All Episodes
Aug. 5, 2025 - Bannon's War Room
48:14
WarRoom Battleground EP 821: No FEMA Funds For Antisemitism; Rebuilding The Jobs Data
Participants
Main
c
curt mills
07:39
e
ej antoni
05:26
s
steve bannon
r 17:34
Appearances
n
natalie winters
02:50
s
sam faddis
03:56
t
tom dans
04:29
w
walter pavlo
04:19
Clips
j
jake tapper
cnn 00:10
j
jon kahn
00:02
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Speaker Time Text
unidentified
This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people.
Here's not got a free shot on 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 try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
steve bannon
It's going to happen.
unidentified
And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
MAGA Media.
I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
Waru, here's your host, Stephen K. Battle.
It's Monday, 4 August, Yervalord 2025.
Thank you for being here for the second hour of the afternoon show.
Huge breaking news.
We've asked Natalie, our White House correspondent, to join us.
Number one, Bolsonaro has been arrested.
The police are currently searching President Bolsonaro's home.
This is, and I'm reading off a tweet by Michael Schullenberger, hours after the release of the January 8th file showing illegal activity by Brazil's most powerful Supreme Court justice, Alexander De Moraz.
steve bannon
He has ordered the house arrest of former President Bolsonaro.
unidentified
Before we get to our other topic, Natalie, your reaction.
steve bannon
This is starting to ratchet up.
unidentified
Lula over the weekend trashing President Trump, trashing the U.S. dollar, saying that Brazil will never, his administration will never fold to President Trump.
And now we have the arrest and I guess the house confinement of President Bolsonaro.
steve bannon
Your thoughts?
unidentified
Well, I think Brazil is sort of a representation of what they want to do to the broader global populist movement.
What was it two or three years ago?
I remember we were standing in Arizona speaking at Amfest talking about how we had unearthed a trove, I believe it was National Science Foundation grants, highlighting how they were spending U.S. tax dollars, not on just debunking misinformation, but on pre-bunking what they deemed misinformation that was supportive to the populist movement in Brazil.
natalie winters
And I think that that's a very emblematic sort of story about not just how the United States has been involved in Brazil, but what Brazil represents to the sort of American elite here, the ruling class.
They view it, I think, what really can only be summed up in the election of Bolsonaro, right, as a Brazilian populist uprising, and they are doing everything they can to crush him.
You throw in, I think, Chinese Communist Party influence and obviously rogue judges.
That's an issue we're experiencing here.
unidentified
And that's why you've seen what is it?
I feel like every day there's a new development there that we could probably dedicate a whole show to.
But make no mistake, it's about the populist movement more broadly.
Natalie, another kind of, and people are kind of wondering how this even came about, but explain what had been announced and then it's just been reversed.
In fact, I think DHS has just come out and said from the White House that it's been reversed.
What it was this kind of announcement or leak this morning about emergency aid tied to dealing with Israel as a nation state.
A lot of people were upset about it.
I think it's been reversed.
steve bannon
If there was ever even something formal in the first place, can you explain what happened at the White House?
unidentified
Yeah, I think there was potentially a very large miscarriage of what it means to be America first, particularly in the DHS guidelines for federal aid, emergency response assistance.
natalie winters
We were talking about $1.9 billion.
unidentified
It was a FEMA sort of act.
natalie winters
There were the guidelines.
It was a multi-page document talking about the stipulations that was conditioned on that aid.
unidentified
One of them, one of these points really gained a lot of, I think, attention on social media.
And I would say the top line takeaway from this is when we see things that we don't like going on in the Trump administration, the answer is to call it out because they are very receptive and they are willing to answer and, frankly, change the policy.
I think we actually, and another scoop for the war room will take it, but I think we actually reported it before DHS did, but talking about how they changed the text of these guidelines and not just changed, but actually completely stripped the inclusion.
natalie winters
We have the picture if you want to put it up on screen, but there previously was a section that read: discriminatory, prohibited boycott means refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations, specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by or organized under the laws of Israel to do business.
unidentified
If you look at the juxtaposition, you can go to my Twitter if we don't have the picture up on screen.
You can see that that segment has been completely stripped.
natalie winters
So this aid still is conditioned on a few things: things companies or grants, city-states can't use DEI programs and they can't give out free assistance to illegal aliens.
unidentified
I think that is probably closer to what it means to be America first than it is to condition any form of aid, let alone FEMA disasterade, on not doing business or boycotting a foreign nation.
Great job, Natalie.
There it is right there.
You see, it's X'd out.
Thank you so much for your hard work.
Natalie, thank you for jumping back on here.
steve bannon
One more time.
Where do people go to keep up with everything you've got on your social media feed, ma'am?
Where do they go?
unidentified
Natalie G. Winters on all platforms.
natalie winters
Thank you for having me back.
unidentified
Thank you.
