The Ben Shapiro Show - A Very BAD Bunny Super Bowl

00:00:00.000 Hola, y bienvenidos al benchapiro show.

00:00:03.000 Yeah, so I had to learn Spanish so I could understand the halftime show over at the Super Bowl.

00:00:09.000 And I have a lot of thoughts.

00:00:10.000 I have a lot of thoughts.

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00:00:49.000 Overall, honestly, like great production value.

00:00:52.000 I understand.

00:00:52.000 This halftime show is not aimed at me.

00:00:54.000 I listened to classical music, and there was the usual plethora of butts on the screen, which again has become common to all halftime shows, unfortunately.

00:01:04.000 But overall, in terms of the production value, production value, incredible, incredible.

00:01:09.000 I was very much in favor of a couple actually getting married, like a straight couple getting married in the middle of the halftime show.

00:01:14.000 And by the way, I did enjoy the entire wedding production dance with Lady Gaga as the wedding singer and even the kid falling asleep on the chairs, which I've been told by some of my producers, producer Savvy, is of Latina extraction.

00:01:30.000 And also, Fabi, the makeup lady, is Puerto Rican.

00:01:34.000 And so they told me that this is like a common thing at Latino weddings.

00:01:39.000 It is also a common thing at Jewish weddings where everybody goes too late and the kids are all sleeping on the chairs.

00:01:44.000 Again, charming.

00:01:45.000 I enjoyed that.

00:01:47.000 The staging was immaculate.

00:01:49.000 All of that is fine.

00:01:52.000 So let's start with that.

00:01:54.000 Here is sort of my generalized critique.

00:01:56.000 There is a thing that goes on in American culture that is highly irritating to me.

00:02:00.000 And that thing is where everyone celebrates a thing that is left-leaning in nature politically.

00:02:06.000 And then, if you notice the thing is happening, they tell you that you're crazy and why are you focusing on it?

00:02:10.000 And you are just over your skis and why are you so upset?

00:02:13.000 So let's start with this.

00:02:14.000 Again, I'm not particularly upset by halftime shows at the Super Bowl because who cares?

00:02:20.000 In the grand scheme of life, is this a big deal?

00:02:22.000 No, it is not a big deal.

00:02:24.000 The reason that some people are concerned today or upset today is because really, I think the end of the performance.

00:02:32.000 So let's start with this.

00:02:34.000 Again, I am not a Bad Bunny fan.

00:02:36.000 To me, I don't know whether he's a good bunny, a bad bunny, or the worst bunny.

00:02:39.000 I have no gradation.

00:02:40.000 I have no scale upon which to judge his badness of bunniness.

00:02:43.000 I do not know his music.

00:02:44.000 I did not understand a word he was saying.

00:02:46.000 Frankly, it seemed to me as a person who, again, does not traffic in this music and doesn't listen to this music that when I was watching the aforementioned Bad Bunny walking through the screen, holding a football, gaining more yards than the New England Patriots the entire first half, and kind of saying things to me in Spanish.

00:03:04.000 And I had no idea what he was saying.

00:03:06.000 I will admit that it felt to me like perhaps I had been in a car crash and there was a person walking at me telling me that I needed to get out my insurance card in a language I did not understand.

00:03:14.000 So this was not geared toward me.

00:03:16.000 But again, I told you the pros.

00:03:19.000 The pros are that beautifully produced.

00:03:22.000 The couple getting married mid-show, the kids falling asleep on the chairs.

00:03:26.000 All that was very, very charming.

00:03:28.000 And I don't even have a problem with a lot of Spanish being in the show because guess what?

00:03:31.000 A lot of people in the United States speak Spanish, and that's totally cool.

00:03:34.000 A lot of people in the United States speak a lot of second languages.

00:03:38.000 There are some cons.

00:03:39.000 And again, here is where you get into the gaslighting.

00:03:42.000 One, one con: no English.

00:03:46.000 It is fine, obviously, to have a lot of Spanish and not even unprecedented.

00:03:50.000 I remember a few years ago, Shakira and J-Lo did the halftime show, and I believe they did a song in Spanish.

00:03:56.000 Cool.

00:03:56.000 That's awesome.

00:03:58.000 And of course, there are tens of millions of Latino Americans who contribute in unbelievable ways to our common project as Americans.

00:04:04.000 One third of the American military is Latino.

00:04:07.000 But why no English, right?

00:04:08.000 That's a decision.

00:04:09.000 That's a decision that's being made.

00:04:10.000 No English where people who don't speak Spanish don't understand what is going on.

00:04:15.000 I mean, he could have been saying literally anything, and I would have had no idea what he was saying.

00:04:20.000 And second of all, to pretend that Bad Bunny is an apolitical figure is, of course, very, very silly.

00:04:25.000 Bad Bunny is not an apolitical figure.

00:04:27.000 He has never pretended to be an apolitical figure.

00:04:31.000 So, for example, when he showed himself on the Grammys and then him giving a Grammy to a little kid who looked precisely like an iced detainee, don't tell me that this wasn't on purpose. 0.97

00:04:41.000 Of course it was on purpose.

00:04:42.000 Don't be silly.

00:04:43.000 Don't be silly now.

00:04:51.000 And here comes Bad Bunny to give the Grammy to the little kid who's supposed to look pretty clearly like the ice detainee. 1.00

00:04:58.000 I mean, so much so that everybody, he was not, by the way.

00:05:01.000 And then he starts with this stuff again.

00:05:03.000 Again, not my jam.

00:05:04.000 Not my jam.

00:05:06.000 The entire, I keep coming back to the production value because just as a person who enjoys a good show, the production value, incredibly high.

00:05:13.000 Building like an entire sugar cane field out in the middle of the Super Bowl.

00:05:18.000 All those sugar canes, by the way, were people inside the sugar cane.

00:05:20.000 So it was like the March of the Ents when they were setting that thing up.

00:05:23.000 People just kind of wandering into the middle of the field.

00:05:26.000 There are some weird moments.

00:05:28.000 Obviously, one of his songs is about the failure of electricity in Puerto Rico.

00:05:32.000 And so people falling off of telephone lines, which if you have no frame of reference, which I really did not until I actually looked it up, I have no idea what's going on.

00:05:39.000 And then when I found out, I feel like that's a very weird way to sort of tout your home culture is, and also our electricity fails a lot.

00:05:48.000 If I were to do one for Jewish culture, I would be like, also, Ashkenazic food is totally tasteless. 0.91

00:05:54.000 That'd be kind of a strange flex.

00:05:55.000 We'll get to more on the Super Bowl halftime show and all the rest of our cultural questions in just one moment.

00:06:02.000 First, I spent all of yesterday with my kids.

00:06:04.000 This is like my thing.

00:06:06.000 I spend the vast majority of my time when I'm not at work with my kids.

00:06:06.000 Okay.

00:06:10.000 My social life is my kids.

00:06:11.000 It is my wife.

