The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 555 The Genius of Trump's NFL Stance

Episode Date: September 26, 2017

In this episode -   The Left, and the NFL, has fallen right into the trap Trump set for them. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/spiked-34-of-nfls-best-fans-less-likely-to-watch-after-protests/article/2635489?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets%20-%2009/26/17&utm_medium=email   Liberals can't get their story straight on minimum wage.  https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-15-minimum-wage-crowd-tries-a-bait-and-switch-1506381303   Here's the wage increases you can expect if Trump gets his tax cut. http://dailysignal.com/2017/09/22/government-scorekeepers-wrong-corporate-tax-reform-mostly-help-workers-not-rich/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell%22&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURsbFkyVm1OMlV4Tm1JdyIsInQiOiJ0SElXMzVhWDlyT1VENXVaYVRBNVBhOUNIVmQ0RVB6MTZJdmU4RUhSU1NKcE1Bc0VlU0dhako2SE5GejdtUjUybjBpcG84VXA0aW9na0FTMWJTQlZzUzVnVFdoSHJYRWVmVEx4ajY1VklNbkF4a0hScGsxSVNMVGhtM3Rla1JnWSJ9   Winning is never good enough for the Left, they must force you to comply with their demands. http://dailysignal.com/2017/09/22/hawaii-pregnancy-centers-go-court-law-requiring-promote-abortions/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURsbFkyVm1OMlV4Tm1JdyIsInQiOiJ0SElXMzVhWDlyT1VENXVaYVRBNVBhOUNIVmQ0RVB6MTZJdmU4RUhSU1NKcE1Bc0VlU0dhako2SE5GejdtUjUybjBpcG84VXA0aW9na0FTMWJTQlZzUzVnVFdoSHJYRWVmVEx4ajY1VklNbkF4a0hScGsxSVNMVGhtM3Rla1JnWSJ9   Puerto Rico is in trouble. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-25/day-5-in-storm-ravaged-blacked-out-puerto-rico-this-is-chaos     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan Bongino. All the Sanders supporters love throwing bombs at me, and I throw them right back. I'm not here to pull any punches, right? The Dan Bongino Show. This is the great irony of conservatism. Even liberals win under conservatism. Get ready to hear the truth about America. Are you suggesting you're that stupid that other people can run your lives better than you can,

even though the cost and quality of what they buy, quote, for you doesn't even matter to them? On a show that's not immune to the facts, with your host, Dan Bongino. Welcome to the Renegade Republic. I'm Dan Bongino, producer Joe. How are you today? Always glad to be here. How you doing, Dan-o? Yeah, good. You know, today is is this is probably the first time in maybe six or seven months. Gosh, I can't even remember. It could be six or seven years. I can't remember the last time that I'm going to take a day off

from the gym, like an unplanned day off. I mean, obviously you fall, you hurt yourself, you bust something, you got to take a day off. But you know, for those of you out there who work out hard every day, CrossFitters, MMA types, and people who are real gym rats, you know, I'm telling you, as you get older, you really have to be smart about planning your layoffs.

And I got to take a day off. My shoulders are really, really bothering me bad. They're so inflamed that I just don't want to take any ibuprofen, which reminds me. Good for you. Unintentional segue. I'm going to do the Rough Cut show for the weekend. I decided on it. Whether Joe and I do it this weekend or next weekend, I will let you know.

I'm just trying to put together a pretty good show for you to be able to add a lot of different things. You know, workout stuff, nutrition stuff, just lifestyle stuff. I really enjoy. You're free to tune in free to not obviously,

but I think you'll really enjoy it. But I made the decision and I, whether it'll be this week or next week, I'll let you know. But I saw a good video today too. I wanted to, you know, kind of incorporate some of the material from it.

It's a great video about how great Brazilian jiu-jitsu is until you get in the street. And then some guy whoops your caboose. It's a great video. No, seriously. It's really cool. So, all right. Getting into today's show. Listen, a lot of times you get these conflicts between the never Trump crowd, the Democrats, and the, you know, pro-Trump crowd.

between the never Trump crowd, the Democrats, and the pro-Trump crowd. And the conflict is always about is what Trump is doing strategic or is it just an accident of, as the never Trump crowd would say, Trump's big mouth. Here's what I mean by that to get right to the point. Sometimes Trump says things, and I think I'm a supporter of the president, many of you are. I think some of us tend to attribute that to a strategy when in fact it's not. In other words, sometimes Trump, like myself, he just says stuff because he's a normal guy from Queens like me

and he has something to say and there was no focus group test. There was no pre-planned strategy. He's at a rally. He feels it and boom, he just goes with it. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And I think sometimes there's a natural bias. We all have it to supporting the president if we do.

