The Ben Shapiro Show - Franken’s Frank Is Cooked | Ep. 432

00:00:00.000 Breaking news.

00:00:00.000 Al Franken, Senator from Minnesota, is out.

00:00:03.000 Yes, out.

00:00:04.000 He just resigned on the floor of the Senate.

00:00:06.000 We'll talk all about it.

00:00:07.000 Plus, the media do their best to ensure that a wave of terrorism hits Israel.

00:00:11.000 And, of course, President Trump stands tall in the face of withering attack over his talk about Jerusalem.

00:00:16.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:16.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:22.000 Alrighty, so a lot to get to today.

00:00:24.000 Right now in breaking news, Al Franken is stepping down from the Senate.

00:00:27.000 When I say now, I mean like as we are recording this.

00:00:29.000 We're going to grab the audio as soon as possible of Al Franken, the Senator from Minnesota, stepping down.

00:00:34.000 He did what I think everyone sort of expected him to do.

00:00:37.000 He came out and he said that he was totally innocent, but he's stepping down anyway, which is not true.

00:00:41.000 He's not totally innocent.

00:00:42.000 And also he then said, and what about Trump?

00:00:45.000 And what about Roy Moore?

00:00:46.000 This is The Democrats Play.

00:00:47.000 We'll talk all about that, plus I want to give you the latest from the State of Israel, as well as a couple of stories that are just insane that you haven't heard yet today.

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00:02:34.000 Speaking of people who could use a little bit of career insurance, Al Franken is gone, and he just came out and said, as I said, that he is innocent, that he didn't do any of these things, that all of these women are either liars or misconstruing his actions.

00:02:47.000 It seems to me it's hard to misconstrue somebody grabbing your a** in the middle of a photo line.

00:02:52.000 But, you know, to each his own.

00:02:54.000 So, Franken stepped down after the Democrats turned on him.

00:02:57.000 They turned on him in the last 48 hours, really not because of the new reports about Franken, but because they wish to throw Republicans under the moral bus.

00:03:05.000 That was the goal here.

00:03:06.000 The pretext they used for throwing Franken out was this report from The Atlantic that Franken had sexually harassed a woman at a Media Matters party.

00:03:18.000 There's a woman named Tina DePuy who wrote for The Atlantic.

00:03:21.000 She says,

00:03:26.000 Not only had we just elected the first African-American president of the United States, but Franken's race had triggered a recount, leaving leftists giddy we would soon have a supermajority in the Senate.

00:03:33.000 As you recall, Al Franken stole that Senate seat from Norm Coleman.

00:03:36.000 They just kept recounting the votes until enough felons recounted that Al Franken was the senator from Minnesota.

00:03:41.000 This woman writes,

00:04:02.000 She says, I've been married for two years at the time.

00:04:04.000 I don't let my husband touch me like Al Franken did in public.

00:04:08.000 Right?

00:04:08.000 Here's what she says.

00:04:09.000 I saw Al Franken.

00:04:09.000 I only bug celebrities for pictures when it'll make my foster mom happy.

00:04:12.000 She loves Franken, so I asked to get a picture with him.

00:04:14.000 We posed for the shot.

00:04:15.000 He immediately put his hand on my waist, grabbing a handful of flesh. 0.52

00:04:17.000 I froze.

00:04:18.000 Then he squeezed, at least twice.

00:04:20.000 What a class act that Al Franken.

00:04:22.000 So Franken gave a statement in which he said all of this has been misconstrued he's totally innocent but he's leaving anyway and then he blabbered on for a while about activism and the wonders of activism and again he just kept calling them liars over and over and over hoping that he would have another shot at this.

00:04:37.000 That's what Al Franken is hoping.

00:04:38.000 Al Franken is hoping that he leaves in quote-unquote disgrace that he does his penance and then he comes back in a couple of years having cleansed himself of the stigma of this

00:04:47.000 And in order to ensure that, he immediately wheeled and hit Trump and Roy Moore.

00:04:50.000 Roy Moore, of course, the Senate Alabama Republican candidate who's been credibly accused of child molestation.

00:04:55.000 Now, what's hilarious about all of this is watching the Democrats swing to push Franken out.

00:05:00.000 So just a couple of days ago, we played the audio yesterday of Kirsten Gillibrand saying that she didn't know whether Franken should step down, he should really make his own decision.

00:05:08.000 And then yesterday, she actually said Franken should step down.

00:05:10.000 So she changed her opinion.

00:05:12.000 Kirsten Gillibrand, who's been treated as a possible 2020 candidate,

00:05:15.000 There is no better weather vane than Kirsten Gillibrand.

00:05:18.000 I mean, there are no better weather vanes on planet Earth than Kirsten Gillibrand.

00:05:21.000 And the woman has her finger in the air at all times, seeing which way the wind is blowing.

00:05:25.000 She realized that she wanted the—she realized the wind was blowing against Franken, so she stepped out in front of that and said Franken should resign, is what she said yesterday.

00:05:32.000 Well, obviously, there were new allegations today.

00:05:36.000 And enough is enough.

00:05:38.000 I mean, this is a conversation we've been having for a very long time.

00:05:41.000 And it's a conversation that this country needs to have.

00:05:44.000 And I think when we start having to talk about the differences between sexual assault and sexual harassment and unwanted groping, you are having the wrong conversation.

00:05:54.000 You need to draw a line in the sand and say, none of it is OK.

00:05:57.000 None of it is acceptable.

00:05:58.000 And we, as elected leaders, should

00:06:00.000 Absolutely be held to a higher standard, not a lower standard.

00:06:19.000 I don't think so.

00:06:36.000 Some of these activities are truly horrifying and your career should be ended and you should end up in jail.

00:06:41.000 And some of these activities are bad, you're a creep, but I'm not sure that it rises to the level of the same outrage as a Harvey Weinstein, for example.

00:06:48.000 In any case, what this is really about for Democrats, and we all know it, what this is really about is seizing the moral high ground.

00:06:53.000 What Democrats truly want to do here is not push out Franken because they care about Franken.

00:06:57.000 Not push out John Conyers because they care about John Conyers.

00:06:59.000 They want to push all these people out so that they can turn and swivel and hit

00:07:03.000 Donald Trump and Roy Moore.

00:07:04.000 So Senator Mazie Hirono, the Democrat of Hawaii, she came out yesterday and she said, you know, now that Franken's going, you know what would be really great is if Trump and Moore stepped aside.

00:07:11.000 And they say, what Al Franken did was wrong, but it's not even in the same ballpark.

00:07:15.000 Why take this step?

00:07:17.000 And why not also be calling for President Trump and Roy Moore to step aside?

00:07:22.000 Well, I would love it if both of them stepped aside, because I have said publicly that President Trump has admitted to being a sexual predator, and as for Roy Moore, the credible allegations of him being a child molester, basically, should cause both of them to look at themselves and step down.

00:07:39.000 I would love it.

00:07:40.000 But at the same time, you know, I'm looking for, where are the Republican voices?

00:07:46.000 So two things can be true at once.

