The Dan Bongino Show - I’m Back, And So Is The Capitol Hill Drama (Ep 1920)

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

In this episode, I address the shocking medical emergency that occurred on live television, along with the rush to “explain” what happened. I also address the drama surrounding the race to replace Nancy Pelosi.  News Picks: The race to replace Nancy Pelosi is getting interesting.  Government Medicaid rolls are expanding, and the COVID “emergency” is the cause.  Monday Night Football is suspended after a player nearly dies on the field.  California’s war on the Second Amendment is getting hotter. Will there be a Church style committee to investigate the FBI? Former government spies are all over Silicon Valley. Don Trump Jr. signs a podcast deal with Rumble. Copyright Bongino Inc All Rights Reserved Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

get ready to hear the truth about america on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host dan bongino i'm back so is the drama up on capitol hill as kevin mccarthy in the race to speak nancy race to replace speaker nancy pelosi's getting hot and heavy i got that a tragedy last night in the nfl i'll talk about that and the race to silence anybody who asks any question about anything, which, by the way, is not helping anything at all on that situation. An update on COVID. Were they misleading us yet again? I've got that.

And the war on the Second Amendment continues. And a post I made about life advice on Facebook. I was bored one morning. One viral. I've got so much to catch up on. And listen, folks, for those of you who are the stick to the issues crowd, I love you. I totally get it. My show, I try to stay informative and not waste a lot of your time. But just give me a minute, if you would, in the beginning of the show. So much happened during the break. Guy got a new car. We've taken the longest vacation we ever had. I got a new face. It's like a totally different show. So just give me a minute at the

beginning of the show. Today's show brought to you by MD Hearing. It was great seeing my family at Christmas. It reminded me they're starting to get a little older. Some of them are millions of adults over the age of 65 are starting to lose their hearing. That's why you've got to check out MD Hearing. MD Hearing is an FDA-registered rechargeable hearing aid that costs a fraction of what typical hearing aids cost. MD Hearing's new Neo model costs over 90% less than clinic hearing aids. The Neo is MD Hearing's smallest hearing aid ever.

It fits inside your ear, and no one will even know it's there. MD Hearing recently cut their price in half. Get high-quality rechargeable digital hearing aids for only $149.99 each when you buy a pair. MD Hearing is sold over 1 million hearing aids and they offer a 45-day risk-free trial with a 100% money back guarantee. Edward S. calls MD Hearing the best hearing aid I've ever used at any price. So go to mdhearing.com and use promo code Bongino, B-O-N-G-I-N-O, to get their new buy one, get one, $149.99 each offer when you buy a pair,

plus a free extra charging case of $100 value just for listeners of the Dan Bongino podcast. Go today. Go to mdhearing.com and use promo code Bongino. They work great. My father uses them. mdhearing.com, promo code Bongino. For our first. My father uses them. MDhearing.com. Promo code Bongino. For our first show of 2023, Joseph, let's go. All right. There we go. That's good to be back, buddy. Good to hear from you again.

Joe and I didn't know what to do. We came back. This is when I'm looking at Geek. He's looking at me. We're like, how does this even work? We have a workflow process. No, I didn't even remember what it was. So just give me a minute. I know, again, with the stick to the issues, people, and I love you. I like to stick to the issues too. I

hate when talk radio show hosts waste their time with their personalized, but we live together here. You spend a lot of time with me. A lot happened over the near week and a half. We've been out by the way, happy new year and a merry Christmas to those who I may have missed. First, I want to thank Dr. Steve Adler, who is a great friend of mine and one of the most talented head and neck surgeons I've ever seen in my life. He's also the guy who probably saved my life, who diagnosed or told me to go get a diagnosis, I should say, of cancer when he found the lump on my neck and said, hey, this doesn't feel good. Go get an MRI. So he fixed me.

You know, I was having some pretty severe problems breathing. It was starting to become a big complaint on the show. I lived with it for 20 years. I think it was that big of a deal, but we were getting a lot of complaints from people saying, Dan, blow your nose, buddy. You can't breathe. It wasn't that, folks.

It wasn't allergies or anything. My nose, I was a boxer for a while. I'm not trying to impress you with my toughness. I'm not tough anymore. My body's falling apart. I probably couldn't box my sister right now. She'd beat the crap out of me, right? But Steve took care of me, and I can breathe again.

So it's been about, I don't know, 10 days. So I feel pretty good. So thanks to Dr. Adler. It was kind of a long recovery. It's why we needed that week off. I would have come back yesterday otherwise, but even that one day helped. It's still a little swollen.

So thanks for everyone, for your patience and for all your well wishes. It really means a lot. A couple of thanks too. So New Year's Eve was interesting for us. A lot went on. Me and Paula went up to Nashville, still recovering a

little bit. Probably shouldn't have had a couple of, you know, tintos, but I did. I heard the resveratrol is good for you, I guess. Big thanks to the steakhouse up there, E3, taking us in last minute. It's owned by Adam LaRoche, Jason Aldean, and I think Luke Bryan too. What an amazing place in Nashville. Super highly recommended. Joe, all Guy does is watch his meat videos and stuff, cooking meats and stuff like that. He doesn't even work anymore. Him and Jim, Jim got him into it. So what they do is at E3, Guy, they have a hickory smoker thing. is at E3, they have a hickory smoker thing. The hickory crust on this steak at E3 was like nothing I've ever tasted before. Check it out in Nashville.

All right, so stick to the issues, folks. Let's get back to it. A lot happened since we've been gone. And switching gears a bit. Something I've never seen before. I've been a sports fan my whole life. Now, granted, I don't watch the NFL much anymore for reasons beyond the scope of this. It'd be not appropriate to talk about now in light of the tragedy that happened last night. But DeMar Hamlin, who is

a Bills player, got hit in the chest in a tackle and looked like he had a cardiac incident. He didn't look like he did. He had a cardiac incident on the field on live TV. I've never seen a game canceled, but they basically canceled the game after that, which is probably a good call. They could have had a fatality. So I woke up this morning. I wasn't watching the game.

I woke up this morning and turned on Fox and Friends First and I was watching and it was the lead story. And thankfully, he's still alive. He's apparently in very serious critical condition. But it was just incredible this morning as I woke up and a seemingly young, healthy guy having a cardiac incident on the field. having a cardiac incident on the field. And it's really strange how you can watch this tragedy unfold, and immediately the tribalism begins with almost no facts to back it up at all. And the attacks, the attacks, people asking questions. Now, there's nothing wrong with answering questions. What there is something wrong with is asking questions with bad intent when you know the answers. Does that make sense, guys? But we don't know the answers yet. And it was just really

strange how, and we likely will by today, by the way. If this had anything to do with anything that had to do with the vaccine and thrombosis or anything like that, you'll know today. and thrombosis or anything like that, you'll know today. And if the science happens and the process happens and we find out that this was what they're calling commotio cordis, which seems pretty likely,

then that's okay. It's horrible what happened, but that's how the process works. It's like, I'm saying that's okay that that's the answer you got to via science. The attacks on people immediately. If you dare to ask a question, heretic, burn this guy to sink. What I don't understand about this whole thing is,

this is a horrible, tragedious young man who, by the way, watching videos of some of the stuff this guy did for charity, he seems like just an incredible young man. Incredible, incredible guy. Early 20s, a real giver to people. The videos are out there. You can watch them yourself. But why do you think it's helping to the people on the one side of the chosen political narrative of the day, like you will speak this narrative and this narrative only, why do you think it's helping attacking people who are very concerned about things like the vaccine?

I don't understand why you think that's helping, using a tragedy to attack these people. We'll have the answer today. It's okay to ask questions. Do not be intimidated. Now, facts matter. Facts matter. That's why we employ the Bongino rule here.

Right, fellas? Wait 24 to 72 hours when a politically hot narrative comes out because the story will change probably 20, 30 times. But do not be intimidated from asking a question. However, if we get the answer and the answer is backed by science, it doesn't do us any good either to say other things that are counter to the scientific process just to make us feel good. That works for both sides. How hard is this? Here's what I mean. It's fascinating how despite limited evidence at this point, we'll have more as the day goes on, that the diagnosis and the narrative

is already chosen, chosen that it's commotio cordis. Commotio cordis is, I'm not a medical doctor. I don't know if it is or isn't that. I'm relying on the science and the process to happen. is or isn't that. I'm relying on the science and the process to happen. Apparently, if there's an impact to the heart that's traumatic enough at the unfortunate time of a specific point in the cardiac pumping cycle, you could essentially send the heart into fibrillation. That's what this commotio cortis is. We've seen it before with kids who were struck with baseballs in the chest at high speeds. But it's extremely rare. A doctor was on CNN explaining exactly what this is. Check this out.

We're onto the right diagnosis. This commotio cardia is when you have traumatic chest injury at a specific time during the heart's repolarization, during the time when a heartbeat is getting ready to beat again, when you have chest trauma at that time, this is what happens. You have this sudden cardiac arrest and the ventricular fibrillation or the squirming of the heart. It's all painting a picture now. Remember, hindsight's always 20-20. These professionals that were there at the game didn't have access to a video camera like we do watching this play over and over again. They had seconds. They had seconds to respond. And what we're finding out is that we did we were hearing that they did revive heart functionality.

They got a pulse back right there on the field. That's an amazing testimonial to how prepared they were and how quickly they acted. And that's the single most important factor for his survivability at this juncture. All right. Again, I am not a medical professional. I am certainly not a cardiologist. I have no reason to disbelieve the man's expertise. That's an opinion we'll know today.

Facts matter, ladies and gentlemen, but do not be afraid to ask questions and don't be intimidated. Comotio Curtis. I said Curtis, excuse me. Comotio Curtis. I said, Curtis, excuse me, Comotio Curtis. Now he gave information laying out why it could be Comotio Curtis.

Okay. But Alex Berenson, who was a former reporter from the New York times, who has been right about COVID more than he's been wrong. And who's been censored and been the target of Twitter and censoring and, and, and so-called quote quote, misinformation attacks, which have really been information they don't like.

Berenson tweeted out, the spin's already starting. Comotio Cardis is incredibly rare and happens when a ball hits a skinny 15-year-old in the chest. This is going to be a very big deal, and the media and the league will do whatever they can to avoid the obvious question. And he puts an attachment to Comotio Cardis, how ventricular fibrillation is triggered by chest impact, but it is apparently extremely rare.

Folks, please, you know my rule. When the media tells me not to talk about something, I talk about it twice because you're not helping. I want to leave this saying because I got a lot to get to because science is a process. It's not a conclusion. It is a process. I'm just saying to the narrative

people of the day, that's it. There's the only accepted narrative. You will talk about Camotio, Cardas, and if you ask any other question, we will ban you for misinformation. It's not helping. You're not helping. It likely not helping. You're not helping. It likely is that.

And if you would just stop trying to censor people from asking any questions, say it is diagnosis at today or tomorrow with this young man, and hopefully he lives and goes on to live a fantastic life moving forward. You're only making people, do you guys agree? You're only making it worse. Let people ask questions. That way when the answers come out, they say, oh, okay,

this guy was willing to engage in some kind of debate and dialogue. He gave me the science that it is in fact this condition. And now I feel comfortable. Not, oh, this is the guy who attacked me five minutes ago and therefore I trust nothing he says.

