The Dan Bongino Show - The Bongino Brief - The Projection of Power...Or Not!

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

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Dan Bongino. Welcome to the Bongino Brief. I'm Dan Bongino. I was a different person after I ran for office. Because you just see so much. It's kind of like, you know, hearing about the promised land and then someone dropping you in it. And you're like, oh my gosh, look, it's so much different being here and experiencing the fruits of the whole thing.

Like you have to experience, in this case, it's the opposite effect. It's the unpromised land. Be careful what you wish for. Right. Be careful what you wish for because you just may get it. I think I want to be a politician. And then you go and surround yourself with politicians. You're like, holy, these people suck. These are like the most mercenary, me first, one way a-holes I've ever met in my entire life. And they magically all found themselves in politics. I can't get past this impeachment vote the other night and how these weak-kneed Republicans, Ken Buck, McClintock, and Mike Gallagher,

keep trying to explain away how somehow, follow me, they don't want to set a precedent by impeaching a cabinet official for what they call maladministration, what I call high crimes and misdemeanors assisting in the invasion of the United States. Here's what I mean. Go to Wall Street Journal piece here. This is Mike Gallagher. Again, this weak kneed Republican from Wisconsin. This guy's tried a thousand different ways to explain away why he was a no vote. And he had to go and write a Wall Street Journal op-ed about this thing. And here's the most comical part of this whole op-ed. He says, but I disagree with my Republican colleagues who voted on Tuesday to impeach Mr. Mayorkas.

Obviously, you voted no to impeach Mayorkas. Impeachment not only would fail to resolve Mr. Biden's border crisis, but would also set a dangerous new precedent that would be used against future Republican administrations. Holy s***. Just dumb as a freaking rock. A dangerous

new precedent. Precedent. a danger, a dangerous new precedent. Yeah. Joe, precedent, meaning this was, so Joe, well,

let's say it's, let's just speak English for you. Joe's a very smart guy. He's done a lot of stuff. If it's a new precedent, impeaching an official for what he calls maladministration, but what's clearly here, high crimes and misdemeanors,

right? Yeah. That would mean it was unprecedented, right? Because it's a new precedent, Joe, correct? Yes, correct. So if you and I are setting a new precedent in podcasting by reaching a listener number, that means it's unprecedented, correct? Just follow my, Joe, which means it hasn't happened before, right? With you so far, bro. Okay. Joe, has anyone been impeached? Let's just say in the last 10 years,

has anyone been impeached in the last 10 years over what politicians would call maladministration? He's like, I've seen him before. Nice hair. Flowing mane. He's a real estate. Yes. Donald, Donald, Donald Trump. Yeah. That guy just checking, man. See, do you understand how these people think you're stupid? Number one, Mike Gallagher spends the, and I'm not even going

to show you the whole op-ed cause it's a waste of your time. Spends the entire op-ed in the wall street journal of Republican arguing against the impeachment, claiming and pulling out legal penumbras, how assisting in an invasion of the United States, clearly against his protect and defend the Constitution role, is somehow not a high crime and misdemeanor. He spends the entire time arguing against the Republican cause. This is a Republican. And he then claims, is this guy stupid? That it would set a dangerous new precedent as if impeachment of Donald Trump twice on maladministration hasn't already happened. Folks, listen, if you caught my radio show yesterday, you caught it. Now,

forgive me for telling this story again, but this is critical you understand this. Listen to me. Everybody ready? It's going to be one of the most important things I ever tell you. It is time to get the sandbox playtime romper room over and throw it out. If you're not ready to play bare knuckle politics, then get the hell out of office. Politics is about the projection of power. Do you understand that? Politics is not cutesy time. It's not third grade math. It's not an SAT prep course. Get your head out of your ass.

It is about the projection of power. That is it. How do we take our conservative principles and use our administrative political power granted to us by our elected office to project that power and to move the country in that more constitutionally oriented direction. How do we do that? This Gallagher spends the whole time arguing against it, claiming ridiculously that there's no precedent for an impeachment of an official. The irony being we actually have high crimes and misdemeanors here. Folks, I've told you the story before, but I want you to listen to me. I want you to understand the projection of power, projecting power, being able to use power to

project it, to make it work. It has to be based on a reputation. There is no power in people not being at least in some way afraid that you're going to do what you say you're going to do. I don't mean that in a nasty way. I mean, if you say, here's my 100-point plan as a Republican candidate to run for president, and then you get elected and you do absolutely none of it, you have no power because nobody freaking trusts you

to project that power. Does that make sense? This is important, man. Folks, in the chat, tell me to shut the, you don't like this, but this is important. Nobody gets this. I didn't spend six years in school studying psychology and waste your time. I know the education thing may sound like a moron, but it's important. It's about projecting power. And there is no power with a reputation. I don't know any other way to say it. If people trust you're going to do what you say you're going to do. And when people toy with you,

you're going to fight back. There is power in that. And they stop effing with you. I told the story many times that famous Chinese general, the guy had a reputation for being an ass kicker, a war strategist of the highest order. It's a true story. I read about it in his book. He gets holed up in a castle. He's got like 500 guys with him, 20,000 soldiers. I think they were Mongols or outside the gate. They feared this guy so much. These 20,000 soldiers had no idea how many people this Chinese general had in the castle. None. Could have had nobody. This Chinese general had a reputation for balls of freaking stone.

Says, I'm going to go up to the top of the tower in this castle and I'm going to play the harp. And his soldiers are like, we're going to get killed, general. What are you talking about? There's 20,000 people outside. He says, watch. Goes upstairs, watchtower. Starts playing the harp because it's up there high. The sound projects out.

These 20,000 soldiers look up and they go, what the? This guy's playing the harp? He's got to have 50,000 men in there. He's so cocky, Joe. He's playing the harp. And you know what they did? True story. They walked away. This Chinese general won this battle without ever firing a shot, despite being outnumbered, numbered out, I mean, 20,000 to 500 or less because his reputation saved him. When your reputation, which Mike Gallagher does not understand, is that you not only don't want to project power when you have it, but fight against it by writing long op-eds in the Wall Street Journal about why we shouldn't do what we should do, you don't understand your job and you

have no business being there. More in a minute, but first, folks, stress may be why you shouldn't do what we should do, you don't understand your job and you have no business being there. More in a minute, but first, folks, stress may be why you can't lose weight. You know that if you have a moderate to high stress lifestyle, a doctor formulated weight loss supplement that really works called Lean could be your solution. Paula's been taking it. She's down about three, four pounds and she really, she was lean to begin with. She looks pretty great. Chronic stress could wreak havoc on blood sugar, which can cause your body to store excess fat. Stress can also slow your metabolism, which fuels weight gain.

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Here he is on a left-wing station, his cable news station. Here he is again, falsely and ridiculously claiming that there is somehow no precedent for impeachment on again, what they call maladministration, which is by the way, totally false. The irony, I say that because we actually have high crimes and misdemeanors. There's no precedent that he missed Trump impeachment one or two.

Listen to this moron. Well, this is not a high crime or misdemeanor. It's not an impeachable offense. This is a policy difference. Let me from the outset say there is a crisis on the border. The law needs to be enforced. But if we start going down this path of impeachment with a cabinet official, we are opening a door as Republicans that we don't want to open. The next president who is a Republican will face the same scrutiny from Democrats.

It's wrong. And we should not set this precedent. You're an idiot. You understand how the Democrats have a reputation? The Democrats have a reputation for kicking people square in the nuts. You all right, Tony? What is that? The hell was that? Well, what was that? Tony playing like a podcast? Is he listening to like econ? By the way, we look a little different today because of the camera issues. So don't panic, folks. It's the same show.

I promise you. You understand the Democrats. They've got a reputation for grabbing you by the balls and crushing them into sand. So people are afraid of them. And the Republicans have a reputation for doing what? What Ken Buck or Gallagher are doing, which is apologizing for acting like Republicans. And when you have a reputation for caving, you will never have power, ever. Power is built on a reputation. That's a powerful story. That story of the Chinese general,

you should remember it. You can win battles without ever firing a shot. And I don't mean an actual violent, but I mean like even a rhetorical shot. If you have a reputation that when people toy with you, you're going to win. Folks, this sums up this impeachment vote and this border bill. Sums up the disconnect between American voters, you all out there, the close to 90,000 people watching right now. We fill a football stadium every day on this show. I want to hear about the Taylor Swift phenomenon or any of this stuff.

We fill a football stadium every day at 11 o'clock and a damn big one too of people who give a shit and the people out there who give a damn about this country are not attached ideologically anymore to the people in D.C. They are lost. This border bill and this impeachment thing is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Ken Buck, Mike Gallagher, and McClintock have totally misread the room. They think the voters out there are interested in getting back to regular order. We were years ago until we

realized there is no regular order. The Democrats want chaos. And until you have a reputation of fighting chaos with chaos, the chaos will end when you develop a reputation for fighting back. And you in the chat know that. And Mike Gallagher does not. He thinks if you play cute, the Washington Post and the New York Times are going to declare a rapprochement out there. More in a minute, but first. Increased pressure on Taiwan, North Korea on the brink, Iran increasing aggression. There's a lot of global instability as we plunge into election season. Shelter your savings from potential major setbacks to the economy by diversifying an

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investment decision. Message and data rates apply. Wake up, brother. Wake up. Open your freaking eyes, man. What do you need, the clockwork orange things? Folks, these people are totally out of touch. And I asked you at the beginning of the show, and I want to move on to the second part of this segment about this border bill thing. I asked you a question. Have you been

thinking about it? Do any of you out there, chatsters, I'm curious about your response here. Are any of you out there looking for Washington DC to solve your problems? I mean it. You have a business, you sell widgets, you had a 10% decrease in your business. Are you looking for Washington, D.C. to bail you out? The f*** do they know about your widgets? Your kid's having a problem learning in school. You think a D.C. bureaucrat's going to help him? No, no, f*** no.

No, no. Hell no, no. Bacino, I think it's 100%. You've got a heart problem. You called a government? Hey, you guys got a heart surgeon for me? The answer is we don't want him to solve our problems. Just do us a freaking favor along the way. What is it? Don't cause us any new ones. Here's what I mean. I want you to listen to this speech by Lankford. Lankford, James Lankford, is a Republican senator from Oklahoma. He was the point man who unbelievably negotiated this

disastrous border bill that went down in absolute flames thanks to you. So why are we still talking about it? Because the speech he gives yesterday, this I'm a victim speech, is pathetic. And it pretty much again, sums up the DC mentality that they think we want them to do something. We don't, we just don't want you doing something worse. Just shut up and stay the hell out of our lives. Listen to him. Give this big eloquent speech. I got this pen and people send us up here to do something. We did not send you up there to do something. We sent you up there to leave us alone. Check this out. This is the pen that I was handed at that desk when I was sworn in to the United States Senate. desk when I was sworn in to the United States Senate.

And I signed a book that was at that desk with this pen. Because I was becoming a United States Senator. Because the people at home sent me here to get stuff done and to solve problems. There's no reason for me to have this pen if we're just going to do press conferences. I can do press conferences from anywhere, but we can only make law from this room. And to do that, you need one of these pens. There's a hundred of them in this room and 60 of us have to agree to solve a problem.

And I'm determined to sit down with anyone who wants to solve the problem, regardless of what side of the aisle that they're on to figure out how we solve these things. I'm watching the chat as this thing is playing. Yes, you all are thinking what

I'm thinking. Bro, just shut up. This is not the hill to die on. Nobody's asking you to solve anything. You guys are idiots. You hate us. We don't like you. No one's asking you to do anything. What? No, we don't want you to do anything. Let me, I know I got to take a break, but Oh gosh, this pisses me off. Every freaking problem. Joseph, the government has tried to solve the language. I know they have up. I'm sorry. Can you solve the retirement problem? Social security is bankrupt. Can you solve the healthcare access problem? Medicaid, Medicare, bankrupting the government. Can you solve the

current high taxation problem? Taxes are going back up. We've got a tax code that actually benefits the rich at the expense of the poor. Let me get my pen. What else? Let's solve the education problem. Let's do public schools.

They're the worst in the OECD world. Just shut the fuck up. Nobody wants you to solve anything. You got a border. You've got section 212F. I'll get to in a second. You had the ability to solve this problem. You just don't want to do it.

Shut up. This is the entire DC problem. The next time you were at a town hall with one of these idiots and they say, I'm up there to solve problems. Everyone in unison. No, you're not loser. You're too stupid to solve problems. You're up there to get the government out of my life and stop effing my life up. Do you understand? Do you understand your job? Look at me, sticks. You're up there to get the government out of our lives. That's it. You're too stupid to solve problems. Do you understand? You are too stupid to solve my problems. You don't know me. You're probably dumber than me. Nobody likes you.

We don't like you. You don't like us. Shut the up. Get out of my life. Stop taking my my money, putting stupid red tape on my businesses, telling my kids, my girls, their boys. Stop bankrupting my grandmother. She's already dead. Stop. Just shut up. Nobody cares about your pen. Nobody cares about your self-aggrandizement. Oh my gosh, I'm a victim. Holy shit. If people send me here to solve problems, nobody gives a shit. Just stay the fuck out of our lives. Just go away, bro. Just go away. Remember

this song? What was it? Motley Crew? Girl, don't go away, man. Just go away. You guys can't solve anything. Here's the border to the United States. Some guy sent me a Bongino baseball card. Here's the border. Here's Mexico. Here's the United States. These dips can't even figure out how to solve that problem. It's a freaking border. You guys are here. We're there.

They can't even figure that out. Just shut up. Just get out of our lives just move along just go go