Speaker 1: Hi, It's Peter Schweizer. I'm here with Eric Eggers. We
Speaker 1: are filling in for Sean. We run the Government Accountability Institute.
Speaker 1: You can find out more about what we do at
Speaker 1: GAI dot News. You can also join the conversation one
Speaker 1: eight hundred nine four one seven three two six. That's
Speaker 1: one eight hundred nine four one Sean. At the bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour, we're going to be joined by an
Speaker 1: esteemed historian, Patrick O'Donnell, who is going to be talking
Speaker 1: about what we're going to be celebrating tomorrow, which is
Speaker 1: America's independence and the military history. He's really America's best
Speaker 1: combat historian. But before that, we have more breaking news
Speaker 1: as we watch events unfold in Washington and in the
Speaker 1: White House, the great soap opera which has become Will
Speaker 1: Joe Biden be or not be the presidential nominee for
Speaker 1: the Democrats.
Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, this was not what we expected
Speaker 2: to be doing today, right.
Speaker 3: We knew we'd be guest hosting for Sean Henny, but
Speaker 3: we thought, man, it's going to be July third, It's
Speaker 3: the Wednesday. You know, you guys listening to us across
Speaker 3: the country, you're headed to wherever you're going to be
Speaker 3: celebrating the long holiday weekend. We thought we'd you know,
Speaker 3: celebrated this country and what we can be and what
Speaker 3: we have been before. And that's what Patrick O'Donnell will
Speaker 3: talk to us about. And then the debate happened like
Speaker 3: that was less than a week ago. And then even
Speaker 3: we're crazier than that was. Okay, Joe Biden had a
Speaker 3: really bad night. We recognized that the media has lied
Speaker 3: to us for the last several months, and nothing's a
Speaker 3: cheap fake. It's actually just really who he is, and
Speaker 3: you know, they've concealed it and covered it up.
Speaker 2: And then immediately the media.
Speaker 3: Just like ran and they totally flipped right all four
Speaker 3: calling this and the New York Times the next day
Speaker 3: said he's got to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the op ed board came out and said, no, no,
Speaker 2: we agree, this is bad.
Speaker 1: They shived him quick.
Speaker 2: They shived him quick.
Speaker 3: And now you're starting to see actual elected officials follow suits.
Speaker 3: So the breaking news just seconds ago a second member
Speaker 3: of the House Democrat parties calling for Joe Biden to
Speaker 3: drop out of the race. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas,
Speaker 3: called for Joe Biden to drop out. A little while ago,
Speaker 3: a second House Democrat from Arizona, Raoul Grivalia, has joined
Speaker 3: other House Democrats, I mean joined just the one Lloyd
Speaker 3: Doggett and calling for Joe Biden to withdraw. In an
Speaker 3: interview with The New York Times, he said, quote, if
Speaker 3: he's the candidate, I'm going to support him, but I
Speaker 3: think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere. What
Speaker 3: he really needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for
Speaker 3: keeping that seat, I meaning the White House, and part
Speaker 3: of that responsibility is to get out of this race.
Speaker 3: So again, let's not act this is a normal thing,
Speaker 3: that it's normal for other people to be calling for
Speaker 3: the president to stop running for reelection. Right, although it
Speaker 3: should be point out, as you pointed out, when Joe
Speaker 3: Biden ran for election the first time, he said he's
Speaker 3: only going to serve one term.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Here's the other thing we have to
Speaker 1: keep in mind. Everybody's saying Joe Biden is drawing a
Speaker 1: line in the sand. He's staying he's drawn lines in
Speaker 1: the sand before. He drew one to Vladimir Putin, who
Speaker 1: stepped over it. I mean, the point is, Joe can
Speaker 1: give a great line, and he can give a defiant statement,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't seem to have the oomph to kind
Speaker 1: of back it up. And I think that's what we
Speaker 1: have to understand, is is all the atmospherics. You can
Speaker 1: issue a great statement and a defiant statement. You can
Speaker 1: get it on a phone call as he did with
Speaker 1: Democrats today and say I'm staying. Nobody's going to push
Speaker 1: me out, But it doesn't really matter if everybody sees
Speaker 1: the Emperor has no clothes.
Speaker 3: He has said that he recognizes, and the New York
Speaker 3: Times has reported this also in a conversation with an
Speaker 3: Aid that he recognizes he has only days, I think
Speaker 3: to convince the American people that he's capable of staying.
Speaker 3: But as you've said to me and elsewhere, if he
Speaker 3: really wants to convince the American people that he is
Speaker 3: capable of staying and fighting and winning back their trust
Speaker 3: and support, then he should be having a conversation with
Speaker 3: the American people. Instead, he's doing the opposite, right, He's hiding.
Speaker 3: He's showing up as he did yesterday, reading for a
Speaker 3: few minutes off of a teleprompter, did it the day
Speaker 3: before that too. But where is he I guess he's
Speaker 3: going to give an interview with George Stephanopolis this weekend,
Speaker 3: but that's still not talking to the American people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, think of it in these terms. If
Speaker 1: an athlete tells you my knee is fine, and he
Speaker 1: keeps issuing statements that his knee is fine, and his
Speaker 1: agent says, no, his knee is great, and the team says, okay,
Speaker 1: can you go out and run out on the field. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to run on the field. My knees fine.
Speaker 1: Nobody's gonna believe him. And that's what I think is
Speaker 1: happening with the Democrats. Clearly, the momentum is moving against him,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it's gonna change. I think that
Speaker 1: he will be out of office, perhaps by the end
Speaker 1: of this weekend. No, yes, yes, I think it's possible.
Speaker 1: I think if they're gonna do this, they have to
Speaker 1: do it quickly. The longer it lingers, the longer there
Speaker 1: is this uncertainty, I should say that he's not going
Speaker 1: to be the candidate by the end of the week.
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's going to be out of office,
Speaker 1: but I think if they're gonna cut bait, they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to do it soon. The longer this linger, it
Speaker 1: shows indecisiveness on his part. Is also shows that his
Speaker 1: heir apparent, Kamala Harris, he doesn't have a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence in her right, He's nervous about handing the keys
Speaker 1: over to her as the Democratic Party nominee. So I
Speaker 1: think if you're gonna do this, Democrats, you gotta do
Speaker 1: it quickly.
Speaker 3: You don't think you can kind of hunker down with
Speaker 3: the fourth of July just gets the more time to
Speaker 3: lapse between the debate and then I hopefully, you know,
Speaker 3: Donald Trump has to announce his vice presidential candidate or
Speaker 3: other news breaks that sort of like people sort of
Speaker 3: all right, well he's our guy, kind of, you know.
Speaker 3: But I think this interview that is going to give
Speaker 3: a Georgefanopolis seems like it carries a lot of weight.
Speaker 1: Then it does, But again, I don't think it demonstrates
Speaker 1: anything other than he's prepared to sit down in a
Speaker 1: taped interview. And we have a history with George Stephanopolis.
Speaker 1: You know, when when we exposed what the Clinton Foundation
Speaker 1: was doing, he came aggressively after us never disclosed the
Speaker 1: fact which we discovered later and reported that he was
Speaker 1: actually a major Clinton Foundation donor. So I don't trust
Speaker 1: George Stephanopolis to actually play fair with this. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a taped, edited interview. The very fact that
Speaker 1: that's what he's doing, it's not live, and it's with
Speaker 1: probably the safest of the people he could interview with
Speaker 1: in the mainstream media is a further indication. To use
Speaker 1: the analogy, his knees not so good. He doesn't want
Speaker 1: to go out there and really show everybody what he's
Speaker 1: capable or not capable of doing.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: If George Sephanopolis is friendly, then the number of allies
Speaker 3: Joe Biden have has in the media as rapidly diminishing,
Speaker 3: because I mean it's not just the editors of the
Speaker 3: New York Times and the columnists there. You said, the
Speaker 3: Boston Globes now call it for him to drop out
Speaker 3: of the race. And I think actually something that Nicole
Speaker 3: Wallace said on MSNBC yesterday maybe helps reveal why. And
Speaker 3: there's a lot of different aspects of this. There is
Speaker 3: the fact that we've been you know, the president is
Speaker 3: in this enfeebled state and the media has lied and
Speaker 3: covered it up. We talked earlier in the show about
Speaker 3: remember when the Special prosecutor her report came out, and
Speaker 3: he says, listen, you know, I don't want to charge
Speaker 3: this guy with a crime because he would just be
Speaker 3: a very sympathetic defendant. And then everyone's like, oh, that's ridiculous,
Speaker 3: you know, and they apologize. The New York Times rand
Speaker 3: a thing about I think we're thinking about memory the
Speaker 3: wrong way. I'm a neuroscience It's fine. We all forget,
Speaker 3: like that's a real thing that happened. Yeah, and so,
Speaker 3: but Nicole Wallace said that this, which I thought was
Speaker 3: just stunning on a number of things. But listen to
Speaker 3: what the conversations allegedly per Nicole Wallace, who by the way,
Speaker 3: was a former Republican and a former remember like the
Speaker 3: Bush White House, this is.
Speaker 2: What they're actually worried about.
Speaker 5: Look at it just doesn't know Yeah, exactly, Mark Elias.
Speaker 5: We should pull the curtain back on what's actually happening,
Speaker 5: shouldn't we. People are exploring options to live in other
Speaker 5: countries if they think they could be targeted for prosecution
Speaker 5: by Donald Trump, because targeting you, or targeting me, or
Speaker 5: targeting Andrew would be an official act based on today's decision.
Speaker 1: I tell you what if it was a store, Nicole
Speaker 1: Wallace would be the national spokesman for narcissists r us
Speaker 1: as if she thinks that that people are going to
Speaker 1: be targeting her because she's this major force in America
Speaker 1: that people there are only certain people that are being
Speaker 1: prosecuted in the country, I would argue for their political views,
Speaker 1: and it's not Liberal Democrats under Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: I mean that was in relation to the Supreme Court
Speaker 3: announcement that there is going to be some level of
Speaker 3: immunity for Donald Trump as official acts as president. But
Speaker 3: the fact that those I think that she annuinely believes that,
Speaker 3: and I think that members of the media probably genuinely
Speaker 3: do fear retribution from a Trump presidency because of I guess,
Speaker 3: whatever they've done towards him. But number one, that seems
Speaker 3: actually incredibly that narcissistic, and I think you have a
Speaker 3: very inflated since of yourself if you think that they're
Speaker 3: going to go after MSNBC reporters. Secondly, by the way,
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is the one that has not chosen to
Speaker 3: go after political opponents.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Remember that the crowds were chanting lock her up when
Speaker 3: Hillary Clinton was potentially guilty of some of the things
Speaker 3: that they never charged her for. But then what happened
Speaker 3: four years later, they actually did come after Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: and he's been indicted on a number of charges now.
Speaker 3: And oh, by the way, one of the prosecutors, Fanny
Speaker 3: Willison Atlanta, who's brought charges against him, was at the
Speaker 3: White House correspondence dinner on the red carpet, like she's
Speaker 3: a celebrity for doing what exactly, prosecuting the political opponent.
Speaker 3: So it just speaks to the hypocrisy of what these
Speaker 3: people are capable of. But I think it's to the
Speaker 3: media's point. Number one, they have actual Trump derangement syndrome.
Speaker 3: They think Donald Trump is this exsidential threat to democracy.
Speaker 3: But I think that clip reveals they actually think that
Speaker 3: he's a threat of their own personal freedoms.
Speaker 1: Yes, no, he does, and they do. And you're exactly right.
Speaker 1: And you know, this point that they are making, and
Speaker 1: that the Democrats keep pounding out that what the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court has said is now a president can do anything
Speaker 1: and they can't be prosecuted, is totally ridiculous. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's total scare mongering, and they know it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not an official act to kill a NBC News anchor,
Speaker 1: it's not that's criminal. The president has certain official acts
Speaker 1: and if they engage in those acts and things go awry,
Speaker 1: they can't be prosecuted. For example, President Barack Obama droned
Speaker 1: and killed American citizens in the Middle East. The point
Speaker 1: is he did that as an official act protecting the
Speaker 1: United States as commander in chief. The point is, you
Speaker 1: can't have a prosecutor in Texas or Alabama say I'm
Speaker 1: going to charge Barack Obama with murder because he killed
Speaker 1: this American and a drone strike. Similar situation with Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden engaged in a drone strike not too long ago,
Speaker 1: thought he was killing a terrorist leader. They ended up
Speaker 1: killing a family, including several young children. Tragic. Again, Joe
Speaker 1: Biden should not be criminally prosecuted for doing that. He
Speaker 1: was engaged in his official duties as president. Nobody believes,
Speaker 1: nobody recognizes the official duties of the president is to
Speaker 1: send a seal team and kill his political opponents. It's
Speaker 1: to me evidence of how so many people you can
Speaker 1: have a principled opposition to Donald Trump and absolutely but
Speaker 1: they've lost their minds. This is not a principled opposition.
Speaker 1: This is panic spreading panic, and this is mongering in
Speaker 1: fear that has no basis in reality.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what it is. It's delicious. It is terrific.
Speaker 3: I mean seriously, right, I mean, because you're told all
Speaker 3: these things about how bad consider how bad Donald Trump is,
Speaker 3: and how it's so ridiculous to assume that Joe Biden
Speaker 3: is any of these cognitivity declined aspects that we've heard
Speaker 3: these drips and drabs.
Speaker 2: It's a cheap fake.
Speaker 3: And then for it to have the rug pulled out
Speaker 3: from underneath them and then to see them absolutely lose
Speaker 3: their mind. Is it's enjoyable on a level that's probably
Speaker 3: not appropriate to talk about on national radio.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I think you're right about that. And look,
Speaker 1: I would love to if I encountered any of these
Speaker 1: people at a cocktail party. And I don't really go
Speaker 1: to cocktail parties. It's not my thing. I'm happy where
Speaker 1: I am down in Florida. But if I did, I
Speaker 1: would love to extend a hand and say, I will
Speaker 1: bet you ten thousand dollars if Donald Trump is president,
Speaker 1: that you're not in a prison camp after year four?
Speaker 2: How many of them at least not because of Donald
Speaker 2: Trump exactly.
Speaker 1: But how many of them do you think would actually
Speaker 1: take that that. None of them would because they know
Speaker 1: it's garbage. They know it's not true, and that's what's
Speaker 1: so sad and disingenuous about it. The same way we
Speaker 1: played the clip earlier that Joe Scarborough went on his
Speaker 1: ramp that this is the best version of Joe Biden
Speaker 1: ever is totally disingenuous. They're doing the same thing here.
Speaker 2: No, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: You know that Norm MacDonald, the comedian, used to have
Speaker 3: a joke that he would say when they talk about
Speaker 3: Bill Cosby when he was facing all of his charges,
Speaker 3: some people say, I'll tell you what the worst part
Speaker 3: about Bill Cosby is, it's the hypocrisy, and Norm McDonalds like,
Speaker 3: I actually think it's the drugging and the assault. You know,
Speaker 3: it's not the hypocrisy. And I would say, yeah, the
Speaker 3: hypocrisy is bad and the media, But what's actually bad
Speaker 3: is the threat to national security in the fact that
Speaker 3: the president of the United States, that the commander in
Speaker 3: chief is this person, and we've been lied to at
Speaker 3: every stage about it. Yeah, it just speaks to a
Speaker 3: total lack of respect for the American people.
Speaker 1: Well, and I'll give you another example of something that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden lied about, and this is something that we've
Speaker 1: looked into it. During the debate, Joe Biden touted the
Speaker 1: fact that he had passed an act, the Packed Act,
Speaker 1: that was going to let veterans be reimbursed, be reimbursed
Speaker 1: from the government because the government lied to them when
Speaker 1: they were at Camp La June said the water was
Speaker 1: fine to drink, it was actually poisonous. And a lot
Speaker 1: of people that served our country and their family suffered immensely.
Speaker 1: They got cancer, they got all kinds of illnesses. And
Speaker 1: this Pack Act allowed for the first time Americans to
Speaker 1: file claims against the federal government. And Joe Biden has
Speaker 1: touted this repeatedly is a great victory for veterans. Well,
Speaker 1: we looked into this at the Government Accountability in so
Speaker 1: you can find the report at GAI dot News. And
Speaker 1: guess what the big winners in this are not the
Speaker 1: veterans who suffered. They actually got victimized. The second time.
Speaker 1: This Act actually stripped from the legislation any caps on
Speaker 1: legal fees for trial attorneys. Originally, the bill was going
Speaker 1: to say you could only get twenty five percent. That's
Speaker 1: all you could charge for legal fees. That was stripped
Speaker 1: out by Nancy Pelosi in the House. Some Republicans in
Speaker 1: the Senate got in on it as well, their buddies
Speaker 1: with the trial attorneys. And now you have Joe Biden
Speaker 1: signing the bill. And guess what. Our Department of Justice,
Speaker 1: with Merrick Garland, has done nothing to deal with this issue.
Speaker 1: It's an absolute tragedy and another lie by Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: It's among the things that we continue to try to
Speaker 3: focus on at the Government Accountability Institute and the Drill
Speaker 3: One Podcast. He's Peter Schweizer, I'm Marik Eggers. We're happy
Speaker 3: to talk to you. Take your calls. Next eight hundred
Speaker 3: nine for one seven three two six. We're filling in
Speaker 3: for Sean Handy show back after this.
Speaker 1: This is Peter Schweitzer. I'm here with Eric Eggers. We
Speaker 1: are from the Government Accountability Institute. We are filling in
Speaker 1: for Sean. Let's go to Christy in Many Minneapolis. Christie,
Speaker 1: are you there, Yes?
Speaker 4: I am. Can you hear me?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 4: Go ahead, I'm going to talk fast. Thank you for
Speaker 4: taking my call. I'm going to talk fast. Hang up
Speaker 4: and listen. Okay, if Biden's sharp, strong, and resolute, then
Speaker 4: he must be prosecuted for the mishandling of classified documents.
Speaker 4: We need to keep calling out the double standard and
Speaker 4: tell them they can't have it both ways. And in
Speaker 4: regards to the second debate, Trump needs to not let
Speaker 4: Joe Biden weasel out of it, and when he gets
Speaker 4: on stage with him, stay on points, not repeat himself,
Speaker 4: call out the hypocrisy, and ask Biden questions we all
Speaker 4: know the answer to, so Biden's lies will be clear.
Speaker 2: That's an excellent point, Christy, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: It's ironic that Joe Biden's get out of jail free
Speaker 3: card might actually be his political end of the career card.
Speaker 1: This is kind of what happened to Hunter Biden. Remember
Speaker 1: on the whole drug thing. He used the drugs as
Speaker 1: an excuse for a lot of his misbehavior and ended
Speaker 1: up hurting him on this gun application case.
Speaker 3: It's just another example of the Biden hypocrisy. It's one
Speaker 3: of the stains on this country. But when we come back,
Speaker 3: we're going to be reminded as we approach this fourth
Speaker 3: of July weekend of the things that have continued to
Speaker 3: make this country great he's Peter Schweiser, Americ Eggers, thank
Speaker 3: you for spending the last day before the fourth of
Speaker 3: July with us on the Sean Handy Show.
Speaker 1: Actually it's not Sean Hannity. It's Peter Schweitzer. And I'm
Speaker 1: here with Eric Eggers, and we are filling in for
Speaker 1: Sean and we are grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Speaker 3: And Alec Baldwin loves you. I think you're his favorite
Speaker 3: conservative author.
Speaker 2: Do you think so well?
Speaker 3: Just because you haven't? You know, you know he's got
Speaker 3: bigger problems to wear about right now.
Speaker 1: I think he absolutely does. We have a great guest
Speaker 1: on the line right now. He's actually a dear friend
Speaker 1: of mine. He's really America's premier combat historian, Patrick K. O'Donnell.
Speaker 1: He's written a bunch of books, and I have to say, honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't read a lot of history, not because I
Speaker 1: don't love it. I love to read it. The problem
Speaker 1: is I don't have the time because it's been so
Speaker 1: much time researching, doing the work on my books. But
Speaker 1: I read Pat because his writing is terrific. He's got
Speaker 1: a new book out called The Unvanquished, The Untold Story
Speaker 1: of Lincoln Special Forces, the manhunt for Mosby's Rangers, and
Speaker 1: the Shadow War that forged America's Special operations. And by
Speaker 1: the way, he's not just a writer like me. This
Speaker 1: is a guy who actually, during the Iraq War was
Speaker 1: embedded with the military and actually fought with a Marine
Speaker 1: rifle platoon during the Battle of Fallujah. So this is
Speaker 1: a guy who has seen combat. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: have Pat on today because we know there's all this
Speaker 1: news going on. It's kind of unsettling and disconc but
Speaker 1: we are celebrating America's independence tomorrow and I thought Pat
Speaker 1: would be a great guy that could help us bridge
Speaker 1: and understand what independence means. We declared our independence in
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, but we're kind of fighting for our
Speaker 1: independence every single day, and there's a lot of brave
Speaker 1: men and women who have done so over the centuries.
Speaker 3: So and the fact that you and I can sit
Speaker 3: here and host the national radio show and be openly
Speaker 3: critical of the President of the United States and the
Speaker 3: media establishment around it, you can't do that in other countries.
Speaker 3: So we continue to enjoy freedoms that the rest of
Speaker 3: the world envies dramatically, And I think it's good to
Speaker 3: be reminded of how those freedoms war won.
Speaker 2: And Patrick o'donod think is an excellent person to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Pat, it's great to be on with you.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the fourth of July through the prism
Speaker 1: of what you study, which is combat American history and
Speaker 1: the heroes that have done so much to preserve and
Speaker 1: protect this country.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, freedom isn't free. And you know, let me just
Speaker 6: take you back in time, the listeners back in time
Speaker 6: to the fourth of July of eighteen sixty four, where
Speaker 6: this is our second founding the Civil War. It's the
Speaker 6: Great Civil War, and it's at this time that America,
Speaker 6: the North, the Union is really of its greatest peril
Speaker 6: in the war. And it's an unknown, relatively unknown special
Speaker 6: operations rate that involves the guy by name of Jebel
Speaker 6: Early Leaves, bad old man, and he has an army
Speaker 6: of fourteen thousand men that are barreling down on the
Speaker 6: nation's capital. And I have a great article right now
Speaker 6: at the front page of Breibart on that raid and
Speaker 6: also his interactions with the guy by the name of
Speaker 6: John Singleton Mosby, who is the greatest partisan leader of
Speaker 6: all time. In American history, and these two they don't
Speaker 6: really work together very well, but they're about to probably
Speaker 6: take down the capitol, and the North is in desperate shape.
Speaker 6: Most of the men that are in the war are
Speaker 6: down south in Petersburg encircling that that siege with General
Speaker 6: Grant in the the North's capitol is completely picked clean.
Speaker 6: And it's it's at that moment that Lincoln is panicking
Speaker 6: and the army is is slowed down by a guy
Speaker 6: by the name of Lou Wallace. General Lou Wallace, who
Speaker 6: is the future author of Ben hur you know, has
Speaker 6: a delaying action at the Battle of Monocacy right outside
Speaker 6: of Frederick, Maryland, which is one of the most important
Speaker 6: small units actions of in history. That that flows this
Speaker 6: juggernaut down just hours. And then he's literally, you know,
Speaker 6: watching his watch as the hours tick by, because he
Speaker 6: knows that every hour that he, you know, delays, early
Speaker 6: reinforcements can hopefully arrive in the nation's capital. And you know,
Speaker 6: it's it's a desperate thing. And then there's this It's
Speaker 6: really fascinating because there's a massive prisoner of war camp
Speaker 6: in Point Lookout, Maryland, and part of this mission is
Speaker 6: to free these guys as well, and that doesn't go
Speaker 6: off quite as well because an element of this book
Speaker 6: is also a part of what's known as the Confederate
Speaker 6: Secret Service. And this is a shadowy organization that is,
Speaker 6: you know, doing the stuff that we hear today peter
Speaker 6: election interference, ballot fraud, influencing the press operations. The stuff
Speaker 6: is one hundred years ahead of its time, and you know,
Speaker 6: it's remarkable, and you know they slow them down just enough,
Speaker 6: but not enough. I mean, my great great great uncle
Speaker 6: is part of the one hundred and fifty of Ohio
Speaker 6: and he's thrown out in front of Early's army to
Speaker 6: slow it down. And it's here that the President of
Speaker 6: the United States are a sitting president the first time
Speaker 6: is under fire. He's at then a parapet on in
Speaker 6: Fort Stevens, which is located on now present day Georgia Avenue,
Speaker 6: and Army, the jubil Early's Army is barreling down and
Speaker 6: you know, literally as the minutes tick by, the sixth
Speaker 6: Corps is jumping off gameboats at the Washington Navy Yard
Speaker 6: in marching to the rescue. And this book is about
Speaker 6: these men, but also an untold story called the Jesse Scouts,
Speaker 6: which is really an epic tale of Union Scouts that
Speaker 6: dresses Confederates that literally change the course of a civil
Speaker 6: war through their actions. The book about agency and you
Speaker 6: know people that are just regular Americans that are brought
Speaker 6: into the fold and do extraordinary things. Fifty or one
Speaker 6: hundred of these Jesse Scouts literally change the course of
Speaker 6: the war through their actions, and most of them never
Speaker 6: come home. Seven Medals of Honor, and most of these
Speaker 6: men die in Mexico in our first proxy war against
Speaker 6: the European power.
Speaker 3: It's a good reminder of who we can be as
Speaker 3: a country when you think about who we have been.
Speaker 3: And I think, especially in this hyper instantaneous media environment,
Speaker 3: we're all kind of prisoners of the moment or the
Speaker 3: temptation can be for usd to be that. And I
Speaker 3: love talking to a historian who reminds us actually, you know,
Speaker 3: we've been here before. We're now looking at the Democratic
Speaker 3: National Convention in Chicago. There's been other contested Democratic conventions
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty eight, but ironically, and you talk about
Speaker 3: this in your book too, there's another Democratic convention in
Speaker 3: eighteen sixty four that maybe can even help inform part
Speaker 3: of what we might be experiencing now.
Speaker 6: The summer of eighteen sixty four in the summer of
Speaker 6: two thousand and four is eerily similar on a number
Speaker 6: of tracks. In that election of eighteen sixty four is
Speaker 6: arguably the most important election in American history, as is
Speaker 6: the forthcoming the upcoming election that we're now facing. And
Speaker 6: it's then that the Democrat Party is. It's fascinating because
Speaker 6: it's in influence, the rising influence in the party. The
Speaker 6: most powerful element is a peace movement known as Copperheads.
Speaker 6: And this movement is, as I bring out in the book,
Speaker 6: is influenced directly by the Confederate Secret Service. The story
Speaker 6: of the Secret Service is fascinating. Jefferson Davis in the
Speaker 6: spring of eighteen sixty four sends his peace emissaries as
Speaker 6: they're called, but these are actually Confederate Secret Service agents
Speaker 6: up to Montreal with two million dollars in gold to
Speaker 6: buy influence. And it's everything from foreign powers overseas that
Speaker 6: it's also the Democratic Party, and it's his men that
Speaker 6: help that are literally pulling the strings of the leader
Speaker 6: of the peace movement or the Copperhead movement, a guy
Speaker 6: named mc clement laired Balandium who's an Ohio congressman that
Speaker 6: betrayed the cause and literally was exiled to Canada by
Speaker 6: and he's an active The Secret Service pulls off its
Speaker 6: greatest cue by helping him write the campaign platform for
Speaker 6: eighteen sixty four, which is an armistice to basically end
Speaker 6: the war. And these men know that if you have
Speaker 6: an armistice, it's almost impossible to restart the war. Within
Speaker 6: that was also the continuation of slavery, and it would
Speaker 6: have meant the continuation of the independence of the South.
Speaker 6: And there's all of these things that the Secret Service
Speaker 6: is doing in these influence operations to influence the election.
Speaker 6: They're applying governors that are friendly to Illinois to the
Speaker 6: Democratic Party to buy them off to basically influence them.
Speaker 6: They're also have these incredible influence operations with the press
Speaker 6: to spend tens of thousands of dollars for the Democracy
Speaker 6: that's what they called themselves at the time, the Democratic Party,
Speaker 6: which then at that time had comple leap control of
Speaker 6: the Northern or most of the Northern press, and they
Speaker 6: started to basically pump out articles that were very negative
Speaker 6: about President Lincoln and also the war, the Forever War
Speaker 6: that could never be one was always the sort of mantra,
Speaker 6: and it was working because at this time, in eighteen
Speaker 6: sixty four, there were hundreds of thousands of Union desertions,
Speaker 6: the armies were going nowhere, and it looked like the
Speaker 6: war would not be won. And it's important to remember
Speaker 6: if you look at modern counterinsurgencies to this day, it's
Speaker 6: almost impossible to beat them if they have the support
Speaker 6: of the population. The South had complete, almost complete support
Speaker 6: from its population, and they didn't have to win the war.
Speaker 6: They had to merely survive, and that was the That
Speaker 6: was the position that they were in in the summer
Speaker 6: of eighteen sixty four. Lincoln sees it and he says
Speaker 6: to his cabinet, you think I'm going to be beating
Speaker 6: I'm going to be beat badly. And he does something
Speaker 6: that's really extraordinary. He still has the election and signed
Speaker 6: something called the Blind Memorandum, where he takes a letter
Speaker 6: that says that he will support whoever the candidate is,
Speaker 6: even if he loses, puts it in an envelope, doesn't
Speaker 6: tell his his cabinet what he's got in the envelope,
Speaker 6: but makes them all sign it, which is an extraordinary
Speaker 6: act of democracy.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing story. I've read that in the book.
Speaker 1: It's a fantastic book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Again,
Speaker 1: as I said, I don't read a lot of history
Speaker 1: just because I don't have the time. But I read
Speaker 1: Patrick O'Donnell his new book The Unvanquished, the untold story
Speaker 1: of Lincoln's Special Forces that manhunt for Mosby's Rangers and
Speaker 1: the shadow war that forged America's special operations. It will
Speaker 1: give you hope because it shows the kind of battles
Speaker 1: that we fought before and that we won, and it
Speaker 1: gives an indication of the struggles that America is going
Speaker 1: to have perhaps going forward, but that we need to
Speaker 1: be prepared and that they're honorable people up prepared to
Speaker 1: do it. Pat, I appreciate all the great work that
Speaker 1: you do. Thank you for doing it, for chronicling these
Speaker 1: historic battles, and I wish you the best Independence Day tomorrow.
Speaker 6: Thank you Peter for having me on People can find
Speaker 6: me at Combat Historian on Twitter or Rex Forgetter.
Speaker 3: It's a great story and it's a great time to
Speaker 3: be reminded as we do approach this Fourth of July holiday,
Speaker 3: of the best things this Country stands for.
Speaker 2: Thank you for all of you that are joining us.
Speaker 3: We know that true patriots out there still care and
Speaker 3: they're still fighting just like we are. And we will
Speaker 3: wrap up our last segment on this program filling for
Speaker 3: Sean Handy with you taking your call the next eight
Speaker 3: hundred and nine to four one Shawn, Peter Swizer, Eric
Speaker 3: Eggers saying goodbye.
Speaker 2: Next on the Sean Handy Show.
Speaker 1: It's Peter Schweitzer. I'm here with my good friend Eric Egers.
Speaker 1: We're filling in for Sean. Are having a blast doing
Speaker 1: so let's go to Lawrence in Kentucky. Lawrence go ahead.
Speaker 7: Hey guys, great great show today, no drop off at all.
Speaker 7: And Sean better not stay away too long because you
Speaker 7: guys they're awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, you're very sweet, thank you.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I just wanted to make the point that Joe's not
Speaker 7: going to go. He should go, he should already be gone,
Speaker 7: but he's not going to go. And here's why I
Speaker 7: believe he won't go. The only thing that he was
Speaker 7: able to communicate and demonstrate during that debate is his
Speaker 7: personal hatred and dislike for Donald Trump and the moment
Speaker 7: that he leaves office. Him and Jill will no longer
Speaker 7: be able to control that narrative that they have tried
Speaker 7: to control for four years now. And I don't think
Speaker 7: that he can conceive of losing to Donald Trump and
Speaker 7: going out of office early, and that personal hatred will
Speaker 7: be his undoing, his administration's undoing. That's underthing. But he
Speaker 7: will not go. He can't go because once he goes,
Speaker 7: he can't control anything. So that that's my point. I'll
Speaker 7: let you guys talk.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Lawrence.
Speaker 3: I think you're exactly right, by the way, and not
Speaker 3: just about us being awesome, although you know clearly everyone
Speaker 3: has heard it today. But what I would say is
Speaker 3: I think the other and why he's not going to
Speaker 3: go is because this is what the Bidens do for money. Yes, right,
Speaker 3: It's not like Frank Biden's beating back legitimate business interest,
Speaker 3: and neither is James and Hunter hasn't sold a piece
Speaker 3: of art in a while, so this is what they do, right,
Speaker 3: And the business model has always relied on Joe, And
Speaker 3: so it's when you relinquish, you're not just relinquishing the presidency,
Speaker 3: you're relinquishing your career and your family's wealth moving forward.
Speaker 1: You are I mean, it's like you know, the Biden Inc.
Speaker 1: In business since nineteen seventy two. Yeah, this is what
Speaker 1: they've done, and they don't have anything else to sell.
Speaker 1: So we're on the eve of the fourth of July.
Speaker 1: I want to turn to something more positive, and that
Speaker 1: is fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays.
Speaker 1: Christmas and fourth of July. I love it that way
Speaker 1: I am, but I just love it and I'm so
Speaker 1: grateful to live in this country. What are you guys doing.
Speaker 1: You've got young kids. I know you guys are traveling
Speaker 1: a little bit. What are you guys doing to celebrate
Speaker 1: the Fourth of July and anything particular with the kids.
Speaker 3: We're going to do something that I thought. I will
Speaker 3: say this. You know you like to make predictions. I
Speaker 3: will make a prediction. I don't think we're going to
Speaker 3: always be able to celebrate the Fourth of Jly with fireworks.
Speaker 3: One of the stories we didn't have a chance to
Speaker 3: get to is there are some cities, because of environmental concerns,
Speaker 3: you can't even do fireworks anymore. So we're going somewhere
Speaker 3: we do live in the Freestate of Florida. We're gonna
Speaker 3: watch fireworks good and you know, and celebrate the freedoms,
Speaker 3: and again I don't take lightly that you and I
Speaker 3: can sit here and raise I think legitimate questions about
Speaker 3: what the President United States has done and the way
Speaker 3: that they've lied the American people, But that is still
Speaker 3: a freedom we enjoy in this country, and I think
Speaker 3: that is among the things that make this country the
Speaker 3: greatest one.
Speaker 2: In the world.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, God bless America. I mean that sincerely, and thank
Speaker 1: you everybody for taking the time to listen to us,
Speaker 1: and thank you for Sean and for Linda to turn
Speaker 1: over the microphone to us. We appreciate it. Had a
Speaker 1: lot of fun, little anxious at the beginning, but have
Speaker 1: really really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: And thank you to Eric and Jason who have helped
Speaker 3: produce this program, and thank you for helping us make
Speaker 3: helping allowing us to be part of your for there's
Speaker 3: alli getting God blessed America, and thank you guys very much.