The Ben Shapiro Show - It’s A Smollett, Smollett World | Ep. 722

00:00:00.000 Jussie Smollett is arrested for being the perpetrator of his own race hate crime, a Coast Guard lieutenant is arrested after pursuing a massive terror plot, and the world awaits The Mueller Report.

00:00:09.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:09.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:10.000 Oh, man, there is so much to get to today.

00:00:18.000 We have all the updates on the Jussie Smollett case.

00:00:20.000 We have a fantastic update on the So Fresh, So Face AOC.

00:00:25.000 We now know that she lives, I kid you not, in a luxury apartment that does not have any affordable housing in it.

00:00:32.000 Oh no!

00:00:33.000 Why is this any shock?

00:00:34.000 It shouldn't be a shock because Congress is going to Congress.

00:00:37.000 These folks, they're not great.

00:00:39.000 They're not sending their best.

00:00:41.000 And this is why I'm a big believer in calling a convention of states where we the people can propose amendments.

00:00:45.000 Yes, amendments that could force, for example, term limits on Congress and make them balance the budget. 1.00

00:00:50.000 We've got to stop these idiots before it is too late. 0.99

00:00:52.000 Can you imagine the look On the faces of these congresspeople when they realize that millions of people are getting on board and preparing to kick them out of their forever offices. 1.00

00:00:59.000 That would be pretty amazing.

00:01:01.000 It is time to remind politicians that these offices belong to the people and also that the budget ought to be balanced.

00:01:06.000 You don't get to live off the paychecks of the future.

00:01:09.000 Calling a convention of states is the only way to get the job done realistically.

00:01:12.000 There are already 3.8 million people with us on this.

00:01:15.000 More every day.

00:01:15.000 I know a lot of people worried about a runaway convention.

00:01:17.000 That's not how this works.

00:01:18.000 A runaway convention only happens if the left were to participate in the convention of states.

00:01:22.000 That is not something that is likely to occur, considering that it is pretty much all people on the right who are interested in shoring up the Constitution against the excesses of the left.

00:01:30.000 Join me and my friend Mark Meckler, go to conventionofstates.com slash ben to sign the petition today.

00:01:35.000 That is conventionofstates.com slash ben.

00:01:37.000 Go check it out right now, conventionofstates.com slash ben, and sign the petition.

00:01:42.000 Let's get moving on this thing.

00:01:43.000 Alrighty, so the breaking news this morning.

00:01:46.000 Jussie Smollett, the actor from Empire, the guy who told one of the most ridiculous stories in the history of racial hoaxes, he has now been arrested.

00:01:54.000 Sad trombone for Jussie Smollett.

00:01:56.000 So, Jussie Smollett, you'll recall, told his original tale, and people jumped on it.

00:02:01.000 It was a modern-day lynching, according to both Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.

00:02:04.000 It was something that America had to apologize for, according to a bevy of Democrats, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

00:02:11.000 And then every Democrat sort of just disappeared as soon as it turned out that Jussie Smollett was hoaxing the entire time.

00:02:17.000 They threw a smoke bomb on the floor, like Joe Bluth, and then just ran away and said, it's an illusion, Michael.

00:02:24.000 It was pretty amazing.

00:02:25.000 So, Jussie Smollett has now been arrested, and the latest is that Jussie Smollett is really bad at this.

00:02:31.000 So, Jussie Smollett, apparently a mediocre actor.

00:02:34.000 Mediocre to good actor, from what we've heard.

00:02:37.000 It turns out, he's a better actor than a writer.

00:02:39.000 So he is not going to get his Writer's Guild card anytime soon.

00:02:42.000 The only thing that he wrote properly was the check.

00:02:45.000 To the people who are actually supposed to commit the racial hoax. 0.83

00:02:48.000 Yes, I kid you not, Jussie Smollett personally wrote and signed a check to the two men who then carried out the fake racial beating against Jussie Smollett.

00:02:59.000 The only thing that he was missing was a for the hoax notation in the...

00:03:04.000 In the what for line on the check.

00:03:06.000 According to CBS Local, accusing him of slapping the city in the face, Chicago police announced Thursday that Empire actor Jussie Smollett had been charged with concocting an attack in Streeterville because he was quote, dissatisfied with his salary.

00:03:18.000 Now that's fascinating.

00:03:19.000 In and of itself, that is really fascinating.

00:03:20.000 Here's the CPD superintendent Eddie Johnson saying, this was all about Jussie Smollett trying to boost his own pay rate.

00:03:26.000 Smollett attempted to gain attention by sending a false letter.

00:03:30.000 that relied on racial, homophobic, and political language.

00:03:35.000 When that didn't work, Smollett paid $3,500 to stage this attack and drag Chicago's reputation through the mud in the process.

00:03:46.000 And why?

00:03:48.000 This stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with his salary.

00:03:54.000 So he concocted a story about being attacked.

00:03:57.000 Notice the implicit truth of Smollett's rationale for the attack.

00:04:03.000 If it turned out that he got away with it, if he was seen as a victim of a terrible, terrible hate crime hoax, that wasn't a hoax, if he'd been seen as a victim of a hate crime, if he had been able to get away with claiming that two white men found him on a Chicago street, shouted racial and ethnic and stereotypically sexual orientation slurs at him, and then beat him, roped him around the neck, threw bleach on him while shouting, this is MAGA country, Smollett's assumption was it would have raised his salary in Hollywood.

00:04:29.000 You know why he was making that assumption?

00:04:31.000 Because it's true.

00:04:32.000 It's the only part of anything that Smollett did that is true.

00:04:35.000 It is absolutely true that if Jussie Smollett had been seen as the victim of a terrible, terrible hate crime on the mean streets of Chicago at 2 a.m.

00:04:41.000 in a Polar Vortex in which he still held on to his Subway sandwich, it is true That his salary would have been increased, he would have gotten movie roles, because this is the way our society works.

00:04:50.000 If you are seen to be a victim, then you will earn more money.

00:04:53.000 This is why all those folks out there who say, believe all women, or believe all victims, or believe all race crime victims, you can't believe all anyone, because there is, in fact, incentive to lie in today's day and age.

00:05:06.000 People keep saying, well, why would such and such lie?

00:05:09.000 Oh, I don't know.

00:05:09.000 How about for the increased salary?

00:05:11.000 How about for the fact that nobody had heard of Jussie Smollett, unless you were a watcher of Empire?

00:05:15.000 Until, like, two weeks ago.

00:05:17.000 How about the fact that Jussie Smollett appeared on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts, where she presented him with fawning treatment over a fake race crime.

00:05:26.000 There is absolutely incentive in the United States to fake this sort of stuff, which means that you need evidence before you jump on the it-certainly-happened bandwagon, which is what the entire media did.

00:05:37.000 Now, as I say, the best part of this is that Smollett actually personally signed the $3,500 check.

00:05:41.000 Also, this just demonstrates what President Trump has said before, which is that, obviously, the immigrant community is undercutting the labor base in the United States. 0.82

00:05:51.000 I mean, obviously, he hired two Nigerian immigrants to perform this hate crime hoax at $3,500. 0.87

00:05:56.000 I mean, imagine if he'd had to hire domestic labor.

00:06:00.000 And imagine if he'd actually gone all the way and he had actually hired, you know, white actors to carry this out.

00:06:07.000 Obviously, you know, this just shows that Jussie Smollett was actually complicit in the racist capitalist hierarchy of the United States using his friends and paying them less than market wage in order to perform this race crime hoax.

00:06:21.000 Anyway, the Chicago Police Department superintendent, he said he's obviously pissed off.

00:06:26.000 And by the way, worth noting, he's a black guy only because we are talking about a race hoax. 0.96

00:06:31.000 So this is not the Chicago PD targeting Jussie Smollett because they are racist or because they are homophobic.

00:06:36.000 Here is the Chicago Police Department superintendent saying Chicago has been painted in a negative light.

00:06:42.000 To insinuate and to stage a hate crime of that nature when he knew as a celebrity it would get a lot of attention.

00:06:50.000 It's just despicable.

00:06:52.000 It makes you wonder what's going through someone's mind to do something like that.

00:06:57.000 So, yeah, I saw a couple of parts of it, and I was angered by it, to be quite honest.

00:07:02.000 Okay, now what's apparently taking a lot of people off inside the Chicago Police Department is that CPD is treating him with kid gloves even still.

00:07:12.000 So apparently, one of the spokespeople for the CPD, a guy named Guglielmi, he said, quote, We want to make this as diplomatic as possible.

00:07:23.000 In the end, this is only a class 4 felony.

00:07:25.000 He will get through this.

00:07:26.000 And we want to make it as easy as possible for him to do it.

00:07:28.000 But again, it is about accountability.

00:07:30.000 Why do you want to make it as easy as possible for Jussie Smollett?

00:07:32.000 Why?

00:07:33.000 Why would you want to make it easy?

