The Dan Bongino Show - The Dan Bongino Show - radio interviews

Episode Date: September 26, 2021

Some of the Dan's best interviews from the radio show during September. Dan talks to President Trump about the about the catastrophe the Biden administration had caused in Afghanistan among other topics. Next Dan talks with with Bill O’Reilly about the destruction the Biden administration is causing the country, and how the media have become dangerous. Finally, in a special interview before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Dan talks with Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell came on the show to talk about his experience at the Pentagon on 9/11 2001, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Thanks for tuning into the podcast. This is a special podcast we put together for you to enjoy on Sunday. It features some of the best interviews we did on the radio show. You may have missed them with some great guests that come on daily. First, let me get to one of the sponsors that we love. Folks, between my shows, Zoom meetings, and managing my business, I'm on the computer or the phone 12 hours a day or more. It takes a toll. My eyes get headaches sometimes. Your eyes just get sore.

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Terrific. Perfect timing. All right. Is he there? I am. Hi, Dan. Oh, all right, Mr. President. I was waiting for you.

What baited breath. We were going to have to go off the air soon. It would have been super embarrassing. Everybody's looking forward to it to go off the air soon. It would have been super embarrassing. Everybody was looking forward to it. No, that would have been terrible. So let me get right to it. I don't want to waste your time. Thanks again for joining the show.

Yeah, no, it is. I want to get to that first, Mr. President. So, you know, Joe Biden has been blaming you for this deal with the Taliban. But as I pointed out on my show last week, the deal you made with the Taliban, you didn't bind yourself in by this deal. Matter of fact, three days after the deal, you bombed the snot out of the Taliban because they broke the deal.

So how could you be bound in by a deal you weren't bound in by, but Joe Biden is? No, we had a great deal. And frankly, our deal was conditioned based, totally all based on conditions about everything you can think of, including you're not allowed to kill American citizens or American soldiers. And for 18 months, not one soldier was even shot at. We had that totally under control. And we were down to 2,500 people. We had some other countries also involved, which I thought was appropriate because they should be helping out. And we had that in such

control. And then these people came in, they took out the military. And I'm sure the Taliban didn't even believe I could imagine because I dealt with Abdul, who was the top guy and now the top guy. And I told him very strongly, you better not shoot anymore. That was one of the conditions. But they didn't fulfill two lesser conditions. And we bombed the hell out of them. And then they agreed to fulfill them. And if you remember, my deal says May 1st.

Well, they didn't fulfill it. So I delayed it. I could have delayed it three years, five years. We could have been in there forever. I wanted to get out, but you had to get out with honor and with pride and with victory and not to lose our 13 great warriors and not to lose 250 people. And you have to get our, our $85 billion worth of the finest military equipment that they just used against their people that were revolting. They just used it last night. And I heard they did great damage using our equipment, our night goggles. You know, they never fought at night until they took all our night goggles.

Yeah, that's right. Most incompetent thing that we've ever seen, Dan. Well, Mr. Trump, I agree with you a thousand percent. I know you wouldn't have abandoned our people behind. That's just not in your DNA. Let me get to this question. So a poll just came out today and this poll shows you beating Joe Biden. It just came out today. It's an Emerson poll, which is not not surprising to me given the epic failure this human being in the white house now is um your thoughts on the poll and listen the audience i put out a poll to the audience i hate to keep asking this 2024 question i know you get annoyed by it i and

i can imagine you would i would but i have to ask 52 wanted to know are you going to run in 2024 and your thoughts on this poll well first of all i think everyone's going to run in 2024 and your thoughts on this poll? Well, first of all, I think everyone's going to be very happy. And, you know, you have certain restrictions. You can't talk about this or that. You know, very stupid legal restrictions. Very, very. These campaign finance laws are ridiculous. They're ridiculous.

But I think everyone's going to be very happy. When you say polls came out, yeah, a number of polls came out that I'm beating him, but we beat him on November 3rd by a lot. And it was a rigged election, Dan. It was a totally rigged election, a disgrace. And all that information is coming out. You see it coming out on a daily basis. It's a disgrace.

And because of that, we've had this catastrophe, and all of those wonderful young people and a lot of other people are dead. And all of that equipment is gone and used. And right now it's being sent to China, to Russia, to Pakistan, and they'll keep plenty for themselves. And, you know, they're going to reengineer. They're going to find out exactly why our Apache helicopters are so good and why our tanks are so good. You know, the whole thing is just horrible. Horrible.

Sure. Mr. President, on the, you know, after the shenanigans in 2020, you're obviously upset about this, as you should be. Your thoughts on this Texas voting bill that passed today, Governor Abbott signed it, which finally may bring some sanity, at least state by state. We are we are seeing some progress here to get some sanity back to elections after the 2020 mail in ballot fiasco. Your thoughts on what's going on in Texas with these voting rights bills?

Well, the one thing good about the scam that happened, there's only one thing, but overall, very, very bad thing for our country. Everyone knows it. But the one good thing is that the states, I guess you have 43 states, changing their laws so this could not happen again. So they're changing all of their laws. And Texas, I would say, is really a leader. Georgia is, you know, had a very tough bill. And then the governor of Georgia, who's terrible, he made it weak. And it's a very weak bill. But Texas has a very, very powerful voting bill where it's easy to vote and you have to vote honestly. It's a combination of both,

but you have to vote honestly. And their bill is, you know, it's really moved along pretty quickly, honestly, and their bill is, you know, it's really moved along pretty quickly. But it makes it easy to vote, but you have to vote quickly, and you have, honestly, and you have voter ID, which is a great thing. So Texas and some other states are really doing a job. Mr. President, again, thanks again for joining us, your second time back on the show. I've been curious about this. So given that most of these polls now show you beating Joe Biden handily in many cases,

if you were to run again, and assuming he would, I don't know how he would do that, but that's for me. You don't have to comment on that. But that would create an interesting situation with social media, Mr. President. There'd be a strong likelihood you would win. And whereas the Taliban, the Taliban, I didn't say that wrong, was allowed to post away on Twitter, you know, a murderous group of medieval savages. You could very well likely be the president of the United States again and not be able to tweet to the people you govern. Your thoughts on that?

Well, I get to vote out because i do people like you because you are a patriot and you you're doing fantastically with your show i mean your ratings are great and you know by doing a show with you and with others sean as you know we he said uh he got tremendous ratings last week twice over the last two weeks i did a a show. We get the word out. Yeah, the audience loves you. What they're doing is so wrong, so illegal. It's so illegal. I have to tell you, Dan, and it's just so bad. I actually don't even, I don't think they love our country. I'll tell you, you look at big tech, what they're doing, it's such a disgrace.

But we're getting the word out by going a little bit old-fashioned. Plus, we do the Save america releases and they're doing very very well and people you know people like them so don't forget there were people that said that uh tweeting hurt me i actually disagree with that but uh i think it you know we ended up winning we we got them by surprise in 2016 and they said we're never going to let that happen again and they cheated and it's a shame that they're allowed to get away. And let's see whether or not they do get away, because I don't think they will get away with it. Yeah, well, I hope not.

Dr. Fauci, you dealt with him a lot. Obviously, you know, you had to handle the Wuhan virus that was brought over here from the Wuhan lab. Now, all of the stuff that you and a lot of your trust and confidence had told us that were discredited, you know, air quotes, Mr. President, as a conspiracy theory, of course, is now turning out to be true. That's becoming the, you know, Trump was right, trends on Twitter all the time, which is pretty great. BuzzFeed, Twitter, crazy. Trends all the time. But one of the things you and your folks had warned us about, there was a high likelihood that this virus came from a Wuhan lab.

Now, Mr. President, a left, I mean, a far left outlet, the Intercept of all places, published today a story saying, yeah, that's probably what happened, that there was some funding that went over to this lab and, quote, they were studying spillover potential. In other words, Mr. President, they were studying how to make these viruses spill over into human beings. That's what they were, not just gain of function.

Your thoughts on that? Well, first of all, with Fauci, you know, I actually, he's been there forever, like 40 years, and I actually got along with him fine, but usually I did the opposite. You remember he said masks don't work. He said all sorts of things, let China in. You know, if I hadn't closed our borders to China in January, way early, and also to Europe, we would have had hundreds of thousands more deaths. And what we did was incredible, other than the press was so

terrible. You know, I always say the public relations was terrible, the way they the way they treated us. But what we did was so great. And then, as you know, five years ahead of schedule, probably came up with the vaccine, which whether people want it or don't want it, they're given that option. And a lot of lives are being saved. I would say worldwide, millions and millions of lives. I think this would have been at 1917, the Spanish flu, Dan, if we hadn't done that. But tremendous numbers of lives, millions of lives are being saved. And we did it in less than nine months.

It was supposed to take five years. I would say the FDA doesn't like me too much. But, you know, we did a real job. Fauci, oftentimes what you do is you just do the opposite. He's a better promoter and probably a much better baseball player than a doctor, but that's okay. Yeah, and he wasn't that great of a baseball player, as evidenced by that throw. Mr. President, I got about a minute and a half left. Your thoughts on, you know, Joe Biden's an epic failure of colossal proportions.

I've told you that, you know, I can't stand the guy. You know, you don't have to comment on that. But for a lot of reasons, he's corrupt. And the guy has zero character at all. But one of the things he did is every policy you implemented that worked, like remain in Mexico on the southern border, you know, he dumped it probably just because you did it, and now the country's suffering. But ironically, Mr. President, he had a travel ban going on for a while from Canada. So walk across the border, dismantle your wall, get rid of remain in Mexico, no problem.

But on the northern border, Canadians, don't you dare come here. Your thoughts on this failure sitting in the White House now? Well, the courts reversed him on the stay in Mexico and stay in Mexico as opposed to our country, where we were taking in killers and drug lords and everybody that you could imagine. And the courts did him a big favor because they're now making him do it. And I guess he's going back to a partial version of it. He should go back to the whole thing. We had the strongest border in the

history of our country. Now we have the weakest. Millions of people are coming in. And, you know, the only thing that makes it look better is the catastrophe of Afghanistan, because that's probably even dumber than what they did on the border. And I don't even think the word probably. I think it's the dumbest, most embarrassing thing ever to happen in this country with respect to military or whatever element you want to call it. Diplomatic. Nobody's ever seen such stupidity. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Mr. President, listen, we miss you a lot.

So stay out there. And by the way, you look great. Saw a picture of you today. You look great. Thank you for coming on the show. Your second appearance here. We really appreciate it. And by the way, you look great. Saw a picture of you today. You look great. Thank you for coming on the show. Your second appearance here. We really appreciate it. And God bless you, sir.

We'll talk to you soon. Thank you very much, Dan. I appreciate it. There you go. There you go. Folks, President Donald J. Trump. Never disappoint. That was the one and only President Donald J. Trump

who was on the radio show a couple weeks ago. Hope you liked that. We've got a great interview coming up with Bill O'Reilly. Yes, Bill O'Reilly. But first, let me tell you about our next sponsor. Wouldn't it be great if there were a pocket-sized guide that helped you sleep better or focus better? Well, there is.

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In a time slot, he's familiar. He was on the radio, too. He was everywhere. Bill O'Reilly. Bill, welcome to the show. Thank you, Dan, I appreciate you having me in today. Sure, sure, absolutely. So you got a book out, Killing the Mob.

Bill, can I make a suggestion, by the way? I want to talk about your book in a second, but can your next book, I don't know if you're open to suggestions, but can you write a book about Joe Biden, maybe killing the country, killing the people left behind in Afghanistan? I mean, I think the killing the country would be a huge mega bestseller like your others in the killing series.

Your thoughts on that? I might do something on Biden down the road. The next book will be out early in 2022. It's called Killing the Killers, the secret war against terrorists about, you know, how the United States is actually tracking these people down. Joe Biden is, at this point, the second worst president ever to serve. Now, he could make a comeback. It's possible. But, you know, when he was elected, I told my viewers on Bill O'Reilly dot com and all across the country on radio, I said, you have just elected a man who is not in control of his mental faculties. And I stand to that today. So you can criticize Joe Biden all you want, but it's almost like your

grandma and you go to visit and you go, hey, grandma, let's go out and shoot a few hoops. Well, grandma's not going to be able to shoot those hoops, Stan, if you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, it's going to be rough. Yeah, yeah, it's rough. Grandma's knees probably can't hack it. I mean, I couldn't shoot hoops when I i was 25 i already had too much arthritis in my knees folks we're talking to bill o'reilly please pick up his new book killing the mob you know the killing series they've been mega huge bestsellers forever so bill what bothers me most about joe biden is he's obviously having cognitive trouble i mean that's fairly obvious you don't need to be a psychotherapist or mental health professional figure that out but you've been an astute observer of the media for a long time a very long time you know the field better than anyone the fact that they did not report on

the hunter biden story which was fairly obvious to anyone with an iq in the triple digits that it was a genuine story about the emails the big guy the bobalinsky story right do you think it was purely an ideological thing? Because they can't possibly be this dumb, Bill. Like everybody knew the story had an air of authenticity to it. Is it purely ideological? Is there something else I'm missing? Well, it's an excellent question, but it's a long answer.

I'll try to truncate it. Word of the day, truncate. word of the day, truncate, the corporate media in the beginning, and the beginning was about six years ago, a little bit more, threw in to promote Donald Trump. They did that to get higher television ratings and more newspaper circulation. The corporate media believed that Trump was a clown and never in a million years would defeat Jeb Bush and the rest of the Republicans for the nomination. So they exploited him. They used him. CNN in particular put him on. Fox put him on, but nobody thought he was going to get elected. Then when Trump did get elected, it was a huge embarrassment for the corporate media, which despises him and what he stands for.

What he stands for is the swamp is corrupt. I'm going to come up and clean it out. Now, the corporate media, again, I use the word corporate, doesn't want the swamp to be cleaned out. It likes the swamp. It makes money from the swamp. So, therefore, all of its energies for four years were devoted to destroying President Trump, not reporting on him fairly, not saying, all right, he did this wrong, but he did this right. It was let's destroy him. Let's kill him.

And that's all we had for four years, two phony impeachments, all of this dishonest reporting, Russian collusion on and on, Hunter Biden, whatever it may be. You could have 20 of them in. Then when Trump lost, the corporate media celebrated, oh, we got Joe Biden elected. Well, okay, that's true. You did get Joe Biden elected, but look at what you got. So the corporate media cannot at this point go back and try to destroy their guy. They are criticizing him because they have to. Afghanistan, the border, they have to now. It's so, so bad.

It's worse than anybody knows, Dan. The Biden administration is worse than anyone really knows in this country. Go ahead. yeah the Biden administration is worse than anyone really knows in this country go ahead yeah I know I want to just kind of double down on that some sources of mine friends of mine have told me that exact same thing it's a very serious point you made this is the man who controls the nuclear football he's obviously the commander-in-chief he's in real trouble and there are people around him protecting him a lot of this stuff is staged i don't mean staged in some conspiracy theory way but events are set up in very specific ways around joe biden as you've probably heard as well bill you know to minimize his contact with

reporters with people and to make everything look almost like the truman show where you know that jim carrey movie where you know everyone's acting around him and he thinks it's real but this is happening i've gotten this from people because they're so terrified of any You know, that Jim Carrey movie where, you know, everyone's acting around him and he thinks it's real. But this is happening. I've gotten this from people because they're so terrified of any unscripted moment because he is losing control of his faculties. And keep in mind, Bill, even when Joe Biden had control of his faculties, he was still a loose cannon. Bill, you've been covering him a long time. He's a noted plagiarist he's lied repeatedly i mean the guy's a storyteller he keeps repeating these debunked stories about being a 50 million mile member whatever on amtrak he was dangerous then now he's a total loose cannon and they're really worried about him i never saw him as dangerous when i covered him in the senate i didn't think he was dangerous

as vice president until he was the only cabinet member in the Obama administration that told President Obama not to go after bin Laden. Do not do it, Mr. President. Once he did that, then I said, no, he is a dangerous man. I always thought he was a mediocrity, a Democrat apparatchik who would just shift with the wind on whatever it is. But we know there are a lot of politicians like that. But no American should be surprised that President Biden is incapable of doing his job because he didn't even campaign.

We all saw that. And yesterday was embarrassing when he's sitting down with Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the press is trying to get a question about the border, which you've got 3 million foreign nationals this fiscal year, which ends October 1st, 3 million, probably more, that have crossed into American territory illegally.

I mean, think about that. And it's all joe biden's fault 100 because he rescinded the remain in mexico trump policy that had stopped the massive hordes coming in so biden did that it's on him the whole thing's on him has he said anything about this border thing? You know what he said? One thing. We'll get it under control. That was the only thing he said. And they wouldn't let the reporters yesterday ask him any questions at all. And an embarrassing scrum in the White House.

You saw the video, I'm sure. What we have now, people listening to us today, Dan, should know two things about their country, because it affects all Americans individually. Number one, there is a president serving, and he's got three years left, who cannot do the job. left who cannot do the job. Not will not. Cann Biden and Biden's people what to do. Not the moderate Democrats, not the people who have a further out view of America, what's good for everybody.

These progressives want to overthrow the current system. They think it's evil. They think it's racist. They want to overthrow all American tradition, all of it. And Bill, can I ask you a question about allowing that? Go ahead. Let me ask you a question about that. We're talking to Bill O'Reilly. Check him out at Bill O'Reilly dot com. Check out no spin news there also his book killing the mob pick it up today um bill the the outsized influence of what's a significant swath of the democrat party the radical left we get it but it's it's not overwhelming it's plurality maybe a slight majority of the democrats right their outsized influence is it yeah i i mean it's it's tough because it's the numbers seem to change by the day and it's been a generational fight to get them lurch them back to the middle but

is it a money thing is that just where the democrat donor money is going to the progressive cause i mean they have to realize they're committing national suicide with what they're doing now they don't realize that number one number two it's not a money thing. It's a desire thing. The progressive left is far more motivated in the Democratic Party than the moderates are. So you see it across the board and they're smart. so they use climate change to tell everybody we're going to die in 30 years unless you let the progressives in washington run the whole economy and the whole country we're the only ones that can save you from dying all right number one number two if you oppose the progressive left. You're a racist. You're a homophobe. You're a misogynist. They use that card every time. So their propaganda apparatus is based upon what happened in Russia under Stalin, what happened in China under Mao, and what happened in Germany under Hitler. It's the same kind of vicious, unrelenting propaganda aimed to destroy anyone, and that includes you and me, Dan,

who would oppose the progressive agenda. And because the corporate media is sympathetic to that, it gets wide distribution and that's why they have made so much progress including controlling a president of the United States it's a great point Bill I'm at a time here unfortunately but I just want to tell you one of my favorite interviews of all time is you and Jennifer Rubin ma'am you did not come prepared for the interview. It was one of the greatest lines I've ever seen. Well done,

Bill. It's a master class on how to interview people who want to come with debunked talking points. So, well done. Thanks for joining the show today. I appreciate it. Welcome back anytime. Thank you, Dan. Stay strong. I'm trying, buddy. That was Bill O'Reilly, folks. Thanks a lot for him coming

on. Listen, the guy's been around the media a long time. Decades, decades. Seen the I'm trying buddy that was Bill O'Reilly folks thanks a lot for for him coming on that listen guys been around the media a long time decades decades seen the not evolution but

the evolution of sanity in the media business it's really sad to watch if we could all agree on a common set of facts folks we wouldn't be in the place

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Enter code DAN30. GenuCell.com. That's GenuCell.com. Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell came on the show to talk about his troubling experiences on the Pentagon on the Pentagon at 9-11 of 2001. It's a really powerful interview, folks. I want you to check this out. All right, I don't want to waste a single second.

So while the music's still playing, let me get right to my guest, state senator from Texas, an American patriot, a hero of mine, Mr. Brian Birdwell. Welcome to the show, my good friend. Oh, Dan, it's my treat, my honor to be with you and your listeners. Thank you, my friend. And it's my treat, my honor to be with you and your listeners. Thank you, my friend.

So, Senator, I met you about, I don't know, five or six years ago. And I'm in the Florida panhandle. And we hadn't met. I don't think you knew me. I didn't know you. You didn't know me. But we're at this event. And I'm supposed to be the keynote speaker at this event. So, you know, I'm listening.

And listen, you've been to a lot of events, right? You know, you hear a lot of speeches before. and I'm supposed to be the keynote speaker at this event, so I'm listening. And listen, you've been to a lot of events, right? You know, you hear a lot of speeches before, some you zone in and out of. You're always thinking about what you're going to say, right? You're never really fully paying attention because you're thinking, and I'm listening, and this guy, Brian Birdwell, gets up, folks, and he gives the most, I mean,

deeply moving emotional speech about his experience on 9-11 i'm not kidding that i have ever heard in my life yeah i said brian it's not you could have heard a pin drop you could have heard a contact lens drop in the room and i get up afterwards and i'm like what do i say now what that guy just said so without further ado if you could you know in in the few minutes we have together if you could, you know, in the few minutes we have together, if you could tell us your story on 9-11 at the Pentagon, we would, it'd be an honor to hear it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. By the Lord's grace, I'm joining you now, 20 years later, having been at the Pentagon and being the only survivor in the E-ring at the crash site.

My, if your listeners remember that portion of the Pentagon that crumbles, the e-ring at the crash site um my as your listeners remember that portion of the pentagon that crumbles the e-ring where my desk was located was four windows to the left of where it shears off cleanly when the building crumbles the window i'm in fact behind is just to the right where the debris field it remains somewhat hinged on the right hand side the first window to the right of this on the second floor, I'm five to seven yards behind that window. Because when I went out to the men's restroom, I stepped out into the E-ring hallway,

walked through what would be the collapse point, that impact point that would eventually crumble. I walked through that section of the E-ring, went to the gentleman's room at the intersection of the fourth quarter in the E-ring, took care of business, came out seven or eight steps, and I'm just a few steps from turning right back into that portion that would crumble, returning back to my office on the other side of the impact point. So when Flight 77 makes impact, I mean, it's deafening, and in one nanosecond, you go from a well-lit hallway and charge your faculties to an earthly hell of fire, choking black smoke, and the pain and the disorientation.

By the Lord's grace, I would survive that. There would be my comrades-in-arms, Bill McKinnon, Roy Wallace, John Davies, and Chuck Knobloch would carry me out of the fourth quarter into an A-ring passageway. I'd receive my first medical care from a great Air Force backer named John Baxter. When he treats me inside the Pentagon for my initial care, he puts the morphine shot into my right foot, the IV into my left because I'm so charred, burnt. The best way to describe how I look is just terribly indisposed. I have very little of my clothing remaining on me. Eventually get to Georgetown University Hospital, where the great staff there will give me my initial emergency room care. But I'll say that

last prayer with the hospital chaplain, because I fully expect that I'm being called into eternity by the Lord in these moments. I would survive. The Lord would allow Mel to get with me that afternoon. I don't know she's there, but Mel will get to Georgetown. That's its own harrowing story of what it took in the traffic there in those moments after impact to get to Georgetown, and eventually I'd be life-flighted over to the Washington Hospital Center. Mel would be taken through the Georgetown Police Department, Georgetown University Police Department, over to the hospital, and she said it was just very eerie.

I mean, the streets of D.C. have never been that empty since Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States. And there'd be a number of challenges we'll go through. I mean, we don't have time to name them all, but everything from having maggots put on me for three days to infection, dead tissue. What happens to you in a burn unit, Dan, is a burn injury is terrible, but what has to be done to you medically is far worse. But by the Lord's grace, I'm still here.

And so many things over the last 20 years that we thought that Mel would see as a widow, whether it's Matt graduating high school or college, getting married, and now having two grandchildren. We've gotten to see as a married couple, and Lord willing, he'll give us more years. And no matter what, this is still the greatest place on God's green earth. And if I may be so bold to our friends in Florida, Texas is still the greatest place, but Florida is a quarter. Senator, listen to me, man. You've earned the right to have an opinion on Just about

I'm sorry I'm a little Sorry I didn't expect that You're You're a tough guy to talk to For all the right reasons Not the wrong reasons

I just It's bringing me back To that memory of When you gave the speech And I just remember being So incredibly moved Thinking like My gosh the adversity of

my life is so nothing it's a joke it's a joke i'm almost embarrassed that i feel like i have adversity in my life after having listening to your your story i mean the burns on your body and you know senator we're talking to senator brian birdwell by the way folks so you know and i want you to look him up that's why his name is important. I think we need to hear the horrors of it. You know, I know it sounds macabre, but we do. I mean, I don't think we should ever turn away. And the details of your story, you know, they matter.

I mean, you were in really, really bad shape. I mean, these murderous savages, this had a real, I mean were you were banged up bad yes sir i i uh i think you're right that it's not that we gratuitously share the gruesome details right right but it's a it's a measure of the price of freedom because amen the every every headstone in Arlington and every national cemetery and military cemetery, every vessel that's sitting at the bottom of either the Atlantic, Pacific, or somewhere else, whether it was World War II, World War I, every scar that I wear, both physically and emotionally, and that every other veteran wears, that is the price of our national and earthly freedom, the same way that the scars that the Lord bears on his body will be a reminder of his and our eternal freedom. That's why it's so important to remember the capacity for suffering

that we've endured as a nation and as individual citizens serving that nation. I mean, you're such an inspirational human being. Again, after that speech, I remember the moment. I mean, seriously, like it happened five minutes ago, grabbing the microphone and just, I mean, you can laugh about it if they're telling that story. I just remember thinking, what the hell could I possibly say? Like, oh, folks, how's the chicken?

I mean, it was a Lincoln dinner. Like, what was I going to say? And I swear it took me about three minutes to get my druthers together and just say anything. Like, hello, is this thing on? I mean, your story is just so inspirational. And the way your gift with words to tell it is just, it's really, it makes me wonder why I don't do more in my life.

No, no, please, Dan, look, you served in your capacity. Look, the people that are out there making their businesses work and pay the taxes that pay for our military, it's training. Look, everybody has their lane that they're working. You know, look, I'm just an old, I was a heavy forces guy most of my life. You know, big tanks, big artillery. I wasn't a special operator. You know, so, you know, I wasn't the toughest guy in that building that day. We all worked our respective lanes, and you were working your lane that day.

I mean, look, we've got to meet the family that there was one Secret Service agent killed that day at the World Trade Center. He's interred at Arlington National Cemetery in the Columbarian there. And he was working his lane that day, just like you were. I mean, I heard you a few days ago talking about the floor, the Secret Service, and your first day there and the like. And you're working your lane, buddy. You were paying the price just like the rest of us. So don't ever sell your service short, bud. Well, yeah, no, I appreciate that.

But it's just not the same. Just reminds me of when I was over in Afghanistan doing a presidential advance. And, you know, I was sitting in this Connex box while these guys were in these hoochies that were, know in the middle and i'm like they're like oh but you're here too i'm like guys it ain't the same like your suffering is different i get to go home in two weeks um the senator we're talking to state senator brian birdwell i don't mean to kind of you know wax philosophic here it's not my my intention but i'm not really into quotes but once in a while i hear one that really moves me and you know the book the natural by malamud bernard malamud there's a great line in there and uh roy hobbs's girlfriend says you know we all live two lives you know the one we learn from and then the one we live after that and then the second part of the quote is you know the real

path to happiness is through suffering and given that you've been through uh unimagined i mean literally unimagined i can't imagine what it was like, the burns, the treatments. Do you feel, I mean, after that, that you were just a completely different person, that the suffering had hardened you up and made you a happier person afterwards, if that's possible? Well, the verse that Mel and I clung to was 1 Peter 5.10, and you use the word suffering, and that's exactly why she looked it up in her concordance. After you have suffered a little of all, the value of all grace will himself perfect and firm, strengthen and establish you. So whether it's physical suffering, emotional, physical, financial, professional,

whatever the suffering may be, the Lord's the one that carries us through that suffering. And look, this was a very deep valley, because I will confess to you, Dan, and I think you remember me saying it at the speech that night. After I'd had the opportunity to say goodbye to Matt, and I'm wrapped like a mummy and I've got a tube in every orifice of my body, and I mean every. I cannot speak. I'm connected to a respirator.

Matt comes in, and I just simply mouth to him, I love you, son, and he says, I love you, Dad, and in that moment, I was having my it is finished moment, because after that, I pleaded for the Lord. Now that I'd had the opportunity, it's time to finish this. Get this over with, not just watching my wife, Mel, and my son, Matt, watching me in the agony that I was in, but I needed the physical agony over with. But the Lord had something else in mind. He carried us through those challenges, because look, one of the hardest days emotionally was also the day I got out of ICU, because now that the question of life or death had been answered in ICU, and I'm now out of ICU and in step-down

care. Now it's what every veteran who gets injured deals with. What's my new normal look like? How do I care for my family? How do I get to be a dad to Matt? How do I get to be a husband to Mel? How do I provide for my family? And that emotional strain was hard, and certainly the things that Mel endured emotionally and Matt endured emotionally. But that emotional strain was hard, and certainly the things that Mel endured emotionally and Matt endured emotionally. But I would tell you this, all of that suffering, every scar that I bear, physical, emotional, every scar that every veteran bears, is worth the freedoms that we enjoy in this nation for the nearly 250 years before and for however many years that the Lord has still before us before

he returns. All of that suffering is worth the freedom to be able to be on the radio, speaking your opinion in your conscience, telling us the news, all those things. That freedom is worth it. Every scar is worth the price of freedom. Folks, that is State Senator Brian Birdwell. Senator, you are a genuine American hero. I wish I had an hour with you, but I want to tell you, and I mean it, and I think my producers who are listening right now would agree, we've had a lot of important people on the show. I would venture to say this is by far the most important interview we've ever done.

It's an honor to speak to you, and I mean it. Thank you Dan I hope to live up to that You do Alright Senator, thanks a lot You got it folks Look him up, please State Senator from Texas around the Waco area

Brian Birdwell, check him out Change your life That was Brian Birdwell recalling what he went through on 9-11 at the Pentagon was one of the most touching interviews we've ever done you know I love teeter inversion tables now teeters bringing you full body zero impact exercise with one simple exercise machine the free step recumbent cross trainer this is changing my life it play fitness it plays a huge role in my life

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Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend. I'm Dan Bongino. You just heard Dan Bongino.