In this episode I address the troubling connections between Joe Biden, John Kerry, their family members, and foreign governments and companies. I also address the recent comments by disgraced former CIA Director John Brennan regarding the Mueller probe. Finally, I address the growing trade deficit and why you shouldn’t panic over it.
News Picks:
The weak Democrats are refusing to debate on Fox News.
Is Joe Biden dirty?
The trade deficit grew last year, but this is not a bad thing.
Shady Adam Schiff appoints a known anti-Trump conspiracy theorist to investigate the President.
Disgraced former CIA Director John Brennan speaks out about the witch-hunt.
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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.
All right, welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
Hey, man, I'm doing good, but the question is, how are you doing?
I made it out of surgery, thanks to the wonderful, terrific surgeon, Dr. Wade Van Cise, and the incredible staff at the Jupiter Outpatient Surgical Center.
They were really nice out there.
So yeah, here is...
Here's my arm.
We made it.
We're back.
I have some souvenirs.
Here.
You hear that?
Those are not baby teeth.
Those are what was removed from my elbow.
Chunks of sheared off cartilage that were stuck in my elbow.
So the doc gave me a little souvenir.
You hear that, folks?
For those of you listening.
They look like aspirin.
If you want to watch the video, right, right, they do look like baby aspirin.
If you want to watch the video and see this, go to youtube.com slash Dan Bongino.
You can see in a full video show we put up there as well.
But hearing it is enough.
Those are the chunks of cartilage they removed from my elbow yesterday.
So he did a really great job.
So I'm a little wrapped up today on my arm.
I got a big, huge ace bandage, but I got to get it moving right away.
So it's been super, super painful to move.
It's really swollen.
But we don't miss shows here.
No.
And I got a lot of important stuff to cover today, so enough about my medical maladies.
Let's get right to the show.
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It's going to be an important show.
Folks, is Joe Biden dirty?
Oh.
It's an important question.
I didn't tell Joe where I was going to go with this.
Joe Paula kind of knows.
But now we have the 2020 presidential race heating up, the Democrat primary.
We're going to have Joe Biden get in probably relatively shortly.
And I think it's an important question.
Is Joe Biden dirty?
Now, I use that title for a number of reasons.
One, I obviously mean, is Joe Biden have some issues right now when it comes to foreign connections, since foreign connections appear to be a very big deal, right?
Right.
Remember the whole Russian collusion case is bedrocked on the fact, Joe, that Donald Trump somehow met with Russians and these Russians, these Russian connections are a big deal and they should all be vetted.
OK, well, fair enough.
Then Joe Biden should be vetted, too.
But I bring it up also kind of a Double quote, my old religion teacher in high school used to make us do double quotes.
Two quotes that were related to each other.
And it was a way to get, it was really funny.
So one kid one time, the kid who won the contest, the double quote contest, Joe, you know the writer Camus?
So he had a thing called, Camus wrote, you know, God is dead.
So the guy put, God is dead, Camus.
Then he put, Camus is dead, God.
So he won the contest.
So, uh, you know, it's kind of meant to be a double quote.
Is Joe Biden dirty?
Because remember it was Joe Biden, Joe, when talking about Barack Obama, who said he's the first clean, uh, black candidate for president.
Remember that?
He's clean.
He's clean.
What are you saying?
So Joe Biden's saying Obama's what?
He takes showers.
You remember that?
He's the first clean guy.
He's a story, man.
He's clean.
Right, he's well-spoken.
I mean, really?
Because let me tell you something.
I know quite a few black men who are very well-spoken.
Barack Obama's not the first one I've met.
I don't know where you're hanging out, Joe, but we're okay on our end.
This just goes to show you, like, this inherent closet-latent racism in the left.
He's the first clean black guy.
What are you talking about?
So the title kind of is half joking but half not, you know, is Joe Biden dirty?
But this is a serious question.
He is going to be a formidable candidate for president.
Don't sell this guy short.
We did that before.
I don't know if you remember, Joe, but When Paul Ryan debated Joe Biden during the Mitt Romney-Obama re-elect campaign, remember we were all excited, you and I included, like, oh, Paul Ryan, he's a policy wonk, he's gonna maul Joe Biden, it's gonna be an embarrassment, he's gonna crush him.
Not so much.
Joe Biden actually did pretty well in that debate, right?
I remember he blindsided a whole boatload of us.
You remember that?
We were all like, what the hell just happened?
We expected like goofy Joe to screw that whole thing up.
So don't sell Biden short.
He does have a knack for saying stupid things, but he's, he's a formidable politician in some respects.
He's cultivated this image of old lunch bucket Joe, down to earth guy, a man of the people.
But folks, let's be fair here.
And if we're going to hold Donald Trump to a standard, a standard of justice or vetting, then Biden should be held to that standard too.
Now, Is he dirty?
Folks, by the current metric we're using, which is foreign contacts, foreign contacts that involve business dealings, being somehow worthy of an investigation and potential impeachment, right?
That's what we've heard about Donald Trump.
He was going to build a tower in Moscow.
Keep in mind, none of this is illegal, by the way.
His son met with a couple Russians who showed up and talked about Russian adoption, said they may have information on Hillary and never exchanged any information.
So if foreign contacts are a big deal, then let's hold Biden to that same standard.
So I have an article in the show notes today from the New York Post.
It's an older article, but it's worth your time.
It's from the excellent author Peter Schweitzer, who wrote the book Clinton Cash.
And in the New York Post piece, it lays out some very suspicious contacts Joe Biden has had with foreign governments, and those foreign governments have then turned around and done business with people close to Joe Biden, notably his son Hunter.
So just to be clear, Joe, I'm just asking everyone here to be fair, liberals and conservatives included.
If Jerry Nadler, Sleazy Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Mark Warner on the Senate side, these Democrats, all want to harass Donald Trump for contacts with foreign officials that involve business dealings, then it's only fair to ask the same exact question of Joe Biden.
Even worse, Joe, if a meeting with members of your family Notably, Don Trump Jr., with some Russian officials, by the way, who ironically connected to Clinton.
But if meetings with members of your family in foreign contacts and business dealings are suspect and worthy of investigation, then I am demanding the following be investigated too.
Let's go through them one by one.
Articles in the show notes today at Bongino.com.
Please read it.
Hat tip, Peter Schweitzer.
All right.
So Joe Biden's son, Hunter.
Hunter Biden starts this company, Joe, Rosemont Seneca.
Who does he start it with?
A kid by the name, a guy by the name, excuse me, he's not a kid, a guy by the name of, it's a New York thing, Chris Hines.
Chris Hines.
Chris Hines.
Hines, like the Ketchup Hines?
Yes, exactly, like the Ketchup Hines.
Actually, eponymously named.
The Hines Ketchup Fortune.
Wow, where does that sound familiar?
Teresa Hines, Hines, she's got an abbreviated last name.
His mom is Teresa Hines.
Kerry!
Kerry!
Like John Kerry!
John Kerry!
Yes, John Kerry's wife!
So John Kerry's stepson, Chris Hines, and Hunter Biden start this company.
Follow me here, Rosemont Seneca, right?
So Rosemont Seneca is the son of these two powerful officials, one who goes later on to become Secretary of State under Barack Obama, the other one, Joe Biden, obviously Hunter Biden's dad, is the Vice President of the United States.
Now, again, meetings with foreign officials, Joe, especially with foreign officials and your family and business dealings are supposed to be highly suspect.
So it's really convenient in this piece that Hunter Biden and Chris Hines and their company, Rosemont Seneca, one of their business partners and Hunter, this other guy, Devin Archer, they get a meeting in China with some really powerful people in China who hold control of a whole lot of money.
Sound like collusion?
Ooh, are we on to something?
They get a meeting in China, Joe, just hours before the vice president at the time meets with President Hu, Hu Jintao at the time.
Isn't that convenient timing?
So Hunter Biden and his business partners, Arch, Devin Archer, Heinz isn't at this meeting.
In Rosemont, Seneca, they get a meeting with these powerful Chinese officials and just a couple hours after that, the vice president shows up.
I thought, how about that?
I thought we were investigating foreign collusion and foreign interference in the United States.
Oh, you may say, oh, so what, Dan?
This Rosamond Seneca gets this meeting with powerful Chinese officials while Biden is conveniently on the ground meeting with the Chinese president at the time.
Nothing to see there.
Oh, there's another meeting.
Meeting number two.
Let's call this the deuce.
This second meeting happens in May of 2011.
Who's in office at the time?
Of course, Barack Obama and his vice president, Joseph Biden.
They get another meeting, Rosemont Seneca.
Keep in mind, Rosemont Seneca run by John Kerry's stepson and Joe Biden's kid.
Second meeting with these higher-ups, these powerful Chinese officials.
Only two weeks after Joe Biden opens up the U.S.-China strategic dialogue in Washington, D.C.
Wow, isn't that convenient?
Wow, how about that?
How about that?
Was Joe Biden... Did they get these meetings because of Joe Biden?
Did Biden have anything to do with it?
Is Biden aware that his son was doing business with higher-ups in the Chinese government about investment contracts corresponding to the same time frame Joe Biden's meeting with Chinese officials?
I thought we were talking about foreign collusion!
I thought that was a big deal!
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm putting... Joe Biden is going to announce a run for president.
To all the press people who listen to the show, and I know you're out there, I hope you're gonna do the same homework on this foreign collusion.
Is it collusion?
Is it a conspiracy?
Did Joe Biden use his influence to set his son up with these Chinese officials?
Are these questions not worthy of answers?
I mean, you've hammered Trump for every single legal meeting he had with Russian officials about a Moscow project that never happened, but this gets better!
These Chinese projects with Joe Biden's son and John Kerry's stepson actually did happen!
Let's go to the trifecta.
There's a 2013 visit, Joe.
Another visit with Hunter Biden and his, uh, these Chinese officials.
And after this visit, we get this convenient deal where Joe Biden and his, uh, Joe Biden's kid, they have this company.
They invest in BHR that joins forces with AVIC.
This, uh, this Chinese investment company and they buy a company called Henan Jesus.
Forgive me if I'm saying it wrong.
Okay.
They buy this company and this company produces, so Joe Biden's company, just so we're clear, excuse me, Joe Biden's kid, Hunter, their company teams up with Chinese officials to buy another company that sells and buys sensitive U.S.
equipment that can be used for dual-use military technology.
The purchase of this, Joe, of this company by Joe Biden's kid and the Chinese, given that there's going to be a significant amount of Chinese investment in it, has to be proved by CFIUS, the Council on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Where does that sound familiar?
CFIUS, remember the name.
CFIUS, we always say, remember the name so you can put these pieces together.
The Council on Foreign Investment in the United States, made up of high-ranking officials who have to ultimately, who can disapprove a foreign purchase of a U.S.
company based on sensitive technology, is the same exact board that approved the Uranium One deal.
This board had to approve the sale of this company to this company controlled by Hunter Biden.
Wow, Joe, all of a sudden, CFIUS gives it the rubber stamp.
Amazing how this CFIUS always seems to appear stacked with Obama officials, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, when she was Secretary of State, John Kerry.
These people on the CFIUS board who can disapprove these deals seem to give the rubber stamp to these approved deals.
Uranium One, Henegies, or however you pronounce it, this company that sells Dual use military technology.
All of a sudden these things get approved right away.
Lickety split.
In a snap.
But there's no talk in the mainstream media now about Joe Biden and his foreign connections.
Did Joe Biden know about this?
Joe Biden knows his son was involved with this Chinese company with the purchase of sensitive technology?
Is anybody even reporting on this?
Maybe Joe Biden needs to take a shower and get clean.
Obama, he's the first clean guy to run for office.
Is he clean?
Biden?
These questions not worthy of answers?
What exactly was discussed at these meetings?
I mean, you've dragged Donald Trump through the woodshed for legal meetings with Russians about a Moscow Tower project that never even happened.
You've produced no evidence of illegality whatsoever.
And you've dragged him through the woodshed here, thrown him in a wood chipper over meetings with foreign individuals that led to absolutely nothing that Donald Trump Jr.
has been perfectly open about.
Ironically, with Russians connected to the Clinton space.
And yet these foreign Chinese contacts between Hunter Biden and John Kerry's stepson?
With the Chinese?
You're not even remotely interested?
Oh, it gets better, Joe.
We've talked about this before.
You smell a natural gas anywhere?
Oh yeah.
That's, I, yeah.
Sounds like methane in that, like in that FAQ from the Green New Deal.
Methane emissions from the wrong end of the cow.
Sounds like that to me.
Yeah, man.
Gets better.
So Joe Biden also has an interest in Ukraine.
Joe Biden pops in to visit the Ukrainians on April 14th of 2014.
Right in April of 2014, he visits Ukraine.
Conveniently, right after he visits Ukraine, Joe, where he wants to talk about Ukraine's energy independence from Russia, his son Hunter, yeah, same guy, same guy, same guy.
Remember the Clinton joke?
When you're golfing, you hit a bad shot and a good shot.
Bill Clinton, we used to golf with him, he used to go, same guy, same guy, same guy, Hunter Biden, Right after this April 2014 visit by his dad, the vice president, to Ukraine to talk about energy independence from the Russians by the Ukrainians, conveniently his son gets appointed to the board of the largest natural gas company in Ukraine, Burisma.
Wow!
Isn't that convenient?
Boom!
That's amazing!
How did that happen?
Boom is right!
So he joins Burisma in April of 2014, right after the visit, just like all of these Chinese business ventures, Hunter Biden seems to be involved in, seem to correspond exactly to meetings his dad has had with Chinese officials.
Incredible how that happens and how nobody in the mainstream media seems even remotely interested in Lunchbucket Joe and his connections.
Let's talk about old Lunchbucket.
Now it gets better.
Now remember folks, Burisma, one of their key officials, is a former ecology minister under a guy, Yanukovych, who was the head of government in Ukraine, who was an ally of Manafort.
Follow me, it's a little confusing.
The lead is this.
Biden goes to Ukraine, talks about energy independence.
His son gets a spot on an energy company in Ukraine promoting Ukrainian energy independence, a natural gas company.
But the details are important here.
Paul Manafort, subject to the dossier.
Again, I'm not saying Manafort's a good guy or anything like that, but don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Manafort at all in this, but Manafort is working for a pro-Russian Ukrainian head of state, Yanukovych.
Yanukovych is an enemy of the Obama administration.
So the Obama administration, Joe, sees Manafort as an enemy, too.
Manafort is a subject from day one.
Everybody knows it.
That's why Alexander Chalupa at the DNC targets Manafort.
Conveniently, Manafort shows up in the Trump orbit.
Next thing you know, Trump becomes the subject of this big, huge spying thing, which I think was going on for a long time.
Now, the company The company Burisma, one of the board members on that, one of the heads of that company, is now an enemy of Yanukovych.
He was a former government minister under him.
He leaves.
He's an enemy of them.
He then hires, they hire Biden's kid to work for Burisma.
Burisma, the company Hunter Biden gets a board spot on in this big, nice, cushy position, Conveniently, in 2017, right after the presidential election, signs a cooperation agreement with the Atlantic Council.
Remember the Atlantic Council?
All the board members of the Atlantic Council, many of them have intimate roles in the Spygate scandal.
The Atlantic Council, one of their advisors on the technology side, Dmitri Alperovitch, runs CrowdStrike, which is the company that analyzed the DNC computers.
Evelyn Farkas is on the Atlantic Council, the woman who shows up at MSNBC after the election and says how We had all this information on Trump and the Russians, we had to tell people how we got it.
Remember that?
Yeah.
Now, who funds the Atlantic Council?
The Atlantic Council is funded by Viktor Pinchuk.
Viktor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian, another enormous donor to who?
The Clinton Foundation!
The Clinton Foundation, he's donated between 10 and 25 million dollars to the Clinton Foundation.
He funds the Atlantic Council, that right after the election, I believe in an effort To try to cozy up to the Trump administration afterwards.
