Jan. 16, 2025 - Bannon's War Room
49:48
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
I want to talk to you, though, about Russell Vogt, okay? | |
| He wants to be the head of OMB, right? | ||
| Office of Management, basically, and budget. | ||
| This is not a position that is high-profile. | ||
| It's not coveted. | ||
| It's not sexy or cool. | ||
| However, this guy has made it abundantly clear he wants to shrink the federal government and give the president a lot more direct control over federal funding. | ||
| Given what this guy wants to do and is clearly broadcasted, should we be paying a lot more attention to him? | ||
| Of course we should, right? | ||
| I mean, and how is... | ||
| Yeah, but like OMB director is not somebody that people are like, what's he up to today? | ||
| But shouldn't we do? | ||
| Well, I don't know. | ||
| Peter Orszag made it pretty sexy back in the day. | ||
| I mean... | ||
| Only a former investment banker from Lazard would say that. | ||
| You see that, Peter? | ||
| All right, Peter. | ||
| Shout out to Peter. | ||
| Look, I mean, how's he going to work with... | ||
| The great Elon Musk, who's also focused on... | ||
| And what if, you know, Vivek becomes senator of Ohio? | ||
| Is Doge going down the tubes at this point? | ||
| Is Russell Doe going to... | ||
| No, hold on. | ||
| If Vivek goes and becomes a senator in Ohio, that's just Elon Musk realizing... | ||
| Oh, Elon's going to do it all himself now? | ||
| Yes, because nobody wants to be a co-head of anything. | ||
| There can never be two bosses. | ||
| You are a banker. | ||
| Goldman Sachs used to have co-heads. | ||
| One wins in the end. | ||
| I will say that this Russ Vought thing that you're mentioning, this OMB thing, this is the actual point of where... | ||
| The people, we talked about Project 2025, that the really real changes that they want to make are coming through this guy. | ||
| This is the people that want, you know, they want to reschedule, that's what they call it, federal employees, and fire them for not being loyal enough. | ||
| Like, if we start to see some of the ability, some of the things that Trump has promised actually start to happen deep inside the government, it will happen through guys like... | ||
| There are people that funded Project 2025. They have a vested interest in making sure that everything... | ||
| Those 900 and some odd pages gets implemented. | ||
| And the OMB, for people who've been in government and for political junkies, OMB is an incredibly important position because line by line, budget item by budget item, things are going to get funded or defunded. | ||
| And that's where we have to focus a lot of our attention. | ||
| Let's just say Donald Trump gets all of these people through, many of which might not be qualified for the jobs. | ||
| Then they're going to have to do these enormous jobs with huge responsibility that they're not qualified for. | ||
| And beneath them are government employees who have been in these roles for decades and decades and decades. | ||
| And it'll be abundantly clear of all of these administration officials can do their jobs. | ||
| You know, Vivek and Elon want to clear out. | ||
| I think Trump wants to clear out those decades-long employees who might thwart Pete Hegseth from doing whatever the heck he wants to do or Pam Bondi from doing whatever the heck she wants to do that she's really not qualified to do. | ||
| Easier said than done. | ||
| Yeah, but I know. | ||
| I know it's easier said than done, but they're going to make a lot of noise about trying to get rid of these people. | ||
| They're the ultimate disruptors. | ||
| They want to disrupt everything. | ||
| That's what they think their mandate is. | ||
| And wait until they say, we want to cut Medicare, and we want to cut Medicaid, and we want to cut other entitlements. | ||
| They're going to get their heads handed to them when they do that. | ||
| And all those congresspeople have to go back to their home districts, and they're going to say, pound salt, Vivek. | ||
| That ain't happening. | ||
| The president has said Jack Smith should go to jail. | ||
| Will you investigate Jack Smith? | ||
| Senator, I haven't seen the file. | ||
| I haven't seen the investigation. | ||
| I haven't looked at anything. | ||
| It would be irresponsible of me to make a commitment regarding anything. | ||
| You're a long-practicing attorney without looking at a file. | ||
| So you would need a factual predicate. | ||
| To open an investigation of Jack Smith, is that right? | ||
| Not a summary by you sitting here, yes sir. | ||
| And not a summary by the president either, right? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| So a summary by the president or his desire to investigate Jack Smith would not be enough for you to open an investigation of Jack Smith, is that right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I will look at the facts and evidence in any case. | |
| You know, you know, and sitting here today, Senator, 72 percent of Americans have lost 50. | ||
| Sitting here today, are you aware of any factual predicate to investigate Jack Smith? | ||
| Sitting here today, yes or no? | ||
| Senator, I will look at the facts and the circumstances of anything that's brought to me. | ||
| You can't answer that question? | ||
| You're not a part of the department yet. | ||
| There's no worry about divulging law enforcement sensitive information. | ||
| So just tell us, are you aware of a factual predicate to investigate Jack Smith? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Senator, what I'm hearing on the news is horrible. | ||
| Do I know if he committed a crime? | ||
| I have not looked at it. | ||
| You seem reluctant to answer a simple question. | ||
| This is the primal scream of a dying regime. | ||
| Pray for our enemies. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because we're going medieval on these people. | |
| The reason 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. | ||
| And where do people like that go to share the big line? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mega 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? | |
| If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. | ||
|
unidentified
|
War Room. | |
| Here's your host, Stephen K. Band. | ||
| Okay, welcome. | ||
| Thursday, 16... | ||
| January, Year of the Lord, 2025, Days of Thunder, the preamble has started, and magnificent performance so far. | ||
| Don't you agree? | ||
| Audience, you have done an amazing job of contacting people and making sure everybody the sense on point to get these confirmations done. | ||
| But I have to tell you, I think the Flood the Zone strategy... | ||
| And I think the way that the staff from Susie to the outside people like Mike Davis and others that prepped people and got them ready, you have to say it's very, very impressive. | ||
| Incredibly impressive. | ||
| Hegseth was great. | ||
| Pam Bondi yesterday, they put her through the ringer. | ||
| Just incredible. | ||
| We could have played Pam Bondi's stuff for hours. | ||
| We just gave the highlight with Shift. | ||
| There's more hopefully play throughout the next couple hours. | ||
| Marco Rubio. | ||
| Boys, Marco Rubio made a transition from just a flat-out neoliberal neocon. | ||
| He wrote a book on populism a couple of years ago. | ||
| And that was an America First. | ||
| Not just simply America First, but America First with also a heavy emphasis on taking down the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| Just fantastic. | ||
| We want to start there. | ||
| And Stephanie Rohl for the first time kind of disappointed me saying like OMB is a... | ||
| A non-event and nobody knows about it. | ||
| If you're on the inside or if you're the War and Posse audience, OMB is absolutely central. | ||
| Russ, vote is central. | ||
| And Russ was fantastic yesterday. | ||
| In actually everything we have to have happen. | ||
| Great Peace in the Hill today. | ||
| I've got it up on Getter. | ||
| Remember, Getter's totally free. | ||
| Just download it totally free. | ||
| That's why I put up all my information since I banned on... | ||
| On Twitter, I guess they have formally come back and said I can join, but I have not. | ||
| When I say formally joined a couple weeks ago, they did it after being banned for many years because of Dr. Fauci and Chris Wray in the election in 2020, things I'm proud of. | ||
| Pam Bondi saw the angle of attack yesterday on Bondi. | ||
| They came at her, and it's interesting. | ||
| I kind of call it the Cash Patel pregame. | ||
| I don't know where half the question is either about cash or things related to cash and government gangsters. | ||
| Still, if you want to know, and cash is going to come up, I don't think next week, but the week after. | ||
| They're obviously, they have focused on now, I think, that Cash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, if they're going to get anyone, they're going to focus on those. | ||
| And they would want cash the most, since they're most concerned about the FBI. If you want to see, if you haven't read the book, and we make it, I think we make the book actually more accessible in the film. | ||
| The film is, the only person we have in the film is Cash, as he walks you through government gangsters, and he walks you through his punch list of the deep state. | ||
| It's quite revealing. | ||
| I think you go to warroom.film, warroom.film, is that correct? | ||
| Warroom.film? | ||
| It might be warroom.films. | ||
| One or the other. | ||
| We've got the film up there I produced before going into prison. | ||
| Very proud of the film. | ||
| Tremendous feedback on it. | ||
| Go check it out. | ||
| Share it with people. | ||
| Because Cash is going to be a big one. | ||
| We saw yesterday with Pam. | ||
| And Pam Bondi... | ||
| In fact, can we pull the clip about her and the election of 2020? | ||
| They came at her... | ||
| Every other speaker. | ||
| See, they're not there to be informed. | ||
| They're not there really to kind of go through your philosophy. | ||
| I mean, Pam has been a prosecutor. | ||
| Pam has been a ran. | ||
| She was attorney general of Florida, which I believe is the third biggest attorney general office only back in California and Texas. | ||
| So this is a massive operation with hundreds of lawyers doing everything from criminal prosecutions to commercial in real estate, getting involved in commercial in real estate enforcement of the law and also disputes. | ||
| So she has broad experience. | ||
| They didn't want – they didn't know Democrat. | ||
| It's one of the reasons we focus on Democrats here when we do these confirmation hearings. | ||
| We want you to see what the opposition is doing. | ||
| And we're really proud of the fact of how we've juggled this last couple of days with the Real America's Voice team. | ||
| It's not that easy to kind of cut in and out and try to get the best bits today. | ||
| Today... | ||
| We're going to have Pam, and I think Pam's starting here momentarily. | ||
| Pam's day two. | ||
| Think how tough it is to be Attorney General, which I would argue is the most important, is the first among equals of Cabinet positions because it's involved in everything. | ||
| The job of the Attorney General, I don't know how they get to breathe. | ||
| They are involved in everything. | ||
| They're going to be involved massively in immigration, massively in the... | ||
| Not just changing the laws, but the deportations, the securing of the border. | ||
| They're involved, obviously, in everything in national security, law enforcement, all of it. | ||
| So, Pam, it's a 20-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job. | ||
| But she's got a ton of energy and just represented her way there. | ||
| What I also like, it's unaffected. | ||
| She doesn't come with that kind of Washington, you know, the veneer these people get here after they've been here decade after decade. | ||
| I mean, she's coming. | ||
| You're getting... | ||
| That's Florida right there. | ||
| That's University of Florida. | ||
| Yesterday, you could have had, if we had not gone fixed bayonets with Pete Hegseth, you could have had Ron DeSantis. | ||
| You would have had three Floridians. | ||
| And I don't think DeSantis went to University of Florida. | ||
| I think he's a transplant afterwards. | ||
| But you had three Floridians. | ||
| You would have had state defense and attorney general. | ||
| That's pretty impressive, Florida. | ||
| Pretty impressive. | ||
| But Pam and the University of Florida between Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi represented well. | ||
| Pam was under intense pressure. | ||
| She starts back up today at 10.15. | ||
| Then I think Lee Zeldin is going to go here in a few minutes. | ||
| EPA, we do want to go. | ||
| I'd love to get his opening statement. | ||
| As you know, EPA is absolutely central to the deconstruction of the administrative state. | ||
