The Dan Bongino Show - Something Suspicious Is Happening At The Pentagon | Episode 27

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Hey, It's Vince from yesterday. I'm currently at the White House interviewing your favorite cabinet members so here's the pentagon update circa yesterday. In this episode: something ridiculous is comi...ng from the pentagon and I'm going to find out what it is. Also, Papal succession is underway and, unsurprisingly, it cannot go perfectly. Opinion | Former Top Pentagon Spokesperson Details ‘Month From Hell’ Inside the Agency https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/20/pentagon-chaos-ullyot-hegseth-00205594 Pope Francis’s death begins papal succession process: 5 things to know https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/20/pentagon-chaos-ullyot-hegseth-00205594 ‘Full-blown meltdown’ at Trump’s Pentagon as Hegseth faces fresh Signal chat allegations https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/full-blown-meltdown-trumps-pentagon-hegseth-faces-fresh-signal-chat-al-rcna202091 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello there, welcome to the Tuesday edition of Vince. Great to have you with us. This is a special edition of our show. And the reason for that is because I am spending today, this Tuesday, doing a bunch of interviews at the White House with a bunch of really important Trump administration officials. And I will bring you the fruits of those labors as the Vince show continues later this week. So tune in for all of that. That said, I decided what we'll do is we'll share a collection of some of the great radio conversations we're having this week with you on today's episode
Starting point is 00:00:33 while I'm at the White House, gathering all of these really important things. So I hope you enjoy today's special edition of Vince. A lot of big live conversations coming up with you this week. Before we get into the content, I have to thank our sponsors. Are you a yo-yo dieter?
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Starting point is 00:01:46 This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. And it's not a substitute or alternative to care from a healthcare provider. You know, Kamala Harris spent a lot of money on losing the presidential race last year. $1.5 billion to lose. What a tremendous and hilarious waste of money.
Starting point is 00:02:11 But when she was spending all of that cash, she was dumping it, much of it, directly into the coffers of Democrat celebrities. Surprise, surprise. And the Washington Free Beacon has a brand new report on the subject which just tickles me to death That LeBron James had said that endorsing Kamala Harris Was a quote personal decision for my kids
Starting point is 00:02:37 But the free beacon has discovered new disclosures show that Kamala Harris's campaign quietly paid LeBron's production company $50,000 after the post where LeBron declared, I'm endorsing her, I'm doing it for my kids. No, he was doing it for $50,000 is why he did it. They took from the Kamala Harris campaign. And that was just one check, the free beacon explains. They also dug through all of the finances
Starting point is 00:03:05 of the Kamala campaign. And they found that Kamala gave $1 million to Oprah's company in exchange for that. Remember how that ridiculous sit down interview that they did where Oprah sits in the middle and then says, you're so great. And then she would throw to like different people in the crowd and they would go, you're so great.
Starting point is 00:03:24 And they all just did that for, I don't know how long, it was like an hour of just miserable content. And that apparently cost $1 million to get that out of Oprah. Also $165,000 to Beyonce's team. They got Beyonce in for 165K. They got a four minute rally speech out of Beyonce. Do you remember the stunts that they had with Beyonce during the campaign? Oh, she's gonna be at the DNC. Oh, she's gonna perform.
Starting point is 00:03:54 It's gonna be the end of it. None of that happened. And then they finally get her on a stage in Texas where she goes out, she says hello to the crowd. And four minutes later, she leaves. And then the crowd and four minutes later she leaves. And then the crowd, which expected a performance, they left too. The crowd started heading for the exits
Starting point is 00:04:11 because there was no Beyonce performance. Hilarious. Also Kamala's campaign dumped $58,000 to Cardi B who at the time claimed that she wasn't paid at all. They also gave half a million dollars to MSNBC host Al Sharpton's nonprofit. That's the blackmail operation. You either pay Al Sharpton or he calls you a racist.
Starting point is 00:04:35 So Kamala said, I'll pay half a million dollars. That was weeks before she appeared on MSNBC. Oh, is that a conflict? Anybody? Any problem there with an MSNBC host taking a half million dollars from a guest in order to appear on the network? Yeah, that's fine.
Starting point is 00:04:51 Al Sharpton will not be held accountable for that. Or else he'll call MSNBC racist. 35,000 to Jennifer Garner for event production and travel and another $100,000 to the Obamas and their shell company for campaign appearances. Obama who refused to endorse Kamala Harris, remember at the outset, instead wanted an open primary so that Democrats could battle it out because Barack Obama knew how terrible of a candidate she was.
Starting point is 00:05:25 And so how did Kamala earn Barack's favor? Oh, by paying him and Michelle $100,000 for their campaign appearances. So excellent work again by the Washington Free Beacon as they dig in here on all of this money that flowed through the Kamala Harris campaign into the left. The left is a gigantic money laundering operation, isn't it? Everything, and it's not just their own money, it's your money oftentimes. What do you think USAID is? USAID has been a gigantic
Starting point is 00:06:00 money laundering operation mostly for the left. Now there have been Republicans who have gotten in on the action, but mostly this is for Democrats to launder taxpayer money to their pet projects and their friends and to get fancy dinners out of it, all at your expense, while introducing a lot more chaos to the planet. So that's what's actually been going on.