00:07:34.000 It should be hard for him.

00:07:35.000 Because not only did he stage a racial hoax that captivated the entire nation, not only did he do that, not only did he slander the city of Chicago, not only did he slander Trump supporters, not only did he slander white people more generally, But he also was willing to send other people to jail.

00:07:50.000 I mean, this is the part of the story people are missing.

00:07:52.000 If he had carried this to its very end, then Jussie Smollett would have been testifying falsely against two white people arrested by the CPD.

00:08:00.000 Imagine that the Chicago PD had arrested two white people who were in the area, and Jussie Smollett had then gone and testified that those people were the ones who beat him.

00:08:08.000 And they had gone to jail for presumably 20 years, right, for a federal hate crime.

00:08:13.000 Imagine that had happened.

00:08:14.000 And he would have been sitting there earning his massive salary. 0.99

00:08:16.000 This guy is evil. 1.00

00:08:17.000 He is evil. 1.00

00:08:18.000 Unless you can point me to any evidence that he is a mentally ill human being. 1.00

00:08:21.000 This is an evil, evil person. 0.99

00:08:24.000 Willing to do all of this for a few pennies more on his salary.

00:08:26.000 By the way, I'm sure that this guy is in the top 1%.

00:08:29.000 If he is appearing on every episode of Empire, that means that he is getting royalties.

00:08:32.000 It means that he's probably being paid upwards of $20,000 to $30,000 an episode.

00:08:37.000 And yet here he is trying to up his salary by presumably trying to send other people to prison falsely.

00:08:44.000 They should hit him with the book.

00:08:45.000 I mean, really. 0.83

00:08:46.000 They should put this guy behind bars for as long as he can be behind bars.

00:08:49.000 I know there are a lot of people who are feeling sympathy for Jussie Smollett today.

00:08:52.000 I'm seeing it in the media.

00:08:54.000 It's absurd.

00:08:55.000 It's absurd.

00:08:56.000 The Chicago superintendent, he said bogus police reports cause real harm.

00:09:00.000 He said, my concern is that hate crimes will now publicly be met with a level of skepticism that previously didn't happen.

00:09:06.000 Well, every crime should be met with the same level of skepticism, which is show me the evidence.

00:09:11.000 And if there's no evidence of the crime, then we're going to have to wait to see whether evidence is finally made clear.

00:09:16.000 Disorderly conduct is a class 4 felony.

00:09:19.000 That is what they're charging him with.

00:09:20.000 Only disorderly conduct, which is shocking to me.

00:09:23.000 Apparently, he could face up to 1.5 years in prison or face probation.

00:09:29.000 For something like this, I am shocked that he is not being charged with more.

00:09:32.000 Honestly.

00:09:33.000 1.5 years in prison for wasting presumably hundreds of thousands of dollars in CPD time.

00:09:39.000 Wasting hundreds of man hours for really Being ready to bear false witness against people in order to send them to jail?

00:09:47.000 It's absurd.

00:09:49.000 It really is. 0.84

00:09:50.000 It's really disgusting.

00:09:52.000 Now, just as disgusting as all of this is the fact that there are still members of the media who are trying to cover for Jussie Smollett.

00:09:58.000 I don't understand how CNN can even pretend to be objective while they have Don Lemon on this story.

00:10:02.000 Don Lemon, you'll recall, he said openly that he was texting with Jussie Smollett in the middle of the story every single day.

00:10:09.000 Here is Don Lemon of CNN saying just that about a week ago.

00:10:13.000 Yes.

00:10:13.000 Right.

00:10:13.000 to deal with discrimination as a black man.

00:10:15.000 Then on top of that, he has to be gay and he's out. 0.98

00:10:17.000 - Yes.

00:10:18.000 - And then fame.

00:10:19.000 - Yes.

00:10:20.000 - And fame is not natural.

00:10:22.000 And so I knew everyone would be picking apart his stories.

00:10:25.000 Not for me, that's not my concern.

00:10:27.000 - Right, right, right.

00:10:28.000 - So every day I say, I know you think I'm annoying.

00:10:32.000 I can show you a text.

00:10:33.000 I know you think I'm annoying you, but I just want to know that you're doing.

00:10:37.000 - Want to know how you are, okay.

00:10:38.000 - That you're okay.

00:10:39.000 - Yeah.

00:10:40.000 - If you need somebody, you can talk to me Don Lemon, what a hero.

00:10:48.000 And that's what journalism is all about, isn't it?

00:10:51.000 Reaching out to people who participate in race crime hoaxes, in hate crime hoaxes, reaching out to them personally, making sure they're okay.

00:10:59.000 Instead of asking questions.

00:10:59.000 Don Lemon is in this business.

00:11:01.000 We used to call it journalism.

00:11:03.000 And in journalism, when you see an account that does not hold water for more than 30 seconds, you're supposed to be asking questions. 0.96

00:11:09.000 But Don Lemon says, listen, I'm not going to ask any of those questions because he is a black gay man. 1.00

00:11:13.000 And I am also a black gay man. 0.90

00:11:15.000 So I know what black gay men in the United States go through.

00:11:17.000 And that means I was just reaching out to make sure he was OK.

00:11:19.000 I wasn't going to ask him a single question.

00:11:21.000 I was going to ask him, like, so 2 a.m.

00:11:23.000 on a Chicago street, MAGA country, really?

00:11:26.000 Wasn't going to ask that.

00:11:27.000 No, I was reaching out to him because why?

00:11:29.000 It fit the narrative.

00:11:30.000 Wait till you hear what Don Lemon had to say last night as Jussie Smollett was preparing for his own arrest.

00:11:36.000 Wait until you hear that.

00:11:37.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

00:11:38.000 First, let's talk about the sheets upon which you sleep.

00:11:41.000 We are never going to agree on everything, but we can all agree that we could all use more sleep.

00:11:45.000 Getting a great night's sleep is easier and more affordable than you think.

00:11:48.000 You don't need a new expensive mattress or sleeping pills.

00:11:51.000 You need to change your sheets.

00:11:52.000 That's why you should check out Bull and Branch.

00:11:54.000 Everything Bowen Branch makes, from bedding to blankets, is made from pure, 100% organic cotton.

00:11:58.000 That means they start out super soft, they get even softer over time.

00:12:00.000 You could buy directly from them, so you're essentially paying wholesale prices.

00:12:03.000 Luxury sheets can cost up to like $1,000 in the store.

00:12:06.000 Bowen Branch sheets are only a couple of hundred bucks.

00:12:09.000 Everyone who tries Bull and Brand Sheets loves them, which is why they have thousands of five-star reviews.

00:12:14.000 I love my Bull and Brand Sheets so much that my wife and I actually tossed out all of our other sheets.

00:12:17.000 That's how good they are.

00:12:18.000 Even three U.S.

00:12:19.000 presidents sleep on Bull and Brand Sheets.

00:12:21.000 Shipping is free.

00:12:22.000 You can try them for 30 nights.

00:12:23.000 If you don't love them, send them back for a refund.

00:12:25.000 But you're not going to want to send them back.

00:12:26.000 They are that comfortable.

00:12:27.000 To get you started, right now, my listeners get $50 off your first set of sheets at BullAndBranch.com, promo code Ben.

00:12:33.000 Go to BullAndBranch.com today for $50 off your first set of sheets.

00:12:37.000 That is BullAndBranch, B-U-L-L-A-N-B-R-A-N-C-H.com, promo code Ben.

00:12:40.000 Go check it out.

00:12:41.000 BullAndBranch.com, promo code Ben.

00:12:44.000 So, Don Lemon.

00:12:46.000 Very, very objective CNN reporter.

00:12:48.000 Super duper objective.

00:12:49.000 Not like Sean Hannity.

00:12:50.000 Doesn't pretend that he is, he doesn't say that he is an opinion journalist.

00:12:54.000 He says he is an objective reporter. 0.83

00:12:56.000 And he is so good at the objective reporting that he never asked Jussie Smollett a single question because as a black gay man, black gay men who claim that they are victims of obvious hoaxes, we shouldn't ask them questions. 0.91

00:13:07.000 So last night Don Lemon goes on TV and he's still trying to defend He's still trying to defend Jussie Smollett.

00:13:14.000 I mean, it really is amazing.

00:13:15.000 So he says it's not Jussie's fault he lost in the court of public opinion.

00:13:19.000 Seriously, this is what Don Lemon is saying on primetime CNN.

00:13:23.000 It's insane.

00:13:25.000 In the court of public opinion, Jussie has lost.

00:13:28.000 He's lost the fight in the court of public opinion.

00:13:31.000 And that's where his battle is.

00:13:33.000 Legally, if he has to go, whatever he has to serve, if it's jail time, if he has to do probation, if he has to pay, whatever.

00:13:39.000 But in the court of public opinion, It matters.

00:13:42.000 It matters, and he lost that because of how, and not his fault, maybe people were, I don't know what they were saying to him, maybe because of his representatives, who knows.