It's not helping. Please stop. The instinct to just hit people is just overwhelming. People have legitimate questions, folks. This incident hopefully turns out to be not vaccine related at all seems likely that it probably was this condition but we don't know that yet what the condition was it may not be that it may not have anything to do with the vaccine at all may not have anything to

do with anything we've even suspected he may have had some congenital condition we don't know about can we just let it play out? Because people have questions. Because as we gather more longitudinal data about the COVID vaccine, we get more information that comes out that appears that we've been misled about a lot of things about COVID, about masks, about social distancing,

about the origin of the virus, the efficacy of vaccines. We've been told a lot of things that weren't true. So forgive us for questioning things. Here's something I'd like to get an answer to. What the hell is going on with all of the excess deaths appearing around the world? Excess deaths above a certain baseline in the past. They're not really explainable by a lot of explanations

the narrative police have put out there. Oh, well, it's due to a lack of response times by ambulances. Really? Well, that doesn't explain why the ambulance was responding to a cardiac event in the first place, does it? Here's James Wells with Nigel Farage. He's a former head of the UK trade team asking a very serious question we demand an answer to. What's going on with all of these excess deaths around the world?

And why does no one want to talk about it? But they instinct by instinct want to shut us up you're not helping listen to this the reason we can't ignore it is because it's across all age groups and and particularly in the young um we're seeing um 10 to 15 excess deaths in the age group between 24 and 59 and when you dig down into the data it's actually heart heart attacks heart conditions that are causing these deaths and as i said you know when you dig down into the data, it's actually heart attacks, heart conditions that are causing these deaths. And as I said, you know, when you listen to what the establishment is saying, it's all muddled. So let's just deal with the numbers. Yeah. Right. So just repeat that figure because this is not an arguable statistic.

Young men up to the age of 59, increase in heart deaths. Yeah. Young men and women, by the way, although I think it's slightly higher for men. But yeah, between the age, I mean, that's the most worrying because I think, you know, it spans all. Just give us a gap. Yeah, so basically we've got an excess deaths on average of around 1,000 a week. It comes out around 10%, give or take a few percentage.

And this is consistent week on week since May. So it's been going on for a long time now. There's something going on there. You know, fellas, that's the kind of thing sane people would kind of want an answer to. Like, hey, there's more people dying. Like a lot more. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's a good idea. good idea to kind of like let's get to the let's say let's get to the bottom of that that stupid line i hate more than anything but if you're ever going to get to the bottom of anything can we just kind of get to the get to the bottom of that but you see how you're not helping when you by again by just instinct because you're a totalitarian maniac your instinct is to immediately want to shut people up. Now do you see why people have questions about this young athlete and others?

By the way, again, questions that may have a very easy, albeit tragic answer. Could have been something congenital. Could have been commotio cardis. Very likely. Do you see how your instinct to shut us up breeds, breeds what you call a dark web of conspiracy theories and whatever? Because you've lied to us over and over and over again. You lied to us about a lot of things.

What is one of the first things, fellas, I said early on when this COVID thing broke? What is one of the first things, fellas, I said early on when this COVID thing broke? I said, can we kind of wait before we take draconian drastic measures on COVID? I said this when the story first broke and Paula was still doing the producing on the show. He wasn't even here yet. Paula's like, yeah, there's something going on in China there. I'll never forget when the Walmart guy came to our house with a big delivery of paper towels and everything and asked Paula, hey, do you guys know something I don't? I'm not joking. Paula had been following the COVID story in China. That is not a joke. And Paula told the guy, I'm a little concerned about this COVID thing. And I said a couple of things. I said, until we

know the R-naught, in other words, how reproducible, how infectious and contagious this is, we know the R-naught, in other words, how reproducible, how infectious and contagious this is, and until we know the IFR, the infection fatality rate, infection fatality rate, that it is stupid at this point to do things that may turn out to be counterproductive and cause more damage than the virus. Nobody in the healthcare establishment listen to me or anyone else. We're all called kooks. in the healthcare establishment, listen to me or anyone else, we're all called kooks. Now we find out in this new scientific report came out January 1st, 2023, that the infection fatality rate estimates in non-elderly populations are actually lower than previous calculations

had suggested. In other words, just about everything we've been told about this, including how fatal it is, we were misled. Again. But don't ask questions. The narrative police said no. I'll continue to ask questions. And again, when you tell me not to talk about something,

we talk about it twice. That's a rule. All right, let me get to my next sponsor. Here's a guy coming up. Science is a process, folks. It's a process. science is a process folks fox the 60 it's a process science is a process the word folks for some bizarre reason always screws me up firx fox i cannot did you guys notice i cannot say it's like the weirdest thing it's like a verbal tick i have going on science is a process 60 minutes you know this sir you know the sir network leslie stall sir donald sir remember that 60 minutes it fully discredited themselves in any attempt to regain that whole

we're a news organization moniker it's over now they had a guy on who has made some of the worst predictions in human history i'll show you what i mean in a minute. Don't go anywhere. Today's show also brought to you by Omaha Steaks. Folks, we were in Omaha Steaks household. We always have been. Why? Because the food is great and the cost is terrific. Gift the best with the best steaks of your life from Omaha Steaks,

America's original butcher since 1917. Perfectly aged, tender, unforgettable, and guaranteed delicious steaks. Had some over the break. The steak experts at Omaha Steaks have put together an assortment of various packages to make shopping for the ones you love nice and easy. Food is delicious. So tender, you cut it with a plastic butter knife. Go to omahasteaks.com and use code Bongino at checkout to get an additional $30 off your order.

Send an assortment of mouthwatering favorites guaranteed to impress, like the legendary Butcher's Cut Filet Mignons. That's what I like. Air-chilled chilled boneless chickens ghee loves the ultra juicy burgers there's something for everyone they even have easy to prepare comfort meals that are ready in a flash omaha steaks is ready to ship your order right away head to omahasteaks.com use promo code bongino b-o-n-g-i-n-o at checkout omaha steaks is a gift from the heart a gift that will be remembered with every unforgettable bite order with complete confidence today,

knowing you're ordering the very best. Visit omahasteaks.com, use promo code Bongino at checkout to get that extra $30 off your order. Minimum order may be required. Folks, the food is amazing. Check it out, omahasteaks.com, promo code Bongino at checkout to get an extra $30 off. Thanks, Omaha Steaks.

May have some of those. Tonight, as a matter of fact, we could forward to some steak. Now that I can smell again. What an amazing process. The olfactory bulb. It's back. It's working again. Science is a process, folks.

It is a longitudinal process. So the reason liberals want to shut the process down and the political narrative police want you to stop asking questions about science, infection rates, fatality rates, masks, lockdowns. The reason liberals don't want you asking any questions is because to liberals, you've got to understand something. And please don't ever forget this. You ready? It's said over and over. It's not some profound, you know, bolt and reason I invented myself. To liberals, you've got to understand the ends will always justify the means to get to the ends, right? Liberals are obsessed with power and totalitarianism, communism, socialism.

That's their thing. That involves collective power amongst a few people dictating what you should do with your life. That's what it is. How they get there, they don't care. And if science gets in the way of them getting there, they will disregard the science. That's why they need to shut you up and Alex Berenson and others. So if they tell you government says take a vaccine and shut your mouth, it's not about the vaccine.

It's about you taking the order. If the science says the vaccine may do this and this and this, they don't care. Do you understand? I need you to understand this. If they say put your mask on and there's zero evidence a mask does anything, the evidence doesn't matter. It's the point that they told you it that matters. And if you disregard that and you don't listen, you won't listen to anything else they say either. They don't care about the science. Never will you see an example of the ends justifying the means better than this. So this is 60 Minutes, the political narrative network. They are the ones who dictate what you're allowed to talk about and not. You weren't allowed to talk about the

Hunter Biden laptop. Remember, sir, even though it was real. Now they had on Paul Ehrlich. Now, for those of you who don't know, I've mentioned this name many times on the show for UP1, many times. Paul Ehrlich has been a near hysterical doomsday prophet forever. We're going to run out of food. People are going to starve. Ecosystems are going to collapse.

You may be saying, wow, that's interesting. He's been saying that now. No, he's been saying it for decades. His theories have been largely proven wrong. Overpopulation, people are going to starve in the millions. Folks, the biggest problem we have right now here in a lot of first world countries is obesity. of first world countries is obesity. So you would think if you believed in science,

Paul Ehrlich isn't the guy you'd want to have on your TV show. Well, you don't believe in science if you're 60 Minutes, of course, the CERN network. So here's Paul Ehrlich on 60 Minutes prophesying another catastrophe on planet Earth. Check it out for yourself. A World Wildlife Fund study says that in the past 50 years, the abundance of global wildlife has collapsed 69%,

mostly for the same reason. Too many people, too much consumption, and growth mania. At the age of 90, biologist Paul Ehrlich may have lived long enough to see some of his dire prophecies come true. You seem to be saying that humanity is not sustainable. No, humanity is not sustainable. To maintain our lifestyle, yours and mine, basically, for the entire planet, you'd need five more Earths. Not clear where they're going to come from.

Just in terms of the resources that would be required. Resources that would be required, the systems that support our lives which of course are the biodiversity that we're wiping out uh humanity is very busily sitting on a limb that we're sawing off oh boy here we go again. I mean, folks, again, if this guy had a history of getting this stuff right, do you understand that this guy's predicted 50 of the last zero end of the world events? Do you get that? At 60 minutes, has him on as if he's credible on the topic. Now, a couple of things he said there about how the ecosystem's collapsing, we're going to need five more Earths, whatever.

He clearly doesn't understand how capitalism works. Capitalism works by gathering more output stuff from fewer inputs. In other words, we required this amount of energy to produce a TV 50 years ago, and now we have this amount because we've gotten efficient. Why would you want to get efficient? Because you can make more money. If I can make a TV with fewer inputs, inputs I have to pay for, and sell it to you at a better price, I'm going to do it. Paul Ehrlich doesn't seem to get that, that the reason a growing population in the United States is using as much or less farmland to feed a growing population

is because we've got better at farming. Why? Because you can make more money if you're good at it. good at it. Is this hard? Does Ehrlich not get that? We've actually gotten fatter as the population has gotten bigger. No pun intended. He thinks the food supply is going to grow arithmetically while the population grows geometrically. In other words, the population will grow faster than the food supply. That didn't happen because of capitalism. Second, he says we're going to run out of resources. We need five Earths. How do we know what resources are

right now? That's a dumb question. Resources are oil and gas. Oh, they are. That's interesting, Joe. Was oil always a resource? Because oil has been coming out of the ground for, what, ever since Earth is Earth and the dinosaurs created a nice fossil layer for us for them to decompose with the plants and turn into petro-resources? Long time.