00:07:56.000 One, Democrats can be right to shove these people out the door, and Republicans should do the same with their own bad candidates.

00:08:01.000 And two, this can be totally politically driven, because it is totally politically driven.

00:08:04.000 I mean, there's no question about it.

00:08:05.000 The fact is that the Democrats suffer zero repercussions for getting rid of Franken.

00:08:09.000 The Democratic governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, is about to appoint his lieutenant governor, her name escapes me for the moment, but he's about to appoint her, a Democrat, to fill Franken's seat so Democrats don't lose a seat in the Senate.

00:08:19.000 Forcing out John Conyers means nothing because some relative of John Conyers will fill that seat.

00:08:24.000 It's very easy to take the moral high ground when it doesn't mean actually sacrificing anything.

00:08:27.000 Anytime Democrats have to think about sacrificing something, they rally around the flag of the sexual abuser the same way that Republicans are currently rallying around the flags of alleged sexual abusers. 0.78

00:08:36.000 So, there's no question that there's a bunch of hypocrisy going on here, and a bunch of political posturing. 0.55

00:08:42.000 Bernie Sanders, another example.

00:08:44.000 He came out yesterday, or this morning rather, and he said that Donald Trump and Roy Moore should both step down because Al Franken is going... Earlier this week, Bernie Sanders was literally running away from the cameras when he was asked about Al Franken.

00:08:55.000 So what's happened here is that the Democrats waited until the Republican National Committee and Trump re-endorsed Moore, and then they said, here's our chance to draw a contrast.

00:09:02.000 Now, is that smart politics?

00:09:04.000 Of course it's smart politics.

00:09:05.000 Now they get to claim that they have the moral high ground.

00:09:07.000 And Republicans, meanwhile, are shoving the moral high ground away from them as fast as humanly possible.

00:09:12.000 I mean, they're taking that moral high ground and they are running from it as fast as humanly possible.

00:09:16.000 So much so, they are actually seeing Republicans now come out and start to defend Al Franken.

00:09:21.000 So last night on Laura Ingraham's show on Fox News, Newt Gingrich was talking with Ingraham, and both Gingrich and Ingraham

00:09:26.000 We're actually defending Al Franken because they understand what's happening next, right?

00:09:30.000 Here's the logic.

00:09:31.000 Well, we're not going to let Trump and Moore go until you get rid of Al Franken.

00:09:34.000 The Democrats say, fine, we'll get rid of Al Franken.

00:09:35.000 Then the Republicans say, well, hold on.

00:09:37.000 Hold up a second.

00:09:38.000 Maybe you don't want to get rid of Al Franken.

00:09:39.000 Maybe that's a bad idea to get rid of Al Franken.

00:09:41.000 It's all political partisanship at its finest. 0.92

00:09:44.000 Here's Gingrich with Ingram suddenly defending Al Franken, a guy who routinely grabs women by the butt in the middle of photo lines, apparently.

00:09:51.000 Al Franken was a comedian.

00:09:54.000 Comedians often do weird things.

00:09:57.000 He was in the entertainment business.

00:09:59.000 He was doing the kind of things people in the entertainment business do.

00:10:03.000 Now, I have not, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see anything that they've said he's done since he was a senator.

00:10:09.000 I don't think they've said... I've tried to lose track.

00:10:11.000 I think there are a couple allegations of inappropriate conduct, but I think it's minor stuff.

00:10:16.000 But the point is...

00:10:19.000 We're in one of those weird American moments when running around lynching people feels so good.

00:10:27.000 Feels good to them.

00:10:28.000 If you go back and watch the YouTube of Clarence Thomas.

00:10:31.000 I was just going to say my old boss.

00:10:32.000 You know how he felt.

00:10:34.000 Explaining, who by the way was wonderful and swore in Calista.

00:10:37.000 Oh, great!

00:10:53.000 No hearings.

00:10:55.000 No witness.

00:10:55.000 No, there's no due process.

00:10:56.000 If you're accused and you're a man, you're accused.

00:10:59.000 Okay, so here we are now, right?

00:11:00.000 So here we are.

00:11:01.000 We've got Laura Ingraham and Newt Gingrich defending Al Franken.

00:11:04.000 You think they're doing that because they really like Al Franken or they think Al Franken ought to get a fair shake?

00:11:08.000 I mean, they were both calling for the prosecution of Hillary Clinton based on less evidence than Al Franken here.

00:11:12.000 Hillary Clinton, by the way, should have gone to jail. 1.00

00:11:14.000 The idea that they are out defending Al Franken today, the only reason they're defending Al Franken is because they want to defend Roy Moore, obviously.

00:11:20.000 That's what's going on here.

00:11:22.000 And the Democrats are only throwing Al Franken under the bus because they want to get Roy Moore and Donald Trump.

00:11:26.000 So understand, this is all a political game.

00:11:28.000 Don't suddenly think that politicians grew moral spines.

00:11:30.000 They didn't.

00:11:31.000 I would be happy if they had, and maybe we can force them into doing so.

00:11:35.000 But I don't really see the purpose of pretending that there's no politics at work here at all, because that's just silly.

00:11:42.000 In a second, I want to play you what Al Franken actually had to say, but first I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Birch Gold.

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00:12:49.000 Okay, so we do finally have tape of Al Franken.

00:12:52.000 The fact that Democrats thought this guy was a viable 2020 contender tells you everything you need to know about the state of the Democratic Party.

00:12:57.000 But here is Al Franken on the floor of the Senate resigning, but not before claiming that he's innocent and that he's being martyred.

00:13:04.000 Nevertheless, today I am announcing that in the coming weeks, I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate.

00:13:16.000 I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office

00:13:33.000 And a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls' campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party.

00:13:43.000 Yeah, and so that's the line the Democrats are going to use.

00:13:46.000 So when you say this isn't political, of course it's political.

00:13:48.000 Now, if Franken were smart, if he had any sense of the moment, what he would do instead is he would do a full mea culpa, right?

00:13:53.000 He'd get up there and instead of denying that the accuser, instead of saying the accusers are a bunch of terrible people who are lying about him and that he's a wounded innocent, he then went on to say, I'll be fine.

00:14:02.000 You know, I was a comedian before this.

00:14:03.000 I'll be fine.

00:14:04.000 Everything will be fine.

00:14:05.000 What he should have done, if he were smart, is he would have said,

00:14:08.000 All of these women, I believe them.

00:14:10.000 Women deserve to be believed. 1.00

00:14:11.000 I've made a lot of mistakes.

00:14:12.000 I apologize fulsomely for the mistakes that I've made.

00:14:15.000 And in this new America, I hope to change for the better.

00:14:18.000 And President Trump is evidence that the Republicans are not changing for the better.

00:14:21.000 If I have to step down, as I should, then I call on President Trump to step down as well, right?

00:14:26.000 He should have actually turned it into a rallying cry, but he's not smart enough to do that.

00:14:29.000 He doesn't have the wherewithal to do that.

