Bannon's War Room - Episode 5225: Gloves Come Off In Blockbuster Intel And Mullin Confirmation Hearings
Aired: 2026-03-18
Duration: 48:53


=== Trump's Nuclear Dilemma (11:31) ===

[00:00:00]  Iran, for its part, is now confirming the deaths of two key figures, a top defense official, Ali Larajani, also Golam Reza Soleimani, the commander of the besieged paramilitary force.
[00:00:12]  Now, Israel claims responsibility for both killings and says they will do the same to Iran's supreme leader.
[00:00:20]  Mushtaba Khamenei's fate is unknown.
[00:00:25]  But I can say one thing.
[00:00:27]  We will continue.
[00:00:28]  As we have proven, we will continue to pursue anyone who poses a threat to the state of Israel.
[00:00:33]  And anyone who raises a hand against us is not immune from us.
[00:00:36]  We will pursue him, find him, and neutralize him.
[00:00:40]  Today, under pressure from Donald Trump, the House and the far-right Senate Republicans open debate on legislation they're calling the Save America Act.
[00:00:48]  The voter suppression bill would require voters to show approved photo identification in order to vote in federal elections and proof of citizenship in order to register.
[00:00:58]  If the legislation passes, it could disenfranchise millions of Americans.
[00:01:02]  Debate on the bill, which does not currently have enough support to pass the chamber, could go on for weeks.
[00:01:09]  Here's the president moments ago lying about our election system.
[00:01:14]  The biggest thing coming up is a Save America Act in the Senate.
[00:01:19]  That's voter ID and proof of citizenship and no mail-in ballots, you know, corrupt mail-in ballots.
[00:01:27]  We're the only country in the world that does it that way, corrupt as hell.
[00:01:32]  Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have vowed to use every tool in their arsenal to tank the legislation and make Republicans pay for their efforts.
[00:01:40]  If the U.S. were to stop their side in this, do you think Israel would continue with that?
[00:01:49]  Well, I think it's possible, although many in Israel say, look, Trump started the war, Trump will end the war.
[00:01:55]  That's what happened last summer in June when the Israelis were on their 12th day of a bombing campaign.
[00:02:02]  Trump had the U.S. drop 14 bunker busters on one day and then said, okay, the war is over.
[00:02:08]  Israel still had a very long target list.
[00:02:11]  And the bombing of the besiege, as in all of the attacks on the Revolutionary Guard, are intended to destroy the instruments of Iranian power that both threaten us externally and threaten their own people internally.
[00:02:24]  So that by destabilizing the regime in that critical area, it causes the regime to fracture at the top.
[00:02:31]  They're losing leaders hand over fist.
[00:02:33]  Personal animosities, ambition, family connections now all start to play a big role.
[00:02:38]  And as the regime comes apart, hopefully the opposition can begin to take advantage of it and see the regime collapse internally.
[00:02:47]  A top national security official became the first senior administration member to quit over the war.
[00:02:52]  Joe Kent is his name.
[00:02:53]  He headed the National Counterterrorism Center, quoting now from his letter to the president, Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.
[00:03:06]  Joe Kent is a former Army Green Beret whose wife was killed in the Syrian Civil War.
[00:03:10]  In the past, he's made news for amplifying conspiracy theories about January 6th.
[00:03:15]  He's also had to disavow past interactions with a Nazi sympathizer and a Holocaust denier.
[00:03:21]  His wife, a naval officer, was killed by a suicide bomber in Syria in 2019.
[00:03:26]  For his part, the president today said, and I'm quoting him here, I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security.
[00:03:33]  To my friend Joe Kent, who's a decorated war veteran who lost his wife in Syria, what are you doing?
[00:03:40]  You're giving aid and comfort to a lie.
[00:03:43]  There was an imminent threat.
[00:03:45]  How much more evident could you be within two weeks, having enough material to make 10 bombs?
[00:03:51]  How close could you come?
[00:03:53]  Not much.
[00:03:54]  Well, that's a bunch of BS.
[00:03:56]  If it weren't for Israel, we'd be less safe.
[00:03:59]  Israel has no choice to stop radical Islam from destroying it.
[00:04:04]  I hope the American people understand we have no choice.
[00:04:08]  You may be tired of fighting them, but they're not tired of fighting you.
[00:04:11]  The only reason they haven't killed more Americans than they have, radical Islam, is we stop them before they get here.
[00:04:18]  If they had weapons-grade material, they would turn it into a bomb.
[00:04:23]  And if they had a bomb, they would use it because they're religious Nazis.
[00:04:27]  Those who got Hitler wrong, you're doing the same thing in 2026.
[00:04:32]  Your head-in-the-sand approach to who the Ayatollah is and who this regime is could kill millions of people.
[00:04:40]  President Trump, you're the right man at the right time.
[00:04:43]  God bless you for taking decisive action.
[00:04:46]  And can you imagine what the world would be like if Kamala Harris had won?
[00:04:51]  So we got to get this right, and we're very close to getting it right.
[00:04:55]  We're very close to collapsing.
[00:04:58]  This is Trump's daunting dilemma.
[00:05:00]  This is the decision he has to make.
[00:05:02]  Does he escalate the conflict with ground troops to achieve his ambitious goals, even though polls suggest it is deeply unpopular here in the United States, and Republicans are very afraid of what it could mean for the midterms, including because the gas prices continue to surge?
[00:05:17]  Or does he claim some sort of hollow victory, pull out, reduce the economic pain, but that would leave in Iran an embittered, violent regime that would potentially still have some control, at least, of the Strait of Hormuz, still have its nuclear stockpile, and be completely unwilling going forward to ever trust a U.S. negotiation again.
[00:05:39]  Correct.
[00:05:40]  You are correct.
[00:05:41]  And there, in this, once again, there are no good options here at this moment for President Trump.
[00:05:46]  And I'd like to also point out another dilemma he's facing, but my colleague David Sanger wrote this morning in the Times, which is that he has talked increasingly publicly about perhaps the need to send in commandos to somehow seize or destroy the nuclear material that is under a mountain that is Fahan in Iran.
