The Ben Shapiro Show - Jimmy Kimmel Weaponizes His Baby...Again | Ep. 435

00:00:00.000 Well, Jimmy Kimmel is back, and he brought his baby, and he used his baby for a political prop, and we'll talk about it.

00:00:05.000 Plus, it is down to the wire in Alabama.

00:00:07.000 Roy Moore rides in on a horse, yes, literally, to vote in Alabama today.

00:00:11.000 Plus, President Trump may have a better case today against the Mueller investigation.

00:00:15.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:16.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show. 0.92

00:00:22.000 So I was just remarking to Mathis before the program that all of life should now be scored to Yakety Sax from Benny Hill because everything is ridiculous and it gets more and more ridiculous each and every day. 0.77

00:00:34.000 We're going to talk at length about Jimmy Kimmel who brought his baby again to use as a political prop again. 0.96

00:00:40.000 I hate this again so much.

00:00:43.000 Can't say.

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00:02:03.000 OK, so we begin with Jimmy Kimmel.

00:02:06.000 So Jimmy Kimmel trotted out his child again last night.

00:02:09.000 And I hate this more than I can tell you when people do this.

00:02:13.000 I can safely say, because it has been scientifically verified, that I have the two cutest children on planet Earth.

00:02:18.000 In fact, I have a child of three and a half years, a girl of three and a half years old, who is so cute that last night

00:02:24.000 She actually started doing lines from The Room. 0.98

00:02:27.000 And no, I'm not kidding.

00:02:28.000 She is amazing.

00:02:29.000 But she also happened to have a heart condition.

00:02:32.000 She had an open heart surgery that was performed at the same hospital by the same doctor as Jimmy Kimmel's son.

00:02:37.000 And yet, I do not routinely trot out my daughter's story whenever I talk about healthcare.

00:02:41.000 When I'm talking about Obamacare policy, I don't say, and I know about this because my daughter had her chest cut open because they had to fix an ASD, a hole in her heart. 1.00

00:02:48.000 I don't do that because it's stupid. 0.94

00:02:49.000 I don't do that because I don't think that there's virtue in victimhood. 0.96

00:02:53.000 I don't think that just because something bad happened to you in life, that means that now you know more about that thing than anyone else.

00:02:59.000 I think that this reference to personal experience when it comes to policy matters is actually the end of policy because the reality is it's a very watered down form of identity politics.

00:03:10.000 The reality is that politics is based on the idea that I can talk about ideas and you can talk about ideas because we can

00:03:17.000 Sympathize with one another.

00:03:18.000 Because we can think what it would be like to walk in one another's shoes without actually having walked in those shoes.

00:03:24.000 If talk about healthcare is restricted to only those who have used the healthcare system.

00:03:29.000 If talk about financial systems is restricted to only those who have worked in the financial system, then pretty quickly we are going to come to the end of politics.

00:03:39.000 We can all have opinions on matters of public policy, specifically because we have the capacity as independent human beings to think about what all of these things mean for us and for others.

00:03:49.000 The way that politics is done is by shaping policy around what we would think it would be like to be another person.

00:03:55.000 We don't actually have to have experienced that thing.

00:03:58.000 You don't have to have actually experienced the Holocaust in order to think the Holocaust was bad. 0.92

00:04:04.000 You don't actually have to have experienced homophobia in order to think homophobia is bad.

00:04:07.000 You don't have to have experienced racism in order to think that racism is bad.

00:04:11.000 All of these things we can think about.

00:04:15.000 This is one of the reasons why I really dislike what Jimmy Kimmel does whenever he brings out his child to talk about health care policy.

00:04:22.000 So here's his unsuspecting kid.

00:04:24.000 His unsuspecting kid had a second surgery last week.

00:04:27.000 I guess he has one more when he's age six, and then he is done for life, we can hope and pray.

00:04:31.000 So Kimmel brings out his kid to talk about the Children's Health Insurance Program.

00:04:35.000 So Children's Health Insurance Program is basically a supplemental health insurance program for kids who are poor,

00:04:41.000 So Kimmel brings out his kid to talk about CHIP.

00:04:43.000 What does his kid have to do with CHIP?

00:04:45.000 The answer is nothing.

00:04:45.000 His kid has nothing to do with CHIP.

00:04:46.000 His kid is not on CHIP.

00:05:10.000 The fact is that Jimmy Kimmel is a very, very wealthy man.

00:05:13.000 He has health insurance, I am sure, through ABC.

00:05:15.000 But Jimmy Kimmel brings out his child and he starts talking about Chip because, for some reason, the experience of his child connects with Chip in some way.

00:05:23.000 Like, you don't have to show me a sick child in order for you to make the case for Chip, whether it's good public policy or bad public policy, but that's just what Jimmy Kimmel does.

00:05:29.000 So here is Jimmy Kimmel jumping right in and talking about why his son's surgery links up to healthcare policy for poor people who are not him or something.

00:05:38.000 CHIP is the Children's Health Insurance Program.

00:05:42.000 It covers around, um... It covers around 9 million American kids whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but don't have access to coverage, affordable coverage for their jobs, which means it almost certainly covers children you know.

00:05:59.000 About 1 in 8 children are covered only by CHIP.

00:06:01.000 And it's not controversial, it's not a partisan thing.

00:06:04.000 In fact, the last time funding for CHIP was

00:06:06.000 Authorized was in 2015.

00:06:08.000 It passed with a vote of 392 to 337 in the House and 92 to 8 in the Senate.

00:06:15.000 Overwhelmingly, Democrats and Republicans supported it until now.

00:06:20.000 Now, CHIP has become a bargaining chip.

00:06:22.000 It's on the back burner while they work out their new tax plans, which means parents of children with cancer and diabetes and heart problems are about to get letters saying their coverage could be cut off next month.

00:06:33.000 Merry Christmas, right?

00:06:35.000 Oh, those evil Republicans, Mary Crispin. 0.99

00:06:37.000 Then he goes on and he talks about how tax cuts are the real problem with this.

00:06:41.000 He says, they let this money expire while they work on getting tax cuts for their millionaire and billionaire donors.

00:06:46.000 So this is the shtick that Jimmy Kimmel is pushing right now.

00:06:49.000 By the way, the so-called tax cuts for the millionaire and billionaire donors, we talked yesterday about how the Senate botched the bill.

00:06:55.000 If you make over $615,000 and you're self-employed and you have like a kid,

00:06:59.000 There's a good shot you're actually gonna pay more in taxes than you will make in money, above a certain amount of money if you live in a high-tax state like California or New Jersey.

00:07:06.000 But Jimmy Kimmel doesn't know what he's talking about.

00:07:08.000 And this is the problem, right?

00:07:09.000 Everyone is sitting here, and the visuals matter.

00:07:11.000 So you're sitting here, and you are watching his very cute child.

