The Ben Shapiro Show - Ep. 127 - The Media's Pathetic Self-Obsession

00:00:01.000 Last week, California State University Los Angeles held a healing space to provide a safe forum for students and professors to unleash their feelings about my campus speech back in February, sponsored by Young America's Foundation.

00:00:13.000 That speech, as you may recall, was originally canceled by the university president, William Covino.

00:00:18.000 After I decided to go to the campus anyway, hundreds of screaming students blocked the doorways and they assaulted prospective speech goers and pulled the fire alarm. 0.96

00:00:25.000 Professors egged on the protesters.

00:00:27.000 One even threatened student organizers.

00:00:29.000 I was forced to enter through a back door.

00:00:31.000 I exited, surrounded by a full phalanx of armed and uniformed officers, thanks to the near-riotous conditions outside.

00:00:36.000 So, naturally, the professors and students who caused the commotion had some hurt feelings.

00:00:42.000 At their little get-together, Covino announced he would, quote, never have anybody like Ben Shapiro to campus.

00:00:47.000 Covino fretted that, very tragically and unfortunately, somebody like me could show up on campus again.

00:00:52.000 Meanwhile, Professor Malina Abdullah, who is the chair of the university's useless Pan-African Studies Department, said I had advocated, quote, anti-blackness.

00:00:59.000 She called me a neo-Nazi.

00:01:01.000 After realizing it was sort of awkward to label an Orthodox Jew a neo-Nazi, she then shifted her language slightly and she said that I was a neo-KKK member.

00:01:09.000 She said students came to her feeling

00:01:10.000 Traumatized by a speech they definitely didn't hear and feeling brutalized physically, emotionally, and mentally by me.

00:01:18.000 I spent the bulk of my speech talking about how racial diversity was irrelevant, diversity of viewpoint mattered.

00:01:23.000 This was enough to drive chaos and insanity at the school for months.

00:01:26.000 Apparently, quoting Martin Luther King, which I did, makes me a Neo KKK member.

00:01:30.000 Meanwhile, David Duke, who's the former KKK Grand Wizard, has labeled me an enemy of the KKK. 1.00

00:01:36.000 I've been hit daily on Twitter by certain alt-right white supremacist Donald Trump supporters labeling me a cuck, which means a weak-kneed leftist who wants to watch his wife have sex with a black man. 0.99

00:01:45.000 Prominent Breitbart News columnist and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos tweeted a picture of a black child at me upon my announcement of the birth of my second child, a boy. 0.99

00:01:53.000 The neo-Nazi Daily Stormer routinely attacks me.

00:01:56.000 Some of Trump's alt-right fans tweeted that I, along with my wife and two kids, 0.85

00:01:59.000 Should be sent to the gas chambers, those joyful pranksters, as Milo likes to call them.

00:02:04.000 This is the toxicity of our crazy politics. 0.98

00:02:06.000 The campus left...

00:02:08.000 Enthused by people like Bernie Sanders and sought by Hillary Clinton, call anybody who disagree a Neo-KKK member. 0.96

00:02:14.000 The KKK, meanwhile, calls anybody who won't support Donald Trump a cuck.

00:02:18.000 This is what happens when basic American principles are no longer taught.

00:02:21.000 This is what happens when grievance politics replace the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

00:02:28.000 If you speak in favor of free speech, it makes you a pariah for those who would control speech in order to build their own magical utopia.

00:02:34.000 So, what happens to people like me who really hate the KKK and think the Black Lives Matter movement is terrible?

00:02:41.000 What about those of us who think white nationalism is despicable and that the censorious brutality of the diversity clique is gross?

00:02:47.000 Well, we've got a bit of a long road.

00:02:49.000 We're gonna have to teach a new generation from scratch that freedom and liberty still matter regardless of race.

00:02:54.000 We'll have to attempt to restore the notion of a social fabric rather than the racial tribalism that now seems to dominate our conversation.

00:03:01.000 We'll have to stand against authoritarianism, unfortunately, from both sides.

00:03:05.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:03:06.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:03:13.000 So first of all, let me lead off by saying it's time for you to subscribe to Daily Wire.

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00:03:18.000 I'm tired of waiting for you.

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00:03:26.000 Well, at least for 30 days.

00:03:27.000 And then you have to pay and we also take your kidney. 0.91

00:03:30.000 But for the first 30, just like Trump University, it's a great deal for the first 30 days.

00:03:33.000 So make sure that you go to dailywire.com and you can check out the video, you can see my smiling face, and you can also watch the videos.

00:03:41.000 And there will be videos today that you are definitely going to want to see.

00:03:43.000 So, let's begin.

00:03:45.000 Okay, so the big news of yesterday is that Bill Kristol, who's the editor of the Weekly Standard and an ardent Never-Trumper,

00:03:53.000 He has come out and he says that he now has the guy he thinks is going to run a third-party candidacy against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

00:04:01.000 And this person is David French, Mark Halperin of Bloomberg.

00:04:05.000 He's the one who announced this yesterday.

00:04:07.000 But wait!

00:04:09.000 Everybody wants to know who's the independent candidate who Bill Kristol has been touting.

00:04:15.000 According to our sources, we can now report that the man being hired by Crystal is a conservative lawyer, writer, and Iraqi war veteran named David French.

00:04:23.000 You've probably not heard of him.

00:04:25.000 We hadn't either.

00:04:26.000 The big guessing game has been going on since Crystal tweeted this weekend that he has a candidate in mind who he said would be a strong candidate.

00:04:34.000 John and I both talked to French and Crystal late this afternoon.

00:04:37.000 Both of them declined to comment, but here's what we know.

00:04:40.000 French is a staff writer for the National Review.

00:04:43.000 He lives in Tennessee with his wife and three kids.

00:04:45.000 We reached him tonight.

00:04:47.000 He was traveling.

00:04:48.000 He says, he declined to comment, but the two Republican sources were too intimately familiar with what Crystal has in mind, says that while French has not made a final decision, that is indeed who Crystal was talking about.

00:05:00.000 And John, he wrote about French in the current issue of the Weekly Standard, kind of hiding him in plain sight.

00:05:06.000 Okay, so the fact is that David French has, let's give a little bit of information about David French.

00:05:12.000 So first of all, David French, nobody knows who he is.

00:05:16.000 I know who he is because I follow National Review, and I've read his stuff, and I'm a big fan of his writing, and have been for a very long time.

00:05:21.000 Here's his basic biography.

00:05:22.000 He graduated from Harvard Law School, and then he became a constitutional lawyer for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, so if you like how the campuses are going,

00:05:32.000 That's exactly what David French is trying to fight.

00:05:34.000 He's trying to stop the censorious left, the people who want to stop free speech on campus and rip on religious people on campus.

00:05:41.000 He worked also for the American Constitutional Law and Justice Society.

00:05:46.000 So he's worked for a bunch of right-wing

00:05:48.000 Conservative, constitutionalist organizations as a lawyer.

00:05:52.000 After 9-11, and after the beginning of the Iraq War, he was sitting around, and he was reading about how the Iraq War was going really badly, and he realized that he felt like he wasn't doing his part.

00:06:02.000 So even though he had a couple of young kids, he signed up for the Iraq War.

00:06:05.000 You can see he's a middle-aged guy in this particular picture, and he signed up as a middle-aged guy to go fight in Iraq.

00:06:11.000 He did a tour in Iraq, came back, and now he is a lawyer in Tennessee.

00:06:16.000 So,

00:06:16.000 Everybody is asking the question, who is this guy?

00:06:19.000 Why is this guy even here?

00:06:21.000 So, first things first.

00:06:23.000 Do I think it's a good idea for conservatives to run a third party candidate?

00:06:26.000 I've said before, I'm not sure that it's a good idea for conservatives to run a third party candidate for a few reasons.

00:06:31.000 First of all, I think that it won't work.

00:06:34.000 He's not going to beat Hillary or Trump.

00:06:36.000 I don't think that it appears non-desperate.

00:06:39.000 It appears desperate.

00:06:40.000 It looks like he's just, like Crystal was just searching for somebody and grabbed somebody and threw him out there.

00:06:45.000 It minimizes the level of actual disenchantment with Trump and Hillary because there are gonna be a lot of people who don't vote for David French who don't like either Trump or Hillary Clinton and

00:06:54.000 Also, there's something to be said for the idea that the Trumpsters sort of deserve what's coming to them in November.

00:06:59.000 That if you ardently supported Donald Trump and now you say it's the Trump train or be run over, that what happens in November basically ought to be on you.

00:07:07.000 Now, with all of that said, I think there are some good arguments in favor of David French.

00:07:11.000 By the way, I would vote in a heartbeat for David French above both Hillary and Trump.

