Bannon's War Room - Episode 5310: Peace Talks Attempt To Continue While Strait Remains Closed
Aired: 2026-04-18
Duration: 48:16


=== The President's Closing Mode (08:35) ===

[00:00:00]  Mark Halpern, incredible show, fun show.
[00:00:02]  I love you could do the focus groups.
[00:00:03]  They bring people up and kind of thinking about ways that we could do that over on Human Events, by the way.
[00:00:10]  And because you can really pick people's minds and talk directly to the individual, they call in, they use like a Zoom setup.
[00:00:18]  And Steve, what I said is the president is in closing mode.
[00:00:22]  He is in closing mode right now.
[00:00:24]  When he's in closing mode, he understands there's going to be hiccups, there's going to be a couple challenges before you get something.
[00:00:30]  To the finish line there.
[00:00:32]  But what he is going to do is drive everything towards the close.
[00:00:38]  That's what this is about.
[00:00:39]  So when there's challenges, when there's hiccups, he's going to push them away.
[00:00:42]  He's going to push them aside.
[00:00:44]  And by the way, that includes, for example, that's why you saw the swiftness with which he slapped down this.
[00:00:50]  He said, look, you guys have a problem with Israel Lebanon.
[00:00:53]  Boom, done.
[00:00:54]  Cease fire.
[00:00:55]  Make it happen right now.
[00:00:56]  Bring him to the White House.
[00:00:57]  So he's not interested in playing games.
[00:01:00]  He wants this.
[00:01:01]  He wants to put this thing to bed.
[00:01:02]  He wants to turn the chapter.
[00:01:04]  That's why, of course, he does this huge high profile event this morning, bringing in the most, you know, the most high profile podcasters and Bobby Kennedy going full Maha.
[00:01:14]  So I think he's signaling.
[00:01:16]  He sent to me, sending out all the signals that he wants to put this thing to bed.
[00:01:20]  He's in closing mode.
[00:01:22]  Yeah, I want to talk.
[00:01:23]  You know, Bo Davidson was co hosting with Ajessa.
[00:01:26]  He called it the recalibration.
[00:01:28]  I put it up when they announced this morning what this was going to be.
[00:01:33]  About the psychedelic drug.
[00:01:35]  I said, this is President Trump does the pivot, right?
[00:01:39]  He's pivoting to November.
[00:01:41]  You agree with that.
[00:01:42]  Don't get me wrong.
[00:01:43]  The war is still very big.
[00:01:44]  He's going to, and remember, President Trump comes to these negotiations, what I call the power of positive thinking.
[00:01:50]  Was it Norman Vincent Peale, was the pastor of the church that Trump's father took him to?
[00:01:56]  So he's a huge believer in that.
[00:01:58]  Because people are saying, well, Trump's saying this, and the Iranians are saying this.
[00:02:01]  They're saying this is that, by the way, and how important that is to understanding the president.
[00:02:05]  No, Norman Vincent Peale is really one of the most important parts of the formative years of President Trump when he was a young person, then went to the military school.
[00:02:15]  But he's read every book, studied, talked to Norman Vincent Peale.
[00:02:20]  His father was a big believer in it.
[00:02:21]  And that's why he's trying to impose his will onto this situation, particularly as you've got these pirates that have already fired, I think, in the last couple of hours on a couple of tankers.
[00:02:33]  The kids call it manifesting today.
[00:02:35]  They call it manifesting.
[00:02:37]  Manifesting.
[00:02:38]  Manifesting.
[00:02:39]  Yes, and that's what he's doing.
[00:02:40]  But it's the same thing.
[00:02:41]  The pivot to November.
[00:02:43]  Yesterday, Charlie Kirk was part of it at Turning Point.
[00:02:48]  Then this morning, and you saw he had Bobby Kinney.
[00:02:51]  There's been all this rumor that Bobby Kinney's on the way out.
[00:02:54]  That, you know, we've talked about a lot that they're very restricted about Maha.
[00:02:59]  President Trump gave him huge compliments, huge props, talked about how important Maha was, and made this pivot.
[00:03:06]  Joe Rogan, obviously, has been very critical of the president over the last couple of weeks.
[00:03:10]  Joe Rogan standing right in back of him for a photo op.
[00:03:13]  Talk to me about this pivot to November.
[00:03:15]  You say the president's in closing mode.
[00:03:16]  He understands the stakes, particularly the Democrats, have already lined up to essentially destroy his second term if they take the House and to eventually put President Trump and his colleagues in jail, sir.
[00:03:31]  Well, Steve, they do.
[00:03:32]  And I'd point out as well that you notice you actually don't hear the Democrats talking that much about the Iran war.
[00:03:38]  They talk about ICE, even when they held this No Kings protest over the one that was during the 38 days or 41 days, however many tweets shake out.
[00:03:47]  Let's say 40.
[00:03:47]  Let's split the difference there.
[00:03:49]  And they don't talk about it being anti war as much.
[00:03:54]  There are a couple of these motions that didn't really go anywhere, but ultimately you don't see Chuck Schumer coming out to the sticks and pounding down about it.
[00:04:01]  You just don't see it the way you do.
[00:04:04]  About ice and about other things, because they understand that it is domestic policy that November is going to be decided upon.
[00:04:13]  They understand that they want to stay on that message, whether it's delivering for working families, whether it's inflation.
[00:04:20]  Now, they'll talk about gas prices, of course, and they'll talk about that in terms of the indirect functions that come out of the war.
[00:04:27]  And we're already seeing gas prices come down, but that's where they want to keep their focus.
[00:04:32]  That's why you're seeing the president doing.
[00:04:33]  And by the way, 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning, that's not just a pivot, Steve, that's a hard pivot.
[00:04:39]  That's a hard pivot.
[00:04:40]  The early hour, because the president just got off the plane a couple hours ago.
[00:04:44]  I think the 9 a.m. is to show you hey, we're firing off the football here.
[00:04:48]  I also, given the weather in Washington, D.C., might have something to do with this tea time at the Trump course in North East.
[00:04:55]  The weather in D.C. is phenomenal.
[00:04:56]  When you're back in D.C. now, you know it's phenomenal.
[00:04:59]  The whole East Coast is phenomenal right now.
[00:05:01]  It's the best.
[00:05:02]  Yeah, just amazing spring.
[00:05:04]  I want to go back to yesterday with Charlie Kirk.
[00:05:09]  That was.
[00:05:10]  An outpouring of energy.
[00:05:12]  And I think it was great coming from Turning Point.
[00:05:14]  It was a packed house.
[00:05:15]  People were waiting for it.
[00:05:16]  President Trump hitting on all cylinders.
[00:05:18]  But the response of the Turning Point USA, we had Andrew Colvett on at the end of the show yesterday.
[00:05:25]  We didn't get a chance to get to you.
[00:05:27]  Your thoughts about this really, I believe, kicked off the 2026 midterm yesterday in Phoenix, sir.
[00:05:36]  Well, and that's exactly what it was intended to do, Steve.
[00:05:38]  That's why it was branded Build the Red Wall.
