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April 25, 2023 - The Dan Bongino Show
56:00
The Shocking Details About Tucker And Fox News (Ep. 1998) - 04/25/2023
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Thank you.
Listen, there are a couple figures in media who are A-teamers.
You know, I've always been realistic about my role in the whole media ecosystem, okay?
I'm a B-guy.
I'm a B-guy.
Is nothing wrong with the B-guy?
I don't mean it's an insult.
You know, that D-list, that's from socialites.
No, I mean, if there was a grading system, A, B, C, D, E, whatever, down the alphabet, you got your A-guys in media that are going to bring an audience wherever they go.
And keep in mind, this is regardless of their politics.
You've got your Rush Limbaugh's, sadly not with us anymore.
You've got your Donald Trump's, people who command the media.
Your Joe Rogan's.
And I've got to tell you, I think I'd put Tucker Carlson in that category too.
Your Howard Stern's.
Again, I'm not suggesting that these people, like Stern specifically, I think lost his way a while ago.
But these are guys who can command media.
There's no doubt about it.
Tucker was one of those guys, and I gotta tell you, I am still in shock about his departure from Fox News.
I've had a day to think about it.
I've got a lot of thoughts on this now.
So bear with me in the show today.
There's a lot to get to.
You know, we gotta remember, he served as a really important check, Tucker, on the establishment GOP, which had dominated the political ecosystem for years on the right.
Dominated him.
The think tankers, the donors, those are real people.
He served as a really important check on that.
A lot to discuss today.
It's going to be a fascinating show.
Stay tuned.
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All right, Joseph.
Let's go, Daddy O. Welcome to one of the world's most fascinating shows.
I hope that's a Joe segwaying from our conversation pre-show about how the media landscape is changing so fast and so rapidly.
But you've got to remember, there are people who...
I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a friend.
I will leave the friend's name out of it.
But was asking me all kinds of questions about what should I do, a podcast or this or the other thing.
And the friend of mine, I said to her, you know...
If you've got to ask to be on shows, you're in a little bit of trouble.
Wouldn't you agree, Joe?
Like, there are people who are on the A, B, and I'd argue even the C list.
And I know that C list has a negative connotation, but throw that out for a minute.
The A, B, and C, they don't need to go fetch media.
Media comes to them.
All the time.
Joe knows what I'm talking about.
Don't call us, we'll call you.
Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly.
And then you start getting a D, E, and F, and then you have to start pushing people to have you on.
Tucker's not one of those people.
Tucker commands media presence.
It gives him a different amount of cachet in the business.
He, instead of just reciting news, he makes news.
He's an A-list guy.
I would put him in there again with Rush, who, again, is obviously not with us.
Rogan.
And Stern, people who, they just command media.
What they say can make news.
They attract people to them.
They don't have to go and attract themselves to other people.
There's going to be a heavy, heavy bidding war, I assume, for his services at some point, Tucker, at some point, whenever he's ready.
I don't know what his contract is.
It's not my business.
I haven't asked and no one discloses it to me.
But you've got to remember, too, Tucker commanded a pretty heavy presence on the libertarian-leaning side of the Republican Party, too.
The side that's skeptical about Ukraine.
The side that was skeptical early on about COVID. When Tucker was one of the first people out there to say, hey, do these masks work?
What about this vaccine thing?
Tucker's always been a skeptic of this effort to democracy build overseas.
And this, you have to remember, created a significant rift with the establishment GOP, which I promise you is very, very real.
Very real.
He's got a ton of options moving forward.
Now, Daily Mail covered this in this piece I'm going to get to here in a second.
It's all in the newsletter today, Bongino.com slash newsletter.
But a couple things, because I got a lot of email yesterday and texts and solicitations from people saying, Dan, did you know?
I did not know.
I told you my contract situation and Tucker's were completely, totally different.
It was definitely not acrimonious on my end at all.
And there was no reason for it to be.
We just couldn't agree on terms.
I mean, I don't want to do this show again, but being that Tucker was let go, everybody's kind of attaching us together.
I'm a big supporter of Tucker Carlson's content, but I'm telling you that our contracts and what happened with him were completely disparate incidents.
I know.
I was there.
Remember, I don't have an agent.
I do my own deals.
Lawyers, I have lawyers.
I don't have agents.
I use my own business acumen to negotiate deals.
But he's got a ton of options.
And because he can command media, and he's an A-list guy who makes news by the things he says, Rather than, you know, reciting the news like a lot of other people in the business happen to do, he is going to get major league attraction and magnetism from other places.
The Daily Mail is one of many outlets already speculating what will Tucker do next.
Austin Fox News host can start his own online show, join a rival network like former anchors, or even end up running for president.
Now, I'm going to get to the screenshot from this piece in a minute.
They described some interesting options.
I'm going to go through today.
I'm going to do something different than other people have done.
I have not spoken to Tucker.
I've reached out, but I have not spoken to him about any of this at all.
So don't read into any of this too much.
But I want to go through each of the options because it applies to a lot of people.
And I want to explain to you why it's different than hosts in the past who have left.
You have had other people who've left in the past.
Some have done exceptionally well, i.e.
Megyn Kelly.
Megyn Kelly is...
I'm in the podcast business.
I can tell you right now, I follow it.
I am a rabid capitalist and I'm super competitive.
Megyn Kelly's show gets a ton of viewership.
She makes news over there.
Megyn's one of those Maybe A people too.
She can make news herself.
She went out, did her own thing.
She's doing just fine.
I mean, I gotta tell you, I'm not sure she even regrets leaving.
She's probably making a good fortune over there.
It's definitely in the high millions on what she's doing over there.
Other people haven't been so successful.
I think a Shep Smith.
Shep, Joe, wouldn't you agree?
People watched, was it the 3 o'clock show when Shep was there because it was Fox, not because it was Shep.
Exactly.
And you can tell because when Shep left, nobody followed him, but everybody stayed at Fox.
So I think one of the mistakes, and I'm sorry, live chat, folks.
If this isn't interesting, let me know.
If this is too palace intriguing, you too.
Let me know, but...
I've got so many questions about this yesterday.
There's so much speculation going viral.
I was trending yesterday, Tucker, that I think people find this stuff really interesting because this is where they spend their time every day and they almost want to see behind the scenes.
So I'm going to give you a little bit without breaking any confidences of people trusting me with information.
He says we got 30,000 concurrents, so I guess it is.
I guess people are interested.
Listen, other people like Chef made this critical mistake.
They overvalued their own content.
He was under the assumption at some point, and so was MSNBC, who I think he left for, that people were watching Fox for him.
They were not.
They were not.
Other people have made this same mistake.
It is a critical error.
Fox has a specific amount of brand loyalty where people will tune in at 2 o'clock in the morning if they have to because it's just what they watch.
If you're on or Joey freaking bag of donuts, doesn't matter.
Megan and Tucker, and I'd argue Glenn as well, Glenn Beck, were different.
They left.
Fox News will be fine.
Fox News is going to continue on.
I mean, I think the cord cutting is going to be a significant problem in the future, not just for Fox, but for everyone.
I don't think that's a mystery at all.
But that's a cable news problem, not a Fox-specific problem.
Vox will go on, but the difference now is with all of these different disparate avenues for you to get content out there, Rumble, ScrewTube, all of these other vehicles you have, Twitter to get out there, you don't need anyone anymore.
Megan, Glenn, and Tucker are going to be just fine.
The Daily Mail covers this in this piece.
He said that a long line of cable news outlets and media organizations, Newsmax and NewsNation, are already eyeing up Carlson, hoping to recruit him.
I'm going to get into that in a second.
The pros and cons of each of these.
I'm not bashing anyone.
Just as a guy who's been in every one of these spaces, podcasts, radio and TV, I'm in kind of a unique spot to talk about it, don't you think?
I don't think anybody does what we do.
Anyone.
That has a national radio show, a totally different podcast, and had a TV show too.
I'm almost 100% confident of that.
They said he can go it alone through podcasts, which would attract the financial support of wealthy conservative activists.
Maybe.
There's also an outside chance Tucker could embark on his own political career with a shot at the White House.
So, given that this topic has elicited an incredible amount of conversation, let's go through each one.
Assuming, by the way, and I'm assuming because I don't know, That Tucker doesn't have some kind of non-compete.
And I don't know that.
I'm not privy to his contract.
I'm not nosy like that.
I haven't asked anyone.
It's not my business.
But he definitely has options.
So let's go through it one by one because you may be thinking about this yourself.
And a lot of news people in this business, I know that because they tell me it's not some kind of like, hey, look at me, pat myself on the back like an a-hole.
It's just true.
They go, hey, man, I love your show.
Listen every day.
So some of those people listening, I'm going to warn you, make sure that if you're going to leave a place that people are watching for you and not for the network.
If you are, podcasting could be a good option.
Let's go through them one by one.
Podcasting pros and cons.
Here's kind of one of the pros.
Tucker Carlson, again, as I told you, is a newsmaker.
The minute he announces a podcast, Tucker Carlson today, the Tucker podcast, the Tucker cast, Tuckast, I don't know what he's going to call it.
The minute he announces it, it's news.
He has this thing in the business Joe is familiar with as well.
He doesn't need promotion.
He has the ability to generate what's called earned media.
Tucker Carlson has built a body of work.
About penetrating into the culture and the population with enough material that he makes news.
So when he says, hey, I'm going to do the Tucker Carlson cast, Tucker cast, it's instantly a news story.
Whereas, let's be honest, if Joey Bag of Donuts is doing a podcast with no name ID and nobody knows who he is, to get in the Washington Examiner, the Washington Time, the Daily Caller, to get on these news stations, to have me talk about you, You're going to have to pay a lot of money to get advertising because nobody knows who you are.
Tucker doesn't have that problem in a podcast.
He instantly appears on what's known in the podcast business as the bookshelf.
You look at research, people generally will only listen to about two to five podcasts.
That's their bookshelf.
That's it.
They may be willing to swap one out, but they don't have time to listen anymore.
I'm always honored you made us one of the most popular in the country on your bookshelf, and I will never, ever take that for granted.
But he instantly appears on probably 20-30% of conservative podcast consumers' bookshelf instantly.
Folks, another thing about the podcast, Pro and Con for Tucker, is audio and video on demand.
It's the future, man.
These kids are used to it.
Big time.
People want stuff on demand.
Folks, and to the people 40 or older like me who grew up on cable and rabbit ears TV, it's over, man.
Those days are over.
Those days of them having a monopoly are simply over.
Kids want things on demand.
TikTok, bang, bang, bang, scrolling up and down like a mouse on cocaine or something.
They're like, all they want, they want it right on demand, right in front of them.
They want to see clips.
They want to see clips channels.
They want to be able to go to something right away.