00:07:13.000 And that is a very cute child, right?

00:07:14.000 That's an adorable kid.

00:07:15.000 And you feel terrible for that adorable kid.

00:07:17.000 As well you should.

00:07:19.000 Right?

00:07:19.000 I know.

00:07:20.000 I've been in this situation.

00:07:21.000 I know what it's like to have an adorable child who's had to be cut open.

00:07:24.000 I get it.

00:07:24.000 Okay, but...

00:07:26.000 What he is saying is pure nonsense here.

00:07:27.000 What he is saying is not factually correct.

00:07:30.000 The House passed legislation last month to fund CHIP for five more years.

00:07:34.000 Democrats opposed it.

00:07:35.000 Democrats opposed it on the grounds they didn't like its funding mechanism.

00:07:39.000 It passed the House anyway.

00:07:40.000 The Senate Finance Committee passed a version of that bill too.

00:07:42.000 They haven't figured out the offsets for funding it.

00:07:44.000 Why do they need the offsets for funding it?

00:07:46.000 They need the offsets for funding it because in order for them to pass it through the Senate without it being filibustered, you have to show that it's not going to add to the deficit.

00:07:53.000 Okay, so the Senate already is considering pushing it.

00:07:55.000 President Trump, last week, last week, signed funding for CHIP.

00:07:59.000 That will take it all the way through the end of January 31st, funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

00:08:05.000 That federal agency has been signing checks to states for the last two months.

00:08:08.000 CHIP is not going unfunded.

00:08:10.000 Senator Hatch, again, the original sponsor of the CHIP program, has pushed forward the Kids Act, reauthorizing CHIP for another five years as well.

00:08:17.000 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday said, quote, It's not that people are wasting time on tax cuts.

00:08:21.000 These two issues are completely disconnected.

00:08:23.000 The tax cuts have nothing to do with CHIP.

00:08:25.000 Nothing.

00:08:32.000 But Kimmel's trying to promote a narrative that isn't even true, and he's using his son to do it, which is just yucky. 0.95

00:08:38.000 It's just gross.

00:08:40.000 The fact is, again, tax cuts have nothing, these are two completely separate legislative efforts.

00:08:45.000 And not only are they completely separate legislative efforts, what's hilarious about this is that Kimmel is saying that the Republicans are trying to hold up chip because they're trying to help out their millionaire and billionaire friends.

00:08:53.000 They're taking money from kids like Jimmy Kimmel's son, except if Jimmy Kimmel's son were poor, and they're trying to use that money to pay off all of these super wealthy people.

00:09:01.000 You know where the Republicans are trying to get the money to pay for chip?

00:09:03.000 You wanna know where they're trying to get the money to pay for chip, where the offsets are?

00:09:06.000 For high income earners on Medicare.

00:09:09.000 In other words, they're trying to get it from rich, old people. 1.00

00:09:11.000 They're trying to take the money from rich, old people and make sure that young, sick kids can get it. 0.97

00:09:16.000 And Jimmy Kimmel is sitting there ripping on the Republicans for it.

00:09:19.000 Now, again, the point of this is that optics in politics means everything.

00:09:22.000 Optics in politics is the whole shebang. 0.98

00:09:25.000 And the fact that he is willing to use his child for opticals, for optics like this, I find it really distasteful.

00:09:32.000 I think it's bad for the country.

00:09:33.000 I think, again, that it drives us to a place in politics where we can't have conversations with one another.

00:09:37.000 Because if I say, if I didn't have a kid who had a condition, would I be able to critique Jimmy Kimmel when people pay attention to it?

00:09:43.000 If I were just another conservative commentator, if I were Avik Roy, right, who's not even particularly conservative on all things healthcare, let's say I were Avik Roy, and I don't know, I don't think Avik has had a kid with a condition like this, but let's say that you're a full-on expert in healthcare.

00:09:57.000 This is what you did full-time, right?

00:09:58.000 You worked over at Cato Institute or at Heritage Foundation, and this is what you did full-time, but you don't have a sick kid?

00:10:03.000 We're not gonna pay as much attention to you as we do to Jimmy Kimmel because Jimmy Kimmel has a child who's playing with his thumb while he talks.

00:10:09.000 I hate this stuff more than I can tell you.

00:10:11.000 I think it's opportunistic.

00:10:13.000 I think Jimmy Kimmel is doing something morally bad here.

00:10:15.000 I think it is morally bad to use your child's condition as a lever in order to promote your favored policies, especially when your child's condition has nothing to do with those policies.

00:10:25.000 Policy is about what's good for the bulk of the American people.

00:10:28.000 It is not about what sympathy level you can garner by bringing out a cute child or a cute puppy.

00:10:35.000 To me, this argument is no different than if Nancy Pelosi would start stumping for Obamacare, and she'd bring out a cute puppy and stroke it while she was talking, and then every so often reference the puppy.

00:10:46.000 Again, not because puppies and children are the same.

00:10:48.000 I'm virulently against this notion, right? 1.00

00:10:50.000 Whenever people say that they have a dog and it's their four-legged child, I just want to kind of kick them in the ass. 0.99

00:10:53.000 But what is particularly ridiculous about this is, again, the notion that Jimmy Kimmel, what he's saying is factually wrong, but somehow it's given added credibility. 0.99

00:11:01.000 And if you look at the headlines today about Jimmy Kimmel, I'm going to tell you what some of the headlines say, right, on various outlets.

00:11:08.000 So, USA Today, joined by his son Billy, an emotional Jimmy Kimmel makes the case for Chip.

00:11:13.000 TV line.

00:11:13.000 Jimmy Kimmel brings son to live for CHIP funding plea.

00:11:17.000 Daily Beast.

00:11:17.000 Jimmy Kimmel with son in tow delivers tear-filled plea for health insurance.

00:11:22.000 Jimmy Kimmel and Billy blast Congress for holding CHIP hostage according to deadline.

00:11:26.000 Jimmy Kimmel brings out his son to talk about healthcare.

00:11:28.000 At any point in here, would somebody like to point out the fact that everything Jimmy Kimmel says about this thing is actually not true?

00:11:34.000 Like, would that be useful at any point?

00:11:35.000 Do you actually talk about the facts of the situation?

00:11:37.000 Or are we just gonna be bamboozled by the fact that he's bringing out a cute kid?

00:11:40.000 Again, I can bring out cute kids too.

00:11:41.000 It would make the show more visually interesting if I were to have my son and daughter on my knees while I did it.

00:11:46.000 I just don't think that it would add to the political points I'm making very much, and I think it would be a cheap political trick.

00:11:50.000 We have known for years that politicians kissing babies is a cheap political trick.

00:11:53.000 It is no less cheap when a late night host brings out his own baby in order to push a message that has nothing to do with reality.