00:14:30.000 If he'd done that, the media would have actually orgasmed. 0.72

00:14:32.000 Like, people actually would have experienced physical pleasure. 0.68

00:14:36.000 And at that point, he could have run for president in 2020, but he doesn't have the brains to do that.

00:14:41.000 As I say, the Republicans, meanwhile, are rushing to defend Roy Moore. 1.00

00:14:44.000 And this is something that I think is both stupid and backwards. 0.99

00:14:47.000 So there are a bunch of people saying, well, you know, the Democrats are only doing this for political reasons, so why should we cave? 0.99

00:14:52.000 And there is this mentality on the right now that when the Democrats want something, you don't give it to them just because they want it, right?

00:15:00.000 But that's not the case with Roy Moore, okay?

00:15:02.000 There's this new mentality that I think has

00:15:05.000 It's

00:15:21.000 That's

00:15:42.000 of how a lot of Republicans are thinking right now, which is that Roy Moore must be innocent because the Democrats say he's guilty.

00:15:48.000 That Roy Moore must be defended because the Democrats want him out.

00:15:51.000 I don't see why you would surrender the moral high ground this way on a race that Republicans, you know, if they had thrown Moore out earlier or if Moore resigned, they would have won this race walking away.

00:16:00.000 Even if Roy Jones or Doug Jones, the Democrat, were to win this seat, Republicans would be able to regain the seat in four years when it comes up again.

00:16:07.000 It's a heavily red state.

00:16:09.000 But instead, the Republicans seem to be pushing the high ground away with both hands, saying, listen, the Democrats got to play in the muck for a while, now we're going to play in the muck.

00:16:16.000 They don't understand.

00:16:17.000 There's a different standard that applies to Republicans.

00:16:19.000 There is.

00:16:20.000 As there should be.

00:16:22.000 Not that there should be a different standard for Republicans, but the higher standard should apply to both Republicans and Democrats.

00:16:28.000 And I don't

00:16:43.000 There is a strain of the Republican Party that now says the worse the person, the more we ought to support them.

00:16:48.000 And I think that's true among Democrats, when it's politically beneficial for that to be the case.

00:16:52.000 I think they'll get there, too.

00:16:53.000 And they'll use the polarization in politics as an excuse to get there.

00:16:57.000 And Republicans aren't wrong that a lot rides on politics, that a lot is at stake.

00:17:01.000 But they are wrong when they think that the way that they are going to win is by embracing the worst elements of their own egos and their own ids.

00:17:10.000 I just think that's a huge mistake.

00:17:12.000 Now with all that said...

00:17:14.000 I understand why there's so much frustration among Republicans, why there's so much frustration that Democrats have been getting away with this stuff for 20 years, and not just on the sexual assault front, but on the corruption front.

00:17:24.000 This is a story that sort of went unmentioned, but it's amazing.

00:17:27.000 The New York Times has a report on the operation of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau under the command of Interim Director Mick Mulvaney, and in the article is a real piece of news, that a group of bureaucrats have decided to hijack the CFPB as much as possible and operate in secret to defy Mulvaney.

00:17:40.000 This is according to HotAir.com.

00:17:42.000 Here's what they actually said.

00:17:44.000 Agency employees said they were scrutinizing every comment and memo from their new leader for hints about their future.

00:17:48.000 Some employees, including a few of the Bureau's top officials, have welcomed their new leader.

00:17:52.000 Others, pointing to Mr. Mulvaney's earlier hostility toward the agency and its mission, are quietly resisting.

00:17:57.000 One small group calls itself Dumbledore's Army, according to two of the people who are familiar with their discussions.

00:18:03.000 The name is a reference to a secret resistance force in the Harry Potter books.

00:18:07.000 An atmosphere of intense anxiety has taken hold, several employees said.

00:18:10.000 So...

00:18:11.000 First of all, read another book.

00:18:13.000 Not every reference has to be about Harry Potter.

00:18:15.000 But second of all, there's an actual band of bureaucrats inside the CFPB trying to buck Trump and calling themselves Dumbledore's army.

00:18:20.000 And then you wonder why Republicans are so frustrated that they say, we need someone who's willing to break the rules to stop a bunch of people who are willing to break the rules.

00:18:27.000 The frustration with partisan politics has driven both sides mad.

00:18:30.000 And if the standard can only be restored through hypocrisy, then better that the standard should be restored through the hypocrisy of going after Al Franken in order to get to Roy Moore than that the standard never be restored at all.

00:18:40.000 OK, so in other news, there's a lot of fallout over what's happening in Jerusalem right now.

00:18:45.000 So the president of the United States yesterday made the announcement that Jerusalem was, in fact, to be recognized as the capital of Israel by the American government.

00:18:53.000 After more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

00:18:57.000 It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result.

00:19:23.000 Therefore, I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

00:19:36.000 While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver.

00:19:43.000 Today, I am delivering.

00:19:47.000 I've judged this course of action to be in the best interests

00:19:52.000 Of course.

00:20:13.000 You're right.

00:20:13.000 The terrorist group Hamas, which is a terrorist group.

00:20:16.000 They're really angry only over Jerusalem.

00:20:18.000 They declared a three days of rage.

00:20:19.000 I love this.

00:20:19.000 The media, oh my god, days of rage from the Palestinians.

00:20:22.000 Days of rage.

00:20:23.000 Man, they wouldn't be enraged except for Trump.

00:20:26.000 This is the fourth time the Palestinians, fourth, have declared a day of rage in the last eight months. 0.59

00:20:32.000 Okay, since April, they've declared four days of rage.

00:20:34.000 This is the last day of rage.

00:20:35.000 Like, is it a danding and why?

00:20:37.000 It's a day of rage.

00:20:38.000 In the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

00:20:40.000 In Judea and Samaria and Gaza.

00:20:41.000 Right?

00:20:42.000 The Palestinians are constantly pushing days of rage. 1.00

00:20:44.000 Why? 0.98

00:20:44.000 Because the leadership is corrupt. 0.98

00:20:46.000 Because the leadership are a bunch of terrorists. 0.99

00:20:47.000 Because the population voted for that leadership. 0.90

00:20:50.000 And because the leadership knows that if they attack Israel, they don't actually have to provide anything to their own citizens.

00:20:55.000 And so the media coverage, which is treating this as like, it's panic time, it's the end of the world, it's all because of Trump.

00:21:01.000 It's just nonsense.

00:21:03.000 Hamas, 1980, this is their covenant, this is their founding document, quote, Israel, Judaism, and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people. 0.99

00:21:10.000 May the cowards never sleep.

00:21:12.000 PLO Charter, this is the Palestinian Authority, right, this is Mahmoud Abbas's group, quote, The establishment of Israel is illegal and null and void.

00:21:19.000 That was in 1964, before Israel even controlled the old city of Jerusalem.

00:21:23.000 Before they even controlled East Jerusalem.

00:21:25.000 And they were calling for the destruction of Israel.

00:21:27.000 But no, something has definitely changed.

00:21:29.000 Abbas, by the way, made a speech yesterday where he, quote, noted long Christian and Muslim history in Jerusalem

00:21:36.000 Okay, so it's not the Jews not recognizing that Muslims have connections to Jerusalem.

