On July 4th, 1846, President John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President of the United States. He was the first man elected to the office and the first person to serve as Vice President. His name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
00:00:00.000The President recognizes Mr. Adams of Massachusetts.
00:00:12.000Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, measures which will affect the lives of millions, born and unborn, are now before us.
00:00:42.000We must expect a great expense of blood to obtain them.
00:00:50.000But we must always remember that a free constitution of civil government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate, as there is nothing on this side of Jerusalem of greater importance to mankind.
00:01:12.000My worthy colleague from Pennsylvania has spoken with great ingenuity and eloquence.
00:01:21.000He has given you a grim prognostication of our national future.
00:01:27.000But where he foresees apocalypse, I see hope.
00:01:33.000I see a new nation ready to take its place in the world.
00:10:50.020He's the one in the deliberations that tried to make the case that they were Englishmen and they should try to work out some accommodation with the king and that negotiation and compromise were best.
00:11:02.420Of course, they got it thrown back in their face by the crown consistently.
00:11:06.920And that's John Adams saying, hey, we absolutely have to make a break.
00:11:09.580And that led to the committee that was – drafted the Declaration of Independence.
00:11:15.640That's really the lead writer was Thomas Jefferson, and there you see in the beginning of the editing process of which Dr. Franklin and John Adams helped him, they felt, clean it up a bit before put before the entire body.
00:11:31.640Of course, there were many more edits after that, but the core of it is Thomas Jefferson's.
00:11:38.920One thing to remember, it was a declaration of war.
00:11:42.020It's a declaration of independence, but when you're part of an empire and you're saying, hey, upon further review, we're independent, you're going to war.
00:11:52.780But what is often lost in the teaching of the Declaration of Independence and our birthday on the 4th of July, 1776 is that that was a tremendous debate in a document that's lived through the ages and inspired people of all nations.
00:12:10.640As Dr. Benjamin Franklin says right there, it's for all men.
00:12:14.400And John Adams also says this is for all mankind, just not for the English colonists in North America at the time.
00:12:22.780But the largest expeditionary force in history to date was actually landing in New York City at that time.
00:12:32.140I believe they had already landed at Staten Island.
00:12:34.780The beginning of it had already landed at Staten Island on the 2nd of July.
00:12:39.400This would turn out to be over, I think, a couple of hundred warships and transport ships from the Royal Navy, which was an institution that England really rose to power around, its navy.
00:12:56.700And in fact, just a couple of weeks after the signing of the Declaration, basically by early to mid-August, they were ready to get it on and essentially destroy the Continental Army and really take America back and beat down and crush the revolution.
00:13:12.320In the first 90 days after the signing of the Declaration, my point, the founders and the founders of the revolutionary generation understood that this was going to have to resort to a fight.
00:13:26.940And this fight would cause a river of blood.
00:13:30.100And they were bound and determined to lead their countrymen in that fight.
00:13:34.720And it wasn't just going to come from a bunch of smart lawyers and people that knew rhetoric writing a flowery document to inspire people.
00:13:43.640They understood that this would have to stand the test of a long and brutal war, that war did not end until 1783.
00:13:55.380And there were days, as I tell you, in our struggle, there were days that you could not see the sunlit uplands in the revolution.
00:14:06.760In fact, in the first, from the time the British landed in Long Island and swept through, through the American Thermopylae that took place in Brooklyn, all the way to the American Dunkirk that took place at Brooklyn Heights, pushing us off Manhattan, then to New Jersey, and all the way back till we crossed the Delaware River back into Pennsylvania.
00:14:30.040Those first 60, 90 days of battle looked very grim.
00:14:34.140And Patrick K. O'Donnell, the greatest combat historian of his generation, will join us at the bottom of the hour.
00:14:40.740It's Independence Day in the war room.
00:14:44.240We're going to have music, film, clips, history, all of it, to commemorate the birth of this nation.
00:14:51.000This July, there is a global summit of BRICS nations in Rio de Janeiro, the block of emerging superpowers, including China, Russia, India, and Persia, are meeting with the goal of displacing the United States dollar as the global currency.
00:15:15.160They're calling this the Rio reset as BRICS nations push forward with their plans, global demand for U.S. dollars will decrease, bringing down the value of the dollar in your savings.
00:15:26.760While this transition won't not happen overnight, but trust me, it's going to start in Rio.
00:15:32.900The Rio reset in July marks a pivotal moment when BRICS objectives move decisively from a theoretical possibility towards an inevitable reality.
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00:17:10.420If we do the right thing 51% of the time, that's a pretty good day in terms of human nature.
00:17:18.240And so why would a democracy be any different since it's the fullest expression of all of us?
00:17:23.800Without meeting this test of citizenship, we will sacrifice so much to the rule of the strong.
00:17:34.320And that's what democracy was supposed to protect us from doing, is falling prey to the whims and appetites of somebody who just happens to be stronger than we are in that particular moment.
00:17:46.780And so when the founders, however flawed they were, when they gathered tomorrow in 1776, they knew they were signing their death warrant, that they were committing treason, that they could end up in the tower and worse.
00:18:04.820And yet they fixed their names because they believed in that sentence that Jefferson had written, again, did not apply to everybody.
00:18:17.220And we continue to work on to fulfill that promise that all of us are created equal.
00:18:23.880And I believe we can judge every era of American life by the degree to which we have lived into the declaration or the degree to which we have fallen from it.
00:18:35.160And I worry that we're moving away from it in this hour as opposed to toward it.
00:18:40.680The good news is we can change course.
00:18:43.600It just requires enough of us to decide to do the right thing.
00:18:47.340Okay, this is after – we're a constitutional republic.
00:18:54.820And you have to bifurcate because the left has a tendency to jam it and merge it all together.
00:19:02.780The declaration of independence, the war itself, and then the post-war, what happened, and then bringing the country – doing the – drafting the constitution and having a structure that's become the permanent structure of the United States.
00:19:21.980That took place over a broad swath of time in the lead-up to the revolution, post the French and Indian War, everything that led up to it that told Americans that we're not really represented by commons, we have a corrupt crown, that the crown, that the monarchy had corrupted commons.
00:19:40.980That's much like people are saying, hey, corporations, big donors have corrupted what is the replica of the House of Commons, which is the House of Representatives, and of course the House of Lords being the United States Senate.
00:19:56.920That many of us say that the grip of money of Wall Street and big tech has taken too big a grip into the imperial capital.
00:20:06.940In fact, we call – I don't call it the imperial capital. It would be funny.
00:20:10.980We have created an empire, something that the revolutionary generation and the founders, right?
00:20:17.540If you take that broad swath of those, what, 10 or 20 years, warned us about and basically said we broke off from that.
00:20:27.340We didn't want to be a part of that, and we don't think this country is relaying out a constitutional republic more structured after the Roman Republic
00:20:38.180than the direct democracy of the Athenians, although the inspiration came from both, but we're a constitutional republic.
00:20:49.380Those that keep saying democracy, democracy, democracy.
00:20:52.240If you go back and look at the Bolshevik Revolution, you actually even look at elements of the French Revolution.
00:20:57.200This is what the revolutionaries always toss out, democracy, democracy, democracy.
00:21:02.260Of course, at the end of the day, they're not going to have a democracy for anybody.
00:21:06.200The Bolsheviks were all very big in democracy at the beginning until they took control, a small minority by the way that took control,
00:21:13.040and then led Russia into decades and decades and decades of just horror until they fell in 1989.
00:21:25.400We have the same fight today, but Meechum and these guys, they're never going to admit that the tools of democracy are very powerful in the MAGA movement.
00:21:37.680In fact, it's the way we came back from having an election stolen.
00:21:41.180We came from behind, just to make sure that the history is at front of mind.
00:21:46.480We came from behind out of nowhere to beat the Clinton mafia and the globalists in 16.
00:27:28.900I want you to continue that line of attack, because it's going to lead nowhere.
00:27:33.640It's going to lead to a bigger win in 26.
00:27:35.220It's going to lead to a bigger win in 28.
00:27:38.880What Meacham and company should be focused on is what's happening to you, Meacham, and your other elites in a place called New York City, of something that you have created.
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00:29:47.160In the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them.
00:30:06.740A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
00:30:15.580We hold these truths to be self-evident and that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain un...
00:30:36.700With certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
00:30:43.680That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is in the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government.
00:30:56.620The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.
00:31:09.660In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms.
00:31:14.280Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.
00:31:17.620A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
00:31:26.860We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.
00:31:43.680That they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown.
00:31:47.980And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
00:32:39.280A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America and General Congress assembled.
00:32:45.640When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
00:32:52.960and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitled them,
00:33:00.120A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
00:33:07.380We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights,
00:33:17.980that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights...
00:33:28.360As soon as Chase gets through telling the Maryland Assembly what we saw in New Brunswick, huh?
00:33:32.600He's in Annapolis right now, describing a ragtag collection of provincial militiamen who couldn't drill together, train together, or march together.
00:33:41.140But when a flock of ducks flew over, and they saw their first meal in three, four days, sweet Jesus, could they shoot together!
00:36:58.020And if it isn't, we've still got four days left to think of something else.
00:37:04.100The eagle's going to crack the shell of the egg that England laid.
00:37:10.960Yes, so we can tell, tell, tell on this humid Monday morning in this congressional incubator.
00:37:20.020And just as Tom here has written, though the shell may belong to Great Britain, the eagle inside belongs to us.
00:37:31.160And just as Tom here has written, we say to hell with Great Britain, the eagle inside belongs to us.
00:37:42.260The great William Daniels there, who just I think recently passed away, I believe at 90 years old, as John Adams, Howard DaSilva as Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and of course Ken Howard as Jefferson.
00:38:06.040Interesting, Howard DaSilva was, I think, blackballed or banned in the entire 1950s because of his alleged association with the Communist Party.
00:38:18.760For those of you that are thinking ahead tonight at, I believe, 1030 on Turner Classic Movies, they always wrap up the 4th of July with a showing with no commercial interruptions of 1776.
00:38:31.780If you have not seen it, tonight may be a chance, absolute classic.
00:38:38.980Patrick, as you know, the reason you and I do these 4th of July specials is, one, to talk about the document and everything that went into the lead-up to the Continental Congress and to the Congress to actually draft the Declaration of Independence.
00:38:53.720But the British had already landed an expeditionary force from the most powerful institution probably in the Christian West, and that would be the Royal Navy and the British Army.
00:39:06.380So the signers of the Declaration, I think 56 of them, knew that they were signing potentially the death warrant.
00:39:18.480I wrote the Indispensables a few years ago, which still has a five-star rating on Amazon with nearly 2,000 reviews.
00:39:27.720But in there, one of the main people that the signers was Elbridge Gerry, who's a Marblehead Mariner.
00:39:35.480And he jokes to several of his fellow signers that he's going to swing for a long time at the gallows because he's so light in body and weight, whereas others would probably just die immediately.
00:39:53.500But they realized that this is a death sentence because they signed it, and they're parting ways with the greatest imperial power on Earth.
00:40:02.600And they had, prior to that, destroyed all insurrections within the British Empire, and they put them down quite forcefully.
00:40:10.800For instance, in an insurrection that took place in Ireland, nearly at the same time, they've drawn and ordered individuals just completely violently put down insurrections and always won.
00:40:27.660So this is an unprecedented move on the part of Americans to go against the greatest power on Earth at the time.
00:40:35.860They also knew that the crown, Dickinson's proposal is let's go to the crown one more time.
00:40:45.040That's what he convinced the Congress of.
00:40:46.660Let's go one more time, and let's try to get a negotiated deal here, whether we get our own parliament, whether we get seats in parliament, some type of representation.
00:40:56.340Let's figure it out, and the king came back, the crown came back and said, not only no, but anybody even has these thoughts or even agrees with this letter is guilty of high treason.
00:41:07.600He told them that that's what led to the whole committee coming together to draft the declaration because most of the colonies at the beginning were not for this.
00:41:15.000Also, the smarter members or the ones that had more wisdom understood that this was not going to be a 90-day conflict, that the British crown was just not going to roll over to a bunch of colonists that wrote a magnificent document on a piece of paper.
00:41:31.500They were just not going to sit there and turn it over.
00:41:33.920In fact, the expeditionary force that arrived in New York Harbor and at Staten Island was the greatest expeditionary force ever put together at that time.
00:41:44.560I think in mankind, they were sending a signal.
00:41:47.540This – North America is ours, right?
00:42:46.460If you read both of them, you get a real flavor of the combat and the ferocity of the combat.
00:42:52.160In fact, Ken Burns is coming out, I think, with a new 12-part series or he's going to issue a new – just like the Civil War on the revolution.
00:43:01.380In the interviews with Ken Burns, the one thing he says that shocked me as we went back and started doing archival research, as you did, Patrick, is the violence of the American Revolution that's really never been talked about.
00:43:13.800What a violent, violent fight and war it was and how the Americans just would not give up.
00:43:39.360If you don't think so, you're in the wrong game.
00:43:41.280Short break, back with Patrick K. O'Donnell on Independence Day 2025.
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00:45:36.560What do you got going on over there, Roy?
00:45:39.260Yeah, first of all, happy Independence Day, sir.
00:45:41.800And this is the fourth anniversary of Getter platform.
00:45:45.740I want to really say thank you to Steve and Warren Posse, Real American Voice, and also the New Federal State of China folks to build this such a strong community.
00:45:55.060We see high engagements, likes, reposts.
00:45:58.600And also, like, I want to mention about the history of Getter.
00:46:01.920We launched in the darkest time of the United States, we believe, in 2021.
00:46:06.020When people got canceled, and when they say something, they got canceled, they got persecuted.
00:46:12.320Born in communist China, myself, I really understand how important it is free speech.
00:46:18.640And 1.4 billion people in China, they're dreaming of the life we live right here as Americans, right?
00:46:25.580So, and we understand how destructive it is, like, communism and socialism is.
00:46:31.740So, that's why, like, I think this platform is so important.
00:46:35.580And feature-wise, as you mentioned, we have new features, Express sign-up.
00:46:40.500People can just sign up with one click without asking for emails and phone number and even your birthday and everything.
00:47:21.280You can just enjoy a live stream, especially a warm live stream.
00:47:24.260And most importantly, we will launch this monetization program where creators and even users can monetize on their content.
00:47:33.300And I believe Warren Posse and Steve's user are going to enjoy that first.
00:47:37.420Yeah, the live stream feature, let me go back to that because, you know, Grace and Mo put up so much on my account and the Worm account.
00:47:46.520If we see, you know, congressional hearings or interesting news or President Trump's rallies, all of it, it's extraordinary.
00:47:52.660On that part of it, it's actually much more advanced than Twitter, I believe, and much easier to use.
00:48:00.180And so the live stream is extraordinary.
00:48:01.720Some of the technology on Getter, and particularly for me, I mean, I'm a tech simpleton.
00:48:05.660So it's got to be very, very easy for me to use, and I can use all the features and posts, although I do still need some assistance every now and again from Grace and Mo and Elizabeth.
00:48:25.280Next thing you know, they've got a couple thousand followers.
00:48:27.860But then you've got people that are really interested in what you have to say and really interested in the clips you're putting up.
00:48:32.980So you can build a pretty big following pretty quickly because of so many like-minded people.
00:48:38.920And people say, well, you're just talking to the echo chamber.
00:48:41.960Hey, you want to build some confidence?
00:48:43.860You want to build a base for narrative warfare?
00:48:46.420You've got to start by actually getting – building the narrative inside a like-minded group.
00:48:54.140In a Getter, you get a like-minded group, although besides some bots, you've got some people in there coming and criticize every now and again, which is positive.
00:49:39.260And as you know, he's a senior advisor to President Trump today, and Jason's very involved in helping us think through issues.
00:49:47.300So I want to thank everybody associated with Getter that's helping us take this to the next level and make sure it's a platform built for the MAGA movement, built for the war and posse.
00:51:26.060Two-thirds of the documents – I'll ask Patrick when I get back.
00:51:28.800Two-thirds of the actual Declaration of Independence was basically a bill of indictment against the crown to say, yo, we're going to throw down, but we're going to list out.
00:51:39.380We're going to take the moral high ground and list out everything you've done to suppress liberty, and we're going to fight.
00:51:44.820We're going to fight to get our independence, and we're never going to give it up.
00:51:49.900And the question you have to ask yourself today, are we on the cusp of giving up our independence, even with as great a president as President Donald J. Trump?
00:52:01.760We're going to talk about the connection between General Washington from the revolution and the founding of the nation, Abraham Lincoln at the rebirth of the nation, and now President Trump at the rejuvenation of the American nation.
00:52:15.280All next on Independence Day in the war room.
00:52:18.980I speak in thunder to England, France, and Spain.
00:52:23.820Nations o'er the ocean spread shall tremble and obey.
00:52:29.380The prince who rules by freedom's laws in North America.