Summary:
In this episode I address the omnibus spending bill and the real reasons that President Trump signed the bill. I also discuss the identity of the organizers behind the March for Our Lives rally. Finally I discuss the re-emergence of health care as a prominent election issue and why.
News Picks:
Should Trump start a third party after being abandoned by the GOP?
This piece addresses the identity of the organizers of the March for Our Lives rally.
The March for Our Lives rally wasn’t as well attended as anticipated.
This piece addresses the real reason liberals are using gun control as an election-year issue.
Socialism fails again. Inflation is exploding in Venezuela.
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Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino.
Welcome to the Dan Bongino Show on this fine Monday.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
Ah, fine Monday it is, Daniel.
I'm ready to go.
Yeah, I was doing great until...
For all you gym rats out there, you're going to hear this story quickly in horror, right?
So I'm Zurcher squatting in the gym on Saturday, and I have to work out on the weekends because my schedule's too busy.
It just is.
So I work out during the week a couple days, but I have to take a couple days off.
So long and short of it, Saturday's like my day where everybody just leaves me alone.
My wife's great.
I go to the gym.
I'm there like two hours.
So I'm Zurcher squatting, and for those of you who don't know what Zurcher squats, it's a squat, but you hold the bar in the crook of your elbows.
Like you're holding your hands across your chest.
Because I can't squat the normal way, because my shoulders don't allow me to hold the bar across my neck.
So, I'm going for my PR Joe, 285 pounds, which is a lot of weight to hold in the crook of your elbow like this.
And this dude...
Starts putting weights on the power cage as I'm doing the squat.
So I'm like, what is he doing?
There's like the golden rule of the gym is don't curl in the squat rack and you don't put weights back, you know, like the weight holders on the power cage.
So I'm like, all right, maybe it's just a one-time thing.
Now I'm like afraid to squat again because I'm afraid he's going to do it.
He does it again.
So what do I do?
I turn around because this cage is shaking as he's reloading it.
And I turn around to look while I have the weight.
And what do I do?
I probably tore a muscle in my back.
If not, well, maybe not.
But I pulled it badly.
My, what do they call the erector spinae?
I don't know what they're called for you doctors out there.
That doesn't sound good.
Yeah, I'd set myself up there for you, too, but I think that's it, actually.
On the right side, and now I've been in, like, massive pain, I'm like, and I had to be, so I said, sir, can you please not reload the power cage as I'm squatting?
Please, like, I'm begging you, don't do it.
He's like, I'm really sorry, and I, you know, I felt bad, but gosh.
I bet you did.
Yeah, I'm like, I'm a train wreck now.
All right, I got a lot to get to.
I was going to do a special show about the omnibus on the weekend, but there's so much to talk about.
I didn't want to cut you short, so I'm going to get to that today and a couple other stories as well.
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All right, the omnibus.
Listen, I'm gonna get a lot of negative email on this, and that's okay.
Let me just say again, Joe and I are absolutely committed here to telling you how we honestly feel about things, and I mean this when I say this, and I mean it with the utmost respect.
That may not be for you, and that's okay.
I am not in this for the dough.
I am in this for the truth.
And if the truth bothers you, I did not leave my job in the Secret Service to go out and BS anyone on a podcast.
If the truth bothers you, that's okay, too.
There may be another podcast that's for you, but this may not be.
And I know they tell you on radio, Joe, never to say that, or podcasting.
I'm probably right, Joe?
You've only been on radio for 7,000 years.
Don't tell your audience not to listen in order to go away.
Right, right.
But it's probably rule number one.
And I am certainly not saying that.
I love having you all here, but I know I'm going to get negative email on this, but that's okay.
The omnibus signing, the signing of the budget bill on Friday, folks, was a disaster.
I'm sorry.
And for me to say otherwise now, I would be a complete, total hypocrite.
Now, hold on.
Hear me out with this, because this is not all on Trump.
Matter of fact, it's largely on the GOP Congress and the Senate, but we do have to be honest here.
I said to you clearly on, what was it, Wednesday and Thursday's show, Joe, you were here, obviously you're the producer here.
Didn't I say what a disaster the bill was?
Yeah, you did.
What a hypocrite to pander to people then, to come on after Trump signs it on Friday and do a special and go, no, now it's great.
Now it's great.
Now it's great.
He signed it, it's all good.
Really?
I mean, I would turn that show off immediately.
Folks, it was a terrible, terrible bill.
Now, a couple of emails I'm getting because I spoke out on Fox & Friends about it, and I got a lot of emails, and a lot of them were really cool, and people were like, hey, listen, I disagree with you.
There was military spending in it.
We need it.
Okay, I get all that.
That's fine.
And I totally respect your opinion.
But let me give you the bad news first about it.
And by the way...
How do I say this without sounding like a pretentious jerk?
I got some good folks in the activist community.
It's the easiest way to say it.
They're pretty well connected.
I don't know what you want to call it.
We've got to call it the swamp.
There's actually a side of the swamp that's not... there are people in there who actually care and are trying to do stuff.
You get what I'm saying?
So I'm on a couple...
List serves, email lists, and I get some good stuff from people who know what's going on.
I think that's why the show has been so popular, because I can kind of give you an inside angle without you being there.
Let me give you the bad news first about what I'm hearing.
And folks, by the way, I would never put this on the show if it wasn't an absolutely trusted source.
Bad news point number one.
Trump is not stupid.
He knows this is a disaster, Joe.
Oh, yeah.
One thing about Donald Trump, I don't care if you're anti-Trump, never-Trump, pro-Trump, you love Trump, you're married to Trump, I don't care.
He is not dumb.
The left wants you to think he's dumb.
He is not stupid.
This is a brilliant business guy who is very, very savvy to public perception.
He absolutely knows Friday was a disaster.
Make no mistake about it.
Take that to the bank, okay?
I'll leave it at that.
Secondly, I'm hearing he feels he was blindsided.
This is the bad news.
He feels that, although he was aware, Joe, there was going to be some negative pushback, and folks, believe me when I tell you, there is.
Ignoring this will do us no good.
There are very credible, absolutely pro-Trump hands in the air.
We love this guy who are very, very upset about what happened on Friday.
Us ignoring it, trust me, will do us no good at all.
But a lot of those people feel And I'm hearing that he was entirely blindsided by the degree of the reaction.
Make sense, Joe?
He knew there was going to be some negative spit back on this.
He knew it.
He's not stupid.
But he was blindsided by the reaction to it.
And from what I'm hearing in this... So that's the bad news.
One, he knows it's a disaster.
And secondly, he was blindsided by people he trusted to guide him through this.
You know, they said, it'll be bad, but it'll die out over the weekend.
Don't worry about it.
Not so much.
People are pretty pissed.
Here's the good news about this, and I want to address some formalities of it, too, because there's some confusion about what Trump can and can't do with the omnibus.
The good news is... I took the notes on this last night, Sunday, because I had an early morning Fox & Friends hit, so all night I was working on the show.
My notes are killer on this.
I can actually read them, too.
Here's the good news.
And this is me reading directly from my notes.
He's genuinely pissed off.
I didn't know how else to say it.
Yeah, I hear you.
He's really pissed.
That's the good news.
From what I'm hearing from, I'm telling you folks again, people who know the deal, he is seriously pissed off.
In other words, he felt like he was screwed over.
They weren't honest with him about how bad the bill was, how bad public perception was going to be.
He is a marketing genius, whether you love him or hate him.
He is really upset about the public response to this bill, especially amongst his supporters.
And he's even more pissed that the Democrats are taking a victory lap at his expense.
Chuck Schumer and all them.
Hey, this was great.
This is a proud guy, folks.
Again, you may like, I support the president.
I've been a strong advocate.
I think he's doing a terrific job all in.
I'm absolutely behind him still.
I'm not abandoning him.
Some guy sent me an email, you're off the Trump train.
Off the Trump train?
What does that even mean?
What?
I'm not on anybody's train.
I support principles and Trump has advocated for conservative principles and I think he's been a strong president.
Having said that, I think Friday was a disaster and I said that on Wednesday.
But he's really upset right now.
That matters, folks.
Because unlike a lot of swamp rats before who were upset and would pay a political price, Joe, but would ultimately let it go because, oh, you know what?
It's okay.
You'll win election later.
You look like you're crossing the aisle.
From what I'm hearing, when Trump gets pissed about something, he doesn't forget it.
Now, I say that because at the presser on Friday, Joseph, when he got up there and signed this piece of garbage, and he said, I will not sign this again, I believe him.
I do, too.
If that means anything to anyone.
Yeah, I do, too.
No, it does, because you're in this business a long time.
You're Conservative Talk Radio.
You listen to politicians all day.
Joe gets to do interviews on CBN with people who we quote on the show.
It's a pretty big station.
So you know, when he talks Trump, he speaks from the heart.
Now, granted, you can say, well, some of these other political promises, you know, haven't come true.
Well, all right.
I get that.
I mean, some of the campaign stuff, obviously, he's got to deal with a Republican Congress that is, you know, seemingly turning Democrat more and more by the day.
But I believe what he said.
I believe this will be the last time he signs a dog like that.
Now, I think it was a huge missed opportunity, too, and I have this written down, too, to get across to you.
I say that because, not to revert back to the bad news portion, but Joe, what an opportunity it would have been for him to call that presser, show up with that 2,232 page bill, right?
Walk up and go, you're all fired!
And throw the bill up in the air and walk out of the room.
Obviously I'm kidding, but if he would have said, I'm not signing this.
You see this piece of garbage bill?
This is the path to bankruptcy.
You were looking at 2,000 pages of red ink.
We're not doing it.
I'm sorry.
You get us back in the black.
You figure out how to do it.
You figure out how to get a budget that defends the American people and their tax dollars and then I'll come back and sign it.
Oh my gosh!
The heavens would have opened.
A conservative base would have went wild with elation.
There would have been emails, tweets, this guy would have went down in history!
And I'm upset because I support the president strongly, and I thought it was a missed opportunity.
Okay, a little more good news, because again, I don't want to pile- I'm not off the Trump train, please don't send me nasty grams, okay?
I'm not- well, you can, I'll read them, I promise, I shouldn't say that.
This show's for you, and if you have negative feedback, I'm open to listening to it.
It's your show.
There is a decent amount of military spending in it, but having said that, a lot of military folks also will agree, folks, there's a lot of waste going on in the Pentagon.
And we as Republicans have to be careful to keep saying, oh, well, military spending, military spending, because the Democrats are using increased military spending as a cudgel to hammer us over the head for more domestic spending.
And as I said on Fox & Friends on Saturday, folks, if we're bankrupt, we're not going to have a military.
So it doesn't matter.
We have to be smart.
We can't just say, okay, you know what, we need more military spending, so we're going to trade off more domestic spending.
We're not going to have a country anymore.
I've done entire shows on the interest on the debt problem, on the debt problem, how if we don't grow out of this, we're at a hundred percent.
Closing in on a hundred percent of debt relationship to our GDP, meaning we owe every single thing we produce in a year worth gross domestic product.
Folks, that's not sustainable.
It's just not.
We're going to be looking at a death spiral soon if we don't get our arms around this.
So yes, great, we're taking care of the military.
I love our military.
We should have our equipment upgraded.
We should be ahead of the curve.
There is a real threat from China, but going bankrupt isn't helping any of that.
Okay, more good news.
I'm sorry to jump around a little bit, but I gave you the bad news, the good part.
Along the lines of him being genuinely pissed off into being advised to sign this disaster, the omnibus, I wrote here.
This is from a friend of mine.
It confirms Trump's... Him being pissed off, Joe, and feeling like he was screwed over, given the guidance to sign this bill, has confirmed Trump's pre-existing belief, Joseph, that some members of his staff who were prior swamp rats are giving him bad advice.
Yeah.
The house cleaning is going to continue.
Trump, I'm sure of this, genuinely cares about his conservative base.
He does.
He was not an ideological conservative when he ran.
I'm telling you for a fact, I know this guy cares about the conservative base.
And I know he knows that they're really upset about what happened on Friday.
I know that.
I think you're going to see an additional house cleaning ahead.
Again, I think it confirms his suspicions that he's being misled by a lot of swampy swamp rats, diseased swamp rats as I called them on the show on Saturday morning at Fox.
He feels like he's being misled and I think you are going to see a major house cleaning ahead.
I do.
I think this was the last straw for him.
So that's the good news.
Finally, one more thing.
You know what, I'm going to read this just direct.
I don't know if he would let me, but I'm not going to use his name and I think he wouldn't care.
This is an email from a friend of mine who is, again, a trusted guy.
He is absolutely on board the train.
He has been a die-hard conservative for a long time.
And Joe, very few people I know understand the inner workings of legislation like he does.
I'm not going to give you any more hints, but I'm telling you, the guy knows his stuff.
There's a rumor going around about this bill that, oh, the budget he signed is just a suggestion and he can move all this stuff around.
And while it's not entirely false, there is some degree of plasticity.
The budget is absolutely not a suggestion.
Now, I got an email from him, and this is absolutely a trusted source, folks.
Take this to the bank.
This guy is 100% on the train.
Here's what he said, talking about A lot of grassroots supporters saying that the omnibus isn't really binding and it gives POTUS, the President of the United States, the opportunity to spend or not spend as he pleases.
Okay, Joe, you get that?
A lot of people who are Trump support, me included, some are looking for some light at the end of the tunnel.
They say, oh, don't worry about it.
This spending bill isn't binding and he can do what he wants.
This is from this guy who is a trusted source.
He says, this is total BS.
It's a ridiculous attempt to make him right for one of the worst mistakes he's made by saying something, this is not me, it's the email, by saying something which is 100% false.
This was his last shot at the wall, and it forbids him from doing it.
Well, I don't agree with that, but here's the last part of this is critical, folks, and again, this guy is trusted.
Every single word of it, talking about the budget, is binding law, and anyone saying otherwise is flatly incorrect.
Again, I can't tell you enough, you can take that to the bank.
I don't know what you're reading on message boards or anything else, but that is not the way this is going to go down.
That budget bill is binding, and that is exactly what we're going to spend.
So maybe that's one kind of piece of bad news at the end, but I'll leave it at this.
Is this a moment?
I think he knows it was a bad move, Trump.
I think it's going to be a real change moment for him.
I think he understands he's been misled by swamp creatures, and I think it's about time he realizes that these insiders aren't helping him, some of his advisors don't have his best interests in mind, and that the swamp GOP Joe cares about themselves and getting re-elected, and they don't give a damn about Trump.
Matter of fact, they see him as a liability, which is a real shame.
Now, I have a solution for this, which I'm going to get to in a second.
It's an interesting piece by Dan Horowitz in Conservative Review today, which is super good.
It'll be up at the show notes up on Gino.com.
Please, please open it.
It's about the idea that I brought up before of breaking off into a third party now with all of this going.
Now, I have been adamantly against this in the past.
I even wrote my second book.
There's my second book, The Fight.
There's a chapter about how bad of an idea this is, but I'm starting to warm to it based on some things Dan Horowitz says in the piece that are interesting.
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Okay, so Dan Horwitz has a piece about a third party.
I have been adamantly against this, but he makes a couple good points.
Now, this is based on his frustration with the GOP's failure to revoke Obamacare, to repeal Obamacare, to control spending, to control debt.
And, you know, Joe knows Dan Horwitz well.
He does this podcast with him, too.
Dan's a really good guy.
Dan's very bright.
And I had always told Dan I thought this idea was silly.
One of the reasons is basically three things.
Name ID, ballot access, and money.
Now, having run for office before, these are the three things that really matter.
Name ID is number one.
Why does name ID matter?
Name ID matters because people are largely not going to vote for someone they do not know if they don't recognize the name, especially during a primary.
It's very difficult.
Now, name ID makes a difference because you can get yourself on a Republican primary ballot.
In many states, not all, they all have different rules, but I've run in Florida and I've run in Florida, I think you need $10,000 plus and you can get on the ballot or something like that.
In Maryland, you need it, it's not a lot, you need like $270 and you can put your name on a ballot.
If you don't have that, and you're running as a third-party candidate, you're going to need to get ballot access on that ballot and name ID in the process.
And that is going to be a mammoth Herculean task in some states.
In Maryland, when a third-party guy ran against me, For the U.S.
Senate.
Remember Rahm Safani, Joe?
Remember Safani?
He spent like 7 million of his own bucks.
It cost him like 250 grand to get on the ballot or something.
He had to go out and get all of these signatures to get on.
So running as a third party, just to be clear, I always thought was a bad idea.
Because again, name idea is tough.
Getting your name out there and getting on the ballot is even tougher.
Third, money.
Raising money is really difficult.
A third party candidate, people don't know who you are.
You're like, I'm Joe.
I represent the... Joe has a red flannel shirt on today.
I represent the flannel shirt party.
People are like, what the hell is that?
What do they stand for?
Now, generally speaking, generally, don't, you know, don't get upset here, people generally know what Democrats and Republicans are for, even when they sell you out.
You know, you knock on a door and you say, right?
I like the way you put that, yeah.
Right?
Isn't it true?
Yeah, when they sell you out, people generally, when you knock on a door, hey, I'm Dan Bongino, I'm running as a Republican for Congress, people generally have an idea you're going to be for tax cuts and things like that.
They don't know anything about the red flannel shirt party, none.
They have no idea.
Joe's got to sit there, explain it.
Nobody wants to hear it.
It's tough for him to raise money.
People don't want to donate.
The guy, Sapani, who ran against me in the U.S.
Senate race and Ben Cardin, he was unbelievably wealthy and had his own.
He just poured his own money into it.
Those are the three reasons I thought this was a bad idea.
But after this recent sellout, I'm starting to warm to this idea because of a couple things that Horowitz brings up, which he's smart about.
Now, I had mentioned this on the show before, but if you're going to start a third party, a conservative movement, it has to be with not just a name, but a mega name.
Like a name so big that the name recognition for the party and anyone running under it is immediately apparent.
Why?
Because they'll associate anyone running under that name with the mega name that starts it.
In other words, Joe Armacost, right?
Joe starts the Red Flannel Party.
Listen, we have a lot of listeners on the show.
I mean, we're doing millions now.
It's just amazing, thanks to you.
But folks, I don't have the name ID to start a national party.
But if Donald J. Trump were to come out tomorrow and say, you know what?
I'm done with the GOP.
You guys have screwed me over.
You're spending us into oblivion.
You can't repeal Obamacare.
You're funding Planned Parenthood.
You're racking up massive amounts of debt.
You won't build a wall.
I'm starting the Trumpian conservatives tomorrow.
And then Joe knocks on a door and goes, hey, I'm running for office for Congress under the Trumpian conservative plan.
Everybody knows what it is.
Everybody knows what it is.
Now, Horowitz doesn't say in a piece that Trump should do it, but I think he should.
I think Trump should get together a bunch of principled conservatives, and listen, Joe, let me be clear on this.
They don't have to agree on every single thing.
But they should agree on a core set of issues.
School choice, balanced budgets, tax cuts, low regulation, low red tape, defunding Planned Parenthood.
This should be a new contract with America like Newt Gingrich.
He should go out and get Cruz, get Lee, Mike Lee, get Rand Paul, a bunch of principal guys and say we're starting the red flannel conservatives or whatever it is.
If Trump did it, it would be different.
Secondly, this is a Horowitz, uh, this is not my idea, it's his, but it's a good one.
He's like, they should start their own shadow government.
And he doesn't mean it in an X-Files, like, liberal way, the way they're, they're, they're submarining Donald Trump.
He brings up some good points.
Like, they should go out around the country when Congress is in recess and do their own town halls.
Forget the Republican Party.
So he doesn't mean it like a weirdo way.
I mean, you know, because, like, the liberals mean it.
But go out and do your own town halls.
Here's the Red Flannel Conservatives Town Hall in Utah with Mike Lee.
We're going to get a visit from Donald Trump.
Get some signatures.
Get some emails.
Finally, it brings up another idea.
Maybe they should start a PAC.
Who better to raise money than Trump and Cruz and Paul and them?
It's not a bad idea.
Now, folks, we're still going to have split voting problems.
Yes, and the lady made an interesting point on Twitter in response to one of my tweets.
I read it, so if you're a listener of my show, good call.
She says, listen, then you're going to have the same problem they have in some of these European countries, where these conservative movements split off.
They get 30% of the vote and they never win anything, or 20% or 10%.
Folks, the problem I have with that is we're not winning anything now.
I mean, yeah, we got the tax cuts across, but listen, that's easy, giving Americans back their money.
It's not easy, but it's not the most complicated thing to lobby for.
The things that are complicated right now are telling the American people the truth, because they're getting confused about who screwed this country up.
Now, don't lose me here, because I intentionally set this show up this way, and we're going to roll right into another story to prove my point.
So the premise and the comeback is, well Dan, that's a dumb idea because in the general election the conservatives are going to vote for the conservative party, the moderate republicans are going to vote for the moderates, the democrats are going to vote unified, they're going to win every time.
Folks, the comeback for me is they're winning now.
They're already winning.
What are we winning on?
We're winning on ground ball issues like tax cuts.
It's not hard to convince even Democrats outside of the radical kook liberals.
Moderate Democrats typically don't fight tax cuts.
They don't.
Look at Maryland.
It's a deep blue state and they were all upset about the rain tax.
But the hard issues where we have to explain to America And it's, ladies and gentlemen, it's difficult, I get it, where we have to explain to America why Obamacare is failing, community rating, guaranteed issue, why public education as a third-party payer model is failing.
These are complicated issues that require eloquent spokespeople who can do what we try to do on this show, draw up analogies and kiss.
Keep it simple, stupid.
Give them the most parsimonious explanation.
We don't have that right now and the Republicans are afraid of it and therefore they do nothing to change it.
Now, proof that what I'm telling you is true.
That because we don't want to explain, and Joe if I lose anyone stop me here, Proof that our failure to explain the mechanics of Obamacare, why it sucks, and why the Democrats did this are leading to confusion in the public about who did it.
I'm reading the Wall Street Journal this weekend an article, Joe, about how Obamacare is going to come up again in the midterms.
Why?
Because in case you missed the show last week when we talked about this, the budget that did pass did not include an Obamacare bailout for the insurance companies.
Now, some of you may be celebrating.
Hey!
So, Dan, you just said the budget was bad.
No, no.
Hold on.
T.O., time out, baby.
You may say, that's great news.
The federal government didn't bail out the insurance companies.
No, it's not.
Because in case you missed last week's show, the way the Obama-ites and Obama and the Democrats designed Obamacare was genius.
It's broken.
It was deranged.
But it was tactically genius.
What did they do?
They designed it so if the federal government doesn't bail out the insurance companies that are struggling with your tax money, what they do is the insurance companies will then hike premiums, which is going to happen before November, right before the election.
Which are going to do what?
They're going to blame Republicans, although Republicans had nothing to do with this.
And then what happens?
This is a double whammy for the Democrats.
I shouldn't say double whammy, double Benny.
This is a double Benny for the Dems.
Premiums are going to go up because we didn't bail them out.
The insurance companies, I'm sure, will pile on and blame Republicans for it because they're in power, even though they had nothing to do with it.
And what's third?
This is genius.
The Democrats, this is why they always win.
They designed the plan so when the premiums go up, the people who are paying extra for the premiums just get additional tax subsidies through the tax code.
Either way, you're paying for other people's healthcare.
You're either paying the insurance companies through your tax bailout, or you're paying other people to bail them out individually.
You see what I'm saying, Joe?
Yeah.
Yeah, I do.
I can see your...
Joe's hanging his head.
I don't like it.
No, I know you don't like it because you rarely do that.
Folks, you're either giving your tax dollar to an insurance company or giving it to someone
buying insurance from an insurance company and it ain't you.
(laughs)
You're bailing them out either way.
This was genius!
Now, you may say, how does this tie into your point that spineless, gutless Republicans who fail to explain the damage Obamacare has done to the public because they're afraid of the media response and afraid to make hard decisions, how is this an incentive to start a third party that has some guts and finally does the right thing?
Well, here was an astonishing poll.
Did I take a photo with this?
Please tell me I did.
My fault.
I usually take screenshots of the Wall Street Journal piece.
Here's the bottom line of the poll, though.
There was a poll in the piece And the majority of people now, if healthcare premiums go up, will blame Republicans!
And an overwhelming now majority of people think the Democrats are better suited to fix the healthcare problem.
What the hell is going on?
What is going on?
So, let me get this straight.
Gutless, spineless, weasel Republicans up on the Hill are afraid To tell Americans the truth about how badly Obamacare's damaged the system, they're afraid to repeal it because premiums will- and folks, believe me when I tell you, if we repeal Obamacare, we have to be brutally honest, premiums will almost undoubtedly go up for a year or two, but will come down rapidly after that, after the free market here gets hold of it and people start shopping around a bit.
Now, you may say, why?
Because there's unquestionably going to be some disruption where people who had been in those Obamacare markets just pull out in droves because they're not getting subsidies anymore.
Just so I'm clear on this, we repeal Obamacare root and branch.
A lot of people who are getting subsidies on it are not going to get them anymore, are going to drop out of that market, and the only people left are going to be really sick people.
Those sick people are going to wind up costing the insurance companies more.
Premiums for the cup, maybe a year, maybe two, will go up.
But they will come down dramatically as the market resets itself and people start shopping around.
You may say, well Dan, that doesn't sound great.
Well, what's your other option?
Your other option is what?
Premiums are going up in November indefinitely and the public still blames Republicans.
Will you grow a... I don't even want to say it.
Will you grow something?
Please?
And just do the right thing?
You're like, oh, well if we go up and we tell people we're appealing Obamacare and premiums are going to go up, we're going to lose our seats.
You're losing your seats anyway.
The public blames you.
Gosh, I'm so upset I didn't take this screenshot.
But the poll numbers were overwhelming.
It was something like...
60% of the public trusts the Democrats more with healthcare.
What?
They single-handedly destroyed the healthcare system with Obamacare.
They didn't destroy the healthcare system until Republicans helped them.
But they single-handedly destroyed it with Obamacare.
There was not one Republican vote for Obamacare.
That means single-handedly.
No Republicans voted for that.
Your premiums are up because they designed a system that you pay your neighbor's health care no matter what.
You're either bailing out your neighbor's insurance company or you're bailing out your neighbor.
There is no two ways about it.
And he's bailing you out too.
You're all paying inflated premiums for someone else's.
But instead of being honest, the GOP Joe seems to think if we just back down, and we play nice, and we play with the press, and we do this, and we fund a little bit here, and we tinker a little bit here, and we throw a little more money at it here at the states, they seem to think the press is going to leave them alone.
They won't.
The press hates you.
They are going to pin this on you, and it's working.
That is why, and that, believe me, that is why the Republican GOP will do nothing.
They will never, folks, take it to the bank, they will never repeal Obamacare.
That is why it's time now, I believe, for a, maybe, I'm not fully convinced, I'm still like up in the air a bit on this, but I'm starting to warm, I should say, to be precise, heavily to the idea that it is time for a breakaway third party.
Because at a minimum, we're losing now, we're going to lose seats anyway, we might as well get a principal group of people in there who can at least advocate through their collective microphones.
The microphone of Donald Trump, his Twitter account, Ted Cruz, his social media and his media presence.
They can get out on TV and go, yes, we're going to repeal Obamacare.
Yes, premiums are going to go up.
They were going to go up anyway.
But here's what's going to happen once we allow the free market forces to take control again and take this system away from the health insurers and the government and put it back in your hands.
Nobody wants to do it.
They're absolutely terrified.
All right, folks, I got a lot more to get to today.
For those of you who missed it, I did a... I'm going to move on.
Was I clear on that, though, Joe, I think, just before I kind of sum up here?
I think the third party's necessary, umbrella 30,000-foot reason, because the GOP, one, won't do anything about Obamacare because they're afraid of the media.
Two, they're afraid to message it.
Three, and they're worried about losing seats.
Four, they're going to lose seats anyway.
Pretty simple stuff.
The polls are already changing.
Alright, I want to get to this March for Our Lives this weekend and some stuff I did with 60 Minutes Australia.
For those of you who follow my show regularly, they came to my house.
You know, nice crew, really nice guys.
I talked to them, I get the feeling they're dyed-in-the-wool liberals, but that doesn't make them bad guys.
Unlike liberals, I don't, you know...
I don't hate my political opposition, you know what I'm saying?
But they came to my house and they did an interview on Parkland and me and my show on NRA TV, which for those of you who haven't seen it yet, I respectfully request that you tune in, check it out.
We air at 5.30 every night, including tonight at 5.30 p.m.
Eastern time at NRATV.com.
It's free.
It's a half hour show and thanks for all the feedback, but they wanted to talk to me about that.
And they, you know, gun control, of course, came up.
And I rarely do this, Joe.
Have I ever sent you clips of myself before?
I don't think so, right?
No.
But this was important, folks.
I don't like to do clips of myself, but it was 60 Minutes Australia, and that's the reason I'm playing some of this.
Because you're not going to see it.
You can't go on their website.
It's hard to get.
I retweeted some YouTube clips on my Twitter account.
But I wanted to just quickly play for you some highlights.
These are three sound cuts of my interview with 60 Minutes and some of the stuff they ask.
So play the first one and we'll talk a bit after.
Play that cut.
Defend bedrock constitutional rights in the defense of liberty.
Dan Bongino is one of NRA TV's most prominent presenters.
Why do I carry a gun?
Because if someone confronts me in a gun in an incident, God forbid, given the extremely low likelihood, you're dead.
It's over.
Now the only question I have for you is you want to defend yourself?
What are you going to do if a bad guy shows up with a gun and sticks it in your face?
What are you going to curse at him?
I'm going to give him my wallet and say, there you go.
Good luck to you.
What if that's not enough?
You can't give me a good answer as to what you would do if a guy confronts you with a gun.
Oh, here's my wallet.
What, you gonna beg?
You gonna get on your knees?
I'm not getting on my knees.
You can get on yours.
I ain't getting on mine.
You rob me with a gun, we're gonna have a problem.
I wasn't trying to be a smartass, folks.
And the interviewer really was a very nice guy.
He was in no way disrespectful.
But the interview went on for about an hour and a half.
That particular segment was a lot longer.
It was about, I don't know, 10 minutes.
And they did not, I'm not making, they did not in any way deceptively edit it.
I want to be crystal clear on that.
It'd be unfair for me to say that.
But that question went on for a little bit after that.
And that was really the core of it.
There was no, you know, went on in the same vein.
Wasn't his answer fascinating?
I mean he clearly was trying to make the case that you don't need a gun and I made the case to him, well what happens when the other, the bad guy confronts you with a gun in the street?
What are you going to do?
And his answer was, I was even surprised by it.
I'm going to give him my wallet and move on.
And I said, well what if he doesn't care about that?
What if that's not enough?
We're begging now?
And I forget what he said, he said something like, You know, I'll talk to him and try to negotiate, and that's where that begging thing came about.
Begging?
This is your strategy?
Listen, I don't even think he really meant that.
I think he's trying to get some spice for the interview because it's just not sane.
But folks, that's our strategy?
Your strategy is to beg?
I mean, I really wasn't trying to be John J. Rambo or a tough guy in that one, but that's not a strategy.
Begging for your life is not a strategy.
Especially when a deranged maniac is standing in front of you with a firearm or a knife or a bomb or whatever ready to kill you.
Begging is not a strategy.
Now, what didn't make it into the interview was he did bring up a good point and it's worth addressing.
One of the points he brought up, Joe, was, well, you know, what chance are you going to have if he has the drop on you?
It's a great point.
He's not wrong.
I mean, if someone has a gun out and you don't.
But my comeback was, I think, very simple and absolutely true.
What chance do you have with no gun?
And the answer is none.
So if I have, Joe, a 0.002562% chance of surviving with a gun that I can draw quick enough to at least engage.
But a 0% chance with no gun because he has the drop and I have no way to defend myself, I'm gonna take the 0.0025762% chance.
It's just illogical to say that you're somehow better off without being able to defend yourself.
These are critical arguments to make right now, folks.
And based on some of the feedback I got, and if you don't like the answer, please, I know some people are very upset about one of my other answers to the next quiz.
These are short sound cuts, by the way, folks.
I'm not gonna play the whole thing.
The interview was like seven minutes.
Joe was kind enough to cut them down to, you know, minutes or so each.
But this is, what is this next one?
Is this next one about the Bill of Rights, I think?
Play this one, because one of them I got some negative feedback on, so I want to explain it.
Play cut two.
How many guns do you own?
Gosh, I always forget.
I have about four or five handguns.
I have two shotguns and I have two rifles.
A lot of people in Australia would hear that and go, that is dead set bonkers.
Yeah.
Well, that's bonkers to not have.
That's good.
Good for you.
Why do you need more than one?
Um, why do I need?
Because it's not, you know, we have a Bill of Rights, it's not called the Bill of Needs here, and I don't really feel the need to answer, I mean, anyone, no offense, as to what I need.
I mean, you know, why do you need that jacket?
You could have certainly got a cheaper one.
The jacket's not going to kill anyone, is it?
No, neither is my gun, because I don't kill people.
You're darn right!
Now, if I may for a second, Joe, What am I doing here?
Yeah, pat yourself on the back.
I should never do that.
My mother always told me self-praised things.
I love that answer!
Joe is the weirdest thing.
On Twitter, because I tweeted it, there's no middle ground.
People loved it or they hated it.
And I'm talking about gun people, you know, Second Amendment advocates.
I'm not talking about liberals.
Liberals hate every answer.
It doesn't matter what you say.
You know, you can give an answer, I love my kids, and they hate that answer too.
I mean, seriously, anything you say about guns, it doesn't matter.
They hate it.
But amongst the Second Amendment crowd, I was really surprised.
It was about 70% positive feedback, 30% negative, and people said, listen, there were so many good answers to give about why you need more than one weapon.
You know, rounds, caliber, capability, distance.
You know what, I agree in a way I could have done that, but I knew, and you have to understand, folks, when you're doing these interviews, your two-hour interview, Joe, you've sat through these, is going to be cut down to four minutes, five minutes, tops, if you're lucky.
Tops.
Yeah, I mean, sometimes 30 seconds.
An explanation of calibers and distance and the range of a rifle and barrel length, ballistic capabilities, night vision, flashlights, laser accessories.
Folks, it's going to get completely wiped out.
And I felt and made a judgment.
I understood that.
Believe me when I tell you that was going through my head as he asked the question.
I am not naive to that, that there was a very rational, scientific explanation as to why multiple firearms, you know, I could feel like I needed them.
I knew for a fact it would never make the show and I felt like it was time to take a stand against government bureaucrats in general telling us what the hell we need.
How does he know?
He doesn't know anything about me.
Again, I'm not knocking the guy personally.
He was very nice.
But he doesn't know me.
He met me an hour before the interview when he showed up at my house.
He has no idea what I need or don't need.
I have an arthritic shoulder.
Sometimes it's hard for me to hold, that's why I have a subcompact rather than a full side.
I mean seriously, at the range.
You may laugh and say, oh gosh, Dan, give me the... No, I have a really badly arthritic shoulder and sometimes shooting a full-length heavier firearm rather than a compact is, you know, is annoying for me.
He doesn't know that.
You may say, oh, it's a dumb reason.
To you, not to me.
I want to be proficient with my firearm and if shooting for an hour at the range show is super annoying because one of them is really heavy and I have a really horrendous left shoulder, you don't know any of that.
That may be a dumb reason to you, but it's not to me.
If I own a firearm, I want to be proficient with it.
That may sound dumb to you.
The answer is, I don't care.
As I said to him very clearly during that clip, I said to him, no offense, and I meant I didn't want to offend him, but I don't really care what you think I need.
Then I said to him, because he had a really, really nice jacket on, I'm very perceptive to tailoring, because I have to get tailored suits and stuff like that.
So I can see good fabrics.
I mean, I know that sounds really metro and totally beta male.
I promise you, I ain't no beta.
I'm about as alpha as it gets.
But I do know from years in the Secret Service, you recognize good fabric right away.
So the first thing that came to my mind is, that's an expensive sport coat.
And it was.
That thing was probably $1,500.
And I said to him, why do you need that?
You could have got a cheaper one.
Which I thought was a perfectly rational argument.
The answer is I have no idea why he needs it.
His boss could have told him, listen you have a $1,500 sport coat budget.
Here's what you're going to spend.
I have no idea because I know nothing about him.
Just like he knows nothing about me.
Nothing.
Then he said, not to keep going through it, but it's important to learn how to, you know, go at these people because they come at you hard sometimes.
He's like, well, my jacket's not going to kill anybody, which by the way, he's obviously never rolled in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class, because I assure you, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu white belts I know could choke you out darn fast with that jacket.
I'm not kidding.
Just Google collar choke if you think I'm making any of this up.
Google lapel choke, collar choke, or gi choke, and see how quickly someone with a sports jacket can get choked out in a street fight with a basic Brazilian jiu-jitsu white belt.
So, number one, that's not true.
But secondly, you say, well, my jacket's not going to kill anyone.
Well, either are my guns.
Because I don't kill people.
Now if you break into my house, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop you from breaking in and have you arrested, tell you to get on the ground.
But I'm not going to kill you if I don't absolutely have every single exhaustion, exhausted every single opportunity known to man.
My guns don't kill people, my guns are tools.
They're self-defense tools.
The criminal dictates the rules of the fight with me.
Criminal breaks into my house, I catch him, he gets down on the floor, puts his hands behind his back, he goes to jail.
I promise you nothing is going to happen to him.
Even an aggressive criminal.
I'll give him a shot.
But you come in my house and pull a firearm on me and my kids, I'm sorry that you made that decision, not me.
You took your own life.
That's not tough guy talk.
The last thing I want to do is take a life.
I was very, very inspired.
But that's my point.
My guns aren't going to kill people either, just like your jacket.
They're safely locked away in a safe in my house.
You dictate the rules as a bad guy, not me.
You break in, you break in with a weapon, you attack and engage.
I'm sorry, I have to engage back.
You give up, put your hands on the ground.
And folks, listen, I get it.
I'm going to get a lot of emails on this too, and that's fine.
You may have a different approach.
I totally understand that.
You may say, I see you crawling through my window.
I ain't asking questions.
I totally get it.
I'm just giving you my perspective.
You don't have to agree with it at all.
By the way, I was very inspired, not to get off track here, because I do have one more piece of sound.
But I was very inspired this weekend by the movie, Paul the Movie, about the Apostle Paul.
Folks, if you get an opportunity, I am humbly imploring you to please go see this movie.
Joe, you too.
I know you're a believer.
Please.
It is a phenomenal movie about the final days of Paul the Apostle in the Roman prison and his dealings with Luke.
I mean, my wife and I were like, in tears the whole movie.
It is amazing.
Jim Caviezel plays Luke, who was Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.
The movie is phenomenal.
I don't care what you read on Rotten Tomatoes or anywhere, I have no financial stake in this movie at all.
Not a dime.
I'm not a stockholder, I don't know Jim Caviezel, I don't know the producers, directors, no one.
I'm just telling you, there wasn't a dry eye in that movie.
And when you see what Paul did as a Christian and what he went through in this movie to abstain from and abhor violence at all costs, you know, I think you'll understand what motivates me to say things like that.
I've always been Just blown away by the life of Paul and how Christ always chose.
He chose the sinners.
I mean, he chose a guy who had assaulted and hunted down Jews and Paul.
I mean, he chose someone who would deny him three times and Peter, you know, a tax collector.
And Matthew, you know, a woman with a questionable past and Mary Magdalene.
And you know, I know some people get upset when I talk about religion on the show, and some people say I'm not listening anymore.
Listen, that's fine, too.
I mean, that's what makes me who I am, and it's a different perspective.
You may not be religious, that's fine, but maybe you want to hear the opinions of people who are sometimes.
But that is what so upsets me, my deep faith in Christianity.
As a sinner, folks, I'm not a preacher here.
But that's what so upsets me about when people go after us on the Second Amendment is if we own these tools, and these tools are going to kill people because what?
Because we're going to kill people?
I got news for you, my gun doesn't fire itself, ever.
No?
I'm surprised.
No, amazingly, Joe.
It has never fired itself.
And I promise you, if you, God forbid, were on the receiving end of that barrel because you break into my house, you were going to be given every opportunity to give up.
Precisely because of, and when you see the movie you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about.
You've been quite the antagonist today.
You know that?
You think so?
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
I'm sorry.
Those three subjects you knew you were going to get feedback, negative feedback.
I know, I know, but I feel like an obligation, Joe, to be honest with the audience.
And I just feel like, you know, I get this a lot on email and they say, oh, well, you know, I'm going to go listen to this other guy.
Okay.
I mean, what if he says something?
You're gonna jump ship on him too?
I just feel so passionately about this stuff that I feel like you as a regular listener, and this show is exclusively done for you, that you're entitled to know how I really feel inside and what motivates me to believe in this stuff.
You know why I'm a Second Amendment advocate and an NRA advocate?
Because I believe you should have the right to defend your family.
But impugning our characters and saying we're somehow violent because of that is absolutely outrageous.
All right, but please go see this movie.
All right, one more piece of sound from the 60 Minutes interview, and we'll talk about it after.
Just play that cut.
The Marjory Stoneman School is just down the road from here.
What do you say to the students there that say that gun control is necessary?
Well, gun control is a myth.
I mean, we've never controlled guns.
It isn't out of time.
Well, how?
I mean, what evidence does anybody have that gun controls worked anywhere?
Australia?
You have no evidence that gun controls worked in Australia.
There has not been a single mass shooting since the gun buyback.
Okay, so, and I encourage everyone to do all your own homework.
There are more guns now in Australia than before the gun confiscation.
It doesn't work!
Folks, he was, by the way, just so you know, a little behind the scenes.
Joe, I didn't even tell you this.
No.
He was, he didn't believe that.
Is that right?
Yeah.
He stopped, no, no, he didn't, he, no, because I told him that before the interview.
Yeah.
He stopped and googled it himself.
I'm not making this up, folks.
I would not impugn this guy's character.
And he looks at me, he goes, mate, you're right.
He goes, there are more guns now in Australia.
Folks, if gun control worked in Australia, they implemented gun confiscation, even worse than gun control, air quotes, because there's no such thing as gun control, as I said.
If it worked, as he's asserting, how is it that there are more guns now in Australia than there were before the gun confiscation?
Look it up yourself.
I'm not making that up.
Folks, can we be rational for a moment?
You're asserting, as a news guy, that the gun confiscation program in the mid-90s in Australia, after the shooting there, worked to reduce mass shootings, right?
By the way, there's no evidence of that at all.
None.
All the studies on that have shown no statistically significant difference in what they call mass shootings using New Zealand as a control group.
But more importantly, you're telling us that the gun confiscation program worked.
I'm assuming because you think it took away guns.
Right, Joe?
You would think?
You would think, right?
I'm not tricking you at all.
But there are more guns now in Australia.
So what you're saying now is now there's now less mass shootings because there's more guns.
So your principle is what?
We should give out guns?
I don't know.
And he looked at me like I was crazy.
And this is what's weird about the interview.
And I don't know if he's listening.
I feel bad for the guy because I don't want to.
But I'm free to give the behind the scenes just like that.
I swear.
That question happened before the interview.
Really?
So you may say, well, how was it recorded?
Because he asked it again, which I was, um, folks, I was taken aback because before the interview, we were just chatting.
He looked it up and he acknowledged I was right.
So I'm like, why would you go back to the well again?
You get what I'm saying, Joe?
Like, it's like us talking before the show, and you want to say something, and I say, Joe, that's really dumb.
Don't say it, which never happens.
And then Joe says it during the show.
You're like, Joe, why did you do that?
I told you before the show that 2 plus 2 equals 4, not 5.
Why would you say that?
I said to him before the taping that that is not accurate.
Like, I was even giving him a pass, and he still asked the question.
And I noticed there was no response to that at all.
You know how they just move on?
Yes.
I noticed that right away.
And I was like, dude, did you forget that we talked about that before the show?
He's a nice guy though.
I mean it.
He really was.
Afterwards, they gave me their cards.
They said, if you're ever in Australia and you need anything.
So I know, because I got a lot of feedback on Twitter, people like, what a jerk.
He really wasn't.
Listen, they're lost, OK?
Their values are wrong.
They're lost.
Their principles are all on the wrong side.
I get it.
But I'm telling you, they were really super nice guys.
They were like, if you're ever over there, look us up.
So I don't want you to be angry at anyone.
Just be angry at their ideas.
And being angry at ideas is perfectly fine.
But let's not be liberals and, you know, turn it on people like they did.
They could have cut that last question right out.
And they didn't.
So that says something nice about them, yeah.
Dude, I'm glad you brought that up though.
Because if you watch the whole piece on YouTube, you know what, maybe I'll put it in the show notes today or tomorrow.
I didn't want to put it in because I didn't want to waste your time.
But they're actually very flattering about my background.
You saw it, right Joe?
Yeah, we left it out because it's too long.
Yeah, we cut it out because it was too long.
We don't want to waste your time.
But there's one part of that before where they set it up and they say, you know, and this is Dan Bongino and this guy knows what he's talking about.
He's a former Secret Service agent.
They don't make any effort to impugn my character or there was, you know, I'm not trying to flatter them or anything.
Obviously, it was a left-leaning hit piece.
Okay, let's, you know, that's what they do.
But it wasn't dishonest.
Those answers were, as I answered them, it was not deceptively edited and Joe's right.
There were a couple answers in there that probably weren't as flattering.
And they put the ones in there that I think made them look pretty bad.
I mean, he had no answer for my Australia thing at all.
None, and they put it right in there.
So, you know, again, let's not be the left here and just make stuff up.
It was a fairly edited interview, I thought, and the guys were pretty nice about it.
All right, I do have to get to this March for Our Lives, Your Lives, Everybody's Life thing that happened this weekend, but today's show also brought to you by our buddies at BrickHouse Nutrition.
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All right.
One final piece today.
I know we're running a little late on time.
Listen, I am not here, let me just put this caveat in there, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart as I've said over and over but I'll say again, God bless anyone who goes out there and exercises their big R rights.
Speech, petition, assembly, that's what makes this country great.
The fact that you can get out there in D.C.
and hold a rally for things I passionately believe are wrong?
Is one of the, really, is one of the key components and bedrocks of freedom.
I would hate it if you, you know, said the opposite about me.
If I went and held a, you know, go ensure, march for your life, march right to the gun store and, and, you know, buy yourself a gun and learn how to use it.
If you came after me for speaking out, I would be upset about it too.
And I am not, these kids, God bless them.
Let them do whatever they want on the free speech front, as long as your free speech doesn't call for violence against others.
You are golden, and I and anyone I know and deal with would advocate strongly for your right to do that.
Having said that, it's time to be honest about who was behind this, though.
Now, there's no question that the kids who were involved in the shooting, again, have absolutely the right to speak and should speak out if they feel as such.
It's a great country.
But Joe, I know I tell you this a lot, but please, this is one of those must-read pieces at The Show Notes.
It's short, it's sweet, it's to the point.
It's from sultannish.com.
And it is a breakdown of who paid for and organized this rally that happened this weekend.
And folks, despite the assertions otherwise, assertions, excuse me, assertions otherwise, This was largely a rally for gun control and gun confiscation.
School safety seemed to take a tertiary role in this, which is a little bit upsetting.
But who organized it matters.
Now, read this piece.
It's short, it's sweet, but it breaks down exactly who was responsible for this.
Now, I took a few notes on it.
Uh, the payments were being run through Everytown, which is a Bloomberg organization, which is ironic, as the guy writes in the piece, because it really wasn't Everytown, Joe.
It really was Washington, D.C., New York, and L.A.
What do we mean by that?
The publicity for it was run by a company called 42 West.
42 West is largely a media rep company for L.A.-based and Hollywood-type celebrities.
The six directors of this are L.A.
power players in that community.
The treasury and the secretary of this organization that was paid to put this on and put it together were from Washington, D.C.
They were largely liberal power players.
Now, here's a quote from the piece.
Oh, here we go.
He's talking about how the genesis of this, and this is a good argument he makes in the piece, is that That's fine.
No one's alleging there's any criminality or anything wrong with that.
But what he's saying in the piece, Joe, is that at least with the NRA it's transparent.
We know exactly who the NRA is.
It's five million members pay dues to an organization that advocates for the right to self-defense.
There's no mystery there.
The author says, the problem with these movements is there always seems to be some opacity as to who's in charge.
They never really tell you this stuff.
He makes a great point at the end.
He writes, gun control activists wring their hands over the NRA.
They claim that a special interest lobby is illegitimately thwarting the will of the people.
Yet it's the anti-gun groups that are invariably false fronts.
It's very clear who runs the NRA, but the latest fake anti-NRA group is a nebulous shadow.
Out front are the high school students, and out back are the professional activists.
Folks, again, God bless their right to speak out, but let's be honest about who is putting this on.
Go look at the piece.
It lines it out name by name and you're going to be like, oh, one of them was a Bill Maher producer for the Bill Maher show.
That's crazy.
How did that happen?
They knew exactly what they were doing.
All right, thanks again for tuning in.
I'm really sorry if I upset some of you today.
The show is legitimately for you, and I'm not trying to do that, but I do have to be honest.
I owe you that, all right?
So thanks a lot.
I appreciate your continued loyalty to the show.
Go to Bongino.com, check out the show notes, and I'll see you all tomorrow.