| Lee, who's really been a specialist in, I think, in foreign affairs, he's done a lot on the EPA side. | ||
| I think it's a great pick. | ||
| Number one, I think it's a great pick because Lee is tough as boot leather, and you're going to need to be over there. | ||
| He will be under siege from the inside. | ||
| Always remember, we had Rob Bluey on the other day from the Daily Signal, and they had done this poll that showed that 50% of the apparatus, 50% of the bureaucrats, 50% of the senior executives said Not only were they not going to go along, not only were they not just going to slow walk things, they were going to be actively, have active resistance, active resistance to President Trump's policies. | ||
| One of the ones that will be central to that is EPA. EPA is like OMB. These ones are maybe not the glamour positions or what they call the power, you know, the power departments, which is Treasury, State, Defense, or kind of the big three, Attorney General, the big four, right? | ||
| Maybe throw DHS in there now. | ||
| But OMB, I tell people all the time, OMB, I think outside of Chief of Staff of the White House, OMB is probably the most important part of the executive because everything comes to OMB. And this is where Doge is going to be housed over the EOB. They'll be next to the OMB offices. | ||
| Russ Vogt yesterday was magnificent. | ||
| The Hill newspaper has an article, and Grace, if you can put it, it's on my getter, but Grace, I would like to put it out for everybody and Carly. | ||
| Bonet, if you can do it over at your Telegram at Midnight Writer, I appreciate it. | ||
| Also, Elizabeth at our Telegram, everybody. | ||
| It's an article on The Hill this morning that's quite perceptive. | ||
| It says in the hearing with Russ Vogt yesterday, you can understand and see where these vicious and tough budget fights are going to come, that everything's going to be framed in that. | ||
| The House Freedom Caucus is just... | ||
| To come out with a proposal. | ||
| It looks pretty good on one level. | ||
| I'm not terribly happy with it on another level. | ||
| But we'll talk about it in a minute. | ||
| Scott Besson said a 1030. They're going to come at Scott Besson hard. | ||
| They're going to come at him hard on trade and tariffs. | ||
| Maybe the external revenue service. | ||
| The way that President Trump is reordining, rethinking through about where the cash comes from to run this government. | ||
| All of it. | ||
| They're going to come after Besant Hard. | ||
| They're going to come after Lee Zeldon Hard. | ||
| So it's going to be Pam Bondi, the last shot they get to her. | ||
| The confirmation hearings, day three. | ||
| Our team has represented so well. | ||
| I'm so proud of what's happening. | ||
| I'm so proud of the transition for just getting a great job and just representing. | ||
| A couple have been bumped. | ||
| I think it's smart to bump them. | ||
| Until you're ready, don't go until you're ready. | ||
| When you're ready, like Rubio, Hegseth, Pam Bondi, you're on point. | ||
| Radcliffe, magnificent. | ||
| Short commercial break, back in a moment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm here to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020. Ranking Member Durbin, President Biden is the President of the United States. | |
| He was duly sworn in, and he is the President of the United States. | ||
| There was a peaceful transition of power. | ||
| President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024. | ||
| Do you have any doubts that Joe Biden had the majority of votes, electoral votes, necessary to be elected president in 2020? | ||
| You know, Senator, all I can tell you as a prosecutor is from my firsthand experience. | ||
| And I accept the results. | ||
| I accept, of course, that Joe Biden is president of the United States. | ||
| But what I can tell you is what I saw. | ||
| firsthand when I went to Pennsylvania as an advocate for the campaign. | ||
| I was an advocate for the campaign and I was on the ground in Pennsylvania and I saw many things there. | ||
| But do I accept the results? | ||
| Of course I do. | ||
| Do I agree with what happened? | ||
| And I saw so much, you know, no one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity. | ||
| In our country. | ||
| We should all want our elections to be free and fair and the rules and the laws to be followed. | ||
| I think that question deserved a yes or no. | ||
| And I think the length of your answer is an indication that you weren't prepared to answer yes. | ||
| Okay, Dick Durbin, I'll give you a yes or no. | ||
| Wait for it. | ||
| No. | ||
| Biden was totally illegitimate. | ||
| You know it. | ||
| This is why they make such a big deal about it. | ||
| They want Pam Bondi. | ||
| They want an official response from MAGA. It's Pam Bondi. | ||
| We're going to jump to Lee Zeldin right now. | ||
| Let's do it. | ||
| We're going to come back. | ||
| EPA. Let's hit it. | ||
| On both sides of the aisle to tackle the most pressing issues facing our country. | ||
| I humbly sit before you nominated to serve as the 17th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. | ||
| The American people made their voices heard in November, giving President Trump a mandate to lead our nation to prosperity. | ||
| I'm grateful that the president-elect is giving me the opportunity to lead the EPA at this critical time. | ||
| Our mission is simple but essential, to protect human health and the environment. | ||
| We must do everything in our power to harness the greatness of American innovation. | ||
| With the greatness of American conservation and environmental stewardship, we must ensure we are protecting the environment while also protecting our economy. | ||
| Throughout my life, I've been privileged to hold such titles as Congressman and State Senator and Lieutenant Colonel Butts. | ||
| None has meant more to me than husband, son, and father. | ||
| While one of my identical twin daughters, Ariana, is now back at college, I'm excited to be joined here today by my wife, Diana, and our daughter, Michaela, as well as my mother, Meryl. | ||
| The American people need leaders who can find common ground to solve the urgent issues we face. | ||
| I want my daughters, your loved ones, and every child across our country to thrive in a world with clean air, clean water, and boundless opportunity. | ||
| If confirmed, I pledge to enthusiastically uphold the EPA's mission. | ||
| I will foster a collaborative culture within the agency, supporting career staff who have dedicated themselves to this mission. | ||
| I strongly believe we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of our environment for generations to come. | ||
| It's been so motivating to see the tremendous talent stepping up to serve in the EPA. I couldn't be more excited to partner with our EPA team nationwide to exceptionally serve the American public. | ||
| I had the honor of working with many of you when I represented New York's first congressional district. | ||
| My district on the eastern end of Long Island was unique in that it was almost completely surrounded by water. | ||
| My constituents took environmental issues very seriously, and I developed a record in Congress fighting hard. | ||
| And with great success, advancing their local priorities. | ||
| I worked across party lines to preserve the Long Island Sound and Plum Island. | ||
| I supported key legislation that became historic, bipartisan success stories. | ||
| It's good. | ||
| It's interesting. | ||
| You know, he's tossing out there his bona fides is a good guy. | ||
| Lee Zeldin is a good guy. | ||
| The engine room informs me. | ||
| The engine room informs me that... | ||
| RFK is at the top of the scalp list they want. | ||
| I think if he took it, I'd actually beg to differ. | ||
| I think Cash is number one. | ||
| I think RFK is number two. | ||
| And number three is Tulsi. | ||
| Although they're kind of jammed two and three. | ||
| The RFK may get some Democrats. | ||
| That's the reason I think it's going to be a tough scalp. | ||
| There are a couple, three Republicans that have a real problem with him, including Judas Pence. | ||
| Judas Pence put out a thing last night from his group saying they opposed Robert F. Kennedy. | ||
| We want all the president's picks to get across the goal line because the president wants his team. | ||
| He's going to get his team. | ||
| Momentarily, Pam Bondi. | ||
| So Lee Zeldin's there. | ||
| We're going to get to Lee when they start getting some zingers in there. | ||
| It is very important for them to crush the EPA, the head of the EPA, because the EPA is central in kind of getting away from a lot of this environmental madness you see out in... | ||
| California, what's the result of that? | ||
| You do that year after year after year after year, and hey, ideas have consequences, folks. | ||
| Was that terrible in Appalachia? | ||
| We're going to try to, I'm working with Ben Burko, I'm trying to put together a working group with those folks, already making calls to people that are going to be in charge here in a couple of days to make sure that we set that right. | ||
| It's disgusting what's happened there. | ||
| Colleen, completely forgotten. | ||
| And if you're back east now, it is bitter cold down there. | ||
| I think they said it's going to get to 6 degrees tonight or 6 degrees last night. | ||
| Those people are suffering. | ||
| And we've got to come to their aid. | ||
| And yes, the personal commitments people are making is absolutely extraordinary, as usual, with this audience and with the MAGA movement overall and the American people. | ||
| But this should not be just on private charity. | ||
| It can't be on private charity. | ||
| We have, you know, funds. | ||
| We have, you know, you pay your taxes to make sure that they're in times of emergency. | ||
| Right? | ||
| It's called, you know, FEMA, it's called emergency for a reason. | ||
| And for some reason, it's abandoned. | ||
| I happen to think it's politics and Biden. | ||
| Right? | ||
| This regime, the Daily Mail, in fact, had yesterday, and if Grace could be so good, because I'm going at 9,000 miles an hour, if Grace could pull that, I'm not so sure I even put it up yesterday. | ||
| I think we just got the... | ||
| The page didn't have time. | ||
| But the Daily Mail actually went through and talked about what we've been talking about, how Biden's been trying to thwart President Trump at every level, including this orders of succession, the spending of the money, how the money's financed, things they're doing at the border. | ||
| They have been united in trying to make this the most difficult transition ever. | ||
| President Trump is very upfront about that. | ||
| I think what they're doing in Ukraine, obviously President Trump got this deal done. | ||
| In Gaza, now you should know, it looks like the ceasefire is already kind of coming apart a little bit. | ||
| I think, you know, from the Frank Gaffneys of the world, the different folks we have in the Victory Coalition and the guys, men and women that come on the show and talk about it, they're not happy about it. | ||
| They think it's a complete capitulation to Hamas. | ||
| They think the pressure was put on Netanyahu and it was not appropriate. | ||
| But hey, they're huge supporters of President Trump. | ||
| President Trump wanted a ceasefire. | ||
| He wanted things to calm down before he came to office. | ||
| And it looks like he tried to get it. | ||
| I think Witkoff was very involved in that. | ||
| Witkoff, I think, was in Qatar and went to see Beebe and kind of laid down the law. | ||
| This is what it's got to be. | ||
| But as we see it right now, I think that's coming a little unwound. | ||
| Same with this Ukraine situation. | ||
| Obviously, our advice in the war room and from Ben Harnwell and everybody is that you have to come out, I think, on day one and lay down the law. | ||
| Otherwise, Kagan and these guys are showing you they're going to try to trap President Trump. | ||
| What they're saying is traps everywhere. | ||
| Traps in finance. | ||
| And you're going to see that with Scott Besson today. | ||
| You saw yesterday with Russ Vogt. | ||
| And Russ Vogt, they're trying to trap him the entire time about spending, about cutting programs, about entitlements, all of it. | ||
| All they're doing is laying traps. | ||
| They're not there to be helpful. | ||
| This is not supportive. | ||
| This is not like a transition where somebody won. | ||
| You come in and say, okay, we lost. | ||
| You won. | ||
| How can we be helpful? | ||
| It's not like that at all. | ||
| It's the exact opposite. | ||
| And the executive branch in Biden has been the worst of the worst. | ||
| Just absolutely terrible. | ||
| So Pam Bonney's up for round two. | ||
| And she's going to get confirmed. | ||
| She was, I think, magnificent. | ||
| Given the pressure she's under with Gates leaving, obviously Gates has a different house style, much more aggressive, much more about the investigations. | ||
| The TV rights for a Gates confirmation at the Justice Department would have been top five viewing for the year. | ||
| Pam has a very different style, but it was fantastic. | ||
| I think she answered all the questions, and she answered them in an appropriate way. | ||
| She didn't take the bait. | ||
| She didn't take the bait, and that's hard when you're sitting up there hour after hour, and they're just pounding you, and you're at that table alone, because you really are. | ||
| It just shows you, it shows you, she did with a lot of class, a lot of style, and kind of steel toughness, steel magnolia, right? | ||
| Not going to flinch, not going to let Shifty Schiff get on her, not going to let, she was barraged, just like, it was not as nasty as Hexas. | ||
| Hexas took on a personal. | ||
| Animosity, but particularly the female Democratic senators. | ||
| They were kind of heritans that day, just after him, after him. | ||
| I thought it was a terrible look for them. | ||
| That's what Pete's getting through. | ||
| I think it's one of the reasons Joni Ernst said, hey, I'm all in. | ||
| We've got Scott Bessent. | ||
| Bessent, they've come up with this thing about his taxes. | ||
| They're going to hammer him on that. | ||
| Look, he's like everybody. | ||
| They're aggressive on their taxes, right? | ||
| And he's going to get pummeled by the Democrats on that. | ||
| It's all phony. | ||
| It's all made up. | ||
| They're going to come after him hard on tax and tariffs, all of it. | ||
| So that'll be interesting. | ||
| Lee Zeldin, they're going to get into the question. | ||
| He's going to be brutal. | ||
| We're going to cut back and forth from the wisdom of yours truly. | ||
| I'll put this in context the entire time. | ||
| And what we saw, we got tremendous feedback from the audience. | ||
| We're the only one to do this. | ||
| We think it's important. | ||
| It's important for the cadre and the boardroom posse to understand the angle of attack that the Senate's going to take. | ||
| Senate is obviously a major player, particularly going forward. | ||
| And you see the Democrats, and they're coming out their true colors. | ||
| Birch Gold is our sponsor. | ||
| Really thank the team at Birch Gold. | ||
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| Six free installment. | ||
| Modern monetary theory. | ||
| Back in a moment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Stephen K. Bannon. | |
| Okay. | ||
| The Birch, also Birch Gold, you can, if you've got a phone, you can text Bannon, B-A-N-O-N, at 989898. | ||
| Make sure you do that today. | ||
| Check it out. | ||
| Get all the free information. | ||
| Times of Turbulence. | ||
| The Hill article, the newspaper article, you're going to see this in Scott Besant today. | ||
| As I've said, we've kind of narrowed the range of alternatives for President Trump. | ||
| It's just reality. | ||
| This is what the Biden regime has left him. | ||
| President Trump, let's go back to the three lines of work and the three ways he's going to attack it, right? | ||
| You have the three lines of work is, number one, the ending of the kinetic war. | ||
| You saw, just saying, President Trump's masterstroke in Israel. | ||
| I realize a lot of our colleagues and contributors are not happy. | ||
| They think it's a surrender. | ||
| They didn't remove Hamas from Judea-Samaria. | ||
| They are Judea and Samaria. | ||
| They didn't take care of all the combat battalions in southern Gaza. | ||
| The war's not over. | ||
| I happen to think even if you come to a ceasefire, there's going to be – things are going to be reunited. | ||
| It's going to be back up within 90 days. | ||
| But President Trump wanted to cease fire, wanted the hostage to return. | ||
| He wanted that done before he got in office because I think he's sending a signal. | ||
| He's got other things he has to focus on. | ||
| He doesn't want a shooting war there. | ||
| I'm not saying that's not going to happen because I don't know if this ceasefire will hold. | ||
| The biggest, most important he's got to do now on the Third World War kinetic front is Ukraine. | ||
| And I'm a huge advocate for the president to step up and... | ||
| And to say on Monday and to lay out a framework and to really tell the Ukrainians, you know, we're going to get on with this because we're not going to be around forever. | ||
| We're not going to support this. | ||
| We're not going to send troops on a security, you know, on a security mission. | ||
| They're looking for security guarantees. | ||
| You keep seeing this phrase security guarantee. | ||
| When you hear security guarantee, read American troops. | ||
| I know they're saying now it's going to be NATO, it's going to be UK. Look, those guys won't put in the money. | ||
| And security guarantee, they want our unlimited cash for weapons and for arms and for rebuilding. | ||
| And they want our troops. | ||
| Well, people just have to look out to California. | ||
| We don't have the money to rebuild the world. | ||
| That's gone. | ||
| And that is the framing yesterday in the OMB hearing with Russ Vogt. | ||
| Russ is very upfront, and there's got to be some tough choices made, and they came after him nonstop, and he really came across, I think, fantastic. | ||
| But the frame now is everything. | ||
| We can't afford it, right? | ||
| We're essentially, I don't know if we're a going concern as far as the financing of this, because you have an economic plan, an economic plan for the country. | ||
| And that's, quite frankly, you want to be as close to hands-off as possible and just let it self-organize around capitalism. | ||
| Yes, you do have to have some sort of regulatory apparatus. | ||
| I happen to think now that you have to, the regulatory apparatus has got to step in and start to break up this big tech situation. | ||
| And when Biden last night talks about oligarchs, they created them. | ||
| Let's not have them erase history and talk about this now. | ||
| You know, now spending's a big deal for them. | ||
| Now these oligarchs are a big deal for them. | ||
| It wasn't a big deal when they were doing it. | ||
| They're the ones that initiated this massive, over-the-top spending, and people warned them about it. | ||
| This show warned them about it. | ||
| People we had on the show, like Scott Besson. | ||
| Does that name sound familiar? | ||
| Oh, yeah, he's going to be Secretary of Treasury. | ||