Very busy day.
Let's go back to E.J. Antonio.
steve bannon
So, EJ, here's a basic question.
You've come on here now for four years, every month, talking about this topic.
unidentified
Just for the mainstream, because we know there's a lot of attention on the show, and particularly there's a lot of attention on you now as an individual.
The case, this is not suppressing information.
This is not about being Donald Trump as an autocratic dictator.
steve bannon
This is just something you have argued for for years.
unidentified
What do you think needs to happen over the Bureau of Labor Statistics?
steve bannon
You have been at this.
This is not about just even some individual.
unidentified
This is a systemic problem that you've identified.
steve bannon
What do you think is the problem we have?
unidentified
And what is, sir, the solution?
Well, Steve, the problem is at least twofold.
One is the fact that we're relying on outdated methods of collecting data.
And then, two, we're relying on outdated methodologies in terms of processing that data.
And the result is kind of garbage in, garbage out, if you will.
ej antoni
Unfortunately, we're just not getting enough accurate information into the Bureau in a timely enough manner for the folks there to actually do anything with it.
unidentified
In other words, turn that data into a usable product and then disseminate it to the American people.
And that is very important to get the information into the hands of the American people, but it's also very important to get it into the hands of major decision makers like the Federal Reserve for crying out loud, who's supposedly making interest rate decisions based on some of these numbers.
ej antoni
And not just here in D.C., but also in Manhattan.
unidentified
You have Wall Street who's relying on these numbers.
ej antoni
It's absolutely imperative that they be as accurate as possible.
unidentified
And unfortunately, that just hasn't been the case.
So we need somebody at BLS, in my opinion, who's really willing to kind of take, I guess, Steve, the best way to put it is take an approach of leaving no stone unturned.
In other words, you have to be willing to look at absolutely everything, whether it's in terms of that data collection or whether it's in terms of creating these reports, the different, again, the different methodologies that they have to use to take these survey samples and try to estimate for the broader nation.
You need someone who's willing to essentially overhaul the entire thing.
It is very clear that the different models, for example, that we were using before the pandemic are not as good today.
And it's not because there was anything wrong with the models previously.
It's because the economic conditions in the country have changed.
And so we need to change to adapt to that.
It's that simple.
And also, I don't think there's any reason we need to rely on such outdated methods for collecting the information in the first place when we have so many advanced ways of communicating today and also so many more advanced ways of just getting the data in the door.
So much of what used to be done, for example, by mail was then done by telephone and by fax.
And now we just simply send emails or some of this information is literally just updated in real time online.
ej antoni
It is long past time then that the BLS have access to that kind of information.
unidentified
And again, be able to communicate all of these things as quickly as possible.
One of the things that was uncovered by Doge, for example, is how all of these different parts of government don't actually communicate with each other.
And so even though the information is technically readily available from Group A, it doesn't actually get to group B because there's no interface there between group A and group B.
Those are the kinds of things that I think you need to fix at BLS.
And the sooner you get that done, the sooner you can start producing reliable estimates in a timely manner.
And frankly, Steve, when it comes to trust in this organization, I don't think a change of leadership is sufficient.
I think it's going to take a change of leadership, but also a lot of time.
ej antoni
It's like if you have any kind of relationship and someone lies to you, what happens?
Trust is broken.
unidentified
And now it's going to take time for that trust to be rebuilt.
And it is rebuilt by consistently delivering something over time.
In the case of a lie, it means you have to consistently tell the truth.
In the case of BLS, it is going to mean consistently providing accurate information in a timely manner.
And only after doing that for a considerable period of time, I think our individual is going to really trust the agency again.
And I just want to make it clear.
I know I've said it before, but it's worth repeating.
This is not to besmirch a lot of the good folks at BLS, some of whom I actually know personally, and I can vouch for their integrity.
ej antoni
But clearly, as Truman famously said, the buck stops here, right?
unidentified
If leadership is not willing to address problems that are evident, then it's time for a change in leadership.
And I think you need somebody who is willing to do the dirty work of addressing those problems.
This is systemic.
It's a deep, you've got a big problem over there.
steve bannon
It's just not one person that replaces them.
unidentified
You've got to restructure this, go through it.
But you could see the sunlit uplands.
In other words, to take this on is not insurmountable.
steve bannon
Is it?
unidentified
It's a heavy lift, but not insurmountable.
Am I correct in phrasing it that way?
Steve, I think that's exactly right.
100%.
It's not as if the whole thing is so completely broken that it needs to be torn down to the foundation and completely rebuilt.
ej antoni
No, there's plenty of good work that goes on at BLS.
unidentified
And again, there are plenty of good folks there too, but it does need restructuring.
It needs refurbishing, right?
Clearly, the way things have been done the last several years have not worked basically ever since the pandemic, right?
That's when things really started breaking down.
So things, you know, we need a redo at BLS essentially.
