Bannon's War Room - Episode 5227: The Threat Of Terrorism On American Soil Continues To Rise
Aired: 2026-03-18
Duration: 51:58


=== Immigration Laws and Vetting (15:23) ===

[00:00:00]  They don't hate everybody that wants to come into America.
[00:00:05]  In fact, we welcome a million of them, but they want to know who they are.
[00:00:11]  They want folks properly vetted.
[00:00:14]  That's why we have immigration laws.
[00:00:19]  Now, remember a few minutes ago, I said my Democratic colleagues had no claim to a high horse.
[00:00:32]  Let me explain why.
[00:00:38]  When President Biden was president, and by the way, I wish him well in retirement.
[00:00:45]  I hope he's doing well.
[00:00:47]  He's had some illnesses, cancer.
[00:00:50]  I wish him well in his retirement and in his health.
[00:00:56]  But when President Biden was president, either he or some of his advisors who had authority on his behalf admitted into our country millions of folks illegally from all over the world.
[00:01:17]  We don't know how many.
[00:01:19]  8 million, 12 million?
[00:01:22]  Some people say 30 million.
[00:01:24]  I don't know how many.
[00:01:27]  But President Biden, it was like the price is right.
[00:01:31]  Come on down.
[00:01:34]  You don't have to follow our immigration laws.
[00:01:36]  Just come on in.
[00:01:39]  Now, I don't really know who was running President Biden's immigration program.
[00:01:45]  I really don't.
[00:01:47]  But I know this.
[00:01:48]  They were one or two things.
[00:01:50]  They were either so incompetent you wouldn't put them in charge of a ham sandwich, or they believed in open borders.
[00:02:01]  I think they believed in open borders.
[00:02:05]  And many of my Democratic colleagues, who knew better, they did not say a word.
[00:02:14]  And as a result, we have millions of people in our country.
[00:02:20]  We don't know who they are, but we know they're in our country illegally.
[00:02:25]  And a lot of Americans are opposed to that.
[00:02:29]  It's one of the reasons, I think, that Vice President Harris lost the election.
[00:02:36]  Why do Americans, most Americans oppose that?
[00:02:42]  Well, first, as I told you, most Americans believe in the rule of law.
[00:02:46]  They understand that illegal immigration is illegal.
[00:02:51]  Most Americans think it's prudent, not racist, it's prudent to vet people at the border.
[00:03:02]  Most Americans understand that if you want to come to our country legally, we have a process.
[00:03:09]  And that it's unfair to people who have been waiting patiently in the line to be properly vetted to allow anybody who can get across the border to jump the line.
[00:03:21]  Most people understand that in America, understand that viscerally.
[00:03:30]  And many Americans, let's just put it on the table, Mr. President.
[00:03:36]  Let's just put it down there where the goats can get it.
[00:03:41]  Most Americans, nope, strike that.
[00:03:44]  Many Americans believe that this was a plot.
[00:03:49]  It was intentional by President Biden and some of my Democratic friends to admit people illegally into America so that perhaps at some point these folks would be indebted to the Democrats and would vote for them.
[00:04:09]  I'm not saying that's true.
[00:04:14]  But you've been smoking a doobie if you don't think that a lot of Americans don't believe that.
[00:04:26]  They believe this was intentional.
[00:04:28]  Again, I'm not saying it's true.
[00:04:32]  And when we point it out, many members of the press go catatonic and foam at the mouth and say you can't say that.
[00:04:42]  But they're living in la la land.
[00:04:44]  A lot of Americans believe that.
[00:04:47]  And a lot of Americans believe, whether it's accurate or not, that these folks vote today and that they undermine the sanctity of our elections.
[00:05:01]  So that's what the SAVE Act is about.
[00:05:06]  It's about trying to get the American people to trust our elections a year, every year, in light of the fact that President Biden and his team, with the concurrence of many of my colleagues in this chamber, admitted millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of people into our country illegally.
[00:05:31]  I'm not saying they were all bad people.
[00:05:34]  I think many of the folks who came into our country were economic migrants.
[00:05:38]  They just wanted a better life.
[00:05:40]  That's why we have illegal immigration.
[00:05:42]  Not all of them, not all of them were Cinderella.
[00:05:47]  There were a lot of criminals.
[00:05:50]  There were a lot of murderers.
[00:05:52]  There were a lot of sex traffickers.
[00:05:54]  There were a lot of drug dealers.
[00:05:56]  There were.
[00:05:58]  We're trying to catch them now.
[00:06:01]  But I guess the larger point is we don't know who the hell they were.
[00:06:06]  Because once again, price is right.
[00:06:08]  Come on down.
[00:06:11]  And so that's what this bill is meant to do.
[00:06:15]  It's meant to say to the American people, look, we in Congress hear you.
[00:06:20]  We want you to trust our elections.
[00:06:22]  My personal feeling about getting people to trust our elections, I think if we did two things, I'm supporting this bill, but I think we ought to do two things.
[00:06:31]  Number one, have a rule that says you have to prove you are who you say you are in order to vote.
[00:06:37]  And I guess I would add to that in order to register to vote.
[00:06:40]  And number two, we need to go back to having an election day, not election month.
[00:06:47]  Because when it takes longer than just an election day, people think the worst.
[00:06:53]  But the SAVE Act will help as well to restoring trust in the American system.
[00:07:01]  Because you know what?
[00:07:04]  Our democracy can't stand if people don't believe in the sanctity of folks that we put in charge to administer that democracy.
[00:07:18]  Now let me say one last thing, Mr. President.
[00:07:24]  You know, I'm in the minority on this.