00:06:12.000 It is my children.

00:06:13.000 It is my extended family.

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00:08:42.000 The big, the big thing that happened, right?

00:08:44.000 The thing that kind of I think was the tell was that the very end of the halftime show, after he's done all of this, and of course, it had its little political touches here and there.

00:08:53.000 I already mentioned the where's waldo of human butts that happened.

00:08:57.000 Apparently, some of those butts were famous butts, but there's a where's waldo of human butts. 0.77

00:09:01.000 There was also, of course, a little bit of LGBT content and that you had some two dudes rolling on each other.

00:09:07.000 It happened fairly quickly, but of course was there.

00:09:10.000 The tell, the tell, and this is where the real critique comes in.

00:09:14.000 The tell was the end of the halftime show.

00:09:16.000 So the end of the halftime show, Bad Bunny, again, a less than good bunny, he's walking through and he's followed by apparently the entire World Cup contingent from the Western Hemisphere. 1.00

00:09:29.000 So he walks through and he announces every single country in the Western hemisphere, starting geographically with Argentina, like starting there and finishing up with Canada.

00:09:38.000 And as he does, a bunch of people follow him carrying flags from various other countries that are not the United States.

00:09:45.000 So here's what that looked like.

00:09:47.000 God bless America.

00:09:51.000 He says, God bless America.

00:09:52.000 Maybe his only English word.

00:09:54.000 And then he starts listing countries.

00:09:56.000 He's modeling United Nations timeout.

00:10:01.000 good for him for memorizing his geography okay okay and then he uh okay Okay, so, and then he finishes.

00:10:20.000 He finishes with together we're all Americans.

00:10:22.000 Okay, so here is the problem with this particular thing.

00:10:26.000 Truly, celebrating Puerto Rican culture in the United States, celebrating Latino culture in the United States.

00:10:32.000 Cool.

00:10:33.000 One of the amazing things about America, truly amazing things, is you can both assimilate to the values of the United States and still keep the flavor of your old culture, of your common culture.

00:10:43.000 You can do that.

00:10:44.000 And one of the great things about America over the course of the last couple of hundred years is that you have lots of cultures that merge into the gigantic stream that is the United States, which is why every American has eaten Mexican food and Italian food and Chinese food.

00:10:58.000 And that's wonderful.

00:10:59.000 That's great.

00:11:00.000 Now, the fact that you have weddings where you have people dancing salsa and you have weddings where you have people dancing the horror, that's wonderful.

00:11:06.000 That's great.

00:11:06.000 That's fine.

00:11:08.000 I don't think a whole lot of Americans object to that.

00:11:10.000 The question is: are you showing gratitude for America being unique?

00:11:14.000 So, this, I think, is the reason why people are focusing on this on a political level.

00:11:19.000 Where is Bad Bunny's gratitude?

00:11:21.000 The worst bunny.

00:11:22.000 Why is Bad Bunny's?

00:11:23.000 I have such a hard time saying his stage name.

00:11:25.000 Why is this person's gratitude being so hidden here?

00:11:30.000 There have been other shows where he's refused to stand up for the national anthem.

00:11:32.000 He is rich and he is famous because of the United States.

00:11:36.000 He is living in splendor because of the United States.

00:11:40.000 He is one of the greatest recipients of American largesse ever because we all are.

00:11:44.000 If you're born in America and if you're born in Puerto Rico, you're an American.

00:11:47.000 If you're born in America, that is the greatest privilege that you can receive.

00:11:51.000 So it is my opinion that you should show some gratitude for America being unique.

00:11:55.000 It seems to me American flags should have been all over the place in the middle of this demonstration.

00:12:00.000 This is one of the things I think that the political left does totally wrong.

00:12:03.000 It's kind of astonishing to me.

00:12:04.000 The political left has the opportunity to grab the upper hand culturally with a lot of people and simultaneously celebrate the country.

00:12:12.000 He could have done this entire show almost identically with American flags everywhere saying America means that you can have salsa dancing at your wedding.

00:12:21.000 But that's what's amazing about America.

00:12:23.000 You can do all that and still be an American who loves football and still be an American.

00:12:27.000 Football is a uniquely American sport.

00:12:28.000 You can still be an American who is doing all the American things and you can also enjoy these cultural variants.

00:12:35.000 He could have done that, bringing out the flags of foreign nations, places, by the way, that are not purely Latino.

00:12:40.000 So it wasn't just a celebration of Latino culture at the end because Canada is not Latino.

00:12:46.000 Canada is a bunch of white people, Canada, generally speaking.

00:12:51.000 Haiti is not Latino.

00:12:53.000 There are a bunch of countries in the Western Hemisphere that are actually not predominantly Latino.

00:12:59.000 So what he's doing there, this kind of United Nations routine, is not a celebration of America or a celebration of cultures that coexist peacefully in America or a celebration of Latino culture in America.

00:13:11.000 It is a celebration of apparently everyone being American.

00:13:16.000 And this is what he says.

00:13:16.000 He says, we're all Americans.

00:13:18.000 Well, you're an American if you're in America's borders and your loyalty is to America.

00:13:22.000 You're not American if you are Peruvian and you live in Peru and you spent your entire life in Peru.

00:13:29.000 And his attempt to say we are all Americans by making some sort of pedantic geographic point that the Americas encompass like the continents of North America and South America, that's silly.

00:13:40.000 And no one sees it that way.

00:13:42.000 The reality is we are all from the Americas, but we are not all Americans.

00:13:47.000 When people say American, they believe that you are talking about the United States as they should. 0.99

00:13:51.000 And football is an American event.

00:13:53.000 It is actually not the world's biggest event.

00:13:55.000 It is America's biggest event, but ain't nobody in Japan watching the Super Bowl.

00:13:59.000 This was not the World Cup.

00:14:00.000 This performance at the World Cup would have made perfect sense.

00:14:03.000 It would have, because that's an international event with a bunch of different at the Olympics, this would have made perfect sense.

00:14:08.000 Doing it at the halftime show and then basically saying that America is one of many.

00:14:15.000 Saying that what is happening on the stage is not a representation of the greatness of America in being able to capture many different cultures and draw from many different cultures to merge in our assimilative American values.

00:14:29.000 Not doing that, but instead doing these sort of country separatism and then saying we are all Americans while flying the flags of countries that are not American.

00:14:38.000 Like, again, that last part was, I think, to tell.

00:14:40.000 And that was the part I think that people are really reacting to on a sort of gut level.

00:14:44.000 Now, again, none of this is to say that for the third time, there aren't parts of the show that were kind of enjoyable.

00:14:50.000 Again, I'll bring up the sort of wedding part of it, which I thought was kind of charming.

00:14:55.000 Here's some of the wedding stuff that was happening.

00:15:05.000 This is an actual wedding that happened on the stage.

00:15:07.000 Like, cool, nice.

00:15:10.000 And yeah, exactly a dude marrying one.

00:15:12.000 And then they drew aside and suddenly the whitest lady I've ever seen, Lady Gaga, who's Italian, she started singing a salsa version of one of her songs, Die With a Smile. 1.00

00:15:27.000 And then you had all the salsa dancing.

00:15:28.000 And again, I think the Super Bowl needs to take it down a couple of notches in terms of the fleshly pursuits, but that's not unique to this particular show.

00:15:36.000 But the salsa dancing at the wedding, I thought was charming.

00:15:38.000 And the little kid who's like lying asleep and they have like the old, the old grandfather or grandmother who's like moving the kid.

00:15:43.000 Like that's all nice.

00:15:45.000 That's not why I didn't react to any of that.

00:15:47.000 I thought, fine.

00:15:48.000 The only thing that as an American I reacted to was the point that was being made at the end that was clearly political.

00:15:55.000 And when people say that don't notice the politics, this is the part that drives me a little crazy.

00:16:00.000 You can't put it in every review.

00:16:01.000 And then when I notice that it's happening, you tell me that I'm crazy.

00:16:05.000 That's the part I think that's getting people.

00:16:06.000 If you go to the Wall Street Journal review of the show, they say in a history-making halftime show, performed almost entirely in Spanish.

00:16:14.000 So as soon as you say a history-making halftime show, you're already saying there is something uniquely important about this halftime show.

00:16:20.000 So don't pretend that this is, you know, Bon Jovi playing a halftime show a few years ago.

00:16:27.000 If you're saying it's history-making, clearly you're saying that it's important in a cultural political way.

00:16:32.000 In a history-making halftime show performed almost entirely in Spanish, the Puerto Rican star paid tribute to his heritage and the many countries from Brazil to Mexico, whose people have come to shape the modern day U.S.

00:16:42.000 And again, this is one of the weird conflicts about giving that list of countries and including, for example, Canada.

00:16:47.000 It's kind of strange because if you're just celebrating immigration, then theoretically a lot of immigrants from other places all over the world who come to the United States.

00:16:55.000 But as the Wall Street Journal review points out, just a week ago, Bad Bunny denounced ICE and customs enforcement while accepting a Grammy Award.

00:17:02.000 But on the halftime stage, he offered up a buoyant celebration of Latino culture.

00:17:06.000 The elaborate stage design included a maze of sugarcane and a single-story house similar to the one he used during his 31-day residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico last summer.

00:17:14.000 As Bad Bunny strutted through the greenery, he passed by old men playing dominoes, women chatting in a nail salon, and boxers sparring a montage of scenes from life in Puerto Rico.

00:17:22.000 And then there were a stream of celebrities who showed up to offer their support.

00:17:25.000 I will admit that I did not recognize any of them except for Ricky Martin showed up.

00:17:30.000 And I mean, I think we're all getting old because I'm old enough to remember when Ricky Martin was pretending to be straight.

00:17:35.000 So he showed up flanked by a bunch of bananas, which was a little strange.

00:17:39.000 Anyway, he showed up.

00:17:42.000 Apparently, Pedro Pascal and Jessica Alba were there for like a hot second.

00:17:46.000 And then he finished that set by spiking a football that said together, we are America.

00:17:53.000 So that's the part.

00:17:54.000 Like, again, if you're going to say it's important, and then we notice that it's important and we ask, so why is it important?

00:17:58.000 And then you tell us, and then we say, well, we don't like that.

00:18:01.000 That's not us doing something wrong.

00:18:03.000 That's you gaslighting people.

00:18:05.000 But here are the things that are not wrong.

00:18:07.000 Doing the vast majority of the show in Spanish, don't care.

00:18:10.000 Fine.

00:18:10.000 I'll be honest to you.

00:18:12.000 When Kendrick Lamar did his show, I had no idea what he was saying the entire show.

00:18:15.000 And he was purportedly speaking English.

00:18:17.000 I had no idea a single word that he was saying.

00:18:19.000 So my bewilderment at the innate illiteracy of many of our artists continues.

00:18:26.000 My inability to speak the language they are speaking is not unique to the halftime show.

00:18:31.000 That I'm not upset about.

00:18:33.000 I'm not upset about the featuring of Puerto Rican culture or Latino culture.

00:18:36.000 Cool, fine.

00:18:38.000 Kind of enjoy.

00:18:40.000 The thing that I am concerned about is the innate argument that is being made that the greatness of America somehow must be subsumed under the rubric of all countries are awesome and America is somehow equivalent in some way to other countries.

00:18:55.000 It is not.

00:18:55.000 America is exceptional.

00:18:56.000 It's unique.

00:18:57.000 And Bad Bunny, of all humans, should know this.

00:18:59.000 Because again, in other countries, he would still be working at the local bodega, which he was, I believe, in Puerto Rico until like 2015.

00:19:06.000 America is fabulous.

00:19:07.000 America is spectacular.

00:19:09.000 Do that exact same performance while thanking America and everybody goes home happy.

00:19:14.000 But again, I think he was meant not to do that and noticing that is not some sort of crime or sin.

00:19:18.000 President Trump predictably did not like the show.

00:19:21.000 He put out a statement on Truth Social in which he said the Super Bowl halftime show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst ever.

00:19:27.000 Okay, again, an overstatement.

00:19:29.000 I mean, I've seen many, many terrible Super Bowl halftime shows each year.

00:19:33.000 In fact, I generally hate the Super Bowl halftime show.

00:19:36.000 It makes no sense.

00:19:36.000 It is an affront to the greatness of America and doesn't represent our standards of success, creativity, or excellence.

00:19:41.000 Nobody understands a word this guy is saying.

00:19:44.000 And the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the United States and all over the world.

00:19:48.000 Again, I would have more sympathy for that statement, except for that's been true for 20 years.

00:19:54.000 It is gross.

00:19:56.000 And unfortunately, it now shows up in nearly every sporting event.

00:19:58.000 The sort of bump and grind dancing that you see from cheerleaders at a normal basketball game is so much more than a 14-year-old boy would have been able to take in 1983.

00:20:09.000 This show is just a slap in the face to our country, says the president, which is setting new standards and records every single day, including the best stock market in 401ks in history.

00:20:16.000 There's nothing inspirational about this mess of a halftime show and watch.

00:20:19.000 You'll get great reviews from the fake news media because they haven't got a clue of what is going on in the real world.

00:20:23.000 And by the way, the NFL should immediately replace its ridiculous new kickoff rule.

00:20:26.000 Make America great again, President Trump.

00:20:28.000 So I agree about the kickoff rule.

00:20:30.000 And again, I see where he is coming from when he does not like the halftime show.

00:20:34.000 I think that there's a better way to articulate that.

00:20:38.000 And this is, again, we'll get to this a little bit later on in the show.

00:20:42.000 This goes to the Republican Party's inability to articulate good critiques in a thoughtful way that will tend to broaden the coalition rather than narrowing it.