Now they don't have to wait for Tucker every night at 8 o'clock.
AOD. Kids expect it.
One more thing inside baseball here.
The CPMs.
Stands for cost per mil.
It's the way you get paid by advertisers on a podcast.
The CPMs and podcasting are through the roof.
They're not even comparable.
They're better than radio, cable TV. Not that Tucker's doing anything for the money at this point.
He's probably well off.
I mean, he's had an association with The Daily Caller.
He's been paid well, I assume, at Fox for a while.
Again, I don't know his contract, but I know they must have been paying him pretty well.
The CPMs.
Targeted audiences.
You have targeted audiences.
And here's the thing.
The CPMs are through the roof.
It's not just that he's right.
It's not just targeted audiences.
And sometimes the granular data available is even better on podcasts.
But also, Joe, it's that if you're live streaming like you are now, you can't fast forward through the commercials, which works out great for everything.
They pay a lot of money to talk to you.
It means a lot.
It means a lot.
You can wait and do that stuff later, but there's a ton of reasons.
Production costs are low.
Folks, you know...
If we had the ability to pan out, we will in the new studio, when we get a boom and everything, I'd show you.
This studio we have is simple.
This is no...
Joe's seen it.
Guy's right there.
You can pan out?
Hey, pan out.
Show them what it is.
Oh, look at that.
You see?
That's my studio.
It's a TV screen.
I'm letting you in on a little inside baseball.
Because I want you to understand the point here.
You see all the nuggets we have on the desk and stuff like that?
Supplements and everything.
This is just a desk and a TV. That is it.
The cost, I mean, I gotta pay Guy, I gotta pay Joe, the camera equipment.
Folks, it is nothing like the cost of fielding a cable news channel.
It's not even close.
Produce a podcast is simple.
People ask me all the time, how many producers you have, all this stuff?
I said, guys, guys, guys, stop.
Time out.
Time out.
It's not about any of that.
Nobody cares about it.
Half the time, I don't even put Mattifier on my face.
My wife is like, dude, you're all shiny again today.
I'm like, whatever.
The audience is here because of the content.
They don't care about shiny skin.
They don't care.
This isn't cable news.
Look at me, makeup on and everything.
Nobody cares.
The production costs are low because on podcasts, content is king.
And you know why kids don't care?
Because they're watching reels and TikTok videos, people grabbing their phones and being like, hey, get ready with me for Coachella or whatever.
They're used to seeing people without makeup and everything.
They don't care about the looks.
They care about the content.
A couple more things.
I'm sorry.
But this is like really, Tucker, if you're listening, pay a lot of close attention to this stuff.
And anyone else out there too.
But we're still talking about podcasts.
One of the pros too, it's dumb box access as I call it.
This is a dumb box.
No, it's a smartphone.
No, it's not.
It's a dumb box.
How do I know it's a dumb box?
Because any other brand can do the same thing this thing does.
Anything.
There's nothing smart about it.
There's nothing smart about it at all.
Any other brand, a Samsung, an iPhone, it doesn't matter.
They can do the exact thing.
Play video, get email, take pictures, and play music, right?
It's a dumb box.
So whatever dumb box you have, you get a podcast, you just hit play, and all of a sudden, there's a guy in a dumb box.
Not the case with cable.
You gotta get a cable subscription, you gotta wait for 8 o'clock at night.
Here's the cons.
Here's the con.
And I'm going to get to some other stuff coming up soon, especially with cable too.
Here's the con.
Don't ever forget this too if you're thinking about getting into podcast space because I've given you the goods and I'm going to give you the bad.
The bad is the one button problem.
You know what the one button problem is?
Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people 40 and older, we have not grown up, we did not grow up on the technology these kids have.
They are used to a very simple thing, Joe and I are used to.
Joe used to walk to the TV with the rabbit ears.
Remember, Joe, when you hit this button called the what?
The power button.
It was actually usually a switch.
Remember, you flipped the switch?
And then what would happen, Joe?
The TV would come on.
It's magic.
Now, right now, it's done by remote.
When I was born and watched TV, there weren't even remotes.
The first remotes had a cable attached to the TV. People who grew up on that technology are used to sitting in their lounge chair in their living room, reclining, whatever it is, and hitting the power button and their show comes on.
Or you just find it.
The one button problem.
We have 58,000 people.
No, we don't.
What do I think he should do?
I'm going to tell you in a minute.
I'm going to tell you.
But here's the problem.
I just want to get past this here.
Podcasts have the two-button problem on TV. You have to turn on the TV. You got to find an app.
It's actually the two or three-button problem.
Kids don't care, but adults do.
What do I think he should do?
I think that's obvious.
I think streaming is the future.
I love it.
I enjoy every second here with you.
I love every single minute of it.
It is just a way to connect with people.
This live chat gets me through the day.
I mean, the Holden McGroin thing was one of the best moments in the whole history of the Dan Bongino podcast.
This is the kind of stuff that only happens here.
Alright, I'm going to go quickly into a couple more options.
Cable, I got some video of a hit he did on the Full Send podcast that may shed some light in this situation because it happened so quick.
And then I got some video of the last moments of his show too.
That again, if I only knew I was watching something special, I would have paid closer attention.
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All right.
I think the podcast and owning his own content is probably the way to go.
But cable news channels are reaching out.
We've seen that before.
You got News Nation, OANN, Newsmax.
I'm just reading the reporting I showed you in the Daily Mail.
