The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 846 An Interesting Plan Going Forward

Episode Date: November 8, 2018

Summary: In this episode I address the behind-the-scenes machinations after the firing of Jeff Sessions. I also address the Thousand Oaks attack. Finally, I discuss the shameful behavior of Jim Acosta at the White House yesterday.    News Picks: Jim Acosta is a disgrace to the media profession.    The midterms weren’t as bad as they could’ve been. Here are some positive signs for Trump 2020.   The loony Democrats are ready to go all in on impeachment.    Is Jeff Sessions going to run for Senate in 2020?   Now is the time for the Senate to get everyone confirmed.    Progressive candidates had a really bad election night.   California’s dreadful politics are becoming a problem for the whole country.    Copyright CRTV. 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 all right welcome to the dan bongino show producer joe how are you today hey okay i mean another uh really stacked news they woke up this morning to a text uh hey can you come on the air there's uh uh there was another tragic shooting last night in California. I want to get to that. A couple of things I want to mention. Also, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Listen, we're all people of faith, many of us here. I hope she's okay. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice, took a bad fall this morning.

Looks like she broke a few ribs. She's 85 um i mean it i hope uh i hope i hope she's okay so that just came on the news uh now um i've seen some really sad uh dark uh awful humor on twitter it's not funny uh i'm serious it's i'm not that's not funny um it's not the kind of stuff we mess around with and it's not usually it's not us it's just a couple of idiots but uh we'll get to that too but a lot going on this morning before the show um okay let's get right into it i also want to hit the jim acosta yesterday who humiliated himself in the media at the white house and one of the most embarrassing episodes i've ever seen in the history of uh air quotes journalism okay um today's show brought to you by our good friends at saucy you know my wife and i like to have date nights on Friday or Saturday nights.

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Go check it out. Okay, folks, getting right into it. So there was a shooting last night in California at a bar in Thousand Oaks area, which is, I believe, a suburb of Los Angeles. I'm not intimately familiar with the area. I've got to be candid with you. And just a couple of things I wanted to address on this from a security perspective. Like I covered when we covered the disastrous synagogue shooting and the church shooting

in Sutherland Springs. As a former Secret Service agent, I try to be somewhat helpful in these tragic situations and present to you the unique security challenges by these places in case you are a bar owner or a club owner and you're listening. In a church, one of the things I mentioned after the synagogue shooting, one of the unique security challenges in a church is that everybody's attention is forward towards an altar in a church or some kind of a podium where the priest, the rabbi, the imam, whatever it may be, is conducting a service. That lack of attention towards a door in the back presents a unique

opportunity for bad guys to do their dirty deed. So that's why I say to people involved in churches and synagogues, it's important that you have at least one, if not more people with their eyes towards the back focusing on those entry points. Now, when it comes to bars and clubs, like we saw in this incident last night, there are other unique security challenges that you need to pay attention to. Not just if you are a bar owner, but if you are a patron of one of these locations i've been in bars i met my wife on a blind date in the bar joe with bars typically how many points of entry do they use in a bar usually just one right yeah yeah one at the front door and why would they do that because bars have a unique challenge whereas just about anybody can walk into a mall i mean if you have teenagers you have uh people

who are seniors you have middle-aged folks, bars have restrictions because they serve alcohol. They must control people. You typically have to be 18. You can be 18 and have a wristband on so you can't drink, but you have to be 21 to drink, so they will card people. One of the unique challenges bars have is they have one entrance or one entrance that they use now having one entrance unlike say a mall or a church or anywhere else creates a problem because it creates a line typically bars uh like these lines because it makes the bar look like it's a busy place you see what i'm saying it gives the appearance as it's a kind of a happening hop and uh joint and

people want to be in there the problem with one entrance is typically in a panic situation. These are the things you learn doing security for a living the way I had done it before. In a panic type situation like this was with some maniac entering the bar and deciding to try to shoot the place up, people's first instinct will be to come out or leave or exit where they came in. It's instinct. It's not now. I'm not saying you're not going to feel a lot of people thankfully figured out there was a back door to this location quickly um and attempted to flee via the back door i'm just telling you

in a panic situation that's not going to come as your first instinct your first instinct is going to be to turn your attention to the shots where they're coming from the noise and secondly to an escape route which is typically where you came in or you so you thought that creates a a bottleneck of people it also creates crowd density why because people flush in mass typically towards the door they came in one of the worst examples of this um that we saw was in the rhode island fire um remember that joe that horror i mean what that story i could not get out of my head for months. It was a fire in Rhode Island. I forget the band that was playing.

It was close to 10 years ago, I believe now. It was an 80s band, right? Yeah. And the Rhode Island bar caught fire, and there were multiple exits to the place that were not used. Everybody tried to pile out of the front door where they came in, because that was their instinct.

And literally, tragically, I mean, I don't even like to talk because it never gets out of my head again. It was so disastrous. They piled on top of each other to fit through this little choke point of a door. Meanwhile, there were other exits that were just wide open.

So the two takeaways from this, this horrific incident last night that that i have for you number one is if you're going to go to a bar understand that that works to a bad guy's advantage secondly to turn the tables towards yourself always have situational awareness terrain features terrain features terrain features keep in mind the features, that's kind of a fancy law enforcement jargon way of saying, look at the terrain you're in at all times. If you're in a bar, know there is always going to be a backdoor somewhere. That backdoor is rarely going to be used by anybody else because people's instinct,

I mean right away, because people's instinct is going to be to go out where they came in. Know where that backdoor is at all times. Know where that back door is. It's critical. These are very simple things. Understand where the back door is. Folks, this takes all of two seconds of your life. That's why I always suggest in a restaurant, sit in a place where you can see the front door, who's coming in. It buys you just seconds. Seconds that could save your life. Those seconds will make an enormous difference in a situation like this where mass panic sets in. If you have a plan in advance, your instinct will be to follow the plan. If they have a kitchen, usually there's a door in the kitchen.

Almost always. Oh, yes. Joe knows these locations. Joe is a musician. He's played them. You probably came in through the kitchen, right? Oh, yes. Joe knows these locations. Joe was a musician. He's played them. You probably came in through the kitchen, right? Oh, yes, we did in quite a few places. Which is where we always brought our, that's actually a great point.

We always brought our protectees in through the kitchen. Matter of fact, the kitchen staff, when I was with Obama and Bush on the Secret Service detail, used to always say, oh, man, we can't bring the president through here. This place is a mess. I don't mean dirty, but, you know, there's people running around. I'd say brother or sister in some cases. This is the only place we come in. There is nothing unusual about the president coming through your kitchen.

Trust me. Joe's right. Because there's always a back door. And why? Because they have trash to bring out and they're not going to bring it out through the bar. Right. So they take it out through a back door. It's a great point.

Well said. Always keep that in mind through the kitchen uh there's always a door in the back keep that and it's usually a crash bar too meaning there's no key there's it's usually a crash bar door because of fire codes where you just push the crash bar and you get out so just keep that in mind uh that's important it's the little things that matter. And one more thing. I was on Fox & Friends this morning, and I was offering some condolences, number one, and hopefully some expertise to maybe prevent some of these casualties in the future. And I was asked a very common sense question. You know, what can you do about this? And I made the point that, folks, I understand these are politically charged debates about

firearms. I get it. I'm not trying to shove my ideology down your throat. I'm not. I am an avid, vocal, vigorous supporter of the right to self-defense and the right to defend yourself. If you believe otherwise, that's fine. We have a free country.

There's a process to change that. I will fight against it, but I get it. I understand people's unfamiliarity with guns makes them scared of the gun in particular and not the person behind it. But I made a simple point today. Try to put aside the politics for just the 30 seconds to a minute. It'll take me to say this. do you have? If someone walks up to a bar, whether they procured the firearm legally or illegally, and is intent on shooting and killing people, I'm asking you a common sense question. What are you going to do? What? I'm not messing around. Why do you think we protect the president of the United States? Famous sports people, celebrities, all of these people are protected with firearms. A simple question, why do you think that is?

If they are so ineffective as a self-defense mechanism, because you cannot make firearms disappear from the planet. They are constructed from steel. They will be around a very long time and will only grow increasingly more sophisticated. You cannot make that happen. There are bad people and evil has been the stain in man's heart since we first became sentient beings and became self-aware. Evil is not going anywhere and neither are these firearms.

What are you going to do? Do you want the right to defend yourself or not? I'm asking you a serious question. They are not going to do? Do you want the right to defend yourself or not? I'm asking you a serious question. They are not going anywhere. There's no such thing as gun control. Guns have not been controlled since the firearm and gunpowder was invented. They have not. Do you want to defend yourself or not?

It is a simple question. And if you don't want to defend yourself, why are you attacking my ability to defend me and my family? I am not going out like that. I'm sorry. I've got two kids and a wife I love very much. I carry a firearm in the state of Florida where you're free to defend yourself. And I'm proud to say that. I'm just asking you a simple question. Look in the mirror. You don't have to answer it to your friends. If publicly you need to save face to say something else, do whatever you need to do. But I want you in your own time, when you sit down to ask yourself, what are you going

to do if tragically and sadly faced at some point in your life with the thousand yard stare, an evil murderer in front of you with a firearm. What are you going to do? Try to talk him out of it? Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't the Matrix, man. This is real. Apparently, the guy at the front door, from what we know, this sergeant who, God rest his hero's soul, lost his life, and the others as well. From what I'm hearing in the press reports, and if it changes, I'll be sure to let you know,

was unarmed. What are you going to do? You only have one option. An evil person with a firearm will only be stopped by another person willing to engage with a firearm. There is no other way. These articles and stuff people put out about pepper spray and mace and other things are, ladies and gentlemen, these are absurd.

These are absurd. Even a pistol has an effective range of about 25 yards. Pepper spray on a good day, besides the fact that you'll pepper everyone else around you, probably five yards if you're lucky. Not to mention a guy hyped up on adrenaline or even drugs himself probably won't even respond for about 30 seconds. You know, Dan, as long as there's been firearms, there's been a black market for them as well. Every time. Every time.

There's nothing you're going to do. I remember being a police officer, arresting people with the NYPD for CPW and as a federal agent as well. CPW, criminal possession of a weapon. Yep. And saying, how did you get the firearm? Folks, I'm not kidding. They would laugh. Like, what do you mean, how did you?

You buy it from Johnny on the court. Like, you get the firearm? Folks, I'm not kidding. They would laugh. Like, what do you mean? How did you? You buy it from Johnny on the court. Like, you get anything? You get anything else? You know, I was genuinely interested. I wasn't trying to conduct a sociological survey. And I mean it. I wasn't even being political at the time. I wasn't even that political when I was a young man as a cop.

I mean, I started to become so later on. But you'd ask them in the cells. You'd say, you know, how did you get that? What do you mean, how did I get it? I bought it from, you know, whatever, this guy in the corner, Tony or something. Like it was hard. They would look at you like you were nuts. Right.

Almost like embarrassed you were a cop and you couldn't figure this out. It's not hard, folks. The black market for firearms is always been a big one. Always. They are not hard to find and pretending otherwise is um you know it's just i'm sorry it's self-defeating and silly you just don't know what you're talking about when you actually work the streets as a police officer and a federal agent you see how easy this stuff is to is is to gain a gain a hold of all right yeah so Yeah. So, yeah, this morning, again, so enough on that,

but I hope some of that helps. If you are a bar owner, just let me sum that up. You need to be wary of that choke point, that front door. You have people lined up outside. You have people inside who are going to try to flee out of that location.

Make sure, obviously, according to code, your exits are lit. Make sure if you have people inside and the outside, make sure you have someone who's armed. I'm sorry, it's just common sense. It's not a political, it's a security issue. We don't talk this kind of stuff when it comes to presidential security. Nobody says, well, let's disarm the Secret Service. You know, it's interesting how the politics of the gun debate never enter it when the president and some dignitaries involved, as they shouldn't't because people are serious about it what if you walked in a room with a bunch of security professionals saying i've got an idea for security we're gonna make everything safer

by disarming the secret service so we have less guns around ladies and gentlemen i'm not even gonna say you'd be laughed out they would seriously seek to have you like evaluated like what are you insane what are you are you crazy but when it comes to your kids in a bar or your kids in a school all of a sudden the politics center let's guns not more guns but you notice when it comes to quote important people nobody says that as if your kids aren't important enough really shameful um. All right. As I said this morning, it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Thanks, man. Ruth Bader Ginsburg took a bad fall. Well, if I hear anything else on that, apparently she's been hospitalized. So yeah, at 85, that's serious, especially breaking ribs because I'm not a doctor. I don't pretend to be, but having broken ribs myself, it is extremely painful and you run the risk of

pneumonia, as a doctor told me one time. It was a guy I was wrestling in Matt Serra's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class in East Meadow one time. This guy called the Big Tuna. Yeah, he was about 400 pounds. And he was a bouncer in a bar. And he fell on me one time while I was trying to pull guard. And I went to the doctor. By the way, I'm not in any way trying to please. I'm just trying to tell you how I got to this story with the broken ribs. I went to the doctor and I'll never... This is a true story. The doctor says to me, no, no, I got in a car accident. What was it? Two days later, I got into a car accident on icy road on the long island expressway and i got taken by ambulance uh to the hospital and uh i'm in the hospital and the doctor

says uh i was i wasn't in a lot of pain but my chest hurt and he said i have good news and bad news i said well don't give me the bad news he goes you have you have a couple broken ribs they look pretty badly uh you know fractured and uh but they weren't like broken in half they were like stress fractures and i said well what's the good news he says the good news is they look like they were broken a couple days ago or something i said how'd you know that and he was talking about like some some scarring or something like that and i figured out it was the big tuna who had fallen on me and broken my ribs it was the car accident just it made it worse so it was painful but i hope she's okay uh i hope she does fine uh

we'll see and i'll keep you updated on that story as well all right getting into some more breaking news i got really a ton to talk about today i've got about 20 things on my list here um i don't i don't know what uh what what the media thinks they're doing uh the acosta thing yesterday now again this is one of those stories joe sent it to me this morning, the sound. I saw it yesterday. Jim Acosta, for those of you who missed it, CNN fake news reporter who was at the White House briefing yesterday where President Trump came out to answer a record number of questions. I believe he took 68 questions. He was there an hour and a half. I was getting a haircut. I went home, took a shower, got out of the shower, started doing prep for my NRA TV show, and the press conference was still going on. I'm not even

kidding. So all those things about, bro, President Trump's an enemy of the media. Really? Because he seems to answer more of your questions than anybody else does. So Acosta gets up at the White House and just humiliates himself and the media. Here is audio of the exchange between CNN's Jim Acosta and President Donald Trump. There are hundreds of miles away. That's not an invasion. Honestly, I think you should let me run the country. You run CNN. And if you did it well, your ratings will be much better.

If I may ask one other question, are you worried? That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. I was going to ask one of the other folks. That's enough. Pardon me, ma worried? That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. I was going to ask one other. The other folks. That's enough. Pardon me, ma'am. Excuse me.

That's enough. Mr. President, I had one other question. If I may ask on the Russia investigation, are you concerned that you may have. I'm not concerned about anything with the Russian investigation because it's a hoax. That's enough. Put down the mic. Mr. President, are you worried about indictments coming down in this investigation? I'll tell you what.

CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN. I think that's unfair. You're a very rude person. The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible. And the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn't treat people that way.

Go ahead. Go ahead, Peter, go ahead. In Jim's defense, I've traveled with him and watched him. He's a diligent reporter who busts his butt like a restaurant. Well, I'm not a big fan of yours either, so. I understand. To be honest. So let me ask you a question if I can.

You repeatedly say. You are the best. Mr. President, you repeatedly, over the course of. Okay, just sit down, please. When you report fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. Go ahead. Oh, my gosh. And then you have that. what is it, Peter Alexander?

Is it the NBC guy who gets up next and just be clowns himself as well? You know, I got a couple of takeaways. And these are always topics, as Joe knows, I'm always hesitant to bring these up because they sound almost clickbaity. And Joe and I are very diligent about, in this show, not wasting your time. I have an hour with you.

You have been gracious and kind enough to spend with me i do not waste your time on you know outrage care jim acosta their takeaways from this though that's the reason i'm bringing this up today there are actual takeaways from this um that i believe are relevant uh the first one folks i spent four and a half years in the White House. These press conferences, these pressers, these press avails, I'm intimately familiar with how they work. I've never seen anything like this. Listen to me and listen to what I'm about to tell you. This is the President of the United States. Show some freaking respect.

You don't have to like this man. respect. You don't have to like this man. That's the greatest part of our country and our Bill of Rights and our constitutional republic. You have no fear of death, doom, or destruction because you speak out publicly against the president. Unless you're, of course, Donald Trump and you run against Obama and they spy on you. But that aside, speaking out against donald trump involves with you no fear of harm what thank god unless you're tucker carlson of course and you speak out for the minute and antifa shows up but again putting the conservatives and libertarians aside if you're a democrat or a liberal or anyone who speaks out against trump i can assure you you run almost no risk at all of any recrimination at all. Thank God.

And I mean that. But this is the president of the United States. When I wrote my first book, I was very careful in my book and was very actually laudatory and honored. You know, because this is what upsets me. Not to make this, it's not about me.

But I want to make a point here. I was very upset after my first book that people categorized it as some kind of a tell-all against Obama. That's absurd. Just read the book. It's not a tell-all at all. There's nothing telling all. It's my story of the secret. There's no inside conversations in there.

People who tell you are just making it up. Folks, you can read the book. It's out there now. I'm not trying to sell books. I'm just trying to make a point here. I was president at Barack Obama's inauguration, the first one.

And I write about it in the book in detail. But the way I write about it is key. Because I'll tell you folks, although I understood that ideologically we had been defeated,

I knew Barack Obama was big trouble. Big trouble on the liberal side. I understood his ability to tell a story. His charismatic nature was going to be trouble. And I was right. We had tax hikes, Obamacare. But I'm going to tell you right now, you're listening to the wrong show if you think what I wrote in a book was nonsense, I did say I was honored to be there. And I'll tell you why, even though I knew we lost and we're in big trouble, this was the United States of America.

And I was there as what a quarter million, hundreds of thousands of people, a large portion of them, black Americans who had lived through Jim Crow. I was there and I watched them. I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue. Was I in zone seven? I was, I was there.

I got there at two in the morning and stayed till probably seven o'clock. I was there almost 24 hours. Geeked up on caffeine. I watched people in tears. 80 year old black men and black women in the freezing cold. It was cold, cold. Standing there for eight, nine hours, some of them in tears, waving to the first black president of the United States of America,

people who had lived through segregated lunch counters, people who had lived through Jim Crow in the South. How do I know? Because I talk to a lot of them. No one's going to tell me what happened and didn't. You know, when I saw it, it meant a lot to me, even though I knew we had lost. He was the president and he won fair and square. And we went back and we won eight years later. That's how the Republic works. And we dial dial back a lot of the legislative nonsense that we had to put up with but i was proud to be there i felt a sense of dignity even though i'd lost and i wrote about that and i wrote about an intricate detail because it meant a lot to me

to have been there for this historic moment if jim acosta or any of peter alex Alexander or any of these other guys are listening, that's the president of the United States. Contrary to your Looney Tunes conspiracy theories, he won this election fair and square, and you owe the man some damn respect. I thought at one point, Joe, as I was actually listening to it on the app on my phone, I thought at one point, the president should stop this right now. He should look this guy right in the eye and say, Jim, I am the president of the United States. I am here to defend. I swore

to defend the constitution. I swore to defend the free press. What I did not do as a human being is swear to stand up here and take your insults. I am the president of the United States. I won this election fair and square. I have come out here for you, not for me. I know the answers to these questions because it's me. I came out here for you, and you don't have the decorum and the dignity for five minutes to sit there

and answer a question respectfully, give a follow-up, and sit down. That's the rules of the road. I've done tons of these things, Joe. The way it works, you ask a question, you get a follow-up, maybe you get to probe a bit, and you sit the hell down. You don't get the right to take over the press conference for everyone else. This is not a one-on-one.

It's a one-on-one. You want to continue probing? Do your thing. Bill O'Reilly did it with Barack Obama. I was fine with it. Barack Obama agreed during the Super Bowl to sit down and interview with Fox News's at the time, Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly was aggressive. I had no problem with that at all. Obama agreed to do it. This was not a one-on-one. This was the White House press corps, or corps as Obama would say. This is their press corps. There were other people there.

You don't have the right to monopolize America's attention, Jim. It's the President of the United States. It's not your buddy. It's not the librarian. It's not your school teacher. It's not your mama. It's not your buddy, your best friend, your drinking pal. It's the President of the United States.

And the fact that you don't like him doesn't mean squat to me or anyone else. You're there to report the facts. You're not there to give your opinion on how you dislike the President or you disagree with his terminology. That was a disgrace. And I made myself heard on Twitter about it. And again, you get these never, you know, and I respect this guy. I'm not trying to take a cheap shot, but I mean it.

People disagree with me all the time. Some of them are just jerks and I just ignore them. But some are smart guys. But Jonah Goldberg from the National Review, he tweeted back to me something like, what Dan, I mean, you me something like, what, Dan? I mean, you're going to, what did he say? Like, what is he, an enemy of the people now or something like that?

Like, you know, fine, Jonah. You know, I thought that I blocked this idiot. And then I'm like, you know what? Forget it. Let him say what he wants to say. I don't care. You're defending that? You're defending that.

You're defending what happened yesterday. Are you letting your anger at Trump, I mean, color, common sense? What happened yesterday was a disgrace. A disgrace. An embarrassing episode. Goes out and takes 68 questions, and what I said last night on Fox, I meant.

That was not a question session. That was an interrogation. And what they wanted was a confession. The questions. Basically, are you a racist, President Trump? You have referenced nationalism. Are you going to fire Mueller? Basically, did you obstruct justice?

Those weren't questions. What a disgraceful, disgraceful episode. And making it even worse, this young White House intern, this female comes to get the, female White House intern comes to get the mic from Acosta, and Acosta puts his hands on her. And people like Jonah are shocking.

Again, I respect Jonah. He's a very smart guy. Even though we have significant disagreements about the administration, that's fine. I don't, you know, I'm not going to attack the guy's intellect he's very smart guy i've listened to podcasts he's done and they're very good but denying the fact that acosta put his hands on her

as she was approaching to grab the mic which she was i'm not suggesting it was an attack joe it was some karate kid three move i'm not suggesting it was violent, but denying that he made physical contact with her in an effort to keep the microphone is, just watch the video. I saw it. Joe, am I crazy? No, you're not crazy. I get it. Me and Joe are conservatives. We have a viewpoint, but we're not dumb. I'm not going

to lie to you on my show. Jeff Mason from Reuters tweets out, this is not how it happened, Sarah Sanders alleging there was some physical contact. It is. Did you miss the video? You don't do that. This is a young intern at the White House.

She comes to grab the microphone. You just give the microphone up. You were given multiple opportunities. Your chance is up. It's not a one-on-one. How grotesquely inappropriate. Sunis, your chance is up. It's not a one-on-one.

How grotesquely inappropriate. Now, having said that, after that, Joe, what happens? Good for the White House. They revoke Acosta's press credentials. Good. Good. See ya. Bye, Felicia.

Don't care one bit. They're a mother. They attack on the press. Get the hell out of here. CNN has 50,000 people you can put on. No one's shutting down the press. Give me a break. This guy's the most open president with the press in American history, bar none. He answers questions when he goes to the Hilo on the South Grounds, when he goes to Marine One. He answers questions on AF1. He answers questions

at press conferences. He answers questions in pressers in the Roosevelt Room. He answers questions in the Oval. The guy answers questions all day. Let's please stop with the hyperbolic martyrdom. Oh, man, the press is under attack. Oh, give it a rest, you looney tunes. This is nonsense. You're making a humiliating embarrassment out of yourselves.

The press is not under attack. Been calling a guy a fascist a nazi and a russian traitor for the last two years we're all supposed to sit back and take it shut up give us all a break huh there's a thousand reporters you can put in there who don't won't put their hands on the white house interns then of course acosta joe has to film his White House past being taken away by the Secret Service uniformed division officer because Acosta Joe's good at one thing he's breaking stories about what Acosta Acosta's a reporter who only seems to break news Joe about Acosta it's all he does whenever he breaks news it's usually fake but when it's Acosta stories he's all over it

Whenever he breaks news, it's usually fake. But when it's Acosta stories, he's all over it. I had one. What was I going to say? Well, I had one more note. But honestly, folks, I can't even read my own handwriting. I'm serious. I always say I write like a doctor.

I wish I thought like one. Everything would be A-OK. I can't even read this note. But there you go. Those are the takeaways from that. This is not an attack on the press. This is unprecedented access. Acosta was grossly inappropriate and did make physical contact with the White House intern. And Acosta has this ability to flout the rules and then pretend like Donald Trump is the renegade here.

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Sessions. Got a lot of emails about Sessions yesterday. One guy on my Facebook was particularly upset. He said, Dan, you know, have faith in Sessions. I wonder sometimes if people listen to the show. I really, it upsets me because I leave my, as you can tell, because every day I address an email and forgive me, there are always overwhelmingly positive ones too. I don't mean to

disregard those, but the show is for you. And if anyone has a complaint, it matters to me. Customer satisfaction and not wasting your time is my goal in the show. So some guys say, well, what happened? Session resigned. What happened? I have some faith in sessions and folks, I've already told you what's going on here. There's a good and a bad with Sessions. I think I've been clear on this. I don't know where the disconnect is happening. Let me address the bad first with Sessions. And by the way, his resignation yesterday is a good move, unequivocally. At this point, the relationship with the President of the United States is broken. It's not fixable. And it's not fixable because of one big obstacle in the road, Joe. And that obstacle was Sessions' decision to recuse himself. Have we not addressed this

multiple times, Joe? This is an unfixable, unmitigated disaster. His, I think, poorly timed, in March of 2017, an unnecessary decision. I don't care what prognosticators, political pundits tell you. It was a bad call. The Democrats set him up.

Those contacts he had made with the Russian ambassador were perfectly appropriate in his role as the United States senator. There was absolutely no need to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. And what it's done is let the Russia investigation dominate the Department of Justice and dominate our politics, despite the fact that the Mueller probe has found absolutely no evidence whatsoever of collusion. Now, they have found some evidence

of Russians interfering in our elections. That point's been stipulated a long time ago. Good for him for prosecuting it. The collusion case is dead. It's over. It's nonsense. This is a case targeting Donald Trump, not targeting collusion. Sessions' decision to leave was a good one. The recusal was awful.

I have said this. Having said that, though, about Sessions, there were a lot of good things with Sessions, too. And us ignoring it out of some sense of emotional satisfaction makes us no better than the libs. Sessions was doing a really good job on immigration he was doing a great job on immigration he was doing a great job on discrimination in college applications with the department of justice with these colleges that were discriminating against asian americans this stuff was happening ladies and gentlemen we had massive amounts of people in the fbi in the department of justice who were forced to leave their jobs or under investigation right now because their roles in Spygate. Is this happening at a too slow of a pace? Yes. Did I wish all of this was happening faster? Yes. Did I wish Sessions didn't recuse himself? Yes. But I'm not here to give you easy answers.

didn't recuse himself. Yes, but I'm not here to give you easy answers. I'm not, you know, an anonymous Twitter account or any of this other stuff. I'm a real person who has actual sources, some who are right, some who aren't. I'm not patting myself on the back. A lot of you guys have sources too. I'm just saying that the stuff that I've been told actually happened. I had told you about the Andy McCabe thing, the deputy director of the FBI. Then we find out weeks later that there is in fact a grand jury panel. Then the grand jury was looking into Andrew McCabe,

the deputy director of the FBI, who had been terminated. There was stuff happening. Is it happening at the pace we want? No. But it's happening according to a process, and the process matters. People are being looked at. If you heard Sarah Carter last night on Hannity, who has impeccable sources, there are things

going on. I wish it was happening faster. So the good news is, I think this was a good call. Sessions had to go. The bad news is, there are people out there piling on at this point. Oh, you know, it's over. Let's just let it go. Let it go.

There are things happening behind the scenes. There is a grand jury impaneled. People have left. You need the names? Rabicki, Baker, McCabe, Comey, Stroke, Page. The list goes on and on. People who have been forced out. The only ones who aren't, Bill Price, that being one of them at the FBI, I believe, as

I've said in many shows, are working with the Justice Department. And I believe that because Price seems to be the only one. He's a senior manager in the FBI, intimately involved in Spygate. Price Steps keeps appearing on press releases for the FBI. How is it that everybody around him has been fired, Joe, or has walked away and he hasn't? I believe it's because he's cooperating. The question, Joe, cooperating with who?

If there's nothing going on on who's he cooperating with so a guy was upset he's like god damn you told us to have do you have some faith and some patience i didn't tell you to be an idiot i'm not telling you not to be frustrated i'm just telling you that that your friend's having this conversation like oh nothing's going on at all the doj is not doing it they're doing it slow they're doing it slow. They're doing it too slow. There are things I wish would happen quicker, but there are things happening. My suggestion with Sessions is we not pile on at this point. And let me tell you why. Not because I'm sensitive about his feelings. He's not a snowflake. Sessions is a good man. He made a bad call on that recusal, an awful call, and the separation had to happen.

But Joe, there's a real penalty to the pile on at this point. And there's a reason a lot of people who are in the know about what's going on have not piled on Sessions. Oh, get him out. He's the worst. Good. Goodbye. See you.

Sayonara. Take care, buddy. Number one. Joe, there's a Senate seat coming up in Alabama in 2020 yes sir whose Senate seat was it Jeff Sessions yep who's in it now not Jeff Sessions but a Democrat Doug Jones I have a story in the show notes today one about Acosta one about a lot of good stories but one about Sessions as well I didn't mention that in the last segment. That's why I bring it up. Check out the show notes today, please. Please subscribe to my email list. I have an interesting story about Sessions,

that there's some behind the scenes about Sessions potentially running for that seat. Folks, Sessions was a solid conservative vote on just about everything. He also stands a significant chance against an incumbent now, Doug Jones. And listen, it's a red state, Alabama, but Jones won. He's there. Do not take this for granted. A lot of commentators are going, oh, that Senate seat's going to flip. We said that about Montana too. And look at what happened. What happened, Montana? I love you guys and ladies to death. What happened? How could you not get Tester out? I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound, but I live in Florida, which is a purple state.

A purple. This isn't a blood red state like mine. We got rid of Bill Nelson. What happened with Tester? There's no reason to have a Democrat in that seat. I'm so frustrated with what happened in Montana. I can't even tell you. I know the conservatives got out and did your thing. Please don't take it the wrong way. But to some of a lot

of Republicans voted for Tester. How do we know that Joe? Because the registration advantage Republican and Democrats overwhelming. Well, I don't understand why you voted for Tester. This guy's going to give you nothing. You had Rosendale was a perfectly good choice. Now we got to deal with this guy for six years. I say that, don't attack Sessions. We don't need to attack Sessions. You all right? You're looking at me

funny there. I heard a funny noise. Did you hear that? Oh, yeah, yeah. I know. You don't have to cut this out. Folks, I live florida where the power goes out every two seconds my whole office runs on battery that was the battery kicking in okay joe's like i saw the look on your face you're like what the hell is that we're okay folks we're okay it's florida where lightning strikes every it's the lightning capital of the world my whole office is on battery power. That's why. So it clicks on and off when the power goes out. Sessions will likely run for that seat. He will likely win in a resounding manner.

We need the seat. Let's not pile on at this point. This is important. Think long term. Second, who's going to be the new AG? Let me throw a little plan out at you, Joe. What I think to be fair, I've seen other people talk about this too. I don't want to act like this is in any way proprietary information.

But let me just tell you something I'm hearing through kind of some back channels here. Who do you think would be a really good fit for this Attorney General spot right now? And this name might not come, some of you may think of it right away, some of you may, I'm hearing a lot of people say Giuliani and others, fine, all good choices. I've heard Alex Azar's name brought up, the HHS secretary.

We talking a woman here? Nope. No? Although Janice Rogers Brown name has come up, but I like her better for the Supreme Court. He's a guy. Let me give you a hint, Joe. He's Cuban.

He's in Texas. His initials are TC. And he just won a big race. Now, you may say, whoa, Dan. No, hear me out. I don't just bring up simple stuff. Because a lot of you may be saying, obviously, I'm talking about Ted Cruz. I'm being a bit silly.

A lot of you may be saying, Dan, that's a terrible call. Do we really right now want to get involved in another open seat Senate race in a state where Beto, Robert Francis O'Rourke, almost pulled off an upset? Folks, let me explain to you the tactical genius of this if it happens. Folks, let me explain to you the tactical genius of this if it happens. One, you get Ted Cruz almost guaranteed with this new buffer in the Senate, thanks to the pickups in Florida, Indiana, North Dakota. Thanks to the pickups, he's almost absolutely, barring some catastrophe, guaranteed confirmation. We know, and I know Cruz personally, I'm not name dropping, he's just, the guy's a spectacular and a brilliant conservative. He's more than qualified, he was a Solicitor General of Texas, he's a legal genius, and he's just a brilliant guy.

He would be a spectacular Attorney General to advance the constitutional principles we believe in. The downside, which I know Joe, I can see that look in Joe. I know what he's thinking. Do we really want to go through this again in Texas? We just got the guy in there. Just what I was thinking. What if Beto runs again? Folks, Texas is a trap for Democrats.

It has always been a trap for Democrats. Wendy Davis, Betoo think about it they just poured what 70 million dollars into a senate seat in the highest turnout election in midterms you're going to see in your lifetime probably they still lost by four points specials and it depends when they would do the election whatever but they it if they could not win with this, you know, air quotes, rock star Beto, who the media salivated over, this guy had every advantage in the book. They loved Beto.

Robert Francis was the media's dream. He still lost significantly. What's my point? Ladies and gentlemen, money and people, money and people do not grow on trees. Money doesn't grow on trees. My dad used to tell me that.

They don't. Let's make the Democrats pile in again, Joe. Their massive money machine, their massive people machine into Texas for a race they will unquestionably get smoked in. I'm telling you right now, there's a chance, but make them waste their assets right before 22, depending on when this election happens. I'm sorry, I'm not intimately familiar with how the Texas, there would probably be an appointment and they may put it on 2020, whatever it may be. But let's let them pour again their assets into this Beto race that did not go where, Joe? They didn't go into Indiana. They didn't go into Montana,

which was lost by a sliver. They didn't go into West Virginia, which was lost by a sliver. They didn't go into North Dakota, where we won. They didn't go into North Dakota where we won. They didn't go into Florida where we won. They didn't go into the Georgia race where we won. These are monies that did not go into those races. Now, those races were well-funded, but you know how much money was wasted on Beto? Wasted. They lost. Folks, I think it's a tactically genius plan.

Now, I'm a risky cat, unlike my friend. I got this cop friend of mine, Brian. He's my best friend, and he wants to move to Florida. He's the most risk-averse guy ever. He's the hardest working guy I ever met, but he didn't want to move. He's afraid he's not going to get a post-retirement job. Meanwhile, the guy works like 80 hours a week. I'm the most risky cat in the world. I'll do anything. Hey, let's resign to Secret Service and run for office in Maryland. Let's do it. That's when I met Joe. I'll take a risk anywhere. Remember, Joe, let's start a podcast. Who listens to that crap?

That's what people told us three years ago. Nobody listens to that four years ago. Okay, 250,000 people a day tell you otherwise now. But I'm a risky guy. I think this is a risk we're taking. Make these Democrats waste their money and all their assets in another special in Texas or an election in Texas where they will unquestionably get smoked so we can siphon off their assets in another special in Texas or an election in Texas where they will unquestionably get smoked so we can siphon off their assets from other places. I think it's a

genius move. And you get Ted Cruz as Attorney General, a reliable constitutionalist who will never, ever back down, ever. Call me crazy, folks, but I think it's a genius plan. What do you think, Joe? You like that? Yeah. It's ballsy, right? I love it. I love it. I thought of that this morning. I'm like, I got to put that out there. I love the plan. All right. Finally, today's show brought to you by our buddies at We The People Holsters. Hey, listen, We The People Holsters are custom-made holsters made here in the United States of America. I get tons of compliments about We The People because their holsters are the finest out there. I was given a sample of one early in the game when they

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I had a few people really pick up on yesterday's show with the release the Kraken, which I meant. Yeah. Release the Kraken. And some of them did like little promos. There was a group out there that did a promo. They took my audio and actually put it to the new Clash of the Titans movie, the new one, where that Kraken with like 50 tentacles, the scene goes on forever. The initial Clash of the Titans with Harry Hamlin, the Kraken's like the worst animatronic Kraken ever. The new one,

that's a serious Kraken. Release the Kraken. That Kraken's hardcore's hardcore folks this is the path going forward i the only reason i bring it up again is not to repeat yesterday's show but i had mentioned yesterday and i'm starting to see it appear in mainstream outlets that donald trump is considering going forward now declassifying the information after the midterms uh i'm not i'm not in any way suggesting he heard that on my show yesterday i I'm not that arrogant. But again, getting wind and traffic from some people. Declassify everything at this point. There is nothing to lose. And secondly, confirm, confirm, confirm.

Confirm everyone. Mitch McConnell, please, I'm going to say this again. If you're listening, I want a line of people like they're doing a limbo stick, walking in and out of that Senate, being confirmed from now till you're out of office. I have an article up at the show notes from the Daily Signal. There are 32 judicial nominees, Joe, currently waiting a full Senate vote who've been approved by the Judicial Committee. Release the Kraken. Release the Kraken.

Release the Kraken. Get him there. Stat. ASAP. Now, I want you to read this Daily Signal piece because one limitation of my show, to be fair, is my knowledge of internal mechanics of the Senate is limited by what I get from people. The people who work in there full time, understandably, really understand floor time, how it works. And I'm doing my best because I don't like to be information limited at all on

my show, especially because you invest so much time in me, but I'm trying to understand this. So when I read things I find interesting, which I read in this Daily Signal piece, you should check out. I like to pass them on to you. Joe, interesting little tidbit about the release the Kraken strategy on confirming everyone. So declassify everything and confirm everyone. This was a fantastic tidbit of info. Joe, now that we have split government, there is going to be, as they say in the piece, less legislative floor time on the Senate because split government is really a significant obstacle towards. I'm not saying it's a good thing. I'm just saying it's a fact.

When government split, the Democrats are now going to run the House. The floor time for passing stuff, good or bad, is going to be limited because there's just this obstruction. The Democrats are going to say we there's just this obstruction the democrats are going to say we're not doing this the republicans are going to say we're not doing this so when they say that what gets done nothing right when you have a unified government a republican house and republican senate stuff gets passed and stuff gets through i'm not saying it's good stuff i'm just talking about the floor time what does this have to do with releasing the kraken and confirming everyone i think it's jared stepman who writes a piece in the daily signal makes a brilliant observation joe that now that there's less legislative floor time because there's going to be divided government there's a whole lot of floor time to release

the darn kraken and get every one of these appointees confirmed. The Democrats want to obstruct? Fine. Give them their 30 hours of floor debate and keep them in session forever. Keep them in session in perpetuity. I want confirmations happening on Christmas Eve. Listen, Mitch McConnell, if you're listening or someone in your staff is listening, you will become a hero to the conservative movement if you can do this one thing. Get every single person confirmed.

If we're not going to get anything done in the next two years because the Democrats are in the House and we're not going to get better tax cuts or spending control or constitutional stuff we need passed, right? If that's not going to happen and the best you can do over two years is stack the courts with judges who believe in the constitution stack them stack them yes we'll take it then we will take that that is a win that is a big win which. Generational ramifications. Do it. Confirm everyone. Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, New Year's, confirm everyone.

And that point in the Daily Signal piece, which you should read, is a brilliant one. Brilliant! I knew you were going there. Brilliant! I saw it. I saw the finger. I saw it.

Brilliant! Brilliant! There is now a ton of floor time to get all these people confirmed. Do it. Very frosty today. And one more final note before we go. By the way, tomorrow's show is going to be stacked too because I have so many stories I didn't even get to today. Let me just tease one thing for tomorrow's show.

I have to get, I wanted to get to this today, folks, but I'm limited by an hour. This may change in the future, but for now, we're doing an hour show. I want to give you some 2020 reasons for optimism. If you want to read the show notes today, there's a piece about it in the examiner, but there's some real significant green shoots for 2020 and the Trump reelect. I want to get to that tomorrow. It's going to be a longer conversation, so I'm going to pass today. But I want to address one final thing. I got some emails from some people regarding when I had the conversation about Amendment 4 in Florida, where felons were granted the right to vote. And when I say something wrong, I feel the need to correct it and apologize to you. I hope you don't for a second, not for a moment. I hope you didn't think I was attacking your character or anything.

At one point, matter of fact, during the segment, I was very clear to say, I think on this we should do the right thing, not the easy thing. Just like the conversation I had the other day about the friend of mine who is an addict. And I want to get to some of that tomorrow, too. There's a new opioid on the market where there's a big debate breaking out. But I meant what I said. You are always welcome in our movement. If you committed a crime and you have found that moment of redemption, that matters to me.

I did not mean to. That's why I said I was torn on it. And the reason I meant I was torn on it is because I believe the Democrats are pushing this for reasons that I believe in it because I believe it's the right thing. I don't think it has anything to do with redemption that's my problem that's why i said it was torn if you took that as an attack or me trying to somehow be um in any way holier than now that my sincere and deep apologies i am not i am a sinner like everyone else like absolutely in absolute terms i try my best I try to get back on the track, but I fall off it all the time. And I was genuinely touched by some of the emails. You are always, always welcome here. Always. Remember, I'm a Christian. I'm not a preacher. I respect whatever religion and faith you believe in. But it was Jesus Christ dying on the cross that looked over at a criminal in his last moments of life who asked to meet him in heaven, who forgave him right there. Because it was Jesus Christ dying on the cross that looked over at a criminal in his last moments of life who asked to meet him in heaven, who forgave him right there,

because it was a genuine act of redemption. I believe in that, and I feel really awful that some people who have committed crimes in their past and have found the path took it as some kind of an attack on them. It was not meant to be that, and my sincere apologies for that. I mean that. attack on them. It was not meant to be that. And my sincere apologies for that. I mean that. Addicts, broken men and women who've had tough lives growing up, people who've committed crimes, disconservative movements for you too. We believe in big R rights, granted by God, not by man.

I did not mean that as an attack. I was strictly, that's why I kept using the word tactically speaking. The Democrats are not in this for redemption. The Democrats are in this because they want to pad voter rolls for a different reason altogether. And maybe I should have explained that better. My apologies. All right, folks. Thank you so much for all your support. I do read your emails. So does Paula.

She wanted me to, again, thank you for all of the positive emails about getting out and voting, how we inspired you somehow. We deeply appreciate it. It means a lot. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud. You can always listen at Bongino.com. The subscriptions are free.

We're trying our best to keep the show free for forever, hopefully. And we really appreciate the subscriptions. They move us up the charts. So thanks a lot, folks. I'll see you all. You just heard the Dan Bongino Show. Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com. You can also get Dan's podcasts on iTunes or SoundCloud.

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