The Dan Bongino Show - The Dan Bongino Sunday Special 06/25/23 - Drago Dzarien, FBI Whistleblower Steve Friend and some epic Dan rants

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

First up today, we talked with a real American hero, Drago Dzarien, about escaping communism, coming to America and signing up to become a Navy SEAL to fight for this country. Next, The LA Dodgers insisted on going ahead with honoring an anti-Christian group on Pride night. We played an important PSA for them and then I went off. Then, we talked with FBI whistleblower Steve Friend who we had on the same day Durham testified to congress, and his insights on the corruption in the Russia collusion hoax and in the FBI, and about his new book True Blue. Finally, We rarely get calls from libs, even though they are always welcome. Listen to this one work herself into a corner on abortion and hear her whole argument fall apart. 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 today's show brought to you by express vpn using the internet without express vpns like leaving your keys in the car while you run it to the gas station for a snack

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extra three months free expressvpn.com slash bongino-N-G-I-N-O. And you get an extra three months free. ExpressVPN.com slash Bongino. First up today, we talked with a real, genuine, authentic American hero. You know, this guy's name is Drago Dazarian. He's a former Navy SEAL. Talks about escaping communism, coming to America, signing up to become a Navy SEAL, to fight for our country, his country, our country, your country. This is one of the most inspirational stories you'll ever hear. He has a new book out called The Pledge to America.

It's amazing. One of the publishers on this book, I was blown away by it. Check this out. So, folks, I'm always on the prowl for guests for this show and for content and interesting clips and interesting people. You know, when you're producing 20- plus hours of content a week like we are, you got to fill the airways with not just stuff. I mean, any idiot can talk. You have to fill it with interesting stuff and interesting people. And about two years ago, I guess, I came across

this gentleman. The man's name is Drago Dazarian. And I watched the clip. It was actually sent to me by someone and I was absolutely blown away. And ever since then, he's been a pretty good friend to me. He's been on the show a couple of times, but he's got a new book out. It's called The Pledge to America. And it is probably the most powerful biography you're going to read this year.

Maybe the most powerful biography you're going to read. I publish a book. I'm proud to do it. It's an amazing book. I want to welcome to the show Drago Dazarian. Drago, thanks so much for coming on. We appreciate it. Thank you, Dan. It's as always an honor to be on your show. Thank you for inviting me. No, the honor of my friend is mine. Drago, your life story, you're a humble guy, but your life story is powerful and i read it i i just wanted to be be a part of it because i think your life story is going to change a lot of lives uh you you grew up in communist poland you know all about tyranny and political prisoners

you find yourselves in the navy seals fighting for the united states walk us through this journey how you get here and why you decide relatively late in life that you want to serve the greatest country on planet Earth in the Navy SEALs, of all things. Well, as you mentioned, I was born and grew up in a socialist state run by communists like my father. This is something that people do not understand often that none of these countries

behind Iron Curtain, including Soviet Union, were pure communist countries. They were socialist states run by very oppressive regimes and communists, like I mentioned, like my father. There's something that

can... There's only so much people can put out. And eventually in Poland, people started revolting after decades of oppression, political murders, political prisoners. Finally, people started revolting, and they built in 1980s, after the visit of John Paul II, they built a solidarity trade union movement that was first independent, first in any communist socialist state behind Iron Curtain, first state independent from communist party. I was involved in it. I was helping building it.

My mother was heavily involved in this trade union, which eventually became a social movement opposing the socialist tyranny. My father, on the other side, was on the opposite side. He was one of the leading communists and one of the, probably the member of the Communist Party in Poland at the time. Since I was, I really understood from the very beginning how bad, how dangerous the social interests are. I witnessed it in my family. I witnessed my family members being tortured by the police and the secret police in Poland. So I made my mind very early in my life that this is not the system, the political system

that I would ever support. And eventually, when communists started losing a grip on society, society, they resolved to martial law in the 1980s. And this is when I and many other, my fellow compatriots there, said enough is enough. So we started printing underground, like a newspaper, which was published behind the censorship, the official social censorship, and behind the fake news media. So I was arrested shortly after it, and my entire group was arrested. I went to present. I was sentenced to three years of present time and after I was released on amnesty

for political prisoners eventually later my life was in danger. I had to leave Poland and I was always fascinated with America with American freedom, with people I asked U.S. Embassy in Warsaw for help if I could come to America,

and it was approved. I was given, like, very quick a visa, and within three months I left, I escaped, come to East Poland, came to to America so I said my life I came in 1984 I had a great life and I eventually in 1990 in 1990s when the first Persian war broke out I became a U.S. citizen in 1991 and I felt and I still feel like this is it was my moral obligation to support my country for me the best way to do it was to join military and fight on behalf of America with my with a war on behalf of

