We've talked a lot about the January 6th Commission.
And when they threw Jim Banks off, who's gonna check in with us a little later in the program today, and they threw off Jim Jordan, and they replaced them with co-chair Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
Um it's already a preordained commission.
It's a foregone conclusion.
There's not going to be any honest questioning.
For example, the most significant question to me, and and I was clear and outspoken from day one.
You can't have people writing inside the Capitol.
We have laws.
You've you've got to obey the laws of the land, and we're we're consistent.
I guess we're the only ones that believe that you can't pick and choose which laws you can and cannot obey.
Joe Biden doesn't enforce the laws of the border, right?
Okay, there's one standard of justice as it relates to uh people on taxes and uh for example, if you lie to Congress, you know, you'll get a pre-dawn raid with frogmen, tactical gear, guns drawn, CNN fake news cameras, and meanwhile, the the the exact same thing is charged by the inspector general, but as long as you're part of the deep state and one of the high-ranking members of the FBI, nothing happens.
And then it's sad, because it's all and it's all true.
Some of the questions, the ones I am most interested in is they knew all of these people, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people were in town, and yet they made no plans whatsoever for if something should go wrong.
And I don't care who's in Washington, if you have hundreds of thousands of people, it's a high security risk for everybody, and you've got to prepare for a worst-case scenario.
Now we do know that the Capitol police chief requested on six separate occasions that they call up the National Guard both before and during uh what happened that day in the Capitol on January the sixth.
Now the question is where is the commission for the five hundred and thirty-four or so riots that took place in the summer of 2020?
The riots where thousands of police officers were injured.
They were pelted with bricks and rocks and bottles and Molotov cocktails, and then we had dozens of Americans killed, like Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr., we've had his father on this program, and no commission, no responsibility, no investigation uh whatsoever.
And and then we have again, you know, a dual justice system.
You have states like New York saying, no, we're not gonna prosecute even people that they have on tape involved in looting and arson and and hurling bricks and bottles at police officers.
So a dual justice system.
Now it's gotten even more interesting.
And thanks to John Solomon, who is the editor-in-chief of JustTheNews.com, he's got a breaking story regarding Benny Thompson.
Now he's the Congressman overseeing this commission as it relates to January 6th.
He's the chair of the commission, and he's been a vocal critic of an event that he deems, quote, an insurrection.
Well, according to John Solomon's new reporting today, he himself offered sympathy to police officers injured that day, et cetera, et cetera.
But as a young uh alderman in a small Mississippi community many years ago, Thompson placed himself on the opposite side.
He was openly sympathizing with a secessionist group known as the Republic of New Africa, and participated in a news conference blaming law enforcement for instigating clashes with the group that led to the killings of a police officer and wounding an FBI agent.
Anyway, Thompson's official biography makes no reference of the you know separatist RNA.
And anyway, this is Penny Thompson's sympathizing with the Republic of the New Africa secessionist group.
I treated fairly and given every opportunity afforded them by law.
This was not done in the case of the Republic of New Africa.
They are charged with obstructing justice.
This I believe is an attempt on part of law enforcement officials to stop the republic from building its community.
My position is that people are entitled to live as they choose so long as they are law-abiding and peaceful.
All right, joining us now.
He is the editor-in-chief, just the news.com.
He broke this story.
John Solomon, investigative reporter, is back with us.
Sir, how are you?
I'm doing well, Sean.
So uh yeah.
Go ahead.
We we got the chairman of this January 6th Capitol riot, and and you've been outspoken about it.
I was outspoken on day one.
We we have to protect our elected officials, whether you like their politics or not.
That's is the this this is fundamental to law and order and safety and security in our society.
It's based on our constitution.
We have to protect our institutions.
That would be the Capitol.
Uh but yet the head of the commission himself uh, you know, was a was a guy that was that was involved in insurrection talk himself.
Is that's a is this a joke or is this real?
This is very real.
You know, it I I learned about this because an FBI agent uh retired, long retired, called me up one day and said, Listen, this guy, Benny Thompson that's been named the commissioner or the chairman of this commission.
