The Dan Bongino Show - “Don’t Doubt Me” (1460)

Episode Date: February 18, 2021

In this episode, I discuss a personal story about Rush Limbaugh and his impact on the country. I also address the stunning amount of misinformation being propagated about the January 6 incident on Capitol Hill.  News Picks: Here are the 20 greatest quotes from the great Rush Limbaugh. Disgusting, filthy, subhuman Hollywood “celebrities” celebrate the death of Rush Limbaugh. Sadly, sometimes parody becomes reality.  The Glenn Greenwald article discussed in the show today. Here are some stunning numbers comparing the Florida response to coronavirus, with the dreadful California response. Copyright Bongino Inc All Rights Reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino. You know, folks, we've been doing this Hero of the Day segment at the end of every show every day. And, you know, it's meant to kind of put a smile on your face, knowing that even with all the bad news, there are some good people out there doing really good things. Today, we're not going to end the show with a Hero of the day segment. We're going to start the show with a hero of the century segment. I think it's obvious given the untimely passing of my hero of the century, Rush Limbaugh, that that's who we're going to start the show, acknowledging his efforts to really change the country for the better. I've got a lot to say on that.

I've got a lot more as well. There's a lot of information that came out yesterday, the ongoing disaster in Texas, the ongoing attacks on Florida, and a stunning piece by Glenn Greenwald about all the misinformation making its way into the mainstream media about January 6th and what happened on that day. Today's show brought to you by ExpressVPN. Ladies and gentlemen, don't let big tech track what you do online. Anonymize your online activity today. Get a VPN. Go to expressvpn.com slash Bongino. Go today. Welcome. Let's get right to it. There's a lot to discuss today. Today's show brought to you by Brickhouse Nutrition. Life's about habits. We've been more focused than ever on the health of us and the ones we love, but what happens after?

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All right, brother. We may have to call that the rush bell from now. We get the Kenny bell. Maybe we'll call that the rush bell. So folks, yesterday was a really devastating day. When we wrapped up recording the show, sadly, we found out the awful news that Rush Limbaugh was taken from us way too soon. He was only 70.

Rush probably had a good solid 30 more years of transforming the political landscape. And now we're left without him. There have been relatively few people in the history of the Republic who have had such a profound effect on the politics of the country than Rush Limbaugh. He changed everything. As I said the other day, it's not that Rush Limbaugh,

I said it, I was in multiple Fox appearances and I meant it. It's not that Rush Limbaugh changed the game. Rush Limbaugh invented the game. Rush Limbaugh invented the game. You know, Michael Jordan was a really spectacular basketball player. The most dominant athlete of his time in any sport. And he had about a 10 to 15 year run where he was the most talented,

most valuable player in the game, I think, in any sport, a game changer in every respect. But Michael Jordan did not invent basketball. Not only was Limbaugh the MVP of talk radio for 30 years, number one, the best player on any team anywhere, he invented the conservative national talk radio platform. Please understand that for all the leftist lunatics who are piling on Rush, piling on in the death of Rush because you're evil people. Evil has no place here. That's the left

saying, no, no, evil has a place right in your hearts. And we've seen it over and over when conservatives pass and are taken from us way too soon understand to the liberals listening and others even the younger folks out there liberal or otherwise who don't understand the profound nature of what rush did rush invented the game talk radio existed before rush he didn't invent radio He didn't invent radio. He didn't invent talk radio. He didn't even invent political talk radio. But what he did invent is national conservative talk radio. The meat and potatoes

you were all used to of talk radio. You could not, and Joe, listen, producer Joe has been involved in radio for about as long as I've been alive. He is on a station that carried Rush, that carried Sean, and that carried Mark. He was at WCBM forever. Still a great station in the Baltimore area. Got a lot of friends over there. Joe was there a long time. Joe, would it be proper to say that

you couldn't drive 50 miles almost anywhere in the United States without getting a signal where Rush Limbaugh would be on the air. Is that a fair assessment? I think so, man. He was everywhere. He was everywhere. He was nationwide. Really.

He was. He was worldwide. But I think even 50 miles, I'm being— It was probably closer to 15 miles. You couldn't drive anywhere. And it was—what was the triumvirate, the titans of radio? From 12 to 9 p.m. Eastern time, it was Rush Limbaugh, Hannity Levin. I'm telling you, there's not a place in the country, probably 15, 20 miles, where you couldn't drive.

And you wouldn't hear one of those three on the radio. And Rush started it all. Yeah. Yep. Forgive me yesterday for not... I heard he passed. I mean, I'm not telling you five minutes after we got off the air.

And I debated, what do I do? Do I do a Facebook Live? Do I do a Parler video? Do I go back on the air and do a special? And I thought the only way to do this right, to acknowledge the greatness of this titan of the conservative movement, is to take a while and put together a proper segment. So let me do my best here. Remember, he didn't change the game.

He invented the game. Here was the opening of Rush's show yesterday. And you'll notice the voice that opens the show. I'll play about 45 seconds of it. It was a very eloquent opening, but the voice you'll hear at the opening of Rush Limbaugh's show yesterday, sadly, was not Rush Limbaugh. Check this out.

Hello, everyone. I know that I am most certainly not the Limbaugh that you tuned in to listen to today. I, like you, very much wish Rush was behind this golden microphone right now, welcoming you to another exceptional three hours of broadcasting. For over 32 years, Rush has cherished you, his loyal audience, and always looked forward to every single show. It is with profound sadness I must share with you directly that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer. I mean, goosebumps.

Look, can you see? Those are bad goosebumps. I don't think I've had goosier bumps than that. I mean, a piece of all of us, right, was like ripped out like a collective band-aid that we all wore just ripped off at one time. I mean, we, Rush was the godfather. A lot of us in this business and in politics and just, you know, regular working Americans who found some sanity in Rush's three hour broadcast every day. You know, a lot of us tuned into Rush sometimes when we just couldn't put, couldn't put together how we were supposed to see things. Sometimes we'd listen to Rush and be like,

what did we miss? And you'd watch and listen to the show. Some of you watched on the Ditto cam and you'd say, you know what? Now, now, now I get it. Now it makes more sense. You know, Rush wasn't kidding. Joe, remember Rush's joke joke rush pretended to be on the air a big like kind of arrogant guy he pretended it was an act rush in real life as anybody who knew him i did not know rush personally i know many people who did on a very personal level who will tell you rush was it was an act that in the in his real Rush was the most humble, down-to-earth, stacked-with-humility guy you would ever meet. And his charitable endeavors are legend. I'll talk about one of them in a second that you probably hadn't heard of.

But to do what he did for as long as he did to transform the movement, Izzy did to transform the movement. It's just tough to grasp how we're going to go forward without having this voice there. Can I tell you? I'm sorry because I feel like I'm doing the man a disservice. We all learned from Rush. We all, every single person in this space. it when he i almost lost myself there i'm sorry joe remember when he used to joke that sometimes i get off on tangents and

remember he used to say in his show he said uh all hosts let your show you all talk radio show hosts out there let your show prep begin. It was a joke. But it was a joke. He was pretending. In other words, what he was saying is, all you others second rate and believe me, we were all second rate compared to Rush. All you second rate B-teamers, here's what you're going to talk about today because I'm Rush Limbaugh

and I'm going to dictate the conversation. It was a joke. It was a faux bravado he did as a joke. It was a shtick. But Joe, I think you can acknowledge it really wasn't it wasn't people did listen to rush limbaugh in this industry joe am i making this up you know the people did listen to rush limbaugh to say to themselves yeah okay what am i going to talk about today and And how should I frame it? Matter of fact, one of the reasons Joe and I,

little known story, and it's true, one of the reasons Joe and I just randomly decided to record our show, we started 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the show goes live around noon or so Eastern time, and it is broadcast on terrestrial radio later. One of the reasons Joe and I picked that time

is because we didn't want the temptation to listen to Rush and be like, we got to just repeat that, right? We wanted to get out ahead because the temptation, because he was so good. I am not messing with you. Joe knows the temptation. He was so good, Rush, to listen to Rush and just do what Rush did was so great. The only way to avoid it was to get out before Rush. I wasn't trying to beat Rush. Nobody beats

Rush. Nobody. We have a substantial audience. Rush was the king light years ahead of us let your show prep again he wasn't kidding that's why this show airs early because the temptation to listen to him and repeat it was so great you know i never get distracted and you can probably tell today that i'm just i i i i want to tell my rush story if i if i could just quick. We all had them, like the first time you heard Rush, right? I remember driving up to Queens College where I was going, obviously to college at the time. And I forget what was going on, that dreadful Hillary Clinton, Hillary care disaster, whatever it was. I'm in college with a bunch of liberal professors. This is City University of New York, college you know there's no conservatives there very few at least

and i just had never been exposed to conservative thought in my life and i remember trying to park my car you can't park anywhere near queens college now you used to be able to and turning on the radio and hearing this guy and i'm like you, you know, I knew who he was, but thinking, man, this cat really makes sense. Like, what have I been missing? But it's not just those Rush stories. We all have them when you first heard Limbaugh, right? We all have these stories too.

If you're like Joe and I and Drew and others in this space who produce content or been on the back end of it, and Joe can probably attest to this too, we all have a story of when you were first mentioned on Rush Limbaugh, whether it was your station where Joe was at WCBM. WCBM, the 50,000 watts. Remember, Joe, that thing they had with Limbaugh's voice? Frames rower.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. But we all have a Rush story, too, in the business of the first time you were mentioned on the show. I was at Oheka Castle in New York. I don't know what I was doing. I was up there for an event. And I had done a segment on Fox News that morning on Benghazi.

It was a long time ago. And my phone starts ringing off the hook. OMG, Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh's talking about you right now. They think their phone going crazy, right? We all have stories like that. When Limbaugh first mentioned your article, if you wrote at Town Hall or Conservative Review

or Breitbart or whatever it may be, Limbaugh brought up your article. That article promptly got 72 million clicks and shut the website down. We all had stories like that. He was a godfather. Irreplaceable. Another thing about Rush, you know, folks, he never dialed it it in and if he did dial it in you never

knew again joe and i've been in radio a long time i've guest hosted the largest shows in the world never limbaugh but hannity levin millions and millions of people there are times you're just really tired what are the tricks joe right tell me if i'm wrong in any of these when you when you just you're sick yeah come on joe i mean he has been behind the engineering board for 30 years you're sick you you know you have a health scare you're just tired you didn't sleep well what are the tricks take a lot of callers right what else do they call what else are you kickers kickers right kicker stories yeah they give you the kickers sound yeah yeah yeah exactly joe knows all the tricks kicker stories like you talk about a sports thing that happened stories that don't require you to

think anything through rush never did that he never did he had open line friday and that wasn't him dialing it in that was just him interacting with his audience and giving them a special thing on his show but rush never dialed it in And if he did dial it in, you never knew because that's how talented Rush was. Rush could take the kickers. Like what would be a kicker today? A kicker, so I'm thinking about like, you know, some dopey story like,

you know, I don't want to say dopey, not dope. Like a story that doesn't require you like, like you see these all the time. You know, a UPS guy witnesses someone, you know, fall in the street, helps him up. This is great. That's a cool story, but it's not something like you can go all the time, you know, a UPS guy witnesses, someone, you know, fall in the street, helps them up. This is great. That's a cool story, but it's not something like you can go on all day about, wow, that's really nice. This video UPS guy helping this young kid, right? Joe, but Joe rush would take the kicker and make it like, it's like the most fascinating story ever.

Let me tell you about my time with UPS. And you'd be like, the guy's a genius. The guy's a genius. Like he never dialed it in. And when he did, you didn't even know. You'd go out of the car, right? You'd have to get on the app. You'd want to hear the end of the UPS story. Do you understand the skill it takes to do that? You have any idea? Folks, it's just a fact. It's not any kind of, hey, look at me time. It's not the time for that. I have filled in at big, big, big shows a lot. Radio's really hard. It's three hours.

You have to hit marks all the time. Joe knows about hard outs. You know what hard outs mean? Means you have to hit it to the second. Maybe you got like maybe a two or three second window. You have to hit it to the second. You can't stop mid thought. Let me tell you a story about rushing the UP.

That's what's going to happen. You don't even get to ask UPS. They'll cut you off. You know how hard that is to do? There's no script. There's no prompter. Speaking of marks, that's why I love the show because I make them. I got to get to my second sponsor because I don't have this.

What I love about pocket. There's no more. I do whatever I want. I've been at it 17 minutes and 15. I do what I want. I've been at it 17 minutes and 15. I do what I want. You can't do that in radio. Before I get to the second sponsor, I didn't even attend that.

I'm not hitting the marks as a story about the marks. I will never forget the time in the green room. And I'm not allowed to say who it was, but she's a really cool person. She was asked to fill in for Levin on radio. she's a really cool person. She was asked to fill in for Levin on radio. And one of the producers at Levin can attest to this story. And she filled in. And a couple of weeks after I run into her in the green room, awesome person, by the way,

like superstar, rockstar. And we were talking about Levin and radio and she goes, oh my gosh, I can't believe it was that hard. I'm like, well, what happened? Because I've been doing radio for a while. And I'm like, well, what happened? Somebody mess with me? No, no, no, it's not that. I just didn't realize how hard it is to talk about stuff for three hours. I'm like, oh yeah, you think? Like you go on Fox, you're lucky.

If the hits five minutes, they call them hits and hits, hits, everything's good. They hit appearances, hits, they call them hits. If you get a hit five minutes or more on Fox, that's an eon. That's like an epic. That's like a thousand years on TV. That's not radio.

Radio is three hours. Two hours and 20 minutes. You've got to talk. Constantly keep it in your head. Marks, cues, everything. I got 10 seconds left. How do I wrap it up? What happens when you get out early?

That's happened to me a few times where it's not a soft break. It's a hard break. And you have to fill 10 more seconds. Believe me, folks, 10 seconds of silence is a long time. You want to try it? Let's see.

Play good. Laugh a little bit, Joe, because it'll keep us from going. Hold on. We're still going. We're still going. It's not even done yet. We're two one that's 10 seconds can you imagine that if you if i remember a producer in the show one time when i missed the mark and we had like 20

seconds ago he was like this if you're watching a rumble he wasn't like he wasn't kneading dough he was like stretch, just say something. And I was like, ah, this is like the first time I did it. I was, I forget what I said, but it was so stupid because I couldn't know. I didn't, I think I was talking about Sarah Silverman who made a dumb comment to comedian. And I was like, oh, so, so let's talk more about Sarah, Sarah Silverman. Still 15 more seconds. I'm like, you know, Sarah Silverman, let me spell it for you.

10, S, A. You got five more seconds. R, A. I'm not kidding. That segment's still out there somewhere. Some genius will find it. It's because I missed the mark. Rush never missed the mark in 30 years.

And the cool part about Rush, Rush was so good at hitting the marks that later in his career, Joe, Joe, you listen to it, you know it too. Later in his career, Rush got so good at hitting the marks, he just stopped caring about the marks. Am I messing with you?

Joe, right? Rush would talk right through the mark. Not because he missed it, because he was Rush Limbaugh. And because he could. Yeah. Right? Remember his producer, James, Bo Snirdley. I think he would laugh.

Rush would talk right through the mark. 1040, Rush, you got five more seconds. Yeah, sure. Let me start this. He just didn't care. Rush at the end would do whatever he wanted because he was Rush. Freaking Limbaugh.

