Ben Shapiro explains why the unvaccinated should wear a mask when they go out in public, and why you should wear one when you're around people who aren't vaccinated. He also explains why it's a good idea to cover up in public when it's safe to do so, and how you can protect yourself and your family from the spread of a pandemic of the unvaxed. The full show is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Protect your data from big tech with the VPN I trust. Visit expressvpn.org/thecryptidcast to get 20% off your first month with the ExpressVPN trial offer. You can also get a $10 credit when you book your first ExpressVPN membership by clicking here. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/sponsorships and use promo code: CRIMINALS to receive $10 and receive 10% off the first month of your purchase when you become a member of the CRIMENTIALS program. If you're a responsible adult, you can get $1,300 or more per year on life insurance by comparing quotes from over dozen top insurers all in one place, and get 50% off in as little as a week! You could save 50% or more on a single policy! Check out PolicyGenius to compare quotes and compare quotes with a trusted expert, and find the best rate possible! and get a discount on your best rate on your entire year of coverage and get 10% of your entire life insurance policies! And more than $100,000 in total! Want to become a lifetime? You get 15% off of the best deal? Go to policygenius and get 5% off for life insurance, plus a free 3 months of free shipping throughout the entire year, plus an additional $100 in lifetime, plus free shipping and a free 2-year VIP membership when you sign up for a year of the service, plus two months of VIP access to the VIP membership, and an additional 2 years of your choice, plus you get $5,000 shipping and access to an additional discount, and a lifetime of $50/month of the VIP discount, plus all that gets you access to VIP access, plus $10/month, and you get an ad-free VIP membership and a discount of $25/choice, plus they get $25,000, and all other options, and more!
00:00:00.000The Centers for Disease Control unleashes a new round of evidence-free masking recommendations for the vaccinated, the January 6th commission hearings begin, and Simone Biles pulls out of the Olympics and is treated as a hero.
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00:01:50.000We are now being told that the pandemic is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
00:01:55.000Meanwhile, the federal government is telling the vaccinated that they need to mask up again.
00:02:00.000And not only do they need to mask up, they need to mask up anytime they're around somebody, or they should at least consider masking up anytime they're around somebody who is unvaccinated, which presumably means children, like my kids, under the age of 12, are not allowed to get the vaccine.
00:02:12.000Remember, the vaccine has still not been cleared by the FDA for full authorized use.
00:02:17.000It is still operating under emergency use authorization.
00:02:20.000Meanwhile, you have cities and states and now the federal government mandating that people take a vaccine that does not actually have full FDA authorization.
00:02:27.000Which means, like, so what is the purpose of the FDA authorization?
00:02:30.000The federal government is just crappy at everything.
00:02:33.000Seriously, what is the purpose of the authorization?
00:02:34.000If I already have the vaccine, which I do, and then the FDA...
00:02:38.000It's still operating under emergency use.
00:02:40.000And so a year from now, they're like, okay, you can use it now, right?
00:02:50.000The reason that so many people are unvaccinated right now, I think the chief reason is not because of misinformation or disinformation from particular hosts on Fox News.
00:02:58.000I don't think it's because of the Tuskegee experiments of the 1930s.
00:03:01.000I think the reason that so many people are unvaccinated in the United States right now is because our authorities cannot be trusted.
00:03:08.000They've said everything it is possible to say on every single position throughout this pandemic.
00:03:12.000Yesterday, somebody on Twitter put together a compendium of all the various things that Anthony Fauci had said on various topics, and it's astonishing.
00:03:18.000When you watch it back to back, it really is mind-blowing.
00:03:22.000You do not need to wear a mask indoors if, in fact, you've been vaccinated.
00:03:26.000Good that you're vaccinated, but in a situation where you have people indoors, particularly crowded, you should wear a mask.
00:03:33.000So even if you are vaccinated, you should wear a mask.
00:03:36.000If, in fact, you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, you are protected, and you do not need to wear a mask outdoors or indoors.
00:03:43.000When the children go out into the community, you want them to continue to wear masks.
00:03:48.000You know, if you look at children outside, particularly when they're with the family, walking down the street, playing a game or what have you, don't have to wear a mask.
00:03:57.000OK, that is Anthony Fauci on like two issues with 87 different positions.
00:04:02.000And the science didn't change anywhere in there, neither did our level of scientific knowledge.
00:04:06.000The science has been exactly the same since we knew what this pandemic was last summer.
00:04:10.000And Anthony Fauci has been shifting his position on this stuff for political purposes.
00:04:14.000So yesterday, the CDC put out new guidance.
00:04:16.000And the reason they put out the new guidance, of course, is because we are seeing an uptick in the Delta variant and its transmissibility.
00:04:23.000We are seeing a huge number of people get it.
00:04:24.000But as I have been mentioning over and over and over on the program, the stats, the death stats from COVID in the United States right now, Are not that high, okay?
00:05:08.000Of those 161 million people, about 6,000 have had breakthrough infections resulting in hospitalization and way fewer than that resulting in death.
00:05:18.000Which means that your chances of being hospitalized with COVID after being double vaxxed are approximately 1 in 27,223.
00:05:34.000And by the way, the idea here is that the vaccinated have to protect the unvaccinated by masking up because maybe the vaccinated can still transmit it.
00:05:40.000Every unvaccinated person in the United States has had the opportunity to get the vaccine if they are over the age of 12 already.
00:05:47.000And by the way, I'm not hearing from anybody who's unvaccinated saying to me, you know, Ben, you're vaccinated.
00:07:11.000But the CDC is going to continue promulgating messages that make no sense and, by the way, dramatically undermine the willingness of people to get the vaccine.
00:07:19.000Why would I get the vaccine if I'm being told by the CDC it's not that effective?
00:07:23.000I mean, that's really what they're saying.
00:07:24.000It's not that effective because you could theoretically get a breakthrough infection.
00:07:27.000Not only that, you don't get to unmask.
00:07:39.000You know, Anthony Fauci says, well, you know, all of my conflicting statements over the past year and a half, all that's been because, you know, is because, well, with this new data.
00:08:11.000The following recommendations apply to non-healthcare settings.
00:08:15.000Fully vaccinated people can participate in many of the activities they did before the pandemic.
00:08:19.000For some of these activities, they may choose to wear a mask.
00:08:21.000They can resume domestic travel, refrain from testing before, after travel, and from self-quarantine.
00:08:26.000After travel, they can refrain from testing before leaving the United States for international travel, etc., etc.
00:08:31.000And here's where things begin to change.
00:08:33.000Infections happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the Delta variant.
00:08:38.000However, preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant can spread the virus to others.
00:08:47.000If you have a breakthrough infection, then presumably you're infected and you are now transmissible.
00:08:52.000To reduce their risk of becoming infected with the Delta variant and potentially spreading it to others, CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people wear a mask in public indoor settings if they are in an area of substantial or high transmission.
00:09:05.000Okay, so even though, again, your chances of being hospitalized or dying from the virus, if you are fully vaccinated at this point, are somewhere around 1 in 27,000.
00:09:13.000They're recommending that if you go into a public area in a substantial or high transmission region of the country, that you should mask up even if you're vaccinated.
00:09:42.000As you can see on this map, This is like the whole country, right?
00:09:46.000There are areas of the Northeast where there's low transmissibility.
00:09:49.000There are certain kind of rural areas of Montana and Wyoming and New Mexico where you have less transmission.
00:09:57.000Pretty much everywhere else is a substantial or high transmissibility area, which means that the CDC is effectively recommending mask mandates in public areas for two-thirds of the country.
00:10:16.000Fully vaccinated people might choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission.
00:10:22.000Particularly if they or someone in their household is immunocompromised or at increased risk for a severe disease.
00:10:26.000Or if someone in their household is unvaccinated.
00:10:30.000So there are a couple ways to read that.
00:10:31.000And one is, they're saying, you know, you might, that's like a good idea.
00:10:35.000You might choose to mask because you wouldn't want to transmit this to somebody who's vulnerable or unvaccinated.
00:10:39.000Hey, you know what's a subgroup in the United States that's unvaccinated?
00:10:42.000Every human being under the age of 12 in the United States is unvaccinated because this has not been cleared for FDA authorized use, even under emergency use authorization for kids.
00:10:52.000So what they're actually recommending at this point is that you might consider, if you are vaccinated, putting on a mask when you are in the presence of your child.
00:11:00.000That's what they seem to be suggesting here.
00:11:01.000Again, fully vaccinated people might choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission if someone in their household is unvaccinated.
00:11:08.000Now, you could say, well, maybe the CDC is saying that you should mask up in public so you don't come home and transmit it to your 12-year-old.
00:11:13.000But again, if you're really afraid that you've got it and that you're transmitting it, then you should be masking up around your 12-year-old.
00:11:23.000By the way, the number of kids, according to the CDC, I'm quoting their own statistics at them.
00:11:27.000According to the CDC, the number of children under the age of 18 who have died in the United States as of yesterday was 337.
00:11:32.000A vast number of those children had serious underlying conditions.
00:11:36.000That means that of a subpopulation in the United States of 75 million people, 337 have died.
00:11:43.000And you're talking about people masking in the presence of their children, apparently, according to the CDC.
00:11:48.000They also say you're supposed to get tested if you're experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
00:11:52.000Okay, well, even that is kind of wild, considering that COVID-19 symptoms are everything.
00:11:58.000I've had a cold for the last couple of days.
00:12:00.000I've not gotten tested for COVID, because even though runny nose is a symptom of COVID, I've been vaccinated, the chances that I have a breakthrough infection from COVID are extremely low, and I have no other symptoms.
00:12:11.000They're saying, presumably, that I should go get tested right now.
00:12:17.000And even if I do have COVID, go get vaccinated yourself.
00:12:20.000Get tested three to five days following a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID and wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days after exposure or until a negative test result.
00:12:30.000So now the suggestion is, somebody in our office was diagnosed with COVID.
00:13:13.000It is true for literally any transmissible disease at all times.
00:13:15.000We should all wear masks forever and ever.
00:13:18.000And then they say we're supposed to isolate if you've tested positive for COVID-19 in the prior 10 days or if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
00:13:26.000So if I have a cold, I'm supposed to isolate for 10 days.
00:13:28.000What the hell was the purpose of getting vaccinated if this is the case?
00:13:31.000I don't know what the hell the purpose is.
00:14:16.000They have not performed in able fashion anywhere along the line here.
00:14:19.000They've been highly politicized throughout the pandemic.
00:14:22.000The data have not changed, but they've changed their opinion multiple times.
00:14:25.000And again, the new principle seems to be that if you are the rare person with a vaccine who is capable of receiving and being infected by and transmitting the disease, on the basis of that, hundreds of millions of people should mask up In a time, by the way, when, again, we are suffering low hundreds of deaths in the United States from COVID, despite tens of thousands of diagnosed cases.
00:14:51.000We'll get to more of this in just one second.
00:14:52.000First, let us talk about your sleep quality.
00:14:55.000So, I related a story on the show the other day about a woman who came up to me once, I was holding my child, and she came up to me and she said, how do you sleep at night?
00:15:02.000What I should have said is on my Helix Sleep mattress.
00:15:18.000So they have several different mattress models to choose from.
00:15:20.000They've got soft, medium, and firm mattresses.
00:15:22.000Mattresses great for cooling you down if you sleep hot.
00:15:24.000Even a Helix Plus mattress for plus-size folks.
00:15:27.000So if you're looking for a mattress, you take the quiz, you order the mattress that you're matched to, the mattress comes right to your doorstep for free.
00:15:32.000You don't ever need to go to a mattress store.
00:16:05.000Alrighty, so our trusted public health experts trotted out these asinine new restrictions yesterday.
00:16:11.000CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, again, utterly untrustworthy.
00:16:14.000This is a person who drew up guidelines with regard to schools at the behest of the teachers' unions, a highly political figure, Here is CDC Director Walensky announcing new restrictions for the vaccinated.
00:16:26.000As CDC has recommended for months, unvaccinated individuals should get vaccinated and continue masking until they are fully vaccinated.
00:16:37.000In areas with substantial and high transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public, indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the Delta variant and protect others.
00:16:52.000Now, there is no evidence that the vaccinated are the chief method of transmission.
00:16:56.000And there's no limiting principle here.
00:16:57.000Because again, any person could theoretically be a transmission vector.
00:17:01.000This is the same logic that the CDC has been using on masking of children.
00:17:05.000Children are not the main vector of transmission for this disease.
00:17:50.000The stats are shockingly, shockingly low in places like New York State, where again, as of yesterday, the day-on-day average of death from COVID-19 in the entire state of New York, that is a state of 19 million people, the day-on-day average, as of yesterday, was four.
00:18:08.000Okay, like, I don't know how you can justify masking up hundreds of millions of people on this basis.
00:18:14.000But they continue to push this crap forward.
00:18:15.000Here's Rochelle Walensky saying that we need vaccinated K-12 students to mask inside and outside as well.
00:18:22.000CDC recommends that everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask indoors, including teachers, staff, students, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.
00:18:34.000Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with proper prevention strategies in place.
00:18:43.000Finally, CDC recommends community leaders encourage vaccination and universal masking to prevent further outbreaks in areas of substantial and high transmission.
00:18:54.000Substantial and high transmission, as I mentioned, amounts to about two-thirds of the land area of the country.
00:19:25.000And then there's authoritative parenting, which is where you set the rules for the kids, but you explain the rules to the kids so they know that you're doing what you're doing for a reason.
00:19:46.000At what point do you say, okay, kids can take off the masks?
00:19:49.000According to this calculus, the answer is never.
00:19:51.000At what point do you say that the vaccinated can take off their masks?
00:19:54.000According to this calculus, the answer is never.
00:19:56.000Because if I tell you that one in 27,000 people are getting hospitalized or dying from COVID after being vaccinated, and you say, then you should probably mask up, what does that stat have to be?
00:20:15.000It's just excuse-making for more control.
00:20:16.000So the new excuse is, well, you know, sure, these vaccines have demonstrated that they are extremely durable against the Delta variant, thank God.
00:20:25.000And we demonstrated that we now know how to make mRNA vaccines for a wide variety of variants, presumably.
00:20:32.000But, Rochelle Walensky says, you know, we might have to mask up forever because, you know, there is the possibility that there could be another variant that crops up here.
00:20:40.000Okay, so in other words, because of a thing that might happen but has not and that you have no way of preventing, your recommendation is that we actively change every aspect of our lives now based on a possibility that you cannot possibly risk assess.
00:21:01.000The largest concern that I think we in public health and science are worried about is that virus and the potential mutations away we are from a very transmissible virus that has the potential to evade our vaccines in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death.
00:21:20.000Right now, fortunately, we are not there.
00:21:22.000These vaccines operate really well in protecting us from severe disease and death.
00:21:28.000But the big concern is that the next variant that might emerge, just a few mutations potentially away, could potentially evade our vaccines.
00:21:37.000Okay, well if that is the case, then I suppose that we're going to be wearing masks forever and we should just resign ourselves to it.
00:21:43.000This disease is not only out there, it is out there in every major country.
00:21:48.000It has spread throughout the population extremely fast, and there's no way we're going to stop that.
00:21:52.000So I guess that we're just going to have to mask up forever, and we should resign ourselves to the total and utter control of the CDC forever, despite the fact that these vaccines have been wildly successful, despite the fact that this should be a triumph of public health.
00:22:03.000Now our public health experts are, in fact, just totalitarian dictators.
00:22:06.000That is all they are at this point, because they don't even try to explain what they're doing.
00:22:09.000Here's Jen Psaki trying to explain yesterday, just completely failing.
00:22:13.000I know this is slightly awkward timing, and I know there's a lot of reporting out there about the CDC guidance.
00:22:18.000It is not only appropriate for them to make the decisions, it's also appropriate for them to officially announce their own guidance.
00:22:25.000I will say, though, that how we view this, as you asked about, Alex, implementation of their guidelines that they'll outline on a call with all of you later this afternoon, that we are still in the midst of a once-in-a-generation pandemic battling an ever-evolving virus.
00:22:43.000Okay, so in other words, we don't have any data to back this, but scary, scary, scary, pandemic scary, virus scary.
00:22:50.000Man, stop treating, stop treating your politicians, stop treating your public health experts as though they're infallible, infallible godly figures, deities bringing you truth from on high.
00:23:02.000They're generally incompetent bureaucrats who suck at their jobs.
00:23:06.000In just one second, we'll get to more of this, because it really is an amazing thing.
00:23:09.000And the level that people are willing to give up control to these people is truly amazing.
00:23:12.000We'll get to more of this in a second.
00:23:13.000First, if your business is growing, ZipRecruiter is the way to go.
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00:23:23.000Let's say, for example, That you had a producer and let's say that you told all your producers it was a good idea to get vaccinated, but all your producers were like, well, why should I listen to, you know, the host of the largest, fastest growing podcast in America?
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00:25:51.000Right now, the CDC is essentially admitting, we don't really know.
00:25:55.000With the Delta variant, if you are exposed to it, we don't know what is the likelihood that you could be asymptomatic, still carrying the virus, and be able to transmit it to others.
00:26:04.000And so they are recommending, in that case, that people should be testing and quarantining.
00:26:10.000So if you now are vaccinated, the purpose of the vaccine is that you're not going to get infected or that if you do get infected, you're not going to be hospitalized and you're not going to die.
00:27:00.000What if I'm listening to you guys and what I keep hearing is that the vaccine is less effective than you guys keep saying it is?
00:27:08.000You're conflicting messages out of the problem here.
00:27:11.000Our public health... Like, they've literally taken the only institution in American public life, namely scientific institutions, and they've perverted them and destroyed them.
00:27:20.000I do talk about this in my book, The Authoritarian Moment.
00:27:23.000Every major institution that has earned the trust of Americans has been perverted by the left and then used as a weapon.
00:27:28.000To the point where now, med schools, according to Katie Herzog, writing for Barry Weiss's Substack, are now denying biological sex.
00:27:37.000According to Katie, during a recent endocrinology course at a top medical school in the University of California system, a professor stopped mid-lecture to apologize for something he'd said at the beginning of class.
00:27:46.000The physician says in a recording, quote, I don't want you to think I'm in any way trying to imply anything.
00:27:51.000And if you can summon some generosity to forgive me, I would really appreciate it.
00:28:34.000By the way, I think Democrats think that they're going to get a net win out of shutting down again because there's an almost pagan fervor for shutting down and masking and lockdowns and zero COVID and all of this.
00:28:44.000I think they're going to get a rather large surprise.
00:29:00.000We've been doing this for well over a year at this point.
00:29:03.000We are not up for the CDC changing its standards every day to determine what we can and cannot do in our everyday lives, when again, we are now, if you're vaccinated, you are extremely safe from death and hospitalization from this virus.
00:30:38.000The book covers an in-depth look at how the left is taking control of our institutions, from the scientific institutions, to entertainment, to education centers, even our relationships.
00:30:46.000For example, our great nation's leader is now entertaining the idea of requiring vaccines for all federal employees, and the CDC is recommending that all vaccinated folks wear masks, and Gavin Newsom is the first to adopt it.
00:31:20.000Also, I hate saying this, the world is not okay.
00:31:22.000Governments all over the world, including ours, are trying to squeeze their citizens out of every last drop of freedom and unfortunately, they are succeeding.
00:31:30.000That is why it's time for your favorite voices of reason to get together and discuss how we can stop this anti-freedom communist ideology from spreading into the place we call home.
00:31:37.000Join me, Matt Walsh, Jeremy Boring, Michael Knowles, and Andrew Klavan with a special appearance from Candace Owens tonight for an extra exciting cigar-packed session of Backstage.
00:31:49.000Central on dailywire.com and on our YouTube channel at Daily Wire, don't miss it.
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00:32:11.000You're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.
00:32:15.000♪♪ Alrighty, well, yesterday also featured the beginning of the January 6th commission, the long-awaited January 6th commission.
00:32:26.000And everybody on all sides basically acknowledges that this is political.
00:32:30.000What I mean by that is that we're not uncovering any new information.
00:32:33.000And yesterday didn't uncover any new information.
00:32:35.000We had a bunch of Capitol Police officers.
00:32:38.000I mean, honestly, like, I'm glad about this.
00:32:40.000The left has decided that the cops are good again, as long as the cops are being assaulted by people who are purportedly right-wing.
00:32:44.000If the cops are being assaulted by Black Lives Matter protesters, literally by the hundreds, If that is happening across an entire summer, the cops are all systemically racist and bad and kind of have it coming.
00:32:54.000If, however, the cops are assaulted by a bunch of right-wing droogs, then the cops are good.
00:33:00.000Now, the January 6th Commission is not designed to actually elicit new information.
00:33:04.000All it's designed to do is focus in on how bad January 6th was.
00:33:07.000And what the left is seeking to accomplish via this, I understand.
00:33:10.000You know, I understand what Democrats are doing.
00:33:12.000They are trying to keep January 6th front and center.
00:33:14.000They are trying to smear everybody who is of conservative bent with January 6th by saying that they're okay with it.
00:33:19.000Or that it was fine, or that they voted for Trump and therefore they're responsible for it.
00:33:24.000I think that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, I think the reason they're doing this is because they believe that Trump needs to be purged from the party.
00:33:31.000And so if they somehow go along with this commission, this will separate Republicans off from Trump, not understanding that in the reactionary way our politics works is precisely the opposite.
00:33:40.000That the more time you spend talking about Trump, the more people on the right are going to glom onto Trump, no matter his various heresies.
00:33:47.000In any case, Commission hearing yesterday was not particularly newsworthy.
00:34:37.000She said, you know, we should really be taking this seriously because do we really hate our political adversaries more than we love our country?
00:34:52.000The stuff that Donald Trump said between November 4th and January 6th about the election was almost entirely not true.
00:34:59.000With that said, I'm not seeing a lot of love coming from the Democratic side of the aisle for Republicans when this entire commission is almost overtly designed to malign the entire Republican Party as complicit in January 6th.
00:35:10.000Here's Liz Cheney going along with that.
00:35:12.000The question for every one of us who serves in Congress For every elected official across this great nation, indeed for every American, is this.
00:35:50.000By the way, whenever I see the media do this routine about how this is the worst attack on the Capitol since 1812, the Capitol was bombed a few times during the 60s.
00:35:57.000Like, the Senate building was bombed during the 60s.
00:36:12.000He's a clown who pitched a pump tent outside of the green room of CNN and left it there for four years proclaiming that just around the corner lurked all of the information about Donald Trump's Russian collusion.
00:36:26.000And now he's out there trying to proclaim that January 6th was the worst thing that has ever happened to the country and ginning up some tears for the purpose.
00:36:33.000There's a lot of crying yesterday in this commission hearing.
00:36:36.000And I got to say, I'm pretty consistent on this.
00:36:38.000I'm not a big fan of politicians crying.
00:36:52.000And if we're so driven by bigotry and hate that we attack our fellow citizens as traitors, if they're born in another country where they don't look like us.
00:37:58.000But I'm not going to doubt the experience of police officers who got beaten up trying to defend the Capitol building.
00:38:06.000But again, I will note the Democrats are very sympathetic toward a particular type of police officer, depending on who does the beating.
00:38:11.000I'm sympathetic to these police officers because I'm sympathetic to all police officers trying to stop criminality.
00:38:16.000But these police officers got fairly political yesterday, and I think there's a reason the Democrats were very happy to call them to testify.
00:38:25.000Here's Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone yesterday.
00:38:28.000What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many My fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened.
00:38:46.000I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room.
00:38:52.000But too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad.
00:38:59.000The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.
00:39:07.000I'm wondering what the indifference is.
00:39:09.000Like, really, who's totally indifferent about January 6th?
00:39:12.000Are there lots of people who are indifferent about it?
00:39:14.000Or are there people who are saying January 6th was horrifying and terrible, and the people who are the criminals should go to jail?
00:39:19.000And also, that riot, which it was, is no different in content than the riots of BLM over the summer, and treating it as some sort of radical outlier, as opposed to another act of criminal activity, is blowing this thing out of political proportion.
00:39:37.000I don't blame him for feeling angry about this sort of stuff.
00:39:41.000But I am going to say that I think the Democrats are putting this thing together for a reason and I think that CNN is getting what they want out of it, obviously.
00:39:48.000Capitol Police Officer Daniel Hodges then described the events as well.
00:39:51.000Again, I'm fine with all these people testifying.
00:39:52.000I'm just wondering when we get the testimony of all the police officers.
00:39:56.000I mean, I know police officers who were literally hit with bricks during the BLM riots.
00:40:00.000Not one of them will have their face shown on TV by any of these networks.
00:40:05.000One counter-protester, a black man, was backpedaling away from a white man in a Trump-labeled face mask, who was closely following him with an outstretched arm.
00:40:13.000Myself and my colleague first arrived and physically separated the two, but a crowd of Donald Trump's people had gathered.
00:40:20.000They attempted to bait the counter-protester into attacking, shouting insults such as, your mother's a whore, and accusing him of hiding behind the cops.
00:40:27.000Cut off from our leadership, which was at the front of our formation, we huddled up and assessed the threats surrounding us.
00:40:33.000One man tried and failed to build a rapport with me, shouting, are you my brother?
00:40:37.000Another takes a different tack, shouting, you will die on your knees.
00:40:42.000Yeah, I mean, that's ugly and horrifying and worthy of, worthy of remembering.
00:40:46.000Is it a transformative moment in American politics?
00:40:50.000I'm not sure why precisely it should be, considering, again, the goals of the protesters, not protesters, the goals of the criminal rioters were not met.
00:40:58.000In fact, they were completely rejected and those people are going to end up in jail.
00:41:01.000And then you have police officers who are drawing political conclusions.
00:41:04.000You have Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who called Trump a hitman, said that Trump was a hitman.
00:41:08.000Now, again, testifying outside the area of expertise, I think, would be the best way to put this.
00:41:15.000What I ask from you all is to get to the bottom of what happened.
00:41:19.000And that includes like, I echo the sentiments of all the other officers sitting here.
00:41:25.000I use an analogy to describe what I want is a hit man.
00:41:31.000If a hit man is hired, and he kills somebody, hit man goes to jail.
00:41:37.000But not only does the hit man go to jail, but the person who hired them does.
00:41:41.000There was an attack carried out on January 6.
00:42:12.000Also, I generally trust police officers when they testify about what they have experienced.
00:42:16.000But I don't see that they have any specific credibility when it comes to how things went down regarding the activities of the White House or whether Trump was somehow organizing with the people who invaded the Capitol building.
00:42:27.000But again, this was the real point of the January 6th commission in the first place.
00:42:30.000Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Ganel did the same thing.
00:42:34.000He said Trump created this monstrosity.
00:42:37.000You hear former President Trump Say, quote, it was a loving crowd.
00:43:23.000Meanwhile, by the way, Harry Dunn, the second-to-last officer that we discussed a moment ago, he actually suggested that because people mistreated him, this is all of America.
00:43:34.000If it was supposed to be not political, if it was just supposed to be about uncovering the truth, you wouldn't be asking questions like, how did it make you feel?
00:43:39.000How did it make you feel is not a question that elicits truth.
00:43:43.000It's a question that elicits a subjective perception.
00:44:27.000You wonder why a lot of Republicans didn't want to go along with this?
00:44:29.000Because they knew that this is what it was going to be.
00:44:31.000They knew that this is going to be a bunch of conclusory Non-evidenced-based accusations against America rip more broadly.
00:44:39.000And again, the high cynicism of Democrats turning into big cop supporters depending on who exactly is being targeted by the police is quite fascinating.
00:44:49.000Okay, meanwhile, The other major controversy of the day is that Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympics yesterday.
00:44:55.000So Simone Biles, of course, is probably the greatest gymnast of all time.
00:44:58.000She's attempted things in competition that have never been attempted before.
00:45:03.000The reason that she withdrew, originally they said that she didn't actually have a physical problem.
00:45:07.000She had some sort of mental, a mental problem.
00:45:10.000Not meaning she suffered from mental illness or something.
00:45:13.000It later came out that she was suffering from what people call aerial disorientation, which means that when she goes up in the air, she was kind of losing her place.
00:45:24.000And if it happens with a gymnast, you can come down on your neck.
00:45:26.000You could theoretically break your neck.
00:45:27.000Here was Simone Biles describing her withdrawal yesterday from the Olympics.
00:45:31.000I want to focus on my well-being and you know there's more to life than just gymnastics and it is very unfortunate that it has to happen at this stage because I definitely wanted this to look and feel a little bit better.
00:45:43.000Put mental health first because if you don't then you're not going to enjoy your sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to so it's okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are.
00:45:59.000Okay, so this is now broken down along political lines because everything does in the United States.
00:46:04.000There's a group of people who say she's a villain and there's a group of people who say she's a hero.
00:46:09.000She is not a villain because, again, the reality is that she had one vault attempt.
00:46:15.000She did not perform well on the vault attempt.
00:46:17.000She said she wasn't in the right headspace and then she was afraid that she was going to damage her teammates and that she would basically prevent her teammates from winning silver if she continued to compete.
00:46:27.000Does that make her some sort of villain?
00:46:29.000I don't think that really makes her a villain.
00:46:30.000She is, again, maybe the greatest gymnast of all time.
00:46:33.000She's tried things in competition nobody else has tried.
00:46:34.000I don't think it makes her a villain to walk away and say that she is not competing.
00:46:38.000I also object to the idea that she is a great hero.
00:46:41.000And this is the part that's kind of amazing, is that the media have now declared that when you walk away from things you're supposed to compete in, this makes you a hero.
00:46:46.000They did the same thing with Naomi Osaka with regard to the French Open.
00:46:49.000And she walked away from the Open saying that she didn't want to do media interviews.
00:46:53.000It's like, well, even if you have sympathy for that, that doesn't make you a hero.
00:46:56.000The media have decided that now she is a hero, right?
00:46:58.000That the leader of the team walking away in the middle of the Olympics makes her heroic, right?
00:47:04.000Lindsey Krauss has a piece in the New York Times titled, Simone Biles doesn't need a gold medal to win.
00:47:09.000There's another piece in the Washington Post by Alyssa Rosenberg saying, quote, rooting for Simone Biles means recognizing the greatness in her decision to step back.
00:47:16.000OK, we would never apply the standard to any male athlete of any kind ever.
00:47:20.000If Tom Brady threw two interceptions in the first half of the Super Bowl and said, listen, I don't have it today, guys.
00:47:26.000We'd all be like, wow, that's a choke.
00:47:28.000If LeBron James did that in game seven of the NBA finals, which this is, if he had said, listen, I don't have it today, and I'm just not feeling it, and I think we're better off with my backup, people would be like, no, no.
00:47:41.000Heroism is when you overcome the obstacle, not when the obstacle overcomes you.
00:47:44.000That doesn't make her a villain, but to try and valorize walking away from competition because you broke, that's not an act of valor.
00:47:54.000Again, it's not an act of ability, but it's certainly not an act of valor.
00:47:57.000But the problem is that in our society, everyone is either a hero or a villain and there is never any in between where people are just people and they do things that are sometimes in their own best interest.
00:48:06.000Maybe even in the best interest of their team, but only because they feel they can't do what they're supposed to do.
00:48:10.000Like this is just a person doing a human thing and we're allowed to say it's a person doing a human thing without suggesting.
00:48:17.000That it's a person who's being a villain or a hero.
00:48:18.000The people who I do think are doing something that is horrible for the culture are people who are suggesting that it is an act of heroism and valor to somehow walk away from the Olympics as the greatest gymnast of all time.
00:48:31.000That is a weird thing, culturally, to proclaim.
00:48:35.000And we have seen a bunch of people who are proclaiming that.
00:49:16.000John Bickley here, editor-in-chief of Daily Wire.
00:49:19.000Wake up every morning with our new show, Morning Wire.
00:49:22.000On today's show, the floodgates open on vaccine mandates, the refund the police movement gains momentum, and troops withdraw from the Middle East.