The Ben Shapiro Show


Ep. 268 - When The Media Alleges Racism, Do Your Research


Summary

Trump has a backup plan in case Trumpcare goes down in flames: He ll simply leave Obamacare in place, blame Democrats, and then stump for more Republican votes in Congress to help him replace it. But is that a good idea? And why is it a bad idea in the first place? Ben Shapiro explains why it s a terrible idea. He also talks about the Steve King blow-up, and why the media are doing a hit job on the King. Ben Shapiro is the host of the conservative podcast "The Weekly Standard" and host of "The Ben Shapiro Show" on Fox News Radio. He is also a regular contributor to The Weekly Standard and has been featured on CNN and other conservative media outlets. He is a frequent contributor to conservative publications, including The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Hot Water, and Hot Water Magazine. His latest book, "American Idiot," is out now and is available for pre-order on Amazon Prime and Vimeo worldwide. Click here to get a free copy of the book, American Idiot: How to Succeed in the 21st Century, by John McCain and Steve King, wherever you get your copy of The New York Times, The New Republic or Hot Air. If you like what you read, consider subscribing to Vogue or Vogue, or become a Vogue Member, by becoming a Friend of the Times Square Insider, and become a Patron of Vogue. Subscribe here to the Vogue Insider, Vogue s newest podcast, The Cutthroat, wherever else you get access to the latest news and gossip, including Vogue and celebrity reviews, including the latest gossip, and Vogue's newest issues, including celebrity profiles, and much more. You can get exclusive access to all sorts of things going on the best things happening in the highest-ranking celebs and more! Subscribe and listen to the best vizzionations, including gossip and gossip. The most authentic and the most influential people in the world, including women s reviews, the most authentic things happening around the world. Vogue is a must-listens to all things happening everywhere you read and hear more than you can viably, including celebrities and more. v=1& v=3s=1s&q&qid=8s&t=4s=2s=4q&f&f=3&q=3 v=2q&s=3QQ&qref=3q&a&qx&qb&qq=1


Transcript

00:00:00.000 President Trump reportedly has a backup plan in case Trumpcare goes down in flames.
00:00:04.000 He'll simply leave Obamacare in place, blame Democrats, and then stump for more Republican votes in Congress to help him replace Obamacare.
00:00:10.000 Yes, really.
00:00:12.000 According to CNN, quote, During an hour-long meeting, sources said Trump chastised groups including Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, and the Tea Party Patriots for calling the House GOP proposal Obamacare lite,
00:00:24.000 This is not a good strategy.
00:00:25.000 Here are three reasons.
00:00:25.000 First, you cannot keep selling people the same smelly garbage.
00:00:28.000 Republicans said in 2010 they needed to be elected to Congress to repeal Obamacare.
00:00:44.000 They failed.
00:00:45.000 They said in 2012 they needed the Senate to repeal Obamacare.
00:00:47.000 They failed.
00:00:48.000 They said in 2014 they needed a bigger majority in the House to repeal Obamacare.
00:00:52.000 They failed.
00:00:52.000 They said in 2016 they need the White House to repeal Obamacare.
00:00:55.000 If they fail again, do you really think Republicans will keep going back to the well on the same old promise when Republicans could pass a one-line bill repealing Obamacare now?
00:01:03.000 As Alipunda says at Hot Air, at some point people get wise to the scam.
00:01:07.000 Second, entitlements don't fail.
00:01:09.000 They just grow.
00:01:10.000 Who thinks that Obamacare is going to fail for those on Medicaid?
00:01:13.000 Anybody?
00:01:14.000 Nope.
00:01:14.000 States will continue to pile people on Medicaid.
00:01:16.000 Those people will continue to vote for Democrats.
00:01:18.000 The entitlement program will get bigger, not smaller.
00:01:20.000 And when people on Obamacare plans can't obtain their doctor, who's to say they won't go to the government for more money and bigger subsidies, rather than decrying the evils of Obamacare?
00:01:28.000 We're already seeing a spike in Obamacare's popularity, now that there's talk of replacement.
00:01:33.000 Do we think that will stop when Republicans vow to kill a law affecting a larger and larger share of the health market?
00:01:39.000 No entitlement program has ever gotten less popular over time, no matter how bankrupt it is.
00:01:44.000 Let's put it this way.
00:01:45.000 Obamacare is already popular enough that Republicans are afraid of killing it outright.
00:01:48.000 Give it another couple years and Republicans will be talking about how they want to preserve it the same way they do with Social Security and Medicare.
00:01:55.000 Finally, it's a midterm, stupid.
00:01:57.000 The president typically doesn't have the upper hand in midterm battles.
00:01:59.000 That's because, as Alapunda also points out, midterm elections are naturally almost always referenda on the president and his party.
00:02:06.000 Does Trump really think he can run against Obama in 2018?
00:02:09.000 Plus, Trump already has control of Congress.
00:02:11.000 Who does he run against?
00:02:12.000 The Democrats, who don't matter because they're already in the minority?
00:02:15.000 So, is it a decent strategy to let Obamacare stay and then run against it?
00:02:19.000 Not once you've made
00:02:20.000 Not once a president.
00:02:21.000 Promises were made.
00:02:22.000 They should be kept.
00:02:23.000 The biggest problem here is that Trumpcare has less to do with the actuality of repealing Obamacare than the rhetoric of it.
00:02:28.000 And talk is pretty cheap.
00:02:30.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.
00:02:30.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
00:02:35.000 All right, tons to get to today.
00:02:36.000 I want to talk a lot about this Steve King blow-up that's happened, because I think that it's pretty clear that the media are doing a hit job here.
00:02:44.000 And this is coming from somebody who says that, you know, when the media is right, the media are right.
00:02:48.000 When they are calling it accurately, they're calling it accurately.
00:02:50.000 I'm not somebody who's knee-jerk when it comes to the media is always wrong, the media is always lying.
00:02:55.000 Sometimes the media is right, sometimes the media is wrong.
00:02:57.000 In this case, I really think that Steve King is getting railroaded a little bit.
00:03:02.000 Some of that's his own fault, because he uses verbiage that is really kind of stupid.
00:03:06.000 But some of that, a lot of it, I think, is just the media lying.
00:03:09.000 And so I want to talk about that specifically in just a minute.
00:03:11.000 But first, we have to say thank you to our advertisers over at texture.com.
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00:04:48.000 Okay, so I was going to start with Trumpcare today, and then there was a big controversy that broke out this morning over Representative Steve King.
00:04:55.000 So, full disclosure, I know Representative King.
00:04:57.000 I think Representative King is, from the times I've met him, he seems like a nice fellow.
00:05:02.000 I don't think that Representative King is the brightest guy in the basket.
00:05:06.000 I think that Representative King tends to boil everything down to a little bit too simplistic a version of reality, but here's what happened.
00:05:13.000 So, Steve King gets on Twitter over the weekend, and he tweets out
00:05:17.000 Wilders, talking about Gert Wilders over in the Netherlands, understands that culture and demographics are our destiny.
00:05:23.000 We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies.
00:05:26.000 Okay.
00:05:27.000 There are two ways to read this tweet, and I'll read it again slowly so people understand.
00:05:30.000 Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny.
00:05:33.000 We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies.
00:05:37.000 There are two ways to read the tweet.
00:05:38.000 The first way to read the tweet is that this is racism.
00:05:40.000 That if you bring in a bunch of foreign babies, they're going to destroy the country.
00:05:43.000 There's no way to assimilate them, and that's because they're black, or they're from Muslim countries, or they're Arab, or whatever it is.
00:05:49.000 That's one way to read the tweet, that this is just out-and-out racism.
00:05:52.000 You can't bring in a bunch of foreign babies and hope to maintain your culture, and that race is inherently connected to culture.
00:05:58.000 That is way one to read this tweet.
00:06:01.000 Then there is way two to read the tweet, and that is
00:06:05.000 That it is badly phrased but not racist.
00:06:07.000 Basically, King is saying that multiculturalism and high levels of immigration from foreign cultures cannot coexist.
00:06:13.000 And that is utterly uncontroversial.
00:06:15.000 That is an utterly uncontroversial proposition.
00:06:17.000 Angela Merkel has said exactly the same thing.
00:06:20.000 In December 2015, she said multiculturalism leads to parallel societies and therefore remains a life lie or a sham.
00:06:26.000 The challenge is immense.
00:06:27.000 We want and we will reduce the number of refugees noticeably.
00:06:30.000 Is Merkel a white nationalist?
00:06:32.000 Is Merkel a white supremacist or a racist?
00:06:34.000 I mean, she wants to reduce the number of refugees, and it seems like what she's saying here is that multiculturalism connected with high levels of immigration from foreign culture creates enclaves that are dangerous for any sort of Western civilization that's attempting to thrive.
00:06:47.000 Is that racist?
00:06:48.000 No, that's reasonable.
00:06:49.000 David Cameron has said the same thing in Great Britain.
00:06:51.000 Again, Merkel in Germany has said the exact same thing.
00:06:54.000 Naturally, the media immediately jumps to the first interpretation, which is that King is a racist.
00:06:58.000 That he's saying that it doesn't matter if you have assimilation working full bore.
00:07:02.000 It doesn't matter if you reject multiculturalism.
00:07:04.000 If you're from the wrong country, that means you're inherently going to be a bad citizen of the country.
00:07:08.000 So, which one of these did King mean?
00:07:10.000 Did King mean that babies from everywhere else are terrible?
00:07:13.000 Right?
00:07:13.000 That somebody else's babies... We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies?
00:07:17.000 Does he mean by that that if somebody else raises their babies not in accordance with Western civilization, you can't restore your civilization?
00:07:23.000 Or does he mean
00:07:24.000 Any babies from elsewhere are inherently bad, and babies are terrible because they have a different race.
00:07:29.000 So, fortunately, we have some answers to this.
00:07:31.000 So, he goes on New Day on CNN to clarify this, because this is something that does require clarification.
00:07:37.000 Right?
00:07:37.000 He goes on New Day with Chris Cuomo.
00:07:39.000 Now, Chris Cuomo has the IQ of a block of wood, as we've mentioned before.
00:07:43.000 I think so.
00:08:02.000 Thank you.
00:08:19.000 We need to be a country that's pulled together on similar values.
00:08:23.000 That makes us stronger.
00:08:24.000 That's the exact point.
00:08:25.000 I mean, because it seemed like you were doing the opposite.
00:08:28.000 Like you were trying to say someone else's babies means you're either white or you're not right.
00:08:32.000 And as you know, that is anathema to what America is all about.
00:08:35.000 Can we get agreement on that?
00:08:38.000 Well, if you go down the road a few generations or maybe centuries with the intermarriage, I'd like to see an America that's just so homogenous that we look a lot the same from that perspective.
00:08:51.000 I think there's been far too much focus on race, especially in the last eight years, and I want to see that put behind us, and I want to be as bonded together.
00:08:58.000 I gave a speech on this on Saturday, and half the liberals got up and left the room when I talked about
00:09:03.000 Because when you say, when you suggest to anybody... They're looking for hatred is the point, Chris.
00:09:08.000 But hold on a second.
00:09:10.000 Congressman, if you suggest that somebody else's babies shouldn't be welcomed in a country, you seem inherently divisive.
00:09:18.000 That's why I keep asking you, what was your intention with this?
00:09:23.000 And you keep to seem doubling down on it.
00:09:25.000 I mean, you said America's got lots of different faces.
00:09:27.000 That's fine.
00:09:28.000 But you keep making this point that this country needs to be about white people raising their birth rate and not bringing in other people.
00:09:36.000 And then what King says there, as the clip continues, is, I never said white people need to raise their birth rate.
00:09:41.000 He actually overtly denies that, right?
00:09:43.000 What he says is that that's a lie.
00:09:45.000 He says, quote, I have never said that.
00:09:47.000 I tell them to go back and watch the tape.
00:09:50.000 Right?
00:09:50.000 I mean, this is, he said over and over.
00:09:52.000 What's amazing here is that, so here's where the media lies.
00:09:54.000 So the headline that you have seen this morning, undoubtedly, the headline that you've seen this morning is King, quote, I'd like to see an America that's just so homogenous that we look a lot the same.
00:10:05.000 If you just see that headline, you would assume immediately that what Steve King is talking about is that he just wants to see lots of white babies.
00:10:11.000 He wants a racially homogenous America with lots of white babies.
00:10:13.000 That's the implication of that headline.
00:10:15.000 But the first half of the sentence is, if you go down the road a few generations and maybe centuries with the intermarriage, I'd like to see an America that's just so homogenous that we look a lot the same.
00:10:23.000 Okay, let me explain something.
00:10:24.000 As somebody who's been labeled a cuck by the alt-right,
00:10:26.000 As somebody who hates the alt-right, who despises racism, who thinks racism is disgusting, if I thought Steve King was being racist here, if I thought that what he was actually talking about was the first interpretation of his tweet, not the second interpretation, I'd be the first person calling for his censure on the floor of the House.
00:10:39.000 I'd be calling for his constituents to dump him at the nearest bus stop.
00:10:42.000 Okay, this idea that, you know, I'm looking to defend Steve King for racist comments is just silly.
00:10:47.000 But what's amazing here is, again, the first half of the sentence is that he wants to see more intermarriage, not less.
00:10:53.000 That he wants to see all the races intermingle.
00:10:56.000 Last I checked, that's not a white supremacist position.
00:10:58.000 It's not a white nationalist position.
00:11:00.000 It's not a position that suggests that race and ethnicity are inherently connected with culture.
00:11:06.000 Right?
00:11:06.000 That's not what he's saying.
00:11:07.000 He's saying precisely the opposite, actually.
00:11:09.000 It's awkward.
00:11:11.000 It's stupid, the way he's doing it.
00:11:12.000 It's silly, the way that he's phrasing it.
00:11:13.000 But that's not what he's saying.
00:11:14.000 He's not saying, I just want a bunch of white people.
00:11:16.000 He said, quote, if you go down the road a few generations or maybe centuries with the intermarriage, I'd like to see an America that's just so homogenous that we look a lot the same.
00:11:23.000 The reason I mention the alt-right here is because what the alt-right has called people like me, people who actually like immigration.
00:11:28.000 I think immigration is a good thing when combined with assimilation.
00:11:31.000 I want more immigration when combined with assimilation.
00:11:34.000 You're looking at somebody right now or listening to somebody right now who has said, I would trade 50 million people from abroad who share America's values for people who live in the United States and don't appreciate America's values.
00:11:44.000 I don't care where you're born.
00:11:45.000 I don't care what race you are.
00:11:47.000 I think that that's actually sort of what King is saying here and the media is out to jump on him because they're suggesting that what he really means is that black babies are bad as opposed to if we bring in people from a bunch of foreign cultures and don't assimilate them, those babies are not going to make American culture better because they're not going to be assimilated.
00:12:04.000 In fact,
00:12:06.000 Listen to King talk a little bit more, because I want to show you what he's actually saying.
00:12:10.000 If you suggest that somebody else's babies shouldn't be welcomed in a country, you seem inherently divisive.
00:12:17.000 That's why I keep asking you, what was your intention?
00:12:21.000 I don't know.
00:12:38.000 I never have made that point.
00:12:40.000 I've never said that.
00:12:41.000 I've been characterized as saying that.
00:12:43.000 I've had the blogs out there say I said that, but I tell them, go back and watch the tape, listen to it, just listen to the language.
00:12:50.000 Our language is precise.
00:12:52.000 That's not out there.
00:12:52.000 But I did defend Western Civilization that started this last summer at the Republican National Convention.
00:12:58.000 And when I said Western Civilization, that launched people that are opposed to Western Civilization.
00:13:03.000 That's a big problem.
00:13:04.000 If we have an element of Americans here, and that's a big element, that reject Western civilization, then what have we?
00:13:11.000 This is an effort on the left, I think, to break down the American civilization and the American culture and turn it into something entirely different.
00:13:19.000 I'm a champion for Western civilization, and yes, our English language is a big part of it.
00:13:24.000 It's a carrier of freedom.
00:13:25.000 Whatever the English language has gone globally, freedom went with it.
00:13:29.000 And science, technology, has always lifted up the standard of living on average of everybody on the planet.
00:13:34.000 So I want more of that, not less.
00:13:36.000 And there are civilizations that produce very little, if any.
00:13:39.000 This Western civilization is a superior civilization, and we want to share it with everybody.
00:13:45.000 Okay, he keeps saying civilization and culture, you know, civilization and culture, civilization and culture, and Cuomo just keeps going back to race, because Cuomo wants to get him on the race point.
00:13:53.000 But that's not what King is saying.
00:13:55.000 And so when you read the headlines today, and when you see people immediately jumping to Steve King is a racist, or what Steve King said here anyway, is racist,
00:14:03.000 Just do yourself a favor and do your own research on this stuff, because the fact is, and listen to what they're actually saying, because the headlines do not convey what exactly was going on in this case.
00:14:12.000 And it's very frustrating, because I've been in arguments this morning on Twitter with people, and I keep just quoting King, right?
00:14:17.000 I just keep saying, okay, here's what he actually said.
00:14:18.000 Here's the actual text of what he said.
00:14:20.000 Here's what he tweeted.
00:14:22.000 Here's what he said.
00:14:22.000 Here's what he meant.
00:14:24.000 And everybody just keeps going to, but that's not what they want to believe.
00:14:27.000 Everybody just keeps doubling down on what they want to believe.
00:14:29.000 What's the narrative they want to embrace?
00:14:30.000 What's the convenient narrative to embrace?
00:14:33.000 And there's some virtue signaling, I think, going on from some people on the right who are looking to just disassociate with anybody who says anything mildly controversial and who are looking to prove to everybody they're not racist by throwing this guy under the bus for saying something that really actually is not racist.
00:14:46.000 What he's saying right now is not actually racist.
00:14:49.000 He keeps denying that it's racist and he keeps saying, again,
00:14:52.000 I keep going back to this point.
00:14:54.000 When I'm called a cuck, the term cuck, what that means is that I want to see the races mixed.
00:14:59.000 That I want to see the races mixed because I'm a terrible person.
00:15:02.000 This is according to white supremacists.
00:15:03.000 If I didn't support Trump sufficiently, it's because I'm a cuck who wants my wife to have sex with a black person so I don't have black babies and be tweeted about it by my little Yiannopoulos.
00:15:10.000 That's demonstrative of the fact that I'm a cuck.
00:15:14.000 There's nothing more cuckish than what just got said there by Steve King with regards to intermarriage.
00:15:19.000 Okay, if you think that the white supremacists are into that, that's just- it's just not true.
00:15:23.000 So, I think that it's worthwhile debunking this kind of stuff because, you know, we're- we attempt to be fair-minded and objective and honest as we can be here on the program in line with conservative principles, and I'm not just gonna bend over backwards and say that the guy said something racist when we can all look at the tape ourselves and determine whether- who's lying here.
00:15:40.000 Is it King?
00:15:41.000 Or is it the media who are lying about him?
00:15:43.000 Okay, well before I get to Trumpcare, because there's a lot to talk about there,
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00:16:52.000 I want to talk a little bit about the myths and the facts surrounding Trumpcare, because this rollout continues amidst all of the chaos, amidst all of the hubbubs.
00:17:00.000 The fact is that the Trumpcare rollout continues apace, and the Democrats continue to lie about it.
00:17:08.000 And when I say Democrats, I mean the quote-unquote conservative columnists at the New York Times, too.
00:17:12.000 So David Brooks is the in-house conservative columnist at the New York Times, and he says that Trumpcare is just a boondoggle for the rich.
00:17:20.000 Here he was on NBC News.
00:17:21.000 This, again, the conservative at the New York Times.
00:17:25.000 Well, here's what I don't get about what's going on this week.
00:17:28.000 We just had 2016, an election about the working class.
00:17:31.000 Election where we learned that a lot of people are out of the job market, the social fabric is fraying.
00:17:35.000 And so the lesson of this election, pay attention and help these people.
00:17:38.000 So the Republican Party could help these people with market-based mechanisms, which I support.
00:17:43.000 Do they do that?
00:17:43.000 No.
00:17:45.000 They have huge tax cuts for the rich.
00:17:48.000 This investment income tax credit only goes to people above 250.
00:17:52.000 And that has been stable in all the plans that they've come up with and thrown around.
00:17:56.000 And meanwhile, they're throwing 8, 10, 15 million people off the rolls.
00:17:59.000 So it's a declaring war on their own voters.
00:18:02.000 And then there's a wing of the party that's saying, no, that's too much.
00:18:07.000 We need to totally decimate them.
00:18:08.000 So the Republican Party has to figure out, are we going to help our voters?
00:18:11.000 Or are we still the party that, you know, we're still going to be the party of the rich?
00:18:15.000 I hate this crap.
00:18:17.000 I hate it.
00:18:17.000 And I will explain how much I hate it in just a second.
00:18:19.000 But for that, you're going to have to go over to the DailyWire.com right now.
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