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July 1, 2023 - Bannon's War Room

48:56

Episode 2849: The Plot To Kill Washington And The Battle Of Long Island

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patrick k odonnel

12:56

steve bannon

24:34

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jake tapper

00:10

steve stern

00:31

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Speaker	Time	Text
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
		Pray for our enemies, because we're going medieval on these people.
		I got a free shot at all these networks lying about the people.
		The people have had a belly full of it.
		I know you don't like hearing that.
		I know you've tried to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
		It's going to happen.
jake tapper ▲ ● ▼		And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
jake tapper ▲ ● ▼		MAGA Media. I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
unidentified		Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
unidentified		War Room, here's your host, Stephen K. Babb.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's Saturday, 1 July in the year of our Lord 2023.
		of our Lord 2023.
		I want to thank everybody for joining us today, kicking off kind of this extended holiday weekend.
		We're going to have a lot of special programming on Monday, a lot of special programming on Tuesday.
		Really excited about this.
		I've asked Patrick to join us for kind of our kickoff here.
		Patrick, I want to make sure everybody understands, by the way, this is the 160th, I think it is, 160th Commemoration or anniversary of the first day of Gettysburg, right, which is the largest battle, the most brutal battle ever in the North American soil.
		Three days kicked off today.
		But it's also in Philadelphia while they're finishing up the negotiations over the Declaration of Independence and they are about to set up how they're going to get the document formalized and actually signed.
		We celebrate it on the 4th.
		I know historically people say it may be another day, but it's the 4th in American memory in our foundational myth.
		On the 2nd of July, the first troop transports and I think one frigate Remember, the largest expeditionary force in the history of the British Empire descended from Newfoundland, where really the troops had left from Boston to go up there and refit, that the British Army and the Royal Navy came in.
		At the end, there were going to be seven-man wars, which are equivalent of battleships or aircraft carriers, you know, the capital ships.
		They had 22, I think, frigates, and eventually hundreds of troops transported.
		The people in New York looked at the harbor and said it looked like the harbor of London.
		The largest expeditionary force up until that time of the British Empire would be delivered and I think they formed in Staten Island and eventually went over to obviously Long Island where you've picked up the story.
		I want everybody to understand that before the ink was dry on the signatures, the British had said it would do just because a bunch of lawyers negotiated some declaration.
		declarations don't mean squat.
		You are our colonies, we own it, and you're going to have to take it.
		So Patrick O'Donnell, walk me through, because your books about this have been absolutely historic, that This was the declaration, as we're going to get into the next couple of days, it's a historic document.
		It's a document that's resonated throughout history, not just in our own country, but people throughout the world.
		But at the end of the day, this had to be fought for in a long and brutal fight.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Patrick K. O'Donnell. Steve, they were there to send a message.
		And that message is very vividly told in a scene in both of my books, Washington's Immortals and also The Indispensables, where Andrew McCurtain, who's a Marylander, is in the outhouse and suddenly peers out the window of the outhouse and sees what he calls all of London afloat, a pine tree forest.
		Hundreds of massive ships, nearly a half of the entire British Navy is outside of New York Harbor waiting to land.
		They land first in Staten Island, And then later in Long Island and Brooklyn.
		But they're there to send a message.
		And two-thirds of the British Army, along with tens of thousands of Hessian soldiers, their allies, these are men that are hired from Hess, Germany, are there to crush the rebellion by force.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Patrick, this is what's so important because I think this part of history, it's one of the things I love about your books, you know, The Immortals and The Indispensables, which are two, and I always recommend people get both of them because they read like, and you have, like Truman Capote, you write history, you write nonfiction like a novelist, right?
		And your research is amazing, but It's been lost, I think, in a teaching of the revolution that these were right on top of each other.
		And most people today, it's like you and I have talked, most young people think that World War II is Pearl Harbor, D-Day, and the Holocaust, and Hiroshima, right?
		They think that the whole revolution is the Declaration of Independence, and that's it.
		That's our birthday we created.
		That was our opening statement of purpose, task and purpose.
		But it was eight years.
		But I want to go back and just describe that, because in New York, as John Adams said, New York is the key that unlocks the continent.
		The British were smart, the best Navy in the world, the Royal Navy, probably the best professional fighting group in the world, the British Army.
