The Dan Bongino Show - Sunday Special with President Donald Trump, Dr. Peter McCullough, Mike Benz and Pete Hegseth 06/09/24

Episode Date: June 9, 2024

First up is our President Trump on the eve of the verdict in his sham conviction. Listen to what he’s got to say about it, especially about picking his next AG. Next, We talked with Dr. Peter McCullough about the Fauci hearings before congress, and the latest on the Covid vaccines. Then, We talked with Mike Benz about Hunter Biden and just how and why he’s important to the intel community. Finally, we talked with Pete Hegseth about a great new book called The War on Warriors about the current state of our military. 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. Welcome to Sunday Podcast. This is our chance to play for you some of the best moments from the radio show and some great interviews during the week that you may have missed. If you ever want to check out our show, go to Bongino.com. Go to Station Finder and see what radio station we're on near you. You'll love it. I promise you, we put a lot of work into the radio show. Check it out. But before that, let me tell you about our first sponsor. Are you having trouble staying asleep or getting asleep? I was, listen, you know, I had real problems with sleeping. It's not just about feeling tired the next day. It's the toll poor sleep can take on every aspect of your life. But guess what? There's hope on the horizon. Happened to me. Love this product. It comes in the form of Beam's Dream Powder. It's been a game changer for me. See, when we're sleeping well,

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Beam is now offering Dan Bongino Show listeners an exclusive discount. Get up to 45% off. It's a big savings. Give it a shot. For a limited time, when you go to shopbeam.com slash Bongino and use code Bongino at checkout, that's shopbeam.com slash Bongino. Use code Bongino for up to 45% off. First up is our interview with President Trump on the eve of the verdict in his sham conviction.

That trial was total BS. We know it. Listen to what he had to say about it. We talked about his selection of Attorney General, which I think is the most important position he's going to BS. We know it. Listen to what he had to say about it. We talked about his selection of attorney general, which I think is the most important position he's going to pick. Check this out. Mr. President, I know you've got a thousand important decisions you have to make about personnel with your team.

I'm not naive to that, but I made the argument on my show a couple times. You may think I'm crazy, maybe not. I think your selection for attorney general is your most important pick. Vice president is obviously important, but if we get the attorney general wrong, I know you won't, but if we get that wrong, after this abomination of justice and what happened to you, we're not going to have a country left. Your thoughts on that? It's a very big choice and I made two bad choices. Now, you know, I was loyal.

Jeff Sessions, he was the first Senator to endorse me. He came to me, please let me. He was begging me to do it after I won. And I was loyal. And he didn't have what it took. You know, as soon as he heard the word Russia, he ran for the hills. And Bill Barr, you know, unfortunately, I know he endorsed me recently. So it's always tough to be. I mean, if you can believe that he endorsed me, but he was not a man of strength. He was a coward and he was afraid to go after people on the election. Cheating that went on that, you know, and everybody knows where the brain went on. And we're not going to let that happen again. But I wish, you know, I made two different choices there. I had it twice. And then you have other important positions, too. I think, by the way, I think defense was very good at the end. He did a good job. But we had mostly good people.

You know, Bob Lighthizer was great. We had a lot of great people. But now I know everybody, Dan. I know the good ones, the strong ones, the weak ones, the dumb ones, the smart ones. I know them all. But I was never a Washington guy. I was with you in New York and I knew New York very well.

But now I know Washington better than probably anybody. And I know the good ones and the bad ones. The weak ones and the strong ones. And we got to get there. But that isn't important. And then you need Secretary of State. You need Secretary of Defense. They're all important, Dan. Every one of them.

Yeah, they are. This Attorney General with everything at the Weaponization Justice Department is really troubling. Absolutely, very important decision, no question about it. Speaking of your trial here as well, Mark Levin, a friend of both of ours, a real great patriot there, he put out a very interesting thread this morning on his social media accounts, talking about how the Supreme Court, and we don't know yet what's going to happen but if there is a ridiculous conviction in this sham disgusting filth ridden grotesque trial i don't have enough adjectives and adverbs to describe this abomination that the supreme court should take this thing immediately on due process

violations they've yet to state a crime no less proved beyond a reasonable doubt you committed one your thoughts on that and the left's attempts right now to intimidate the Supreme Court going after Alito and others. They're clearly doing that to send a message in case this winds up at the Supreme Court. Well, they're trying to play the ref. Alito's a tough guy and he's strong

and very, very smart. And he put out a great statement today. In fact, I commented on it. I don't know if you saw that on Truth. Your people love Truth and so do I. But I commented and I. In fact, I commented on it. I don't know if you saw that, on truth. Your people love truth, and so do I. But I commented on it. I gave him a lot of credit for it. But they play the ref. You know, they intimidate them.

They still, to this day, you know, by law, they have to give. You can't have protesters. You can't around their houses. They haven't done a thing. They haven't done a thing. What they're doing is so bad. They haven't done anything to protect the justices doing is so bad. They haven't done anything to protect the justices. It's really disgraceful what's going on. You know, all that we heard

about it for two years. But Alito's great. Thomas, great. The three that I put in, I think they do. I mean, it's a little early, but people are people are starting to warm up to him. I will say this, but they've got to be strong and they've got to be tough. Alito's been very tough, very good, and Thomas has been good. And we're going to see how it all works out. But it's such an important position, such a big deal. But when I look at the way they're treated, you know, they play the ref. They try and scare him.

They try and, you know, look, they're humans like everybody else, but they try and do Bobby Knight, you know, the great Bobby Knight. He'd scream, scream, scream. And Bobby said, well, you're not going to win this one, but we'll win the next call, right? And that's what they do with our judges. Not only the Supreme Court justices, but they do it with judges, and they do it with a lot of different people. They do it with a lot of different people where they're afraid to function. People are afraid to function because they don't want to go through it. But the and the problem is the left. Look, you know, the problem is the left. I see. I know the left. I know the right. The big problem here. They don't talk about it. The problem is the left. And the danger comes from the big danger comes from the left yeah they do i mean obviously they've taken on totalitarian tendencies i mean we've seen it the evidence is everywhere

mr president this discussion uh i hate to even bring this embarrassing to even have this discussion but this is how crazy they are this discussion of jail and the secret service advancing a jail i mean this is third world type stuff i i gotta to tell you, there are third world, you know, tin pot dictators who are watching this. And I can't believe what's happening. We're living in a third world country. We have no borders. They're pouring in by the millions. And they're coming from prisons and jails and mental institutions and insane asylums.

And they're coming. They're terrorists. Massive numbers of terrorists are coming in. They're coming from the Congo. They're coming from all over Africa. They're coming from all over Asia and they're coming from the Middle East and they're coming from South America. But you would be amazed, the numbers are getting bigger outside of South America. They're coming from all over the world. We have no idea who they are in many cases from where they come. The only thing we know is they're tough as hell,

and they're criminals. Many, many criminals are coming in. Many, many criminals are coming in. And this horrible president, the worst president in the history of our country, is allowing it to happen. He's destroying the fabric of our country. And we're going to have the biggest deportation effort ever.

And we're going to start with the bad ones that we know who they are. And, you know, who knows who they are? The local police. They know everything about them. And we're going to give immunity to them and we're going to let them do their job because they have to. But local police, they're afraid to protect people because they end up losing their pension, losing their job. You know it better than anybody. They lose their family if they do their job. And we're not going to let that happen. They have to do their job.

So, Mr. President, Joe Biden had a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a gym. I think about five people showed up, two family members and three members of the media. How does that make you feel that they're trying to hold you up in a courtroom? And the reason they're doing it is obvious. You go to the South Bronx, a deep blue area. Thousands of people show up. It's a raucous crowd. Joe Biden goes to an area should be Democrat. And, you know, five, 10 people. I'm exaggerating a little bit, but not too much. The guy can't draw a crowd. He can't compete against you. He's not a leader. And the whole thing was a disgrace.

The whole election was a rigged election and a disgrace. And we're going to make it up. November 5th is going to be the most important day in the history of our country. We're going to make it up and we're going to we're going to make America great again. That's all I can tell you. We're going to do it fast. We're going to drill. We're going to get energy prices down, like down. I say drill, baby, drill. We're going to get energy prices way down. We're going to bring those numbers. I mean, people are looking at numbers sometimes as high as 50 percent of costs of things are up. No matter what, no matter what they're making, they're getting

wiped out. The middle class is being destroyed. The lower the lower income people are. They can't even live under Biden. You know, he talks about Bidenomics. He doesn't use the term anymore. It's a disaster. But the people are being hurt in our country. Look, we wouldn't have had inflation. More importantly, because frankly, that's numbers and it's terrible. But we wouldn't have had all those people being killed in Ukraine. It would have never happened. Putin would have never done it. We would have had oil prices down. I mean, the higher oil prices gave him the money to do it. And we had low oil prices. We had low energy prices. You wouldn't have had Israel. You wouldn't have had the October 7th attack in Israel.

You wouldn't have any of this stuff. You wouldn't have China. China wouldn't be eyeing Taiwan, which looks like they wanted pretty badly. They weren't doing it. I had plenty of talks with him and I had plenty of talks with Putin. They would have never gone in. Putin would have never gone in. President Xi would have never gone in. We would have had a much different world. I'll tell you, Dan, you wouldn't have had those two things alone. You wouldn't have had inflation. And if you take those three out and you would have had Iran was, as you know, they were broke. They weren't funding Hamas and they weren't funding anything. They weren't funding Hezbollah. They weren't funding Hamas and they weren't funding anything. They weren't funding Hezbollah. They weren't funding any of these terrorist states, these terror gangs, you call them, because they're gangs.

And they were being funded by Iran. Iran had no money. They had no money. We had anybody bought. They couldn't do business in the United States. They had no money. And now they have two hundred and twenty the United States. They had no money. And now they have $224 billion. A lot of money. They're a different group and they're looking to get a nuclear weapon and they're going to have one soon because this idiot is allowing them to have a nuclear weapon. And when they have, you're not going to be able to talk to them anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Just a new report released on their progress. Mr. President, I'm sorry you're going through all this.

Thanks for fighting for the country. We really appreciate it. And thank you so much for these exclusive comments after this sham trial today. We really appreciate it. Thanks for your time. It is my honor to be fighting. Thank you very much. Thanks, Dan.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it very much. President Trump, folks. President Donald J. Trump. Really appreciate that. Up next, another interview you're going to love, but let's get to our next sponsor first. We recently had monumental news that no one's talking about. For the first time in our history, it's been reported that the interest we pay in the national debt surpassed every individual budget item except social security.

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your savings. Text Dan to 989898 today message and data rates apply we talked with renowned cardiologist dr peter mccullough about what happened with dr fauci and most importantly the potential dangers of the vaccine for some people and how you'd know you were at risk this is really an important interview you're going to want to hear check it out all right this is one of my most popular guests i've been on the show often world-renowned cardiologist and uh early on one of the uh one of the few sadly and i say that with regret medical professionals healthcare professionals out there who is willing to say hey um we're gonna do science here we're gonna do hysteria when covet hit in 2020 and 2021. uh welcoming back to the show dr

peter mccullough a doc uh welcome to the show, Dr. Peter McCullough. Doc, welcome to the show. Thanks for spending some time with us. Thank you. Doc, you watched Dr. Fauci's hearing like I did. I saw some of your commentary on Fox about it. You had to be as horrified as I was. It appears he's rewriting history.

What did you think first about his line about how he kept an open mind about the lab leak theory? When you and I can both read his emails and what was happening behind the scenes, it appeared they were doing everything to suppress us from looking into this lab leak theory. Keeping an open mind on his plan. this conspiracy, this working group of the NIAID, his research branch, Ralph Baric at UNC Chapel Hill, Peter Daszak at EcoHealth Alliance, and Dr. Xing Li, the bat lady in Wuhan, they created SARS-CoV-2. Fauci is part of that team. They published it in 2015 and 2016. Nature Medicine proceeds the National Academy of Sciences. They're blocking the release of that genetic code from those two papers,

which probably closely matches SARS-CoV-2. And then Fauci, clearly in the emails, was actively working to cover it up. So when he goes to Capitol Hill and said he kept an open mind, he's part of the team that created it. Yeah, that kind of really disturbed me because, you know, people like you and I who legitimately kept an open mind, you know, Doc, I didn't know early on

if it had some natural origin. I'm not a virologist, an epidemiologist. Certainly could have. But the evidence that a virus that leaked from Wuhan that was studying viruses of that specific origin seemed pretty overwhelming.

Let me move on to some other information, more your wheelhouse here. You had warned early on about the vaccine that, hey, this may not be for everyone. You said there's some information about this vaccine. We don't know everything. We need some longitudinal data over time about what these outcomes may be. And again, you were called a conspiracy theorist and every malicious name in the book. And it turns out that you may in fact have been right. And some of the benefits of this vaccine were likely overstated. Where do we stand now with the vaccine? I believe

last time we talked, you told me there were three groups of responders and I don't want to put words in your mouth that some people are having a hard time with this. Now that we have a bigger data set and time has passed, what are your thoughts on the vaccine, its efficacy, and side effects? I'm the only public figure who called it ahead of time. August of 2020, Dan, I published an op-ed in The Hill. It was titled The Great Gamble of the COVID-19 Vaccine Program. I'm the only one. You're talking to him. I called it ahead of time. I said, listen, it's the genetic code for the dangerous and lethal part of the virus. Once this genetic code gets injected,

we had no way of shutting it off. We had no idea where it went in the body, how long it lasted, and boy, has it been a disaster. Fortunately, data from three sources now suggest about a third of people have zero side effects, zero, starting from the initial shots. You know, just under two thirds have some mild side effects, but they're OK. Three studies demonstrate that between five to 10 percent of people, Dan, they're in trouble.

Now, Doc, we're talking to Dr. Peter McCullough, world-renowned cardiologist, one of the few truth-tellers early on about COVID. Is that a, forgive me, again, not being a medical health professional, is that an unusually large number for an mRNA-based vaccine to have side effects in the 5% to 10% range? You see this stuff all the time. Is that high? Is it low? Is it average outcomes in

cardiology low is less than one percent moderate is one to five percent and high is over five percent our cdc v-safe data 10 million americans they took the shot stand 7.7 percent of people got so sick with the shots they had to go to urgent care or be hospitalized. It's too high. So when you were warning about this early on and medical health professionals, and I use that term loosely, like Dr. Fauci and others, Dr. Birx, when they were implying that this vaccine had an incredibly tight safety profile, we really shouldn't worry. I mean, you can go back and listen yourself. You heard it, doc, just like I did. They were the ones actually manipulating the science, correct? It wasn't people like yourself who said, maybe we should wait a little bit. They were the ones putting out this information. Dan, when the vaccines first came out, December 10th, 2020,

there was only one month for the primary series and two months of observation. No one could have known what happened at month four. No one could have known. So when, you know, these doctors, American Board of Internal Medicine, others said they're safe and effective. Everybody take them. No one knew. This was what's called vaccine hubris. That is people becoming overconfident in mankind's invention. We should have been much more humble to say, listen, we don't know if this is going to work or not. You know, everybody should have a free choice. Evaluate the emerging risks and benefits.

We should have had monthly safety meetings from the vaccine sponsors, the FDA and CDC. None of that happened. Basically, people were told to take it or lose their job. Yeah, and many of them did. Talking to Dr. Peter McCullough. Doc, regarding the vaccine, I'm getting a bunch of questions now

coming in via my social media. They want to know, in your professional opinion, if it's been, say, three years or so, two years, they've had a vaccine and they haven't actually felt any symptoms. Maybe they haven't had blood work or anything like that, but they haven't felt any symptoms, no noticeable change in their heart rate or

anything like that are those people okay is there something they should be doing I know you would mention natto kinase I actually have it on my desk I take it every day is that still an avenue what about lumbar kinase is other anti-inflammatories out there if you are having issues with that I'm not asking to diagnose anyone specifically I know they're not in front of you but is in is there anti-inflammatories out there if you are having issues with that i'm not asking to diagnose anyone specifically i know they're not in front of you but is in general does any of that stuff work well let me tell you what i do in practice is i do an analysis i ask them what shots did they take and when they took them how many episodes of covid proven covid did they have

and then we measure antibodies on an extended range assay to the spike protein, which is a proxy of how much spike protein exposure someone had. And then we run tests for autoimmunity, the ANA, the anticitrel-related peptide and rheumatoid factor, if there's skin or kidney symptoms, we measure ANCA, which is a more expensive test. We run several tests for heart damage, BMP, troponin, and colectin-3. But the point is, from taking a history, doing an EKG exam and some labs, we can size up if somebody's in trouble or not. Fortunately, the vast majority of people are fine. Sure, the longer you go from the shots with no side effects, statistically less likely something's going to happen. But we have seen new blood clots and new complications arise, Dan, even three years after the shot. And you know what the wild card is, is getting another episode of COVID

because the vaccines don't work. You have a vaccinated person, they're loaded with spike protein. Maybe they have a tendency towards blood clot. They get another episode of COVID. It's mild, but yet they end up with a blood clot now i see that in practice frequently wow that's that that's pretty scary because you know you would think i mean call me crazy doc but i'm a believer in these you know nutty things i learned about in biology 101 like natural immunity um you you know i'm not a doctor but uh you know i i'm pretty sure'm pretty sure my freshman year biology teacher, Ms. Lonergan, taught me that the body's supposed to get better at defending against pathogens over time with persistent reinfection, and not worse.

Now, is there any truth to the story I hear running around out there that some people who get the vaccine actually may have some kind of imprinting problem and that they may be more likely to get COVID or is that just, you know, kind of an old wives tale making its way around the internet? No, it's true. Dan, there was a study in Cleveland Clinic, over 51,000 Cleveland Clinic employees with every successive shot, there's a higher risk they get COVID over and over again, probably because the immune system's being misdirected. They keep getting exposed to this vaccine spike protein. The body produces

antibodies called IgG4. They're subclass switching to useless antibodies. It just sets up the body to actually take in more virus. It's called antibody-dependent enhancement. So, you know, the best advice we have is for people to lay off these shots. You're right, natokinase, bromelain, and curcumin. That's called McCullough Protocol-based spike detoxification. That's now become essentially a worldwide standard. We have one supportive paper for sireptase. We don't know about lumbar case.

The principle is the body needs some assistance in enzymatically dissolving the spike protein and getting it out of the body. So I get a ton of questions about this, just to state again, you said bromelain, natokinase, and curcumin, is that the three? And those are all, just so we're clear, those are all over the counter. They've been available for years. Natokinase is actually part of a fermented Japanese dish. It's nothing particularly exotic. But these things have shown some efficacy. If you do have some of these clots or clotting type problems,

that they've shown some clinical efficacy? Well, we have two peer-reviewed papers. I'm a leader senior author on them, laying out the rationale for this. For natokinase, we have several preclinical studies showing both intact cell and cell lysate models. Natto definitely dissolves the spike. Bromelain, again, a preclinical study support doing this. Both of those are forms of blood thinners, which people need anyway. There's a tendency towards blood clotting, not blood thinning currently among everybody post-pandemic. And then curcumin, that's a derivative of turmeric.

That's like an Indian spice, but in a capsule. That's gone all the way through clinical trials. And that improves multiple parameters of long COVID and vaccine injury syndrome. So I feel pretty strongly people should be on these three natural products, you know, in combination, you know, keeping, you know, caveats in mind regarding bleeding. And we use it in addition to blood thinners and aspirin, but with careful observation. And then slowly, probably over a year, people progressively improve. Yeah.

And of course, folks, as the doc said, talk to your own doctor. We don't know what kind of medications you're on or anything. This is not medical advice for you. But in general, doc, I have been taking those products long before COVID, at least two out of the three. The natakinase is a recent addition for me, but having pretty severe osteoarthritis,

curcumin is a pretty powerful anti-inflammatory. I choose not to be on prescription drugs. It's a personal choice I make. But again, these are not the kinds of things that are revolutionary new products. And sometimes the old staples work best. There is something to be said for societies and people over time finding benefit in some of these products. Well, keep in mind our published recommended doses are low. So natto kinase 2,000 units twice a day, bromelain 500 milligrams a day, and curcumin 500 milligrams a day taken on an empty stomach.

Now, Chinese have just done a study with natto at 10,000 units a day. I've talked to Jordan Vaughn in Birmingham, who runs a big COVID vaccine blood clot center where they're removing massive blood clots in people, and he's using natto up to 16,000 units a day. We can't make therapeutic claims because there are no large prospective randomized double blind placebo controlled trials. But the Biden administration, HHS, they missed the boat. They spent a billion dollars on long COVID, never studied these natural products. Yeah, it's a shame, Doc.

I wish people would have listened to you early on. Dr. Peter McCullough, you're always a fantastic guest. We're going to rebroadcast this on our podcast on The Weekend Show. Thanks so much for your time. You're always welcome back. We appreciate it. Thank you. The guy's the best.

I told Jim yesterday, I got to get Dr. McCullough on. Cause you know, folks, so you understand what the anchor point to that interview was? That Fauci thing just infuriated me yesterday. But the bottom line is we can complain about Fauci all day. Nothing's going to happen until the administration changes.

We can get a real investigation going. But secondly, I'm worried about your health. I am, I mean mean I'm not messing with you you guys are great to me you have been so ridiculously loyal and I worry about the same things you do I don't have any superhuman Avengers like powers I had to get this vaccine get treatment for cancer I would have died it worries me every day you think I'm no different than you I worry about the same things I've been on natto for a long time now. And that's why I bring them on.

So you can hear from someone who early on said, hey, listen, this thing might not be for everyone. And maybe you shouldn't listen to the hype and actually listen to the science. Up next, another interview for you. But first, our next sponsor. Bone Charge. In these crazy times, we got to recharge and refresh in a natural way.

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And use coupon code Bongino to save 15%. That's bonecharge.com slash Bongino. Use coupon code Bongino to save 15%. Check out the sauna blanket. We talked with Mike Benz about Hunter Biden and just how and why he's important to the Intel community. This is a real eyeopening interview. Check this out.

You know, I always talk about the two mics, Mike Davis and Mike Benz. They're two of the best commentators out there. Davis, really great guy on legal stuff. And Mike Benz, he is at Mike Benz with

a Z, cyber, at Mike Benz cyber on Twitter. X, whatever you want to call it. I strongly encourage you to follow him. He's probably the best out there on the blob, the deep state, whatever you'd like to call it. I don't play euphemisms games. It's real. And it's a legitimate threat. I want to welcome him

back to the show. He's been on the show and uh my podcast before mike benz thanks for your time we appreciate it thanks dan great to talk to you always great to talk to you i meant what i said you're probably the best explainer of how the deep state works and mike i think the problem we have is it's almost um it's an it's it's an asymmetric argument in the fact that the deep state understands itself because it's itself. I mean, that's what it does. Every day it's there working through the spreadsheets, doling out the money, paying off the influence peddlers. And it does get complicated, the blob.

And I think one of your gifts is you kind of make it understandable. I think the story you've been digging into this week on your social media feed and through your subscription accounts, it just describes the deep state makes it understandable the hunter biden barisma natural gas cia story everybody basically had their hand in the pot everyone was making money it was about influence and money and it explains how they work if you could just kind of dig into why the cia was protecting hunter biden you explain it better than anyone. So take it away. Sure. So, you know, there's a long history of the CIA's role in the oil and gas industry. This is something that goes back a very long time. You can argue even to 1953 when the CIA

toppled the government of Iran to prevent the nationalization of the oil there. You can go back to the 1960s when George Bush Sr. began his intelligence career. This is before he was president of the United States or vice president under Reagan, or even before he was the CIA director in 1976. Before that, he came from the oil intelligence world. He was the CIA's liaison to oil companies in Latin America, and that's why he created Zapata Energy Offshore in Colombia and whatnot. And there's a long relationship between the CIA and this. If people want to do further reading on this, you can read the book Private Empire about ExxonMobil and its relationships with the U.S. government and the intelligence services.

Dick Cheney runs through this story, obviously, with, you know, with with Halliburton, which which coincidentally owns the oil and shale refining rights in Ukraine. You had in Ukraine this grand Ukraine energy play by by corporate and financial stakeholders on both sides of the political aisle, which is that Russia has $75 trillion worth of natural resources in Russia. It is the most resource-rich country on earth, but most of it, the vast majority of it is unexploited. But Russia itself, its economy was destroyed during the 20th century. And as it rebuilt itself, it rebuilt itself through basically two things. Its export of its natural gas principally to Europe and its arms industry, which has been the bane in the side, the thorn in the side of the U.s foreign policy establishment for many years now if you remember the obama administration tried to invade syria but we were repelled because russia provided syria

with the air defense systems right look what just happened in niger just now we just got kicked out of niger and that's because russia was providing small arms to the army there so if we can bankrupt russia there's no opposition essentially to u.s military hegemony so there's a dod there's a dod interest in bankrupting russia there's a DOD interest in bankrupting Russia. There's a State Department interest in bankrupting Russia and taking all of their deal flow and having it transferred essentially as windfall profits to U.S. or to NATO-based companies. And this is where the natural gas story comes into this. Russia used to provide 100% of the natural gas to Europe. Russia used to provide 100% of the natural gas to Europe.

It sits on basically the world's second largest supply of natural gas. And it all used to run through Ukraine, either Ukraine or in a direct pipeline to Germany. But we know what happened to the German pipelines. But Ukraine was the great transit point. It's not that Ukraine – Ukraine has a fair amount of unexploited natural gas and this is what barisma was doing but most of it most of ukraine's financial gift and most of its annual revenues come from the gas transit fees that it has because it is the it is the locus point of the east west connective tissue i'm sorry um so you have basically 100 years of gas pipelines that ukraine is central to running through so if you can simply rewire the gas so that it no longer comes from russia it no longer comes from ukraine's

east but it comes from ukraine's west for example by piping in u.s lng or or british lng up through up through poland through the baltic, and then connecting it directly to Ukraine, you have the same gas architecture, you don't need to build a whole new web of energy infrastructure, which is very expensive to build and maintain. You simply reroute it. And now you have basically a trillion dollar market that's captured by the West rather than by the East. And there was a plan in motion that goes back at least about a decade to have this happen. As Putin was reasserting himself on the world stage, he began to use gas diplomacy to win back countries in Central and Eastern Europe that had been folded into NATO or were trying to be folded into NATO to bring them into the Russian orbit again.

This was called energy gas diplomacy. And the U.S. State Department, beginning in about 2006, began to coerce European countries to buy more expensive Western gas than the natural gas that was coming from Europe in order to prevent Russian economic influence over their own politicians. And they didn't want, these countries didn't want to go along with it, but they ended up doing it anyway because of pressure from the U.S. And then when Crimea happened in 2014, a lot of this was also because of this same gas story. If you follow, if anybody

follows any of the CIA cutouts in this space, the National Endowment for Democracy, SIPA, the Center for European Policy Analysis, if you follow the Atlantic Council with seven CIA directors on its board, they are monomaniacally obsessed with getting the transfer of Russian gas. And Burisma played a very interesting role in this because Burisma was one of the biggest private sector gas companies in europe

that was providing this pipeline of endogenous gas into nafta gas the ukraine state-owned company and part of the reason we orchestrated the coup in 2014 to overthrow the crane was because the ukrainian government under victor yanukovych had refused an imf trade deal where where in order to basically assuage its debts to the imf ukraine would have had to privatize naphtha gas and sell off their their public gas company to private stakeholders from the george soros uh you know financial crew which is you know he played a big role in that amazingly yeah huge yes a huge role in that i i that's actually one part i covered in my one of my books is that soros has a huge footprint in this entire thing but go ahead continue massive so you basically have again if

you can cut russia off and and and force these company these countries to buy much more expensive Western based gas, because a lot of this just comes down to the logistics of the price system, which is that a natural gas pipeline is much cheaper than liquefying natural gas in Houston, shipping it across the Atlantic Ocean 5000 miles, sending it to a port in Poland, running that through through a through a connective tissue in Slovakia, and then porting it into Ukraine, then deliquifying the gas. It's just way more expensive, so countries don't want to do it. So the State Department has played the major role in coercing foreign governments

and pressuring them and doing regime change operations to make sure that there are pliant puppet governments all over Central and Eastern Europe that are down with this plan. And you have to understand, the CIA is not the big boss of all this they're not even the brains of all this they are the gimp of all this they are the assistant via the assistant squad to the state department you see we have this thing where where this you know we have three departments that are foreign facing that comprise our department of dirty tricks that are there that are allowed to do supraconstitutional activity so to speak uh in the name of helping you know for the benefit of u.s citizens we have our department of defense our military which is

for national security we have our but but the state department and cia have a much broader mandate they operate under something called national interest, which means if we think it's good for us, if it helps us economically, then we can do it. We don't even need a defense justification. And the CIA was created because the State Department needed some sort of cloak and dagger mechanism to be able to achieve State Department goals without having State Department fingers on it. This is what the plausible deniability doctrine of the CIA is. They can do all sorts of dirty things. They can blow up a pipeline. They can overthrow a government. They can rig elections or rig media ecosystems in foreign countries. And there's no

diplomatic blowback because the U.S. government didn't do it. It just happened by itself, but it was happening because it wasn't really by itself. It was the CIA engaged in these covert actions that range from subterfuge, sabotage, demolition to corporate espionage. And that corporate espionage side is where you get to the Burisma story. Burisma was a mostly Russian-dominated private gas company within Ukraine. And Ukraine at the time, in 2013-2014, was very much split between its Ukrainian half and its Russian half.

The country's basically split down the middle in its east-west, and this is how the Civil War played out. When we overthrew the government in 2014, the entire eastern half of the country seceded in a breakaway state, and Crimea ended up joining the Russian Federation in a democratic referendum, essentially. And at this point, we descended on, well, I mean, it goes back before that again. organizations who then orchestrated the color revolution there the right sector uh mobs that

ended up you know effectively january sixing you know if you will if if you if you believe the official story they you know basically surrounded the parliament building and ran the president out of the country and then and then installed the new unelected government when victoria newland gave that speech about how they had provided all the financial support to to those groups she was doing it in front of a sign for Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell, which were two of the big oil and gas companies that had each made a $10 billion investment in NAFTA gas, which Burisma is the feeder to.

So these were the major oil and gas companies sponsoring the State Department conference on the coup. Mike, Mike, I don't want to cut you off. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude. I only got two minutes left. I got a hard break. I want my audience to hear this part, though. How were they so stupid, though, this blob that has this amazing interest? You just my people are already emailing me. They can't believe the story you're telling how amazing it is but how were they so dumb to put a hunter biden face on it thinking that they no one would figure out there was a moneyed interest in the black didn't it expose the blob i got a minute and 40 left if you could tell us that well it's a very similar story to

jeffrey epstein if you recall um you know um a Acosta, when he was being nominated for Secretary of Labor, he was asked, why didn't you go after Epstein in the 90s? Why did you give him a sweetheart deal? And he said, I was told to back off the case because he belonged to intelligence. That's a direct quote. And this is what the CIA does. One of the things they do is they interface with the Justice Department. If you remember, Bill Barr, who was the head of the Justice Department during the Trump term, while all this was happening with Hunter Biden, Bill Barr started his career in the Central Intelligence Agency.

And not only that, you know, the Washington Post even reported how he was the janitor for Iran-Contra, blocking congressional oversight of the CIA's role in the scandal of Iran-Contra. He's basically been the mop-up man for the CIA, and then he was the head of the Justice Department twice. And so, you know, there's a long history of the CIA's role in tilting the Justice Department to protect their own criminals. Because, again, under the CIA's plausible deniability doctrine they are allowed they have a license to crime they have as long as they maintain plausible deniability and just one more thing on hunter biden hunter i got about 20 seconds left hunter biden was on the chairman's

advisory board of ndi the national democratic institute that is a cia cut out that is the dnc branch of the national endowment for democracy which was literally created by a letter from CIA Director Bill Colby in the 1980s when he said the CIA used to get caught with directly funding people who want to set up a National Endowment for Democracy so it doesn't look like there's CIA fingerprints on it. How the hell does Hunter Biden get on the Chairman's Advisory Board of the most prolific CIAia cut out the entire country mike i'm going to just read to you uh a message i got wow wow wow wow from george i wish i could

spend more time with you you just blew my audience away that is just a phd course in 15 minutes hey mike uh you're really wonderful thanks for coming to mike's twitter feed you're really wonderful. Thanks for coming to Mike's Twitter feed. You're the best, buddy. Mike Benz with a Z, at Mike Benz Cyber. Thanks, Mike. Give him a follow. Fantastic guy. Subscribe to his account. It is really a college-level course.

You just heard what the deep state is really up to. Up next, an interview with a really good friend you're going to love, but let's get to our last sponsor first. With cyber attacks on the rise, protecting your data security is more important than ever. So why is Congress considering a law that puts your data at greater risk of being hacked and exposed to foreign networks? The Durbin Marshall credit card bill shifts billions in consumer spending to less secure payment networks,

all so that corporate megastores can make bigger profits. Don't let Durbin Marshall steal your data. Visit handsoffmyrewards.com slash security and tell your senators to oppose the Durbin Marshall credit card bill. Paid for by Electronic Payments Coalition. This is Pete Hagsath about his new book, The War on Warriors, about the current state of our military and it going woke. Listen to it. It's really important. You know this guy, you see him on Fox and Friends, a great guy, good friend for a really long time gosh we met well over 10 probably 15 years ago i remember running into him at uh one of those early cpacs he's got a new book out i got it right here for those of you watching at home it's called the war on warriors it's

pretty fantastic book my friend friend Pete Hegseth. Pete, welcome to the show. What's up, Dan? Thanks for having me, man. Hey, good luck with the book. I see it's already taken off. I'm seeing a bunch of people talking about it on social media. It's a pretty hot topic.

And the book's called The War on Warriors. Pete, before we get into the book, because there's so much to talk about there, there was an op-ed in the Washington Post today. I'll just sum it up for you, it was by Admiral William McRaven, I know you know him, and the op-ed was like, hey, we've got to get back to American exceptionalism. I mean, man knows the military

better than anyone. He gives speeches on leadership. And the gist of the op-ed, Pete, was, man, we're in such a really hot, divided country right now that we've got to lay down our rhetorical arms. And before we dig into the book, I thought to myself, you know, Pete, we didn't ask for this fight. We didn't go spying on Barack Obama. We didn't go throwing moms for liberty people under

investigation and in jail. We didn't go locking up pro-choicers for their religious beliefs. This was a unilateral one-way street fight against us, and now McRaven wants us to lay down our rhetorical arms? No way, man. We've got to fight back. You're right, Dan. I read the piece, too. It was a call for unilateral disarmament.

It was, I know they've locked you up. I know they've targeted you. I know they've come after you, but now is the time for us all to just get along. And, you know, Admiral McRaven had a real good reputation in the military. In fact, I think the understanding, the belief was that he might have been potentially, had Hillary won, maybe in the running to be her secretary of defense. Who knows? But he's an example of the type of general who had a pretty good reputation but allowed a lot of the nonsense to enter into the military because he didn't have the guts to take it on. I know he famously wrote the book, Make Your Bed, like,

yes, make your bed, but also don't let like trans into the military or women in combat slots that you know don't belong there or CRT and DEI into the military and not say anything about it. And then tell us to stop complaining about it as if we're the ones that wrecked the institution. So there's just a lot of establishment figures like that who write op-eds that sound good, but when you really needed them, they weren't there. Well, I just want you to know you inspired me. I knew you were coming on this show,

and I was just doing some kind of homework on our military stuff, and that segment popped up. I'd actually seen it on Fox & Friends, and I was really disappointed because I agree. He had a great reputation. It just seems like such a kumbaya, silly thing to say, given that we didn't ask for it. So the book, Pete, is called The War on Warriors. It's probably got the Pentagon running for the hills. You are probably on a most wanted list in the Pentagon right now because it's a pretty stunning indictment,

Pete, of our military and readiness. And one of the things you obviously address is the woke thing. But you give real examples. And one of them I heard you talking about in an appearance I was watching the other day is, you know, we'll reject people in the military for asthma because it would be, you know, you're not combat ready with certain severity conditions, you know, that might impact your readiness. And yet we'll take people who want a sex change operation. I mean, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard. You're right, Dan, because it stopped being about meritocracy. I mean, you've been in these types of units, whether it's the NYPD or the Secret Service or the military. If you're being told diversity is your strength, you know that's a lie from the beginning. Yet we're hearing that from the top levels of our military.

The diversity is our strength. That's a lie. Everyone serving knows that's true. Our strength is our unity, our unity of effort, our unity of mission, our brotherhood, those that we are willing to sacrifice for, regardless of your background, regardless of your shade, regardless of your socioeconomic status. That's what makes the military class or the law enforcement class different. status. That's what makes the military class or the law enforcement class different. And so when you hear leaders spouting and pushing this stuff and pushing things like trans or even changing

standards for gender standards, they've completely abdicated their responsibility and their oath to the Constitution. The book is not how the military went woke. The book is how the military allowed itself to go woke. It was brass and leadership who laid down to civilians with left-wing Marxist views, pushed into the military, and they didn't do anything about it, man. They didn't do anything about it. And now we're dealing with the consequences. There are a lot of great patriots in uniform. And I wrote this book for them in the hopes that a new commander-in-chief can get rid of that garbage and get us back to what we do best. Oh, there's a ton of patriots. And I know you know that.

I say the same thing about, you know, some of my friends in federal law enforcement. Some of these guys are disgusted. They reach out to me every day. They're like, I can't believe what's going on. The book is called The War on Warriors by my friend Pete Hegseth. It is out today. Go pick up a copy wherever you get your books. Pete, you are obviously in the military. And the whole idea of boot camp, this initial indoctrination phase, is that you break people down to their preconceived notions.

Everyone's the same. Hispanic, black, Asian, everyone gets yelled at. They break you down and they want to make sure any preconceived notions you had of it's me first are going to be gone. And then they build you back up again. If you're a Marine, you get that Eagle Globe and anchor. People are crying. This is so emotionally attached.

You're in the Army, the Navy. You get out of there. You did something special. Boot camp's hard, man. And now this is strategy that has worked forever for us to build a combat effective military. We're doing the exact opposite. Now let's go into boot camp in the military and make sure we highlight the fact that we're all different, folks. None of us are the same at all.

I mean, how counterproductive and stupid to do this. It's almost like the border, Dan. If you really wanted to conceive of a policy that was meant to destroy the country, this is exactly what you would do. And it's exactly what you'd do in the military. You would cater to the individual constituencies of individual recruits by categorizing them by their identity politics and making sure they know they have the leverage. If they're gay or a lesbian or trans or black or white or Hispanic or female or whatever, whatever category they've been told should be emphasized, grooming standards, physical fitness standards, they all get warped and changed. And now individual soldiers and sailors and others believe they can weaponize those differences to

their own advantage. And commanders are walking around on eggshells. I heard it time and time again, Dan, you know, if you're in the Secret Service of the law enforcement, you know it, if your commander's got to have the ability to say, follow this're in the Secret Service of the law enforcement, you know it. If your commander's got to have the ability to say, follow this order and it's done. I mean, that's the ethos you have to have, especially when the bullets are flying in combat. It's not how it works anymore. Commanders are scared to misgender or, you know, are they addressing their troops properly? Or how do I enforce grooming standards over here or physical fitness standards over there without being called anti-woman or fat shaming?

It's insane. And I've heard this from guys and gals across all services of all ranks. It's upside down. And the scary part is we're going to have another war to fight. And you can't just push go and have a capable military. You need them trained and ready to go. And that's not what it looks like right now. It can be turned around, but not right now. Well, let's talk about that. We're talking to Pete Hegseth about his new book out today.

It's called A War on Warriors. Go pick it up. I said the Pentagon's probably freaking out over this. Pete, you address the standards. How, listen, the purpose of the military is a simple one. Forget all this other crap you've heard. The purpose is to kill the enemy. That's it. Kill or destroy them. That's what they do. and that's what we do better than anyone else. That's why we have this wonderful, beautiful United States we all love because of people with balls, man, with freaking grapefruits who go out there for no money. I'm sorry, but I love these guys, man.

They go out there. The nuts on these guys. They're not getting paid squat, and they're like, I'm going to die for you while you're drinking your Starbucks latte. It's incredible. We've got so many patriots out there willing to do this. The problem we're having now is they're so destroying the standards that we can't find enough people. We're in a legitimate recruiting crisis now because the country, Pete, not just the military, large portions of it have gotten soft and woke, too.

Legitimate. You laid it out beautifully, Dan. And then you layer on top of it a K-12 education system that teaching kids that America's not a good country. Why would I sign up to fight and die for a country that's no good anyway? And you see these massive shortfalls in all the services. And then the Pentagon has run their own, you know, bud-like campaign. They've run around with, you know, I have two mommies or my identity is what defines me with these ads that make their way into the internet and into the, in front of the eyes of young people.

I say, why would I, why would I do that? So you don't, you gain about two lesbians from San Francisco and then you lose all the dudes from Kentucky. And who do you think has fought and won our wars? Through all the years, it's normal men of all backgrounds who sign up to say, I want to channel my masculinity in defense of my family, God, and country. And they've got it upside down. Thankfully, a new commander in chief can run a different type of ads, put a new ethos into it, strip that stuff out, I'd say return the

standards to about, I don't know, 1996. Whatever the standards were in 1996 in the Army, let's have those for ranger school, for airborne school, for basic infantry training, for artillery, and just say, we're about killing bad guys. We're about deterring threats, killing bad guys, and having the best of the brightest in those positions. You've got to fire the woke generals who went along with this nonsense. guys. We're about deterring threats, killing bad guys, and having the best of the brightest in those positions. You've got to fire the woke generals who went along with this nonsense. And what the book tries to do is tell that this is not a 100-year story. This is a 20-year

breakdown that you've seen that really does have me worrying about our ability to project power when the next shooting war starts. There's a reason our enemies are moving in the way that they are. They don't believe our capabilities are what they were before. And tragically, right now, they're kind of right. Pete, I'm getting a ton of feedback on my social. I'm loving the interview. The book is called The War on Warriors by my friend here, Pete Hegseth. I saw you, I think it was on Fox and Friends this morning.

One of the interviews you did about the book, and someone had asked you, maybe it was Lawrence, and said, you know, Pete, when did this start? And correct me if I'm wrong, but it probably started decades ago, but you think it really got hot, this effort to destroy and kind of woke-ify our military during the Obama era. Did I hear that right? You did hear that right. Sure, there were things that happened under Clinton,

and Jimmy Carter didn't fund it properly. But when you look at the issue at hand, this is not just about weapon systems and pay. And you're right. Soldiers get paid squat compared to anybody else. It's not something you do to get rich. Nothing. But the Obama administration looked at the one meritocracy that they didn't control, and they were hell-bent on bringing it to heel.

And from the beginning, you remember Obama famously sort of mistrusted all the generals and poo-pooed them. He got rid of the ones that were warfighters that weren't willing to be complicit with every agenda that they were pushing. And then by the end, they sort of got their footing and really fast-forwarded a lot of those things. Trump came in and tried to stop some of it, but there wasn't, I think, as much of a sense of the depth of what Obama had done, because most of it was under the radar. And so a lot of it just kind of simmered inside the Pentagon and came roaring out after George Floyd and what you saw with Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin and all the nonsense about, you

know, January 6th and George Floyd and systemic racism and extremism in the ranks. And that's where my story comes in, that I was identified as an extremist by my own unit in the D.C. National Guard before guarding the inauguration. It was absurd. The whole story in the book, Dan. Extremist, Pete Hegseth. Yes, exactly. That's hilarious. I signed up to fight extremists, and then I got called one, and my orders were revoked to go defend the inauguration after serving three tours. The whole story's in there.

But if it's happening to me, Dan, it's happening to anybody. And I know stories of dozens and dozens of guys in this book who the same thing happened to. Folks, the book is called The War on Warriors. It's by my good friend here, Pete Hegseth. He's a great guy and a patriot. Been a loyal friend for a long time. And Pete, I know this book is going to be another mega bestseller because I know this is a work of passion for you. This is probably a book you've had in your head for the longest time. I can only imagine all the stuff that came out in this book. So good luck with it. It was part therapy too, Dan. And you're right. I got word that some folks in the

Pentagon got early copies and they're not too happy. You're right. Brother, I can only, there is, believe me, there is some Do Not Admit poster with your face and the hair on it right now. It's at the front door of every location. Do Not Admit. Pete Hegseth, God bless you, my friend. The book, again, The War on Warriors. Best of luck with it, my friend. You're the man, Dan.

Thank you so much. God bless you, brother. Take care. Pete Hegseth, good man, man. We had a lot of good times together over at Fox. He's a good guy. And the book, I've only gotten through about a quarter of it. And his note to his kid about the military is pretty touching, by the way.

You should check that out. Because a lot of these military families are generational. And you're seeing a lot of people who serve now who can't say with a straight face to their kids that, hey, man, this is the right career path for you. And that's really sad. Because, folks, let me tell you something. hey man, this is the right career path for you. And that's really sad.

Because folks, let me tell you something. Without people with balls and brave men and women who go in there, actually put their lives on the line. Not some cliche, put my life, no, no, no. Like they really could lose their lives. Without people doing that, you don't have a country. You don't have a country. You have an idea of a country.

You have a land mass. But trust me, you don't have a country. Thanks have an idea of a country. You have a land mass. But trust me, you don't have a country. Thanks for listening to the Dan Bongino Show. You can find us on over 300 stations across the country. Go to bongino.com slash station finder. And if you want to watch the show live every day, you can start at 11 a.m. on Rumble for the podcast, rumble.com slash bongino.

And the radio show broadcasts live there as well in Nerd. rumble.com slash bongino. See you on Monday. You just heard Dan Bongino.