The Dan Bongino Sunday Special 04/02/23 - John Rich, Father Bob Sirico, Will Cain, Jeff James

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First up today, we talk with John Rich about his new collaboration. This is a great tune with Tom McDonald. Have you heard this? The end of the world? What a great song.

He talks about what it's like to be in the music industry full of leftists, and how he's trying to fight for a parallel economy, even in the music industry. Check this out.

I love this guy, man, he's the best.

Good to be on with you brother. Yeah, it's good to have you both with us. Yeah, man, no sweat.

So we just had the distinct pleasure of listening to the new tune you guys have out. During the break, I took a little break from a regular rotation of tunes that was driving Jim crazy. So you guys rescued us. I got a sneak peek. The song is awesome.

It's called end of the world. So Tom, you know what? I'll let you take this one first and I'll get to John. What made you guys want to put together this song? I mean, obviously times are bad, but what was kind of like the Road to Damascus moment.

You're like, we got to put together a song about this.

Now, John, you and I have been buddies for a while. You were kind enough to invite me over to your house. Folks, this is one of the most talented guys you're ever going to meet. We're up in Nashville, we're there for this Fox thing.

I said, John, you mind? if we stop by, bring my brother there, John is kind of take us in. We may have had a few adult sodas, I don't know, I'm just saying.

And John picks up his guitar and, just like, invents a song right there and gives us, like a private concert. So you must have thought to yourself, Tom's pretty talented. It does sound like it's the end of the world. Perfect time for a tune, right?

Well, I'll tell you what, Dan, you're always invited to my house any time you're in Nashville. Of course, you know so, so. Tom McDonald, you know, a lot of your audience may not know him. a lot of my audience may not know him.

This is one of the only artists around that is putting out songs with lyrics that, like Tom said, go directly against what the industry of music says. You're allowed to say. And I think he said it very well. That rock and roll and country music, American music, used to always be about pushing back against the machine, pushing back against the man. And now it's become co-opted by the machine and co-opted by the man. And because of that, you don't get lyrics like what I say, or like what Tom says.

So putting the two of us together, we got a band together. I think it's a good lesson for everybody. We're very different. Tom and I, if you see a picture of him and a picture of me. We don't look like we come from the same place, but we feel the same. Dan, We love our country.

We know that our freedom is in jeopardy, we know that the future is in jeopardy, and as musicians, this was our opportunity to make a statement. You know, John, you just said something I was going to, Tom. I'm going to ask you a question in a second, but just quickly. You know, when we were going up to your bar?

In your house, you have a bunch of pictures of people you met in your elevator, and a lot of those people don't look like you. John. And that goes to show you, what a real American conservative patriot who respects every the dignity of every human being and doesn't give a damn about skin color. Where you're from? I've seen those pictures, that's the kind of guy you really are. And you know, you made me think of that when you said that, that, Tom, you're from a different world.

I know John's taken on wokeism and country music, and John's in a unique place. Tom John is such a powerful figure in country music. He can basically write his own rules. Now. Hip hop, You think country music has gotten woke? My gosh, hip hop is full of people who are woke.

So you really got a tough road to hoe ahead of you. How bad is it in that space? Patriots like you speaking out about American values and stuff.

There's nothing, there's nobody that's going to control me on the on the behind the scenes business side of things. And there's no negative feedback on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube. That's going to change the path that I'm taking right now.

The song is available right now for download, to add to your playlist, to purchase. It's called End of the World. The last time John spoke out and put a song together about fighting for American values, it was number one. Like that, let's make this number one and sell 10 times as many. To send a big, double barreled middle finger to these a-holes in the industry. Trying to tell us American.

You guys don't have to comment on that, but this show gets in trouble. I'm just saying, so, John, here's the thing Tom just said something about being an independent producer.

And you and I have actually had this conversation number one now. Awesome, let's make it, let's double that thing.

Geometrically higher, right? You said to me a while ago, and I thought it was so accurate given my involvement with Rumble. That listen, Dan content is king man. That the distribution channels in the past where there was like Payola and radio stations, that's all dead. Now. Anyone can go to Rumble or a video platform and play John Rich and Tom McDonald's song, or purchase it on their own.

And a guy like you helping out, a guy like Tom, this is the future of the music industry, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's really important that guys like me and Tom, who come from two separate genres, join forces. You know, a lot of Tom's fans are hearing me for the first time, and a lot of my fans are hearing Tom for the first time. And they're looking at us. And it's this great American moment where look at these very opposite guys making harmony together and speaking a very powerful message about our country and about our future.

