The Ben Shapiro Show - August 14, 2023


Joe Biden’s Big Hunter Coverup


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

209.05867

Word Count

10,216

Sentence Count

638

Misogynist Sentences

16

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden has been under investigation since 2019 for a wide variety of tax and gun crimes. He was also under investigation for a separate set of gun crimes, but a plea deal was struck between the DOJ and Hunter Biden s legal team that immunized him from all further criminal charges. And then, suddenly, the whole thing blew up. And it was only a matter of time before the true cover-up began. In order to understand why the Joe Biden DOJ appointed David Weiss as Special Counsel in a case he was already investigating, you have to understand the timeline of events leading up to Hunter Biden's plea deal and the eventual dismissal of the case by the DOJ, and how the DOJ covered up the deal to protect Joe Biden from all of the other crimes that were being pursued by the FBI and DOJ against Hunter Biden. In fact, according to IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, David Weiss said he had actually been denied special counsel status in the Hunter Biden case. And then he added that he even testified to Congress that he requested special counsel authority and was denied it. Not important, right? Not so important! Not only that, but he was actually prevented from pursuing any leads that could have led him to any other criminal charges against Joe Biden, including those that were related to the corruption that was going on at the very person he was investigating. So what happened? Hunter Biden was not the only one being covered up, was he covered up? by his own father? or was he just a victim of a cover up, too? Or was he really covering up his own crimes, or was there something bigger than Joe Biden involved in the corruption, or is there something going on this whole thing? ? Or is there a coverup even going on? In this episode, we'll find out what happened, and find out who really is covering up the truth and why? and who s really covering it up the real cover up and how it s actually covering up what s going on or what s really going on, and what s actually going on here? What s the real in this episode of of . is it really happening, you ll be shocked to find out by listening to this episode? of course you ll have to tune in to hear the full story of what s happening, right here on this on this podcast.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 So, it was only a matter of time until the true cover-up of the cover-up began.
00:00:04.000 So, in order to understand why the Joe Biden DOJ just appointed David Weiss Special Counsel in a case he was already investigating, you have to understand the timeline.
00:00:14.000 So basically, Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, has been under investigation since 2019.
00:00:19.000 He's been under investigation for a wide variety of tax offenses.
00:00:21.000 He was also under investigation for gun crimes.
00:00:24.000 Well, just a few weeks ago, it turned out that a plea deal had been cut between David Weiss, who is the And Hunter Biden's legal team.
00:00:35.000 And that plea agreement was a sweetheart deal, without a doubt.
00:00:38.000 The way the sweetheart deal worked was this.
00:00:40.000 Essentially, he would get no time whatsoever for any of his tax crimes.
00:00:45.000 And he would also get no time, he'd get a diversion for his gun crimes.
00:00:50.000 But not only did the plea deal do that, it also basically immunized him from all further criminal charges with regard to anything tax or funding related, which of course is all the Hunter Biden, Joe Biden stuff.
00:01:01.000 That's all of his Foreign Agents Registration Act violations.
00:01:04.000 That's him going abroad, picking up sacks of cash and questioning whether those crimes involved Joe Biden.
00:01:09.000 All of that would have just gone away.
00:01:11.000 And the DOJ tried to bury this in the deal.
00:01:13.000 The DOJ, instead of putting this in the plea agreement with regard to the tax charges when they went to court, instead they put it in the diversion agreement with regard to the gun charges so that it was not actually under the purview of the judge who was presiding over the tax charges, but it would be left to the judge to actually enforce that plea agreement nonetheless.
00:01:27.000 The judge caught on to this.
00:01:28.000 The judge said, hold up a second.
00:01:30.000 I don't understand.
00:01:31.000 Are you guys Basically wiping away all of his other crimes with this plea agreement, or are you not?
00:01:35.000 And at that point, the DOJ, which was in fact attempting to wipe away and cover up all of Hunter Biden's other crimes with the plea agreement, at that point, they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar and said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:01:44.000 We weren't trying to wipe away all these future crimes.
00:01:47.000 And when they said that, Hunter Biden's legal team was like, well, then we don't have a deal.
00:01:51.000 What do you think this deal was?
00:01:52.000 You think he was just going to plead out on the tax charges and the gun charges without wiping away all future prosecutions on similar charges like the corruption with Joe Biden or the Foreign Agents Registration Act issues?
00:02:03.000 You think we were just going to sign our names on the dotted line for a kind of quasi-sweetheart deal?
00:02:07.000 No, we want the whole thing, otherwise we're going to court.
00:02:09.000 And the DOJ said, well, we were going to give you the whole thing, but then we kind of got caught giving you the whole thing and the entire arrangement blew up.
00:02:15.000 The judge in that case said that she had never seen any deal remotely like that deal.
00:02:20.000 And all of this, played simultaneously with IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testifying before Congress that David Weiss, the U.S.
00:02:30.000 Attorney in this particular case, had not been granted special counsel status.
00:02:33.000 Now, why would that have mattered?
00:02:34.000 Well, if he'd been given special counsel status, he would have been allowed to prosecute Hunter Biden basically wherever Hunter Biden committed a crime.
00:02:40.000 He would have been given enough independence to go after Hunter Biden however he believed he needed to go after Hunter Biden.
00:02:46.000 But according to Gary Shapley, David Weiss said that he had actually been denied by Joe Biden's DOJ special counsel status in the investigation of Hunter Biden.
00:02:56.000 In fact, here is the IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testifying in open congressional testimony that David Weiss said he was denied special counsel status.
00:03:05.000 And that's when David Weiss, on October 7, 2022, said that the D.C.
00:03:10.000 U.S.
00:03:11.000 Attorney's Office will not allow us to charge there.
00:03:14.000 And then he added that he requested special counsel authority and was denied in that meeting.
00:03:21.000 I even had him repeat that because I knew how important that fact was, and I wanted to make sure I understood it.
00:03:27.000 You were there, and you remember it crystal clear in your mind.
00:03:31.000 Not only do I remember it crystal clear, but I documented it.
00:03:35.000 The email that's an exhibit in the House Ways and Means Committee testimony was when I returned home that evening.
00:03:42.000 I documented it in an email.
00:03:44.000 And it's an exhibit.
00:03:45.000 You can look right on there.
00:03:47.000 Okay, so Shapley said he was actually prevented from pursuing any leads that involved Joe Biden, including an infamous 2017 email from James Gilliar, a business associate of Hunter Biden, which bore the subject line expectations and outlined a provisional agreement for equity in a deal with a Chinese energy company that included the famous phrase now ten held by H for the big guy.
00:04:04.000 Shapley says he wanted to investigate that and he was prevented from doing so by David Weiss and by the people who are in charge of this investigation, who were not given special counsel status.
00:04:12.000 Now, the DOJ then said, well, We didn't give special counsel status because he never asked for special counsel status.
00:04:17.000 But of course, that's not how special counsel status works.
00:04:20.000 You don't walk into the DOJ's office and say, I would like special counsel status.
00:04:25.000 You don't walk into Merrick Garland's office and say, listen, I hereby request special counsel status.
00:04:29.000 You are given special counsel status voluntarily by the DOJ because they want to establish some form of independence from the actual investigation that's going on.
00:04:37.000 This, for example, is why they gave special counsel status to Jack Smith in the Donald Trump investigation so they could at least claim that it wasn't Merrick Garland and Joe Biden doing that.
00:04:44.000 They didn't bother doing that with Hunter because they clearly wanted their finger still in the pie with regard to Hunter Biden.
00:04:50.000 Okay, well, all of this controversy led up to Merrick Garland over the weekend on Friday announcing that David Weiss would now be appointed the special counsel.
00:05:00.000 Now understand the timing here is everything. David Weiss should have been appointed
00:05:03.000 special counsel if they want a special counsel like at the very beginning. Then he would have had
00:05:07.000 the full powers to go after Hunter Biden but he was not given that special counsel status so he didn't
00:05:11.000 have the power to go after Hunter Biden. Then David Weiss anytime during the subsequent
00:05:16.000 period Could have been given that special counsel status and then he was not.
00:05:19.000 And then the Hunter Biden plea deal came through and it blew up.
00:05:23.000 And then Gary Shapley testified.
00:05:25.000 And now it appeared that David Weiss was going to be dragged in front of Congress to explain why he was not given special counsel status.
00:05:31.000 And he was going to have to actually testify in Congress under oath in danger of perjury.
00:05:36.000 He was going to have to testify whether Merrick Garland and the DOJ had basically told him how to handle the case.
00:05:40.000 So in order to force all that, Merrick Garland and the DOJ then gave him special counsel status.
00:05:45.000 And in doing so, they accomplished a couple of things.
00:05:47.000 One, they backfilled the special counsel status when it was basically too late.
00:05:50.000 And two, they now essentially prevent Congress from calling him in for questioning, because anything he is questioned about now, he can say is part of an ongoing investigation until he can't answer it.
00:06:01.000 So if he is asked about why he wasn't given special counsel status before, he can say, well, I have special counsel status now, and I can't really speak about what was happening before, because that is all part of a case that is now ongoing.
00:06:10.000 So this is a cover-up of a cover-up, understand?
00:06:12.000 The original crime was Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and doing whatever it was they were doing.
00:06:16.000 We still don't know all the answers there, but it's pretty obvious what was going on.
00:06:20.000 And then part two was the cover-up, which was appoint a person who is not a special counsel to investigate that thing and have that person cut a sweetheart deal with Hunter Biden.
00:06:28.000 And then when that blows up, you get the cover-up of the cover-up, which is now give that exact same person special counsel status.
00:06:32.000 As we'll explain in just a second, it probably isn't even legal under the special counsel statute to actually give David Weiss special counsel status at this point.
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00:07:40.000 Okay, so as it turns out, it may not even be legal for Merrick Garland to do what he's doing.
00:07:44.000 Here is Merrick Garland appointing David Weiss Special Counsel.
00:07:48.000 This appointment confirms my commitment to provide Mr. Weiss all the resources he requests.
00:07:53.000 Attorney General Merrick Garland said David Weiss himself asked for special counsel status after leading the criminal probe into the president's son since 2018.
00:08:03.000 The appointment of Mr. Weiss reinforces for the American people the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters.
00:08:14.000 Okay, so just a few minutes after this happened, DOJ lawyers then asked the court in Delaware, where this entire plea agreement blew up, if they could withdraw the case against Hunter Biden so they could refile the charges in Washington, D.C.
00:08:24.000 and California and quote-unquote, do it the right way.
00:08:28.000 But as the Wall Street Journal's Holman Jenkins points out, this whole thing is a sham.
00:08:32.000 It's absurd.
00:08:33.000 According to Holman Jenkins, he says, to get fully right-side up, even by its own dubious standards, the department needs not just to name a special counsel in the Hunter Biden case, it needs to return to the status of ordinary prosecutor Jack Smith, the special counsel in the Donald Trump case.
00:08:46.000 How can it be a conflict of interest for the department to throw the book at criminals who also happen to be the president's political enemies?
00:08:51.000 It's not.
00:08:52.000 Smith was only named after a leak signaling Joe Biden's displeasure with the department for not being aggressive enough against Mr. Trump.
00:08:57.000 The DOJ has every natural incentive to throw the book at Trump.
00:09:00.000 If it couldn't convince itself it had sufficient grounds, this might be a problem, but it's a corruption of the special counsel concept to believe it's a problem the special counsel regulation should solve.
00:09:08.000 A.G.
00:09:08.000 Merrick Garland's Friday announcement in the Hunter Biden case is bizarre in a different way when examined against special counsel logic.
00:09:13.000 Garland said the Hunter investigation, quote, reached the stage where such an appointment was appropriate, but what stage?
00:09:18.000 They went through the entire investigation, literally the whole investigation, and then they tried to cut a sweetheart deal, and then it blew up.
00:09:23.000 At which stage was it not appropriate to actually make him special counsel?
00:09:27.000 The answer is this stage, because as it turns out, the special counsel is supposed to come from outside the government.
00:09:32.000 You're not supposed to just give an ordinary attorney working for the government special counsel status this way.
00:09:39.000 Saying that it has now reached a new stage is an absurdity, as Holman Jenkins points out.
00:09:44.000 He says, this would be the stage where IRS collaborators publicly accuse Weiss and his DOJ overseers of violating normal procedures to go easier on Hunter than they would on any other alleged offender.
00:09:54.000 Is Mr. Weiss, the special counsel, now going to investigate Mr. Weiss, the ordinary U.S.
00:09:57.000 attorney's problematic handling of the case?
00:09:59.000 Like, how's this going to work exactly?
00:10:02.000 Is Mr. Weiss going to start noticing the accumulating evidence that Joe Biden actively abetted his son's access peddling scheme?
00:10:08.000 Is he going to follow up on charges by his own IRS colleagues?
00:10:10.000 His actions in the investigation were tainted by favoritism toward Hunter?
00:10:14.000 The only reason they're doing this is so he can refuse to testify in front of the House committee.
00:10:19.000 Recently, this would include unearthing the alleged receipt by multiple members of the Biden family of millions of bucks from Hunter's international dealings.
00:10:25.000 So now this is basically just a way of shielding David Weiss from the investigation of the original cover-up by creating a new cover-up.
00:10:33.000 This is what the head of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, was saying.
00:10:36.000 He said, I was about to connect Joe Biden to criminal activity and then they dumped this on us.
00:10:40.000 We've produced more evidence than anyone that's supposedly investigating this criminal activity by the Biden family.
00:10:48.000 And right as we get to the point to where we've traced it to Joe Biden, and we're at a position where we can win in court to fight their attorneys and get their actual personal bank records, He comes out with this.
00:11:01.000 This is another attempt to try to obstruct.
00:11:03.000 They're going to try to use this in court when they say, no, we can't give the Oversight Committee our bank records because there's an ongoing investigation by David Wise.
00:11:13.000 It is absolutely absurd on every level.
00:11:15.000 Now, Democrats in the media are predictably spinning this as, now everyone's being super unfair to Hunter Biden.
00:11:20.000 So here's Democratic Representative Jerry Connolly saying that, you know, normal people wouldn't be subjected to this level of scrutiny.
00:11:25.000 Are you kidding?
00:11:26.000 If a normal person bought a gun, claiming they were not a drug addict, while they were a drug addict, and then a girlfriend threw it in a trash can across the street from a school, and then it disappeared, do you think that person would not be in jail?
00:11:38.000 If a person committed crimes to the tunes of millions of dollars in tax evasion, Do you think that would just go by the wayside and no one would care?
00:11:45.000 Do you think there would be no Foreign Agents Registration Act investigation of $20 million entering a family's coffers because they're traveling around the world making promises on behalf, presumably, of the Vice President of the United States?
00:11:56.000 Like, this is insanity.
00:11:57.000 Here's Connolly.
00:11:59.000 A lot of people make assumptions about people in public life getting a special deal, wink-blink.
00:12:04.000 Often it's the opposite, that they're going to get no cornice cut at all.
00:12:11.000 They're going to have the book thrown at them because nobody wants to be perceived as showing favoritism in the justice system or in the police unfolding acts.
00:12:23.000 So I think you're right.
00:12:25.000 I think Hunter Biden's being subjected here Most mere mortals would not?
00:12:30.000 of not only scrutiny, but accountability that most mere mortals would not.
00:12:35.000 Most mere mortals would not?
00:12:37.000 Dude, most mere mortals who are crack addicts, who are addicted to hookers,
00:12:45.000 those people don't end up with millions and millions of dollars in their bank account
00:12:47.000 because their last name isn't Biden.
00:12:50.000 It's pretty obvious what is happening here.
00:12:52.000 My favorite defender here is Joy Reid.
00:12:53.000 Joy Reid, who is constantly talking about the two-track system of justice in the United States, the systemic racism of the criminal justice system.
00:12:59.000 Well, now she's out there saying, Hunter is... I mean, I just can't believe how unfairly Hunter is being treated.
00:13:04.000 In other words, he's being treated differently because he's Joe Biden's son.
00:13:08.000 I want to read this little piece here.
00:13:10.000 The particular gun charge that the Feds brought against Joe Biden.
00:13:13.000 This is from the Daily Beast.
00:13:14.000 A drug user in possession of a firearm is rarely brought as a standalone crime, especially now that roughly a fifth of the country uses cannabis, with an inevitably significant overlap with the nation's estimated 80 million gun owners.
00:13:25.000 There's more than that, I think.
00:13:26.000 When the Feds do bring this type of case, they come down hard, but it's usually a tool they use to take down Tough to arrest criminals, like militant white nationalists, Islamist terrorists, or narco traffickers.
00:13:39.000 I think all the evidence that I've seen so far in this case is that Hunter Biden, he could be a terrible guy, I don't know, never met him, is being treated worse than anyone else would be.
00:13:52.000 I have a question.
00:13:54.000 Would Joy Reid say this about any white Republican?
00:13:56.000 Any white Republican?
00:13:57.000 Any white non-Joe Biden's son?
00:13:59.000 How about that?
00:13:59.000 Would Joy Reid ever say anything remotely like that about a rich white man getting off on these types of crimes?
00:14:06.000 Ever?
00:14:07.000 Must protect the precious.
00:14:08.000 And the precious, of course, is the Biden family.
00:14:10.000 We'll get to more of this in just one second.
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00:15:16.000 Alrighty, so NBC legal analyst, Danny Savalas, he has a similar sort of take.
00:15:23.000 He says, yeah, you know, what's amazing about this is the special counsel now has independence.
00:15:27.000 You mean now he does?
00:15:28.000 I don't understand.
00:15:28.000 Why didn't he have it before?
00:15:30.000 That would have been the question, would it not?
00:15:31.000 What added authority does it give to Weiss?
00:15:36.000 And what are the implications for Hunter Biden himself?
00:15:41.000 The primary added authority is really independence.
00:15:44.000 The Special Counsel no longer will have to be ruled over by the Attorney General, although technically, Special Counsel does have to report to the Attorney General.
00:15:54.000 And in a way, the Attorney General had already indicated that David Weiss had broad investigatory power.
00:16:01.000 So the real question is, what inference can we draw from David Weiss's request to become Special Counsel?
00:16:09.000 I mean, the inference is that he wants to cover up what is going on clearly.
00:16:14.000 Clearly.
00:16:15.000 It's amazing.
00:16:16.000 Even CNN's Jake Tapper.
00:16:18.000 Now listen, I think Jake obviously is a left-leaning guy, but he at least attempts to be objective in his analysis sometimes.
00:16:25.000 So Jake and some of the others on CNN actually questioned the special counsel appointment, rightly so.
00:16:31.000 The U.S.
00:16:31.000 attorney had made the decision to have it just be a diversion program and a misdemeanor, but now it merits a special counsel?
00:16:37.000 So does he know of stuff that should be in a special counsel investigation that wasn't in that plea deal?
00:16:42.000 I mean, maybe he does, but then why do that plea deal?
00:16:44.000 It's all... Right.
00:16:46.000 It's all very suspicious.
00:16:47.000 It's fascinating.
00:16:47.000 Remember, we've heard already from David Weiss about what the process was like.
00:16:51.000 He has said, I have the authority to do so.
00:16:53.000 All the talking points are contrary to what my experience was.
00:16:56.000 But now this raises a lot of questions.
00:16:58.000 And whatever happened on Tuesday, as Paul is alluding to, now does make me feel surprised about, well, why now?
00:17:04.000 What is happening here?
00:17:05.000 Remember, he is still the U.S.
00:17:06.000 attorney in Delaware.
00:17:07.000 But now this special counsel allows him to actually go beyond his own jurisdiction.
00:17:11.000 You can look at other areas as well.
00:17:13.000 It's the reason you have Jack Smith not having to confine to one particular jurisdiction.
00:17:17.000 He can go beyond that.
00:17:18.000 He can have things in Florida.
00:17:19.000 He can have things in Washington, D.C.
00:17:21.000 It does now go beyond that.
00:17:23.000 But at its core, I wonder what the decision really came down to.
00:17:27.000 The special counsel statute says you can have this if you first look to figure out, does a matter actually warrant an investigation?
00:17:35.000 Is it warranted?
00:17:36.000 He had to conclude that it did, if you're Garland.
00:17:38.000 Was there a conflict of interest at play here?
00:17:41.000 I mean, it is pretty amazing when even CNN is like, guys, this is pretty weird.
00:17:45.000 Meanwhile, Hunter Biden's attorney, Abby Lowell, was asked point blank if Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings would in any way connect back to Joe Biden.
00:17:52.000 Listen to the lawyerly language here from Abby Lowell.
00:17:56.000 But can you answer the question about whether or not you're, from what you know, if you're confident that this won't in any way link back to the president?
00:18:03.000 What I know is what the evidence has revealed.
00:18:05.000 I mean, that is what people should focus on.
00:18:07.000 It's not as if this started yesterday or a week.
00:18:10.000 It started for five years with so many people in the United States, including with the power of subpoenas, as Mr. Weiss has had, to look at every transaction that Hunter was engaged in, in any place in the world in which he was engaged.
00:18:23.000 And what did they come up with?
00:18:24.000 They came up with the decision that the only two charges to file were two misdemeanors and a gun-diverted charge.
00:18:31.000 Not any of the other things that the MAGA right wing have been yelling, from money laundering to foreign corruption to foreign agent, none of that.
00:18:40.000 You notice what that wasn't?
00:18:41.000 That wasn't a full-scale, full-frontal denial of a relationship between Joe and Hunter's business.
00:18:46.000 You notice that wasn't what that was?
00:18:47.000 So there won't be any evidence that's uncovered?
00:18:49.000 I know the evidence is uncovered thus far, but where is the full-throated, Joe and Hunter were not in business together in any way, shape, or form.
00:18:58.000 No money that Hunter ever took in from a foreign source was used to Joe's benefit, nor was Hunter Biden ever associating Joe with the business of his foreign businesses.
00:19:08.000 None of that.
00:19:09.000 Like, none of it.
00:19:10.000 Seriously, none of it.
00:19:11.000 In that particular statement.
00:19:13.000 Instead, they're just gonna play victim.
00:19:15.000 In fact, here's Abby Lowell saying, their big concern now is that Trump forces could influence the investigation.
00:19:18.000 How could Trump forces influence the investigation?
00:19:22.000 It's Joe Biden's DOJ.
00:19:23.000 How could that happen?
00:19:25.000 And the answer is, now they're afraid that they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, so maybe fairness might look like that a little bit.
00:19:32.000 When you say force, who are you referencing?
00:19:35.000 Well, what I'm referencing is, and this is not a surprise or a secret, right?
00:19:39.000 From the moment this arrangement and agreement has been announced and filed, you have every MAGA, right-wing, fanatical person yelling and screaming and saying it's not right and it's not fair and it's not just.
00:19:53.000 You have the former president trying to use Hunter Biden as a way to excuse his own conduct.
00:19:59.000 And at some point, that could pierce, the noise could actually be so noisy that it'd get in the way of the facts and the law.
00:20:06.000 Well, wouldn't that be a tragedy?
00:20:08.000 Wouldn't that be a tragedy if it turns out that the giant bubble that you've created with the help of Joe Biden's DOJ actually started to cave in?
00:20:16.000 If somebody actually popped that bubble, what a tragedy that would be.
00:20:18.000 Okay, we'll get in just one second to President Trump, who's responding to all of this first.
00:20:23.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is supported by Grand Canyon University, an affordable private Christian
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00:20:49.000 He put out a very weird statement, actually.
00:20:50.000 He said, David Weiss was picked by the two Democrat senators from Delaware under blue slip.
00:20:55.000 He would not have been picked by me, but I have a great idea.
00:20:57.000 you today. Okay so President Trump has now responded to the picking of David
00:21:04.000 Weiss. He put out a very weird statement actually said David Weiss was picked by
00:21:07.000 the two Democrat senators from Delaware under blue slip. He would not have been
00:21:10.000 picked by me but I have a great idea why don't they use deranged Jack Smith. He
00:21:15.000 then continued Weiss has been investigating Hunter for four years
00:21:17.000 giving him the sweetheart deal of all sweetheart deals.
00:21:19.000 But a brilliant judge in Delaware saw through it all.
00:21:21.000 Now, I read the DOJ wants a new judge in jurisdiction, but so do I, with far stronger reasons than Hunter and Crooked Joe.
00:21:27.000 MAGA!
00:21:28.000 Well, actually, Trump formally nominated Weiss for U.S.
00:21:31.000 Attorney for the District of Delaware, and Weiss was sworn in while Trump was President of the United States.
00:21:37.000 So, um, that's not, like, the best statement from Trump, but suffice it to say that he is obviously correct that Weiss is a stooge on behalf of the DOJ at this point.
00:21:48.000 All indicators point to that.
00:21:49.000 And the fact that he's now basically escaped any sort of congressional scrutiny by being appointed special counsel is pretty obvious corruption.
00:21:56.000 Well, meanwhile, President Trump's presidential run continues.
00:22:00.000 He is facing down, presumably, some sort of indictment that is going to come down either this week or next week.
00:22:05.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Georgia has become ground zero for exhaustion over the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump and the GOP debate over whether to stick with him in 2024.
00:22:12.000 Georgia, there are still signs that voters have tired of the 2020 election replays and of Trump himself.
00:22:18.000 That kind of Trump fatigue is pervasive in Georgia, according to Republican strategists, which is a serious problem for him in a general election.
00:22:26.000 Right now, the possibility of another indictment looming is pretty obvious.
00:22:29.000 President Trump put out a statement over the weekend going after the Fulton County DA, Fannie Willis.
00:22:34.000 He went after her pretty hard, obviously.
00:22:37.000 He suggested that she is corrupt.
00:22:40.000 He suggested that she is driven by politics.
00:22:43.000 Of course, she is.
00:22:44.000 She's a partisan Democrat.
00:22:46.000 But as these cases stack up, it is going to provide a serious challenge to his ability to actively run a campaign.
00:22:53.000 According to Breitbart.com, Fannie Willis is planning to bring multiple witnesses before a grand jury next week as part of her investigation into President Trump.
00:23:02.000 Trump wrote, I hear that racist Fulton County District Attorney, phony Fannie Willis, who weekly presides over one of the deadliest communities in the United States with thousands of murderers, violent criminals, and gang members roaming the streets while going on tried-free and are treated with kid gloves, is using a potential indictment of me and other innocent people as a campaign and fundraising con job, all based on a perfect phone call as President challenging election fraud, my duty, and right.
00:23:24.000 This would be Trump's fourth indictment in the past five months, and of course, it would bleed into the presidential election.
00:23:29.000 Trump was asked whether he'd be taking a plea deal in Georgia, and correctly, he said, uh, no way, man.
00:23:34.000 Not a thing that's going to happen.
00:23:37.000 Is there any chance you'd take a plea deal in Georgia?
00:23:38.000 I don't take plea deals.
00:23:39.000 We did nothing wrong.
00:23:40.000 We don't ever take a plea deal.
00:23:41.000 Yes, sir.
00:23:42.000 Yes, sir.
00:23:42.000 We don't take plea deals.
00:23:43.000 It's a wise guy question.
00:23:45.000 Are you going to change it?
00:23:46.000 It's a wise guy.
00:23:47.000 We don't take plea deals because I did nothing wrong.
00:23:49.000 It's called election interference.
00:23:51.000 You know what that is?
00:23:53.000 These indictments were brought out by Biden, who can't even put two sentences together.
00:23:59.000 This is Joe Biden, because he can't win the election by himself.
00:24:03.000 He can't win the election based on votes.
00:24:05.000 So what they did is they got the Attorney General to do it.
00:24:08.000 And then you see how stupid they acted yesterday with the appointment of the special counsel.
00:24:15.000 So, that of course is going to be Trump's line all the way through the election.
00:24:18.000 The question is whether that is going to be a winning message in a general election.
00:24:21.000 That's something that Republican voters are going to have to decide.
00:24:23.000 I was talking with some friends over the weekend and we were all agreeing that the reason that Republicans, many of them, love, love, love Trump is because of course he was a hand grenade that was thrown into the sort of dead of vipers that is American politics.
00:24:36.000 But the question is, what happens if that hand grenade becomes a dud?
00:24:40.000 Or what happens if it starts to blow up in your hand?
00:24:42.000 That's something Republicans are going to have to decide.
00:24:43.000 Do they think that Trump is still more of a tool against the left, that he is capable of victory in a general election?
00:24:48.000 Or is he a hand grenade that is going to blow up in their hand?
00:24:50.000 Right now, the polls suggest that Republicans are very much on board with the idea that Trump is still the best guy to nominate.
00:24:57.000 The RealClearPolitics polling average has Trump riding very high at 54%, has Ron DeSantis at 15%, has Vivek Ramaswamy at 6, Pence at 5, Haley at 3, everyone below that.
00:25:08.000 Now, the polling on Ramaswamy is very weird.
00:25:11.000 As I say, full disclosure, I'm friendly with Vivek.
00:25:13.000 Of course, I'm friendly with many of these candidates is the truth, but Vivek's polling is super weird because all of the online polls have him at 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and all of the phone polls have him at 2.
00:25:25.000 Which suggests that these may not be the most reliable polling statistics for Vivek because he's the only one who you're seeing picking up support right now other than Trump.
00:25:34.000 Trump is actually on a bit of a high right now in terms of his polling numbers.
00:25:38.000 DeSantis has declined in the RealClearPolitics polling average from about 25% in April all
00:25:42.000 the way down to about 15% today.
00:25:44.000 Vivek in the RealClearPolitics polling average has picked up about three points, but it's
00:25:49.000 really Trump who soared during that same period.
00:25:51.000 Trump went from about 45% in the beginning of April to 54% today.
00:25:58.000 Well, that dynamic was clearly on display in Iowa over the weekend.
00:26:01.000 It was the Iowa State Fair, which is this giant, huge fair that happens every four years
00:26:07.000 in Iowa.
00:26:08.000 I believe it happens every year in Iowa, but it really, you know, breaks into the open during primary season.
00:26:14.000 Because everybody goes there hoping to win votes in the Iowa caucuses.
00:26:17.000 Right now, the polling in Iowa is significantly narrower than the polling nationally.
00:26:21.000 The polling in Iowa shows that Donald Trump is still, for sure, in the lead.
00:26:25.000 But his lead over DeSantis is significantly smaller.
00:26:29.000 The last New York Times-Siena poll had Trump at 44 and DeSantis at 20.
00:26:34.000 Which, of course, is still a big gap.
00:26:35.000 It's a 24-point gap.
00:26:36.000 But that 24-point gap is not a 40-point gap.
00:26:40.000 So that is a fairly significant difference.
00:26:42.000 Well, DeSantis showed up and did an interview with Iowa's Governor Kim Reynolds, who also showed up at the Iowa State Fair.
00:26:50.000 And here's what DeSantis had to say.
00:26:52.000 I believe if you have an opportunity to do good things for your community or your country, that you have a responsibility to do that and to get that done.
00:27:02.000 And so that's really, I think, influenced me all the way up to the present in terms of what I'm looking to do.
00:27:08.000 Like with running for president, I'm not running to be somebody.
00:27:11.000 I'm running to do things on behalf of the country and for the American people.
00:27:16.000 Okay, so, obviously, that's a nice line, but the big problem for DeSantis is that in terms of who is a more exciting candidate, who's the one who's going to suck all the air out of the room, there's no question that Trump is a much more exciting candidate.
00:27:29.000 According to the Washington Post, the crowd that had craved to watch Governor DeSantis flip pork chops with Iowa's governor suddenly looked toward the sky.
00:27:34.000 Donald Trump's plane was arriving.
00:27:36.000 They clapped and cheered.
00:27:37.000 We love Trump!
00:27:38.000 Some of them had chanted earlier.
00:27:39.000 When Trump got to the pork tent midday, with DeSantis' camp far away resting in the shade, he didn't partake in the actual grilling.
00:27:45.000 So, that kind of behavior could theoretically harm Trump in an Iowa caucus.
00:27:58.000 Remember, he didn't win the Iowa caucuses the first time around.
00:28:00.000 It was actually Ted Cruz who won the Iowa caucuses.
00:28:03.000 Trump then did what he has become famous for doing.
00:28:05.000 He denied that Ted Cruz had won the Iowa caucus.
00:28:06.000 He suggested that Ted Cruz had stolen it from Ben Carson, that Ben Carson had dropped out, And that he had not formally dropped out, but Ted Cruz was telling people he had dropped out.
00:28:15.000 And that meant that he picked up Ben Carson's votes and they should have gone to Trump and really Trump won Iowa and all of the rest.
00:28:20.000 So Trump, you know, theoretically could lose Iowa again.
00:28:23.000 But here's the footage of Trump's plane arriving.
00:28:25.000 And again, there is the man does have a political magic to him in terms of retail politics.
00:28:32.000 You stop making them do gender pronoun classes.
00:28:35.000 Like that's gotta stop.
00:28:38.000 There is a Trump plane.
00:28:42.000 Be likeable, Ron.
00:28:44.000 We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump!
00:28:50.000 Now, what did all of this mean?
00:28:53.000 Well, it actually turned into a bit of a brawl.
00:28:57.000 A bunch of Trump fans, who are being extraordinarily rude, which, again, not super shocking.
00:29:02.000 We saw some of this behavior in the 2016 election as well.
00:29:04.000 They started trying to drown out the interview between Kim Reynolds and Ron DeSantis.
00:29:08.000 I gotta say, for a lot of Republican voters, if they look at this, They have to wonder, is this the sort of behavior that actually is going to win in November of 2024?
00:29:16.000 I don't know that it's going to appeal to any people who are going to be swing voters or suburban moms in 2024.
00:29:21.000 Anyway, here was Kim Reynolds versus Trump fans.
00:29:25.000 So Ron's out there doing the 99 County Tour.
00:29:28.000 I think you may be ahead of me.
00:29:31.000 Hey, you know what?
00:29:32.000 You know what?
00:29:33.000 We're in Iowa.
00:29:35.000 And in Iowa, we're Iowa nice.
00:29:37.000 So let's give everybody the opportunity to hear our candidates.
00:29:42.000 Okay, so, you know, the question as to whether that is going to be an appeal is an open one.
00:29:47.000 For his part, DeSantis went after Trump because Trump had been going after Reynolds.
00:29:52.000 So he's campaigning well in Iowa.
00:29:53.000 I mean, actually, the DeSantis team seems fairly confident that they're going to win Iowa.
00:29:57.000 The truth is that in the Republican primaries, DeSantis doesn't just need to win Iowa.
00:30:01.000 He needs to win Iowa and New Hampshire.
00:30:02.000 He needs to win both of those.
00:30:03.000 If he loses New Hampshire after winning Iowa, then Trump is probably going to win in South Carolina. He
00:30:08.000 really needs to start consolidating the field very, very early in this race, but he's doing the
00:30:12.000 hard on the ground work, the slogging work that is necessary. Here's DeSantis going
00:30:16.000 after Trump for attacking Reynolds.
00:30:18.000 Governor, you were just with Governor Reynolds. All the Republicans here are
00:30:23.000 joining Governor Reynolds except for the former president.
00:30:25.000 Is that a missed opportunity for him?
00:30:28.000 I think that Donald Trump's attacks on Kim Reynolds are totally out of bounds.
00:30:33.000 I couldn't disagree with it anymore.
00:30:36.000 And she's done really nothing but do a great job.
00:30:39.000 She's never done anything to him.
00:30:41.000 But that's just how he operates, to attack one of the best governors in the country.
00:30:46.000 I mean, obviously DeSantis is right about all of this, but this is really one of the questions.
00:30:50.000 Again, to go back to the hand grenade analogy, the question is, is the hand grenade effective or is the hand grenade not effective?
00:30:58.000 If the idea was that Trump was going to come in and he was going to wreck the status quo, the question is, what does that mean?
00:31:05.000 Wreck the status quo in terms of actual policy because the truth is that in terms of upending democratic policy, DeSantis has done a hell of a lot more in the state of Florida than Trump did as president of the United States.
00:31:13.000 But if what we mean is that Trump ticks off all the people we like to watch ticked off, there's no one better in politics, probably in history, than Trump at that.
00:31:21.000 The question is whether that actually adds up to a policy win.
00:31:25.000 So Republican voters are going to have to decide kind of what they want here.
00:31:28.000 Do they want the best shot at winning independence?
00:31:30.000 Do they want the best shot at winning nationally?
00:31:32.000 Do they want the best shot at winning in places like Georgia and Wisconsin and Arizona?
00:31:36.000 Or do they want the guy who's going to piss off the left the most?
00:31:38.000 Because if they want the guy who's going to piss off the left the most, You're never going to do better than Trump.
00:31:42.000 Trump ticks off the left better than literally anyone in the history of humanity.
00:31:45.000 Okay, in just one second, we'll get to the latest on the economy, because again, Joe Biden remains an incredibly weak candidate.
00:31:51.000 And I focus on that because it is important to recognize that if Republicans lose in 2024, that is Republicans' own fault.
00:31:57.000 I think it was Republicans' fault they lost in 2020.
00:31:59.000 They're running against a doddering old fool who could not leave his basement, and whose entire party was endorsing mass rioting in the streets, as well as a giant national COVID lockdown, and somehow Republicans found a way to lose.
00:32:11.000 You can blame whoever you want for that, but the fact is that Republicans should have run away with that election.
00:32:15.000 They didn't.
00:32:16.000 So if they blow 2024, I'm not sure who you blame then.
00:32:19.000 They blew 2018, they blew 2020, they blew 2022.
00:32:22.000 If they blow 2024, at some point can somebody be held responsible for blowing all of that, or is it just going to be pointing the finger again?
00:32:27.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.
00:32:29.000 First, if you're like most Americans, you might be struggling to make ends meet.
00:32:32.000 By the time you pay the bill, fill up your car, and grocery shop, there's almost nothing left.
00:32:36.000 Everything is now more expensive.
00:32:38.000 Most of you are paying these bills with a credit card.
00:32:39.000 While consumer debt rose over $1 trillion in the last year, it's the biggest increase in 20 years.
00:32:44.000 If you're a homeowner, there is a way out.
00:32:45.000 You should call my friends over at American Financing.
00:32:47.000 They'll put together a plan to pay off that high-interest credit card debt and create meaningful savings for you every month.
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00:32:57.000 Call their salary-based mortgage consultants today.
00:32:59.000 See how much you can save.
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00:33:10.000 Call American Financing today at 866-721-3300.
00:33:14.000 That's 866-721-3300.
00:33:16.000 Or visit AmericanFinancing.net.
00:33:19.000 That's AmericanFinancing.net.
00:33:21.000 If you're falling behind on those credit card payments, you need to find a way out.
00:33:24.000 American Financing can help you Find that way out.
00:33:27.000 They're saving people up to $1,000 a month clothing as fast as 10 days.
00:33:31.000 Don't wait.
00:33:32.000 Get yourself a better position.
00:33:33.000 Give them a call.
00:33:33.000 866-721-3300.
00:33:33.000 Also, If you're planning to send your kids off to college this year, you know that they are going to try to brainwash your kids.
00:33:42.000 Well, you don't need your kids brainwashed.
00:33:44.000 In fact, you will need them regular washed.
00:33:46.000 And this is why you need Jeremy's Razors.
00:33:48.000 Because Jeremy's Razors, well, not only do we now do the razors, but they will also give you the magnificent shampoo, the body wash, They'll give you the hand soap, give you everything you need.
00:33:59.000 Paraben-free, sulfate-free, woke-free, made right here in the United States.
00:34:02.000 And, get him a Precision 5 razor with welded steel blades and a flip-back trimmer that will groom his face, not his worldview.
00:34:08.000 Help your son escape academia's leftist indoctrination by more than just a close shave.
00:34:11.000 Go to jeremysrazors.com for major deals and give Jeremy's Back to College Bundles a full ride today.
00:34:17.000 Meanwhile, the death toll continues to mount over in Maui and the President of the United States is back at Rehoboth Beach again.
00:34:23.000 So he just went on a 14-day beach vacation and he came back for like four days and now he went back to the beach because he is no longer with us.
00:34:29.000 He's no longer sentient.
00:34:32.000 And he was asked apparently about the rising debt toll in Hawaii while he was on the beach.
00:34:35.000 And he said no comment and then he headed home.
00:34:37.000 So slow clap for a very, very caring, deeply compassionate president of the United States.
00:34:43.000 Meanwhile, we now have more stats about how much families are paying than they did two years ago.
00:34:48.000 According to CNN Business of all places, the typical American household spent $709 more in July than they did two years ago to buy the same exact goods and services according to Moody's.
00:34:57.000 That's a massive increase.
00:35:00.000 Massive increase!
00:35:01.000 That is $700 a month for the same goods and services.
00:35:04.000 You extend that over the course of the year, you're taking $8,400 that you're spending more this year than you were two years ago.
00:35:10.000 Those are huge numbers.
00:35:11.000 Because remember, whenever Joe Biden says, well, you know, the inflation rate is coming down every month.
00:35:16.000 No, no, no, no.
00:35:16.000 The increase in inflation is coming down every month, except for last month when it didn't.
00:35:21.000 But it was coming down every month.
00:35:22.000 But that just means that you're adding inflation on top of inflation.
00:35:26.000 It's like saying that you spent $1,000 last month on your credit card and this month you spent $900.
00:35:30.000 So you brought it down by $100.
00:35:32.000 I mean, that's true, but you also added $900 to your debt, which is what Joe Biden has been doing with regard to inflation.
00:35:38.000 Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's, said high inflation over the past two-plus years has done a lot of economic damage.
00:35:43.000 Most of that increase in household spending is driven by housing costs, which have surged.
00:35:47.000 He added that families are also spending more at the grocery store on buying, maintaining, and insuring vehicles and on recreational services like cable.
00:35:54.000 Paychecks have not grown by nearly as much as the cost of living.
00:35:58.000 This is why I keep saying that gravity is going to drag the economy back down.
00:36:02.000 The Wall Street Journal has an entire piece on America's credit rating.
00:36:07.000 According to Spencer Jacob, writing for the Wall Street Journal, investors have historically paid a steep penalty to hunker down in super-safe short-term government securities.
00:36:15.000 For example, $100 invested in three-month Treasury bills in 1928 grew to only $2,141 by the end of last year, while it became $46,000 invested in medium-grade corporate bonds and a whopping $624,000 if invested in stocks, according to data from NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran.
00:36:32.000 Especially in the years following the financial crisis, anything short-term and safe paid next to nothing.
00:36:37.000 But the Federal Reserve's fight against inflation has amplified the risk of an unthinkable fiscal crisis made possible by decades of Washington dysfunction.
00:36:45.000 So that means that people are actually spending a bunch of money to get into short-term government securities, which pays you almost nothing.
00:36:51.000 That's how freaked out people are.
00:36:53.000 Cash might be king.
00:36:54.000 Although they were called certificates of confiscation in the inflationary 1970s, longer-term treasuries have been the go-to asset in times of crisis.
00:37:00.000 The 10 years no yield is literally the risk-free rate used to value all other securities.
00:37:04.000 But the government's pile of debt has now swelled following the war on terror, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:37:10.000 Low interest rates and Fed bond buying masked the strain.
00:37:12.000 Interest costs were recently no higher than in the early 1990s.
00:37:15.000 But the Treasury barely seized the opportunity to lock in those rock-bottom rates by issuing more long-term notes and bonds, and now it is too late.
00:37:22.000 Long-term budget forecasts say the U.S.
00:37:23.000 debt held by the public will surpass its GDP this fiscal year.
00:37:27.000 Interest on the debt will equal three quarters of discretionary non-defense spending.
00:37:31.000 By 2031, it will be as large.
00:37:33.000 That's right.
00:37:34.000 Interest on our national debt will be the same as all discretionary non-defense spending in the American budget by 2031.
00:37:42.000 So, we are in serious trouble.
00:37:45.000 Actually, that forecast is probably too optimistic.
00:37:48.000 The swelling pile of debt means minor changes in assumptions that now have huge consequences.
00:37:53.000 About three quarters of treasuries must be rolled over within five years.
00:37:57.000 Compound interest has a way of quickly making a bad situation worse.
00:38:02.000 So what you're watching basically is that America's debt problem is snowballing.
00:38:06.000 And it's going to get worse and worse and worse.
00:38:08.000 And Joe Biden has exacerbated that problem.
00:38:11.000 So what exactly do Democrats have to rely upon here?
00:38:13.000 Well, they can't rely on their good governance.
00:38:15.000 So what they're gonna rely on is trying to scare the American people into believing that democracy itself is about to collapse.
00:38:19.000 This is what Kamala Harris is saying.
00:38:20.000 This is why January 6th is at the center of everything that Democrats do.
00:38:24.000 Here's Kamala Harris over the weekend, world's most untalented politician, making her case that democracy is at stake, of course.
00:38:31.000 What is it that you have on your mind when you wake up every morning?
00:38:35.000 Our democracy.
00:38:36.000 Oh, give me a break.
00:38:39.000 Rev, I think everything is at stake right now.
00:38:41.000 When a democracy is intact, it strengthens the people.
00:38:46.000 It protects and fights for fundamental freedoms, individual rights.
00:38:52.000 It's a fight for order against chaos.
00:38:55.000 It strengthens.
00:38:58.000 On the other hand, democracy?
00:39:01.000 Incredibly fragile.
00:39:04.000 It will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it.
00:39:08.000 Man, when you pile on truisms that way, man, that is some bad politicking there from Kamala
00:39:14.000 Harris.
00:39:15.000 She is truly awful at this.
00:39:16.000 Like, truly, truly awful at this.
00:39:18.000 But she also does declare herself a role model, so that's exciting.
00:39:20.000 A role model to dumb people everywhere.
00:39:22.000 Here's Kamala Harris.
00:39:24.000 But the thing about being a role model, people watch what you do to see if it lines up with
00:39:29.000 what you say.
00:39:32.000 What she does is nothing.
00:39:34.000 It's nothing.
00:39:35.000 She does nothing for a living.
00:39:37.000 But, in the end, this is all they have.
00:39:39.000 They're gonna try and scare Americans about the Republican Party.
00:39:41.000 And the truth is, so far, it's worked.
00:39:43.000 I mean, Republicans can say that it hasn't, but it absolutely has.
00:39:47.000 Since 2016, when Donald Trump was elected, ever since then, the case Democrats have made is, the crazy has to stop.
00:39:53.000 And then they point at a bunch of Republican candidates, ranging from Hershel Walker in Georgia, to Blake Masters in Arizona, To Doug Mastroianno in Pennsylvania.
00:40:03.000 And voters go, hmm.
00:40:05.000 And they listen to it.
00:40:06.000 And it turns out that Republicans should stop banging their head against a brick wall.
00:40:10.000 Perhaps the best way to run against somebody supremely unpalatable, like Joe Biden, supremely irritating, like Kamala Harris, is to run somebody who's actually somewhat palatable.
00:40:22.000 Because the truth is, if Republicans can't get excited to vote against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, I don't know what business Republicans have getting into a voting booth.
00:40:30.000 I mean, just because Joe Biden is an incredibly boring elderly fellow does not mean you shouldn't be excited to vote against him and get him out of office.
00:40:38.000 But I suppose that if all of politics just becomes a battle of personality, then we are in a race to the bottom from here until the end of time.
00:40:46.000 Probably.
00:40:47.000 So, you know, dark thoughts here on Monday, but the reality is that Democrats are incredibly beatable.
00:40:53.000 And if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cannot be beat, I, honest to God, don't understand what Republicans are doing for a living.
00:40:58.000 I remember a couple of years ago, I spoke at a House Republican summit.
00:41:03.000 This is before 2022.
00:41:04.000 And I said to them, if you guys don't take back the House, every one of you should be fired because it's a target-rich environment.
00:41:10.000 This is a target-rich environment.
00:41:12.000 If Republicans cannot actually achieve victory against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, I don't know what they do for a living or why we should continue to support them in any way, shape, or form.
00:41:20.000 And I'm sorry, but blaming everybody else for losing is not going to cut it.
00:41:24.000 All right, time for some things I like and then some things that I hate.
00:41:27.000 So, last week, Which one of you is from the New York Times?
00:41:30.000 bad candidate for Senate in Arizona.
00:41:33.000 And I hold by that because she lost to a wet rag in Katie Hobbs.
00:41:36.000 However, she did have herself a nice moment in Iowa over the weekend.
00:41:40.000 She was asked about whether there are in fact two genders.
00:41:42.000 She was milking a cow at the time and here was her response.
00:41:46.000 Which one of you is from the New York Times?
00:41:48.000 You know there's only two genders, right?
00:41:52.000 There's only two genders and they know that in Iowa.
00:41:56.000 I challenge the New York Times reporter and the Washington Post reporter to try to milk a cow and then try to milk a bull and see how that goes.
00:42:07.000 Okay, I laughed.
00:42:08.000 Okay, other things that I like.
00:42:10.000 So, there is a song that has gone completely viral by a Virginia country singer named Oliver Anthony, who's a former factory worker, who was apparently really, really down on his luck, and he was asked to play a song at sort of a local event.
00:42:21.000 And the song that he played is one that he calls, Rich Men North of Richmond, which of course is a reference to the people who occupy Washington, D.C.
00:42:29.000 And this thing has gone unbelievably viral.
00:42:31.000 I mean, millions and millions of views.
00:42:34.000 Here's what it sounds like.
00:42:36.000 I've been sellin' my soul Workin' all day Overtime hours For bullshit pay So I can sit out here And waste my life away Drag back home And drown my troubles away It's a damn shame What the world's gotten to For people like me And people like you Wish I could just wake up And it not be true But it is Oh it is, living in the new world, with an old soul.
00:43:15.000 Rich man knows the rich man Lord knows it all Just wanna have total control Wanna know what you think Wanna know what you do And they don't think you know But I know that you do Cause your dollar ain't sh** And it's taxed to no end Knows the rich man Knows the rich man Okay, so this song obviously has hit a nerve with people because it is, I think, the cry of a lot of people in the United States who are just trying to work a job and make their way in life and feel like there are too many people who have their hand in their pocket, particularly elites in the federal government who believe that their money should go to other people.
00:44:00.000 Some of the lyrics in the song are, Lord, we got folks in the street ain't got nothing to eat and the obese milking welfare.
00:44:05.000 Well, God, if you're five foot three and you're 300 pounds, taxes ought not pay for your bag of fudge rounds.
00:44:10.000 Fair enough.
00:44:11.000 Fair enough.
00:44:12.000 So he posted a video explaining.
00:44:13.000 He said, things were not good for a lot of people.
00:44:15.000 In some respects, I was one of those people.
00:44:16.000 I'd wasted a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk.
00:44:18.000 I'd sort of gotten to a point in my life where even things I did care about didn't mean anything
00:44:22.000 to me anymore.
00:44:23.000 This isn't a Dr. Phillips, but I found an outlet in this music and I started uploading
00:44:26.000 a couple of songs.
00:44:27.000 He said, the universal thing I see is no matter how much effort the working class puts into
00:44:31.000 whatever it is they're doing, they can't quite get ahead because the dollar's not worth enough.
00:44:34.000 They're being overtaxed.
00:44:35.000 I want to be a voice for those people, and not just them, but humans in general.
00:44:38.000 As long as you're above the dirt, you got a fighting chance.
00:44:42.000 So, um, this thing has, again, gone incredibly viral.
00:44:46.000 He says that he is not a right-winger.
00:44:48.000 He says that this is pretty much dead center.
00:44:52.000 He said because he's more isolationist in terms of foreign policy.
00:44:57.000 But, uh, he talks about, in the last part of the song, suicide rates, mental health, depression.
00:45:01.000 He says there's no reason why that sort of stuff should be happening in this country.
00:45:06.000 So, um, John Rich, friend to The Daily Wire, of course, he's offered to produce Oliver's album.
00:45:13.000 And, uh, the video's gaining all sorts of traction, obviously, and, uh, and it should.
00:45:16.000 This is a talented guy.
00:45:18.000 Okay, time for a quick thing that I hate.
00:45:24.000 Alright, so I don't know why Disney keeps deploying Rachel Zegler to say things about Snow White that are likely to alienate pretty much anybody who would ever want to watch this movie.
00:45:33.000 So they're making a live version of Snow White, a live-action version of Snow White, which is really stupid since the original is, of course, a film classic.
00:45:40.000 Rachel Zegler, who is playing Snow... diversity.
00:45:46.000 Because we can't do Snow White anymore, because obviously that'd be racist.
00:45:50.000 Right?
00:45:50.000 Tiana must remain a black princess forever, but Snow White cannot be a white princess, even if her literal name is Snow White, because she has skin as white as snow.
00:45:57.000 That is literally the line in the movie.
00:46:00.000 I mean, I'm sorry, I didn't make it up.
00:46:02.000 That's just what the fairy tale is.
00:46:05.000 It's not called, you know, any other color.
00:46:07.000 It's called Snow White.
00:46:08.000 That's literally what it's called.
00:46:10.000 In any case, Rachel Zegler also feels the necessity, apparently, to just crap on the myth and crap on the original movie.
00:46:16.000 So, over the weekend, here she was, explaining that the prince in Snow White is actually the bad guy.
00:46:22.000 I mean, you know, the original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so.
00:46:28.000 There's a big focus on her love story, with a guy who literally stalks her.
00:46:34.000 Weird!
00:46:35.000 Weird.
00:46:36.000 So we didn't do that this time.
00:46:38.000 So no prince, or a different kind of prince?
00:46:40.000 We have a different approach to what I'm sure a lot of people will assume is a love story, just because we cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnham.
00:46:48.000 Great dude.
00:46:50.000 It's one of those things that I think everyone's going to have their assumptions about what it's actually going to be, but it's really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful.
00:46:59.000 It is so wonderful.
00:47:00.000 Love is super bad, guys.
00:47:02.000 It's super bad.
00:47:02.000 And the prince is a creepy stalker.
00:47:04.000 Did you know that?
00:47:05.000 You probably didn't, because if you watch the movie, you'll remember Snow White literally standing above a well and singing a song where she says that she wishes for the one I love to find me today.
00:47:15.000 That's literally the lyric.
00:47:16.000 You may remember it from the original movie.
00:47:17.000 But apparently, the prince then responding to that by finishing her song, which is what happens, That means he's a creepy stalker now.
00:47:24.000 You know what would've been better?
00:47:26.000 Honestly, it would've been better if he just left her to be dead.
00:47:28.000 That would've been better.
00:47:29.000 I mean, she was there, she's on the buyer, right?
00:47:31.000 I mean, she's lying there, they've got the glass over her.
00:47:33.000 She's pretty well preserved.
00:47:35.000 He should've just left her alone.
00:47:36.000 And she would've been dead!
00:47:37.000 And everyone would've been happy, right?
00:47:39.000 I mean, not so happy because she would've been dead, but still, he's a creepy rape stalker.
00:47:44.000 And so it would've been better if she had bitten into the apple and died, and then she never would've gotten kissed, and then she would be dead.
00:47:48.000 You know who else would be dead?
00:47:49.000 Also Sleeping Beauty.
00:47:49.000 She'd still be dead.
00:47:51.000 In fact, there's like a bunch of princesses who would still be dead if we just, you know, abided by Me Too.
00:47:57.000 Because it turns out that even when a woman is in love with a man, and even when they want to be together, the worst thing that could possibly happen is for him to kiss her while she is dead.
00:48:10.000 To wake her up from being dead.
00:48:12.000 That's the worst thing you could do in a myth.
00:48:14.000 I mean, obviously, the best thing, probably the prince should have come along, he should have buried her.
00:48:18.000 I mean, that would've been the best thing, is to bury her alive, quasi.
00:48:21.000 That would've been the best thing.
00:48:23.000 But at least this isn't gonna be about love.
00:48:24.000 I mean, honest to God, what is Disney doing?
00:48:26.000 What are they doing?
00:48:28.000 They are so high on their own supply.
00:48:29.000 It is insane.
00:48:30.000 What do they think the market for this is?
00:48:31.000 A quarter of the parents were like, I'm desperate to bring my child to a movie that is not about Snow White, but is in fact about a self-empowered woman that's like atomic blonde, but for children.
00:48:41.000 Let's do that.
00:48:42.000 It's geniuses.
00:48:44.000 Alrighty.
00:48:45.000 Well, the rest of the show continues right now.
00:48:46.000 You're not going to want to miss it.
00:48:47.000 We'll be getting into the mailbag.
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