Bannon's War Room - Episode 4716: Kill The Bail Out Packages; If They Can't Cheat They Can't Win: Texas Trouble

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Aug. 19, 2025 - Bannon's War Room

48:54

Episode 4716: Kill The Bail Out Packages; If They Can't Cheat They Can't Win: Texas Trouble

Participants

Main voices

brian harrison

06:31

john lott

05:47

steve bannon

20:44

Appearances

brandon weichert

03:51

donald j trump

01:03

garrett graff

01:07

rachel maddow

01:21

raf sanchez

04:38

Clips

charlie hurt

00:29

jake tapper

00:10

jim townsend

00:51

john berman

00:08

kimberly dozier

00:40

willie geist

00:20

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Show episode speakers

Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		Steps here as far as Europe is concerned, securing a peace deal, and what has been the reaction there in London and beyond about that scene yesterday at the White House.
unidentified		So, Willie, on this side of the Atlantic, the race is really on to figure out what those security guarantees would look like in reality.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		President Macron of France, Prime Minister Kier Starmer of the UK this morning hosted a video conference of the so-called Coalition of the Willing.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		These are the European allies who are prepared to put their own troops on the ground in Ukraine to try to offer Zelensky the security guarantees that he needs.
unidentified		There is going to be a meeting of European Union leaders later on today to try to build on what I think is seen as sort of cautious progress at the White House yesterday.
		But these European leaders, Willie, really have a delicate needle to thread here.
		They need to come up with a formula for security guarantees that are strong enough to give Zelensky and Ukraine the confidence that they can agree to a peace deal without fear that the Russians will just attack again.
		And at the same time, these security guarantees can't be so strong that they alienate President Trump, alienate the more isolationist wing of his MA movement.
		So we are starting to see the sort of broad outlines of what these security guarantees could look like.
		Some of these European countries, led by Britain and France, saying they are prepared to put their own troops on the ground in Ukraine, not on the front line, not in a way that is designed to provoke Russia, but in a way that is designed to deter future Russian aggression.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		But the reality is the Europeans are still dependent on the United States for a number of capabilities that they don't have themselves.
		Things in terms of missile defense, in terms of intelligence, overhead satellites, some form of air support.
		So one possible formula here is you have British, French, possibly other European troops on the ground, and you have a commitment from the United States to support them in the air without any American forces actually being on the ground.
unidentified		Now, assuming that both Zelensky and Trump can live with that, there is the question of will Vladimir Putin and the Russians yesterday making very clear that they will not, at least as an opening gambit in these negotiations, accept NATO forces on the ground in Ukraine in large numbers.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		So we will see how they square that triangle.
unidentified		You pick your metaphor in terms of coming up with a formula for security guarantees that are acceptable to all sides.
		President Trump, during the meeting yesterday, when you decided to call Vladimir Putin, what was the reaction among the other people in the room?
		And what was President Putin's reaction to being brought into a phone call in the middle of your meeting?
		Well, I think they expected.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I didn't do it in front of them.
unidentified		I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin.
		You know, I wouldn't do that because they have not had the warmest relations.
		And actually, President Putin wouldn't talk to people from Europe.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I mean, that was part of the problem.
unidentified		They had no communication.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		They had no communication with the White House for years, as people died, years with Biden and his people.
unidentified		No communication.
		Putin told me, years.
		It was years that he didn't speak to anybody from the White House.
		And it was a long time that he didn't speak to anybody from Europe.
		No, it's a fractured relationship.
		And when I came in, I always had, despite the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax, which truly was a very dangerous thing for our country, but despite that, I maintained a very good relationship.
		I mean, you saw that when he got off his plane, I got off my plane.
		There's a warmth there that you can't, you know, there's a decent feeling.
		And it's a good thing, not a bad thing.
		People would say, oh, that's such a terrible thing.
		It's not a terrible thing.
		But what we did get were the European leaders saying out loud that Trump was okay with Article 5-style security guarantees.
kimberly dozier ▲ ● ▼		Now, Article 5 of NATO means an attack on one is an attack on all.
kimberly dozier ▲ ● ▼		So this is European leaders saying, and Donald Trump agreeing, that they would have some sort of troops inside Ukraine such that if Russia ever attacked Ukraine again in future, it wouldn't just be attacking Ukraine.
unidentified		It would be attacking NATO member states, probably not under the banner of NATO, but those individual states wouldn't pull their troops out.
		They would stay and dare Putin to keep going.
		What kind of assurances do you feel like you have that going forward and past this Trump administration, it won't be American boots on the ground defending that border?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Well, you have my assurance.
unidentified		You're not president.
		And I'm just trying to stop people from being killed, Charlie.
		Look, they're losing from five to seven thousand people a week.
john berman ▲ ● ▼		So the security guarantees in some ways might be an easier discussion point than how you actually stop the fighting.
unidentified		What do you think about that?
unidentified		Well, I think going back to what Kim said and your point as well, it's the rules of engagement that's going to be really a difficult thing for these nations to talk about.
jim townsend ▲ ● ▼		The rules of engagement lay out just what the plan will be if the Russians do something.
jim townsend ▲ ● ▼		Will this group actually work with Ukraine to push back militarily on the Russians or do they fall back or do they leave?
