Tragedy on the Potomac (Ep. 2412)

Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Vongino. Folks, I hope you understand we're starting early today for a reason. Just a tragic situation last night. Everybody's worst fear.

I have a fear of flying and have for a long time because of the lack of control. I mean, you're obviously not on a steering wheel handling a stick shift, a gas pedal or a brake. Your life isn't someone else's hands. Well, I've had this fear of flying for a long time, just an unimaginable situation. And, you know, I try to use my words carefully.

Because in times of tragedy, I think it's important too. When I say unimaginable, I mean it. I've flown in and out of Reagan as many of you have. And I think Michael just flew out of there a couple of weeks ago. I don't know, three, four hundred times. I mean, it was our home airport and we were all agents in DC. It's how we got pretty much everywhere. It was either that or dull us. And I never imagined the situation where there would be a midair with a helicopter.

It's a sensitive topic for me, obviously because of the tragic nature of it, but also because I've been involved in a number of helicopter flights in that exact same area. So I've seen both ends of it, the planes taking off and landing, having flown out of there, and I've flown up the Potomac many times in these helos, in these birds and

I'd never even occurred to me that this would happen. So here's how we're going to handle this. Number one, obviously we're going to do it responsibly. I got to tell you something right now. I love you all, the P1s and the listeners out there in the Banjino army. You guys and ladies are the best in the business and you know why? Because you never get ahead of yourselves. I'm on X this morning and Michael and I were chatting about it before. I mean a total show and it rhymes with fit. What a mess.

People are ready with a thousand different theories. Why do we need to draw a conclusion? I don't understand why we need to do that. Not you, not you. I want to be absolutely clear, not you. I don't understand why we're not even 24 hours out. And everyone has the need to jump on clicks on X to say, I definitely know it. I promise you don't know what happened. I promise. It is okay to say that. It is also okay to ask questions. I have five open questions I want to get to.

We'll play the footage we have. And the reason we're starting early is Donald Trump is going to speak, President Trump, excuse me, at 11 o'clock and I want to take some of it live. We'll do our best to take as much of it as we can. So we got you all covered today. Stand by folks, increase tariffs on our trade partners, tax cuts and regulation changes. Learn why gold is a viable diversification tactic now more than ever. The company I use, Birch Gold, is releasing its ultimate guide for gold in the Trump era with a forward by Donald Trump Jr.

to get your free copy along with Birch Gold's free information kit on gold. Text my name, Dan, to the number 989898. Here are the facts. The national debt continues to increase. Our interest payments on the national debt continue to increase gold. It's still one of your best hedges against the weekend dollar and Birch Gold is still the company I trust.

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Text Dan to the number 98, 98, 98 today. Message and data rate supply. You know what, guys? I'm going to skip the bell today. I don't usually do that, but given the tragic circumstances, that's usually more of a celebratory event for me starting to show, but I'm not. This is going to be deadly serious stuff today. So let me ask some open questions first. If you're just waking up, getting the news, maybe you're out in the West Coast, Reagan Airport,

There was a flight. It was descending, getting ready to land. It was in what is unquestionably very congested airspace. There are a lot of programs some I'm familiar with where obviously not going to be talking about that involve tracking a lot of these incoming and outgoing aircraft. It's a very congested area. It is not a huge airport. It is a very tough place to land due to the congested space.

Aircraft is landing. It is a flight from Wichita, Kansas, gets into a collision with a Black Hawk helicopter on an Army training mission, according to what Secretary Higgsette said. It doesn't appear at this point that there are any survivors. It appears going to be close to 60-plus souls loss, which is horrific, obviously. So some open questions first, which we'll address, and we have some footage going on here, too, that we're going to get to.

and footage of the crash, which, you know, I warn you, you may not want to see it, but it's important that we cover it accurately. Number one is these aircraft

Not so much the helicopter, but the airplane involved. They have this crash avoidance system built in that if you've done anything with FAA, TRACON, TFRs, ADISs, frizzes, air security picture stuff, which we do, you're pretty familiar with how this works. I'm not a pilot. I'm not the Wikipedia pilot. I don't pretend to be a pilot. Just telling you things we've dealt with, haven't dealt with the air security picture often.

Was that off? When you get within a certain landing distance and a certain altitude, was it working? Was it as an off? Is it off automatically? Why didn't it go off? Was it, you know, when they get below a thousand feet? As I saw a couple of people commenting this morning, was that crash avoidance system not working or does it just go off when they below that certain altitude? So that'll be an open question because obviously that's what this system is designed to avoid. It crashed like what happened.

Second, was it a case of target fixation where sometimes you'll talk to these? I will never forget one of the White House military aides was a helicopter pilot, talked to me often about flying at night, how it was difficult for him to operate at night without night vision, also talked about things like target fixation and things like that, crowded battlefields.

The helicopter pilots, were they fixated on an aircraft taking off and did they miss the one landing? That's a big miss. Obviously a tragic one, were they fixated on the wrong target? Open question. Third question, was there night vision involved? Did it have anything to do with the closing of the visual field? I believe the night vision was available from what I'm hearing from early reports, but it's an open question because until I get a conclusive answer, I'm applying the Bongino rule here.

Fourth is the obvious one. Just how did this happen flight path-wise? This is a known flight corridor that's very busy. How did this happen? Is it an altitude issue? Obviously, we're going to wait for some reporting on that. And then fifth, the uncomfortable question people have to ask. I see it as highly unlikely. I want to say that in advance, but it'd be irresponsible not to at least consider

Was there a possibility that some of this was maybe not accidental? I just want to say in advance, given from what I've heard, from a number of pretty good sources and some media homework I've been doing, that seems highly unlikely. However, applying the Banjino rule works both ways. Don't draw conclusions means don't draw conclusions. It doesn't mean don't ever ask a question ever for the rest of your life, then what's the purpose of this show?

So, those are five open questions I have right now. Let's check out the voiceover, sorry for using lingo. Well, you can talk over, you can see the video here on the screen right now. You see it right there. Obviously, it's not the greatest video, but you can see the aircraft on descent into the runway, and then you'll see at the end, obviously a flashing light. That's the crash between right there, between the helicopter,

and the plane, plane, lands in the Potomac. It apparently inverted at some point. It's in three pieces. Again, an unimaginable tragedy, and I use my words carefully. I have flown in and out of that airport so many times as of many of you. It's something specific to me. I actually enjoy flying out of Reagan. It's very convenient. It's one of the reasons that DC lawmakers will do almost anything to keep that airport open and running. I don't know if you know this, but there was some significant talk after 9-11.

about closing that airport because of its proximity. Now, it would be inappropriate completely for me to comment on these matters, but I think it's a matter of public information out there. There were obviously programs to control and monitor the air traffic there because, ladies and gentlemen, you make one wrong turn. You're on top of the White House, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol, like that. There is really very little time for contingency operations to take place.

After 9-11, there was some talk about closing Reagan. However, the convenience of it, lawmakers use it, the talk about closing, it has now pretty much disappeared. The only talk now is how to expand it. So there is significant traffic that comes in and out of there.

Secretary Hegsef issued a statement. Secretary Pete Hegsef, of course, Secretary of Defense. Aisha Hosni reported on the statement on her Twitter feed. She's a reporter from Fox. Quote, this was an annual proficiency training flight. It was a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation. They did have night vision goggles. We'll see if they were using them or not. That's why I'm going to leave that an open question.

The 12th Aviation Battalion, as of now, was granted a 48-hour operational pause on contingency missions as what happened is reviewed. Obviously, Secretary Hegsetz, a guy I trust, he's not going to lie to us. When we get some conclusions on what happens, I'm sure he'll be the one to tell us. Let me say as well...

I have a lot of personal connections to the cabinet secretaries involved. They have been in office for less than a few days, including Secretary Hegson, who just swore in. Secretary Duffy, Sean Duffy, former congressman, and another close personal friend. I mean, obviously the father of Devita, who's, I mean, it's just obvious, one of the hosts on our show here. So we have a lot of close personal ties. Secretary Duffy just swore in yesterday.

yesterday. So talk about, I mean, they won on a job. So his briefings have been as good as you can expect at this point, but he just got there. He just got there dealing with this unimaginable tragedy.

I want to play this. It's a clip from CNN, disregard that it's CNN for a second. Sometimes on these matters, I just go to the commentators. This guy is a subject matter, an expert, a guy by the name Pete Montine, but it's a really, really informative clip where he's talking about

Again, I'm trying not to talk about this like on some kind of like New Wikipedia pilot. I'm not an expert on this. Let me say this in advance. I'm not a pilot, but I have been on both of these aircraft, black hawks, and obviously just flying into Reagan many times. If you've ever been on a black hawk, you'll notice right away that these helicopters are typically designed for air to ground missions. You know, they're not typically air to air

They're designed for air-to-ground missions, especially these. So when you look at the visual field of the helicopter, it's hard to see up, but relatively easy to see down.

I want you to listen to this guy Pete Montine on CNN who explains pretty well, it's clips about a minute 30, but it's worth your time, about if there was a visual obstruction and this is just a catastrophic, we didn't see him and we crashed into each other, which we'll never know because it appears everybody's dead at this point. And the black talk from what I know does not have a black box, obviously the aircraft does, the airplane. I want you to listen to how the visual obstruction may have played into this, check this out.

I can sort of demonstrate with my hands what the crews were and were not able to see. And so the helicopter, the Black Hawk helicopter, appeared to be coming from the right of the commercial flight that was descending into runway 3-3.

situation for pilots because they can often not see very well below them as helicopter crews are often looking at the ground flying primarily in reference to the ground, especially in a very critical phase of flying as a crew is descending, making that final critical approach to landing. They are focused primarily on the runway and primarily on their instruments. They're not necessarily looking left and right, scanning for other traffic.

This may be something where the crew simply just did not have the ability to see the helicopter and the situation unfolding in front of them. This is something that aviation experts have warned me about over and over since the start of 2023 when we saw these commercial flight near collisions take off.

In the United States, many of them became under the watchful eye of the National Transportation Safety Board and were the result of very sweeping probes. Those situations never involved an actual collision. What we are seeing now is the result of the warnings. It very much is the worst case scenario.

So there's a lot in that clip. Obviously, I would prefer you listening to experts who are actual transportation, aerial transportation experts, aviation experts on visuals and how it works because it's not my specific area of expertise. But what he's saying, they're as accurate from someone who's flown on these many times. And in why I was in that area, I'll have to leave for another day, but I've flown up and down the Potomac many, many times on Black Hawks, many times.

The visuals are not great, especially what he just described. Pilots looking at the ground, very difficult in the helicopter to see up. I'm not telling you that's what the reason is or the only reason I'm just telling you you should consider it. What he's saying there is not an accurate

Also, at the end, there have been consistent problems with the FAA for a long time. The left's first impulse here, disgustingly, has been to politicize this. Let me just tell you in advance, it's a shame I have to cover this the way I will. We'll take President Trump when he's alive in a few minutes. However, the media are disgusting. They're going to make cheap politics out of a situation that has been ongoing for a long time. I have to fight back. That is my job, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not going to let you be misled by communist media propaganda.

Let me take a quick break. We started early today at 1045. You want to listen to the show on demand. We'd appreciate it. Folks, here's why I trust lean and it's a real deal for weight loss. I used it. I lost about 30 pounds. As you can see, if you watch my videos from about a year ago, it's created by a doctor and a researcher and the clinical team behind me and says, if you have a few pounds to lose and on prescription lean, it's really not for you.

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Ken Vauge. He's saying his products have not been evaluated by the FDA and not a 10th Diagnose Treat here, preventing a disease, it's a substitute alternative for care from a health care provider. Thank you, Lee. We appreciate it. Again, folks, we're Michael and Giyo keeping their eye on President Trump. When he speaks, we're going to try to take as much as we can of it live. We're probably not going to take the whole thing because it gets, sometimes he takes some questions at the end. This is a live stream, but a lot of people watch it on demand as well.

I have to address this. It's sad. It's gross. It's disgusting. But folks, there is an impulse with our communist media, as always, as I said to you yesterday, especially with the liberal media, to lie, to mislead, to propagandize, to play dumb, or just in fact, be dumb.

The problems I fly a lot, I wish I didn't, but I do. It's not something to brag about. It's not a badge of honor. However, just in the last six months, we have probably been on about 20 flights back and forth, which for me is a lot.

We fly for business. We have family all over the country. I've got four or five flights scheduled in the next few weeks alone. We are constantly dealing with this. We flew out of Titoboro recently. We had a massive delay. Why FAA? Why FAA? Flight control. Why FAA? These problems at the FAA have been going on a long time. In case liberal media people and the dumbass producers missed it, the guy in charge for the last four years, his name is Joe Biden.

And his transportation secretary was not Sean Duffy, who was sworn in literally yesterday, okay? It was Pete Boot Edge Edge, okay? Boot Edge Edge, who seemed more focused on DEI over actually fixing the FAA. Did that have anything to do with this? I have absolutely no idea, and I'm not going to speculate. However, put up the Fox News piece, if you would. This is a real problem.

You can see it yourself. Look at the date, February of 2024. It's now almost February of 2025. Republican attorneys general warned the Biden administration of catastrophic consequences of the FAA pushing DEI over merit-based hiring again.

Did that have anything to do with this? I wouldn't dare say so this early because I apply my own Pongino rule. However, I find it fascinating that the dumbass people in the liberal media are already blaming Donald Trump or implying somehow Donald Trump, who's been in office, what, 10 days now, had anything to do with this flight disaster that happened yesterday. This is disgusting. Here is Mika Brzezinski doing what they do best, pushing propaganda and lying to people. Check this out.

interesting, especially when you look at RFK and what the job is he's nominated for, or Cash Patel, or Pete Haggseth, who's gotten through. But you look at a situation like the breaking news that we're covering right now, put the politics aside, it's the expertise that matters. And some are concerned about the expertise of these nominees. We'll be following those here. Is this for real? Did that just happen?

The former Department of Transportation Secretary was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a lovely city, I love. But you're gonna claim he had special expertise, unlike a multi-term congressman and lawyer who was a news commentator, a prosecutor, and who's been in a public eye dealing with these situations in Congress for years. You're really gonna go there. That pothole peat

Pothole Pete was the pinnacle of expertise. Mika Brzezinski is a disgusting human being. Disgusting. She kissed Trump's ass to get back into White House. This is why President should never take a meeting with these idiots ever. She is a disgusting human being. Pothole Pete and your sight and expertise. Over a bronze star winning military officer with an Ivy League education in Pete Hegseth.

over cash Patel, a DoD and DoJ train professional worked at the highest levels of the Trump White House over Sean Duffy, a skilled lawyer, prosecutor, and multi-term congressman out of a swing state. And you're citing expertise. Are you shitting me, man?

Ladies and gentlemen, however much you hate the media, you don't hate them enough. They deserve every ounce of this. This is why they suck. This is why nobody believes them. And whereas we can start this show fairly, let's say, yes, we're in charge now and we have to fix this. It's our job. Here are open questions. I don't have the answers. Notice how they've already drawn a conclusion. Disgusting.

Here's CNN, again, implication here that somehow Donald Trump, although he's been in office 10 days, the left has done nothing but obstruct the nomination process to get people in there, is somehow blaming the nomination and confirmation process that they delayed, by the way, for not having people in. I mean, this is really just gross. Check this out.

Mary, I have one more question for you. Look, it's January 29th. We are just nine days out from a presidential transition and administrative transition. The FAA administrator resigned at the end of the Biden administration. So there is no permanent confirmed FAA administrator right now. This is going to be a time when there's going to be a lot of public communication and a lot of investigation of what happened here. What do you anticipate this

transition period is going to mean for what happens today and tomorrow and in the coming days as we find out what happened here. Again, CNN and MSNBC, by implication, pretending the Biden administration wasn't in charge for four years with pothole Pete at the DOT, Department of Transportation.

Folks, these FAA problems have been known about forever. This is not new. Folks in the chat. And again, we started early today. Sorry to folks, if you missed anything, please watch the beginning of the show on demand where we cover some open questions, which I'm gonna get to again as we wait for President Trump to speak. We're gonna try to take as much as we can of it live. I don't wanna steal from you any of the content you came here for. That's why we started early. Hope you all understand.

Folks, if you fly, folks in the chat, confirm this story for me. You know for a fact, there have been, since COVID, significant problems staffing the FAA. I'm telling you, I just flew out of New Jersey on a three, four-hour delay, not that long ago, on a flight that shouldn't have had a delay, and the reason clear skies and everything, staffing issues, FAA, it happens all the time. Now,

Secretary Duffy is going to get it fixed. So is President Trump, but it's up to me to be honest with you and not be asked you, okay? It's not going to happen overnight, folks. Joe Biden buried us in a four-year hole. Secretary Pete, all of his losers in the Biden cabinet, they destroyed the Pentagon and elsewhere. It's not going to be rebuilt overnight.

Secretary Duffy has been the secretary for barely, not even 24 hours yet. It's going to take a long time to unscrew.

This is why, again, however much you hate the media, it's not enough. There's a lot going on today. We got Cash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard up on Capitol Hill. This is really one of those triage days where it's my responsibility to make sure I get to you everything in digestible nuggets. So just bear with me. I just want to end where I began about this tragic story over Reagan Airport in DC.

The crash avoidance system, what happened with it is an altitude issue that it turned off automatically. Those are open questions. I'm going to leave to aviation experts at this point. Was it a situation of target fixation where the pilot from the helicopter just did not see that specific aircraft? Because remember, there's another aircraft. You can see it all over the place was taking off. Did they happen to see that? If they were flying with night vision, folks, if you ever use night vision, anyone in the chat,

This is what I just find hard to believe in. I don't want to jump to any conclusions. Banjino Rule definitely applies here. However, if you're flying with the night vision on, those lights on the plane are really, really, really bright. That's what night vision does.

Depending on which specific version of it you're using, either one, it doesn't matter. The lights are, it's even harder to miss. Now it does close off your visual field a little bit. Why were these flight pass intersecting? Was an altitude issue or was it? And again, was it an intentional act? Was it an accident? I strongly believe this was probably an accident. However, I'm not jumping any conclusions on it.

Okay. We're getting ready for President Trump to speak on it. However, there is a ton of breaking news today. Cash Patel is up on Capitol Hill right now in case you all missed the open. The Democrats, of course, are doing what they always do. Are you a conspiracy theorist? Why did you appear on this show, that show, this show? Cash is doing just fine. I'm asking you a personal favor about this.

We got Secretary Heg said through, Secretary Duffy sailed through with no problem. I'm hoping it's soon to be Attorney General Pambondi sails through no problem. I don't see any issues there, but I need a favor from you in the Banjino Army. We're the most powerful force out there. We just are the numbers don't lie. I need you to send a respectfully worded email. If you could, please is okay. Yeah, just kick with me. Keep my eyes on.

to your senator, your home state senator today. I don't care if it's a Democrat or a Republican and just say we strongly support cash Patel for FBI director. I'm telling you he's the right guy and I can prove it to you. Just go on X and look at the deep state liberal accounts hiding behind like phony avatars and everything who are doing everything they can to keep cash out of there. Ask yourself a question. Why?

Okay. Always, always gauge the effectiveness of a cabinet appointee or a personnel decision, a law, piece of legislation, whatever it may be, by how your enemies and the deep state liberal accounts pretending to be us, they absolutely hate Cash Patel and have sacrificed any human dignity to try to keep this guy out because they know, they know with certainty he is going to go and take those rocks and turn them over.

Okay, folks, what a time to be alive. I mean, I've never seen anything like this. There was another hearing yesterday. It is really important to me, again, to triage the news cycle, so I give you all the news nuggets that are interesting, but we can't forget what happened yesterday either.

Bobby Kennedy, who has been nominated to be Secretary of HHS, was up on Capitol Hill at a hearing. And there were a lot of things that happened up there that are important for us to understand the political environment at the time. This is an amazing time to be alive. Michael, you ever seen anything like this where we're watching the role reversal of the two parties in live time?

The Democrats previously claimed claimed it's important to be the party of tolerance, the working man, coexistence, attacking big pharma to watch this role reversal in live time where the Democrats attacked the working man.

engage in full-blown lack of coexistence and tolerance by claiming if you're white, if you're Jewish, if you're Asian, you're not one of us, you're white, adjacent. But if you meet these criteria, I mean, the most racist people possible is the modern liberal, right? Have you ever seen a role reversal like this?

Democrats attacking tech companies, supporting big pharma. I've never seen anything like this. And I don't use that term big pharma as a pejorative. They're just big companies. I know the Democrats do. I thank God we have pharmaceutical companies. You know, they kept me alive after I got cancer that have created modern medicine. Thank God. However, you know, there are obviously issues with how they operate and Bobby Kennedy is going to be looking into that.

So I want you liberals out there who are watching my show, because I know you do, because this was important. I want you to tell me what exactly is untrue, and be specific in my chat if you're there, like the Joe Rhaegu clown yesterday. Tell me exactly what you disagree with and what's untrue about what RFK said in his opening yesterday about why the hell is the richest country on earth so freaking unhealthy? What beef could you possibly have with this?

check this out i want to say something about what you first said

When I launched my campaign, it was about uniting Americans, Democrats and Republicans. There's no issue that she's united more than this chronic health epidemic. There's no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children. These are our kids. 66% of them are damaged. I know what a healthy kid looks like, because I had so many of them in my family. I didn't know anybody with a food allergy growing up, peanut allergy.

Why do five of my kids have allergies? Why are we seeing these explosions and diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, neurological diseases, depression, all these things that are related to toxic to the environment? Why can't we just agree with each other? To put differences about so many issues, intractable issues aside, and say,

We're going to end this. I don't think anybody is going to be able to do this like I have because of my peculiar experience because I've litigated against these agencies. When you litigate against them, you get a PhD in corporate capture and how to unravel it. What do you disagree with there? What? I'm not suggesting that

Me and RFK, RFK was a Democrat and I have, I share very little in common with him on his past with environmentalism, which I believe is used as a proxy. I've come into this with an open mind. However, what did RFK say there? You disagree with folks? Listen, I'm not here to give you a sob stories, but I was a really ridiculously unhealthy kid. I was. You don't need my life story because I'm not going to bore you to death. However, you name some malady. I had it.

asthma, eczema, whatever it was. I went through a lot growing up. Who really cares? I was told by medical professionals, I'm not knocking doctors or anything like that in stereotypes, but it's true. Oh, it's this, it's that. He needs to put a cortisone on or he needs to stop eating this and stop eating that. Folks, I largely disregarded that and started doing this crazy thing called eating healthy.

eating homegrown stuff, eating meats and vegetables and healthy fats. And I'm going to tell you something. The advice I got about cortisone and all this other stuff, I'm just telling you for me, I'm not your doctor. Do not take medical advice for me. What's wrong? I started cleaning my skin with

with a, with a, with a, got the staff out from under the fingernails. And I never had to deal with any of these problems ever again. I have not thanked, thank God, thank you Jesus and I'm not using His name in vain. I have not had an asthma attack in 30 years. I am taking no medication for it at all. I don't even have one of those inhalers anymore. I probably should in case there's in it, but I don't. Probably not. I don't because I'm just so not used to it anymore.

What is going on here? If all the standard nutrition and medical advice of the day we used to get, eat rice cakes all was so accurate, then why are we so unhealthy? Why?

You don't want a guy at health and human, health, the HHS liberal stands for health and human services, asking questions about health and human services. What is your beef with this guy? And to the Democrat frauds, whereas us Republicans out there, especially thank you Anita for putting up how to email your senators in the chat there.

For those in our chat and elsewhere and the liberals listening to the show, most of my listeners can get past the fact that RFK as a political past they don't necessarily agree with, because we are outcome based. And if RFK is going to HHS to answer these questions like, why we're so unhealthy, my listeners are like, that sounds like a good outcome for me.

Why can't Democrats do the same? Democrats loved RFK forever. Until RFK said, I think Donald Trump is a better guy to make America healthy again. And then what happened? These fake phony frauds were like, that guy's Hitler, fascist, the Nazi, it shows you one side stands on principle and outcomes, while the other side is completely full of crap. Here, check out RFK and why the Democrats all of a sudden can't stand them. Check this out.

All these Democrats are opposed to me for partisan issues. They used to be my friends, agreed with me on all the environmental issues that I've been working on for my whole career. Now they're against me because anything that President Trump does, any decision he may has to be lampooned, derided, discredited, marginalized, vilified.

Folks, this is my, I've discussed the solvent on the show is that the Ambongino show your ass theory. Okay. What does that mean? I haven't brought it up in a while. It's this impulse amongst Democrats and Michael said it right. This is political politician Democrats. The average rank and file Democrats still loves RFK.

Okay. This is how detached these people are on Capitol Hill from reality and these bureaucrats and bureaucratic class out there. The show you're asked the reason is the Democrats to show allegiance to their donors and the crazy class which financed the party. One guy will say, uh,

Trump's a racist. The other guy who then doesn't get a donation because he didn't say it harsh enough. The other guy go, well, that didn't raise money. So I learned from this guy, I'm going to say something worse. No, he's a Nazi. And it's like, oh, I got a donation. And the other guy's saying, well, donors are like, you got to up the ante. So they all have to show their ass and say increasingly crazy thing.

This is how you get to the point where RFK, a career Democrat, who Trump is approaching this as some kind of team of former rivals approach, but people who are loyal this time. This is why Democrats discredit themselves in the eyes of the public. Here's another clip from yesterday. Folks, this make America healthy again thing is, listen, can I talk to you straight? Yesterday's hearing is one of the most important things you

If you can watch it in total, I recommend you do, even in lieu of my own show. Folks, I'm a guy who's been through a lot of cancer, horrible childhood nonsense, 19 orthopedic surgeries so far. I've not been a healthy guy my whole life. I'm saying this seriously. I don't mean if this isn't clown show time.

Don't mistake a lot of the show muscles and all this stuff. I've been through a lot. My body is pretty broken down. If you're not healthy, you have nothing. You do not want to look your kids in the face like I had at one time and say, kids, your father has cancer and have no way. You don't. This is serious literal life or death stuff. And Bobby Kennedy is asking questions that we should all be asking, absolutely regardless of your political ideology.

Here's another clip right here. Ask him again, simple questions. How are we the richest country on earth and we're plagued with diabetes and all these other problems? Are we poisoning ourselves? Seems like we are. A set of this.

The same chemicals that kill fish make people sick also. Today, Americans overall health is in grievous condition. Over 70% of adults and a third of children are overweight or obese. Diabetes is 10 times more prevalent than it was during the 1960s. Cancer among young people is rising by one or 2% a year.

autoimmune diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders, Alzheimer's, asthma, ADHD, depression, addiction, and a host of other physical and mental health conditions are all on the rise, some of them exponentially.

The United States has worse health than any other developed nation. We spend more on health care, at least, Dublin, in some cases, triple as other countries. Last year, we spent $4.8 trillion not counting the indirect costs of missed work. That's almost a fifth of GDP. It's 10 amount to a 20% tax on the entire economy.

All right, President Trump's getting ready to come out and speak. I want to address some of what RFK said. So we're going to take some of this live. You guys can, okay, let me see if I can, can you get me to hear it too? I want to hear what he has to say. Okay. A moment of silence for the victims and their families, please.

Thank you very much. I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for a nation. Just before 9 p.m. last night in America, an airline's regional jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three military service members over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

while on final approach to Reagan National Airport. Both aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy waters of the Potomac. Real tragedy. The massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night, leveraging every asset at our disposal. And I have to say the local, state, federal, military, including the United States Coast Guard, in particular, they've done a phenomenal job.

so quick, so fast. It was mobilized immediately. The work has now shifted to a recovery mission. Sadly, there are no survivors. This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital and in our nation's history and a tragedy of terrible proportions as one nation we grieve for every

precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. And we are a country of, really, we are in mourning. This is really shaken a lot of people, including people very sadly from other nations who are on the flight. For the family members back in Wichita, Kansas, here in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States and in Russia, we

have a Russia contingent of very talented people. Unfortunately, we're on that plane. Very, very, very sorry about that. Whose loved ones were aboard the passenger jet, we can only begin to imagine the agony that you're all feeling, nothing worse. On behalf of the First Lady, myself and 340 million Americans, our hearts are shattered alongside yours and our prayers are with you now.

And in the days to come, we'll be working very, very diligently in the days to come. We're here for you to wipe away the tears and to offer you our devotion, our love, and our support. There's great support. In moments like this, the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations. We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.

All searching for answers that icy, icy Potomac was a cold, cold night, cold water. We're all overcome with the grief for many who have so tragically perished will no longer be with us. Together we take solace in the knowledge that their journey ended not in the cold waters of the Potomac, but in the warm embrace of a loving God. We do not know what led

to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now. Over the years, I've watched as things like this happen, and they say, well, we're always investigating, and then the investigation, three years later, they announce that we think we have some pretty good ideas. But we'll find out how this disaster occurred, and we'll ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

The FAA and the NTSB and the U.S. military will be carrying out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. Our new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, is second day on the job. When that happened, it's a rough one. We'll be working tirelessly. He's a great gentleman. The whole group is – these are great people. And they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened.

We will state certain opinions, however. I'm also immediately appointing and acting commissioner to the FAA, Christopher Roshalu, a 22-year veteran of the agency, highly respected. Christopher, thank you very much. Appreciate it. We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. You remember that.

Only the highest aptitude have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. That was not so prior to getting there. When I arrived in 2016, I made that change very early on because I always felt this was a job that, and other jobs too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence and

We didn't really have that, and we had it. And then when I left office, and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen, because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible.

and their politics was even worse. So as you know, last week, long before the crash, I signed an executive order restoring our highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs throughout the country. So it was very interesting about a week ago, almost upon entering office, I signed something last week that was an executive order, very powerful, on restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers.

and others, by the way. Then my administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety. We have to have our smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. It matters intellect, talent, the word talent. You have to be talented, naturally talented, geniuses. You can't have regular people doing that job. They won't be able to do it. But we'll restore faith in American air travel out.

have more to say about that. I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office. And here's one. The FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most

underrepresented segment of the workforce and they want them in and they want them, they can be air traffic controllers. I don't think so. This was in January 14th, so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA's program. Then another article, the Federal Aviation Administration. This was before I got to office.

recently, second term. The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website. Can you imagine? These are people that are, I mean, actually their lives are shortened because of the stress that they have.

brilliant people have to be in those positions. And their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened, because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target. And you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it. Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring the FAA's website states. They include

hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism all qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map, a little runway.

The initiative is part of the FAA's diversity and inclusion hiring plan. Think of that. The initiative is part of the FAA's diversity and inclusion hiring plan, which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel. I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's just the opposite. The FAA website shows that the agency's guidance on diversity hiring were last updated on

March 23rd of 22. They wanted to make it even more so. And then I came in, and I assume maybe this is the reason, the FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner. That's a real winner. Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run the Department of Transportation? He's a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his

city into the ground, and he's a disaster now. He's just got a good line of bullshit. The Department of Transportation, his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation. Well, he runs it, 45,000 people, and he's run it right into the ground with his diversity. All right, folks. I took as much of Donald Trump's statement there. There's going to be some Q&A. Obviously, you're free to watch it.

You're free to watch the rest of it. I just want to make sure we got Donald Trump's statement in there because there were a couple of takeaways from there where I would be remiss if I did not repeat them because they were important.

Number one, he's appointing immediately an acting FAA commissioner, obviously a good idea right now, given that the FAA commissioner under Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration had since resigned. That's big news. He emphasized, I saw some of you in the chat disagree. Again, I don't. I have no problem with Trump's communication style. I'm from Queens, New York, like he is. Some of you do, fair enough. Some of you thought that maybe he should have been a little bit more emotional

Fair enough, I'm just telling you that transactional Donald Trump is always transactional Donald Trump. And he keeps reemphasizing and saying this over and over about how this doesn't make sense, common sense, how this aircraft and this aircraft win the exact same altitude because he doesn't get it as a transactional guy.

How the hell did this happen? And that's what he's asking his people. He just happens to air that. That's just how he is and how he communicates. And I think another takeaway if you saw me take a notes during it was his mention of the fact we got Secretary Duffy up there taking some questions now as well of tapes. He says he's seen or heard some tapes. He wasn't fairly specific. He said he saw the Kennedy Center tapes, but he also I think mentioned some point. I've seen or heard these tapes.

I'm assuming he's talking about air traffic control. My guess is he knows something about the FAA stuff. And again, if the media is going to politicize this right away and blame Donald Trump as a transactional guy, he's going to say, well, here's the problems I'm trying to fix. I don't have an issue with it. I know some of you may, and then that's fair enough. But I don't.

I don't have any issue with it at all. I want a transactional guy in there. I want to solve this problem. This has been a major disaster, and we need some answers, and I believe he's a guy to get him, along with Secretary Duffy.

All right, quick break. We're going to get back to some more of the show that I have prepared for you because some important things happened yesterday as well. You know, seeing my dad over the holidays was a really special role gathered around the table, talking, sharing some stories, talking about our time at Yankee Games growing up. But, you know, that was a, that was a, wow, millions of Americans over the age of 65 started to lose their hearing, including my father. So it's hard to hear, especially in a loud room for him. My father was one of them.

So I gave him some MD hearing aids. So let me tell you, they are a game changer. The year was completely different. Everything's engaging with him now. He hears better, especially in groups of people. MD hearing really brought the family conversations back to life. Podcasts brought to you by MD hearing. FDA registered rechargeable. They're FDA registered rechargeable. You won't even know they're there. They fit right inside your ear. Plus, MD hearing just launched their smallest model yet.

The Neo XS, try it out. Get the high quality, affordable hearing aids you deserve with MD hearing. Go to shopmdhearing.com, use promo code Patriot. You get a pair of hearing aids for just $297, plus you're adding a free extra charging case, a $100 value just for my listeners. That shopmdhearing.com, use our promo code Patriot, and get a pair of hearing aids for just $297, and last spot, and we got some more content for you today. We put together

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Let's get back to the show. So a couple of other things happened yesterday during the hearing as well. This use of the pejorative conspiracy theorists to reference Bobby Kennedy. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to disregard that completely. It is nothing but a slap in the face, designed to discredit a guy who has asked some questions. Some questions have been right about, some he may be wrong about, we'll see. But Bobby Kennedy addressed this yesterday, and this is exactly how you answer this question. Check this out. Yeah, that's right.

That is a pejorative senator that's applied to me mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions, a powerful interest. I was told that I was a conspiracy theorist. That label was applied to me because I said that the vaccines, the COVID vaccine,

in prevent transmission, and it wouldn't prevent infection. When the government was telling people Americans that it would, I was saying that because I was looking at the monkey studies in May of 2020. I was called to conspiracy, and now everybody admits it.

I was called a conspiracy theorist because I said red dye caused cancer. And now FDA has acknowledged that and banned it. I was called a conspiracy theorist because I said, Laura, I lowered IQ. Last week, JAMA published a matter of view of 87 studies saying that there's a direct inverse correlation between IQ laws. All right. So I'm going to send a line for a week. Folks, that's exactly how you answer that question every single time.

Are you a conspiracy theorist? Well, tell me which one of these is a conspiracy, number one, and which one's theoretical, because I seem to have been accurate about all of these. Here's another one's my last one from the HHS hearing yesterday. Folks, if we can't make America healthy again, we're not going to have much of a country. If we don't have a healthy country that can defend itself, we don't have a country, we have a suggestion to one.

You should never fall prey to this. I want to hat tip Rand Paul last night who was on the Ingram angle on Fox. And for the first time ever that I've heard, I'm not saying it hasn't happened, answered this question the right way which Senator Paul always does.

Folks, when you talk about healthcare as a right, a capital or right, you are creating an obligation for someone else. We are a country of negative rights. In other words, with the government, the Constitution is what the government can't do to you. Can't invade your home, take your private property, can't take your business papers, it can infringe on your free speech. Our governing documents are largely documents of negative rights. What the government can't do to you to take away your rights.

to declare something a positive right that the government has the right to declare health care right creates an obligation for someone else. Rand Paul knocked it out of the park last night on the Ingram angle on this. I have used, I've spoken about this a thousand times. Bernie Sanders does this all the time. He did it to Bobby Kennedy yesterday. Folks, health care is not a right and we should be clear about that.

It is an obligation for us as a moral people to find a way to get good quality health care. Declaring it a right, a right legally, a big all right, that's what that is, means you can walk into a doctor's office ahead of every well, so I'm here to declare my right, is that what you want? This is how you turn around. He asked Bobby Kennedy yesterday, they do this all the time, check this out. Senator, I can't give you a yes or no, answer that question. Health care, human right, is health care a human right?

in the way that free speech, the human right, I would say it's different because if free speech doesn't cost anybody anything, but in healthcare, if you smoke cigarettes for 20 years and you get cancer, you are now taking from the pool.

And so are you guaranteed the same? I'm sorry. I'd love to talk for an hour with you. We got a few minutes left here. All right. Every other country in us says, health care, whether you're poor or rich, younger, all to human rights. I'm not hearing you say that.

All right, folks, given all that's going on today, I think it's important that we covered what happened at the HHS hearing yesterday. If you're not healthy, there's no point in having to show because you're not going to be here to listen to it and I'm not going to be here to broadcast it. I thought Bobby Kennedy did a fine job. I hope his confirmation process is not derailed. But again, they're going to ask you that question all the time. When someone asks you if something is a right, you should ask them,

Have you thought about the obligations that confer on other people when you declare things rights? Because the communists did that all the time, and people starved to death. Millions of people, when they declared other people's food, they're right.

We're going to exit the show a little early today, given the news cycle going on. We started it way early, so we're actually over on a little bit of time here. But I hope you understand. I will be on the radio show in just a few minutes if you want to watch it on rumble, rumble.com slash Pongino. Please download the rumble app. Give us a follow. Follow us on Apple podcasts and Spotify as well. Forgive me for the schedule today, but I think given everything that happened, you guys all understand. Thank you very much for tuning in. We really appreciate it.

See you on the radio show here and rumble a little bit back here tomorrow at 11 a.m. See you then.