The Ben Shapiro Show - COURAGE: Trump Refuses To Cave To Iran, Launches Next Phase In War

00:00:00.000 Alrighty, folks.

00:00:01.000 Well, America is breaking down into two parties, not the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, two new parties, the American Exceptionalists and the bipartisan Grievance Party.

00:00:11.000 The American Exceptionalists believe in American exceptionalism, that America is awesome, that we have historically been awesome, and that we will be awesome again if we do the hard things that we must do.

00:00:21.000 The Grievance Party members believe America is not awesome, was never awesome, and will only be awesome if we fundamentally rewrite the American bargain and also retreat from the world for our great sins.

00:00:31.000 That battle between the American exceptionalists and the grievance party, left and right, will define our future as Americans.

00:00:38.000 And right now, that battle is being fought over Iran.

00:00:41.000 You're listening to The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:49.000 So, the American exceptionalist versus the grievance party.

00:00:52.000 The American exceptionalists think that America is unique and awesome.

00:00:56.000 We may argue over tax rates and the prosecution of particular wars, whether to do them, how to do them, but we generally agree America has the best constitutional system, the strongest and best free market economy, and the most powerful military in all of human history.

00:01:09.000 We know that America, in order to preserve the freest and most prosperous nation in world history, sometimes has to do the tough stuff, but that doing the tough stuff is part of what makes America great.

00:01:19.000 And then, there are the members of the grievance party.

00:01:21.000 They're on the left.

00:01:22.000 And they're on the right.

00:01:23.000 They're the people the president calls low IQ these days, and they become largely indistinguishable from one another.

00:01:28.000 Hassan Piker on the left say, and Tucker Carlson on the right.

00:01:31.000 They seem to believe that America's constitutional system is a mockery and a sham, that our free market economy is actually just a rigged oligarchy created by nefarious and evil elites at the expense of the poor, that our military is a gigantic terrorist operation, and that the world would somehow be better off if America abandoned the international playing field.

00:01:50.000 Now, that grievance party, they're gaining adherence because the world feels chaotic, and when the world feels chaotic, there is comfort to grievance.

00:01:57.000 When you feel like nothing is in your control, it is easy and politically productive to blame mysterious forces beyond your control.

00:02:04.000 That also happens to be a recipe for failure, both individually and nationally, which is what the propagandists for the Grievance Party are rooting for pretty openly.

00:02:12.000 They're openly rooting for the United States to fail in its battle to rid the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, Iran, an apocalyptic death cult that cries death to America from obtaining nuclear weapons.

00:02:23.000 They want America to lose. 0.63

00:02:24.000 They want America to give up power to China and to Russia, and they openly say so.

00:02:28.000 But here's the thing America is not losing.

00:02:31.000 And that is because American exceptionalists know that in a chaotic world, the only answer is to stand up for American values and to do that without apology, with strength, and with courage.

00:02:41.000 President Trump is doing that right now in Iran.

00:02:44.000 Now, if you listened to the low IQ grievance party propagandists and their left wing legacy media counterparts over the course of the last week, you thought that President Trump was caving in, that that ceasefire routine, that was chickening out, that was taco time.

00:02:57.000 Well, if you listened to this show, you knew he wasn't.

00:03:01.000 And then over the weekend, it turns out some of us were right and some people were wrong because he didn't cave in. 0.79

00:03:07.000 And now he has Iran's feet to the fire. 0.61

00:03:10.000 And they have really, really serious problems.

00:03:13.000 So all this began with negotiations in Islamabad.

00:03:16.000 The Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, arrived in Islamabad.

00:03:20.000 He was along with Jared Kushner and Whitcoff, Steve Whitcoff.

00:03:24.000 And here he was greeting the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shabazz Sharif.

00:03:29.000 And, you know, shaking hands, being very friendly.

00:03:32.000 Now, Pakistan is sort of like Qatar in the sense that they are sort of an ally of convenience for the United States.

00:03:39.000 They do certain things for us in terms of anti terror. 0.86

00:03:42.000 They also tend to oppose America, generally speaking, they are an Islamist state. 0.98

00:03:48.000 The president on Wednesday put forward, on Friday afternoon rather, right before the negotiations began, he put forward a statement on Truth Social The Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards. 0.96

00:03:59.000 Other than a short term extortion of the world by using international waterways, the only reason they're alive today is to negotiate, President Trump. 0.99

00:04:06.000 And of course, he is right about that.

00:04:09.000 The reality is that the Iranian government, people see the attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz as a sign of strength from the Iranian government, as we've been discussing for a while here.

00:04:19.000 That is not the case.

00:04:20.000 That is not the case. 0.98

00:04:21.000 Basically, the Iranians, in order to remain in power, given the fact that they have a completely defunct economy, an economy where the real, the Iranian real, is trading at zero. 0.84

00:04:30.000 Remember, there were millions of protesters in the streets before the current U.S. Israeli action against Iran. 0.89

00:04:38.000 Basically, Iran had only a couple of levers that it could pull in an attempt to maintain its power. 0.71

00:04:44.000 One is it could shoot its protesters in the streets en masse, and they were doing that. 0.92

00:04:48.000 The second was they could ramp up conflict via their terror proxies in an attempt to Extort the world. 0.62

00:04:54.000 They had tried that and it failed.

00:04:55.000 It began October 7th, 2023.

00:04:58.000 It began long before that with Hezbollah, but in sort of most modern iteration, it began October 7th, 2023, and that failed too. 0.60

00:05:05.000 And then they could try to rush their way to a nuclear weapon, and that failed because President Trump and the Israelis called their bluff. 0.73

00:05:12.000 And then finally, as a last gasp, they could try to shut down shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:05:16.000 The problem is, once you shut down that shipping, that is a problem that affects everyone.

00:05:21.000 And now, if Iran releases that, if suddenly the Strait of Hormuz were to be clear, If oil were to move in and out unfettered by the Iranian government, they would have no lever.

00:05:31.000 They would have no lever anymore.

00:05:33.000 All of their leverage would be gone.

00:05:35.000 If it turned out the Strait was clear and they have no nukes and their terrorist groups are dying and they have no control over the Strait of Hormuz, they really have nothing.

00:05:43.000 This is a point that President Trump was making Saturday afternoon saying, listen, if there's a deal, great.

00:05:48.000 If there's no deal, we'll win anyway.

00:05:52.000 We're getting a lot of reports.

00:05:53.000 They've been meeting for many hours, as you probably have noticed.

00:05:57.000 We'll see what happens.

00:05:58.000 Look, regardless, we win.

00:06:01.000 Regardless of what happens, we win.

00:06:04.000 We've totally defeated that country.

00:06:07.000 And so let's see what happens.

00:06:08.000 Maybe they make a deal, maybe they don't.

00:06:12.000 From the standpoint of America, we win.

00:06:16.000 Okay, and again, he is not wrong about this. 0.94

00:06:18.000 We should keep focusing on the fact that Iran's military has been wildly depleted. 0.79

00:06:22.000 Their Navy is at the bottom of the sea, their Air Force cannot fly.

00:06:26.000 Their government is so discombobulated that you have factions within the Iranian government legitimately arguing with each other fairly publicly.

00:06:32.000 You have Mohammed Khalibaf, who is the negotiator for the Iranians and the person who I suppose is who we are talking to.

00:06:39.000 And he's arguing with Vahidi, who's the head of the IRGC, fairly openly at this point.

00:06:45.000 So there's serious conflict, even within the Iranian government, as to who exactly is in the leadership.

00:06:49.000 It's not Mustab al Khomeini, who is one legged and in a coma.

00:06:54.000 So things are not going well for Iran.

00:06:56.000 Not only that, it turns out.

00:06:57.000 That actually, as the world reorients away from oil in the Persian Gulf, they're reorienting in the immediate term toward the United States.

00:07:06.000 And by the way, globally, they're going to reorient away from transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

00:07:10.000 You're going to see new pipelines being built from Saudi, probably all the way across to the Mediterranean Sea, possibly via Israel. 0.98

00:07:17.000 You're going to see new pipelines that are built in other directions in an attempt to avoid the overwatch of the Iranians. 0.99

00:07:25.000 But for the moment, the reality is that we are shipping a bushel of oil to the United States.

00:07:30.000 The president put out a statement again.

00:07:32.000 This was Saturday morning.

00:07:33.000 Quote, massive numbers of completely empty oil tankers, some of the largest anywhere in the world, are heading right now to the United States to load up with the best and sweetest oil and gas anywhere in the world.

00:07:42.000 We have more oil than the next two largest oil economies combined and higher quality.

00:07:45.000 We're waiting for you.

00:07:46.000 Quick turnaround, President Trump.

00:07:48.000 And here, in case you don't believe him, this is a map of tankers headed to the Gulf of America.

00:07:53.000 And as you can see, that is a lot of tankers that are no longer going to the Persian Gulf.

00:07:58.000 Instead, they are headed toward, you guessed it, the Gulf of America.

00:08:04.000 Formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico.

00:08:07.000 So, Iran is in a bit of trouble.

00:08:10.000 Already coming up, we'll get to why the blockade on Iran is actually going to affect China in some pretty negative ways.

00:08:17.000 You know, first, I've been working with PureTalk for six years.

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00:09:18.000 So, number one, it turns out that Iran may have planted mines and then may have just lost control of the mines.

00:09:23.000 Like they may not even know where they planted mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:09:25.000 That's the New York Times reporting it Iran's inability to locate its own mines is one reason Iran has not been able to quickly comply with the Trump administration's admonitions to let more traffic pass through the Strait.

00:09:36.000 Safe routes are limited in large part because Iran mined the Strait haphazardly.

00:09:41.000 It's not even clear that Iran recorded where it put every mine. 0.83

00:09:44.000 And even when they recorded the location, they sort of let them drift or move.

00:09:49.000 Well, this is a problem, not really for the United States.

00:09:52.000 It is a problem for China.

00:09:53.000 It is a problem for Japan.

00:09:54.000 It is a problem for Europe. 0.58

00:09:56.000 Truly. 0.98

00:09:56.000 Because if the Straits of Hormuz were to be, let us say, permanently closed or harmed, the chief, the chief problem would lie with the people who get their oil from the Straits of Hormuz. 0.98

00:10:08.000 That is not the United States. 0.54

00:10:09.000 That is jet fuel in Europe.

00:10:11.000 That is most of the oil that is going into places like Japan and China from that region. 0.82

00:10:17.000 And so how long is China going to simply allow Iran to hold the world hostage while it can't even get its own oil? 0.52

00:10:25.000 If it turns out that Iran is able to control that area, that is not a good thing for China. 0.70

00:10:30.000 That is a bad thing for China. 0.81

00:10:34.000 And this, I think, is part of the president's plan, as we'll get to in a little while.

00:10:37.000 China has been attempting to prop up the Iranian regime because they see Iran as a counterweight to Saudi, to UAE, to Bahrain, and to Israel.

00:10:46.000 They believe that Iran is the glue that sticks together their world coalition along with Russia.

00:10:54.000 And so they have continued, according to the Wall Street Journal, to sell the Iranians sanctioned dual use technology to enable Tehran to keep building weapons.

00:11:02.000 But what happens right now, the way that it was working, is that oil that was moving via the Persian Gulf was largely going to China, and Iran was letting it through, and so was the United States.

00:11:13.000 What happens when that oil stops moving, and now China has a serious fuel problem?

00:11:18.000 Well, as of Saturday morning, the president put out another statement saying they were already clearing out the Strait of Hormuz.

00:11:24.000 He put out a statement The fake news media has lost total credibility, not that they had any to begin with.

00:11:29.000 Because of their massive Trump derangement syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS, they love saying that Iran is winning when, in fact, everyone knows they're losing and losing big.

00:11:36.000 Their Navy is gone, the Air Force is gone, their anti aircraft apparatus is non existent, radar is dead, their missile and drone factories have been largely obliterated, along with the missiles and drones themselves, and most importantly, their longtime leaders are no longer with us. 0.73

00:11:48.000 Praise be to Allah.

00:11:49.000 The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may bump into one of their sea mines, which, by the way, all 28 of their mind dropper boats are also lying at the bottom of the sea. 0.58

00:11:58.000 We're now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to countries all over the world, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and many others.

00:12:05.000 Incredibly, they don't have the courage or will to do this work themselves.

00:12:08.000 Very interestingly, empty oil carrying ships from many nations are headed to the United States to load up with oil.

00:12:15.000 And the president, again, is not wrong about this.

00:12:19.000 Meanwhile, it turns out that on Saturday, actually, two American ships transited the Strait of Hormuz and are operating in the Arabian Gulf.

00:12:27.000 Those would be the USS Frank E. Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy.

00:12:31.000 According to Admiral Brad Cooper, who's the commander of CENTCOM, quote, today we began the process of establishing a new passage, and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce.

00:12:41.000 Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days.

00:12:48.000 The president did make clear that if we're the ones who are going to do the work, this is not the little red hen.

00:12:52.000 If we're the ones who do the work, then we are the ones who are going to reap the benefit.

00:12:56.000 Other countries can't just free ride on us.

00:13:04.000 We defeated their radar.

00:13:06.000 We defeated their leaders. 0.99

00:13:07.000 Their leaders are all dead.

00:13:10.000 And now all we do is we'll open up the strait even though we don't use it because we have a lot of other countries in the world that do use it that are either afraid or weak or cheap.

00:13:23.000 I don't know what it is, but we were not helped by NATO, that I can tell you.

00:13:29.000 Again, this we'll get to in a minute the international community's failure to actually be a community and instead to just sit there and let America do all of the heavy lifting.

00:13:37.000 All right, so all this was happening while negotiations were supposedly taking place.

00:13:42.000 And those negotiations went for something like 21 hours straight.

00:13:45.000 And they ended with nothing.

00:13:47.000 This, of course, is not a surprise to those of us who have been pointing out that Iran was going to be intransigent on its nuclear weaponry.

00:13:55.000 It was not possible for the Iranians to give up their nuclear program. 0.59

00:13:59.000 The minute that they do, their leverage is gone. 0.96

00:14:01.000 Again, they're trying to turn themselves into North Korea. 0.98

00:14:03.000 Remember, never forget when it comes to the Iranians, they could end. 0.97

00:14:08.000 All measures against them with one statement, all they would have to do is announce they are done developing nuclear weapons and they're going to give up the nuclear materials they have. 0.71

00:14:16.000 They're not going to block the Strait of Hormuz.

00:14:18.000 They're not going to develop offensive ballistic missile capacity.

00:14:22.000 And they're going to stop funding terrorist groups.

00:14:23.000 That's it.

00:14:24.000 If they did all of that, all of this would be over.

00:14:26.000 And in fact, it would have been over decades ago.

00:14:29.000 The reason they're not doing that is because they do have regional and global ambitions.

00:14:34.000 That is the reason they are doing this.

00:14:35.000 And so they're not giving up the ghost.

00:14:38.000 Well, the Vice President, JD Vance, who no one could accuse of being a neocon warmonger, he was the one leading the negotiations.

00:14:45.000 And even he had to say listen, the Iranians are not willing to make any sort of serious concession in terms of acting like a normal state.

00:14:57.000 But the simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.

00:15:08.000 That is the core goal of the President of the United States.

00:15:10.000 And that's what we've tried to achieve through these negotiations.

00:15:13.000 Again, their nuclear program, such as it is, the enrichment facilities that they had before, they've been destroyed. 0.76

00:15:22.000 But the simple question is do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term?

00:15:32.000 We haven't seen that yet.

00:15:33.000 We hope that we will.

00:15:35.000 Now, again, the chances that we will, absent significantly more coercion, low.

00:15:42.000 What exactly was it that the United States wanted from Iran?

00:15:45.000 Again, the list of demands is just be normal.

00:15:46.000 That's it.

00:15:48.000 One, an end to all uranium enrichment.

00:15:49.000 This is according to Fox.

00:15:50.000 Two, dismantling all major nuclear facilities.

00:15:53.000 Three, retrieving highly enriched uranium.

00:15:55.000 Four, accepting broader regional peace and de-escalation framework, including regional allies.

00:15:59.000 Five, stop funding proxy groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

00:16:03.000 And six, fully open the Strait of Hormuz.

00:16:05.000 That's it.

00:16:06.000 Act like a normal country and all of this stops.

00:16:09.000 And they won't.

00:16:11.000 And they won't.

00:16:12.000 Mary Margaret Olihan has a good piece over at Daily Wire reporting on what exactly the United States learned in these negotiations.

00:16:19.000 Quote The negotiations helped the United States understand just how little Iran understood their situation.

00:16:24.000 U.S. officials told the Daily Wire.

00:16:26.000 A U.S. official said that Vance entered the negotiations well aware the U.S. and Iran had hardly interacted with one another for half a century.

00:16:32.000 Vance probed the Iranian assessment of their own position and discovered that they fundamentally misunderstood their own position walking into the negotiations.

00:16:40.000 That was why the vice president left Islamabad after he gave that final offer.

00:16:44.000 If the Iranians believe they have leverage that they do not have, the official said, no deal is achievable.

00:16:50.000 And that's the thing. 0.99

00:16:51.000 The Iranians, you can only close the strait once. 1.00

00:16:53.000 Once it's been closed, it's closed. 1.00

00:16:55.000 So what exactly do you do next if you are Iran? 1.00

00:16:57.000 You simply, presumably, hope to wait out the United States. 0.99

00:17:01.000 That's it.

00:17:01.000 Well, President Trump then issued a statement that followed hard upon JD Vance's statement Saturday night quote, Iran promised to open the Strait of Hormuz, and they knowingly failed to do so.

00:17:13.000 This caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people in countries throughout the world.

00:17:16.000 They say they put mines in the water, even though all their navy and most of their mine droppers have been completely blown up.

00:17:21.000 They may have done so, but what ship owner would want to take the chance? 0.63

00:17:24.000 There's great dishonor and permanent harm to the reputation of Iran and what's left of their leaders, but we are beyond all of that. 0.60

00:17:29.000 As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this international waterway open and fast. 0.99

00:17:33.000 Every law in the book is being violated by them.

00:17:35.000 I've been fully debriefed, says the president, by Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Whitcough, and Jared Kushner on the meeting that took place in Islamabad.

00:17:43.000 Through the kind and very competent leadership of Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of Pakistan. 0.89

00:17:48.000 Again, understand that Pakistan in this particular situation is a cutout for China.

00:17:53.000 Pakistan and China have a very warm relationship.

00:17:55.000 China is the one trying to get to an off ramp here because it is China that is worried about the Strait of Hormuz being closed, considering that 37% of imported Chinese oil comes via the Strait of Hormuz.

00:18:06.000 According to the president, I always appreciate hearing that the amount of humanity that he has saved, he's talking about the war with India, is incomprehensible.

00:18:15.000 And then he says, the meeting with Iran began early in the morning and lasted throughout the night, close to 20 hours.

00:18:19.000 I could go into great detail and talk about much that has been gotten, but there is only one thing that matters.

00:18:23.000 Iran is unwilling to give up its nuclear ambitions. 0.82

00:18:26.000 In many ways, the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our military operations to conclusion, but all of those points don't matter compared to allowing nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people. 0.50

00:18:36.000 My three representatives, As all of this time went by, he became not surprisingly very friendly and respectful of Iran's representatives, Mohammed Bagher Khalibaf, Abbas Araki, and Ali Bagheri. 0.67

00:18:45.000 But that doesn't matter because they were very unyielding as to the single most important issue.

00:18:48.000 And as I have always said right from the beginning and many years ago, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. 0.89

00:18:54.000 And that, in the end, is the thing that matters.

00:18:56.000 Okay, so the president then said what would happen next Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin the process of blockading any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz.

00:19:09.000 At some point, we will reach an all being allowed to go in, all being allowed to go out basis.

00:19:13.000 But Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying there may be a mine out there somewhere that nobody knows about but them.

00:19:18.000 This is world extortion, and leaders of countries, especially the United States, will never be extorted. 0.56

00:19:22.000 I've also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll to Iran.

00:19:28.000 No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas, says the president. 0.94

00:19:32.000 We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the straits. 0.81

00:19:35.000 Any Iranian who fires at us or a peaceful vessel will be blown to hell. 0.99

00:19:40.000 Iran knows, says the president, better than anyone, how to end the situation, which has already devastated their country. 0.98

00:19:45.000 The blockade will begin shortly.

00:19:46.000 Other countries will be involved with this blockade. 0.85

00:19:48.000 Iran will not be allowed to profit off this illegal act of extortion. 0.51

00:19:51.000 They want money, and more importantly, they want nuclear. 0.83

00:19:53.000 Additionally, and in an appropriate moment, we are fully locked and loaded, and our military will finish up the little that is left of Iran, President Trump. 0.78

00:20:00.000 And that blockade was commenced this morning at 10 a.m. Eastern.

00:20:04.000 It was effective on vessels attempting to reach Iranian ports or that were leaving Iranian ports.

00:20:10.000 The president also pointed out on Truth Social this morning that the United States would be obliterating any fast attack ships.

00:20:17.000 These are the small boats that Iran has been launching at tankers.

00:20:20.000 He says if they come anywhere close to our blockade, they will be immediately eliminated.

00:20:25.000 Now, again, what does this mean?

00:20:27.000 Well, it really means that the Iranian economy is dead. 0.99

00:20:30.000 Like DOA. 0.54

00:20:31.000 The Iranian economy was already basically screwed.

00:20:35.000 They had continued to benefit economically from the blockade because as the supply of oil was lowered, as they blockaded pretty much all non Iranian ships or Iranian flagships or Iranian allied ships, the supply of global oil declined and the price of Brent crude skyrocketed.

00:20:51.000 And so Iran was shipping out more oil at higher prices.

00:20:53.000 And so the United States just said under President Trump, you don't get to do that anymore.

00:20:57.000 You're going to blockade.

00:20:59.000 Pretty much everything except your own stuff?

00:21:00.000 Well, now we are going to blockade your stuff, and you're going to have to deal with the fallout.

00:21:04.000 Well, Myad Maleki of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy points out what that means in terms of Iran's economy. 0.83

00:21:10.000 And the answer is it means they have no economy.

00:21:12.000 Quote The U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would cost Iran approximately $276 million a day in lost exports and disrupt $160 million a day in imports, a combined economic damage of $435 million a day or $13 billion per month.

00:21:27.000 Over 90% of Iran's $110 billion in annual trade transits the Persian Gulf.

00:21:33.000 Oil and gas accounts for 80% of government export earnings and 24% of GDP.

00:21:38.000 Karg Island alone generates $53 billion a year or $78 billion a year in energy revenue.

00:21:44.000 The rial has already cratered from $42,000 to $1.5 million per dollar.

00:21:49.000 Banks are currently limiting withdrawals in Iran to $18 to $30 per day.

00:21:53.000 The overall inflation rate is 47.5%.

00:21:57.000 And a blockade eliminating all foreign exchange earnings pushes the rial into terminal hyperinflation.

00:22:02.000 The regime just issued its largest ever banknote, 10 million rials.

00:22:06.000 That sounds like a lot of money, 10 million reals.

00:22:08.000 That is $7.

00:22:10.000 $7.

00:22:12.000 So the blockade basically ends the Iranian economy.

00:22:18.000 Now, the Iranians presumably are hoping that this only lasts for a short period of time, but the New York Post is reporting this morning that the Iranians are already talking about the possibility of giving up the ghost and ending their nuclear program.

00:22:29.000 This is exactly what President Trump predicted yesterday with Maria Bartiromo over on Fox.

00:22:36.000 Think of it.

00:22:37.000 They're allowed to say, death to America, death to this, death to.

00:22:42.000 And I make one statement, they say, oh, such a big deal.

00:22:45.000 Let me tell you, that statement got them to the bargaining table, and they haven't left.

00:22:49.000 They haven't left the bargaining table.

00:22:51.000 I predict they come back and they give us everything we want.

00:22:55.000 And I told my people, I want everything.

00:22:57.000 I don't want 90%.

00:22:58.000 I don't want 95%.

00:23:00.000 I told them, I want everything.

00:23:02.000 Well, and what they have no cards.

00:23:05.000 Maria, Maria. 0.99

00:23:05.000 Yep. 0.99

00:23:06.000 They have no cards. 0.55

00:23:09.000 Okay, so does that sound like tacoing to you? 0.83

00:23:12.000 This was the president giving Iran the opportunity to take the off ramp. 0.63

00:23:15.000 And if Iran chose not to take the off ramp, well, hell was coming. 0.88

00:23:19.000 That is the reality. 0.84

00:23:21.000 The United States had a week to rearm.

00:23:23.000 The amount of material that's being reshipped back into the Middle East in preparation for even further action is quite large at this point.

00:23:31.000 And the United States still has a lot of cards left to play. 0.68

00:23:34.000 Sure, we can embargo all of the oil that is coming out of Iran, we can blockade it. 0.99

00:23:39.000 We could also just blow up Kharg Island and create a permanent problem for them. 0.97

00:23:43.000 The Israelis could do a special operation and grab the nuclear materials right now. 0.90

00:23:48.000 And as the economy collapses, if you believe that there won't be bread riots, meaning people just don't have any money at all in Iran, and they don't have a choice but to try to overthrow the government and restore normality, well, that is a thing that is happening too.

00:24:01.000 Iran is in very, very serious trouble.

00:24:02.000 Coming up, we'll get to where Americans are on this war.

00:24:05.000 You keep hearing that Americans hate it.

00:24:06.000 It's just that's not the truth.

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00:25:08.000 This raises the only possibility Iran has left, and that is convince members of the grievance party that if they complain loud enough, the president will stop.

00:25:17.000 So, first of all, the American people, there are a lot of polls out there saying the American people, they don't love the Iran war, that a minority like it or a plurality like it.

00:25:25.000 Okay, here's the reality.

00:25:27.000 Always and forever, Americans don't like wars until we win them.

00:25:32.000 That's all.

00:25:33.000 And even the wars that we do like at the very beginning, if we start to lose them, Americans don't like them anymore.

00:25:38.000 Americans like winning and we don't like losing.

00:25:40.000 It is that simple.

00:25:42.000 And Americans are willing to undergo this for a temporary period of time, as they've said over and over and over.

00:25:47.000 The polls that say, Do you like the war right now?

00:25:49.000 No one likes the war right now.

00:25:51.000 No one's like, Yes, war.

00:25:52.000 The question is, What do we get in exchange for not doing what we're doing? 0.95

00:25:57.000 And the answer is a nuclear Iran with its foot on the throat of global oil supply. 0.96

00:26:02.000 Well, that's unacceptable. 0.97

00:26:04.000 Every poll shows that a short term, a short duration war that achieves our goals is popular with the American people.

00:26:11.000 And a long term war that doesn't achieve any of our goals is wildly unpopular.

00:26:16.000 Because, duh.

00:26:17.000 Well, Representative Mike Turner of Ohio made this point pretty clearly.

00:26:21.000 He says, listen, does anyone like higher gas prices?

00:26:25.000 No.

00:26:25.000 But are we willing to trade slightly lower gas prices?

00:26:28.000 For Iran becoming a nuclear power and being able to sit on the Straits of Hormuz permanently? 0.96

00:26:32.000 Nope. 0.63

00:26:34.000 The president has articulated, I think, very well, that this is about ensuring that Iran does not become a nuclear state.

00:26:42.000 And no one is willing to trade lower gas prices for Iran becoming a nuclear state.

00:26:50.000 Okay.

00:26:50.000 And again, when people are asked what America's goals in Iran should be, the answer is basically universal.

00:26:56.000 This is a CBS News YouGov poll that came out over the weekend.

00:27:00.000 What is important for the United States to do regarding Iran?

00:27:03.000 87% open the Strait of Hormuz in oil access.

00:27:06.000 81% make sure Iran's people are safe and free.

00:27:09.000 76% stop Iran from threatening other countries.

00:27:12.000 76% permanently stop Iran's nuclear programs.

00:27:14.000 So, three quarters of Americans agree with pretty much all the goals that have ever been spelled out regarding Iran. 0.66

00:27:21.000 The question, of course, with every war is cost and benefit. 0.68

00:27:23.000 That's all.

00:27:24.000 And the reason that people are experiencing heartburn is because they don't know whether the president has a clear plan. 1.00

00:27:30.000 But the notion that Republicans, in particular, are abandoning the president continues to be a lie and a stupidity. 0.99

00:27:36.000 That same poll shows 81% of Republicans believe the president. 1.00

00:27:39.000 Has a clear plan.

00:27:41.000 Only 19% believe he does not have a clear plan.

00:27:46.000 Hey, so, meanwhile, again, you have members of the grievance party who refuse to understand all of this.

00:27:51.000 Refuse.

00:27:52.000 And who spend all of their time trying to trot out the propaganda of our enemies.

00:27:57.000 Tucker Carlson did this on the BBC yesterday.

00:28:00.000 He explained that President Trump is actually a slave to the Israelis. 0.97

00:28:03.000 A slave. 1.00

00:28:04.000 The President of the United States is a slave. 1.00

00:28:07.000 Which is psychotic. 1.00

00:28:09.000 It's crazy.

00:28:11.000 And the President has multiple times told the Israelis not to do things. 0.78

00:28:15.000 Like a lot.

00:28:16.000 You'll recall that last year, during the 12-day war, The Iranians fired some missiles at the very end of the 12 day war.

00:28:23.000 Israel had planes in the air to retaliate, and the president called them up and told them no.

00:28:28.000 One of the reasons that Israel ramped down action in Lebanon over the course of the last couple of days is because the president told them that he wanted them to stop so he could pursue negotiations.

00:28:38.000 It was the president's deal to end the war in Gaza, and there are certain provisions of that deal that I am sure members of the Israeli government did not particularly like. 0.95

00:28:48.000 The notion that Israel controls America's politics is asinine. 0.97

00:28:51.000 Truly asinine at every level, but because Tucker Carlson is a conspiracy theorist who believes that America ought to give up its global leading role to China and Russia, because he believes that, he believes that the President of the United States is a slave. 0.98

00:29:06.000 That is his language. 0.98

00:29:07.000 Insane.

00:29:09.000 I feel sorry for him as I do for all slaves.

00:29:12.000 He is not free in this moment at all to do what he thinks is best for himself or his country.

00:29:18.000 I don't know what you mean.

00:29:19.000 No, he's not free.

00:29:21.000 And we learned that yesterday when.

00:29:23.000 Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, clearly with relief, and made its terms or most of its terms public.

00:29:31.000 And then that ceasefire ended within two hours because Israel intentionally violated the terms by attacking not just southern Lebanon, but the city of Beirut.

00:29:40.000 So are you saying he's a slave to Benjamin Netanyahu?

00:29:45.000 So I don't think it's as simple as he's under the control of Netanyahu.

00:29:51.000 But you could summarize it that way and you wouldn't be totally inaccurate.

00:29:56.000 So, yes, he believes that.

00:29:57.000 He believes that because he's a fifth columnist. 0.98

00:29:59.000 By the way, this is the same schmuck who says that Senator Ted Cruz is morally worse than Nick Fuentes because Senator Ted Cruz is a supporter of Israel. 0.99

00:30:07.000 Well, Nick Fuentes, you know, just loves Stalin and Hitler and openly roots for Iran to win and hates black people and hates Jews. 0.99

00:30:15.000 But don't worry, Tucker Carlson says that Ted Cruz is the true threat. 0.98

00:30:21.000 I've said that I disagreed with Fuentes on those questions.

00:30:24.000 I don't think that you should ever judge or attack people on the basis of their bloodline.

00:30:28.000 I also interviewed Ted Cruz.

00:30:30.000 I tried to interview Randy Fine.

00:30:32.000 But let me rest about this.

00:30:32.000 Both of them have.

00:30:34.000 But let me.

00:30:35.000 If I can.

00:30:38.000 I've interviewed both of them or tried to interview Fine.

00:30:40.000 He wouldn't.

00:30:41.000 But I've interviewed Ted Cruz, as you noted.

00:30:43.000 And both of them have defended the genocide in Gaza, the murder of children.

00:30:48.000 And I would say that sending money to a military that murders children.

00:30:53.000 Is a little bit more significant a moral crime than saying ugly things.

00:30:59.000 Well, I mean, it is kind of saying an ugly thing and also a moral crime to claim that a defensive action in the Gaza Strip with specific attempts to prevent civilian casualties is somehow a genocide.

00:31:10.000 But of course, Tucker Carlson is no different from Hassan Piker.

00:31:13.000 They're going to hold hands and walk off into the distance together.

00:31:15.000 This is the grievance party.

00:31:17.000 It is not a shock to see them on the same page with regard to the Iran conflict because that has become the flashpoint for that divide that we are talking about between America being exceptional and our allies being good.

00:31:28.000 And America being evil and our allies being horrible.

00:31:33.000 Hassan Piker, who again, the left is now treating Hassan Piker with undue respect.

00:31:40.000 Ezra Klein, who again, I like Ezra, but he's off his rocker in suggesting that Hassan Piker ought to be treated as a mainstream voice in the Democratic Party.

00:31:48.000 Hassan Piker has supported pretty much every terror group on planet Earth, he has supported open communist states, repressive tyrannies everywhere.

00:31:58.000 If there were grounds to deport Hassan Piker for his viewpoint, if there were legal grounds, certainly on a moral level, this person is as anti American as anyone in the country.

00:32:09.000 And he sounds just like Tucker Carlson these days.

00:32:11.000 Here he was calling the GOP the biggest terrorist group on the planet.

00:32:17.000 I think that the Republicans are far more damaging. 0.98

00:32:21.000 The biggest terrorists, the biggest domestic terrorists in this country, the biggest terrorists internationally is the Republican Party. 0.97

00:32:27.000 And not only that, but it's just like. 0.82

00:32:29.000 They like, I want to fight against the growing fascist movement in this country.

00:32:35.000 My frustration with the Democrats is their conciliatory attitude towards that and their lack of investment in this struggle.

00:32:43.000 This idea that, you know, on the one hand, you say Donald Trump is a dangerous force.

00:32:48.000 I see that, I recognize that. 0.92

00:32:49.000 But then you turn around and you take on his anti immigrant narratives and anti immigrant messaging from the 2020 election that you won and decide you're going to be the sincere candidate that ends up, you know, Dealing with the growth of migration in this country, it's a failure. 0.52

00:33:07.000 What, I mean, the fact that he's on Pod Save America, those are the Obama bros.

00:33:11.000 And the Obama bros try to proclaim that they are some sort of mainstream moderate Democrats.

00:33:17.000 I mean, again, the grievance party is real and it is indeed bipartisan.

00:33:21.000 Are you coming up?

00:33:22.000 Saturday Night Live sounds exactly like Tucker Carlson these days because they are all part of the grievance party.

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00:34:45.000 And of course, it is eaten all the way into left wing entertainment.

00:34:49.000 Saturday Night Live's Michael Che over the weekend did the same routine.

00:34:54.000 He suggested that the United States military, again, when Michael Che and Tucker Carlson are on the same side, says something.

00:35:00.000 He suggested that somehow Benjamin Netanyahu controls the United States military, which, again, if that is the case, I would really, if Israel were truly controlling America, I would truly like to understand how it is that Tucker Carlson and Hassan Piker and all these folks are so wildly successful.

00:35:18.000 I mean, kind of incredible.

00:35:20.000 How nice of Israel to allow that to happen if indeed they exert that sort of control, or maybe they don't, and you are liars.

00:35:26.000 But here's SNL doing the same routine.

00:35:29.000 There is growing confusion over whether Israel being allowed to continue bombing Lebanon was part of the ceasefire with Iran.

00:35:36.000 Ultimately, that decision comes down to the man controlling our military, Benjamin Netanyahu. 0.99

00:35:45.000 Pathetic. 0.92

00:35:46.000 The reality is that if the United States had forced Israel to stop attacks on Iran's proxies a thousand miles away in Lebanon, then that would have been a victory for Iran. 0.99

00:35:58.000 Clearly. 0.66

00:35:59.000 Now, here's the thing How much of an impact does this have inside the Republican Party?

00:35:59.000 Clearly.

00:36:03.000 The answer is not much.

00:36:04.000 In fact, as Harry Enton of CNN points out, Tucker Carlson's net favorable ratings among Republicans have nosedived.

00:36:10.000 That, of course, is not a shock.

00:36:13.000 When you go up against Donald Trump and you want to appeal to the Republican base, To quote the movie Good Burger, you go on the grinder.

00:36:19.000 And that is exactly what has happened to Tucker Carlson, who has absolutely collapsed among Republicans.

00:36:24.000 So, if it is a choice between the president and Tucker Carlson among these voters, what do they basically say?

00:36:30.000 Yeah, they choose Donald Trump basically every single time.

00:36:34.000 Okay, the exact same poll, this UMass Lowell poll.

00:36:34.000 Look at this.

00:36:37.000 Net favorables among Republicans.

00:36:37.000 Look at this.

00:36:38.000 Again, this is Republicans plus Republican leaning independents.

00:36:41.000 You see Carlson on the right side of your screen at plus seven points.

00:36:44.000 Look at where Donald Trump is at plus 61 points.

00:36:46.000 And this is actually a little bit low for Donald Trump.

00:36:49.000 And other polls around the same time, he was even higher than this.

00:36:51.000 Again, he is crushing, crushing Tucker Carlson.

00:36:56.000 Okay, so again, the grievance party is not winning inside the Republican Party, but they certainly are trying.

00:37:02.000 And part of that is a broader demoralization effort.

00:37:05.000 And it is linked very much to the sort of online of it.

00:37:10.000 So over the weekend, the president went to a UFC fight in Miami, and the president was cheered.

00:37:17.000 If you were on X, the Accounts that were lying and saying that he was widely booed, those were the ones that were getting promoted.

00:37:24.000 I know because I'm on X and I was watching it.

00:37:26.000 Just open lies.

00:37:27.000 Here's the actual video.

00:37:30.000 And now, 47th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.

00:37:42.000 You can hear everybody cheering.

00:37:44.000 You hearing lots of booze there?

00:37:45.000 No, but the captions on X were Trump gets booed at UFC.

00:37:50.000 That is a lie.

00:37:51.000 It is not true.

00:37:52.000 Okay, but the demoralization effort must continue at pace.

00:37:55.000 One of the cases that people like Tucker Carlson or Hassan Piker or all the members of the Grievance Party make is that people who are young in the United States have no future.

00:38:04.000 This is why we must withdraw from the world.

00:38:06.000 It's why we must rewrite the American bargain.

00:38:08.000 It's why we must take free markets and grind them under our boot heel in order to make it easier for the youngs.

00:38:13.000 Well, here is the problem.

00:38:15.000 It's not true.

00:38:16.000 It's not true.

00:38:17.000 The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating piece out today talking about the financial status of millennials versus baby boomers.

00:38:25.000 And here's what they find older millennials graduated into the 2007 to 2009 recession.

00:38:30.000 Most of the generation was in their 20s and 30s during the COVID 19 pandemic.

00:38:34.000 Boomers weathered an oil crisis, high inflation, and high interest rates as they got their start in the 1970s and 1980s.

00:38:41.000 And what do they find?

00:38:43.000 Well, they find actually that if you take a look at, for example, the 25 to 34 age group for boomers and also for millennials, what you find is that millennials earn more.

00:38:56.000 And in the age group 35 to 44, so baby boomers who are in that age group in, say, 1980, versus millennials who are in that age group in, say, 2017, millennials earn way more, way more.

00:39:09.000 Okay, if you take a look at the median price of a new home in 2025, Adjusted for median household income and mortgage rates, what you will find is that baby boomers remember how we keep hearing that your parents could afford a house, but you can't afford a house?

00:39:24.000 A lie, not true.

00:39:26.000 It turns out that actually, baby boomers were paying significantly more for a house as a general rule than millennials.

00:39:36.000 So again, this idea that young people, millennials and Gen Xers, they have it worse than any generations of the past.

00:39:42.000 It is not true.

00:39:43.000 It is not true.

00:39:45.000 Now, where you can see serious problems for people who are younger is the elevation in the cost, for example, of things like college tuition and fees, which have skyrocketed, which have skyrocketed since the 1980s, right?

00:40:00.000 You can see that.

00:40:01.000 That's real.

00:40:03.000 But what you see overall is that incomes are actually higher for the younger than they were for the older.

00:40:11.000 Than your parents.

00:40:13.000 So much of what we're talking about right now is an op.

00:40:16.000 An op to demoralize Americans, make them feel terrible about the country, make them feel terrible about the state of the world, make them believe that the only future for America is a weak America.

00:40:25.000 An America that takes free markets and pretends that free markets are bad.

00:40:29.000 An America that looks at America's role in the world, keeping the sea lanes open and preventing evil states from going nuclear.

00:40:36.000 And that not only can't we do it, we shouldn't do it.

00:40:40.000 We have no moral capacity to do it.

00:40:41.000 It makes us immoral to do it.

00:40:43.000 Again, there are lots of questions.

00:40:45.000 About prudence.

00:40:46.000 There are lots of pragmatic questions that we can ask about whether particular interventions or particular measures in an intervention are good or bad, productive or unproductive, or even counterproductive.

00:40:57.000 But the main difference that we are seeing emerge in American politics right now, and this will decide the future of the country, is between the American exceptionalists, the people who believe that America was good, is good, and will be good again, and the people who believe that America was never good, fundamentally gave up the ghost decades ago, if ever it had one.

00:41:17.000 And that the only cure for the United States is, as Barack Obama once suggested, fundamental change.

00:41:23.000 This has been a long battle incoming.

00:41:26.000 The fact that it's infused a little part of the right, a splinter fragment of the right, not a great shock and a time again of social media brain rot algorithmic nonsense.

00:41:36.000 But it is the fight.

00:41:37.000 It is the fight.

00:41:38.000 Now, the good news is the president is not caving in that fight.

00:41:41.000 The president didn't announce a negotiation with Iran and then immediately cave on his central principles. 0.51

00:41:46.000 And again, the leverage is against Iran right now.

00:41:49.000 It is not that Iran.

00:41:51.000 Has all of the controls.

00:41:52.000 Iran does not have the controls.

00:41:54.000 The only question is how long they can last in the face of overwhelming firepower, in the face of overwhelming economic downturn, in the face of the fact that most of their leadership class is dead.

00:42:04.000 That is just a timing game. 0.58

00:42:06.000 But there is no question that on any raw level, the United States has done tremendous damage to Iran and is continuing to do so right now. 0.55

00:42:14.000 Okay, now, meanwhile, that was the positive part of the weekend the president taking a strong position.

00:42:18.000 And then there was the bad stuff.

00:42:20.000 So, first of all, we should point out that Pope Leo, you know, I think there are great hopes from some of us who are not big fans of Pope Francis that he would steer more toward Pope Benedict or toward Pope John Paul II.

00:42:34.000 And it turns out that that seems less and less likely these days.

00:42:38.000 Again, you're talking about someone when I speak who has tremendous respect for the Roman Catholic Church.

00:42:46.000 Again, I traveled to Rome and literally went to a service at the Vatican and then gave a gift to Pope Leo.

00:42:52.000 So I have no animus for Pope Leo, particularly in his office.

00:42:57.000 I think that the Catholic Church has been a bulwark of Western civilization for millennia.

00:43:03.000 And I think that that's why it's important what the Pope says.

00:43:06.000 The Pope, this Pope, just like the last Pope, tends to make extremely political pronouncements in broad and vague terms that then either require cleanup or are broadly interpreted as critiques of conservative American policy.

00:43:20.000 The Pope does that a lot.

00:43:21.000 So, on Saturday, Pope Leo XIV denounced what he called the delusion of omnipotence.

00:43:28.000 That is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, according to AP, and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.

00:43:36.000 He presided over a weekend evening service in St. Peter's Basilica.

00:43:42.000 On the same day, the U.S. and Iran began face to face negotiations.

00:43:45.000 Now, again, he didn't mention the U.S. or President Trump in his prayer, but his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials.

00:43:52.000 And he said, enough of the idolatry of self and money, enough of the display of power, enough of war.

00:43:57.000 Now, again, if the Pope wants to make a fulsome case, may I discuss this with Matt Frad just last week?

00:44:03.000 If the Pope wishes to make a fulsome case as to why he believes that.

00:44:08.000 The war in Iran is somehow a violation of just war principles.

00:44:11.000 He should go ahead and do that. 0.97

00:44:12.000 We can have an open argument about that.

00:44:13.000 Some Catholics will agree, some Catholics will disagree.

00:44:16.000 But when he says things like enough of war, it sort of depends on the war you're talking about.

00:44:21.000 And if the Pope expends significantly more ire at the United States for attempting to stop the nuclearization of a terror state that sponsors anti Christian, anti Jewish, and anti Muslim, depending on which Muslim, terror all across the region.

00:44:38.000 If he spends more time on attacking the U.S. for attacking that state than he does on attacking that state, I would suggest that his political suasion is being misplaced.

00:44:47.000 And while this ticked off the president, and the president then went directly at the Pope.

00:44:51.000 This, again, is not a shock.

00:44:53.000 The president, shall we say, on truth social, lets it all hang out.

00:44:56.000 So he said, Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.

00:44:59.000 He talks about fear of the Trump administration, but doesn't mention the fear the Catholic Church and all other Christian organizations had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else for holding church services, even when going outside and being 10 and even 20 feet apart.

00:45:11.000 I like his brother Louis much better than I like him because Louis is all MAGA.

00:45:14.000 He gets it and Leo doesn't.

00:45:15.000 I don't want a Pope who thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

00:45:18.000 I don't want a Pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was sending massive amounts of drugs into the United States, and even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our country.

00:45:28.000 And I don't want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I'm doing exactly what I was elected in a landslide to do, setting record low numbers in crime and creating the greatest stock market in history.

00:45:37.000 Again, he's not just criticizing the Pope here over what he said at this peace vigil.

00:45:41.000 He's also criticizing the Pope because the Pope.

00:45:44.000 Did some sort of event with migrants who were attempting to go from North Africa to Italy.

00:45:49.000 And it seemed as though he was critiquing the president's immigration policy.

00:45:53.000 And President Trump continued Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise.

00:45:59.000 He wasn't on any list to be Pope and was only put there by the church because he was an American.

00:46:03.000 And they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Trump.

00:46:06.000 And he keeps going in this direction.

00:46:08.000 Now, again, on the politics, I agree with President Trump's agenda and I do not agree with Pope Leo's agenda.

00:46:15.000 Pope Leo is a religious leader.

00:46:18.000 And again, I wish that the Pope would be clear in what he is saying about what is spiritual and what is political, what exactly he's saying.

00:46:25.000 And I think that this happens a lot.

00:46:27.000 And unless I were able to speak Italian, which I assume is what he was speaking, it's hard for me to speak to exactly what the Pope said.

00:46:34.000 Very frequently, I'll find myself critiquing a report of what the Pope said.

00:46:37.000 And then I will have a Catholic friend who will say, that's actually not what he said.

00:46:40.000 And that happens a lot.

00:46:42.000 With that said, is it a good strategy or a good thing?

00:46:45.000 For the president to be attacking the Pope this way, it is certainly bad strategy.

00:46:50.000 It is certainly ill timed.

00:46:52.000 Here's the president being asked about Pope Leo yesterday.

00:47:00.000 I don't think he's doing a very good job.

00:47:02.000 He likes crime, I guess.

00:47:04.000 I don't like it.

00:47:05.000 I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo.

00:47:07.000 He's a very liberal person, and he's a man that doesn't believe in stopping crime.

00:47:12.000 He's a man that doesn't think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world. 0.75

00:47:21.000 Okay, so again, when it comes to the politics, and when it comes to Pope Leo's critique of America's war to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and building ballistic missiles and all the rest of it. 0.65

00:47:33.000 I agree with the president, not the Pope.

00:47:35.000 Is it smart to go after the Pope this way?

00:47:37.000 All righty.

00:47:37.000 No.

00:47:38.000 Well, meanwhile, Democrats have some problems of their own.

00:47:42.000 Eric Swalwell.

00:47:43.000 So you remember Eric Swalwell?

00:47:44.000 Eric Swalwell is the California congressperson who's very loud.

00:47:47.000 He ran for president once before and it totally failed.

00:47:50.000 You might also remember this very awkward exchange.

00:47:52.000 Now it's awkward.

00:47:53.000 From July 2024, I was at a congressional hearing for the House Judiciary Committee.

00:47:59.000 And you may remember.

00:48:01.000 This would be clip 34, this little tete a tete between me and Eric Swalwell. 0.98

00:48:07.000 And just because we found some receipts, you did say, I think homosexual activity is a sin.

00:48:11.000 Yes, I'm a religious student.

00:48:12.000 I'm sure there's a genetic component to sexual orientation.

00:48:15.000 But the view of all religious people I know has always been that sexual behavior is something that is up to you.

00:48:15.000 You found me out.

00:48:20.000 And you said, I may have a desire to sleep with many women, but I do not. 1.00

00:48:24.000 I agree with me. 1.00

00:48:25.000 Yes, that's true.

00:48:26.000 Congratulations on your, yeah.

00:48:29.000 I'm sure it's very hard to restrain.

00:48:31.000 Yourself.

00:48:32.000 Mr. Chairman, I just want to shift to Alvin Bragg.

00:48:40.000 Well, well, I'm sure it's very hard to restrain yourself, said Eric Swalwell to me.

00:48:47.000 The only point that I was making in that piece that he was quoting is a very obvious one.

00:48:52.000 We all have desires, we all have darker impulses, and it is our job as civilized human beings to stop those.

00:48:58.000 And Eric Swalwell was mocking me for that statement because he was saying, Well, you may have a difficult time.

00:49:06.000 Restraining your desires, but some people like me do not.

00:49:09.000 Well, Captain Fang Fang over here.

00:49:12.000 I got some questions.

00:49:14.000 Got some questions.

00:49:15.000 So, not only is Eric Swalwell famous for sleeping with a Chinese spy, but also it turns out that he now has a bevy of sexual misconduct and rape allegations following him around.

00:49:27.000 Oh, no.

00:49:29.000 CNN reported over the weekend quote, a former staffer of Representative Eric Swalwell, a leading Democratic candidate for California governor.

00:49:36.000 Says the congressman raped her when she was heavily intoxicated and left her bruised and bleeding, an allegation Swalwell strongly denies.

00:49:43.000 I was pushing him off of me, saying no, the woman told CNN of the incident, which she said happened in 2024 after she had stopped working in Swalwell's office.

00:49:50.000 He didn't stop.

00:49:52.000 She said it was the second time Swalwell had non consensual sexual contact with her while she was drunk.

00:49:57.000 In 2019, when she was still working for him, she said she woke up naked with him in a hotel room after a night of heavy drinking.

00:50:02.000 She said she had no memory of what happened, but could feel physically that they had had sexual contact.

00:50:08.000 Now, Again, whenever it comes to these allegations, you're making criminal allegations.

00:50:11.000 Outside evidence would be welcome.

00:50:13.000 However, that is not the standard that Eric Swalwell uses.

00:50:16.000 He's a believe all women kind of guy.

00:50:18.000 He's a me too kind of guy.

00:50:20.000 So, CNN reports three other women who spoke with CNN also alleged various kinds of sexual misconduct by the Democratic congressman, including Swalwell sending them unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos.

00:50:32.000 So, first of all, note to dudes, ain't no lady on earth who wants a nude photo. 0.97

00:50:38.000 Ain't a thing. 1.00

00:50:39.000 Ain't a thing. 1.00

00:50:41.000 Maybe a thing for gay dudes, not a thing for the ladies. 1.00

00:50:44.000 There is not one woman on planet Earth who's desperate for Eric Swalwell's dick pic. 1.00

00:50:48.000 Not a real thing. 0.98

00:50:51.000 In any case, CNN continues, one woman who connected online with Swalwell over her interest in Democratic politics says she ended up extremely drunk inside his hotel room after a night out with the congressman with little memory of what happened.

00:51:02.000 Earlier in the night at a bar, he kissed her and touched her leg without consent, she said.

00:51:06.000 Another woman who described receiving unsolicited nude messages from Swalwell was social media creator Ali Samarco.

00:51:11.000 She said she initially reached out to the congressman on Twitter to discuss politics.

00:51:15.000 I truly never thought he'd respond.

00:51:16.000 I had like a thousand followers at the time, she said, and he actually responded.

00:51:20.000 Well, it turns out he was ready to deploy.

00:51:23.000 CNN found corroboration for key elements of each of the women's claims.

00:51:29.000 Two family members and a friend said that one woman told them about the alleged 2024 assault in the following days.

00:51:34.000 CNN also reviewed text messages that she sent two friends describing her allegations at the same time.

00:51:40.000 Quote, I was sexually assaulted on Thursday, she wrote to one of her friends, adding by Eric.

00:51:44.000 She then went and got an STD and pregnancy test.

00:51:46.000 So scratch what I said earlier about the external evidence.

00:51:49.000 Uh, it seems like there's lots of external evidence, actually.

00:51:51.000 Oh no.

00:51:52.000 Oh no.

00:51:52.000 And apparently everyone knew about this.

00:51:57.000 So, apparently, similar pattern of events.

00:51:59.000 Swalwell, who is married and has three kids, showed close interest in their lives when they were in their 20s and finding their footing professionally.

00:52:05.000 Then he would send them increasingly sexual messages.

00:52:08.000 Many said they reciprocated and engaged with him in part because of his position of power.

00:52:11.000 So, again, this is where it starts to get into is it Me Too territory?

00:52:15.000 But in some cases, these inappropriate exchanges escalated to alleged unwanted physical touch or sexual assault, often tied to episodes of heavy drinking.

00:52:15.000 Was it consensual?

00:52:24.000 Hmm, someone found it difficult to restrain himself.

00:52:28.000 Hmm. 0.63

00:52:31.000 All right, here is one anonymous swallow accuser who apparently, according to CNN, says she only remembers flashes of her saying no.

00:52:40.000 After that bar closed, we went to another.

00:52:43.000 I went to the bathroom, and I don't remember anything after that.

00:52:48.000 You don't remember anything.

00:52:49.000 I remember the next day.

00:52:51.000 I can see flashes of that evening of him on top of me, me pushing him off, him grabbing me.

00:53:01.000 It was.

00:53:03.000 A lot more aggressive.

00:53:06.000 It was aggressive.

00:53:08.000 Did you say no?

00:53:09.000 Yes.

00:53:10.000 I said no.

00:53:11.000 I said, I, in my flash that I can recall, I was pushing him off of me saying no.

00:53:19.000 And what did he do?

00:53:20.000 He didn't stop.

00:53:21.000 He didn't stop.

00:53:23.000 And you woke up the next morning?

00:53:25.000 I woke up the next morning naked, alone in his hotel room.

00:53:32.000 Well, Eric Swalwell, hmm, initially he said the accusations were what he called flat false, which, as it turns out, kind of got awkward.

00:53:43.000 A lot has been said about me today through anonymous allegations, and I thought it was important that you see and hear from me directly.

00:53:51.000 These allegations of sexual assault are flat false.

00:53:54.000 They are absolutely false.

00:53:56.000 They did not happen.

00:53:57.000 They have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have.

00:54:02.000 They also come on the eve of an election where I have been the frontrunner candidate for governor in California.

00:54:08.000 I do not suggest to you in any way that I'm perfect or that I'm a saint.

00:54:13.000 I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past.

00:54:16.000 But those mistakes are between me and my wife.

00:54:19.000 And to her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position. 0.77

00:54:25.000 Someone might have wanted to exercise a little restraint.

00:54:30.000 Well, 55 of Swalwell's former staffers signed a letter calling for him to resign from Congress and for a full law enforcement investigation.

00:54:37.000 In fact, by the way, there's now a movement afoot in Congress to kick a bunch of Congress people out people who have engaged in sexual misconduct and all the rest.

00:54:44.000 They said, quote, as leaders of teams working for Eric Swalwell were horrified.

00:54:48.000 By the recent reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle and by CNN.

00:54:51.000 We stand with our former colleague and the other women who have come forward.

00:54:54.000 We believe you should stand with them too.

00:54:57.000 So, a bunch of people are going to resign for sure.

00:55:01.000 A local reporter named Stephen Tavares admitted that a lot of people knew about all of this.

00:55:05.000 He's author of something called Bay Area Insider.

00:55:07.000 Quote I've covered Eric Swalwell since he was a member of the Dublin City Council.

00:55:10.000 Shortly after being elected to Congress in 2013, his behavior towards women was known by all levels of our local government and the Alameda County Democratic Party.

00:55:19.000 Don't get it twisted.

00:55:20.000 Nobody has been more critical of Swallow over the years.

00:55:22.000 I tried repeatedly to get the stories out.

00:55:23.000 I can't force women to speak out.

00:55:25.000 And when they chose not to, I didn't push.

00:55:26.000 I also knew that Swallow was known to threaten litigation.

00:55:29.000 Again, we get into a bit of a dicey area here when apparently everyone knows that he was doing it, but no one reported it.

00:55:39.000 Remember that Cesar Chavez story from a few weeks ago where it turns out the labor leader was extremely rapey, allegedly?

00:55:44.000 Well, yeah, it's kind of like that.

00:55:46.000 People decided to look the other way because of his politics.

00:55:48.000 Matt Iglesias.

00:55:50.000 A Bloomberg said the Swallow situation was, shall we say, widely rumored.

00:55:53.000 It's interesting, the gossip doesn't seem to have made its way to all the big shots out west.

00:55:57.000 Hmm.

00:55:59.000 Well, apparently, others said they had been warned as well.

00:56:03.000 The president of an organization called Afghan EVAC, Sean Van Diver, said he'd been warned.

00:56:09.000 Quote, I owe an apology to every person I introduced to Eric Swallow over the years.

00:56:12.000 The rumors about him weren't new, they'd been circulating for a long time.

00:56:15.000 Many people were aware of them.

00:56:16.000 When he asked for my support in the California gubernatorial race, I raised those concerns directly.

00:56:21.000 He unequivocally denied them.

00:56:23.000 Well, it turns out that he was, um, lying or at least allegedly lying.

00:56:28.000 So it turns out that now he has stepped out of the governor's race.

00:56:32.000 He released a tweet this morning announcing that he was out.

00:56:38.000 He said, quote, I'm suspending my campaign for governor.

00:56:40.000 To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I'm deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past.

00:56:44.000 I will fight the serious false allegations that have been made, but that's my fight, not a campaign's.

00:56:49.000 Well, good luck to him in finding his restraint.

00:56:53.000 Democrats are having some problems out there.

00:56:55.000 It's not the easiest thing.

00:56:57.000 And I'm sure he'll find somebody to blame who is not himself.

00:57:00.000 This happens to many Democrats, as it turns out.

00:57:02.000 For example, Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is beloved of the Bernie Sanders wing, but also has an awkward Nazi tattoo on him.

00:57:10.000 He is now blaming military culture for his Tattoo.

00:57:14.000 Well, that's, eh, hmm.

00:57:16.000 We'll see how it goes for him.

00:57:19.000 Is there anything you've done or said that you regret that did not come from the stresses you internalize from post traumatic stress itself?

00:57:29.000 That is to say, is PTSD the explanation for everything?

00:57:34.000 Or did you also just make some additional human errors that you want to explain or contextualize?

00:57:42.000 Yeah, I'll be upfront.

00:57:43.000 I've never.

00:57:45.000 Laid the entire fault of my previous opinions at earlier parts of my life at the feet of only post traumatic stress.

00:57:53.000 I mean, when I left the military, I came out of a hyper masculine, hyper violent place.

00:57:58.000 I did four tours in the infantry.

00:57:59.000 We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry.

00:58:02.000 We certainly have a, I would say, narrow view of a lot of topics.

00:58:08.000 And that colored my opinions and my beliefs.

00:58:15.000 Well, I don't believe you.

00:58:17.000 I'm sure it was the military that did it weird because I know a lot of members of the military and members who have served in the military before, people who have served in the military, and none of them have a Nazi tattoo.

00:58:26.000 So there's that as well.

00:58:28.000 Democrats, they are not exactly moderate.

00:58:32.000 Okay.

00:58:33.000 In international news, meanwhile, Viktor Orban's 16-year rule has ended.

00:58:37.000 If you want to learn more about Viktor Orban, what his rule meant, what he was doing, I did an hour-long interview with Viktor Orban last year.

00:58:44.000 You can go and you can watch that over at our YouTube channel.

00:58:47.000 It is not really an upset.

00:58:49.000 There had been significant movement in the polls toward his opponent, a man named Peter Magyar.

00:58:54.000 There's sort of an attempt to play this as though Magyar is a liberal in some way.

00:58:59.000 There's very little evidence that Magyar is, in fact, a sort of trans flag flying open borders liberal.

00:59:07.000 That is not the case.

00:59:08.000 In fact, he used to be a member of the Fidesz party, which was Orban's party, and then he broke out because he was opposed to Orban on a couple of issues.

00:59:15.000 One was allegations of corruption inside Fidesz, and the other was The issue of the Ukraine war because Orban had taken a very pro Russia position with regards to Ukraine, and Magyar took a pro EU position trying to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

00:59:30.000 Magyar, according to Breitbart, attempted to portray Orban and his party as beholden to Russia.

00:59:35.000 And then there were a bunch of scandals in the final days of the campaign.

00:59:38.000 There were recordings emerging of Orban's foreign minister, a guy named Peter Zhuzarto, allegedly passing on EU classified information to Moscow's top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov.

00:59:48.000 And also, Magyar had broken with Orban over allegations of corruption.

00:59:52.000 It was revealed a couple of years ago that the then Hungarian president, Katalin Novak, had pardoned the ex-deputy director of the Kasuth Zhuza's children's home after being convicted of helping cover child sex abuse by his boss.

01:00:03.000 That is what led Magyar to leave.

01:00:06.000 He says that he is going to.

01:00:08.000 He was actually campaigning against Orban from the right on immigration.

01:00:11.000 He has stronger anti immigration views even than Orban.

01:00:15.000 He still has sort of vague views on LGBTQ divided by sign, which is a big issue over in Hungary.

01:00:21.000 When it comes to Russia, obviously he's significantly more anti Russia than Orban was.

01:00:27.000 And he has vowed that he is going to take the International Criminal Court and the rest of the EU's institutional framework on sort of a case by case basis.

01:00:37.000 So, is this a wild switch away from conservatism in Hungary?

01:00:42.000 It seems like not.

01:00:43.000 And an attempt, a sort of bizarre attempt to swivel this over into a referendum on American politics.

01:00:50.000 It's like a Democrat just won in Hungary, like Kirsten Darmur just won in Hungary.

01:00:54.000 That's not quite accurate either.

01:00:57.000 All right, folks, the show continues for our members right now.

01:00:58.000 I'm going to answer a question I've been getting a lot about whether President Trump is about to draft everybody or something.

01:01:04.000 We'll get to that in just a moment.

01:01:05.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

01:01:07.000 If you're not a member, Become a member.

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01:01:11.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

The Ben Shapiro Show - April 13, 2026

COURAGE: Trump Refuses To Cave To Iran, Launches Next Phase In War

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