And I don't think there's anything wrong with whether it's BLS or any other part of government from time to time reevaluating it and saying things aren't working.
Let's try something different.
Let's try to make it better.
steve bannon
Frankly, the American people deserve more for their tax dollars.
unidentified
Why have we covered this topic virtually every month for the last four years?
Because we knew it was very important and that this day would finally come.
The reason is so many institutions, so many people, so many investors, government policy, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury depend upon the output of the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
EJ, where do people go?
Your Twitter feed particularly is very informative and educational.
Where do people go to follow you, sir?
That's going to be the best place to follow me.
And the handle there is at real EJ Antony.
EJ Antoni, thank you very much for doing this for the last four years and making this all clear to us now.
Appreciate you, sir.
Well, thank you for having me, Steve.
Thank you.
Kurt Mills, do I have a clip on play for this?
Maybe we can just pull that up if we can do it.
Kurt Mills, thank you for joining us.
Kurt, explain to me, because now I'm totally confused.
Witkoff went over to the Middle East.
The president's kind of had it, you can tell.
Netanyahu had one strategy at one time and then it's been shifting all over the place.
And correct me if I'm wrong, today kind of a bombshell about what the new strategy is and be implemented.
steve bannon
Just walk me through what their government is proposing.
unidentified
And I don't know if Witkoff's part of this or not part of it.
steve bannon
The president signed off, but put forward what the Netanyahu government is now putting forward as the new strategy.
unidentified
And Gaza, remember, we've been, the war has been a big advocate early on, you know, years ago now.
If you got to go through hell, get through quickly as possible, take out the military capabilities of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, for a whole host of reasons.
They got off the track on that, the hostages, political considerations, the Persians, Iran, they had to go try to start a regime change war there.
Just explain to us what is going on.
Just kind of frame it for us, sir.
Yeah, we're putting aside what Natalie just spoke about, the bill that would criminalize or imperil disaster relief funding that apparently is now removed.
What is coming out of Israel today is that per reporting, I don't believe fully confirmed as of when we're taping this, that Netanyahu has decided to, quote, occupy Gaza.
So this is potentially Israeli door-to-door, high casualty, high-intensity warfare and moving towards the full annexation and deportation of the residents there.
This one thing, if Israel was planning to do this themselves.
But of course, as you have diagnosed, Israel is not an independent actor.
It's an American protectorate.
And the likelihood, I should say, the certitude that they're going to come knocking on the door here in Washington either later this summer or early autumn for one, the U.S. to get involved in a big way with the redevelopment of Gaza.
Sort of shelved for the last few months was the so-called Gaza Laga, Gaza Lago program that, you know, where you would get Donald Trump, President Trump to spend untold amount of manpower and U.S. taxpayer dollars to redevelop Gaza into a sort of Halcyon, you know, dream-like waterfront property that I think is a pipe dream.
And then number two, and probably most likely to happen, not the redevelopment, is to reopen the war with Iran in the autumn.
curt mills
I think that is most likely what is going to happen to you because this has been a consistency of Netanyahu's approach to the war.
unidentified
Netanyahu actually hasn't been focused on Hamas.
It is the official stated goal of the war.
But anytime he can open up a new front, whether it be Hezbollah and Lebanon or Iran and get the U.S. involved in a heavy way, he'll do that.
Why?
Let's go back to this military in the occupy Gaza because it seems pretty dramatic.
The IDF, for whatever reason, whether they haven't been taken off the chain, whether they've been dispersed to take care of Hezbollah or now in Syria or to focus on the situation with the Persians.
Hamas, the military aspect of it, I don't know.
They still have 20,000, 40,000 combatants down there.
How can you, given that they're concerned about casualties, the world's concerned about casualties, Netanyahu, I saw a report today, I think from the New York Times saying that he had already burned up a lot of his political capital internally of the 12-day war.
Why would you now pivot?
And correct me if I'm wrong, President Trump says, hey, he wants the fighting to stop.
He wants the hostages released, particularly the 20 living hostages.
And some of the videos are showing of these individuals looking emaciated and obviously have been tortured.
Why would we jump to all of a sudden occupy Gaza?
That would seem the most extreme where he had the least international support because in particular the United States, to occupy Gaza, to go block by block to a place that looks like Dresden right now and have to try to take out the Muslim Brotherhood now that you've let them hang around for 18 months is going to be the bloodiest part of the war.
I'm kind of lost on the strategy.
And I don't think that's what Witkoff was over there for, was it?
Yeah, no, sorry, I didn't address the Witkoff piece.
curt mills
Yeah, no, Witkoff has clearly been dispatched by the president to get a sense of the lay of the land, to get a sense of how bad the Gaza carnage is, but also potentially to be subjected to a propaganda tour at the behest of Netanyahu and the alleged ambassador to Israel, not the ambassador from Israel, Mike Huckabee.
unidentified
I think Witkoff is doing his best, is still an able envoy for the president of the United States to this point.
