The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 847 The 2020 Presidential Election Has Already Begun

Episode Date: November 9, 2018

Summary:In this episode I address some positive signs for the Trump 2020 re-election campaign. I discuss why Facebook and Twitter need conservatives more than conservatives need them. I also discuss the controversy behind a powerful new opioid on the market. News Picks:Will President Trump declassify the Spygate documents? The Democrats are already crying foul over the acting attorney general. Liberals blew it in some competitive elections. Was this the Kavanaugh election? Could Papadopoulos blow the Russia hoax wide open? The Democrats are desperate to get their hands on social media companies. 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? It's Friday. Yes, it is. Thankfully, things are working okay, even though it's a bit of a roadshow today. Folks, we had a near catastrophic meltdown of our Adobe Audition

computer thing the other day. Folks, listen, I love you to death, so I always let you in behind the scenes. My greatest fear on this show, as Joe well knows, because when we record a show, my whole heart goes into it and everything. You can't record it twice. Once I'm done with the show, I'm done. And we saved the show the other day, and boom, the computer craps out on me. My technologically advanced wife had to come in and fix the whole thing. That's why the show was up late the other day. So today everything's working good. I was very nervous. All right. A lot of breaking news to talk about. A couple of names being floated for AG. I saw Pam Bondi's name getting thrown out there. The attorney general for Florida. I saw Chris Christie's name creep up, so we had that conversation yesterday about my plan. I think we go with Ted Cruz, and I told you why. Please listen to yesterday's show if you missed it, because I love the idea. I love the

idea of getting Democrats to pour money into Texas again, not pour money into elsewhere, to try to, quote, win his seat. They have absolutely no chance of winning. And we'd have Ted Cruz as Attorney General, so I love it. All right, today's show brought to you by my favorite product for staving off injury and uncomfortableness and back pain and nonsense, Teeter. Teeter. Teeter, like taters with a teeter.

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And one guy, every time we'd go out to eat, he'd love potatoes, any kind of potatoes, hash browns, home fries, baked potatoes, fried potatoes, French fries, potatoes. He was always like, taters, give me some taters. Taters, every time I read about teeter, I think of taters. Taters, need some taters. All right, so the 2020 election, some positive signs we got, folks, coming up on this 2020 elections. Man, I barely see that.

Okay, there we go. My computer screen is so light. 2020 reasons for optimism. This article is actually in yesterday's show notes. I want you to check it out, though, because there are a couple things at's midterms elections. Listen, they weren't great. I get it. It was at best a split decision. I'm not here to smoke you up. It's all good. So wonderful. But I like a positive show. So I want to talk to you about the 2020, because the election started. Wait, you hoping for a day off?

No, no, that's not going to happen. I know Joe wasn't. Actually, he was. We were just talking about that before the show. But I'll disregard that for a second. That's a different conversation. There's no days off. There's no done. There's no, Dan, we just got done with the midterms.

Can we take a break? I'm sorry. We can't. This is our fight, and the fight matters. So I want to point to you some optimistically, some positive signs for the 2020 election, which began yesterday. Number one, ladies and gentlemen, historically, this election was not bad for Trump at all when you consider this in context. I'm not trying to put lipstick on it, but I just want to give you the numbers so you understand that it wasn't all that bad, even on the House side. Clinton, 1994, his first midterm, Bill Clinton, 1994, his first midterm, ladies and gentlemen, was an electoral bloodbath. It was abysmal, awful, one of the worst you're going to ever hear about. He lost 54 House seats and get a load of this. Nine Senate seats. Nine.

NG, no good. Now, it depends. We may lose 30. We may lose 31. But we are definitely going to add on the Senate side. So historically speaking, compared to Clinton, 94, not that bad. Not great, but not that bad. Secondly, one of the biggest routes in electoral history, Obama, 2010 2010 during the Tea Party Revolution, which Joe remembers well. Obama 2010, he lost 63, 63 House seats and six Senate seats.

And the route continued at the state and local level where he eventually wound up losing over a thousand seats. So, ladies and gentlemen, yes, it was not pretty on Tuesday night, but historically speaking, it wasn't that bad. Remember the two examples I just gave you, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, one reelection, both one reelection, by the way, handily, handily. Now, one more example, not in the piece. I'm going to add some of my own commentary. This is in that examiner piece. Ronald Reagan. And i want to correct something i said on fox news because i don't think uh i think it came out wrong and no one really picked up on it but i want to correct it in advance i was on fox and friends the other day

and i cited uh reagan reagan in 1982 his first midterm lost 26 seats in the house reagan went on to win an electoral landslide winning 49 49 out of 50 states. I said that on Fox & Friends, and I think Graby and that does a good job. They didn't misquote me or anything. But in me citing that example, Joe, I think they thought I was hinting that Trump was going to win 49

out of 50 states, too. No, no. I was not saying that. I was saying he lost about the same number as Reagan did, and Reagan won re-election. I didn't mean to insinuate that Trump's going to win 49 out of 50. That's, folks, listen, in the current electoral college dynamic, that's just impossible. I'm sorry. I'd love to see Trump win New York.

The chances of that are highly unlikely, given the demographic changes and the electoral changes we've seen in the state. He's not going to win 49 out of 50 states. That's not what I meant. I just meant, like, Reagan won re-election in a route, Trump stands a good chance to win reelection too. So if you saw that hit, I don't want to lose my credibility on that. That's not what I was saying at all. So I'm just trying to suggest he's got a good shot. So there you go. Number two, folks, Trump motivates the base like few other candidates we've seen out there.

His approval rating amongst Republicans is absolutely sky high. It's in the stratosphere. It's upwards of 90 plus percent, depending on what poll you read. Now, why does this matter? It matters because, you know, I used to quote this guy's article a lot. I haven't in a while, but it's such a good one. There was a writer, he wrote a very good piece a long time ago, this guy Brandon Finnegan. He wrote it at National Review. I used to talk about this piece a lot. And he was talking about how Republicans constantly get this turnout thing wrong. And one of the reasons they get it wrong is they miss the big key to this whole thing is they miss the registration model.

In other words, the Democrats win elections on turnout because they register more voters. By registering more voters, if you get 50% turnout out of 100,000 voters, and the Republicans, this is simple math, Joe, we haven't had Jay Zabacus for a while. Nope, it's ready when we need it, though, Dan. You know what? Get Jay Zabacus out, because some of the new, they may be confused by this. This is for the veterans here, the Dan Bongino show. It's like the Rio Linda thing for Rush.

But get Jay Zabacus out, right? There we go. So, Joe, let me ask you what's probably going to be a higher number using basic math. Do you think 50% of 100,000 is a higher number or is 50% of 90,000 a higher number? So, let's do this. Is half of 100,000 a bigger number than half of 90,000? Get the abacus. Okay.

Jay's abacus. He's moving it around. He's doing the math. It looks like 50% of 100,000, Dan. Yeah, 100,000. Jay, by the way, for those of you who are new listeners, a guy named Jay sent us an abacus because we used to joke about how liberals get basic math wrong.

There you go. It's our thing. We haven't brought it liberals get basic math wrong. There you go. It's our thing. We haven't brought it out in a while. So there you go. Jay's abacus makes its reappearance on the show. Joe is right. 50% of 100,000 means something. So this guy Finnegan's piece was a good one.

It said how the Democrats, the unions, their GOTV, their get out to vote, but their registration stuff matters. They register voters. If you have 100,000 voters registered and 50% show up and Republicans 50% show up and we have fewer registered voters, we lose. It's just simple math. Now, how we keep missing this is bizarre. I'm not saying, well, I don't want to speak in categorical terms. A lot of Republicans get it. Matter of fact, when I was living in Maryland, St. Mary's County, the Republican Party down there in a traditionally Democratic county, did such a great job registering voters that they flipped the county. The county votes largely Republican now because they had registered so many people. I'm simply suggesting to you that Trump motivates the base, but motivating the base isn't good enough if we don't have voters registered first and turn out second.

You understand how all these things have to work in tandem. If they don't work in tandem, if one of those pieces is missing, it all falls apart. Motivation, registration, turnout. Turnout, motivation, registration. I don't care what particular way you want to make it sound or make it sound cutesy or turn it into a meme or whatever you want to do trump motivates like no republican we've seen in the past if we don't show up at the ag fair the county fair outside the gun show and get voters registered, you know how we can't tell them

what to register for, obviously, but you show up outside of a gun show and you're a gun owner, it's probably pretty helpful to be out there registering voters, right? You get what I'm saying? Yeah. The Democrats are great at this.

They go to immigration ceremonies. They register voters. Interestingly enough, a lot of new immigrants like immigrants who become citizens vote Republican, but the Democrats are playing a game ceremonies they register voters yeah interestingly enough a lot of new immigrants like uh immigrants who become citizens vote republican but the democrats are playing a game that a lot of the people are going to vote democrat folks it's a brilliant move we got to get to the gun shows we got to get to the ag fairs the county fairs the frederick county fair in maryland and register

the heck out of new voters we It should be the first question. Question number one, are you registered? Are you registered? I don't know. If you don't know, here's a registration form. Again, you can't tell them what party to register for. But you can be reasonably confident if you're at a Republican booth, Joe. You've been to the county fairs.

I don't know if you've been there. I used to go to the Frederick County Fair. Love it. You're going. Oh, it's the best one in Maryland. I love it. It's better than the state fair. I used to go there all the time Fair. Love it. You're going. Oh, it's the best one in Maryland. I love it. It's better than the state fair. I used to go there all the time.

There's this huge Republican tent there. It's right across from one of the buildings they have in there where they have the exhibits and all the art inside. And they'd sit there. And if they're approaching the Republican tent, there's a damn good chance, if they're not registered, that they may likely vote Republican in the future. Registration matters. Why does it matter?

Because he motivates the base. That's what matters. Motivating the base doesn't mean squat if you're not registered to vote. Now, why does this vote motivation matter? Because turnout matters. Why does turnout matter? Because we're spread out. Democrats aren't.

It's harder for us to register people as an example of simple logistics think about it folks listen i hate self self-praise thinks big time my aunt god rest her stole jane she was my godmother she's telling me self-praise thinks that it does but i've run i know where that i get i know how this works the reason it was harder for me in m when I ran in Congressional District 6, which is Mountain, Maryland, and the D.C. suburbs. It's two almost completely distinct areas. The reason it was harder for us to register voters is if we were in the Maryland mountains

in Allegheny County and Garrett County, there was a house that was walking 50 feet. There was another house. There was a house walking 100 feet, another house. That's not a problem in Gaithersburg or Germantown or Damascus. Well, certain parts of Damascus, but you just walk from apartment to apartment. The Democrats know those are Democrat areas. They register the snot out of people. You can register 20 people for every one time it takes Republicans. Oh, so it's hard. So we're going to give up.

No, we're not. I'm simply telling you that Trump is dominating in the motivation factor. Rural voters, farm voters, ex-urban voters, people who live on the fringes of the suburbs. There are enough people if we can get to them. And yes, it's going to take time. And the logistics are hard because people are spread out. We don't live in cities like Democrats do. We do. I'm saying in concentrations.

I don't, I'm not speaking in categories. You get my point. Cities are dominated by Democrats. It is harder for us to register voters, but we have to do it. One final example on this one. I don't mean to go on, but this is so important because 2020 is on. It's on right now. You pretending it doesn't, doesn't make it go away.

The presidential election has already started. Larry Hogan, I use this example not because I want to batter you with Maryland politics, but I've run two states. I'm intimately familiar with how politics work. And what happened in Maryland is a fascinating phenomenon. And what happened in Maryland is a fascinating phenomenon. When Larry Hogan is a Republican, first won the governorship back in 2014, it was an enormous upset. What would you say, Joe?

15 to 1? Oh, nuts, yeah. Maybe 20 to 1. I mean, nobody took him seriously. Nobody. I'm telling you, I'm not even going to go into the behind-the-scenes details of what was going on in that thing. It was a disaster nobody gave not him but they that nobody gave him a shot in hell of winning

that race he pulled it off he went he just won re-election and overwhelmingly just destroyed ben jealous in a deep blue state a republican but i went later on and i analyzed the data because i had thought about running for governor in mary Maryland at one point and I changed my mind. I was very familiar with the vote tallies in that state. And I had said to myself at one point that it wasn't worth doing because I was sure that the rural counties, Carroll County, Northern Frederick, Allegheny, Garrett, that the vote tallies, folks, I was sure I had done my homework. And this is, listen, I'm telling you the truth, even though it makes my electoral analysis look bad, because the truth matters. I had done this on a spreadsheet six different ways from Sunday. And I had come to the conclusion that there was no way there were enough rural votes in Maryland

to win a statewide race for governor to overcome Baltimore City, Prince George's County, and Montgomery County, the DC suburbs. I had done, folks, Maryland has, what is it, 26 plus one counties plus the city. I had come to the conclusion that those three jurisdictions, Montgomery, Prince George's, and Baltimore, that the rest of the 20-plus counties, there was not enough votes. Oh, gosh, was I wrong. Why? I was wrong because I didn't factor in turnout and registration.

People were pissed. Joe remembers that Joe lives in Maryland. Remember that? The rain tax? People were furious. People living in rural areas who hadn't voted in 20 years, who were registering to vote, they were furious. The Maryland economy was being decimated by this stupid rain tax.

I did not factor in unprecedented turnout. Shame on me. I think I could have won that race. And Larry wound up winning. He just won re-election. I'm telling you, the votes are out there. New York and California have a lot of people. So does the rest of America. There are 330 million people.

A large swath of them are still shockingly not voting. You got to get out and vote. Trump motivates the base like any other. 2020 starts. Register, motivate, vote. It's that simple, folks. It's that simple. I know the logistics are tough. You got to drive to a farm. You got to drive to an exurb, get back in your car, drive down the road. Democrats can just go door to door in apartment buildings. That difficult does not mean that we shouldn't do it.

We got to do it. All right. I was going to say Ohio and Florida, but I'll do that last. Let me talk about this part. The Democrats. The Democrats are going to now own gridlock in the House. This is a bad sign for the country. But again, I'm talking about tactics here.

Remember the new rules. We win, you lose. That's what we're committed to now. Because that's how the Democrats feel about us. We win. We have to exercise raw political power. The one thing we can do constitutionally. Because we don't intimidate or attack people like the left did showing up at Tucker Carlson's house.

That's not our bag of donuts. That's their thing. We do it the right way. But the right way means we got to win. Now, tactically speaking, the Democrats now being in charge of the House of Representatives are coming soon

and having likely Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House creates an interesting foil because now the Democrats own it. Remember, folks, you can define yourself in politics sometimes by negation. Don't ever, ever forget this by negation don't ever ever forget

this lesson i don't care what any political pundit who pretends they know what they're talking about tells you they don't if they deny this politics is nice and flowery message and hope and change that does work a lot but you can also define yourself by what you're not by negation that is what the democrats did in this just recent 2018 midterm election. Joe, how did they define themselves? I'm not Donald Trump, right? That's it. We are not Donald Trump.

We're going to go after this guy. If you don't like him, then we like you. Gotcha. Tell me what else their message was. Tell me. Anyone? Their message was, I'm not Trump. They ran against Trump.

You can define yourself by what you're not in politics. Now, you also should present some kind of a legislative package. I think that's why the Democrats didn't do as well as they could have, as I just explained, compared to the Clinton years and the Obama years. Newt Gingrich had the contract with America. The Tea Party had the tax rebellion and the anti-government health care message that they were going to propose free market solutions, and they won. The Democrats didn't have a message. Their message was, Trump sucks, man. That was it.