00:20:49.000 Well, while all this was going on at the Super Bowl halftime show, all the cultural chaos and all the argument, Turning Point USA held its All-American Super Bowl halftime show.

00:20:58.000 You could have seen that over at Daily Wire Plus.

00:21:00.000 We were one of the places that was streaming it.

00:21:02.000 The show featured Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Bryce, and Gabby Barrett.

00:21:05.000 And apparently, it is one of the most viewed shows in the history of YouTube.

00:21:09.000 Like astonishing numbers, actually.

00:21:12.000 The numbers soared to as many as 5 million people concurrently tuning into the live stream on YouTube.

00:21:19.000 Now, again, they're doing that on a fraction of the budget of the Super Bowl, of course.

00:21:24.000 They're doing it in a closed room that does not involve 70,000 people.

00:21:28.000 So that's a pretty astonishing, a pretty astonishing showing there from TPUSA.

00:21:33.000 And as I say, you could head on over to Daily Wire Plus as a subscriber and watch it.

00:21:38.000 And I think that speaks to the amount of antipathy that people have for the sort of politics that are being promoted by Jay-Z and team over at the Super Bowl.

00:21:45.000 It's Jay-Z's team that handles the logistics for the halftime show.

00:21:50.000 There are a lot of people who decided that they were going to tune on over to the TPUSA show.

00:21:54.000 And that's astonishing, I mean, to go from nowhere to those kinds of numbers.

00:21:58.000 Amazing work by TPUSA.

00:22:02.000 Again, there's a reason that right-wing media have been on the upswing for quite a while.

00:22:07.000 And that answer is left-wing media and the infusion of left-wing politics into what used to be at least apolitical entertainment.

00:22:14.000 Meanwhile, over at the Super Bowl, one of the sort of more bizarre ads of the evening came when Mike Tyson suddenly appeared on your TV and told you to eat real food.

00:22:23.000 That was the thing that happened in our lives.

00:22:25.000 So that was put up by the Make America Healthy again part of the Trump administration.

00:22:32.000 Now, Maha's doing a lot of amazing things.

00:22:34.000 I'm not sure that Mike Tyson, who most famously dieted on human ear, is necessarily your best pick for a person to promote healthy eating.

00:22:42.000 He talked about how his 25-year-old sister died after a heart attack, and then it showed him biting into an apple and it said processed foods kill.

00:22:50.000 It said, eat real food.

00:22:51.000 Now, again, I'm totally for the eat real food thing.

00:22:53.000 I think that that's great.

00:22:54.000 I'm just not sure that Mike Tyson is the best person that you could trot out theoretically for that.

00:22:59.000 It's kind of a strange pick, shall we say.

00:23:02.000 With that said, the Maha movement is doing some fascinating things.

00:23:05.000 And we're going to be joined in just a minute by the First Lady of Florida, where they have their own Maha movement, actually pushing forward what is eating healthy and checking into foods that may not be good for your kids. 1.00

00:23:16.000 This segment is sponsored by Balance of Nature.

00:23:18.000 If you're serious about daily health and fitness, consistency is not optional.

00:23:21.000 Balance of Nature helps make it automatic.

00:23:24.000 As I mentioned, I had the opportunity to sit down with the First Lady of Florida a little while ago to talk about what the state of Florida has been doing.

00:23:30.000 They're testing a lot of the foods that you are probably eating or feeding to your kids, and the results are not always wonderful.

00:23:36.000 Casey, thanks so much for joining.

00:23:37.000 Really appreciate the time.

00:23:38.000 Hey, Ben.

00:23:39.000 Thanks for having me, and thanks for taking an interest in all of this.

00:23:42.000 So let's talk about what you've been doing and some of the results that you've been getting.

00:23:45.000 So as I say, the FDA, they give the go-ahead to particular products.

00:23:50.000 But then I think everyone assumes that what you're eating is now safe because the FDA has said that it is safe, but there's no sort of follow-up testing.

00:23:56.000 And that was the basis for the Healthy Florida First Initiative.

00:23:59.000 That's 100% right.

00:24:00.000 And so what we have learned pretty much is that the FDA does a really good job as a reactionary force, right?

00:24:06.000 If there's a problem, they will go and investigate.

00:24:08.000 If there's a E. coli or salmonella outbreak, they will go and investigate.

00:24:12.000 But what we want to do in the free state of Florida and through a coalition of other states is to do trust but verified testing, right?

00:24:18.000 A company can put a product out on the market.

00:24:21.000 It has a list of ingredients.

00:24:22.000 And what we want to do is trust the integrity of that product to ensure that there are no contaminants like heavy metals, leads, or pesticides or anything like that.

00:24:32.000 And I think through the states in a federalist type way, we can help be a force multiplier to the federal Maha movement, give our data and our evidence to the FDA and say, hey, listen, here's some actors here that are problematic, like glyphosate, which we found in the bread, which is weed killer, commonly found in Roundup, right?

00:24:49.000 Like this is totally unacceptable.

00:24:52.000 And so we want to help provide truth and accountability and just give consumers the information so they can make informed decisions.

00:25:00.000 And some of these results are pretty astonishing.

00:25:02.000 So far, you guys have done baby formula, you've done candy, and you've done bread.

00:25:06.000 The candy results, I think, were the ones that actually got the most attention because, again, we all know that when we hand our kids candy, it ain't great for them, but we don't think that there's arsenic in it.

00:25:14.000 But it turns out that actually some of these candies have a non-insignificant portion of arsenic, apparently.

00:25:20.000 Yeah, right.

00:25:21.000 And the problem lies in aggregate.

00:25:23.000 We're not talking about one piece of candy on one day, but no child is eating one piece of candy on one day and not eating candy for the rest of the year, right?

00:25:32.000 When we look at it through our risk analysis, it is how much candy are they eating and consumption over the course of a year?

00:25:38.000 And what does that mean as far as the intake of arsenic and being problematic?

00:25:42.000 So what we saw, for instance, with nerds, if you eat more than 86 nerds over the course of a year as a child, you are exceeding the allowable safe threshold, as I put in air quotes, of arsenic for a child.

00:25:53.000 If you eat more than six Jolly Ranchers, you are exceeding the allowable level of arsenic for children.

00:25:59.000 And so when you think about Halloween and Valentine's Day coming up and Christmas, and even yesterday, I made the example of when I was in a store with my daughter in CVS and, you know, she's, you know, pulling at my shirt sleeve because she wants a candy, you know, and I just want to try to pacify her so I don't cause a big scene.

00:26:18.000 You know, you will just instinctively like, okay, sure, what is one piece of candy and how can it be problematic?

00:26:23.000 Well, when you make those decisions in aggregate, you know, every week or every month or over the course of a year, you can see how this adds up.

00:26:29.000 And it goes back to this fundamental principle that parents have a right to know what is in the food so they can make informed decisions to protect their health and certainly the health of their children.