		Talk to them about the expeditionary force they sent to New York City and the message they were trying to send.
		And if you don't take the optics, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to give you the business end of this expeditionary force.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Patrick? Business end of the expeditionary force is hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of troops that were there to crush the rebellion.
		It wasn't about negotiation.
		It was about crushing it with brute force.
		And this is a situation where Washington is handed the mission impossible to somehow defend New York City, which is surrounded by water.
		So the Royal Navy can land anywhere at any point, pretty much at will.
		So Washington had to prepare for all these contingencies and somehow try to defend the impossible.
		So he divides his forces between Long Island or Brooklyn, and then also Manhattan, and sets up a series of defensive forts in both areas, trying to prepare for the inevitable.
		And then there's a lot of things that are kind of going on in the background that are quite fascinating.
		One of them is a decapitation mission to take out His Excellency George Washington.
		And The Indispensables is about the Marblehead Regiment, but within the regiment, they also formed something called the Lifeguard, which was Washington's Secret Service, or Special Guard.
		This is about 200 men that were handpicked.
		It was led by a Marylander, and there were several Marylanders in it, but it was also men that were chosen or selected from other regiments.
		And they were there in New York City guarding Washington, but several of those men We're approached by loyalists in New York City that were loyal to the governor.
		And they were they infiltrated the guard.
		And they had a plan to execute Washington.
		And it nearly comes off.
		They they they plan to basically poison his food and also execute him, but also destroy several munitions depots within New York City and spike cannons and all kinds of stuff.
		Total mayhem is about to erupt.
		But fortunately for us, several of these men are very sloppy in the way they handle things.
		And they're basically rolled up trying to pass off counterfeit bills.
		And in the process, this plot to kill Washington is uncovered.
		And one of the ringleaders is executed.
		But things kind of roll forward.
		But it's here. You still have to face the largest navy in the world and the largest invasion of North America at the time, which is about to come in the Battle of Long Island.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		So this is about mid-August.
		One thing I want to make sure the audience, particularly our newer members, is this audience grows continuously.
		The way Patrick does things, he's got books on every conflict.
		You take elite units.
		And here you've got the Immortals and you've got the Indispensables, right?
		And I want to make sure you bifurcate both of those and what they are.
		But they're elite units.
		But here's the thing. They're elite units made of ordinary citizens who do extraordinary things because they're in these elite units.
		And it's absolutely amazing what happens.
		Talk to us about both the Immortals and the Indispensables.
		Then I'm going to get into the Battle of Long Island.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		All the books I write are about a smaller story that tells a larger story about the Revolutionary War.
		It's about World War II. It's about the Korean War or We Were One, which is the Battle of Fallujah.
		It's about a smaller story about individuals that changed the course of history through their agency.
		And this is something that happens over and over.
		And it's an extraordinary story of just average Americans.
		That's why our founding story is our most important story And this is a story that resonates today just like it does in decades ago.
		But it's these men that changed the course, men and women, that changed the course of history, Steve.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Walk me through. You had these units, but the British decided to swing around from Staten Island and to hit Long Island and essentially roll up the whole thing, right?
		They made a decision that they're going to hit and just take it from Long Island all the way back to Brooklyn, roll the whole mess up, and literally give a crushing blow.
		With the Royal Navy ships, still some of them in New York Harbor, which they can cut off retreats, to just crush the whole thing, and hopefully they think crush it by backing it up to Brooklyn Heights and crush the American Army there.
		Talk to me about the first battles and about the scale, because the Continental Army is just not going to be any match for what they're about to see, sir.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		The battle begins, or the invasion begins...
		First at Staten Island, and then a couple weeks later, on August 22nd, where they land at Grey's End Bay.
		But it's the Indispensables that has a little surprise for the largest navy in the world at the time.
		And that's a fire ship that they send at several of the largest ships that the Crown has, the battleships of the day.
		The Rose, for instance, which has over 50 guns.
		In the dead of night on August 18th, They send these fire ships that are basically regular ships, but they're loaded with kindling.
		And as they approach silently in the dead of night, they light it on fire and they ram several of these British ships of war.
		And they almost basically take out a portion of the fleet.
		But they unfortunately were able to take out a couple of the tenders that were near The Rose and several of the other ships, but didn't do quite as much damage as they were hoping for.
		But this is one of the early special operations missions that the indispensables conduct.