I'm not sure, but I think he's the same guy that was in Mississippi as a young alderman.
And back then, he wasn't talking he loved cops, and he wasn't talking uh against insurrection, he was supporting an insurrectionist group and blaming cops for getting killed by pursuing this uh this group's illegal activities.
And so I started on a journey, went to the uh Freedom of Information Act and the FBI went to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and I gathered all this information as sure as heck, it is the same Benny Thompson.
So 50 years ago, Benny Thompson was on the different side of an insurrection.
He was supporting a group that wanted to take land by force if necessary in the southeastern part of the United States to create a new Republic of Africa, the Republic of New Africa was called.
This group was on the FBI's top watch list.
Uh they had uh informants telling him the group was planning for guerrilla warfare.
It engaged in several conflicts with police officers, at least three police officers I've been able to document were killed by members of this group.
Uh a couple others were wounded, one FBI agent wounded, and despite all that violence, despite its ill intent and its its radical agenda, Benny Thompson as a young alderman defended this group, actually call uh called on police to stop investigating and instigating clashes.
And then when a uh an officer was killed in Mississippi in Jackson, Mississippi, in August 1971, an event that created national headlines uh uh with the RNA, uh Benny Thompson joined the press conference where the press conference is focused was to blame police for having gotten themselves killed by pursuing this group, a group that by the way, they had a lawful warrant to go raid.
So that is the Benny Thompson of 50 years ago, very different from the man that's putting on the show today.
So he actually sympathized with this black secessionist group that killed cops and defended them.
Yes, yes, and on multiple occasions and as recently as 2013 in a local Mississippi Mississippi politics, he campaigned on behalf of one of the RNA's former members, it's former vice president, a guy who got elected as Jackson uh mayor, he was campaigning, running ads for him, even presided over his installation ceremony and said that this man was someone that has been an inspiration and friend for many, many years, going back to the 1970s.
So he never disassociated with a group that had violence in its past, was wanted by the FBI, and he had a very different tone about police.
Uh and I think that it's a good reminder that the Democrats of today were the radical leftists of the 60s, the ruling class in their 70s and 80s, people like Benny Thompson, Bobby Rush.
They were radical leftists back then.
Today they're the establishment of the Democratic Party, and they pick and choose when they support cops.
They weren't supporting cops last summer during the riots.
They are supporting cops when it comes to the January 6th insurrection.
Benny Thompson certainly wasn't supporting law enforcement back in 1971 when an officer was shot dead by this radical group.
So we had a uh post-presidency impeachment, which in and of itself I don't believe is constitutional, but we had the post uh on this very issue of January 6th.
Um they want to have another commission.
Uh once they threw off Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, Jim Banks will be joining us later in the program, Jim Jordan on TV tonight.
Once they threw them off the commission, it was pretty clear to me that this was a foregone conclusion, and this is just another opportunity, one one last final attempt at at attacking Donald Trump and distracting the public from the disaster that is Joe Biden's presidency.
Now, I actually wouldn't have minded a fair commission.
Why didn't they call up the National Guard?
Why didn't why did they deny the Capitol Police Chief the request, the multiple requests before and during this this riot on the Capitol?
Why did they deny his request for the National Guard to be called up?
And if we really care about rioting, I don't really make a distinction between the summer of 2020 and January 6th.
They're equally wrong.
They can't happen.
Dozens of Americans died over the summer, and thousands of police officers were injured in the course of this.
City blocks were taken over.
Looting took place in multiple cities.
Kamala Harris, you know, was promoting a bail fund for the rioters.
Um and you know, I'm I'm I'm looking at this unmitigated disaster, city blocks taken over, and and nobody wants to have a commission about that at all.
I don't the Democrats pretty much denied all that summer that it was even taking place, along with the media.
Yeah, listen, what happened last summer and what happened in the Capitol on January 6th were both criminal events.
We should we should speak out against them.
What happened was wrong.
But the way the Democrats have hijacked this investigation is just like they hijacked the investigation of Russia collusion, right?
Hillary Clinton had a Russia problem.
Instead, they made up a false allegation and went after Donald Trump and they put on a big show and made everybody believe that illusion that there was Russia collusion.
Here today we are in danger of having a commission doing investigation, which by the way, if it was done right, could really bring a lot of knowledge and comfort and make sure we never have an episode like that at the Capitol again.
But instead of doing it the right way, they're going to try to uh hijack the narrative and and they're gonna use a guy who in his past life really didn't have much affection for the police, really uh was more interested in supporting an insurrectionist group than the police.
Now all of a sudden he's a sympathist with the police.
I don't think people will find credible outcomes from the commission that otherwise could do important work.
If this were a Republican and this was a Republican's past, uh I bet it would be a big factor in the mind of the media and the Democratic Party and in terms of his ability to objectively chair such a commission, wouldn't you agree?
A hundred percent.
Listen, the history's been shown that the Democrats have used this issue against Republicans.
I remember back in the early 2000s when John Ashros attorney general's uh nomination was pending, the Democrats dug up some connection to a group in Mississippi, uh sorry, Missouri, and and tried to use it against them.
They're dead silent today.
They won't even address it.
Not even Benny Thompson himself will address his past comments uh in this situation.
They the Democrats pick and choose their narratives.
It's not often about the facts, it's often about effect.
And I think on January 6th, they're trying to have an effect regardless of the facts, and that's not good for the American people.
It's not good for the American people.
So quick break more with the editor-in-chief of just the news.com investigative reporter, John Solomon.
Uh, we have Congressman Jim Banks on the other side, 800 nine-four one Shauna's on number.
get to your calls next half hour.
All right, as we continue, editor-in-chief of just the news.com, John Solomon is with us.
So where do you see ultimately this going?
This is a foregone conclusion.
It's predetermined outcome, and I guess the media is going to try and make a big deal about it and and just dismiss the rioting that took place in 2020.
So what what is the goal here?
Just to smear slander, blame Donald Trump again?
I mean, that there are words that Donald Trump uttered that day that are very clear.
Uh many of you will now peacefully and patriotically uh march to the Capitol so your voices may be heard.
I d I didn't hear in that uh or at any point during the rally.
Donald Trump saying, I want you to go and and raid the Capitol and create a riot in the Capitol.
I didn't hear that.
No, you didn't.
And listen, there's uh in every uh episode in American history like this, the first thing you want to get answered is what did people know and when did they know it, right?
That's how we unraveled the Russia collusion case, working with you and Sarah and other people.
We even though the Democrats aren't going to do it, even though Republicans aren't fully on the committee, they didn't get the people they wanted.
We have tools for you in letters and requests that we should try to get the real truth.
What did Nancy Pelosi really do?
Is she trying to cover up for her knowledge or lack of a security plan for the state?
There are important public issues that will last a test of time.
And it's folks like you and I that have the ability to go get that information.
We've got to do that.
And then I think incumbent upon Republicans to apply the same standard to Benny Thompson that's been replied to uh other Republican nominees and chairmen in the past.
Remember, Devin Nunez got bounced from the House Intelligence Committee, and it turns out on both his allegations, the Republicans should ask for a full accounting of what Benny Thompson did in the past and whether he renounces that group today and whether he really supports police.
One of the things I'll be doing today, I'm going to be interviewing the son of the officer killed that day on August 1971.
Wow.
The Skinner family.
You're going to give them a voice for the first time in 50 years.
You know what?
I might do a companion follow-up interview to that.
That's really important.
And uh great work as always, John Solomon.
We always love having you on.
Thank you for being with us.
800-941 Sean, toll-free number.
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Quick break, right back, didn't the IRS scandal and the NSA atrocities convince you?
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You know, you think things can't get any worse, but they actually are.
We're going to talk to in a minute.
Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana.
He chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee.
He's on the House Armed Services Committee.
Currently serves in the U.S. Navy Reserve as a supply corps officer.
By the way, he took a leave in 2014 and 15 from the Indi Indiana State Senate to deploy to Afghanistan during Operations Enduring Freedom and uh more.
He's uh outraged by the overstepping regarding parental rights.
He put out a tweet.
He said just when you'd think things couldn't get any worse or scarier coming from the Biden administration, they're now threatening to use the Patriot Act against parents uh who protest that their kids are getting indoctrinated in schools.
It's outrageous and it's infuriating.
I I I I uh it's I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that now we're getting lectures when we have failed public schools all over the place.
I brought up many times.
In New York City, they spend well over forty thousand dollars now per student with some of the worst results in terms of reading and math.
We as a country spend more per capita than any industrialized country in the world with some of the worst results.
In the in the great city of Baltimore, the second highest amount of spending per capita per student on education, you have thirteen public high schools where not a single child is proficient in math and reading.
You can't fail on a level uh you if you even tried, I don't think you can fail this bad.
And then we got people like gubernatorial candidate in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Terry McCullough.
Well, I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.
Listen.
He doesn't understand what the laws were because he's never been involved here in helping Virginia, but it was not.
The parents had to write to veto bills, veto books, Glenn.
Not to be knowledge about it, also take them off the shelves.
And I'm not gonna let parents come into schools and actually take votes out and make their own decision.
So you stop the bill that I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.
I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should be teaching.
How about you stick to the basics?
Once you once you create proficiency at math and science and reading and computers, then maybe we could have a a controv you we'll have a discussion about what is best to teach our kids in terms of everything else because you failed on everything else.
I mean, schools couldn't be any more woke than what they are today.
And yet Senator Josh Hawley telling the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, attempts to intimidate and silence parents and interfere with their rights is just plain wrong.
You know, these are our kids, Terry.
These are our children.
You don't, you know, it's our responsibility first and foremost, not your not yours.
And certainly not teachers that have political agendas to indoctrinate our children into you know little socialists that you that you would love to be great little soldiers for you in the future advocating your flawed ideology and failed policies.
Anyway, here's Senator Josh Hawley.
All I can say is this is truly extraordinary.
I think you know it is.
It's unprecedented.
You can't point to a single instance where anything like this has happened before.
And I think parents across this country are going to be stunned to learn, stunned that if they show up at a local school board meeting, by the way, where they have the right to appear and be heard, where they have the right to say something about their children's education, where they have the right to vote, and you are attempting to intimidate them.
You are attempting to silence them.
You are attempting to interfere with their rights as parents, and yes, with their rights as voters.
This is wrong.
This is dangerous, and I cannot believe that an attorney general of the United States is engaging in this kind of conduct.
And frankly, I can't believe that you are sitting here today defending it.
I intend to get answers to these questions.
You won't answer my questions.
I'm going to get answers to these questions.
Mr. Chairman, we need to have a hearing on this subject.
We need to hear from the Attorney General himself.
He needs to come here, take the oath, sit there, and answer questions.
We have never seen anything like this before in our country's history.
And frankly, I I want to say I think it is a dangerous, dangerous precedent.
You want to know why I support school choice?
Because then parents will pick and choose the schools that teach reading, writing, math, computers, and get the job done.
Parents, they all want every parent wants their kids to get a good education.
You know, we if you fail our if we fail our kids as we are, on that one level, you're basically taking the ladder to success and you're ripping away every rung of that ladder, and they are shut out.
And we're doing it.
I mean, you want to talk about, you know, institutionalized failure and institutionalized mediocrity at best.
That's our public educational system that has a full stranglehold on the Democratic Party, an unholy alliance that they have where the teachers' unions provide all of these funds so that these liberal democratic radical socialist politicians can get elected.
Anyway, Congressman uh Jim Banks, Indiana is with us.
He's saying now that they're using or threatening to use the Patriot Act against parents that protest their kids that get indoctrinated in schools.
Well, that takes it to another level.
Explain what's going on here.
Yeah, hey, Sean.
Uh you think about this, that the schools are teaching critical race theory and teaching our kids to hate America.
And then they're going to call parents domestic terrorists for protesting it at a school board.
I see something every day in this with this Biden administration that infuriates me.
But this is insane.
And Senator Josh Hawley is exactly right.
It was great.
It was great to hear that that clip.
But you got to go back uh uh take this back uh to last week, just a few days ago.
The National School Board Association wrote a letter to the Department of Justice at the end of last week.
And they laid this out.
They they called on the Department of Justice to use the actually listed the Patriot Act in the letter.
Then they listed a lot of other federal laws, federal hate crime laws.
They they spelled it out.
They listed a number of uh federal statutes and laws that they called on the Department of Justice to use against parents who show up and protest at school board meetings.
I gotta I gotta tell you, I I meet ma especially mobs, uh some dads too, but really I I meet moms every single day who are outraged about what's going on in our schools and and they're getting involved in politics for the first time ever, Sean.
I I predict this is gonna be a big motivator in the midterm election next year.
I don't after hearing the clip from Terry McColliff in Virginia and seeing the the Biden administration threaten to use the Patriot Act against parents.
I don't know how any American who has kids in schools can ever justify voting for a Democrat again.
I don't get it either.
So tell me how this gets stopped.
I think parents are are worried.
I mean, they're getting lectured by governors that they shouldn't have a role in their own kids' education.
I mean, the the problem is this is that most parents are already strapped.
They're already working their twelve, fourteen hours a day.
I don't know, I don't know anybody that works an eight hour day.
Maybe you do.
Well, with all due respect, a lot of your fellow members of Congress, they don't really work too much.
I would actually prefer you guys not work at all because it would save us a lot of money if you didn't work and take a permanent vacation for a couple of years or go in a session maybe for a week once every three years or something.
That'd be fine with me.
Um but more seriously, most people work twelve, fourteen hours a day.
And they they get up in the morning, they help there with their kids' lunch, help get them off to the school, and then by the time they pay their taxes and their mortgage and their insurance and their car and all the other expenses, put food on the table.
There's not a lot of extra money here to put, you know, twenty, twenty-five, forty, fifty, if you're in New York City, sixty-five, seventy grand down for a school that wants to indoctrinate your your kids also, but you'd get a better education.
So now we have parents, their their kids are caught in failing public schools, they have no options available to them, and now they there's a stranglehold, a monopoly that the that the government has on the education of our kids, and now they're trying to push parents that are speaking out out of the classroom and punish them.
Yeah.
These are parents you you're exactly right, Sean.
These are parents who work hard every single day.
They they don't think about politics every day.
They don't have time to.
Uh they're working hard just to make ends meet.
They send their kids off to school, and now all of a sudden they see what's going on, they're showing up as school board meetings because they they know that the teachers union uh is going to continue to push this garbage in our schools.
And guess who's supposed to be accountable for our schools?
It's the school board members who we elect to provide the accountability.
And and they're not used to people showing up as school board meetings to provide that level of uh feedback and accountability.
Now all of a sudden you have you have parents again, especially moms all over the place who are showing up to school board meetings, and and the s the National School Board Association is pushing back.
I mean, I I I wish there was an easy answer to this.
I mean, at the end of the day, when we get the majority back and Kevin McCarthy is the speaker of the house, one of the first things that we should do is hold hearings on how these Democrats have abused their their surveillance powers to spy on parents using the Patriot Act for showing uh not just showing up as school.
Explain this.
How are they spying on parents?
What are they doing?
Well, that's what they're they're the in this in the letter, and this isn't this is incredible.
Uh and I I I would uh call everyone to go and find this letter that the National School Board Association sent to the Department of Justice.
It called on them to use the Patriot Act, which is what we use to spy on foreign terrorists.
The the School Board Association listed out the Patriot Act, said he that the Department of Justice, the Attorney General agreed in his response letter that he sent back last night when he made a when he responded to the school board association that they would use it to spy on parents.
I mean, this is this is unprecedented, it's never happened before.
The parents who are upset about what's going on in schools and showing up at school board meetings to use a law that we use against terrorists.
It's just it's uh it's unbelievable.
It really is unlike anything I've ever heard.
Uh Congressman, we appreciate your efforts.
Keep us in the loop on this, and uh if you get any developments, let us know, okay.
You got it.
Thank you.
800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, quick break right back.
And as we continue, let's get back to our phones.
Mark is in Texas.
Mark, you're on the Sean Hannity show.
Glad you called, sir.
Hey, sir, congratulations on 25 years.
Well appreciate all you do, man.
By the way, if you would have taken that bet 25 years ago that I'd I'd be the longest running host in prime time cable news on Fox, let me tell you something.
It would have been a really dumb bad bet.
That's all I can say.
God's been pretty good to me.
Amen to that.
What's going on, my friend?
Well, hey, I've heard you make a comment a couple of times about uh the FBI and how it's the one percent at the top and not the ninety-nine.
And I want to take a little bit of an issue with that.
Um, the the the top tends to set the tone, and uh I would argue with what we're seeing with the Whitmer situation, uh what we're finding out about the January sixth situation, and now even uh threatening the sick em on uh uh moms and dads at uh school boards.
I think the FBI is corrupt.
And I think um I I think the whole culture's corrupt in the FBI, and I think minimizing it to the one percent is not gonna shine the appropriate light on the situation that we need to shine on it.
Um I I think it's far worse than the one percent.
Let me give you the anecdotal evidence that I have, okay?
Okay.
I know people in the FBI.
I know many people in the FBI.
I know many people in the intelligence community, you know, various three-letter organizations.
Uh I've met them.
I know people that risk their lives to save our lives and protect our lives, stories that you'll never hear about, and stories that I only reluctantly can pull out of them if I give them too much to drink.
Um and I'm I'm being a little, you know, I'm kidding, I'm I'm obviously kidding around.
And these guys definitely the rank and file put their lives on the line every day.
They don't have the power that you're describing to do the things that are being done.
Now I'm gonna add one thing and then you can answer.
I can I can tell you they are they f they they found what that what happened with Donald Trump repulsive.
Everyone there wasn't a single exception.
I'll give you the last minute we have.
Yeah, and I I don't think they're all bad by any means.
I I think there are a lot of good men and women there.
But but um, you know, my response would be where are the whistleblowers?
You know, uh everybody's staying quiet on this, and I think there's a lot of atrocities going on.
Um and I I I don't think they're all bad, but I I definitely think it's beyond the one percent.
Why would you think though the rank and file special agents would know what Comey and McCabe and these other high-ranking people on the seventh floor were doing?
How would they possibly know unless they were involved?
I think they're being ordered to do it.
I I the people that were involved in the setup at the of of Governor Whitmer, um, those weren't the top end people with that.
The information that's coming out about the January 6th thing, that's not the people at the top that are doing that.
That's the rank and file.
Yeah, are you talking about the infiltration of uh of a crowd when they think there might be trouble?
That's that's kind of standard operating procedure, isn't it?
I'm talking about setting up American citizens and um I think this whole new thing that's come down from the attorney general with gonna s use the Patriot Act to spy on teachers, the rank and file is gonna carry that out, Sean.
I don't know if it would be an error.
Listen, uh you you might be right.
I don't for example, I'm a little shocked.
I I want to know the reason why.
Maybe there's a legitimate reason.
I don't know why the FBI is investigating groups that are trying to rescue Americans abroad.
I don't know why the State Department won't give chartered planes with Americans on them the right to land in America, or why they won't sign off if a third party nation uh you know is willing to take people on.
I don't get any of that.
But I got I gotta run.
Um listen, I w uh there are a lot of good people.
I I don't like broad sweeping generalizations.
I know good people, but I also know those that have abused power and are corrupt, and we've not been shy in calling them out when we see them.