George Papadopoulos: Was the Intel Playbook Ever Fixed?

Is the same intelligence and law-enforcement playbook that targeted the 2016 Trump campaign still available today?

In this serious, no-nonsense conversation, George Papadopoulos joins Doug Billings on The Right Side to answer the question most in Washington still avoid: After everything that happened, did the system actually get reformed—or is the machinery still sitting on the shelf ready to be used again?

We go beyond the old Russiagate headlines to examine:

• What has actually been established
• What remains unanswered
• Who still needs to be held accountable
• How these lessons connect to President Trump’s current foreign policy challenges — Iran, the Eastern Mediterranean, and America’s relationships with NATO and Israel

This is not nostalgia. This is about protecting the republic from future weaponization of the intelligence community.

A clear-eyed, substantive discussion you won’t hear anywhere else.

#GeorgePapadopoulos #Russiagate #DeepState #Trump #IntelligenceCommunity #Iran #ForeignPolicy #TheRightSide #DougBillings #AmericaFirst

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

The Right Side with Doug Billings. Hi, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the special edition of The Right Side. I'm Doug Billings. Thanks very much for being here. As a reminder, don't forget to subscribe, like, and share this program. Head over to DougBillings.us and prayerfully consider donating to the program over there, Doug Billings.us. Ladies and gentlemen, what you're about to hear, it's not just another trip down the Russiagate memory lane topic. We've all heard those stories. The headlines have been written and rewritten a hundred times about Rushagate. But what I want to explore with you today is something more important than that. And it's more urgent. George Papadopoulos was one of the first people caught up in the crosshairs of what became the most consequential political investigation of our lifetimes. I don't think there's any question about that. He lived through the machinery up close, and he saw how intelligence and law enforcement tools can be turned against a citizenry and a presidential campaign. George paid a personal price for that. And because of that, he's uniquely positioned to answer questions that most people in Washington would still rather avoid, quite frankly. After everything that happened, did the system actually get fixed? Or is the same playbook still sitting on the shelf ready to be used again? That's the question that matters right now. Because if the incentives, the culture, and the lack of real accountability inside of the intelligence and law enforcement community at the highest levels of our government were never truly reformed, then every future president, Republican or Commune Socialist, formerly known as Democrat, every one of them will remain vulnerable to the same kind of weaponization. And that should concern anybody who still believes in self-government. We're also going to connect Georgia's experience to the foreign policy challenges that face President Trump right now. Iraq's not going away anytime soon. We will prevail there. We'll take a look at it. Also the Eastern Mediterranean. That's becoming a more contested part of the world every day. And America's relationship with our NATO allies, Israel, all of that carrying real strategic weight. When trust between an elected president and the permanent national security bureaucracy has been damaged, foreign policy will suffer. Bad information, selective leaking, institutional resistance, all of that can distort decisions that involve war and peace and alliances. So in the conversation that follows, we're going to press on three things. What was actually established about how the machinery was used? What remains unanswered or unresolved about that? And most importantly, what President Trump and Congress have got to do structurally, not just you know, in terms of rhetoric. What do they have to do structurally to make sure that this can't happen again? George has always been a direct and thoughtful guest on this. He's been a friend. Today we're going to keep the conversation serious and substantive. This is no nostalgia, no score settling for its own sake, just a clear-eyed look at whether the Republic learned the lessons that it needed to learn, or whether we're still one election cycle away from watching the same tools get deployed again and against the next target. So I think you'll come away from all of this uh with an understanding of something that you didn't fully understand before. And to me, that's the point of this program. That's the point of the right side to educate, motivate, and inspire people to get engaged and do the work of determined patriotism. And determined patriotism is, as you know, it's us, it's the local involvement. It's you and me being determined about our patriotism. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, here's George Papadopoulos on the right side. The right side with Doug Billings. Ladies and gentlemen, George Papadopoulos. George, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Thanks. Thank you very much, Doug.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Well, so we've known each other for six years. You look around at the state of play, and I I want to frame it carefully because I don't want to just do another standard Russia-gate retrospective here. I want, you know, the that that that headline has been picked over endlessly for several years. What I want to explore with you today is this larger and more important question, in my view. The everything that happened to you and a lot of other people, has Washington, in your analysis, actually reformed the intelligence and the law enforcement machinery, or does the same playbook uh is it still available to be used again? Has anything really changed? Take it, take a minute, give me your thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Well, uh I think the best measurements of uh success in terms of accountability or reform, uh, or you know, assuring that our elections aren't um muddled with um are arrests, um, or some sort of indictments, uh, or some sort of reports that uh shine lights on what bad actors were involved with. Uh, and I'll give an example. I think what the president uh did a couple days ago uh regarding his primetime address, uh, in which he delivered an incredibly sensitive uh speech in which he basically fingered China as a country which overtly interfered in our election system and uh hacked the 2020 election. Uh, and this is at a time in which President Trump is trying to negotiate uh a trade deal with China, he's trying to solve uh the Iran question with China, the South China Sea issue. Uh basically, China is the new Soviet Union. We if we're if we're in a bipolar world, uh China is the only other superpower that the United States is dealing with and the world is dealing with. So for the president and his administration to be so transparent uh in that fact and declassify information to then transmit to the world was incredibly important. Now, that's all good, but we need next steps. So, what are the next steps regarding 2020? Show the world how these machines that have been utilized in countries like Venezuela to muddle and screw around with their election were used in America, show how the over 200 million Americans' voter rolls were infected, and what the real consequence and impact of that was in 2020 and the last couple of elections, and how that is a security issue moving into the 2026 election and 2028 election. Highlight the importance of the Save America Act because our country might be the most powerful economy in the world and the strongest military in the world, but we have one of the most vulnerable election systems in the world, and that is an open door for our enemies and the deep state in America to exploit. So that's what he has to do moving forward regarding that. In 2016, there the president and DNI Gabbard, former DNI Gabbard, called what Obama did in 2016 a treasonous conspiracy. This was after President Trump declassified information. Then a grand jury was impaneled, which is currently impaneled in uh in Florida, that's being run by uh Joe DeGenova. Uh, you've had people like John Bolton indicted and he's pled guilty to felonies. You've had James Comey uh indicted, but we need more. And and one thing uh I'll agree with you, and you've said this in the past. I don't want a kangaroo court, I don't want retribution, uh, I don't want uh to waste uh time and resources and have these people uh appeal and overturn convictions and then to basically uh mock what they did because they got away with it. So I think there are airtight cases against the Obamas, the Comey's, the Mueller crowd, likely people in the Biden administration as well that were working with China to screw around with the 2020 election. So just follow the facts where they might lead, present it to the grand jury, let the grand jury hear for the first time ever declassified information that has been suppressed for years, and let them either deliver an indictment or not. And if they do deliver an indictment, make sure it is so powerful that they'll that you'll have that 98% conviction rate that the Democrats always get in Washington, D.C., but you can get it in Georgia or Florida or a more friendly jurisdiction. So all of this has to happen. And the way you're gonna do it, Doug, is you're going to need to educate the public, like the president has begun doing, showing that our elections are not secure and that they're under threat from not only foreign powers, but domestic agencies. And as long as we do that, I think the American people will be prepared for what comes next. And that will be an earth, an earth-shattering moment for the Democrats.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Well, you I you've just hit it right on the head because I I tell our audience over here at least that of all of the virtues out there that we need to be engaged upon, patience is one of them because there's so many people, and rightly so. They're they're crying for justice. We, you know, perp walks and all this. That that's one thing. I don't I don't need to see a show of a perp walk, but to the point of you know, patience and people wanting justice, I get it. And and I want to make sure, like you do, and I tell the audience, the reason that these things are taking longer than what we all want is that hopefully people like Cash Patel and now uh uh Todd Blanchett and the in the as the acting uh attorney general, that they're taking this seriously and piecing together legitimate cases based in truth and fact that will stick and give us appeals-proof results. That's the time element that we're talking about. Because, you know, you if if if this machinery is not fixed, every future administration, Republican or Democrat, is going to operate under the same vulnerability. And to your other point about vulnerability, uh, you know, this midterm election season, people out there saying, well, who do you know? What we've got a rhino problem. What how do you tell? And I get asked the question all the time, how do you tell who's a rhino? I said, try asking just this question as a litmus test. Do you believe it, Mr. or Mrs. Candidate for a Republican office? Do you believe that there's election integrity issues in this country? And if that candidate hems or haws or says no, that's a rhino, and they don't, you don't need to waste your time because we do, we do have those issues. And I think it's the most important issue that we face because whatever other issue you have passion for, whether it's the passion to protect unborn life, your second amendment, freedom of speech, none of that matters unless we can secure these elections. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 11:51

We you don't have we won't have a functioning republic if our election system is corrupted. Uh, and if we don't have trust in the election, then that will sow division and chaos. Because uh the the evidence, uh, when when President Trump and his supporters uh were calling the 2020 election fraudulent, and then you had people like Jack Smith and the Democrats try to silence and uh put him in prison for voicing a dissenting opinion on what we now know uh was rooted in fact. That's a very dangerous and slippery slope that's that's going towards the path of an Orwellian type society, a totalitarian state, uh, in which uh they they tell you don't believe what you see or or hear or or what you hear as true, uh, even though you see it in front of your face. And the president has been very um observant of the importance of election integrity because he argues that the 2020 election was robbed from him. And what he presented on primetime TV a couple days ago was really exhibit A and how it was robbed by him, and how it was robbed was you had uh over 200 million Americans voter rolls infected by a foreign power, namely China and likely others. You had voting machines placed in various battleground states that have been used in countries like Venezuela, which we know stole that Maduro stole his election, and then most probably disturbing of all, you had an FBI run by the Democrat uh DOJ suppressing that information. While then when Trump calls this out, he's they're trying to put him in prison for it, or his supporters in prison. So that is why this is the most important issue. It's and and like I said, I'm happy to make a couple thousand extra bucks with lower taxes, I'm happy to see the border close, I'm happy to see the United States safer in the Western hemisphere. But we're not safe or more prosperous if we have a dysfunctional election system and if there's no trust in it. So forget the constitution, forget the republic, and forget uh the society working as a cohesive unit without solving this. That's why the Save America Act is so important. We'll see if that gets finally passed, Doug. I don't know if it will, and if it ever does, it might end up in court. So we might actually end up in some sort of uh emergency uh situation in which the president, if he feels that the United States has a vulnerable election system, might do the ones unthinkable, and that is usher in some sort of emergency measures to secure or to have some sort of proper oversight of not only the midterms but the next election. And that's why uh he's trying to do his best to get some sort of guardrails uh put in place so that we don't have to go that path. But the rhinos and the Democrats, uh, for some reason or another, Doug, uh decided that they don't want to do this.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Yeah, it's in yeah, and it's infuriating on several levels when you think of what John Thune and others in the Senate have done to just resist pressing forward with the Save America Act. And uh I I've contended, you know, he claims they don't have the votes. Okay, fine. Let's fine, but let's put people, let's call a vote, John. Let's call a vote and get people on the record so that the American people can understand who is for and who's against. 90%, I mean 87% of people in this country on both sides of the aisle seem to be in favor of this thing. Uh, it it's it's like I said, it's infuriating.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Well, I think the reason that people like Senator Thune and other uh dissenters or detractors, whatever you want to call these people, uh, are saying this is because they simply don't want to believe the truth. They want to live in La La Land and to believe that Joe Biden was the most uh popular candidate and president ever elected with over 80 million votes, that uh, you know, President Trump uh legitimately lost that election, and that uh what happens in Tinpot dictatorships or third world countries like Venezuela or in some countries in the Middle East can't ever happen in America. Well, it can. And that's why the president has to declassify all of the evidence that went into election interference in 2016 and 2020. Because as Senator Rand Paul said just today, there are only about eight members of Congress, and I think he's talking about the gang of eight that have any clue of really what's happening with the CIA or the FBI or the real national security questions facing America. So get this declassified, uh uh continue delivering results with the cases that you're bringing against the come's, the others, and then educate the public on prime time address in prime time, uh moving forward so that the members of Congress will have no option but to say, wait a minute, there really is a problem here, and we just were duped for far too long, or we had no idea about the truth. So now let's subscribe to it. I think that's the only way you're gonna get these people on board because right now they think that this is all conspiracy, and that's really why the mainstream media, as you saw, Doug, even before the address, they were already trying to poison the water. They were trying to muddy the water to say that this is all conspiracies. The president's gonna talk about election interference without any evidence. He has nothing. This, this. This was all set in motion. And the way that, and the reason it was set in motion is because they want to continue to steal the elections. And you steal elections by having illegals vote, uh, illegals continue to vote, give uh people uh fake ID cards, uh, allow people to cross the border that have no reason to come in here to vote and have foreign countries meddle in the election with the FBI working with them to do it. That's unfortunately what happened in 2020, and we can't have that continuing, Doug.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

We've got a couple of minutes, George, and I want to I want to connect your experience to the present moment here with Trump and dealing with situations that involve foreign policy, specifically with Iran, because it's in the news obviously. The the the mechanisms and the I guess the art of the deal and the way that Trump negotiates and brings people in that might surprise certain people. The other day he had uh the president of Lebanon in his office, and he's met with Iraq and its leaders, and he's said on the record that he would be open to meeting with the leadership of Hezbollah. The only president, I mean, that I can recall saying I want to talk with Hezbollah, but he's doing this because he wants to isolate Iran, obviously. I think it's brilliant on a lot of different levels. What's your expert your expertise, your experience tell you about that tact? Because, as you know, our quote-unquote allies, I mean, especially Spain comes to mind, but others, the UK, France being less than enthusiastic about helping its NATO, uh, its NATO ally, the United States.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

I think President Trump, uh, as a private citizen saw President Reagan's successes during the tanker uh wars, battles, whatever you want to call it in the 80s, uh, and how the United States was able to keep Iran at bay and allow the smooth um movement of tankers and oil, natural gas, and other goods through the Strait of Hormuz uh as a success. And then he also saw President George W. Bush and his failures with the endless wars, over 200,000 troops, the invasion, the nation-building exercises that failed. And he himself, as a businessman, uh is combining his own business expertise and the art of a deal and prioritizing geoeconomics with limited military strikes like Reagan did, and he's combining it and he's basically creating, as I've as I mentioned, a containment 2.0 strategy. Instead of bombing uh the Arab states like Lebanon and Iraq or invading them, uh, which then uh makes Iran an even more popular country because large swaths of Iraq and Lebanon are Shiites the way that Iran is. He has told the president of Lebanon, he's told the leader of Hezbollah, he's told the leader of Iraq, we're done with the nation building, we're done with bringing democracy to you through bombs. We want to invest in your countries and we want to invest in your people. And in return, we want some calm and stability, and you to stop being basically a puppet of Iran. And what has happened the last week? The leader of Iraq and the leader of Lebanon have championed that, have been uh smiling, uh, you know, and overtly welcoming uh President Trump's overtures. And that's what the president is focusing on in the present and the future. And he's going to contain Iran without firing another shot if his vision is implemented. And I think it will be.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

I love it. And I I agree. It's a brilliant uh master stroke of the negotiation tactics that we that we love. Of course, it triggers the left because it's effective and it curtails their perpetual pursuit of inflicting chaos. But I think you're on to it and um well said and well met. George, I appreciate you. Thanks for making time.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

I appreciate it, Doug. Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

All the best to you and Desmona, and God bless you, George. Thanks again. We'll be in touch. Ladies and gentlemen, the right side with Doug Billings. Thanks for watching. We're in this thing together. Believe it for the Republic. Cheers. The right side with Doug Billings.