Burisma signs a cooperation agreement with the Atlantic Council because there are some members of that that have government influence and I think they're trying to make a lot of this stuff go away because they thought Hillary Clinton would be the president and their Burisma's connections to Biden would become a big deal if Hillary wasn't elected.
You get my point?
So Burisma's trying to make this go away.
Burisma signs with the Atlantic Council with all these former government officials on there.
Because to be fair, there are some Republican-connected people on that Atlantic Council board as well.
But that council is funded by Pinchuk.
Pinchuk, ironically, becomes a target in Mueller's investigation as well.
Not for his $10-25 million donation to the Clinton Foundation, but for a $150,000 speaking fee he pays to Donald Trump.
Perfectly legal.
Again, fostering my thesis here that Bob Mueller's sole purpose here is to keep the heat on the Trump administration, to make all of these shady connections to Biden and Clinton go away.
Investigate Pinchuk, get him to shut up, tell him you're investigating him for the Trump thing, therefore he won't tell you anything about the Clinton thing or go public on it.
Does this make sense, Joe?
Yeah, man.
I don't like what I'm hearing, but yeah.
It's tough.
I know it's tough to follow, but keep in mind the lead here.
Joe Biden meets with foreign officials, both Chinese and Ukrainian.
All of a sudden, his son gets these lucrative deals with John Kerry, John Kerry's stepson, Chris.
But I thought foreign contacts were a big deal.
Apparently they're only a big deal when they involve Republicans like Donald Trump.
Is Joe Biden dirty?
Is anyone looking into this?
Is anyone asking Joe Biden about that trip conveniently timed to Ukraine right before his son got this lucrative deal with Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company?
We're asking the questions here.
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Okay, moving on.
So John Brennan is up to his old tricks.
Sleazy, slimy John Brennan who started this investigation, I believe, in conjunction with officials in the Obama administration and the Clinton team into the Trump team.
Obviously had to be intimately aware of the whole Spygate debacle.
We don't get involved with foreign spying overseas without the CIA being intimately involved in this.
So you have Brennan, a central key figure in the Spygate scandal.
So Brennan made an appearance.
It cuts a little long.
It's a little over a minute.
I cut some of it out because it's actually longer.
It's about three minutes long.
But I want to get to the core of it because Brennan's up to his old tricks again.
He was on MSNBC with, I believe it's Lawrence O'Donnell.
And he's asked the question about the impending Mueller report, which we believe will be released this week, possibly on Friday, Bob Mueller's report.
Here's Brennan's take on what he thinks is going to be contained in this report.
And listen closely, because I want to tell you, he's doing a little dipsy-do-flipperoo here, and he's trying to bait the Trump team into something.
So play the cut, and I'll explain what I mean afterwards.
Are you one who's willing to, at this stage of the game, venture a guess about where Robert Mueller is in his process and how close he To filing a report, and beyond that, what you would expect from such a report?
Well, I think Robert Mueller wants to be able to conclude his work and turn over the investigative threads to the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of Virginia, and other jurisdictions as appropriate, as we're coming up to two years.
So I think he does want to conclude that.
I wouldn't be surprised if, for example, this week on Friday, not knowing anything about it, but Friday is the day that the grand jury indictments come down.
And also, this Friday is better than next Friday because next Friday is the 15th of March, which is the Ides of March.
And I don't think Robert Mueller will want to have that dramatic flair of the Ides of March when he is going to be delivering what I think are going to be his indictments, the final indictments, as well as the report that he gives the Attorney General.
What makes you believe that he has more indictments?
Um, because he hasn't addressed the issues related to criminal conspiracy, as well as any individuals... Criminal conspiracy involving the Russians?
The Russians, yes.
Yeah, I think it was very... And that's an area... In terms of an American person, a U.S.
person.
That's an area you know something about.
That investigation was developing while you were still on the job.
Well, it was, in terms of looking at what was going on with the Russians and whether or not U.S.
persons were actively collaborating, colluding, cooperating, involved in a conspiracy with them or not, but also if there's going to be any member of the Trump family.
Did you see a myth at that stage to believe that that would result in indictments once investigated?
I thought at the time that there was going to be individuals who were going to have issues with the Department of Justice.
Yes, and I think we've already seen a number of individuals who have been indicted, either have pled guilty or have been convicted now.
So, again, I don't have any inside knowledge.
I'm not talking with anybody in the special counsel.
Yes, there we go.
So, Brennan has no inside knowledge, which is nonsense.
We all know he's intimately familiar with what went on.
Brennan, of course, of course was intimately familiar with the dossier.
But here's what he's trying to do here.
He's setting the public up for the fact that this is going to be a big zero and this is going to be a big nothing.
And he's incentivizing Mueller or trying to send little coded dog whistle language.
You notice what he said, Joe?
To refer cases out to, what is it, the Eastern District of Virginia, the Southern District of New York?
Basically what he's saying is, what's Mueller's job, Joe?
Mueller's, what we know from at least the publicly available scope memo, not the hidden one, but Mueller's job is to investigate Russian collusion.
Anything else he gets as a result of that, crimes he may come across, or alleged crimes he may come across, he's supposed to farm out.
So Brennan is kind of throwing a hint out there that even though this thing may be a big nothing burger on Friday, you notice what he said?
Well, I'm not really sure.
People may have had some contact with these foreign officials, but you know, they may have trouble with the department.
What is trouble with the Department of Justice?