		It also costs the life of the captain of the ship, Captain Vostick.
		But as things unfold earlier, later on, August 22, 23, they land and they prepare.
		They bring their men To Long Island and Brooklyn.
		And they start to stage one of the greatest invasions of North America up until this point.
		And Washington has about 10,000 men in Brooklyn.
		And if you live in the Brooklyn area or New York City, there is so much history in plain sight that you can see.
		And as it unfolds, it's an incredible story.
		And many of these places are still To this day, tragically...
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Hold it. I only got two minutes here, but I want to tee it up.
		People have watched the 300, and the kids have read the comic books and the graphic novels.
		The American Thermopylae...
		Just like the 300, we have our own 300.
		We have the American Thermopylae.
		It's the power of your book.
		And it's right there in Brooklyn and kind of unmarked.
		Hold the cover of the book up.
		Washington's Immortals is about the American Thermopylae.
		Give me a minute, a tee it up, and then we're going to come back and talk about that.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		This is an hour more precious in our history than any other, as one contemporary historian of the time said.
		These men, who were the flower of Maryland, they were the richest families in Maryland, sacrificed their lives for our country and our sovereignty, which is only a month old at this time, in their blood.
		Their blood signed the Declaration of Independence.
		And they charged over three times In a fixed position, where the British had fixed themselves around a house with bayonets.
		They were one of the few units that had bayonets, the Marylanders.
		And Washington's immortals charged several times to basically unhinge the line and allow a large portion of the Army to escape into fortifications at Brooklyn Heights, saving the Army and saving Washington.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Okay, we're taking a short commercial break.
		We're going to come back to this in a second.
		Remember, Washington's army was in a quote-unquote strategic retreat virtually the entire time.
		They took a stand in Brooklyn.
		Today, you cannot find that.
		You can't find the graves of these.
		They're all in an unmarked grave.
		We're going to talk about that in a minute.
		We return in the War Room.
		It's 1 July, and we're here kicking off our series of holiday specials.
		Be back in a moment.
unidentified		It's all started.
		Everything's begun.
		And you are over.
		Cause we're taking down the CCP! Spread the word all through Hong Kong.
		We will fight till they're all gone.
		We rejoice when there's no more.
		Let's take down the CCP! War Room.
		Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		By the way, I want to give a shout-out to Naomi Wolf, who has had some medical complications, I think from appendicitis, in the hospital for a couple weeks.
		Think she's back home now. I want to give a big shout-out to Naomi.
		And also, Patrick K. O'Donnell.
		I want to thank you, Patrick. I know you just had some surgery.
		For you to be back in 48 hours doing it here is just incredible.
		But it's interesting, on the weekend that we kick off the celebration, commemoration of Declaration of Independence, and we're going to have, on Monday...
		Monday we're going to have a special, and then we're going to have Dr.
		Carol Swain and Larry Schweikert.
		Larry Schweikert's the co-author of Patriot's History.
		Dr. Swain from Vanderbilt and from Princeton are going to join me on, actually, the morning of July 4th.
		We've got Jeff Clark tomorrow who went to Harvard and studied on some of the masters there back in the old days, right, and talk about these institutions, the importance they had in the forming of the American consciousness.
		So we're going to have all that over the next couple of days.
		Patrick, it's kind of ironic that a historian would say an hour more precious in our history Than any other, an hour more precious in our history than any other, would be talking about a battle basically six weeks, eight weeks removed from the signing.
		He wasn't talking about the moment of signing of the declaration.
		He was talking about these heroes at the American Thermopylae, the flower of manhood of the state of Maryland, who basically gave their lives to basically give the time of the Army to retreat more to Brooklyn Heights and to kind of break the advance of the British Army, sir. Yeah, this is...
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		These men were blown to atoms, as Walt Whitman would famously say in a poem that he would write many, many decades later, about the 400 that basically gave their lives for our country.
		And very few men would walk off that bayonet charge alive.
		One of them was Mordecai Gist.
		Who was the commander of the Maryland line at the time.
		He was the acting commander.
		Smallwood was actually in Manhattan doing a court martial with somebody else.
		But he was the acting commander.
		And these men charged multiple times against these British guns, which allowed the American army to escape.
		And it buys this precious time because it prevents the wings of the British army from uniting.
		And therefore, when they unite, they can then attack these fortifications.
