The Bongino Brief - A Race for Second Place

the government tracking every single purchase you make.

Officials could even freeze or seize part or all of your money.

Concerned Americans are reaching out to Birch Gold Group.

They want to have a physical asset that's independent from the U.S. dollar.

Gold held in a tax-sheltered retirement account.

Learn if gold is right for you, too.

Text MyFirstNameDan, D-A-N, to 989898.

They'll send you a free information kit on gold.

Text Dan to 989898 and claim your free information kit on gold.

Performance may vary.

Consult with your tax attorney or financial professional before making an investment decision.

Message and data rates apply.

Dan Bongino.

Welcome to the Bongino Brief.

I'm Dan Bongino.

Folks, listen, I could give you all this winners and losers talk.

I put it in the title of the show, but the hard reality is the winner last night is Trump.

Oh, Dan, you're a Trump supporter.

No, I'm just telling you from pure political tactics, Guy, if I'm wrong, call me.

Donald Trump is up by 40 points.

His biggest contender last night was Ron DeSantis.

Ron DeSantis disappeared on stage, and now Vivek and Ron are going to fight it out for

the number two spot.

That's just what happened.

You don't have to take it from me.

I love Ron DeSantis, the greatest governor in the country.

There's not even a close second.

The guy is going to be the future of the Republican Party.

But last night, Ron DeSantis did OK.

He did not do bad, but Ron DeSantis can't do OK.

Because politics isn't about doing OK.

Politics is about the big mo and momentum.

And the big mo, momentum, comes from being relatable, but entertaining, entertaining.

What is this?

The Gladiator arena?

Yeah.

Well, that's kind of manichaean.

Yep.

No, people want to hear about the issues.

That's not what people give a shit about.

Folks, they don't.

You might.

You're here, along with 33,000 others four minutes in, who thank you for your loyalty

yesterday after yesterday's tech meltdown, by the way.

I appreciate that.

You probably do care.

The hard reality is up on the stage, outside of foreign policy, where, yes, there are significant

differences, outside of foreign policy, there's almost no difference from any of the candidates.

They're all going to tell you they support school choice, tax cuts, balanced budgets.

You've heard it a thousand times.

Have you not?

Tell me what candidate came out last night and said, I support more government spending,

higher taxes, and public schools are awesome.

Did anyone say that?

No, no, they didn't.

So if you're not voting on the issues, what are you voting on?

You're voting on relatability and performance.

The talking head bull on the air this morning was revolting.

Folks, it was.

I'm really sorry.

But most of the people, I think it's because I ran for office three times and lost.

And I'm telling you, you learn more by losing than you ever do by winning.

What happened last night with DeSantis is a perfect example.

The guy, I don't think he's ever lost the race for political.

He won by 20 points in Florida.

And you know what?

He learned all the wrong lessons.

I got a lot to get to on this.

But on the DeSantis point last night, I'm going to, folks, I got a lot of energy today.

I've been like beaming to get on.

Yeah, I'm dead serious.

I'm going to chat at like 10, 15 this morning for those of you who get here early.

That's that's me.

You know, I'm a D. Bongino show.

That's me.

Ron DeSantis needs to get back to Ron DeSantis.

He won an election by 19 points in Florida, almost 20 points, which is ridiculous, obscene

that never happens.

If you win by one point in Florida, you're a superhero as a Republican.

He won by 20.

What got Ron DeSantis there was being a ball buster.

Ron DeSantis, unfortunately, is now playing it safe.

You can't play it safe when you're losing.

Listen to the governor's team.

You probably don't give a flying about my advice.

Please take it.

I am a Trump supporter.

I love you guys, too.

And I'd like I want to see Trump win.

But I'd like to see you have a big future because you're an amazing conservative.

Cut the you're listening to way too many people in his ear on every answer.

He needs to get back to doing where the Ron DeSantis strikes again, where Ron DeSantis

says to the media and starts kicking ass again.

He needs to get out in front of the camera and say, you know what, I am down 30 points

and you know why?

I swear if he did this, this shit for him would turn around tomorrow.

He needs to get out in front of the camera and say, I listened to too many people.

They're all in my ear telling me what I should and shouldn't do.

You know what?

That's on me.

I own it.

It's the Ron DeSantis campaign, not the Ronnie bag of doughnuts campaign.

And I played it safe.

And that was a mistake from this point forward.

If we lose, we're going down swinging and we're going to start kicking some freaking

ass again.

That's what we're going to do.

The guy jumped 10 points in the ball.

I don't think he beat Trump.

And again, I'm a Trump supporter.

But folks, I'm not here to hit you either.

OK.

There are DeSantis supporters.

Watch this show.

And I love having you here.

He's an awesome governor.

But we can't.

Let's not lie to each other either.

The campaign, I heard it said yesterday, I think it was Kellyanne Conway.

No one had a better 2022 than Ron DeSantis.

And no one had a worse 2023.

Folks, the numbers don't lie.

We can sit here and bullshit each other all day.

Oh, you know, listen, he's doing great.

He's not doing great.

And last night he did OK.

And you can't just do OK.

You can't.

You can't just do OK.

D, can I go out of order here?

I don't mean to screw up the whole show.

Can you play the clip of the hand-raising thing where DeSantis looks uncertain?

This is what I'm talking about.

A question is asked.

It's a very simple question.

And I want you to watch DeSantis.

This moment's going to do some real damage.

Again, he doesn't look like the Ron DeSantis of old who should have just popped his hand

up as a yes.

It looks indecisive.

Voters are like, oh, he looks indecisive.

And DeSantis haters are like, wow, he really looks indecisive when they're both saying

the same thing.

You're not doing it right here.

Watch this.

You see what I mean?

You all signed a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee.

If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him

as your party's choice?

Please raise your hand if you would.

You see what I'm talking about?

I say this with a pure heart.

You know where I stand.

He's welcomed the governor on my show.

He will get an absolute fair shake.

I don't talk to Trump about Ron DeSantis.

I won't talk to, I don't talk about DeSantis when Trump's on.

I won't talk about Trump to DeSantis.

You will have an absolute fair shake.

He's done a great job.

You just can't do that.

What do I tell you all the time on the show?

You P1s out there and chatsters, 47,000 now watching, we're not even 10 minutes in.

What do I tell you all?

What are the most damaging political narratives in the world?

Ones that change your preexisting notion of who a candidate is.

DeSantis is a ball buster.

He is a fire starter.

He's freaking Drew Barrymore in fire starter.

That's what he does.

You can't beat a guy with the shaky hand.

You can't beat a guy giving canned answers.

He quit, it's not, he can't just be okay.

Now the problem, and this is why Trump is,

Trump runs away with this last night.

He runs away with it.

Because even though he wasn't there,

and I think the views on the Tucker thing are being exaggerated.

They're, you know, listen, it was viewed by a lot of people,

and I'm glad he did the Tucker interview.

I would have liked to had it myself, probably a little candid,

probably a little envy there,

but good for Tucker for getting interviewed.

It was viewed by a lot of people.

But Trump is the clear runaway winner last night.

Because what Trump wants to avoid,

pay attention, this is important.

He wants to avoid a mano a mano.

He doesn't want a one-on-one.

He wants a one versus 10.

And what happened last night is the mano a mano

between him and DeSantis.

Why does the mano a mano not work for Trump?

Because after Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire,

everyone's going to drop out

because they're going to run out of money.

You following me?

At that point, if DeSantis is close, it's a dog fight,

and you get a Barack Obama, Hillary thing,

where it goes all the way to the end.

That's what Trump doesn't want.

It costs money and time.

He wants to wrap it up early.

So he wants to make sure the number two lane,

the runner-up, is always changing.

Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis.

Never get close to them.

They stay in this thing the entire time,

but it doesn't matter.

He doesn't have to waste money beating them up

because they're beating themselves up for number two,

not for number one, you dig?

And last night, Vivek was the standout.

I don't care if you support him or not.

I'm not asking you to support anyone.

You know where I stand.

I've said it a hundred times.

More in a minute, but first.

Ladies, look in the mirror.

You see those dark spots?

Well, they're not going away on their own.

Introducing the Dark Spot Corrector

from GenuCell Skin Care, right in time for the summer.

Not one, but three cutting edge ingredients.

Goes to work fast, targeting sunspots, dark spots,

liver spots, even old discoloration on the face and hands.

You'll be amazed at how quickly you can see results.

You can enjoy your summer beach and barbecues

without embarrassing spots.

With GenuCell Skin Care, you see the results

or your money back, no questions asked.

So go to GenuCell.com right now,

get your Dark Spot Corrector

with the new GenuCell Skin Care most popular package

and say goodbye to those pesky spots tomorrow.

And if you're not blown away with the results,

a hundred percent of your money back, no questions asked.

Go to GenuCell.com slash Dan right now

and save over 70% off GenuCell Skin Care

most popular package.

Don't wait, order GenuCell Skin Care most popular package.

Now free shipping, free returns,

and the best luxury skin care you've ever used.

All at 70% off.

G-E-N-U-C-E-L.com slash Dan.

GenuCell.com slash Dan.

All orders will include a mystery luxury gift

while supplies last.

GenuCell.com slash Dan.

I'm telling you, Vivek was the standout

because I believe in data and receipts.

He was trending on Twitter.

He was trending on social.

He was all over truth last night as well.

Vivek won just about every single straw poll that came out.

And every single focus group was like, I like this guy.

Now to be fair in my criticism to all of these guys,

Vivek's got to work on some stuff too.

Vivek comes off sometimes way too canned.

And I think it's a huge mistake.

Again, Vivek started as this fresh kind of young face

in the race and I'm friends with this guy,

but I owe you the truth.

And he's starting to sound canned on a lot of these things.

You know what, just be yourself.

Yourself is what got you to where you were.

And I don't mean that in some cliche,

just be like Reagan, be Reagan.

No, I mean, be your actual true self

that you started the race with.

When you spoke off the cuff and you said things,

I'm not saying don't think things through.

There's too much finger licking I think going on.

That's gonna be a mistake too.

Lick the finger, where's the wind blowing?

Don't do that.

Don't do that.

I made a huge mistake on an abortion question

on NPR a long time ago when I was running for office.

And it wasn't how I felt.

And folks, I regretted it.

I regret it to this day.

I'm still talking about it.

Here's the thing about stating what your true position is.

If you state what your true position is on an issue,

you'll never have to remember what your true position is

or what you told last time because you didn't lie about it.

If I ask you your kid's name,

you don't have to think about it, right?

The thing about the finger licking

that I think is going on with not just him,

Tim Scott just disappeared on the stage last night.

He didn't even know he was there.

Totally disappeared on the stage

for a guy with such an incredible backstory

because they're too canned.

They're too canned.

The finger licking,

what happens is you changing your way on every issue.

You're making the assumption

that voters are one issue voters.

If I give the wrong answer on this,

on guns, on Israel, on Ukraine, on China,

everybody's gonna leave.

They are not gonna leave.

There are very few people who vote on one issue.

Just answer like you would answer

so you don't have to remember your answers

to keep up with the answers you didn't mean.

That's why Trump was the huge winner.

And I gotta say, after last night,

I think me changing my position on that was correct.

Why would he show up?

Everyone's now gonna duke it out for second place.

And someone said yesterday on a cable news channel,

they said something like,

you want Trump to show up at the next debate?

Close the 40 point gap.

I promise he'll show up.

But I can promise you today,

Vivek's gonna move up,

DeSantis is probably gonna hold or move down,

and Trump ain't gonna show up at the second one either.

A couple more thoughts on this last night.

It's time for Asa Hutchinson to get out of the race.

It's embarrassing.

If you're like, who's Asa Hutchinson?

Exactly, I made my point.

No one even knew he was on the stage last night.

There is absolutely no lane for this guy.

He's not gonna get a cable news host job.

MSNBC doesn't like him.

Republicans don't like him.

Libertarians don't like him.

Conservatives don't like him.

People from Arkansas don't even like him.

They're, dude, am I lying?

There's no lane for Asa Hutchinson at all.

And the rest don't know him.

No, they don't know him.

Joe said it right.

It's not even that they don't like him.

They don't even know him.

I would have much preferred Larry Elder on the stage,

who at least stirs some shit up.

Asa was like, was he even there last night?

What happened?

Was that like a cardboard cutout?

Sounds like a great guy busted up as Achilles yesterday.

But dude, it's time to go.

It's time to go.

I'm all about representative democracy.

I can't tell you what to do.

I'm just saying like you're sucking up donor money.

You're sucking up volunteers.

And these are all limited items.

And you're just wasting people's time.

You are, you're not gonna win.

You're not even gonna get 5% of the vote.

So why are you here?

You're not gonna get a contributorship.

Burgum doesn't need it.

He's independently wealthy.

They gotta get out of the race.

But if I had to play a few winners last night,

Ramaswamy, I think, won the debate,

again, just based on data.

Data's gotta matter.

He was the most memorable, the most relatable,

and he's entertaining.

I think Nikki Haley won, was a winner last night too,

only because she didn't lose.

Nikki Haley, it's clear as day right now,

is not running for president, okay?

Nikki Haley is running for vice president.

Last night, again, she's another one

licking the finger, I get it.

She changes her positions all the time too.

And going after Trump pretty ruthlessly,

like she did afterwards after he put his faith in you,

is kind of like a loser move in my opinion.

But Haley, I think won last night because she didn't lose.

I honestly think everybody up on the stage last night

comes out of this worse.

Chris Christie's just a slob.

He looked like a total ass last night.

Pence was, Pence, Pence a nice guy.

Pence has to go.

Pence has no, there's no grassroots support for him at all.

He does not stand out for a guy with his pedigree.

Last night should have been the end of it.

And again, I think DeSantis loses because he didn't win.

DeSantis had a show last night that he was the rock star.

He was the guy.

He was the one-on-one guy who could take on the Lion King,

Trump, who's 40 points ahead.

And he didn't do it.

He didn't do it when he had the opportunity.

You gotta be bold, man.

You can't play not to lose when you're not winning.

Think about what I just said.

You can't play not to lose when you're not winning.

And when you're not winning by 40,

you definitely can't play not to lose.

Here's what I mean too last night about Vivek

and how Christie just looked terrible.

Play that cut we had originally lined up, number one.

Here's Christie looking like a pompous ass,

just going, this guy just looks terrible.

He thinks this is flattering.

It's not, it's goofy.

Check this out.

I know a lot better.

I know a lot better than you do.

to try to advance the interests of this government,

except to put yourself forward as a candidate tonight.

And here's the thing.

We've stood up for law and order.

I did it as US attorney.

I did it as governor.

And I am not gonna bow to anyone

when we have a president of the United States

who disrespects the constitution.

He said, he said-

I said to Guy during the break, I said, my gosh,

60,100 people, only 20 minutes in, that's huge.

He goes, yeah, just like Christie.

The guy just, he's not doing himself any favors.

He looks ridiculous.

It's clear he's on stage just to yell at everyone else.

And my, listen, because I'm a facts and data guy.

If Chris Christie thought this worked,

he did the same thing to Marco Rubio in the last debate,

on the last, in the election in 2016, excuse me.

Remember?

Where'd it get cut?

Chris Christie.

What'd he finish?

Seventh in New Hampshire, whatever.

It's not working.

Like try something else.

Try not to be the loud, I'm the loud bombastic guy.

I'm not running for president, okay?

That may work for me.

It just doesn't work for this guy anymore.

It worked in New Jersey because he ran a local campaign

about New Jersey working value.

Kind of like DeSantis ran a Florida-centric campaign

about Florida values.

That does not mean it's gonna play nationally, folks.

These guys gotta get this out of their heads.

They're not running Florida, New Jersey campaigns.

Listen, that's one thing.

I developed the national audience, man.

You know, they haven't.

I may have lost political races,

but I got two shows kicking ass across the whole country.

It's not because I'm pandering to people.

It's because people crave authenticity and relatability.

And Christie's shown absolutely none of it.

He's really a sad kid.

It's just a very, it was a very, very weird night.

I'm sorry, I thought it was really unmemorable

outside of a few moments.

And no one's gonna take out Trump

with that kind of bullshit.

You're just not.

All everybody could think of last night.

You know how many times I heard from Paula?

Man, how much more fun would this be with Trump here?

I mean, that's what you're thinking about.

It wasn't that what everybody was thinking about?

Come on.

Even if you're a DeSantis supporter,

and you know you're welcome here.

Like I said, great governor.

Tell me you weren't thinking that last night.

And if you're thinking that, it's a problem.

For Trump.

It's a problem.

I love the guy.

I want to have a future, but he's gotta do better.

Last night was not a good night.

I don't care what anybody tells you.

They're lying to you.

The Dan Bongino Show.

If you'd like to hear more,

subscribe to the Dan Bongino Show,

wherever you get your podcasts.