September 29th, 2023

On Friday’s Mark Levin Show, Barnes and Noble is censoring the sale of The Democrat Party Hates America, in most stores, by refusing to put it on their shelves, instead leaving them in boxes in the back room. It is absolutely disgusting that a company that is supposed to make money selling books is going to pretend the #1 book in America doesn’t exist. The Democrat Party Hates America is not on the shelves in Barnes and Noble because they have decided that they have more customers who are Democrats than customers who are Conservatives. Also, the GAO, CBO, and OMB continue to issue warnings to the public and government officials with alarming predictions of a fiscal and national security disaster due to unsustainable levels of debt, yet this receives no attention from the Democrat media. Large swaths of the federal government are unaffected by a shutdown, but you can be sure that the ruling class and their DC bureaucrats will do everything possible to make it as painful as possible. Democrats are thrilled because they only need a couple of Republicans, and the Biden-Schumer-McConnell-Jeffries reckless and monumental spending will become law while the border remains wide open. Real Conservatives don’t believe in anarchy or shutting the government down for nothing because it hurts the cause and does nothing for liberty. Later, Charles Littlejohn is being charged for stealing Donald Trump’s tax returns and handing them to the New York Times while working for the IRS. Littlejohn may face years in prison though a plea deal is in the works, and is getting much better treatment than the January 6 detainees.

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

Rough transcription of Hour 1

Segment 1
Hello, America. Mark Levin here. Our number 87738138118773813811. The propaganda from the media, even from conservative quarters. And the quote unquote, government shutdown is a disgusting disgrace. And I want to unravel all this with you. For you. So we can walk through it step by step. So glad you’re here and stick with it. There’s a lot to cover this evening. On a Friday evening, we keep our foot on the gas pedal. But I also want to thank so many of you who are out there involved, engaged. So many of you have gone into these bookstores and I want to report to a problem we’re having. I see the numbers at every one of these outlets from Amazon to Barnes and Noble and Costco and Walmart and so forth, how the sales are going, and they’ve been pretty brisk. Except not one retail outlet. Except that one retail outlet. The largest book retail outlet in America. Barnes and Noble. Now, first of all, you folks have bought hundreds of thousands of copies just of my books, let alone other books from Barnes Noble. Every time I have a book that’s released, we have a book signing at the Barnes Noble, Tysons Corner, McLean, Virginia. I’m a. Person who loves to read history, loves to dig into history. Spent a lot of time at Barnes Noble. That will stop immediately. Because I want to read something to you. And now we can understand why the Barnes and Noble sales numbers are below way below what they should be in comparison to Costco. Wal-Mart Historical trends, even at Target, Books-a-million and all the rest. I get this text from a good friend today. That a Barnes and Noble and one loud in Loudon County, Virginia. It’s a large Barnes and Noble. They have a ton of foot traffic. I’ve been there many, many times. And this is what this person writes me. I’m standing at the Barnes and Noble at one Loudon in Loudoun County, which is a very big popular Barnes Noble outside mall frequented by many. And the Democrat Party hates America is nowhere to be found. I’ll keep something in mind. This is the number one book, according to Bookscan in America, nonfiction and fiction. In the whole country. And the person writes. I just spoke to the manager of the Barnes and Noble at one Loudon and Loudon County, Virginia, who couldn’t find the book anywhere. So the book’s not out front. It’s not on a table. It’s not in the New York Times bestseller list, which typically has number one, two, three, four or five at Barnes Noble and other retail outlets in a specific order. It’s nowhere. The manager of the Barnes and Noble literally wandered around looking for it. I asked him if it was possible that it was due to the title of the book. So this person went all around the Barnes Noble and couldn’t find it anywhere, not even on the back shelves, let alone in the front with the New York Times bestseller list or any of the tables. It was not in the store where the customers go nowhere. Nowhere. I then asked him to go and look for it and he went into the back there to the back. And lo and behold, now keep in mind, the book came out September 19th. This is September 29, ten days ago. He went in the back and lo and behold, he just happened to open a box and just happened to say that it just happened to arrive today. Now we know that’s a lie. This book ships weeks before the release day. And it’s supposed to be put on the shelves on the day of the release date. The books didn’t just show up. They stuck him in the back. He later came out with about seven books in his hand. And he asked and I asked him where he was going to place the number one book in the United States. Fiction and nonfiction. He kind of gave me a stare. I said I’m perplexed since the Elon Musk book is prominently displayed throughout the store. He told me that it was, quote, a company initiative, unquote, to put the muscle put out there to which respond to that. Is it possible that the Levin book and title is also a company initiative, not the display? I also shared that I was quite disappointed that Barnes and Noble, which should be all about free exchange of ideas, not prominently display the number one book in the United States. And perhaps they should consider placing it on the table. He said nothing. Now I have the chart in front of me, the sales from all these retailers and of course, Amazon. I see them daily the day after the sales day. The first week preorders included, we sold over 129,000 hard copies of the book. Less than 8000 at Barnes Noble. Less than 8000. What is the biggest retail bookstore? Not turned by warehouse stores. Bookstore in the United States. In the United States. So this explains a lot. When I went to the book signing at Barnes and Noble at Tysons Corner. The first Sunday after it was released, I turned to my wife and I said, Look at all these people here. How come the book isn’t even in the front window? And there was a sort of a desk towards the back which had all the favorite books there and so forth. Displayed on. On the front of the desk. It’s hard to explain, but in your mind’s eye, you can kind of figure out what I’m saying. There was Musk’s book. There was, but my book is not there. And I’m signing my book there. And you want to hear all the excuses. People give me all that. Well, maybe they sold through. No, they didn’t. But they didn’t. While each store manager makes the decision themselves, apparently not always when they’re getting directives from headquarters about which books to promote. Ladies and gentlemen, how about how the number one book in the United States of America fiction or non-fiction, or a combined hardcover and e-book not be found anywhere in the Barnes and Noble store? The guy goes in the back, he brings out 70 said, We just got the box today. How is that possible? I think the book business. And the numbers nationwide, they don’t lie. That doesn’t mean every Barnes and Noble is doing it, but it means a significant number are. The title of the book. How dare you write this book? The Democrat Party Hates America. So let me just say this. I’m not telling you to boycott anything. I’m telling you about me. I am never walking into a Barnes Noble again, period. Never, ever. And they can stick every one of my books up there. You know what? The amount of money that we have made for that company. For us to be treated this way is disgusting. I don’t give a damn what publishers think. I don’t give a damn what editors they are. I don’t care. Censorship. I don’t want to hear the lies. Oh, it just arrived today. Liar. Oh, these are local decisions. Well, we just heard the message. The decision was a national decision. Liar. And here’s the great thing. There’s a lot of retail out there, a lot of retail stores and Amazon who are breaking their asses to make sure this book is on the shelves. And is properly displayed. I do understand. I do understand. That there are many who don’t want you to read it. I got it. Trust me. The biggest number one book in America. It’s as if it doesn’t exist. Even so-called allies. We’re going to interview this one. We’re going to interview friendly, but not this. The title’s too hot. The book’s too hot. The book’s too hot. How about what’s being done to this country that’s too hot? In my view. That’s too hot. I’m not telling you to do anything. That’s not what I do in regards to. This sort of thing. I’m just telling you what I’m doing. About once a week I go to Costco. Why? I like their hotdogs, that’s why. Now my wife likes their power bars or whatever it is. I go in there. So I went in there today to get my hotdog. There they are displayed. Nobody’s rioting. Nobody’s boycotting free speech. They have one big table. There it is on the table. Looks like it’s selling pretty well there. That’s it. That’s the way retail stores are supposed to. Oh, it’s in the back and about, you know, we just got it. You just got it. Wow. How many left wing books are treated this way? All We just got it. You go to Barnes and Noble, you go to one of their shelves. You see books with the word F-you? You know what? On the covers, you see all kinds of stuff. On the covers, you go into an elementary school library, you see books with graphics, perversion, porn. I see. But Mar book The Democrat Party Hates America. We can’t tolerate that at Barnes and Noble again. Not every Barnes and Noble, but too damn many of them. And it’s quite obvious. My own Barnes and Noble in Loudon County, Virginia. I own Berkshire ten days after the book’s release. Several days after it’s announced, it’s number one. It’s in the back. And let me explain something to you also. Two things. When they come in boxes, they have the title of the book and the name of the author on the box. So you don’t have to open the box to know what’s in the box. That’s number one. Number two, you’ll hear people say, but they ordered 10,000, 50,000, 100,000 copies. So what? You know, what happens when they don’t sell those copies? They send them back to the publisher. So it’s no skin off their nose and the publisher pays for that. The publisher pays for that. It’s disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. I’m just mentioning it to you. We’ve got a lot more to cover today. But the idea that these corporatists. I mean, a book company. A company that is supposed to make money by selling books. It’s kind of pretend the number one book in America doesn’t exist. And they’re going to do more than that when a company this big does that. It’s obviously trying to help other books at the same time. I told you about the Musk book, but the manager said to this end of it, it’s not just that. There’s Cassidy Hutchison’s book in the Back in boxes or we just got them. Of course not. And it’s not just me. Conservative authors had to fight this all the damn time. All the time. It is amazing that I am able to muscle through all this crap. To get to number one. It really is quite remarkable. Thanks to you. Thanks to you. So many of you will go on to a local Barnes and Noble. Oh, yes, yes, it’s here. Well, where is it? Oh, right here. Why isn’t it over there? They obviously decided that they have more customers who are Democrats and liberals and conservatives or Republicans. That’s it’s that simple. I’ll be right back.

Segment 2
All right. I have to jump in here. By the way, a great Saturday and Sunday life, liberty and love ends. You can obviously DVR the programs. If you’re not sure, you’ll be able to watch it live. We’re going to have Chip Ryan and Peter Schweitzer on Saturday. We’re going to have a. Senator Ron Johnson. And Stephen, A Smith is my second guest on Sunday. So I hope you all DVR and record the program if he can make it. But they’re very compelling shows. I really want to dig into this budget stuff. I’ve been through these shutdowns for decades and decades. Many of you have been to. There are shutdowns and then there’s shutdowns. And the media reporting already, even in friendly media, has been horrendous. So if you want to follow me through this and we’ll break it down one step at a time, please stick with us. And you know more than anybody else. We’ll be right back.

Segment 3
All right here we go, folks. Stick with me step by step. I posted the following. The GAO, CBO and OMB continue to issue public warnings. Publicly into the government. With alarming predictions of a fiscal and national security disaster due to, quote, unsustainable unquote, levels of debt. So I say to the media, shouldn’t you at least mention this when you historically report on the supposed sky is falling consequences of a government shutdown? There will be no actual complete government shutdown. Years ago. Or every year for hundred billion dollars or so on revenue will continue to be collected every month by the federal government. Large swaths of the federal government are unaffected. But you can be sure that the ruling class and their DC bureaucrats and their media will do everything possible to make it as painful as they can. And then I link to the report, and we’re already seeing reports on TV where they’re listing all the things that’ll happen with a government shutdown. Do you remember them listing all those things when the private sector was shut down? And by you, by the way, you plagiarists on TV and radio. You’re very good listeners. You might want to take a whole lot of notes during the course of this discussion. When the private sector was ordered shut down in state after state during the pandemic, the sky is falling. Media was nowhere to be found. In fact, the reporting mostly consisted of self-righteous demands for small businesses and employees to accept their fate of business failures and joblessness. The what will happen to list of questions. We’re not even entertained. The quackery of Anthony Fauci and his ilk ruled the day. All that said. The handful of Republicans who scuttled a deal that would have been the most conservative in our lifetimes. Negotiated by prominent Freedom Caucus conservatives. Which would slash spending and take the most aggressive actions ever to try and secure the border was a grave disservice. They will take credit, of course, for anything that is done by other conservatives to confront this runaway government. They’ll claim that they’re responsible for it, but they’ve done nothing. Zero. And when I read and hear what some of these handful have to say, it’s nothing but posturing and positioning. Not only do they have no chance at all, they have no actual plan. None. Certainly not in the short term for the continuing resolution. Notably Chip Roy and Byron Donalds, hardly rhinos, and most of the Freedom Caucus supported this continuing resolution. Which again was the biggest potential build a splat slash spending and secure the border in our lifetimes. And it was only a first step to continuing resolution. In the past, I’ve described these as kamikaze Republicans, not conservatives, not populist kamikazes. Or if you prefer. George Pickett, Pickett’s Charge. So what exactly will they do in the next 30 hours? Nothing. What would they do thereafter? Nothing. And the Democrats and the media are thrilled because they know what I know. And now, you know, a couple of reprobate Republicans, the liberal Republicans. Move over and vote with the Democrats. Then they. Biden. Schumer. McConnell. Jeffries. Reckless. Monumental spending. No support for the border bill will become law. Now I want to highlight a few of these points. First, government shutdown. We shut down our damn country. Over the Chinese virus. With a fascistic medical and so-called expert scientific community in Washington, DC. When Anthony Fauci, who knew nothing. Accept the lockdown your lives and destroy your futures, including those of our children and those of our grandparents and elderly parents. And we didn’t get squat out of the media concerned about it, not less on a TV screen. About all the businesses that were shuttered. About all the school districts that were shuttered. The synagogues, the churches, the mosques that were shuttered. Nothing. Zero. All the lives that were destroyed, all the suicides. And he cared nothing. It even motivated associates Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to write and I read from the back of my book in the epilogue. Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country. Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders, forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favorite businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties, but with criminal sanctions, too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates and issued notices warning that attendance and even outdoor services satisfying all state social distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. Federal executive officials entered the act, too. They deployed a public health agency to regulate landlord tenant relations nationwide. They used a workplace safety agency, the issue of vaccination mandate for most working Americans. They threatened to fire noncompliant employees and warned the service members who refused to vaccinate might face dishonorable discharge and confinement. And along the way, it seems federal officials may have pressured social media companies to censor information about pandemic policies with which they disagreed. Justice Gorsuch goes on, the concentration of power in the hands of so few may be efficient and sometimes popular, but it does not tend toward sound government, however wise one person or his advisers may be. That is no substitute for the wisdom of the whole of the American people that can be tapped in the legislative process. Decisions made by a few. Often yield unintended consequences that may be avoided. One more consulted. Autocracies have always suffered from these defects. Justice of the Supreme Court. All of us lived through this. All of us saw this. How they clamp down on our homes and our businesses, how they destroyed education for our children. How they stood in the doorways of our churches and synagogues and mosques. Well, I own the ABC stores and the Costcos and and all the others to be open. They shut down gun shops. How many millions of people were adversely affected by this? How many children? Infinite. How many media outlets? How many hosts? How many news reporters? Seemed concerned about what was happening to the people. People were driven to nervous breakdowns. People. Were driven into bankruptcy. People were driven into. Grave depression and suicide. Families were destroyed. Children’s educations were set back. How many times did you hear? Oh, my goodness, they may go out without pay. Every federal bureaucrat that goes without pay will wind up getting their pay. And then we have a report. I appear to be the only person that keeps mentioning it, but it’ll pop up soon. I told the plagiarists to take their notes from the General Accounting Office, even updated in June of this year. You ready? Quote. Again, the federal government faces an unsustainable long term fiscal future. Unsustainable. At the end of fiscal year 2022, debt held by the public was about 97% of gross domestic product. That is, it was as big as the American economy. Projections from the Office of Management and Budget and Department of Treasury and the Congressional Budget Office and GAO all show that current fiscal policy is unsustainable. Over the long term, which is to 2051. Not very long dead held by the public is projected to grow at a faster pace than the size of the economy. Debt. How public is projected to reach its historic high of 106% of GDP within ten years and it continue to grow at an increasing pace. Gio projects that this ratio could reach more than twice the size of the economy by 2051 absent any changes in revenue and spending policy. So the Democrat party takes no blame. None. The president. The United States takes no blame for proposing a continuing resolution that blows through the May caps. Mitch McConnell takes no blame. He’s not responsible and the Republicans should go along with him. No accountability. A couple of brave conservatives, patriots get together and they say, what do we do about this? We can’t just shut down the government to shut it down. We don’t have the votes in the Senate. We don’t really have the votes in the House. Takes three Republicans to jump to the other side, and that’s the end of that. So how do we deal with this? So with almost a nonexistent majority. Byron Donalds and other members of the Freedom Caucus sit down with moderates and liberals in the Republican Party and they hash out a plan. It’s a huge plan. It’s a massive plan. What would this plan do according to. Published reports. It would have cut 8% in domestic spending. 8% of domestic spending. It would have massively addressed the southern border. Which has not been done. It would have protected the military and veterans. And it’s the first step. It’s a continuing resolution. It’s the first step. So what happened? A handful of Republicans voted against him, claiming to be conservatives. But they’re not conservatives. Because they have no way out. They can keep attacking. McCarthy. They can keep attacking away. But McCarthy didn’t come up with this. Byron Donalds did. Chip Roy did. And so McCarthy comes up with an even a tougher package. He says these guys rejected this. So let me come up with a tougher package and see if I can persuade the moderates and the liberals in the Republican Party to go along with it. So, according to the Hill. His package would not have cut the Defense Veterans or Homeland Security departments, that is Border Patrol, but would have slashed almost all other agencies up to 30%. Quote, steep hits to a vast array of programs, services, departments, and the left is already tacking that Americans routinely depend on. And this handful of Republicans voted against it. There’s a piece in, of all places, The Washington Post, and you’re going to see more and more of this because this is what the Democrat media is going to do. But there’s a piece here. Despite the source. That is very interesting to me. Because in 1995 and 96, the federal government shut down as House Republicans and Bill Clinton, his administration clashed over spending cuts. 2013, the government shut down because of a partisan disagreement over Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. In 2018, Democrats backed Donald Trump’s demands to fund a U.S. Mexican border wall leading to the longest shutdown in U.S. history. And now. Quote, We are truly heading for the first ever shutdown about nothing. Says Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute. Then you start referring to the current GOP House leader. It’s not a GOP House. Let it pass. It’s a handful. It’s the Seinfeld shutdown, a reference to the popular sitcom widely known as a show about nothing. He says. The weirdest thing about it is that the Republicans don’t have any demands who are shutting down the government. What do they want? What is it that they’re going to shut the government down for? We simply don’t know, because even these handful of Republicans have not agreed on one or two things that they’re shutting the government down for. The issues are all over the map. Typically, funding showdowns and divided government between Congress and the White House have featured pitch battles over specific policies the border wall, Obamacare, so forth. Budget experts and historians say the current impasse stands out for its lack of a clear policy disagreement. Well, we know why Matt Gaetz is involved. He just wants to take out McCarthy. He’s getting his orders from across the street. And so the question is what kind of a consensus can be? Can be built. Now I want to give you some quotes from Grover Norquist, one of the biggest supporters of tax cuts, tax cuts and spending cuts, really? In the history of the republic and others who are just saying, I don’t understand this massive cuts. Protect the military, enforce the border. What are we doing here? And by the way, Schumer will fight it all. Biden won’t sign it. And so this is something they want to fight for. But apparently not. I’ll be right back.

Segment 4
The reason I’m mentioning these various conservatives is because real conservatives don’t believe in anarchy. Doing something for nothing. It hurts the cause. Government shutdowns, per se don’t hurt the cause. What these people are doing hurts the cause. Gingrich, I guess, is now a rhino, they say. He says, I frankly don’t understand it. I think it’s sort of nuts. There are times people vote yes one day, then they’re voting and come back and vote no the next day. And they can’t explain why they’ve switched. I find it hard to understand what they want because they change constantly. That’s a big part of the problem. Asked if he has a hard time tracking these folks, can we get said yes, adding, So do they. Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, has tormented generations of GOP officials, the establishment by organizing House backbenchers against their leaders. But he chastised the current group for failing to coalesce around an intelligible set of demands. The shutdowns in 95 and 96 eventually pushed Clinton and the GOP led Congress to agree on a balanced budget legislation and other federal changes. Now, says Norquist. These other folks, they threw out so many demands an end to Ukraine funding tougher immigration restrictions, dramatic spending cuts, changes in house procedures. It’s impossible to know what they actually want. You can’t have this as Norquist you can’t have seven reasons and a different one each week and expect the American people understand what your point is. In prior fights, there was a focus on why you were doing this. But right now, what would someone watching this on TV be taking away? It’s about too many things, which means it’s about nothing. Now, what is McCarthy done? Because you hear people go on and say he waited. He waited. He waited. Well, I’m going to tell you after the top of the hour, what’s been proposed and what some of these people have shot down. I’ll be right back.