The Ben Shapiro Show - China, Monkeypox, and Recession, Oh My! | Ep. 1500

00:00:00.000 Joe Biden says the United States will militarily defend Taiwan in case of Chinese invasion.

00:00:04.000 Monkeypox freaks out the world.

00:00:06.000 And stocks continue to edge into bear market territory as the administration desperately flails.

00:00:10.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

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

00:00:18.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

00:00:20.000 Protect your online privacy today at ExpressVPN.com.

00:00:23.000 Slash, Ben, we'll get to all the news in just one moment.

00:00:25.000 First, I told you, like years ago, to buy some gold.

00:00:27.000 Well, you should have listened to me.

00:00:28.000 Because if you had bought gold, you'd be in really good shape right now, having diversified your portfolio.

00:00:33.000 The Fed right now, they are finally realizing the dire straits our economy is in, thanks to our loose monetary policy, apparently.

00:00:38.000 Who knew?

00:00:39.000 You can't just spend trillions of dollars every year with no repercussions.

00:00:42.000 I know, this was a big surprise to everyone. 0.99

00:00:45.000 Unless those people had brains.

00:00:47.000 Now, to play catch up, the Fed has been raising rates.

00:00:48.000 They plan to do so seven times this year.

00:00:50.000 Those are creating ripple effects in the housing market.

00:00:52.000 People's buying power is diminishing.

00:00:53.000 What happens if the stock market stalls out?

00:00:55.000 Which is kind of what you're starting to see right now.

00:00:57.000 There's some people predicting a 10-year stall for the stock market at this point.

00:01:00.000 Don't wait till that happens.

00:01:01.000 Take some of your profits from the stock market, solidify them with gold from Birch Gold, and diversify the way that I have.

00:01:06.000 Throughout history, gold has maintained its value better than any other investment in the world.

00:01:10.000 Text Ben to 989898.

00:01:12.000 Secure the gains you've made while you can.

00:01:14.000 I'm a customer of Birch Gold along with thousands of others.

00:01:16.000 I've got countless five-star reviews and A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau.

00:01:19.000 I trust the professionals over at Birch Gold and you should too.

00:01:22.000 Text Ben to 989898.

00:01:24.000 Protect your future with gold again.

00:01:25.000 Text Ben to 989898 to get started.

00:01:29.000 Well, your 2022 bingo card is getting rather full.

00:01:31.000 So we have recession.

00:01:33.000 Now we have monkey pox.

00:01:34.000 I didn't have that one on the bingo card.

00:01:36.000 And we have possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

00:01:39.000 So this morning's breaking news that the president of the United States had gone out on a limb and he had said that the United States would militarily defend Taiwan if Taiwan was invaded.

00:01:49.000 This is what the president of the United States said in a press conference and There are some good things about this and there's some bad things about this.

00:01:57.000 The bad thing about this is that it is utterly unclear whether this is in fact the case.

00:02:02.000 Here is Joe Biden saying it.

00:02:05.000 Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?

00:02:09.000 Yes.

00:02:11.000 You are?

00:02:11.000 That's a commitment we made.

00:02:14.000 And my expectation is it will not happen.

00:02:17.000 It will not be attempted.

00:02:20.000 So, there you have it.

00:02:21.000 Joe Biden saying that the commitment that we made is to defend Taiwan militarily.

00:02:25.000 Now, the real commitment that we have is to give Taiwan the weaponry to defend itself militarily if China were to invade.

00:02:31.000 On a strategic level, on a geo-strategic level, it is not a bad thing for China to think that the United States might directly involve itself militarily if Taiwan were to be invaded.

00:02:40.000 After all, Taiwan is significantly more strategically important than Ukraine is by any stretch of the imagination.

00:02:45.000 It is not particularly close.

00:02:46.000 Ukraine is not the source of a wild variety of really vital resources to the world.

00:02:52.000 And they're responsible for some grain, but that grain can be made up in other places.

00:02:56.000 Taiwan is responsible for nearly all advanced semiconductors on planet Earth at this point, which means that if China were to grab control of that, it would deprive the United States of pretty much all the advanced technology necessary to run an enormous number of our industries as well as a lot of our military tech, because a lot of that stuff, those semiconductors are used in a lot of the machinery that we use in the military as well.

00:03:15.000 So there's that problem if China were to take Taiwan.

00:03:17.000 There's the problem of China beginning to encircle Australia. 0.96

00:03:21.000 There's the problem of China beginning to encircle Japan.

00:03:23.000 There's essentially the fact that the United States would then have no real base of operations, would be increasingly pushed out to sea in terms of geo-strategic military-naval impact.

00:03:33.000 There's some real problems with China taking Taiwan.

00:03:36.000 And the reality is that if China attempted to take Taiwan at this point in time, Taiwan could inflict significant casualties on the Chinese, but China would win.

00:03:44.000 I mean, China is a much larger country.

00:03:47.000 China does have a massive military.

00:03:49.000 China might lose 50, 75, 100,000 soldiers, but they would still end up taking the island of Taiwan if they had to.

00:03:56.000 And again, the proximity of China to Taiwan, I mean, they're separated only by the Taiwan Strait.

00:04:01.000 That proximity means that our ability to resupply is extremely limited in that part of the world.

00:04:06.000 So when Joe Biden says that we will militarily defend Taiwan, there are a couple ways to read that.

00:04:10.000 One is good.

00:04:11.000 This is us trying to scare the Chinese off the mark. 1.00

00:04:14.000 It's us trying to say to the Chinese, listen, you should just know upfront that if things get hot here, we will be there with our weaponry ready to fight you. 1.00

00:04:22.000 That is the upside.

00:04:23.000 The downside is, it's not really true if that's the case.

00:04:25.000 And it's not clear that that's the case.

00:04:27.000 The United States has not made itself militarily ready for an actual battle over Taiwan with the Chinese.

00:04:32.000 We don't have the resources in theater.

00:04:34.000 We don't have the ability to resupply, as I say.

00:04:36.000 We don't actually have the ability to fight and win a war for Taiwan at this point because we have depleted our military resources, and we've particularly depleted our naval resources over the course of the last 20 years or so.

00:04:47.000 This is a real problem.

00:04:49.000 So you saw Joe Biden's team actually trying to walk this sucker back as soon as he said it, which is the third time in the last year that Joe Biden has suggested there will be military intervention directly by the United States. 0.75

00:04:59.000 And his team has said, well, not so fast.

00:05:03.000 Again, if you want to make this the new policy of the United States, I'm all for it.

00:05:06.000 I actually am.

00:05:07.000 I think that the United States does have a massive strategic interest in protecting the independence of Taiwan. 0.98

00:05:11.000 I think that the kind of strategic ambiguity as to whether there is one China, including Taiwan, or whether Taiwan is an independent nation is incredibly stupid. 0.95

00:05:19.000 Taiwan is an independent nation. 0.97

00:05:21.000 It has its own independent government.

00:05:22.000 It is not governed by the Chinese government, nor should it be.

00:05:24.000 And the fact that the West was strategically ambiguous with regard to Hong Kong for 20 years means that Hong Kong is now subjected to Chinese tyranny and they literally just walked in with no casualties and took over the place and no one said boo. 0.64

00:05:35.000 So either you draw a hard line or you don't draw a hard line.

00:05:37.000 So on a geostrategic level, I'm very much in favor of the idea that the United States is going to stop China from invading Taiwan.

00:05:43.000 On an actual practical level, can we do that?

00:05:45.000 And are we making commitments that we're unable to fulfill?

00:05:48.000 That is a serious problem.

00:05:49.000 That is a real problem.

00:05:50.000 And so when you have Joe Biden out front saying things that Maybe we wish were true, but maybe we don't actually have the stones or the brass to back up.

00:05:57.000 The problem is, if Joe Biden says, we will get ourselves involved militarily, that could also have one of two impacts.

00:06:03.000 One is that it tells the Chinese, don't do it because the price is going to be too high. 0.97

00:06:07.000 And even if you were to win Taiwan, you would then be in a state of war with the United States and you really don't want that.

00:06:12.000 That is possibility number one.

00:06:13.000 Possibility number two is that Xi looks at Biden and he says, I'm going to call your bluff.

00:06:18.000 You've now just ratcheted tensions up.

00:06:20.000 I don't think you have the resources in theater to prevent us from actually taking Taiwan.

00:06:26.000 I think you might have those resources in theater over the next couple of years if this is your new strategic proposal.

00:06:31.000 And so I'm actually going to try to take Taiwan like ASAP. 0.99

00:06:33.000 I'm going to try and go in there and take it before you can get more resources over there. 0.94

00:06:38.000 So this is the problem with getting out over your skis the way that Joe Biden has.

00:06:40.000 If you're going to announce a policy like this, it actually has to be a real policy change with the brass to back it up.

00:06:45.000 And when I say the brass, I mean the military wherewithal to actually back up the plan.

00:06:49.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, President Biden said the United States would respond militarily to defend Taiwan if China tries to take it by force, sparking uncertainty over whether the United States was moving away from its longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity and prompting a clarification from the White House.

00:07:01.000 And again, this is what happens with Biden a lot.

00:07:04.000 Is you're never sure whether it's the dementia talking or an actual policy change?

00:07:07.000 Is applesauce for brains actually saying something that is a real policy shift for the United States?

00:07:11.000 Or is the night nurse team from the press comms corps going to have to come out and explain away what he was just trying to do?

00:07:19.000 Biden's comments were met with anger from Beijing and praise from Taipei.

00:07:22.000 They were also part of a pattern.

00:07:23.000 In August and October of last year, the president answered questions on Taiwan by suggesting a break in U.S.

00:07:27.000 policy toward the democratically self-ruled island, only to have aides jump in to say nothing had changed.

00:07:33.000 This time, he was speaking alongside the Japanese Prime Minister in Tokyo during his first trip to Asia as Commander-in-Chief.

00:07:39.000 The president was asked if the United States would get involved militarily in response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan after declining to send troops to Ukraine to fight Russia's invasion.

00:07:47.000 He said, yes, that's the commitment that we made.

00:07:49.000 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin raised his voice when asked at a regular briefing about Biden's remarks.

00:07:55.000 He said China has no room for compromise and concession on core concerns like Taiwan and will take firm action to safeguards its sovereignty and security interests.

00:08:01.000 We do what we say.

00:08:03.000 Biden in his Monday remarks stressed the U.S.

00:08:05.000 remains committed to the Bedrock One China policy, which recognizes the present rulers as the only legitimate government and acknowledges Beijing's claim that Taiwan is a part of the nation.

00:08:15.000 But the president said that policy does not give China the right to forcefully take over the island.

00:08:19.000 He says, we agree with the one China policy and all the attendant agreements we made.

00:08:22.000 But the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, would just not be appropriate.

00:08:26.000 It would dislocate the entire region.

00:08:27.000 It would be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.

00:08:29.000 So it's a burden that is even stronger.

00:08:31.000 He also played down the possibility China would try to take Taiwan.

00:08:34.000 He says, my expectation is this will not happen.

00:08:36.000 But Joe Biden's expectations count for nothing, considering that he also expected the Taliban would never take Afghanistan, which happened to be the case for approximately negative 37 seconds.

00:08:45.000 And he also suggested that the Russians would probably not invade Ukraine.

00:08:48.000 And then he suggested they would invade Ukraine.

00:08:49.000 And then he suggested the Russians would fully take Ukraine.

00:08:51.000 And then he suggested that we were going to beat them back.

00:08:53.000 So Joe Biden's ability to predict things is extremely limited.

00:08:56.000 And the man can't predict his own ballot movements at this point.

00:09:00.000 point.

00:09:01.000 Taiwan is thankful to the United States for its rock solid commitment, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Au.

00:09:06.000 Responding to Biden's commitment, a White House official underscored the president's assertion that American policy toward Taiwan has not changed.

00:09:13.000 The official said Biden was referring to the US.

00:09:15.000 obligation to bolster Taipei's ability to defend itself, which is enshrined in the Taiwan Relations Act.

00:09:20.000 That act, passed in 1979, portrays any attempt to determine Taiwan's political future through anything other than peaceful means as a threat to American interests.

00:09:27.000 Congress is committed to selling defensive weapons to Taiwan, but Washington has previously avoided saying whether it would intervene directly in the event of an invasion.

00:09:35.000 And again, he has said that in the past, like routinely, and then his team has to keep walking it back, which makes us look confused, and it makes it look as though we have no plan over there, which is, of course, not a good thing.

00:09:46.000 Now, I will say for Joe Biden that it seems as though some of the moves that he is now making with regard to China are good.

00:09:53.000 So he is traveling over to Asia, and he's doing what presidents of both parties have been attempting to do over the course of the last 10 years, maybe the only bipartisan policy in the United States at this point, and that is to try to Hem in China by making alliances with the surrounding nations.

00:10:07.000 According to the New York Times, Biden has enlisted a dozen Asia-Pacific nations to join a new loosely defined economic bloc meant to counter China's dominance and reassert American influence in the region five years after his predecessor withdrew the United States from a sweeping trade accord it had negotiated itself.

00:10:21.000 The alliance will bring the United States together with Japan, South Korea, and India to establish new rules of commerce in the fastest growing part of the world and offer an alternative to Beijing's leadership.

00:10:29.000 Wary of liberal opposition at home, Biden's new partnership will avoid the market access provisions of traditional trade deals, raising the question of how meaningful it will be.

00:10:36.000 So again, if it's empty sort of stuff, then it really doesn't do anything.

00:10:40.000 If it's just like, hey, we're all friends, isn't that great?

00:10:42.000 You actually have to have a regional trade bloc that liberalizes the economic trading rules with these nations in order to create a counter-incentive for them to join with the Chinese, who are a huge security threat on the border of all these countries. 0.99

00:10:56.000 Biden said, we're going to help all of the country's economies grow faster and fairer.

00:11:00.000 The president was sitting alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, as well as Prime Fumio Kishida of Japan for the rollout of the initiative, while other leaders joined the event by video conference.

00:11:10.000 This is, again, part of the Biden strategy to try to bring in China, which, again, is a good strategy, and it's been pursued by members of both parties.

00:11:17.000 The New York Times tries to cover it as though Trump was not trying to do this.

00:11:19.000 He was.

00:11:20.000 He was just doing it through bilateral trade agreements, as opposed to through transnational trade agreements.

00:11:26.000 Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says it is by any account the most significant international economic engagement the United States has ever had in this region.

00:11:33.000 The launch of it tomorrow in Tokyo marks an important turning point in restoring U.S.

00:11:36.000 economic leadership in the region and presenting Indo-Pacific countries an alternative to China's approach to these critical issues.

00:11:41.000 And again, I've spoken with top-level Democrats on this particular stuff, I've spoken with top-level Republicans.

00:11:46.000 There is a widespread bipartisan consensus.

00:11:50.000 There needs to be economic activity designed to counter rising Chinese influence, particularly the Belt and Road Program in China, especially at a time of Chinese weakness.

00:12:00.000 And China is not in strong economic position right now.

00:12:03.000 They have massive outstanding debts.

00:12:05.000 The Chinese economy is a bit of a mess, and it's been a bit, when I say a bit, I mean a lot of a mess for a very long time. 1.00

00:12:10.000 And they are sort of threatening to expand territorial holdings to counter the fact that they are in a bit of an economic mess.

00:12:19.000 Alright, coming up, China is now boosting its own security pact with a bunch of island nations in order to spread its actual military power, its hard power, all across the Pacific region.

00:12:29.000 We'll get to that in just one moment.

00:12:31.000 First, you need life insurance because you just don't know what is coming around the bend.

00:12:34.000 I mean, it could be a Mack truck and you could be standing in the middle of the street.

00:12:36.000 Well, you know.

00:12:37.000 As that unfortunate circumstance took place, you might be thinking to yourself, man, should have listened to Shapiro and gotten the life insurance I needed through PolicyGenius.

00:12:44.000 PolicyGenius is your one-stop shop to find the insurance that you need at the right price.

00:12:48.000 Head on over to PolicyGenius.com slash Shapiro.

00:12:50.000 You can get started in minutes.

00:12:52.000 You can compare personalized quotes from top companies to find your lowest price.

00:12:55.000 You could save 50% or more on life insurance by comparing quotes with PolicyGenius.

00:12:59.000 The licensed agents of PolicyGenius are on hand throughout the entire process to help you understand your options and make decisions with confidence.

00:13:04.000 The Policy Genius team works for you, not the insurance companies.

00:13:07.000 They don't add on extra fees.

00:13:08.000 Policy Genius won't sell your information to third parties.

00:13:10.000 Policy Genius has thousands of five-star reviews across both Google and Trustpilot.

00:13:14.000 And since 2014, they've helped over 30 million people shop for insurance.

00:13:18.000 They've placed over $150 billion in coverage.

00:13:20.000 So, you got nothing to lose.

00:13:21.000 Head on over to policygenius.com slash Shapiro.

00:13:23.000 Make sure your family is taken care of in case, God forbid, something should happen to you.

00:13:26.000 Get the life insurance you need, policygenius.com slash Shapiro.

00:13:29.000 Get that free life insurance quote.

00:13:31.000 See how much you could save.

00:13:33.000 According to the Financial Times, China is intensifying its drive for influence in the Pacific by negotiating security deals with two additional island nations following a pact with the Solomon Islands, according to officials in the United States and allied countries.

00:13:44.000 Beijing's talks with Kiribati, a Pacific island nation 3,000 kilometers from Hawaii, where U.S.

00:13:49.000 Indo-Pacific Command is based, are the most advanced, the official said.

00:13:51.000 They're in talks with Kiribati and at least one more Pacific island country over an agreement that would cover much of the same ground as that with the Solomon Islands, said an intelligence official from U.S.

00:13:59.000 ally.

00:14:00.000 The warning that Beijing is trying to further increase its clout in the Pacific came as Joe Biden began his visit to Asia amid regional concerns about China's push for influence.

00:14:10.000 So, according to a leaked draft deal from March, the pact with the Solomon Islands could allow China to send its own police and military forces to the islands, a development that shocked the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific from Australia and New Zealand to Japan.

00:14:23.000 And now they are setting their sights on Kiribati as well.

00:14:26.000 So they're trying again to spread out their territorial footprint across the Pacific region.

00:14:31.000 And the United States is trying to counter that.

00:14:34.000 Now this is a time, as I say, of economic weakness for the Chinese.

00:14:37.000 So the fact that the Biden administration is pursuing more of an anti-China policy is a good thing. 0.90

00:14:42.000 And again, maybe the only bipartisan part of the American political scene right now.

00:14:48.000 Joe Biden, you know, he's kind of, I think it's good.

00:14:51.000 I think he's actually approaching a larger scale anti-China approach that is a good thing. 1.00

00:14:59.000 And so, for example, yesterday, Joe Biden over the weekend, he said that our economy is growing at a faster rate than China.

00:15:04.000 He's trying to prop up his own economic plans, but using China as the counter is not a terrible thing here.

00:15:10.000 Even in the face of historic economic challenges, our economy is providing and proving to be resilient.

00:15:17.000 In fact, just yesterday, an independent analysis projected that the American economy is poised to grow at a faster rate than China and the Chinese economy for the first time in 45 years.

00:15:31.000 I mean, listen, it's painful to listen to the guy try to stumble out sentences, but by the same token, you know, what he is saying in competition with China is not a bad thing.

00:15:39.000 The reason that China, by the way, is failing is because China has embraced Joe Biden's policies to the fullest, meaning domestic subsidies and massive borrowing plans via huge spending.

00:15:48.000 So one of the weird things about the Biden administration is at the same time they're trying to counter rising Chinese influence in the Pacific, which is good. 0.99

00:15:54.000 They're trying to create free trade blocks, which is good.

00:15:56.000 And they're trying to make more overt security guarantees to Taiwan, which if they can back that up, all of that is good.

00:16:01.000 They're trying to pursue bad economic policy at home that looks more like China. 0.76

00:16:04.000 Article in the Wall Street Journal today pointing out that China spends an enormous amount of money on exactly the kind of stuff that the Biden administration likes.

00:16:10.000 Quote, China spends much more in helping favored industries with state-directed funds, cheap loans, and other government incentives than other major economies, according to a new study expected to intensify the debate in Washington and elsewhere over Beijing's use of industrial policy.

00:16:23.000 The study, to be published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday, finds that China's backing of its companies amounted to at least 1.73% of its gross domestic product in 2019, and that trend is continuing.

00:16:34.000 In dollar terms, that's more than $248 billion based on market exchange rates, exceeding China's estimated military spending, or $407 billion based on exchange rates that adjust for different costs across countries.

00:16:45.000 China's spending, both as a share of GDP and in dollar terms, is significantly higher than that of seven other economies analyzed in the report, including South Korea, France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, the U.S.

00:16:53.000 and Brazil.

00:16:54.000 The United States, by contrast, spent 0.39% of its GDP on industrial support in 2019.

00:17:00.000 Oddly enough, people failed to see the connection between the fact that China has subsidized domestic industries to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year and the fact that China's economy is failing.

00:17:09.000 They treat that as though we should imitate the Chinese. 0.93

00:17:11.000 Well, maybe the reason China's economy sucks is because they keep redirecting money from what would be their most market-friendly uses and toward a bunch of stuff that the Chinese Politburo thinks would be a good idea.

00:17:23.000 Beijing's disclosure of subsidies is murky at best, according to China's analysts. 0.69

00:17:25.000 Its use of industrial policy is one of the most contentious issues involving the country's statist economic model.

00:17:30.000 So isolating China, again, all of this is a good thing. 1.00

00:17:33.000 Maybe the only good thing the Biden administration is doing at this point, but that only works if there is some sort of predictable and reliable Attempt to fulfill promises and the Biden administration so far has been unable to do that in other parts of the world, although they have done a better job in Ukraine.

00:17:50.000 And meanwhile, the other headline on your 2022 monkey pox bingo card, you didn't think monkey pox can be on there, did you?

00:17:57.000 And that was that was weird.

00:17:58.000 So now we've shifted from talking about COVID to talking about monkey pox.

00:18:02.000 And apparently we're supposed to be very worried about it.

00:18:03.000 According to the president of the United States, everybody should be concerned about monkey pox, which is weird because I'm not concerned at all about monkey pox.

00:18:09.000 I'll explain why momentarily.

00:18:12.000 Mr. President, quick question.

00:18:14.000 What have your health advisors told you your level of concern should be about monkeypox and the cases that are in the United States and around the world?

00:18:20.000 Well, they haven't told me the level of exposure yet, but it is something that everybody should be concerned about.

00:18:26.000 We're working on it hard to figure out what we do and what vaccine, if any, may be available for us.

00:18:34.000 Should we all be worried about monkeypox?

00:18:36.000 Well, the data suggests no.

00:18:37.000 According to Sky News in the UK, the UK is facing a significant rise in monkeypox cases over the next week, an expert has warned, as new infections were reported in mainland Europe and the United States.

00:18:47.000 More than 100 confirmed or suspected cases have been reported globally, including 20 in the UK, with a majority of infections in Spain linked to a sauna in Madrid.

00:18:56.000 Switzerland recorded its first confirmed case on Saturday after an infected person developed a fever and a rash and felt unwell.

00:19:01.000 The infection followed close physical contact abroad, which is a euphemism.

00:19:04.000 The affected person is isolating at home.

00:19:07.000 Officials in the Netherlands said on Saturday that several patients had contracted monkeypox a day after the country recorded its first case.

00:19:13.000 And in Germany, at least two cases of monkeypox have been recorded in Berlin after the country's first infection was detected in Munich on Friday.

00:19:19.000 Apparently, it has now appeared in a patient in New York City, as well as some people in Florida.

00:19:25.000 Israel also reported its first case on Saturday, a man in his 30s who had just returned from a trip to Western Europe.

00:19:31.000 So, it is in a bunch of countries.

00:19:33.000 So why exactly am I not particularly concerned about it?

00:19:35.000 Well, because it turns out that it's sexually transmitted, apparently.

00:19:38.000 And so the best science that we have available suggests that it is dudes screwing one another that is creating the spread of monkeypox.

00:19:44.000 According to The Guardian, a senior advisor for the WHO has said the monkeypox outbreak seems to be spreading through sexual contact and warned that case numbers could spike over the summer months as people attend major summer gatherings and festivals.

00:19:55.000 David Heyman, chair of the WHO's Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential, led a meeting of the group on Friday because of the urgency of the situation.

00:20:04.000 Heyman told Reuters the WHO is working on the theory that cases so far identified were driven by sexual contact.

00:20:10.000 What seems to be happening now is it got into the population as a sexual form, as a genital form, and is being spread as are sexually transmitted infections, which has amplified its transmission around the world, said Heyman.

00:20:20.000 Heyman is a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, He said the monkeypox outbreak did not resemble the early days of COVID because it does not transmit as easily.

00:20:28.000 There are vaccines available.

00:20:29.000 The most important message is you can protect yourself.

00:20:32.000 So we are going to do the same thing now that we've done in the past.

00:20:35.000 We're going to pretend that a disease that is particularly affecting people who engage in a particular type of activity actually might hit you.

00:20:42.000 Which, of course, is not correct.

00:20:43.000 The WHO is now issuing a statement.

00:20:45.000 They say, as we enter the summer season, with mass gatherings, festivals, and parties, I am concerned at the admission that the transmission of monkeypox could accelerate.

00:20:53.000 This is according to Hans Kluge, the WHO's top official on the continent.

00:20:57.000 He says the cases currently being detected are among those engaging in sexual activity.

00:21:01.000 But he's warning that you shouldn't go to, like, big events.

00:21:04.000 Britain had registered, by the way, 20 monkeypox infections as of Friday.

00:21:07.000 A notable proportion of them were among gay and bisexual men.

00:21:11.000 But we are all supposed to apparently now not go to mass gatherings because we might slip and fall onto asexually transmitted disease in some way.

00:21:22.000 I'm just going to note here that the scientific differential with regard to expectations and behavior is really, really astonishing.

00:21:29.000 It is quite a stunning thing.

00:21:31.000 Alrighty, when it comes to COVID, we're supposed to mask up for all time.

00:21:34.000 When it comes to promiscuous sex in saunas, however, well, we can't be expected to stop that.

00:21:38.000 We'll get to that in just one moment.

00:21:39.000 First, when interest rates rise, credit card debt gets more expensive.

00:21:43.000 Gotta make sure you're doing what you can to pay off all of that debt faster, especially during these times, which is why I recommend calling American Financing America's Home for Home Loans.

00:21:51.000 Their process starts with a free mortgage review.

00:21:53.000 No pressure, no obligation, no upfront or hidden fees.

00:21:55.000 It'll just be a simple conversation about the various benefits of a cash-out refi so you can learn more about custom options that can help you secure a better rate, spend less on interest, and pay off your balance faster.

00:22:04.000 That could mean savings of up to $1,000 a month, even more long-term.

00:22:08.000 So why not take 10 minutes to learn more?

00:22:10.000 The least you can do is find out more information.

00:22:12.000 If you like what you hear, you could skip two payments, you might close in as fast as 10 days.

00:22:16.000 Just call American Financing at 866-721-3300.

00:22:19.000 That's 866-721-3300.

00:22:21.000 Or visit AmericanFinancing.net, MLS182334, MLSConsumerAccess.org.

00:22:27.000 A lot of folks have a lot of credit card debt these days.

00:22:29.000 Gotta start getting creative.

00:22:30.000 One of the ways to get creative is calling American Financing and finding out what your home loan company can do for you.

00:22:35.000 American Financing, 866-721-3300 or AmericanFinancing.net.

00:22:41.000 When it comes to COVID, we are supposed to mask up until the end of time.

00:22:44.000 It is vital that we mask up until the end of time.

00:22:45.000 If we are in public, we must mask up.

00:22:47.000 We must make sure that our kids are masked up.

00:22:49.000 We must vaccinate ourselves 1,000 consecutive times, even if we've already been double-vaccinated and had Omicron.

00:22:54.000 That last one describes me.

00:22:55.000 I was double-vaccinated and I had Omicron.

00:22:57.000 We're still supposed to vax 1 million times consecutively until 80% of our body weight is actually composed.

00:23:02.000 Advice number two is I agree with Mayor Adams that when you're in an indoor space, you should be wearing a mask.

00:23:05.000 White House, we are supposed to continue masking up.

00:23:08.000 Here's Ashish Jha from the White House saying, when you are in a crowded area this summer, you should continue to wear a surgical mask so we all feel better about one another.

00:23:16.000 Advice number two is I agree with Mayor Adams that when you're in indoor space, you should be wearing a mask.

00:23:21.000 I feel that very strongly that in crowded indoor spaces, in places with high transmission, people should be doing.

00:23:27.000 Okay, so we're supposed to all mask up in public places because after all, we have to stop this or slow this.

00:23:35.000 Well, we can't do any of those things, actually.

00:23:37.000 Pretty much everybody has immunity, either natural or vax, at this point.

00:23:41.000 But we're going to call on you to do all those things, right?

00:23:43.000 We're going to shut down businesses for a couple of years.

00:23:43.000 We're going to do all that.

00:23:45.000 We're going to shut down the world economy and destroy it.

00:23:47.000 We're going to make sure that your small business never opens again.

00:23:49.000 We're going to keep your kids out of school.

00:23:50.000 We're going to mask up your small children. 0.96

00:23:51.000 We're going to force you to jab your kids, like, several times in a row. 0.52

00:23:54.000 We're going to do all of those things to stop the spread of COVID. 0.99

00:23:57.000 If you suggest that Monkeypox is not a global crisis, and that it is instead being driven by gay men having sex with one another, this apparently is really, really bad. 0.99

00:24:06.000 Because you can't expect gay men not to have sex with one another for like a month. 1.00

00:24:09.000 This is according to Greg Gonsalves over at Yale. 1.00

00:24:09.000 You can't. 1.00

00:24:13.000 He is a research epidemiology expert focusing on infectious disease.

00:24:18.000 He's been an AIDS activist for 30 years.

00:24:19.000 He's an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health.

00:24:22.000 Here is his thread today.

00:24:24.000 And it's so telling about the sort of activity that we are expected as human beings to engage in versus what we are expected not to engage in.

00:24:30.000 So like breathing, not jabbing your kids, like all that stuff.

00:24:35.000 Put it by the wayside.

00:24:37.000 We can handle it.

00:24:38.000 Not going to work, not going to school.

00:24:41.000 That's the price of doing business.

00:24:43.000 But if you say to people, perhaps to prevent the spread of monkeypox, you shouldn't go to a sauna and screw somebody else, then apparently you have violated all strictures of decency when it comes to human behavior.

00:24:53.000 Here's Greg Goncalves.

00:24:54.000 So, a threat on monkeypox. 0.81

00:24:56.000 I'm not an expert on the pathogen, but right now, many of the cases are in gay men. 1.00

00:24:59.000 I know something about infectious diseases among men who have sex with men. 1.00

00:25:03.000 First, it is not a gay disease.

00:25:05.000 If you say it is, you are perpetuating stigma and ignorance, damaging the public health response to this, and endangering lives. 0.65

00:25:12.000 Well, I mean, I'm not saying that it is purely a gay disease. 0.88

00:25:14.000 I mean, presumably, a bisexual person could have sex with a person of the opposite sex and transmit the disease. 1.00

00:25:19.000 But when you see that this is being transmitted largely among gay men, then you have to say that it is largely being transmitted among gay men. 0.98

00:25:25.000 I mean, that happens to be the fact of the case. 0.78

00:25:29.000 But the goal here is always to present that sexual activity has nothing to do with any of this sort of stuff.

00:25:35.000 So there's a piece over at PLOS.org.

00:25:38.000 PLOS is the Public Library of Science.

00:25:41.000 And they have an entire article on this, saying stigma directed at a particular group of individuals fuels fear and seriously impedes upon outbreak investigation, case identification and public health interventions.

00:25:50.000 The repercussions of labeling HIV infection a homosexual disease led to unsolved suffering in gay communities in the 80s who were blamed for the epidemic.

00:25:57.000 Well, I mean, the reality is that in the 80s, there was an attempt by a lot of public intellectuals to pretend that it wasn't predominantly being spread in the gay community.

00:26:05.000 And there was a massive panic that straight people were going to spread HIV at exorbitant rates, which was not the case.

00:26:10.000 By the way, none of this is to justify discrimination against homosexual people or people who engage in this activity, but to not Tell the truth about which diseases are linked to which kind of, I mean, like, we will link your breathing on another person to COVID and we will blame you and we will shame you if you don't get the vaccine. 0.76

00:26:26.000 But if we say that a disease is spreading predominantly among gay men who are having sex with one another, then it's homophobic?

00:26:31.000 Like, that's not the way that this works.

00:26:32.000 Describing disease vectors is not homophobic.

00:26:34.000 It just happens to be a fact. 0.96

00:26:36.000 And trying to pretend that it is some act of wild discrimination to describe how diseases are passed is really, really silly.

00:26:44.000 It's not only really silly, it's anti-data, but you have Greg Gonsalves saying, Okay, well, I mean, it's not just close physical contact, it's not just us all going to a movie together. 0.91

00:27:00.000 I mean, we're not all having sex with one another at movies. 0.93

00:27:03.000 At least not the kind of movies I go to. 0.77

00:27:06.000 But according to Greg Gonsalves, the answer isn't to shut down all these parties, or tell gay men to stop having sex with them, or dancing in close proximity to each other. 0.98

00:27:12.000 It won't work! 0.97

00:27:15.000 I'm just going to find a point here.

00:27:17.000 Just put a focus on that.

00:27:18.000 It won't work.

00:27:19.000 Shutting down your businesses for two years.

00:27:21.000 It'll work.

00:27:22.000 Mask up, everyone, including the babies, with surgical masks that don't fit their face properly.

00:27:26.000 It'll work.

00:27:27.000 Make sure everybody is vaxxed one million times.

00:27:29.000 It'll probably work.

00:27:31.000 Shut down air travel.

00:27:32.000 You know, that'll work.

00:27:34.000 What if we blow out the economy like $7 trillion?

00:27:36.000 That'll work.

00:27:37.000 It'll all work.

00:27:37.000 Everything works.

00:27:38.000 But if you tell people not to have sex with one another for five minutes, it won't work.

00:27:41.000 It just won't.

00:27:43.000 It hasn't worked for HIV or other kinds of infectious disease outbreaks among gay men.

00:27:47.000 A friend has said, this is what we do.

00:27:48.000 Don't panic.

00:27:49.000 Don't stigmatize.

00:27:50.000 Don't suddenly become sex negative.

00:27:52.000 You wouldn't want that. 0.94

00:27:53.000 Sex negativity. 0.94

00:27:53.000 You know, saying that perhaps you should only have sex with a committed partner. 0.94

00:27:56.000 Monogamy is a bad, I mean, wouldn't want that.

00:27:58.000 That'd be, that'd be terrible.

00:28:00.000 Educate men on what to watch out for, ask people to stay home if they're sick, or have some unusual lesion pop up even if they aren't planning to have sex.

00:28:07.000 If we jump to cancel events and stop having sex, we lose any hope of an effective response later if this doesn't burn itself out.

00:28:12.000 It's unbelievable.

00:28:14.000 Apparently all we had to do to defeat the COVID lockdown, folks, is we should have said from the very beginning, what we need to do is stop People from having promiscuous sex with one another and the entire left would have been like, no, no, that's impossible.

00:28:26.000 We can't do that.

00:28:28.000 That'd be no.

00:28:28.000 You know what?

00:28:29.000 No lockdowns, guys.

00:28:30.000 The lockdowns are over.

00:28:30.000 You can go back to business as usual.

00:28:32.000 Just enjoy your lives.

00:28:33.000 Send the kids to school. 0.86

00:28:34.000 I mean, anything to protect the promiscuous sex. 1.00

00:28:36.000 We got to do that.

00:28:37.000 It would be just like to all human.

00:28:40.000 We can't expect humans to not engage in promiscuous sexual activity at bars.

00:28:44.000 We can't expect people to do that.

00:28:46.000 The best thing is, Greg Gonsalves says, I mean, they don't apply this at all to COVID, but they apply it to monkeypox, which so far has affected like 100 people globally.

00:28:56.000 It's crazy!

00:28:56.000 I'm sorry, that's nuts.

00:28:58.000 But it's kind of hilarious.

00:28:59.000 Right, again, I'm just going to read that again slowly.

00:29:02.000 Pretend this applied to COVID for one second.

00:29:03.000 Don't panic.

00:29:05.000 Don't stigmatize.

00:29:06.000 Don't suddenly become work, school, breathing, mass gathering, church negative.

00:29:13.000 Educate people on what to watch out for.

00:29:14.000 Ask people to stay home if they're sick.

00:29:19.000 So apparently, again, now, the chief threat here is that society might encourage people not to have promiscuous sex, and therefore we have to, you know, we wouldn't want to do that.

00:29:28.000 That would be super bad.

00:29:29.000 So, just going to point out the unbelievable hypocrisy with regard to what we expect people to do versus what we expect people not to do. 0.83

00:29:37.000 It's unthinkable, unthinkable to ask people not to have promiscuous sex with one another at rock concerts, but it is absolutely thinkable to shut down entire societies for years at a time based on a disease that largely kills the elderly. 0.80

00:29:49.000 Slow clap for our nation's public intellectuals.

00:29:52.000 Slow clap for the experts.

00:29:53.000 You guys are doing great.

00:29:54.000 You're doing great.

00:29:55.000 Meanwhile, speaking of the experts, so remember that time when we were supposed to have an unprecedented economic recovery that was going to just ease right into a boom, considering that we had artificially made the economy comatose in 2020?

00:30:07.000 Remember that?

00:30:07.000 Well, yeah, now we're going to get a bear market.

00:30:09.000 So according to the Wall Street Journal, The stock market is on the verge of an actual bear market.

00:30:15.000 They say U.S.

00:30:15.000 stocks are in the midst of their longest selloff in decades.

00:30:18.000 Whether they are close to bottoming is anyone's guess.

00:30:20.000 Market selloffs have long stumped strategists trying to predict whether they were close to done.

00:30:24.000 Some have concluded with bursts of panicked sellings.

00:30:27.000 Others, such as the one lasting from 1973 to 1974, ground to an end after days of subdued trading volumes.

00:30:32.000 Many investors and analysts looking back at historic pullbacks believe that the current slump that has put the S&P 500 on the cusp of a bear market still has a way to go.

00:30:40.000 The index is down 19% from its January 3rd record, flirting with the 20% decline that would end the bull market that began in March 2020.

00:30:47.000 This year's stock sell-off, now in its fifth month, has already gone on far longer than the typical pullback occurring without a recession, according to the Deutsche Bank.

00:30:54.000 Yet the Federal Reserve is still in the early stages of its campaign to raise interest rates.

00:30:59.000 Meaning financial conditions will tighten further and put more pressure on stocks in the coming months.

00:31:03.000 Many people are skeptical the central bank will be able to keep raising rates without tipping the economy into a recession.

00:31:08.000 A period when stocks have typically fallen about 30% going back to 1929.

00:31:12.000 So it is unclear at this point how deeply the stock market is going to dump.

00:31:16.000 But the answer is it ain't gonna be pretty.

00:31:18.000 During past bear markets, the stock market dump has ranged anywhere from like 50%, that was October 2007 to 08, to a low of like 25 to 30%.

00:31:31.000 That was January to March of 2009.

00:31:35.000 David Rosenberg, president and chief economist at Rosenberg Research says, quote, there's not a chance in hell the federal will be able to crush inflation without significantly impairing domestic demand.

00:31:42.000 So stock declines have now become just part of what is being predicted.

00:31:47.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Conditions are ripe for a deep bear market.

00:31:53.000 With the S&P 500 briefly on Friday down 20% from its January peak, it's very tempting to start trying to call the end of the sell-off.

00:32:00.000 The problem is, it's only one of the conditions, for a rally is in place and everyone is scared.

00:32:05.000 That worked beautifully for timing the start of the 2020 rebound.

00:32:07.000 This time around may not be enough.

00:32:10.000 The other requirements are that investors start to see a way through the challenges and that policymakers start to help.

00:32:15.000 That confidence is already weak.

00:32:17.000 Surveys of sentiment show fund managers, private investors, and financial newsletters are already at March 2020 levels of caution about stocks.

00:32:23.000 Options that protect against market falls haven't been so popular since back then either.

00:32:27.000 Consumer sentiment is actually worse than it was then.

00:32:31.000 This time, central bankers are scared not by falling markets or by economic outlook, but by inflation.

00:32:36.000 Sure, if something major breaks in the financial system, they'll refocus on finance, and a recession could prompt them to rethink rate increases.

00:32:41.000 But for now, inflation means falling stock prices are seen merely as a side effect of tighter monetary policy, not a reason to invoke the Fed put and rescue investors.

00:32:50.000 There's nothing magical about a fall of 20%, the usual definition of a bear market, but it does crop up a lot.

00:32:55.000 In the past 40 years, the S&P 500 bottomed out with a 20% or so peak to trough decline four times, 1990, 1998, 2011, 2018.

00:33:02.000 Another four times, it had far bigger losses as true panic took hold.

00:33:07.000 It's unclear at this point just exactly what this looks like when we hit the bottom.

00:33:13.000 And it is unclear how resilient the economy is either.

00:33:15.000 Small businesses are freaking out.

00:33:18.000 According to Ruth Simon at the Wall Street Journal, small businesses are flashing warning signs on the U.S.

00:33:22.000 economy as inflation, supply chain snarls, a shortage of workers, and rising interest rates darken the outlook for entrepreneurs.

00:33:27.000 Fifty-seven percent of small business owners expect economic conditions in the U.S.

00:33:31.000 to worsen in the next year, up from 42 percent in April, equal to the all-time low recorded in April of 2020.

00:33:37.000 Almost six in ten small business owners think that the economic conditions are going to get worse, which they are.

00:33:42.000 That measure is one part of a broader confidence index that in May posted its largest year-over-year drop since the COVID shutdowns of April and May 2020.

00:33:50.000 Despite rising prices, the portion of small businesses that expects revenue to increase in the coming year fell to 61%, that is down from 79% in May 2020.

00:34:01.000 It just feels like there are all these factors that are out of your control, and it doesn't seem like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, said Minnie Long, the owner of Chai Kitchen, manufacturer of kimchi and other fermented Asian-flavored vegetables.

00:34:11.000 Again, small businesses and large companies are feeling the strain at this point, and all of this is having a massive impact on Joe Biden's prospect for 2022.

00:34:19.000 Things are looking really ugly out there.

00:34:22.000 As the Wall Street Journal points out, Biden and his advisors are already grappling with inflation trending near a four-decade high, wavering consumer confidence, headwinds posed by Russia's war in Ukraine.

00:34:34.000 Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently said, it's this president and his all-Democratic government who have drained American families' pocketbooks.

00:34:40.000 Every poll shows our citizens understand that sad reality all too well.

00:34:44.000 Already coming up, Joe Biden's numbers, based on the economy, are just horrible.

00:34:48.000 And he's going to pay the price for it.

00:34:49.000 We'll get some more on that in just one second.

00:34:51.000 If you have been worried about the state of the world, well, perhaps you're lacking some sleep.

00:34:55.000 Well, let me offer you a way to fix at least that problem.

00:34:58.000 This is where your magical Helix Sleep Mattress comes in.

00:35:01.000 Helix has a quiz.

00:35:01.000 It takes just two minutes to complete.

00:35:03.000 It matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you.

00:35:06.000 Why would you buy a mattress made for somebody else?

00:35:07.000 With Helix, you're getting a mattress you know will be perfect for the way you sleep.

00:35:10.000 I know because I got a Helix Sleep Mattress.

00:35:12.000 Myself, my wife, we got a Helix Sleep Mattress.

00:35:15.000 We took that two-minute sleep quiz.

00:35:16.000 And they sent us a mattress personalized just for us.

00:35:18.000 Why wouldn't you do the same?

00:35:19.000 Everybody is unique.

00:35:20.000 Helix knows that.

00:35:21.000 They have several different mattress models to choose from.

00:35:23.000 We've got soft, medium, firm mattresses.

00:35:25.000 Mattress is great for cooling you down if you sleep hot.

00:35:27.000 Mattress is great for spinal alignment to prevent morning aches and pains.

00:35:29.000 Even a Helix Plus mattress for plus-sized sleepers.

00:35:31.000 I took that Helix quiz.

00:35:32.000 I was matched with a particular mattress model, that is.

00:35:36.000 Firm, but very breathable because they tend to heat up a lot at night.

00:35:38.000 And if I have too soft a mattress, it hurts my back.

00:35:40.000 So Helix made sure none of that happens.

00:35:42.000 Go to helixsleep.com slash Ben.

00:35:43.000 Take their two-minute sleep quiz.

00:35:44.000 They'll match you to a customized mattress that gives you the best sleep of your life for a limited time.

00:35:48.000 Helix is offering up to 350 bucks off all mattress orders.

00:35:51.000 Two free pillows for our listeners.

00:35:52.000 That's the best deal they've ever given.

00:35:53.000 It's their best offer.

00:35:54.000 Hurry on over to helixsleep.com slash Ben.

00:35:57.000 Alright folks, if you've seen any of the Daily Wire original documentaries, you know that we are relentless in our pursuit of the truth no matter the subject matter.

00:36:04.000 This year, we are confronting radical gender ideology in Matt Walsh's upcoming What Is Woman.

00:36:08.000 That documentary is so good.

00:36:10.000 Oh my goodness.

00:36:11.000 I can't wait to bring it to you.

00:36:12.000 We've debunked the abortion industry and choosing death.

00:36:15.000 And now, exposing the media-driven lies that sanctified George Floyd and gave rise to BLM in The Greatest Lie Ever Told with Candace Owens.

00:36:21.000 Well, you know Candace. 0.99

00:36:22.000 You've seen how she's been merciless over the last couple of years, calling out the Black Lives Matter movement and the lies that they were built on, the lies that hypnotized the country, and then defrauded it of millions of dollars to speak nothing of the damage it caused and the lies it claimed, especially Black Lives Ruined. 0.60

00:36:35.000 When you set out to make a documentary, you don't actually know where the documentary is going to lead.

00:36:38.000 It's an actual process.

00:36:40.000 Well, as it turns out, Candace has uncovered some amazing stuff.

00:36:42.000 We're going to take some more time before putting this film out there.

00:36:45.000 Because we want it to be as good as it can be because we are still in the investigative phase in this film.

00:36:49.000 Then, as Candace likes to say, we'll let sunshine be the best disinfectant.

00:36:53.000 The greatest lie ever told.

00:36:54.000 George Floyd and the rise of BLM is coming soon.

00:36:56.000 It's going to be worth the wait.

00:36:57.000 You're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.

00:37:01.000 So the Biden administration really struggling here.

00:37:09.000 The economic numbers for Joe Biden are just brutal.

00:37:12.000 A new poll from Axios shows 69% of Americans say that the economy is bad.

00:37:16.000 65% said that Biden is slow to react when issues arise.

00:37:20.000 And 63% described the state of the country as uneasy and worrying.

00:37:23.000 All of which prompted Presidential Chief of Staff Ron Klain to tweet out, I hate to spoil the narrative, But this poll, it's a CBS News poll, shows the president's approval rating moving up and solid public confidence on the two biggest issues he inherited, COVID and jobs.

00:37:39.000 The public confidence on COVID is because everyone's already had it.

00:37:42.000 And when it comes to jobs, yes, we have a low unemployment rate.

00:37:45.000 Also, that poll shows Joe Biden at a 44% approval rating.

00:37:49.000 When you're bragging about a 44% approval rating as the chief of staff, that is what we call whistling past the political graveyard right here.

00:37:56.000 Even the New York Times is beginning to note how bad things look for the Democrats.

00:38:01.000 Standing at the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of Martin Luther King Jr., the Reverend Raphael Warnock led a sermon on the last Sunday before Georgia's Tuesday primaries that was about getting to where you need to go and navigating the challenges ahead.

00:38:12.000 Rise up and transform every opposition, every obstacle into an opportunity, Warnock urged.

00:38:16.000 He's not explicitly talking about his job as U.S.

00:38:18.000 Senator, but he might as well have been.

00:38:20.000 For months, nearly all of the political oxygen in Georgia and beyond has been sucked up by ferocious Republican primaries, intraparty feuds that have become proxy wars for Donald Trump's power, fueled by his retribution agenda.

00:38:30.000 But the ugliness of the GOP infighting has at times obscured a political landscape that is increasingly tilted in the Republican direction in Georgia and nationally.

00:38:37.000 Democrats were excited for Stacey Abrams, the former state legislator and voting rights activist, to jump into the 2022 governor's race, promising a potential rematch of the 2018 contest she only narrowly lost.

00:38:47.000 Warnock has emerged not only as a compelling speaker, but as one of his party's strongest fundraisers.

00:38:52.000 Yet the growing fear for Democrats is that even the strongest candidates and recruits can outrun President Biden's wheezing approval ratings by only so much, and are at risk of getting washed away in a developing red wave.

00:39:02.000 I think 2020 was a referendum on Trump, said Ashley Fogel, 44-year-old Democrat living in Atlanta.

00:39:06.000 I don't know if there's that same energy in 2022.

00:39:09.000 Already, a Republican-led remapping in Georgia has effectively erased one Democratic House seat and made another vulnerable.

00:39:15.000 The challenges facing Democrats are cyclical and structural.

00:39:20.000 The Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill could scarcely be narrower.

00:39:22.000 The party in power almost always loses in a president's first midterm election, even absent the current overlapping national crises, some of which are beyond Biden's control.

00:39:30.000 I love that the New York Times has said, it's not Biden's fault.

00:39:32.000 It's not Biden's fault, but it's a little Biden's fault.

00:39:36.000 Inside the White House, This political operation has been a subject of quiet griping in some corners for months.

00:39:41.000 A furious effort is afoot to reframe 2022 as a choice between the two parties rather than a referendum on democratic rule.

00:39:47.000 I need it done?

00:39:48.000 Aggressive operator longtime Biden advisor has rejoined the administration to sharpen its messaging.

00:39:53.000 Yeah, she, Anita Dunn, most famous for putting like a Mao Christmas ornament on a Obama White House Christmas tree. 0.66

00:40:01.000 The Democratic base is quite demoralized at the moment.

00:40:03.000 Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of the party's leading progressive voices, put it bluntly, if Georgia was the scene of the highest highs for the Democrats in 2020, turning blue at the presidential level for the first time since 1992, flipping two Senate seats, it's not clear whether the ideologically sprawling and multiracial Biden coalition they unified to oust Trump is replicable.

00:40:22.000 This fall, Warnock is expected to face Hershel Walker, the Republican former football star with scant political experience.

00:40:29.000 Warnock has already begun leveraging a $23 million war chest to tell voters he feels their pain and to show that he doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

00:40:36.000 He literally says in one of his ads, I'm not a magician.

00:40:40.000 Don't blame me.

00:40:42.000 In the Republican race for governor, Brian Kemp, who is going to win his primary with David Perdue, is going to skunk Stacey Abrams.

00:40:49.000 According to the New York Times, they say Ms.

00:40:51.000 Abrams has emerged as a national star among Democrats.

00:40:53.000 But privately, Democratic strategists fear her high watermark might have come in 2018, when she lost in a Democratic wave year.

00:41:00.000 Most polling shows a close race for governor and Senate with a slight Republican advantage.

00:41:04.000 So good luck to Democrats in all of this.

00:41:07.000 They're trying to spin their way out of this and it isn't going particularly well.

00:41:10.000 National Economic Council Chair Brian Deese, who's become a regular staple on cable news now because they have to trot somebody out to try and justify this debacle, economically speaking.

00:41:18.000 He was asked specifically on CNN whether the United States can avoid a recession and he dodged the question.

00:41:24.000 Yes or no, is the U.S.

00:41:26.000 falling into a recession?

00:41:28.000 Well, there are always risks, but here's where I think we are.

00:41:31.000 Our economy is in a transition from what has been the strongest recovery in modern American history to what can be a period of more stable and resilient growth that works better for families.

00:41:41.000 And so if we keep our focus on bringing inflation down in a way that actually helps families... But you're not saying no?

00:41:48.000 Look, there are always risks, but we feel very good about where the United States is, particularly when you look on the global landscape.

00:41:56.000 So that is not a no.

00:41:57.000 That is not a no.

00:41:59.000 Meanwhile, Bash asked me, so how did you guys blow it on inflation?

00:42:01.000 And he really didn't have a good answer on that one either.

00:42:04.000 Let's talk about inflation.

00:42:06.000 It is still near the highest levels in four decades.

00:42:10.000 Brian, how did the administration get that so wrong?

00:42:13.000 Look, a lot of things have changed over the course of the last year, and we've dealt with a lot of unexpected challenges.

00:42:19.000 As I mentioned, the Delta wave of COVID, Omicron on top of that, and more recently, Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which has sent gyration through global energy markets.

00:42:31.000 It's all Putin.

00:42:32.000 It's Ukraine.

00:42:33.000 It's a bunch of stuff that we never could have expected.

00:42:35.000 Like future variants that everyone expected.

00:42:38.000 Nobody is going to buy this, which is why David Axelrod, former Obama advisor, he's out there being like, yeah, they're jacked.

00:42:43.000 I mean, just 2022 is going to be a hideous red wave.

00:42:45.000 It's going to be a tsunami.

00:42:46.000 Just get ready for it.

00:42:47.000 Batten down the hatches. 0.65

00:42:49.000 Inflation is hard to reverse.

00:42:51.000 The Fed has the major cudgel here, but that involves raising interest rates, which has its own problems.

00:43:00.000 There are other things you could do, like relative to tariffs or student loans that would be unpopular.

00:43:07.000 I mean, there really aren't a lot of tools here for him, and that's what makes this so uncomfortable.

00:43:14.000 Yeah, sad story here for the Democrats.

00:43:17.000 So they're talking about kind of throwing everything in the world against the wall.

00:43:20.000 And they're talking about, they'll talk abortion, or they'll talk racism, or they'll talk about ending student loans, student loan debt, or they'll talk about how Republicans are going to steal elections if you don't elect Democrats to steal elections, because after all, Democrats have not been too shy about their desire to rig elections by rigging the rule.

00:43:38.000 None of this is going to pay off.

00:43:39.000 None of this is going to pay off.

00:43:41.000 So it's all baked into the cake at this point.

00:43:43.000 Joe Biden is in serious trouble.

00:43:44.000 Now, Republicans can still blow it because Republicans are very good at blowing things. 0.99

00:43:47.000 They can have a bunch of candidates who say dumb stuff. 1.00

00:43:49.000 They can lose a couple of Senate seats because Republican candidates say really stupid stuff. 1.00

00:43:53.000 But overall, Democrats are in a world of hurt here. 1.00

00:43:56.000 They know they are in a world of hurt here.

00:43:58.000 And they are just preparing for the shellacking to come.

00:44:01.000 So everybody should.

00:44:03.000 All right, we'll be back here later today with an additional hour of content.

00:44:05.000 In the meantime, go check out The Michael Molls Show that's available right now.

00:44:07.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:44:07.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:44:08.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Bradford Carrington, Executive Producer Jeremy Boren, Supervising Producer Mathis Glover, Production Manager Pavel Wydowski, Associate Producer Savannah Dominguez-Morris, Editor Adam Ciewiec, Audio Mixer Mike Coromina, Hair and Makeup Artist in Wardrobe Fabiola Cristina, Production Coordinator Jessica Grant.

00:44:33.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:44:35.000 Copyright Daily Wire 2022.

00:44:37.000 A new pandemic drops just in time for the midterms.

00:44:40.000 The Archbishop of San Francisco denies communion to Nancy Pelosi.

00:44:44.000 And Hispanics flee from the Democrats' sinking ship.

The Ben Shapiro Show - May 23, 2022

China, Monkeypox, and Recession, Oh My! | Ep. 1500

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript