Latest / V / Trump Cancels Zelensky’s 'Gravy Train' (Ep.144)

Transcript

Trump Cancels Zelensky’s 'Gravy Train' (Ep.144) · V

0:00
Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to Bongino Report Early Edition. Last night,
0:04
Speaker 1: we learned 70 Christians were beheaded in the Democratic Republic
0:09
Speaker 1: of Congo. Trump pressures Zelensky to hold an election. My
0:13
Speaker 1: dad puts an end to New York City's congestion pricing.
0:16
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles mayor launches an investigation into why she
0:19
Speaker 1: was in Africa during the L.A. fires. And Trump considers
0:23
Speaker 1: sending U.S. taxpayers $ 5, 000 refunds. All this on Bongino Report,
0:29
Speaker 1: early edition. Last night, we learned that 70 Christians were
0:43
Speaker 1: brutally beheaded with machetes by an Islamist group inside a
0:49
Speaker 1: church in in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The victims,
0:53
Speaker 1: reported to be hostages of the Allied Defense Forces rebels,
0:58
Speaker 1: were found in a Protestant church in Kazanga, where people
1:01
Speaker 1: had left after repeated attacks. The Allied Defense Forces, or
1:06
Speaker 1: the ADF, are affiliated with ISIS, and they are seen
1:10
Speaker 1: as the most deadly armed group in Eastern Democratic Republic
1:14
Speaker 1: of Congo. The dead in the church massacre are understood
1:18
Speaker 1: to be among dozens of people who had been reported
1:21
Speaker 1: missing since last Wednesday in the village. Now, not a
1:25
Speaker 1: lot of people are aware of what's happening in the DRC.
1:29
Speaker 1: It doesn't make it into the news very often. We
1:31
Speaker 1: don't talk about it a lot. We don't hear about
1:33
Speaker 1: it a lot. I have been actually following what's been
1:36
Speaker 1: happening in the DRC for like a year now, over
1:40
Speaker 1: a year now. And I constantly am telling Michael about
1:42
Speaker 1: it and I'm very upset. about what's happening in that
1:45
Speaker 1: country and the role that all of us, everybody here, myself,
1:50
Speaker 1: all of you listening, play in that violence that is
1:53
Speaker 1: continually unfolding in the country. So let me explain what's happening.
1:57
Speaker 1: So first understand that the DRC is extremely resource rich.
2:02
Speaker 1: The DRC extracts and exports minerals that are essential for
2:06
Speaker 1: global industries, including electronics, electronic vehicles, your iPhone, renewable energy technologies,
2:13
Speaker 1: such as cobalt for batteries, copper for wiring. We need
2:17
Speaker 1: these minerals for really the modern world. DRC supplies over
2:23
Speaker 1: 60% of the world's cobalt, which is used in lithium
2:26
Speaker 1: ion batteries to power devices like your smartphone and also,
2:30
Speaker 1: of course, EVs, electric vehicles. So because of this vast
2:34
Speaker 1: mineral wealth and the DRC's weak government, there is a
2:38
Speaker 1: ton of instability in the region with a mixed bag
2:41
Speaker 1: of countless armed groups battling for power. ADF, the Islamic
2:46
Speaker 1: group that just killed all those Christians, is one of
2:48
Speaker 1: over 100 armed groups active in the eastern provinces in
2:53
Speaker 1: the DRC vying for control. they just have this little
2:56
Speaker 1: added flair of terrorizing Christians. Not all the armed groups
3:00
Speaker 1: terrorize Christians. This one happens to do that and also is,
3:03
Speaker 1: of course, trying to get power and control in the region. Now,
3:07
Speaker 1: actually 90%, over 90% of the population in DRC is Christian.
3:11
Speaker 1: So you're seeing a very small minority of these Islamic
3:13
Speaker 1: extremists who also are, again, vying for power, backed by ISIS,
3:17
Speaker 1: terrorizing the vast majority of people in the region who
3:21
Speaker 1: are Christian. Now, the violence and chaos in DRC is
3:24
Speaker 1: largely driven by the mining industry that I mentioned. The
3:28
Speaker 1: mines are mostly owned by foreign nationals, so not the
3:31
Speaker 1: government of DRC, not locals to DRC. These are foreign
3:38
Speaker 1: nationals from largely China, but also Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, Israel,
3:43
Speaker 1: and South Africa. Essentially, these foreign nationals love this ongoing chaos,
3:48
Speaker 1: and it's really not hard to imagine why they love it,
3:50
Speaker 1: because it keeps regulation minimal and the costs low for mining.
3:54
Speaker 1: So in other words, the foreign firms thrive in all
3:56
Speaker 1: of this disorder and all of this chaos, and so
3:59
Speaker 1: the violence keeps on spiraling. And by the way, there
4:02
Speaker 1: are serious human rights abuses in these mines. It's not
4:05
Speaker 1: just these various militant groups, it's also the mines themselves
4:09
Speaker 1: that are incredibly abusive. You have tens of thousands of
4:13
Speaker 1: children Some as young as six years old working at
4:17
Speaker 1: Cobalt and Colton sites. They dig with these rudimentary tools.
4:21
Speaker 1: They carry these heavy loads. They work up to 12
4:24
Speaker 1: hours daily for as little as $ 1 to $ 2 a day.
4:27
Speaker 1: I mean, this is egregious. And again, children, children working
4:32
Speaker 1: in these mines. And a lot of the mines are
4:34
Speaker 1: also coerced. There are reports that miners have been beaten
4:39
Speaker 1: or even killed for resisting or trying to escape the mines.
4:42
Speaker 1: This is not just like free labor or like the
4:44
Speaker 1: people are willingly going to work in these horrible sites.
4:48
Speaker 1: A lot of times it is forced. And remember how
4:51
Speaker 1: I said that these minerals are essential for electronic devices.
4:55
Speaker 1: And that includes electronic vehicles, which are supposed to be,
4:57
Speaker 1: of course, part of this green revolution, right? We're going
4:59
Speaker 1: to replace fossil fuels with EVs, with electric vehicles, and
5:03
Speaker 1: the world is going to be so much better, and
5:05
Speaker 1: climate change will be over, and it'll be all perfect.
5:07
Speaker 1: And what's really fascinating is that mining in DRC for
5:10
Speaker 1: these EVs, as well as other devices, pollutes rivers and
5:14
Speaker 1: soil with wastewater and heavy metals. And DRC communities often
5:18
Speaker 1: suffer from skin diseases, birth defects, chronic illnesses, from contaminated water.
5:24
Speaker 1: So completely defeats the purpose of the supposed green revolution
5:28
Speaker 1: of EVs, which are supposed to be so clean and
5:30
Speaker 1: good for the environment. Totally not good for the environment
5:32
Speaker 1: at all because the mining is so bad. One way
5:36
Speaker 1: that we could actually potentially end the suffering and stop
5:40
Speaker 1: fueling the destabilization in this region is actually by purchasing Greenland,
5:45
Speaker 1: which is Trump's big plan, right? Extracting minerals from Greenland
5:48
Speaker 1: instead of relying on the corrupt and abusive DRC would
5:52
Speaker 1: be a great way to stop funding and fueling all
5:56
Speaker 1: of the destabilization and violence in that region. This is
5:59
Speaker 1: why Elon Musk is so invested in Greenland. He would
6:02
Speaker 1: much prefer, I think, to get minerals from Greenland than
6:06
Speaker 1: the DRC. He doesn't want to say, he doesn't want
6:09
Speaker 1: to say exactly why he wants to get these resources
6:12
Speaker 1: from Greenland and not the DRC, because then people will
6:13
Speaker 1: start talking about the human rights abuses. This is why
6:16
Speaker 1: Elon Musk has said, oh, it's so great, it's awesome,
6:18
Speaker 1: it's America first, but he won't talk about the alternative,
6:22
Speaker 1: which is that we're extracting and buying all these minerals
6:26
Speaker 1: from a very horrible place with all these human rights abuses.
6:29
Speaker 1: If he starts talking about the real reason why I
6:31
Speaker 1: think he wants Greenland, people will start to actually pay
6:34
Speaker 1: attention to these human rights abuses in the DRC. And
6:38
Speaker 1: I don't think Elon Musk wants to highlight that. It's
6:40
Speaker 1: a very bloody industry. And again, we're all a part
6:43
Speaker 1: of it. We are all a part of it. I
6:45
Speaker 1: have an iPhone. I'm in front of my computer right now.
6:49
Speaker 1: You guys are probably watching on a device. So we
6:51
Speaker 1: all play a role. And as for now, I just say,
6:54
Speaker 1: keep the Christians in your prayers. I would love, drop
6:57
Speaker 1: a comment if you have any other ideas of how
6:59
Speaker 1: we can try to combat the human rights abuses that
7:03
Speaker 1: are in the DRC. But it is really egregious. The
7:08
Speaker 1: best way, in my view, for right now, I think,
7:10
Speaker 1: would be to try and extract minerals and buy minerals
7:13
Speaker 1: from somewhere else that is doing the mining in a
7:18
Speaker 1: much more humane way. But right now, it really is egregious.
7:22
Speaker 1: And so prayers to those poor Christians and everybody in
7:25
Speaker 1: that region that is suffering continually. All right. Oh, yes, Mike,
7:29
Speaker 1: we do have an ad. So we're going to take
7:31
Speaker 1: a quick break. When we come back, I'm going to
7:32
Speaker 1: get into Ukraine and the way that President Trump has
7:36
Speaker 1: just epically shut down Zelensky's gravy train to the ire
7:41
Speaker 1: of the entire European elite class, which is also excellent.
7:45
Speaker 1: So we're going to get into the Ukraine in just
7:47
Speaker 1: a moment. But first, let's take a break. Somebody in
7:50
Speaker 1: the chat was mentioning the diamond trade and all of
7:53
Speaker 1: the violence that was happening with diamonds as well. I
7:55
Speaker 1: think now they've kind of moved to these minerals that
7:58
Speaker 1: are used for our devices. But before there was all
8:01
Speaker 1: this violence over over diamonds and the diamond trade. And
8:04
Speaker 1: that was mostly in the 90s and early 2000s. It
8:06
Speaker 1: was in Sierra Leone, in the DRC, in Liberia, in Angola.
8:10
Speaker 1: And I mean, when I read about it, when I
8:13
Speaker 1: found out about it, I mean, this is before my time, right?
8:16
Speaker 1: I was born in 99. I was a little girl
8:19
Speaker 1: in the early 2000s. I wasn't living through this. And
8:21
Speaker 1: it made me want to just throw out my diamond ring.
8:23
Speaker 1: Like if I had known, I would never have gotten
8:25
Speaker 1: a diamond engagement ring And it makes you just feel sick,
8:30
Speaker 1: the way that we are actually extracting these minerals and
8:34
Speaker 1: the way that really slave labor builds up our economy.
8:39
Speaker 1: It's really horrible. So thank you for pointing that out,
8:42
Speaker 1: whoever did. This is just another flavor of the violence
8:47
Speaker 1: that you saw in the 90s and early 2000s with diamonds.
8:50
Speaker 1: Now it's cobalt and coltan and other minerals that we
8:53
Speaker 1: use for electronic devices. All right, let's talk about Ukraine.
8:58
Speaker 1: Here was President Trump yesterday calling on Zelensky to finally
9:02
Speaker 1: hold an election and stop being a dictator. Take a listen.
9:07
Speaker 2: And look, it's time for elections.
9:09
Speaker 3: Haven't had an election in a long time.
9:11
Speaker 2: It's wonderful to say, you know, we can't have an election,
9:14
Speaker 2: but it's time for elections. And it's also time to
9:17
Speaker 2: find out what happened with all the money. Because he
9:20
Speaker 2: made the statement that half of it, he doesn't know
9:22
Speaker 2: where it is or something like that. And I'd like
9:25
Speaker 2: to find out all the money that we've been sending
9:27
Speaker 2: to Ukraine.
9:29
Speaker 4: Where is it?
9:33
Speaker 1: Michael just made a mistake. That's okay. Now, yesterday, President
9:37
Speaker 1: Trump also described Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky as a dictator
9:42
Speaker 1: in a really epic tweet. And all hell broke loose
9:45
Speaker 1: when he posted this. The internet just, they lost their minds.
9:48
Speaker 1: especially European elites and the neocons here in America. Here's
9:52
Speaker 1: what President Trump wrote. He said, think of it. A
9:56
Speaker 1: modestly successful comedian, Vladimir Zelensky, talked the United States of
10:01
Speaker 1: America into spending $ 350 billion to go into a war
10:05
Speaker 1: that couldn't be won, that never had to start, but
10:08
Speaker 1: a war that he, without the U.S. and Trump, will
10:11
Speaker 1: never be able to settle. The United States has sent
10:13
Speaker 1: $ 200 billion more than Europe, and Europe's money is guaranteed
10:17
Speaker 1: while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn't
10:19
Speaker 1: sleepy Joe Biden demand equalization? In that this war is
10:22
Speaker 1: far more important to Europe than it is to us.
10:25
Speaker 1: We have a beautiful, big ocean of separation. On top
10:29
Speaker 1: of this, Zelensky admits that half of the money we
10:31
Speaker 1: sent him is missing. He refuses to have elections, is
10:35
Speaker 1: very low in Ukrainian polls, and the only thing he
10:38
Speaker 1: was good at was playing Biden like a fiddle. And
10:41
Speaker 1: here's what people really got mad about. Trump then says,
10:44
Speaker 1: a dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast or he
10:47
Speaker 1: is not going to have a country left. In the meantime,
10:50
Speaker 1: we are successfully negotiating on an end of the war
10:52
Speaker 1: with Russia, something all admit only Trump and the Trump
10:55
Speaker 1: administration can do. Biden never tried. Europe has failed to
10:58
Speaker 1: bring peace. And Zelensky probably wants to keep the gravy
11:01
Speaker 1: train going. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a
11:03
Speaker 1: terrible job. His country is shattered and millions have unnecessarily died.
11:08
Speaker 1: So we're going to unpack that a little bit because
11:09
Speaker 1: this was an epic tweet. It was amazing. This is
11:12
Speaker 1: what I voted for. This is why we needed Trump
11:14
Speaker 1: for so long. We needed somebody with a brain, with
11:18
Speaker 1: somebody with just some common sense and America first energy
11:23
Speaker 1: leading this country. It should have been said ages ago. Instead,
11:26
Speaker 1: we have gone through a bloody war in Ukraine. Funding
11:30
Speaker 1: funded by American tax dollars never should have happened, completely unnecessary,
11:34
Speaker 1: like President Trump said. So first he refers to Zelensky
11:37
Speaker 1: as a moderately successful comedian, which is kind of hilarious,
11:40
Speaker 1: a very funny chirp. This is very Trumpian. And his
11:45
Speaker 1: point about how all of Europe has paid $ 200 billion
11:48
Speaker 1: less than the United States is an excellent point. The
11:51
Speaker 1: war in Ukraine is way more relevant to Europe than
11:54
Speaker 1: it is to us. We do have an ocean between
11:57
Speaker 1: us and Europe, between us and Russia. It's totally unjust
12:02
Speaker 1: that we should continue to fund this war at a
12:07
Speaker 1: far greater rate than any of the European countries who
12:09
Speaker 1: it matters way more to. And it's also how you
12:12
Speaker 1: know that Biden is indeed weak, and he was never
12:14
Speaker 1: America first. Like I said, completely unjust. Trump also said
12:18
Speaker 1: Zelensky probably wants to keep the gravy train going. And
12:22
Speaker 1: this is an excellent point, because as long as this
12:24
Speaker 1: war continues, Zelensky stays in power. This is why Trump
12:28
Speaker 1: called him a dictator, because he is. Zelensky imposed martial law.
12:32
Speaker 1: He's banned elections. You know who had elections? Saddam Hussein.
12:38
Speaker 1: The elections were, I'm sure, corrupt and probably unfair, but
12:40
Speaker 1: at least Saddam Hussein had them. And what did the
12:43
Speaker 1: CIA do to Saddam Hussein? Because he was allegedly this
12:45
Speaker 1: genocidal dictator. It wasn't pretty. You can watch the video.
12:50
Speaker 1: How was Zelensky any better? Sending his people to die
12:54
Speaker 1: while canceling elections. Oh, we're going to put you on
12:57
Speaker 1: the front lines. You're probably going to die. This war
13:00
Speaker 1: is never going to end. And also, you can't vote
13:02
Speaker 1: me out of office. Sounds like a genocidal dictator to me.
13:07
Speaker 1: Zelensky is supposedly this great defender of democracy, but he
13:11
Speaker 1: isn't even meeting the standards of Saddam Hussein. In 2022,
13:15
Speaker 1: Zelensky also passed a law censoring journalists and combined all
13:19
Speaker 1: news into one government-controlled platform. Again, kind of dictatorial, kind
13:24
Speaker 1: of sounds like an authoritarian. As Trump's rapid response team
13:28
Speaker 1: tweeted yesterday, in America, we hold a presidential election every
13:32
Speaker 1: four years, even during wartime. We held an election during
13:36
Speaker 1: the Civil War, We held an election during World War II.
13:39
Speaker 1: Before President Zelensky decides to lecture the American president again,
13:43
Speaker 1: he should hold an election too. Thank you. Rapid response. Exactly.
13:48
Speaker 1: My feelings exactly. As Federalist CEO Sean Davis shared, he
13:54
Speaker 1: shared this really pertinent quote, I think. This is from
13:57
Speaker 1: Upton Sinclair, and it reads, It is difficult to get
14:01
Speaker 1: a man to understand something when his salary depends on
14:05
Speaker 1: his not understanding it. It's difficult to get Zelensky to
14:09
Speaker 1: end a war when his job depends on the war continuing.
14:13
Speaker 1: This is why Zelensky has purposely postponed his official visit
14:16
Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia set for this week amid U.S.-Russian negotiations
14:20
Speaker 1: in Riyadh. He isn't happy about any of this coming
14:24
Speaker 1: to an end. Neither are any of the Western EU elites,
14:27
Speaker 1: I might add. And there's something really interesting I'm noticing
14:30
Speaker 1: about EU leaders. We're going to call it Churchill cosplaying.
14:35
Speaker 1: All these European leaders... are projecting onto the current conflict
14:39
Speaker 1: in Ukraine as somehow a Hitler invades Poland World War
14:42
Speaker 1: II scenario. And it's not. This is a tweet from
14:46
Speaker 1: Lithuania's former foreign minister criticizing the Trump admin's plan for peace.
14:51
Speaker 1: It reads, My hope lies with Europe, with the appearance
14:55
Speaker 1: of a leader like Churchill's resolve, the spirit to say
14:59
Speaker 1: we will never surrender. We will defend all of Europe
15:02
Speaker 1: from Ukraine to Portugal. I am fully aware that my
15:05
Speaker 1: suggestion leads only to blood, toil, tears, and sweat, but
15:08
Speaker 1: we have done it before, and we can do it again.
15:11
Speaker 1: The alternative is to rebuild the continent after another devastating war,
15:14
Speaker 1: and that would be much harder and take much more time. Okay.
15:19
Speaker 1: Putin is not equivalent to Hitler. Ukraine is not Poland.
15:26
Speaker 1: Hitler's 1939 invasion of Poland was driven mostly by a
15:29
Speaker 1: desire to revise the post-World War I territorial settlements imposed
15:34
Speaker 1: by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, Putin's
15:38
Speaker 1: 2022 invasion of Ukraine was primarily a response to NATO's
15:41
Speaker 1: eastward expansion and Ukraine's increasing alignment with the West, which
15:46
Speaker 1: Russia perceives as an existential threat. Hitler's was more about
15:51
Speaker 1: territorial revisionism. Putin's was more about geopolitical balance and preventing
15:55
Speaker 1: perceived threats to Russian sovereignty. Needless to say, the motivations
15:59
Speaker 1: are different. But I think for a long time now,
16:02
Speaker 1: the West has been stuck in this post-World War II
16:06
Speaker 1: framework where everything is compared to and viewed through the
16:09
Speaker 1: prism of that conflict, of World War II. And it's
16:13
Speaker 1: really quite reckless to do this. We can't liken Putin
16:17
Speaker 1: and Russia to Hitler and Nazi Germany. Doing so is
16:20
Speaker 1: not only untrue, but it's also dangerous because it tees
16:23
Speaker 1: us up for constant escalation. Why have more blood, toil,
16:27
Speaker 1: and tears and sweat? Why have another world war if
16:30
Speaker 1: we don't need to? By Churchill cosplaying, we lock ourselves
16:36
Speaker 1: into this mindset where diplomacy is always overlooked and military
16:40
Speaker 1: action seems like the only solution ever. History isn't a
16:45
Speaker 1: simple equation of bad guys and good guys, especially when
16:49
Speaker 1: it comes to geopolitics. The risk of portraying every conflict
16:52
Speaker 1: through the shadow of World War II is that it
16:55
Speaker 1: locks us into thinking in binary terms, us versus them.
16:59
Speaker 1: Fight to the bitter end. No room for negotiation. The
17:02
Speaker 1: real question is not whether we can show resolve like Churchill,
17:06
Speaker 1: but whether we have the wisdom to break free from
17:10
Speaker 1: these historical comparisons. Albert Einstein really famously said, somebody says, great,
17:18
Speaker 1: you do that, but not with our money. Yeah, I mean,
17:20
Speaker 1: that's fine. Europe can do that, but not with... Although
17:23
Speaker 1: I think Europe is really risking a lot with a potential...
17:28
Speaker 1: conflict with Russia, with a potential world war that will
17:32
Speaker 1: have ramifications for the entire world, including the United States.
17:36
Speaker 1: I hope that they start to become a lot more
17:39
Speaker 1: reasonable with their foreign policy. They start to break free
17:44
Speaker 1: from this historical post-World War II mythos that is driving
17:48
Speaker 1: them to constant conflict. I want to bring up this
17:52
Speaker 1: quote from Albert Einstein because it is relevant to why
17:56
Speaker 1: we can't just ignore Europe acting in this post-World War
18:00
Speaker 1: II framework. He said, I know not with what weapons
18:04
Speaker 1: World War III will be fought, but World War IV
18:08
Speaker 1: will be fought with sticks and stones. And this is
18:11
Speaker 1: what President Trump is trying to avoid. I don't know
18:15
Speaker 1: how it's possible, but somehow peace is the controversial bad
18:18
Speaker 1: opinion to have among European elites and neocons in America,
18:21
Speaker 1: and they're crazy. They are insane for it. All right,
18:25
Speaker 1: speaking of President Trump, Trump and my dad, Transportation Secretary
18:29
Speaker 1: Sean Duffy have withdrawn federal approval for New York City's
18:33
Speaker 1: congestion pricing plan. New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced $ 15
18:38
Speaker 1: congestion pricing for drivers entering central Manhattan. And then, because
18:43
Speaker 1: everybody hated this idea so much, people were so mad,
18:45
Speaker 1: she changed it to $ 9 instead of $ 15 and then
18:49
Speaker 1: told everybody that she was saving them 40%. And this
18:52
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of like if I go on
18:54
Speaker 1: a little shopping spree, I spend $ 150 and then I say,
18:57
Speaker 1: But Michael, it was 40% off. I saved you $ 100.
18:59
Speaker 1: And then Michael's like, but you still spent $ 150. So
19:04
Speaker 1: it's like the same situation with Kathy Hochul. Ridiculousness. Insanity.
19:09
Speaker 1: It's girl math, as we'll say. It's Kathy Hochul girl math.
19:12
Speaker 1: And so my dad pointed out in this letter that
19:15
Speaker 1: he wrote to Kathy Hochul, informing her that the congestion pricing,
19:18
Speaker 1: her congestion pricing is done, that the program probably violates
19:22
Speaker 1: federal law. He said it does violate federal law, which
19:25
Speaker 1: prohibits tolls and roads, uh, previous tolls on roads built
19:29
Speaker 1: with federal funding unless Congress specifically grants an exemption, which
19:34
Speaker 1: Congress has not done in the situation. Here was my
19:37
Speaker 1: dad yesterday explaining further why he is getting rid of
19:41
Speaker 1: New York's congestion pricing, why it's so wrong.
19:43
Speaker 5: Why can't New York City determine what it wants to
19:47
Speaker 5: charge for people to come in and out?
19:49
Speaker 6: So we give them the authority, number one. And so
19:52
Speaker 6: the American taxpayer, the New York taxpayer, funded those streets.
19:57
Speaker 6: And the way the governor set this up is, she said,
20:00
Speaker 6: even though you already paid for these streets, you can't
20:03
Speaker 6: use those streets unless you pay an additional toll. Well,
20:05
Speaker 6: if I'm the taxpayer, I'm like, I already paid for
20:07
Speaker 6: the street. Why am I paying an additional toll to
20:10
Speaker 6: the taxes I already paid? There's no free pathway into
20:14
Speaker 6: that cordoned area, right? So if you're a middle income
20:18
Speaker 6: or a lower income shopper or worker, you can't access
20:22
Speaker 6: public roads by any means into this area. That's flat
20:27
Speaker 6: out wrong. And we've never had a program like that
20:29
Speaker 6: where there's not a free public road to get in
20:31
Speaker 6: to a certain area.
20:34
Speaker 1: Great points. I thought he was really articulate there. I
20:35
Speaker 1: called him. I said, that was a great interview. You
20:37
Speaker 1: did so good. Post it on your Twitter. But he
20:39
Speaker 1: also described this move as very classist. Rich people can
20:43
Speaker 1: afford to drive in. It's like pennies to them. But
20:45
Speaker 1: if you're middle or you're working class in New York City,
20:47
Speaker 1: this is actually a big burden, a big daily burden
20:49
Speaker 1: on you financially that, again, is very unjust. And the
20:53
Speaker 1: taxpayers have already paid for these roads, like he said.
20:55
Speaker 1: So completely wrong. It's ridiculous. Also, President Trump wrote yesterday,
21:01
Speaker 1: just concurring with my dad, Congestion pricing is dead. Manhattan
21:05
Speaker 1: and all of New York is saved. Long live the king.
21:08
Speaker 1: And if you can imagine, Trump actually wrote long live
21:11
Speaker 1: the king. The left is flipping out over this. Oh
21:14
Speaker 1: my gosh, he's a dictator. He's a king. He's crazy.
21:17
Speaker 1: He's going to take over the government and he's never
21:19
Speaker 1: going to leave office, which is just funny because of
21:22
Speaker 1: course he left office in 2020 after a rigged election.
21:25
Speaker 1: And also considering that these same people are insisting to
21:27
Speaker 1: all of us that President Zelensky is just this amazing
21:30
Speaker 1: defender of democracy, and oh, it's totally okay that he's
21:32
Speaker 1: just suspended elections, but no, we have to really worry
21:35
Speaker 1: about President Trump and his tweet that says, long live
21:37
Speaker 1: the king, because Trump's the real dictator. Not Zelensky, no, no, no,
21:41
Speaker 1: the guy who's canceled elections, he's totally fine, but Trump
21:44
Speaker 1: is the real dictator. It's just ridiculous. Everyone is, of course,
21:49
Speaker 1: flipping out, including Governor Kathy Hochul, who's saying that she's
21:52
Speaker 1: going to sue the government over this canceling of her
21:56
Speaker 1: congestion pricing. and that she relies on the congestion pricing
22:00
Speaker 1: for New York's budget. So this is going to be
22:02
Speaker 1: financially devastating for New York. And this is a really
22:04
Speaker 1: incredible assertion for Kathy Hochul to make, because she's not
22:09
Speaker 1: interested in ending her billions of dollars continually spent on
22:14
Speaker 1: illegals in New York, paying for their entire lives. very
22:18
Speaker 1: the Trump admin from seamlessly deporting rapists and murderers in
22:22
Speaker 1: her state. And can you just believe that? So she's like,
22:24
Speaker 1: we need the congestion pricing, which is a huge burden
22:28
Speaker 1: on tax paying working class Americans. But also I'm going
22:31
Speaker 1: to continue to spend billions on illegals and Trump you're
22:34
Speaker 1: so bad. You're ruining our budget. It's like, you want
22:36
Speaker 1: to fix your budget? Stop putting illegals in hotels and
22:39
Speaker 1: paying for their food and their education and everything and
22:42
Speaker 1: their healthcare, everything in their lives to Americans. Taxpaying Americans
22:46
Speaker 1: get free healthcare, do we? Do we get free food
22:49
Speaker 1: from the government? Do we get free housing? No, we don't,
22:52
Speaker 1: but illegals do. And now Kathy Hochul's gonna lecture us
22:55
Speaker 1: about how, oh my goodness, our state budget is all
22:58
Speaker 1: ruined because of President Trump. There's nowhere else that could
23:00
Speaker 1: make budgets. And I go, well, how about to the
23:03
Speaker 1: massive amount of illegals who you're paying for their entire lives?
23:07
Speaker 1: Which is, to me, it is patently insane. The woman
23:10
Speaker 1: is incredibly insane. And I don't know how New Yorkers
23:12
Speaker 1: continue to put up with this crap. Speaking of insufferable
23:16
Speaker 1: Democrat politicians, do you guys remember the Los Angeles mayor
23:20
Speaker 1: who went abroad while her city burnt to a crisp?
23:24
Speaker 1: Here is Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announcing an investigation
23:29
Speaker 1: into why nobody told her that she shouldn't have gone
23:32
Speaker 1: to Africa while her city burned to the ground. Yes,
23:36
Speaker 1: I kid you not, this is actually what she's calling for.
23:38
Speaker 1: Take a listen.
23:39
Speaker 5: When I talked about it with the fire chief, what
23:43
Speaker 5: she said is that We have warnings of Santa Ana
23:47
Speaker 5: winds a lot. But predicting this, and you saw from
23:52
Speaker 5: the city, from the county, that level of preparation really
23:56
Speaker 5: didn't happen. So it didn't reach that level to me
23:59
Speaker 5: to say something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn't
24:03
Speaker 5: have gone on the trip.
24:04
Speaker 1: Why didn't it happen?
24:04
Speaker 5: But to me, I don't know. I mean, I think
24:06
Speaker 5: that that's one of the things we need to look at. What?
24:10
Speaker 4: Girl, you.
24:12
Speaker 1: You need an investigation into why you went to Africa.
24:14
Speaker 1: This is like the wildest thing to be like, just
24:17
Speaker 1: tell us, why did you? Who else is responsible? Like
24:21
Speaker 1: the gate agent, she like forced you to go there.
24:23
Speaker 1: We need an investigation into why nobody told me not
24:26
Speaker 1: to go. What? So zero accountability. And this really seems
24:30
Speaker 1: to be a theme in the modern world. I hate
24:32
Speaker 1: to say it, but so many people are just allergic
24:35
Speaker 1: to personal responsibility. There's always someone to blame but yourself.
24:39
Speaker 1: And this is a tell sign that Karen Bass is
24:42
Speaker 1: not a leader. She's not. Not to mention, there was
24:45
Speaker 1: zero reason for a random mayor in America to be
24:48
Speaker 1: in Africa representing the Biden administration. There's no reason for
24:52
Speaker 1: that to be happening. He has ambassadors for this. There
24:58
Speaker 1: are congressmen and women who work for the federal government
25:01
Speaker 1: who could have done this. Why Karen Bass was representing
25:05
Speaker 1: the Biden admin abroad makes zero sense. Totally inappropriate and bizarre.
25:10
Speaker 1: And I hope LA voters vote her out. Again, she
25:12
Speaker 1: is a ridiculous human being. All right, we all may
25:17
Speaker 1: be getting some checks pretty soon from the federal government.
25:20
Speaker 1: That is right. Elon Musk is considering taking some of
25:23
Speaker 1: the money that Doge is saving and sending U.S. taxpayers
25:27
Speaker 1: a $ 5, 000 refund. And President Trump has echoed this idea
25:30
Speaker 1: from Elon Musk. Here was President Trump last night.
25:33
Speaker 4: There's even under consideration a new concept where we give
25:37
Speaker 4: 20 percent of the Doge savings to American citizens and
25:41
Speaker 4: 20 percent goes to paying down debt because the numbers
25:44
Speaker 4: are incredible, Elon. So many billions of dollars, billions, hundreds
25:49
Speaker 4: of billions. And we're thinking about giving 20 percent back
25:52
Speaker 4: to the American citizens and 20 percent down to pay
25:56
Speaker 4: back debt and pay down debt.
25:59
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of discourse happening right now. Drop
26:01
Speaker 1: a comment. Tell me what you think of this idea.
26:03
Speaker 1: Because a lot of people online are saying, no, I
26:06
Speaker 1: don't want a refund. Just put it toward bringing down
26:08
Speaker 1: the deficit. We need to get rid of our debt
26:11
Speaker 1: and just have more financial responsibility throughout this government. I
26:14
Speaker 1: don't want a refund. Peachy Keenan wrote on Exit, she
26:17
Speaker 1: supports it, but only if the $ 5, 000 should go to
26:21
Speaker 1: non-federal employees and taxpaying American citizens. And I have to say,
26:25
Speaker 1: I think I agree with that qualifier. No federal employees
26:28
Speaker 1: and only taxpaying American citizens. Somebody said, no checks, pay
26:33
Speaker 1: down the debt. That's a totally fine perspective to have.
26:35
Speaker 1: I totally get that. A lot of people feel that way. Now,
26:40
Speaker 1: all these reasonable responses are coming through in responses. What
26:43
Speaker 1: is not a reasonable response to this plan from President
26:48
Speaker 1: Trump is opposing it because you want Americans to continue
26:51
Speaker 1: funding things like transgender operas, atheism in Nepal, and Sesame
26:55
Speaker 1: Street in Iraq. That's not a good reason to oppose
26:58
Speaker 1: the $ 5, 000 refund. It especially is not okay if you
27:01
Speaker 1: happen to be a Republican senator. And yet here is
27:06
Speaker 1: Senator Lisa Murkowski expressing her opposition to Doge firing federal
27:10
Speaker 1: workers as well as Doge in general. Take a listen.
27:14
Speaker 1: It doesn't demonstrate much due process, but even more to it,
27:19
Speaker 1: it doesn't show respect for those who... It doesn't show
27:31
Speaker 1: respect for those who have worked hard. And it's so
27:35
Speaker 1: obvious to me, looking at that clip, listening to it,
27:39
Speaker 1: that we don't share the same priorities as a lot
27:42
Speaker 1: of these senators. We don't. Susan Collins said something really similar.
27:45
Speaker 1: I want you to listen to a George Washington University
27:51
Speaker 1: graduate student having a meltdown. Because President Trump shut down
27:56
Speaker 1: her job where she studied how to safely collect sexual
27:59
Speaker 1: orientation and gender identity practices. This is, you can't make
28:04
Speaker 1: this stuff up. Take a listen.
28:05
Speaker 7: I was told to stop work immediately and that no
28:07
Speaker 7: more research expenditures would be allowed. My study to explore
28:11
Speaker 7: how to safely collect sexual orientation and gender identity in
28:14
Speaker 7: cancer care practices was in response to the American Society
28:18
Speaker 7: of Clinical Oncology, the American Medical Association, the US Preventative
28:23
Speaker 7: Services Task Force, and many other national professional standard setting
28:26
Speaker 7: bodies that recognize that we need better data to create
28:29
Speaker 7: better clinical guidelines for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and
28:33
Speaker 7: intersex people.
28:38
Speaker 1: Who can defend this? Who was on board with that?
28:41
Speaker 1: Who wants their money going toward that? Who wants their
28:44
Speaker 1: money going to the federal employees who are greenlighting that?
28:48
Speaker 1: Apparently Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. And maybe those two
28:52
Speaker 1: should join in at the protest currently happening in Washington, D.C.
28:57
Speaker 1: This is a protest at the Kennedy Center. Here you
29:01
Speaker 1: have Democrats protesting Trump, and I kid you not, protesting
29:05
Speaker 1: in interpretive dance form. That's actually what Democrats are doing
29:09
Speaker 1: right now. Take a look at this. So you're seeing
29:15
Speaker 1: this jazz music play in the background and they're just
29:19
Speaker 1: sort of slowly, I don't know, walking and making these
29:24
Speaker 1: hand gestures. It's super bizarre. I don't even know what's
29:29
Speaker 1: going on right now. It's just, it's crazy town. It's
29:31
Speaker 1: crazy town. We'll go with that, Michael. And I will admit,
29:35
Speaker 1: This is way better than burning down cities, than tearing
29:39
Speaker 1: down George Washington. statues. I do prefer the interpretive dance
29:42
Speaker 1: protest versus the BLM rioting that we had a few
29:45
Speaker 1: years ago. I'll take it. But of course, these guys
29:48
Speaker 1: are total dweebs. This is such a joke. But at
29:52
Speaker 1: least they aren't violent. And what is this all about?
29:55
Speaker 1: I mean, really, ultimately, what is this all about? The
29:57
Speaker 1: interpretive dancing, Lisa Murkowski, all these protests, Democrat representatives outside
30:02
Speaker 1: the U.S. Treasury building losing their minds, blowing their toss off.
30:07
Speaker 1: They aren't defending democracy. Democrats just care a lot about
30:15
Speaker 1: opposing the right and our agenda. It isn't about Democrats
30:20
Speaker 1: wanting to uphold the system. being opposed to Trump, wielding
30:24
Speaker 1: too much executive power. That is a ridiculous, a ridiculous argument.
30:29
Speaker 1: Democrats are totally chill with presidential power when it aligns
30:32
Speaker 1: with their political aims, particularly when they're advancing things like
30:36
Speaker 1: environmental extremism, transgenderism, open borders. They love it. Executive order
30:41
Speaker 1: all the way. We're good with that. The real issue
30:43
Speaker 1: is not an abuse of power, but the rejection of
30:46
Speaker 1: their views by voters in the last election. They are
30:50
Speaker 1: lashing out. half the country. They oppose more than half
30:53
Speaker 1: of Americans who elected President Trump to do exactly what
30:56
Speaker 1: he's doing right now. They oppose the deplorables, if you will.
31:02
Speaker 1: I want to dive into this back and forth really quickly.
31:06
Speaker 1: Barry Weiss, a former corporate media figure and a liberal,
31:10
Speaker 1: she's very famous because she left her position at the
31:12
Speaker 1: New York Times because she said they didn't allow enough
31:15
Speaker 1: intellectual diversity at the New York Times, so she leaves.
31:18
Speaker 1: She founds the free press and she has a lot
31:21
Speaker 1: of opinions about the right. So she's left the Democratic establishment,
31:25
Speaker 1: she's left the left, and now she's sort of embedded
31:28
Speaker 1: herself in the right. And she constantly, despite being a
31:32
Speaker 1: recent convert, and I wouldn't even say she's right-wing, she's
31:35
Speaker 1: more of a liberal who kind of associates with the right,
31:38
Speaker 1: has a lot of opinions on the right and what
31:41
Speaker 1: we should do. And this week, Barry Rice posted a viral,
31:45
Speaker 1: lengthy tweet criticizing what I would call the new right,
31:48
Speaker 1: but what she calls the far right, accusing the new
31:52
Speaker 1: right of abandoning their principles. This is what she writes.
31:56
Speaker 1: If a political movement doesn't police its ranks, doesn't draw boundaries,
32:00
Speaker 1: doesn't protect its borders, and doesn't defend its core values,
32:02
Speaker 1: it won't endure. These values aren't left or right. They
32:06
Speaker 1: are foundational and civilizational. If power is celebrated over principle,
32:10
Speaker 1: we may soon find ourselves watching history repeat itself from
32:13
Speaker 1: the other side, as the far right devours remains of
32:16
Speaker 1: the Senate right. She's saying she's Senate right. She's not.
32:18
Speaker 1: She's a liberal. While the left which has long sympathized
32:21
Speaker 1: with Stalin, now aligns with modern-day Nazism like Hamas, the
32:25
Speaker 1: new right is actually romanticizing the original Nazis. In rehabilitating Hitler,
32:30
Speaker 1: they're not just demonizing Jews, but also America, Britain, and
32:34
Speaker 1: all the people who fought and died to preserve our freedoms. Again,
32:38
Speaker 1: you guys, remember how I talked about in the beginning
32:39
Speaker 1: of the show this World War II framework, where we're
32:42
Speaker 1: just obsessed with World War II, when everything in the
32:45
Speaker 1: world has to be viewed through the prism of World
32:48
Speaker 1: War II. We can't escape it. And my former boss
32:51
Speaker 1: at The Federalist, Sean Davis, responded really brilliantly to these
32:55
Speaker 1: claims made by Barry Weiss. And he called her out
32:58
Speaker 1: and called out the neoconservative influence on the right, accusing
33:02
Speaker 1: these people like Barry Weiss of hindering real change by
33:06
Speaker 1: maintaining the status quo to benefit both the establishment and
33:09
Speaker 1: their foreign policy interests. So Sean argues that neocons have
33:13
Speaker 1: undermined genuine conservative efforts for years. often siding with the left,
33:17
Speaker 1: blocking anyone who challenges the left's dominance. According to Sean,
33:21
Speaker 1: the right isn't extreme or devoid of principles. Barry Weiss
33:25
Speaker 1: is simply manipulating the rhetoric to silence opposition. So per
33:29
Speaker 1: Sean Davis, neocons love to police the right. Anyone to
33:34
Speaker 1: the right of them is instantly labeled far right. They're
33:37
Speaker 1: essentially Democrats pushing for unnecessary military interventions that Trump opposed.
33:41
Speaker 1: Of the two major European ideologies, Nazism and Marxism, that
33:45
Speaker 1: clash 80 years ago, the only one still holding sway
33:48
Speaker 1: in a significant segment of a majority of a major
33:51
Speaker 1: American political party in 2025 is the Marxism that powered
33:55
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. Read Barry Weiss's post for what it is,
33:59
Speaker 1: a blatant attempt to establish her own rules and select
34:02
Speaker 1: her own opponents, ensuring that only she and her allies
34:05
Speaker 1: come out on top. I don't flaunt her for trying.
34:08
Speaker 1: This same tired tactic has worked for too long, but
34:11
Speaker 1: I think Weiss and her allies know those days are over.
34:13
Speaker 1: And that's why they fear the new right, because they
34:16
Speaker 1: finally met an opponent who won't be emotionally manipulated into surrender.
34:21
Speaker 1: And Sean's rebuttal really is crucial in the context of
34:26
Speaker 1: the war in Ukraine, because it directly challenges this dominant
34:31
Speaker 1: neoconservative foreign policy, which has been a driving force behind U.S.
34:35
Speaker 1: support for Ukraine, but countless other wars in our history.
34:39
Speaker 1: The neoconservatives, despite their rhetoric about democracy and about freedom,
34:42
Speaker 1: have shown that they are willing to escalate conflicts even
34:46
Speaker 1: when it is not in the best interest of the
34:48
Speaker 1: United States and when it is in our best interest
34:50
Speaker 1: to negotiate and to avoid further bloodshed. The new right
34:54
Speaker 1: and President Trump aren't a bunch of Nazis. We aren't
34:58
Speaker 1: trying to invade Poland like Hitler and destroy the whole world.
35:03
Speaker 1: This is not an accurate description of the new right
35:07
Speaker 1: nor of President Trump. We just aren't interested in continuing
35:11
Speaker 1: another foreign war that benefits no one but the military-industrial
35:14
Speaker 1: complex and warmongers like Barry Weiss. We are only egging
35:19
Speaker 1: on World War III by continuing down that path, and
35:22
Speaker 1: I really commend Sean Davis and so many others for
35:25
Speaker 1: standing up against this neoconservative influence that has been destroying America,
35:30
Speaker 1: the Republican Party, for decades. We are finally breaking free
35:34
Speaker 1: of the neocon grip, but also breaking free of this
35:37
Speaker 1: World War II prism of viewing the world differently. this
35:41
Speaker 1: mythos that I think has been really poisoning foreign policy
35:44
Speaker 1: for a long time. And that's all I have for
35:47
Speaker 1: you guys today. A little bit of a longer show.
35:49
Speaker 1: So thank you guys for hanging in there. If you
35:52
Speaker 1: want to follow me on Instagram or X, my user,
35:55
Speaker 1: of course, is Evita Duffy underscore one. If you are
35:58
Speaker 1: listening on Apple or Spotify, you want to watch this
36:00
Speaker 1: in its video version, go to rumble.com slash Evita. As always,
36:04
Speaker 1: I'm here at 9 a.m. Eastern time, five days a week.
36:07
Speaker 1: I will see you all tomorrow. Q & A on Friday.
36:11
Speaker 1: So actually, don't DM me your questions. Michael said DM me.
36:14
Speaker 1: Don't DM me. Just write them in the chat as
36:18
Speaker 1: we're going on Friday, as we're doing the show. And
36:22
Speaker 1: then Michael will collect a few of them, and I
36:24
Speaker 1: will read some of them out loud during the show tomorrow.
36:27
Speaker 1: So Q & A on Friday, as well as a
36:29
Speaker 1: regular show. I'll see you all then. The Dan Bongino Show.
36:33
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people are underestimating the Trump
36:35
Speaker 3: effect in this midterm. You've heard it yourself. Act like
36:39
Speaker 3: I'm on the ballot. Why is he saying that? You
36:42
Speaker 3: think he doesn't know what he's doing? That is the
36:44
Speaker 3: X factor. Folks, elections are a math issue. That is it.
36:49
Speaker 3: This is not a football game. If you vote, we
36:53
Speaker 3: will win. It is not complicated.
36:55
Speaker 1: The Dan Bongino Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.