unidentified		Those rules of engagement and the agreement by the nations and what they will do will dictate what this presence will look like.
		Is it going to be a small presence that's just representative, something that's not meant to fight?
		Or is this going to be a robust group in there, real boots on the ground with weapons and rules of engagement that says if something happens, if Ukraine is attacked, your job is to fight Russia too?
		This is the climal screen of a dying regime.
		Pray for our enemies because we're going to 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're going to like hearing that.
		I know you're trying 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 line?
		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.
		War Room.
		Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
		It's Tuesday, 19, August, Year of Our Lord 2025.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We've got so much to go through today, including getting back focused on the United States of America.
unidentified		Okay, both the Make America Healthy Again, President Trump signing, getting ready for a tough executive order on mail-in ballots, the big fight down in Texas.
unidentified		Because here, and I think Rachel Maddow, although she's part-time, you know, one day a week over at MS Now, what a disaster that thing is.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		NBC running away from that dumpster fire as quickly as they can.
unidentified		It's not just that they're spinning it off with a bunch of other dogs and cats to let the public share in all its beauty, but they're taking their name off it and any association with it, which is pretty extraordinary.
		In 2026 and beyond, it is a convergence of a number of forces.
		Number one, it is incumbent that the Commerce Department listen to President Trump and get on with it on a mid-decade census, done this time correctly with correct algorithms, correct data analysis, the way it's collected.
		Also, no illegal alien invaders, none, zero.
		That will show you a true demographic picture of the United States, the massive demographic shifts to the southern part of the country and the demographic shifts within the states.
		Number two is to get these elections squared away for once and all.
		No mail-in ballots.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Christina Bob's going to come here and talk about Fulton County.
unidentified		He's still got problems down there as exemplified by many of these big cities.
		But get rid of the mail-in ballots.
		And they're whining.
		They're petrified over at MSNBC that CNN that, hey, they're going to be, since we're taking control of the cities, there's going to be ICE officers near polling places.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		You're damn right.
unidentified		Write this down in your number two principles over at CNN and MS Now.
		We're not going to allow any illegal aliens to vote.
		If you don't have an ID, if you're not a citizen, you're not voting.
		So you can whine and throw your toys at the premi all you want.
		That's going to happen.
		And number three is the redistricting.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We need a Texas 10 right now.
unidentified		Now in Texas, they're trying to put DPS officers or Texas Rangers with the Democrats.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's not good enough.
		We need to go to a maximalist policy and these redistricting now, whether you're in Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Texas.
		We need a maximalist position right now because Gavin Newson and his team have told us exactly what they're going to do.
unidentified		And that is what they're going to do is try to rig the 2026 election so they can impeach President Trump and stop the MAGA movement.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		He's got a lot more than a year and a half worth of work left.
unidentified		He's got more than this term and beyond.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		This is absolutely, you know, the work we have before us to take all this crap down that the Republican establishment has allowed.
unidentified		And you see it in Texas right now.
unidentified		If you want a perfect example, how feckless and hapless they are.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		The two best examples of how we're starting the show today, both the redistricting of Texas, of which it's all performance art from the Republican Party.
unidentified		It's the grassroots leadership and the grassroots folks down there in the MA movement that have forced anything.
		And on this Ukraine situation.
		In Ukraine, the reason the Europeans and Zelensky there and they're talking tough and they're going to do this and they're going to do that is they're looking in the Senate.
		They're working on Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton.
		These guys are working on a $55 billion, another bailout package for them.
		And the reason is they don't see this money as an opportunity cost.
		There's financial data coming out right now where I think we're about to hit the wall.
		Even with the big, beautiful bill kicking in on the supply side, kicking in on the production side, we're going to go through some economic turbulence here.
		The only focus we should have is on the American people.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		That's what's happening in D.C. is so amazing.
unidentified		And John Lott's going to join us.
unidentified		I think President Trump today is also going to order an investigation in their crime statistics because these cities are lying to you.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		People there know they're crime-ridden hellholes.
unidentified		Yet these Democrats come to the microphone.
		They're on media all day long saying, oh, the crime stats are dropping.
		They're not dropping.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Ask the people who got to live there if they're dropping.
unidentified		So the focus has to be on the American people.
		Want to talk a security guarantee?
		How about a security guarantee for folks in Los Angeles, folks in Chicago, folks in New York City who are hardworking, decent, wait-for-it American citizens and get rid of everybody else?
		Also, other good news coming.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		You've seen where the amphibious, the amphibious group has been attached to Southcom.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Southcom is that, like CENCOM, Southcom is the group.
unidentified		CENCOM does the Middle East.
unidentified		Southcom does everything in Latin America, Central America, Mexico, all of that.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		The Southcom commander, who's also responsible for the Caribbean, which is nothing but a CCP or PLA Navy lake, has been attached to his command now, is an amphibious group.
