The Ben Shapiro Show - Acquitted And It Feels So Good | Ep. 948

00:00:00.000 President Trump is acquitted in the Senate.

00:00:02.000 Mitt Romney votes to convict.

00:00:03.000 And Joe Biden's long journey to nowhere continues.

00:00:06.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:06.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:07.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

00:00:15.000 Why haven't you gotten a VPN yet?

00:00:17.000 Visit expressvpn.com slash ben.

00:00:20.000 Well, it's over.

00:00:22.000 We're done.

00:00:22.000 Okay, so was that a giant waste of time?

00:00:24.000 Yep, pretty much.

00:00:25.000 It turns out that entire impeachment debacle was a giant waste of time.

00:00:28.000 We spent an enormous amount of time and energy covering something that amounted to nothing.

00:00:32.000 The only person who ended up crossing party lines to vote against the president of his own party was Mitt Romney of Utah.

00:00:39.000 We'll get to Senator Romney in just one second.

00:00:42.000 But suffice it to say, President Trump ends this thing in a better position than he began this thing.

00:00:47.000 Right now, an extraordinarily high percentage of Americans, according to Gallup, are positive about the economy.

00:00:52.000 Some 63% of Americans approve of President Trump's handling of the economy.

00:00:56.000 Trump's approval rating is closing in on 50% for the first time in his presidency.

00:01:00.000 The Democrats look like they're in disarray.

00:01:02.000 This did not do any heavy lifting for them.

00:01:05.000 They didn't change broad American perceptions of President Trump.

00:01:07.000 That was all baked into the cake already, as it turns out.

00:01:10.000 They didn't change broad American perceptions of Congress other than the generalized belief that Congress is useless and a partisan institution designed to go after people of the other party.

00:01:19.000 So nothing really changed here.

00:01:21.000 And despite the attempts by the media to turn Romney's vote into a referendum on Republicans generally, that didn't change anything either.

00:01:27.000 Because again, people kind of knew who Mitt Romney was.

00:01:29.000 People knew kind of what Mitt Romney was going to do here.

00:01:32.000 Sort of see how Mitt Romney perceives himself.

00:01:34.000 So the media's attempts to turn that into a big story are, of course, a giant fail.

00:01:38.000 According to the New York Times, after five months of hearings, investigations and revelations about President Trump's dealings with Ukraine, a divided United States Senate acquitted him on Wednesday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress to aid his own reelection.

00:01:50.000 Bringing an acrimonious impeachment trial to its expected end.

00:01:53.000 In a pair of votes whose outcome was never in doubt, the Senate fell well short of the two-thirds margin that would have been needed to remove the 45th president.

00:01:59.000 The verdicts came down after three weeks of debate, almost entirely along party lines, with every Democrat voting guilty on both charges and Republicans uniformly voting not guilty on the obstruction of Congress charge.

00:02:09.000 Only one Republican, Senator Romney of Utah, broke with his party to judge Mr. Trump guilty of abuse of power.

00:02:14.000 This was the third impeachment trial of a president and the third acquittal in American history.

00:02:18.000 It ended the way it began, with Republicans and Democrats at odds.

00:02:21.000 And of course, that was never going to change.

00:02:23.000 Nothing really did change here.

00:02:25.000 All that happened is that President Trump now gets to go around holding up a newspaper that says acquittal.

00:02:29.000 And here is the thing.

00:02:30.000 Here is the thing.

00:02:31.000 The expectation that Democrats had.

00:02:33.000 I don't know what they thought they were going to get out of there.

00:02:35.000 Okay, so President Trump shows up at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning, and he literally is holding up a copy of USA Today with the giant headline, Acquitted.

00:02:43.000 Sort of like Harry Truman in 1948, holding up the headline, Dewey Defeats Truman.

00:02:50.000 And he's holding up all the headlines, right?

00:02:51.000 He's got the New York Times over there and the Washington Post.

00:02:53.000 He's holding up every newspaper he can find saying Trump acquitted.

00:02:56.000 And in the minds of the American public, that means this is over.

00:02:58.000 And basically, no matter what happens on the Ukraine score, it's not going to matter anymore.

00:03:03.000 In the same way that once the Mueller report came over, that didn't matter anymore.

00:03:06.000 So it looks like they keep taking shots at him and he looks Teflon.

00:03:08.000 The more shots you take at the president of the United States and the more that bounce off of him, the more it looks as though he is impregnable.

00:03:14.000 Impregnable, as though he is not damageable.

00:03:17.000 And that is clearly true of President Trump right now.

00:03:20.000 That hasn't stopped the Democrats from trying to claim that somehow they won a victory here, but they didn't.

00:03:27.000 They didn't.

00:03:28.000 It turns out that when you take a shot at the president this way and you miss, That it doesn't redound it to your benefit.

00:03:32.000 And this certainly has not redounded to the benefit of the Democrats.

00:03:36.000 We'll get to more of this in just one second.

00:03:38.000 First, let's talk about your employees.

00:03:40.000 So you may have noticed that we started our show a little bit later than usual today.

00:03:44.000 And you may have been asking yourself, just why?

00:03:46.000 Well, let's say that you had a very, very important producer, somebody you've been working with for years, really terrific at his job, and he just decides to take a day off.

00:03:53.000 And it is the most inconvenient day off in human history.

00:03:56.000 So when the technology starts to go south, there's no one there to fix it.

00:03:59.000 Let's call this person Austin.

00:04:00.000 And let's say that Austin just, he wasn't there today to make sure that everything ran.

00:04:04.000 Now, it's not quite his fault.

00:04:05.000 I mean, he had planned on this day off, but still, but still.

00:04:09.000 Does a doctor get an emergency phone call in the middle of the night and show up at the hospital?

00:04:12.000 He does.

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00:04:56.000 That is ziprecruiter.com slash d-a-i-l-y-w-i-r-e ziprecruiter.com slash dailywire.

00:05:02.000 By the way, Austin also happens to be a Cubs fan.

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00:05:15.000 Okay, so...

00:05:16.000 The Democrats keep trying to claim that they are not owned here.

00:05:21.000 Here is Justice Roberts yesterday declaring that Trump was not guilty on the abuse of power votes.

00:05:26.000 This was the historic moment when it became obvious, if it was not already, that Trump was not going anywhere.

00:05:31.000 Here is Justice Roberts announcing the result of the vote.

00:05:34.000 In this article of impeachment, 48 senators have pronounced Donald John Trump, President of the United States, guilty as charged.

00:05:43.000 52 senators have pronounced him not guilty as charged.

00:05:47.000 Two-thirds of the senators present not having pronounced him guilty.

00:05:50.000 The Senate adjudges that the respondent, Donald John Trump, President of the United States, is not guilty as charged in the first article of impeachment.

00:06:00.000 Okay, so that was the moment.

00:06:01.000 Now Democrats are still trying to suggest that they won a victory here.

00:06:06.000 So you have a couple of big opinion pieces today.

00:06:08.000 One from Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Deming, Sylvia Garcia, and Jason Crow.

00:06:13.000 Those would be the Democratic House managers in the impeachment trial of President Trump.

00:06:16.000 And they wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post that is titled, Trump won't be vindicated.

00:06:21.000 The Senate won't be either. 0.99

00:06:23.000 Yeah, okay, we're at the jerk store. 0.99

00:06:25.000 We're at the jerk store, right? 1.00

00:06:26.000 Seinfeld's jerk store. 0.98

00:06:28.000 You remember this episode where Costanza gets in an argument with a guy and then he comes up with a great comeback, but it is too late. 0.96

00:06:36.000 It's now too late, right?

00:06:37.000 He's left the venue.

00:06:38.000 And so he waits like the entire episode and then drops the comeback randomly at a certain time.

00:06:41.000 This is the Democrats now. 0.97

00:06:42.000 They are now in the jerk store episode of Seinfeld.

00:06:45.000 According to these House Democratic managers, over the past two weeks, we have argued the impeachment case against President Trump, presenting overwhelming evidence that he solicited foreign interference to cheat in the next election and jeopardized our national security by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance to pressure Ukraine to do his political bidding.

00:07:01.000 Now, again, if they thought they had overwhelming evidence, they wouldn't have needed additional witnesses.

00:07:04.000 So it's weird that they were moaning about the need for additional witnesses.

00:07:07.000 When the president got caught and his scheme was exposed, he tried to cover it up and obstruct Congress's investigation in an unprecedented fashion.

00:07:13.000 Again, that is not true.

00:07:14.000 As the trial progressed, a growing number of Republican senators acknowledged that the House had proved the president's serious misconduct.

00:07:19.000 No, a growing number of Republican senators acknowledged that the president had done something wrong, but they did not believe that the House had proved the accusations that they brought to the fore in this impeachment trial.

00:07:29.000 Nonetheless, the House Democrats say, throughout the trial, new and incriminating evidence against the president came to light almost daily, and there can be no doubt it will continue to emerge in books and newspapers and congressional hearings.

00:07:38.000 Most important, reports of former National Security Advisor John Bolton's forthcoming book only further confirm that the president illegally withheld military aid to Ukraine until Kiev announced the sham investigations that the president sought for his political benefit.

00:07:50.000 Although Bolton told the House he would rather sue than appear to testify pursuant to a subpoena, he appeared to have a change of heart and made it clear he would be willing to testify in the Senate.

00:07:57.000 That's not accurate either.

00:07:59.000 Basically, he said, I'll testify, but it was unclear that Bolton was ever going to violate executive privilege absent some sort of court order.

00:08:05.000 Now, what they're saying here is not entirely false in the sense that it's quite possible that they then call Bolton in the House.

00:08:10.000 He says something damaging.

00:08:11.000 The Republican senators look bad.

00:08:13.000 It's one of the reasons why I was not completely sanguine on the idea of no more witnesses.

00:08:17.000 I thought, OK, maybe the best thing to do here is have two weeks of witnesses, get this all behind us, and then the Democrats have no more bullets in their gun, right?

00:08:22.000 All the ammo has been spent.

00:08:24.000 So we'll see if this materializes or not. 0.94

00:08:27.000 But I will say that after the acquittal is over, the American people, I think, are just breathing a sigh and being, OK, that's another thing we don't have to worry about now, because honestly, this thing was just a pain in the butt.

00:08:37.000 Notwithstanding the Constitution's mandate to the Democrats that the Senate shall have the sole power to try impeachments, a narrow majority of senators opted not to, and instead acted as though it were an appellate court precluded from going beyond the record in the House.

00:08:47.000 Nothing supported this unprecedented prohibition on witnesses and documents, except the overriding interest of a president determined to hide any further incriminating information from the American people and a Senate majority leader in his thrall.

00:08:58.000 You're right.

00:08:58.000 The Senate was not prohibited from calling witnesses, but the Senate is not obligated to call witnesses either.

00:09:02.000 This is why the Senate gets to preside over the rules of the trial.

00:09:04.000 And if you don't have a majority, you don't really get to bitch about the fact that you don't have a majority in the Senate when it comes to obviously constitutional procedures.

00:09:12.000 And then the Democrats suggest that this means that President Trump is basically going to cheat in 2020 no matter what.

00:09:19.000 And as per the usual arrangement, the Democrats then decide that there is only one hero, one hero of the day, and that, of course, is Mittens' Mitt Romney, the senator from Utah.

00:09:29.000 The House Democratic managers say, And there was.

00:09:31.000 Mitt Romney, the senator from Utah, showed a level of moral courage that validated the founders' faith that we were up to the rigors of self-governance.

00:09:36.000 Now, this stuff I'm not willing to hear from Democrats.

00:09:38.000 Romney, the senator from Utah, showed a level of moral courage that validated the founders faith that we were up to the rigors of self-governance.

00:09:45.000 Now, this stuff, I'm not willing to hear from Democrats.

00:09:48.000 I'm not.

00:09:49.000 Now, here's my perspective on Romney.

00:09:51.000 So first, here's what Mitt Romney had to say in announcing that he was going to vote to convict President Trump, the senator from Utah, and of course, 2012 Republican nominee for president of the United States who got shellacked by Barack Obama.

00:10:02.000 Here's Mitt Romney announcing his vote to convict Trump.

00:10:06.000 The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime And misdemeanor.

00:10:21.000 Yes, he did.

00:10:22.000 The President asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival.

00:10:28.000 The President withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so.

00:10:34.000 The President delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders.

00:10:40.000 The President's purpose was personal and political.

00:10:44.000 Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.

00:10:50.000 Okay, and then Romney defended this on Fox News.

00:10:52.000 He suggested that it was hard to imagine a more destructive attack on the Constitution.

00:10:55.000 He had sort of a media rollout of his vote.

00:10:57.000 It was pretty obvious, apparently, to people inside the Senate, this is the way that Romney's been going over the last week or so.

00:11:01.000 So here's Romney.

00:11:02.000 I believe that the act he took, an effort to corrupt an election, is as destructive an attack on the oath of office and on our Constitution as I can imagine.

00:11:12.000 It is a high crime and misdemeanor within the meaning of the Constitution, and that is not a decision I take lightly.

00:11:19.000 It is the last decision I want to take.

00:11:21.000 The personal consequences, the political consequences that fall on me as a result of that are going to be extraordinary.

00:11:28.000 But I swore an oath before God, and I'm a religious person, that I would apply impartial justice.

00:11:35.000 And applying impartial justice said what the president did was grievously wrong.

00:11:40.000 Okay, so I think that Mitt Romney is getting this wrong, right?

00:11:42.000 I've said this all along.

00:11:43.000 I think that Mitt Romney is not calibrating his verdict correctly.

00:11:48.000 I understand why he is doing what he is doing.

00:11:50.000 I do.

00:11:51.000 I mean, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that President Trump made a perfect phone call.

00:11:54.000 I'm not going to sit here and pretend that President Trump did nothing wrong with regard to Ukraine.

00:11:57.000 I think that Senator Lamar Alexander's threat on why he was voting for acquittal and why he was voting for no new witnesses was basically correct.

00:12:03.000 Lamar Alexander said that the president did something wrong, but it doesn't amount to an impeachable offense, mainly because the president didn't show that he had the motive to simply skew the election in 2020.

00:12:13.000 That's what this is all about, as opposed to thin-skinned nonsense about 2016, which is really a much more plausible theory of what exactly Trump was into with regard to Ukraine.

00:12:24.000 I can see how Romney would come to this conclusion.

00:12:25.000 I think the conclusion is wrong.

00:12:26.000 I think that all the other Republicans agree that this conclusion is wrong.

00:12:30.000 So, a couple of things.

00:12:32.000 I think everybody is wrong about Romney, first of all. 0.91

00:12:34.000 I don't buy into the theory that Mitt Romney is some sort of ridiculous charlatan who is simply in it for the walls.

00:12:40.000 He's simply in it because he wants the strange new respect of the media. 0.90

00:12:44.000 That's not the impression that I get of Romney as a human being.

00:12:47.000 I don't think that Mitt Romney is somebody who was who is simply doing this for the thrill of the thing.

00:12:52.000 I think that he felt that he had taken an oath of office and that as he analyzed the evidence, this is the side he came down on.

00:12:58.000 And that's his prerogative.

00:13:00.000 He's an independently elected senator from Utah.

00:13:02.000 I think he's wrong.

00:13:03.000 I think he's wrong.

00:13:04.000 But do I think that it is his responsibility to adjudicate whether his opinion is going to impact Trump or impact 2020 or any of the rest of that?

00:13:04.000 I think he's dead wrong.

00:13:12.000 That's not his job in this particular arena.

00:13:14.000 His job is to decide whether this rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, which is why when Senator Rubio suggested that, sure, this was kind of a high crime and misdemeanor, But I'm going to vote for acquittal anyway because there's an election coming up in 11 months.

00:13:25.000 Well, that is actually not the function of the Senate.

00:13:27.000 So Romney independently adjudicating how he felt about this?

00:13:31.000 I'm not going to come down on Romney for that.

00:13:32.000 I'll come down on him for his judgment.

00:13:34.000 I think his judgment is incorrect. 1.00

00:13:35.000 But the hit on him from the right, which is that he's a cuck, he's a traitor, he's the worst. 1.00

00:13:42.000 I just I don't buy it. 1.00

00:13:43.000 Donald Trump Jr.

00:13:43.000 Right.

00:13:44.000 did a little bit of this yesterday.

00:13:45.000 He tweeted out that he wanted Romney expelled from the caucus.

00:13:51.000 Okay, first of all, the GOP doesn't expel people.

00:13:59.000 Second of all, this notion that Romney is sitting there and he's super bitter that he's not Secretary of State or something, I have serious doubts about that.

00:14:07.000 Again, assuming the worst of intentions from Romney in a situation where I really don't think the evidence justifies that is a bad look for Republicans and it's silly.

00:14:14.000 On the other hand, I'm not willing to hear from House Democrats that Mitt Romney is a man of courage.

00:14:19.000 That I'm not willing to hear in the slightest.

00:14:21.000 And not willing to hear that at all.

00:14:23.000 Why?

00:14:23.000 Well, the reason that Mitt Romney is not president and Donald Trump is, is because the media savaged him as Donald Trump in 2012.

00:14:30.000 The media and the Democrats, the same people who today are praising him, praising him to the skies.

00:14:34.000 Oh, brave.

00:14:36.000 He's the greatest.

00:14:36.000 Oh, Mitt Romney.

00:14:37.000 He's the best.

00:14:38.000 Five seconds ago, I'm old enough to remember it. 0.98

00:14:40.000 Five seconds ago, you guys were declaring that he was a racist who put dogs on the top of his car, was gonna put black people back in chains, wanted to shove women into binders. 0.96

00:14:48.000 That he was a horrible one-percenter who disdained the poor, who fired people so they would lose their health care plan and their wives would die of cancer. 0.99

00:14:55.000 That Mitt Romney was a brutal homophobe who would forcibly cut the hair of gay kids back in the 1950s. 0.99

00:15:00.000 Now you painted Mitt Romney, the most milquetoast human being who has ever walked the planet. 0.99

00:15:06.000 Perhaps the most bland human being who has ever walked the planet.

00:15:09.000 But at least in his life, a very upright citizen, you painted him as the worst person ever to walk the earth.

00:15:14.000 And then Republicans were like, okay, you're going to paint anybody that way?

00:15:16.000 Like, yeah, how about Trump?

00:15:17.000 Take this.

00:15:18.000 Okay, so I'm not going to hear from Democrats what a wonderful, virtuous, upstanding citizen Mitt Romney is now that he has done something you like.

00:15:25.000 He didn't change. 0.99

00:15:26.000 You are just a bunch of opportunistic a-holes. 0.99

00:15:28.000 I mean, that's what's happening here.

00:15:31.000 It's like this I'm not willing to hear so on the right I'm not willing to hear that Mitt Romney who I think we all basically agreed in 2012 was a good guy and that even if you disagreed with his politics even if you thought that he was vacillating on key issues like abortion over the course of his career even if you thought that he like I wrote a column in 2008 why Mitt Romney should not be the nominee and then I wrote one again in 2012 why he should not be the nominee.

00:15:54.000 I actually didn't favor Romney as the nominee in 2012 when he won the nomination but It was pretty obvious that Mitt Romney is not a bad man or that he isn't motivated by the desire for MSNBC love.

00:16:04.000 Okay, so I'm not gonna hear that from the right. 0.92

00:16:06.000 And on the left, I'm not gonna hear you guys champion him as a hero because honestly, go screw yourselves. 1.00

00:16:10.000 You're ridiculous. 1.00

00:16:11.000 And when I hear MSNBC cheering Mitt Romney, you can just, you can shove it. 1.00

00:16:17.000 All you people in 2012, you were declaring him the worst person on earth so your beloved Barack Obama would retain the presidency despite the fact that he was a garbage president. 0.99

00:16:24.000 And now all you, oh, Mitt Romney. 0.99

00:16:26.000 Oh, Mitt Romney. 1.00

00:16:28.000 Anybody who falls for the strange new respect line from the Democrats is a fool or a moron. 1.00

00:16:33.000 Or just deeply disingenuous. 1.00

00:16:35.000 Because guess what?

00:16:36.000 The strange new respect lasts for approximately as long as they don't realize that Mitt Romney is going to vote with Trump on 95% of issues.

00:16:42.000 Which, by the way, is a fact.

00:16:44.000 The Strange and Respect for Jeff Flake was based on the fact that he was mean to Trump.

00:16:48.000 That he said nasty things about Trump.

00:16:50.000 Jeff Flake voted with Trump most of the time.

00:16:52.000 And if he had continued on in the Senate voting with Trump, he wouldn't have gotten... They wouldn't have said that his votes in favor of bills that Trump sponsored were now principled votes.

00:17:00.000 That it was the same principled man standing up to Trump and voting for a thing.

00:17:03.000 Because the way it works for the media is when you agree with them, you're a good, noble human being.

00:17:07.000 And when you disagree with them, then you're a bad, evil human being.

00:17:10.000 So Mitt Romney agrees with them on impeachment.

00:17:12.000 Now he's a hero of the republic. 1.00

00:17:13.000 Five seconds ago, he was the worst person ever to walk the earth and must never be president of the United States and was a ridiculous fool to boot. 1.00

00:17:19.000 But here's MSNBC praising Romney to the skies because they're a bunch of liars. 1.00

00:17:23.000 Mitt Romney, of course, the former Republican nominee.

00:17:26.000 In the moment, as he was speaking, it felt historic indeed.

00:17:30.000 It will cement Senator Romney's legacy and stain what the White House was no doubt hoping would be a clean party-line acquittal today, despite the party's refusal to hear from witnesses or admit new documents into evidence.

00:17:46.000 Democrats are taking pains to draw a distinction likely to become a refrain in the coming weeks and months that today's acquittal does not equal an exoneration for the president who will remain impeached forever.

00:17:59.000 Okay, and again, listen to that media coverage.

00:18:01.000 Brian Williams, when he's not flying fake helicopters over a rock being shot down by the insurgents. 0.92

00:18:08.000 I'm sorry, this whole thing is ridiculous. 0.94

00:18:10.000 Just doing the bidding of the Democrats.

00:18:11.000 Well, he was acquitted, but he wasn't exonerated.

00:18:15.000 Yes, but an acquittal is never an exoneration.

00:18:17.000 That's not what acquittals do.

00:18:18.000 I mean, that's not what trials are.

00:18:19.000 Trials are not exonerations.

00:18:21.000 Trials are acquittals.

00:18:22.000 Like, by their very nature.

00:18:24.000 We'll get to more of this in just one second.

00:18:27.000 And by the way, it just demonstrates that Trump is winning.

00:18:29.000 The fact that everybody is acting as they are acting right now.

00:18:31.000 We'll get to that in just one moment.

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00:19:34.000 You may not be losing your hair right now, guys, but I promise you, you will be soon.

00:19:38.000 So go check out Keeps.com slash Ben right now.

00:19:43.000 Now again, do I think that Mitt Romney did anything that is morally bereft here?

00:19:48.000 No, I don't, because I don't think that it is the responsibility of a United States Senator to be looking along the spectrum of, oh no, Democrats are going to use what I say against the President.

00:19:56.000 That's not his job here.

00:19:58.000 Do I think that he was wrong in his judgment?

00:20:00.000 Absolutely. 0.97

00:20:02.000 This is why I think that both the media response and the Republican response here are pretty ridiculous. 0.97

00:20:07.000 And when I say pretty ridiculous, I mean supremely ridiculous. 0.95

00:20:10.000 Elizabeth Warren out there praising Mitt Romney. 0.99

00:20:12.000 It's just ridiculous. 0.92

00:20:13.000 Elizabeth Warren, who hates Romney? 1.00

00:20:15.000 I mean, let's be real about this. 0.98

00:20:16.000 Elizabeth Warren thinks that Romney's a skunk. 1.00

00:20:18.000 Elizabeth Warren is a despicable human being. 1.00

00:20:21.000 And here she is with Lawrence O'Donnell, both of whom hate Romney, but now they love Romney. 0.98

00:20:25.000 Now Romney's the best.

00:20:26.000 Strange new respect pouring from the heavens.

00:20:29.000 What was it like listening to that one Republican stand up and see this case basically the same way you do?

00:20:38.000 I thought I was listening to a decent and honorable man who stood up and did the right thing.

00:20:43.000 He was a decent and honorable man, except when he voted for, you know, like Justice Kavanaugh.

00:20:47.000 Then he was a bad man, but now he's a decent and honorable man. 0.99

00:20:50.000 Meanwhile, you know, the White House is pursuing a stupid strategy with regard to Romney. 0.99

00:20:54.000 Here's what they should do. 0.99

00:20:55.000 They should just say, listen, Mitt Romney is entitled to his own judgment.

00:20:58.000 Mitt Romney is entitled to his own take on this issue.

00:21:02.000 The president has been acquitted.

00:21:04.000 52 other senators disagreed with him in his own party.

00:21:07.000 His logic obviously didn't agree with theirs, but he's a United States senator.

00:21:12.000 Have a nice day.

00:21:12.000 That should be it, because the bottom line is you still have that picture of Trump holding up the big acquitted sign.

00:21:16.000 And the acquitted sign is the only thing that matters.

00:21:18.000 The media want to play up the conflict between Romney and Trump and set this thing up as true hero of the republic, Mitt Romney, versus Donald Trump.

00:21:25.000 Instead, Trump should just defuse that and be like, OK, fine.

00:21:28.000 Romney has his view.

00:21:29.000 I have my view.

00:21:30.000 Obviously, I win.

00:21:31.000 Right?

00:21:32.000 You can afford to be magnanimous in victory instead, because magnanimity is not in the cards for the White House.

00:21:37.000 They released, Trump tweeted out a video montage bashing Romney, which of course, like, what is the point of this?

00:21:43.000 Seriously, what is the point of this?

00:21:44.000 Here he is doing this.

00:21:47.000 Slippery, stealthy.

00:21:48.000 Mitt Romney had us fooled.

00:21:50.000 Being in Donald Trump's magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight.

00:21:55.000 Posing as a Republican, he tried to infiltrate Trump's administration as Secretary of State.

00:22:00.000 President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to that better future.

00:22:03.000 Now his cover's blown.

00:22:05.000 Exposed by news reports as a Democrat's secret asset.

00:22:08.000 I can't believe you're gonna lose.

00:22:10.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:22:11.000 Barack Obama will be re-elected President of the United States.

00:22:15.000 Come on! 0.61

00:22:16.000 Come on! 0.61

00:22:17.000 Mitt Romney's a Democrat's secret asset?

00:22:19.000 He's a secret asset?

00:22:20.000 He's the Senator from Utah, which is maybe the reddest state in America. 0.97

00:22:23.000 Truly, just ridiculous. 0.98

00:22:25.000 So this is ridiculous on all sides. 0.97

00:22:26.000 And again, I'm not going to take it from the media who suggests that Romney is now a great hero of the Republic when they hated him five seconds ago. 0.91

00:22:32.000 I'm not going to take it from Republicans who voted for Romney five seconds ago.

00:22:36.000 Romney McDaniel, who was forced to change her last name basically by the Trump White House.

00:22:42.000 In order to be the head of the RNC, she tweeted out, this is not the first time I've disagreed with Mitt, and I imagine it will not be the last.

00:22:47.000 The bottom line is, President Trump did nothing wrong, and the Republican Party is more united than ever behind him.

00:22:51.000 I, along with the GOP, stand with President Trump.

00:22:54.000 Okay, again, like, whatever, whatever.

00:22:56.000 Okay, so, here is the, here is where we now sit.

00:23:00.000 Here's where we now sit.

00:23:01.000 And here's where the President's head should be, as opposed to in Romney-land, which is where the media would like it to be.

00:23:06.000 The president wins.

00:23:07.000 He wins.

00:23:08.000 And this is why the appropriate attitude, and I don't think you should be saying it out loud, because again, I think that the Trump that you like best is the Trump you see during State of the Union, you know.

00:23:16.000 Considered Trump.

00:23:17.000 Contained Trump.

00:23:17.000 He's like nuclear power.

00:23:19.000 You want to have some pretty heavy cement shielding around the nuclear power that is generating all of the energy.

00:23:26.000 That Twitter is the nuclear leak.

00:23:29.000 The president tweeted out that he would be president for life just to troll the Democrats, which is kind of, I'll admit, it's hilarious, okay?

00:23:35.000 May not be good politics, but it is really funny.

00:23:37.000 He tweeted again this graphic that he had tweeted before.

00:23:40.000 It was a cover of Time magazine that shows Trump 2028, Trump 2032, all the way till Trump 2048.

00:23:47.000 At which point, the President of the United States would be, let's see, he is 73 years old, right?

00:23:52.000 And then it has Trump 2056, right?

00:23:53.000 It starts moving.

00:23:55.000 Trump 2060, Trump 2064.

00:23:56.000 They're gonna be 150 years old.

00:23:58.000 And the Democrats online, they're going crazy over this.

00:24:00.000 They're like, he means that he's really gonna be President forever.

00:24:03.000 Not unless his disembodied head is gonna be President of the United States in 9,000, in 60,000, in forever. 0.97

00:24:11.000 Like, it's ridiculous. 0.95

00:24:12.000 They're really doing this. 0.83

00:24:13.000 Like, this means he's never going to leave office.

00:24:14.000 He's going to declare himself dictator.

00:24:16.000 He's going to, like Darth Sidious, defeat the power of death and hook himself up to machines.

00:24:22.000 He'll be the disembodied floating head of Larry King from Futurama. 1.00

00:24:25.000 Or, alternatively, he's trolling you guys and your idiots, which I think is much more likely. 0.99

00:24:30.000 Alrighty, we're going to get to more with regard to the Democrats' attempt to buy back A victory from impeachment. 1.00

00:24:36.000 Plus, we have to get to the 2020 Democrats.

00:24:37.000 The reason they're focused in on impeachment still, even after this thing is over, is they are looking at their field and they are in a state of sheer, absolute, unbridled panic.

00:24:45.000 And they definitely, definitely should be.

00:24:46.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

00:24:47.000 First, let us talk about the fact that you've got some big events coming up this year, right?

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00:24:54.000 Unfortunately.

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00:25:00.000 Imperceptibly.

00:25:01.000 But then, gradually, over time, it started to look kind of bad.

00:25:04.000 And now, you need to straighten those teeth out. 0.96

00:25:05.000 Well, what should you do?

00:25:06.000 Should you go get braces again?

00:25:07.000 No!

00:25:07.000 You're not a teenager, and how much fun is it to get the food gunk stuck in there?

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00:25:49.000 It is the simplest, freest way to get started.

00:25:51.000 For a limited time, you can get started with $75 off by using code SHAPIRO at CandidCO.com So as I say, the Democrats are in a state of sheer disarray because this has all gone wrong for them.

00:26:01.000 $75 off candidco.com slash Shapiro.

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00:26:04.000 So as I say, the Democrats are in a state of sheer disarray because this has all gone wrong for them.

00:26:11.000 The Iowa caucuses, it turns out, as we'll get to in a second, were a complete and utter cluster F.

00:26:17.000 The race now looks like it is moving solidly in the direction of Bernie Sanders because whereas before it looked like the field on the progressive side was split between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, it turns out that Sanders is increasingly consolidating the progressive socialist wing of the Democratic Party and there are serious splits in the non-sufficiency.

00:26:34.000 Socialist wing of the Democratic Party between Biden and Bloomberg and Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg.

00:26:38.000 There are too many candidates in that lane right now, which is precisely the opposite of where that candidacy was five seconds ago.

00:26:45.000 So that's a very dangerous place for the Democrats to be.

00:26:47.000 So instead, the Democrats are trying to cling to the last vestige of, but we did.

00:26:51.000 We impeached him.

00:26:52.000 We did.

00:26:52.000 We impeached him really like we did.

00:26:54.000 And so they're trotting out Chuck Schumer, suggesting that instead of conviction, we got Dershowitzian arguments.

00:26:59.000 He wasn't actually acquitted.

00:27:01.000 He wasn't actually acquitted.

00:27:02.000 He's still he's still impeached, guys.

00:27:04.000 He still is.

00:27:05.000 Come on.

00:27:07.000 Instead of maintaining the president's innocence, the president's counsel ultimately told the Senate that even if the president did what he was accused of, it's not impeachable.

00:27:19.000 This has taken the form of an escalating series of Dershowitzian arguments, including, quote, abuse of power is not an impeachable offense.

00:27:31.000 Quote, the president can't be impeached for non-criminal conduct, but he also can't be indicted for criminal conduct.

00:27:39.000 Quote, if a president believes his own reelection is essential to the nation, then a quid pro quo is not corrupt.

00:27:47.000 Yeah, none of this makes any difference.

00:27:48.000 This is just the Democrats shouting at the sky because they didn't get what they want.

00:27:52.000 So instead, you have Joe Biden out there on the stump mumbling to himself about how Trump shouldn't view a quiddle as a victory.

00:27:56.000 There's only one problem.

00:27:58.000 Anytime the president surpasses an expectation, this is the dirty secret of politics.

00:28:01.000 It's something Bill Clinton was really good at.

00:28:03.000 Bill Clinton would deliberately set low expectations just so that he could surpass them.

00:28:06.000 Well, the expectations for Trump are so low that when he surpasses them, It's great for him.

00:28:10.000 So if the expectation that the Democrats built up is that Trump would be exiting office and then Trump is acquitted, that's a big win for him.

00:28:16.000 But Biden says Trump shouldn't view acquittal as a victory.

00:28:19.000 He shouldn't.

00:28:20.000 And then Biden basically keels over.

00:28:23.000 He's already calling it.

00:28:24.000 He says it's a victory on the impeachment hoax on Twitter.

00:28:27.000 Is this a victory for the president?

00:28:29.000 I can't imagine being president of the United States and having all one party plus someone from your own party vote to say you should be thrown out of office and view that as a victory.

00:28:39.000 I don't know.

00:28:39.000 Also, where am I?

00:28:41.000 And why?

00:28:42.000 And why?

00:28:42.000 Again, the Democratic attempts to buy a victory from the ashes of defeat.

00:28:46.000 That graphic's the only one that matters.

00:28:47.000 Donald Trump holding up that newspaper that says acquitted.

00:28:49.000 That is the only one that matters this morning.

00:28:52.000 Instead, you get Sherrod Brown, the Democratic senator from Ohio, writing in the New York Times, and private Republicans admit they acquitted Trump out of fear.

00:28:58.000 Out of fear.

00:28:59.000 So now it's all about the Democratic senators who are fearful of Trump.

00:29:02.000 And that is why they voted the way that they did.

00:29:04.000 So, Mitt Romney is the only man of honor in the Senate, only because he happened to vote alongside The Democrats are banking still on impeachment, despite the fact that it's a failure out of the simple calculation that the more they talk about their own candidates, the more trouble they have.

00:29:18.000 Iowa continues to be just a complete disaster area.

00:29:21.000 So the results are still trickling in from Iowa.

00:29:24.000 Basically, the results show that Bernie won the most votes, but that Pete Buttigieg walks away with most delegates, or at least even in the delegate count.

00:29:31.000 Pete Buttigieg is getting a bump in New Hampshire from all of that.

00:29:33.000 Now there are reports that one of the reasons that the Iowa caucus has failed, and the Democrats are now trotting this one out, is that on a 4chan board, people had posted the number of the DNC hotline for reporting the precinct results, and they clogged the lines, and so this supposedly twisted everything.

00:29:50.000 There's only one problem, which is that the DNC itself has said that there weren't significant problems in this particular area, that the problem with the app was just a problem with the app, that there is no real doubt about the election results.

00:30:00.000 They want to blame it on Republicans in some way.

00:30:01.000 They want to blame it on trolls in some way. 1.00

00:30:03.000 But this was pure, unbridled stupidity. 1.00

00:30:05.000 Because if you don't protect yourself in the middle of an election, then I honestly don't know how you can expect the American people to trust you running virtually anything, right? 1.00

00:30:12.000 I mean, it's very difficult to imagine how we are supposed to hand over our health care to people who can't run an election involving 170,000 voters.

00:30:20.000 Iowa has released some results.

00:30:23.000 They're still not up to 100% of results.

00:30:25.000 And then they started releasing minor corrections Last night, they said there will be minor corrections to the last batch of results, and we'll be pushing an update momentarily.

00:30:34.000 There was an error that apparently confused votes for Bernie Sanders for votes for Deval Patrick.

00:30:37.000 Pretty obvious that nobody voted for Deval Patrick.

00:30:40.000 But the continuing fiasco in Iowa has robbed Bernie Sanders of any momentum that he was going to get from Iowa.

00:30:46.000 Pete Buttigieg, however, is getting a fairly large bump in the New Hampshire primary, and that is horrible.

00:30:53.000 Horrible news for Joe Biden, because right now, as I say, the Democratic non-Bernie Lane is seriously divided, and that is a huge problem.

00:31:02.000 Elizabeth Warren is fading, and she's fading badly, and she will likely be out of the race by the time we hit South Carolina.

00:31:07.000 If she finishes low in New Hampshire, which is a state that she really needs to finish top two, then she's toast.

00:31:12.000 Because, really, you think she's going to have more momentum in, like, Nevada?

00:31:15.000 That's not a place where she's—or South Carolina, where black voters make a huge difference. 1.00

00:31:19.000 Over half of the Democratic base in South Carolina voting in the primaries is black.

00:31:22.000 That's Biden territory.

00:31:24.000 So we're going to get to more analysis of the Democratic field.

00:31:28.000 You can tell who the frontrunner is because it's the person who's not on the campaign trail.

00:31:31.000 So Bernie's now playing it safe.

00:31:32.000 Bernie is not making a lot of public appearances.

00:31:34.000 He's not doing a lot of interviews. 1.00

00:31:35.000 He's just tweeting stupid Platitudes from his Twitter account to the cheers of the moronic throngs that populate that dumb website. 1.00

00:31:42.000 We'll get to that in just one second. 1.00

00:31:43.000 First, time for a great Valentine's Day gift.

00:31:46.000 Okay, what is the best Valentine's Day gift?

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00:33:04.000 That is 1-800-Flowers.com slash Shapiro.

00:33:07.000 Okay, we're gonna bring you the latest on the Democratic race.

00:33:08.000 The panic is setting in and it is obvious that the panic is setting in for the Democrats.

00:33:13.000 We are going to get to more of that momentarily.

00:33:15.000 First, quick note.

00:33:16.000 Back in July last year, I told you about an amazing podcast called Apollo 11.

00:33:19.000 What we saw, hosted by my friend, Bill Whittle.

00:33:22.000 The show took you back in time to the experience of living through the space age.

00:33:24.000 Beautifully produced right here by a lot of folks at The Daily Wear.

00:33:28.000 Well now, Bill has a new season of the show.

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00:33:32.000 The story is incredibly well told.

00:33:33.000 The setting is brilliantly descriptive.

00:33:35.000 You get a sense of what it was like to live through major events like the Berlin Airlift and the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Space Race.

00:33:41.000 These milestones are tied together to give you a sense of the big picture, the apocalypse that never happened.

00:33:46.000 As the host, Bill does have a tremendous way of pulling you in, making the story engaging and entertaining.

00:33:50.000 Whether you remember living through some of these events or, like me, you weren't Born yet.

00:33:54.000 They've already released two episodes of this 12-part series.

00:33:56.000 You should have some to catch up on.

00:33:57.000 You should go listen now.

00:33:58.000 It has never been more relevant than this year, where the left is going full-blown commie in so many of their policies and their language.

00:34:03.000 Bernie Sanders.

00:34:04.000 This podcast emphasizes the battle not only for capitalism, but for civilization itself, the difference in values between the West and the USSR. 0.56

00:34:11.000 Just go to dailywire.com slash coldwar.

00:34:13.000 And start listening to this incredibly important story.

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00:34:17.000 That is dailywire.com slash coldwar, or you can also get the podcast over at iTunes and SoundCloud and all the other places that we do podcasts.

00:34:24.000 Also, gang, if you haven't noticed already, 2020, it's wild, man.

00:34:28.000 This is wild, right?

00:34:29.000 We've already finished an impeachment.

00:34:31.000 We had the killing of Sam Soleimani.

00:34:33.000 We had the Iowa caucuses, absolute failure.

00:34:35.000 We had the state of the union.

00:34:36.000 It's getting crazy, and this is just the beginning.

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00:35:28.000 So as I say, the Democrats are in a state of sheer panic because their supposed frontrunner, Joe Biden, is in a state of absolute collapse.

00:35:40.000 And he's basically admitting as much.

00:35:42.000 Iowa was a bad showing for him.

00:35:44.000 He ended up at something like 16% of the vote compared to Pete Buttigieg at 27% and Bernie Sanders at 26% in terms of the delegate count.

00:35:52.000 That's a bad showing.

00:35:53.000 He finished fourth, right?

00:35:54.000 He finished behind Elizabeth Warren, too.

00:35:56.000 That is not where you want to be.

00:35:57.000 The Rubio strategy from 2016, it turns out, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 4th.

00:36:04.000 It turns out you don't win the nomination that way.

00:36:06.000 That is not a way to win the nomination.

00:36:08.000 At some point, you're going to have to win something, which is why the biggest thing on the calendar right now for Joe Biden is Nevada.

00:36:13.000 And we have no polling data from Nevada, as in none, zero, zip, zilch.

00:36:18.000 Last poll taken in Nevada was USA Today, Suffolk, January 11th.

00:36:22.000 And it had Biden up one over Bernie Sanders.

00:36:24.000 That ain't going to cut it.

00:36:26.000 If Biden loses the first three and Sanders wins the first three, Then he's in real trouble now.

00:36:31.000 He got a bit of a reprieve because the Iowa caucuses ended up being a bleep show.

00:36:34.000 But by the same token, if he finishes fourth in New Hampshire, and now he's finished fourth in the first two states, if he does not win Nevada outright, he's toast.

00:36:43.000 Because all the momentum is gone.

00:36:45.000 He doesn't have a large bankroll.

00:36:46.000 He doesn't have momentum.

00:36:47.000 He's not somebody who's inspiring.

00:36:49.000 He was the default anti-Trump candidate.

00:36:52.000 And then Bernie came along, and it turns out that with a solid core of 25%, as Donald Trump found out, you can win primaries that way.

00:36:58.000 You can, because everybody else will split.

00:36:59.000 There are too many candidates in these races.

00:37:01.000 Well, the New Hampshire presidential primaries, a few weeks ago, the polling showed that Biden was running up close to Sanders, right?

00:37:08.000 That he was in first or second place in all of the polling, virtually all of the polling, that Buttigieg and Warren had started to slide a little bit.

00:37:14.000 After Iowa, There are two new polls out.

00:37:18.000 There's one from Emerson.

00:37:19.000 That poll shows Bernie Sanders up 31-21 over Buttigieg, with Biden and Warren down at 12.

00:37:24.000 So there's a solid shot that he gets shellacked in New Hampshire.

00:37:28.000 There's another poll out from the Boston Globe at Suffolk, and it has, again, Buttigieg jumping, Sanders at 25, Buttigieg at 19, Biden at 12, and Warren at 11.

00:37:37.000 So these polls are consistent in showing a massive collapse for Joe Biden in New Hampshire, which is a very, very bad look.

00:37:43.000 As Alaa Pundit writes over at Hot Air Today, he would have been okay finishing second in Iowa to Bernie.

00:37:47.000 He would have even been okay-ish finishing third behind Bernie and Warren.

00:37:50.000 Either result would have set Biden up to deliver this sales pitch to the rest of the Democratic electorate.

00:37:54.000 You now have a clear choice between pragmatism and socialism, between electability and purity.

00:37:58.000 I'm the only electable pragmatist left in town.

00:38:01.000 Choose.

00:38:01.000 But finishing behind Buttigieg deprives him of that argument.

00:38:04.000 And by the way, finishing equal to Klobuchar deprives him of that argument, which is why people from Biden's campaign are basically going, well, what if we just pretend the Iowa results are illegitimate?

00:38:14.000 What if we pretend Biden actually, like, did okay in Iowa?

00:38:16.000 So there's even a split inside the Biden campaign.

00:38:18.000 It's just chaos over there.

00:38:19.000 Simone Sanders is a campaign surrogate for Joe Biden. 1.00

00:38:22.000 She was on the national TVs, and she was asked if the Iowa results are legitimate, and she refused to answer the question.

00:38:28.000 Yesterday, your comms director, Kate Bedingfield, was raising concerns about the legitimacy of the results.

00:38:35.000 Is that a concern you still have?

00:38:39.000 Look, I stand by Kate Beddingfield's comments, and I would also underscore that the integrity of this process is very important.

00:38:45.000 So you're saying the results that we are currently... Simone, this is very important.

00:38:49.000 Brianna, if I may?

00:38:50.000 Brianna, I know it's important, so if you will let me finish.

00:38:53.000 If you would allow me to finish.

00:38:55.000 No, because you're not answering my question.

00:38:59.000 Brianna, what I'm saying is that the results that we have seen are partial results.

00:39:03.000 We do not have all the data.

00:39:05.000 Okay, so again, she refuses to say that the results are illegitimate, but she does say that we don't have all the data.

00:39:11.000 So they're trying to throw aspersions at Iowa.

00:39:12.000 Even take Iowa off the table.

00:39:12.000 Okay, fine.

00:39:14.000 Biden needs to do better in New Hampshire, doesn't he?

00:39:16.000 I mean, at least he has to show some signs of life.

00:39:18.000 The great suspicion of Joe Biden is that he's actually a dead human being, that he's not actually alive.

00:39:23.000 So Joe Biden basically admitted as much yesterday.

00:39:25.000 He said, listen, we took a gut punch in Iowa.

00:39:27.000 24 hours later, they're still trying to figure out what happened in Iowa.

00:39:33.000 At this rate, New Hampshire will be the first in the country to get the vote.

00:39:36.000 I am not going to sugarcoat it.

00:39:44.000 We took a gut punch in Iowa.

00:39:45.000 The whole process took a gut punch.

00:39:48.000 OK, and then he tries to buy it back by saying that the process took a gut punch.

00:39:50.000 But really, he knows that his campaign took a gut punch in Iowa.

00:39:54.000 And this has led Biden to go on attack, which is a bad sign for Biden, right?

00:39:57.000 He thought he was just going to float right over these primaries.

00:40:00.000 This is the point where Joe Biden is Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith.

00:40:05.000 And he is looking over at Barack Obama.

00:40:08.000 And Barack Obama is giving the thumbs down so that Anakin can behead him. 0.92

00:40:11.000 Right? 0.72

00:40:11.000 I mean, that's what's going on right now. 0.72

00:40:13.000 He's looking over and he's like, why aren't you helping me?

00:40:15.000 I'm your Sith apprentice. 0.93

00:40:17.000 And Barack Obama's like, no, you just thought you were.

00:40:22.000 Anakin, finish him.

00:40:23.000 I mean, that's truly what's going on here.

00:40:25.000 There's only one person who can save Joe Biden.

00:40:27.000 And that guy is out golfing somewhere.

00:40:30.000 Right?

00:40:30.000 That guy has no interest.

00:40:31.000 He's Rorschach.

00:40:32.000 He looks down on Joe Biden and he says, So this has led Joe Biden to go on attack.

00:40:37.000 He's now attacking both Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders.

00:40:41.000 He's saying that either would be a risk because Pete is the mayor of a town of 100,000 people.

00:40:47.000 How is that guy going to be a winner in a national election?

00:40:51.000 And Bernie Sanders is a socialist.

00:40:53.000 These are the choices that you are choosing.

00:40:55.000 Now, again, this is a sane case.

00:40:57.000 But the problem is that being default candidate has rarely worked.

00:41:00.000 Being default candidate is usually likely to fail.

00:41:03.000 The only time that I can remember default candidates sort of walking away with it was Mitt Romney.

00:41:07.000 And that was after everybody tried everybody else.

00:41:09.000 But in any case, here is Joe Biden going hard after his political opponents.

00:41:14.000 But if Senator Sanders is a nominee for the party, Every Democrat in America up and down the ballot in blue states, red states, purple states, in easy districts and competitive ones, every Democrat will have to carry the label Senator Sanders has chosen for himself.

00:41:30.000 He calls him, and I don't criticize him, he calls himself a democratic socialist.

00:41:34.000 Is he really saying that the Obama-Biden administration was a failure?

00:41:38.000 Pete, just say it out loud.

00:41:41.000 I have great respect for Mayor Pete and the service of this nation, but I do believe it's a risk to be just straight up with you for this party to nominate someone who's never held an office higher than mayor of a town of 100,000 people in Indiana.

00:41:56.000 And that, of course, is true.

00:41:57.000 And it's amazing to me that he's waited this long to say it and that nobody else has said it.

00:42:01.000 This is what happens when you tut-tut all of your rivals all throughout the campaign.

00:42:04.000 Eventually, you're forced to attack them, but now it looks like a desperate attack because you're starting to lose momentum.

00:42:10.000 Here's the bottom line for Biden.

00:42:11.000 Biden doesn't know what his brand is because he doesn't have a brand.

00:42:13.000 And so he keeps trying to brand himself.

00:42:15.000 He said yesterday they call him Middle Class Joe.

00:42:17.000 Who the hell's ever called him Middle Class Joe?

00:42:18.000 Has everybody in the Senate just walked by him?

00:42:20.000 Hey, look, there goes Middle Class Joe. 0.96

00:42:22.000 What a failing campaign. 0.84

00:42:23.000 I mean, he feels like Jeb Bush circa 2016.

00:42:25.000 I mean, it really is pretty brutal for Biden.

00:42:27.000 I talk about the working poor all the time.

00:42:29.000 I know they call me Middle Class Joe because they think I'm Middle Class Joe because I'm concerned about the middle class.

00:42:36.000 And the reason I'm concerned about the middle class is to find an avenue to get to the middle class, to be able to stay in the middle class.

00:42:41.000 And when the middle class does well, everybody's a shot.

00:42:43.000 People have a way up.

00:42:44.000 And in fact, the wealthy do very well.

00:42:46.000 I'm sorry, was he talking?

00:42:47.000 I sort of fell asleep there.

00:42:49.000 I think everybody else fell asleep too.

00:42:50.000 Meanwhile, speaking of desperate candidates, Elizabeth Warren trying to recapture the magic that she had six months ago, but the magic is gone.

00:42:56.000 And so she's trying to play the woman card because she is one of the only frontrunners who is a lady, who has the lady parts. 1.00

00:43:01.000 So here is Elizabeth Warren explaining that if you don't vote for me, it's because you're a sexist. 1.00

00:43:05.000 Okay, this didn't work for Hillary Clinton. 1.00

00:43:07.000 It's not going to work for Elizabeth Warren, especially since six months ago, she was leading in the primaries. 0.98

00:43:11.000 So here she is doing the I am woman, hear me squeak. 0.89

00:43:14.000 As a woman studying politics here at St.

00:43:16.000 Anselm, I sometimes feel as if I will be at a disadvantage when I enter the workforce, since the majority of people associate politics with men.

00:43:24.000 Do you believe that the men in this race have a better chance of beating Trump solely because of their gender?

00:43:31.000 I believe they may think so, but they'd be wrong.

00:43:36.000 She's so tiresome. 1.00

00:43:37.000 Okay, so she's toast.

00:43:38.000 She's gonna fall apart. 0.83

00:43:39.000 Biden is falling apart.

00:43:40.000 And that means that Bernie has basically clear shot at the nomination.

00:43:44.000 Bernie has nobody standing in his way at this point.

00:43:46.000 If he wins New Hampshire, and right now the polls show he's gonna win New Hampshire walking away.

00:43:49.000 If he wins New Hampshire, and then he shows up, if he wins Nevada, this thing's over. 0.96

00:43:52.000 And you've got an octogenarian socialist loon bag who staffs completely with people who hate Israel and hate Jews. 0.97

00:44:00.000 That guy is gonna be your nominee. 0.97

00:44:02.000 And it's amazing because nobody's gonna ask him a tough question.

00:44:04.000 I mean, just take a look at Bernie Sanders' Twitter feed for a second, okay? 0.66

00:44:07.000 This is, it's gonna be a never-ending source of irritation to me that nobody in the media will ask this man a tough question about the fact that he was a communist for most of his career and is a communist today, but then hides it beneath absolute ridiculous platitudes. 0.61

00:44:19.000 So take these kinds of tweets, right?

00:44:20.000 This one from just a few minutes ago.

00:44:23.000 The ideas we are talking about, a livable planet, healthcare as a right, a humane immigration system, disability justice, a living wage for all, are not radical ideas.

00:44:33.000 These are issues of basic justice.

00:44:35.000 They're not ideas at all.

00:44:36.000 They're nostrums.

00:44:38.000 They're phrases.

00:44:38.000 They don't mean anything.

00:44:40.000 And this is Bernie's routine.

00:44:41.000 It's so irritating.

00:44:43.000 One of the things that you learn as a lawyer is you ask people to define their terms.

00:44:47.000 Definitions are really important because words mean things.

00:44:49.000 And when people obscure definitions, what they are doing is lying to you. 0.96

00:44:52.000 And Bernie, despite all of the talk about how honest he is, about how forthright he is, Bernie is a liar.

00:44:57.000 Because the fact is that Bernie will not explain to you what he means by anything. 0.53

00:45:00.000 If you say, Bernie, what do you mean by socialism?

00:45:02.000 He won't say, I mean public ownership of the means of production, of course.

00:45:06.000 I mean collectivization of major industries.

00:45:08.000 That's not what he will say to you.

00:45:09.000 He'll say, well, if by socialism you mean that everybody should have a living wage, then I am a socialist.

00:45:16.000 Okay, that is, you're not even defining living wage, let alone how you achieve one.

00:45:20.000 Okay, capitalism achieves living wages.

00:45:23.000 If capitalism didn't achieve living wages, you wouldn't have seen the greatest rise in human prosperity in the history of humanity by exponential scores like the way you have since 1800.

00:45:33.000 You wouldn't have seen half the globe raised out of abject poverty by free trade and capitalism since 1980.

00:45:37.000 You wouldn't see any of that.

00:45:39.000 But Bernie says things like, I'm for a living wage.

00:45:41.000 That means I'm a socialist.

00:45:42.000 No, it just means that you're not using words properly.

00:45:45.000 He says things like, I want a livable planet.

00:45:47.000 I guess this makes me a socialist.

00:45:48.000 No, you're right, Bernie.

00:45:50.000 Everybody else wants a dead planet.

00:45:51.000 Everybody else wants to choke on smog and die.

00:45:53.000 That's what we all want.

00:45:55.000 Because it is only socialists who want a livable planet.

00:45:57.000 The rest of us would prefer a planet that is literally on fire.

00:46:00.000 Literally.

00:46:00.000 Like where you just walk around and it's the end of Terminator 2.

00:46:03.000 Where everybody's just walking around on fire and your flesh is getting blown off your skeleton.

00:46:08.000 Like, come on.

00:46:09.000 Healthcare is a right.

00:46:10.000 Okay, that again.

00:46:12.000 What do you mean by this?

00:46:13.000 That means nothing.

00:46:14.000 The South African constitution guarantees healthcare as a right.

00:46:17.000 You know who doesn't have healthcare in South Africa?

00:46:18.000 Like everyone.

00:46:19.000 It guarantees housing as a right.

00:46:21.000 You know who doesn't have a house in South Africa?

00:46:22.000 Half the population.

00:46:23.000 Just saying something is right does not mean that it materializes.

00:46:27.000 He says he wants a humane immigration system.

00:46:29.000 No, you're right, Bernie.

00:46:30.000 Everybody who opposes socialism is in favor of a brutal immigration system in which we treat people horribly. 0.97

00:46:37.000 But this is Bernie's shtick, and no one asks him, what the hell you mean?

00:46:40.000 And there's a reason no one asks him what the hell he means.

00:46:42.000 There's a reason.

00:46:43.000 Because the minute that he gets down to brass tacks, everything turns ugly.

00:46:46.000 The minute he gets down to brass tacks, everything gets really ugly.

00:46:49.000 There's a perspective on the left, and it is very prominent, that government is capable of doing all of these things.

00:46:53.000 Particularly, that government is capable of achieving equality of outcome.

00:46:58.000 On a very root level, what the Constitution guarantees, and was supposed to guarantee, and increasingly did guarantee, as it was fulfilled for all citizens over time, was equal protection before the law.

00:47:07.000 What that meant is that everyone was going to be treated equally by the law.

00:47:11.000 That it was not the job of government to establish, quote-unquote, equality of opportunity.

00:47:16.000 You know, I know that Republicans sometimes use equality of opportunity, but equality of opportunity would encompass things like, okay, some people grow up richer and some people grow up poorer.

00:47:23.000 Obviously, people who grow up poorer have different opportunities than people who grow up rich, so you'd have to equalize these circumstances of birth.

00:47:29.000 But that's not what the Constitution guarantees.

00:47:30.000 The Constitution guarantees equality before the law, because you're a human being with individual rights, and the government doesn't get to treat your neighbor differently than the government treats you, right?

00:47:39.000 That is what the Constitution suggests.

00:47:42.000 The left suggests a form of Rawlsian, John Rawls philosopher from the mid 20th century, Rawlsian social justice.

00:47:49.000 And what that suggests is that we are supposed to use government to achieve equality of outcome.

00:47:54.000 How do we do this?

00:47:55.000 Well, imagine, here's the Rawlsian construct.

00:47:58.000 Barack Obama used to quote Rawls all the time.

00:48:00.000 The Rawlsian construct is the idea that you don't know how you are going to be born.

00:48:04.000 So imagine that you're going to be reincarnated in any society, but you don't know what kind of society it is or who you are going to be in that society.

00:48:11.000 What kind of society would you hope was actually ruling? 0.99

00:48:14.000 You don't know whether you're going to be rich or poor or smart or stupid. 0.99

00:48:16.000 So what would you hope is the society that would be on top? 0.99

00:48:21.000 What would the government look like?

00:48:22.000 So under those circumstances, I reject the premise because that's not the way reality works.

00:48:27.000 Presumably everyone would basically be a Marxist, right?

00:48:29.000 Because if you're poor, you wish that you would be rich.

00:48:32.000 And maybe you'd be born rich, but maybe you wouldn't be.

00:48:35.000 And if you're risk averse, you don't wanna be the person who was born poor. 1.00

00:48:37.000 Maybe you're born smart, maybe you're born stupid. 1.00

00:48:39.000 The idea is on behalf of folks on the left, that government is capable of achieving these outcomes. 1.00

00:48:43.000 Government is not capable of achieving equality of outcome.

00:48:47.000 It's just not.

00:48:48.000 LBJ tried this in the mid 60s.

00:48:50.000 He ended up with the greatest growth of government In the history of the United States and he didn't end up lowering poverty in the United States.

00:48:57.000 The percentage of people living below the poverty line right now is effectively the same as it was since the beginning of the 70s.

00:49:03.000 So the notion that Bernie Sanders is gonna come along with governments and that he's going to fix all problems, basically his plan goes like this.

00:49:10.000 Declare that socialism is, insert thing you want, question mark, utopia.

00:49:16.000 That's Bernie Sanders' program.

00:49:18.000 And here's the thing. 0.98

00:49:19.000 Once he has to fill in those gaps, as it turns out, to achieve equality of outcome, what you usually have to do is kill a few people. 0.91

00:49:23.000 I mean, this is what communism does.

00:49:25.000 It says, in order to achieve equality of outcome, we're gonna have to seize the property of a few people.

00:49:29.000 If they don't like it, then we're gonna have to imprison them.

00:49:31.000 We're going to have to restrict them from moving.

00:49:33.000 We're going to have to crack down on individual rights.

00:49:35.000 We're going to have to redistribute everything.

00:49:37.000 Eventually what we're really going to need to do is just collectivize the ownership, make it government-owned so we can redistribute the proceeds.

00:49:43.000 We're gonna need to do that at the very least.

00:49:45.000 Okay, that ends up pretty ugly.

00:49:46.000 And this is why when Elizabeth Warren tried to fill in the gaps on Bernie Sanders, on even basic things that he's proposing, like Medicare for all, she got destroyed. 1.00

00:49:55.000 Because Bernie will say Medicare for all, and people will say, so what's your plan for this?

00:49:58.000 And what does it look like?

00:49:59.000 And Bernie will just say things like, well, it will cost you less.

00:50:03.000 Well, no, it won't.

00:50:04.000 But he doesn't ever actually roll out his plan, right?

00:50:08.000 He'll just promise you the moon.

00:50:09.000 And then when you say, okay, how are you gonna get to the moon?

00:50:12.000 And he just refuses to answer the question, then this is a sign of genius.

00:50:15.000 Elizabeth Warren, the problem for her is, she would promise you the moon, and then we'd say, okay, so how are we gonna have to get to the moon?

00:50:19.000 And she'd say, well, what we're gonna need to do is we're going to need to take you and load you as fuel into this rocket.

00:50:25.000 It's gonna be bad for you, it's gonna be great for everybody else.

00:50:27.000 And America's like, that sounds kinda bad. 0.91

00:50:29.000 The minute you put any flesh on the bones of Bernie's ridiculous nostrums, his agenda completely collapses, which is why the media don't bother to actually load any flesh onto the skeleton. 0.83

00:50:39.000 All of his campaigns are like this. 0.95

00:50:41.000 If you watch his rallies, if you look at his Twitter, I mean, stuff like this, right?

00:50:45.000 If you feel like our political system doesn't work for you, now is the time to join in our fight.

00:50:49.000 Together, we are going to end the corruption of a system that helps billionaires but leaves working people behind.

00:50:54.000 We are going to build a government that represents all of us.

00:50:56.000 What the hell are you talking about?

00:50:58.000 This is all empty rhetoric. 0.91

00:50:58.000 It doesn't mean anything. 0.91

00:51:00.000 What is your actual plan?

00:51:02.000 What is your actual plan?

00:51:04.000 And the answer is he doesn't have an actual plan. 1.00

00:51:05.000 He just has a bunch of nonsensical garbage that he tosses out there for the pleasure of idiots who think that simply expressing a wish makes it more plausible that it will come true. 0.99

00:51:17.000 And you never have to connect the wish with the reality at any point. 1.00

00:51:21.000 At some point, This reality will have to set in for Bernie.

00:51:24.000 I mean, at some point he will be asked these tough questions, but apparently he's going to be able to float right through the primaries without anybody asking those tough questions.

00:51:29.000 Why?

00:51:30.000 Because the Democratic Party decided to suck off the teat of Bernie Sanders' socialist energy, and now it's too late. 0.98

00:51:36.000 Now it's too late. 0.95

00:51:37.000 The bloodstream has been poisoned.

00:51:39.000 Bernie Sanders, you can't adopt half of Bernie Sanders' plans and then rip on Bernie Sanders' general ideology, which is what Joe Biden basically has tried to do.

00:51:46.000 You can't do that.

00:51:47.000 It's bound to fail.

00:51:48.000 And that's why Bernie is in very good position moving forward, and Democrats are in sheer panic, and they should be in sheer panic.

00:51:52.000 Okay, time for a couple of things I like, and then we'll get to a thing that I hate.

00:51:58.000 So, things that I like today.

00:52:00.000 So, very sad, Kirk Douglas passed away yesterday.

00:52:04.000 He's 103 years old.

00:52:05.000 So, that always sort of mitigates the sadness to the extent that if you live to 103, that's a pretty long and good life.

00:52:11.000 Kirk Douglas, of course, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood from basically the 50s through the late 60s.

00:52:16.000 He had a solid 20-year run as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and made a bunch of just fantastic movies, right?

00:52:22.000 Spartacus is a great movie.

00:52:23.000 I'm a huge fan of the gunfight at the OK Corral.

00:52:26.000 Really underrated flick.

00:52:28.000 And I think his best movie, what many people believe is his best performance, is the movie Ace in the Hole, which is a movie about a story that was really big at the time.

00:52:37.000 There was even a novel by Robert Penn Warren that was written about this, the Pulitzer Prize winner.

00:52:42.000 The movie Ace in the Hole is about a journalist, a really corrupt, it's such a cynical, hard-boiled movie.

00:52:48.000 It's about a cynical and corrupt journalist who is covering the story of a man who is trapped underground in a mineshaft collapse and about how he blows up the story and people are arriving and rooting for the guy and he's lying to the public about it in order so that he can achieve some sort of greater measure of fame.

00:53:05.000 It's a really brutal, hard-boiled movie.

00:53:07.000 Here it is, Ace in the Hole.

00:53:10.000 Wash that platinum out of your hair.

00:53:15.000 Phony, below-the-belt journalism, that's what it is.

00:53:17.000 Not below the belt, right in the gut, Mr. Boone.

00:53:21.000 Human interest.

00:53:23.000 Nothing you've ever seen before has the tremendous human interest of Ace in the Hole.

00:53:27.000 For here is a startling story of human emotions and human desires, played against the most exciting fight to save a man's life ever depicted on the screen.

00:53:37.000 Now, when Smollett comes, you can give him your orders.

00:53:40.000 Tell him to go in through the cliff dwelling, shore it up, and get him out fast.

00:53:44.000 Not through the cliff dwelling.

00:53:45.000 You can't get him out that way anymore.

00:53:47.000 It's a movie that's really the This is Billy Wilder.

00:53:56.000 And Billy Wilder, of course, one of the great directors in Hollywood history, actually produced, directed, and wrote this one.

00:54:01.000 It's a really fantastic movie and an absolutely true take.

00:54:05.000 If you haven't seen Richard Jewell yet, the new Clint Eastwood movie, this is basically a very early version of Richard Jewell about how journalists suck.

00:54:13.000 It is accurate.

00:54:14.000 Kirk Douglas is an actor who played mean a lot, sort of like William Holden in his early days.

00:54:18.000 And he was magnetic on screen.

00:54:21.000 I mean, he's terrific in Spartacus.

00:54:23.000 Underrated as an actor because he's a movie star more than he is an actor.

00:54:27.000 But in a sense, in the whole, he does some actual acting.

00:54:28.000 Was not afraid to play nasty on screen.

00:54:30.000 Of course, his son, Michael Douglas, survives him.

00:54:32.000 And so, you know, prayers for the family of Kirk Douglas.

00:54:38.000 I saw some people last night who were passing around old accusations that were sort of rumors that had never been corroborated about him and Natalie Wood.

00:54:45.000 That he had allegedly raped Natalie Wood.

00:54:47.000 That was trending on Twitter last night.

00:54:49.000 It seems to me that if you're going to make an allegation that you ought to – of that sort, that you ought to back it up more than just to have that trend on Twitter on the day that the man dies at 103 years old.

00:55:00.000 He was alive until yesterday.

00:55:01.000 If you wanted to make that an issue, perhaps you should have made that an issue a lot earlier.

00:55:06.000 It seems rather cynical to do it on the day that the man dies.

00:55:09.000 Okay, time for... Well, actually, another quick thing that I like.

00:55:13.000 So, I do love when folks on the left take things incredibly literally.

00:55:17.000 They have no sense of humor, they have no... Folks on the hard left, I'm talking about.

00:55:22.000 You'll see, people on the left.

00:55:23.000 We'll get very upset because we have this leftist tears tumbler, as though it is not, number one, semi-ironic, and number two, as though it does not make the distinction between leftists and liberals.

00:55:30.000 People get very mad about this.

00:55:31.000 Oh no, why are you so brutal?

00:55:33.000 The leftist tears, aren't you just playing on fears?

00:55:36.000 No, if you don't get the joke, you don't get the joke, and I can't explain the joke to you, but...

00:55:39.000 Leftists do this routinely.

00:55:41.000 They sort of take things incredibly literal.

00:55:42.000 So listen to AOC taking incredibly literally the phrase that you're supposed to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

00:55:48.000 That is just... It's an idiom.

00:55:50.000 It's an idiom.

00:55:51.000 A lot of idioms don't make physical sense.

00:55:53.000 Have your cake and eat it too.

00:55:54.000 What the hell is that supposed to mean?

00:55:56.000 But here's AOC explaining that because the idiom, lift yourself up by your own bootstraps, doesn't actually make physical sense, therefore, as an idea, that you should actually work hard on your own to overcome your obstacles, therefore, that doesn't hold true either, which of course, this is galaxy brain stuff from AOC.

00:56:12.000 Hutchinson, I also want to thank you about bringing up the poverty draft and this idea of a bootstrap. 0.70

00:56:18.000 You know, this idea and this metaphor of a bootstrap started off as a joke because it's a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap, by your shoelaces.

00:56:29.000 It's physically impossible.

00:56:31.000 The whole thing is a joke.

00:56:34.000 Thank you, AOC, for explaining that you cannot physically lift yourself up by your own bootstraps because they are connected to your feet, and that's not the way that force and physics work.

00:56:42.000 Yes, we got all of that.

00:56:44.000 Thank you, Galaxy Brain AOC, for explaining that basic idioms don't necessarily make sense.

00:56:50.000 Wow.

00:56:51.000 You've changed my opinion.

00:56:52.000 Now I am a Marxist.

00:56:53.000 Now I'm a Marxist because that phrase doesn't make sense on its own.

00:56:56.000 You're exactly right.

00:56:57.000 Now this means that we have to redistribute all income in American society.

00:57:00.000 Excellent, excellent point, AOC.

00:57:02.000 Unbelievable.

00:57:02.000 Okay, time for a quick thing that I hate.

00:57:04.000 So the New York Human Rights Commission has gone completely insane.

00:57:12.000 Peace by Robby Suave over at Reason.com.

00:57:15.000 The New York Commission on Human Rights, an oversight agency that monitors compliance with the city's incredibly broad anti-discrimination law, has now ordered the fashion company Prada to stop selling certain toy dolls, described by many as racist caricatures akin to blackface, and send its employees to sensitivity training.

00:57:30.000 This is supposedly in a free country.

00:57:31.000 The New York City Commission on Human Rights is now ordering people what they can and cannot sell on the basis of restriction of speech.

00:57:39.000 In doing so, the overzealous agency is claiming vast new powers to police a private entity's behavior.

00:57:43.000 Unfortunately, Prada is meekly submitting to the commission's demands, and other companies, including Dior and Gucci, are facing similar inquisitions, which, of course, is not any sort of shock because the bad publicity associated with the New York Commission on Human Rights going after you is not worth the profit to be made from selling trinkets.

00:57:59.000 In September, the Commission announced that an employer or landlord's use of the term illegal alien could be considered a form of illegal discrimination and result in a fine of up to $250,000.

00:58:10.000 The sweeping declaration was made without any reference to off-cited limitations.

00:58:13.000 Hostile speech must generally be severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive to rise to the level of harassment, for example.

00:58:21.000 There is no way that that meets with First Amendment approval.

00:58:25.000 But this is what the New York City Commission on Human Rights said.

00:58:27.000 I mean, they've suggested that if somebody comes into your bar and they're a transsexual or transgender person, And that if you call them by their biological pronoun, maybe you should be fined a quarter million dollars.

00:58:36.000 Does that really accord with your vision of the First Amendment?

00:58:39.000 If it does, let me suggest you're getting the First Amendment completely, completely wrong.

00:58:43.000 Even before the Declaration, the Commission had begun an investigation into Prada after receiving complaints that some of their merchandise was racially insensitive.

00:58:50.000 According to the New York Times, for the last year, the New York Commission on Human Rights, the law's enforcement agency of the municipal government charged with overseeing the city's human rights laws as they apply to housing, retail establishments, and other areas, has been investigating and in settlement talks with Prada, a process culminating in a deal signed on February 4th, just in time to set nerves on edge during fashion month.

00:59:09.000 So the commission sent Prada a cease and desist letter after a member of the commission saw a New Yorker's angry social media post about the doll.

00:59:17.000 This New Yorker, Chinyere Ezee, a civil rights attorney, filed a complaint with the commission last January.

00:59:22.000 So Prada signed an agreement with the commission.

00:59:25.000 The company will now force all of its employees and company executives in Milan, Italy through racial sensitivity training.

00:59:31.000 Then they will appoint a diversity and inclusion officer subject to the commission's approval.

00:59:35.000 So the commission now gets to hire people over at Prada.

00:59:37.000 It's unbelievable.

00:59:39.000 This person will be tasked with quote, reviewing Prada's designs before they are sold, advertised, or promoted in any way in the United States.

00:59:44.000 Okay, so this is just the government taking over product development at Prada and Prada going along with it because in order for them to operate without legal liability in the city of New York, they're just going to let This person greenlight all projects appropriate for the city of New York.

00:59:57.000 I mean, this is tyranny.

00:59:57.000 It really is.

00:59:59.000 It really is.

01:00:00.000 And you can see this easily happening with regard to any variety of products in New York City.

01:00:04.000 Let's say that they decide that the New York Post, let's say the New York Post uses the term illegal alien, and the New York City Human Rights Commission decides the term illegal alien is in and of itself discriminatory.

01:00:14.000 Or the New York Post decides to call people by their biological pronouns.

01:00:17.000 And the Human Rights Commission says, you're not allowed to do that.

01:00:19.000 And if you do do that, then your distribution of the newspaper every single day will be punishable by a $250,000 fine.

01:00:24.000 So here's what we're going to do.

01:00:26.000 We're going to appoint a person to the board of the New York Post, and that person is going to be an editor who is going to go through and check all of your content for discriminatory content.

01:00:36.000 And that's how we are going to effectuate a hate-free New York.

01:00:40.000 Would that be a violation of freedom of speech? 0.92

01:00:42.000 You bet your ass it would be a violation of freedom of speech, and it would be tyranny. 0.57

01:00:44.000 It would be the government overtly cracking down on freedom of speech. 0.98

01:00:47.000 That's no different just because you're selling the product.

01:00:50.000 Hey, also, Prada is required to tell the commission the demographic makeup of its staff at every level and summarize Prada's past and future activities aimed at increasing the number of people from protected classes underrepresented in the fashion industry.

01:01:02.000 So they're now going to decide on the staffing, company-wide, based on quotas.

01:01:07.000 So New York City, with its non-elected Human Rights Commission, because I don't believe these are elected positions, I believe they're appointed by the mayor, These people are going to decide for Prada how to staff their entire company.

01:01:18.000 Their entire company. 0.99

01:01:19.000 If you are a moron, you now locate your business in New York City. 1.00

01:01:22.000 You wonder why people are rushing out of New York City to Florida? 1.00

01:01:25.000 This is why people are rushing out of New York City to Florida.

01:01:28.000 Gucci has already announced they are going to do this sort of thing.

01:01:32.000 As Robbie Suave points out, in short, government bureaucrats have decided that existing anti-discrimination law gives them the power to tell fashion companies what sort of merchandise they can sell.

01:01:41.000 This is explicitly power they have claimed for themselves.

01:01:43.000 Deputy Commissioner Sapna Raj made this clear to the New York Times, saying, quote, I don't know that we realized previously so many major fashion houses had the ignorance of the history of racism in this country.

01:01:52.000 We hope companies realize they need to be very careful about how they market and advertise, that they need to have a larger social and cultural consciousness.

01:02:00.000 If this doesn't scare the hell out of you, it's because you don't understand what free speech was supposed to be.

01:02:04.000 It's so funny, there are people on the left who will say things like, cancel culture doesn't exist!

01:02:08.000 You are literally cramming down the ability to cancel an entire company based on the size of the fines so long as you do not approve of their staffing decisions and product and marketing decisions.

01:02:17.000 That's not freedom.

01:02:18.000 That's not freedom in any way, shape, or form.

01:02:20.000 But this is the world.

01:02:21.000 There are all these memes out there.

01:02:23.000 This is the world the left wants.

01:02:24.000 This is the world the left wants.

01:02:25.000 If the left had its way, they would be appointing a couple more justices to the Supreme Court so that any legal challenge to this sort of thing would be knocked down.

01:02:32.000 And then the Democrats on a national level would be pushing for hate speech legislation.

01:02:36.000 We're five minutes away from this.

01:02:37.000 It already exists in Britain.

01:02:38.000 It already exists in Canada with dire effects.

01:02:41.000 So when the left tells you they are for personal freedom, just remind them that personal freedom apparently doesn't extend to the ability to market or say the things that you want to market or say so long as you live in New York City.

01:02:50.000 Unbelievable stuff.

01:02:51.000 Alrighty, we'll be back here later today with two additional hours of content for you.

01:02:55.000 Otherwise, we'll see you here tomorrow.

01:02:57.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

01:02:57.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

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01:03:30.000 President Trump has officially been acquitted in the Senate's farce impeachment trial, but not before snake in the grass Mitt Romney gets in one last little nip before being relegated to ignominy and obscurity.

01:03:41.000 We will compare sanctimonious backstabbers with serious and successful conservatives.

01:03:46.000 Then the Trump administration leaks a draft of possibly the single most important executive order We will see in our lifetimes to make America beautiful again.

01:03:55.000 Finally, Andrew Yang reminds us why the left, no matter how wacky, should never be trusted.

01:03:59.000 All that in the Mailbag.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 06, 2020

Acquitted And It Feels So Good | Ep. 948

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