00:07:15.000 And it would not take any... I'd vote for David French.

00:07:18.000 In probably a primary.

00:07:19.000 David French is a very, very good thinker.

00:07:22.000 David French is a real constitutional thinker with a sterling personal record.

00:07:26.000 He's obviously a veteran.

00:07:29.000 And there are a lot of things to recommend David French.

00:07:32.000 Let me explain to you six reasons why I think it's good for the country that David French is going to be running, apparently.

00:07:38.000 First of all, I like the fact that he's a relative unknown.

00:07:40.000 So everybody's going, oh, he's not famous.

00:07:42.000 He's not famous.

00:07:42.000 Good, good.

00:07:44.000 Really, I think this is a good thing for America.

00:07:46.000 It's good for America for the critique of a candidate to be about his ideas and not about his persona.

00:07:51.000 We've had a year of Donald Trump and all of his various scandals and all of his various peccadilloes and all of his various personality quirks analyzed on the front page of your daily paper.

00:08:01.000 We've had 20 years.

00:08:03.000 How about we get somebody who's just a normal person?

00:08:13.000 You know, somebody who's not famous?

00:08:15.000 Somebody who didn't make his money off The Apprentice?

00:08:17.000 Or off riding her husband's coattails to the White House?

00:08:19.000 I like the idea of somebody who just has principles but isn't famous running for the highest office in the land, because I care about the principles.

00:08:26.000 I don't care about the level of fame.

00:08:28.000 And here's the thing.

00:08:29.000 Nobody's going to know what to talk about with David French except for principles when he's on the air, because they don't know anything about him.

00:08:34.000 So what are they going to say about him?

00:08:35.000 They don't get to talk to him about whether he molested people. 0.80

00:08:37.000 They don't get to talk to him about whether he said he wanted to have sex with his daughter.

00:08:41.000 So they're actually going to have to talk with him, presumably, about issues.

00:08:43.000 So I like that.

00:08:44.000 He's also honest.

00:08:45.000 I mean, I've read David French, and the nice thing about French is no one expects him to do any damage in this campaign, so he can say whatever he wants.

00:08:51.000 He can say what he thinks.

00:08:53.000 All of the Trump people keep saying, well, Trump is honest.

00:08:55.000 He's honest.

00:08:56.000 He says what's on his mind.

00:08:57.000 No, sometimes Trump says what's on his mind, and sometimes he's lying to you, and he changes his mind every so often.

00:09:02.000 So, you don't really get the full, honest Trump.

00:09:05.000 You never get the full, honest Trump.

00:09:06.000 French, you actually will.

00:09:07.000 You'll get the full, honest French, because he has nothing to lose.

00:09:10.000 He has nothing to lose.

00:09:12.000 Third reason.

00:09:13.000 The fact that he's an Iraq war vet is pretty cool.

00:09:16.000 Here's what he wrote about being an Iraq war vet, why he joined up the military as a middle-aged guy.

00:09:21.000 America wasn't too soft to fight a long war.

00:09:24.000 I was too soft and I had no excuse.

00:09:26.000 Think about that wounded officer.

00:09:27.000 Did he love his wife less than I loved my wife?

00:09:29.000 Did he love his kids less than I love my kids?

00:09:32.000 Yet he was risking everything and I was risking nothing, so I enlisted.

00:09:35.000 I became a JAG officer in the US Army.

00:09:37.000 And deployed to Iraq as part of the surge in 2007, attached to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

00:09:42.000 I prayed throughout my deployment, every night when I fell asleep, every time a friend and brother fell, every time I put on my gear, we called it battle rattle to go outside the wire.

00:09:50.000 No assurance came.

00:09:51.000 No assurance ever came.

00:09:53.000 Now, granted, Donald Trump, that tough guy Donald Trump, did survive his own personal Vietnam while attempting to avoid STDs during the go-go 80s.

00:10:02.000 This is what he actually called it, because it was his own personal Vietnam, quote, I feel like a great and very brave soldier.

00:10:08.000 Granted, I mean, that's real bravery.

00:10:09.000 And Trump did go to a military high school, which is basically like serving in the military, except not like serving in the military.

00:10:15.000 And he did dodge the draft, of course.

00:10:17.000 And granted, I mean, Hillary Clinton did get four Americans killed in Benghazi and then blamed a video, and tried to mandate when she was in the White House that military members not be able to wear the uniform in the White House.

00:10:27.000 And she did try to join the Marines as a woman, specifically in order to try and call them out for sexism. 1.00

00:10:32.000 But, I mean, we can't all be heroes.

00:10:34.000 I mean, David French can't rise to those standards, but still, I think that's kind of nice what he did.

00:10:39.000 Fourth, he's a constitutional scholar.

00:10:41.000 He actually knows something about the document.

00:10:42.000 So watching him argue with Trump or Hillary, if they actually gave him the time of day, which they probably won't, watching him argue with them would be entertaining, to say the least, since he's actually read the Constitution, which puts him one up on Donald Trump, and actually believes in the Constitution, which puts him one up on Hillary Clinton.

00:10:58.000 Fifth reason.

00:10:59.000 He's actually a family man.

00:11:00.000 So, one of the attacks on David French that was brought up immediately upon the

00:11:08.000 Immediately upon this whole thing breaking was by Kevin Robillard of Politico.

00:11:13.000 He tweeted this section about David French.

00:11:16.000 It was from a National Review article.

00:11:18.000 Before David left for Iraq, he and Nancy put together rules, Nancy's his wife, in a painfully honest conversation about human frailty.

00:11:25.000 There would be no drinking during the year of separation.

00:11:27.000 Nancy would not have phone conversations with men or meaningful email exchanges about politics or any other subject. 0.99

00:11:32.000 She wouldn't be on Facebook where the ghosts of boyfriends past could contact her.

00:11:36.000 When Nancy innocently started emailing about faith with the man associated with the radio show she was on, she told David about it and he asked her to end the relationship.

00:11:43.000 David knew with his stomach clenching that the most intimate conversations a person has about are about life and faith, and that spiritual and emotional intimacy frequently leads to physical intimacy.

00:11:53.000 So Robillard tweeted, when David French was in Iraq, he wouldn't let his wife email men or use Facebook.

00:11:59.000 That's not what that says.

00:12:00.000 What that says is that he and his wife jointly agreed that there were certain restrictions they would place on themselves so they didn't put themselves in risky situations.

00:12:08.000 Which, by the way, every married couple does, to one extent or another.

00:12:12.000 And I assume that if you're gone for two years overseas, those restrictions would have to be a little bit more heavy-handed than me going to the supermarket.

00:12:20.000 Now, granted, I mean, granted, the man has, clearly, he has marital issues.

00:12:25.000 He doesn't have a joyful three marriages like Donald Trump, with children from all of them and his wife raising them, and he hasn't made jokes about having sex with his own daughter. 0.92

00:12:33.000 Granted, I mean, he doesn't have a great family life like Donald Trump, and granted, he doesn't have a great family life like Hillary Clinton, defending her husband against charges of rape by attacking the rapist.

00:12:43.000 And it's not like David French has great children.

00:12:47.000 It's not like he adopted a kid from Ethiopia, which he did.

00:12:49.000 He adopted a kid from Ethiopia.

00:12:52.000 And here's what he wrote about adopting his daughter.

00:12:54.000 I think he has three kids, this is the third, from Ethiopia.

00:12:57.000 He says, In 2010, we adopted Naomi, our beautiful youngest daughter.

00:13:00.000 She's from Ethiopia.

00:13:01.000 For those who have not adopted, it's difficult to fully communicate the immediate intensity of the connection.

00:13:06.000 I remember looking at her sleeping in the crib the night we arrived back in America and feeling indescribably blessed.

00:13:11.000 This immediately was met with tweets from Donald Trump supporters calling his daughter, and this is a direct quote, a nigglet. 0.94

00:13:33.000 Which is the n-word, but for a child, apparently, and a picture of Donald Trump hitting the button on a gas chamber with a black girl inside it.

00:13:42.000 So, granted, I mean, David French doesn't have delightful people like that supporting him, but, you know, at least he seems like a decent guy.

00:13:49.000 Finally, final reason why David French would be good, he's an alternative.

00:13:53.000 So,

00:13:54.000 There are a lot of people who are worried that those of us who don't support Trump will be blamed if he loses.

00:13:58.000 If Donald Trump loses because David French draws too much support, that just demonstrates what a weakling Donald Trump is as a candidate.

00:14:05.000 Five people in the United States know who David French is.

00:14:07.000 I'm one of them, but very few people know who David French is.

00:14:10.000 If David French starts to draw 10-15% of the vote, that's a testament to the fact that Donald Trump is insanely weak.

00:14:16.000 Right?

00:14:16.000 You would figure that the Trump people, who are super confident about their man, they would look at David French and they'd laugh.

00:14:21.000 They'd go, oh, David French?

00:14:23.000 I never even heard of this guy.

00:14:24.000 Like, that's gonna go anywhere?

00:14:26.000 But instead, what I'm seeing is people very angry that somebody named David French is running.

00:14:29.000 They don't even know who he is, but they're very angry that he would be running because Trump can only run unopposed and hope to win is sort of the idea.

00:14:37.000 In reality, do I think that French's candidacy will go anywhere?

00:14:39.000 No, I don't think that he's going to win a ton of votes.

00:14:41.000 I don't think David's going to win a lot of votes.

00:14:42.000 I can't predict anything because this election cycle is not predictable.

00:14:46.000 I don't think he's going to get a lot of votes, but his campaign will be worthwhile.

00:14:50.000 And one of the reasons his campaign will be worthwhile is because of what I said in the intro here.

00:14:55.000 America has been lacking.

00:14:57.000 The capacity to even have basic conversations about constitutional freedoms, and our candidates are not going to have those conversations.

00:15:03.000 Our candidates are not interested in those conversations.

00:15:05.000 Donald Trump wants to talk about how the press is mean to him, and Hillary Clinton wants to talk about how Donald Trump is mean to everybody, and that's the level of our political conversation.

00:15:13.000 David French is actually going to talk about values.

00:15:16.000 I would love to see a campaign based on that.

00:15:18.000 I would love to see a campaign based on that.

00:15:21.000 I think that that would be something that's worthwhile.

00:15:23.000 All that said, the media's addicted to its own gas fumes.

00:15:26.000 The media, they're, as a friend of mine likes to put it, they're the kinds of folks who fart in closed cars and enjoy the smell.

00:15:33.000 And the media are really, they're very upset that David French, anybody would deign to

00:15:40.000 To jump into a race that's so clearly going to be won by these famous people that they made famous, like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

00:15:47.000 How dare anybody try to jump into a race, edge into a race, that the media doesn't run?

00:15:51.000 So, Mika Brzezinski, who, she along with Joe Scarborough, big Donald Trump fans, she's very upset about this.

00:15:58.000 She's Bill Kristol, who recruited David French.

00:16:00.000 He needs to take a long vacation.

00:16:03.000 I never saw this coming.

00:16:06.000 Literally.

00:16:07.000 I never saw this coming.

00:16:08.000 I think Bill needs to take a vacation.

00:16:12.000 No, like a long one.

00:16:13.000 Okay.

00:16:14.000 And not that there's anything wrong with this.

00:16:16.000 Okay.

00:16:17.000 He hinted over the weekend at the possibility of a third party candidate to rival Donald Trump.

00:16:22.000 Now remember, it was the possibility of a third party candidate to rival Donald Trump.

00:16:28.000 Okay, so that's got to be someone... Uh, big.

00:16:31.000 Big!

00:16:32.000 And aggressive, and somehow has got that talent that can punch back and yet lead the country in the right direction.

00:16:40.000 Immediate recognition.

00:16:41.000 A political ally.

00:16:42.000 You gotta have immediate recognition.

00:16:44.000 Well, now we know who this person might be.

00:16:46.000 Mark Alperin, John Heilemann, Bloomberg Politics News yesterday.

00:16:50.000 I love the guy.

00:16:51.000 He's a great guy.

00:16:52.000 He's been on our show.

00:16:57.000 Okay, so it's all dismissive.

00:16:58.000 He's not famous.

00:16:59.000 He's not famous.

00:16:59.000 Okay, so I got this argument also from my co-host in the morning.

00:17:03.000 I do morning radio here in LA.

00:17:04.000 And he was very upset about this.

00:17:05.000 And you can see that the media is very, excuse me, very upset about this.

00:17:09.000 It's just terrible.

00:17:10.000 How dare anyone?

00:17:11.000 How dare they?

00:17:12.000 I mean, come on.

00:17:13.000 What has the country come to? 0.96

00:17:15.000 If this is where you draw the line as to what the country has come to, if where you draw the line is not the nomination by a major party of a felon, if where you draw the line is not the nomination by a major party of a know-nothing, isolationist, alt-right idiot, if where you draw the line is a constitutional attorney with a Harvard Law background and Iraq War experience, if that's where you draw the line because you don't know who he is, you're shallow. 0.98

00:17:42.000 You're shallow. 0.98

00:17:43.000 If that's where you draw the line, it's because you're shallow.

00:17:44.000 Because you want a celebrity politician. 0.71

00:17:46.000 You want somebody you know and you feel comfortable with.

00:17:49.000 You're too lazy to do the research yourself.

00:17:51.000 Because the fact is, conservatives who are not voting for David French, let me ask you this.

00:17:56.000 A vote for Trump is a vote for Hillary. 0.99

00:17:59.000 You could be voting for David French.

00:18:01.000 A vote for Trump is a vote for Hillary. 0.99

00:18:03.000 I mean, you're preventing David French from being the president.

00:18:05.000 Or somebody good like David French from being the president.

00:18:08.000 And by the way, you vote for Trump, and you're gonna get half Hillary no matter what.

00:18:11.000 The only question is whether you get the full Hillary or authoritarian Hillary.

00:18:15.000 So this idea that French running is the end of the world, look, again, do I think French is going to win?

00:18:21.000 No, but I think it is.

00:18:22.000 What I like about it is his entry into the race provides clarity on a few crucial questions.

00:18:26.000 Do you value principle over party?

00:18:28.000 Do you care about the Constitution or do you just care about quote unquote winning?

00:18:33.000 Do you think that Donald Trump is the best conservative in the race?

00:18:36.000 These are questions that I think people ought to answer, and that's what I like about this.

00:18:39.000 It's a crystallizing moment, whether you vote for David French or you don't vote for David French.

00:18:44.000 And I, again, hear the argument, you gotta vote for Donald Trump because only he can beat Hillary Clinton.

00:18:48.000 David French has no shot at beating Hillary Clinton.

00:18:51.000 Okay, I guess that argument still holds.

00:18:54.000 But you have to acknowledge that you're rejecting principle in favor of the lesser of two evils.

00:18:59.000 That's because now you have a choice.

00:19:00.000 You do have a choice.

00:19:01.000 But you're not going to take that choice because the reason that David French is not going to be a viable candidate is because people think they have to vote for Donald Trump in order to stop Hillary Clinton.

00:19:09.000 They think Trump has a better shot of stopping Hillary than somebody who actually is a decent human being like David French.

00:19:15.000 Well, you know, then there's the argument, and then the entire media is on the side of this.

00:19:19.000 So Charles Krauthammer says it's a mistake to run a third-party candidate.

00:19:22.000 I actually agree, it may be a mistake generally to run a third-party candidate, but as long as there's going to be one, I think that in many ways French is almost the ideal, because he's not going to, quote-unquote, steal the election from Trump.

00:19:32.000 He's going to be coming from nowhere.

00:19:33.000 He's not going to jump in with a base of 15% support.

00:19:36.000 He's not somebody who's going to, quote-unquote, split the vote with Trump to allow Hillary in.

00:19:39.000 He's going to be building on the basis of conservatism and we'll see how far that building gets him.

00:19:43.000 Here's Charles Krauthammer saying that a third-party candidacy is not a good idea, however.

00:19:48.000 Sure, but until you put the name behind it, you don't know where the numbers fall.

00:19:51.000 Last word.

00:19:52.000 Whatever name it is, I think it's a mistake.

00:19:54.000 For conservatives to run another candidate with the explicit intent essentially of blocking Trump from winning.

00:20:01.000 Either he's going to win.

00:20:02.000 He is the nominee of the GOP chosen by the people.

00:20:06.000 He's either going to win or not.

00:20:07.000 And if he doesn't win, he should not be able to claim he was stabbed in the back.

00:20:12.000 That would be a terrible mistake in the future.

00:20:15.000 And that's the argument that I've heard, and I think it's a good argument that Trump is going to start his whole stabs-in-the-back myth and anybody who didn't back Trump is going to be on the table.

00:20:22.000 Okay, if I back David French and he gets 100,000 votes and Donald Trump loses by 10 million votes, that ain't on me.

00:20:28.000 That's on Trump.

00:20:30.000 Okay?

00:20:30.000 Because I voted for the guy.

00:20:32.000 Ralph Nader can only be a spoiler in Florida.

00:20:35.000 Ralph Nader can only be a spoiler in a state that's so close that Ralph Nader is the margin of difference.

00:20:39.000 A Ralph Nader isn't the spoiler in a Barack Obama versus John McCain election.

00:20:44.000 And the same thing holds true here.

00:20:45.000 Either David French, one of two things happens, either he's wildly successful beyond his imagining, in which case it underscores how weak Trump was, or David French doesn't go anywhere, in which case me voting for David French is not going to make any difference in this election, because he's not going to have enough votes to actually make a difference, he's not going to be the margin of difference.

00:21:02.000 In this election.

00:21:03.000 But the part again that's amazing is that Chris Matthews, you know, he's out there smacking third party talk and he's very upset with the third party talk because obviously that would take control out of the hands of a media that have generated Hillary and Trump.

00:21:16.000 That's what we can't get past here, folks.

00:21:17.000 The media created Donald Trump.

00:21:19.000 He's an apprentice guy for 20 years.

00:21:21.000 The media created Hillary Clinton.

00:21:23.000 She was a nothing.

00:21:24.000 She was the first First Lady to actually be considered as a political candidate. 0.98

00:21:28.000 She's a nothing of a nothing.

00:21:29.000 And the media created her and made her a hero.

00:21:31.000 Here's Chris Matthews going after the third-party talk.

00:21:34.000 Number two, I think... Can they win states?

00:21:37.000 I don't know if they can win states, but that's really not, at this point, the objective, okay?

00:21:41.000 The objective here is to get to 15%.

00:21:43.000 This is a step-by-step process for them.

00:21:45.000 But it's not just to get to 15%, it's to keep... So what do you think, a country should be governed by somebody who loses a three-way race? 0.87

00:21:52.000 Is it good for the country to be governed by somebody who loses a three-way race? 0.90

00:21:56.000 What happens?

00:21:57.000 Ralph Nader gets 92,000 votes in Florida.

00:21:59.000 Al Gore loses Florida.

00:21:59.000 That's not what this is about.

00:22:01.000 This is anti-Trump, anti-Hillary Clinton.

00:22:04.000 But, you know, even as the... First of all, I don't think the country's ready for the Libertarian Party.

00:22:08.000 And if the country begins to sort of look at Libertarians...

00:22:11.000 If they're going to try to reach out to the quote-unquote Obama coalition and go after women and African-Americans, people are going to start asking questions like, for example, when Johnson over the weekend said he would have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1954.

00:22:24.000 Why don't we get booed? 0.57

00:22:26.000 The real choice is between the top two.

00:22:29.000 Exactly.

00:22:29.000 So one of them will be president.

00:22:31.000 The question is, don't we want honest voting?

00:22:33.000 You vote for the person you want against the other person.

00:22:35.000 You start voting for third or fourth party candidates.

00:22:37.000 You are not actually deciding who you want.

00:22:39.000 But at some point a third or fourth party candidacy has to begin to take hold.

00:22:44.000 This is the perfect cycle for that to happen if it's going to happen.

00:22:50.000 However, the Libertarians are not going to appeal primarily to disgruntled Democrats, okay?

00:22:58.000 Okay, so Chris Matthews, you can see the media, they're just flustered.

00:23:00.000 What do we do with this?

00:23:01.000 What do we do with this?

00:23:02.000 Meanwhile, I do have to point out one thing that's ironic.

00:23:04.000 Mitch McConnell, who so many of the Trump people think is just, he's the establishment, he's terrible, Mitch McConnell.

00:23:10.000 As always, as soon as Mitch McConnell swings behind Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell becomes a working class hero.

00:23:15.000 So here's Mitch McConnell going after Bill Kristol, and all the Trumpsters were tweeting this today.

00:23:20.000 Well, I hope he's not successful because that will help elect Hillary Clinton to the presidency.

00:23:27.000 It's hard to run as an independent and be successful.

00:23:30.000 You could conceivably take votes away from a right-of-center nominee and make it more likely that a liberal gets elected president.

00:23:39.000 So I like Bill Kristol.

00:23:41.000 He's a smart guy, but I hope he's unsuccessful in this effort.

00:23:45.000 And the Trump people suddenly love Mitch McConnell.

00:23:47.000 They found love for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

00:23:50.000 And so the fact that they're all of a sudden getting behind Mitch McConnell demonstrates that this is, at least for a segment of the Trump base, a cultish support for Trump, not a principled support for Trump.

00:24:00.000 But again, I think one of the things that's been driving Trump is the media.

00:24:04.000 If you want to make sure that you get media attention, attack the press because they are self-obsessed

00:24:08.000 They exist in a world of mirrors and cameras.

00:24:11.000 All they care about is themselves.

00:24:13.000 And that was, nowhere was that more obvious than yesterday.

00:24:15.000 Donald Trump did a press conference yesterday, we talked about it, in which he called the press sleazy and he said they were terrible. 0.53

00:24:21.000 And the press, kind of, they're like an abused woman, the press. 1.00

00:24:25.000 They hate it, but they sort of love it. 0.83

00:24:27.000 You know, the girl who you really should get out of there because your husband's a terrible person, please leave.

00:24:32.000 But she keeps going back because she feels like she deserves it?

00:24:34.000 It's not even that.

00:24:35.000 They don't think they deserve it.

00:24:36.000 They actually like the attention. 0.92

00:24:37.000 They're so sick that they like the attention no matter what.

00:24:40.000 So they're obsessed with this stuff.

00:24:42.000 They love it.

00:24:42.000 They can't stop talking about Trump because if they're battling with Trump, then the story is about them.

00:24:47.000 I remember when Barack Obama started cracking down on the press.

00:24:49.000 He started cracking down on the AP and he was wiretapping them.

00:24:53.000 And people like me were saying, well, where were you guys when they were doing this to other people?

00:24:58.000 And the answer was they didn't care when it was everybody else.

00:25:00.000 The press cares about the press.

00:25:01.000 They're very upset with Obama when he attacks the AP.

00:25:04.000 They're not as upset about President Obama when his IRS is attacking Friends of Abe, right?

00:25:08.000 That's that's a different thing.

00:25:09.000 So, watch the press obsession with itself.

00:25:12.000 Chris Cuomo, who, again, should not be anywhere near a television studio.

00:25:16.000 I mean, Chris Cuomo, who is the brother of Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, and the son of Mario Cuomo, who's the former governor of New York.

00:25:23.000 Chris Cuomo is now an anchor at CNN.

00:25:25.000 He's talking to Katrina Pearson.

00:25:27.000 And look how self-upset.

00:25:28.000 I mean, this is just such a self-absorbed interview.

00:25:30.000 Here we go. 1.00

00:25:31.000 Katrina, when you don't like what I say, do you call me an idiot? 1.00

00:25:35.000 No. 1.00

00:25:36.000 Why not?

00:25:37.000 Why is it okay for Donald Trump to do it, but not for you to do it right now with me?

00:25:42.000 This is your chance.

00:25:43.000 You don't like the reporting?

00:25:44.000 You don't like how I put the questions?

00:25:45.000 You're not going to call me something like that, right?

00:25:47.000 Why is it okay for him to do it?

00:25:50.000 Well, it depends. 1.00

00:25:51.000 If you're attacking me personally, I might call you an idiot, but you don't do that. 1.00

00:25:55.000 And we are talking about the issues. 1.00

00:25:57.000 And Mr. Trump is being attacked personally on a daily basis by many in the media.

00:26:00.000 How?

00:26:00.000 Has anybody ever said Mr. Trump?

00:26:02.000 Mr. Trump, you're an idiot, aren't you? 1.00

00:26:04.000 Nobody's ever asked him a question like that, to invite this kind of invective. 1.00

00:26:08.000 And again, the media...

00:26:10.000 Absolutely.

00:26:10.000 I do.

00:26:10.000 No, absolutely.

00:26:11.000 At Chris, there was a debate where he was actually asked if his campaign was a clown and if it was an act.

00:26:17.000 I mean, of course he's been attacked personally by the media and you see it in social media as well by reporters specifically.

00:26:24.000 And look, it's not just Mr. Trump that doesn't trust the media and believes that they're dishonest.

00:26:29.000 I mean, Gallup tracking shows- That's absolutely true.

00:26:32.000 Okay, and it's both ways.

00:26:33.000 He's right.

00:26:33.000 He loves the media, and the media loves Trump.

00:26:35.000 They love Donald Trump.

00:27:00.000 So you got Chris Cuomo out there, and this is why they love covering Trump.

00:27:02.000 Because Trump will talk about the media to the media, the media will talk about itself to Donald Trump.

00:27:07.000 By the way guys, great dating strategy, just ask a girl questions about herself. 0.99

00:27:10.000 Everybody loves to talk about themselves, right?

00:27:12.000 And this is nowhere more true than the media.

00:27:14.000 The media love the media!

00:27:15.000 Of all the people in the United States, the media love.

00:27:18.000 The media are number one on their list.

00:27:20.000 I mean, it's Woody Allen's old line about self-pleasure, right?

00:27:25.000 At least it's sex with someone he loves.

00:27:27.000 That's how the media treats itself.

00:27:30.000 So if you're talking about the media, then the media loves it.

00:27:32.000 They're so happy with all of this.

00:27:34.000 And you can see that the media, even when they're angry at Trump, they still love that they get to talk about themselves as the righteous defenders of truth.

00:27:40.000 So CNN's Dana Bash, she was blasting Trump yesterday because she says, well, Trump's attacking us for no reason.

00:27:45.000 We're the great defenders of truth.

00:27:51.000 Instead, what did he do?

00:27:53.000 He attacked the press, as you said, as sleazy, as dishonest, multiple times.

00:28:00.000 And, you know, not to get too corny about it, but it is the press.

00:28:06.000 Number one, it is our job to ask questions, particularly of public figures.

00:28:11.000 Especially somebody who wants to be the leader of the free world, when they make a promise, and they do it in a very public way, like you did with this big rally for veterans, to say, it is our job to say, where's the money?

00:28:24.000 Where did it go?

00:28:25.000 How much did you raise?

00:28:26.000 It is a fundamental requirement and responsibility of a free press.

00:28:30.000 Makes us different than North Korea or other places. 0.74

00:28:33.000 And he hasn't had to answer questions like this in his prior life.

00:28:37.000 He's been a public figure for decades and he hasn't had to answer questions because he's been a public figure in the press, if you will.

00:28:45.000 Dana Bash loves this.

00:28:46.000 Dana Bash is the same person who attacked, who was it, Major Garrett for going after President Obama too hard, but here she's a crusader for truth.

00:28:52.000 This is what she loves.

00:28:54.000 Dana Bash is in love with the idea that she is the great crusader for truth.

00:28:59.000 And the media loves this stuff.

00:29:00.000 I mean, they love it.

00:29:01.000 Trump talks about the media.

00:29:02.000 It's just a giant echo chamber.

00:29:04.000 Just a giant echo chamber.

00:29:05.000 Then there are the people who are actually in love with Donald Trump.

00:29:08.000 So last night, breaking news, Sean Hannity's gonna vote for Donald Trump.

00:29:12.000 I know.

00:29:13.000 Don't be surprised.

00:29:14.000 It'll be okay.

00:29:14.000 We'll get through it together.

00:29:15.000 Sean Hannity announced that he would vote for Donald Trump, and it got pretty romantic, actually.

00:29:22.000 I am not the corrupt press.

00:29:24.000 I am, uh, I'm actually the conservative here.

00:29:30.000 You happen to be right about that.

00:29:31.000 Yeah, well, I'm an opinion show, and I don't hold back that I'll be voting for Donald Trump in November.

00:29:36.000 All right.

00:29:37.000 Okay, that's, I mean, but that's just the text of what he's saying.

00:29:41.000 We also have the subtext of what he's saying, and here's the subtext of what Sean Hannity is saying.

00:29:45.000 You really have to sort of subscribe to see this and enjoy it, but slow motion, Sean Hannity endorsing Donald Trump.

00:29:57.000 Oh, there's a man he's splendid

00:30:10.000 I did see a very funny tweet about this.

00:30:11.000 Somebody tweeted, I wish my wife looked at me the way Sean Hannity looks at Donald Trump. 1.00

00:30:16.000 But there's, I mean, look, Sean's been pushing Trump for a long time.

00:30:19.000 The only thing that's wrong with that, in my view, is number one, don't back Trump, but number two, this idea that you are just as obsequious to the other candidates is clearly not true.

00:30:29.000 But look, Hannity, I love what he says there, even in that clip.

00:30:33.000 Sean Hannity says, I'm not the corrupt press.

00:30:35.000 I'm nice to you.

00:30:37.000 Right?

00:30:37.000 So that's pretty spectacular.

00:30:41.000 He's not the corrupt press.

00:30:43.000 He's nice to Donald Trump.

00:30:44.000 And meanwhile, you got the corrupt press saying to Donald Trump, we're not the corrupt press.

00:30:47.000 Let's give you lots of media coverage and be nice to Hillary Clinton. 1.00

00:30:50.000 So you're all the corrupt press.

00:30:52.000 We get it. 0.93

00:30:52.000 You're all the corrupt press. 0.93

00:30:53.000 And there's nothing you like better than talking about you. 0.99

00:30:56.000 There's nothing you like better than talking about you.

00:30:58.000 So you've got CNN.

00:30:59.000 And this is, this is again, how Trump turns the entire media narrative on its head.

00:31:03.000 And it's amazing.

00:31:04.000 And it's that I've been saying for literally my entire political career, the media is terrible, they lie about conservatives, they're unfair to conservatives.

00:31:12.000 Totally true.

00:31:13.000 Trump comes in, and he says the media is lying, they're terrible, and they treat me unfairly.

00:31:18.000 But he says it about things where they're actually not treating him unfairly, where they're actually saying things that are true.

00:31:22.000 As you mentioned yesterday, it is perfectly in bounds to say, you pledged to give a million dollars to the vets, it's five months later, where's the cash?

00:31:29.000 That is totally inbounds.

00:31:30.000 There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever, right?

00:31:33.000 So the left press attacks him, he calls them corrupt, and then what happens?

00:31:37.000 Members of the right press come to his defense because they're so used to being reactive to the left press that they just come to his defense.

00:31:43.000 So Sean Hannity, he comes out and he says, what, did the press think that you were going to steal the money or something?

00:31:48.000 I mean, why were they even asking these questions?

00:31:50.000 I watched this and I'm thinking, what do they think?

00:31:52.000 You need the money?

00:31:53.000 Do they think you're gonna steal it?

00:31:56.000 You were going through a process, though, of vetting these groups, which, by the way, is a responsible thing to do, right?

00:32:03.000 You want to just feed him the entire defense, Sean?

00:32:05.000 I mean, like, word for word, you want to actually just put your hand up the back of his jacket and control his mouth from behind it?

00:32:11.000 Didn't you think that these charities had to be vetted?

00:32:13.000 That would be the responsible thing.

00:32:15.000 Yes, I think they would be correct.

00:32:16.000 I mean, like, what?

00:32:18.000 It wasn't just Sean Hannity.

00:32:20.000 Bill O'Reilly did the same thing last night.

00:32:22.000 He says that it's terrible that anybody would accuse Donald Trump of holding back.

00:32:27.000 Guys, he said he gave the money five months ago, the day the Washington Post report came out.

00:32:31.000 The day.

00:32:32.000 It's just a big coincidence.

00:32:33.000 That's when the vetting of the charities ended.

00:32:35.000 Big coincidence.

00:32:36.000 Five months, nothing.

00:32:37.000 Report comes out that day he signs a bunch of checks to charities.

00:32:40.000 Here's Bill O'Reilly doing the same routine.

00:32:43.000 The lead is, thank you for giving money to the vets, but he created his own controversy.

00:32:47.000 But why would you say that when there was no data, Colonel, that said he didn't give the money?

00:32:55.000 It was basically a supposition fabricated by anti-Trump people in the press.

00:33:03.000 I mean, there was no data that came out and said

00:33:06.000 Trump is stiffing the vets.

00:33:08.000 There was no accounting that said that.

00:33:10.000 So why would you be so hard on Trump?

00:33:13.000 Okay, we can stop it there.

00:33:14.000 There's no accounting.

00:33:15.000 Okay, you can't prove a negative.

00:33:17.000 You can't prove a negative.

00:33:18.000 If I say, if I say, Lindsey, you need to stop beating small children in your apartment, right? 1.00

00:33:25.000 And Lindsey says, well, I don't do that.

00:33:26.000 I say, well, prove it.

00:33:28.000 Prove it!

00:33:28.000 There's no way to prove it, right?

00:33:29.000 There's no way to prove she doesn't beat small children in her apartment. 1.00

00:33:31.000 There's no way to prove it.

00:33:32.000 Because she doesn't have a camera in her apartment 24 hours a day. 1.00

00:33:35.000 Or if she does, she shouldn't show that tape to anyone because it's weird.

00:33:37.000 But the fact is that this is the same way that... So that's what O'Reilly's saying now.

00:33:42.000 He's saying, well, there was no proof that he didn't give the money.

00:33:44.000 Yeah, there was.

00:33:45.000 None of the veterans group said they'd received the money.

00:33:47.000 That's the best proof that you can offer.

00:33:49.000 But, again, I'm not gonna say that Hannity and O'Reilly are just in the tank totally for Trump, although I think that there's some truth to that.

00:33:56.000 There's also, I mean, listen, Bill O'Reilly's the guy who wanted to have milkshakes with Trump, and Sean Hannity is, I mean, gazing lovingly into Trump's eyes during these interviews.

00:34:04.000 But there's something else, too, and that is they're just reacting to a media that has been habitually and consistently in favor of Hillary Clinton and the left.

00:34:13.000 What is your reaction to what happened at Trump Tower today?

00:34:29.000 Well, I think the problem here is the difference between what Donald Trump says and what Donald Trump does.

00:34:36.000 You know, he's bragged for months about raising six million dollars for veterans and donating a million dollars himself, but it took a reporter to shame him into actually making his contribution and getting money to veterans groups.

00:34:51.000 I, of course, over the

00:34:53.000 I don't know.

00:35:19.000 She's terrible in every way.

00:35:22.000 She's talking about how she raised lots of money for the troops.

00:35:25.000 Yeah, sure.

00:35:26.000 I mean, you used my money for the troops.

00:35:28.000 There's a difference.

00:35:29.000 That's me giving money to the troops.

00:35:30.000 That's not you giving money to the troops.

00:35:32.000 When you tax me and give money to the troops, that's actually my money, not your money.

00:35:35.000 And you ran a $100 billion scam foundation.

00:35:38.000 I mean, the Clinton Foundation.

00:35:41.000 Yeah, no, I don't buy that in any way, shape or form.

00:35:45.000 So people react to that and they say, OK, well, if Hillary says it, then it must be then it must be false.

00:35:49.000 Therefore, Trump must be justified in all of this.

00:35:52.000 The lengths to which people are willing to go to defend Trump.

00:35:54.000 This is why I think the French run is interesting because.

00:35:57.000 It's casting a light on the lengths to which people will go to defend Donald Trump.

00:36:01.000 So last night, I was on with Megyn Kelly.

00:36:03.000 And she had me talking about Donald Trump, of course, because that's all anybody can talk about.

00:36:08.000 And I was on with Robert Wohl, or David Wohl is his name, I think.

00:36:12.000 And David Wohl is a lawyer, he's a very pro-Trump lawyer.

00:36:15.000 And she had me talking about the fact that Donald Trump, during one of his rallies, came out and attacked a judge in his Trump University case.

00:36:22.000 So for people who haven't been following this,

00:36:24.000 Trump University is a scam university Trump set up.

00:36:26.000 It's basically a timeshare company.

00:36:28.000 And what he would do is he would get people into the room.

00:36:31.000 He would upsell them and sell them these really expensive courses on how to make money in real estate.

00:36:36.000 Only one problem.

00:36:37.000 Nobody really ever learned to make money on real estate.

00:36:39.000 They just spent tons and tons of money to get Trump's imprimatur.

00:36:42.000 Trump would tell them things like, I'm gonna come and you're gonna take pictures with me.

00:36:45.000 And then they would actually end up just taking pictures with cardboard cutouts of Trump.

00:36:49.000 They revealed in court filings, court papers, the kind of playbook for people to get people enrolled in Trump University.

00:36:56.000 It's not like Prager University, which is also not accredited, but is a donation-driven system that has an educational product.

00:37:02.000 There is no real educational product, apparently, at least that's the allegation.

00:37:06.000 In any case, Trump was talking about the judge.

00:37:08.000 The judge releases a bunch of documents.

00:37:09.000 The judge happens to be a guy whose parents are Mexican.

00:37:13.000 He was born in Indiana.

00:37:14.000 His parents are Mexican.

00:37:16.000 Naturally, this means that Donald Trump has to attack the judge for being Mexican, right?

00:37:19.000 He doesn't attack him for saying that you're an Obama appointee, or attack him on the grounds that he has associations with groups that Trump doesn't like.

00:37:27.000 Instead, he goes directly to, this guy's a Mexican, that's why he doesn't like me. 1.00

00:37:31.000 So, that would be, in any real world, pretty unacceptable, right?

00:37:35.000 Just saying that you're Mexican, therefore, you must not like me. 1.00

00:37:38.000 You're Mexican, therefore, you must believe X. 1.00

00:37:40.000 Okay, Mexican, it turns out, is not an ideology or philosophy.

00:37:43.000 It's an ethnicity.

00:37:44.000 But it doesn't matter to Trump.

00:37:46.000 So watch, you know, I'm beautiful and handsome here, but watch David Wall, who's the lawyer, because his defense of Trump, this is how far Trump advocates are willing to go in defense of a man.

00:37:57.000 And if you say that this doesn't tear the beating heart out of decency and conservatism, I don't know what does.

00:38:02.000 For Trump, there's some sort of bizarre connection between the ethnicity of the person and the ideology the person must hold.

00:38:09.000 I don't know why him being a Mexican would even be relevant to the conversation, especially when he's not from Mexico and his parents are Mexican.

00:38:15.000 David, why would it be?

00:38:16.000 Yeah.

00:38:17.000 I don't think it is.

00:38:17.000 I think it's a non-sequitur, Megan.

00:38:19.000 Why are you mentioning it over and over when he rips on this judge?

00:38:24.000 I think his ethnicity is Hispanic.

00:38:26.000 He's from Indiana.

00:38:27.000 Non-sequitur, Megan.

00:38:28.000 The issue of him going after this judge, though, I gotta say, how is this any different than Barack Obama in 2010 at the State of the Union when he excoriated Supreme Court justices who were sitting right in front of him?

00:38:42.000 Appropriate and out of line.

00:38:43.000 About the Citizens United case, Megan.

00:38:45.000 Out of line, wasn't it?

00:38:46.000 He intimidated them.

00:38:47.000 He bullied them right in front of him.

00:38:49.000 And you know what, Megan, after that incident... So are you justifying bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior?

00:38:54.000 Well, Megan, I'm just saying.

00:38:55.000 And you know what?

00:38:56.000 Bill Burton, by the way, who was Obama's press secretary at the time, you've got to listen to this.

00:39:00.000 He said, I'm quoting, one of the great things about our democracy is that powerful members of government at high levels can disagree in public and in private, and this is one of those instances.

00:39:11.000 Wow.

00:39:11.000 This is all it is, Megan.

00:39:12.000 He's got the First Amendment right.

00:39:13.000 He does have issues, as Bambi pointed out, and it's frustrating him because I've reviewed this case.

00:39:18.000 It should have been dismissed.

00:39:20.000 A long time ago, on the summary judgment motion, no question about it.

00:39:24.000 No, no.

00:39:24.000 I mean, Ben is not a lawyer.

00:39:26.000 David and I are lawyers.

00:39:26.000 I completely disagree with you on that.

00:39:28.000 And the Court of Appeals... Actually, I am a lawyer.

00:39:29.000 Oh, I'm sorry, Ben, I didn't know that.

00:39:30.000 And the Court of Appeals, the Court of Appeals actually upheld this.

00:39:33.000 It wasn't all this judge.

00:39:34.000 Listen, you can say that there's no merits to the case and Trump will get his day in court, but to go after the judge as a, quote, Mexican and hater takes it to a different level, Ben.

00:39:45.000 Well, absolutely.

00:39:46.000 And the fact that Trump defenders have to rely on Barack Obama was a bad guy, therefore if our guy does the exact same thing, it's just doubly as awesome.

00:39:55.000 It's typical of the Trump campaign.

00:39:59.000 So you tell me, David, why is it better that Trump did it now that Barack Obama did it?

00:40:03.000 I thought we were running against Barack Obama if we're on the right.

00:40:05.000 The point is, the point is, you know what he said immediately after that?

00:40:09.000 He said, I love the Mexican people.

00:40:11.000 I've got millions of Mexicans supporting me.

00:40:13.000 He clarified it immediately.

00:40:15.000 So, you know, take it out of context.

00:40:17.000 The majority, Megan, the substance of his criticism...

00:40:20.000 Take this opportunity to express my love for the Mexicans.

00:40:23.000 Hey, come on! 1.00

00:40:24.000 Well, Megan, you know what?

00:40:25.000 Sometimes you have a slip of the tongue and I submit to you that's all it was.

00:40:28.000 He does it repeatedly!

00:40:29.000 That's the thing that's so crazy about it, David.

00:40:31.000 I don't know why he's doing this.

00:40:33.000 Listen, listen.

00:40:33.000 Nobody give Trump a hard time if he said, I don't like this judge.

00:40:36.000 I don't think he's been fair to me.

00:40:37.000 I'm going to get my day in court.

00:40:38.000 I'm going to win this case.

00:40:39.000 Great.

00:40:39.000 Go for it.

00:40:39.000 That's fine.

00:40:40.000 Right, right, right.

00:41:01.000 We're good.

00:41:18.000 Right after Mr. Trump complained last week about the judge, the judge releases the documents immediately right thereafter.

00:41:24.000 Now I submit to you, does that create an appearance of impropriety?

00:41:28.000 It may well do so.

00:41:29.000 And if he doesn't recuse himself, it may be up to Mr. Trump's lawyers to file the motion for recusal with a different judge.

00:41:35.000 I've done that many times in these circumstances.

00:41:37.000 You don't know.

00:41:38.000 So basically, you insult the judge, and then when the judge does something that he's perfectly allowed to do under the law, and there's a motion before the court in order to release these documents, then you say he has to recuse himself.

00:41:47.000 So you create the issue.

00:41:48.000 You don't find anything?

00:41:49.000 You don't find anything?

00:41:50.000 Hold on, let Ben finish.

00:41:52.000 Hold on.

00:41:52.000 So you create the issue, and then the only solution is for Trump to get what he wants.

00:41:56.000 And by the way, this is a whole slip of the tongue nonsense.

00:41:59.000 When your tongue keeps slipping in the same direction, at a certain point you sort of have to figure that there's a little bit of intentionality to it.

00:42:04.000 The guy's tongue is a slip and slide.

00:42:06.000 He doesn't just slip every so often.

00:42:07.000 Okay.

00:42:10.000 So, you know, the reason I played the whole segment here, beyond the fact that it's wildly entertaining, is if you look at Trump's lawyer, he's spinning every which way.

00:42:18.000 And this is what Trump's defenders have to do.

00:42:20.000 And the media is happy to cover it because with every spin, with every spin, the media either gets to portray itself as the beautiful victors or as stumped by Trump, which means that they're still being

00:42:31.000 Cucked by this wonderful man, by this egregious man.

00:42:35.000 So the media gets to play itself as great in opposition to Trump.

00:42:38.000 Trump's their foil.

00:42:39.000 Or Trump is just a master manipulator of the media and so we're still worshipping at our own altar, right?

00:42:44.000 Because we're the ones who still make the power decisions.

00:42:47.000 It's all about the media for Trump, and that's why it would be wonderful if conservatives would actually stand up for principle and stop backing this nonsense.

00:42:55.000 Because you're gonna go down with this ship.

00:42:57.000 You want this ship?

00:42:58.000 You're gonna go down with this ship.

00:43:00.000 You want to defend Donald Trump calling judges Mexican because he opposes them?

00:43:04.000 It's all yours, baby.

00:43:05.000 I mean, you broke it, you bought it.

00:43:06.000 You said you wanted to break the Republican Party?

00:43:08.000 Well, you did so.

00:43:09.000 And now there's an alternative for you.

00:43:10.000 You may not like it, you may think he's obscure,

00:43:12.000 He may not be as fancy, he may not have the same number of wives, he may not have the Solomon-esque kingdom of horses, but he's somebody who actually believes in principles you supposedly do, so I'd like to see you defend why exactly Trump is your man instead of somebody like David French.

00:43:28.000 Okay, time for a couple of things I like and then a thing I hate.

00:43:31.000 So, couple of things that I like.

00:43:33.000 There's this great show, I think it's the best show on TV, there are two shows I'm in the middle of right now.

00:43:38.000 No, I'll talk about one of them tomorrow.

00:43:40.000 I'll mention it's Man in the High Castle, but I'll talk about that one tomorrow.

00:43:43.000 The other one that I'm really into, and the last episode was last night, is Turn.

00:43:47.000 Turn on AMC.

00:43:48.000 Great, great show.

00:43:49.000 The show is about Washington spying, how he was gathering information on the British, and it really is a fascinating, well-written period

00:43:59.000 Sensitive piece.

00:44:00.000 It's really good.

00:44:02.000 All the characters are really well drawn.

00:44:03.000 Washington plays a major role and is a pretty cool character.

00:44:06.000 It's a terrific show.

00:44:07.000 Here's what the preview looked like for the first season.

00:44:09.000 Are you sure you want him to learn to walk so soon?

00:44:12.000 Well, he's almost a year old.

00:44:15.000 Faster he learns to walk, sooner he learns to march.

00:44:17.000 That's a good point.

00:44:21.000 Law!

00:44:22.000 Where are you taking Selah?

00:44:25.000 Past curfew!

00:44:26.000 Order.

00:44:27.000 You need someone to protect you.

00:44:30.000 Captain, I beg you.

00:44:31.000 Authority.

00:44:32.000 We're celebrating your king's victory in New York.

00:44:38.000 We are the beacon of authority and we bear the burden of that authority.

00:44:47.000 What are you doing here?

00:44:48.000 I saw Ben Talmadge trying to recruit me for a secret mission.

00:44:51.000 Against the British.

00:44:52.000 I won't do it.

00:44:53.000 Why not?

00:44:57.000 I, Abraham Woodhull... What more do they need to take from us?

00:45:03.000 ...do sincerely and faithfully promise and swear... Washington's been trying to get a man inside the city since how it took it over.

00:45:10.000 ...that I will bear true allegiance to His Majesty King George III.

00:45:14.000 Whatever you're doing, we can't afford to lose you.

00:45:19.000 That was impressive.

00:45:21.000 I know you lied.

00:45:24.000 I'm done protecting you.

00:45:27.000 So it's really good.

00:45:28.000 I mean, the whole show is really terrific.

00:45:30.000 It's getting better and better, actually.

00:45:31.000 It started off solid show.

00:45:33.000 Now third season is really, really good.

00:45:35.000 It's got Benedict Arnold and his whole story in the back story.

00:45:38.000 It's got the story of John Andre, who is the sort of charming spy master for the British.

00:45:42.000 It's a really good show, so you should check it out.

00:45:44.000 It's not kid-appropriate, but it's teenager-appropriate.

00:45:47.000 And it's really, really good.

00:45:49.000 OK, other things that I like.

00:45:50.000 So Snoop Dogg, there's a show on TV.

00:45:53.000 They're doing a remake of Roots.

00:45:55.000 And this remake of Roots is apparently an even less flattering portrayal of white people in America than the original version of Roots.

00:46:04.000 So the original version of Roots by Alex Haley, it turns out a lot of it was fabricated.

00:46:08.000 Which is not to say slavery wasn't horrific, of course it was.

00:46:10.000 But Roots, factually speaking, was fabricated.

00:46:13.000 It was a very big scandal at the time.

00:46:15.000 The new version of Roots says there are no good white people. 0.99

00:46:17.000 All the white people are bad, basically. 0.99

00:46:19.000 This is what all the reviewers say. 0.99

00:46:20.000 Snoop Dogg has now done a video

00:46:24.000 In which he talks about why he's not watching Roots.

00:46:27.000 He has one comment here that I'll quibble with, and then the rest of it is actually pretty spot-on.

00:46:32.000 So, I mean, I can only assume he was high when he did this, because he's high, like, 98% of the time.

00:46:35.000 And the other 2% of the time, he's either sleeping or on the toilet.

00:46:38.000 So, since he was filming a video, I'm gonna assume he was high, but here's Snoop Dogg explaining why he's not watching Roots. 0.99

00:46:43.000 No disrespect, but I can't watch no motherf***ing old black movies with n****s getting dogged out. 1.00

00:46:50.000 12 years a slave. 1.00

00:46:51.000 Roots.

00:46:52.000 Underground.

00:46:52.000 I can't watch none of that.

00:46:54.000 I'm sick of this s***. 0.99

00:46:55.000 How the f*** they gonna put Roots on on Memorial Day? 0.99

00:46:58.000 They gonna just keep beating that s*** in our heads or how they did us, huh? 1.00

00:47:03.000 I mean, I don't understand America. 0.99

00:47:05.000 They just wanna just keep showing the abuse that we took hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

00:47:09.000 But guess what?

00:47:11.000 We taking the same abuse.

00:47:13.000 Think about that part. 0.99

00:47:15.000 When y'all gonna make a motherfuckin' series about the success that black folks is having? 1.00

00:47:20.000 The only success we have is roots and 12 years of slavery and shit like that, huh? 1.00

00:47:24.000 Fuck y'all, I ain't watching that shit, and I advise you motherfuckers that's real niggas like myself, fuck them television shows. 1.00

00:47:31.000 Let's create our own shit based on the day. 1.00

00:47:33.000 How we live and how we inspire people today. 1.00

00:47:36.000 Black is what's real. 1.00

00:47:37.000 Fuck that old shit. 1.00

00:47:40.000 Right, Jews? 1.00

00:47:43.000 And then he cuts to a shot of his dog.

00:47:44.000 So, obviously the one quibble I have is when he says that we have the same stuff going on today that was happening in the days of slavery.

00:47:51.000 This is factually incorrect, as noted by the fact that Snoop Dogg is a convicted criminal who's worth a bajillion dollars, mainly because he raps and smokes enormous quantities of ganja.

00:48:01.000 So, the idea that Snoop Dogg is living just as his ancestors lived

00:48:05.000 During the times of slavery, yeah, not so much.

00:48:08.000 But when he says that it would be good to actually provide a vision for young black people in America of what black success looks like, that's exactly right. 1.00

00:48:16.000 What you don't need is more victimization TV.

00:48:19.000 And listen, I think we should all know our history.

00:48:20.000 I saw 12 Years a Slave.

00:48:21.000 I think it's an important film.

00:48:23.000 I saw The Original Roots.

00:48:24.000 I have rented that.

00:48:25.000 I think that it was important for what it did at the time.

00:48:28.000 I think that it's significantly more important for black people in the United States and Jewish people, every person in the United States, to see the possibilities of the American dream, what you can do if you put your nose to the grindstone, than it is to talk about all the terrible things that have happened to people who looked like you 150 years ago.

00:48:43.000 Okay, thing I hate.

00:48:45.000 Okay, so Marco Rubio has now endorsed Donald Trump.

00:48:47.000 This is not a huge surprise.

00:48:49.000 It was kind of predictable, and that's not something I like, but I can't say it's something that I truly hate, that it's the worst thing in the world.

00:48:55.000 Some people feel really betrayed by Marco Rubio.

00:48:58.000 I think that Marco Rubio, like most Republican politicians, feels the necessity to rally around the candidate because he feels like he wants a future.

00:49:06.000 In Republican establishment politics and party politics is all about the establishment.

00:49:14.000 So, that's one thing.

00:49:15.000 But Marco Rubio now says that he wants to apologize to Donald Trump.

00:49:22.000 This is the part that I hate.

00:49:23.000 Here we go.

00:49:24.000 And I actually told Donald, one of the debates, I forget which one, I apologized to him for that.

00:49:28.000 I said, you know, I'm sorry that I said that.

00:49:30.000 It's not who I am, and I shouldn't have done it.

00:49:32.000 And I didn't say it in front of the cameras.

00:49:34.000 I didn't want any political benefit.

00:49:35.000 I'm not a candidate now, so I can say that to you.

00:49:38.000 Because, not because of him, but because of me.

00:49:40.000 You know, I didn't like what it reflected on me.

00:49:42.000 It embarrassed my family.

00:49:44.000 It's not who I am.

00:49:45.000 And you did it almost in a sense of, you know, nothing at this point, you know, nothing is working.

00:49:49.000 I mean, this guy is out there every day making, mocking people, saying horrible things about people.

00:49:54.000 But if you respond to him somehow, you're, you know, you're beneath, you're hitting below the belt.

00:49:59.000 And that was my sense of it at the time.

00:50:00.000 What I didn't realize was, you know, it isn't who I am.

00:50:04.000 And if you're not being who you are,

00:50:06.000 It doesn't come across well.

00:50:07.000 And he could do that, because for whatever reason he can do that.

00:50:11.000 But I couldn't do that.

00:50:12.000 It's not who I am.

00:50:12.000 It's not what I do.

00:50:13.000 And by doing it, I ended up hurting myself, not him.

00:50:17.000 Oh my god.

00:50:18.000 Okay, so this whole, you gotta pay homage to Mr. Trump.

00:50:20.000 You know, you gotta go in before unbended knee and apologize for using exactly the same tactics on Trump that he's been using on you.

00:50:27.000 This is sad sack kind of stuff.

00:50:29.000 And the fact is that it's revisionist history to suggest that Marco Rubio lost because he was harsh with Trump.

00:50:33.000 No, the reason he lost is because he lost.

00:50:35.000 He was already trailing in the polls in Florida by the time he decided to go after Trump.

00:50:39.000 It was too late.

00:50:39.000 Trump had already been defined in the public mind.

00:50:41.000 There was not much that he could do there, but it's just, it's, it's...

00:50:44.000 Sad that this campaign has basically come down to a bunch of people now going on bended knee before Donald Trump.

00:50:51.000 There's nothing wrong with going after Donald Trump in the manner that he attacks you.

00:50:54.000 I'm not a civility guy, and I don't think that civility is necessary when you're talking about a Bulgarian like Donald Trump. 1.00

00:51:00.000 I think it makes you look like a fool. 1.00

00:51:01.000 Okay, final thing that I hate. 0.99

00:51:03.000 So UCLA, there's apparently a shooting today at UCLA, my alma mater, where my wife is graduating med school the end of the week.

00:51:10.000 And it's a really, apparently what they're reporting now, this is the latest news so it may change, what they're currently reporting is that it was a murder-suicide at UCLA, they had the campus on lockdown.

00:51:20.000 This prompted Deborah Messing, who has not been relevant since Will and Grace, to come out and tweet this.

00:51:27.000 So she tweeted a picture of herself and she wrote, And then it's a picture of her wearing a t-shirt that is the t-shirt for Katie Couric's new documentary. 0.95

00:51:44.000 Okay, there are a couple of things about this that are just asinine.

00:51:47.000 Number one, Katie Couric's documentary has been discredited to the point where Epix actually pulled it.

00:51:52.000 That's the network that was gonna run it. 0.93

00:51:53.000 They pulled it because, as we discussed yesterday, Katie Couric inserted a pause in the film to make it look like the gun advocates she was talking to were stupid and didn't know answers to her questions. 1.00

00:52:03.000 So that's number one. 0.99

00:52:04.000 Number two, isn't it typical celebrity garbage to... there's a shooting going on, and so they say, I'm posting a selfie? 0.98

00:52:12.000 Like, this is the way you solve the world's problems? 0.99

00:52:13.000 Well, I guess I wish that she had a black shirt that said, hashtag no death, and then we could end death in the world. 0.66

00:52:20.000 That'd probably be the best way to do all of this.

00:52:21.000 We could really just... Or maybe even better, we could do hashtag world peace.

00:52:25.000 It could be pink.

00:52:26.000 And then we could really just finish this whole thing off once and for all.

00:52:28.000 World peace, no death.

00:52:29.000 Boom! 0.99

00:52:30.000 All your problems solved!

00:52:32.000 And, but this is how celebrities treat the world.

00:52:35.000 What I say is so deeply important.

00:52:37.000 What I say is more important than what I do.

00:52:40.000 I can, I assume she's a nice person, but it wouldn't matter even if she weren't.

00:52:44.000 There are plenty of not nice people like Sean Penn who do the same kind of stuff.

00:52:47.000 What I do as a human doesn't matter.

00:52:48.000 What I say as a human matters.

00:52:50.000 And so if I selfie myself wearing a t-shirt about gun violence, you know how many less people will die in gun violence because she took the selfie?

00:52:58.000 The answer is zero.

00:52:59.000 The answer is zero.

00:52:59.000 But it's all moral posturing.

00:53:00.000 That's all this is.

00:53:01.000 It's just moral posturing.

00:53:02.000 The real morality would have been if somebody at UCLA had had a gun to stop this person,

00:53:07.000 Presumably.

00:53:08.000 UCLA does, in fact, have a gun-free zone policy.

00:53:11.000 So if you are a person who wants to carry a gun at UCLA, that is verboten.

00:53:14.000 You're not allowed to do that.

00:53:15.000 California is already the most heavily gun-regulated state in America.

00:53:18.000 They got an A from the Brady campaign.

00:53:21.000 And right now, there are a bunch of bills on Jerry Brown's desk, including a bill to ban so-called assault rifles that have a capacity for switching the magazine.

00:53:28.000 So they, I guess, want to go back to either bolt-action or back to you're stuck with one magazine and you can't eject the magazine and change magazines.

00:53:36.000 Which means you have to unscrew the magazine between each time you use it, which is just absurd.

00:53:40.000 Every time I go shooting, I'm supposed to unscrew the magazine when I practice with my rifle?

00:53:44.000 This makes perfect sense to me.

00:53:45.000 So, again, moral posturing from the left.

00:53:48.000 This is what they do.

00:53:49.000 Okay, so, end of story.

00:53:52.000 Politics is not about moral posturing, but it is about the idea that you should have some principles in your life that you centralize to.

00:53:57.000 Maybe your principle is just stop Hillary Clinton. 0.96

00:53:59.000 If so, I gotcha.

00:54:00.000 Alright, I understand why you're voting for Trump.

00:54:02.000 Maybe your principles are beyond that.

00:54:04.000 Maybe you actually want somebody that you can vote for.

00:54:06.000 Whatever your principles are, make them clear and don't make them subject to the whims of any one political figure.

00:54:12.000 Because the moment you do that, you're no longer a principled person.

00:54:15.000 You're just a follower of a god-king, orange or otherwise.

00:54:17.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:54:18.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

The Ben Shapiro Show - June 01, 2016

Ep. 127 - The Media's Pathetic Self-Obsession

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Summary

Transcript