Episode 5134: Airspace Shut Down Over El Paso; Making Sure The 2026 Election Is Safe
Eric Prince’s unsealed court documents reveal Trump-linked election fraud claims, while a 10-day El Paso airspace shutdown—caused by cartel drone operations at Fort Bliss—was lifted without confirmed threats. Meanwhile, Texas Senate primaries show Kem Paxton leading conservatives (33%) amid far-right fears over Sharia law and "Islamic invasion," with Cornyn’s $60M ad campaign failing to shift perceptions. Bibi Netanyahu pushes for U.S.-Iran regime change talks, but Prince warns air strikes alone won’t dismantle Hezbollah or the IRGC. The episode ties election distrust, militarized threats, and partisan Texas politics into a broader pattern of polarization ahead of 2026. [Automatically generated summary]
about the FBI's raid of a Fulton County, Georgia election facility last month.
Newly unsealed court documents reveal the search and seizure of 2020 presidential election data was prompted by a referral from Kurt Olson, a former campaign lawyer for President Trump.
Olson played a key role in the aftermath of the election as the president sought to get the results overturned.
He was a major proponent of the disproven conspiracy theories pushed by the president and his allies.
The unsealed affidavit repeats many of those same claims, including that Fulton County mishandled enough ballots to change the result.
Several legal cases and audits of the election have confirmed Joe Biden won.
The public release of the records follows a request by Fulton officials for more information on the raid.
Last month, FBI agents took hundreds of boxes of election ballots and data from the 2020 election.
The Justice Department has not said what it has done with those documents or where they are being stored.
Meanwhile, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department to obtain Michigan's unredacted voter rolls.
Michigan's Secretary of State argued the DOJ's request violated state and federal privacy laws.
In its argument, the Justice Department cited several federal laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and the National Voter Registration Act.
But the judge, a Trump appointee, ruled those laws, quote, do not allow the United States to obtain the records at issue.
And so, amid Trump's recent call to, quote, nationalize elections, several top state election officials say the federal government has become hostile to them and their work, with one Secretary of State declaring, quote, we can't trust the federal government, and they are now adversaries of the states.
Donald Trump came in in 2020.
He knew he was going to lose, and he had to attack the one way that people could vote in the middle of a pandemic so that he could call it fraud when it wasn't fraud.
And you're right, I've been sounding this alarm going all the way back to 2020 and have been sounding it ever since.
But the fact is that what we all need to do is to call it out for what it is.
It is not just voter suppression.
It is them trying to make it so hard for you to vote so that they can cheat on the outcome because they know that notwithstanding their failed efforts to gerrymander, notwithstanding their failed efforts to spread election lies, they are still going to be on the losing end of these midterm elections.
So the only thing they have left is to try to radically restrict the ability of people to cast ballots and then set themselves up if they don't like the results to execute raids and to take over vote counting and to falsely certify election results.
They are trying to nationalize the elections.
They're trampling on our constitutional rights and we have to safeguard against them.
Unprecedented 10-Day Airspace Shutdown00:02:47
It's a huge deal, John.
You know, it was a mystery, now a little bit less so.
And the new reporting from me, a source familiar, briefed by the Federal Aviation Administration on this really unprecedented 10-day airspace shutdown over El Paso, Texas, right on the border there with Mexico, says this is all linked to military activity at nearby Fort Bliss, specifically Biggs Army Airfield.
You can see it on the map there, just north of the El Paso International Airport.
That is significant because it seems that the Defense Department was carrying out some sort of operation there, still sort of unspecified, which caused the FAA to think that they could not assure the safety of flights going in and out of El Paso International Airport.
Therefore, that led to this blanket sweeping airspace shutdown without modern precedent.
A lot of people online have been pointing to 9-11 as a similar incident causing something like this.
That was a nationwide emergency airspace shutdown.
The situation was fluid, but it was pretty obvious why that shutdown went into place.
This really broke overnight, and it wasn't very clear why this went into place.
There has never ever in the history of the Federal Aviation Administration, and I can say that with some authority as a pilot and a flight instructor, been a large-scale shutdown of airspace over a large metropolitan area.
We're talking about a city of about a million people, about a thousand flights operating in that 10-day period in and out of El Paso, Texas.
We're getting a statement just shortly now from Southwest Airlines in which they will say they're trying to work with the FAA on this.
This is going to have a pretty big ripple effect because this is not a small airport really billed as the gateway to Mexico, this airport.
So, this is going to have a big trickle down here.
I want to also point out the things in this notice to airmen or temporary flight restriction that make this so different than other temporary restrictions on flights that we see for things like VIP movements or presidential movements.
This includes all flights up to 18,000 feet.
The emphasis there on all flights-that's commercial flights, also police helicopters, and medevac helicopters.
Usually, those things are exempted from a large ban on airspace of about 10 miles here.
So, this is really significant, John.
And the new details are just coming in.
We now have a better idea of why this was put in place.
A bit of an impasse between the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration.
This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
Trump Eradicates Mulas00:03:27
Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people.
President'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've tried to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
It's going to happen.
And where do people like that go to share the big 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.
War Room.
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
It's Wednesday, 11 February in the year of our Lord, 2026.
We're trying to get up.
We have a little technical issue because he happens to be out of the country.
Eric Prince is going to join us momentarily, of course, this massive breaking news about El Paso.
Fortunately, we've had Eric up here really talk about what's happening today at the White House.
So, two things are going on.
We're going to try to juggle because we've got an absolute packed show.
Pam Bondi, I believe, is in front of the Judiciary Committee.
That ought to be, they will probably light her up on a number of topics.
We're going to cut in and out of that, particularly opening statements if we can do it.
Real America's Voice, we may go to no commercial breaks if we have to.
Also, the most important thing was supposed to happen today is Bibi Netanyahu is coming to the White House.
Now, we just found out, as you know, normally know as we do these evolutions, the flags come out.
There's some sort of even mini-official arrival onto the West Wing, the kind of the working side of the White House, not the South Lawn, but the West Wing side.
As you know, many times we see this for these bylats.
The meeting is supposed to take place in the Oval Office, but we're just notified moments ago.
And Brian Glenn's, we're going to get Brian Glenn up in a moment from the White House that it's closed press right now.
And we're not even sure that there's going to be an honor guard or any type of flags, etc.
In fact, Brian's saying he may actually come in through the working side of the White House, which is down by the, across from EOB where the staff comes in, down by the National Security Council.
Maybe the meetings will be held there.
Maybe that's why they're doing it.
But the news is that President Trump has ordered, President Trump has ordered, but to put pressure on Tehran.
There's comments coming out, or at least leaks coming out of the Department of War and the White House that President Trump has authorized a second carrier strike group to the North Arabian Sea.
He's already got a carrier strike group there to make sure that the Iranians know, the Ayatollah and the Mullahs know that President Trump means business here.
Part of the reason Netanyahu is there is to make two cases.
Number one, his case is that he's concerned that I guess Witkoff and Jared Kushner have narrowed these discussions around Iran's nuclear program, its ballistic missile program, to make sure President Trump totally obliterated it to end the 12-day war.
But there's some discussion about do they still have some remnant left?
Are they still getting the nuclear, what you have to do to actually do weapons-grade nuclear material?
Netanyahu's Dual Case00:03:07
Is that still going?
President Trump has said that has to all be eradicated.
The MULAs and the Ayatollah's negotiators have said, well, that's not going to happen.
Bibi's role, what he says is that those negotiations have to be broadened out to a whole host of other things, which are tantamount to setting up for regime change, at least through negotiations.
He is going to make the case, as you've heard, Mark Levin and Senator Graham and others relentlessly over the last couple of weeks make the case that if you don't strike now, you're not going to have opportunity to strike later.
There'll never be this week.
And so there's a whole huge amount of tension about this.
Bibi's actually moved it forward.
He moved it forward.
He wants to press the case for a military strike.
I will tell you, given everything on the president's plate right now, including what we're seeing down in Texas, and this doesn't have to do with El Paso, which I'll get to in a second, his plate is quite full.
And I just would think we got Eric, this place quite full and so many other things going on.
Okay, we're going to get to all of this this morning.
I want to start.
Eric Prince, thank you for joining us.
I know you're overseas.
First off, I've had a number of people come to me.
They just want to make sure you're safe and secure.
We know you've been traveling throughout the world, particularly in some places with a lot of bad ombres.
Are you okay?
I am alive and free and enjoying life, Steve.
So yes, the fake news coming out of the clowns in Rwanda about capturing me were completely false.
And they have taken some battlefield setbacks of late.
I think they've resorted to just making up nonsense.
Just give me a minute on that because you mentioned it.
A lot of people have contacted me and said, hey, they were putting out actual information that you had been captured and were being held hostage, or there were all types of nefarious things going on.
We can put that rumor to bed.
Yes, you could put that rumor to bed.
I've not been back on the continent of Africa in at least 30 days.
But the fact is, Paul Kagame comes to a peace signing ceremony with President Trump on December 4 with the president of DRC.
And while he's there, he's launching a further invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo while sitting in the White House.
And the White House was rightly upset about that because President Trump's been trying to be the president of peace and bringing parties together, trying to end wars.
And Kagame launches an offensive.
And so our primary job in the Congo right now is to do tax collection from the mines.
And so some of that capability had to pivot to help stop another invasion by Rwanda of the Congo.
Eric, I had you on here today.
You want to talk about BB and the situation in Toronto, potentially a second carrier battle group going.
Air Power Buildup?00:15:32
We got a couple of minutes of this break.
I want to hold you through.
You have been the guy for now a decade that has thought through what Venezuela, but particularly you've been at the tip of the spear in talking about the cartels, military interdiction, what's going to have to happen with these corrupt, the corrupt government in Mexico.
Peter Schweitzer's book, New York Times number one bestseller, says the Mexican government's actively involved in the invasion of our country.
They shut down El Paso airspace.
The Department of War just announced it because it's about militarized drones flown by the cartels.
And I think they've taken care of, take care of the situation.
Give me a minute on that before we go to break.
So for example, Colombia has had hundreds of drone attacks against Colombian security forces, armed drone attacks.
They've had helicopters shot down, troops killed by very well-armed cartels.
I'm not surprised that that kind of cartel capability comes up to the southern border of the United States.
I'm sure that NOTAM, that notice to airman, terminal fright restriction, basically, it's like when you're going to fire live weapons on a firing range, you clear the area.
That's what happened.
The Department of War probably had a lot of indications of drones coming.
And so they use some higher-end capabilities, whether they're kinetic or EMPs or lasers, to shoot all those threats out of the sky.
Eric, hang on for one second.
We've had a little technical problem, but you're coming in through loud and clear right now.
So we're going to take a short commercial break.
Okay, we've got Pam Bondi testifying.
We've got Bibi Netanyahu about to show up.
We've got a packed show today, including a massacre last night up in British Columbia.
They said someone in a dress, a gun person in a dress.
We'll get down to all of that.
Also, the other investigations going on in Capitol Hill, they're melting down because I believe Kurt Olson, a frequent guest on the war room over the years, is now President Trump's right-hand man on looking at the machines.
Looks like the CIA and DNI have turned over material to him about the 2020 election.
They're melting down.
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For a closure of airspace over El Paso, it's now been lifted.
The agency said there is no threat to commercial aviation.
All fights will soon resume as normal.
This comes hours after fights in and out of El Paso International Airport were closed with officials citing special security reasons.
So this is good news, but the mystery remains.
For those people who are heading home from El Paso, maybe you want to turn around or call your local airline.
Eric Prince joins us.
Eric, you remember a certain, those of a certain age remember the remember the film Seven Days in May with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.
It was centered around an airbase near El Paso, Texas.
The FAA has just said that these drones, these militarized drones did come into American airspace.
Your thoughts, sir?
The Department of War acted immediately, but your thoughts about this.
They could have even been heavy lift agricultural drones flown from Mexico carrying 10, 20, 50 kilos of narcotics to a predetermined drop location.
So, whether they're carrying weapons or drugs, it is part of an ongoing mechanized invasion enabled by the Mexican government's inability to clamp down on the criminal activity.
And so, at some point, there has to be consequences.
I'm not sure that the Mexican presidency is the fully witting and able counterparty, although I think she's better off than the predecessor.
This will continue to be a problem.
When you have to shut down airspace for a million-person city in America so that you can clear the skies with kinetic capability from the military, that is, by definition, an invasion and must be dealt with.
This is, to me, this is far worse than those weather balloons or whatever, the surveillance balloons that the Chinese were flying across U.S. airspace, and Biden didn't dare shoot them down.
I'm glad the War Department shot these things down.
The question is: how do they go after the sources?
Now, there's some very good tech available learned from the Ukraine war to originate, to locate the controller, the person, the pilot that's controlling those drones at its origin.
The question is: is the Department of War going to shoot back and either put a warhead or another drone back at that pilot location to kill whoever's doing it?
Schweiser's book shows that the Mexican government is, first off, they're in business with the cartel, the cartels kind of control them, and they also use the cartels, their muscle.
They're inextricably linked with this book.
Shows that the Mexican government, the seven families that control Mexico, are up to their neck in this with the cartels.
They control the government.
They're an enemy of the United States.
They're not a friendly power.
We don't have, correct me if I'm wrong, you're the military expert.
Don't we have combat air patrol up all the time and particularly on the southern border just for situations like this?
And you've advocated for years, we got to start doing deep interdiction strikes into the cartels bases in northern Mexico.
When Israel started tangling with Hezbollah back in 2000, well, after October 7, 50% of the FPVs, first person viewer drones, attack drones that were flown by Hezbollah, made it into Israel and hit their targets.
So Combat Air Patrol is flying at thousands and thousands of feet, looking for another aircraft with a very high-capable radar.
It does not have the visibility to spot a tiny 4 or 10 or even 50 kg payload drone flying 100 meters from the surface.
So I think the solution to the cartels is to kind of unleash a almost a public-private partnership, almost like the founding fathers knew what they were doing when they talked about the letter of mark and reprisal.
Lots of ways to go after those seven families, the cartel families that are enabling this criminality is to first go after their money, go after their money that's been laundered into legitimate businesses and freeze that and start to squeeze like an octopus.
And you will get them to comply without even having to kill a whole lot of people.
But if you squeeze their money hard, it will unequivocally get their attention.
Okay, well, using that strategy, let's shift now to Tehran because that's a strategy we've advocated.
And President Trump economic warfare, Scott Bessant, you're squeezing the MULAS.
You got more sanctions on them.
We haven't interdicted the oil going out straight to Hermuz to China, which is their big payday.
Right now, there's talk about a second carrier battle group heading over there.
BB's there today to argue two things.
Number one, the negotiations we're having right now is too narrow cast just on their nuclear capability.
You've got to broaden it out to really work through regime change.
And if that doesn't work, if you can't get there, you have to go in and strike.
And by the way, from Mark Levin to Senator Graham to Ted Cruz, I mean, there's a firestorm up on Capitol Hill supporting that Bibi's going to be in the Oval Office in about 30 minutes, 35 minutes, not open to the press right now, but to make this case to the president.
What would be your advice?
Where are we?
Do a sit-rep, where are we?
And what is your advice to the president?
No, no, and no is a complete answer.
Ultimately, Iran is not the problem of the United States.
It would be an unnecessary war.
I'm all in favor of the Iranian people having their freedom.
They have to sort this out on their own.
If people want to give them the tools to go after the mullahs, fine, but it does not require U.S. air power.
And in no time in history, ever has air power alone changed a regime.
None.
With the exception, we've got compliance when we dropped two nukes into Japan that at least made them stop.
But otherwise, air power alone is not going to move the needle here.
Yeah, yeah.
We firebombed, we firebombed Tokyo and Osaka for six months, worse than we firebombed Dresden.
And they weren't prepared to surrender until the second nuke.
And that's because they had the threat of a what, a 4 million man invasion of an American army and Marine Corps with America taking a million casualties.
So you're right on air power.
So what would be your advice to the president of the United States?
I know he looks to you.
This is why when they had situated this problem in sub-Saharan Africa or Haiti, you're a guy that they talked to at Mexico, Venezuela.
You can see your handprints over everywhere of your thinking and ideas.
So what's your thinking in Tehran?
Because dude, when they send, they got so many assets in there now.
It's pretty amazing.
I think it's a bigger buildup, except for ground troops than even the Gulf War.
When you talk about air power and naval power, and they're sending another carrier strike group or rumor to send it over now.
So what is your recommendation to the president?
The problem is air power alone is not going to do this.
You're not going to kill the tens of thousands of IRGC, Quds Force, Hezbollah personnel.
Hell, they've even contracted, the Iranians have, with Shia Afghan ex-soldiers to try to beat up on Afghanistan on Iranian protesters.
The problem is the regime will kill their way to success.
And until you take away the inevitability of the regime and have enough force to displace them, the air power alone is not going to get that done.
So again, not our problem.
Iran does not have an Independence Day because they don't get invaded.
They've not been colonized.
The terrain of Iran absolutely lends itself towards the defensive river, the mountain ring in the south, the Zagros Mountains, the rough interior.
This is not a place that air power alone is going to change the regime.
Listen, if it works, I'll eat my hat, but I just don't think that's the way to go here.
That is not America first.
It is not our problem.
If we want to help the Iranian people defeat them, their neighbors are.
If the Iranians, if the Persian Empire returns, even if you got rid of the mullahs, you have a lot of layers of governance there.
And if Iran does return to a historic role, they've had a role of generally bullying their neighbors.
So their behavior is not unhistorical.
It's just that it's in the hands of some really crazy mullahs right now.
But again, it is not the responsibility of the United States government and the taxpayers and American fighting personnel that are 8,000 miles away to solve that problem.
Hard no.
Eric, before I let you go, we're in Texas and we're here through the primary.
We've got one of the top pollsters, James Johnson, who's going to come on right after you.
The New York Times put up a story last night how this anti-Sharia law and this whole issue about an Islamic invasion of Texas has become the top political issue down here.
I know in Northern Virginia, you've talked about this for a while, these, you know, school choice have built all these schools.
In the New York Times, they had a quote by somebody here and they said, one of the MULAs or one of the imams said, well, look, we look at Texas as the new Medina.
How would you interpret that?
We got about a minute and a half.
How would you interpret that and how important it is to ban Sharia law in this country?
Ban Sharia law.
If this, again, Steve, if this doesn't get solved in the ballot box, this will get solved in a very kinetic way because I don't think Americans are going to accept being colonized by Islamic, by an Islamic paradigm.
That's happened before.
The Reconquista happened in Spain.
It took a couple hundred years.
It will not take a couple hundred years this time to change it back.
Eric Prince, where do people go?
I think you got a podcast, although I know you're traveling all over the world.
How do people, are you putting up any content?
And if you are, where can people go to get it?
I'm on X at Real Eric D. Prince.
I've been kind of quiet because we're busy solving some other countries' problems, and I'll be noisier about that in the coming months.
But until then, we got work to do.
Well, it's good to know you've got many friends and allies that were quite concerned by the rumors that were coming up, but it's good to know that you're in one piece and have really thought through these issues.
Appreciate you, sir, as always.
All right, Steve.
Take care.
If you look at problems that get fixed, eventually Eric Prince's ideas, I think, get manifested.
Okay, we're going to take a short commercial break.
We've shifted the flag down here to Texas for one reason.
There is a massive issue about Sharia law.
There's also a massive issue about H-1B visas.
That is right.
A permission structure was granted to talk about Sharia law.
I think a permission structure is going to come very quick on H-1B visas.
A pollster, this is going to be, I think, the most expensive Republican primary in history.
It's a three-way horse race.
One of the top pollsters who put out a poll last week that blew people's heads up is going to join us.
We're also going to go to the White House.
We've got Brian Glenn and also Dr. Peter Navarro has got the argument for President Trump and the facts about manufacturing.
So back to the White House, Capitol Hill, all of it.
Stick around.
and you're in the war room.
Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
James Johnson about Texas is going to join us in a second.
I want to go live to the White House.
We're going to be going live to the White House twice today.
One, Brian Glenn, is with us, and Peter Navarro is going to join us in the second hour.
Brian, okay, so right now, no honor guard.
It's going to be closed to the press.
It'll be an Oval Office meeting, it looks like, with BB and the president of the United States.
I think this is his sixth trip or seventh trip.
I say it's a wellness check right now, but maybe I'm too cynical.
White House sources are telling you what about exactly what this meeting's about, sir.
Yeah, there's three topics mainly on the table here.
First of all, would be the Board of Peace and kind of where we're at in regards to that structure, you know, President Trump heading up the Board of Peace.
Second would be the second phase in the Gaza development and what countries are involved and what is that, what's the state of that right now.
Oval Office Updates00:04:56
Then lastly, the situation with Iran, particularly in not only the nuclear talks, but also the long-range ballistic missiles as well.
And from what I understand, the Iranian president just said recently that any talk about that is excessive, and they're not necessarily agreeing to a deal that eliminates that off the table.
Now, you said in the open, traditionally, we have been lined up out front of the West Wing.
You've got the traditional color guard, but behind me is the Eisenhower building.
And between the Eisenhower building and the West Wing is where the Prime Minister will make his arrival.
That happens in about 20, 25 minutes, and we'll have that live as it happens.
You're breaking a big scoop.
So BBs traditionally come, not through the South Lawn, but through the West.
And they've had the flags.
And we set it up a half hour beforehand.
We see the color guard come up.
They pull up.
And this is, you know, every president essentially comes for an official bylat.
Then, I don't know, a couple of months ago, we did the, he came and he just came to the West Wing with no color guard, came in, and I said it was like a pizza delivery.
Our hit with you, I think, did five or six million hits on social media because so shocking.
You're actually breaking big news.
And I say, this is not pulling up to that kind of West Wing thing where you walk right past the Roosevelt room and the Oval.
This is, if you're correct, he's coming in basically where the staff comes in down where the awning is by the National Security Council and then goes a back route up to the Oval Office.
Is that what you're telling me you think is going to happen today?
Yes, sir.
I can confirm that's what's going to happen today.
I was told that by a Trump official.
So all the activity you see, and if we could flip the camera around, which we won't, it's where the Israeli foreign press is set up, they can stay there because guess what?
He's not coming through here.
He's coming up behind us.
For the most part, Steve, that is out of camera sight for the most part.
So I think these camera folks will probably shift over here to where I'm at in order to, you're not going to be able to see his arrival, but you'll see the black cards coming behind me, but you're not going to see him get out and meet the president.
That's not going to happen.
Audience, you see that if you go and we go, let's go full screen on to Brian Riken.
That is the executive office building.
That's called the Eisenhower.
That is on the White House compound.
In fact, the vast majority of the staff that we talk about work over there.
In fact, Dr. Devar has his staff.
That's where the majority.
And they walk back and forth with a pass.
Only a certain pass gets you in.
Now, the only time I remember a major head of state coming through that working pass is when, I believe in the Obama administration, I think it was, when the Dalai Lama showed up and Obama and those guys did not want to upset the Chinese Communist Party, they slipped the Dalai Lama in through the side door.
But that is pretty extraordinary, sir, is it not?
It is.
Joan, if you could move that light, I'm going to whip the camera around.
I want to show our viewers exactly what you're talking about, Steve.
And I appreciate you bringing that up.
Let's whip this around and I'll show you.
Right now, there is not, we don't have a Marine outside of the West Wing here, which indicates President Trump is not in the Oval Office.
Now, let's whip the camera back around here.
Here's the massive amount of foreign press.
I'd say 90% of the folks over there are foreign press.
And of course, if you whip the camera back around here a little bit more, there is Pebble Beach.
There is no color guard.
There is no official greening for the Prime Minister.
Now, I will say this, Steve, the J6, I call it the January 6th style fencing, that is up around this area.
So the security protocols are in place.
But if you're looking for a welcoming flag, Steve, it's not here.
He'll be entering the building behind me.
Behind you, but I got to tell you from the side into the White House right there below it.
But I got to tell you, I'm sure they're going to negotiate.
If they've got the international media right there in the Israeli media, there's no way they want to come through that very side door.
You watched.
I'm sure there's some intense negotiation.
And if I will take the over that he won't arrive at 11 o'clock, that I'll take the over right now where I'm sure there's some negotiation because at least he's one of going to show up like he did last time with the international media, but with no official greeting, but at least it's not through the side door, correct?
Yeah, I would agree with you.
And I have been told that, you know, it is closed as of right now, but you know how President Trump is.
If whatever the outcome of that meeting with the prime minister, if he feels like there is some messaging that came out of that meeting that he wants to get in front of these foreign media and American outlets, they're opening up.
So stay tuned because we could break in with some live coverage in there.
Yeah, we'll take that.
By the way, big news will be if there's not a strike, if there looks like there's going to be a strike or the second carry battle group's going, people better be ready because I've never seen more hardware into a region at all.
Voter Concerns About Sharia Law00:15:50
No updates so far.
Before I let you go, no updates so far on the interdiction of the Mexican, the militarized drones sent up by supposedly the cartels into violated American airspace down in El Paso, sir?
No, sir.
I have not gotten any official word from the White House.
I did have a colleague share a message that did confirm that they did shoot down Mexican cartel drones in that area.
And I was telling a colleague earlier, if we can strike boats off the coast of Venezuela to have drugs, so why not shoot those drones out of the air as well, especially in U.S. airspace?
They were able to get into U.S. airspace, which is very concerned.
That is a violation of our sovereignty.
Brian Glenn, social media.
We'll come back as soon as you got anything to break with BB.
We'll come right back to you.
Where do people go get you?
Yes, sir.
Thanks, Steve.
You can follow me at Brian Glenn TV across the board at Brian on TrueSocial.
We'll have it here for you live as it develops, Steve.
Thank you.
Okay, we're streaming.
We're streaming Pam Bondi.
She's going to get lit up today.
Jamie Raskin's already lightning to her.
So we're going to go back to that as we can get clips.
We're streaming on our other side so you can watch the whole thing in its entirety.
James Johnson joins us.
James, first off, talk to me because we've known you for a long time.
The worm's known you for a long time.
Many of the people we're close to know that you're one of the top smartest pollsters around.
You put out a poll last week in this Texas race, and it really upended the race and kind of caused a lot of consternation, particularly among the Cornyn camp.
And you were immediately accused of foreign interference into an American election.
Talk to me first about your company, who you are, and was that poll foreign interference in a Senate election in the great state of Texas?
Well, Steve, we've got a ridiculous moment now where I start speaking and everybody hears my British accent.
But my company, JL Partners, is not a British company.
We are an American company registered in Virginia.
I'm a permanent resident here.
The accent is usually a helpful thing, Steve, but it's not on this occasion.
Look, we did not, we put out this poll last week.
We are not affiliated with any campaign, any outside group.
I've never spoken to any of these campaigns or affiliated groups from them, let alone being paid by them.
But we put it out there as a poll that we self-funded to try and shine the truth on this race because there are loads of these polls sponsored by various campaigns or PACs.
And we wanted to get at the truth.
And we found that Kem Paxton is the sort of leading conservative candidate.
He's ahead by one point.
And then behind him, tied for second place, is Wesley Hunt and John Cornyn.
So we're basically saying, you know, as pollsters say, it's all within the margin of error.
And it's effectively a three a three way tie.
This is one of the most important Republican primaries in the history of this country.
And it may end up being the one that's the most money spent.
I think the shock was and correct me if you're wrong, I don't want to disparage this, but I think the Cornyn camp was saying that this was a Wesley Hunt.
This was Wesley Hunt trying to show he's competitive and that Cornyn can't is not going to finish in a runoff because right now the law in Texas is you have to get 50 percent of the vote plus one.
And if you don't, you go to another massive runoff.
Everybody, I think right now, the consensus is it'd be very difficult for any of the candidates, including Paxton, to get to 50% plus one vote.
So we're going to go to a runoff.
And there's in Capitol Hill, they're absolutely apoplectic in the Senate leadership fund that Cornyn could finish third.
I mean, what shocked people about your poll was how well Hunt was doing vis-a-vis Cornyn because Cornyn, since we moved the show to Texas a couple of weeks ago, we curate not just MFC, we curate the local news.
I've never seen the gross tonnage of Cornyn ads is unbelievable.
And the president has not endorsed here, but if you watch these Cornyn ads, you literally think he's sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom in the White House.
It's so close he's walking on the border.
He's with President Trump.
He gives the impression he's Trump's candidate, but it's just their ad after ad after ad over Super Bowl Sunday, all of it.
What are your thoughts about this race?
Yeah, look, the amount of money poured in is obviously huge.
It is the big primary race of this cycle of this year.
I think that if Wesley Hunt wasn't in this race, John Cornyn would be in a much better position.
But clearly, this new sort of person has come through and has, you know, potentially will push him into third.
And as you say, that would be a massive turn up for the books.
Look, I think that what we've seen in the last couple of days in that Senate race is actually both campaigns start to now point their guns at Wesley Hunt because he's sort of so close to pushing Cornyn off that second space spot if he hasn't already.
So I think that speaks volumes.
These guys are seeing him as a serious threat.
Action speaks louder than words on these things.
And I think, you know, he has come through the middle of this race.
He has the highest favorability ratings of anyone we polled, partly because he's less of a known quantity.
And people, I think, are looking for an alternative to vote for.
And they feel that he could be that person.
Plenty of time to run.
And obviously, whoever gets through has to win that runoff too.
But let me just quickly talk about those John Cornyn ads, because a huge number of people in the race have seen it.
So we didn't just ask the top line numbers.
We also asked people, have you seen, read or heard anything about the various candidates in the last two weeks?
And 59% of Republican primary voters in Texas said that they have seen, read or heard something about John Cornyn.
Now, on the one hand, you think that's great for the campaign that they've got their view across.
The ads, the ad money is working.
People are seeing the ads.
However, when we break that down as to whether people feel better or worse, the effect of these ads is actually completely net neutral.
The same number of people who say they've got a more favorable response as a result of the ads is the same as the number who say they have a less favorable view.
And that to me is suggesting that some of this messaging about the closeness to Trump is perhaps backfiring, or maybe even some voters are not buying it.
Is that pretty unheard of?
It's pretty unusual.
It's pretty unusual.
I mean, I've got some more info on here.
And when we have, here's what they say when we said, what did you see in the last two weeks about John Cornyn?
And there are some positives in there.
Some people say he stands with Trump.
I saw an ad and it shows that he's securing the border.
He seems to stand up for Texans.
But then look on the negative side.
The similar people having seen similar ads, but instead saying I don't trust him because of his votes in the past.
He does not have conservative values and does not have my support the way he votes.
This is real quotes from real voters.
He said he was a Trump Republican, but I see him as a rhino.
And at the end here, something you've been talking about a lot a lot, Steve, is he is too close with Islam, which is also clearly having an impact on views of him in this race.
Can you hang on for a second?
I want to hold you through the break because this race is so important.
What's happening in Texas is so important.
What James talked about, the New York Times had a big story last night.
Guess what?
About how a new issue down here is the rise of Islam and banning Sharia law.
We've given a permission structure for people to talk about it, and they are talking about it.
Of course, the New York Times calls it a conspiracy theory.
Naturally, we're going to take a short commercial break.
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Short commercial break.
Back in a moment.
Here's your host, Stephen Kayban.
Okay, we are going to get some clips from what's happening over in the House judiciary.
It's, let's say, this little intense pan Bondi's over there.
You can watch it on our streaming alternative if you want to get the full get bathed in it.
Bibi's supposedly shown up in a few minutes by a side entrance.
I think that's pretty symbolic.
Pretty tough negotiations going to go on today.
Kurt Mills is going to join us.
A lot of new information about this.
James Johnson, JL Partners, an American company.
And just forget the awfully, awfully British accent.
He's an American citizen.
James, first of all, give me your ideas of the because I think this is another shocker to people that are not in Texas.
It looks like Crockett's, they held up the Christian, the evangelical left-wing Christian as literally the second coming that was going to save the Democratic Party.
But to me, his campaign being down in Texas is not getting traction.
It's Crockett's everywhere.
Is Crockett, Jasmine Crockett, do you believe going to win the Democratic primary here to run against whoever hunt Paxton or Cornyn, sir?
Yeah, I think she's the favorite.
And again, in the unbiased polls in this race, she's leading sometimes by as much as eight or nine points, sometimes by a bit more narrowly.
When you look into the crosstabs, when you look into the data underneath that, it's because of her strength with black voters.
And Democratic primary voters, African-American Democrat primary voters do come out and vote at these primaries, and they're backing her very heavily.
So look, I think we really could be in a scenario where she's the candidate.
That's obviously great news for Republicans almost regardless of who the Republican candidate is, because she's probably going to be pretty easy for the Republicans to paint as being on the more left extreme side of the Democratic Party.
Isn't she a, I mean, this is about the rise of the DSA, the Working Family Party, Working Family Party, very strong in the Houston area.
DSA, I'm telling you that Senate District 9, the DSA ability to get in and do grassroots, and people should not dismiss this, important.
But her policies, I mean, she's from the more radical, not just progressive, more radical branch of the Darren Crime Party.
Is this just name recognition?
Are people in the Democratic Party really siding with her about these policies?
Look, I think they increasingly are.
I think there is a big chunk of the Democratic Party who, especially the longer they've been out of power.
And I think after the Trump election, what I've seen when I've been interviewing Democratic voters in focus groups and in interviews is that they're saying we need more of a fighter.
We need somebody to take on Trump and take on the Republicans.
And what that often means is somebody on the more liberal, progressive, socialist side.
We saw that happen in New York, obviously, in that primary with Mamdani.
I think we could see it happen with Crockett.
The difference is Texas ain't New York.
And although she might win the primary, I can't see a world in which she wins statewide.
Let's go back.
I want to go back.
The New York Times broke last night.
This story about coming out of nowhere that people miss was this issue about Sharia law and really what I think people are viewing as an Islamic invasion of Texas, particularly in the Houston area and especially in North Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, that has kind of shocked people.
And people, as we've started the show, we're in Texas as one of our fourth hour during the week.
And on Saturday or the second hour on Saturday, we tell people the example we always use is London and New York City.
And people get it.
We gave a permission structure, I think, for people to talk about this.
This conference we had with Gert Vilders, we brought Gert Vilders over here for a reason.
That guy has fought this for 20 years.
He saw it happening.
Nobody, the elites didn't do anything, overwhelmed his countries, overwhelmed London, overwhelmed Paris.
We also had Glenn Beck, the great Glenn Beck that's been hammering, been banging the drum on this for 20 years.
Your thoughts about this.
The New York Times has now officially said, okay, this is the thing, although it's a conspiracy theory of the far-right wing nuts.
Your assessment about this issue and will it be an important issue in this race?
I think it could be important in the primary.
I think, you know, the ads determine this race, right?
You know, with the amount of spend on Cornyn, the amount of spend from Paxton, and the increasing amount of spend from Hunt.
Although it'd be interesting to see whether he can pull enough resources together.
Look, as I mentioned earlier, Steve, you know, when you ask people what are their hesitations about John Cornyn of the Republican primary voters, this is something that's coming through.
People say, now, most prominent in concern is: is he a rhino?
Is he pro-Trump enough?
But also in there is the words Islamic, is the word Islam.
Clearly, some of these attacks are getting through and landing, linking Cornyn to the issue you mentioned.
So do I think it's going to be the number one issue?
Probably not.
But do I think it's important in the primary race?
I think so.
And it may explain why amongst MAGA Republicans, when you look at how they're going to vote, because we asked this in our poll.
We asked people, do you consider yourself a MAGA Republican or do you consider yourself a more traditional, moderate Republican?
And amongst those sort of self-defined MAGA voters, Ken Paxton has 33%.
Wesley Hunt has 29%.
And John Cornyn is right down on 14%.
So, you know, in terms of where the future of MAGA is, in terms of what MAGA means now today in 2026, it's Paxton and Hunt that are leading that charge in Texas, with Corning quite far behind.
James, I want people to follow you because you're putting out great information about this race all the time.
You're very focused on this because you know the importance of this primary race, not just for the country, but also for the MAGA movement, the Republican Party, in the world.
Where do people go to get you, sir?
So they can go on X.
It's James Johnson252.
And you can also pick up J underscore L underscore partners for the company account.
That would be an American company, right?
JL Partners.
That would be an American company.
Don't believe the accent.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate you.
Look forward to having you back.
Thank you.
I might add that John Cornyn has put out an ad, a 30-second ad that says that he has been fighting Sharia law and he's been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood and he's been fighting care for his entire career.
So that's how much this has elicited interest in this topic that John Cornyn's climbing on board.
It's a dogfight.
Of course, Ken Paxton is a beloved member of the grassroots here, the grassroots intensity and back of Ken Paxton.
Ken Paxton has not raised a ton of money.
John Cornyn, I think, has raised, I don't know, $60, $70 million.
Most of that will be spent in this primary.
The amount of spending is beyond belief.
And it looks like it's going to be a runoff.
So this has got a long way to go in Texas.
We're going to take a short commercial break.
Kurt Mills is with us to give a broader perspective of exactly what this means today in the Oval with Beebe.
We'll cover Bibi if the camera's allowed to be cut on.
We're also going to go back to the hearing, try to get some clips from Pam Bondi.
Dr. Peter Navarro has got a piece up at the Washington Times today to rebut the Wall Street Journal's assertion that President Trump is not bringing manufacturing and manufacturing jobs back to the United States of America.
Complete bald face misinterpretation of information.