00:12:00.000 Okay, so meanwhile,

00:12:02.000 Today is the big day in Alabama.

00:12:05.000 Voters are heading to the polls to choose between a pro-abortion fanatic Doug Jones and an alleged child molester Roy Moore.

00:12:10.000 So all the best of America on display in Alabama today.

00:12:14.000 Roy Moore apparently rode up to the polls on a horse because we just have to signal that cowboy and vest and cowboy hat.

00:12:21.000 I really want someone to go back and score in the score from Gunfight at the OK Corral with Kirk Douglas.

00:12:27.000 I think it'd just be great.

00:12:28.000 OK Corral! 0.98

00:12:30.000 We may as well just go full on here.

00:12:33.000 And the closing pitch for Moore was interesting, to say the least.

00:12:36.000 Steve Bannon made the closing pitch for Roy Moore.

00:12:39.000 He ripped into Joe Scarborough.

00:12:41.000 He mocked Joe Scarborough's college education.

00:12:43.000 He apparently said that he got into better schools than Joe could have, Georgetown and Harvard.

00:12:47.000 There's only one problem with this line of attack.

00:12:49.000 Joe Scarborough went to?

00:12:50.000 Wait for it.

00:12:51.000 University of Alabama, yeah. 1.00

00:12:53.000 I love Steve Bannon jet-setting in from Los Angeles, like the schmuck he is. 0.99

00:12:59.000 Jet-setting in from Los Angeles. 0.99

00:13:01.000 Outsiders cannot have any impact on this race. 0.95

00:13:03.000 Steve Bannon from Harvard Business School and Los Angeles and Goldman Sachs and Joe Scarborough.

00:13:09.000 Listen, I'm not a huge Joe Scarborough fan.

00:13:11.000 I've hit Joe on this program a number of times, but Joe went to the University of Alabama, dude.

00:13:16.000 And then,

00:13:18.000 Another speaker at the Moore event told a story that was supposed to show how moral Roy Moore was.

00:13:25.000 It was weird.

00:13:28.000 And he took us to this place, which turned out to be awful.

00:13:34.000 We walked inside.

00:13:36.000 I can tell you what I saw, but I don't want to.

00:13:42.000 It was clear to us what kind of place it was.

00:13:45.000 And Roy turned to me in less time than it took for someone to come up to us.

00:13:52.000 And there were certainly pretty girls. 0.66

00:13:55.000 And they were girls.

00:13:57.000 And they were young.

00:13:58.000 Some were probably very young.

00:14:00.000 I don't know.

00:14:01.000 I don't remember that.

00:14:02.000 It wasn't really long enough.

00:14:03.000 Roy said to me, we shouldn't be here.

00:14:06.000 I'm leaving.

00:14:07.000 Or words to that effect.

00:14:09.000 In fact, I think those were his exact words.

00:14:12.000 Okay, so the story is, again here, because the echo's pretty bad here, one of Roy Moore's old Vietnam buddies says that when they were in Vietnam together, they somehow stumbled into a brothel, there were a bunch of underage girls there, and Roy Moore said, let's get out of here.

00:14:30.000 And this is the exonerating tale for Roy Moore.

00:14:33.000 First of all, I would just say that I wasn't in Vietnam, so I don't know how often you just sort of stumble into a brothel, but beyond that,

00:14:40.000 Weird story.

00:14:41.000 Weird story.

00:14:42.000 And then it got weirder.

00:14:43.000 So I'm going to play you audio of Roy Moore's wife, who is trying to rebut allegations that Moore is anti-Semitic.

00:14:50.000 I'm not sure who made the allegations that Moore is anti-Semitic, because I haven't seen a lot of rationale for that allegation.

00:14:55.000 The only anti-Semitic thing I saw in this Alabama race was the attempt by somebody who was allied with Moore, I guess, to put out robocalls suggesting that there was a Jewish Washington Post reporter, Bernie Bernstein, who was calling around

00:15:07.000 And trying to pay people to tell tales about Roy Moore.

00:15:10.000 That was pretty bad.

00:15:12.000 But I'm going to play you another weird piece of audio.

00:15:13.000 We've basically entered the Twilight Zone in this race, and thankfully it's going to come to an end by tonight.

00:15:18.000 We'll find out whether Moore is a senator or whether he's not.

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00:16:48.000 Okay, so this was the clip that had the media agog last night.

00:16:52.000 Roy Moore's wife, Caleb,

00:16:54.000 She's trying to rebut allegations that Roy Moore was an anti-Semite.

00:16:57.000 Again, I'm not sure who had made those allegations.

00:16:59.000 I guess there were some people who had made those allegations with regard to something having to do with George Soros.

00:17:05.000 He made a comment about George Soros going to hell, which may very well happen.

00:17:09.000 I'm not sure what that had to do with Soros being Jewish per se.

00:17:11.000 Soros is not exactly an Orthodox Jew.

00:17:13.000 In any case, here was Kayla Moore making a very weird reference.

00:17:16.000 Fake news would tell you that we don't care for Jews.

00:17:20.000 I tell you all this because I've seen it all so I just want to set the record straight while they're here.

00:17:33.000 One of our attorneys is a Jew.

00:17:38.000 She smiles and she looks into the camera and she kind of nods.

00:17:42.000 We have very close friends that are Jewish and rabbis and we also

00:17:48.000 Okay, she should have started with that one.

00:17:50.000 We have close friends who are rabbis and Jewish, and we fellowship with them.

00:17:52.000 That would have been the best place to start, not, we have a lawyer who's a Jew. 1.00

00:17:55.000 Yeah, welcome to America.

00:17:57.000 Everyone has a lawyer who's a Jew. 0.98

00:17:58.000 Or an accountant or a doctor.

00:18:02.000 Not a particularly strong defense there, but this entire race has been weird. 0.98

00:18:07.000 Does it mean they're anti-Semitic?

00:18:08.000 No. 0.99

00:18:08.000 Everybody who's going off on that last night on Twitter, you're just being silly. 0.99

00:18:12.000 Kayla Moore may have gotten that out of order. 1.00

00:18:14.000 Maybe she shouldn't have said her lawyer was a Jew as a defense, because that's a dumb defense of anti-Semitism, if it in fact existed. 0.75

00:18:19.000 But putting all of that aside, no, I don't think that there's a lot of proof that Moore is anti-Semitic. 0.93

00:18:25.000 I think there are plenty of other reasons not to vote for Roy Moore, among them the credible allegations of child molestation.

00:18:30.000 But now we are down to the wire in Alabama.

00:18:31.000 President Trump

00:18:33.000 He's really ramping up his support for Roy Moore.

00:18:36.000 He's attempting to get Roy Moore over the finish line.

00:18:38.000 If Roy Moore were to lose after Trump has signed off on this, it would be pretty devastating to Trump.

00:18:43.000 Particularly it would show that he doesn't have a lot of coattails.

00:18:45.000 It would show that he probably should have stayed out of it in the first place.

00:18:48.000 Like, this was actually a safe position for him.

00:18:50.000 If he had just stayed out of it,

00:18:51.000 There's a good case to be made that he is safest politically, like Trump is safest politically if he stays out of this.

00:18:56.000 Now, if Roy Moore wins, then Trump gets to own Roy Moore, so I'm not sure that's much of a booby prize.

00:19:00.000 I mean, what a parting gift that is, right?

00:19:03.000 You win and now you are stapled to the guy who's probably going to be put up before a Senate Ethics Committee investigation for possible child molestation when he was a younger man.

00:19:12.000 None of this is good.

00:19:13.000 Either way, this goes bad for Republicans.

00:19:15.000 If Moore wins,

00:19:16.000 Republicans get to answer questions about Roy Moore until the end of time, and Roy Moore is not a guy who keeps his mouth shut. 0.99

00:19:20.000 He's gonna say a lot of dumb stuff. 0.66

00:19:22.000 If Roy Moore loses, then Republicans lose the seat to Doug Jones. 0.89

00:19:25.000 So well done, primary voters, and well done, Roy Moore, who wouldn't step out in the first place.

00:19:29.000 It does show you shamelessness will get you everywhere in politics.

00:19:32.000 If he had any sense of shame, he would have stepped out during this election cycle.

00:19:36.000 He has none.

00:19:37.000 And that benefits politicians, I will say.

00:19:38.000 It benefits politicians not to have any serious sense of shame.

00:19:42.000 Okay, so...

00:19:43.000 Now I want to turn to the Democrat attempts to oust President Trump.

00:19:48.000 So they've used the Al Franken quasi-resignation.

00:19:51.000 Franken still hasn't set a date for leaving.

00:19:53.000 They've used this as an excuse to go after President Trump.

00:19:56.000 They're using the sexual allegations against Roy Moore as a lever to go up against President Trump.

00:20:01.000 Now all the Democrats are saying that President Trump should step down.

00:20:04.000 And yesterday I talked sort of briefly about whether Trump should quote-unquote resign over allegations of sexual abuse.

00:20:11.000 And this brought me, I was trying to think about this in a more systematic way last night.

00:20:14.000 I was trying to figure out, you know, when should politicians in general resign?

00:20:18.000 And it seems to me that there are five different options as to when politicians should resign.

00:20:22.000 This is not when politicians do resign, this is when politicians could or should resign.

00:20:26.000 So, answer number one is never.

00:20:28.000 Politicians should never resign.

00:20:29.000 Unless they are dragged away in chains, they should never resign.

00:20:31.000 They were elected by the people, there's no excuse for them resigning.

00:20:34.000 Unless there is due process and they are convicted in a court of law, they should never, ever, ever resign.

00:20:38.000 This seems to be the way that Roy Moore is going about it, or Trump, or Bill Clinton, or most politicians who have a generalized lack of shame, is the way that they deal with allegations is simply by saying, listen, there's been no due process, I deny the allegations utterly, I'm not leaving.

00:20:53.000 This is actually in some ways the most clear-cut standard, that we're never gonna pressure a politician to resign, or that a politician shouldn't resign unless the politician has actually been convicted of a crime.

00:21:03.000 This makes a certain amount of sense, but it means that you're going to have to say to Democrats it's okay for Bob Menendez to sit in the Senate in the same way it's fine for Roy Moore to sit in the Senate.

00:21:15.000 So we're in the final stages.

00:21:17.000 There's been a criminal prosecution.

00:21:18.000 Bob Menendez is on trial.

00:21:20.000 Is he going to be convicted or not?

00:21:21.000 He should resign now because it's not good for convicted felons to be sitting in the United States Senate even for five minutes.

00:21:28.000 So in this case, Roy Moore, there's been no prosecution against him.

00:21:31.000 He's not about to be convicted of anything.

00:21:33.000 It's sort of the Richard Nixon strategy.

00:21:34.000 He's about to be impeached or convicted, so now it is time for him to step down.

00:21:38.000 That's standard number two.

00:21:40.000 And again, relatively clear-cut standard, but most politicians are not going to hold by it.

00:21:44.000 Number three is before an election.

00:21:45.000 So bad allegations come out before an election.

00:21:49.000 Typically, politicians have.

00:21:52.000 The reason that politicians typically have is because politicians don't want to sully their party with the allegations.

00:21:57.000 But, again, if you have no shame, then you stick around.

00:22:00.000 So that's standard number three.

00:22:01.000 Before an election, you step down because you don't want to force the voters to choose between somebody about whom there are credible allegations of bad behavior and somebody who does not have those allegations but whom you disagree with.

00:22:12.000 You want to avoid the Moore-Jones race.

00:22:13.000 Moore should have stepped down earlier in this race.

00:22:15.000 Option number four.

00:22:16.000 Is when new information arises about something horrible you did post-election.

00:22:20.000 So this is the Al Franken scenario.

00:22:22.000 So nobody knew about the stuff that Al Franken did before the election, when he was elected in 2010, or 2012 rather.

00:22:30.000 And when Al Franken, let's see, Franken was 2010 I believe, so yeah, when he was first elected in that special election.

00:22:37.000 These allegations were not out.

00:22:39.000 The allegations came out afterward.

00:22:40.000 New information means he should reevaluate himself and he should resign.

00:22:44.000 And then finally, there's the only standard by which Democrats could credibly argue that Trump should step down, and that is when he's done something horrible at all.

00:22:51.000 So we find out that 30 years ago, not we find out, we knew that 30 years ago you did really bad stuff, and we knew that during the election cycle, but now we're going to call on you to resign.

00:22:59.000 The reason I'm making these distinctions is because I was trying last night to figure out what's the difference between Al Franken and Trump.

00:23:03.000 Now, the easy answer is there is no difference between Al Franken and Trump.

00:23:06.000 But I don't think that's exactly correct.

00:23:08.000 There may be very little difference in the allegations, but there is a difference in the timing.

00:23:12.000 All of the allegations about Trump came out before November.

00:23:15.000 Trump was then greenlit by the American people.

00:23:17.000 Now, could there be an impeachment over this sort of activity?

00:23:20.000 Sure, you could have an impeachment over anything.

00:23:21.000 It's a political crime.

00:23:22.000 But the idea that you're going to treat

00:23:24.000 Pressure to push Trump to resign in the same way you treat Franken is weird, considering that the American people knew about every single allegation that's currently being aired about Trump before the election cycle, and they greenlit him.

00:23:34.000 That's a different thing than Franken resigning, because none of his voters knew about any of these allegations when they greenlit him.

