The poor FBI is under scrutiny, I say! SCRUTINY! (01-07-2025--Hour1)
The Pete Kaliner ShowJanuary 07, 202500:29:2026.91 MB

The poor FBI is under scrutiny, I say! SCRUTINY! (01-07-2025--Hour1)

This episode is presented by Create A Video – In the wake of the terrorist attack in New Orleans, the Associated Press is out with a story eliciting sympathy for the FBI for how so many Americans now view the agency with suspicion.

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[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 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 the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] All righty, so the FBI really, I think, you know, after the attack in New Orleans, the terrorist attack in New Orleans, I think, you know, there needs to be some appreciation for, you know, the burden that the FBI is bearing in all of this. It's very difficult for them. It's tough. It's a tough situation for them to be in, through no fault of their own, obviously.

[00:00:55] As the Associated Press reports, the New Orleans attack came as the FBI was facing political heat and bracing for a transition.

[00:01:06] Oh, this poor FBI is getting scrutiny.

[00:01:12] Yeah, so it always astounds me when people put forth these types of narratives that are designed to try to elicit empathy for people or an organization that is in a situation that it itself does or they themselves do.

[00:01:38] I'm not, this is not, this is not a corollary.

[00:01:41] I'm just saying an analogy here.

[00:01:43] As an analogy, it's like whenever you start talking about teacher pay and trying to figure out a way for there to be some sort of a merit-based compensation system developed to find out, you know, which teachers are, quote, good, which ones aren't and that sort of thing.

[00:02:05] And then to reward the best teachers in some sort of a meritocracy compensation plan.

[00:02:11] And we are always told they cannot do that because there's no way to gauge and to compare and to test and to figure out and assess and whatever.

[00:02:25] But isn't that what you guys do?

[00:02:28] It's literally what you do, right?

[00:02:31] You teach, but then you also have to figure out whether or not the person, I was going to say passed, but I don't, do we do that anymore?

[00:02:39] I'm not even sure.

[00:02:41] So that's the analogy that I thought of when I was reading this piece by the Associated Press, that here is the FBI getting this, you know, sympathetic piece from the Associated Press that's, oh, they're, you know, poor guys that they're facing political heat.

[00:02:56] Yet talk to anybody that's ever had to deal with the FBI, right?

[00:03:01] FBI comes knocking and they bring all the pressure down on you, right?

[00:03:08] Look at the J6 crowd.

[00:03:10] A lot of the people that went, you know, stayed behind the velvet ropes and walked on through the Capitol and they got charged with felonies.

[00:03:21] So I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for the FBI as an institution.

[00:03:25] I really don't.

[00:03:26] And I know that people have said, well, you know, there are, you know, good field agents and all that.

[00:03:30] But Andy McCarthy's got a point on that, too.

[00:03:33] So.

[00:03:34] I think the the further down the the DEI path we go here.

[00:03:42] You know, when with the rot, the institutional corruption that has been allowed to occur in these agencies.

[00:03:52] I don't know how many of those.

[00:03:56] People are left.

[00:03:57] I don't.

[00:03:57] I'm not saying there aren't any.

[00:03:59] I'm just saying I don't know.

[00:04:01] And that's unsettling.

[00:04:03] You know, people that are infected with this oppressor, oppressed victim mindset that are now walking all of the halls.

[00:04:13] I mean, if you want an example of it, take a look at what's happening over in the UK with their police forces.

[00:04:19] I mean, that is it's an embarrassment.

[00:04:23] It's an embarrassment.

[00:04:24] They don't investigate actual crimes.

[00:04:26] They devote all their energies to tracking down people who make mean tweets.

[00:04:31] I'm not even kidding about that.

[00:04:34] It's unreal.

[00:04:37] So the longer you have this rot that's eating away at your institution,

[00:04:42] the more and more likely it is that you have, you know, staff that knows how to operate inside the rot.

[00:04:51] And those are not generally like the best kinds of staff I would submit.

[00:04:56] So.

[00:04:59] Let's pick up this AP story.

[00:05:02] Louisiana's junior Republican Senator John Kennedy implored the FBI to catch these people when he was talking about the attack on Bourbon Street on New Year's.

[00:05:12] He says, after we get to the bottom of this, we need to tell the American people the truth.

[00:05:17] Oh, sorry.

[00:05:28] Can we handle the truth?

[00:05:30] Yes, we can handle the truth.

[00:05:31] In fact, I would submit in this day and age now, we're at the point where.

[00:05:37] It's just best to tell the truth because the lie will always come out and the cover up is what does you in.

[00:05:43] And that's why the FBI is in all of the mess that it's in is because this is what it traffics in.

[00:05:48] It has for decades.

[00:05:49] And now you just can't keep all of these secrets anymore and people can see what's happening.

[00:05:54] So.

[00:05:55] The comment, according to the Associated Press, appeared to allude to, at least in part, to an FBI official's erroneous assertion hours earlier that the Bourbon Street rampage was, quote, not a terrorist event.

[00:06:12] Remember that?

[00:06:13] That was their first statement when they came out, came out and made a statement.

[00:06:17] They were like, this is not a terrorist event.

[00:06:20] And then, like, the mayor, like, stood up at the podium and was like, oh, yeah, it's totally a terrorist.

[00:06:28] And then the FBI had to come back and walk it back.

[00:06:30] Like, oh, OK.

[00:06:31] All right.

[00:06:31] Yeah, I mean, the ISIS flag that is clearly visible on the back of the truck.

[00:06:35] Yeah, OK.

[00:06:36] You got us.

[00:06:38] All right, fine.

[00:06:39] Maybe a little terroristy.

[00:06:41] There was a misstep that the FBI tried to clean up with a follow up statement that said the Bureau was indeed investigating the Islamic State group inspired attack as an act of terrorism.

[00:06:51] But more broadly, the suggestion that federal officials might obscure the truth of the investigation and Kennedy's warning that he would raise fresh hell if they did reflected the uneasy position the FBI had already found itself in by the time of last week's attack.

[00:07:10] So, once again, note the framing.

[00:07:12] Right.

[00:07:13] That there's this suggestion that the FBI might obscure the truth.

[00:07:24] That's not.

[00:07:25] OK, so that is not for the obscuring of the truth part.

[00:07:29] That was for the the belief that they might do such a thing.

[00:07:32] Oh, my gosh.

[00:07:33] I can't believe the FBI would do that.

[00:07:36] No way.

[00:07:37] By the way, have you heard that Facebook is now going to follow the path of X, a.k.a. Twitter, X Twitter or Twitter X in doing community notes rather than the the paid, quote unquote, journalists that do the fact checking.

[00:07:57] Yeah, so we'll get to that, too.

[00:07:59] But.

[00:08:00] Yeah, this idea here that the federal officials might obscure the truth of the investigation.

[00:08:06] Which is.

[00:08:08] That is a thought that the FBI would obscure the truth of an investigation.

[00:08:13] That is a thought that is.

[00:08:15] I'm going to just take a wild guess here and say at least half of America, at least half of America thinks that the FBI lies, that the FBI covers up stuff.

[00:08:25] That they do things and they this is not a new belief either.

[00:08:29] I am old enough to remember all of the stories that the boomers told about J. Edgar Hoover and MLK and all of that.

[00:08:36] Right.

[00:08:37] So don't tell me that this is some sort of a new phenomena where all of a sudden people are like, oh, my gosh, I don't have any trust in the FBI.

[00:08:43] It's been that way for a long time among a lot of Americans.

[00:08:46] It has gotten worse and it is largely, if not completely due to the FBI, their behavior.

[00:08:56] So I have no sympathy for them that now they're getting this kind of scrutiny, which pales in comparison to the kind of scrutiny that they dish out on Americans for.

[00:09:10] Minimally.

[00:09:11] Supported.

[00:09:13] Supported.

[00:09:13] Reasons.

[00:09:14] OK.

[00:09:15] But the poor FBI.

[00:09:18] They are now finding itself.

[00:09:22] Buffeted by suspicion and public criticism from lawmakers, especially allies of President-elect Donald Trump and bracing for a leadership change expected to produce dramatic upheaval at the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency.

[00:09:40] Now, think about that.

[00:09:40] OK, so you got guys going down, guys and gals going down to Bourbon Street to investigate a terrorist attack and you're telling me that the thing that they're worried about is Kash Patel.

[00:09:52] Then they don't need to be doing their jobs because that's not part of their jobs.

[00:09:55] Their job is to investigate that crime.

[00:09:57] So I'm not sure the AP is doing the FBI a solid on this as far as trying to elicit the sympathy.

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[00:11:21] Not that Americans are good at geography or anything, but if you've been calling it the Gulf of Mexico for your entire life, we're going to need to make some adjustments here.

[00:11:31] We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory.

[00:11:42] The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name.

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[00:11:45] So Trump is going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

[00:11:58] Four more years.

[00:11:59] Okay.

[00:12:01] I have no idea if that's a joke or not.

[00:12:05] No idea.

[00:12:07] But honestly, what is to stop us?

[00:12:10] We changed the name of Fort Bragg.

[00:12:12] Right?

[00:12:13] They changed the names of countries all the time.

[00:12:16] You'll always be Burma to me.

[00:12:18] Right?

[00:12:18] I mean, this stuff happens, so we'll see.

[00:12:22] All right.

[00:12:23] So the Associated Press has a big story.

[00:12:27] Talking about the difficulty that the FBI, the poor FBI is facing because they've got a new director coming in, Kash Patel.

[00:12:36] And the FBI director now, Christopher Wray, is planning to resign his position to make way for Kash Patel.

[00:12:42] And so this is a difficult time for the FBI.

[00:12:46] And I don't know.

[00:12:47] Maybe that's why they came out initially after the attack in New Orleans where the guy was running around murdering people, screaming something that sounded like Aloha snack bar.

[00:12:56] And we may never know what motivated him, but they initially came out and said not a terrorist attack.

[00:13:05] Look, honestly, whenever you hear car plows into crowded street partiers, there really are only two explanations.

[00:13:16] I mean, honestly, just given the history of these types of incidents.

[00:13:23] Number one is some sort of jihadist attack.

[00:13:28] And that is usually the one that is correct.

[00:13:30] And number two, old person that forgets the gas pedal is on the right side and the brake is in the middle or on the left side if you don't have a stick shift.

[00:13:41] Which I did see somebody mention the other day they're thinking of restricting their Twitter feed to only people who can drive stick.

[00:13:49] So that would be one way to clean up your timeline.

[00:13:53] So really, like when you hear of a vehicle plowing through pedestrians, those are really the two explanations that historically are the case.

[00:14:05] And most of the time it's a jihadist.

[00:14:08] And that's what it looks like this guy was.

[00:14:10] Now, you know, obviously in the immediate aftermath.

[00:14:13] And if I was on the air, I would have told you the same thing I say after all of these types of events, whether it's a shooting, you know, a rampage of some kind, vehicular or with a weapon.

[00:14:27] I always say.

[00:14:29] Wait at least 24 hours.

[00:14:32] You don't need to rush in and say, you know what happened because you don't know what happened.

[00:14:38] And a lot of people pretend that they do know what happened and they put it in the phrase of I'm just asking questions.

[00:14:44] Yeah.

[00:14:45] But you want to be able to keep your mind open.

[00:14:48] So when new evidence emerges, you can then plug in the new information.

[00:14:53] If you get, you know, your brain wedded to a particular story or narrative, it becomes more difficult then to backtrack on that.

[00:15:03] And you don't want to admit you were wrong and all of that kind of thing.

[00:15:06] So it's just easier to just say, well, let's wait for more information to come in.

[00:15:10] This could have been it.

[00:15:11] This could have been it.

[00:15:12] Whatever.

[00:15:14] But, yeah, the ISIS flag was a pretty that was a pretty big giveaway to me.

[00:15:18] But again, I was willing to maybe somebody came along and stuck it on there after the fact.

[00:15:22] I don't know.

[00:15:23] Like.

[00:15:24] But the same thing with the cooler.

[00:15:26] You hear about the cooler.

[00:15:27] With the IED in it.

[00:15:30] And some people were moving it around.

[00:15:33] They were just drunks.

[00:15:34] All right.

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[00:15:50] Did you ever get them transferred?

[00:15:52] And then the room gets all quiet.

[00:15:54] All eyes are on dad who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to.

[00:15:58] But I just haven't gotten around to it.

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[00:16:40] Let's head over to the phone lines and take...

[00:16:42] Oh, this might be the first call of...

[00:16:45] Yeah, because I don't think I took one yesterday.

[00:16:46] Mitch, welcome to the show.

[00:16:47] The first call of 2025.

[00:16:48] How are you?

[00:16:49] Hey, Pete.

[00:16:50] Thank you.

[00:16:50] I'm all right, man.

[00:16:51] There is no financial reward for being the first caller of 2025 to be on the air.

[00:16:58] Yeah, okay.

[00:16:58] I want that clear.

[00:17:00] Should I hang up again?

[00:17:01] No.

[00:17:02] There's no reward for second caller either.

[00:17:04] So, no.

[00:17:06] Dang it.

[00:17:08] All right.

[00:17:08] Well, I was just going to tell you why I have no sympathy for anybody in the FBI being scrutinized,

[00:17:15] whether it's leadership or rank and file.

[00:17:17] There's three quick, easy ones right off the top of my head.

[00:17:21] Trump-Russia collusion.

[00:17:23] Awful lies told.

[00:17:25] The treatment of pro-life Americans in collusion with the DOJ.

[00:17:29] Awful.

[00:17:29] And then everything to do with the racket that they ran to protect Hunter and Joe Biden from

[00:17:35] their crimes.

[00:17:37] And the reason I include the rank and file, a lot of people just want to go leadership.

[00:17:41] The rank and file should have either been quitting in droves or coming out in droves to go,

[00:17:46] this is awful.

[00:17:48] They decided to protect their jobs instead of doing their duty of protecting the Constitution.

[00:17:53] So, I've got no sympathy for any of them.

[00:17:55] I hear you.

[00:17:56] And it's difficult for me to argue otherwise, you know?

[00:18:00] Yeah.

[00:18:00] And now, did you see this?

[00:18:02] The National Archives finally released photos from way back in 2013.

[00:18:07] So, photos that are almost 12 years old from Joe Biden when he was vice president.

[00:18:13] Yeah.

[00:18:13] Joe Biden's visit to China where Hunter Biden hitched a ride on Air Force Two for the trip.

[00:18:20] Oh, yeah.

[00:18:20] Yeah.

[00:18:21] And it shows Hunter and Joe meeting with Hunter Biden's business associates in China.

[00:18:29] Yeah.

[00:18:29] I would tell anybody in the FBI if they couldn't figure out that Joe and Hunter Biden were

[00:18:34] selling his name and his position, that they all just need to quit right now.

[00:18:38] Yeah.

[00:18:39] But I think they knew all along.

[00:18:41] Right.

[00:18:41] And maybe they keep it under wraps so they could use it as leverage for whatever...

[00:18:45] I thought about that.

[00:18:46] Yeah.

[00:18:46] They want to use it as leverage for.

[00:18:48] I don't know.

[00:18:48] Is it for, you know, funding?

[00:18:50] Doesn't look like they did, though.

[00:18:51] Looks like they just protected him.

[00:18:53] Yeah.

[00:18:53] Maybe.

[00:18:54] Maybe because they thought, you know, he's better than the orange man.

[00:18:56] So, we'll, you know...

[00:18:58] I don't know.

[00:18:58] We've been protecting him a lot longer than the orange man's been around.

[00:19:01] So, I really don't know why.

[00:19:03] No, it's true.

[00:19:04] I got you.

[00:19:05] Mitch, I appreciate the call, sir.

[00:19:07] Again, no financial reward for being first caller.

[00:19:10] Because, really, it was my fault because I didn't really solicit phone calls yesterday.

[00:19:14] Now that I think about it.

[00:19:14] Did I?

[00:19:16] I mean, I think I gave the number out once or twice, but...

[00:19:21] Yeah.

[00:19:22] So, that actually did happen.

[00:19:23] The Joe Biden trip from 2013.

[00:19:28] This is from A.G. Hamilton at the A.G. Report.

[00:19:31] What's most revealing about this is that Joe Biden has extensively denied any involvement

[00:19:37] in Hunter Biden's business dealings, despite extensive evidence to the contrary.

[00:19:41] These photos definitively undermine those denials.

[00:19:45] Given that Hunter Biden was engaged in influence peddling to foreign interests by leveraging

[00:19:50] his father's position, this should have been a major scandal and a continuous story.

[00:19:53] Instead, it was mostly treated as a partisan attack and dismissed until now.

[00:19:57] And to Mitch's point, yeah, I mean, where were all of the whistleblowers?

[00:20:03] Right?

[00:20:04] Not blowing whistles.

[00:20:05] Exactly.

[00:20:07] The Associated Press reports a former Justice Department national security prosecutor,

[00:20:12] Kash Patel, has appeared repeatedly on podcasts before he was selected as the director,

[00:20:18] where he has spoken of his belief that the FBI needed a major overhaul.

[00:20:22] But he's been less specific about how, as director, he would protect the homeland.

[00:20:29] Well, why would he have done that in the podcasts?

[00:20:32] He was talking about...

[00:20:34] He wrote a whole book, by the way.

[00:20:36] But he wasn't writing it as sort of his launching pad to be the director.

[00:20:40] He had no idea he would be tapped for this gig.

[00:20:45] One area he has discussed is significant reforms on how agents and analysts make use of Foreign

[00:20:50] Intelligence Surveillance Act eavesdropping powers, or FISA powers, in national security investigations.

[00:20:58] He had spoken also of a desire to break out the FBI's intel shops from the rest of its crime

[00:21:05] fighting activities.

[00:21:06] A person familiar with Patel's positions, who has sat in on his meetings with senators

[00:21:11] and who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations,

[00:21:16] said that Patel wants to ensure, quote, there's better intel sharing across agencies,

[00:21:21] but is not calling for the elimination of spy powers.

[00:21:25] So, yeah.

[00:21:28] Yeah, well, it was good while it lasted.

[00:21:33] There's no question that each action by the FBI is magnified at a time when its work and

[00:21:38] public statements are so intensely under the microscope as a result of politically charged

[00:21:42] investigations, as well as the aftermath of controversial decisions, like a Justice Department

[00:21:47] memo directing the FBI to address threatening rhetoric at school board meetings, and a since

[00:21:54] withdrawn field office memo that warned of potential Catholic extremists.

[00:22:00] Chris Piota, a former executive assistant director of the FBI who retired in 2020, said he believed

[00:22:07] that the FBI had become distracted in recent years by political and social agendas versus

[00:22:13] addressing the actual emerging threat environment.

[00:22:17] No.

[00:22:18] Some imperfect communication on the first day after the New Orleans terrorist attack did color public

[00:22:26] perception of the response, says the Associated Press.

[00:22:30] Some imperfect communication is what they call it.

[00:22:34] That's like the inartful words.

[00:22:37] I may have been inartful in my words.

[00:22:41] Yeah, you were BSing.

[00:22:42] Like, you just were spouting crap.

[00:22:45] That's not inartful.

[00:22:46] It's not imperfect communication.

[00:22:48] You flat out said it's not a terrorist attack.

[00:22:50] And then within minutes, the mayor is up there like, oh, yeah, it's a terrorist attack.

[00:22:55] That's not imperfect communication.

[00:22:58] All right.

[00:22:58] If you're listening to this show, you know, I try to keep up with all sorts of current

[00:23:01] events.

[00:23:02] And I know you do, too.

[00:23:03] And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources.

[00:23:07] Why?

[00:23:07] Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with

[00:23:12] Ground News.

[00:23:12] It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place.

[00:23:18] So you can compare coverage and verify information.

[00:23:21] You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:23:26] I put the link in the podcast description, too.

[00:23:29] I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as

[00:23:33] an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom.

[00:23:38] The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right.

[00:23:43] See for yourself.

[00:23:44] Check.ground.news slash Pete.

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[00:23:51] I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:23:55] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make

[00:24:00] the media landscape more transparent.

[00:24:02] I mentioned the coolers with the bombs in them down on Bourbon Street.

[00:24:07] And this was the original confusion over whether or not the attacker down there had accomplices.

[00:24:17] And I'm still not sure he didn't.

[00:24:19] But the ones that were spotted on the cameras messing around with coolers, according to TMZ,

[00:24:27] because this is the world we live in now, TMZ has the federal sources that say that the

[00:24:34] confusion started when investigators looked at surveillance video from the Bourbon Street

[00:24:37] area and noticed three men and a woman peering inside two coolers in which the attacker had

[00:24:43] planted homemade bombs.

[00:24:45] The sources told TMZ that investigators ultimately determined these people were not terrorists at

[00:24:51] all.

[00:24:51] Rather, they were drunks.

[00:24:54] They were just checking the coolers to see if there was any alcohol in them.

[00:24:59] So, and they said they now believe the people had no clue that they were staring at explosive

[00:25:05] devices, possibly because they were drunk.

[00:25:09] So that's the update from TMZ.

[00:25:13] John, welcome to the show.

[00:25:14] Hello, John.

[00:25:16] Hey.

[00:25:17] Yo.

[00:25:17] Hey.

[00:25:17] Happy New Year.

[00:25:18] Yes, sir.

[00:25:18] You too.

[00:25:20] Hey, last caller just posited the question about why they, Biden was allowed to remain

[00:25:27] in office.

[00:25:28] And, I mean, take your pick, amiable dunce, idiot, fool, useful idiot.

[00:25:36] And because he was a puppet for the left, whoever was calling the shot.

[00:25:43] So he was very useful to keep in that position so that they could get their agenda in.

[00:25:49] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[00:25:50] But also, don't overlook that the FBI and whatever the leadership team is motivated by,

[00:25:57] they have their own incentives for keeping that kind of a figurehead in place, too.

[00:26:02] Because if they've got stuff that they want done, whether it's budgetary or more power

[00:26:07] or whatever, right, they want to know everything about everybody so they can use it against anybody

[00:26:13] at any given time when they need to use it to get what they want to.

[00:26:17] Well, I wonder who the true puppet master is.

[00:26:20] Because then it's a collusion, certainly, between those that are using Biden and then

[00:26:25] making deals with the FBI so that the FBI gets what they want.

[00:26:29] So, I mean, it's intriguing.

[00:26:30] Who is the master behind all this?

[00:26:35] I don't think it's one person.

[00:26:36] I really don't.

[00:26:37] Right.

[00:26:37] I mean, I've heard it referred to as the blob, right?

[00:26:41] That there are so many people in different positions of power that seek to protect their

[00:26:47] own power and influence and income, right?

[00:26:51] So I think there are just a lot of different people, but they all sort of unite in their

[00:26:57] incentives to keep themselves in power.

[00:27:00] And they work with people that are also incentivized by those same things.

[00:27:05] Yeah.

[00:27:07] It's like a nonstop cancer.

[00:27:10] Yeah.

[00:27:11] Yeah.

[00:27:12] It's rotting.

[00:27:13] Yeah.

[00:27:13] The institutional rot is it's it is pervasive and it is infecting the entire society.

[00:27:19] So, John, I appreciate the call.

[00:27:20] And this isn't new either.

[00:27:23] Kirk points out, let's not forget Ruby Ridge, Waco, J. Edgar Hoover had extensive files on

[00:27:31] political enemies as well.

[00:27:32] Right.

[00:27:33] And what was the point of having all of those files?

[00:27:38] Extortion.

[00:27:39] Right.

[00:27:39] I mean, that's the whole thing.

[00:27:41] Like if you're the FBI and you know that Joe Biden is compromised, what do you do with

[00:27:48] that information?

[00:27:49] Right.

[00:27:50] Do you bust him, take him out and stop the damage?

[00:27:57] Or do you and do you have the hubris and arrogance to think that you can basically just

[00:28:05] monitor all of the dealings and such and then you can use him through that leverage because

[00:28:13] you know all of these secrets and you just say, like, look, we know that you're jammed up.

[00:28:18] We know that you're compromised by, you know, Burisma, Ukrainians, corrupt oligarchs over

[00:28:24] there, the Chinese.

[00:28:26] Right.

[00:28:26] We know all about this stuff.

[00:28:28] So here's what you're going to do.

[00:28:29] You're going to do X, Y, Z for us.

[00:28:33] Right.

[00:28:34] And if you if you think that juice is worth the squeeze, I think you do that.

[00:28:37] That's what Hoover was keeping all the files for extortion, basically, not for money.

[00:28:44] That I'm aware of.

[00:28:45] Maybe there's some budgetary extortion going on there to get more funding for the agency,

[00:28:49] but also to protect it and to make it feared.

[00:28:51] All right.

[00:28:52] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:28:54] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:29:09] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.