unidentified		I think it's the Iwo Jima amphibious group that's now attached to him to look at cartels or to help enforce interdiction and cartels in the Caribbean and Central America, and hopefully even Latin America if we have to.
unidentified		And they've assigned the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		So now you got 4,000 troops with some backup, right, and some punch.
unidentified		This is where we ought to be focusing.
		President Trump is trying to move heaven and earth with these deadbeats.
		You said that collection of clowns.
		In fact, if we can go to my getter, one of the official photographers took a photo from over President Trump's shoulder to the front of the Resolute Desk where all the leaders of Europe are sitting there.
		And remember, these are countries at one time were led by Napoleon and de Gaulle or Winston Churchill, right?
		Or some of the greatest leaders in world history.
		And you see these munchkins that are sitting in front of the desk, you realize, I mean, President Trump, what are you doing?
		I mean, you're going to have to carry these people on your shoulders.
		I said it was like a class photo for Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's just pathetic.
unidentified		And all they're trying to do, they're trying to figure out now how they get troops.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		What they're trying to do, 1,000%, what they're working on, they know the Senate and they know the neocons are going to look at a $50 billion or to $100 billion package of American taxpayer money to go bail them out again and let Zelensky and those crooked oligarchs skim more.
unidentified		And that keeps them in business.
		It's the Senate that has to go and keep them in business.
		And they see that and they're just plotting against President Trump by how we get you in here for security guarantees, how we get boots in the ground, or maybe we put an air corridor up there or a no-fly zone, have American combat patrol, combat air patrols the entire time.
		Yeah, there's no chance.
		Like I said, there's no chance that anybody can get a missed signal and maybe shoot down a Russian MiG, right?
		A Russian plane.
		They want to stop cheek by jow, just like in Syria.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I saw this before.
unidentified		They want you cheek by jowl with the Russians so something can go wrong.
		One of the hotheads.
		And look, the Ukrainian people suffered enough.
		They got a million dead and wounded, right?
		They're angry and they should be angry.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Because that same group of deadbeats in the EU and in NATO led them down the primrose path to their destruction.
unidentified		Shirtbreak.
		Because Voice family, are you on Getter yet?
		No.
		What are you waiting for?
jim townsend ▲ ● ▼		It's free.
unidentified		It's uncensored.
		And it's where all the biggest voices in conservative media are speaking out.
		Download the Getter app right now.
		It's totally free.
		It's where I put up exclusively all of my content 24 hours a day.
		You want to know what Steve Bannon's thinking?
		Go to Getter.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		That's right.
unidentified		You can follow all of your favorites.
willie geist ▲ ● ▼		Steve Bannon, Charlie Hook, Jack the Soviet, and so many more.
unidentified		Download the Getter app now.
		Sign up for free and be part of the new thing.
		What are the next steps here as far as Europe is concerned, securing a peace deal?
		What has been the reaction there in London and beyond about that scene yesterday at the White House?
		So, Willie, on this side of the Atlantic, the race is really on to figure out what those security guarantees would look like in reality.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		President Macron of France, Prime Minister Kier Starmer of the UK this morning hosted a video conference of the so-called Coalition of the Willing.
unidentified		These are the European allies who are prepared to put their own troops on the ground in Ukraine to try to offer Zelensky the security guarantees that he needs.
unidentified		There is going to be a meeting of European Union leaders later on today to try to build on what I think is seen as sort of cautious progress at the White House yesterday.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		But these European leaders, Willie, really have a delicate needle to thread here.
unidentified		They need to come up with a formula for security guarantees that are strong enough to give Zelensky and Ukraine the confidence that they can agree to a peace deal without fear that the Russians will just attack again.
unidentified		And at the same time, these security guarantees can't be so strong that they alienate President Trump, alienate the more isolationist wing of his MAGA movement.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		So we are starting to see the sort of broad outlines of what these security guarantees could look like.
unidentified		Some of these European countries led by Britain and France saying they are prepared to put their own troops on the ground in Ukraine, not on the front line, not in a way that is designed to provoke Russia, but in a way that is designed to deter future Russian aggression.
raf sanchez ▲ ● ▼		But the reality is the Europeans are still dependent on the United States for a number of capabilities that they don't have themselves.
		Things in terms of missile defense, in terms of intelligence, overhead satellites, some form of air support.
		So one possible formula here is you have British, French, possibly other European troops on the ground, and you have a commitment from the United States to support them in the air without any American forces actually being on the grounds.
unidentified		Now, assuming that both Zelensky and Trump can live with that, there is the question of will Vladimir Putin and the Russians yesterday making very clear that they will not, at least as an opening gambit in these we're far from isolationists, but we're realists.
		It's a European problem.
		Ukraine wants to be a European country.
		That's fine.
		Ukraine can do what they want to do.
		But right now, it's all predicated upon American cash, American arms, and now they're going to meet American involvement.
		You know, and you can't trust these Europeans.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		You can't trust those European leaders.
unidentified		Until the pop is until Alternative for Deutschland wins in Germany, until Front National wins in France, right, until Nigel Farage takes over in London.
		And that's all happening.
		First time in history, I think two weeks ago or 10 days ago, they've all polled all the populist parties polled number one in their respective countries' polls.
		That is the way we can do this.
		Right now, these are all globalists, like Lindsey Graham and like Tom Cotton.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I think I've got a quote in Politico Dana article by Adam Wren, where I'm just saying, hey, this is the same globalist trying to get America sucked into a deep involvement.
unidentified		And this could, because it's about opportunity cost, right?
		We've been covering this nonstop for five days.
		And the way they're going, they want you to cover nothing but this so that you miss everything else in this country that needs to be taken care of.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Now, thank God President Trump has got all these policies out there that are rolling.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We need to reinforce that.
unidentified		And one thing is we need to reinforce it.
		We need to reinforce it by putting, giving time to talk about it and let you understand what's going on so you can become actively engaged.
		Brandon Weichert's here.
		Brandon, you wrote an amazing book before a while ago called How the West Lost Ukraine.
		Give me your assessment right now.
		Where do you think this stands with and President Trump trying to move heaven and earth with these deadbeat European leaders?
		Because you can't believe anything.
		They say they lie all the time.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		They say they're going to, you know, NATO's, they're going to put money in NATO and reform their militaries.
		They don't put a penny in.
		Their militaries are decrepit.
		Their militaries are such a joke that when the Suez Canal was getting shut down by the Houthi rebels, guys fighting like they've got drones and everything else is from the sixth century.
unidentified		You needed American battle groups, carrier battle groups, strike forces down there to keep open the Suez Canal so they could get they could get oil from the Persian Gulf and goods from Asia, and they couldn't do it themselves.
unidentified		I think they had one French corvette, you know, one Italian destroyer, one Royal Navy frigate.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's a joke.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Your thoughts on this, sir?
unidentified		Well, just to be clear, I think Europe is a complete joke.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		Remember, it wasn't long ago the Germans were doing war game practices with broomsticks because they didn't have enough guns to go around for their troops.
		The British can't stock their aircraft carrier with a requisite number of warplanes because they can't afford the F-35.
		The F-35s keep falling out of the sky.
unidentified		All the British ones do.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		They keep having to do emergency landings in Japan.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		So the Europeans are not allies.
unidentified		As you say, they are vassals, and they're not very good vassals at that.
unidentified		They are clearly trying to manipulate us into an Article 5 declaration.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		The British continue talking about putting so-called peacekeepers on the ground in western Ukraine.
unidentified		Well, that basically is hanging their rear ends off the side, hoping they get shot off so that they can then run to Washington and go see the Russians.
		The Russians are starting a war.
		If Trump is serious about stopping this war, he needs to cut the Ukraine off from all the aid tomorrow.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		But he can't do that because the Senate, as you rightly say, Lindsey Graham hiding in the closet somewhere.
unidentified		Lindsey Graham is there trying to stop this thing from happening.
		But the only way we're going to get Ukraine to a big, beautiful table to negotiate an end to this war is if we cut them off tomorrow and if we start downgrading the NATO alliance, that thing is an albatross for us.
		We need to get out of NATO as well.
		Yesterday, what they tried to do is manipulate President Trump.
		And President Trump had to come on Fox this morning and said, hey, I want you to know there's not going to be any boots on the ground.
		We're going to figure something else out.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		They've put into his statement, what he put out last night, that somehow we would have some coordination factor.
unidentified		What President Trump's got to be, and the people around him should be giving him this advice.
		Pete Hegseth over defense, Marco Rubio, you guys got to wake up and see what the reality is.
		We're not going to get entangled in something.
		You're going to be there decade after decade after decade after decade with a major financial commitment.
		Right now, I'd like to have Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio and Scott Besson, all three of them step up and say, hey, we've put pen to paper and this is what it's going to cost.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to the American people about this.
unidentified		And then we can make a decision.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Do we want that money going to Ukraine or we want that money going into Los Angeles to start the mass deportations of at least the 10 to 20 million illegal alien invaders we have here, Brandon?
unidentified		What is it going to take to wake up NATO to say, we're not going to be on the hook anymore for the money and for your own defense because they're not putting any cash into their own military.
		Have Maloney there yesterday talking.
		She's stiffest more than anybody.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		That's her.
unidentified		They're, I think, 1.75%.
		And when you get into the actual receipts, they're not putting it into combat arms.
		They're not putting it into maneuvers.
		They're not putting interoperability.
		Your thoughts, sir?
		Well, let's just keep in mind that because of the Ukraine war and also the Middle East, but let's just talk about the Ukraine war.
		A few weeks ago, we dropped below war reserve status in our stockpiles.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		That means we have critical stockpiles for ammunition and platforms that we need to defend our people and our interests all around the world.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		We've given so much to Ukraine over the last three years alone that we've now depleted those stockpiles to the point that we've gone below war reserve status.
unidentified		And as long as this war goes on, because of how broken our defense industrial base is, we will not be able to replenish those systems, which means when we need those systems to protect our troops and our interests around the world, they won't be there.
		And so for me, this is a very simple calculation.
		Forget about the emotions, forget about all of that.
		We can't continue supporting Ukraine, and neither can the Europeans.
		And I'll just add, Steve, I think the Europeans do know.
		I think they've realized very quickly that under this president, NATO is not going to be the priority that it was under previous presidents.
		And I think that's exactly why they're trying to ensnare the Americans in a protracted, long-term European war against nuclear-armed Russia.
		Because for Europe, if NATO goes away or if NATO doesn't become as important to us in America as it once was, then they will no longer be relevant.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		The Europeans will be basically a sideshow, which they already are, but they will be a sideshow in geopolitics.
unidentified		And it will really be a world driven by America, Russia, and China, and maybe India and a few others.
		And the Europeans will be left to the mercies of us.
		And in the global south, the problem I've got with this is that they're allowing their own countries to be destroyed.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		England's going to have a civil war in less than 10 years, a civil war, because they have not stopped the Islamization of their country.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		You see the merger in France of these radical left Marxists with jihadists, with Islamist jihadists.
unidentified		And you see this happening in New York City.
unidentified		So what are we supposed to do?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We're supposed to defend that.
unidentified		Leaders allow that to happen.
		Not on our watch.
		It's absolutely obscene.
		Go ahead.
		Sorry.
brandon weichert ▲ ● ▼		Starmer's talking about sending what few patriotic British are left to go fight the Russians in Ukraine when those men should be used to protect British interests at home, to protect the women of Britain, to massively deport the Islamists who they've imported for the last 30 years.
unidentified		But they're not.
		And I think that might be purposeful.
		You start to think, well, maybe is this incompetence or is this really part of an agenda to basically change the demographics of Europe and Britain?
		And I think it might be.
		What President Trump has done in DC should be a template for the country.
		That's our country.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Brandon, where do people get you on social media?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Where do they get your writings?
unidentified		At We The Brandon Twitter.
		And you can get my writings at the nationalinterest.org or my books are on Amazon.com.
		You've got some of them listed right there.
		How the West Lost Ukraine is magnificent.
		Sir, thank you so much for coming on this morning.
		Great start to the show.
		Check out his books.
		Really smart guy.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		And writes in a very boom way that gets all the information to you.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Not a lot of fluff.
unidentified		Okay, short commercial break.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We're going to pivot now to elections and to get this thing set right.
unidentified		The three converging policies of President Trump.
		State legislators did come back home to Texas today.
		They had left the state to try to stop the legislature from convening so that Republicans couldn't change the maps the way Trump had told them to.
		When the Democrats came back today, Republicans tried to force them to sign consent forms that would allow the assignment of a state police officer to each Democrat to follow each and every Democrat in the legislature everywhere that person goes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
rachel maddow ▲ ● ▼		They're not assigning law enforcement officers to these Democratic state legislators as bodyguards.
unidentified		They're assigning them as minders to monitor the location of these Democrats 24 hours a day so as to be prepared to arrest them at any time.
		State Representative Nicole Collier of Fort Worth refused to sign this consent form.
		And because she would not consent to having a police officer following her around and monitoring her 24 hours a day, Texas House Democrats say she is now effectively being held on the House floor on the legislature.
		I've heard enough.
		You know, I do tune in to watch Rachel every Monday night so that you don't have to.
		But it is painful.
		Quite painful.
		And now she's doing it part-time.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		She's kind of lost her stroke.
unidentified		The thing over MSNBC is a mess, a complete mess.
		That's fading away.
		CNN's fading away.
		These guys are all going direct.
		They're all starting podcasts.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		That's their next thing.
unidentified		We got to show you Comey.
		If you haven't seen Comey on Taylor Swift, you're in for a whole new experience as an adult.
		Brian Harrison.
		So Harrison, I just have to ask you, Abbott and Dan Patrick and the Speaker and all these anti-MAGA, anti-grassroots, anti-populist, essentially moderate Democrats who call themselves Republicans and Abbott being the worst.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Did they honestly think that circuses like this will get people's attention, that people are not savvy enough now, and they have enough social media that we're onto them and that's why we're driving this?
unidentified		I mean, are they assigning, instead of doing any things that you recommended that are logical to really make these Democrats pay for their irresponsibility to the citizens of Texas for what should have been passed last time in the special session?
		I'm talking about the emergency relief, the flood relief, the taxes, right?
		The real estate taxes, all of that.
		They're now going to sign a Texas.
		They're saying they're going to assign a Texas Ranger.
		That's Department of Public Safety.
		They're going to sign it with each, you know, one, used to be one Ranger, one riot.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Now we got one Dem, one Ranger.
unidentified		Is that what they're going to do now?
unidentified		Yeah, whatever the one-to-one ratio, non-ratio of the song and dance, performance, theater, law enforcement, whatever you want to call it.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		Here's the reality.
unidentified		The Emperor has been seen to have no clothes down here in Texas and the Emperor being the leadership of the state of Texas.
unidentified		This is utterly embarrassing.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		There's a saying we have down here, Steve, all hat and no cattle.
unidentified		And perhaps that has never been more appropriately applied to the so-called leadership in the state of Texas right now.
		Okay.
		I mean, do you remember back, you know, two, three weeks ago when America was promised all these Democrats to be arrested?
		Yeah, zero arrests.
		I mean, do you all remember when you were told about all these Democrats that were going to have their seats vacated if they didn't show up at 3 p.m. Monday, two weeks ago?
		Yeah, that was a lie.
		Do you remember all this rhetoric about, you know, oh, if those Dems don't come back, we'll add seven, eight, nine seats basically stealing, you know, my proposal, pretending it was their own that the policy was pushing for weeks.
		Yeah, when they said it, it was a lie.
		Nothing has happened.
		I mean, they came back to their parking spots.
		They came back to the warm embrace of the so-called Republican leadership of the Texas House.
		We're literally being hugged, given hugs on the floor by the leadership team in the Texas House.
		And here's the thing that I think people just need to grapple with, okay?
		The Democrats have had a smashing success.
		They defeated every single Republican agenda for the first entire special session.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		We haven't gotten a property tax relief.
unidentified		We haven't dealt with anything else that the voters in the state of Texas want.
		And this is just unacceptable.
		But they've gotten away with this for so long, Steve.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		And this is where I think the war room and the posse, you're making a difference.
unidentified		It's frustrating as hell to watch them get, you know, probably get away with this again right now.
unidentified		But the tide is shifting.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		They're feeling the heat.
unidentified		And I think for the first time, they're realizing the eyes of Texas and the eyes of America are on them.
unidentified		And what people they're shocked, I mean, I'm getting blown up.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		People are just shocked and angry at my rhetoric and how I'm calling out the leadership team here in the state of Texas.
unidentified		I had a tweet out this morning, just to clarify for people.
		I don't work for the leadership in the state of Texas.
		I work for the people of the state of Texas.
		And the posse and the war room and the patriots and the freedom-loving, overtaxed men and women of the state of Texas, they don't give a rat's, you know what, about protecting the well-crafted reputation of the leaders in the state of Texas who have proven themselves to be weak, feckless, and not up to the task at hand.
		They don't know what time it is.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		While President Trump's trying to, you know, ward off World War III, okay, and save this country after the damage of the Biden administration, for example, the state of Texas should be locking arms with the president and leading the fight to defeat the radical, progressive, leftist, socialist, Marxist.
unidentified		And time and time again, the leadership of the state of Texas is now being caught basically in league with these Democrat leftist progressives.
unidentified		And that's what's happening here.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		Not one single punishment has been meted out to these Democrats.
unidentified		Not one fine, not one parking spot.
unidentified		And here's the thing, get this.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		I was told this yesterday, okay?
unidentified		I'm getting they're leaking this to me now.
		Um, so sort of breaking news here a little bit.
		There are a list of punishments that might be meted out on them at the end of the special session.
		But but like, so they might take away somebody's vice chairmanships at the end of the session.
		But that's like throwing a hockey hockey player in the penalty box after the game's over.
		What's the point?
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		It doesn't matter if they're not chairman anymore after the committees are effectively dissolved, after the session is over.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		So this is bad.
unidentified		It's not a good kabuki theater.
unidentified		It's bad kabuki theater.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		Texans deserve better.
unidentified		Americans deserve better.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		And keep the pressure up because the ultimate surrender came yesterday, Steve, when after days and days of telling people we could take 10 seats from the Democrats.
unidentified		We could take seven seats, eight, nine, ten seats from the Democrats.
unidentified		They unveiled the maps and the Texas House Redistricting Committee passed out of committee a map that once again only adds five Republican seats.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		And this is after Gavin Newsom of California have pledged to continue gerrymandering their state.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		So look, Texans deserve bold Republican leadership.
unidentified		We're getting weakness.
		We're getting fecklessness.
		And worse, we're getting collusion with the Democrats.
		Let's put that, hang on for a second.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Let's put a screen with Brian and put up the numbers.
unidentified		If you're listening to this on audio or on the podcast, I want to give you the governor's number: 512-463-1782.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		That would be 512-463-1782.
unidentified		The governor, Governor Abbott, I think Governor Abbott said, we want a Texas 10.
		We have to go full maximum.
		So no, he's not going to want to because he's a moderate Democrat.
		But we got to do it.
		The five is no longer good enough.
		Well, and you mentioned, I need to probably tweet this out.
		I was watching an old Fox News interview the governor did just a couple of days ago.
		And the whole Chiron, the headline at the bottom of the screen, it says, you know, Abbott, colon, we can take 10 Democrat seats.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		This was bannered to the wall-to-wall on national news, breathlessly reporting on the bold statements coming out of the leadership in the state of Texas.
unidentified		But what we've learned in the last several days is that's exactly all that it was.
		It was bold statements.
		Remind him, remind him of the 10 seats because Newsom's already trying to neutralize it.
		Brian, we're going to state now.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It has passed out of committee.
unidentified		What do you believe this process is for the next couple of days?
		I think it could be pretty quick now that it's out of committee.
		I mean, my guess is it could be on the floor as soon as tomorrow.
		And look, it's nothing less than embarrassing and surrender.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		The Democrats came back unpunished.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		The map's going to only have five seats, at least that's what it looks right now, both the Senate and the House.
unidentified		So this is a clear coordinated effort.
		Both the leadership of the Texas Senate and the leadership of the Texas House are passing these maps that are nothing more than capitulation to the Democrats.
		But they're doing it on the other issues too.
		And I know folks across the country won't care as much about the property tax thing.
		But if a state like Texas has become, and it has a big government, liberal, progressive, high-tax, high-regulation state, and we can't even get our taxes under control in the great Republican state of Texas, that portends very poorly for states across the country and for the federal government.
		But the leadership of the Texas Senate has just unveiled our property tax proposal.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		And guess what?
unidentified		It's a property tax relief bill that allows for the automatic increases, increases in property taxes.
		So it's full spectrum surrender to the Marxist, progressive, leftists by the Austin Uniparty that is supposedly controlled by Republicans.
		But we've got a Republican government down here that's been in power so long, they don't even know what time it is in this state or in this country anymore.
		It's embarrassing.
		No, President Trump won't go by 14 because of the grassroots.
		Brian, where do people go to get that magnificent Twitter feed of yours, which is the bane of all the globalists and all the globalists down in Austin?
		I've been yelled at and cussed at for a lot of things in my four years in the Texas legislature, but nothing so much and aggressively as what I put on my Twitter feed or X feed at Brian E. Harrison.
		Go please at Brian E. Harrison right now.
		Take five seconds.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		Make a rhino furious and follow me on X at Brian E. Harrison at Bryony Harrison.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		Keep the pressure up.
unidentified		Blow up the phone lines under the Capitol.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		Texas has got to be leading.
unidentified		We're not leading.
		We're not even following.
		And we've got to change that.
brian harrison ▲ ● ▼		America's on the line.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Thank you, brother.
		Appreciate you, sir.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Appreciate you.
unidentified		Is John Lott ready?
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steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Great team at Birch Gold.
unidentified		John Lott, I got John Lott joins me.
		John, I got a bunch of things to go through there.
		You're especially I want to start with because Rachel Meadows all weirded out about the convergence, as she should be, right?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		The convergence of the new census, the mid-decade census we're going to do with a real count and no illegal aliens in it, coupled with President Trump, this executive order is going to come out for mail-in ballots, right?
unidentified		Plus the redistricting.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Let's go to the mail-in ballots.
		I know you're working on something right now.
		Help President Trump out.
unidentified		He's writing an executive order.
		What is John Lott's solution to this mail-in ballot problem?
		Because President Trump's looking for one.
		Well, the president's comments yesterday were exactly right on.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		In fact, I would have been even a little bit stronger when he was talking about what the rules are in other countries.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		There's no other country in the world that has it with the type of mail-in ballot system that we have in eight states in this country, where if you're registered to vote, you automatically get sent a ballot in the mail and then you have to send it back.
unidentified		If you look at Europe, for example, of the 47 countries in Europe, 35 of them completely ban absentee ballots, let alone mail-in ballots, for people living in the country.
unidentified		Another 10 allow them, but you have to have government-issued photo IDs to go and pick up the ballot in person.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		They will not send you the ballot in the mail because they want to make sure.
unidentified		I mean, I'm sure you've heard stories where ballots are stolen out of people's mailboxes and other things.
		They want to make sure that the person who's getting the ballot is the one who should be getting the ballot.
		And then even then, six of those 10 states limit it to people who are in the military or in a hospital.
		And they won't just take your word for it.
		You have to have verification by the military or the hospital that you will be indisposed on Election Day and be unable to vote.
		You know, these are rules that we don't have anything even close to in the United States.
		And it's just not European countries.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		It's something that you go and you see worldwide, even with regard to absentee ballots.
unidentified		I mean, the difference between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots is that with mail-in ballots, they automatically send out the ballots to everybody who's a registered voter.
		At least with absentee ballot, it's a fraction of that.
		People have to go and request.
		John, hang on one second.
		Just take you through a short break.
		Like, I'm seeing three different lanes, three different tactics by which Trump is trying to call into question the normalcy and to sort of change expectations around the 2026 midterms.
		Do you think that's fair?
		Do you disagree?
		I absolutely agree.
		And I think that what you're doing is key to understanding this, which is I think too often we think of sort of Donald Trump being crazy over here, being crazy over here, and being crazy over here, and that they're not related to some sort of larger plan or effort.
		Whereas I think what we are seeing is this roadmap for how our country loses free and fair elections, which is I have never been one to believe that Donald Trump's going to cancel the midterms or cancel the 2028 presidential race.
		Russia, as we know, has elections.
		Saddam Hussein was elected head of Iraq when he was dictator there.
garrett graff ▲ ● ▼		Instead, what I think we are watching is subtle and not so subtle efforts by Republicans across the country, including in the White House, to change who gets to vote, how they vote, and subtly shape the electorate for 2026 and 2028 such that Republicans can lock in an illegitimate minority rule.
unidentified		Okay, he says illegitimate.
unidentified		Okay, here's a point.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		That guy, who's a writer, put up a tweet that said, oh my gosh, in cutting away mail-in ballots, they're going to force people actually to go to polling places and vote.
unidentified		And then they're going to have ICE agents there and they're going to put the word out of ICE agents so that people will be intimidated.
		Well, hey, if you're a citizen, you're not intimidated by an ICE agent.
		An ICE agent is looked at as a protector to get an illegal alien out of the country.
		You damn right we're going to have vice agents out.
		If you're not, if you're illegal alien, you're going home and you're certainly not going to vote.
		Look at those people right there.
		I keep telling you, if they can't cheat, they can't win.
		And now they're just freaking out because we've had enough of this nonsense.
		We've had enough of crap from guys like Abbott down in Texas that the grassroots is stepping up and saying, no, we need to do these redistricting.
		President Trump's coming in and said we're going to do a new census and we're going to cut the illegal aliens and they're going to stop the mail-in ballots.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		John Lott.
unidentified		And the reason the Democrats and Rachel Maddow sitting there, this is authoritarian, is they cannot exist unless they have phony voters, unless they steal an elections.
		Let's be blunt.
		They can't win.
		They know that.
		And that's why they're going, oh, the guy tweets out.
		This is terrible.
		Trump's going to take away mail-in ballots.
		It means people actually go to vote in person and they're going to put the word out.
		They're going to have ICE agents.
		So people are going to be intimidated.
		Hey, yo, if you're a citizen, you ain't intimidated.
		ICE agent is looked at as someone that is protecting your rights as a citizen to get illegal aliens out of here.
		But Rachel and your writer friend, you damn right that there are going to be people there.
		And if illegal aliens are coming up there, boom, throw them in the back of the paddy wagon and ship them the hell out of the country.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Full stop, John Lott.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		Right.
unidentified		Look, other countries don't even have the types of absentee ballot rules that we have.
		Countries that did, like the UK or France, they got rid of them because they saw massive fraud that's occurring.
		You know, the problem that you have with absentee ballots is that you can show somebody how you vote.
		And then if you also have vote harvesting, they can pay you, they can see how you vote, and then they can know how you've turned, you know, that the vote actually is turned in and done.
		People don't know the history of voting in the United States.
		We didn't have secret ballots until the 1880s.
		The last state to adopt secret ballots was South Carolina in 1950.
		And the main reason we moved to secret ballots was vote buying.
		That what would happen is there used to be a ballot box in the front of the room, and you drop in a colored piece of paper based on what party you were voting for.
		And the two parties would stand on either side of the ballot box there, and they would see how you voted, and then they could pay you afterwards.
		And research that I've done, peer-reviewed research, shows that when different states in different years adopted secret ballots, there was an immediate about 10% drop in voter turnout.
		Because it turns out that some people, when they weren't getting paid anymore to go and vote, didn't go and vote.
		And you've seen even with absentee ballots this happening in other countries.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		When we first moved to secret ballots, a lot of states banned absentee ballots or had very strict Restrictions that you had to prove that you weren't going to be around.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		Over time, people have forgotten kind of the history that was there.
unidentified		And we've loosened the rules, and now we've moved to the fact that these ballots automatically get sent out to people.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		But there's no country in the world that has mail-in ballots, and few have absentee ballots that are even close to what we have.
unidentified		What your recommendations to President Trump specifically, because they're writing this executive order right now.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		So if you were there and able to throw your two cents in, because I know you're working on something right now, what would be the one or two things you think is very important that President Trump focus on and his team focus on while they're writing this executive order, sir?
john lott ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think they have to make it as difficult as they can for states to do it.
john lott ▲ ● ▼		Now, the Constitution gives states a lot of leeway in terms of what types of rules that they can have for setting up local elections.
unidentified		But the federal government goes and gives states a lot of money, and they can attach strings to the money that they give in order to kind of reel them in and help prevent this type of fraud from occurring.
		You know, you look at all these things that are going on in terms of Democrats being upset about rounding up illegal aliens, even criminal illegal aliens.
		All these things kind of fit together in terms of, as you were mentioning before, tilting the electoral battlefield.
		You know, California, for example, the most conservative, smallest estimates that I've seen indicates that they may have a few years ago three and a half million illegal aliens in the state.
		You know, that could be like six different congressional seats, five or six congressional seats that are there.
		You add up Illinois and New York.
		There's a reason by being sanctuary states there that they are a magnet for illegal aliens.
		And the fact that they're fighting even the deportation of criminals who are child rapists or murderers or other people that are there just shows how concerned they are about losing those people in the population.
		But when you have things like mail-in ballots and vote harvesting, you allow vote buying, you allow votes by people who aren't going to be voting, all those things go and tilt the field there.
		Yeah.
		Dr. Lott, hang on for a second.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We're going to take a short commercial break, start the second hour, back in two minutes.
unidentified		John Lott's going to stick with us, Naomi Wolf, about what's really going on in New York City.

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