[00:06:07]  And he is talking more and more about this.
[00:06:10]  You know, as we know, what you see with the president is what is going through his mind at any given time.
[00:06:16]  And he's talked about this, and that's a very tough decision, too.
[00:06:20]  It's highly risky.
[00:06:22]  It would put the going after Osama bin Laden, that would look like a picnic compared to this.
[00:06:28]  And it would potentially, it could cause a, you could, there's canisters stored underneath this mountain.
[00:06:34]  They could rupture.
[00:06:35]  It could cause radioactivity spreading all over the area.
[00:06:40]  Also, but also if you leave it there, Iran still has a bit of nuclear fuel that it can use as leverage and it's a source of its power.
[00:06:49]  It's a very tough decision.
[00:06:51]  And what you see with the president every day is just this back and forth about I want the Allies, I don't need the Allies.
[00:06:58]  You know, it is just what you're seeing is President Trump thinking in real time that he doesn't know what his options are.
[00:07:05]  I mean, he doesn't know what to do right now.
[00:07:07]  It's a little alarming to watch it.
[00:07:09]  Me more tonight about the type of bombs that CENTCOM tonight says it dropped on Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:07:16]  A U.S. official tells us they are GPS guided, so they work in all weather and are designed to destroy heavily reinforced, deeply buried targets.
[00:07:24]  Tonight's strike, successful though it may be, will not be the final word, of course, on threats to the Strait or Iran's neighbors.
[00:07:29]  You've got to remember there are hundreds, if not thousands, of speed boats that are hidden along that coastline in coves, camouflaged in open sight as commercial vehicles.
[00:07:42]  Literally speed boats, the kind you would see out recreationally.
[00:07:45]  Yes, what you'd see cigarette boats that basically can shoot missiles at big ships, our ships, tankers.
[00:07:54]  So until we can eliminate that threat, I still think we're not going to be considered militarily successful through the strait, and the commercial success won't be a fur one.
[00:08:04]  I mean, with the USS Cole, we saw what one speedboat like that can do to a vessel.
[00:08:10]  And our tankers are much, much larger.
[00:08:12]  During the tanker war, it took three or four different hits on a tanker to sink it.
[00:08:18]  But nonetheless, when you've got a couple of hundred, if not thousands, speedboats, they can put a lot of pain on those tankers.
[00:08:24]  Nobody will say this in the mainstream media because it justifies what President Trump did.
[00:08:30]  Nobody in the mainstream media will tell you after Midnight Hammer, when we blew up all the enrichment facilities, they went back at it again, thus epic fury.
[00:08:39]  What Wickoff said on your show changes everything.
[00:08:43]  To my friends at the White House, every American should know the facts.
[00:08:47]  You can have your opinion about President Trump all you want.
[00:08:50]  If he had not acted within two weeks, they would have had enough weapons material to make 10 bombs.
[00:08:57]  Donald Trump acted decisively.
[00:09:00]  God bless the fact that he did.
[00:09:01]  If he had failed to act, we'd all be living with a Ayatollah still alive, enough weapon-grade material to make 10 bombs.
[00:09:10]  That's what's at stake here.
[00:09:12]  The liberals literally do want Trump to fail.
[00:09:16]  They fear him more than they fear the Ayatollah with a nuclear weapon.
[00:09:20]  This is a sick time in which we live.
[00:09:23]  We have to push through this.
[00:09:24]  The Houthis in Yemen, I mean, they have fired on ships previously in the strait.
[00:09:30]  A challenge I've dealt with in the past in the Red Sea Anderson.
[00:09:33]  So far, the Houthis, which are supplied massively right down here, this is the Baba Manda, translates about the gate of tears.
[00:09:40]  The Houthis, which are here in these mountains, armed with Iranian missiles, and they fired anti-ship missiles at our ships going Mach 4.
[00:09:48]  I mean, it was by the skill of our sailors that we didn't have massive losses on our ships.
[00:09:53]  This is incredibly gnarly territory.
[00:09:56]  We built an international coalition.
[00:09:58]  It was pretty successful.
[00:10:00]  But to build the confidence of these commercial shippers, it takes time and time and time and patience.
[00:10:06]  It is hard, hard work.
[00:10:08]  So far, the Houthis have not joined this fight.
[00:10:11]  Why is this?
[00:10:12]  So there's different theories.
[00:10:13]  One, it's a card that Iran is holding back.
[00:10:15]  Another is they have been pounded.
[00:10:17]  I mean, they've really been pounded by U.S. strikes and Israeli strikes, particularly last fall, that maybe they don't want to mix it up again.
[00:10:23]  But if they started to shoot into this passageway, I think we would then have a dual challenge.
[00:10:29]  So I'm watching that very closely.
[00:10:31]  Any longer than he has to, and I don't think it's going to be much longer.
[00:10:34]  No, we're not going to invade Iran.
[00:10:36]  There's no reason to.
[00:10:37]  We're going to destroy their ability to hurt us, have a nuclear weapon, build missiles to hit America and terrorize the region.
[00:10:44]  Caragallan, 90% of their income comes from oil and gas revenue.
[00:10:49]  100% of that revenue generating capabilities on a single allot.
[00:10:54]  Mr. President, take Caragallin.
[00:10:56]  This war is over.
[00:10:58]  Already succeeded in sowing some element of doubt in our elections and setting a predicate for claiming fraud.
[00:11:05]  Talk me through what it is they're doing here.
[00:11:07]  Well, absolutely.
[00:11:08]  They're trying to make everyone feel concerned about participating, right?
[00:11:12]  They're threatening people.
[00:11:14]  They're threatening election officials with imprisonment.
[00:11:16]  So they're trying to make it difficult for Americans to vote.
[00:11:20]  They're trying to create barriers to entry that are so high that they become insurmountable.
[00:11:25]  And they are doing it based on this theory that our elections are somehow not safe, which is patently false.

=== Threatening Election Officials (05:01) ===

[00:11:32]  All of the studies that have shown this idea that people are showing up at polls and they're not who they say they are are wrong.
[00:11:39]  It just doesn't happen.