		Had they attacked the fortifications that day, they may have ended the revolution then and there, because they would have had overwhelming force.
		They would have taken out 10,000 troops.
		They would have probably captured Washington at the time.
		And capture the heart of the Continental Army.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		But the Continental Army, this was really the Continental Army that we had from Cambridge up where Harvard is, that Washington had first organized around the battle, the great defense we did of Boston.
		Yes. It's over.
		Game over, right? And you can never recreate it.
		Particularly with all the—you're giving me all the Declaration of Independence.
		You guys are such big shots.
		Eight weeks later, your army's gone.
		Suck on that, right?
		I mean, they were looking for a death blow on this thing.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		The death blow was about to arrive.
		They have the Continental Army basically cornered.
		It's trapped at Brooklyn Heights.
		The Royal Navy is on the East River and about to sail up behind Brooklyn Heights.
		And blow everything to smithereens.
		And it's at this point, Washington calls a council of war at a mansion called the Three Chimneys.
		And lightning is arcing and everything else.
		And he comes up with a plan.
		Do I stand and fight or do I retreat?
		And he wisely decides to retreat at the council of his lieutenants of war, but also his own analysis sees that he has to retreat.
		And that's where the next book that I wrote, which is The Indus Pencils, really comes into play.
		It's the American Dunkirk, the greatest invasion, evacuation in military history takes place.
		And only with a few hours, John Glover and his Marblehead Regiment is told that they have to somehow evacuate 10,000 men of the Continental Army, along with their equipment, Under the noses of the British Navy and the British Army, which is only a few yards away in their encampments.
		And he gathers all of these small boats.
		And the Army is told that they are actually advancing towards the British.
		But, in reality, they are retreating towards the water's edge.
		And they're retreating towards where the present-day Brooklyn Bridge is located.
		This is one of the shorter points on the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
		And he has this small, you know, these small boats and has to somehow gather all these men and make a crossing of the East River, which at the time, Steve, was mission impossible because the river was impassable.
		The currents were very rough.
		There was a nor'easter that was going on at that time and also the day before.
		So the river was running high and there was severe wind.
		But it was this experienced mariners from Marblehead that pulled off the impossible.
		But at first, none of it was working.
		And they couldn't make any headway across the river.
		They tried to call out the operation.
		Could not find Washington that night, thankfully.
		And they pushed ahead.
		And it wasn't a one-time thing where they had to cross one time and get the whole army over.
		They had to do it over a dozen times to bring everybody across.
		But it was a race against time.
		Because dawn was coming, and with it, the Royal Navy and the entire British Army, which was poised to overwhelm the defenses of Brooklyn Heights.
		And that's when...
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		The book's The Indispensables and the other book is Washington's Immortals.
		I want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to go online.
		You go to Amazon. They're both in paperback now, correct?
		I think they're both in paperback.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		They're both in paperback. They're on Kindle.
unidentified		Best-selling books. Kendall, make sure you...
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		A couple quick things.
		From Brooklyn, because now it's kind of an unmarked area, I think there's something on a tavern that said it happened near there.
		To Brooklyn Heights, you have the American Thermopylae and you have the American Dunkirk.
		All in one battle, that the balance of the nation is...
		And we know so much about the Declaration, as we should.
		But this is almost unknown history.
		Why has there been no...
		Until you came along and did the research, and you should tell me about the years of research you did, until you wrote these two books, why has no one really known about these?
		And why have there been no movies made?
		I mean, the revolution has got the least amount of film out there about it.
		Why is that? Why is this all lost...
		This massive history in the middle of New York City, why is it lost to time?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		This is one of the greatest battles in American history, but nobody knows about it until I wrote Washington's Immortals, that a lot of this story in the history had become uncovered.
		That's a mystery to me, Steve, because our founding story is our greatest story.
		And it's also, I mean, as you point out, there's no movies on the American Revolution other than Patriot and a few others.
		Which makes no sense to me, because our founding story is our greatest story, and it's a remarkable story, which it needs to be told in as many ways as possible and preserved.
		And I've advocated many, many times that we need to have a national park for the Battle of Brooklyn.
		And the evacuation, the American doctor.
		Why not? What are you waiting for?
		This is one of the greatest battles in American history that saved our country.
		Make it happen.
		You don't have to designate all the land, but throw some markers down and stuff.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Find the 400s. It happens in the shadow of the sign of the Declaration.
		The other thing people remember, and I don't want to give the punchline away from the book because I wanted to get it, it's a continual strategic retreat from August 22nd all the way...
		They finally get backed up all the way out of Brooklyn, through Manhattan, saved again to New Jersey, all the way down, a fighting retreat all the way down.
		They cross the Delaware into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
		It's not until a Northeaster on the freezing cold of Christmas night.
		That Washington, I gotta get a victory, I gotta get a win, or the Continental, they're all gone, they're all gonna leave, right?
		Philadelphia's under siege. That they pull off the most stunning reversal probably in American military history.
		The story is literally as epic as anything Homer.
		It makes the Iliad look like a comic book.
		And this story is never told as one piece, right?
		Within six months of the signing of the declaration, for the next six months is probably the most heroic with that signing and the argument.
		In April and May, you take that 1776 all the way up to Christmas night is a foundational myth.
		That these Marvel Comics and DC Comics, if you pitch in a Hollywood room, they say, get out of here, man.
		That's too impossible.
		It never could have happened.
		And you tell it through these elite units of normal, average American men at the time.
		That raised themselves to do extraordinary things.
		And that is why when Patrick O'Donnell looks at these small unit things, it tells the entire story of the grit, determination, courage that really made the American experience.
		So Patrick, just extraordinary work.
		Extraordinary work. And thank you for coming on.
		How do people get to your...
		Patrick, how do people get to the books?
		I want them to buy both.
		They'll be their beach reads for the summer.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Combat historian. My website is patrickkodonnell.com.
		You can buy my books on Amazon or at Barnes& Noble.
		They're usually at the front of the store.
		The Indispensables, as you mentioned, Steve, they save the country again at Trenton.
		They have to cross another impassable river.
		And it's a... It's a story that's so unbelievable that it's true.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's so unbelievable. A forced river cross.
		People will tell you it's unbelievable, but you've got to get the books to read it.
		O'Donnell, thank you for doing this, and thank you for doing this after coming back.
unidentified		Pleasure and honor, as always, Steve. Thank you.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Always. We never do these specials without Patrick O'Donnell, the finest combat historian of his generation.
		The years of research he does, and diaries, and first-person accounts, incredible.
		Short commercial break.
		The sound of freedom. What does it mean?
		Why is it important? Next in the War Room.
unidentified		War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bamm.
		Did that make you feel? Giving a child his freedom.
		Don't.
		you It felt good.
		You have been at this for 12 years.
		My country tis of thee Why are you doing it?
		Slave land of liberty Because God's children are not for sale The way I see It is the fastest growing international crime network that the world has ever seen.
		For Homeland Security, you know we can't go off rescuing Honduran kids in Colombia.
		This job tears you to pieces.
		And this is my one chance to put those pieces back together.
		And yet somehow, you have failed to bring me one real world lead.
		It's over ten. Close up and come back home.
		So you quit your job and you go and rescue those kids.
		Let freedom ring.
		Let freedom ring.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		South of that river is all rebel territory.
unidentified		No one goes in there.
		Don't shoot!
		What if this was your daughter?
		So, she's gone.
		Hear that?
		you you That's the sound of freedom.
		Sound of Freedom is one of those films that can legitimately change this world.
		So we want to ignite a fire in audiences and open their eyes to the dark reality of millions of children that need our help.
		Let's make this film a historic event and a start, the end of child trafficking.
		Theatres across this country are already selling out.
		Pre-order your tickets today and you can send the message that God's children are no longer for sale.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We have to face a very unpleasant fact and that is, and it is an epidemic of the Child trafficking for sex is a major business here in the United States of America.
		Now, as Ed Water and the team that put this film together, Vistagay, a great actor who's the producer of this film, with Jim Caviezel, the star of the movie, and they've worked on this thing for years, and it's actually a classic thriller.
		So the entertainment value of the film It is incredible.
		Why the message of the film and what you're seeing is almost too tough to watch.
		But the trafficking of children for sex, the demand side of the equation, this is here in the United States.
		We talk about these patriots at the American Thermopylae.
		We talk about these patriots at the American Dunkirk.
		When you talk about the first day of Gettysburg and the second day of Gettysburg with Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and how the main men hung on.
		When we talk about High Noon on the 3rd, leaning to Pickett's Charge and the great patriots up there that withheld it.
		You're talking about some of the most powerful moments in American history.
		What would those patriots say, by the way, on both sides of the issue in the Civil War?
		And the patriots that basically didn't let the British crush us in the opening months of the American Revolution?
		Or those men that put their sacred honor on the line?
		All these things we celebrate and commemorate.
		What would they say today that the new Jerusalem, the providence, the paradise that they helped build and helped put together, what would they say that the driver of trafficking for children, the demand side of the equation, is the United States of America?
		That's what we're talking about, this movement.
		It's got to stop. It's got to be shut down.
		It's got to stop. They hope that this movie will initiate this movement because the film's been finished for a couple of years.
		When we see the quality of the movie, we say, man, this is 100% better than most of the Hollywood stuff that comes out.
		How could this not be released just as a potential moneymaker?
		Because Hollywood didn't want it released.
		And that's why Angel Studios, the great team, the Harmon brothers over there, all six of them, and of course their sisters too, who are tougher than the Harmon boys, have Angels done such a great job on things like The Chosen.
		They took this picture up really as kind of a mission.
		And that's why we want to get as many tickets sold as we can to send Hollywood a message.
		This is not acceptable.
		You can't shut down films like that.
		This message has to get out.
		It has to get out as a grassroots movement that goes all the way to the halls of Congress.
		I remember we had PasopiCare the other day.
		You know, as much as it's been, oh, this is all conspiracy theory, you saw they caught the guy in the Ukraine that was selling 11-month-old, had bought it from a mother, selling an 11-month-old little boy for parts, for parts.
		Think about that for a second, for parts.
		Oh, that doesn't happen. That's all a bunch of wingnut.
		That's a bunch of QAnon wingnut conspiracy theory.
		Well, hey, OK, fine.
		He was arrested. He'd done it before.
		What's happening here is a disgrace, and it is upon our shoulders to turn this thing around.
		It sure is the turning of the earth.
		There are great people involved in this.
		I want to bring in Faith McConnell.
		Faith is written over at thestream.org.
		You've got the great team over there, always putting up great material.
		You actually wrote kind of a review or analysis of the film.
		Faith, walk me through your take on Sound of Freedom.
unidentified		Sure. Thank you, Steve.
		Sound of Freedom, as Jim Caviezel said, is going to light a fire.
		The reason that I was so wanting to do this article that I wrote is because I was involved in the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and that changed people's perspective on the issue of prostitution and sex trafficking.
		To understand who the victims truly are, the women and children.
		But we had no clue.
		We had no clue back then how horrific and evil the idea of child trafficking was.
		And I'm just so grateful to Tim Ballard for what he's doing and people like him, as well as Jim and Eduardo Verastegui and Alejandro Monteverdi for making this film.
		Because I believe, as an advocate for persecuted Christians and for victims, like trafficking victims, that the arts are so important, that some people you cannot reach with statistics, but you can reach them with a film or a play or a poem or a piece of art, a sculpture. So I'm just so excited about this film.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Tell me, give the audience, because like I've told people, this is not my line of country.
		We've had some specials before.
		I'm always shocked about it, and I'm shocked about how big it is.
		But walk our audience through, how big is it?
		What's the scale of this problem?
unidentified		Oh, it's enormous.
		The last that I heard was two million children being trafficked for sex.
		And then possibly another 2 million being trafficked for body parts.
		As you said, it's just unbelievable.
		But because I work with people like the Falun Gong and Uyghur in my work with religious freedom, I know that people are trafficked for body parts.
		That there is an organ, a live organ harvesting going on.
		But I didn't know until I started hearing about child trafficking.
		And thanks to these men, that this is happening to babies, to children as well.
		And this is one of the most diabolical things that we've ever heard.
		I mean, Steve, you know, I've been involved with Sudan and South Sudan for years.
		And I knew about jihad slavery in Southern Sudan at that time.
		That was horrific enough, but this is just as bad, and to think that what these children go through.
		So my real desire is to get the churches in America involved, because they're the ones who should be taking part on this, especially when you think of William Wilberforce, who ended slavery in England.
		He was a Christian, and this is a real...
		This is something that the body of Christ should be responsible for, and that they should be, and pastors should be shouting to their people to go see this film.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Angel.com slash war room.
		Make sure you go get tickets.
		You go as a group.
		You're going to want to talk about it afterwards, maybe over a cup of coffee.
		It will shock you.
		I was at the premiere.
		I've had a chance to see it many times, particularly in its stages of pulling it together.
		But I went to the premier and I can tell you it had a power audience in Washington and many of those people were rattled to the core, really didn't understand the scale of this.
		And this is about Tim Ballard who was an agent at the time for DHS.
		What about, Faith, help me out here about the scale of the demand side of the equation.
		What shocked me...
		In this film is that it's so organized on the trafficking coming out from Mexico and South America.
		I mean, it's a huge business. It's a huge money-making business.
		But what shocked me is that the United States drives the demand side of the equation.
		Walk me through that. And how do we get that?
		Is that also with the churches?
		I mean, how do we... It's humiliating to think over a Fourth of July weekend, we're even talking about this, When these great patriots have given up so much to form this new Jerusalem, this republic, right?
		You just sit there and go, how could this possibly be?
unidentified		Faith McConnell. Yeah.
		Really, the demand and the supply are the two big things.
		We learned that in the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
		Don't blame the victims.
		We focused on the pimps and the johns.
		And in the same way, we need to see that the demand, the U.S. is the biggest receiver.
		Of trafficking victims.
		And Mexico is the biggest distributor, if you would want to say, or the biggest place where they're coming from.
		And as the men, as Jim Caviezel and Tim Ballard and Eduardo and Alejandro have pointed out, The border situation that we have in the United States makes this all the easier for them.
		In fact, it's almost like a part of the complicity.
		So we really—people need to go and see the film, and they need to speak about it.
		They need to contact their members of Congress about it.
		They need to just make an uproar.
		You know, we are not the founding fathers, the original revolutionaries, but we need to have the bravery and the courage and the spirit that they did.
		And as you said, they would weep.
		They would just weep because they dedicated this land to God.
		They did not dedicate it to diabolical evil, such as child trafficking.
		So we have these wonderful people who have brought this forward in Sound of Freedom, this amazing film, and they are like the patriots of old to sound the alarm.
		You know, they're the Paul Revere.
		I know Tim Ballard likes to talk about Uncle Tom's Cabin, but they're also the Paul Revere.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Yeah. Faith, how do people get to you?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		How do they get to the article on the stream and how do they follow you on social media?
unidentified		Well, it's stream.org for the articles.
unidentified		And I am the director of advocacy at a group called Katartismus Global, KGIglobal.org.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Fantastic. Faith, thank you.
unidentified		Thank you for... It means equipping.
unidentified		Thank you so much. I just wanted to say...
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Okay, good. It's the Greek word for equipping.
		Faith, great work. Great work.
		We'll put it up there and make sure everybody sees it.
		Want everybody to go to angel.com slash war room right now to get your ticket.
		Faith McConnell, thank you very much for joining us here in the War Room.
		Short commercial break, back in a moment.
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steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Action, action, action. Using your agency.
		You heard Patrick O'Donnell talk about that a little earlier.
		Remember, towards the late afternoon, early evening of 1 July in the year of our Lord, 1863.
		I guess it was towards afternoon.
		General Lee gave one of his, I think it was Dick Garnett, gave one of his generals the order to take that hill, this was the hill, cemetery hill right south of Gettysburg, if practicable.
		In fact I think he sent him a note, if practicable.
		He should have taken it at all costs, right?
		Because it gave the Union Army the high ground of which they the next three days or the three days revolved around at Cemetery Ridge.
		Of course, the At Little Round Top on day two, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was able to hold the end of the anchor there at the far left of the Union line, but he had the high ground against the Alabama regiment that hit him.
		And of course, Pickett's charge.
		You've never been to Gettysburg. You're staying at Cemetery Ridge.
		I had the honor of staying there.
		This is kind of a picture, at least it's famous in my mind, of President Trump and I standing up there after President Trump had given his talk at the Eisenhower Center in Gettysburg.
		Really, I think it was a week before, 10 days before the election, in 2016, where he laid out everything he was going to do on stopping the corruption and draining the swamp.
		And I thought it was very appropriate he'd do it in Gettysburg.
		I always kept that up on my wall in the office I had next to his in the White House.
		It meant a lot to him about trying to drain the swamp.
		But if practicable, that phrase was misinterpreted by the general.
		He didn't take it.
		And of course, the the Confederate Army paid the price of that over the next next three days.
		But think about it, you know, in the couple of days, even while the Declaration of Independence was being negotiated, being prepared to be signed, the British army, the British crown, the the authorities in Britain were saying, hey, we don't care how lovely the language is.
		We don't care how deep the thoughts are.
		We don't care how motivating it is to people.
		It's ours, and we're going to keep it.
		And if you want to take it, you're going to have to take it.
		Remember, Franklin walked out right after the signing, that famous scene where one of the local women in Philadelphia come up to and say, you know, Dr.
		Franklin, do we have a republic?
		And he goes, yes, ma'am, if you can keep it.
		Well, that's everything we're doing here at the War Room.
		We talk about agency. The only way we're going to keep it is your agency.
		And so over the next couple of days and this holiday weekend, we're going to have these special things we've worked on and make sure that you hopefully get enlightened, entertained, and also time for some serious thinking.
		I understand over the 4th of July, it's the Right before the mid-break in summer.
		It's a great beach weekend.
		It's a great holiday weekend.
		There's so much going on. But also remember the purpose of this holiday, particularly the purpose of July 4th, what it really represents.
		And remember, always remember, when they signed that document with Hancock putting that big signature up there so the British authorities, the British authorities already told them, if you break with us, You're guilty of treason and we will deal with you as traitors.
		They knew they were putting it all on the line.
		They knew they had crossed the Rubicon and at that time it wasn't theoretical whether the British Expeditionary Force was going to come.
		It was going to come to what John Adams called the key to pick the lock To the continent, that would be New York City.
		And so already the transport ships for the troops were beginning to be there.
		And of course, one of the even the combatants, I think a frigate, had already gotten there.
		So this from the beginning was a fight.
		We got a big fight in front of us.
		Jay Valentine started off today.
		He wrote that beautiful piece.
		Up on American Thinker, everybody to look at over the weekend, where he actually talked about, you know, this is going to be the biggest, you know, confrontation on the North American continent since Gettysburg, 160 years ago.
		And it's going to take place in November.
		And here's what we have to do.
		Here's how we have to be very smart about how to think if we don't want to have these elections stolen.
		So I want to make sure everybody understands that's all about your agency.
		It's all about you and what you're doing.
		And I can tell you on every aspect of this, whether it's about these investigations, whether it's about putting people on notice about the debt ceiling and about what it means now, it's all in the public consciousness because you're driving the conversation.
		Why is that so? Because you're now getting the tools and information that you've always needed.
		And with those tools and information, you're making a major impact.
		You are a major political force, a major cultural force, a major societal force on the American scene and therefore on the world scene.
		Why do I know that? Because I know the people that try to get to you every day to come on the show.
		We want to talk to the Warren Posse.
		I want to present this to the Warren Posse.
		We've got to get the Warren Posse on board with this.
		So just remember, over this holiday, Just always remember your role in this.
		And quite frankly, not just what we owe future generations, but also Burke's dictum.
		What we owe for everybody.
		All those, what, 12 or 13 or 14 generations that got us here.
		What we owe them. What they gave up and what they sacrificed to make sure that they bequeath a republic of free men and women to us.
	I think they would be quite ashamed about what we've done with it.
	And we're going to talk about that on Monday.
	We're going to talk about it again on Tuesday.
	So thank you for tuning in.
	You know we love the Saturday shows.
	We always try to make it special today.
	It was very special. I really want to thank Patrick O'Donnell.
	I really want to thank him for coming back for surgery.
	And one more time, Naomi Wolf.
	Naomi Wolf, make sure you go on her contacts if you got them on her social media and tell her to get better.
	We need her back in the fight.
	Okay. We're going to be back here Monday morning at 10 a.m.
	A very special show.
	Jeff Clark's going to join me.
	And I think Jeff Clark is going to light things up as he normally does.
	So Jeff Clark will be the opening batter.
	He'll be leadoff batter. But we're going to have a lot to do on Monday and a lot more to do on Tuesday.
	Have a great weekend. We'll see you back here in the War Room on Monday morning.
unidentified		Everything's just beginning For the games you want to play Bring it on and now we'll fight to the end Just watch and see It's all started Everything's begun And you are over Cause we're taking down the CCP Spread the word all through Hong Kong We rejoice when there's no more.

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