On Thursday’s Mark Levin Show, the sky will not fall if there’s a government shutdown. The government was shut down over 20 times since 1974 and the nation survived. A shutdown does draw a line on what they call “discretionary spending” — the government itself calls it non-essential spending — much of which, but not all, funds ideologically driven projects. The government never really shuts down; indeed, when there is a so-called government shutdown, about 17% of the government actually shuts down. The Republicans need to take a stand somewhere. At least it’ll be a beginning. And they should explain to the people that the Democrats (and too many of their fellow Republicans) spend, borrow, and steal like pirates, which will bankrupt the country for their children and grandchildren, and further drive up inflation, including the cost of food, clothing, and energy, destroy the value of their paychecks and pension checks, eventually collapse the government altogether, and that this drug-like spending addiction must be broken before it’s too late, which it already may be. Later, the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times are now writing about President Biden’s ‘diminished’ state. It’s sickening that they write this after the election. Biden’s staff ran the county – as they do now. Historians will look back on this and condemn us. Kamala Harris, Biden’s cabinet, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the media lied to us when we all knew the truth. The NY Times is the same news organization that covered up the Holocaust, so covering for Biden was easy for them. Also, Democrats and their media are trying to silence Elon Musk by claiming he is president, or he is in charge, etc., in hopes of creating tension and a wedge between Musk and President-Elect Trump. It won’t work. Nobody doubts Trump is president-elect and the man in charge, and nobody doubts Musk will voice his personal opinion. Finally, more than half a million Venezuelans have entered the US illegally since Biden took office in January 2021. This brought the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into American cities. Biden imported terrorists and murderers.
Wall St Journal
How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge
The Federalist
NYT Admits Biden Was Never Qualified For Second Term After Downplaying Concerns For Years
LA Times
George Stephanopoulos signs new deal with ABC News amid Trump lawsuit turmoil
Politico
In rare move, Republican senators call for Hegseth’s FBI report
Daily Mail
Fury as California gets green light to ban all gas cars in Democrat state
Gatestone Institute
Iran-Affiliated Venezuelan Gangs Invited Into the United States
AP
House rejects Trump-backed plan on government shutdown, leaving next steps uncertain
Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency
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 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. Know, I posted something several hours ago, actually early this morning. It was picked up by our friends at the Daily Signal. No Republicans. The sky won’t fall if there’s a government shutdown. Hey, Republicans, the sky will not fall if there’s a government shutdown. The government was shut down six times during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, over 20 times since 1974. Yet recent presidents have avoided it like the plague. The nation survived. Reagan won massive landslides, and in the end the public didn’t give a damn, despite all the media Democrat Party hype at the time. The bureaucrats wound up getting their money. Social Security checks and Medicare checks continue without a hitch. So did veterans benefits. The active military was unaffected. That is truly a central government. Services were funded because they are specifically excluded from government shutdown. Indeed, taxes keep rolling into the government’s treasury. They don’t stop. That never shuts down. There’s plenty of revenue for basic government operations. But a shutdown does draw a line on what we call what they call discretionary spending. The government itself calls it non-essential spending, much of which but not all funds ideologically driven projects. And yes, it can cause temporary inconveniences for those visiting, let’s say, national parks and so forth. Seems like a small sacrifice. In fact, it’s a very, very small sacrifice. Many years ago on this radio show, budget guru and now Trump hating Never Trumper, Paul Ryan told me that the government never really shuts down did. He said when there is a so-called government shutdown, about 17% of the government actually shuts down. Remember that, Mr. Producer? And when you think of it, since the biggest entitlements are unaffected and they make up the overwhelming majority of government spending. Well, that makes sense then, doesn’t it? And by the way, no one and I mean no one will discuss reforming any of the big entitlement programs, not even the self-anointed fiscal conservatives. We’re talking about a pittance in relative terms now. Nonetheless, the Republicans need to take a stand somewhere at least will be a beginning. They should explain to the people that the Democrats and too many of their fellow Republicans spend, borrow and steal like pirates, which will bankrupt the country for their children and grandchildren, further drive up inflation, including the cost of food, clothing and energy, destroy the value of their paychecks and pension checks, eventually collapse the government all together. And that this drug, like spending addiction, must be broken before it’s too late, which it already may be. The Republicans shouldn’t act defensively or out of fear, but boldly and proudly. They should speak up and speak to the people. In a way, this is like the abortion issue. What you ask the Democrats and their DC based media lied about abortion and exploited it and fearmongering it in the last election and the belief they would ride it to victory. Their propaganda became more extreme and insane the closer to the election. They truly believe that they had an issue that would drive them to victory. It was pounded and pounded and pushed and pushed. But the people didn’t buy it. Even more. There are much bigger issues about which the public cared. Well, the Democrats and their media lost in a landslide, didn’t they? And it turned out that the tactics were of no consequence. The economy was the number one issue. Do the right thing, Republicans. It also happens to be good politics. You might actually get used to it and stop destroying each other. Just get your collective act together and fight. This continuing resolution is just a baby step. Now I want to say this. To our friends. And we’re making these decisions. Taking a lot of shots at each other this afternoon. Settle down, everyone. About an hour ago, President Trump endorsed a new Republican plan and praised Speaker Johnson praised him. Excellent. Excellent. And I want to add that Chip Roy is a good and patriotic man. If they try and primary him, I will continue to support Jeb Roy as I support Speaker Johnson as I support President Trump. We can work these things out. If we stay focused on achieving our goals and principles. And the real enemy. That’s the Marxist Democrats. They must be crushed. And the only way they’re crushed is if we are united and stay united. It’s stick. Stick with our principles. Doesn’t mean we’ll get everything we want, even within the Republican Party. But we need to get a lot of it. So I support President Trump and his position. I support the speaker and what he’s tried to do now, and I support Chip Roy and I will defend all three of them. Not because I’m a Pollyanna, but because I want to win. And I want us to remember who the enemy is. And they are the enemy. We just won an election. We, the people. We the people, elected Donald Trump. We the people. Elected the speaker of the House in his district. We the people elected Chip Roy. We’re not here to pick one off after the other. That’s how you lose wars, political and otherwise. So we’ll see how this plays out further. We’ll see how it goes. Now, of course, the Democrats want to sabotage whatever’s done. So beware of that. Now, ladies and gentlemen, there have been two pieces written, one by The New York Times and today by The Wall Street Journal. And I’m talking about the news sections. On how Joe Biden had dementia. How Joe Biden could never have finished a second term. New York Times says. How Joe Biden’s staff and others covered up for him. Isn’t it sickening that they write these things now after this last election? Isn’t it sickening that they didn’t write it a year ago? Isn’t it sickening that I came behind this microphone on on TV and on Blaze? Over and over again in the course of years that I laid it out, that he’s at stage five, at a stage seven, a dementia. And you didn’t even need me to lay it out. You could it yourself. The roaming around, the videos, the staring in the know what never, never land, the gibberish and all the rest. We all know it. And those of us who’ve have family members with Alzheimer’s or dementia, we see it and we saw it. And The Wall Street Journal, how the White House functioned with a diminished Biden in charge. This needs to be underscored. Not just mentioned. And then we run onto the drones or something. No, no, no, no. This is the most evil, diabolical. Offense committed against the American people by any political party. By any group of people. And as I told you many months ago, maybe years ago, historians will look back on this and condemn us. During the 2020 presidential primary, they write. Joe Biden campaigned so extensively across Iowa that she held events and more counties in her husband. In fact, our press secretary at the time, Michael LaRosa, touted to a local reporter. His superior in the Biden campaign, quickly chided him as the three rode in a minivan through the state’s cornfields. Anthony Bernal, then a deputy campaign manager and chief of staff to Joe Biden, pressed La Rosa to contact the reporter again and play down any comparison in the campaign appearances between Joe Biden, then 77 and his wife. Eight years his junior. Her energetic schedule only highlights her husband’s more plodding pace. La Rosa recalls being told. The message from Biden’s team was clear The more you talk her up, the more you make him look bad. The small correction foreshadowed how Biden’s closest aides and advisers would manage the limitations of the oldest president in U.S. history. During his four years in office. To adapt the White House around the needs of a diminished leader. Now, look how this is now. Written about. In a blasé way, a diminished leader, meaning mentally diminished dementia. In his first four years. Am I God? They went ahead and they nominated him again until they pulled the rug out from under. Kamala Harris. As I’ve said again and again, she lied to us. The Cabinet lied to us, Pelosi lied, Schumer lied everybody in that with her. Everybody who worked with her, they lied over and over and over again to us. The media lied to us. The media knew what was going on, but they lied to us. To adapt the White House around the needs of a diminished leader. They told visitors to keep meetings focused, interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some Cabinet members, including powerful secretaries such as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. We’re in frequent. Or it grew less frequent. Some legislative leaders had a hard time getting the president’s ear at key moments, including ahead of the U.S. disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. This cost us lives. It cost us lives. And Millie knew it. And the other top brass at the Pentagon knew it. But they. They didn’t say anything. They didn’t do anything. Senior advisors were often put into roles that some administration officials and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy with people such as National Security adviser Jake Sullivan, senior counsel Steve Ricchetti, National Economic Council head Lyle Brainard and her predecessor, frequently in the position of being go betweens for the president. They all covered up for him, and they still do. Press aides have compiled packages of news clips for Biden were told by senior staff to exclude negative stories about the president. President wasn’t talking to his own pollsters as surveys showed him trailing in the 2024 race. Look at this. Look at this. Presidents always have gatekeepers, but in Biden’s case, the walls around them were higher and the controls greater, according to Democratic lawmakers, donors and aides. The work for Biden and other administrations. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on what they said to him, limits around the sources of information he consumed. The president of the United States. America. And throughout his presidency, a small group of aides stacked close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or speaking to the public. They body him to such a high degree. A person witnessed it, said, adding that the hand-holding is unlike anything other recent presidents have had. This would be Kirby. Kirby. And the idiot. The White House operated this way even as the president and his aides press forward with his re-election bid, which unravelled spectacularly after his halting performance in a June debate with Donald Trump, made his mental acuity an insurmountable issue. Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him. We know this was decisively defeated by Trump and his Shorten campaign. The account of how the White House functioned with an aging leader at the top of its organizational chart is based on interviews with nearly 50 people, including those who participated in or had direct knowledge of the operations. Many of those who criticized Biden’s insularity said his system nonetheless kept his agenda on track, meaning their staff ran the country. As they do right now. White House spokesman Andrew Bates. This guy is a complete lowlife, said Biden. In the most accomplished record of any modern commander in chief and rebuilt the middle class because of attention to policy, details said. Pack millions of life. We built the middle class. I think Bates has dementia. Bates, too, rejected the notion that Biden is decline, added. The president has often solicited opinions from outside experts, which has informed his policy making. So you still have this guy Bates, who’s long. Lying through his teeth. Said it’s the job of senior White House staff to have high level meetings regularly, and they were executing Biden’s agenda at his direction. The guy is still full of crap. You also said the staff alerted the president to significant, significant negative news. Burn all the good days and bad days. The president’s slide has been hard to overlook. While preparing last year for his interview with Robert Herr, the special counsel. President couldn’t recall lines that his team discussed with him at events. Aides often repeated instruction his terms such where to enter or exit a stage that would be obvious to the average person. Biden’s team tapped campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood mogul, to find a voice coach to improve the president’s fading marble. The system put Biden at an unusual remove from Cabinet secretaries, the chairs of congressional committees and other high ranking officials. You know, the article goes on and on. And can you imagine what foreign leaders thought, especially our enemies? They knew what they were dealing with. The Democrat Party, the staffers, the Cabinet leading Democrats in Congress, the Washington, New York media, they lied to us and they didn’t care what what peril they put the country in. They backed him up for re-election and it became obvious to every single soul in the world that you had dementia. These people, they betrayed us. They betrayed us. More when I return.
Segment 2
The media try to cover their butts, but the media cannot cover their butts. They installed Biden. They protected Biden. They attacked anybody who challenged Biden. They’re on a jihad. Against Trump. Against congressional Republicans. We knew it. They knew it, but they lied. They always lie. Look at STEPHANOPOULOS. Serial liar. Look at all of them. Serial liars. But The New York Times, interestingly enough, that 36 hours before it came out with its own piece, New York Times admits Biden was never qualified for a second term after downplaying concerns for years. Sound familiar? Let’s dig into this one and there’s lots more. I’ll be right back.
Segment 3
And now we have the New York Times via the Federalist analysis by brand alignment of demands Downplaying concerns about Biden’s cognitive abilities. A new report by The New York Times finally admitted what many Americans had known for years. Biden was never truly qualified to serve a second term without a first term. On Tuesday, the report by the Times’s Peter Baker and Zoon Cantu, Youngs fawned over Biden’s recent trip to Africa. They noted, however, that after a grueling day that included touring a factory, Biden put his head in his hand and briefly closed his eyes as the speeches droned on. Likely. Wasn’t the speech his fault for droning? That put Biden to sleep while world leaders looked on because Biden was once again exhibiting signs of physical and cognitive decline that the Times has continually tried to downplay. But this time the Times couldn’t ignore the facts any longer. It admitted it would be hard to imagine a quote that Biden seriously thought he could do the world’s most stressful job for another four years. Dawjee despise. These people have nothing but contempt for their unconscionable and immoral conduct. The report goes. It goes on to list several example of Biden’s declining cognitive and physical health, including his frequent mumbling and the need for other leaders to physically help him up. Hold him up. But that wasn’t the true tune sung by the times over the past few months and years. The same paper once went to great lengths to dismiss these signs. It even enlisted the help of so-called experts to help downplay concerns about Biden’s cognitive decline and physical impairments. Recall back in June when Biden needed to be escorted off the stage by former President Barack Obama after freezing on stage at a massive fundraiser. The Times didn’t bother addressing the incident directly, despite its dominating the news. Instead, the Times ran a piece alleging Republicans were sharing misleading videos of Biden that were twisted and manipulated. Remember all that crap coming from the podium? Coming from the media? In the last two weeks, they wrote, The Republicans have circulated videos of Mr. Biden that lacked important context. From the Times and twisted mundane moments to paint him in an unflattering light. The article conveniently didn’t mention the fundraiser video despite a generating the news cycle. They also trotted out so-called experts who claim most of the videos are cheap fakes. Remember that cheap fakes or manipulative videos meant to play into the concerns of Americans over Biden’s age? Ageism, I think they call it. Just months prior, Biden showed up late to his own State of the Union speech. But The New York Times A.O. Scott brushed it off as a quick, as a quirky part of Biden’s style. Yeah. Like walking into walls. And as for the report released by special counsel Robert Hill, remember the attacks that man came under? Who declined to charge Biden for taking classified documents, saying a jury would perceive the president as, quote, an elderly man with a poor memory. The New York Times enlisted experts again to argue that Biden’s memory lapses were nothing more than normal forgetfulness for someone his age. Now, remember, this is the same news organization that covered up the Holocaust. So, of course, covering up. Biden’s dementia. That’s nothing new. These people. Dr. Sharon Ranganath Sharon McGrath, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, dismissed the concerns raised by his report about Biden’s cognitive abilities to pull his take, but that I’ll never happen. As an expert on memory, I can assure you that everyone forgets, Ranganath wrote for The Times, arguing Biden’s memory lapses were normal for someone his age rather than the sign of someone suffering from some type of an impairment. Meanwhile, the New York Times’s Gina Collado used the phrase Republicans were quick to pounce before also trying to dismiss concerns about the report writing, and I quote. Medical experts on Friday noted that the report’s judgments were not based on science and that its message board no resemblance to those that doctors use to assess possible cognitive impairment, unquote. The Times has carried water for Biden well before the her report 2022 article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg for Biden’s 80th birthday, cited experts, more experts, who said Biden has a lot going in his favor and are all conducive to a healthy aging. Notably, this report was released a few weeks after Biden called out into the audience for the late Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, who tragically died in an August car crash. But The Times found an expert, another expert, to help downplay the incident. Webb, professor emeritus and psychiatric epidemiologist at Duke University School of Medicine, Dr. Dan Blazer. With a title like that, he’s got to be an expert saying that slippage of memory is something that is usual, but it’s not a real deficit. This ticket should be pulled, too. All of these reports serve the same purpose to downplay Biden’s evident decline and brush off concerns about his fitness to lead. But now the election’s over. In The New York Times no longer has the cover for a failing president. Now they try to cover their ass, just like the Wall Street Journal and the rest of the media. We all know, you know. We all knew. Kamala Harris. She knew and she covered it up and she lied to the American people. And then she wanted you to vote for her for president. Every damn cabinet secretary knows. Amendment 25 is there for a reason. It’s there to remove somebody who is impaired physically or mentally. Not a single cabinet secretary. Clearly not the vice president. The best of our knowledge, even discussed it. Or if they did, we don’t know about it. More than anybody else. Dr. Jill Biden knew that her husband. Had dementia. She knew her husband wasn’t capable of serving. She lives with him 24 seven. She sleeps with him. She eats with him. She knows. She knows whether he can go to the bathroom with her with help, without help. She knows she has to help feed him. I’m not kidding. Help dress him. She knows. She knows it all and she knows what medicines he’s taking. I assure you, he’s taking medicines to help him cope. With dementia. But it was all covered up. Not well, but nonetheless covered up. And if he drew attention to it, it was so obvious that Helen Keller could see it and hear it so obvious. And if he drew attention to it, there was something wrong with you. And the paid grifters. The phony staffers. The lightweight cabinet secretaries. The Pravda media. All the rest of them. A conga line of fakes, frauds and phonies. Reprobates are there. They were to tell you that you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You’re just a partisan Republican. That’s it. There’s something wrong with you. And now the media are doing this to cover their tracks. Because they know history will judge them. And that’s why they’re doing what they’re doing now. It doesn’t even matter. Nathan Guy’s president for another five or six weeks. It’s frightening. But there’s literally no way to remove him short of. The 25th Amendment ensured of impeachment and removal. But the Democrats aren’t going to do it. The Cabinet still not going to do it. We all know that this guy’s a zombie walking. We all know it. We all know when we’re talking about saving drones. We also mean look at that. There’s Joe Biden. And the White House Rose Garden. We all know it. Blinken knows that. Sullivan knows that Austin knows it. Garland knows that. And yet still right now. There. They’re are shoving documents under his nose. Preemptive pardons. Preemptive pardon? As he pardoned a three time murderer. He part in the worst embezzlers imaginable. He pardoned a couple of flunky outrageous judges who threw juveniles in prison in juvie court. They were the droopy court judges. Giving them eight months. Nine months for. For illegal drinking at a party. One of them committed suicide. These are the people that this four. Gives pardons or clemency in their case. Clemency gives them clemency. Meanwhile, the January six, I don’t know that any of them killed three people. The answer is none of them did. Or treated children the way these two judges did. Aristotle. Tens of millions of dollars. From private citizens in a small town. He also gave pardons to three communist Chinese spies. But they throw the book. The January sixes. And I’m not talking about those who attack cops. I’m talking about those who were on the lawn, those who went into the building. Those are misdemeanors, misdemeanors that they tried and did in many cases, turned into felonies. They threw the book at these people. Which is why they should be pardoned again. The nonviolent January six says they should be pardoned. They threw the book at these people. And by the way, if you said, I am not pleading, I didn’t commit. An act that’s worthy of prison time in virtually every one of those cases, the misdemeanor charges. We’re change to felony charges. They threw the book at them. Remember the Supreme Court said that Enron obstruction statute used against Donald Trump, but these January six says it’s unconstitutional. Do you know how many cases they’ve dropped based on that? None. Not one. When they drop that charge, they replace it with another charge. Yes, that’s right. Equal justice under the law. Don’t you know? I’ll be right back.
Segment 4
You know, ladies and gentlemen, obviously today’s Thursday. Tomorrow’s Friday. I will be gone next week wanting much to produce as well. You. How about the following week? The whole week. Really. I’m like, shocked because the only time I take a lot of time off is never. The only time I took off. More time than I normally would this year was when I had that fall and that terrible accident and the surgery and the recovery. Otherwise, I just don’t do it. And so this is the next to the last evening that we have together. And I just want you to know and I’ll talk more about it tomorrow. That you’re in my heart, soul and mind all the time. My audience. And I spent an enormous amount of time not she can pat me on the back of the head trying to make sure this show is. Important enough for you to stop what you’re doing and listen to it. I well understand. That this is probably the worst timeslot. For prime time radio. That you’re busy, that they’re sporting events, that the kids are doing stuff, that you’re eating dinner. I get it. A lot of corporations that own radio stations, they don’t get anything including that. And so it’s the tough as real estate, we call it in the talk radio business. But we have a massive show. With a massive audience. You are the most loyal audience of any audience. If I’m not on. On a given night, you move over to the podcast, you move over to satellite, or maybe you always listen to satellite. Will you go to YouTube where you go to the live stream, you use an app. Our numbers are all muscling up. They’re getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It’s something that. Much of the media that comments on the media will never understand because they don’t want to understand. They just don’t want to. And it doesn’t matter. You see. Nothing. No one can ever come between you and me. It just doesn’t matter The bureaucracy whether it’s. The radio platform, whether it’s a podcast platform, whatever it is. They can’t control the content. They can’t control the relationship. When I started out in radio. It was Rush Limbaugh who told me. Your audience is your family. Treat the audience with respect. Because one day when you come under attack, one day when some owner or some program director, some general managers decide, you know what? Forget it. We can live without that show when that day happens. Your audience will follow you. They will support you. The bureaucracy won’t matter. The platform won’t matter. And all the times they came after my dear friend Rush. And his listeners, which are mostly you folks. Came to his defense, they would not be deterred. That’s the kind of relationship we have over these years. I know that to be true. And I’m grateful for it. I’m blessed by it. I truly am. Those of you who come up to me. You happen to see me limping these days here and there? Because I’m trying to get out, trying to walk, trying not to use a cane because I don’t want to. I don’t want to look old. I don’t want to be old. I know I’m getting older, but I want to walk again. You’re so kind. You’re so nice. I know the haters out there, they give you the look, but they’re too much. They’re too cowardly to come up to me. I’m a lot bigger than they realize, Mr. Producer. But I know you’re there. Think about it a lot. I appreciate you all the time and I want to thank you. And we’ll talk more about this tomorrow, because this is the season, Hanukkah, Christmas. This is the time of year. We’ll be right back.