Monica Crowley: John Brennan's Biggest Mistake - 5.24
Monica Crowley fills in for Sean and hits the ground running with her detailed timeline of former CIA Director John Brennan's fall from grace. One thing Crowley focused on was Brennan's efforts to weaken the CIA's operations division. "Brennan's CIA filled gaps with foreign intelligence sources," explained Crowley, "So basically the CIA started subcontracting American espionage." Crowley continued, "That outsourcing allowed them to insulate themselves from exposure and responsibility." Now that we know President Trump was being targeted, this is all starting to make more sense. Crowley's timeline is a must-listen! The Sean Hannity Show is on 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.
You are listening to the Sean Hannity Radio Show Podcast.
Well, if orange is the new black, then Obamagate is the new Watergate.
Only much, much worse.
Here's a pro tip for the Obama crew.
Befriend the inmates working kitchen and commissary duty.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
I am Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
So happy to be here and to have you on board with me.
We have a fantastic show ahead.
You're not going to want to miss a minute of this, not even to get measured for an orange jumpsuit.
If you want to join me, the telephone number here is 800-941-Sean, 800-941-7326.
And you can follow me on social media and message me there as well on Twitter at Monica Crowley, on Facebook at Monica CrowleyNY for New York, and on Instagram.
And I'm an insta newbie, so please be patient with me.
I'm actually struggling so bad with Instagram.
I'm really trying.
And in fact, one of my delightful producers today, along with the great Jason, who I've known forever from our WABC days, happy to see him too, Lauren.
Lauren shot a great little video of me right before the show.
And of course, I am incapable of uploading it.
So I have like a team of 25 people.
It's coming, I promise.
It's coming.
It will be there.
Okay, well, that's good.
So check me out on Instagram at Monica Crowley underscore.
And hopefully that cute little video will be up there.
All right, we are going to unpack all the latest on the biggest and most dangerous scandal in U.S. history.
That is exactly what we are seeing unfold and being unveiled with every passing day.
What Obama and his comrades may well have done to use the nation's chief intelligence and law enforcement agencies to spy on their domestic political enemies.
Let that sink in for a moment.
What do you think Watergate was all about?
If any of this stuff that we know so far bears out and there's so much more coming from what I'm hearing, this is going to end up being the greatest abuse of power probably ever in American history.
As many of you know, I worked for former President Richard Nixon during the last years of his life.
And I think I've got some unique insight into all of this, which will have you on the edge of your seat, I promise.
By the way, just a little tidbit about Watergate that nobody really knows.
I mean, people forget this.
The Watergate burglars literally got into the Watergate building by breaking into like a garage door and literally putting a piece of tape on top of the lock to keep the door open.
That versus what we are now seeing the Obama team allegedly did to spy on Donald Trump.
The technology has certainly changed from the piece of tape to embedded spies, apparently, in the Trump campaign and all manner of technical and electronic surveillance being carried out on a political opponent.
We're also going to break down where we are in this whole sordid chapter of U.S. history with a great American historian, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
He's going to be here.
He's got a brand new book coming out next week.
So we'll get into that with him.
Also, great economic numbers keep rolling in.
They keep coming at us.
And this has big implications for the midterm elections in November.
Also today, because we are approaching America's most solemn holiday, Memorial Day, we're going to tell you about two great organizations helping our veterans in need.
One that provides life-saving gear to our active duty troops, it's called Troops Direct, and another that provides life-saving spiritual work for our most at-risk military veterans.
That group is called Operation Restored Warrior.
I do some work with them.
They are fantastic.
We're going to talk about that as well.
Because this weekend is Memorial Day.
And amidst all of the cookouts and the trips to the beach and the lake or the sprinkler or the fried clam shack, that's where I'll be.
Let's remember our fellow Americans who gave their lives in service of this great nation and the freedom that we enjoy every day.
And let's never ever take that or them for granted.
All right, let's get going.
I've got a big column today at the Hill on Obama and Brennan and Clapper.
Oh my.
It's a biggie.
I'm going to get to that in a second.
But first, the big breaking news today is about this North Korean summit that President Trump just bailed on.
He canceled it.
And before we get into the details of this, I just want to make one hugely important point.
Donald Trump is the first president in a very, very long time to recognize a very important truth.
The United States just doesn't have leverage.
The United States is the leverage.
We are the world's greatest superpower.
We are the only superpower in the world.
We have immense military, economic, cultural, political resources.
America doesn't just have the leverage.
We are the leverage.
Trump is the first president really since Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon to understand that and to use it.
The president acted today like a boss, like a no BS boss.
His letter to Kim Jong-un, that was a Trump masterclass in dealing with dictators.
Here is the president today announcing the cancellation.
I'd like to begin by saying that based on the recent statement of North Korea, I have decided to terminate the planned summit in Singapore on June 12th.
Well, many things can happen and a great opportunity lies ahead potentially.
I believe that this is a tremendous setback for North Korea and indeed a setback for the world.
Unless North Korea think that it can take advantage of the situation, here is the president saying, you might want to check yourself, Kim Jong-un.
I've spoken to General Mattis and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our military, which is by far the most powerful anywhere in the world and has been greatly enhanced recently, as you all know, is ready if necessary.
Likewise, I have spoken to South Korea and Japan.
And they are not only ready should foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea, but they are willing to shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden, any of the costs associated by the United States in operations if such an unfortunate situation is forced upon us.
In other words, Kim Jong-un, don't even think about it.
Because the President of the United States means what he says, says what he means.
He's got the Defense Secretary James Mattis by his side.
He's got the Vice President by his side.
He's got the full force of the United States military and the United States of America backing him up.
One false move, Kim Jong-un, see ya.
Okay?
This is what an American president should be.
And, you know, for all of this talk over the last like, what, week or so, when Kim Jong-un has threatened to cancel it, Donald Trump just brilliantly preempted all of that today.
He's like, really?
You can't break up with me.
I'm breaking up with you.
It's like George Costanza and Seinfeld.
What?
What do you mean it's not you, it's me?
I invented that move.
This is Donald Trump being George Costanza in a good way, in an effective way.
Ha, you can't pull this on me.
I invented this move.
Brilliant.
And if you think about the concessions that Kim Jong-un has given the United States in the last couple of months leading up to this, it's really quite extraordinary.
We got three American prisoners back.
North Korea suspended its nuclear and ballistic missile testing, and it destroyed, as of I think yesterday, it destroyed its only known nuclear testing facility.
It blew it up.
And we were the ones to cancel the summit.
Not because of North Korea's bellicose rhetoric, but because of two reasons.
One, North Korea just renewed its threat to nuke us.
Literally just threatened once again to engage in nuclear war against the United States.
And number two, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated, the State Department and others who have been trying to get this planning underway for the summit for a while, they were getting no response from the North Koreans.
I think Pompeo's quote today when he was answering questions on Capitol Hill, I think he said something like, well, we kept getting a dial tone.
I mean, you are calling North Korea, so they're not exactly on the technological edge of stuff.
So getting a dial tone, yeah, Kim Jong-un is sitting there with his rotary phone going, I hope that President Trump doesn't cancel on me.
Nobody on the other side was picking up the phone.
No callbacks, no emails, no texts, nothing.
I don't even think Kim Jong-un was on Instagram.
He could have like, you know, shot Jared Kushner a little note like, hey, waiting on you guys.
Nothing.
So they were blowing us off.
And this president was not going to sit around like a desperate teenager waiting for the phone call.
Once again, I reiterate, North Korea just threatened us once again with nuclear war.
So President Trump was all by Felicia.
The left-wingers and others, of course, are trying to have a field day with this, but they're making real fools of themselves more than usual by trying to mock the president for canceling this summit.
They have no idea what they're talking about.