00:23:39.000 New evidence means that Franken could step down and spare his party the heartache of running for reelection.

00:23:45.000 We already know what Trump is.

00:23:47.000 We already know what the allegations against Trump were.

00:23:49.000 So lumping in Trump and Franken together, I think, is logically incorrect.

00:23:52.000 So before I go any further here,

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00:25:41.000 Okay, so...

00:25:43.000 Meanwhile, the Democrats have turned to the sexual harassment allegations with regard to President Trump, specifically because they are, I think, trying to move away from the allegations with regard to Russia.

00:25:54.000 Those are panning out into nothing.

00:25:55.000 I mean, those have really turned into just a big nothing.

00:25:58.000 Victor Davis Hanson has a very good piece over at National Review.

00:26:01.000 Now, Hanson is much more of a supporter of President Trump's than I am, obviously, but he has a very good rundown about all the problems with Special Counsel Mueller's investigation.

00:26:12.000 He talks about all of the various members of the investigation who have been in weird positions.

00:26:15.000 He starts with the James Comey subordinate deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe.

00:26:20.000 He ran the Washington, D.C.

00:26:21.000 office that was involved in the Clinton email investigations.

00:26:24.000 He did not recuse himself from the email investigations until one week before the presidential election, even though his wife was running for a Democrat Senate seat in Virginia.

00:26:32.000 And he received a huge donation of almost $700,000 from the Clinton organization, basically.

00:26:37.000 And then it turns out that at least six of Mueller's staff of 15 lawyers had given to Hillary Clinton.

00:26:41.000 Okay, you know, that's not just positive.

00:26:43.000 A lot of people did give money to Hillary Clinton.

00:26:45.000 But then, there's Peter Strzok, Peter Stroke, right?

00:26:49.000 An FBI investigator assigned to the Mueller investigation of Russian collusion.

00:26:54.000 According to Victor Davis Hanson, Stroke and Lisa Page, a consulting FBI lawyer, were for some reason relieved from the investigation of Trump in late summer 2017.

00:27:01.000 Mueller's office refused to explain the departure of either, other than to let the media assume

00:27:06.000 And then we learned that they were having an extramarital affair and had been sending anti-Trump text messages.

00:27:16.000 And then we found out that Andrew Weissman, who's another veteran prosecutor who's been assigned to Mueller's legal team, praised Sally Yates.

00:27:22.000 You remember Sally Yates?

00:27:23.000 She was the administration holdover, the Obama holdover from the DOJ, who'd broken her oath of office and refused to carry out Trump's immigration order.

00:27:31.000 And Andrew Weissman, who's been working on the Mueller legal team, he wrote to Sally Yates, and that came out.

00:27:38.000 And then we found out another attorney on the Mueller staff, Jeannie Rhee, was at one time the personal attorney for Ben Rhodes, the fiction writer turned Obama national security advisor, who's a garbage heap of a human being when it comes to his policy and his political opinions.

00:27:51.000 And then it turns out, so I mean the list goes on and on, that a senior Justice Department official, Bruce Ohr, connected with various ongoing investigations under the aegis of the Justice Department and was reassigned for his contact with the opposition research firm responsible for the Clinton-funded anti-Trump dossier, which in theory could have been the catalyst for the original investigation of collusion by the FBI.

00:28:10.000 It turns out that his wife, Nellie Ohr, whose experience is Russian politics and history, actually worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 campaign.

00:28:17.000 Her husband was working apparently on the Russia investigation.

00:28:21.000 And then we found out that there's a guy named Aaron Zebley, who served as Mueller's Chief of Staff while at the FBI and was assigned to the FBI's Counterterrorism Division in the National Security Division at the DOJ.

00:28:31.000 And he served as Assistant U.S.

00:28:32.000 Attorney in the National Security and Terrorism Unit in Virginia.

00:28:36.000 But he represented a guy named Justin Cooper, who was the IT staffer who set up Hillary's illegal and unsecure server at her home.

00:28:42.000 So basically, half the people who are involved in the Mueller investigation have been compromised in some way or another by connections with Hillary Clinton or opposition to President Trump.

00:28:52.000 This is bad stuff, right?

00:28:54.000 This is bad stuff, and it's one of the reasons why President Trump is now being rumored to be thinking of opening up a special counsel investigation into the special counsel investigation.

00:29:03.000 That's how far we've gone.

00:29:05.000 So we are now at the point where it's like Dr. Seuss.

00:29:08.000 You know the places you'll go.

00:29:09.000 There's a bee-watcher, and then he's not doing his job, so you have the bee-watcher watcher who watches the bee-watcher.

00:29:13.000 But it turns out he's lazy, too, so you have the bee-watcher watcher until the entire town of Hotch Hotch is on bee-watcher watcher and watcher and watch.

00:29:20.000 That's basically what we're going to have.

00:29:21.000 Special investigations of the special investigator all the way down the line.

00:29:24.000 Turtles all the way down.

00:29:25.000 Very exciting stuff.

00:29:27.000 I can't believe that Mueller botched the investigation this badly.

00:29:30.000 Or maybe I can.

00:29:31.000 Maybe I can.

00:29:32.000 But that's the reason why Democrats are now turning to the sexual accusations about President Trump.

00:29:36.000 The reason that they are doing so is because obviously they think the Russia investigation is beginning to fall apart.

00:29:41.000 It's the reason why Kirsten Gillibrand is going after Trump.

00:29:44.000 Trump, by the way, fighting back against Kirsten Gillibrand today.

00:29:47.000 I don't know.

00:29:48.000 This is one of those cases, again, where I just wish Trump would shut the hell up on Twitter. 1.00

00:29:51.000 It's so stupid what he's doing. 1.00

00:29:52.000 Kirsten Gillibrand is going after him for all of the sexual harassment allegations from last year. 1.00

00:29:59.000 Remember, Kirsten Gillibrand was best friends with the Clintons until five minutes ago when she decided it would be more useful to throw their bodies under the bus. 1.00

00:30:05.000 Kirsten Gillibrand.

00:30:07.000 Received money from Trump when Trump was just a big Democrat donor.

00:30:11.000 And now Kirsten Gillibrand was ripping on Trump.

00:30:13.000 And she says that we need to investigate Trump.

00:30:15.000 Here's what she had to say.

00:30:17.000 An unprecedented time in American politics and the world is gripped by this saga.

00:30:22.000 I mean, here it now takes aim squarely at President Trump as this whole Me Too movement, you know, gains momentum.

00:30:30.000 Should he, should the White House be worried?

00:30:35.000 Well, President Trump should resign.

00:30:37.000 These allegations are credible.

00:30:39.000 They are numerous.

00:30:40.000 I've heard these women's testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.

00:30:45.000 And President Trump should resign his position.

00:30:48.000 Okay, so she says that there should be a full investigation, so Trump tweets back at her, and here's what Trump tweets.

00:30:53.000 It's 18.

00:30:54.000 So Trump goes directly at her.

00:30:56.000 Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

00:30:59.000 So, lightweight is one of his favorites.

00:31:01.000 Again, Trump only has a lexicon of about seven insults, and he just rotates them.

00:31:04.000 So it's lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer, and someone who could come to my office begging, again in scare quotes, for no reason.

00:31:13.000 For campaign contributions not so long ago, and would do anything for them, is now in ring fighting against Trump.

00:31:18.000 Very disloyal to Bill, and crooked.

00:31:20.000 USED.

00:31:22.000 I don't know, used.

00:31:24.000 Okay, I thought that was, for a second I thought that was the US Department of Education, that used, because of the random, random capitals. 0.98

00:31:33.000 All of this, the syntax, putting the crazy syntax of this tweet aside, and the fact that it's barely written in English, the fact that he's going after Kirsten Gillibrand is very stupid, okay? 0.95

00:31:41.000 The reason that it's stupid is because why would you possibly raise her profile this way? 0.99

00:31:46.000 Kirsten Gillibrand wants to run for president in 2020. 0.98

00:31:48.000 This is an in-kind contribution to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

00:31:51.000 She could not hope for better.

00:31:53.000 She, of course, comes out and strikes back at Trump.

00:31:56.000 This is what drives me nuts.

00:32:06.000 Guys, that's not what sexual harassment means.

00:32:07.000 Being mean to a woman online is not sexual harassment.

00:32:10.000 Sexual harassment is acting in a sexually inappropriate way toward a woman. 0.85

00:32:14.000 Saying that she's dumb or that she's corrupt, that is not a thing. 1.00

00:32:18.000 President Trump says that about everyone. 0.99

00:32:20.000 Like, there are five people left in the United States he hasn't said that about.

00:32:23.000 Most of them work for the administration.

00:32:24.000 The idea, maybe. 1.00

00:32:26.000 I mean, he's said half of his administration is dumb and corrupt. 0.99

00:32:28.000 Like, I don't understand why this even comes close to looking like sexual harassment in any real way. 0.98

00:32:34.000 But the president of the United States is lifting Kirsten Gillibrand's profile.

00:32:39.000 Elizabeth Warren, who, again, a highly overrated intellect.

00:32:42.000 I love the fact that Elizabeth Warren then tweeted out that Trump had slut-shamed her in this tweet.

00:32:46.000 She tweeted, 0.95

00:32:56.000 Oh my God, all these people need to go away!

00:32:59.000 Just go away! 1.00

00:33:01.000 Is it Christmas yet?

00:33:02.000 Can we just take the time off?

00:33:03.000 Like, please.

00:33:04.000 Elizabeth Warren.

00:33:05.000 It's Focahontas, right? 0.99

00:33:07.000 Not Pocahontas. 1.00

00:33:07.000 Focahontas. 1.00

00:33:08.000 Focahontas. 0.98

00:33:09.000 Where exactly did Trump slut-shame Senator Gillibrand there? 0.99

00:33:12.000 Does she even know what slut-shaming means? 0.99

00:33:13.000 Slut-shaming is to say to a woman that she is somehow morally less because she's sexually promiscuous. 0.99

00:33:18.000 It was always a weird insult in my, it was always a weird critique in my view to quote unquote slut shame somebody. 0.97

00:33:24.000 I wasn't aware that being sexually promiscuous was a net positive. 0.96

00:33:28.000 But in any case, this is now the line the Democrats are gonna use, that Trump is sexually harassing Kirsten Gillibrand. 1.00

00:33:34.000 Oh, the level of stupid. 1.00

00:33:36.000 Oh, the insane level of insane stupid. 1.00

00:33:39.000 And Trump didn't need to get into this. 1.00

00:33:41.000 It's a waste of time.

00:33:42.000 He should have just ignored it.

00:33:43.000 It was gonna go away.

00:33:44.000 Everybody was gonna know that this was driven by politics more than it was by policy.

00:33:48.000 Or by reality, but that's the way that it goes.

00:33:50.000 Okay, so before I go any further, I first want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Dollar Shave Club.

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00:35:06.000 Okay, so...

00:35:20.000 I do have to tell you about this insane piece from Everyday Feminism, just because it is hilarious. 0.98

00:35:28.000 So this piece from Everyday Feminism discusses what intersectional feminists are looking for today. 1.00

00:35:34.000 It is not a wonder that they are miserable people, intersectional feminists, because these are questions, there are 10 questions you are supposed to ask. 1.00

00:35:40.000 I'm not going to assume gender because we're not allowed to do that at Everyday Feminism, the greatest site on the internet. 1.00

00:35:55.000 But here is what Lara writes.

00:35:57.000 Well, there's a hell of an opener.

00:35:58.000 You sit down for a date, and before you even start talking, the woman says to you, Like, how are you supposed to answer that?

00:36:14.000 What happens if you say no?

00:36:15.000 I mean, like, what?

00:36:16.000 First of all, like, does anyone in the United States say no to that question?

00:36:21.000 Of course everyone believes Black Lives Matter. 1.00

00:36:22.000 The question is whether you think the movement is actually worthwhile or whether it is a vast misinterpretation of variable data on police activity.

00:36:31.000 But nevermind all that.

00:36:33.000 It's just... Then, what are your thoughts on gender and sexual orientation?

00:36:37.000 I love this.

00:36:38.000 The gender binary is a tiny box. 1.00

00:36:39.000 I wish it didn't exist, but it does.

00:36:41.000 I wouldn't want to be with anyone who is queer-phobic.

00:36:44.000 Is that your opener?

00:36:46.000 That's another one of your opening questions? 0.99

00:36:49.000 You're a straight woman and you're dating a straight guy and your first question is, would you have sex with a dude? 0.99

00:36:53.000 Or are you queer-phobic? 0.99

00:36:56.000 Do you believe that I'm a woman?

00:36:59.000 How do you work to dismantle sexism and misogyny in your life?

00:37:02.000 What are you talking about to me?

00:37:03.000 I'm just a plumber.

00:37:04.000 What?

00:37:06.000 Well, I feel like this is sort of a weird arbitrary boundary that you're drawing here.

00:37:08.000 It seems to me that what you are is very much related to what you do.

00:37:11.000 So that's sort of a weird take on things.

00:37:12.000 What are your thoughts on sex work?

00:37:36.000 Like, this is one of my favorites.

00:37:39.000 Really, the intersectional feminists want you to ask your date what your thoughts are on prostitution. 1.00

00:37:45.000 Hint to the ladies.

00:37:46.000 If you say to a man, what are your thoughts on prostitution, the guy's like, love it, all for it.

00:37:50.000 You shouldn't date him.

00:37:52.000 It's gonna go badly.