But they still won. The problem is a lot of these people go on TV, and I don't know if it's to sound cutesy or what, like, you can't define yourself by a negative. You need a positive. Yeah, it's nice, but that's not true. The evidence is, you're just making that up. You can absolutely win elections by stating what you're not.

Now the Dems own the house. Watch all the kooky stuff that starts coming out of the house people will die play it again sam people will die there you go this is what you're gonna get people will die if we don't pass medicare for, tax hikes. Trump can now define himself by what he's not. He clearly right now has a what he is. I'm for tax cuts. How do we know that? Because he passed them. We know he's for tax cuts.

We know he's for massive government deregulation. We know he's for spending cuts. Well, I want to be careful. I don't want to be too golden caffy. They did sign a grotesquely high spending bill, but he's come out and said he's not going to sign another one, so I've got to hold him in his word until he proves me wrong. We know what he's for.

Limited government. We know he's for appointing constitutional Supreme Court justices. Why? Because we've seen two of them already. We know the judges at the district and circuit court level have been amazing. We got that. But filling out that tactical, strategic, political puzzle, also you need to describe yourself by negation what you were not.

Now he's going to have the chance, Joe, to say, look, look at what Pelosi's doing over in the house. They run the house and look at this crap. Look at this steaming pile of horse manure coming out of the house. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to protect you against that. This is a good thing. Not a good thing we lost, but it's a good thing messaging-wise and tactically. It allows Trump to define himself against a foil.

A diamond always looks better against the deep, dark background. Always. That's why when you look at diamonds in a jewelry store, they have that plush black thing and it's not white because the diamond looks incredibly bright on that background. It's a foil. Trump has a foil now. What was his foil before? The Republican House? How's that going to motivate the vote? Those guys really suck. They're doing terrible things. But vote Republican.

Oh, wait, what? Now he's got Pelosi there. I'm not happy we lost the House, but I'm telling you for the 2020 reelect. And by the way, listen to my day after the election show where I discussed how we're going to get a lot of those House seats back now because now a lot of these House seat members in swingy districts are now going to have to take actual votes against their constituents' interests. They're not going to be able to run on hopey-changey stuff anymore. They're going to have records to vote on. And I don't know how swing district voters are going to like it when their new Democrat House members who just won these seats start voting for tax hikes. People will die.

Absolutely. Of course they will. Remember the montage we had? People will die. People will die. That was great. Cue that up, Joe. Let's try that one again, right? So, in a new agenda, if we cut taxes as Republicans,

Joe, what will happen? People will die. If we implement patient-controlled health care rather than government health care, what will happen? People will die. If we get control of the student loan market by turning it over to free markets, what will happen? People will die. If we allow parents to choose excellent public schools rather than failing public schools, what will happen? People will die. If we allow parents to choose excellent public schools rather than failing public schools, what'll happen? People will die. If we get control over the bankrupt entitlement programs, Medicare,

Medicaid, Social Security, what'll happen? People will die. If we control government spending so we don't go bankrupt tomorrow, what'll happen? People will die. If we allow people to believe in the Bill of Rights and don't become a government of positive rather than negative constitutional rights for the government, what'll happen? People will die. Yes, you're right.

Actually, you're wrong. You're wrong. Wrong. We haven't done that in a while. We used to do it with Bernie, but sometimes I think Elizabeth Warren's even better. That's the problem. You're going to have two years of this wackadoodle stuff now.

Now he's got to foil. All right, I got one more that's the most important, and it's very sensitive to me because I live in one of these states, but this is critical. So the 2020 good signs and reasons for optimism in the re-elect. Historically speaking, this was not bad. That's number one. Clinton and Obama got routed far worse, and both won re-elect. Historically speaking, this was not bad. That's number one. Clinton and Obama got routed far worse

and both won re-election. Trump motivates the base. So if we get them registered and we turn them out, we win. Just like Larry Hogan did. He found votes where I couldn't find them using my math program.

The Democrats are now a foil. They couldn't say that before. They didn't control anything. Now they control the house. They will be giving us the people will die speech every day for the next two years. We now have a foil. All right, there's one more, but let me just get to this. We've got to pay for the show. Appreciate our sponsors. Hey, if you're like me, the list of books you want to read or those that people suggest to you is never ending and always expanding. I've got an easy solution for you. You simply don't have the time to read all those books, so our sponsor Blinkist, Blinkist, has solved your long list of must-reads once and for all.

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Go to Blinkist, that's like blink, like blinking your eyes, I-S-T, Blinkist.com slash Dan, to start your free seven-day trial. That's Blinkist, B-L-I-N-K-I-S-T.com slash Dan to start your free seven-day trial. Blinkist.com slash Dan. Okay, last one of the four takeaways. Why 2020 may be looking pretty good for us. Florida and Ohio. Ladies and gentlemen, if Donald Trump does not win Florida and Ohio in 2020,

I see no path to re to reelection for Donald Trump. I don't even see it being close, as a matter of fact. That is the weirdest thing ever. I cannot see the time. Joe, I got like a flashlight up in here. Did you see that, Joe? The lighting looks good, but yeah. Yeah, I have my studio lighting on rather than the overhead,

but I can't see the timer on the thing. It's driving me crazy. That's why. Yeah. So the Florida and Ohio races were important. We won Florida and Ohio in the midterms in the gubernatorial. Most of you know this, but Mike DeWine won pretty resoundingly in Ohio. And Ron DeSantis, a great candidate, who, disclosure, I had campaigned for. I don't want anybody being misled. I support Ron. I know Ron. We're not like best friends, but I know Ron. He's a good candidate. He's a strong conservative. He won in a surprising fashion, by the way,

down here in Florida. It wasn't a huge margin, but it was a pretty handy one. Why does that matter? Why does that matter for Trump? One interesting point in this Washington Examiner piece, again, it's in yesterday's show notes. I don't like reprinting articles. I have a new series of them today. In yesterday's show notes, and it talks about some 2020 signs there. Joe, the losers in the Ohio and Florida races, Richard Cordray and Andrew Gillum, respectively. Listen to this.

The losers got more votes than the winners in previous elections. Wow. Why does that matter? That's a fascinating point. I was like blown away by this. Andrew Gillum and Richard Cordray got more votes than Rick Scott and John Kasich when they won.

What does that tell you? Let me parlay back to number two. Trump motivates the base in other words the democrats had their turnout machine their voter registration drives and their voters show up in such unbelievable fashion they got more votes than the guys who won in the last election and they still lost matter of fact they got smoked in Ohio. We have the meat. What the hell was that?

That was the greatest thing ever. That's the commercial, right? What's the commercial? What's it from? Barbies. Barbies. Dude, that is hysterical. That funny bro that was funny thank you Daniel oh man Ohio and Florida they turned out everything they had they got more votes than the winners last time and they still lost what does that tell you? That tells you that for all the beatings the Republican Party gets.

I get it. I'm talking about the party. The actual. I'm not talking about the ideology. I mean the strategic party. The county parties. The leadership. The chair people.

I'm talking about the actual people. Forget about the ideology. Tax cuts. Health care. I forget that for a second. I'm talking about the physical party. The infrastructure in these states is awesome. The Democrats turned out everything they had and still lost.

Texas, too. We're rock star Beto. Beto. Oh, Beto. Oh, Beto. The media losing their minds over Beto. They still lost trump turns out to vote and the infrastructure was there the people the offices the machinery to get people out to the polls and to get them registered ladies and gentlemen why does that

happen it happens because and this is this is why we win new rules. We win, you lose new rules. This is why it matters to me so much. For a long time, let me give another self-deprecating moment and self-critical moment because it matters. I was under the belief a long time ago when Barack Obama won his first term that it wasn't such a bad thing

because the Americans needed to see how bad liberalism is before we course correct. I believe that. I did. I'm like, you know what? We'll get this guy in and he'll be so bad, which he was. He was awful. The worst economic recovery in modern American history. First president to not reach 3% GDP growth ever, ever. Obamacare, $9 trillion in debt. And folks, he got reelected in a near landslide. Power matters. And sadly, a lot of people vote based on charisma. They don't vote based on how it,

they just don't. I wish they did. The same people who got hurt the worst by up let me prove it to you folks the same people who were devastated by obamacare voted him in in massive margins young people do you understand do you even the obamacare specifically targeted you they implemented community, which made you pay for your mother's, father's, and your grandparents' health care.

That's... Kids, young ladies and men, I'm talking to you. Obamacare screwed you. The community raiding... I love your grandparents and your parents. I'm one of them. I'm talking to my daughter now. But I have more assets than my 14 year old daughter who's four years away from having

to get mandatory insurance. I can keep her on my plan later, but she's four years away from adulthood. I have, I don't know, I'm being generous, a hundred thousand times, a million times more of the assets than my daughter. Obamacare made my daughter, through community rating, pay for my health care because they instituted a formula that said you can't charge old people this much. Well, what happened? Someone had to pay then because old people, older people, chronologically get sick more. It's just a matter of fact.

So who paid? Young kids out there. You paid. You got worked. You got screwed. And yet they voted. People don't vote on ideas all the time. They vote on charisma.

I don't want to get too far off point. That is my point. They don't vote. The young people got screwed by Obamacare and voted Obama in. The point I'm trying to make is infrastructure and power matter. Do not fall into this trap I did that, oh, eventually everybody will see how bad it is. No, they won't. Listen to me. They won't see how bad it is. They will not. FDR prolonged the Great Depression for years and people voted him in over and over and over again. Power matters.

Never, ever, ever relinquish it. Under any circumstances. New rules. We win, you lose. That's our goal. That's the only goal. We win these offices everywhere. That's the only goal. We win these offices everywhere.

That is the only goal. Because the left feels the same way. Folks, when they get in power, things change. Now, keep in mind what we're talking about. I don't want to lose you. We're still talking about Ohio and Florida. Why this makes a difference. When the governor's in power here, there are appointments,

massive numbers of appointments that open up other spots. If you're appointed to some kind of a cabinet position, or most of them are elected down here, but some kind of, say, bureaucratic position. Let me just say, say you're appointed chief of staff for Ron DeSantis, the governor-elect in Florida. And you're a chairman of a local

Okeechobee County Republican Central Committee, whatever it is, then Joe, what else opens up? The Okeechobee County Central Committee chairman, who then has to be recruited from the ranks of the board. And then the board has to be filled. And then they go out into the public. And then they go,

hey, is anyone interested in joining the Republic? Do you see how creating a power network, power matters, especially when you're limited government people like us that want to restrict power? You need power to restrict power. Does that make sense? Because when you let the other guy in power who doesn't want to restrict power, they abuse it. When we're constitutional conservatives that give you back your money, your healthcare, and your firearm rights, we need the power to do that. You have to sign the legislation protecting this stuff.

Sadly, I wish you didn't. Federalist 51, right? If men were angels, they're not. Power matters. Don't ever give it up. The fact that we won the highest office in the land in Ohio and Florida means that there will be appointments. There will be spots to fill. There will be recruitments. There will be multiple recruitments. It cascades all the way down. When you lose power, all that stuff gets flushed out. All of it. I'll give you a perfect example. Again, outside of Florida and Ohio. Going back just to Maryland.

Maryland that had a Republican governor for eight years, O'Malley. I mean, excuse me, Democrat. He had the whole state was all Democrat appointees everywhere. Hogan comes in, starts appointing friends of mine to positions. I remember Wendy Peters. Wendy Peters gets in. It turns into a big political fight. She's a fantastic woman, by the way.

Wendy Peters' profile goes up times a thousand. She was in the paper every day because Larry Hogan appointed her. There was some confirmation thing. He didn't want to pay her. Her profile, Wendy Peters could run for anything she wants right now. She was almost unknown before that. She was a council person or a city council person somewhere. Forgive me, Mount Airy, I believe.

Now her profile's times it down. This matters. Power matters. We now run the states in florida and ohio it is time to get those appointments in to get the and to get the bureaucrat the bureaucracy settled with our appointees and most importantly to get the county committees the republican chairs in place to get the registration drives up having access to power matters especially when you want to limit power. Infrastructure matters. Don't forget,

Florida and Ohio, the losing candidates turned out more votes than the winner last time. They were ready, but we were readier. We were the readier, readiest. Don't sleep on the party.

I get mad at the party a lot. Again, I'm talking about the party, the actual people. I do. Because sometimes it's almost fashionable, you know, and sadly, sometimes you fall in that trap. Ah, these politicians. Listen, I can't stand politics. That's why I'm not running again.

But these people on the ground and these county committees are you and I, folks. They do a lot of hard work. My buddy Jerry DeWolf up in Maryland just won a big case in that redistricting that Maryland 6 race these are rank and file on the ground people working their butts off knocking on doors have that infrastructure in place it matters big time

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My phone's always running out of batteries now. So I had mentioned a few weeks ago about this, the Facebook, Twitter, the deplatforming that's going on,

the attacks by social media companies and web companies on conservatives, which is very real. You denying it does not make it go away. You aren't,

of course, but there are some people out there on the liberal side pretending this is all made up. And I want to hat tucker carlson who has been all over this on fox news he has been covering this every day because it is such a serious story we are being uh basically free speech rights are under attack not by government but by by uh almost by worse by platforms that can shut us down completely everywhere all the time government you can escape at this point we don't nobody knows how to get away from Facebook. I had said to you, though,

that I think the loophole in this, because I am not for expanding the powers of government, that's just trading one demon for the next. But there is a way to do this, and the way to do it is by electoral content. Facebook made a tragic mistake censoring pro-life ads from the Susan B. Anthony list, and they also censored an ad by Marsha Blackburn, who, Joe, I don't believe, I believe these things are connected. I don't want to attribute her win to Facebook,

but Marsha Blackburn beat Phil Bredesen, the Democrat in Tennessee, handily. A lot of the free attention she got from them with the Streisand effect was from them censoring her ads now we talked about this a few weeks ago the Streisand effect when Barbara Streisand asked a bunch of reporters to stop taking photos of her house what happened the photos of her house went viral uh because everybody's like don't take these photos don't nobody look at this nobody

it reminds me of the Ren and Stimpy episode don't remember when uh Ren Stimpy tells him Ren don't touch the red button. And he's like, and he can't do it. The finger's over the red button. And he's like, nobody even knows what the red button does. And he's got to do it. That's the Streisand effect. So Facebook saying, nobody look at this Marsha Blackburn pro-life ad

led to what? Everybody going on and looking at the ad, Marsha Blackburn wins convincingly. Again, are they one-to-one connected? Probably not, but I'm not going to say it hurt her. I don't think it did. It gave her a lot of free attention. But I had said to you that this Facebook thing is dumb. Listen, I know we have Facebook employees that listen. And if you have any influence in the company, Twitter, Facebook, Google, you're making a huge mistake, fellas and ladies, a huge mistake. You are abandoning the free market, liberty-based side,

big R, God-given rights side of this American ideological schism right now. You are making enemies in the wrong places. What just happened, Joe? Well, I mentioned it last week that now there are these European countries that are looking at a tax on Facebook, on profits. Facebook, Google, um amazon and others profits earned within their country listen to this not where the headquarters is located this is important right now the pro the uh the not when i talk about sales taxes we're talking about taxes on on revenues overall if you headquarter, domicile your company

in Ireland, a traditionally low tax country, I think it's 12.5% their corporate tax. A lot of companies move there because Ireland has very reasonable corporate tax rates, thanks to Donald Trump and the House Republicans like the United States has now. We could get it lower, but it's a lot lower than it was, 21%. What does that mean, Joee that means if you move to a generally low tax country you can escape your money being confiscated all over the world by governments that just want to steal your dough yeah well what does this have to do with facebook well the europeans who can't stand ireland by the way I'm not talking about the people. I'm talking about their economic situation.

The Europeans can't stand it that Ireland has a 12.5% tax rate because all these companies are moving there to get away from their high-tax European states. Yeah. So they said, Joe, you know, we're going to do this thing with Facebook, Amazon, others. We're going to do this thing where you pay taxes

where the money's earned, not where your headquarters is. Oh, are you? And the tax is not small, others. We're going to do this thing where you pay taxes where the money's earned, not where your headquarters is. Oh, are you? And the tax is not small, folks. It's like 3%. You're talking about a massive, massive tax bill for these companies. What does this have to do with Facebook and social media censorship? Who's saving them, folks?

Let's take a second and think about this. Who's saving them right now? Yes, conservatives, you dopes. The same conservatives, you idiots at these companies, not the working people. I'm talking about the liberal management. Continue to attack are the ones saving your collective arses right now. It looks like this locality tax on Facebook and Amazon and others, which is going to be massive and is going to crush these companies, Joe, it looks to be going down in flames. Why?

Because conservatives in Ireland and the United States and elsewhere are collectively advocating for the same imbeciles at Facebook that are attacking conservatives all the time. for the same imbeciles at Facebook that are attacking conservatives all the time. It's so frustrating with these morons. Continue to alienate us. We're the ones protecting your company's interests while you dopes continue to attack us.

So stupid. I'm really, I'm half of the mind, Joe, sometimes to say, let him flail. Flail, not fail. Let him flail. I don't want him to fail because there are good people that work there, but let him flounder. Let him flail out there. Let him figure it out on their own. But you know what, folks? And this is why I'm proud to be a conservative. We just don't do that. We just don't. Principles matter to us, and we just don't. We don't want to see people lose their jobs. We don't want to see good companies fail because they have stupid management. If they're good companies fail, they're making money and providing a service. We want to see the workers do well, the company do

well. It's not in conservatives' heart to say bankrupt and screw it. It's just not. So we still fight for principles economic liberty and freedom even when these idiots at these companies joe continue to attack us ruthlessly i warned you guys at you companies if you're listening you need conservatives listen to me we don't need you we don't we like your product we don't like you guys the liberals attacking. We like your product. We don't like you guys, the liberals attacking us, but we thought we wouldn't use it. I like Twitter. I like how it works. I don't like the management. I like Facebook. I don't like the management. I'm not really crazy about Facebook, but Twitter,

I like. We like you, but we don't need you. I don't need you anymore either. I've reached the glide path, Joe and I. We've reached nearly a quarter million people a day. We don't need you anymore. It's nice. It's cute. It's helpful. I don't need it. I'm not going to kiss your butts.

I'm not doing any of that. We don't need you anymore. You need us. Don't ever forget that. And I saw that story. It was in the wall street journal the other day about how basically conservative oriented lawmakers and all these european countries are the ones fighting for these guys and i thought isn't that ironic as these same people fight against us unreal unbelievable

all right sorry joe's like where you going i had to check the word so all right i'm just so i know okay good yeah it's like super i have my studio lights on it's uh it's freaking me out all right this is something i've wanted to cover for a long time oh hey one more thing uh by the way can you do me a favor folks i i rarely ask this kind of Don't worry, it doesn't involve money or anything like that. But I'm asking you for a favor. I know it's post-election. A lot of you are a little tired, and I understand that. I get it. But there is a very, very important inside baseball election coming up. By inside baseball, I mean you won't be able to vote in it, but you will be able to voice your opinion in it. Now, I want to put me up to this. This is me on my own. I want to be clear on this. Jim Jordan is up for what now will be minority leader in the House.

Joe's giving me the thumbs up because he knows what I'm about to say, and he knows this guy too. Jim Jordan is a good man, folks. Disclosure, I know Jim Jordan. Again, we're not best friends, but I know Jim well enough. The congressman is a dignified, good man. He's a man who cares about life. Can I just tell you a quick story? When I met him when I was running for Senate, I had met a lot of people and they would give lip service to the pro-life stuff. Yeah, you pro-life? Yeah. okay, great. Not him.

I mean, he sat me down and it was like an inquisition on where I was on life. I'm not kidding. I never forgot that because it showed me, one, he understood the issue. He understood all of the legislation. He understood how to advance life, how to protect life,

how to protect life from conception and natural death. He understood all the nuances of it. And he quizzed me to death. I was running for office. I never, ever forgot this. It was my first meeting. He took a lot of time out of his busy day. This guy gives a damn.

I'm asking you a small favor. Please, if you wouldn't mind, send a nicely worded email to your congressman. Because, listen, it's an inside baseball election. They don't take threats and stuff, which we should never do anyway. I don't mean threats like physical. I mean like, damn it, you better, just send a nice one that you voted for your congressman.

You would, and by the way, only Republicans vote in this. So if it's a Democrat congressman, I don't want you to waste your time. But if you would, well, actually I take that back. It is, but just send the email, especially to a democrat congressman don't i don't want you to waste your time but if you would well actually i take that back it is uh but just send the email especially to your republican congressman but send an email call the office and just say hey we voted for you we supported you i would deeply appreciate it if you would consider jim jordan for speaker please if we can do it in numbers big enough and you guys and ladies always come through you always send me emails and stuff it'll make a difference jim jordan is a conservative we need we need him i have nothing against the other guys running it is not personal i'm just telling you i know this guy is the guy

to lead us into a new conservative future jim jordan please i'm humbly asking okay thank you okay um last story of the day i still haven't got this middle class thing been on this forever there is a new opiate that was just approved by the fda and in light of what i was talking about the other day with addiction ladies and gentlemen i'm having a hard time getting my arms around why this is such a complicated decision with the United States government here, why it was. And people are in an uproar over it. There's a new opiate that's supposedly multiple times as powerful as like oxycodone and Vicodin, which are some of the more powerful oral opiates we have now. Obviously, there's an addiction problem in the country. I have no doubt about that. I'll get to that in a second. But this is an interesting... I don't usually get into stuff

like this, but this article really hit home for me. They developed a new opiate, Joe. It's super powerful. Obviously, strong addiction potential if it's abused. It's called Desuvia, D-S-U-V-I-A. It's only going to be available in hospitals. You're not going to be able to take it home with you. It's not going to be prescribed. It's available in hospitals. It's only to be used for three days. It's extremely powerful. The drug was just approved, thankfully. And I say thankfully because one of the drug, the active component of the drug has been around for a while, Joe. But the way they now deliver it, it looks like a syringe underneath the tongue. You don't inject it. You just deliver like a syringe underneath the tongue you don't inject

it you just deliver like a sublingual tablet the reason they needed this opiate was for a perfectly explainable and legitimate application the battlefield we have soldiers in combat now in the united states i mean uh in the United States military and elsewhere around the world who are fighting, who will be in excruciating pain if hit by gunfire, subject to an IED. Some of them cannot swallow. Some of them, the injection's not practical. So what they did is they have this almost like syringe-like delivery device, Joe, that inserts a sublingual pellet right underneath the tongue, and it dissolves instantly, and it has the pain-relieving effects multiple times as effective as anything we have out there now wow yeah yeah wow

was right it's a miracle modern science having said that i believe me i get it i've lived with it not personally in my talking about my family i understand there's addiction potential but ladies and gentlemen i get this a lot from people too. There are people out there, hundreds of thousands of people who understand how to responsibly use this medication. We can't keep sticking the government in everybody's lives because some people fall off the wagon, make mistakes and get addicted. I'm sorry, we just can't. These things have practical applications. There are people living with real pain who these drugs provide real relief. I'm not, ladies and gentlemen,

let me be crystal clear. I have no, I'm not a lobbyist. I have no connection to these people. I don't even know the company that makes the darn drug. I couldn't even tell you what the generic name is. Maybe that is a generic.

I don't know. I'm just saying the fact that people argued against this when there's a perfectly applicable use for it in the real world, even for our soldiers. We have to stop this helicopter society. I get it. We have a serious addiction problem. I totally, completely understand. I have lived with it. I still live with it in my family. It's horrible. It's backbreaking. It is emotionally family. It's horrible. It's back-breaking. It is emotionally exhausting.

It is horrible. But the government does not have the answer here. The government, whatever they ban stuff, what do they do, Joe? We talked about yesterday with the gun stuff. They just create a black market which enriches a bunch of drug dealers and makes the situation worse.

Getting people healthy, maybe public education programs. I i don't know i don't have any easy answers for human beings we're all sinners we all make mistakes but the fact that this drug which had a perfectly i read the story i was fascinated that there were so many people lobbying against this despite the fact that it's it's out there it's been invented this joe we already have a problem with fentanyl and all this other stuff and everybody fought against it saying well the addiction potential is like well the folks that goes for anything we have to stop being like this mommy and daddy uh overly paternalistic maternalistic society where where everybody else's needs are sidelined because some people make mistakes. Addiction is a serious thing.

I live with it. That's why I have a soft spot for anyone who's struggling with this. You are children of God. You are welcome in our movement and with me anytime. I totally get it. I've seen it. You get up, you fall, you get up, you fall, you get up, you fall. There's no clear path sometimes.

But these are good men and women who struggled and are struggling now. God you i we love you on this show you are welcome here you are brothers and sisters but we cannot legislate an entire society away where there's perfectly applicable uses for these drugs for people who are really hurting because we have a problem with some people who have gotten into trouble with them it's just it's absurd i read the piece i the piece. I was like, you know what? I have to address that tomorrow because I just thought to myself, this is just a government coming in, pretending to fix things and doing nothing. I can do a damn thing. They're just going to make it worse for the heroin, fentanyl and other market. Meanwhile, you have this drug that God forbid a soldier loses an arm on a battlefield and is in pain. You and I thankfully will never imagine. and they can slip this thing under his tongue and get him to even feel better for a few minutes while they get a medical attention.

I'll take it. Thanks. I'll take the chance. All right, folks, I was just giving my personal tie to the story. It meant a lot to me. So I appreciate your time today. It's been another great week of shows. Please, if you wouldn't mind, subscribe to the show. It's free. iTunes, iHeart, SoundCloud,

Spotify. You can also listen at Bongino.com. And please recommend the show to a friend. It's been your recommendations and word of mouth that have made this the now number three conservative show in the country. So conservative podcast, we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot, folks. I'll see you again on Monday. iTunes or SoundCloud. And follow Dan on Twitter 24-7 at DBongino.