In this episode, I address the disturbing lowlights from last night’s Democrat debate. I also address eye-opening new connections between the players involved in the framing of Lt. General Mike Flynn. Finally, I debunk Bernie Sanders’s lies about Cuba and socialism.
News Picks:Why Bernie Sanders’s praise of Fidel Castro matters.
Debunking liberal lies about Cuba.
Bernie Sanders is lying about Cuba.
Twenty things to know about Bernie Sanders.
President Trump’s appointments to the Nutty Ninth Circuit are already paying dividends.
Who set up Lt. General Mike Flynn?
Copyright Bongino Inc 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.
Did you see it last night?
The disaster?
Did you see the Bernie hands too?
What was that cheerleading movie?
Bring it on with the, what was it?
The happy hands or whatever they do.
And you know, I always screw up the cultural references.
Bernie says, remember that?
If you're watching on the YouTube, he's got, the guy can't put his hand down.
Calm down, Bernie.
I got that.
The disastrous debate coverage last night got some just more debunking to do on Bernie nonsense and some stunning reveals in the Mike Flynn case, which continues to creep up like an open sore in our justice system.
Don't go anywhere.
Today's show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
Your data is your business.
Protect it today at expressvpn.com slash Bongino.
Welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
Fine, sir.
Well, dude, we got a We got a day ahead of us, brother.
Yeah.
Joe's traveling.
I'm traveling after the show up to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.
As I said yesterday, we'll see you there.
Joe will be there.
Paul will be there.
The whole crew will be there.
Stop by, say hello.
We'd like to say hello to you.
All right.
Today's show brought to you by our buddies at LifeLock.
Tax season can be a pain, but it's worth it when you open the mailbox and you see that one envelope you've been waiting for, unless it turns out Someone's already filed your return.
This happens all the time.
We used to investigate this in my prior line of work.
Not kidding.
During tax season, your personal info, your name, your social security number may be emailed and shared more than usual.
People file a tax return, steal your return if you get money back.
Criminals can steal info from your devices, sell it on the dark web, or use it to commit identity theft.
This happened to me.
They stole my identity, bought a bunch of real estate programs.
You need LifeLock, the number one most recognized brand in identity theft protection.
LifeLock monitors for uses of your personal info.
It alerts you to possible suspicious activity.
Got a text two weeks ago.
Baha'u'llah and I ain't probably for a loan.
It was legit, but LifeLock was on the ball, got it right away.
If you become a victim of identity theft, a dedicated identity restoration specialist will work to fix it.
No one can prevent identity theft or monitor all transactions at all businesses all the time.
But having LifeLock means one less thing to stress out about during tax season.
Join now.
Save up to 25% off your first year.
Just go to lifelock.com slash Bongino.
That's lifelock.com slash Bongino for 25% off.
I've got this for my family, my wife, my kids, everyone.
Protect their identities.
Lifelock.com slash Bongino.
All right, Joe, let's go!
And down the stretch they come.
They do.
We got a little delayed trigger finger on the bell, but that's okay.
So let's start out last night being that it's the day before CPAC.
We're getting ready to travel here.
Let's start out with kind of the big flubs from last night's debate.
And when I say flubs, I mean, just listen, this is supposed to be the safe lane, right?
For many of you who have listened to my show, you understand my theory of presidential electoral politics, which is there are always three lanes in any presidential race.
It's not an oversimplification to say this.
If you look back at the dynamics of significant presidential races over the last 50 years, you'll see candidates from each of these three lanes emerge.
There's the safe lane, you know, sometimes called the establishment pick, the radical lane, you know, what we'd call the ideological pick sometimes, and the outsider lane.
You'll see those.
And depending on the current mood of the country, is everything going well, and they want to keep everything the same, then the safe pick's the way to go.
That's why presidents are typically re-elected, sitting presidents.
Right.
Is it one of those disastrous depression-like times, where they want the radical ideological pick, who gains some, the Williams-Jennings-Bryan type, who gets some kind of, you know, traction behind him?
Or is it the outsider pick, where people are just fed up with D.C.
in general, where you have a Donald Trump type that comes in and sweeps the deck?
Depends.
Depends on who does well on the lane, who's authentic to the lane, and as I've said in the past, what lane is dominant at the time overall when it comes to looking at the people's collective where they want to go forward.
Having said that, the safe lane in this election, or what's been deemed the safe lane, the establishment lane, have been two now candidates.
Originally it was Joe Biden, now you see Mike Bloomberg.
Let me tell you again with these two clips here, the two major flubs of the night, Why these guys are not safe.
Biden's not safe because he can never surgically remove his foot from his mouth, forgets what state he's in, what race he's running for.
He declared he was running for the U.S.
Senate the other day.
Not kidding.
Didn't play the video because it's just dumb.
But here again is an example last night in a debate where Biden's never measured by how well he does.
Remember, this is the safe pick, supposedly, the establishment pick.
He's supposed to be the safe candidate.
He's never measured, you notice this show by how well he does, never.
He's only measured by how little he screws up.
Here was another colossal screw up last night where he can't seem to get basic data, statistics, I mean basic stuff, you're right.
He's trying to cite a statistic for gun homicides in the United States.
Listen to this clip and keep in mind when you're listening to it, the population of the United States is about 330, 350 million people.
Okay.
Depending on how many legals versus illegals in the country.
So about, let's say 350 million people to be generous.
Now listen to Biden's statistic on gun homicides and gun violence.
And you'll see how this guy has no place in this debate, definitely not in the safe lane.
Check this out.
I'm the only one that ever got it done, nationally.
I beat the NRA twice.
I got assault weapons banned.
I got magazines that could not hold more than 10 rounds in them.
I got them eliminated, except we had a thing called an election with hanging chads in Florida, and it was not reauthorized.
In addition to that, I passed the Brady Bill with waiting periods.
I led that fight.
But my friend to my right and others have in fact, Also gave to the gun manufacturers absolute immunity.
Imagine if I stood here and said we give immunity to drug companies, we give immunity to tobacco companies.
That has caused carnage on our streets.