00:37:54.000 But apparently this is a question to ask when you're dating because being pro-sex worker is a necessary pillar for dismantling the patriarchy. 0.99

00:38:00.000 There's nothing that dismantles the patriarchy like making it more available for scummy men to have sex for money. 0.97

00:38:06.000 Nothing dismantles the patriarchy just like that. 0.98

00:38:08.000 Which is why when you watch old westerns, everyone goes to the whorehouse because they're all trying to dismantle the patriarchy. 1.00

00:38:12.000 It's a thing.

00:38:14.000 Are you a supporter of the BDS movement?

00:38:15.000 Perfectly.

00:38:16.000 I love this.

00:38:17.000 I love this.

00:38:18.000 It's just great.

00:38:18.000 Wow.

00:38:19.000 Do you think capitalism is exploitative?

00:38:31.000 First of all, I would say yes to that question, just so that I could avoid actually having to pay for dinner.

00:38:37.000 Capitalism is exploitative, so let's break the check.

00:38:39.000 If a woman asks you any of these questions, run as fast as you possibly can, because that's horrifying. 0.99

00:38:44.000 That'll be the worst marriage ever.

00:38:46.000 But I guess marriage is cishet anyway, so...

00:38:56.000 Who cares?

00:38:57.000 All right, so before we go any further here, and there's much more to come, I first have to say that you need to go over and subscribe.

00:39:04.000 So that's what I'm gonna say right now.

00:39:06.000 So, 9991 will get you a subscription to dailywire.com.

00:39:08.000 And today's a good day to get that subscription.

00:39:11.000 Why?

00:39:11.000 Because you can be part of our fourth episode of The Conversation.

00:39:14.000 It is coming up today, 5 p.m.

00:39:16.000 Eastern, 2 p.m.

00:39:17.000 Pacific, featuring your favorite person ever, your favorite president ever, Donald Trump, no, favorite person ever, me.

00:39:22.000 Subscribe today to be a part of The Conversation and ask me questions, and I will mock you.

00:39:26.000 Or I'll answer them.

00:39:27.000 Or I'll mock you and then answer them. 0.95

00:39:28.000 Or answer them and then mock you.

00:39:29.000 You just never know.

00:39:30.000 That's the fun part of it.

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00:40:50.000 I want to start with some Beethoven.

00:40:53.000 So I said yesterday I'd read a Beethoven biography over the weekend.

00:40:55.000 Really enjoyed the biography.

00:40:57.000 And now I want to play for you a little bit of Beethoven music that you may not know.

00:41:00.000 It's sort of off the beaten track a little bit.

00:41:02.000 So the only ones that everybody knows are his Fifth Symphony and his Ninth Symphony.

00:41:08.000 Some people know the Sixth Symphony from Fantasia, but there's a lot of Beethoven music that people have missed because they just don't follow it that closely.

00:41:15.000 So Beethoven's Opus 130 is one of his string quartets, and there's a movement called the Cavatina in the middle of the string quartet.

00:41:23.000 It is so well known to sort of aesthetes that it was actually placed on the permanent disc that was sent with the

00:41:31.000 The Voyager, the Starship Voyager, the shuttle that we sent out into deep space.

00:41:36.000 We sent out a CD on that shuttle.

00:41:39.000 It's actually a golden record.

00:41:40.000 So in case the aliens find it and they want to know what kind of music we listen to, we put on some crap and then we put on some good stuff.

00:41:46.000 So the good stuff is Beethoven and Mozart and Bach.

00:41:50.000 And this Cavatina from his string quartet is part of it.

00:41:54.000 The part that I've pulled here,

00:41:56.000 It's not actually the most melodic part, but it is one of the most heartbreaking parts in music.

00:42:02.000 What happened is that Beethoven was suffering with his nephew.

00:42:05.000 His life was really difficult, Beethoven, and he had a big fight.

00:42:10.000 His brother died.

00:42:11.000 His brother's wife was an actual convicted criminal, and he seized the son away from his sister-in-law.

00:42:19.000 He had the court actually relocate the son with him.

00:42:22.000 So his nephew was sort of his surrogate son.

00:42:24.000 He wasn't a particularly good father.

00:42:26.000 I'm trying to remember what it is in German.

00:42:43.000 I'll look up the word in a second, but in any case, the point here is that the violin is supposed to sound like it's actually crying, and it's as good an imitation of musical crying as you'll ever hear.

00:42:52.000 Here it is, the Cavatina, one of the movements from Beethoven's Opus 130.

00:43:02.000 We're good to go.

00:43:28.000 We're good to go.

00:43:54.000 Okay, so then it goes back into the regular theme.

00:43:55.000 You should listen to the entire movement.

00:43:56.000 It really is beautiful.

00:43:58.000 That portion there is supposed to be the sort of person sobbing, struggling to catch their breath.

00:44:02.000 It's the only thing that Beethoven ever wrote where he said he cried when he wrote it.

00:44:05.000 It is glorious music.

00:44:07.000 Beethoven is just spectacular.

00:44:09.000 A lot of his late music is so complex.

00:44:11.000 The Grosse Fugue, which I may or may not play on the program, it's so complex that I don't understand it properly.

00:44:18.000 I really want to know some more music theory before analyzing it.

00:44:21.000 It was so complex that at the time people called it repellent.

00:44:24.000 It was the last movement of this particular string quartet, I believe, and he removed it from the string quartet because people didn't understand it.

00:44:32.000 A hundred years later, people were still calling it modern music because it was so sophisticated in the way that he'd written it.

00:44:38.000 Time for some other things I like.

00:44:40.000 So I have to give Sarah Huckabee Sanders some credit.

00:44:42.000 The press went after her yesterday, and she went directly back at them over inaccuracies in their reporting.

00:44:48.000 And I'm on Sarah Huckabee Sanders' side here.

00:44:50.000 Here's what the press secretary had to say.

00:44:52.000 When journalists make honest mistakes, they should own up to them.

00:44:55.000 Sometimes.

00:44:56.000 And a lot of times you don't.

00:44:57.000 But there's a difference.

00:44:59.000 There's a very big... I'm sorry.

00:45:01.000 I'm not finished.

00:45:02.000 There's a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people.

00:45:07.000 Something that happens regularly.

00:45:09.000 You can't say, I'm not done.

00:45:12.000 You cannot say... You cannot say...

00:45:16.000 We're good to go.

00:45:36.000 I'm speaking about the number of reports that have taken place in the last couple of weeks.

00:45:40.000 I'm simply stating that there should be a certain level of responsibility in that process.

00:45:45.000 Brian, I called on Jim.

00:45:47.000 This is not the line of questioning that I was going down, but... Okay, and she really, she lacks Acosta, as well she should. 0.96

00:45:54.000 Acosta is one of the most repellent reporters working at the White House.