00:13:53.000 I don't know if it's not his fault.

00:13:54.000 But it was handled poorly.

00:13:55.000 Oh, that was the problem, it was handled poorly.

00:13:57.000 Not that he lied to the entire nation, including the Chicago Police Department, about being beaten on a Chicago street in the middle of the night by two white men wearing MAGA caps. 0.92

00:14:06.000 I mean, this is insane!

00:14:08.000 Journalism-ing everywhere.

00:14:09.000 So much journalism-ing.

00:14:10.000 My goodness.

00:14:11.000 Explosive journalism-ing from Don Lemon.

00:14:14.000 That guy is a journalist.

00:14:16.000 I mean, that's some serious journalism.

00:14:17.000 He didn't just say that.

00:14:18.000 He said his real concern is that conservatives are going to eat Jussie's lunch.

00:14:22.000 So I guess we're no longer worried about a lynch mob.

00:14:25.000 Now we are worried about a lunch mob.

00:14:27.000 So here is Don Lemon on CNN, worried about the lunch mob that is going to eat Jussie's lunch.

00:14:31.000 I mean, frankly, Jussie is going to be served prison commissary food, so I don't think anybody wants his lunch.

00:14:35.000 But here is Don Lemon.

00:14:37.000 This is playing out every single moment.

00:14:39.000 Yeah.

00:14:41.000 And cable news.

00:14:42.000 Sean Hannity is going to eat Jussie Smollett's lunch every single second. 0.99

00:14:47.000 Tucker Carlson is going to eat Jussie Smollett's lunch every single second. 1.00

00:14:51.000 The President of the United States.

00:14:52.000 The President of the United States is going to eat his lunch.

00:14:54.000 And who does the President of the United States watch every night?

00:14:57.000 You.

00:14:57.000 Cable news.

00:14:58.000 Well, cable news.

00:15:00.000 Okay, cable news is going to eat him up.

00:15:01.000 That's the real problem here.

00:15:02.000 The problem is not that he hoaxed America.

00:15:04.000 The problem is not that he lied about a huge swath of people.

00:15:07.000 President Trump just tweeted out a few minutes ago Jesse Smollett, what about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments?

00:15:16.000 Hashtag MAGA.

00:15:18.000 And the president is not wrong about this.

00:15:20.000 The president—no, look, should the president be interjecting on these sorts of issues?

00:15:25.000 No, the president should not be interjecting on these issues any more than President Obama should have been interjecting on Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown.

00:15:30.000 But Trump is not wrong on the actual substance of his comments, which is that this was a massive slander against at least half the country.

00:15:37.000 And not only that, it was Jussie Smollett attempting to rip open racial scabs, rip them off, in order so that he could benefit himself and so that he could push a narrative that is absolutely untrue.

00:15:47.000 And Don Lemon's main concern is that people are going to be mean to Jussie Smollett.

00:15:52.000 Oh wow, what a rough life Jussie Smollett has and had. 0.99

00:15:54.000 Again, if you want to show me evidence the guy's mentally ill, then we can talk about sympathy for Jussie Smollett. 0.99

00:15:59.000 Unless you have any evidence he's mentally ill, then he is a piece of human debris. 1.00

00:16:02.000 He is filth. 1.00

00:16:03.000 He is filth. 0.99

00:16:04.000 You racially hoax like this, and by the way, it is true, that you end up Degrading the accounts of other hate crime survivors and degrading the other stories of crime victims? 0.94

00:16:18.000 You end up denigrating the Chicago Police Department who are attempting to do their best in a city rife with crime?

00:16:25.000 And you are willing to testify to send other people who are innocent to jail?

00:16:29.000 Yeah, my sympathy level runs a little low for Jussie Smollett. 0.51

00:16:31.000 Not Don Lemons, though.

00:16:32.000 Not Don Lemons. 0.80

00:16:33.000 He says that his big concern here Is that black and gay people are most affected by the hoax?

00:16:38.000 Of course, because Don Lemon is an intersectional leftist.

00:16:41.000 That is all Don Lemon cares about.

00:16:42.000 He's not a journalist, he's an intersectional opinion leftist on CNN, and he is portrayed as an objective journalist.

00:16:47.000 And then the entire media goes nuts when CNN hires a partisan Republican as one of their political editors, one of their many political editors. 0.80

00:16:55.000 Yes, because CNN is a bastion of objectivity, with Chris Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo's brother, and Don Lemon on every night just spewing leftist nonsense.

00:17:02.000 Here is Don Lemon doing just that last night.

00:17:05.000 To certain groups of people, even if they were skeptical, they said, I hope this is not true. 0.95

00:17:13.000 Black folks, gay folks. 0.89

00:17:14.000 Of course. 0.68

00:17:15.000 People are like, oh my God, I hope he's telling the truth. 0.92

00:17:18.000 And you know why black folk and gay folks say that, because... They're real victims of... Well, because they are real victims of homophobia and of racism, but also because, unfortunately, we tend to all be painted with the same brush when one person does wrong.

00:17:34.000 And that's why we always say that when something goes wrong, is we hope the person is not black, we hope the person is not gay. 0.99

00:17:40.000 And nobody is painting all black people or gay people as hoaxers because Jussie Smollett was a hoaxer. 0.97

00:17:46.000 Nobody is doing that. 0.53

00:17:47.000 And this is, you can see the media already attempting to draw this narrative.

00:17:50.000 So what they're going to do, they're already preparing to make the exact same mistake.

00:17:54.000 You can see it happening in real time because here's what's going to happen a month from now.

00:17:58.000 Somebody is going to do the same hoax.

00:17:59.000 Somebody's going to do a very similar hoax.

00:18:01.000 Maybe not as egregiously botched as this one. 1.00

00:18:03.000 Maybe not as stupid as this one. 0.99

00:18:05.000 Maybe he's not going to hire his personal trainers from the gym for $3,500 and a personalized check to go down to the local hardware store, purchase some rope, bleach, and red hats, and then go out in Chicago at 2 a.m. 1.00

00:18:16.000 and claim that they're in MAGA country.

00:18:18.000 Maybe they're not going to do that.

00:18:19.000 But there will be somebody else who makes a false claim.

00:18:21.000 And then when people on the right say, listen, you know, evidence, that might be like a good thing.

00:18:25.000 Then the left will say, the only reason you're asking for evidence right now is because you're racist. 0.94

00:18:29.000 It's because you look at Jussie Smollett's case and now you say that all black people or all gay people are hoaxing. 0.96

00:18:35.000 And then maybe that one turns out to be a hoax.

00:18:37.000 And the media say, well, you know, the real problem here, the real problem here is that now everyone's going to paint all future hate crime victims with the same brush.

00:18:45.000 And then it sets it up for the next race crime hoaxer. 0.89

00:18:47.000 The media are learning exactly the reverse of the lesson they ought to be learning from this.

00:18:51.000 The lesson they ought to be learning from this is, hey, maybe we should have waited for evidence on the Jussie Smollett thing instead of just jumping on it with both feet and suggesting that it was inherently believable because we wanted to believe it.

00:19:01.000 That's what happened here.

00:19:02.000 The media jumped on this because the story was too good to check, and so they didn't check.

00:19:07.000 This was a pure example of confirmation bias.

00:19:10.000 And now the media are saying, well, you know what could happen?

00:19:13.000 You know, the real problem with the Jussie Smollett hoax is not us.

00:19:15.000 It wasn't us jumping the gun.

00:19:17.000 The real problem is that in the future, people may now ask for more evidence, and that would be them applying racism.

00:19:24.000 Because if they ask for more evidence, the only reason they do that is because they think that all black and gay people are just like Jussie Smollett.

00:19:31.000 So next time, there's a hoaxer who does the exact same thing or something similar.

00:19:34.000 People will ask for evidence.

00:19:36.000 Don Lemon will call them racist for asking for evidence.

00:19:38.000 It will come out that it was a hoax.

00:19:39.000 And then Don Lemon will say, well, next time if you ask for evidence, you're only doing that because you're racist.

00:19:44.000 It's so circular and so self-defeating and so bad for the country.

00:19:48.000 And members of the media, I'm not even sure they know they're doing this.

00:19:51.000 Legitimately, I don't even know that they believe they're doing this.

00:19:54.000 They believe they are being sympathetic.

00:19:56.000 What they're actually doing is setting themselves up for another fall.

00:19:59.000 Because if you think the media learned a damn thing from this, you are dead wrong.

00:20:02.000 The media did not learn one thing from this.

00:20:04.000 No one in the media, no one, is turning around and saying, hey, you know what?

00:20:08.000 Jump the gun.

00:20:08.000 It's because I wanted to believe that it was true, and so I completely botched this one.

00:20:13.000 Instead, you're getting all of the Democratic 2020 candidates stealth-deleting their own stuff.

00:20:18.000 They're just going back and stealth-deleting their comments, or leaving them up without any further comment.

00:20:22.000 You're seeing Democratic candidates come out and say, you know what guys, I need to wait for more information.

00:20:26.000 Okay, so you didn't need to wait for more information when it was a sketchy account that was being reported by third-hand sources, but you do need to wait for more information after there is a formal legal arrest of Jussie Smollett.

00:20:37.000 That's when you need to wait for more information.

00:20:39.000 Unreal.

00:20:40.000 I noticed, by the way, they're not seeing the same let's wait for information take on this Coast Guard Lieutenant story who's arrested in a terror plot.

00:20:47.000 We're gonna get to that in just one second.

00:20:49.000 By the way, we shouldn't wait for more information.

00:20:50.000 The guy's been arrested.

00:20:50.000 We're gonna get to that in just one second.

00:20:52.000 First...

00:20:53.000 Let's talk about losing your hair. 1.00

00:20:55.000 Losing your hair sucks. 0.99

00:20:56.000 You don't realize how much you care about it until you start losing it. 0.98

00:20:58.000 I know, because male pattern baldness runs in my family, and so I have a high value on my hair.

00:21:04.000 That's why you should be using Keeps, the easiest and most affordable way to keep the hair that you have.

00:21:08.000 These FDA-approved products used to cost so much, but now, thanks to Keeps, they're finally inexpensive and easy to get.

00:21:13.000 For five minutes now and just a buck a day, you're never going to have to worry about hair loss again.

00:21:16.000 Getting started with Keeps is really easy.

00:21:18.000 Sign up takes less than five minutes.

00:21:19.000 You just answer a few questions and you snap some photos of your hair.

00:21:22.000 A licensed physician will then review your information online and recommend the right treatment for you.

00:21:26.000 It is then shipped right to your door every three months.

00:21:28.000 Keeps offers generic versions of the only two FDA-approved hair loss products out there.

00:21:32.000 Some of you probably have tried them before, but you've probably never gotten them for this price.

00:21:35.000 Keeps is only $10 to $35 a month, plus right now you can get your first month for free, which is a hell of a deal for getting to keep your hair.

00:21:42.000 To receive your first month of treatment for free, go to Keeps.com slash Ben.

00:21:46.000 That is K-E-E-P-S dot com slash Ben.

00:21:48.000 That is a free month of treatment at Keeps.com slash Ben.

00:21:51.000 Keeps.

00:21:52.000 Hair today, hair tomorrow.

00:21:53.000 Don't lose your hair.

00:21:53.000 I mean, go do something about it.

00:21:55.000 Keeps.com slash Ben.

00:21:56.000 K-E-E-P-S dot com slash Ben.

00:21:59.000 All right, so you'll notice that the media are not nearly as skeptical about the Coast Guard lieutenant who was arrested yesterday.

00:22:06.000 You're not seeing the 2020 candidates standing around going, you know, We really ought to wait for more information.

00:22:10.000 You know why?

00:22:11.000 Because you don't actually have to wait for more information once somebody has been arrested.

00:22:15.000 Once somebody has been arrested, you can say, we'll wait to see the evidence in court, but there's a pretty good indicator that perhaps they did something wrong.

00:22:23.000 At the very least, we have to take it a lot more seriously than a random account by a human.

00:22:27.000 This story is truly awful.

00:22:29.000 According to the Associated Press, a Coast Guard lieutenant who was arrested last week is a domestic terrorist who drafted an email discussing biological attacks and had what appeared to be a hit list that included prominent Democrats and media figures, prosecutors said in court papers.

00:22:42.000 Christopher Paul Hassan is due to appear Thursday in federal court in Maryland after his arrest on gun and drug offenses.

00:22:47.000 Prosecutors say those charges are the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

00:22:51.000 Prosecutors say the defendant is a domestic terrorist bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct. 0.99

00:22:58.000 Apparently, this piece of crap has espoused extremist views for years, and what they mean by this is that he's an actual neo-Nazi. 0.98

00:23:05.000 Court papers detail a draft email in which he wrote that he was dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth and pondering how he might be able to acquire anthrax and toxins to create botulism or a deadly influenza. 0.99

00:23:16.000 So he sounds a delight. 0.91

00:23:18.000 Also, he sounds... he is a full-on neo-Nazi.

00:23:21.000 He sent himself a draft letter in September 2017.

00:23:24.000 That he had written to a neo-Nazi leader, identifying himself as a white nationalist for over 30 years, and advocating for focused violence in order to establish a white homeland.

00:23:32.000 Apparently, he read portions of a manifesto by the Norwegian mass murderer, Anders Breivik, who is serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a 2011 rampage. 0.97

00:23:43.000 By the way, just shows that Norway is a crazy place. 0.94

00:23:45.000 A 21-year sentence for killing 77 people is insane. 1.00

00:23:48.000 Also, this garbage human expressed admiration for Russia. 1.00

00:23:53.000 He said, looking to Russia with hopeful eyes or any land that despises the West's liberalism. 0.99

00:23:57.000 So he sounds like a delight.

00:23:59.000 He searched the internet for the most liberal senators, as well as searching, do senators have secret service protection?

00:24:05.000 Are Supreme Court justices protected?

00:24:08.000 His list was all Democrats and media members.

00:24:12.000 The only quasi-Republican media member on the list is Joe Scarborough of MSNBC.

00:24:15.000 Other prominent Democrats were Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Kyrsten Gillibrand, Warren, Booker, Harris.

00:24:21.000 Basically, every prominent Democrat in the country he wanted to kill.

00:24:24.000 Apparently, he was a chronic user of an opioid painkiller. 0.95

00:24:28.000 And he was passing his drug test with the Coast Guard by using fake urine.

00:24:33.000 So, well done, government, screening its own employees.

00:24:35.000 Once again, showing how competent everyone is.

00:24:38.000 But beyond that, it is worthy of note that there are insane people out there, and evil people.

00:24:44.000 Forget insane, because there's no evidence the guy's actually mentally ill, as they say with Jussie Smollett. 0.95

00:24:48.000 Put this guy away.

00:24:49.000 Throw away the key.

00:24:52.000 I will note that the media coverage of this Coast Guard lieutenant has been relatively muted so far.

00:24:57.000 The minute there's an email expressing support for President Trump, watch it blow up.

00:25:00.000 That's exactly how this is going to work.

00:25:02.000 Meanwhile, the other big news of the day is that CNN is reporting that the Mueller report is coming, maybe as early as next week.

00:25:09.000 According to CNN, Attorney General Bill Barr is preparing to announce as early as next week the completion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, with plans for Barr to submit to Congress soon after a summary of Mueller's confidential report, according to people familiar with the plans.

00:25:22.000 Now, we've been hearing this for months.

00:25:24.000 But it has been widely expected for a while that February was going to be when this thing dropped.

00:25:28.000 The preparations are the clearest indication yet that Mueller is nearly done with his almost two-year investigation.

00:25:33.000 The precise timing of the announcement is indeed subject to change, says CNN.

00:25:37.000 The scope and contours of what Barr will send to Congress remain unclear.

00:25:40.000 Also unclear is how long it will take justice officials to prepare what will be submitted to lawmakers.

00:25:46.000 It is unclear at this time how much of this will actually be publicly released.

00:25:49.000 Under the special counsel regulations, Mueller has to submit a confidential report to the AG at the conclusion of his work.

00:25:55.000 The rules do not require it to be shared with Congress or, by extension, the public.

00:25:59.000 As Barr has made clear, the Justice Department generally guards against publicizing derogatory information about uncharged individuals.

00:26:05.000 So...

00:26:06.000 Herein lies the legal challenge.

00:26:08.000 The American public deserves to see as much of this as possible because there are too many rumors floating out there about various members of the Trump administration having colluded with Russia and all the rest of this, and that means that putting the report out there as publicly as possible would be good, but the DOJ also has an obligation not to smear people without any intent to charge criminally or without the basis for a criminal charge.

00:26:30.000 President Trump, for his part, he says the release of the report is up to his attorney general, which is of course the correct answer. 0.98

00:26:36.000 Here's the president saying that.

00:26:41.000 That'll be totally up to the new Attorney General.

00:26:43.000 He's a tremendous man, a tremendous person who really respects this country and respects the Justice Department, so that'll be totally up to him.

00:26:53.000 Now you can see the shift in goalposts taking place on the left.

00:26:56.000 Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who's been an ardent advocate of the Russia collusion quasi-scandal, he said on Wednesday that he doesn't even know there's going to be a lot there in the report, that when this is all said and done, the Mueller report may be a giant disappointment.

00:27:10.000 Is the Robert Mueller investigation enough?

00:27:14.000 If that's the possible scenario that you're looking at and you think that what Andrew McCabe said is a possible scenario, is the Robert Mueller investigation and what's happening in Congress enough?

00:27:25.000 I think the hope is that the Mueller investigation will clear the air on this issue once and for all.

00:27:33.000 I'm really not sure it will, and the investigation, when completed, could turn out to be quite anticlimactic and not draw a conclusion about that.

00:27:41.000 Man, would that give Democrats a sad?

00:27:43.000 I mean, talk about taking the wind out of their sails. 0.95

00:27:45.000 After two years of this, and people selling probably thousands of dollars in Robert Mueller gear, you know, keep calm and Robert Mueller and all the rest of this.

00:27:53.000 If it turns out that the report is basically a big nothing, if the report turns out to be basically a rehash of what we already know with no criminal filings attached, or if it's not made public in the end, that's going to be a big disappointment for a lot of the folks in the Democratic Party.

00:28:07.000 Now, that doesn't mean that all of the problems surrounding President Trump go away once the Mueller report is released.

00:28:12.000 Next week, Michael Cohen is set to testify before the House.

00:28:16.000 According to the New York Times, Michael Cohen, the president's former personal fixer, has agreed to testify in public next Wednesday before Congress about his work.

00:28:23.000 Lawmakers said they would limit the scope of their questioning in deference to the special counsel.

00:28:27.000 So they're only going to ask him about his go-between status for paying off, for example, Stormy Daniels, but they're not going to ask him about Trump-Russia collusion matters.

00:28:37.000 The reason is they don't want to step on Robert Mueller's toes, and they also don't want to bias people about what exactly was going on in that investigation.

00:28:44.000 Mueller has asked that a lot of that material remain confidential.

00:28:47.000 The committee's chairman indicated that after consultation with the DOJ and the House Intelligence Committee, Cohen would not be allowed to discuss matters related to Russia, including a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow under scrutiny by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

00:28:59.000 Now, that is really the big issue here.

00:29:01.000 It really is.

00:29:02.000 I mean, I think that the greatest danger for President Trump in terms of a criminal indictment comes not from the Russia stuff, but from the New York district attorneys who are going after him over supposed campaign finance violations, or the state of New York going after the Trump Foundation, for example.

00:29:18.000 That's where most of his legal danger lies.

00:29:20.000 But that is not where most of his public relations danger lies.

00:29:22.000 If he ends up being prosecuted, for example, over campaign finance violations.

00:29:28.000 It's unclear, first of all, that he can be prosecuted while in office.

00:29:32.000 Probably unlikely by DOJ regulations.

00:29:34.000 But if people are talking about campaign finance violations, I think President Trump survives that pretty easily.

00:29:39.000 If they're talking about Trump Foundation stuff, I don't think anybody really cares.

00:29:43.000 I mean, for better or worse.

00:29:45.000 I think for worse.

00:29:45.000 I think people don't care about this stuff anymore.

00:29:47.000 If it's Russian collusion stuff and they actually have proof, then this is a big issue.

00:29:51.000 What you can't do is build up to one ending of the movie and then switch over into an entirely different genre.

00:29:57.000 If you build up to the end of an action movie, and suddenly it breaks into music and into musical, people are just confused.

00:30:03.000 So if you've built up for three years that Trump and Russia were in cahoots, and that Trump is a tool of Vladimir Putin, and then the ending of the movie is he paid money to a porn star, nobody is gonna buy that switch.

00:30:15.000 It just doesn't work that way.

00:30:16.000 Okay, in just a second, I want to talk about why socialism seems to be making gains in the United States and why Democrats are not being forced to answer for the crimes of Venezuela, for example.

00:30:28.000 At least Democratic Socialists.

00:30:29.000 We'll get to all that in just a second.

00:30:30.000 But first, you need to go subscribe.

00:30:32.000 For $9.99 a month, you can get a subscription to dailywire.com.

00:30:36.000 It comes with so many goodies.

00:30:37.000 The $99 a year subscription is even better because it's cheaper than $9.99 a month.

00:30:41.000 I promise you.

00:30:41.000 Do the math.

00:30:42.000 You can do it yourself.

00:30:43.000 It is cheaper.

00:30:43.000 Also, not only is it cheaper, you get the very best in beverage vessels.

00:30:46.000 The leftist tier is hot or cold tump.

00:30:48.000 Tumblr, look how magnificent it is.

00:30:50.000 Also, what are the other benefits you get?

00:30:52.000 Why, let me tell you.

00:30:53.000 Two additional hours of this show every single day with great guests.

00:30:57.000 Our guest today, Rafer Weigel from Fox 32.

00:30:58.000 He's the reporter who's been all over the Smollett story.

00:31:01.000 And Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio, who will stop by to tell us about the Mueller Report and Michael Cohen and all the rest.

00:31:06.000 Also, this Monday, February 25th, Daily Wire backstage.

00:31:10.000 That's happening.

00:31:10.000 We'll be talking about everyone's favorite award show.

00:31:13.000 Daily Wire God King Jeremy Boring, me, Andrew Klavan, the ex-Scribble Michael Moles, and Alicia Krauss will all be here talking culture, Hollywood, and of course, taking your questions.

00:31:20.000 We will even be wearing Oscar-appropriate attire.

00:31:24.000 As always, only Daily Wire subscribers get to ask those questions, so make sure to subscribe today.

00:31:28.000 Also, do not forget, if you are not a Daily Wire subscriber, you are really missing out, because our next Sunday special guest is the fantastic Larry Elder.

00:31:36.000 If you're a subscriber, you and only you can watch this episode a full day early.

00:31:40.000 Not only that, all upcoming episodes of the Sunday special will be available on Saturday.

00:31:44.000 So it becomes the Saturday special just for you.

00:31:46.000 Don't worry guys, I'm not violating Sabbath.

00:31:47.000 That only works if you're a Daily Wire subscriber.

00:31:50.000 What exactly are you waiting for?

00:31:52.000 I've just offered you a bevy of benefits that you get.

00:31:55.000 How hard do I have to sell this thing?

00:31:56.000 My goodness, people!

00:31:58.000 Go check it out over at dailywire.com.

00:31:59.000 Please subscribe over at YouTube and iTunes as well.

00:32:01.000 Leave us a review.

00:32:03.000 We always appreciate it.

00:32:03.000 We are the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.

00:32:07.000 So one of the beautiful things about being a democratic socialist is that you don't actually have to live up to your own ideals.

00:32:20.000 According to Ilana Goodman over at the Washington Examiner, Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, fresh face of the Democratic Party, so much freshness, so much insane faceness.

00:32:31.000 She recently moved into a luxury apartment complex in Washington, D.C.

00:32:34.000 that does not offer the affordable housing units that were a key plank in the New York Congresswoman's campaign platform. 0.97

00:32:42.000 So sad.

00:32:43.000 Here's the good news for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

00:32:45.000 In 50 years, she'll have three houses and she'll be running for president and she could win. 0.99

00:32:50.000 I mean, that's pretty much the path to power for Democrats, isn't it? 0.96

00:32:52.000 You'd be useless for 50 years.

00:32:54.000 You live off the fat of the land and then you run as a full-on socialist and you have a shot at the nomination. 0.89

00:32:58.000 That's the Bernie Sanders way of doing things.

00:33:00.000 And AOC looks to be following that path.

00:33:03.000 Again, she can live wherever she wants. 0.60

00:33:04.000 That's the beauty of America.

00:33:06.000 But you don't get to criticize developers for not building affordable housing when you are living in the house built by those developers that doesn't have affordable housing.

00:33:15.000 Ocasio-Cortez's new building, built by leading D.C.

00:33:18.000 developer W.C.

00:33:19.000 Smith, is part of a luxury complex whose owners specifically do not offer affordable units under Washington, D.C.' 's Affordable Dwelling Units program.

00:33:27.000 Isn't that sad?

00:33:28.000 That's so sad, right?

00:33:29.000 I mean, I feel like she's kind of swampy.

00:33:32.000 Oh, no.

00:33:33.000 Apparently, her new apartment complex is magnificent.

00:33:36.000 It offers 100,000 square feet of amenities for its residents.

00:33:39.000 These include two private massage rooms with state-of-the-art hydrotherapy beds, men's and women's saunas, a full-scale demonstration kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, a 25-meter indoor lap pool, a rooftop infinity pool with panoramic views of the capital, a Peloton cycling studio with over a dozen bikes, and a fireside lounge featuring a Steinway & Sons player piano.

00:33:57.000 Also, a PGA-grade golf simulation lounge with a wraparound screen and viewing bar that allows residents to play virtually at dozens of the world's most exclusive golf courses with the touch of a button.

00:34:07.000 This place sounds really nice.

00:34:09.000 For a socialist.

00:34:11.000 Apartments in the building currently start at about $1,800 per month for a 440-square-foot studio. 0.99

00:34:13.000 Holy crap!

00:34:14.000 $1,800 a month for a 440-square-foot studio? 0.99

00:34:16.000 Holy crap. 0.88

00:34:16.000 $1,800 a month for a 440-square-foot studio? 0.88

00:34:21.000 What in the living?

00:34:22.000 That's like a bedroom.

00:34:25.000 440 square foot studio for $1,800 a month?

00:34:28.000 Is it made of gold?

00:34:30.000 Is it, like, is it a Trump apartment?

00:34:34.000 It ranges up to $5,200 for a three-bedroom.

00:34:38.000 Get a mortgage!

00:34:40.000 Be smart with your money, people.

00:34:41.000 Wow, the average rent in Washington, D.C.

00:34:43.000 is $1,300 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,550 for a two-bedroom.

00:34:49.000 So, she's living the high life is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. 0.92

00:34:51.000 She has an American success story from bartender to swanky luxury apartment renting congresswoman in the blink of an eye. 1.00

00:34:59.000 And all because we need socialism.

00:35:02.000 We need socialism.

00:35:04.000 And this is the beautiful thing about being a socialist, you never have to live up to your own standards.

00:35:08.000 Speaking of which, Bernard McSanders, the leading democratic contender in the race right now, Bernie Sanders, he was asked specifically about the situation in Venezuela, where it turns out 1,800 square foot luxury apartments with Peloton cycling classes and wood-fired pizza ovens are not available in Venezuela.

00:35:24.000 They have wood-fired dog spits.

00:35:26.000 That's a thing that's happening in Venezuela.

00:35:28.000 Bernie Sanders, who lives off the fat of the American land while promoting democratic socialism for everyone else, He was asked specifically about whether Nicolas Maduro, the socialist evil dictator of Venezuela, should go, and here was his answer.

00:35:39.000 Do you consider Juan Guaido the legitimate president of Venezuela?

00:35:43.000 I think there are serious questions about the recent election.

00:35:48.000 There are many people who feel it was a fraudulent election.

00:35:51.000 And I think the United States has got to work with the international community to make sure that there is a free and fair election in Venezuela.

00:36:00.000 So is Nicolás Maduro a dictator or senator for you?

00:36:03.000 And should he go?

00:36:05.000 I think clearly he has been very, very abusive.

00:36:08.000 That is a decision of the Venezuelan people.

00:36:11.000 So I think, Jorge, there's got to be a free and fair election.

00:36:17.000 Oh, so Nicholas Muir, I'm not going to call him a dictator.

00:36:19.000 Of course, that's not a shock, because this is the same guy who wouldn't call Daniel Ortega a dictator, and who said that the USSR had wonderful youth programs.

00:36:26.000 So, socialism.

00:36:27.000 Awesome for everyone, except the people who have vacation houses in Vermont, or luxury apartments in Washington, D.C.

00:36:33.000 In just a second, I'm going to get to what I think the real appeal of socialism is, because it's really kind of fascinating.

00:36:38.000 So, there's an article by Jedediah Britton Purdy over at the New Republic.

00:36:42.000 And it's called The Spiritual Case for Socialism.

00:36:44.000 And this is the part where I think people actually miss the appeal of socialism.

00:36:47.000 So, right now, we live in a world where the appeal of socialism is income.

00:36:51.000 We've got to fight income inequality. 0.88

00:36:53.000 There are too many poor people and too many rich people, and we need to take the rich people and cut off their legs and feed them to the poor people.

00:36:59.000 That is the only way to achieve true equality in the United States and around the world. 0.68

00:37:05.000 That's sort of the pitch for socialism.

00:37:07.000 And honestly, not a great pitch, because the fact is that all human prosperity over the last 200 years, all, not some, all human prosperity has been driven by free markets and voluntarism.

00:37:17.000 All of it.

00:37:18.000 Now, you may say that redistribution piled atop the capitalist superstructure has spread that wealth around a little bit.

00:37:25.000 That argument can be made.

00:37:26.000 I'm not sure that it is the best argument because the fact is that prosperity still exists in nations that don't have these vast social welfare networks because they existed in the United States before there were vast social welfare networks.

00:37:37.000 The United States was the fastest growing, most powerful economy on planet Earth before the vast growth of the welfare state under FDR.

00:37:44.000 But with all of that said, The fact is that free markets have created all growth in the history of man.

00:37:50.000 If you look at the per capita income of human beings since 1800, it is basically a straight line up.

00:37:56.000 It's not even arithmetic.

00:37:58.000 It's exponential growth.

00:38:00.000 It's not linear, it's exponential.

00:38:02.000 And that is because of capitalism and free markets.

00:38:04.000 So, it's hard to make the case that the reason that we need socialism is because we need more prosperity.

00:38:08.000 Because socialism is not about prosperity.

00:38:10.000 What it is, is it is a spiritual, it is an actual spiritual phenomenon.

00:38:14.000 And that's what this article at the New Republic says.

00:38:17.000 They talk about a book by a person named Martin Hagelin called This Life, Secular Faith, and Spiritual Freedom.

00:38:23.000 Hagelin puts forward a single sustained picture of the situation we all face, writes the columnist for the New Republic.

00:38:28.000 To free ourselves spiritually, he proposes that we adopt what he calls secular faith, a commitment to our finite lives and fragile loves, As the sole site of what matters, the setting for all the stakes of existence.

00:38:38.000 Achieving material freedom is a more logistically complex project.

00:38:42.000 The only social order compatible with spiritual freedom, says Hagelin, is democratic socialism.

00:38:46.000 Only when return on investment ceases to be a measure of value can the polity decide for itself what counts as valuable, what kind of activity should be rewarded and cultivated.

00:38:55.000 In other words, the idea here is that there's an actual religious faith that is Marxism.

00:39:01.000 That religious faith suggests there is no afterlife, there is no higher spiritual meaning, there is only your material existence on this plane.

00:39:08.000 And so we ought to maximize your material existence on this plane with a minimum of work that you don't want to do.

00:39:15.000 So here's the basic idea.

00:39:17.000 Basically, this life, this book, attempts to deepen the philosophical dimension and to anchor its commitments in a larger inquiry.

00:39:24.000 What kind of political and economic order can do justice to our mortality, to the fact that our lives are all we have?

00:39:31.000 The book suggests that we should discard the religious impulse, and we should separate the desire for meaning and community from doctrine and metaphysics.

00:39:40.000 So he rips on Christianity.

00:39:42.000 He rips on faith.

00:39:43.000 He says that this faith is bad.

00:39:45.000 What we really need is a brief lifetime of perilous caring.

00:39:49.000 So this is the socialist appeal.

00:39:50.000 The socialist appeal is the idea that we can make transformative decisions that free us from the necessity of doing things other people want.

00:39:59.000 Socialism in and of itself is actually a deeply narcissistic philosophy.

00:40:03.000 Capitalism is about the idea that I can do what I feel is of value, but if my idea of value does not match your idea of value, I'm not going to earn very much money for it.

00:40:10.000 Socialism is about the idea that I should be able to do whatever I want and you should pay me for it.

00:40:14.000 And the society should pay me for it, broadly speaking.

00:40:17.000 And that is what is likely to create spiritual freedom.

00:40:19.000 It's this philosophy that led Nancy Pelosi to suggest a while back that what we needed to do was get rid of private health care insurance because it created what she called a job lock, that it locked you into a job you might not want to do.

00:40:31.000 And she said, maybe you want to be an artist and you don't want to be an accountant.

00:40:34.000 And the only reason you're an accountant is because you get your medical insurance from being an accountant.

00:40:38.000 Well, if we provide you health care, then you could go back to your room in San Francisco, your studio apartment in San Francisco and be a sculptor.

00:40:45.000 This is what socialism is attempting to promise you.

00:40:49.000 Socialism is attempting to promise you that we can rejigger the economic system so that your subjective perception of value is no longer necessary for that subjective version of value to match up with anybody else's version of what value represents.

00:41:02.000 Hagelin says, our economy keeps its participants locked in the realm of necessity for much of their lives, draining away their time in unfree activity.

00:41:09.000 By unfree, he means things you don't want to do.

00:41:12.000 Now, we in the real world like to think of things we want to do, do not want to do, as responsibilities.

00:41:18.000 And if you want to be happy in your job, what you have to do is actually match up three things.

00:41:22.000 Things that you want to do, things that other people will pay you to do, and things that you find meaningful.

00:41:26.000 If you can find those three things, you'll be happy in your job.

00:41:29.000 But, one of those components is doing something that someone else finds valuable.

00:41:33.000 This is why I have described capitalism as forced altruism, and I've described socialism as essentially narcissism.

00:41:40.000 Hagelin basically makes this clear.

00:41:41.000 He says, in the realm of necessity, there is very little opportunity to spend our lives on the things we care for, to devote ourselves to what we think most worthwhile.

00:41:48.000 Economic life may be a tapestry of choices, but as long as it directs its participants toward goals they do not believe truly worthwhile, a life of such choice is a grotesque of freedom.

00:41:58.000 So, Marxism, in the spiritual case, focuses on two things.

00:42:03.000 One, there's no afterlife and no spiritual meaning apart from your economic life.

00:42:07.000 And two, if your economic life is all you have, then economic freedom is you exercising the freedom to do whatever you want without consequences.

00:42:14.000 That is the spiritual draw of Marxism.

00:42:16.000 And this is why Marxism must be directed against Judeo-Christian values.

00:42:19.000 Because Judeo-Christian values say, listen, Maybe you're not happy in your job.

00:42:23.000 Maybe your job isn't what provides you total meaning every day.

00:42:25.000 You know what should provide you total meaning?

00:42:27.000 What should provide you total meaning is obeying the morality of a God that matters, and making life better for those around you, and taking responsibility for your family, and broadening and deepening your associations with your religious community.

00:42:41.000 Serving God properly is the purpose of religious life.

00:42:43.000 This is why non-religious society tends to fall into socialism, because if everything that matters is in the here and the now and the materialistic, then If this is all we get, if all we care, not even afterlife-wise, if all that matters is our economic performance, if that's what we see happiness as, then what we really should be doing is focusing every day on doing what it is that we want, even if it means making mud pies, and then we should force other people to pay us for that.

00:43:07.000 And if we can abstract the obligations of other people to pay us for work they don't want, to society at large, if we don't have to look at our neighbor and say, pay me five bucks for making this crappy sculpture, if instead we can say, society makes it possible for all this to happen, if we can magically think like that, if we can think away the problem of going broke on other people's money, Then socialism sounds pretty good.

00:43:28.000 This is the draw of socialism.

00:43:30.000 The draw of socialism is a materialistic philosophy that suggests that true freedom lies in not being held to account for the decisions that you make and not having to match up your own subjective perceptions of value with somebody else's ideas of value.

00:43:42.000 And you know what that ends in?

00:43:44.000 It ends in force. 0.98

00:43:44.000 Because in the end, if you cannot be paid for the stupid things that you are doing by somebody else, you're going to have to force that person to do something that they don't want to do. 0.98

00:43:53.000 Every socialist system inevitably ends in a certain level of force. 0.98

00:43:56.000 The more socialism, the more force.

00:43:58.000 And that is why Venezuelans are eating dogs and fleeing the country. 1.00

00:44:01.000 Because somebody has to be forced to pay for this bleep show.

00:44:04.000 Okay, in just a second we'll get some things I like and some things that I hate.

00:44:07.000 So, Things that I like.

00:44:09.000 I love this so much.

00:44:10.000 I love it so, so, so much.

00:44:12.000 Eric Swalwell.

00:44:13.000 This guy is one of the people running for president.

00:44:14.000 And he tweeted out yesterday, and it is just quite wonderful.

00:44:17.000 He tweeted out a picture of himself in the snow in New York City.

00:44:20.000 And he tweeted, it's snowing in New York.

00:44:22.000 I need coffee.

00:44:23.000 The closest cafe is inside Trump Tower.

00:44:25.000 This is me walking to an alternative.

00:44:28.000 And the hero music rises.

00:44:30.000 Dun, da, da, dun, da, da, dun, da, da, dun.

00:44:33.000 Just incredible.

00:44:34.000 Eric Swalwell.

00:44:36.000 You know, they say that heroism is dead.

00:44:39.000 Seventy years ago, young men stormed the beaches of Normandy at risk of their own lives.

00:44:43.000 Many of them died in the attempt to free the world of Nazism and fascism. 0.75

00:44:47.000 Today, Eric Swalwell walks half a block to a different coffee shop so that he doesn't have to participate in doing business with an independent contractor working inside Trump Tower who pays rent to Donald Trump.

00:45:00.000 Heroism is not dead, my friends.

00:45:02.000 Not all heroes wear capes.

00:45:03.000 And Eric Swalwell is just another indicator that you, today, you can be the hero.

00:45:09.000 We all have the hero living inside of us.

00:45:11.000 And Eric Swalwell is proof of that each and every day.

00:45:15.000 What an amazing, amazing human being Eric Swalwell is.

00:45:20.000 We should praise that guy.

00:45:21.000 We should make that guy president.

00:45:22.000 I mean, why the hell not?

00:45:23.000 Meanwhile, some things that I hate.

00:45:28.000 So, couple things that I hate today.

00:45:30.000 Eugene Robinson has a piece over at the Washington Post called, yes, the Green New Deal is audacious, but we have no choice but to think big.

00:45:36.000 Now, as I've said on this program before, I have a basic rule. 0.98

00:45:38.000 If somebody says an idea is audacious, that is code word for stupid but ambitious. 1.00

00:45:42.000 Audacious means stupid but ambitious. 0.99

00:45:44.000 It never means just ambitious or realistic but ambitious. 1.00

00:45:47.000 It means stupid and ambitious. 0.99

00:45:50.000 It means unrealistic and ambitious. 1.00

00:45:52.000 So you say, I have an idea. 0.99

00:45:53.000 All the world's people will be fed with unicorn crap. 0.99

00:45:56.000 Audacious idea, Mr. Shapiro. 0.99

00:45:58.000 Audacious.

00:46:00.000 So Eugene Robinson says that this is a very audacious idea.

00:46:04.000 Super audacious.

00:46:05.000 Who's afraid of the Green New Deal? 0.93

00:46:06.000 Says Eugene Robinson.

00:46:07.000 I'm not.

00:46:08.000 Well, all right.

00:46:10.000 It's ambitious, aspirational, improbable, impractical.

00:46:13.000 Almost as audacious as putting a man on the moon.

00:46:16.000 That wasn't improbable or impractical.

00:46:18.000 It was ambitious and aspirational.

00:46:20.000 You know how we know that it wasn't impractical?

00:46:22.000 Because we did it with like a slide rule.

00:46:25.000 We used to be able to think big.

00:46:26.000 Let's do it again.

00:46:27.000 I love this idea that thinking big is self-justifying.

00:46:30.000 I had a big idea today.

00:46:32.000 I decided to run in front of a truck.

00:46:33.000 It was a big idea.

00:46:35.000 It was very important to my life.

00:46:36.000 A life-changing idea, you might say.

00:46:38.000 I decided I was going to run in front of a moving truck.

00:46:41.000 Thinking big, you too can think big in America.

00:46:44.000 Since the 14-page resolution was introduced in Congress last week by Senator Ed Markey and Representative AOC, so fresh, so face, critics have been falling over themselves to denounce the Green New Deal's policies as prohibitively expensive, totally unworkable, or somehow Venezuelan.

00:46:58.000 If these opponents would stop shouting long enough to actually read the document, they'd see that it's not a compendium of concrete policies at all, but rather a set of goals.

00:47:06.000 Yeah, I've read it.

00:47:07.000 And the goals are unrealistic. 1.00

00:47:08.000 And quite stupid. 0.99

00:47:09.000 Because when you propose things that are utterly unrealistic, like, let's harness the power of the sun. 1.00

00:47:15.000 And if we harness the power of the sun, then we can power everybody's life at an income level twice what we normally do.

00:47:22.000 What are you talking about?

00:47:23.000 What are you talking about?

00:47:25.000 If we can find an alien source of energy that provides us cold fusion, Then we can fix the world.

00:47:30.000 Thinking big.

00:47:31.000 Audacious.

00:47:32.000 A set of goals.

00:47:33.000 He says, they are the right goals.

00:47:34.000 The Green New Deal seeks to outline a national project for our time, not just a response to a grave environmental threat, but a framework for enhanced growth, opportunity, and fairness.

00:47:43.000 The laudable aim is to play offense, not defense.

00:47:45.000 I mean, it's like the guy just stacked up cliches.

00:47:48.000 In the movie Bull Durham, which I have famously said is an overrated film, but in the movie Bull Durham, there's a great scene where Kevin Costner is trying to inform Tim Robbins about how exactly he needs to act when he gets to the major leagues in his interviews.

00:47:59.000 He needs to just spit cliches.

00:48:00.000 You know, we take it one day at a time.

00:48:02.000 I'm doing my best out there.

00:48:04.000 The team comes first.

00:48:05.000 That is this column, except with environmentalism.

00:48:08.000 The laudable aim is to play offense, not defense, in the fight to limit climate change.

00:48:13.000 Well, aren't you inevitably playing defense when you are fighting against an encroaching, looming disaster?

00:48:18.000 He says, we are going to have to wage that battle one way or another.

00:48:21.000 Why not do it on our terms before Miami slips underwater and the yet unburned parts of California go up in flames?

00:48:26.000 I love this idea that Miami is going to be underwater like in the next two years.

00:48:30.000 Does it occur to people that over time human beings are massively capable of adaptation?

00:48:35.000 That if you give somebody a hundred years and you tell them, by the way, your house is going to be underwater in a hundred years, what are you going to do about it?

00:48:40.000 That maybe they might start making gradual plans to move away from the house that will be underwater in a hundred years.

00:48:45.000 The best historical analogy, I love this one.

00:48:48.000 The best historical analogy is not the New Deal, but World War II.

00:48:52.000 Don't stop Pluto.

00:48:53.000 He's already rolling, guys.

00:48:54.000 When mobilization of the nation's vast productive capacity not only defeated Germany and Japan, but also generated unprecedented domestic economic growth, hugely expanding middle class.

00:49:03.000 World War II did not generate unprecedented domestic economic growth.

00:49:07.000 After World War II is when the economic growth happens. 0.59

00:49:10.000 When you mobilize every military-age male, put them in barracks and feed them rations for four years, it turns out that that is not economic growth.

00:49:18.000 War does not create economic growth.

00:49:19.000 This is a basic economic fallacy.

00:49:21.000 If war created economic growth, then we would be involved in massive wars all the time.

00:49:26.000 We are not.

00:49:27.000 Believe it or not, even Afghanistan and Iraq were not massive wars by any serious measure.

00:49:32.000 Once again, says Eugene Robinson, the planet faces a dire threat.

00:49:35.000 Once again, the United States can help lead the world to victory.

00:49:37.000 Okay, well, I have a proposal.

00:49:38.000 I have a proposal.

00:49:39.000 You know what's actually easier than getting rid of all carbon fuels and airplanes?

00:49:43.000 You know what's actually easier than slaughtering all the farting cows?

00:49:46.000 We should invade China and India. 1.00

00:49:48.000 We should invade China and India because the United States is the world's number one reducer of carbon emissions. 0.90

00:49:53.000 You know who continues to ramp up their emissions?

00:49:56.000 India and China.

00:49:57.000 So, if you want to liken this to World War II, man, let's do this thing.

00:50:00.000 You want to liken this to World War II?

00:50:02.000 Say there's an emergency so grave that we have to mobilize the entire American population?

00:50:07.000 Guess what?

00:50:08.000 We could bring our carbon emissions down to zero.

00:50:10.000 Down to zero!

00:50:11.000 And you know what that would do to the global climate according to the IPCC?

00:50:16.000 It would lower it by something like 0.15 degrees Celsius over the course of the next century.

00:50:20.000 In other words, it would do nearly nothing.

00:50:22.000 You know what we would need to do? 0.83

00:50:24.000 We need to bomb all the coal-fired plants in India and China. 0.80

00:50:26.000 So let's do this thing.

00:50:27.000 I want to see sufficient commitment from the left.

00:50:30.000 Because, I mean, after all, this is a world-changing thing we're talking about here, right?

00:50:34.000 I mean, this is something that we have to stop right now, in its tracks.

00:50:37.000 We don't have time.

00:50:38.000 It's an emergency.

00:50:40.000 Well, if it's an emergency, and if all of us throwing away our cars wouldn't actually stop climate change, and if it really is an emergency, if this is the day after tomorrow, we're all gonna die, if that's the case, then what are you waiting for?

00:50:52.000 The real offenders here are China and India. 1.00

00:50:54.000 And I think it's time that we discuss, let's put the options around the table.

00:50:58.000 You guys are talking about World War II, not me.

00:51:01.000 You're saying this is like World War II.

00:51:02.000 You know what we did in World War II?

00:51:03.000 We bombed the living bleep out of pretty much everybody. 0.97

00:51:05.000 It was really ugly.

00:51:08.000 We saved the world from Nazism. 0.92

00:51:10.000 So if we're gonna treat this like it's Nazism, then why not? 0.92

00:51:15.000 Show your commitment, Left.

00:51:17.000 Show your commitment. 0.88

00:51:18.000 Let's invade China and India. 1.00

00:51:20.000 Let's do this.

00:51:21.000 I mean, come on.

00:51:22.000 Let's do it for the environment.

00:51:24.000 Let's do it for the panda bears. 0.51

00:51:26.000 Let's do this to make sure that the permafrost up in Alaska stays permanently frosted.

00:51:32.000 Let's do this.

00:51:35.000 I love this.

00:51:35.000 It's too expensive, Naysayer's complains, says Eugene Robinson.

00:51:37.000 They point to a clause in the resolution that calls for upgrading all existing buildings in the United States to make them more energy efficient.

00:51:44.000 That sounds absurd until you remember the massive blackout drills that took place across the country during World War II.

00:51:49.000 People participated.

00:51:50.000 It was their patriotic duty.

00:51:52.000 You know what's harder, actually, than, like, turning off your lights for an hour every night?

00:51:56.000 Retrofitting or tearing down every building in the United States.

00:52:01.000 And this is the best part.

00:52:02.000 He says, Acting alone would be pointless, skeptics say.

00:52:05.000 No, not skeptics.

00:52:06.000 The IPCC.

00:52:07.000 Not skeptics.

00:52:08.000 People who believe in all this stuff.

00:52:09.000 Indeed, China is by now, by far, the world's biggest carbon emitter, with the United States second and India a fast-rising third.

00:52:15.000 What would be the point of going to great efforts to reduce U.S.

00:52:17.000 emissions while others just burn more coal?

00:52:20.000 Think about it, though.

00:52:21.000 We are, after all. 0.99

00:52:22.000 Whenever people say, think about it, always a good indicator that what comes next is really dumb. 0.96

00:52:28.000 You know, you say that you should not actually eat that ceramic jar. 0.96

00:52:32.000 You say you shouldn't eat it.

00:52:34.000 But think about it.

00:52:35.000 Think about my proposal.

00:52:36.000 Just take a second.

00:52:38.000 I want you to think.

00:52:39.000 Think about it.

00:52:40.000 We are, after all, the second biggest emitter, which means that any substantial reduction would indeed have measurable impact.

00:52:46.000 It is measurable.

00:52:47.000 I just told you what the measurement is.

00:52:49.000 0.185 degrees Celsius over the next century.

00:52:51.000 Now you give me your stat because mine came from the IPCC, you don't.

00:52:55.000 Also, officials in China and India, unlike those in the Trump administration, understand and accept the conclusions of climate scientists.

00:53:02.000 What?

00:53:03.000 Okay, if you say that you understand and accept the conclusions of climate scientists, and then you're like, you know what else I'm gonna do?

00:53:08.000 I'm just gonna burn this coal right here, like right over here.

00:53:10.000 Like right next to me, I've got a pile of coal.

00:53:12.000 I just set it on fire, man.

00:53:13.000 But I accept the conclusions of climate scientists.

00:53:15.000 That makes me better than you.

00:53:17.000 You don't accept all the conclusions of the clients of climate scientists, but you're not admitting.

00:53:22.000 You know what makes me better than you?

00:53:23.000 I accept those conclusions.

00:53:24.000 Now watch, I'm going to light this pile of coal on fire.

00:53:31.000 China may be adding coal-fired power plants, but it is also making massive investments in clean energy.

00:53:36.000 Do you really want Beijing to lead the way into the future?

00:53:39.000 Shouldn't it be Washington?

00:53:40.000 Oh man, the cliches.

00:53:42.000 They may be adding coal-fired power plants, but they're making massive investments in clean energy.

00:53:46.000 You know why?

00:53:47.000 Because they're a communist country.

00:53:48.000 They can afford to do both by starving their own citizens. 0.87

00:53:51.000 It's fine.

00:53:52.000 Also, the first half of the sentence would be the one that matters.

00:53:55.000 They are adding coal-fired power plants.

00:53:58.000 If you invest in a lot of green energy, but at the same time you are investing in the carbon-emitting coal plants, You are part of the pro- I love this.

00:54:05.000 He's justifying China so that he can claim that the United States ought to shut down all carbon emissions, which would have virtually no measurable impact on the climate over the next century.

00:54:14.000 Again, I return to my initial assessment.

00:54:16.000 Eugene Robinson is not sufficiently committed to stopping climate change, and neither is anyone else advocating for the Green New Deal.

00:54:22.000 If they were truly committed, if they really believe that this is a world-beating World War II problem, it's time.

00:54:27.000 We have to invade China and India. 1.00

00:54:28.000 We have no choice.

00:54:30.000 The world is warming.

00:54:31.000 The Earth has a favor.

00:54:33.000 And it's time for us to do something about it.

00:54:35.000 All right.

00:54:36.000 So a little bit later on, we have two more hours of Ben Shapiro show goodness coming up, but you got to be a Daily Wire member.

00:54:41.000 Go check it out right now.

00:54:42.000 Become a subscriber.

00:54:43.000 So much goodness I didn't get to get to in today's show.

00:54:46.000 Go check that out.

00:54:46.000 We'll see you here tomorrow.

00:54:47.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:54:48.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:54:53.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Senya Villarreal.

00:54:55.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:54:57.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:54:59.000 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.

00:55:01.000 And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:55:03.000 Edited by Adam Sajovic.

00:55:04.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Karomina.

00:55:06.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:55:08.000 Production assistant, Nick Sheehan.

00:55:09.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 21, 2019

It’s A Smollett, Smollett World | Ep. 722

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript