Dan Bongino fills in for the vacationing Sean Hannity and sits down with Congressman Mark Meadows to discuss the latest on the efforts to repeal ObamaCare. What will the Freedom Caucus do next? The Sean Hannity Show is live weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on iHeartRadio and Hannity.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Alright, welcome to the Sean Hannity show.
That is not the voice of Sean Hannity, of course.
Dan Bongino.
Been here a couple times before filling in for Sean, coming out of the bullpen, bringing in the crafty veteran right-hander, the knuckle baller out of the pen.
Taking a little vacation, probably doing some Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a little bit of Moy Thai boxing.
I just got back into that.
I promise I won't talk about it, but I just got back into the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so I'm a little banged up today on the physical front.
But on the mental front, I'm frosty at best.
I had a tough time kind of prioritizing and triaging my what I want to talk about list today because it's you know it's Sean's show.
It's always an honor to fill in here.
But there's so much to get into, I'm like, where do we start?
So we have to address the Twitter fiasco because the Twitter fiasco is not a fiasco for Trump, it's a fiasco for the media, and they just don't get it.
Yesterday, for those of you who may have missed it, if you're on Mars or you're on vacation in the Cape somewhere, or if you're a liberal and you're on Cape Cod drinking a margarita with your Jet on standby, you may have missed what happened yesterday with uh Donald Trump and the morning uh Schmo cast over there at MS Uh DNC.
So just to sum it up quickly, again, you probably heard that your morning Schmo, you know, the Joe Scarborough and uh Mika Brzezinski show where they go after it's it's like the anti-Trump morning show on MSNBC.
There's there's no other material other than Trump sucks, Trump is the worst, impeach Trump, Trump's terrible, he's a lunatic, he's a maniac, he's a liar.
That's the whole show.
Just tune in, you'll see it yourself.
The whole show is how Trump is at it's uh it's an amateur hour mental evaluation using like the DSM 62 for all you psychology majors out there of Trump.
So they go after the guy every day on the show, and it's weird about it is they used to be friends apparently, Trump and uh and the morning Joe cast.
So they went after him yesterday, and Trump fired back on Twitter.
He said, you know what?
I don't watch this show, it's got terrible ratings, it's a bad show.
Joe's crazy and Mika had a facelift or something and asked me to stay at Mar-a-Lago, which is his place down here, not far from where I live, actually.
It's beautiful place if you've never been to Mar-Lago.
So, of course, yesterday, all day, I posted this on Twitter because I thought it was funny.
All day yesterday, the liberal media meltdown started.
Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, ah, Trump, Twitter.
We have to do something.
He's crazy.
Trump's insane, he's losing his mind, he's on Twitter.
And again, I get folks listen, I'm not gonna get into the moral and ethical connotations of insulting people on Twitter.
I'm talking from a strict political tactical perspective.
Again, while the liberal media was infatuated with the Twitter thing, they couldn't get off it, right under their little noses.
What happened yesterday?
The travel restrictions took effect.
Kate's law was passed in the house all while the media people, the shiny red object chasing the little shiny red object, look, squirrel, around the room.
Everything again is happening right under your noses.
So little note for you all in the media.
I'm not giving you tactical advice, but who's playing who here?
Serious question.
Who is playing who here?
Are you guys getting played?
Because I know you think you're getting over on this guy.
And and listen, let me be crystal clear on this, folks.
I'm not like uh, you know, a rabid Trumpster or anything.
By the way, my computer's driving me crazy.
Every time I like fill in on a radio show, this restart thing happens on my computer.
Sorry, not that you need to know, but it drives me nuts.
Can you restart another time?
Like you have to restart at three o'clock in the afternoon.
Gosh, talk about bad luck.
But who's playing who here with Twitter?
I I don't know if he did it on purpose, if he knew the vote on Kate's law was going to happen yesterday.
We're talking about the president.
I know he knew the Trump, the Kate's law vote was gonna happen.
He knew obviously the travel restrictions were going to take effect.
I don't know if he did that on purpose, tweeting this out to get them to do the shiny wet red ball look squirrel thing, but who's playing who?
What's comical to me is that they think they're getting over.
The media really thinks they're winning.
They're their popularity is like 17% of Republicans or something.
You're even left or even less uh Freudian slip there, even less trust the media.
And I wanted to hit this too.
I I wrote this down to make sure I said this.
Regarding Trump and Twitter, uh Twitter from Queen's Twitter.
That may be a Boston thing, actually.
But regarding Trump and Twitter, why are we taking our talking points from the media?
Why?
Why are we listening to the media?
Why are so Trump, the genius of Trump in Twitter right now, right?
And and granted, yesterday we could, we maybe he could have rephrased the tweet a little bit.
Okay.
I I stipulate that.
I'm not gonna get into the morals and ethics of it.
And I'm certainly not gonna be lectured by about morals and ethics from liberal media people who uh supported, you know, Bill Clinton and Obama, and I'll go into that list in a little while.
But the genius of Trump and Twitter is a hundred and forty character limit on Twitter, gives you an automatic news headline if you cover the tweets.
If you cover the tweets, he automatically bypasses the liberal media and creates his own headline.
But the left I the liberal media hasn't figured this out yet.
So why are we taking our talking points from them?
Now the talking points from the liberal media are number one, you've heard, I know you've heard this.
They say, well, this is not presidential behavior.
And I I have a response for that.
Because let me let me get into the double standard first about what presidential behavior is first.
So let me get this straight.
We're being lectured by the liberal media.
That's what they are.
Let's not pull any punches here and pretend they're otherwise.
We're being lectured by the liberal media about what's presidential rhetoric and what isn't.
They said almost nothing.
They s they stood easy there when Obama compared Republicans to Iranian terrorists, when Obama's uh administration, at least at a minimum, stood by the way the IRS attacked conservative groups using the the monopoly power of force of the United States government against conservative uh groups to sick the IRS on them.
Nobody seemed to care.
Was that that was presidential?
Are you serious?
What is this?
The Bozo the Clown show?
That's oh gosh, let's get on Trump for Twitter.
But don't worry about the IRS going after innocent Americans.
Hey, that's all good.
Quick round of applause.
Obama compares the Republicans again, the Iranian hardline as a terrorist regime, but that's presidential, apparently.
Nobody seemed to care too much about that.
We had Obama telling Republicans this is an oldie but goodie.
We had Obama telling the Republicans to remember they get in the back of the car.
You drive the car over the cliff.
So you're now you get in the back of the car and we'll drive the car.
Literally tell you, he was driving a car over the cliff.
But that was apparently presidential because golden calf Obama said it.
He's the golden calf religious figure of the far left.
There's nothing he could have done wrong.
Now, again, I want to be clear on this to steal an Obama thing.
Let me be clear.
I'm not trying to say that two wrongs make a right here.
That because I think Obama reset the standard for what is beneath the dignity of the office that we should follow up and support as Republicans, behavior that we think is frankly maybe undignified.
I know some people have some legitimate gripes about the tone of the of the tweets.
What I'm telling you, and the argument I'm trying to make here is unless you're willing to live up to that standard yourself, liberal media hacks and liberals themselves.
You have forfeited your right to speak on the issue at all.
You have no credibility.
You have no moral high ground.
You have there's no dignity in what you're saying at all.
It doesn't, you you have no what they call legally standing on this at all.
You have no standing for a court case.
You've been totally discredited.
You said nothing.
You stood by when Harry Reed falsely accused Mitt Romney of cheating on his taxes.
You didn't care about that, and frankly, either did Harry Reed.
Do you remember after the fact when they asked Harry Reid about it?
They said, Do you regret uh saying on the Senate floor that Mitt Romney didn't pay his taxes?
He's like, we won, didn't we?
He didn't care at all.
He didn't care one bit.
Nobody cared about that.
Now, granted, he's not the president, but he was the Senate majority leader and minority leader.
Kind of a big deal.
Nobody cared about that.
What about Hillary when she was running for president?
When she decided to call 50% of Americans deplorable.
Deplorable.
Nobody cared.
Again, where is the media on that one?
There was some isolated uh folks on the left who felt like they had to stay say something, but there was no concerted media outcry, 24-7 coverage like we had yesterday with this Trump and Twitter thing.
The point I'm trying to make, folks, again, is that why are we listening to liberal standards here?
When liberals have no standards.
Why?
I don't get it.
I don't understand this.
Liberals will not they will do nothing to fix and clean up their own house.
But yet when it comes to Trump on Twitter, they will say, Oh, that's not presidential.
One more thing on this presidential thing, by the way.
That's important.
Where are the rules on this?
No, I'm serious.
Like, where are the presidential rules?
Like, there is there like a you know, a Joey Bag of Donuts code of rules and order for the president, like he's supposed to do this, he's got to wear a red tie on Tuesday, and on Twitter he's not allowed to say this.
And on Wednesday, uh sports jackets are only allowed after 9 p.m.
Where are the I don't understand?
Like, where are the rules of what's presidential?
He's the president.
You may not like it, but it's by nature presidential.
The guy, what are you expecting the guy to do?
That you're expecting Trump to change?
Like any of this surprise you?
What he campaigned as someone different.
I think what bothers the Libs and the establishmentarian class is the fact that he's been doing this now for almost two years, and it's really not moving his base at all.
The base is like, wait, we got a guy in the Oval Office who says what he feels and feels what he says.
We may not like it.
We may not think it's always phrased in the most terrific way.
Sometimes it may, you know, kind of murky up the message a little bit.
But he's not kidding.
Folks, he's a builder from Queens.
I was from Queens.
My dad's worked with builders his whole life.
I know Queens.
Believe me, I know Queens.
And I'm pretty familiar with the whole builder class.
When I get back from the break, I'm going to explain to you a little bit about what Donald Trump has to deal with and why Donald Trump is the way he is, and how these double standards, we should absolutely stop taking our talking points from the left, not only on this, but on another issue as well, which is really infuriating.
I got some sound of media people already doing the guilt by association nonsense.
All right, I'm Dan Bongino at D. Bongino on Twitter.
If you want to send me a tweet, comments, criticisms, we take them all.
And if you want to give us a call, 800-941-7326.
We'll be right back.
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Welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
Dan Bon Gino, contributing editor over at Conservative Review, filling in for Sean today.
You can tweet me at D.Bon Gino if you have any comments, criticisms, whatever.
We take them all over there.
So before the break, I was talking about Trump and Twitter and you know the Looney Tunes left and how you know Trump should be banned from Twitter, exiled, impeached, sent to an island in the uh South Pacific somewhere to live alone for the rest of his life.
I mean, it's just utter insanity.
And how it's a total double standard.
Again, they care about Trump's tweets, but nobody cared when Obama and Hillary insulted uh frankly the entire country, Hillary, that are conservatives and Republicans.
You're all deplorables.
I mean, what nobody seemed to care then.
But now it's all about decorum and it's gotta be presidential, as if there's some kind of a rule book on this about what's presidential.
You know, golf clap for Kellyanne Conway, when they asked her that question one time about presidential, she goes, he's the president, so it's presidential.
Uh you don't have to like it.
You don't have to like, you don't even have to agree with it.
You know, I I congrats to it.
Some of the Republicans out there feel the need to voice their opinion on it too.
Oh, I think we should focus on great.
Do your thing.
If that's what appeals to your constituents, do your thing.
I I don't really care.
But this whole thing that it's not presidential is crap.
Folks, listen to me.
Digest this one, please, okay?
The guy's a builder from Queens, okay?
I like I said before the break, I grew up in Queens.
I know Queens well.
It is a everybody in Queens has an inferiority complex.
And I mean I'm from there.
I mean that in the most positive glowing way possible.
They're all fighters.
I I don't necessarily mean fist fighters, but they're all fighters.
You know why?
For those of you not from New York and from the five boroughs, here's the way it works in Queens.
We're never as rich as the Manhattan people.
Oh, they got some nice pockets of wealth.
You're never as tough as the Brooklyn people.
Staten Island, you're kind of, you know, that's they do their own thing in Staten Island.
Long Island has its own thing going too.
That's kind of like people who were in Queens and just left later on in life.
But that's the whole that's the there's a there's a complex there.
And unless you grew up in the area, you'll never understand the Queen's mentality.
It's like we're never the the you know, the the hoity-toity bourgeoisie type because the Manhattan people have a monopoly on that, right?
And then the Brooklyn people have a monopoly on the edgy tough stuff.
Somebody have left.
Oh, the Bronx, by the way, too, the Bronx, you have some real hardcore people up there.
They grow up tough.
They have an edge to them.
And Queens, it's always like, well, are the Queens kids the rich kids?
Well, they're not really rich like the Manhattan kids.
Well, are they the poor tough kids?
No, they're not the poor tough kids either.
Those are the Brooklyn and Bronx guys.
I grew up there.
I'm telling you, everybody in Queens has an edge.
A lot of the kids I knew in Queens when I worked in this supermarket in Forest Hills, they just wanted to.
I'm not kidding.
They just wanted to beat the crap out of somebody half the time to show you they were as tough as the Brooklyn kids, and then they wanted to drive expensive cars, even though they had no money because they wanted people to think they had money like the Manhattan people.
The guy's a builder from Queens.
He's been, he he's they've had everybody in Queens has this complex.
I still have it.
I'm 42 years old.
I'm not kidding.
I'm psychoanalyzing myself.
And when you're a builder from Queens, what are you dealing with in New York all the time?
You're dealing with the city, which is a disaster to deal with.
You're dealing with the mob.
An even worse disaster to deal with.
Not that you're cavorting with the mob.
They're trying to mess up your business half the time.
You're dealing with unions, some of the toughest union negotiators in the world.
And then you're surprised that a guy whose entire life he's had to deal with unions.
Criminality, you know, people shaking them down.
New York City trying to shake them down.
And he's from Queens, and now you all of a sudden you're shocked that when you call him crazy on the morning show, uh morning Joe Schmo show, you're all of a sudden you're stunned when he fires back a bomb in your direction.
Are you really are you that dumb?
Do you live in a bubble?
Are you really surprised by this, or are you just feigning ignorance?
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity show.
Dan Bongino filling in for Sean, contributing editor over Conservative Review at DBongino on Twitter, if you want to send a message my way, do all my own stunts on Twitter.
So again, before the break, we're I was talking about this Twitter war that's broken out between Trump and MSNBC.
And oh, it's not presidential, which is what the left tells you.
And hey, listen, you know, it's not the way I well, you know what?
Let me rewind that tape.
Um it probably is the way I handled Twitter.
I'm I go a little uh I'm a little out there on Twitter, let's say.
But the guy's a fighter.
I I don't know what you're expecting from him.
I really don't.
Uh I I mean, I'm saying this to the establishment Republicans out there, and I'll and I'm not, I want to be clear on this.
Again, I'm not saying you know you don't have the right to crit.
Of course you do.
You have the right to criticize your, you know, elected politicians have been elected by their constituents too.
If they're hearing things they don't like, then open your mouths.
You know, Democrats, good principled Democrats, the few that are left.
You certainly have the right to criticize the president.
It's a free country.
It's a constitutional republic.
But why we are listening to the lib media, hack liberals who have zero principles at all, and again, couldn't have cared any less when Obama and Hillary and Harry Reid and Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren, everyone insults and demeans the character of any Republican they deem a threat.
Why we're taking advice from them?
You can throw that out the window.
Uh, you know, don't care.
Sorry, not sorry.
Bye now.
Bye, Felicia.
Have a good day.
Don't care.
Why are you lecturing us?
We don't care.
It's like, you know, all we hear is Charlie Brown's teacher.
We don't hear you.
We don't care.
When we do hear you, we care even less.
The only reason I hear you is because I don't have available earplugs when you're talking.
I change the state.
If I'm forced to hear you because somehow, you know, I'm at an event and I can't escape you.
I literally, I just like him, I cringe inside.
I listen to what you're saying and then I take notes so I know to do the opposite.
Nobody's taking your advice on the Trump thing.
Nobody cares what you think.
Nobody cares.
The guy is a fighter.
He is a builder from Queens, okay?
He is a rough-edged builder from Queens.
He has always had to deal with really edgy people, sometimes very nasty people, his entire life.
And it surprises you, shockingly, that when you when you say nasty things about him on national cable news, he fires back.
And it's so, by the way, it's so weak.
You know, one thing I hate is weakness.
I can't stand weakness.
I can't, it drives me crazy.
Anyone who knows me will tell you.
It drives me wild.
I I don't mean physical weakness.
You know, they're not everybody's born able to bench press 500 pounds and Zercher squad another 750.
I mean, physical weakness drives me crazy.
And the media, they're like, oh, poor us.
Oh, this is so bad.
It's unpresidential.
He's bullying us.
Oh what?
What?
Are you kidding?
I folks, I've run for office, albeit unsuccessfully.
Granted, there are no silver medals in politics.
Came close, close don't count.
But I've run for office.
Done with that, thank God.
Recovering politician.
If when you run for office like I didn't like Trump has, you will have, I promise you, a completely different view of the media.
I I nail it.
Take it to the bank and cash that check.
Until you've been through the experience.
Oh, wait, let me rewind the tape a little bit and run as a Republican, or even worse, as a conservative, which I did.
Until you've run for office as a conservative.
You have the right to comment, but I'm telling you, you don't have the full picture.
I don't want to hear from political consultants.
I don't want to hear from people, oh, I was on a campaign once.
I walked in a parade, I bought some.
No, no, I mean people who've actually run.
Until you've seen the savagery of a biased hacked left-wing media.
Until you've seen it and been a victim of it firsthand, you've almost forfeited your right to comment on this articulately.
Hey, I'm gonna get back to this in a second, but uh hold on, I'm just taking a note here so I don't lose my spot.
But there is some breaking news, and I don't want you to think we uh forget.
There's a there's a shooting going, Uh an active shooter situation at Bronx is it Bronx Lebanon, guys?
Yeah, I think it's Bronx Lebanon Hospital.
Apparently, three doctors are shot.
Very serious story.
We're covering it.
Um, as news comes in, I will interdisperse the information throughout the show if we get anything new.
But apparently, according to news reports, um, it is still an active shooter situation.
Looks like three doctors shots.
A very serious situation up in the Bronx right now.
Again, if we get any more breaking news and updates, I'll be absolutely sure um to get that out there so you so you're aware of what's going on.
And if the situation resolves itself, I'll be sure to put that out well.
But as of now, it looks like three doctors shot in uh what looks like a really horrible situation up near the Grand Concourse and the Bronx at Bronx Lebanon Hospital.
Those active shooter situations scare the, you know, if you never know what they are.
They are they terrorism, are they domestic related?
We don't have any of that information now, but you know, at least from if if it turns out to be something on the terrorism angle, we don't know any of that yet.
It's always scared me as a former Secret Service agent because these are the kind of things that require very little planning.
You know, if you have the mental state that you want to go do this kind of damage, they don't require a lot of planning.
And planning leaves investigative footprints, which investigators can, you know, crack a case before it happens.
Think about it in the 9-11 scenario, right?
You had a bunch of people who took flight training.
There were clues along the way.
Now, some of the clues sadly were missed, but there were clues.
When you have shooter situations like this, active shooter situations where people just take small arms and tactical assaults and they want to do some kind of damage, it's very hard to stop these kinds of things.
Very hard.
I mean, the only real option you have afterwards is to do uh, you know, a hot wash on it and find out if he's you know if you've got some kind of Facebook page, but it's very difficult to stop these things in advance.
All right, but getting back to my the story about Trump quick, and I just want to sum this up.
We shouldn't be taking any of our cues from the liberal media on this, none of it.
I'm not interested in their opinion on it.
I've been the subject of their attacks.
These are not legitimate people.
And let me just tell you just a quick thing, too.
And I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give out names.
I'm not gonna do what they do to us because it's not important and it would wouldn't be the right thing to do.
But and if if I give you a quick plug, quick.
I'm I've I have a book coming out in September, and thank you to anyone who knows me who bought the book.
It's available on Amazon now.
It's called Protecting the President.
And some of the chapters I talk about what we did in the Secret Service, and kind of like what happened with the fall of the Secret Service, not the agents, how all of the bad problems developed.
But when I was there, I dealt with these media people behind the scenes.
Some of the people you see on TV and these big time personalities and you know, people back then when I was there who are now big time personalities in some of these liberal networks.
The fact that these people are commenting on what's morally and ethically upstanding, like, oh my gosh, you insulted Mika Brzezinski's face.
Oh my gosh, after she called you a liar and a hack and mentally unstable.
Oh, oh, this is so terrible.
The fact that these people are the judge and jury in this morals and ethics court, ladies and gentlemen, is hysterical.
You get a couple of adult beverages, and anyone who's been on a foreign presidential trip from a White House staff and ask them about what the press does, you'll have a whole different view on the press commenting on moral matters.
It's like moral matters, they can't even do journalism.
You want the press to comment on the Ten Commandments?
Are you are you serious?
Do you know what these some of these not all?
I'm I'm not going to impugn all of them like they do to conservatives.
But I'm telling you, I've been there, okay?
I've seen it up close and personal.
A lot of good people there, but there are a lot of a lot of them who are total knuckleheads who have no morals or ethics at all, and they're commenting on us.
And we're taking their word as gospel, pun intended.
You must be kidding me.
I'm telling you, they're lucky sta White House staffers don't talk about some of the stories.
And I why I'm I'm not exactly sure.
And it's certainly not a matter of like, oh, well, uh, you know, it's uh what do you what are they called?
Omerta.
That's not it.
There's something like these guys have relationships and it's business stuff.
It's not it.
Because when you get these guys outside of their business circles, they'll tell you any story you want to hear.
All right, moving on.
I got some audio here.
You know what?
Let me take a quick call.
If you want to give us a call, by the way, 800-941-7326.
If I don't do that, I get I feel bad giving out the phone number not taking a call.
Let's take uh Laney from Houston, Texas.
Laney, you're on with Dan Body Show.
Hey, happy Fourth of July weekend.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
It's my favorite time of the year.
I love it.
Although I live in Florida and it's uh it's like a a buck 40 down here, but it is the greatest place on earth.
I live where everybody goes on vacation.
It's the greatest thing ever.
Oh no, you're on holiday every day.
And you know what's weird, Laney?
It feels like that too, though.
Like when you move to Florida, there's something they I think they pump into the air, the state of Florida that just makes everybody like chill out.
Nobody yells at anyone in the supermarket line.
Like when I was in New York, I'm sorry, I promise I'll let you make your point.
But when I lived in New York.
No, it's okay.
Nobody yells here in Texas because we're all packing.
Yeah, that's right.
They're afraid you're right.
You're damn don't ever mess with Texas, right?
That's what they say.
But down here, it's like you sit in a line at the public's and uh, you know, you they're talking to the the the woman or the guy at the checkout counter and the order's already done, and nobody's like, hey, daddy oh, move it.
I can't tell you how many times in New York, like people would like shove me with the cart, like, hey, ace, I got stuff to do.
And every it was always a name, like ace chief, boss.
It was never your actual name, but slick.
Yeah, slick, yeah, that's another one.
All right, what do you got for us?
Bottom line is the accusations for President Trump not being presidential is coming from journalists who have no journalistic standard.
They do not ask the questions who, what, when, where, why?
Everything's biased.
I watch news stories all the time and have three questions at the end that haven't even been approached.
But I do believe Trump's methodology, it's almost like an exorcist.
He's shooting it out there, and then we get to see the demons hiss and nadter and gnash their teeth.
It's fabulous.
You know, I I'm glad you brought this up because one of the things that you said the who, what, when, where, and why, which was the original intention of journalism and why I am so bitter towards journals.
I'm not bitter towards editorial people.
You know, I got some Chris Matthews stuff later.
He has an opinion, fine.
But the you're right about the journalists.
They're supposed to give us the facts, but what they're not doing, Laney, is they're not giving us the facts, they're creating the facts.
And the one story, and it's all for advocacy masquerading as journalism.
That is the tremendous resentment.
And you broke in with a shooting that's happening right now.
How many times has the elected officials, the press, and they're covering these things that actually are sanctioning partisan violence, which is very upsetting.
Well, that's it's interesting you brought that up.
Well, thanks for the call, Laney.
I appreciate it.
That's actually where I was going next.
That was an unintentional but uh perfect segue.
So I appreciate the call.
Yeah, that's you know, I was talking about double standards.
Why we're, you know, on a double standards on what presidential rhetoric is.
Again, like they didn't care about Obama, Hillary, or Harry Reid saying the most vile things about Republicans, but they they care all of a sudden now that Trump tweets.
And listen, there's Trump say some things that are, you know, you probably could phrase differently.
Yeah, but I'm just not willing to play this game with the liberal media.
I'll talk with morally upstanding people who criticize Trump on principles and and have a problem with the way he goes after folks.
That's fine.
But I'm not gonna debate with liberal hacks in the media who were doing this for one reason and one reason only, just because they hate Trump.
I'm just not gonna do it.
But the double standard thing, I'm glad you brought that up also when it comes to this, you know, with with the political violence.
Of course, we had the horrible uh shooting with Steve Scalise and and the members of Congress and Virginia at the baseball field.
And you're already seeing, you know, what was a cooling down period, thankfully, a few days after that, where some of the the hostile rhetoric on the left.
I'm not gonna say on the right, because everybody wants to make this out like this is a bipartisan matter, and it's not.
I'm sorry.
There are isolated incidents of stupidity amongst people who are conservatives, and there's unified efforts of stupidity on the far left.
I mean, you have the you had the whole Black Lives Matter movement, which which I mean they got invited to the White House after multiple incidents of people calling for the death of cops.
You know, you had all kinds of it.
You had the Southern Poverty Law Center out there labeling people hate groups, even after the family research center shooting where the guy was motivated by the Southern Poverty Law Center website to go in there and shoot the place up.
These are incidents on the left where they have a real problem, a systemic problem on the left.
But there's a total double standard there too.
Now we come back in the other side of this break.
I have some audio.
It's really disturbing.
It's troubling audio by people on the left, commentators and media types who are doing this guilt by association thing again with conservatives, even though there's nothing we haven't done anything.
But ignoring their side of the equation.
All right, I'm Dan Bongino at D Bongino on Twitter.
We'll be right back.
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
Dan Bongino at D. Bongino on Twitter, filling in for Sean.
Hey, at 4 o'clock coming up, I have uh Congressman Mark Meadows.
You don't want to miss that, chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
I love this guy.
I just want to say it's I have a lot of love for him.
He's a good man for reasons I'm not going to share publicly, but he's a really good dude, if I can say that with all due respect to the Congressman.
So he's coming up at four.
We'll get into the nitty-gritty on Obamacare.
Why can't we repeal this disaster?
I mean, seriously.
I know it's not his fault, but uh I'll ask him and then at 4 30, we have Matt Schlap, another good friend from the American Conservative Union.
Five o'clock, Jessica Tarlov, who is uh a Democrat, a liberal, but I I like her a lot.
She defends her position passionately.
So we'll uh we'll argue a little bit in a nice kind of way.
You don't want to miss that coming up at five o'clock.
And uh I will I do have to get into the Obama Camp.
But quick update, because that's a obviously a big story now, but quick update on this really terrible situation uh breaking right now in New York.
Uh local news, it looks like they're reporting that the shooter, there was a shooting in the hospital in Bronx Lebanon Hospital at the Grand Concourse up in New York on the 17th floor or 16th and 17th floor.
It looks like a couple of doctors, three doctors were shot.
And the shooter, according to the news I'm looking at now, is a former employee of the hospital.
Local news is reporting that he is in custody, that he was dressed like a doctor, so this situation is uh unfolding now.
I will update you throughout the show as appropriate, Lauren and uh Jason are getting me the breaking news, and during the break we're listening in.
So, yeah, really terrible situation.
And again, as a former law enforcement officer, you know, these are those moments that really make you cringe.
But it looks like he was a former employee of the hospital, so although we can't draw any conclusions right now, I'm just watching the news as many of you are.
It appears that it had something to do with uh maybe something that happened at his job.
So your prayers, folks.
You know, I'm a sinner.
I'm a Christian like everyone else, but it's all in the hands of God now.
All right, folks, I'll be back with you after the break, Congressman Mark Redos.
Okay, anyway, I'm Dan Bongino.
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
Dan Bongino at the Bongino on Twitter, filling in for Sean out of the bullpen, warming up the right arm.
Maybe not as good as old Mariano Rivera, but trying to do my best.
By the way, you ever see that video when Mariano Rivera retired?
That is like the most touching video.
Bring a tear to your eye.
Hey, uh, on a different note, more serious note, a quick update on this hospital shooting up in the Bronx at Bronx Lebanon of Grand Car uh Concourse.
Uh the shooter was a doctor from the hospital who was fired, according to updates I'm seeing now.
Uh he came back, he's shot with a a rifle.
It looks like three doctors.
The hospital shooter is now, well, it's being reported on the news is now dead.
I think that's confirmed by the MYPD.
So real uh real tragedy developing up there with the Bronx.
We'll get more information.
I'll update you uh as the show goes on.
But uh now we have with us a good friend of the show.
A uh I'm a big fan of the this guy.
We have Congressman Mark Meadows.
Congressman, how are you?
I'm doing well.
Um I'm a big fan of yours, Dan, and obviously uh our prayers go out to all those that you know family members and those involved that were in harm's way there in in uh the Bronx Lebanon hospital in New York.
But uh I can say that you know, as we look at at that unfolding, uh, you know, we're we're reminded that you know each day is a precious day, but it's great to be with you.
Uh look forward to chatting with you on what's happening here in Washington, D.C., or more accurately, what's not happening and and should be happening.
Well, and uh I just you know, when you you brought that up too, it's just in a moment to recognize our men and women in blue, too.
And I know this is a particularly obviously sensitive topic to you as well, given the horrible shooting that happened at the congressional baseball field and the heroic actions of those Capitol Police officers, and this was an obvious tragedy today.
Looks like we have three people who were shot.
But again, without our men and women in blue running into the fight while everyone is justifiably trying to get away from that.
You know, we this situation probably would have been far worse, just like the situation down in Alexandria.
So uh really uh a quick shout out, I know you feel the same way.
And that's well said, Dan, and I can tell you there are our our men and women in blue and our all of our first responders, whether it be uh law enforcement or firefighters or EMS personnel, you know, they they're on call 24-7, and uh many times they'll miss birthdays or anniversaries or or other special events, kids' baseball uh you know games in order to serve us, and so a real shout out to them.
Not only uh were we protected by Capitol Police, but as you mentioned, uh the the men and women in blue protecting those or it could have been a greater tr tragedy there in New York today.
Absolutely.
So, Congressman, on a uh on a different note here, we have this uh Obamacare fight going on, and uh you know it when they when they asked me to fill in today, you know, Lauren said, Who who do you want to have in?
I'm like, Well, I've got to have Congressman Meadows.
I I mean, frankly, and I I say this and I feel no need to comment on this, but I just don't trust a lot of politicians.
But you're one of the few guys, and there are there are more out there.
I know you know a lot of there are a lot of reputable people up there.
I know the general term politician has a negative connotation these days, maybe duly deserved, but there are some really good people up there, and you're one of the guys I know is a true teller for a lot of reasons, not the subject of the show right now, but I can vouch for you personally.
And one of the things that's really bothering me, and being in kind of talk radioactivism and writing for conservative review, I deal with the general public a lot, and I'm sure you do as well with your constituents.
Congressman, people are really, really irked right now who went out there and knocked on the doors, donated to campaigns for conservatives, we're engaged in the Tea Party revolution in Congress.
They're really bothered that seemingly everyone promised repeal, and yet we have the Congress, we have the House.
What's going on?
We're pulling our hair out.
Well, I mean, uh they're frustrated, and you know why?
They should be.
I mean, we're not delivering on what we promised, Dan, and uh, and I can tell you that it's not just those that are activists and Tea Party uh conservatives and and those that love liberty and freedom.
You know, it's the country club Republicans that many would say are more establishment.
I had a guy the other day uh call me and he said, Listen, I've donated to get a Republican Senate.
I donated to get a r a Republican in the White House.
I've donated to keep a Republican house, and yet I see no difference.
Why should I continue to do it?
And it's it's all about action, and you're right.
I'll speak the truth, and so here's where where we need to be.
We need to make sure that we repeal and replace Obamacare, uh, but certainly repeal Obamacare because it's driving up premiums, get it done before we leave.
And if we don't, let's don't leave in August.
Let's stay in through August, let's stay in until we get it done.
But it's not just that.
It's tax reform, it's making sure we build a wall and do do all that we promised to do.
Uh, and the excuses of the past are no longer going to be accepted by uh those on Main Street, nor should it.
Yeah, you know, Congressman, I'm in a I'm in a swingy district.
I I've been all over.
I lived in New York, I ran in Maryland, I know Florida well, I ran down here, I live in the 18th, I've been everywhere.
Some people knock me for it.
I like it.
Gives me a great flavor for the whole country.
I'm in a really swingy district.
Because you get to see it from different perspectives.
But you're right, you do know the country.
I mean, I was in a D plus six district in Maryland where everybody I ran into was seemingly a liberal Republican from the DC suburbs.
Yeah, you learn how to talk to people from different, you know, different political stripes.
Now I'm in a swingy kind of R plus one Congressman mass district down here um in Florida in 18, and you go out there and and you're right.
You talk to people who are even kind of loose Republicans, their affiliation is r it's not doctrinaire.
And even they're kind of confused by this because they're like, wait, let me get this straight.
For six years now, this has been a staple Republican Party platform.
This wasn't some tangential issue that kind of came up and in non-polite side conversations.
This is literally what people ran on.
And I guess I'm looking for a little inside perspective without giving up any inside baseball secrets, but do your colleagues up there realize the damage this is going to do with their constituents if nothing is done in Obama.
I know you get it, but do they get it?
Well, they're starting to get it.
I think uh, you know, a lot Of the people that you've talked to, whether it was in New York or Maryland or Florida or in between, they're starting to let their members know.
Now, here's here's one of the secrets that that should be told.
A lot of people campaign as if they're a conservative and say we need to do this.
But when it comes time to taking the vote, they lose their backbone.
I say me some members of Congress have the backbone of a banana.
It has some shape, but when you peel it back, it gets real mushy.
And uh, and that's what we need to do is make sure that we give them a real backbone.
But the other thing that's been so disconcerting to me is that I've seen people run on repeal uh and replace Obamacare.
And when it really comes down to the tough votes, they would just prefer to keep Obamacare.
And it's that kind of hypocrisy to be truthful about that the American people are tired of, whether it's on the Democrat side or the Republican side, they want someone who will speak the truth and and vote their conscience.
Uh and and we've got to do that.
I was talking to Newt Gingrich yesterday, and he says, Listen, we have to be about the people's business and making sure that we get things done and to go after uh what is important for them, and if they don't think they have an advocate, they'll eventually turn us out in uh November uh of two thousand eighteen will not be pleasant if we don't perform and and actually perform on the president's agenda.
Yeah, I I mean, Congressman, the the Wall Street Journal, which you know has its moments, but it at times can align with typical, I think what we call establishment Republican values as well.
I mean, no one's gonna call them diehard conservatives all the time, but I read their op-ed page.
They had a piece the other day, uh, the Republic aid party, basically calling out Republicans and saying if you all cannot stand against the Medicaid expansion where we are literally robbing Peter to pay Paul to give health insurance to people who are well above, if not double the poverty line.
If we can't stand up as a unified principle, have some guts movement and say to our constituents, folks, listen, we're all about being the wealthiest country on earth and taking care of people who legitimately cannot take care of themselves.
Okay, we get it.
Maybe there should be a good safety net for people.
I get it.
That's an argument worth having.
But an argument not worth having is people making nearly six figures, literally taking money off middle class plates to pay for health insurance, they just don't want to pay for themselves.
States are going bankrupt.
I mean, again, Congressman, I'm preaching to the choir, I know you totally get this.
But I cannot understand why some of your coworkers up there on the hill don't understand how easy of an argument this is to make.
We're giving we're paying for rich people's Medicaid.
This is crazy.
Well, we we can't continue to do that.
And and you're right.
I mean, when when we really look at this, this is all about making sure that we have a legitimate safety net for those that perhaps have fallen on hard times.
But the other part that we have to do, Dan, is we have to put the value back in work.
You know, it's it's a time where we need to get people out of poverty.
We need to make sure that we provide an opportunity where they have that.
But at the same time, we've got to make sure that when we do that, uh that the very policies that we support don't undermine that.
And so let's take work requirements for for Medicaid or for some of the other uh welfare programs.
We need to make sure that if they get a part-time job that they can still qualify.
But if they're not willing to work, whether it's 20 hours for a job or 20 hours uh for a government uh volunteer or 20 hours in vocational training, you know, I've I've found that if they're not willing to do that, then perhaps uh we need to reevaluate that.
And and that's what you're gonna see, the Freedom Caucus and members uh across the conservative spectrum start to focus on in the coming days.
Well, I I want to thank you.
Again, we're talking to Congressman Mark Meadows from North Carolina, chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
I really sincerely want to thank you.
And on behalf of a lot of other people who don't get the very generous opportunity to fill in for Sean Hannity, who have quietly said to me in the past, if you ever get the opportunity, talk to the Jim Jordans or the Mark Meadows of the world.
You know, thanks for standing for something.
I mean it.
I mean, you guys really it ain't easy to do what you're doing, you know.
And I appreciate that.
That means a lot coming from you because you're somebody who's willing to stand for liberty and freedom just like Sean Hannity.
And so I I just want to say thank you.
And for all the listeners that are out there who are willing to continue to invest and have a belief, let me just tell you, help is on the way.
I was at the the White House the other day.
This president is serious about getting his agenda done.
He is not going to yield.
He's not going to let excuses get in the way.
And I can tell you that it's all about making sure that he delivers on those promises, and we're going to help him do that.
Amen.
Hey, folks, give uh Congressman Mark Meadows a follow on Twitter.
Build his audience today.
He is at rep Mark Meadows on uh Twitter.
So at Rep Mark Meadows.
Congressman, thank you so much.
Thanks for fighting the good fight.
I hope to talk to you again soon.
Thanks a lot.
All right.
Thanks, Dan.
God bless.
Take care.
Take care.
All right.
Love that guy.
He's the best.
There are I'm telling you, folks.
Believe me, I am as cynical about politicians as anyone, but he is uh one of the good guys.
There's a small group of really good people up there, the Rampals, the Mike Lee's, the Ted Cruz's, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan.
These guys really fight the good fight.
All right, I'm Dan Bongino at the Bongino on Twitter, filling in for Sean Hannity.
We'll be right back.
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity show.
Dan Bongino at the Bon Gino on Twitter, filling in for Sean.
That was Congressman Mark Meadows.
I've got Matt Schlap coming up at 4 30 from the American Conservative Union.
Matt's always got Matt never holds back.
Again, when they asked what gas, I'm like, let's get Schlap.
He's always good for this kind of stuff.
Hey, may I humbly ask you for a favor to Sean's great audience?
And uh I really appreciate the opportunity from Lauren and Jason to do it.
I have a new book coming out on Amazon.
It's called uh Protecting the President.
It is about uh some experiences I had as a Secret Service agent and what went wrong with the Secret Service.
And there's here's a hint it is not um the rank and file agents.
It was some really terrible management decisions, and in light of what happened tragically in Alexandria with the the shooting there, there's some things I addressed in the book that should really open your eyes.
So uh go pick it up.
It's available for pre-order now on Amazon.
It's by me, Dan Bongino, it's called Protecting the President, so I appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Hey, um, on the other side of this, this break with Matt, I want to get into this about Obamacare.
And one of the things and you know, listen, I know for six years we've been talking about Obamacare, but it's critical we talk about it right now, and here's why.
Folks, a lot of the polling is starting to change on Obamacare.
And do not ignore this.
Do not do what liberals do.
Do not ignore polling and go, oh, those Trump rallies where he had 60,000 people at the stadium or whatever.
That doesn't mean anything.
Forget all that.
Do not ignore what's slamming you in the face.
Public polling is changing on Obamacare, but it's not changing for the reasons the liberal media wants you to believe.
Yes, there are some people who now approve of Obamacare.
Some polls show it at 50% approval.
Ladies and gentlemen, when you look at some of the more finer research done where they actually ask people what Obamacare is, people hate it.
People are just afraid of change.
They're risk-averse right now.
And Obamacare was such a you know, a a hydrogen bomb on the healthcare system that people are shell-shocked right now and they're in a panic.
They're like, wait, wait, I get it.
What we have now really sucks.
But if what's gonna happen next, is it gonna stink even worse?
Because I'm not going through that again.
I know this to be true because when you ask people about the intimate details of Obamacare, and I want to hit Matt up with that match slap along with this Trump Russia fiasco, which is totally boomeranged on the left now.
But they don't like Obamacare.
Don't buy into the hype that all of a sudden Obamacare is popular and people like it again.
They are associating Obamacare with a couple of things that are ironically infinitely small parts of Obamacare.
They think Obamacare, the general public thinks it's pre-existing conditions and kids on your insurance through your 26.
Folks, that is a tiny sliver of what Obamacare is.
I'm gonna explain to you during the show, so don't miss the rest of the show.
What you actually have to know because it's it's amazing that after six years of talking about this issue, and people like Sean and talk radio and conservative review, how we've been out there sounding the alarm that there are honestly, there are a lot of people out there who still have no idea what this is.
They think Obamacare's pre-existing condition coverage.
They don't understand what it's actually doing.
Regulations, community rating, guaranteed issue, slamming you in the face with double digit premiums.
None of this is gonna go away if we don't stop this.
None of it.
Do you understand?
Listen to me, please, before the break, it is only going to get worse.
This is not going to stop.
It is never going to end.
Either we take a stand now or we go down with this thing.
We have to stop it.
All right, I'm Dan Bon Gino at the Bon Gino on Twitter.
We'll be right back.
Yes.
Yes, we are back on the air.
But not Sean Hannity.
I'm Dan Bongino at the Bongino on Twitter, filling in for Sean, coming out of the bullpen today.
We had Congressman Mark Meadows on before.
We were talking about this Obamacare debacle.
All you did was promise repeal forever.
For six years, man.
Six years.
And thank God for people like Congressman Meadows.
I really like this guy.
He's one of the few warriors up there.
And I know he's on the right side of this, but to the rest of the Congressmen listening, get on the team.
You promised repeal.
All right.
And in perfect timing here, we have another guest here.
We have our friend Matt Schlapp.
Hey, Matt, thanks for joining us.
I appreciate it.
Dan, great to be with you.
Yeah, man.
Always good to talk to you, chairman of the American Conservative Union, a good warrior for the cause here.
So, Matt, you know, we just had Congressman Mark Meadows on, who I think the world of.
He's really a good principal guy.
And I I keep saying, and I I know you know a lot of these guys personally too.
I'm not name dropping at all, but this guy behind the scenes does some stuff that would really impress you.
Like he really stands for the cause.
So Matt, and I guess the question for you, Matt, is why don't we have 230 of the Meadows Jim Jordan's types?
They all r they all ran on repeal of Obamacare.
What the heck is going on right now?
Yeah, I tell you, you know, my uh particular scorn is for those Republican senators who are now behind the scenes trying to keep this uh, you know, 3% capital gains tax increase that helped pay for the outrageous expenses associated with Obamacare.
They're telling all of us they want to cut our taxes and reform taxes, but quietly they're trying to keep the tax some of the tax increases that were passed by Obama.
And you know what?
Here's the honest truth, Dan.
I can't believe I'm saying this because I thought it was such an unfair charge a few months ago, but there literally are Republicans who do not want to repeal Obamacare.
You know, Matt, I I agree with you that a couple of months ago I would have thought that was insane too.
But the proof is in the pudding, and the voters out in the field, as we used to say in the Secret Service, people in the real world that work for a living are in dumb.
And I I pose this question uh uh Representative Meadows, and I'll pose it to you too.
I know you talk to a lot of these guys behind the scenes.
Do they think we're stupid?
I mean, do they really think that if they do nothing on Obamacare, that this is somehow going to allow them to coast a re-election by painting themselves as as what?
Like the sane uh counter to to the president?
I mean, I don't I don't I don't get what this what they're trying to do.
This is a suicidal policy.
I agree with you, Dan.
As always, uh you're you're straight on, you're right.
But the uh the problem is the left-wing George Soros funded protests at these town halls have spooked a lot of these Republican members to think that if we come up with our Republican version of health care and a large number of people, according to the CBO, don't have health insurance coverage, that you know they're gonna they're it's gonna be a career ender.
And what I don't think they understand is it's exactly the opposite, which is after six or seven years of running around the country saying Obamacare was an abomination, that it was terrible, that we had to scrap it, we had to pull it out by its roots.
Um, you know, to take a path on uh on coming up with that proposal is just it's simply gonna be I think it's career ending for the party.
I really think the Republican Party as a congressional majority is on the line here.
They have to decide whether or not they do think we're we're stupid or didn't hear them, or whether they're gonna keep trust with us.
I I don't know why I don't know why they do anything other but doing what they said they'd do.
Yeah, and you know what's strange, Matt?
Talking to Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union.
What's strange to me is I don't agree with the Democrats at all.
I mean, obviously I'm a conservative.
I I have sincere political disagreements with them on larger ideological issues.
But you have to respect their solidarity when they want to get something done.
I'm not saying it was a good thing, I'm not making a moral judgment.
I'm saying from a strict tactical perspective.
When the Democrats decided we want Obamacare to pass, they were cutting in the the the Cornhusker kickback, the Louisiana purchase.
They were buying off Congressmen.
They were they were gonna steamroll it.
Remember, they they took all the uh they gutted a veterans' bill and did reconciliation to get it through.
And yet, when we have This simple measure running on something we promised to do through four elections now, repeal.
We don't even have the guts to say we're gonna repeal this.
We're gonna wipe the debris clean, clean the wound, and then we're gonna start over over the summer.
To me, it's just I I could not agree with you more that this is a seminal moment for the party as a whole, and if they don't get that.
I mean, do you think they get it though, Matt?
Are are people telling you they get it?
I think they got it after the election.
I think they've been spooked, some of them.
Let's let's let's let's caution by saying some of them.
People like Mark Meadows have really done a great job of crafting a great bill coming out of the House.
I think Mitch McConnell actually deserves a lot of credit.
I know uh sometimes people get frustrated with leadership, but he's doing everything he can to get this passed.
I mean, the the real culprits here are people like Susan Collins, who you know, she's picking every number of uh fronts to uh say she disagrees with the bill on including defunding Planned Parenthood.
She'd probably like to increase uh funding for Planned Parenthood, which is the number one provider of abortion services in the country.
So we've got some real culprits in the Senate majority.
I think the vast number of Republicans in the Senate get how important it is, Dan, to repeal this and to come up with a free market alternative.
But uh I tell you more than ever, it's time for conservatives across the country to call into their uh to to their Senate offices to go to their events, give them hell over this recess.
Tell them you expect nothing else but a free market version of re reflecting Republican principles on health care, and they ought to pass it this month.
Yeah, I mean I agree.
If we're gonna stick up for tax hikes, capital gains, tax hikes, a massive expansion of a safety net program that's now going to go out to people making close to six figures per year.
I mean, this is utter absurdity, and you're right.
This is one of those moments for the party where if we're not willing to stand for something, we're all gonna fall for everything.
It's ridiculous.
But hey, I wanted to move on to another topic.
And I, you know, I I know you'll always give me an honest opinion, but I'm not trying to sway you in either direction on this.
This is I'm not one of those kind of hosts if you, you know, if you don't agree, fire away.
But I opened the show talking about Trump with Twitter yesterday, and all right, listen, you and I and maybe a lot of the listeners could probably agree that he could phrase a lot of things differently on Twitter.
I I get it.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with you know an honest criticism of of how he messages his message, right?
Um, you know, that's what we as Republicans should do.
We don't do golden calf politics.
But one of the things I'm having a real issue with, Matt, with this whole thing yesterday with Morning Joe and Trump and him and Mika Brzezinski is why are we being lectured by the far left about civility and politics when the these people for years have uh we throwing grandma off the cliff, they're running that ad now, Matt.
The the grandma off the cliff ad again.
We we're killing grandma, puppies, uh little children.
You know, we're like the the Stay Puff Marshmallow guy from Ghostbusters One.
I mean, we're the worst thing you can possibly imagine.
And all of a sudden, like the left is lecturing us on political civility.
You know, I I kind of don't blame Trump for throwing punches back.
So I'd like to get your perspective on it.
Look, I think uh, you know, people say it's not presidential uh when Trump tweets like he tweeted.
And uh the fact is is this no matter what he does, he's the president, and uh he's changing the presidency.
Now, one of the things people and a lot of conservatives don't like is kind of the coarseness of our rhetoric uh of our debate that it seems like we can't be civilized.
Um and I, for one, try very hard uh to to kind of stay on that road.
I don't always succeed.
Sometimes I get hot.
We all get hot, and I think the president has watched the show morning after morning.
I've been on that show a bunch of times.
Um and I just for I I always thought they really liked uh Donald Trump.
I mean, their coverage for you know a couple of years was pretty positive.
And something happened, something personal happened between these people.
I don't know if we all know what it is.
I don't think we do know what it is, but it's gotten quite nasty.
That show every morning um says the worst things about the president, makes mocks the size of his hands, which is we all know what they're uh what they're what they're implying when they do that, and they're they mock his looks, they mock his intellectual abilities, they mock everything about him.
And I think people in the elite left-wing media are used to mocking conservatives and getting away with it.
And uh and I think he's pushing back, and I don't I don't always love the tone of the way he does it, but I do love the fact that he does push back because we're all so used to cowering in the corner.
Well, you can't see the visuals right now, but I'm like punching in the air right now because I'm so agreeing with you that I I've run for office.
I mean, you know that you you helped me out a lot there in a lot of these races.
I was in very, very hostile places twice when I ran in Maryland, which is very blue.
And when you run for office and you experience what the media does firsthand, Matt, where they actively manipulate quotes, where they cut it off at a selective and they say, hey, we're we're not lying about what you said.
No, you're not.
You're just cutting it off when in the next sentence I said, you know, it's like if I said something like, you know, liberals would say President Ronald Reagan was really a terrible president.
If they quote me and say President Ronald Reagan was really a terrible president, they're not lying.
They're just cutting it off and taking it out of context.
They do this all the time.
And when you get a guy like Trump, who's a brawler from Queens, the guy's a builder, he's had a deal with this crap his whole life.
He's clearly got an edge to him.
They elected him because he's got an edge.
And you put it this morning show on cable news, and every morning, you know, he's ugly, his kids are ugly, his kids are criminals, he's a Russian spy, he's a Russian agent.
We don't like his wife.
There's a mock decapitation.
One guy calls him a piece of on the uh on Twitter, who's a CNN producer.
And now we're let me get this straight.
We're all supposed to get upset because he fires back at her.
I don't know, Matt.
I got other things to worry about, you know?
And that's not one of them.
I think that I think that something happened here.
I don't know what happened with this relationship.
I think that if uh if uh the Morning Joe folks are upset about this, they ought to have their show tomorrow and in a respectful and dignified way, have a debate about the issues at hand.
And uh, you know, that that's what I would suggest they do.
I don't think they should get upset when uh when people who get made fun of by the elite media push back, especially politicians who, you know, they don't have as much airtime.
And uh, you know, so this is what he's got.
He's got Twitter.
He's gonna use it.
Hey, I've uh one more thing I wanted to hit you with.
Last question, but I I I've seen you a lot on Fox, and I want to uh uh applaud you.
It's one of the reasons I want to have you on.
You know, fighting the good fight on the Trump Russia X-Files conspiracy theory fairy tale.
Um, you no, I'm serious, like you do a really good job, and you you know the talking head ecosystem like anyone else.
I mean, I don't I don't do as many appearances as you, but I do myself.
And I'm always disappointed when people go on to fight the good fight and they just don't articulate it well.
And you've been a beast on this Trump Russia thing, and I want to give you like a golf clap on that.
But the question to you is hasn't this thing boomeranged on the Democrats spectacularly?
I mean, think about this, right?
We've seen now who they really are through these CNN tapes.
Also, we've seen the unmasking reveal by the Obama administration officials who still can't reveal a legitimate reason for doing it.
I didn't break the law, but they certainly skirted it.
Loretta Lynch now, they're looking at her for being involved with the Hillary investigation.
I mean, this thing has absolutely exploded on the Democrats.
And I'm not a shout-in fraud guy, but I gotta tell you, there's a little bit of a smirk developing in the corner of my mouth on this one.
Look, the only I guess the only thing I would say, thank you for your nice comments, Dan, it means a lot to me, and I feel the same way about you.
The uh the I've seen you on CNN uh punch in and and and make it real.
Yeah, I got a little trash for that one.
That's okay.
That's okay.
It happens.
But I think that the um I think the key here is this, which is I think we all ought to just be uh cognizant and sober to the fact that you know independent counsels tend to find wrongdoing.
If when you're in government, I served four years for President George W. Bush.
They uh they tend to find wrongdoing uh because you know, I guess guess what?
On the four years on the job, I probably did some things wrong.
I didn't intend to, but you know, you're you're moving fast.
Yeah, you ripped a tag off of the actrice.
You're a federal criminal.
That's a great way to say it.
You don't know what to do.
Believe it or not, everyone listening has broken one federal law and a federal criminal, no matter what.
Yeah, if you run a business and you're just trying to, you know, make money and serve service your customers, you know, I guarantee you there's some OSHA violation that you can commit not fully understanding.
I mean, I just I got a bill here in the city of Alexandria the other day because I entered in my recycling plan and I'm gonna go to the house.
Oh my gosh, get him put him in jail.
Robert Mueller, put him up on your list.
He didn't recycle that cookie.
They'll find something, but Jim Comey is a holier than now hypocrite, and he uh we uh many of us have worked with him, we know his reputation.
And I actually think he's now the subject of a lot of scrutiny for he can't give his private uh information to Congress, but he can give it to his friends in Columbia Law School to leak to the press.
Right.
Nobody sees anything wrong with that.
Loretta Lynch feels like she can tell the FBI director exactly what to do.
But when Trump tries to have interactions with his FBI director, they make it sound like those communications are unproper.
The the hypocrisy here is many fold.
And I and I do think that um, you know, not all of what comes out will be will smell like roses for team Trump.
But the the idea if there was any collusion with the Russians that impacted the election is Baldur Dash.
And and anybody who continues to push this uh is wasting the American people's time as we are not taking care of our real problems.
And beyond that, they're really lying because there's absolutely no evidence of anything serious here.
Darn right, man.
Well, Matt, thank you so much for joining me today.
I really appreciate it.
Rowie's a great guest.
Matt Schlapp, appreciate it, buddy.
Talk to you soon.
Dan, really appreciate it.
Thank you, sir.
You got it.
That was Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union.
Always a great take.
I'm Dan Bongino at D. Bongino on Twitter, and for Sean Hannity.
We'll be right back.
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
Dan Bongino at the Bongino on Twitter, filling it for Sean.
Hey, check this out.
In the next hour, do not miss this.
Do not tune out.
Do not turn away.
Do not even turn your ears.
Listen to your car stereo computer, whatever you're listening to.
I got Jessica Tarlov coming in.
Uh I like a lot.
She happens to have different political views of me, but I want to have an actual debate here about what the heck they think they're gonna do with Obamacare.
No, I really want to know.
What are you gonna do?
The Democrats.
They have nothing.
All they have is Republicans think.
They don't have anything else.
I want to hear what they're gonna do to fix this legislative debacle, this this neutron bomb of legislation that's destroyed our healthcare system.
I want to see what they're gonna do.
And I'd like to hear what their proposals are, because they don't seem to be in any way constructively getting involved in this debate, not one little bit.
And I'm a little bit frustrated by it.
All right, I'm Dan Bon Gino, contributing editor over at Conservative Review again at the Bon Gino on Twitter.
If you want to comment or criticize, we'll be right back.
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity show.
Dan Bon G. I gotta adjust my headphones myself.
Dan Bon Gino at D. Bongino on Twitter.
Fill in it for Sean coming out of the bullpen.
Hey, I want to get right to our next guest.
We have uh Jessica Tarloff, senior director of research at Bustle.com, Fox News contributor.
You've seen her on Fox quite a bit, and co-author of a relatively new book along with Doug Schoen of America in the age of Trump.
That's America in the age of Trump.
Hey Jessica, thanks for coming on today.
I really appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Happy Fourth of July.
Yeah, yeah, you as well.
Hey, I have to say I uh I wanted a a liberal guest to come on, and you were the first person to jump to my mind because I mean, if I could just be candid and I say this with all due respect, I watch a lot of liberal guests.
You really sometimes on Fox, I'm like, ah, and I think it's because you do your homework, you know your stuff, so I want to be fair, but you really articulate your points well, even if I disagree with them.
So that's kind of a backhanded compliment.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that.
But a compliment nonetheless.
But I did want to have you on.
I never guess.
No, you do.
You do it, you do a good job, although I I disagree with you.
But I thought you'd be a really good guest to have on to kind of have a little spicy back and forth here on uh Obamacare, because you know, I know we've been talking about this for six years, but now that we're we're there, I mean the votes are there.
I just had a couple Republicans on to kind of, you know, go from the Republican end that, hey, why aren't the Republicans doing anything?
But I guess the question I want to pose to you as um as a a a liberal is well, what are the Democrats gonna do?
I mean, what's what's your take on this?
Is you is it, you know, Obamacare's fine and leave it alone, or what actual fixes do you guys propose?
Yeah, no, I I definitely don't think that that's uh something that can happen at all.
I don't think it can be left alone.
And I think Trump Schimmer and Nancy Pelosi are well aware of that.
I've been hearing from contact in DC that, you know, behind closed doors, they've been talking to a lot of Republicans actually about things that maybe we could possibly make a deal on.
My number one priority for that is purchasing insurance across state lines.
We all know that free market competition lowers prices.
Um and that wasn't in the GOP bill, which was shocking, at least to me, because that was something that they'd kind of crusaded on, right?
Um so I think that that's a good starting point.
I think for Democrats it really I I know it's probably gonna sound petty, but I think it matters that the name stays, you know, that it's Obamacare forever, because that's going to be kind of his major legacy piece uh going forward.
So I think that that has to stay there.
Um but I think that they are looking at smart fixes to get those prices and the premiums and the deductibles down, um maybe some tort reform.
So that's a possibility.
Uh but I think those are kind of like the two crucial issues with insurance across state lines uh as the number one thing.
The problem now is that we've created a dialogue because of the way that the House bill looks and the GOP and the Senate bill at this point, though obviously who knows what it'll come back with that you know we have the big cuts to Medicaid and there, the issues still around preexisting conditions, et cetera.
So it's created an environment where everyone's just gone back to attacking the other side instead of productive conversation.
And I don't know how that plays out in 2018 because voters are already disinterested and then if you have nothing to show on either side, you know, you have no major policy accomplishment, I don't know why people would turn out of the poll.
Well I I don't disagree and I am not a fan of either the House or the Senate bill I think you're a real catastrophic problem.
Yeah.
Why would you be yeah exactly but what here is what I just wanted I wrote down a couple notes.
State lines, okay, across state lines we I agree on that.
National markets are always better.
Tort reform totally agree there.
But you said something there that I want to I want to kind of throw the red flag on.
You said cuts to Medicaid.
Now this is what kind of gets me about about debating with liberals.
They are not cuts.
Now they we can they're cuts to the rate of growth.
Right there they're not cuts.
Like I and I think phrasing them that way, words matter.
And I think this is why conservatives like me get angry when I see people on you know Fox and they say cuts to Medicaid there are no heat box.
It's every network that they're saying and there are a lot of Republicans also who raised it that way.
You know, there are people like Rob Portman out there and people in big Medicaid states like Bob Cassidy who've said that.
What I will say is if you want to say it's just the slowing with slow growth right of Medicaid spending.
But the reality is there are gonna be 15 million less people who have Medicaid today that are going to be able to be on Medicaid.
And that is a cut no matter which way you slice it.
So I I don't care how you phrase this appointed we're going to be scaling back the Medicaid program in a way that we weren't going to before.
So we can do you want but okay all right fair enough I'll I'll even forgetting the semantics for a second even though I I know we're actually right they're not actual cuts.
I mean it's slowing the rate of growth the problem I have with this too is when you read that CBO report about people on Medicaid it's pretty clear about a couple things.
Number one, this doesn't happen for four years.
And number two, when we talk about Medicaid, can we both agree just on principle to be fair to each other that this is a program designed specifically to help the poor this was not a program designed to help middle class people get health insurance that they could very well pay for themselves.
I'm not talking about pre existing conditions.
I'm talking about healthy middle class people Medicaid was not a program for middle class people.
So the question I want to pose to you is slowing the rate of growth of the program which is what it actually is simply Republicans saying, hey listen, this is a program for the poor when you have handicapped parking spots people, you want people who are legitimately handicapped to use them.
Just like with Medicaid when we start spending money on people making $9000 a year to expand Medicaid I don't understand from a liberal's perspective and please explain it to me.
It's not I'm I'm not trying to be silly about it.
How is that help?
I don't get it.
Well I mean I I agree with you insofar as I think the welfare state has gotten radically out of control and that's not just Medicaid, right?
That's you know SNAP and all sorts of welfare reforms um that people are abusing.
I think there's an argument to be made to talk about means testing across the board and that's something where I think you know Donald Trump it was a great populist message right for him to say I'm not gonna cut any entitlements but the reality is these entitlements are going to go bankrupt if we don't do something about it and you know look at the Simpson Bowles Commission for instance there are effective ways that we can do this that actually the American people are very fond of.
I did a poll actually uh with Doug my co-author on the book about this a couple years ago and it showed it was a 80% of Americans were willing to pay a little bit more in taxes to ensure that those programs were going to be there forever, right?
So that you'd actually have social security.
Like I'm a millennial I don't think I'm gonna get anything when all is said and done.
No me either right yeah I don't either.
I've totally factored that out of my retirement plan completely.
Yeah, we absolutely have to.
Um, so I take your point there.
With Medicaid, yeah, I think that we do need to have a healthy conversation about who's actually on these programs, but we are, you know, covering as well.
Like, you know, people in nursing homes who maybe have, you know, more money than they should to be in this program, but they are disabled in some way.
We have a lot of kids on these programs, and that that's a new thing, right?
That we have so many children on a Medicaid program.
Um, I'm not sure exactly what the way is to fix that, but I think that these blunt cuts or these blunt flowing, as it were, is concerning, and it's not just liberals who feel that way.
I mean, there are obviously a number of conservatives who agree with that, and I don't know you're right.
The Wall Street Journal had an op-ed the other day called the Republican Party talking about exactly that Republican senators who don't want to make the hard decisions in their states because they have a heavily dependent Medicaid population.
But but what I guess my point is, and I you can answer or I wanted to move on to another angle of this, but my the point I'm trying to make is that doesn't make the problem go away.
We're in nineteen trillion dollars of debt.
We simply do not have the tax base to support you know, robbing Peter to give to Paul if Paul's a middle class guy who just doesn't want to pay for his insurance.
Oh no, I'm just gonna take Medicaid and I make 70,000 a year.
Somebody had to pay for that.
You know, it reminds me of the Milton Friedman line where he said, you know, the big joke about government spending is you think your neighbor's paying for it, but your neighbors saying the same thing.
I mean, there's no money fairy, you know?
Like we all have to accept that reality.
Yeah, no, I mean, we definitely do, and I I I really about that.
Uh, I do think that a tremendous amount of this is a problem with the dialogue that both sides are having.
You know, Democrats have done an excellent job of framing Republicans as evil, right?
Like they're gonna throw Granny off the cliff.
They're running that ad now.
They're running it again, the granny the cliff.
I mean, why ruin a good thing, right?
Um Republicans have done a great job saying that we're all a bunch of socialists, and Bernie Sanders speaks for all of us when we know that that's not true as well.
Well, you weren't a Sanders supporter, right?
You were a couple of years.
I really have strong problems with Bernie Sanders.
Yeah, very strong.
No, I like I said, that's why I wanted to have you on.
I think you you know, you defend your position.
Well, all right, I wanted to hit this angle of Obamacare too.
And this is what frustrates me too.
I think we have some reasonable points on Medicaid.
It's a program for the poor.
Fine, we should have a conversation about where America the body politic is.
Uh that's okay.
But saying that it's a program for people who make ninety grand a year, it's just you know, that's not being genuine.
But well, it depends where they are also.
I mean, this is a you know, if you're in New York City and you're earning ninety grand a year and you have a family, I understand why you're on Medicaid.
If you're in the middle of the country, you're I mean, Jessica, seriously though, and a serious one.
I think how are you gonna sell that to a coal miner in West Virginia who may make it?
He's like, hey, boo-hoo.
I believe I lived in New York, believe me, I love New Yorkers.
I'm in Florida now, but it's kind of like they don't want to hear it.
You get what I'm saying?
Like they're like, okay, great, you make 90K in New York, move to West Virginia, you know.
Exactly.
Well, what are the what happened in the election?
Yeah, I mean, exactly good point.
Well, one other angle I wanted to hit on this is Obamacare.
So we know the problem with it is from a pure economics perspective.
I'm trying to remove the politics, this always creates a toxicity there.
But community rating and guaranteed issue.
Just simply the idea that the government can put price caps on what people can be charged for their insurance ignores the fact that there are people who are just more expensive.
I mean uh so that what's happening now is you have a guy, like I always use the analogy of a motorcycle with car insurance.
You have a guy who drives a motorcycle, blows through stop signs, never obeys the speed limit.
He's paying the same government enforced premium or roughly as you know, grandma who drives a Honda Civic and stops at every stop sign.
And those costs don't go anywhere.
I mean, when are we gonna have a responsible conversation about that?
And it seems like Republicans and Democrats don't want it to go anywhere.
No, I I totally agree with you.
I mean, I think that's the single biggest problem plaguing Washington, and then by extension the country, that no one is willing to have a dialogue about this.
I um do you know Mercedes Schwap, who's contributor, yeah.
So Mercedes and I have a weekly segment together on Mondays, and we talk about this stuff all the time.
You know, why are we not having conversations about the work that Democrats and Republicans are doing together?
Because there are some instances, like the sanctions on Russia, for instance, right?
That past ninety-eight, ninety-eight zero.
Like there are things that we can't agree on, but why aren't is it the hard stuff when the idea at core Republicans and Democrats both want everybody to have affordable quality health insurance?
Right.
What about this proposal?
Let me throw something out at you because it ran Paul's put this out there, and I've been talking about it for a long time.
Not trying to claim credit.
Uh I found out the other day, Rand Paul had this in his bill.
But he has a great idea.
Why won't Democrats get behind a bill?
And let's say this.
Let's say we give doctors and hospitals a full tax credit for all the volunteer care they want to give.
They want to take in a hundred, two hundred people who can't afford a high uh high cost procedure.
It's an orthopedic surgeon.
Would you, as a liberal, get behind something like that, even if, and here's where it gets tough for you.
I I don't mean this in a negative way, but I know liberals are into the fair share thing, but even if it meant doctors and hospitals could almost zero out their tax bill.
I I I certainly would have to see the detailed.
I personally don't think Rand Paul sounds all that crazy usually, especially these days.
So I think that a conversation about that could work.
I think the idea of lock grants, not necessarily Medicaid block grants, um, but block grants to doctors and hospitals makes a lot of sense.
It needs to be the fact that we know the people who don't have insurance are showing up anyway.
Right.
It's not as if like you saw your arm off, and because you don't have insurance, you're not going to the hospital.
No, listen, I I gotta run, but I just wanted to I no, I I get it.
But the only problem I have with that is then the government passes, like in other words, the doctors are paying the taxes to get the tax money back.
I I guess my take is why not just let them keep their own tax money if they can you know give out voluntary care.
I I I to me it doesn't seem sensible to send it through the bureaucracy first.
You just don't know what people are gonna do with that money.
I mean, Republicans like to say they're gonna give it back, right?
And they're gonna contribute to society and be philanthropic and provide that great free care, but liberals are a little more skeptical, and they want to make sure that we have those protections built in.
So I think that's where the difference is.
Well, Jessica, thank you for coming on.
You always do a great job on the Senate.
Really appreciate it.
You got it.
Thanks a lot.
That was Jessica Tarloff, author of the book America in the Age of Trump.
Go pick it up.
I'm Dan Bongino at D. Bongino on Twitter.
We'll be right back.
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
Dan Bongino, contributing editor of a conservative review at the Bongino on Twitter filling in for Sean.
Thank you for the opportunity.
I always appreciate it.
Excuse me.
Hey, uh, you know, I want to take this opportunity before the break here to just make a quick plea here.
You know, Sean has a big audience, and folks, it's time to go for it, man.
I mean, to go for it.
I've said this before, I've said it on my social media, I've been clamoring for it for months.
The Democrats, the Trump administration, the Democrats have shown their true colors to people.
Not all.
I'm not going to do what they do to us, but a large majority, especially the far left wing of the party, is shown their true colors.
They do not want to fix Obamacare, despite it being a neutron bomb on our health care system.
They don't want to do anything about voter fraud.
See, Chris Kobak put out this uh thing today on this election commission.
Hey, we're just looking to see if there are dead people on your voter rolls.
They're like, nah, no thanks.
We're happy with the walking dead vote.
It's good for us.
Uh they don't want to do anything.
They want to impeach Trump for being involved in an ex-files conspiracy with Gillian Anderson and David DeCovney and the Russian cigarette guy.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
They've shown their true colors.
They're not interested in moving the country forward using the dreaded air quotes.
They're not interested in fixing anything, they're not interested in fixing the economy, they're not interested in anything.
Again, I'm not talking about all of them, but I'm talking about a large swath of them, and especially the far-left activist group, and definitely the far left money.
They don't care.
They want to impeach this guy for nothing.
It is time to go for it.
Go for just go.
Take the ball and do a Bo Jackson Brian Bosworth.
Go for it.
What's the problem?
You have the Senate, you have the House, you have the presidency.
What's the penalty?
What's the you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
You also have a good Supreme Court justice in Gorsak now.
You have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move the freedom train back in the freedom direction for once.
Just do the right thing.
Have some cojones, man.
Please, God, do it now.
And I am not using his name in vain.
Do it now.
What happened?
The Valley Forge generation.
Remember that?
Remember there were the founding fathers, what they you're not going through any of that.
You're going home to your flat screen TVs, man.
You got your cell phones, you got your steak dinners.
Just go for it.
Go back to the hill, sit in your office and make it happen.
Tax cuts, school choice.
Get rid of Obamacare, do it now.
They are not going to be reasonable.
Stop trying to negotiate with the other side.
They're not going to let you do it.
Go for it.
Throw the football down the field.
I'm Dan Bongino.
Be right back.
Honestly, I'm allowed to have opinions on this show.
And one of my opinions was that nepotism is a bad thing in government.
It just is.
You put Uday and Kuse in your government, and you're gonna have a problem with everybody else in the government because nobody can fight with them.
Nobody can challenge them.
In the end, the son-in-law is always right because he always can go to his father-in-law or his wife and say, they were mean to me.
The power seems to have gone to the son-in-law.
This is the Romanovs.
Just a thought.
The Romanovs.
Is it?
And then you find out in all these investigations that Jared was opening up a tunnel to Moscow.
So that he wouldn't have to deal with the State Department.
So the son-in-law, you know, one good thing Mussolini did was execute his son-in-law.
I mean, I'm sorry.
No, no, no.
It was an extreme measure.
But this is this is a strange situation.
Oh my gosh.
Does it ever stop with the Looney Tunes left?
Seriously, does it ever stop?
I'm Dan Bon Gino in for Sean Hann.
If you want to give us a call, by the way, 800-941-7326-800-941 Sean.
You want to send me a tweet?
I'm at D Bon Gino.
Folks, you know, I'm I'm not let me get my berries here for a second, because I want this to be said very appropriately, okay?
We just had a congressman shot in the hip.
And literally within an inch of his life, nearly losing his life.
Congressman Steve Scalise in an incident in Alexandria, Virginia, who was unquestionably targeted because he was a Republican.
There was about 10 minutes of maybe we should dial down the rhetoric on both sides.
On both sides, what are you talking about on both sides?
What credible conservative commentator?
Don't send me some looney tune in East Toon of Fish Ohio, who's on blog talk radio with two listeners who said something stupid.
What credible person, commentator on a on a big cable news station who has the platform?
That was Chris Matthews, by the way, in MSNBC comparing Jared Kushner to Uday and Kusei Hussein of the Saddam Husseins of the Iraqi Husseins.
For those of you who miss that.
Who's doing this?
Where is this a systemic problem on the right?
Where?
Folks, this is insane.
The left owns this.
The left owns it because, and here's here's my theory on this, by the way.
And I'm gonna get to a couple of your calls in a minute.
Again, 800-941-7326.
Here's my theory on this.
When you're a leftist, all you have, I mean a far leftist.
I'm not talking about moderate democrats.
When you're an active liberal, a far-left activist, you all you have is government.
You are in love with the power of the state.
The power of the state is everything to you.
You don't believe in big R rights, you believe in little R rights.
And those little R rights are given to you by the state.
The state is the all-power, all-powerful, the all-knowing, the all-thinking.
The state is everything to you.
When you lose the power of the state, like losing an election to Donald Trump, you have nothing.
You have nothing to fall back on but emotion, but anger, but rage, but disappointment, but ridiculous analogies like comparing Jared Kushner to Uday Hussein.
You have nothing left.
Matthews a die-hard lib, died in the wool lib.
He believes in the all-powerful Beneal genuflect before the power of government, the state.
I'm not really, I don't speak French very well, but he said, I am the state.
With Chris Matthews, that's what they they are the state.
That's all they are.
They have nothing else.
But why don't conservatives respond the same way?
Think about this.
Think about this for a second.
Process this, especially you liberals listening.
I know Sean has liberals who listen to the show.
What do we as conservatives believe in?
We believe in big R rights, big R rights given to us by God.
We believe in freedom and liberty and the power of the individual.
We believe the state is just an intermediary that only protects rights given to us by someone else.
We do not believe the state gives us anything.
We give the state money to protect rights we already have.
I don't owe the state squat.
I don't genuflect before it.
Matter of fact, I'm nothing but disappointed in it half the More than half the time.
Outside of our military and our court system, there's not much the state does right anymore.
So when we lose elections, it's disappointing.
There's no question we were really PO'd when we lost to Obama.
But we don't lose our marbles.
We don't start calling the Jared Kushner.
I mean, can you imagine if someone would have said like Malia Obama was like a Uday Hussein?
Oh my gosh.
Rightfully so, you'd probably be kicked off the air.
Folks, liberals have lost their minds.
Now I have another sound clip.
Jason, cue up for me that uh Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic one.
This guy's the editor in chief of the Atlantic magazine.
Now, just to show you again the total double standard, how liberals they're losing their minds because they've lost the power of the state.
This guy's speaking at a meeting.
This guy's the editor in chief of The Atlantic, which is a left-leaning uh magazine, and he's talking about who he's gonna blame if something happens to the press.
Listen to this gonna blow you right.
Play that cut.
The problem is, and this is what I uh what I worry about more than anything else is that is that there are people in the country who don't understand that that this is a cynical reality TV game, um, and are going to hear over and over again from the president that the reporters, journalists are enemies of the state.
And someone, I mean, God forbid, but someone is going to do something violent against journalists in in in a large way, and then I know where the fault lies.
Uh what?
Now, listen, my conscience is clear on this.
After the horrible incident the baseball field, the shooting of Steve Scalise by the maniac Bernie Sanders supporter.
I don't know of any, again, credible conservatives and Republicans who went out there and suggested that Bernie Sanders should be arrested and is at fault.
Listen, I think Bernie Sanders says dumb stuff just about every ten minutes.
The guy's a socialist.
That says everything in and of itself.
I mean, to be a socialist is to be an a a buffoon.
I mean, you can't bel it it really is socialism is violence.
But nobody is saying Bernie Sanders is responsible for the act of a maniac.
Nobody's saying that.
Yet they engage the left in this crazy rhetoric all the time.
So let me get this straight.
Guilt by association is a real thing for Republicans.
Donald Trump is is not a big fan of the press.
The press hates him, goes after him violently every single day, using the nastiest rhetoric, calling him a Russian spy and everything.
Trump fights back, and all of a sudden, if some wacko who would have, you know, who's just a maniac does something against the press, God forbid, then Donald Trump is responsible preemptively, yet, yet you actually had a Bernie Sanders reporter try to kill members of Congress, and you have conservatives saying, listen, I don't like Bernie, but this guy's a maniac, it's on him.
Folks, this is crazy.
We live in like wacko bizarro superman land.
And I can't encourage you like this Jeff Lee Jeffrey Goldberg guy from The Atlantic in strong enough terms to sincerely reevaluate what you believe.
Because you know what?
Turnabout is not fair play on this one.
I am not as a conservative who believes in the power of God first.
I am never going to blame someone.
I mean, if listen, you call for violence like Black Lives Matter with the pigs in a blanket, Fry him like Bacon.
That's different.
That's actually calling for violence.
But I am never going to pin violence on the active political talk, no matter how disgusting the political talk is, if it's not a direct incitement, okay?
But they do it to us all the time.
The rules just don't apply, and you wonder why there's been this mass rebellion of people, working class folks against the Democratic Party that doesn't think they represent them anymore.
You've called us racist, misogynist, homophobes, phobophobes, anything with an is phobe, whatever it is.
You've called us that for years.
You attack us at every opportunity.
You have groups out there literally calling for violence against conservatives and people out there.
You have other groups insinuating it.
You have people riling up to bait Republicans hate you.
Republicans are stealing your money.
Republicans are killing your grandmother, your puppy.
They're poisoning your cat.
I sorry about the sound effects.
I'm just it's a family-friendly show, and I feel like if I go on any longer, I'm gonna get into the FCC trouble.
I'm really PO'd about this.
Because we are always the responsible ones on this.
Always.
It wasn't Bernie.
Although he's a wacko.
He was.
It's not Bernie's for the guy who was nuts.
The guy was crazy.
And this guy preemptively from the nothing's even happened and he's already blaming Trump.
Fool.
Fool.
Hashtag fool Twitter.
All right.
I gotta take a call.
If you want to give us a call 800 941 7326.
Let's take Kathleen from Iowa's been holding a while.
Oh, that's right.
What about uh Wayne from Nashville?
Hey Dan, how are you?
Yeah, hey, I'm good.
How are you?
How's Nashville?
I'm doing great.
Hey, uh Nashville's awesome.
Hey, wait, hold on before you go.
I'm as a guy from Florida and previously Maryland and New York too.
I heard for a little bird whispered in my ear that Nashville is like a really banging city.
It's a cool place to be.
Is this true?
Can you confirm it for us?
Oh, absolutely confirm it.
I actually am just coming back from working down in Central Florida and uh I'm heading back home right now.
It is lit up.
We got like 25 or 28 big cranes swinging material downtown.
It is booming.
Yeah, I swear a couple of friends of mine who were there, they said y this is this is a hidden gem.
I mean it's not really hidden, it's Nashville, but they said this place is amazing.
You gotta check it out sometime.
Sure.
Nice balance seasons.
It's great.
Cool.
So what do you got for us today?
So well, you're doing a good job from the bullpen there, Dan.
Hi uh big shoes.
You know, I I see a challenge here with um uh uh all of these lifetime politicians.
It seems like the you know, they've got this uh left wing liberal media in their pocket, they've got you know, they live for the sound bites, and they're so concerned about keeping you.
I mean, you just nailed it.
When you said the power, it is the power.
It's all about the power.
They're only concerned about staying in office, and I really think until we do something about some term limits and make it like it used to be.
I mean, go to work for two years, four years, six years, get something done.
Forget about this August five, six, seven week vacation.
You know, let's go up there, let's go to work, and then go back home to your job or your business and go back to doing what you were doing before you were elected as an official and knock off with these lifetime uh retirement plans that uh they do not have to be a few years.
Taxpayer taxpayer funded, by the way.
You know, Wayne, uh I'm I'm glad that's why I wanted to take your call.
I'm glad you brought this up because this comes up a lot, term limits.
It's obviously a very popular topic for obvious reasons.
A lot of people feel the same way you do.
And I go back and forth on this.
I'm starting to tilt in the other direction.
I know that's gonna surprise a lot of people because I'm a conservative, a conservatarian, but here's the problem with term limits.
When you look at the actual data, the problem with term limits is you may term limit someone, let's say, from Congress, right?
So you s let's say we did three three terms, so six years and two terms in the Senate, twelve years.
When you look at the actual research on term limits, it does very little.
Here's some research I saw, and and forgive me, I don't remember.
I think it's from the Heritage Foundation, but I could be wrong.
The research was shocking to me, Wayne.
If states that have term limits, um it you know, within individual states, they they they have shown no budget constraint, there's no tangible record of you know, uh the tax cuts, budget contraints, spending control, anything, because what winds up happening is you have a guy, Wayne, who let's say he's limited to three terms in Congress.
So what does he do?
He starts out in the state assembly, he does two terms there, he's there eight years, then he spends six years in Congress.
We're like, all right, we term limit him.
That is he doing he runs for Senate, then he spends twelve years there, then he comes back and runs for governor.
So the thing is, uh I get it.
I I see the emotional appeal behind term limits, but as conservatives, we should be interested in the actual data.
And one other data point on term limits too that has me kind of fuzzy on this lately is it winds up empowering the bureaucracy, which in my opinion are even more dangerous than the elected officials.
You know what call it whatever you want, the deep state, the bureaucracy, because one of the the researchers pointed out that when you're constantly rolling over new faces that are elected, who are the only people who know how to move bills and how to grease the skids?
The staffers and the bureaucrats.
So they wind up taking over the whole system.
So I'm not saying, you know, I'm I'm a negative on term limits, but I think we have to look at it with an open mind and say maybe a better idea, Wayne, would be cutting congressional districts in half.
You know, right now they represent 700,000 people.
How about we cut that to 350 and double the size of Congress?
And here's another plus How about we start moving all the DC offices that are in DC now?
How about we start moving them around the country?
We have telecommuting now.
We have uh, you know, online meetings.
Why does everybody have to be in Washington, D.C.?
Let someone go sit in Nebraska and Nashville and see how real people live.
Why do you get to live in DC all the time with the with the wealthy elite, you know?
I agree.
I agree.
But how how so then how do we combat like, you know, I mean, I mean, come on, you gotta you know you got these guys like Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi.
They they love fear mongering and throwing this stuff up there.
And it seems like we on the right are are silent.
Like we let them spew this vomit of lies out there.
Well, Wayne, I unfortunately I gotta run them up against a hard break.
But I'll tell you what, on the other side of the break, I'll answer your question.
I'll just give you a uh a brief kind of summation now.
How do we fight back?
We have to stop talking about the laffer curve inside of a methadone clinic, okay?
The Republicans have never figured out how to talk to normal struggling people in a way that doesn't involve some kind of complex economics.
We have to learn to stick it on a Wheaties box.
If you can't read it on a Wheaties box, you're explaining and you're losing.
We have to learn to talk better to regular, normal working people.
All right, folks, I'm Dan Bongino at D Bon Gino on Twitter.
We'll be right back.
All right, welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
A big thank you.
I am Dan Bongino filling in.
A big thanks for letting me do that to Sean, Linda, Lauren, Jason.
I really appreciate it.
They do a really, really wonderful job behind the scenes.
So thank you very much.
It's always an honor uh to fill in.
I am at DBongino on Twitter.
If you want to take a look at me on social media.
And if you'd like to pick up my uh my new book, I'm always the worst at plugging my old stuff.
Lauren's like, oh, so you got a book coming out.
Keep going.
You can do it.
It's like, come on, you can get there.
I have a new book coming out, my third book.
It's called Protecting the President.
It's about my time in the Secret Service.
And uh I think it's a book that needed to be written, folks.
It's available for pre-order now on Amazon.
It discusses how politicians and bureaucrats and bad managers are ruining your secret service.