The Ben Shapiro Show - A Grave Injustice In California | Ep. 428

00:00:00.000 So much news!

00:00:02.000 Ugh! 0.97

00:00:03.000 So many things to be excited about, so many things to be depressed about.

00:00:05.000 So, here's the deal.

00:00:07.000 Mike Flynn just pled guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI.

00:00:10.000 We'll explain what that means.

00:00:11.000 The Republicans are going to pass a tax cut today.

00:00:13.000 We'll explain what that means.

00:00:15.000 And Kate Stanley's killer was just let go on charges of murder.

00:00:19.000 He will still go to jail on gun charges.

00:00:20.000 We'll explain what that means.

00:00:21.000 So lots of explaining to do, plus the mailbag!

00:00:23.000 So many things!

00:00:25.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:25.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:32.000 Some days are like drinking from a fire hose, and this is that day.

00:00:35.000 There are just too many big news stories happening all at once, and I'm sure that by the end of the show, another big news story will have broken, destroying the rest of the structure of the show.

00:00:44.000 But, before we get to any of the big news, and it is really big news today, first I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Birchgold.

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00:01:22.000 Okay, here we go.

00:01:22.000 So the breaking news.

00:01:49.000 This morning, just before the show, is that the FBI has basically now made clear that Mike Flynn lied to them.

00:01:57.000 So Mike Flynn just pled guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI.

00:02:00.000 What did he lie to the FBI about?

00:02:02.000 Apparently he lied to the FBI because he had been speaking with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak,

00:02:07.000 In order to convince Kislyak to lay off of backlash against the United States after the Obama administration in its waning days, as retaliation for supposed Russian election interference, put new sanctions on the Russians.

00:02:17.000 And you recall that Putin didn't respond to that, and there was speculation that was because Flynn had reached out to Putin and told him, don't do it, things are going to change come January 20th.

00:02:26.000 I said at the time, I don't see what is particularly wrong with that.

00:02:29.000 He was a transition official.

00:02:30.000 It was already pretty clear he was going to be part of the administration.

00:02:33.000 There's no real violation of law there, so what's the big deal?

00:02:37.000 The fact, though, that he was allowed to plead on only the charge with regard to lying to the FBI suggests to me that he is about to flip on the Trump administration and that suspicion has now been confirmed.

00:02:47.000 The reason I say that this is pretty clearly a plea deal that minimizes what Flynn did

00:02:52.000 Is because there have been reports coming out of the Mueller probe that they were investigating Flynn for having made a deal with the Turkish government to kidnap a guy who's a Turkish dissenter from the United States and send him back to Turkey.

00:03:03.000 They've been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Turkish government.

00:03:06.000 In other words, it looks like there were more serious charges on the table, and in exchange for those charges going away, Flynn took this much lesser charge in order to get this thing over with.

00:03:14.000 So according to ABC News, here's what they are saying.

00:03:16.000 They are now saying that Flynn had resisted

00:03:18.000 This is one of the big problems.

00:03:20.000 Seriously, one of the big problems with

00:03:36.000 With special counsel investigations, everyone is forced to lawyer up.

00:03:39.000 Lawyers are incredibly expensive.

00:03:40.000 If you are just a normal person, you can't afford the lawyering up that it costs to fight people like Robert Mueller.

00:03:46.000 And there was no one there to pick up the cost for Mike Flynn.

00:03:49.000 So in order to defray those costs, he's apparently cutting a deal with the Mueller investigation.

00:03:54.000 Brian Ross on ABC News Special Report is reporting that Flynn has promised, quote, full cooperation to the Mueller team and is prepared to testify that as a candidate, Donald Trump, quote, directed him to make contact

00:04:04.000 With the Russians. 0.98

00:04:05.000 Now, this, the people on the left are going nuts.

00:04:08.000 Clearly, we're almost there.

00:04:09.000 We're almost there again.

00:04:10.000 This means that Mike Flynn is going to testify that Donald Trump told him to coordinate campaign activities with the Russians, and that's why Hillary Clinton lost the election.

00:04:18.000 That is not clear by any stretch of the imagination.

00:04:21.000 There is lots of coordination between the Hillary Clinton team, for example, and we know members of the Ukrainian government.

00:04:26.000 The idea

00:04:28.000 That members of campaigns don't talk to foreign officials is just not true.

00:04:31.000 So it's quite possible that Trump told Flynn, I want you to go talk to Putin, talk to him about what their priorities are, what our priorities are, if I become president of the United States.

00:04:38.000 None of that is illegal.

00:04:40.000 None of that is illegal.

00:04:41.000 The only thing that would be illegal is, presumably, if there was actually a conspiracy, an exchange of information that would be designed to subvert the United States election, and there are actual conspiracy laws, then you'd have to see if they violate them legally, and that's a little bit

00:04:55.000 Difficult to prove.

00:04:56.000 Collusion is not a crime.

00:04:57.000 In other words, even if collusion occurred, that might be grounds for the political crime of impeachment, that would require impeachment, but it's not grounds for any actual crime that has been committed.

00:05:06.000 Collusion is not a crime.

00:05:07.000 There is no statute on collusion.

00:05:09.000 It's a vague term of art.

00:05:10.000 So, this does not get all the way toward proving anything about Trump.

00:05:13.000 We still have to see what Flynn has to say.

00:05:15.000 Now, there are two possibilities here.

00:05:16.000 One is that Flynn is actually going to say some stuff that's really damaging about the president, in favor of this possibility.

00:05:22.000 is the reality that Mueller cut a deal with Flynn that basically let Flynn almost entirely off the hook for all of these other charges.

00:05:29.000 So why would you cut such a deal that was generous to Flynn?

00:05:32.000 Because Flynn's about to give you a bunch of good stuff.

00:05:34.000 Think of your godfather.

00:05:35.000 Frank Pantangeli is going to get off the hook so long as he testifies against Michael Corleone.

00:05:40.000 The reason that you're going to downgrade charges is because you're trying to get Flynn to actually give you valuable information.

00:05:45.000 If you don't believe Flynn has valuable information, you don't cut a deal with him at all.

00:05:48.000 You just send him to jail.

00:05:49.000 So that's cutting in favor of that.

00:05:51.000 There's also the possibility, however, that the special counsel is charging Flynn on the lying to the FBI charge because what he's hoping is that now he's going to be able to go after other members of the Trump administration for the same thing.

00:06:02.000 There will be a sort of domino effect that he's sort of fishing.

00:06:05.000 That what he's doing here is he's going to nail Flynn on the lying to the FBI charge, get him to plead out on that, and then they're going to go back and talk to some other folks who have talked to the FBI, I think in the administration, that includes

00:06:16.000 I think Kushner has talked to the FBI.

00:06:18.000 I think there are several other members of the administration who have talked to the FBI.

00:06:21.000 The possibility exists that they will try to have Flynn testify against those people and then try and get those people on charges of lying to the FBI and try and flip this upward, right?

00:06:29.000 Create a domino effect and maybe one of those people flips on the president and finally spills the beans about the president.

00:06:34.000 But...

00:06:34.000 That is not the same thing as Flynn himself is directly going to implicate the president in any sort of criminal activity.

00:06:39.000 So it's a little early for all of the speculation that's going on.

00:06:42.000 It is not clear by any stretch of the imagination that all of this is going to bring down the president of the United States.

00:06:50.000 There is a lot of, I think, un-based speculation from both sides.

00:06:56.000 People on the right going, this is a big nothing, right?

00:06:57.000 They didn't charge him with anything.

00:06:58.000 And people on the left going, they've charged him with something.

00:07:01.000 We're about to get Trump.

00:07:02.000 President Pence is coming.

00:07:04.000 I don't know that any of this is gonna be true.

00:07:07.000 So we just don't know enough yet.

00:07:08.000 We do know that something more is happening in the investigation than we thought was happening yesterday.

00:07:13.000 Reuters, by the way, ABC is saying that candidate Trump ordered him to make contact with the Russians.

00:07:17.000 That's what ABC is reporting.

00:07:19.000 Reuters is reporting that Flynn is saying that the transition team ordered him to make contact with the Russians.

00:07:24.000 If it's the transition team, that has nothing to do with the campaign.

00:07:27.000 So it's hard even to imagine what the crime would be at that point.

00:07:29.000 The transition team ordering Flynn to talk with the Russians.

00:07:31.000 Like, who cares?

00:07:32.000 Unless we're just going to round up a bunch of people unjustly.

00:07:36.000 And this is something that special counsels have done in the past.

00:07:38.000 You recall that it was special counsel, I believe it was Patrick Fitzgerald, who went after Scooter Libby.

00:07:43.000 Scooter Libby was working for the President of the United States.

00:07:46.000 He was an American lawyer, former advisor to VP Dick Cheney.

00:07:50.000 And you recall that he actually ended up in jail, and he was pardoned by President Trump, or his sentence was commuted, more specifically, by President Bush, because Scooter Libby had apparently fibbed to the FBI.

00:08:01.000 There was no underlying crimes.

00:08:02.000 They got Scooter Libby for fibbing to the FBI or obstruction of justice, but he had not actually done anything wrong.

00:08:08.000 There was no underlying crime.

00:08:09.000 Nothing criminal had taken place.

00:08:11.000 He hadn't done it.

00:08:11.000 Nobody in the administration had done it.

00:08:13.000 Basically, remember, that was about Valerie Plame.

00:08:14.000 The situation in that particular case was that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA agent.

00:08:19.000 She was in Washington.

00:08:21.000 She was not really, like, in the field.

00:08:23.000 And there was a leak

00:08:24.000 about her identity after Joe Wilson, her husband, suggested that the Bush administration had lied about yellow cake from Niger being sold to the Iraqi regime.

00:08:34.000 And the person who actually ended up doing it, I believe, was Richard Armitage.

00:08:40.000 The person who ended up leaking it was not, in fact, Scooter Libby.

00:08:43.000 It was Richard Armitage.

00:08:44.000 But Libby had apparently fibbed to the FBI in the process of the investigation, and they decided to go after Libby instead.

00:08:50.000 It was really a bunch of nonsense.

00:08:51.000 They went after him just because they felt like going after him.

00:08:55.000 And that's why President Bush ended up commuting his sentence.

00:08:57.000 You really should have pardoned him.

00:08:58.000 In this particular case, it could be something very similar.

00:09:00.000 We just don't know at this point.

00:09:01.000 So anybody who's telling you, it's all over.

00:09:04.000 We know what the story is.

00:09:05.000 Trump is going down.

00:09:06.000 Don't believe them at this point.

00:09:07.000 There's just not enough information on that yet for that to be the case.

00:09:11.000 We don't know what Mike Flynn is going to tell the FBI or what he has told the FBI at this point.

00:09:16.000 So we're going to find out.

00:09:17.000 We're going to find out.

00:09:18.000 By the way, it is worth noting also

00:09:21.000 The White House says that they have no comment on this at this point, which is the proper stance.

00:09:24.000 In the middle of a legal proceeding, the last thing you want to do is start going out and mouthing off.

00:09:29.000 Mike Flynn had made comments in 2016, it's gonna get played all over the news today, that if he did a tenth of what Hillary Clinton had done, he would be in jail today.

00:09:37.000 There's a real possibility that that is true, by the way, that he really did not do much here, and that he could end up in jail anyway, just because this is the way the political prosecutions go.

00:09:47.000 We're saying that because if I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.

00:10:01.000 So, crooked Hillary Clinton, leave this race now! 1.00

00:10:07.000 So I'm not saying it's a political prosecution.

00:10:09.000 I don't know.

00:10:10.000 You don't know.

00:10:12.000 Nobody knows.

00:10:12.000 So don't buy all the speculation that's going on today.

00:10:15.000 It's time to hold judgment and abeyance until you actually have more information.

00:10:18.000 Okay, so that is big story number one.

00:10:20.000 Big story number two,

00:10:22.000 We're good to go.

00:10:44.000 We're good to go.

00:11:02.000 So he was charged with second degree murder.

00:11:04.000 The jury also could have found for involuntary manslaughter that was on the table as well.

00:11:08.000 It seems to me that second degree murder was too high a charge and that involuntary manslaughter seems like the situation that best fits the evidence.

00:11:14.000 This may be a case, to give the best gloss on the jury, this may be a case where the jury was basically thrown off by the prosecutors

00:11:22.000 Failing to press the charges properly.

00:11:24.000 That's a possibility here, and I'll explain why in just a second.

00:11:27.000 So here is what is undisputed.

00:11:29.000 On July 1st, 2015, Kate Steinle was fatally struck in the back by a single bullet as she walked on Pier 14 with her father to view the San Francisco Bay.

00:11:36.000 Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was a Mexican citizen illegally in the United States, and he fired the gun that killed Steinle.

00:11:41.000 So first of all, for political reasons,

00:11:43.000 It doesn't matter whether the guy was convicted or not.

00:11:45.000 This guy should not have been in the United States. 0.91

00:11:47.000 He had been deported, I believe, six times, five times before for seven separate crimes.

00:11:52.000 If the man had been a citizen in the state of California, he probably would have already been in jail for life.

00:11:56.000 Because there's a three strikes law in the state of California. 0.94

00:11:58.000 Mostly it involves violent crime, not drug offenses.

00:12:01.000 But the idea that he would have been out on the street

00:12:03.000 is absurd.

00:12:04.000 He would not have been out on the street if he'd been convicted of a bunch of different felony drug offenses.

00:12:09.000 He would be in jail right now.

00:12:10.000 He would not be out on the street if he were a citizen, so he actually had the special privilege of being deported, then recrossing the border, coming back, and then, you recall, he was picked up on a drug charge by the local authorities.

00:12:19.000 The feds found out about it.

00:12:20.000 They asked the local authorities to hold him so they could come get him, and because San Francisco is a sanctuary city, he was then released into the general population as well, where he got a hold of this gun and killed Kate Steinle.

00:12:30.000 Now,

00:12:30.000 Was this a murder or was this an involuntary manslaughter?

00:12:33.000 I think is an open question.

00:12:34.000 It's pretty clear to me that this was an involuntary manslaughter.

00:12:37.000 I'll explain to you why in just a second.

00:12:38.000 I'll give you all the legal breakdown, putting on my lawyer hat.

00:12:41.000 But first, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at the USCCA.

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00:13:36.000 Alrighty, so here is the case for the defense.

00:13:40.000 So basically, 1.00

00:13:42.000 What happened is that this piece of garbage illegal immigrant, and he's not a piece of garbage because he's an illegal immigrant, he's a piece of garbage who is an illegal immigrant. 1.00

00:13:51.000 He was walking around on the pier and he has the gun. 1.00

00:13:55.000 The defense says that he found the gun on the pier, okay?

00:13:57.000 This is like the lamest excuse ever.

00:13:59.000 How many times have you been walking around and you just find a gun lying around?

00:14:01.000 You're walking around and boom, look, there's a gun.

00:14:04.000 Okay, it never happens, and the idea that this happens in San Francisco on a regular basis is insane.

00:14:09.000 San Francisco has some of the tightest gun laws in the nation.

00:14:11.000 So he says that he's walking around, he finds a gun, he picks it up, he goes, hey, a gun!

00:14:16.000 He picks it up, and then magically the gun just goes off.

00:14:19.000 It is clear from the evidence that the bullet hit the cement before it hit Steinle.

00:14:23.000 So it wasn't like he picked up the gun, aimed it at Steinle, shot her in the back.

00:14:26.000 Okay, he picked up the gun, he fired it,

00:14:29.000 It bounced off the concrete, it hit Kate Stanley in the back, it killed her. 1.00

00:14:32.000 And the defense was that he basically, that he's a moron. 1.00

00:14:37.000 That basically he's walking around, hey look, a gun! 0.99

00:14:39.000 He picks it up, it goes boom in his hand for no reason at all, it's just a pure accident, the bullet bounces, it skips off the concrete and hits Kate Stanley in the back and she dies.

00:14:47.000 The problem with this particular theory is several-fold.

00:14:50.000 One, the gun had been missing for four days from a federal agent's car.

00:14:53.000 Somehow it just winds up in the hands of this illegal immigrant. 1.00

00:14:56.000 Criminal. 0.98

00:14:56.000 Repeat, criminal. 0.98

00:14:57.000 It's just magic.

00:14:58.000 It was like a normal person who found it on the boardwalk over at the San Francisco Pier.

00:15:01.000 It wasn't me.

00:15:01.000 It wasn't you.

00:15:02.000 It was an illegal immigrant who's been deported five times.

00:15:05.000 Just magically.

00:15:06.000 Amazing how that works.

00:15:21.000 According to the San Francisco Chronicle, defense lawyers said the shooting was an accident that happened when Garcia Zarate, who had a history of drug crimes but no record of violence, found the gun wrapped in a t-shirt or cloth under his seat on the pier just seconds before it discharged in his hands.

00:15:34.000 Because that's what I do.

00:15:34.000 When I see a bundle of cloth under my seat at a public pier, I reach down and I start investigating, and if I find a gun, I go, urgh, a gun!

00:15:42.000 Matt Gonzalez of the Public Defender's Office said his client had never handled a gun.

00:15:45.000 Yes, I'm sure.

00:15:46.000 And was scared by the noise, prompting him to fling the weapon into the bay.

00:15:50.000 Okay, so number one, if you accidentally fire a gun, so apparently he says he was scared by the noise.

00:15:55.000 It wasn't that he shot the woman and then thought that he would be convicted of it and so he threw the evidence away into the bay.

00:16:00.000 Instead, he took the gun and he threw it in the bay because he was scared by the noise.

00:16:04.000 That's what I do.

00:16:05.000 When my child scares me, when my child makes a really loud noise and we're by the ocean, I just take my kid and fling him in the ocean.

00:16:09.000 Let me just tell you, this is something that normal people do on a regular basis.

00:16:13.000 Oh, my God, a car backfired.

00:16:14.000 Let's drive it into the ocean.

00:16:15.000 That's something that you're scared of the fire.

00:16:17.000 Oh, my God, a gun made noise?

00:16:19.000 What is this boom-boom stick?

00:16:21.000 Okay, during the trial, jurors watched video from Garcia Cerati's four-hour police interrogation in which he offered varying statements about his actions on the pier.

00:16:28.000 Number one, when someone constantly changes their story, that's a pretty good indicator they're not telling the truth.

00:16:33.000 At one point, he said he had aimed at a sea animal.

00:16:36.000 At another point, he said the gun had been under a rag that lay on the ground near the waterfront and that it fired when he stepped on it.

00:16:40.000 Gonzales said it was clear in the video.

00:16:42.000 By the way, guns don't fire when you step on them.

00:16:44.000 Just a note to everybody.

00:16:45.000 There are people who are saying that it was a Sig Sauer, and this is a Sig Sauer with a quick trigger because it was basically set up for a federal agent who knows how to use it.

00:16:55.000 We only had four pounds of trigger pressure.

00:16:56.000 Okay, even if it only has four pounds of trigger pressure, you can't step on a gun and it fires.

00:17:01.000 Okay, as a typical rule.

00:17:03.000 That is, it's extraordinarily rare.

00:17:05.000 Like, something has to actually push on the trigger in order to make the gun fire.

00:17:08.000 That's not how guns fire.

00:17:09.000 Unless the hammer was already cocked or something.

00:17:13.000 Gonzales said it was clear in the video that he did not fully understand what the officers were asking through an officer's Spanish translation.

00:17:19.000 Well,

00:17:20.000 That's sort of his problem.

00:17:22.000 I mean, they're speaking Spanish to him.

00:17:23.000 It's not like they're speaking English and he doesn't understand.

00:17:25.000 Yes, I'm sure that's what happened.

00:17:26.000 Six people just gathered and decided that instead of throwing the gun in the bay to discard the gun, which is five feet away, they decided what would be better.

00:17:30.000 We need to get rid of this gun.

00:17:32.000 You know what we'll do?

00:17:32.000 We'll just leave it lying around.

00:17:46.000 Best idea I've ever had.

00:17:47.000 We're not gonna take this gun, toss it in the bay.

00:17:49.000 No.

00:17:49.000 We're just gonna leave it right here.

00:17:51.000 For some poor, unsuspecting illegal immigrant to find and randomly shoot a lady. 1.00

00:17:54.000 Okay, so Steinle was not hit directly, but rather the bullet hit the concrete ground and ricocheted up to hit her.

00:17:59.000 The gun was a Sig Sauer, had been stolen four days prior.

00:18:02.000 The defense also presented evidence that the Sig Sauer has a propensity to accidentally fire.

00:18:07.000 So, it has a hair trigger in single action mode.

00:18:09.000 Apparently, among well-trained users, it has a lengthy history of accidental discharges.

00:18:13.000 Okay?

00:18:13.000 Accidental discharges does not mean that you have not acted with criminal negligence.

00:18:17.000 If you pick up a gun, and you point it anywhere near the vicinity of people, and your hand is anywhere near the trigger, that does not count as a pure accident.

00:18:23.000 Okay?

00:18:24.000 A gun is a dangerous weapon.

00:18:25.000 Everyone knows this.

00:18:27.000 Okay, this is why you are taught, when you buy a gun, when you train with a gun, you are taught, never point the gun anywhere you are not willing to kill somebody.

00:18:34.000 Never point the gun anywhere you're not willing to destroy.

00:18:37.000 Never have your finger anywhere near the trigger if you don't mean to fire it. 0.96

00:18:39.000 Okay, but the idea is that, again, this guy's a dunce, and he walks up, and he doesn't know what a gun is, it just looks like a fancy cheese cutter, and he picks it up, and then, boom, it goes off in his hand because he never even touched the trigger.

00:18:51.000 Okay, this is, so, they say that this is the defense presenting a reasonable doubt case, 0.94

00:18:58.000 They said he's a homeless illegal immigrant, unfamiliar with the gun, and that's why. 1.00

00:19:01.000 Okay, so, I think that what happened here, if you're trying to make the best case for the jury, is that there was a prosecutorial overreach.

00:19:07.000 So they pushed hard for a first degree murder verdict, or a second degree murder verdict, which suggests that you must have intent.

00:19:14.000 They have to have intent to have killed.

00:19:16.000 Involuntary manslaughter does not require intent.

00:19:18.000 So the prosecution in this case said that he was playing like a game of Russian roulette in his head and just shot the lady.

00:19:24.000 That's weak.

00:19:25.000 What they should have charged was involuntary manslaughter.

00:19:27.000 They overcharged, which a lot of prosecutors do, they overcharged.

00:19:30.000 What they should have done is charged involuntary manslaughter.

00:19:33.000 Second-degree murder in California is willful but not deliberate.

00:19:36.000 Like, for example, you fire a gun into a crowded room.

00:19:38.000 You don't mean to kill any specific person, but you know there's a good possibility somebody is going to die.

00:19:42.000 Willful but not deliberate.

00:19:44.000 Involuntary manslaughter in California, the standard is without malice, without intent to kill, with reckless disregard for human life.

00:19:50.000 So the difference between involuntary manslaughter and excusable accident is participation in either an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, so that would be picking up an illegal gun, or a lawful act involving a high degree of risk of death or great bodily injury.

00:20:02.000 That would involve picking up a gun and pointing it anywhere in the vicinity of people.

00:20:05.000 And in fact, there's a law firm out here in California that has a defense law firm that has a very good rundown on this law, and the exact example they use of involuntary manslaughter is a woman who's in a fight with her husband, brandishing a gun at her husband, the gun accidentally goes off and kills her husband.

00:20:18.000 Right, that falls under involuntary manslaughter.

00:20:21.000 Okay, Jeff Sessions has a statement on it.

00:20:22.000 This was clearly involuntary manslaughter.

00:20:24.000 The jury could have found that.

00:20:26.000 It's possible they decided to just throw out everything because the prosecutor didn't do their job.

00:20:30.000 But whatever it is, this is an unjust verdict.

00:20:31.000 The guy should be in prison for a very long time for at least involuntary manslaughter.

00:20:36.000 And beyond that, 0.98

00:20:37.000 The reason this is a political issue is because this bastard never should have been in the United States in the first place. 0.99

00:20:41.000 He should not have been here. 0.98

00:20:43.000 Now, President Trump, when he says we need a wall, the reason we need a wall is because it's not enough to just repeatedly deport people.

00:20:48.000 You actually have to have some way of preventing them from recrossing into the country because you have sanctuary cities, you have places where these people can hide.

00:20:56.000 Trump should be making hay while the sun shines out of this because he is right.

00:20:59.000 This is why Trump won.

00:21:00.000 It's because of issues like the Kate Steinle issues I said last night on Fox News.

00:21:04.000 Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General, issued a statement, the feds may bring charges of their own.

00:21:08.000 Jeff Sessions said, when jurisdictions choose to return criminal aliens to the streets, rather than turning them over to federal immigration authorities, they put the public safety at risk.

00:21:15.000 San Francisco's decision to protect criminal aliens led to the preventable and heartbreaking death of Kate Steinle, while the state of California sought a murder charge for the man who caused Ms.

00:21:23.000 Steinle's death, a man who would not have been on the streets of San Francisco if the city simply honored an ICE detainer.

00:21:28.000 The people ultimately convicted him of felon in possession of a firearm.

00:21:31.000 So, again, once you're a felon in possession of a firearm, if that firearm goes off and you kill somebody, it's pretty hard to see charging and convicting someone of felony possession of a firearm without also charging them with and convicting them of involuntary manslaughter in a case like this.

00:21:44.000 The Department of Justice will continue to ensure that all jurisdictions place the safety and security of their communities above the convenience of criminal aliens. 0.82

00:21:50.000 There should be blowback on sanctuary cities, and it shouldn't have to do anything with the verdict here.

00:21:55.000 If the guy was convicted, there should still be blowback.

00:21:57.000 We're good to go.

00:22:12.000 I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at PolicyGenius.

00:22:15.000 So if you don't have life insurance, you certainly should.

00:22:17.000 Especially if you have kids, if you have loved ones.

00:22:19.000 If you die and they're not taken care of, you're going to beat yourself up.

00:22:22.000 Or you would if you weren't dead.

00:22:23.000 But it's not a great idea to not have life insurance.

00:22:26.000 I have life insurance.

00:22:28.000 It is totally worthwhile.

00:22:30.000 Especially, again, if you're leaving loved ones behind, you want to make sure that you're insured.

00:22:34.000 Everybody treats this like it's a taboo topic to talk about life insurance.

00:22:37.000 I don't think it's taboo at all.

00:22:37.000 I think it's necessary.

00:22:39.000 I'm not saying you're going to die.

00:22:40.000 I'm saying be insured in case you do.

00:22:42.000 I mean, that's the same thing as saying you should have health insurance or car insurance.

00:22:45.000 I think so.

00:23:06.000 You can talk to one of their licensed experts, but if you're just browsing and you don't have to talk to anybody, just browse.

00:23:10.000 They don't just do life insurance, by the way.

00:23:11.000 They do disability insurance, renter's insurance, pet insurance.

00:23:15.000 I don't know what pet insurance is.

00:23:16.000 Is that if your pet gets sick?

00:23:17.000 It's probably pet health insurance.

00:23:19.000 I don't have a pet, so I wouldn't know.

00:23:21.000 In any case, but if you need life insurance, try PolicyGenius.

00:23:24.000 Compare life insurance online on your own terms.

00:23:26.000 PolicyGenius.com.

00:23:28.000 Again, that's PolicyGenius.com.

00:23:30.000 You should only be forced to speak to an agent if you really want to, and Policy Genius will let you avoid speaking to insurance agents, which is a wonderful thing in and of itself.

00:23:37.000 Policygenius.com, make sure that your family is taken care of.

00:23:40.000 Okay, so, Mitch McConnell has now announced on the floor of the Senate that we are about to pass this tax reform bill.

00:23:46.000 The tax reform bill has at least 50 votes, maybe 51, it depends on what Bob Corker decides, maybe they get 52, but bottom line is that it is a good shot that this is

00:23:59.000 It is a good shot that the tax bill wins.

00:24:05.000 It is unclear what exactly is in this thing now because they were futzing around with it as late as yesterday.

00:24:11.000 Right now, as of last night, the Republicans were redrawing the tax bill to reduce the size of the tax cuts because there was a report yesterday that the deficits were too high.

00:24:18.000 There are a lot of people today talking about deficits.

00:24:20.000 Deficits, oh, the tax cut's going to create deficits.

00:24:22.000 I am deeply concerned about deficits, but let's be clear about something.

00:24:26.000 It does not create deficits for me to keep more of my own money.

00:24:29.000 It creates deficits for you to spend money I did not give you.

00:24:33.000 I hate this logic that is constantly used by the left, that if I'm paying 50% taxes, and you're taking in a million dollars from me, which is not accurate, but let's say I were paying 50% tax and you're taking a million dollars from me, and you were spending two million dollars, so we have a million dollar deficit,

00:24:52.000 Well, if you reduce my taxes by 50%, so now I'm only paying $500,000, then you've increased the deficit by $500,000.

00:24:57.000 Nonsense.

00:24:59.000 You should spend less.

00:25:01.000 Okay, these are two separate line items in your house.

00:25:04.000 The idea that you spending less money creates a deficit.

00:25:09.000 That you taking less of my money creates a deficit. 0.97

00:25:11.000 That's just foolishness. 0.85

00:25:13.000 Okay? 0.72

00:25:13.000 It's not a matter of you allowing me to keep more of my own money. 0.72

00:25:16.000 It's a matter of you're spending too much money.

00:25:17.000 The great driver of the debt in the United States is not, in fact, tax cuts.

00:25:21.000 It is not wars.

00:25:22.000 The great driver is what constitutes 60% of the American federal budget.

00:25:26.000 That is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare programs.

00:25:29.000 That is at least two-thirds of the American budget.

00:25:31.000 Okay?

00:25:32.000 The idea that it's all these other things, it's just not true.

00:25:35.000 And so, I hate these rules.

00:25:36.000 One thing that I would say to the Republicans is, listen, I'm really glad they're going to get these tax cuts.

00:25:40.000 I think that it is worthwhile.

00:25:41.000 I would vote for the tax cuts, even though I'm a deficit hawk, because I want them to cut crap on the other side.

00:25:46.000 I've never understood this argument that a lot of people on the right make, that government revenue will go up if we cut taxes.

00:25:53.000 I don't care whether government revenue goes up.

00:25:55.000 I don't care.

00:25:56.000 I don't want the government revenue to go up.

00:25:57.000 I want them to have less money.

00:25:58.000 I want the government not to spend as many of my dollars.

00:26:02.000 This is the sort of downside to the Laffer Curve.

00:26:03.000 So the Laffer Curve is true.

00:26:04.000 The Laffer Curve, for those who don't know, I've explained it on the program before, Art Laffer famously had what he called the Laffer Curve.

00:26:10.000 The Laffer Curve basically looks like this.

00:26:12.000 I will draw you the Laffer Curve.

00:26:13.000 The Laffer Curve says that if you have a tax rate here,

00:26:19.000 I don't know.

00:26:31.000 Right?

00:26:32.000 Then, and here again you have zero, and here you have a hundred.

00:26:35.000 Then what will happen is that as the tax rate goes up, you will see the government receipts go up, but there is a law of diminishing returns.

00:26:43.000 Right?

00:26:43.000 And so the curve looks like this.

00:26:45.000 Right?

00:26:45.000 The curve looks like that.

00:26:46.000 If you tax at zero, the government receipts will be zero.

00:26:49.000 If you tax at a hundred, the government receipts will be zero.

00:26:51.000 The reason for that is because if you tax at a hundred, no one is going to bother making any money.

00:26:56.000 They're all going to sit home.

00:26:56.000 They're going to say, why would I work for the government?

00:26:58.000 You're not paying me.

00:26:59.000 Right?

00:26:59.000 So that's what the Laffer Curve says.

00:27:00.000 So what the Laffer Curve also says is that there is a point, let's say that you are here on the Laffer Curve, let's say the tax rate is where this X is, that what you would be better off doing to increase government receipts is to actually lower the tax rate.

00:27:11.000 Right?

00:27:11.000 You would actually be better off lowering the tax rate.

00:27:14.000 That would be the idea.

00:27:15.000 I don't care.

00:27:16.000 People say, well, you know, who says the tax rate's too high?

00:27:19.000 Maybe we're perfect right now.

00:27:20.000 Maybe it ought to be higher.

00:27:38.000 What if I don't care about the government receipts? 1.00

00:27:39.000 What if I think that the government receipts should go down so that they spend less money on stupid crap? 1.00

00:27:43.000 How about that? 0.99

00:27:44.000 In any case, the leading GOP senators are saying that Republicans redrew the tax bill last night to reduce the size of the tax cuts.

00:27:49.000 John Cornyn said the move came after the Senate parliamentarian ruled against a complex trigger mechanism that would have automatically cut back the taxes if they didn't produce economic growth and higher than expected tax revenues.

00:27:59.000 So what the Republicans were trying to do is they were trying to cut taxes in a significant way, and then they would have a trigger in the bill that said if the government revenues do not increase by a certain amount,

00:28:08.000 Then we will ratchet back down the tax cuts.

00:28:26.000 The Senate parliamentarian doesn't know better than you do how much revenue the government's going to take in.

00:28:32.000 The Senate parliamentarian would have ruled that Obamacare was deficit neutral, which it clearly is not.

00:28:36.000 So I don't buy any of this stuff, but this is good news for the Trump administration.

00:28:40.000 They do need a big win in terms of policy.

00:28:42.000 The tax cuts are a big win in terms of policy.

00:28:45.000 I don't know.

00:29:03.000 Okay, so before I go any further here, there's some other news that I want to talk about.

00:29:07.000 The possibility of a government shutdown, the battle between Jimmy Kimmel and Roy Moore, and we've got to get to the mailbag.

00:29:13.000 So we're going to go about an hour and a half today on today's show.

00:29:16.000 We're going to get to all of those things, but for that,

00:29:18.000 You have to subscribe to the Daily Wire.

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00:29:39.000 And, coming up, we have our fourth episode of The Conversation, coming up on Tuesday, December 12th, at 5 p.m.

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00:30:56.000 Alrighty, so here we are, and it looks like a government shutdown may be in the works.

00:31:01.000 And this is a good government shutdown for President Trump.

00:31:02.000 I said yesterday, I think that President Trump would win on a government shutdown issue with the Democrats, particularly after Steinle.

00:31:08.000 He should be pushing for funding in the new government shutdown negotiations.

00:31:12.000 He should basically be saying, I want funding for the wall in this bill, and if you don't give it to me, then I'm just not going to sign the funding bill.

00:31:20.000 I'm not going to increase the debt ceiling.

00:31:21.000 I'm not going to sign funding, and there'll be a shutdown.

00:31:24.000 Because you guys are willing to obstruct so that we don't have any sort of physical barrier that would prevent people from entering the country, as in the Kate Stanley case.

00:31:31.000 Trump has the upper hand.

00:31:32.000 He has the bully pulpit.

00:31:33.000 He should be willing to use it.

00:31:35.000 He should at least get some concessions from Democrats.

00:31:37.000 If he does not, I will count that as a loss for the administration.

00:31:40.000 Trump says a shutdown could be good for him.

00:31:42.000 I don't think that that's wrong.

00:31:43.000 I don't think that that's wrong.

00:31:44.000 I mean, I think that everybody in the administration should stop leaking.

00:31:47.000 Like, my God, folks.

00:31:48.000 Like, just stop it.

00:31:49.000 But Trump is not wrong when he says that a government shutdown sometimes benefits the president.

00:31:53.000 That was the logic that was used for Obama when Cruz was involved in a government shutdown.

00:31:57.000 Okay, so that's what's going on with the government shutdown.

00:31:59.000 We'll bring you more on that if it actually materializes.

00:32:02.000 Meanwhile, the battle continues over Roy Moore in Alabama.

00:32:06.000 And I just want to show you the reactionary nature of American politics.

00:32:09.000 As I have said to you, I believe that Roy Moore did the things he's alleged to have done.

00:32:13.000 I think that because there's been no anywhere near convincing rebuttal of any of the testimony or evidence put forward by the accusers.

00:32:21.000 Meanwhile, Hollywood is basically willing to ignore a lot of the evils in their own midst and of course they are very upset about Roy Moore because Roy Moore is a Republican.

00:32:29.000 They were all defending Bill Clinton and they would again today if they had the choice.

00:32:32.000 As far as I know, Jimmy Kimmel has not been commenting on Al Franken.

00:32:35.000 Maybe he has.

00:32:35.000 If he has, then I miss it and I apologize, but I haven't seen that.

00:32:38.000 Jimmy Kimmel deployed a guy down to Roy Moore's church in Alabama.

00:32:46.000 And this guy went into a speech that Roy Moore was giving at the church and started berating him at the church in the middle of his speech.

00:32:53.000 He was then removed.

00:32:53.000 So this is Jimmy Kimmel's guy.

00:32:55.000 I can't remember the name of this fella because I don't watch Jimmy's show, but I believe that his name was, let's see, Rich Barbieri, who's better known as Jake Byrd.

00:33:04.000 So here is a pretend Roy Moore superfan who's actually an employee of Jimmy Kimmel's.

00:33:13.000 The entire town, all over the line.

00:33:16.000 Five statewide campaigns.

00:33:18.000 Five statewide campaigns.

00:33:20.000 Why would they lie?

00:33:21.000 And three county-wide campaigns.

00:33:26.000 We can stop it and get them out.

00:33:28.000 Hey, come on. 0.77

00:33:28.000 Get out of here, dude. 0.77

00:33:30.000 We're here for the judge.

00:33:31.000 We're here for the judge.

00:33:34.000 Okay, so...

00:33:50.000 Okay, so he's removed, and then Roy Moore tweets out at Jimmy Kimmel and they get in a big tweet fight, right?

00:33:55.000 And this is a fight that only helps Roy Moore and only helps Jimmy Kimmel and doesn't help anybody who is rational on these subjects and trying to figure out exactly how to vote or who is guilty or who is innocent.

00:34:04.000 So the tweet fight goes something like this.

00:34:06.000 So we have the tweets.

00:34:06.000 So here are the tweets.

00:34:08.000 So Roy Moore tweets out, if you want to mock our Christian values, come down here to Alabama and do it man-to-man.

00:34:13.000 And then Jimmy Kimmel, of course, jumps right on this.

00:34:17.000 And Jimmy Kimmel is better at this than Roy Moore.

00:34:19.000 And so he tweets out, sounds great, Roy.

00:34:20.000 Let me know when you get some Christian values and I'll be there.

00:34:23.000 And not unfair, considering the man's been charged of, has been, you know, accused of sexual molestation of underage women.

00:34:29.000 And then Roy Moore fires back.

00:34:30.000 And he fires, he says, despite DC and Hollywood elites' bigotry towards Southerners, Jimmy, we will save you a seat on the front pew.

00:34:38.000 Okay, so he's just going in for more, and then Jimmy Kimmel responds, okay, Roy, but I'm leaving my daughters at home.

00:34:42.000 P.S., wear that cute little leather vest.

00:34:44.000 Okay, so the only people who are benefited by this sort of stuff are Jimmy Kimmel, who looks like he gets to virtue signal to his audience, and Roy Moore, who gets to look like he's virtue signaling to his audience because Hollywood is so bad and Hollywood is so terrible and all this nonsense.

00:34:56.000 The reality is that everybody's already made up their mind on Roy Moore.

00:35:00.000 All of the virtue signaling on the back of this seems to me a little bit much.

00:35:04.000 I think that there is a complex moral calculus that is happening for people who are in Alabama.

00:35:09.000 It's a very similar moral calculus to the one that was made during the 2016 election.

00:35:12.000 I think some people of good heart are going to come down on one side.

00:35:14.000 Some people of good heart are going to come down on the other side.

00:35:17.000 I think that it is not the right moral decision to vote for Roy Moore in Alabama.

00:35:21.000 The man is a credibly alleged child molester.

00:35:24.000 But on the other hand, I think that to

00:35:27.000 Do the kind of virtue signaling that Jimmy Kimmel is doing and that Roy Moore is doing off the back of Hollywood.

00:35:32.000 All this does is exacerbate the reactionary political moment that we're already in.

00:35:38.000 Okay, so I want to do some things I like and then some things I hate.

00:35:41.000 So let's do some things I like.

00:35:44.000 All righty, so the things that I like today.

00:35:46.000 I don't know the street artist.

00:35:49.000 There's a street artist who has struck again, and this is pretty spectacular.

00:35:53.000 So Sabo has now unleashed a politically charged installation making fun of Al Franken.

00:35:59.000 Here's what he did.

00:36:00.000 So there's this awful, this movie that looks just awful that's coming out, The Greatest Showman on Earth.

00:36:04.000 Is that what it's called?

00:36:05.000 About P.T.

00:36:06.000 Barnum with Hugh Jackman that basically looks like LGBT rights in 1905.

00:36:10.000 It's like there's a bearded woman.

00:36:13.000 Be yourself!

00:36:13.000 That's what the circus is all about.

00:36:15.000 No.

00:36:15.000 Not really so much.

00:36:20.000 No, but it's about enlightenment in any case.

00:36:24.000 I'll save my critique of what I think will be a garbage movie for an actual deconstruction of the culture, but what is hilarious is that

00:36:32.000 I don't know how they even did this.

00:36:33.000 They apparently basically rappelled up to this billboard.

00:36:37.000 I think this is in LA.

00:36:39.000 And they took a giant photo of Al Franken from the Leigh Ann Tweeden photo where he's trying to grope her breasts while she's sleeping.

00:36:46.000 And it has Al Franken popping in from the side of the billboard to try and grope, who is this, Zendaya?

00:36:52.000 I love it.

00:37:07.000 Well done, Sabo.

00:37:33.000 Love it.

00:37:35.000 Okay.

00:37:36.000 Other things that I like.

00:37:36.000 So, President Trump, again, I say that he has the power to, the ability to use trollery for the power of good.

00:37:43.000 And he does have the ability to use trollery for the power of good.

00:37:45.000 This is one of those situations.

00:37:46.000 So, as an Orthodox Jew, I really like that the United States is a Christian nation, because I think the closer that the United States is to its Christian roots, the closer they are to their biblical roots.

00:37:55.000 And the closer they are to their biblical roots, at least in private values, the better off the country is in terms of social structure.

00:38:00.000 President Trump,

00:38:01.000 was obviously out there signaling that he made a big part of his campaign that Merry Christmas will come back again.

00:38:07.000 Now, I always thought this was a little overblown.

00:38:09.000 Everybody was able to say Merry Christmas to each other.

00:38:11.000 It was never illegal.

00:38:12.000 But the President of the United States saying it obviously is attempting to make a culture statement.

00:38:16.000 A lot of people on the left are maddened by this, but I don't think that most of the people in the center either care or oppose it.

00:38:21.000 So here's President Trump overtly invoking Jesus during Christmas, which seems to me to make sense since I don't celebrate Christmas because it's about the Jesus.

00:38:28.000 So here is Donald Trump.

00:38:31.000 Finally, in 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation making Christmas a federal holiday.

00:38:43.000 And I sort of feel we're doing that again.

00:38:45.000 That's what's happening.

00:38:48.000 From the earliest days of our nation, Americans have known Christmas as a time for prayer and worship, for gratitude and goodwill, for peace and renewal.

00:38:59.000 Melania and I are full of joy at the start of this very blessed season.

00:39:05.000 We're thrilled to think of the people across the nation and all across the continent whose spirits are lifted by the miracle of Christmas.

00:39:15.000 For Christians, this is a holy season.

00:39:18.000 The celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

00:39:23.000 Okay, so I'll be honest with you.

00:39:23.000 I don't think that Trump knows anything about Christmas.

00:39:26.000 Like, I don't think he's a deeply religious guy.

00:39:28.000 He's never really given the indication that he is.

00:39:30.000 But...

00:39:30.000 Am I glad that the President of the United States is even paying lip service to the Christian nature of the country and the Christian nature of Christmas itself?

00:39:38.000 Yes, I'm very glad that he's doing it.

00:39:39.000 So good for President Trump for doing that.

00:39:41.000 He's gotten a lot of flack for it. 1.00

00:39:42.000 I think that flack is stupid. 1.00

00:39:43.000 So good for President Trump on that. 1.00

00:39:45.000 Okay, things that I hate.

00:39:45.000 So first of all, the first thing that I hate is that I have to make corrections.

00:39:48.000 So I have a couple of corrections this week. 0.98

00:39:50.000 So number one, like an idiot, I suggested that the president didn't know much about the windtalkers, because he doesn't.

00:39:57.000 But then it turned out that I don't know much about the windtalkers either. 0.98

00:39:59.000 So I have to apologize for getting that wrong.

00:40:01.000 I suggested that the Navajo windtalkers had decoded German and Japanese messages. 0.96

00:40:05.000 That, of course, is untrue.

00:40:06.000 The Navajo windtalkers instead, they spoke Navajo.

00:40:09.000 And so they were used as basically message purveyors

00:40:13.000 By the way, folks, when you see that I do something wrong on the show, I don't mean like politically wrong, because I'm never politically wrong, but

00:40:32.000 But when I'm factually incorrect, please let me know, because I'm more than happy to make the correction, because I don't want to give bad information.

00:40:38.000 Other information.

00:40:38.000 I said that Theresa May was a member of the Brexit Party.

00:40:40.000 What I meant by that was not that the Conservative Party in Britain supported Brexit.

00:40:44.000 They didn't.

00:40:44.000 David Cameron didn't.

00:40:45.000 But Theresa May was, as I understand it, and correct me if I'm wrong, Theresa May was not opposed to Brexit, which is one of the reasons why she took the place of David Cameron when David Cameron stepped down.

00:40:55.000 Okay.

00:40:56.000 Let's just go directly to the mailbag, because that's an... I really hate corrections, and I had to do them, so... We're just going to the mailbag now.

00:41:01.000 Okay, so...

00:41:03.000 Well, you know, I think that I tend not to make the argument about abortion on the basis of God.

00:41:05.000 I tend to make it on the basis of science because I think that's more convincing.

00:41:08.000 If you believe in the sanctity of human life,

00:41:25.000 And I assume that they do, then you have to ask all the same questions that I often ask about abortion.

00:41:31.000 What constitutes human life?

00:41:33.000 Is human life breathing?

00:41:35.000 Because there are plenty of people who are on an iron lung.

00:41:37.000 Can you just unplug it?

00:41:38.000 Is human life brain activity?

00:41:39.000 Because when you are sleeping, or when you are in a coma, your brain activity is minimal.

00:41:43.000 Is 0.88

00:42:03.000 Insemination

00:42:20.000 And therefore, you know, that is not worth killing.

00:42:23.000 I think that it's difficult to make the case it's not human life, frankly.

00:42:26.000 Gregory says, Dear Ben, I hear the argument from you that private businesses should have the right to not serve whomever they please, and that the free market would discourage the use of this policy to discriminate because people don't like racism and such.

00:42:35.000 I agree.

00:42:36.000 Does this position still hold in the time period directly after the abolition of slavery, when there is very little free market provision from discrimination?

00:42:42.000 If yes, does this not prolong segregation?

00:42:45.000 The answer is that the free markets of the North were significantly better at restricting the discrimination than the very restrictive markets of the South.

00:42:54.000 Jim Crow laws came in, and they were specifically designed to prevent free market development of anti-discrimination.

00:43:00.000 So I'm not saying that everybody is grand and everybody is great.

00:43:03.000 I am saying that everybody does like money, and if they see money to be made, then they are going to appeal to populations that were otherwise marginalized.

00:43:11.000 So that doesn't mean that in every situation there won't be private discrimination.

00:43:15.000 I don't believe that.

00:43:16.000 You know, in the aftermath of slavery, of course there was going to be lots of private discrimination.

00:43:19.000 But the federal government, because of that, the federal government wasn't even going to put anti-discrimination law into policy in the first place at that point.

00:43:25.000 So the best you could do is free markets.

00:43:27.000 Usually it's the government used the other way.

00:43:29.000 Usually it's the government preventing anti-discrimination by actually forcing discrimination.

00:43:33.000 Well, number one, I think that we have to actually do something that we all, as religious people, find kind of unpalatable and not really nice.

00:43:37.000 Maimonides, when he talks about charity, says that the highest form of charity is giving anonymously.

00:43:52.000 And I, well he says the highest form is giving somebody a job.

00:43:55.000 The second highest form is giving anonymously.

00:43:56.000 I think that that is right because you don't want to glorify yourself for doing something that you are obligated to do, right?

00:44:01.000 Give charity, religiously.

00:44:03.000 But, if conservatives don't make clear to people they're actually doing that, then people don't identify them as charitable.

00:44:07.000 So we're actually going to have to brag on ourselves a little bit.

00:44:09.000 We're actually going to have to say that we do give charity.

00:44:11.000 We give lots more charity than people on the left do.

00:44:13.000 This is a fact.

00:44:14.000 Red states give lots more charity than blue states per capita.

00:44:17.000 Religious people give lots more charity than non-religious people. 0.98

00:44:20.000 So if you want to talk about how much we care about people, why don't you look to the people who are voluntarily signing checks as opposed to doing it at the point of a gun.

00:44:28.000 Yes.

00:44:29.000 Until she was two, my daughter didn't watch television.

00:44:37.000 My son doesn't watch TV.

00:44:39.000 I limit her use of TV pretty significantly in terms of what she is allowed to watch.

00:44:43.000 And I plan on doing the same with computers.

00:44:45.000 I would want her to use computers in order to gather information, but smartphones, iPads, these have become distraction tools as opposed to learning tools, and so I think that I would much rather she read a book than be caught up in the social media on the internet.

00:44:59.000 Like, for example, I wouldn't want my daughter...

00:45:01.000 To have a Facebook account until she was in her teens.

00:45:04.000 Like, I just don't think children should have that stuff, or a Twitter account.

00:45:11.000 So I don't believe in net neutrality.

00:45:12.000 I think I explained this a few days ago on the show, didn't I?

00:45:15.000 I did a whole segment on net neutrality, I thought, where I discussed at length the idea that ISPs... Basically, net neutrality is the suggestion.

00:45:22.000 It was only put into place in the last couple of years of the Obama administration.

00:45:25.000 And before that, the internet was working just fine.

00:45:28.000 Net neutrality is basically the suggestion that internet service providers have to supply traffic, supply all use of traffic the same price.

00:45:36.000 So Netflix, which eats up an enormous amount of bandwidth, has to be charged the same as some schmo in his basement who is just loading up his blog. 0.98

00:45:44.000 And it's also, net neutrality also says that all pages have to be loaded at the same speed.

00:45:49.000 Well, the problem with that, of course, is that it benefits big corporations like Netflix over the little guy.

00:45:54.000 The reality is that if you're taking up a huge share of the bandwidth, then there might be companies that say, you know, we will provide you a faster access, but you have to pay more money.

00:46:05.000 It's not incumbent on internet service providers to be forced to be treated like public utilities.

00:46:10.000 The way to think of it is that internet service providers are like the pipes, and the content of the internet is like water.

00:46:15.000 So you can think of it in two ways.

00:46:17.000 It's a public utility.

00:46:18.000 Everybody should be able to turn on the tap at the same time and get the water.

00:46:20.000 Or that the pipe company should be able to charge you what they want or charge the water company what it wants for the water moving through the pipes.

00:46:29.000 The reason it's not quite like a pipe

00:46:31.000 Is because you can have multiple pipes, right?

00:46:33.000 There are multiple internet service providers.

00:46:35.000 One of the reasons that net neutrality has become such an issue is because of special deals with local governments by a lot of the internet service providers, so they're the only providers in their region.

00:46:43.000 If there were open competition, you would actually see competition.

00:46:46.000 Like for people, for example, who only use email but don't watch streaming video, right?

00:46:49.000 Like older people who only want to watch TV but don't actually want to use Netflix or Hulu. 0.75

00:46:54.000 They should be able to get the internet cheaper than people who want to be able to get Netflix and Hulu.

00:46:58.000 Or if you only want to get Netflix and Hulu and you don't use email, you just use text messages, you should be able to have these options.

00:47:04.000 There's nothing wrong with any of this.

00:47:06.000 This is why when people say it's a corporate giveaway to get rid of net neutrality, there are major corporations like Google and Netflix who basically want to prevent smaller companies from being able to take advantage of differential pricing on ISPs to compete with them.

00:47:18.000 So it depends which corporations you're talking about.

00:47:20.000 Google's a huge corporation.

00:47:21.000 Facebook's a huge corporation.

00:47:22.000 Twitter's a huge corporation.

00:47:23.000 All of them are in favor of net neutrality because they are content providers.

00:47:27.000 All the ISPs are in favor of getting rid of net neutrality.

00:47:29.000 Bottom line is the internet was fine before anybody started messing with it.

00:47:32.000 Net neutrality, the odd passion over net neutrality has always puzzled me.

00:47:37.000 Moshe says,

00:47:39.000 Hi Ben, everyone appreciated when the North Korean soldier fled the regime and made his escape to freedom.

00:47:42.000 Logistically, what is the difference between that soldier and Mexican citizens wanting to escape to a better life in America?

00:47:47.000 Love the show.

00:47:48.000 So, I don't, as I've said before, I think people who are trying to escape horrible situations to come to a better life, I don't blame somebody for trying to jump the border.

00:47:58.000 I've said this many times and I've been very clear about this and pretty consistent on it.

00:48:01.000 If I were living in Mexico, I'd also try to jump the border because America's an amazing place.

00:48:04.000 If I had no other choice, but that does not mean that the United States has an obligation to take those people in.

00:48:09.000 The U.S.

00:48:09.000 gets to pick who gets to come into the country and who does not.

00:48:13.000 The U.S.

00:48:13.000 gets to do that.

00:48:14.000 So it's not up to South Korea to say, we must take in everyone from North Korea.

00:48:19.000 South Korea can say, no, we're going to put that person in some sort of temporary internment camp until we can figure out where they ought to immigrate to, for example.

00:48:27.000 But the idea that everyone who is fleeing human rights violations has therefore a claim on your country is not true.

00:48:36.000 Also, I would say that the Mexican government is not equivalent to the North Korean government anyway.

00:48:40.000 There are lots of problems in Mexico, including drug cartels.

00:48:43.000 But Mexico is not North Korea.

00:48:45.000 North Korea is a giant prison state.

00:48:47.000 There is no wall keeping Mexicans in. 0.87

00:48:51.000 Okay, um, Damien says, I was talking about God with my friend.

00:48:54.000 He said, since God is almighty, why would he test us by giving us free will?

00:48:57.000 God is almighty, so he knows the future.

00:48:59.000 I would know the results of that free will test.

00:49:01.000 What can I answer?

00:49:02.000 God wants us to earn.

00:49:03.000 God wants us to feel fulfilled.

00:49:05.000 One of the ways, God loves us, and so he wants us to feel fulfilled.

00:49:07.000 The way that people feel fulfilled is not by being given things, and it's not even if, you know, what somebody's gonna do.

00:49:13.000 It's being given a choice, and then acting in accordance with that free will.

00:49:16.000 Free will is what makes life meaningful.

00:49:18.000 So, what I would ask your friend is how he would define the existence of free will without God or without a supernatural.

00:49:24.000 If you're a scientific materialist, there's no evidence whatsoever that free will exists.

00:49:27.000 Sean says, have you thought about your New Year's resolution yet?

00:49:30.000 Well, actually, the truth is that Jews do our New Year's resolutions around Rosh Hashanah.

00:49:34.000 During the Jewish New Year, that's why we do it in actual atonement. 1.00

00:49:36.000 I would say the Jewish New Year is a lot more meaningful than the secular New Year where we all get drunk and then pretend we're going to lose weight and then don't. 0.84

00:49:42.000 Tom says,

00:49:44.000 Last week you said DC movies should have 20% added to their critical scores, Marvel movies should have 20% taken away.

00:49:49.000 Why do you think DC movies should receive affirmative action?

00:49:51.000 Shouldn't they have to stand on their own mediocrity?

00:49:53.000 I'm not saying that Rotten Tomatoes has to do that.

00:49:54.000 I'm saying if you want an accurate portrayal of how DC movies are treated, then you should add, like in your own mind, you should add 20% to the Rotten Tomatoes score because everything they say is 30 for a DC movie's a 50, and everything they say is a 90 for a Marvel movie's a 70.

00:50:07.000 That's all I'm saying.

00:50:07.000 I'm saying that the critics are biased in favor of Marvel and they are biased against DC.

00:50:12.000 But I'm not saying that the critics have to do that.

00:50:14.000 I mean, the critics can do whatever the hell they want.

00:50:16.000 That's why I don't pay attention to the critics a lot.

00:50:18.000 Luke says, No.

00:50:18.000 So one of the reasons that Jews reject

00:50:37.000 Jesus is because we don't believe the authenticity of the Gospels.

00:50:40.000 Meaning that, if we actually believe the authentic- So, C.S.

00:50:43.000 Lewis' proof relies on you believing the historicity of the Gospels.

00:50:46.000 That everything the Gospels said was true, and therefore, either Jesus was crazy, or Jesus was evil, or Jesus was telling the truth, right?

00:50:53.000 That's the trilemma. 0.98

00:50:54.000 Well, I don't think that, like, as a Jew, like, the Jewish perspective on Jesus is that that's not actually the case, right?

00:50:59.000 The Jewish perspective on Jesus is that the people who wrote the Gospels were writing the Gospels decades after Jesus' death, and that Jesus was actually pretty much a normal Orthodox Jew who tried to lead a rebellion against the Romans and was killed for his trouble.

00:51:09.000 That's, that he was attempting to lead a secular messianic movement, because that's, and when I say secular, I mean a Jewish messianic movement, because the Jewish Messiah has no, there's no notion of divinity entering the world through the Jewish Messiah. 0.53

00:51:21.000 Sadly, Michael Mowles is on salary.

00:51:25.000 I have desperately been trying to pay him for word for a couple of years now.

00:51:30.000 Again, one of the great moments of my career will be firing Michael Mowles.

00:51:38.000 Well, they should be used as feedback, but they shouldn't be used as guidance.

00:51:42.000 So, what I mean by that is it's good to know what people like and what people don't, because that also allows you to tailor your message on what is good policy.

00:51:49.000 But I don't think that you should shift your policy preferences based on public opinion.

00:51:53.000 I don't think that it should be like, well, I'm for tax cuts, but now that the public hates it, I'm for tax increases.

00:51:57.000 I don't think so.

00:52:10.000 I honestly believe, you know, I haven't been alive very long.

00:52:12.000 I'm only 33.

00:52:13.000 So I believe that there have been several, you know, kind of key periods of my life.

00:52:17.000 I would say that one of those key periods was when I was growing up and I went to middle school, I went to public school, and I was viciously bullied there, and then I was viciously bullied in high school.

00:52:25.000 I think it's not a good thing that it happened, but it's a character-building exercise.

00:52:28.000 You have to grow a thick skin, and you have to learn that the world is not your friend, and that you're going to have to make your own way.

00:52:34.000 And so I think that was a deeply upsetting but valuable experience to me.

00:52:39.000 Harvard Law School is a great place to learn how to argue and learn how to think.

00:52:43.000 I think that the last year and a half has been a really tremendous character building experience and has changed my thought process.

00:52:48.000 It was really interesting.

00:52:49.000 The other day...

00:52:50.000 And somebody wrote a column criticizing me, and talking about a column I wrote in 2007 about dissenters from the Iraq war.

00:52:57.000 There were a bunch of Democrats at the time, like Dick Durbin, who were talking about how they were glad that America was basically losing the war in Iraq.

00:53:02.000 And I said this was traitorous, essentially, and in a column I even said that we should revivify the Alien Sedition Act, not the Alien Sedition Act, the Espionage Act from 1917 under Woodrow Wilson.

00:53:13.000 I feel—and then Barack Obama became president, and you become the dissent.

00:53:17.000 And then you realize, well, you're going to have to have a certain standard.

00:53:20.000 It's easy to be the people in power, and it's hard to be the people out of power.

00:53:23.000 And then, during this election cycle, the question was, were you going to maintain that standard now that you had the possibility of power again?

00:53:29.000 And I think the answer is that if you're not learning throughout your life and changing how you feel based on new evidence, not based on new feelings, but based on new evidence, then you're not doing the right job.

00:53:39.000 I wish I hadn't written that 2007 column because I don't think that's right.

00:53:42.000 I don't think that the Espionage Act should be revivified against people, even people who say egregious things about war and say things that harm the war effort and I think put the troops in a bad position.

00:53:52.000 Free speech is valuable because you can end up on the wrong side of it.

00:53:55.000 So there are certain areas in life where I've changed my position because new evidence has been presented to me that I had not experienced before.

00:54:02.000 The Obama administration changed my way of thought.

00:54:04.000 The Bush administration changed my way of thought.

00:54:05.000 The Trump administration changes my way of thought.

00:54:08.000 If you're not changing your way of thought based on new evidence, then you've stopped thinking and you've become rigid and sort of locked in.

00:54:16.000 So clearly Empire is the best.

00:54:18.000 I mean, that's the easiest answer ever.

00:54:20.000 The question is, what comes second?

00:54:22.000 We're good to go.

00:54:43.000 Third, I'd probably still go Empire, Star Wars 1, Rogue One, Return of the Jedi.

00:54:48.000 We were just discussing before the show, actually, how good is Return of the Jedi.

00:54:51.000 And the problem with Return of the Jedi is that it's actually two movies, right?

00:54:54.000 So there's all the stuff with Luke aboard the Death Star, which is some of the best stuff in the Star Wars series.

00:55:00.000 And then there's all of the stuff with the Ewoks. 1.00

00:55:02.000 And you're like, what?

00:55:03.000 Why?

00:55:04.000 Who?

00:55:04.000 When?

00:55:04.000 Where?

00:55:05.000 Wha?

00:55:06.000 Woo?

00:55:06.000 And it doesn't make any sense.

00:55:08.000 So all the stuff aboard the Death Star is fantastic.

00:55:11.000 If that had been the entirety of Return of the Jedi, then Return of the Jedi would be up there.

00:55:16.000 It comes in fourth for me, so those are my top four.

00:55:17.000 Well, there are so many pieces that are great for people who are just starting out with classical music.

00:55:33.000 A lot of them are cliched, so you want to actually listen to some stuff that... I'd have to know sort of what music you like, believe it or not, in sort of the pop arena, to know what music you would like in classical, but you'd have to start, anybody would have to start with some Bach, start with Toccata and Fugue, which is very user-friendly.

00:55:49.000 When I was younger, I really liked Dvorak's New World Symphony, which is really exciting and fun to listen to.

00:55:55.000 Mozart's The Overture for Don Giovanni, and the last number for Don Giovanni, the last aria in Don Giovanni, or second-to-last aria in Don Giovanni, where Don Giovanni is dragged to hell.

00:56:05.000 Spoiler alert.

00:56:08.000 That is a fantastic, fantastic piece of classical music.

00:56:11.000 Brahms' Second Piano Concerto is just great.

00:56:13.000 Edvard Grieg is really user-friendly, and you'll recognize a lot of Grieg.

00:56:16.000 Like, Grieg is in the Hall of the Mountain King.

00:56:18.000 You'll recognize it, if you're old enough, from the Ritz Crackers commercials.

00:56:21.000 The cheese commercials, right?

00:56:23.000 That's Greek.

00:56:26.000 So is the music that you always hear.

00:56:29.000 That's also Greek.

00:56:32.000 So a lot of very colorful classical music.

00:56:34.000 Bizet.

00:56:35.000 Carmen.

00:56:36.000 There's so much great classical music.

00:56:37.000 I'd start with the colorful stuff and then make your way toward the harder stuff.

00:56:40.000 The mistake people make is they don't know anything.

00:56:41.000 So they say, I'll start off with Beethoven's First Symphony.

00:56:45.000 That's not even the good stuff.

00:56:46.000 Beethoven's good stuff starts Beethoven 3, right?

00:56:48.000 The Eroica.

00:56:49.000 Okay.

00:56:50.000 Bryce says, Hey Ben, I love everything you do.

00:56:53.000 I'm a huge supporter of capitalism, but I also don't seem to be very good at it.

00:56:56.000 Fair.

00:56:57.000 I'm still following the three rules, but I'm about to graduate college.

00:56:59.000 It's clear I have bad skills when it comes to handling my money.

00:57:01.000 Do you have any advice on how I could be better with money?

00:57:03.000 And are there any resources you could point me toward in the advancement of my wealth management skills?

00:57:06.000 I mean, first of all, I would find an actual wealth manager or somebody who can help you allocate your budget.

00:57:11.000 So number one, I think Dave Ramsey does some good work on this.

00:57:14.000 If you're really bad with handling money, you should not have a credit card.

00:57:17.000 You should only have a debit card.

00:57:18.000 And you should only be able to take money out of your account that already exists.

00:57:21.000 So all of your costs should be cash in hand, cash out of pocket.

00:57:24.000 That seems to me a very good way of preventing yourself from running into serious debt, which is where people really get into trouble.

00:57:29.000 Also, what I say is that recognize the stuff that's going to bankrupt you and the stuff that's not going to bankrupt you.

00:57:33.000 It's not going to bankrupt you to go to a movie once a week.

00:57:35.000 It will bankrupt you to get an expensive car.

00:57:37.000 So, there's sort of these big purchases that people spend a lot of money on that are worthless.

00:57:41.000 You're better off living a quote-unquote rich lifestyle by going to a movie once a week, which makes you feel rich and makes you feel involved in the world, as opposed to getting a nice car, which honestly is separated from like a mediocre car by...

00:57:53.000 .1% of enjoyment for most people.

00:57:55.000 For some people who really love cars, I guess it's a big deal.

00:57:57.000 But for me, it never was.

00:57:58.000 Like, I had a Mustang.

00:57:59.000 I had a GT Mustang that I paid like $33,000 for when I got out of law school and I was making a lot of money at a law firm.

00:58:05.000 And I didn't really enjoy that car that much, to be frank with you.

00:58:08.000 I mean, my wife didn't enjoy it. 1.00

00:58:09.000 So when we actually replaced it with the Honda Pilot, which is a family car, I like the Honda Pilot better than I enjoyed my GT Mustang.

00:58:15.000 Especially because you get a car with a really nice engine and you really want to speed in it.

00:58:19.000 And there's no place in California to speed in that car.

00:58:22.000 Right?

00:58:22.000 You're going to get arrested immediately.

00:58:23.000 Plus, because you're going to get a ticket every two seconds because the cops are looking for those cars.

00:58:27.000 Kevin says, Some time ago, a close family friend switched from being an obstetrician working at a hospital to being an obstetrician working for Planned Parenthood.

00:58:37.000 He and his family were always pro-choice, but now he is an active participant in legalized murder.

00:58:41.000 Can our relationship even continue?

00:58:42.000 I can't think of anything to say that could reach someone whose conscience is that seared.

00:58:45.000 Should I ask him what it would take to get him to quit?

00:58:47.000 I mean, if you're that close friends with him, you might say to him, listen, I'm having real moral qualms about... about...

00:58:54.000 Honestly, like, having a relationship with somebody who, in my opinion, kills babies for a living.

00:58:59.000 Like, I want to have this conversation with you, I want to be friends with you, but I understand if we can't continue that relationship.

00:59:04.000 I totally get that.

00:59:05.000 I totally get that.

00:59:05.000 I mean, if somebody is committing what you believe to be a moral atrocity on a regular basis, it's very difficult to... I was talking with a friend about this last night, and one of the things that I think is actually bad and wrong is that we, in our personal lives, will take people who we know are garbage people, and we'll say, oh, he's a nice guy.

00:59:18.000 He's a nice guy.

00:59:19.000 And then he does some bad things because we said, oh, he's a nice guy. 1.00

00:59:22.000 Garbage people. 1.00

00:59:23.000 People who do garbage things. 1.00

00:59:24.000 I'm not sure she'd be treated with kid gloves. 0.95

00:59:26.000 Tim says, finally, why do ex-husbands still have to take care of ex-wives in a divorce?

00:59:30.000 I understand the reasoning behind it back before women had rights and were able to work, but today they have rights and want even more, and they are more than capable of finding jobs to support themselves without a man.

00:59:38.000 So again, why do we still have a judicial system that favors women now? 1.00

00:59:41.000 Why would I lose my house that I pay for and she gets half of my assets on top of it if I didn't break the marriage agreement? 1.00

00:59:47.000 This seems to me a perfectly fair question on the back of feminists. 1.00

00:59:50.000 It seems to me child support is entirely appropriate. 0.99

00:59:53.000 But in a world in which men and women are equally capable of holding jobs, in a world in which women who are single, straight out of college, not married, no kids, are actually making more than men in most of America's major cities, I think that it may be a time to look back at how we arrange these things.

01:00:09.000 There are situations, by the way, in which women are paying support to men.

01:00:12.000 They're paying spousal support to men, but that's rare.

01:00:14.000 There is a bias in our judicial system against men with regard to parenting as well as marital law.

01:00:19.000 Okay, so this brings us to the end of today's program.

01:00:22.000 Just news-breaking fast and furious this week.

01:00:25.000 This was a long week.

01:00:26.000 We'll be back here on Monday, and by that point, I can only expect that the aliens will have arrived, given the quick-moving news cycle in which we are now taking part.

01:00:34.000 But try not to ruin things while I'm gone.

01:00:36.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

01:00:36.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

01:00:41.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Glover.

01:00:43.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

01:00:45.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

01:00:47.000 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

01:00:49.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

01:00:50.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Cormina.

01:00:52.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

01:00:53.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

01:00:57.000 Copyright Forward Publishing 2017.

The Ben Shapiro Show - December 01, 2017

A Grave Injustice In California | Ep. 428

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