The Ben Shapiro Show - FIGHT NIGHT: Disney vs. DeSantis

00:00:00.000 Alrighty, so Disney apparently wants to make an in-kind contribution to Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign.

00:00:05.000 They've now filed a lawsuit attempting to stop Ron DeSantis from stripping them of their magical special privileges that have been granted to them over the course of the last half century in the state of Florida.

00:00:14.000 Remember, all of this began because Disney decided to insert itself, for no good reason at all, into the debate over the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act.

00:00:23.000 Which was designed to simply prevent the sexual orientation and gender identity indoctrination of small school children K-8.

00:00:31.000 It originally started K-3, now it's extended maybe K-8, K-12 here in the state of Florida.

00:00:37.000 And Disney decided to sign into that debate.

00:00:39.000 And then, after they were basically wrapped on the knuckles by Governor DeSantis and said, listen, stay out of this, this is not your purview.

00:00:46.000 After they did that, they decided to double down on all of that.

00:00:50.000 And then they paid the price.

00:00:51.000 And the price they paid is that they have a special district made just for them, the Reedy Creek District.

00:00:56.000 It was special tax privileges.

00:00:57.000 They essentially got to run the place as their own private fiefdom.

00:01:00.000 Essentially, they got to do all the zoning.

00:01:02.000 It was not an elected body.

00:01:03.000 It was essentially just a giant tract of land, a huge tract of land that was owned by Disney and governed by Disney.

00:01:11.000 And DeSantis and the Florida legislature, they said, listen, you do not get to act as sort of a Vatican inside the state of Florida in which you get to dispose, dispense of papal doctrines to the rest of the state of Florida.

00:01:23.000 That's not what you're here for.

00:01:24.000 You are here to provide services to the citizens of Florida, but you are not here to essentially be your own political body in the state of Florida.

00:01:32.000 You have a privilege no one else in Florida has.

00:01:33.000 There are lots of theme parks in Orlando, Universal Studios in Orlando, SeaWorlds in Orlando.

00:01:38.000 There's a lot going on in that particular area.

00:01:40.000 You can just go back to being like any of the other competitive businesses over there and you don't get your special magical tax district.

00:01:47.000 And so Disney now is saying that this is discriminatory.

00:01:49.000 And no, no, they get they get to do whatever they want.

00:01:51.000 They get to not only get the special tax.

00:01:53.000 Exemptions and all of the all the abilities to run their own giant tract of land.

00:01:58.000 Not only do they get to do that, they then get to insert themselves in every political controversy in the state of Florida, whether it affects their business or whether it does not affect their business.

00:02:07.000 Now, listen, on a normal level, should businesses be able to speak out about politics whenever they want?

00:02:13.000 Sure, they should.

00:02:14.000 And then the consequence would be just like what happened with Bud Light.

00:02:16.000 Boycotts on the business.

00:02:17.000 And Disney, of course, has taken it on the chin in terms of the generalized market over the course of the last several years, in no small part because they've decided that the sexual indoctrination of children is apparently on their radar, something they need to do.

00:02:28.000 Wokeness has overcome their better business sense.

00:02:31.000 But there's something else going on here, too, which is that Disney was benefiting Again, a special arrangement with the state of Florida in which they were exempt from certain rules that all other businesses in the state of Florida were exempt from.

00:02:42.000 And that comes with strings.

00:02:44.000 Anytime you make a deal with the government, that comes with strings.

00:02:46.000 That is true for everyone.

00:02:48.000 You take some sort of special bag of cash from the government, there will be strings attached.

00:02:51.000 This is true for literally all the things.

00:02:53.000 It's true even for state governments.

00:02:55.000 This is famously how the federal government Got state governments to raise the drinking age in a lot of states.

00:03:01.000 They basically said your federal highway funding is going to be linked to the drinking age.

00:03:05.000 There are always strings attached.

00:03:07.000 Disney should have known that.

00:03:08.000 Disney did not know that.

00:03:09.000 And so they got clocked over the head with a two by four.

00:03:11.000 Well, now they're filing a lawsuit.

00:03:13.000 Filed in federal court in Tallahassee, it came in minutes after a new board that DeSantis named to oversee the district, covering the company's theme parks, declared null and void agreements that Disney struck in February.

00:03:22.000 Right before this new government board was supposed to come in and oversee Reedy Creek, Disney signed a bunch of supposedly binding contracts that would essentially tie the hands of the new board in governing the area.

00:03:33.000 And the new board came in, they're like, you know what?

00:03:34.000 No, that's not how any of this works.

00:03:35.000 You don't get to sign a contract on your way out that binds us.

00:03:38.000 Because we fundamentally disagree with the idea that you essentially rule the place now.

00:03:43.000 You don't.

00:03:44.000 The suit alleges violations of several provisions of the US Constitution and names the five DeSantis-appointed board members and other officials.

00:03:50.000 It says the board's action Wednesday was the latest strike against the company.

00:03:53.000 The complaint says this government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional.

00:03:59.000 But the governor and his allies have made clear they do not care and will not stop.

00:04:02.000 Now, again, this is actually, what Sands did here is significantly less intrusive

00:04:08.000 than what, for example, Mayor Thomas Menino is than the mayor of Boston did

00:04:11.000 back when Chick-fil-A was essentially thrown out of the city.

00:04:15.000 He said, we will not even zone you.

00:04:18.000 We won't like, we'll make special exemptions just for you.

00:04:21.000 Meaning every other business will have their business approved,

00:04:23.000 but we don't want you in the city.

00:04:25.000 Rahm Emanuel in Chicago said something similar about Chick-fil-A because the founder of Chick-fil-A

00:04:29.000 was a backer of traditional marriage.

00:04:31.000 And nobody said boo on the left at the time, obviously.

00:04:34.000 Even though this was obviously anti-business discrimination, meaning it was a specific business that was being given special rules.

00:04:40.000 In this particular case, a business with special rules already applying to it is having those special rules taken away.

00:04:45.000 That's the whole point.

00:04:47.000 Terran Fenske, spokesperson for Governor DeSantis said, quote,

00:04:50.000 We are unaware of any legal right a company has to operate its own government or maintain

00:04:53.000 special privileges not held by other businesses in the state. She says this lawsuit is yet another

00:04:57.000 unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside

00:05:01.000 the bounds of the law. Disney is asking the court to declare the board's actions unlawful

00:05:05.000 and unenforceable for various reasons, including violating U.S.

00:05:08.000 Constitution's Contract Clause.

00:05:10.000 Again, first time the left has cited the Contract Clause in decades.

00:05:12.000 Unlawfully taking Disney's property rights in violation of the Takings Clause.

00:05:16.000 Again, you don't have a property right to a special privilege that you got from the government in the first place.

00:05:20.000 And arbitrarily voiding Disney's agreements in violation of the Due Process Clause.

00:05:24.000 Well, no, I mean, there was due process.

00:05:26.000 You lost an election, essentially, and now you pay the price.

00:05:30.000 That's not that's not the way this works.

00:05:31.000 It argues the board also flouted the company's First Amendment rights by retaliating against it.

00:05:36.000 Juan Carlos Plantes, former Republican lawmaker who has taught law school courses about Reedy Creek's legal structure, said the lawsuit makes some persuasive arguments.

00:05:42.000 He said, I think Disney has an extremely strong case.

00:05:44.000 They have an extremely impressive legal team, including Daniel Petrocelli, who's represented a host of high-profile clients.

00:05:50.000 Republican State Representative Randy Fine, who last year filed one of the bills targeting Disney's district, said the company's sued in the belief it's entitled to special privileges, quote, to equate being treated in the same way as your competitors to punishment, shows a stunning level of arrogance that will not stand in the state of Florida.

00:06:05.000 Again, the apparent trigger for the lawsuit was action on Wednesday morning by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board of Supervisors, which now oversees Walt Disney World Resort.

00:06:14.000 In February, DeSantis signed into law legislation renaming the district and ending Disney's control of it, and they criticized agreements cemented by Disney in February, and they came in and they just voided the agreement.

00:06:24.000 So we'll see how this plays out legally.

00:06:26.000 But one of the things that's fascinating is how this is sort of broken into the open inside of the Republican primary.

00:06:31.000 And you can see how Republicans are lining up with sort of the old school Republican Party, which is very nervous about corporate power, and the new school Republican Party, which is like, no, I think that if you decide that you are going to poke your head up in areas where you do not belong, Especially being given government privileges, you will be clocked for it.

00:06:47.000 We'll get to that momentarily. 0.96

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00:07:54.000 So, the reaction to Disney vs. DeSantis has been quite fascinating inside the Republican primary.

00:08:00.000 So first of all, there is a new Harvard-Harris poll asking voters if they approve or disapprove of DeSantis' actions to limit Disney's self-government.

00:08:09.000 Overall, 56% of Americans supported DeSantis' attempt to limit Disney's autonomy.

00:08:17.000 Now again, it's all in the phraseology of the poll.

00:08:18.000 So if you had phrased this as, do you approve of Ron DeSantis' attempt to crack down on Disney's free speech?

00:08:23.000 Then presumably most Americans would be like, I never heard of anything like that.

00:08:26.000 That sounds bad.

00:08:26.000 But if you actually turn it into what it is, which is Disney taking away special privileges that were given to Disney in the first place, DeSantis doing that.

00:08:35.000 Then all of a sudden, the poll numbers jump.

00:08:37.000 So 56% support, 44% oppose.

00:08:40.000 Among independents, 54% support, 46% oppose.

00:08:45.000 Even among Democrats, 42% support the special tax district exemptions being taken away from Disney.

00:08:52.000 So this is actually a broadly popular policy.

00:08:54.000 The media are trying to play this as though this is not a popular policy.

00:08:56.000 That, of course, is not true.

00:08:58.000 But what's fascinating is the dynamic inside the Republican Party.

00:09:00.000 So, so far, a bunch of Republicans who are running for president have stacked up against DeSantis on this thing, presumably because they are trying to run against DeSantis, but also because they seem very uncomfortable with the idea of challenging corporate power in the political sphere.

00:09:15.000 Which is very strange.

00:09:16.000 Now, again, I'm a person who's about as laissez-faire on economics as it is possible to get.

00:09:20.000 I'm very, very free market oriented.

00:09:24.000 With that said, when corporations decide to become essentially tools of the Democratic Party, And when they do so, while having special tax districts, it is not out of bounds to take away their special privileges.

00:09:35.000 Those special privileges do not come with no strings attached, obviously.

00:09:40.000 And Democrats have been playing this game with corporations for literally years, where they take sort of quasi-control of corporations through threat of legislation.

00:09:46.000 They do this all the time.

00:09:47.000 This is what they did with social media.

00:09:49.000 You wonder why?

00:09:51.000 YouTube, all these companies decided they were suddenly going to start censoring people from saying things about five, six years ago.

00:09:56.000 It's because Democrats in the aftermath of 2016 decided pretty openly they were going to threaten every major social media corporation with the prospect of legislation coming down on their heads if they didn't do the bidding of the Democrats. 0.81

00:10:07.000 So to pretend that the Democrats are not already playing this game is silly.

00:10:10.000 They've been playing this game for years and years and years, which is why corporate America has responded by moving in a left-leaning direction.

00:10:16.000 If you wish to establish parity, there has to be equal and opposite pressure from the right.

00:10:21.000 Donald Trump has already come out and said he doesn't understand why DeSantis is going after Disney, which is a very weird move for Trump.

00:10:27.000 Again, Trump being the guy who's supposedly very in the know about business and a person who, as a real estate investor, has worked closely with local governments, he understands.

00:10:35.000 I mean, this was his pitch in 2016.

00:10:37.000 He would say pretty openly, I know how the sausage is made, and so I'm the person who can essentially unmake the sausage because I know how it was made in the first place.

00:10:45.000 Now he is siding with Disney.

00:10:47.000 Another person who is siding with Disney is apparently Nikki Haley.

00:10:50.000 Again, I like Nikki.

00:10:51.000 I mean, I think that Nikki is a wonderful person.

00:10:53.000 She did a great job as U.N. 1.00

00:10:55.000 ambassador.

00:10:56.000 However, her take on this is really peculiar.

00:10:58.000 What's even more peculiar is the language she's using, and it's leading people to speculate today that Governor Haley is actually lobbying to be Trump's VP.

00:11:08.000 The reason people are picking up on this is, listen to the language she uses here. 0.95

00:11:10.000 So she goes on Fox News, and she essentially criticizes DeSantis for going after Disney.

00:11:16.000 They're alleging that the Republican governor has waged a, quote, relentless campaign to weaponize government power over the company.

00:11:24.000 What is your reaction to that as we still have yet to see him jump officially into the race?

00:11:32.000 You know, as governor, I took a double-digit unemployment state and I turned it into an economic powerhouse.

00:11:37.000 Businesses were my partners.

00:11:39.000 Because if you take care of your businesses, you take care of your economy, your economy takes care of the people, and everyone wins.

00:11:45.000 And so that's the way we dealt with it.

00:11:48.000 South Carolina was a very anti-woke state.

00:11:51.000 It still is.

00:11:52.000 And if Disney would like to move their hundreds of thousands of jobs to South Carolina and bring the billions of dollars with them, I'll let them know.

00:11:59.000 I'll be happy to meet them in South Carolina.

00:12:02.000 And then she went on, and this is the key part of the clip, she went on to suggest that DeSantis was being quote-unquote sanctimonious.

00:12:09.000 Now the reason that that is important is because that is the exact language of Donald Trump, right? 0.97

00:12:16.000 That is his dumb nickname for DeSantis. 0.99

00:12:18.000 DeSanctimonious! 0.98

00:12:20.000 She actually tweeted out, Hey Disney, my home state will happily accept your 70,000 jobs if you want to leave Florida. 0.97

00:12:24.000 We've got great weather, great people, it's always a great day in South Carolina.

00:12:28.000 South Carolina is not woke, but we're not sanctimonious about it either.

00:12:32.000 Now again, the use of the word sanctimonious is...

00:12:37.000 Obviously, redolent of the Trump nickname for DeSantis.

00:12:41.000 So people are speculating, okay, Nikki is not really very competitive in any of the polls right now.

00:12:45.000 She's down in the mid single digits. 0.92

00:12:48.000 And so maybe she's actually just lobbying Trump sort of from the outside by attacking DeSantis on all of this.

00:12:52.000 Now, one thing is important to note.

00:12:53.000 When you say we partner with business, yes, government makes it easier for business to do business.

00:12:58.000 But not when the businesses decide that they are going to deploy their resources against the voting will of the people of the state.

00:13:04.000 It is one thing for a business to lobby for lower tax rates or to lobby if they want for higher tax rates.

00:13:09.000 It's one thing for corporations to lobby for different labor laws.

00:13:12.000 It is another thing for corporations to try to sign into a debate over whether kids aged seven should be forced in public school to learn that boys can be girls and girls can be boys.

00:13:22.000 If corporations start to do that sort of stuff, then as a Republican, it is not your job to say, we partner with this business because this business creates jobs.

00:13:29.000 It is your job to protect the children who you are supposedly elected to protect.

00:13:34.000 It is very odd to me that you are going to allow allegiance to a sort of business mentality to overrule basic common sense and, you know, essentially your most important job, protection of the innocence of kids.

00:13:44.000 It's a very weird move.

00:13:45.000 And the fact that there are so many Republicans who are very awkward about this is one of the reasons why, by the way, Trump was elected in the first place in 2016, running as an outsider.

00:13:53.000 One of the things that really is kind of phenomenal and interesting about what's happening in the 2024 election is that many of the people who signed on to the Trump train, very early adapters, Peter Thiel, for example, he was an early adapter on the Trump train.

00:14:07.000 They said Trump is bringing something new.

00:14:09.000 Trump is shaking up the nature of politics.

00:14:10.000 He's breaking some of the boundaries with regard to sort of the corporate Republican matrix.

00:14:15.000 Suddenly he's reaching out to blue collar people and he's saying corporations, you know, you guys take a backseat.

00:14:19.000 That was sort of the pitch.

00:14:22.000 A lot of those same people are very uncomfortable with the thing that actually drove Trump in 2016.

00:14:26.000 What drove Trump in 2016 was not just that people were upset with sort of the corporate Republican matrix.

00:14:32.000 One of the things that drove that is the fact that people thought that corporations were not just oriented against them in terms of international trade or something.

00:14:39.000 They really thought corporations, correctly, are motivated against them in terms of the way they actually live.

00:14:45.000 The dirty little secret of 2016 when it comes to the actual issues is that social policy drove as much, if not more, than economic policy.

00:14:54.000 Everybody keeps trying to intellectualize the Trump movement in 2016 into an economic policy argument.

00:14:57.000 It was not an economic policy argument.

00:14:59.000 It was an argument of whether there were elites in our society who disdained the common man, who look at the people who go to church in Indiana and say, those people work at a factory, those people go to church, those people don't have my values on same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and woke race issues, and so those people are bad.

00:15:16.000 And then Trump came along and said, I don't think you're bad.

00:15:17.000 I think you're good.

00:15:19.000 And a lot of those people resonated to Trump for specifically that purpose.

00:15:21.000 So it's very weird to see a lot of the people who originally adopted Trump, apparently including Trump when it comes to this Disney issue, suddenly running away from that issue.

00:15:28.000 That's not an issue you should run away from.

00:15:30.000 That's an issue you should embrace.

00:15:31.000 And by the way, I mean, Trump is leading DeSantis right now in the polls.

00:15:34.000 He could easily do that.

00:15:36.000 Giving DeSantis an opening to attack him is very weird politics for sure.

00:15:39.000 And again, he speaks.

00:15:41.000 It's Republican discomfort with its own socially conservative base.

00:15:45.000 That Republican discomfort with the socially conservative base is going to be a real net negative for them.

00:15:50.000 It's the reason why there's a story yesterday that the RNC at their latest event actually was serving Bud Light.

00:15:54.000 Are you guys out of your minds?

00:15:55.000 What are you doing?

00:15:57.000 Why would you possibly think that is a good idea?

00:15:58.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

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00:17:04.000 So again, this sort of divide that's emerged in the Republican Party between the people who are comfortable with the social conservatives and the people who are very uncomfortable with the social conservatives, that divide is going to be a real problem for the Republican Party going forward.

00:17:15.000 Because the reality is that as the social left moves ever, ever more to the crazy left, as that happens more and more, there will be more people who now find themselves in the quote-unquote socially conservative box.

00:17:25.000 You're now finding people who consider themselves socially conservative, at least to the extent they would vote Republican, simply because they reject the idea that boys can be girls and girls can be boys.

00:17:33.000 See, right now, inside the Republican Party, there are a bunch of people who are kind of okay, for example, with same-sex marriage, but are really, really opposed to the hard left and their attempts to indoctrinate kids into the cult of gender identity.

00:17:46.000 If Republicans run away from that, which is what they're doing when they run away from the Disney fight, I don't know what the logic is.

00:17:52.000 And it's one of the things that has led to the rise of populism.

00:17:55.000 So Tucker Carlson, last night, he finally put out his first statement after being fired.

00:18:00.000 by Fox News. So first he was photographed. I mean, I got to say, Tucker's very good at

00:18:05.000 this. And yesterday Tucker was photographed. He was kind of jetting around Boca Grande,

00:18:10.000 which is in the other side of Florida from where I am in South Florida. And he was jetting

00:18:14.000 around with his wife laughing, which is, you know, very Tucker and very typical and showing

00:18:20.000 that he's not been broken by his firing.

00:18:22.000 Now, Tucker put out a statement yesterday, like a spoken statement. Here he was talking.

00:18:27.000 When honest people say what's true calmly and without embarrassment.

00:18:32.000 They become powerful.

00:18:34.000 At the same time, the liars who've been trying to silence them shrink, and they become weaker.

00:18:40.000 That's the iron law of the universe.

00:18:41.000 True things prevail.

00:18:43.000 Where can you still find Americans saying true things?

00:18:46.000 There aren't many places left, but there are some, and that's enough.

00:18:50.000 As long as you can hear the words, there is hope.

00:18:53.000 See you soon.

00:18:55.000 And see you soon, obviously, is a threat to many of the people who fired Tucker in the first place.

00:19:02.000 But the reason for Tucker's popularity now is the same as the reason for Trump's popularity back in 2016, which is he is not presumably going to let anybody prevent him from saying the things that he thinks are true, even if they are, quote-unquote, corporate interests.

00:19:15.000 This is Tucker's pitch.

00:19:17.000 This is his entire pitch.

00:19:18.000 The reason for the sort of durable popularity of Tucker versus some other people who have sort of fallen out of the public view Is because he is channeling a feeling among many Republicans that they have been abandoned by the people at the top of their own party, that they've been abandoned by many of their leaders, that those people are more concerned with their own sort of priorities than they are with the priorities of their own voters.

00:19:40.000 Tucker represents that.

00:19:41.000 That's why many people were so angry at his firing, obviously.

00:19:45.000 And so, you know, the fact that there are Republicans in the race who are playing sort of the other side of the Disney table, it's bewildering.

00:19:51.000 It's bad strategy.

00:19:52.000 I don't, I don't understand it.

00:19:54.000 The Asa Hutchinson Republicans are not, they don't exist.

00:19:56.000 I don't know who thinks they do.

00:19:58.000 And running as sort of slightly harder edged Asa Hutchinson ain't going to do it.

00:20:01.000 Asa Hutchinson is the former governor of Arkansas who's launched a quixotic campaign to run for the presidency.

00:20:08.000 And it's just a giant fail.

00:20:09.000 Here was his campaign launch speech yesterday.

00:20:13.000 I bring that same vigor to a fight in another battle, and that battle is for the future of our country and the soul of our party.

00:20:22.000 Today, I am announcing that I am a candidate for president of the United States.

00:20:28.000 In this campaign for president, I stand alone in terms of my experience, my record, and leadership.

00:20:38.000 I knew John Kasich just dropped.

00:20:39.000 That's exciting stuff right there.

00:20:40.000 Okay, guess what?

00:20:41.000 He's going nowhere.

00:20:42.000 He's going nowhere because most Republicans in the base understand the fight.

00:20:45.000 Asa Hutchinson does not appear to understand the fight.

00:20:48.000 Okay, just one second.

00:20:49.000 We'll get to what Republicans are actually fighting, namely a doddering old man with the universal support of the mainstream media first.

00:20:55.000 The Silicon Valley Bank failure, for people who didn't notice it, what actually happened there is that basically Silicon Valley Bank bet on the credibility of the U.S.

00:21:03.000 government.

00:21:03.000 They bought a bunch of bonds, then the U.S.

00:21:05.000 government inflated, and they raised the interest rates because of the inflation to cut down on the inflation.

00:21:11.000 And when they did that, all of the old bonds that Silicon Valley Bank had bought were now worthless, and so they caved in.

00:21:16.000 All their assets were just worth nothing, basically.

00:21:19.000 Well, that is the vault of the federal government.

00:21:21.000 And this is what happens when you trust the federal government with regard to things like inflation and with regard to things like the dollar.

00:21:26.000 It's one of the reasons why it is smart to diversify into things like precious metal, which is why I've bought gold from Birch Gold in preparation for those uncertain economic times.

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00:22:00.000 Text BEN to 989898 today to get started.

00:22:05.000 Meanwhile, all these Republicans who are competing to run against Joe Biden, they better understand their own base and the mood of the country.

00:22:12.000 Joe Biden doesn't have to understand anything.

00:22:13.000 He doesn't even have to understand where he is at any given time because the legacy media have decided to just defend him.

00:22:18.000 Since 2008, the real shift in the country.

00:22:20.000 You want to know one of the reasons why the country has split so far apart.

00:22:23.000 One of the reasons is the legacy media used to at least bat an eye toward the truth.

00:22:26.000 Then after Barack Obama was elected, they just decided it was now their job to defend the president.

00:22:30.000 That was it.

00:22:30.000 It was over.

00:22:31.000 You saw the same thing in the world of comedy.

00:22:33.000 Comedy and journalism in many ways mirror each other in terms of sort of their cultural feel.

00:22:37.000 You remember, before 2008, SNL used to actually make fun of Democrats sometimes.

00:22:41.000 Then Obama was elected, and comedians came out and they said things like, There's just no way to there's no way to make jokes about this guy.

00:22:47.000 He's just too magical.

00:22:49.000 It's almost almost terrible to make jokes about him.

00:22:51.000 It's like making fun of God.

00:22:52.000 If they actually believed in God, they make fun of God all the time.

00:22:54.000 But this is this was there.

00:22:56.000 The journalists did the exact same thing after Obama was elected.

00:22:58.000 It was their job to make sure that the great light bringer was always defended.

00:23:03.000 Well, now they've just carried on that routine because it went straight from Obama's the great light bringer who must be defended to Donald Trump is Satan and therefore must be defeated.

00:23:11.000 And now moving forward into 2024, they're maintaining the Trump is Satan and must be defeated. 0.99

00:23:14.000 And they're also trying to hang very awkwardly that halo on a doddering old fool who doesn't know where he is at least 37% of the time. 0.98

00:23:23.000 It's amazing to watch them try to turn Joe Biden into Barack Obama. 0.97

00:23:27.000 It's very weird.

00:23:28.000 And obviously Joe Biden is not.

00:23:29.000 He's not a talented politician.

00:23:30.000 He's 80 years old.

00:23:31.000 He's losing his faculties.

00:23:33.000 Yesterday, for example, Joe Biden actually lied about the hospital where he was born.

00:23:38.000 Think about it this way.

00:23:41.000 My grandpop, who I never met, he died in the same hospital I was born in two weeks before I was born.

00:23:48.000 No, that's not true.

00:23:50.000 To be clear though, you just said, I know him well.

00:23:51.000 Did Donald Trump's decision to run affect yours?

00:23:53.000 Biden wasn't born until the following year, November 1942, in a completely different state,

00:23:57.000 Scranton, Pennsylvania. But again, none of that matters because Biden is only running,

00:24:02.000 presumably because they think Trump's on the other side. So here's Joe Biden basically admitting that

00:24:06.000 yesterday. He was asked, would he be running if Trump was not running on the other side?

00:24:10.000 He said, I don't know anything about him.

00:24:12.000 To be clear, though, you just said, I know him well. Did Donald Trump's decision to run

00:24:17.000 affect yours? Would you be running if he wasn't? Yeah, I think I still would be running if he

00:24:22.000 I do know him well.

00:24:24.000 He's not hard to know, as you know.

00:24:26.000 You know him well, too.

00:24:28.000 And the question is whether or not... Look, there's more to finish the job.

00:24:34.000 We have an opportunity to put ourselves in a position where we are economically and politically secure for a long time.

00:24:44.000 Oh, so yeah, he wouldn't be running.

00:24:46.000 He would anyway, probably, except for not.

00:24:48.000 He would not.

00:24:49.000 If Trump were not running, it is very doubtful that Joe Biden would be running right now.

00:24:54.000 But how deeply in his pocket are the media?

00:24:57.000 I mean, it really is incredible.

00:24:59.000 So yesterday, video emerge of Joe Biden taking out of his pocket A sheet.

00:25:04.000 Okay, we're gonna get to the contents of the sheet in just a moment.

00:25:07.000 This is during the Q&A.

00:25:09.000 So, he takes out of his pocket a sheet.

00:25:12.000 It is a cheat sheet.

00:25:14.000 On it is a picture of the Los Angeles Times White House reporter, Courtney Subramanian.

00:25:20.000 Not just a picture of her.

00:25:22.000 And it has, like, her actual name pronounced out there.

00:25:24.000 Su-bra-man-ian. 1.00

00:25:26.000 Los Angeles Times.

00:25:27.000 Picture of her.

00:25:27.000 Question number one.

00:25:29.000 Foreign policy slash semiconductor manufacturing.

00:25:32.000 And then it actually has like a transcript of her question.

00:25:36.000 The reporter then asked, your top economic priority has been to build up U.S. 0.62

00:25:39.000 domestic manufacturing in competition with China, but your rule is against expanding ship manufacturing in China that's hurting South Korean companies that rely heavily on Beijing.

00:25:47.000 So he takes it out.

00:25:48.000 He's basically got a transcript of the question and that's exactly the question he receives.

00:25:52.000 Now we're going to take some questions.

00:25:53.000 The first question is from Courtney of the Los Angeles Times.

00:25:59.000 That's amazing. 0.99

00:26:00.000 So they're literally pre-screening questions from the journalists for this dullard. 0.98

00:26:04.000 With pictures. 0.98

00:26:06.000 With pictures.

00:26:07.000 Of the journalists.

00:26:09.000 Also, it is amazing, every single time they print out something for him, they treat him like he is a three-year-old child.

00:26:15.000 It says on it, every time it says YOU, it says she's going to ask YOU.

00:26:19.000 YOU is all in caps, as though the man can't read.

00:26:23.000 It's an amazing thing.

00:26:23.000 This is the President of the United States that we're talking about right here.

00:26:27.000 So, the way the media are now dealing with this White House is Joe Biden refuses to do a press conference where he just answers open questions.

00:26:33.000 When he does answer questions, he has a pre-approved list of journalists.

00:26:36.000 I mean, he's betrayed this several times before.

00:26:38.000 He keeps going in conference, being like, hey, tell me who I can call on, so I'm going to call on you.

00:26:42.000 Bob, let me read the transcript of your question.

00:26:45.000 And then the journalists just go along with this.

00:26:47.000 They're totally fine with it, apparently.

00:26:48.000 Now, what makes this significantly worse is the fact that the media give zero craps at all.

00:26:54.000 Zero craps at all about their own.

00:26:56.000 So why has there not been, as far as I'm aware, a single serious question to Joe Biden about his handling of the situation concerning Evan Gershkowitz?

00:27:05.000 Evan Gershkovich, rather.

00:27:07.000 So why has there been no serious question about this?

00:27:09.000 So Gershkovich is, of course, the Wall Street Journal reporter who has now essentially been kidnapped and held in prison by the Russians.

00:27:16.000 So now you have three different media outlets.

00:27:19.000 This would be the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times all putting out an ad with hashtag I stand with Evan.

00:27:28.000 They are putting this ad in all three of their papers in full page color ad urging support of the Biden administration in fighting for the release of Gershkovich.

00:27:37.000 The ad's running for free in the national editions of all three papers.

00:27:40.000 They say we continue to be shocked and outraged over the wrongful arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was imprisoned by the Russian government for no reason other than news gathering.

00:27:47.000 As editors and publishers of some of America's largest news organizations, we are united in calling for his immediate release.

00:27:52.000 Reporting is not a crime.

00:27:54.000 And then they say, Wow, strong words there guys.

00:27:56.000 You encourage support from the President of the United States.

00:27:57.000 Wow.

00:27:58.000 I mean, don't, don't, don't bruise your knuckles there.

00:27:59.000 and the importance of a free press.

00:28:00.000 We also encourage support from the US government, including President Biden and the White House.

00:28:03.000 Wow, strong words there, guys.

00:28:06.000 You encourage support from the President of the United States.

00:28:09.000 Wow.

00:28:09.000 I mean, don't bruise your knuckles there.

00:28:12.000 That's getting pretty harsh.

00:28:14.000 But they won't ask him a single question.

00:28:16.000 So all of these newspapers will submit their questions in advance to the current president of the United States about all other topics.

00:28:21.000 But none of them will ask him straight up about the kidnapping and imprisonment of an American journalist.

00:28:27.000 But they'll take out ads in their own newspapers to do this sort of stuff.

00:28:30.000 Don't you know anyone at the White House?

00:28:31.000 I feel like you should actually know people at the White House, since apparently you work for them.

00:28:35.000 It's truly an embarrassment. 0.99

00:28:37.000 The media, they are an embarrassment. 0.79

00:28:40.000 That is amazing, amazing stuff.

00:28:43.000 You want to know why Joe Biden thinks he can sleepwalk his way to re-election?

00:28:46.000 This would be the reason when you have the entire media who have been activated on your side.

00:28:50.000 It means there are no harsh questions about the way you run your policy.

00:28:53.000 There is now no distinction between the Democratic Party, the legacy media.

00:28:58.000 I mean, seriously, Jen Psaki moved directly from the White House to MSNBC doing precisely the same job. 0.99

00:29:06.000 And the Dolts over at The View.

00:29:07.000 Here is Whoopi and The View yesterday saying it's time to fall in line behind the great leader.

00:29:11.000 Sure, he's wandering into walls.

00:29:12.000 We might bump our heads together with him, but the collective IQ points that tally less than double digits over at The View, they say it's time to fall in line, gang.

00:29:21.000 Democrats, I don't know why you're talking about who's... The person to do the job is doing the job.

00:29:29.000 You get behind him and we won't have a problem.

00:29:32.000 The minute you start making inroads of maybe this person or maybe this person, we're done for.

00:29:38.000 So make a decision.

00:29:40.000 Make a decision.

00:29:41.000 Also, he needs another four years to finish the job.

00:29:44.000 You can't fight fascism in four years only.

00:29:47.000 You need eight years for that.

00:29:49.000 You can't fight fascism in four years.

00:29:51.000 I mean, technically speaking, America did fight fascism in four years.

00:29:55.000 Like with actual soldiers.

00:29:56.000 I mean, just put it anyway.

00:29:57.000 We entered the war in 1941.

00:29:59.000 The war was over by 1945.

00:30:00.000 So technically you can.

00:30:01.000 I mean, like, but put aside the technical history, which I wouldn't expect Joy Behar to know because she literally knows zero things.

00:30:06.000 That's an amazing thing.

00:30:07.000 She needs to finish the job of fighting fascism. 1.00

00:30:11.000 Oh my God, these people.

00:30:12.000 But there's no distinction.

00:30:13.000 Again, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg are exactly the same as the editors at the New York Times, Washington Post, and apparently members of the Wall Street Journal, at least the news gathering side.

00:30:22.000 Amazing stuff there.

00:30:24.000 This is what Republicans are up against.

00:30:25.000 And you know what they can't do at this point?

00:30:27.000 Kowtow to corporate interests in order to placate those corporate interests.

00:30:30.000 It's an absurdity on its face.

00:30:31.000 In just one second, we'll get to the continuing incompetence of Joe Biden's team, because it truly is quite amazing.

00:30:37.000 We have a very cute dog.

00:30:38.000 His name is Happy.

00:30:39.000 Happy is a wonderful... He just had his...

00:30:44.000 The groomer came.

00:30:45.000 Not like Disney.

00:30:46.000 Like the actual dog groomer.

00:30:48.000 And groomed Happy.

00:30:49.000 And Happy is just... He's a very handsome dog.

00:30:52.000 He plays with our kids all day.

00:30:54.000 Such a nice dog.

00:30:55.000 We want Happy to live a long, healthy, happy life.

00:30:58.000 Which is why we started giving him rough greens every morning.

00:31:00.000 The dog food you've been giving your dog, that is dead food.

00:31:02.000 It doesn't have a lot of nutritional value.

00:31:04.000 Look at it!

00:31:04.000 Brown food?

00:31:05.000 Would you eat that?

00:31:06.000 Green food is what he needs.

00:31:08.000 Rough greens.

00:31:09.000 Boosts Happy's food back to life.

00:31:10.000 You can do the same for your dog.

00:31:11.000 You don't have to go out and buy new dog food.

00:31:13.000 Just sprinkle Rough Greens on their food every day.

00:31:15.000 It contains all the necessary vitamins and minerals your dog is not getting from their regular dog food.

00:31:20.000 Happy enjoys the Rough Greens.

00:31:21.000 He is healthier.

00:31:22.000 He is more playful.

00:31:23.000 Rough Greens is the only supplement your dog will ask for by name.

00:31:26.000 Rough Greens.

00:31:26.000 I get the joke.

00:31:27.000 It's a pun.

00:31:27.000 It's a dad joke.

00:31:28.000 Naturopathic doctor Dennis Black, founder of Rough Greens, is so confident this product will improve your dog's health, he's offering my listeners a free Jumpstart Trial Bag.

00:31:35.000 Go to FreeRoughGreens.com slash Ben.

00:31:37.000 Let Rough Greens bring your dog's food back to life. 0.88

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00:32:21.000 So there are many things that the media should be paying attention to.

00:32:22.000 friends, they're hosting a 2023 NFL draft live stream tonight, Thursday, April 27th.

00:32:27.000 They'll be taking bets, providing in-depth analysis on draft picks and the upcoming season.

00:32:31.000 They'll also be having some very special guests tune in at 7 45 PM Eastern time.

00:32:34.000 You're not going to want to miss what they will do if they hit 100,000 subscribers during the

00:32:38.000 stream. So there are many things that the media should be paying attention to. Obviously, there

00:32:42.000 is a kidnapped journalist who they don't seem to care enough about to actually ask questions of

00:32:46.000 the Biden administration.

00:32:47.000 But they also will ask no difficult questions of the Biden administration on subjects like the transing of the children.

00:32:51.000 So the Department of Justice, the federal DOJ, is now directly challenging a Tennessee law that bans the hormonal sterilization and surgical mutilation of minors.

00:33:03.000 This is what your federally elected, federally funded Department of Justice does.

00:33:07.000 This is what they now do.

00:33:09.000 They've put out a press release calling this, quote, critical medically necessary care for transgender youth.

00:33:15.000 They say the Justice Department today filed a complaint challenging Tennessee Senate Bill 1, a recently enacted law that denies necessary medical care to youth based solely on who they are.

00:33:24.000 No, actually, it bans it to everyone.

00:33:28.000 No matter who you are, if you are a boy, we're not going to shoot you full of estrogen and stunt your growth. 1.00

00:33:32.000 And we are not going to then chop off your penis. 1.00

00:33:34.000 It doesn't matter how you identify. 1.00

00:33:36.000 Actually, that's what it means.

00:33:38.000 The complaint alleges that SB1's ban on providing certain medically necessary care to transgender minor violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, except for, again, this is a surgery and hormone treatment regimen that is not really medical.

00:33:51.000 Not only is it not really medically necessary, it's medically damaging, very obviously.

00:33:55.000 There is no evidence to suggest, none, any correlation between so-called trans-affirming care and reduction in suicidal ideation rates.

00:34:04.000 But it doesn't matter. 0.99

00:34:04.000 They're going to push this crap anyway. 0.99

00:34:06.000 The department is asking the court to issue an immediate order to prevent the law from going into effect July 1st, 2023. 0.97

00:34:11.000 SB1 makes it unlawful to provide or offer to provide certain types of medical care for transgender minors with diagnosed gender dysphoria.

00:34:16.000 Again, the fact that we are now treating a mental condition as though it is, in fact, not a mental condition, it is, in fact, a status. 0.89

00:34:25.000 Being transgender is like being black. 1.00

00:34:26.000 It's absurd. 1.00

00:34:27.000 It's ridiculous. 0.65

00:34:29.000 SB1's blanket ban, I mean, 80%, 80% of kids who suffer from gender dysphoria will grow out of it completely. 0.99

00:34:35.000 Many of them will just become gay. 0.99

00:34:37.000 And when was the last time somebody grew out of being a black person? 0.99

00:34:42.000 What are you even talking about?

00:34:43.000 But the likening of this to a civil rights action is amazing.

00:34:47.000 SB1's blanket ban prohibits potential treatment options that have been recommended by major medical associations for consideration.

00:34:52.000 Then they quote WPATH, which is a propaganda group that is completely disconnected from actual medicine or decency.

00:34:59.000 Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division says, quote, no person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status.

00:35:08.000 So basically, you're now telling, I mean, honestly, I don't see the limiting principle here.

00:35:13.000 So if you say that you're a drug addict, but your drug addiction is not a medical issue.

00:35:19.000 It doesn't cause you depression.

00:35:21.000 It's fine.

00:35:22.000 You're living a very happy life as a meth addict living on the streets.

00:35:25.000 Everything's cool.

00:35:26.000 Not only is it not a medical issue, it is your identity. 0.98

00:35:28.000 Your identity is that you are a meth addict. 0.98

00:35:30.000 You're a person who identifies as a meth addict.

00:35:33.000 So this means that if the government says you cannot have meth, the government is now discriminating against you and the DOJ will step in to make sure that you get your meth.

00:35:41.000 That is the equivalent argument here.

00:35:43.000 The right to consider your health and medically approved treatment options with your family and doctors is a right everyone should have, including trans children who are especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety, and suicide.

00:35:54.000 My goodness, the evil that is now emanating.

00:35:56.000 I mean, this is truly evil stuff. 0.99

00:35:58.000 We have the federal government activating itself to make sure that screwed up parents can shoot their small children full of hormones and then move them toward the carving of a false vagina into their flesh from either a colon or the inversion of their penile tissue is insane. 1.00

00:36:12.000 I mean, this is insane garbage. 1.00

00:36:15.000 This is what Joe Biden needs four more years to do. 0.97

00:36:17.000 Wouldn't it be nice if somebody asked the Biden administration about any of this, like, with real scientific background?

00:36:21.000 Wouldn't that be, like, really nice?

00:36:23.000 But they're not.

00:36:23.000 They're not going to do any of that.

00:36:24.000 Because after all, must protect the precious.

00:36:27.000 Must protect the precious.

00:36:29.000 You also have to protect the other members of the administration who are just as incompetent. 0.80

00:36:32.000 So Kamala Harris, the absurdly incompetent Vice President of the United States. 1.00

00:36:37.000 We have a classic Kamala Harris moment here.

00:36:40.000 I mean, this is a real deep thought here from the Vice President of the United States.

00:36:44.000 She is... Kamala Harris as predictive text mechanism, as failed predictive text mechanism, is the best metaphor. 1.00

00:36:52.000 Here we go.

00:36:54.000 I think it's very important, as you have heard from so many incredible leaders, for us at every moment in time, and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future.

00:37:24.000 I don't know.

00:37:25.000 And then we're in the future.

00:37:28.000 Yeah.

00:37:32.000 So that is a fifth grader who's been assigned a five paragraph essay in class on a book they clearly have not read.

00:37:39.000 I'm going to read you the transcript of what she just said again, because it is amazing.

00:37:44.000 She has a gift.

00:37:45.000 It's not a great gift, mind you.

00:37:47.000 But it is a gift.

00:37:48.000 Quote.

00:37:49.000 I think it's very important for us at every moment in time and certainly this moment to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present and to be able to contextualize it to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only To the past, but also to the future.

00:38:24.000 Um, what?

00:38:27.000 So, um, explain!

00:38:30.000 I wish it- Time is a flat circle.

00:38:33.000 I'll crush this beer can and I will show it to you.

00:38:36.000 That's what time is like.

00:38:41.000 What is going on?

00:38:43.000 How is this person vice president of the United States?

00:38:45.000 How?

00:38:46.000 Well, we all know how. 0.98

00:38:48.000 Because she's a black woman. 1.00

00:38:49.000 And that's the thing that matters most of all.

00:38:51.000 But never you fear, she's not the only candidate.

00:38:53.000 You wonder why they're propping up Joe Biden?

00:38:55.000 Why they're almost literally saddling a corpse on a horse and then just riding him around the beaches like El Cid?

00:39:03.000 You wonder why they are doing this?

00:39:04.000 This is the reason.

00:39:05.000 The reason is because they cannot have the past connected in so many ways to the future,

00:39:12.000 but by the present interlinking like a then-dialogue. Like they can't have that lady.

00:39:21.000 They can't have her.

00:39:21.000 So who else?

00:39:22.000 We got Pete Buttigieg who's over here talking about how he likes bridges now.

00:39:27.000 I mean, that's great.

00:39:28.000 On Comedy Central, no less.

00:39:31.000 I agree with Elon Musk.

00:39:33.000 We live in a simulation.

00:39:34.000 We live in a simulation.

00:39:36.000 There's no other explanation.

00:39:36.000 Here we go.

00:39:38.000 I was testifying in the appropriations subcommittee explaining how our budget was going to help with things like railroad safety, air traffic control, and other transportation needs.

00:39:50.000 And we had to take a break so that they could all go and vote on a bill to kick transgender teenagers off of sports teams. 0.93

00:39:57.000 That was the priority for the House GOP that day.

00:40:00.000 So these things really are getting in the way of our ability to get work done.

00:40:05.000 We're literally building bridges and they're literally banning books.

00:40:11.000 Oh, and there's the Comedy Central lady. 1.00

00:40:12.000 Hmm.

00:40:13.000 It's true.

00:40:13.000 She seems very knowledgeable.

00:40:14.000 She works for Comedy Central.

00:40:16.000 Yep.

00:40:18.000 We're literally building bridges and they're literally banning books.

00:40:20.000 Okay.

00:40:21.000 I want to know why he thinks books about, like cartoon books, like they're the most, like why genderqueer has to be made available to five-year-olds so he can build a bridge.

00:40:32.000 I'm gonna need an explanation.

00:40:32.000 I mean, the dude can't even keep the planes in the air.

00:40:35.000 Can't even keep the trains from derailing.

00:40:37.000 He's like, but I'm building bridges, guys.

00:40:39.000 Go away.

00:40:40.000 Go back on paternity leave. 0.96

00:40:41.000 You were more useful there.

00:40:43.000 Meanwhile, our ATF director, I mean, again, this entire administration is just a bleep show.

00:40:46.000 The ATF director, a person named Steven Dettelbach, he was asked about the fact that you are the director of the ATF, and it turns out that the president's son obviously violated gun laws.

00:40:54.000 He got anything on that?

00:40:55.000 He's like, nope, nothing.

00:40:57.000 Should the president's son be turned over since he violated I think that's been publicly reported that that is an ongoing investigation.

00:41:06.000 Again, I am not going to comment on any ongoing investigation.

00:41:11.000 So you don't take a position on we should have equal justice, we should not have a two-tier system of justice?

00:41:16.000 I'm not able to comment on any ongoing investigation, whether it's the undercover operations that you referred to or any particular case.

00:41:24.000 I just can't comment under long-standing Department of Justice policy under Both parties' administrations on pending investigative matters.

00:41:33.000 It's true.

00:41:33.000 They've been so not leaky, and then later they'll leak out whatever they feel like.

00:41:36.000 Meanwhile, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who is... Everyone in this administration has failed upward.

00:41:43.000 Every single human.

00:41:44.000 She was a terrible governor of Michigan, and then they thought she was going to run for president, but she had the crazy arms at the DNZ back in, I think it was 2008, and that kind of ended her. 0.76

00:41:52.000 Well, now she's back, but she says that she supports, I kid you not, all electric vehicles for the military.

00:41:59.000 We're gonna put the charging stations, lady. 1.00

00:42:02.000 We're gonna have electric tanks?

00:42:04.000 I'm gonna need a chart for you to explain how it makes our military readiness better to move away from fossil fuels that are durable and easily transportable What's the grid like in Afghanistan?

00:42:20.000 Seriously, what's the power grid like?

00:42:22.000 I want to know.

00:42:23.000 How are you going to build the Tesla power wall in the middle of nowhere, which is mostly where American vehicles are? 0.94

00:42:30.000 Here is our idiot Secretary of Energy saying that within seven years, the entire fleet of military vehicles will be electric. 0.84

00:42:38.000 Again, I'm not against electric vehicles, but you want to talk about lack of actual, practical, real-world understanding, this would be it right here. 0.90

00:42:46.000 Do you support the military adopting that EV fleet by 2030?

00:42:51.000 I do and I think we can get there as well and I do think that reducing our reliance on the volatility of globally traded fossil fuels where we know that global events such as the war in Ukraine can jack up prices for people back home.

00:43:05.000 It does not contribute to energy security.

00:43:07.000 I think energy security is achieved when we have homegrown Clean energy that is abundant like you see in Iowa.

00:43:16.000 We think that we can be a leader globally in how we have become energy independent.

00:43:22.000 We are energy independent through fossil fuels.

00:43:25.000 The durability of electric vehicles.

00:43:28.000 What is she even talking about?

00:43:30.000 It doesn't matter, no one's going to ask her any of those questions because they're all in her pocket because she works for Joe Biden. 0.99

00:43:34.000 And again, must protect the doddering elderly fool in the presidency. 0.97

00:43:39.000 Alrighty, in just a second, we'll get to the new civil rights cosplay hero that is being dropped by the Democrats. 0.98

00:43:44.000 Once again, we'll get to that momentarily first.

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00:44:48.000 Okay. 0.92

00:44:48.000 Meanwhile, on the trans front, Leah Thomas did something that takes a lot of balls yesterday. 0.92

00:44:54.000 When Leah Thomas decided to bash feminists who believe that women are, in fact, women. 1.00

00:45:00.000 Said they're fake feminists. 1.00

00:45:01.000 This would include, presumably, Martina Navratilova, the most famous lesbian of the last 60 years, right? 1.00

00:45:06.000 Very openly lesbian tennis champion.

00:45:09.000 Here is Leah Thomas, a dude, complaining that the ladies won't accept him, a dude, and his fully intact twig and berries. 0.94

00:45:17.000 It's obviously a little frustrating to feel that coming from your team that's supposed to have your back.

00:45:23.000 It's also frustrating in the regard that they're like, oh, we respect Leah as a woman, as a trans woman, whatever.

00:45:30.000 We respect her identity.

00:45:32.000 We just don't think it's fair.

00:45:33.000 And I think you can't really have that sort of half support where you're like, oh, I respect her as a woman here, but not here.

00:45:40.000 That's just...

00:45:42.000 Like you can't do that, you can't sort of break down me as a person into little pieces and you're like, okay, this is okay, this is okay, that's not, that's not.

00:45:51.000 It's pretending to be supportive on some level, but in reality it just, it sort of falls flat.

00:45:58.000 You can't break me down into little pieces!

00:46:02.000 That's not possible, I'm too large for that!

00:46:05.000 Yeah, Thomas.

00:46:09.000 You will be forced to swallow whole these lies.

00:46:11.000 You'll be forced to.

00:46:13.000 And if you refuse to, then they will break you on the wheel.

00:46:16.000 That is the cultural battle in which we now find ourselves.

00:46:19.000 And the fact that the media are on the other side of that cultural battle should say to Republicans, perhaps should stop kowtowing, not only to the media, but to corporate interests who continue to maintain positions that are untrue, that are absolutely false.

00:46:30.000 Okay.

00:46:30.000 Meanwhile, the debate over the debt ceiling continues.

00:46:34.000 Republicans have now passed a bill that would raise the nation's borrowing limit in exchange for cuts in government spending, aiming to jumpstart talks with President Biden ahead of an approaching deadline for the federal government to avoid default, as according to the Wall Street Journal, the bill. The razor thin margin underscored the complicated

00:46:52.000 politics expected to roil the debt ceiling debate. The Republicans limit save grow act of 2023,

00:46:57.000 who names these things by the way?

00:46:59.000 Limit save grow, what are, it has no chance of passing the democratic controlled senate because

00:47:05.000 Joe Biden refuses to engage in any sort of conversation whatsoever. The White House has

00:47:10.000 said Congress should simply raise the debt ceiling with no provisions attached, which of course is

00:47:13.000 is not how this is supposed to work.

00:47:15.000 You lost the House election.

00:47:16.000 You now have to negotiate with the people who won the House election.

00:47:19.000 Biden said, I'm happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether the debt limit gets extended.

00:47:23.000 That's not negotiable.

00:47:24.000 Well, I mean, under what conditions the debt limit is extended, that would be the question, is it not?

00:47:30.000 After the vote, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, Republicans quote, must act immediately and without conditions to avoid default.

00:47:37.000 Or, or you should probably stop with the crap where you just get to dictate terms. 0.92

00:47:41.000 Because you do not. 0.97

00:47:42.000 Now again, all debt ceiling debates rely on the allegiance of the media.

00:47:46.000 If the media ever at any point actually recognized the fact that Democrats should negotiate with Republicans in good faith over this sort of thing, then the pressure would be on Democrats because Republicans passed a bill that does in fact increase the debt ceiling.

00:48:00.000 But instead, the media presumably will turn Republicans into the baddies on this one.

00:48:04.000 This is the pitch being made by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

00:48:07.000 He said the speaker should drop the brinksmanship, drop the hostage taking, come to the table of Democrats and pass a clean bill to avoid default.

00:48:12.000 So in other words, come here and do exactly what we want.

00:48:16.000 Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged talks between McCarthy and Biden.

00:48:21.000 So Democrats are playing a dangerous game here because they're just going to continue moving forward on the premise that they will have to sacrifice nothing, not even negotiate on any of this stuff.

00:48:31.000 And then they have, it's amazing, they have the gall to quote President Reagan, quote, The United States has a special responsibility to itself and to the world to meet its obligations.

00:48:39.000 It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility.

00:48:42.000 And then Joe Biden says, we must pay our bills.

00:48:44.000 Congressional Republicans must do that.

00:48:45.000 What do you mean you pay your bills?

00:48:47.000 You're the ones who are running up to pay our bills.

00:48:49.000 You mean by taking out another credit card?

00:48:50.000 That's not paying your bills.

00:48:52.000 It's taking on a new bill.

00:48:53.000 That's the whole point of this entire debate.

00:48:55.000 But it must it must be wonderful to just have the backstop of the legacy media to back everything you do at any time.

00:49:00.000 OK, time for some things I like and then some things that I hate.

00:49:02.000 So a lot of people.

00:49:04.000 are upset and annoyed that Anthony Fauci and Randy Weingarten are now trying to walk themselves back from the ledge where they have spent the past three years trying to mandate masks, mandate social distancing, mandate shutdowns.

00:49:17.000 A lot of people are upset with them.

00:49:19.000 I think it's hilarious, and I think it's good.

00:49:20.000 It shows they lost the debate.

00:49:21.000 The reason they're trying to walk this stuff back is because they lost.

00:49:24.000 So Anthony Fauci, who spent the last three years declaring that he himself is the science, While simultaneously saying things like every single person should mask and be mandated to, and that VAX, maybe we should have mandates, and that small children should take the VAX.

00:49:38.000 It shouldn't be optional.

00:49:39.000 Small children should take the VAX.

00:49:41.000 After recommending school closures for years on end, after recommending extraordinary restrictions on businesses, now he has the temerity to say, listen, I only made recommendations, man.

00:49:51.000 It wasn't, it wasn't me.

00:49:52.000 I wasn't the policymaker, except that you demanded the power to actually control the debate.

00:49:58.000 But I'd be angry, except that I think it's good evidence that he lost.

00:50:02.000 Here's Anthony Fauci, who lost.

00:50:05.000 Yeah, you weren't directly responsible for Prattville Elementary School closing or whatnot, but because of the recommendations that came from you and other top public health officials, those are decisions that you saw school administrators make, governors make, and you understand the influence that your recommendations had on decisions like that, right?

00:50:22.000 Well, that's true, Caitlin, but the point that I made in my response to the reporter in the New York Times article was that what it is is that there was a personification of me as a person who essentially closed everything down.

00:50:36.000 Those were public health recommendations that came from the CDC, and I have always been very supportive Of the CDC.

00:50:44.000 I was not trying to shun away from responsibility.

00:50:48.000 We made a public health recommendation based on sound public health principles.

00:50:56.000 Oh, so now you're just recommending guy.

00:50:59.000 Oh, but I thought you were the science.

00:51:02.000 I mean, if you're the science, then your recommendations should be taken as like the only thing that matters, right?

00:51:06.000 You are the science after all.

00:51:08.000 But you know what?

00:51:09.000 They're all backing off of this.

00:51:10.000 So, for example, is the American Federation of Teachers ex-Scribble leader, Randi Weingarten, the worst person in American public life?

00:51:16.000 Bar none.

00:51:17.000 She's awful on every possible issue.

00:51:19.000 Here's Randi Weingarten. 0.62

00:51:21.000 Who day in and day out is starting to look more and more like a chipmunk. 0.89

00:51:27.000 Here is Randi Weingarten slash Gilbert Gottfried talking about how remote education, she literally said this.

00:51:36.000 I mean, this is like the biggest lie.

00:51:37.000 She literally said in front of, they should go after her for perjury. 1.00

00:51:41.000 She said that they tried to stop remote education because it was not a substitute for actual school.

00:51:47.000 We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open.

00:51:54.000 We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools, but we also knew that people had to be safe.

00:52:02.000 And maybe it's because I live in New York City.

00:52:05.000 I live near a hospital.

00:52:08.000 Every other minute there was an ambulance.

00:52:11.000 There was terror.

00:52:13.000 Our members were terrified.

00:52:15.000 Others were terrified.

00:52:16.000 And what we were simply looking for was clear scientific guidance.

00:52:25.000 No, you were not a believer that, for example, schools should reopen.

00:52:31.000 In fact, A couple of years ago, it was Randy Weingarten who was saying, this is in July of 2020, that it would be reckless, callous, and cruel to reopen schools.

00:52:41.000 That's a direct quote.

00:52:42.000 Reckless, callous, and cruel.

00:52:45.000 So I could be angry, or we could just all acknowledge that they lost. 0.94

00:52:48.000 Now, here's the thing for Republicans.

00:52:50.000 If you want to nominate somebody who's going to run against this stuff, perhaps you should nominate somebody who's like a reopening person.

00:52:54.000 And not somebody who split the baby.

00:52:55.000 Not somebody who hired, for example, Anthony Fauci as his lead.

00:53:00.000 Somebody who is yelling at Georgia about reopening.

00:53:02.000 Maybe you might want somebody, not gonna name names, but you might want somebody who can run against this stuff.

00:53:06.000 If it's so unpopular that now Fauci and Weingarten are running away from their own positions, maybe Republicans should run on that.

00:53:12.000 That seems like a good thing to run on.

00:53:13.000 Okay, time for some quick things that I hate.

00:53:20.000 Okay, ladies, it's time for you to boycott Maybelline. 1.00

00:53:22.000 Enough of this.

00:53:22.000 So Dylan Mulvaney has a new ad campaign.

00:53:29.000 Dylma, I've never seen a gay man get so rich off of playing a woman. 0.98

00:53:33.000 It is truly an amazing feat, here.

00:53:36.000 Here is Dylan Mulvaney, who has now done ads for Maybelline.

00:53:40.000 He is a sponsor partner of Maybelline.

00:53:45.000 It's me.

00:53:51.000 Okay, so for those who can't see, Dylan Mulvaney is now putting on the Maybelline and has transformed himself into a rather garish drag queen. 0.99

00:53:59.000 Trying to mimic the look of Audrey Hepburn but failing incredibly badly and in quite scary fashion. 0.98

00:54:04.000 Maybe it's Maybelline, maybe it's a d**k. That's the actual slogan of Maybelline. 0.97

00:54:11.000 You can't declare yourself a public figure and the face, the actual face of the men can be women movement and then not expect people to actually sound off on that. 0.99

00:54:20.000 Ladies, I'm imploring you.

00:54:22.000 Stand up for your own sex. 0.87

00:54:23.000 Seriously.

00:54:24.000 The dudes stood up for you on Bud Light.

00:54:25.000 It's dudes who drink Bud Light and they're like, nah, not okay with this.

00:54:28.000 Ladies, stand up for your own sex. 1.00

00:54:31.000 Seriously.

00:54:32.000 You're the ones who are going to pay the price when men start cosplaying as women and winning all the prizes and stuff. 0.99

00:54:36.000 So at a certain point, maybe you should stop shopping with the brands that mock you and treat you as fools and pretend that that your sex is some sort of cosplay sexual fetish. 0.99

00:54:49.000 All right, guys, the rest of the show continues right now. 1.00

00:54:50.000 You're not going to want to miss it.

00:54:51.000 We'll be jumping into the Vaunted Ben Shapiro Show Mailbag.

00:54:53.000 Remember to have your question answered.

00:54:54.000 You have to be a member.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - April 27, 2023

FIGHT NIGHT: Disney vs. DeSantis

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