The Ben Shapiro Show - A Democratic Senate Candidate With A NAZI Tattoo?!

00:00:00.000 Uh-oh, a Democratic candidate in Maine apparently has a Nazi tattoo, but that's not stopping Bernie Sanders from endorsing him.

00:00:06.000 Plus, Republicans finally dump Paul Ingracia overboard, and we talk about the government shutdown and construction on the White House.

00:00:13.000 First, the first decade of the Daily Wire proved that truth and courage still win.

00:00:17.000 The next decade is going to be even bigger and better.

00:00:20.000 We're celebrating our first 10 years and making sure you're here for everything coming next with our deal of the decade.

00:00:24.000 Join now for as little as $7 a month.

00:00:26.000 And yes, the Penn Dragon cycle is coming.

00:00:28.000 Don't miss the seven-part cinematic series launching January 22nd, 2026.

00:00:33.000 Our all-access members get it early, episodes one and two on Christmas Day, December 25th.

00:00:38.000 So you get it like a month early if you're an all-access member.

00:00:41.000 But remember, again, you have to be an all-access member for that early access to the Penn Dragon cycle.

00:00:45.000 Don't miss a moment.

00:00:46.000 Join now at dailywire.com.

00:00:49.000 Also, folks, the response has been absolutely massive.

00:00:51.000 I did a signing on Alexis Live with some of you yesterday.

00:00:54.000 And since then, Lions and Scavengers has been flying off the shelves faster than we can actually restock the book.

00:00:58.000 It has been a New York Times bestseller for multiple weeks, actually.

00:00:58.000 Get this?

00:01:02.000 It's not just another book.

00:01:03.000 It's a rallying cry against the cultural rot poisoning our society.

00:01:07.000 Lions and scavengers tells the truth that the left refuses to confront.

00:01:10.000 Now, at the holidays, right around the corner, it makes the perfect gift for the real lions in your life, the people who still believe in courage, strength, and truth.

00:01:16.000 But you need to move fast.

00:01:18.000 The signed copies are disappearing quickly.

00:01:20.000 Head on over to dailywire.com/slash shop right now.

00:01:22.000 Grab your signed copy of the New York Times best-selling Lions and Scavengers before they're gone for good.

00:01:27.000 Again, that's dailywire.com/slash shop.

00:01:30.000 Well, Democrats are in a tough position in the Senate races in 2026.

00:01:34.000 There are not a lot of vulnerable seats for Republicans in 2026, but one of those vulnerable seats was supposed to be in Maine, where Susan Collins, who's a Republican senator from a very purple to blue state, she looked to be vulnerable against the Democrats.

00:01:47.000 The Democrat chosen to run by the party was a person whose name is Graham Plattner.

00:01:53.000 Graham Plattner is a Bernie Sanders acolyte.

00:01:56.000 He's a far-left progressive.

00:01:59.000 There was a primary that had broken out between Maine governor Janet Mills and Plattner. 0.60

00:02:06.000 But it appears that Plattner, who had the upper hand, now he is in trouble.

00:02:12.000 Now he is in trouble. 0.98

00:02:13.000 And one of the reasons that he is in trouble is because he is, in fact, a radical, insane communist. 0.98

00:02:18.000 Not just a communist. 0.98

00:02:19.000 Apparently, he kind of likes Nazis.

00:02:22.000 I know that I don't know where all of this sort of fondness for Nazis is coming from, but it seems like a bizarre number of people are kind of into the Nazis these days.

00:02:32.000 So the reason this is coming up is because Graham Plattner apparently released a video, shirtless, drunk at some sort of event, a wedding or something, in which he has a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest.

00:02:47.000 Now, again, Plattner has the endorsement of Bernie Sanders as an anti-establishment outsider, according to Axios.

00:02:54.000 But there have already been a series of minor scandals surrounding his candidacy, including resurfaced Reddit posts where he espoused offensive views about black people and assault victims.

00:03:07.000 So apparently, in this video, he is singing shirtless and he has a skull tattoo on his chest.

00:03:14.000 That is a totenkopf, which was a symbol used by Hitler's SS.

00:03:20.000 You know, like the skull and crossbones used by the SS.

00:03:23.000 Apparently, the move was intended to get ahead of OPO research, and the GOP Senate campaign arm seized on the images, accusing Plattner of having a Nazi tattoo, which is, of course, precisely what that is.

00:03:34.000 Now, Plattner then decided to go on with the Pod Save America, bros, joining Tommy Viter, former van driver for Barack Obama.

00:03:42.000 And he says that the video was from his brother's wedding.

00:03:45.000 And he said, I am not a secret Nazi.

00:03:47.000 And first of all, when you have to say you're not a secret Nazi, never a great political sign.

00:03:52.000 When you can put that on a bumper sticker or whatever, he said that he got the tattoo in Croatia while he was deployed and very inebriated, and that he and his fellow Marines chose, quote, a terrifying looking skull and crossbones.

00:04:04.000 So, yeah, this was awkward.

00:04:06.000 Here he was with Tommy Veter.

00:04:10.000 And the reason that we are showing this video is because at the very end, you can see a tattoo on your chest.

00:04:16.000 And I've been told that some of your political opponents are telling reporters that that tattoo has a Nazi affiliation.

00:04:22.000 And I would like to know: is that accurate? 0.80

00:04:25.000 Are you a secret Nazi?

00:04:26.000 I am not a secret Nazi.

00:04:29.000 I went to college.

00:04:30.000 I went to the gym.

00:04:31.000 I did all the things.

00:04:32.000 And at no point in this entire experience of my life did anybody ever once say, hey, you're a Nazi.

00:04:42.000 It never came up until we got wind that in the opposition research, somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo.

00:04:53.000 And I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I've not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years.

00:05:01.000 Okay, well, actually, it is not just a matter of people have not randomly accused him of being you have like literally an SS symbol tattooed on your chest.

00:05:11.000 I mean, whose fault is that, my dude?

00:05:15.000 So, controversy has now broken out over whether he meant to have a Nazi symbol tattooed on your chest.

00:05:19.000 Now, I don't know how many people accidentally have Nazi symbols tattooed on their chests.

00:05:23.000 I feel like the number is relatively low.

00:05:26.000 That's not like a thing that you just randomly stumble onto.

00:05:29.000 You get drunk one night and you're like, hey, let me get that Nazi tattoo here on my chest. 0.74

00:05:34.000 Like, I'm not sure how that happens, particularly.

00:05:36.000 Apparently, some of his political friends and allies don't believe him either.

00:05:42.000 According to Jewish Insider, a person who socialized with Plattner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, says that Plattner had specifically acknowledged the tattoo was a totenkoff, the death head symbol adopted by the Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II.

00:05:57.000 Apparently, he said, Oh, this is my totenkoff.

00:06:00.000 He said in a cutesy little way.

00:06:02.000 That exchange occurred in 2012 at Toon Inn, a popular dive on Capitol Hill, where Plattner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while he attended the George Washington University on the GI Bill.

00:06:12.000 He would often take off his shirt, drinking with friends late at night at the bar, and on at least one occasion had stated he knew what the tattoo represented, according to the former acquaintance.

00:06:21.000 So apparently, Plattner said at the time, at one point, that he was aware it was a toten cop when he'd gotten the tattoo.

00:06:29.000 Another time he said that he didn't know.

00:06:32.000 I mean, clearly he knew that is the reason why he's revealing the video now early in an attempt to get past it before the primary vote.

00:06:41.000 Now he's trying to explain that we chose a terrifying looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing.

00:06:49.000 We got those tattoos and then we all moved on with our lives.

00:06:52.000 And he says, it was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol.

00:06:59.000 I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that.

