The Ben Shapiro Show - Shutdown Showdown

00:00:00.000 Well, looks like that government shutdown is pretty much over.

00:00:02.000 We'll discuss how it all comes to an end today.

00:00:04.000 Plus, we'll talk about President Trump, who apparently has some pretty good grounds to shut down the Mueller investigation, or at least some new ones.

00:00:12.000 And Hollywood can't stop ripping on Melania.

00:00:15.000 Melania, of all people.

00:00:16.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:16.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:23.000 By the end of last week, I decided that while the rest of the world didn't deserve Disneyland, I certainly did.

00:00:27.000 So I took my children to Disneyland yesterday.

00:00:29.000 So I'm in a good mood because I got to watch my kids have a really good time, and I got to pawn them off on the grandparents for a few minutes as well.

00:00:36.000 So it was really wonderful.

00:00:37.000 We'll get to all of the late breaking news, and there is some that is breaking right now.

00:00:41.000 I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Stamps.com.

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00:02:02.000 Okay, so

00:02:04.000 Okay, here we are.

00:02:05.000 Apparently, Mitch McConnell has made a new offer to Democrats on the government shutdown, and they are going to pursue it.

00:02:11.000 They are going to go for it.

00:02:14.000 What exactly was his new offer?

00:02:15.000 So, when last we left, our epic story, our epic story last week, it looked like the Democrats were going to run this government shutdown into the ground.

00:02:23.000 Their goal here was to make sure that Trump was in the middle of a government shutdown on the first anniversary of his inauguration.

00:02:29.000 Their outside goal may have been to make this thing last beyond the inauguration, beyond the State of the Union address, so that Trump would actually have to speak about the State of the Union in the middle of a government shutdown.

00:02:38.000 That looks like that's about to end.

00:02:39.000 And when I say about to end, I mean like right now as we are recording this show, it looks like they're about to take a vote that will end the government shutdown, which lasted

00:02:46.000 All in all, three days, two and a half days.

00:02:49.000 And that comes to an end as Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, offers the Democrats virtually nothing.

00:02:54.000 He says, we will have a short-term CR, a continuing resolution that funds the government through February 8th.

00:02:59.000 So it takes us past the State of the Union address.

00:03:01.000 And he says, before we get there, we will have a vote on DACA.

00:03:04.000 So we'll try another three weeks to come up with a vote on DACA.

00:03:06.000 If not, then I guess we'll have another government shutdown on February 8th when Democrats try to attach DACA legislation to the government budget, to the continuing resolution.

00:03:15.000 Remember, that's how this whole thing went down in the first place.

00:03:18.000 We needed to fund the government.

00:03:19.000 The Democrats said, we're not going to fund the government unless you give us DACA, unless you give us Obama's executive amnesty and a shrine in law.

00:03:25.000 Republicans said, we're not going to do that unless you give us some concessions.

00:03:27.000 Democrats said no.

00:03:29.000 And then we went into this government shutdown that started Friday night and is over by Monday morning.

00:03:33.000 So it really is not even worth the time.

00:03:36.000 Here was Chuck Schumer last week blaming Trump for it, suggesting that it was all Trump's fault this government shut down.

00:03:41.000 I love the shutdown clock on CNN.

00:03:44.000 I came back online Saturday night, but when I left for Sabbath,

00:03:49.000 The government had not yet shut down.

00:03:50.000 I came back on Saturday night, and lo and behold, everything was the same.

00:03:54.000 Like literally all of the things were the same.

00:03:56.000 No one's check had not gone out.

00:03:57.000 You have to wait until the first of the month for people's checks to not go out.

00:04:00.000 People were still going to receive their social security.

00:04:02.000 The government was still going to collect all of its revenue.

00:04:05.000 The government was going to continue to function.

00:04:08.000 90% of the government continues to function during a government shutdown.

00:04:10.000 88 to 90% of the government continues to function as essential services during a government shutdown.

00:04:15.000 And yet we were supposed to believe, look at that counter on CNN, that this was the end of the world.

00:04:19.000 Right?

00:04:19.000 Oh my God, we're counting down to Armageddon.

00:04:21.000 The asteroid is finally going to hit Earth.

00:04:23.000 Here is Chuck Schumer blaming Trump for it, although Trump really had little to do with it, the Senate Minority Leader, who thought that he was going to get a big win out of this.

00:04:30.000 Now, it's possible Schumer can still get a win out of this if Mitch McConnell then makes a bad DACA deal.

00:04:35.000 He didn't say, it was really the threat of my government shutdown that forced the Republicans into a bad DACA deal.

00:04:42.000 They didn't want to redo this in February.

00:04:45.000 So a lot depends on what comes next.

00:04:46.000 But here is Senate Minority Leader Schumer going after Trump.

00:04:49.000 Americans know why the dysfunction is occurring.

00:04:52.000 A dysfunctional president.

00:04:54.000 Hence, we are in a Trump shutdown.

00:04:58.000 And party leaders who won't act without him.

00:05:01.000 Only President Trump can end it.

00:05:04.000 We Democrats are at the table, ready to negotiate.

00:05:07.000 The President needs to pull up a chair and end this shutdown.

00:05:13.000 Okay, so the President did not, in fact, have to pull up a chair and end the shutdown.

00:05:16.000 Chuck Schumer ended the shutdown.

00:05:17.000 The White House was doing a pretty good job of undermining the Democratic claims on this.

00:05:21.000 The Democrats were basically making two claims.

00:05:23.000 One, Republicans are responsible for the shutdown.

00:05:25.000 Two, we have to shut down the government to get DACA.

00:05:28.000 Those claims are not coherent.

00:05:29.000 You cannot claim both, right?

00:05:31.000 They are sort of in conflict with one another.

00:05:33.000 Anytime there's a government shutdown that one party is responsible for, and in this case it was the Democrats who were filibustering, right?

00:05:38.000 The Republicans had the votes to get past the government shutdown to fund a continuing resolution.

00:05:43.000 Democrats were forcing that bar to go up to 60 votes as opposed to 51 in the Senate through use of the filibuster.

00:05:49.000 You can't argue, we're shutting down the government because it's so important to shut down the government, and also it's the other side's fault the government is shutting down.

00:05:55.000 Because message number one, we're shutting down the government for this other priority, suggests the government shutdown is less important than the other priority.

00:06:02.000 Message number two, it's your fault, suggests the government shutdown is a terrible thing and should never happen in any case.

00:06:07.000 So, yeah, a stupid move by the Democrats.

00:06:10.000 Here was the White House comment line.

00:06:11.000 The White House did something clever.

00:06:13.000 When you call the White House comment line, no one picks up the phone.

00:06:15.000 No one picked up the phone before, but now they left an outgoing message saying, the reason we're not here is because Democrats shut down the government.

00:06:23.000 Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because Congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate.

00:06:36.000 Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down.

00:06:39.000 Okay, I love that.

00:06:40.000 I have to admit, I really like that.

00:06:41.000 I think that that is good politics.

00:06:43.000 I think what the White House is doing by simply messaging outright is smart.

00:06:46.000 Mike Pence did the same thing.

00:06:47.000 He was speaking in front of the military, and he was asked about pay to American troops, and here's what he had to say.

00:06:52.000 You know, I'm sure you're all aware of what's going on in Washington, D.C.

00:06:57.000 Despite bipartisan support for a budget resolution, a minority in the Senate has decided to play politics with military pay.

00:07:04.000 But you deserve better.

00:07:06.000 You and your family shouldn't have to worry for one minute about whether you're going to get paid as you serve in the uniform of the United States.

00:07:14.000 So know this.

00:07:15.000 Your president, your vice president, and the American people are not going to put up with it.

00:07:21.000 Okay, so that was, you know, all of this is smart politicking by the White House.

00:07:25.000 The brutal, the most brutal politicking came courtesy of Trump himself.

00:07:27.000 So, the Trump administration released an ad accusing Democrats of being complicit in all murders by illegal immigrants, basically, suggesting that the Democrats are upholding the rights of illegal immigrants to stay in the country over funding of our military, and then going even further.

00:07:42.000 President Trump is right.

00:07:44.000 Build the wall.

00:07:45.000 Deport criminals.

00:07:46.000 Stop illegal immigration now.

00:07:48.000 Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.

00:07:54.000 President Trump will fix our border and keep our families safe.

00:07:58.000 OK, so this is paid for by Trump for president.

00:08:01.000 So this is his re-election campaign, and he's running a full ad basically saying, side with illegal immigrants, don't side with illegal immigrants, side with members of our military, side with the people who need to be funded by the budget.

00:08:13.000 This is hardcore politicking, but I kind of like it.

00:08:15.000 I'll admit it.

00:08:16.000 People get very uptight about the Willie Horton ad, which was taken out against Michael Dukakis, who allowed a guy on furlough who then went out, Willie Horton, and killed William Horton, I guess, and then killed a couple of people, is my understanding.

00:08:27.000 And there was an ad that was quite brutal and it really hurt Michael Dukakis.

00:08:30.000 People are saying this ad is too much.

00:08:32.000 I don't see what's politically stupid about the ad.

00:08:34.000 Most Americans agree with this.

00:08:35.000 They don't want Democrats

00:08:37.000 Standing up for illegal immigrants in the country for no reason.

00:08:40.000 They're not up for that.

00:08:42.000 And the idea of Democrats siding with illegal immigrants over American citizens, I think, strikes them as weird.

00:08:47.000 That's why, you know, Paul Ryan came out, he said he didn't think that this ad was necessarily productive, but it was productive.

00:08:52.000 I mean, it actually did help force the Democrats into a corner.

00:08:54.000 They were not winning this government shutdown, at least in terms of the public debate.

00:08:57.000 Well, they're certainly not helping us keep the government open.

00:08:59.000 They're certainly not helping us get into a solution on immigration.

00:09:01.000 When you shut down the government and stop negotiating on immigration reform, they're complicit with not getting things done.

00:09:07.000 I'm not going to comment on that.

00:09:08.000 I just saw that.

00:09:09.000 I don't know if that's necessarily productive.

00:09:12.000 It's no secret the president has strong views on immigration.

00:09:14.000 But what is not productive is a pointless government shutdown that the Senate Democrats have foisted on this country.

00:09:21.000 OK, so, you know, I disagree with Ryan here.

00:09:23.000 I think it was productive.

00:09:24.000 During the government shutdown, you've got to bring the bricks and you've got to hit each other with them.

00:09:27.000 I mean, that's basically what Obama did during the last government shutdown.

00:09:30.000 Now, Trump did—I think the White House did a fine job handling this.

00:09:33.000 What comes next is going to be questionable, because, again, Mitch McConnell has offered a deal.

00:09:37.000 So I'm going to talk about that deal in one second and what has to happen here, because now the onus is sort of on Trump.

00:09:42.000 It'll be interesting to see

00:09:44.000 This is the first time that Republicans are sort of going to be divided on politics on any matter of serious consequence.

00:09:50.000 They were divided on Obamacare repeal.

00:09:53.000 There was confusion.

00:09:54.000 I think that there may be similar confusion, I guess, the second time.

00:09:56.000 There may be similar confusion over immigration.

00:09:59.000 I'll explain that in just a second.

00:10:00.000 First, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Skillshare.

00:10:03.000 I think so.

00:10:20.000 I think so.

00:10:43.000 Okay, so, speaking of the Republicans being confused on this.

00:11:10.000 What comes next after the government shutdown?

00:11:12.000 So, as I say, Mitch McConnell has promised that there will be a vote on immigration, right?

00:11:16.000 That there will be a vote on immigration at some point here.

00:11:19.000 Before February 8th.

00:11:20.000 But what does that actually look like?

00:11:21.000 So, the only deal that is currently on the table, the only deal that is currently being discussed is a bill from Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

00:11:33.000 And it would, according to The Hill, offer a pathway to citizenship for so-called dreamers and permission to stay in the country for their parents.

00:11:39.000 And what would Republicans get in return for basically legalizing?

00:11:42.000 This could be up to 8 million people.

00:11:43.000 They'd get $2 billion in border security funding.

00:11:46.000 Can be a giant fail of a bill.

00:11:48.000 A giant fail.

00:11:48.000 There'll be no serious changes to the visa diversity lottery.

00:11:52.000 There'll be no serious changes to the chain migration laws.

00:11:57.000 There'll be no serious changes to immigration.

00:11:58.000 Basically, it'll be Trump caving on DACA, knowing the deadline is coming up in March, and knowing that another deadline is coming up in terms of the continuing resolution as of February 8th.

00:12:06.000 Now, the White House opposes that deal.

00:12:07.000 They say 8 million illegal immigrants could be allowed to stay.

00:12:10.000 This is according to Daily Wire.

00:12:11.000 Graham, meanwhile, is attacking the special adviser to President Trump.

00:12:14.000 So Trump is being torn, I think, within his administration a little bit over this particular issue.

00:12:22.000 Lindsey Graham, of course, is the most dovish of all Republicans on immigration.

00:12:26.000 He says that Stephen Miller, who's one of the president's special advisers on immigration, is undermining the deal.

00:12:31.000 I have to say, I know Stephen.

00:12:33.000 I know him, I wouldn't say, like, really, really well, but I know Stephen relatively well.

00:12:37.000 There was a dinner that I was at in 2014, and the dinner was Jeff Sessions, Ann Coulter, Stephen Miller, me, and, like, one other guy.

00:12:45.000 And we were just sitting around talking immigration deep into the night.

00:12:48.000 And Miller and Coulter were very much on the same page.

00:12:50.000 Stephen and Ann are friends, I believe.

00:12:53.000 And Stephen is a wonk on immigration.

00:12:55.000 He's also incredibly hard-line on immigration.

00:12:57.000 He's also in the presidency on immigration.

00:12:59.000 As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we're going nowhere.

00:13:02.000 He's been an outlier for years.

00:13:21.000 OK, so the truth is that Miller is a very hardcore guy on immigration, but Graham is also an outlier.

00:13:28.000 He's much more dovish than the rest of the party.

00:13:29.000 This is just his latest and greatest attempt to move toward amnesty.

00:13:34.000 The White House is firing back on Graham directly.

00:13:36.000 Hogan Gidley said, quote, as long as Senator Graham chooses to support legislation that sides with people in this country illegally and unlawfully instead of our own American citizens, we're going nowhere.

00:13:45.000 He's been an outlier for years.

00:13:46.000 So this sets up the conflict.

00:13:48.000 Right, this sets up the conflict, because Democrats are going to offer some sort of pittance in exchange for DACA.

00:13:54.000 Gutierrez, I think this is, I'm trying to remember, Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat of Illinois, he came out and he said about the government shutdown, but he's really talking about DACA, that maybe we'll give Trump a little bit of funding for his wall.

00:14:05.000 If that's what we have to do in order to make sure that the dreamers stay, then fine.

00:14:08.000 Any deal approved by Luis Gutierrez is a garbage deal.

00:14:11.000 Okay, that's the rule of thumb.

00:14:12.000 Luis Gutierrez is the most dovish member of Congress on immigration, and particularly illegal immigration.

00:14:17.000 Here's what he had to say.

00:14:18.000 Look, I think the wall is a monumental waste of taxpayers' money.

00:14:24.000 And it's to build a monument to stupidity, and it's just idiotic.

00:14:30.000 Having said that, if that's what it's going to take in order to put 800,000 young men and women in this country, Dreamers, and put them in a safe place, and put them on a course to full integration in our society, if that's

00:14:47.000 What the hostage takers of the dreamers, if that's their ransom call, I say pay it.

00:14:54.000 Okay, so if he's saying, pay off the wall, give him a couple billion bucks for the wall, and then we'll get the dreamers in, that's a deal that no Republican should take.

00:15:02.000 Again, this is a great litmus test.

00:15:03.000 Anytime Luis Gutierrez is for something, you run the other way.

00:15:07.000 You just run the other way.

00:15:08.000 And one of the problems here is that for President Trump, when it comes to negotiation, he has proved not to be particularly adept at negotiation with Democrats.

00:15:14.000 Remember, he signed off on a budget deal last year.

00:15:16.000 He undermined Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and went far more dovish on immigration, I mean, on the budget, than his fellow Republicans would have had him do.

00:15:24.000 He got Republicans almost in trouble on this government shutdown.

00:15:26.000 Like, he tweeted out over the weekend this, right?

00:15:28.000 Here's what he tweeted, quote, OK, this is stupid strategy, what he was doing in the middle here.

00:15:45.000 The whole point was to blame Democrats for the shutdown, not to put the onus on Republicans to end the filibuster by going to the nuclear option, which of course would grant Democrats basically the precedent to do the exact same thing when they get into power again, which eventually they will.

00:15:58.000 I mean, the chances that Republicans rule forever are extraordinarily low.

00:16:01.000 I would say even chances that Republicans rule in the midterms are diminished.

00:16:06.000 So, you know, Trump is not great at negotiations.

00:16:09.000 I mean, this is the dirty little secret.

00:16:11.000 Trump is good at what he's good at—signing things, saying stuff.

00:16:15.000 Trump is not great when it comes to these negotiations in Congress, and so he should really stay out of them.

00:16:20.000 But now, it looks like there's a divide in the Republican side of the alley.

00:16:22.000 You've got the Republican doves on immigration, and Mitch McConnell has pledged to give a vote.

00:16:26.000 So what if the only bill that comes up is Graham's bill?

00:16:29.000 What do the Republicans in the House do?

00:16:31.000 Do they stymie it?

00:16:32.000 Do the Republicans in the House turn down the Graham Bill?

00:16:34.000 Do they fight against the Graham Bill?

00:16:35.000 Do they say, we'll go to another government shutdown?

00:16:38.000 And then the Democrats say, hey, listen, the Republicans and we voted for a bill that would have averted the government shutdown, and you guys wouldn't do it.

00:16:44.000 Do Republicans have the stones to do that in the House after the Senate passes something?

00:16:48.000 And then, does Trump have the capacity to actually veto something?

00:16:52.000 And that's the big question here.

00:16:53.000 Trump has never had to use his veto pen.

00:16:56.000 Grover Norquist, during the election cycle, made the suggestion that Trump's presidency was going to essentially be an auto pen, that Republicans would put up whatever they want in front of him and he would sign it.

00:17:04.000 And so far, that's been exactly the case.

00:17:06.000 Trump hasn't had to veto anything because he has a Republican Congress.

00:17:09.000 But what happens when his supposedly cherished priorities on immigration run up against the reality that a lot of Republicans disagree with him?

00:17:17.000 Is he going to veto such a bill?

00:17:19.000 Is his tough talk anything but tough talk?

00:17:21.000 Or is it just going to be that he lets it go past?

00:17:24.000 Now, he's made signals in the past that he's going to sign anything Congress puts in front of him, including a bad DACA deal.

00:17:29.000 If he does that, he'll lose a lot of his base, at least on immigration.

00:17:32.000 I don't think that a huge percentage will care, but the Ann Coulters, Mickey Causses of the world, they'll be very upset, obviously.

00:17:37.000 And there are going to be a lot of people who feel like he betrayed them if, after all of this hubbub over Obama's executive amnesty, Republicans

00:17:44.000 Republican Congress and a Republican president re-enshrine it in favor of $2 billion in increased border security.

00:17:53.000 The urgency is growing.

00:17:55.000 I mean, there's a report today

00:17:58.000 There's a report today that the border wall prototypes have been sitting there in the desert doing nothing, right?

00:18:03.000 We have a bunch of prototypes that have been sitting there in the desert.

00:18:05.000 And meanwhile, there's been a major surge.

00:18:07.000 There's been a major surge in illegal immigration.

00:18:10.000 And it continues to grow.

00:18:12.000 Because the economy is doing better.

00:18:13.000 This is how it always works, by the way.

00:18:15.000 Obama got a lot of credit for diminished illegal immigration.

00:18:17.000 That was not because of Obama.

00:18:18.000 That was because the economy was not very good under Obama for most of his tenure.

00:18:22.000 It was only at the end it started to pick up in any real way.

00:18:26.000 In the last year, of course, it's really been booming, so people are pouring into the country.

00:18:29.000 Mexico is not doing as well, so a lot of people are crossing the border illegally.

00:18:33.000 In December, U.S.

00:18:34.000 Border Patrol agents, according to Breitbart, apprehended almost 30,000 illegal immigrants trying to cross into the country between ports of entry.

00:18:41.000 That would be where the border wall is.

00:18:43.000 The idea that Republicans are going to cave on anything, but they may not get a full border wall, they may not get an end to diversity visa lottery, the idea that they may not get an end to chain migration.

00:18:55.000 It speaks to the fact that Trump may not have any serious principles.

00:18:59.000 This is going to be a real problem for him.

00:19:02.000 It's a serious issue.

00:19:04.000 It's a serious problem.

00:19:05.000 So, you know, I think that

00:19:07.000 This is going to be Trump's really first test.

00:19:09.000 He hasn't been tested yet.

00:19:10.000 His first test is going to be, what if Congress disagrees with him?

00:19:13.000 What if Congress decides that they are not going to go along with his hardcore Stephen Miller immigration plan?

00:19:20.000 Instead, they're going to go along with Lindsey Graham.

00:19:22.000 It's going to open up some serious questions inside the Republican Party.

00:19:26.000 And that cannot be good for President Trump.

00:19:29.000 So while the government shutdown is a loss for Schumer, as it currently stands, while the government shutdown does not look like it's a big win for Democrats,

00:19:37.000 We're good.

00:19:44.000 The fact is that the polling for Democrats has been bad.

00:19:47.000 There's a late poll that was coming out in the last two weeks that showed—well, last week, actually—that showed that Republicans have been picking up serious ground in the congressional polling.

00:19:54.000 It used to be Democrats plus 18 just two months ago.

00:19:56.000 Now it was Democrats plus 7.

00:19:58.000 That's a major shift in favor of Republicans.

00:20:00.000 That's because of the tax cuts.

00:20:01.000 It's also because Chuck Schumer is doing a bad job.

00:20:03.000 The last thing Democrats want is another one of these government shutdowns.

00:20:06.000 Republicans do have some leverage here.

00:20:07.000 So I'm encouraging Republicans, do not cave.

00:20:11.000 Do not cave.

00:20:12.000 If Democrats shut down the government again, they shut down the government again.

00:20:15.000 But do not give them a bill in the Senate that's going to be something they can't get past the House and get past President Trump.

00:20:20.000 You need to go with Trump's agenda here.

00:20:22.000 At least you need to go with what Trump's stated agenda was here, because caving, preemptively, is really, really foolish.

00:20:28.000 So, here we go.

00:20:31.000 Let's move on to the Mueller investigation, which has become more and more of a debacle over time.

00:20:39.000 More news that just is not good for the Mueller investigation.

00:20:41.000 First, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Ring.com.

00:20:44.000 So you've heard me talk about Ring's innovative home security camera devices for quite a while here.

00:20:48.000 They've been sending us actual footage of Ring busting crooks in the act.

00:20:51.000 This is one that I want to share with you.

00:20:53.000 So here's a little bit of the clip, okay?

00:20:55.000 There's a crazy-looking guy.

00:20:56.000 Hello?

00:20:57.000 Hey!

00:20:57.000 Are you okay?

00:20:57.000 Leave my house or I'm calling the police.

00:20:59.000 Okay, what you need to do... Hey, leave my house.

00:21:00.000 Stop now or I'm calling the police.

00:21:01.000 Why would you tell me that?

00:21:10.000 Because you're trying to push my door in.

00:21:27.000 Hehe.

00:21:39.000 Well, I mean, I am the Senate, I am the police.

00:21:42.000 This guy is... So this is what Ring.com can do for you.

00:21:47.000 Obviously, the police then show up.

00:21:49.000 But this guy would have continued bashing on the door if the homeowner's voice hadn't come on and started talking to this crazy loon bag.

00:21:53.000 I mean, this guy obviously has serious problems.

00:21:55.000 I hope he gets the help that he needs.

00:21:56.000 But you do have to laugh a little bit at the fact that the guy is asking the homeowner, why is he talking to him?

00:22:02.000 You literally just tried to kick in his door.

00:22:04.000 And then when he says, I am the police, with all of his three teeth, I'm, no.

00:22:09.000 No, you're not.

00:22:10.000 So, good thing they had the ring.

00:22:13.000 You can see what's going on at your front door and it gives you a lot more leeway to stop crime.

00:22:16.000 Pretty empowering.

00:22:17.000 With the Ring Floodlight and Spotlight Cams, you can build a ring of security around your entire property.

00:22:21.000 Ring lets you protect your home no matter where you are.

00:22:23.000 You can share your clips to help keep your neighbors on the lookout for suspicious activity.

00:22:26.000 Thieves can't just hide with Ring, so stop crime before it happens.

00:22:29.000 Help make your neighborhood safer with Ring.

00:22:31.000 Save up to $150.

00:22:32.000 I don't know.

00:22:48.000 This is actually big news that's breaking over the weekend.

00:22:50.000 Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio, he's going to be on Facebook Live with us a little bit later today because he wants to sort of give us the update on what's going on in the Mueller investigation.

00:23:00.000 There are a couple of pieces of breaking news that are quite crazy with regard to the Mueller investigation.

00:23:05.000 A lot of coincidences piling up with regard to the Mueller investigation and how it was conducted.

00:23:08.000 So, you recall, a lot of them come down to this one guy.

00:23:11.000 Peter Strozok.

00:23:12.000 It's spelled S-T-R-Z-O-K.

00:23:15.000 I have no idea how to pronounce this.

00:23:16.000 I'll just pronounce it Schrock.

00:23:17.000 I'll just pronounce it differently every time and make fun of his name.

00:23:20.000 In any case, this guy is an FBI agent.

00:23:23.000 He was having an affair with another FBI agent named Lisa Page.

00:23:26.000 They were both working on the Trump-Russia probe.

00:23:29.000 So we know that Strzok was involved in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

00:23:32.000 We know he had been involved in launching the Trump investigation.

00:23:35.000 And we know that he was staffed on it as well.

00:23:37.000 Now, we also know that Strzok texted Page on August 15, 2016 regarding Trump, quote, I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe's office that there's no way he gets elected, but I'm afraid we can't take that risk.

00:23:50.000 It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40.

00:23:54.000 Which makes it sound a lot like the Trump collusion investigation could be a way of stopping Trump's candidacy, right?

00:23:59.000 It's an insurance policy against stopping Trump from becoming president.

00:24:02.000 Now we learned that Stroke and Page send each other messages suggesting they knew before the FBI had reported to then Attorney General Loretta Lynch that Clinton was going to be exonerated.

00:24:12.000 On July 1, 2016, you recall Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced she'd do whatever FBI Director Comey told her to do.

00:24:20.000 That announcement followed a tarmac meeting in Arizona between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton.

00:24:24.000 That day, Stroke texted Page, quote, She's not supposed to know no charges will be brought.

00:24:35.000 Right?

00:24:36.000 The FBI was not supposed to be telling the DOJ what their judgment on this case was until the judgment was out.

00:24:41.000 But apparently Comey and the rest of the FBI had been regularly informing the Obama DOJ that Hillary would not be prosecuted, which is super corrupt.

00:24:48.000 And the coincidences don't stop there.

00:24:51.000 This is a crazy story.

00:24:52.000 This is the most insane coincidence of all.

00:24:53.000 So, something like 400 pages of text messages between FBI agents have been delivered to the Senate Oversight Committee.

00:25:00.000 Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, he announced on Monday that the FBI had somehow failed to deliver months of text between Stroke and Page.

00:25:07.000 Text beginning at December 14th, 2016, ending May 17th, 2017.

00:25:13.000 What happened that day?

00:25:14.000 That's the exact day that Mueller was appointed to head the investigation.

00:25:17.000 So in other words, all text before Mueller took over the investigation from December to May were deleted.

00:25:23.000 The FBI says they were lost in a technical glitch.

00:25:26.000 How do you lose just the text that we need?

00:25:29.000 How do you lose precisely the text that determined the shaping of that Russia collusion investigation?

00:25:34.000 During that period of time, you had Trump's inauguration, all of the activity with Mike Flynn, Mike Flynn's firing, the Manafort—I believe the Manafort investigation ran into high gear—the firing of James Comey.

00:25:47.000 All of this stuff was happening in that time, and we have none of the texts between Stroke and Carter Page?

00:25:51.000 None of them?

00:25:53.000 So, Representative Jordan has called for a second special counsel to investigate the first special counsel now.

00:25:58.000 He tweeted out earlier today that it was time for some sort of investigation.

00:26:15.000 Well, yes.

00:26:16.000 Yes, I believe that it is.

00:26:18.000 I believe that it is.

00:26:18.000 I mean, just for the sake of my own peace of mind and for the sake of the peace of mind of the American people, there's a lot of suspicion of this investigation.

00:26:26.000 Now, there would have been anyway, but that suspicion is really high, particularly after the so-called memo that people want released that was supposed to shed light on how the FISA warrant was originally garnered from the Obama administration to check out Carter Page.

00:26:41.000 And now you have all these deleted FBI texts and you have these texts between Stroke and Page and Lisa Page, no relation to Carter, suggesting that there was a sort of conspiracy afoot in all of this.

00:26:53.000 It's just, it's all insane.

00:26:55.000 I mean, how was this investigation run this badly?

00:26:58.000 Now Mueller wasn't there for all of this, right?

00:26:59.000 He fired Lisa Page and he fired Peter Stroke upon taking the office.

00:27:04.000 That has nothing to do with Mueller, but you have sort of a fruit of the poisonous tree thing going on.

00:27:07.000 Now in law, there's something called fruit of the poisonous tree.

00:27:09.000 Basically the idea is that if I break into your house illegally, I'm the police.

00:27:13.000 I break into your house illegally and I find evidence that you murdered someone.

00:27:16.000 I can't use that evidence in court because it's fruit of the poisonous tree.

00:27:19.000 Because I broke the law in order to obtain the evidence.

00:27:22.000 Well, the same thing sort of holds true with regard to this investigation.

00:27:24.000 If the investigation was launched on the basis that there was a Democratic op-ed research file from Fusion GPS that was used for political reasons by the FBI to target Carter Page and therefore the Trump campaign, and if it turns out that separate from that, the FBI was exonerating Hillary Clinton for political reasons at the same time they were investigating Trump, and if it turns out that separate from that,

00:27:44.000 There are members of the FBI who are texting each other that the Trump collusion investigation was actually a way to prevent Trump from becoming president.

00:27:53.000 And if after that it turns out that the FBI purposefully deleted months of texts between two of their key agents in all of this, I think the American people have a right to know, and the American people might have some serious questions.

00:28:04.000 All of this calls into serious question our faith in our institutions.

00:28:07.000 It was our lack of faith—this is deeply troubling to me—the lack of faith in our institutions that already exists.

00:28:13.000 I think so.

00:28:35.000 Unfortunately, the human tendency is not toward liberty when it comes to misuse of institutions.

00:28:40.000 It's toward the belief that those institutions can be corrected if they have the proper leadership.

00:28:44.000 The founders disagreed, but that's unfortunately how most people think.

00:28:47.000 None of this is good, right?

00:28:49.000 You want institutions that are worthy of our trust.

00:28:51.000 Right now, I'm not sure the FBI is completely worthy of our trust, if what we're hearing is true.

00:28:57.000 The Obama DOJ certainly was not worthy of our trust.

00:29:00.000 And for all the flack that Jeff Sessions has gotten, Jeff Sessions' DOJ has operated much more along the lines of law than the Obama DOJ has.

00:29:06.000 I mean, he literally had the sitting Attorney General of the United States calling himself the President of the United States' wingman.

00:29:12.000 That is not exactly what we want from the head of the DOJ and the chief law enforcement officer in the country.

00:29:18.000 All these institutions now need a thorough cleansing, top to bottom.

00:29:22.000 They all need to feel clean to the American people.

00:29:25.000 I don't know if Trump is capable of doing that, by the way.

00:29:27.000 It may be left up to the next president, because Trump is so politicized, because his presidency is so despised by so many.

00:29:32.000 Anything he does is not going to be seen as cleaning house, except by members of his base and maybe some Republicans.

00:29:37.000 But that said,

00:29:38.000 Another oversight investigation of this investigation may be necessary.

00:29:43.000 The Mueller investigation itself may be fatally flawed at this point.

00:29:46.000 We'll have to see what comes out from it.

00:29:48.000 Democrats are hoping there's a kill shot in there.

00:29:49.000 If there is no kill shot, then this is going to be seen, I think,

00:29:53.000 Half-rightly, as Trump says, is one of the greater political witch hunts in modern American political history.

00:29:59.000 If nothing major comes out of this and went on for a year, and it was Democrats in the media propping up this nonsense, then there's going to be hell to pay.

00:30:06.000 There will be political hell to pay.

00:30:07.000 And Democrats will have made a huge, huge mistake.

00:30:10.000 One that, in its inception, goes back again, as always, to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

00:30:14.000 OK, so in just a minute, I want to talk about the Women's March that happened over the weekend.

00:30:18.000 I want to talk about the pro-life march that happened over the weekend.

00:30:21.000 Things I like, things I hate, a Federalist paper.

00:30:23.000 We're going to have to go over to Daily Wire and subscribe.

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00:31:20.000 So as we speak right now, it's worth noting that Dick Durbin is thanking Democratic senators for shutting down the government over DACA.

00:31:26.000 He's trying to make excuses for why he led them into this suicide strategy, into this box canyon of politics.

00:31:31.000 He said, you stuck your necks out, and I'm going to go on record, even if it's hard to explain back home.

00:31:36.000 That's code for it's hard to explain back home, and we made a big mistake here.

00:31:39.000 And then he dumped on Trump a lot and talked about how Trump was really bad.

00:31:42.000 But Democrats obviously lost on this one.

00:31:46.000 They all lost.

00:31:47.000 Luis Gutierrez has tweeted out, quote, So now he's saying that he's very angry that Republicans are going to stick to Republican principles, as well they should.

00:31:54.000 As well they should.

00:31:54.000 So, we'll see how all of this plays out and whether the Republicans have the stomach to actually stand up for all of this.

00:32:14.000 So, I guess that the next CR, the next continuing resolution date, is February 8th.

00:32:19.000 So, if you enjoyed this government shutdown, you'll get government shutdown 2, the revenge, on February 8th, unless there's some sort of deal that gets cut.

00:32:29.000 Okay, so, meanwhile, over the weekend, there were a couple of big marches.

00:32:35.000 One was the pro-life march.

00:32:36.000 The other was the women's march.

00:32:37.000 The Pro-Life March is one of the great events that happens every year.

00:32:40.000 Hundreds of thousands of people show up in Washington, D.C.

00:32:42.000 to protest the Roe v. Wade decision.

00:32:43.000 For those who don't know, the Roe v. Wade decision is legitimately one of the worst judicial decisions in the history of the United States.

00:32:49.000 It stands up alongside Dred Scott as an egregious violation of human rights, as well as a breach of constitutional protocol.

00:32:55.000 There is nothing in the Constitution.

00:32:57.000 Nothing.

00:32:58.000 Zero things about your right to kill your own baby.

00:33:01.000 Nothing.

00:33:02.000 In fact, there's a good case to be made that the Constitution of the United States, which is dedicated to equal protection of the laws, that that should apply to unborn children.

00:33:12.000 That the idea that you should be able to kill a child for convenience is just plainly insane.

00:33:16.000 This is a case the pro-life movement makes.

00:33:18.000 They say the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection of the laws should apply to unborn children.

00:33:22.000 The Roe v. Wade decision, which

00:33:24.000 Is it?

00:33:46.000 Certainly not one that extends to you doing something as non-private as going out to a doctor and having that doctor perform a surgery on you that kills a baby.

00:33:54.000 That is not a private act.

00:33:57.000 Your medical records may be private, and they're guarded against government unreasonable search and seizure.

00:34:03.000 But if you're acting on a third party, under libertarian principles, libertarians can take a pro-life position here.

00:34:08.000 If that baby is a baby, you do not get to harm it, just as if I am a person, you do not get to harm me.

00:34:13.000 The latter is probably more questionable than the former.

00:34:16.000 So the fact that, as far as the humanity of the people involved, the fact is that the pro-life march, it's demonstrative of the fact that there are a lot of people in the United States who still care about civil rights.

00:34:26.000 It's so funny, the media do this routine where they talk about the great civil rights issues of our time.

00:34:30.000 Now they're always trying to

00:34:33.000 Make things akin, to liken, make analogies between race and women's issues, or race and gay issues, or race and transgender issues.

00:34:44.000 None of these comparisons hold.

00:34:45.000 Women are not treated remotely like black people were treated in the United States today.

00:34:49.000 Gay people are not treated remotely like black people were treated in the United States

00:34:53.000 Also, the idea that homosexual acts are on the same par as color of skin is inane.

00:34:58.000 It just logically does not hold to suggest that even if there were government regulation of homosexual activity, which I oppose, by the way.

00:35:04.000 I'm a libertarian.

00:35:05.000 I oppose that.

00:35:06.000 But even if there were, that is not the same thing as regulations on somebody's race.

00:35:10.000 Race is an immutable characteristic.

00:35:12.000 Sexual activity is activity.

00:35:14.000 Your orientation may be immutable.

00:35:16.000 Maybe.

00:35:17.000 I mean, there's some scientific evidence that goes both ways, but

00:35:20.000 There's no question that activity is mutable, right?

00:35:22.000 All activity is mutable.

00:35:23.000 So it's not quite the same thing as I'm discriminating against you because of the color of your skin.

00:35:28.000 So that analogy doesn't hold either.

00:35:29.000 The transgender analogy certainly doesn't hold.

00:35:31.000 The idea that transgender people in the United States are being treated like black people in the United States or that these two things are akin

00:35:38.000 That the disorder that is gender identity disorder, or gender dysphoria, whatever you wish to call it, that that is akin to being black, is just insane.

00:35:45.000 Again, there is no manifestation in behavior with regard to being black.

00:35:50.000 There is manifestation in behavior with regard to transgenderism inherently, so long as you are claiming you are a member of the opposite sex.

00:35:56.000 In any case, there is one civil rights issue that is very much akin to the civil rights issues that are facing black folks.

00:36:02.000 And that is the treatment of unborn children as second class citizens, or worse, as chattel.

00:36:08.000 The truth is that when you're talking about the murder of unborn citizens, what you're talking about is more on par with slavery than it is with Jim Crow.

00:36:14.000 You're talking about killing.

00:36:16.000 You're talking about the treatment of people as property.

00:36:19.000 What you're talking about when you say that a mother has the right to abort her baby for any reason whatsoever is that that baby is her property and she can dispose of it as she will.

00:36:26.000 The people who are marching in Washington, D.C.

00:36:27.000 deserve the same respect as civil rights heroes

00:36:31.000 As the media tried to accord to the women's marchers.

00:36:34.000 I mean, the media have been making this big deal out of women's marchers.

00:36:36.000 Again, women have never had it better in the history of mankind than they have in the United States today.

00:36:40.000 They just have not.

00:36:42.000 Anybody who argues with this knows nothing about world history or about multiculturalism.

00:36:47.000 They're celebrating cultures very often that hate women, that despise women.

00:36:52.000 But the Women's Marches nonetheless have been paid honor and tribute by the vast majority of media outlets.

00:36:58.000 They were given front-page status.

00:37:00.000 My understanding is that the attendance was way off this year from the Women's Marches last year, because the Women's Marches last year were a coincidence with Trump's inauguration.

00:37:09.000 Millions of people attended those.

00:37:10.000 I don't think the Women's Marches this year were anywhere close to that.

00:37:15.000 What I'm seeing is that, let's see, it looks like they have a list here.

00:37:21.000 Over at Heavy.com.

00:37:23.000 So, in New York, it was about 85,000 people, I guess.

00:37:26.000 That is not close to what it was last year.

00:37:28.000 In Richmond, Virginia, it was like 1,000 people.

00:37:30.000 In Chicago, Chicago was the only place where it actually increased.

00:37:35.000 Apparently, there were 300,000 people who participated in the march.

00:37:37.000 There were only about 12,000 people in D.C.

00:37:39.000 Last year, it drew half a million people.

00:37:41.000 Half a million people.

00:37:43.000 In L.A., a lot of people showed up.

00:37:45.000 There were about 700,000 who participated last year.

00:37:48.000 There were about 500,000 who participated this year.

00:37:51.000 A lot of bored people who feel like marching on a Sunday.

00:37:53.000 The weather was good yesterday, so I guess that if you have nothing better to do, I guess you can go and march.

00:37:56.000 Also, all these women, I mean, they weren't watching the football games, so I guess they left their boyfriends and husbands at home and decided to go march for women's rights while their husbands sat home and ate Cheetos and actually enjoyed themselves.

00:38:07.000 So, again, the idea that these women are marching for anything material, I'm wondering what exactly they're marching for.

00:38:11.000 They always say equal pay for equal work.

00:38:13.000 They've achieved equal pay for equal work.

00:38:15.000 If they're marching for broader acceptance of opposition to sexual harassment and sexual assault, I don't know what they're marching for, since I'm not sure who is in favor of sexual harassment and sexual assault outside of Hollywood executives and apparently all of the fellow actors of the actresses who are speaking at this march.

00:38:31.000 Nonetheless, Jessica Chastain appeared on Saturday Night Live to push the women's marches, and here's what she had to say.

00:38:37.000 But I'm really excited to be here, especially today, because this weekend is the one-year anniversary of the Women's March.

00:38:44.000 Yes.

00:38:44.000 And everyone knows women never forget an anniversary.

00:38:51.000 So today, hundreds of thousands of people were out there for the cause, and they are so, so brave, because it's the worst flu season ever.

00:39:00.000 God bless them.

00:39:02.000 I wish I could have been there marching alongside him.

00:39:04.000 Hey, we'll march with you, Jessica.

00:39:06.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:39:07.000 I'm always wearing practical footwear.

00:39:08.000 Girls, let's tell him what's up.

00:39:25.000 Okay, is this funny?

00:39:26.000 Did I miss the part where SNL turned into literally just a fundraiser for Democrats?

00:39:31.000 It's really, really awful.

00:39:33.000 Remember, this is on Saturday Night Live, a show that used to be funny at some point, and now we've got a bunch of women who can't sing.

00:39:38.000 First of all, if you can't sing, don't sing.

00:39:41.000 Okay, I'm a good violinist, and I don't make my violin playing the centerpiece of what I do, because I'm not at the level of Hilary Hahn, right?

00:39:48.000 These women cannot sing at all, and yet SNL features them every week singing.

00:39:52.000 I guess that the Me Too movement means that they also get to sing badly.

00:39:56.000 But they get to sing more often because, I guess, they're social justice warrior-ing.

00:40:00.000 Jessica Chastain, by the way, is unbelievably wealthy.

00:40:04.000 Jessica Chastain made at least a couple of million dollars for The Martian, and people are complaining, oh, Matt Damon made $18 million for The Martian, and Jessica Chastain only made a couple of million bucks for The Martian.

00:40:12.000 Right, she's in it for like 10 minutes.

00:40:14.000 Was Jessica Chastain even in The Martian?

00:40:16.000 I don't even remember her being in it.

00:40:17.000 The entire movie is Matt Damon on Mars.

00:40:20.000 That's the entire film.

00:40:21.000 Of course he made more money.

00:40:22.000 Also, Matt Damon happens to be something called a box office draw.

00:40:26.000 Nobody goes to see a Jessica Chastain movie.

00:40:28.000 No one.

00:40:28.000 I like Jessica Chastain as an actress.

00:40:30.000 I think she's good.

00:40:31.000 But the idea that people went to see Zero Dark Thirty because they were desperate to see Jessica Chastain in a film.

00:40:36.000 What has Molly's game earned?

00:40:38.000 I want to look at the earnings for Molly's Game.

00:40:40.000 Okay, Molly's Game is now out.

00:40:42.000 So let's look at the box office.

00:40:44.000 Let's see if we can get some box office stats for that massive hit.

00:40:48.000 It has now earned $28.1 million.

00:40:49.000 Miss Sloan, which she also starred in last year, earned a whopping $9.1 million at the box office.

00:40:58.000 I'm going to look up Jessica Chastain's IMDb because whenever people complain about the wage gap in Hollywood, it makes no sense whatsoever.

00:41:07.000 All of her films that have been successful were successful because everyone else in the film is a box office draw.

00:41:15.000 Let's just be totally frank about this.

00:41:17.000 Here are the films that she starred in where she was the leading lady.

00:41:20.000 Okay?

00:41:20.000 Woman Walks Ahead.

00:41:22.000 Never even heard of it.

00:41:23.000 Zookeeper's Wife.

00:41:24.000 Earned nothing.

00:41:25.000 Miss Sloan.

00:41:25.000 Total box office bomb.

00:41:27.000 Crimson Peak.

00:41:28.000 Mmm.

00:41:29.000 The Martian.

00:41:30.000 Matt Damon starrer.

00:41:31.000 Made lots of money.

00:41:32.000 A Most Violent Year.

00:41:33.000 Very small film.

00:41:35.000 It's her and Oscar Isaac.

00:41:37.000 She's very good in it.

00:41:38.000 But again, very small film.

00:41:39.000 Interstellar.

00:41:40.000 She's not the star of it.

00:41:41.000 Matthew McConaughey's the star of it.

00:41:43.000 And it's a Christopher Nolan film, so it made lots of money.

00:41:46.000 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.

00:41:48.000 Made no money.

00:41:49.000 Salome.

00:41:50.000 Mama.

00:41:52.000 She's Mama in Annabelle.

00:41:53.000 Okay, but that is not actually, or no, she's Annabelle in the movie Mama, which I've never even heard of.

00:41:59.000 Zero Dark Thirty, like, these are not big box office draws.

00:42:02.000 None of them.

00:42:03.000 Zero of these things are big box office draws, but we're supposed to worry about her wage gap with Matt Damon?

00:42:07.000 Okay, now I'm gonna read you Matt Damon's IMDb, okay?

00:42:11.000 Okay, Matt Damon's IMDb.

00:42:13.000 Here are the films that Matt Damon has starred in over the last few years.

00:42:17.000 Okay, he was the producer on Jason Bourne, which made a bajillion dollars.

00:42:21.000 Okay, he was also, let's see, what did he act in?

00:42:24.000 Oh, so he was in Thor Ragnarok, where he was uncredited.

00:42:28.000 He was in The Great Wall, which made a bajillion dollars in China.

00:42:30.000 Jason Bourne made a bajillion dollars.

00:42:31.000 The Martian, a bajillion dollars.

00:42:33.000 Interstellar, a bajillion dollars.

00:42:36.000 Elysium, which is a big budget, but it busted.

00:42:40.000 The guy's actually a box office draw, and then people are like, oh well, why is she earning less than Matt Damon?

00:42:44.000 What women are marching for?

00:42:46.000 If you're marching for we want to be treated equally, then I'm going to treat you equally.

00:42:49.000 You suck at singing, don't sing ever again on national TV.

00:42:51.000 Okay?

00:42:52.000 Let's just start with that.

00:42:53.000 And also, if you're going to stand for equality, I'd like half of Jessica Chastain's paycheck for every movie that she makes.

00:42:58.000 Because, my goodness, all these women on SNL, I mean, for the quality—by the way, everyone on SNL should donate their salary to charity given the fact they suck so much lately.

00:43:07.000 Just awful.

00:43:08.000 It wasn't, by the way, just Jessica Chastain.

00:43:10.000 Kirsten Bell, over the weekend there was the SAG Awards, and I haven't seen this movie Three Billboards, which is winning all of the awards.

00:43:18.000 Have you seen it yet, Mathis?

00:43:20.000 So we'll have to see it, and I'll give you my opinion after I see it, because I have a feeling I'm not going to like it very much.

00:43:25.000 That's why I've been holding off on seeing it.

00:43:26.000 But in any case, Kirsten Bell felt the need to slap at Melania Trump, because why not?

00:43:31.000 I mean, it's just such a fun thing to do.

00:43:36.000 Good evening, my friends.

00:43:37.000 Welcome to the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

00:43:44.000 You know, there has never been a host for this award show before.

00:43:47.000 Yeah, it's the first time.

00:43:48.000 First person.

00:43:49.000 First lady.

00:43:50.000 Right?

00:43:53.000 And I honestly never thought that I would grow up to be the first lady, but you know what?

00:43:57.000 I kind of like it.

00:43:59.000 I think my first initiative as first lady will be

00:44:03.000 Cyberbullying.

00:44:04.000 Because I have yet to see any progress made on that problem quite yet.

00:44:09.000 And I'm looking at you, Tony Hale.

00:44:12.000 You're a bully.

00:44:13.000 You guys, he's savage on Twitter.

00:44:15.000 I'm serious.

00:44:16.000 So obviously that slapped Melania, who's leading a cyberbullying initiative because President Trump is a bully on Twitter.

00:44:22.000 I don't know.

00:44:40.000 I'm going to say something politically incorrect now.

00:44:42.000 When all of these women are pushing Time's Up, and they're pushing Don't Sexually Harass Me, and they're pushing Treat Me the Same as Men, and then Kirsten Bell wears a dress that is cut down to the navel, I'm just suggesting to women that if you want men to treat you in a non-sexualized way, that that may not be the strongest move.

00:44:58.000 The suggestion is, you can dress however you want, and men still shouldn't treat you in any way other than respectful.

00:45:03.000 But just as a point of risk allocation, as a point of, you don't want to be treated, you want to be treated less in a certain way, there's certain activities that you can do that will make you treated more in a certain way.

00:45:13.000 You wear a dress cut down your navel, men are going to look at your dress differently than if you do not wear a dress cut down your navel.

00:45:17.000 End of story, that's just the way human nature works.

00:45:19.000 Again, that's not a justification, but it is a hint.

00:45:23.000 Okay, time for some things I like, and then some things I hate, and then a Federalist paper.

00:45:26.000 So, things I like.

00:45:28.000 Over the weekend, I was—I've just started my latest Brandon Sanderson book.

00:45:32.000 I'm a big fantasy sci-fi fan.

00:45:36.000 There are not very good—many good fantasy books, is the truth.

00:45:38.000 Most fantasy books are quite terrible.

00:45:39.000 There are some pretty good sci-fi books.

00:45:41.000 There are a lot of good sci-fi books.

00:45:42.000 Actually, I would suggest that a lot of the books in the Star Wars canon are better than a lot of the sequels that have been made, right?

00:45:48.000 A lot of the Timothy Zahn books.

00:45:49.000 I remember reading those when I was younger, and I remember really enjoying those.

00:45:51.000 I'll have to go back and reread them.

00:45:52.000 But in any case, one of the better fantasy writers on the scene today, I would say the best, is Brandon Sanderson.

00:45:57.000 He has his new book out called Oathbringer.

00:46:01.000 Oathbreaker?

00:46:02.000 Oathbringer?

00:46:03.000 I'll check it out.

00:46:03.000 But in any case, the old trilogy that he wrote that's really good is the Mistborn trilogy.

00:46:08.000 I believe they're making a series out of this now.

00:46:10.000 It's really creative, and he does a lot of world building, so the entire basis of it is that there's a certain set of people

00:46:16.000 We're good to go.

00:46:34.000 Every fantasy book is 700 pages.

00:46:36.000 It sells by the pound, not even by the page.

00:46:39.000 But the Mistborn trilogy is really worth reading, so go ahead and check that out.

00:46:42.000 It's a lot of fun.

00:46:43.000 Okay, other things that I like.

00:46:44.000 So, I was ripping on Hollywood earlier, but I will say that the SAG Awards did something correct.

00:46:48.000 They did something better than the Emmy Awards.

00:46:50.000 They actually invited some of the women who had been victimized in Me Too, and then they had them speak.

00:46:55.000 So they had Rosanna Arquette and Marisa Tomei, who paid tribute to the Silencebreakers.

00:47:00.000 I believe Rosanna Arquette is one of the original women who alleged something.

00:47:03.000 She had alleged that she was assaulted, I believe, by Harvey Weinstein, if I'm not incorrect.

00:47:07.000 In any case, they actually invited the women, which was something that the Emmys should have done, and they spoke about it openly, which if Hollywood wants to get past this, they should all do.

00:47:16.000 And Rosanna, you are one of those voices.

00:47:18.000 You're one of the silence breakers, and we all owe you a debt of gratitude.

00:47:27.000 I'm here supporting

00:47:30.000 Many women.

00:47:32.000 Asiara Gentle, Hannabella Sciorra, Ashley Judd, Daryl Hannah, Mira Sovino.

00:47:39.000 So many.

00:47:40.000 Anthony Rapp.

00:47:41.000 I'm Anthony Rapp.

00:47:42.000 Thank you.

00:47:43.000 Olivia Munn.

00:47:46.000 All of you.

00:47:46.000 Thank you.

00:47:47.000 Okay, so still, the one who never gets mentioned here is Rose McGowan, who got the whole thing started in the first place.

00:47:53.000 She's still been blackballed by Hollywood, so I guess that she's never going to be thanked from the stage.

00:47:56.000 But at least they're starting to bring forth the actual woman who did this, as opposed to the posturing from a bunch of women who didn't actually say anything about this stuff for years.

00:48:03.000 Okay, other things that I like.

00:48:04.000 So the Eagles beat the Vikings yesterday, which is too bad.

00:48:07.000 I was rooting for the Vikings, at least insofar as I was rooting, which is not very hard.

00:48:11.000 This was pretty funny.

00:48:12.000 So a lot of the Eagles fans had been climbing.

00:48:14.000 They had an evening with poles over there.

00:48:16.000 Apparently the Eagles fans, when they win, have been climbing the actual, like, light poles in the city.

00:48:21.000 But this guy had a different experience with a pole.

00:48:24.000 He was running after the bus in Philadelphia after the game, and this is the hardest shot that anybody took from the Minnesota defense yesterday.

00:48:36.000 He's running.

00:48:36.000 Boom!

00:48:39.000 Tough actin' to actin'.

00:48:42.000 Oh!

00:48:44.000 He just takes one right in the kisser, and he's running, and... Oh!

00:48:48.000 Hammered.

00:48:49.000 Wow.

00:48:49.000 Okay.

00:48:53.000 Okay, he's running out for the subway, I guess.

00:48:56.000 There's no way not to laugh at that.

00:48:57.000 Okay, it's just... He's really picking up speed.

00:49:00.000 My question is what he was running for.

00:49:03.000 Like, it's already moving.

00:49:04.000 You're not gonna, like, stop the bus, or stop the car, and boom!

00:49:11.000 Okay, if you can't enjoy that, folks, then I guess you just can't enjoy life.

00:49:14.000 The guy's fine, by the way, at least from what I understand.

00:49:17.000 Or he's dead, I haven't really checked it out.

00:49:18.000 But that's it, but that's funny.

00:49:21.000 The way that's going around the internet, if something bad had happened to the guy, we'd already know about it.

00:49:24.000 Okay, time for a couple of quick things I hate, and then the Federalist, number 12.

00:49:28.000 So, things that I hate.

00:49:33.000 So, what I love about every government shutdown is, while nothing actually changed for nearly all Americans, the media suggested that all would end.

00:49:41.000 All would die.

00:49:42.000 End of world.

00:49:43.000 Okay, so, this is my favorite aspect.

00:49:45.000 CNN ran a report about how, because of the government shutdown, asteroids could destroy Earth.

00:49:50.000 I am not kidding.

00:49:51.000 Like, Bruce Willis would be on break, and he would not be able to actually sacrifice himself in favor of Ben Affleck.

00:49:56.000 Bad move, by the way.

00:49:57.000 Never sacrifice yourself in favor of Ben Affleck.

00:49:59.000 But the idea that the government would be on break and that if something terrible happened, we would all die because Trump and Schumer couldn't come to an agreement over DACA registration or something.

00:50:10.000 Here's CNN's report about how an asteroid could murder us all in our sleep.

00:50:14.000 And in space, that same year, for more than two weeks, NASA reportedly stopped monitoring potentially dangerous asteroids.

00:50:22.000 A big one, by the way, is expected to brush by Earth on February 4th.

00:50:27.000 Okay, by the idea, by the way, that a big one is about to brush by Earth by February 4th, I mean, this one is going to miss us by a bajillion miles, okay?

00:50:35.000 This asteroid is not going to come close to hitting the—it's not going to come close to hitting the Earth.

00:50:43.000 And if it were, I promise you that the government would try to do its best about it.

00:50:46.000 We wouldn't all just die.

00:50:47.000 We wouldn't have, like, a dinosaur-level extinction event because there was a government shutdown for three days.

00:50:53.000 It's just ridiculous.

00:50:55.000 It's just ridiculous.

00:50:56.000 It's not going to come particularly close.

00:50:58.000 Like, it misses us by a huge margin, actually.

00:50:59.000 It misses us by a huge swath.

00:51:03.000 So, it's supposed to fly safely past the Earth on February 4th.

00:51:06.000 There have been a bunch of asteroids that have been flying past us, but missing us by a fair warning.

00:51:13.000 It's missing us by, oh my goodness.

00:51:14.000 And they have a chart here on how much it's missing us by.

00:51:17.000 And the answer is 2.6 million miles.

00:51:20.000 So, a lot.

00:51:21.000 A lot.

00:51:22.000 OK, so, other things that I hate.

00:51:23.000 Jimmy Kimmel, again, does not understand government shutdowns, and he's just—all he does now is take talking points from Chuck Schumer.

00:51:30.000 Again, I don't understand why Hollywood feels the need to do this, but the more they do, the better it is for Trump, so I guess good for them.

00:51:35.000 Keep it going.

00:51:35.000 You're going to win Republicans to Congress again.

00:51:37.000 Here's Jimmy Kimmel deciding that he needs to speak out of politics again because, obviously, me shellacking him over his ignorance the other nine times hasn't done anything.

00:51:45.000 Hello, I'd like a cappuccino, please.

00:51:48.000 OK, great.

00:51:48.000 That's one cappuccino and one giant bag of horse s**t. But I don't want a bag of horse s**t. Yeah, it's kind of a two-for-one thing.

00:52:01.000 If you want the cappuccino, you also have to pay for a giant bag of horse s**t. But what if I just want the cappuccino?

00:52:10.000 Whoa, buddy.

00:52:11.000 You start making demands like that, I will shut down this entire coffee establishment.

00:52:16.000 You'll shut down the store you work at?

00:52:18.000 Yeah.

00:52:19.000 It's absurd.

00:52:19.000 Your job is to sell coffee.

00:52:21.000 Okay.

00:52:24.000 And scene.

00:52:25.000 Okay, so that's what's happening.

00:52:27.000 Okay, that is not, in fact, what is happening.

00:52:28.000 The Republicans offered a separate chip bill back in December.

00:52:31.000 Democrats shot it down because Democrats do not want spending offsets.

00:52:34.000 Republicans included full funding for six years for the chip bill.

00:52:37.000 In this current continuing resolution, Democrats tried to shut it down anyway.

00:52:40.000 Okay, so that's not what's happening.

00:52:42.000 This happens every time there's a government shutdown.

00:52:43.000 Every time there's a government shutdown, they put forward a continuing resolution with a lot of goodies in it to make the other side look bad.

00:52:48.000 That's just the way that it goes.

00:52:50.000 Okay, so that is what it is.

00:52:51.000 All right, time for a quick analysis of the Federalist No.

00:52:55.000 12.

00:52:55.000 So we go through a Federalist paper every week.

00:52:56.000 We've gone through 11 of them already, so we are now at Federalist No.

00:52:59.000 12.

00:52:59.000 This is Alexander Hamilton talking about why a federal government, why a strong, nationalized government is going to be able to gather more revenue than state governments would be able to be.

00:53:09.000 First, Hamilton gives a really good defense of capitalism.

00:53:12.000 Here's what he says.

00:53:13.000 He says, quote,

00:53:34.000 We're good.

00:53:53.000 Okay.

00:54:08.000 They spoke out in favor of tariffs in a different way than they would today, because commerce today is so much easier.

00:54:12.000 So, it was a lot easier to control tariffs than it would be today, considering that the United States had essentially one long border.

00:54:19.000 And also, the United States was three weeks' ride from any other place on Earth that was capable of trading with it, essentially.

00:54:26.000 He recommended excise taxes and tariffs.

00:54:28.000 He says it's evident we must a long time depend for the means of revenue chiefly on such duties.

00:54:33.000 In most parts, excises must be confined within a narrow compass.

00:54:36.000 The genius of the people will ill-brook the inquisitive and peremptory spirit of excise laws.

00:54:39.000 He says we could try to do sales taxes.

00:54:41.000 People are going to avoid it.

00:54:42.000 He says the pockets of farmers, on the other hand, will reluctantly yield but scanty supplies in the unwelcome shape of impositions on their houses.

00:54:48.000 So he says a land tax probably won't do it either, especially because there's so much land here for people to settle.

00:54:52.000 And he says personal property is too precarious and so we won't be able to do that either.

00:54:56.000 A lot of the reason that they did tariffs in the early days of the United States is because it was impossible to gather taxes any other way, not because they were in favor of tariffs as a principle.

00:55:04.000 This is an important point because a lot of people today will suggest that tariffs were something favored by the founders as good trade policy.

00:55:10.000 That's not true.

00:55:11.000 The founders were not all in favor of tariffs.

00:55:13.000 In fact, they only were using tariffs because they had no other available option for gathering tax revenues.

00:55:19.000 Right.

00:55:19.000 He suggests that apparently there was a 3% tariff essentially.

00:55:23.000 There was a 15% tariff in Britain and there was a higher tariff in France and a higher tariff even in Britain.

00:55:29.000 He wanted a 9% tariff and suggested beginning with an alcohol tax on tariffing alcohol that was coming into the United States.

00:55:35.000 So that gives you a little bit of background on the founding ideology with regard to taxation.

00:55:40.000 Which was a very light footstep.

00:55:41.000 And that's why when people talk about how the Founding Fathers would be anti-government shutdown, the Founding Fathers would not care at all.

00:55:46.000 The Founding Fathers would look at our tax rates and go, are you out of your damn minds?

00:55:50.000 Are you guys crazy?

00:55:51.000 Are you crazy?

00:55:53.000 And Hamilton sort of does that in backhanded fashion in Federalist 12.

00:55:56.000 OK.

00:55:57.000 We'll be back here tomorrow with the full review of the Democrats caving on the government shutdown.

00:56:01.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:56:02.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:56:07.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Glover.

00:56:09.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:56:10.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:56:12.000 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:56:14.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:56:15.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Carmina.

00:56:17.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Alvera.

00:56:19.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:56:22.000 Copyright Forward Publishing 2018.

The Ben Shapiro Show - January 22, 2018

Shutdown Showdown | Ep. 458

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