America now Drago how old are you at this point when you decide, so you leave, you were a political prisoner in communist Poland. It's amazing. You make it to the United States. You love this country so much. You decide you want to serve. How old are you at this point? And then how does the Navy Seals,

one of the most elite fighting forces in the entire world, if not the most elite, how does that get into your head? Well, it didn't from the beginning. but one of the most elite fighting forces in the entire world, if not the most elite. How does that get into your head? Well, it didn't from the beginning. I didn't know anything about Navy SEALs. I just, I didn't even knew the difference between Navy and Army and Marines. I just wanted to serve.

America was at war. That was my country, the country that gave me freedom and everything that I had. So I decided to join military. And it happens that I met Navy SEALs. I was a skydiving instructor at the time. So when Navy SEALs came to Memphis, Tennessee, to do some parachute jumping and demonstration jumps, of course, they came to our drop zone. met with them and this is when I talked to them they actually convinced me to take my paper

paperwork from army recruiting office and move it to the Navy and that's what I did and at that time I was going 32 so I was already too old but the recruiter told me, well, you know, you are too old, but I can guarantee you, if you sign these papers, you join the regular Navy, to war and fight on behalf of America.

So it was not the most important thing, but it happened that when I went into the Navy, I graduated as a number one recruit from the boot camp of all the graduation recruits at the time. Then I graduated one of the first in my class in my Navy trade school, parachute breaking school. So my track record was good enough that my command actually helped me to get my orders to Navy SEAL training. And U.S. Navy allowed that exception. Me being the cat of age was 28 years old. I was almost four years past the limit. So I was given the exception and the permission to join the training. And I graduated from SEAL training in 1993.

We're talking about Drago Dzerian. That last name is spelled D-Z-I-E-R-A-N. Drago Dzerian, the book is the pledge to America, his journey from communist Poland and political prisoner to the United States and the elite Navy SEALs. Drago,

you didn't just serve in the Navy. You didn't just serve in the Navy SEALs. You've actually been in combat. I know we talk about a lot of this in the book, the stories in the book. It's an amazing transformative biography. It'll change your life folks if you read it. But the combat time, I mean, this really meant you were not going over there just because you thought this was a show you were putting on. You were willing to shed blood for this country and you were over there in combat zones. Talk about that a little bit. Well, yes, I was in the middle of deployment to South America at the time when the call came in that I need to join the SEAL platoon fighting war in Baghdad. So in the middle of my deployment, I was sent to Iraq. And that was, and I stayed there. That was,

I stayed there for over a year, but it helped me also develop as a warrior and helped me develop as a very effective soldier, fighter, sailor fighting on the behalf of America. I spent almost a year in theater, so on my deployment, on this deployment. And eventually I had to come back, but two, I think a month later, I was asked to come back again to Iraq. Actually, I volunteered for it. So I went back. It's supposed to be two weeks trip, which turned into almost five months. And eventually my command called me back, said, Drago, you need to come back.

We are about to deploy and you need to join your SEAL platoon before deployment. so i came back and soon after i was back again uh in iraq uh fighting war so uh it was great honor uh to be there to great you're you're such an inspirational guy drago i'm sorry i didn't mean it you're just like you're really such I met you about two years ago and I you're such a humble guy you don't even take compliments that well but you should your story is you consider it this honor to come here and fight for this country you're man me and my producer are both just shaking our heads I every I've heard your story before and it's weird every time I I hear it, it hits me like it's the first time.

You're such an inspirational guy and people need to hear your story. The book is called The Pledge to America by our guest here, Drago Dazarian. Drago, I got about two and a half minutes left here, but I cannot let you go without getting your opinion on this. The current political climate right now and the weaponization of government, you were literally a political prisoner in a formerly communist country. What are your thoughts about everything going on right now with the misuse of our government to make people like Trump and others political prisoners?

I think this is the day of infamy. This is something I would never expect to ever see it again when I left socialist, oppressive, totalitarian state. And I am very concerned. And this is very dangerous. People do not understand the process, what is going on here, because they never leave, they never experience socialism, they never deal with communist regime. So here what is happening right now is I think big eye opener. Hopefully people can educate themselves and stop toying with this dangerous ideology that more than picking people around the globe and that there are millions of grave, a grace around the globe from this ideology.

So I hope we can turn our country around, but this is a very dangerous process that was started, and the persecution of former president, the political prisoners held by Democrats in Washington, D.C., is...

I don't know what to say about it. You know, my book intention, or my book, was to write a book that would be a prism to how great America is. They can look, see the greatness of America, the exceptional country, through the prism of socialism, through the lens of communism. But it seems like that lens is becoming a mirror. Oh, my gosh. Drago, I hope everyone heeds the warning you just gave. Ladies and gentlemen, my guest, Drago Dzerian. The book is called The Pledge to America, One Man's Journey from Political Prisoner to U.S. Navy SEAL.

I'm telling you, it is the most powerful biography I've read in a really long time. It'll change your life reading the story. Drago, you're an American hero and a patriot, and you're welcome back on this show anytime. Thanks so much for your words and for putting the book together. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Dan. It was honor to be on your show. Thank you for inviting me. Yes, sir. You got it. Folks, I met this guy two years ago. I'm telling you, he is the absolute real deal. You may love this country a lot, but no one loves it more. You may love it as much as this guy, but you can't love it more.

Drago Deserian, the book, The Pledge to America. Check it out. Up next is another one of those rants of mine where I just get into something on the radio and it just doesn't stop and people love them. So we put them on the weekend show. But let's hear from our next sponsor first. Folks, Congress once again allowed itself to be pushed into appeasing the administration, raised the debt ceiling for the 79th time.

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dodgers this la dodgers a working man's baseball team came from brooklyn moved to la are still going forward with honoring these drag queen nuns these sisters of perpetual stupidity or something whose only purpose is to mock christianity apparently make that's why they use a the drag queen nuns keep in mind they could say they use the drag queen nuns. Keep in mind, they could say drag queens, but drag queen nuns. They're still going forward honoring this group tonight. Now, we do this occasionally. Some of you know where this is going.

Jim, you can't laugh. You already know. We consider ourselves a public good. It's talk radio on open airwaves so we feel an obligation to put out you know like ted talk kind of things you know which are helpful to people like semi-public service announcement kind of things so there was a very very detailed analysis of a Cartesian graph that

would be very helpful to morons like the people running the LA Dodgers deciding to honor a group that openly mocks Christianity in a working man's sport, in a working man's team, the LA Dodgers. So we play this

once in a while. It's by, I believe his name is Roger Scare. He's a very sophisticated man. That's very sophisticated. And he was trying to gauge in Cartesian graphing the level and quantity of effing around you have to do to find out commensurately the level of finding out pursuant to the effing around. Now, there's slopes involved, Y equals MX plus B, the Y and X graph, the Y intercept,

the slope of the line, regression line analysis, correlational Pearson product moment correlation stuff that went into this. There's a lot of math in this, so you're going to have to deal with it. But it's only like 40 seconds or so. And if the LA Dodgers just would have paid attention to the now famous F around find out graphing system, they wouldn't be in this situation they're in right now. So for all of the country, we're in a lot of markets, including the great KABC in LA, to anyone in the LA Dodgers who may be listening in LA right now, if you just would have followed

the slope here of the F around find out graph and done the Y equals MX plus B math, you wouldn't be finding out what you're finding out. If you would, Jim. I want to find out at a level of seven. Okay. So I find that level on my graph and I come horizontally to my gradient line where it intersects with my gradient line I'm going to come straight down to where it intersects with my around line that there's

going to tell me how much I have to around to find out what I need to find out see as you can see the more you around the more you're going to find out and And also, if you stay down here and you never f*** around, you'll never find out. So I hope this lesson is helpful. Thank you. Jim, Mike, and I have heard that seriously close to probably 500 times between times we played it messing with each other at the show.

And it's still funny. If they just, the Dodgers just would have paid attention. If they would have effed around at a level one, they'd only be finding out at a level one. Instead, they decided strangely to start effing around at a level 10. They're now finding out at a level 10 and it's like they were totally unaware of Roger Scare's graph,

which has gone viral thousands of times. Like, Jocko play this or something? This has been all over. It's not new. I mean, I can only, I play that every day, but I don't want to wear it out So I try to keep it like once every two three weeks

But if you just play that You can bleep out the words for your kids But if you just play that for your kids And then play the Kenny Rogers the gambler song That's really all the life advice they need Don't F around Then you won't find out And you got to know where to hold them the gamblers saw. That's really all the life advice they need. Don't F around, then you won't find out. And you got to know when to hold them,

know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and when to run. They get that. 90% of the battle with life is good. It's over. Bud Light, I mean, Bud Light's probably probably think about it in bev right that owns bob they own i think it's in bev right they own a billion dollar liquid courage enterprise they've probably got hr people from harvard and wharton who are like quarter million dollar a year newly minted MBAs

I did an MBA at Penn State I had a good time but I'm I'm serious like they should have walked in the boardroom and Bud Light was like I think we should do a campaign even though we're a working class man's beer with a guy pretending to be a woman this will go over well and everybody in the boardroom was like yeah yeah that's cool sounds good to me let's roll with it now they you could have had me at 18 because i had a lot of common sense before i was even in college i could have walked in with the roger scare video and said folks i'm interrupting this emergency board meeting with an emergency of my own to save inbem let me play for you this short video by Roger scare come in with an iPad hit play you see if you F around at a level nine you'll find out at a level if you don't F around

you won't find out and I love Roger Danny's like thank you I hope this was helpful and then everybody in the Dodger boardroom would be like, I mean, the Bud Light boardroom would be like, are we effing around here? And then someone else who maybe gets some courage goes, you know what? I think this guy's right. We may be effing around.

I mean, we're kind of a middle class, like dirt under the fingernails, carpenters, HVAC guys, electricians, you know, the people who build the country, your steam fitters, your tin knockers, carpenters, HVAC guys, electricians, you know, the people who build the country, your steam fitters, your tin knockers, your truckers, you know, your sheetrock installers, your roofers, you know, like the people who built the place, your plumbers, your electricians. Like they like the Bud Light, right? You think they're going to take well to a dude in a bathtub pretending to be a woman drinking a beer? And guys like I think we're f'ing around I thought it was f'ing around at a one but now I'm thinking I did some real quick calculus it

looks like a 7.762 and I'm not sure I want to find out in a one slope line at a level 7.762 I don't know and then another guy chimes you know what i i was convinced before this was the right move but after an analysis of the rogers scare f around and find out chart i actually think we're effing around in a nine and through my equations in this whole quadratic thing with two missing variables which i put which i pushed in to this Cartesian graph and made it work in a Matt Damon goodwill hunting moment. I'm figuring this. I'm figuring this. You guys like apples? How do you like these apples? I think we're actually effing around at a nine, which could have us find out at a nine. And when I put it into the multi-variable missing

quadratic equation, I think this is going to convert to about $10 billion in lost market cap and our shareholders are going to be pissed. And then they would have been like, holy, $10 million? $10 billion? Let me see your math. Let me see this guy's math. Tony, Tony, bring your math over. Hold on. Check in. Carry the one. Get the calculator. Anybody got a calculator? Let me see this guy's math. Tony! Tony! Bring your math over.

Hold on. Check in. Carry the one. Get the calculator. Anybody got a calculator? I'm doing his math. F around nine. Slope one.

Drop the regression line. Comes down. Nine. Find out. Find out. Punch into the quadratic equation for lost shareholder value. That turns out inside out. Remember the quadratic equation? What is it? In, out inside outs remember the quadratic equation what is it in out outside inside whatever the hell that is okay that turns out to be holy 10 billion in lost value man that that that blows don't we're a public company right 10 billion

how many people working in bev Probably like thousands. Oh my gosh. Folks, I'm just sure. No, no, they're not. Jim doesn't think the shareholders are going to be happy. See, the difference is the shareholders actually watched the F around and find out video. So they knew the minute this guy was popping the bud light in the bathtub pretending to be a woman, the shareholders were like, here, Jim, here they were on the phone. Sell! Sell! They're like Gordon Gekko in freaking Wall Street. Sell!

Sell! Code word Blue Lagoon. Sell! Sell now! Sell everything! Poor Charlie Sheen don't know what to do. Sold his dad out. Sell, sell.

I thought you said green is good. Yes, that's why I'm telling you to sell. Sell now, sell now. I'll bet the insiders at Bud who got wind of this were like, yeah, they walked out of the board meeting after telling everyone this was a good idea. They got on the phone with their brokers. Sell everything right now.

Dude, you got a million in stock options. It could go up. Sell immediately. Sell immediately. They're getting involved with a guy in a bathtub pretending to be a woman. Sell now. Sell it all.

Dude, but you worked there. It could be like insider trading. I'll go to jail. Sell everything. Everything. You lost $10 billion. And it's like the LA Dodgers. After seeing this target go down, Coles go down, and Bud Light go down, a couple of dip wads are sitting around and the LA Dodgers, what? What?

Jim brought up the best point. It's not like the Dodgers don't know. They probably sell Bud Light at the stadium. Hey, Tony, how we doing with those Bud sales? Sir, we haven't sold a can in seven weeks. What? How many home games a lot not one can't no not one is it getting to be skunk beer we're at the skunk beer line now it's not like they didn't know it's not like they didn't know and they're sitting around the

boardroom that all their bud lights turned into skunk. They haven't sold a freaking can at a home game in seven months, a Bud Light or whatever. And they're sitting around like, hey, there's this group out there. They do this mocking Jesus thing on a cross where they dress up like guys in high heels and shake their wieners at each other's faces doing fake crucifixions.

Let's get them. Let's do that. That's a great idea. Let's do that. And let's not just have them at the game. Let's do a special ceremony at the beginning. The sisters of perpetual stupidity. Let's bring them out. This is a great idea. Let's bring them out. Let's bring them out. It's like no one in this company. No, it's like they all had their nuts rubber banded and fell off. And like, they couldn't figure out like, dude, what kind of a dipwad does this after the Bud Light incident? Folks, listen, man, I'm really sorry. but if you're caught on TV in an LA Dodgers

game from this point on, you're part of the problem. You really, you're part of the problem, man. You are the issue. I'm not telling you boycott everything all the time. I don't, I know you can. I know it's hard. I get it. But if you're at that stadium drinking a bottle, I was at a Morgan Wallen concert. A dude came up to me. I think I told you this story. He wanted to take a picture, which I was cool with. I said, bro, not with a Bud Light in your hand. I'm not taking that picture.

And everybody started laughing. I was not kidding. He's like, you're serious? I'm like, I'm dead serious. I'm not putting on my Instagram any pictures with people with freaking Bud Light. Folks, it's not as if they didn't know. This is a, just, here's a hint with the LA Dodgers. Let me give you a hint on how to run your business. What do you know about baseball?

Jack squat and Jack left town. I can't name one freaking player in the Dodgers, but I played baseball. And here's, let me give you, here we go. Here's my business advice. If I go to a baseball game, I don't want to see the sisters of perpetual stupidity, shag and fly balls or any balls, any balls. I don't care about balls, about balls, human balls, balls, balls. I don't care. I just want to see bunts, singles, home runs, and pitching. Just play the freaking game. Put the balls on the field and put them back in your draws, which is, it's not hard, bro. Just play the freaking game.

And let the sisters of perpetual stupidity do their thing elsewhere. And save your business. Up next is another American patriot. We'll get to that in a second, but let me tell you about our next sponsor. Summer's here. Time to sit back and unwind with Omaha Steaks. Perfectly aged, always tender, and guaranteed delicious. Omaha Steaks is sharing an amazing limited time offer. When you go to omahasteaks.com and enter keyword Bongino into the search bar, you'll be able to order the gourmet grill pack for just $99.99. Plus you'll

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and an Omaha Steaks seasoning packet. Omaha Steaks isn't just steak. It's the best steak of your life, guaranteed. Don't wait. Go to omahasteaks.com and type Bongino into the search bar and order the gourmet grill pack today. That's omahasteaks.com, keyword Bongino. Here's another American hero, FBI whistleblower Steve Friend, who we had on the same day that John Durham testified to Congress. His insights on the corruption and the Russia collusion hoax and in the FBI are priceless. You're not going to hear it anywhere else. So check this out. This is a great guy. This is going to be a real treat for you. Really great guy.

Unlike some of these clowns up on Capitol Hill in this questioning today, a guy with a whole bunch of dignity so much so he walked away from, you know, a terrific, secure career in the FBI to expose wrongdoing. He wrote a book about it. His name is Steve Friend, and he is a good friend to the show. The book is called True Blue. It's out now. You can pick it up now. I read the book. I endorsed the book. The book is incredible. It's one of those stories that you read it and it's hard to put down. So you probably want to check it out. True Blue by Steve Friend. Welcoming Steve back to the show. Steve, so good to talk to you, especially today.

How you doing? How's the book doing? You guys rocking with it or what? I think the verdict's still out, but I'm very optimistic. I've been told by the publisher it's doing pretty well. You're such an honest guy. You are.

I love you guys. This guy and Kyle Serafin are the most honest guys you'll ever meet, man. The verdict's still out. It's an awesome book. Everyone go out. See, this is how you can tell a guy who's not Adam Schiff, who isn't full of crap. If I asked Adam Schiff that question, Steve,

it's the most amazing freaking thing ever. The book sold 22 million copies. Everyone bought it. It's incredible. You're a great guy. You're a humble guy. Love to have you on the show again, folks. The book is True Blue. I need you here today though, to kind of do some FBI translation stuff for us, Steve. So John Durham, the special prosecutors up on Capitol Hill talking today about the dreadful crossfire hurricane case, the case into Donald Trump that was based on nothing. Now, you were an FBI agent. Here's what I find astonishing as an 1811 myself, but in a different agency. We didn't have this preliminary full investigation thing you guys have, right? We didn't have that.

You either started an investigation or you didn't. How is it that Durham acknowledged that there was not a single scintilla or shred of evidence against Trump to start this thing? And it not only moved from hearsay to a preliminary, to a full investigation, to a Mueller probe, without any supervisor or anyone going, hey, listen, do we actually have anything?

Isn't that weird? Well, that can only happen with the willful participation of a politically motivated leadership class. And I hesitate to say leadership, more of a management class within the FBI that greenlit this all the way up the chain of command and was content to proceed and open up the toolbox and get all the goodies inside in the hopes that they would be able to find something, anything that they could to derail the Trump presidency from happening. You use the key word there, that this witch

hunt into Trump, which has now been fully exposed today up on Capitol Hill with the Durham hearing, this was willful. This wasn't an accident. That this wasn't a few mistakes that, you know, you were with the FBI. They investigate bank robbery. It wasn't that a bank was robbed and Steve Friend, as a former FBI agent, went out and arrested the wrong guy. It happens. It's rare, but it happens.

The point, Steve, is that no bank was robbed at all. And somebody got arrested for it. This had to be willful. Exactly. And I think it's an indication of what we've been seeing from the FBI and from the DOJ for the last several years, especially since President Trump ascended to the spotlight as far as being a political actor here, and that is the willingness on behalf of the FBI to seek process crimes to punish its political enemies. So he takes a situation where Michael Flynn was interviewed at the direction of James Comey. He sent agents over to interview Mike Flynn, not for a legitimate purpose, but with hope that they could contrive a way to articulate that he lacked candor and they could immediately open a obstruction or lack a thousand one case against him.

And that is just not in keeping with the traditions of law enforcement where there's an actual incident or an offense or a crime committed. And then an investigation ensues. Instead, here they're picking the man and trying to find a crime. And we're talking to steve friend author of a really incredible book uh i fully endorsed it on the back if you want to pick it up it's called true blue out now uh steve's a great guy folks and we got to really support these guys who who support us and the constitution steve walked away from the fbi he didn't have to do it he could have shut his mouth and just played along and he didn't't. And either did Kyle or Garrett O'Boyle or Marcus Allen or others. Steve, one question I get a lot, I'll pose to you.

I was going to go somewhere else, but while I've got you. I get this a lot from listeners, and fair enough. It's a good question. They say, yeah, we've got Steve. We've got Kyle. You've got these heroes speaking. I know you don't see yourself that way because you're a humble guy, we do so just take it right but why aren't there more why aren't there more i mean it's clear right now between the targeting parents as domestic terrorists uh the

the targeting christians and churches like all this stuff going on with the fbi there should be hundreds of you what's going on i i would agree with you. I'm questioning that myself. I think it's a mixture of fear because they see what happened to somebody like Gerardo Boyle, who was clearly trapped by the FBI and had to put his family through the wringer in such a significant, substantial way. I think that people delude themselves with the argument that they just have to follow orders and you just have to look to history and realize that it doesn't smile too kindly on those that subscribe to that belief. And then finally, I think financially, so many people are beholden to the paycheck from the FBI and they convince themselves in their recesses of the brain that they have to do this because they have to feed their family. And I've come around to the idea that I would rather raise hungry children than morally bankrupt children.

And I'm hopeful that more individuals will come forward, having seen the example that guys like Garrett and Kyle have had. Yeah. And you. Yeah. And then Kyle said something to me. Kyle is surfing is another FBI agent, another American hero. Kyle said to me when I initially met him something interesting. And I tend to agree with his assessment. And he was not in any way condoning it folks I just want to be clear but Kyle said to me Steve he says listen Dan you know you were an agent too you know how it is a guy tells you how to do a security plan and you know you this is how we did it in the past and and and you do it you

don't ask a lot of questions there's a lot of stress you just do it he said you know I'll bet you 90% of these guys aren't even political at all in the bureau when some supervisor told him man just go do this get a warrant on this guy whatever and they just did it he was not in any way excusing it and now that they know they should know better but but your thoughts on that is some of them were just you know hey this is what we did because people told us to do it. I think that there's a history of doing that. And I think that for a long time that that passed muster. But unfortunately, now the FBI has exposed itself and the mask has fallen away, especially from people in the highest ranks that they're political actors, that there needs to be a

healthy skepticism. Certainly anybody who's an FBI agent is trained to use critical thought. And that's what I did in my situation where I was looking at what we were doing and realized that the FBI was departing from its rules. And there should always be at its core, a system idealist inside anybody who's an investigator or a police officer. And being a system idealist is following the law, following the policy, following the constitution. And if your case is not buttoned up, it doesn't matter if you're sending people to the gulags in Washington, D.C., where you're guaranteed to get the W.

You have to do it the right way, and that is in keeping with the oath that you took. And I'm hoping that, again, individuals will use their critical thoughts here and not necessarily give the benefit of the doubt to these cases, because it's certainly bearing itself out as the facts emerge that there's a serious lack of justice for so many people, especially on the right side of the aisle. Yeah, we're talking to Steve Friend, FBI whistleblower. Steve, a couple of questions, one at a time.

Is the FBI as you see it constituted today, is it is it savable? I mean, can we save the FBI as an entity by, say, house cleaning and management? Or is it time for something more drastic, taking the money, taking the human resources and placing them in different agencies as we break up the mission? I mean, what do you see being a former insider as being a viable solution? Because we need a functioning entity that can criminally investigate terrorism and crime. I mean, we need it. I think that the brand is so tarnished at this point that there's going to be substantial portions of this population that are not going to trust any case the FBI brings to court. And it needs to be rethought, reimagined. And I think that the best way to do that is to look to our past.

And that is in the Constitution, we originally elected senators from the state assemblies. And that was to small our Republican eyes and give the state's authority over the federal government. And I think you can do the same thing with law enforcement and remove the 1811s from the FBI, take out its ability to enforce these investigations that it's done, and deputize local agencies, deputize local detectives and police officers, and give those agencies the ability to submit their personnel and give them a final say. So if the FBI says, hey, we're investigating Dan Bongino for terrorism then the uh the local sheriff has the ability to say that's great fbi uh get bent we're not we're not going to allow that arrest to happen

because we have the arrest powers here gosh that's a that's a fascinating idea you know steve i i've thought about this often about how to reform federal law enforcement i've had a number of ideas i've written about in a number of books myself about breaking it up into three co-equal and equally powerful entities, an intelligence entity, a criminal entity, and an IC, an intelligence community. Excuse me, an investigative community. It works just like the IG does now because the IG is weak. I mean, what is it? For us, by us. You know, they used to joke that the Secret Service had its own people looking at it.

I mean, you're not really gonna, you're gonna, think about it, you've grown up with an agent, a guy's getting investigated for doing an oil change, whatever, on a company dollar and it was his personal car. You're really gonna interview this guy if he's your buddy? I mean, they all have problems like this,

but that's a fascinating solution. We're talking to Steve Friend. He's the author of a new book called True Blue. It's fantastic. It's his story of the issues in the FBI and why he left. Steve, just your thoughts, lastly, on now that we've got this Durham testimony and it's clear that the FBI engaged

and was an active participant in probably the biggest political scandal in American history, the targeting of Donald Trump. You know, the cover up I find to have been worse than the crime. I bet like you, you can't possibly imagine doctoring a document to go after a guy like Carter Page, who was working on behalf of the United States government, the CIA, and contacting Russians, and then doctoring a document to say he was a Russian source. I mean, that, I find, of this case, to be the most unbelievable thing that this actually happened within the Bureau. Yeah, I'm just enormously disappointed that that could have ever happened in any law enforcement agency,

let alone the self-advocate premier law enforcement agency for the entire country. And I've always prided myself on being a professional in what I did and subscribed to what my dad taught me. And that was when you score a touchdown, you don't spike the football because you act like you had been there before. And you do things the right way. And you don't pick a target and then find any way to do it. And that is the stuff of the Stasi and the KGB.

And back to the earlier question, as far as breaking things up, that's the problem now within these agencies, especially within the FBI, where it's now combined intelligence with law enforcement. And as a result, we're seeing a completely weaponized and politicized agency that is willing to bend, if not outright break the law in order to go after its opponents. And it's tremendously disappointing. And there has to be accountability. It can't just be more training for the rank and file.

I need to see scalps. I need to see the Holman rule enforced. I need to see salary zeroed out, people terminated from the top, and hopefully some reform. If not, we can just break this agency down to a thousand pieces and scatter it to the wind. Yeah, Steve, you're right. I mean, you can. Do you really need a rule to tell someone not to lie to a judge about a guy being a source for the CIA?

Do you need a rule for that? You know, I got to run. So where an oath to protect the Constitution in front of God? Apparently, that's just an iPhone user agreement to so many of these guys. Now they just click yes to get the paycheck. They just said agree. I know, but Kyle said something to me again when I first met him, Kyle Serafin, another former FBI agent whistleblower.

He said, you know, they take us to the Holocaust Museum just to remind us of the just following orders tragedies throughout human history. And he said, you know, that mattered to me. That really changed me when I went there. And that's what I think motivates guys like you and guys like Kyle. You're not going to follow orders if they collide and clash with the raising your right hand constitutional oath you took to protect this great country.

You're not going to do it. Folks, please pick up his book. He's a fantastic guy. Steve Friend. He's a friend to me a friend to the show uh he gave up a lot to expose this fbi malfeasance his story is told in the book true blue pick it up today steve thanks for your time you're always welcome back here my friend thank you very much dan thank you for helping me all along the way you got it oh you got it

folks i told you there are good guys out there i I wish there were more, but he's one of, there's a crew of them now. Garrett O'Boyle, Marcus Allen, Steve Friend, Kyle Serafin. These are good, decent human beings. We've had enough of this bull. You get the rest. That was Steve Friend. Up next is a phone call from a lib. This did not end well for the lib.

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calls from liberals even though they're always welcome listen to this one work yourself into a corner on abortion and hear the whole argument just materialize on air. This was great. All right, let's go to the phones. Let's take Wendy. Wendy, you're on the Dan Bongino show. What do you got for us? Mr. Bongino, please stop talking so terribly about Democrats and liberals. Half the things you say, they're not even familiar to me. I'm not for abortion. I'm for choice. I'm not. I don't know.

You put a lot of words in the mouths of liberals and Democrats. But. All right. Well, let's time out. Let's go into it. Let's start. Hold on, Wendy. Let's let's address this.

You're not for abortion. Your choice. The choice to do what? The choice for people to make their own decisions about their health care. No, no, no. We're not talking about health care. The choice to do what? People can go into an emergency room right now and make the choice to get health care, and the emergency room has to provide health care.

So let's stop the euphemisms. You're pro-choice. The choice to do what? To have an abortion if you choose to do so. Okay, what is an abortion? What is an abortion? The stopping of a pregnancy. No, no, no.

It's not the stopping of a pregnancy. There are a lot of pregnancies that are stopped due to miscarriages and other things. It's the killing of an infant's life. It's the termination of their life. So wait, wait, wait. Hold on.

You said I'm mischaracterizing you. So you just admitted that you were for abortion because you're not for health care choices. You're for abortion, correct? I am pro-choice. Personally, I am not pro-abortion, but I'm pro-choice. I've heard Donald Trump say that Democrats believe that they should kill babies.

You're for the choice to kill babies, correct? You think that that's a good thing for society, be able to whack little kids inside the womb? Why is that? What's good about that? Why should we be whacking little kids in the womb? Personally, I do not think that's a good thing. I just think that people have... So if it's not a good thing,

then why shouldn't we make it harder to do? I'm just asking questions. You just said it's not a good thing. So murder's not a good thing either. We make that hard to do. So why shouldn't we make abortion hard to do? I'm just asking questions you just said it's not a good thing so murder's not a good thing either we make that hard to do so why shouldn't we make abortion hard to do i'm just asking questions i i guess we should make it as difficult as maybe owning a gun this is what's called a not debating this is what's called a non-sequitur wait wait time out when people lose an argument they do the non-sequitur. Jon Stewart does this all the time.

That's a different issue. We can debate another time. I'm asking you a question. You just admitted in front of my 8 million listeners that abortion's a bad thing. So we make other bad things hard to do. Why shouldn't we enact laws making abortion really hard? Why? But that's what you guys don't understand.

My choices are different than other people's choices. The rules that you guys want to put on people. Okay, so are mine. I choose not to support people who murder babies. So why do you? I don't want to stop people from going to church. I don't want to stop people from. That has nothing to do with abortion.

Again, you're engaging in what's called non sequiturs. It's a typical tactic of the leftist who starts to lose track of the debate and gets nervous. I'm asking you a question. Why would you not make what you just acknowledged as a bad thing more difficult? I'm not saying it shouldn't be difficult. That's the thing. Okay, we agree. Wendy, thank you.

It should be more difficult to whack babies in the womb. Gosh, it's the first time I've ever gotten a liberal to agree that pro-life stances are the way to go moving forward. Thank you, Wendy, for confirming in front of the nation that pro-choice is pro-abortion. appreciate it. If you ever want to listen to the radio show live, go to Bongino.com. Just click on Station Finder. We're probably on somewhere near you. You can always listen on radio stations near you and listen to the podcast every day at 11 a.m. Eastern Time live at Rumble.com slash Bongino. Join the live

chat. We'd love to have you. I'll see you next week. You just heard Dan Bongino.