Bannon's War Room - Episode 4191： Don’t Fall For Zuckerberg MAGA Conversion; Weaponized Think Tanks

00:00:00.000 this is the primal scream of a dying regime pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on

00:00:10.380 these people here's not got a free shot all these networks lying about the people the people have

00:00:16.980 had a belly full of it i know you don't like hearing that i know you try to do everything

00:00:20.740 in the world to stop that but you're not going to stop it it's going to happen and where do

00:00:24.120 people like that go to share the big line mega media i wish in my soul i wish that any of these

00:00:31.840 people had a conscience ask yourself what is my task and what is my purpose if that answer is to

00:00:39.400 save my country this country will be saved war room here's your host stephen k bann

00:00:47.220 hey everyone i want to talk about something important today because it's time to get back

00:00:56.000 to our roots around free expression on facebook and instagram i started building social media to

00:01:01.800 give people a voice i gave a speech at georgetown five years ago about the importance of protecting

00:01:06.720 free expression and i still believe this today but a lot has happened over the last several years

00:01:12.060 but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes even if they accidentally

00:01:16.740 censor just one percent of posts that's millions of people and we've reached a point where it's just

00:01:22.620 too many mistakes and too much censorship more specifically here's what we're going to do first

00:01:28.940 we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to x starting in

00:01:34.580 the u.s the reality is that this is a trade-off it means we're going to catch less bad stuff but we'll

00:01:41.140 also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down

00:01:45.780 china has censored our apps from even working in the country the only way that we can push back on 1.00

00:01:52.300 this global trend is with the support of the u.s government and that's why it's been so difficult

00:01:57.740 over the past four years when even the u.s government has pushed for censorship by going after us and other

00:02:04.240 american companies it has emboldened other governments to go even further these people from

00:02:10.360 the biden administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse and it's like

00:02:16.880 these documents are it's all kind of out there did you record any of those phone calls i don't no i

00:02:22.280 don't think i don't think we were but but i think i want to listen i mean there are emails the emails

00:02:26.620 are published it's all it's all kind of out there and um and they're like and basically

00:02:32.680 i can only handle so much of that it's 13 january monday in the year of our lord 2025

00:02:42.140 and mark zuckerberg for all the money that you have you need to get a better acting coach

00:02:48.240 wow the biden regime officials mark they cussed at you and your engineers wow and you folded like

00:02:59.280 i've never seen anyone fold the entire maga movement had what every arrow in the quiver the entire full

00:03:07.600 force of the state of this regime prison sentences assassination attempts stephen k bannon peter navarro

00:03:14.260 donald j trump and they stood in the breach and took it like real men and fought for this country

00:03:20.920 and some weird woke looking bureaucrat cussed at one of your engineers probably an h-1b 0.96

00:03:28.900 and you folded and you sold this country down the river so much so that you gave what nearly a billion

00:03:36.020 dollars to make sure that joe biden on very illegitimate grounds could become this country's next

00:03:42.920 president maybe in all the new hobbies that you're picking up in your free time whether it's what the

00:03:50.620 jujitsu or the wakeboarding whatever you're posting to try to pretend and dupe this country into thinking

00:03:56.360 that you're a human maybe you should start reading history books and learn about the trials and

00:04:02.400 tribulations that people have been put through and the courage that they have mustered to stand in

00:04:07.400 the breach which you sir mark zuckerberg have none of speaking of history i'm so glad what was it five

00:04:16.020 years ago five years wow five years ago you lectured at georgetown on free speech thank you thank you for

00:04:22.840 your contributions to humanity thank you i am so embarrassed and appalled at so many people in the

00:04:33.640 maga conservative right who have taken this conversion as something that is legitimate

00:04:39.580 i have seen transgender surgeries and drag queens that are more convincing than this

00:04:47.340 there are so many people who have fallen for what oh they took the tampons out of the bathrooms at meta hq

00:04:55.040 oh now they're apparently not using dei well i missed the point where anyone mandated that they do any of that

00:05:02.500 stuff it was on them they chose to do that so you can accept the consequences of your actions

00:05:12.460 and if you think that mark zuckerberg is maga or if he is our new friend and that he's gonna help us 0.91

00:05:20.340 well then that's almost as dumb as thinking when a stripper tells you that they love you that they 0.81

00:05:25.300 actually love you and i might seem super enthused or agitated right now but it's because i'm hearing 0.85

00:05:33.840 the conversations going on behind the scenes about how people are falling for this in the very intense

00:05:40.380 and elaborate and well-funded lobbying campaign that the metas of the world and the tiktoks although

00:05:44.660 they're already being successful on that front are waging right now on the maga right to get people

00:05:49.560 to sign up and become on board with what zuckerberg is selling you to go a little more uh shall we say

00:05:57.680 intellectual right what you're witnessing right now it shows you right in 2016 they infiltrated the

00:06:06.860 white house they infiltrated the maga movement so they didn't even feel the need to co-opt our movement

00:06:11.660 because it wasn't worth co-opting now that we're actually legitimate opposition they're pretending

00:06:17.520 to be one of us right now suddenly they see the light they get the maga after what trying to spend

00:06:24.860 what four years of censoring us de-platforming us de-banking us throwing us in jail and celebrating it

00:06:30.820 right fact checking i don't know if you picked up in that video it's a limited hangout it's not about

00:06:37.180 the fact checking it's about the algorithms the manipulation on both sides of the equation

00:06:41.880 suppressing and shadow banning conservative content while promoting joe biden the fact that your website

00:06:47.440 has been used to make it easier for human traffickers to carry out illegal immigration

00:06:52.420 and human smuggling and drug smuggling the cartels love facebook and then he has the nerve by the way

00:06:58.860 i don't know about you i didn't hear the word sorry in any of those interviews a sorry would go a long

00:07:03.140 way right but then he has the nerve to say that we mistakenly mistakenly operative where they're

00:07:10.640 mistakenly censored americans because i don't know our parameters were set too wide well hang on mark

00:07:17.420 because i thought you were importing what the best and brightest all the h1b techies right but i guess

00:07:21.900 they're not very good at their job okay well i guess we'll set that debate aside for a second but it was

00:07:27.740 a mistake do you think it was a mistake when what everyone that they censored was people who voted for

00:07:32.220 trump and basically the entirety of this audience i don't think that was a mistake i think it was

00:07:39.360 wholly intentional right the only reason that we even know about this stuff that we know about the

00:07:44.680 fact checkers is because this show and other investigative reporters dared to report on it they

00:07:50.760 were not forthright i'm pretty sure they told us they didn't even have fact checking programs

00:07:54.240 it's a testament to the power of this audience and independent reporting you think mark zuckerberg

00:08:00.700 wanted to make that video hell no and i guess we'll do a little fact checking of our own

00:08:07.700 because mark zuckerberg says oh china we can't follow the path of china the chinese communist 0.75

00:08:14.100 party they're so evil well mark zuckerberg just to really put a nice strong period on the sentence 0.98

00:08:20.160 that you're fake and you're phony and that you're a fraud you have been spending i don't even know 0.98

00:08:26.760 how long longer than probably i've been alive trying to get in china trying to get facebook 0.98

00:08:31.340 services meta services into china and the only reason that you're not a total sellout supplicant

00:08:36.140 to them right now is because they don't want you because they understand the threat of having a new

00:08:40.940 tech oligarchic monopolistic class of people like yourselves who become more powerful than the

00:08:45.760 government so natalie you're being crazy well one of the stories that i broke many many years ago

00:08:53.360 was that facebook actually funds their journalism project they funneled millions of dollars into

00:08:59.980 partnerships with the international center for journalists to create it's called the singhua

00:09:06.360 university's global business journalism school which is an explicitly self-declared marxist journalism

00:09:11.400 school in beijing that trains individuals to work for chinese communist party run state-run media

00:09:17.240 outlets facebook has even gone so far we can play the video i don't want the sound because we don't play

00:09:23.180 chinese communist party propaganda on the war room but that right there is the vice president of

00:09:29.820 facebook guest lecturing at this self-declared marxist facility

00:09:34.060 but i thought mark i thought mark said oh we're gonna win the war we're gonna win the war for

00:09:39.960 freedom right well how about this i'll read you the uh founding document from this journalism school

00:09:46.240 that is funded by facebook we should be committed to a firm and correct political orientation

00:09:51.200 our school has been actively exploring the theory and practices of marxist journalism namely to

00:09:56.740 applying the marxist theory and observing the world selecting and handling news production

00:10:00.480 and catch this mark zuckerberg as early as 2014 was actually going overseas to beijing

00:10:08.840 he's actually on the advisory board at sinhua university and he lectures there sinhua university the

00:10:15.700 same university that has repeatedly committed cyber attacks against the united states

00:10:20.360 facebook then went far enough to quote team up to offer a course on insights from silicon valley

00:10:28.820 which entailed sinhua flying in seven facebook executives over the semester to teach some of the classes

00:10:35.020 you would be in china if you could they just didn't want you 0.83

00:10:40.540 and frankly maga doesn't want you 1.00

00:10:43.100 and you sit there shame on you for sitting there like a victim

00:10:49.480 and doing these podcast rounds and putting out these weird videos

00:10:53.280 americans lost their lives because of your actions and your inactions

00:11:01.760 think about the patriotism and the courage and the convictions that every single january 6 prisoner

00:11:07.680 and i use that word intentionally had when they had to decide to stand in the breach

00:11:12.080 and face the full wrath the full fire and fury of this american regime

00:11:17.340 and you had some weird wacko bureaucrats say hey we really think you should like censor this meme

00:11:23.960 they were hoping for plea deals that was the best that they could get you got what million dollar pr agents

00:11:34.240 you're not fooling absolutely anyone and i'm telling you just like the h1b stuff the elon stuff 0.80

00:11:43.300 this is the issue in and of itself

00:11:45.500 and i'm very disheartened to see so many

00:11:50.700 on our side thinking that this man is at an actual conversion my suggestion

00:11:57.640 all the money that these tech oligarchs have donated to the inauguration the bezoses the zuckerbergs of

00:12:07.480 the world yet those are the people that we should be investigating first and maybe we should use the

00:12:11.700 money that they've donated to fund and bankroll those investigations it reeks of guilt

00:12:17.660 from companies that i'm told what never even really had fact-checking entities to begin with

00:12:23.740 here in the war room and it's not just because my last name is winters but we appreciate winter

00:12:32.660 soldiers not sunshine patriots and maybe in the metaverse you can't distinguish the difference

00:12:39.560 between that but that matters to maga so mark zuckerberg thank you but no thank you

00:12:46.960 maybe you should just go back to the metaverse i'd be okay with that and speaking of people who i guess

00:12:55.900 just don't stop

00:12:57.100 gavin newsom who's what state is quite literally burning down

00:13:02.020 you know what he did today he secured 50 million dollars to quote trump proof his state

00:13:09.080 now 25 million is going to their state department of justice to i don't know sue trump out of into

00:13:18.260 oblivion and then the other half 25 million with with yet which yes students of history and government

00:13:24.900 budgets will remember that what the lafd budget was cut by like what 17 million dollars well there's

00:13:29.840 another 25 million to quote defend immigrants against deportation and detention so they're gonna get

00:13:36.140 grants for legal non-profits and immigration support centers so when gavin newsom stands up

00:13:43.040 there and says that he's already reimagining la 2.0 and that he wants a marshall plan bro you're not

00:13:50.080 giving money to another country you're not giving money to rebuild europe you're not rebuilding mexico

00:13:57.940 you're not importing the third world like you guys so desperately want to do it's called putting 1.00

00:14:04.140 america first and that is the sick depraved nature of these people california is still actively working 0.98

00:14:10.180 burning down sorry and gavin newsom is concerned about getting tens of millions of dollars so they 0.91

00:14:18.300 can sue trump and make sure that criminal illegal aliens like the ones who killed lake and riley are

00:14:23.940 not going to be deported

00:14:24.880 but hey at least i can't get fact checked on any of this right because they dropped the fact checking

00:14:35.240 program i think they call that a pure victory mark zuckerberg and we're not going to fall for it here

00:14:42.680 in the war room so a lot of breaking news on all things media you'll see why i went so hard on this

00:14:48.600 with our next guest who joins us we will be right back after this short break darren beady and some

00:14:53.620 new really interesting reporting on the think tank influence scene in washington dc we'll be right back

00:14:58.680 big victory on 5 november now the work can finally start on the big issues facing the country one of the

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00:16:17.640 silver today and rubin and i'm norm eisen i am here to announce i am leaving the washington post

00:16:25.600 in order to co-found with norm an exciting new online platform the contrarian we are going to

00:16:33.020 bring you written material podcasts interviews social media all in defense of democracy our intent

00:16:40.620 is to combat the authoritarian force that we all face to help us we have an exciting array of

00:16:48.600 contributors from all walks of life all ages all backgrounds to help us in this venture we're going

00:16:55.100 to do politics we're going to do law but we know that any successful pro-democracy movement also has

00:17:02.180 to be very vocal about culture we'll have a humor column we'll even have a cooking column but we're going

00:17:11.020 to sprinkle in a little bit of pro-democracy flavor and we're going to have pets we're very pro-pets

00:17:18.600 so please join us in this journey we cannot do this without you we want your contributions

00:17:25.440 your input your ideas thank you for joining the contrarian

00:17:30.960 that's not a deep fake that's real i will say i've i've tried the pro-democracy flavor

00:17:38.620 not a fan of it i don't know what the heck that was i'm sorry it's like your weird wacky librarian

00:17:45.340 and your like thespian uncle are these people serious they thought that that that was going

00:17:51.880 to be the video to entice people to come and watch their new outfit the contrarian

00:17:57.080 i would humbly suggest especially to dear norm eisen you guys know i love me some norm eisen

00:18:05.460 color revolution extraordinaire you should just be focusing on preserving your documents for

00:18:13.320 everything that you've done from the law fair in colorado to arizona all the way to the impeachments

00:18:19.060 what you've done globally what you've done with who knows where with god knows i don't even want to

00:18:24.400 get into what you've done if you think that that video is publishable something with your standards

00:18:28.280 are very clearly off but you guessed it jen rubin is leaving the washington post to start whatever the

00:18:35.260 heck that is i'm sure george soros is probably bankrolling it um but i want to bring on darren i

00:18:41.440 think the uh the man who really brought norm eisen to the forefront of a lot of our minds certainly

00:18:47.040 myself uh darren beattie joins us now of course revolver news fame darren i don't think when you

00:18:52.360 launched revolver you ever had a uh a sizzle reel like that but all jokes aside i'm sure you will

00:18:58.860 give us a wonderful repartee on what the heck we just watched but your thoughts on sort of the

00:19:03.700 evolving you know media landscape shift jen rubin departing the washington post this new outfit norm

00:19:08.620 eisen all that you know i'm still just digesting the video i saw it for the first time just about 30

00:19:16.380 minutes ago and you know it really was like transported to a parallel universe in a universe

00:19:22.120 in which saturday night live was actually funny this would be a perfect skit it was even set up like

00:19:28.360 it um it's just the cooking show with a sprinkle of democracy um it's really amazing and you know i'd love 1.00

00:19:38.680 to know what rich idiot they conned into funding this i'd like to know what rich idiot is going to 0.99

00:19:49.540 dump millions of dollars into this i really want to know because there's so many of them but i want 1.00

00:19:55.520 to know in particular which rich moron is writing a 20 million dollar check to get this off the ground 1.00

00:20:06.360 that's that's what i'm interested in with this because you know there's going to be some idiot 1.00

00:20:12.780 to write millions of dollars checked for this that's how how media works it's like jennifer rubin 0.96

00:20:18.440 i never even heard her name in years uh you don't you don't hear about her for years i guess she was 0.70

00:20:25.120 still at the washington post i didn't even know she was still there i guess she's leaving norm eisen is

00:20:30.340 at least more relevant but even the idea that he thinks this is attractive that's how they spend

00:20:37.140 u.s dollars in the state department to try to convince remote villages in africa to you know

00:20:45.100 have a drag queen parade that's the level of propaganda that they put out there say hey villagers

00:20:52.880 why don't we try a little sprinkle of democracy with jen rubin that's the quality of propaganda no 1.00

00:21:02.240 wonder we're failing abroad no wonder we've become a laughing stock it's this weird combination of

00:21:07.860 genuine power at least at the state department norm eisen had power and as you point out and as we

00:21:13.760 famously reported he is a major and instrumental figure in color revolutions he's been the chief

00:21:21.140 basically law fair um perpetrator against the trump regime he's he's filed lawsuits going back to

00:21:30.280 basic he started it the day you know before trump was even inaugurated the first time this is not this

00:21:36.060 guy's first rodeo but he goes from law fair to a cooking show for democracy and humor and humor

00:21:44.340 i can't believe it so uh i just you know what what more is there to say is that and humor

00:21:52.940 there's gonna be humor and a sprinkle of democracy so uh yeah but you know but the best thing is 0.96

00:22:01.580 i guarantee you there is a very wealthy idiot who gave this 10 million dollars so i'd like to know 0.97

00:22:11.900 who that is i think they should be deported frankly where would media like that be without 1.00

00:22:22.840 the wealthy idiots to subsidize it it would be i'd love to see how it works you know the bulwark managed 0.99

00:22:32.260 to get subscribers i have no idea how they did that um this is even like lower grade this is set up 0.99

00:22:39.360 they did it by ripping off war room all they ever do is just play our clips and and react to them

00:22:44.540 but on i guess more more substantive no you know look i will say i watch a lot of msnbc one of the

00:22:51.080 most common refrains that i hear is you know the left needs to find their own joe rogan humble

00:22:56.420 suggestion norm eisen jen rubin not your joe rogan keep looking the sprinkle of democracy cooking show

00:23:03.220 i can't argue with that but to that point i think it's sort of reflective

00:23:11.940 norm eisen though right is sort of an interesting i think note in all of this you know he used to

00:23:19.620 be very involved with the law fair then he was very involved with the sort of election rigging

00:23:23.420 election integrity stuff then it was you know the impeachments right so he really is a jack of

00:23:29.140 all trades i would say not whatever we just watched um but why do you think two-part question

00:23:35.080 why do you think they're really doubling down focusing so heavily right now on the media being

00:23:40.440 the sort of warfare that they're trying to wage and to that point a bit of breaking news that

00:23:44.780 rachel maddow who you know infamously despite making what 25 million dollars a year was broadcasting 1.00

00:23:49.340 once a week on monday evenings now at least for the first hundred days that's the buried lead

00:23:54.540 of the trump administration she will be back on air every single night uh the slot of alex wagner

00:24:00.260 she's now going to go do uh in you know on the ground field reporting um but why do you think it 0.70

00:24:05.620 seems like media now is really becoming the the angle of attack that they're sort of doubling down on

00:24:10.560 you know that's a great question i can't for the life of me

00:24:15.360 understand or even have a theory of mind as to how someone could think the norm eisen jennifer

00:24:22.400 reuben thing was a good idea really like that they're really at the bottom of the barrel here

00:24:27.800 this is this is scraping even deeper into the bottom of the barrel than than the bulwark at least

00:24:34.340 rachel maddow i think she has a genuine following there's something real there people watch it um so 0.99

00:24:40.680 for the reuben eisen thing i have no idea it could really be just some like a single rich idiot can 0.98

00:24:48.620 make something like that happen and just keep dumping money into it regardless of how unpopular 0.90

00:24:55.040 and cringe it is um as for the maddow thing um you know it's it makes sense i i don't uh i don't think

00:25:03.720 i i think it could be popular i think she wants to see test the waters a little bit see how much

00:25:10.920 outrage they can gin up and keep in mind you know they're still the democrats are kind of recovering

00:25:16.440 from this resounding and humiliating loss that really didn't give them any avenue of excuse you

00:25:24.660 know trump won the popular vote they couldn't blame it on the electoral college they you know

00:25:29.900 trump did very well with even minority groups so they didn't really even have that they dumped all the 0.65

00:25:36.000 lawfare on it didn't work and so they're in a pretty desperate situation so i can imagine them saying

00:25:41.600 okay well we're going to test the waters we're going to approach a media strategy and see if we

00:25:46.520 can kind of build back some capital with the public uh through the media and through norm eisen's

00:25:54.820 democracy cooking channel i guess that's the best that they have to go for at the moment and so they're

00:26:00.220 still kind of flailing about and licking their wounds um from their resounding and embarrassing

00:26:06.460 and decisive defeat on this last election cycle

00:26:11.160 darren if people want to follow you stay up to date with everything that you guys are working on

00:26:17.900 over at revolver where can they go to do all that i hope you don't post any videos like that

00:26:22.340 or i will not have you back on the show no no no cooking content please no democracy cooking shows

00:26:28.720 i promise revolver.news we have a big piece in the works on the pipe bomb report we have an

00:26:35.860 interesting piece on amy comey barrett i think we called it a long time ago and few people did so

00:26:42.000 some really big interesting pieces coming soon tonight definitely by tomorrow so check it out

00:26:48.260 revolver.news i'm on twitter at darren j beady darren thank you so much for joining us i'll have you back

00:26:55.760 soon thank you natalie and just flagging you guys know i uh very clinically watch norm eyes and i think

00:27:04.880 he like i always say is a locus in this sort of deep state law fair uh apparatchik henchman type way

00:27:11.220 but believe it or not it's not a conspiracy theory even meta cannot fact check me on this

00:27:15.920 in 2024 he actually lectured believe it or not i'm just i'm just reporting the facts

00:27:22.820 lectured in los angeles at the request of mayor karen bass the water department on ethics people may

00:27:31.040 recall that he was obama's ethics czar so that's why he has so much ethics street cred that and what

00:27:36.940 toppling and deposing a bunch of uh foreign regimes in the name of a sprinkle of democracy like the video

00:27:43.780 suggests but uh you know we're all about pattern recognition here in the war room just an interesting

00:27:49.120 piece of data the next segment we're getting into very something i'm very interested in how think

00:27:56.140 tanks are all bought and paid for by basically everyone you hate um including this current

00:28:01.780 regime in the meantime birchgold.com slash bannon text bannon to 98 98 98 make sure you're getting

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00:28:13.740 you know it's the place to be we'll be right back after this drug break

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00:29:31.360 welcome back to the war room we are joined now by ben freeman of the quincy institute who broke news

00:29:45.120 not too long ago i think the first time ever put up a really comprehensive sort of think tank tracker

00:29:50.680 showing how money flows whether it's from united states government foreign governments the military

00:29:55.480 industrial complex basically all the entities that want the policies that come out of this great

00:30:01.120 country this capital that is just a stone's throw away from me don't benefit you the american worker

00:30:07.400 the american citizen the american parent the american family whatever you may be but benefit them and it

00:30:12.880 seems like the interests that they have are always at odds with what you want no conspiracies no

00:30:18.340 coincidences but i'm just saying um ben joins us now ben i was reading through this report the numbers

00:30:24.680 are just staggering um in the last what is it few years more than 110 million dollars to the top 50

00:30:30.860 think tanks in the united states from foreign governments defense companies have contributed

00:30:35.420 over 34.7 million and over 1.49 billion from the united states government sort of walk us through

00:30:41.980 why you guys created this tracker basically presupposing the idea that they are getting some

00:30:47.760 form of roi whether it's influencing government policy propaganda narratives why did you guys set out

00:30:53.460 to do this yeah great question natalie first thanks for having me on um we started this project because

00:31:00.580 we were looking at a lot of the work that think tanks were doing and a lot of it uh seemed to indicate

00:31:06.340 that maybe it was serving the interests of some of their funders uh so we did i i think what a lot of your

00:31:13.300 viewers and you regularly do uh we decided to follow the money uh we decided to follow all of the money and we didn't

00:31:19.080 realize how much money we were getting into and ultimately as you mentioned we dug up uh over 1.5

00:31:25.060 billion dollars in total funding going to the top 50 think tanks in the u.s and that's just over the

00:31:31.880 past five years um and to be clear natalie that that's just the tip of the iceberg because one really

00:31:38.500 disturbing fact about think tank funding is that think tanks aren't actually required to disclose

00:31:43.740 any of their funding whether it's from foreign government the u.s government pentagon contractors

00:31:49.020 doesn't matter they're not required to disclose that information in fact over a third of the think

00:31:53.840 tanks that we looked at 18 of the 50 disclose absolutely nothing about their funding and so all

00:32:01.140 of these figures as enormous as they might be we really think this is just the tip of the iceberg

00:32:07.800 for the conflict of interest going on at think tanks in the u.s there's such a uh you know fixture of dc

00:32:16.160 right i think for those of us who've lived here and worked here they really are these sort of i think

00:32:20.580 originators of so many of these whether it's talking points i'd call it state sanctioned propaganda in

00:32:25.980 some cases um but i'm just curious because they do have the ability to you know astroturf these

00:32:30.920 narratives frankly i think in some ways the atlantic councils of the world and the brookings

00:32:34.700 institutions they're in some ways responsible for escalating you know everything that's going on in

00:32:39.080 ukraine they sort of created this whole you know democracy is dying and president trump is a 0.87

00:32:43.200 you know hitlerian fashion like they really provided these sort of academic muscle to back up these 0.84

00:32:49.980 bogus theories so i'm just curious from your sort of you know meta bird's eye view analysis of what

00:32:56.680 you think they're looking for their roi to be is this something that's country specific is it issue

00:33:02.240 specific in the case of the defense contractors is it just war you know what what are they what are

00:33:08.140 they looking for and how are they trying to achieve their their uh you know stated goals is it by

00:33:14.320 shaping political discourse the media how are they disseminating it uh i i would say unfortunately it's

00:33:21.480 all of the above uh you know everything you mentioned there is absolutely spot on um you know at the end

00:33:27.200 of the day when when a donor gives a contribution to a think tank um these these aren't really

00:33:33.260 charitable entities uh you know anybody who's been around dc knows that folks at think tanks you know

00:33:39.400 they're leading the media narratives you know they're they're being interviewed on you know fox

00:33:44.160 cnn msnbc too um and they're they're they're lobbying congress they're testifying before congress in

00:33:51.660 some cases think tankers are even helping to write laws so when these foreign governments uh the u.s

00:33:57.680 government and pentagon contractors make a donation to a think tank they're hoping to get in on that

00:34:02.980 and they're hoping they can effectively use think tanks at least in some level um as an influence broker

00:34:11.300 for them you know that might mean helping to shape a narrative uh in their favor in the media or you know

00:34:17.560 if you're a country like the united arab emirates as we found the uae uh was far and away the biggest 0.97

00:34:22.980 foreign government owner to think tanks in the u.s uh the uae over and over again wants us to turn a

00:34:28.940 blind eye to when to their latest blunder in the world whether it's in sudan yemen wherever um other

00:34:35.380 governments like saudi arabia they're really eager to use think tanks to help the u.s to get into a

00:34:42.260 security pact that would be just disastrous for the u.s and could start the next endless war so

00:34:48.200 depending on who's giving them money that really shapes what they want to get back but rest assured

00:34:54.740 when there's a donation coming to a think tank uh there's always going to be some strings attached to

00:35:00.300 it well i think in the same way too with you know uh institutions of higher education academia this

00:35:08.440 loophole where they don't have to report it it's such a flagrant national security threat it's so

00:35:13.900 obvious but i guess it's sort of part of the uh the insider trade the insider deal right they're not

00:35:18.800 going to regulate because it's their same donors and lobbyists who are funding them but you bring up

00:35:23.480 the uae obviously we focus very extensively and intensely on the chinese communist party and their

00:35:29.720 kind of influence peddling going on in this town that was something that sort of shocked me

00:35:33.760 from the the report that their numbers were sized like considerably less but is that more a symptom

00:35:40.280 of the fact that they're just not reporting it it's sort of stealthy sneakier or who are some of the

00:35:46.280 biggest shall we say offenders in terms of you know the foreign countries and and to that point

00:35:51.260 this is two questions but can you talk about the united states government funding of some of these

00:35:57.300 think tanks as well yeah absolutely those are wonderful questions uh you know i'll start with the

00:36:02.920 question of china because uh you know frankly natalie that really shocked me too uh we found very very

00:36:08.780 little funding uh coming from the ccp um and i think there's a very clear reason for that it's that think

00:36:16.640 tanks don't have to report funding from the ccp uh or as i mentioned any foreign government for that

00:36:22.860 matter or any donor for that matter and because of that when you have a country that that has a stigma on

00:36:29.600 it like the ccp does um if you are a think tank accepting funding from them you're just not going 1.00

00:36:35.080 to report it you you're just going to hide that you know you're going to keep that as dark money

00:36:39.380 so i again you know i said this was the tip of the iceberg um and i i i think if we look at that

00:36:46.420 iceberg of money that's below what we found here i think you would find a lot more money flowing in

00:36:51.600 from the ccp to u.s think tanks but because of all these loopholes in u.s laws right now they just 0.54

00:36:57.800 simply don't have to report that uh to your question about the u.s government funding think

00:37:02.320 tanks um this was an important issue for us because you know at the end of the day um uh you

00:37:07.460 know i'm a taxpayer you're a taxpayer i i think one of the last things that we want to see is that u.s

00:37:13.740 taxpayer dollars going towards influencing and you know spreading propaganda to u.s taxpayers and yet

00:37:21.100 what we documented was over a billion dollars in u.s government funding going to the top 50 think

00:37:26.100 tanks in the u.s um you know in some cases that goes to research that's only used within the

00:37:31.460 government you know then folks might not have a problem with that but in other cases you know

00:37:35.560 this is going to very prominent think tanks uh that are some of those think tanks you mentioned the

00:37:40.780 the brookings of the world the center for strategic and international studies the atlanta councils of

00:37:45.600 the world that are promoting what we would consider a hawkish agenda you know at the end of the day at

00:37:51.220 the quincy institute uh we're already trying to end the next endless war so when we see our taxpayer

00:37:56.840 dollars going to think tanks that are seemingly clamoring for endless war uh yeah we're gonna have

00:38:03.480 a problem with that and i'm curious your thoughts as we you know barrel towards the uh second trump

00:38:11.420 administration if you think the sort of jockeying around for think tanks to prop up these you know

00:38:17.140 astroturf narratives whatever the issue may be i think maybe you're gonna start seeing the you know

00:38:22.520 open borders advocates and big labor they want all their h-1b's sort of come out of the woodwork although

00:38:26.980 i guess maybe they never really went away to begin with um but how you think that this is a force in

00:38:31.620 terms of again it's not explicitly opposing trump but just whoever the elected president is in some

00:38:37.980 ways they sort of act as an unelected bureaucrat or an unelected i think input into the policy

00:38:44.980 debate but the american people i think are left like you were alluding to in the dark about who's

00:38:49.620 really funding them right all these experts that they have you know testifying up on capitol hill

00:38:54.020 they're they're not experts they're pay-for-play crisis actors for whatever the issue may be but

00:38:59.560 i'm curious your thoughts particularly come january 20th someone who has you know been a i would say

00:39:05.680 outspoken advocate of not continuing these endless forever wars if you think there's only going to be

00:39:10.080 more money uh plowed into these think tanks yeah i i really think with a new uh trump administration

00:39:17.640 uh you know some of these funders might be on notice i i i think towards the tail end of the uh

00:39:24.140 the previous trump administration uh we saw the trump state department issue one of the only

00:39:30.680 meaningful objectives to uh to bring more transparency to think tank funding and then you know my

00:39:36.580 pompeo state department you know were issued this decree that any anything tank that wanted to do

00:39:41.680 business with them had to fully disclose all their foreign funders um and the biden administration

00:39:47.680 promptly uh abandoned that and you know did nothing with it so we don't have that level of disclosure

00:39:53.000 anymore um but i think you know i mean trump 2.0 here i i'm at least hopeful that you know you have

00:40:00.300 an administration that is concerned about this issue cares about it and that we're going to see

00:40:05.460 at least some efforts to to bring more uh transparency about foreign government funding

00:40:10.680 of think tanks so at the end of the day you you know somebody like president trump he gets the game

00:40:15.180 you know he knows he knows what's going on here so we're very hopeful that uh he'll help to rein this

00:40:20.400 in and ben we have a very action oriented audience they love to be informed if they want to use this

00:40:29.700 database sort of look at the info that you've pulled so the next time they're watching hate watching

00:40:34.100 msnbc or whatever and they see some expert that's the probably most cheapened word in washington dc that

00:40:41.240 and maybe american citizenship um but if they want to really look at where these people are coming from

00:40:46.520 who's propping them up where can they go to do that is you know how is it operable how can people

00:40:51.780 sort of get all this information yeah thank you so much for asking you you can find all of this

00:40:57.540 information at think tank funding tracker dot org everything i've mentioned we're giving it all

00:41:03.800 away you can look up uh whatever think tank you're interested in whatever foreign government defense

00:41:08.820 contractor you want to see where the u.s government's money's going we've got it all freely available to

00:41:13.880 you at think tank funding tracker dot org uh if you want a nerd like me to break it down for you you

00:41:19.200 can check out our report on this at quincyinst.org uh and if you want to follow me i'm on x at ben

00:41:25.580 premium dc ben thank you so much for joining us we'll have you back on i can only imagine the hours

00:41:32.640 that it took to go through all of that so thank you for doing the the hardcore work to get that out

00:41:38.860 it's important work thank you so much of course thank you there's a new study out today i saw i think

00:41:47.580 maybe the other side of the coin on all this that i think over half of federal government workers they

00:41:53.860 were itemized as like federal government managers are planning on resisting president trump whatever

00:42:00.040 that may mean and i told you about the new group civil service strong which of course has links to i

00:42:04.740 guess newly found stand-up comedian norm eisen um a group called civil service strong that is actively

00:42:11.780 coaching federal bureaucrats on how to whistleblow how to file complaints how to uh

00:42:17.560 shall we say throw sand in the gears of uh the america first agenda like i said the real tell

00:42:26.180 with that rachel maddow going to broadcasting every single day of the week now i'm sorry america is that

00:42:32.840 it's for the first hundred days of the trump administration and that they took alex wagner off

00:42:38.160 the beat to go and do on the ground field reporting in other words they're going to want to have the

00:42:44.080 sob stories of the multi-generational family that got to port okay spare me we're about america first

00:42:51.720 here and we're not going to fall for your what appeal to uh not logos probably just more pathos and ethos

00:43:00.720 over at msnbc we're not falling for it and we're not falling for your transition mark zuckerberg

00:43:09.560 like i said i've seen transgender surgeries that are more convincing than your a newfound

00:43:14.700 maga love and i'm a tough critic you gotta be checking out birchgold.com slash ban or texting

00:43:23.000 ban into 989898 we'll be right back after this short break with a very triggering cold open it's kind

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00:44:44.420 that is donewithdebt.com do it today action action action yeah i put in the application for a presidential

00:44:52.960 pardon because i believe that joe biden has the same responsibility to me that he had to his own son

00:45:00.160 and i would expect that the same exact pardon that he gave his son has to go to me and to anybody else

00:45:06.360 that's on that enemy's list whether they want it or not because i assure you solitary confinement where

00:45:13.160 i did 51 days sucks michael cohen i i believe wholeheartedly that the solitary confinement was

00:45:24.640 just a terrible experience for you and i think your point about the enemies the proverbial enemies list 0.83

00:45:32.200 right is a good one i wonder um have you heard anything back from the administration

00:45:38.620 it is my understanding that two things the administration one is not going to give a

00:45:42.860 pardon to anybody that doesn't want one so folks who have prominently gone out and said i do not want

00:45:47.820 a pardon the president is not going to issue a pardon to people that don't want one but two

00:45:53.320 they'll change their mind when they're sitting behind closed doors that i can assure you they're

00:45:58.160 going to kick themselves in the backside for that one i think hindsight will always be 2020 i guess

00:46:03.240 my question is have you heard from the biden administration and i am struck by your um your 0.91

00:46:08.660 your your comparing yourself and hunter biden um and i'm i wonder if well i'm going to tell you

00:46:16.960 michael causes we on national tv we have a conversation i don't necessarily think that's your best way to

00:46:20.500 go get a pardon i mean hunter biden is the president's last surviving son but your point your other point

00:46:25.780 why i do think i'm somebody's son also by the way agreed you are somebody's son but i mean to be very

00:46:31.240 clear you're not the president's son michael cohen do you remember when he would run around doing the

00:46:38.580 laps in media mr tough guy right how times have changed bro i don't think you need a pardon i think

00:46:47.880 you need some testosterone or some trt that has to be i think thus far in 2025 the most embarrassing

00:46:54.400 media clip that i have seen yet groveling on msnbc to the point where they're mocking you

00:47:01.000 where simone freaking sanders is giving you like life advice like an akumbaya trying to help you on 1.00

00:47:09.240 live tv but it goes back to the zuckerberg conversion stuff all of these men who were so tough

00:47:18.960 who celebrated the jan sixers going to prison celebrated steve bannon going to prison celebrated

00:47:26.200 and mocked peter navarro mocked the assassination attempt censored the assassination attempt against

00:47:31.420 president trump on facebook they were so tough such real men and now it's a little tough because they

00:47:41.080 know that the investigations are coming and they fold like i've never seen

00:47:47.960 compare and contrast that with what stephen k bannon did when i sat here for four months

00:47:56.500 because he was in a federal prison when peter navarro every day was sitting down for a misdemeanor in a

00:48:02.780 felony correction center every single thing that they have thrown against president donald j trump

00:48:09.180 including not one but two assassination attempts and they'll probably be more because they're that

00:48:14.500 deranged and these real strong men have continued showing up and fighting for this country just

00:48:20.160 like you guys this audience you've been tested 1000 times over than michael cohen or mark zuckerberg any

00:48:26.300 of these people and you've emerged victorious and now these people are doing sob story crimea river

00:48:36.860 laps on msnbc groveling for preemptive blanket pardons

00:48:42.080 i mean let that sink in i mean pat yourself on the back first think about how embarrassing and cringe

00:48:53.860 these people are

00:48:54.860 it's truly remarkable

00:49:00.000 and i stand by what i said maybe mark zuckerberg too you get a two-for-one deal

00:49:05.920 on some trt and just some common sense and i don't know stop committing crimes so you don't

00:49:12.120 need blanket preemptive pardons stop hating this country more than you love yourselves and your

00:49:16.720 globalist agendas that you're using to destroy this country and displace american workers and start

00:49:21.920 more endless forever wars and then cry and victim blame the american people for spreading misinformation

00:49:27.000 and then euphemizing it that you're censoring us because you care so much about democracy

00:49:31.420 just stop and then you won't have to emasculate yourself publicly on tv for the sake of everything

00:49:40.820 normize and i'll throw that cringe video into just stop

00:49:43.760 absolutely absurd

00:49:47.700 someone who is going to join us now who i know is definitely not

00:49:52.240 the mastermind behind bankrolling normize's new uh contrarian outlet is the one and only

00:49:59.140 mike lindell who joins us now i'm sure you're getting excited getting ready for all the inaugural

00:50:03.720 stuff but in the meantime hit us with the latest and all things my pillow

00:50:08.020 well you guys you know we all have we launched just for the war room the crosses i wear we're going

00:50:14.440 to do with the network these are the the men and women's crosses the women's are reversible

00:50:19.580 we have that you say 30 percent on the war room but i wanted to quick tell you all this

00:50:24.500 the flannel sheets this is the last day this is the last 24 hours for the flannel sheets

00:50:30.600 and it's all the colors are still there i just checked uh the queen size remember is one 0.96

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00:50:53.000 away i wanted to get on here and tell you all that go to the website and scroll down and click on steve

00:50:58.160 when you see him there's the my crosses you say 30 percent there are 30 yeah 30 percent on the

00:51:03.980 my crosses and then the flannel sheets right there get those flannel sheets right next to that

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00:51:20.600 the war room posse and then you look at those those uh my or those 2.0 pillows there 749 those go

00:51:28.320 anywhere my pillows and the case is 749 they're still there we got the classic still there and um and

00:51:35.200 then the beds and the toppers but right now we got to get those flannel sheets i've got a set right

00:51:40.020 here they this is it everybody you've got if you get those flannel sheets it's still cold it's still

00:51:45.260 the best time to get them or call the call center i'm in minnesota right now i'm actually going to be

00:51:50.060 going downstairs natalie and taking a couple calls myself i'm here i get involved with my call center i

00:51:55.620 love to take an old call so i might get one of you guys from the war room might take you personally and

00:52:00.340 uh and answer the phone so that'll be that'll be kind of fun going back in time

00:52:04.140 whatever you do don't give mark zuckerberg a my pillow promo code as he tries to complete his uh

00:52:11.020 maga conversion that's how you know your full maga that didn't happen what's going on there i can't

00:52:17.180 believe it i mean he wouldn't let me use my image before the 2020 election in a my pillow ad

00:52:22.460 i had to take my face out of the ad because i was so branded with the president and what a shameful

00:52:27.660 thing the stuff he did back then and now you're saying come on you know they don't call him

00:52:33.040 absolute disgrace war room is conversion therapy for rhinos i stand by it and uh mark zuckerberg

00:52:41.620 thanks but no thanks thank you guys for hanging with me i'll see y'all soon have a good one

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Bannon's War Room - January 13, 2025

Episode 4191： Don’t Fall For Zuckerberg MAGA Conversion; Weaponized Think Tanks

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