But Netanyahu is just moving quicker than almost anyone.
You've flagged that it's extreme.
curt mills
The extremity is the point for Netanyahu in this particular government.
If the war dies down, if it's quiet, then Netanyahu can't marshal support internally in his country.
unidentified
He is a drug addict who's chasing an ever larger high.
curt mills
He's a rational actor, very smart man, very canny.
We wouldn't be having this conversation if he wasn't.
unidentified
But you pinpointed it.
The Iran war, the 12-day war so-called, already the political benefit of that has evaporated in seven weeks.
He needs something new.
And so I think for August, it's an escalation in Gaza.
He'll use anything he can get.
There was an image circulated around of one of the 20 odd remaining living hostages, obviously looking in terrible condition in Hamas conditions.
curt mills
But of course, that has to be juxtaposed to the tens of thousands that have been slaughtered in the horrible images out of Palestine that are increasingly escalating conservative skepticism of the war as well.
unidentified
And I think namely anchored around a friend of this show, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, who has now openly kind of crossed the Rubicon and called this a genocide.
He's between a rock and a hard place because with the pressure coming now from Europe, you got France, the UK supposedly doing it.
Other nations talking about a two-state solution.
And I've never been an advocate.
I don't think a two-state solution could work.
steve bannon
But if that looks like the wave of where things are going, he has to take care of the military capability of the Muslim Brotherhood franchisees, Hamas, before that happens.
unidentified
But given the fact that you've worn down your own troops, there's morale issues.
You've got, I don't know, a significant part of the population that is protesting over the weekend, just wants to bring this thing to a close.
I mean, how do you garner the support militarily now to go and still complete what should be the hardest part of it?
And that is taking the hardest fighters in Gaza, the Hamas fighters that are left, those brigades are left.
How do you go about now and trying to garner international support and even support with the United States to go get that done?
curt mills
I think Dan Yahoo has a very limited audience.
He just wants President Trump's approval, and he just wants the support of the dwindling number of basically older Republicans who support this carnage.
unidentified
I think he wants to maintain the support of the Murdoch Empire.
And I think he is thinking a day at a time.
And he is about Netanyahu.
curt mills
He is about the short-term interests of himself and his cabinet.
unidentified
And he is about surviving to live another day.
I think when we write the history of Israel and the history of Netanyahu, it may be written that Netanyahu is the greatest enemy of the Israeli people.
The greatest accomplishment President Trump had in the region in the, and I was a huge advocate for moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which I think had to be done.
But the biggest triumph that we had was the Abraham Accords.
Now, in particular, let's leave Qatar because I've got obviously huge problems with Qatar and people that embrace Qatar because I still think they finance the Muslim Brotherhood.
steve bannon
And there's an investigation Netanyahu today fired.
unidentified
He and his cabinet fired the prosecutor that's principally looking into how to cut her, how to Qatar get into business with certain members of Netanyahu's people close to him.
But UAE, particularly in the Saudis, have been really the drivers or some of the people at the front line of the Abraham Accords.
In this situation, they're clearly in kind of consensus President Trump tried to build there to bring peace.
They are some of the biggest vocal people saying you can't continue this military operation the way you're intending to do it, and you've got a humanitarian crisis.
How do you think, because you've just come back from the region, how do you think the region plays this, particularly now President Trump, you know, he just went and had this incredible tour in May.
It seems like it was 10 years ago, but it was just 10 weeks ago in the region.
How do you think the region appeals to him to get some sort of plan here where we can actually stand this thing down?
Yeah, I mean, I think the region is a little demotivated, you know, to sum up a massive society and civilization.
curt mills
It seems a little demotivated that solutions are at hand.
unidentified
A lot of ink has been spilled about a potential era of Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.
curt mills
That's not the sense I got when I was over there.
I mean, one of my sources, the, I think, most apt comparison I got is that Israel is effectively an Air Force base.
unidentified
They can torment anybody.
They can protect militarily.
They can call in favors in Washington, but they are as hated as ever.
They are as a pariah as ever.
And their society is as unstable as ever.
And, you know, you keep referencing the Muslim Brotherhood quotient.
And yes, I think Hamas is definitely basically historically the Palestine chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood.
curt mills
But the reality here is that there's a structural story here, is that Netanyahu empowered these guys.
unidentified
He didn't want a reasonable or more moderate wing of the Palestinian nation to have representation because they would be too sympathetic to Western audiences.
curt mills
But the dam is breaking despite that.
unidentified
Yes, Hamas controls Gaza, but public sentiment is turning against this war in droves, including in the Republican Party, despite Hamas's leadership of Gaza.
That is what's going on in a nutshell.