00:26:40.000 So what's been the reaction from some of the candy companies to all of this?

00:26:44.000 Because you're presenting data.

00:26:45.000 I assume that they're not particularly happy with people believing that if you eat too many nerds, that you're going to be consuming unsafe levels of arsenic.

00:26:53.000 So what's been their response so far?

00:26:56.000 Well, you know, I'll let them speak for themselves.

00:26:58.000 I don't think that they're arguing that there is indeed arsenic in the products.

00:27:01.000 And so when we look at it in our analysis, it is in aggregate.

00:27:05.000 The silver lining, though, in a lot of this, Ben, is yes, while we found a lot of the name brand candies did have problematic levels of arsenic when you're eating it in aggregate over the course of a year, there are candies that didn't have any trace levels of arsenic in it.

00:27:19.000 And also we saw candies in the healthy side, right?

00:27:22.000 It sounds a little oxymoronic, but the healthier varietal or the organic varietal that didn't have it, which tells you a couple of things.

00:27:28.000 One, it can be done right.

00:27:30.000 You can manufacture this stuff better so that you don't have arsenic.

00:27:33.000 It is not inevitable.

00:27:34.000 And also, I see as more parents get informed about this, they will vote with their pocketbook, right?

00:27:40.000 They're going to go and buy the things that they deem to be better for their children.

00:27:44.000 And that by inertia is then going to hopefully kind of tip the scales a little bit of these companies to make better decisions as it pertains to their products.

00:27:52.000 So we have a safer, safer array of food out there.

00:27:56.000 And the organic and the healthy ones, by and large, of the ones we tested, and I think there were eight or nine, two were a little bit problematic, but not by much, but the rest of them were good.

00:28:05.000 So I can see, you know, as more of the consumer gets consumer folks get more educated about all of this, that companies hopefully will want to start shifting down this road because they're going to see there's this huge market of informed consumers that just want better options.

00:28:20.000 Now, we talked about candy.

00:28:21.000 Obviously, we're talking about some of the other staple products that people are using, things like baby formula.

00:28:26.000 You don't have a choice very often when you're using baby formula.

00:28:29.000 What are you finding when it comes to baby formula?

00:28:31.000 So this is one of the most ridiculous things that I think we've seen.

00:28:31.000 Oh, yeah.

00:28:34.000 And that's why we started with baby formula, because these are obviously, this is all that kids are going to be consuming sometimes for the first year or two of their life.

00:28:42.000 Like I tried to breastfeed as long as I could, but there came a point when I went back to work where I had to supplement.

00:28:48.000 You know, I was going down store aisles and I was looking at baby formula, making an assumption based on trust that everything there was safe, right?

00:28:56.000 So when you find problematic levels of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, you know, all of this arsenic, like it's really unnerving.

00:29:05.000 But here's the other unnerving part of it.

00:29:07.000 This is not new, right?

00:29:08.000 So if you go back to last year, Consumer View came out with a review of a lot of these baby formulas and they found there were problematic levels of these contaminants, right?

00:29:17.000 And you remember, rightfully so, Secretary Kennedy, President Trump, they went out and did Operation Storkspeed and they said, we need to go in and test, right?

00:29:27.000 Good.

00:29:28.000 100% the right avenue to take.

00:29:30.000 Applaud their efforts.

00:29:31.000 Here we are with the independent testing of the Florida Department of Health and there's no change, right?

00:29:36.000 We're seeing still problematic levels and it's not okay.

00:29:41.000 So now we're trying to say, hey, guys, you need to do a better job.

00:29:45.000 And so I think through the accountability and the sunlight, going on and talking to, you know, your viewers, going on and just informing the consumer base to make better informed decisions, I think that that can help push.

00:29:56.000 I do think that there might be some statutory reforms that might be done.

00:30:00.000 For instance, right now, they are required by law to test for things like salmonella before the formula leaves the factory.

00:30:08.000 Well, my thing is, is could we not just have them also test for lead and mercury and arsenic?

00:30:14.000 I mean, you know, we're talking about babies here, right?

00:30:16.000 And the ramifications of having these heavy metals in food is really problematic.

00:30:22.000 It doesn't just simply leave the system.

00:30:24.000 And our surgeon general would say your risk of getting cancer over the course of your lifetime by consuming these heavy metals and pesticides early in life, that risk goes up by 20%.

00:30:35.000 That's not okay, right?

00:30:36.000 As a former cancer survivor, okay, that's not cool.

00:30:39.000 We don't want to do this.

00:30:41.000 We want better options and we want consumers to be informed.

00:30:44.000 Well, that's First Lady of Florida, Casey DeSantis, heading up the Healthy Florida First Initiative. 0.99

00:30:47.000 First Lady, thanks so much for the time. 1.00

00:30:48.000 Really appreciate it.

00:30:50.000 Hey, thanks, Ben.

00:30:51.000 Keep up the great work.

00:30:52.000 And meanwhile, on the sort of, it's okay to be proud of America storyline.

00:30:57.000 Over at the Olympics, controversy broke out over the last couple of days when USA Freestyle Skiers Chris Lillis and Hunter Has were asked about representing the United States and they talked about their mixed emotions.

00:31:07.000 Don't do this, guys.

00:31:08.000 Don't do this.

00:31:09.000 You want to have critiques of the presidency?

00:31:12.000 Go for it.

00:31:13.000 But to say you have mixed emotions about representing the greatest country in the history of the world, no.

00:31:17.000 Then don't represent it.

00:31:18.000 Then seriously, don't represent it.

00:31:20.000 Don't do it.

00:31:20.000 You don't have to.

00:31:22.000 Nobody thought that you were deeply necessary.

00:31:25.000 But here's what it sounded like.

00:31:27.000 I feel heartbroken about what's happened in the United States when, you know, I'm pretty sure you're referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that.

00:31:37.000 I think that as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect.

00:31:47.000 And I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that's the America that we're trying to represent.

00:31:54.000 It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think.

00:31:58.000 It's a little hard.

00:32:00.000 There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't.

00:32:05.000 If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it.

00:32:10.000 Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.

00:32:16.000 Okay, guys, no one asked for that.

00:32:17.000 No one asked for that.

00:32:18.000 You can say, listen, my politics have nothing to do with my pride in representing my country, which is the greatest country in the history of the world.

00:32:23.000 That's all you have to say.

00:32:24.000 President Trump naturally was concerned about this and ticked about it.

00:32:28.000 He put out a statement on Truth Social.

00:32:30.000 U.S. Olympics given Hunter Hess, a real loser, says he doesn't represent his country in the current Winter Olympics.

00:32:34.000 If that's the case, he shouldn't have tried out for the team, and it's too bad he's on it.

00:32:37.000 Very hard to root for someone like this.

00:32:40.000 Make America great again.

00:32:42.000 And again, I think a huge percentage of Americans, all we're asking for, truly, all we're asking for is a baseline level of love of country, like true love of country.

00:32:50.000 That's all.

00:32:52.000 Do all the things from the halftime show to skiing for the United States at the Olympics, just exhibit love of country.

00:32:52.000 That's all.

00:33:00.000 It's not that much to ask.

00:33:02.000 And honestly, it is the reason why President Trump has been so successful because he does not have politically consistent positions, the president.

00:33:10.000 But what he does have is a gut-level patriotism.

00:33:13.000 And I think the vast majority of Americans share that, which is why the Make America Great Again movement has been successful.

00:33:18.000 Now, going back to the things that will make the Make America Great Again movement not successful, one of those things would be tweeting out idiotic and terrible videos showing the Obamas as monkeys.

00:33:28.000 That would be a terrible, stupid thing to do.

00:33:30.000 Truly, it was taken down from Truth Social.

00:33:34.000 As I predicted, I told you.

00:33:36.000 I told you this.

00:33:37.000 Okay.

00:33:37.000 And there are people in the media who are upset that I said this, but it was clearly true.

00:33:40.000 President Trump tweeted out a video.

00:33:42.000 The video, which I think was unverified in terms of its actual content, talked about voting machines in Georgia and the flaws in the voting machines.

00:33:50.000 And the president, of course, is very caught up in all of the hubbub about voting machines in Georgia because he still maintains he won the 2020 election.

00:33:59.000 He's at the very tail end of that video.

00:34:01.000 There's a graphic that popped up of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

00:34:04.000 It's really gross.

00:34:05.000 It's racist and it's ugly.

00:34:06.000 And it's stupid.

00:34:08.000 And at first, the administration tried to claim that he didn't put it up.

00:34:11.000 They said that some sort of intern put it up, which, of course, is not true.

00:34:15.000 The president is the only one who's posting on Truth Social.

00:34:17.000 And the president says he didn't see the whole thing, which was clearly the case.

00:34:20.000 I told you, the president does not have the attention span to watch through a full one-minute video that he is.

00:34:25.000 If you think he's watching every video that he's putting up on Truth Social, you're out of your mind.

00:34:29.000 Here's the president basically saying that.

00:34:32.000 I looked at it, I saw it, and I just looked at the first part.

00:34:35.000 It was about voter fraud in someplace, Georgia.

00:34:38.000 There's a lot of voter fraud, 2020 voter fraud.

00:34:41.000 And I didn't see the whole thing.

00:34:43.000 I guess toward the end of it, there was some kind of a picture that people don't like.

00:34:50.000 I wouldn't like it either, but I didn't see it.

00:34:51.000 I just looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud and the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is.

00:35:01.000 Then I gave it to the people to generally they look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn't.

00:35:06.000 And they posted and we took it down.

00:35:10.000 Okay, so yeah, duh.

00:35:11.000 That's what I said last week.

00:35:12.000 Duh.

00:35:14.000 And yeah, I think he's telling the truth because I don't think that the president, again, watches through any of the videos that he posts.

00:35:19.000 If they have nice pictures of President Trump, he puts them up.

00:35:22.000 This has been true for his videos for legitimately 10 years, the stuff that he puts on social media.

00:35:26.000 And President Trump condemned the racist part of the video, of course.

00:35:30.000 Do you condemn the racist parts of the video?

00:35:33.000 Of course I do.

00:35:37.000 Okay, so I mean, yes.

00:35:39.000 Okay, so don't make that sort of mistake.

00:35:41.000 That's a dumb mistake.

00:35:42.000 It's dumb.

00:35:42.000 Now, what's amazing to me is truly that the left gets away with extraordinary open racism, and everybody pretends it's not going on.

00:35:50.000 So, for example, Representative Gene Wu, who is in the Texas House of Representatives, he basically spills out his program.

00:35:57.000 He says that minorities need to side against the white man.

00:36:01.000 This is an elected official in Texas.

00:36:04.000 The day the Latino, African-American, Asian, and other communities realize that they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning because we are the majority in this country now.

00:36:20.000 We have the ability to take over this country and to do what is needed for everyone.

00:36:26.000 Okay, so that is a problem.

00:36:28.000 See, that seems to be much more problematic just in terms of thoroughgoing ideology than President Trump tweeting out a racist meme, not having watched the end of it, which is legitimately what happened.

00:36:38.000 If your thoroughgoing ideology is all minorities against the white guy, that is a massive, massive issue in American life.

00:36:44.000 It really is.

00:36:45.000 And the left seems to be embracing this more and more.

00:36:47.000 This is why, again, the biggest thing for the Trump administration is make your policy choices, which are designed to benefit Americans, all Americans.

00:36:56.000 Make those clear, be consistent in their application, take down the rhetoric, just enforce, just do the baseline business of governing, and let the left spin out.

00:37:06.000 That would be the advice to the Trump administration for 2026.

00:37:09.000 Thank God the Trump administration is now doing that with regard to sanctuary cities by putting Tom Homan, an adult, in charge of the policy.

00:37:16.000 Here is Tom Homan over the weekend criticizing politicians' doublespeak on sanctuary cities.

00:37:22.000 But for the politicians that say, we want you to arrest the criminals, we want you to target criminals, but not let me in the jails, you can't square that.

00:37:31.000 If you really want to arrest the criminals and target the criminals, which I do, then let us do it in the safety and security of a jail or a prison where it's safer for the alien, safer for the community, and safer for the agents.

00:37:44.000 So, for those, and there's many of them on both sides of the aisle, says public safety threats are what you should be concentrating on.

00:37:52.000 So, everybody should come together and make that happen and give us access to the jails.

00:37:59.000 Again, this sort of low-key advocacy for the basic intervention of law enforcement, that's the way to go.

00:38:08.000 That's the thing that the Republicans should be doing right now, especially because Democrats continue to spin out on the immigration issue, truly spin out on it.

00:38:15.000 Over the weekend, Zor Mamdani in New York signed an executive order to restrict ICE in New York City.

00:38:20.000 He restricted access to city property, barred the federal government from accessing city data, and mandated training for city employees on where they do and don't need to cooperate with ICE.

00:38:29.000 And then he went ahead and cited the Quran in support of anti-ICE policy, which, dude, Madud. 0.56

00:38:35.000 All right.

00:38:38.000 The story of the Hijrah reminds us that Prophet Muhammad was a stranger too, who fled Mecca and was welcomed in Medina.

00:38:48.000 Surah Nahal 1642 tells us: As for those who immigrated in the cause of Allah after being persecuted, we will surely bless them with a good home in this world.

00:38:59.000 Or as the Prophet Muhammad said, Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange. 1.00

00:39:07.000 So, glad tidings to the strangers.

00:39:11.000 Okay, he also then proceeded to invade the entire Middle East and slaughter people who did not adhere to his religion. 0.79

00:39:16.000 So, there was some of that happening as well in Quranic times.

00:39:20.000 Yeah, things getting weird out there.

00:39:22.000 Meanwhile, over in Minnesota, anti-ICE rioters were attacking cars with sex toys, which seems like a very strange thing to do.

00:39:32.000 I'm not sure I understand the logic of attacking a car with a dildo, but I guess here we are. 0.95

00:39:38.000 Also, I find it somewhat unsurprising that the Minnesota ICE protesters have such a rich supply of dildos to hurl.

00:39:51.000 So there they are, throwing sex toys at the ICE vehicles, which, um, that's interesting.

00:40:02.000 You did it.

00:40:03.000 You saved America.

00:40:05.000 Great job, guys.

00:40:08.000 That's a lot of bored white people out there in Minneapolis in the cold, throwing sex toys that presumably they got from their nightside stands at the ice vehicles. 0.90

00:40:17.000 Great job, everyone.

00:40:19.000 And of course, you have Don Lemon, who's still out there.

00:40:21.000 No one is happier than Don Lemon about what happened to Don Lemon comparing himself to civil rights leaders of the past.

00:40:26.000 Yes, you too are a civil rights leader if you allegedly coordinate with people to go inside a church and harass the parishioners.

00:40:34.000 In my time when I was there, I thought about all the people who'd come before me.

00:40:38.000 I thought about all of the people who fought for civil rights, who fought for gay rights, all of the people who were at Stonewall, Marsha P. Clark.

00:40:45.000 I'm like, yes, those are the people.

00:40:46.000 Those are the real heroes.

00:40:48.000 And so what's happening to me, I have at least in this time that I'm living now, more agency, more resources, more rights, and I would hope than the people who are fighting for our freedom and our civil rights.

00:41:07.000 So much heroism.

00:41:08.000 Okay, so the Democrats are doing that.

00:41:09.000 So all Republicans have to do is implement basically good policy in a low-key way, and they will benefit from doing this.

00:41:16.000 This is the thing they will benefit from.

00:41:18.000 Now, that, of course, assumes that the economy continues to sail forward.

00:41:23.000 And that is an open question right now.

00:41:26.000 A lot of cross currents in the economy right now.

00:41:29.000 Obviously, the Dow Jones industrial average continues to soar.

00:41:33.000 It closed above 50,000 for the first time on Friday.

00:41:38.000 It's been doing great.

00:41:40.000 With all that said, when it comes to, for example, employment, there is a deep freeze that has enveloped the U.S. labor market, according to the Wall Street Journal.

00:41:48.000 The pace of hiring in America has dropped precipitously.

00:41:50.000 There isn't a single reason why.

00:41:52.000 Instead, there are a lot of them.

00:41:53.000 Uncertainty over tariff policy, high short-term interest rates.

00:41:57.000 Workers aren't leaving the jobs that they have right now.

00:42:01.000 And of course, a lot of concerns that AI is going to wipe out large swaths of the job market by replacing a lot of labor.

00:42:08.000 All those are very, very serious concerns.

00:42:11.000 And those concerns are leading people to feel worried about the economy, even if the stock market is doing great.

00:42:16.000 Because there has been a stall in tech employment starting November 2022.

00:42:22.000 There's some evidence that AI is filtering down into the markets.

00:42:26.000 Amazon, obviously, cutting out jobs.

00:42:28.000 AI is wiping out certain value in the market while propping up value in the AI end of the market.

00:42:32.000 So software companies took it right on the chin last week because there are so many things that AI is now doing that used to be the preserve of software companies.

00:42:41.000 So the president is trying to run the economy hot, apparently, running up to the election.

00:42:45.000 So that is why presumably he wants the interest rates lowered.

00:42:48.000 He is hoping that there will be more liquidity available and that will mean more hiring.

00:42:52.000 The question is whether the uncertainty over AI is preventing people from hiring up because they believe that AI is going to develop such that they don't need to hire a lot of other people.

00:43:01.000 Again, economic uncertainty always harms presidencies.

00:43:04.000 And we are in an off-year election.

00:43:06.000 That's always bad for the party in power with very few exceptions.

00:43:08.000 All of that is true.

00:43:10.000 But the biggest thing the Trump administration can do, speak rationally to the American people, show that you are doing things on the topics that they care about, and be calm and collected in your approach to the American public, considering that the left is spinning out.

00:43:22.000 Joining me on the line is Winston Marshall, host of the Winston Marshall Show, co-founder of the Dissident Dialogues Festival of Ideas, and a former member of the Grammy Award-winning folk rock band Mumford and Sons.

00:43:31.000 Winston, of course, covers everything political in the UK as well.

00:43:35.000 Winston, thanks so much for taking time.

00:43:36.000 Really appreciate it.

00:43:38.000 Thanks for having me.

00:43:38.000 Hi, Ben.

00:43:41.000 So, one of the things that's really fascinating that's been going on, obviously, is what's surrounding Keir Starmer and team in the UK because of Jeffrey Epstein.

00:43:49.000 So, while the focus in the United States has been on large-scale, unsupportable conspiracy theorizing about what Epstein did, didn't do, the suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein is the head of an international intelligence ring on behalf of a foreign power, trafficking in little girls or whatever.

00:44:04.000 There actually is, there is supportable scandal, right?

00:44:07.000 That's stuff that I said before.

00:44:07.000 That's all conspiracy conjecture at this point, based on the reams of evidence that we have seen.

00:44:11.000 It is beyond the evidence.

00:44:13.000 But the one thing that we do know is that there were members of the Keir Starmer administration in the UK who have been forced to resign because of their connection with Jeffrey Epstein, not necessarily because of trafficking in women or girls, but because of actual business corruption.

00:44:31.000 Maybe you can fill us in.

00:44:34.000 Well, I'm going to try and fill you in.

00:44:35.000 I've just spent the last four or five days in full whiteboard meme mode trying to piece this all together.

00:44:44.000 It is quite literally a bottomless pit of information.

00:44:47.000 And it seems that Jeffrey Epstein might indeed be taking down the Starmer government from beyond the grave.

00:44:54.000 Some people might think that he is saving Britain actually from beyond the grave, although there could be much worse things around the corner.

00:45:01.000 Now, I joke about it, but it is an absolutely disgusting story.

00:45:04.000 It's been brought me no pleasure whatsoever going into this, but it is not just a case that Starmer, this might be the last week of Starmer's as prime minister, but it is also a corruption scandal, as you say.

00:45:21.000 It's got political sleaze in it, but it's also the epitome, maybe I should say the nadir of crony capitalism, all in one story.

00:45:30.000 So I'm going to attempt to break this down for you.

00:45:33.000 It's not easy.

00:45:36.000 There have been six new revelations about Mandelson's relationship with Epstein from the January 30th tranche.

00:45:45.000 But I need to explain to you what's going on.

00:45:48.000 Peter Mandelson, yes.

00:45:49.000 Yes.

00:45:50.000 I need to explain to you who Peter Mandelson is.

00:45:53.000 Peter Mandelson is a Labour Party grandee.

00:45:57.000 His grandfather was part of setting up the Labour Party at the beginning of the last century.

00:46:03.000 His grandfather, Herbert Morrison, was also in Churchill's war cabinet and famously had many clashes with Churchill.

00:46:11.000 They were sort of ideologically opposed from each other.

00:46:14.000 But not only that, Mandelson is regarded, was regarded at the time as the dark prince behind Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and the new labor movement from 97 to 2010.

00:46:29.000 The dark prince is a name, by the way, that he embraced very happily.

00:46:32.000 He is known as being sort of the archetypal Machiavelli.

00:46:37.000 And in fact, I actually met him once when he was ambassador, and that was my experience.

00:46:41.000 He seemed to me to be a total Machiavell.

00:46:45.000 So having had his political career where he started as doing campaigning, then became an MP for a while, got himself up to being deputy prime minister under Gordon Brown, and had various ministerial roles up until 2010 when the Tories took power in the coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

00:47:10.000 At which point he pivots to the private sector, which we'll come back to.

00:47:15.000 The point, though, is that in that period, even then, his career was filled with scandal, which I'd love to go into, but there's too many other present scandals for us to address.

00:47:27.000 So he became, he was appointed in February 2025 as ambassador to DC.

00:47:36.000 And this was by Keir Starmer.

00:47:38.000 Now, in February 2025, it was in the public domain already, as revealed by the FT in June 2023, that Mandelson had maintained a post-conviction relationship with Epstein, i.e., after Epstein had been convicted in 2008.

00:47:57.000 Mandelson continued his friendship with him.

00:48:00.000 In that 2023 expose by the FT, we learned that he even stayed at Epstein's Paris apartment during Epstein's prison time and that they had communications after which Epstein would call him Petey.

00:48:19.000 They were friends.

00:48:20.000 Then he becomes ambassador in February 2025.

00:48:27.000 September 2025, we have the first tranche of Epstein files.

00:48:32.000 Famously, the birthday message, the big birthdays.

00:48:37.000 I don't know if you've gone through that book.

00:48:39.000 It's like a 250-page document of sort of memories of Epstein and messages from friends.

00:48:46.000 And in that birthday book, he says Mandelson calls Epstein his best pal and that he loves him.

00:48:56.000 And what's important to remember, though, is that birthday book was from 2003, so pre-conviction.

00:49:02.000 So you might say, oh, well, you know, it's not necessarily the case that he knew about the sort of dastardly disgusting behavior.

00:49:11.000 But it was also the case then that there was evidence of a post-2008 relationship.

00:49:18.000 And it was also evidence that he flew on Epstein's jet.

00:49:21.000 And it shows an ongoing communication.

00:49:26.000 So in other words, we knew that they were friends post-conviction.

00:49:31.000 Why this is important is because although there is new information that's been released over the last week in this new tranche from January 30th, and it's pretty disgusting information, when it comes to the sleaze, we've actually known the core salient issues all along.

00:49:50.000 And why this is also important, that your American viewers might not have picked up on is in the British media and across the British nation, it is the sleaze that everyone is focusing on.

00:49:58.000 The bottom line in all of this is that Peter Mandelson was a close deputy of the Prime Minister, Kier Starmer.

00:50:04.000 He was appointed, even though it was clearly public that he had a relationship with Epstein.

00:50:08.000 The things that we're finding out right now are that there were actual law-breaking activities happening between Mandelson and Epstein going back years.

00:50:17.000 As you mentioned, a criminal investigation into Mandelson for having leaked insider government information to Epstein that he then used to trade off of.

00:50:23.000 And this could bring down Kier Starmer's government.

00:50:26.000 Just today, his chief of staff had to resign over all of this.

00:50:30.000 Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, who had to resign over his role in the appointment of Mandelson.

00:50:36.000 If Starmer were to go down right now, according to virtually every opinion poll, the leader in the clubhouse right now is the Reform Party, if there were to be a new election that were to hold, if he weren't to be replaced simply as prime minister, if there were to be an actual collapse in his coalition and suddenly there were a new election to be held, the Reform Party is the chief beneficiary.

00:50:53.000 The Labour Party is in quite low odor.

00:50:55.000 It has now fallen in many polls below the Conservative Party, which was basically dead as a doornail just a couple of years ago.

00:51:01.000 And some of this has to be due not just to Kier Starmer's poor governance, but also to the Epstein scandal.

00:51:08.000 Yes, except I think it's very unlikely that Labour Party will have an election.

00:51:13.000 They know how unpopular they are.

00:51:15.000 That means that all of them will lose their job.

00:51:18.000 They also hate reform because they think reform are far right.

00:51:22.000 They won't have an election because they know reform will sweep through and have a stonking majority in Parliament, making Nigel Farage prime minister.

00:51:31.000 That would be their worst nightmare.

00:51:33.000 So I don't think we're going to see an election.

00:51:35.000 What I think is more likely is that Starmer will either resign or say that he'll resign after the May council elections.

00:51:43.000 Now, there's two other things going on with regards to party politics.

00:51:47.000 There's a by-election going on in South Manchester, in Bornton and Denton, where I was just on the weekend visiting voters.

00:51:55.000 But there's also these council elections, which probably Labour will get smashed.

00:52:02.000 And at that point, it will be seen that he is untenable to stay as prime minister.

00:52:09.000 So then there'll be, he'll stay probably until there's inter-party elections and they decide between themselves who the new prime minister and leader would be.

00:52:20.000 I can run through some of the likely candidates if you want there, but suffice to say that all of them are further left than Pierce Starmer.

00:52:30.000 He is actually the best of a bad bunch.

00:52:33.000 And they are also seem far less competent than Starmer.

00:52:38.000 So that's why I say Epstein, and I joked at the beginning, actually might have made things much worse for Britain.

00:52:43.000 And that might be on the horizon.

00:52:48.000 Well, that is Winston Marshall.

00:52:49.000 Go check out all of his ideas over at the Winston Marshall Show, and you can check out all of his social media as well.

00:52:54.000 Winston, thanks so much for the time and the insight.

00:52:58.000 Thanks, Ben.

00:53:00.000 All righty, folks, the show is continuing for our members right now.

00:53:02.000 The American military buildup in the Middle East continues.

00:53:05.000 Plus, we will bring you the latest on the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, which that situation still is unfolding.

00:53:11.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

00:53:13.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

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00:53:15.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

00:53:16.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

00:53:18.000 Okay, no, not even close.

00:53:34.000 Two.

00:53:36.000 Whatever.

00:53:37.000 You know what?

00:53:37.000 Two, four, three, six.

00:53:46.000 I cannot believe we're back here again, Ben.

00:53:48.000 If the Ben Shapiro shows a mom, then Ben After Dark is a cool mom.

00:53:54.000 Jay.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 09, 2026

A Very BAD Bunny Super Bowl

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