Yeah, a long time. Like, oil's been coming out of the Earth forever. And we used to think of it as a waste product. Kind of strange, right? We used to burn off methane, too, to be like, oh, coming out of the earth forever. And we used to think of it as a waste product. Kind of strange, right? We used to burn off methane too. So we thought, well, we can use that. And then someone saw this black oil that they considered a waste product and said, wow, this could be interesting.

Maybe we could use this for something. I mean, we're burning whale blubber to put in lamps. Maybe we can use some of the products for this. And it became a resource when it was previously considered a waste product. So it's interesting how Ehrlich has already come to the conclusion that we're running out of resources, despite the fact that he doesn't even know what the resources are. You have no idea what's going to be a resource. We may find out tomorrow that rock in the mountain that we typically threw away burrowing a tunnel that the rock somehow is going to contain some kind of material that we can use.

You have no idea. Here's some of Ehrlich's predictions. Hat tip, Alex Epstein. He's been on my Fox show quite a bit. This guy's a great follow. He's at Alex Epstein on Twitter. Really, really good follow. Here's some of Paul Ehrlich's catastrophe

predictions, right? The oceans will be as dead as Lake Erie in less than a decade. America will be subject to water rationing by 1974 and food rationing by 1980. That was turned out all right. Here's another one about starvation from Alex Epstein's Twitter. Here's another one about starvation from Alex Epstein's Twitter. This is Paul Ehrlich. The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 70s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. You know my line, Joe, that this's got a six hundred percent success record of failure

he said right he's perfect at being wrong the guy why are you having this guy on 60 minutes the answer is because it's the sir never sir that's why you have them on 60 minutes because they're not serious here here's a chart alex uh i've seen put. The daily supply of calories. Look, do you think it's going down? No, it's going up. Up. It's at that direction. It's going up. No one's starving on a mass scale. Of course, there's going to be food issues, but the mass scale this guy's talking about is ridiculous. Folks, you got to remember, the ends will always justify the means with these people. Science isn't a process to them. The end game is the process. I'll explain what I mean coming up next with COVID and what that's all about. Let me get to my next sponsor. I've got that.

And also a very, very serious shortage issue. You know, I've been warning you about food shortages. Medication shortages are happening now too. I'll show you a local news report coming up in a minute. GetRefunds.com. If you own a business, it's been a bumpy ride. From the pandemic to inflation, I'm sure you could use a break. Innovation refunds, they can help. If your business has five or more employees and you manage to survive COVID, you could be eligible to receive a payroll tax rebate of up to $26,000 per employee.

It's not a loan. It's no payback. It's a refund of your taxes. Here's the challenge, getting your hands on it. How do you cut through the red tape and get your business the refund money? You go to getrefunds.com. You have a team of tax attorneys they put together that are highly trained in this little loan payroll tax refund program. They've already returned $1 billion to businesses and they can help you too. They do all the work with no charge upfront. They simply share a percentage of the cash they get for you. Businesses of all types can qualify. So go today,

including those who took PPP, nonprofits, and even those that have increases in sale. To find out if your business qualifies, just go to getrefunds.com, click on qualify me and answer a few questions. The payroll tax refund is only available for a limited amount of time. So go today. Don't miss out. Go to getrefunds.com. That's getrefunds.com, getrefunds.com. Check them out. Okay. So the ends, again, will always justify the means to the left. It's why they cannot let a longitudinal, over-time scientific process play out. Because if the scientific process says something like, well, masks don't work and therefore the government mandated you to wear it and the government was wrong, the narrative in the end will be what? The government's wrong. And if you're a totalitarian communist, the government can never be wrong. I get it,

wink and a nod. That's why science stops at the narrative. If science proves the narrative right, you'll be hearing all about the science. If science proves the narrative wrong, the science will be buried. Their end game is government control over your life. It has always been control. I've always said to you, the vaccine mandate and the mask mandate were not about vaccines or masks. It was about mandates and the government telling you what to do because control is their end game. I warned you about that with Medicaid too and COVID. How the COVID emergency continues to get extended and extended and extended and continued to get extended over and over, not because COVID emergency continues to get extended and extended and extended and

continued to get extended over and over. Not because they really thought we were in a COVID emergency anymore, an acute emergency at least, but because the COVID emergency was an excuse to get people onto government run healthcare, Medicaid. And you were banned as a state if you took the extra COVID money from kicking people off the rolls. This is in my newsletter today, bongino.com slash newsletter. Highly recommend you sign up. It's free. Read this report by John Stiff at Just the News. Report 100 million US residents will soon be on Medicaid. 100 million folks. That's a third of the population. Damn. Listen. Yeah, man. That's like a lot of people. Here's a quote from the piece.

Over the past three years, states have been prevented from removing recipients from the Medicaid program due to a federal COVID-19 emergency. Oh, oh, oh, now it makes a little sense, doesn't it? Now the date when states can begin to re-register recipients when that emergency ends on April 1st. Folks, the COVID emergency was always a vehicle, again, to get to an end. Control of you. Get you on government programs. Start breaking up supply chain. Start interfering with capitalism. Have the government allocate resources. This isn't even hard to figure out. That's why you're seeing now this breakup in the global capitalism movement, supply chains breaking down. And what's the result of it?

What's the result of every single liberal program? What Guy just said before about Erling, government programs have a near 100% success rate of failing every time because government doesn't know how to allocate resources because there's no profit motive to do it. There's only a power motive. Here's the result of that. We're rationing medications now. What, complex medications? Yeah, those, but not just those. We're rationing like aspirin type pain relieving products too. What, complex medications? Yeah, those, but not just those.

We're rationing like aspirin-type pain-relieving products too. You know, just listen to it for yourself. You don't have to believe me. Listen to this local news report. Dr. Janet Balbutin of Chico Pharmacy told me they're seeing shortages in almost everything from children's medicine, behavioral medications, antibiotics, and the leading shortage is in diabetic medication. The shortage is so bad that they're rationing the medications they do have so they can distribute it out to more people who need it. We only gave him like 40 or so instead of 60.

Sometimes they have to balance things out here so there's enough for those who need it for the day. You know, it's like the Tylenol scare a long time ago, except it's much bigger. It's everything, amoxicillin, doxycycline, even penis, everything, everything. You know, every day you don't know if you're going to get it. Antibiotics?

Painkillers? I'm not talking about advanced level painkillers. I'm talking about basic OTC over-the-counter stuff. Capitalism didn't do that. Government interference and supply chain through the COVID lockdown, which was a perfect vehicle to justify the end of government control over the economy and your life.

They did that. You enjoying it? I know you're not. Dan, that's a leap. Government wants to control supply chains, control capitalism and free markets, and put them under government command. Yeah, they do.

Remember when Obama, when he was president, was asked this question from a lady talking about how her 90-year-old mother required a pacemaker and how she struggled with the decision because of her age? Do you remember the famous take the pill answer? Oh, we'll just take the pill. Listen for yourself and we're not going to solve every difficult problem in terms of end of life care a lot of that is going to have to be we as a culture and as a society starting to make better decisions within our own families and and uh for ourselves but what we can do is make sure that at least some of the waste that exists in the system that's not making anybody's mom better, that is loading up on additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care, that at least we can let doctors know and your mom know that you know what maybe this isn't going to help

maybe you're better off uh not having the surgery but taking uh the painkiller one of the most i mean joe and i've been talking about that clip for gosh i don't know like i said seven years now we've been on there i mean probably played it like 10 times. That's not a slip, folks. It wasn't a slip of the tongue. It wasn't an accident. Obama means it. That was the genesis of Obamacare. Centralizing the healthcare decision-making process, not in your household, but in Capitol Hill,

so that you would have to call a government official to get permission to get these procedures done so they can tell you, yeah, you can't have that done. You're too old. You're going to have to take the pill. Folks, the United Kingdom even has a formula for it called the QALY. You can look it up. Q-L-Y. Quality Life Years.

If you don't have enough quality life years left, you may have to take the pill too. You see how all this ties together? Ehrlich, the COVID Medicaid rolls, the COVID story in the beginning and narrative control. This is all about one thing, centralizing government power and making sure the locus of control in your life is not you and your household,

but the locus of control over your life is in Washington, D.C. They don't care how many people have to die in the process. They don't. They don't give a damn. They care about centralizing power. Speaking of which, a lot of big drama up on Capitol Hill. I'd be remiss if I did not get into the race for speaker. Going down today, going to be a lot of high drama. I'm going to give you an update on that, what's happening, what I'm hearing behind the scenes. Big trouble for Kevin McCarthy in the race to replace Speaker Pelosi.

Let me get to my last sponsor first, and then we'll get to that. Our last sponsor is ZipRecruiter. It's the smartest way to hire. If you're hiring for your company, it's a busy time of year for you because you've got new 2023 goals, which means finding the right people to accomplish them.

Unfortunately, you also have new hiring challenges for 2023, like finding qualified candidates or adjusting to candidates' work preferences. Thankfully, there's a place you can go that can help you conquer these challenges and achieve your hiring goals. That's ZipRecruiter, ZipRecruiter. And right now you can try it for free

at ZipRecruiter.com slash Bongino, B-O-N-G-I-N-O. ZipRecruiter uses its powerful matching technology to find the right candidates for your job. See a candidate to be perfect for your job. ZipRecruiter makes it easy to send them a personal invite so they're more likely to apply. Let ZipRecruiter help you find the best people for all of your roles. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, they get a quality candidate within the first day. Go see for yourself. Go today. Go to this exclusive web address to try ZipRecruiter for free. It's ziprecruiter.com slash Bongino. Again, that's ziprecruiter.com slash Bongino, B-O-N-G-I-N-O, ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Thanks, ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter.com

slash Bongino. Check them out. Okay. So there's a nice synopsis of the drama to replace Pelosi. The Republicans take back the House. Today, where they're being sworn in, we have a four-seat majority at 222 Republican members. Obviously, only 218 needed to take. So we have a four seat buffer. Now you need a majority to get to be the speaker of the house. What's the problem? Well, the problem is five people have already said, we're not voting for Kevin McCarthy, Republican from California to be speaker.

Well, if you need a majority and you need 218 and you've got 222 republicans and five say we're not voting for you then joe just checking we you're not there you're not there no they joe's like joe double check the mcgee but we're not there right he's not there he's definitely not there so again this will be in the newsletter today if you like good article just the news down to the wire mccarthy's bid for house speaker faces stubborn GOP opposition. So here's the thing. So Andy Biggs, who's running himself, by the way, I got to note that Matt Gates, Bob Good, Ralph Norman, and Matt Rosendale from Montana have said, no, we're not doing that.

So as a note, you need 218. You don't have enough because five have said no, and you only got 222. Now, you may say, well, what about the rest of the Democrats? There's Democrats left. They could get them to 218. Do you really want Democrats picking the next House Speaker? I don't. So we got kind of a little bit of a conundrum here.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of McCarthy. I would like to see an alternative step forward. Andy Biggs has stepped forward, but it doesn't appear he has the votes either. He'd be way short. So right now it looks like, here's what this is from, and you can check this out at the Just the News piece, but I'm hearing this too. So Steve Scalise from Louisiana, who was almost killed by the way on the baseball field shooting, he's been getting some attention. Now, here's the deal. This is what I'm kind of getting from the sources.

McCarthy has said he's not going to leave the floor. In other words, he's going to sit on the House floor through all of these votes. They'll go, they have to go, they have to get a speaker. So they're just going to keep voting until they get to 218. Everybody digging? McCarthy could leave the floor and go cut some deals. Apparently the McCarthy camp doesn't want to do that

because they don't want to look like they're cutting backdoor deals. Now, here's the problem. Scalise, who would probably be a choice that could make it through, a little bit more conservative than McCarthy, the problem is Scalise is a McCarthy guy, and Scalise has supported McCarthy and has already said he's not going to put his name in unless McCarthy pulls his name out.

And McCarthy said, not only am I not pulling my name out, I'm not even leaving the floor. Now, Lee Zeldin, as you'll note here in this piece, is also getting some attention. Well, Lee Zeldin, Lee ran for governor. He's leaving Congress today. Well, folks, a speaker doesn't have to be

a city member of Congress. Donald Trump's name's been floated out there. Apparently, none of them have the votes. I'm hearing Scalise could get the vote. But again, okay, Dan, well, they got to show. No, they don't. Because Scalise has already said he's not going to run unless McCarthy pulls his name out. And McCarthy's saying, I'm not pulling my name out.

So what's going to happen today? I hate this answer, but I'm going to give it to you. You know what the answer is, fellas? I have no freaking idea. It's the worst thing to tell you on a podcast, but I'm not going to lie to you. Oh, I get sources. No, no.

The only sources are telling me what's already been reported publicly. That Scalise is kind of floating in the background as this pick. I'll just give you a probabilities. I'm not making a prediction. If you are playing a strict gambling match on probabilities, it appears right now that McCarthy's got to be at the top of the list. Well, Dan five have already said,

no, they have. But Scott Perry was on Fox this morning. One of the, you know, hard nose and said, he's a maybe. So if they get some concessions,

which is a good thing from the speaker conservative concessions on what they're going to do with committee chairmanships and spending you may get eventually a mccarthy i think scalise is your probable number two and zeldin's your probable number three i hate giving you an answer i don't know but i don't know you could put me down for McCarthy. I think I almost have to bet on him. Well, and again, Joe, this is not expressing a personal preference choice. I'd like to see Jim Jordan. Don't, please don't send me a nasty graph.

Yeah. But I'm just telling you, if you're a betting man like Joe's telling, if I had to bet money, I think he's right only because if Perry came out this morning, who was a hard no and said maybe on Fox it says to me they may have garnered just enough concessions in other words we want this

guy in this position we want this legislation that it may happen so I'm with Joe if you were a betting man McCarthy Matt Gaetz however Republican from Florida is one of the five hard no's Gaetz is like so this is Bob Costa interviewing him on the way out of a meeting with McCarthy. Supposedly went well. Gates said it went well. Well, it didn't go that well because Gates is still a no. Check this out. Brief and productive discussion.

How was it productive? In so far as that it was brief. Can you elaborate a bit more? I sure could. I mean, has he won your support yet congressman no why not i i think i've laid that out extensive i'll tell you what i'll send you the speech i gave a turning point i was able to extend my remarks there a little further so it's great he's coming i put this in there because it's so great gates is like bob costa asking hey how was the meeting with mccarthy to kind of you, flesh this out where you maybe get your vote. Right. Cause he's one of the no's right.

Gates, obviously he's like, I was very productive. Oh, so you guys are, no, no, I'm still not. So obviously, obviously it wasn't that, it wasn't that productive. Listen, one more note on this. I want to, I want to move on to a couple more things, including my life advice posts, which went like nuclear on Facebook, surprisingly. Don't panic over the media narratives, folks. Oh, chaos. Republicans don't know what they look like. They know what they're doing. Listen, I'm proud to be a conservative today. Remember AOC and the squad? Remember them, Joe? Oh, we're going to tell Nancy Pelosi. Remember when the Democrats took over and Nancy Pelosi vote for speaker was up? We're going to tell her where we stand. Defund the police. So they folded like cheap suits.

All of them. Cheap suits. Our guys don't. They're conservatives. They have some questions. They want some concessions made. They want to fix the uniparty problem we have. And good for them.

Don't fall prey to this chaos. Oh, it's chaos. Republicans. Hey, listen, even conservative commentators I respect. I saw Newt on the other day. I like Newt. Nice enough guy, but just filleting these guys. These guys have issues.

He's conservative. We should hear him out. They got voted into office too. They represent their constituents. Everybody needs to calm down. Now that I can breathe normally. Oh, gosh, that feels good. Man, you're breathing.

Joe's laughing. I'm glad now. That's good. Everybody just take a breath. They have constituents too, and they all matter. We'll get a speaker. Everybody needs to calm down. Not you, the commentators losing their mind.

Like I said, it's just everybody take it easy. Okay. So don't worry. There's no element for this. Somebody may get to some other stuff, but may not. Just a quick story for him. Sorry. There's been a lot of kind of personal stuff today. I don't mean to bog you down with that. There's so much going on. I will keep you updated on everything. But during the break, I have a lot of surgeries coming up. First one out of the way, the breathing one, elbow one coming up next. And then I got to fix a hernia again. I got an umbilical hernia. It's like, this is going to be the craziest couple of months ever. I got to like space them out too. So I worked out for the first time yesterday, but I've had a lot of time at home and I was sitting there shaving and I'm thinking to myself, you know, I've had so many failures.

And I've been thinking about it because of this book I'm writing. I'm almost done with it. I'll keep you updated on that soon. And the new year's coming up. And I was reading all these dopey advice columns on new advice for the new year. You know, I'll be honest with you. Most of them are stupid. Some of them are nice and good and nice.

But a lot of it was just dumb. So I thought, I'm going to sit down on my couch here because I couldn't do anything. And I thought, I'm going to put together some things I wish I could tell my younger self. Advice to me if I could go back in time. So here they are. So here's number one. First one is grit, folks. Grit's the most important thing in life.

Grit and persistence. It's not your looks. I prove that. If you look like this and you can, and I'm okay. If you look like this and you can still be successful, we're doing all right. It's not your looks. It's not your athleticism. It's even not your IQ.

Those are not determinative of your success in life. The world is littered. By the way, this post is on my Facebook. If you want to look at it, it went crazy. People were sharing it all over. I was going out to dinner and people were like, I've read that post. So thank you. Folks, the world is littered with super smart people who ran into a moment of failure and

completely collapsed. Grit or the ability to persevere when stress is meant failure in your face and to plow through that wall is bar none by far, the most determinative factor of your success in your life. And the scientific data backs it up. You don't have to be the smartest. You don't even have to be close to the smartest. You definitely don't have to be the best looking or the most athletic. You can be a multimillionaire billionaire philanthropist,

successful doctor. If you have the grit and determination to get through it. That's just a fact. Do not get bogged down in what your CV looks like. Get bogged down in what your resume could look like in the future if you had the grit and persistence to get through it. Grit matters more than anything. I wish I could tell my younger self that. Second thing I put in there, formal education is largely, largely useless. This one was misinterpreted. A lot of people do it. Oh, formal education. I said largely useless. It is mostly useless for skill training. Joe and Guy could probably vouch for this. Good. Joe and Guy do a really, really hard job so much so that even, you know, my wife was the most savvy internet database developer I ever met,

he's got a, he has to sometimes show her some new stuff with all this new equipment. Joe had been doing this stuff. I don't even know what the hell he does. Making the show. So the show doesn't sound like me talking what you hear. What you're hearing now is a finished product. Joe didn't learn that in some fancy schmancy college. He learned it through on the job training and skill. So my point about formal education being largely useless is that the stuff you're going to learn that you can apply to add value to society, make money, you're going to learn in your job. But it is good for one thing, formal education. It's good for passwords. Smart people like to be reminded they're smart, and they like to remind you they're smart.

And they like to use jargon and chivalrous and passwords. I call them passwords. Fancy words and terminology to let you know you're stupid and they're smart. Formal education is good for learning their password. That lesson I learned the hard way many times. Three, your health matters more than anything. The minute you figure that out and you have, God forbid, a trauma in your life, I hope you don't. Nothing, nothing matters more than your health. You're not taking care of your body and you're not taking care of your mind and you're not getting some

exercise in. Folks, there's no excuse. I'm sorry. Oh, I work 12 hours a day. So do I. I'm up at four o'clock in the morning. I don't stop working easily. Sometimes till six or seven at night. I find a way. It's a new year. You don't prioritize your health. You're going to pay later. Start eating better and start getting to work at it. You don't have to make it 22 hours a week.

Number four, sleep. Once you figure out the value of sleep, get back to me. Change your whole life. Five, view your life like you're watching a movie. Young Dan, if I was giving myself advice, I do a lot of stupid things, too many. But when I'm about to do another stupid thing, one of the things I do is I imagine myself in a movie doing that stupid thing. And I say, would you be embarrassed? Would you be proud of that guy? And if the answer is you'd be embarrassed, most of the time I don't do that stupid thing. Unfortunately, a lot of times I do do stupid things.

But I wish I would have learned that lesson earlier. Act like you're watching a movie or so. Six, spend more time with your kids. Not a single person on planet Earth has ever died wishing they spent less time with their kids. Ever. Ask nurses who are in palliative care clinics about what people say before they die that lesson i wish i would have told myself seven i've got one more of this choose

your friends wisely bad friends ruin your whole life choose your friends widely i'd rather have one or two good ones than five bad ones. Having the ability to share something with someone who's not a family member of yours changes everything. They give you good advice too. And the last one, never, ever waste time. It's okay when you're redlining and you're stressed out to take a break and turn on some mindless Bravo TV or HGTV or whatever. You need a mental break. But when you're in the zone and you're ready to go and you're not redlined, never waste time. Every second of your life goes in the abyss.

It's gone. It's never coming back. Every second is an opportunity to learn a new skill, make a new friend, reestablish a relationship, put something on a TV you can learn from. TV can be very educational. I've learned more from the History Channel. I get it. Folks, some of this stuff I've learned, I'm telling you, you can add and develop your skill set. Don't waste time. Every second lost goes in the abyss. I hope that helped. I had a lot more stuff, but it's been such a busy day. Forgive me. I didn't mean to waste a lot of your time today with personal stuff. You know, I don't do that often, but we've been gone for so long and I just want to kind of give you an

update on where we are. So thanks for tuning in. Please, in the new year, subscribe to our podcast. I would deeply appreciate it. Rumble had a great year. We signed Don Trump Jr. to a massive new podcast deal on Rumble. Awesome. We're rolling out some new features. Chris has talked about the CEO on Twitter. I am at rumble.com slash Bongino. I would love to get to 3 million subscribers. We're at, I think, 2.52 million right now. So we deeply appreciate that.

Also, if you could subscribe on Apple and Spotify, it helps us move up the charts and helps other people find us. I really appreciate all your help. Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to a great new year in 2023. And I'll be on the radio show later. I'm on from noon to three all over the country. If you'd like to check that out.

See you all later. You just heard Dan Bongino.