The Ben Shapiro Show - “BLOODBATH!” The Fake News Strikes Again

00:00:00.000 Donald Trump's best friends are in the legacy media.

00:00:03.000 I don't mean that Donald Trump is friends with people in the legacy media.

00:00:05.000 I mean, they are totally helping him. 0.99

00:00:07.000 Members of the legacy media have been playing this incredibly stupid game since 2015. 0.99

00:00:12.000 And the reason they play this game with Trump is because they play it all the time with other Republican politicians. 1.00

00:00:17.000 The game goes like this.

00:00:18.000 Donald Trump says something.

00:00:20.000 That uses a bit of inflammatory language in a completely non-inflammatory context.

00:00:25.000 And the media then proceed to cut out the inflammatory language from the non-inflammatory context and then blow it up.

00:00:31.000 Now, they've been doing this with Republicans since literally forever.

00:00:35.000 For as long as I've been alive, they've been doing this with Republicans.

00:00:38.000 The weird thing about doing it with Trump is Trump says wild things fairly frequently.

00:00:42.000 They don't even have to do it with Trump.

00:00:44.000 But by doing this, what they end up doing is essentially showing the American public

00:00:49.000 that they are willing to say or do anything about Donald Trump.

00:00:52.000 Today's latest example comes courtesy of the entire legacy media that decided to jump on a clip

00:00:57.000 of Donald Trump at a rally over the weekend.

00:00:59.000 So Donald Trump was doing a political rally over the weekend.

00:01:01.000 Again, the media are in a sheer state of panic about the 2024 race.

00:01:05.000 They should be.

00:01:05.000 According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Donald Trump is currently almost two points up in the national average.

00:01:11.000 He is currently leading in every single battleground state.

00:01:14.000 According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Joe Biden is in deep trouble.

00:01:17.000 And so they are looking for some sort of headline that is going to gin up the Democratic base.

00:01:24.000 And so they have to find something that says that Donald Trump is a severe danger to the Republic, that he is going to overthrow the Republic, that there is going to be blood in the streets.

00:01:34.000 After all, this is the case that Joe Biden has been making since 2020.

00:01:36.000 The case since 2020 has been that Donald Trump isn't just a problem, he is a threat to the very nature of the Republic.

00:01:44.000 When Joe Biden got up at Independence Hall and gave the worst speech I can remember, standing in front of a blood-red Independence Hall, suggesting that his political opponents were going to overthrow the democracy.

00:01:54.000 This is the line that the entire media have been told to repeat over and over and over for the duration of this election cycle.

00:02:00.000 And so they decided that over the weekend, they had found the golden ticket.

00:02:03.000 They had found the clip of Donald Trump promising violence in the streets.

00:02:07.000 There'll be blood in the streets tonight!

00:02:09.000 The whole thing.

00:02:10.000 Here is the full clip of Donald Trump talking.

00:02:14.000 Here he is talking about the economic plans of Democrats with regard to industrial industries in Michigan.

00:02:21.000 Here's the full clip.

00:02:24.000 Mexico has taken over a period of 30 years, 34% of the automobile manufacturing business in our country.

00:02:32.000 Think of it.

00:02:33.000 Went to Mexico.

00:02:34.000 China now is building a couple of massive plants where they're going to build the cars in Mexico and think they think that they're going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border.

00:02:46.000 Let me tell you something to China.

00:02:48.000 If you're listening, President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal.

00:02:53.000 Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now, and you think you're going to get that, you're going to not hire Americans, and you're going to sell the cars to us. 0.99

00:03:05.000 Now, we're going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not going to be able to sell those cars.

00:03:13.000 If I get elected, Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole... That's going to be the least of it.

00:03:20.000 It's going to be a bloodbath for the country.

00:03:22.000 That'll be the least of it.

00:03:23.000 But they're not going to sell those cars.

00:03:26.000 Okay, he's literally talking about his plan to tariff Chinese imports.

00:03:30.000 That's his plan, right?

00:03:31.000 He's talking about tariffing Chinese cars imported via Mexico into the United States.

00:03:37.000 And he says that if I get elected, it'll be good for the economy.

00:03:40.000 And if I don't, then there will be a bloodbath.

00:03:44.000 Now, that's the sort of language that occurs constantly in American politics.

00:03:47.000 In fact, here's a montage of Democrats using the word bloodbath in a variety of contexts, talking about political bloodbaths and economic bloodbaths and all the rest.

00:03:57.000 No one assumes what they mean is that there will be actual murder in the streets with the blood flowing freely into the gutters or something like this.

00:04:05.000 Here is the media over and over and over saying bloodbath.

00:04:10.000 Headlines calling it a, quote, bloodbath.

00:04:13.000 A bloodbath?

00:04:14.000 Not only is it going to be a bloodbath, but after they leave New Hampshire, it's a bloodbath on her home turf?

00:04:19.000 That's really tough.

00:04:20.000 Trump has left a lot of corpses in his wake.

00:04:22.000 I mean, we can count the bodies.

00:04:24.000 As part of the, quote, MAGA drive to take over Maricopa County.

00:04:27.000 And the headline refers to it as an impending bloodbath.

00:04:30.000 Columnist Charles Blow has a new piece for the New York Times entitled, A Biden Bloodbath.

00:04:35.000 It's been a bloodbath.

00:04:35.000 They're shaping up to be a bloodbath.

00:04:36.000 that they 100% are fearing a slaughter.

00:04:39.000 In fact, the word bloodbath and massacre come up frequently.

00:04:43.000 The Republican Party will be destroyed.

00:04:44.000 It's gonna be a bloodbath.

00:04:46.000 There's gonna be a bloodbath one way or the other.

00:04:48.000 Bloodbath for Bernie Sanders.

00:04:49.000 It's been a bloodbath.

00:04:50.000 They're shaping up to be a bloodbath.

00:04:52.000 Head off a bloodbath and next year's crucial midterm.

00:04:55.000 Off-year elections are often a bloodbath.

00:04:58.000 This week's bloodbath for Democrats.

00:05:00.000 A bloodbath at the ballot box.

00:05:01.000 There could be a Republican bloodbath.

00:05:03.000 Talk about a bloodbath.

00:05:04.000 There's a bloodbath.

00:05:05.000 I have to talk about you.

00:05:07.000 It's gonna be a bloodbath all day long.

00:05:09.000 It's in for a bloodbath.

00:05:10.000 Hasn't been a bloodbath on the way down.

00:05:12.000 Donald Trump bloodbath. 0.90

00:05:14.000 Be a bloodbath. 0.81

00:05:18.000 Okay, thanks to Grabian for that montage.

00:05:21.000 Just going to point out again, the word bloodbath happens a lot in American politics because all it means is a slaughter.

00:05:28.000 We use violent language a lot because it's evocative, but it doesn't mean that somebody's about to get killed or there's going to be a civil war or anything like that.

00:05:36.000 And as Trump's spokesperson, Caroline Levitt, said over the weekend, obviously Trump was talking about economic bloodbath.

00:05:42.000 Economic bloodbath.

00:05:45.000 She said that, right?

00:05:46.000 Biden's policies will create an economic bloodbath for the auto industry and auto workers.

00:05:49.000 That's what Trump's campaign spokesperson said on Saturday.

00:05:52.000 And of course, we played you the entire clip.

00:05:55.000 So what did the media do?

00:05:57.000 They took the two sentences where Donald Trump says, if I'm not elected, there will be a bloodbath.

00:06:02.000 And they took that out of context, and then they proceeded to claim that what Donald Trump was saying is that if he was not elected, that there would be a full-scale insurrectionist civil war in the United States with bodies in the streets.

00:06:12.000 It's going to look like Haiti. 0.89

00:06:13.000 Donald Trump is going to start calling himself barbecue.

00:06:15.000 He's going to start chomping on body parts, like the whole thing. 0.80

00:06:18.000 The media beclown themselves every day.

00:06:20.000 Here is, for example, Nancy Pelosi playing this game. 1.00

00:06:22.000 This is just ridiculous. 0.92

00:06:26.000 We just have to win this election because he's even predicting a bloodbath. 0.98

00:06:31.000 What does that mean?

00:06:31.000 He's going to exact a bloodbath?

00:06:34.000 There's something wrong here.

00:06:36.000 How respectful I am of the American people and their goodness, but how much more do they have to see from him to understand that this isn't what our country is about?

00:06:50.000 Wow.

00:06:50.000 Because otherwise there's going to be a bloodbath.

00:06:53.000 We'll get some more on this momentarily.

00:06:54.000 First, we all spend probably way too much time on our phones.

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00:07:56.000 Hey, Jen Psaki, former press secretary for Joe Biden, who went to that revolving door that goes right to MSNBC. 1.00

00:08:02.000 That's the way that it works.

00:08:02.000 You leave the Biden administration, you go to MSNBC, another Democrat gets elected, you leave MSNBC, you go back to the Biden administration.

00:08:08.000 That's the way that it works.

00:08:09.000 Here is Jen Psaki doing the work here. 1.00

00:08:13.000 The full context is that this is much bigger than one single speech.

00:08:17.000 This embrace of political violence, this dehumanizing language.

00:08:21.000 This is what Donald Trump has been preaching for years.

00:08:25.000 In January, he warned that there will be, quote, bedlam in this country if his criminal prosecution derailed his campaign. 0.94

00:08:32.000 In 2020, he reportedly asked his defense secretary about shooting people who were protesting the death of George Floyd, saying, can't you just shoot them? 0.99

00:08:40.000 Just shoot them in the legs or something. 0.91

00:08:43.000 And of course, his very words inspired violence on January 6, 2021, when he told a crowd of his supporters to walk down to the Capitol and fight like hell because, quote, you'll never take back our country with weakness. 0.99

00:08:57.000 Trust me, I could go on and on and on.

00:09:01.000 We all know by now that Trump's allusions to political violence are not merely rhetorical.

00:09:07.000 His supporters take them literally.

00:09:08.000 That's part of the big problem here.

00:09:10.000 And he knows that too.

00:09:12.000 So no, we did not miss the full context.

00:09:15.000 This was not some meandering off-message comment.

00:09:18.000 This is his message.

00:09:22.000 Okay, so his message was not about economic policy like it showed you in the full context.

00:09:28.000 It's that he used the word bloodbath just like everybody in political media uses the word bloodbath.

00:09:32.000 But it doesn't matter because the media are jumping on this, of course.

00:09:36.000 And so you have the New York Times headline.

00:09:38.000 Trump says some migrants are not people and predicts a bloodbath if he loses.

00:09:43.000 By the way, as for that former comment that some migrants are not people, now let me play you the other clip that the media are taking out of context.

00:09:49.000 They're suggesting that Donald Trump is dehumanizing illegal immigrants.

00:09:53.000 He's saying they're not human beings.

00:09:55.000 He's using genocidal rhetoric with regard to illegal immigrants.

00:09:58.000 That is the claim.

00:09:59.000 Who is he actually talking about when he says, I wouldn't even call them people?

00:10:03.000 Let's find out.

00:10:05.000 If I had prisons that were teaming with MS-13 and all sorts of people that they've got to take care of for the next 50 years, right?

00:10:13.000 Young people that are in jail for years, if you call them people.

00:10:17.000 I don't know if you call them people.

00:10:18.000 In some cases, they're not people, in my opinion.

00:10:20.000 But I'm not allowed to say that because the radical left says that's a terrible thing to say.

00:10:25.000 They say you have to vote against him because did you hear what he said about humanity?

00:10:30.000 I've seen the humanity and these humanity, these are bad.

00:10:33.000 These are animals.

00:10:35.000 So that apparently is really... He's talking about MS-13!

00:10:38.000 He's talking about actual criminals.

00:10:41.000 And he is saying that people who do animalistic things are animals.

00:10:44.000 Is that evocative language?

00:10:45.000 Sure.

00:10:46.000 Are people who rape people and murder people not people? 0.99

00:10:50.000 Are they animals or monsters? 0.96

00:10:52.000 You can make a moral argument about that, but is that some sort of horrifying language that he's applying to all illegal immigrants?

00:10:59.000 That's not what he's saying.

00:11:00.000 And again, this is always the game.

00:11:02.000 This is always the game with Trump, is that they take a comment and then they spin it up to its greatest possible illusion while ignoring all possible context.

00:11:11.000 You know who it helps?

00:11:12.000 Donald Trump, because everybody starts ignoring you because you're the boy who cried wolf.

00:11:15.000 Then if Trump says something that really is egregious, then there's no place to go because you already turned it up to 11.

00:11:21.000 There's no place to go from here.

00:11:23.000 Here's a New Yorker writer named Susan Glasser, who's turning up to 11 on the bloodbath comment.

00:11:28.000 Here we go.

00:11:30.000 We obviously heard what he said last night.

00:11:33.000 Yeah, I mean, look, Donald Trump, it seems to me it's very hard.

00:11:36.000 Eight years into this, we still struggle with how to cover him as journalists.

00:11:39.000 But in a way, the unhinged, rambling rants that you see from the former president of the United States are baked in.

00:11:47.000 And I think in a way, we are all desensitized and ignored To the extraordinary, remarkable, and very, at times, un-American and threatening things that the former president is saying.

00:11:58.000 I'm not saying it's easy to understand how to cover it, but I think we have to cover it when the former president, who's already incited violence among his followers, says that there's going to be a bloodbath, what, after the election, if he does not win.

00:12:12.000 He is telling us what he is going to do.

00:12:18.000 Well, that is, wow.

00:12:19.000 I, too, am scared.

00:12:21.000 The Babylon Bee had a great headline along these lines.

00:12:23.000 Quote, media reports Trump threatened nuclear war after he says this guacamole is the bomb.

00:12:29.000 Yeah, that's about where we are in terms of political media.

00:12:32.000 We'll get some more on this in just one second.

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00:13:45.000 But this is how desperate they are to step from.

00:13:47.000 We have now reached the point.

00:13:48.000 It is March, by the way.

00:13:49.000 This shows you that Joe Biden is losing this race.

00:13:51.000 The desperation has set in, like full scale set in.

00:13:54.000 And so we have an article today in Politico that is arguing that we basically need to outlaw jokes. 0.87

00:14:00.000 Jokes are bad now because Trump uses this thing called comedy and humor and because he uses comedy and humor and he is, in fact, a Hitlerian fascist.

00:14:08.000 Jokes have been deemed bad.

00:14:12.000 It's a piece by a person named Michael Cruz, a senior staff writer at Politico, titled In On The Joke, the comedic trick Trump uses to normalize his behavior.

00:14:21.000 His supporters love it.

00:14:22.000 Critics call it a sign of his autocratic tendencies.

00:14:24.000 Yeah, jokes, scary things.

00:14:27.000 I've been indicted more times than Alphonse Capone, Donald Trump said from the stage in Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

00:14:33.000 It's true, he said. 0.92

00:14:34.000 It's not.

00:14:35.000 But what mattered the most here was that he was, late last month, uncorking an especially lively version of what has become a routine rally riff, and one that never fails to send ripples of giggles through the crowds he commands.

00:14:46.000 My parents are looking down.

00:14:47.000 They're saying, I never thought this could happen to my son.

00:14:49.000 He's been indicted, he said, hands out, head up, reveling in the hoots on cue.

00:14:53.000 The audio track of the traveling Trump carnival is by now reliable to the point of ritualistic.

00:14:57.000 Lee Greenwood to start, the odd QAnon co-opted sort of liturgical dirge to close, the apocalyptic assessment of the condition of the nation that prompts to harass the press in jeers and swears from the throngs in between. 0.90

00:15:07.000 I could shut my eyes to know precisely where I was.

00:15:09.000 For me, though, there's one sound that comes to stick out more than any of the many others.

00:15:13.000 It's the laughter.

00:15:15.000 Oh no!

00:15:16.000 You mean Donald Trump's a funny person?

00:15:19.000 First of all, this has been Donald Trump's political superpower since he stepped onto the scene.

00:15:22.000 Donald Trump is a stand-up comedian.

00:15:24.000 He's always been a stand-up comedian.

00:15:26.000 It's a point that comedian Shane Gillis has made over and over and over, is that in debates, people walk on stage with Trump thinking they're going to argue policy, and Donald Trump's like, your toupee looks terrible. 0.99

00:15:36.000 You're ugly. 0.98

00:15:39.000 There's no way to fight with that. 0.99

00:15:40.000 Donald Trump's superpower is that he is, in fact, an intensely funny human being.

00:15:44.000 Hate him, like him.

00:15:46.000 He's the funniest person who's ever been president.

00:15:48.000 Like, without a doubt.

00:15:50.000 But that means that the problem is humor.

00:15:53.000 I'm sorry, we've got to kill humor.

00:15:54.000 We've got to take humor out to the backyard with an axe. 1.00

00:15:58.000 Blunt side of the axe to the back of the head of humor. 1.00

00:16:01.000 Jokes must be killed. 1.00

00:16:03.000 They must be dismembered and buried in a cornfield in Iowa in order to stop Trump. 1.00

00:16:06.000 No more jokes! 1.00

00:16:08.000 The jokes have to stop.

00:16:09.000 By the way, it is amazing how basically since the era of Barack Obama, the left has decided that jokes are bad.

00:16:16.000 So remember when Barack Obama was president, the entire comedic world declared that he was just not funny.

00:16:21.000 You could not make jokes about Barack Obama.

00:16:23.000 He was more like dad, as Chris Rock said.

00:16:25.000 You just can't make jokes about him.

00:16:26.000 He's like the father of the country.

00:16:28.000 Now, of course, Barack Obama is one of the funniest human beings ever to be president, also, but in a completely different way.

00:16:32.000 The guy was so arrogant in his belief that he was a world-changing figure that he would go out there and intone the most sonorous tones, the most absurd platitudes, and we would all pretend that they were deep, and the media would just fawn over him and carry around drool cups. 0.93

00:16:48.000 It was all ridiculous and absurd. 0.93

00:16:49.000 And meanwhile, he's there in the White House doing selfie stick time. 1.00

00:16:52.000 He was a silly figure, Barack Obama. 1.00

00:16:54.000 I know we were all supposed to treat him with great respect, but he was silly. 1.00

00:16:57.000 I don't have respect for politicians, generally speaking, because they're all silly. 1.00

00:17:00.000 But Barack Obama was particularly silly. 0.99

00:17:02.000 But the comedic community decided you could not tell jokes about him, because that was bad. 0.99

00:17:07.000 It was bad.

00:17:08.000 Jokes were bad.

00:17:09.000 You can tell jokes about Republicans, but jokes were bad.

00:17:11.000 Now it turns out that Republicans can do jokes, because Trump is actually a funny human.

00:17:15.000 And that means jokes themselves, from the right, or from all jokes, bad.

00:17:20.000 No good.

00:17:20.000 Stop it.

00:17:22.000 That apparently is the perspective of the reporter for Politico.

00:17:27.000 Donald Trump's critics, along with experts in rhetoric and nationalists and populist movements and leaders, say it helps him turn his opponents into not just enemies, but jokes.

00:17:34.000 They say it helps him recast his own liabilities at laughing matters, and he sensitizes his supporters to his most outrageous comments and proposals.

00:17:41.000 The undermining of institutions, the abandonment of allies, mass deportations, and all but outright invitations for Russian invasions and so on.

00:17:47.000 They say the mirth masks the menace.

00:17:51.000 They are not wrong.

00:17:53.000 Mmm, yes.

00:17:55.000 This is how autocrats work, says Jen Merciesa, the author of Demagogues for President, the rhetorical genius of Donald Trump.

00:18:02.000 Practically every joke is an in-group and out-group joke, and laughing at the joke is a sign of loyalty, Merciesa explained.

00:18:11.000 Now, again, I'd like to point out here that that has also been true of the left for a very long time.

00:18:16.000 As the joke goes online, the late night shows are now late night group therapy for libs.

00:18:21.000 They're no longer funny anymore to anybody who's not on the far left.

00:18:24.000 But jokes have to be outlawed.

00:18:25.000 By the way, it's not just jokes that have to be outlawed.

00:18:27.000 Free speech has to be stopped.

00:18:29.000 Entire article in the New York Times titled, How Trump's Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation.

00:18:34.000 Their claims of censorship have successfully stymied the effort to filter election lies online.

00:18:39.000 Oh my God, those terrible Trump people and their First Amendment activity. 0.99

00:18:42.000 That's just terrible.

00:18:44.000 They are suggesting That platforms should be platforms and should not, in fact, be censored by international groups under the auspices of left-wing politicians who are using their power in order to crack down on dissenting points of view.

00:18:58.000 Those terrible, terrible free speech people.

00:19:01.000 Free speech is bad because Trump might use it.

00:19:05.000 In the wake of the riot on Capitol Hill on January 6th, a groundswell built in Washington to rein in the onslaught of lies that had fueled the assault on the peaceful transfer of power.

00:19:13.000 Social media companies suspended Donald J. Trump, then the president, and many of his allies from the platforms they'd used to spread misinformation about his defeat and whip up the attempt to overturn it.

00:19:21.000 The Biden administration, Democrats in Congress, even some Republicans sought to do more to hold the companies accountable.

00:19:26.000 Academic researchers wrestled with how to strengthen efforts to monitor false posts.

00:19:30.000 Mr. Trump and his allies embarked instead on a counter-offensive, a coordinated effort to block what they viewed as a dangerous effort to censor conservatives.

00:19:37.000 They have unquestionably prevailed, waged in the courts, in Congress, and in the seething precincts of the internet.

00:19:43.000 Ooh, so much seething.

00:19:46.000 That effort has eviscerated attempts to shield elections from disinformation in the social media era.

00:19:50.000 It tapped into, and then critics say twisted, the fierce debate over free speech and the government's role in policing content.

00:19:58.000 Projects that were once bipartisan, including one started by the Trump administration, have been recast as deep state conspiracies to rig elections.

00:20:05.000 Facing legal and political blowback, the Biden administration has largely abandoned moods that might be construed as stifling political speech.

00:20:10.000 Well, we wouldn't want that to happen.

00:20:12.000 I mean, obviously Joe Biden and company, they have to be given the power to stifle political speech, obviously.

00:20:18.000 So yeah, among the things that need to be abolished in order to stop Trump, obviously, humor and speech.

00:20:24.000 By the way, you're the baddies.

00:20:26.000 If that's your perspective, jokes need to be stopped, and also free speech needs to be stopped on platforms.

00:20:32.000 You're the ones telling us that democracy is under threat if Donald Trump is elected, and in order to stop that, we need to stop humor, and we need to stop speech.

00:20:42.000 I think the problem might be you.

00:20:44.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

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00:21:54.000 Okay, now none of this is to avoid the point that Donald Trump is a peculiar human.

00:22:00.000 We have been playing a game since 2015 that we're going to bring back for the campaign because it just is the reality.

00:22:05.000 Called Good Trump, Bad Trump.

00:22:07.000 A Good Trump, Bad Trump is because Donald Trump says lots of stuff.

00:22:10.000 As I've said before, on his epitaph, it will read, Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, maybe also 47th President of the United States, he said a lot of bleep.

00:22:18.000 Because, that is Trump!

00:22:19.000 Trump says a lot of things.

00:22:20.000 He doesn't think about all the things he says, he just kind of says them and they come out his face hole.

00:22:24.000 And that's what happens.

00:22:25.000 And some of those things are very good, and some of those things are very bad.

00:22:28.000 And that's just the way that it works.

00:22:30.000 And so, Donald Trump was busy over the weekend saying many things.

00:22:33.000 Some of them were quite good, and some of them were quite bad.

00:22:36.000 What is amazing to me, however, is that many of the things that he says, that are actually the worst things that he says, are things that the media completely ignore because they hate Republicans so much.

00:22:47.000 Like, it's pretty wild.

00:22:48.000 So, first, let us play.

00:22:51.000 We're back into the game.

00:22:52.000 It's an election cycle.

00:22:53.000 Good Trump, bad Trump.

00:22:54.000 Good Trump, bad Trump.

00:22:59.000 Which one will begin today?

00:23:03.000 Okay, so, we are going to begin with some bad Trump, okay?

00:23:06.000 Because we just did some okay Trump, and then we'll get some good Trump, okay?

00:23:09.000 So, we'll start with some bad Trump.

00:23:11.000 Okay, here was Donald Trump over the weekend attacking Ron DeSantis.

00:23:15.000 For no reason, by the way.

00:23:15.000 Ron DeSantis already bowed out of the race.

00:23:18.000 Ron DeSantis already endorsed Donald Trump for president.

00:23:21.000 But Donald Trump has an unfortunate habit, which is that once someone already surrenders to him, he then puts his boot on that person's neck and pushes.

00:23:30.000 For no reason, really.

00:23:31.000 And so, it's not enough that DeSantis lost to him, conceded the election early, endorsed him, and maintains his position as the best governor in the country in my home state of Florida.

00:23:44.000 Donald Trump went after him with peculiar language yesterday.

00:23:48.000 Here we are.

00:23:50.000 We campaigned for a year, and I obliterate my competition.

00:23:55.000 And they said, sir, please don't talk about these people that way.

00:23:58.000 They're Republicans. 0.98

00:23:59.000 I said, I don't give a ****. 1.00

00:24:01.000 They're terrible. 0.99

00:24:04.000 I said, I don't care.

00:24:07.000 My highly paid advisor, sir, you shouldn't talk to them about that.

00:24:12.000 One of the people said they said, are you going to run against the president?

00:24:15.000 He said, I have no comment.

00:24:17.000 To me, that meant he's running. 0.97

00:24:19.000 So I hit him hard. 0.98

00:24:20.000 I hit him low. 0.97

00:24:21.000 I hit him. 0.98

00:24:21.000 I just like we did to ISIS. 0.98

00:24:23.000 We hit him hard. 0.91

00:24:25.000 We hit him low. 0.79

00:24:25.000 We hit him high. 0.79

00:24:27.000 We hit him in the middle.

00:24:28.000 We hit him from on top.

00:24:29.000 And we even came under the ground.

00:24:32.000 We hit this guy so hard, by the time he announced, nobody knew what the hell happened.

00:24:36.000 They said, what happened to him?

00:24:37.000 He's a shell of the man.

00:24:38.000 Okay, so this is the joking, right?

00:24:40.000 And is it good joking?

00:24:41.000 Like, I don't think it's good joking.

00:24:42.000 Because again, what is the point of this?

00:24:44.000 Like, if you're thinking forward to the election, what Donald Trump needs is for the base to consolidate around him.

00:24:49.000 He needs everybody to show up and vote for him.

00:24:50.000 There are a lot of people We're big DeSantis fans.

00:24:53.000 DeSantis actually won a fairly significant percentage in Iowa.

00:24:57.000 And in the national polling, DeSantis was polling, in the Republican primaries, somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. 0.97

00:25:03.000 Alienating those voters is a dumb move. 0.88

00:25:05.000 But Trump can't stop himself, and so he's joking about it. 0.99

00:25:07.000 We hit him high, we hit him low.

00:25:09.000 The joking voice.

00:25:09.000 We hit him high, we hit him low.

00:25:12.000 And the idea here is that invoking we hit him like we hit ISIS, It's like a bad song from pop star Never Stop Never Stopping.

00:25:21.000 And if you know the reference, you know what I'm talking about here.

00:25:24.000 Okay, so that was some bad Trump.

00:25:26.000 Other bad Trump over the weekend.

00:25:27.000 Again, these are the things that the media ignored that, by the way.

00:25:29.000 Why did they ignore that?

00:25:29.000 Because they hate DeSantis as much as they hate Trump.

00:25:32.000 Like, they really hate DeSantis.

00:25:34.000 So that wasn't the thing they picked on.

00:25:35.000 What they picked on was a false narrative about bloodbaths or whatever.

00:25:39.000 Okay, here was another thing Trump said over the weekend.

00:25:42.000 He's been calling the people who are jailed because of their activities on January 6th, hostages.

00:25:48.000 They're not hostages.

00:25:50.000 They're not.

00:25:52.000 So he suggested that over the weekend.

00:25:56.000 It's not correct, obviously.

00:25:58.000 People are criminally convicted.

00:26:00.000 You can say that the criminal convictions are unjust because you believe, for example, that there should be equivalent criminal convictions of, say, the rioters of 2020, the Black Lives Matter rioters, and you'd be correct. 1.00

00:26:13.000 But they are not hostages.

00:26:14.000 Hostages implies that if Donald Trump makes a concession, they will be freed.

00:26:18.000 Like, you hold a hostage in order to achieve some sort of political purpose and then you free the hostages.

00:26:22.000 Hamas is currently holding hostages in order to force stall, for example, an Israeli attack against them.

00:26:28.000 That's the entire goal of holding a ho- So again, that sort of language? 1.00

00:26:31.000 Bad.

00:26:32.000 Other bad Trump stuff, like over the weekend he suggested that the January 6th committee should go to jail.

00:26:40.000 Okay, now.

00:26:41.000 The case that he is making here is that the January 6th panel withheld evidence, including a denial from the Trump driver.

00:26:48.000 They selectively presented evidence to the American public.

00:26:51.000 That is really bad.

00:26:52.000 And I think that the January 6th committee did a terrible job.

00:26:54.000 She should go to jail. 0.84

00:26:55.000 Again, this is Trump's colorful language.

00:26:57.000 OK, so that's some bad Trump.

00:26:57.000 But again, the same Trump that is supposedly bad is also good.

00:27:02.000 So now it's time.

00:27:04.000 For some countervailing good Trump.

00:27:06.000 Again, he's all the things.

00:27:07.000 Donald Trump is good. 0.96

00:27:07.000 He's bad. 0.96

00:27:08.000 He's like all the things.

00:27:09.000 Okay, so here is Donald Trump over the weekend burying Jimmy Kimmel.

00:27:13.000 Like, this is good. 0.99

00:27:14.000 He fights the culture war and, you know, Republicans love it and they kind of should because Jimmy Kimmel is a jackass. 0.98

00:27:20.000 What is up with you and Jimmy Kimmel? 0.95

00:27:21.000 Okay, now, see if you can guess which former president just posted that on Twitter.

00:27:30.000 Anyone?

00:27:30.000 No?

00:27:32.000 Well, thank you, President Trump.

00:27:33.000 Because during the Academy Awards you posted, has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?

00:27:39.000 Less than an average person trying too hard.

00:27:41.000 And he then read that on the air and then took a crack at you.

00:27:45.000 And what else did I say?

00:27:47.000 I said some other pretty good things.

00:27:49.000 Okay.

00:27:49.000 Like, that's good.

00:27:49.000 He should.

00:27:50.000 He should slap at Jimmy Kimmel. 0.90

00:27:51.000 George Slopidopoulos, right? 0.92

00:27:53.000 No, look, look, Jimmy Kimmel is every night, he hits me, I guess.

00:27:57.000 His ratings are terrible.

00:27:59.000 He's not a talented guy.

00:28:00.000 I hear he hits me all the time.

00:28:02.000 So I figured I'd hit him because I thought he was a lousy host.

00:28:04.000 Okay, like, that's good. 0.98

00:28:08.000 He should, he should slap a Jimmy Kimmel. 0.98

00:28:10.000 Jimmy Kimmel's terrible. 0.98

00:28:11.000 We'll get some more on this in just one second.

00:28:13.000 First, is your closet cluttered with home videos and photos that never see the light of day?

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00:29:13.000 Other things that Trump said, here's a good thing he said on policy over the weekend.

00:29:15.000 That was dramatically misinterpreted by the media.

00:29:17.000 So Joe Biden has been telling Israel not to go into Rafa.

00:29:20.000 Joe Biden has been telling Israel that they somehow need to leave Hamas in place, 0.95

00:29:23.000 which is absurd and ridiculous. We'll get to it in a little bit.

00:29:25.000 Here was Donald Trump saying what Israel actually should do.

00:29:29.000 He happens to be right about this.

00:29:30.000 In light of those comments by Senator Schumer, what would be your message if you were to talk to Bibi and

00:29:36.000 Yahoo?

00:29:36.000 Well, I think you have to finish it up and do it quickly and get back to the world of peace.

00:29:43.000 We need peace in the world.

00:29:46.000 Okay, he is not saying there that Israel should not go into Rafah.

00:29:50.000 He literally says, finish it up and do it quickly, which by the way, is the best advice to the Israeli government.

00:29:55.000 If you want the war to be over quickly, it should be over quickly.

00:29:58.000 And by the way, for PR purposes, the reality is that Israel's big mistake, if it's made a mistake in the war that it's currently fighting against Hamas, is it should have gone hard and should have gone fast because the American attention span is only about five minutes.

00:30:12.000 And so if you go fast, even if it's more brutal, Americans are willing to take that.

00:30:17.000 If it drags on longer, Americans are not.

00:30:20.000 I mean, it's just an unfortunate reality of foreign policy.

00:30:23.000 Americans are very time-bound.

00:30:25.000 So if Israel wants public support, they should move quickly. 0.72

00:30:27.000 They shouldn't be dithering around with Joe Biden.

00:30:29.000 In any case, Donald Trump is right about that.

00:30:31.000 That is good Trump.

00:30:33.000 For his part, again, all of the panic that's setting in is because they've tried everything on Trump.

00:30:39.000 What is left to try on him?

00:30:41.000 There's only one thing that could drop between now and the election that would maybe affect the outcome of this election in any serious way, aside from whatever possible unknown unknowns are out there.

00:30:51.000 And that is the possibility of a criminal conviction.

00:30:53.000 What the polls show is that Trump leaves Biden.

00:30:55.000 If he is criminally convicted between now and the election, then some voters say they will switch over to Biden.

00:31:00.000 Now, it depends to me on what that criminal conviction looks like.

00:31:03.000 Presumably, when people say criminally convicted, they think that means that he goes to jail.

00:31:08.000 Yes, if Donald Trump is literally sitting in a jail cell on election day, that's going to damage him in the polling.

00:31:13.000 Aside from that, what are the other things that could happen?

00:31:16.000 Well, the truth is, most of the other bad things that could happen cannot happen to Trump.

00:31:21.000 He's not the current president of the United States, and he is a known quantity.

00:31:25.000 Most of the bad things that have yet to happen can happen to Joe Biden.

00:31:29.000 As I said last week, The most plausible reality to happen between now and the election cycle is some sign of serious health crisis for Joe Biden.

00:31:39.000 Joe Biden remains a confused elderly man.

00:31:41.000 Here's video of him over the weekend, literally not knowing how to get out of the rain.

00:31:45.000 I mean, this is just... he is not with us.

00:31:47.000 He's shaking somebody's hand, he gets under the umbrella, and then he looks around like

00:31:57.000 where am I supposed to go?

00:31:58.000 What's happening?

00:32:00.000 Should I walk out into the crowd?

00:32:03.000 Should I?

00:32:03.000 I'm just going to stand here, not knowing quite where to go.

00:32:06.000 And then he has to be physically guided by his security.

00:32:09.000 Where should I go?

00:32:10.000 There's literally only one place to go, Joe.

00:32:12.000 It's raining outside and there's a door right there.

00:32:15.000 Ain't no more doors.

00:32:15.000 That's the only door.

00:32:17.000 But that's our president.

00:32:19.000 Meanwhile, by the way, report from the New York Post.

00:32:21.000 President Biden's newest shoes have opened up renewed debate about his health and physical condition, with some speculating they were designed to prevent the president from falling.

00:32:30.000 Apparently, his handlers are forcing him to wear a new pair of lifestyle sneakers because he trips so much.

00:32:36.000 Observers have likened the shoes to boat anchors and piers.

00:32:40.000 Apparently, they are lifestyle sneakers made by the shoe brand Hoka, Inside Edition notes that the shoes are quote designed for maximum comfort and support while walking or hiking.

00:32:50.000 Here we go!

00:32:52.000 Many observers couldn't help but notice his footwear.

00:32:55.000 Are those sneakers?

00:32:57.000 Yep, they're so-called lifestyle sneakers made by Hoka, designed for maximum comfort and support while walking or hiking.

00:33:06.000 And here they are, the Joe Biden sneaker.

00:33:09.000 They're made by Hoka. 1.00

00:33:10.000 These are called the Hoka Transport, and as you can see, they look quite comfortable.

00:33:14.000 They have a wide sole, no doubt great for stability, and the president does have a history of stumbling.

00:33:21.000 Yeah, that would be it.

00:33:22.000 So he's basically wearing snowshoes around at this point so that he can glide over the grass or something.

00:33:28.000 Yes, things are going badly for the president of the United States, and that is why we have to outlaw jokes and also free speech.

00:33:34.000 That is the most important thing for us to do at this point.

00:33:37.000 Meanwhile, under Joe Biden, the foreign policy of the United States is falling apart.

00:33:40.000 So in a story that's not being covered as much as it should be, according to the Wall Street Journal, Niger has made a decision to end its counterterrorism alliance with Washington.

00:33:50.000 That came after senior U.S.

00:33:51.000 officials accused the country's ruling junta of secretly exploring a deal to allow Iran access to its uranium reserves, according to both Nigerian and U.S.

00:33:59.000 officials.

00:34:00.000 So U.S. 0.81

00:34:01.000 had a cooperative program with Niger.

00:34:04.000 Niger, of course, is the source of a lot of uranium.

00:34:07.000 Iran is seeking a bomb, and so they've been attempting to get uranium, apparently, from Niger.

00:34:12.000 And now, Niger has said that they do not want American counterterrorism operatives in the country at all

00:34:17.000 to monitor what is going on.

00:34:18.000 Yet another foreign policy win for the Biden administration.

00:34:21.000 By the way, last week, they signed another $10 billion waiver

00:34:24.000 so that money could flow into Iran, which is currently fostering terrorism, 0.61

00:34:27.000 not only around the Middle East, but also in Africa, because Iran is one of the world's worst players. 1.00

00:34:32.000 The decision to end military cooperation with the United States was announced Saturday night by a spokesperson for the Nigerian junta.

00:34:37.000 It deals a serious blow to the Biden administration's efforts to contain a sprawling Islamist insurgency in the Sahel, a semi-arid region south of the Sahara.

00:34:46.000 It could affect a $110 million base that was built by the United States and is used to fly surveillance drones over West Africa.

00:34:52.000 It could also possibly force the withdrawal of more than 600 American troops still stationed in Niger.

00:34:57.000 Now, again, the reason that we have troops in Niger is because they provide enormous counterintelligence resources.

00:35:02.000 We have troops stationed all over the world, by the way.

00:35:04.000 We have tons of troops all over in Southeast Asia.

00:35:06.000 We have troops in Europe.

00:35:07.000 We have troops all over the place.

00:35:10.000 American officials have been working to salvage their relationship with Niger since the country's military ousted President Mohammed Bizaoum in a July coup, triggering restrictions on military aid under American law.

00:35:20.000 The junta has been tightening its ties with Russia and two other neighbors that are ruled by people aligned with the Russians.

00:35:26.000 In recent months, U.S.

00:35:27.000 and other Western officials say they'd obtained intelligence indicating that the junta was considering a deal with Iran That would give Tehran access to some of Niger's vast uranium reserves.

00:35:36.000 The U.S.

00:35:36.000 concern was that discussions on such an agreement proceeded in January, when Niger's junta-appointed prime minister met with President Ibrahim Raisi and other senior Iranian officials in Tehran.

00:35:45.000 Apparently, these had reached a very advanced stage.

00:35:48.000 But because the Biden administration is committed to the idea that Iran is actually not a nefarious world actor, they don't want conflict.

00:35:53.000 What's wrong with Iran? 0.96

00:35:54.000 We should continue signing them checks.

00:35:55.000 They're actually, once again, pitting American taxpayers against American taxpayers.

00:35:59.000 We are sending money to Iran, and then we are also spending money on placing troops in places like Niger to prevent Iran from getting nuclear material. 0.64

00:36:08.000 Everything is going great under the Biden administration.

00:36:11.000 The concerns came to a head over the past week.

00:36:13.000 Mollie Fee, U.S. 0.96

00:36:14.000 Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, traveled for talks with the junta on the two countries' future relations and what the State Department said would be discussions on Niger's return to a democratic path.

00:36:25.000 Fee was accompanied by another senior Defense Department official.

00:36:29.000 During the meetings, Fee raised Washington's alarm with officials in Niger about that agreement with Iran and criticized the lack of process in returning Niger to an elected government.

00:36:38.000 And raise U.S.

00:36:38.000 concerns about the imminent arrival of Russian military trainers and equipment.

00:36:42.000 But the problem, of course, is that the Biden administration refuses to apply either carrots or sticks.

00:36:46.000 It's like, what if we just lecture you about democracy and offer you nothing, and then also tacitly threaten you, but we don't actually, we're not actually going to do anything.

00:36:53.000 I wonder why that program isn't winning.

00:36:57.000 Speaking of which, Vladimir Putin has now extended his rule after another predetermined vote in Russia.

00:37:02.000 So things are going well over there.

00:37:04.000 According to the New York Times, state television showed Putin addressing supporters at his election headquarters and breaking his silence on the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, telling reporters it was, quote, an unfortunate incident.

00:37:16.000 Apparently, preliminary results showed that Putin had garnered 88% of the vote.

00:37:22.000 Now, again, those are the kinds of numbers that don't exist in real life.

00:37:24.000 They exist in places where democracy is effectively just a cover for an authoritarian regime.

00:37:32.000 So Putin has now solidified his grasp on Russia, obviously.

00:37:39.000 Joe Biden shouting about democracy actually doesn't accomplish anything.

00:37:43.000 So things are going really well.

00:37:44.000 But if the United States is going to place pressure on a democracy, obviously they're going to place pressure on the place that has had five elections in the last four years, Israel.

00:37:53.000 That's what happened last week when Chuck Schumer took to the floor of the Senate to explain that Israel needed another election.

00:37:59.000 Now, Israel has a governmental system.

00:38:02.000 It is, in fact, a parliamentary democracy.

00:38:04.000 Israel holds elections literally all the time.

00:38:06.000 They, right now, have a governing coalition because they won the last election.

00:38:10.000 At some point, presumably, that governing coalition will fall apart.

00:38:13.000 There has not been a full term in which a prime minister served four years in the Israeli elections for several decades.

00:38:20.000 Usually, these coalition governments hold for two, maybe three years, and then they fall apart and there's a new election.

00:38:29.000 But the administration has been putting pressure on Israel.

00:38:32.000 Why is the administration trying to oust Bibi?

00:38:34.000 Because they're promoting a lie.

00:38:35.000 The lie is that there is not widespread public support in Israel for going into Rafah.

00:38:41.000 Over the weekend, the Biden administration made its Discontent with Israel finishing off Hamas in Rafah, that's the last major city that Israel has to control in Gaza in order to end Hamas's rule in Gaza.

00:38:52.000 The Biden administration is doing its best to forestall that, apparently.

00:38:55.000 John Kirby, who to this point has been pretty pro-Israel, kind of reversed himself on Sunday.

00:39:01.000 He suggested that the United States would not support an operation in Rafah, which means you leave Hamas in place. 0.83

00:39:06.000 I mean, that's what it means.

00:39:09.000 As you mentioned, the Israeli war cabinet approved its plan for Rafah.

00:39:13.000 You said you haven't seen it.

00:39:15.000 But President Biden at one point said that was a red line for him and then kind of walked that back.

00:39:20.000 He said it's a red line.

00:39:21.000 It's not a red line.

00:39:23.000 What is it?

00:39:24.000 It's no different.

00:39:25.000 If they go in the same way they've been going in in other places, if they don't move those refugees, and I don't know where they'd move them. 1.00

00:39:32.000 Well, again, I don't want to get ahead of where we are.

00:39:35.000 They haven't moved into Rafah.

00:39:38.000 I would just reiterate what the president has said many times.

00:39:40.000 We would not support such an operation unless or until they've got a credible, executable plan to take care of the 1.5 million refugees that have been pushed into Rafah because of operations in Khan Yunis to the north and Gaza City even further to the north.

00:39:56.000 Okay, so first of all, Israel is in fact creating that plan. 0.63

00:39:59.000 Apparently they're going to shift that population back up north towards central Gaza.

00:40:04.000 They're not just going to go in with 1.5 million people still there.

00:40:06.000 They're going to do the same thing they did in Khan Yunis. 0.58

00:40:08.000 It's the same thing they did in Gaza City. 0.74

00:40:09.000 They're going to create humanitarian corridors and all the rest.

00:40:12.000 But this is the Biden administration attempting to create daylight.

00:40:15.000 And meanwhile, the media doing their lapdog best to try and prop up this insane position from the administration.

00:40:20.000 Again, the war cabinet in Israel is a unity government.

00:40:23.000 It includes the person most likely to win an election if an election were held today, and Al-Bibi Netanyahu, Benny Gantz.

00:40:29.000 But here is Dana Bash doing the work of the administration.

00:40:32.000 She was quizzing Netanyahu on, will there be a new election next year?

00:40:35.000 Will you commit to an election?

00:40:36.000 As though Bibi is an authoritarian leader and has the capacity to simply cancel elections.

00:40:40.000 He does not.

00:40:41.000 That is not how the system works.

00:40:42.000 Any more than the president of the United States can simply cancel elections.

00:40:45.000 Israel is a fully functioning democracy.

00:40:47.000 They have elections way more often than any other democracy.

00:40:51.000 And here is Dana Bash pretending that Bibi is some sort of Putin-esque figure. 0.57

00:40:55.000 There were other polls in Israel, three major Israeli television stations that said what Israelis also support are early elections.

00:41:04.000 That's what I really want to focus on here.

00:41:06.000 Is Senator Schumer not calling to sort of topple the government, but specifically says when the war winds down, will you commit to calling new elections?

00:41:17.000 That's my question.

00:41:18.000 Will you?

00:41:22.000 Dana, two-thirds, first of all, what you said is wrong.

00:41:26.000 The vast majority of Israelis oppose early elections until the war doesn't end.

00:41:31.000 We've just had many polls on that.

00:41:33.000 Look, a lot of the polls are, you know, are twisted.

00:41:36.000 Channel 12 says 64% of Israelis support early elections.

00:41:39.000 But all polls show that's not true.

00:41:44.000 No, I'm afraid that they asked them the question, do you support it during the war, and they said no.

00:41:48.000 But that's not what Schumer is calling for.

00:41:50.000 He's calling for new elections when the war winds down.

00:41:57.000 Well, we'll see when we win the war, and until we win the war, I think Israelis understand that if we were to have elections now, before the war is won, resoundingly won, we would have at least six months of national paralysis, which means we would lose the war.

00:42:12.000 We're fighting these barbarians that are not merely threatening the survival of the world, but threatening everything that we hold dear together.

00:42:20.000 This is so insane. 0.72

00:42:21.000 This is so insane.

00:42:23.000 Notice how Dash, even in this clip, shifts her position. 0.78

00:42:26.000 She goes from, will you commit to new elections right now?

00:42:28.000 And he's like, no.

00:42:29.000 And she says, well, the polls say you should.

00:42:31.000 That's not true.

00:42:32.000 65% of Israelis say there should be new elections after the war is over.

00:42:35.000 So he's right about that.

00:42:36.000 And she's lying.

00:42:37.000 Then she shifts because she realizes she's made a mistake.

00:42:40.000 And she says, will you commit to new elections after that?

00:42:42.000 That's not how it works.

00:42:44.000 You call new elections in a parliamentary democracy when your coalition falls apart, or alternatively, when the Prime Minister decides to dissolve the government and create new elections.

00:42:54.000 If you're going to cite polls as to how the government should be currently constituted, Joe Biden is no longer president.

00:43:00.000 The majority of the American people do not like Joe Biden.

00:43:04.000 A plurality of the American people favor Donald Trump.

00:43:07.000 That's not how elections work.

00:43:08.000 That's not an election.

00:43:09.000 It's a poll.

00:43:10.000 But again, this is all playing defense for the Biden administration's incompetent, feckless policy with regard to Israel and Hamas.

00:43:16.000 The reality is that both America and Israel would be much better off if Israel wiped Hamas off the face of the earth. 0.95

00:43:22.000 Which, by the way, is what Israel is going to pursue, because any government that does not pursue that is going to immediately be thrown out of office, as everyone knows.

00:43:30.000 Meanwhile, the controversy continues over whether TikTok will have to dissolve, or whether TikTok will in fact sell its Chinese stake to some American or European-owned conglomerate.

00:43:39.000 According to the Washington Post, a foresale of TikTok within 180 days, as House passed legislation requires, would be one of the thorniest, most complicated transactions in corporate history, posing financial, technical, and geopolitical challenges experts say could render a sale impractical and increase the likelihood that the app will actually be banned nationwide.

00:43:55.000 Again, this is going to go to the Senate.

00:43:56.000 It will be unclear what happens in the Senate.

00:43:59.000 It apparently faces a slow walk in the Senate.

00:44:02.000 Senate is slowing this thing down, according to the Washington Post.

00:44:05.000 Some senators fear slower negotiations could allow TikTok's furious lobbying blitz to neutralize the push in the upper chamber.

00:44:11.000 TikTok has unleashed a sprawling attempt to thwart the bill.

00:44:15.000 Now, again, what is very clear here is that China will not sell its share in TikTok.

00:44:21.000 ByteDance, which is the front company for China, they're not going to sell it, and they're not going to allow their algorithm to be sold.

00:44:26.000 Why?

00:44:26.000 Because it's a Chinese weapon.

00:44:27.000 That's the whole point.

00:44:28.000 The entire argument with regard to TikTok is pretty obvious.

00:44:31.000 This is a Chinese op.

00:44:34.000 As a Chinese op, their algorithm is part of the op.

00:44:37.000 Their control is part of the op.

00:44:39.000 They're not just going to give that up for a few billion dollars.

00:44:41.000 It's the Chinese government.

00:44:43.000 They have a massive economy.

00:44:44.000 There's no reason they would do that.

00:44:45.000 They would rather kill TikTok and create political fissures in the West than allow their proprietary algorithmic excellence to be distributed in the West.

00:44:55.000 They don't want any of that.

00:44:56.000 And so it is, in fact, quite likely at this point that if this thing passes, the Senate TikTok will be dissolved.

00:45:00.000 And you know what?

00:45:01.000 Good.

00:45:02.000 Good!

00:45:03.000 Better that we don't have a PSYOP running on American soil than that we do have a PSYOP running on American soil.

00:45:08.000 That's not a CIA theory.

00:45:11.000 That's not because of the Jews.

00:45:13.000 That's because TikTok has been, for a very long time, a Chinese app, and because it is not just a Chinese app, it gathers data on Americans.

00:45:22.000 Everyone's known this.

00:45:22.000 There have been bans on TikTok throughout Europe since like 2019, 2020.

00:45:25.000 Donald Trump signed a ban on federal devices using TikTok in 2020.

00:45:31.000 It is completely banned in certain countries like India.

00:45:33.000 Again, there's a reason for that.

00:45:35.000 It is not good that America's enemies should have this much influence over Americans.

00:45:41.000 That would be a very, very bad thing.

00:45:43.000 And that's what the bill says.

00:45:45.000 Representative Mike Gallagher, who leads a subcommittee in Congress that faces itself against Chinese aggression.

00:45:53.000 Here's Representative Gallagher explaining what could happen with a forced sale.

00:45:57.000 Do you actually believe a forced sale will happen before November?

00:46:03.000 It absolutely could.

00:46:05.000 It would be in the financial interest of ByteDance's investors to effectuate a for sale.

00:46:11.000 I think the user experience on the app would improve and you wouldn't have this concern over being propagandized.

00:46:19.000 The opaque algorithm influencing what information you see, that would go away.

00:46:24.000 So I imagine it would actually increase in value.

00:46:27.000 And I think all the more reason why we have to tackle this now.

00:46:29.000 The closer we get to an election, the risk just gets greater and greater.

00:46:33.000 You mentioned that unclassified DNI report.

00:46:36.000 Every single intelligence community official that testified before the Intelligence Committee last week suggested under its current ownership structure, TikTok is a threat to national security, which is why we are trying to force TikTok to separate from ByteDance and by extension from the Chinese Communist Party.

00:46:53.000 Okay, so he's right about all of that.

00:46:56.000 Meanwhile, Kara Swisher, the terrible columnist at the New York Times, who's wrong about nearly everything, she says, don't worry, TikTok isn't going away.

00:47:04.000 It's going to be fine.

00:47:04.000 TikTok is going to survive.

00:47:07.000 I get the First Amendment arguments and everything else, but TikTok's not going away, kids.

00:47:11.000 This is the thing that TikTok's using a little bit that is, I think, disingenuous in that it's not going away.

00:47:18.000 Someone's either going to buy it or they're going to be allowed to continue to operate with some guardrails, which is happening now with Project Texas, which I won't go into details, but there's got to be some way to monitor this particular service more than the others.

00:47:33.000 She happens to be correct about that.

00:47:36.000 All the panic over TikTok.

00:47:37.000 Oh my God, it's a censorship regime from the American government.

00:47:40.000 That's not what this is.

00:47:41.000 Read the bill.

00:47:43.000 Literally read it.

00:47:44.000 It specifically cites four countries and four countries only whose foreign ownership and or control of a social media company is not allowed in the United States.

00:47:53.000 Those countries would be Russia, China, Iran, North Korea.

00:47:57.000 That's it.

00:47:58.000 Ain't no more countries.

00:48:00.000 Again, the notion that if An American-owned entity violates the precepts of the federal government.

The Ben Shapiro Show - March 18, 2024

“BLOODBATH!” The Fake News Strikes Again

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