[00:05:40]  So remember the Blue Wall, we shut that down in 2024.
[00:05:45]  Charlie was talking about that for the majority of every day.
[00:05:49]  How do we take down the Blue Wall?
[00:05:50]  How do we take down the Blue Wall?
[00:05:51]  But now the Red Wall, and it kind of needs to be reconstituted.
[00:05:55]  So that's why it's the play on words Build the Wall, Build the Red Wall.
[00:06:00]  And what that means is solidifying those gains from 2024, turning those swing states from purple to red.
[00:06:07]  Through what registration that's where you get turning point action, that's where you get Scott Pressler, Cliff Maloney, Citizens United, that's where you get all of those different pieces in key areas.
[00:06:16]  And now you're looking at turning point as well, putting up physical infrastructure in places like Wisconsin, like Nevada, like New Hampshire, by the way, is a huge one that is absolutely on the bubble.
[00:06:27]  I was just up in New Hampshire with Tanya Tay, there's Trump signs everywhere.
[00:06:31]  That is Caroline Levitt, hails from there to Granite State.
[00:06:33]  That's exactly on the bubble for Trump.
[00:06:37]  And I always say that New England's for a lot of conservatives who just don't know it.
[00:06:41]  And they just need to get over that hump of saying, you know what, I am a Republican, I am a conservative.
[00:06:47]  So I think the Senate race up there is something that needs to be looked at.
[00:06:50]  Susan Collins absolutely needs to be looked at, and something where I think she has an absolute ability to pull it off.
[00:06:58]  And by the way, you see the Democrats recalibrating.
[00:07:00]  You see the Democrats recover.
[00:07:01]  They got a blue collar guy running up in Maine right now, Army veteran, a guy who's up there saying that he's, you know, I'm one of you, I look just like you, I sound just like you.
[00:07:11]  It's not one of these crazy Kamala candidates again.
[00:07:14]  That's something that they're trying to do that in Texas, but they couldn't quite get it right with Tallarico.
[00:07:18]  But he is a white male, among other things.
[00:07:21]  So you see this recalibration that they're trying to do.
[00:07:24]  Yeah, he's a little Tallarico's a little testosterone light, but they're running like a little testosterone light.
[00:07:30]  It's kind of like Tallarico and Tim Waltz are like the low testosterone Frankenstein's prototypes that didn't quite make it out of the lab, if you know what I mean, in terms of this.
[00:07:41]  No, I'm trying to throw people to judge that.
[00:07:44]  Hold it, Tim Waltz.
[00:07:46]  Tim Walz is Arnold Schwarzenegger compared to Tellerico.
[00:07:49]  Tellerico, it's a, you know, he's a weird dude.
[00:07:53]  He's going to be a tough dude.
[00:07:54]  But they've got blue color guys.
[00:07:56]  This was a turning of the page too, because this is the first time that President Trump has come back to Arizona and has done a turning point event since we held the memorial for Charlie.
[00:08:07]  And it's really only been just a couple of months since that took place.
[00:08:10]  And so this is the first time he's been back.
[00:08:13]  Now it's, you remember Charlie, you remember the legacy, but you push forward.
[00:08:18]  The mission continues, the work continues.
[00:08:20]  That's what it's about.
[00:08:21]  And Steve, I got to tell you, those young kids, particularly the young men, we couldn't keep them in the seats last night.
[00:08:26]  They were standing up, they were cheering, standing O's all night long.
[00:08:32]  Before we lose you, we've got Eric Bowling and Brandon Weicker going to join us.

=== Trump Returns to Arizona (15:11) ===

[00:08:35]  DeGrasse is going to talk to us about redistricting in Virginia and around the country.
[00:08:39]  We're teeing this up today because Virginia is still going.
[00:08:42]  We've got a lot of people from Virginia and our big event tomorrow.
[00:08:45]  Jack, just your assessment.
[00:08:47]  The Navy's not shutting down the blockade.
[00:08:50]  The Iranians are now saying if the blockade doesn't shut down, Hormuz doesn't open.
[00:08:54]  They fired on at least reports on CNN, BBC.
[00:08:58]  They fired on a couple of vessels this morning from, I guess, their speedboats.
[00:09:03]  What's your assessment?
[00:09:05]  Well, Steve, look, you know, the Iranians have always had cards that they can play on this.
[00:09:10]  If they don't like the way that they see things going, they don't like, and I'm sure this is a response, by the way, to those messages, the interdictions, maritime interdiction operations, the MIOs, as we call them in the Navy, that the United States Navy has been conducting.
[00:09:23]  You see these messages that are being played out, the Iranians, you know, commercial vessel, commercial vessel, et cetera, that are coming out.
[00:09:30]  This is their response to that.
[00:09:31]  So we'll see how the president plays this.
[00:09:33]  But again, Steve, I would put that in the context.
[00:09:36]  Of President Trump being in closing mode, I think you're going to see swift action on this.
[00:09:41]  Yeah, he's talking about people actually leaving tomorrow to go to Islamabad and continue the Islamabad talks.
[00:09:49]  What are the odds you put on that?
[00:09:51]  Because, like I said, this is he's trying to enforce his will.
[00:09:53]  I'd be surprised if Kushner and Kushner and Kushner.
[00:09:56]  Yeah, I'd be surprised if Kushner and Wyckoff aren't on wheels up today.
[00:10:01]  Okay, Jack, I know you got to bounce.
[00:10:03]  I want to thank you for being here with us from 9 a.m. for this special edition, the additional hour as we watch.
[00:10:09]  The president of the Oval Office about PTSD.
[00:10:13]  Jack, where do people go to get Human Events Daily?
[00:10:15]  All your content over this weekend, sir.
[00:10:18]  Well, thanks so much, Steve.
[00:10:19]  And, you know, with bringing Joe Rogan back, I guess the podcasters do matter, as it turns out, for the midterm elections.
[00:10:25]  I guess the podcasters do have some pull after all.
[00:10:29]  Well, hang on.
[00:10:30]  Hang on.
[00:10:31]  Don't get it.
[00:10:33]  Let's see if they're back.
[00:10:34]  I mean, he's there today with the PTSD.
[00:10:36]  He was instrumental in making this happen.
[00:10:38]  Yeah, he's making the play.
[00:10:41]  He's making the play.
[00:10:42]  Where do people go to get your content?
[00:10:44]  You know, and Rogan's had his comments.
[00:10:46]  So, you know, but now he's back in the oval.
[00:10:47]  So there you go, right?
[00:10:48]  People turn the page very quickly, and the president understands how to do that.
[00:10:51]  For myself, human events daily.
[00:10:54]  We're up on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts, at Jack Posobic.
[00:10:57]  We're there 24 7, doing a lot of coverage.
[00:11:00]  Tyler Robinson hearing, massive six hour hearing yesterday.
[00:11:04]  We went through all that, through all six hours, back and forth.
[00:11:07]  Are there going to be delays, et cetera?
[00:11:09]  We're going to have cameras in the courtroom.
[00:11:10]  So that's been a huge focus for us.
[00:11:12]  But now, We're pivoting back on to our coverage of Iran, and we're going to make sure we don't drop it.
[00:11:17]  We're going to put this thing to bed.
[00:11:19]  No, you're the best.
[00:11:20]  Jack Basobic, thanks for taking time away from the kids.
[00:11:23]  Tanya Tay, your parents, all of it on a Saturday morning.
[00:11:25]  Thank you so much.
[00:11:26]  No problem.
[00:11:26]  Heading out to Little League games now.
[00:11:29]  Fabulous.
[00:11:29]  Doesn't get better than that.
[00:11:31]  Eric Bowling, back from your morning workout.
[00:11:34]  Thank you, sir, for joining us here.
[00:11:36]  Your assessment of what's happening, been a lot of activity in the Strait and in the Gulf of Oman.
[00:11:43]  We got a couple minutes.
[00:11:44]  We'll hold you to the break.
[00:11:45]  Brandon Weickert, also, your thoughts, sir?
[00:11:49]  I think the IRGC is playing it the way anyone would, I'm guessing, the way the Trump administration would expect them to play until a deal is, you know, the ink is dry in the deal.
[00:11:59]  They're going to assume that they have control of Strait of Hormuz.
[00:12:02]  Looks like they fired on a UK oil vessel and maybe an Indian flag vessel as well.
[00:12:09]  Be very unnerving if the markets were open at this point.
[00:12:12]  But I do think it's them trying to say that, hey, we're going to still try and create a deal for ourselves, the IRGC, when they do meet with Whitcoff and Kushner.
[00:12:24]  Trump owns it.
[00:12:25]  It's his.
[00:12:25]  It's his.
[00:12:26]  I mean, if they wanted to, they could take out those swift boats, they could sink them.
[00:12:30]  But they're not going to do it.
[00:12:31]  They're going to let Iran play their little.
[00:12:34]  Little games or little reindeer games for a while.
[00:12:37]  And of course, it's on a weekend, it's not really affecting the oil market.
[00:12:40]  We'll see what happens on Monday.
[00:12:41]  But I have a hunch that Trump will get the Strait of Hormuz open very quickly.
[00:12:45]  But you sent me an interesting chart this morning.
[00:12:47]  I hadn't seen that yet.
[00:12:48]  It's the live vessels.
[00:12:49]  So it's tracking live vessels via satellite and how many have transversed or transited the Strait.
[00:12:57]  You know, at peak, it did 150, probably averaged around 140, 142 a day.
[00:13:04]  It's been a couple, a handful under 10.
[00:13:06]  We noticed it was up.
[00:13:08]  14 a couple of days ago, nine yesterday.
[00:13:10]  So it's likely who Trump wants to get oil.
[00:13:14]  He knows who the vessels that were fired on by the IRGC were the UK and India.
[00:13:20]  We're friendly to those, relatively friendly to those, so to speak.
[00:13:23]  So no surprises here, Steve.
[00:13:25]  I don't think this is a little negotiating, a little nudging prior to the actual sit down with Kushner and Washington.
[00:13:34]  Communication by weapon.
[00:13:36]  Eric, hang on.
[00:13:37]  Brandon Weichert's also with us.
[00:13:39]  Alex DeGrasse, we're giving you the big picture here as a frame.
[00:13:44]  Commonwealth of Virginia, last day to run through the tape on early voting.
[00:13:47]  We'll have a bunch of those folks.
[00:13:48]  Also, if we can pull it off technically, Todd Blanch, the acting attorney general of the United States, gave a keynote speech at the NRA last night.
[00:13:57]  He'll join us live.
[00:13:59]  We're packed wall to wall.
[00:14:01]  Short commercial break.
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[00:14:28]  Okay, we've got a lot to get to in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[00:14:30]  Also, Alex DeGrasse is going to be here to give us the big picture on what's going on in both the Supreme Court redistricting and the pivot.
[00:14:38]  President Trump's pivoted and pivoted hard to let's close this thing out in November.
[00:14:43]  Get more on that in a few minutes.
[00:14:45]  Want to go to Brandon Weickert.
[00:14:46]  Brandon, your assessment the Iranians get a vote here, right?
[00:14:50]  President Trump trying to enforce his will in the Persian Gulf in Iran, the power of positive thinking.
[00:14:58]  He's bowling through to get a deal done.
[00:15:00]  Saying guys are getting ready to take off, they're going to go to Islamabad while the Iranians are shelling Indian and British tankers.
[00:15:09]  Your thoughts, sir?
[00:15:11]  I think it's interesting they're shelling British tankers.
[00:15:13]  Of course, the Iranian regime hates the British as much as they hate us going historically, but the British have tried to stay out of this fight.
[00:15:19]  So I think it's interesting they're attacking somewhat of a neutral country.
[00:15:23]  The Indians make sense because of their relationship with Israel.
[00:15:26]  But I suspect what you're seeing here is some flexing.
[00:15:29]  I think that what your previous guests were saying is correct.
[00:15:32]  But I would just say.
[00:15:34]  We are still not close to a deal.
[00:15:37]  I have a piece up at 1945.com where I'm saying that what was announced yesterday felt like a PR stunt.
[00:15:44]  And the reason I say that is based on the comments of the Saudi finance minister.
[00:15:49]  So the paper price of oil has come down, and that's great.
[00:15:54]  But ultimately, the Saudis are saying that the real price of a barrel of oil you're not going to find for $83 or $90 anywhere.
[00:16:01]  You're going to find it for somewhere between $115 and $160 because of the scarcity issue.
[00:16:07]  Over time, we can overcome that.
[00:16:09]  But right now, that paper price is not necessarily commensurate with the real price of what a barrel of oil is costing on the market, which is going to cause dislocations.
[00:16:19]  And the Iranians know that, and they're playing up that to try to squeeze the administration.
[00:16:25]  I'll just add one other thing.
[00:16:27]  Any deal that sees the Iranians in control of the Strait of Hormuz in any way is going to be perceived as a failure.
[00:16:36]  I don't know what President Trump.
[00:16:37]  What he thinks of it, but we know the Singaporean prime minister has been blowing up the White House saying, You cannot let this stand because they're worried about it setting a precedent for the Strait of Malacca, which of course Singapore depends on.
[00:16:51]  So even small countries like Singapore are saying, Do not let the Iranians have control.
[00:16:56]  So you're going to have all these pressure on the president over the next 72 hours.
[00:17:01]  This thing is not over yet, I don't think.
[00:17:05]  No, look, correct me if I'm wrong.
[00:17:07]  And this is why I say we don't really have any allies in the area.
[00:17:11]  America's greatest ally is Netanyahu's furious about President Trump stopping him against Hezbollah and in Lebanon.
[00:17:19]  And of course, our great Arab allies.
[00:17:22]  There was not a big tear coming down the Saudi finance minister's cheek when he's saying, gosh, the price of oil is going to be 115 to 140.
[00:17:32]  These guys have been nervous at 50 bucks a barrel.
[00:17:36]  They're going bankrupt, right?
[00:17:37]  Because Aramco is so incompetent and they're so lazy and dumb and incompetent about running the thing.
[00:17:43]  Their lifting costs, I think, are $30.
[00:17:45]  It should be two.
[00:17:47]  They're all for this being over $100, correct?
[00:17:50]  I don't know if they're for it being over $100.
[00:17:53]  They like it in that range because they're aware that if it goes too high, they're going to basically lose clients.
[00:17:58]  That's what they're always worried about.
[00:17:59]  So they like it in that range.
[00:18:01]  But right now, I think what the Saudi and most of the Arab states' concern is.
[00:18:06]  If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, they're not having any business whatsoever.
[00:18:10]  So the Saudis were all for, you know, sticking it to the Iranians when we were talking about attacking Iranian oil flows, going after their production and whatnot.
[00:18:19]  As long as the logic was we were going to keep that straight open, I think the fear in Riyadh and elsewhere in the Arab states is if that, that straight remains closed, then nobody's selling oil, not just the Iranians, but the, the, the Arabs as well.
[00:18:33]  So that's going to affect them very negatively because they won't be getting any of their product to market or not.
[00:18:39]  What the Iranians have said publicly is that they're going to keep the straight clothes, including firing on people, as long as the United States Navy is on the other side in the Gulf of Oman with a blockade, right?
[00:18:51]  So, how do we work it?
[00:18:53]  President Trump's not about to back off of that.
[00:18:55]  That's what's given us all the leverage to date.
[00:18:57]  How does this get worked out in your mind?
[00:19:00]  Well, that's going to be the key here.
[00:19:02]  And right now, there's no stasis in the argument.
[00:19:05]  So, the Iranians are going to keep their blockade up.
[00:19:07]  We're going to keep our counter blockade up, which is why I don't think we're near a deal yet.
[00:19:12]  Ultimately, if Trump is really fixated on getting the nuclear dust from Iran, I suspect the Iranians eventually would be willing to part with whatever's remaining.
[00:19:25]  But that's going to require a longer term discussion because the Iranians are going to have things they want in return.
[00:19:30]  One of those things is clearly the preservation of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
[00:19:35]  And I don't know how long that ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah can last.
[00:19:40]  It sounds like Israel already started attacking again in isolated pockets after the ceasefire.
[00:19:46]  So This is contingent really on Israel.
[00:19:48]  What are we going to do to keep Israel from going out of line?
[00:19:52]  And so far, we haven't done enough.
[00:19:53]  And that's going to affect us getting a deal on these wider issues with Iran.
[00:19:59]  Is there any way that President Trump could get a deal and leave and be acceptable to everybody to get sorted here with the Revolutionary Guard having any hand on the throttle of the Strait of Hormuz, sir?
[00:20:12]  This is my concern in that 1945 piece.
[00:20:15]  I can't imagine not only would the American government have a problem with it, but every government's because of the.
[00:20:20]  Precedent it's going to set.
[00:20:21]  And the Iranians are not going to let that straight go.
[00:20:24]  The Iranians have complete effective control over the straight right now, irrespective of whether we have this counter blockade going or not.
[00:20:31]  I seriously doubt the Revolutionary Guard is going to let that go, even if we do get a deal on some of these other issues, because it's just too good of a leverage point.
[00:20:40]  And they could be making a lot of money from transit fees.
[00:20:42]  So this is going to be a longer term problem.
[00:20:45]  I hate to, you know, to mixturate on the good feelings here, but I think this is going to go on much longer, even if President Trump is ready to make a deal right now.
[00:20:56]  And they're pirates.
[00:20:56]  They got a pirate's mentality.
[00:20:58]  Brandon, where they go to 1945 to get the article, where they go to social media, you're always putting up insightful pieces and controversial pieces.
[00:21:06]  Yes, apparently I'm very controversial.
[00:21:08]  Yeah, WeTheBrandon is my Twitter handle, natsecguy at emerald.tv, and natsectalk at rumble are my other places where I have a lot of material coming out daily.
[00:21:19]  Brandon, thank you so much.
[00:21:21]  Appreciate you.
[00:21:22]  Eric Bowling, before you bounce on a Saturday morning, Thoughts about Brandon Weickert, the bigger picture, and the importance of the Strait of Hormuz, sir?
[00:21:30]  So, Brandon makes a very good point about the price of spot.
[00:21:34]  It's called spot crude oil right now, and it's actually worse than what he said.
[00:21:38]  He said 105, 110.
[00:21:40]  The spot price for Saudi crude right now is about $130 to $140 a barrel.
[00:21:46]  But here's the thing during this last 50 days or so, they've been incapable of shipping oil out of the region.
[00:21:53]  They produce a ton of oil in the region.
[00:21:55]  So, what happens is you either have Production or storage?
[00:21:58]  Well, they were still producing, and all that production went into storage.
[00:22:02]  When the storage got filled, they had to do what's called a shut in.
[00:22:05]  They shut in production, they shut in oil production, they shut in refinery production.
[00:22:09]  And so, yes, there is a bit of it's going to be a.
[00:22:13]  Here's what will happen it's very high right now, but as soon as that it's all clear on the straight, and I do believe.
[00:22:19]  Trump is playing this very smartly.
[00:22:20]  He has control of it.
[00:22:22]  I disagree.
[00:22:22]  I don't think IRGC has it.
[00:22:24]  Maybe they think they do have it.
[00:22:26]  Maybe no one wants to really get into a big fight right now because they know there's a deal about to be made.
[00:22:30]  I think Trump still holds the, let's call it the keys to the lock of the Strait of Hormuz once that opens.
[00:22:37]  So once it opens, all this storage is going to be flooding the oil market.
[00:22:42]  And this is what I've been saying since we started here.
[00:22:44]  Prices are going to go up.
[00:22:45]  They'll continue to go up.
[00:22:46]  But once they ease, it will flood and they will come back down.
[00:22:50]  Now, will it be what happens when they run through all that additional storage?
[00:22:53]  Because they will.
[00:22:54]  China's been blowing through their own storage.
[00:22:56]  They're going to need to replenish that as well.
[00:22:59]  We tapped our own SPR for some crazy reason.
[00:23:02]  I don't know why we did, but we did it.
[00:23:03]  We'll have to replenish that as well.
[00:23:05]  So they'll be up, you know, based on supply and demand, you'll have rising and lowering crude prices going forward.
[00:23:11]  But generally, this blockade was announced, and the way they delivered the blockade with sending JD Vance over there, which I thought was a bad idea, turns out looking at what the real theory behind it was, You know, 4D chess theory behind what they did, putting the Iranians, painting the Iranians into their own corner, I think was brilliant.
[00:23:31]  And I do, if you, nothing else, Steve, then listen to that soundbite of the U.S. Navy telling the vessels that were trying to pass their blockade, telling them you're going to feel the full power of the United States Navy if you continue.
[00:23:44]  And 21 out of 21 have turned back around.

=== Hormuz Letter Breaking News (03:57) ===

[00:23:47]  Who would you rather be concerned about?
[00:23:50]  The United States military front lines with the Navy or a couple of gunboats that are shooting?
[00:23:57]  You know, maybe a couple 50 caliber rounds into the side of a boat that doesn't kill anyone or sink the boat.
[00:24:04]  I think Trump has control and he's playing it very smartly right now.
[00:24:07]  And I do believe Brandon is right about the current price and it will be volatility, but I think generally we will see an easing of prices, you know, like I said, late summer into September.
[00:24:19]  What are the markets going to need to see?
[00:24:21]  They just had two vessels fired on the pirates of the Revolutionary Guard saying, we're in control here until Trump sends the United States Navy on its way.
[00:24:31]  We're going to control this.
[00:24:32]  What are the markets?
[00:24:33]  We want stable markets on Monday that could lead to the foundation for a deal.
[00:24:38]  What are they going to look for?
[00:24:39]  We've got about a minute, sir, before you get a bounce.
[00:24:42]  Yeah, very quickly, Steve.
[00:24:43]  I read the story about the vessels, the UK vessel and likely the Indian vessel gets fired on.
[00:24:48]  No one's hurt, no one's sunk.
[00:24:50]  And they said they're too small or any IRGC gunboats.
[00:24:53]  And if you remember the Brady Bunch movie, I don't know if you remember this, when Jan's telling Marsha how amazing her boyfriend is, and Marsha turns and goes, Sure, Jan.
[00:25:03]  I feel the same way about the Iranians saying that they have control of the Strait.
[00:25:07]  Sure, IRGC.
[00:25:08]  We'll talk about it.
[00:25:09]  But I'm thankful it happened while the markets were closed.
[00:25:12]  I'm very thankful.
[00:25:13]  And that may have been a gradient calculation as well.
[00:25:16]  Whoa.
[00:25:17]  He's telling the pirates.
[00:25:18]  He's using a Brady Bunch analogy.
[00:25:20]  Eric Bowling, where do we go to get your content over the weekend?
[00:25:23]  We'll see you here on Monday.
[00:25:24]  Yes, sir.
[00:25:25]  At Eric Bowling across all social medias and always proud to join on air with Stephen K. Bannon because he, He sees the future, not the past.
[00:25:34]  Matters.
[00:25:35]  And thanks for doing your workout early and coming and joining us here on this.
[00:25:40]  Appreciate you, sir, as always.
[00:25:42]  Indeed, the Arab world.
[00:25:45]  End of the dollar empire.
[00:25:46]  Eighth free installment is out.
[00:25:48]  Go to birchgold.com, promo code BANNIN.
[00:25:52]  You get to talk to Philip Patrick and the team.
[00:25:55]  You got eight free installments right now, including the latest with kind of all the updates of this war in the Persian Gulf, in the Gulf of Oman, in the North Arabian Sea.
[00:26:07]  Naval assets have locked down the Persian Gulf.
[00:26:11]  Of course, the pirates of the.
[00:26:14]  Of the Revolutionary Guard.
[00:26:16]  Don't appreciate that.
[00:26:18]  Shot a couple of vessels today.
[00:26:19]  Birchgold.com.
[00:26:21]  Short break.
[00:26:22]  Back in the war room.
[00:26:23]  Here's your host, Stephen K. Bann.
[00:26:27]  Our own Eric Bolling used a Brady Bunch analogy.
[00:26:30]  I don't know.
[00:26:32]  Got to deal with pirates as pirates, right?
[00:26:34]  Breaking news from the Hormuz letter.
[00:26:37]  Breaking.
[00:26:37]  India is expected to summon Iran's ambassador after the Revolutionary Guard fired on an Indian vessel in the strait.
[00:26:45]  On Indian vessels, plural, in the Strait of Hormuz this morning, including a super tanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil, despite having given the vessel clearance to pass.
[00:26:56]  Now, they've turned back 20 in the Strait here by the pirates.
[00:27:02]  And of course, the Navy's turned back 23.
[00:27:04]  So, vessel for vessel so far.
[00:27:08]  And of course, they fired on some.
[00:27:10]  This shows you, as I've said before, when you're negotiating with people, who's really across the table and can they implement.
[00:27:17]  A treaty.
[00:27:18]  I just think down the Strait of Hormuz from the time of Alexander the Great, if you read about his expeditions down there, they are a collection of freebooters, very tough to control, and they're not big fans of what happens in Tehran for the last couple of thousand years.
[00:27:34]  So you see those cliffs down there?
[00:27:37]  That's where they all are, and they're not all Persian either, and they've been around a long time.
[00:27:41]  So we'll get back to all that.

=== Grassroots Momentum Grows (12:19) ===

[00:27:44]  Jeff Ryer, Commonwealth of Virginia, you're the chairman of the GOP.
[00:27:49]  Do we have momentum?
[00:27:50]  It's the last day of early voting.
[00:27:52]  Are your people out?
[00:27:53]  Are we making voter contact, knocking on doors, dragging people to the polls for a big win here on Tuesday, sir?
[00:27:59]  Yes, they are.
[00:28:01]  And we have early voting locations.
[00:28:03]  Today's the last day of early voting.
[00:28:05]  We have early voting locations covered across the state.
[00:28:08]  We have volunteers out everywhere.
[00:28:12]  We are doing everything imaginable to bring it home.
[00:28:17]  We have people that are door knocking, people that are making phone calls, people who are sending personalized texts.
[00:28:24]  Texts.
[00:28:25]  We have just about everything going imaginable.
[00:28:28]  I would say we were on our second wind, but that was sometime back.
[00:28:31]  We're probably on our fifth or sixth wind at this point.
[00:28:34]  But the level of energy is just phenomenal.
[00:28:37]  We are tickled with where we are right now.
[00:28:41]  It's been extraordinary, particularly given the money arrayed against you and even some of the money that was raised, not totally aligned with this kind of voter contact and knocking on the door.
[00:28:51]  What are you hearing from the volunteers?
[00:28:53]  What are you hearing?
[00:28:53]  We're going to have Deloitte and Mo on here in a moment, but what are you hearing at the chairman level for the folks that are actually, because eight weeks ago, 10 weeks ago, this was dead in the water.
[00:29:02]  The Democrats were going to take 10 seats.
[00:29:05]  They put in 50, 60, 70, 80 million dollars, and King Jeffries was going to become Speaker of the House just in the Commonwealth.
[00:29:13]  This got turned around when you became chairman of the GOP.
[00:29:16]  What did you do to instill the fire in these folks?
[00:29:20]  Well, we gave the power and the authority to our volunteers.
[00:29:28]  We have a large organization that, frankly, has not been sufficiently tapped in elections.
[00:29:34]  And Trump Force 47 really started tapping them a lot more.
[00:29:39]  And that was why that was one of the more, albeit we did not carry the state, it was one of the more successful efforts.
[00:29:45]  As far as engaging volunteers.
[00:29:47]  And we went right back to that and built on it and gave the authority to our volunteers so that they could have a meaningful role in determining the outcome of an election.
[00:29:58]  And they have had a very meaningful role in determining the outcome of this election because they're the reason why we're finally getting attention from national resources, why people are suddenly jumping on board and trying to help out.
[00:30:14]  Initially, everybody thought, well, it just wasn't winnable.
[00:30:18]  You know, just looked at last November's elections, both here and the result of the referendum in California, and thought, well, you know, it isn't doable.
[00:30:26]  Well, they know now it's doable.
[00:30:27]  And the Democrats know now that it's doable because they're starting to turn on the gas on their side because I think they realize that something they thought was a slam dunk is instead way too close to call.
[00:30:37]  And we're the ones with the momentum and the energy.
[00:30:41]  Jeff, we got today through the day.
[00:30:43]  We're going to have a big gathering tomorrow.
[00:30:45]  I'll get to Lois and in Hanover County, to Lois and Mo are going to tell us about that.
[00:30:49]  We want everybody there.
[00:30:51]  Even if you're just a member, not even, but just a member of the Warren Posse, if you're not involved in this, that's okay because we're going to talk about Tuesday and then we're going to talk about November as President Trump pivots to focus on domestic electoral politics.
[00:31:05]  Where do people go, Jeff, to follow you with updates during the day?
[00:31:08]  I know you're putting them on social media.
[00:31:10]  What's the website?
[00:31:11]  If they want to volunteer today or even for Tuesday, where do folks go?
[00:31:17]  Okay, for keeping track of what we're doing, go to our X account, which is capital V, capital A, underscore, capital G, capital O, capital P. That's the way to keep track of everything that's happening as it's happening.
[00:31:29]  To donate or to volunteer, go to virginia.gov and you'll see, as it shows up there, the little no rigged map, stop gerrymandering box there.
[00:31:40]  Click on that and it'll take you to a site.
[00:31:44]  There's a little message from me.
[00:31:45]  I should probably take that down, get the volunteer form up higher.
[00:31:48]  But when you scroll down, there's a volunteer form.
[00:31:50]  You can sign up.
[00:31:51]  You can help us out.
[00:31:53]  If you sign up for us, we will get you squared away and taken care of.
[00:31:58]  We'll make sure if you're not in Virginia that you have an opportunity to make phone calls or texts to Virginians.
[00:32:05]  We have a lot going on.
[00:32:06]  And the heart of this really is our volunteer base.
[00:32:11]  And they are the ones that have driven this.
[00:32:14]  They're the reasons we're getting the attention that we need.
[00:32:18]  And they're the reasons that people are paying attention to what's going to happen in Virginia on Tuesday.
[00:32:24]  We are very, very excited about the way it's going.
[00:32:28]  And we feel great.
[00:32:29]  And by the way, Steve, I cannot say this enough.
[00:32:33]  War Room was with us when nobody was paying attention to us.
[00:32:37]  And I just want to let you know how important that has been, both in invigorating our base and bringing us new folks to help out.
[00:32:46]  It has been extraordinary.
[00:32:47]  And War Room has been just a phenomenal help in this effort.
[00:32:52]  And it's going to be even more of one tomorrow at four o'clock.
[00:32:56]  Four o'clock in Hanover County.
[00:32:58]  But we're going to send you to the site to go.
[00:32:59]  We're going to have a great gathering.
[00:33:01]  We want everybody there.
[00:33:02]  Jeff, it shows you when they put a grassroots leader in charge of a state party, good things happen.
[00:33:07]  Uh, couldn't be prouder to be working with you guys.
[00:33:09]  We got the easiest job in the world.
[00:33:11]  Let you come on and inspire the Commonwealth and inspiring the Commonwealth, inspiring nation.
[00:33:16]  Thank you, sir.
[00:33:17]  Appreciate you.
[00:33:17]  See you tomorrow.
[00:33:18]  Thank you.
[00:33:19]  See you.
[00:33:20]  Run through the tape.
[00:33:21]  That's the motto today.
[00:33:22]  DeGrasse.
[00:33:25]  We've been through some good times on this.
[00:33:28]  This gets me back to the Texas on the redistricting when we had to have the big fight, but we took a couple of body blows.
[00:33:34]  President Trump's pivot hard.
[00:33:35]  You saw yesterday with Charlie Kirk, Supreme Court, Sean Spicer.
[00:33:40]  I think we're going to try to get Spicer to come down to Hanover tomorrow if we can.
[00:33:45]  Your thoughts right now, let's start in Virginia.
[00:33:48]  What are you seeing there?
[00:33:49]  Because you keep your hand on the pulse of where the energy is.
[00:33:52]  What are your thoughts on Virginia?
[00:33:55]  I think it's really tight, Steve.
[00:33:56]  I mean, you have to, we've, I mean, a lot of this we've spoken on the show, right?
[00:33:59]  We got to look at Obama and, you know, they've deployed Obama aggressively and they sort of keep that card.
[00:34:05]  It's fairly rarely played, if we're going to be honest about it.
[00:34:08]  So it's very tight.
[00:34:09]  I don't think that they would do that.
[00:34:11]  I think this is a four or five point race.
[00:34:13]  I think if you look at the areas, congressional districts that have turned out the most early vote proportionally, Republican seats are leading right now.
[00:34:21]  So the momentum and the grassroots energy is on our side.
[00:34:24]  And I think, you know, one of the most important things I've ever said on this show, Steve, is you have to have a list, right?
[00:34:29]  We talk about the list.
[00:34:29]  And so many people, I'm at the airport, Steve.
[00:34:31]  They go, dude, I got my list.
[00:34:32]  People talk to me, the posse, they're like, this is the list time.
[00:34:36]  I mean, in Virginia, you need the list.
[00:34:38]  We need 10 people on the list.
[00:34:39]  Even if you don't live in Virginia, if you know people in Virginia, family, cousins, friends, get them on the list.
[00:34:44]  Check in with them, make sure they get out the vote, make sure they are getting five people.
[00:34:47]  I mean, if you can create this grassroots tree of people turning out the vote, we can obviously beat expectations.
[00:34:53]  And I think you're seeing the governor's numbers plummet.
[00:34:57]  I don't think you're seeing the turnout.
[00:34:59]  You know, I drive around Northern Virginia sometimes going shopping.
[00:35:02]  I mean, you've got all these paid guys, paid protesters out there freaking out, pushing all these, you know, pushing the yes agenda.
[00:35:09]  But it's not organic.
[00:35:10]  I mean, it's totally staged, totally, you know, these Soros groups, but they're out there because they're not getting the vote they need.
[00:35:16]  Uh, and so look, I mean, I think a big mistake Republicans have is sort of undercounting how Democrats have really juiced their election day turnout.
[00:35:25]  That's one of the big reasons why they did more competitively in 2022, even in 2024.
[00:35:30]  As Republicans had increased our early voting, you know, they're getting better on game day.
[00:35:34]  So I think really is going to come down to game day.
[00:35:37]  We've got to juice what we can, obviously, but you know, it's really, really tight, Steve.
[00:35:41]  And I think if we can stop them in Virginia, I think it's huge for what we've been talking about on this show for a year.
[00:35:49]  Which is the Supreme Court argument, obviously, on the Voting Rights Act, Steve, which we could talk about as well.
[00:35:54]  I know Spicer was on it, but this show has been on it from the beginning for years, honestly.
[00:36:00]  We've been talking about the potential for this case because it's cut and dry and it's all constitutional.
[00:36:06]  This isn't about anything.
[00:36:09]  But hang on, but his scoop, we know you were here when the argument took place.
[00:36:13]  It's such a blatant violation.
[00:36:17]  Obviously, not obviously, it's never obvious, but it looks like it could get overturned.
[00:36:22]  But they're slow walking it so that we're past the time.
[00:36:27]  But it seems to me, state legislatures in these red states, Alabama, you know, Louisiana, you've got to step up to the plate and say, hey, I've got to call a special session.
[00:36:36]  Even we have to move the primary date back.
[00:36:39]  As the Supreme Court comes, even if they do at the end of June, you can't just kick this down the can to the 2028.
[00:36:46]  This has to be done now.
[00:36:48]  Do you think there's anything that can be done to wake up?
[00:36:51]  These local because DeSantis is calling a special session for the end of April.
[00:36:56]  He's tired of messing around.
[00:36:57]  He's calling a special session on redistricting and throwing in his AI bill at the same time, sir.
[00:37:04]  Yeah.
[00:37:05]  No, I think we need to do that, Steve.
[00:37:06]  I think people, I mean, remember the state houses are like one of the biggest obstacles to MAGA on top of everything else.
[00:37:12]  I mean, some of these entrenched interests.
[00:37:13]  I mean, you've got to politely make calls in all of these states because you've got that 12 seat delta, which I mean, is more or less can make or break, you know, this midterm.
[00:37:22]  I think one of the important things for people to understand is, you know, I've been coming on the show, I think, you know, four years or something.
[00:37:28]  I mean, we look at the map.
[00:37:29]  The map is narrow just because of the redistricting over the years on both parties.
[00:37:33]  And so there's really not as many, quote unquote, competitive seats.
[00:37:37]  So 12 seats is big.
[00:37:38]  I mean, a 12 seat swing.
[00:37:41]  Hold it.
[00:37:43]  You started coming on here early in late 21, 22 because you were the guy that said, hey, look, we got all these redistricting possibilities.
[00:37:50]  It's not happening.
[00:37:52]  If we had not done and you had not come on here and we put the muscle of the war room in other groups on the redistricting of 22, I'm not so sure we'd taken the House then because that came down to a handful of seats.
[00:38:02]  Then to come back and say there's still more.
[00:38:05]  The 12 seats right now, the way this thing's divided, where this is like the Western Front in World War I, this is by inches, not by yards.
[00:38:14]  12 seats is beyond a game changer.
[00:38:17]  And this is my point that the Supreme Court rules, and of course, the liberal judges are going to slow walk it if they go late.
[00:38:25]  The 12 seats are the difference between Trump getting, this is why we put the shoulder to the wheel in Virginia.
[00:38:31]  Those four seats are the difference between President Trump getting in.
[00:38:33]  Impeached and the whole apparatus being shut down by these radical Democrats, or having another two years and then get to 2030 when we really get a, a census, a true census in here.
[00:38:46]  It's they never, they never take power again, correct?
[00:38:49]  I mean this is everything, or I mean i'm missing it?
[00:38:53]  No no, you're exactly right.
[00:38:54]  I mean this is like the invention of the tank, like if you bring even a World War Ii tank to the World War In Battlefield, then plow through.
[00:38:59]  I mean you can't.
[00:39:00]  I mean plus with everything else we're talking about plus, if we can get some election integrity, which is really critically important, because I think You stop the fraud, you fix the census, Steve, you fix the Voting Rights Act, and you stop messing around.
[00:39:13]  You go into 20 plus all the movement of people to red states, which is like 10 to 15 seats.
[00:39:19]  I mean, this thing is compounding, which is exactly what we talked about.
[00:39:22]  So, you know, we've got this, you know, bottleneck, obviously, you know, within the halls of the Supreme Court and then obviously in the state houses.
[00:39:30]  So we've got to kind of punch through.
[00:39:31]  It starts, obviously, withholding Virginia, which we have to do.
[00:39:35]  I mean, it's, you know, must stop.
[00:39:36]  I'm hoping money comes in the last push.
[00:39:39]  Um, you know, maybe we should try, maybe I should try to work on that and figure that out.
[00:39:42]  So, you know, I think whatever we could do, and I've been raising money for some of the groups, um, Virginia Fair Maps.
[00:39:48]  So, I think, you know, I think there's a late push and it's going to come down to game day, which it usually does, Steve.
[00:39:54]  Alex, uh, real quickly, where do people go to follow you over this weekend?
[00:39:57]  We'll have you back on Monday.
[00:39:58]  Where do people go?
[00:40:00]  I met X to graph 81, um, on truth, everything else.

=== Virginia Fair Maps Push (06:32) ===

[00:40:04]  So, thanks, guys.
[00:40:05]  Remember, take the list, let people out to vote, check in on them, and that's how we get.
[00:40:12]  We're going to copyright that for you.
[00:40:13]  Trademark it, the list by Alex DeGrasse.
[00:40:16]  Alex, thanks for taking a Saturday morning away from the family.
[00:40:20]  Appreciate you, sir.
[00:40:21]  Short break.
[00:40:21]  War Room.
[00:40:22]  Here's your host, Stephen K. Bann.
[00:40:27]  Okay, we were able to do this a little earlier.
[00:40:29]  We have the acting attorney general of the United States of America, Todd Blanch, joins us from the NRA convention down in Houston, Texas.
[00:40:37]  Mr. Attorney General, you were the keynote speaker last night.
[00:40:41]  At the NRA for a reason.
[00:40:42]  I know you've got a lot you've been working on the Second Amendment, and you can't tell us a lot about it in detail.
[00:40:48]  But can you just tell us directionally what did you have to say last night to the NRA?
[00:40:54]  Morning.
[00:40:55]  Yeah, sure.
[00:40:56]  So, look, my message last night is the same message that I'll say to you right now, which is two things.
[00:41:01]  One, the things that we've done last year since President Trump took office and signed the executive order on January 20th, basically telling this administration and the American people that the Second Amendment was going to be a priority and defending it was going to be a priority.
[00:41:16]  That we've done a lot of good work.
[00:41:18]  But the second message that I gave to the folks last night at the dinner is that in a matter of days, not weeks, not months, in a matter of days, you're going to see regs rolling out that we've spent a year working on.
[00:41:31]  And they are going to hopefully fundamentally change the way that we regulate our industry for the rest of time.
[00:41:40]  So we're trying to do it carefully so that we do it right.
[00:41:43]  And I expect that to roll out in the next, you know, in a matter of days.
[00:41:50]  Todd, there's been, you know, last night again on MSNBC, NBC News, CBS, CNN, this whole situation with President Trump, you know, using his Article II powers as chief magistrate and chief law enforcement officer of the country to be engaged and involved over at Maine Justice.
[00:42:13]  You're getting hammered by these people.
[00:42:15]  You're pushing back, but I'd like it for the War Room audience and the posse just to walk through what your thoughts are.
[00:42:21]  On this vital topic, sir?
[00:42:25]  It is the most important thing for this administration.
[00:42:28]  Everybody in this country can read Article II.
[00:42:30]  It's publicly available.
[00:42:31]  It should be in your pocket.
[00:42:33]  And it gives all the power of the executive to one person that's the President of the United States.
[00:42:37]  And there's this model out there that somehow the Department of Justice is independent from the President of the United States.
[00:42:45]  That is not true.
[00:42:46]  The Secretary of War is not independent.
[00:42:48]  The Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of State, We're not independent from the president of the United States.
[00:42:54]  That's not what the American people voted for, and it's not what we do.
[00:42:57]  And by the way, no president is independent.
[00:42:59]  Biden wasn't independent of Cardinal, and we know that.
[00:43:02]  And so, this idea there's something inappropriate with me making sure that our priorities are consistent with the president of the United States, I'll always push back on that because you better believe my priorities are the same as the president of the United States.
[00:43:15]  He's my boss.
[00:43:18]  One of the top issues the president's had, and I know, look, you were his defense attorney.
[00:43:21]  You know, you and Emil Bovey know more about lawfare than anyone because you were in the trenches in the darkest days and fought and got the president through this.
[00:43:32]  The two issues one is voter integrity, the other is lawfare.
[00:43:37]  What are your initial thoughts as you're the interim attorney general?
[00:43:41]  Of course, there's a lot of rumors out there that you're going to be named the permanent attorney general.
[00:43:45]  What are your thoughts on both those topics, sir?
[00:43:48]  We've been working on voter integrity since January 20th.
[00:43:51]  We have, you know, there's public information out there.
[00:43:54]  We've got the ballots from Fulton County.
[00:43:56]  We've gotten a lot of information out of Arizona as well.
[00:43:59]  But we're looking at Pennsylvania and we're looking all over the country, not only to understand what happened in the past, which is important for the American people to know, but also to keep, to make sure that our elections are free and fair, to make sure that nobody's voting that isn't supposed to vote, to make sure that the person voting is actually the name on that ballot.
[00:44:19]  And so, So, we have multiple investigations.
[00:44:21]  And it's not just the Department of Justice.
[00:44:23]  That's a White House effort.
[00:44:24]  ODI is working on that as well.
[00:44:26]  And so, that's a whole of government approach to making sure our elections are fair.
[00:44:30]  When it comes to lawfare, Steve, yeah, you're right, man.
[00:44:33]  Like, I mean, you went through it yourself, too.
[00:44:35]  It's not just me, it's not just President Trump.
[00:44:38]  A lot of folks around him were destroyed by the last administration financially.
[00:44:43]  They tried to ruin our reputations, they tried to bring us down.
[00:44:46]  And all we're doing every day is pushing back on that.
[00:44:50]  And yes, it does not happen overnight.
[00:44:52]  But they didn't destroy us overnight either.
[00:44:54]  It took them years and years to build cases against President Trump.
[00:44:58]  And they were careful, they were crafty, and they did everything they could to bring him down, and they failed.
[00:45:02]  And so we're systematically going through the Department of Justice, making sure that any policy, any practice, anything that was done to bring lawfare against anybody in this country never happens again.
[00:45:13]  And if you're a prosecutor, if you're a paralegal, if you're a federal agent, and you were out there trying to destroy our system of our Constitution, our system of justice, then you're going to be gone.
[00:45:24]  Better believe it.
[00:45:25]  And that's, by the way, that's what every single American should want.
[00:45:29]  That should not be controversial, but it is.
[00:45:32]  Todd, we've got about a minute and a half.
[00:45:35]  I noticed last night they're also melting down because you're removing immigration judges.
[00:45:40]  Can you give the audience just a what are your thoughts on that, sir?
[00:45:44]  Yeah, yeah, I saw that too.
[00:45:46]  So listen, there's a lot of immigration.
[00:45:48]  First of all, immigration judges work for the Department of Justice.
[00:45:50]  So they're judges, but it's not like an Article III judge that has a separate responsibility.
[00:45:56]  They work for the Department of Justice, which means they have to follow the law, but they also cannot go rogue.
[00:46:01]  And so we have the authority to hire and the authority to fire.
[00:46:04]  And so we fired.
[00:46:06]  I don't know the exact number, but well over 100 immigration judges were not doing their job.
[00:46:10]  We got a lot of immigration judges to hire, and we've been hiring a lot.
[00:46:14]  So we've hired, I think, around 150, 160 judges, which is a lot.
[00:46:18]  But when we're firing 100, that means we're only net 50, net 60.
[00:46:22]  So we're trying to hire good, smart lawyers that know the law, and they're going to effectuate the immigration laws, not with sympathy, but the way the laws were written.
[00:46:33]  And so we're not going to look, I don't mind the critics on that.

=== Hiring New Immigration Judges (01:38) ===

[00:46:37]  Come at it, go for it.
[00:46:38]  But that's what we're doing.
[00:46:41]  You're pretty thick skinned, as I remember.
[00:46:43]  Todd Blanche, where do people go to get information about the Justice Department and any personal accounts you have on social media?
[00:46:50]  People can track you, sir.
[00:46:52]  Yes, we were on social media.
[00:46:53]  There's the Justice Department as the main one.
[00:46:55]  Todd Blanche is where you can get what we're doing every day.
[00:47:00]  And it's great being on your show, Steve, anytime.
[00:47:04]  Yeah, we look forward to having you back.
[00:47:05]  And thank you for being in NRA.
[00:47:07]  I know people are very, very excited.
[00:47:09]  Great speech last night.
[00:47:10]  Appreciate you, sir.
[00:47:11]  General Todd Blanch, the acting Attorney General of the United States under President Trump.
[00:47:17]  And like he said, the Article II powers of the President, Chief Magistrate, Chief Law Enforcement Officer.
[00:47:25]  Attorney General Blanch is making sure he's not going to flinch, not going to break to the left wing media.
[00:47:30]  Okay.
[00:47:32]  We're going to get back to the Commonwealth.
[00:47:34]  People are running through the tape today.
[00:47:37]  President Trump's made a hard pivot yesterday in Phoenix at Turning Point.
[00:47:41]  Magnificent.
[00:47:42]  The energy was, you could feel the.
[00:47:44]  Energy reverberating back here to the imperial capital.
[00:47:47]  What did President Trump do?
[00:47:48]  Got in early in the morning, started at nine o'clock in the Oval Office, signing an executive order to help our veterans, help our warriors with PTSD.
[00:48:01]  Had Bobby Kennedy there, Maha, big shout out there.
[00:48:05]  Incredible.
[00:48:05]  The hard pivot to November.
[00:48:08]  You know where it starts?
[00:48:09]  It starts in the Commonwealth.
[00:48:11]  Today and Tuesday, Deloitte Stallman, Mo Bannon, next in the war room.