And he could do whatever he wanted. The man didn't just, wasn't just the MVP. He was the MVP for 30 years in a game he invented. This ad's been sitting there forever. Hold, hold, just hold. I will get to it. That when the ad goes up on my teleprompter,

it means read the ad already. You're already 20 minutes past your mark. I will get to it. This is just important stuff. You know, everybody's got a bucket list, right? Probably a dumb term, but you know what it is. You got that list of stuff you'd really like to do before you pass. And given some of the scares I've had myself, that bucket list means a lot to me. And one of them that'll never be filled is meeting Rush Limbaugh. And I thought a lot, not a joke, again, not hyperbole for a

fact about making this story up because we lost Rush. I'm telling you, this is real. I don't really care about meeting a lot of people. They're all a disappointment, really. Worked for three presidents, been on Fox for, most people will disappoint you, and I just don't care, except Rush. I really wanted to meet Rush. And I always thought what I would say to Rush. And I thought the one thing I wouldn't say to Rush is how much he changed my life. You know why, Joe? Because everyone tells Rush that because he did. He's told that, was told that every day. Not that it didn't mean it, it meant a lot to him. him it's just i thought it's almost selfishly like how would i be memorable to rush like i wouldn't want him to forget me in that transaction even

though it only took a second and i thought i wouldn't say anything i'd just shake his hand and give him a nod like on my life, I thought about that hundreds of times. If I ever met Rush, I would just shake his hand and nod my head and move on. Because there's nothing to say to a guy like Rush that he hadn't heard a thousand, not that it meant the world to him, the world to him. Anyone who knew him can tell you that.

I just, again, almost selfishly thought, how would I be memorable to such a great guy like Rush? Because I wanted it to matter to him as much as it mattered to me. And I thought, maybe not saying anything. True story. All right, I want to get to some videos after this. Just quick, they're quick one-minute videos, but one we need to see again. And another one from a speech he gave in 2009 at CPAC, which if you watch the whole thing, it was an hour and about

20 minutes long. If you watch the whole speech and I encourage you to do it, it's one of the best speeches you'll have. Not just political speeches, one of the best speeches you'll ever hear in your life. I remember like it was yesterday sitting in my living room in Saverna Park with the worst seated layout ever. You couldn't even, it was, and Paul is laughing because the living room was like, it was like designed to make you uncomfortable. But I remember sitting there on this chaise, the chaise, I remember watching the whole speech

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Power XL Air Fryer Grill, check it out. So yeah, folks, sadly, my bucket list, like I said, will never be filled because I really just wanted to meet Rush. And I don't like to repeat things I said on Fox, but given the tragedy of losing Rush Limbaugh, the godfather, it's important I repeat again that people have asked me often, what do you think made Rush so popular and I always give the example of the French expression we've pulled into English

you know the je ne sais quoi right the je ne sais quoi I use it all the time and I think the direct translation I don't speak French is I don't know what and what it means is it's a way to sum up the X factor like what made Rush Limbaugh so great and the answer is nobody could tell you if X factor. Like what made Rush Limbaugh so great? And the answer is nobody could tell you

if they knew it, they'd be Rush Limbaugh. What was it? That he was funny? A lot of people are funny. Levin can be hilarious. Limbaugh was funny. So it wasn't just that. A lot of radio hosts are funny

and have no audience at all. Was that he understood conservatism? We all understand conservatism. Was it that he told cool stories? I don't know. I'd like to think we all tell cool stories. What was it? Was he, as he said all the time, the big lovable fuzzball?

Was that it? Remember that? I don't know. I have no idea genesee qua but rush had the qua whatever the qua is rush had the qua if i knew what it was i'd bottle it and sell it and i'd be a trillionaire i have no idea i know he was special and i know he's not replaceable. He will be replaced, but he's not replaceable. There's a difference. All right. Just here's a quick video. This is just worth playing again today. The great President Donald J. Trump giving the great Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is just a minute of that. And it's just worth checking out again today. Take a look.

Almost every American family knows the pain when a loved one is diagnosed with a serious illness. Here tonight is a special man beloved by millions of Americans who just received a stage four advanced cancer diagnosis. This is not good news. But what is good news is that he is the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet. Rush Limbaugh. Thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country. And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire, and all of the incredible work that you have done for

charity i am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country's highest civilian honor the presidential medal of freedom I need you to watch that. I need you to watch it. Just watch the video version of the show. Either you're listening to me on terrestrial radio or some digital platform, audio only. Watch the show, rumble.com slash Bongino. Not because I need the views or the clicks.

That's all secondary nonsense. I want you to watch Rush's face. It's not an act. Rush just was so uncomfortable with public attention directed at him. He was a very private guy. It's not an act. He really doesn't know how to respond. He doesn't get up and do a dance and take a victory lap he's almost uncomfortable with all the attention so he does gestures that i think i or other people who are kind of uncomfortable public attention would do too you give them the salute you you know the bow whatever you don't know what to do the thank you you and people keep clapping because it's rush limbaugh and

you just want them to stop because you're so uncomfortable with the attention. That was Rush. That was Rush. Here's one more. One of the greatest speeches I've ever heard. 2009 CPAC. I lived in Maryland. Let me tell you something.

I kicked myself in the teeth forever for not going to see this live. I could have drove right down. I think this was in National Harbor at the time. Matter of fact, I know it was. No, not National Harbor. It was in the other one. They used to have it in downtown DC and they moved it to National Harbor. This is Rush, 2009 speech at CPAC. I was watching from my dreadfully laid out living room in Severna Park that purposely made you uncomfortable. I think the designers quietly hated me. But I watched this, and this was just one small snippet

of that CPAC speech, which is the stuff of legend. 2009, Rush Limbaugh, CPAC. For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News channel with C-SPAN, I am Rush Limbaugh, and I want everyone in this room

and every one of you around the country to succeed. I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching big government that would stop your success. I want that organization that element or that person to fail i want you to succeed i'm telling you that's one of probably again goosebumping out here. This is really weird. Like I'm telling you, this is the goosiest of goosebumps. That's one of probably 200 applause lines in there. That speech, totally off the cuff.

