January 9th, 2023

On Monday’s Mark Levin Show, classified documents from Joe Biden during his vice presidency were found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington D.C. The FBI is involved with the inquiry, with 10 classified documents from Biden’s VP office at the center of the investigation. The presidential records acts requires all documents to be turned over to National Archives to keep information secure, which Biden clearly did not, but he won’t be raided and attacked like President Trump. There is no way in hell that presidents haven’t taken documents with them; Obama, Bush, Gore, Cheney all probably kept documents too. Also, the new House rules we’ve heard talked about on TV and radio were agreed to months ago, which is why the majority of the Freedom Caucus wasn’t going along with the other 20 Republicans protesting Kevin McCarthy. It wasn’t 20 patriots going up against 200, because most of the 200 already had what they needed. In reality it was some people using this to get more power, and some who just hate McCarthy. They simply couldn’t take out McCarthy with another candidate, so they went back to negotiating rules and demanding committees. Later, Stephen Miller speaks with Mark about the crisis on the southern border and the importance of impeaching Biden now before it gets worse. Finally, Greg Kelly joins Mark to discuss his new book Justice for All: How the Left is Wrong About Law Enforcement.

Photo by Pete Souza/The White House

The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.

Rough transcript of Hour 1

Hour 1 Segment 1

Here’s some breaking news, not phony breaking news. Real breaking news. CBS News Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the U.S. attorney in Chicago to review classified documents found at the PEN Biden’s Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington. Two sources with knowledge of the inquiry told CBS News the roughly ten documents are from Joe Biden’s vice presidential office at the center. The sources said CBS News has learned the FBI is also involved in the U.S. attorney’s inquiry. The classified material was identified by personal lawyers for Mr. Biden on November 2nd, just before the midterm elections, Richard Silber, special counsel to the president, confirmed. Of course, they kept their mouth shut until after the documents were discovered, when Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys, quote, were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the PEN Biden Center in Washington, DC, unquote, Sabur said in a statement to CBC News. The documents were contained in a folder that was in a box with other unclassified papers, the sources said. The sources revealed neither what the classified documents contain nor their level of classification. A source familiar told CBC News the documents did not contain nuclear secrets. Oh, well, I guess that’s okay. And where you have ten classified documents, America, you have unclassified documents, too. As I’ve said repeatedly, there is no damn way in hell that presidents and vice presidents and attorneys general and secretaries of state haven’t taken documents with them. The discovery of these documents was made by the president’s attorneys, Sabur said. The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the archives. So he’s trying to make a distinction. Does it matter? Since that discovery, the president’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden administration records are properly in the possession of the archives. But they’re not, are they, For many, many years. A source familiar with the matter said Representatives from the National Archives then notified the Department of Justice. Garland assigned U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, John Walsh, to find out how the classified material ended up in the Penn Biden’s center. The review is considered a preliminary step in. The attorney general will determine whether further investigation is necessary, including potentially appointing a special counsel. You know, the special counsel would be issues are piling up, ladies and gentlemen. Last was nominated to be the U.S. attorney by former President Donald Trump, and he’s one of the only two current Trump era U.S. attorneys still serving. The other is Delaware. U.S. Attorney David Vise is leading an investigation into the president’s son, Hunter Biden lost recently brief. The attorney general will eventually submit a final report to Garland. The review is expected to conclude soon. The Biden Pen Centers, a think tank about a mile from the White House in Washington. It’s affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, named for the sitting president Presidential Records Act, they write. Requires all presidential and vice presidential documents to be turned over to the National Archives. There are special protocols to keep classified information secure. Biden learned about the presence of the information when his lawyer reported them to the White House counsel’s office in November. A source familiar said the president is unaware of their contents. The documents are believed to be currently in a secure location in Washington. Look how they twist the reporting. Did they say the documents that Trump had were in a secure location in Mar a Lago? No. In a think tank. Why are they considered to be in a secure location? Are they in a vault? What? How is it? Secure. Currently Biden Pen Center and the University of Pennsylvania did not respond to requests for comment. The National Archives declined to comment. Attorneys assigned to oversee Biden’s vice presidential records did not reply to voice messages in an email seeking comment. They get to figure out what their what their story is going to be. The unprecedented search followed more than a year tussling. With the Trump people, of course. How much you want to bet Obama has documents, including classified documents? We know he has a lot of documents. How much you want to bet George W Bush does? How much you want to bet Al Gore does, and Dick Cheney, how much you want to bet? How about you, Bill Barr? Not saying you do, but now’s the time to come clean if you do. What about Eric Holder? What about Hillary Clinton? That she retain any of those before she destroyed them? I hope you were able to watch last night, Life, Liberty and Levin. You had the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee. Really good guys. It turns out James Comer, Jamie Comer, they call. Is a big fan of this show and big fan of the TV show, he told me. Anyway. One of the things I asked him is about the National Archives. You’re going to dig into this. And they said absolutely. All the texts, all the emails and all the rest. I’m very impressed with this guy. As a matter of fact, now. I want to get into something else. Those of you who are loyal listeners, I dropped as many hints as I possibly could last week, Thursday, and especially Friday. About the events on Capitol Hill. I wasn’t bloviating behind the microphone about good and bad and good and evil. And here we. One one way. One way. We want a big one. Yes. Who are all these rhinos? Even some of our own. This is the greatest event since Ronald Reagan won the presidency for conservatives. All right. Let me start at the beginning. Actually, I’m going to take an early break now so we don’t have an early interruption. I’m going to give you information. You do not have that I said, some of which I would reveal when this was over. And it’s over. And unfortunately been getting the usual pablum, I’m sure. One host after another sounds almost identical, whether on radio or TV. It it’s pretty. Pretty superficial case to be made the 20 year great in the other two or not. Conservative conservatives one. No, there is good that came out of this, but I want to give you all the facts so you can draw your own conclusions. Those of you who are like Marxists. You just want to set up a firing squad and start shooting. You don’t need to listen anymore. You got plenty of host you can listen to. There’s plenty of propaganda and demagogues with microphones or with cameras. Go ahead. But if you’re smart and you’re intelligent and you’re a real constitutional conservative, stick with me. I’ll be right back.

Hour 1 Segment 2

It’s a lot breaking today, but I want to I want to hit this. July 28, 2015. H.R. Resolution 385 by Mr. Meadows. Mark Meadows, Congressman from North Carolina at the time, submitted the following resolution, which was referred to the Committee on Rules. This is very important, declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives vacant, whereas the Speaker of the House of Representative for the 114th Congress has endeavored to consolidate power and centralize decision making, bypassing the majority of the 435 members of Congress and the people they represent. Whereas the Speaker has, through inaction, caused the power of Congress to atrophy, thereby making Congress subservient to the executive and judicial branches, diminishing the voice of the American people. Whereas the Speaker uses the power of the office to punish members who vote according to their conscience instead of the will of the Speaker. Whereas the speaker has intentionally provided for voice votes on consequential and controversial legislation to be taken without notice and with few members present. Whereas the Speaker just uses the legislative calendar to create crises for the American people in order to compel members to vote for legislation. Whereas the Speaker does not comply with the spirit of the rules of the House of Representatives, which provides that members shall have three days to review legislation before voting. Whereas the Speaker continues to direct the Rules Committee to limit meaningful amendments, to limit debate on the House floor, and to subvert a straightforward legislative process. Whereas the House of Representatives to function effectively in the service of all citizens of this country, requires the service of a speaker who will endeavor to follow an orderly and inclusive process without imposing his or her or her will upon majority a member thereof. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Office of Speaker of the House of Representatives is hereby declared to be vacant. This was the resolution that Mark Meadows put in place. Under a rule that had not really been effectively applied in about 100 years. It was tried against Gingrich once, but it didn’t work. One of the people who draft this resolution was me. I’ve never told you that. One of the people who edited this resolution after it was finally drafted was me. I never told you that. If you listen to a number of the points that are raised in this resolution that resulted in John Boehner resigning. It addresses a number of the points. But the new rules that have been adopted post Pelosi by the Republicans are going to be adopted, I guess, this evening in the House. The rules that you’ve heard, talked about and read on TV and on radio. 90% of those rules were agreed to two months ago. Which is one of the reasons I kept telling you that a majority of the Freedom Caucus was not going along with the other 20. The vast majority of those rules, 90%. Had already been agreed to. And there were some at the end that were adopted to refine things and add some things. No question about it. But this is why there was some fury on the floor of the House. And anger. It wasn’t just 20 great patriots standing up and all of a sudden going against an unmovable 200 members. Most of those 200 members thought they already had a package. This is what I was trying to tell you, but I couldn’t tell you. About the the 20 and the differences among them, some very principled who felt they needed to go further. Some wanting special committee assignments in power and some who just hated McCarthy. The last six who. What a president hated. McCarthy who took a call from Donald Trump the time to cut it out. One of the people who wrote me, a person whose name I will now reveal for her sake. Was never debating me about rules. She wrote me a nasty email saying, Well, now McCarthy is yours. So what do you mean McCarthy is mine? Because I wouldn’t throw in first with the five. They had to change the 20 their strategy. The original strategy was no McCarthy period. Anti McCarthy like Never Trumpers. They were never McCarthy. But they weren’t getting anywhere with that. They were advised. That use a rule of attrition. That was the model they wanted to try. But they weren’t getting anywhere big, so they put up first and they got ten votes. Biggs is not popular even among conservatives. And he’s despised by the Convention of States movement. Five and a half million active members. And when they threw up, Byron Donalds, who’s a friend of mine who I adore. Byron Donalds had just voted for McCarthy. Now they’re throwing up Jim Jordan, who wants nothing to do with it. He’s trying to negotiate an endless thing. Then, of course, Donald Trump and I don’t need to go through all this with you. They simply couldn’t take out McCarthy with another candidate. So they went back to the rules. They went back to the rules and they made demands. This guy wants to sit on this committee. This guy wants to sit on that committee. And there were some other demands. That that caused a battle like the vacating of the chair like this. And they insisted on this. And the issue wasn’t whether to protect McCarthy or not. With one member being able to have a vote of a majority. To vacate the chair. The issue is whether or not the Republicans would be strong enough if a handful of them could hold the sword of Damocles over another speaker’s head. It had nothing to do with McCarthy and a number of the conservative members, including from the Freedom Caucus, said, We’re going to have difficulty getting anything done here. It’s very close. Some of the issues we’re going to duke out. We could lose moderates, liberals, They could join with the Democrats. It could get awfully messy here regardless of who the speaker is. Speaker could be the late, great Ronald Reagan. It wouldn’t matter. So that was a principled debate. And they decided to give in. That was one of the sticking points. But when we come back, I want to go through some of these rules that they adopted. And I want you to know, to my knowledge, which one of these were already agreed to by the entire. Republican caucus. And by the way, two months ago, Biden and the Justice Department knew about classified information that the vice president had given to his think tank. So they covered it up for two months, including through the election.

Hour 1 Segment 3

The Jefferson motion you’ve heard a lot of references by my buddy Chip Roy and others to Thomas Jefferson and the rules that he had written when he was vice president in 1801 that were adopted by Congress. The Rules of Order, Robert’s Rules, I guess he adjusted them and they mentioned in there a Jeffersonian motion to vacate the chair, which would just need a single congressman to raise it, not to remove the speaker, but to raise it for the rest of the body. The vote. What he did is he updated the original rules. He was always working on them. He was a perfectionist. From 1801, he put out a second edition in 1812 when he said he was going to continue to update it as time went on. And in 1837, the Congress of the United States adopted it. That rule hadn’t been used for 100 years. It was used in the last century, as you’ve heard over and over again, and it was used by Mark Meadows. There were enough people who wanted to support it that it concerned Boehner. And he just stepped down. And then we got Paul Ryan. And so they wanted to go back to that, vacate the chair where one person can vote. And I already told you about it. This was not an issue over McCarthy. This was an issue period. They wanted to be able to vacate the chair if necessary. And so a compromise was offered. I believe it was, Jordan said. Okay, five. And they said no. So ultimately he agreed to the one. But the concern, including among very solid conservatives, is the Democrats can pull that to over and over and over again. One call for a vote on the speaker. And our argument was we got a lot to do here. We’ve got to unite. We got the Biden crime family. We’ve got the border. We’ve got this. We’ve got that. We can’t be voting all the time on whether to remove the speaker. So that’s to be seen. If that happens, I don’t think it will, but that’s to be seen. So that was an issue. This church style committee. Some of these folks are saying it wouldn’t have happened. But for now, I know that’s not true because two months ago, Jim Jordan was on this show. I brought up a church style committee. He said, we’re going to do something, whether it’s a commission, a subcommittee, a separate committee. Remember this, Mr. Producer? We’re we’re going to centralize our resources and have the best staff and all the rest that can do this. So this was already agreed to. It was already agreed to. Oh, no, no, no. You don’t understand. All the powers would be spread among other committees. No, no, no. The centralization and focus was already agreed to by all the Republicans. A vote on a balanced budget amendment that was wholly that had already been agreed to a vote on term limits. That had already been agreed to. It’ll go nowhere, by the way, for the reasons I said. I don’t like the shiny object efforts. You can’t change the Constitution with a statute. You couldn’t limit the presidency to two terms or ten total years like we did without an amendment. And that’s the way it works. Bills presented to Congress will be single subject, not omnibus, with all the attendant earmarks that had been agreed to a 72 hour minimum period to read them that have been agreed to. What else? COVID mandates will be ended that have been agreed to. Getting rid of the masks that have been agreed to. Ending proxy voting that have been agreed to. These are common sense things. And they all agreed. No. And most of the rest. Some of the issues with respect to are using 2022 budget cap. I understand that did surprise some of the members because what happened is several months ago they had a meeting of all these Republicans and they got together and oh, McCarthy and I have not talked. This is not from McCarthy. This is from conservatives. And they went through all the issues. They thought they had agreement on all the issues. And they said to some of them, okay, what else is there that you want us to discuss? What else is there that we might be able to resolve? And they didn’t have anything else at the time. They didn’t have anything else at the time. So as the effort to prevent McCarthy. Per say the attrition model was not working. Then they pushed additional issues and this is why some of their members were losing their temper. I’m just pointing this out. Now you know more than anybody else about what was taking place. That’s all I know. And I’ve checked that my sources are good sources. It’s not like some anonymous source or something like that. And I called several of them to people who you admire and respect. But this is why. 60 pages. Ask yourself, why would 60? They keep saying the Freedom Caucus wanted this. No, no. 60% of the Freedom Caucus did not join in on this. 60%. Why wouldn’t Jordan join in? Now you know why, Jim Banks. Now you know why Marjorie Taylor GREENE, who I don’t even know now you know why. And I can go through the whole list. There were far more. Solid conservatives, then 20. Who were voting for McCarthy, not because McCarthy is some great conservative icon, but for all the reasons I just told you. So to circle back when this person, this woman wrote me and said, okay, McCarthy’s years, that’s the game. And that’s what a lot of talk show hosts are worried about, that McCarthy will screw up and they can say that they were on the good side. I don’t have to play games with you. I trust my audience. I know what you think. As a general matter. You want us to take this country back? I’m not interested in games. And you’re not interested in game. I don’t like Donald Trump’s a rhino either, do you? Well, why was he involved in this? Because he knew. He understood to. He certainly did. In the final six votes. Whereby individuals who were never going to support McCarthy. And you might say, Good, I don’t trust McCarthy. It’s not the point. They didn’t have anybody else. All the rules were already agreed to. Now what? Now what Don’t you want to confront the enemy. Don’t you want to deal with the border? Don’t you want to deal with these climate change frauds? Now what? And I believe that’s what led President Trump to finally say to them, let’s get this over with. And that’s why those of you who watched most of you probably didn’t on the floor of the House, a very quick reverse. A very quick reverse in terms of motion to adjourn. And if Donald Trump hadn’t stepped in, I ask you, how would this have ended? I would have ended. You’ve got people on TV and radio telling you this is how it works. This is a great thing that took place and so forth and so on. They don’t know anything that I know. I’ve already told you things that they don’t know. And that said have. I will lead the fight. For conservative agenda. We will continue to lead the fight. For the conservative agenda. But I’m not going to follow Representative Goode. It took $2 million from McCarthy and then refused to support him. I said, That’s fine, but if you want to be a man of character and consistent and give the $2 million back. Or Lauren Boebert took almost $1.9 million. She won by less than 600 votes. She was on this program twice. We endorsed her. I like her. My wife likes her. We met her the first time. She decided to run and we got behind her. But don’t take nearly $1.9 million and then do what you did. Give the money back. In the third of the six bigs. What he did is simply unacceptable. He claims to be the big conservative, and yet he was the one guy that blocked the vote on convention of states in the state Senate in Arizona, killed it until he left. When they passed it, he was the obstacle. Now, if he’s sitting in Congress, if he’s speaker, God forbid, and that application ever comes to the House and the Senate, what would. Do there. So he can’t be trusted. That’s three of the six. Gates was furious with McCarthy. Because of other reasons. He didn’t think he defended him strongly enough when he was when allegations were made against him, among other things. So I’m not following these guys off the edge of the earth. They’re not Mr. and Mrs. Conservative to me. They’re conservative, but they’re certainly no better. Certainly no better than Jordan or Banks or whomever. So this has been my thinking all along. Just stick with me, folks. I know what I’m doing. I know why I’m doing it. There are people who want to make names for themselves, not columnists. Little green guys. Who’ve done nothing for the conservative movement, who really know nothing about the conservative movement, are still debating on whether or not the conservatives are national populists. I call them capos the couple. Wannabes. But wannabes are just that want to be. They follow the crowd. Another young lady who I respect a lot. She wrote a piece about how this is the biggest event since I forget what she said, the conservative movement and since whatever. No, it’s not. Most of these rules were already in the works. Now, here’s where we kick in. Those of us who have a little experience and knowledge. Now’s the time to watch what they do. What are they going to do? They’ve just told us they now have the power to do X, Y, Z. I’ve got all the audio. We have it all inventoried. And now it’s up to you and me to hold them to account, whomever they are. Whether it’s Kevin McCarthy or Matt Gaetz. And one other thing that had not been agreed to prior to this was this massive cut in defense spending. And it’s a sticking point with many conservatives who are not isolationists, pacifists who are not part of the dispute noise with their hemorrhoids. It’s not because they want to give Ukraine $1,000,000,000,000. It’s because they see that communist China is a massive threat, that they’re building nukes and conventional weaponry is like nothing we’ve seen before since the Third Reich. And they were communist. China’s doing is more than sabre rattling. They are preparing for war. And they understand, as many of you understand and I understand you don’t effectively slash your defense budget and even in part disarm. When you see what’s out there. That’s what made Churchill such a great leader. Because he spoke out when Britain was sleeping and that Britain was convincing itself. The Nazi ism was not going to be a problem for them, even after a few countries were gobbled up. Pretty. Pretty idiotic. Pretty insane, if you ask me. To start slashing your defense budget. In the face of enemy. Enemy like this. I understand this is what the left believes. This is what McGovern used to believe. This is what Obama used to believe or does. This is what Kerry believes and all the rest. But I’ll be damned if I’m following them, too. And just remember, it was under Donald Trump where the biggest increase in defense spending in modern times. So you sell out. Is he a warmonger? How ridiculous. Neocon. And how about Reagan? Same thing. These are our greatest modern presidents. So that would bother me too. Spending does need to be slashed, but the massive amount of new spending that’s taken place, 6.1 trillion more hasn’t been for defense. Proportionally, it’s been for domestic spending. I’ll be right back.

Hour 1 Segment 4

I want to get back to this document issue with Biden next hour. It needs to be more fully addressed because you’re going to have all kinds of spin by the Democrats. Well, soon as they found them, they offered them. And we were asked three times and, you know, is in a secure location. I don’t care about any of that. And I want to know why a U.S. attorney, I don’t care if he was nominated by Trump or not, is investigating this. I want to know why there isn’t right now. An FBI SWAT team at this think tank gathering all the information. Why is it this has gone on for two months? Apparently, this this was first learned on November 2nd and it was covered up from the voters. It’s been covered up. From the American people for two months. More than two months. And it’s basically a leak to CBS News, as best as I understand it. That’s going to wrap it up quickly. Ladies and gentlemen, the U.S. attorney in Chicago. It’s going to give the information quickly so Merrick Garland can make decisions. You believe this? So I want to explore this further next hour. So when we come back. We’re going to go over this in more detail and explore apparently the violations of federal law by Biden and his team. And why is it that there wasn’t a SWAT team sent to that think tank in Washington, D.C., very close to FBI headquarters? Why is that? Well, because he wasn’t asked twice or thrice. I don’t care. I’ll be right back.