Welcome to the Tucker Carlson Show. We bring you stories that have not been showcased anywhere else. And they're not censored, of course, because we're not gatekeepers. We are honest brokers here to tell you what we think you need to know and do it honestly. Check out all of our content at tuckercarlson. Com. Here's the episode. You hear a A lot from the people who run Washington about the rule of law and its importance. But of course, the law unevenly applied is not justice, it's by definition, tyranny. With that in mind, the following. Back in 2012, 12 years ago, US attorney general Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress after refusing to provide Justice Department documents detailing the Obama administration's handling of the Fast and Furious Scandal. You may remember all of this. So that happened. Holder cited executive privilege, as many have before, to to justify withholding these communications, protecting them, because they were executive branch communications. For that, he was held in criminal contempt, but it was meaningless. Nothing ever happened to Eric Holder. In fact, he became even more popular in Washington. His cocktail schedule was not interrupted even for a day.

The US attorney in DC cited the country's long-standing practice of not enforcing contempt charges to let Holder off Scott free, because, again, he invoked executive privilege, and that's a constitutional murky area. No one has ever been prosecuted for it. Of course, the Justice Department, which Holder led, refused to prosecute him. Then Barack Obama invoked executive privilege to protect him as well. That's what happened then. Fast forward 11 years, and Steve Bannon tried roughly the same thing. Bannon, of course, was President Trump's former chief political strategist. He was ordered, after he tried it, to report to prison by a federal judge. In fact, he's going at the beginning of next month. He was convicted on two counts of contempt. Why? Because he did what Eric Holder did and defied a Congressional subpoena from a committee, in this case, the January sixth Committee. And he did what Holder did. He invoked executive privilege. But it didn't work because he is not Eric Holder. He is a Republican affiliated with Donald Trump. We wanted to talk to Steve Bannon before he goes to prison in just a few days from now, and we're honored to have him join us.

Steve, thanks so much for coming on.

Tucker, thanks for having me on. Pretty good Pretty good summary.

Well, and I think that's all very well known. I just wanted to make certain that people understood precisely what's going on, which is you were being prosecuted, you were prosecuted, now you're being persecuted for your politics. But first, a personal question. I just read this morning you saying, You're fine with it. You're not afraid. For most people, going to prison is the scariest possible thing that could happen. That's why it's a punishment. How do you feel about it and why are you calm?

In my 20s, I spent almost four years on a Navy destroyer in the North Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Western Pacific, South China Sea. In my 20s, I served my country on a Navy destroyer. I'm in my 70s, I'll serve my country in a federal prison. It doesn't make any difference. It won't change my life one way. I don't have a big social agenda. I'm dedicated to this work of saving my country. If I have to be a political prisoner, I'll be a political prisoner. Just a couple of things of what you said in the open. Remember, this is a misdemeanor. When we were in the federal courthouse, the guy that ran the federal courthouse said, and this is in DC, he said, and I think he'd been there 30 or 40 years, he told one of my guys he had never remembered a misdemeanor ever being prosecuted. He said, They're so backed up with felonies, and that's why half the three quarters of the felonies get settled out of court. There's no time. He said he's never seen a misdemeanor ever gone to trial, particularly immediately. They remember this is a criminal charge, not civil.

You could charge somebody civily. Like in Peter Navarro, my colleague and brother, he's down in a federal prison in Miami. I don't know if they've ever had a misdemeanor, someone there. Peter's the same way. It's a misdemeanor. They did this. Remember, President Trump invoked executive privilege, sent my lawyer a letter on advice at counsel. My lawyer told me flat out executive privilege has been exerted. You just stand down and he would handle that. We had three things that we argued in the court, the three things that were up on appeal still back at the DC circuit, maybe on bank, maybe to the Supreme Court, which my lawyers are figuring out here in the next couple of days. But it's not just a recession of executive privilege in de la Cuvole, depending on my counsel, because my counsel was absolutely adamant that had been exerted, and I couldn't respond, even if I wanted to. It's also the structure of the committee. The difference in Holder is that, and you see now in this firestorm over the last couple of days. It's the very structure of Pelosi's committee because in Watergate and Iran Contra, you had these committees set up, and you had a ranking member, and you had minority council.

And that causes the tension and drama in these committees. A minority council gets all the testimony, you get all the evidence, and you can do cross-examination. That's one of the reasons, Tucker, I think even with the ABC TV producer that came in, the January sixth thing floped because Cassidy Hutchinson couldn't Nancy Pelosi, when Jim Banks, the great Jim Banks and Jim Jordan were the two that were supposed to be on there, and Nancy Pelosi told McCarthy, No. And Kevin, for whatever reason, just agreed to that. And that's why they never had a committee. You had You had crying, Kinzinger, and you had Cheney, who have both been outed from Congress, were the Republicans. Everybody else, there was no ranking member. As soon as she saw Jim Banks's name, who will soon be in the US Senate from Indiana, and Jim Jordan is head of Their Honor, the Secretary, she just told them no. And for every strategic reason they made, they went along with it. So the other challenge I've got is the very structure of the committee, which the trial judge struggled with. So I believe that has to go to the Supreme Court.

Also, I'm prepared Because I pay all my legal bills. I've never asked anybody to set up a legal fund. I pay all my bills, but I'm prepared, and I've told my team, regardless of what it costs, I'm prepared to go to the Supreme Court on the executive privilege, on la favola, and on the structure of the committee, which I think maybe of all the issues, because the defense of counsel is a technical thing for the lawyers that needs to be solved in this circuit, the two most important are executive privilege. But the most important to me still is the structure of this committee. Was it a legitimate committee? And you see with the videos you got the last couple of days of Nancy Pelosi saying it was her responsibility of the National Guard. This is why we need a complete and thorough investigation by the House into the January sixth Committee. Exactly what went on? Was it a fedsirection? Was it not a fedsirection? What are the details? And what did the January sixth Committee know about it? Because if you follow Darren Beatty in Revolver News every day, every couple of days, you get information that was suppressed from the committee as John Solomon and these investigative reporters keep breaking.

So I think there'll be a lot more of this. But July first, hey, I serve my country on a Navy ship. I'll serve my country as a political prisoner in a federal prison for a misdemeanor. I don't bat one eye. Whatever it takes to win this revolution, we got to do.

But you did serve your country in the US Navy. You're now being betrayed and persecuted by your country. There's no fair person, I don't think, could conclude anything but that.

Not our country, Tucker. How bitter is that? No, our country, the guys that listen to you and support you. We're being oppressed by an illegitimate regime that you serve power here, and that's what we have to break. Look, I don't need to tell you, they're on you every day, as you know. They're on everybody that stands up. That's what they've tried to do. This illegitimate regime is trying to persecute not just President Trump. They're going to send him to prison on July 11th. They may defer that, but they're going to give him a prison sentence as they've given Rudy Giuliani either bankruptcy or deplatforming or taking your law license away or putting people in prison. That's what they're doing, and we have to stand up to it. That's why I would never give them. You see McCabe on TV, wetting himself every night about, Oh, when these people get back in power, they're going to come after us. You damn right, we're going to come after you within the rule of law, because that's how we'll bequeath a constitutional republic to our children and grandchildren. But no, I don't bet an eye. It's impossible. They will never break me, ever.

Quite frankly, I will be just as proud to serve my nation as a political prisoner in a federal prison for a misdemeanor by Nancy Pelosi as I was to serve my nation on that destroyer.

The timing of this, so four months starting July first. I mean, they're taking you on a rotation for the election. I mean, that's clearly part of the calculation here now.

They did it in 2020 also. Remember, in 2020, right at the very... The Southern district in Europe dropped this bogus, we build the wall, which not only did I never take a penny, actually put money in. I had a contract, a management contract, a consulting contract, totally bogus. They did that, and they did that because the rumor out there, which had some truth to it. Some of the big donors wanted me to step into the campaign and take it back over like I did in August of '16. There was a lot of concern about was the campaign... Not that they couldn't get out to vote, but could they actually close it? I was in discussion. I've been in discussion since May with people about stepping back in and taking the campaign. So they did this in 2020, and now they're doing absolutely the timing of this is to take me out July first, and I come back a couple of days. They want to silence the war room, and they're petrified. Not that I would come back to the campaign. I think the campaign is doing a really good job, but they want to take out another voice.

Like, they want to take you out. Look, they're liquidating Alex Jones's complete media operation. They're after you nonstop. They want to shut down the war room. Look, these people play hardball. And I hope Republicans understand that the reason we got in this situation was these establishment Republicans that were controlled opposition. The only thing these people understand is smashmouth. Now, you have to play within the rules. You have to play within the Constitution and the rule of law. But we can do a lot within that. That's why I think McCabe and these guys, Brenan, McCabe, Klapper, they're so absolutely word because they understand we know the game. President Trump knows the game much better today. There's going to be real accountability come 20th of November of next year.

Speaking of Republicans and the false opposition that they put up, I have a list of Republicans who voted to hold you in contempt, a vote that led to your prison sentence. It's some people would expect Fred Upton, Liz Cheney, Weepe, Kinzinger, Nancy Mace also. Has she called you to apologize?

She's actually been on the show a couple of times. Look, to win, I can put a lot behind me. I think this is one of the reasons she's had a little bit of problem getting the traction she needs down in her primary, of which I hope she wins the primary. I think she made a mistake. I think she knows she made a mistake. She's come a long way since then. She really backed us. She was part of this the whole part to overthrow the McCarthy speakership. I think she's been pretty tough, but I don't hold grudges against which way people vote. I understand what's going on here, as you do. I mean, this is an illegitimate regime of neo-marxists, from the Justice Department to the FBI, the Wall Street crowd. You can see this everywhere in our society, the attacks on the family, and they play for keeps. I'm so glad that in the Alex Jones and the Tucker Carlson, and particularly since you've had the opportunity to lead Fox, ourselves and so many others now understand that this is a war to the knife. We have to win this. If we don't win this, this country is going to devolve into some neo-marxist totalitarian regime, of Which is pretty far down the road right now.

That's why I don't fear going to prison. I know it's going to take my voice off. The war is still going to go on, and I keep saying it's next man up. You can't lean on Trump. You can't lean on Tucker. You can't lean on Banon. You can't lean on Alex Jones. This is a populish revolt. You have to step up and do it yourself. You have to dive in more. You have to do more media sharing, become a force multiplier. So I'm pretty happy with where the show is right now, what the audience is going to do with the team that we've got. But it's clearly the playing Smash Mouth. And I just think we have to wake up in the Jim Banks' of the world, in the Jim Jordans, in the Speaker Johnson's. You have to understand we're in a political war, in an information war, and you got to start fighting like you're in a war.

I have to say, and I'm not sure to rub it in to make you feel bad, but if you just take three steps back, the fact that they're putting people in prison, men in their 70s, you and Navarro, but others, lots of others, people in prison for defying them politically. I mean, that is not the country that we grew up in. Do you ever wonder where you are?

I think like you, I've seen this coming for a couple of years. I was able to work with Andrew Breitbart, and when you started Daily Caller, Andrew started Breitbart. I think at the time, we had an inkling when Obama said, fundamentally transform the United States. I think we had an inkling with Holder and these guys. But it took really President Trump as someone of people that could rally around to understand that the manage decline of our country was more than just a campaign slogan. It's real. I keep saying Trump's win in '16 was providential because I was there. We had a man, we had a mission, we had a plane, we had a message. We didn't have much. We had a lot of money and not a lot of organization. That was divine providence we want. But I tell people it's also divine providence. It's providential that we lost in '20 that was stolen. The reason was, up until then, you thought Democrats, and they had different ideas on taxes. They had different ideas, maybe on certain social programs or education programs. But it's not true. They are literally a neo-marx this revolutionary group that wants to fundamentally change this country.

And now that they have the power of big tech, the lords of easy money, Hollywood, the universities, both high culture and low culture, in the political apparatus, they're going to destroy the American Republic that we grew up with. And this is a war. It is a war. And I'm going to go in for a while as a prisoner of war. I'm a political prisoner. You say you're shocked about it. In one regard, I would be shocked about it, but this is the least... They want to put Trump in prison for hundreds of years. They want to destroy one of the greatest Americans in our country, Rudy Giuliani. I mean, bankrupting, destroying. They're playing smashmouth. The Republicans don't even conceive of that. That's why in this Trump movement, when we start talking about Judgment Day 5, November, and Accountability Day is after President Trump takes his hand off the King James Bible at high noon on the 20th of January, 2025. Mccabe's on TV every other night. Macombie is on TV all the time. This is so terrible. We're having conversations. We may have to leave the country. Well, hey, leave the country. But we have extradition treaties with everybody, and the long arm of American justice is going to get you and fetch you back here.

Because one thing I can tell you with President Trump's second term, there is going to be accountability, not retribution, not revenge. He's got the border to shut down, mass deportations. He's got to stop these endless wars, particularly in the Ukraine. He's got to stop the madness of the spending and how we finance this government, which is out of control and caused inflation. But one of the most important things he has to do is deconstruct the administrative state. And part of that is literally crushing the new purgatorian guard, which is the deep state. President Trump will do this, and I think we have a group of people around him that are going to be maniacally focused on to do it. But until that time, this is a war, and a lot more people are going to go to prison. A lot more people are going to prison than Steve Banon.

Particularly DOJ and CIA. I think that's right. That's where the power is. That's where the guns are. That's where the budgets are. To War Room, your show, which has been very successful and is very influential, can you have any effect on it from prison? Have you figured out a way to get your voice out?

Well, you can't run your business from a federal prison, but I'll stay in touch with the people all day long. Well, the Mafia does. I have a great team, and I've told them. And yes, and certain other guys, hopefully, will play by the rules a little bit better. But no, I tell guys, I tell the men and women on my team, it's time to step up. It's like at Normandy, we just commemorated the 80th anniversary. The people on the first wave, half of them didn't get up to the bulwark on the beach. They were gone. It was next man up. The only reason they got off that beach is next man up. American history is built upon next man up. You're going to lose your best people. You're going to lose your good people. You'll lose the people in leadership. You'll lose the people at the front of the phalanx. You got to pick up the armor. You got to pick up the spear and do it yourself. This is going to be a very good exercise for us. Got to tell people, and I say it all the time, you can't lean. There's too much pressure on Trump.

You can't lean on Trump all the time. You can't lean on Tucker Carlson. You can't lean on Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, named 20, 50, 30, 40, James O'Keefe. You can't lean on them. You have to step up and do it yourself. That's what a populace revolts about. And what they think is that that's an old-school model. If I can take If I can take out Trump, if I can take out Tucker, if I can take out Rudy, if I can take out Alex Jones, if I can take out Steve Bannon, and cause the rest of them to all be worried about being debanked and deplatformed and spend their wheels there, they win. This is going to be a challenge to show if we win. President Trump, Donald J. Trump, on the 11th of January, if you think it's over the top, the Steve Banner for Misdemeanors is going to a federal prison. Donald Trump, a guy that gave us four years of peace and prosperity, or at least three years of peace and prosperity before he got hit with a Chinese bio weapon, he's going to be sentenced to years at Rikers Island. Now, they're going to defer or give him home arrest or make him a supplicant to Judge Mershont so that he can campaign to a limited degree.

But they're in a court in New York State are going to sentence a man who is President of the United States and gave us three of the best years of any President in this Republic's history, sentence him to prison on a case that's actually 10 times bigger joke than mine is. So if they come for Trump and sentence Trump to prison with the billions he has and the contacts he has and the fact that he's been Commander and Chief and President and pretty damn successful, they can come for anybody. You don't think they can put anybody in prison. Right now, if you see what's happening in New York State and in California and some of these states and cities, the great cities like Chicago, with what they have running those cities, the folks they got running it, you better be prepared. There's going to be a lot more people than Donald Trump and Steve Banning to go to prison unless we stop it now. And that's why when you have people like John You and Andy McCarthy, particularly John You, who's no fan of President Trump and certainly not MAGA. When a guy like that, that is smart as that in a reason, when he comes out in National Review, which is also not, as you know, a big Trump-supporting, big MAGA-supporting magazine, when he comes out and literally lays out, says, We have a constitutional duty, constitutional duty, attorney generals and DAs in the House to get in these Democrats' face and start indicting people.

He says, If we don't do that, the balance of the Constitution will be totally gone. We're going to lose the country. When a guy like John EU and then backed up by Andy McCarthy, when those guys are saying that over at National Review, you realize we've hit a tripwire.

Is there a point at which, in the case of President Trump, where the case is so absurd and the penalties are a mockery of justice, that you just say, I'm not participating. Come and get me. I'm not playing your games. I'm going to run for President as is my right as an American and be heard as is my right. I'm not playing along.

I think we may be there on the afternoon, July 11th. I think people got to take a very deep consideration of this. I think it's a gut check, and I think people have to look. Particularly, I think it's very important. That's why you and McCarthy and others like that, or Matt Walsh and even Rich Lowry, other people who have never been big MAGA supporters, are now realizing this Republic, we're right there right now. I think it's going to be a gut check, and I think people got to be very reflective. But the afternoon of July 11th, if President Trump gets a multi-year prison sentence and is put on hold, maybe for his appeal, but put on hold for some time to give him home release, or somehow they put restrictions on his ability to actually go out in campaign, people got to start asking some very deep questions because the thing in New York was the show trial like Moscow in the 1930s. If we're going to allow that to continue, people have to ask very deep questions. I think we're heading towards a constitutional crisis this country has never had before. That's one of the reasons I think I'm going to prison.

They want to send me to prison in July to make sure that I think some of the strongest or more aggressive of President Trump's advocates are taken off the playing field.

I think that's right. At some point, you just have to say no. Last question. You've got four months you're facing. What do you plan to do with that time? What are you going to read? What are you going to spend your time doing?

Well, I have a pretty strict regimen as is, so I'll continue on. I do a lot of spiritual exercises following St. Ignatius Loyola, different spiritual exercises come out of the Catholic Church. Although I would actually say, if you look at our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, I would call myself a pre-Christian. I wouldn't want to I called his name by saying I'm a Christian given the- I know the feeling. The very tough and high standards. No, that issue. Obviously, I read a lot. I study a lot. I try to study every different type of thing that comes up that I am very curious. That wouldn't be a problem. I'll also communicate with my team and other people on the outside within prison regulations, whatever those regulations are. I'll be fully occupied. I'm proud to work 18 hours a day. I have nothing else in my life going on except this, so it won't stop. And we'll just continue to press on. I've told my team there can't be one drop in quality, there can't be one drop in audience participation or an impact. So it's on my team to do it. And I'll hopefully be in a communication with those guys.

But I'm very confident we build a team up here that will continue on. Like I tell them, it's next man up. You don't know if Tucker Carlson is going to be there tomorrow, or you're going to be rounded up. You don't know if President Trump is going to be... By the way, they could remand him to Rikers that afternoon. I think it'd be incredibly foolish, and obviously a stretch even for those crazies. But Trump could be remanded to... He could be remanded to prison that afternoon. In fact, if you look at Tish James and Rachel Madda on those people, they will all investigate when we take power as their participation in this. If you look at Weissman, those guys, they want him remanded on the afternoon of July 11th. They don't want him to go to the Republican Convention, stand on that stage and before the world take the nomination that was so hard fought for and really stand up and get it on with Biden one-on-one, which I think right now this thing will be a blowout. No, they're playing smasher. Look at Rudy. Rudy Giuliani, one of the greatest mayors who've ever had, one of the greatest Americans, and just an amazing guy.

To bankrupt him. They want to jail him. I think he's got sentences out there, potential of 30 or 40, 50 years. Tina Peters, a gold star mother from Colorado. I think she's looking at prison time on multiple felonies of, I think, 20 or 30 years. The 75 A five-year-old grandmother. They just put in prison last week. Gave her two years in ill health at 75 years old, gave her two years in a federal prison. So these people won't stop at anything. Whether you're a religious, right now, you're a religious individual, whether you go to a traditional Catholic mass church. In Richmond, the FBI, the Richmond office, that was the church my parents started that they started looking at. My parents were very devout Catholic, and as soon as they were able to start a Mass back in the '70s in the diocese, they took a couple of the priests out of the monastery and they formed a Latin Mass. That was one of the churches that gave the guys in the Richmond field office because it's a very traditional, very blue collar, tons of kids going to the military, go to the academies, but really enlisted the Marine Corps and the Navy and the Army.

And that's what the FBI is going after. They're saying that they're building a political extremist, that this is where extremism is Where are you coming from. Your government has turned against you. Not our country, the government. This illegitimate regime has taken over the apparatus of the United States government and it's enforcing dictator power. And we have to stand up for it, just like the revolutionary generation stood up to the dictator the power of the Crown and people like the British East India Company.

What they hate most is Christianity, for sure. Well, you're a brave and magnanimous man, and so God bless you. Good luck.

Tucker, thanks. Look forward to seeing you on the side.

Thank you, Steve. Thanks for listening to Tucker Carlson's show. If you enjoyed it, you can go to tuckercarlson. Com to see everything that we have made, the complete library, tuckercarlson. Com.