00:21:38.000 I mean, it's the Jews, we Jews, and Israelis in particular, who have acknowledged that holy sites should remain open.

00:21:58.000 But the fact that the Muslim population over there doesn't want Jewish sites to remain open, that, as I talked about yesterday, when the Muslims controlled Jerusalem, they refused to allow access to holy sites to Jews, and actually started riots if Jews brought so much as a folding chair for the ill and the infirm to pray at the Western Wall.

00:22:17.000 And now the media is blaming Trump for acknowledging a reality?

00:22:20.000 It's just insipid.

00:22:22.000 And because of that, because of that, you're going to get more terrorism.

00:22:24.000 Because the terrorists know.

00:22:26.000 It's funny.

00:22:27.000 The same people who will say, let's not name mass shooters.

00:22:30.000 We can't name mass shooters.

00:22:30.000 So if we name mass shooters, it's glorifying the mass shootings.

00:22:32.000 There's some merit to that.

00:22:34.000 The idea that they are going to go out there and go out in the middle of the Gaza Strip or Judea and Samaria and put a camera on a bunch of people burning stuff and treat this as though it's Trump's fault.

00:22:44.000 All that's doing is fostering terrorism. 0.88

00:22:45.000 They're going to get people killed.

00:22:46.000 The media's attempts to create a massive conflagration out of this, it's just going to encourage terrorists to be terrorists.

00:22:54.000 This is what the media do.

00:22:56.000 It's really despicable.

00:22:58.000 And this has some far-ranging ramifications outside of Israel, by the way.

00:23:02.000 We'll talk about those plus Bibi Netanyahu's response in just a second.

00:23:04.000 First, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over

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00:24:42.000 Okay, so, me being Netanyahu, thanks President Trump for what Trump did yesterday, as well he should.

00:24:47.000 Here was Netanyahu yesterday.

00:24:50.000 The President's decision is an important step towards peace.

00:24:54.000 For there is no peace that doesn't include Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.

00:25:00.000 President Trump, thank you for today's historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

00:25:08.000 The Jewish people and the Jewish State will be forever grateful.

00:25:14.000 Okay, and that's exactly right.

00:25:16.000 I was talking to some people who are in Jerusalem yesterday.

00:25:18.000 They were ecstatic, as well they should be.

00:25:20.000 And again, this is just a recognition of reality.

00:25:22.000 It's not that something fundamentally has changed.

00:25:25.000 If you aren't going to recognize the reality of how the world works, you're never going to be able to achieve peace.

00:25:31.000 The media don't want to accept this, though. 0.99

00:25:32.000 The media are trying to treat this as though this was some sort of crazy move by Trump, because Trump's a crazy man, and Trump's going to set the world afire. 0.99

00:25:39.000 Let's be really clear about one thing. 0.99

00:25:40.000 One of the things that's really ironic here, Saudi Arabia doesn't give a crap about Jerusalem. 0.99

00:25:44.000 The Jordanians don't give a crap about Jerusalem. 0.98

00:25:46.000 The Egyptians don't give a crap about Jerusalem. 0.98

00:25:48.000 They're not going to back any Palestinian uprising against the Israelis. 0.98

00:25:51.000 You know why?

00:25:51.000 Because of Barack Obama.

00:25:53.000 Not because of Trump.

00:25:54.000 Because of Barack Obama.

00:25:55.000 Because Barack Obama made Iran a regional power. 0.53

00:25:57.000 And now Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt are all siding with Israel in an attempt to create a coalition to check Iranian growth in the region. 0.96

00:26:04.000 So the Palestinians are on their own. 0.98

00:26:05.000 So if you're lamenting the poor Palestinians being on their own against the big bad Israelis, talk to President Obama, not President Trump. 0.99

00:26:11.000 Because the fact is that coalition only exists on the back of President Obama's decision to make Iran a regional power.

00:26:17.000 Pretty incredible stuff.

00:26:18.000 But, again, the media are stirring this stuff.

00:26:20.000 They're stirring the pot.

00:26:21.000 They did it during the Gaza War. 0.71

00:26:23.000 I went on CNN.

00:26:24.000 I said that if Hamas could have created a news network, it would look a lot like CNN. 0.80

00:26:28.000 You can go back and look at the tape.

00:26:29.000 And the reason I said that is because CNN always covers these conflagrations not as a bunch of terrorists who have decided to murder Jews as an excuse for media attention and an attempt to pressure Israel, but they treat it as a spontaneous outbursting of rage.

00:26:42.000 It's not spontaneous, folks.

00:26:43.000 Nothing happened yesterday.

00:26:44.000 That means it's an organized effort.

00:26:46.000 Apparently, there's basic lockdown in the city of Jerusalem right now.

00:26:49.000 Jews have been told to stay home, stay indoors, not take public transportation because of the fears of terrorism.

00:26:55.000 Again, the Israelis have been pressured into many concessions, including the full withdrawal of Jews from the Gaza Strip, making it completely Judenrein. 0.86

00:27:01.000 They pulled out 6,000 Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip.

00:27:04.000 There was not one riot.

00:27:05.000 There was not one killing from the Jews.

00:27:07.000 Jerusalem is just declared the capital of Israel by the United States.

00:27:11.000 It has been forever the capital of Israel.

00:27:13.000 And the Palestinians are using that as an excuse to riot. 0.98

00:27:15.000 But again,

00:27:16.000 It's just an excuse.

00:27:17.000 They rioted earlier this year when three Palestinians stabbed someone to death and tried to shoot some people up on the Temple Mount, and the Israelis installed metal detectors.

00:27:25.000 There were riots in Jerusalem over metal detectors.

00:27:27.000 So, as I say, basically, day ending in Y, Palestinians are going to riot, and the media is going to treat it as though they have a legit excuse to do so because they really despise the Israelis, and they despise the Israeli government led by Bibi Netanyahu.

00:27:38.000 Chris Matthews is one element of this.

00:27:40.000 So here's Chris Matthews.

00:27:41.000 Alright, I was going to be safe.

00:27:42.000 Got to come to the show.

00:27:43.000 Don't know a thing about Israel.

00:27:44.000 Don't know anything about Christians, but

00:27:46.000 You know, the reason Trump did this is because of Jesus.

00:27:49.000 That's why, because of Jesus.

00:27:51.000 Go! 0.95

00:27:52.000 And a couple more points on Alabama.

00:27:53.000 Don't think this isn't related to Alabama next week.

00:27:56.000 It is related.

00:27:57.000 Because it's the Christian evangelicals down there with their crazy ideas about Israel, which is, I don't know, mythical. 1.00

00:28:03.000 They don't understand the situation over there and how tricky it is ethnically and tribally.

00:28:07.000 They don't care because it's a religious belief.

00:28:09.000 Trump's playing to that this week.

00:28:11.000 You can watch him. 0.99

00:28:12.000 Okay, so it's all about the crazy evangelicals, their crazy beliefs? 0.97

00:28:16.000 You mean the crazed Judeo-Christian beliefs that undergird all of Western civilization? 0.98

00:28:19.000 Would that be those beliefs?

00:28:20.000 Or is he talking about this myth that all evangelical Christians want all the Jews to go back to Israel so that Armageddon will come and Jesus will return?

00:28:26.000 Because that's a very small minority of evangelical Christians. 0.99

00:28:30.000 I've spent a lot more time with Evangelical Christians than Chris Matthews has, and he is just ignorant. 1.00

00:28:34.000 He's just ignorant. 1.00

00:28:35.000 I talk with Evangelical Christians all the time. 0.99

00:28:37.000 The reason they support Israel is because they believe that they are the branch of which Israel was the root.

00:28:41.000 That Israel was the root, the people of Israel were the root, God's promise to Israel was the root, and they are the branch from the same tree, and they believe that the Jews are God's chosen people, and they don't just believe that because they want Armageddon to come.

00:28:52.000 That's a tiny minority of Evangelical Christians.

00:28:54.000 Like, when I say tiny, I mean minute.

00:28:57.000 Infinitesimal.

00:28:58.000 If you want to see the level of support for Israel from people like Pastor John Hagee, for example, and CUFI, the Christians United for Israel, they're not doing that because they think that Jesus is going to come back and they're going to get raptured up to heaven and that's why they're doing this.

00:29:11.000 But Chris Matthews has to slander all of the people who support Israel among the Christians in the United States because the left really despises Israel.

00:29:19.000 This is one area where it's become increasingly partisan and it's really sad.

00:29:22.000 The fact is that 90-nothing, you're seeing people like Dianne Feinstein come out and say, it's just terrible that Trump did this.

00:29:27.000 90-nothing, including Dianne Feinstein's vote, they voted in June to say that Jerusalem was the undivided capital of Israel.

00:29:35.000 That's what they voted in June.

00:29:37.000 Okay, that's like a few months ago.

00:29:39.000 And now they're coming out and saying it's the end of the world that Trump announced all this.

00:29:42.000 And then of course you have media flacks like Fareed Zakaria on CNN.

00:29:46.000 Saying that Trump isn't really siding with Israel.

00:29:48.000 You see, when Trump declares that the Israeli capital, Jerusalem, is the Israeli capital, Jerusalem, and that the eternal capital of the Jewish people is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, he's not really siding with Israel.

00:29:57.000 He's just siding with Netanyahu and the Israeli government.

00:30:00.000 Israel doesn't need the United States as an ally anymore in the sense that they are the most powerful force on the ground by far.

00:30:07.000 Israel is sort of a regional superpower, and compared to the Palestinians, the disproportion is now just gigantic. 0.69

00:30:14.000 What they need is for the United States to have credibility with the Palestinians so that there can be a meaningful negotiation.

00:30:21.000 If the United States is seen as blatantly one-sided, it doesn't help.

00:30:24.000 And by the way, this is an issue on which the United States would be siding not with Israel, but with the

00:30:30.000 Okay, this is absolute, sheer, unmitigated nonsense.

00:30:34.000 The Labor Party, the left of Israeli politics, supports President Trump's decision on this.

00:30:39.000 The left likes President Trump's decision on this, in Israel.

00:30:42.000 When Fareed Zachariah says that America needs to be seen as an honest broker in order to broker a peace, that's not true.

00:30:48.000 The United States should be throwing its weight on the side of the people who actually are in favor of liberty.

00:30:53.000 Why should there be another terror state in the region?

00:30:55.000 If there's going to be peace, the Palestinian Authority has to go.

00:30:58.000 Hamas has to go.

00:30:58.000 Islamic Jihad has to go.

00:31:00.000 And what you need instead is something like a regular liberal government.

00:31:05.000 You can't just say that the United States should be an honest broker between Al Qaeda and the government of Pakistan.

00:31:11.000 And you can't say that, in a far worse way, you certainly can't say that the United States should be an honest broker between Israel and its terrorist enemies.

00:31:18.000 It's just insipid.

00:31:20.000 Okay, so, meanwhile, in other news, I want to talk a little bit about some trends in American thinking, particularly among young people, because this is pretty crazy stuff.

00:31:30.000 There's an article today about capitalism and how young Americans feel about capitalism from the Wall Street Journal.

00:31:36.000 And it is pretty stunning how few Americans, young Americans particularly, know what capitalism is.

00:31:41.000 So there's an article that says that in a 2016 survey for Harvard University's Institute of Politics, 42% of younger Americans said they support capitalism.

00:31:50.000 Only 19% identified themselves as capitalist.

00:31:53.000 This is according to John Della Volpe, who's been polling millennials for 17 years.

00:31:58.000 Right?

00:31:58.000 42% of young Americans said they support capitalism, which means 58% do not.

00:32:02.000 And 19% identified themselves as capitalists.

00:32:05.000 The reason that I think this is the case is because the Democrats, and Bernie Sanders in particular, have done a wonderful job of redefining capitalism away from this meeting, and Republicans have never discussed capitalism in moral terms.

00:32:15.000 It's something I like talking about a lot.

00:32:16.000 The reason that capitalism is a good is not just because it's more efficient and creates better products.

00:32:21.000 It's because it says that the stuff that you create, you get to keep.

00:32:25.000 The stuff that you create, you get to keep, and no one can be the master of your time or labor.

00:32:30.000 No one gets to enslave you just because they have needs.

00:32:36.000 This is the John Locke view of capitalism.

00:32:38.000 John Locke's view of property ownership is that you combine your labor with the land, and that's why you have a right to land.

00:32:43.000 The same thing holds true of capital.

00:32:44.000 You combine your labor with capital, you combine your input with capital,

00:32:49.000 Your investment knowledge with capital.

00:32:50.000 And now that is your money.

00:32:52.000 And the idea that anyone can take that money away from you just because they want the money for their own purposes is morally obtuse.

00:33:00.000 But people on the right don't talk about capitalism this way.

00:33:02.000 Instead what we'll say is, well, you know, capitalism is just sort of the best available system.

00:33:07.000 And there's also this tendency, I think, to say, as many have said in the past, that, you know, sort of two cheers for capitalism, that capitalism is the best possible system, but it doesn't tell you that you have to be moral.

00:33:19.000 That's true.

00:33:20.000 But when you're talking about economics, socialism doesn't tell you that you have to be moral either.

00:33:23.000 There's nothing moral about socialism.

00:33:25.000 And when you're talking about economic systems and why economic systems ought to be upheld, from a moral standpoint, you have to start from the basic notion that human beings have liberty, that individuals are guaranteed liberty, and they're all made in God's image, and we are all equal in our rights before God.

00:33:38.000 That does not mean that we all get to steal stuff from one another.

00:33:41.000 Socialism is immoral.

00:33:42.000 Capitalism is moral.

00:33:43.000 But young people are never told that.

00:33:45.000 Instead, what they see is greedy plutocrats who are combining with the government.

00:33:49.000 And capitalism itself is slandered in the media.

00:33:51.000 So every time there is an actual greedy plutocrat who makes a deal with the government, anytime Wall Street gets rich off an insider crony deal with Congress, instead of people responding by saying, that's not capitalism, even the right will call it crony capitalism.

