The Ben Shapiro Show - July 28, 2023


MORE Trump Charges?!


Episode Stats

Length

53 minutes

Words per Minute

213.17271

Word Count

11,355

Sentence Count

749

Misogynist Sentences

18

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

A new set of charges have been filed in the case against Donald Trump, and they carry two major revelations. First, the prosecutors know full well that the famous "Here is a classified document I could have declassified this document, but I decided not to declassify it" tape is in fact a recording of Trump holding a map of Iran. Second, a maintenance worker at Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort has been charged with wiping security footage from the grounds of the resort, making him the third person to be charged in the conspiracy to obstruct justice case against the former president. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he didn't know what was on the tape, but now we know that's not the case. Is Trump guilty of the crimes for which he is charged? And should the charges be brought even if he is not guilty, even if the evidence points to him being a criminal, or is there something else going on at the bottom of the FBI investigation that we don't know about? and why should we care about it at all? And why is it so important that he's being targeted by the FBI, and why does he deserve to be punished for his crimes? And what does it mean for him to run for re-election in 2020, and what will that mean for his chances of getting a second chance at the White House seat in 2020? And why should he even care about this at all if he's not a criminal? and what s going to happen if he doesn't get a fair shake in 2020 ? And what s happening to Trump s chances of running for president in 2020 and is he going to be a fair and square against Joe Biden in the 2020 election? What s going on here, and who s the real target of the election, and how will he s really going to get the most press coverage? the answer to all of this the President s or not getting any of that who s going after him what s he s getting the most attention why is he s the most powerful man in America s . is he really so foolish, and should he be mad about it? Why s he really mad at himself, right or not should he do all of these things ? and why he s so clumsy? why s he should be so clumsy and so clumsy Why is he so clumsy, right? is it really so careless?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Well, another day, another set of charges against the former president of the United States.
00:00:03.000 There are a bunch of charges looming in separate cases from the classified documents case.
00:00:07.000 We have the Fannie Willis case in Georgia that presumably will be about January 6th and electoral pressure.
00:00:12.000 There's the Jack Smith case looming about January 6th and electoral pressure.
00:00:16.000 But there are new charges that were filed yesterday by Jack Smith.
00:00:19.000 These new charges are in the classified documents case, and they really carry two major revelations.
00:00:25.000 The first major revelation that is carried by the actual filing is that the prosecutors know full well that the famous tape now of Donald Trump waving around a document and saying to people, here is a classified document.
00:00:37.000 I could have declassified this document, but I decided not to declassify the document.
00:00:40.000 It's very classified.
00:00:42.000 Trump had claimed that this classified document was in fact maps of a golf course or something.
00:00:47.000 And apparently, according to the prosecutors, they know full well it was not maps of a golf course.
00:00:51.000 It was actually attack plans with regard to Iran.
00:00:54.000 And so, we now know what the prosecutors know.
00:00:57.000 And so, presumably, that will be the centerpiece of their case.
00:00:59.000 When you have the person on tape admitting to the criming, it usually is a very bad indicator for them, legally speaking.
00:01:04.000 So that is number one piece of information, is that the tape, where Trump is talking, he made various excuses about it.
00:01:10.000 It appears that the prosecution is ready to blow up those excuses.
00:01:14.000 The second piece of revelatory information here is that Donald Trump apparently told one of his aides de camp, a maintenance worker at Trump's South Florida resort named Carlos de Oliveira, Apparently, he told this fellow to wipe the security tape.
00:01:30.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump and his aides sought to have surveillance footage from his Mar-a-Lago club deleted so it could not be turned over to a grand jury, according to Jack Smith, in these new charges.
00:01:39.000 The new indictment charges Carlos de Oliveira, the maintenance worker, as well, making him the third defendant in the case.
00:01:44.000 Remember, the second defendant in the case was Walt Nauda, who was another Trump aide who was apparently tasked with moving boxes around and then told the prosecution he had not moved boxes around Now, as I've said all along, there are two separate issues here.
00:01:54.000 One is, is Trump guilty of the crimes for which he is charged?
00:01:56.000 held on to sensitive military secrets he knew he shouldn't have retained access to,
00:01:59.000 shared them with others, and directed his staff to help him evade authorities' efforts to get them back.
00:02:03.000 They come as Trump braces for separate federal charges over efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.
00:02:08.000 Now, as I've said all along, there are two separate issues here.
00:02:11.000 One is, is Trump guilty of the crimes for which he is charged?
00:02:15.000 And the second is, should the charges be brought even if Trump is guilty of the charges, facially speaking?
00:02:21.000 So, with regard to the first question, whether Trump is actually guilty of some of these charges,
00:02:26.000 Again, the evidence seems pretty clear that Trump violated the law here.
00:02:30.000 And we'll get to the second question in just a second, which is going to obviate the first question.
00:02:33.000 But the first question, which is whether Trump violated the law, if Jack Smith has actual testimony that the document that Trump was waving around on that tape, where he's talking about how he could have declassified the document, but he didn't declassify the document, so it's still technically classified, but here it is, and he's showing it to people who don't have any sort of classification status, If that's what happened, and if Jack Smith can prove that, if he has the evidence to prove it beyond the actual tape, then presumably that will be an element of guilt.
00:02:58.000 When it comes to evidence that this maintenance worker was actively wiping security footage in order to prevent Donald Trump from being indicted on precisely these sorts of charges, wipe the evidence of, for example, Donald Trump moving the documents around.
00:03:12.000 Now, here's the thing about this whole case.
00:03:14.000 All of this was easily avoidable.
00:03:16.000 The reason to be angry at Trump here is not really his behavior so much as it is the insanity of knowing that he's got the world's biggest target on his back.
00:03:23.000 He's likely to run for re-election again.
00:03:25.000 And he decides that he is going to do all of this under the assumption that no one is going to come after him.
00:03:30.000 The assumption of impunity here is just foolish.
00:03:33.000 Again, as a person who's prominent in politics, I overpay my taxes because the last thing that I want is to be put under the scrutiny of Joe Biden's IRS.
00:03:41.000 Well, Donald Trump is way more of a target than I am personally.
00:03:44.000 So why in the world would he be so careless and so clumsy as to do all of these things and then do them on tape also?
00:03:49.000 That's why you should be upset at Trump.
00:03:52.000 The crimes themselves, like messing with the classified documents, not turning them back in.
00:03:56.000 He wasn't turning them over to Russia.
00:03:57.000 As I said from the very beginning, the entire case is Donald Trump likes things and then he keeps them.
00:04:03.000 Donald Trump is like, here's the thing.
00:04:04.000 It's a really nice thing.
00:04:05.000 It's a good thing.
00:04:06.000 I want it.
00:04:07.000 It's mine.
00:04:08.000 They call it a thing.
00:04:09.000 It's a thing.
00:04:10.000 That's Donald Trump.
00:04:11.000 He does this all the time.
00:04:12.000 He literally just had to give a bunch of antiquities back to the Israeli consulate because he had kept the antiquities.
00:04:20.000 It was like a bunch of 2,000-year-old artifacts, and Trump had handed them at the White House, and then he decided he was going to keep them.
00:04:29.000 Why?
00:04:29.000 Was he going to hand those over to the Russians as spy material?
00:04:32.000 No!
00:04:32.000 He likes things, he keeps them, he's kind of a hoarder.
00:04:35.000 So the notion that he was actively a sort of spy for China or Russia, or that these classified documents, he was keeping them on hand so he could do something nefarious and terrible with them, that's not true.
00:04:43.000 And so what you end up with is he mishandled classified documents because Donald Trump is clumsy and doesn't care about Okay, so with all of that in mind, this brings us to the second question, which is whether Donald Trump should have been charged on this stuff at all.
00:05:05.000 Because this is the most perilous political prosecution in American history.
00:05:08.000 You have the current president of the United States, his DOJ, and make no mistake, it is still his DOJ, his DOJ prosecuting the guy he just ran against and his probable future opponent in the 2024 race.
00:05:20.000 That's kind of astonishing stuff.
00:05:22.000 And again, put aside for just one moment the actual elements of the crime, because when you actually read the charges here, when you read what Trump did, I think that it's fairly clear that Trump did many of the things that he is accused of.
00:05:34.000 But that's not really the question.
00:05:35.000 The question is why he's being charged with it at all.
00:05:38.000 Again, I'm looking at the actual charges here, and the charges openly discuss what exactly he was doing with the documents, how he was sort of messing around with the documents.
00:05:48.000 So according to this actual document, this is the indictment document, quote, With classification markings from Trump Attorney 1 and Trump Attorney 3, the agents observed there were several surveillance cameras located near the storage room.
00:06:02.000 On June 22, 2022, the DOJ emailed an attorney for Trump's business organization a draft grand jury subpoena requiring production of certain security camera footage from Mar-a-Lago, including footage from cameras on ground basement where the storage room was located.
00:06:14.000 The next day, Trump called to Oliveira and they spoke for approximately 24 minutes.
00:06:18.000 On Friday, June 24th, the DOJ emailed the attorney for Trump's business organization the final grand jury subpoena requiring the production of all surveillance records.
00:06:25.000 That same day, Trump attorney one spoke with Trump by phone regarding the subpoena for security camera footage.
00:06:30.000 At 3.44 p.m.
00:06:31.000 that day, Walt Nowda received a text message from a co-worker, Trump employee number three, indicating Trump wanted to see Nowda.
00:06:37.000 A couple of hours later, he changed his travel schedule and began to make arrangements to go to Palm Beach, Florida instead.
00:06:42.000 Nauta then provided inconsistent explanations to colleagues for his sudden travel to Florida.
00:06:47.000 He texted one person he would not be traveling with Trump the next day, and then he used shushing emojis.
00:06:52.000 At 9.48 that night, he texted a Secret Service agent he had to check on a family member in Florida.
00:06:56.000 After he arrived in Florida June 25th, he texted the same Secret Service agent he was in Florida working.
00:07:00.000 Around the same time, June 24th, Nauta was making his travel plans.
00:07:03.000 Nauta and de Oliveira contacted another Trump employee, who's Director of Information Technology at Mar-a-Lago, as follows.
00:07:10.000 At 5.02, Nauta sent text messages to Trump's employee asking, hey bro, you around this weekend?
00:07:14.000 About three minutes later, Nauta texted de Oliveira saying, hey brother, you working today?
00:07:18.000 De Oliveira responded, yes, I just left.
00:07:20.000 Nauta then called de Oliveira, they spoke for a couple of minutes.
00:07:22.000 At 5.09, Trump employee 4 texted a response to Nauta, I'm local, entertaining, some family that came to visit, what's up?
00:07:28.000 Okay, cool.
00:07:30.000 No biggie.
00:07:30.000 Just wanted to see if you were around.
00:07:32.000 Enjoy, bro.
00:07:32.000 I guess he's coming down tomorrow.
00:07:33.000 Trump employee number four, hey buddy, how are you?
00:07:35.000 Walter called me early today saying he was trying to get in touch.
00:07:38.000 I guess he's coming down tomorrow.
00:07:39.000 I guess he needs you for something.
00:07:41.000 Trump employee four said I don't know what it's about.
00:07:45.000 that night, Trump employee 4 texted Nauta, bro, if you need me, I can get away for a few, just let me know.
00:07:48.000 Nauta responded, sounds good, thank you.
00:07:51.000 The next day, Nauta traveled from Bedminster to Palm Beach.
00:07:54.000 De Oliveira told of LA at Mar-a-Lago that Nauta was coming down.
00:07:56.000 De Oliveira asked Trump employee 5 not to tell anyone Nauta was coming down because Nauta wanted the trip to remain secret.
00:08:01.000 Delavera then told Trump employee number five that Dinauda wanted Delavera to talk to Trump employee four to see how long camera footage was stored.
00:08:08.000 Dinauda went to Mar-a-Lago, met with Delavera, this is on June 25th.
00:08:12.000 At the Mar-a-Lago club, apparently Dinauda and Delavera went to a security guard booth where surveillance videos displayed on monitors, walked to the flashlight through the tunnel where the storage room was located, and observed and pointed out their surveillance cameras.
00:08:23.000 On Monday, de Oliveira walked to the IT office and requested that the Trump employee step away from the office so de Oliveira and the Trump employee could talk.
00:08:32.000 At 9.49am, apparently that Trump employee and de Oliveira left the area of the IT office together and walked through a basement tunnel.
00:08:38.000 De Oliveira took Trump employee 4 to a small room known as an audio closet and then they had an exchange in which de Oliveira asked how many days the server retained footage.
00:08:45.000 De Oliveira then told Trump employee 4 the boss wanted the server deleted.
00:08:50.000 And then, de la Vera texted Nauta, are you working today?
00:08:53.000 And they're going back and forth.
00:08:54.000 And finally, apparently, the footage ends up essentially being erased.
00:08:59.000 There's an attempt to erase the footage.
00:09:01.000 Okay, so, that is what the actual indictment suggests.
00:09:05.000 Now, second question.
00:09:06.000 Should Trump be indicted for this stuff at all?
00:09:09.000 Well, let's look at the timeline.
00:09:10.000 Literally yesterday, The Hunter Biden plea deal collapses.
00:09:14.000 And it collapses because the Hunter Biden plea deal is garbage, and the DOJ knows it's garbage, and the DOJ is lying to the judge about it being garbage, and the judge discovers that, and then she blows up the deal.
00:09:22.000 And one day later, the special counsel, Jack Smith, dumps a bunch of additional charges on Donald Trump.
00:09:29.000 Does that seem suspicious to you?
00:09:31.000 It should seem particularly suspicious given, once again, that Hillary Clinton is the standard by which all of this must be judged.
00:09:36.000 Hillary Clinton did the exact same thing as Donald Trump in this case.
00:09:41.000 She was not prosecuted.
00:09:41.000 James Comey went out of his way not to prosecute Hillary Clinton despite the fact that she, too, violated the obvious letter of the law and the spirit of the law, by the way.
00:09:49.000 And she was let off the hook.
00:09:50.000 We'll get to that momentarily first.
00:09:52.000 We love our dog, Happy.
00:09:53.000 He is a delightful doggie.
00:09:55.000 Yesterday, he was playing with the kids and rolling around on the carpet, and I thought, I want Happy to live a long, healthy life.
00:09:59.000 This is why we give him Rough Greens every single morning.
00:10:02.000 The dog food you've been giving your dog, that's dead food.
00:10:03.000 It has very little nutritional value.
00:10:05.000 That brown food is not exactly screaming at nutrition, but green food does.
00:10:08.000 Rough Greens boost Happy's food back to life.
00:10:10.000 It can do the same for your dog.
00:10:11.000 You don't have to go out and buy new dog food.
00:10:12.000 Just sprinkle Rough Greens on their food every day.
00:10:14.000 It contains all the necessary vitamins and minerals your dog is not getting from their regular dog food.
00:10:17.000 Happy loves his Ruff Greens.
00:10:19.000 He eats them with alacrity.
00:10:21.000 Ruff Greens is the only supplement your dog will ask for by name.
00:10:23.000 Ruff Greens.
00:10:24.000 You get it?
00:10:24.000 Because it's Ruff.
00:10:25.000 Naturopathic.
00:10:26.000 Dr. Dennis Black, the founder of Ruff Greens.
00:10:27.000 He's so confident this product will improve your dog's health.
00:10:29.000 He's offering my listeners a free jumpstart trial bag.
00:10:32.000 Go to freeruffgreens.com slash Ben.
00:10:34.000 Let Ruff Greens bring your dog's food back to life.
00:10:36.000 That's free.
00:10:37.000 R-U-F-F greens.com slash Ben today or call 833 MY DOG 33.
00:10:42.000 That is 833 MYDOG33 today.
00:10:44.000 That is freeroughgreens.com slash Ben.
00:10:47.000 And when you do that, you're going to get a free Jumpstart trial bag.
00:10:50.000 Again, that is freeroughgreens.com slash Ben today or call 833 MYDOG33.
00:10:53.000 Okay, so.
00:10:57.000 We get to the second question now.
00:10:58.000 So the first question, did Trump fulfill the elements of the crime?
00:11:00.000 And did he do the criming on tape?
00:11:02.000 I mean, it appears that, yeah, I mean, by the available evidence, if Jack Smith's got the goods, he's got the goods.
00:11:06.000 But that is a separate question from whether the prosecution of Donald Trump should move forward.
00:11:11.000 Because I remind you, James Comey let Hillary Clinton off the hook for the same exact stuff.
00:11:17.000 Like, the same exact stuff.
00:11:19.000 Flashback, 2016, November 6th.
00:11:22.000 Paul Sperry reports for the New York Post that Hillary Clinton directed her maid to print out classified materials.
00:11:27.000 So the idea here is that Donald Trump exposed classified materials that he knew were classified to people who were not within classification status, right?
00:11:36.000 He's over at Bedminster and he's waving around a document saying, these are classified!
00:11:40.000 I know you're not!
00:11:41.000 Okay, but here's the problem.
00:11:42.000 Hillary Clinton routinely As Secretary of State, while serving in the government without the power of declassification, asked her maid to print out sensitive government emails and documents, including ones containing classified info, from her house in Washington, D.C., according to both emails and FBI memos.
00:11:56.000 The housekeeper had no security clearance to handle such material.
00:11:59.000 In fact, Marina Santos was called on so frequently to receive emails, she may hold the secrets to emailgate if only the FBI and Congress would subpoena her and the equipment that she used.
00:12:07.000 Clinton apparently expected this Filipino immigrant to handle state secrets, further opening the Democratic presidential nominee to criticism she played fast and loose with national security.
00:12:15.000 She requested that Santos print out drafts of her speech, confidential memos, and call sheets, those would be background information and talking points prepared for the Secretary of State in advance of a phone call with the foreign head of state.
00:12:26.000 Please ask Marina to print for me in AM.
00:12:28.000 Clinton emailed top aide Huma Abedin regarding a redacted 2011 message marked sensitive but unclassified.
00:12:33.000 In a classified 2012 email dealing with the new president of Malawi, another Clinton aide, Monica Hanley, advised Clinton, we can ask Marina to print this.
00:12:40.000 Revisions to the Iran point was the subject of a classified April 2012 email to Clinton from Hanley.
00:12:45.000 In it, the text reads, Marina is trying to print for you.
00:12:48.000 Both classified emails were marked confidential.
00:12:51.000 Santos also had access to a SCIF, the Sensitive Compartment Information Facility that diplomatic agents set up at Whitehaven, according to FBI notes from an interview with Huma Abedin.
00:13:02.000 From within the SCIF, Santos would collect documents from the secure facsimile machine for Clinton.
00:13:07.000 She'd walk into the SCIF, get the classified faxes, and then hand them to Hillary Clinton.
00:13:12.000 Apparently, the FBI noted that Clinton periodically received the presidential daily brief via the secure fax.
00:13:17.000 It is a top-secret document that is created by the CIA and other U.S.
00:13:20.000 intelligence agencies.
00:13:21.000 Okay, so Hillary Clinton was having her Filipino maid pick up the stuff and hand it to her.
00:13:30.000 and print it out for her. Is that mishandling classified?
00:13:33.000 According to James Comey, it is not criminal mishandling of classified information. Well, what
00:13:36.000 about Donald Trump telling employees to wipe the server? Well, I think you know where this is
00:13:40.000 going. I think you know where this is going. You'll recall that all the way back in 2016,
00:13:46.000 September of 2016, the FBI released documents from its investigation into whether former Secretary of
00:13:51.000 State Hillary Clinton improperly stored or transmitted classified email.
00:13:55.000 This is according to the Denver Post.
00:13:56.000 Included were notes from interviews with employees of Platte River Networks, that is the Denver firm the Clinton family hired to host their personal emails over four months after she left office.
00:14:04.000 According to the FBI documents, in December 2014, former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills told a Platte River employee Clinton no longer needed access to emails older than 60 days.
00:14:12.000 She also instructed the person modify the email retention policy on Clinton's server to reflect this change.
00:14:16.000 An unknown Clinton staff member said she did not want the PST file after the export and wanted it removed from the server.
00:14:22.000 The Platte River employee did not delete the files or make the retention policy change until four months later, after a March 2, 2015 New York Times story about Hillary's secret server Mills sent an email to Platte River Network referencing the preservation request from the committee on Benghazi.
00:14:35.000 Then, sometime between March 25th and March 31st, 2015, the Platte River employee had an oblique moment that the files weren't deleted.
00:14:42.000 He then told the FBI he deleted the Clinton Archive mailbox from the PRN server and used BleachBit to delete the exported PST files he had created on the server system containing Clinton's emails, according to that FBI report.
00:14:53.000 BleachBit scrubs a file out of existence to prevent recovery.
00:14:57.000 The employee told the FBI in a May 3rd, 2016 interview he was aware of the existence of the preservation request, the fact that it meant he should not disturb Clinton's email data on the PRN server.
00:15:06.000 Clinton told the FBI she never deleted, nor did she instruct anyone to delete emails,
00:15:10.000 and was unaware of Platte River's deletions from March 2015.
00:15:12.000 So in other words, Clinton's defense to all this is, we told them months ago
00:15:14.000 they should delete it.
00:15:15.000 And then they just didn't do it on time. But the Platte River employee knew about it. So what?
00:15:20.000 You think that he actually was like, well, you know, now that I have an FBI request for the
00:15:23.000 information and I made a boo-boo, probably I should violate the law and delete all the emails.
00:15:27.000 You'll recall that Hillary Clinton was then asked about this, and she famously joked about wiping
00:15:30.000 an email server with a cloth. Here we go. Now, all I can tell you is, in retrospect,
00:15:38.000 if I'd used a government account and I had said, you know, let's release everything,
00:15:45.000 let's let everybody in America see what I did for four years, we would have the same arguments.
00:15:51.000 So, that's all I could say.
00:15:53.000 I'm not, you know, I don't, I have no idea.
00:15:57.000 That's why we turned it over.
00:15:58.000 You said you were in charge of it.
00:15:59.000 You were the official in charge.
00:16:00.000 Did you wipe the surface?
00:16:02.000 What, like with a cloth or something?
00:16:03.000 No.
00:16:04.000 Well, no.
00:16:06.000 I don't know how it works digitally at all.
00:16:08.000 I do not have any...
00:16:12.000 Like with a cloth.
00:16:13.000 You remember this.
00:16:14.000 And the entire media were like, ah ha ha ha ha, like with a cloth, like with a cloth.
00:16:17.000 No, like with bleach bit, where you wipe the servers.
00:16:19.000 She was not prosecuted.
00:16:20.000 So, if she does the same stuff as Donald Trump, and she does not get prosecuted, and is explicitly let off the hook because she's running for president, and Donald Trump is being prosecuted for all of that, that does look like the double standard of justice that Donald Trump is complaining about.
00:16:32.000 And it doesn't stop there.
00:16:33.000 In just a second, we're going to get to more indictments looming over President Trump, which ironically helped him in the primaries and hurt him in the general.
00:16:39.000 First, it's time for our Meat of It question, sponsored by Good Ranchers, where we get to the meat of a hard-hitting weekly question.
00:16:45.000 So, Good Ranchers asks, with all the recent hearings, do you think aliens are disguising themselves among us?
00:16:48.000 Well, if they are, they're not in Congress because there is no intelligent life in Congress.
00:16:53.000 While aliens aren't disguising themselves on Earth, one thing is for sure, foreign meat can disguise itself as a product of the United States of America.
00:16:58.000 Yes, grocery store shelves are riddled with meat from other countries disguised in a product of the USA label.
00:17:03.000 If you prefer to know without a shadow of a doubt where your meat comes from instead of guessing, well, you know you need Good Ranchers.
00:17:08.000 They source 100% American meat.
00:17:09.000 They deliver it to your door.
00:17:10.000 No disguises, no surprises.
00:17:11.000 Just amazing American beef, chicken, and pork, conveniently delivered when you need it.
00:17:15.000 So what exactly are you waiting for?
00:17:16.000 Enjoy real meat and real service today with Good Ranchers.
00:17:19.000 Visit GoodRanchers.com.
00:17:20.000 Use my code BEN for 30 bucks off any box.
00:17:23.000 That is promo code Ben at GoodRanchers.com.
00:17:26.000 GoodRanchers.com is American Meat Delivered.
00:17:27.000 I know their stuff is amazing because they made me the only kosher steak they've ever made.
00:17:30.000 And let me tell you, it was unbelievable.
00:17:32.000 It was so good.
00:17:33.000 Visit GoodRanchers.com.
00:17:34.000 Use promo code Ben for 30 bucks off any box.
00:17:36.000 That's promo code Ben at GoodRanchers.com.
00:17:39.000 GoodRanchers.com.
00:17:40.000 Once again, American Meat Delivered.
00:17:42.000 Okay, so this is not the only Criminal charge facing Trump down.
00:17:46.000 Apparently, yesterday, according to the New York Daily News, barriers were actually erected outside a Fulton County courthouse in anticipation of possible indictments involving interference in the 2020 presidential election.
00:17:55.000 Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis, who wants to make a name for herself, plans to charge twice-indicted former President Donald Trump with crimes, including witness tampering, according to the UK Guardian.
00:18:04.000 Willis asked a Georgia Superior Court Chief Judge in May to keep the courthouse free at the start of August, leading to speculation Trump and his surrogates might be charged in connection with attempts to overturn the electoral laws he still refuses to accept.
00:18:15.000 Trump was recorded in January 2021 pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to keep him in the White House following his defeat.
00:18:22.000 So if that's all they have, that's not going to be sufficient because you have to show intent to actually fraudulently create votes or throw out votes.
00:18:29.000 Trump saying, I know that there's enough votes for me to win and all you have to do is find me the votes that I know exist.
00:18:35.000 That goes to intent.
00:18:36.000 As I've said a thousand times with regard to Trump, intent is a real problem in proving crimes against Donald Trump because he's uniquely capable Of convincing himself of things.
00:18:47.000 He does this all the time.
00:18:48.000 What Donald Trump thinks in the moment is precisely what Donald Trump thinks in the moment.
00:18:51.000 This is the thing people love about him.
00:18:52.000 It's also the thing people hate about him.
00:18:54.000 Trump is fully authentic.
00:18:55.000 The thing he thinks right now is exactly the thing he thinks.
00:18:58.000 Five seconds later it may change, but in the moment he may actually believe that he won the election and so it's impossible to say he actually knew he lost the election and therefore he was trying to fraudulently find votes.
00:19:07.000 You can't do that, because he may very well have thought he won the election, the votes existed, and he was just encouraging people, like, I know it's there, I know my car keys are somewhere in the house, just find the car keys.
00:19:17.000 Right?
00:19:17.000 That is not the same thing as I know the car keys are not anywhere in the house, and now I'm making you search for the car keys, fraudulently, until you steal the neighbor's car keys.
00:19:23.000 Not quite the same thing.
00:19:25.000 The grand jury was sworn in on July 11th to hear evidence against Trump and his allies.
00:19:29.000 They may have also included other communications with state officials and the selection of fake electors.
00:19:32.000 Former attorney Rudy Giuliani confessed in a court filing this week he lied about Georgia election workers he'd accused of trying to sabotage Trump's reelect efforts.
00:19:40.000 But the question is, did Giuliani lie about that to Trump also?
00:19:43.000 So if Giuliani admits, yeah, I knew the election was lost.
00:19:46.000 I was lying when I accused X, Y, and Z of doing these things.
00:19:49.000 If Giuliani said that, if he lied to Trump also, then Trump would have been under the misimpression that stuff was true.
00:19:54.000 So when Trump repeated that, then presumably Trump would not have the intent requisite to actually charge him with a crime.
00:20:00.000 So we still have that case looming over Trump.
00:20:02.000 And then we also have a second case looming over Trump.
00:20:06.000 That looming case is the January 6th indictments that Jack Smith is likely to bring.
00:20:10.000 So this would make four ongoing federal cases and one state, well, three ongoing federal cases and one state case against Donald Trump.
00:20:17.000 The state case would be the ridiculous Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg bringing a case against Trump for campaign finance violations in New York, which is absolute garbage and Seriously trumped up.
00:20:26.000 The second is the classified documents case, where Trump may very well have committed the crime, but it's very clear that Hillary Clinton was not charged for the exact same crime.
00:20:33.000 The third case would be this Fannie Willis case in Georgia, where again, it's going to be very difficult to prove the intent necessary to convict Trump of a crime unless they can actually show some sort of obstruction of justice, threats to witnesses, or something like that.
00:20:43.000 And fourth would be the January 6th case that Jack Smith presumably is about to bring against Donald Trump.
00:20:47.000 We'll get to all of that in just one second, but first!
00:20:49.000 The best place to hire is with ZipRecruiter, a hiring partner focused on you and your needs.
00:20:53.000 From pricing to technology, everything ZipRecruiter does is for you.
00:20:56.000 Right now, you can try them for free at ziprecruiter.com slash dailywire.
00:20:59.000 ZipRecruiter's smart technology identifies the best matches for your job and lets you invite candidates you really want to apply to your job before other businesses can snag them.
00:21:07.000 I love how their pricing is really straightforward.
00:21:09.000 You can stick to your budget with no surprises.
00:21:11.000 Hire the best with the help of a partner who's all about you with ZipRecruiter.
00:21:14.000 Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter will get a quality candidate within day one.
00:21:18.000 Just go to this exclusive web address.
00:21:19.000 Try ZipRecruiter for free.
00:21:20.000 ZipRecruiter.com slash DailyWire.
00:21:22.000 We've been using ZipRecruiter ourselves for years here at The Daily Wire.
00:21:26.000 And if you're looking for a job, ZipRecruiter is also a great place to look.
00:21:28.000 Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash DailyWire.
00:21:31.000 ZipRecruiter is indeed the smartest way to hire.
00:21:33.000 They make your job much, much simpler.
00:21:36.000 They sift through the resumes.
00:21:37.000 They find you the best possible employees.
00:21:38.000 They get them to you.
00:21:39.000 Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, again, In anticipation of that case arising, apparently, according to the Associated Press, lawyers for Trump met Thursday with members of Jack Smith's team ahead of a potential indictment over the former president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
00:21:59.000 Trump himself confirmed the meeting in a post on his Truth Social Network, writing, quote, My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an indictment of me would only further destroy our country.
00:22:10.000 He added no indication of notice was given during the meeting.
00:22:12.000 So there's a lot of talk this week that there would be an indictment of Trump on January 6th charges coming down.
00:22:17.000 It may well be that a lot of that information was about the new charges that were actually brought by Jack Smith in the classified documents case that the January 6th indictment is actually not right around the corner here.
00:22:26.000 It was not immediately clear what was discussed at the meeting, though similar sit down with lawyers occurred in the days before Trump was indicted last month on the classified documents case.
00:22:33.000 Thursday's meeting included Trump attorney John Lauro.
00:22:36.000 said the person familiar with the case who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to describe a private gathering.
00:22:41.000 Loro said in a Fox television interview this week his client had done nothing wrong.
00:22:45.000 The status of that secretive grand jury proceeding remained unclear despite building speculation the criminal case could be near.
00:22:51.000 So it's unclear when that is going to come down.
00:22:53.000 It's also unclear what exactly the charges are going to be.
00:22:56.000 They've been talking about using a fraud charge, which seems really, really weak to me.
00:22:59.000 I don't see how legally they charge him with defrauding the government.
00:23:03.000 Usually when that's done, it's because you faked votes or because you stole votes or something, not because you made a bad legal request for the overturning of state certified votes.
00:23:11.000 That would presumably fall under free speech as much as is untrue.
00:23:15.000 Theoretically, they could go after him for obstruction, but they'd actually have to show that he pressured witnesses, which again, is a pretty high bar.
00:23:20.000 And then they've been using like Civil War era civil rights violations.
00:23:24.000 I don't see how any of these apply.
00:23:25.000 It's gonna be a very, very big stretch if that's all Jack Smith has to charge on.
00:23:30.000 So, to sum up, Of the four cases, only one of them appears to have serious legal merit at this point.
00:23:35.000 Again, we don't know about the Georgia case because the indictment hasn't come down yet, so we can't actually adjudicate what they've got or what they're charging him with.
00:23:42.000 But just from the speculate, so we have two that have not yet been filed and we have two that have been filed.
00:23:45.000 Of the two that have been filed, the Manhattan DA's case is absolute crap.
00:23:49.000 The case that has been filed in Florida with regard to classified documents, It appears that Trump may be dead to rights evidentiarily speaking, but politically speaking, which may make a difference with the jury, Hillary did like the exact same thing.
00:24:03.000 I mean, so much so that Donald Trump in that case apparently told his lawyers he loved what Hillary's lawyers did and he'd love to do it also.
00:24:09.000 So, I mean, again, if the idea here is the DOJ does not charge Hillary, but they definitely charge Trump, that double standard of justice may be during nullification play, particularly in the state of Florida, where Trump remains very, very popular.
00:24:20.000 So there is that, which has led to speculation that Jack Smith will file very similar charges in New Jersey, where Trump will get a much less favorable jury.
00:24:26.000 But all it takes is one juror to actually say no, to basically scuttle the case.
00:24:31.000 So that's the one with merit, but the one with merit becomes non-meritorious once you add in Hillary Clinton to the mix.
00:24:38.000 Then you have the Georgia case.
00:24:39.000 That Georgia case can be very hard to prove.
00:24:41.000 We haven't seen the charges and Fannie Willis appears to be a very politically motivated prosecutor.
00:24:44.000 And finally, you have the January 6th case that Jack Smith is thinking of charging apparently.
00:24:48.000 We don't know what the charges are there, but those appear to be a stretch as well.
00:24:52.000 So, how does this break down politically?
00:24:53.000 Well, obviously, it benefits Trump in the Republican primaries.
00:24:56.000 Because, right now, the argument against Trump would be that these indictments hurt him against Joe Biden.
00:25:02.000 But, Joe Biden is running super duper weak right now.
00:25:05.000 Ironically, the greatest enemy of Ron DeSantis' campaign is Joe Biden's weak polling numbers.
00:25:09.000 Because the fact is, That the chief appeal of Ron DeSantis is that he runs better against Biden in the swing states than Trump does by every available poll.
00:25:17.000 But if Biden is running at 40%, well, that doesn't matter too much.
00:25:21.000 I mean, right now, the spread on the Biden-Trump race, it has them both in the low 40s.
00:25:26.000 I mean, right now, I mean, I'm looking at the latest RCP polling average has Biden up 0.9 percentage points on Trump.
00:25:34.000 And the last four polls are Trump plus five, Biden plus two, Trump plus four, Biden plus four.
00:25:38.000 So everything is within margin of error.
00:25:41.000 Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics polling average on Biden versus DeSantis has Biden up 1.9 points.
00:25:48.000 In other words, he's not running all that much ahead of Trump in the general elect efforts right now because Biden is running so low.
00:25:54.000 So what that means is that a lot of Republicans are likely to think that Trump can beat Joe Biden.
00:25:59.000 So it's not actually hurting him with Republican voters, these indictments.
00:26:01.000 Also, it's adding fuel to the fire because the fact is that pretty much all Republicans, me included, think that Donald Trump is being targeted unfairly over a lot of these cases.
00:26:11.000 That put aside his bad behavior, it's very obvious there's a double standard of justice here that is obviously being applied.
00:26:17.000 And so because of that, it's likely to boost him in the primaries, which is the reason he has incredibly durable numbers.
00:26:21.000 Everybody right now is focusing in on Ron DeSantis and DeSantis' underperformance in the Republican primaries thus far in the Republican primary polling.
00:26:29.000 But the reality is that the story is not DeSantis underperforming.
00:26:32.000 The story is Trump's absolute durability in this polling.
00:26:35.000 Trump has not dropped in any significant way below like a 10 point lead for months and months and months.
00:26:41.000 And right now, his current lead on the rest of the field, because remember, DeSantis ain't the only competitor.
00:26:46.000 His lead on the rest of the field is 34 points.
00:26:49.000 So he's locked and loaded.
00:26:50.000 I mean, that dude is just cruising to the nomination right now unless something changes.
00:26:54.000 And that thing is not going to be the indictment.
00:26:57.000 So ironically, the indictments helped Trump in the primaries.
00:26:59.000 Now, will he get convicted?
00:27:01.000 I mean, it's pretty obvious he could be.
00:27:03.000 I mean, sure, he's got a Manhattan jury in the Alvin Bragg case.
00:27:07.000 The Florida case, as I said before, is pretty legally airtight, but there's a double standard, so that one's up in the air.
00:27:13.000 We don't know what's going to happen.
00:27:14.000 Is Trump actually going to be even indicted in Georgia?
00:27:16.000 If he is, does that trial take place in Fulton County, Georgia, like in Atlanta?
00:27:21.000 That'd be very bad for him, obviously.
00:27:23.000 Is there gonna be another case in New Jersey?
00:27:24.000 Like, we don't know what the actual outcome of all of this is going to be.
00:27:28.000 With that said, is it likely to hurt Trump politically inside the Republican Party?
00:27:31.000 Really, the answer is no.
00:27:32.000 Because a lot of Republicans right now...
00:27:35.000 Would rather basically use Trump as their instrument of revenge.
00:27:38.000 And Trump knows this.
00:27:38.000 Again, Trump has an inerrant skill.
00:27:41.000 This is his true instinctive skill.
00:27:43.000 Trump has an inerrant skill of knowing.
00:27:45.000 He has like a really emotionally visceral connection to his base.
00:27:48.000 He knows that his people want him to be the revenge.
00:27:52.000 In 2016, he was a pulsating middle finger.
00:27:55.000 Well, right now, he says, I am your revenge.
00:27:57.000 I am your vengeance.
00:27:59.000 You know, there may be a bunch of people in the country who are like, I don't want to be anybody's vengeance.
00:28:02.000 Like, I don't know.
00:28:03.000 I don't I don't want vengeance.
00:28:04.000 What I really want is just good governance and, you know, maybe some good policies.
00:28:07.000 But increasingly in the United States, that is a minority of people or at least it is a it is a silent majority.
00:28:14.000 And the silence makes a rather large difference.
00:28:16.000 And meanwhile, again, the double standard of justice is being Very obviously applied because at the same exact time that all of this pressure is being brought to bear on Trump, Hunter Biden, the DOJ went out of its way.
00:28:26.000 I mean, truly went out of its way to try to cut a sweetheart deal with Hunter.
00:28:29.000 There is just no question about this.
00:28:30.000 I mean, so much so that as we discussed yesterday on the program, Hunter's plea bargain was so lenient that the judge in the case was like, are you guys even willing to publicly say the plea bargain this way?
00:28:41.000 And the DOJ was like, no, that's really what happened.
00:28:44.000 What apparently happened, as I said yesterday, is the prosecutors tried to hide their blanket immunity clause in a crazy and unprecedented tactic, but then were exposed by the judge.
00:28:54.000 The Biden DOJ tried to let Hunter off the hook, but they tried to do so quietly.
00:28:58.000 So in the actual publicly available plea bargain, it said nothing about immunizing Biden, Hunter, from all of these charges, like Foreign Agents Registration Act violations or investigations into foreign Formed cashing of checks, right?
00:29:13.000 All that kind of stuff was not included in the plea bargain.
00:29:15.000 It was included in the agreement for diversion on the gun charge.
00:29:20.000 So the idea was it said in the diversion agreement that as part of the diversion agreement, he's immunized from the gun charges and anything else that was investigated in this plea bargain over here on the tax charges.
00:29:32.000 And then the tax charges, it didn't say anything about that.
00:29:34.000 It just said he's immune from the tax charges.
00:29:37.000 So the judge was like, well, I can't do that.
00:29:41.000 You don't even have an agreement publicly on what it is that he's immunized from.
00:29:44.000 And the DOJ was like, well, this is kind of embarrassing.
00:29:46.000 We can't be publicly exposed to be handing Hunter Biden goodies while his father is president of the United States.
00:29:51.000 So we're just going to blow up the plea bargain.
00:29:52.000 And at that point, Hunter Biden's attorneys basically pulled out.
00:29:57.000 So that is the actual story here.
00:29:59.000 But because this plea bargain was blown up by the judge, now this is going to reopen a bunch of cans of worms for the Biden administration and the Biden White House.
00:30:07.000 According to Sarah Bedford, investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner, for example, Hunter Biden worked closely with multiple people who disclosed their lobbying for foreign companies under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, raising questions about whether he broke the law by not registering himself for doing the same work.
00:30:21.000 He lobbied U.S.
00:30:22.000 officials alongside many others who did not register under FERA for work that clearly involved advocacy that would trigger FERA requirements.
00:30:29.000 The focus on Hunter Biden's foreign lobbying grew more intense this week when a judge in Delaware pressed prosecutors about whether they were still investigating the president's son for alleged FERA violations.
00:30:37.000 A day in court that was supposed to mark the end of Hunter Biden's legal troubles may have been the start of even more because the judge rejected that plea and now the federal prosecutors are like, yeah, we may look into FARA.
00:30:46.000 So some of the individuals who are actually working with Hunter in advocating for Burisma, where Hunter is being paid 83 grand a month to do nothing except have the last name Biden and call his daddy on the phone sometimes, they registered their work under FARA after prodding from the Justice Department.
00:30:59.000 So many of the people working directly with Hunter and lobbying on behalf of Burisma
00:31:03.000 were forced to register under the FARA Act, under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
00:31:08.000 And the DOJ forced them to do that, Hunter did not.
00:31:11.000 I mean, that's kind of amazing.
00:31:14.000 I mean, that's pretty obviously a FARA violation by Hunter Biden.
00:31:17.000 Blue Star Strategies apparently was a firm that was associated with Burisma.
00:31:22.000 It was under investigation by the DOJ.
00:31:24.000 Why they were permitted to file foreign lobbying disclosures years after the work took place
00:31:29.000 rather than face penalties for their future, their failure to do so remains unclear.
00:31:32.000 Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, the Blue Star Strategies consultants, whose emails reflect a close working relationship with Hunter on Burisma, registered as foreign lobbyists representing Burisma's chief, Mykola Zlochevsky, in 2022.
00:31:44.000 Tramontano and Painter disclosed to the government they helped set up meetings between Slavchevsky's attorney and State Department officials, according to FARA documents.
00:31:50.000 Those meetings occurred in 2016, while Joe Biden was still vice president.
00:31:54.000 Blue Star Strategies, Hunter, and Hunter's business partners worked closely to boost Burisma's image across many fronts.
00:32:00.000 Blue Star Strategies did not register under FARA in real time.
00:32:03.000 The consultants' work with Burisma had come to the attention of investigators on that Hunter Biden case, according to the IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley.
00:32:10.000 So it is very obvious that presumably Hunter should have registered as a foreign agent.
00:32:14.000 And he didn't.
00:32:14.000 Star Strategies emails in 2020 and that Leslie Wolf, prosecutor in the Delaware U.S. Attorney's
00:32:18.000 Office accused of misconduct, told investigators it would likely not get approved. But the FARA
00:32:23.000 documents Painter and Tramontano did eventually file suggest specific meetings and contacts
00:32:27.000 in which Hunter Biden was involved met the DOJ's definition of foreign lobbying. So it is very
00:32:31.000 obvious that presumably Hunter should have registered as a foreign agent and he didn't.
00:32:36.000 And now he's exposed because again, the DOJ had to kill this deal. So it may very well be that
00:32:42.000 that there is more to drop on Hunter Biden.
00:32:45.000 But meanwhile, while all this is happening with Hunter Biden and DOJ is trying to pass him cookies and create sweetheart deals for him, while all of this is happening, they're going after Donald Trump.
00:32:55.000 Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, he pointed out yesterday on the verdict with Ted Cruz that six major banks flagged 170 suspicious activity reports about the Bidens to the Treasury Department.
00:33:08.000 A suspicious activity report is when the bank files notice with the treasury cabinet that they suspect their client has committed a crime.
00:33:16.000 Doesn't mean they committed a crime.
00:33:17.000 They have a strong suspicion that a crime was committed, so it's to protect the bank as well.
00:33:24.000 So how frequently do these things happen?
00:33:25.000 Very seldom, despite what the Washington Post or in their defense of the Biden, they say, well, everybody has a suspicious activity report.
00:33:32.000 That is baloney.
00:33:33.000 I was on a bank board for 10 years.
00:33:35.000 I think we issued two Over the course of 10 years.
00:33:39.000 And how many were issued concerning Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and the Biden family?
00:33:44.000 Over 170.
00:33:45.000 They were direct... Wait, you were at a bank and they issued two in 10 years?
00:33:51.000 In how many years?
00:33:51.000 If you had two SARS, they're called SARS in the banking industry, if you had two SARS against you, it would be hard for you to open an account somewhere.
00:34:01.000 I mean, it's amazing stuff.
00:34:03.000 So have the media treated all of this?
00:34:04.000 They've treated this by pretending that nothing bad is happening at all.
00:34:07.000 We'll get to that in just one second.
00:34:08.000 First, you need life insurance, OK?
00:34:10.000 It's just a smart thing to do.
00:34:11.000 You got dependents, got to make sure they're OK.
00:34:13.000 If something, God forbid, happens to you, this is why you need Policy Genius.
00:34:15.000 Policy Genius makes it easy to compare life insurance quotes from top companies.
00:34:19.000 And find your lowest price.
00:34:21.000 Let me tell you from personal experience, it is very satisfying to check life insurance off your to-do list because it's kind of an annoying thing, kind of hanging over your head.
00:34:28.000 And every day you don't do it is a day that you are taking a risk you don't need to take.
00:34:31.000 Instead, get covered with PolicyGenius.
00:34:33.000 With PolicyGenius, you can find life insurance policies starting at just 25 bucks per month for a million bucks in coverage.
00:34:38.000 Some options offer coverage in as little as a week and avoid those unnecessary medical exams.
00:34:41.000 PolicyGenius's licensed agents work for you, not the insurance companies, which means they don't have an incentive to recommend one insurer over another so you can actually trust their guidance.
00:34:48.000 There are no added fees.
00:34:49.000 Your personal information remains private.
00:34:51.000 Your loved ones deserve that financial safety net and you deserve a smarter way to find and buy it.
00:34:55.000 Head on over to policygenius.com slash Shapiro or click the link in the description.
00:34:58.000 Get your free life insurance quotes.
00:35:00.000 See how much you could save.
00:35:01.000 That's policygenius.com slash Shapiro.
00:35:04.000 Again, policygenius.com slash Shapiro.
00:35:06.000 Go check them out right now and get the life insurance you and your family need to make sure that they are provided for in case, God forbid, something happens to you.
00:35:12.000 Also, when Dr. Jordan Peterson made the decision to join DailyWirePlus, it was a major win for those of us who champion free speech and intellectual debate.
00:35:19.000 He has had one year of unparalleled output.
00:35:21.000 His contributions have set new standards that remain unmatched by any other platform.
00:35:24.000 DailyWirePlus now has a vast array of exclusive Jordan content, offering hundreds of hours of captivating stuff that you're not going to find anywhere else.
00:35:31.000 Jordan has created thought-provoking works that reshape your perspective on life.
00:35:34.000 Those include Vision and Destiny, Marriage, Dragons, monsters, and men.
00:35:38.000 Tons of other stuff and much more coming.
00:35:40.000 You got a Book of Exodus series, got his logos and literacy.
00:35:43.000 And like I say, that's only the beginning.
00:35:44.000 We haven't mentioned his Beyond Order Lecture Series, his extensive archives of lectures and podcasts.
00:35:48.000 It's the absolute compendium of all things Jordan Peterson related.
00:35:50.000 Plus, there's even more new exclusive content on the horizon.
00:35:53.000 I'm excited about that stuff.
00:35:54.000 Wait till you see it.
00:35:55.000 By becoming a DailyWire Plus member, you'll embark on an unforgettable experience that will fuel your thirst for knowledge, inspire personal growth like never before.
00:36:01.000 Go to dailywire.com slash subscribe.
00:36:03.000 Become a member today.
00:36:04.000 Okay, meanwhile, the media, the White House, they're treating the Hunter stuff like it is not only no big deal, but they're offended if you ask questions about it.
00:36:11.000 So yesterday, Corine Jean-Pierre, world's worst White House press secretary, she suggested that Hunter is a private citizen.
00:36:16.000 Why are you all, why are you so concerned with Hunter?
00:36:18.000 I mean, how dare you?
00:36:20.000 Hunter is not a private citizen.
00:36:22.000 He's at the White House.
00:36:23.000 He's squired along on every trip by Joe Biden.
00:36:25.000 And again, he has texts to his own daughter talking about paying his daddy's bills.
00:36:29.000 Come on, come on.
00:36:31.000 How stupid do they think you are?
00:36:32.000 Again, the answer is really, really stupid.
00:36:34.000 Here's Corine Jean-Pierre.
00:36:35.000 I've said this before, this is a personal matter.
00:36:39.000 Hunter Biden, as you know, is a private citizen, and this was done in an independent way.
00:36:43.000 This investigation is being led by a Trump-appointed prosecutor.
00:36:48.000 Hmm.
00:36:50.000 Well, I mean, clearly there's nothing to see here.
00:36:53.000 The White House was asked about pardoning Hunter, and they're like, no, no, no, we would never do that.
00:36:56.000 Now, here's the thing.
00:36:57.000 Whenever the White House denies they're going to do a thing, there's like a 75% shot that eventually they'll end up doing it.
00:37:02.000 I know you said not a lot has changed since yesterday and that it's a personal matter, but from a presidential perspective, is there any possibility that the president would end up pardoning his son?
00:37:12.000 No.
00:37:14.000 I just said no.
00:37:15.000 I just answered.
00:37:16.000 Go ahead.
00:37:17.000 Okay, she just answered.
00:37:19.000 There's no possibility.
00:37:20.000 Well, I mean, there's a little possibility, is there not?
00:37:22.000 They think a plea deal is going to get worked, is what this really means.
00:37:25.000 And meanwhile, the media doing their best to make sure that no serious questions are asked.
00:37:29.000 So ABC News, NBC News, they were very worried about the GOP focus on Hunter.
00:37:33.000 Again, so much Republican pouncing.
00:37:35.000 That's always the story.
00:37:36.000 The story is not the possible deep and abiding years-long corruption between Hunter and Joe, while Joe was vice president.
00:37:41.000 No, the story here is so much Republican pouncing.
00:37:44.000 They're purring and they're pouncing like the color kittens over here.
00:37:47.000 It's a moment that's the culmination of a years-long federal investigation, a painful reminder of a dark chapter in the Biden family, and the latest scene in a lurid national scandal the Republicans promise is far from over.
00:38:02.000 to stand by his son.
00:38:04.000 He has repeatedly said that he is proud of him, even saying that he has done nothing
00:38:07.000 wrong. Republicans are making it clear they are not satisfied.
00:38:10.000 They are calling on the judge to block that plea deal, insisting they will continue on
00:38:14.000 with their investigations into claims that the president has used his political career
00:38:18.000 to personally benefit and rich and protect his family.
00:38:22.000 Republicans not ready to move on.
00:38:24.000 They are still aggressively pursuing an investigation into the younger Biden's business
00:38:28.000 practices.
00:38:29.000 They're not right.
00:38:31.000 Why can't they just move on?
00:38:33.000 Why can't they move on?
00:38:34.000 Well, maybe because he's getting sweetheart deals from his daddy's DOJ after presumably funneling millions of dollars to the benefit of his dad.
00:38:42.000 Maybe it's that.
00:38:43.000 Maybe it's that.
00:38:44.000 NBC's Andrea Mitchell did the same thing.
00:38:45.000 She actually apologized to Joe Biden's campaign co-chair, Chris Coons, for mentioning Hunter and Donald Trump in the same sentence.
00:38:53.000 No, we could never do that.
00:38:55.000 So, let's just be clear.
00:38:58.000 One is about the conduct of a former president in office, and the other is about a private citizen, the son of the current president.
00:39:05.000 There's a stark difference.
00:39:06.000 No, you are absolutely correct, and I should not have analogized those two things together in my haste.
00:39:13.000 There's no question that they are of very, very different proportions.
00:39:18.000 There's no comparison.
00:39:21.000 There's no comparison.
00:39:22.000 None.
00:39:23.000 There's no comparison between Donald Trump post-presidency misusing classified documents, just like Hillary Clinton did, by the way, while she was Secretary of State.
00:39:33.000 None.
00:39:35.000 No similarity between that and Hunter Biden's years-long corruption scheme with his daddy.
00:39:39.000 No similarity, according to the media.
00:39:41.000 Just let it go.
00:39:42.000 Okay, meanwhile, again, the Republicans are trying to figure out who they need to run against Joe Biden.
00:39:46.000 Right now, Donald Trump is far and away the frontrunner.
00:39:48.000 But I have to say, some of the attacks on DeSantis at this point are truly scurrilous.
00:39:53.000 The most scurrilous attack that we're seeing right now is this absurd and ridiculous attack on the Florida educational standards.
00:39:59.000 There's this notion promulgated by Kamala Harris and the rest of the liars in the media that the Florida educational standards talk about the wonders and greatness of slavery, which is a lie.
00:40:07.000 It is not true.
00:40:08.000 You will recall that the original criticism is that the Florida State Curriculum includes standards that teach, quote, which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit.
00:40:19.000 Which meant, as is true, that slaves being incredibly resilient and being very often people who had to undergo severe hardship, like always severe hardship, that they used that opportunity to develop skills that could benefit them personally.
00:40:33.000 That is not an upholding of the virtue of slavery.
00:40:36.000 It's the opposite.
00:40:38.000 Okay, but Kamala Harris then went out and lied about, oh my gosh, they're talking about the magical benefits of slavery.
00:40:44.000 There's only one problem.
00:40:45.000 Here's what the AP, African American Studies Official Course Framework, says.
00:40:50.000 This year, quote, in addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South.
00:40:58.000 Once free, African Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others.
00:41:03.000 That is the exact same thing!
00:41:04.000 The Associated Press says the exact same thing as the guidelines for the state of Florida.
00:41:09.000 And yet, Ron DeSantis is getting ripped up and down over all this.
00:41:12.000 Here's DeSantis' response to a reporter who tried to come after him on this particular issue.
00:41:18.000 Were there beneficial aspects to slavery?
00:41:20.000 That's not what the curriculum says.
00:41:21.000 What do you think?
00:41:23.000 No, it's not.
00:41:24.000 And the curriculum is very clear.
00:41:26.000 You have, I think it's like 200 plus pages of all kinds of stuff that you can't read that.
00:41:32.000 Have you read it?
00:41:33.000 So what's your opinion?
00:41:34.000 Have you read it?
00:41:35.000 I'm asking your opinion.
00:41:37.000 But you haven't read it, so I'm just making that clear.
00:41:40.000 That makes it very clear about the injustices of slavery in vivid detail.
00:41:46.000 So anyone that actually read that and then listens to Kamala would know That she's lying.
00:41:51.000 And that particular provision about the skills, that was in spite of slavery, not because of.
00:41:57.000 The AP course has made that same point.
00:41:59.000 Other courses have made that same point.
00:42:01.000 Nobody said anything about that.
00:42:03.000 And Dr. Allen and those people will say, look, this is what was used post bellum when these folks were doing stuff.
00:42:10.000 So that was very, very clear.
00:42:11.000 And I would just say, you know, people can read it.
00:42:15.000 Of course, DeSantis is exactly right, but that's not stopping the lies from being promulgated.
00:42:19.000 This is why the Congressional Black Caucus is now pushing the White House, according to the AP.
00:42:22.000 They're pushing the White House, the Justice Department, and the DOE to adopt an aggressive legal strategy to scrutinize recent changes to Florida's black history curriculum.
00:42:30.000 It's an absurdity.
00:42:31.000 So, at the very least, you would expect that the same Republicans who are so defensive of Donald Trump and his classified documents mishandling, they might be defensive of DeSantis when the media lie about them.
00:42:40.000 Like, at the very least, Republicans should defend each other when they're being lied about by the media.
00:42:44.000 This is why I'm very disappointed in Tim Scott today.
00:42:45.000 Tim Scott was asked about this and he promptly sided with Kamala Harris and he sided with the Congressional Black Caucus.
00:42:53.000 Here's Tim Scott.
00:42:55.000 As a country founded upon freedom, the greatest deprivation of freedom was slavery.
00:43:02.000 There's no silver lining in freedom, in slavery.
00:43:05.000 The truth is that anything you can learn, any benefits that people suggest you had during slavery, you would have had as a free person.
00:43:12.000 What slavery was, was really about separating families, about mutilating humans, and even raping their wives.
00:43:19.000 It was just devastating, so I would hope that every person Okay, that's ridiculous.
00:43:37.000 I mean, that's Scott being disingenuous because he fully well knows what the story is with Florida's education curriculum.
00:43:43.000 I understand it's a presidential race.
00:43:44.000 But, you know, it would behoove Republicans to actually, at some point, defend people who are not actually doing the wrong thing.
00:43:51.000 I mean, it's particularly true that Republicans should not be backing attacks on other Republicans on the basis of false racial nonsense, especially because, again, Democrats are doing that enough.
00:44:00.000 So Cori Bush yesterday decided to shout at House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, suggesting, like, openly yelling on the floor that Steve Scalise's bills are racist.
00:44:10.000 It's such a joke.
00:44:11.000 I mean, the Democrats playing the race card on literally every element is so pathetic.
00:44:15.000 It's really bad.
00:44:17.000 If both sides won't, we still will do that work.
00:44:22.000 And I would yield one more time to the gentlelady.
00:44:26.000 Be in order.
00:44:28.000 Mr. Speaker, the House is not in order.
00:44:31.000 The House will be in order.
00:44:35.000 Okay, I mean, ridiculous stuff there from Cori Bush, but that's who she is.
00:44:38.000 Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar, another member of the ex-Gribble squad, she actually went on Al Jazeera to explain that Americans should be afraid of white men.
00:44:48.000 She's a member of the tolerant and diverse squad, is this terrible human being.
00:44:54.000 I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country.
00:45:09.000 Man, she should be paying royalties to vocal grind.
00:45:11.000 Everything is down here.
00:45:13.000 In any case, Ilhan Omar doing this routine that you should be very fearful of white men.
00:45:18.000 Imagine if the race is reversed.
00:45:20.000 You wouldn't have to.
00:45:20.000 You know exactly what would happen.
00:45:22.000 Statistically speaking, of course, if she is talking about violent crime, What she's saying is not true, but it doesn't matter whether it's true or not.
00:45:28.000 She's a very diverse person and she's speaking on Al Jazeera, which of course is a place filled with diversity and wonder.
00:45:34.000 Meanwhile, we now have breaking news over from the Facebook files.
00:45:38.000 So Jim Jordan has now revealed a bunch of documents.
00:45:41.000 that have been discovered by Congress about the White House's activities vis-a-vis Facebook.
00:45:46.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook removed content related to COVID-19 in response to pressure from the Biden administration, including posts claiming the virus was man-made.
00:45:53.000 According to internal company communications viewed by the Wall Street Journal, the emails show Facebook executives discussed how they managed users' posts about the origins of the pandemic the administration was seeking to control.
00:46:03.000 Nick Clegg, company's president of global affairs, wrote, quote,
00:46:06.000 Can someone quickly remind me why we were removing, rather than demoting or labeling claims that COVID is man-made?
00:46:11.000 And he says, we are under pressure from the administration and others to do more.
00:46:15.000 This is a Facebook VP in charge of content policy.
00:46:18.000 We shouldn't have done it.
00:46:19.000 That is in July, 2021.
00:46:22.000 That email and a number of other such internal company communications were obtained by the Judiciary Committee which has been investigating what GOP lawmakers say is the Biden administration's improper efforts to censor American speech on social media about COVID and other topics.
00:46:38.000 The White House says its discussions were aimed at promoting the adoption of vaccines and other public health goals.
00:46:44.000 White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre then said, Yeah, I know.
00:46:51.000 This is censorship by proxy.
00:46:52.000 That's exactly what this was.
00:46:53.000 The emails viewed by the Wall Street Journal, which had not been previously reported, date to the spring and summer of 2021 when the White House was putting explicit pressure on Americans not only to get vaccinated, but not to disseminate information the White House disagreed with.
00:47:06.000 Apparently, after Joe Biden said that Facebook was killing people because of the quote-unquote false information they saw on Facebook, the tongue-lashing caused Facebook to re-evaluate its policies about COVID-19 content.
00:47:18.000 Discussions that involved high-level company officials including Nick Clegg and then-COO Sheryl Sandberg.
00:47:23.000 Following the president's killing people comment, the Facebook VP circulated a memo assessing the difference between Facebook's content policies and the Biden administration's demands.
00:47:31.000 The Facebook VP said, quote, there's a likely gap between what the White House would like us to remove and what we are comfortable removing.
00:47:37.000 As one example, the executive listed the White House's desire the company take action against humorous or satirical content that suggested the vaccines aren't safe.
00:47:45.000 The vice president wrote, quote, the White House has previously indicated it thinks humor should be removed if it is premised on the vaccine having side effects.
00:47:51.000 So we expect it would similarly want to see humor about vaccine hesitancy removed.
00:47:56.000 Clegg then wrote, I can't see Mark in a million years being comfortable with removing that.
00:47:59.000 I wouldn't recommend it.
00:48:00.000 That is amazing.
00:48:01.000 So the White House was literally writing to Facebook and being like, stop the jokes about the vaccine.
00:48:04.000 No jokes.
00:48:05.000 Joking will be forbidden.
00:48:07.000 There'll be no joking about the regime.
00:48:10.000 Amazing, amazing stuff.
00:48:12.000 But again, this is in fact a First Amendment violation.
00:48:15.000 When the government uses private companies as proxies to perform censorship, that is a violation of the First Amendment pretty damned clearly.
00:48:22.000 Okay, time for a quick thing I like and then some things that I hate.
00:48:25.000 So, things that I like today.
00:48:27.000 So there's a good series on Apple TV.
00:48:30.000 It is called Hijack, stars Idris Elba, who's excellent.
00:48:33.000 Love Idris Elba in pretty much everything.
00:48:34.000 And the entire series is about the hijacking of a passenger aircraft From the Middle East to London and Idris Elba plays sort of a negotiator.
00:48:44.000 He's sort of the lead passenger on board who's attempting to figure out what exactly is going on.
00:48:49.000 It's a little more complex than it seems because I don't want to spoil anything, but some of the hijackers have ulterior motives which are not clear from the beginning.
00:48:58.000 It's well-filmed.
00:48:59.000 It's very tense.
00:49:01.000 It's pretty clever.
00:49:02.000 Definitely an enjoyable series that is worth watching if you have the time.
00:49:06.000 Hijack on Apple TV.
00:49:08.000 Worth the watch.
00:49:08.000 Okay, one more thing that I like.
00:49:10.000 So, I hate it for the employees, but I like it for the fact that there has to be pushback, and pushback has consequences.
00:49:16.000 Apparently, Anheuser-Busch has announced it would be laying off 350 corporate employees on Thursday after months of poor sales fueled by conservatives boycotting Bud Light.
00:49:24.000 The firm said the layoffs would affect less than 2% of its 18,000 employees.
00:49:27.000 It wouldn't affect blue-collar workers like warehouse staff and drivers.
00:49:30.000 In a statement, is Mediaite reporting, CEO Brendan Whitworth explained the company's leadership, quote, never take these decisions lightly.
00:49:35.000 They were also resolved to ensure our organization continues to be set for future long-term success.
00:49:41.000 Solid stuff there.
00:49:41.000 And again, good job for Conservatives.
00:49:43.000 You gotta pick examples, you gotta polarize and make examples of them.
00:49:45.000 This is a Saul Alinsky tactic the left has been using literally for decades.
00:49:48.000 And if they refuse to stop using it, then we also have to use it.
00:49:51.000 I mean, there really is no other choice.
00:49:52.000 Okay, time for a couple of quick things that I hate.
00:49:59.000 So, things that I hate today.
00:50:01.000 Just an amazing, amazing sequence of events when the 90-year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein started launching into an unprompted speech.
00:50:10.000 She was called upon to vote.
00:50:11.000 It was a voice vote.
00:50:12.000 And she didn't know what was going on, so she just started giving a speech.
00:50:16.000 Because she is no longer with us.
00:50:17.000 And everyone knows that Dianne Feinstein is no longer with us, which means that she is just one of many.
00:50:22.000 John Fetterman cannot speak properly.
00:50:23.000 Mitch McConnell froze up and we got the apple spinning wheel of death the other day from Mitch McConnell.
00:50:29.000 Nancy Pelosi has not been functional for quite a while.
00:50:31.000 We got a president of the United States who appears to want to keel over every five seconds.
00:50:34.000 So things are going great.
00:50:36.000 Nothing says healthy body politic like a bunch of octogenarians who do not have proper brain function leading the country.
00:50:42.000 It's like clearly everything is going well.
00:50:44.000 We are a healthy country with young, vibrant leadership.
00:50:47.000 Obviously.
00:50:48.000 Senator Patty Murray actually turned to Dianne Feinstein and said to her, just say aye.
00:50:53.000 She had to literally tell her what to do.
00:50:56.000 When her name was called to vote on the defense appropriations bill, Dianne Feinstein began reading from her prepared remarks, leading to an awkward moment.
00:51:01.000 She actually started saying, I'd like to support a guess vote on this.
00:51:04.000 It provides $823 billion.
00:51:05.000 That's an increase of $26 billion for the defense department, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:51:09.000 Murray jumped in and told Feinstein, just say aye.
00:51:13.000 And Feinstein said, okay, aye.
00:51:15.000 Which is like, We may as well just have robot Congress people at this point.
00:51:20.000 Like, if you're a Democrat, you're just gonna vote Democrat anyway, so we don't need most of you.
00:51:24.000 Like, seriously, we could just cut the salaries by 100%.
00:51:26.000 We could put a bunch of AI over there, and they're just gonna vote the same way as the Senators are gonna vote.
00:51:31.000 Save ourselves a bunch of headache around here.
00:51:34.000 Meanwhile, I will admit that I enjoyed the, uh, this maybe should have gone in Things I Like because it's just frankly hilarious.
00:51:40.000 Representative Derek Van Orden, Republican of Wisconsin, apparently ended up screaming obscenities at high school Senate pages who were resting in the Capitol rotunda early Thursday morning.
00:51:48.000 He accused the teens of treating the space like a frat house common room.
00:51:52.000 A page transcribed from Van Orden's words shortly after he berated the group around midnight.
00:51:56.000 Apparently, the congressman screamed, wake the F up, you little bleeps.
00:51:58.000 What the F are you all doing?
00:51:59.000 Get the F out of here.
00:52:00.000 You're defiling the space, you pieces of bleep.
00:52:02.000 Who the F are you?
00:52:04.000 When the teens answered they were Senate Pages, Van Orden reportedly retorted, I don't give an F who you are, get out, you jackasses, get out.
00:52:10.000 Apparently, alcohol was indeed a factor.
00:52:12.000 Per a source, here's a photo from last night of a bunch of alcohol in Van Orden's office.
00:52:17.000 Apparently, Van Orden and staff were heard partying loudly before he cursed out a group of teenage Senate Pages.
00:52:22.000 He then issued a statement saying, quote, the Capitol Rotunda served as a field hospital and countless Union soldiers died fighting to free men in the Civil War.
00:52:27.000 I've long said our nation's Capitol is a symbol of the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made for the country and should never be treated like a frat house common room.
00:52:34.000 Threatening a congressman with bad press to excuse poor behavior is a reminder of everything that's wrong with Washington.
00:52:38.000 Luckily, bad press has never bothered me.
00:52:39.000 If it's the price I pay for standing up for what's right, then so be it.
00:52:43.000 Apparently, some of the members of the upper chamber were very, very upset.
00:52:46.000 Very, very upset, yes, because they are all, you know, big on the decorum.
00:52:50.000 So, you know, more of this.
00:52:52.000 In fact, that's the last thing that Dianne Feinstein did that I think was worthy of note, is that time that a bunch of, like, 13-year-old kids were brought in by an interest group to jabber at her about global warming, and they're like, well, our votes count.
00:53:02.000 She's like, you can't vote.
00:53:03.000 It was pretty fantastic.
00:53:05.000 Alrighty, guys, the rest of the show continues right now.
00:53:06.000 You're not going to want to miss it.
00:53:07.000 We'll be talking about the global boiling that apparently is happening, plus more scientific discoveries from the left.
00:53:13.000 If you're not a member, become a member.
00:53:14.000 Use code Shapiro.
00:53:15.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.