Are they going to be charged with a crime or not?
I have trouble with the Department of Justice.
I have trouble what they did.
Brennan always talks in code, but he's basically saying is the way to continue this going forward, sending a dog whistle to Mueller and the Department of Justice, the haters in the Department of Justice against Trump, is you need to continue this by referrals outside of the Mueller probe, even if the Mueller probe ends on Friday.
Does that make sense?
In other words, What he's been doing with Cohen, that was referred out to the Southern District, the taxicab medallions thing, the FEC stuff.
This is what he's hinted.
He's already laying the groundwork and he's trying to bait them into it.
He's laying the groundwork for the fact that this is going to be a big dud potentially on Friday when this comes out.
It's going to be a big nothing.
There's going to be nothing in there and that they should further foster the investigation by farming out cases to the DOJ, whether it's in Virginia or the Southern District of New York, to keep the financial investigations and the heat on Trump going forever.
Brennan's a dog, folks, I'm sorry.
This guy is awful.
He is one of the worst human beings on the planet.
I have never heard a former CIA director talk like this in my life.
A guy who was intimately involved in the spying operation on Donald Trump, out there as a paid contributor on one of these networks, dogging the President of the United States, speaking about things he knows he was intimately involved in.
This guy is awful.
Now, there's an interesting Interesting theory developing that a guy I've been communicating with has been sending me over.
An interesting theory developing about how Mueller's job right now is not just to keep the heat on Donald Trump, Joe, but his job is also to make sure that the dossier...
That the dossier has some air of legitimacy to it.
I'm going to start expounding on this a little bit.
It's something I've been working on a little bit with my second book with someone out there, too.
This gets interesting, though, because we'll see what happens with this Mueller report and if it tracks the dossier.
In other words, the dossier we know is a hoax.
But did you notice that Mueller has been slowly, methodically working his way through all the figures that appear in the dossier?
Yeah.
Paul Manafort and others.
So it's interesting, like, just how many dossiers were there.
Go back to my Golden File show I did last week.
You know, what other information made its way to Obama's desk?
In other words, folks, is that Golden File, are there other dossiers out there we're not aware of?
I covered this on my Friday show, but I just want you to remember when Devin Nunes went to the White House on March, right after DNI Dan Coats, Was appointed.
He went to the White House for a reason.
The information he was looking at was given to him by a whistleblower.
Was intelligence information, he gave a press conference afterwards and said some of it had nothing to do with Russia.
What I'm suggesting to you is information may have made it to the White House, non-vetted, that is not in the, that is essentially other dossiers we're not aware of yet.
And did you notice how Devin Nunes on the Nunes Translator, Joe, in his recent interviews keeps talking about how the alleged author of the dossier, Christopher Steele.
Yeah, I did.
What do you think he's saying there?
I'm sorry folks, I'm not distracted, I'm just trying in a rather probably poorly laid out but circuitous way trying to get to the point that There is other information that likely made it to the president's desk, unvetted, essentially the golden file, other dossiers that made it there, that probably lay out a more detailed administration-wide spying operation on political opponents that Barack Obama had utilized, where Trump was actually just a small part of a much larger, bigger puzzle.
Does that make sense, Joe?
Yeah, yeah.
And think about it.
If you use the Nunes translator, right?
When he talks about Steele as like the alleged author of the dossier, I think what he's saying is this information may have been washed through Steele, because Steele was a source the FBI had used before, so they could claim he was somewhat credible, but Steele was not the ultimate producer of this intelligence show.
The question then becomes, who is?
Do you see where I'm going with this, Joe?
Did Christopher Steele work with me before on a case against you?
Let's say you and him were involved in a bank robbery, or you and another guy, and Steele knew about it.
Steele provided information that was reliable.
If I wanted to nail you and set you up later, I would go back to Steele because he has credibility and bonafides and I can go to a judge and say, Christopher Steele provided information about Joe Armacost before and it was reliable and valid.
But what if Steele doesn't have that info and I'm just targeting Joe?
What if, follow me here buddy, what if I go to Steele and say, hey, I have this information on Joe Armacost.
I need you to feed it back to me because then I can tell the judge you gave it to me and it'll appear legitimate and I can wash my hands of it.
You get where I'm going?
You dog.
Yeah, I do.
It's awfully convenient that Devin Nunes keeps referring to Christopher Steele as the alleged author of the dossier.
Yep.
Brennan knows this stuff.
Brennan is hiding.
Brennan's a snake.
Brennan knows his Central Intelligence Agency he was in charge of was probably producing reams of information shuttled through Fusion GPS to make it look like it was outside information given to the FBI when it was inside information likely developed between the Hillary team, the Obama administration, and spying targets they had as their political opponents.
Folks, this is really bad stuff.
I'm going to elaborate a little bit more on this with the Golden File stuff.
I'm working on it now with Book Two, and it's really mind-boggling stuff.
Because they keep talking about this other stuff when the material's unredacted that's going to be so devastating.
What could be more devastating than information that's proven false?
What I told you on Friday's show!
Legitimate disinformation from a foreign government we scooped up From the Russians, intentional disinformation we scooped up in order to use Russian information to prosecute Trump knowing it was fake.
That's what's worse than the hoaxed information.
Russian disinformation.
It's a big deal, folks.
It's a huge deal what's going on.
Okay, uh, let's see here.
What do we got next?
Ah!
Ah, buddy!
Da Nang Dick!
We love Da Nang Dick Blumenthal!
Yeah, Senator Richard Blumenthal, uh, you know, who said he was in Vietnam and was not, uh, which is I mean, listen, I obviously was not in Vietnam.
I lost an uncle there.
He died quite heroically over there.
But I can only imagine to the people, the heroic men and women who did serve over there in Vietnam, that they would probably find it, Joe, that's your generation, would probably find it pretty offensive that a guy claimed he was over there who wasn't.
So this is a U.S.
senator who Trump has aptly named Danang Dick.
So Danang Dick Blumenthal is up in his Senate committee there yesterday and he's questioning Customs and Border Patrol boss.
And of course, Da Nang Dick wants to gaslight you and spin misinformation.
And I want to play his video cut of this guy just shutting Da Nang Dick down.
This is really epic stuff.
Play that cut.
But the illicit narcotics are coming primarily still through the ports of entry.
That's where our seizures are.
The numbers of border crossings are still at a historic low compared to other times in our nation's history.
No, Senator, they're not.
We're on pace for over 700,000 crossings this year.
That's closer to historic highs than historic lows.
No, Senator, that's not accurate.
Folks, we are approaching... Let me read to you a March 5th New York Times headline.
New York Times, by the way.
Obviously not a right-leaning outlet.
New York Times, which does full-blown propaganda for the Democrat Party.
March 5th New York Times headline.
Border at the breaking point.
Wait, I thought that wasn't a crisis show.
I thought there was nothing wrong at the border.
Well, just to reiterate what we addressed yesterday, the month of February alone they had 76,000, not 7,600, not 76, not 760, 76,000 apprehensions at the border.
7600, not 76, not 760.
76,000 apprehensions at the border.
Good for that CBP boss.
For calling Da Nang dick out.
We're at all-time lows for border crossings.
Ah, no, Senator.
That is absolutely incorrect.
We're approaching all-time highs.
We're approaching approximately 700,000 people crossing the border a year, folks.
700 being apprehended!
Can you imagine how many are not being apprehended?
You know, really, thanks to that guy for shutting Danang dick down.
This stuff is just getting out of control with these people.
The lies and the gaslighting, they're seemingly never-ending.
All right, less read for the day, but another great company we really appreciate.
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Hey, Dano.
Yes, sir.
I'm, uh, I'm still kind of laughing about the Ides of March.
Oh, and he brought that up?
I know, isn't that sick?
That is like the weirdest, like anyone in the public is going to make that connection.
You have to be a real sicko, but that's how Brennan is.
I'm glad you brought that up.
I didn't really hit on that because there was so many other stupid things he said in there, but that is, that's kind of weird, right?
Like how he would bring that up.
Like, what is this?
Like the death theme?
I mean, it's just so macabre, but that's how Brennan is.
He's like a real sick puppy.
I mean, that guy's just a strange, I told you I am.
Quick story about Brennan.
So I usually don't tell, but it's just so, I have to, I'm sorry.
I gotta, I was flying with him once on a, on a helicopter right behind him.
And it was really tight, really tight.
It was, um, what are the little birds, the 53s or those that, no, those are 60s.
I was, but it was tight in there.
So I'm like looking over his shoulder, not to be nosy.
It's just, it's that tight.
Like my head is literally over his shoulder.
And I see him, like, Googling himself, and I'm like, oh my gosh.
Wow, lame.
Like, can't you figure out how to put your name on, like, a Google Alert?
Like, it was so lame.
Like, who does that?
Google Alert.
You know, we do it for the show because the show is called The Bongino Show.
We have it on Google Alert.
We want to make sure that we... But the guy's like, let me read all my good... It was so lame.
That's the kind of guy Brennan is.
Like, he's such a goof.
Yeah, I'm glad you picked that up.
I didn't know.
I forgot about that.
Funny.
All right.
Moving on, so next story.
Ladies and gentlemen, don't panic over the trade deficit.
Interesting Wall Street Journal article today, it's worth your time.
You know, liberals, you know, the left-wing media out there, the trade deficit has gone up.
We hit a record of $891 billion last year, the trade deficit, and of course everybody's panicking.
Folks, Do not panic.
I don't want to do a long, elaborate economic show today on this, but I want to hit some points because it's important you get this and can debunk the nonsense by your liberal friends.
There's a reason the trade deficit, which trade deficits are not inherently a bad thing, folks, hit $891 billion last year, and the reason is this.
It's very simple.
Investment in the United States, since the economy started growing robustly and the Trump tax cuts has picked up dramatically, the dollar has become stronger.
What does the dollar becoming stronger mean?
When the dollar is stronger, our unit of currency, it means it's stronger relative to something else, right?
As a metric.
The dollar now buys more foreign products.
Why does the dollar buy more foreign products?
Because it's stronger relative to that foreign currency.
So let's say, Joe, before the Trump tax cuts, when the economy was puttering along, right?
The dollar was not as strong because people weren't seeking to invest in the United States as much because the economy wasn't as strong.
So, let's say your $1 brought 100 widgets from China.
These Chinese widgets.
As the dollar gets stronger, because people are investing in the United States, the unit of currency gets stronger in relationship to the Chinese unit of currency.
So what happens?
That $1 US dollar, Joe, now buys 110 Chinese widgets.
So what happens?
As the U.S.
dollar gets stronger, because the economy's growing vibrantly right now since the Trump tax cuts, as it grows stronger, the dollar grows stronger and buys more foreign stuff.
This isn't really complicated.
It's not a surprise at all that unemployment has gone down and the trade deficit and U.S.
growth rates have gone up.
Now, don't panic.
You may say, well, and I get it, this is where, you know, The administration I butthead sometimes, I mean, not personally, I mean, I don't, but I do not have a big problem with trade deficits.
Because what happens, Joe, is as we send more of those dollars overseas to buy widgets because our dollar is stronger and more powerful because of investment in the U.S.
economy, right?
What happens is those U.S.
dollars can't be spent in China.
They can't.
Those U.S.
dollars that go to China and are converted have to make their way back to the United States.
Chinese companies that get paid in dollars have to convert it.
Those dollars then go into Chinese financial institutions and those dollars have to be spent back in the United States.
Right.
So what happens?
Those U.S.
dollars return as foreign investment.
You need some numbers here to prove I'm right?
From the journal piece today.
So the trade deficit went up.
Stronger dollar makes imports cheaper.
The dollar goes farther, buys more foreign stuff.
Joe, fixed investment in the United States in structures and equipment is up 5 and 7 percent.
Why is that?
Because the foreign dollar is being used to buy imports overseas because it's strong and can buy a lot of stuff overseas now.
Those same dollars are coming back into the United States because they can't be spent in foreign countries and are being invested back in the United States in structures and in equipment and being used by, they have to be spent here.
Those foreign companies send it back to the United States, whether it's in real estate, U.S.
investments, buying U.S.
bonds, the money comes back in the United States as investments.
The capital account always works out to be zero.
What I'm trying to tell you is don't believe the left-wing narrative.
Oh my gosh.
And Trump has, you know, it pains me with the media because they know the difference.
The media just a few months ago was bashing Trump, saying, listen, trade deficits aren't that big of a deal.
I don't know why he's making a big deal out of it.
And now, Joe, that the trade deficit is $891 billion.
What's the media saying?
Oh my gosh, Trump failed!
The trade deficit's $891 billion.
You just said a few months ago they're not a big deal.
Sadly, they were right.
They were right.
I say sadly because the media can never be honest and stick to a principle.
Their principles bash Trump at all costs.
Don't fret about the trade deficit.
The trade deficit is big because the dollar is powerful and can buy a bunch of foreign stuff.
The money comes back in the United States as investment.
That's why investment's up.
There's nothing unusual about this.
Okay.
A couple of stories and we'll roll for the day as I slowly recover from this thing.
I can't take this thing off till Friday.
I'm sorry, but it's just so weird, you know, but this show, this is how we do it.
You'd think like, uh, I put a jacket on or something, but you get to see me, all my scars and everything, you know, folks, this is how we rock and roll in the show.
I wasn't missing the show today, no matter what.
And this is not taped by the way.
This is a, what is it?
Thursday?
This is, yeah.
Here, there's my phone.
Look, can you see the date on there?
It's a Thursday, March 7th.
So we're doing, I was not missing my show no matter what.
I was a little groggy though yesterday after the anesthesia wore off.
I've had anesthesia like 10 times or so now.
And I got to tell you, this is the first time that, uh, I was like, it took a little bit that my wife was like, you're going to be okay tomorrow to do the show.
Cause it was really like super groggy.
That's not a tough time sleeping.
Yeah.
I thought it might be.
That's why I didn't call you.
I know, I know.
I bet you were waiting for that call today, like, hey man, we're not, nah, we're doing, I actually, I feel okay.
I'm a little, I'm a little warm though.
I don't know, you know, what the deal with that is, but a little, I think it's just from, you know, he really dug a lot of stuff out of my elbow.
Look at those things.
Check that out.
Is that crazy?
Little teeth they pulled out of there.
It's amazing.
What's that, Paula?
No, he gave us a picture.
I know, I know, I left him in the bedroom, inside.
Paula wants to know if the, he gave me pictures of my elbow.
I was like, should we need to show them tomorrow?
Maybe some of the doctors in the audience can check them out, too.
They were, my elbow, like the cartilage is shredded, Joe.
It looks like, ripped up like cotton, you know?
It's supposed to look smooth.
Yeah.
It was really a mess.
Yeah, so he did some good work.
This doctor's awesome, though.
He's got a great bedside manner, too.
Wade Van Cise!
What a name, too.
Love that guy.
That's a doctor's name right there, isn't it?
Alright, let me get back to the content.
You know me, I can go on all day.
So another piece in the Wall Street Journal today about how California's becoming like almost a childish, infantile state.
How they can't seem to be honest with their citizens and tell them what's going on with their tax dollars.
They talk about two specific programs, how these are incubators for liberal stupidity and no one will be honest with the citizens of California.
Program number one, Joe, they keep talking in California about single payer, single payer, we're going to institute single payer.
Gavin Newsom, the new governor of California.
Big fan of government-controlled medicine in California.
Basically, free, air quotes, free health care in California.
What they don't want to tell people, though, is that free health care in California is going to cost people, get a load of this, Joe, $400 billion a year.
Now, let's put that in context.
The entire state budget of the already profligate, overspending state of California now is $200 billion.
So, the Journal, in the Journal piece, he goes through, like, folks, isn't this basic math?
I mean, can't they just be honest?
Like, even in California, this liberal incubator of far-left progressive stupidity, can't they just be honest with their people and say, ladies and gentlemen, citizens of California, there's simply no money to pay for this?
The $200 billion we spend now would require us to double the entire state budget, $400 billion in additional spending.
Think about what I'm telling you.
They spend $200 billion now.
The $400 billion is in addition to their already over-the-top state budget now.
That's what it would cost to institute single-payer, and they cannot be honest with them.
The second example he gives is this ridiculous bullet train thing they're trying to do, this train to nowhere.
Which Gavin Newsom has finally put the emergency brakes on, pun intended, because the Project Joe is projected to cost a staggering $80 billion, four times more than the allocated funds.
So folks, again, in California, this is like childish, infantile stuff.
You have the numbers, you have the data, you have the facts laid out in front of you, you have the arithmetic and the math.
The math doesn't work, and it's like they're intentionally lying to themselves.
This goes back to this whole criticism you and I, Joe, have had of liberalism and progressivism from the beginning.
It relies almost entirely on emotion, and what did Shapiro say?
Facts don't care about your feelings?
That's a great line.
I wish I'd kind of trademarked that first, you know?
They don't!
But liberals are so knee-deep in the emotions, well health care is a right, of course we have to provide free health, and that sounds great and everybody cheers, until you get smacked in the stomach with an Ivan Drago-like left hook to the ribcage, that it's going to cost 400 billion dollars, and then no one has the guts to stand up and say, listen, citizens of California, we really can't afford this, this is not going to happen.
The same thing with the bullet train.
It's not going to happen.
There is no money.
Do you understand?
This is the infantile nonsense that's paraded its way through the Democrat party in the, you know, once formerly great state of California.
And I genuinely feel bad for the Republicans there.
I get a lot of emails from people saying, Hey, don't knock out.
I'm not knocking you.
I'm knocking your government.
It's not you.
There are a lot of, I gave a speech out there.
Up in California, in Northern California, we had something like, what, 200, 300 people?
The place was packed.
I don't even know how many people were there.
The whole room was filled.
But there are some good Republicans out there.
But the state is... What happens in California is becoming a barometer for what happens nationwide.
They're testing out the stupidity there first to see how far they can get, and then they're making this stuff go national.
That's the reason California's turning into big trouble for the Republican Party.
It's not isolated to the coasts anymore.
We just saw that in New York with this infanticide bill they put out there.
They're testing this stuff for a national audience.
Okay, one last story and we'll wrap it up for the day so I can recover for tomorrow's show.
So, the Democrats, they're just turning into a petty, kind of silly party.
They are not going to allow Fox News, now disclosure, obviously I work at Fox News, I am a paid contributor there, but nobody tells me what to say or anything about that, but this was really, and this did not come from them, I just read it on Trump's Twitter, The Democrats are having a series of debates for their now-crowded presidential field for the 2020 election.
Now, when the Republicans had their debates, Joe, they did what I thought to be the right thing.
They let, what, CNN had a debate, didn't NBC have a debate, that John Harwood debate.
You know, a lot of Republicans complained at the time, folks, but to be fair, it's the right thing to do.
We don't want our Republican ideas only on one network.
I think even Fox would agree with that.
You know, it'd be nice to have all the debates on Fox, but We have to get our ideas out to a broader platform.
I had no problem at the time with those debates being on other networks, too.
But the Republican Party, you know, generally does, you know, sometimes when it comes to these, they did the right thing, right?
The Democrats now, for their presidential debates in this 2020 cycle, the Democrats are now boycotting Fox News and saying they will not give Fox News any debates at all.
Now, here's where the story gets good.
You know I love Trump because he's a counterpuncher, Joe.
You didn't hear the story, did you?
No.
Yeah, because you were cutting the show this morning.
So what does Trump do?
Trump tweets out this morning, and good for him.
Okay, you want to boycott Fox?
That's great.
How about I boycott all you clowns for the general election debates and don't give anybody a debate outside of Fox.
Now, there you go.
Classic Trump.
You know, you jab me, I right cross you right to the chops right there.
That's classic Donald Trump.
That's what I love about this guy.
And you know he's probably not kidding.
So now all of a sudden these networks have a choice.
Excuse me, not these networks.
The DNC has a choice.
The DNC, do you want your general election debates between whoever your nominee is going to be, whatever, Lunchbucket Joe?
Do you want those on Fox and elsewhere and other networks?
Or do you want to play this I'm taking my toys and going home nonsense, not give Fox a debate during the primary season, and then you're going to get screwed because Trump will only appear on Fox in a general election after that?
Classic Trump counterpunch.
You got to love this guy, Joe.
Nobody does it better than him.
All right.
Tie this up, this show, and we'll wrap it up for the day a little early.
Sorry folks, it's just, I'm doing okay.
It's not like I'm in any pain or anything, but I just want to make sure I can move this thing around before I get any scar tissue in there.
But I want you to make sure we're digging into this Joe Biden thing.
Is Biden dirty?
These contacts with China, these contacts with China that happened right around the time his son and his business partner connected to John Kerry, his stepson, by marriage.
All get these suspicious business deals.
This happens in Ukraine as well.
Biden visits Ukraine, all of a sudden his son gets this plush appointment on a natural gas board as Biden's over there talking about energy independence for Ukraine.
These are serious questions.
Is Joe Biden dirty?
I expect the media will do their homework on this.
Although you know they won't, because they don't care.
They're there to cover for Lunch Bucket Joe and the Democrats at all costs.
All right, folks, thanks again for tuning in.
I really appreciate it.
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