00:07:02.000 And to insinuate that I did is disgusting.

00:07:04.000 I'm already planning to get this removed.

00:07:07.000 Now, there is a problem.

00:07:09.000 Apparently, Plattner's former political director, one Jean-Viev McDonald, who resigned from his campaign last week over her objection to other Reddit comments, which we'll get to in a moment, said in a Facebook post, well, Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest.

00:07:24.000 He's a military buff. 0.96

00:07:24.000 He's not an idiot. 0.96

00:07:25.000 She wrote in the post. 0.99

00:07:27.000 Maybe he didn't know when he got it that he got it years ago.

00:07:29.000 He should have had it covered up because you know damn well what it means.

00:07:34.000 So, yeah, this seems at the very least unpleasant.

00:07:39.000 And again, not a gigantic shock coming from Graham Plattner because there were a bunch of Reddit posts that are pretty ugly as well.

00:07:48.000 In one of them, he described himself openly as a communist. 0.98

00:07:51.000 He called all cops bastards and he dismissed sexual assault in the military. 0.94

00:07:56.000 Also, he defended a man with a Nazi SS lightning bolt tattoo who later admitted to impersonating a federal officer at a BLM protest in Las Vegas in 2020. 0.98

00:08:06.000 Plattner said in a deleted Reddit post, quote, I will be sure to inform the black guys I know with Bolts that they're Nazis now and not U.S. Marine Corps scout snipers.

00:08:14.000 Bolts were an SCI icon since the 80s, at least, if not longer.

00:08:17.000 It was never official, but it sure as bleep was tattooed on almost every hog I knew between 2004 and 2012. 0.76

00:08:24.000 He also drew scrutiny for appearing in a photo this summer with a white supremacist agitator in Maine, Richard Ward, who's running for a Banger City Council seat.

00:08:32.000 Apparently, in the photo, Ward is pictured wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the number 88.

00:08:38.000 Apparently, Graham, the spokesperson said, told this person to F off.

00:08:44.000 Again, when you're in public situations and people are taking pictures of you, you can't necessarily vet every single person who shows up with any t-shirt.

00:08:44.000 We don't know.

00:08:50.000 However, you can make a determination as to whether you would choose to have a Nazi tattoo.

00:08:56.000 That one seems like it doesn't happen by total accident. 0.88

00:09:00.000 Now, what's amazing about this, aside from the fact that Graham Plattner seems to be a bit of a scuzz bag. 0.58

00:09:06.000 And here I say that he has comments on these Reddit posts asking why black people don't tip, suggesting that people concerned about being shouldn't be inebriated around people they don't feel comfortable with and all the rest.

00:09:18.000 Now, this is the kind of stuff that would normally get you canceled, certainly from the Democratic Party, but he is a progressive, and that means that Bernie Sanders is going to defend him now.

00:09:26.000 So the same people on the left who are demanding that every Republican in sight condemn every young Republican, even tangentially associated with an ugly text thread.

00:09:35.000 All those same people are now out defending Graham Plattner today.

00:09:39.000 So for example, John Lovett, another one of the Pods of America bros, he tweeted out: only perfect candidates off the Harvard law conveyor belt, please.

00:09:47.000 Highly disciplined, all boxes checked, well-liked and humble, absolutely no spiritual connection to having a physical body except for severe IBS, volunteered at a soup kitchen in high school, signs, email cheers, et cetera. 0.67

00:09:57.000 Okay, I think that there's a big gap between that and, you know, the drunken dude who is routinely spewing garbage and also has a Nazi tattoo on his chest. 0.69

00:10:08.000 Also, John Lovitt routinely calls people Nazis.

00:10:11.000 So just weird how that double standard immediately applies.

00:10:16.000 Bernie Sanders, for his part, he says, I personally think that he is an excellent candidate.

00:10:21.000 I'm going to support him and look forward to him becoming the next senator in the state of Maine.

00:10:26.000 He said, there's a young man who served his country in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he went through some really difficult experiences seeing friends of his killed or whatever.

00:10:31.000 And in spite of all that, he had the courage to run.

00:10:33.000 I personally think he's an excellent candidate.

00:10:37.000 Okay, but I don't think that you would be making the same excuses if the person were on the other side of the aisle, obviously.

00:10:44.000 Asked about Plattner's comments about assault.

00:10:46.000 Sanders then shot back.

00:10:47.000 Have you served four tours of duty?

00:10:50.000 Okay, so I do love Bernie Sanders pulling out the patriotic military service card after spending an entire career ripping on the American military industrial complex and America's foreign policy.

00:11:02.000 But in the end, this is the Democratic Party.

00:11:05.000 It is all about power.

00:11:06.000 It is not about actual consistent argumentation.

00:11:09.000 And they're perfectly happy to have a self-described commie with a Nazi tattoo on his chest running for Senate in Maine if it means the Republicans lose control of the Senate.

00:11:18.000 That's what really matters to them in the end.

00:11:20.000 All righty, coming up, Democrats are still having a tough time separating off from their radicals.

00:11:25.000 Plus, we'll get to the government shutdown and all the rest first.

00:11:27.000 It's often said freedom isn't free, which of course is true.

00:11:30.000 Freedom has to be defended.

00:11:31.000 What isn't said enough is that online freedom isn't free either.

00:11:34.000 It too has to be defended, but not by military force, but by tech, encryption.

00:11:38.000 Strong encryption can protect your right to privacy online and defend you from hackers.

00:11:42.000 So how do you get this encryption?

00:11:43.000 With ExpressVPN.

00:11:44.000 Internet providers track and sell your data.

00:11:46.000 Hackers prey on public Wi-Fi.

00:11:47.000 Governments monitor your every move online.

00:11:49.000 With ExpressVPN, their powerful encryption reroutes 100% of your online activity through secure servers, making your data invisible to prying eyes.

00:11:57.000 I use ExpressVPN all the time.

00:11:58.000 I've obviously been on the road like a lot, a lot.

00:12:00.000 And that means I'm using public Wi-Fi a lot.

00:12:02.000 And it's nobody's business what I'm doing online.

00:12:04.000 So I use ExpressVPN.

00:12:06.000 Don't just take my word for it.

00:12:07.000 They invited the world's top auditors, PWC and KPMG, to verify their revolutionary trusted server technology.

00:12:12.000 It's the only system that physically cannot store your data because it runs entirely on volatile memory.

00:12:17.000 While other companies profit from invading your privacy, ExpressVPN goes the extra mile to protect it.

00:12:21.000 So if you want to join me in defending your online freedom, get ExpressVPN.

00:12:25.000 You can use my special link to get four extra months of ExpressVPN at expressvpn.com slash ben.

00:12:30.000 That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-PN.com slash Ben.

00:12:34.000 Also, as I just mentioned, I'm on the road like all the time lately.

00:12:37.000 I'm covering the news, traveling for events and all the rest of it.

00:12:40.000 Between the flights and the hotel rooms, sometimes actually getting proper nutrition is the first thing that goes out the window.

00:12:46.000 Here's the thing.

00:12:47.000 I have a wife, I've got kids, I've got a company.

00:12:49.000 I have to stay healthy.

00:12:50.000 That's why I started taking Balance of Nature's fruits and veggies supplements.

00:12:53.000 These are original whole food supplements, 16 fruits, 15 veggies, freezed dried into capsules.

00:12:57.000 As somebody who keeps kosher, I appreciate that it's a kosher product.

00:13:00.000 So I just pop it right in that protein drink and I'm good to go.

00:13:03.000 100% whole food ingredients, nothing added that shouldn't be there.

00:13:05.000 When I'm rushing through an airport, I can take them with water.

00:13:08.000 If I'm in the car between interviews, I can actually chew them.

00:13:10.000 Sometimes, I would say most often, I actually put them in that protein smoothie, as I mentioned, but however the day is going, I'm using Balance of Nature.

00:13:16.000 Balance of Nature delivers the natural goodness of fruits, veggies, spices, and fibers just as nature intended, which means even when I'm 2,000 miles from home, I'm still taking care of myself the way that my family needs me to.

00:13:26.000 It's very convenient.

00:13:27.000 It's easy to travel with.

00:13:28.000 And of course, it's great for you.

00:13:30.000 After years of research and development, they've truly created something that makes getting proper nutrition convenient for any lifestyle.

00:13:35.000 Head on over to balanceofnature.com, get a free fiber and spice supplement, plus 35% off your first set as a new preferred customer by using discount code Shapiro.

00:13:44.000 Well, it's not just Bernie Sanders endorsing Graham Plattner or the Pods of America bros endorsing Graham Plattner that is indicative of where the Democratic Party is.

00:13:52.000 Again, the Democratic Party continues to simply endorse people who say and do quite terrible things.

00:13:57.000 Abigail Spanberger is running for governor of Virginia, of course, and she has been plagued by the issue of Attorney General candidate Jay Jones.

00:14:05.000 Jay Jones, of course, texted a Republican that he wished to kill the Speaker of the House of Delegates in Virginia and then called that Speaker's children small fascists, even though he apparently knew the kids.

00:14:16.000 Abigail Spanberger is now saying that, you know, those texts were just a poor choice.

00:14:19.000 It's not no biggie here.

00:14:23.000 Well, I want to begin by first, you know, condemning clearly the texts that he sent to a colleague.

00:14:29.000 And I condemned them as soon as I learned of them and, you know, called on Jay Jones to publicly explain himself.

00:14:36.000 And I think that he's been quite clear in his apologies and in his taking ownership of that poor choice.

00:14:45.000 Okay, is he taking ownership?

00:14:47.000 Because taking ownership usually means consequences.

00:14:50.000 But again, that doesn't seem to apply in politics anymore on any side of the aisle, as we'll get to in a moment.

00:14:55.000 Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren continues to prop up the ghost of Ed Markey, the senator from Massachusetts in the face of Seth Moulton, a much younger Democrat who's running against him.

00:15:04.000 Moulton is considered sometimes to be a more moderate Democrat than Ed Markey.

00:15:07.000 He's trying to sort of make more progressive signaling toward the bays.

00:15:12.000 But here's Elizabeth Warren, who would rather have the very, very old Democrat in the Senate, the more radical Democrat in the Senate, because this is who the Democrats are. 1.00

00:15:20.000 They are embracing the radicalism full scale.

00:15:24.000 I've endorsed my partner in the Senate, Ed Markey.

00:15:27.000 You know, Ed is a terrific fighter.

00:15:29.000 I was just with him at our No Kings rally in Massachusetts on Saturday.

00:15:37.000 And he was out there raising the troops because Ed fights from the heart.

00:15:43.000 He is a good man, and I am honored to be his partner in the United States Senate.

00:15:51.000 Good times.

00:15:52.000 I mean, again, he has been in the Senate for legitimately forever, pretty much.

00:15:57.000 I mean, he has certainly been in Massachusetts politics for forever.

00:15:59.000 He was born in 1946.

00:16:00.000 So forget about the next generation of Democrats. 0.65

00:16:03.000 The next generation of Democrats will either be insane progressives or they will be, you know, just old people. 0.99

00:16:08.000 Meanwhile, I've been talking about this for a while.

00:16:11.000 If you're going to condemn extremism, if you're going to condemn radicalism, if you're going to condemn structures that promote violence, then you really should do that on all the different sides.

00:16:20.000 This should not be particularly difficult.

00:16:21.000 And the fact that people have a tough time with it is bewildering to me in the extreme.

00:16:26.000 And this is why it is worth talking about that apparently, according to CBS News, a pardon Capitol rioter was arrested last weekend for allegedly threatening to kill a House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

00:16:34.000 Court documents obtained by CBS News said that this person was arrested Sunday after saying in text messages he planned to eliminate Jeffries when that top House Democrat spoke at an event in New York City on Monday.

00:16:45.000 He was arraigned on Tuesday, entered a plea of not guilty.

00:16:48.000 He said, I cannot allow this terrorist to live. 0.99

00:16:51.000 Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated. 1.00

00:16:52.000 I will kill him for the future. 1.00

00:16:56.000 Jeffries spoke about this on the floor a little bit. 0.99

00:17:00.000 Here was CBS reporting.

00:17:03.000 Christopher Moynihan texted threats, terroristic threats, they say, against Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, texting, quote, even if I am hated, he must be eliminated. 0.98

00:17:14.000 I will kill him for the future about Jeffries.

00:17:17.000 Allegedly, Moynihan not only texted that, but knew that Jeffries was to appear yesterday at an event at the Economic Club of New York and noted that date and that event in the text thread. 0.90

00:17:30.000 Jeffries put out a statement in which he said that threats of violence will not stop us from showing up, standing up and speaking up for the American people.

00:17:36.000 Now, again, I think that the people who make violent threats are responsible for their own actions.

00:17:42.000 People who promote conspiratorial nonsense that ups the ante on violence, those are people who ought to be called out as well, because that is in and of itself a bad thing.

00:17:52.000 That is why it is quite a good thing that Paul Ingracia has now apparently withdrawn his nomination.

00:17:58.000 That is a positive development.

00:18:00.000 We talked about Ingracia yesterday.

00:18:01.000 He was the person chosen to lead the office of special counsel, but he had a long history of truly awful decision-making with regard to his own personal politics.

00:18:11.000 Ingracia's move came after Republican senators voiced opposition to the nomination.

00:18:14.000 It became clear President Trump's pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel had no path to confirmation.

00:18:21.000 Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma, Rick Scott of Florida, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said on Monday they opposed Ingracia's confirmation.

00:18:28.000 Political had reported on Monday, as we talked about, that Ingracia had used an Italian slur for black people and also written, quote, I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time.

00:18:37.000 I will admit it.

00:18:38.000 He, of course, is a big supporter of Andrew Tate, among others.

00:18:41.000 Why he was picked in the first place remains a bewildering decision.

00:18:45.000 But yes, there should, in fact, be some self-policing by the parties because here's the deal: either you end up self-policing or somebody else ends up policing you.

00:18:54.000 That is just the reality in life.

00:18:56.000 And when it comes to condemnations of immoral behavior and terrible opinions, that seems to me like a baseline moral standard as a general rule.

00:19:06.000 Okay, meanwhile, in terms of actual violence action and incentivization of violent action, again, back on the left, yesterday, a U.S. Marshal and an illegal immigrant were shot in Los Angeles when federal officers opened fire as a migrant weaponized his vehicle and tried to flee a traffic stop, according to the New York Post.

00:19:23.000 The 44-year-old suspect who'd reportedly escaped from custody on a previous occasion allegedly rammed his Toyota Camry into federal vehicles, prompting agents to surround and box in the immigrant's car, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Trisha McLaughlin.

00:19:37.000 The illegal alien then weaponized his vehicle and began ramming the law enforcement vehicle in an attempt to flee.

00:19:43.000 Officers followed their training and fired defensive shots.

00:19:45.000 Apparently, the suspect then spun in a way that could kick up smoke and debris at the federal agents.

00:19:54.000 The car started to fishtail, and they moved to subdue him by smashing in the driver's side window. 0.54

00:19:59.000 He pressed on until an agent opened fire.

00:20:01.000 An illegal immigrant was shot in the elbow.

00:20:03.000 The U.S. Marshal was struck in the hand by a ricochet bullet.

00:20:07.000 Again, why in the hell we should consider this the fault of federal agents as opposed to the people who continue to incentivize illegal immigration, including criminal illegal immigration in the United States, is beyond me.

00:20:20.000 And yes, people are more likely to attack ICE agents if they know that there is sympathy to them doing so.

00:20:26.000 There's no question of that.

00:20:28.000 Okay, the other big controversy of the day is really not a controversy, but people are trying to make it into a controversy.

00:20:33.000 And that, of course, is the reconstruction of the White House East Wing.

00:20:36.000 So the East Wing was built in 1902.

00:20:39.000 It has been repeatedly reconstructed since then.

00:20:41.000 It was really expanded pretty massively by FDR in 1942.

00:20:45.000 It is not one of the older parts of the White House.

00:20:48.000 The President of the United States has ordered parts of the East Wing to be demolished, and then the East Wing will be rebuilt as a giant ballroom, which is fine.

00:20:57.000 I mean, I've been to the East Wing.

00:20:58.000 I'm just telling you, it's a bunch of offices.

00:21:00.000 It is not in any way comparable to the West Wing.

00:21:04.000 A Treasury official apparently wrote on Monday evening in an email to department employees: quote, as construction proceeds on the White House grounds, employees should refrain from taking and sharing photographs of the grounds to include the East Wing without prior approval from the Office of Public Affairs.

00:21:19.000 Supposedly, this is because it could reveal sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details.

00:21:25.000 More likely, just on a skeptical level, it's because the images of gigantic cranes and wrecking balls taking down parts of the White House have become a talking point for many, many Democrats.

00:21:38.000 During an event at the White House earlier on Monday, President Trump described the ballroom as a grand entertaining space for visiting dignitaries, and he said it would be funded by private donations.

00:21:48.000 The ballroom will be at least 90,000 square feet with the capacity for more than 650 seats.

00:21:53.000 The East Room currently has enough space for about 200 seats.

00:21:56.000 It's very small.

00:21:57.000 I've been in there.

00:21:58.000 It's not very large.

00:22:00.000 The main footprint of the White House, not including the East and West Wing, is approximately 55,000 square feet.

00:22:05.000 And President Trump said for more than 150 years, every president has dreamt about having a ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, state visits, etc.

00:22:13.000 I'm honored to be the first president to finally get this much-needed project underway.

00:22:18.000 This, of course, prompted Democrats to freak out.

00:22:20.000 Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota wrote, Seeing the White House torn apart is really emblematic of the times we're in.

00:22:28.000 Here's President Trump talking lightheartedly about the reconstruction effort.

00:22:33.000 If I do this again, I'm going to get a ballroom built and we're putting up our own money with the government just paying for nothing.

00:22:40.000 You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back.

00:22:44.000 You hear that sound?

00:22:45.000 Oh, that's music to my ears.

00:22:47.000 I love that sound.

00:22:48.000 Other people don't like it.

00:22:49.000 I love it, Josh.

00:22:51.000 I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.

00:22:55.000 In this case, it reminds me of lack of money because I'm paying for it.

00:22:59.000 So it's the opposite.

00:23:02.000 Okay.

00:23:03.000 I mean, again, the fact that people are trying to make a big deal out of this is totally insane.

00:23:06.000 So I've asked my sponsors at Comet, a new web browser by Perplexity, to list the major construction projects that have occurred at the White House since 1900.

00:23:14.000 And it's an extensive list.

00:23:15.000 1902 renovation by Theodore Roosevelt, which included removal of Victorian conservatories, construction of the West Wing for executive offices, upgrade of interior finishes, state dining room renovation.

00:23:26.000 There's another expansion by William Howard Kaft in 1909, which established the first oval office.

00:23:32.000 There's the Rose Garden modernization, 1913.

00:23:36.000 That is when it was added.

00:23:38.000 The attic and upper floor renovations in 1927, West Wing repairs and remodeling 1929 to 1930.

00:23:43.000 There were a bunch of expansions under FDR, including adding a second floor and larger basement to the West Wing and construction of the East Wing to house offices for staff and secure wartime communications.

00:23:53.000 There's a major reconstruction under the Truman administration because there was a risk of collapse.

00:23:57.000 That included new foundations, steel and concrete structure, modern plumbing, wiring, heating, and cooling, and rebuilt interiors.

00:24:03.000 There are a bunch of restorations under Jackie Kennedy.

00:24:06.000 And then, of course, there were renovations to the Rose Garden by the Trump administration in 2020.

00:24:12.000 And in 2025, construction of the White House ballroom.

00:24:15.000 And pretty much everybody made significant upgrades, including, for example, the addition of the Truman balcony.

00:24:22.000 So the White House has always been a building that is under construction.

00:24:25.000 All right, coming up more on the government shutdown plus the latest on the negotiations over the Gaza Strip.

00:24:30.000 The vice president is visiting Israel.

00:24:32.000 First, I've heard a lot of good money advice.

00:24:34.000 I think my favorite piece of money advice that it really is the reoccurring major expenses that kill you.

00:24:39.000 It's not like going to a movie one time.

00:24:40.000 But here's the thing: good advice is one thing.

00:24:42.000 Actually, putting it into practice is another.

00:24:44.000 With Acorns, it's easy to make healthy money habits automatic.

00:24:47.000 Acorns is a financial wellness app designed to help you invest for the future, save for upcoming goals, and make smarter spending decisions today.

00:24:53.000 Getting started is simple.

00:24:54.000 Investments can begin automatically using your spare change, so there's no need for an extensive financial background.

00:24:59.000 The platform builds expert-curated portfolios to ensure money is managed wisely, taking the guesswork out of investing.

00:25:04.000 Whether you're saving for a car, a new home, educational expenses for children, retirement, other life milestones, Acorns offers tools to support a range of financial ambitions.

00:25:12.000 There's also an integrated checking account with features that automatically invest plus an emergency fund designed to help grow savings, all accessible within a single user-friendly app.

00:25:20.000 Sign up right now.

00:25:21.000 Acorns will boost your new account with a $5 bonus investment.

00:25:24.000 Join the over 14 million all-time customers who have already saved and invested over $25 billion with Acorns.

00:25:30.000 Head on over to acorns.com/slash Shapiro or download that Acorns app to get started today.

00:25:34.000 Paid non-client endorsement, compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns, tier two compensation provided.

00:25:39.000 Investing involves risk, Acorns Advisors LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor.

00:25:43.000 Do important disclosures at acorns.com/slash Shapiro.

00:25:47.000 Also, you know, I am not the cook in my family.

00:25:50.000 I will say that the go-to for me is like eggs.

00:25:52.000 That's the thing I'm making, but you can get better stuff than eggs because Cook Unity makes it easy to enjoy the meals you crave.

00:25:59.000 Fresh, never frozen, crafted in small batches by real chefs with tons of options to match your cravings, lifestyle, and dietary needs.

00:26:05.000 You'll always find something delicious.

00:26:06.000 Just head on over to cookunity.com slash BenFree or use code BenFree at checkout to snag free premium meals for life.

00:26:12.000 With Cook Unity, you get all the flavor and variety of restaurant quality meals without the hassle of cooking, shopping, or cleanup.

00:26:18.000 Every dish is made using fresh seasonal ingredients.

00:26:20.000 You can choose from a huge rotating menu of over 300 options or let the platform make personalized picks for you.

00:26:26.000 Meals arrive fully cooked and ready to heat in just minutes.

00:26:28.000 So whether you're after comfort food or something nutritious, it's always quick, easy, and way more affordable than takeout.

00:26:33.000 Cook Unity's chef lineup has Food Network favorites, James Beard Award winners, restaurateurs whose names you'd recognize from the best dining scenes across the country.

00:26:39.000 Lena Elkuzi is one of the Cook Unity great chefs if you're looking for plant-based holistic foods or John DeLucci if you're looking for a more modern European meal right here in the USA.

00:26:48.000 It's restaurant quality cooking designed for your everyday life.

00:26:51.000 Producer Justin has been using Cook Unity and he just raves about it.

00:26:55.000 Get comfort and nutrition delivered in every bite made by award-winning chefs at Cook Unity.

00:26:59.000 Head on over to cookunity.com slash BenFree or enter code BenFree before checkout to get free premium meals for life.

00:27:04.000 That's free premium meals for life by using code BenFree or heading on over to cookunity.com slash BenFree.

00:27:10.000 Meanwhile, the government shutdown continues to pace Democrats.

00:27:13.000 Again, they're struggling for a narrative.

00:27:15.000 Tearing down the White House is not really a narrative.

00:27:17.000 It really, really is not.

00:27:18.000 I do not think that most Americans are going to sleep tonight enraged by the idea that President Trump is constructing a ballroom at the White House.

00:27:26.000 The government shutdown continues to be a Democratic-driven policy.

00:27:31.000 So much so that rational Democrats like John Fetterman, senator from Pennsylvania, he's like, you know what?

00:27:35.000 We should just nuke the filibuster.

00:27:37.000 Like, seriously, reopen the government, nuke the filibuster.

00:27:39.000 Now, Republicans are hesitant to do this because once you break that glass of nuking the filibuster, then presumably if Democrats ever get control of the Senate again, they could do the same thing.

00:27:48.000 And so he doesn't want to do that.

00:27:50.000 But Fetterman's approach here is well taken, which is like, there's like 55, 56 votes here to reopen the government.

00:27:56.000 Enough of this.

00:27:59.000 Some of your Republican colleagues have proposed nuking the filibuster to force the government to reopen.

00:28:04.000 What do you think?

00:28:05.000 Yeah, of course.

00:28:06.000 Carve it out for that?

00:28:06.000 Of course.

00:28:07.000 Absolutely.

00:28:08.000 We ran on that.

00:28:10.000 We ran on killing the filibuster and now we love it.

00:28:12.000 You know, it's like carve it out so we can move on.

00:28:16.000 And I support it because it makes it more difficult to shut the government down in the future.

00:28:22.000 And that's where it's entirely appropriate.

00:28:24.000 And I don't want to hear any Democrat clutching their pearls about the filibuster.

00:28:28.000 We all ran on it.

00:28:29.000 I ran on that.

00:28:32.000 Hey, he, again, remains maybe the only sane Democrat in the Senate at this point.

00:28:37.000 Meanwhile, President Trump says the Democrats should stop the madness and just reopen the government.

00:28:41.000 This thing is probably going to go on for a couple more weeks, it seems like.

00:28:46.000 But today I'm calling on every Senate Democrat to stop the madness to let our country get back in the greatest moment in the history of our country in terms of wealth, in terms of job creation, and in terms of investment coming in, these guys go on strike.

00:29:04.000 It's really a shame.

00:29:05.000 So I'm asking them to be smart.

00:29:08.000 It's not working.

00:29:09.000 They're getting killed in the polls.

00:29:11.000 The public understands what they're doing.

00:29:13.000 They're doing the wrong thing.

00:29:16.000 President Trump points out that Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrats are holding the government hostage.

00:29:21.000 Now, this, again, is language.

00:29:22.000 It goes all the way back to Barack Obama, who suggested that Republicans were holding the government hostage.

00:29:26.000 The Tea Party was doing so.

00:29:27.000 He called them Tea Party terrorists, actually.

00:29:29.000 But here is President Trump basically turned about his fair play, which may be the slogan of the Trump administration, honestly.

00:29:38.000 Unfortunately, in a craven and pointless act of partisan spite, Chuck Schumer, who have known for a long time in the radical left Democrats, are holding the entire federal government hostage to appease the extremists in their party.

00:29:52.000 And they are extreme.

00:29:53.000 I mean, I've never seen anything like it.

00:29:56.000 Again, he is not wrong.

00:29:58.000 And Senator Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, he says that he hopes Democrats will come to their senses and actually just reopen the government at this point.

00:30:07.000 So we're hopeful that this will be the week when we break out of this and the Democrats come to their senses and decide to open up the government.

00:30:14.000 We're going to give them several opportunities, as you know, to do that.

00:30:16.000 We'll have another vote on the continuing resolution tomorrow, which is sitting at the desk of the Senate.

00:30:21.000 Could be sent down here to the White House, sign into law.

00:30:23.000 The government would open up immediately.

00:30:27.000 Well, meanwhile, the Democrats are claiming that the government must remain shut down no matter what, because healthcare is a ticking time bomb, which is hilarious.

00:30:34.000 I'm old enough to remember when Obamacare was passed and it was supposed to bend the cost curve and solve the problem of health care premiums.

00:30:40.000 And then it didn't. 0.99

00:30:42.000 Here's Senator Chris Van Hollen, a clinical moron, talking about this. 0.98

00:30:49.000 Well, Chris, I don't want to see the shutdown go on. 0.98

00:30:53.000 And that's why I, together with my Democratic colleagues in the Senate, have voted seven times now to reopen the government, but without giving Donald Trump that blank check.

00:31:03.000 He was doing a whole lot of damage to federal employees in the country even before the shutdown.

00:31:09.000 I mean, remember Elon Musk and his chainsaw, and they did a huge amount of damage in their so-called big, beautiful bill, which was beautiful for billionaires, but not for others.

00:31:20.000 And when they extended the tax cuts for billionaires, the one tax cut that they did not extend was that that helps middle-class Americans afford their health care.

00:31:29.000 They've left this ticking time bomb, and we want to defuse it.

00:31:32.000 And that's what I'm hearing from my constituents as well.

00:31:36.000 I mean, again, why was that time bomb ticking?

00:31:38.000 I mean, you guys radically expanded Obamacare subsidies in 2021 under the guise of the pandemic, which by that point was already waning.

00:31:46.000 But I thought that Obamacare was supposed to solve this, didn't it?

00:31:49.000 I mean, are you admitting that Obamacare is basically a giant fail that has constructed enormous government-based subsidies and has not really lowered the cost curve in a gigantic way?

00:32:00.000 The real reason here is because Democrats are hoping that this will somehow spur them to the polls.

00:32:04.000 Hakeem Jeffries, this is actually really funny.

00:32:06.000 Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, he says that the government shutdown is hurting Republicans so much so that Democrats will win in New Jersey and Virginia.

00:32:16.000 It is at this point that I should remind Hakeem Jeffries that New Jersey is a very blue state and Virginia is a very blue slash purple state.

00:32:24.000 Like if your big triumph is that you somehow regain the governor's mansion in Virginia and that you win in New Jersey, I got to say, you guys are playing defense an awful lot.

00:32:35.000 We're going to win in Virginia.

00:32:36.000 We're going to win in New Jersey because the American people are fed up that Republicans would rather spend time on vacation on the golf course, give $40 billion to a foreign entity and can't find resources to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits days away from November 1st and the open enrollment.

00:33:02.000 Okay, well, meanwhile, the Republicans continue to play turnabout is fair play.

00:33:07.000 According to the Federalists, the House Judiciary Committee has now referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution over allegations he knowingly made false statements to Congress about his role in the Russia collusion hoax.

00:33:19.000 In a letter to the Attorney General Pam Bondi, obtained by the Federalist Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, argued that Brennan made numerous willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact contradicted by the record established by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as the CIA.

00:33:32.000 The referral highlights numerous instances in which Brennan allegedly issued untrue remarks when testifying before the Judiciary Committee in May of 2023.

00:33:41.000 And again, this is a fairly well-predicated ask by the Judiciary Committee.

00:33:48.000 The reality is that Brennan did at the very best fib.

00:33:51.000 When asked about whether he was involved in analyzing the so-called steel dossier, Brennan claimed, no, I was not involved in analyzing the dossier at all.

00:33:59.000 He said, were you aware of the FBI's involvement with the dossier?

00:34:01.000 Matt Gates, who was then in Congress, asked Brennan, and Brennan said, yes, because there's an annex in the ICA that the Bureau asked to be included there.

00:34:07.000 It was their purview, their area, not ours at all.

00:34:10.000 But apparently, Brennan overrode the objections of CIA officials concerned about the steel dossier's inclusion in the assessment at all and simply included it.

00:34:19.000 So, again, this is not just turnabout as fair play.

00:34:21.000 As John Brennan lied to Congress.

00:34:23.000 Now, in the turnabout is fair play category is a report that I think this is foolhardy.

00:34:29.000 Again, I think that the Republicans, you always got to be careful of overconfidence, sort of leading you down the primrose path into defeat.

00:34:37.000 Apparently, according to the New York Times, President Trump is demanding the Justice Department pay him $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him, according to people familiar with the matter, who added that any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit.

00:34:53.000 So this is certainly an ethics conflict because many of the people in the Justice Department were appointed by the president, who is now asking them to apparently reimburse him for legal fees during the course of the last several years.

00:35:07.000 Those legal fees, by the way, are not paid by the lawyers.

00:35:10.000 If you wanted to go ahead and sue the lawyers or go after the lawyers, that makes sense.

00:35:15.000 If he wants to make the American people pay the legal bills, that seems to be a bit of a different story.

00:35:20.000 Apparently, President Trump submitted complaints through an administrative claim process that is often the precursor to lawsuits.

00:35:26.000 The first claim lodged in late 2023 seeks damages for a number of purported violations of his rights, including the FBI and special counsel investigation into Russian election tampering and possible connections to the 2016 campaign.

00:35:39.000 President Trump did say that he would give any of that money to charity.

00:35:44.000 He said, I'm the one that makes the decision.

00:35:45.000 That decision would have to go across my desk.

00:35:47.000 It's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself.

00:35:52.000 I mean, I don't even understand how this would work, frankly, on a sort of practical level.

00:35:58.000 The conflicts are so obvious.

00:36:00.000 None of this is to say that the federal law enforcement structure was correct for targeting President Trump.

00:36:05.000 They clearly were not.

00:36:06.000 But I'm not sure the solution to that is the president who presides over the DOJ asking the DOJ to reimburse him for his legal bills.

00:36:13.000 That seems to me fraught with an enormous number of serious conflicts.

00:36:17.000 Already coming up, we'll talk about the latest in Israel, the future of the Gaza Strip.

00:36:22.000 And we're joined by a man who is held hostage by Hamas for 491 days, Eli Sharabi first.

00:36:27.000 Let's talk about Cars for Kids.

00:36:29.000 You've heard the name.

00:36:30.000 You probably can't not hear the name right now or the jingle.

00:36:33.000 You know it.

00:36:33.000 Cars for kids with a K. That's right.

00:36:35.000 You got a car you don't need.

00:36:37.000 You should do with it.

00:36:37.000 Guess what?

00:36:38.000 Cars for kids.

00:36:39.000 You got two cars and you only drive one.

00:36:40.000 Cars for kids.

00:36:41.000 You got a car you swear you're going to sell, but you haven't listed it in six months.

00:36:44.000 Donate it to cars for kids.

00:36:46.000 Here's how it works.

00:36:47.000 You go to carsforkids.org slash Ben.

00:36:49.000 You fill out that simple, quick form.

00:36:50.000 They pick up your car for free.

00:36:51.000 You get a tax deduction and a vacation voucher and kids, actual real children, get the benefit.

00:36:56.000 That's the cycle.

00:36:57.000 Car, cars for kids, help kids.

00:36:59.000 Car, cars for kids help kids.

00:37:01.000 And I'll keep doing it until you give.

00:37:02.000 Look, you can keep ignoring that extra car or you can make it count.

00:37:06.000 And the way you make it count, you know what I'm going to say right now.

00:37:08.000 Say it with me.

00:37:09.000 Cars for kids.

00:37:10.000 Go to carsforkids.org slash ben right now to donate.

00:37:12.000 That's carsforkids.org slash Ben.

00:37:16.000 Again, that's cars with, okay, if that car is just sitting out front like rusting, why don't you just give it to Cars for Kids and actually do something good with it and get the tax write-off and all the extra benefits?

00:37:24.000 Go check it out right now.

00:37:25.000 Carsforkids.org slash Ben to donate.

00:37:29.000 Okay, meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to push for the ouster of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

00:37:35.000 President Trump yesterday said that he is optimistic that Hamas will disarm.

00:37:41.000 And if they don't disarm, frankly, there will be consequences to that.

00:37:47.000 The Hamas situation where they're pretty violent people, I would say, that we could put that out in two minutes. 0.98

00:37:55.000 We're giving them a chance.

00:37:56.000 You know, they agreed that they'd be very good, very, very straight.

00:38:03.000 They wouldn't be killing people and they have killed people.

00:38:06.000 That wasn't the deal we made.

00:38:07.000 But if they don't honor the deal, they'll be taken care of very quickly.

00:38:13.000 But I'd rather not have to do that.

00:38:16.000 Okay, well, you know, the question is how that happened, because the only force that was actively attempting to destroy Hamas has now been essentially barred from doing so by the so-called ceasefire deal.

00:38:28.000 Now, the reality is that the way this is likely to go is that the area outside the so-called yellow line, which is the sort of current border between Israeli-held territory and Hamas-controlled territory, that area is likely to become not just a buffer zone, but actually a fairly populous and peaceful zone.

00:38:48.000 Essentially, the Gaza Strip is going to be partitioned.

00:38:51.000 That seems to be the most likely scenario here.

00:38:53.000 Jared Kushner, special advisor to the president on these matters, he says that rehab funds are not going to pour into the Gaza Strip, at least the part controlled by Hamas, but rebuilding will commence immediately in the safer part of the strip.

00:39:04.000 That would be the part currently controlled by the Israeli military, and that will eventually be handed over to some sort of security force, an international stabilization force, they call it the ISF.

00:39:17.000 No reconstruction, no reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls.

00:39:22.000 And as far as the demilitarization goes, once the ISF is up, there needs to be a security force that they can feel safe from in order for it to be the transition to be complete.

00:39:32.000 So that needs to happen.

00:39:35.000 Okay, so that is perfectly rational.

00:39:38.000 What this means is that if there is no force in the Hamas-controlled parts of the Gaza Strip, that is Israeli, and there needs to be some other international force willing to actually do the hard work of getting rid of Hamas.

00:39:49.000 In all likelihood, is that going to happen?

00:39:51.000 I remain skeptical that the Arab nations are going to put their soldiers on the ground in Gaza in order to get rid of Hamas.

00:39:58.000 And there are serious open questions as to which countries would be sponsoring that.

00:40:03.000 As an American, I do not trust Qatar or Turkey to do that, considering they're the funding mechanisms for Hamas for the past 20 years.

00:40:09.000 It's a different thing if it's the Saudis, the UAE, maybe even Egypt, none of whom like the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas.

00:40:16.000 Meanwhile, Israel has released footage of Hamas torturing and murdering people in the remaining parts of the Gaza Strip.

