The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 876 This is the Make-or-Break Moment

Episode Date: December 20, 2018

In this episode I address President Trump’s most important fight: the border wall. This is the make-or-break moment for President Trump. I also address the stunning revelations about prominent Republicans' roles in the scheme to take down the Trump team. Finally, I address another privacy scandal brewing at Facebook and what it means for you.    News Picks: The judge in the Gen. Flynn case strikes again, this time ordering asylum seekers back to the United States.   These prominent Republicans have been outed for their roles in the dissemination of the dirty dossier.    What did this John McCain associate do to promote the dirty dossier?   You are the product being sold on Facebook.    One-third of Americans say they would pay for the border wall themselves if Congress doesn’t fund it.   This poll indicates that government is the problem in America.   RINO Jeff Flake cannot stop damaging the Republican Party.      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 i'm doing good how you doing there uh yeah yeah what a day yesterday filled in for sean on tv uh filled in for sean hannity on the too. We even slipped in on the radio a couple of erroneous drops and a mob of the meatloaf drops. That was an ode to you podcast listeners out there. Wanted to give you a little shout out. I even said on Sean's radio show, for those of you who listen to my podcast, you know what that means. We slipped that. For those of you who listen to my podcast, you know what that means.

Ethan was kind enough to slip a moth of meatloaf in there. There you go. So a lot going on. Thank you. A heartfelt, and I mean it, a deep heartfelt thank you for the overwhelming positive feedback yesterday on my first guest hosting appearance on Fox News for Sean Hannity. I'll be back again tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern on the Fox News channel. Thank you to everyone that tuned in and your feedback was tremendous. I appreciate it. I think I got one negative. They said I sounded a little robotic in the beginning. Yeah, you're right. But folks, you have to understand, it's the Fox News

channel and you have to do it the Fox way first before you can do it your way you get what i'm saying it's your first you know wpig yeah yeah exactly it's only the biggest cable news channel on the planet you have to kind of do it their way first before you could do uh the damn bongino way but i assure you and i say this out of no air of hubris or pretension at all um i was there was no anxiety about it uh nothing i just uh i just did me and and and when you're you know when you're it's sean's show it's not mine you have to do of course what the producers uh uh put up there and it was fun they have great producers i thought the content uh was was great so i appreciate all the feedback you all are really wonderful and i want you to know that everything you sent, all of your emails, my wife and I read them all. And it means a lot to

me. So thanks a lot. It was a really interesting experience. I'll maybe talk a little bit more about it after the show. Some of you probably be interested in how this stuff works. But today's show brought to you by our buddies at Helix. Helix, this is the best mattress out there right now. You will never get a more cost-effective, more comfortable mattress out there because there's nobody on the planet like you. So why would you buy a generic mattress built for everyone else? True story. We have one of these, right? And it's for my daughter. But my wife at night sometimes reads my daughter, my youngest, Amelia, stories. And my wife likes the mattress so much, she falls asleep with my daughter on the full size. I'm like, hey, where's Paula? She's not here. She fell asleep on the Helix Sleep mattress. Helix Sleep built a sleep quiz. It takes two minutes of your time

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I want to get to the revelations in a daily caller piece finally joe it's come out about the gop swamp involvement in the dossier which is documented extensively in my book spygate but some stuff came out of it before i get that i want to get to the pressing news about the border wall uh folks we're in a real political crisis right now with the entire Trump MAGA movement. I don't know any other way to describe it or sum it up. So what's going on right now is there is a schism in DC developing over this $5 billion for the border wall that Donald Trump wants to construct a border wall at our border, something he ran on, something he promised, and the $1.6 billion that the Democrats and the swamp rat Republicans want to allocate to it, which is clearly not enough.

It's not even close to enough to construct a functional border wall to keep our borders secure. It's just it's not. Folks, I'm worried. I'm worried. I know Joe is, too. We talked about this yesterday. I'm worried because I support this president. The president matters to me. I think

what he's done for the conservative movement and what he's done to battle the swamp, to battle the media is at times very pernicious influence in our politics. I think a lot of what this president's done is really reset of the political game in DC. It has done significant damage to the swamp rat movement. We are swamp rats we it's like they're sitting out there with their thing for you you know they're out there protesting like the president we are swamp rats we no justice no peace no swamp no peace you know see this is why we need our video up you got to see what joe's doing right now it looks pretty good the swamp is not going to give up and was never going to give up easily, right? They are not going to let this go. They think the swamp is their sense of justice, right?

The president has done significant damage to this. The problem we have now is one of his core campaign promises was this border wall. It has now been delayed multiple times. I think a lot of voters out there were willing to give the president an obvious grace period, given that he's dealing with the mechanics of Washington, D.C., funding that has to be provided by the Congress. The president can't just open his own wallet and pay for it. That's not the way this works. The problem now, Joe, is this is one of those clear black or white moments, which are very rare in Washington, D.C. Almost nothing that happens in Washington, D.C. is black or white. There's always that gray. Well, a border wall, but how much? This is one of those moments where the cards are on the table and you're either all in, brother,

or you're not. And what I'm worried about right now is I think the president of the United States, and I do support him and I think he's got a great team, I think he is getting some really, really, really bad advice from people. He has threatened to shut down the government over this border wall and the $5 billion. So we're clear on the argument. It's either $5 billion to start construction on the necessary components of this border wall, or the $1.6 billion Chucky Schumer, Nancy, and the Swamp wants, which is basically, sadly, a drop in the bucket and will not fund the border wall even close to the amount of financial support it needs. That's it. There's

no middle ground, and the president has clearly laid out this middle ground. Now, the Democrats are playing this up as a strategic disadvantage. Follow me here. The president is very good on messaging because he is simple. He's not a simple man, but he's simple with his messaging. There's a difference. I hope you understand what I'm saying. It's not a knock on him. The president does a very good job in his public speeches of making ideas simple to digest, make America great again, build the wall, cut your taxes. It's very, very simple. What the president did in the now infamous Oval Office meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi is he made the argument very simple for America to digest. Americans like simple arguments. Again,

we are not a simple group of people, just like I'm making this argument at the present. We just like simple arguments because we are tired of the morass in D.C. We're tired of everything being a, well, if that, but this, and if that, but... No, no, this is very simple. Either fund the border wall or not. The president made that argument simple in the Oval Office, and he made it a black or white A or B scenario. This is it. This is like bits, right?

This is like digital, but it's zero ones right now. There you go. You will either fund my border wall or we will shut down the government. And Americans like simplicity because they feel like D.C. is constantly confusing them with unnecessary bureaucracy and an intentional cornucopia of stupidity. He made it simple. This was a good thing. Now, the media is playing this up, the liberal media, like it's a bad thing. And in other words, oh, this Oval Office meeting, the president put himself on a box by saying to Chuck Schumer, listen, you either give me

my $5 billion for the wall or I'm going to shut this government down. No, he didn't, folks. I made this argument last week. The president won that. I'm telling you, won that interaction because he put... Understand, the liberal media understands this. They're just trying to steer you wrong. They want you to believe that the president put himself on a box saying, oh, if I don't get the 5 billion, I'm going to shut the government down. But that's not what happened, folks. What the president elegantly did is made a very simple black or white argument to Chuck Schumer that you either secure our border or the government will be shut down. That's the argument that was really taken away from there. that's the argument that was really taken away from there how do i know that look at the polling on the issue where immigration was not polling anywhere close to the top of americans concerns

upwards of two years ago before the trump presidency look at the gallup poll yesterday immigration was number two government was number one out of basically out of control government gallup asked people what their top concern was, government immigration was number two at 16%. The president has successfully driven this narrative into the American psyche and he has created a very clear black or white scenario, which has not boxed him in, which has boxed Chuck Schumer in. Schumer is going to have to argue to the American people with Nancy Pelosi why they refuse to fund a border wall while this chaos, this caravan, and all of this other immigration chaos in our southern border is going on in the news every single day. That was the genius of the Oval Office meeting.

The Democrats are panicking about this and so is the media. Therefore, they're trying to paint that Oval Office meeting as a loss for the president in an effort to get the president and an inner circle of people advising him to make him believe that he's in a corner and he's in a bad spot. He is not. This is the mistake. I don't believe the president has a... President Trump, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not I'm not claiming to be his right hand guy that I know him and I have this deep psychological input into what's going on in his cerebral gray matter.

I'm not. But knowing some of the people who work around him and understanding just from even brief interactions, he doesn't appear at all to be a guy out of touch. He seems to be a guy who's very keen on putting his finger on the pulse of what Americans are thinking. That says to me, he knows, he knows himself right now that he cannot sign this bill, which does not fund this border wall. Now, the Senate, the swamp, they all want to go home for Christmas. Oh, you want to get home for, everybody wants to go home for Christmas. I'm sorry, fellas, but this is what we pay you to do. And ladies,

all. You want to get home for everybody wants to go home for Christmas. I'm sorry, fellas, but this is what we pay you to do. And ladies, you have to stay in DC to govern the country. Too bad. So sad. They just want to get out of town for Christmas. They are going to, the Senate passed this bill last night without the board of wealth funding. Remember what we're talking about? 5 billion versus 1.6 billion. The Senate passed the 1.6 billion. The House is going to pass this thing too. It's going to wind up on the president's desk. I cannot encourage in strong enough terms the president of the United States, he's going to have the House Freedom Caucus backing if he does this. Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, and the good guys, he must veto this bill.

This is a black or white moment. He to do this ladies and gentlemen everyone every the people who are really in touch which was going on with the american population listen i'm not blaming the and i'm not trying to cover for him because he hasn't done anything yet if he signs the bill listen there's there's we got to call it what it is he hasn't yet but i believe in this president i believe he really understands what's going on with the population. And the people who are out there, who listen to callers, who get out there in the street, who are activists at heart like me, who hear what the public are saying. I'm telling you, Rush Limbaugh called it right yesterday when he said this is a read my lips moment. Remember, it was a brilliant night, right, Joe?

I've been hearing that. I'm sure you do a number of places as well everywhere everywhere on activist group emails i'm a part of conservative activist group limbaugh who has been very very good with his putting his finger on the pulse as well taking callers and being in this movement for gosh 30 years limbaugh said it best what crushed the george hw butch presidency was the promise at the convention. Read my lips. No new taxes. And then he subsequently signed the tax hike. It was it.

It was done. Done. The Democrats used it against him and they crushed him. Listen to me. Trump will get absolutely no credit whatsoever from the Democrats or the media. Make no mistake. Zero mistake here for signing this bill and, quote, compromising with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. It will be used to bury his presidency in 2020.

You can't give them the hammer, man. No, because to them, everything's a nail. Everything. You're a political nail. You give them the hammer, they will nail that sucker right in. The Democrats and the media, they make no distinction. Good nails, bad nails, nothing. Everything's a nail.

Hit it. And this will be used as ammunition. Now, you've been hearing a lot of this. I like to provide some obviously unique analysis, or I don't think this show would be worth your while. So one of the things I just want to hit on here, because I've got a lot of this stuff to get to with Facebook, and sheesh, there's so much going on.