[00:07:30]  The majority of my colleagues on the Republican side, and I feel very confident on my Democratic side, the majority of my colleagues don't agree with me on this.
[00:07:40]  But sometimes, not always, but sometimes the majority just means all the fools are on the same side.
[00:07:48]  Sometimes someone in the minority can be right.
[00:07:52]  That's why we have the Bill of Rights.
[00:07:55]  The Bill of Rights is not for the high school quarterback or the prompt queen.
[00:08:00]  The Bill of Rights is for people who see the world a different way, and they have the right to do that.
[00:08:06]  So I'm in the minority on this.
[00:08:09]  I don't know how this bill is going to turn out.
[00:08:11]  I can't predict the future.
[00:08:12]  I have to wait for it like everybody else.
[00:08:16]  But if the SAVE bill doesn't pass, SAVE Act doesn't pass, and we're serious about passing it, and I think we are, Mr. President.
[00:08:25]  I know you are.
[00:08:29]  We need to try to pass this legislation through reconciliation.
[00:08:34]  Now, you know how reconciliation works, Mr. President.
[00:08:38]  It means we can pass this bill with 50 Republican votes and the vice president to break the tie.
[00:08:45]  That's how we pass the one big beautiful bill.
[00:08:49]  I would hope to get some of my Democratic friends to support us, but we don't have to have them.
[00:08:55]  That's harder than I described because, as you know, Mr. President, there are parameters on reconciliation.
[00:09:02]  Anything you propose through reconciliation has to be paid for.
[00:09:06]  We can find the money to pay for it.
[00:09:09]  And anything you pass through reconciliation has to conform with the contours of the Budget Control Act.
[00:09:18]  We call that giving a provision a birdbath.
[00:09:22]  And our parliamentarian decides what passes muster under the Budget Control Act and what doesn't.
[00:09:32]  Now, we've got a lot of smart lawyers in the United States Senate.
[00:09:36]  Every single one of them thinks they're Oliver Wendell's Calia.
[00:09:43]  But we've got a lot of other smart lawyers in America.
[00:09:47]  Here's what I'm getting at.
[00:09:50]  We have yet to try going to these smart lawyers, some in the Senate and some, believe it or not, not in the Senate, and saying, craft us a SAVE Act that will pass muster under the Budget Control Act and can be blessed by the parliamentarians.
[00:10:06]  And some of my colleagues, those Oliver Wendell scalia types, they say, Kennedy, you know, you'll never be able to do that.
[00:10:15]  They don't know.
[00:10:17]  I've been here 10 years.
[00:10:19]  I've seen things pass muster, survive a birdbath that I didn't think had a hope in hell.
[00:10:28]  And I've seen provisions pass the parliamentarians' judgment under a birdbath that I thought, I mean, I've seen them not pass that I thought were slam dunks.
[00:10:42]  You don't know till you try.
[00:10:43]  And we haven't tried.
[00:10:48]  And if this bill is as important as everybody says it is, and I think it is, because we're not just talking about voting, we're talking about the confidence, the trust of the American people in our elections.
[00:11:03]  If this bill is as important as we say it is, we should try it through reconciliation.
[00:11:12]  I haven't convinced Senator Thun of that.
[00:11:16]  I haven't convinced all my colleagues on either side of the aisle.
[00:11:20]  But I plan on continuing to chase them like they stole Thanksgiving and Christmas put together.
[00:11:34]  Thank you, Mr. President.
[00:11:35]  I appreciate you listening to my explanation of what the SAVE Act, did I mention I support the SAVE Act?
[00:11:42]  Did I mention I'm a co-sponsor of the SAVE Act?
[00:11:45]  I just wanted to clear that up, Mr. President.
[00:11:47]  And the real reason that we're here today.
[00:11:51]  So I'm done, Mr. President.
[00:11:54]  What would you like me to do?
[00:11:55]  Put us into a quorum call?
[00:11:59]  It's okay with you, Max.
[00:12:01]  The war room.
[00:12:02]  We've got Poso's writing shotgun with me.
[00:12:05]  I got Poso here for totally different reasons about the war.
[00:12:08]  Also about these explosive hearings for the intelligence community's CIA director, Director of National Intelligence, Kash Patel Day, and the DHS confirmation here.
[00:12:20]  But Poso, I want to get your take.
[00:12:22]  We're going to be going live also in the six o'clock hour.
[00:12:24]  We're going to pass the baton over to John Solomon here at Realmega's Voice.
[00:12:27]  We're going to continue with the warm that other hour streaming.
[00:12:30]  We're going to cover live from, because I understand the Senate's going to go late tonight.
[00:12:34]  We don't know how late on this bill on the Save America Act.
[00:12:39]  Jack Posobiec, your quick take on not just Kennedy, but what are we actually seeing here?
[00:12:46]  And Kennedy brought up an alternative of maybe even going to reconciliation of someone that's very serious about getting this passed, sir.
[00:12:54]  Well, I think that we need that.
[00:12:56]  And one of the things that I would put together along with what the senator is saying there is people saw the DNI's hearing today.
[00:13:04]  They saw her testimony.
[00:13:05]  But one piece that we covered over on Human Events that I'd love to double stamp is the fact that when they put out the director's threat assessment for 2026, that it was reported for the first time that the number one threat to the homeland is currently homegrown, what they call teenage extremists.
[00:13:26]  And the Daily Mail had this up on their headline, so I appreciate them having it there.
[00:13:31]  And they talked about these attacks that we've been seeing, New York City, the New Year's Day attack down in New Orleans, 2025, Boulder, Colorado attack, the synagogue attacks, church attacks, these various attacks that have been going on and on, the vast majority perpetuated by radical Islam.
[00:13:49]  And as Senator Kennedy points out here, these are people who and their populations and their communities that are hostile foreign actors.
[00:13:58]  And they were let into this country without any vetting whatsoever.
[00:14:01]  And I love the way he framed it right there, that vetting is not racist.
[00:14:06]  It is prudent.
[00:14:08]  It is simply prudent to do so when we know we're dealing with populations that wish the United States and our people harm.
[00:14:16]  And so to see that in the DNI as the number one threat to the nation, number one threat to the homeland, I think is something we all have to take very seriously, especially.
[00:14:25]  And I've said this here publicly a couple of times already.
[00:14:28]  Even my own church, and I know a lot of churches around are doing this, synagogues and others, houses of worship are doing this.
[00:14:35]  We're shutting down.
[00:14:36]  We are shutting down in daytime hours.
[00:14:39]  If it's only open for mass, it's open for confessions, a few things like that.
[00:14:44]  But just your normal.
[00:14:46]  You mean people cannot be in the city?
[00:14:47]  People can't go in during the day.
[00:14:50]  They can't go during the day and light some candles and pray.
[00:14:52]  That traditional thing makes a Catholic church such a center of Catholic spirituality.
[00:14:58]  People can't do that at your parish anymore.
[00:15:02]  They are shutting it down.
[00:15:03]  They are shutting it down because it doesn't have the same level of security.
[00:15:07]  We have a pretty active men's group.
[00:15:09]  I'll put it that way, when it comes to security and keeping it safe when mass is going on.
[00:15:14]  But when it's just during the day and when there's sometimes children available, a lot of Catholic churches are associated with Catholic schools.

=== Church Security and Narcotics Ops (03:28) ===

[00:15:24]  So that's something that people certainly want to keep an eye on.
[00:15:26]  But yes, there are, I can tell you, my church right now is one that has already stepped up security procedures in response to everything that we're seeing.
[00:15:35]  Wow.
[00:15:36]  Jack, hang on for one second.
[00:15:38]  We got a long and involved open today because there's been so much going on.
[00:15:42]  We're going to come back, Jack Basovic's writing shotgun.
[00:15:48]  The unemployment rate has been little changed in recent months, and inflation remains somewhat elevated.
[00:15:54]  Today, the FOMC decided to leave our policy rate unchanged.
[00:15:59]  The implications of developments in the Middle East for the U.S. economy are uncertain.
[00:16:04]  We will remain attentive to risks to both sides of our dual mandate.
[00:16:09]  Inflation has eased significantly from its highs in mid-2022, but remains somewhat elevated relative to our 2 percent longer-run goal.
[00:16:18]  Estimates based on the Consumer Price Index and other data indicate that total PCE prices rose 2.8 percent over the 12 months ending in February, and that excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 3.0 percent.
[00:16:35]  These elevated readings largely reflect inflation in the goods sector, which has been boosted by the effects of tariffs.
[00:16:43]  These elevated readings largely reflect inflation in the goods sector, which has been boosted by the effects of tariffs.
[00:16:52]  Near-term measures of inflation expectations have risen in recent weeks, likely reflecting the substantial rise in oil prices caused by the supply disruptions in the Middle East.
[00:17:02]  Last year, when I was here in my confirmation, I promised you all, and you got all asked for, a more aggressive CIA, one that was focused on core mission, getting back to the business of stealing secrets, to be able to provide our policymakers with a decisive strategic advantage that would allow and advance and contribute to foreign policy and national security successes.
[00:17:30]  To the credit of the CIA workforce, the CIA has delivered.
[00:17:35]  Some of those successes have been very public.
[00:17:38]  As you mentioned, Senator, Operation Midnight Hammer, Operation Absolute Resolve, flawless military operations like that are hostage to a flawless intelligence picture.
[00:17:52]  And the CIA, as you know from classified briefings, contributed in myriad ways to the success of that.
[00:17:59]  But what I would say to you is those successes are just emblematic of the phenomenal progress and success really by every measure, every metric, every standard across every national security space with regard to the work of the CIA.
[00:18:15]  Senator, you mentioned some of it in your opening.
[00:18:18]  The increase of our assets stable and our human sources up by 25 percent, our FI collection across the board, our foreign intelligence collection up by 25 percent overall, and in important categories like China, for instance, up 100 percent in areas like tech and AI up 45 percent.
[00:18:39]  On the counter-narcotics front, our operations up by 70 percent.
[00:18:43]  And with regard to counterterrorism, those are classified numbers that I'll share with you in the classified portion of this hearing, but they're off the charts good.

=== Classified Counterterrorism Numbers (14:55) ===

[00:18:52]  What we knew was, first of all, I guess I have to address upfront so much of what you related in there, the difference between political rhetoric versus political rhetoric versus the difference between that and military and intelligence execution.
[00:19:15]  But here's the most important thing: you mischaracterize this as saying there aren't clearly defined goals.
[00:19:20]  The defined goals are very clear: degrade and destroy the missile inventory and drone inventory, delay and degrade the military industrial base and factories that produce that, degrade and destroy the IRGC Navy that could control the strength.
[00:19:37]  These are all defined goals that were directed.
[00:19:39]  I set out specifically.
[00:19:41]  The premise of the question is time back, Mr. Chairman.
[00:19:44]  I can't get a word in edgewise.
[00:19:47]  He won't answer the question, and then he's taking a minute of my time.
[00:19:51]  You're both big boys.
[00:19:52]  You can handle it yourself.
[00:19:53]  Okay, well, Director, I agree that you are, and I appreciate what you are saying.
[00:19:58]  And I would not my point is not what your characterization of the war is.
[00:20:05]  My point is what the characterization is.
[00:20:09]  I'm not asking you anymore, Mr. Director.
[00:20:11]  I'm sorry because I'm out of time because of how you use the time.
[00:20:15]  The complete lack of clarity should matter.
[00:20:19]  Director Gabbard, you tweeted yesterday that President Trump concluded there was an imminent threat and made a decision to attack Iran after carefully reviewing all of the information before him.
[00:20:32]  I think the country deserves to know what the information was.
[00:20:36]  I'm going to ask a series of questions and just want a yes or no.
[00:20:41]  We don't need any explanation, just yes or no, starting with, were you asked, I'm not asking if you did brief this, were you asked to brief on whether Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz?
[00:20:59]  I'm not going to comment on what the President did or didn't ask me on any topic.
[00:21:04]  I'm not asking if you have briefed it.
[00:21:05]  I'm just asking if there was a request by the White House.
[00:21:09]  Director Ratcliffe, were you asked to brief on whether Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz?
[00:21:18]  The briefings to the President of the White House typically don't come at the request of the White House.
[00:21:23]  So typically when we get intelligence that we want the President to be aware of, the intelligence community brings that to the President.
[00:21:30]  Did you produce the analysis for the Straits of Hormuz?
[00:21:34]  There has been and continues to be analysis with respect to that.
[00:21:37]  Were you asked to brief on how our adversaries and allies would respond to the war in Iran?
[00:21:47]  I imagine I'll get the same answer.
[00:21:52]  I think there are anger issues.
[00:21:54]  I think there's a lack of contrition, both about the violence that perpetrated on me and really the violent episode he was involved in and set a committee where he's told the media, frankly, that he doesn't regret it.
[00:22:06]  He's also told the media there, as he said it again today, that there's historical precedent for violence, that caning and dueling happened all the time.
[00:22:14]  And I pointed out, well, it was illegal 170, 200 years ago.
[00:22:17]  They would actually flee and they would do it in areas they could find where the law didn't reach.
[00:22:22]  Sometimes they would actually go to Canada.
[00:22:24]  Sometimes they'd go from one state to the other.
[00:22:26]  But the mass of civilized response, even in the 1850s or 1830s, was against it.
[00:22:33]  That's why dueling was made illegal.
[00:22:35]  The fact that he can't bring himself to say that really we shouldn't settle political questions with violence, I think that would be a terrible example for ICE and for our border patrol agents.
[00:22:46]  We're in the midst, I think, of a crisis where there needs to be more direction from the top.
[00:22:52]  And a guy who brawls, a guy who can't even say he's sorry about wishing violence on me and really applauding the attack that happened on me, can't come to say that.
[00:23:03]  I don't know how he could, from my point of view, be a leader of ICE or Border Patrick.
[00:23:10]  It's challenging to forget about actually what was in the brief for a second.
[00:23:14]  We're having a hard time finding out not only if you briefed the President on something, but even if the White House asked if they could be briefed on something or if analysis was produced.
[00:23:28]  So I just want to point out here, this is about six days.
[00:23:32]  Can I comment on this?
[00:23:34]  I go back to the point.
[00:23:36]  It's the same approach that we took to the prior operations, which to your credit, Senator, you have praised the intelligence and military communities in Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Absolute Resolve.
[00:23:50]  It's the same approach and the same professionals in terms of how they approached this particular.
[00:23:55]  We're trying to figure out if the President knew what the downside was of the Strait of Hormuz being closed.
[00:24:03]  And I'm having a hard time finding out whether the White House asked or whether there was a brief, whether the President knew.
[00:24:09]  Did he know this was going to happen or did he just disregard it?
[00:24:14]  And you noted in your opening statement you're here fulfilling a statutory responsibility and that your testimony, quote, represents the IC's assessment of threats.
[00:24:22]  Is that correct?
[00:24:24]  That opening statement, as submitted to the committee in advance of this hearing, stated that as a result of last summer's airstrikes, quote, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated, end quote, correct?
[00:24:36]  That's right.
[00:24:38]  And is that in fact the assessment of the intelligence community?
[00:24:40]  Yes.
[00:24:41]  So the assessment of the intelligence community is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated by last summer's airstrikes.
[00:24:48]  Yes.
[00:24:49]  And the opening statement you submitted to the committee last night also stated, quote, there has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability, end quote, correct?
[00:24:59]  That's right.
[00:24:59]  And that's the assessment of the intelligence community.
[00:25:02]  Yes.
[00:25:03]  Can you commit this morning to not buying Americans' location data?
[00:25:08]  Thank you.
[00:25:11]  The FBI uses all tools, Senator.
[00:25:13]  Thank you for the question, to pursue our mission.
[00:25:16]  We do purchase commercially available information that's consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us to be utilized with our private and partner sectors.
[00:25:29]  So you're saying that the agency will buy Americans location data.
[00:25:35]  I believe that that's what you've said in kind of intelligence lingo.
[00:25:40]  And I just want to say, as we start this debate, doing that without a warrant is an outrageous end run around the Fourth Amendment.
[00:25:48]  It's particularly dangerous given the use of artificial intelligence to comb through massive amounts of private information.
[00:25:55]  This is exhibit A for why Congress needs to pass our bipartisan, bicameral bill, the Government Surveillance Reform Act.
[00:26:03]  But the thing that I think a good number of people on the committee are concerned about is just the very, very low level of job creation.
[00:26:12]  If you adjust what has been the trend job creation over the past, let's say, six months, if you adjust that for what we think our staff thinks is the overstatement due to overcounting, effectively there's zero net job creation in the private sector.
[00:26:27]  But actually, that looks like that's about what the economy needs in terms of dealing with very, very low, non-existent, really, growth in the labor force, which of course we've never had in our history.
[00:26:40]  So you've got a sort of a zero employment growth equilibrium.
[00:26:45]  Now that's balance, okay?
[00:26:48]  But I would say it does have a feel of downside risk, and it's not kind of a really comfortable balance.
[00:26:56]  What happens if there's no Federal Reserve Chairman confirmed on May 15th?
[00:27:01]  Would you stay on?
[00:27:02]  So if my successor is not confirmed by the end of my term as chair, I would serve as chair pro tem until he is confirmed.
[00:27:11]  That is what the law calls for.
[00:27:14]  That's what we've done on several occasions, including involving me, and it's what we're going to do in this situation.
[00:27:19]  And while I'm at it, on the question whether I will leave while the investigation is ongoing, I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality.
[00:27:33]  And I would refer you to the statement that was in the Fed's brief that you all have seen.
[00:27:37]  And I won't have anything more for you on that.
[00:27:39]  On the question of whether I will then continue to serve as a governor after my term ends and after the investigation is over, I have not made that decision yet.
[00:27:48]  And I will make that decision based on what I think is best for the institution and for the people we serve.
[00:27:54]  Figuring you probably were going to set the dominoes off there, Edward.
[00:27:59]  And I'm not going to have any more to say on those issues.
[00:28:03]  Okay, welcome back.
[00:28:05]  That was kind of a mini bombshell.
[00:28:06]  Right there, Powell digging in and saying until the investigation is over, he's not leaving.
[00:28:10]  He's going to stay, I guess, as a governor.
[00:28:12]  That is to cause nothing but trouble.
[00:28:15]  This is an individual that detests President Trump because President Trump, I think, correctly has pointed out his vast shortcomings as too late Powell as head of the Federal Reserve.
[00:28:26]  So right there, he also says something that, hey, if it's not confirmed by, I guess, the middle of May, he's sticking on as he's going to stick on as what, Chairman Pro Tem.
[00:28:35]  So anyway, a lot of issues over the Federal Reserve, of course, issues at DHS hearing today, the confirmation hearing, particularly about judicial warrants.
[00:28:45]  We'll get to all that.
[00:28:45]  Jack Posobiec's writing shotgun Jack's going to have a lot to say about the grilling that President Trump's team, senior intelligence officials, particularly Ratcliffe at CIA, Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, got today by the Senate.
[00:29:01]  We're going to take a short commercial break.
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[00:29:26]  We're trying to get that done.
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[00:29:53]  Also, End of the Dollar Empire, get it, study it.
[00:29:56]  Come back and ask questions about it.
[00:29:58]  Short break.
[00:29:59]  Warroom.
[00:30:00]  Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
[00:30:05]  Okay, Corey Booker is on the floor.
[00:30:08]  Senator Corey Booker, we will skip that one.
[00:30:10]  There's going to be a lot.
[00:30:11]  They're going to go late tonight at 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, and they're going to put some form on this.
[00:30:16]  It's a great piece in the day's Federalists that we need a fist fight.
[00:30:21]  Kind of like Mike Lee, you need a fist fight to get this thing through.
[00:30:24]  You're not going to be able to do it in kind of the, you know, the Roberts Rules of Order.
[00:30:28]  We're going to try to get the author M.D. Kittle up tomorrow.
[00:30:31]  Also, a brilliant piece in Breitbart this morning by Bradley Jayn about Lindsey Graham funding, I don't know, these groups and doing it with U.S. aid money.
[00:30:42]  And the attorney of the United States said we were going to have him on tomorrow to explain all that.
[00:30:45]  I think we're going to have some polling on Lindsey Graham tomorrow, some polling from Rasmussen that is going to shock people.
[00:30:52]  We're going to have that and have the people that put that together on to explain it.
[00:30:56]  Jack Posobiec, I think we got one of the Air Force bases in Florida.
[00:31:03]  I don't know if it's McDill, is shut down right now.
[00:31:07]  There's an issue there with a truck with some explosives.
[00:31:11]  We also find out that the USS Gerald R. Ford has had a fire aborted from the laundry room.
[00:31:17]  Don't know how it started, but it's taken out 600 berthing spaces.
[00:31:21]  The ship is going into a port in the area for one week.
[00:31:25]  So you're taking it off the line with its air wing off the line.
[00:31:29]  We'll get to that.
[00:31:30]  But you've had breaking news from basically the Israeli public radio or public broadcasting.
[00:31:36]  What is it?
[00:31:38]  Well, Steve, there's this report that is currently going viral from one of the state public broadcasters in Israel, Khan News.
[00:31:49]  And I've sent it to my guys over at Postmillennial.
[00:31:53]  They're currently translating it.
[00:31:54]  They're working on it right now.
[00:31:56]  And what it states is they have a source that says that the United States is preparing for a two-week operation to take the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:32:07]  And they are directly referencing the USS Tripoli.
[00:32:12]  And they're saying that there's a possibility that the Gulf nations might also be involved in such an operation and says that Israel will be involved in an intelligence capacity.
[00:32:23]  So that's the latest from Con News in Israel.
[00:32:30]  So President Trump tweeted it again today, I think even after our morning show, and he keeps making the case that the war room is making.
[00:32:36]  He said it more blunt, that if he had taken care of, if he takes care of degrading, as CENTCOM and the military is going through this methodical degrading, or as Captain Finnell calls it, defanging and declawing of the Islamic regime.
[00:32:52]  And we decide, hey, we've done what we said our military targets and objectives do.
[00:32:56]  We're going home and leave it to the nations that depend upon the Gulf, depend upon the Gulf, to go ahead and get to go ahead and take care of itself.
[00:33:05]  They've already kind of given us the finger on this.
[00:33:07]  Why is President Trump not correct?
[00:33:09]  Why should we just not get our mission done, pull back out and let NATO and even China, Japan, these other nations that depend upon the Strait of Hormuz to get oil to it and the Red Sea, let them take it over.
[00:33:25]  Well, Steve, that's exactly right.
[00:33:27]  And I should say that's exactly an option.
[00:33:30]  Of course, the president, it seems though he's looking very directly at the strait.
[00:33:34]  He's looking at it saying that he's sick of what Iran has done here, sick of the fact that they've shut it down in the way that they have and is holding the world's oil markets hostage by doing so.

=== Naval Intelligence Briefing Details (15:12) ===

[00:33:48]  That's why they're looking at Carg Island.
[00:33:50]  They're looking at the optionality potentially with this USS AAA, the Marine Expeditionary Unit.
[00:33:56]  And what did we see last night, Steve?
[00:33:59]  We've already seen these bunker-busting bombs hitting the emplacements for missile launchers, for silos, for potential of the coastal anti-ship cruise missiles from the coast, coastal defense platforms.
[00:34:15]  So this is exactly what you would potentially see if there were an operation being built out.
[00:34:22]  Now, at the same time, that may not necessarily include putting boots on the ground.
[00:34:27]  It could simply be the threat of boots on the ground to see whether or not China or Russia wants to come in and bring forth some negotiation with the Iranians.
[00:34:37]  Iran, by the way, recently also just put out a statement that Iran is working with Oman to put together a new traffic scheme for the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:34:46]  So that's something that we certainly could look at.
[00:34:48]  And then when you look at the broader picture, Qatar just labeled the Iranian diplomatic team persona non-grata within Qatar because Iran retaliated for that gas field hit that was last night.
[00:35:03]  They then retaliated and hit the Qatari side of that South Pars gas field, the liquid natural gas field there.
[00:35:10]  So extensive damage to them and Qatar retaliating by saying, you are out of here.
[00:35:17]  So they kicked their diplomatic corps out.
[00:35:19]  So, Steve, this thing is heating up.
[00:35:22]  It is intensifying as we speak.
[00:35:26]  Besides trying to rattle and hassle Tulsi Gabbard about her involvement in the Georgia situation, it seemed to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, you're the naval intelligence.
[00:35:37]  Captain Finnell's a naval intelligence officer, that a lot of this briefing today, the Democrats, they came in and it was very focused on the imminent threat issue, part of that from Joe Kent, but I don't think they got to that.
[00:35:51]  I don't think there was any real mention of the rest of Joe Kent saying, hey, it's really Israel driving this.
[00:35:55]  It was really about the imminent threat.
[00:35:57]  They were trying to go there.
[00:35:58]  And also, was President Trump properly briefed or asked for a brief or was properly briefed on the Strait of Hormuz by the non-military, you know, not by CENCOM or the Joint Chiefs, but by the intelligence services.
[00:36:13]  Let's break it down.
[00:36:14]  First, the imminent threat.
[00:36:15]  They were really trying to trip up people about the imminent threat, but they didn't, they only seemed to focus on that of Joe Kent's.
[00:36:21]  I might be wrong.
[00:36:22]  You're a naval intelligence.
[00:36:23]  You know the subtleties here.
[00:36:25]  It seemed like they focus on the imminent threat and not this charge that Joe Kent has tossed out there, that this is really being driven by Israel versus just the basic intelligence of what's happening, that one party has a concept of what they want to achieve and they're driving this.
[00:36:42]  So your thoughts about that part, sir?
[00:36:45]  Well, Steve, I think that's right.
[00:36:46]  And I think that perhaps they may have been playing into some of the Secretary of State's comments earlier, Secretary Marco Rubia, when he had said that there was the situation where once the Ford had arrived on station, that Israel was about to conduct a bombing run and that there was a concern that the United States would also be hit in a retaliatory effort there.
[00:37:08]  So that's what led to that decision.
[00:37:10]  Again, I haven't seen that intelligence myself.
[00:37:13]  I haven't looked at the picture there.
[00:37:15]  So I'm just speculating that that may be what the reference is there.
[00:37:19]  But again, not sure.
[00:37:20]  As when it comes to DNI Gabbard, what we saw was, again, it was this question of this word imminence over and over and over.
[00:37:29]  Was it imminent?
[00:37:30]  Was it not imminent?
[00:37:31]  What did you see?
[00:37:32]  What did you not see?
[00:37:33]  And Director Gabbard made the call and pointed, well, pointed out that the president makes the call.
[00:37:39]  So the president makes that call.
[00:37:41]  And then when they asked her, what was the intelligence briefing?
[00:37:44]  Of course, in an open forum like that, she said she had to be able to say, I cannot say that in an open forum.
[00:37:50]  I can't tell you here in an unclassified environment what the intelligence briefing was.
[00:37:55]  Now, and by the way, they have the ability to brief her or receive a briefing from her in the Senate Select Committee.
[00:38:03]  We know the game in intelligence in the SCIF.
[00:38:07]  They can do that in a secure facility.
[00:38:09]  We know that the Gang of Eight was briefed on this.
[00:38:11]  So there are more appropriate forums for those questions to be asked if what they're going for is actually trying to ascertain what happened here.
[00:38:19]  But of course, that's not what they're trying to get.
[00:38:21]  What they're trying to obtain from this is clips that they can put, and Senator Kelly can go put on social media.
[00:38:26]  Remember, Senator Kelly, the same senator that told service members to disobey orders if they viewed illegal or unlawful or untoward orders from the commander-in-chief.
[00:38:38]  So this is already someone.
[00:38:40]  We've got thousands now, thousands more, two aircraft carrier battle groups and the USS Tripoli on its way with another 2,500 Marines.
[00:38:49]  And you got Senator Kelly up there acting as if he's got any bit of credibility on this when he's already undermined the commander-in-chief.
[00:38:57]  But we haven't recalled him and put him on trial, which we should do.
[00:39:02]  100%, not even a question about that.
[00:39:04]  But you allow him to sit there and pontificate.
[00:39:06]  Let me, I want to go back also to your naval intelligence expertise.
[00:39:09]  Now, I realize DIA is one of the 17 entities that report to, I think it's 17 that reports to Tulsi Gabbard.
[00:39:17]  But let's be blunt, CIA doesn't really report to her, and DIA doesn't really report to her.
[00:39:21]  I know they do theoretically.
[00:39:23]  The briefing of by President Trump on the operations and military strategy, what's happening, falls within the confines of the uniform military service.
[00:39:32]  The joint staff has an intel.
[00:39:34]  You got Navy intel, Army Intel, Air Force Intel, all feeds into that.
[00:39:38]  The battle plan, not just for the degradation of the Iranian military, and they're going through a very methodical process to declaw and defang, which appears to be ahead of schedule.
[00:39:50]  Anything related to expansion of the battle area, which you and I talked about the very first week, it looks like the center of gravity of this battle is the Persian Gulf, would have been briefed by and part of the war planning effort of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CENCOM to hector, to continue.
[00:40:08]  They just hectored these people all day, trying to see, oh, is Trump not on top of things?
[00:40:12]  Is Trump now trying to pull it together?
[00:40:14]  They missed the point that that would be part of CENCOM and everything we've seen at CENTCOM and General Kane, to me, looks like not just professional, but uber professional.
[00:40:25]  They're on top of this like nobody's business.
[00:40:28]  Now, we're talking about the fire in the aircraft carry in a minute, but as you see as naval intelligence, this would be done by CENTCOM and the Joint Chiefs, would it not?
[00:40:36]  Yeah, Steve, look, this is something where there are O-plans in place, operational plans in place that the Pentagon has on the shelf for years.
[00:40:46]  They look at these problem sets, where they look at Iran, where they look at the Strait of Hormuz, where they look at various war games and exercises that are conducted to be able to determine what would the Iranian regime do in the response of whatever input the Department of War provides to it.
[00:41:01]  So if there's a bombing run, if there's going to be naval operations, whatever it is, these are the types of things that they plan for on a daily basis.
[00:41:11]  This is something that the military and of course CENTCOM is always looking at.
[00:41:16]  And there's no question that they look at every single, what you do is when you're putting together one of these assessments, you create two tracks, your ML COA and your MD COA.
[00:41:25]  So that's your most likely course effect, and then your most deadly.
[00:41:30]  So most likely, most deadly.
[00:41:32]  And in their cause of action.
[00:41:34]  And in the most likely, this is what Iran would do.
[00:41:37]  Most deadly is not just, by the way, closing the Strait of Hormuz, but mining the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:41:44]  And so we haven't seen Iran yet actually commit to the MDCOA on that.
[00:41:49]  We haven't seen them actually go all the way in to mine the Strait of Hormuz, but they are closing it now with the threat of mining it.
[00:41:56]  And that's what dropped us down to seeing what, a 98% reduction in traffic and transit.
[00:42:01]  So the idea that the Pentagon would not be aware of this or would not be considering this or would not have briefed this to the president, it's honestly just ridiculous.
[00:42:13]  Jack, can you hang on for a second?
[00:42:14]  Because I want to get, if I can hold you through the break, and I realize taking time, we're in the family, but I want to talk about this fire and the Ford being basically pulled out of battle rotation and the air wing being pulled out to basically have some refit and repair about this fire.
[00:42:31]  It looks like 600 birthing spaces destroyed.
[00:42:34]  The crew is now some sleeping, I guess, on the deck and in the hangar deck and some on the maybe even the mess deck.
[00:42:40]  We'll get to all of that.
[00:42:42]  Kind of confusing about the reporting of this.
[00:42:43]  So we're going to take a short commercial break.
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[00:43:47]  Jack Basovic, Naval Intelligence on the other side.
[00:43:52]  We will fight till they're all gone.
[00:43:55]  We rejoice when there's no more.
[00:43:56]  Let's take down the CCP.
[00:43:59]  The American public.
[00:44:00]  And that's why the decision to go to war was vested not in an executive or a monarch or a king, but in the Congress, in the people's house, and in the Senate.
[00:44:13]  I think this is probably the most significant military engagement of many of our lifetimes that has gone without a debate and a vote on the Senate floor.
[00:44:28]  It is extraordinary, not just that we have not had a vote as is required by the Constitution, not just that the president persists in this action without an authorization by Congress,
[00:44:42]  but that there hasn't even been a single public hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee or the Armed Services Committee to require the administration to explain to the American people and to the United States Senate why we're in this war, what the goals are, and what the end game will be.
[00:45:08]  Now, I think it's extraordinary and heartbreaking and outrageous that the Senate is not doing its duty under the Constitution to require the administration to ask permission to go to war and to explain itself before Congress.
[00:45:22]  But I guess I understand why.
[00:45:26]  This is an attempt to hide the incompetence, the growing incompetence of this war.
[00:45:33]  The president said the other day he was really surprised when Iran started bombing its neighbors.
[00:45:41]  Like the first page of the briefing book that a president would get on the consequences of a major military strike on Iran would be that missiles and drones would start to be sent to American.
[00:45:55]  That's Chris Murphy from Connecticut.
[00:45:57]  He is running for President of the United States.
[00:45:59]  So you see that they don't want to talk about Save America Act.
[00:46:02]  They don't want to talk about it.
[00:46:03]  They know it's radioactive for them.
[00:46:05]  But I'm telling you folks, take your number two principle out.
[00:46:08]  This war powers thing is going to get to be that.
[00:46:10]  We've defeated the first time, but this whole war powers and you saw today hammering Tulsi about imminent threat, hammering all of them.
[00:46:18]  Was he briefed on Hormuz?
[00:46:20]  Israeli public broadcasting announcing it looks like you're two weeks exercise, some sort of military endeavor to secure Carg Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:46:30]  Jack, there's one thing, as you know, being a naval intelligence officer and myself being a surface warfare officer to quarantine or to have a naval blockade or maybe even lift a blockade of Hormuz.
[00:46:42]  It's another thing for an amphibious operation against an enemy-held position, right?
[00:46:49]  Not just Carg Island, but the coast down there in Hormuz.
[00:46:52]  Would it not be quite important for us to tell our allies, not just the Gulf allies, because I think they're being talked about being part of it, but Israel and particularly the deadbeats in Europe, that it's time, you know, you're not going to have a choice.
[00:47:06]  You're either in or you're out.
[00:47:07]  And if you're out, we're going to be out, sir.
[00:47:11]  Well, Steve, there's serious questions about that.
[00:47:14]  And when it comes to NATO alliance, when it comes to America's allies like Israel, like allies in Asia that we have South Korea, Japan, of course, there's real questions here because you see the United States stepping up, dealing with the threat, fighting with the threat that the president has outlined.
[00:47:32]  And what you don't see is this combination.
[00:47:35]  We remember, Steve, go back to it.
[00:47:36]  We had stories that Kirstammer was going to send over, that he was going to send over their aircraft carrier from the British.
[00:47:43]  We heard that Macron was going to send over his carrier.
[00:47:46]  Nothing.
[00:47:47]  Absolutely nothing.
[00:47:49]  Nobody wants to Roger up for this.
[00:47:51]  Israel, of course, also has a Navy.
[00:47:54]  They've got a sort of near water, brownwater Navy, but certainly capable of sending ships to this trade of hormuz.
[00:47:59]  They have not done so.
[00:48:00]  They not even suggested doing so, by the way.
[00:48:04]  I've certainly not heard anyone call for that.
[00:48:06]  And so the questions really remain, why is it that the United States, again, just as the president says and is completely correct, why is it that the United States does so much for the world, not just in terms of military, but in terms of the programs that we do, and that when the United States wants something in return, there's no response.
[00:48:26]  Jack, when people go to your social media, I'm going to try to bother you tomorrow to get on here.
[00:48:31]  We got to talk about this fire aboard the USS Ford.
[00:48:34]  We have to talk about the deployment of the Ford going on a year.
[00:48:37]  I think by mid-April, it'll be the longest deployment of any ship post-World War II in the history, even during Vietnam.
[00:48:46]  I think it'll go over a year, which post-Vietnam, which is extraordinary, extraordinary.
[00:48:51]  Jack, where do people get your Twitter feed is like a modern associated press of real news for the mega movement.
[00:48:58]  Where do people go?

=== Historic Ship Deployment Record (02:58) ===

[00:49:00]  Oh, Steve, I appreciate that.
[00:49:02]  It's look, we've got at Jack Pesobic on X, and we're doing the sit reps once again here at Human Events Daily, every day, Apple Spotify.
[00:49:11]  If you guys go subscribe there to get the downloads, you have to listen live.
[00:49:15]  It really helps us out.
[00:49:17]  So Human Events Daily, Apple and Spotify podcasts.
[00:49:21]  And Steve, you're absolutely right.
[00:49:22]  The strain of, and look, the United States sailors, it's the world's finest Navy, but you go out there for 10 months, 11 months, looking at 12 months.
[00:49:31]  That's a lot of time.
[00:49:32]  You're working that ship hard.
[00:49:33]  You're fighting that ship hard.
[00:49:34]  You're fighting that crew hard.
[00:49:36]  That is a long deployment.
[00:49:38]  And this fire, we're told, 600 sailors are now without birthing.
[00:49:45]  Well, it's 24-hour air ops.
[00:49:48]  I mean, that is a huge strain on all the 24-hour combat systems.
[00:49:55]  When your birthing is under the flight deck, it sounds like the aircraft is crashing on your head every, you know, trying to catch some rack time.
[00:50:03]  When you're trying to get some, trying to get three or four hours of sleep.
[00:50:06]  Thank you, Jack.
[00:50:07]  Appreciate you.
[00:50:09]  Mike Lindell, let's cut to the chase.
[00:50:12]  What's the war on Pasinos?
[00:50:13]  What's the deal?
[00:50:14]  Stop the happy talk.
[00:50:14]  Give me the deal.
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[00:51:41]  Okay, We're going to preempt.
[00:51:43]  Normally we have the Ben Harnwell handles things about Catholicism and Christianity and politics.
[00:51:50]  This time every Wednesday, we're going to preempt that.
[00:51:52]  We're going to stay live on the Senate floor.
[00:51:54]  We're going to be packed with guests.
[00:51:55]  Stick around.
[00:51:56]  We got another hour of the war room live for the United States.