| Like Russ Vogt, does that name sound familiar? | ||
| Yeah, he's going to be Director of OMB. Peter Navarro, does that name sound familiar? | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing. | ||
| I get it. | ||
| We brought those people on for a reason. | ||
| They understand President Trump's economic philosophy, and they can implement that. | ||
| But you have two things. | ||
| You have both economics and finance. | ||
| They're not the same. | ||
| Economics are kind of the doing of things, right? | ||
| The economy, economics, the goods and services, production, distribution, marketing, the animal spirits, unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. | ||
| The other, finances, how we're actually going to pay for this. | ||
| How are you going to finance it? | ||
| It's going to be equity, it's going to be debt, this government. | ||
| How's it going to be done? | ||
| Where are the sources of revenues? | ||
| Where are the sources of proceeds and where are the uses of proceeds? | ||
| One thing I ask you all the time is look around. | ||
| $36 trillion, where'd it go? | ||
| Huh? | ||
| Where'd it go? | ||
| Where's the $36 trillion? | ||
| $36 trillion, where'd it go? | ||
| Ask yourself, look around. | ||
| That's the uses of proceeds, which has to get to be—we have to really start to rethink that because we're spending a lot too much on operations and not enough on investment or infrastructure. | ||
| The sources of proceeds—and this is where President Trump—the masterstroke is to think about it. | ||
| Well, hang on for a second. | ||
| Why is it all internal revenue? | ||
| Internal revenue is just a mindset we got into at the beginning of the 20th century when we went away from tariffs and went away from more of what's called the American system that was— The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, but also the Report on Manufactures. | ||
| The Report on Manufactures from Alexander Hamilton at the very beginning is inspired. | ||
| If you look there, that's as sophisticated as you could possibly get about how to build an industrial economy out of a wilderness. | ||
| That brother had vision. | ||
| And this is why I say Hamilton, with all his flaws, remember, he's a quite imperfect instrument. | ||
| You heard that before? | ||
| He's a quite imperfect instrument. | ||
| But man, what a genius, the American system. | ||
| Up until for the first 140 years, we financed it all from the outside. | ||
| President Trump with the External Revenue Service saying, hey, I realize, but all the burden for this apparatus, and this apparatus provides so many benefits, not just to the people in the United States, but throughout the world. | ||
| Like the American military committee. | ||
| Why is it only the United States that pays us? | ||
| Yes, allies throw some in and there's specific reason, but the way I think President Trump looks at this is that, hey, it's a premium seating at a football game or a baseball game or a basketball game. | ||
| The United States behind the golden door is the greatest, most lucrative market in the world. | ||
| Why is that? | ||
| Because of you. | ||
| Remember, you're the full faith and credit of the United States government. | ||
| It's not the SEC. It's not the Federal Reserve. | ||
| It's not the U.S. Treasury. | ||
| It's not Congress. | ||
| It's you, the people. | ||
| It's on your shoulders. | ||
| And now it's really on your shoulders. | ||
| One of the reasons inflation is not going to go away is the refinancing of this massive debt. | ||
| We're just adding deficits onto it all the time. | ||
| But I think Scott Besson's got to, I think it's $7 trillion of government securities he's got to refinance. | ||
| They come in at higher rates, and right now, as we told you, the 10-year Treasury, I think things backed off a little bit yesterday, but in England, they kind of got the bond vigilantes who are in their vault. | ||
| The guilt is blowing up because they don't believe the business model of what the Brits are putting forward. | ||
| Starmer and the Labor Party is already, I think they're in the high 20s of popularity. | ||
| They were not ready for showtime. | ||
| We have somebody ready to go. | ||
| We're producing this on the fly. | ||
| Let me know when he gives his opening statement. | ||
| Okay, we got Scott Besser. | ||
| Pam hasn't shown up yet? | ||
| Pam running a little late. | ||
| Let me tell you, if Lee Zeldin's getting attacked by a Democrat, we'll jump in there. | ||
| We're going to try to juggle today and do all of this. | ||
| The Freedom Caucus, along those lines, the Freedom Caucus has put forward a proposal. | ||
| The proposal, it basically says... | ||
| They need offsets, but they've offered up a two-year relief on the debt ceiling. | ||
| Have you ever heard the debt ceiling? | ||
| Have you ever mentioned that on the show? | ||
| Maybe a couple, three times. | ||
| I think the bid and the ask, I'm just saying, I think the ask is going to be four years no cap. | ||
| I don't know, just saying. | ||
| He's going to want exactly what Biden got by McCarthy when McCarthy got turfed out by the Freedom Caucus. | ||
| I've got to do this in memory. | ||
| It's not in front of me now. | ||
| I can't pull up my phone. | ||
| But two years, four trillion dollars. | ||
| Two years, four trillion dollars. | ||
| So that's telling you something right there. | ||
| I mean, that's two, hey, don't want to say we called it, but we called it two trillion dollar deficits the next two years. | ||
| They're asking for an increase in the, this is the Freedom Caucus. | ||
| These are the biggest budget hawks out there. | ||
| I think that's right. | ||
| Can my producer get it from Grace and send it back to me so it's the top of my feed? | ||
| They just put out a statement. | ||
| And they want to have offsets. | ||
| Offsets against all the states. | ||
| So let me just step back for a second and how do I do this? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Give a slight reality check here. | |
| I said this at the political thing the other day. | ||
| When they come up with these budgets and all this stuff, and they're talking about, we got more conservative wins. | ||
| And remember McCarthy, we have more conservative wins than we've ever had. | ||
| His people, some of his people around him called me up and said, you're missing the point. | ||
| These are more conservative wins than we ever had. | ||
| Johnson, his favorite phrase. | ||
| Remember that debacle on the 1500 page CR? We've got more conservative wins. | ||
| I got so many conservative wins. | ||
| When they use the phrase conservative wins, they're selling you smoke and mirrors. | ||
| As soon as that phrase crosses their lips, just shut down and go, no, screw you, I don't want to hear it. | ||
| Because they're trying to sell you more spending. | ||
| Now, on the Freedom Caucus, when they talk about a debt ceiling lift, and these are the most conservative guys, President Trump's not going to say, okay, two years for trade, he's just not going to do it. | ||
| I don't think. | ||
| He's just not going to do it. | ||
| He's not going to want to, he's not going to want to constrain. | ||
| I don't think. | ||
| But they're offering up two years of $4 trillion. | ||
| That means $2 trillion, just simple math. | ||
| That means $2 trillion deficit the first two years. | ||
| That implies something. | ||
| Number one, where's Doge? | ||
| And I want to get back to just process and critical passes, audiences up to speed so you're smart. | ||
| So that you've got the information and you're going to be engaged in this fight. | ||
| The CR kicked down to March. | ||
| March is, the government runs out of money again, almost halfway through the fiscal year. | ||
| Don't have a budget, don't have an appropriations that we promised and committed that we're going to do. | ||
| But for every reason, we don't have it. | ||
| But March 20th is the date. | ||
| Note to self, March 20th is 60 days from Monday. | ||
| So two months President Trump has. | ||
| And we want single subject appropriations bills to go through it, you know, chapter and verse. | ||
| Also, the Doge guys have to merge in that. | ||
| The DOGE cuts can only come from an appropriations process. | ||
| Other than that, it's just an exercise in writing a white paper. | ||
| It's another commission. | ||
| And these commissions go nowhere. | ||
| If DOGE is to have impact, and that's why it's an advisor to, guess what? | ||
| OMB, right? | ||
| In that, they can really put in the deconstructing administrative state, what they want to do. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| Now, they promised $2 trillion. | ||
| And they're promised. | ||
| When they made the $2 trillion cut, it was on the $6.5 trillion of annual federal spending. | ||
| It wasn't a 10-year. | ||
| They may not realize it at the time, but they were talking $2 trillion. | ||
| And President Trump's mind, that was $2 trillion of the $6.5. | ||
| So my question is, where's the beef? | ||
| We want DOGE to work in the biggest way possible. | ||
| That's the way you deconstruct the administrative state. | ||
| You put a brilliant team of very smart people that are entrepreneurs outside the system. | ||
| They can look at it new. | ||
| And it's not going to come from waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| That's a fantasy. | ||
| When somebody says waste, fraud, and abuse, they're also selling you something. | ||
| Is there waste? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Is there duplication? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Is there abuse? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| All of that. | ||
| But that is on the margin. | ||
| It's on the margin. | ||
| The problem is you're doing too much. | ||
| You're doing too much with people. | ||
| And even cutting bodies is not, you've got to cut programs. | ||
| It's programs and billets, programs and billets, programs and billets. | ||
| That's what you have to be focused on before you get to the entitlements. | ||
| That's a different kettle of fish. | ||
| You've got to get there eventually, but you have to have buy-in by the American people. | ||
| Maybe not for Medicaid, that's a different topic, but for Medicare and Social Security, if you're going to make any change at all, the American people have to buy into this. | ||
| The only way they're going to buy into it is see the political class actually do their job. | ||
| Let's talk about doing their jobs. | ||
| We need you at the Ramparts. | ||
| The reason we're winning on the confirmations, number one, they're prepared, they're warriors and they're ready to go, but you've had their back. | ||
| Not just Hexeth, everybody's been magnificent. | ||
| So we need you at the Ramparts. | ||
| To knee to the ramparts, we can't have you have angst or anxiety or your focus be taken off. | ||
| That will happen if somebody gets into your title and takes out a massive second mortgage, like $100,000, and you've got to pay it off. | ||
| You get no cash, you've got to pay it off. | ||
| That kind of is more than a speed bump. | ||
| That is an existential threat to you. | ||
| HomeTitleLock.com slash Bannon. | ||
| You get 30 days free. | ||
| Natalie Dominguez is over there. | ||
| They get massive information. | ||
| Talk to one of their reps. | ||
| Go there today. | ||
| HomeTitleLock.com slash Bannon. | ||
| Secretary I described. | ||
| That's why we have the hearing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
To get his views. | |
| Thank you, Senator Crapo. | ||
| Thank you very much, Senator Whiten. | ||
| And today... | ||
| We are honored to have our good friend and colleague and now the new Budget Committee Chairman, Senator Lindsey Graham, to help introduce the nominee. | ||
| Welcome, Senator Graham, from the state of the great state of South Carolina. | ||
| I want to thank you for joining us today, and I'll turn it over to you to introduce Mr. Besant. | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and ranking member to all my colleagues, and there are only 100 of us. | ||
| We know each other pretty well. | ||
| This is my first appearance in the Finance Committee, probably last. | ||
| Y'all work on complicated stuff, and I'm glad you like this stuff. | ||
| Seems kind of boring to me, but it's important what you do. | ||
| And I respect the intellect of the people on this committee because our economy needs the best minds that we can find on the Finance Committee. | ||
| And we need a Secretary of Treasurer that knows what he's doing, has the trust of the President, And loves this country. | ||
| Your ship came in with this guy. | ||
| So Scott Beset's from South Carolina. | ||
| He's academically gifted and real-world tested. | ||
| He went to Yale, so nobody's perfect. | ||
| When he told me that, I said, hmm, I don't know about that. | ||
| But anyway, he's really, really smart, and this is a complicated area. | ||
