After President Trump's incredible press conference on Thursday, a war broke out between people on the left and in the media and those on the right. People on the Left insisted Trump had savaged the media unjustifiably, and lied repeatedly, and twisted innocent questions into attacks on the questioners. Jake Tapper of CNN said it was unhinged, it was wild. Rush Limbaugh said, You get caught up in the moment. But this was one of the most effective press conferences I've ever seen. Naturally, the left accused the right of being in a bubble. And the right responded, This is why Trump won. Here s the truth: Both sides are now at an impasse. According to Quinnipiac polling, Trump enjoys an 84% approval rating from Republicans and those who lean Republican, but a 3% favorable rating among Democrats. And we are less than a month in. That s because everybody is now seeing the news through the prism of revenge. That s not because of Trump, it s because we are now in a "bubble" and nobody is even reading what the other side has to say. Nobody on either side acknowledges there may be truth to the other party s claims of the other because nobody's even reading the other's claims. It's revenge politics at its finest. And that desire for revenge is reinforced by social media, which encourages you to interact with people who think like you. And if we believe that those in power are merely a vehicle for taking out the truth, then we become a tool for tyranny. And yet, if we don't know whom to believe or don't believe in the truth then we run the risk of tyranny, then the government becomes merely a "light disinfectant." But if we can't just be a disinfectant, we become merely a window on the truth? but if truth goes out the window, then, then goes to be the window? But if the truth is supposed to be just a window? But, then what's the best disinfectant? ? What does the government become out on the window or is it merely a disinfectant ? or just a check out the glass? or a out of the window ? What they say they say out there? in order to be disinfectant is the window that goes out on a window that s just a check on the sunlight? Or is it ?
00:00:00.000After President Trump's incredible press conference on Thursday, a war broke out between people on the left and in the media, and people on the right.
00:00:06.000People on the left and in the media insisted Trump had savaged the media unjustifiably, and lied repeatedly, and refused to answer easy questions, and twisted innocent questions into attacks on the questioners.
00:00:15.000Jake Tapper of CNN said it was unhinged, it was wild, it was an airing of grievances, it was festivus.
00:00:20.000Those on the right chortled gleefully as Trump savaged the press.
00:00:23.000We were glad to watch Trump take the air out of the media's overhyped Flynn hot air balloon.
00:00:27.000We were excited to watch Trump redirect from the media's controversy of the day approach back toward his policy victories.
00:00:32.000Most of all, we were ecstatic to watch Trump baffle the media with his concoction of vicious deserved attacks on the left.
00:00:38.000Rush Limbaugh said, you get caught up in the moment, but this was one of the most effective press conferences I've ever seen.
00:00:42.000Naturally, those on the left accused those on the right of being in a bubble.
00:00:45.000How could they watch that nutty press conference and come away happy?
00:00:48.000And those on the right responded, this is why Trump won.
00:01:09.000had a 46% approval rating among Democrats.
00:01:12.000Obama had a 37% approval rating from Republicans.
00:01:15.000This is the most polarized electorate in modern American history.
00:01:18.000Quinnipiac actually makes the polarization even more stark.
00:01:21.000According to their polling, Trump has a 91% favorable rating among Republicans, but a 3% favorable rating among Democrats, and we are less than a month in.
00:01:30.000That's because everybody is now seeing the news through the prism of revenge.
00:02:11.000The right conflates Trump's fibs with his media slams, and then we excuse both.
00:02:15.000And the left conflates Trump's media slams with his fibs, and dismisses all concerns about the media.
00:02:20.000Everybody is so excited to see somebody on the other side of the political aisle get slapped, nobody seems to care much about what's true and what's false anymore.
00:02:41.000Thus, everybody on the left believes Donald Trump has troubling ties with Russia.
00:02:45.000Everybody on the right believes Donald Trump is a pure victim of the deep state in the press.
00:02:49.000Nobody on either side acknowledges there may be truth to the claims of the other because nobody's even reading what the other side has to say.
00:03:14.000But if we can't agree on facts, we can't just... then we end up just standing in our respective corners, screaming at each other.
00:03:20.000Second, if we never know whom to believe, or worse yet, if we believe that those in power, when they agree with us politically are right, no matter whether what they say is right or wrong or true or false, we run the risk of actual tyranny.
00:03:31.000Truth was supposed to be the check on government.
00:03:33.000Sunlight was supposed to be the best disinfectant.
00:03:36.000But if truth goes out the window, then government becomes merely a machine for retaliation.
00:03:39.000Elections just become a vehicle for taking out your ire on your enemies.
00:03:53.000Let me now take a more comprehensive view and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
00:04:00.000The alternate dominion of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.
00:04:12.000But this leads at length to a more formal
00:04:16.000The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.
00:04:23.000And sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.
00:04:33.000It serves always to distract the public councils, enfeeble the public administration.
00:04:37.000It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasional riot and insurrection.
00:04:45.000It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
00:04:52.000Thus, the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
00:04:57.000Washington recommended we all take a step back and fight against the spirit of party.
00:05:01.000He said, quote, So, here's a mild proposal.
00:05:14.000Everybody should call balls and strikes.
00:05:16.000The media should be hit when they propagate fake news, and their bias should be exposed routinely.
00:05:20.000The left and media should acknowledge the problem of media bias isn't illusory.
00:05:23.000Trump should be hit when he lies, too.
00:05:25.000The right should acknowledge that truth isn't secondary to political power.
00:05:28.000This may not please those whose first priority is the victory of their party on either side, but it should make for a better country, a place where facts and truth still actually matter.
00:05:36.000One final note for people on both sides who think that truth will never defeat lies, that if you unilaterally disarm by calling balls and strikes, you're helping the enemy.
00:05:44.000If we truly believe truth no longer holds sway, we might as well end this great experiment of Republican government.
00:05:50.000The argument against truth is an argument against consent, against representation, against democracy itself.
00:06:02.000President Trump has been very, very busy since we last spoke.
00:06:05.000We spoke last on Thursday morning before that massive press conference, so we still have to go through that because that's still making waves.
00:06:10.000We'll talk a little bit about some of the policy proposals that are being tried out.
00:06:14.000But first, we have to say thank you to our advertisers over at texture.com.
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00:06:49.000I've been using it myself, and that's why we're going to have a guest on in the near future, who I read about in Reader's Digest, my wife's favorite magazine, from texture.com.
00:07:23.000And whether or not you like the magazines, it's important that you be up on them.
00:07:27.000This is what I was just discussing a minute ago.
00:07:29.000Very important that you be up on all sides of the news so that you can know what the other side is saying and you can know the facts they're bringing to the table.
00:07:36.000You go there right now use promo code Ben so that they know that we sent you get access to those 200 magazines plus all the back issues it really is a phenomenal phenomenal app and again you can use it on your on your phone or on your tablet as well okay so lots happened over the weekend and I want to start with Donald Trump's press conference so there was a lot here that was good and there was a lot here that was bad so
00:07:59.000I gave a grade to Donald Trump at the end of last week.
00:08:01.000I do this every week now, and I gave him a grade of C- last week because it started off with the Flynn debacle, and then he had the Netanyahu meeting, which was great, and then he had this press conference, which was all over the place.
00:08:11.000What I said in that piece about how to grade Trump is that one of the problems with grading Trump is you end up with one grade.
00:08:17.000Trump is actually a series of grades, right?
00:08:19.000Trump is A or he's F. There's not a lot in between.
00:08:21.000He's got really high highs and he's got really low lows, and you saw it all in that press conference on Thursday.
00:08:26.000So the right was picking out the highs, and they were very excited about those highs, and the left was picking out the lows, and they were very happy about those lows.
00:08:33.000There really wasn't much in between, and the question is which side are Americans going to take, or is it all just going to become part of the background noise, which is what I actually think.
00:08:41.000I think a lot of this is going to become part of the background noise.
00:08:44.000There's a broader message I have here for the right that I want to discuss in just a second, but we'll start off with a little bit of Good Trump, Bad Trump, because it was epic Good Trump, Bad Trump.
00:08:52.000It was ultimate Good Trump, Bad Trump.
00:08:55.000Good Trump, Bad Trump, which one will we get today?
00:09:01.000So he started off, did President Trump, with some good Trump.
00:09:05.000Because the truth is, the media are wildly biased.
00:09:07.000Now, I would always prefer that if you're going to attack the media, you do it on the basis of them lying, not on the basis of them doing things you don't like.
00:09:15.000You shouldn't attack people just because they're doing something you don't like.
00:09:17.000You should do it because they're lying, not telling the truth, saying something that's false.
00:09:21.000I'm perfectly fine with slapping the media.
00:09:55.000The part that's good, Trump, is the part where he actually slaps the media for doing what they're doing.
00:09:59.000The reason this isn't good, Trump, is because the president of the United States should just, as a matter of course, not be calling broad swaths of the American public the enemy of the American people.
00:10:17.000Trump hasn't suggested he's doing that yet, but once you start saying things like the press is the enemy of the American people, you're suggesting that every time the press attacks Donald Trump, they're attacking the American people, and that isn't true.
00:10:27.000Again, conflation of something false with something I don't like is a dangerous business.
00:10:32.000And that's particularly dangerous when you conflate your own interests with those of the American people.
00:10:36.000When, as president, you say, an attack on me is an attack on all Americans, that's ugly stuff.
00:11:14.000Trump starts off by attacking the media, and here's what he has to say.
00:11:18.000Unfortunately, much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles, in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests
00:11:29.000And for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system.
00:11:36.000The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people.
00:11:47.000We have to talk about it to find out what's going on.
00:11:50.000Because the press, honestly, is out of control.
00:11:52.000The level of dishonesty is out of control.
00:11:54.000And I think there's a lot of truth to that.
00:11:56.000I think that the press have been jumping on every bad headline.
00:11:58.000I proposed a rule last week that every headline, you didn't have to wait 24 hours to find out whether it's true or not, because there's such a race to be first, and there's also such a race to slap Trump, to get Trump, that a lot of what's coming out of the press is false.
00:12:10.000So this is good Trump, and it's fair for him to say all of this.
00:12:12.000It's also fair for him to say that he inherited a not-wonderful situation.
00:13:29.000But at a certain point, you're going to have to determine whether you stand for more than just stuff that you stand against.
00:13:34.000And the danger of falling into the trap of, I'm only going to support politicians because the politicians are breaking things I don't like, is that they may be breaking things you do like also.
00:13:44.000It's possible they're breaking things you do like also.
00:13:46.000Like one of the things that I like is truth.
00:14:01.000I don't think it's a huge deal, but I think it is indicative of the fact that the right buys into Trump because he slaps the media, and they ignore some of the stuff that he says that isn't true.
00:14:08.000And I don't see why that should have to be the case.
00:14:10.000Why can't you enjoy him slapping the media when he's telling the truth?
00:14:12.000It doesn't seem to me like these two ideas should be in conflict.
00:14:44.000You're the President of the United States.
00:14:45.000For God's sake, you have the greatest information-gathering superpower in the history of man on your side, and you can't come up with, like, a simple answer for this?
00:16:08.000And the reason that they're able to save so much is because they're direct-to-consumer, and also because they're very efficient in their manufacturing process.
00:16:13.000So, you should go to dstld.com right now.
00:16:16.000They ship it to you for free, and then if you don't like the fit, then they will take it back, right?
00:16:20.000They'll take it back from you for free as well until you find the perfect pair, so there's no risk involved.
00:16:30.000What I'm saying about Trump here, and I think this is true not just of Trump, I think this is true for all Republicans everywhere, the conservative movement in many cases has become so about opposing the left, which is great.
00:16:41.000There's no one who fights harder against the left than I do.
00:16:44.000It's become so much about opposing the left that sometimes we're willing to ignore sins on our own side in order to do that.
00:16:49.000And I think that that's a mistake because one of the things that makes you a right-winger as opposed to a left-winger is the idea that truth is not relative.
00:16:56.000Truth is not something that you can just shift aside for your own political benefit or for the benefit of the collective.
00:17:01.000And when you start shifting it aside for the benefit of the collective, you're no longer on the right anymore.
00:17:06.000So when Donald Trump says things like this, here's Donald Trump talking about the leaks, this is nonsensical stuff and the right should not be defending it.
00:17:56.000We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban.
00:18:01.000Okay, so this is a perfect embodiment of what the right likes about Trump, and also what the right should not like about Trump.
00:18:08.000So, he says, wait, I know who you are, shut up, basically.
00:18:11.000And the right goes, yeah, that's awesome!
00:18:13.000The media's been pissing all over Republican presidents for years!
00:18:16.000I mean, George W. Bush just hid in his cubbyhole, and Republicans for years have been so afraid of the media, and here's a guy who isn't afraid of the media, and that's great.
00:18:25.000I would be able to sit here in all happiness, just being super happy about that, except for the fact to be saying things that aren't true, okay?
00:18:58.000This is why it's important for you to actually look at outlets from both sides, because if one side says a fact and the other side says a fact, that's the point where they're gonna meet.
00:19:04.000They're gonna totally diverge when it comes to the narratives they draw from the fact, but the point at which they meet is the factual point, and that's what you need to know.
00:19:22.000But this is a point I've been making for a long time, okay, about provoking the left, being a provocateur, about slapping the left.
00:19:29.000If you're gonna do these things, the point here is to tell the truth, and if the left takes offense, that's their problem.
00:19:34.000The point here is not just to offend the left.
00:19:36.000If your definition of conservatism is it makes the left angry, lots of things make the left angry, including some things that ought to make the left angry.
00:19:44.000Okay, and it is not your job just to make the left angry or to celebrate when the left gets angry.
00:19:48.000You have to determine, are they angry for a good reason or a bad reason?
00:19:51.000You have to determine, are they angry because you spoke facts, or are they angry because you lied?
00:19:56.000Because pretending that everybody on the left is just an inhuman monster and that none of them have any capacity for reason at all, and that they're all just making things up a hundred percent of the time, that's not a recipe for politics, it's not a recipe for having a rational conversation.
00:20:07.000So all I'm advocating here is that we all take a step back here, and that we look in the mirror, and that we say to ourselves, okay, what's true and what's false?
00:20:14.000We look in the mirror and we say, okay, are we excited because Trump is opposing the left, or are we excited because the left opposes Trump?
00:21:12.000Are you speaking truth, and that's what's ticking off the left?
00:21:15.000Or, is the left just ticked off at you, and now your entire side goes, oh, well, if the left's ticked off at you, then you must be doing something right.
00:21:21.000You get in real dangerous territory when you start saying, just because somebody ticks off the left, that means they're a good person or an ally.