The Ben Shapiro Show - Ep. 154 - Cruz vs. Trump: The Ultimate Showdown

00:00:00.000 The man who will make America great again seems to have some pretty weird ideas about how to do that internationally.

00:00:05.000 In an interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump openly stated he might let Russia march right into the Baltic Republics in spite of NATO, explained that Turkey's Islamist would-be dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan was doing a wonderful job of locking down his country, and attacked America in the process of doing both.

00:00:21.000 So Republicans basically just nominated Howard Zinn, which is awesome.

00:00:25.000 First, the New York Times asked Trump if he would defend NATO allies if they were attacked by Russia.

00:00:29.000 He answered he would, quote, decide to come to their aid only after reviewing if those nations have fulfilled their obligations to us.

00:00:36.000 If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes.

00:00:39.000 This, of course, destroys NATO.

00:00:40.000 The whole purpose of NATO is deterrence.

00:00:42.000 If you attack one of us, you attack all of us.

00:00:44.000 Even if Trump were to consider whether to defend Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania, or for that matter Poland or the Czech Republic, on a case-by-case basis, you don't say that out loud unless you're either a dummy or you're unworried about signaling to the Russians they can invade other nations with impunity.

00:00:58.000 Ed Morrissey of Hot Air, who's definitely not prone to exaggeration, Ed writes, quote, But don't worry, the insanity didn't stop there.

00:01:11.000 Turkish thug Erdogan has now purged tens of thousands of people from positions of power and influence in Turkey following a failed coup that very well could have just been a Reichstag fire event.

00:01:20.000 Just hours ago, Turkey suspended the European Convention on Human Rights in their country so they could pursue Erdogan's enemies with alacrity.

00:01:28.000 Asked about pressuring Turkey to abide by their human rights commitments, Trump said, quote, I don't think we have a right to lecture.

00:01:33.000 Trump even cheered Erdogan, quote, the coup never even took place.

00:01:36.000 The coup was not successful.

00:01:38.000 And based on the fact and I give him great credit to him for being able to turn that around, I do give great credit to him for turning it around.

00:01:44.000 Then he said, quote, I think right—this is direct transcript, guys—I think right now, when it comes to civil liberties, our country has a lot of problems, and I think it's very hard for us to get involved in other countries when we don't know what we are doing and we can't see straight in our own country.

00:01:57.000 We have tremendous problems when you have policemen being shot in the streets, when you have riots, when you have Ferguson, when you have Baltimore, when you have all of the things that are happening in this country.

00:02:04.000 We have other problems, and I think that we have to focus on those problems.

00:02:07.000 When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don't think we're a good messenger.

00:02:12.000 I don't know that we have a right to lecture.

00:02:14.000 Just look at what's happening with our country.

00:02:16.000 How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?

00:02:19.000 How are we going to lecture when you see the riots and the horror going on in our own country?

00:02:22.000 We have so many difficulties in our country right now that I don't think should be, and there may be a time when we can get much more aggressive on that subject, and it would be a wonderful thing to be more aggressive.

00:02:30.000 We're not in a position to be more aggressive.

00:02:32.000 We have to fix our own mess.

00:02:34.000 This is discombobulated, but it's also despicable.

00:02:36.000 It's right in line with Russia's perspective, of course, which is totally unsurprising given the Trump campaign's decision to gut anti-Putin language in defense of Ukraine from the RNC platform and Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort's super close relationship with the Putin regime. 0.99

00:02:51.000 More importantly, this is anti-American crap. 0.98

00:02:53.000 Bad things happen in America. 0.99

00:02:54.000 But those aren't government policy. 0.87

00:02:56.000 Equating America with Turkey cracking down on dissidents is disgusting.

00:03:00.000 But Trump isn't just an isolationist.

00:03:02.000 He's a Ron Paul isolationist.

00:03:04.000 A devotee of the notion America makes the world a worse place when it intervenes.

00:03:08.000 That has some consequences.

00:03:10.000 And it certainly gives the lie to the notion Trump will keep us safe from terrorism.

00:03:14.000 Not when he's defending Erdogan, who's gone soft on ISIS.

00:03:16.000 Trump is basically Barack Obama in wolf's clothing. 0.90

00:03:19.000 Obama wanted to make America smaller on the world stage, and he clothed it in empty, silly language about multipolarity.

00:03:25.000 Trump pretends to be strong on defense, but he pretty much mirrors Obama's policies at every turn.

00:03:29.000 When it comes to foreign policy, Trump isn't interested in making America great again.

00:03:33.000 He'll make America weak again, and he'll let everybody know about it.

00:03:36.000 All the while, he's going to bluster about how he's a giant winner and a real tough guy.

00:03:40.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:03:40.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:03:49.000 Okay, so here we are on Facebook Live, and there is a lot to talk about.

00:03:53.000 So, let's jump right in.

00:03:55.000 Let's jump right in.

00:03:56.000 So, yesterday, of course, the big story was Ted Cruz speaking at the RNC.

00:04:00.000 And this story is just—every time I—I'm about as cynical about politics as it's possible to be.

00:04:05.000 I mean, I make—I depress people.

00:04:07.000 It's what I do, right?

00:04:08.000 I mean, I'm in the business of depressing people with my cynicism.

00:04:11.000 Even I.

00:04:12.000 I'm not one quarter cynical enough to be cynical enough about the Republican National Convention and the committee and Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and all of the various players here.

00:04:22.000 Even I am not cynical enough for this.

00:04:24.000 And I'm pretty cynical.

00:04:26.000 Basically what happened last night at the Republican National Convention, in a nutshell,

00:04:31.000 Is that Ted Cruz tried to offer an olive branch to Donald Trump.

00:04:35.000 Donald Trump used the opportunity to shiv Ted Cruz and the RNC used the opportunity to shiv Cruz and side with Trump and cast Cruz out of the party.

00:04:42.000 That's basically what happened last night.

00:04:44.000 Now that's not the story you're going to hear from the media.

00:04:45.000 The story you'll hear from the media is that Cruz made this wonderful stand against Trump.

00:04:49.000 He really didn't.

00:04:50.000 The story you'll hear from the media is that Trump was taken completely by surprise.

00:04:53.000 That's what Trump will say.

00:04:54.000 I've been stabbed in the back by Ted Cruz.

00:04:56.000 No, he wasn't. 0.99

00:04:58.000 And the story that you'll hear from the RNC is that Ted Cruz is the worst guy ever.

00:05:02.000 Okay, so let's go through a little bit of facts.

00:05:04.000 I know that facts are foreign to these conversations about Donald Trump because everybody has to bow before the Orange God King, but basically, in short, what happened last night is that there was a Stalin-esque show trial, and Ted Cruz did not stand and applaud loudly enough for Donald Trump, and thus he was taken out and politically executed.

00:05:20.000 So, just a little bit of a flashback.

00:05:22.000 To go back,

00:05:23.000 People are saying that Ted Cruz should have endorsed Donald Trump because he took the pledge.

00:05:27.000 Okay, number one, the pledge to support the Republican nominee.

00:05:30.000 I said at the time, Trump, by the way, when he started, would not take the pledge. 1.00

00:05:33.000 I defended Donald Trump on that, because I think pledges are stupid. 0.99

00:05:37.000 I think unless you're pledging to principle, I don't care about your pledge. 1.00

00:05:40.000 If you pledge allegiance to any single human being, or to an unnamed human being, anybody who's the Republican nominee, you're stupid. 1.00

00:05:47.000 What if the Republican nominee is something terrible? 1.00

00:05:50.000 That's exactly what ends up happening. 0.99

00:05:53.000 So the pledge was dumb in the first place. 0.99

00:05:54.000 Second of all, I'm not going to hold you to a pledge to support the Republican nominee after that guy brands you Lion Ted, calls your wife ugly in national view, says your father assassinated JFK. 0.99

00:06:05.000 Here's that tweet where he compared Melania being hot to Heidi Cruz supposedly being ugly. 0.75

00:06:12.000 And then there is the Trump accusing Cruz's father of killing JFK.

00:06:16.000 You remember this one.

00:06:17.000 His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. 0.96

00:06:23.000 I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. 0.54

00:06:25.000 What is this right prior to his being shot? 0.88

00:06:27.000 And nobody even brings it up.

00:06:29.000 I mean, they don't even talk about that.

00:06:30.000 That was reported and nobody talks about it.

