Trump’s Surprising Announcement (Ep 2071)

your host, Dan Bongino.

I'm like, I'm telling you, I'm like, how come I don't hear you?

Because I got you on the Westwood one radio.

That's why.

Man, what a weekend.

I hope you all enjoyed that concert with John Rich.

That was just the best time.

I had way, way too much fun this past weekend.

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine from Westwood one, the company I work

with in radio.

She was like, how you doing?

I'm like, I am doing, I am ready to be back on the air.

I feel like even though it was only off a day, I feel like it's been a month, but what

a weekend.

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A big thank you to everyone who was a part of a revolution in music entertainment this

past weekend.

We did something really special.

I've got that.

I've got Trump's big decision about the debates.

Notice I said plural and what that could really mean.

I'll give you the good, the bad and the indifferent, but there's something about it.

I think that has a lot of people freaked out because the tides have already turned.

I'll explain.

You don't accept a lot of simplistic explanations on this.

I've had an evolution on this one as well with Trump.

Big show, a lot to talk about.

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Joe, is this the last day of the Kenny Bell?

Yes, it is.

All right.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

To the Kenny Bell.

Yes, sir.

It is showtime.

We're still working on our tech.

Guy's going deaf over there.

I just want you to know.

Guy's poor eardrums.

He needs earmuffs.

I got a bunch of thank yous.

First, to all of you all for coming out, 40,000 people watched our concert live here with

John Rich.

The album, as you can see, is number one, and you want to talk about being part of a

revolution in entertainment and the biggest double-barreled middle finger to the music

industry ever, Oliver Anthony's song with no, no old-school liberal country music.

That whole business has gone woke except for quite a few people, right?

Oliver Anthony's song is number one.

You got that picture, Guy?

And John Rich's album is number one.

We did this all, you, together, where it is right there.

Number one album, The Country Truth by John Rich, download it if you haven't.

Number one song, Rich Men of Richmond, and here, you want another middle finger to them

all?

Number two is Oliver Anthony.

Number three is Jason Aldean.

Try that in a small town.

And John has the number one album.

Is that not a kick in the balls towards old-school wokeism?

We don't need these people.

You're part of a revolution.

This is all happening.

I want to tell you just a couple funny stories about what happened.

So I had partied way too hard this weekend in Nashville, man.

We were like, Guy knows the story, I barely made it to the Saturday night show.

We were out all night Friday, and Saturday, I'm like, take it easy, you're going to do

the show.

Saturday morning, how I got out of the hotel room, I don't even know.

But we went on this little tour in Nashville with my friends.

So I go to this antique store to pick up an antique microphone, and it's like noon, the

sun's in my eyes.

I'm like, ah, like a Nosferatu vampire or something.

I see this cat in the street with this Don't Get Dead shirt on.

I'm like, what the hell?

This is crazy.

He sees me, make eye contact.

I run over, I'm like, dude, that's a cool shirt, man.

He's like, I can't believe it.

So this guy, Jordan, I invited him to the show.

He wasn't even in town for the show.

He was just in town for a separate reason.

And we invited him to the show, he made it.

We had a blast.

Hat tip to him.

This is the crew, John and me, we were maybe partying way too much at John's Bar.

It was John Rich, Devin Nunes, Cash Patel, a friend of theirs, and me.

We had a good time, man, on Friday, way into Saturday.

And then Saturday night, late at night, I decide maybe I should go home.

It's like 11 o'clock and get some sleep before I head back.

So I decide I'm going to pop in across the street to Kid Rock's Bar.

And security guy's like, Dan, his name's Bobby Richie.

He's like, Bobby's upstairs.

Why don't you come say hello?

So we wound up hanging out with Kid Rock till like 2 o'clock in the morning.

So here's my friends.

Folks, it was a crazy weekend.

We had so much fun.

And I promise you, we're going to be doing more road shows.

Listen, people in the chat, 25,000, we're only five minutes in.

You all are amazing.

Chatsters, Bongino Chatsters, yes, you want another road show?

Or no, you don't want another road show?

Let me know, because I may come to a town near you.

I'm not so skinny.

Who said that in the chat?

Dan, you're so skinny.

Patriot girl.

I'm 210 pounds.

Do I look skinny?

I mean, look at this.

Skinny, isn't it skinny?

I got abs.

Skinny?

Come on, I'm skinny.

That's like the biggest insult ever.

We love you, Patriot girl, but I'm definitely not skinny.

Yes, yes to the road show.

Look at you all.

Check this out.

No, who said no?

There was a no in there.

What are you all?

There we go.

Wow.

Like that shot.

I'm not skinny.

Joe, am I skinny?

Thank you.

I'm not skinny.

Thank you.

But Patriot girl, I get it.

I guess that's a compliment.

One more quick thank you.

Well, actually a couple.

Stewart.

We ran into Stewart and his wife.

They gave us a backup Muttley

in case the original Muttley can't perform

and that the arm doesn't work out too well.

So this is the relief of what we call him,

the bullpen Muttley.

So in order to discriminate between original Muttley

and bullpen Muttley, thanks to Stewart,

we put a B on him for bullpen Muttley

in case the other one's arm is tired.

We got Muttley's in the chat.

Here we go.

Let's don't mix him up with original Muttley.

And then thank you to Alex,

the security guy over at TriStar.

He did a great job keeping us safe this weekend, man.

I appreciate it.

All right.

I got a big show, man.

We got a lot of stuff to talk about.

If I still sound intoxicated from Friday night,

that's a possibility.

That's a possibility.

I probably consumed about two bottles

of John Rich's whiskey on Friday night alone

and then continued into Saturday.

So onto the series.

I'm kidding.

I feel great today.

I feel pretty good.

I had a good workout this morning too.

A squat deadlift day.

Hey, Donald Trump put out a big decision this week

and we all kind of knew he wasn't going

to attend the Fox debate coming up this week.

I should say Fox Rumble debate

because if you want to see it,

it'll be online with Rumble as well.

The debate will be alive on Rumble.

I don't know.

Some of you might not want to watch Fox.

I don't know.

It's up to you.

I'm picking a side there.

I'm an investor in Rumble.

Watch it wherever you want,

but it'll be on Rumble as well, exclusively digitally.

But we all kind of knew Trump wasn't going to attend that,

but he put out a true social post at Real Donald Trump.

And he's like, hey, listen,

I will therefore not be doing the debates,

like plural, like any debates, which, okay.

Let's talk through this

because there's a lot going on here.

Listen, I haven't changed my initial opinion

on Trump in debates, okay?

I don't like lick my finger

and see where the wind blows or anything like that, right?

I don't do that stuff.

I still think Trump is the best debater out there.

He is.

He's just like, I call him the Lion King in debates.

He just takes over.

You have to remember, a debate is a performance.

Ah, is he the best on white paper stuff and facts and data?

Maybe not.

I think we can all agree, right?

Fair assessment guys, like sometimes they're like,

but it doesn't matter.

Like if white papers and data won you the presidency,

you would have been talking to President Mitt Romney, okay?

That's not the way this works.

Sometimes I wish it did work the other way,

but it doesn't.

A debate is more of a performance.

There is no greater performer than Donald Trump.

So I think on the upside,

one of the reasons that he should possibly

at least attend a debate at some point

is he's not just,

forget about the Republicans on stage for a moment.

He's up by a lot.

He just is, folks.

Listen, you're not gonna get me to crap on DeSantis

or Ramaswamy.

I'm not doing that.

DeSantis is a great governor.

Vivek's a great candidate.

You know, I'm not a fan of Christie,

Tim Scott, not so much either,

but I'm not gonna crap on these guys.

I'm just telling you,

he's just really far ahead in the polls.

So forget about the other Republicans for a minute.

The reason I think the debate would have been good for him,

at least one of them,

is it's not just Republicans watching.

There are a lot of independents who love Donald Trump

who would like to see him on stage talk about his record.

So it's kind of a positive and negative.

Now, here's the reason on the con side,

I can't argue with the guy at all.

And let me know what you think in the chat.

I mean, you think he should, you know,

give me a yes if you, you know, a big all caps yes,

if you think he should attend or an N if you don't.

I'd love to hear your opinion,

but who's calling me skinny?

Oh, we have to ban him immediately.

No, I'm kidding.

It's a free speech platform.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

By the way, just so you know,

that it, Joe, would you agree?

The greatest insult to a guy who lifts weights

is to tell them they're skinny?

But I'll tell you, I have a lens to start.

It was lens to start.

Thank you.

Joe says it's a camera issue.

He's blaming it on Guy.

He's saying it's Guy's fault.

I do audio.

He's like, he did that.

He's like, Joe said to me on audio, you're 225 pounds ripped.

That's what he said.

That's what he said.

So a lot of nos, he shouldn't attend the debate.

Here's why.

Here's one of the reasons I think he shouldn't attend.

Pro and con, you guys make the decision

because you're all super smart, right?

One of the reasons he shouldn't attend is

there's this myth out there that everybody on stage

is gonna go for Donald Trump

and try to take out Donald Trump

and he's not gonna be there to defend himself.

And while I have no doubt that's gonna happen,

there's gonna be a lot of people on stage

trying to crap on Donald Trump.

No diggity.

Folks, there's only three lanes in this debate right now.

I don't wanna oversimplify this.

Guy, if you think I'm crazy here,

I'm not explaining this right.

You're always the hardest on me, tell me.

There's only three lanes.

There's the lane that's in front right now, the Trump lane.

It's just his own thing.

You got the Trump MAGA lane, okay?

He dominates that.

The second lane is gonna be the runner-up.

Who is the runner-up?

Who's gonna be the Rick Santorum to Romney?

Who's gonna be the McCain to Bush?

There's the runner-up lane.

But then there's the third lane.

There's the who wants a show on Fox News lane.

They're not in this to win.

They're just in this to get a show on Fox News.

Come on, am I not right?

There's three lanes.

So folks, I'm not oversimplifying it.

There are three lanes in this election.

When you adjust to

and you understand the three-lane theory,

you'll understand why people are not dropping

out of the race.

Now, the reason in the debate

Trump may be making a good decision

is he doesn't care about the three-lane.

Because they're not gonna,

they're people who are gonna get 5%, 6% of the vote,

but they may very well get a Fox News show

or a talk radio show, excuse me.

He doesn't care about the third lane.

He does care about the two-lane though.

Because for as far as he is ahead,

there's always a possibility something could happen, always.

And no smart politician should ever be like,

oh, you know, it's wrapped up, I'm done, whatever.

We can say that, they can't.

So Trump is worried about the number two lane.

So if Trump drops out of the debate,

everybody's assuming everyone's gonna attack Trump.

I think you're assuming wrong.

I think they're gonna go after each other

to clean out the number two lane

and make sure they get on TV too.

Look, in case you think I'm crazy,

even the lefties are saying the same thing.

Here's political playbook.

Playbook is like the Bible of the left.

They put out this email every morning.

Guy, political playbook.

Yeah.

What's that?

I know, Guy's like, the chat.

You're like distracting Guy.

We love you, the show's about you.

Guy's so in love with the chat,

he's not even paying attention to the show.

Someone in the chat, wanna volunteer to do Guy's job?

We can swap so Guy can chat the whole time.

I know, that is, Justin was in the chat the other day.

I saw him.

He was, yeah, I saw him and he was Justin.

I saw Justin DBS.

Here it is, Politico.

The jockeying to be the non-Trump GOP contender

could get some clarity.

Now, these are lefties,

but what they're saying here is not crazy, right?

They're talking about the two lane.

One lane, Trump.

Two lane, not Trump, number two Guy.

Three lane, I want a Fox News show, I have no shot.

They're saying if Trump's not there,

that there could be knives out for DeSantis and Ramaswamy

as the people who want the Fox News show

try to cut him out at a number two spot.

So it might be tactically a super smart thing for Trump

to bail, say, I ain't doing this first one,

let them take out DeSantis and Ramaswamy on stage

and then maybe I'll come in later,

tear it up with a couple number three people,

just to get my name out there

and give you all a little taste of the Trumpster.

That's it.

I gotta tell you, not the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Pretty smart strategy at this point.

You know, but again, I'm balancing equities.

A lot of you seem to agree at this point

that he shouldn't do the debate, but he really is.

He's like a great debater.

And I think a lot of the independents out there

would see what was going on with him and his campaign

if he was on stage.

We'll see what happens with that.

Now, you gotta remember, we're looking at all of this also

in terms of the Biden nightmare continuing.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are in a really, really perilous spot, man.

We are just, oh my gosh,

we got 51,000 people already at 1115.

Oh, you guys are awesome out there.

Hold on, I need some water.

We ever had this many people this early?

This is so nuts.

You guys are so great.

I mean, I love this.

This is why I can't wait to get on the air with you guys,

especially in a chat, ladies out there.

Remember all of this in terms

of the Biden nightmare continuing.

This thing is going on on the Republican side,

which is a good thing.

Primaries are good things.

I can't say that enough.

You're seeing it now.

The primary will decide, and by the way,

the primary voters will decide

if Trump not showing up in the debates matters.

Since Trump said he wasn't gonna show up for the debate,

his poll numbers have gone up.

So I don't understand where this argument

that if he doesn't do the debates,

he's gonna lose voters comes from.

Does any, I mean, you guys, where does that,

I mean, look at Fetterman,

and Fetterman, who's cognitively not even there,

the senator from Pennsylvania.

You remember the stunt he pulled, guys?

He waited all the way to the end

till everybody had already voted by mail.

He did, what, one debate.

It was the worst performance I've ever seen.

He told people goodnight the minute he got in, and he won.

So, I mean, I'm sorry.

I'm just not buying the argument

that the debate's gonna be some massive game changer

for anyone else.

I'm just not buying it.

You gotta show me some evidence there.

They do, that's true.

There's an element of like the entertainment factor,

Guy's right, that people just wanna see Trump on stage

because it's just so freaking entertaining,

and it's not like they're gonna change their vote, right?

I think even, wouldn't you agree, folks,

I'm sorry I'm spending time on this,

but this is just, there's so much in this debate thing

outside of just a simple debate.

It's about bigger things here.

Guy's right.

It's just, even anti-Trump people who hate him

wanna see him on stage because they can't stop watching.

It's that old Howard Stern thing.

Why do Howard Stern fans listen to this show?

Because they wanna hear what he's gonna say next.

Why do people who hate Howard Stern listen?

Because they wanna hear what he's gonna say next.

If you ever watch that movie, you'll see that.

But this is all happening

while the Biden nightmare is going on right now.

Folks, it broke this week that now,

actually, Miranda Devine broke this a long time ago.

It's kind of a shame you're only hearing about this now.

To be fair to her and her book, Laptop from Hell,

which I published, just disclosure there.

You gotta do that stuff.

It's the right thing to do.

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden were communicating

under a fake name with Joe Biden.

Ladies and gentlemen, this changes everything.

Because you have to remember,

whatever's been FOIAed or subpoenaed at this point

under the name of emails to Joe Biden,

if now we have an entirely different data set,

because we have this name, Robert L. Peters,

this is where it could get really ugly for Biden.

I want you to listen to this clip

from Comer with Maria Bartiromo.

And there's an important component to this.

I don't want you to miss.

I always like to highlight this stuff,

because sometimes in these interviews,

it flies over everybody's head,

not just because there's so much going on.

You're like drinking from a firehose.

The argument so far has been that Joe Biden

had nothing to do with Hunter Biden's business,

and, and, and, that Hunter Biden

was not a government employee.

Well, if Hunter Biden wasn't a government employee,