Starting point is 00:06:21 So again, a great report from the Washington Free Beacon this week. Hey, I do wanna bring up something that's going on. So again, a great report from the Washington free beacon this week. Hey, I do wanna bring up something that's going on today. Pete Hegseth, Pete Hegseth is now once again in the hot seat for the American press. A lot of scandals being kicked up around Pete Hegseth. And last night there was a Pentagon spokesman who ran a piece in Politico who just quit. He just quit his job and he ran a piece in Politico
Starting point is 00:06:52 and said that it's time for Pete Hegseth to be fired, to go. The spokesman for the Pentagon is doing this? Yeah, they say former top Pentagon spokesperson, he's a spokesman, details month from hell inside the agency, Politico reports. It's an op-ed written by a guy called John Oyotte. He's a former chief Pentagon spokesman.
Starting point is 00:07:17 He led communications on the National Security Council and the Department of Veterans Affairs back in President Trump's first term. He just resigned from the Pentagon. And he starts his op-ed this week with it's been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon from leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings. The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president who deserves better from his senior leadership. This guy says President Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account.
Starting point is 00:07:43 This is him sucking up the Trump in this op-ed. Think about what he's doing. He just quit the Pentagon and then he's instantly crapping on the Secretary of Defense in public and he's sucking up the Donald Trump in the second paragraph right away to justify his behavior and hopefully induce the firing of Pete Hegseth. That's what his goal is here. He said, given this, it's hard to see defense secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer. The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the Pentagon's top ranks.
Starting point is 00:08:15 On Friday, Hegseth fired three of his most loyal senior staffers, senior advisor Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darren Seln, and Colin Carroll, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information
Starting point is 00:08:37 as a part of an investigation ordered earlier this month. This guy says, yet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as a part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately, Hegseth's team has developed a habit of spreading flat out easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on the way out the door.
Starting point is 00:09:06 And then he says, on Friday, Politico reported that Hegsett's chief of staff, a guy called Joe Casper, was also leaving his role. Casper had requested the investigation into the Pentagon leaks, which reportedly included military operational plans for the Panama Canal, and a pause in the collection of intel for Ukraine.
Starting point is 00:09:21 All right. So there's a lot going on here, including a lot of things that are out of our sight right now. And so let me let me do something. Let me just do a basic thing, which is to urge caution as you are fed a bunch of different stories that may not be the truth. You're being fed a bunch of different stories that may themselves not be the truth about what're being fed a bunch of different stories that may themselves not be the truth about what's actually happening inside of the Pentagon right now. For instance, just to give you a perspective on one of the things that's going on in Washington
Starting point is 00:09:56 right now, there's a meaningful battle about how militarily engaged the Trump administration should be with Iran. That's a real fight that's going on apparently inside of the Trump administration right now with people taking different sides of that issue. How aggressive should we be? Should we be ready for military strikes? Should we be striking nuclear facilities? To what extent should we engage in what they call kinetic action on Iran?
Starting point is 00:10:22 Is it worth it to go to war with Iran? What will the second and third order effects of that be? Well, of course, those are all deeply reasonable questions that you should raise. And so as a result, as you know that that debate is going on, it has to color your perception about the way that these stories are being told in public. Now, Dan Caldwell, the senior advisor that just left the Pentagon, and apparently Darren Selnick and Colin Carroll too, were both much more cautious about military engagement with Iran than other people in the administration are. Is that an animating factor for why they were just ejected? Was their position on trying to prevent a war with Iran the reason why they're being sidelined?
Starting point is 00:11:12 Oftentimes what you see in Washington, when you get stories like this, there's a lot of scandal around it, you're being told they're leaving for one reason, it's not entirely clear what's going on. There's infighting. Oftentimes the explanation for that is you have two ideologically warring sides that are jockeying for power.
Starting point is 00:11:33 And people are being ejected. There are casualties as a result of those fights. Now, is it possible that these guys are leakers? That they've just been speaking out of school? That they've been leaking operational plans and that they've been giving up information that they shouldn't have in violation of the law and in violation of their obligations to the Pentagon. Yeah, it's possible. And if that's the case, they should face consequences for that action. But I am telling you right now that you should hold your breath before you jump the real conclusions about any of this and what all these guys are doing now
Starting point is 00:12:05 Pete Hegseth Pete Hegseth did speak a little bit about this today at the White House Easter egg roll He was there with his family and with some of the kids And he was asked about this by a reporter earlier listen to Hegseth's response here about this by a reporter earlier. Listen to Hegseth's response here. You know, what a big surprise that a bunch of, a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax, won't give back their Pulitzers. They got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies. Pulitzers for a bunch of lies and on hoaxes time and time and time again and as they peddle those lies no one ever calls them on
Starting point is 00:12:47 see this is what the media does they take it i gotta be honest i'm always honest so i'll just i'll just give it to you straight the way i view it here um this is a good posture the fighting posture you know fight back against the press people are lying that kind of thing i got it but hexeth sounds a little rattled here, doesn't he? From my perspective, I'm listening to him say this. I agree with him vehemently about this critique of the press. How many times does the press serve you lies? But there is a deeper story.
Starting point is 00:13:17 This is my human intuition picking this up. There's a deeper story going on here that is not fully visible to the public right now. There's something even about Hex's tone that sounds like there's a deeper story that's not yet told. And on hoaxes time and time and time again and as they peddle those lies no one ever calls them on. See this is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash
Starting point is 00:13:45 and burn people and ruin their reputation. Not going to work with me because we're changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn't matter. So I'm happy to be here at the Easter Egg Roll with my dad and my kids because you know this is what we're doing it for. These kids right here. This is why we're fighting the fake news media. This is why we're fighting slash and burn Democrats. This is why we're fighting hoaxsters. Hoaxsters. This group, no no, this group right here. Full of hoaxsters that peddle anonymous sources from leakers with axes to grind and then you
Starting point is 00:14:25 put it all together as if it's some news story and when we know it you know exactly what it is. Yeah yeah I know there's a trumpet going on in the background there there was some music playing at the the White House Easter Egg Roll and just to give you a sense of the theater of it if you I mean if you ever seen a White House Easter Egg Roll. And just to give you a sense of the theater of it, I mean, if you ever seen a White House Easter egg roll, it's just kids everywhere. It's like thousands of children because it's an Easter egg roll
Starting point is 00:14:49 in the South Lawn of the White House. It's a very neat occasion for all these people to visit, but some reporters there are getting a microphone into Pete Hegseth's face. And he was trying to navigate, oh, well, how do I deal with this right now? Because it does seem like he has something very, very big on his plate
Starting point is 00:15:06 in front of him. Look, here's what I can say about the Iran stuff. I just hope that the coolest heads prevail, the coolest possible heads prevail. Where military action is required for America's interests, I'm all for it. But there better be a deliberative process to inform that. And it can't be the kind of garbage that got us into Iraq. And it can't be the kind of garbage that perpetually left us in Afghanistan. At the end, and of course, got us into so many other foreign conflicts at the loss of
Starting point is 00:15:38 so many American lives without adequate justification to the American people. I know and you know that those days have to be over. That every time you want to engage in American military action, you have to approach the American people with humility, given the failures of Washington, at the expense of the troops, at the expense of the American people,
Starting point is 00:16:01 over and over and over again. And so if there are voices in the administration right now who are urging caution, who are urging a deliberative process, and among those, it seems pretty clear based on the reporting who those people are. Those are people like, well, it should be Pete Hegseth. Those are definitely people like Tulsi Gabbard, who has been victimized by the Intel community and is doing good work on behalf of the president of the United States right now to hold that
Starting point is 00:16:29 Intel community accountable, to make transparent things that have been kept secret from you. And that also includes the vice president of the United States, JD Vance, one of the single most brilliant members of the entire United States government. And we are lucky that he is serving right now as vice president of the United States. He's wise. He's a Marine veteran. He knows what it means to serve, to deploy. And so again, just to make sure that I'm clear on this subject, whatever is going on right
Starting point is 00:17:03 now at the Pentagon with Pete Hegseth, as you're seeing story after story, scandal after scandal, this is a big thing, this is a big thing, you know, and I know that you are only being served some distorted vision of the truth, that the truth isn't being put in front of you. And then whatever we can divine from all of this that we find that is the truth. Well, our job here is to share
Starting point is 00:17:29 it. And we will. All right, more of our special edition of Vince coming up. And as you probably know, by now, I'm currently at the White House, I'm recording a bunch of really important interviews, all to be delivered to you this week perspectives directly from the Trump administration. But before we do that, I just wanna tell you about our great sponsors, just because we've driven the woke crowd
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Starting point is 00:19:42 my friend. Happy Easter. Well, thank you very very much and happy Easter to you as well. Just get your initial reaction to the passing of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. It was very sad, but as you said, given all the medical complications, I don't think it was very surprising. I was watching a lot of our coverage on EW10 Catholic TV, and even when he was greeting the people yesterday on the Loggia, that famous balcony in the center of St. Peter's Square, I don't think he looked like he had improved all that much since he had been back at his residence at the Casa Santa Marta. I thought he looked very weak. It was beautiful to see him there to greet the pilgrims in St. Peter's, a beautiful sunny day in Rome, the most important day on the Christian calendar.
Starting point is 00:20:20 So it was very special. So I think mixed feelings. I really, really sad but not surprised. Right, and how was, and who was kind of running the church in the last few weeks in your view? Was it, I mean, was Pope Francis, do you think, actively involved in things or were kind of the Cardinals around him running the operation? It's a combination of both. He's been very weak, although he has been doing some writing. He did write the Meditations of the Stations of the Cross, the Way of the Cross and the Coliseum for Friday evening, even though he
Starting point is 00:20:46 wasn't there. He also wrote some messages for his weekly audiences and his messages for the Angelus on Sundays. Just putting those messages out there, those events weren't actually held. But usually what happens in this case is there is a group, part of the Roman Curia, that would run things for him. And so, for example, Cardinal Ferrell, the one who made the announcement, is considered as a fancy Italian name for him. Basically, he's the administrator of the Roman Curia that would run things for him. And so, for example, Cardinal Farrell, the one who made the announcement, is considered, there's a fancy Italian name for him, but basically he's the administrator of the Vatican.
Starting point is 00:21:09 So he's been very involved in that, as are the other Cardinals who are there based in Rome. Okay. So the fact that he died on Easter Monday, that strikes me. I mean, it's impossible for us to know God's timing on all of this, but it does strike me as meaningful. Lent concludes, we get Easter Sunday. And I think that there's been a lot of debate about the direction of the future of the church and the pope here passing, and now, of course, opening a door for what might come next, right?
Starting point is 00:21:37 Well, absolutely. And we say, as my mother used to say, we offer everything up to God and put it before the cross. The church is His. It was founded by Christ Jesus on the rock of St. Peter and we trust in the process. We trust in the apostolic succession. And the Pope is the vicar of Christ and the cardinals will be getting together after the time of repose and where folks can pay respects to the Pope for the next several days. Then the funeral, then the conclave. So we'll see
Starting point is 00:22:01 where it goes. But I do think this is going to be a very different week for people heading to Rome. For example, from my archdiocese, the Archdiocese of Detroit, we have hundreds of people, Vince, on their way, because this weekend is a huge event, or was going to be a huge event, the canonization of what's considered the first millennial saint, the young man by the name of Carlo Acuta.
Starting point is 00:22:20 So their plans are all being altered, and so they're finding that their pilgrimage is going to look much different. So they'll be going to pay respect to the Pope. They'll be part of a huge event. It'll be very different for them but I think very powerful and beautiful at the same time. We will see, we trust in God's providence and for Christians, as you know, this is it. This is the week. I mean, this is the most important week on the calendar. Easter is it. That's who we are. We're an Easter people. And it was beautiful that he passed away. If you have to pass away, what a great
Starting point is 00:22:46 time to go and be with the Lord, right? On Easter Monday, the day after the most important day in the year for Christians. So again, mixed emotions, but it's always a tough time. I mean, for Catholics, this is our, we call him our Holy Father. This is our Pope, the Vicar of Christ. So it's always a challenge to see the chair empty or the state of a conti. Yeah, I found it interesting that JD Vance appears to be his last major foreign leader visit yesterday, Vice President Vance paying him a visit that followed kind of an open and certainly implied debate between the Trump administration and Pope Francis earlier this year in February about how we secure our borders into what lengths we go.
Starting point is 00:23:25 And yet the two men seemed to have a very cordial exchange yesterday, just hours ahead of Pope Francis's death. I thought it was a very strong sign of openness on both parts of the pope and the vice president to meet together even though they disagree on this issue of immigration. But in the Catholic Church, what's beautiful about the faith is there are things that we have to agree on as Catholics. There are certain morals, certain things, faith and morals when the Pope is teaching us from the chair, from the chair of St. Peter, right? We can't disagree with that.
Starting point is 00:23:54 But the issue of immigration is something upon which Catholics can disagree. We have to care for the poor, care for the immigrant. But the way we do it, we can discuss that, and there could be different ways. So there's a mutual respect, I think, JD Vance being a Catholic and the Pope being who he is, who he was, the Pope. So JD Vance recognizes that. But, you know, we also understand, and the catechism itself is very clear, the teachings of the
Starting point is 00:24:17 Church say that a country has a right to protect its borders and that the people who are coming into a country have to respect the laws of that country. So the Catholic Church is clear we have to help the people in need, but that countries have a right to protect themselves and protect their borders. So I think it was a good sign, a good step in the right direction, even though there obviously is some strong disagreement there. Well, yeah, that's right. And JD Vance, to his great credit, earlier this year, his rationale for why we need to
Starting point is 00:24:44 take care of the people within our country first. He said that it was going back to a theology that was spoken by St. Augustine, Ordo Amoris, that it's about the order of love, the priorities that we have to give, and the duty we have to the people who are closest to us. Right, right. And again, the church is very clear on this teaching, and I think people will do themselves a favor, and I know for a long time I didn't do this, but see what the Church actually says about these issues. And JD Vance is very well versed on the Church teaching.
Starting point is 00:25:13 And I do think it was a really good sign that the two met, though, and how special it must be for JD Vance as a Catholic, as a vice president, to have met with the Pope right before his death. Yeah, big time. All right, Teresa, tell me about what comes next here. I'm already starting to see, because the news cycle moves so quickly, this idea that there are competing factions within the Vatican, that whether or not we're going to get a more left-wing pope or somebody who's going to be more interested in restoring
Starting point is 00:25:41 the tradition of the church. What do you detect at this early hour? Well, here's the thing, and you and I know this, right, because we're both Catholic. We're raised in the Catholic faith. We know the faith. And from our perspective as journalists covering these things, it always intrigues me. And I spent 20, half of my career in the secular media. It always intrigues me the way that secular media want to cover this. They want to split us in two. Now, when you look at the teachings of the Church, some people may look at some things such as immigration or social justice or things like that as those teachings that may appear to lean toward the left, and then other issues such as life issues,
Starting point is 00:26:16 marriage, sexuality, leaning to the right. But at the end of the day, the Church's teachings don't conflict, and the Holy Father's responsibility is uphold those teachings. And despite the way Francis did express himself, maybe differently than other popes have in the past, he was so clear on marriage, he was so clear on abortion. I mean, his language on abortion was among the strongest in recent popes. He was clear on gender, too. On gender, very clear on gender, absolutely, on the whole gender ideology issue. So at the end of the day, whether a pope may, from the world's view, seem more left of center, more right of center, we don't look at it that way in the church, because the teachings don't break away. They work all together in
Starting point is 00:26:55 unison to balance each other out. So I do think that there's some interesting people that have been brought up. And you know, there's this list that's been floating around since Pope Francis went into the hospital back in February, and I don't know where they got it. It could be from one of the main reporters Nicole Winfield who covers been covering the Vatican for years. I don't know if it's her list or not but it's all over the map with the Pope. There's some popes that they're describing as very liberal, some popes are just describing as very conservative. At the end of the day the church is the church and God is going to put in that position the person
Starting point is 00:27:23 that he thinks is right for that position right now in time. So I have faith in the church. I love the church. I came back to the church after being 20 years away from it. I just think it's beautiful the way we have this—I don't want to be so technical to call it a system—but this beautiful way that it's handed down over the centuries, and I trust that process. But you do know that, I mean, like, if you talk to, say, the average Catholic priest, you can sort of tell where priests are and what they think of the pope. It's like, who's your favorite recent pope?
Starting point is 00:27:51 And then typically the encampments are Benedict or Francis. They'll divide up between the two. And I think that those divisions are meaningful. They represent sort of a real difference of opinion in the church based on certainly priorities in the extent to which, when a pope engages in politics as Francis would, the extent to which we suggest that say charity should be outsourced to collectivist systems, that governments should impose charity
Starting point is 00:28:16 on people rather than that they should rise to the occasion themselves. It does seem that there are meaningful differences here in terms of these ideologies. Oh, absolutely, but I think that shows that a healthy church that we can have that and we can have those discussions. And I think those discussions will continue again on these issues, especially in the area of immigration and, as you mentioned, charitable giving. There are teachings that we can look at and go to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for this, that we can have healthy discussions on these things. And I think that's what's great about about the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith. I mean, if you look at the body of teaching in the Church, it's massive, and
Starting point is 00:28:49 there really is something for everybody at the end of the day. So how soon until we see the white smoke emerge from the Vatican? When will that occur? Oh, that one, my friend, will have to consult the Lord on that, but the process itself. So right now we are at the Pope, I just checked with my sources in Rome, the Pope's body will be at the Vatican, it will be moved there on Wednesday at St. Peter's. And so people who are going there, maybe on pilgrimage, already planned to be there, maybe people are coming in just to pay their respects, they will be able to pay their respects to the Pope. And usually they have a period of
Starting point is 00:29:21 mourning, it could be as long as nine days, but I'm hearing it's going to be a little bit shorter than that. Then they'll have the funeral, and then after that the conclave will convene. Usually it's in about two weeks. So within two weeks they'll convene, and there's 90. It has to be at 90. Cardinals have to approve in order for the next pope to be chosen. And I don't know. I mean, it really is up to the Holy Spirit, up to the Lord, but we'll see this white smoke and we see the white, we have a pope. Black smoke means there's indecision at that point. Okay, then it goes to another round after that, over and over. All right, well, Teresa, tell me, thank you very much. Appreciate you being here to talk about all this breaking news. A big week for the Catholic
Starting point is 00:29:59 Church in the world, definitely. Really appreciate you helping us navigate through it. Yeah, thanks, Vince, and just to let you know, I'll be in Italy. My husband and I live there part-time and I'll be going over next week and I'll probably be reporting from Rome so I'm happy to answer any other questions you have and be on again. Okay good. We'll check back in with you. Thank you, Teresa. Nice to talk to you. That's Teresa Tomeo with EWTN, a great radio host, a great perspective on what exactly is happening in the wake of the death of Pope Francis. Stay with us here on the Vince Show.
Starting point is 00:30:28 This special edition of Vince will continue in just a moment, but first I have to tell you about our great sponsors. With the Maha movement in full force, I've been very inspired to make my own health and fitness a total priority again. And this is why I've been so excited to be working with Don and his incredible team at Jacked Up Fitness, an amazing American company. Their commercial grade Power Rack Pro has everything that you need to get a full body workout right from home.
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Starting point is 00:33:27 for just $297. That's shopmdhearing.com. All right, look, we've got some more news popping out now. It is all this drama around Pete Hegseth continues. NPR started reporting about 52 minutes ago now on the nose that the White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense to replace Pete Hicks after all that,
Starting point is 00:33:53 they're gonna replace him. The White House, by way of its rapid response account, responding within five minutes to that claim by NPR, all capital letters wrong fake news wrong fake news so uh... that's the uh... that's the position today uh... president trump was uh... asked about the head set that i believe in and said that he continues to have
Starting point is 00:34:18 confidence in the guy uh... and he said he's doing a great job everybody's happy with him take a listen to the president how much is function he's doing a great job everybody's happy highest recruit just make music is bring up stories i guess it's sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was split there to get rid of a lot of bad people
Starting point is 00:34:49 and that's what he's doing. So you don't always have friends when you do that. Yeah, there he goes. Right. So that was at the White House Easter egg roll today. The president responding to the drama around Pete Hegsteth. Much of it, much of it truly media created. And the president saying, no, this guy's doing great. Ask the Houthis how much dysfunction there is. They're not gonna be able to tell you that because they're dead. Well, well, we've got Democrats acting crazy
Starting point is 00:35:15 and acting dangerous too. There's a Maryland congressman by the name of Jamie Raskin who with each passing year gets even more nuts if you can believe it. And he's got a piece of audio out now where he's talking about what's going to happen if Democrats regain power. And he's not really hiding his intention here at all. He straight up says, if we regain power, we are going to punish our political opponents.
Starting point is 00:35:43 Take a listen to this guy. I like that idea and it's a compliment to something that we need to be doing right now, which is engaging in far more work of transnational democratic solidarity with the democratic governments and the democratic movements and peoples and parties of the world. This language means globalism. Everything you're hearing him say right now is we need to reinvigorate globalism. We need to abandon our national sovereignty and we need to hand over power to international governing bodies and away from American citizens. This is Jamie Raskin, a sitting United States congressman, comes to us on the same week that we see Klaus Schwab, by the way, is stepping down as the head of the World Economic Forum.
Starting point is 00:36:28 And he and his villainous accent can't leave soon enough. Democratic solidarity with the democratic governments and the democratic movements and peoples and parties of the world to try to prevent the spread of the lawlessness and the fascist chaos that's been unleashed against us, but implicit in it should be the idea that the fascism and the lawless chaos that's been unleashed against us. Of course, what you have detected, I mean, when he talks about these democratic movements, the people he's speaking out against include President Trump and the voters in our constitutional republic who put
Starting point is 00:37:05 him in office. That's what he's talking about. And he says that that has introduced chaos, which of course this is projection. It is designed to redress chaos. The reason people vote for Trump is to bring about order in a system where there is none because of Jamie Raskin's party. Jamie Raskin's party, which actively tries to subvert their political opponents from even appearing on the ballot for electoral concept contests. This is not a party that's a great believer in democracy or a constitutional republic in any sense of it.
Starting point is 00:37:41 Prevent the spread of the lawlessness and the fascist chaos that's been unleashed against us but implicit in it should be the idea that if and when we come back to power and we will we are not going to look kindly upon people who facilitated to use a word of the day who facilitated authoritarianism in our country. That's an assault on our constitution and on our people. This is a perversion of language that you're listening to. But his intent is crystal clear. His intent is crystal clear. We're not going to look kindly upon our political opponents.
Starting point is 00:38:21 That is not in any way subtle. That's him declaring outright, you think our persecution of you was bad before, wait until we get the levers of power back again. Wait until we can do it again. So what is this? Well, first of all, it's a call to action right now, if we're being honest,
Starting point is 00:38:42 on the part of the Trump administration to hold these villains accountable as quickly as possible. The left is promising to hurt people without any just cause. The response by the Trump administration should be to hold lawbreakers accountable. If you hurt American citizens while you were serving, serving, I use that word generously, in the Biden administration, you should be prosecuted for that. You should be held accountable for that.
Starting point is 00:39:15 If you broke the law in the service of hurting your fellow American citizen, you need to be held accountable for that. And that accountability is a deterrent for future Jamie Raskins to take those weapons up against American citizens without cause yet again. The only cause being that they disagree with them politically. So this is, that audio you just heard is a very stark reminder to the Trump Justice Department,
Starting point is 00:39:47 to the Trump Justice Department, to the Trump FBI, to all of the Trump law enforcement agencies, that where you encounter criminality, you have to confront it and hold it accountable. Or else I'll just continue it. That lesson is really clear on the border, isn't it? That's a perfect example of where the Trump administration has had immense success by sending the message of consequences really aggressively. Every time I see a video of illegals who are put onto a train and put onto a bus and brought to an El Salvadoran prison and then have their heads shaved and then you've got
Starting point is 00:40:18 law enforcement guiding every step of that perp walk, that message gets out to the whole planet. We are closed. every step of that perp walk, that message gets out to the whole planet, we are closed, we are not open for your kind of business, which is illegal immigration into the United States of America. That strategy of stopping future bad behavior in our country should be applied across the board. Now, I'm not saying it won't be,
Starting point is 00:40:44 I'm saying that this is an encouragement to make sure that that happens. Because Jamie Raskin represents a very dangerous stream of thought within the upper echelon of the Democrat party, which is get control, crush our political opponents. Jamie Raskin wanted to try and disqualify President Trump from
Starting point is 00:41:07 ever being remembered ahead of ahead of January 6 of this year, Jamie Raskin last year was one of the head conspiracy theorists to say if President Trump wins the election, we should block the count on
Starting point is 00:41:23 January 6. That's what he said last year. He was already gaming it up. He was working with his allies in the media to begin offering a justification for that. In the end, they backed down. They didn't object to the electoral college count this year. They didn't. They thought that that would represent some sort of some sort of virtue victory for them.
Starting point is 00:41:44 That, oh, if we don't object, that makes us look better than Trump. Okay, fine, I prefer that outcome, go for that. You do whatever play acting you want. But last year, Jamie Raskin was the head idiot advocating for that position, which is let's steal it on January 6th. That's crazy.
Starting point is 00:42:04 The man is a danger, and he keeps promising to abuse power and he does abuse power when he has it. So this is a big warning and I'm glad he said this out loud in a position where they don't have power right now, where they're not running the House, where they're not running the Senate, where they don't have the White House. Go ahead, keep saying it like that. where they don't have power right now, where they're not running the house, where they're not running the Senate, where they don't have the White House. Go ahead, keep saying it like that. Meanwhile, the left is fighting amongst themselves right now about what the future of their party looks like
Starting point is 00:42:32 because they are leaderless, they don't have anybody offering good ideas. A lot of their most public demonstrations are ludicrous and are turning off voters campaigning for MS-13 guys. Turns out voters don't like it. It's driving them even further into President Trump's arms. And so one of the civil wars that's now breaking out among these Democrats is how much should we fight amongst ourselves? David Hogg, the child prodigy of the left, he has replaced Greta Thunberg in that role,
Starting point is 00:43:12 is now out saying that he wants to use Democrat Party resources to primary other Democrats, to attack Democrats. I love this. James Carville is furious about it. Carville's like, what do you do? He's screaming about it. And so here's how that's playing out right now. He's being paid to run against other Democrats. I think it's an outrage. I don't know if I have standing, but I might give the DMC $10 and sue him. He's a contemptible little twerp. If you ask me. The well-known democratic strategist James Carville
Starting point is 00:43:48 said in response to this announcement of this plan that you have to primary Democrats, he said that the DNC should sue you and called you quote, a contemptible little twerp. What is your reaction to that? Right. That is my reaction. I would also say James Carville has not won an election since
Starting point is 00:44:06 before I was born. I think it's time to have new leaders in our party that are ready to meet this moment because a lot of the people that are most critical of this plan are the same ones that had $2 billion to win an election and still lost. So I think the experts can save it because it's time for some new ideas. Oh man, a little soy sauce from him huh? Going after, going after James Carvel. I'd like to see those two arm wrestle. I want to, let's get this fight going. Don't you think? Put him in the octagon. The raging Cajun versus the, you know, what do we call, what do we call Hog? I don't know what's his nickname? That guy's weird. He's a soy boy. You know, that's. That guy's weird. He's a soy boy.
Starting point is 00:44:45 You know, that's the chat. The chat says he's a soy boy. Yeah. So the soy boy versus the raging Cajun. Let's see it. Let's see him square off. They're now fighting in public. Little Tarp, Little Tarp says Carville.
Starting point is 00:44:58 I adore that. But it's pretty, pretty funny. So right now the fighting is breaking out. And again, it couldn't happen to a better party as James Carville and David Hoggar now at each other's throats and very weakly strangling one another at this moment. We'll see where that goes
Starting point is 00:45:16 and we'll gleefully cover the infighting that continues within their party. Meanwhile, Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, you see the video that she was in over this weekend? She filmed it herself. She was standing in a makeup store. They were one of these, what are the makeup stores? The big ones, the Sephora and Ulta, I think are the big ones.
Starting point is 00:45:38 And she was out there, I don't know which one she was standing in, but she was in a makeup store. And there was a sassy gay dude dressed up in Daisy Dukes who was in the aisle with her. And he did not like her because he is a Democrat. And so he was being emotionally incontinent while standing there. And he began screaming at her. He was holding makeup in his hands, obviously.
Starting point is 00:45:57 He was in a makeup store. And he's yelling at her. Here is the exchange that happened again in a cosmetics aisle in south carolina nancy may stick a listen i do and i do not agree here when he got into it when he got into pressing me asking you could have gone
Starting point is 00:46:17 to a dozen town halls last year after doing this here with one simple question yeah are you doing this i've already done one of you are you know i was here's a simple question you're always Are you doing this? I've already done one. I'll do plenty more. Are you doing any more this year with a simple question? You're always invited. Okay, sweet. Well, then I'll do an actual invitation. I voted for gay marriage twice. How does that have to do with me?
Starting point is 00:46:31 So I'm just saying, it has everything to do with you. It has everything to do with you. See, I could see her hand in my head, just like gesturing broadly towards him. It has everything to do with you. You in particular are gonna be very interested in my position on this issue. I'm for gay marriage, says Nancy Vase. And the guy's like, what does that have to do with me? And she goes, everything. It is literally everything to do with you. I love where this is going.
Starting point is 00:46:59 So I'm just saying it has to do with everything to do with you. Do you think everything about me has to do with gay marriage? I do, absolutely. Is that your first stance when you speak with me? Absolutely. There's no other who may conversation you can have about me. If you want to get in my face about town halls, you should have shown up to one last year. There's no other who made a thing you can talk about me
Starting point is 00:47:13 just saying, oh, I support gay marriage. Yeah. You know, there are a couple options you see when if you're confronted, if you're a public official and someone comes up to you and goes, I hate you. I think you're stupid. Your vote was stupid on that issue. You have them options, you can treat them nicely,
Starting point is 00:47:27 you know, the constituent, you can, you can say, look, one of the most, one of the most famous versions of this is I love your passion. You just say, you just respond. You know, I love how passionate you are about this. It's kind of, it's a little patronizing, a little bit acknowledging like, like, oh, you've got, you're saying something.
Starting point is 00:47:43 I'm not, I don't want to seed the point, but I recognize the emotion that you're wielding right now. She just went straight for, you're a ridiculous human being. You should have come to a town hall last year. And by the way, I support gay marriage, which is like obviously your thing. That's what you have to say. Because you're getting in my face about a town hall
Starting point is 00:47:59 and you could have gone last year. I always ask myself one simple question from right over here. Would you like me? If you have any plans to have more towns hall this year. I have town halls every year. I have over a dozen every year. Great, like me? I have a simple question from right over here as if you have any plans to have more towns hall this year. I have town halls every year. I have over a dozen every year. Great, that was my entire question. And his entire question is dedicated
Starting point is 00:48:11 to when can I come and disrupt your town hall? That the point of this particular line of questioning is when are you holding a town hall so I can ruin it? That's my plan. Because he, that guy does not want to engage in a town hall. He's like, oh, a chance to question my congresswoman and ask her about what's going on in Washington and see if she can give me some answers. It's not going to be like that.
Starting point is 00:48:32 No, these lefties are craving opportunities to appear on more cameras so that they can screech and disrupt it and make it seem like there's a real big groundswell coming out against the Trump agenda. You could have come to any of them last year. I had over a dozen. Where were you the year before that? Or the year before that? Because you know what? Because you people on the left are crazy. You're absolutely crazy. You are. And get out of my face. Goodbye My god, I Not I won by so much That's what you are. You're a disgrace. I asked you a simple question and you just to go on this tirade and tell me Yeah
Starting point is 00:49:18 Get out of my face Get out of my face. Try it again. What's your name? What's your name? It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. So I think if I had to summarize that, I don't think they like each other. If I just, just, I don't think it's recoverable.
Starting point is 00:49:39 I don't think that relationship is gonna work. She tried. She did say like, I know there's at least one issue you're obsessed with. I'm kind of on your side. It ended in a lot of cursing though. Well, that about does it for this special edition of Vince. Always so great to have you with us.
Starting point is 00:49:55 Of course, as always, if you're listening to the podcast, get it on rumble.com slash Vince occasionally. You can watch us live every day at 10 a.m. Eastern. And we've got that whole great rumble chat going. And if you're watching it live, yeah, of course you can get it in podcast form as well. Take me anywhere you like at any place, anytime. I don't need to know any details, but take me with you somewhere.
Starting point is 00:50:16 And lastly, again, today was a special edition because we are in the midst right now of conducting interviews at the White House as you watch this live. All of those interviews with top Trump administration officials will be coming to you this week on Vince and on Wednesday's edition. We've got a lot to get to, including the latest with the president, the latest with the economy, the latest with the border, the latest with Pete Hegseth. Yeah, we have a lot to get to.
Starting point is 00:50:41 Always so good to talk to you. Thanks for watching, Vince. Be back with you tomorrow.

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