And so Netanyahu is only getting more desperate by the month, by the week, to hold attention and get maximum concessions now because he knows time is nearly up.
steve bannon
Well, even more than the sentiment changing the Republican Party, and particularly people who supported Israel, the sentiment's changing in Israel.
unidentified
I mean, before they've always had an anti-Netanyah group, we would say it's the same people that came after President Trump.
But that's now getting much broader in Israeli society.
There's a lot of people saying, hey, we're turning into a Jewish Pakistan and that can't happen.
steve bannon
But the sentiment inside the country is changing rapidly, is it not?
unidentified
Yeah, no, I think the Pakistan story is the comparison is apt.
It's becoming a paranoid religious garrison state.
curt mills
I think that is the story, not so much Netanyahu himself is secular, but potential successors.
unidentified
Not so much Neftali Bennett, the most likely successor, but after that, Smotrich, Ben Gavir.
This is where Israel is headed in the 2030s.
curt mills
We've talked about it before.
unidentified
The kind of tech money, the sort of politically ambiguous center-left Israeli that lives in Tel Aviv, not Netanyahu's voters, these people are going to wave into the EU.
They're going to found tech companies in Portugal, Greece, southern Italy, and get out of there, go to a less political and less dangerous place for Jews.
And so, you know, the long term here is about Netanyahu.
And Netanyahu is somebody who's not going to be on the scene in 30 years, and he's not being a great steward of his country's national interest.
The only reason I care is because the U.S. is asked to endlessly care about Israeli national interests, and I would prefer if it was just totally separate.
Kurt, where do people go?
You're over at the American Conservative.
steve bannon
Where do people go for your magazine and where do they go for your social media feed?
unidentified
Thanks, Steve.
The website is www.theamericanconservative.com.
We've got a print and online product.
You can also go to at M-I-L-L-S on Act of the Platforms Politics.
The next 48 to 72 hours is going to be very, very, very important about what's going to happen in Israel.
Netanyahu and his cabinet put out the word that they're going to come forward with a plan to the president of the United States, to Witkoff, and to others about Occupy Gaza.
steve bannon
That is a tall order right now, a tall order.
unidentified
Short commercial break.
We're going to return to the worm in just a moment.
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Folks, there's history being made today.
steve bannon
Mediate is reporting, and I'll get this to the team and get it up.
Pam Bondi reportedly asking grand jury to consider indictments in Obama Clinton treasonous conspiracy case.
unidentified
Let me repeat that.
steve bannon
Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of the United States, reportedly asking grand jury to consider criminal indictments in Obama Clinton treasonous conspiracy case.
unidentified
President Trump has said it's the biggest scandal in the history of the nation.
Sam Fattis is going to join me.
I also want to make sure that we fully understand the last segment.
Occupy Gaza would be such a monumental lift right now with everything else going on.
I can't even comprehend it.
Taking out, you know, as powerful as the IDF is, as brave and courageous as the IDF is, as powerful as the Israeli Air Force is, we've been at this thing, what, almost two years now, and the military part of, and for a host of reasons, the hostages, negotiations, ceasefires, all of it.
There have been many, many, many reasons, but the military brigades have still not been taken out.
And now you're talking about a full occupy Gaza situation.
People got to understand that I don't think that dog is going to hunt whatsoever.
I just don't.
I think the scale of it is too big.
Sam Fattis, you've been at the tip of the spear.
steve bannon
You heard right there that a grand jury is being asked on criminal indictments in this essentially the deep state case.
unidentified
You've been attacked and now pretty viciously, it's a group called Steady State.
steve bannon
Can you explain to me, and maybe if we can get it, I don't know if we got it to our team to put it up on the screen, what in the hell is Steady State and why are they coming after Sam Fattis and other truth speakers that have worked in the past for the intelligence and national security and defense department, sir?
unidentified
Well, to take the second question first, right?
Why are they coming after me?
sam faddis
Because I'm speaking the truth and telling people things that they don't want them to hear.
unidentified
And I guess in particular, as somebody who was a member of the intelligence community, so it stings that much more.
What's steady state?
What they say they are is a group of at least 300 former national security officials.
Seems to be mostly former intel types.
How many more there are who are, in effect, part of the group and aren't former, who are still inside, I think would be a key question, and we don't know the answer to that.
What's their big push?
sam faddis
Their big push right now is that Trump and his attempts to reform, particularly the intelligence community, are a threat to the Constitution, a threat to the Republic, a threat to national security.
unidentified
And if you read what they say very carefully, they've effectively appointed themselves as the new Praetorians, meaning it is their job to decide when you are so threatening to the Constitution that you are a threat and have to be removed.
I mean, if you think about the rationale every group of colonels in Latin America ever gave for why it's okay for them to overturn a democratically elected government, because they're the guardians and they get to decide when to change the game.
That's exactly what these guys are saying.
So it's terrifying stuff, honestly.