| Now, why am I here? | ||
| Because Trump won. | ||
| I wouldn't be here if Trump hadn't won. | ||
| Trump won because more people voted for him. | ||
| And he had to pick people to form his cabinet. | ||
| And when he talked about the Secretary of Treasury, I'm not the normal person you would go to ask about, because this is not so much my portfolio. | ||
| But when he mentions God, I said, oh my God. | ||
| Home run, from my point of view. | ||
| I mean, you talk about somebody who's academically gifted, understands the world. | ||
| Scott, like any Republican president, would pick Scott. | ||
| I mean, he really understands the president and what the president wants to do. | ||
| And the reason I vote for almost everybody, for every president, is I believe, colleagues, that every president deserves A cabinet that they know and trust and can rely upon. | ||
| If I had to vote for people based on agreeing with them, I wouldn't vote for anybody y'all picked. | ||
| That's not the standard for me. | ||
| I vote for people who I disagree with because I think they're qualified. | ||
| So I would just ask the committee to think, is this man qualified? | ||
| Does he have the background and the intelligence and the character? | ||
| To serve President Trump and our nation's Secretary of Treasury. | ||
| I think by any reasonable test of qualifications, he excels beyond the bare minimum to the highest level of excellence. | ||
| But that's just my opinion. | ||
| So my goal here today is to tell you a little bit about him. | ||
| You've heard from the chairman about his success in the financial world. | ||
| About his academic qualifications. | ||
| He was born in Little River, South Carolina. | ||
| Why do they call it Little River? | ||
| Because it's little. | ||
| And it's a river. | ||
| It's in Ory County. | ||
| How many of you heard of Myrtle Beach? | ||
| Most of you. | ||
| Well, this is somewhere between Conway and Myrtle Beach. | ||
| At nine years old, his first job was to set up beach chairs and umbrellas in North Myrtle Beach. | ||
| And apparently you did well there, because North Myrtle Beach is thriving. | ||
| He went to North Myrtle Beach High School, and he was voted most likely to succeed in 1980. And we have a high school classmate of his. | ||
| What did they see in him? | ||
| The same thing I see. | ||
| Someone who really is talented and works hard and just a good person. | ||
| The type of people that you think are going to succeed, but you hope succeed. | ||
| So, he lives in Charleston, in a really nice place. | ||
| Going from Little River to Charleston is about a two and a half hour drive, but it's a real change. | ||
| Since I represent South Carolina, I like them both very much. | ||
| He's married. | ||
| John, his husband's right behind me. | ||
| And they have two kids, Caroline and Cole. | ||
| And they're absolutely adorable. | ||
| And from a South Carolina point of view, we're really proud of Scott. | ||
| I was over-the-top happy when President Trump picked him. | ||
| Because I know him. | ||
| I know where he came from. | ||
| The rich and powerful don't live in Little River. | ||
| This is truly the American dream. | ||
| This man has been successful at everything he's ever tried to do. | ||
| He's worked really hard. | ||
| And why did President Trump pick him? | ||
| Because he believes that President Trump's economic agenda is good for this country, and he wants to help President Trump be successful. | ||
| And here's what Scott said. | ||
| I think it's the melding of economic policy with national security. | ||
| Economic policy and national security are now indispensable, and Donald Trump understands that. | ||
| So I'm here to tell you, folks, I agree with that. | ||
| If we don't have energy independence, we're less safe. | ||
| If we don't get our debt in order, we're less safe. | ||
| I am known around here as kind of a national security guy, but I do understand economic policy matters. | ||
| If you want to clean up the environment... | ||
| A carbon fee seems to be a good way to do it, to punish China and any of her bad carbon practices. | ||
| Call it a tariff, call it whatever you want to do. | ||
| So, President Trump won. | ||
| I'm here today because he won. | ||
| I'm here today because Scott lives in South Carolina. | ||
| I'm here today to tell you, if you use qualifications as your test, this is the easiest vote you'll ever take. | ||
| Is to play like the election didn't happen? | ||
| And I guess you'll vote no. | ||
| That's just where we're headed in the Senate. | ||
| When you lose an election, you get up and dust yourself off and you get ready for the next one. | ||
| But I was honored when he asked me to introduce him. | ||
| Because I know this man. | ||
| And America will be in good hands if he's our Secretary of Treasurer. | ||
| He deserves this job. | ||
| He's qualified for this job, and President Trump, thank you for picking him. | ||
| On behalf of all of us in South Carolina, we're extremely proud of you, and we wish you well. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Graham. | ||
| We appreciate you giving this introduction, and you are now excused, as is our practice. | ||
| Mr. Besant, before we turn it over to you for your opening statement, I have four questions that we ask all nominees who come before this committee. | ||
| The first is, is there anything that you are aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest? | ||
| As soon as Scott goes, we're going to go back. | ||
| That's Lindsey Graham team up as a South Carolinian. | ||
| Scott's going to give an opening statement that... | ||
| I think outlines President Trump's thinking about the economy and about how we finance it. | ||
| And then he's going to take questions. | ||
| And I think this is going to get a little rough today. | ||
| Look, their angle of attack is on Pam Bondi and on Lee Zeldin and on Scott. | ||
| Maybe not as personal, right, as they attacked some of the other people. | ||
| But I think it's going to be pretty intense. | ||
| And we want to make sure we get Oliver from Scott once again. | ||
| Once again, the economic team of President Trump will be Russ Vogt at OMB, Scott Besson at Treasury, Howard Lutkin, who they have not scheduled yet at Commerce. | ||
| Commerce is going to have a lot to say about the tariffs and the whole external revenue service, although I think it's going to be housed at Treasury. |
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