00:00:29.180I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
00:00:34.600Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
00:00:38.360If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
00:00:44.580War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
00:00:48.000thursday 6 august year of our lord 2026
00:00:56.340if we have time for we'll get to our traditional cold open a little later in the show we've got
00:01:02.580a couple of candidates this morning for the governorship of uh the republican nomination
00:01:08.120florida we're gonna get to uh we've got john solomon blockbuster news about maricopa county
00:01:12.720axios the buried lead over axios the number six story is the leaders of the frontier labs are
00:01:21.120saying hey i actually think we're in a i think we've reached the singularity so we're gonna break
00:01:27.000all this down but i gotta start in texas brian harrison because brian look brother this is
00:01:33.360the war on posse will will put their shoulders to the wheel and this is true of not just the
00:01:40.620posse but the great grassroots effort in texas which is the strongest in the nation uh and
00:01:46.940leaders will take time and they'll take their free time and they'll do whatever needs to be done
00:01:50.860to save their republic and to bequeath this constitutional republic uh down you know down
00:01:57.160range but what they demand is accountability can you walk us through what you put up on twitter
00:02:02.640last night had my head blown up so can you please update the story update the story and tell us
00:02:09.720where we stand certain the great state of texas with the political the political class down there
00:02:14.680no the the grassroots the people of the great state of texas they're patriots they love their
00:02:20.520country they love freedom and they've done their job at the ballot box they've elected republicans
00:02:24.680and given us massive majorities from the governor's mansion lieutenant governor's office huge
00:02:28.400majorities of the texas senate and the texas house but unfortunately the corrupt establishment
00:02:32.320uniparty keeps putting the democrats in charge and that is on on display every day in the corrupt
00:02:38.760texas house where our fake republican leadership we are we're two days past even two days ago was
00:02:45.720the one-year anniversary of the democrat quorum break when the democrats fled the state and hid
00:02:50.100behind you know governor pritzker to try and stop us from adding five new uh congressional seats to
00:02:55.200our map and i was warning everybody guys this is just just gonna see hand-waving a kabuki theater
00:02:59.640from the fake republican leadership because what people don't understand is democrats control the
00:03:03.300texas house and you know how is that possible radicals like james tallarico okay the marx
00:03:08.720progressive running for the U.S. Senate down here. He was literally part of the coalition that
00:03:12.780elected our fake Republican speaker. I'm going to say that again. The current Republican speaker
00:03:17.360of the Texas House was elected, installed by James Tallarico and the Democrat caucus. Okay,
00:03:24.280so it was our Republican speaker that let the Democrats leave. They broke quorum. And then for
00:03:29.060the past year, we have had, you know, paid hacks, establishment mouthpieces, gaslighting the people
00:03:35.100of Texas saying, our Republican speaker, he's going to hold those Democrats accountable.
00:03:38.720Here we are one year later. Let's see. The governor said their seats were going to be vacated.
00:03:42.720Zero seats vacated. Our speaker, fake Republican, signed arrest warrants a year ago.
00:03:48.240Yeah, zero arrests. But here was the last thing they did.
00:03:51.180They're like, we're going to find those Democrats and we're going to make them pay.
00:03:54.120We're going to find them and they're going to have to pay for it with personal money, not campaign funds.
00:03:58.160No, no, no. They know that wouldn't hurt them. Not official expenses, personal funds.
00:04:01.800Well, as of yesterday, I've got the receipts. I said they were lying a year ago and now I can prove it.
00:04:06.220These Democrats who paid their fines were reimbursing themselves out of their campaign accounts.
00:04:13.440It's another betrayal from the establishment unit party that runs the Texas House.
00:04:18.500Democrats have never wielded, despite gaslighting, Democrats have never wielded more power under a Republican speaker than they do right now under our fake Republican who was put in charge by Tallarico and who get this.
00:04:28.900one of the biggest nationally people need to understand this. James Tallarico rose to national
00:04:33.820prominence under the fake Republican leadership in the Texas House. After Tallarico elected our
00:04:39.620speaker, our speaker rewarded him. He put him on powerful committees. He made him co-chair
00:04:43.720of two committees and he prioritized his bills over Republicans. So when you see James Tallarico
00:04:48.780campaigning on a legislative track record, the sad reality is he has one because of the fake
00:04:54.620Republican leadership in the Texas House who prioritized James Tallarico legislation over
00:05:00.060Republican bills. And I've been calling for months for Tallarico to be stripped
00:05:03.500of his leadership position because that's what the patriots who call the great state of Texas home
00:05:07.960demand and they deserve. They voted for Republican leadership. They deserve Republican
00:05:12.600leadership. And I'm sick and tired of Democrats in Texas fighting harder for the future
00:05:15.760than elected Republicans. Have they taken away a parking spot? Have they moved an office? I mean,
00:05:21.720You have tremendous power, patronage, office space, staff, perks like parking spaces, security.
00:05:30.460Has anything, anything been done to hold these people accountable, sir?
00:05:37.320And I can tell you firsthand, the parking spots remain untouched.
00:05:41.200And I can tell you that because I literally share a parking spot with none other than James Tallarico.
00:05:46.080There's nothing more than a line of paint that separates my truck from James Tallarico's parking spot.
00:05:50.600And every time I'm there, there's James Tallarico's car right next to my truck.
00:13:31.120And unfortunately, he didn't have to lie.
00:13:32.700He bragged that he has passed. James Tallarico, radical Marxist, leftist, socialist, progressive.
00:13:37.880He has passed over 60 bills off the floor in the Texas House of Representatives.
00:13:44.500Meanwhile, conservative Republicans in the Texas House haven't passed 60 combined under the purview, the leadership of our fake Republican leadership in the Texas House.
00:13:54.820That is corruption. I would actually argue it's the worst form of voter fraud because voters gave Republican a 26 seat majority in the Texas House.
00:14:02.700But Democrats were actually put in charge instead of conservative Republicans.
00:14:06.020And James Tallarico, right now, as we speak, still holds multiple leadership positions in the Texas House.
00:14:11.760And as we speak, by the way, Stephen, the most powerful person in the chamber, our parliamentarian, yeah,0.51
00:14:16.420a Barack Obama White House lawyer is the most powerful person in the Texas House right now, thanks to our fake Republicans.
00:16:18.600I want to bring on a guy I've known for a long time and a really good man, Congressman Byron Donalds.
00:16:26.740Congressman, in the House, there was a moment there I thought that we, in the chaos, I think of early 22, that you might have a shot to be Speaker.
00:16:36.720And there's a lot of people that backed you during the tumultuous time.
00:16:39.840And why I understand you love Florida, but tell us why you would leave the House where you've got a shot to be in leadership to take on to actually go from the federal level and then follow, I think.
00:16:52.180And look, I was Ron DeSantis's biggest critic when he ran against President Trump.
00:16:56.220I think he's a very good governor to take on a very tough act to follow, sir.
00:17:02.460Very simple, Steve. Florida needs to make sure that we continue to be the number one state in all of America.
00:17:07.480And if you look at my background, obviously, the last six years on Capitol Hill battling the left, whether it was even dealing with House leadership, working with House leadership to put together the best packages that could actually get across the floor in the House of Representatives.
00:17:21.980But even my time in the state legislature, I spent four years in the state legislature in Tallahassee.
00:17:27.400I crafted the first bill of its kind that allowed community members to find out about the woke indoctrination that was in front of our kids.
00:17:34.500That was back in 2017 when I was in the state house where Scott signed that into law.
00:17:39.100And plus my background, I spent 17 years in the financial industry.
00:17:42.740And Florida's next governor is going to have to be a true conservative, someone committed to the principles of liberty,
00:17:48.420but also be business minded in order to guide Florida into the future where we expand our economy and continue to be the number one state in America.
00:17:56.340So that's why looking at the race and looking at the job, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and it's gone very well.
00:18:02.380And in, you know, the 12 days, the voters of Florida are going to decide the Republican nominee for governor.
00:18:10.580Talk to us about that for a second. You see the Texas and Florida have as growth states have different challenges than other people.
00:18:19.180Part of that is that so many people in industries want to move to Florida, particularly the finance industry.
00:18:24.040You know, you see in Texas are going to start the Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas.
00:18:27.240And you got Ken Griffin and tons of hedge fund guys moving to and institutions moving down to South Florida, Miami, kind of driven out of there, out of New York.
00:18:37.200How do you balance it? I mean, Florida's got such a great culture, a great history.
00:18:41.680It's such a unique place that so many Floridians have lived in.
00:18:45.760You know, Florida is a blue collar and a middle class state.
00:18:49.060How do you balance this new demand where kind of not just the world's wealthy, but the nation's wealthy want to move down?
00:18:56.540Now, is that in your administration, how are you going to handle to make sure that doesn't change all of those great attributes that make Florida, Florida?
00:19:05.080We remind people who choose Florida that you've come for a reason, and that's because you want to be in a common sense state with a low regulatory environment that just follows the law.
00:19:15.100We are going to uphold the law. Law and order is going to be the standard in our state.
00:19:18.280And those are the bedrock principles, Steve, that has really made Florida so attractive to so many who've decided to move their businesses.
00:19:25.460They are fleeing from the Democrat socialists in New York, in Chicago, in California.
00:19:32.980And what we found is that when they come to Florida, they are understanding the fact that they had to leave crazy Democrat blue jurisdictions.
00:19:41.580And they want to embrace the free market conservatism and, quite frankly, the quality of life that has come to be known here in Florida.
00:19:50.800I think in terms of balance, we still need to protect our agriculture lands.
00:19:54.720They're critical to Florida's future because we feed half the country, especially when it gets cold up north.
00:20:02.260It's our environment and our waterways.
00:20:04.700They need to continue to be beautiful and vibrant for the future, not just of Florida's economy, but for the future of Florida overall.
00:20:12.540So we are going to strike that balance while having to figure out the road infrastructure and some of the housing issues that we do have
00:20:19.300so that young people in particular can get a shot at really building that Florida dream.
00:20:24.720buying a home and starting a family for themselves.
00:20:29.360You know, as you remember, we were one of the biggest critics of Governor DeSantis when he
00:20:34.000decided to run against President Trump. And we just thought, hey, it's essential that President
00:20:38.200Trump have a shot to come back here. But I do think Governor DeSantis has been an extraordinary
00:20:42.420governor. What lessons do you take from Ron DeSantis to say, hey, look, these are the types
00:20:47.920of things, not simply policies, but the way he handles his job. I want to continue. And what
00:20:53.200are the differences that Byron Doddles is going to make when you look at it and say, hey, look,
00:20:57.520I got other skills. What is compare and contrast? What are you going to take? And then what are you
00:21:02.520going to jettison? Well, first is how Governor DeSantis was no nonsense when it came to doing
00:21:08.140what was right on behalf of the people of Florida. Take COVID-19. Steve, you remember how crazy it
00:21:14.300was. Every public health establishment figure wanted to shut down all 50 states. Governor DeSantis
00:21:20.260DeSantis looked at the data. And at that time, it was not popular. Even in some parts of Florida
00:21:24.720at that time, it was not popular to issue the orders to be open. But he looked at the data,
00:21:29.620he made a decision, and he wasn't concerned about what the press and the polling were saying.
00:21:34.260He did what was right. And if you're going to lead our state into the future, that's the lesson you
00:21:38.360learn from Ron DeSantis. And by the way, contrast that with the Democrat in the race, David Jolly.
00:21:43.800This is a guy who fled Florida. When Ron DeSantis opened our state and kept our state open,
00:21:48.460he left. He took his family. He went to Pennsylvania and he criticized Ron DeSantis
00:21:52.840over Zoom when he was doing TV hits for MSNBC and CNN. That's not the type of leadership our
00:21:59.560state needs going into the future, Steve. It's just not. I think in terms of what I bring,
00:22:03.980like I said, Governor DeSantis, tremendous career, tremendous service to our country.
00:22:09.060He was a JAG officer. And so he served our nation. My career was in finance and in business. And so
00:22:15.240So I think for a lot of Floridians who are concerned about how are we going to balance and manage the growth that's coming to our state, you do need a governor who understands economic systems, understands capital flow and business formation so we can bring that balance to maintain the Florida dream that so many of us in our state love.
00:22:35.300One of the things we're most impressed with Governor DeSantis, you know, as you said, during COVID, it really became the free state of Florida under his guidance and really stood up in tough times.
00:22:45.240He's taken a very strong stand against AI.
00:22:47.560I mean, he's really the leader of stopping of what this preemption issue is with the tech broligarchs wanting to have no guardrails, total free reign as accelerationists.
00:22:58.060He's taken, I think, a very reasoned approach and really, quite frankly, if it wasn't for DeSantis and the power that Florida brings, I think we'd be in a very tough place with AI.
00:23:06.100Talk to us about the benefits and your concerns about artificial intelligence, what the governor has done really to stop kind of this national accelerationist move.
00:23:16.360And how does that play back to this issue with data centers, which, you know, from Mike Rogers in Michigan, Governor Abbott today just put a moratorium on data centers until they're more reviewed about the grid down there.
00:23:27.900Talk to us about Governor DeSantis' AI data centers and what can we expect out of Governor Byron Donalds?
00:23:34.060Well, look, I'm glad you asked because, you know, a lot of people say a lot of things. Let me tell you exactly my position. Number one, we want to create a regulatory framework in Florida. The governor tried to move an AI Bill of Rights during the last legislative session. It wasn't able to get through.
00:23:50.220But there are about nine of nine of those pillars that he had in that legislation.
00:23:54.180I agree with the biggest ones among them. We got to protect kids.
00:23:58.140We can't have kids just essentially be exposed to these chatbots with no filters, no controls.
00:24:05.660Number two, you got to put parents in charge of this stuff.
00:24:08.700You need parents need to be able to see what's going on with their children in these chatbots.
00:24:13.500A big one for a lot of us in Florida, regardless of your political party, name, image and likeness protections.
00:24:28.280But we want to make sure that people's name, image, and likeness are being protected.
00:24:31.940I think when it comes to data centers, Governor DeSantis already signed into law Senate Bill 44.
00:24:38.020What it requires is that the electricity bills for the people of Florida will not go up if a hyperscale data center is constructed in our state.
00:24:45.180The other thing that piece of legislation did, it required a consumptive use permit from the water management districts, limiting the ability to just take our water with no repercussions whatsoever.
00:24:56.400So it contains the water issues in our state.
00:25:00.600What I would want to see, those systems, those data centers would need a closed loop filtration system or they would have to be air cooled.
00:25:08.080That way they're not just continuing to take some of Florida's precious water resources from the people of Florida.
00:25:13.740last piece is proximity. You can't have them next to residential neighborhoods. We're not going to
00:25:18.580let that happen in Florida. And I think if you go back to the regulatory environment, people have
00:25:23.180always asked me, you're endorsed by President Trump. Where do you guys disagree? Are you going
00:25:28.100to represent Florida? And actually, one of the disagreements was with this national move for a
00:25:33.000regulatory framework in D.C. I mean, first, Steve, you know, how are you going to get that through
00:25:37.420the Senate? We're already having issues getting common sense things like the Save America Act
00:25:41.320through the Senate. So if you're going to do a federal AI policy, a federal AI regulation,
00:25:47.820you're not negotiating with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to get that done. And with all
00:25:52.620due respect, I don't trust them in those negotiations. So I think this is where Florida
00:25:56.840is going to lead. We're going to create a regulatory framework. And you're going to create
00:26:00.520a regulatory, you're going to create a regulatory, you're going to create a regulatory system and
00:26:05.020you're going to be at the lead of pushing this through town because Tallahassee is just one
00:26:09.820scale down, one level down from tough to get stuff done, correct? It's tough, but there's ways to get
00:26:16.980that done. And so I've already started talking with legislative leadership in the House and in
00:26:21.200the Senate on this issue. We're going to get an AI Bill of Rights, an AI regulatory framework done
00:26:26.700in Tallahassee for the state of Florida. And Steve, to be honest, I think once you have that
00:26:31.000in place, other states are going to look at that and say, well, Florida did it. We need to do it
00:26:35.120too. And so when it comes to AI, I think that Florida needs to be the leader, because we've
00:26:40.420seen what's happened in too many of our industries. California has led, New York has led, and it's
00:26:45.400been terrible policy that has moved through states across the country. Congressman, we've got about
00:26:51.140a minute left. Where do people go to find out more about you, more about your campaign, more about
00:26:55.280how you see, what's your vision for the future of Florida, particularly when it deals with
00:26:59.700high finance and high tech, sir? Go to ByronDonalds.com. Follow me on all the
00:27:05.840socials at Byron Donalds. Listen, my job and mission is clear. We want Florida to continue
00:27:11.720to be the best state in America. We're going to continue to be the free state of Florida.
00:27:15.700And Steve, when I'm long gone from politics, I want people to still marvel that Florida is
00:27:20.700number one. I want to still marvel that Florida is number one. We want it to continue to be the
00:27:25.940best state in the entire United States. And we want young people to be able to build their Florida
00:27:31.500dream in our state. The free state of Florida. Congressman Byron Donalds. Thank you, sir. Thank
00:27:37.640you for dropping him out of the war room. Thank you, Steve. I've known Byron a long time. Good man.
00:27:46.120Short commercial break. Take your phone out. Text Bannon, B-A-N-N-O-N, 9-8-9-8-9-8.
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00:29:33.440today war room here's your host stephen k man okay welcome back i asked kobe to change around
00:29:42.860his work day and join us hey kobe this announcement people are very confused about this is kind of
00:29:47.640medicare announcement of of of what's going to be covered what's not going to be covered what's
00:29:51.620going to be paid for what's not going to be paid for because as you know medicare is so
00:29:55.760mind-numbingly complicated explain what's been announced by the trump administration what's
00:30:01.700happening, and then how people can calm down, take a deep breath, call 845-CHAPTER and talk