We're going into very uncharted waters.
steve bannon
Even when you go back to Watergate, I mean, the country has never been here.
unidentified
And people better strap in for this because, you know, the administrative state is very strong, but the deep state is very, very strong.
That interlocking connection between the security agencies, law enforcement, the FBI, elements of DHS, elements of the Pentagon.
They're being put on trial.
And like I said, folks, this has never been even attempted before.
Sam, explain to our audience how big a deal this is today when you hear that Pam Bondi is actually going to ask a panel of grand jury and ask to bring criminal indictments against some of the senior most, not just Obama and Hillary Clinton, but people like the former head of the FBI, the former head of NSA, the former head of DNI, the former head of the CIA.
How big a deal is this, sir?
This is the whole game, Steve.
I mean, you know, you and I both know that, right?
The strategy going into this on the part of the deep state, you know, using shorthand, was: okay, look, we may have to cut away some guys and give up Brennan on perjury charges or whatever, but basically nothing significant is going to happen.
We'll hunker down, we'll dig in, we'll ride this out, and when it's all done, Trump will go away, MAGA will go away, and everything will go back to normal.
sam faddis
Now, all of a sudden, they are realizing, facing the possibility that a very real possibility, that that's not how it's going to play at all, guys.
unidentified
When you stage an attempted coup and you commit treason, you try to depose a sitting president, et cetera, you're not getting misdemeanor charges or losing your security clearance.
sam faddis
These are very serious felonies, and you're going to prison.
unidentified
So, all of a sudden, they're realizing this is an actually, for them, existential threat.
sam faddis
And man, they are pulling out all of the stops now.
unidentified
And this rationale that I'm talking about with steady state, cipher brief is pushing it.
All kinds of folks in D.C. are pushing it.
Trump is a national security threat.
sam faddis
What he's doing is a threat to the Constitution.
Again, this is the rationale for a coup for treason.
That's what it is.
unidentified
You're a man of discernment.
You've always chosen your words very carefully when you've been on the show.
Do you believe, I know what they're taking forward, I know what they're going to take forward from the information I've seen to these grand juries and what I've, because I was there at the beginning of it.
steve bannon
Do you think that this was an attempted coup and they'll try to prove that?
unidentified
Do you think this is treasonous and they'll try to prove that, sir?
sam faddis
Definitely an attempted coup.
I mean, really in multiple stages, as you're well aware.
First is the part where they try to stop Trump from ever getting elected and then they try to depose him.
unidentified
And then, of course, once they can't get him out of office during his first term, they then intervene and lie through their teeth about the laptop to push Biden through, along with all the other measures.
sam faddis
So there's no question that we're talking about treason and coup.
unidentified
What's the cutting edge?
I think the question you just teed up: what are we going to charge these guys with?
We've got to charge them with something that is going to put them in prison for significant periods of time, as they said in National Treasure, right?
sam faddis
Somebody's got to go to prison.
unidentified
That's why I dismiss at the top of the sort of this discussion of the Hatch Act.
steve bannon
Maybe that's one aspect of getting in front of a grand jury, but this ain't about the Hatch Act.
unidentified
This is not about misdemeanors or even lower level felonies.
Sam Fattis, all of your stuff up on Substack and Ann Magazine, the steady state, all of it.
steve bannon
Where do people go to get to Ann Magazine, your Substack, and where they go get you on social media, sir?
unidentified
AND Magazine and Magazine at Substack.com.
And look, I'm still on Twitter and on Getter and Truth Social as real Sam Fattis.
As we start this journey, Sam Fattis joins us.
steve bannon
Thank you, Sam Fattis.
unidentified
Appreciate you.
steve bannon
Historic, historic day.
unidentified
And people have better hunkered down for a long, tough slog on this one.
This is not going to, you're going to have good days on this, and you're going to have days that are not as good.
Do we have Tom Dance?
steve bannon
We're able to track down Tom?
unidentified
Let's Tom, we didn't get you towards the end on the Arctic, on the Arctic Conference.
steve bannon
Can you just summarize briefly what went on, particularly policy-wise?
unidentified
Because I keep saying, hey, the Arctic is the new great game.
steve bannon
We've got issues in Gaza and all these other places, but the Arctic and the control of the Arctic is the great game of the 21st century.
unidentified
And a lot of America's hemispheric defense will be decided in the Arctic.
steve bannon
How was the conference?
unidentified
Who came out looking the best?
steve bannon
What are the policies that the war and posse should be thinking about?
unidentified
Sure.
And thanks, Steve.
tom dans
Great to be with the posse.
unidentified
Real quick, I mean, the main thing about the conference was what was not there, which was really America first policies coming into the Arctic.
So what we have was a lot of the old guard, and we had a lot of people from around Europe coming to listen to basically a rehashing of the old policies.
Now, why is that important?
It was important because what was not said, which is really that President Trump has launched the U.S. back into a leadership position in the Arctic.
tom dans
But what's essential right now is that we follow through below President Trump with the execution here.
So just thinking about this week, you know, I'm coming to you now from Colorado Springs, right across from the Air Force Academy.
unidentified
And to recall, General Billy Mitchell, who was one of the founders of the Air Force, he says in 35, 1935 to Congress, I believe that in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world.
I think it's the most strategic place in the world.
Well, he couldn't have been more prescient.
And let's fast forward to the current day.
tom dans
You know, what you have now is what I would tell you is America's first island chain, the Aleutians, which is essentially unprotected here.
unidentified
And it's time for us to begin to execute on our hemispheric defense.
Go across to Greenland.
It's the same issue.
tom dans
Now it's time for us to go back to, you know, we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We had this in World War II.
unidentified
Senator Dan Sullivan's leading an effort, which I am 100% behind, to reopen ADAC Air Force Base, ADAC Naval Air Station in the Aleutians.
tom dans
Now keep in mind, this is 1,000 miles west of Anchorage.
These are vast spaces, and this is sitting right at the point where you're going to have the great circle traveling from China to the U.S., as well as the intersection of what is the Northern Sea Route, coming down eventually, even the Transpolar Route.
This is where these areas meet in the middle of America's Arctic.
unidentified
We had a base there.
It was closed under Obama.
It was once held 6,000 troops in the middle of the Arctic.
tom dans
Go further west, right on the coast of Russia.
unidentified
I think we need to reopen our Casco Cove station on Atu.
This is a place which today is abandoned, but over 500 Americans gave their lives in some of the most brutal hand-to-hand combat in World War II.
So now we have it sitting abandoned with a 6,000-foot runway unattended.
I think this is inviting danger.
tom dans
The Japanese captured it once.
unidentified
If we haven't learned from the past, it's time for us to go back in the history books.
Don't want to get President Trump upset, but we did the same thing in Greenland.
We sold the best base we had in Greenland, not for a dollar like we got for the Panama Canal, but for 17 cents for one Danish kroner back in 1992.
And I'm talking about what was called Sandi Kangalooserak, which was really the best where anybody had to land in Greenland until November last year when they opened up the new Air Force Base.
So it's time for us to get on the field.
We don't have an American ambassador for the Arctic.
We haven't gotten Ken Howry approved, who's our incoming ambassador for Denmark.
We're missing assistant secretaries for West Ham, for the oceans.
We don't have an ambassador for Iceland.
Of course, we don't have an ambassador for Russia.
Again, talking about the effects of this carryover for the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax, we don't have our America first Russia experts on the field.
They still have gotten shut out.
So we need to do that.
Our Arctic Research Commission, where I served today, it's still all Biden appointees, right?
The Trump people were fired for this unceremoniously back in the Biden era.
tom dans
So it's time for us to get our people on the field and start executing on these projects because we're burning daylight.
unidentified
Tom, where can people go to your, we're going to explore this more because this is central to hemispheric defense.
And you just laid out a lot of the reasons that we should have had a recess and he could have put a bunch of these folks.
There's some that haven't even been nominated, but you could have gotten the nominees through.
Where do people go to your social media and to your website?
steve bannon
Because I know from Greenland to Alaska now to the Arctic, you're all over this.
unidentified
So where do people go to get more information?
Sure, I'm Mon X at Tom Dan CFA.
Thanks very much.
Tom, amazing.
Key plugging.
The great game of the 21st century will be the Arctic.
steve bannon
It is central to the defense of the United States, and this is why the Canadians got to start pulling their weight.
unidentified
Walt Pavlov, Walt Pavlo, thank you for joining us again.
steve bannon
So the question we left you with on Friday, you had the Second Step Act that was Republican.
unidentified
You got the First Step Act.
People ask me all the time, why is the First Step Act that President Trump pushed forward, why has it not been implemented in the prison system that we have today?
You could cut, I think you'd cut the prison population by 25%, couldn't you possibly, if you actually went through and did the calculations correctly, sir?
I think so, Stephen.
walter pavlo
Thanks again for having me.
unidentified
You know, before I came on, I was thinking about as we go into the First Step Act, you know, what are the issues facing us and why was the First Step Act even necessary?
Number one, when we incarcerate people, it's extremely expensive, and it's a very important mission that we have.
But there's, as I said last time, 50% of the population is minimum and low security, which is primarily the benefactors of a First Step Act that allows them to earn credits to reduce their sentence.
The second thing is there's been a lack of leadership at the Bureau of Prisons.
Even since President Trump took office the first go-around, there have been seven directors of the Bureau of Prisons.
So before that, I think if you were to go back, you would have seven directors over about a 60-year period.
So, you know, it lets you know, like in less than 10 years, we've had that much turnover.
