First up, we talked with Donald Trump Jr. about using tech to create a parallel economy, about the havoc Biden is causing in the country, and about the gun laws Republicans are trying to pass, Then we talked with Pete Hegseth, talking about his new book Battle for the American Mind, how the education system has been undermined for more than a century and what we can do to fix it. Finally, Sen. Rand Paul talked to us about a variety of issues including the gun control bill before the Senate, Dr. Fauci and a lot more.
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.
Thanks for tuning in to today's podcast.
It's a special podcast we put together for you to enjoy on the weekends.
It features some of the best interviews we did in the radio show during the week.
If you'd like to listen to the radio show, you can go to bongino.com, click on Station Finder, find out where the local station near you is.
Before we get to our first interview, let me get to one of the sponsors who we really appreciate.
Fear of out-of-control inflation is hammering the stock market.
The S&P 500 is having its worst start to the year since World War II.
So not only is your money worth less, you now have less of it.
It's a good time to diversify into gold, the most stable asset in the history of the world.
I just did exactly that.
And Birch Gold, B-I-R-C-H, is the company I trust to help you convert an IRA or 401k into an IRA in gold and silver.
Not only will Birch Gold help you fortify your savings with precious metals, it'll help you do it in a tax-sheltered account.
Here's how you find out about Birch Gold.
Text DAN to 989898 to get started.
Amazon stocks down, Tesla's down, crypto has been getting slammed, and many fear the hawkish moves by the Fed could stall the economy.
So what's your plan?
First up today, we talked to Don Trump Jr.
about the need for a parallel economy away from these liberal cancel culture lunatics and these sellout Republicans signing onto this dreadful gun law.
Secure your savings today.
Past performance not a guarantee of future results.
Message and data rates apply.
First up today we talked to Don Trump Jr.
about the need for a parallel economy away from these liberal cancel culture lunatics
and these sellout Republicans signing on to this dreadful gun law.
Check it out.
Donald Trump Jr.
Don, welcome back to the show.
Good to be with you, Dan.
How are you?
Great.
So first, before we get to a lot of the topics du jour, I wanted to talk about, you know, tech, how the necessity of creating a parallel economy, Don, away from these cancel culture lunatics.
It's a necessity.
I wish it weren't.
I wish we could operate in a fair space.
It's not that way.
These people hate us.
They want us gone.
You have taken on this mantle.
Yeah, it's an app that just aggregates all of the news that's out there.
They've owned the news business forever. So you have this new app called MXM News. Tell us about it.
Yeah, it's an app that just aggregates all of the news that's out there.
But the problem where so many people get their news day now on social and other places,
you know, the algorithm just doesn't work for conservatives and for the stories that they want to see.
We saw that perhaps most perfectly with the Hunter Biden laptop.
We saw that with some of the news out of the Durham report, where the news existed.
There were people writing it, but people were literally censoring it and making sure that it would not be seen by the masses.
So some friends and I, we created MXM News.
You can go there.
You can literally scroll through.
We'll take all the news from all over the world, put it in one place.
You can choose for the categories that you're most passionate about.
So you get to see what's actually going on.
Uh, you know, if people want to download it, it's totally free.
Uh, you just go to my website.
It'll take you to where you can get it for Android or for iPhone.
Just go to Don jr.com, D O N J R.com.
But we've just tried to simplify it.
There's a lot of great companies out there that are now merging.
When we understand that we are just constantly up against the radical left and, but America's pushing back in, you saw that with what happened to Disney stock.
You saw that with what's happening in Netflix.
uh... you see it was happening in twitter uh... you know people are
finally on our side saying you know what you know that enough we've turned the
other cheek for far too long we're sick of giving people money who are
using it against the famine
you look at eighteen t_v_ the parent company of c_n_n_ like why would
you have your phone service with that what you could be with like
Right.
you know, Patriot Mobile, who donates to like, proper conservative politics.
We can choose, we just have to be out there and looking for these things.
And I think there's gonna be continuing, you know, you see what happened, you know, with Rumble.
You and I were some of the first people ever on Rumble.
You know, challenging YouTube and the nonsense that happens on there.
So there's a lot of stuff happening.
It's just a really exciting space, actually.
Well, Don, and you can get that app, folks, donjr.com, donjr.com.
It's the MXM News app.
Please pick that up today.
We saw what happened, Don.
I mean, we don't need other examples of this.
We saw it before the election between your father and Joe Biden.
The Hunter Biden information, that was real, we knew it was real, we had the receipt for the darn computer, was suppressed.
We found out after the election and polling that upwards of 17% of Biden voters, Don, said they would have voted differently if they had known this information about Hunter.
If we had this app and that news before, we may be looking at a far different scenario right now.
The evidence is right in front of you.
A hundred percent.
And it's not like they're protecting someone's personal information, because you and I both know, Dan, that I have a feeling that I would not have been given the same benefit of the doubt that Hunter Biden... I have a feeling the intelligence agencies would not have come out and said it's Russian disinformation with actually no proof of it other than they wanted it to be true and they knew they could manipulate it long enough to make it go away.
Now that Joe Biden's doing a disastrous job, now they're saying, oh well, you know, this is their way of throwing Joe Biden under the bus eventually.
Uh, you know, but we also have to remember that whatever's going on right now, that we're all so upset about it.
It actually has nothing to do with Joe Biden.
He's not capable of making those decisions.
He'll just sign whatever the radical Democrats put in front of him.
So what's going on in our country right now, Dan, whether it's at the grocery store, whether it's with baby formula, whether it's with, you know, being on the brink of World War III, whether it's with energy and energy pricing and fuel pricing, This is Democrat policy that we're experiencing.
This is everything they told you they would do.
Your job, be damned.
Your livelihood, your family, be damned.
We're going to push through a radical environmental policy.
If you can't afford five, six, seven, eight dollar gas, go buy an $80,000 electric vehicle.
Which, by the way, we don't have the capability of generating enough energy for because we have rolling blackouts all over America.
And that's before we add in millions and millions of coal-powered cars to fill that void.
We're talking to Don Jr.
Check out his new app for news, mxmnews at donjr.com.
Don, let me ask you a question.
You have been an enormous advocate for the right to self-protection enshrined in the Second Amendment.
You're an outdoorsman.
You're proud of that.
You post a lot about it.
Uh, these red flag laws that are being proposed by some members who claim to be Republicans, I have a red flag on them.
I mean, can you imagine the same government that spied on your dad, that suppressed, that had a role in suppressing through intelligence officials, the Hunter Biden laptop story.
You want to trust them with the ability To circumvent due process and take away people's right to defend themselves?
I mean, I could not think of a worse idea than this.
And the fact that some Republicans are playing along is just embarrassing.
Yeah, no, it's absolutely disgusting.
I mean, think about it.
I mean, not just those agencies, right?
The same people who said a concerned mother who asked about the indoctrination of their children in public schools was labeled a domestic terrorist by the FBI and by the DOJ, Dan.
Imagine letting every Karen that for the last five years has been wearing 15 masks while driving in a car by themselves.
Imagine giving her the power to call any law enforcement because their neighbor happens to take their kid duck hunting.
You know, I'm a big outdoorsman, but I'm also a big shooter.
I was a competitive shooter and, you know, pretty well ranked and all.
Like, this is a disaster.
The law enforcement officers would have no choice but to investigate.
There'd be no way for people to defend themselves.
The people who live in the more poor areas, who probably have higher crime rates around them, Uh, who actually would probably need to have the ability to protect themselves more.
They're the people that wouldn't even be able to fight the total lack of due process and would be spending tens of thousands of dollars to simply get their shotgun back.
Just imagine that though.
Every Karen we've seen in America, and man there was a lot more of them than I ever would have thought, could call law enforcement.
I don't like my neighbor.
He posted something a little bit off.
You better investigate him for mental stability.
Imagine Amber Heard could weaponize red flag laws against Johnny Depp.
Maybe that's the most sort of recent current example.
Right.
There'd be no end to this thing.
It would never stop.
And if you think that any of these people are actually doing this in good faith, that
they'd ever do this in good faith, you haven't been watching for the last two years, Dan,
because no one's acted in good faith.
Everything has been for a purpose.
Everything has been for an agenda, and everything has been for a narrative.
Not one thing that they talked about that they indoctrinated with us, that they jammed down our throats, everything that was a conspiracy theory all turned out to be 100% true once it no longer mattered, and once they weaponized it against conservatives.
If you think that's not going to happen with red flag laws times about a billion for the sole purpose of eliminating the Second Amendment entirely, you haven't been watching, folks.
Yeah, you're so right.
I didn't even bring up, initially, when I asked you the question, the FBI domestic terrorist thing against parents.
It's just, there's so many examples of this.
So, Don, your thoughts on this ridiculous committee that just, yesterday, they just came out and said it.
Benny Thompson, the chairman of this January 6th committee, he's like, oh, they're a clear and present danger.
He just basically came out and said it, that the only purpose to this committee, we learned nothing new.
Everything that's been said has been said.
Uh, we get it.
Like, everybody gets it.
Everybody's offered an opinion on it.
There's no new information.
The purpose of this committee is twofold.
It's to intimidate activists from getting behind your dad or another MAGA candidate around the country, number one.
And number two, most importantly, it's to keep your father as far away from the ballot in 2024 as possible.
There is no other legitimate purpose to this committee whatsoever.
Yeah, it's the red flag laws of political politics right now.
It's exactly that.
Let's try to create something out of nothing to prevent someone from doing something we don't want.
We don't want anyone challenging us in D.C.
I mean, I wish they gave the same benefit of the doubt to the people who suffered during two years
of the riots around George Floyd and BLM.
You know, there's no investigation of them.
There's no FBI visiting their homes.
All of those people, they didn't just get due process.
They had the vice president of the United States, a then-senator, bailing them out of jail,
whereas we have just literally peaceful protesters that still haven't received due process
that are sitting in jail.
You know Again, you see the system.
It's so heavily weighted against us.
If you think that anyone's acting in good faith, including a vast majority of the Republicans, Because don't forget, a lot of the things that my father actually accomplished was not because of Republicans, it was in spite of them.
That's what makes his accomplishments even more impressive.
It wasn't just that he was working against the most radical and rabid media in history, and the same with the Democrats.
It's that he didn't even have the, you know, the help of half the people in his party.
Look at Paul Ryan, right?
That guy that can't build a wall, that may actually offend someone.
Look at how that worked out.
You know, now you have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people streaming across the border.
You have a humanitarian crisis.
You have human trafficking and child sex trafficking operations going through, you know, like it's a playground.
You have drug trafficking and the fentanyl crisis exacerbated.
You have hundreds of thousands of people that will, you know, go on to get on government programs.
And you not only have the privilege of taking care of your family in a time where we all understand the real inflation numbers are probably closer to 20, 25 percent.
Well, you're already suffering.
You're paying more.
Your school systems are overloaded.
Your health care systems are overloaded.
Let's just add millions more people who you're going to get to pay for on top of your family that you're already struggling to make ends meet.
This is not a recipe for success for America, Dan.
This is a disgrace and a disaster waiting to happen.
But, you know, hey, it's Democratic Votes for Life, so, you know, why not do it?
Who cares about you, your family, your freedom, the Constitution?
Minor details like that, right?
Well, and Don, we're talking to Don Jr., download his new news app, MXM News at donjr.com.
The problem, Don, you know, you're actually in business, like in the real world, unlike these idiots up on the hill.
There's an opportunity cost to this.
You know, there's a cost to the foregone time.
You know, we could be spending all of these hours up on the hill trying to solve the inflation crisis, the immigration crisis, the regulatory morass we're in, the baby formula crisis, the fuel crisis, the diesel fuel crisis, the ag crisis, the Ukraine crisis.
And what are we spending it on?
Relitigating January 6th.
I just got one more question for you.
I'll let you go.
You've been generous with your time.
You know, your dad, when he ran in 2016 and again in 2020, he opened a lot of eyes in the minority community.
Don, the numbers are there.
That's not my opinion.
That's a fact.
Record numbers of Hispanic voters, black voters.
It was your father that did that.
Love him or hate him to these lefty nuts, your dad did that.
A lot of black and Hispanic voters for the first time voted GOP because of your dad.
Now we're seeing the effects of that.
Now, not that you're going to get any gratitude from the swampy Republicans, but look at what happened with this Mayra Flores in Texas 34.
A congressional seat we haven't won in 150 years.
Your dad started that.
The numbers are right there.
Yeah, listen, I travel probably more than any human being, probably certainly more than any Republican out there and Democrats.
I go all over the country doing this stuff.
I was down there a couple of months ago, you know, on the Texas border.
And I don't mean like Kamala Harris, where she was within 1300 miles of the real problem, but like actually on the border.
Because during COVID, I was supposed to do something there during my book tour for liberal privilege.
And they said, hey, we'd really love you to come back.
I'm like, oh, God.
I mean, this is clearly not a Republican area.
It got canceled during there.
But, you know, I'm a man of my word.
So I came back down.
And we had, like, 4,000 people in a church on the Sunday morning.
Not in a church.
I mean, just at an arena.
On a Sunday morning, they skipped church to hear what I had to say.
Like, this was a crowd that got it, man.
They understood exactly what that illegal immigration would do to their, again, their school systems, their healthcare systems, to their kids and their job prospects.
Like, they got it entirely.
I mean, that demographic fully understands it.
It's not just like, Florida, where you have a lot of Cuban, sort of Hispanic, Venezuelan, Hispanic, who escaped dictatorial regimes and socialism, who are like, yeah, no, we've been there, done that, enough of that.
It's happening in Texas as well, because people really get it.
Don, it's happening in the Bronx, Don.
The Bronx, I'm not kidding.
I saw a Democrat pollster say, look at what happened in the Bronx in the 2020 election.
Puerto Rican voters in the Bronx!
We're voting for your dad.
Don, I gotta run.
I don't want the clock to cut us off.
I want to get one more plug in.
Donjr, D-O-N-J-R dot com.
He has a new news app.
Get away from drudging these kooky news apps.
Go to Don's app.
It's M-X-M news.
M-X-M news.
Again, you can get it at Donjr.com and in the app stores.
Download it today.
Donjr, thanks for your time, bud.
You're always welcome back here anytime.
Thanks a lot, Dan.
Have a great one.
You got it, buddy.
You too.
He said it right, folks.
It wasn't just Texas.
The Bronx.
There were Puerto Rican voters in the Bronx voting in record numbers for Republicans.
That was Don Trump Jr.
Up next, we talk with Fox News' Pete Hegseth, but let me get to our next sponsor first.
If you're in the market for a rifle, shotgun, or revolver, you want to go with the best in the business, and as far as I'm concerned, that's Henry Repeating Arms.
You'll be amazed by their quality craftsmanship and buttery smooth action that makes them a pleasure to shoot.
Mine were accurate right out of the box and they've been reliable ever since.
The best way to learn about Henry Repeating Arms 200 models is to go to HenryUSA.com and order their free catalog.
The catalog is a great guide to showcasing their Made in America firearms, plus you'll get free decals, a list of dealers in your area, and a great newsletter.
Henry's are backed with a lifetime warranty for 100% satisfaction.
They're made in America or they won't be made at all.
And if you have questions, you can call the reward winning customer service department to speak with an expert who can help you.
Make sure you go to henryusa.com to order their free catalog and decals.
The best way to learn about Henry Repeating Arms 200 models is to go to henryusa.com and order their free catalog.
That's henryusa.com to order a free catalog and decals and to learn more about this great American company.
If you're looking for a firearm, I wholeheartedly recommend Henry Repeating Arms.
They make 200 models of rifles, shotguns, and revolvers in a wide variety of calibers and finishes.
Plus, they have new releases throughout the year.
And trust me, folks, you just can't beat their quality.
The best way to learn about Henry Firearms is to order their free catalog to check out their line at home.
Plus, you'll get two free decals, a list of dealers in your area, and a great newsletter.
Just go to HenryUSA.com and click on the free catalog button in the top right corner.
Henry Repeating Arms uses old-world craftsmanship combined with cutting-edge technology to deliver reliability and accuracy you can trust.
They're easy to use and maintain, making them an excellent choice for personal and property defense, hunting and the shooting sports, and beginners.
And they're made in America, or they won't be made at all.
Remember to order their free catalog and decals at HenryUSA.com.
Just go to HenryUSA.com and click on the free catalog button in the top right corner.
That's HenryUSA.com and click on the free catalog button in the top right corner.
You're going to love this company.
Here's my friend Pete Hegseth talking about his new book, Battle for the American Mind.
It is a great book.
I read it.
I endorse it.
How the education system has been undermining us and our kids for more than a century.
And importantly, what we can do to fix it.
Folks, you know if you've been a regular listener to either the radio content here or my podcast that I have been obsessed with the topic of education for a long time.
Folks, we don't fix the education system.
The politics are irrelevant.
And there's a book out right now, out today, for you to pick up by my good friend, Pete Hegseth, that is, to call it eye-opening, and I am not hyping this, I am telling you for a fact, to call it eye-opening is probably underselling it.
Welcoming to the show, back to the show, Pete Hegseth, author of the book, Battle for the American Mind, a must-read.
Pete, thanks for spending some time with us today, we appreciate it.
Thank you, Dan, I really appreciate the support.
You got it.
Well, Pete, you were kind enough to give me an advanced copy months ago.
The book folks is incredible.
Let's start at the beginning.
Pete, this attack on our education system, this war, this isn't new.
None of this is new.
In the book, you thoroughly document how this has been a multi decades long generational effort to corrupt our kids' minds.
Tell us a little bit about it.
Yeah, Dan, they were open about it and they were intentional.
And I think a lot of us took the assumption that maybe it started in the sixties.
The sixties were the result.
of a project that happened 40 years earlier, starting in the early 20th century, where progressives intentionally started to tinker and experiment with the idea of school.
They thought if they could create new types of schools, and the types of schools they created are the types that we effectively have now.
The bell ringing, social studies, Pledge of Allegiance without under God in it.
There's a lot of things they inserted so they could remove more traditional values, biblical values, and begin their project of capturing The mind of our kids.
And the reason we know about it, Dan, is they wrote openly about it.
In the New Republic, the publication du jour of the left at the time, John Dewey and others about atheists and socialists, it always comes back to atheists and socialists and now Marxists, plotted to... They knew the universities, they would eventually, you know, push their theories there, but they knew if they could capture the affections And the dreams and the views of the youngest, they could mold future citizens who would be captive to their ideas, and that's exactly what they've done.
We're talking to Pete Hegseth, author of Battle for the American Mind, out today, a must-read book in our education system.
Pete, I watched you on Fox & Friends this morning discussing that exact point, that the leftists who started this school reformation project, or whatever euphemisms they like to call this cultural corruption, They wrote openly about it.
They were not hiding this.
It wasn't in any way cryptic.
They wrote about it.
You document it.
It's right there.
They told you what they wanted to do and we just dropped the ball on this over the course of decades.
It's true.
And actually, remember, progressive is a term we use to a political ideology today.
It was a political movement in the early 20th century.
They looked reasonable, even patriotic, when compared to some of the anarchists that were committing political assassinations and communists of the time.
So they were tolerated.
In fact, even welcomed later on Marxists who landed at Columbia University.
At the most preeminent teacher's college.
And what did they push at that teacher's college in Columbia?
Critical theory.
Critical theory is premised on the deconstruction of the West, of the Western structures.
We know it today as critical race theory and critical gender theory.
But Hemingway once said, things happen gradually until they happen suddenly.
And in COVID-19, when the classroom came into our homes and parents were mortified by the gender pronouns being taught to seven-year-olds in the 1619 Project, that was the suddenly aspect to the hundred years that preceded it where they took control of every... I'm not kidding, Dan.
You know this.
Every aspect of the educational-industrial complex.
Teachers' colleges, unions, of course, we know that.
Curriculum, now today testing and standards.
So if you want to become a teacher in 99% of schools, you have to go through that pipeline and, you know, pay homage to the progressive view of the world.
But Jim, make sure we put this on the podcast interview show next time too.
I want, this is an important interview.
Talking to Pete Hegseth, author of a book out today.
Please pick it up.
I implore you.
I'm not publishing the book.
I have no dog in this fight.
Pete's a friend, but this is an issue critical to me.
It's called battle for the American mind.
Pete, I'm so glad you mentioned critical theory.
You know, people work for a living.
This is what you and I do.
I mean, our job is to go and look at what the left is up to and talk about it.
We're opinion guys.
That's not what they... People, you know, they're architects or pilots.
We say they have real jobs.
You and I have great... What we do is really hard.
What you did prior was real work, but what we do now is a lot of fun.
I enjoy it.
But I'm glad you mentioned critical theory.
It is a precursor to critical race theory, the idea that the white male patriarchy is a source of power and that knowledge is a construct of power.
It's been an ongoing effort, as you accurately stated, to deconstruct allegiance to the United States and any ideas of patriotism by questioning anything, math, whatever it is, any knowledges.
Oh, that's just a white male patriarchy.
Critical race theory was an offshoot of that.
But this is all intentional.
It's a way to detach you from any objective values at all.
God-given rights, math, science.
That way they can come and subject their own subjective nonsense in there.
Hence, they created the social sciences, social studies, which replace traditional studies
like history, civics, economics, philosophy, theology, geography, the types of courses
that even we took maybe when we were in elementary and high school.
A lot of those things have been molded, folded into how we, and today it's activism.
How can you as an activist challenge the existing power structures, which are inherently racist
and based on the white male patriarchy, so as to bring about equity?
When you hear diversity, equity, and inclusion, that is a total metamorphosis from the ideas
of equal opportunity.
They did that intentionally toward their goal.
And when you look at how they did it, they crafted it by putting in subtly forgeries
of things we value early on.
So when they removed something, replaced it with something else that sounded good, so that people who work for a living, like you pointed out, were providing for their families, might sort of shrug their shoulders at it and say, that doesn't look right, but okay.
And they kept plodding along until suddenly we poke our heads up, And it's drag queen story hour in our local public school, or worse off, in our private schools or Christian schools.
The majority of the education system, unless you're very intentional about it, is still completely driven by the progressive prerogative, and today it is not just bias, it is not just indoctrination, it is now activism.
You know, let me tell you something interesting.
You and I haven't talked about this yet off the air or anything like this on a planned segment.
You were on my show two weeks ago and you read two small segments from the book on the air.
Now, ordinarily, you know, you and I are in this business.
When you read a lot of stuff, especially long stuff on the air, people tend to tune out.
As you know, we get minute by minute breakdowns on Fox or the show.
Your segment exploded when you were reading that.
That is how much people I'm not messing with it.
I can send you the screenshots.
You can probably get them anywhere.
It is Sabrina, you and I both.
It went nuts.
And it's because parents are so furious at what you expose in this book.
The generational decay of our education system.
One of the things you address too, and have been repeatedly since you put this book together with David, your co-author, right?
Is choice.
School choice is great.
But it's not good enough.
Curriculum matters.
You just kind of hinted at it.
If you're choosing between a far-left, captured, woke, Christian school, air quotes, and a far-left, woke, public school, what's the difference?
Either way, your kid is screwed.
Curriculum matters.
You've been hammering this point.
You're exactly right, Dan, and that's why five chapters of the book are about the solution.
And a lot of it is about encouraging parents to break down our preconceived notions about, well, we pay taxes, and I work hard for a living, and we move to this zip code, or we like the teacher.
You know, it's just like the congressional axiom, I can't stand Congress, but I like my local congressman.
The same thing happens with public school.
People say, well, public school's a mess, but my local public school's okay, and we have to disavow ourselves of that notion.
Because it's almost everywhere.
And school choice becomes a component of it, Dan, eventually, later on.
But first, we have to, what I've said, pull your kids out and find something that will enrich their minds, teach them to reason, think freely.
This is not about hiding history or hiding them from big ideas.
It's about preparing them and molding them to be able to enter into a culture awash with nonsense and be able to cut through that nonsense. So we're a big advocate of classical
Christian school. David and I, he runs an association around that. There are hundreds of
them, almost 500 in America. There are homeschooling options, there are online options, hybrid
options, co-op options.
If there's something, if you know how wrong it is, and you'll know after you read this book,
there are options for you if you're willing to make the bold step.
Then later on, once we've made those bold steps, we can get to policy reforms like universal educational choice, which is a good thing, but it's not sufficient at this moment, Dan.
I appreciate you highlighting that, because it's an important point.
Yeah, curriculum choice is only great if there's a choice amongst curriculums, and one of them has to be superior, and that's the one where we use the R's, the reading, the writing, the arithmetic, and we can teach, you know, love of country.
Pete Eggseth, one last question, I'll let you go.
I know you've got a busy day ahead of you.
Pete is author of the book, Battle for the American Mind.
Pete, when you were putting together the idea to pitch this book, Were you inspired by, was it the COVID crisis, the parents waking up seeing the Zoom classes for the first time?
Was it the, you know, CRT push that opened people's eyes?
Was it the Merrick Garland stuff?
I mean, what incentivized you to write this book?
Because it's a really important piece right now and the timing couldn't have been more fortuitous.
The timing was fortuitous and I would argue in some ways providential.
We started this project before COVID, before the nonsense of everything.
It was because it had been evident to me.
I mean, those of us, you and I, you've been talking about it for years.
It was evident there was a problem.
And then I partnered with David.
He'd done a lot of the research about the progressives.
I knew a lot more about the modern area.
We combined our notes and said, There's a story to be told here.
And then as we were writing it, Dan, we couldn't keep up.
We couldn't keep up with updating the madness of what was going on as we were writing it, because it was unfolding before our eyes.
So I think it is, humbly said, a book for The Times for people looking for some answers about K-12.
And I cannot thank you enough as a friend and a patriot Well, number one, you know, I love you to death.
You're one of the most loyal friends I have in this entire business, first.
But I'm telling my audience, candidly, that I don't let my feelings get involved with the content of my show.
Jim gets pitched on books all the time.
I'm telling you guys in my audience that this book It's probably one of the most important books you're gonna read unless it's not one of those fluff books in conservative media where someone gets thrown a bunch of garbage and puts her this is a this is an eye-opener clockwork orange style I'm telling you I when Pete asked me to take a look at it and put my name on it I was like after I read it I said you're damn right
It's called Battle for the American Mind, one of the most important things you're going to read this year, maybe in your lifetime, by Pete Hegseth, my good friend.
Pete, thanks for your time.
Try to get some rest today.
You've got a busy day of PR, so try to get some Z's.
All right, buddy.
Thanks for coming on.
You got it, pal.
Pete Hegseth, folks.
Battle for the American Mind.
I kid you not.
I didn't publish it.
I wish I had.
But I really wish I would have thought of the idea because this is such a critical issue to me.
Education is a civil rights issue of our time.
I can tell you with the deepest of passions I would not be here speaking to you in coherent English sentences today if it wasn't for a de facto school choice hitting me.
The public school in my area was terrible.
PS 68.
It was awful.
And my parents scrounged together the money.
Sometimes, sometimes we came up a little short to go to Catholic school, St.
Pancras on Myrtle Avenue in Queens.
And then I went to a high school that wasn't a public high school because Franklin K Lane was my high school and it was terrible.
My parents sent me to Archbishop Malloy, one of the best high schools in the country.
Changed my life.
Yeah, well, choked up thinking about it.
Like, I could've been a totally different person.
Like I said, I got no financial stake in this game, folks.
I'm just telling you, Pete's a good man, and the book is important.
Battle for the American Mind.
Pete Agsa.
Pick it up.
Read it.
Own it.
You need it.
We don't fix the education system.
All this other stuff is just... just a waste of time.
That was Pete Hegseth.
Great interview there.
Up next is Senator Rand Paul.
We'll get to that in a second.
Let me tell you about our next sponsor first.
Here's Senator Rand Paul.
Talked to us about a variety of issues, including inflation, the inflation crisis, Colombia, electing a socialist, gun control, or air quotes, gun control, the bill before the Senate.
What happens in the Senate?
Dr. Fauci and more.
It's a great interview.
A lot here.
Check it out.
Welcoming back to the show, U.S.
Senator in the great state of Kentucky, Rand Paul.
Senator Paul, thanks for joining us.
Hey, Dan.
Thanks for having me.
Of course.
Senator, you're probably seeing this right now, Joe Biden, who seems to be lost in the White House, calling for a gas tax pause.
I have a theory on this.
I'd love to get your take.
I think the Republicans should double down.
I think they should turn around and say, you know what?
Now that you're a big tax cutter, Joe, we agree.
It's a great idea.
Let's pause it for six months.
Let's double it.
And while you're at it, let's throw an amendment in there to make the Trump tax cuts permanent.
Your thoughts on that?
We shouldn't run from this.
We should embrace it.
Well, absolutely on making the tax cuts permanent.
But I don't think we have any Democrat votes for that.
And it will point out their hypocrisy.
But really, I think we need to keep drilling down on the cause of the gas prices going up in the first place.
There's generalized inflation, and that's from the massive $6 trillion we borrowed in the last two years.
When the Fed buys the debt, they create all this new money.
When it enters circulation to all the different $1,400 checks they passed out to everyone, it increases demand and the prices rise.
So that's responsible for the prices across the board going up.
In gas, there are some specific reasons.
Well, you have an administration who says they want to end the era of gasoline-powered cars.
So that scares people to death and scares the marketplace to death.
You have an administration that doesn't want to let people drill for oil, so when you have restrictions on the supply, basically the price goes up.
And there's also the war, so I think speculation on the war has added to the problems, but it's one thing after another, and they act as if they don't understand what causes inflation, but basically deficits and the financing of deficits by the Federal Reserve is what causes inflation, and the way you fix inflation is you've got to quit adding to the debt.
Yeah, we're talking to Senator Rand Paul.
Yes, Senator, this is obviously a gimmick by Biden.
But you know what?
What I find strange about this is you're a man of science, you're a doctor, but I've been following you and your father for a long time.
And you've been talking about these things forever, that if you're going to have fiat money, Not bedrocked in anything other than the faith and credit of a government that has no intention of keeping a stable money supply, that eventually you're going to get inflation.
You've only been talking about this for, what, 20 years?
As long as I've been in politics, I've heard you and even your dad mentioning it.
Now you've been proved prescient, right, correct.
And again, it seems to be like the data is always on our side, yet we mysteriously continue to lose this debate.
And I think it's this intermediary we call the media here that just keeps telling people that, no, no, if we try it this time, it'll definitely work.
I don't know if we're losing the debate because I think the winds are behind us coming to November.
And in November, People are going to attach blame to the rising gas prices and grocery prices.
They're going to attach blame to the lack of formula on the shelves, the bare shelves for other supplies as well.
And I think the blame is going squarely on the shoulders of Democrats and Biden.
So I think people are smarter.
You know, the media hasn't got it.
And the media is promoting fairy tales like green causes inflation.
But I think we just keep hammering back.
I mean, one of the indications of inflation is a measure of the money supply called the M2.
It's gone up 15% annualized over the last three years, and last January it was going up at a 27% annualized rate.
So when you increase the money supply, basically to pay or buy the debt that we have incurred by spending too much, that's what inflation is.
And so it's an expansion of the money supply, and I think people get that.
Even the people who receive the $1,400 checks kind of say to themselves, Well, I know this really can't be free.
This is some kind of scam, right?
Aren't I going to have to pay somehow?
Well, that's what's happening now.
The inflation tax is to pay for the free checks that went out.
And in the end, some people are paying much more for gas now than they ever received in the stimulus checks.
Talking to Senator Rand Paul.
Senator, I get your point.
You're right.
I think in the short term, you're correct.
I don't want to be overly apocalyptic.
I think Biden's approval numbers are clearly indicative that the argument that we could spend money without consequence has kind of gone by the wayside.
But I think long term, we just, the media keeps blocking, you know, running like an offensive tackle, blocking the story.
I'll give you a perfect example, not to get into global affairs, but Gustavo Petro in Colombia.
Senator, the guy's a devout communist.
He just got elected in Colombia.
Countries in South America, some of them, were just starting to turn the corner.
And you have this pernicious idea, this socialist idea of top-down authoritarianism led by big government spending and economic control that just continues to resurface around the world.
And you'd think after this inflation crisis we could like finally put this thing to bed for once.
Yeah, and there's so much that can be learned by looking at the failures in South America.
You know, my wife and I wrote a book called The Case Against Socialism, and in it we tell the story of socialism in Venezuela.
They've destroyed their money.
Prices are rising at 50 percent, not a year, a month.
There's a lack of food.
The average person in Venezuela has lost 30 pounds, not from dieting, but from lack of food.
And their system, their economic system is socialism.
The generals get fat.
The dear leader president for life gets fat.
But the ordinary citizen is scrounging around.
There are actually stories of people eating their pets for lack of food.
But Venezuela has more oil underground than Saudi Arabia.
So you can take a rich country with lots of natural resources and destroy it with socialism.
That's the story we need to keep talking about because some of the young people in our country think it would be a good idea to try socialism.
But it's been a disaster everywhere it's been tried.
Yeah, sure has.
Talking to Senator Rand Paul.
Senator, moving on to something I know, you know, close to your heart, civil liberties, the Constitution, this bill, this gun bill, which was probably thrown on your desk last night with little time to read it.
The bill has a number of provisions in there, which I find incredibly disturbing.
The red flag provision in there which provides federal money to states to incentivize this.
It's very unclear about if there are going to be public defenders, what the due process is going to look like.
It throws a lot of buzzwords around.
And second, it appears to attempt to redefine who a federal firearms licensee is.
Without question.
We got it last night at 6.30 and voted at 7.30.
We were given one hour to read it.
Does that mean if Rand Paul gets a firearm through his kid and sells it for a dollar
more?
I mean, these are the kind of things we should probably read these bills, don't you think,
before we sign on to these?
Sounds like trouble.
Without question.
We got it last night at 630 and voted at 730.
We were given one hour to read it.
It is and does have direct impact on the Constitution, on the Second Amendment.
And so it was not nearly enough time to examine it.
Now, there is one thing on the face of it that I do support, and that is allowing criminal
records of 16 to 18 year olds to be seen.
If you've committed murder, you've committed rape, assault, if you've committed animal cruelty, frankly, when you're 15 or 16 years old, making that part of the background checks, I'm fine with.
The problem is, this is a lot of money that's going to support states with red flag laws, What I would do is add amendments to this bill, and I'm offering about five amendments that will go in.
Well, they won't let me offer them, but I'll try to put them in in the next day or two.
One says that a state, through a red flag law, can't do what's called ex parte.
That means that a judge can't take away your rights without you appearing and without you getting an attorney.
So it can't be a judge's ruling without... Sometimes these rulings are done, these orders to take guns away are done, without you even being notified, even that there's been an accusation made.
The accusations also should not be anonymous.
Several of the states that have passed red flag laws say you can make an anonymous accusation.
I know of no system of justice where that would be just, and so I've introduced amendments to say you would get defense counsel, you would get a hearing, that it can't be anonymous, and that the standard for judging whether or not you lose gun rights should not be something that's reasonable, but should be the constitutional standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.
And I've actually told him I would consider even looking at the bill if you were to pass these amendments protecting the rights of gun owners in your red flag laws.
But so far we're hearing is that no amendments will be allowed.
There'll be no votes on amendments, which is a sure way to get conservatives very, very suspicious of the process.
We're talking to Senator Rand Paul, one of the good guys.
Senator, you're up there.
You've been living this for a while now.
I don't know the system like you do.
Is this how this stuff is designed to operate, where the bill's drafted with a bunch of insiders behind closed doors, some colleagues of yours, but who are connected to leadership?
We know that.
You don't get to see it.
This is par for the course.
This is the way they typically do it.
Sometimes it's even worse.
This bill was 80 pages and we were given one hour.
Is that the way stuff, I mean, I'm reasonably confident, having done a lot of homework on
our founding fathers, that this isn't the system of deliberation they designed.
This is par for the course.
This is the way they typically do it.
Sometimes it's even worse.
This bill was 80 pages and we were given one hour.
Occasionally we've had two or 3,000 page bills that were given an hour or two.
So this is the kind of thing.
That's why I have a bill called Read the Bills Act.
I know that sounds extraordinary, but I would have them read the bills and I would have them wait one day for every twenty pages.
This is an 80-page bill.
I would have had four reading days so we could read it, hear from our constituents.
I'd like to hear from hunters and gun owners in Kentucky.
I'd like to hear from constitutional professors in Kentucky and around the country.
I'd like to read articles about it.
Instead, my staff and I were scrambling to get a first read through this.
Really, not always knowing the implication.
Usually it's like strike line 42, and you don't know what 42 is until you look it up in another book to find out what was line 42.
And to replace words from may to shall to might to mandate to require, there's a lot of little changes that can make a big difference.
But the bottom line is this.
There's one good idea and that is that people committing crimes from 15 to 18, that'll show up in the background checks.
I'm okay with that.
But the problem with the funding of the red flag laws is they do a lot of things that are not constitutional.
You should always be accused openly.
You should know of your accusation and you should be able to get a lawyer and have a court proceeding.
No one should accuse you anonymously and you should have the constitutional standard of being guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Not some judge without a lawyer says, oh yeah, it's pretty reasonable to take his guns.
So, you know, I hope there'd be a full-blown debate on this, but what's most disturbing to me is that we are looking at Things that affect the Second Amendment of the Constitution and that there will not be any debate or any vote on the amendment.
That's my prediction.
I could be wrong, but my guess is that I will not be allowed to present my amendments and that's not very democratic.
I'm gonna guess you're right.
My producer Jim's shaking his head that you have to introduce a bill that allows you to read the bill.
He can't believe it either.
Last question.
I'll let you go.
I know you're busy.
You have questioned and done a very good job questioning Dr. Fauci.
He's paid by the taxpayers.
Senator, as you well know, he's not your orthopedist.
He is a public figure paid by us who should be questioned.
And you had asked him about potential royalties.
Payments to people in the government from some of the companies involved in the production of some of the COVID medical treatments.
Did you ever get an answer?
I noticed he was very evasive.
He said he didn't know or he would look.
Did you ever get an answer on that?
So a non-profit group asked the NIH how many physicians or scientists get royalties and how much.
They wouldn't give us the names of the researchers and they wouldn't give us the companies, but they did reveal that 1,800 scientists got $193 million.
So this is not chump change.
This is a decent amount of money, but they refuse to tell us the companies and they refuse to tell us the individuals.
So that's all been redacted.
You would think this is like the Atomic Secrets or something on how to make an atomic bomb.
They've redacted all of it.
But it's basically to cover their ass.
They don't want to have it revealed.
But the question I asked Fauci was this.
Is there anybody on the committees approving the vaccines that has gotten royalties from the companies making the vaccines?
And he says, oh, the law doesn't require us to reveal that.
And I said, well, common sense does, and every sense of duty and responsibility and transparency and sunshine argues that, yes, we should know who got the royalties, and if anybody got them and they didn't, that's fine.
Let us know.
But it makes me very suspicious when they white it all out or when they black it all out.
That was a great question.
When I heard it, I was actually stunned, Senator.
I mean, this is what I do for a living.
I follow this.
I did not see that coming.
I thought that was an obvious answer.
Of course not.
We don't get royalties.
And the minute he started hemming and hawing, I knew there was trouble.
Senator Rand Paul, one of the good guys.
Thanks for your fight for liberty and freedom up there.
We always appreciate it.
Thanks for joining the show.
Thanks, Dan.
You got it.
Senator Rand Paul, folks.
We do have a few good guys.
That's a great idea for an amendment, Jim.
No ex parte.
You actually get to show up, be told by your accuser what you're being accused of, and you get an attorney.
Shocking idea!
I love his other bill even more.
The let us read the bill act or whatever it's called.
I wish we were kidding.
That's a great idea.
Let us read the bill you expect us to vote on.
Jim was shaking his head during the interview.
He's like, do you really have to introduce the bill to do this?
Apparently so.
Apparently so.
That was Senator Rand Paul.
First, let me tell you about our final sponsor.
Free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment.
Across the country, your constitutional rights are under constant attack.
And you know what?
It's only getting worse by the day, which is why I'm proud to support Patriot Mobile.
They're not just America's only Christian conservative cell phone provider, they're one of the few companies fighting back.
They offer the same nationwide coverage as the major carriers, so you get the same great service, plus the peace of mind that your money is combating the left's attempts to silence you.
Patriot Mobile has plans to fit any budget, and their 100% U.S.-based customer support team provides exceptional customer support.
Patriot Mobile shares your values and supports organizations fighting for religious freedom, constitutional rights, the sanctity of life, and our veteran and first responder heroes.
Go to patriotmobile.com slash Dan or call 972-PATRIOT.
Get free activation with the offer code Dan.
Veterans and first responders, you save even more, so make that switch today.
Between the left, the media, and the rhinos, we have to stick together.
Patriotmobile.com slash Dan.
Patriotmobile.com slash Dan or call 972-PATRIOT.
Thanks for listening to this special Sunday podcast.
If you want to find out where you can hear these interviews live in a radio show, just go to bongino.com.
And it's been a big week for us, folks.
The Supreme Court decision on firearm laws is super important.
It is a God-given right.
It is not a Constitution-granted right.
The Constitution only protects the right to self-protection you've been granted by God.
And I find the irony of the whole thing to be that these liberal states keep passing these liberal laws.
These liberal laws keep getting challenged in court.
Liberals keep losing.
Therefore, it's some of these liberal blue states that are actually contributing to the enshrinement of Second Amendment God-given rights into law.
It's the greatest irony of all.
You keep trying to take them away, we'll keep fighting back.