00:34:05.000 Crony capitalism is not a real term.

00:34:07.000 Crony capitalism is the reverse of capitalism.

00:34:10.000 It's actually called corporatism.

00:34:11.000 There is no reason to describe anything as crony capitalism because capitalism is about the free investment in exchange of goods.

00:34:19.000 But the right never describes capitalism that way, and so young people don't know any better, and so they end up in this sort of weird spot where they think capitalism is bad.

00:34:25.000 But it's not just ignorance on that.

00:34:27.000 There's a Pew poll that came out yesterday that really is quite astonishing in its ramifications.

00:34:33.000 So this is what the poll shows.

00:34:36.000 It's assessments on whether life is better or worse than it was 50 years ago.

00:34:39.000 I think?

00:34:59.000 India is number two on the list of places that are better off than they were 50 years ago.

00:35:03.000 These are obviously countries that understand that economic development matters, right?

00:35:07.000 South Korea, Japan, Germany, Turkey.

00:35:09.000 Turkey's an interesting one because 50... I'm not sure, to be honest with you, where Turkey was 50 years ago, but in recent years they've obviously slid.

00:35:18.000 And then you have the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Spain.

00:35:20.000 A lot of countries that are from the former Soviet bloc.

00:35:23.000 So where is the United States here?

00:35:24.000 Where is the United States when it comes to, are people better off or worse off than they were 50 years ago?

00:35:30.000 This is an amazing statistic.

00:35:31.000 Only 37% of Americans say that Americans are better off today than they were 50 years ago.

00:35:37.000 41% of Americans say that they are worse off than they were 50 years ago.

00:35:41.000 50 years ago, in 1967, in the middle of riots in the United States, in the middle of the Vietnam War, with economic development that, you know, having a nice car was still a luxury.

00:35:56.000 You know, where you didn't have the internet, the houses were smaller, air conditioning was still not universal, central air, central heating.

00:36:05.000 There weren't such a thing as computers.

00:36:07.000 The living standard in the United States is so much higher than it was in 1967, and yet Americans believe that this is not the case, that they were better off then.

00:36:15.000 And this is one of the problems, I think, in American politics right now.

00:36:18.000 There's this sort of nostalgia for a better time.

00:36:21.000 There was no better time.

00:36:22.000 I've said this before.

00:36:23.000 You are living in the best time in history.

00:36:25.000 Okay, this is the better time.

00:36:26.000 When people say, when do you wish you had lived?

00:36:28.000 Right now.

00:36:30.000 You know why?

00:36:30.000 Because I can connect with any piece of information on the planet at any time of night or day.

00:36:35.000 I can go to the grocery store and I can get any delicacy I want from anywhere on planet Earth.

00:36:40.000 I can live in a bigger house if I can pay for it, and I can pay for it.

00:36:43.000 This is one of the beautiful things about living in the United States.

00:36:46.000 Things have gotten incredibly better, but people refuse to recognize this.

00:36:50.000 And so instead, you end up with this weird perception that things have gotten worse.

00:36:55.000 And if you think things have gotten worse, you end up in desperate straits.

00:36:57.000 Because if you think things are constantly getting bad, then every election, you're one step from the end of the country.

00:37:02.000 Every election is the end of the road. 0.99

00:37:04.000 You can't have a forward-looking view where you say, yeah, Obama was garbage. 0.99

00:37:07.000 He was a bad president, if you're on the right. 0.99

00:37:09.000 But guess what?

00:37:09.000 The country didn't collapse.

00:37:10.000 And that means that we can actually build a movement and move the country towards something even more glorious.

00:37:15.000 Instead, every election becomes the be-all, end-all.

00:37:17.000 You see the same thing from Democrats.

00:37:18.000 We're one election from Armageddon.

00:37:20.000 If you always think you're one election from Armageddon, you're actually bringing Armageddon closer.

00:37:23.000 Talking about how Armageddon is right around the corner makes people act as though Armageddon is right around the corner.

00:37:27.000 And if you act as though Armageddon is right around the corner, it probably is.

00:37:31.000 By the way, life expectancy in the United States in 1967 at point of birth was 71 years.

00:37:36.000 Today, life expectancy in the United States is 79 years.

00:37:39.000 On that basis alone, life is significantly better in the United States than it was 50 years ago.

00:37:44.000 I mean, especially for minorities.

00:37:46.000 Are you kidding me?

00:37:46.000 Like, black people in 1967 versus black people in 2017?

00:37:49.000 Are you out of your mind to think that things were better in 1967?

00:37:53.000 There were literal race riots in Detroit in 1967. 0.68

00:37:55.000 If you were gay in 1967, are you better off now or better in 1967? 0.96

00:38:01.000 If you're Jewish. 1.00

00:38:03.000 It's all nonsense.

00:38:04.000 But unfortunately, we have a tendency to be pessimists about reality and this leads us down some dark roads and toward a nostalgia on one side that says that we can rectify everything with big government and a nostalgia on the other side that says that we have to freeze everything in place lest we fall into the abyss.

00:38:20.000 Okay, so.

00:38:21.000 I want to get to some things I like and some things I hate.

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00:39:55.000 Alrighty, so let's do some things I like, some things I hate, and then the big idea, because it's a Thursday.

00:40:01.000 Can't believe it's a Thursday already, and also this week has been endless.

00:40:04.000 So, okay, time for some things that I like.

00:40:06.000 So the other night, my wife and I went to see a movie, which was just a pleasure.

00:40:09.000 Once in a while, I actually get to see my wife, and it's nice when that happens.

00:40:12.000 And the movie was Murder on the Orient Express.

00:40:14.000 So I'm a big Agatha Christie fan.

00:40:15.000 I own all of her novels.

00:40:16.000 I knew the ending, my wife didn't.

00:40:17.000 So this is one of those things where it's really fun to watch if the person you're watching with does not know the ending to Murder on the Orient Express.

00:40:23.000 Because if you don't know the ending, it's one of the great endings in kind of murder mystery literature.

00:40:29.000 The middle of the movie, where Poirot is sort of investigating the crimes, is not my favorite.

00:40:35.000 The beginning, I think, is clever.

00:40:37.000 And then you get to the end, and the end is, I think, actually quite effective.

00:40:41.000 It's based on Murder on the Orange Express.

00:40:42.000 I believe the book was written in 1934.

00:40:44.000 It was originally based on the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping.

00:40:48.000 So if you don't know about that case, Charles Lindbergh and his wife had a baby.

00:40:50.000 The baby was kidnapped and killed by, I believe, a German guy named Bruno Hauptmann was the guy who was put on trial for it.

00:40:57.000 This book was based on that.

00:41:00.000 And it's not a giveaway to say that the character who's killed, right, it's called Murder on the Orient Express.

00:41:05.000 Someone is killed.

00:41:05.000 The person who is killed, it turns out, was involved in a similar kidnapping, and the whole movie is sort of about that.

00:41:12.000 It's effective.

