The Ben Shapiro Show - 2024 ADVANTAGE: TRUMP

00:00:00.000 Let me just begin today's show by pointing out that last night, the first of the Jeffrey Epstein papers dropped.

00:00:05.000 That would be the core paper surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, notorious underage sex trafficker, who is connected with just about every famous person in the West.

00:00:12.000 And everybody's been very curious as to who exactly went to Epstein Rape Island.

00:00:17.000 Well, so far, the paper is kind of a dud.

00:00:19.000 Most of what we saw yesterday has already been seen.

00:00:21.000 Bill Clinton being mentioned in the context of quote-unquote, liking young girls, Prince Andrew grabbing an underage breast, allegations about Alan Dershowitz, all the rest of this kind of stuff.

00:00:29.000 More is going to drop over the coming days and we'll cover it when it does because not much has dropped so far.

00:00:35.000 Okay, so now on to the actual news.

00:00:38.000 The 2024 election is coming and right now it is advantage Donald Trump.

00:00:41.000 Trump is leading by 2.2% in the RealClearPolitics polling average.

00:00:45.000 That doesn't sound like a lot until you realize that Trump trailed Joe Biden in that same average on Election Day 2020 by 7.2%.

00:00:50.000 He only lost the popular vote by 4.5%, a difference of 2.7%.

00:00:52.000 Or that Hillary Clinton was leading in that same average by 3.2% on Election Day 2016 and only won the popular vote by 2.1%, a miss of about 1.1%.

00:00:57.000 or that Hillary Clinton was leading in that same average by 3.2% on election day 2016

00:01:02.000 and only won the popular vote by 2.1%, a miss about 1.1%.

00:01:07.000 In other words, Donald Trump almost always outdraws his real clear politics polling average numbers.

00:01:13.000 So if he's up 2.2, that means he's actually up more.

00:01:15.000 What's more, Joe Biden is totally stuck.

00:01:18.000 As political scientist Roy Tashara, who is not a right-winger, writes today in the Washington Post, quote, in his 2020 campaign for the nomination, the longtime former senator had a better sense than other Democratic candidates of the normalcy that voters were looking for after more than six months of a pandemic accompanied by lockdowns and an economic crash.

00:01:35.000 But there was a catch.

00:01:36.000 After Joe Biden clinched the nomination, says Teixeira, he felt it was necessary to incorporate the views of the party's left into his campaign's policy stances and outlook.

00:01:45.000 Now, with the next campaign about to begin, Biden and his party are struggling.

00:01:48.000 In other words, Joe Biden lied to his voters.

00:01:51.000 He campaigned as a moderate in the primaries, he capitalized on that moderate image in the general, and then he pushed steadily to the left, and then he governed from the left.

00:01:59.000 Now, says Teixeira, Biden is polling behind Trump nationally and in every swing state with the possible exception of Wisconsin.

00:02:04.000 Trump is preferred to Biden by wide margins on voters' most important issue, the economy and inflation, as well as their second most important issue, immigration and border security, and on crime and public safety.

00:02:15.000 Biden's approval rating at this point in his presidency says Teixeira is the lowest of any president going back to the 1940s, when the era of modern polling began.

00:02:23.000 So what could Joe Biden do to turn that around?

00:02:25.000 Well, Biden thinks that bashing Trump is going to save him. 0.96

00:02:28.000 That's presumably why he's going to go on a Trump bashing tour beginning this week, labeling Donald Trump a racist and a fascist.

00:02:35.000 According to the Associated Press, quote, President Joe Biden is starting the campaign year by evoking the Revolutionary War to mark the third anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. 0.96

00:02:43.000 Capitol and visiting the South Carolina church where a white gunman massacred black parishioners.

00:02:48.000 Seeking to present in the starkest possible terms an election he argues could determine the fate of American democracy.

00:02:55.000 He's basically going to turn January 6th into a national holiday so that everybody has to remember how horrible January 6th day after day after day because that's what America must fight and Trump can't be president because of January 6th.

00:03:08.000 So on Saturday, Joe Biden is going to travel near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army spent a bleak winter nearly 250 years ago, presumably to talk about spending a bleak winter this year.

00:03:18.000 But it will swing into a wondrous summer under a second Joe Biden term.

00:03:23.000 There, he's apparently going to decry Donald Trump for the riot by a mob of his supporters who overran the Capitol, says the Associated Press, in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

00:03:32.000 So Valley Forge speech to talk about January 6th.

00:03:35.000 I hear George Washington.

00:03:37.000 Donald Trump insurrection.

00:03:40.000 All right.

00:03:41.000 Two days later, the president is going to visit Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where nine people were shot and killed in a June 2015 white supremacist attack.

00:03:47.000 Now, you may note the date on that.

00:03:49.000 June 2015.

00:03:50.000 Barack Obama was still president of the United States. 0.98

00:03:52.000 And the idea he is going to suggest here is that Donald Trump's followers are the kinds of people who murder black people going to church. 0.99

00:04:00.000 That is what he is going to do. 1.00

00:04:01.000 It's going to be disgusting. 0.98

00:04:02.000 And it's not going to be anything quite shocking from Joe Biden, given the fact that this is the same guy who once suggested that Mitt Romney was a vicious racist who wanted to re-enslave black people. 0.73

00:04:11.000 Joe Biden's kicking off 2024, says the Associated Press, by delving into some of the country's darkest moments, rather than an upbeat affirmation of his record, is meant to clarify for voters what his team sees as the stakes of November's election during both events.

00:04:23.000 He will characterize his predecessor as a serious threat to the nation's founding principles, arguing that Trump, who has built a commanding early lead in the Republican presidential primary, will seek to undermine U.S.

00:04:32.000 democracy should he win a second term.

00:04:35.000 This is not going to work.

00:04:38.000 At all.

00:04:39.000 It's not going to work because here's the thing.

00:04:42.000 Everybody knows Trump.

00:04:44.000 Everything is baked into that cake.

00:04:45.000 Everything.

00:04:46.000 The eggshells.

00:04:48.000 Howitzers.

00:04:50.000 Everything is in the cake already.

00:04:53.000 Everyone knows what they think of the cake.

00:04:55.000 Some people love the cake.

00:04:56.000 Some people hate the cake.

00:04:58.000 Nobody has no opinion on the cake.

00:05:00.000 Everyone knows that Trump's 2020 post-election activities, even if they despise them and think they're really bad, didn't actually change the outcome of the election.

00:05:07.000 Joe Biden, after all, is the president and has been the president since January of 2021. 0.66

00:05:11.000 What's more, the pitch that Trump is more racist than Biden, that he's some sort of Crypto white supremacist.

00:05:17.000 That pitch does not work.

00:05:18.000 It just doesn't.

00:05:19.000 Joe Biden is the DEI president.

00:05:22.000 He talks about equity, infusing all of his policies.

00:05:24.000 He talks about it all the time.

00:05:26.000 So this idea that Trump is more racially polarizing than Biden?

00:05:31.000 That's not what the polls are showing.

00:05:33.000 The pitch that Trump is a fascist isn't gonna work either, because as even George Will, a Trump opponent of high ardor, points out, quote, Joe Biden is, like Trump, an authoritarian recidivist, mostly stymied by courts.

00:05:44.000 That is from a person who really, really, really dislikes Donald Trump.

00:05:47.000 George Will says, quote, instances of Trump's anti-constitutional behavior have been amply reported and applauded, Biden's less so, although they, for example, the eviction moratorium, the vaccine mandate, the cancellation of student debt, and judicial reprimands of them, have been frequent.

00:06:01.000 And then George will point out that Joe Biden has been attempting to overrun the Federal Vacancies Reform Act by basically attempting to appoint somebody, that person being rejected by the Senate, and then him waiting for some sort of break in the action to reappoint that same exact person.

00:06:17.000 Most of all, Joe Biden's hope that hatred for Trump will somehow save him, that's predicated on another false idea.

00:06:22.000 And that idea is that Donald Trump will jog Republican turnout, but he will really, really, really jog Democratic turnout.

00:06:29.000 And that's, you know, an arguable proposition.

00:06:32.000 The truth is that in every election since 2016, Democratic turnout has been up because of Trump.

00:06:37.000 But here is the problem.

00:06:39.000 Trump wasn't on the ballot in any of those except for 2020.

00:06:43.000 What if the normal presidential election politics Look more like 2016 than 2020.

00:06:48.000 What if the actual norm is that Trump doesn't actually drive turnout in a presidential year in the way that Joe Biden hopes?

00:06:54.000 In 2016, after all, turnout was well within historical norms.

00:06:58.000 That's when Trump ran against Hillary. 1.00

00:06:59.000 When it comes to turnout as a percentage of eligible voters, here are the numbers by elections.

00:07:03.000 This is the percentage turnout of eligible voters.

00:07:06.000 So in 2000, it was 54.3%.

00:07:06.000 Very, very low.

00:07:07.000 2004, 60.1%.

00:07:07.000 was 54.3% very very low 2004 60.1% 2008 62.5% 2012, 58%.

00:07:14.000 2016, 59.2%.

00:07:14.000 2012 58% 2016 59.2% and so since 2004 somewhere in the ballpark of between 58 and 62 percent 2020 66.9%

00:07:28.000 2020, 66.9 percent.

00:07:29.000 That is a massive increase and also a massive outlier.

00:07:32.000 And Joe Biden went incredibly narrowly based on that massive outlying increase in voter turnout.

00:07:38.000 2020 saw a voter turnout increase of 23 million voters to 160 million total voters.

00:07:42.000 to 160 million total voters. That is opposed to 137 million in 2016 and 129 million in 2012.

00:07:50.000 So do we really think that that number is going to replicate?

00:07:53.000 Do we think we're going to get 160 million total voters again in 2024?

00:07:56.000 Is it going to look more like 140 million voters?

00:08:00.000 And if there is a 20 million vote gap between, say, 2020 and 2024, in the negative direction, 20 million fewer people vote in 2024 than 2020, who do we think that's going to hurt?

00:08:14.000 If those voters disappear, those marginal voters, do we think those marginal voters were Trump voters or Biden voters?

00:08:19.000 The answer in 2020 was almost certainly Biden voters because the Democratic turnout machine was extremely heavy because Joe Biden relied heavily on an on-the-ground operation months in advance of the election to get people to vote absentee ballot.

00:08:31.000 The changing rules because of COVID meant that Joe Biden's entire turnout operation was predicated on not voting on election day.

00:08:38.000 That is why you saw that blue shift happen over the course of election night, because all of the in-person votes got counted.

00:08:45.000 And Donald Trump did really well with the in-person votes.

00:08:47.000 And then all of the mail-in ballots started to be counted.

00:08:49.000 And then Joe Biden overtook Trump in all of these various states.

00:08:52.000 But what happens when the number of mail-in ballots is way, way, way lower because people aren't staying home because of COVID or voting from home because of COVID?

00:09:01.000 What happens if the Republican Party doesn't shoot itself directly in the leg by suggesting that people should not vote from home?

00:09:08.000 What happens when the math changes?

00:09:09.000 In other words, none of these trends are good for Joe Biden.

00:09:12.000 Which means that Biden, if he wants to win re-election, is going to actually have to, you know, do a good job.

00:09:17.000 The only thing that could save him would be You know, good things happening in America.

00:09:23.000 But here's the problem.

00:09:24.000 The biggest problem for Joe Biden.

00:09:25.000 His policies prevent exactly that.

00:09:28.000 He has not made the country a better place.

00:09:31.000 Very few people feel that the country is better run now than it was in 2019.

00:09:37.000 And that's an easy pitch for Trump to make if he can stand pitch.

00:09:40.000 If Trump just says over and over and over, is your life better now or was it better in 2019?

00:09:44.000 Virtually everyone thinks that life was better, less chaotic, less insane in 2019.

00:09:49.000 Yes, even including the tweets.

00:09:51.000 In just one second, we'll talk about Joe Biden's being held hostage by his own left and why this is absolutely Crushing his re-elect chances.

00:09:59.000 First, have you ever heard of data brokers?

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00:10:12.000 No big deal, right?

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00:11:10.000 Okay, so speaking of Joe Biden's policy failures, the most obvious policy failure of this administration.

00:11:15.000 Aside from inflation, which we'll get to in just one second, is immigration.

00:11:20.000 The immigration issue is front page.

00:11:22.000 It is hot button news, and it should be hot button news because illegal immigration is at all-time highs.

00:11:28.000 I mean, like, all-time highs.

00:11:31.000 300,000 border encounters in December alone.

00:11:36.000 That is the highest monthly total ever.

00:11:38.000 That is a huge total.

00:11:39.000 And by the way, that does not include getaways.

00:11:42.000 Meanwhile, the DOJ, as we mentioned yesterday, is suing Texas to stop Texas from enforcing immigration law.

00:11:49.000 And meanwhile, the United States is about to reopen four legal U.S.-Mexico border crossings today, according to Reuters, as high levels of illegal immigration have receded and freed up personnel.

00:12:00.000 How have they receded exactly?

00:12:02.000 Apparently the U.S.

00:12:03.000 is going to resume operations at an international bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas, two crossings in Arizona, another near San Diego, California.

00:12:09.000 That's according to Customs and Border Protection.

00:12:12.000 U.S.

00:12:12.000 border authorities struggled in December to process migrants as apprehensions reached nearly 11,000 in a single day, which several current and former officials said was near or at a record high.

00:12:22.000 Now remember, when they say that these border apprehensions are happening, That does not necessarily mean that these are people who are crossing between crossings and then CBP is picking them up.

00:12:30.000 Very often an apprehension is somebody who actually shows up at a border crossing and then is quote-unquote apprehended awaiting further review for asylum or refugee status.

00:12:41.000 But we know that the vast majority of people who are claiming that status are not actually eligible for that status.

00:12:45.000 And then the administration basically catches and releases those people.

00:12:48.000 They say, okay, here's a date.

00:12:50.000 Fill out this form, come back in six months, and we'll get you in court.

00:12:54.000 And then some people show up and some people don't, and that's basically the end of the story.

00:12:58.000 And that's how you end up with 20 million illegal immigrants in the middle of the country. 0.97

00:13:01.000 Well, the White House knows this is a political loser. 0.97

00:13:03.000 Democrats on the border are fighting mad. 0.89

00:13:05.000 This is not just a Republican issue.

00:13:07.000 Democrats in Texas, fighting mad.

00:13:08.000 In Arizona, fighting mad.

00:13:10.000 And now, hilariously, in Chicago and New York, fighting mad because it turns out that when the chickens come home to roost, when you back really bad border policy and call yourself a sanctuary city, and then all of a sudden, oh no, it's the consequences of my own actions, people start arriving en masse in New York and Chicago, straining your social services and sleeping on the streets, you get ticked too.

00:13:30.000 So this is a boiling issue for the White House.

00:13:33.000 So what is the White House doing about it?

00:13:34.000 Are they trying to fix it?

00:13:35.000 Of course not.

00:13:36.000 Of course not.

00:13:38.000 So according to Politico, the Biden administration is attempting to flip the blame for the migrant crisis at the southern border onto Republicans.

00:13:44.000 Good luck with that one.

00:13:46.000 Seriously, good luck with that.

00:13:48.000 So the Republicans are like, let's build a wall.

00:13:50.000 Let's deport everyone. 0.78

00:13:51.000 Let's be as harsh on illegal immigration as humanly possible. 0.97

00:13:54.000 And the Democrats are like, let's leave an open border.

00:13:55.000 And then when the border is open and people arrive, like this is this is Republicans fault.

00:14:00.000 This is the who killed Hannibal name.

00:14:03.000 For those who are not familiar with this meme from the internets, it's a meme in which one character shoots another character in the chest and then turns to camera and says, who could have done this?

00:14:13.000 That is the Democratic Party when it comes to illegal immigration.

00:14:16.000 According to Politico, in anticipation of Speaker Mike Johnson heading to the U.S.

00:14:19.000 southern border on Wednesday, the White House issued a statement accusing House GOPers of ducking the chance to address the issue they've been attacking.

00:14:25.000 Actions speak louder than words, said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.

00:14:29.000 House Republicans, anti-border security record.

00:14:31.000 Anti-border security record?

00:14:33.000 The F is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel.

00:14:37.000 No, what Republicans didn't want to do was increase the amount of processing power.

00:14:42.000 They wanted to increase the amount of enforcement power, meaning turn people away at the border.

00:14:46.000 They didn't simply want to increase the size and scope of the processing Apparatus in order to allow in more people illegally, which is what Joe Biden wants to do.

00:14:57.000 But Joe Biden wants to basically what you have here is you have a hose with a spigot.

00:15:00.000 The spigot right now is very narrow.

00:15:03.000 And so what's happening is that there's a huge backlog of illegal immigrants who have not yet been processed.

00:15:08.000 There are two ways to solve this problem.

00:15:10.000 One is to turn off the hose so that you actually don't have a giant pipeline of people trying to get across the border illegally.

00:15:16.000 The other way is to open up the spigot, which is to say, allow illegal immigrants to pour into the country. 1.00

00:15:21.000 This is why it's hilarious.

00:15:22.000 Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security head, which is such an Orwellian notion that he is the head of the Department of Homeland Security.

00:15:29.000 What homeland security has Alejandro Mayorkas been providing?

00:15:32.000 Like, at all?

00:15:33.000 Here he was yesterday explaining they have a backlog of three million cases.

00:15:39.000 That backlog is a powerful example of how broken our immigration system is and for how long it has been broken.

00:15:47.000 Because that backlog existed when I was in the Department of Homeland Security in 2009.

00:15:53.000 It preceded me then and it precedes me now in my tenure as a Secretary of Homeland Security.

00:16:00.000 That three million case backlog has been building for years and years and years.

00:16:05.000 It got much much worse When U.S.

00:16:08.000 citizenship and immigration system services, the agency within the Department of Homeland Security that administers our legal immigration system was financially gutted during the prior administration.

00:16:23.000 Again, what he wants to do is increase the processing power.

00:16:26.000 He does not actually want to cut off the flow.

00:16:28.000 If you want illegal immigration to stop, you need to cut off the flow, but that's exactly what the Biden administration is unwilling to do.

00:16:34.000 According to Politico, Senate negotiators are trying to land a bipartisan agreement on policy to help stem the flow of migration, and House Republicans are now considering impeaching Mayorkas, as they should, because he's not doing his job.

00:16:43.000 I mean, you don't have to be guilty of any sort of crime to be quote-unquote impeached.

00:16:48.000 We found that out when Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice while alleging no actual criminal activity.

00:16:53.000 Dereliction of duty would be a big one for Alejandro Mayorkas, who has not secured the border in any way, shape, or form.

00:16:59.000 It is hilarious that... So Mayorkas was asked, why exactly do you think that there's been this massive outbreak of illegal immigration?

00:17:06.000 Like, way higher than it was during Trump, way higher than it was during Obama.

00:17:09.000 Why is that happening?

00:17:10.000 So he blames climate change and poverty, which are systemic problems in the Northern Triangle and Latin America generally.

00:17:17.000 He blames that, which is weird since climate change, according to the left, has been taking place for decades and poverty has been endemic to this region for, again, decades.

00:17:27.000 So why now?

00:17:28.000 The answer, by the way, is that illegal immigrants will tell you themselves Joe Biden is president.

00:17:32.000 There's lots of video of people chanting Joe Biden's name as they head for the border.

00:17:36.000 Here's Alejandro Mayorkas trying to blame this on systemic factors.

00:17:39.000 By the way, when politicians tend to blame quote-unquote systemic factors like this, usually that's a way of them avoiding accountability and responsibility.

00:17:46.000 Because how exactly is anyone supposed to solve climate change or poverty?

00:17:49.000 It's like blaming the moon.

00:17:51.000 Oh man, the moon keeps making this happen.

00:17:53.000 How do we stop it?

00:17:54.000 We can't.

00:17:54.000 Because we can't blow up the moon.

00:17:57.000 When politicians do that routine, what they're really saying is we're not going to do the thing we know we should do.

00:18:01.000 Instead, we're just going to blame these endemic factors.

00:18:03.000 Here we go.

00:18:04.000 So we are seeing the greatest number of displaced people, not only at our southern border, not only in the Western Hemisphere, but across the globe.

00:18:16.000 You know, I am involved in bilateral and multilateral meetings with my counterparts from foreign countries in Europe, in Asia, in the Indo-Pacific, all over the world.

00:18:29.000 In migration, the challenge of displaced people is a subject that comes up in every single conversation.

00:18:38.000 We have the effects of climate change, poverty, increasing level of authoritarianism, the very many challenges that are at the root cause of the displacement of people around the world.

00:18:53.000 So question, why does the chart for illegal immigration look like this?

00:18:58.000 Okay, why does it spike when Joe Biden becomes president?

00:19:02.000 No one in the Biden administration is willing to answer that question and the answer is perfectly obvious.

00:19:04.000 It's because Joe Biden is soft on illegal immigration and his party is soft on illegal immigration.

00:19:09.000 And again, they are in hock to the left wing because there's no reason for this.

00:19:12.000 Democrats on the border understand that leaving the border wide open is totally insane.

00:19:18.000 This has to be an ideological thing, truly.

00:19:21.000 Because the reality is that even labor-first Democrats, people who are for unions, for example, it used to be they were very much opposed to illegal immigration and migrant labor generally because they believed it was undercutting the wage base in the United States.

00:19:31.000 But now, the Democratic Party has been so captured by college-educated white liberals that they seem to believe that leaving the border open is some sort of moral requirement.

00:19:40.000 They're going to follow that all the way into Joe Biden losing the presidency is what's going to happen here.

00:19:44.000 In just one second, we'll get to the continuing Democratic attempt to blame Republicans for what is, in fact, a Democratic problem.

00:19:49.000 First, as we know, 2024, it's going to be a wild ride.

00:19:52.000 You're already seeing the impacts of inflation at the gas pump, at the grocery store.

00:19:56.000 Economic stagnation, as we'll discuss momentarily, is going to come next.

00:19:58.000 It is the next shoe to drop.

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00:20:54.000 Okay, so back to the border crisis.

00:20:56.000 It is amazing to watch Democrats try to project this onto Republicans.

00:20:59.000 This is not going to work.

00:21:00.000 If this is their strategy, good, good luck.

00:21:03.000 Seriously, good luck.

00:21:05.000 So, here is Alejandro Mayorkas again.

00:21:06.000 He's the head of the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to enforce border law.

00:21:11.000 And here he is blaming Texas' governor, Greg Abbott, for actually attempting to enforce border law.

00:21:16.000 We have taken action on the border and we've taken action with respect to the challenges that cities across the country are facing.

00:21:24.000 Let me identify one fundamental problem here and that is the fact that we have one governor In the state of Texas, who is refusing to cooperate with other governors and other local officials and coordinate efforts to address a challenge that our country, which this country should stand united to address, that our country is facing.

00:21:51.000 And it's a remarkable failure of governance to refuse to cooperate with one's fellow local and state officials.

00:22:00.000 What in the world?

00:22:01.000 Again, it is the federal government currently suing Greg Abbott to stop him from enforcing federal immigration law.

00:22:06.000 Meanwhile, Corinne Jean-Pierre, world's worst press secretary over at the White House, she says that Joe Biden still has confidence in his DHS secretary.

00:22:12.000 They're going to run this playbook right into the ground.

00:22:14.000 It is political malpractice.

00:22:16.000 I mean, what's happening here, just from any objective point of view, if you're an alien from outer space and you arrived in the United States and you saw a crisis at the southern border, a president in the low 40s, high 30s approval rating, in a reelect fight, where the border is going to be a major issue, shouting that his opponents are responsible and we're going to basically leave things in place, you'd be like, what in the world is even happening here?

00:22:35.000 But that's what the Biden administration is doing.

00:22:37.000 The House committee is moving ahead with impeachment proceedings against Secretary Mayorkas.

00:22:42.000 There's a hearing scheduled for next week, so I'd just like to get the White House response and also just to clarify, does the President still have confidence in the Secretary?

00:22:52.000 Absolutely, the President has confidence in the Secretary.

00:22:55.000 I think, and I've said this moments ago, I said it at the top as well, we believe that what they're doing, the House Republicans are doing, Well, why aren't you doing any of them, then?

00:23:18.000 So Joe Biden, for his part, he says this is all about Republicans refusing him money to do immigration.

00:23:22.000 Now, we all know what's actually happening here, is that the money he wants for immigration is not to actually reject illegal immigrants at the border.

00:23:30.000 He does not want a remain in Mexico policy.

00:23:33.000 He tried to walk that back.

00:23:35.000 He does not want to simply change immigration law to make it harder for people to falsely claim asylum.

00:23:40.000 He doesn't want to do any of that.

00:23:41.000 The money he wants is to open the spigot.

00:23:45.000 That's why Republicans oppose it.

00:23:46.000 Here's Joe Biden claiming this is about a lack of money.

00:23:48.000 I mean, dude, my dude, you spend $7 trillion a year.

00:23:52.000 I have a feeling you can find some money somewhere if what you actually want to do is stop the flow of illegal immigration.

00:23:58.000 I mean, like, how much money do these people want?

00:24:00.000 This is totally crazy!

00:24:02.000 The federal government has only a couple of actual original purposes. 0.90

00:24:05.000 Then it has a bunch of crap that it does that literally has nothing to do with its constitutional duties.

00:24:10.000 The size and scope of the federal government is so insanely beyond anything the Founding Fathers ever would have comprehended that it's absolutely maddening. 0.97

00:24:18.000 The Founding Fathers legitimately fought a revolution based on the size and scope of government and lack of representation within that government.

00:24:26.000 If they could see the federal government as it currently stands, what do you think they would think of this?

00:24:30.000 I mean, I got Joe Biden walking around spending $7 trillion a year, and he's like, I don't know.

00:24:35.000 We need more money.

00:24:35.000 Where's the money?

00:24:36.000 I don't know.

00:24:38.000 Here we go.

00:24:38.000 Are you going to do anything about the southern border?

00:24:46.000 What?

00:24:46.000 The southern border, are you going to do anything about it?

00:24:53.000 We gotta do something.

00:24:54.000 They gotta give me the money I need to protect the border.

00:24:57.000 They gotta give me the money I need to protect the border?

00:25:00.000 You're right.

00:25:00.000 We're not spending enough money.

00:25:02.000 Our national debt is $34 trillion with AT.

00:25:06.000 Trillion dollars.

00:25:09.000 He is spending more money than any president has ever spent.

00:25:12.000 Ever.

00:25:13.000 But the problem is shortfalls of cash, apparently, according to Joe Biden.

00:25:17.000 Nailed it.

00:25:18.000 Except that we know that that's not true.

00:25:19.000 Because right now, Joe Biden is requesting another giant supplemental bill.

00:25:23.000 That giant supplemental bill includes, like, $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, $14 billion in aid to Israel, some billions of dollars in aid to Taiwan.

00:25:32.000 And Republicans said, OK, well, we're going to add some border security here.

00:25:34.000 Because you know what?

00:25:35.000 As long as we're helping to secure foreign allies, perhaps we should secure our southern border a little bit.

00:25:40.000 And Joe Biden's like, nope.

00:25:42.000 And Chuck Schumer is like, nope.

00:25:43.000 So here is Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority, the Senate Majority Leader yesterday talking about this and saying, well, if Republicans want H.R.

00:25:52.000 2, and we'll discuss what H.R.

00:25:53.000 2 is in a second, attached to this bill, the answer is no.

00:25:57.000 When the House clings to H.R.

00:25:59.000 2 as the only solution, which every Democrat has voted against, I believe both House and Senate, certainly every Senator voted, every Democratic Senator voted against it.

00:26:09.000 I think every Democratic House member voted against it as well.

00:26:12.000 If not, it was almost everyone.

00:26:15.000 We're not going to get a deal.

00:26:17.000 Okay, so he says, by the way, that there is agreement among Democrats and Republicans about need to fix the border, but they won't actually propose anything that systemically changes the problem on the border.

00:26:27.000 They refuse to do it.

00:26:29.000 Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut is the lead Democrat in the border talks.

00:26:32.000 He says, I think if the Senate gets something done in a bipartisan way, it'll put enormous pressure on the House to get something done as well.

00:26:38.000 Well, so far, they haven't done a very good job of it.

00:26:40.000 We'll get to H.R.

00:26:41.000 2, what the Republicans have proposed in the House in just one second.

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00:27:43.000 So what exactly is it that Chuck Schumer is rejecting here?

00:27:44.000 What exactly is it that is so terrible?

00:27:45.000 So there's something called the Secure the Border Act of 2023.

00:27:47.000 So the Secure the Border Act, which is H.R.

00:27:48.000 and spice. Okay, so what exactly is it that Chuck Schumer is rejecting here?

00:27:52.000 What exactly is it that is so terrible? So there's something called the Secure

00:27:56.000 the Border Act of 2023. So the Secure the Border Act, which is H.R. 2, is a fairly

00:28:05.000 conservative bill. It proposes the following things.

00:28:08.000 This is according to immigrationforum.org, which is actually a rather pro-immigration outlet.

00:28:16.000 And here's what they say.

00:28:17.000 It would re-establish Trump-era border policy, including restarting construction on the border wall.

00:28:21.000 It would reinforce the definition of operational control as the profession of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.

00:28:33.000 So, all unlawful entries, that would be now the goal of operational control.

00:28:37.000 It would require the DHS Secretary to incorporate physical barriers, infrastructures, and technologies to achieve situational awareness and operational control of the U.S.-Mexico border.

00:28:45.000 It would increase the number of full-time Border Patrol agents to at least 22,000.

00:28:47.000 By the way, that gives the lie to the idea that the Republicans don't want to increase Border Patrol agents.

00:28:52.000 They do.

00:28:53.000 They just don't want to increase the number of people who are going to be involved in processing illegal immigration forms as opposed to the number of people who are on the border catching the gotaways.

00:29:03.000 It would prohibit the use of U.S.

00:29:04.000 Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations resources to transport non-citizens who will not be detained into the country's interior.

00:29:11.000 In other words, we shouldn't be spending federal dollars to bust people all around the country via CBP.

00:29:17.000 It would require the U.S. 0.96

00:29:17.000 Border Patrol to put together a strategic plan based on information provided by border community stakeholders like hospitals, farmers, ranchers, property owners, victims of crimes, and others negatively impacted by illegal immigration. 0.96

00:29:27.000 All of this sounds absolutely reasonable.

00:29:29.000 It would also restrict access for asylum.

00:29:32.000 You'd raise the initial screening standard, so a non-citizen would have to prove they were more likely than not to ultimately qualify for asylum, to continue pursuing their protection claim, and not be just kicked out.

00:29:42.000 Which again, why is that wild?

00:29:44.000 Should you be able to come to the border and you just say, listen, I need asylum. 0.99

00:29:47.000 And they're like, why?

00:29:48.000 You say, I don't know, I just do.

00:29:49.000 They're like, well, maybe there's like a 1% chance this person needs asylum, probably should release them into the interior of the United States.

00:29:55.000 Or should, by what we call a preponderance of the evidence, 51% shot, you're actually gonna get asylum.

00:30:00.000 Now we say, okay, fine.

00:30:01.000 You want to come in, make your asylum claim.

00:30:04.000 We'll let you in because the chances are pretty good you're going to receive asylum.

00:30:07.000 That is a smart policy the Democrats oppose.

00:30:10.000 It would ban the vast majority of asylum seekers from requesting protection at U.S.

00:30:14.000 border if they traveled through a third country en route to the United States and had not already been denied asylum there.

00:30:19.000 By the way, this is the same policy that Mexico holds.

00:30:21.000 So the basic idea here would be that if you come up to the U.S.

00:30:23.000 border and you did not request asylum in Mexico first, you need to go back to Mexico and request asylum there.

00:30:28.000 And then if they deny that, then you can come to the United States and request asylum.

00:30:31.000 But you shouldn't be able to, like, pick and choose the best country just because it is the best country.

00:30:37.000 If you are truly requesting asylum, meaning you're trying to avoid the worst possible scenario, that does not give you automatic access to the United States.

00:30:45.000 It would restrict asylum claims generally to migrants who arrive in the U.S.

00:30:48.000 at an official port of entry.

00:30:49.000 So you can't, like, go between the border crossings, cross the Rio Grande, run into the United States, and then claim asylum.

00:30:54.000 You have to actually go to a border crossing in order for us to process you normally.

00:30:57.000 Like, none of this seems wildly crazy.

00:31:02.000 It would also explicitly end the existing presumption against detaining a non-citizen child accompanied by family, making it easier for families with minor children to be held in detention, because right now...

00:31:12.000 One of the big problems is that you're not allowed to hold a child in detention facilities with family, which leads to separations at the border between children and parents, which has then been used as a lever to release the parents.

00:31:23.000 So now it's saying, OK, well, you know, how about we just keep the families together?

00:31:26.000 Which, again, makes some sense.

00:31:28.000 It would require DHS to actually reestablish family detention, requiring parents and kids who enter together without authorization to be held together in immigration detention.

00:31:38.000 And then say that this satisfies the Flores Settlement Agreement.

00:31:41.000 The Flores Settlement was an agreement come to by the Clinton administration and the federal judiciary with regard to non-separation of children from families.

00:31:50.000 Again, all of this is perfectly normal and natural.

00:31:54.000 This is the stuff that Joe Biden is opposing.

00:31:56.000 This is the stuff Chuck Schumer is opposing.

00:31:58.000 So much opposing, by the way, that they would rather kill Ukraine than pass it.

00:32:02.000 The bill would criminalize overstaying a legal visa, so if you overstay your visa, that makes it a criminal penalty.

00:32:08.000 They don't want to do that.

00:32:08.000 They want you to be able to just, I don't know, pay a fine or something.

00:32:11.000 They want to redefine what it means for parole to be granted on a case-by-case basis, so you can't categorically just declare that people are paroled, like DACA.

00:32:19.000 And all of this, and it would add e-verify, so employers would actually have to check the immigration status of the people they employ.

00:32:26.000 Why is any of this remotely controversial?

00:32:28.000 If you pulled each one of those propositions, I guarantee you those are 70% propositions.

00:32:33.000 70% of Americans probably agree with every single thing that I just said.

00:32:37.000 Who disagrees?

00:32:39.000 But Democrats are ideologically committed to this.

00:32:42.000 For example, Representative Ro Khanna.

00:32:46.000 By the way, I like Ro Khanna.

00:32:47.000 He's been on the show.

00:32:48.000 I think he's an honest person, even if we disagree on a lot of policy issues.

00:32:51.000 Democrat from California.

00:32:52.000 He says, I'm not rid of I'm not in favor of changing parole and asylum in favor of Ukraine aid.

00:32:58.000 I mean, first of all, you should be in favor of it just without Ukraine aid.

00:33:00.000 But the fact that Democrats are willing to take what they say is the top national security priority, not allowing Ukraine to be eaten by Russia.

00:33:07.000 and subject it and subjugate that, subsume that, get rid of that, sublimate that to

00:33:13.000 the open border policy is totally crazy. Here's Ro Khanna. 0.95

00:33:18.000 How crucial is that aid for Ukraine right now?

00:33:21.000 It's absolutely crucial and we should have a standalone up or down vote on the aid to Ukraine.

00:33:27.000 And I strongly support the aid to Ukraine.

00:33:30.000 But what I don't support is getting rid of America's commitment to asylum or parole just to give aid to Ukraine.

00:33:38.000 I mean, we're not going to compromise our entire values as a nation over that.

00:33:44.000 I mean, values as a nation?

00:33:46.000 I didn't realize that values as a nation was allowing people to make spurious claims of refugee status.

00:33:52.000 You know, all of this plays directly into Donald Trump's hands.

00:33:54.000 I say, the radical left capturing Biden has been the downfall of his administration.

00:33:58.000 Donald Trump has a has a piece in the Des Moines Register ahead of the Iowa caucuses talking about Joe Biden's border disaster.

00:34:06.000 And he says, of course, he didn't write this, but this will be the policy he implements.

00:34:09.000 See, this is this is the thing about Trump.

00:34:11.000 This is the thing that conservatives like me understand. 1.00

00:34:13.000 Donald Trump says a lot of crap when he's tweeting. 0.98

00:34:16.000 His actual policy gets made by the people around him. 0.99

00:34:19.000 That people who can convince Donald Trump of their policy end up getting their policy actually passed, made law, implemented.

00:34:26.000 This is why you have three conservative Supreme Court justices and not randos that Donald Trump picked out of a lineup.

00:34:30.000 It's not because Donald Trump has deep engagement with the issue of Supreme Court jurisprudence.

00:34:34.000 It's because Leonard Leo was telling him, here is a list of justices who will probably be good.

00:34:40.000 This is just how Trump works.

00:34:42.000 And everybody who's going to vote for Trump basically understands this.

00:34:45.000 Trump has some very good political instincts and he has some very bad habits on Twitter.

00:34:50.000 And then, if he surrounds himself with the right people, he tends to implement some pretty good policy, which is why, again, he's leading in the polls.

00:34:55.000 We'll get to Donald Trump's proposed border policy.

00:34:57.000 Again, he's skunking Biden on this issue.

00:34:59.000 It's amazing to me that Biden won't compromise with the Republicans and attempt to at least neutralize the issue.

00:35:02.000 It's totally wild.

00:35:04.000 We'll get to that in a second.

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00:36:16.000 Okay, meanwhile, as you say, when it comes to immigration policy, Joe Biden is blowing it and it's playing right into Donald Trump's hands.

00:36:22.000 He has a good piece over the Des Moines Register, obviously not written by Donald Trump, doesn't matter.

00:36:27.000 It's the policy Trump will implement.

00:36:28.000 He says, under the Trump administration, he had the most secure border in U.S.

00:36:31.000 history.

00:36:32.000 We ended catch and release and removed over 1 million illegal aliens in my first term.

00:36:35.000 I negotiated unprecedented agreements with Central American nations and brokered remain in Mexico to stop the flow of migrants to our border.

00:36:41.000 I got the Mexican government to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers to the border free of charge.

00:36:45.000 Every step of the way, we fought obstructionists, left-wing judges, and radical Democrats who tried to stop us, and we won.

00:36:50.000 And he says, now you're witnessing the disastrous results of Joe Biden.

00:36:54.000 Biden came in, canceled the border wall, ended Remain in Mexico, ripped up my asylum bans, ended Title 42, and began resettling millions of migrants into American communities at taxpayer expense.

00:37:02.000 And now you are witnessing the disastrous results.

00:37:04.000 We have the highest number of illegal border crossings in history by far.

00:37:08.000 On my first day back in office, I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration and immediately restore the full set of strong Trump border policies.

00:37:15.000 Then, we will begin a record-setting deportation operation.

00:37:18.000 Joe Biden has given us no choice.

00:37:20.000 The millions of illegal aliens who have invaded under Biden require a record number of removals.

00:37:23.000 This is just common sense.

00:37:25.000 To achieve this goal, I will make clear to every department and to state and local governments, we must use all resources and authorities available.

00:37:30.000 We will shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement, including parts of the DEA, ATF, FBI, and DHS.

00:37:38.000 I will use the Alien Enemies Act to remove known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members from the United States, and we'll use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis at last.

00:37:47.000 Again, this is...

00:37:50.000 Trump's going to win on this issue.

00:37:51.000 This issue matters to Americans.

00:37:53.000 And Joe Biden is walking, sleepwalking, directly into his own defeat.

00:37:56.000 It's not just with regard to immigration.

00:37:57.000 Remember, Joe Biden needs good news before the election.

00:37:59.000 He's not going to win this race on the basis of people like him better than Trump as a person.

00:38:03.000 It's not going to work this time.

00:38:05.000 It is simply not.

00:38:06.000 The perception of Joe Biden is too bad.

00:38:08.000 It has been stagnant and terrible since the Afghanistan withdrawal.

00:38:11.000 People do not perceive him as the kindly elderly gentleman anymore.

00:38:15.000 That's what he ran as in 2020, and no one thinks of him that way.

00:38:18.000 They think of him as somewhat venal, somewhat corrupt, crotchety, somewhat senile, and fairly radical on policy.

00:38:26.000 That's the actual perception of Joe Biden.

00:38:29.000 So he's going to need a significant economic recovery.

00:38:31.000 Is that going to happen this year?

00:38:32.000 Well, the Fed's going to do its best.

00:38:34.000 The Federal Reserve obviously has historically been in the business of trying to jog the economy just before presidential elections.

00:38:39.000 This goes all the way back to the Nixon administration.

00:38:42.000 Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, Federal Reserve officials thought they were done raising interest rates when they decided last month to hold them steady, but minutes of the meeting didn't reveal a meaningful debate about when to start lowering rates.

00:38:52.000 While nearly all officials anticipated policy rates would eventually be lowered before the end of this year, the written account of their December 12th and 13th meeting, released on Wednesday, underscored heightened uncertainty over how to navigate the next interval of monetary policy after the most rapid increase in interest rates in four decades.

00:39:07.000 So they're really not sure how much they're going to reduce the rates.

00:39:10.000 I guarantee you they're going to try to reduce the rates this year, because if they don't, the economy is going to start to stagnate.

00:39:14.000 In fact, we are already seeing that.

00:39:16.000 According to Axios, steady job postings, cooler hiring, and less quitting.

00:39:20.000 After a record-shattering stretch, America's once remarkable labor market has settled into a more normal groove.

00:39:25.000 The result is sufficiently cool demand.

00:39:27.000 It won't stoke inflation, but it's still robust enough for workers who want a job to find one.

00:39:31.000 Other signs point to a continued cool down.

00:39:33.000 As the year came to a close, hiring eased slightly to 5.5 million.

00:39:37.000 That's 363,000 fewer hires than in October.

00:39:40.000 The number of quits, which is how many people are quitting their job to find another job, fell down to 3.5 million.

00:39:45.000 It's down 157,000.

00:39:46.000 This is back down to below December 2019.

00:39:46.000 million, it's down 157,000.

00:39:49.000 This is back down to below December, 2019.

00:39:53.000 This, this is just the beginning.

00:39:58.000 Because again, what goes up must come down.

00:40:01.000 At the very best, you're going to get a slow recovery from here on in.

00:40:04.000 It's going to look like Obama numbers.

00:40:06.000 This is why the New York Times reports that auto sales are expected to slow after 2023.

00:40:11.000 Edmunds expects the industry to sell 15.7 million vehicles this year.

00:40:15.000 That would amount to only a modest increase from the 15.5 million sold last year.

00:40:19.000 That is when sales jumped 12%.

00:40:19.000 The credit situation is not great for people because all of the interest rates are up.

00:40:25.000 And that means that people are going to be buying less.

00:40:28.000 For years, people took advantage of 0% loans to buy vehicles, even as the prices climbed.

00:40:32.000 But such deals offered by automakers to move inventory have nearly disappeared in the wake of the Fed's rate hikes.

00:40:36.000 In the fourth quarter of 2023, new vehicle sales with 0% financing accounted for just 2.3% of all sales.

00:40:43.000 According to Edmunds, monthly payments are now at near record highs.

00:40:47.000 And again, you have a national debt that is completely out of control.

00:40:50.000 So are we likely to get a booming economy this year?

00:40:53.000 You might avoid a technical recession.

00:40:55.000 What you're going to have is an embedded inflation.

00:40:57.000 That continues to be way higher than when Joe Biden took office.

00:41:00.000 Again, even if inflation stopped today, pretty much everything you buy is about 20% more expensive than it was when Joe Biden took office.

00:41:07.000 A dollar in January of 2021, now what you would buy for a dollar now costs you $1.18 according to government statistics.

00:41:16.000 So that's a bad number for Joe Biden.

00:41:18.000 And as the economy cools, Joe Biden is going to feel the brunt of that.

00:41:23.000 Again, he's been defying economic gravity, but not really.

00:41:26.000 Inflation was the economic gravity.

00:41:27.000 When the interest rates go up, the economy cools down.

00:41:29.000 Everyone's expecting it.

00:41:30.000 It's normal.

00:41:31.000 What you would expect is that Jerome Powell, before the election, probably drops the interest rates to try to jog the economy a little bit.

00:41:35.000 Is that going to be too little, too late?

00:41:36.000 Probably, given the fact that, again, all this stuff is embedded.

00:41:40.000 It's not as though when we say inflation goes down, the actual amount of money that you are paying goes down.

00:41:47.000 Deflation has not yet set in.

00:41:48.000 Deflation would be things are less expensive today than they were yesterday.

00:41:53.000 Even best case scenario, talking about a continued inflation rate of 2%, which is what the Federal Reserve aims for, that's on top of the already embedded 17 to 20% increase that you've seen over the course of the Biden administration.

00:42:04.000 Meanwhile, the possibility of more shocks to the global economic system are very, very real.

00:42:10.000 Shipping in the Red Sea continues to be a complete disaster area.

00:42:13.000 I don't know what the point is of having a multi, multi, tens of billions of dollar military if you are not going to be able to stop Houthi pirates from stopping shipping through the Red Sea.

00:42:26.000 Joe Biden's international policy is going to have some dramatic impacts on the American economy.

00:42:30.000 One of the big factors in price inflation over the course of the last several years has been supply chain bottlenecks left over from COVID.

00:42:36.000 That has been a very real phenomenon in the economic world.

00:42:40.000 Well, that was driven by a global pandemic and shutdowns in particular countries, labor shortages, and all the rest.

00:42:46.000 What happens when you have, again, a bunch of ragtag pirates who are shutting down an entire shipping methodology that lowers cost for the entire globe on products ranging from oil to clothing.

00:42:57.000 An enormous amount of shipping goes through the Red Sea and yet here we are today with the US and its allies having to give the Houthis warnings.

00:43:06.000 Now you know that could have been prevented by the United States taking a very anti-Iran position from the get-go under Joe Biden.

00:43:12.000 Donald Trump had basically ostracized Iran from the international community.

00:43:16.000 The Houthis were listed as a US A US-labeled terrorist group.

00:43:21.000 Joe Biden delisted them.

00:43:23.000 Joe Biden decided to go hard on the Saudis, hard on the Israelis, easy on the Iranians.

00:43:27.000 And the result is this.

00:43:28.000 The result is chaos in the Middle East. 0.95

00:43:30.000 Because it turns out the chaos actor in the Middle East is Iran. 1.00

00:43:32.000 It has always been Iran. 1.00

00:43:34.000 It is not Saudi Arabia.

00:43:35.000 It is not Israel. 0.95

00:43:37.000 So it's very bizarre that the Biden administration is now having to backfill all of that.

00:43:41.000 And the problem is that when you make those sorts of mistakes, it is very hard to contain the problem on the other end.

00:43:45.000 When you open that can, the can is now open.

00:43:47.000 There's only one way to close that can. 0.99

00:43:49.000 And that is you're gonna have to blow up some crap among the Houthis. 1.00

00:43:51.000 At the very least. 0.96

00:43:52.000 I mean, now that the can has been opened against Israel by Iran, with regard to Hamas and Hezbollah, There's the possibility that the only way to close that can is to go after Hezbollah, which is another major issue for the Biden administration.

00:44:04.000 Joe Biden's re-elect effort requires there to be some level of calm in the Middle East re-established.

00:44:08.000 What they're hoping is to contain the Israel-Hamas issue to Israel and Hamas, that Hezbollah does not come in. 0.96

00:44:13.000 The only way that's going to happen is if the United States makes very, very clear to Hezbollah that if Hezbollah gets involved, the United States finishes Hezbollah.

00:44:20.000 That is actually what would be in Joe Biden's political interest.

00:44:23.000 Because if that war opens up, that's very bad for Joe Biden, politically speaking.

00:44:26.000 It's bad for the world, by the way.

00:44:27.000 You don't want this broadening into a larger war.

00:44:30.000 Israel does not want that.

00:44:31.000 Probably Iran does not want that, because if it starts to broaden into a larger war, then the Iranian mullahs are probably not in leadership at the end of that day.

00:44:38.000 But With that said, a little bit of strength right now would go a long way.

00:44:42.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S., Britain, and key allies issued what officials described as a final warning to the Houthi Yemeni rebel group Wednesday to cease its attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea or bear the consequences.

00:44:52.000 The statement was issued by more than a dozen nations.

00:44:53.000 Quote, ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing.

00:44:57.000 The Houthis were better the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and the free flow of commerce in the region's critical waterways. 1.00

00:45:06.000 One of the challenges is that a lot of the weapon systems are mobile.

00:45:07.000 the Houthis, according to U.S. officials.

00:45:09.000 Should the U.S., Britain and other nations use force, potential targets could include launchers

00:45:12.000 for anti-ship missiles and drones, targeting infrastructure such as coastal radar

00:45:16.000 installations and storage facilities for munitions.

00:45:18.000 One of the challenges is that a lot of the weapon systems are mobile, they're also very cheap.

00:45:24.000 The Biden administration has been cautious about using force,

00:45:26.000 seeking to protect the prospects for diplomatic resolution Yeah, good luck with that one.

00:45:31.000 Houthi fighters overthrew the Yemeni government in 2014.

00:45:33.000 There's been an ongoing, very bloody war between the Houthis and the Saudi government and other Arab nations attempting to oust the Houthis, who, again, are an Iranian-backed terror group with a slogan talking about death to America, death to Israel, glory to Allah, and all the rest.

00:45:51.000 John Kirby says the President has made clear the United States does not seek conflict with any nation or actor in the Middle East, but neither will we shrink from the task of defending ourselves, our interests, our partners, or the free flow of international commerce.

00:46:01.000 As of Tuesday, the Houthis have already carried out 24 attacks on commercial ships since mid-November.

00:46:06.000 And of course, it's not just the Houthis.

00:46:07.000 You have Iranian-backed terror proxies in Iraq that are striking at American forces.

00:46:12.000 You have Hezbollah, which again is warming up on Israel's northern front. 0.99

00:46:17.000 What is going to push Iran off the ball is going to be the West actually doing something. 0.94

00:46:20.000 Warnings are not going to do it. 0.99

00:46:21.000 You're going to have to kill some Houthis. 0.99

00:46:23.000 I mean, it's just that simple. 1.00

00:46:24.000 You're going to have to kill some Houthi terrorists if you want to free the shipping in this area. 0.96

00:46:30.000 Meanwhile, in Iran, it seems like things are heating up. 0.97

00:46:34.000 Two bombs exploded and killed at least 84 people at a commemoration for Qasem Soleimani.

00:46:38.000 Soleimani, of course, was the terror general who was killed in Iraq at the behest of the Trump administration.

00:46:45.000 No one immediately claimed responsibility for this blast that killed 84 people at the funeral.

00:46:51.000 Iran's leaders vowed to punish those responsible for the blast, which wounded at least 284 people.

00:46:57.000 They've revised the death toll at this point.

00:46:59.000 It had been over 100, now it's down in the 80s.

00:47:02.000 The gathering marked the fourth anniversary of the killing of Soleimani.

00:47:05.000 The explosions occurred near his gravesite as long lines of people gathered for the event.

00:47:10.000 Now, of course, the Iranians are blaming the United States and Israel. 0.78

00:47:12.000 This does not meet with any of these sort of predicates that would suggest that it was an Israeli or American action.

00:47:17.000 It doesn't make any sense.

00:47:18.000 It doesn't achieve any geopolitical goal.

00:47:20.000 It didn't actually kill anyone important.

00:47:22.000 There's nothing there that suggests that this was some sort of American-Israeli operation, either together or alone.

00:47:28.000 It's actually much more likely, in fact, that it was some form of Iranian rebel group attempting to generate ire at the Iranian administration.

00:47:39.000 Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attackers will face a harsh response.

00:47:42.000 He didn't name any possible suspect, probably because the Iranians know that if they try to turn this into an American-Israeli thing, that it actually increases the chance of war.

00:47:51.000 Again, Iran wants wars using its proxies. 0.85

00:47:54.000 It does not want war directly.

00:47:55.000 Iran does not want war directly.

00:47:56.000 By the way, the United States doesn't either.

00:47:58.000 Israel doesn't either. 0.91

00:47:59.000 No one wants that.

00:48:00.000 That doesn't mean it won't happen.

00:48:02.000 In the theory of world war, okay, here's a quick theory of world wars.

00:48:06.000 World wars begin when you have a series of popping popcorn kernels and no one actually turns down the heat.

00:48:12.000 When the series of popping popcorn kernels start to increase, when the heat increases, it's like a pop here and a pop here and a pop here and then all of a sudden everything's popping all at once.

00:48:20.000 That's what you're starting to see in the Middle East.

00:48:21.000 It started off with this Hamas attack.

00:48:23.000 That was one popcorn kernel.

00:48:24.000 Then you started to see Hezbollah attacks, and that was another popcorn kernel. 0.63

00:48:27.000 You saw the Houthi attacks, and that is another popcorn kernel.

00:48:29.000 You saw attacks in Syria, attacks in Iraq.

00:48:31.000 These are more popcorn kernels.

00:48:33.000 And eventually, eventually, if this continues, someone in the Iranian government is going to authorize a strike against an American target.

00:48:40.000 They're going to sink an American ship or something, and then America is going to pummel them. 0.67

00:48:44.000 There's one way to stop that, which is stop the popcorn kernels from popping.

00:48:48.000 And you can't stop them from popping simply by appealing to them to stop.

00:48:52.000 You're going to have to actually quash them where they are.

00:48:55.000 You have to let Israel finish off Hamas. 0.98

00:48:57.000 You have to threaten Hezbollah that if it gets involved, that America will finish off Hezbollah directly.

00:49:02.000 That's the reason we have aircraft carriers stationed in the Mediterranean. 0.98

00:49:05.000 It's not because I or anyone else wants America at war with Iran.

00:49:09.000 It's because I want America not at war with Iran.

00:49:12.000 The threats are useful.

00:49:13.000 Credible threat of force is a very significant deterrent.

00:49:16.000 It always has been.

00:49:17.000 It's why the United States is gonna have to blow away the Houthis. 1.00

00:49:20.000 Because if they continue to achieve quote-unquote victories against international shipping in the Red Sea, do you think that incentivizes more attacks or does it disincentivize more attacks?

00:49:30.000 Again, Sunnis are probably responsible for what just happened in Iran. 1.00

00:49:34.000 According to the AP, Sunni extremist groups, including the ISIS group, have conducted large-scale attacks in the past that killed civilians in Shiite-majority Iran.

00:49:43.000 That's probably what is happening here.

00:49:45.000 Okay, in just one second, we'll get to the latest on Harvard, where Clouding Gay now has a piece out talking about how hard it is to be Clouding Gay, how she's really a victim.

00:49:54.000 We'll get to that in a moment.

00:49:55.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - January 04, 2024

2024 ADVANTAGE: TRUMP

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