Morale is a big issue at the Bureau of Prisons, you know, that the, you know, it's ranked last among all government agencies in, you know, employee satisfaction.
And, you know, there's new leadership that is in.
And that leadership came from the outside for President Trump this time, just like it did, you know, the first time that he was around.
You know, he picked Mark Inch to be a director.
That didn't work out.
He brought in, you know, Hugh Hurwitz, and then there was a little bit of a transition.
And then, you know, when boom, he was out of office again.
So, but it's, you know, the new people, William Marshall and Josh Smith, are change agents.
And that is what makes them difference.
walter pavlo
They have done a lot in the first 90 days.
unidentified
They still have a lot of work to do, but the BOP is much too important of an agency for us to waste.
And Congress saw fit to say, we got to reduce the population somehow.
They gave the First Step Act, but for the last, it was going on, you know, 2018, you know, we're in year seven, going on seven years, still not fully implemented.
walter pavlo
People, you know, Steve, you were in.
unidentified
I was in at one time many years ago.
The thing that you want to know the most is when the heck am I getting out of here?
And that is a question right now that many inmates and their families have, that they don't know when they're going to get out.
walter pavlo
And these people represent the least restrictive, you know, housing that there is, you know, for all the inmates in the BOP.
unidentified
Walt, we're going to have you back on because we're going to do a whole series on this.
But just briefly for the audience, why is it so difficult to reform the Bureau of Prisons?
Why have so many people broken their picks on this?
I mean, President Trump wanted two reformers.
He got them in Marshall and in Josh, right?
steve bannon
Josh is a former felon who's who served many years, has tremendous president reform, but we've got a couple minutes.
Why does it seem like this agency is impervious to change and impervious to reform?
unidentified
Probably one of the worst good old boy networks that there is in the government.
And for many years, they enjoyed having leadership.
They came from within, and now they don't have it.
And it looks like it's not going back.
And I believe that that's the biggest thing.
walter pavlo
You have 121 prisons all across the United States.
unidentified
You're trying to get them all to communicate and get on the same sheet of music, and it just isn't happening.
And, you know, one solution could be, let's reduce the number of inmates.
walter pavlo
Let's also reduce the number of prisons that we have out there.
unidentified
But it has been almost a nearly impossible job.
But I believe in this case, Trump's put in some change agents, and they've done a lot of listening and they've done some visiting.
And I have a feeling that they're getting ready to really, you know, put the pedal to the metal.
And we're going to see some significant changes inside the Bureau of Prisons.
I got about a minute on the following.
steve bannon
I know you went to a conference on sentencing.
unidentified
Sentencing is a huge, huge issue that hasn't been addressed in decades.
steve bannon
Are we going to address some of these sentencing issues, you think, in the near future?
unidentified
Well, that's a great point, Steve.
walter pavlo
They absolutely need to.
You know, it's sort of like having a hotel that just keeps giving reservations out to everybody and doesn't pay any attention to who's coming in and who's leaving.
unidentified
And the sentencing, you know, the judges should get on board that like, we don't need to send people to prison for these 10, 15, 20 years.
I mean, it doesn't take long to really learn a lesson.
You know, a few years, go to some sort of home confinement and then call it a day.
But you don't really need to send people and just break, you know, totally break down their own family life, their community and everything by sending people to prison.
That applies to white, black, Hispanic.
It doesn't matter.
Prison does very little to like improve somebody after a short period of time.
No, and for the nonviolent criminals, particularly some of these nonviolent young men that are in prison, you see, you meet them and these prisons are very small, very tiny, very old, and they're in there for 10, 15, 20 years.
You just don't, for nonviolent crimes, after, like you said, after a couple of years, I think they get it.
I think they understand what the issues are.
Walt, you're doing an amazing job at Forbes.
steve bannon
You're writing this out better than anybody.
Where do people go on your social media and where do you get all your writings at Forbes magazine, sir?
unidentified
Well, just go to Forbes.com.
You can look for Walter Pavlo.
I've got a, you know, I've got a pretty good following.
And also Prisonology.com.
walter pavlo
I also post on there, which has all of our blogs.
unidentified
And I'm on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Thank you, brother.
steve bannon
Appreciate you.
Appreciate you for working with the reform movement.
unidentified
It's got to be reformed.
I'm actually going to be up at Danbury in the morning.
steve bannon
I should be back in time for the morning show.
unidentified
Dave Bratt is going to be with me as my co-host.
Historic day-to-day.
A criminal grand jury somehow being set up somewhere to address, as President Trump says, the greatest political crime in the history of this nation.
Folks, there's no going back.
We have to stick the landing here.
If we don't stick the landing on this, we're not going to have a country.
This is what I said at Tampa in my speech to Charlie Kirk's group.
Turning point.
steve bannon
We must deconstruct the administrative state, and the first way to do that is to adjudicate this horrible harbor crime against President Trump.
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