00:41:12.000 I think Branagh uses some nice touches.

00:41:15.000 I don't want to give spoilers because the movie's still out in theaters, but there are some differences from the books.

00:41:20.000 Poirot himself, his whole character, is much more sympathetic in the movie than he would be in the books.

00:41:24.000 In the books, Poirot is basically a machine.

00:41:25.000 He uses little gray cells to logically deduce things.

00:41:29.000 But in the movie, he has a lot more sympathy, and they sort of give him, not a love interest, but they say that he's had a wife who died.

00:41:36.000 That's not true in the books.

00:41:37.000 In the books, he never had a love interest, but

00:41:41.000 The cast, I think a lot of the cast is quite good.

00:41:44.000 Brawna is fun to watch.

00:41:47.000 Michelle Pfeiffer is actually terrific in it.

00:41:50.000 Johnny Depp is really good.

00:41:51.000 I don't like Johnny Depp as an actor, and Johnny Depp actually is really good in this.

00:41:54.000 So check it out.

00:41:54.000 I'm around the Arctic Express.

00:41:55.000 Here's a little bit of the preview.

00:42:06.000 Would you mind if I join you?

00:42:08.000 You're the world-famous detective Hercule Poirot.

00:42:13.000 Avenger of the innocent.

00:42:14.000 Is that what they told you in the papers?

00:42:16.000 And you are innocent?

00:42:19.000 You're funny.

00:42:25.000 A passenger has died.

00:42:27.000 He was murdered.

00:42:30.000 The murderer is on the train with us now.

00:42:33.000 And every one of you is a suspect.

00:42:37.000 So, let us catch a killer.

00:42:41.000 So there are a few things in the movie that would have made it better.

00:42:44.000 One is that the murder takes place on a train, on a moving train.

00:42:49.000 What would have been nice, of sleeper cars that are right back to back, it would have been nice to have like a map of the sleeper car.

00:42:54.000 There's a point made by Sonny Bunch on the Weekly Standard podcast, and I think it's right, that one shot from above that shows where everybody was in the cars would be very helpful, but you don't actually get that.

00:43:03.000 But the movie itself is worthwhile.

00:43:05.000 Particularly the end of it is pretty effective, I think.

00:43:07.000 Okay, so time for some other things that I like.

00:43:10.000 So, this I thought was just hilarious.

00:43:12.000 So yesterday, or a couple days ago on the show, I said that it was a lifelong dream to appear on The View, and I was very excited about this.

00:43:19.000 Paula Faris, who is an occasional co-host on The View, and she's on Good Morning America, she tweeted out, hey Ben, I heard on your podcast that one of your lifelong dreams is to appear on The View.

00:43:27.000 I'm running it by the incomparable Joy Behar.

00:43:29.000 Stay tuned.

00:43:29.000 Then she tweeted out a picture of herself with Joy Behar.

00:43:32.000 All I can say is, I accept.

00:43:34.000 Yes, make this happen.

00:43:36.000 It would be the greatest hour of television in the history of daytime.

00:43:39.000 It would be so good.

00:43:40.000 I believe there's a petition online to petition ABC to have me on.

00:43:44.000 It would be a lot of fun.

00:43:46.000 I've made fun of the view at times, but I will...

00:43:50.000 But I will be cordial and kind.

00:43:54.000 So check it out.

00:43:56.000 If they have me on The View, it'll be fantastic.

00:43:57.000 I could not be more excited about this.

00:43:59.000 I was dancing around the office yesterday, and it's hard to make me happy.

00:44:02.000 So thank you, Paula Faris, and I hope that this actually happens.

00:44:05.000 Okay, time for a couple of things that I hate.

00:44:12.000 So, thing number one that I hate.

00:44:14.000 This is insane.

00:44:16.000 So, there are a couple of things that are happening as far as college campuses that are trying to keep me out now.

00:44:20.000 There's one college campus that is, I'm trying to remember which college campus it is.

00:44:25.000 Concordia College, I believe.

00:44:27.000 And they are now trying to withdraw funding.

00:44:29.000 So they funded my event there, and now they're trying to withdraw funding.

00:44:31.000 So that's very exciting.

00:44:32.000 That's piece of college news number one.

00:44:34.000 Piece of college news number two is that a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, told students that he wouldn't debate me

00:44:42.000 But he would enjoy ripping my arms out of the socket.

00:44:44.000 Like a Wookiee, apparently.

00:44:47.000 Here's a little bit of the audio that was gotten a hold of by Campus Reform. 0.99

00:44:51.000 I wouldn't debate him because being in the same room with that fool is putting this nonsense fascist ideologue on equal footing with me using my real degree to legitimize garbage politics that are at best nonsensical. 0.98

00:45:11.000 I love this gladiator thing. 0.99

00:45:13.000 In my own world, words mean something.

00:45:16.000 Gladiator?

00:45:18.000 You should pass this around.

00:45:19.000 Well, I won't debate this poll.

00:45:20.000 Why don't y'all set up some kind of MMA thing between me and him?

00:45:25.000 And then, the winner can take those $40,000 and give them to whatever charity they want.

00:45:32.000 I'm completely down for this charity.

00:45:35.000 This charity match?

00:45:36.000 Oh, I'm completely down for that.

00:45:38.000 Like, y'all don't think I wouldn't enjoy ripping this boy's shoulder out of its socket?

00:45:42.000 Oh my God.

00:45:43.000 Y'all don't know.

00:45:45.000 Y'all don't know. 1.00

00:45:47.000 So he's a real intellectual here, ripping this fool's shoulder out of his socket. 0.97

00:45:51.000 He sounds like somebody who I'd have a real tough time debating, mainly because I'm not sure that he speaks in full sentences. 0.98

00:45:58.000 What a genius he is.

00:45:59.000 I mean, and I love when he says he wants me to use my real degree to debate him.

00:46:05.000 Dude, you're a sociology professor, okay?

00:46:09.000 Real degree.

00:46:10.000 I went to Harvard Law School. 0.99

00:46:11.000 Like, shut up. 0.99

00:46:12.000 It's just, it's absurd. 1.00

00:46:13.000 And this notion that I'm going to go and have a physical fight with you?

00:46:15.000 We have this thing here.

00:46:16.000 It's called civilization.

00:46:17.000 It's where we have debates, right?

00:46:19.000 It's where we talk about things.

00:46:20.000 But your response to an actual civilized debate is, you want to rip somebody's arm out of their socket? 0.99

00:46:24.000 What fascist nonsense. 0.94

00:46:25.000 This is the second professor I know of who suggested that we have a fight. 0.96

00:46:28.000 I know everybody always wants to have fights with me.

00:46:30.000 Like, I know, you think I'm not physically pre-possessing and you think that you can beat me up and all this kind of nonsense.

00:46:36.000 You know what?

00:46:36.000 I have more money than you.

00:46:37.000 I can pay people to beat you up if I wanted to. 0.68

00:46:39.000 I don't need to beat you up physically.

00:46:40.000 Plus, I can defeat you intellectually anytime I choose. 0.61

00:46:43.000 So, of course, they revert back to their schoolyard bully nonsense that they've always been reverting to. 1.00

00:46:48.000 Just, just, what's stupidity? 1.00

00:46:49.000 Okay, so other things that I hate. 1.00

00:46:51.000 How stupid are the American people about Star Wars? 0.98

00:46:53.000 I just have to ask this because there was a poll that came out yesterday and I have to show you the results of this poll, okay? 1.00

00:46:58.000 Classic, this is a poll from Morning Consult among 2,200 U.S.

00:47:02.000 adults on the popularity of various figures from Star Wars.

00:47:06.000 Now, not shockingly, none of the new Star Wars figures basically make the list.

00:47:10.000 I'm shocked that Jyn Erso ends up so low, right?

00:47:12.000 Jyn Erso ends up at 29%.

00:47:13.000 She's the one from Rogue One.

00:47:15.000 Okay, how is Jyn Erso at 29% and Jar Jar Binks is at 37%?

00:47:21.000 Jar Jar Frickin' Binks, right?

00:47:23.000 Finn barely nudges out Jar Jar Binks. 1.00

00:47:26.000 BB-8 barely nudges out Jar Jar Binks. 1.00

00:47:28.000 Okay, that's amazing.

00:47:29.000 That's incredible.

00:47:31.000 Emperor Palpatine, by the way, only finishing at 31%.

00:47:35.000 Emperor Palpatine's only at 31?

00:47:36.000 Like, how is that possible?

00:47:37.000 Darth Vader's only at 49%?

00:47:40.000 It's a percentage that is a favorable impression of each character.

00:47:42.000 But I'll tell you what the worst injustice here is, okay?

00:47:44.000 The worst injustice, obviously, is that the people who are at the top of the list, okay, Leia is number one, fine, you know, men have a good impression of Leia, and so do women, that's cool.

00:47:54.000 But Luke Skywalker is number two, at 72%, and Han Solo is at 68%.

00:47:58.000 Who are you people?

00:48:00.000 What is wrong with you?

00:48:02.000 Han Solo has less of a positive percentage than Luke Skywalker?

00:48:07.000 I mean, even if you include the new movie, Luke Skywalker's been on an island, doing nothing, staring at rocks for like 20 years.

00:48:14.000 Luke Skywalker over Han Solo, just insane.

00:48:16.000 Luke Skywalker over Obi-Wan Kenobi?

00:48:18.000 Luke Skywalker should be down by Jabba the Hutt.

00:48:21.000 Skywalker.

00:48:21.000 Lando comes in at 43%.

00:48:23.000 How does Lando finish beneath C-3PO?

00:48:28.000 Or Anakin Skywalker?

00:48:29.000 They actually separated out Anakin and Darth Vader.

00:48:31.000 How does Anakin finish above Darth Vader?

00:48:33.000 How?

00:48:33.000 How is that a thing?

00:48:35.000 You all go to hell. 0.92

00:48:36.000 Have you even seen these movies? 1.00

00:48:37.000 What's wrong with you people?

00:48:38.000 Okay.

00:48:39.000 Time for the big idea.

00:48:40.000 So on Thursdays we talk about a big idea that requires elucidation and so today we'll talk about freedom of association.

00:48:46.000 Freedom of association is not an actual stated constitutional right.

00:48:50.000 It's pretty obvious that the constitution means that you get to hang out with whoever you want to hang out with because freedom of speech and freedom of assembly both mean freedom of association, right?

00:48:57.000 I get to say what I want and the government can't

00:49:00.000 Control that.

00:49:00.000 And I also get to assemble for petition and assemble in groups however I want.

00:49:07.000 And the Supreme Court has found in cases like the NAACP versus Alabama in 1958 that the NAACP did not have to reveal to the Alabama Attorney General the names and addresses of NAACP members in the state because that would violate freedom of association.

00:49:20.000 In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts could revoke the membership of a former Eagle Scout when it found out that he was a gay rights activist because they said they have freedom of association.

00:49:30.000 Freedom of association is vital because it seems to me that this should be applied to the business space as well.

00:49:34.000 I get to associate with whom I want.

00:49:36.000 I don't have to associate with anybody else.

00:49:38.000 And I understand that there are lots of things that people do that are bad and of which you don't approve.

00:49:43.000 And that historically speaking, there have been lots of people in the United States who have engaged in discriminatory practices against various members of the population.

00:49:49.000 That does not mean the government gets to, at least the federal government, does not get to come in and force you to cater to audiences that you don't want or to perform businesses with people you don't want.

00:49:59.000 Now, this is an extreme version of the argument that is being made in the Masterpiece Cake Shop case.

00:50:04.000 In that case, they're not even basing it on freedom of association.

00:50:06.000 They're saying, I have freedom of speech, you can't force me to express a message.

00:50:10.000 Right?

00:50:10.000 I'm an artist, you can't force me to express a message.

00:50:12.000 Which is a very strong argument.

00:50:14.000 I would go further.

00:50:14.000 I would say you actually should be able to turn away people from your business, even if you just don't like their face.

00:50:20.000 Right?

00:50:20.000 You should be able to do that.

00:50:21.000 Does that make you a jerk? 1.00

00:50:22.000 Absolutely. 1.00

00:50:23.000 Does it make you a bad person?

00:50:24.000 Yes.

00:50:26.000 Should you be able to do it?

00:50:27.000 Yes, because that is true for every association, right?

00:50:30.000 If I have a synagogue, I shouldn't be forced to admit a Christian to my synagogue. 0.99

00:50:34.000 And if I have a church, I shouldn't be forced to admit a Jew, right? 1.00

00:50:38.000 The idea of freedom of association requires that we all act in society together and that we cultivate good people.

00:50:45.000 But the idea that government has to force it down our throats, I think, is a big mistake.

00:50:47.000 This became a big debate during the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and there were a lot of people making exactly the argument I'm making.

00:50:53.000 Barry Goldwater made this argument.

00:50:54.000 Barry Goldwater was a civil rights activist, by the way.

00:50:56.000 And people proclaimed that he was racist because he said that people have the right to choose with whom they do business, even if you don't like the choices that they make.

00:51:03.000 And he was portrayed as some sort of evil racist for all of this.

00:51:07.000 There is no principled argument for freedom of association if the government gets to decide with whom you associate.

00:51:12.000 End of story.

00:51:13.000 So, that's the history of freedom of association in a nutshell.

00:51:17.000 It should still apply.

00:51:18.000 Unfortunately, it's a right that's been increasingly written out over time.

00:51:21.000 We should rewrite it back into the Constitution because if you don't like me, you shouldn't be forced to associate with me and vice versa.

00:51:26.000 Okay, we will be back here tomorrow with all the latest and greatest.

00:51:29.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:51:29.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:51:34.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Glover.

00:51:36.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:51:38.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:51:39.000 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:51:42.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:51:43.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Cormina.

00:51:45.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:51:46.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:51:49.000 Copyright Forward Publishing 2017.

The Ben Shapiro Show - December 07, 2017

Franken’s Frank Is Cooked | Ep. 432

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