Let's game this out. You know, I went to business school. I enjoyed it. I went to Penn State where I did an MBA and I really did. I enjoyed it. It was one of the few educational experiences I found really rewarding where I feel like I learned things from net present value to hurdle rates and black shoals analysis and options. I really did. I enjoyed it. But one of the best things I took out of business school is this idea of just simple SWOT analysis. Not SWOT like a SWOT team, SWOT like strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. A lot of you went to business school or even not, or just understand that you don't have to be a business school person to get this. It's not

complicated. It's a very simple way to game theory and strategize out where your advantages are, where your weaknesses are, and how to leverage them. Let's game this out with Trump and this signing of the bill, which I'm telling you he should not do. Do not sign this bill without the border funding. It will be a devastating blow to your presidency. Let's view this through a strict strategic game theory analysis. What is the opportunity here, Joe, and what is the threat to the presidency? The opportunity here is border security. Border security is a message that has clearly resonated. It is a message Donald Trump has tattooed on his forehead everywhere. It is a message Donald Trump has strategically imbued back into the American psyche that

borders matter. Our national sovereignty matters. Controlled immigration matters. This matters. We can see it in the polls. We can see it in the Trump election. We can see it by even some of the calls I took on Hannity. The guy yesterday at the end was furious. I took a call at the end of the Sean Hannity show. The guy said, listen, I'm ready to throw my MAGA hat in the garbage if he signs this bill. That was tough to hear for me. Folks, it was tough, but I didn't want to avoid the call. I knew what he was going to say. It was important people heard that. Trump has put out there an opportunity for himself.

What is the opportunity? He has made border security an issue where I'm telling you in the past, although it's been important, it's never been as important as it is now. He has done that. He has moved the needle on that. How does he take advantage now of a strength in this critical black or white moment? This is what SWOT analysis is to leverage this opportunity, to advance the football in this opportunity. What is Trump's strength? Think about it. Think folks, what is his strength? What is Trump's

strength? What pushed this guy to the presidency in a historic electoral college win? Again, the simplicity and elegance of his, well, you know, elegance is probably a bad word because some people would say, well, he's not necessarily, he could be a little gruff. Fine. Fair enough. I don't want to dance around euphemisms. The simplicity of his messaging. Trump talks like you and I talk. He doesn't use focus group tested words. He doesn't do the dance. He doesn't play the euphemism game. He sits in the Oval Office and says to Chuck Schumer, yeah, listen, either secure the border or I'm shutting the government down. Nobody, nobody would have said that in the past. No Republican. You can't say that, Joe. You can't say that. You can't say you'd shut the government down. No, no, we can. And I just did. Double

barrel middle finger to you all. There you go go and now the american people get it they go okay what's trump about trump wants to secure the border is that why the government shut down yeah no one would have said that there would have been confusion in the past why is the border shut down why is the government shut down i don't know i don't know the president danced around this focus group tested word he said you know we have to control strategic inflows of the beach one b visa population because we're got to be a market sensitive you know the agricultural community and everybody's like what the hell are you talking about trump's like shut the damn border i'm shutting the government down you get it secure the border or it's done he has his twitter he has the bully pulpit and he has the

ability to cut through the clutter and make a very black or white message to the american people if the government is to shut down joe because he vetoes this bill which he should do i can't say this in strong enough terms if he vetoes this bill he will be able to say i am doing this because i want to secure the country whereas other republicans in the past would have danced around focus group tested consultant terminology and would have confused the snot out of the American people. So again, how do we take advantage of a strength to take advantage of an opportunity? The opportunity is border security. He should take advantage of his messaging strength. And if they want to shut it down, shut it down. He will not lose. Don't doubt it. He has been doubted before. He has been questioned before.

You either believe in yourself, Mr. President, right now, or you don't. We believe in you. You have to fight this. Now, not to go, because the matrix has, obviously being SWAT, it's a two by two matrix there. I'm not going to go to all of them because I don't want to, you know, we're not doing a class in SWOT analysis, but just one more on this. What's the threat? The threat here has been the shutdown in the past. How do we mitigate the consequences of a threat? You know, a weakness right here is what?

In a shutdown. Think about it, right? You know, again, not to get overly wonky about this, but it's important. Sometimes questions work better than assertions to kind of probe the audience, and it'll calcify in your brain. I think if we think about it more together, right? What is the weakness here Trump has in the presence of a threat? The threat is the shutdown. His weakness, Joe, is the is the media now it's not his

weakness trump it's our weakness the media regardless of how large of a footprint the democrats have in a government shutdown show will always do what blame the republic it doesn't matter the democrats can put out an edict tomorrow saying, we love shutdown. We love shutdowns. We love shutdowns. The Democrats could be protesting in mass out in front of the White House with signs, we love shutdown kings, the Democrats. They could be trading baseball cards like the number one draft pick in the shutdown is Nancy Pelosi.

And it doesn't matter. Media bootlickers and butt kissers are always going to cover for the Democrats. Oh, the Republicans. Oh my gosh, look what we do. People are dying in the shutdown. People are, they're not going to make it. They're not going to be able to cut it. Folks, how do we do that? How do we mitigate or control this threat, the shutdown threat, by minimizing a weakness? And the answer is the exact same as the other one. That's how you know it's the right one.

It's the same answer as taking advantage of an opportunity. Trump has had this ability through simple messaging, Twitter, the bully pulpit, to break through this clutter and combat this media message and do what? Paint the media as an ally of the Democrat and paint the liberal media, which they do often as being politicians and activists for uncontrolled borders, just like the Democrat party. In other words, Trump has made the media part of the message, the Democrat message, by painting them consistently and accurately, in most cases, as activists and not journalists. What do I mean by that? He has had the ability to mitigate this weakness, the media, to minimize the effects of it by not painting them, Joe, as independent arbiters of truth.

You get what I'm saying? He just says, hey, just lump them in with the activists on the liberals because that's what they are. And he's right. Whereas Republicans, again, Joe, in the past, don't attack the media. You can't attack the media, God forbid. Yeah, exactly. Yes, that's another. You should have just said the internet. Joe wrote a note. You could have just said that on the air. Joe's right. Again, what is Trump's strength in messaging? in the past the media has successfully painted this as a compassion and immigration issue where joe just wrote a little note to me right but isn't this a security issue the answer is yes of course it is but no republican has had the cojones to say that in the past but trump trump's in the oval

office doing what again we keep going back to the same thing his ability to simplify a message to the point that you just wrote the note on it. Isn't this about national security? Yes, of course it is. But in the past, the media dictated the terms of the narrative through their gaslighting efforts, and Republicans were told, you can't fight people that buy ink by the barrel. That's a lie. It's an actual lie. Don't fight the media. Just let it go. Let it rock and roll, folks. No, don't let it rock and roll. Don't. How do you like them apples? Trump, so that's just some basic. I thought to myself this morning, how do we explain this to the audience and game it out? So just gaming it

out there, Trump can't lose either way. He can't lose. He cannot lose this border fight. The border fight, Chuck Schumer and pelosi if trump stands strong will fold and if he if if he stands strong and the republicans in the in the swamp override his veto and pass a bill anyway that doesn't accurately adequately and financially fund the border wall request he's making it's a very simple request then what does he do joe even better trump paints himself as an outsider from the swamp establishment on the Republican and Democrat side. A message, by the way, folks that work to a massive electoral college win in the 2016 election. Think about it.

Gosh, I, you know, I'd love your feedback on the show because I'm enjoying this a lot because I really like game theory strategy and applying business principles to the real world in the real world of politics too because i ran for office i i know what it's like on the inside what was one of donald trump's strategic advantages i remember knocking on doors running for congress in the same election cycle donald trump ran i would have conversations with joe about this all the time in 2016 i would knock on doors of registered democrats and they'd have a Trump sign. Why are you voting for Trump? You know, I'm a union worker for years. This guy talks my language. Think about the advantage here. The government shuts down. Trump says, I am absolutely not signing this bill if you don't fund my border wall, right? The government shut down for two and three weeks.

The Republicans, of course, we need most of them, not all of them. We do have good guys, Mark Meadows, Jordan, and Jim Jordan, the other guys over there, the Freedom Caucus members. But the weak-kneed, soft Republicans who never stand on principle, Joe, after a couple of weeks, of course, as Margaret Thatcher said, they go wobbly. Don't go wobbly now. Do you have that in your repertoire? Right. Please don't. Don't go wobbly on us. All right. Please. Don't do that. This is one of Joe's specialties. It's all right. His various characters.

We haven't used those in a while. Don't go wobbly now. They're ready to go wobbly now. And the government isn't even shut down yet. So I can expect after two or three weeks, you will see them go wobbly. And what will they do? They'll sign this border package without the border wall funding. And Trump can then go out there and, yes, say, look, I'm not one of these guys. Not being one of those guys. Do you understand that in 2016,

not being air quotes, one of them, and by them, I mean the uniparty, the Democrats and Republicans, by not being one of them, he can run in 2020 and say, look, I did what was right for you in the face of a massive onslaught by lobbyists and connected swamp rats on the other side. Therefore, if you're a Democrat, you can comfortably come over and vote for me because look, I'm not allied to this swamp no matter what the R or the D is in front of their name. Folks, game it out. The president cannot possibly lose by sticking to his guns on this. And I know some people listen, I'm begging you humbly and respectfully, please do not sell out your

presidency by signing this bill. You cannot lose. There's no question he has the guts to do it. None. I think, and I'll leave it at this. I went a little longer on this segment than I wanted to, because I'm enjoying it. And I hope you are too. I'm sorry if you're not, but this segment means a lot to me. He is just getting really bad advice. He's getting bad advice. I'm sorry. He has people around him who are telling him things that are not accurate, and I know for a fact that this president has the nerve to do this.

You'll vault your approval into the stratosphere if you can just please stick to your guns do this. He will, he will help you vault your approval into the stratosphere. If you can just please stick to your guns on this. All right, folks. All right, moving on. Today's show also brought to you, this is the perfect time of the season for this sponsor. And thank you, by the way, to everyone who emails me feedback, not just about me. I appreciate it. That's very nice of you, but Joe gets it. My wife gets it. Uh, our sponsors, I appreciate it. I just want you to know, if you have feedback about our sponsors that you like, send it on my way. I send it on to the companies. I give you my word. I send it, and they love it. They love to read it. And I got a really nice email the other day about this company, Mancrates. This is the perfect time of year for Mancrates, because as a guy,

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Buy one gift, get the second at 25% off at mancrates.com slash Dan. That's mancrates.com slash Dan. You're going to love it. It's really, really cool stuff. cool stuff okay uh big big big news came out yesterday regarding um the dossier and as i've said to you and the reason i wanted to talk about by the way the structure of the show the way i i spent a lot of time putting it together so it flows and makes sense the reason i addressed the spending bill the border security bill and the republicans in the swamp first before this story given you know you would take this massive sense. The reason I addressed the spending bill, the border security bill, and the Republicans in

the swamp first before this story, given you would take this massive revelation about the Spygate saga and John McCain and the swamp's involvement in it. Again, why wouldn't you talk about that first? You wrote a book about it. The answer is because I wanted to set up to you first how Trump has never been a friend of the swamp. Yes, Joe, he is a registered Republican who ran under the Republican Party banner and is now a Republican president. I have made the case to you from day been a friend of the swamp yes joe he is a registered republican who ran under the republican party banner and is now a republican president i have made the case to you from day one that what i like about donald trump specifically is i have had issues with the establishment republican party myself beyond the scope of this yeah joe knows with this with this podcast um beyond the scope

of this show but trump is not afraid to buck the party ladies and gentlemen i have said to you for months that the attacks on donald trump during the primary through the whole spy gate saga and the distribution of the of the dirty fake hoax dossier throughout media outlets to damage donald trump was not just a democrat endeavor read the book i mean i can't i i don't want it's my i get it and it gets annoying to keep it but we put so much work into it dc mcallister matt palumbo and i on the research side the involvement of republicans in the distribution of the hoax dossier about donald trump is is is deep it's in there you can walk through it now finally

yesterday it starts making it into some prominent outlets. The Daily Caller and Chuck Ross, I have a great piece in the show notes today. Please, I encourage you to read it. Sign up for my email list at Bongino.com. We'll email these articles right to you. It has finally come out that multiple Republicans got a hold of the dossier and read the dossier

and that one of them got the dossier specifically from buzzfeed who are these people i'm going to read to you from this daily caller piece and chuck ross this is there was a there are multiple defamation lawsuits so you understand how this information about republicans disseminating looking at distributing and asking for the dossier got out there a lot lot of people, Joe, who are mentioned in the dossier were sued in federal court for defamation, saying, hey, listen, my name in this dossier, this is total crap. And in those lawsuits, a cornucopia of information is coming out because people are forced to go on the record for the first time. The other day, we revealed that Christopher Steele, in a lawsuit overseas about the dossier,

had to reveal that the purpose of the dossier was for Hillary Clinton's team to challenge the election after it was over, which was an enormous revelation. Think about that. Christopher Steele said on the record, in a deposition, that the dossier full of foreign intelligence information from Russians, Russian foreign intel was used to challenge a U.S. election. Think about that. Let that process sit for a minute. Well, another revelation happened yesterday, on Wednesday. And I quote,

A federal judge on Wednesday revealed just how widely Christopher Steele distributed his infamous anti-Trump dossier. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, he's a Republican. This is a Republican congressman. He's not a Democrat. You've seen him on Fox a lot. And Paul Ryan's, shocker Joe, stunner, Paul Ryan's chief of staff, John Birx, received Steele's reports in December of 2016 before BuzzFeed would publish the dossier in full.

Court documents say that Steele gave the dossier materials to Kinzinger and Birx, though Paul Ryan's office claims that Birx has never met Steele and did not receive documents directly from the British spy. Okay. You didn't receive them. Well, how'd you get them then? Did you ask for them? Why did you ask for them? Did you think to vet this yourself?

Folks, here's what's going on here. This was before Fusion GP. this was a before fusion gps the dossier contrary to what jim comey keeps saying up in uh up on capitol hill former disgraced fbi director the dossier project was funded exclusively by democrats the hiring of fusion gps though to do opposition work on donald trump was also a republican project don't't forget that. We do the truth here. We're not protecting any party patronage, none of this stuff. The Washington Free Beacon, I liked their work. I actually retweet their work sometimes. They had an interest, obviously, in getting information on Donald Trump. You can agree with it or not. Political

opposition research is not illegal. It's done all the time. They had an arrangement with Fusion GPS to get opposition research on Donald Trump. The dossier project, though, so you understand the facts clear as day, black and white. The dossier, the hoax dossier project, was exclusively a function of Hillary Clinton

and the Democrats. Do not let Jim Comey confuse you. He's trying to conflate the two. Having said that, that does not absolve the Republican Party or people in it, not all of them, obviously, a lot of good people out there still, but that does not absolve Republican Party members involved in this for their role in either seeking out or disseminating this dossier up on Capitol Hill. And apparently, Representative Kinzinger and Paul Ryan's old chief of staff got their mitts on this thing too from BuzzFeed.

Why did they want it? What did they do with it? I think these are fair questions to ask. I'm not going to preemptively judge anyone. I mean, listen, you get information on anyone, you'll read it, fair enough. But I'd like them on the record, get them on a cable news appearance or some entrepreneurial reporter, I hope today. I'm sure the Daily Caller's on it. They've been doing Yeoman's work on this. Someone needs to get them on the record. How did you read this dossier? This is Paul Ryan's chief of staff, the most powerful Republican congressman on the Hill. Why did you read? Where did you get it from? Who told you about it? Did you do anything with it? Ladies and gentlemen,

I mean, you don't have to be a former criminal investigator to think this through. Did you give it to someone else? Did you in any way interface with the intelligence and law enforcement community regarding this dossier did you know it was a hoax these are important questions i'm going to get to what why this was such a big deal and why they did this in a second but to follow up even worse i have another article in the show notes show. David Kramer, a well-known and established friend and confidant of the now deceased, God rest his soul, John McCain, but the truth matters, David Kramer, associate of John McCain, has now also been implicated in a Daily Caller article, which I'll put in the show notes as well. David Kramer, John McCain associate, has now been outed as the source for BuzzFeed for the dossier.

Think about that. The dossier made it into the entire public discourse. The dirty dossier, the hoax dossier with all the nonsense allegations, Cohen going to Prague, the PP tape stuff, all that nonsense that made it into the public realm and made it into the public realm for a reason, Joe. It was only put out by BuzzFeed and then to damage Donald Trump. Yeah. It was always assumed that this document got out into the public arena because it was handed to BuzzFeed. Now, if you read my book, you'll know otherwise, but it was always assumed that this document with the dossier was handed to BuzzFeed by Democrats. Folks, it appears now, according to reporting by the Daily Caller,

that it was in fact people connected to some establishment Republicans that did this. Just when they thought I was out, they pulled me back in. They pulled me back in. Never seen the movie, but I still love that quote. Yes, it is embarrassing. I have never seen The Godfather. That is The Godfather, right? That came from Sopranos. Oh, no.

Yeah, they were talking about the movie, The Godfather. Oh, they were talking about it. But it is about The Godfather. So I'm not crazy. My my culture references are always awful but joe getting back to my original point here about why the republicans perceive donald trump to be such a threat because now it is crystal clear we can't run from this anymore this is a swamp versus maga thing this is not a democrat republican thing please don't confuse this at all. Why were the Republicans so hell-bent on taking down Donald Trump and his team, whether it was people associated with John McCain, people associated with Paul Ryan,

Adam Kinzinger, other Republicans, people at the Washington Free Beacon? Folks, you have to understand Donald Trump was a threat to two things. The kind of tacit patronage system that goes on in Washington, D.C. and the prestige process. People in power love to have their butts kissed. They do. You know, can I be a little candid on the show today? I mean, I'm sorry.

I don't want to waste any of your time. So try to avoid personal stories because I have an hour of your time. But sometimes I just, if you don't mind, I'd like to add a little bit of color commentary here. I have been a relatively, I don't know how to say it. I'm a quiet guy. I stay home my entire life. Nobody really knew who I was.

I mean, you're a Secret Service guy most of my life or a police officer. You have your friends, your neighbors. Once in a while, people see you on TV with the Secret Service, but I'd never had any kind of touch of notoriety. Now, I say this with no air of pretension at all. I don't take it the wrong way, but over the last three, four years, things have changed for me thanks to the grace of God and opportunities being put in front of me that has presented me with an opportunity to be involved in a national dialogue in a more pronounced way. And I thank the Lord for that every day. I mean, I know Joe does as well. Both of us are sinners,

but both of us are also believers too. And we are very grateful. But I also thank God every day that notoriety did not happen to me at any other time in my life. I needed to be 40 years old to have been kicked, to have been in three different careers to have lost sleep on overseas trips in some of the hottest hot zones in the world protecting

presidents I disagreed with I needed to be a rookie cop in New York and you know sit there and fill it out accent reports at two o'clock in the morning on no sleep I needed to have gone to school and graduate school and graduate school again and have no sleep. I needed to have gone to school and graduate school and graduate school again and have been a dad. I needed to have been made fun of and bullied as a kid. I needed to have been through a divorce with my parents and I needed to have lived my life and become me first because notoriety is very corrupting. It is, folks. A very prominent radio person, many of us know, told me something once I never forgot. He said, you know, you're going to get somewhat famous in this movement soon.

And he said, remember the rule of 200. Every person you treat like crap tells 200 people what a jerk you are. And I never forgot that i say that and forgive me the moment of color commentary there because it is corrupting power and a lot of these men and women who go up on capitol hill as first term congressmen or senators have been relatively anonymous their entire lives. They're now surrounded by lobbyists, by money people, by other people who they may be attracted to, men or women or whatever that are constantly... I mean, you go to CPAC and other things and you're surrounded by people who want to shake

your hand and take selfies. Excuse me, sir. May I kiss your butt? Joe, you've been at the events with me. I mean, you see how other people are. And I'm not trying to put myself in an elevated status. I'm just suggesting to you folks that having been on the recipient end of having people treat me like crap when I was a secret service agent, you know who I am? I'm Congressman. So yeah, whatever, dude, just keep

going. I get it, daddy. Just yeah, beat it. I get it. I see your pin. I get it. You're important. You're the smartest guy in the world. I'll just ask you, right? Having been on the receiving end of that, I always understood what it feels like to be treated like crap. A lot of these men and women don't. This whole internal prestige system up on Capitol Hill, well, I'm John McCain. I'm Adam Kinzinger. I'm Paul Reilly. Dude, we need this video up. Joe's priced like an actor on this thing. He's really, this is like a Shakespearean play, you're a joke, right? They're so self-important that the minute someone like Donald Trump, who comes onto the scene, who has not paid reverence to them, listen to me, who has not walked into Ryan's office and who has

not walked into McCain's office or anyone else and has not paid the appropriate respect to these Republicans. And I'm not just knocking. Ryan was a very nice guy to me. I want to be clear. I'm just trying to explain to you that this prestige system is very real. You going, oh, it sounds artificial, Dan. This sounds very flowery. No, no, no, no, no.

Joe, Joe, how many politicians have you had at CBM? Oh, gosh. We're in the three-day station. Easily. If not the thousands, he's been there forever. A lot of them are nice guys and women, but would you argue that every one of them has an ego? Yeah, you almost have to. It's part of the business.

Trump didn't care. Trump surgically removed his lips away from the collective butt of the establishment swamp, whereas everyone else has surgically sewed their lips to it. These people were terrified of Trump, the Republicans too, because he refused to do the patronage game. He was not going to kiss their butts. He was not going to promise them jobs.

He was not going to promise their family jobs. He was going to do whatever the hell he wanted. He didn't want their money. He didn't care promise their family jobs. He was going to do whatever the hell he wanted. He didn't want their money. He didn't care about their endorsements. I shouldn't say he didn't care about their endorsements, but it certainly wasn't something he counted on. I mean, who endorsed them? Sessions and a couple more.

That was about it. I mean, Huckabee after they pulled out. But the endorsement game was minimal. He refused. He broke the whole mold. These guys are sitting there in their office, corrupted by power. Many of them. Some of them just tainted. Corruption is a serious word, but many of them tainted by power is probably more precise. I don't want to be overly harsh or hyperbolic, but tainted by power in the least,

who were so disturbed by this outsider coming in that they had to themselves make sure they played an integral role in the dissemination of this fake dossier against Trump to say, watch out, we're going to knock this guy down a peg. Look at this guy, the pee-pee tape. Wow, pee-pee, that's bad. We can't have that. Look at this. Oh, Michael Cohen went to Prague and they hacked into the DNC.

Hey, media people, have you seen this? Never bothering once to ask the people who gave it to him, hey, is this true? How do you think they would feel if something like that happened to them? I just want you to understand with this border fight right now, that's why I covered that first. This McCain story, the Kinzinger story, the John Burke story, and all this coming out now, this is not a Democrat-Republican fight. Do not be confused. This is clearly now a MAGA movement fight versus the swamp. And Donald Trump does himself no favors by listening to swamp Republicans saying, oh, just sign the bill. No border. They will never, ever, ever be on his side. The next time a PP dossier comes up, I promise you the Republican swamp

rats will be the first ones in line to grab it and disseminate it to the media themselves. They hate this guy. It is a visceral hatred because he refuses to play the patronage game. I'm telling you the notoriety taints people. They seek it. They crave it. They have to be at all times recognized and have pats on their back and be told how wonderful they are. Trump didn't do it. He didn't do it. He doesn't do it now. You go after him in public. He fillets you right back in his Twitter account. He doesn't care. You hit him with a jab. He hits you with a right. You hit him with a right. He hits you with a cross. You hit him with an upp uppercut he gives you a body shot to the kidneys you give him you give him a body shot

to the kidneys he knifes you that's just the way he is he's not gonna back down and it drives them crazy he is playing the anti-patronage game gosh i love that segment i was a little i'm serious i'm one of my favorites i just having run for office i'm so sensitive to this this this this bootlicking it's so pathetic when i ran the first time and you know it's funny people who especially in maryland when i ran and you know who you are i'm not gonna name names no you know no sense uh put a poor insult and open wounds but i had no name notoriety at all when i first ran and all these politicians i damn we like you you know we like your career and secret service and all and all that's great it makes for a good room but uh here's what we're

gonna do before the and they were all just pompous arrogant jerks and now some of the same people call me now hey hey buddy um yeah whatever dude seriously hard you had like no name recognition i remember i was living in stevensville across the bridge right i come off the bridge chest peak bay bridge and there i see this guy wave doing the wave down on route 15 i say to myself that was me look at this guy who is this clown what is he doing wave that's what i did folks the road every single day i would sit out there with a sign, jobs, not taxes, and wave to people or Bongino for Senate. And we won that primary, man.

We beat 10 people waving signs. It was the craziest thing ever. Hard work, brother. Hard work mattered. That's how I met Joe. Some of you have asked me how I met Joe. That's how I met Joe. I was called by WCBM, which is the big talk radio station in the Baltimore region. Sean and Frank have the morning show. They're still there. That's where

Joe works as a morning producer. And I got a call and they said, Hey, do you want to come in? And that's where I met Joe. Joe said to me at the time, remember Joe, he said, Hey, I do a little photography. If you're looking for some campaign work, I like what you have to say. That was what seven years ago. Now you believe that you ever think about doing this for a living? I was, what, seven years ago now. You believe that? You ever think about doing this for a living? I was, and I said to Joe, I said, listen, me and you, I really liked what he had to say. He came running out of the studio. And then that years, a couple of years after that, we started the podcast.

But I get that question a lot. That's exactly how I met Joe Armacost. He came out and said, hey, I could take some pictures for you. And that was it. That's how it all started. But some of these same guys now, hey, Dan, can you help me out? And I'm like, yeah, whatever. But in the back of my head, I'm thinking, yeah, I remember when you told me to go pound

sand, but whatever. All right, folks, last read for today. Another great company. We The People Holsters. These are beautiful holsters. They make absolutely terrific stocking stuffers, right? You say, come on, a holster? I'm used to this.

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and the shipping is free. But here's the button. wethepeopleholsters.com slash Dan. If you go there now and use promo code Dan, you'll get $10 off. So your first holster will just be $24. Come on. Where are you going to find it?

Precision made holsters cut precisely to the outline of your specific firearm. These are beautiful. Go check them out. We the people, holsters.com slash Dan. Use promo code Dan. You'll get an extra $10 off your first holster. That'll be just $24 with free shipping. Come on.

You can't beat that. $24, that's like the cost of a turkey sandwich in a deli down the block here in New York where I'm staying. WeThePeopleHolsters.com slash Dan, promo code Dan for $10 off, you'll get your first holster for $24. That is a wonderful price. Okay. A couple more stories here before we roll. So this Facebook story is getting a lot of traction. I'd be remiss if I don't address it. Facebook apparently has been caught again for what show the umpteenth time in another data privacy debacle. The New York Times is reporting that Facebook allowed access to its private messengers app to Netflix, Spotify, and was it a bank, I believe.

And these three specific outlets were at some point enabled to, this is according to New York Times reporting, were enabled to read private messages on Facebook. In other words, access somehow to messages you thought on Facebook were private. Now, Facebook is fighting back and saying, listen, these third party apps had no ability to delete them or read private traffic. It was really just a means for those companies to communicate. Who's right or wrong with that depends on what version of the events you're reading. I just want to say to you and make sure you fully understand this, which many of you do, because I get a lot of traffic on this with Facebook and Twitter, social media and the like, Instagram.

I don't think, folks, there's a government solution for this. I think the deficit in problem solving here is not a lack of government. The deficit is a lack of understanding. And I don't say that in like a, hey, look at you. I'm not trying to knock anybody. You're all busy and people like Facebook for as liberal as they are, people use it because their friends are on it and they find some value in it. How do I know that? Because you use it. No one's going to waste all that time on Facebook if they didn't find it somewhat useful. of pared down my Facebook usage a little bit because it's a left-leaning platform. And it bothers me at times that they do what they do, but I'm still on there. It does benefit us for getting the message out there. But the deficit is not in the amount of government we need to help us solve this problem. In other words, more government will fix the Facebook privacy problem.

No, no, no, not the case. The deficit here is an understanding. You have to understand when you get on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter that there is a product being sold and that product is not Facebook. The product being sold is you. You are the product. Your information is clearly, clearly being sold. How else would Facebook make money? Now, there are only a couple ways in this space to make and earn revenue to keep a company like that profitable. You can sell the real estate, right? In other words, Joe, if I want to make money to keep, I mean, what do we do on our show to keep? We have two payment models. This analogy is probably appropriate because it fits almost anywhere. We have two payment models.

We could do subscriptions where you all would pay for the content yourself. We choose to keep the show free to you. The show's not free. The show costs a lot of money, a lot of money. If you had any idea how much money it costs to put a show with this kind of volume and downloads out, you'd be shocked. I keep it free to you because sponsors pay to talk to you. That's not a mystery.

We always say we have these reads. I'm always, their sponsors want to be here. I'm always very clear. They want to talk to you. How do I know? Because they sponsor our show. It's no mystery what they're selling. The problem with Facebook is it's still a mystery to some people what they're selling.

They are doing the exact same thing. They are selling access to you. But whereas our show does not sell your data, we have no way to do that. I don't know if you're listening out there in Wisconsin and you're a fisherman. I don't sell your data to a company that sells fishing poles. We don't. We read ads for a conservative audience where companies want to come in and talk to you. It doesn't mean they're conservative. It just means they want to talk to this audience. What Facebook is selling is access to your data that is, let's say, coagulated at a different level. It's more aggregated at a different level. I don't have access to that. That is very valuable.

What do I mean by that? If you're a politician, right, running for office, and you want to influence a certain pocket of voters in a Republican primary in Florida's 19th congressional district, right? Does it make any sense for you to send an ad about your campaign to a Republican voter in Texas's first congressional district? No. The answer is absolutely not. It is a complete 100% total waste of money. You have to get to that person. What my show offers is a big, big audience. So my show says to our value proposition is our audience I know I say this with no air of pretension. Again,

it's just true with the second biggest show in the country right now. Our audience is so big that regardless of who advertises, whether it's Helix or we, the people you are somehow going to find a mattress buyer and you are going to find a holster buyer because the audience is so darn big that you're going to get customer acquisition. Here's the, we're selling in mass.

We're not selling in mass. We're not selling anything specific. Facebook does the opposite. What Facebook does is you volunteer information. When you start your Facebook account, what do I like? Joe likes Friedrich Hayek. Joe likes books by Thomas Sowell. Joe likes the star wars movies you check all these boxes whatever you like sci-fi that data is intensely valuable because now companies don't have to pay for mass distribution they can pay for very siloed aggregated distribution amongst people they want to talk to specifically a company could go into facebook and say they want to talk to specifically. A company could go into Facebook and say, I want to advertise to conservative voters who go to church on Sunday, who are Christian, who fish, and who like barbecue. And all of a sudden, Facebook can say, here is a portfolio of 50,000 people. Now, instead of paying for mass distribution, you're only paying for distribution

to 50,000 people. Bingo. Now, you may say, well, that's the best op. That's the way to go. Dan, why don't you do that? The reason we don't do that and we sell our entire show absent your personal information is I don't want your personal information. I don't want to be responsible for it. Now, listen, if you want to volunteer it, like we sent out, for instance, once a demographic survey, it's very generic, but we sent us and we appreciated the responses. But that was just to get an idea of what our audience looked like. That wasn't to sell you. That was to sell the show. In other words, we found out our show was a lot of young people listen to the show, which is very valuable, but we weren't selling you.

Do you know what I mean? If you responded to our demographic survey and you're a college kid, I promise you, you're not getting a sales pitch from someone because you're young. We just went to advertisers to say, look, are you tracking folks? So we're clear. My audience is say, whatever it was, 50%, 18 to 35 or whatever the demographic breakdown was. We weren't selling you. We were selling the data of what the show was. That's not what Facebook is doing. They're actually selling you.

You need to understand that. Once you volunteer to get on there, there's no cutting the cord. You are in. Your data is already part of their data set that they are selling you. They are not selling an aggregate product. In other words, nobody goes on to Facebook with a demographic breakdown of Facebook. Facebook has a 51%, 18 to 25 and buys all of Facebook. Nobody, it's a billion users. Nobody has that kind of money. I want a sponsored ad for all of Facebook.

It would cost like a hundred million dollars to do that. I don't know. Who of Facebook. It would cost like $100 million to do that. I don't know. Who knows what it would cost? I've never had to do that. Facebook is asking you for your info. You are being sold. Now, as long as you know that, it's a fair deal. But the deficit is in people not understanding that.

It's people who don't know that who feel like they were shellacked. They feel like, well, this isn't right. My data was sold. Folks, that is the proposition. And the reason is very, very specific. They do it because you are disaggregated, coagulated information in these chunks is very valuable to people who don't have the money to buy all of Facebook. That's the difference between the model we do here, where we sell a large show,

the whole show, assuming that the show is large enough that people are going to buy man crates and people are going to buy helix. But the benefit to us is we don't have to intrude on your privacy. And I prefer that model and we're going to stick to that model. I love that conversation too. Facebook, people are fascinated by it. All right, folks, I really appreciate you tuning in today. Again, if you don't mind, please tune into the Sean Hannity Show tonight at 9 PM on Fox News. I will be guest hosting tonight. Again, please DVR it if you don't mind. Please watch it. I really appreciate all your support and give me your email feedback. I read it. I read it all last night. Thanks a lot.

Please subscribe to our show on iTunes, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio. You can follow. It is free to subscribe, but it's your subscriptions. You actually subscribing to the show free. That helps us drive up the charts. A lot of these top charts rankings are based on subscriptions, shockingly, not downloads. I still can't figure out why. But please subscribe to the show.

We really, really appreciate it. Thanks a lot, folks. I still can't figure out why. But please subscribe to the show. We really, really appreciate it. Thanks a lot, folks. I will see you all again tomorrow. 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. And follow Dan on Twitter 24-7 at DBongino.