In this episode I address the latest disastrous day for the Democrats in the hoax impeachment on Capitol Hill. I also address the Democrats push for government run healthcare and the many problems it will cause for you.
News Picks:Did Lt. Colonel Vindman leak information to the “whistleblower”?
The impeachment backlash continues as the GOP raises a massive amount of money.
Big takeaways from yesterday’s impeachment fiasco.
Nancy Pelosi makes a stunning admission.
The media posts an embarrassingly incorrect story and is forced to backtrack.
The national debt is exploding, and we’re all going to pay soon.
FedEx calls out The NY Times for fake news.
Copyright Dan Bongino All Rights Reserved.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino.
My gosh, folks.
How the Democrats, under the mistaken belief that subjecting to America, America after four or five more months, potentially longer, of this tedious non-stop boar fest up on Capitol Hill is somehow going to sway one sentient being to vote in their favor is really beyond me.
The tactics here are just incredible.
Welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
Dan, I'm adrift in a sea of confusion.
Confusement!
Oh, everybody is, Joe.
What are we doing?
And Sondland's up there now.
I'll give you a take on that.
Sondland now changing his story.
Listen, everybody's pa- Oh!
This is version number, what, 8,426?
We got Trump now!
I mean, oh, gosh, folks.
Everybody, please.
I mean it.
I don't mean this in any kind of a ridiculous, nonsensical kind of silly way.
Everybody just take a breath.
Please, I will explain to you what's going on, why yesterday really wrecked the Democrats, an angle you probably haven't heard anywhere, and a lot more.
There's also other news out there while the Democrats focus on this fiasco.
All right, let's get right to the show today.
Today's show brought to you by Quip.
The Quipsters, my buddy, my Quip.
I love this Quip.
This is the best electric toothbrush out there, hands down.
It's like a power washing for your mouth.
Your mouth will never be cleaner.
Go to Quip.com, excuse me, go to GetQuip.
Getquip.com/dan.
Folks, this thing is like a power washing for your mouth.
Everybody in my family has them.
Quip toothbrushes are the best.
They want you to know what matters is your dental care.
Dental care is your overall health care, is your dental care.
A healthy mouth equals a healthy body.
It's as simple as this.
You have good habits, good brushing habits, you know, that's the way to go.
Keep those teeth, keep those choppers clean.
It means brushing for two minutes twice a day and flossing regularly, no matter what brand you use.
Quip makes it that simple.
Floss, use your stuff and clean your mouth.
Clean mouth.
Quip's electric toothbrush has sensitive sonic vibrations with a built-in timer, which we love because you know when to switch sides.
And 30-second pulses to guide a full and even clean in your mouth.
The Quip Floss Dispenser comes with a pre-marked string to help you use just enough.
You don't want to waste it.
Plus, Quip delivers free brush heads, floss, and toothpaste refills to your door every three months with free shipping.
I just changed mine last night.
And they send a battery too, which is great.
So your routine's always right.
Join over 3 million healthy mouths now on GetQuip today, starting at $25.
If you go to getquip.com slash dan right now, you'll get your first refill free.
That's your first refill free at getquip, Q-U-I-P.com slash dan.
Spell G-E-T-Q-U-I-P.com slash dan quip.
The Good Habits Company.
Go get quip today.
You won't regret it.
All right, Joe, let's get to it.
All right, first, quickly, before I get to video from what happened yesterday, because it plays into today.
On Sondland, everybody's panicking.
Of course, the media, the full-time Democrat activist, oh my gosh, Sondland just acknowledged the quid pro quo.
Ladies and gentlemen, how can Sondland acknowledge, he was the, just to be clear on who he is, for those of you who need background, Gordon Sondland, was the EU European Union ambassador for President Trump.
He was a friend of Trump.
He was Trump's EU ambassador.
Sondland, how can he confirm a quid pro quo today in his sworn testimony?
If in a literal text to Bill Taylor, who was the number two in the Ukrainian embassy, he texted him that he was crystal clear with him that there was going to be no quid pro quo.
How can Sondland testify about a quid pro quo?
Folks, I'm just asking questions a sane, sentient being in the media should ask but won't because they're so excited, frothing at the mouth, salivating.
Oh, we got him now!
How can Sondland confirm a quid pro quo when he texted the opposite and has already said on the record in sworn testimony when he called Again, literally, and you know I hate using that word, but in this case, I literally mean literally, called President Trump, who told him, when asked about a quid pro quo, that he wants no quid pro quo, President Trump said.
He wants nothing from them, he just wants them to do the right thing.
Folks, again, I'm just asking basic questions.
Everybody needs to take a breather on this thing.
Please, everybody relax.
This is one story and one story only.
The Democrats are nailed to the wall on the Ukrainian corruption interference in the 2016 election and their lead candidate right now, Joe Biden's son's involvement with a corrupt company that was under investigation.
The Ukrainian embassy, our Ukrainian embassy's efforts to hide that through their do not prosecute list.
This is all this is.
Folks, I'm telling you, and I mean it, I'm being deadly serious with you right now.
I have always told you when to worry and when not to.
This morning's not good.
This is not a positive development.
Sondland changing his story again.
I mean, which story's right?
The story he told about Trump telling him there's no quid pro quo in the text he sent to Taylor?
Or the story today where, yeah, there was a quid pro quo.
Which one's right?
Fair question.
I'm telling everyone here, everyone relax.
This is all a transparent effort by the Democrats.
Gordon Sondland will be a hero for them after today.
I don't believe they have anything.
Anything.
Notice what I didn't say.
It's not like, well, they got Trump on, you know, some potential malfeasance, but maybe it's not criminal.
No, I don't believe they have him on anything.
I think President Trump's desire to clean up Ukrainian corruption and to find out what happened in their 2016 election interference and the potential role of the vice president in that is a noble purpose that should be celebrated.
And the fact that there was no quid pro quo on Sondland's own prior testimony, folks, they don't have anything.
It's a cover-up job for the Democrats.
Everybody relax, please.
And by the way, this is all based on what Sondland himself admits is his presumption of what he felt was a quid pro quo.
Okay, yesterday's hearing, devastating.
Now, I do have other stuff to get to, so I want you to stay tuned today because there is other news out there and the cable news cycle is just overwhelmed with this coverage.
So we're going to do this and then we're going to move on to some other stuff too, but there's important developments that happened yesterday.
First, Excellent congressman from Texas, John Ratcliffe.
Remember, the Democrats moved from quid pro quo after they went to a focus group, Joe, to their new crime is bribery.
Bribery now is what they're impeaching President Trump about.
But Johnny Ratcliffe, excuse me, from Texas, points out an important problem with their bribery charge.
Check this out.
The number of times witnesses have used the word bribery or bribe to describe President Trump's conduct in the last six weeks of this inquiry is zero.
In fact, in these 3,500 pages of sworn deposition testimony and just these 10 transcripts released thus far, the word bribery appears in these 3,500 pages exactly one time.
And ironically, it appears not in a description of President Trump's alleged conduct, it appears in a description of Vice President Biden's alleged conduct.
Oh, that's kind of a problem, Joe.
If the sole purpose of your... Remember, this isn't a cattle auction.
It's not a vehicle auction.
Folks, this isn't a free screening of an upcoming movie.
It's an impeachment hearing.
If the impeachment hearing by the Democrats' own words is alleging the impeachment is over a bribery charge centered on the President of the United States, and the only time the word bribery appears in thousands of pages of testimony is involving the former Vice President under the prior administration involvement of a potential corruption scandal, I'd call that a problem.
Problem.
That's why I'm telling everybody.
Sondland's up there now.
Now I didn't talk about Biden with Trump July 26th.
Everybody chill.
This thing is imploding on the Democrats.
America tuned it out weeks ago.
Republicans are raising a ridiculous amount of money.
I'll get to that later.
The independents are losing their minds over this.
They're down 20 points on this.
Everybody take a breather.
A lot of people email me worried.
Please, don't be worried.
I'm here to put everyone at ease.
When it's time to worry, I'll tell you.
I've already said that when I saw some of those polls months ago.
And everybody then emailed me in the end.
Stop saying it's time to worry!
I'm not here to appease anyone's interest, folks.
I'm here to tell you the truth, however uncomfortable.
This is not a time to panic.
Sondland's already on the record saying the opposite of what he's saying today.
Now, a fair question would be, I don't mean to get away from the Radcliffe thing, but a fair question would be why is Sondland changing his mind?
Because Sondland obviously is afraid the Democrats are going to prosecute him.
So now all of a sudden he's hedging.
Well, I presume this and I presume that.
Everybody.
Tranquilo.
Por favor.
All right, moving on to yesterday.
And I've got a nugget on yesterday, I promise.
I don't think you've heard it.
You may not have heard anywhere.
I didn't hear it on the news.
But it's really going to scramble your eggs.
Before I get to that, though, Devin Nunes yesterday did a great job with Vindman.
Now, Alexander Vindman, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, I'm sorry, again, I know the man served in the military, but his testimony yesterday, it's almost as if it was testimony for the Republicans.
It was a total disaster.
He was completely unprepared.
He claimed at one point to be the primary guy, the go-to guy on Ukraine.
And then when they asked him, well, have you ever discussed Ukraine with the president?
He said, well, no, never.
I don't understand.
You just claimed you were the primary go-to guy in Ukraine, and yet the president doesn't even know who you are.
Seems kind of odd.
Primary guy, presidential meeting.
Primary guy, presidential meeting.
It didn't quite work out.
So by Vindman's own words, he's the Ukraine go-to guy.
So there's a major scandal in Ukraine with this natural gas company that hires Hunter Biden's kid.
It makes international news, Joe, everywhere.
Joe, you are one of the producers here on the show.
Yes, I am, Dan.
I am no longer inside the US government, right?
You and I are pretty familiar with the details of this story years ago, correct?
Yes.
Some of it's in my books.
It's old news, Dan.
Yeah.
Well, not to Vindman.
Joe Vindman's the expert on Ukraine.
He's the expert on Ukraine, but he has selective amnesia, as Devin Nunes points out here, when it comes to issues of Ukraine that involve Democrats.
Check this out.
As you know, the financial records show a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma, routed more than $3 million to the American accounts tied to Hunter Biden.
I'm not aware of this fact.
Until recently.
I guess I didn't independently look into it.
I'm just not aware of, you know, what kind of payments Mr. Biden may have received.
This is not something I'm aware of.
Did you know that Burisma's American legal representatives met with Ukrainian officials just days after Vice President Biden forced the firing of the country's chief prosecutor?
I'm not aware of these meetings.
Did you know that Burisma lawyers pressured the State Department in February 2016 after the raid and a month before the firing of Shokin?
That they invoked Hunter Biden's name as a reason to intervene.
I'm not aware of any of these facts.
Did you know that Joe Biden called Ukrainian President Poroshenko at least three times in February 2016 after the president and owner of Burisma's home was raided on February 2nd by the state prosecutor's office?
I'm aware of the fact that President Biden or Vice President Biden was very engaged on Ukraine and had numerous engagements.
That's what I'm aware of.
Remember, Joe, nobody is allowed to scrutinize Lieutenant Colonel Vindman.
Remember, you can crap on Mike Flynn at every opportunity.
Patriotic Lieutenant General in our military with a history of patriotism and heroism in our military.
He's to be called the treasonous Russian agent at every single opportunity for the media.
I can't say this enough.
And the unprincipled, hacked, phony, fraud, hoaxers on the left.
He is to be vilified at every opportunity.
But Colonel Vindman, Joe, not a word.
About Vindman.
Now, I have the benefit now of using Vindman's own words.
You don't need my words.
There's Vindman himself, who isn't Joey's expert, treaded air quotes on Ukraine, who seems to know nothing about Ukraine when it comes to the Democrats and Biden, and only the biggest scandal covered internationally by anyone with a pulse.
Now, showing you what kind of BS you just heard right there.
Folks, we have a show called the Dan Bongino Show because Dan Bongino is my name.
Yes.
Now, why do I say that?
Because I have my name on Google Alert.
It's not because I'm an egomaniac.
99% of it is total BS.
Tweets, Twitter, this, that, you know, websites that lefties run that hate my guts.
I got to read nasty stuff about me all day.
We do it because we micro target.
We like to see who's sharing our stuff so we can tailor our ads in the future.
It's called business.
We do the same thing on Twitter.
It's not because I obsess about liberals calling my wife and kids horrible things and sending me death threats, which is typically 90% of what it is because liberals love that kind of stuff.
Are you seriously telling me that Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who is the self-professed Joe Ukraine expert, Doesn't have the words Ukraine, Biden, Ukraine, Obama in a Google alert?
Folks, the verdict is in.
That is colossal BS.
Thank you, Alan Sherman.
I am deeply sorry if you were swayed, even remotely, by what you just heard.
A colossal stream of BS.
I'm sorry, but there's only two explanations and I don't believe the first.
That Vindman is just really not that bright and never reads the press clippings on Ukraine at all and managed to miss an international breaking news story years ago?
Or number two, Vindman actually is a pretty smart guy who knows exactly what he's talking about and doesn't want to acknowledge the real reason Trump was concerned about Ukraine.
Number two.
I'll take two.
Yeah, I like to.
There's no option C, folks.
None.
Also, we found out an interesting little gem yesterday.
There's no sound fix.
I didn't want to... I could have pulled... There's so many different... He was offered the defense minister job for Ukraine while he was over there.
That's an interesting little nugget right there.
So, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S.
Army was offered a defense minister job by the Ukrainian government.
I'm glad he reported that.
That's a little suspicious.
He did report it.
He says he did.
So... Fascinating, isn't it?
Holy moly.
And then the Democrats are like, you can't mention that, you're accusing him of dual loyalties.
Nobody said that.
Nobody said that.
That's just an interesting thing to know.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you're a Secret Service agent protecting the Iranian Ahmadinejad when he came over here, and Ahmadinejad offers you a $100,000 vacation to Iran, you gotta report it.
Doesn't mean dual loyalties, but it's an interesting thing to know, is it not?
No, no, you can't question Vindman, Joe.
You can't.
I've got another interesting piece of video.
now.
Of Jim Jordan, who, Jim Jordan, Nunes, and Ratcliffe have just been spectacular.
Just spectacular.
And I know I'm leaving out Turner, Stewart, and others.
Stefanik, well, I'm not.
I just mentioned him.
And more, and I'm deeply sorry, Westrop, for not running.
But it's just, there's so much nonsense in this thing.
Sondland, he acknowledged the quid pro quo.
You mean after he unacknowledged it a few weeks ago?
I don't know what you guys are talking about.
The media people.
They're like wetting their pants.
They need adult diapers to hold down to their excitement.
They acknowledge a quid pro quo about military aid.
You mean the military aid that arrived?
No, no, about the White House meeting.
Oh, you mean the White House meeting never happened?
No, no, about the public statement from Zelensky.
You mean the one he never made?
No, it's an attempted quid pro quo.
I thought you said it was a bribery.
Bribery is the exchange of something of value.
Now you're telling us the something of value never happened.
What is it, guys?
Get your heads out of your collective asses and tell us what it is.
You want to overturn an election?
Figure out what your story is.
A quid pro quo with no this and no that.
No quid, no quo.
Or a bribery in exchange for something of value where nothing was exchanged.
What is it?
All right, I'm gonna get to Jordan in a minute.
Let me just get to the sponsor first.
We only have three sponsors as we try to keep the show light, but we have great sponsors and I just always appreciate your attention.
It means the world to us how you support our sponsors.
So thank you very much.
Today's show also brought to us, welcome back, ETS, Elite Tactical Systems.
What is this?
Folks, this is the finest magazine loader on the market.
It's so simple.
I love to break it out to show you because it's literally that simple.
Here you go.
Put your magazine in, pop the top on, boom!
There you go.
That's how quick.
What did that take?
A second?
That's how quick you can load your magazines.
Ladies and gentlemen, firearm enthusiasts, I have a great gift idea for the firearm owner in your life.
When it comes to training or personal defense, magazines are just as important as the firearm and ammo you carry.
ETS has the best magazines out there.
I have a couple of their clear ones.
You can see when your rounds are starting to, as you're firing, you can watch them slowly go up.
You'll know when you're empty.
You know how difficult it can be to find durable, reliable, lightweight magazines for everyday use?
So I want to tell you about my friends over at ETS Elite Tactical Systems.
For the last five years, ETS has manufactured the toughest polymer magazines that are impact resistant and they won't crack or break.
I've dropped them everywhere.
They can be exposed to harsh environments, chemicals, extreme cold.
These polymer magazines are terrific.
They're transparent.
You can see how many rounds you have loaded.
Why didn't anyone think of this sooner, right?
ETS magazines come with a lifetime warranty and are available right now for Glock, Smith & Wesson, the M&P Shield, SIG P220, H&K VP9, MP5, as well as AR-15 mags, which I have.
I have quite a few.
If you need durability and reliability for every situation, check out ETS Mags, M-A-G-S dot com.
That's ETS Mags dot com.
And while you're there, don't forget to check out ETS's lineup of speed loaders.
Here you go.
That's how quick you load your mags right there.
They are the fastest in the world.
Stop getting mag thumb.
Buy a Mags, buy your speed loaders, get them today.
That's etsmags.com, promo code Dan for 15% off.
That's etsmags.com, promo code Dan for 15% off.
Great gift right around the holidays for the firearm owner in your life.
Go check it out.
Okay.
Getting back to the show.
So Jim Jordan asks Colonel Vindman yesterday, who remember nobody's supposed to question Joe.
That's right.
Destroy Flynn at every opportunity!
Don't question Vindman ever!
That's cool.
He asks Vindman, you have a chain of command, correct?
You're on the National Security Council.
We have a civilian-led military, correct?
If you read the Constitution, liberals, the commander-in-chief is the president.
He's a civilian.
That's the way that works.
The National Security Council that advises the president is, at times, can be led by civilians.
Doesn't mean someone in the military can't be involved.
Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was, but Lieutenant Colonel Vindman had a supervisor.
That supervisor was a man named Tim Morrison.
Now, Tim Morrison doesn't believe there was a quid pro quo, supports the President's theory on this, that the President was interested in fighting corruption in Ukraine.
And because Tim Morrison didn't subscribe to the Democrats' latest impeachment hoax about a fake quid pro quo that never happened, right?
Somehow, Joe, Vindman's supervisor Morrison, who didn't, you follow me here, who didn't subscribe to the hoax, wound up magically getting bypassed in Vindman's complaints about the call about the fake quid pro quo.
Sheesh!
How did that happen?
Jim Jordan, who does a great job, catches Vindman in this weird little thing, and he asks an interesting question.
Well, if you didn't tell your supervisor about your complaints about the Trump call to the Ukrainian president, who else did you tell?
And watch the panic breakout.
Check this out.
The lawyer told you don't talk to any other people, and you interpret that as not talking to your boss, but you talk to your brother, you talk to the lawyers, you talk to Secretary Kent, and you talk to the one guy Adam Schiff won't let you tell us who he is.
That right?
Representative Jordan, I did my job.
I'm not saying you didn't.
All I'm saying is, the instructions from the lawyer was you shouldn't talk to anybody, and you interpret that as don't talk to my boss, but I'm going to go talk to someone that we can't even ask you who that individual is.
That is incorrect.
Well, I just read what you said.
That is incorrect.
I shouldn't talk to any other people.
The gentleman has expired.
I'm sorry, Chairman, but that sequence is not the way it played out.
I spoke to the attorney.
I'm reading from your transcript, Colonel Vindman.
Jordan, please slip, Colonel Vindman.
There's the sequence played out where immediately afterwards, I expressed my concerns.
I did my coordination function.
Mr. Eisenberg circled back around, told me not to talk to anybody else.
In that period of time, I did not manage to talk to you.
Oh, so that's when it happened.
That's when you talked to someone.
Yes, folks.
Listen, this Vindman testimony yesterday was such an apocalyptic disaster that I can almost guarantee you they will memory hole this whole thing.
Goodbye.
You won't hear another word about Vindman from this point on.
He was outside taking selfies yesterday with his brother.
I'm not kidding.
That doesn't surprise me from what I've seen with him.
Me either, Joe.
So Vindman acknowledges he didn't tell his boss his chain of command about the complaint he had.
Then he acknowledges that when he told the lawyer, the lawyer told him not to tell anybody.
By the way, folks, in the interest of time, he acknowledges after that, that despite the fact that he just said the lawyer told him not to tell anybody, he told his brother and he told Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent.
And he acknowledges telling somebody else.
This is what I teased in the beginning of the show and where I promise you, you're going to get coverage here you're not going to find anywhere.
This kind of sounds like the dossier redo.
What?
What are you talking about?
Don't you worry, but I want you to keep this in mind because this is going to be the most important part of this segment here.
Everybody pay close attention.
Jordan understands that Vindman has a credibility issue here.
Vindman claims he had a beef with this call President Trump had with the Ukrainian president that started this whole thing.
That was the whistleblower complaint, an alleged quid pro quo on the call, right?
Vindman saying, yeah, I had a problem with the call too.
Jordan's like, well, why didn't you go to your supervisor?
Who, by the way, doesn't believe that the quid pro quo was on the call.
Um, uh, well, I was busy and I went to a lawyer.
You managed to find a lawyer despite the fact that you were busy.
And then the lawyer told me not to tell anybody.
Uh, that's not what happened.
You told your brother.
You told George Kent.
By the way, we're on your team.
And you also said you told someone else in the intelligence community.
Why is that important?
Oh.
Well, this is a little bit of an extended clip.
Joe and I have a general rule about a minute and 30s the length.
Folks, Joe and I both agreed we're making an editorial decision here.
Paula too.
This is about two minutes long.
This is Congressman Devin Nunes questioning That decision Vindman made to tell someone in the intelligence community, and Nunes says, well, who's that?
It's about two minutes long, but this is worth your time, and I want you to keep a few things in mind as you're listening.
Schiff has lied to the American public, Adam Schiff, and said he doesn't know who the whistleblower is.
Literally nobody believes him with any credibility.
Okay, nobody, but he knows who the whistleblower is.
Vindman has also said, and I don't believe him either, that he doesn't know who the whistleblower is.
So Joe, if neither one of them know the name or identity of the whistleblower, then why would Vindman, telling Nunes who he told about this complaint, out the whistleblower?
They just said they don't know who he is!
So if Vindman told someone in the intelligence community who Vindman knows is the whistleblower, then Vindman's lying about not knowing the whistleblower.
If Vindman's telling the truth that he doesn't know the whistleblower, then just tell us who you told, despite your lawyer's direction, in the intelligence community, because you don't know he's the whistleblower, right?
Right, yeah.
Everybody get this?
Nunes picks up on this too.
Listen to this, it's about two minutes long, and I'm gonna get to how this is gonna, you're gonna see Vindman totally disappear, why this is so devastating.
Check this out.
As you know, the intelligence community has 17 different agencies.
What agency was this individual from?
If I could interject here, we don't want to use these proceedings.
It's our time.
I know, but we need to protect the whistleblower.
Please stop.
I want to make sure that there's no effort to out the whistleblower through these proceedings.
If the witness has a good faith belief that this may reveal the identity of the whistleblower, That is not the purpose that we are here for, and I want to advise the witness accordingly.
Mr. Vindman, you testified in your deposition that you did not know the whistleblower.
Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, you testified in the deposition that you did not know who the whistleblower was.
I do not know.
Who the whistleblower is.
How is it possible for you to name these people and then out the whistleblower?
Per the advice of my counsel, I've been advised not to answer specific questions about members of the intelligence community.
Are you aware that this is the intelligence committee that's conducting an impeachment hearing?
Of course I am.
Wouldn't the appropriate place for you to come to to testify would be the intelligence committee about someone within the intelligence community?
Ranking member, per the advice of my counsel and the instructions from the chairman, I've been advised not to provide any specifics on who I've spoken to with inside the intelligence community.
What I can offer is that these were properly cleared individuals or was a properly cleared individual with a need to know.
Well, this is, uh, I mean, you can really, you can plead the fifth, but you're here to answer questions and you're here under subpoena.
Uh, so you can either answer the question or you can plead the fifth.
Uh, excuse me, uh, on behalf of my client.
Good catch.
Devin Nunez.
Good catch.
Devin.
Woo.
Darn right time.
Now, what's the wrinkle on that?
Let me just cut to the chase.
The Democrats, prior to yesterday, despite Nunes catching them in the lie, have pitched to us, Joe, the fact that this man of impeccable credentials, who's never to be questioned, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, That he is corroboration for the whistleblower complaint.
Follow me.
Okay.
Let me relate this to the dossier, using an analogy.
How they're trotting out the same strategy again, and what I'm telling you maybe will make more sense.
The dossier, we were told, was corroborated by press reports, right Joe?
The FISA warrant, where they used the dossier to spy on Trump, cites press reports.
As corroboration of the information in the dossier.
Joe, what was the problem with that?
The problem with the FISA warrant strategy was the press reports they used to corroborate the dossier were from who?
The same guy.
The author.
Author, because we all know he wasn't.
Of the dossier!
At least in full.
Even Paula just went, hmm, I've never heard her say that before.
Think about this.
Follow me now.
This makes sense.
Why is there such a panic right now over Vindman?
You'll never hear another word about Vindman.
Vindman is being used as corroboration of the whistleblower complaint.
There was a quid pro quo.
I'm Vindman.
I was so disturbed.
Were you the source of the whistleblower complaint?
I thought he was corroboration!
Now he's in a panic telling, I can't tell you who I spoke to in the IC.
Adam Schiff told me not to.
Devin Nunes, we're in the intelligence committee, brother.
It's probably time to come out with who you got, who you shared information, your lawyer told you not to, right?
Remember, Joe, just like we were told with the dossier, these press reports are independent corroboration.
They were not.
It was the exact same information laundered through the press from the same guy.
Folks, is all of this coming from Vindman?
Is Vindman the source for the whistleblower?
Did Vindman tell the whistleblower?
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm just asking a question because if you're going to impeach a president and you're suggesting to us that this man up there, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, by the way, we have to call him that.
You know, Joe, don't ever call me Dan on this show.
You'd refer to me as Special Agent Bongino.
All right.
Don't ever refer to me as Dan again.
It's an insult.
I don't know who told him that was a good idea.
Yes, and someone tweeted me he earned the title.
He did!
He has the title, Lieutenant Colonel.
Folks, Devin Nunes called a mystery.
He wasn't disrespecting the guy.
Give us all a break, huh?
But if we have been pitched again that Vindman is independent corroboration because he heard the call, that's what we were told.
Vindman was on the call.
He is independent corroboration.
And he's the actual source, potentially, for the whistleblower?
Ladies and gentlemen, again, we have dossier part deux.
Wow.
Yeah.
Please tell me that made sense.
Yeah, it made sense.
I didn't think of that either.
Because if you're not behind the scenes or understanding the mechanics of what's going on here, you're under the mistaken belief that what happened yesterday up on the hill with Vindman was some kind of a success.
Trust me when I tell you all this morning's not going well.
Don't sweat it, don't panic.
I'm telling you, yesterday was an apocalyptic disaster.
Vindman was grossly unprepared.
Claims to be a Ukraine expert, he's never talked to the president.
Claims to be a Ukraine expert, knows nothing about actual corruption in Ukraine when it involved our own vice president.
We find out yesterday he was offered the defense minister job by a foreign government.
We also find out yesterday that he bypassed his own supervisor despite being so concerned about a call.
He claims to be corroboration for the call, but he won't tell us who else he spoke to in the IC, and he's hiding who he spoke to because many people believe that the person he spoke to in the IC may in fact be the whistleblower, which would indicate Vindman's not corroboration, but Vindman could be the source.
Now you see the urgency to hide the whistleblower's name?
Did you talk to the whistleblower?
My lawyer's telling me not to say anything.
I thought you were up here to impeach the president.
Just tell us who it is.
No, no, no.
We want to impeach the president behind closed doors.
Didn't hear that in the mainstream media coverage yesterday, did you?
All right, I want to get to just a couple more quick tidbits on this and then I want to move on.
I had another, but we could play video for you all day tomorrow.
But I refuse to, I'm going to cover about half the show.
It's important.
It's only the biggest story of our time, impeachment.
But I want to be sure we get to other substantive stuff because America's moving on and America's generally tired of this already based on the polling data.
You know, we do facts and data here.
But Vindman admitted a lot yesterday.
Here's just a quick set of, again, I'm not going to be spin your wheels, folks.
These are talking points that are put out by others, but they're accurate and they matter.
Unlike Democrat talking points about fake stuff like bribery.
Check this out.
He admitted a whole lot yesterday.
Just a quick list.
Vindman admitted the president sets US policy and he has every right to use or not use the talking points prepared by bureaucrats.
True.
Fact check.
True.
Vindman admitted he is not really the principal advisor to the president on Ukraine.
He never even had contact with the president.
Fact check.
True.
Vindman admitted he had no first-hand knowledge about aid or investigations and was just following news accounts.
Fact check.
True.
Vindman admitted the president would have been well within his right to ask Ukraine to investigate.
True.
Vindman admitted it was definitely not unprecedented, a direct quote, for the transcript of the Ukraine call to be kept on a secure server and that concerns about leaks seemed valid, quote.
True.
Vindman admitted the transcript of the phone call was, quote, very accurate.
True.
Vindman admitted he had never used the term, quote, bribery to describe the president's actions.
True.
Not really a good day for the Dems.
Now, folks, again, showing you based on facts, data, analysis, and just common sense that this is absolutely blowing up in their faces.
Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets, has a piece up, which will be in the show notes today.
Definitely worth your time.
How the RNC is engaged in a massive fundraising campaign right now.
And during the impeachment, they set a record.
A massive $61 million the RNC has in the bank as the impeachment backlash continues.
Folks, I'm just asking you, as a purveyor of truth here on our show, if this is working so well for the Democrats, and they're garnering such public support, why is the polling data down 20 points among independents?
And why are Republicans so furious, not at the President, but at the Democrats, that they're pouring money into the Republican campaign to re-elect the guy you're trying to impeach?
I'm just asking.
I'm just asking questions here.
All right, there's a lot more going on, so let's get to it.
Hey, quick note though, before I get to our next sponsor, Omaha Steaks, which we love Omaha Steaks.
Folks, I get a lot of emails on this segment, so I don't want any crazy theories out there.
Unfortunately, the news explosion segment I do on Tucker Show on Friday, as it will be no more.
I'm not going to say anymore, but I know I get tons of email about it.
I know you love the segment.
I get hundreds of emails a week.
I'm sorry to say it.
Don't read too much into it, but it will be no more.
I'm thinking about doing kind of a mini news explosion on our own show here because you loved it so much.
But I just don't want any crazy theories out there like when I left NRA TV and people started propagating lies that I was terminated despite That's a whole other story I don't want to bore you with, but unfortunately the Friday segment will be no more.
It is not by my choice, but don't look too much into it.
It's not a poor reflection on anyone else either.
Why are you giving me that look for over there?
I can tell the look.
I have to tell people love this.
Yeah.
Oh, people love the segment.
So I just don't want you to, I don't want you to read too much into it.
Okay.
Finally, today's show brought to you by our last sponsor.
Oh, folks, just, can I tease this next story?
This next story I'm going to get to, but this, this is the greatest fake news story ever.
Don't go anywhere.
And the other side is we'll get that.
Brought to you by one of my absolute favorite sponsors.
I kid you not because I get a nice package from them of Omaha steaks and burgers and your mouth is going to water.
Ladies and gentlemen, this season Omaha Steaks is sharing an amazing limited time offer with my listeners.
To get a jump on it.
My mouth's watering already.
Can you hear it?
For holiday shopping.
Go to omahasteaks.com.
Enter the code BONGINO in the search bar.
It's important.
That's how you get the deal to order the favorite gift package.
The gift all of your friends and family will love for only $69.99.
Paula, what did we have the other night?
Was it the bacon wrapped steaks?
Oh!
Bacon-wrapped steak.
Ladies and gentlemen, they melt in your mouth.
Just cut the steak and get a little bit of bacon, a little bit of the fat, a little bit of the meat.
Order now.
You'll get four six-ounce bacon-wrapped filet mignon.
I didn't even know it was coming up.
The most tender steak in the world.
You barely have to chew it.
Four savory premium pork chops.
Four Omaha Steaks burgers.
You will never have a finer burger.
You'll be spoiled at these.
There's no burgers gonna taste like this again.
Four perfectly browned potatoes au gratin.
I ate all of those.
I don't even think I let my kids eat one.
That's how good they were.
I'm just kidding, of course.
Four made-from-scratch caramel apple tartlets and Omaha Steak's signature seasoned packet, plus only for my listeners here, free.
This is nice.
Six-piece cutlery set and cutting board.
All this scrumptious food, mouth-watering food, plus the free cutlery.
You'll enjoy for years to come for only $69.99.
Come on!
Omaha steaks are the most tender, most flavorful.
You can only get steaks of this quality from Omaha Steaks.
They're America's original butcher.
It's a fifth-generation, family-owned company with over 100 years of expertise in delivering perfectly aged, tender, mouth-watering beef, hand-cut by master butchers in the heartland of America.
Again, order now, get this favorite gift package, plus the free six-piece cutlery set and cutting board for only $69.99.
Just go to omahasteaks.com, type on Gino, B-O-N-G-I-N-O, in the search bar.
Don't wait, this offer ends soon.
Order the favorite gift package today, you're gonna love it.
Check out those bacon-wrapped filet mignons.
Yeah, you did eat all those burritos, too, didn't you?
I gotta go to the gym.
You really did, I know you did.
You ate them all.
No, no, no, Joe.
No, I didn't.
I gave one to my daughter.
No, no, they left them.
I come back from the, this is a true story.
I came back from the Patriot Awards and it was a three hour and a half ride over.
So my wife said, I left you some stuff in the fridge from Omaha.
And I don't know if I was supposed to leave the potatoes for the next day.
Cause there were three of them, but they were so good.
I ate them all and I woke up and I felt bad because I didn't know if they were for like my daughter's lunch.
I felt terrible, but they were really good.
I ate them at like two o'clock in the morning, went right to bed.
It was awesome.
Yeah.
I didn't know, I'm sorry, I love my kids to death, I promise you.
But they're that good.
All right, folks, this is just delicious.
You know, sometimes I debate, like, these stories are so dumb that we put them up there, but just to show you how insane the media is and how Democrat candidates are not interested in the truth at all.
The truth doesn't matter.
They will propagate and gaslight you with any myth possible that reflects poorly on Trump.
So AFP, a major international news outlet, put out this breaking, it was an all-caps show, breaking story.
Meant to reflect poorly on the Trump administration detaining children.
Oh, man.
This is where like the world champions of detaining children.
Here it is.
This is the actual tweet.
Breaking.
More than a hundred thousand children in migration related U.S.
detention.
UN.
Oh my gosh, Joe.
The AFP is reporting that that evil Donald Trump is detaining children all over the 100,000.
About a hundred thousand?
Wow.
Joe, that's stunning.
Oh, this is by the way, breaking.
Sondland.
Trump never told me directly the aid was conditioned on the meetings.
Two minutes ago, he said they had a quid pro quo.
Breaking news, Joe!
100,000 people, children, detained by Trump.
Put that tweet back up again.
They had a little problem with the tweet later on when they actually did this thing called journalism.
AFP is withdrawing this story.
The author of the report has clarified that his figures do not represent the number of children currently in migration-related detention, but the total number of children in migration detention in 2015.
We will delete this story.
Holy cow.
Joe, who was president in 2015?
Was it Donald Trump?
Just checking.
No, no.
Who was it?
Do you remember?
Can you remember that far back?
I believe that... It's a long time ago, I know.
It was Mr. Obama, I believe, yeah.
Yes!
Genius!
Thank you, Producer Joe.
You're so welcome, Daniel.
So now, we find out, and I have a story in the show notes about this from the Washington Examiner, that what it actually was, was a cumulative, not an acute one point in time, a cumulative count of the children in custody in the Obama era.
So rather than that being a break-in story, no, the story wasn't inaccurate, it's a story about Obama.
They deleted the story and there will be no further follow-up.
Folks, it doesn't matter.
You will hear about this fake number and about Trump from your liberal friends, I promise you, who will swear to you that Trump's got 100,000 children detained in the United States.
It's not true.
It is a false story, totally made up, about Trump.
But it is true about Obama and the cumulative number of people and children detained under him.
Now again, showing you how Democrats are total fakes, liars, phonies, and frauds.
Like, Trump's a liar!
Uh, let me tell you something.
Trump doesn't have anything on the Democrats.
Here's Bernie Sanders.
Genius, Bernie Sanders.
Tweet.
Which country has the world's highest rate of detention?
He puts like a pop quiz.
Check!
The United States!
The United States, under Trump, America leads the world in locking up little kids, including 100,000 children at the border.
This is immoral.
I believe the tweet's still up.
Because he doesn't care.
He may have deleted it.
I have to look.
It was up last night.
I don't think he will.
He may have.
If he does, I'll have to tell you tomorrow.
I'll have to take a look.
I doubt it.
It doesn't matter.
Democrats don't do facts anyway, so why delete it?
You understand, he uses this little pop quiz about the U.S.
leading the world in child detentions based on a fake story about Trump that's a real story about Obama.
Yep.
And he blames it on Trump because that's what Democrats do.
I'm telling you this because there's an election coming up and I guarantee you we have a now massive audience thanks exclusively to you.
Who I adore, my audience.
I guarantee you a large swath of this audience is going to hear this debunked statistic despite the fact that the AFP themselves acknowledges the story about Obama.
Just like the cages thing.
We still get pictures of the kids in cages that are from the Obama era and people blame it on Trump.
Because liberals really aren't that bright.
I'm sorry folks, they're just not.
because the alternative explanation that they are bright and that they're just liars is even worse.
Debunking another stupid liberal talking point which is we need to move towards
Scandinavian government-run healthcare.
The Wall Street Journal had a piece up.
It was about Buttigieg, but it's a Freeman piece, James Freeman piece, who I like.
It was called the Pete Buttigieg Experience.
But down at the lower portion of the piece, there's another interesting talking point, because Bernie, you know Bernie, millionaires and billionaires, you know Bernie, right?
We're going to get the millionaires.
They are the worst.
Bernie, you're a millionaire.
I'm not talking about me.
I'm talking about the greedy millionaires, not me.
I'm the socialist millionaire.
What a fake phony front.
They're also pumping this idea that we should have a nationally run health care system that resembles the UK and Scandinavian countries, Joe, the United Kingdom.
Well, down in the piece, we find this little gem from James Freeman about the NHS, the National Health Service, which is the UK government run health care system, which is collapsing.
There was a report in USA Today that says that an NHS, that's the National Health Service, operating theatre has been mothballed because of staff shortages and patients having surgery are being taken to a mobile theatre run by a private company.
Wait, what?
NHS Scotland is paying to transport people daily 40 miles from their own hospitals to have their operations at a temporary unit, again, run by a private company.
One of the theaters in the hospital's general surgery suite was shut down because the health board can't find enough trained nurses to safely provide treatment there.
Ladies and gentlemen, forget all these stories.
The rationing, the bloated budgets, the surgery waiting lists, the specialist waiting lists.
Now they're shutting down surgical centers and outsourcing them to private companies because they're failing.
You want to import this here?
Let's bring it here!
This sounds great!
Waiting list!
Surgery shutdowns!
This is awesome!
Because there's more going on Again, I want to get to some other stories I've been holding on to.
Another issue that's important to me, that's been coming up in the campaign, that you hear nothing about because of the impeachment farce going on right now up on the Hill, is public education.
Wall Street Journal has another damning piece up this morning about the left's lies about charter schools.
Quote, headline, The Big Lie About Charter Schools by David Osborne.
Folks, it's becoming a huge issue in the campaign.
The teachers unions are destroying our education system.
I love our teachers, your unions are a horror show.
They are pouring a bunch of money into socialist left-wing indoctrination, big fat union fat cat salaries, and in turn are destroying our system in the process.
Ladies and gentlemen, they lie about charter schools all the time.
There are two big lies about charter schools you're going to hear often during this campaign.
The first lie you're going to hear is that they're draining money from public schools.
Well, that's fascinating, ladies and gentlemen, because charter schools are public schools.
So how exactly you're draining money from public schools if you are a public school is the height of ignorance.
They are public schools.
Now, why would they not like charter schools?
Maybe I should have put the lead up first.
Unions, that is.
They hate charter schools because many of these charter schools are not, in fact, unionized.
They hate that.
They want those union dues for their fat cat salaries.
We're looking out for the kids.
Really?
$400,000 a year?
That's quite impressive.
It's a nice salary for you running your union there.
I thought you were looking out for the kids.
How many kids exactly are you looking out for with that $400,000?
No, that'd be my kids.
Crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And $400,000 is a lot of money.
It's a lot of money.
The other lie is that this draining has happened because kids are leaving traditional public schools for charter public schools.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's not draining money.
That's parents exercising their right to get their kids an education.
Yeah.
Now, from the piece, they make a great point.
When parents move out of a school district, they're not draining money.
They're just leaving.
The piece, quote, to begin with, charters themselves are public schools.
The only difference is they are operated independently of district bureaucracies with more freedom to design their programs and choose their teachers.
If charters fail or if the students fall behind, they're closed.
The same arguments made about charter school funding don't make sense in any other context.
When a family moves out of a district, the district loses state and federal money for its child's education.
But no one accuses the family of draining funds from the district.
When parents move their child to a private school, no one accuses them of sabotaging public schools.
They're simply making a better choice for their children.
Folks, this is all a scam to prop up union coffers, to pump money into the Democrats' campaigns, to get these union advocates fat cat salaries at the expense of your kids.
That's it.
This has nothing to do with the kids.
This is nonsense.
The kids and their parents are perfectly entitled to make education choices on their own.
You know, this issue is very sensitive to me and it matters.
All right, folks, I wanted to get to one last story while this continued fiasco.
Again, Sondland, President Trump never told me directly that aid was tied to the announcement of investigations.
Folks, what else do you need to hear?
It's gonna go on for days.
This really is... I'm glad you're here, but it really frustrates me because there's so much to talk about, and we're just wasting the nation's time on this garbage.
So stupid.
Another serious story.
We covered education.
We covered healthcare.
Lack of surgical beds.
Fake news on immigration.
Real news about Obama and immigration.
Folks, our national debt's exploding.
I bring this up because I got, the only criticism I got, it wasn't so much a criticism, but a suggestion on my interview with President Trump, still available on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Bongino, was you should have asked him a question on the national debt.
100%, fair enough.
I promised you I could show you my notes.
It was my next question, but we were out of time.
We were just out of time.
I was not ducking the question.
And I give you my word, I'll try to make that first, if we are lucky enough to get another interview.
He was gracious with his time.
We went about 10 minutes over.
It's the President of the United States, folks.
I'm just Dan Bongino.
I can't tell the White House what to do.
They were very gracious, and I didn't want to take advantage.
I felt there were a lot of other things to get to.
But there's a story at the Washington Examiner today in the show notes I strongly encourage you to read by David Davenport.
Who's afraid of the federal debt?
Ladies and gentlemen, The debt and the deficits.
Unlike Democrats, who only care about debt and deficits when Republicans are in charge, I care, have spoken out about this topic for five plus years now, when a Republican and a Democrat's in charge.
The debt went up under Bush.
The debt went up dramatically under Obama.
The debt went up, yes, under Clinton.
Clinton paid down the debt.
No, he didn't.
We never ran a surplus one year in the Clinton administration.
That's a myth.
We've debunked a million times on this show.
We're close to it.
Slightly hyperbolic.
The debt is now going up dramatically under the Trump administration too.
Granted, I'm not blaming the President.
The President signs a budget passed to him by a House of Representatives, now run by Democrats.
The problem is, a lot of the Republicans in the House of Representatives aren't doing anything about spending either, as this piece accurately points out.
Look at these numbers.
Quote from the piece, congratulations Washington, you set another record.
And believe me, he doesn't mean a good one.
Treasury announced recently the federal debt rose an astounding 26% during the last fiscal year, bringing the total one-year deficit to nearly $1 trillion.
The cumulative federal debt is now more than $22 trillion greater than our total gross domestic product.
Federal Reserve Chairman Powell has declared the debt unsustainable.
In his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he would eliminate the deficit in eight years.
Instead, he's presided over a nearly 50% increase.
Folks, these are uncomfortable facts, but they're true.
Again, we're not frauds here.
We're not fakes.
That's not bad under Republicans.
It's only bad under Democrats.
No, no, that's the liberal way.
We do facts here.
Again, don't mistake this for me pinning the blame on Trump.
He's limited in what he can do.
He's already proposed budgets that have made cuts in the House Democrats, and candidly, many Republicans have laughed.
Don't even worry about it.
Folks, what is going to happen?
I don't mean to sound macabre or apocalyptic, but what is guaranteed to happen by mathematical certainty?
Folks, when you reach a debt amount that is unsustainable, I don't know when that's going to happen.
I'll be honest with you, I thought it would happen around 20 trillion.
Now we're at 22.
Do you understand we're going to reach a point where you're so in debt that the people lending money to you doubt that you could pay it back?
Maybe it'd be simpler if I made a microeconomic analogy.
If Joe is lending me money to finance Bongino Inc.
And he lends me $100,000, $200,000, $300,000.
He finds out Bongino Inc.
is making $500,000 a year.
And Joe has now lent me $700,000 more than we make in a year.
At some point, Joe's going to get to worry.
He's going to start to worry about my capacity to pay that money back because I owe him more money than I even earn in a year.
Cutting you off.
Despite my expenses.
If I'm still asking Joe for money, I'm making 500, Joe's lent me 700,000, and I'm still asking him for hundreds of thousands a year, at some point Joe is gonna say either no, that creates problem one, or problem two, I'll say, yeah, I'll lend you money, Dan, but to compensate me for the massive risk I'm taking, I want higher interest, because this is ridiculous.
Matter of fact, I want 15, 20%.
Folks, those are two separate problems.
They're both horrible.
If people stop lending us money, and by people I mean foreign governments, I mean American citizens who buy U.S.
bonds.
Ladies and gentlemen, the government can't operate.
We are operating on an operating budget a trillion dollars over our tax revenue.
In other words, we need a trillion dollars in borrowed money every year to keep functioning at this ridiculous level of spending.
If people say, no thanks, You'd have to cut the government by a third!
Maybe a good thing.
You may say, wow, that sounds like great news.
Not all.
Because problem number two comes, well, we'll lend you money, but we're going to lend you money at ridiculous interest rates.
Ladies and gentlemen, nearly every interest rate in the economy is somehow tied to interest rates tied to our federal government's debt.
The repo market, everything.
It's a long, complicated story, but it's as easy as this.
If America is not deemed a reliable payer back of money, American interest rates are going to go up.
It's as simple as that for everyone.
Meaning, when you go into the car dealership to buy a car, your interest rate is gonna be 7%.
It's gonna be 22%.
We're gonna go back to the mortgage rates Joe remembers in the 80s.
10, 12, 15%.
Meaning, you can buy less house for more money.
And less car for more money.
Listen to me, please.
It's a warning.
To everyone.
The Republicans, the President, the Democrats, the Liberals, Conservatives, Socialists, Communists, Green Party, it doesn't matter.
We are on a mathematically certain path to bankruptcy if something doesn't change quick.
Mathematically certain.
And whoever the President is in charge when this whole thing collapses is going to take the blame.
Big trouble ahead, folks.
I can't warn you in stark enough terms.
I just want to leave you quick with this, please.
Don't panic about today.
The quick takeaways about Sondland, again, we'll cover more of it tomorrow, along with other news.
I'm not going to get baited into, you know, 55 minutes straight of impeachment talk.
America has serious problems we need to fix.
Sondland, there was no back channel, nothing we were doing was in secret.
Secondly, he just acknowledged again that the quid pro quo he alleged, despite saying there was no quid pro quo, was never said to him by Trump.
Everybody take it easy, please.
It's not, when it's time to panic, I'll let you know.
Yesterday was time to panic for the Democrats.
Their key witness, Vindman, as you learned earlier in the show.
There may be a bigger story there for Vindman, which is going to create some big problems.
He's corroboration.
You sure about that?
We'll have to find out about that later.
Folks, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Bongino.
We'd really appreciate it.
We'll tell you about Plan B on that channel later.
Long story.
And also subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and elsewhere.