00:06:33.000 But I think it's horrible.

00:06:34.000 Right.

00:06:35.000 There was a picture out there that reportedly shows Rafael Cruz standing with Lee Harvey Oswald.

00:06:40.000 I mean, what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald?

00:06:44.000 You know, Lion Ted Cruz came today.

00:06:45.000 He couldn't draw a hundred people.

00:06:46.000 A hundred people.

00:07:07.000 He could, I'm telling you.

00:07:09.000 In fact, it was a big headline today in the New York Post.

00:07:13.000 He couldn't draw a hundred people.

00:07:15.000 Now, do you remember?

00:07:17.000 Okay, so he did this routine the whole campaign.

00:07:19.000 You remember, we don't have to go through it. 0.97

00:07:21.000 And then, as you recall, Cruz retaliated against Trump, and he called Trump a sniveling coward, right? 0.82

00:07:26.000 Ted Cruz touting his wife hours after hitting his limit. 1.00

00:07:29.000 Donald, you're a sniveling coward. 1.00

00:07:31.000 Leave Heidi the hell alone. 1.00

00:07:32.000 The senator and the billionaire now all in.

00:07:34.000 So the flashback is just to demonstrate.

00:07:37.000 It was pretty dicey for a while, right?

00:07:39.000 It was pretty dicey.

00:07:40.000 Okay, so here's what I know.

00:07:42.000 And this is not speculation.

00:07:43.000 This is what I know because I've talked to people on the inside, okay?

00:07:46.000 This is inside information that you're getting because you listen to the show and watch the show.

00:07:50.000 Here is what I know.

00:07:52.000 The Cruz campaign was approached by the RNC and the Trump campaign a few weeks back, and they said, we would like you not to make trouble with the delegates at the convention.

00:08:01.000 And Cruz said, OK, I'd like a primetime spot at the convention.

00:08:04.000 And Trump and the RNC said, OK, you can speak at the convention.

00:08:07.000 You're just not allowed to rip on Donald Trump.

00:08:09.000 If you could show some tacit support for Donald Trump, that would be great.

00:08:13.000 And Cruz said, OK, that sounds good.

00:08:15.000 I won't make trouble with the delegates at the convention.

00:08:17.000 Then, this week, the Cruz campaign was in talks with the Trump campaign for Cruz to actually help out with the definition of the Israel platform in the Trump campaign.

00:08:26.000 So not only was Cruz trying to offer an olive branch to Trump, he was actually offering to get involved, in a small way at least, with the Trump campaign.

00:08:35.000 Right? 0.92

00:08:35.000 But he couldn't endorse him because how do you endorse a guy who says your wife is ugly and your dad murdered JFK? 0.92

00:08:39.000 Like, it makes it a little bit awkward.

00:08:41.000 So Cruz makes these overtures, Trump takes him up on the overtures.

00:08:44.000 Right?

00:08:44.000 Trump takes him up on the overtures.

00:08:46.000 Now Cruz arrives.

00:08:47.000 Cruz, three days beforehand, sends the speech that he gave last night.

00:08:51.000 He sends the text of the speech to the Trump campaign and the RNC.

00:08:55.000 Reince Priebus has seen the speech.

00:08:56.000 Trump personally has seen the speech.

00:08:58.000 Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, has seen the speech.

00:09:01.000 All day yesterday, the RNC is leaking that Cruz is not going to endorse Trump, right?

00:09:05.000 This is the headline all day yesterday.

00:09:07.000 Cruz is not going to endorse Trump.

00:09:09.000 He's just going to kind of suggest support for Trump, right?

00:09:12.000 That was the headline the entire day yesterday.

00:09:15.000 The transcript of the speech, which Cruz gave essentially word-for-word, is released hours early to the press.

00:09:20.000 So forget about the RNC knowing it.

00:09:22.000 Forget about Trump knowing it.

00:09:23.000 The entire press knows it.

00:09:24.000 The entire press has seen it.

00:09:26.000 I've been to these conventions.

00:09:27.000 The way that it works is that when there's a major speech, they print out transcripts, and they put piles of the transcripts on a table, and that way people can start writing their stories before the speech is done.

00:09:37.000 Right, so this is all fact, okay?

00:09:39.000 None of this is speculation.

00:09:40.000 This is all true.

00:09:41.000 It is all fact.

00:09:42.000 So, Cruz goes in.

00:09:44.000 Now, I think, and I've said this to the Cruz campaign, I didn't think Cruz should have gone to the convention in the first place.

00:09:49.000 It looked like a lose-lose to me.

00:09:50.000 If he goes in, he endorses.

00:09:52.000 A lot of people are angry at him.

00:09:53.000 If he goes in, he doesn't endorse.

00:09:54.000 A lot of people are angry at him.

00:09:56.000 But Cruz basically wanted to split the baby here.

00:09:58.000 So he wanted to go and take advantage of the fact

00:10:00.000 That he is still beloved in some sections of the Republican Party.

00:10:03.000 He was the second leading vote-getter in the Republican Party.

00:10:05.000 He wanted to go, and he wanted to basically put down his flag and say, look, I'm still here, right?

00:10:11.000 I mean, like, I still believe in conservative principles, and while I can't openly endorse Trump, I'm going to sort of suggest support for Trump.

00:10:19.000 Right?

00:10:19.000 So we want to split the baby.

00:10:19.000 I'm not endorsing, but I'm sort of suggesting.

00:10:22.000 And if you read the text of the speech, that's exactly what he does, including the most controversial portion.

00:10:27.000 Right?

00:10:28.000 Here's what the speech was, in short.

00:10:30.000 Congratulations, Donald Trump.

00:10:32.000 Freedom.

00:10:32.000 For 15 minutes about freedom.

00:10:34.000 Hillary Clinton is the worst. 1.00

00:10:36.000 And then, vote your conscience up and down the ticket. 0.87

00:10:40.000 That's the intent—so if I just said those things to you, forget everything else.

00:10:43.000 If I just said those things to you, you'd say, okay, that's kind of a tacit endorsement of Trump.

00:10:47.000 It's certainly not an endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

00:10:48.000 It's not an endorsement of Gary Johnson.

00:10:50.000 If I go out there and I rip Hillary Clinton, and I say that you should vote your conscience after ripping Hillary Clinton, the implication is rather clear, isn't it?

00:10:58.000 Clear enough that the Trump campaign signed off on it.

00:11:00.000 Clear enough that the RNC signed off on it.

00:11:03.000 So, that's the speech that Cruz is gonna give.

00:11:06.000 And here's what it was, right?

00:11:07.000 He leads off, and here is Ted Cruz leading off by congratulating Donald Trump, right?

00:11:12.000 Thank you, and God bless each and every one of you.

00:11:20.000 Heidi and I are so honored to join you here in Cleveland, where LeBron James just led an incredible comeback victory.

00:11:33.000 And I am convinced America is going to come back, too. 0.71

00:11:47.000 I want to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night.

00:11:53.000 Right?

00:11:53.000 Big cheer.

00:11:53.000 Does this sound anti-Trump to you?

00:11:56.000 Noticing anything anti-Trump?

00:11:57.000 Neither am I, because there's nothing anti-Trump there.

00:11:58.000 Right?

00:11:59.000 And he goes on, he talks about freedom, and he talks at length about freedom.

00:12:02.000 And then he says stuff about Hillary Clinton.

00:12:04.000 He starts ripping on Hillary Clinton.

00:12:05.000 This would be clip three of the Cruz speech.

00:12:08.000 Now Hillary Clinton believes that government should make virtually every choice in your life.

00:12:17.000 Education, health care, marriage, speech, all dictated out of Washington.

00:12:26.000 But something powerful is happening.

00:12:29.000 We've seen it in both parties.

00:12:31.000 We've seen it in the United Kingdom's unprecedented Brexit vote to leave the European Union.

00:12:48.000 Voters are overwhelmingly rejecting the political establishment and overwhelmingly rejecting big government.

00:13:00.000 We will stop it there for a second.

00:13:02.000 So he is basically making the case against Hillary.

00:13:06.000 And then where he goes from there, from there on, he says, and now you should go vote your conscience, vote for principle.

00:13:11.000 Now he can't, as I say, endorse Trump, because he wasn't gonna do that.

00:13:14.000 Because again, if you slandered my wife and my father, and were not conservative, I would not endorse you either, but he's basically saying that, right?

00:13:21.000 So, and then here's where Trump comes in.

00:13:23.000 So, Cruz thought he could split the baby, because the goal of this speech for Cruz was, position yourself if Trump loses, that you're gonna take over the party, number one.

00:13:30.000 But number two, make overtures to the RNC, so it's not like you're openly in opposition to the party.

00:13:35.000 And that's what the speech was, right?

00:13:36.000 It was a half-olive branch, basically.

00:13:38.000 It was sort of a half-olive branch.

00:13:41.000 And Donald Trump decided it was more important, instead of just sitting there and cheering and going all the way through the speech and then moving on with our lives, Donald Trump decided it was more important to humiliate Ted Cruz and shiv him.

00:13:50.000 That's what happened last night.

00:13:52.000 So, in the middle of this speech, in the middle of this speech, people start chanting.

00:13:56.000 They start chanting for Trump, right?

00:13:58.000 Those chants are being led by the New York delegation, which is Trump's personal preserve, and they're being led by people in yellow hats who are watching the coverage.

00:14:05.000 There are a bunch of people who are walking around in yellow hats.

00:14:07.000 The yellow hats are RNC staffers.

00:14:09.000 They're Trump campaign staffers, too.

00:14:11.000 They're walking around in a yellow hat.

00:14:13.000 At the point at which—and everybody had the transcript beforehand—at the point at which Cruz starts talking about voting your conscience, at that point, the Trump people start whipping—again, this is from—I've talked to multiple people who are on the floor, and Manafort himself essentially admitted this.

00:14:30.000 The Trump people start whipping up the booing.

00:14:32.000 They start whipping up the booing, because here's the thing. 0.97

00:14:34.000 Donald Trump, number one, is a petty man with a taste for vengeance.

00:14:38.000 And number two, he wants to make himself into a WWE hero, so he needs a WWE villain. 0.85

00:14:43.000 So he's gonna turn Ted Cruz into the WWE villain.

00:14:45.000 So what he does, he whips people into a frenzy because Cruz isn't openly endorsing him. 0.90

00:14:50.000 So Cruz refused to bow on bended knee before the God King, he refused to kneel before Azad, he wasn't clapping loud enough at the Stalinist lecture, and therefore he had to be politically kneecapped, he had to be taken out and shot.

00:15:01.000 So Trump sets it up so that Cruz gets booed really loudly when he says something that is pretty utterly uncontroversial.

00:15:08.000 And here's what that looked like.

00:15:10.000 We deserve leaders who stand for principle, who unite us all behind shared values, who cast aside anger for love.

00:15:23.000 That is the standard we should expect from everybody.

00:15:29.000 And to those listening, please, don't stay home in November.

00:15:53.000 If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.

00:16:12.000 Okay, and people start booing that.

00:16:13.000 Now, did you hear anything controversial there?

00:16:16.000 Just the words.

00:16:17.000 Now people are reading into it because they know that Cruz dislikes Trump, and Trump dislikes Cruz.

00:16:21.000 But the words themselves, he wasn't going to give him an endorsement.

00:16:24.000 So when he says, vote your conscience up and down the ticket, what he's saying is, basically, I just ripped Hillary Clinton, go vote your conscience.

00:16:30.000 Now I can't say go vote for Trump, but you can vote for Trump.

00:16:34.000 Trump's people go into a frenzy and start whipping up the booze to the point where at the end of the speech, this is what it looked like.

00:16:41.000 We must make the most of our moment to fight for freedom, to protect our God-given rights, even of those with whom we don't agree, so that when we are old and gray, and when our work is done, and we give those we love one final kiss goodbye, we will be able to say,

00:17:10.000 Freedom matters, and I was part of something beautiful.

00:17:36.000 The case we have to make

00:17:39.000 To the American people, the case each person in this room has to make to the American people is to commit to each of them that we will defend freedom and be faithful to the Constitution.

00:18:00.000 Okay, so let's cut it off there.

00:18:01.000 So here's the part of this that's amazing.

00:18:03.000 Here's the part of this that's amazing.

00:18:04.000 Then we'll get to the reaction.

00:18:05.000 Imagine a counterfactual.

00:18:07.000 Imagine the Trump people don't whip the crowd into booing.

00:18:09.000 Imagine they just keep cheering.

00:18:11.000 Imagine they go through this entire thing and they just keep cheering.

00:18:13.000 The impression the viewer gets...

00:18:15.000 Is that he basically just endorsed Donald Trump, right?

00:18:18.000 I mean, that's the impression.

00:18:19.000 But that's not what Trump wanted because Trump is about revenge and Trump is about creating a villain.

00:18:23.000 And by the way, halfway through this part of the speech, Trump walked out into the convention hall amidst the booze and sat down with his family.

00:18:30.000 He knew exactly what was going on this entire time. 0.97

00:18:33.000 And then he claimed ignorance because he's a liar and because all Donald Trump cares about is petty vengeance. 0.98

00:18:37.000 That's all Donald Trump cares about. 0.93

00:18:39.000 And that, by the way, should say something.

00:18:41.000 He damaged his own campaign by doing this, by the way.

00:18:44.000 He damaged his own campaign, but it didn't matter so long as he got to plunge that knife right into Ted Cruz.

00:18:49.000 And again, that's not because Cruz is some sort of babe-in-the-wood innocent.

00:18:52.000 Cruz was trying to split the baby.

00:18:54.000 He wasn't trying to go out there and heroically stand up to Donald Trump. 0.92

00:18:57.000 He just didn't bow down to Donald Trump, and that was enough for Trump to decapitate him, essentially.

00:19:01.000 To the point where donors were rejecting him, Sheldon Adelson wouldn't meet with him, donors were calling him up and yelling at him.

00:19:07.000 This is not just dirty pool.

00:19:09.000 It's viciously dirty pool by a guy, Donald Trump, who has no interest in any of the principles Ted Cruz is talking about.

00:19:16.000 Nothing that Cruz said on that stage is worthy of booing. 0.95

00:19:18.000 If you are booing somebody saying vote your conscience, it's because you have a dirty conscience. 0.77

00:19:23.000 Honestly.

00:19:24.000 Everybody should vote their conscience.

00:19:25.000 You're an adult.

00:19:25.000 Make up your own mind.

00:19:27.000 If you're sitting there waiting for Ted Cruz to cave because that's going to define your vote, let me suggest to you that you have no brain. 0.51

00:19:33.000 It's up to you to make your own calls.

00:19:35.000 You can disagree with Cruz.

00:19:36.000 You can think Cruz is terrible.

00:19:37.000 That's fine.

00:19:39.000 But this idea that you're going to boo somebody for saying, vote your conscience, and you're going to do it at the behest of Donald Trump, is pretty incredible.

00:19:46.000 It's pretty incredible and it's pretty telling.

00:19:47.000 One of the people afterwards said, we're very upset because why should Cruz get to be the only pure one?

00:19:52.000 He doesn't.

00:19:52.000 You should, if you feel that good about your vote, you should feel like the only pure one.

00:19:57.000 But this is how dirty politics is, and there's another game being played.

00:20:00.000 I'll explain more of that.

00:20:01.000 We're late on our live feed, but you got a little extra today.

00:20:04.000 Dailywire.com, if you want to subscribe.

00:20:07.000 Dailywire.com, $8 a month will get you access to watch the rest of the show and be part of the mailbag, which we'll be doing at the end of the show today, which is very cool.

00:20:15.000 So just pay up the $8 a month, people.

00:20:17.000 Come on, come on. 0.99

00:20:17.000 Do we have to come to your house or something? 0.99

00:20:19.000 I mean, seriously.

00:20:20.000 And then you can download the rest of the show at iTunes or SoundCloud a little bit later.

00:20:31.000 Okay, now that we're done with the surfing portion of the show.

00:20:33.000 So, the reaction to Cruz was universal and brutal.

00:20:40.000 Everybody in the Republican establishment says this is just the end of the world.

00:20:44.000 This is the worst thing that anyone has ever done.

00:20:46.000 Joel Pollack, a former friend, but now Trump lackey, over at Breitbart, he tweets out something to the effect of, this is the worst stab in the back politically since Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton.

00:20:59.000 I was like, um, we did fight a civil war in this country, unless you forgot about that, in which hundreds of thousands of people died, so there was that, and stuff.

00:21:10.000 But, you know, the Breitbart maniacs in favor of Trump, they have to play this game where it was a stab in the back again!

00:21:17.000 Trump knew about it, folks!

00:21:19.000 You can't get away from this.

00:21:20.000 He knew what Cruz was going to say.

00:21:22.000 So that begs the question, why did he do it?

00:21:25.000 Why did he greenlight it?

00:21:26.000 Why did he approve it?

00:21:27.000 Why did he have his people in the convention hall stirring up the booze?

00:21:30.000 Why did he walk out into the floor in the middle of the Cruz speech? 0.98

00:21:34.000 Because what he wanted was, Ted Cruz is the villain, he's the traitor, and here I am, the great god-king, bow before me, and if you don't bow, I sick my people on you.

00:21:43.000 To the point where Heidi Cruz had to be rushed by security from the hall. 1.00

00:21:47.000 By the way, Trump admits that he knew about this beforehand.

00:21:49.000 Here's what Trump tweeted afterward.

00:21:50.000 Here we have the Trump tweet from afterward.

00:22:00.000 You saw his speech two hours early, but let him speak anyway.

00:22:03.000 Interesting.

00:22:04.000 Interesting.

00:22:05.000 In fact, actually, everybody in the Trump campaign had his speech days in advance, but he saw it in advance, so you don't get to bitch about it now.

00:22:11.000 I mean, you don't get to sit around and talk about, oh, I was stabbed in the- It's not a stab in the back when you know it's coming, gang. 0.51

00:22:17.000 You have to turn your back on somebody in order to be stabbed in the back.

00:22:21.000 The real stab in the back here is that Cruz thought he was making an overture.

00:22:23.000 He thought he was making a clever overture to Trump and that he'd be able to play both sides.

00:22:27.000 That he was going to be able to make friends with Trump, but also hold his credibility in his hands and say, I didn't openly endorse this guy.

00:22:33.000 That's what Cruz is trying to do.

00:22:35.000 Okay, realistically, that's what Cruz is trying to do.

00:22:37.000 And Trump decided that wasn't good enough.

00:22:39.000 He was going to stab Cruz in full public view and make him a pariah within the party.

00:22:42.000 And it absolutely worked.

00:22:43.000 It absolutely worked.

00:22:45.000 I mean, look at Tucker Carlson, for example, on Fox News.

00:22:48.000 I mean, Fox News is apoplectic because Fox News is fully in the Trump tank at this point.

00:22:52.000 Here's Tucker Carlson saying, Cruz will never work in this town again.

00:22:55.000 Look, I'm withholding judgment personally.

00:22:57.000 I don't think there's any chance he's going to get elected president in 2020.

00:22:59.000 I don't think he's going to get the Republican nomination.

00:23:02.000 I think this will stick with him.

00:23:04.000 Okay, so he says that this will stick with Cruz and he's really going to pay a political price.

00:23:10.000 He probably will.

00:23:11.000 I mean, this is a good gambit by Trump if he wants to stab Cruz.

00:23:22.000 And this was, and the RNC acts like they're wildly angry. 1.00

00:23:26.000 Sean Spicer, who's the spokesperson for the ridiculous, stupid RNC, he comes out and he says that Cruz, this is on national television, says that Cruz is an a-hole, right? 1.00

00:23:35.000 This is on national TV. 1.00

00:23:35.000 Peter King called him a blank hole. 1.00

00:23:39.000 I appreciate that on TV.

00:23:43.000 Is that different than a little disappointing or are you guys basically in the same place?

00:23:47.000 I'd probably use the same verbiage.

00:23:49.000 You would?

00:23:49.000 Really?

00:23:50.000 No, I think that it is disappointing when somebody who is a leader in the conservative movement

00:23:56.000 Who knows what's at stake.

00:23:57.000 I mean, Ted Cruz, more than anybody, in terms of his background, knows what's at stake and chose to come here.

00:24:03.000 He could have just said, I'm not coming.

00:24:05.000 I don't feel comfortable.

00:24:06.000 So Peter King doesn't need to apologize for calling him a blank hole in your mind?

00:24:09.000 Peter King's from New York.

00:24:10.000 He uses very colorful language.

00:24:12.000 I'll let him speak for himself. 0.72

00:24:14.000 So just to get this straight, okay for the nominee of your party to call wives of candidates ugly and say their father assassinates people and say that they had affairs with five women they didn't have affairs with, okay for a congressman in your party to say about another senator in your party that he's an a-hole, but bad if you don't say I endorsed Donald Trump.

00:24:30.000 That's where you draw the civility line.

00:24:33.000 Okay, let's just make clear one thing here.

00:24:34.000 The establishment could not be more happy in some ways about the nomination of Donald Trump.

00:24:40.000 They hated Ted Cruz.

00:24:41.000 They weren't going to back Ted Cruz in the primaries.

00:24:43.000 Now they get the opportunity to pretend that they're being loyal to conservatives, that they're being loyal to the party, while stabbing the anti-establishment guy on behalf of the fake anti-establishment guy.

00:24:53.000 Trump isn't anti-establishment. 0.81

00:24:54.000 He's in bed with all these people.

00:24:56.000 I mean, all this is maddening because the actual narrative that you're going to hear, there are a couple different narratives, dueling narratives you're going to hear.

00:25:01.000 There's the truth, which is what, as I've told you, based on all the information I have, including inside information.

00:25:06.000 There's the truth, and then there's the media narrative, which is going to be, Ted Cruz was a big hero, stood up to Trump.

00:25:12.000 No, he really didn't.

00:25:14.000 He just didn't endorse him.

00:25:15.000 Okay, that's not the same thing.

00:25:17.000 Standing up to Trump is like you get on a stage in front of a couple thousand people and call them a Democrat.

00:25:22.000 And you say that, which I have done, okay?

00:25:24.000 So, like, I understand what it means to rip Trump.

00:25:26.000 He didn't do it last night.

00:25:27.000 There was not one word against Trump in that speech.

00:25:29.000 But the narrative for the media is, Cruz stands up to Trump, Trump is appalled and angry and upset and it's a surprise and he was stabbed.

00:25:35.000 There's the Trump campaign narrative, which is Cruz is a traitor, and he's a traitor because he won't get behind me to stop Hillary Clinton, even though Trump made a deal with Cruz to do all of this so that Cruz would not make trouble with the delegates at the convention.

00:25:48.000 And then there's the truth, right?

00:25:49.000 So those are the narratives, and then there's the truth.

00:25:52.000 And you can see that the amount of fake ire from the Trump camp is truly astonishing, truly astonishing. 0.98

00:25:59.000 Now, Chris Christie, who's just a pathetic specimen of a human being at this point, he actually said yesterday that if you don't back Donald Trump, then you have less humanity, you're less of a person. 0.97

00:26:10.000 It makes you less of a person if you don't back Donald Trump. 0.98

00:26:12.000 Technically, 99.9% of the population is less of a person than Chris Christie.

00:26:18.000 Here's Chris Christie going after Cruz on national TV right after his speech.

00:26:21.000 What did you think of Ted Cruz's speech?

00:26:24.000 I think it was awful.

00:26:26.000 And quite frankly, I think it was selfish.

00:26:29.000 And he signed a pledge.

00:26:32.000 And it's his job to keep his word.

00:26:35.000 And Donald Trump gave him the opportunity to speak here at this convention tonight.

00:26:40.000 And I think it was too cute and I think you saw by the end of the speech that the crowd was waiting for him to do the right thing and realized that once again he wasn't going to do it.

00:26:51.000 And I think the performance you saw up there is why Ted has so, so richly deserved the reputation that he's developed on Capitol Hill.

00:27:02.000 Are you saying that he gave Donald Trump a promise that he would endorse him here?

00:27:05.000 No.

00:27:06.000 Yes, he did.

00:27:07.000 He gave Donald Trump a promise the same day I did, the same day everyone who signed that pledge did. 0.99

00:27:12.000 Okay, so we need to shut this fat a** up. 1.00

00:27:14.000 So, we'll have to bleep that, but there you have it. 0.97

00:27:18.000 So, you've got Chris Christie out there doing this routine where he says now that he gave a promise the same day I did.

00:27:26.000 Trump reneged on that promise.

00:27:29.000 And I thought Jeff Rowe, who's Cruz's campaign manager, had the best comment about this. 0.99

00:27:32.000 The best comment that Cruz's campaign manager had, he said, well, at least my candidate still has his testicles. 0.98

00:27:38.000 Unlike Chris Christie, being carried around in a jar somewhere by Donald Trump. 0.99

00:27:41.000 You know, the fact is that Chris Christie, this fat idiot, is the same guy who in 2012 went out on stage and gave the keynote address in favor of Mitt Romney without mentioning Mitt Romney, okay? 0.98

00:27:52.000 And now he's hypocritically standing, and then hugged Barack Obama one week before the election and said that Obama was a wonderful president. 0.99

00:27:58.000 That guy sitting there lecturing Ted Cruz about not being loyal enough to a guy who's legitimately a Democrat.

00:28:05.000 It's pretty incredible.

00:28:07.000 Paul Manafort's out there lying too. 0.82

00:28:08.000 Here's the campaign manager Paul Manafort, serial liar and Vladimir Putin confidant.

00:28:13.000 Ted Cruz you thought would be part of this campaign moving forward.

00:28:17.000 I would assume this morning you will retract those words?

00:28:20.000 Well, it's up to Ted Cruz, not up to me.

00:28:22.000 You'd let him come back and be part of the campaign?

00:28:26.000 Our position is we want to embrace all Republicans who are prepared to work and support the Trump-Pence ticket.

00:28:31.000 Do you think Cruz betrayed you?

00:28:34.000 Betrayed that goodwill you just talked about?

00:28:36.000 I think for very bad judgment, I think he made a mistake.

00:28:39.000 I think he was not respectful to the invitation by the convention to come and speak.

00:28:44.000 He understood what the responsibilities are of somebody in his position and he didn't meet them.

00:28:48.000 He didn't meet them?

00:28:49.000 His speech was cleared by that guy.

00:28:52.000 That guy.

00:28:53.000 Right there.

00:28:55.000 This one, with the skunk on his head, that guy is the fellow who cleared the speech.

00:29:01.000 And now he's sitting there saying he didn't meet his obligations.

00:29:03.000 Again, this is what we call a pre-orchestrated hit.

00:29:05.000 It was clearly a hit.

00:29:06.000 Cruz walked right into it.

00:29:08.000 Cruz thought, because he always thinks he's too smart by half, he thought he was manipulating the entire system and he was going to be able to walk in, quasi-endorse Trump, get Trump's kudos, walk out having pleased his people for not endorsing Trump openly.

00:29:20.000 That's what he thought.

00:29:21.000 And Trump outplayed him.

00:29:23.000 There's only one thing that's weird about all of this, okay?

00:29:26.000 And that is, why is this good for Donald Trump?

00:29:30.000 Why is this good for Donald Trump?

00:29:32.000 It creates a massive amount of ire at Cruz, for sure.

00:29:34.000 But Cruz is done.

00:29:35.000 Cruz isn't the nominee.

00:29:37.000 Cruz isn't—they're not in the primary fight anymore.

00:29:39.000 How does it help Donald Trump that day three of his convention, when he's supposed to be getting a big bounce,

00:29:44.000 He has one of his guys booed offstage for not sufficiently worshipping at the altar.

00:29:48.000 How is that good for Donald Trump?

00:29:51.000 How's it good for his campaign?

00:29:52.000 And the answer is, it's not good for his campaign.

00:29:55.000 It isn't.

00:29:56.000 He's trying to play himself as the foil to Cruz, but the media ain't going to play it that way.

00:29:59.000 The media's going to play it like Cruz is a hero for not bowing before him.

00:30:02.000 It's not good for Trump.

00:30:04.000 Trump could have simply just instructed his people, clap along politely, just like our deal set. 0.97

00:30:08.000 Just like the great deal that I cut and then reneged on, because I'm a liar.

00:30:11.000 Just like that deal set, we could have gone forward with that.

00:30:13.000 It would have been all good.

00:30:14.000 Everybody would have just said, oh, well, that was Cruz being Cruz.

00:30:16.000 You know, he wasn't going to endorse, but he came as close as he could.

00:30:20.000 And that would have been that.

00:30:21.000 But instead, he decided to blow up Cruz.

00:30:23.000 Because it was more important for him to get revenge than it was for him to actually win this election.

00:30:27.000 This is what people don't get about Trump.

00:30:30.000 Trump's definition of winning is defeating the enemy standing in front of him.

00:30:33.000 Not winning for you.

00:30:34.000 Not winning for the country.

00:30:36.000 Not winning for principle.

00:30:37.000 Defeating the guy he doesn't like who's in front of him.

00:30:40.000 There's a reason that Donald Trump says his favorite Bible verse is an eye for an eye.

00:30:44.000 There's a reason that Donald Trump's entire politics is based on the politics of grievance.

00:30:48.000 The idea that somebody has been out to get you, and now he's going to revenge himself on them.

00:30:52.000 He's going to revenge himself on Jeff Bezos.

00:30:53.000 He's going to revenge himself on China. 0.95

00:30:55.000 He's going to revenge himself on various political adversaries.

00:30:58.000 He's going to revenge himself on the press.

00:31:00.000 Right?

00:31:01.000 Everything Donald Trump does is motivated by this petty, small-minded revenge.

00:31:05.000 That's what he's motivated by.

00:31:06.000 So people are attributing that to Cruz because that's how this entire election cycle has gone.

00:31:10.000 It's just, it's turned it on its head.

00:31:11.000 Truth doesn't matter anymore.

00:31:12.000 The only thing that matters is that we worship at the altar.

00:31:14.000 But it really does sicken me to my stomach.

00:31:17.000 And watching the RNC play this game like they're wounded innocents when they brokered the deal.

00:31:22.000 And now they're coming out and using this as an opportunity to club Cruz like a baby seal.

00:31:27.000 Look, part of this is Cruz's fault for walking into it.

00:31:29.000 Lots of people are telling him, don't go.

00:31:31.000 So part of this is Cruz's fault because he wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

00:31:35.000 But that doesn't mean that the RNC isn't a brutal establishment occupation, and that they're not attempting to take out anybody who's their real enemy, which does not include Donald Trump, and that Donald Trump's real preoccupation in life is going after his personal enemies, not politics, not helping, none of that.

00:31:51.000 And if Trump reserved the kind of rage for Hillary Clinton that he reserved for Ted Cruz, this thing would be a very different race.

00:31:56.000 But he doesn't.

00:31:56.000 He doesn't.

00:31:58.000 So, here's Cruz's reaction.

00:31:59.000 Cruz, I think, was astonished by this.

00:32:01.000 I mean, like, really.

00:32:01.000 I've talked to people in the camp.

00:32:02.000 I think that Cruz was fully not expecting this.

00:32:05.000 He figured, what kind of nutcase would sabotage his own convention just to come after me?

00:32:10.000 Well, that's kind of not the case.

00:32:11.000 I mean, Trump was going to do that.

00:32:13.000 He'd sabotage his own convention, rip open every wound, drive 20% of the party to say, screw this guy, we're not voting Trump.

00:32:20.000 All Cruz did is go up there and say, vote your conscience. 0.93

00:32:21.000 If you can't deal with that, it's because you have a rotten conscience.

00:32:25.000 Cruz, I think, was devastated by this.

00:32:26.000 I know his camp was.

00:32:27.000 Here's Cruz this morning talking about what happened last night.

00:32:34.000 I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.

00:32:42.000 And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I'm gonna nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father.

00:32:58.000 So Cruz saying that he wouldn't be a servile puppy to Trump.

00:33:02.000 He said that he wouldn't be a servile puppy to Trump, and that was obviously a reference to Chris Christie, who legitimately has physically turned into a servile puppy for Donald Trump. 0.96

00:33:09.000 He goes around actually licking Donald Trump's shoes and pooping on the floor. 0.84

00:33:13.000 All of this, it just makes you cynical about everything and everyone in politics.

00:33:17.000 It makes you cynical about the whole game.

00:33:19.000 No one cares about the principle.

00:33:20.000 Cruz sort of cares about it, but Cruz also wanted to manipulate his way forward by being the leader of the anti-Trump movement while still sort of quasi-endorsing Trump.

00:33:27.000 It makes you cynical about Trump, which, if you weren't already, you want to be conned.

00:33:30.000 If you're conned at this point, you want to be conned.

00:33:32.000 You want to be part of the con.

00:33:33.000 It makes you cynical about the RNC.

00:33:35.000 I love that all the people who three months ago were saying, burn down the RNC!

00:33:38.000 Burn down the party! 1.00

00:33:39.000 Now it's, if you don't stand there and declare your allegiance to the party, we will take you out to this brick wall and we will shoot you! 1.00

00:33:45.000 This is pretty ridiculous stuff. 0.99

00:33:50.000 The thing about all of this is that if Trump had just treated it like it really wasn't a big deal, again, had his people just applaud, because he was given the speech in advance, you can't get away from that. 0.88

00:33:57.000 You can't get away from that.

00:33:58.000 He was given the speech in advance, and it went ahead as planned.

00:34:02.000 And Cruz stuck to the text.

00:34:05.000 You can't get away from the fact that Trump sabotaged his own VP rollout. 0.99

00:34:08.000 Mike Pence is the unluckiest man in the world. 0.75

00:34:10.000 So Mike Pence has now been sabotaged three separate times by Donald Trump in his VP rollout. 0.96

00:34:15.000 First he was sabotaged when Trump basically, it was leaked from the Trump camp that Trump wanted to reconsider and not make Mike Pence the VP.

00:34:23.000 Then he was sabotaged again when they went on 60 Minutes together and Donald Trump basically treated him like an intern.

00:34:30.000 And as I said, that video looks a lot like Donald Trump, the drunk wife, sitting next to her husband and the husband is just sitting there going, Oh God, please don't take any more drinks.

00:34:38.000 Please don't do it.

00:34:39.000 Please don't do it.

00:34:40.000 He's like, I've got another thing to say!

00:34:42.000 Right?

00:34:43.000 So that was number two.

00:34:44.000 And number three was last night.

00:34:46.000 So Mike Pence comes out and he has a very good speech.

00:34:48.000 He gives a fine speech, Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, but no one cares because of Cruz.

00:34:53.000 Here's what Pence had to say last night.

00:34:56.000 It's change versus status quo.

00:34:59.000 And my fellow Republicans, when Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America, the change will be huge.

00:35:14.000 Okay, so that's fine.

00:35:15.000 I mean, all of this is fine, and that's what they wanted from the convention.

00:35:18.000 That's not what they got, because Trump had other priorities, obviously.

00:35:21.000 All right, so time for some things I like, things I hate, and then the mailbag.

00:35:24.000 So, things I like.

00:35:25.000 So we've been doing creepy villains, and there are enough of them in politics, but the movie No Country for Old Men is not one of my favorite movies.

00:35:33.000 The first two-thirds of the movie is spectacularly good.

00:35:36.000 The first three-quarters, really, of the movie is spectacularly good. 0.95

00:35:39.000 Then somebody gets killed off-screen, and the rest of the movie is just garbage that makes no sense.

00:35:44.000 The villain in the movie, who's played by Javier Bardem, is the creepiest villain, one of the creepiest villains in the history of movies.

00:35:51.000 Here is the scene that is, this scene is absolutely creepy.

00:35:54.000 We don't have time to watch the whole thing, but basically Javier Bardem walks into a gas station and tells the owner of the gas station to flip a coin.

00:36:12.000 What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?

00:36:15.000 Sir?

00:36:16.000 The most you ever lost on a coin toss.

00:36:21.000 I don't know.

00:36:22.000 I couldn't say.

00:36:26.000 Call it.

00:36:28.000 Call it, yes.

00:36:30.000 For what?

00:36:35.000 We need to know what we're calling it for here.

00:36:38.000 You need to call it.

00:36:40.000 I can't call it for you.

00:36:42.000 It wouldn't be fair.

00:36:43.000 I didn't put nothing up.

00:36:45.000 Yes, you did.

00:36:47.000 You've been putting it up your whole life.

00:36:48.000 You just didn't know it.

00:36:51.000 You know what date is on this coin?

00:36:54.000 No.

00:36:56.000 It's been traveling 22 years to get here.

00:36:58.000 And now it's here.

00:37:00.000 And it's either heads or tails.

00:37:03.000 You have to say it.

00:37:04.000 Call it.

00:37:05.000 Look, I need to know what I stand to win.

00:37:08.000 Everything.

00:37:10.000 How's that?

00:37:11.000 You stand to win everything.

00:37:12.000 Call it.

00:37:18.000 All right.

00:37:20.000 Heads, then.

00:37:26.000 Well done.

00:37:29.000 Don't put it in your pocket, sir.

00:37:31.000 Don't put it in your pocket.

00:37:32.000 It's your lucky quarter.

00:37:35.000 Where do you want me to put it?

00:37:36.000 Anywhere, not in your pocket.

00:37:39.000 Or it'll get mixed in with the others and become a jester coin.

00:37:46.000 Which it is.

00:37:49.000 I mean, it's a spectacular scene.

00:37:51.000 And the reason that it's spectacular is, of course, he's not really talking about a coin toss. 0.92

00:37:55.000 He's gonna kill the guy if the guy calls the coin toss wrong.

00:37:58.000 And he's basically saying life is random. 0.97

00:37:59.000 That's basically the principle there.

00:38:00.000 Life is random.

00:38:01.000 You know, you make a series of decisions in your life.

00:38:03.000 They're all random.

00:38:04.000 At a certain point, you make the wrong decision.

00:38:06.000 Today could be that decision.

00:38:07.000 Don't put that coin in your pocket because it means that you're not special anymore.

00:38:10.000 But, of course, you aren't special.

00:38:12.000 Right, that's basically what that scene is.

00:38:13.000 So it's very, very creepy stuff.

00:38:15.000 Okay, things that I hate.

00:38:16.000 So, Laura Ingraham gave a speech last night and I am not a big fan of Laura Ingraham's speech.

00:38:24.000 She goes out there and she rants and raves about Trump for a little while.

00:38:27.000 And then at the very end, she is waving to the crowd and she does this.

00:38:32.000 This is 24.

00:38:34.000 This is the image of Laura Ingraham.

00:38:36.000 God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

00:38:45.000 Okay, so everybody jumps on her and says, why are you giving Nazi salutes at the Republican National Convention?

00:38:52.000 Because she does the Hitler salute, right? 0.74

00:38:53.000 She puts her right arm out, extended. 1.00

00:38:56.000 Okay, this is stupid stuff. 1.00

00:38:58.000 Like, this is really dumb. 1.00

00:39:00.000 Laura Ingraham is not, number one, even if Laura Ingraham believed that stuff, which I know she doesn't, even if she did, you think she's gonna get up there and give the Nazi salute at a Republican National Convention? 0.98

00:39:09.000 If we're gonna play this game, if we're gonna play this game,

00:39:12.000 How about Hillary Clinton, okay?

00:39:14.000 How's that one for you?

00:39:15.000 Here's another one.

00:39:17.000 We even have a third one.

00:39:20.000 Maybe.

00:39:21.000 There it is.

00:39:22.000 Yeah, come on. 0.77

00:39:23.000 I mean, like I said, the media is willing to turn anything into anything.

00:39:26.000 No, she didn't give a Nazi salute.

00:39:28.000 No, she didn't give a Nazi salute. 1.00

00:39:30.000 It's just stupid crap. 1.00

00:39:31.000 Like, seriously, I'd be worried more, if I'm the left, I'd be worried more about the fact that Donald Trump wants to basically let the Russians take over the world than the fact that Laura Ingraham put out her arm awkwardly and weird. 1.00

00:39:42.000 Like, what's hilarious?

00:39:44.000 Okay, time for the mailbag.

00:39:46.000 Alright, yeah, see, so first of all,

00:39:49.000 First question from Taylor.

00:39:50.000 I noticed Lindsay seems to be more enthusiastic with Clavin's mailbag.

00:39:53.000 Fix it.

00:39:54.000 Okay, more enthusiasm, Lindsay.

00:39:55.000 Go.

00:39:56.000 It's time for the mailbag!

00:39:57.000 Woo! 0.99

00:39:58.000 Yeah!

00:39:59.000 Alright, well done, Taylor.

00:40:00.000 Okay.

00:40:01.000 And not bad, Lindsay.

00:40:02.000 Wow, that was good.

00:40:03.000 Okay.

00:40:04.000 Now I'm really enthused.

00:40:06.000 Alright, Michael writes, Well, number one, if...

00:40:22.000 You're buying into the whole pledge nonsense already?

00:40:24.000 Then you want to be conned.

00:40:25.000 I mean, at this point, you want to believe the lie.

00:40:27.000 Okay, the idea that the pledge, the pledge, the pledge... Donald Trump said in the very first debate he wouldn't pledge to support the other candidates.

00:40:33.000 Then after a couple of months, he said he would support the other candidates when he started to win.

00:40:37.000 Okay, does anyone really believe that if Ted Cruz had been nominated, Trump would have gone out there in full support?

00:40:43.000 Anybody believe that in any world? 0.99

00:40:45.000 Also, ask your pops, hey dad, what if there was a guy who was running against you for public office and said mom was basically ugly, that your father had murdered JFK, and that you were a pathological liar? 0.99

00:40:57.000 How'd you like that? 0.99

00:40:58.000 Also, that you whored around on mom. 0.98

00:40:59.000 How'd you like that?

00:41:00.000 Would that be good for you?

00:41:01.000 Would you endorse that guy?

00:41:02.000 Even if you pledged to before he did any of those things?

00:41:05.000 If your dad says yes, that's weird.

00:41:07.000 So, okay.

00:41:08.000 Luke writes, Hey Ben, in your opinion, did Ted Cruz help his political career or hurt it with his convention speech?

00:41:14.000 I mean, I think hurt.

00:41:15.000 I think hurt.

00:41:16.000 No question.

00:41:16.000 And the reason I say hurt is because he loses from both sides.

00:41:19.000 Meaning that the never-Trump people, the people like me who don't like Donald Trump and think that he's ripping the heart out of the Republican Party, and by the way, the proof that that is the case is today Tom Cotton going out there and pretending like what Donald Trump says about Russia is okay.

00:41:32.000 And people today saying that Ted Cruz is a bad guy for not sufficiently clapping loud enough for Kim Jong-un over here.

00:41:40.000 You want to know why I oppose Trump?

00:41:41.000 It's because I'm watching the party that I believe in perverted and ripped apart by Donald Trump to support a man who doesn't believe in a principle in which I believe.

00:41:50.000 He doesn't believe in any principle other than his own self-aggrandizement.

00:41:53.000 That's why I don't support him.

00:41:55.000 But the problem is that for Cruz, people like me, we said, well, why did you go to the place, why did you go in the first place?

00:42:00.000 Just don't go.

00:42:02.000 And if you want to condemn Trump, go and condemn Trump.

00:42:05.000 If you really want to shatter him, shatter him.

00:42:07.000 The donors are pissed at him because too many political donors think only about this election cycle.

00:42:12.000 They don't think down the road at all.

00:42:13.000 This election cycle is the only election cycle that will ever matter, and therefore Ted Cruz is not participating.

00:42:18.000 He's taking his ball and going home.

00:42:20.000 He's a bad guy.

00:42:20.000 So Sheldon Adelson is locking his door to Ted Cruz.

00:42:23.000 This happened last night, right?

00:42:24.000 So it hurts Cruz that way.

00:42:25.000 So yeah, it'll hurt Cruz.

00:42:28.000 How things turn out is anybody's guess. 0.91

00:42:32.000 Basically, the only way that this works out well for Ted Cruz is if Trump is elected, and then Trump is a horrible president. 0.68

00:42:39.000 That's the only way this works out.

00:42:40.000 Because then Cruz can say, look, I went there, I said what I had to say, I didn't endorse him, and you guys booed me for it, and now I told you so.

00:42:48.000 If Trump gets blown out, then Trump is just gonna blame Cruz, right?

00:42:51.000 Now he's already setting up the narrative.

00:42:53.000 It's Cruz's fault, it's everybody's fault he didn't vote for me.

00:42:56.000 And Cruz, you know, if Cruz is really that anti-Trump, then why'd he go to the convention in the first place?

00:43:00.000 So it doesn't work for Cruz.

00:43:02.000 If Trump just gets smacked by Hillary, if he loses big, then all the narrative will be about Cruz was, well, if he had just shown a little more loyalty on the part of the Trumpsters, and, well, why'd he go on the convention in the first place, and why did he treat Trump so warmly at the beginning of the run, if that was the case?

00:43:17.000 So I think it's a rough road for Cruz.

00:43:19.000 I think that he got outplayed by Trump.

00:43:21.000 I think he was trying to outplay Trump.

00:43:22.000 I think Trump outplayed him.

00:43:24.000 But I don't think that Trump is... What's amazing about that is I don't think that Trump was even playing this... Trump wasn't supposed to even be playing a game here, right?

00:43:32.000 As I said, Cruz was sitting around going, okay, I'll go there, I'll split the baby. 0.61

00:43:36.000 What kind of nutcase would sabotage his own rollout of his vice president in order to bang on me? 0.99

00:43:42.000 And then Trump did that because Trump is that kind of a nutcase. 0.99

00:43:45.000 Okay, Shane writes, Ben, big fan. 0.95

00:43:47.000 Can you elaborate on diversity of viewpoint under the Constitution, please?

00:43:50.000 Have never heard of this and Google yields no results.

00:43:52.000 Referencing comments made in episode 77.

00:43:54.000 Okay, we're now on like episode 154.

00:43:56.000 So I can't, I can't speak to episode 77 because I haven't memorized every one of my episodes.

00:44:01.000 Diversity of viewpoint under the Constitution.

00:44:03.000 There's no right to diversity of viewpoint.

00:44:05.000 There's a right to freedom of speech.

00:44:06.000 Okay, the right to freedom of speech is the guarantee of diversity of viewpoint.

00:44:10.000 If I get to say whatever I want, I get to say whatever I want.

00:44:13.000 Elliot says, I had my first debate in a few weeks.

00:44:15.000 I was wondering how do you prepare for debate?

00:44:17.000 Well, number one, you scout out your opponent.

00:44:18.000 Number two, you scout the topic.

00:44:19.000 So, that means if there's any tape of your opponent, if you know anything about your opponent, if you know how they argue, check out the arguments that they've made in the past, because you have to scout it like game tape.

00:44:27.000 Two, when it comes to the actual topic of the argument, don't just learn your arguments, learn your opponent's arguments, and learn how to handle those arguments.

00:44:34.000 Know their own arguments better than they do, and it makes it very difficult for them.

00:44:37.000 And if you want more on that, there's an e-book that I put out, 11 Rules for Basically Debating the Left, and that's a pretty good guide.

00:44:44.000 Jacob writes, Dear Ben, apropos of your comments on the Turkish junta, with which I agree wholeheartedly, would you object to someone like Colin Powell leading a military junta to restore order if a Trump America descends into tribal warfare?

00:44:56.000 Would this be acceptable under any conditions?

00:44:58.000 If so, which ones, and if not, why not?

00:45:01.000 Some rights may be inherent to the human soul, but might it also be true that, in a brass tacks political sense, robust institutions make rights coherent and durable?

00:45:08.000 Keep up the good work.

00:45:09.000 Well, obviously, you hope for robust institutions that make rights durable.

00:45:13.000 Obviously, that's correct.

00:45:15.000 As far as restoring order and a military junta, I don't think we're anywhere close to that in the United States.

00:45:19.000 We still get to vote.

00:45:20.000 And last I checked, we're not being jailed for our vote.

00:45:22.000 We'll see how long that lasts.

00:45:24.000 At the point where people are literally being purged from jobs and jailed because of their viewpoint en masse, then we can start talking.

00:45:32.000 When they come for all of our guns, I guarantee you there's going to be more than talk.

00:45:36.000 Hi Ben.

00:45:37.000 Could you please get Lindsay an intern to catalog all of the things I like and other book, movie, and music recommendations you and Claven give to be made available on the website as an extra?

00:45:46.000 Well, she is doing that.

00:45:47.000 Lindsay is doing that. 0.88

00:45:48.000 Aside from shouting loudly when the mailbag comes and handling the teleprompter and doing the makeup and handling the mailbag, Lindsay also is compiling that list, so that should be available shortly.

00:45:59.000 Alex writes, hey Ben, first of all, as an active duty Marine and someone in the hiring process with a couple of PDs, police departments, thank you for everything you do.

00:46:06.000 I only wish more people would be open to hearing the truth.

00:46:08.000 Anyway, I don't understand why the left is opposed to school vouchers.

00:46:11.000 Wouldn't this promote diversity and high quality education for all children?

00:46:15.000 Yes, and that's why they're opposed to it.

00:46:17.000 They don't want diversity in education.

00:46:20.000 They don't want people in the black community doing well. 1.00

00:46:22.000 They want people in the black community dependent on them. 1.00

00:46:24.000 They want everybody dependent on them. 0.71

00:46:25.000 The public sector unions are controlled by the left, and those unions control the school districts.

00:46:30.000 They don't want to cut off the flow of cash back to their own political coffers.

00:46:33.000 Here's the way this works.

00:46:34.000 So we fund public education.

00:46:36.000 That public education pays all of these various unions.

00:46:39.000 The unions take that money and give it to the politicians to sign new contracts with the union and the schools.

00:46:44.000 So it's a circle of money.

00:46:45.000 They're not going to cut that off just because your kid ain't reading good.

00:46:49.000 That's the way this works.

00:46:49.000 They don't care about high quality education for kids.

00:46:51.000 They care about control.

00:46:53.000 Dane writes, hey Ben, have you seen the extended cut of Batman vs. Superman?

00:46:57.000 If so, do you think it hurt or helped the movie?

00:46:58.000 I haven't seen it yet.

00:46:59.000 Good question.

00:47:00.000 I need to do that. 0.99

00:47:00.000 I haven't had time to do anything because I have to watch this crap show of a convention. 0.99

00:47:04.000 All right. 0.97

00:47:05.000 Chris writes, hey Ben, first of all, Lindsay rocks.

00:47:07.000 Everybody loves Lindsay.

00:47:09.000 That's nice.

00:47:10.000 And I wonder why Lindsay cultivated this particular email.

00:47:12.000 Second of all, I love how whenever you mention Chris Matthews in your articles, you type out the man who president of that show!

00:47:18.000 I can't read that without hearing you say it in your Chris Matthews impression.

00:47:21.000 That's great!

00:47:22.000 You shouldn't!

00:47:23.000 Third of all, I actually have a question.

00:47:25.000 The only reason I can think of for voting Trump is he might nominate less terrible candidates to fill the seats on the Supreme Court.

00:47:30.000 I know he'd be a terrible president, as would Hillary, should we not try to screw over the Supreme Court. 1.00

00:47:34.000 So.

00:47:35.000 Here's my answer on the Supreme Court, because we get this one a lot.

00:47:38.000 The answer on the Supreme Court is the chances of Donald Trump actually getting through a conservative nominee to the Supreme Court are zero.

00:47:43.000 Zero.

00:47:44.000 Okay, not one percent, zero percent.

00:47:45.000 Let me explain.

00:47:47.000 That's not just because of Donald Trump.

00:47:49.000 It takes a majority of the Senate to confirm any justice to the Supreme Court.

00:47:53.000 Republicans are not going to have 60 votes.

00:47:55.000 60 votes prevents a filibuster.

00:47:57.000 Republicans have been not willing to use the nuclear rule to end the filibuster.

00:48:01.000 That means if Republicans don't have 60 votes in the Senate, they're not going to approve a justice.

00:48:05.000 They don't have 60 votes in the Senate.

00:48:07.000 That means that what is going to happen is Donald Trump, if he were elected, would nominate someone from his list to start, because he doesn't care.

00:48:13.000 He'd nominate a conservative from his list.

00:48:15.000 The Democrats would filibuster that person. 0.99

00:48:17.000 He would then come back

00:48:18.000 With a highly qualified, very smart, very smart, very qualified person, who's just some guy with no record that everybody can sign off on, he got 99 votes in to declare himself a victor and go home.

00:48:29.000 He's not going to ram anything through.

00:48:30.000 He doesn't care.

00:48:31.000 He doesn't care.

00:48:33.000 He doesn't even know what the court does. 1.00

00:48:36.000 He thinks the Supreme Court prosecutes people because he's stupid. 0.99

00:48:39.000 Kanye writes, Do you feel that Pakistan is perhaps a greater threat to the West than Iran in the near future, given their large percentage of radicalized Muslims, nuclear capability, and ongoing conflicts with India and Balochistan? 0.99

00:48:50.000 Very specific, Kanye, and tell Kim I say hello.

00:48:53.000 So, number one,

00:48:57.000 Pakistan is a greater threat to India, certainly, than Iran is. 1.00

00:49:01.000 Iran is a greater threat to Western interests because they finance global terrorism in a way that Pakistan doesn't. 1.00

00:49:06.000 Pakistan has a bunch of very local terror groups that operate mostly in Afghanistan and India.

00:49:10.000 Iran operates within the boundaries of international terrorism. 0.85

00:49:15.000 And while Pakistan is territorially aggressive, they're sort of hemmed in territorially in a way that Iran is not. 0.80

00:49:20.000 Iran has breakout capacity in its west with Iraq.

00:49:24.000 Iran has breakout capacity in Syria and Lebanon.

00:49:27.000 Iran has breakout capacity to its south in Saudi Arabia.

00:49:30.000 Iran is territorially positioned, so it has breakout capacity in a number of directions.

00:49:35.000 Plus, Iran is a more stable regime.

00:49:40.000 The real danger in Pakistan is that the current military regime falls and terrorists take over.

00:49:44.000 Then, yes.

00:49:45.000 Then, absolutely.

00:49:45.000 Then, Pakistan becomes Afghanistan.

00:49:48.000 David writes, a common argument for Obama supporters is that he halved the deficit and it's Bush's fault for handing him a deficit that would eventually double the national debt.

00:49:54.000 What is the truth here? 0.99

00:49:55.000 The truth here is that that's a bunch of crap. 0.97

00:49:57.000 So, when you say halved the deficit, what that means is, here's the difference between a deficit and a debt. 0.97

00:50:02.000 So a deficit is...

00:50:04.000 People don't get this.

00:50:05.000 A debt is all of the deficits that I have accrued over the course of my lifetime.

00:50:08.000 So if I took out a loan for college, if I took out a loan for grad school, that's my debt now.

00:50:14.000 My deficit is what do I spend this month versus what do I take in.

00:50:16.000 So if I'm in the red by $1,000, that is my deficit.

00:50:20.000 So enough deficits add up to a debt, basically.

00:50:24.000 Here's what Obama did.

00:50:25.000 Obama came into office and promptly blew out the budget with the first trillion dollar deficit.

00:50:31.000 Then he came back, and he blew out the budget again.

00:50:34.000 He put out a $4 trillion budget, and then he came back and he said, well, you know, it won't be $4 trillion anymore.

00:50:38.000 Now it'll be like $3.5 trillion.

00:50:40.000 Before that, the budget had been like $2 trillion.

00:50:42.000 He basically doubled the national budget.

00:50:45.000 So he blew out the deficit, and then he cut it back.

00:50:48.000 And so he says, OK, well, I cut back the deficit now.

00:50:50.000 So if I say to you, last month, you were $1,000 in the red.

00:50:53.000 This month, you're $10,000 in the red.

00:50:55.000 The month after that, you're $5,000 in the red.

00:50:57.000 Did you halve your deficit?

00:50:59.000 Technically, you have your deficit because you were spending more last month.

00:51:02.000 But it's blowing out your debt.

00:51:04.000 Look at the level of spending and look at the level of debt being accrued by the Obama administration.

00:51:09.000 That's the statistic that you want to see.

00:51:12.000 All righty, so we have reached the end of the week.

00:51:16.000 It's Thursday, isn't it?

00:51:17.000 This week has been interminable.

00:51:18.000 So it is indeed Thursday, which means we've reached the end of the week.

00:51:22.000 Donald Trump will speak tonight.

00:51:24.000 The clouds will part.

00:51:25.000 He will descend from heaven on an airplane and or two strippers, and he will land on the stage and he will speak.

00:51:34.000 And next week we'll be back. 1.00

00:51:35.000 This week was a crap show. 1.00

00:51:36.000 Next week, we get the Democratic crap show! 1.00

00:51:38.000 Yay! 1.00

00:51:41.000 Angry clap.

00:51:42.000 All right, so we'll be back next week with much much more.

00:51:45.000 If I seem angry about all this, it's just because I am violently enraged by all of it, and I hate this entire news cycle, but I love you.

00:51:53.000 So we'll be back next week.

00:51:57.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:51:58.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

The Ben Shapiro Show - July 21, 2016

Ep. 154 - Cruz vs. Trump: The Ultimate Showdown

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