They don't, they don't, look, a lot of people thought Kim Jong-un has read the art of the deal.
That's why over the last two weeks, he's like threatening to walk.
And he thinks he was negotiating with Trump based on Trump's own rules.
But Donald Trump wrote the book on this, literally.
Actually, several.
He's written on this.
So anybody who thinks that, you know, oh, I'm going to take Donald Trump to the woodshed, Kim Jong-un thinks, oh, I'm outsmarting Donald Trump.
And then Trump did what he did today.
The left, the media, but I repeat myself.
They have been all over President Trump today like a, you know, rolled out carpet, trying to mock him.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
What a dunce.
What a dunce, man.
He's got no clue.
Everybody's playing him, even the little tinpot dictator in Pyongyang.
Yeah, okay.
Sure.
These morons don't realize that like Ronald Reagan, Trump is playing them like a Stradivarius.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Kim Jong-un looks at this and goes, hmm, interesting.
I underestimated this president yet again.
And, oh, looky here, we're revoking our threat to nuke the United States, and we'd really like that summit to happen, whether it's June 12th or another date.
Don't be surprised if Kim Jong-un comes back hat in hand wanting this to happen.
There is a theory in international relations, which I learned when I was getting my degrees, and it's called the rationality of irrationality.
The rationality of irrationality, also known as the madman theory.
Richard Nixon used this to great effect.
Ronald Reagan used it to great effect.
All of the great presidents did.
And this president is using it to great effect.
You never tell your enemies what you're prepared to do, and you don't tell them what you're not prepared to do.
And you keep them off balance by being unpredictable enough and lending the impression that you're just crazy enough that you might nuke them first.
So Kim Jong-un sitting in Pyongyang, can't get his Instagram going, can't direct message Jared Kushner, apparently, can't do anything.
And now he's got a situation on his hands.
And you know what?
We'll see where the ball bounces, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if this move was a masterstroke by Donald Trump.
Monica Crowley here today for Sean.
How are you?
800-941-7326-800-941.
Sean, please join the program and tweet me at Monica Crowley, also up on Facebook at Monica CrowleyNY.
And on Instagram, we did get that cute little video we did right before the show up on my Instagram account, woohoo, at Monica Crowley underscore.
Before we get into the column that I wrote for The Hill today about Obama and Brennan and Obama's CIA in particular and their potential role in the Trump spying,
I want to break all of this down because what I wrote about in The Hill today, in this column, is, I think, a point that everybody, or at least most people, forget about what Brennan actually did at the CIA that could be a central part of all of this.
But before we do, we've got breaking news.
We've all been following these Me Too stories, and we'll get into it a little bit later in the show.
Morgan Freeman, a CNN story saying that the actor Morgan Freeman has been accused by eight women of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment.
He has apologized today.
But now there's a screaming headline that Harvey Weinstein is set to surrender to authorities tomorrow.
There was a report that the feds had opened a federal investigation and that the NYPD was getting ready to arrest him.
So he will, in fact, surrender to police tomorrow.
800-941-7326.
I am Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
Hey, it's Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
How are you?
We're heading into this long Memorial Day weekend.
Glad to have you on board.
800-941-Sean is our number.
If you want to join me, 800-941-7326.
And on social media, Twitter at Monica Crowley, Facebook at Monica Crowley NY for New York, that high-tech tax nightmare of a state.
And on Instagram at Monica Crowley underscore.
And we put up a cute little video of me in Sean's studio right before the show.
So if you want to see the inside of Sean's studio where all of the magic happens, check out my Instagram account.
Follow me on Instagram.
And the video is up there along with a number of other recent pictures.
I'm just getting the hang of Insta.
I'm trying.
Or do we call it the Graham?
I don't know.
Not the Graham?
Lauren is Insta more than the Graham.
Okay.
Lauren's not even on social media and she is my heroine for that because social media, it is what it is.
800-941, Sean.
Well, it looks like now may be the time for Harvey Weinstein to pay the Piper for his alleged sex crimes.
He is set to surrender to New York authorities tomorrow.
There was breaking news yesterday that the feds had actually opened a federal investigation into Weinstein's, into the allegations against Weinstein, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, et cetera, which is very unusual.
Usually sex crimes are investigated by state and local authorities, not by the feds, but in Weinstein's case, they had opened that federal investigation.
And there was another story yesterday saying that, in fact, the NYPD was closing in on him and preparing to arrest him.
And he is going to preempt that, apparently, according to this report in the New York Daily News, that Harvey Weinstein will, in fact, surrender to authorities tomorrow.
We've got another group of people who also might be facing some consequences to their action if the rule of law still applies in the United States of America.
Obama and Brennan and Clapper and Comey and Hillary and the list goes on.
Oh my.
I wrote a column today for The Hill.
You can see it at thehill.com.
It's also up on my Facebook page, Monica CrowleyNY.
And the reason I wanted to write this column is because the focus so far on the Trump spying scandal that took place, let's not overlook the fact that it took place during the Obama years by the Obama administration,
by the Obama agencies like the FBI, DOJ, and now apparently the CIA, agencies that are supposed to be above politics, above the partisan fray, because they have the, the CIA is a different organization, but that's a spying organization with its own extraordinary powers.
But the FBI, the DOJ, these are the chief law enforcement agencies of the country with the power to destroy your life and or take away your freedom.
So what we now know is that with every passing day, we get more details that these Obama agencies looks like they were engaged in some pretty shady, if not outright illegal, activity.
And these are early days.
Okay, let's just keep this in mind.
I talked to a source, and what the source tells me is that these are early days.
Every day we seem to get a new bombshell.
But from what I'm hearing, these are still very early days with so much more to come.
Remember that none of these people thought Donald Trump had a flaming chance of being elected president.
So they engaged in all of these activities, what Peter Strzok once called a, quote, insurance policy against Donald Trump winning the election.
They all thought that Rodham, Lady DeFarge, would be elected president of the United States, and all of the evidence of all of these shady maneuvers, if not outright illegal maneuvers, all the evidence would be shredded, destroyed, and lost to history forever.
They never anticipated what actually happened.
And by the way, they did everything they possibly could to stop the election result that we got.
But they never thought that they would be exposed.
And that's why they engaged in all of this activity.
Because if you think about it, why not try to knock yourself out trying to take out your political adversaries if you think you've amassed so much power as Obama and his team did over eight years?
They did everything in sight, ravaged the Constitution every single day.
Well, when you do that over an extended period of time, you get drunk on your own power, you become arrogant, hubris sets in, and you think you're going to get away with everything forever.
Well, not exactly.
And the reason I wrote this column in the Hill today is because I wanted to level a specific focus on John Brennan, Obama's CIA director, and what he and the agency may have been doing in all of this.
Because so far, much of the focus regarding the infiltration and the surveillance of the Trump team has been on the Obama, DOJ, and FBI.
But what role, if any, did the Obama-CIA play?
Did it help concoct the Russian collusion lie as a pretext to spy on domestic political adversaries like Trump and his team?
And if the CIA did act on a prefabricated deception, the Russia collusion lie, did it work independently of the DOJ and FBI?
Or did it work in conjunction with them?
We've got some recent texts from Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the two lovebirds at the FBI.
And keep in mind that Strzok was not some random FBI agent.
Strzok was the chief of the counterintelligence division at the FBI.
And his girlfriend, Lisa Page, was the chief lawyer under Andrew McCabe.
We have new texts that have been reported by Andy McCarthy, our good friend over at National Review.
He wrote a great piece about this recently, where he was deconstructing the latest Strzok page texts.
And in one of them, it says, strzok to Page, it says he's citing a redacted source and he said, quote, the White House is running this.
The White House is running this.
Page then replies, well, we have emails to the contrary.
So what does that mean?
The White House isn't running it.
The White House is.
Where are these emails?
What are they even talking about?
Andy McCarthy's piece, I think it was a couple of days ago or last week, I command it to your attention because it was really well done breaking down these texts.
But Strzok also in that email or text exchange also talks about how they were in a high-level meeting with, quote, agency people.
That looks like a reference to the CIA, the agency.
So we need to know what, if any, role the CIA was playing in domestic spying, which, by the way, is against the law.
CIA is geared outward.
FBI is geared inward.
If you follow John Brennan on Twitter, you will have noticed that over the last, I don't know, weeks, months, Brennan is really up the ante against Trump in his Twitter feed.
And that's because all of these people are watching Obama, Brennan, Clapper, Ben Rhodes, Sally Yates, James Comey, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, they're all sitting there and they are watching their worst nightmare happen, which is Donald Trump do what he was elected to do, which is dismantle the entire Obama era.
Tax policy, Obamacare, and specifically with regard to what Brennan and the others care about, the Obama-era foreign policies, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Parrot Climate Accord,
moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, arming Ukrainian forces against Russian aggression, all of the things that they failed to do or did out of this misguided leftist utopian vision.
All of those things Obama did.
Donald Trump is now throwing in reverse, which is exactly what he was elected to do.
But this is driving the Obama team insane.
Hence, their obsessive drive with crushing Trump.
That's what all of this is about.
I've written about this before.
That's the big picture.
That's the big why they're doing all of this to save the progressive revolution that made so much progress in eight years under Obama, and now Trump is reversing all of it, evaporating it.
It's gone.
That's why they are grasping at anything to have tried to stop Trump from being elected.
And now that he's president, they're doing everything they can to undermine him and ultimately try to destroy him, remove him from office.
That's what the plan is.
Not a big mystery here.
My piece today in the Hill talks about John Brennan in particular because Brennan was uniquely positioned at the CIA to assist with all of this, including getting the Russia collusion lie up and running, helping to get some of these spies in place, and then helping to move these things into the investigations, Mueller, congressional investigations, etc.
Cheryl Atkison, great investigative journalist.
She's got a fantastic website, CherylAtkisson.com.
She put up this unbelievable timeline of Russia collusion against Donald Trump.
And check it out.
But she points out in 2011, she reminded all of us by putting up this point that in 2011, the Obama-Intel community vastly expanded its surveillance authority.
And it gave itself permission to spy on Americans who do nothing more than mention a foreign target in a single discrete communication.
Text, email, phone call, what have you.
And they went on to expand the intelligence capabilities on Americans from there.
So that groundwork was established.
And then a couple of years later, Brennan becomes CIA director in 2013.
And he did something that, and this is the point of my column.
He did something that a lot of people forget that he did.
He led the charge for the agency's controversial modernization program.
And there were a lot of things at the CIA that needed change.
And I'm not a scholar in this area, but based on what I've read, there were some very good things in this modernization program, like expanding cyber capabilities and being more equipped to deal with cyber threats.
But there was another aspect of this modernization program under Brennan, which people forget, and I think it's critical.
Listen carefully.
Brennan drastically limited, and a lot of CIA agents and officials say he weakened the agency's operations division, which is at the very center of the CIA's human intelligence capability.
What does that mean?
Human spies, American spies.
And in its place, Brennan initiated this new construct at the CIA, which in retrospect, seeing what we're seeing unfold here, looks like it could have been exploited for some of these abuses.
In lieu of a heavy reliance on U.S. spies, Brennan CIA filled those gaps with foreign intelligence sources, which provided their own spies and the intelligence they gathered.
So basically, the modernization under Brennan allowed the CIA to start subcontracting out American espionage.
Not everywhere, not everything, but enough.
That kind of outsourcing allowed Brennan and the other intelligence chiefs like former DNI chief James Clapper to insulate themselves from exposure and responsibility.
They can keep their fingerprints off of it.
Now, when you connect that with what we now know about the Obama-era targeting of the Trump team, it starts to make more sense.
They had the infrastructure in place.
Christopher Steele, Stefan Halper, another professor, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, the Australian diplomat.
They all seem to fit Brennan's model of using friendly outside intelligence sources while allowing the U.S. intelligence chiefs to keep their fingerprints off the case.
But instead of providing foreign intelligence, they may very well have been spying on Americans to serve other Americans' political purposes.
Think about it.
My column today at The Hill is called Latest Scandal Revelations Raise Questions on Obama Agency's Roles.
This is the column.
Please check it out.
I'm Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
Sit tight.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
I am Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
Very happy to have you on board with me.
We've got a great show underway and much more straight ahead.
If you want to join me, 800-941-Sean, 800-941-7326.
Also up on social media, on Twitter at Monica Crowley, on Facebook at Monica CrowleyNY for New York, and on Instagram at Monica Crowley underscore, underscoring the importance of Monica Crowley on social media.
We have a lot to get to.
And, you know, before the break, we were talking about my column today at The Hill, which lays out the potential connection of the Trump spying by the Obama administration with, in particular, John Brennan and Brennan's CIA.
Those connections, I think, are really important.
And I think so much more needs to be unveiled and discovered.
And that's why we need a full investigation.
A second special counsel.
Special counsels are terrible ideas.
They go out of control.
Okay, this is not a panacea.
It is a less than ideal solution.
But right now, it's the only shot we've got if we have any chance of really uncovering the truth.
Joining me now to talk about all of this is former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who's got a brand new book out next week.
It's called Trump's America, The Truth About Our Nation's Great Comeback.
Hi, Newt.
It's great to hear you and to hear your voice.
And I can't imagine a better person to keep the Sean Hennedy show going without Sean.
So I'm just delighted to be on with you.
Oh, it's very kind of you, Newt.
Thank you so much.
It's great to have you here.
And congratulations on the book.
We're going to get to that in just a moment.
But I can't think of a better person to talk to about this unfolding scandal, which I think is probably the greatest abuse of power maybe ever in American history undertaken by the Obama administration.
You are a scholar of American history, Newt.
Can you set what we are seeing so far, what we know so far about the Obama years and what they may have done here in targeting a political adversary in Donald Trump and his campaign?
Can you set that in historical terms, terms that we can understand?
Well, we have never seen anything like this.
You end up with a really much larger, more complicated story, which is why it's been so hard to get it all straight.
I mean, you have a lifetime of breaking the rules by Hillary Clinton, going all the way back to Cattle Futures in the late 1970s, where she was taking money basically on an inside deal while her husband was governor.
You have the extraordinary effort by the establishment to protect her and to protect her accomplices, which went on for several years.
Then you have the decision that Trump is a real danger, a real threat, and you have an all-out effort to destroy the person the American people have chosen to be president.
And now you have a real desperate effort to cover all this up.
I mean, every time you turn around, there's something more going on to this story.
It's a truly remarkable moment in American history.
And I don't remember anything like it, literally ever before.
This is one of the most amazing things that I've ever seen.
And I don't think there's any precedent for it.
And my prediction is it's going to get even bigger before it's over.
You know, Newt, I've said now for quite a while, and I know you're saying this too, that given President Obama's tight control over his administration, his agenda, his policies, his personnel, the idea that any of his lieutenants would have freelanced anything this big and this massive and dangerous is absurd on its face.
You know, in the Watergate years, the criticism of Richard Nixon was that he had created an environment where the Watergate break-in was considered acceptable.
I think this goes so far beyond that.
And while Nixon did not know about the break-in, he took actions afterwards.
I think we may yet see that the former President Barack Obama not only knew all about this, but probably authorized it and directed it.
Well, I think we'll start with Valerie Jarrett.
I mean, if you remember, there is a text message from one FBI agent to another that says the president wants to be kept informed of everything.
Well, despite Bill Clinton's effort to parse words, I think the word everything is pretty obvious to most Americans.
And what it says to me is that President Clinton had to have known what they were doing.
He clearly saw it as central to protecting his party's candidate.
Remember, they had an enormous amount invested in this.
There are so many people who broke the law, including people high up in the intelligence community, high up in the FBI, high up in the Justice Department, that as it began to be possible that Trump was going to win, you have FBI agents writing notes that say we need an insurance policy against Trump winning.
Well, that's an extraordinary comment from somebody who's supposed to be enforcing the law and protecting Americans.
We're talking to Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House.
His brand new book out next week is called Trump's America.
And I want to ask you about that, Newt, in just a second.
But, you know, if we, perhaps President Obama was too smart to leave any fingerprints on this, and maybe he will skate because after all, he's treated as a saint.
So pardon me for being skeptical if anything is going to happen to him.
But his top lieutenants might not be so lucky.
And this list is so long.
John Brennan, James Clapper, Labretta Lynch, James Comey, Andrew McCain, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes.
I mean, all of these folks may have well been in on this.
And when you think about using our intelligence services, foreign and domestic, to spy on Donald Trump and his team for domestic political purposes, it boggles the mind.
So if this escalates, what should happen to them?
And do you think that we will actually see justice?
Because it looks like the Attorney General Jeff Sessions has checked out.
Well, I think we have to, as a country, without prejudging any individual, we have to insist on the rule of law.
And we have to insist that no one is above the law.
And I think this is extraordinarily important to our survival as a free country.
I don't think we can back off one inch on the notion that we have an obligation to enforce the law.
We have an obligation to make sure that whether you're Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, you have to be held accountable in our system under the rule of law, or the whole system starts to break down.
I think this is really one of the really, really important moments in American history where we're going to have to come to grips as a people with what we believe and what we're prepared to do about those beliefs.
Yes, and we're either a country built on the rule of law or we're not.
Let's talk about your new book called Trump's America.
Again, it's out next week, so you can go pre-order it on Amazon and everywhere else.
Let's talk about President Trump.
I remember former late New York City Mayor Ed Koch used to walk around and ask voters, how am I doing?
So, Newt, when you look at the first year and a half of the Trump presidency, how's Trump doing?
Well, I think from a conservative standpoint, the dedication he's had towards conservative judges has been just remarkable.
I think that when you look at what he's done with deregulation, it's historic more than any president in history.
When you look at the size of the tax cuts, they're comparable to Reagan.
They're enormously important to the future of the economy.
But I would want to go a step deeper.
I think that people are beginning to understand how really big a difference this president is making when they look, for example, at the economy.
This is a clear and objective reality.
Gallup now has the highest number of people it's ever had saying that you can now get a good job in the United States, higher than it's ever been.
Now, that's a remarkable tribute to Trump.
There's a report from the Atlanta Federal Reserve that the second quarter may have 4.2% real growth.
That would be virtually double the growth rate under Obama.
I mean, these are amazing numbers that we have to recognize create historic possibilities for the United States to really become a much more successful, much more powerful country.
And all of it's a function of the policies that President Trump has put in place.
He really does, as a businessman, have a remarkable understanding of the economy.
And he really is working very, very hard to try to get every American to work.
Yes, and all of this economic success is completely confounding his enemies, which is really delicious to watch, Newt.
You know, let me ask you this, because every president, and you've known many, and I've known a few, every president has his blind spots.
What do you think Trump's is?
I think, well, I think two things.
I think he finds it very hard to edit himself when he's tweeting.
And I've told him directly, I think, you know, about 80% of his tweets are really effective, and 20% don't help him at all.
And I think, second, he's not as good a team builder as he could be.
You know, he's the leader of an entire movement that wants to be helpful, that wants to be engaged, that wants to be involved.
But sometimes you don't quite know what the play is or even what game we're playing.
And I think that makes it harder for people to help him who really sincerely want to see him be very, very successful.
So I think if he spent a little more time training and guiding his entire team and not trying to do it all himself, he'd actually be more successful.
But I have to say, having watched him now, he has been an extraordinary president.
I have the deepest respect for the job he's doing.
And I think that he has been effective in ways that I wouldn't have thought possible.
So I'm very cautious to be too critical of him because he really is steadily getting things done that really matter to America.
It is astonishing, Newt, that he is having an incredibly successful presidency so far.
And I think he's going to have that well into the future.
This is remarkable for a guy who has never done any of this before and who faces this kind of monolithic, unprecedented opposition.
Well, he's, look, he's a very smart man.
He's also a very experienced man.
People tend to forget, you know, he's been around a long time, and he has been very successful in business.
He's been very involved in the communications business.
He had one of the top-rated shows in the country in The Apprentice.
He's had best-selling books.
He launched men's tie, the Trump ties, which turned out to be remarkably successful.
So every time I turn around, I see in Donald Trump somebody who is really, really effective.
And I think that he's bringing that same set of skills to the presidency.
And it's truly, as somebody who's studied the presidency, I think I got a pretty decent sense of this stuff.
He is at a very short list of being one of the most effective presidents in American history.
And of course, Newt, this terrifies the elite ruling class on both sides because what he is showing is that the United States doesn't need a president who's of them.
You know, he's showing that anybody with, you know, raw intelligence and great instincts and knows how the country operates economically and culturally, et cetera.
Anybody with their finger on the pulse outside of the political realm can do this job.
And that is terrifying them.
And that's another reason why they're doubling down in their effort to destroy him.
Well, I think that's right.
I think that he is both in his values, which are much more conservative and much more skeptical of big government than the left, and in his toughness and the fact that he seems to lack fear.
I mean, he seems to be very prepared to go out and do what he believes in and not worry too much about the consequences.
And I think that's just sort of an amazing capability.
Yes, he gets up every morning and puts on a suit of armor and just plows forward.
It's really beyond belief.
Newt, before I let you go, I do think that the president will be reelected in 2020.
But before that, we've got the 2018 midterms.
Any predictions on that?
Yeah, in fact, I'm just doing my newsletter at Deanrish Productions that'll be out later on today, making the case that if you look at the latest generic numbers in the Reuters poll, we're now plus one for the Republicans.
We were down about 11 or 12 three or four weeks ago.
As the economy's gotten better and as the Democrats have gotten weirder, the combination of the two has been devastatingly effective.
And I think as a result, you see us moving, people beginning to be more comfortable electing the president.
Incredible.
What a turn of events.
The book is called Trump's America.
It is out next week.
Go get it.
Newt Gingrich, as always, thank you, my friend.
Good.
Great to be with you.
Thank you.
Me too.
Always a pleasure.
Newt Gingrich, and again, the book, Trump's America.
Go pre-order it.
Go get it.
Amazon.com and elsewhere.
I am Monica Crowley.
We're going to take your phone calls when we come back.
800-941-Sean.
I am Monica Crowley.
Sit tight.
Monica Crowley here for Sean today.
How are you?
800-941-7326.
Let's go right to the phones and say hi to Larry, listening in Savannah, Georgia.
Hi, Larry.
Yes, ma'am.
Are you there?
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, I'm a 70-year-old.
I'm very nervous.
I'm a retired history teacher.
Oh, don't be Larry.
It's just me.
Yeah, I know, but it's a combination of nerves and anger.
I'm afraid where all this is going, this drip, drip, drip, it's going to end up in some sort of folding by our side and a compromise where we all just say, okay, let's just make it all go away and go on with business as usual.
Now, this is what drives me insane.
We're guilty of jaywalk and they're guilty of murder.
And somehow it's going to be all even Stephen and everybody, everybody just goes on with their lives.
I've seen this too many times.
And I'm just one of those, and I feel like I'm not by myself on this.
I'm out here in real, realville, as Rush would say.
And I feel like no more talking, no more voting.
We've given them all three branches.
They're spineless.
They're spineless.
And my poor president is by himself.
Well, he does.
Thank you, Larry.
He does have, he does have significant support out there.
And you know what?
He's got support really where it only matters, and that's with the American people.
Thank you, Larry.
800-941-7326.
More of your calls on the other side.
I have a mountain more of stuff to get to.
I am Monica Crowley in for Sean.
Don't go anywhere.
I am Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
We are having a rollicking good time.
800-941-Sean is our number.
800-941-7326.
And we will get back to the phones, I promise you.
So if you're on the line, hang tight.
I will get to you in just a moment.
I've got a couple of other things I want to do.
You can also check me out online on social media, Twitter, at Monica Crowley.
You can tweet me there at Monica Crowley.
Also, I'm on Facebook at Monica CrowleyNY and on Instagram at Monica Crowley underscore.
We put up a cute little video of me and Sean's studio, a little behind the scenes at the studio right before we began the show.
So check me out on Instagram at Monica Crowley underscore, and you can see the behind the scenes shots that we put up there, that video on Instagram story.
I say that like I know what I'm talking about on Instagram, and I clearly do not.
800-941-Sean is our number.
You know, the other day, I'm looking at Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who, you know, the left always likes to say, oh, Rosenstein, he's a Republican.
Donald Trump appointed him.
Both of which may very well be true.
I don't know.
I guess he's a registered Republican, and Donald Trump did, in fact, appoint him.
But so what?
So what?
The guy is the swamp.
He's not a friend of Donald Trump.
He's not, just because Trump appointed him means absolutely zero.
You look at Jeff Flake, the outgoing senator from Arizona, trashing Donald Trump every day.
He's a Republican too.
It means zero in this new context.
So while this Mueller investigation rolls on and Rod Rosenstein is clearly protecting the swamp and the swamp's interests against Donald Trump at the DOJ, I noticed something about Rod Rosenstein.
Do you watch Billions?
You ever see that show on Showtime, Billions?
It's actually really, really good.
And I'm watching it the other night and I swear, Rod Rosenstein looks just like the character, the U.S. attorney character, Oliver Dake.
Someone said the other day, Rod Rosenstein looks like Himmler.
I think he looks like Dake.
Dake on billions.
Check it out.
Now, if only Rosenstein were set packing the way Dake was in the last episode, then I'd be a lot happier.
My column today at The Hill, which we began talking about over the course of the show, please read it.
It's at thehill.com.
It's also up on my Facebook page.
Please read it.
Because what I did is take a closer look at the association of Obama's CIA director John Brennan and what Brennan did at the CIA that essentially laid the groundwork for the kind of spying that we're now just learning about that took place on Obama's watch.
And we still don't know who was involved or what agencies are involved.
This is why I think we need a special counsel, a second one, even though it's an atrocious solution.
Special counsels just tend to go wild.
You know, the Clinton special counsel started with a land deal in Arkansas and ended up with an intern wearing a thong and carrying a pizza in the Oval Office.
So it's a terrible solution, these special counsel investigations, but it's, I think, the only shot we've got at uncovering what really went down here.
And again, these are early days.
But I also wonder in taking a look at what we're seeing unfold, there's a critical question that nobody's been asking, and I'm not an attorney, so I'm not thoroughly equipped to answer it, but I am equipped to ask it.
And if any lawyers out there listening in Washington around the country know the answer to this, please give us a call at 800-941-7326 and let me know.
The question of statute of limitations.
It seems like with the Mueller investigation dragging out, the congressional investigations dragging out, the inspector general reports dragging out, delay, delay, delay,
it could be, And I don't know, but it could be that the Democrats, the Department of Justice, they are real, that all of this is intentional, that they are deliberately running the clock out on the Hillary Clinton part of the, on everything, but especially on the Hillary Clinton part of this investigation, so that no action can be taken against her.
Remember, all this stuff is still outstanding.
What Hillary did with the unsecure, non-government, unauthorized email server, the transference of classified material, all the lawbreaking that she did when she was running for president and when she was Secretary of State and beyond that.
I just wonder if all of these delays are a deliberate attempt to run out the statute of limitations so that no action can be taken against her and her team, and maybe even Obama and his team.
It just seems like, you know, they're running the clock out on all of this because they can.
And somebody, I mean, I'm raising the question here, somebody needs to be grappling with this who's really in positions of authority and can do something about this.
I don't know that these investigations can be sped up, but this drip, drip, drip, this slow walking of everything, it just seems to me that there's something bigger going on, and that is that they're running out the statute of limitations.
I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
Anyway, let me know if you're an attorney, 800-941, Sean, and let me know about this statute of limitations question.
Something else occurred to me as I was looking at this long list of people involved in all kinds of shenanigans that we're only now just learning about.
We've got President Obama sitting atop all of this, of course.
We've got a vice president, Joe Biden, also sitting atop all of this.
Then we've got this cast of characters, right?
John Brennan, James Clapper, Loretta Lynch, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes.
I mean, I'm sure I'm missing some, but this is just, you know, it's just a three-hour show.
I could do the full list, but we'd be here until tomorrow.
And I was thinking, you know, all of this discussion about, well, we've got to protect sources and methods.
Even with the leaking of this name, Stefan Halper, this apparent informant, the left and the Obama people were going crazy.
Oh, how dare anybody leak this name?
Well, the DOJ and the FBI essentially outed him when they wrote the pieces last week.
They pointed every arrow to this guy.
Anybody could have figured it out.
But they were saying, oh, well, we have to protect, in other words, we've got to protect Obama by protecting the sources and methods.
And that's just a BS pretext for, again, wanting to protect the Obama team.
But I thought the real sources and methods here is pillow talk.
When you look at this cast of characters, I mean, you got the McCabes, right?
Andrew McCabe and his wife, who ran for office, took a ton of money from the Clintons, lost that race, but you got that married couple.
You got Strzok and Paige going at it.
They're married to other people, but they were having an affair.
You got Bruce and Nellie Orr.
Nellie Orr, by the way, at the center of all of this, how she's escaped scrutiny, beyond me, but Bruce Orr, number four at the FBI, or rather the DOJ.
Number four until he was demoted when all this blew up.
And his wife, Nellie Orr, connected to Fusion GPS, reporting back to her husband.
James Comey, Sally Yates.
I mean, there are rumors about people everywhere.
The sources and methods is the pillow talk from that administration, where everything was transactional.
All of it.
Unbelievable.
800-941-7326.
Let's go right to the phones and say hi to Charlie listening in Florida.
Hi, Charlie.
Monica, you are awesome.
Thank you.
I have to say you are the first person that has figured it out, but let's take it a step further.
I have never, before today, I mean, I thought about it.
Point blank, this was nothing about interrupting President Trump's tenure.
This all started when he was the candidate.
It is Obama's narcissistic plot of revenge on Donald Trump because Hillary was going to be the president.
Donald Trump was never going to win.
And the whole thing, I guarantee you, let's go to a parallel universe.
Hillary becomes president.
Donald Trump loses billions and is thrown in jail over the stuff that's created by Obama.
You know, thank you, Charlie.
I appreciate the call.
In the speeches that I've been giving, I make this point.
Charlie, I think you're right on.
They never expected him to be president, obviously.
But what they are doing now, what they continue to do to this president and to his presidency, they don't, they're out to not just undermine him or even just remove him from office.
They want him in federal prison.
Not the local clink, federal prison because he represents an existential threat to all of them.
The ruling elite class on both sides, the corrupt existing order on both sides.
And they know it.
They know if he succeeds, it is curtains for them.
It's over.
Their power, their influence, their positions, their money, their gravy train, the whole corrupt thing is over.
So when, you know, when you hear like you're watching some of these left-wing shows and they're like, oh, we're very upset, you know, that Trump canceled the North Korea summit.
We fear his failure.
They do not fear his failure.
They fear his success.
More of your calls on the other side.
800-941, Sean, I am Monica Crowley in today for Sean Hannity.
Back right after this.
Monica Crowley here today for Sean.
How are you?
We are heading into the long Memorial Day weekend.
Please take a moment and reflect on what the holiday actually means, which is to honor and respect and show love and gratitude to those who paid the ultimate price, made the ultimate sacrifice for this country so that we might live in freedom.
800-941-Sean.
Also, please check out my column at The Hill today all about Obama, Brennan, and Clapper and how they laid the groundwork for what we're seeing unfold now.
Also, before the break, I mentioned that Rod Rosenstein reminds me of the billions character, Oliver Dake.
John says Rosenstein reminds him of someone else.
Hi, John.
Hey, Monica.
How are you doing?
Good.
How are you?
I think.
Radar on MASH.
That's Rosenstein.
Radar from MASH.
Well, I guess maybe.
Thank you, John.
Maybe.
Yeah, I guess it could be.
I still like my Oliver Dake character on billions better.
Let's say hi to James listening in Boca, Florida.
Hi, James.
Hello.
Yeah.
Hi, Monica.
I watch you on Sean all the time.
You're very good.
Thank you.
Yeah, I just want to say that the American people don't realize how much our Constitutional Republic was threatened in the last election, because if Hillary would have won, all this stuff coming out would have been swept under the rug and it would have been business as usual.
I mean, Democrats want a globalist, you know, they want us to join the global economy.
They want to destroy the United States Republic so it could, you know, join the world new world order.
And the American people really got to come out and vote.
I mean, the conservatives, to prevent the House from becoming Democrats, because their main agenda is to get rid of our great president Donald Trump.
And if they gain the House, it's all over.
It's done.
All the work that we did to get him into office will be to naught, really, basically.
Thank you, James.
Thank you.
And look, you're right.
And the numbers, we're going to do this in the next hour.
The polling numbers have shifted to Republicans, in Republicans' favor.
The momentum is with the GOP.
Then again, the Republican Party has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Like they used to say about the Palestinians, same thing.
So we do, I mean, you're absolutely right that we cannot let our guard down and we need to stay vigilant and get this vote out in November.
I think you're starting to see that happen.
And we'll talk a little bit more about that after the break at the top of the hour because it's an intricate science in determining when psychological shifts happen among voting populations.
I think we're starting to see a little bit of that now.
Over the last year and a half, Democrats have done very well in special elections.
And I think what's happening now that Republicans are starting to win these elections is that that Republican voting base that you just referred to, we're starting to wake up and we're starting to say, oh, holy smokes.
We might not be thrilled with the GOP, but we're going to come out and support them because this president needs backup.
I am Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
Much more on the other side of the break.
Back right after this.
Monica Crowley in today for Sean.
Very happy to be here.
Thanks to Sean for allowing me to drive the mothership today as we head on into Memorial Day weekend.
How are you?
800-941-Sean is our number, 800-941-7326.
And you can find me on social media.
You can tweet at me.
Be nice.
At Monica Crowley, on Facebook, at Monica CrowleyNY for New York, and on Instagram, at Monica Crowley underscore.
We put up a cute little video before I began the program today.
So you can see me behind Sean's incredible microphone and some behind-the-scenes shots of us here in the studio before we did the show today.
So please check that out at Monica Crowley underscore on Instagram.
Also, I've got a major column up at The Hill today, and I recommend it to you.
Please take a look at it.
It's at Thehill.com, and it deals with the latest revelations on the Obama-era spying on Donald Trump and his campaign and his associates, with a particular focus on Obama's CIA director John Brennan and his CIA and the groundwork that they laid early on.
That may have kicked in to allow the kind of abuses that we're starting to see come to light now.
So you can see that column at thehill.com right now.
It's also on my Facebook page at Monica CrowleyNY.
Earlier in the show, I also mentioned the latest on the Harvey Weinstein saga.
The New York Daily News was the first to report that Harvey is scheduled to surrender to authorities tomorrow in New York.
There had been a story yesterday that the feds had opened a federal investigation into Weinstein, which was, as I said, it was unusual because for sex crimes and that sort of thing, those are usually investigated at the state and local levels.
So a federal investigation was unusual.
But now the New York Times is reporting that the reason the feds have now opened this investigation is because they're not just looking at sex crimes, but they're also now investigating stalking, felony stalking, I think, and some financial improprieties on the part of Harvey, and I guess on the part of his businesses.
This now being reported by the New York Times.
This comes as CNN reported today about the actor Morgan Freeman, eight women accusing him of inappropriate behavior, sexual harassment, etc.
Morgan Freeman has now issued a statement apologizing for any inappropriate behavior.
I just, I don't think we're anywhere near the end of this.
And I think, you know, we mentioned Harvey.
Harvey is the benchmark of really bad behavior and possibly criminal behavior as is now being investigated.
He's been accused of rape, sexual assault.
That's the benchmark, Harvey Weinstein.
So he may very well be held accountable.
Looks like the NYPD was preparing to arrest him anyway, which is why he's going to surrender to them tomorrow.
800-941-7326.
I also, I want to get to some of these good economic numbers and what we're seeing politically, but there's a story that caught my eye today from the Daily Caller, great website, which I think I, you know, I'm a little surprised.
Well, maybe I'm not so surprised given the subject matter, but this story actually should be getting a lot more traction, which is why I want to bring it to you today.
The Daily Caller is reporting that the, actually they reported this a couple of days ago, pardon me, a couple of days ago, the article is written by Richard Pollock.
He posted it on May 17th, and it was just brought to my attention today.
The Washington Post and 11 other American media outlets and internet companies hired a major Russian IT firm.
Daily Caller reports a dozen major American media and internet outlets hired a Russian company called East Bank Technologies to help with IT and web services, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.
The companies include the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Slate, Facebook, AOL, Comcast, and U.S. News and World Report.
Former U.S. Intel officers slammed the media companies for hypocrisy in retaining a Russian firm while criticizing others who even have tangential ties to Russians.
They also considered their decision to trust their web back end to a foreign company very naive.
So this is a very interesting article.
And I think if you have a chance to check it out at the Daily Caller, you should, because Michael Waller, who's on the editorial board of NATO's Defense Strategy Communications Journal, he's quoted as saying this.
Let's say you're Newsweek and you have a reporter who's been there for a long time who has built his career with sources within the CIA.
Wouldn't you, if you were Russian intelligence, want to know who his sources are within the CIA?
Yeah.
So let's get this straight.
All of these left-wing media companies are pounding the Trump-Russia collusion lie and basically saying everything that is Russian, even Russian dressing, is bad.
And at the same time, their companies were relying on a Russian company to do key web and internet work for them.
Sure looks like a lot of left-wing media is a tool of Russia, right?
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
These people in the media using this Russian IT firm while pounding Trump into the ground, these people are true useful idiots.
As Vladimir Lenin once called the folks in the left who fell in love with Marxism and socialism and promoted it everywhere in the West, doing the dirty work of the Soviets, doing the dirty work of the Marxists.
Useful idiots.
Here you do.
Here you go.
You got another whole batch of them right here.
So moving on to the American political landscape.
Very interesting dynamic going on.
You know this much hyped blue wave supposedly coming in November?
Myth or reality?
Sounds like it could be a reality show.
Myth or reality blue wave.
Well, now it looks more and more like it was, or it could be, a myth.
Probably never was a reality to begin with, based on where the country is.
Check out these latest polls.
Pretty significant.
A Reuters poll released in the last couple of days.
Reuters, a left-wing organization, no friend of Donald Trump, no friend of Republicans, no friend of conservatives.
They have a rolling poll on the generic ballot for Congress.
Would you vote for a Republican or Democrat for Congress in November?
No names, just the generic poll.
These numbers, this is the result of the poll that ended on Monday of this week.
Reuters found that the Republicans on the generic ballot now hold a six-point advantage.
That is stunning.
Over the last like year or so, we have seen the Democrats with a 12, 15-point advantage over the Democrats having this advantage over the Republicans, up to 15, 16 points.
And now, according to Reuters, and other polls don't have the Republicans that high, but they've got it now, I mean, well within like a two-point spread.
This is stunning.
This is like a 20-point swing in about six months.
It shows you that the momentum is clearly with the GOP going into November.
You pair that with a brand new CBS poll, again, not a news organization known for its love of Republicans.
Brand new CBS poll showing nearly two in three Americans think that the economy is in good shape.
And most believe that Trump's policies, tax cuts, deregulation, are at least somewhat responsible.
So the American people are not buying the leftist fake argument that somehow this is Obama's economy.
Remember, it was George W. Bush's economy for years into the Obama era.
Remember that when Obama could not or would not get the economy going off the ground?
Oh, this is George W. Bush's economy.
Now the left is like, oh, now that the economy is doing well, this is Obama's economy.
Obama hasn't been president in a year and a half.
Doesn't matter.
But the American people are not fooled.
And you can see these poll numbers where you've got nearly two in three Americans, at least according to CBS, but I've seen other polls that similarly track, saying the economy is in good shape.
They are optimistic about their own economic situations and their families' economic situation.
They feel more economically secure.
And they are giving Donald Trump and the Republicans credit for that.
Now that's starting to show in the political shift.
Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report is sort of mainstream.
Some conservatives might argue he's on, you know, tends to the left, whatever, but he tries to do straight-up analysis of where races are.
Charlie Cook at the Cook Political Report switched four races this week from Democrat to at least leaning Republican, two in California, one in Florida, and one, I think, in Ohio.
That's the first time in about a year and a half that Cook has switched any races whatsoever.
Why is this?
You got a much stronger economy thanks to the Trump tax cuts and sweeping deregulation.
You got lower taxes, fewer oppressive regulations, and that means a booming economy.
More and better jobs, higher wages, more new businesses starting up, businesses that are already existing, they're expanding, lower and lower unemployment, especially in core Democratic constituencies like African Americans and Hispanics.
You got more money in the economy, moving through the economy, and that means you've got more growth and innovation.
It also means you got more freedom.
You got more economic freedom, and that's what it's all about.
There's something bigger going on here too.
And I want to hit a quick break.
And when I come back, I'm going to tell you there's something much bigger going on here.
Okay?
So I'm going to give you the bigger picture.
And you're not going to want to miss this because essentially this is the whole game.
I'm going to bring it to you on the other side.
800-941, Sean, I am Monica Crowley in today for Sean Hannity.
Monica Crowley in today for Sean Hannity.
How are you?
800-941.
Sean is our number.
Before the break, we were breaking down the booming economy.
Really, we've got a growing economy that nobody can deny.
But there's something bigger going on here that we all need to understand.
In 2008, when Obama won, the far left grabbed the brass ring.
They then spent eight years trying to re-engineer the American economy toward the direction of socialism and toward a socialist, statist, command economic model.
In order to do that, they had to attack every major pillar of the U.S. economy, energy, healthcare, banking, and so on.
Crush them with reforms and regulation.
It was what Obama called the fundamental transformation of the nation.
That's what he meant.
And the left under Obama, they largely succeeded in doing that.
Of course, socialism has always been a dismal failure, and the Obama run was no better than any other socialist experiment we've seen around the world.
The economy sucked salt for eight years.
And we were told, look, Obama's got you.
He's got this.
This high unemployment and little to no economic growth.
That's just the new normal.
We're going to have to live with it.
Get used to it.
Sure, yeah, okay.
Then Trump runs on a pro-growth, pro-business, pro-taxpayer economic message, and he wins.
And over the past year and a half, his policies of tax cuts and deregulation have generated a booming economy, so much so that it cannot be denied the left cannot cover it up, although they try.
Here's the important point to all of this.
President Trump is putting the lie to leftism, to progressivism, to socialism.
His policies are putting into bold relief the abject failure of leftist economic policies of Obama.
That's another reason why the left, Obama and his crew, everybody in the media, that's why they are doubling down trying to destroy him.
Trump's success is showing up their failures.
And not just the failures of their insane economic policies, but the failure of their entire ideology.
They cannot and they must not allow it.
That's why they did everything in their power during the campaign to try to stop him from becoming president, the insurance policy, and so on.
That's why they continue through the media, through the elite ruling class, through the attacks of the deep state, through all of it.
They cannot and must not allow Donald Trump to succeed.
On top of that, they have no economic message.
So they're left with, you know, a mini movement to try to repeal the tax cuts because none of them voted for them.
So they're embarrassed they voted against success.
And they're left with impeachment.
Those are the two things.
That's it.
That's all they've got to offer.
Oh, and a faded copy of Das Capital by Karl Marx.
Real winning message there, Democrats.
But the big point is that Trump cannot be allowed to succeed because he is putting the lie to the left.
I'm Monica Crowley.
right after this.
Wooden but just last May told me about your fiancé and how proud you were of that green parade going overseas.
You knew you were heading into hell.
But you had a guy that was bigger than yourself.
I am Monica Prelli in today for Sean.
And we are heading into America's most solemn holiday, Memorial Day, during which we honor and pay our respects to the men and women who wore this country's uniform and made the ultimate sacrifice, gave their lives to our defense and in service of our freedom.
That song that you just heard is an amazing song.
It's called West Point to Arlington.
It was written by an Iraq war veteran, Sean Niquette, through the Nashville nonprofit Operation Song.
OperationSong.org pairs hit songwriters with military veterans and their families and helps connect them through music.
Sean wrote this song about his friend, Army Captain Andrew Petterson Keele of Miami, Florida, who died at the age of 28 in Afghanistan on March 11th, 2013.
We remember him as we go into this weekend also.
This great song, West Point to Arlington, that song is available on iTunes.
All proceeds go to APK Charities, the charity which was set up in the memory of Army Captain Andrew Peterson Keele.
So please check out the song on iTunes again.
It's called West Point to Arlington.
Also, as we head into Memorial Day, I want to tell you about two extraordinary groups doing extraordinary things for our extraordinary military heroes.
The first is a group that I am honored to do some work with and actually newly appointed to its board, which is also an honor.
It's called Operation Restored Warrior.
Operation Restored Warrior, or ORW, fills a void that the VA just can't do.
As so many of you know, many of our veterans come back from their service broken individuals, broken physically, broken emotionally, broken spiritually.
We are losing 22 of our military vets per day, per day, to suicide.
That is unacceptable.
And like I said, the VA, other government services, they just cannot address the challenge.
It's just too big.
Operation Restored Warrior actually does address it.
They step into the breach and they heal with the one thing that the government services don't heal with, and that's with God.
It's really an incredible group.
And I can tell you, having done some work with them, seeing them in action, I have seen the results.
Big, strappy, former Special Ops guys, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and enlisted guys from every walk of life.
These guys are in, they come to ORW in tears because they're broken, literally on the verge of life and death.
And they literally have their lives saved by this group.
It is extraordinary.
So if you are a military veteran or you know someone who is who feels broken and lost, in need of healing, please reach out to Operation Restored Warrior.
website is operationrestoredwarrior.org and they answer every single email.
Also, if you'd like to donate and support ORW, they would be grateful for whatever you can give.
OperationrestoredWarrior.org.
Again, if you can go there and donate and support them if you are able, they will be so grateful.
They have saved hundreds and hundreds of lives just in the nine years that they've been in existence.
The second group I want to tell you about is called TroopsDirect.
Their website is troopsdirect.org.
They do an unbelievable job in getting our active duty troops the things they need, but they aren't getting.
Joining me now to tell us more is Jake Jones of Troops Direct.
Hi, Jake.
Hi, Monica.
Thanks for having me on.
Of course, welcome.
So you guys, I'm learning more about your organization as well.
And you guys, you saw a need with our military and you're filling it.
Tell us exactly what you do.
So what Troops Direct does is we expedite the acquisition of requested gear and equipment to service members that typically cannot obtain the critical items that they need through the DOD supply chain in the timeframe that they need them for deployment.
How does that happen?
I mean, we think that the DOD is probably, you know, the most efficient of the government agencies, really taking great care of our troops, especially those who are abroad, active duty.
How do these kinds of gaps even happen?
Well, I think right now we're on the backside of the previous administration.
And due to sequestration, you know, continuing resolution after continuing resolution, you know, we're still operating under a lot of those constraints.
And on top of that, you know, a lot of our forces deploy very quickly.
And especially with the special operations forces, their missions are so fluid to where they change at a moment's notice.
So us being the backstop or the quick reaction force allows them to come to us when the DOD supply chain, who typically does a phenomenal job of supporting us, can't get it done, Troops Direct gets it done.
What kind of items are our troops requesting?
What would you say is the most requested item?
Well, I'll tell you, if you don't mind, I'll tell you what I've gotten in the last 24 hours.
Does that work for you?
Sure.
So in the last 24 hours, I've gotten requests for over $150,000 worth of equipment that I'm actually in the process of purchasing.
Some of those things are 22 ballistic helmets, two handheld mine detectors, 16 Peltor headsets, 22 pieces of body armor, and 36 sets of specialized optics.
And that's just within the last 24 hours.
I mean, I get this all the time.
On top of those things, we get a lot of requests for medical equipment.
I had a request for an autoclave, major surgical kits, specialized backpacks, sniper equipment, explosive ordnance equipment.
This is just a day in the life of Troops Direct.
You know, a lot of the equipment that you're mentioning, Jake, is very specialized military-grade equipment.
And we certainly don't want our troops in active duty in harm's way with equipment that is not up to military standards and DOD standards.
How do you guys have access to that kind of stuff to get it to our troops?
So we work through a lot of the same vendors that the Department of Defense works with.
And all the vendors that we work with are ITAR compliant vendors, which allows us to immediately receive the request and then contact that ITAR compliant vendor and ship those items either directly overseas or we ship them here in the United States to allow them to train with them, become more familiar with them before they go into harm's way.
And the military, the Defense Department has no issue with you guys doing this?
No, not at all.
I mean, if anything, I think that we increase the readiness of the Department of Defense, of our service members, because, like I said before, there will be gaps.
There will be times when the DOD is unable to meet the time constraints because of their bureaucratic red tape or things of that nature.
Really, we're not constrained by anything.
I can go to any website and click on a button, order the piece of gear, and ship it within 15 minutes.
That's called the power of the private sector, Jake.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's pretty amazing.
You must hear from grateful troops all of the time.
What do they tell you?
They come back to us and they tell us how grateful they are and how mission-enhancing it was and just what a pleasure it was working with the not-for-profit, which relies on mom and pop donors to donate to us.
So they feel like it's not political.
They're truly being supported by the regular people back in the United States.
So their thanks cannot be explained in words.
We're talking to First Sergeant Jake Jones, United States Military, retired.
And Jake, I understand that you are in the United States Marines.
Hurrah!
Thank you so much for your service.
I also understand that Troops Direct helped you directly.
How so?
I've worked with Troops Direct over a number of years within the conventional military as well as Special Operations Forces.
And I'll give you two examples.
One example, one of my teams was deployed to an austere environment, and they were doing an area familiarization, and they came to a local hangout where people were jumping off cliffs.
And Troops Direct, prior to our deployment, had purchased us some high-angle rescue equipment and rope rescue equipment.
And when we arrived, this one girl had jumped off the 90-foot cliff and entered the water and ended up breaking her back.
So my guys immediately jumped into action, jumped in the water, got her stabilized.
Another one of my guys ran two kilometers away back to our trucks, got the rope rescue equipment that Troops Direct provided with backboards.
And we created a hoist system from the 90-foot cliff, and we hoisted her out of the water and to a local national medical boat where she was transported to the hospital and is recovering from her injuries.
So beyond saving her life, you know, the American service member was painted in a positive light, being in a predominantly Muslim country where the Americans are actually saving their citizens, and you have two countries working shoulder to shoulder together to save a life.
On another occasion, we were isolating the city of Missoula in late 2016, and we started doing more sensitive and more smaller unit type operations.
And I didn't have enough optics for my guys.
So I called Aaron, who is our founder and executive director of Troops Direct.
I said, Aaron, I need optics now.
And he literally put me on a three-way call with the vendors of the optics that I requested.
And we got them into Iraq within seven days.
And we immediately put them to use to where the specialized optics that I requested allowed one of my snipers to engage and reduce an ISIL fighter at 1,500 yards with a sniper rifle based upon the highly specialized optic that Troops Direct provided us.
Incredible.
Just incredible, Jake.
You know, you're really filling a vacuum that needs to be filled.
God bless you for what you're doing.
Thank you for your service and SemperFy.
And I want to tell everybody, if you want to support Troops Direct, please visit their website, troopsdirect.org, troopsdirect.org.
Our thanks to First Sergeant Jake Jones, United States Marines, retired.
Thank you so much, Jake.
And just a reminder that the other group I mentioned, Operation Restored Warrior, it's operationrestoredwarrior.org.
And if you want to support them and donate to them as well, just go to their website.
They read every single email.
And if you're a military veteran who needs help, spiritual help, if you're in need of healing or if you know of a military veteran who does, please reach out to orw operationrestoredwarrior.org and support them, both groups, however you can, on this Memorial Day weekend.
I'm Monica Crowley, in today for Sean, back right after this.
Monica Crowley, in for Sean today.
Thank you so much for joining me.
This is another fantastic song in honor of our fallen troops.
As we head into Memorial Day weekend, let's make sure while we enjoy all of the freedoms and liberties that we were so blessed with in this country, and as we enjoy our lobster rolls and our fried clams and our hot dogs and hamburgers, that we keep in mind what this weekend is really all about.
And it's about honoring and paying respects to the men and women who have worn this country's uniform and died in its defense.
Please keep that first and foremost.
And while we're on messages of hope, I just want to mention that in Minneapolis last weekend, there was an incredible thing.
You know, the U.S. Bank Stadium where the Super Bowl was played this year?
Well, there was something called the Pulse event, Pulse, like Pulse in Your Arm, the Pulse event.
And it's the Pulse movement, which is about reaching young people through faith.
And at U.S. Bank Stadium last Friday night, 70,000 millennials assembled for this extraordinary event of faith, hope, and love.
And what struck me about it is that happened on the same day as the Texas school shooting.
And I thought, what a powerful counterpoint.
The media ran with gun control and kids in crisis and so on.
And yet the counterpoint to that was what was going on in the Twin Cities at this Pulse event, where you had 70,000 millennials praying and worshiping and showing their faith in God.
It was a remarkable, remarkable thing.
So I just wanted to bring that to your attention.
Also calling to your attention my column at the Hill today, thehill.com.
Please check it out.
It's also on my Facebook page, Monica CrowleyNY, and up on my Twitter feed at Monica Crowley.
Also on Instagram at Monica Crowley underscore.
But my column today at The Hill is all about Obama and Brennan and Clapper.
Oh my!
Check it out.
My big thanks to Sean Hannity for inviting me to sit in.