I'm assuming you're probably going to make an offer.
Here's a couple pros.
Again, the one button thing.
You turn it on.
You have Newsmax on.
There it is.
It's right there.
Power.
That's it.
You don't have to do anything else.
Problem is, you've got to wait for the show.
So they don't have the one-button problem.
They have the one-button solution.
Hit the one button, the show's on.
Here's the other thing.
Say he goes to Newsmax or NewsNation.
He probably takes a significant chunk of the Fox audience with him because I'm telling you, Tucker Carlson is one of these limited group of people.
I would estimate, I say this with no sense of hyperbole or exaggeration for a fact at all, He is probably one of less than 10 people on planet Earth right now who can do what he does under the current circumstances.
Which is, well, what?
What does he do?
He attracts eyeballs.
Folks, we are in the freaking eyeballs and earlobes business.
No, we don't pierce ears.
We people listen and watch.
If you can't attract eyeballs and ears, you don't have a show.
Now, the network, Fox, attracts people.
The question is, are there people popular enough at the network where they can take an audience with them?
Probably Levin is the one guy over there now who could do that too.
But Tucker is one of them.
He commands an audience.
He would take them over.
He'd probably be a huge draw taken over there if he went to Newsmax.
Also, I got to imagine he would have editorial control over there and there'd probably be some ownership, some equity stake in something as well.
He's that much of a force in the business that people may just say, that's always been my approach is I don't want a salary.
I want equity.
I don't need your money.
I need equity.
Equity's different.
Here's the con to the cable news thing.
No, Fox has a lot of brand loyalty, and a lot of people aren't going to leave Fox to go and watch Newsmax.
You'd be surprised.
I know, you know, a lot of people, that may surprise you, given a lot of the stuff you've heard, but, you know, they've been through this before.
So that's kind of one of the downsides.
I want to play this one thing.
Finally, just one quick thing.
The elected office angle.
The idea that he may go and run for office, Tucker, or could be Trump's potential VP pick.
I got to tell you, folks, I think that would be a catastrophic mistake.
I mean, again, is there anyone else uniquely qualified?
I've been in TV, been in radio, do a podcast, and I've run for office.
You know, you run for office and lose.
Believe me, I know about that.
Unfortunately, it sucks.
Sucks.
Sucks.
It was the best thing that ever happened to me, but it took a while to build back political capital after that.
I mean, I ran in two Democrat districts in Maryland, and in a Republican one, we couldn't get through that primary.
But those are just excuses, man.
You lost, you lost.
You lose, it dings your political capital.
And the thing is, is Tucker really the type to go and raise a billion dollars from establishment donors?
Probably not.
So I'm going to tell you, and if I was talking to Tucker himself, I'd say this.
So, gee, people are asking what he should do.
I think owning his own content, AOD, audio video on demand, is the only way.
Elected office, I think, is an unbelievable loser.
And incredible.
I think it would be a huge mistake.
From someone who's been there.
Now, let's get to what could have happened here.
And again, I want to be absolutely crystal clear.
My situation was not tied to his at all.
I did not leave with any ill will towards anyone.
I have a lot of friends over there.
Nobody treated me poorly.
Nobody showed me the door.
Anything like that.
They offered me a final show.
I said it numerous times.
It was my choice not to do it.
I just thought it'd be weird.
I don't...
After the whole cancer thing, folks, I'm not into long emotional goodbyes.
I get really kind of sappy on the air.
There was going to be a highlight reel of the show, I would assume.
I would have broken down, and I just didn't want that to be your last memory of me on Fox.
I just didn't want that.
So I didn't do it.
So our situations are not related at all.
So I want to tell you, I'm covering this from a news angle.
Not from someone who's trying to settle any scores or anything like that.
I hope everybody gets that.
I want to give you a fair shake to both sides.
I just told you letting him go I think is a huge mistake.
Because he's going to take people with him.
But I wonder sometimes, you know, does this have anything to do with it?
Tucker was...
Let me say, I just told you they weren't related.
Now I'm like, can I? He's like, dude, you can't.
Can you just stick to the script for once?
I'm going to be honest.
Tucker and I both were probably not the easiest people to manage in this space.
I'm not telling you that that had anything to do with my departure.
I think, you know, I never created any issues for them and that kind of anything bad, but I did, and my show was called Unfiltered for a reason.
I wanted to do my own thing.
You know, Tucker definitely was a renegade.
I'm not giving you a speaking out of turn.
I think it's widely known in the business.
Tucker was going to do his own thing.
And, you know, he would talk about doing his own thing.
And he really, even though he was in the media, frowned on the media in general and really, really didn't like establishment media types.
And I got to imagine that created a lot of friction.
Don't listen to me, by the way.
Take my word for it.
Here he is on the Full Send podcast.
With the boys over there where he's talking about some of his regrets and you can just hear in his voice that he just has this absolute disdain for media people even though he was in the media and I think it was always creating kind of a little bit of a headbutting.
Check this out.
I've spent my whole life in the media.
My dad was in the media.
Like, that is a big part of the revelation that's changed my life is the media are part of the control apparatus.
Like, there's no...
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Because you're younger and smarter and you're like, yeah.
Yeah.
But what if you're me and you spent your whole life in that world and to look around and all of a sudden you're like, oh, wow.
Not only are they part of the problem, but I spent most of my life being part of the problem defending the Iraq War.
Like, I actually did that.
Can you imagine if you did that?
What do you think?
What is one of your biggest regrets in your career?
Oh, defending the Iraq War?
That is it?
Well, I've had a million regrets, not being more skeptical, calling people names when I should have listened to what they were saying.
saying, look, when someone makes a claim, there's only one question that's important at the very beginning, which is, is the claim true or not?
So I say, you know, you committed murder or you rigged the last election.
Before you attack me as a crazy person for saying that, maybe you should explain what Right.
Now, listen, man, it's not a secret that the guy was a renegade in the news business, man.
It's not a secret.
The news business, not just Fox, by the way.
You got to remember, I used to do hits at CNN, MSNBC, not a lot at MSNBC, but I did enough.
I mean, I was there a lot, but not nearly.
I did CNN a lot.
I mean, a lot, a lot.
I used to go do Anderson Cooper's show, you know, three, four nights a week, and that went on for weeks at a time.
And then I did the show for years.
I mean, my last hit on there was a fight with Don Lemon about the Second Amendment that went viral.
But I can tell you in the news business that it's evolved a lot.
The primacy and the importance of opinion hosts, the Tucker Carlson's and the Jesse Waters again, who aren't traditional news people but opinion hosts, that's where the...
That's where the audience comes in.
But anyone in the news business will tell you this.
There's a friction in the news business.
Again, this is in cable news in general, not specific to any one outlet.
Anyone will tell you this.
There is a lot of friction between the news people and the opinion people.
There just is.
I'm just telling you.
And when you get a guy like Tucker who has a lot of disdain for what, like me, for what the media did to America and continues to do to America with the lying, you know, it's just hard.
You're going to do your own thing.
And I'd say to anyone else at any other cable channel, you know, if you're thinking about leaving, you've got to make sure you've got your own stuff on the outside.
I never built my stuff central or attached to one specific entity.
Remember, YouTube bailed on us and tried to ban us.
You know, we went over to Rumble.
We always own our own content.
We can move easily.
Easily.
You don't like this, we go to radio.
You don't like cable, we're back to video.
You've got to be able to bring the righty out of the bullpen.
Finally, this is just the last minute or so of his show, and I ask you watching this, I ask you watching this, does this sound like he knew it was the end?
Because again, I know Tucker.
Now, we're not like coffee buddies, but I know him well enough.
This doesn't sound like he knew on Friday night, which is strange because there's a board there.
It's a publicly traded company.
This decision had to be made earlier.
There's no way it was just popped out on Monday morning.
But it doesn't seem like he knew on Friday night.
Here, watch yourself.
You be the judge.
That's it for us for the week.
We'll be back.
By the way, the entire episode of Let Them Eat Bugs, not quite as good as pizza, streaming now on Fox Nation.
Use the promo code Originals for 30 days free.
And we'll be back on Monday.
In the meantime, have the best weekend with the ones that you love and we'll see you then.
Now I ask you, does that sound like he didn't know he was going to be back on Monday?
He's plugging a Fox Nation special, and he clearly says, we'll be back.
And there's a lot of people watching that, like doing, you know, seven-dimensional chess.
Don't.
Don't.
I think a decision was made, and maybe they want him to enjoy the weekend first, bust it out on Monday morning.
I mean, don't read into that either, because again, there's another, oh, maybe they were trying to screw him over.
No, folks, if you're going to do a news dump, when do you do it, Joe?
On a Friday.
You don't wait until Monday morning.
I just think there's a lot going on over there.
Someone decided to cut ties and it just was like, we might as well just take a bath and get it out now.
It's the only explanation.
Nothing else makes sense.
Nothing else makes sense at all.
All right, let me get to my next sponsor.
And I want to talk to you about a real problem Tucker did have, though.
Because I know for a fact, because I got a lot of traffic running behind the scenes here.
That the establishment people could not be happier that this guy is out.
They are like eating strawberry shortcake and downing bottles of Dom Perignon right now.
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So, here is the worst kept secret of the whole Tucker Fox, shall we call it, imbroglio, okay?
Here is the worst kept secret of the business.
The establishment swampies hated Tucker Carlson.
We know, Dan, you'd be surprised how many people don't.
How many people are like, oh man, the GOP loved him.
No, no, conservatives did.
A lot of libertarians did too.
Swampies?
I hated Tucker Carlson.
I mean with a deep, dark passion.
Where do Swampies go when they want to out a story?
They go one of two places.
They go to Politico, otherwise known as Politico, and then they go to the Hill.
So I know I'm reading the voice of the establishment when I read these two outlets.
That's why I read them, because I like to see what my opponents are thinking.
They are elated at Tucker's departure.
They hated his contrarian view on Ukraine.
There's nothing swampies love more, Joe, than what?
A good old-fashioned bombing.
There's nothing they love that.
Bombing.
It's true.
Lindsey Graham wants to bomb everywhere.
Bombing!
They love this.
They want to bomb everywhere.
They think we're going to expand democracy overseas.
Worked out great in Sudan this week, didn't it?
Worked out even better in Afghanistan.
They're convinced we can bomb our way to global prosperity.
Hasn't worked for 7 million years, but keep it up there, fellas.
It's working great.
It drove Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, the Asa Hutchinsons, Mike McFaul, and others absolutely crazy.
They hated him for his Ukraine stance.
That he questioned what we were doing in Ukraine.
Folks, do not underestimate how much they hated him for this.
They thought they finally had an area of bipartisan consensus.
Let's bomb everywhere all the time.
And they had this guy with 3 million influential conservative viewers plus every single night.
And they had this guy saying, no, I don't think that's where we're going with that.
He said it right, Joe.
He was not a current thing.
And it drove them nuts.
It drove them crazy.
Drove them absolutely bananas.
Also, they didn't like the fact that he was for free press, even if the free press was not necessarily politically correct.
He supported the release of information by Assange, by Snowden.
Swampies didn't like that.
A lot of deep staters didn't like that he was always talking about the deep state.
A lot of COVID fascists didn't like the idea that he questioned the science at the time, which turned out to be not science at all, but voodoo.
Folks, do not underestimate the power of these people.
These people are connected.
The establishment is very real.
The establishment are people and staffers who are voting on things that large money holders are interested in.
These people hold a lot of sway.
They are donors to politicians.
This is very real.
I will never forget having a meeting in the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., When I was running for office, and people thought I was going to win at that point, thought I had a good shot.
The congressional race, not the Senate race.
Nobody thought I was going to win that.
Not even Joe.
Joe was like, hey, good try, buddy.
Good with the old college try.
Yeah, baby.
That's right.
But the congressional race, and there were a couple people who They wink and nod at you, like, you know, you should probably do this if you get an office.
I mean, we have a lot of money and donations to throw around.
I remember leaving like, nah, we're not going to do that.
And one of the things was so ridiculous, too.
I was like, really?
Like, that's your thing?
You would be stunned how many insiders wanted him out.
Here, the Hill.
Good riddance, said one GOP staffer.
He spewed nonsense to millions of people and had broad ramifications for discourse in our party.
Yeah, people started to ask questions.
People started to ask questions.
One GOP staffer said he was a really annoying headache that might become less of a headache.
I'm not sure that's going to happen.
Celebrate now.
You may be crying later, man.
Let me tell you something.
There is nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose and someone who's entrepreneurial like Tucker.
He's already got involvement with The Daily Caller.
Tucker's shown an ability to lift and shift over and over and accommodate to the new media environment.
You know, folks, the greatest day of my life, and I write about this in my new book, the best day of my life was when they decided they were going to come after me because I realized through things like Google Ads and other things how susceptible we were to this liberal cancel culture economy.
And whereas we weren't able to uproot all of it, root and branch at the same time, and we're still working through some things, I made sure I built myself an armored parallel economy.
And ladies and gentlemen, it was the greatest thing I ever did.
That's what led to my involvement with Rumble.
So all of these people taking a victory lap now, like The View.
Cue that up for me, D. The View people, all these clowns laughing, smoking, and joking.
Oh, we got them now!
I'm not really sure you got anything.
I'm not sure you got anything.
I think you think you're pushing the beach ball underwater, but eventually those weak-looking, flabby triceps of yours are really going to get tired.
I promise you.
You may have de-platformed him in one space, only to see other platforms grow geometrically.
Platforms not as susceptible to some of this pressure.
Listen to the view, these goofballs.
Word has just come down that Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.
We thank you for your service to the network and host to the prior contributor.
Wave.
Come on, folks.
Na-na-na-na!
He is responsible for the degradation that we see somewhat of our democracy in this country.
And I just think as a faithful person, look at God.
Look at God.
Well, and Russian propaganda hardest hit.
I mean, he's been the biggest purveyor of pro-Russian talking points.
So it's a good day for the Ukrainian people.
Karma doesn't lose anyone's address.
Wow.
Copperhead says in the chat, which is hilarious.
Hey, Dan, how about...
Tucker for Trump's press secretary.
Now that could make an exception there.
That would be must-see TV. The irony would be he'd be back on Fox every day.
That could be a story.
The end of that view clip with those losers.
I want you to always pay close attention to the fake Republican on there, Alyssa Farah, who is an enormous grifter and a total life loser.
Someone who will say anything, anything to get a job and be accepted amongst the mainstream.
She's like, spewed Russian propaganda by questioning what we're doing overseas.
Notice Alyssa Farah's not over there fighting that war.
She's not over there.
What does she plan on?
She's going to sit at the desk all day and spew stupid opinions.
But when other people go there, she's perfectly okay.
And if you say otherwise, you're spewing Russian propaganda.
That's how she got a job at The View.
Complete loser.
AOC had something to say about this too.
I'm going to get to that in a second because again, AOC doesn't understand what people fail to understand with me.
That you push us off a platform, we move to a harder, more reinforced platform which creates more problems for you and less problems for me.
So how you've calculated that out to be some strategic victory is pretty hilarious.
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Windshield, wow!
Listen, we're pretty selective with our sponsors.
We don't run a lot of spots on this show.
We don't.
I mean, it's only about five minutes of ads for 50 plus minutes of show.
So, you know, sometimes people send me stuff.
This is one of those products I got because I live in Florida and it rains all the time.
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Everyone who buys one of these sends me an email and says, Dan, it's the coolest product I've got in a long time.
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Again, we're very selective with our sponsors.
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So here again is a confused AOC. What they don't understand, these dumb liberals, because they really are ignoramuses, Alyssa Farah and these other liberals, is they really believe that they're going to keep conservative entrepreneurs down.
Oh, we're going to silence you off Twitter.
Okay, we'll build Parler.
We're going to crush Parler.
All right, we'll go to Rumble.
We're going to attack Rumble.
Well, we're going to fortify Rumble so you can't attack Rumble.
I mean, we learn each time.
They don't learn because they're stupid.
Here's AOC. This is a government official, a congresswoman.
Again, a total fascist and tyrant.
Zero doubt about that anymore.
She's so proud of the fact that she thinks she played a role in getting him de-platform.
Listen to this imbecile.
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News.
Couldn't have happened to a better guy.
Um...
What I will say, though, is while I'm very glad that the person that is arguably responsible for some of the largest, driving some of the most amounts of death threats and violent threats, not just to my office, but to plenty of people across the country, I also kind of feel like I'm, like, waiting for the cutscene at the end of a Marvel movie after all the credits have rolled.
And then you see, like, the villain's, like, hand reemerge out to grip over, like, the end of a building or something.
But deplatforming works.
And it is important.
And there you go.
Good things can happen.
I mean, this woman's just garbage.
She's just a garbage person.
She is a thoroughly incompetent, immature, inadequate, totally insecure human being.
I've met people like this my entire life.
In almost every job or entity I've worked with, there's always one.
They have these fundamental weaknesses and insecurities that they take out by puffing.
You know, their chest, look at me, I got him de-platformed.
You did not get him de-platformed.
How do I know that?
Because I have not had any conversations with Tucker.
I want to be clear.
But I'm certain of this.
There is zero chance Tucker Carlson will not be on another platform.
Zero.
So you didn't de-platform him.
Well, we got him removed by Fox.
Well, how do you know he's not going to have a bigger audience somewhere else?
I didn't really think that through.
Of course you didn't.
You're a freaking idiot.
That's why.
This is how stupid they are.
They are reinforcing and making wealthy beyond imagination.
People who didn't even get in this for money.
They got in it for activism.
They are so stupid, these leftists.
If they would just shut up, they could have still held some type of establishment control over the old legacy entities.
But instead, they just can't shut up.
And they've created this entire flourishing parallel economy they have zero control over.
Zero.
Zero.
It is.
It's a tech-tries-in effect.
That's absolutely right.
And you think about AOC. She's really too dumb to get it.
She's the dumbest member of Congress.
And this inciting violence thing, stop.
You're humiliating yourself.
If I send you the death threats I get because of idiots like AOC and others, you'd be astonished.
I mean, you've seen them.
They're nasty.
That's why I'm in the public space.
Crazy people say it's not AOC's fault.
But she wants you to believe that because she's a moron.
By the way, I want to show you something hilarious about the New York Times.
Here's German Lopez.
This is this morning's email list from the New York Times.
I love reading their crazy take on stuff.
They talk about Tucker Carlson.
Carlson took over the prized APM spot, increased its high rating, becoming a fixture on the right-wing network in its conservative politics.
How?
So they're trying to...
German Lopez, the New York Times, folks, trying to explain how Tucker Carlson built such a huge audience.
Listen to this.
This is how, again, how freaking stupid these people are.
But they believe this.
They explain it to themselves.
Carlson tapped into white viewers' fears over the country's changing racial demographics.
He did?
That's so weird.
I don't remember that.
And it fueled Donald Trump's...
So now Tucker got Trump elected.
That's so strange.
I thought Hannity did.
I thought they made...
Which article...
I mean, which article...
Then, this is where it gets great, guys.
He would regularly focus, Tucker, on the notion of the great replacement of conspiracy theory that claims elites are importing obedient immigrants to disempower native-born Americans.
So he's saying the only reason people watch Tucker is because he promoted a fake conspiracy theory called replacement theory.
And Jermon Lopez is writing that in the New York Times.
He clearly doesn't read the New York Times, which wrote this article in 2018 called We Can Replace Them, which is an article promoting replacement theory, literally called We Can Replace Them.
Guy, keep that up there.
The article is literally titled, We Can Replace Them.
This is why.
And you should have zero, zero respect.
Not zero, zero one.
Not a modicum of respect.
Not a sliver.
Not a grain of sand of respect.
Zero respect.
And you should revile the corrupt, destructive, fraudulent, disgusting, grotesque media.
Because Tucker Carlson called them out for what they were, lying frauds, called them out for their replacement theory right here, and they didn't like it.
So they write an article with the dipsy-doo flipper-oo.
Tucker got fired for promoting a conspiracy theory, replacement theory.
Where'd he get it from?
The New York Times?
You freaking wrote an article about it.
He thinks he hangs out with Fregazy, Joe.
I don't know.
Fugazi's in a league of his own lately.
Eight.
Eight.
I asked Guy what the episode was.
This is so funny.
Like, anytime you say eight on this show, somebody throws it in there.
It's, what is it, 1998 today?
I said, I always get messed up the episode, always, every single day, no matter what.
Guy finds it phenomenal.
He's like, you know, I've never worked with a guy, Dan, who's so smart, yet so stupid about the date.
How do you not get the date right any day?
I'm like, I don't know.
I always get the date.
So I'm like, what's his episode?
He's like, 1998. Eight.
Eight, my God.
Isabel, I'll call you back if you're watching online.
All right, I got to do a quick election update because there was some important news today.
Election 2024 update.
Biden is in.
Worst kept secret out there.
Even the Daily Mail is saying, listen, man, this is just crazy.
The guy's 80 years old.
He announced this morning.
You know, Joe and I and Guy kicked around running a portion of his launch video.
But honestly, folks...
It's all full of crap and lies and stupidity.
I have zero desire to put it out there.
It's all fake.
We're going to go for the MAGA crazies.
The guy's just a lunatic, so I'm not even going to bother.
However, we know obviously Trump's in DeSantis, I was 99% sure is in.
I'm now 100% sure he's going to get in.
He was on Hannity last night.
And if you're not getting in at this point, you're just saying it.
I mean, Glenn Youngkin from Virginia, Joe, close to you in Maryland, the governor of Virginia, he was pretty clear.
I'm not in.
I'm bowing out.
Mike Pompeo, I'm not in.
When you're not in at this point, you're not in.
So when you give an answer like this, he's 100% in.
So check this out.
I've said from the election of 2022, when people started asking me, we got a legislative session that we're working on.
We've got a few more weeks to go with that.
We're going to be putting up a lot of wins on the board.
And so I'm not going to be making any announcements before that's concluded.
Okay.
Are you leaning one way or another?
Stay tuned.
All right, he's in.
I mean, we can stop all the, you know, I mean, it was obvious anyway, but now it's 100%.
And like barring some, and we hope it doesn't have some tragedy, it happens that, you know, he is 100% in the race.
So now you got the field pretty much ironed out.
I don't see any other Democrats of interest jumping in unless something were to happen to Biden.
And, you know, I'm talking physically, we don't want that.
I mean, like health-wise, that's what I'm referring to, but I don't wish ill health on anyone, obviously.
But I see that.
Also, this is who you're going to be running against and I've told you, Biden is a totally incompetent, ridiculous candidate.
There are three things you don't mess with in politics.
You remember?
You remember?
Come on, someone in the live show.
Remember, three things you don't screw with in politics.
You screw with these people in politics or these three things you are just begging to lose.
You are putting out a note.
You're the skywriter.
Please help me lose this race.
You don't mess with people's homes.
You don't mess with their kids.
You don't mess with their gas tanks, okay?
You screw with those three things, you run a significant chance of not only losing, but getting absolutely destroyed in your election.
Biden is screwing with all three.
Gas prices are going to go up before the elections.
He keeps screwing around people's kids.
He's screwing around with home mortgages now, trying to gerrymander, racially gerrymander people's neighborhoods.
It makes this guy uniquely vulnerable.
Here he is yesterday, quoting some author that, you know, there is no someone else's child.
No, no, there is.
My child is my child, and I'm someone else to you.
Take a listen.
Rebecca put a teacher's creed into words when she said, there's no such thing as someone else's child.
No such thing as someone else's child.
Our nation's children are all our children.
Yeah, there is someone else's child.
My child.
And I'm someone else.
But this is the new attitude of the left.
Your kids are their kids.
Folks, do not mess around with people's kids, gas tanks, or homes.
Just one final thing before we go.
There's a lot of rumors going out there that CNN probably had wind...
Of Tucker's departure on Monday morning from Fox, their separation.
I don't know that.
But the media business, a lot of people, here's like a dirty little secret of the media business.
It's just business like anything else.
I want to be dramatic.
Producers and bookers will pop from station to station.
It's not ideological.
So Fox people go over to MSNBC. CNN people come over to Fox.
It happens.
It doesn't happen often, but it happens enough, right?
So what happens is you get a...
Joe knows.
It's like it happens in radio stations all the time.
You have a host goes from MAL to CBM to BAL to all this stuff.
It happens all the time, right?
So what winds up happening is you get this cross-pollination.
People talk.
So I wouldn't be surprised if someone at CNN got wind that Tucker and Fox were going to part ways on Monday and decided, hey man, if we're going to get this news out about Don Lemon, let's just get it out.
And based on this kind of unceremonious departure, we love Don, we wish him well and really great, thanks for your time.
Here's CNN and they address the departure of Don Lemon from the morning show.
Take a listen.
Well, good morning, everyone.
It is Tuesday, April 25th.
Welcome to CNN This Morning.
We're so glad you're with us.
And we do begin, though, with news about this show.
As you may have heard yesterday, CNN parted ways with anchor Don Lemon.
In a statement, CNN CEO Chris Licht thanked Don for his contributions over the past 17 years, writing in part, Don will forever be a part of the CNN family.
We wish him well, and we'll be cheering him on in his future endeavors.
Absolutely.
Of course, Don was a big part of this show over the last six months.
He was one of the first anchors on CNN to have me on his show.
That's something I'll obviously never forget.
I agree with Chris.
We wish him the best.
Yeah, we certainly do.
Don was one of my first friends here at CNN. I'm so thankful to have worked alongside him and for his support for nearly 15 years here.
And I wish him all good things ahead.
Caitlin and I are really proud of this show.
We are so proud of the dedicated team that works around the clock to bring you the news every morning.
And our priority is you.
The viewer, we're grateful you welcome us into your home each morning.
That was it.
Not really the most, oh gosh, let's do a little like big, long, loving montage.
It's kind of like, hey Don, wish you the best.
Thanks for having me on your show.
Let's move on.
Let's get to the news.
So, did they know?
Hey, a big thank you to everyone.
75,000 streamers.
Holy Moses, that's amazing.
I am, like, overwhelmed with joy.
I love streaming, being here with you every day.
Be on the radio show in five minutes if you want to listen to that as well.
Spread the word, folks.
Join us every day, 11 a.m.
Rumble.com slash Bongino.
Love to have you here on the stream.
It has been a joy.
Please subscribe while you're there.
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We so deeply appreciate it.
And go to Apple and Spotify and subscribe too.
It helps us stay on the charts.
It means the world to us.
Thank you so much for your support and sticking with me through these really troubling times in the media business.
I so deeply appreciate it.
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