The Ben Shapiro Show - Biden Preps For A Pathetic State Of The Union | Ep. 1443

00:00:00.000 Biden prepares for his first official State of the Union address as president.

00:00:03.000 Chaos continues in Ukraine as Putin stares down the barrel of a humiliating setback.

00:00:07.000 And Democrats prepare to unmask Americans just in time for the midterms.

00:00:11.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:11.000 This is the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:12.000 Today's show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

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00:00:23.000 Join them at expressvpn.com slash Ben.

00:00:26.000 We'll get to all the news in just one moment.

00:00:28.000 Joe Biden giving his State of the Union address tonight.

00:00:30.000 Ooh, ah, the worst, most monarchic institution in American life.

00:00:33.000 It's back.

00:00:34.000 We'll get to that in just one moment.

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00:01:38.000 All right, so Joe Biden is slated to give his first official State of the Union address tonight.

00:01:43.000 He gave an address to the joint session of Congress shortly after his election in 2021.

00:01:48.000 But this is his first official State of the Union, and were he an honest man, it would sound like the beginning of Terry Crews' address in Idiocracy.

00:01:56.000 I know things are bleep right now, but he's not going to say that.

00:01:58.000 Instead, he's going to talk about how strong the union is because his party needs some sort, some sort of reset here.

00:02:05.000 If they don't get a reset, they are in such serious trouble that it is beyond reckoning for them.

00:02:10.000 I believe 31 Democrats have said they're not running.

00:02:14.000 And that number is going to go up before November in the House of Representatives because the polling is just that bad.

00:02:19.000 And here's the thing.

00:02:20.000 Americans know why they're not voting for the Democrats.

00:02:23.000 Kamala Harris had probably an all-time gaffe yesterday. 1.00

00:02:26.000 She's great at this. 0.96

00:02:27.000 She's just spectacular. 1.00

00:02:29.000 First, Jill Biden actually introduced her as President of the United States, and her husband is sitting right there.

00:02:35.000 Joe's sitting right there, still wearing his dumb mask for no reason.

00:02:38.000 And Jill Biden is like, yeah, she's already thinking beyond Joe.

00:02:41.000 Here she is introducing Kamala Harris as President of the United States.

00:02:45.000 Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United... the vice president of the United... Everybody knows.

00:03:00.000 I just said that to make you laugh.

00:03:04.000 The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.

00:03:08.000 And then Kamala Harris gets up there and she does what she does best. 0.99

00:03:11.000 Babble nonsensically and giggle idiotically.

00:03:14.000 She is, she is the treasure is Kamala Harris.

00:03:16.000 So she, um, she said the quiet part out loud yesterday, which is that all the bad stuff that's happening, that's our fault.

00:03:22.000 So here's what she said yesterday.

00:03:24.000 As we all know, elections matter.

00:03:28.000 And when folks vote, they order what they want.

00:03:31.000 And in this case, they got what they asked for.

00:03:34.000 Yep.

00:03:38.000 I went off script a little bit.

00:03:40.000 She realized I shouldn't have said that.

00:03:44.000 That's now going to be in every campaign commercial for every Republican for the rest of this election cycle.

00:03:49.000 People got what they asked for.

00:03:50.000 Yep, high inflation, war abroad, a disintegrating social fabric.

00:03:55.000 Yeah, that's what they got, what they asked for.

00:03:58.000 According to the New York Times, Democratic governors are now looking to Joe Biden for a political reset.

00:04:02.000 They met in Florida, which is hysterically funny.

00:04:04.000 So they jet set it over to the state that they hate the most, the hellscape run by Ron Death Sanders.

00:04:10.000 Uh, by the way, a hellscape from which they basically pulled all their money because they're looking at the polling data in Florida and they know that Ron DeSantis is easily going to win re-election.

00:04:17.000 According to the New York Times, Democratic governors and their allies are expressing deep anxiety about the political conditions facing their party, as President Biden's approval rating slumps in a year when three dozen governorships are on the line, including in some of the nation's most important battleground states.

00:04:31.000 At a weekend fundraising retreat in South Florida, several governors, candidates for governor, and donors acknowledged voters' frustration with the lingering pandemic was damaging the party more than expected.

00:04:39.000 They hoped that Mr. Biden's State of the Union address might serve as a pivot point.

00:04:43.000 Yeah, because that's what Joe Biden is great at, is pivoting.

00:04:45.000 Actually, he's more like Ross in the stairwell on Friends trying to shove that couch up the stairwell.

00:04:50.000 Pivot! 0.84

00:04:51.000 You can't.

00:04:51.000 The couch doesn't fit, dude.

00:04:54.000 It's coming at the convergence of three major events that could reorder the existing political landscape.

00:04:58.000 The Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden's first Supreme Court nomination, and the loosening of many coronavirus restrictions.

00:05:03.000 And none of that's going to reorder anything.

00:05:04.000 First of all, that Supreme Court nomination means nothing.

00:05:06.000 It is not a swing seat.

00:05:07.000 It is just a replacement of one liberal with another liberal.

00:05:09.000 The Russian invasion of Ukraine is really not going to change anything because the long-term effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine are really going to be Rather deleterious to the world order. 0.79

00:05:18.000 And again, one of the reasons that Vladimir Putin went into Ukraine in the first place is because he calibrated wrong.

00:05:24.000 He thought because of all of the weakness that the West had been signaling for literally decades that he could walk into Ukraine. 0.96

00:05:30.000 And it turns out that the West actually reacted this time.

00:05:33.000 But the only reason he's in Ukraine is because of all the bad signals that were being put out by the West in Georgia, in Crimea, in Afghanistan, in Hong Kong.

00:05:41.000 And finally, the loosing of coronavirus restrictions.

00:05:43.000 We're not going to forget, guys.

00:05:44.000 We're not going to forget that you did this to us for two years, that you locked our kids down and masked our kids up for two years.

00:05:49.000 We're not going to just pretend that didn't happen now.

00:05:52.000 So good luck to Joe Biden on pivoting here.

00:05:55.000 The environment is not where we want it to be right now, said Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

00:06:01.000 Yeah, that would be one of the great understatements of all time.

00:06:03.000 The environment is not where we want it to be right now.

00:06:06.000 I believe it's going to get substantially better.

00:06:07.000 Yeah, you can believe what you want, dude.

00:06:08.000 as the water began flowing through the gaping hole in the hall.

00:06:11.000 I believe it's going to get substantially better.

00:06:13.000 Yeah, you can believe what you want, dude.

00:06:14.000 Democrats are defending 16 governorships in November, including in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Maine, Nevada, and Minnesota.

00:06:19.000 Yeah, those are not going to look great, a lot of those races. 1.00

00:06:22.000 Those battleground races have taken on outsized importance after Donald Trump and many in the Republican Party showed an unwillingness to accept electoral defeat in 2020.

00:06:29.000 In Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, incumbent Democratic governors vetoed legislation Yeah, so they're gonna make this into, well, if you don't elect governors to these states where Democrats, then Donald Trump will steal the election.

00:06:40.000 Yeah, sure.

00:06:41.000 Go with that one.

00:06:42.000 I'm sure that's gonna work.

00:06:44.000 Republicans also see an opportunity to pick up a seat in Kansas, a conservative state where Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, is seeking re-election.

00:06:50.000 In informal poolside chats and closed-door political strategy sessions, attendees considered what could be done to change the trajectory of the president's standing in the Democratic brand.

00:07:00.000 A new poll from the WaPo, Washington Post, showed Biden with a 37% overall approval rating and a 30% approval rating among independents.

00:07:09.000 On the retreat's sidelines, several officials expressed frustration with the White House's political operation when granted anonymity to speak candidly.

00:07:15.000 In interviews, state-level Democrats made clear they want less debate over stalled legislation in Washington and more ribbon cuttings and other events highlighting the economic and infrastructure packages already signed into law.

00:07:23.000 Yeah, that's going to do it.

00:07:25.000 What's going to fix this thing is Joe Biden doddering out to podunk Iowa and cutting a ribbon at the dedication of the new Quorum Museum.

00:07:33.000 Nailed it.

00:07:33.000 That's definitely going to recalibrate how Americans are feeling about all of this.

00:07:37.000 We've undersold historic investment in our country, said Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey.

00:07:40.000 And by the way, you should definitely take political advice from a guy who nearly got beaten by a person whose name I don't even remember in New Jersey and who spent $1.72 running against Governor Phil Murphy in New Jersey.

00:07:53.000 Murphy said, I just got reelected in the teeth of, and then he cut himself off before noting that people are quote-unquote mad as hell.

00:07:59.000 He said, they're not necessarily sure why they're mad or who they're mad at, but they're mad and they're frustrated.

00:08:03.000 Nope, we know why we're mad and we know who we're mad at, dude.

00:08:06.000 I'm sorry to break it to you, but it turns out we're all mad at you because you suck at your job.

00:08:10.000 And we know why we're mad.

00:08:11.000 That would be the ridiculous pandemic restrictions, the attempts to fire literally millions of Americans and treat them as the enemy, the attempt to indoctrinate children in critical race theory and gender Fluidity?

00:08:21.000 Yeah, we know why we're pissed, dude.

00:08:23.000 And here's the thing.

00:08:24.000 The finger is pointed at you, so...

00:08:27.000 The Democrats are in serious, serious trouble and Joe Biden is looking for a bit of a reset tonight.

00:08:31.000 So what exactly is he going to talk about in his State of the Union address?

00:08:34.000 According to the New York Times, President Biden will use his first State of the Union address on Tuesday to claim credit for a robust economy.

00:08:42.000 And a unified global response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, even as he acknowledges the pain of inflation and the struggle between democracy and autocracy around the world, administration officials said on Monday.

00:08:52.000 Yeah, good luck with that.

00:08:53.000 He's going to brag about his economy?

00:08:55.000 The economy where inflation is outpacing wage growth, and where the Federal Reserve is set to increase the interest rates to fight inflation, which presumably will hamper economic growth, and also where the price of gas is exorbitant, and also where you would like to spend trillions more dollars, this is your plan?

00:09:13.000 This is your plan?

00:09:14.000 The speech, which has been in the works for months, was originally meant to focus primarily on the president's domestic agenda, using the rare primetime platform as a way to jumpstart his stalled efforts to pass far-reaching social spending legislation.

00:09:24.000 Yeah, that would work too.

00:09:25.000 That would have been really strong.

00:09:26.000 It's after we spend $7 trillion in blowing up the national debt from $23 trillion prior to 2020 to $30 trillion today, he was going to go out there and talk about his stalled social legislation, and Americans were going to rally behind the old man who can barely spew out a couple of sentences without falling all over himself.

00:09:46.000 The war in Europe that erupted last week has forced the White House to ensure that Biden's address, quote, reflects a moment in time.

00:09:50.000 As Jen Psaki, the press secretary, put it Monday afternoon, she said Biden will use part of his remarks to describe the administration's efforts to prevent the Russian invasion and to impose costs on Vladimir Putin of Russia.

00:09:59.000 So here's the thing about the prevention of the invasion.

00:10:03.000 It did not happen.

00:10:05.000 And you know why it didn't happen?

00:10:06.000 Because you took no preemptive measures to actually punish Vladimir Putin.

00:10:09.000 You said since November that he was going to do this.

00:10:12.000 And then you did nothing.

00:10:13.000 And then he did it.

00:10:14.000 And then you responded.

00:10:15.000 And by then, it was too late for Vladimir Putin to pull out.

00:10:18.000 So you basically cowardiced us into a war.

00:10:22.000 What you did is you kept saying over and over and over again that we might do something, we might not do something.

00:10:27.000 It depends on the size of the invasion.

00:10:28.000 If it's a partial invasion, but not a total invasion, then maybe the sanctions will not be all that bad.

00:10:33.000 And Vladimir Putin got the impression from the West That nothing was going to happen.

00:10:37.000 Because after all, nothing had happened in Georgia.

00:10:39.000 Nothing had happened in Ukraine in 2014 under Barack Obama.

00:10:43.000 And Joe Biden made signals that not much was going to happen, even if Vladimir Putin was going to go into Ukraine full force.

00:10:50.000 And so Vladimir Putin went into Ukraine full force.

00:10:52.000 And now here's the problem, as we'll get to in just a few minutes here.

00:10:54.000 Vladimir Putin is boxed in, which means that he has no way out but through.

00:10:59.000 And that means real ugliness, real hideous stuff happening in Ukraine over the course of the next few days. 0.87

00:11:05.000 We're going to watch the evisceration of large civilian centers in Ukraine, if Vladimir Putin's history is anything to guide us.

00:11:12.000 Psaki said, I think people can expect to hear him position that as the importance of the U.S.

00:11:16.000 as a leader of the world, of standing up for values, standing up for global norms.

00:11:18.000 Again, not accurate, considering the Europeans have actually been leading the way, and it's the United States that has been trailing.

00:11:24.000 The president has earned mostly bipartisan support for his efforts to stand up to Putin, but there has been some criticism from both parties that Biden's team was too slow to impose sanctions on Russia, in part because of a desire to accommodate the concerns of European nations.

00:11:35.000 In response to that criticism, Biden will describe what Psaki called steps he has taken to build a global coalition imposing crippling financial sanctions on Russian banks, industries, companies, wealthy oligarchs, and Putin himself.

00:11:45.000 Okay, here's the thing.

00:11:46.000 Biden didn't do that.

00:11:47.000 Vladimir Putin did that by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

00:11:50.000 And it is Joe Biden and his administration, as we'll discuss in a moment, that has actually been holding up sanctions on oil and natural gas because he doesn't want the prices to spike too high in advance of the midterms.

00:12:00.000 Even as Biden takes note of a global crisis overseas, aide said his speech will remain focused on the two most critical issues in his presidency, the economy and COVID.

00:12:09.000 Yeah, I'm sure people are going to love that.

00:12:11.000 Biden will deliver his address to a joint session of Congress as the economy continues to recover from the pandemic-induced recession that caused millions to lose their jobs.

00:12:18.000 I love how the New York Times biases this.

00:12:21.000 The president will use the speech to highlight the low unemployment rate, rapid growth in GDP, and the addition of more than 6 million jobs since he took office about a year ago.

00:12:28.000 If he had just stayed out of the way, it would have been a lot more than that.

00:12:30.000 The president's feel-good message will be tempered, however, by the growing concern about inflation, which has reached levels not seen in decades.

00:12:36.000 That gloominess has helped to drag down Biden's approval rating, The president will absolutely use the word inflation tomorrow, Psaki said on Monday, calling it a huge issue on the minds of Americans.

00:12:45.000 And of course, Biden will urge Congress to spend more money.

00:12:47.000 The Democrats are seeking to pivot away from COVID just in time for the State of the Union.

00:12:52.000 However, they are experiencing some Failure to launch.

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00:13:59.000 So yeah, good luck to Joe Biden on his pivot.

00:14:03.000 The man can't physically pivot, let alone pivot in terms of his politics.

00:14:06.000 So yeah, that's not going to work.

00:14:08.000 But in an attempt to pivot away from COVID, which is what Democrats are trying to do right now, you're starting to see Democratic cities and states opening, getting rid of mask mandates.

00:14:16.000 And just in time for the State of the Union, as predicted by me a month ago, just in time, you had the congressional doctors say, you know, everyone doesn't have to wear masks.

00:14:25.000 We don't have to wear masks anymore.

00:14:27.000 We don't have to do that.

00:14:28.000 And the masking guidance from the CDC changed as well.

00:14:31.000 You'll notice that the CDC changed its standards for what looked like a red area in America.

00:14:35.000 And so overnight, the map changed.

00:14:38.000 90% of America was a red area with high levels of transmission.

00:14:41.000 Then the CDC switched its metric.

00:14:42.000 And now 30% of America is in that category.

00:14:45.000 Literally on the eve of the State of the Union.

00:14:47.000 Don't worry, guys.

00:14:48.000 It's just the science.

00:14:49.000 We're following the science.

00:14:50.000 The science of Joe Biden's crappy polling numbers.

00:14:52.000 Here's Jen Psaki saying mask guidance, that has nothing to do with the State of the Union.

00:14:55.000 It's just all a big coinky dinky. 1.00

00:14:57.000 Here we go.

00:14:59.000 The president is very powerful, but he couldn't make us be in the green zone that we're in right now in D.C.

00:15:04.000 That's why we are not required, we're not going to be required to wear masks starting tomorrow.

00:15:09.000 So I would say that for him, it had nothing to do with the timing around the State of the Union.

00:15:14.000 He wanted to give the CDC the time to assess and make recommendations that would be clear to the American public about what their recommendations would be for mask wearing moving forward.

00:15:24.000 Oh, it has nothing to do with the State of the Union.

00:15:25.000 It's just a big coincidence that the congressional doctor was like, oh, you know what, guys?

00:15:29.000 We actually don't want the picture of everybody wearing masks and socially distancing in the audience while everyone is done with the pandemic.

00:15:35.000 So look at that.

00:15:36.000 Boom.

00:15:36.000 Magic.

00:15:37.000 We fixed it.

00:15:38.000 Geniuses.

00:15:39.000 By the way, the Capitol physician did say that everyone will be required to get a COVID test to even go in the building.

00:15:44.000 So a bunch of Republicans are like, eh, all right.

00:15:46.000 See you later.

00:15:47.000 Which is what they all should do.

00:15:48.000 Because there is no reason to asymptomatically test at this point in time, and we all know it.

00:15:53.000 So everybody with half a shred of brain in the Republican Party should be saying, I'm not going to go to the state.

00:15:58.000 This is what Marco Rubio said.

00:15:59.000 Senator from Florida said, I'm not testing.

00:16:00.000 I'm asymptomatic.

00:16:01.000 Why would I test?

00:16:02.000 Correct.

00:16:04.000 But all of this is about politics.

00:16:05.000 There is a Democratic internal memo from a group called Impact Research that was sent out to some of the heads of the Democratic Party.

00:16:13.000 Just a few days ago.

00:16:14.000 And here's what it said, quote, after two years that necessitated lockdowns, travel bans, school closures, mask mandates, and nearly a million deaths, nearly every American finally has the tools to protect themselves from this virus.

00:16:24.000 Now, we can stop right there and just point out that we've had the tools to protect ourselves from this virus literally since last March.

00:16:30.000 So no, that is not now.

00:16:31.000 That was a year ago.

00:16:32.000 It's time for Democrats to take credit for ending the COVID crisis phase of the COVID war, they say.

00:16:38.000 So what do they recommend?

00:16:38.000 like vaccine distribution and providing economic stability to Americans and fully enter the rebuilding phase that comes after any war. So what do they recommend? And I'm sure it will be reflected in Joe Biden's speech tonight to clear the crisis phase of COVID over and push for feeling and acting more normal. Good luck saying this to all of the Democrats who you have trained for two years to be paranoid lunatics.

00:16:58.000 I don't want you to take my side, man.

00:17:03.000 You've been lying to me.

00:17:04.000 You've been lying to me.

00:17:05.000 I literally picked up my family and moved from California to Florida because I don't trust you guys.

00:17:09.000 And now you're saying you're on my side?

00:17:11.000 You shut down the playgrounds where my kids used to play in Los Angeles and you allowed homeless people to take over the streets and rioters to burn things down in the middle of the pandemic on behalf of racial justice.

00:17:21.000 And you expect me to believe that you're taking my side?

00:17:24.000 Really?

00:17:25.000 Good luck with that one.

00:17:27.000 They also say, don't set COVID-0 as the victory condition.

00:17:30.000 Oh, so you're shifting the goalposts now.

00:17:34.000 How fascinating.

00:17:35.000 Some of us said COVID-0 was a dumb goalpost in the first place, but now you're shifting.

00:17:39.000 So watch for Joe Biden to do all of this tonight.

00:17:42.000 They also say, stop talking about restrictions and the unknown future ahead.

00:17:45.000 So watch for Joe Biden to try and swivel away from his own COVID stupidity.

00:17:49.000 And it is incredible to watch as Democrats try to claim this is all about the shift in science.

00:17:54.000 It is not about the shift in science.

00:17:56.000 California, Oregon, and Washington announced yesterday that they were going to end school mask mandates on March 12th.

00:18:00.000 Why isn't that magical?

00:18:02.000 They announced yesterday they were doing this.

00:18:04.000 When is the State of the Union?

00:18:07.000 Why it's almost as though all the Democrats got on the same page just before Joe Biden's big speech in which he can announce that he and his Democratic friends have ended COVID, which is a lie.

00:18:16.000 They did not end COVID.

00:18:17.000 Omicron ended COVID by everyone getting it.

00:18:20.000 So yeah, no, that is not accurate, but they're all going to do this so that they can claim that the science has changed and now we can all move on together.

00:18:26.000 Aren't we best friends again?

00:18:27.000 We're best friends.

00:18:28.000 Sure, we abused you and beat the living hell out of you for two years, and we destroyed hundreds of thousands of businesses, and we tried to get you fired for not vaxxing. 0.57

00:18:35.000 And sure, we made your small children mask up to their own misery while we were out partying at the Super Bowl.

00:18:40.000 But aren't we all on the same page now, guys?

00:18:42.000 Aren't we all on the same page?

00:18:44.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, California, Oregon, and Washington will end their statewide mask mandates for schools and other indoor settings by March 12th, in a coordinated move announced on Monday.

00:18:52.000 It's because of Tassians. 1.00

00:18:54.000 It was coordinated.

00:18:55.000 Now, all of these states have different rates of COVID at this point, but it doesn't matter.

00:18:58.000 The science says it's time to remove the mask, just in time for the midterms.

00:19:01.000 California, which lifted its indoor mask requirement for vaccinated people on February 15th, is ending it for unvaccinated people on Tuesday.

00:19:07.000 Oregon and Washington will take the same step on March 12th, the same day all three West Coast states will no longer require masks inside schools.

00:19:13.000 They're joining a growing list of other Democratic-led states, counties, and cities that have relaxed or ended mask requirements in recent weeks as the Omicron surge has faded.

00:19:22.000 New York State said Sunday it would lift its statewide public school mask mandate starting on Wednesday.

00:19:27.000 Oh, you mean like the day after the State of the Union address?

00:19:30.000 It's so transparently political.

00:19:32.000 It's so unbelievably transparently political.

00:19:34.000 And yet they're the ones who say that we are the science deniers.

00:19:36.000 Go screw yourselves, guys.

00:19:38.000 We are not interested.

00:19:39.000 You know, we know who to blame.

00:19:41.000 It's you.

00:19:42.000 You're the ones to blame.

00:19:43.000 By the way, new data out.

00:19:44.000 I know we're not supposed to cite data.

00:19:45.000 Data is very bad.

00:19:46.000 There's new data out from New York State and Pfizer.

00:19:49.000 According to CNBC, the New York State Department of Health found that the effectiveness of Pfizer's vaccine against COVID infection plummeted from 68% to 12% for kids aged 5 to 11 during the Omicron surge from December 13th through January 24th.

00:20:04.000 Protection against hospitalization dropped from 100% to 48% during the same period.

00:20:10.000 So I look forward to you trying to now claim that you got us out of the pandemic.

00:20:13.000 That it was you.

00:20:14.000 It wasn't you who shut down the economy.

00:20:16.000 It wasn't you who damaged businesses and made kids' lives miserable.

00:20:21.000 It wasn't you who listened to Randy Weingarten at the National Education Association dictating terms as to when teachers should be in schools.

00:20:27.000 But it was you who got us out of this pandemic.

00:20:29.000 If you think Americans are going to buy that for one iota of one millisecond, you are out of your damn mind.

00:20:34.000 People are not going to buy that and they shouldn't buy that.

00:20:36.000 So the attempted shift from Joe Biden being a terrible president to a good president based on the end of COVID, which had nothing to do with and actually impeded with many of his measures, That is going to be a fun thing to watch, the President of the United States try to tap dance around tonight.

00:20:55.000 And then apparently he is going to get to the situation in Ukraine.

00:20:58.000 That is the other issue that he is going to be discussing, is the continued chaos in Eastern Europe.

00:21:03.000 And he's going to claim that he has put together a world coalition.

00:21:05.000 Here's the thing, he didn't do anything.

00:21:06.000 Vladimir Putin did it.

00:21:08.000 In the same way that it was Barack Obama's embrace of Iran that created the Abraham Accords by forcing Israel and the Arabs together against Iran, Europe has come together because of Vladimir Putin's invasion, not because Joe Biden is such a wonderful communicator.

00:21:21.000 Does anyone actually believe that Joe Biden's a great communicator?

00:21:23.000 You'd have to be crazy to believe that, right?

00:21:25.000 Well, folks, in just one second, we'll get to all of the issues in Ukraine.

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00:22:47.000 So here is the latest from Ukraine.

00:22:50.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, talks between Russia and Ukraine on a potential ceasefire ended with no deal on Monday, as Moscow intensified its assault, killing at least 10 civilians in a shelling attack on residential neighborhoods in the eastern city of Kharkiv and pursuing efforts to seize the capital of Kyiv.

00:23:09.000 Russian pronunciation is Kiev.

00:23:10.000 The Ukrainian pronunciation is Kiev.

00:23:11.000 Something I just found out.

00:23:12.000 That is why the shift in pronunciation.

00:23:14.000 Ukrainian and Russian negotiators who met in Belarus just inside its border with Ukraine returned to their capitals for consultations and agreed to meet again in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border.

00:23:23.000 Both delegations said that the five-hour meeting led to some progress.

00:23:26.000 Well, there's going to need to be some progress here because otherwise The likely outcome of what's happening right now is that Vladimir Putin just ups his game.

00:23:33.000 That's what's going to have to happen for him.

00:23:34.000 He can't afford to just lose this war outright.

00:23:36.000 And so it is very likely that he is going to do exactly what he did to Grozny in 1994 and just bomb the living hell out of civilian centers. 0.63

00:23:42.000 Because he does not care.

00:23:43.000 He does not care.

00:23:44.000 He's a very, very bad man.

00:23:45.000 He is a thug dictator who does not care how many civilians die in order for him to achieve his objectives.

00:23:51.000 Russia has been pouring large reinforcement convoys across the border on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal, in what could be preparation for a renewed push to besiege Kiev.

00:23:58.000 Satellite imagery on Monday from Maxar Technology shows a large Russian convoy approximately 40 miles long moving closer to Kiev.

00:24:04.000 On Monday night, airstrikes on Kiev picked up.

00:24:06.000 Russia also fired an Iskander ballistic missile at the capital's Brovery suburb, local officials said.

00:24:12.000 Russia appears to be preparing for a possible escalation of the war on Ukraine.

00:24:15.000 In an indication that Moscow may be shifting to a more destructive approach, two residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, came under heavy shelling on Monday, likely by multiple rocket launchers.

00:24:24.000 At least 10 civilians were killed.

00:24:25.000 More than 40 were injured, with the toll likely to grow because of continued shelling interfering with rescue efforts, according to Kharkiv Governor Oleh Tsianahubov.

00:24:33.000 It's a war crime, he said.

00:24:35.000 The city's mayor, Ihor Tarakov, said that the fatalities included four residents who'd left a shelter to get water and a family of two parents and three kids were incinerated when a Russian rocket hit their car.

00:24:45.000 The pictures of that Russian convoy are rather stunning.

00:24:47.000 Like one of those movies where you pull out the camera and you just see that it's an endless line of military hardware.

00:24:55.000 One of the big questions, of course, is how exactly you're even going to get the aid to Kiev because Russia has been encircling Kiev.

00:25:01.000 can only be resupplied through the West.

00:25:05.000 If the West is cut off, it's going to be very difficult to get any sort of materiel in there.

00:25:10.000 The Kremlin on Monday cited Putin's demands for ending the conflict as Ukraine recognizing the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia neutrality and quote demilitarization and denazification of the country.

00:25:20.000 Russia, of course, likes to claim that in the Donbass region, there's a neo-Nazi group that's rather active over there.

00:25:25.000 This part is true. 0.80

00:25:26.000 And that neo-Nazi group that's rather active over there has been targeting Russian citizens.

00:25:29.000 That has been the claim of the Russian government that they say justifies this widespread invasion.

00:25:35.000 Putin's claims, of course, go further than that.

00:25:37.000 He suggests that the Russian government is just guided outright by neo-Nazis, which is wild, considering that the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, is Jewish.

00:25:45.000 President Emmanuel Macron of France spoke to Putin on Monday.

00:25:48.000 He said the Russian leader agreed during the call to his request not to attack Ukraine's civilian targets and infrastructure and not to encircle Kiev.

00:25:55.000 In previous conversations, of course, Putin had told Macron that he wasn't going to invade at all.

00:25:59.000 So that promise is not worth the paper it's printed on, and it's not printed on paper.

00:26:05.000 Apparently, outside one Kyiv supermarket, the waiting time to enter was about two hours.

00:26:08.000 We're not going anywhere.

00:26:09.000 I was born in Kyiv.

00:26:10.000 I will die here, said Valeria Voitenko, a 23-year-old post office worker whose husband is fighting on the front lines of Kharkiv.

00:26:17.000 The economic sanctions continue.

00:26:19.000 Russian bonds have been completely decimated.

00:26:22.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the prices of Russian government bonds fell more than 50% Monday as foreign investors grew concerned that Western sanctions would undermine the country's ability and willingness to pay them back.

00:26:31.000 Russia, of course, defaulted in the late 1990s.

00:26:33.000 That was one of the earliest crises of the Putin regime.

00:26:37.000 Moves by the US and European governments to cut off Russian access to the SWIFT banking network might prevent the network from distributing payments to bondholders abroad, emerging markets bond fund managers said.

00:26:46.000 So people have stopped investing in Russia altogether.

00:26:49.000 The price on that 5.25% government bond due in 2047?

00:26:54.000 It's dropped to about 30 cents on the dollar from 120 cents on the dollar.

00:26:58.000 So those are really, really bad numbers.

00:26:59.000 It means that Russia is unable to raise any money at this point.

00:27:03.000 Meanwhile, the blockade on Russia's central bank is neutralizing its ability to avoid sanctions, according to the Wall Street Journal.

00:27:10.000 The coordinated action blocks the central bank from selling dollars, euros and other foreign currencies in its reserve stockpile to even stabilize the ruble.

00:27:16.000 So they can't even go on the open markets and they've been stockpiling foreign currencies.

00:27:19.000 They can't even get rid of those. 0.54

00:27:20.000 Announcing the move Monday in Washington before U.S.

00:27:22.000 markets open, U.S.

00:27:23.000 officials said they intended the sanctions to stoke already surging inflation, and the actions against the Bank of Russia are intended, in effect, to neutralize the country's monetary defenses.

00:27:31.000 The sanctions also target another major government stockpile of assets, a key sovereign wealth fund called the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

00:27:37.000 And prevent Moscow from using other government and private banks to sidestep sanctions on its financial system, the official said.

00:27:42.000 In a statement, the fund said the action demonstrates the US has picked the course to destroy constructive dialogue between countries.

00:27:47.000 China, by the way, came out and suggested, of course, that they are against these sorts of sanctions.

00:27:51.000 They don't like that weapon because they're afraid that eventually it will be used against them.

00:27:55.000 Western companies are piggybacking on the official actions by the various governments.

00:28:00.000 The British energy giant Shell became the latest Western company to sever its ties completely with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying that it would stop financing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which basically kills it outright.

00:28:11.000 Shell's decision came a day after British Petroleum said it would exit its 20% stake in the Russian oil producer Rosneft.

00:28:16.000 So it's basically economic nuclear war with the Russian government at this point.

00:28:23.000 Meanwhile, the Ukrainians were at the U.N.

00:28:24.000 upping the rhetoric.

00:28:25.000 Here was the Ukrainian U.N.

00:28:26.000 ambassador who was saying yesterday his name is Sergei Kislytsia.

00:28:30.000 He said that Vladimir Putin should finish himself off in a bunker like Hitler.

00:28:35.000 If he wants to kill himself, he doesn't need to use nuclear arsenal.

00:28:40.000 He has to do what the guy in Berlin did in a bunker in May 1945.

00:28:51.000 Okay, so he's essentially telling Vladimir Putin to go shoot himself.

00:28:55.000 He then continued, and this part is pretty amazing.

00:28:57.000 He actually read from the text messages of a dead Russian soldier.

00:29:00.000 Many Russian soldiers have already been killed in this particular war.

00:29:03.000 Here was the Ukrainian ambassador.

00:29:05.000 Mama, I'm in Ukraine.

00:29:10.000 There is a real war raging here.

00:29:15.000 I'm afraid.

00:29:18.000 We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians.

00:29:27.000 We were told that they would welcome us.

00:29:31.000 And they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass.

00:29:41.000 They call us fascists.

00:29:44.000 Mama, this is so hard.

00:29:48.000 Okay, so that is a text message from a Russian soldier back to his parents before he was killed.

00:29:52.000 This is one of the big problems that Putin has.

00:29:55.000 Putin had this mythical belief that basically all of the resistance was going to crumble the way that it did in Afghanistan when the United States pulled out of Afghanistan.

00:30:02.000 And that has not happened, obviously.

00:30:04.000 The Ukrainian people have solidified and unified against the Russian invasion in the first place.

00:30:09.000 By the way, it is worth noting here that there is widespread American unity on the question of whether we ought to support Ukraine.

00:30:14.000 Now, that doesn't mean the United States is going to put in troops.

00:30:16.000 It doesn't mean we should establish a no-fly zone.

00:30:18.000 I know there's been talk about establishing a no-fly zone.

00:30:20.000 That would mean the possibility of direct warfare with the Russians. 0.54

00:30:23.000 That is both unnecessary and unwise at this point, considering both Putin's mindset and his commitment to winning this war.

00:30:29.000 The last thing you want is Russian planes and American planes occupying the same airspace at this point.

00:30:33.000 You have to say that the Biden administration is getting this right.

00:30:36.000 At least this much.

00:30:37.000 Jen Psaki, yesterday, she said there will be no no-fly zone.

00:30:41.000 This is correct.

00:30:41.000 There should not be a no-fly zone over Russia, at least imposed by NATO or the United States.

00:30:46.000 On military, is there any way in which the U.S.

00:30:48.000 would support a no-fly zone over Ukraine?

00:30:51.000 Well, here's what's important for everybody to know about a no-fly zone.

00:30:54.000 What that would require is implementation by the U.S.

00:30:57.000 military.

00:30:57.000 It would essentially mean the U.S.

00:30:59.000 military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes.

00:31:02.000 That is definitely escalatory.

00:31:04.000 That would potentially put us into a place where we're in a military conflict with Russia.

00:31:09.000 That is not something the president wants to do.

00:31:11.000 Okay, so she actually happens to be correct about this.

00:31:13.000 And I am encouraged that the Biden administration, while they have finally gotten on board with, for example, shipping military supplies into Ukraine, while they finally got on board with de-banking Russian oligarchs and de-banking the Russians, obviously months too late and after bad signaling, while they're doing all that, they are attempting at this point to de-escalate.

00:31:30.000 There has to be a way out here because here is the problem.

00:31:32.000 Once you've decimated the Russian economy, and if that military material that's being poured into Ukraine is effective in stymying the Russian advance, Then you have to offer some sort of fig leaf for Putin to stop, because otherwise Putin is just going to continue to do what Putin has been doing, which is he's going to make this more brutal and more vicious, knowing that nobody's actually going to get in open conflict with him other than the Ukrainian people.

00:31:54.000 He's just going to keep upping the ante.

00:31:55.000 So there has to be some way out offered to Putin here, because otherwise you could see a situation in which he's stymied so far that he actually goes back to the Russian Soviet playbook, which actually suggested that in last ditch scenarios, The Russians could actually first use nuclear weapons in tactical battlefield scenarios.

00:32:11.000 Remember, nuclear weapon doesn't have to be a missile fired at the United States.

00:32:14.000 A nuclear weapon could be deployed on a battlefield in order to eviscerate the enemy.

00:32:19.000 That's long been part of the Russian military playbook.

00:32:21.000 So you could actually have first use of nuclear weapons since World War II, not fired against a NATO ally, for example, but detonated near, say, Kharkiv, because Vladimir Putin needs the win.

00:32:34.000 So boxing him in actually makes Vladimir Putin a little bit more volatile.

00:32:38.000 That doesn't mean that there's any other choice but to box him in.

00:32:40.000 The crushing sanctions are useful and necessary.

00:32:43.000 And in fact, we should be harshening the sanctions on the Russian energy sector, which continues to be Vladimir Putin's way out.

00:32:47.000 We'll get to that in a moment.

00:32:48.000 But the fact that the Biden administration is simultaneously looking to crush Putin's invasion and also looking to de-escalate is correct. 0.78

00:32:57.000 Whether they're able to achieve that or not may be a different question.

00:33:01.000 Here was Jen Psaki yesterday saying we would like to reduce the rhetoric and to de-escalate.

00:33:06.000 Listen, I'm more hawkish than pretty much everybody and this is going to have to happen because otherwise Vladimir Putin is just going to keep upping the ante.

00:33:13.000 Putin is putting his nuclear forces on heightened alert.

00:33:16.000 I know you responded to that.

00:33:18.000 You said this is yet another instance of Putin trying to manufacture a threat that doesn't exist.

00:33:24.000 But Jen, can you tell us what, if anything, is the administration doing about that threat and how concerned are you about it?

00:33:30.000 I think this is why it's so important for everybody to know and understand how President Putin uses rhetoric and uses threats in order to justify further military aggression.

00:33:39.000 That's what we've seen him do in the past.

00:33:41.000 He has never been under threat from NATO, from Ukraine, from any country.

00:33:45.000 So what we want to do right now is reduce the rhetoric and de-escalate.

00:33:50.000 Okay, they actually are going to have to do that.

00:33:51.000 Because again, once you've boxed in a rogue dictator and you've made him feel as though his only way out is through, then things could get a lot, a lot uglier.

00:34:00.000 For his part, Joe Biden was walking around outside in a KN95 mask.

00:34:03.000 I don't understand why he's doing this.

00:34:05.000 And not answering questions about Ukraine.

00:34:07.000 Here he was walking across an empty field by himself in a KN95 mask because he is a doddering old man. 0.95

00:34:13.000 Mr. President, is Ukraine winning the war?

00:34:18.000 There he goes.

00:34:19.000 And watching that guy walk is, it's like watching Michael Scott do some sort of meeting.

00:34:26.000 It's just, it's so, man, just don't step in a pothole, Mr. President.

00:34:29.000 Because, wow.

00:34:33.000 Oh, there he goes.

00:34:34.000 N95, alone, outside, across an empty lawn.

00:34:39.000 There he goes.

00:34:39.000 He did say yesterday, don't worry about nuclear war.

00:34:41.000 Now, I'll be honest with you, I really wasn't worried about nuclear war until Joe Biden told me not to worry about nuclear war.

00:34:45.000 Now I'm a little worried about nuclear war.

00:34:48.000 Mr. President, should Americans be worried about nuclear war?

00:34:51.000 No.

00:34:53.000 No?

00:34:53.000 Okay.

00:34:53.000 Well, now I'm a little worried.

00:34:55.000 The State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, he said that leaders around the world continue to work together to further politically and financially isolate Russia.

00:35:01.000 This is true, and it is good.

00:35:03.000 It is late.

00:35:04.000 Again, the problem is, we have two problems.

00:35:07.000 One is sort of looking back, and one is looking forward.

00:35:09.000 The looking back problem is, why did Vladimir Putin invade in the first place?

00:35:12.000 And the answer is because you push where there's mush.

00:35:14.000 And Vladimir Putin thought the West was mush, and he miscalibrated.

00:35:17.000 This, by the way, is how many wars get started, is one side believes the other side will do nothing.

00:35:21.000 This was, for a long time, the going theory as to how the Gulf War had gotten started, is that Saddam Hussein was given signals by the West that if he invaded Kuwait, nothing would actually happen.

00:35:29.000 So that is problem number one, is that going forward, you actually have to establish a serious level of deterrence.

00:35:34.000 You have to make the moves necessary to solidify yourself internally, to rebut any sort of aggression.

00:35:38.000 And you have to make clear that there will be a price to that aggression.

00:35:41.000 The United States and its allies didn't do that in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine.

00:35:44.000 Now the question is how you get out of this and the answer is you do have to crush Putin and at the same time you do have to offer him some way out of this that he is going to take.

00:35:52.000 Here is the State Department spokesperson.

00:35:56.000 Leaders from around the world are working together to further politically and financially isolate Russia, including by blocking Russia from international financial systems and economies.

00:36:06.000 We took further measures against Russia's financial system in response to the Kremlin's flagrant violation of international law in utter disregard for the principles that underpin peace and security around the world.

00:36:21.000 Well, I mean, all of that is true.

00:36:22.000 It is also true that the White House and the West still are not getting involved in cutting off natural gas and oil from Russia because they're afraid of the shock on the world markets.

00:36:31.000 It was Jen Psaki saying that yesterday.

00:36:33.000 What is the stance of the U.S.

00:36:36.000 in buying Russian gas at this point?

00:36:38.000 At this point, are we ready to pledge not to buy any more Russian gas?

00:36:42.000 So as it relates to Russian gas, U.S.

00:36:46.000 government doesn't dictate where the U.S. 0.87

00:36:48.000 market sells our own oil and gas products, nor where it acquires crude or refined products for domestic consumption.

00:36:55.000 This is all up to the private sector, other than exceptions like countries under sanctions.

00:36:59.000 Okay, in just one second, we'll get to the long-term impact of what happens in Ukraine.

00:37:04.000 Because the world order has reshifted.

00:37:06.000 There is a new world order, but it's more like a new world disorder.

00:37:08.000 We'll get to that in just one moment.

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00:37:12.000 And those gas prices are about to skyrocket.

00:37:14.000 Again.

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00:37:15.000 Now they're getting worse thanks to the conflict in Ukraine and the cutoff of Russian natural oil and gas and all the rest.

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00:38:16.000 Alrighty, tonight, It's Joe Biden's first official State of the Union address, as we've been talking about.

00:38:21.000 There's one thing I guarantee you're not going to hear.

00:38:23.000 Anything true.

00:38:24.000 That's because the Biden presidency is a giant, giant disaster.

00:38:28.000 Of course, Biden isn't going to say that.

00:38:30.000 But I'm going to, because tonight, for the first time, exactly 15 minutes following Joe Biden's remarks before a joint session of Congress, I will offer up my formal response.

00:38:38.000 You can call it the real State of the Union.

00:38:39.000 I'm going to tell you where we are really at as a country.

00:38:42.000 The State of the Union is not exactly strong.

00:38:44.000 I assure you that my State of the Union response will be free of focus group testing from the GOP.

00:38:50.000 I will be holding the President accountable.

00:38:51.000 There's no hiding behind COVID, or blaming rogue dictators, or having Brian Stelter cover it up.

00:38:55.000 Join me, Jeremy Boring, Michael Molls, Matt Walsh, and Andrew Clayton tonight, 8.15pm Eastern, 7.15pm Central, on The Daily Wire's YouTube channel.

00:39:03.000 My real State of the Union response will be airing as soon as Joe Biden's address ends on that very same channel.

00:39:07.000 Make sure to tune in.

00:39:08.000 you're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.

00:39:12.000 So if you look at the long-term impacts of what is happening in Ukraine, you're starting to see the beginnings of a really reshifted world order.

00:39:25.000 So first of all, the Europeans are now actually going to rearm. 0.91

00:39:29.000 The Europeans have decided they're going to get tough and they're no longer going to engage in the delusion where Greta Thunberg Actually ran their foreign policy.

00:39:36.000 They're not going to do that any longer.

00:39:38.000 European Parliament announced this morning that they've now accepted Ukraine's application to join the European Union.

00:39:43.000 A special admission procedure has now begun.

00:39:45.000 So Ukraine is now going to be joined into the EU.

00:39:49.000 Meanwhile, you've seen Germany completely U-turning on its entire perspective on foreign policy.

00:39:54.000 According to dnyuz.com, it took an invasion of a sovereign country nearby, threats of nuclear attack, images of civilians facing off against Russian tanks, and a spate of shaming from allies for Germany to shake its decades-long faith in a military-averse foreign policy that was born of the crimes of the Third Reich.

00:40:11.000 But once Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to act, the country's about-face was swift.

00:40:16.000 February 24, 2022 marks a historic turning point in the history of our continent, said He's announced that Germany would increase its military spending to more than 2% of the country's economic output, beginning immediately with a one-off 100 billion euros, or 113 billion dollars, to invest in the country's woefully under-equipped armed forces.

00:40:32.000 He added that Germany would speed up construction of two terminals for receiving liquefied natural gas, part of efforts to ease the country's reliance on Russian energy.

00:40:39.000 He said at the heart of the matter is the question of whether power can break the law, whether we allow Putin to turn back the hands of time to the days of the great powers of the 19th century, or whether we find it within ourselves to set limits on a warmonger like Putin.

00:40:51.000 The events of the past week have shocked countries with typically pacifist means, as well as those more closely aligned with Russia.

00:40:56.000 Both have found the invasion impossible to watch quietly.

00:40:58.000 Viktor Orban, the generally pro-Russia, anti-immigrant Prime Minister of Hungary, who denounced sanctions against Russia just weeks ago, reversed his position this weekend.

00:41:05.000 Japan, which was hesitant to impose sanctions on Russia in 2014, strongly condemned last week's invasion.

00:41:11.000 Well, the reason they did that is because they're looking across the water and they see China right there.

00:41:16.000 In fact, the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, he came out and he said that perhaps Japan should consider hosting American nuclear weapons on their soil, which is a massive reversal.

00:41:25.000 So what we're about to see, primarily when it comes to hard power, is a real military buildup that's going to happen from all of our erstwhile allies.

00:41:34.000 That's all fun and games until the point at which one of those Durst-Weill allies becomes a not-ally. 0.98

00:41:37.000 It turns out that a wildly re-armed world, as opposed to an American-dominated world, is a much more dangerous world. 0.93

00:41:43.000 Because the fact is that countries have differential interests.

00:41:46.000 And countries are more likely.

00:41:47.000 To get into armed conflict when they are armed.

00:41:49.000 And so the fact that the United States was sort of the global police person.

00:41:54.000 The United States was the world's global police force.

00:41:56.000 We may not have wanted that role, but in the absence of that role, what you end up with is everybody fighting with each other.

00:42:00.000 When the teacher leaves the room, the students begin fighting with one another.

00:42:03.000 That's just the way the world works.

00:42:04.000 And so we may be celebrating the fact that Germany is now paying 2% of its GDP for its budget.

00:42:09.000 And that's good.

00:42:09.000 It is.

00:42:10.000 And they should be increasing their military budget to pay for NATO forces.

00:42:13.000 All of that is correct.

00:42:14.000 I mean, President Trump encouraged them to do that.

00:42:16.000 But the sort of newly nationalistic fervor that you're starting to see in Europe, it has a sort of nasty history.

00:42:23.000 Does it not?

00:42:24.000 It turns out that the alternative to an American organized global order is A non-organized disorder.

00:42:31.000 Russia and China, meanwhile, have been moving closer together.

00:42:35.000 So China came out yesterday.

00:42:36.000 They said they don't like economic sanctions.

00:42:37.000 China is looking at Taiwan.

00:42:39.000 China and Russia are banding closer together with Iran.

00:42:42.000 Meanwhile, Finland and Sweden are now moving to join NATO as well.

00:42:47.000 So you're starting to see more and more countries in Europe sort of solidify as part of this broader Western alliance.

00:42:52.000 So is that a new Cold War or is that more like just a series of discombobulated countries all seeking by this way nuclear weapons?

00:42:59.000 If you're a non-aligned country, if you're not formally aligned with either one, you're not a member of the EU, but you're also not a member of the China-Russia Axis and there are no mutual defense guarantees, aren't you seeking a nuclear weapon?

00:43:09.000 Are you doing that like right now?

00:43:11.000 There's a reason, for example, that Israel sought a nuclear weapon in the 1960s.

00:43:14.000 It was a non-aligned country, and the idea was that if it was invaded, last-ditch scenario, they were gonna nuke somebody.

00:43:21.000 In fact, Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel, apparently in 1973, she basically said to the United States, when the United States was not sending material support, she said, listen, if you don't send us bullets, and we are down to our last man, then the nukes go off.

00:43:34.000 And the United States is like, okay, fine, well, I guess we'll send you some bullets so you can defend yourself in the Yom Kippur War. 0.91

00:43:38.000 But the simple fact of the matter is, Non-aligned countries are going to rearm.

00:43:41.000 They're going to start seeing more and more countries looking for nuclear weapons.

00:43:45.000 So the sort of era of widespread peace is coming to an end.

00:43:50.000 And it's coming to an end because the West had bought into a delusion, and that delusion was the Thomas Friedman-Francis Fukuyama delusion that we had reached the end of history.

00:43:58.000 And we decided to turtle.

00:43:59.000 We decided to ostrich our heads for three decades.

00:44:02.000 And any time a conflict arose, the idea was it was an exception to the rule.

00:44:06.000 The rule is not a more violent world in which people fight each other and have differential interests and different cultures, look for different borders and all the rest.

00:44:14.000 Instead, we are going to say that we are moving toward a grand idealistic enterprise in which all economies were interrelated.

00:44:20.000 And as Thomas Friedman suggested in the Lexus and the olive tree, the golden arches theory, if everybody had a McDonald's, then nobody would fight.

00:44:26.000 And it turns out that all of that was nonsense.

00:44:27.000 It wasn't true.

00:44:28.000 And so the West turtled.

00:44:29.000 And now Vladimir Putin has shaken the West out of that feeling.

00:44:32.000 Well, I'm glad that the West has been shaken awake.

00:44:35.000 I'm a little bit concerned about the effects of a West that already has abandoned the idea of American hegemony, which was the guarantor of world peace really since the end of World War Two.

00:44:47.000 Meanwhile, by the way, inflation is spiraling out of control and there are going to be some real costs in the West for that.

00:44:52.000 According to the Wall Street Journal.

00:44:54.000 Rising inflation is driving up expenses for many large U.S.

00:44:56.000 pension funds that have promised retirees cost-of-living raises.

00:45:01.000 So for all those who think that foreign policy doesn't matter, just understand life is about to get a lot more expensive because we didn't take the preventative measures necessary to keep America at the top of the world order.

00:45:09.000 Foreign policy, just like domestic policy, has consequences.

00:45:13.000 Okay, we'll be back here later today for an additional hour of content.

00:45:15.000 In the meantime, go check out our newest podcast, Morning Wire.

00:45:18.000 Today's episode is available right now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

00:45:22.000 Make sure to tune in.

00:45:23.000 Also tonight, watch our State of the Union coverage that is starting over on our YouTube channel, Daily Wire, 8.15 p.m.

00:45:30.000 Eastern Time.

00:45:30.000 And immediately following Joe Biden's State of the Union, I will be giving an official State of the Union response.

00:45:36.000 So make sure that you tune into that as well.

00:45:38.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:45:38.000 Shapiro, this is the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:45:40.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Elliott Felt.

00:45:47.000 Executive Producer Jeremy Boring.

00:45:49.000 Our Supervising Producer is Mathis Glover.

00:45:51.000 And our Production Manager is Paweł Łydowski.

00:45:53.000 Associate Producer Bradford Carrington.

00:45:55.000 Editing is by Adam Sajewicz.

00:45:57.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Koromina.

00:45:59.000 Hair and Makeup is by Fabiola Christina.

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00:46:03.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:46:05.000 Copyright Daily Wire 2022.

00:46:08.000 John Bickley here, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief.

00:46:11.000 Wake up every morning with our show, Morning Wire, where we bring you all the news that you need to know in 15 minutes or less.

The Ben Shapiro Show - March 01, 2022

Biden Preps For A Pathetic State Of The Union | Ep. 1443

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