uh markets.
And uh the rest of the world relies on the US capital markets, they rely on U.S. investment, uh, not just from government foreign aid, but in terms of uh US investment on a corporate level uh and on our from our financial institutions.
And having that centrally located in New York uh is is vital.
Uh it is the Financial capital of the world.
And yes, it has always been dispersed across the country, Chicago, San Fran, LA, Dallas.
Obviously, it is growing in other parts of the country.
But if you have a situation where New York collapses because of its disastrous leadership and because of a socialist uh engaged in Marxist theory, that does not help our country because people come to New York for a reason.
Uh a lot of it tied to the financial sector.
Um and ultimately, if New York or our major cities uh start to collapse, that's a problem.
And it's part of the reason why the president is taking such an aggressive uh posture when it comes to crime and tackling crime in these major cities.
This is is bigger than just those cities.
It is bigger than just the people that live there.
It has a direct impact on our economy.
It has a direct impact on our financial institutions and markets.
Uh when you see people leaving Chicago, leaving New York, it's not because they hate New York or Chicago.
It is because of the cost of living and the quality of life.
And that is what we're trying to fix.
benny johnson
Well, Congressman, I'm telling you, man, I tell everyone, because we've got all these, we got people that come up to us, whether we're in Portland or Seattle or San Francisco.
Uh there's no such thing as a permanent blue state.
There's no such thing as a permanent red state.
It's constant vigilance.
There's no place that is beyond the pale and that can't be won back with the right policies and with the right atmosphere.
And I'm just really happy that you've endorsed uh Donald Trump after he's done with his second term here to run for mayor of New York.
I think that'll be great, like Swamp.
I think it'd be perfect for him.
mike lawler
It'd be it'd be quite the quite the comeback uh in New York, certainly.
benny johnson
Wouldn't that be the way to end it?
Wouldn't that be the final note?
mike lawler
It would be that would be that would be I think he would enjoy that very much.
Uh wouldn't he?
benny johnson
That'd be vacation, actually, in comparison to what he's doing now.
mike lawler
Trump versus Zorron.
That would be quite the debate.
You know, look, and just to your point, Benny.
Look, as much as uh, you know, people think New York's a blue state.
Folks have to remember it was New York that delivered the House majority in 2022.
Uh we flipped five seats, including mine.
I defeated the chair of the DCC.
Uh, it was vital.
My district is a two to one Democratic district.
There's 80,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
As I said, it's home to the Clintons and George Soros.
Uh, we won again last year.
I was one of only three Republicans to win in a seat, Kamala Harris won.
That gave us the majority, 220 seats.
If we lost those three seats, we'd be at 217.
So these seats matter even in states like New York, and folks have to have to know that.
My seat is the difference between us having a majority post-2026 or not.
And we need everybody's help.
And they can go to Lawler for Congress.com to support us or text Mike to 8507.
Uh, my seat is in the crosshairs.
Hakeem did not like being challenged last week.
They've already spent millions of dollars this year alone trying to defeat me.
And it's only going to get worse.
It's going to be about a 60 million dollar race.
So good we we need all hands on deck and need everybody's support.
benny johnson
Ladies and gentlemen, Congressman Mike Lawler from New York, a man who's standing strong.
Uh, and and I and and strong like iron, man, and Hillary Clinton and George Soros' district.
Just to get just amazing, man.
Like the iron in the world.
mike lawler
They definitely never thought they definitely never thought they'd have a Republican representative.
benny johnson
It's it's great, man.
It's wonderful to see.
Come back on the program anytime.
God speed.
God bless you.
And um, man, let's uh yeah, let's let's let's start that Trump for mayor.
unidentified
I can't pay.
benny johnson
He'll get bored.
mike lawler
You know we'll get bored.
benny johnson
You know we'll get bored.
You know him, man.
I know he knows you well.
You'll you know, he'll get bored.
So let's let's start it now.
Why not?
mike lawler
That'll be quite that'll be quite the coda on the career.
benny johnson
Uh Godspeed Congress.
mike lawler
All right, thank you.
unidentified
Yep.
benny johnson
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Ladies and gentlemen, we love investing in smart and sharp people who just love uh to tell the truth on this program, who've been uh sharp as attack and who have been on the attack against uh the people who have either betrayed Donald Trump or have been uh using that betrayal in order to get on TV for cheap clicks.
And one of these guys uh who has been sound as a pound on our program is Brett Tolman.
Brett Tolman is a former federal prosecutor, he's got 30 years uh understanding the kind of crimes uh that are currently being indicted by the Trump DOJ.
And he's on live right now with us to chit chat about what happens next.
unidentified
you Thank you.
benny johnson
Brett, it's so great to have you back.
Uh uh how are you, brother?
unidentified
I'm well.
brett tolman
Great to see you, Benny.
We haven't talked in a long time.
I know um, I watched what's been going on with you, and we were all devastated with Charlie Kirk.
I wanted to connect and let you know I thought uh, you know, everything that you did surrounding that, you know, Charlie was a friend and uh and a good man, and it's amazing where we're at as a country, but um, I wanted to tell you thank you, you know, for all that you did in relation to that.
benny johnson
Yeah, I mean, the easiest way to really put it all together is that just God did, you know, like because you the the there's there was a there's a spiritual energy to all of it, and I can't quite explain it.
I don't over process it.
It still hasn't really hit me, Brett.
And I hope it never does, actually.
unidentified
Yeah.
benny johnson
Um, but God has a purpose for all of our lives, and so we're just gonna live out that purpose and we'll see what's you know, you just you see what's next, right?
So, what's the purpose of hoarding and holding classified documents for John Bolton?
Like what why would he need so many classified documents?
18 18 charge indictment, um, 18 18 indictments.
Um pretty serious, man.
We read through the indictment earlier in the show.
We'll pop it up on screen here.
They're running out of space in the margins for the number of violations of US code here.
Uh, what do you make of this, Brett?
brett tolman
Benny, I I you know, the deeper I dig into it, the more um more of a head scratcher it is.
I I think a lot of your, you know, your your viewers, they need to understand, you know, I handled these cases both on the prosecution side and I've handled some on the defense side.
And here's here's what happens when you are dealing with top secret.
And I I held top secret SCI clearance.
I did handled cases, you know, where we were handling classified, very sensitive and classified top secret uh information.
All of this, all of this information is stored in a what's called a skiff.
And a skiff is a secured compartmentalized room, basically, that's set aside for you to review and look at classified information.
Now, when you're out in the field, like I was often, we would designate a particular room.
It would have a safe, it would have locked cabinets, you would go into the room, you could not bring your cell phone into the room.
You would then review all of the information.
You could take notes, but those notes have to stay in the file with you.
There was no exception to bringing files out.
You also could not bring your notes out.
You could also, you were prohibited from taking notes later after you've reviewed the classified documents, if those notes were going to contain classified information.
So fast forward, here we have John Bolton, who's at the tip of the spear in terms of dealing with classified sensitive information, information that our enemies would want, information that uh foreign countries would trade in and utilize to try to attack, you know, both the you know, the country as a whole and individuals inside the country.
We have John Bolton, according to the indictment.
Not only does he remove classified information, so a criminal act, not only does he take notes and then remove his notes from that criminal act, then he also takes notes uh in retrospect in the form of a diary.
And then worse, Benny, and this is the one that really shocks me.
He shares it with individuals.
Individuals that may not have any clearance, family members or individuals close to his family.
That's the kind of stuff we never saw in any of the cases that I dealt with.
We had individuals that brought classified information out.
We had individuals that used it for their own personal gain.
But I have never seen a case in which you have someone at that high level willing to take out classified information, put it on their personal server, and then share it with others, uh, both their notes that are classified and top secret and the information, underlying information itself.
benny johnson
How do you even get this information out of the skiff?
I mean, what like it's it seems like some of it is in the form of the diary, but it also seems like he also had like hard copies, according to the indictment.
He had like a sort of a slew of of items.
brett tolman
Well, that's right.
And Benny, in the in his position, he would have had an office, and in that office, you know, he would have had the ability to review classified information because he's he's steeped in it every day, that position every single day.
So all of it though has to be locked up.
It can't be just left out for cleaning people to come in and look at.
But does it give him opportunity?
It gives him more opportunity than even say myself when I was dealing with classified information, where you have a room, not your office, where you can review some of this stuff, and then you have to leave, and somebody is observing what what happens when you leave.
Now, in his position, there would have been individuals that would have seen him leave.
And did they observe him having documents?
Did they observe it on his desk?
Did they observe him?
You know, individuals around him, did he bring information?
It's designated, it has a classified classification designation on the documents, as we've all seen.
Um, so to me, it's I don't know how we how we got here.
It's one thing to be the vice president, Joe Biden, or to be Donald Trump and to have documents and and you are you're capable of having them with you always.
John Bolton was not the same.
He was not in a position like the president's position where he could designate something classified or not.
Instead, he had to physically remove these from the skiff.
He had to physically remove his notes from it.
And then later, and not a lot of people are focused on focusing on this, Benny.
He was taking notes from what he recalled that was classified.
And why is that significant?
Well, because he then was he was referring to these as his diary, and he would share that with other people.
And then fast forward when he reported that his personal email was hacked by a foreign country.
And he he came forward and he said, Hey, my personal email has been hacked.
But what he did not reveal is that he had classified information, top secret classified information on that particular email server.
benny johnson
It's amazing.
When was when was this put up?
What did John Bolton do with all of his yellow notepads that he always took copious notes on in the cadet room and office situation room, traveling abroad?
Look at this.
Approximately 10 months ago.
Yeah, good question.
It's like they they understood what was going on here.
I've been to the National Security Council, I've been to their offices.
They wouldn't even let me in with my cell phone.
I had to lock my cell phone away.
I had to uh, you know, and I went in There it was like everything was everything was completely walled and locked off, and you have you would have had to have run like a like an operation where you're you're intending on taking something, like you had to be very intentional about taking classified documents out of there.
Unlike President Trump, and I'm very glad that you talked about the difference, but if you wouldn't mind, just very quickly nailing this down, President Trump, as the chief executive vested with the full executive branch of power, holds his security clearance for life, and is entitled to security briefings and secret service for life.
And has plenary power to uh classify, declassify, hold classified documents on like get classified briefings uh as a as a current sitting or former president.
Is that correct, Brett?
brett tolman
You're absolutely right, and and even more so, these were documents that while he was president, he gathered and he collected, and he wanted to maintain.
And did he have the right to do so?
Yes, in fact, he had the right to take a document that is classified and keep that document, and the fact that he keeps that document cla declassifies it in essence after he leaves office.
So it's it's a very strong authority that the president has.
I mean, he single-handedly could look at a document, he could indicate that he wants so and so to see it, and that person could not have a security clearance, but they could see the document.
It didn't, it's not a formal process of declassifying a document.
What it is is the president gets to decide who's gonna see what.
I mean, he he is the absolute authority in the executive branch.
And so when they brought the case, we criticized it, and everybody said, Well, you know, a grand jury returned the indictment on this case, so you need to respect it.
Well, where are all those loud voices now?
Here you have a Maryland grand jury that that returned an indictment.
And what you see in this indictment, and as this is the one part of the indictment that is not being highlighted, and that is the criminal law surrounding the mishandling of classified documents says it's one thing to possess it.
And in fact, the penalty will be somewhat low if the only violation is the possession, if it wasn't you know, intended or if it it was perhaps a mistake, it's still a criminal violation, it may not, it may not amount to much prison time.
The the aggravation of a sentence or the increase in a sentence in a sentence in this type of a case comes as a result of the intention to use the material.
So here there's a real risk that he may be facing some serious prison time, because we now know that he was using it to showcase the issues he was on, whether it was to make himself look important, to later to capitalize on him, you know, financially through a book or whatever.
He was sending it to family and friends and and showing that there was an aggravating circumstance surrounding his possession.
So not only does it show it's very intentional that he took it, it's showing that he had a purpose for taking it.
Now, Trump, they could never find the purpose of him taking something, let alone that it was unlawful to begin with.
And that's why the case fell apart.
You had a judge, you know, as much criticism as you want to make of the judge having been appointed by President Trump.
She was absolutely right to say, look, um, I want to see the underlying support, and I want to see that there is a legal basis for you to bring this case against the president of the United States.
Here we don't have any of that.
We have an individual who was personally trying to capitalize on the information, whether it was to, you know, expand his ego and and his importance or to gain financial you know benefit from it, but he had a clear purpose for taking out classified information and then disseminating it.
benny johnson
What do you think will happen?
How do you think those will play out?
You know, you have a handicapping, Brett, since you've got you've done this your entire life.
brett tolman
So I think um I would I would say it's you know, there's a 95% conviction rate across the country in federal criminal cases, and that includes areas like Mary.
benny johnson
Unless more encomies charging the case, but yeah.
brett tolman
Yeah, exactly.
Um I think you know, a jury is gonna be difficult to impanel, um, but it But they'll get it done.
Many have criticized this judge as being, you know, Bomby Obama appointee.
The problem you have is this case is not one of those areas where there's a lot of subjectivity.
Uh the gray areas don't exist in this type of a case.
It's either a possession, and when you see when you see, you know, things like he made comments in some of the emails about his diaries and disseminating it, that this was to be kept, you know, quiet.
And you you see some of that information.
More of that's going to come out, which is going to show that he had absolute knowledge of what you can and cannot do with the classified documents.
So I think a conviction will occur.
The judge will, you know, the for the first time be able to really make an impact on the case when it comes to sentencing.
I predict it will be a low sentence.
I don't think, you know, with having no criminal history, I think they'll hang their hat on a very, you know, low sentence that probably is not consistent with several of the cases that you know I'm aware of where regular, you know, regular people are being charged with this, which you know, most of them do several years in federal prison when when they are accused and convicted of these crimes.
But I predict this will probably be a low sentence given the judge.
benny johnson
Well, you know what?
The process of the punishment, and I'm glad that it's being exposed.
And I'm glad that all of them are being exposed from Comey to Letitia James to John Bolton.
And I hear that these are just the appetizers, so I guess we'll see.
And if you don't mind, I'm just gonna play you.
Since we put up a scaveno tweet, we'll put this one up.
Uh, he just posted this as you were talking.
As you were giving me the last answer, Brett, Scavino just posted the yellow notepad FAFO.
So the floor is yours.
Take us, uh, take us out, Brett.
What should we make of the this current uh DOJ?
Bolton, Letitia James, and James Comey can come get it.
brett tolman
Well, I said, you know, long ago when they came after conservatives, when they came after Trump.
I said, be careful how you use power.
We have never seen in the history of the Department of Justice the kind of abuse we saw launched under the Democrats.
And I indicated that you know power is gonna shift and what is it gonna mean?
It's one thing if you have clean hands, but we knew what happened with Comey, what he did to protect Hillary Clinton.
We knew what they were doing in terms of trying to target a political opponent like they did.
They went after the lawyers trying to represent you know the the target of their all of their animosity.
And they had a scorched earth approach, and I I warned that the that if the tables will turn.
The difference between now and then, though, is very much what like what what I've said before.
This is this is not revenge, it's a reckoning.
This is one in which we know their hands weren't clean.
We knew that they had um committed crimes, and now there's individuals that are in office that are gonna present that to the grand jury and let them decide whether or not a crime is has occurred, and they're gonna present it to a regular jury and and a conviction is gonna happen.
And everybody on the left is gonna scream.
They're gonna scream that this is you know, using the justice system, all the things that we tried to, you know, make them aware of.
Well, they've been the bully and they don't like it now that it's been turned on them and then the microscope's been turned on them.
And the only way you effectively, you know, get rid of a bully is you punch them back hard right in the nose.
And I think that's what's happening right now.
And you know, it's it's not surprising to me that you have Letitia James that went after President Trump for the very crimes that she was actually committing.
Um it's not surprising to me that you had Jack Smith and many others that were forcing you know a prosecution.
Why?
Because they were gonna have to give up power if President Trump won.
So now I will I will go toe-to-toe with anybody that that believes this is just you know revenge by the by the uh Trump administration.
It's not.
These are these are day in, day out agents that are presenting these cases to a grand jury of citizens in some of the most liberal parts of this country and they're returning indictments.
So there's more, I'm sure that will happen.
Um, I hope they always stay grounded in good facts and the law is on their side.
And if we do that, then I think the country starts to see what what the consequence of weaponizing our justice system is in this country.
benny johnson
It's not revenge, it's a reckoning.
You're exactly right, Brett.
it's beautiful to see.
It's very biblical, by the way.
It's founded in the Christian doctrine.
And it is the role of the government, actually, to execute justice against evil men.
And so Brett, Godspeed.
Go follow Brett, obviously.
50,000 subscribers here on X. He's just one of the sharpest and one of the smartest, and always has that beautiful Western aesthetic that America needs more of.
Please always keep the beard, Brett.
Never do the mustache like John Bolton.
Never go for never go full mustache putty.
I hear under the mustache was where they found most of the documents, but it might be just a rumor.
brett tolman
There's still some they're pulling out of there.
benny johnson
Yeah, Godspeed, uh Brett.
Have a great weekend.
unidentified
Take care.
Take care.
benny johnson
John Bolton has pled not guilty.
A little breaking news here.
Not guilty to all 18 counts.
Oh boy.
And violations of the espionage act.
Let's go ahead and watch.
I think we have it queued up.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's roll.
harris faulkner
Trump national advisor, security advisor, John Bolton has just pleaded not guilty to all 18 counts in a classified document indictment.
A federal grand jury indicted Bolton yesterday after an investigation into whether he improperly retained classified materials after his departure from the first Trump administration.
We are all over the story.
We will bring you updates as we get them.
benny johnson
Stay frosty.
Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a fascinating week.
And it was our, you know, again, our honor to be at the White House for Charlie Kirk's uh middle of freedom ceremony.
Throughout his book wars.
We had some interesting opportunities in DC.
We took a few of them.
We did an interview with a uh Democrat member of Congress.
I think I think it went fine.
I think that there's like more to potentially be built on there.
I don't want a world where we're at each other's throats.
Want a world where we can like agree at least that America's the greatest country in the world and fight for her.
Uh we were we popped up to New York for a bunch of meetings, then popped back down here, and now we're popping over to Orlando.
And who's with us every step of the way?
Not empty yet.
Blackout Coffee.
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Got those four little kiddos at home.
And uh we're gonna be traveling with them.
We're going to the again, the moms for liberty event.
Uh that and we're gonna be speaking tomorrow at that.
We're gonna be doing a panel on fatherhood and a keynote.
My wife will be speaking, and so on.
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Must go higher.
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All right, ladies and gentlemen.
Uh a very interesting week and a uh, well, pretty fascinating week.
Looks like we have uh oh, should we do a spinning anything?
Sorry.
I apologize.
Let's just go go quickly.
I'm sorry, we've been missing some, we've been missing these for a while.
And so let's do ask any anything.
Rock and roll.
unidentified
Outro Music.
benny johnson
In the chat, okay.
From Ken.
Uh, well done on standing up for Charlie.
What do you think is the most important area that Christian conservatives should be focused on right now?
Fair parenthood and family creation, period.
That's it.
That's our future.
Parenthood and family creation.
You want to keep that country red?
You need to make babies.
You need to have children, and you you need to protect the family.
That's it.
If you lose the numbers game, we're it's over.
You're cooked.
And that doesn't that's just for America.
That's for your you're obviously seeing that in Europe.
You're seeing that happening in Christians in Africa, the Middle East, like it that like it's a numbers game.
So you got you have to incentivize and you have to preach family creation.
Uh John says, uh, will you put Charlie's pick up in the background of your studio, please?
Absolutely.
Sure.
Why not?
Of course.
There's a shelf right there, Klein.
I want to uh Charlie frame Charlie pick uh up there uh by Monday's show.
Nice, cool.
We'll be traveling on Tuesday, by the way.
Juice says, could you interview the CNN, run the numbers guy?
Yeah, I mean, I guess I don't know if they left him on the show.
I'm happy to try.
Harry Anton.
Okay.
Maybe.
We'll ask him if uh he thinks that John Bolton kept the classified documents in his mustache.
Uh, will we find wisdom about that?
We'll find wisdom in the scriptures, ladies and gentlemen.
For Psalms 82.
Psalms.
Great, great richness of wisdom.
Found in the Psalms.
Let's jump in today.
Defend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Ensure, ladies and gentlemen, that those who are suffering in America, they know that their country is constituted by those who believe in America first.
And there are a lot of people who are struggling in this country.
They can't afford gas, they can't afford groceries, they can't afford uh their own health care, they can't afford homes, and we are fighting for them.
And it is the greatest insult to reach into the limited capacity for this country to assist and to give those resources to people who are not Americans.
People that don't pay into systems here, that didn't grow up here, whose ancestors didn't fight for this country.
We've left behind the forgotten man and woman of this country, and we're not going to do that anymore.
As President Trump says, the forgotten man and woman is forgotten no longer.
America first.
Our roads, our infrastructure, our families first.
My American children first.
That's what a nation is there for.
That's what a nation is there to do, actually.
That's why, of course, uh, this is such an important question.
It is also why it is totally aligned, in fact, with this first.
Defend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
We are losing the middle class in this country.
We must uphold our values that allowed for so much flourishing by so many people.
We'll fight for that.
Fight for your kids, I'll fight for mine.
That's what the purpose of this show is to keep this country and make it better for our children.
And we're gonna win.
It's your boy Benny.
Have a great weekend, and this is the greatest country on earth.
See ya.
unidentified
It wants wealth.
It craves power, and it will stop at nothing to get it.
this halloween greed grows hair You must dash your money.
Fly wind high Your mustache, your money Jumbled and fly You must special money.
The biggest ships in the sea, all owned by the oldest kings, and the dying legacy, media till we'll the penny show come to mind the salt and lives for fun.
Be the gold and bring the gun.
We sail for number one Music So will the penny show come to mine the salt from Liz for fun.
Leave the gold and bring the gun.
We sail for number one.
The biggest shifts in the sea.
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