The Ben Shapiro Show - Has The Met Gala Finally Gone Too Far?

00:00:00.000 The Met Gala, it is the annual high holy day of the secular left. 0.55

00:00:03.000 Basically, Democrats descend on the Metropolitan Museum of Art to dress in costumes that cost more than the average American's mortgage, all while lecturing you about the evils of the 1%.

00:00:13.000 It makes you nauseous. 0.50

00:00:15.000 It always has.

00:00:16.000 It always will.

00:00:17.000 But while the champagne was flowing inside, chaos was erupting outside. 0.75

00:00:21.000 We will look at the commie protesters targeting the event and predictably event chair Jeff Bezos, because apparently building a company that revolutionized global logistics and provides over a million jobs Makes you a villain in the eyes of people currently using Amazon's livered iPhones to organize their rallies. 0.72

00:00:35.000 We'll go outfit by outfit. 0.91

00:00:36.000 We'll pick the very worst dressed.

00:00:38.000 Yes, it is worse than you could have imagined.

00:00:41.000 Also on the show today, we're continuing our deep dive into Luke Rosiak and the Daily Wire's shocking investigation into massive Medicare fraud in Ohio.

00:00:48.000 Plus, Vivek Ramaswamy joins me to discuss the systemic rot in the administrative state and what can be done to stop it.

00:00:54.000 And finally, because we all need a break from the collapse of Western civilization, I will be giving my first reaction to the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

00:01:02.000 All that and more coming up.

00:01:03.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:01:04.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show. 0.98

00:01:10.000 Let's talk about a ridiculous thing. 0.98

00:01:11.000 The Met Gala is one of the most ridiculous things in America. 0.99

00:01:14.000 It's truly ridiculous. 0.95

00:01:16.000 The Met Gala is a charity event for the Metropolitan Museum, particularly, they have a costume museum. 0.73

00:01:23.000 Jeff Bezos sponsored it this year, dropped about $10 million so that he could be a co host of the Met Gala. 1.00

00:01:28.000 And it's always ridiculous and stupid. 1.00

00:01:29.000 It is very, very wealthy people who dress up in absurd outfits while decrying their own wealth. 1.00

00:01:38.000 So, it really is incredibly, incredibly dumb. 0.95

00:01:41.000 But now, in the last few years, we've had people keep trying to invade the Met Gala as though they're storming the Bastille in 1789. 0.97

00:01:49.000 As though if they tackle Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala or something, they're overthrowing the system.

00:01:56.000 So, we're now cosplaying the revolution on pretty much all sides.

00:02:00.000 So, one of the things that happened over at the Met Gala last night was a protester attempting to enter the Met Gala.

00:02:07.000 The cops had to tackle him.

00:02:08.000 Here's what that looked like.

00:02:14.000 You see somebody trying to get in, and the cops charging the guy.

00:02:23.000 Well, things are going well over in New York.

00:02:28.000 Meanwhile, apparently, some Met Gala protesters decided to place hundreds of bottles of pee inside the museum in order to protest Jeff Bezos.

00:02:36.000 The good news is that the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they probably consider that a form of art.

00:02:39.000 So you could just stack those bottles of pee and call it an art display.

00:02:43.000 Probably.

00:02:44.000 And it would do fine.

00:02:46.000 But the fact that they are very, very angry at Jeff Bezos for dropping $10 million to sponsor the thing is pretty astonishing.

00:02:52.000 In a statement accompanying the latest stunt, the activist collective, it's called Everyone Hates Elon, an anti billionaire group funded by roughly 1,000 donors worldwide, they said Amazon founder and oligarch Jeff Bezos just finished his Met Gala pre party at his penthouse and is getting ready for the big night.

00:03:08.000 We couldn't let him get away with using celebrity and fashion to hide his crimes or exposing them instead.

00:03:14.000 What are Jeff Bezos' crimes other than being able to bring people products and services at an incredibly cheap price in extraordinarily mobile fashion?

00:03:23.000 What are the crimes?

00:03:25.000 Well, the crime is being rich.

00:03:27.000 That is the crime.

00:03:29.000 Again, cosplaying the Marxist revolution in New York City.

00:03:33.000 So commie messages were actually projected onto Bezos' New York City apartment.

00:03:38.000 Here's what that looked like Shame on you, Jeff Bezos.

00:03:43.000 The people that need to be being celebrated at the Met Gala are the workers.

00:03:48.000 People like me, we deserve that celebration.

00:03:53.000 We deserve so much more than we're getting.

00:03:56.000 There's power in numbers, and there's more of us than there are of you.

00:04:02.000 Remember, Jeff, ordinary people like myself that helped make you billionaires, if we built it, we can tear it down.

00:04:11.000 Think about that tonight, okay?

00:04:13.000 After that bottle of champagne when you go to bed.

00:04:16.000 We're going to keep growing, and we're going to keep building, and we're going to keep protesting, and we're going to keep marching, and we're going to keep fighting this dystopian culture.

00:04:27.000 We're not stopping, we're just getting cranked up. 0.99

00:04:30.000 Enjoy your damn gala. 1.00

00:04:35.000 Again, protesting the Met Gala, which again is a bunch of very rich Democrats. 1.00

00:04:39.000 That's really what it is.

00:04:40.000 Like Bezos may have voted Republican in the last election.

00:04:42.000 I don't know.

00:04:43.000 But I will say that disproportionately, the Met Gala is a bunch of Hollywood Democrats with a gigantic wad of cash.

00:04:51.000 It is kind of amazing that you have everyone cosplaying the revolution on all sides.

00:04:54.000 My favorite outfit from the Met Gala, by the way, was there's an actress named Sarah Paulson who's worth, I believe, $12 million.

00:05:01.000 And she showed up wearing this monstrosity.

00:05:02.000 She was wearing a bizarre dress, but she was wearing dollar bills over her eyes because money is blinding her while wearing an expensive dress to the Met Gala.

00:05:13.000 Again, these are all Democrats.

00:05:15.000 These are all Democrats who are pretending that they hate the system that they have benefited from.

00:05:19.000 It really is incredible. 0.99

00:05:22.000 Now, again, I do have to make fun of the cultural aspect of this because every year the outfits of the Met Gala are increasingly bizarre and stupid. 0.99

00:05:28.000 Sam Smith, who used to be just a gay man and has now decided that he is a non binary fat gay man, I guess. 0.99

00:05:34.000 He showed up dressed as Fat Game Maleficent. 0.72

00:05:37.000 So that was exciting.

00:05:39.000 Here, that's an outfit. 0.92

00:05:42.000 Listen, I'll admit, I'll admit, the ostentatious display of obnoxious wealth from some of the world's most useless people here is enough to turn anybody into a communist. 0.99

00:05:53.000 Not because communism is good, but because this stuff is ridiculous. 0.97

00:05:57.000 It is ridiculous, but it is also not an aspect of capitalism per se, it's an aspect of decadence. 0.95

00:06:03.000 That's a different thing. 0.96

00:06:05.000 Meanwhile, a trans Tony Award winning producer named Jordan Roth showed up wearing a creepy sculpture, wearing like a creepy mannequin over his shoulder while he was dressed as a woman. 0.85

00:06:18.000 So, oh man, I don't even know what's going on. 0.68

00:06:21.000 Lena Dunham showed up as a character from Stranger Things who is apparently flayed from the inside out by the mind flayer.

00:06:28.000 I don't know what happened to this dress.

00:06:31.000 That's some scary stuff happening right there.

00:06:35.000 Yeah, kind of gruesome.

00:06:37.000 I think my favorite outfit, honestly, was Katy Perry. 0.92

00:06:39.000 Katy Perry showed up wearing an outfit that was basically a peekaboo mask. 0.98

00:06:44.000 When I say that, I mean she is literally wearing a door on her face that opens and shuts.

00:06:50.000 I just can't imagine how excited Justin Trudeau is about that because any two year old would find that amusing.

00:06:56.000 So Justin Trudeau probably every time she closes that door, Justin Trudeau is like, where did she go?

00:07:01.000 Where did she go?

00:07:01.000 And then she opens it up.

00:07:02.000 Oh my God, Katy Perry's back, which is really, that must be exciting.

00:07:07.000 For him.

00:07:08.000 Or maybe when she gets annoying, he just closes the door on her face. 1.00

00:07:15.000 Beyonce showed up wearing an outfit from the Day of the Dead celebration in Coco. 0.99

00:07:20.000 That's an interesting outfit there from Beyonce.

00:07:25.000 Yeah, that's a lot. 1.00

00:07:27.000 Tiana Taylor showed up dressed as a Commodore dog.

00:07:32.000 I'm not sure what this was here. 0.96

00:07:35.000 She looks as though she's straight from 101 Dalmatians.

00:07:38.000 And Cardi B, I think, had probably the worst outfit. 0.76

00:07:41.000 She apparently has been plagued by massive tumors on her feet and on her shoulders, which is what that dress looks like.

00:07:49.000 Sad stuff happening.

00:07:50.000 Bad Bunny showed up dressed as Joe Biden.

00:07:53.000 By which I mean he aged himself like 40 years and should have dressed as an old man.

00:07:59.000 Yeah, again, ostentatious displays of wealth are not likely to make capitalism popular.

00:08:05.000 But let's just remember every single person who is doing this is preaching on behalf of anti capitalism.

00:08:12.000 They preach about the decadence of capitalism as they participate in it and foment it.

00:08:18.000 Okay, meanwhile, in more serious news so yesterday, based on our investigation in Ohio, the vice president of the United States put out a tweet pledging.

00:08:26.000 That he would look into what was going on.

00:08:28.000 Quote, these shocking allegations, if true, show why the frauds task force work is so important.

00:08:33.000 I'm directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate.

00:08:41.000 So we are already getting action here at Daily Wire.

00:08:43.000 This is why we exist, not just to bring you things that entertain you, but obviously to change the world in better ways.

00:08:50.000 Luke Rosiak, who is our senior investigative reporter over here, he has the second part of his large scale investigative series today talking about the extent of Medicaid fraud in Ohio.

00:09:00.000 He points out.

00:09:01.000 There are seven buildings along East Dublin, Granville Road in Columbus, Ohio, that are filled with hundreds of office suites, all owned by a company called Cordoba Real Estate.

00:09:10.000 Almost every tenant in the building bills Medicaid for the impoverished, obviously, as a home health care business that provides low-skilled, usually non-medical care to elderly or disabled people.

00:09:20.000 So basically, seems very much like what Nick Shirley was uncovering in Minnesota.

00:09:25.000 Essentially, we have these gigantic buildings that are filled with home health care providers, completely empty of people.

00:09:31.000 Because we actually have video of Luke walking through the halls here.

00:09:35.000 Here is Luke walking through the halls in an empty office building in Ohio that presumably millions of dollars are flooding through.

00:09:45.000 I noticed that you guys have gotten $10 million in Medicaid.

00:09:48.000 What exactly goes into a home healthcare business?

00:09:52.000 Home health, bond, horizon care.

00:09:52.000 Huh.

00:09:57.000 There's two.

00:09:58.000 Home health, H Again, the accusations of racism, him walking through full on empty buildings.

00:10:12.000 Apparently, one Cordoba Road employee said that the government actually pays people to take care of their own families.

00:10:18.000 This, of course, is the scam, according to Luke's reporting.

00:10:22.000 The Cordoba owned buildings in Columbus house 288 businesses registered with Medicaid.

00:10:27.000 Together, they charge taxpayers more than a quarter of a billion dollars between 2018 and 2024 in a city where there are only about 6,200 people who are 75 or older on Medicaid.

00:10:38.000 Apparently, at one address, there are 80 companies that collectively build at least $73 million to Medicaid and receive $23 million from the state of Ohio.

00:10:48.000 Again, shocking levels of what appear to be alleged fraud.

00:10:52.000 And again, here is Luke talking to one of the employees at Cordoba Road who admits the government basically pays you to take care of your own family.

00:11:00.000 In the Cordoba office building at 1425 East Dublin Granville Road, we finally located a business suite with somebody in it, DC Home Healthcare LLC.

00:11:11.000 Asked how he recruits employees, he said employees and patients come as a package.

00:11:16.000 70% of the employees are just being paid to spend time with their own family members.

00:11:21.000 The patient, like they have someone in their family that has the qualifications to be an aide and CBR and everything.

00:11:29.000 So they just come together.

00:11:30.000 They say, yeah, well, I got approval from my doctor.

00:11:35.000 After getting a note from the doctor vouching for the elder's need for personal services.

00:11:40.000 The family member of an elderly person isn't set up to build Medicaid, so a company stands in the middle.

00:11:45.000 I mean, we're just taking a small cut because, you know, they pay us and then we pay them their hours.

00:11:51.000 He said the number of hours depends on a doctor's recommendation, but it's often an hour a day.

00:11:56.000 Like, do you expect them to take time off of work just to take care of the roast?

00:12:00.000 I mean, there has to be some sort of benefit.

00:12:02.000 I asked him why people wouldn't simply help their aging parents with basic tasks out of human decency.

00:12:08.000 Well, the government didn't pay you to do it.

00:12:11.000 I mean, people see that as lucrative, so, you know, they should jump on in.

00:12:15.000 Again, unbelievable stuff.

00:12:16.000 Are you as a taxpayer willing to subsidize people to take care of their own aging parents?

00:12:20.000 This is crazy towns.

00:12:22.000 It's crazy.

00:12:23.000 Luke reports that there is one home health care service called Omega, which charged taxpayers $11 million between December 2017 and October 2024.

00:12:33.000 Omega was incorporated in 2011 by a person named Mohamed Jama, a Democratic politician.

00:12:38.000 Jama founded a newspaper called the Somali Post, also a Somali coffee house, and has been affiliated with the Somali Education Resource Center, which received $6 million in federal aid in 2023, all on top of raising nine kids and working as an engineer.

00:12:53.000 When he ran for State Senate as a Democrat in 2024, that home health care business was not even mentioned in his profile.

00:13:01.000 So, you know, it's great.

00:13:03.000 We also get to, as taxpayers, subsidize people running for the state legislature as they clear millions of dollars in cash.

00:13:11.000 Joining us on the line, the man who broke this story, Luke Rosiak, is a senior investigative reporter at the Daily Wire.

00:13:16.000 You can follow him on X at Luke Rosiak.

00:13:18.000 He's a great follow.

00:13:19.000 Luke, thanks for taking the time.

00:13:20.000 Really appreciate it.

00:13:22.000 Thanks for having me, Ben.

00:13:25.000 So, the story has already had a gigantic impact locally and federally.

00:13:28.000 The VP is committing to an investigation.

00:13:30.000 What are the reactions that you've got your eye on to your explosive expose here?

00:13:37.000 I mean, we just kind of laid out the bare bones of what we had.

00:13:37.000 Yeah, it's funny.

00:13:40.000 Part two just dropped, and we've got a number of actual details going.

00:13:44.000 But JD Vance, right from the beginning, said that the task force that he's helming with Andrew Ferguson, who's a very competent lawyer, is going to be descending upon Ohio.

00:13:54.000 There's been a number of other reactions in the Senate, including from the Chairman of the aging committee, and so on. 0.82

00:14:01.000 But at the center of this is the Medicaid waiver program for home health care, and in particular, what they call personal services, which is what I'm calling butlers for Somalis.

00:14:14.000 Medicaid is supposed to be for medical stuff, and personal services is just like butlers.

00:14:19.000 It's people that go there to help you with whatever you need.

00:14:21.000 You could cook, you can clean, even just conversation and companionship.

00:14:26.000 And so I just got back from Columbus, and you can walk through these buildings, and there's a whole street of them.

00:14:32.000 And you go inside these buildings and there's like hundreds of the small businesses.

00:14:36.000 Nobody's in almost any of them.

00:14:38.000 And they'll have signs that just say that that's the service they provide is companionship and conversation.

00:14:44.000 Um, and so that's kind of the question that's for fraud investigators.

00:14:48.000 I think there's a lot of leads that, that we're going to be providing to them and people are going to see in the stories we have rolling out, including today.

00:14:55.000 Um, but there's also the question of lowercase F fraud, which is, um, some of this may well be legal.

00:15:03.000 And it may well be very poor policy decisions that our leaders have made that allow people to bill for hanging out with their family members or hanging out, going to somebody's house to provide them with this companionship or cleaning their house in a way that's totally unverifiable.

00:15:23.000 And so I think there are both fraud questions.

00:15:27.000 And I think if JD Vance's task force finds that they can't prove with the standard that would be required in a court of law, Then you get to the question of do we just have to get rid of these programs?

00:15:39.000 Because maybe we had programs that used to work in a time when Americans could be relied on, to be honest, that kind of break down in situations where you import people from low trust societies.

00:15:55.000 So, Luke, take us back to the beginning of the story. 0.73

00:15:57.000 How did you first uncover this level of fraud?

00:16:00.000 And what was it like walking through these empty buildings that supposedly hundreds of millions of dollars are being funneled through for home health care?

00:16:08.000 Yeah.

00:16:09.000 So, Doge back in February released.

00:16:12.000 Doge working with HHS, a database of Medicaid spending to what companies are getting paid by Medicaid.

00:16:19.000 And I've been trying to get that for many years because when you look at that pie chart of the federal budget, so much of it is in Medicaid to the point where a lot of liberals kind of mocked Doge saying there's nothing to even cut unless you're going to go for the non discretionary stuff.

00:16:33.000 And so when we can actually see what Medicaid is going to, and then we find out that it's actually not just all like untouchable, like doctor's visits, it's like, Very much fair game for those that want to make the government more efficient.

00:16:47.000 I think that's a huge potential for kind of saving our country.

00:16:53.000 And it's a huge win for transparency that they did that.

00:16:55.000 So I did my computer thing.

00:16:57.000 I've been doing data analysis for a long time, and I had my computer run queries that told me where the really sketchy stuff was. 1.00

00:17:03.000 And it took me right to a red state, Ohio, Columbus, and the Northeast sector of Columbus, which turns out to be where all the Somalis live. 0.98

00:17:13.000 Um, but it's funny because I didn't go say I want to go find Somalis. 0.97

00:17:17.000 I didn't really tell it anything except tell me where some really sketchy money stuff is going on. 0.97

00:17:21.000 And the data took me right there.

00:17:23.000 Um, and so I went and I had, you know, a guy from the Capital Research Center is a great researcher.

00:17:28.000 We both did our thing.

00:17:29.000 We poured through all the records and then we did the kind of what Nick Shirley made famous.

00:17:35.000 We saw similar to what he did with the daycares.

00:17:37.000 Nobody's there.

00:17:39.000 Um, and it was very creepy to walk down these long hallways.

00:17:44.000 It looks like.

00:17:45.000 Aliens abducted people on some day at noon, like months ago, because a lot of them will have signs saying we're out to lunch.

00:17:51.000 And it's like you can tell they've been out to lunch for a long time.

00:17:54.000 There's like mail piling up, like postmarked from months prior.

00:18:00.000 So at the end of the day, you know, we kind of did the Nick Shirley thing and found the same results in Ohio.

00:18:04.000 But then we coupled that with really rigorous database research and we went through all these individuals in public records.

00:18:11.000 And, you know, for those that implied that somehow Nick Shirley got the story wrong or didn't do a rigorous enough job, I can tell you when you take two months and you look up hundreds of these people and you tell the full story, it actually makes it worse for the Medicaid people and the Somalis, not better.

00:18:29.000 So, this is a five part expose.

00:18:31.000 Obviously, today was just part two.

00:18:33.000 Do you have any clues as to what's coming?

00:18:37.000 So, you know, we'll have a person, you'll hear an interview with me talking to a guy who's been charged 30 times in court, all kinds of multiple fraud arrests, violence arrests.

00:18:50.000 And he's arguing me with me that it's totally fine to, to run a, a Medicaid company. 0.80

00:18:56.000 Um, you know, he says, I was just too dumb to know what the law is. 0.81

00:19:00.000 And so this is what we're dealing with here. 0.99

00:19:02.000 I mean, that's the excuse of these people is I'm, I'm really dumb. 0.96

00:19:05.000 I just didn't even know it was wrong to, to, to steal and lie constantly.

00:19:10.000 Um, but there's a lot to go through in, in part two.

00:19:12.000 There's a tons of different examples from what just dropped.

00:19:15.000 Um, that's going to take, I think, people a while to, to, to go through.

00:19:19.000 Um, for example, a Democrat politician.

00:19:23.000 By the name of Muhammad Jama, who ran for state senate with the Democrat endorsement in Ohio.

00:19:31.000 He founded an $11 million home healthcare company while he was doing other stuff.

00:19:37.000 He did it as a side business.

00:19:39.000 And he didn't even mention it when he ran for office.

00:19:42.000 And that's a pattern that we keep seeing here is like these people have these businesses on the side.

00:19:46.000 I mean, can you imagine making multiple millions of dollars and it's not even what you do full time?

00:19:51.000 It's just kind of your, just like a little side gig.

00:19:57.000 Well, Luke, you know, obviously the vice president has responded.

00:20:00.000 The state of Ohio, I'd imagine, is going to respond at some level.

00:20:03.000 What are you expecting from Congress?

00:20:05.000 What do you think are the next steps going forward?

00:20:08.000 What I'm really interested to see is whether they will respond.

00:20:11.000 Send these Medicaid waivers.

00:20:14.000 I spent a great deal of time investigating all these people and keeping track of, well, Ahmed Muhammad and how does he relate to Muhammad Ahmed and is Abdurrazaq Ahmed the brother?

00:20:26.000 You know, it goes on and on.

00:20:27.000 It's very difficult to track these people because they don't even have birthday.

00:20:30.000 A lot of them don't even know when they were born.

00:20:32.000 So our system is designed to keep track of people based on the idea that family members have the same names and you have birth dates and stuff.

00:20:38.000 It's very difficult.

00:20:39.000 And I put the time in and I was able to find some really good stuff.

00:20:43.000 But I'm certain that the government is not able to do this at scale because it's just too laborious.

00:20:49.000 And I get the sense that there's whack a mole going on.

00:20:52.000 And I get into this in some of the stories where somebody goes to jail for fraud, but pretty soon all of his associates are like popping up with like similar assets.

00:21:00.000 And it's like, are they just moving money around?

00:21:03.000 Is it really just a game of whack a mole to be trying to stop fraud when it's going to be really hard to prove?

00:21:12.000 At the end of the day, they may not even be punished that severely, and somebody else is just going to do it.

00:21:16.000 So I'm interested to see whether, um, they rescind these waivers.

00:21:21.000 I think the states are spending this money pretty freely because it's the federal money.

00:21:24.000 It's other people's money.

00:21:26.000 Um, and it's a little unfair, I think, for certain states to have waivers like Minnesota and Ohio that let them bill federal taxpayers for services that people in, in, in other states don't get to do.

00:21:39.000 Um, and I think personal services is one that maybe there's a policy solution here rather than, than you get at the root of the fraud and you just cut it off, uh, you know, at the root. 0.98

00:21:49.000 And say no more personal services, no more butlers for Somalis. 0.79

00:21:53.000 Um, if you're, if you have an aging parent and they need help cleaning their house once a week or cooking a dinner once a day, um, I think this is what people have done for all of human history. 0.99

00:22:03.000 You chip in to your family because it's the right thing to do.

00:22:06.000 Um, and you don't, you don't insist on a government paycheck because it's just too easily abused.

00:22:11.000 And even when it is abused, um, it's, it's hard to prove fraud because this kind of thing happens behind closed doors in private residences.

00:22:19.000 And I think we can no longer afford to have programs.

00:22:21.000 Where proving fraud to the standard that's required in court is so hard.

00:22:28.000 If there's going to be blatant, what seems like fraud, what seems super sketchy, I don't think if anybody was in those buildings that I was in in Columbus, they'd be like, oh, yeah, this is totally normal, totally normal that this person got $10 million.

00:22:40.000 It doesn't pass the sniff test.

00:22:41.000 I don't think anybody who saw it, any taxpayer, would agree.

00:22:45.000 We may have to look at a policy solution rather than just fraud enforcement and just eliminating some of these programs.

00:22:53.000 Well, the investigation is a massive win.

00:22:55.000 It's the reason why the Daily Wire exists because we don't just deliver stories.

00:22:58.000 We deliver actual, real investigations that actually change the way the United States is run.

00:23:03.000 Luke Rosiak, thanks for your amazing work here.

00:23:05.000 Give Luke a follow again on exit.

00:23:06.000 Luke Rosiak, he's one of the best investigative reporters in the country.

00:23:10.000 Obviously, we're very glad that he's on our side.

00:23:12.000 Luke, thanks for the time.

00:23:14.000 Thanks so much, Ben.

00:23:15.000 Already coming up, we'll be joined by Vivek Ramaswamy.

00:23:17.000 His primary for Ohio governor is today.

00:23:19.000 What would he do to stop all of this fraud? 0.99

00:23:22.000 Later on in the show, we're going to review the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and we'll get to the latest in Iran.

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00:24:31.000 Obviously, a shocking story, but we need people who are actually going to correct it.

00:24:35.000 Joining me on the line to discuss what comes next is Vivek Ramaswamy.

00:24:38.000 He has his Republican primary today in the state of Ohio, the likely next governor of Ohio.

00:24:43.000 He is an entrepreneur, political commentator, and author.

00:24:45.000 And of course, he ran for president in 2024 in the Republican primaries.

00:24:49.000 Vivek, great to talk to you.

00:24:51.000 Good to see you, man.

00:24:54.000 So, why don't we talk about, first of all, the state of the primary?

00:24:56.000 So, obviously, the primary is today.

00:24:58.000 You are widely expected to win.

00:25:01.000 What are the expectations for you in terms of sort of percentage?

00:25:04.000 Because obviously, there's been a large scale movement to suggest that you're not doing as well as you should.

00:25:09.000 But the reality is that competitive primaries in the Republican Party.

00:25:13.000 Areas in Ohio have been quite common for a very long time.

00:25:16.000 So, what are you expecting today?

00:25:18.000 Yeah, look, I mean, the primaries are usually quite competitive.

00:25:21.000 I would say we're cautiously optimistic that we will shatter recent norms for what those primary outcomes are.

00:25:29.000 If you look at the 2024, 2022 governor and Senate primaries, you had competitive primaries where Bernie Moreno and JD Vance and Mike DeWine were elected.

00:25:39.000 You're looking at 40, at most 50% of the vote that went for the Republican.

00:25:45.000 Even if you go back to 2018, when Mike DeWine was first elected, when someone else was elected to the Senate, you see the same thing.

00:25:51.000 It's been a ceiling of 40 to 50 percent.

00:25:54.000 So we'll see what the results come in.

00:25:55.000 I don't want to count the chickens before they hatch, but take a look at it tomorrow or even late tonight.

00:26:00.000 And I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to significantly beat that ceiling.

00:26:06.000 But let's see.

00:26:09.000 So obviously, we here at Daily Wire have been covering extensively the investigative reporting of Luke Rosiak and the rest of our investigative team about.

00:26:16.000 What appears to be alleged fraud in Ohio, Medicaid fraud.

00:26:21.000 Again, we've seen this in a wide variety of states.

00:26:23.000 The extent of it in Ohio appears to be quite shocking.

00:26:26.000 Again, what you're looking at is buildings that look largely empty with tons of registered businesses that are receiving Medicaid monies.

00:26:34.000 What do you make of that?

00:26:34.000 And what would you do as governor of Ohio to crack down on that?

00:26:38.000 So, look, I think that the reality is all states, including Ohio, I think have turned a blind eye to this level of rampant fraud of the welfare system broadly, including Medicaid.

00:26:50.000 And it starts, Ben, with enforcing the laws that are already on the books.

00:26:55.000 So you could talk about passing new laws.

00:26:56.000 I think that's a reasonable conversation to have, but that requires a legislature.

00:27:00.000 That takes time.

00:27:01.000 And furthermore, you get asked the question of what's the point of passing new laws if the ones that are already on the books aren't being sufficiently enforced?

00:27:09.000 So one of my top priorities is to take the egregious cases here of fraud that, you know, frankly, your reporting was really intriguing, or, you know, Daily Wire's reporting was really intriguing to me.

00:27:19.000 I wish I could say that it was a shock.

00:27:21.000 Compared to what I hear on the ground, unfortunately, it was not a shock, but I appreciate you putting a national spotlight on it in my own home state.

00:27:28.000 And I think what that does is it forces those who are in power to be able to pay attention to an issue that may have been swept under the rug for too long before.

00:27:37.000 When I am in power, hopefully, if we're elected, we're not going to sweep it under the rug.

00:27:41.000 We got to prosecute aggressively.

00:27:42.000 And what's the purpose of prosecuting?

00:27:44.000 Two purposes.

00:27:46.000 First is when someone does something wrong, you have to actually punish the person who does the wrong thing.

00:27:50.000 But the second purpose, of course, is deterrence the idea that you're just going to get away with bilking the government.

00:27:56.000 And it's not really even bilking the government so much as bilking the taxpayer.

00:28:00.000 The ordinary law-abiding American, the ordinary law-abiding Ohioan, that's not okay.

00:28:05.000 And we have to send that deterrent signal.

00:28:09.000 So in the end, Ben, it's as often happens in these things, it's not as complicated as it sounds, right?

00:28:14.000 This isn't fancy stuff.

00:28:15.000 Okay.

00:28:16.000 In a modern era of AI, you have a toolkit that allows you to spot abnormalities even more quickly and more reliably than at prior points in human history.

00:28:26.000 We have laws on the books in Ohio.

00:28:28.000 We have a Republican state that controls all three branches of government.

00:28:32.000 This is doable.

00:28:33.000 But it does require a leader at the top who's willing to act with a spine decisively.

00:28:39.000 And that's why I'm in this.

00:28:40.000 I mean, you think about why I sometimes get the question of why am I doing this?

00:28:45.000 Which, you know, politics can be frustrating at times.

00:28:48.000 I have to admit sometimes I have to remind myself why I'm doing this.

00:28:51.000 And the reality is, I mean, it's not for fame or fortune.

00:28:55.000 There's better ways of acquiring those things.

00:28:57.000 And I've been blessed in my life.

00:28:59.000 I'm doing this because I know we can get this done.

00:29:01.000 This is not complex stuff.

00:29:03.000 You know, fixing the waste, fraud, and abuse, particularly in the Medicaid system.

00:29:07.000 And you think about the analogy to that to every other system that's over bureaucratized, which, you know, we're not talking about today, but the public education system, how broken that is with the bureaucracy that suppresses the students and their achievement and their ability to report that to the public to, in a different sense, keep legally bilking the public without standing for results.

00:29:27.000 You look at the overgrowth of government in every sector from Medicaid to the welfare state to even public education, K 12, higher education, it's a mess.

00:29:38.000 And I think what we need now more than ever in Ohio, and frankly, in states like Ohio across the country, are real entrepreneurs who aren't willing to tolerate nonsense, who are willing to cut through the nonsense when needed.

00:29:50.000 And that's why I'm doing this job, because I know I can get it done.

00:29:55.000 So, Vivek, obviously, you were involved at the beginning with Doge.

00:29:59.000 Our reporting was largely based on some of the revelations that came via Doge, because a lot of the information that Doge uncovered served as sort of the basis for our investigation.

00:30:08.000 Why do you think it is that so many members of government at the state and the federal level?

00:30:12.000 Have brushed all of this under the rug because you would assume that good hearted people in government who would like for these programs to work efficiently would be unhappy with the fraud.

00:30:21.000 But it seems as though they have more of an incentive to pretend the fraud isn't happening, thus to claim that the programs are working better than they are or something.

00:30:28.000 Yeah.

00:30:29.000 So a couple of things there, Ben.

00:30:30.000 And it's worth, I mean, I'm not going to just give you the standard talking points you can read about anywhere.

00:30:34.000 Okay.

00:30:34.000 I want to give you some specifics from where I said it.

00:30:38.000 I think there's an incentive failure in the way that states deal with the federal government as it relates to Medicaid.

00:30:44.000 And this is important to understand.

00:30:45.000 Okay.

00:30:46.000 As you said, it's well intentioned people producing outcomes that are not well and that are not really doing well by the people who are supposed to serve.

00:30:55.000 Why is the question?

00:30:56.000 So, this incentive failure is important.

00:30:58.000 Where if a given state today cracks down on this waste, fraud, and abuse, okay, cracks down on Medicaid overexpenditures, and you could talk about uppercase F fraud and there's also lowercase F fraud, which is to say maybe technically legal but doesn't comport with anyone's sense of who should be getting these dollars.

00:31:17.000 The problem is the state that does that heavy lifting.

00:31:20.000 The equivalent of a doja state, say, if you did that, you as a state don't really get to keep most of those dollars.

00:31:20.000 Okay.

00:31:28.000 What instead happens is you get fewer pass through payments from the federal government.

00:31:33.000 So that is a broken incentive system.

00:31:35.000 So, so for people aren't familiar how this works, it's like you get reimbursed for your expenses, almost all of them from the federal government.

00:31:42.000 So if you cut those expenses, but you're losing the reimbursement, Then you, as a state, let's say you're a governor of a state, say, okay, well, I got other competing priorities because I would rather look after some other priority in my state.

00:31:55.000 This is going to make me less popular, giving free government money away to people who could be voting for me.

00:32:01.000 But in return, the federal government is still the backstop anyway.

00:32:05.000 Why bother?

00:32:06.000 So I think that incentive failure needs to change.

00:32:08.000 And one of the things that I intend to do when I'm governor, my first two years, remember, will be President Trump's last two years as president.

00:32:16.000 I have great relationships with many members of the cabinet.

00:32:18.000 With President Trump, of course, and, and, you know, Dr. Oz and I have had great conversations, including in potential visits we've talked about to Ohio, to think about how we're able to change that game, to be able to say, I mean, having, having, a lot of these insights came to me from the two and a half months that I did co-head Doge.

00:32:35.000 We need to fix those incentive structures just like you would in a business, where if somebody who's running a given division of a business generates greater profitability, you want that person to be rewarded for it.

00:32:45.000 I'd say the same thing with respect to the states that, You know, from the federal government, if you're saving the federal government the money, you also, as a state, should participate in a greater portion of those savings.

00:32:56.000 So that'll be something that I'm definitely going to work on when I'm governor.

00:32:59.000 And I'm confident that with a friendly administration, we will be able to deliver common sense solutions.

00:33:05.000 The other issue, Ben, is just human nature.

00:33:06.000 I mean, at the end of the day, if someone's grown dependent on the federal welfare state, most politicians are afraid to touch that.

00:33:15.000 And the reality is that goes for, if we're calling a spade a spade, Republicans and Democrats alike.

00:33:20.000 Democrats have been worse in this respect, but a lot of Republicans.

00:33:23.000 Prefer to talk about or change the subject to other issues.

00:33:26.000 And at some point as a country, we're going to have to reckon with this.

00:33:29.000 We've got a $37 trillion national debt and growing.

00:33:33.000 Our children, their generation are not going to be able to sustain the brunt of this level of federal spending.

00:33:40.000 And you look at how the creep scope, the scope creep of these programs from welfare to SNAP to Medicaid, often now finding their way to individuals who were never intended to be the beneficiaries of those programs.

00:33:54.000 That's not only bad for the federal budget, not only bad for state budgets, it's in the long run also bad for the very people who are supposedly the recipients of those dollars.

00:34:05.000 That's what's driving an epidemic of purposelessness, of depression, anxiety, a loss of meaning.

00:34:11.000 When you ultimately aren't working and are permanently dependent on Uncle Sam, that actually reduces your own sense of agency too.

00:34:19.000 And this should be something that conservatives are concerned with, conservatives are talking about.

00:34:24.000 And I think it's really important that we restore.

00:34:27.000 A direction in the Republican party and in the conservative movement that confronts these issues head on rather than changing the topic to, you know, pandering about how we're going to create a different kind of nanny state.

00:34:39.000 I don't want that.

00:34:40.000 And so I'm hoping that this is a message that will not only help save Ohio from a lot of this waste, fraud, and abuse, but we use the waste, fraud, and abuse as a jumping off point to say that we're also going to focus on empowerment.

00:34:54.000 How do we put that money back in your pocket in the form of lower property taxes, lower income taxes, lower capital gains taxes that attract?

00:35:01.000 Higher paying jobs to our state that ensure more of our young people graduating from high schools and from universities then can get those high paying jobs so they don't have to be dependent on SNAP or welfare or Medicaid.

00:35:14.000 That's the way we should be building our country back.

00:35:17.000 And I think we will be in Ohio.

00:35:19.000 We're going to set an example.

00:35:20.000 And that is why I'm in this.

00:35:22.000 I know we can get this done.

00:35:24.000 It does take somebody who understands how this stuff works, understands how incentives work, understands how to manage a bureaucracy.

00:35:31.000 One of the things I learned while running a business, Ben, is oftentimes if the right person is not a good fit for the job, you got to make that decision and remove them from that job.

00:35:41.000 And a lot of people who run these government bureaucracies are reluctant to do that.

00:35:46.000 President Trump's pretty good at it.

00:35:47.000 I like that about him.

00:35:48.000 And it's the way I'm going to lead Ohio if you have people who are running these massive bureaucracies underneath them who are not willing to take action, we're going to remove them from their jobs and put in place people who are willing to do the job that the public hires them to do.

00:36:02.000 And, you know, the most basic step to the point of what we're talking about today starts with prosecuting the obvious waste, fraud, and abuse that belongs.

00:36:11.000 The dollars that are being bilked belong in the pockets of actual law abiding Ohioans.

00:36:16.000 And that's what I'm going to deliver.

00:36:20.000 Well, that is Vivek Ramaswamy.

00:36:22.000 He, of course, is running for governor of Ohio.

00:36:24.000 The primary is today, May 5th.

00:36:26.000 So make sure that if you're voting in Ohio, you go out and vote for him.

00:36:28.000 He's running a very brave race, by the way.

00:36:30.000 He's taking on a lot of these sort of grievance party politics that we've talked about a lot on the show.

00:36:34.000 Vivek wanted to ask you about that.

00:36:37.000 You know, the fact is that you have delved into areas that a lot of politicians have feared to delve into.

00:36:42.000 You have called out the sort of horseshoe right and the left for undercutting Americanism, for undercutting American exceptionalism.

00:36:50.000 That's a risky business.

00:36:51.000 I mean, because the fact is that obviously you're running in a competitive primary, you're also running in a very competitive state.

00:36:55.000 I mean, the Ohio governor's race is not a runaway race for Republicans in this election cycle.

00:37:00.000 What effect do you think that the sort of grievance party is going to have on our politics going forward if it isn't stopped?

00:37:08.000 Well, look, I'd encourage you to take a look at the Ohio primary results tonight or tomorrow morning, Ben, and tell your audience about it when they're out.

00:37:15.000 I'm actually really curious as well, because if you look at the person who's running against me, In this race, it's a guy who put up a YouTube video saying that he was worried that AI was not highlighting enough of the good qualities of Hitler.

00:37:28.000 He claims that I can't be the governor of Ohio because I'm an Indian, not an American, despite the fact that I'm born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I'm raising my kids in Ohio.

00:37:39.000 It's an embodiment of what the Twitter lab creates in the real world.

00:37:43.000 And it's frankly disappointing.

00:37:45.000 A lot of the policies sound socialist, just like my other opponent.

00:37:49.000 And the Democrat race is also a socialist opponent, I'm going to face.

00:37:53.000 And so I oppose that form of grievance driven identitarian socialism, whether it emerges on the left, for example, in the candidate who I'm running against in the general election, or whether it emerges on the so called right.

00:38:06.000 And I can't even call it the right because it's not really conservative at all, but the so called right, which is what my primary election has been defined by.

00:38:13.000 So to your question about what impact is this going to have on the politics of the future, I think that's where my primary will be pretty telling to be able to say, okay, I told you, you know, historically, the Republican.

00:38:24.000 Front runner, the person who wins the primary gets between 35 and 50% of the vote in competitive Republican primaries in Ohio.

00:38:29.000 You know, let's see how I do.

00:38:31.000 And I think that that will be a leading indicator of where the future direction of the actual voter base is for the Republican Party, which may or may not be.

00:38:40.000 I think it probably is going to be very different from the loudest voices you hear on some, you know, sick corner of the internet.

00:38:49.000 So we'll see.

00:38:50.000 But for me, I think that the reason I'm doing it is if I was entering politics as a career, Right.

00:38:55.000 This was my way of collecting a paycheck and securing a comfortable life for my family.

00:39:00.000 I wouldn't be doing any of that.

00:39:01.000 Of course, it's not exactly what a standard political playbook would tell you is the talking points you're supposed to bring to a campaign these days.

00:39:10.000 If it were, you'd see other Republicans doing it, and they're not.

00:39:12.000 So that's the reality.

00:39:14.000 But I'm not in this for that reason.

00:39:16.000 I would rather, I really am committed to winning this election.

00:39:20.000 But if I had to choose, I would rather speak the truth and convey my beliefs and lose an election rather than to win by saying some fake can talking point.

00:39:29.000 And I think we're going to win by actually speaking the truth.

00:39:32.000 But that's what I'm committed to.

00:39:34.000 My parents came to this country half a century ago with nothing to their name.

00:39:38.000 My dad worked for a five figure salary at GE in Evendale, Ohio for.

00:39:43.000 Almost his entire career.

00:39:44.000 My mom took care of nursing home patients and worked at the VA in Cincinnati as a psychiatrist. 1.00

00:39:49.000 They couldn't afford private schools.

00:39:50.000 I went to public schools through eighth grade.

00:39:52.000 They saved up.

00:39:53.000 I was able to go to Catholic private high school.

00:39:56.000 Now I've founded multi-billion dollar companies.

00:39:58.000 I mean, two different.

00:39:59.000 It's a 20 plus billion dollar business listed on the NASDAQ.

00:39:59.000 One is Royvant.

00:40:02.000 Chapter is a multi-billion dollar fast growing company, both of which I founded.

00:40:06.000 One I led as a CEO, several others as well.

00:40:10.000 My opponent, my Democratic opponent daily accuses me of being a billionaire.

00:40:13.000 It's probably one of the few true things that she says.

00:40:16.000 But I wasn't born a billionaire.

00:40:17.000 I wasn't born a millionaire.

00:40:18.000 I wasn't born in anything air.

00:40:20.000 I was born an air to nothing, actually, literally.

00:40:23.000 But what I love and what I'm so grateful to is a country that allowed me to achieve those things.

00:40:29.000 And God willing, being in a position to lead the state where I was born and raised, that story is only possible in the United States of America.

00:40:38.000 And I am so grateful to this state and to this country for giving me those opportunities that I feel a moral duty to revive that American dream where we Teach our kids the number one factor that determines what you achieve in life is you.

00:40:55.000 That was the lesson of my upbringing.

00:40:56.000 It's not the billionaires. 0.59

00:40:58.000 It's not the white people. 0.98

00:40:59.000 It's not the black people. 0.51

00:41:01.000 It's not the patriarchy. 0.99

00:41:02.000 It's not the Jews. 1.00

00:41:03.000 It's not the foreigners. 1.00

00:41:05.000 It's none of those things. 0.99

00:41:06.000 It is you.

00:41:07.000 That's what the American dream is built on.

00:41:10.000 That's what I'm running this campaign on.

00:41:12.000 It's a tough message at times to deliver.

00:41:14.000 It's not one that lands well on everyone's ears.

00:41:18.000 But at a certain level, I don't care.

00:41:20.000 That's the truth.

00:41:20.000 And that's what I'm going to give you.

00:41:22.000 I'm going to give it to you because I'm grateful to this country.

00:41:24.000 And I think that is what is going to be required to save this country.

00:41:28.000 And, you know, I think the red team, blue team stuff, it's fine.

00:41:33.000 You know, it's the way partisan politics works, but I think that there's a deeper project we're going to have to undertake in this country to revive the spirit of that American dream from a culture of victimhood, from the popularity of socialism in the many, in the many avatars in which it shows up today.

00:41:51.000 That's hard work ahead.

00:41:53.000 And I believe.

00:41:55.000 Biased, obviously, but I believe that my winning this election in Ohio will help us take a step forward as a country, as the former Rust Belt, as a state in the direction of economic empowerment, in the direction of educational achievement, in the direction of, dare I say, reviving that American dream that people like you and me have lived in this country.

00:42:20.000 And if we do that in one little state in the heart of the country, which happens to be the sixth or seventh largest state in our economy, I think it'll be a good step for our country, and I'm working on it every day.

00:42:32.000 You can go check out Vivek's campaign at Vivek4ohio.com.

00:42:35.000 Vivek Ramaswamy, thanks so much for taking the time.

00:42:37.000 Really appreciate it.

00:42:38.000 Good to see you, man.

00:42:40.000 And again, that is a very fraught seat, the governor's seat in Ohio.

00:42:44.000 That's a very close election.

00:42:46.000 The Kalshi odds over there, again, Kalshi is one of our sponsors.

00:42:50.000 In the Ohio governor's race, it's basically 50 50.

00:42:52.000 That is a toss up seat for the Ohio governor's race.

00:42:55.000 And so backing Vivek would be a strong move in favor of Republican governance, obviously, in.

00:43:01.000 A state that has gone red, but used to be a lot more purple.

00:43:05.000 And meanwhile, the permission structures for violence that have been fomented by the left continue apace.

00:43:12.000 According to Politico, on Monday, an episode unfolded in the late afternoon when plainclothes officers determined that a person had a gun, apparently near the White House.

00:43:22.000 The man exchanged fire with officers while trying to flee the area, according to the deputy director of the Secret Service.

00:43:27.000 A weapon was recovered from the man, unclear what the intentions were.

00:43:31.000 Apparently, the vice president's motorcade drove through the area not long before the shooting occurred.

00:43:37.000 This is obviously scary stuff.

00:43:39.000 We are seeing increasing threats to politicians.

00:43:42.000 And again, the glorification of acts of violence is a huge part of the problem.

00:43:46.000 We talked about permission structures for violence that have been created, ideologies that suggest you must do violence in order to save the country from fascism.

00:43:55.000 Well, now it turns out that those gigantic fires in Los Angeles, the catastrophic Palisades Fire, were allegedly set by one person named Jonathan Rindernicht, who was apparently obsessed, according to the New York Post, with the accused healthcare CEO killer.

00:44:11.000 Luigi Mangione.

00:44:13.000 He had routinely searched Free Luigi and let's take down all the billionaires online.

00:44:19.000 He did billions of dollars in damage, destroyed people's lives, all based on the idea that violence against people who are rich is somehow good.

00:44:28.000 Apparently, this person, the alleged arsonist, was an Uber driver and he ranted to customers about Luigi Mangione's arrest.

00:44:37.000 According to prosecutors, many of the defendants' Uber passengers on December 31st, 2024, and January 1st, 2025, Described the defendant as angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being pissed off at the world and Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism.

00:44:53.000 Anti capitalism, anti institutionalism, these have consequences.

00:44:58.000 And when you celebrate people who do violence, this is what you end up with.

00:45:03.000 Incredibly enough, the left refuses to stop doing this, like legitimately refuses to stop doing this.

00:45:08.000 So, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is campaigning with Bernie Sanders, and he's out there once again claiming that they're fighting fascism.

00:45:16.000 If you keep saying, That your opponents are fascists without evidence?

00:45:20.000 You are contributing to a permission structure for violence.

00:45:22.000 That's what this is.

00:45:23.000 Here is the Minnesota Attorney General.

00:45:27.000 Is anybody here to fight fascism?

00:45:33.000 I'm here to fight fascism.

00:45:35.000 I am here to fight me some fascism with you.

00:45:39.000 All right?

00:45:41.000 Because fascism, I ain't got no use for it at all.

00:45:45.000 It's really, really getting on my nerves right up in here.

00:45:51.000 I mean, obviously, the way that you fight fascism in a fascist country is that you have free speech to go and call it fascism.

00:45:57.000 That's obviously what's going on.

00:45:59.000 But again, this is part and parcel of a left wing permission structure that says that political opposition is somehow an aspect of evil.

00:46:07.000 And the beautiful thing about this is that once you decide that your generalized political opposition is, in fact, the font head of all evil, well, then that excuses pretty much anything.

00:46:17.000 It excuses anything.

00:46:18.000 So the Michigan Senate candidate.

00:46:22.000 For the Democratic Party.

00:46:23.000 The likely Senate candidate is a man named Abdul El Sayed.

00:46:25.000 We've talked about him before. 1.00

00:46:27.000 He is a terror supporter.

00:46:28.000 He's a person who said that he would not come out in favor of the killing of Ayatollah Khomeini because too many of his constituents liked Ayatollah Khomeini. 0.91

00:46:36.000 Well, he's out there.

00:46:37.000 Of course, of course, he had campaigned with Hassan Piker.

00:46:40.000 And he says that it's totally fine to campaign with Hassan Piker because his opponents support genocide, which is a total lie.

00:46:47.000 Again, it's actually a double lie.

00:46:48.000 First of all, Israel did not commit a genocide in Gaza, the population of Gaza has increased since the beginning of the war.

00:46:54.000 Which is the most unsuccessful genocide in human history, if that is the case.

00:46:58.000 And second of all, it is a lie that anyone has called for a genocide. 1.00

00:47:03.000 But of course, it's all a permission structure to support people who are truly terrible, like the Hassan Pikers of the world. 0.98

00:47:11.000 If you're more frustrated by the idea that I would campaign with Hassan Piker than you are frustrated by the idea that we have backstopped a genocide or that we continue to rob people of getting basic health care in their country, I think you don't understand morals. 1.00

00:47:25.000 To me, morals are about big things.

00:47:27.000 People should have health care, we shouldn't kill children.

00:47:29.000 Those are, to me, morals.

00:47:30.000 And you need to be able to figure out how to do those things in the world.

00:47:35.000 Sometimes working with people who don't share your morals.

00:47:37.000 And like, that's what makes politics hard, but it's not complicated.

00:47:43.000 What?

00:47:44.000 Again, anything can be justified through this matrix.

00:47:47.000 Anything.

00:47:48.000 And of course, so can every conspiracy.

00:47:49.000 So, Midas Touch is a newly popular left wing show.

00:47:54.000 And one of the hosts is now suggesting that President Trump is constructing a ballroom in order to stage a military coup.

00:48:03.000 What in the world?

00:48:04.000 What in the what?

00:48:06.000 Huh?

00:48:07.000 Okay.

00:48:09.000 There is a fear that he ain't leaving.

00:48:15.000 And that is something to be taken very seriously because it almost sounds humorous that he wouldn't.

00:48:21.000 But he will.

00:48:22.000 And he said in a rally speech, I'll never forget it, that his greatest regret was leaving the White House in 2021.

00:48:28.000 And he should have just hunkered down.

00:48:32.000 He's building an additional 100,000 square feet to give him the opportunity to hunker down this time with a military installation below. 0.87

00:48:40.000 This giant ballroom that will clearly never be used for balls.

00:48:46.000 Do you worry, as some of us do, that there is a coup that is on its way? 0.83

00:48:53.000 The ballroom will be Hitler's bunker. 0.76

00:48:55.000 That's the basic idea here. 0.81

00:48:57.000 But of course, then they decry all violence.

00:48:59.000 You say that the president is a fascist.

00:49:02.000 You say that you're willing to campaign with people who openly support terrorism because the Republicans are so terrible and all the rest of this.

00:49:08.000 Truly amazing stuff.

00:49:10.000 Amazing stuff from the left, which is, of course, Another justificatory structure for how they can back people like Graham Platner, the main Senate candidate.

00:49:20.000 So, Platner, of course, is the guy with the Totenkopf tattoo, meaning like an SS tattoo on his chest, which doesn't happen by accident.

00:49:29.000 You don't just wake up one morning with a death's head tattoo on your chest, a giant one, by the way.

00:49:34.000 People generally know why they get the tattoos they got.

00:49:38.000 Also, he has appeared on the podcast of neo Nazis like Stew Peters and all the rest.

00:49:43.000 So, you know, he's kind of a bad person, Graham Platner, but the entire Democratic Party is now mobilizing behind him because obviously, if you want to beat the evil, evil Republicans, you have to side with people like Graham Platner.

00:49:55.000 John Favreau at the Pod Save America crew put out a tweet saying, Graham Platner isn't just our best and only chance to beat Susan Collins.

00:50:02.000 He's a good, decent man who struggled and grown and is always trying to do better.

00:50:06.000 He has struggled.

00:50:07.000 You might call all of this my struggle.

00:50:11.000 You might, in fact, suggest that he's suffering through main comp.

00:50:18.000 But again, this is just insane.

00:50:20.000 I'm sorry.

00:50:21.000 The fact that the left is willing to side with legitimately anyone, anyone for any purpose to quote unquote stop the fascist right, this is how you end up where we are right now.

00:50:32.000 And the temperature is really, really high.

00:50:35.000 Okay, meanwhile, in more serious news, obviously it appears that some sort of action may be imminent in Iran.

00:50:42.000 President Trump announced yesterday that the United States will guide non sanctioned ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

00:50:47.000 This is an amazing move by the president.

00:50:49.000 He says countries from all over the world, almost all of which are not involved in the Middle Eastern dispute going on so visibly and violently for all to see, have asked the United States if we could help free up their ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz, on something which they have absolutely nothing to do with.

00:51:02.000 They're merely neutral and innocent bystanders.

00:51:03.000 For the good of Iran, the Middle East, and the United States, we've told these countries we'll guide their ships safely out of these restricted waterways so they can freely and ably get on with their business.

00:51:14.000 So, what does that mean?

00:51:15.000 Well, Pete Hexath, the Secretary of Defense, he announced today, this morning, that Iran cannot block international waterways indiscriminately.

00:51:23.000 Here is what the Secretary of Defense had to say American forces won't need to enter Iranian waters or airspace.

00:51:30.000 It's not necessary. 0.54

00:51:31.000 We're not looking for a fight, but Iran also cannot be allowed to block.

00:51:36.000 Innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway. 0.96

00:51:41.000 Iran is the clear aggressor, harassing civilian vessels, threatening mariners from every nation indiscriminately, and weaponizing a critical choke point for its own financial benefit, or at least trying to. 0.95

00:51:58.000 Well, over the course of the last 24 hours, the United States did help guide a tanker through the strait, a very large Mayorsk tanker through the strait. 0.96

00:52:06.000 They're also trying to change the incentive structure so that more tankers.

00:52:09.000 Are willing to go get insurance and then ship through the strait.

00:52:12.000 Hegseth announced that Iran had been embarrassed by the fact that we are now opening up some lanes.

00:52:17.000 Basically, if you think of the Strait of Hormuz as a freeway, there are certain lanes that are further from Iran.

00:52:21.000 Those lanes are now open, and the United States is making sure that they remain open.

00:52:28.000 Two U.S. commercial ships, along with American destroyers, have already safely transited the strait, showing the lane is clear. 1.00

00:52:36.000 We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact. 1.00

00:52:41.000 They said they control the strait, they do not. 0.97

00:52:45.000 Well, this is a major problem for Iran. 0.81

00:52:47.000 Their number one piece of leverage here was closing the Strait of Hormuz.

00:52:50.000 They basically have two pieces of leverage left.

00:52:52.000 One is to try and blow up all the oil supplies in surrounding countries, and the other is the Strait of Hormuz. 0.98

00:52:56.000 And if the Strait of Hormuz is reopened and the only stuff that can't get in or out is Iranian, they have a massive, massive problem. 0.99

00:53:02.000 They can't project power, they don't have a working economy. 0.89

00:53:07.000 President Trump announced yesterday that Iran was taking shots at ships.

00:53:10.000 It is a desperation play at this point that they are taking shots at ships.

00:53:15.000 The president says Iran has taken some shots at unrelated nations with respect to ship movement, Project Freedom, including a South Korean cargo ship.

00:53:23.000 Perhaps it's time for South Korea to come and join the mission.

00:53:25.000 We've shot down seven small boats, or as they like to call them, fast boats. 0.93

00:53:27.000 It's all they have left.

00:53:29.000 Other than the South Korean ship, there has been at this moment no damage going through the strait.

00:53:34.000 The CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper detailed the nature of the Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:53:39.000 Here's what it sounded like.

00:53:41.000 The cruise missiles were going after both U.S. Navy ships, but mostly after commercial shipping.

00:53:47.000 We defended both ourselves and consistent with our commitment.

00:53:50.000 We defended all the commercial ships.

00:53:52.000 We had drone launches against commercial ships, all of which were defended against, consistent with our commitment.

00:53:59.000 And then the small boats were all going against commercial ships and all were sunk by Apaches and Sea Hawk helicopters.

00:54:07.000 So, again, this is a massive move. 0.92

00:54:09.000 The United States reopening the strait and ensuring that shipping can move through at the same time that Iran cannot get its stuff out is disastrous.

00:54:16.000 for the economy of Iran. 0.88

00:54:18.000 This is why Iran has now been attacking UAE. 0.58

00:54:22.000 I mean, the ceasefire is not a ceasefire from the Iranian side. 0.82

00:54:24.000 They have not ceased fire.

00:54:26.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the UAE's defense ministry said late on Monday, it intercepted 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles, and four drones launched from Iran.

00:54:35.000 Again, sort of a warning shot.

00:54:37.000 What, what Iran is mostly worried about at this point is that the United States permanently degrades its capacity for economic recovery. 0.55

00:54:43.000 The easiest move for the United States to make right now would be to just blow up Kharg Island.

00:54:49.000 Karg Island, you could do an amphibious operation there. 0.97

00:54:52.000 It's a lot riskier.

00:54:53.000 Or you could just blow it up.

00:54:54.000 And that means that Iran has no refinery capacity.

00:54:56.000 And that means their economy is basically sunk for the foreseeable future, which means the regime has no money to pay its own people.

00:55:04.000 Now, it seems that the Trump administration would like to give Iran one final opportunity before that happens.

00:55:08.000 That's what this chokehold is on Iranian resources moving in and out.

00:55:12.000 President Trump says it's only a matter of time before their resources run dry, before they have to turn off their wells.

00:55:18.000 Here's President Trump talking to Hugh Hewitt.

00:55:22.000 They have a problem coming up because they have a very explosive situation in a lot of different ways.

00:55:29.000 You know, their oil, when you turn off the oil underground and the mechanical, too, but underground has a tendency in like almost 100% of the cases to literally explode and just destroy everything around it.

00:55:44.000 And you can never get that oil again.

00:55:46.000 In other words, you can get back 30% to 40%, but it can never be like it is right now.

00:55:51.000 It does tremendous damage to the oil system in a country if that happens.

00:55:56.000 Now, Mr. President, last time you were on.

00:55:58.000 They've run out of areas for storage.

00:56:01.000 Oh, yeah.

00:56:01.000 They say that in two weeks, you know, when they talk about time.

00:56:04.000 In two weeks, they're going to have a natural explosion of their oil that's going to make it impossible for them to really recover from.

00:56:14.000 Okay, the president is not wrong about any of this. 0.90

00:56:16.000 And Iran knows the time is running short for them, and that is why they are getting increasingly aggressive. 0.79

00:56:21.000 Now, again, the United States has a lot of steps that we can take.

00:56:24.000 We have a lot of things that we can do. 0.99

00:56:25.000 We could blow up Karg Island.

00:56:26.000 We could hit other energy resources inside the country.

00:56:28.000 We could take down another layer of the IRGC.

00:56:31.000 We'll probably have to do at some point another kinetic action against missile facilities that have been uncovered over the course of the last few weeks.

00:56:37.000 Iran has been digging out.

00:56:39.000 These missile launchers from underground, which actually is not very good for them.

00:56:43.000 But anybody who believes at this point that Iran is winning this war is missing the boat.

00:56:47.000 I mean, totally missing the boat.

00:56:49.000 By the way, about three quarters of Americans, according to a Harvard Harris poll that just came out, believe that Iran is losing the war. 0.88

00:56:55.000 So despite all of the bad information coming out online, Americans are not stupid and they are not missing the story.

00:57:01.000 All righty, folks, time for a thing that I like or maybe don't like. 0.90

00:57:04.000 I haven't seen this yet.

00:57:05.000 So my producers have brought out the new trailer for the Odyssey.

00:57:09.000 As you all know, I'm a massive fanboy of Christopher Nolan, so let's watch this together and we'll see what I think.

00:57:17.000 Tell me what you remember: a wife, a son, and then a.

00:57:36.000 We won the war. 0.71

00:57:43.000 Help me go home.

00:57:47.000 Okay, so far so good.

00:57:49.000 This is a household waiting for master.

00:57:52.000 I want you to choose.

00:57:56.000 Yeah, the cast is great.

00:57:59.000 Ithaca's king is coming back.

00:58:01.000 No, he's not.

00:58:03.000 Okay, there's the Cyclops.

00:58:08.000 What would he do if he came back here and find all these suitors in his house?

00:58:14.000 You're pining for a daddy. 1.00

00:58:16.000 He didn't even know, like some sniffling bastard. 1.00

00:58:21.000 Who's looking after your wife and son? 1.00

00:58:25.000 Okay, yeah, Damon, Robert Pattinson.

00:58:29.000 Bringing vengeance.

00:58:30.000 I guess people were pissed at that he said dad there, right?

00:58:33.000 Bringing it all.

00:58:41.000 Yeah, so I know a lot of people are upset about the casting of Helen of Troy.

00:58:44.000 I'm not upset about this.

00:58:46.000 These are all mythical characters.

00:58:50.000 Also, I mean, let's be clear everybody would have looked very, very Greek.

00:58:54.000 Nobody would have looked like a Nordic person.

00:58:58.000 Matt Damon is not of Greek extraction. 0.98

00:59:03.000 Okay.

00:59:04.000 I mean, I'm gonna watch the Hell on Host.

00:59:13.000 I don't understand the problem.

00:59:15.000 Use the word dad?

00:59:16.000 That's what we're supposed to be pissed about?

00:59:25.000 I mean, this looks great.

00:59:25.000 I don't understand.

00:59:27.000 Again, maybe, again, I will admit Tenet is not a good movie.

00:59:31.000 That is the only Christopher Nolan movie I will admit is not a good movie.

00:59:35.000 All the other ones range from great to some of the best movies ever made.

00:59:39.000 And so I'm watching this and I understand that there are some people, again, like, wow, it's too colloquial.

00:59:43.000 He said daddy and dad in the trailer.

00:59:45.000 That's terrible.

00:59:46.000 Can I just be clear about this?

00:59:48.000 Every single language has some sort of diminutive for father.

00:59:52.000 Okay, every single one.

00:59:53.000 What do you call your father?

00:59:54.000 You call him father?

00:59:55.000 Probably not.

00:59:56.000 You probably call him dad.

00:59:58.000 Hey, so I promise you that way back when people were using a diminutive when they were talking about their fathers, also because that's normal.

01:00:05.000 Okay, so yeah, that looks great.

01:00:07.000 Everybody's whiny.

01:00:08.000 Stop complaining.

01:00:09.000 You have an original filmmaker making one of the greatest stories in human history with a huge budget.

01:00:14.000 You should just be happy that it's going to hit your screens this year.

01:00:17.000 I am.

01:00:18.000 Alrighty, coming up, we're going to jump into the mailbag and take some of your questions.

01:00:21.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

01:00:23.000 If you are not one, become a member.

01:00:24.000 Use code Shapiro.

01:00:25.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

01:00:27.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

The Ben Shapiro Show - May 05, 2026

Has The Met Gala Finally Gone Too Far?

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