That we're like, oh, well, that was genius later on. Now, I'll give you examples in a second. I promise this will make sense. There also is a bias by the never Trump crowd that anything he says, Joe, is always off the cuff, is never planned, and is always just a stupid political move. You see where I'm going with this? I'm trying to cut down the middle, cut through all the nonsense, and just say to you that our bias is color in advance what we think about the comments of Donald Trump. I mean, I think that's obvious, but both sides do it. Now, I'm bringing this up because

I absolutely believe this, that his comments on the NFL were strategic genius. I do. And listen, call me whatever you want. I think most of you listen to the show. I'm not going to defend myself. You already know I've been fair to both sides of this. I've been more than willing to counter the president

when I think things have been, you know, policies have been poorly thought out. So I don't have time to get into that defending myself crap. You listen to the show, you'll figure it out on your own. But I have been more than fair on this. And I think these comments were strategic genius. Now, you've heard I've heard this referred to in the press as things like, oh, well, Trump's playing four dimensional chess and, you know and the left is playing checkers. I don't believe that. I think a lot of stuff Trump does is just totally off the cuff and later on they clean up the mess. But I don't think that's everything.

I think this was strategic genius. Why do I say this? These NFL comments. And when I say the NFL comments, sometimes some people send me emails about this. Hey, you got to tell us what we're talking about I missed the news Trump called out the NFL for the NFL clowns for kneeling at the national anthem disrespecting our national anthem at a rally for Luther Strange the senate candidate the republican senate senate candidate from Alabama at a rally uh this past Friday where he said if he was an NFL owner, he would, quote, get those sons of bitches off the field.

And of course, Joe, the left, this just goes to show you, by the way, before I get to that point, how the left is so out of touch with America and the media, Joe. Let me get this straight. The language. Yeah, the language. This is classic, Joe.

You and I, regular, average Joes, in Joe's case, literally, like us, we're supposed to be grossly offended that Trump called people who disrespect our flag and our national anthem. That's what you did. You didn't choose to protest in any other form other than when the national anthem is playing and you got down on your knees in a sign of disrespect. That's obvious to anybody watching this thing. He calls them sons of bitches, and we're all supposed to be horribly offended.

This goes to show you how the media has no concept of what's going on with real Americans on any given Sunday, right? Dude. But keep in mind, these are the same people, us, the average Joes, the same people, Joe, who've been called for the last eight years of the Obama administration, and

candidly, for the last 50 years, under the far-left lurch of the Democrat Party, you've called us racist, you've called us transaphobes, you've called us homophobes, you've called us xenophobes, you've called us misogynists, you've called us Islamophobes.

Insert any prefix for an identity group and put phobe, phile, or ist after it. And the Democrats have done this to us for years, for decades, and it has taken on an extra level of absurdity the last eight years under Obama. the last eight years under Obama. And Joe, we're all supposed to be offended now because the president called disrespectful millionaire athletes crapping on our flag sons of bitches. This is like hysterical. We're all supposed to be enraged. The media, but this is unbelievable.

This is, he is the president of the United States. Keep in mind, nobody gave a rat's ass when Barack Obama compared literally, folks, the Republican Party to Iranian hardliners. In other words, he compared the Republican Party to terrorists. The media couldn't have cared any less. But Donald Trump calls out spoiled, overpaid, ungrateful millionaire athletes crapping on our flag on foreign soil in one case with the ravens in a market where joe works on the morning show for those of you know joe and we're all supposed to be enraged the press this is not press

and joe they believe this though i know the media believe they actually believe now i i i don't want to repeat yesterday's show i'm always very careful not to do this but folks this is a bigger story than just the nfl and i brought up yesterday how joe works at a morning show in a democrat market there's no this he works in the state of maryland in the county of baltimore it is a democrat market now the show is a conservative show but it is a democrat market and the callers calling into his morning show about the ravens who crapped on her flag and kneeled in a foreign country while simultaneously standing for god save the queen the callers were enraged yes they thought it most unsavory daniel most unsav, but we were all supposed to be

pissed off at the president, not the NFL. Right, right. Another point on this I neglected to bring up yesterday. I had a huge blowout with Spencer Tillman on Hannity's show yesterday. Go listen to Hannity's podcast. I think it's hour two. I was on for the whole hour. I had a massive blowout with Spencer Tillman

about this topic. Yeah, I got tweeted like crazy yesterday. But here's what's interesting. Just own it, liberals. Own what you're doing. I didn't lose my place, by the way. Let me get back to my original point. But I don't want to miss these. There's nuance in this argument.

Own it. The liberals won't even own the argument. I was watching this commentator, Adrienne Elrod, or whoever it was on Fox News this morning. And she's saying, oh, this isn't about disrespecting the flag. The liberals will say this over and over and over, Joe. Here's a very simple counter to your clownish, uninformed, unintellectual liberal friends who say that. If this is not about disrespecting the flag and it's about, Joe, whatever,

every day it changes. Systematic oppression, police brutality. Every day it's a new argument as they said in yesterday's show the protest is overshadowed the cause because there is no cause anymore it's just grievances they just want you to be angry they can't even tell you what they want you to be angry at they just want you to be angry and you're like yes we're angry at what the systematic oppression what does that mean i don't know but i'm pissed off about it it's about police brutality where um have you been brutalized no but someone has and i'm really

pissed liberals are the most hostile and angry this is funny me saying this right a bitter group of clowns on the entire planet they just every, they search for something to be angry about. So, my point to you, liberal friends, is this. If this is not about disrespecting the flag and disrespecting the country, then why did the Ravens stand when the National Anthem of the United Kingdom was played?

Why? Joe, I'm asking you this, too. Why? Why would you stand? I'm going to ask those Ravens players. If this kneeling gesture, while the United States National Anthem, America's National Anthem was played in London for an NFL game in London, and you knelt, but it wasn't about the anthem or the flag, then why did you stand when the United Kingdom's National Anthem was played? Watch these unintellectual buffoons these people who have no

concept of what they would go um uh well we couldn't kneel we don't want to disrespect uh the british you wait well i don't understand you just said it wasn't i guarantee you put them on the spot one of them will say that guarantee because they don't know what they're talking about they have no they are this is the most unintellectual vacuous nonsensical protest i have ever seen this is surpassing occupy wall street in pure stupidity does that point make sense what i'm saying joe yeah why get up why why would you get up for god save the queen if it's not an act of disrespect towards the anthem, then why is it then an act of reverence to stand up when God Save the Queen was played?

You know, I've heard that there's some Royal Marines that are a little angry and think that those guys were using God Save the Queen as a point of mockery towards... I'm absolutely sure that story's accurate. That people who served in the United Kingdom, and believe me, my point here, folks, I want to be clear on this, because liberals listen to the show

and misconstrue constantly, and intentionally, I might add, what I say all the time. They do. It's disgusting. I am not suggesting that the Ravens should have doubled down and knelt for God Save the Queen as well.

If you're going to make a fool of yourself like you did these buffoons overseas by kneeling for our national anthem, then don't double down on stupid by crapping on the foreign country who's hosting you as well. But don't then, don't take a leak on my leg

and tell me it's raining, you idiots. Oh, no. We weren't disrespecting the flag, but we stood for God Save the Queen. Why? Well, we didn't want to disrespect the United Kingdom. All right.

Oh. You know, and again, you wonder on this show why every—I love—I mean, this is my favorite thing to do. I love my show so much. But—and it's not hard work. You guys work hard, ladies out there. You do. I do not work hard. My job is mentally challenging.

It is not hard. out there. You do. I do not work hard. My job is mentally challenging. It is not hard. But the only part that frustrates me emotionally, and I'm just being candid with you because you guys live and die with me on this show. I tell you everything. It is hard to not

be able to enact more social change and a transformation in how the country thinks about itself than I can through my platform. The platform is big. Thanks to you, we do very well. But I just wish we had a bigger voice. I mean, it's great we get out on Fox and everything, but I just wish I could challenge

more liberals about these very simple things. Well, you're not disrespecting the flag. Well, why'd you stand then? It wasn't disrespect. Clearly, you weren't disrespecting the end, but you stood for God save the queen. They have no answers because liberals never have answers because they don't know what they're talking about it's about police brutality where what's your evidence that oh well there was a case of okay there's cases of everything

all right i get that there's there's isolated examples are you talking about systematic police brutality where where's your evidence of of people being brutalized everywhere by the police that it required a national response, and in this case, an international response? Where's your evidence of that? You're going to make an intellectual argument? You're going to propose some kind of solution? What, more community policing, civilian complaint review boards? We're going to have an intellectual debate? Just going to kneel. It's against systematic oppression. sir let me get this straight you make 10 million a year and how exactly you repress do joe do you understand what the term systematic oppression means let's get to the roots of these two terms okay systematic oppression means there is a system systematic liberals let me coach you through this means systematic means it is widespread

and enforced through a system that you are being held down against your will that's what oppression is you're not voluntarily being held up that's what oppression is so let's define the terms for liberals who use terms they have no idea what it means if you are being systematically oppressed a system is holding you down how are you making 10 million dollars to play a game in london well i mean it's not about me it's about the system no no you just said it was about the system well other people okay so now you're talking about isolated examples of people who you believe due to race have not succeeded so by saying it's isolated examples and not you, you are refuting your,

does this make any sense, Joe? Yeah. You can't claim the system is keeping you down when you have not been held down. Oh, but other people have. Okay.

Well, why? Well, I don't know. Okay. So there's no systematic oppression. You're talking about individual examples. Like I heard Richard Fowler on Fox last night.

I mean, I'm sorry, but this guy, he rarely says anything that makes any sense. He's debating Ben Shapiro, who wipes the floor with him on the 10 o'clock show last night, which Laura Ingraham's taking over next week. And Fowler starts talking about how it's about police brutality and again, brings up isolated examples of what he thinks are use of force incidents

that were questionable. Tamir Rice and other situations situations albeit very tragic outcomes and i i fully understand that right and there's no question we should review that kind of stuff the state is a monopoly on force and we should always have robust oversight but his very premise fowler refutes the entire example he's trying to make to shapiro that police brutality is a systemic problem. He can't quote systemic data showing people are being brutalized everywhere all across the country by cops. He can't. So what does he do? He brings up isolated examples to which Shapiro could have responded. You're making my point, not yours. You're making the point that you only have

isolated examples of quote a system keeping people down when you can't prove that. You can only show isolated examples. The very example of millionaire NFL athletes taking a knee on the sidelines, taking a knee on the sidelines, it refutes the premise of systematic oppression but liberals again don't let reason logic facts data don't let any of that get in the way of your growing as uh what had been shapiro called last night a vortex of stupidity it was a great line by the way kudos to him your vortex of stupidity which he said is encompassing everything that was a great. I wish I would have thought of it first. It is. The vortex of stupidity is growing.

Hey, by the way, check me out on Louder with Crowder, his podcast. I did a stint with him yesterday with Steven Crowder. It was really good. So go check it out. And I'll be on Hannity tonight as well, unless they cancel on me. I was on last night on the TV show, that is, as well. And I'm doing cooking with friends

with my wife and kids on Thursday on Fox and Friends. So check that out. Yeah, bring me back something, dude. Oh, yeah. My wife's making empanadas.

So, yeah. We'll make you. Next time you come down, we'll make some. Joe visits me once in a while. So, yeah. Sometimes people email me and say,

I wish you'd tell us about your appearances. So we got Hannity tonight, Fox and Friends Thursday morning. I got Loftby filling in for Mark Levin on Friday. And again, check out Louder with Crowder. We did a really, really good segment on his show. All right. I have to finish up this point and I will because I don't like to start and steer down the road, but there's a lot of nuance to it. This is why this is genius, okay? What Donald Trump did with the NFL, and I do think this was intentionally done, is Trump understands, or his team, I don't know if it's him individually or his team or his sons or whoever's advising him,

he understands that the left is irrational when it comes to dealing with him. So let's set up the premise. Point number one, the Trump team understands the left has, is, is emotionally involved with Trump. Not reasonably. Make sense, Joe.

Yeah. Their hate for Trump overrides all reason. He gets that. And folks, you know, for even for the never Trump crowd, I know you're going to deny what I'm saying. Like,

Oh, this NFL thing, he just said it off the cuff and he's an idiot. He shouldn't have said it. And you get these weak need Republicans like Karl Rove. Well, I gotta be honest with you. I like like personally he was very nice to us in the secret service I will never steer you wrong on people's character but he said something yesterday

like criticizing Trump about this NFL thing you should be saying which I thought was totally off pace I think this was strategic genius so he understands the left will react emotionally the emotional reaction to Trump not based based in reason, is a trap. It's a trap, Joe. He's done this a couple times. Let me give you some examples and what I mean by the trap. He says something using hyperbolic language that, candidly, I think him and his team know isn't exactly true. Hyperbolic, of course, you know what that means. He exaggerates for effect, right?

Let me give you a perfect example. We're going to build the wall and Mexico is going to pay for it. Folks, listen, regardless of your feelings about Donald Trump, can I just be honest with you? There is absolutely no way outside of a, literally like a world war, starting a world war. What are we going to invade Mexico? No, I'm being serious. Like, oh, well, we could do it through tariffs. Folks, there was really no practical way to make Mexico pay for the wall. But it was strategic genius. This was one of those moments where I think four-dimensional chess was accurate. The guy's not dumb.

For the never Trump crown, the the liberals you think trump is dumb i want joe how many times did i warn republicans against saying obama's dumb you remember this we did it over and over yeah don't think you are really miscalculating obama if you thought his team was dumb they were geniuses their policy was all wrong but the way they implemented it was genius and it is a tactical mistake to underestimate your opponent i said it about obama and I'll say to the Never Trump crowd, this guy's team is smarter than you're giving him credit for. He throws a hyperbolic statement, build a wall, Mexico's going to pay for it. What does he do? In the left, instead of letting it go, he forces them, pardon my language here, folks, but he forces them, an expression we had in New York, to show your ass.

Joe, you've heard that term. I know you have. Yes, I have. When a guy, it's usually a term in New York when a guy's a coward and someone challenges him to a fight and he runs away. Man, that guy showed his ass. I've used it a number of times.

Of course, you've probably used it on me talking about other people, right? I mean, we have. You show your ass. Trump forces the left to show their ass and respond to a hyperbolic statement that everybody knows is frankly not true build the wall and what does the left do instead of responding by saying well listen we need a sound immigration policy but we're probably not going to get mexico

and looking like the reasonable you know probably not going to mexico to build the wall i should have finished the sentence and looking reasonable Joe, what does the left do? Trump understands inherently that they are dominated by emotion and that they hate him. And he understands that they are going to respond in an equally hyperbolic manner and expose who they are and expose their unpopular opinions. Please, please, please digest what I'm telling you. The left is married to anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, high taxes, bigger government, government-controlled healthcare, and government-controlled education. These are fringe positions that are inherently unpopular, and the left has hidden them for years.

Now, Bernie Sanders has brought some of it out in the open, but I promise you these positions are massive losers. Look at the Walter Mondale, Ronald Reagan election. Walter Mondale, the first president at that time in a long time who had run intentionally on hiking taxes, got annihilated in 49 out of 50 states by Ronald Reagan. The left since that time has run away from their own platform and they've hidden it. They hide their desire for this. They've also been that way on immigration. Go look at the speeches of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton on immigration where they talk about border enforcement. You think, again, you think I'm making any of this up? About enforcing laws at the border. The Democrat party in the Clinton years, through the Democrat Leadership Committee,

they figured out that they had to moderate their message because America is not a far left extreme place. They hid this forever, Joe. Now, Trump has forced them, because they are emotional and not reasonable, to come out and show their ass and expose who they are. So he says, build that wall. Mexico's going to pay for it. What do they say? their ass. And expose who they are. So he says build that wall. Mexico's going to pay for it.

What do they say? No. We're not building a wall. This is crap. We're not going to let Mexico pay for it. So now the left. We ran. Folks.

I'm not making any of this up. Go look it up yourself. Bill Clinton. Who actually campaigned on a wall and border security. Has now ceded the Bill Clinton Democrat Party. To the far left who showed its caboose to all of America and now said, Trump's crazy. We're not building any wall. And reasonable moderate Americans, 40 to 50 to 55% of the country are like, wait,

the Democrats don't even want a wall anymore? And it was all because of what? It was because of a hyperbolic overreaction by the left who can't hide anymore from its positions because they can't hide their emotions. They can't. They can't do it. I'm going to give you another example. The media on the North Korea response. So Trump comes out, gives a hyperbolic response on North Korea. What does he do? He starts calling a guy Rocket Man, something never done before, ever.

I mean, really. I mean, I'm not talking about Trump. I mean, with prior presidents. I've never heard of a president in a public speech do that, demean a guy like that. By the way, I thought it was great. Don't take this as a – I'm not insulting Trump. I thought the speech was terrific. I used Alinsky tactics.

He used Saul Alinsky humiliation tactics on Kim Jong-un, the short fat kid. And that's great. What does the media do? Instead of responding, again, by the media, I mean Democrats too. The media and the Democrats, what do they do? Instead of responding, Joe, like moderate, reasonable voices in the room, right? And just coming back and go, well, you know, maybe we shouldn't call the guy Rocket Man. Maybe there's a better diplomatic.

But what does the media do? Media people start backing up Kim Jong-un. And they show their ass. Hollywood people are doing it all week. I mean, what was it? One of the actors or actresses out there. There were a couple of them. It wasn't just one.

That's why I'm losing track of who it was. And they were like, I'd rather have Kim Jong-un than Donald Trump. Folks, do you understand that you fell right to Trump's trap? Just like when you said we don't want a border wall anymore. No border wall. No, no. We want open immigration. what are moderate americans here well now you want no wall now you want to trade the president for a north korean communist murderer that's the democrat party do you understand you morons how you fell right into the trap you could have ignored it completely instead because you media hacks you goons who cannot

separate yourself from your overwrought emotions about trump you can't separate yourself you fell right into the trap and exposed yourself to all kinds of stripes and political stripes of americans who now see you for what you are a guy who supports a communist murderer and no wall over um over reason you just got exposed oh i got one more example but again not as i'm not speaking with forked tongue here because i'm an emotional guy obviously yeah i even get an email from a guy that says i love your show but you get emotional something hey listen sorry man that's my that's that's I'm not going to fake the funk for anyone, you know. Where's I going with this? Oh, yeah.

Listen, I'm not speaking with forked tongue on this. When it came down to Obama, yeah, there were a couple moments I got personal, especially after the Obamacare Supreme Court decision, but I very rarely, matter of fact, even if you read my books, read my books anywhere, you're not going to find any personal criticism of Obama outside of policy-related stuff. Because I didn't feel it was necessary.

Also, there was a time when I gave a speech at Heritage Foundation. It's up there at YouTube. You can check it out yourself. And some lady got up and tried to tell me where he was born. It was just crazy. And I said, listen, I don't believe that. I'm sorry. And I had no problem at a conservative forum saying what i thought was right the only point i'm trying to

make is not to pat myself on the back folks that you have to divorce your emotions from reason when you're making political arguments if you expect to attract the other side and the left can't do it now i know that was a long setup maybe the longest setup ever but it's important that is where this nfl thing was a beautiful stroke of genius he comes out gives a very hyperbolic exaggerated response you sons of bitches get off the field what does the left do the left decides now we're gonna double down down and we're going to really give the middle finger to America. We're not even going to come out when the national anthem is playing at an NFL game. And Joe, they're applauding themselves. This is great. Look, the media's all over it.

This is awesome. Look at this. David Duchovny, that loser from the X-Files, and Gillian Anderson, they're like 700 years old. They're on Twitter now. We're kneeling in solidarity. Conservatives are like, this is great because all of you people showing your ass and getting on your knees are saving us the time and money of having to patronize your product. What do you think you're winning here? The NFL, their ratings are down 8% over the weekend. Again, from last year where ratings were down. And I love this.

Brian Stelter, the other short, fat guy at CNN, who's just a sickening example of a media type. I mean, it was just so nasty to Mark Levin and refuses to correct himself, right? Stelter tweets out or subtweets out a piece today saying, NFL ratings aren't down. They're up 3%. Folks, again, never take, Joe, never take liberals at face value. So of course I, unlike Stelter, went and did my homework. Yeah, 3% when you factor in Monday night football last night. Now, maybe they were down over the weekend, 8%. But when you factor in Monday night football last night,

where this, by the way, this whole entire NFL kneeling thing had taken on a life of its own, one of the theories out there about why Monday night football did well last night in the beginning was because people tuned in just to see what the Cowboys were going to do and then tuned out. Yeah, you won, guys. Nice job, NFL.

You really showed us. You really stuck it to America on that one. This is the strategic genius of Donald Trump. He forces you to show America exactly what you are. You liberal, anti-American, America-hating fools. You've been exposed. There's no other way around it. You've been so beaten on this issue that it's almost like it's Stockholm syndrome. It's almost like you're starting to have sympathy

with your hostage taker because you're mentally in such an emotionally distraught place. You have no idea where to go with it. You lost. You have lost over. You still cannot figure out how to respond to Donald Trump, and you lose every single time. It's almost comical to see.

It really is to watch it. All right. Today's show brought to you by. It really is to watch it. All right. Today's show brought to you by our buddies at BrickHouse Nutrition. You know, I'm a big fan of these guys. It's a great nutrition company.

It started with me early as advertisers and the reason I took them on and the reason we continue our partnership to this day is because they have really terrific nutrition products. You know how much

nutrition matters to me. I'll talk about some of that on my Rough Cut show, by the way. But they have two products. Today, I'll talk about the On The Dusk. It's a really terrific product. It's an energy product. And

the problem with energy products out there is you take them, energy drinks or whatever they may be, or even coffee, and a couple hours later, you're tired. You get a catecholamine response, whatever it may be. And then later on, you're sleeping on your couch. Well, these guys figured out a way to get about a 10-hour boost in energy and mood by time-releasing the product, which was genius, by the way. The product is called Dawn to Dusk. It's not going to give you... Folks, you're not going to be wired up for 15 minutes and then tired the rest of the day. You're going to have a nice bump in energy, a nice bump in your mood. It's really terrific stuff. Give it a shot. It's called Dawn to Dusk. Dawn to Dusk. And it's available at brickhousenutrition.com

slash Dan. That's brickhousenutrition.com slash Dan. Did you guys, regular listeners, sense my hesitation there? For a second, I forgot the website. That was that. I picked it up. No, I'm not kidding. You know, I love my audience. I never fake it. I was like, what was the website again? Because I never write it down. I've done this read so many times. BrickHouseNutrition.com. Go check it out. Throw it on the desk and send me a review.

Daniel at Bongino.com. I get tons of positive email about this product. That's how confident I am. Yeah. Hey, I love it too because I use it getting up early in the morning. Believe me, Joe needs it. Joe gets up at, what are you, seriously, what time do you get up at? I get up at three.

We're on the air at five. Dude, that sucks. It sucks. I'm going to have to start getting up early again, too. I was telling Joe, I'm just working on a deal with NRA TV. I probably shouldn't say anything now, but what the hell? You're my audience. I'll let you know next week.

I'm not going anywhere for conservative review. It's all symbiotic stuff. Don't worry. But I'm going to have to start getting up super early and get to the gym before the show. You think I'm wired up now? When I get on the show, wait until I get in here after 20 minutes of kettlebells,

deadlifting, bench pressing, and Tabata spreads. I'm going to be on the show like that. Slow down. You're driving me crazy. All right. I got a lot more to get to. I spent a lot of time on that. This is a doozy. Hold on. Let me pull up the right. I got a lot more to get to. I spent a lot of time on that. But this is a doozy. So hold on.

Let me pull up the picture. I always screenshot this stuff. When I see quotes, I really enjoy. I screenshot them on my phone to make sure I read them accurately. All right. Stand easy, folks. Stand easy. Okay, here we go.

Oh, no, that's a different one. All right, doesn't matter. That's from a different story, but I'm not at that yet. So there's a story in the Wall Street Journal today. It'll be in the show notes. Show notes are always available at Bongino.com. Please sign up for my email list. It's exploding.

I will send you these stories every day, also with a link to the Conservative Review podcast if you don't want to listen to it on iHeart or iTunes or whatever. You can just go right there. But there's a story about how liberals cannot get their story straight on minimum wage. One of the central themes, thematic elements of the show from day one has always been the idea that don't trust anything liberals say. It's very rare that what they say is true. And typically what they say, we're going to help the poor,

whatever, we're going to get you healthcare, usually results in the exact opposite. Their speech is based on emotions, but their results, their speeches are based on emotions, but the results usually fall very short of what they actually do in the long run. So this is a terrific story about minimum wage in the Wall Street Journal. Now, let me sum this up in some neat little bullet points for you. Liberals love to quote research and cherry pick research that backs up a point. But when the very same methodology in the research proves a, or shouldn't say proves, but shows a different result, liberals will attack the messenger. This is happening with minimum wage right now. Joe, we covered this a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago. There was a devastating minimum wage study studying the

effects of the $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle that went up in a graduated fashion that showed that, let me just give you the exact numbers so I don't screw this up, University of Washington study on the Seattle minimum wage, that it reduced working hours by 9% and earnings dropped by $125 a month. So let's be clear on what we're talking about. The entire liberal premise of this quote, fight for 15, I already told you the reason why liberals want a $15 an hour minimum wage. It has nothing to do with people making more money, folks. It has everything to do with union

wages being indexed. Unions give money to liberals. Union wages are indexed to a certain wage floors, in some cases, minimum wage. Meaning, if minimum wage goes up, union workers get a raise too. And that means what? That means, hopefully, that they would get more union money and union money would flow to Democrats who fought for that. Yeah, I mean, you see my point, folks? This isn't complicated to figure out.

This has nothing to do with actually getting people, minimum wage workers, more money. Why? The research out of Seattle is nearly conclusive. Nothing's fully conclusive, but it shows that worker hours are reduced by 9% and people lost $125 a month, low wage workers. I mean, think about what I'm telling you. You government enforced a higher wage that costs people money. So what happened? This is key because it's key to understanding the liberal mind. Back in 1994, Joe, there was a study done, and liberals love this study, on minimum wage.

And it compared a minimum wage hike in New Jersey to cross-border comparison in Pennsylvania. And they call this kind of study, this is important, I promise I won't lose you. They call it a close comparison study. This has been the gold standard study for liberals because it showed at the time that after the minimum wage hike in New Jersey, that wages and job growth went up. I didn't say that wrong. And liberals loved it, obviously. They're like, look, minimum wage went up in New Jersey, and we did this close comparison study. And a close comparison study is where they compare, obviously, geographically close areas, in this case, New Jersey and we did this close comparison study and a close comparison studies where they compare obviously geographically close areas in this case New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the liberals deduced from that that since Pennsylvania did not have a hike in minimum wage Joe and New Jersey did that this must clearly be causal and look minimum wage increases jobs wages

economic growth this is all terrific. And close comparison studies are the gold standard. Now, to be clear, this 1994 study is used all the time. I've heard it. I've had people throw this thing at me constantly. There were all kind of monopsonistic arguments about it that are economically complicated and honestly beyond the scope of the podcast today. But there were a number of critical flaws in this study. The study didn't make sense, Joe.

How you could demand employers to pay more by a government regulation who don't, in fact, have the money. If they did, they'd pay more. And then say it's going to lead to more economic growth makes absolutely no sense. I mean, it should be a rule of thumb, but liberals love to make up fantasy, man. This study's been used forever

as an example of how great close comparison studies are. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because this is hysterical. The University of Washington study that showed the exact opposite used a more refined, better example of close comparison

where they not only, because remember, Joe, the close comparison study new jersey versus pennsylvania used different states i mean think about how many contaminating factors could be in there when you're using two separate states you get what i'm saying yep but liberals loved it they said oh it's close enough don't worry that it's new jersey and pennsylvania it's close enough a lot of the critics of the study felt that new jersey was just having some vibrant economic growth at the time and that the wages and everything went up, Joe, despite the minimum wage. And that wasn't happening in Pennsylvania. The Seattle study was even better on the close comparison mark because it was all done in Washington.

They compared Seattle to outlying metro areas. You follow what I'm saying? Yeah. to outlying metro areas. You follow what I'm saying? In other words, it was a better example, not worse, of a close comparison study, which liberals told you is the gold standard.

Now, when the study, using a better technical statistical analysis, showed that minimum wage actually costs people a ton of money, here's the response from a Berkeley professor. This is classic. He says, well, it draws only from areas in Washington State that do not at all represent Seattle. But these are the same guys who defended a Pennsylvania, New Jersey study.

Folks, I don't want to beat this thing to death, but the article will be in the show notes. It's a really good one. It's a Wall Street Journal piece. But it's just so, I mean, it's like prima facie evidence of how liberals will lie to your face about anything all the time just to make a point. Point of work. Close comparison studies are the gold standard.

Go to the 1994 study, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. New Jersey raised minimum wages and economic growth went through the roof and wages went up. Okay, what about the close comparison study actually in the state of Washington showed the opposite? That doesn't matter. Close comparison sucks. Wait, what? Folks, read the piece. It's a really good piece. It's short. It's

sweet. It's not overly economically wonky, but it's really well done, and it just lays out for you how liberals make stuff up all the time. They just make it up. They literally just make it up and they will change their position on a dime because that's what they do. All right.

Today's show also brought to you by buddies at My Patriot Supply. You know, folks, there's a lot of tragedy going on right now in the show notes. I have a really sad piece about Puerto Rico. What's going on in Puerto Rico right now? We have this entire island basically without power, running short on supplies, on fuel, and it's really a terrible time to bring this stuff up, but it is really one of those times

where you should focus your attention on preparedness. You have to be prepared, folks. Unfortunately, we cannot plan for the future the way we'd want to. You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know what's going to happen with earthquakes. You don't know what's going to happen with these crazy North Koreans. We don't know what's going to happen. You don't know what's going to happen with earthquakes. You don't know what's going to happen with these crazy North Koreans. We don't know what's going to happen with an active super storm season. You have to be prepared. We insure our homes. We insure our cars. Why would you not insure your food supply? Please go check out our

friends at MyPatriotSupply. These guys are great. They handle every single issue I send to them right away. They're always interested in doing volunteer work. They're really, really good. Check them out. MyPatriotSupply. Go to preparewithdan.com. That's preparewithdan.com. They will send you a one-month supply of emergency food. I have a couple boxes coming this week, actually. Go to preparewithdan.com. Pick up a couple boxes. It's just $99. That's it. The food is good for 25 years. It's breakfast, lunch, and dinner in there. Go to preparewithdan.com. Buy the food. Stack it in your closet. Hopefully, you never need it, but better to have it and never need it than need it and

not have it. Hey, worst case scenario, as a listener sent to me, at 20 years, at 25 years, when it goes bad, you have a feast. You eat the food, and you're good to go. You don't have to buy food for a while, but go check it out. Go to preparewithdan.com. All right. Hey, one final piece I want to bring up, and maybe I'll dig in more to this story tomorrow. But there's a piece I'm going to post in the show notes from the Daily Signal about a legislative piece of legislation in Hawaii right now designed to replicate another disastrous piece of legislation in California. It's about abortion. And those of you listening to my show and new listeners,

I'll inform you. I am avidly pro-life from conception to natural death. I don't think this isn't even a remotely controversial position, but the left apparently does. There is a law. Eric Erickson, who does some commentary at Red State, has this line, you will be made to care. And I bring up frequently in a similar way how, Joe, it's not just good enough for the left to win. The left has to rub it in. And this is where they strategically make a huge mistake. Instead of, say, winning on gay marriage, they had to. America saw that and was like, wait, I could be put in jail for being a Christian? This is the kind of stuff the left constantly overreacts on, and this is their strategic mistake. Well, it's happening again in Hawaii, and there's a case going through the court system now that's really troubling and should bother everyone. And it's another example of how you will comply. The left doesn't want to just win.

The left wants to stick it to you big time. The left doesn't want to just win. The left wants to stick it to you big time. Hawaii has these pro-life pregnancy centers where you can go in, you can get free diapers, you can get counseling on a crisis pregnancy, whatever it may be, a product of, say, rape or even just a pregnancy where you don't feel like you're ready right now. But you can go in and these pro-life pregnancy centers, which I support strongly, will obviously try to encourage you to keep your child, which I would strongly, obviously, encourage everybody to do as well. But they give away free diapers and stuff.

So, again, it's not good enough for the left to win on the abortion debate. It's now legal to terminate children in the womb in the United States. It's been legal since Roe v. Wade, of course. But it's not good enough. Roe v. Wade, of course, but it's not good enough. They're forcing Hawaii, and this is already law in California, to post on these pro-life pregnancy centers, referrals to abortion centers. So if you go in there, it's like, it's not good enough that they can counsel you on life. We have to show you how to terminate your baby and you will put this sign up advertising abortions or you're going to be penalized and fined. Folks, it's a disgusting story. But again, it's another example of the you will comply mentality. This is what the left

thinks. And this is the strategic miscalculation to tie it into the beginning the left makes every time. They overreact based on emotion, not reason. It wasn't good enough for you to win Roe v. Wade. Now we have to incentivize abortion. It wasn't good enough for you to win Roe v. Wade. Now we have to incentivize abortion. It wasn't good enough for you to win on gay marriage. Now we have to put people in jail who are bakers or who refuse to sign a marriage certificate. It's not good enough now to want to build a wall. Now we have to respond by telling people, no, open borders is the way to go. That is the strategic genius of Donald Trump, and this is where the left is always going to fall. Their strategy is way, way off.

Thanks for tuning in, folks. I really appreciate it. I will see you all tomorrow.