A hundred and fifty million people have been killed since 2007 when Bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability.
More than all the wars Including Vietnam, from that point on.
Carnage on our street.
And I want to tell you, if I'm elected and I'm coming for you and gun manufacturers, I'm going to take you on and I'm going to beat you.
Huh?
Huh?
Hold on.
Joe, quick math here.
Can I be my own audience referee and ombudsman?
I know that's your job typically, Joe, but I know you're busy.
We're traveling today.
So I'm just going to do some 330 by 150.
So about 45% of the U.S.
population has been killed by guns in the last, what do you say, since 2007?
So 13, oh my gosh.
Wow.
What an epidemic.
Listen, I'm not here to downplay any kind of Gun, that's never a joke, folks, but, um, if you're going to speak about things that are seriously tragic, like gun violence, you may want to get the numbers like close, like a little bit.
150 million people have been killed by guns.
150 million.
Listen.
Did he mean to say 150,000?
The truth is with Joe Biden, ladies and gentlemen, I have no idea.
Right.
He said he was arrested going to see Nelson Mandela the other day too, and that wasn't true too.
Oh, by the way, I don't have this in the show today, but just on a side note, just showing you again.
Piling on the fact that this guy is not the safe pick, he can never get a statistic right, forgets what state he's in, forgets what race he's running in, makes up facts about his past.
He said he was arrested going to see Nelson Mandela in the 70s on a CODEL, a congressional delegation trip, when he was a member of the Senate.
Well, what happened?
Well, apparently they were detained at the airport.
When I say detained, they were probably just stopped for a passport check.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have traveled around the world extensively in my prior line of work.
37-something countries, probably 60-plus cities.
You go to countries, you can bounce around, obviously, to various cities in there, which is what we did.
I was detained once, in Joe Biden language.
Matter of fact, multiple times while people checked my passport.
I'm unaware I had to fill out the... Paul, I was arrested in foreign countries.
Ten times I was arrested.
I got an extensive arrest record apparently overseas.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you see how this guy just makes things up?
We had a WACA guy, White House Communications Agency guy, I've told this story before when I did a security advance at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Who had to turn in a car on the military base, and he was late to get back on the support plane home.
Was he arrested too?
I mean, do I have to fill out paperwork for him?
I have to notify his family?
This guy just makes stuff up, folks.
He is not the safe pick.
These things add up, and they add the most damage.
Listen to me.
This is important.
The most damaging political narratives are the ones that change pre-existing narratives about who a candidate is.
The pre-existing narrative the Democrats have been trying to sell you about Biden is that he is the safe, stable guy.
Right.
The most damaging emerging political narrative about Biden, which he's done to himself, is the reality that he's not stable.
And when I say stable, I don't mean he's sociopathic.
I mean, he doesn't mentally present a coherent, cogent case that he's on his game.
He just doesn't do it.
Very bad debate last night for Biden.
I'm sorry.
People said, oh, it was his best debate.
You really set the bar low for this guy.
Second, Bloomberg flubs it again.
This guy's an awful debater.
Nanny Bloomberg is really terrible.
Listen, I know I'm a conservative.
I, you know, I'm trying to be objective here to evaluate their field.
It's difficult, but I am doing my best.
He is a really awful debater.
Awful.
It's hard to see who... None of them are very good.
They're just not... None of them has the Ted Cruz ability to kind of like nail and distill down to points fast.
They're just not very good.
But Bloomberg is clearly the worst debater on the stage.
Here's Bloomberg last night with one of the greatest Freudian slips of all time.
Remember, Bloomberg's supposed to be the safe pick.
And with the safe pick, you want to align at least with core democratic values, right?
To be safe.
A safe pick can't be a guy who's a Republican who wants higher taxes, is pro-abortion, and hates guns, right?
That's not a safe pick because the basis you're gonna vote from.
What is one of the core tenets of the Democrat Party?
I ain't gonna get this anywhere else.
What are the core tenets of the Democrat Party?
We don't like money in politics.
It's corrupting.
Right?
Listen to Bloomberg, one of the greatest Freudian slips of all time, showing you again, this guy's not the safe pick either.
Check this out.
They talk about 40 Democrats.
21 of those were people that I spent $100 million to help elect.
All of the new Democrats that came in and put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I got them.
Number two, when you talk about money, let's put this in perspective.
I don't think that was a cigar!
That's not Rocket!
That's not Rocket!
For those of you seeing Colors, one of the great movies of all time.
Let's run down that hill and those bulls.
How about we walk down?
That's not Rocket!
That's not exactly what Bloomberg meant to say.
It's what happened, but that's not what Bloomberg meant to say.
He bought these, so Bloomberg's essentially admitting that his billions of dollars influenced an election to turn over the House of Representatives and that his money was used to buy these candidates.
He just said it in one of the great Freudian slips of all time.
Folks, again, not to belabor this point, he is not the safe pick again.
A safe pick is generally safe when it comes to issues as well.
The Democrats have run on identity politics, class warfare, and getting money out of politics, supposedly, Those are the three core pillars of the Democrat party for the last 20 years, for the last two decades.
Bloomberg meets none of those.
He has an identity problem, a politics issue with Stop and Frisk.
He has a class warfare issue because he's the 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1%.
And he has a money and politics issue because he is the money in politics.
By the way, in case you want to know what percent Bloomberg is, you do the math.
The 1%, the 1% are considered Excuse me, by Democratic terms, the wealthy, correct?
Yeah.
The 0.01% are people who would make $2.8 million a year or more.
People who make, what, $64 billion?
What does he make a year?
I don't know, $2, $3 billion a year?
I'm telling you, folks, I can't even do, you gotta be 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1.
Bloomberg is not the safe pick either.
They are in deep trouble in this election.
Okay, let's go to the post, because really the whole thing was just a rehash of stuff you've heard before.
Let's go to the post-debate coverage.
Here is Bernie Sanders.
Folks, again, this is unfathomable.
I was talking to Paula before the show, which you're never supposed to say on the show.
No one cares what you're talking about before the show.
But it's important because I'll reiterate this.
I cannot understand how a guy who is a hair length away from the presidency, Bernie Sanders, Actually, I know what's going on, but I can't understand how his political tacticians and his strategists are not in this guy's ear saying, Bernie, shut your pie hole about Cuba.
There is nothing good about socialism, brother Bernie.
Nothing.
Please shut up.
This guy cannot stop defending Cuba.
He is either one, I'm not messing with you, the dumbest strategic political candidate for president, for the presidency in human history, or the more obvious choice, he's a diehard communist.
He's not stupid.
He is number two.
I have a piece in the show notes today, by the way.
Bongino.com slash newsletter.
Check it out.
It's from National Review.
It's 20 things to know about Bernie Sanders.
One of them is the fact that even his friends acknowledge this guy is basically a communist who cannot stop talking about socialism.
Check it out.
It's in the show notes.
It's pretty good.
It's by Jim Garrity.
Check it out.
He is a diehard.
Listen to this post-debate coverage.
This is Bernie Sanders in the spin room, still glossing over and putting caveats when discussing the evil murderous socialist regimes.
Check this out.
Number one, truth is truth.
If somebody in Saudi Arabia or any country in the world teaches illiterate people to read, you're telling me that's a bad thing?
It is not.
I can't, I just, I cannot.
Folks, listen, having run for office myself three times, nearly won one, I had pretty decent political instincts, especially in that second one where we almost pulled off a huge upset, but I knew when I was getting bad advice, which wasn't often, but I knew when I was.
Will you stop with the literacy programs?
Holy Moses!
As I said yesterday, there are universal evils.
Slavery, the Holocaust, indentured servitude.
We get it.
Socialism.
We don't talk about things like that with caveats.
We just don't.
We don't talk about some of the most evil world leaders, Ceausescu, Idi Amin.
And we don't say, but they taught a few people to read.
Now, I'm going to get into this in a sec, because my resident fact checker, Matt Palumbo, has a spectacular piece debunking this Cuba nonsense that I'm going to get into in a moment.
Because I give you the ammo here.
I still got the Flynn stuff too, so don't go anywhere.
It's going to open your eyes.
But I want to make sure we have this fully covered.
The Cuba stuff is nonsense.
It's garbage.
But here is a video.
Hat tip, Daily Caller.
It's Greg Price, who does great work with the social media stuff, the Daily Caller.
He's at Greg underscore Price 11.
At Greg underscore Price 11.
This is video from the Daily Caller.
This is a montage they put together.
And by the way, the montage is two and a half minutes long.
I retweeted it this morning.
You can go to the Daily Caller's Twitter feed or Greg Price's to see it yourself.
But this is just a minute and 30 montage.
In case you think, oh no, Bernie Sanders just talking about Denmark and Sweden.
Here is a, and I have to cut it in half for time, a montage of Bernie Sanders praising authoritarian regimes all over the world.
Check this out.
It's funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food.
That's a good thing.
In other countries, people don't line up for food.
The rich get the food and the poor starve to death.
You know, as a socialist, the word socialism does not frighten me.
When we were in Moscow, for example, I think most of the people here also were extremely impressed by their public transportation system.
The stations themselves were absolutely beautiful, including many works of art, chandeliers that were beautiful.
It was a very, very effective system.
Also, I was impressed by the youth programs that they have, their palaces of culture for the young people, a whole variety of programs for young people, and cultural programs which go far beyond what we do in this country.
To China and its leadership.
Because if I'm not mistaken, they have made more progress in addressing extreme poverty.
...than any country in the history of civilization.
Okay?
So they've done a lot of things for their people.
But I remember, for some reason or other, being very excited when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba.
I was a kid and I remember reading that.
And it just seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against rather ugly, rich people.
You may recall way back in, what was it, 1961, they invaded Cuba.
And everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world and all the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro.
They forgot that he educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed the society.
In case you're wondering when we come back why I'm always looking around, I get distracted easily.
I'm not kidding.
I cannot focus ever.
I think that's what makes the shows of that good, because I have to like beam right in.
And you know, some people say, well, you explain things really well.
I explain things really well because I have to explain them to myself.
And once I've explained it to myself over and over, it becomes easy to explain them to you.
And that's how easily I'm distracted.
Folks, there it is!
Bernie's own words, not mine.
All right, before I get to Matt's debunking piece about this Cuba stuff, because it's important how bad this guy is and how misinformed he is, I want to express to you, so you have a full portfolio of ammunition, how Cuba's, this is garbage.
These are nonsense statistics.
Let me get to our second sponsor, BrickHouse Nutrition.
Ladies and gentlemen, there it is.
The finest nutrition supplement on the market right there.
I think I caught Paula by surprise.
Bounced out of the seat like a cat.
Go to BrickHouseNutrition.com slash Dan, pick up a bottle of this today, Foundation.
It's a new year, many of us are making resolutions we will likely not keep because we set expectations way too high.
For those of you who want to eat healthier, I have a simple solution, Field of Greens, which is another terrific product from BrickHouse Nutrition.
It is real food!
It is not cheap, fake, health food stored powders made up of cheap extracts.
Field of Greens is real food, ground up, wholesome, Fruits, vegetables, berries.
This is the real deal.
Paula, how much you love this stuff?
Please give the audience an eye.
Big time.
One scoop of Field of Greens has a full serving of real USDA, real organic fruits and vegetables.
This is food.
This is food.
It'll power you with clean, real energy.
We all know fruits and vegetables.
We all know are the key to a healthy long life.
We know it.
Go to BrickHouseNutrition.com slash Dan, get 15% off your first order with promo code Dan.
They have a wild berry flavor that's terrific too.
And don't forget to pick up a bottle while you're at a foundation, a creatine ATP blend.
You will look better, you will feel better, and you will get a nice muscle pump in the gym with this supplement.
My personal favorite too.
Pick up a bottle of Field of Greens and a bottle of foundation today.
You will not regret it.
Finest nutrition supplements out there.
Look better, feel better.
I'm telling you, I love this stuff.
I just knocked the bottle over.
My favorite supplement.
All right, so getting back to the article today.
So Matt Palumbo did this piece because I asked him to debunk a lot of this stuff because I saw a tweet up yesterday on Twitter from a propagandist propagandizing on behalf of China.
Some guy, Ian Goodrum, who promptly blocked me when I pointed out the idiocy of his tweet.
Apparently some kind of propagandist out there.
But here is his tweet.
He says, this is at IS Goodrum.
He says, in 60 years, Cuba has achieved 79.74 years life expectancy, which he cites as being higher than the United States.
99.7% literacy rate.
Again, he compares it to the United States.
0% homeless.
There's no homeless in Cuba, Joe, did you know that?
1.7% unemployment.
Wow, lower than the U.S.
All this despite decades of the cruelest embargo in history.
Defending Cuba shouldn't even be a question.
This guy's a disgrace to humankind.
I'm Ian Goodrum.
This is outright propaganda.
Of course, he doesn't mention the torture, gulags, political prisons, death, and destruction, but he'll leave that for another day, I'm sure.
So I asked Matt, can you debunk this stuff like only you can do?
So we put out a piece up at Bongino.com, which is a must-read, which will be in the show notes today, Debunking Liberal Lies on Cuba by Matt Palumbo.
If you want to have this emailed to you, Bongino.com slash newsletter.
Let's get right to it.
Let's talk about life expectancy in Cuba.
As Ian Goodrum, propagandist, tells us, life expectancy, people live in Cuba forever, man.
Not like the United States.
My gosh.
So Matt says, you know, it's really interesting how they get these life expectancy numbers in Cuba, because it was a paper published on this once in the Journal of Health and Policy Planning Notes, where they said Cuban physicians are given health outcome targets to meet, or they face penalties.
What, like death?
This provides, Joe, let's call them incentives to manipulate data.
Yeah.
Take Cuba's much-praised infant mortality rate, for example.
In most countries, the ratio of numbers to neonatal deaths and late fetal deaths stays within a certain range of each other, as they have many common causes and determinants.
One study found that while the ratio of late fetal deaths to early neonatal deaths in countries with available data stood between 1 and 3.03, a ratio representative of Latin American countries as well, Cuba had a ratio of six, a clear outlier.
This skewed ratio is evidence that physicians show likely reclassified early neonatal deaths as late fetal deaths, thus deflating the infant mortality statistics and propping up life expectancy.
Shocker!
Cuban doctors were recategorizing neonatal deaths as late fetal deaths in order for doctors to meet government targets for infant mortality.
Only Ian Goodrum actually believes Cuban life expectancy data.
Joe, you got this thing in Cuba, right, where, hey, you know, here's what we're going to do with those.
We're going to make those numbers meet this target, right?
No, no, I can't.
I'm a doctor.
The Hippocratic Oath and all.
All of a sudden, guy racks up the AR.
You sure you won't want to meet those targets?
Target met.
Target met, brother.
I get it.
Don't harm me.
Only Ian Goodrum trusts Cuban life expectancy data from an authoritarian, murderous regime.
We'll skip past literacy for a second.
Let's jump right to homelessness.
According to Ian Goodrum, there's no homelessness in Cuba, Joe.
None.
Really?
All right.
Stunning.
I know you're shocked.
I'm shocked, too.
This is crazy.
What are they doing over there?
Gosh, no homelessness.
Amazing.
So Matt digs into that one, too, of course, like only Palumbo can do.
So homelessness, the same objection as above, applies.
Meaning, first, you're trusting that the Cubans are telling you the truth at the end of the barrel of a gun.
But whatevs, Ian Goodrum believes them.
So, he says, and it's also not true.
According to the Havana Times, the number of homeless people is growing in Havana.
Wait, that's not possible.
There's no homeless people in Havana.
How could the Havana Times say this?
As well as in the rest of the country.
Talking about Cuba for the liberals out there.
Probably don't know Havana is in Cuba.
As one homeless elderly woman told the Times, most of the retired elderly population receives a pension of 248 pesos per month.
You know how much that is, folks?
That's $10 US.
Wow.
And it's impossible for anyone to get by with this amount.
An old person has to eat, buy medicine, wash their clothes, pay the electric bill, gas and water bills, and lots of cases.
It's utopian to think that someone could take on all those expenses if they live alone on a $10 a month pension.
Dude.
Again, in liberal math, a $10 a month pension is just fantastic.
You realize my daughter, my 16-year-old daughter, earns more than that in a day of work.
In a day of work.
What Cuban pensioneers get in a month in U.S.
dollars.
Sounds like a great system to me, Ian.
And there's no homelessness either.
Screw the Havana Times.
How do they live so long?
Let's jump in.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, it's crazy.
On $10 a month, it's amazing.
Must be like some Captain America super serum they're all injected with or something.
Let's go to that unemployment number.
Supposedly lower than the United States.
Ian Goodrum knows his stuff, man.
Good job, Ian.
1.7 unemployment.
1.7% unemployment.
Matt says, quote, I'll borrow an argument from America's liberals on this one.
Sure, unemployment is low, but the jobs don't pay anything.
Except in this case, this is actually true.
The average Cuban earns roughly $300.
Is that say a year, Paul?
Am I reading that right?
My eyesight's getting bad.
The average Cuban earns roughly, surely that's a day, right?
$300 a day.
No, no, that is!
The average Cuban earns roughly $300 a year!
Oh my gosh!
Compared to over $63,000 for the average American household.
Man, I really want to get the Cuban to earn that $300 a year.
$300?
Three C-notes?
Nice!
Got to be like Lefty from Donny Brest, put the C-note on the end.
Everybody can see the C-note.
You only get three of them a year, so you better hold on to that.
The average McDonald's employee in America owns more money than most Cubans.
And yes, that's even accounting for differences in the cost of living.
He goes on.
And do I need to point out that unemployment is low because the people there don't have a choice?
Yeah, we could have zero unemployment tomorrow if we force people to work against their will like Cuba does.
It's a hard point to understand.
How complicated is this?
Trying to stop backing away from the microphone, from my audio.
I read your emails.
I know.
I'm sorry.
I'm just sometimes in such an utter state of disbelief on the show because it's my show.
I don't have any kind of producers or anything.
I do my own thing.
Well, I mean, we have help, but you get what I'm saying.
I write my own stuff in my head.
There's no prompter here telling me what to say, that I'm legitimately in a state of disbelief that even dopey liberals fall for this.
Unemployment's only 1.7%.
Yeah, if you don't work, they'll shoot you!
Why do they pay you $300 a year?
Now, Matt covers the literacy thing, but in the interest of not only promoting my own site, there's a great piece in Cato about this as well.
Again, in the show notes, spongino.com slash newsletter if you want us to email you these articles every day.
Cato Institute.
Senator Sanders is wrong on Cuban education and health care.
May I add two?
This is by a Marianne Toupie and Chelsea Follet.
Forgive me if I'm saying your name wrong.
It's unintentional.
Look at this little snippet from the Cato piece on Bernie Sanders because he loves the literacy programs in Cuba.
If they don't kill you or torture you, you will definitely learn how to read in Cuba on that $300 a year.
From Cato, quote, accordingly, Cuba's literacy rate rose by 26% between 1950 and 1953.
That's before Castro, by the way.
And 2000.
Oh, excuse me, since between 53 and 2000.
During that revolution Castro era.
But literacy rose even more by 37% in Paraguay.
Then they go on how food consumption in Cuba declined by 12%.
While it rose in other countries, and the rate of car ownership and other things declined in Cuba.
So just to be clear, as Cato points out, literacy went up in Cuba.
I guess you're forced to read or they'll kill you in Cuba.
Yeah.
The rate of food consumption went down, car ownership went down.
They make an average $300 a year.
Pensioneers get $10 a month.
And even the rate of literacy was higher in other countries in the region, notably like Paraguay and others, where the rate of literacy rose faster.
Joe, that sounds like an awful lot of sacrifices to make for the simple act of learning to read.
Giving up your car, giving up your food, giving up your job, giving up your prosperity, giving up your freedom, and possibly your life if they kill you.
Nah, that ain't worth it.
That sucks.
Yeah, I thought so too.
Me and you think alike, Joe.
I'm in my head going, death, torture, learning to read, torture, handcuffs, beatings.
I'm thinking, yeah, you're right, Joe.
Good call.
Yeah, not working for me either.
I'll just take that, you know, hooked on phonics, it works for me.
You can buy that probably on Amazon.
And no torture included.
Or death or destruction either.
Jail cells, none of that stuff.
Alright, one more thing I wanted to cover on this before I move on to the Flynn stuff, which is good.
Oh boy, is it good.
So Bernie said last night, again, the debate was kind of dopey, so I don't want to waste a lot of your time with clips you're going to see on cable.
I just want to point out the safe pick stuff.
But Bernie did say at the beginning of the debate again, the fair share, we have got to get the rich to pay their fair share.
The millionaires, the billionaires, they're screwing you over.
Fair share.
So he brought that up last night.
So again, data matters, not to Bernie, because Bernie's, you know, kind of a numbskull and just avoids data at all costs.
But we do facts and data on the show.
So the Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece in this this morning by Phil Graham, where they actually discuss what the fair share wealthy Americans pay.
Headline, Phil Graham and John Early, wealthy Americans already pay their fair share.
Now, folks, let me just be clear on one thing before I get to the actual numbers.
If you are into the politics of envy, this show is not for you.
It's not.
Because let me be clear on where I stand.
Someone emailed me the other day, so you ran for office.
Sometimes you don't tell us what your policy prescriptions are.
Folks, taxes are a waste of money.
It's flushing your money down the toilet.
Outside of our military, our court system, and some basic government functioning, taxes are a waste of money.
You want my perspective?
That is it.
Government is a disaster.
It has a significant third-party payer problem.
They don't care about the cost of anything.
Or the quality of anything, as Milton Friedman said, because they're spending other people's money on other people.
It's not their money, and they're not even buying anything for themselves.
So they don't care about the cost, and they don't care about the quality.
Government is a black hole of waste.
Period.
That's where I stand on it.
And people who are wealthy don't owe anybody an explanation how they got it, if they got it legally.
Of course.
You stole money, broke the law, unethical, totally different story.
If you worked hard, You started a business and you accumulated wealth and capital to pass on to your family.
You don't owe anybody an explanation.
If that makes you uncomfortable, fine.
Maybe this isn't for you, but that's where I stand.
Having said that, The wealthy already pay too much.
Here are the actual numbers for Lye and Bernie Sanders, who, let's just, before I put this piece up, whose premise is we should have a tax structure more like countries like Denmark and Sweden who have renounced Bernie Sanders, many of them.
That's what he said, right?
We need to be more like Denmark.
Yeah.
He has said this over and over again.
Sweden.
That's where the action is.
Remember that show Cribs on MTV?
This is where the action happens when they go to... This is Bernie.
Sweden, that's where the action happens.
Okay, so we want to be more like Sweden?
Surely there are numbers to back this up.
Of course, they're in the Wall Street Journal piece, which we see right here.
In the Wall Street Journal piece, you'll find out that if we were more like Sweden, who would be paying more?
Not the wealthy and their fair share, but the middle class.
Check this out.
Quote from the Wall Street Journal piece.
Data from the OECD show that the U.S.
has the most progressive income tax system in the world.
Really?
That's not what Bernie's saying, man.
What does that mean?
He's lying again?
Yeah, of course he's lying.
That's all he does.
With the top 10% of earners paying 45% of all income taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes, compared with... We gotta be more like Sweden.
Really?
Because in Sweden they only pay 27%, in France only 28%.
Folks, again, if the numbers don't matter to you, you can tune out now.
The top 10%, keep that up, the top 10% of earners In the United States, pay 45% of all income taxes, Social Security and Medicare.
The piece goes on.
That's more than France and Sweden.
If the U.S.
government spent its largest share of their GDP and had the same tax structure as France, the top 10% of earners would pay about what they pay now in income taxes.
But listen to this.
The bottom 90% would see their taxes almost double.
Again, folks, you want to make a coherent argument as a Bernie bro, Bernie bros, man, we love Bernie, millionaires or billionaires, you want to, fine, go ahead, knock yourselves out, but make an argument using coherent facts and data that makes sense, not your Bernie bro snuggie nonsense.
You want to be more like Denmark and Sweden?
Then what you're essentially lobbying for is an income tax cut for wealthy Americans.
Because wealthy Americans pay a larger burden of the tax load than people do in Sweden in that tax bracket.
You want to be more like France?
Fine.
The wealthy already pay what they pay in France.
But the middle class will be getting a huge double their tax income bill at the end of the year.
Make an argument that makes sense.
Is it too much to ask to use basic math?
Remember Andrew Yang?
Math.
He didn't use math either.
It's voodoo math.
Unbelievable.
All right, let me knock this out, and let's do the Flynn stuff, because this is good.
This guy was set up, folks.
I'm telling you, it's becoming more obvious by the day, and this scam is getting uglier by the minute.
Don't go anywhere.
Our last sponsor of the day, our friends at, here it is, We The People Holsters!
Look at it, it comes in this nice little pouch, too.
Love that.
Check this holster out.
Some of the finest holsters out there.
Stop wasting your money on overpriced holsters, folks.
Starting at just $37, We The People holsters are custom designed to fit your firearm perfectly.
Right in there, you'll hear the click.
They're made right here in the USA.
Look at that.
Love this thing.
They have thousands of options to choose from, from both inside and outside the waistband, plus an amazing selection of printed holsters with everything from the Constitution, there you go, to thin blue line, and even designs to show your support for our president.
Their proprietary clip right there on the back design allows you to easily adjust the cant and the ride of the holster so it fits comfortably.
So when you're inside the waistband, it's not rubbing up against that iliac bone there.
I hate that.
Not with We The People holsters.
Comfort, security at all times.
You don't have to worry about it falling out.
You get that click, you know it's there.
Go to wethepeopleholsters.com slash Dan, get yours today.
Every holster ships free and comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Get an additional $10 off with offer code Dan, D-A-N.
Satisfaction guaranteed.
Love this.
Look at that beauty.
If it's not a perfect fit, send it back for a total refund.
WeThePeopleHolsters.com slash Dan.
WeThePeopleHolsters.com slash Dan.
Offer code Dan.
You buy this, all your friends are going to be asking where you got this from.
Check it out.
WeThePeopleHolsters.com slash Dan.
Beautiful designs.
Check them out.
Okay.
Mike Flynn was set up, folks.
Tell him what you're going to tell him, tell him and then tell him what you told him has always been the motto of my show.
He was set up and is becoming more obvious by the day.
Lieutenant General Flynn is essentially right now, if he is sentenced, is going to be a political prisoner.
No, you can't say that.
Oh, I just did.
And it is absolutely true.
Mike Flynn is being prosecuted because of his political affiliation with Donald Trump for a crime that was never committed.
Not that he, I'm not, I'm not even saying he doesn't, there was no crime committed at all.
Mike Flynn didn't commit that crime.
No, no, there isn't a crime.
It's like saying it was a bank rob.
You accused Flynn and it wasn't Flynn.
There was no bank rob.
Mike Flynn is going to jail potentially for a crime that never happened.
Lying to the FBI.
The FBI has already admitted he didn't lie to them.
There's no crime.
Now, let's walk through the setup, because I got some information this week, and I want to hat tip, again, the great TechnoFog on Twitter.
If you're not following TechnoFog's account, you're missing out on all the juicy Spygate stuff.
I'm going to put a list together one day for the show.
Sean Davis, Molly Hemingway, TechnoFog, Undercover Hubert, Jeff Carlson.
You're missing out on all the good stuff if you're not following these people.
Techno turned me on to something.
Here we go.
Let's do a little background first.
So we know from this Sidney Powell legal filing in this timeline that a case was opened up on Mike Flynn on August 16th, an FBI case.
On Mike Flynn.
Now, why is that date interesting?
The date is interesting, as we can see here, because they actually opened up the Crossfire Hurricane case to spy on the Trump team, the FBI, July 31st.
So they waited till August 16th.
Now, on August 10th, they opened up cases on Manafort, Carter Page, and Papadopoulos, but not on Flynn, which is suspicious, because the next day, as we can see from Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn's attorney, I should say, Sidney Powell's legal filing, on August 11th, The day after they open up cases on Manafort, Page, and Papadopoulos, but not on Flynn.
Crazy!
Stephen Halper, you know, known spy, human intelligence asset for the United States government, but connections to the intelligence community.
We know Halper shows up the next day, a known CIA operative, to quote her legal filing, of questionable dealings.
And all of a sudden he meets with the FBI.
Ladies and gentlemen, is it possible that on August 10th they open up on Page, Manafort, and Papadopoulos and someone at the CIA, maybe John Brennan's crew, who's had Mike Flynn in their sights for a long time, we already know that, they've been spying on him since 2014.
I've covered that in past shows.
Is it possible someone in the CIA is very upset that on August 10th a case isn't open against Mike Flynn?
You can't spy on Mike Flynn if you have no case.
So someone in the CIA, do they contact the FBI and say, hey, we got a source we need you to talk to who shows up magically the day after they don't open up a case on Flynn?
Strange.
And we all know on August 10th as well, what else happens?
The dossier from Christopher Steele, one of his memos, magically appears dated August 10th, which implicates Mike Flynn in a Kremlin influence operation.
Really suspicious that time.
You didn't open up on Flynn.
Hey, look what we got, this dossier.
And by the way, have you spoken to our boy Halper?
Crazy the timing on that, right?
We already know that stuff.
Just a little background.
So, the CIA's getting worried.
Someone targeting Mike Flynn and our intelligence community because he was getting ready to blow the whistle on all the malfeasance in the intelligence community.
He has a former intelligence community official himself as head of the DIA.
They're getting really worried.
So something happens on December 29th of 2016.
Of course, they open up the case on August 16th of 2016 after meeting with Halper and getting the dossier about Flynn after not opening up a case on August 10th.
My guess here, ladies and gentlemen, is from August 16th until December, they are trying to build a case against Mike Flynn because they need to shut him down, but they can't.
Why, Joe?
Because they don't have anything on Mike Flynn.
They've got zero.
That was more of a heart.
So let's do a zero.
You can't come down there.
Looks like love you, which don't love you, what you did to Mike Flynn.
Zero.
Big donut.
They've got nothing.
They're panicking.
We produced the dossier.
Dossier on Flynn on August 10th.
Got the Bureau to open up a case.
Been spying on him ever since, using Halper and all these other people.
Humint and Sigint assets.
And we still can't get anything on Flynn.
Why, Joe?
Because Flynn's not doing anything wrong!
That's right.
So they gotta get him on something, gotta shut this guy down.
So let's put together some dates here, folks.
So the Guardian has this article, which you can see here.
President Obama probably is getting a little nervous right now.
Remember, President Obama warns President Trump about just one guy he doesn't like, and that's it.
Who's that guy?
Mike Flynn.
Obama really hates Mike Flynn.
Because Mike Flynn spoke out against his Iran deal.
So what does Obama do?
Look at this piece on December 30th.
So on December 29th, headline, Guardian, Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for election hacking.
A lot of people were suspicious about this.
They were like, why is he doing that now?
Kicking cables everywhere.
Sorry, that was me, for those of you watching on YouTube.
Why is he doing that now?
Why is Obama right before he's about to leave office?
President Trump is the president-elect at the time.
Barack Obama, of course, is still the president until January of 2017.
Why is he expelling Russian diplomats on this election hacking if he knew there was election hacking going on?
And why wait until December 29th?
Well, let's go to this New York Times piece because General Flynn, who at the time is the appointed national security advisor, but again, President Trump is still the president elect.
So Lieutenant General Flynn is the appointed national security advisor, but not formally yet.
We see this New York Times article, document provides new details of Mike Flynn's interview with the FBI, where they later claim he lied, but during their evaluation of the interview said he didn't lie because he didn't.
Something else happens in late December when President Obama suspiciously expels these Russian diplomats from these compounds in New York and Maryland.
Let's look at this New York Times piece.
What else is going on in late December, i.e.
December 29th?
Quote, Mike Flynn has pled guilty to misleading investigators about a series of conversations he had with Mr. Kislyak.
He's since rescinded that plea.
And in late December, 2016, while serving as a key member of Mr. Trump's transition team.
Oh, so in late December, there was a call with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, after the Russians were expelled from that compound?
Now, the press has frequently cited there were multiple calls between Kislyak, but I have from a unimpeachable source on this that the reason Mike Flynn, Lieutenant General Flynn, made multiple calls to Ambassador Kislyak from Russia after the Russian diplomats were suspiciously expelled from the United States by Obama was not because they had a whole lot to say.
Again, you won't hear this in the media.
But was because the cell service was terrible and the Dominican Republican, he had to keep calling him back.
But again, multiple calls, Joe, makes it seem like, whoa, Mike Flynn was really injecting himself in this situation.
Joe, multiple calls.
The calls were dropping, you knuckleheads.
Look at the duration of the calls.
Everybody leaks everything to you in the media.
Can't you just get that from your intel sources that violate the law?
I'm sure you could just call somebody up.
Now, for regular listeners of the show, you're putting two and two together and you've probably heard this story before and you're wondering what's new here.
Oh, there's a new angle.
For those of you who haven't and don't get what, aren't picking up what I'm putting down, folks, I'm absolutely convinced.
Let me just say it.
Obama expelled those diplomats because Mike Flynn on December 29th was where?
Why were the calls dropping?
Because he wasn't in the United States.
He was on a brief holiday vacation late December, i.e.
Christmastime, in the Dominican Republic.
They knew.
The Obama team knew.
What else did they know?
They probably knew while he's in the Dominican Republic that he probably doesn't have access to the portfolio of secure comms he would have at communications in the United States, right?
So let's walk through the Obama White House.
Gosh, we really can't stand this Mike Flynn guy.
We've thrown this dossier at him.
We've thrown Halper at him.
We got the FBI to open a case up against him, even though they probably didn't want to on August 10th.
We got nothing on him.
What do we do?
I've got an idea.
Let's kick these Russians out of Maryland and New York and expel them from the country, because what's going to happen?
Obviously, the Russian ambassador is going to want to call the incoming president and his companion on the other side, his working partner, who would be Mike Flynn, who would deal with this stuff.
Obviously.
Where's Flynn?
Flynn's in the Dominican.
Great!
We can listen in on the phone call even easier!
Let's listen in on the whole thing.
And the minute he talks about it, the minute he mentions it, let's run to the White House and say Mike Flynn violated the Logan Act.
The Logan Act, a ridiculous, unconstitutional, nonsensical law that has never been successfully prosecuted by anyone in the United States history.
If the Logan Act was real, John Kerry would be in jail for negotiating with the Iranians.
It's not, it's fake.
It's fake news.
It's a law.
It's a lino, a law in name only.
But they got desperate.
All they had was the Lionel Logan act.
So they boot these Russians out knowing Flynn will make a call from overseas, knowing they can listen in.
He made multiple calls.
The phone was, they kept disconnecting you dopes.
My gosh, you're reporters.
Can you do some basic investigation?
Conveniently on the day he's gone.
Now, what's new here?
Let me give a hat tip to TechnoFog, but first I want to put up this Sidney Powell legal filing, because this is where I got this from.
These are his highlights.
Great job there.
An interesting little curveball here that's new here.
Flynn and Powell are requesting the records of Colonel James Baker.
James Baker was Stephen Halper, the spy who was spying on Flynn and others.
That was his handler in the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon.
An ONA director Baker regularly lunched with Washington Post reporter David Ignatius.
What are the chances of that?
Wow.
Baker, I know you know what's going on.
Baker is believed to be the person who illegally leaked the transcript of Mr. Flynn's call to Ignatius.
Oh, how great is this?
What have I been telling you?
And I'll address this on my SpyGate panel at CPAC with Devin Nunes.
What have I been telling you is the major takeaway from the SpyGate scandal on the Trump team.
It's not just that the Obama administration chose to willingly spy on their political opponents for political, non-criminal reasons.
They fabricated all the criminal reasons and intel reasons.
They're all made up in the fake dossier.
That isn't even the biggest scandal, ladies and gentlemen.
The biggest scandal is you pay for it.
Colonel James Baker in the Office of Net Assessments, that Office of Net Assessments is a Pentagon
office using your taxpayer dollars that was paying Stephen Halper to spy on the Trump
team and spy on Mike Flynn.
And as Powell indicates in that legal filing, it is suspected, according to her information,
that Baker may have lunched regularly with the Washington Post's David Ignatius that
got the transcript of the December 29th call I just told you about and printed information
about that call in the Washington Post, which was later used, look, it's in the Washington
Post, to run to the White House with Sally Yates from the DOJ and other anti-Trumpers
to say, you better do something about this.
You better do something about this.
And then later when President Trump got in office and Mike Flynn was a National Security Advisor, We have to interview Mike Flynn with the FBI.
Look at this.
Washington Post reporting this.
This is big trouble.
Could be the Logan Act.
You see the cycle here?
Obama, we need to get something on Flynn.
We don't have anything on Flynn.
Kick diplomats out.
Use diplomats' excuse to monitor Flynn's phone calls while he's overseas in the Dominican Republic.
Get the transcript from the phone call.
Leak the transcript to the Washington Post.
While paying, leak it, potentially through the guy who's running the office that's paying a spy to spy on Flynn.
Use the Washington Post story to run back to the White House to demand Flynn be fired for the Logan Act and prosecute him later for the interview you did on it.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Flynn is a political prisoner.
There is no doubt.
And you paid for it.
You paid for it.
Disgusting.
Absolutely disgusting.
All right, one final story of the day.
On a good note, because I don't want to leave you abandoned before we jump on a flight here up to CPAC again.
Hope to see you there.
PJ Media today.
Great story in the show notes.
President Trump is making significant progress, ladies and gentlemen.
We are finally defunding Planned Parenthood, which is an abomination of an organization.
Planned Parenthood was defunded and Trump won this case in the ninth, the nutty ninth.
How is that?
The nutty ninth?
You know, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the liberals always go and win because it's been stacked by liberal judges.
Well, not the case.
So for all you never-Trumpers out there, I don't see any value in Donald Trump.
Yeah, that's because you're an idiot.
Trump flips the Ninth Circuit Court like a boss.
Megan Fox, PJ Media, and gets a huge win in his quest to defund Planned Parenthood.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Trump presidency.
As we can see from the piece, we've had 10 appointees to the Ninth Circuit Court.
Actual judges using the Constitution.
From the piece, Trump has appointed 10 constitutionalist judges to lifetime positions on the San Francisco court and has effectively tilted the balance in favor of conservatives, which is sending waves of fear through the left.
Nice!
The Los Angeles Times reports, of the senior judges who will be deciding cases on merits panels, reading briefs and issuing rulings, 10 are Republicans and only three are Democrat appointees.
Nice!
Ninth Circuit Court Judge Milan D. Smith said, you will see a sea change in the Ninth Circuit on day-to-day decisions Smith predicted.
All I have to say to that is, yes.
Yes.
What?
You have some, you never inject.
Paula's injecting commentary in the show now.
You'll get to see her at CPAC, because we'll be having the CPAC view, which will be a different view than you're used to.
Ladies and gentlemen, for all, again, the never-Trumpers out there, There have been real, tangible, ramificat- Listen, I've told you I'm from Queens.
Trump's from Queens.
I don't mind Trump's personality or style.
I get it that some of you- That's okay.
I'm not knocking you.
I mean it.
There are some Republicans who are really principled people who are like, ah, I wish he'd stop tweeting.
Okay.
I totally get it.
Fine.
I don't, I don't, it doesn't bother me at all.
I don't care, but I understand.
Just vote for him and we'll be okay.
Put that aside for a moment.
Constitutionalist judges.
Economic growth.
Rebuilding our military.
Actually respected overseas again.
Significant portions of black voters now, for the first time, looking at a GOP candidate.
Regulatory reform.
Folks, I'd go on, there's other things I don't agree with, I wasn't a fan of the terrorist or criminal justice reform, but having said that, again, we don't mess around here.
I respect the president, I'm definitely gonna vote for him, fully support him, but I don't agree with everything, nobody does.
On the margin, this has been not just a successful, but an incredibly successful presidency.
I'm just asking you never-Trumpers out there to get out of your ideological box for a second.
It's not even ideological, because if you say you're a never-Trump, but you're a Republican, it's not ideal.
That's inaccurate.
I have to be precise.
It's almost a faith-based, your faith is anti-Trump.
And it's almost a religion to you.
Just look at this objectively.
The Ninth Circuit, we're winning cases in the Ninth Circuit.
I never in my lifetime thought I would say those words.
Ever.
Incredible.
I still can't get over, by the way, Bernie.
With the hands.
Stop with the hands!
What is he doing?
Did you see the debate this hand thing?
Put the hand down.
I've debated a lot.
A lot.
Just put your hand down and wait.
Calm down.
He looks like a kid in kindergarten.
Sheesh.
What is he doing?
Taking, like, nitric oxide tablets before the debate?
Relax, Bernie.
You look ridiculous.
All right, thanks again for tuning in.
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
We're almost to 400,000 subscribers.
They're free.
The subscription doesn't cost anything.
You just get our videos.
The videos are free.
YouTube.com slash Bongino.
YouTube.com slash Bongino.
We really want to get to 400,000.
Appreciate your support.
You guys and ladies are the best.
Thanks a lot.
I'll see you all at CPAC again.
Come and say hi.
We got some giveaways for you, all free.
We bought them for you because we love you all to death.