He's not even looking at notes. That'll just blow your mind. 2009 Rush Limbaugh CPAC. Just an amazing speech. I want to wrap it up on kind of a down note. I mean, obviously this is a whole down segment given that we've lost Rush, but it is a celebration of all his contributions. I just want you to remember the evil people you're dealing with on the other side.

You know, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg and other liberal scions have passed, I've said on my show and Joe can attest to it and Paul and anyone else anyone else here who's been involved, we don't ever, ever celebrate or stomp on the graves of the dead. I'll tell you, folks, I have some listeners actually who were upset at me because I'm not kidding. Not a lot, just a few, but they think that these people did so much damage that we, yeah, you know what? There'll be time for that. But they have families too, and those families miss them. And not all of those people have terrible, bad ideas. It's just inappropriate. I'm sorry.

I'm not, we don't do that. But that's not the laugh. An article by Breitbart you'll see in the show notes today, bongino.com slash newsletters, how you subscribe to our show notes for free. Hollywood celebrities celebrate Rush Limbaugh's death, saying, quote, cancer killed the cancer. I just beg of you,

humbly and with the greatest of respect, understand your political opponents. Many of them are genuinely evil, evil, evil people who would wish you dead too. And all of their nonsense and bumper stickers, love trumps hate. Hate has no place here. Evil has no place here. That's all it is, is a bumper sticker. The reality is they are filled with hate and rage and would celebrate your death too. I have an expiration date, folks. I don't know when that is.

But I'll tell you right now, I fully expect my family to have to deal with that too. Because that's the sickness we're dealing with on the left. They're the real cancer on our society. Now, instead of leaving you with an overly dour note, Rush always loved a good parody. He loved a good parody in his show. Well, sometimes parody becomes real life. The Babylon Bee is a parody site, but the Babylon Bee yesterday decided to unparody themselves and put out a headline on a parody site that is in fact real. The Babylon Bee. Rush would have loved this.

The party of love and progress rejoices over the death of political opponent. I think Rush would have loved that headline. That's a satire site. Not engaged in satire. Meant to be satire, but unfortunately very real. Know your political opponents, folks.

These are genuinely evil people. I was going to cover this content later in the show, but I believe it's a really important story. Just moving on here into another segment. This will be in the show notes and i need you to read this again at bongino.com slash newsletter our newsletter is the show notes i will email you these stories every morning i try to pick five or six stories you must read please this one's worth your time glenn greenwald is a not a conservative again i i hate to keep saying this but it's critical to understanding

the fall of modern journalism in America, that a guy who is a self-proclaimed leftist on many issues, Glenn Greenwald, is one of the few real journalists left in America who's actually covering facts. Glenn Greenwald is not a conservative. He has a Substack I strongly recommend you subscribe to. Just go to substack.com, put in Greenwald is not a conservative. He has a sub stack. I strongly recommend you subscribe to just go to sub stack.com,

put in Greenwald's name and you'll get actual journalism. Again, he's not a conservative, but he has respect for his craft. And one of the things Glenn Greenwald and Tucker Carlson have been highlighting is, listen, you can't fall into this trap about the January 6th incident of promoting misinformation

because you're afraid if you tell the truth, you'll be accused of putting lipstick on what happened. I'm not doing that. Nobody I know is doing that. That was a very serious, tragic event, what happened, and it shouldn't have happened. There were people who were hurt. There was a woman who was killed. People did die.

But that is not and will never, ever, ever be an excuse for lying to people. Ever. Ever. And we will not do it on this show. You will, listen to me, take this golden rule to heart, this tautological fact. You will never, ever, ever be on the wrong side of history if you just speak the truth. will never ever ever be on the wrong side of history if you just speak the truth tucker says it every night he says that thing the truth the truth matters even if it involves you know lobbing a stink bomb into a room of journalists who are just lying to you and having to say hey i'm sorry everybody needs to wake up and smell what's going on here. Greenwald in this piece today does just that.

Glenn Greenwald, February 16th. The false and exaggerated claims still being spread about the Capitol riot. Insisting on factual accuracy does not make one an apologist for the protesters. False reporting is never justified, especially to inflate threat and fear levels. Amen. The facts matter. The truth matters. So what false stories is Greenwald talking about?

Stories with no basis in fact whatsoever that some people believe are true because the media made them up. Here's one, a highlight from the piece. He covers a New York Times headline about the tragic death of a fellow brother in blue, a hero nonetheless, Brian Sicknick. I don't care how he died. Listen, he is, I'm talking about in relationship to the tragedy, but how he died is important for the facts. That is heroism. Here's a New York

Times headline. Heroism speaks for itself when you swear in. He dreamed of being a police officer. New York Times headline. Then was killed by a pro-Trump mob. They go on. Mr. Sicknick, 42.

They say the Trump rioters attacked the Citadel of Democracy, overpowered Mr. Sicknick, 42, and struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials. With a bloody gash in his head, Mr. Sicknick was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support. He died on Thursday evening. Folks, you're never, ever wrong if you speak the truth. Unfortunately, that story is not true. So why? Why would the New York Times harm the family?

Spout untruths about Officer Sicknick? Why would they do that? The man died. The tragedy speaks for itself. Why make up a story? That story, ladies and gentlemen, is not true.

Well, let's go to screenshot number two where Greenwald expounds a little bit on why this made-up story made its way all around the world and is still out there. He talks about the deaths of the protesters. He says, but none of the other four deaths were at the hands of protesters. The only other person killed with deliberate violence He says, founder of a pro-trump website called trump aru who died of a stroke that day and roseanne boylan the fanatical trump supporter whom the time says was inadvertently killed in a crush of fellow

rioters during their attempt to fight through a police line goes on this is why the fire extinguisher story became so vital to those intent on depicting these events in the most violent and menacing light possible without sick nick having his skull bashed in with a fire extinguisher, there were no deaths that day that could be attributed to deliberate violence by pro-Trump protesters. You can never, ever go wrong with the truth. You will be vilified.

You will be attacked by communists and Pravda media people, by propagandists and others. But you can fairly criticize the disaster that happened that day and the fallout from it without having to lie to people. That is not what happened to Officer Sicknick. He was not hit with a fire extinguisher. Just tell the truth.

Well, here is another one, you were told, another lie. Here's a headline from the new york times again fbi arrests a man who carried zip ties into the capitol you think glenn greenwald says ah but on january 21st the zip tie man's own prosecutors admitted none of that was true he did not take zip ties with him from home or carry them into the Capitol. Instead, he found them on a table and took them to prevent their use by the police. No one's excusing anyone's behavior inside the Capitol.

It's not what's happening at all. But kind of relevant, no, to the story that he didn't take zip ties into the Capitol with him. Why would that be relevant? Joe, let's think this through for a minute. Why would the New York Times be eager to lie to you again, like with the Sicknick story or their version of that story, and tell you that this guy found inside the Capitol brought those zip ties in. Well, it lended to their narrative that this was some premeditated kidnapping event and this guy had these zip ties to take lawmakers and zip tie their hands and take them away

or whatever. The problem is the prosecutors in the case didn't say that. Hmm. He found the zip ties inside and said, not excusing it, please don't misinterpret at all what I'm saying.

He found the zip ties inside and took them because he said, I don't know, he didn't want the police to get them or whatever it was. Not smart. But kind of kills your premeditation narrative, doesn't it?

You can never go wrong with the truth, folks. Ever. You'll be attacked for the truth. You know, real truth tellers, you'll never have a safe space, ever. That's okay, I've accepted that. But you'll never be on the wrong side or right if you tell the truth all right um let me get to my last sponsor and then let me see

where do we go to next you know what can we do the texas stuff guys the video of the republicans uh the that newsy story can we do that video next? And then let's do the Wall Street Journal story about the Texas situation, because it's important. All right, you cool with that? We got a whole new team here. We got the thumbs up. All right.

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I'm just, I was tired of it yesterday. I'm tired of it today. I wake up every morning trying to get you facts. And unfortunately, to get to the facts, which should be easy enough to do, first, we have to dismantle the fake facts the left told you. guy, both of which are false. You can all create and form in your head responsible opinions about what you think happened or didn't, but you're never going to be able to do that. And we're never going to be able to fix these problems if we don't have the darn facts, because we don't understand the problem to begin with. It's happening again with this ongoing disaster in Texas with their meltdown of their energy grid. People are freezing. People died. We want to solve this problem. Joe, do we not? Is that not the goal of public policy

is to look at problems, get some smart people who can figure things out and some hands-on people with some expertise in the room and say, what happened? What led to the failure on January 6th? How do we fix it? What led to this failure of the electric grid?

How do we fix it? It's impossible to failure of the electric grid? How do we fix it? It's impossible to do that if when you get to the question, what led to this failure, everybody lies to you. I'm tired of the spin and the fairy tales about the Texas electric grid meltdown given their cold temperatures. Covered it yesterday, just quickly today. Here we go again. I'm going to play a quick video for you. What did I tell you? That whenever the left has a narrative they're uncomfortable with, that their wind farm dreams failed in Texas, they immediately make the story not about their failures or the failure

of wind farms in Texas. They make the story about conservatives and Republicans and their response to it. Once you see the headlines, you'll never unsee it. Republicans pounce, Republicans seize on, Republicans jump, conservatives jump, conservatives seize. Here we go again. Here is a story from Newsy or whatever it may be. Here's a quick video.

Listen to the beginning about how the story's not about wind. It's about Republicans jumping or pouncing or seizing. Once you hear it, you'll never unhear it again. A perfect example of what the left does to distract from their failures and make the story about the Republican response. Check this out. As millions try desperately to survive the bitter cold, powers out, waters out, lawmakers and commentators are jumping at a chance to supercharge the debate over Texas power grid. This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America. Our wind and our solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid. The governor

arguing that puts strain on the natural gas power supply. To reduce it to a conversation about renewable energy at this point in time is outrageous. In Texas, the push for deregulation is so great. There's no incentive at that point for people to do what it takes to be able to harden the system. Did you catch it? Did you catch the Republicans jump? Republicans are jumping, not pouncing. Now you're jumping. Next, it'll be leaping and seizing. You getting this? I've been covering this for four years on my show. The Republicans pounce. You'll see it everywhere now. No one in the media is really interested in diving into what happened. So they talk about the Republican response first. Republicans pounce,

Republicans jump. And then they go into protection mode where that other liberal lawmaker comes on and goes, this is really about deregulation. No, it's about wind turbines not working because we have the actual video of the turbine. Not spinning. We can see it. So again, let's get to some facts here because facts matter. Yes, there were failures in the natural gas energy infrastructure in Texas and the nuclear one as well. But who was really at fault? And let's look at raw performance numbers and data because I thought the left believed, you know, science, Joe.

I thought they believed in science. Well, science involves data, right? Informed opinions are based on data and facts. Let's go to this Wall Street Journal article again today where we have some actual facts and numbers about who really failed in this. Wall Street Journal opinion. Texas spins into the wind. An electricity grid that relies on renewables also needs nuclear

or coal power. By the way, this is Wall Street Journal. This is not like some far right outlet here, okay? Let's go to this little chart. Here are the changes in power output from February 8th to February 16th. By the way, the source folks for the state, if you're watching on Rumble, rumble.com slash Bongino, you can see the chart right in front of your face right now. It is super easy to read. It's not complicated, even for liberals. The source here, Joe, is the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Again, a government entity under the Biden administration.

This is not some bastion of right wing values. The source isn't Bongino.com. Not that we would, you know, fudge the numbers, but there's no saying, oh my God, that's a right wing. Those are right wing numbers. No, no, they're U.S. government numbers under the Biden administration. So here's the changes in power output during this unfolding tragedy in Texas, February 8th to the 16th. So gas, of course, the left wants to make this all about failures in the natural gas industry, about their own failures to in wind power that's weird joe because in the charts i see this crazy thing that gas production was up 450 percent over the over the trip that you're seeing you're you're

seeing you're seeing that we get a number paula seeing i get two okay we got three times so that's really weird now to be clear there were natural gas pipes that froze. The rolling blackouts stopped natural gas compressors that now run on electricity from pressing out and pushing out the gas to the public. There were failures, but it was only a failure because natural gas produced so much they couldn't produce anymore. They produced 450% more. Nuclear was down 26%, so clearly a failure there. Coal was up 47% in their production of energy during this disaster. But look at wind. That's weird.

I'm pouncing. I'm pouncing. I'm definitely jumping and seizing. Jumping, seizing, and pouncing at the same time. This is really weird, Joe. You're looking at the same chart I am. Wind was down 93%. I'm 93%.

That's a lot. Armacost. Genius. Genius. That is a lot. That is a lot. I thought we were doing numbers. Remember Will Ferrell in old school,

the greatest, we're in the trust tree now. We're in the trust tree. Remember? Are we in the trust tree? I'm just looking at numbers from Biden's own administration, this US Energy Information Administration. Wind lost 93%.

Natural gas was up 450%. And somehow again, we shouldn't blame wind at all. They should be absolved of anything because Republicans are pouncing, seizing and jumping at the same time but again the left is the science of party or the party of science and the science science party facts data matter the left the left is totally full of folks totally totally how to bleep myself. These people are liars.

They wake up every morning and they lie to you. Every single day of your life, there is a leftist plotting on how to lie to you and make you look like a buffoon. Whether it was the tragedy of the sixth and their false made up stories, or whether it's their story about how wind was great. It was really just you deregulating natural gas lunatics that did it. None of the data backs any of that up.

You're just making it up. Let me just read this little segment below. It says, between 12 a.m. on February 8th and February 16th, wind power plunged 93%, while coal increased 47% and gas 450%, according to the EIA. Yet the renewable industry and its media mouthpieces are tarring gas, coal, and nuclear because they didn't operate at 100% of their expected potential during the Arctic blast, even though wind turbines failed nearly 100%. Keep it up, liberal lunatic dunces. Keep it up. Keep lying

to me. This is where I'll never be, Rush Limbaugh. Rush had a nicer way of saying this that took the edge off this. I don't have that capability, that je ne sais quoi. I don't have the quoi. I just go right for it because I'm so sick of liberal communist liars. I am so tired of it. liars. I am so tired of it. They lie to people through their lying media mouthpieces and people live the lie every day of their lives. Let me get to one last story about, again, continued liberal lies only stated on this show, not to highlight how liberals are liars. You know that that's not news, but to deconstruct the liberal lies and give you the facts so when you're done with this show, unlike liberals, you can live informed, meaningful lives. Now you know that wind had a catastrophic failure. And now you know we have to fix it. De-icing, heated blades, maybe not an over-reliance on windmills, maybe more natural gas infrastructure.

Those are problems that can be fixed, but not if we lie. I'm not going to lie to you. Here's another media narrative that's driving me absolutely nuts, that finally, now that Donald Trump's out of office, the media is waking up a little bit. Why? Because they're phony frauds. I give them no credit whatsoever for doing this. But here's a media person at MSNBC who finally starts asking questions about,

hey, why is it that California and Florida, Florida's performing even a little better? She says similar numbers are not. Florida's performing a lot better. But why is it that California has these draconian lockdowns and isn't doing any better than Florida that doesn't have any of that stuff? This is an MSNBC person. And keep in mind, she deserves no credit whatsoever. She's only doing this because Trump's out of office and they feel like any damage done to Biden is four years away. So now all of a sudden they start doing media thingies and journalism. This is her interviewing Andy Slavitt, a Biden rep on the coronavirus.

Check this out. States like Florida and California, California, basically in lockdown. And their numbers aren't that different from Florida. Well, good morning, Stephanie. Look, there's so much of this virus that we think we understand, that we think we can predict. That's just beyond a little bit beyond our explanation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. By the way, it goes, man, why'd you cut that so short?

Because Joe cut it. It just goes, it's just dopey. He doesn't actually answer the question. He just says the key takeaway. Why is California still locked down, not Florida, and yet Florida is performing better than California? It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

And he says, you know, there's, quote, there's still so much we don't know. Thank you. Exactly. The fatal conceit. If you've read Hayek, the idea that you know things and should put out government-wide dick tax to impact people's lives that will destroy their businesses. And you only find out after you've destroyed them that quote, there's still so much we don't know.

Yeah. Maybe you should have thought about that before you decimated the entire economy of the United States. Just the thought, just the thought, the knowledge problem. What's the knowledge problem that people in government have no knowledge. That's the problem. Maybe you government have no knowledge that's the problem

maybe you should have thought that through before the blaze article in the blaze dan harowitz with no mask mandate in schools open florida ranks 11th lowest in covid deaths per capita among seniors what i thought they're calling him the governor death Santas. Of course they are. The great governor, Ron DeSantis of Florida, because the left are lunatic, liar, fraud, disgusting, filthy people. They don't want to admit that their, their God, Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom of California, New York have totally failed. And a conservative in Florida made them all look stupid. You want the actual numbers?

I know you're left this tune out now. I know you don't care for sane people, Democrats and otherwise Republicans interested in the facts. Here are the numbers about death. Santas run who, who has decimated California and New York and performance in, in this dreaded scenario, quote,

the Horowitz piece in The Blaze, be in the show notes. What's most striking is that if you rank the number of COVID-19 deaths among seniors by state per 100,000, Florida ranks 11th lowest in the nation. Florida suffered 474 COVID deaths per 100,000 while California suffered 573 per 100,000. Florida beat even some smaller lockdown states as well.

Despite the fact, ladies and gentlemen, that Florida has an older population, that's very population dense, we still did better. Look at the chart right here up at the blaze. For those of you watching on Rumble, that's Florida in yellow at the bottom. But of course you were lied to. You're still being lied to because your life is a lie. Liberalism is a lie. It's a wart on the caboose of humankind. It's a forest fire that destroys everything. It's a bad fairy tale that never made it to publication that sadly people fell

prey to. It's the Hester printing scarlet letter of society. It's the shaming and cancel culturing of truth tellers. It's the driving them into dark spaces of the internet because they've dared to speak truth. They'll never be safe spaces for truth tellers ever. And I'm okay with that. Let me end with this video, another left-wing radical propaganda promoting media outlet that's finally starting to realize now that they can't damage Trump anymore, that they're ultimately going to have to tell the American people the truth about the disastrous performance of liberal governors in the coronavirus era we're living in. I think this is John Berman from CNN, but he's questioning Simone Sanders,

a spokesman for the Biden administration, spokeswoman, I should say. And he's asking her, hey, why aren't teachers back in school? I'm asking you a simple question, yes or no? This is like a three-minute segment and we cut down to a minute because, again, just like the prior segment, she just babbles on and never answers the question. And even CNN now, again, now that they deserve no credit because they can't hurt Trump, even John Berman, I think that's him at CNN, are like, you're just not answering anything. Check this out. Prioritize is one thing, and I think there's wide agreement they should be prioritized, and why not? Is it necessary, though? That's the question. It really

is a yes, no question. Well, John, I think the real question, frankly, if I can be frank here, is what you're getting to is, is it safe for kids to go back to school? And the president, the vice president- Actually not. In this case, that's not the question. The question is, is it safe for teachers to go back to school? And that's a very specific question in this case. And again, I'm not sure, I don't understand why it's a hard question to answer. It may be that you want every teacher to be vaccinated. It may be the answer is, yeah, teachers should if they can be vaccinated before they return to school, but it's not necessary. Well, John, I think the president has been clear. The vice president has been clear.

And I think I was really clear just now that it is the administration's position. The president and vice president believe that teachers should be prioritized for vaccinations. And in 22 states, at least, and the District of Columbia, that's exactly what is happening. You know, look, I'll try one last time. I'll try one last time. Does the president does the president feel that the teachers have to be vaccinated in order for schools to open safely? Yes or no. You'll never get it. I didn't even waste your time with the rest of that because there's no yes or no or answer or anything

even resembling an answer. Because there's absolutely no reason for teachers to be back at school. None. None. I have worked through this. Joe has worked through this. And, you know, for all those out there,

I get some comments sometimes, you know, especially people on social media, you know, know it all, liberal, you know, angry losers, the same people celebrating the death of Rush Limbaugh. They say, that's easy for you to say. You work from home. Really? What do you think I was doing in a hotel room for two weeks, traveling and doing other events? You're suggesting those are all made up, like I doctored those pictures?

In a hotel, getting treatment, going to a hospital where people were working, in a hotel where people were working, taking cars with people who were working, and Ubers with people who were working, with pilots who flew us to Houston with people who were working, with flight attendants who were working on the planes, with people who were working in the airports. But yes, teachers, you just keep telling your folks, we're not going back to work despite having the lowest risk we know about. No, no, you don't have to go back. We just all have to go back to work. And by the way, we can't because you don't want your teachers going back into the classrooms. So we have no way to pay for daycare for our kids. So we should do your job,

pay the taxes that pay for your job, not be able to go back to work ourselves. But yeah, just stick to it by administration. That's a real winner in the long run. Great call, teachers unions. Great call. All right, folks. Thanks again for tuning in.

Again, the loss of Rush Limbaugh is just really going to be a game changer for us going forward. Absolutely irreplaceable. Unique is the most overused, ironically, and inappropriately overused word in the English language. Not in this case.

He was a unique human being. And he said always, what was the line, Joe? Talent on loan from God. And he did that all the time. Well, God's got his talent back now. And I love the guy. Love the guy. Always gave him his proper respect on the show.

I'll leave it with this. Most of you will get it. Don't doubt me. All right, folks. I'll see you all tomorrow. You just heard Dan Bongino.