That's powerful. And yeah, you can go to rumble and watch it. Matter of fact, the video is on, it's on John Rich official on Rumble, and of course, you can find it all over the place.

It's very important. Listen, Dan, the bad guys have bought all the real estate, you know? People say I feel like I want to run for the hills, but there's no hills left to run to. All. the bad guys own them all.

And so we have to build new hills for people to run to. You being involved in the beginning of Rumble Man, what a huge deal that was. It's given all of us another place to go and I think we got to continue in that. And that is the American spirit.

At the end of the day, you cannot keep us down forever. We will figure out a way to come back and win. Yeah, and you know, Tom, I'm sure you're going to echo that. Because I know we all on the phone here feel the same way and on the microphone. But the thing is, they really took us for granted. The left.

I think they had so many successes, and candidly, we had so many. I don't expect you to comment on politics or anything, Tom. But we had so many shady, dopey, stupid Republicans over decades. Like, Oh, let's not argue about this culture stuff, let's just argue for tax cuts.

Brother, I love tax cuts. Get your freaking, grimy, filthy, stinking mitts out of my wallet. Great, but that's not the only thing on planet Earth. You know, there's a culture war out there where we're indoctrinating kids.

We're teaching kids to hate each other based on skin color, we're teaching a generation of kids to hate America. Like, how are you going to have a country where this club, we call America? Everybody says the club sucks, like no one's going to want to be in that club. And then they're surprised that America is having problems. So to have guys like you speak out and to have John at your back and vice versa, and you guys to put out content and entertaining. Good, the song's great.

I just bought it myself, that's what I was doing. For those watching on Fox Nation, this song is great to have guys like you break through and to produce good quality, entertaining content.

This is a big deal.

Yeah, I think it's like John said, I think the bad guys have bought up all the real.

It's important for those people to look past the face tattoos and look past the cowboy hat. And have the conversations with one another. And discover that we all have so much more in common than the mainstream media wants us to believe. And that's when we're going to be most powerful, when we can shake hands and have those conversations and stand together.

And listen to it on rumble, spread it around, tell your friends. If we don't support our creators, our patriotic creators, we're not going to have any more. And not to mention the song's really damn good, too. But John, last question for you.

Now you've had multiple successes, this is now, gosh, your third or fourth consecutive like number one. You just kind of rode and did outs in a parallel economy atmosphere. So there's no question your business model good content, solid promotion.

We Love America Works. Are you finding a lot of creators out there now? Calling you up guys like Tom, saying, Hey, John, I'd like to do a little project too. No, Dan, I'm not getting those phone calls. Because most people, uh, they still believe that they have to have the industry, they don't want to buck that system.

You know, it's a dangerous gamble to buck the system, because once you buck them, Dan, once you show them that middle finger, one time they're done, they're done with you. And so to give that up, man, that's a huge risk for a lot of artists. But guys like Tom McDonald and myself, uh, Aaron Lewis is another one that's been doing that. There's very few of us, but we're out there, man.

We're out there and we do need everybody's support because we're showing the system that we've got our own system. It's called, We make great songs, we've got great fans, and we don't need your, uh, your evil situation to promote our music. I told Tom this If those people approved of what I'm doing, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

I take their hatred for me as validation that I'm sitting there correctly. John, you're the real deal, man. I'm telling you folks, this guy is a great, great guy. We sat there. he, he's. you're so talented to John, my brother.

Uh, when we, you know, we left your house and we went over to the Fox about my brother, that's all he wanted to talk about. He's like, I can't believe this guy just picks up a torch. It's like, invent songs out of nowhere, I can't even play.

Like, I can't even play Ring around the Rosie on like a guitar. John's like, I got it. John's like, Hey, uh, Dan, I got to go to the bathroom. He comes back. He's like, I thought of a song in the bathroom.

Be like, Wait, why this guy? That's how talented he is. I got to run, guys. I'm running out of time at the song again, folks, end of the world.

Tom McDonald, John Rich. Blow this thing up, make it number one, not just today, not just tomorrow, but next week, too. And flip a big giant. Screw you a holes to every one of these woke morons in both hip hop and country music.

Sorry, fellas, didn't mean to bring you into that. John. Thanks for coming on. you guys appreciate it. you got it to you guys folks, please.

I'm begging you, it's a good song, man, go get it, spread it around. I make nothing from this.

I don't care, it's not about money, this is about me being a part of this parallel economy. Where we say to these people we had enough. We've got our own people, we've got our own singers.

We've got our own movies, we've got our own banking system. We don't need you crazy lunatics anymore. We're at the beginning of it and it's growing every day, but we're all part of it. John and I can't do it without you.

Check out the song End of the World, John Rich, Tom McDonald That was John Rich and Tom McDonald. Up next, we talk with Father Robert Sirico.

This is a fascinating interview, I promise you, about the moral case for capitalism, something you may not have heard. We got a lot of feedback on this interview. Let's hear from our next sponsor first. Today's show also brought to you by Birch Gold Group.

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Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Message and data rates apply. Thanks, Birch Gold. Here's father Bob Sirico talking about the moral case for capitalism, why free markets work. You're going to love this interview and how government is not the entity you can trust to solve your problem.

All right, so I asked, and the audience responded. I said, Listen, if anyone knows Father Bob Sirico, please connect us. I would love to have him on the show as I listened to a speech he gave once, and I thought it was amazing. At the Acton Institute about basically the moral case for free markets.

So he's here. Father Bob Sirico, welcome to the show. thanks for joining us.

The only station that came in was C-Span and they were covering a speech you were giving. And you. You said something that I really stung in it and it made a lot of sense. You said something to the effect of. It's not that government's too big, folks, it's that it's just too stupid. In other words, it just doesn't have the capability and the depth of knowledge to figure out every human problem. And it was just so well said.

So, elaborate on that point.

But the second point, and it's a more complex economic point, is that socialism itself, the centralized planning that government does, um, really blocks our ability to know what real issues are. It does this because it impedes entrepreneurs from finding out the real cost of things, things like this. This is a point made in that beautiful parable. You may have heard I pencil that Leonard Reed used to tell that. You know, you don't know what the supply and the demand is if you have bureaucrats and regulations and taxes in the middle of it. So it's stupid in that sense as well.

You go to the HOA manager because he understands the people in the building, right? But that's not what we're doing with this expansive federal government. We're taking local decision-making, your healthcare, your kids school, and we're putting it in Joe Biden's hands.

How do you address the liberal criticism, frequently of free market folks like myself and you? Uh, where they say, Well, listen, you know, Jesus was a socialist. I, I. I kind of laugh when they say that, but how do you address that?

When these liberals, uh, accuse us of this, they're looking at the communal nature, the generous nature, the philanthropical nature of the early Church of Jesus. Of how he went out of his way and gave himself for other people. And they say, Well, that's socialism. Well, the difference between that, what Jesus did and what his early Church did, and what the Church continues to do, is that. We're inspired to sacrifice ourselves by his message of love for the other person, socialism is the opposite of that. It coerces you, it doesn't inspire you to, uh, to greatness, to heroism, to sanctity.

Uh, it forces you. A person isn't made holier because their money is taken and given to somebody else. Even if that money goes to something good, you're not benefited spiritually by it. And so that's the great flaw of socialism.

I asked him this question, but I'd love to get your perspective. I genuinely struggle with this in church. I luckily have been recently in my life very successful. I didn't grow up that way.

My father was a plumber, my mom worked the checkout counter at a restaurant, I was a cop and agent. Yeah, yes, sir.

I'm from Queens.

Right now that my audience has been gracious enough to have granted me, and the Lord himself, this incredible life. I struggle a lot because I say to myself, I, I. I have an obligation to be doing more, and I sincerely try, but I know I should be doing more. But there's this natural human impulse to greed, and when you ignore it, you become that person. You have to recognize those flaws in yourself. But I have this problem with wealth and and and I read the Bible and you know, the rich man, the eye of the needle, the the whole, the love of money thing. What do you say to guys you know, like me, who have assets and who are wealthy and talk about free markets? When liberals say, Well, you can do that, you know you're rich or whatever, you're going to go to hell anyway. Read the Bible.

He said, Father, he said, If I did that, do you know how much money I could make in that period of time by giving myself over to that? And I said, Oh, I'm sorry. You thought I was talking about something for the benefit of the poor, I was talking about something of benefit for your soul. You know, do that and do it anonymously. I mean, if you can, I mean, you're a well-known person, but if you can do something anonymously for somebody, that. That's going to put a whole perspective about how you handle your money and what your heart, what God is calling you to.

And by the way, the very fact that you're asking this question is such a sign of a moral tug on the part of God on your soul.

That's I've never turned back, I. It means everything to me. I, I've used this, this microphone. I pray every night, Lord, give me the tools you've given me to evangelize your cause. But to do it in the right way, I pray to Him to give me the guidance and the words.

He means so much to me, he means everything to me. But I I just feel like I'm in this struggle. Where, if God, he never gives you easy answers. Father and I just. I wonder if he said to me tomorrow, Dan, I need a favor from you. You need to give it all away and go back to the apartment you and your wife Paula lived in, and Bayside, that one bedroom apartment. And you are going to make the world an exponentially better place.

It would be done at the snap of a finger, but where I struggle with it is. I've seen the effects in my own family father of giving money to people. And it's destroyed them, it hasn't helped, it's destroyed them.

It's suffering with people, that's what the word compassion means compassio to suffer with, and to the extent that you suffer with people. We all have, you know, this examination of conscience, which is why I go to confession regularly, especially in lent, which is what we're in now.

Father, when you hear words like equity, and and, and you know, social justice, clearly terms meant to ring your emotional bell. I mean, who's not for justice, and who's not for what appears to sound like equality? Um, the problem I have with, and I think, where you have kind of a greater moral authority than me, whether you think so or not, you do. Um, is that if they're not, that's not what they actually mean, but they don't actually mean justice. As Hayek said, you know, the road to serfdom. If the government is going to enforce equality, it ironically requires them to treat people unequally. A guy like you say, really worked your butt off and earned, you know, $100 an hour. If you have to be treated as equally as the guy who only produced $20 of value and split your proceeds, then you're being treated unequally. Which is the greatest irony. These buzz terms like equity.

Uh, the the way in which rhetorically, uh, socialists and collectivists of various kinds utilize moral categories without the morality is really quite intriguing. It's a it's a study in itself, and it's to induce, it's to induce an inappropriate guilt. Uh, you know, if. If the temptation of actors in a free economy is a temptation to greed, which is true, we have to guard our hearts against this.

The unacknowledged temptation on the part of the left is a temptation to envy, to, to viciously hate. People who have succeeded, not because they've done anything wrong, but simply because they have succeeded. I mean, this keying of the Teslas, you know, if you're, you read about these people so silly.

It's, it's a horrible, a horrible attitude, uh, that is engendered by this kind of socialist mentality.

I am so glad somebody found you. we would love to have you back. His book, Folks, is called The Economics of the Parables. Father Robert Sirico. Please check it out.

Now I can't thank you enough for coming on, you were amazing.

We appreciate it. What a good man. I'll never forget when he said that I was listening to that speech. It's not that government's too big.

That is too stupid. You ever hear a priest talk like that, my man that was father Bob Sirico. Up next is Will Kane, my colleague from Fox News.

He knows a lot about sports, a lot about culture. I really enjoyed this interview, too. We'll get to that in a second. Let me tell you about our next sponsor first.

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Check this out. All right? I'd like to welcome to the show one of my good friends at Fox, a guy we have. We go way back. We have a lot of history together. We were on, we were on panels on CNN back in the day, arguing with lefties and over at the blaze before it was the blaze. So we've been around a while together.

My good friend, host of the Will Kane podcast, which I can't emphasize enough in strong enough terms, is so terrific, worth your time, Will Kane. I will fit it in today and plug it for you so you don't have to. Well, you know, we joke about that all the time. How are you, bud?

You've got great content you're proud of. I think the show is spectacular. You're one of the few guys out there who you manage to incorporate culture and sports and weave it into politics. And you make it interesting. And I think that's what makes your show different. I got to tell you, you've forgotten more about sports than I know.

But before we get to the hard stuff, your thoughts on this world baseball classic? A lot of complaints, a lot of good players got injured. My humble opinion, will I think this was great for baseball? I mean, 60 million people or something watched the Japan-Mexico game, that's crazy.

They watch it for their team. And this was a moment. Where, look, I got to tell you then, baseball has fallen down for me to, I don't know, number four, maybe.

And it's not, about, you know, attention seeking or carnival barking, it's about you have quality content that you need to make the world aware of. Right? And so, and not just that. But it's a message that's important and you wouldn't be doing it if you didn't think it were important.

Right? And then, therefore, you got to tell people about it. And I just watched how you built, what you built, which is just beyond impressive. And I joked with you last weekend on your show, but I really did take lessons from what you did.

And look, if you've said something on a recent podcast, or you said something on a recent show and you're talking about now, I say, yeah. And I went into it deeper here, right? I only got two minutes on television, but I went into it deeper here. So I truly learned from you.

But just to tie it full circle, the World Baseball Classic was calling attention to the game of baseball in a way that had been lost. And next thing, I know, without even trying, I'm looking up and it's in the bar and people are talking about it. And next thing, you know, Shohei Ohtani is going up against Mike Trout and like, right?

Probably the two greatest position play well, Ohtani plays all over the place, doesn't even apply there, but probably one of the top two or three pitchers in baseball. Unquestionably a future Hall of Famer, the equivalent of the Lou Gehrig Babe Ruth of our time. Or with a three to full count. I mean, will you couldn't have scripted it like a Kevin Kostner? Bull? Durham? Feel the dreams any better than that?

And I agree with you, they did need that because I'm with you, brother Will. The baseball I grew up on baseball, loved it, played it by far not even a close second.

My favorite sport? Growing up obsessed with the Yankees could have gone through every single player, their stats, batting, average, everything. And now I just, you know, maybe it's the woke ism, all the nonsense. I don't know, I just I can't get into it.

It's like, I'm football, basketball, hockey, and then like, a distant fourth baseball. So I agree with you, I think this was a good thing.

And then I quit the team at Stony Brook right before the final cuts. Because I had a girlfriend in New York that I missed. And I regret that decision ever since I left the voicemail with the coach. His name is Matt. And I had had a really good, you know, set of scrimmage games. I was pretty sure I would have made that team.

And I'm still upset at myself. I just, you know, to this day. I mean, I love the game, though, I love the fact that it's a, you know, it's a. it really is a thinking man's game.

I mean, when you look at some of the physiques in baseball, they just don't match up to football. I had a thousand questions, but you're so interesting, you know? Think about like John Kruk, right? I mean, this is a guy who can succeed in baseball, and, you know, he couldn't necessarily maybe get that done in football.

And it's because he's in this game of inches, where he's figured out how, maybe to read a picture and the angle of his hand. A little bit better than the other guy who didn't see the curveball coming.

I mean, maybe golf, because golf is such a skill based game, repetition of of, of act, right? Whatever swing a golf club, sing a baseball.

How many different pitches have you seen? He's mastered that skill. Hey, by the way, and I know you want to talk to me about, like Trump and Manhattan D.A. and all that, but one more nonpolitical note, and you're going to the conversation, not me.

I thought about you this morning. So yesterday I was in Houston and I'm doing this piece on Fox and Friends for Fox and Friends for Devin. Still, he's an amazing dude. He played defensive tackle for the Bengals. You probably heard a story at one point.

His daughter got diagnosed with neuroblastoma cancer.

Just a font of wisdom. I mean, like, you meet people in your life, are smart people, there's a wise, people stand out. You're like, I don't know what it is, but you've managed to figure out a lot of really important life lessons. Which, by the way, is one of the reasons I'm conservative, because of the wisdom involved in the eternal principles.

But anyway, so Devin and I worked out then and that was part of the thing we're going to work out together. And he's boxing, so I boxed for the first time yesterday.

And I shadow box, and I hit bags.

A punch is about 30 percent arm and about another 20 percent, 25 percent leg, and the rest is rotational core. You know, only street dogs use all arm, and that's why they can't fight. But when you get with a boxer and he teaches you how to properly body hook, you realize this is mostly legs and core. And if you're doing it right on that heavy bag, you wake up the next day and you're right.

You're like, my gosh, that hurts, like, why does my lower back hurt? No, boxing is great, it's, there's nothing like it.

So Will, we're talking to Will Kane, host of the excellent Will Kane podcast, which you should subscribe to today. Well, I've had this theory about Trump. You are an astute follower of what's going on in the political scene. That this is actually going to backfire spectacularly on them. If this arrest does happen, probably happen on Fox and Friends this weekend or maybe Friday.

You'll be covering it, I'll be there with you. And the reason is the most damaging political narratives in the world, and I've said this to you before, ones that change your preexisting notion of who someone is.

You know, if you found Mike Pence in a strip club, oh my gosh, like, that's it, it's over.

Right? He was alleged to be involved with some stripper. And then will you grew up on Howard Stern, like I did listening to Trump talk about his party lifestyle? You may not like the story, but it doesn't change anything for you. But he has made a brand out of being this deep state warrior.

So you're going to trot him in a blue city, in a blue state, in front of a likely blue judge, surrounded by blue hecklers and handcuffs. And you think this is going to damage his brand? It's the single dumbest thing I've ever heard.

I'm just saying it could be the deciding factor, right? But here's the thing and I want to talk this out with you. I don't know about the general now. Here's why I say that.

OK, you're right about the stormy Daniels stuff, that stuff's baked into the cake that ain't changing anybody's mind, right? No one.

I think that your challenge, Dan Bongino, and my challenge, Will Kane, is this. That we know that what this story is truly about is a two tier justice system, and I can go into the details of it, Dan. So I can talk about the fact that no D.A. would ever pursue this, including the previous D..A. or federal prosecutors, that it's a misdemeanor, that it's run past the statute of limitations.

And I can lay out the case about why this is so weak, and therefore it's a political witch hunt. I can lay that out, right? But the only people that are really going to take the time to listen to me on that are the people that care and know right away.

And that is the Republican base that sees the details, is invested in understanding it, and sees that, therefore, the two tier justice system. What my worry is, Dan? There's this other thing out there, and it's, I don't know, the better word for it than zeitgeist. And it's just sort of the people who accept the news and it washes over them, right?

And when it washes over you, all you collect is a few details. And you have to have these people to win an election, you have to have some of these people in the general. And again, I don't think it's the Stormy Daniels aspect. I think it's going to be like this idea that Donald Trump broke the law, period.

That's what they'll say, right? And what they're going to do, by the way, is run. Probably run the same play three times. They may run it in Georgia, and they may run it when it comes to Mar-a-Lago.

And you and I? It comes back to me and you and everyone out there. To try to persuade those people who I don't think are dug in lefty. Those people are lost, right? Don't worry about them, those other persuadable people.

You need to win. A general why this is a two tier justice system, right? Because I think they turn off their ears, they accept shallow explanations.

They accept shallow images and pictures, and they're going to have a negative opinion of all this. When it comes to Donald Trump, that's my, that's my concern, I'm not saying for sure.

I can't make a prediction. That's my concern, and therefore I think that's. Our job is to help make the persuadable people understand the truth is on our side, understand why this is such a big deal.

Yeah, listen, that's, it's a. That's a pretty terrific analysis, but I think of it more in the realm of just pure spreadsheets and numbers. I remember when I was looking at running for governor in Maryland and I just would sit there with a spreadsheet and say, Where are we going to get the numbers?

And I think, when you look at this arrest, yes, you know, how does the breaking of the law, alleged breaking of the law play to them? I totally understand how that may not get suburban moms in, but that's also baked into the electoral cake, too.

Here's what I see. Well, I see a growing number of minority voters, which are increasingly, increasingly powerful electorally in America, moving to Donald Trump. Which who may or may not move to run DESANTIS now, DESANTIs has a record of success with them, unquestionably best governor in America, in my opinion, in Florida.

There's zero doubt about landslide victory. Does that translate nationally? The answer is, I don't know, but I do know about Trump, where he got a significantly higher percentage of Hispanic and Black voters than Mitt Romney or George W. Bush.

And now you see that transformation continuing in an immigration environment Biden's created, and an inflationary environment attacking the middle class. And the question is, does the coalition work? Middle class? Working voters who like him dirt under the fingernails, minority voters and young kids who really seem to like him. It may your thoughts.

And the best argument for Donald Trump is also the best argument against Donald Trump, like you. And I love that he's a fighter and that he exposes the insanity inside of his opponents, and, by the way, not just the insanity. The truth, right? Something that existed or that was already there, you know, I worked at you.

You mentioned CNN, I was at CNN as a conservative commentator from like 2010 to 14 15, so pre-trump. And were they liberal, were they?

Yeah, all that stuff, and then Trump comes along and just like, rips the mask off of everything and that's good. I think that honesty is good for society, I think that exposure is good.

But inside that strength for others, I'm not talking about for me, for others, people just can't handle it, they just can't handle that truth. But I don't know the numbers, I'm not making a prediction for you, right? I don't know how another general election turns out.

I'm just telling you my concern, but I don't. I don't say OK, then give up, I don't do that, I just go well. Our job is why I do a podcast.

I'm sure it's why you talk for three hours a day on this show. We have to help people understand why we have a we. There is such thing as a deep state, it's not a buzzword, right? It is important to point out George Soros's role in our, our society.

It's not just a buzzword, there is a two tier justice system. We have to explain how it's playing out. It's not just a partisan talking point buzzword. And that's why I do what I do, and you do what you do.

You did not disappoint at all tying baseball into all that, and your analysis is really deep. The Will Kane podcast, Folks, you'll get it every day. That seems. It's terrific. It's one of the few I listen to.

I don't have a lot of time check him out. Will I will see you Saturday?

Thanks for coming on, you got that was. Will Kane up? Next is a former Secret service colleague of mine with a very special area of expertise school security. Something that's tragically.

Come up again. His name's Jeff James. you've probably heard of him before on my show. This is an interview about what you can do to secure your school. Let me thank our final sponsor first for bringing this podcast to you.

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We appreciate it. Finally, here's Jeff James again, a former colleague of mine and an expert on school shootings and what you can do to secure your kid's school. This is really important for you to hear. There are things you can do to help listen closely.

All right, it's sad that I only get to talk to this individual that at length, typically, when something tragic happens, he's a good friend. We go way back together, we worked in the Secret Service together. He was a fine agent, a fine man, good family guy.

And, as I said, a really good friend and is a very, very, very smart person and an expert when it comes to targeted school violence. Well, welcome back to the show, my friend Jeff James Jeff, thanks for spending some time with us.

We appreciate it.

I'll see you on the road somewhere we can catch up, that's right. Unfortunately, something happened yesterday. Reached out right away.

I asked Jim to contact you because you know a lot about this issue. And one of the things I brought up earlier is the secret service and tax study. It was updated in Twenty Twenty One. And one of the key findings about targeted school violence, school shootings and incidents like we saw yesterday, is that the attackers frequently matter of fact. Almost overwhelmingly, nearly every time, you know, told someone and vocalized or wrote to someone about their intention to do something like this.

So your thoughts on that, that the signs are there? We may be missing them sometimes.

Let somebody know so we can give them, you know, the old saying, the off ramp to get off of that path toward violence. And I know, I know there was a young woman who was a friend of the shoot yesterday who tried it. But sadly, you know, the shooter was already into their plan before. Before the young lady, before her friend, was able to contact the police, but, you know, at least she tried, she made the effort to reach out.

And you really, you really have a responsibility to do that.

JeFf I think, and and and I think you may agree. One of the reasons, at least in the past, maybe not now. But you know, you'd hesitate to call the police. You say, Oh, you know, I don't want to get. This person in charge is blowing off some steam. You know, people say dumb things all the time and they do. But the sad reality, Jeff, is, we live in a very different time right now.

There's a copycat effect, there's social media. You know, we live in an age where, you know, violence is inconsequential, glorified, and you're bathed in it all day. You have easy access to hardcore pornography, hardcore violence at the tip of your fingertips.

I mean, what do you got to do? Click an I'm 18 button. I mean, it's a different world. I'm not blaming, taking a cheap route. Oh, it's a video games or the movies.

That's those are two. Those answers are too simple. They may be factors depending on your exposure to this kind of stuff, but that's not the reason.

We're just in a different time, and because we're in that time. This is not the time to just gaff it off and say, well, they're just blowing off some steam. It's our responsibility to do something about it.

Maybe they'll get them some counseling and you know it worst, maybe you have to apologize to that person, but at best, you've prevented a tragedy.

It's probably a good idea to get together with your local police department if you haven't already at the school, get blueprints of the school out there. So police officers have seen it, have walked through it. They're not guessing when they show up. What are some things you're telling principals and parents?

And we saw that yesterday that this person did surveillance of those two schools and passed on the one that she knew they had security. Just to go to this one because it was a softer target. So if you have people who are sitting in charge of a school saying it won't happen here, dangerous mindset. You got to get that changed. The other thing is hardening your perimeter, and people say to me, you know, while security is expensive.

And my answer is, well, security is not expensive, it's priceless. So when you find ways to, you know, make your doors harden. So we we can prevent. What happened yesterday, where some, in the same thing that happened at Sandy Hook, they just shoot through the glass and walk into the building. Those two things of of denying that mindset that it can't happen here, and denying entry of bad guys to your building, those are the two most important things right off the bat.

Well, they're not impenetrable, but what we did in the Secret Service is you're not setting up an impenetrable fortress. I mean, Jeff, a lot of what you and I use that do inside advances was pipe and drape, literally a drape with no ballistic capabilities whatsoever. So you might say, well, why use it? People can shoot through it.

Well, the answer is because if you're inside the pipe and drape, I know you shouldn't be there. I mean, a lot of these things, like hardening an interest just with locks. Well, they can shoot through the glass, well, they may, but then they're going to have to shoot through the glass and announce themselves first.

I mean, the point I think you're trying to make is I get these questions a lot from people you know, understandably inexperienced in the space. Or not being rude as well. You know, you put a wall there, you can just get a ladder, yeah, but then you got to walk down the street with a ladder, which kind of looks strange. So if you could expound on that a bit.

Yesterday when she started shooting, they gave everybody in that building. And when you watch the body cam videos, you hear the alarms going off, somebody pulling alarm, everybody locked down.

And it prevented further bloodshed. But she tripped her own wire by shooting through the door. If it would have been a case where she just could open the door and walked in and you had kids in the hall, maybe go into the bathroom. Imagine the carnage that that would have caused. So, yeah, if you could find a way to to cause somebody even five extra seconds to get inside your perimeter. It's going to give you time to get kids to a safe space, or, if it's a workplace, your employees to a safe space.

And and it's going to save lives.

You balance that drill, doing drills without frightening the children all the time into believing, You know what I'm talking about? What do you recommend in that space?

You know, we've gotten away from someone walking around and shooting a blank gun and pretending they're the assailant. Because that we found that that traumatized even adults, so we've gotten away from doing that. But, you know, it's just that if you take 10 minutes a month to do a lockdown drill, just like a fire drill. And and I tell people all the time if you have a kindergartner who's been through fire drills in their first year of school by Christmas break. They know exactly what to do if there's a fire, even if the teacher isn't in the room. So if you practice that in conjunction with it, that lockdown drill those kids just after a few times, those touch points of training in their head, they're going to know exactly what to do. If they hear it over the intercom, or if they hear the alarm, or if the teacher says, Hey, we're going to lock down.

And and there are ways to just do it is make it a matter of fact thing that you do and you, you limit, you limit the trauma. I mean, there are. There are going to be some kids who are going to be unsavory about it, you know? And we also deal with special needs kids who who don't handle it well.

But, you know, but you got to do it. There's, there's no way to avoid the practice and the training of it.

I think that's so absurd, to the point of ridiculous. What's traumatizing is a school shooting. But but, but your take on that is that. Is that a difference maker?

So every time she was shooting at the police, every second was one second less, she was shooting at children. So if you so. The response time was 14 minutes, imagine if there would have been two officers in that building and the response time was 60 seconds instead of 14 minutes. How much better it would have been?

It's another investment that I think people should make in their community, and you mentioned it earlier. Get with your local PD and see if you can get a grant to fund an SRO. And look, not everybody's cut, not every cop is cut out to be in an elementary school.

I think you know that, right? Like, there's certain people you wouldn't send into an elementary school. But you can certainly find people in your department who have the proper mindset, temperament and mentality to be in that school with those kids. And, and you know, people say to me all the time, Oh, you know, you see cops walking around and they have guns and vests, it's going to trigger the kids, and I don't say this.

I mean, it sounds like I'm making fun of it, but it really doesn't. But my answer is always, well, you know, it really triggers people as people pulling triggers at them like, you know, we need, we need good guys to fight bad guys.

I have parents, and, you know, I go to school events, just like you do. I go to school events, talk to parents. Who are Democrats, believe me, they let me know all the time. Nice people.

Not that, you know, I don't say anything rude. I have never once heard them or their kids. I don't live with them. Granted, but ever object to the school security at our school. Ever. I matter of fact, my daughter, and it's not some weird virtue signaling my daughter's never brought it up to me one time.

I mean, I remember her going to a flag football game. And they walk across the parking lot and this armed security goes with them. And I don't remember anybody saying, I know it's like, Oh my gosh, there's a guy with a gun next to us, like, it's just. It just becomes part of doing business. I mean, I think we sell kids short.

We treat them like, you know, they're not many adults. I get that, you know, but they're not earthworms either. They're functioning beings who have the capacity to process information.

And they won't think twice about it. And and my kids, schools have officers. And you know, my. My 11 year old came home about a month ago and said she wore ripped jeans to school and said, You know, her s.R.O came up to her and said, Hey, looks like you got attacked by a saber tooth tiger, like, you know, they, they joke around.

It's part of. They see them every day, just like they see the principal and the teacher's aides and the teachers.

Man, that body cam is very telling.

And that, that, that that shooter was dead in 14 minutes, so a lot happened in that 14 minutes. And yeah, the body cam footage, the communication was awesome, you know, the way they just talk to each other and fed off each other.

And and Hey, ran straight to the back. Did you see them pick up their speed? When they heard the gunshots? Oh yeah, like, they're moving very methodically through the building, they hear the gunshots and they start to run toward it.

Jeff James Folks, former secret service agent, expert and targeted school violence and a very good man, Jeff, thanks for your time.

The school should be doing drills, they should be rehearsing this. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Jeff James. Folks, thanks for listening to this special weekend podcast we put together for you. Check out my radio show.

If you want to find out where you can listen, go to Bongino dot com. Click on Station Finder for the station near you. Hope you're having a great weekend. See you on Monday.