Nick Craig In For Pete Kaliner (08-25-2025--Hour1)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendarshow dot com, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. We're going to begin on an interesting discussion that has been taking place over the weekend nationally about whether the FBI's raid on former National Security Advisor John Bolton's home on Friday was political retaliation or political retribution. Those have been the two terms that I've seen all throughout cable news over the weekend on the Sunday news talk shows that air Sunday mornings in all of the usual places that you would accept expect at the Washington Post, the New York Times, so on and so forth. Was the raid on John Bolton's home political retaliation by the Trump administration. We'll get into that. Love to get your comments and feedback as well, but let's start off with some of the backs of the story. I would think if we're going to have an academic discussion over whether the FBI carrying out its duty conducting its businesses political retaliation or some sort of political retribution, that we would get. Oh, I don't know, maybe the facts of the matter out. So let's go back to where we were on Friday when agents FBI agents rated the DC area home of John Bolton. They did this around seven o'clock Friday morning. Federal agents went to Bolton's home, which is just outside of the district in Bethesda, Maryland, in an investigation ordered by FBI Director Cash Patel. Now, Patel confirmed this on his x account shortly after the fact by saying, quote, no one is above the law at FBI agents on a mission. That was followed up a little bit later on by a quote tweet from Dan Bongino, who is the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying public corruption will not be tolerated. So those were the two posts from Patel and Bongino kind of laying out this situation. And all of this stems around a probe which is said to involve classified documents, which should be something that the Democrats have no problem with right. We were told that raiding the home of former President Donald Trump, his mar A Lago estate was all done over classified documents, and it was to save democracy. Right, to save the United States of America as a sovereign nation, so it didn't collapse and fall into ruin. Right, it was all above board, all just in order to save the democracy, and that involved classified documents as well. So I guess there shouldn't be a big issue there. That was launched back a couple of years ago. However, the Biden administration shut it down, according to senior US officials, for political And you might ask yourself, Okay, well, you know this is a Trump national security and former Trump national security advisor. Why would the Biden administration, according to US officials, shut it down for political reasons? Well, if you have listened or read or seen any of the commentary from John Bolton over the last couple of years, it's not a surprise or a shock that Biden's DOJ the Department of Justice under that under the previous administration, would not want to cause any problems for John Bolton. I mean, you could turn on cable news at any point throughout the week during the Biden administration and see over and over again that it was John Bolton on TV bashing Trump, bashing the Trump administration and everybody that was associated with them. And the reason that that is relevant, the reason that that is an important fact in this story is because we know when we understand. But those on the political left love having that tool available to them. Right. It's easy to have a Democrat on TV and talk about how terrible and awful Donald Trump is. You can see that twenty four hours a day on CNN or MSNBC. You don't have to stretch very thin to see that. But to have a former Trump administration official, to have a guy that worked in the administration, wrote a book about his time in the administration, going on cable news as a so called close advisor of President Donald Trump, him bashing the former president at the time, that's a really good get. That's a really powerful political tool for those on the left to have access to. So when a senior official tells The New York Post that the previous administration allowed this thing to fall by the wayside for political reasons, I don't think that's an absurd conclusion to draw. I mean, John bolt was a great tool for a great resource to continue their Trump hatred twenty four to seven. So no surprise at all that it was shut down for so called political reasons. So now we get onto what is going on. Bolton had also previously been accused of including classified information in a book he wrote a couple of years ago called The Room Where It Happened. He also got rich off of a book, Surprise Surprise. President Trump at the time tried to stop its publication over the inclusion of national security secrets, saying that John Bolton broken NDA signed as a condition of his employment, but was unsuccessful in doing so. That case is now said and done. So this story, however, is one that is completely different. The raid that took place on Friday has to do with evidence from those in the FBI, Cash Betel, Dan Bongino, and other folks that have strong evidence to back up the fact that while Bolton was Trump's National Security advisor, he was actively transferring classified private information from his desk inside the White House to outside email servers, particularly sending it to his wife and daughter. Now why was he sending classified information to his wife and daughter? I think you can probably draw the lines and make the connection right so that he could have access to that information not immediately tied to him. It wasn't his personal email account he was sending it to. It was his wife and daughter's email addresses that he was forwarding or sending this information to. According to a high ranking official who spoke anonymously to The New York Post on Saturday morning, the alleged crime was first identified in twenty twenty through a quote very specific intelligence operation that helped produce This is a direct quote from the article Damning Intelligence that Bolton had answerred classified documents to his wife and daughter from his Oval Office desk before Trump fired him in September of twenty nineteen. Investigators, as you would imagine, classified documents big deal, opened the case entirely separate from the investigation into his book The Room where it happened. But with this second investigation opened, which of course carried into the first part of the Biden administration, that investigation was shelld according to officials. So now you've got Trump back in the Oval Office, You've got Cash Mattel and Dan Bongino over at the FBI. You've got Pam Bondy over in her position, and so now Trump's DOJ is questioning if the Biden FBI's decision to not further go into this case was politically motivated, and with everything that we've got publicly available. I'm not in John Bolton's head. I don't know exactly what he was thinking, but with all of the public information that we've got, it doesn't seem like it's that far of a stretch to say that John Bolton in his position, using him being used by those on the political left as a tool as a weapon to attack at the time former President Donald Trump. Why would Biden's DOJ want to throw the book at him, no pun intended. Why would they want to muddy the waters with a guy that had become a very useful talking point on the political left. To me, it makes perfect sense. Why would you prosecute a guy that's providing you some level of political cover even though yes, he wasn't the Trump administration, but because he's now anti Trump, seems like a win win for those on the political left. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. We're talking about the FBI raid on John Bolton's home that happened to Friday morning, just outside the district of Columbian Bethesda, Maryland. And the question is is this political retaliation? Is this some sort of retribution being put forth by the Trump administration, and with what I've been able to gather over the weekend, this seems like it's a pretty clear case that the FBI has made. According to a senior FBI official talking to The New York Post in Fox News on Saturday, this is their quote quote. The Biden administration had probable cause to know that he had taken material that was detrimental to the national security of the United States, and they made no effort to retrieve it, noting that this was a friendly administration to Bolton. They kept bashing Trump, that kept bashing Trump the entire time for weaponizing law enforcement, and they politically stopped this investigation. And they, in fact are the ones who weaponized law enforcement. The case, described as air tight by some of the investigators, was so bare that FBI Director Cash Patel did not find out about it until a month or so after his February confirmation, when he doing his due diligence, asked agents for a briefing on sensitive cases, and this was one of them. Among those addressed was the Bolton case, which the director or initially thought had to do with the prior closed investigation into John Bolton's book, but investigators encouraged him to look closer, explaining that it was an entirely new case that they were stopped from pursuing over the last four years by the Biden administration. So with that information available, being told, it's an air tight case that this is something that the previous Federal Bureau of Investigations knew about, did some early preliminary investigation of then no surprise, completely brushed it off to the side. Why was John Bolton's house rated by the FBI, Well, seems like like he had access and was potentially holding classified information. And what I'm struggling to wrap my head around is how this is a bad thing. Right, we have been told for years now by those on the political left that nobody is above the law. Whether you're a president, a judge, a member of Congress, maybe even your local town, city council, school board members. Nobody is above the law, regardless of whether you're in elected positions or not. The law should be handed out fairly to everyone. Now. I agree with that statement, but the left obviously does not, because they use it when it is politically expedient for them to do so, when they can get some cheap hits in on those on the right. They claim that the rule of law is saying, is this sworn thing and nobody is above it, so on and so forth. You've heard all the talking points. But when somebody like John Bolton, according to multiple sources within the FBI, when he's being investigated for taking classified information away from his post as the National Security Advisor, of which I'll note he was fired from in September of twenty nineteen, when he is investigated for having classified documents, what is it. It's not the rule of law. It's a threat to democracy to those on the left. It's the end of democracy in some cases. To those on the left. It is weaponization of the federal government to some of those on the left. And so I struggle to wrap my head around how those two things can exist at the same time. And the very short and sweet and simple answer to this is you can't. It can't be okay to raid Trump's house to get classified documents back, and that be a good and just and fair thing. Rule of law, nobody's above it. But when John Bolton is being investigated for sending emails to his wife and daughter from his desk inside the Oval Office, or not inside the Oval Office, but the White House sending them outside to private email servers, and he's investigated by the FBI. It's a threat to democracy, folks. The two things cannot exist in the same universe. And this is yet another trap that those on the left have set for themselves. They've never been of the mindset, never been of the opinion that they're ever going to be held responsible or accountable for the things that they do. So for example, with President Trump, they think it's okay to raid his property to get classified documents back. They believe that in the state of New York it is a politically right and just to change the statute of limitation to prosecute the former president. These are real things that have happened. And then when the coin is flipped onto the other side, when they are no longer the one in power, when they are no longer the ones that hold the political power that exists within government, whether we're talking about the executive branch or the House or the Senate, whatever branch of Congress, they don't want any part to play in it. And that's why I claim that it's a trap that they've set for themselves. There's never been any sort of thought that they're ever going to have to face the same scrutiny that they hold those on the right to. And once again it's a major misstep, and I would argue a major miscalculation from those on the political left. Now. The goal was, as you are well aware, to make Donald Trump such damaged goods that he could never be elected again, and then they wouldn't have to worry about That's why they charged him with like what seventy something felonies or ninety felonies in a variety of states New York, Florida, Georgia, Washington, d C. Try and make him unelectable, try and make it so that he can never get back to a position of power. Then they don't have to worry about it. They can wash their hands clean and say mission accomplished. We weaponize the DOJ, we weaponize the FBI and all of our other ancillary three letter agencies against Trump, and we won. He lost. He's not going to get back into power. Mission accomplished. But the plan didn't roll out that way. Trump won. The Republicans won in November of last year, in an overwhelming victory, I'll note, and so now the Democrats are having to face this. All right, You hear me talk a lot about incentives, right, Well, let's talk about incentive trips, the kind that companies offer employees to fire them up and reward their teams. If you own a business or you work somewhere that offers these incentive trips, first off, good for you. But also there is a custom app that's a game changer for these trips. It's called incentive trip Kit. Private group messaging, shared photos, you're itinerary, travel details all built into a single, easy to use app. There's even and a traveler locator so Carl from accounting doesn't get left behind. The best part about incentive trip Kit it's totally private, no email captures, no sign ups, no cringe ads. It's simple, clean and secure. 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I don't know how we look at this situation as retaliation or revenge or retribution. If John Bolton, in his post as the National Security Advisor emailed or sent classified private information to outside parties, presumably his wife and daughter do not have the same security clearances that he did. He does. Now if we find out that's the case, then maybe the story changes. But they don't. They weren't members of the National Security team. They have from all reporting that I've been able to gather, neither of them held any sort of security clearance. So he is being investigated by the FBI, and I don't know what part of that is retaliation or revenge or retribution. Donald Trump made it very clear during the campaign over the last You back in twenty twenty four that one of his main goals and main objectives was to clear up what's going on in Washington, DC. We'll get into some of the crime a little bit later on in the show This Afternoon, but he talked about cleaning up the government, draining the swamp, so on and so forth. And the only way that you begin the process of doing that is by going to the FBI, going to the Department of Justice, and other agencies that are actively working on investigations, have tips, have information, and act on that information. The Biden administration had evidence that John Bolton was email and classified information, and they didn't do anything about it. Why Because John bolt was a good tool for them to use. He was a good asset to roll out on cable news and talk about how to terrible and awful Donald Trump was. Donna is a texting in This Afternoon on our WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. She writes, I do not believe that this is political retaliation. We were told from the get go that it was going to be cleared up from the top down. If we don't investigate, how do we know what has been going on? And rather, how do we verify it? Corruption needs to seize. Political operatives need to know that we will stand for it no longer great commentary this afternoon, Donna appreciate it at seven oh four five, seven eleven ten. How do you know unless you're investigating, How can you know whether John Bolton is guilty of doing this or not? If you, oh, I don't know, suppress the investigation. Tell FBI agents, which is exactly what happened under Biden's DOJ, that they're not allowed to continue looking into this. I thought this was all about the rule of law. I thought this was all all about holding people accountable. I thought this was all about democracy being killed by people being above the law. With all of that being true, how can you be against the FBI's actions on Friday? And the simplest answer really is the only reason that this looks like retribution or revenge or retaliation is because you don't like it. That's the only reason that it looks like revenge or retaliation because you don't like the fact that the same game rules that you have changed are being used against you. That's why it feels like revenge. That's why it feels like retaliation from the Trump administration. Let's break this down even further. We'll use a football analogy the season kicking off here in a couple of weeks. If a team rolls into Carolina and tells the Panthers, normally ten yards is a first down, but we're gonna play with five yards being a first down, and the Carolina Panthers respond to that and say, okay, well, we're gonna do the same thing. Would you consider the Panthers retaliating against their opponent. I wouldn't. I'd say they're playing the game by the same rules. And I think that's exactly what you're seeing out of the Trump administration. I don't want frivolous investigations from the DOJ or the FBI. I don't want the Department of Justice being weaponized against those on the political left. While I disagree with them, while I think many of their policies are ridiculous and don't make any sense and are arguably destructive to our country, I don't want frivolous investigations. I don't want the FBI showing up at people's houses in the middle of the night, ramming indoors and pulling out people in cuffs. I don't want that at all. And that's not what we're seeing. We are seeing an active investigation that was documented during the previous president and Joe Biden being now played out by Cashptel. And so for all of the hand ringing and the pearl clutching by those on the political left, this is the game that you guys want to play. You are okay with federal agencies and federal departments like the FBI, like the dj like others acting in this manner. How can you be so appalled or beside yourself when your people in this case John Bolton faced the same level of scrutiny. It just it completely. The entire argument completely falls apart when you begin the process of walking through how we got to this situation. Republicans and conservatives did not change the rules of the game. It's those on the left that did. And they were under the impression and under the mindset that there would not be any repercussions for that, that there would be no consequences to the law fair that you and I and everybody else across the country has watched roll out over the last couple of years again, because the objective was to politically bankrupt and ruin Donald Trump, to cut the head of the mag of movement so that it would stop the left. Was unsuccessful in doing that. They re engaged the movement. I would argue they set a larger fire under Donald Trump's rear end than he had beforeen he won in twenty sixteen, and now they're having to face the same game rules that they wanted to roll out to those that they politically disagreed with. And really, the only way that you stop those on the left from targeting the rest of us, for me from you, is to make some level of guarantee that there's a cost to this kind of behavior, that there is a political cost to this kind of lawlessness, this kind of lawfair that you've watched unfold in front of your very eyes. Without it, the next time democrats are in power, they feel emboldened once again, and they ratchet up the pressure once again. And every single time the pressure builds and builds and builds and builds. Because there's never been any consequences for it, they are allowed to change the rules of the game consistently, and nobody ever calls them out on Donald Trump is not taking it, and I'm sure that's part of the reason why you saw the FBI rate of John Bolton's out on Friday. And I hope, unlike the previous administration, that this is investigated, that this is looked at. If John Bolton is not guilty of sending classified documents, then he should be exonerated. If he is guilty, if there is evidence that, in fact, he was sending these emails outside of the White House to unsecured email servers, then I hope he's prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. That's how our system works, not when it's just politically ec expedient or politically convenient to enforce the law. That's not law in order. That's not the rule of law. That's nobody's above the law. That's not how that process plays out at all. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina? Just a quick drive up the mountain and cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. 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Talking about John Bolton the Raid of his house on Friday by Cash Battel's FBI, Dan Bongino's FBI, and the discussion over political retribution, political retaliation, and Jason is texting in this afternoon and he says, it doesn't matter if you're a liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat, military, or government contractor. Leaking classified information is illegal and should be consistently investigated and charged where appropriate. Exactly, Jason's That's why I don't understand what all the outrage is that Donald Trump is in Cash Battel are weaponizing the FBI against John Bolton. Well, I mean, there seems to be pretty good evidence from the fact that the Biden administration completely tamped down the investigation into Bolton while Biden was in the Oval office that he's probably guilty of something. But again, the only way you figure that out is by oh, I don't know, conducting or concluding an investigation, because it wasn't closed, it was shelved by the Biden DOJ. It was shelved by Biden's FBI, meaning that it did not likely get the scrutiny that it should from individuals that are sworn into those offices and are responsible for upholding the law. One of the things that is I think a part of this, and I haven't really seen this discussed a whole lot, is the fact that Donald Trump is conducting himself in cash. Mattel and other folks pambody are conducting themselves in this manner because it's something that the left is not used to seeing. As I was mentioning in the last segment, there's this concept that the left is always changing the rules of the game. Right, They're constantly moving the goalpost, and they're used to being able to do that and not really have to face any repercussions, consequences, or any sort of retaliation for that. Right, they're allowed to change the rule of the game, change all of the things that we understand as normal or standard, for their political expedients, for their ability. In this case, it was to go after Donald Trump and folks closely associated or aligned with Trump, So they changed whatever rules necessary. In the case of New York, literally changed the statute of limitation so they could prosecute Donald Trump over allegedly falsifying business records. They changed the statute of limitation to do that. Right, you don't change the statute of limitation just out of nowhere. You do it when, of course there is a means that justify the end, which is going after and ruining Donald Trump. And for the longest time, Republicans and Conservatives have been of the mindset that we need to take the moral high ground here, we need to take the high road, and we're just going to allow the Democrats to continue to do this. We're going to allow them to change all of the rules, do whatever they want, and when we're in charge, we're gonna, you know, talk about judicial reform, We're going to talk about holding the moral high ground on all of this. And I think Trump is really broken through to the Republican Party and said enough is enough. If the left wants to change the rules and play by a different game, then we're going to do the exact same thing. And that doesn't mean that you completely concede any sort of moral high ground or morality, not at all. Again, if Donald Trump's DOJ is starting to just go after people on the left with no evidence and for no reason, I will have a significant problem with that. I will be calling the Trump administration out and holding them accountable. But that's not what this story is at all. John Bolton was in hot water over his book in twenty twenty for the exact same issue. So this is not just some random guy on the left that Cash Battel and Dan Bongino are going to try and turn the screws on to make him squeal and prove a political point. There's nothing to back that up at all. This was a case that was opened during the first Trump administration, shelved by Biden's FBI, and is now being reacted upon by Cash Battel, Dan Bongino and the Trump administration. And so I just don't see it as any sort of retribution or retaliation or anything of that nature. And I strongly believe the only reason that you're hearing so many people and news outlets and publications cry about that over the weekend is because they don't like that they're being held to the same standard that they want to hold us to. And to me, that's just that's not a good response. It's a very morally bankrupt response, and it's incredibly weak. It really goes to show you that the left has nothing to stand on at all. It's pretty remarkable. All Right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.