00:40:21.000 Remember, all the people who are very, very concerned about Palestinian civil rights and human rights and who are claiming that there was a genocide.

00:40:26.000 Spoiler alert, there was not a genocide in the Gaza Strip.

00:40:29.000 26,000 Gazan high schoolers actually graduated from high school the other day.

00:40:33.000 You know, like they actually went to school in the middle of the war.

00:40:36.000 Not only that, there's brand new data that is out demonstrating full scale how ridiculous the claim of a starvation campaign was.

00:40:46.000 According to a brand new IPC analysis, the IPC declared a famine on August 22nd through the ceasefire on October 10th.

00:40:58.000 If there was in fact a famine, there should have been 10,000 starvation deaths.

00:41:01.000 The Hamas and the UN counted 192, virtually all of whom had pre-existing conditions.

00:41:07.000 So that is not even remotely a starvation campaign.

00:41:10.000 It is the opposite.

00:41:12.000 It is a feeding campaign considering how much material was shipped in.

00:41:16.000 In any case, all the people who are yelling about Israel seem to have no problem with Hamas reconstructing military centers under hospitals and schools and murdering Gazans in the streets.

00:41:24.000 Here's some of the footage of it.

00:41:25.000 This is Hamas dragging a man shirtless through the street.

00:41:36.000 He appears to be unconscious.

00:41:39.000 And this sort of stuff is happening in the Gaza Strip right now, the parts that Israel no longer controls.

00:41:45.000 This person would eventually be shot to death.

00:41:47.000 So well done, members of the international left who said that Israel was really the problem in the Gaza Strip as opposed to Hamas.

00:41:54.000 Meanwhile, the vice president of the United States, J.D. Vance, headed over to Israel to try to oversee the implementation of some sort of phase two or negotiation over phase two, which would involve making quiescent the Hamas-controlled part of the Gaza Strip.

00:42:07.000 Here was Vice President Vance with Prime Minister Benjamin Tanya who in Israel yesterday.

00:42:12.000 We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas, but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.

00:42:24.000 That's not easy.

00:42:25.000 I think the Prime Minister knows that as well as anybody, but it's something that we're committed to in the Trump administration.

00:42:32.000 Hey, the vice president also said that if Hamas does not cooperate, then Hamas will be obliterated.

00:42:37.000 That, of course, is the position of the president as well.

00:42:41.000 Right now, where I stand, I feel confident that we're going to be in a place where this peace lasts, where it's durable.

00:42:47.000 And if Hamas doesn't cooperate, then as the President of the United States has said, Hamas is going to be obliterated.

00:42:54.000 Now, again, how that happens, that's still an open question.

00:42:56.000 The vice president said that both Arabs and Israelis are showing some impatience with Hamas's unwillingness to disarm itself, which, of course, is not a giant shock.

00:43:07.000 I think what you're seeing from our Gulf Arab friends, certainly from our Israeli friends, is a certain amount of impatience with Hamas.

00:43:14.000 But we're going to keep on working at this process and we're going to keep on trying to bring the deceased hostages home, but also make sure that all Gazans are able to live in a prosperous and safe place.

00:43:25.000 Now, hilariously enough, actually, people on the left have been ripping into Vance for this trip, which again is a fairly traditional foreign policy trip.

00:43:36.000 Jen Saki over at MSNBC stepped in it yesterday. 1.00

00:43:40.000 She suggested that JD Vance is so scary that Usha Vance might want a divorce. 1.00

00:43:44.000 Come on, come on, Jen. 1.00

00:43:45.000 Not cool. 0.99

00:43:46.000 Very silly. 0.97

00:43:48.000 We're going here already. 0.97

00:43:50.000 The Vance panic has begun already.

00:43:51.000 All right.

00:43:53.000 I think the little Manchurian candidate, JD Vance, wants to be president more than anything else.

00:44:01.000 I always wonder what's going on in the mind of his wife.

00:44:04.000 Are you okay?

00:44:05.000 Please blink four times.

00:44:06.000 Yes.

00:44:07.000 We'll come over here.

00:44:08.000 We'll save you.

00:44:10.000 And that he's willing to do anything to get there.

00:44:13.000 And that your whole iteration you just outlined, I mean, he's scarier in certain ways.

00:44:18.000 He's smarter in some ways.

00:44:19.000 And he's young and ambitious.

00:44:21.000 And ambitious.

00:44:23.000 Okay, well, we've already gotten started with the JD is scarier than Trump routine, which is, of course, true of literally every Republican in my lifetime.

00:44:30.000 Oh, man, that last guy, we hated him so much, but the new guy is so much worse.

00:44:34.000 They've been saying this about every Republican literally ever.

00:44:37.000 It's pretty impressive stuff.

00:44:39.000 Again, the situation in the Gaza Strip can only be understood if you actually talk to people who have been through treatment by Hamas.

00:44:49.000 Joining me on the line is the author of a brand new bestseller, Hostage.

00:44:52.000 That book came out October 7th, 2025.

00:44:55.000 It is written by Ellie Sharabi, who was held in captivity by Hamas for 491 days.

00:45:00.000 Ellie joins us on the line or now.

00:45:02.000 Ellie, thanks so much for taking the time.

00:45:03.000 I really appreciate it.

00:45:05.000 My pleasure.

00:45:05.000 Thank you very much.

00:45:08.000 So, Ellie, your book is astonishing, obviously.

00:45:11.000 For those who haven't read it, why don't you give us the brief story of what happened to you on October 7th, where you were taken, and what happened next?

00:45:19.000 We were in our house in kibbutz, Bay Rey, me, my wife, my two daughters.

00:45:24.000 Um, on October 7th in the morning, we had alarm in the kibbutz, and uh, we've been in a safe room.

00:45:32.000 Four hours later, um, 10 terrorists from Hamas arrived to our house, uh, invaded to our house, and uh, kidnapped me and murdered my wife and my two daughters.

00:45:47.000 They're British citizens, and murdered them with their British passport in their hands. 1.00

00:45:53.000 And I was kidnapped to Gaza and I've been there for 491 days, most of them, 440 days from them.

00:46:03.000 I've been in Hamas tunnels, 50 meters underground.

00:46:07.000 So, you know, what happened to your wife and your daughter is, as you write about in the book, you did not know that on October 7th.

00:46:12.000 On October 7th, you assumed that because they were British citizens, that Hamas wouldn't harm them, that Hamas would attempt to kidnap them instead.

00:46:17.000 And you only found out on your release, which happened in February of this year, what had happened to your family.

00:46:24.000 During that entire time, you talk about in the book, your hope that they were alive and waiting for you.

00:46:29.000 What was it like to obviously come out of the tunnels, be released, and immediately find out what had happened to your family?

00:46:36.000 It was awful.

00:46:37.000 It was, you know, the worst thing I could ever imagine.

00:46:41.000 You know, for 491 days, it was my hope to see them running towards me and hugging me.

00:46:48.000 And I promised them I'll come back and I will survive for them.

00:46:53.000 And unfortunately, the social worker from the IDF announced me that only my mother and my sister are waiting for me.

00:47:00.000 And they will tell me what happened.

00:47:02.000 And of course, she didn't need to tell me anything because I understood the worst case, the worst scenario happened for me.

00:47:12.000 And since then, you know, this loss and the grief, they are with me every moment of my day.

00:47:22.000 But I decided it would be the alongside of my life and not instead of my life.

00:47:27.000 So you were taken into Gaza, as you talk about in the book.

00:47:30.000 You were initially housed in an apartment building.

00:47:33.000 You were chained in a room, essentially, for a few months, and then you were moved into the tunnels.

00:47:38.000 What is it that people in the West do not understand about Hamas that you think leads them to protest against the IDF's actions in the Gaza Strip in favor of Hamas, in favor of the narratives that Hamas is telling?

00:47:51.000 What do people not understand?

00:47:52.000 You saw Hamas firsthand for literally a year and a half of your life. 0.52

00:47:56.000 What do people not get about Hamas? 0.51

00:48:00.000 The people need to understand that Hamas is a terrible organization, very fundamentalistic jihad.

00:48:10.000 They have no boundaries, not at all.

00:48:13.000 They starved us, they chained us, they beat us, they humiliate us every day.

00:48:19.000 And in every conversation I had with them, every conversation, they said two things. 0.84

00:48:26.000 First of all, they keep coming back to Israel on 26, 27, 28, and to kill all of us. 1.00

00:48:35.000 They don't care if it will take 100 or 200 years. 0.98

00:48:39.000 They will do it eventually.

00:48:40.000 And after they finish with the Israelis and the Jews, they come to Britain and France and Germany and the US because for them, all the world should be Muslims. 0.93

00:48:52.000 And there's only one religion in the world.

00:48:54.000 It's Islam.

00:48:56.000 So what was the treatment like?

00:48:57.000 You mentioned it briefly there in the tunnels, because obviously there was a difference between being kept overground and being kept underground.

00:49:04.000 People in Israel knew that these terror tunnels existed for legitimately decades, actually.

00:49:09.000 And so when they moved you from the apartment that you were being held in by civilians, I understand, correct?

00:49:15.000 Some of the people who were holding you were civilians, so they were all members of Hamas.

00:49:19.000 When you were moved into the tunnels, two questions.

00:49:21.000 One, were there civilians who knew that you were there?

00:49:24.000 Did they do anything to help you?

00:49:25.000 And two, when you were moved into the tunnels, what was the experience of the tunnels?

00:49:31.000 So first of all, nobody tried to help us, not civilians and not Hamas people anyway. 1.00

00:49:40.000 Even more than that, Hamas, you know, terrorists actually afraid, were afraid all the time from the civilians from outside that would hear us in this apartment and they will come in and they will lynch us and they will kill them as well.

00:50:00.000 The conditions in the Hamas tunnels 50 meters underground, most of the time it's dark.

00:50:07.000 The hygienic condition is awful.

00:50:12.000 There's no running water, no soap, no toothpaste.

00:50:18.000 You wash yourself every six weeks with half a bucket of cold water and worms all over the place, rats and roaches.

00:50:30.000 And from them, of course, as I said, as I mentioned before, humiliations and violence and the starvation was the worst thing ever.

00:50:44.000 So as a human being, how do you even survive that?

00:50:46.000 You were held down in the tunnels with, from time to time, a few other Israelis.

00:50:52.000 I think that the people who you were down there shifted over the course of time a little bit, but you were down there with a few other Israelis virtually all the time, as you talk about in the book.

00:51:02.000 How do you actually get yourself through the day, not knowing what is coming next?

00:51:06.000 And also, what was Hamas saying to you about what Israel was doing and the response of the world?

00:51:13.000 So you understand it is you cannot wake up every morning and expect to go home today.

00:51:22.000 So you have to have a routine that the time will pass without to get insane.

00:51:30.000 So we prayed every morning.

00:51:32.000 We tried to train like moving us because we were chained on our legs.

00:51:37.000 So we were and most of the time we were lying down on the mattress or the floor.

00:51:43.000 And you have to move yourself a little bit.

00:51:46.000 And you're talking, you're singing.

00:51:52.000 You keep your hope all the time.

00:51:55.000 And that's how you, you know, trying that the day will pass until someone will come and tell you that you're going home.

00:52:07.000 From Hamas, we just, you know, they try to say to us that there's no Israel anymore and everybody sent missiles to Israel and almost destroy Israel.

00:52:21.000 And the Israeli government and the Israeli civilians forgot all about us.

00:52:27.000 And that's what they've tried to do all the time.

00:52:30.000 So, Ellie, you speak Arabic, so you're able to talk with your captors in their language.

00:52:36.000 And you've mentioned some of the things they were talking about.

00:52:38.000 One of the things you talk about in the book is that they would tell you how divided the West was.

00:52:43.000 They would tell you how divided Israelis were, that they would champion that. 1.00

00:52:46.000 They would talk about how the West was essentially crumbling because of the sort of propaganda work that they were doing.

00:52:51.000 Talk about what they saw as victories for them.

00:52:55.000 What were the things that gave them hope that they would eventually win, even though obviously the IDF was pounding Gaza at the time?

00:53:01.000 Yes, they were really, really proud that we are dividing in Israel. 0.98

00:53:07.000 And they said the protest is against Netanyahu and all the Israelis doesn't want Netanyahu to be the prime minister.

00:53:17.000 And for them, it was a victory, you know, that we are dividing and we are not united.

00:53:24.000 So because of that, after my release, most of my, when I speak to people, I mention how much it's important to be united and to show all the world that we are one nation.

00:53:38.000 And this is the only way that we can defeat our enemies.

00:53:42.000 So Ali, President Trump and the Trump administration have now brokered this deal.

00:53:46.000 So you got the 20 live hostages out.

00:53:48.000 They came out a couple of weeks ago, a week and a half ago.

00:53:51.000 That obviously was a moment of triumph for Israel. 0.90

00:53:54.000 The president essentially declared that Israel had won.

00:53:56.000 Realistically, Israel has pulled back to what they're now calling the yellow line, which is about 53% of the Gaza Strip inside the rest of that 53%, that 47%.

00:54:05.000 That area is Hamas seems to be consolidating control.

00:54:09.000 They're killing people in the streets.

00:54:11.000 They're renewing bases inside schools and hospitals and all the rest.

00:54:15.000 What is it actually going to take, practically speaking, to extirpate Hamas?

00:54:18.000 Is that even a real possibility?

00:54:23.000 You're asking if it's a possibility that Hamas will change or what?

00:54:29.000 Or will be destroyed.

00:54:30.000 What would it take to destroy them?

00:54:32.000 What would it take to make sure that Gaza Strip is not run by Hamas?

00:54:35.000 I have no idea.

00:54:36.000 I'm not an expert.

00:54:37.000 I'm not going to give any suggestion to this to my government or to the army.

00:54:42.000 I'm really not an expert in that.

00:54:45.000 We really, really just happy that, first of all, all their life hostages came back to their families and they're with the families now and they can recover.

00:54:56.000 And we are happy that it's a kind of a peace process or agreements in the area.

00:55:05.000 Two years of war didn't do anything good for Israel or for Israelis.

00:55:15.000 Since October 7th, all the Israelis in trauma.

00:55:19.000 And I think after two years, they can start to heal a little bit from this day and from all these two years with missiles all over the place from Iran, from Hezbollah, from Gaza, and from Dekhut in Yemen.

00:55:36.000 So we are happy for now, for the like for the quiet time now, as much as we can get.

00:55:44.000 And that's it.

00:55:46.000 Well, that's Ellie Shirabi. 0.83

00:55:47.000 His book is Hostage.

00:55:48.000 It is a must-read.

00:55:49.000 Ellie, really appreciate the time.

00:55:51.000 And thanks for the inspiration you provide to so many people.

00:55:55.000 Thank you very much for having me.

00:55:57.000 Thank you.

00:55:57.000 All righty, folks, the show is continuing for our members right now.

00:56:00.000 We will get into the latest over Ukraine and corruption scandals brewing in South Africa.

00:56:04.000 No shock there.

00:56:05.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

00:56:07.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

00:56:08.000 Use code Shapiro.

The Ben Shapiro Show - October 22, 2025

A Democratic Senate Candidate With A NAZI Tattoo?!

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript