Ted Cruz is in the crosshairs of the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and the Senate, but not because Planned Parenthood is selling baby body parts to the highest bidder. The problem is, Planned Parenthood's money comes from selling baby parts to research facilities, not from providing abortion services. Ted Cruz is fighting to stop Planned Parenthood from doing just that, and he's got a good chance to do so, but only if he can stop Mitch McConnell and the rest of the establishment from stopping him. Today's show is all about the fallout from the Planned Parenthood hearings, and how the Republican establishment is fighting back against Ted Cruz and the efforts of the pro-life wing of the party establishment to get Planned Parenthood funding back on track, even if it means taking control of the government back from Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, who are trying to keep Planned Parenthood out of the running for any kind of funding whatsoever. Ben Shapiro explains why this is a win for the establishment, and why the only way to maintain control is to stop Ted Cruz from stopping Ted Cruz, who is fighting for control of both the government and Planned Parenthood, and who is willing to go all in on Planned Parenthood to make sure that Planned Parenthood gets the funding they need to do what they do the job they're here to do it the way they do it in order to make a name for themselves in the eyes of the American public and get their name in the public eye. Ben Shapiro: This is not a battle between the establishment and the conservative wing, it's a war between two sides, it s a war, and it's not even if you're a good vehicle for the Republican Party, and you're good enough to vote for them It ain't even good enough, it ain't good enough! And if you want to be a good candidate for the speakership, you'll have to listen to this episode of The Ben Shapiro Show. Subscribe to the Ben Shapiro Podcast! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices! Subscribe on Podcoin Subscribe on PODCODE Connect with Ben Shapiro Connect with him on LinkedIn Learn more on his Podcasts Learn more at The Six Sides Podcasts on his Podchaserx Subscribe at Podcoin Use the hashtag and become a supporter of his Podcast? on Insta-Friend him on Instagaming or his Instagames Thanks for listening to Ben Shapiro
00:00:06.000Today, Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, he's in the crosshairs.
00:00:10.000On Tuesday, GOP in the House, they held a hearing with the Planned Parenthood head, her name is Cecile Richards, and they excoriated her for the organization selling baby body parts to the highest bidder.
00:00:21.000And you had congressperson after congressperson going in front of the cameras and ripping the organization because they perform somewhere between three and 400,000 abortions every single year.
00:00:32.000But that wasn't really where the focus was.
00:00:33.000The focus was on the Republican leadership behind the scenes because they were working to fund Planned Parenthood every single dollar, every single dime, and to stop Senator Cruz from thwarting their plans.
00:00:45.000This was really the key to what's been going on this week.
00:00:48.000At the same time that the Speaker of the House,
00:00:50.000John Boehner, he's getting ready to retire, and his Republicans have been instructed to target Planned Parenthood publicly.
00:00:55.000Boehner has now vowed he's never going to allow any sort of government shutdown, which is amazing because, after all, Congress only has two tools to stop President Obama and the executive branch.
00:01:04.000One is impeachment, the other is the power of the purse.
00:01:07.000And if you say in advance that you're not going to actually send President Obama some sort of continuing resolution that he'll reject,
00:01:14.000Then Republicans have acquiesced to the agenda.
00:01:20.000And so they decided they had to stop Ted Cruz.
00:01:22.000Ted Cruz has to be stopped, even if Planned Parenthood won't be.
00:01:27.000Meanwhile, over in the Senate, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he was actually laughing to the media that he stopped Senator Cruz from initiating another government shutdown.
00:01:36.000Cruz told the media that McConnell doesn't lead in the Senate.
00:01:39.000Senator Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada does.
00:01:42.000To prove Cruz wrong, McConnell then signed on to everything that Harry Reid could possibly want, which led Cruz to take to the floor of the Senate to bash leadership.
00:01:50.000He said they refused to, quote, lift a finger to defend life.
00:01:53.000And at the same time, McConnell prevented Cruz from amending that same funding resolution, that continuing resolution to stop funding Planned Parenthood.
00:02:01.000Cruz said Republican leadership simply says OK to Obama.
00:02:04.000Why does it matter if we have a Republican or a Democrat House or Senate?
00:02:10.000By the way, McConnell and Democrats shut Cruz up after one hour using procedural means so that he couldn't continue to talk about how McConnell and Republicans were caving to the Democrats.
00:02:20.000For the Republican establishment, the only thing that matters is maintaining control.
00:02:25.000And the only way to maintain control is to stop Ted Cruz from taking control, even if that means that Planned Parenthood gets funded.
00:02:31.000Ted Cruz has to be stopped, even if Planned Parenthood is not.
00:02:34.000This is a battle between the establishment and the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
00:02:39.000It's not even between the Republicans and Planned Parenthood, unfortunately.
00:02:43.000If only the Republican Party were a good vehicle for conservatism.
00:02:47.000This is The Ben Shapiro Show, and I'm Ben Shapiro.
00:02:52.000Alright, so today, the Republicans are feeling the fallout from what happened yesterday.
00:03:03.000There was a big hearing yesterday, and in that hearing, Republicans questioned Cecile Richards, who is of course the head of Planned Parenthood, and a bunch of them got up to question her about all of the various
00:03:31.000Selling office products is only 3% of their business, because the rest of their business is selling those candies at the front, or the rest of their business is you walking in and talking to the Kinko's department over in Staples.
00:03:41.000The fact is that when you label every service equally, where you make your money does not correlate with where the services go.
00:03:48.000So the reality is the vast majority of Planned Parenthood's money actually comes from abortion services, but that
00:04:31.000Republican of Ohio, he was questioning Cecile Richards, and Cecile Richards was apologizing to everybody because of all these new Planned Parenthood videos that have broken.
00:04:40.000These Planned Parenthood videos are really interesting and shocking, and what they show is all these Planned Parenthood doctors, doctor after doctor after doctor, talking about how they had violated the law in order to sell baby body parts to research facilities.
00:04:55.000And by selling baby body parts to research facilities, they hope to
00:04:58.000Jack up the amount of profit that they were making.
00:05:00.000They'd even kill the babies in specific ways so as to maintain the baby body parts in a particular way, making it easier to sell them.
00:05:07.000Well, Jim Jordan, who is a high-ranking Republican, he was considered by many a possible frontrunner for the speakership of the House, if he had declared.
00:05:15.000Well, he asked Cecile Richards, so why are you coming here and why are you apologizing if the videos are doctored?
00:05:20.000Let's take a listen to Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio questioning Cecile Richards.
00:05:27.000Richards, if the videos were selectively edited, heavily edited, if this was entrapment, if this was all untrue, then why did you apologize?
00:05:38.000Well, Congressman, first, I think everyone has agreed they were heavily edited and that certainly I think even the perpetrator has agreed they were done undercover.
00:05:52.000I spoke with Dr. Nukatola, who was featured in one of the videos, and I thought it was important, in my opinion, in my opinion, in my opinion,
00:06:04.000It was inappropriate to have a clinical discussion in a non-confidential, non-clinical setting.
00:06:43.000Which statements were you apologizing for?
00:06:45.000It was really the situation that she was in, and I believe that... That's not what you said.
00:06:52.000Cecile Richards isn't going to answer the question, obviously.
00:06:55.000And you can hear from the tone of Jim Jordan's questions that he's very frustrated with her, as he ought to be, because she originally apologized after these videos came out.
00:07:04.000Dr. Nukatola was seen on video specifically talking about how she would
00:07:09.000Pursue certain procedures in order to maintain the baby body parts at a certain level so that they could be sold.
00:07:16.000I believe that Nakatola, this is the video where she talked about how she would eventually buy a Lamborghini based on the amount of profit that they would make off of these baby body parts.
00:07:23.000And Cecile Richards is now going out and saying that it really is just about the tone.
00:07:26.000It's really they were joking that they were at lunch when they did all of this.
00:07:29.000If they had done it in the private office, and if she had said the same things, it wouldn't have been offensive.
00:07:34.000And the assault on Cecile Richards, the rhetorical assault on Cecile Richards continues in this way.
00:07:39.000Representative Cynthia Loomis, a Republican from Wyoming, and she went after Cecile Richards.
00:07:43.000She says, you keep saying that 3% of your services are abortion services.
00:07:47.000Well, that's not where your money's coming from.
00:07:49.000Here is Representative Cynthia Loomis.
00:07:54.000Let's talk about Planned Parenthood revenue from abortions.
00:07:59.000If you look at the 2013 statistics that you report, abortions from revenue would have been over 86% of your non-government revenue.
00:08:14.000How do you explain this massive disparity between the amount of revenue you collect from abortion and the fact that you only
00:08:22.000Report 3% of your services being abortion.
00:08:26.000Well, I think there's two questions you've sort of mixed in there, so let me try to address both.
00:08:31.000One is, as we've already stated, federal money does not go for abortion, so the federal portion that we were discussing is reimbursement for preventive care services.
00:08:42.000I think the other, so that's why they're not, those numbers don't, aren't connected.
00:08:47.000How many, can you tell me how many of your affiliates receive the majority of their revenue from abortion?
00:09:17.000that this was just the GOP being sexist, that Republicans were only asking her these questions because they don't like women.
00:09:22.000She was on MSNBC, and she thought that it was necessary to explain that the reason that she was interrupted so much is because Republicans hate women or some such nonsense.
00:09:31.000Whenever it comes to abortion, the lie is that Republicans must hate women because they oppose abortion, which is asinine given that when you're talking about sex-selective abortion, typically,
00:10:20.000One of the things that Republican members of Congress really did badger you about today was your salary.
00:10:26.000And Democrats on the panel sort of sprung to your defense, said that it was sexist of them to go after you for that, since they never do the same for male CEOs, for example.
00:10:51.000So they had nothing else to talk about, which is why they talked about her salary, which, by the way, is well in excess of $300,000 a year for running an organization that is a mass abortion clinic.
00:11:00.000It's all about sexism, and this has become the party line now.
00:11:03.000Jerry Connolly, who's a Democrat from Virginia, he also said this.
00:11:07.000He said that the GOP is sexist as well.
00:11:08.000He actually said this during the hearing.
00:11:10.000He said that the GOP was sexist, which is why the hearings were taking place in the first place.
00:11:13.000Here's Representative Jerry Connolly of Virginia.
00:11:23.000I hope every American woman is watching today's hearing.
00:11:59.000Okay, we don't have to listen to Monopoly Man anymore.
00:12:05.000But this is how these hearings usually go.
00:12:07.000The way that they usually go is that you have somebody on one side going after the witness, somebody on the other side coming out in defense of the witness, because this is what our government has become.
00:12:15.000And the Democrats are, of course, a paid
00:12:17.000Contributor to the Planned Parenthood Fund.
00:12:21.000It's not that Democrats get paid by Planned Parenthood, it's really that Democrats pay Planned Parenthood, and then they go out and they use the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, millions and millions of dollars every single year, in order to get Democrats elected.
00:12:33.000Here's the big problem for Republicans.
00:12:35.000The same Republicans who are out there bashing Planned Parenthood and saying that this is all perfectly legitimate, this entire investigation is perfectly legitimate, when it comes time to actually defund Planned Parenthood, then all of a sudden their courage goes completely out the window.
00:12:48.000When it comes time for them to sit down and finally say, no, enough, we're done here.
00:12:52.000Then all of a sudden, the courage is gone.
00:12:55.000We're going to sign over a continuing resolution to keep the government funded.
00:12:59.000And there are all these Republicans, supposed conservatives, establishment Republicans, who do this routine.
00:13:05.000Where they suggest that the great Republican success story would be to continue to fund the government, and then to use issues like this in order to run for electoral office.
00:13:15.000The idea being that all we can really do here is just whine about things until we win.
00:13:22.000Well, according to Republicans, we all have to whine until we win, until we will continue to sign over funding to President Obama, because who knows?
00:13:28.000The government shutdown could go really badly, the media would get very upset, the media would get super duper angry, and then what would happen?
00:13:37.000Government shutdowns don't hurt Republicans because when it comes to government shutdowns, Democrats are the ones who want the government to run.
00:13:44.000Republicans are supposed to be the people standing in favor of a small government.
00:13:48.000Republicans are supposed to stand in favor of a government that only provides specified services
00:13:54.000And that is only there to do certain things.
00:13:56.000So the idea the government shuts down unless it does the things we want it to do, that's perfectly in line with Republican thinking.
00:14:02.000And if Republicans continue to say the government can't shut down, we'll even fund Planned Parenthood to prevent the government from shutting down, it looks like sexism to attack Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood.
00:14:10.000If you're not willing to man up, if you're not willing to grow a set, then you shouldn't be surprised when everybody assumes that you're just being a jerk to attack Planned Parenthood and Cecile Richards.
00:14:21.000You know how far this has gone now with the Republicans?
00:14:22.000Here's how far this has gone with the Republicans.
00:14:30.000is urging Speaker John Boehner to go big in his last month on Capitol Hill.
00:14:35.000Lamenting the congressional dysfunction that's left undone the people's work, Hoyer pointed to a series of proposals deemed must-pass by the end of the year, including new highway funding, reauthorization of export-import, and a long-term budget deal.
00:14:47.000He says he wants Boehner to tackle as many of these items as possible before stepping out of Congress October 30th.
00:14:53.000Steine Hoyer, he said, I'm hopeful that as Speaker Boehner serves out the last month of his term in the Congress of the United States, he will work with his Republican colleagues and with his Democratic colleagues to effect some progress on important things we need to be doing.
00:15:07.000How bad is the establishment Republican Party, in other words?
00:15:09.000The House Minority Whip, one of the Democratic leaders in the House, is now calling on the Speaker of the House to do what he wants him to do.
00:15:18.000So in other words, conservatives, the people who voted John Boehner into office, the people who fund John Boehner, the people who want John Boehner to be Speaker of the House until he betrayed them, the people who want more Republicans in office, those people are telling John Boehner to slow down.
00:15:30.000And Steny Hoyer, the Democrat, is telling John Boehner to speed up.
00:15:40.000Last Sunday, John Boehner, tool that he is, drunken, ridiculous human being that he is, John Boehner went on the Sunday shows and he called Ted Cruz a jackass.
00:15:51.000Ted Cruz is the jackass because he says that President Obama should be forced to put his money where his mouth is and veto legislation funding the government if he wants to save Planned Parenthood.
00:16:00.000But John Boehner says that Cruz is the jackass.
00:16:04.000Meanwhile, John Boehner is the guy who's basically getting ousted from his position.
00:16:08.000But before he leaves, he's going to make sure that the government continues to be funded in line with President Obama's spending priorities.
00:16:14.000Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is going to Politico and chortling over Ted Cruz being unable to shut down the government.
00:16:21.000Senator John Thune of South Dakota, who's the number three Senate Republican, one of McConnell's deputies, he said about Ted Cruz, they stopped Ted Cruz from speaking and shutting down the government, he said, Let's focus in on that last line for one second.
00:16:33.000We've got to fund the government every year.
00:16:46.000Turns out that government spending is mandatory.
00:16:49.00080% of government spending is mandatory.
00:16:50.000Whenever there's a government shutdown, the government continues to operate at 80% of what it normally operates at.
00:16:56.000So why do you have to fund the government every year?
00:16:57.000Why is that a top priority for Republicans?
00:17:00.000And if it is a top priority for Republicans to keep the government funded at current rates, or maybe slightly below, then they're just Democrats alight.
00:17:08.000When you have Mitch McConnell going out there and ripping—seriously, folks, when you have Mitch McConnell ripping Ted Cruz harder than he rips President Obama or Planned Parenthood, you know that the Republican Party is not a good vehicle.
00:17:18.000You want to know why Donald Trump is succeeding, folks?
00:17:21.000The reason Donald Trump is succeeding today and will continue to succeed—and if it's not him, it'll be Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina or Ted Cruz—is because people hate the Republican Party, and they should.
00:17:30.000It's been a terrible vehicle for conservatives.
00:17:33.000You want to know why Bernie Sanders, an open socialist, is running inside the Democratic Party?
00:17:36.000The answer is that Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist, is running inside the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party is the party of the left, and the Republican Party is the party of the center-left.
00:17:47.000And the fact that Ted Cruz is being seen as the enemy by people like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, that you got- When was the last time that John Boehner called President Obama a jackass?
00:17:56.000President Obama signed the worst Iran deal in the history of the United States.
00:18:02.000has pushed forward Obamacare with zero Republican votes.
00:18:04.000John Boehner never called him a jackass, but Ted Cruz is a jackass for wanting to defund all of this.
00:18:10.000Now I gotta tell you folks, I personally, I personally was not a fan of Ted Cruz's shutdown strategy over Obamacare back a couple of years ago.
00:18:19.000I thought that it was likely to end disastrously, problematically because he didn't have enough allies.
00:18:36.000And meanwhile, you got Rand Paul out there, and you got Marco Rubio out there ripping Trump and ripping Cruz and saying that Cruz doesn't know what he's doing.
00:18:43.000Rand Paul came out yesterday, and he said that Ted Cruz
00:18:46.000is done in the Senate, that basically his influence is finished.
00:18:49.000By the way, Ted Cruz will be in the Senate as long as he wants to be in the Senate.
00:18:52.000Okay, no one is going to get rid of Ted Cruz in Texas.
00:18:56.000Rand Paul is going to run in a very contested Senate race, and he may very well lose that race, which is why Rand Paul is probably going to drop out of the presidential race pretty soon.
00:19:03.000But the battle lines are being drawn right here, and people are saying that it's grandstanding by Cruz, this is all just pyrotechnics, it's all for the presidential race.
00:19:12.000If Ted Cruz is doing this to win Republican primaries, if the goal here for Ted Cruz is to please the base to win Republican primaries, why isn't the rest of the Republican Party following Ted Cruz to please the Republican base?
00:19:23.000Why are they seeking to please Steny Hoyer and the Democrats and Barack Obama and the Democrats and all of this hypocrisy in which they go out and they rip on Planned Parenthood?
00:19:33.000All of this ridiculous nonsense where they go out and they yell at Cecile Richards, or they go out and they question them.
00:19:38.000They go out and they say that Planned Parenthood is a great evil and they're complicit in a great moral evil, and then they go ahead and they sign the check.
00:19:45.000John Boehner's name is on every check that President Obama's name is on to Planned Parenthood.
00:19:50.000They are co-signatories of those checks.
00:19:53.000So John Boehner doesn't claim to—he doesn't get to claim that he's anti-Planned Parenthood.
00:19:57.000He doesn't get to claim that he is staunchly pro-life when he continues to sign those checks because he's too cowardly to shut down the government.
00:20:03.000And it wouldn't even be him shutting down the government.
00:20:46.000And if you stand tall, I don't think Republicans will lose from a government shutdown.
00:20:51.000In fact, President Clinton shifted from the guy who proposed Obamacare originally back in 1992 to the guy who signed welfare reform after Newt Gingrich shut down the government.
00:20:59.000Bob Dole, who was the Senate Majority Leader in 1996 during the government shutdown, he wanted to run for president.
00:21:04.000And Bob Dole did run for president, and as you remember, he got his ass kicked.
00:21:24.000And if Republicans fail to recognize this, if they play the Democrat game where the government has to be open in order for everybody to be happy, they don't have the moral credibility to come out against organizations, evil organizations, like Planned Parenthood.