[00:11:40]  Even Parrot has proved that.
[00:11:42]  Exactly.
[00:11:42]  There's no voter impersonation fraud where people are showing up and pretending that they're someone who they're not.
[00:11:48]  There are criminal statutes and penalties that take care of that issue.
[00:11:51]  So this is a solution that is a bad one in search of a problem.
[00:11:57]  And the real animus behind this is to try to steal the midterm elections by shrinking the electorate and making it so small that people who want change in this country won't have a voice in our election.
[00:12:11]  Wednesday, 18 March, Year Overlord, 2026.
[00:12:15]  Amazing curation by our team at Denver and, of course, the war room.
[00:12:19]  production team.
[00:12:20]  Amazing.
[00:12:21]  Okay, we're going to be juggling many things this morning, plus doing a full show.
[00:12:26]  We have the President of the United States is going to be leaving, I believe, right towards the end of the show when we do the handoff to the Charlie Kirk show.
[00:12:33]  He is going to Dover to receive the honored dead of the KC-135, the six crewmen that died in defense of their country.
[00:12:44]  We'll return.
[00:12:45]  The President of the United States will be there to meet them.
[00:12:48]  Also, Joe Kent rolled a hand grenade into the Senate Intelligence Committee meeting today.
[00:12:54]  Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbert, John Ratcliffe are going to be grilled by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
[00:13:02]  That's taking place even as we speak, opening statements.
[00:13:05]  We're going to cut into that.
[00:13:06]  Mark Wayne Mullins' confirmation is going on over at DHS, and Rand Paul has already gone medieval.
[00:13:14]  We're going to pull that clip here in a moment.
[00:13:16]  Also, Save America.
[00:13:17]  So much going on in the Save America Act and the revving up for this big debate.
[00:13:22]  Also, John Solomon did break last night, early this morning, this blockbuster news about the Chinese Communist Party direct involvement in the stealing of the 2020 election, understanding they had already launched the pandemic.
[00:13:37]  This is all from April of 2020.
[00:13:39]  John Solomon will be with us later.
[00:13:41]  Wynton Hall with a new blockbuster book on artificial intelligence that should hopefully wake up the conservatives.
[00:13:48]  Winton Hall, one of the great writers and a partner and colleague of Peter Schweitzer, myself for, I don't know, the last 15, 20 years, will be with us in the second hour.
[00:13:58]  Eric Bowling, we also called it yesterday about this pipeline in Saudi Arabia that is a new sense of focus.
[00:14:05]  Brent oil went up, I think, to $108.
[00:14:07]  Israel has attacked, has hit Iranian oil facilities.
[00:14:12]  This war is getting harder and tougher and tougher.
[00:14:15]  Last night, massive bombing run near the Strait of Hermuz with bunker busting bombs to make sure they clear it out, which looks like, I don't know, maybe in anticipation of an actual takeover of Carg Island.
[00:14:27]  We're going to get to all of that today and much, much more in the war room.
[00:14:31]  Natasha Owens will take us out.
[00:14:34]  Be back in a moment.
[00:14:37]  Thank God you're not the bomb.
[00:14:44]  What about Naken Riley?
[00:14:46]  It's sharply too hard to say.
[00:14:50]  What about when you took your shot at the war you called K?
[00:14:56]  Where is it all for justice?
[00:15:01]  Stephen K. Bannon.
[00:15:06]  Okay, welcome back.
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[00:16:12]  The Mark Wayne Mullins hearing was supposed to be, you know, it's supposed to be a layup for Mullins.
[00:16:19]  It started off far from it.
[00:16:20]  Just moments ago, we're going to play a clip that was so explosive that Fox News cut away.
[00:16:26]  Let's go ahead and play this, Senator Rand Paul, about Senator Mark Wayne Mullen.
[00:16:32]  Good morning, everyone.

=== Violence Against Political Rhetoric (03:24) ===

[00:16:34]  I entered the Senate the same year that Representative Gabby Giffords was shot.
[00:16:39]  I knew then that the state of political rhetoric was encouraging violence.
[00:16:43]  I think it's imperative now, more than ever, that the leaders in our country disavow violence and lead by example.
[00:16:51]  Through the years, I've personally been exposed multiple times to political violence.
[00:16:56]  I was in the right field batting cage when the crazed shooter unleashed nearly 200 shots at our congressional baseball practice.
[00:17:03]  I'll never forget Steve's calendars valiantly trying to drag his body away as the gunman continued.
[00:17:11]  Later that year, a Trump-hating felon attacked me from behind in my yard.
[00:17:17]  I was just straightening up from picking up a tree limb.
[00:17:20]  I was wearing noise cancellation headphones, never saw him coming, running pell-mell down the hill.
[00:17:27]  I was struck in the back.
[00:17:29]  The force of the blow sent us through the air nearly 10 feet down the hill until a shoulder impaled me as we hit the ground.
[00:17:36]  Six of my ribs were broken.
[00:17:38]  Three of the ribs were completely separated, such that for weeks the ends of the ribs would grind upon each other.
[00:17:45]  My lung was damaged.
[00:17:48]  For weeks, I could inhale but not have the rib strength to exhale.
[00:17:52]  I developed two pneumonias.
[00:17:55]  The pain was such that I could only sit up in bed by tying a rope to the foot of the bed and pulling myself up.
[00:18:01]  But even then, the pain was that of a thousand knives.
[00:18:05]  Over the year of recovery, I began to cough up blood.
[00:18:08]  I underwent removal of part of my lung.
[00:18:11]  Complications led to an infection in the space between my lung and chest wall.
[00:18:15]  I spent a week in the hospital having the infection lavaged every six hours through a chest tube.
[00:18:20]  Recently, Senator Mullen, if you have time to listen, you were confronted by constituents that were angry because you voted against my amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs.
[00:18:34]  Instead of explaining your vote to continue these welfare programs for refugees, you decided to transfer the blame.
[00:18:41]  You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted.
[00:18:49]  I was shocked that you would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain and my family so much pain.
[00:18:58]  I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force.
[00:19:08]  You might argue you were mad and upset about being confronted by your constituents.
[00:19:14]  Senator Mullen, your constituents are justifiably upset with you.
[00:19:18]  By now, most of America knows that the Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota stole over $9 billion.
[00:19:25]  But instead of defending your vote, you took to continue the vote to continue these refugee welfare programs.
[00:19:32]  You chose to lash out at me.
[00:19:34]  You went on to brag that you had already told me to my face that you completely understood and approved of the assault.
[00:19:41]  Well, that's a lie.
[00:19:43]  You got a chance today.
[00:19:44]  You can either continue to lie or you can correct the record.
[00:19:47]  You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified.
[00:19:52]  So today you'll have your chance.
[00:19:54]  Today I'll give you that chance to clear the record.
[00:19:57]  Tell it to my face.

=== Intelligence Community Response (15:53) ===

[00:19:58]  If that's what you believe, tell it to me today.
[00:20:00]  Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damaged lung.
[00:20:07]  Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it.
[00:20:11]  And while you're at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents.
[00:20:20]  Explain to the American public how a man who has no regrets about brawling in a Senate committee can set a proper example for over 250,000 men and women who work at the Department of Homeland Security.
[00:20:34]  Okay, we're going to grab the response in a moment.
[00:20:37]  I don't know.
[00:20:38]  I take it that's a no vote.
[00:20:39]  I'm just kidding.
[00:20:40]  This is how it's starting off today.
[00:20:42]  We're going to get back to Mullen's response.
[00:20:45]  That's a great way to start a confirmation here and isn't it?
[00:20:48]  We have Warner.
[00:20:49]  Remember, Intel, I think it's Tom Cotton is the chair.
[00:20:55]  Mark Warner is the ranking member for the co-chair, however they call it, for the Democrats.
[00:21:02]  He's tying in, he's going after our intelligence leaders.
[00:21:07]  Let's go ahead and cut into that, and then I'm going to take a break.
[00:21:09]  I'll come back and we'll take a break.
[00:21:10]  Let's go ahead and hear that.
[00:21:13]  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[00:21:14]  And let me also offer good morning to our witnesses.
[00:21:18]  Let me also join you, Mr. Chairman, and begin by thanking literally the tens of thousands of men and women across America's intelligence community who work every day to keep our country safe.
[00:21:30]  Their work is by necessity secret.
[00:21:33]  That is the nature of intelligence.
[00:21:36]  But that is also why hearings like this one matter so much.
[00:21:41]  Over the past year, we have seen a series of developments that raise serious concerns about the erosion of safeguards that protect both our democracy and our security.
[00:21:55]  And nowhere is that more worrying than when it comes to the integrity of our elections.
[00:22:02]  For decades now, our intelligence community has warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran, are actively seeking to shape the outcome of American elections.
[00:22:16]  These efforts have included cyber intrusions, disinformation campaigns, and covert influence operations designed to divide Americans and undermine our confidence in our democratic institutions.
[00:22:29]  Protecting our elections from these threats should be one of the intelligence community's highest priorities.
[00:22:36]  The DNI is supposed to be coordinating intelligence on foreign election interference, warning the American people about adversaries seeking to undermine our democracy, ensuring that federal, state, and local officials have the information they need.
[00:22:55]  Congress even required the creation of a foreign malign influence center inside the Office of the DNI to coordinate the intelligence community's response to foreign election interference and ensure that these threats are properly shared across the government.
[00:23:14]  That is the mission Congress assigned to the DNI.
[00:23:18]  But while foreign adversaries are actively probing our democratic institutions, the DNI has eliminated the foreign malign influence center and does not have a designated official coordinating the response to election threats.
[00:23:34]  And for months, the committee has reportedly, has repeatedly requested briefings from the IC, briefings that are required by law on legitimate foreign threats to the midterms.
[00:23:49]  We have received no response.
[00:23:53]  Now, that silence, I believe, should concern every member of the committee because it clearly demonstrates the DNI is not interested in protecting American democracy by combating foreign influence.
[00:24:06]  Instead, unfortunately, we have seen the DNI involve herself in purely domestic matters.
[00:24:14]  Last month, we saw Director Gabbard personally participate in a law enforcement raid to seize election ballots and voting machine records in Fulton County, Georgia.
[00:24:26]  A raid tied to an election that the president lost six years ago.
[00:24:32]  When the warrant supporting the raid was unsealed, it showed something deeply troubling.
[00:24:38]  There was no foreign connection to justify the involvement of our nation's top spy.
[00:24:45]  Instead, the predicate for the warrant was a slop of debunked conspiracy theories that had already been rejected repeatedly by courts, by independent investigators, and by even by Georgia's own Republican Secretary of State.
[00:25:02]  Yet the nation's top intelligence official was personally involved in this operation.
[00:25:08]  This raises one very serious question.
[00:25:11]  If the intelligence community is not being deployed to mobilize against foreign threats, why is it being deployed at all on a domestic issue?
[00:25:25]  The DNI's appearance at this raid, as well as her involvement in seizing voting machines from Puerto Rico, suggests something that should also alarm every American.
[00:25:36]  I believe an organized effort to misuse her national security powers to interfere in domestic politics and potentially provide a pretext for the president's unconstitutional efforts to seize control of the upcoming elections.
[00:25:54]  Don't take my word for it.
[00:25:55]  Okay.
[00:25:58]  Hang on.
[00:25:59]  Okay, we're going to come back to that.
[00:26:01]  Welcome back to the slop shop here at the war room.
[00:26:04]  You heard it right there.
[00:26:06]  I told you this day was going to be intense.
[00:26:09]  It's all inextricably linked.
[00:26:11]  The war, the stealing of the vote, John Solomon's explosive report of why the intelligence community hid, found out, knew about HID.
[00:26:24]  And we'll have to find out if they hid it from the intelligence committee.
[00:26:28]  Explosive, explosive, explosive all day.
[00:26:31]  And the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief, will be heading to Dover Air Force Base to receive the honored dead of KC-135, the refueling plane that crashed.
[00:26:43]  Short commercial break.
[00:26:44]  We're going to come back.
[00:26:45]  It gets even more intense on the other side.
[00:27:00]  Here's your host, Stephen K. Van.
[00:27:04]  Okay, we're streaming both Intel, and I think we're streaming DHS because DHS has gotten quite controversial.
[00:27:14]  Programming note, I keep telling the Stephanie Rule Show at 11 is the best summary of the news day.
[00:27:19]  It just announced that Morning Joe's, they're taking away an hour of Morning Joe, that 9 to 10 hour, and giving it to Stephanie Rule.
[00:27:28]  Also at noon, Menendez gets her own show.
[00:27:31]  I hate to say it.
[00:27:32]  I called both of those.
[00:27:33]  Those are the new stars over at MSNBC.
[00:27:35]  So watch those two slots because they are not exactly pro-MAGA, but very, very sophisticated in the coverage, particularly rule about investment banking, kind of a mini, kind of a mini war room.
[00:27:52]  With an opposite political take, but very smart.
[00:27:54]  Bowling's with us.
[00:27:56]  Eric, when I got bowling, let's play.
[00:27:59]  Can I play the response of Mark Wayne Mullins?
[00:28:01]  I want to play this before it gets so.
[00:28:02]  So as we left Senator Rand Paul, he was going back to the time he was attacked, and then he got into the whole situation about approval of some appropriations bill and how Mark Wayne Mullins had voted for the refugee resettlement program to give all the money.
[00:28:18]  And you got to out these guys.
[00:28:20]  This is how they hide behind it.
[00:28:21]  They all want to talk their MAGA and then they're voting for the stuff.
[00:28:24]  Rand Paul called him out of that and then he went back and forth.
[00:28:26]  So Rand Paul goes, hey, look, you're a coward to my face.
[00:28:29]  Can you say this?
[00:28:30]  That's where he left the dramatic hang.
[00:28:32]  Let's go ahead and play it.
[00:28:33]  I'll get Eric Bowling's thoughts on this.
[00:28:36]  Simply address that I said I could understand because of the behavior you were having that I could understand why your neighbor, why the neighbor did what he did.
[00:28:44]  As far as my terms, the snake in the grass, sir, I work around this room to try to fix problems.
[00:28:50]  I've worked with many people in this room.
[00:28:52]  Seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.
[00:28:55]  I did address those remarks.
[00:28:57]  I did explain your gimmicks by the amendment you put forth.
[00:29:01]  And as far as me saying that I invoke violence, I don't.
[00:29:05]  I don't think anybody should be hit by surprise.
[00:29:07]  I don't like that.
[00:29:08]  But if I do have something to say, everybody in this room knows I'll come straight to you.
[00:29:14]  I'll say it publicly and I'll say it privately, but I'll never say it behind your back.
[00:29:18]  So for you to say I'm a liar, sir, that's not accurate.
[00:29:22]  And I got proof to say that because you have spent millions of dollars in my campaigns against me because we just don't get along.
[00:29:29]  However, sir, that doesn't keep me at all from doing my job.
[00:29:35]  I can have difference opinions with everybody in this room, but as Secretary of Homeland, I'll be protecting everybody, including Kentucky, as much as I will my own backyard in Oklahoma.
[00:29:44]  It's bigger than the partisan bickering that we have.
[00:29:48]  It's bigger than the political differences we have.
[00:29:50]  The truth is, I have a job to do, and I don't like to fail at anything at all.
[00:29:58]  So I can set it aside if you're willing to set it aside.
[00:30:02]  Let me earn your respect.
[00:30:03]  Let me earn the job.
[00:30:05]  I won't fail you.
[00:30:07]  I won't back down from a challenge.
[00:30:09]  And I'll also admit when I'm wrong.
[00:30:11]  I'm not perfect.
[00:30:13]  I don't claim to be perfect.
[00:30:15]  I make mistakes just like anybody else.
[00:30:18]  But mistakes, if you own them, you can learn from them and you can move ahead.
[00:30:24]  And I'll make that commitment to you.
[00:30:27]  Ranking Member Peters, Chairman Paul, I do thank you for this opportunity.
[00:30:33]  It is a humbling experience.
[00:30:35]  A kid from Westville, Oklahoma, that grew up with a dad that worked hard.
[00:30:42]  So bowling, he didn't back down.
[00:30:45]  Kind of told Rand Paul, hey, sorry, not sorry.
[00:30:47]  Your thoughts before we talk about oil, sir?
[00:30:50]  I think what's happened is I think Trump went the anti-antithesis of Christy Noam, attractive woman, female, although tough.
[00:31:00]  I mean, if you really take her policy, she was pretty badass.
[00:31:03]  But Mark Wayne Mullen's the other guy, the only male, stands up to the union guy.
[00:31:10]  It's very, I would say, a lot of optics there that are going to work for Homeland Security.
[00:31:18]  I can't claim to know if Mark Wayne Mullen is truly MAGA.
[00:31:23]  He seems to be pro-Trump, if he's truly MAGA.
[00:31:26]  I defer all things like truly MAGA to you, Stephen K. Bannon, who is the original architect of MAGA.
[00:31:33]  But I digress.
[00:31:36]  Okay.
[00:31:37]  We'll find out about his thoughts on mass deportation.
[00:31:39]  I'm sure they're going to go through.
[00:31:40]  This is the Republicans are supposed to take care of him, man.
[00:31:43]  It started out exposedly.
[00:31:45]  Confirmation hearing from Mark Wayne Mullins in the Senate.
[00:31:48]  You've got the Intel, and that's explosive.
[00:31:51]  I want to go back to something we talked about the other day.
[00:31:53]  You talked about a couple of things have happened overnight.
[00:31:56]  You talked about and said you're the first person to say, hey, look, one thing you got to be looking at is that the Saudis who are now kind of saying, President Trump, you got to hit harder, have this 7 million barrel a day pipeline that goes across into the Red Sea.
[00:32:10]  I think that's just been put on notice by the Iranians as a target.
[00:32:14]  I think Bloomberg's reported that this Red Sea thing could really heat up.
[00:32:18]  I want your thoughts on that.
[00:32:19]  Also, the Israelis, I believe last night hit some of the facilities, containment facilities of the Iranians that those targets are supposed to be off the grid, but I don't think they are.
[00:32:31]  A lot going on the last 24 hours in oil, and some of the big companies are getting increasingly nervous.
[00:32:38]  How's the trading been?
[00:32:39]  And what are the thoughts from folks in the industry, sir?
[00:32:43]  This is a huge, huge day today because all night and early this morning, crude oil, both crude and North Sea Brent, were lower.
[00:32:50]  And then the Iranians said every single Gulf state oil platform, refining capacity, they were all potential targets.
[00:33:00]  It started to drift up.
[00:33:01]  And then Saudi Aramco, you're right, Steve.
[00:33:03]  When Saudi Aramco, the Saudi state slash private public entity, which is mostly private, mostly the state, decided to shut in their refinery, their big refinery, the Shemref refinery.
[00:33:16]  It's a massive refinery.
[00:33:18]  That sends a signal that doesn't matter which side of this you're on, these Middle Easterners are going to pull in production.
[00:33:25]  They're going to pull in oil production.
[00:33:26]  They're going to pull in petroleum product production, gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel, butane, all those helium.
[00:33:33]  They're going to shut that in because it drives prices up.
[00:33:36]  We were trading about $102 a barrel in the Brent this morning.
[00:33:40]  It's up $110 a barrel right now.
[00:33:44]  WTI is trading around $99 a barrel.
[00:33:46]  We're going to hit $100.
[00:33:47]  The reason why this is relevant, Steve, is all last week when we were talking, I said $4 is a lock.
[00:33:53]  And people are like, oh, bowling, you're full of aid.
[00:33:56]  We'll see what happens.
[00:33:57]  I said, no, it doesn't matter what happened last week.
[00:33:59]  Even if it ended then, $4 was locked.
[00:34:01]  I'm now going to say $4.50 national average for gasoline is, I would say, an 80% likelihood of happening.
[00:34:09]  That further drives up inflation.
[00:34:11]  We had a price PCI number come out today saying that inflation was higher than expected.
[00:34:17]  And that doesn't even include the March run up in oil.
[00:34:21]  We're going to have higher inflation.
[00:34:22]  We have massively higher gas prices.
[00:34:25]  Steve, I talked to the head trader.
[00:34:27]  I can't say his name.
[00:34:28]  I'll call him one of the head traders at Conoco, which is a massive oil production company.
[00:34:34]  He says, and when oil was lower yesterday and into last night for today's trading, he said oil is going to be up one to $2 a barrel going forward.
[00:34:43]  And the equity markets don't even understand what that means yet.
[00:34:46]  Meaning they're kind of whistling past the graveyard with higher oil prices.
[00:34:50]  It's going to really, really, really be a damper on spending and therefore on stock prices.
[00:34:57]  So equities will likely go down in response to it.
[00:35:00]  So all things right now, unfortunately, are pointing to higher oil prices.
[00:35:05]  And then when you start playing around Carg Island, Carg Island, I totally disagree with this.
[00:35:12]  I think we should protect Carg Island because that's really the main asset that the Iranians have to export oil.
[00:35:20]  Now, I know we want to bring them to their knees, but we also don't want a price oil price shock going into the midterms.
[00:35:26]  So basically, the expense at the expense of.
[00:35:29]  Well, I don't think I don't I don't think any any plan for any plan for Carg Island is not is not to destroy the oil facilities.
[00:35:37]  I think it's to take seas and hold.
[00:35:39]  And then the United States, it's the first step to your plan, brother.
[00:35:43]  It's the first step to say, hey, we're your partner.
[00:35:45]  Since we control Carg Island, let's sit down and negotiate how we're going to partner with you.
[00:35:49]  I just want to go back to something that's very important, though.

=== Oil Independence Strategy (13:01) ===

[00:35:52]  With everything that happened overnight, all the bombing, and people should know this thing's getting more and more intense every day.
[00:35:57]  They brought in the bunker busters to make sure they could clear out, I think, any deliberate assault to shut down the Gulf and the Hormuz and things around Carg Island.
[00:36:11]  That's where the bombing for.
[00:36:12]  But the Iranians announced that every facility of Qatar in UAE is in play, but also Saudi Arabia.
[00:36:21]  Tell us about that refinery because you talk about shut-ins.
[00:36:24]  They only got so much place to store it.
[00:36:26]  They're actually shutting down production right now.
[00:36:29]  That's where Brent skyrocketed, what, six bucks to $109.
[00:36:34]  And West Texas Intermediate is at 91 cents below 100 bucks.
[00:36:41]  We look like we might have had this thing and kind of figured it out and some ships are going through and it could be some process.
[00:36:47]  All of a sudden you get anti-process.
[00:36:48]  Tell me about that.
[00:36:49]  Tell us why is this refinery with Saudi Arabia so important?
[00:36:54]  And why was the closing of that or the shutting in of that a trigger to really drive prices up today?
[00:37:01]  Because it's the Saudis.
[00:37:02]  Saudis become in play.
[00:37:03]  They're the big dog in the region.
[00:37:05]  Saudis produce around 7 million barrels a day.
[00:37:07]  Iran produces 3 million.
[00:37:09]  They have the capacity to produce more.
[00:37:11]  But when the Saudis start, well, again, we've talked about this again.
[00:37:15]  Steve, everyone in the Middle East, Saudi or Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, they're all benefiting from $100 barrel of the West Texas Intermediate and $110 barrel of Brent crude.
[00:37:30]  So when they shut in 400,000 barrels a day, yeah, that's going to be storage that's going to build up on the Saudi side.
[00:37:36]  Saudis have plenty of production.
[00:37:37]  They can ramp up or down quickly.
[00:37:39]  But when they shut down the refinery, it tells the world that there's an issue in the Middle East.
[00:37:44]  I believe that they don't really need to do that.
[00:37:46]  I think they're kind of playing both sides here.
[00:37:49]  They're playing us like, yeah, Trump, go hit him harder.
[00:37:51]  Well, that drives oil prices higher.
[00:37:54]  Oh, well, we're worried about the Iranians.
[00:37:55]  Let's shut in some production.
[00:37:56]  Let's shut in some refining capacity.
[00:37:58]  That drives the price of oil higher.
[00:38:01]  And as I said, the trader for Conoco said, these people aren't realizing that this could potentially be $1 to $2 per day higher in the oil price.
[00:38:12]  That is a massive drag on the U.S. economy.
[00:38:15]  I think it's really playing into the Middle East's hands.
[00:38:18]  And that's why I don't think we should hit Cargo, Steve.
[00:38:21]  I think we should hit all their infrastructure, hit their highways, hit their manufacturing capabilities, hit their telecom, hit every industry and get them to their knees, but protect the oil production facilities.
[00:38:34]  Okay.
[00:38:35]  I would just say in Carg, I think, is production, but I don't need to be about semantics.
[00:38:40]  One thing before I let you go.
[00:38:41]  The President of the United States laid this argument out the other day.
[00:38:44]  This morning he tweeted it out again about the strait, about the escorts, about the U.S. Navy, the Allies saying we're not interested, the Germans saying it's not our war.
[00:38:55]  Correct me if I'm wrong.
[00:38:57]  This is coming from the Red Sea, whether you're taking the pipeline across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea and taking it up through the, what is it, they call it the gate of tears, that very small gap that gets into the Red Sea and then up to the Suez Canal.
[00:39:10]  This is all Asia and Europe.
[00:39:13]  And I realize that world economy is inextricably linked, but this doesn't really have that much to do with the United States of America.
[00:39:20]  We're still independent, and we can get very totally independent if we wanted to.
[00:39:26]  This is all Europe and Asia, and they're not coming to our rescue.
[00:39:30]  They're not, I shouldn't say rescue, they're not coming to jump in here on the situation.
[00:39:35]  Forget the bombing of Iran and forget the Israelis going into Lebanon.
[00:39:40]  The central fact of the Gulf and our Arab allies in quotes, they're not addressing.
[00:39:48]  Are they, sir?
[00:39:48]  President Trump's right.
[00:39:49]  I think this argument ought to be made more.
[00:39:51]  I think this ought to be put before the American people.
[00:39:53]  Like, what in the hell are we in the rich countries of Europe are giving us the middle finger, sir?
[00:39:59]  Agree.
[00:39:59]  And they don't seem to want to play ball.
[00:40:02]  I will just take issue with one thing you said there.
[00:40:05]  Yes, it does affect the Europeans and Asians more because they're more indebted to the Middle East on their oil because of location.
[00:40:17]  But oil, like money, is fungible, generally fungible.
[00:40:21]  Okay, so when you pull stockpiles off of Brent, eventually these people are going to realize that it would be more cost-efficient to buy another form of oil, another grade of oil, even if it costs me $10 a barrel if I've got to go around a second.
[00:40:46]  We're going to take a break and I'm going to hold you over.
[00:40:48]  Eric Bolling, back in a moment.
[00:40:58]  Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
[00:41:05]  Okay.
[00:41:07]  In the intelligence, they're focused not on the Chinese Communist Party infiltration into this.
[00:41:12]  They're focused on the war room posse and the great patriots in Georgia getting to the bottom of the 2020 election, the steal, and Tulsi Gabbard's involvement in that.
[00:41:22]  In fact, I'm going to go to Neil McCabe in a moment on Capitol Hills covering the hearing.
[00:41:26]  You're going to hear some explosive.
[00:41:28]  They're now coming for Kurt Olson and they're coming for the Patriots in Georgia.
[00:41:32]  You watch.
[00:41:33]  We'll get to that in a second.
[00:41:34]  Bowling, here's what I don't understand.
[00:41:35]  I'm a simple man, so make this a simple explanation if you can.
[00:41:40]  The Gulf, they provide the oil for Asia, for our enemies in the Chinese Communist Party.
[00:41:46]  The greatest existential threat in the world to the United States of America is the Chinese Communist Party.
[00:41:51]  And today, John Salma is going to be here, and we're going to talk about a pandemic, and we're going to talk about stealing the 2020 election, and they're directly involved.
[00:41:58]  And we have the intelligence service of the United States not only knew about it, but covered it up, the deep state.
[00:42:03]  Even got Mark Warner up there talking about foreign interference.
[00:42:06]  Of course, what they're doing now is trying to do the jujitsu move to show that Tulsi Gabbard's involved in Georgia with the great patriots down in Georgia, Caroline Jeffords and Garland Favarita and all of them fighting down there.
[00:42:20]  And by the way, it's a Georgia election board going on right now that we normally would cover, but we can't because we're covering it.
[00:42:25]  We just can't play it because there's too much going on.
[00:42:28]  But you see, they're attacking, attacking, attacking.
[00:42:32]  And we allow, we have two carrier battle groups.
[00:42:36]  We're spending $2 billion a day.
[00:42:38]  President Trump's making the argument.
[00:42:40]  It's not that we're saying, hey, we're going against President Trump's making the argument now every day.
[00:42:43]  Like I called for the allies to come down here because the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, that's all to provide Asia and Europe their energy resources that they can actually have economies.
[00:43:00]  The United States of America is and can be quite quickly energy independence.
[00:43:04]  This is why Guiana and Venezuela and hemispheric defense, these aren't random things Trump's doing.
[00:43:10]  So I don't understand.
[00:43:12]  Just tell me why we give a damn, Eric.
[00:43:14]  I understand it's fungible.
[00:43:16]  It's all one world market, but that's you guys, oil traders, trying to trick us into believing you're doing God's work when really the oil traders are not hedging the future.
[00:43:26]  It's just a bunch of speculative guys making a lot of money on the little guy, isn't it, sir?
[00:43:31]  No, not at all.
[00:43:31]  No, no.
[00:43:32]  There is some speculation, but there's speculation in everything, including the stock market, any sort of market, there's going to be speculation.
[00:43:39]  But the oil market is so vast, it's massive.
[00:43:41]  100 million barrels a day at $100.
[00:43:43]  Think about the numbers that are flying around.
[00:43:46]  No, the speculation surely adds, but it also adds downward pressure when things start to turn the other way.
[00:43:52]  The speculators will push that oil price down when things, when they get the all-clear signal.
[00:43:57]  So it cuts both ways.
[00:43:59]  The reason why I'm saying when there's a supply disruption, massive supply disruption, like what's going on right now with the Strait of Hormuz or Strait of Oman or on the other side, the Red Sea, or threats that Middle Eastern countries are shutting in production and or shutting refining capacity, the whole world feels it because you can exchange an oil for an oil.
[00:44:22]  Venezuela, Middle Eastern crude is a heavier, sour crude.
[00:44:26]  West Texas Intermediate is known as a light, sweet crude.
[00:44:29]  Mexico, light, sweet crude.
[00:44:31]  Brent, North Sea Brent, light, sweet crude.
[00:44:33]  Those are the premium blends.
[00:44:35]  So you can change it.
[00:44:36]  You can change your refinery, but at a cost differential.
[00:44:40]  So if it all of a sudden becomes, I can't get the heavier Middle Eastern crude, I'm going to have to go to the light sweet, West Texas Intermediate or Brent.
[00:44:48]  They have to go buy it.
[00:44:50]  That's why it pushes the price of the oils that we are trading and using right here in the United States, which only makes it more important for us to be completely independent of Middle Eastern or China or anyone, any of them.
[00:45:04]  So when we do that, we're not beholden to any Middle Eastern country at all.
[00:45:08]  Again, in the perfect metaphor, we can tell the Middle Easterns to go pound sand.
[00:45:18]  Last thing before I let you go for people thinking the other day, the shutting in of the Saudi Aramco massive refinery.
[00:45:24]  Clearly, Brent went through the roof.
[00:45:27]  West Texas looks close to $100 a barrel.
[00:45:31]  Just once again, explain to the audience why that is such an important event in this war.
[00:45:37]  It is because it signals to the world, not just speculators.
[00:45:41]  I told you I had a conversation with the head trader at Conoco.
[00:45:44]  He's not a speculator.
[00:45:45]  He's literally hedging the production of Conoco, who believes oil prices are going higher because the Saudis, the Omanis, the Kuwaitis shut in production.
[00:45:54]  They're all doing this.
[00:45:56]  Why?
[00:45:56]  Because they have to?
[00:45:58]  No.
[00:45:58]  There's virtually no human beings at refineries or oil production facilities.
[00:46:02]  It's not that they're protecting their people.
[00:46:05]  There's no one working in these facilities.
[00:46:06]  They're highly automated.
[00:46:08]  They're doing it because it sends the signal to the world, including traders at the biggest, one of the biggest oil trading desks on the planet, Conoco, that they're going higher and they'll do things to get oil prices higher.
[00:46:21]  Like it or not, that's why we're beholden to these SOBs in the Middle East when we don't need to be.
[00:46:27]  $4.50 a gallon, I believe, is baked in already now.
[00:46:31]  People are going to argue with that, but I'm going to be right on $4 probably next week.
[00:46:36]  It's $4.50 and that is a massive drag on our economy.
[00:46:39]  That's why this is so relevant.
[00:46:41]  That's why every news story across every platform, whether it's business or not, is leading with the oil price and what's going on in the Middle East.
[00:46:48]  Can you imagine a day, Steve, where we don't care what Saudi says or the Iranians say?
[00:46:53]  Can you imagine how free that day will be for us?
[00:46:56]  It's potential.
[00:46:57]  Well, like I said, the Middle East is a sideshow in the Israeli situation, a sideshow to a sideshow.
[00:47:05]  We've got every tool in the toolbox to make that happen, that we don't have to worry about it and we should not have to worry about it.
[00:47:11]  United States, particularly when the Europeans that live upon this just gave us the middle finger.
[00:47:16]  And they still want a security guarantee.
[00:47:18]  They still want American, young American men and women, of which six are coming home.
[00:47:25]  Can I just add one thing?
[00:47:27]  Can I just add one thing to your right?
[00:47:28]  You're right about all of this.
[00:47:30]  Higher prices, stick it to China.
[00:47:32]  Absolutely.
[00:47:33]  However, I would say, yes, let's just play this game.
[00:47:35]  Let's play this out.
[00:47:36]  Put China on their knees too, as well as Iran.
[00:47:40]  Except we got midterms coming up.
[00:47:42]  If midterms weren't happening, I'm on board with everything.
[00:47:46]  Now, I just, I'm very, very concerned for majorities, not just majority in the house.
[00:47:53]  Majorities.
[00:47:55]  Sometimes your Fox molding, your Fox formation comes through, bowling.
[00:48:02]  Anyway, I love your brother.
[00:48:03]  I'm just kidding.
[00:48:04]  We'll continue this conversation.
[00:48:06]  Maybe we'll do a trade-off today.
[00:48:07]  I'm gut punching the way out, Bannon.
[00:48:10]  No, no, no, because you were bragging to me this morning about how much you're lifting, lifting like 400 pounds, right?
[00:48:16]  You're a beast.
[00:48:17]  You're a savage.
[00:48:18]  340.
[00:48:18]  Eric Bowling, where are the people real quickly?
[00:48:21]  Where do they get your new show?
[00:48:23]  I'll tell you what.
[00:48:24]  You know what you do today, folks?
[00:48:25]  Watch the show on RAV, Real America's Voice at 4 o'clock.
[00:48:28]  We're going to be all about the Save Act and oil.
[00:48:30]  And then right after, I'm interviewing a captain.
[00:48:33]  I'm sorry, the owner of a shipping company that runs ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:48:38]  He's going to tell me why he's not running ships right now.
[00:48:41]  It has nothing to do with anything we're talking about.
[00:48:42]  Doesn't care about insurance.
[00:48:44]  And I'll clip that for you, Steve, and your audience can watch some of that too.
[00:48:49]  We'll see it at 4 o'clock.
[00:48:51]  Short break going back to Capitol Hill