00:45:58.000 Okay, time for one thing I hate, and then we'll get to a quick deconstructing the culture.

00:46:06.000 So here is today's thing I hate.

00:46:07.000 So my wife and I were bored the other night and we decided to grab a movie from Netflix and to chill, as they say, as the children say.

00:46:14.000 And the movie that we grabbed, we had not seen in the theaters, it was Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Volume 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. 0.97

00:46:22.000 This movie is hot garbage. 0.96

00:46:23.000 This movie is just terrible. 0.98

00:46:25.000 Which makes me sad, because I liked Guardians of the Galaxy 1.

00:46:27.000 It is a bad movie.

00:46:29.000 It's not just a bad movie.

00:46:30.000 It's atrociously, insultingly bad.

00:46:33.000 This movie got 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, which demonstrates to you, do not trust the critics when it comes to comic book movies.

00:46:39.000 Trust me.

00:46:40.000 I never say to trust me on things.

00:46:41.000 Trust me.

00:46:42.000 When it comes to comic book movies, my taste is significantly better than the average critic on Rotten Tomatoes, who don't know what the hell they're talking about.

00:46:47.000 This movie is no better than Justice League.

00:46:50.000 In fact, in significant ways, it's actually worse than Justice League.

00:46:52.000 At least Justice League has a couple of memorable scenes.

00:46:54.000 There is nothing remotely memorable about this film.

00:46:56.000 They somehow blow having Kurt Russell in the film, which is just ridiculous.

00:46:59.000 I don't know how you blow having Kurt Russell in the film.

00:47:01.000 Kurt Russell is great in everything.

00:47:03.000 Go watch Tombstone instead of watching this.

00:47:05.000 You'll enjoy it much better. 0.89

00:47:06.000 It's a bunch of CGI nonsense.

00:47:08.000 The only thing that's even mildly interesting or funny is Dave Bautista, who is actually turning out to be quite a screen presence.

00:47:16.000 He's the only thing in the film that's even remotely worth seeing.

00:47:19.000 The rest of the film is just awful. 1.00

00:47:21.000 Bradley Cooper's part is garbage. 0.99

00:47:24.000 Chris Pratt turns into a non-entity in this movie. 0.99

00:47:27.000 The CGI is unwatchable.

00:47:29.000 It'll give you a headache.

00:47:30.000 I can't express to you how much I dislike this movie.

00:47:33.000 So here's a bit of the preview so you two can see.

00:47:36.000 It'll show you sort of how you can turn a really bad movie into an okay trailer.

00:47:39.000 That's basically the message of this particular segment.

00:47:46.000 The fate of the universe lies on your shoulders.

00:47:51.000 Now whatever you do, don't push this button.

00:47:58.000 Because that will set off the bomb immediately and we'll all be dead.

00:48:04.000 Now repeat back what I just said.

00:48:09.000 Okay, so this is the whole movie, and this is every funny bit in the movie, in the first 30 seconds of this trailer.

00:48:16.000 It's just, and I'm sorry, but Baby Groot is just such a pandering play.

00:48:20.000 It's like, oh, well, we need something to sell at the...

00:48:23.000 C.V.S.

00:48:24.000 for Christmas.

00:48:25.000 So, baby Groot.

00:48:26.000 Okay, do not watch this film.

00:48:28.000 If you have watched this film, see if you can get a refund.

00:48:31.000 If you can't get a refund, see if you can invent a time machine and go back and take the two hours of your time back.

00:48:34.000 And if you can, let me know because I want it back.

00:48:36.000 Okay, I'm going to deconstruct the culture here very briefly.

00:48:40.000 I'm going to spoil two things that are currently in theaters and or on Netflix.

00:48:44.000 So if you don't like spoilers, then this is the part where you tune out for the show and you come back tomorrow.

00:48:48.000 So here are the two things that I'm going to spoil.

00:48:50.000 I'm going to spoil, not really, but a little bit.

00:48:52.000 I'm going to spoil Godless on Netflix, and I'm going to spoil Mudbound, which is also available on Netflix and in theaters right now.

00:48:58.000 Because they both make the same plot mistake, and it drives me up a wall.

00:49:02.000 So to introduce why this is a mistake, I wanna show you a scene from the classic Western Shane.

00:49:07.000 So Shane, if you haven't seen it, one of the great Westerns of all time, just terrific, Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, Gene Arthur, and the whole point here is that Alan Ladd is sort of a wandering gunfighter.

00:49:15.000 It's basically the same plot as Godless.

00:49:16.000 He's basically a wandering gunfighter who stumbles into a town that's being dominated by bad people, and he is signed on as sort of a farmhand at Van Heflin's farm.

00:49:26.000 Van Heflin and Gene Arthur are married.

00:49:28.000 They have a child, Brandon DeWild, who I believe won an honorary Oscar for this film.

00:49:32.000 And Alan Ladd sort of becomes the boy's hero.

00:49:36.000 He sort of becomes the boy's hero, even though the father's a good guy.

00:49:38.000 And the mother starts falling in love with Alan Ladd.

00:49:40.000 And that's the whole theme of the film.

00:49:41.000 The whole theme of the film is duty outweighing your necessity to have feelings, basically.

00:49:48.000 You have duties to do good things, even when your feelings would drive you in the other direction.

00:49:53.000 It's a really good film.

00:49:54.000 It's a little bit long, but it holds up.

00:49:56.000 So, here is a scene in which you will see Jean Arthur, who plays the wife, Alan Ladd has just gotten in a fight.

00:50:03.000 Both Alan Ladd and Van Heflin have gotten in a fight.

00:50:06.000 Your head needs a bandage.

00:50:06.000 It's good enough, Marion.

00:50:07.000 It's fine.

00:50:07.000 Thanks very much.

00:50:09.000 You want to know something, Mother?

00:50:10.000 What is it?

00:50:37.000 What is it, Joey?

00:50:39.000 Mother, I just love Shane.

00:50:45.000 Do you?

00:50:47.000 I love him almost as much as I love Pa.

00:50:50.000 That's all right, isn't it?

00:50:53.000 He's a fine man.

00:50:57.000 He's so good.

00:51:00.000 Don't you like him, Mother?

00:51:04.000 Yes, I like him too, Joey.

00:51:06.000 Joe.

00:51:06.000 Hold me.

00:51:07.000 Don't say anything.

00:51:37.000 Okay, so this is called Subtlety.

00:51:39.000 Okay, this is a thing that is completely now lacked in movies.

00:51:42.000 It's so good, right?

00:51:43.000 I mean, it's so good.

00:51:44.000 And the subtlety of it, right?

00:51:46.000 You know that she has a thing for Alan Ladd.

00:51:49.000 You know Alan Ladd has a thing for her and that he's walking out because he wants to preserve the family and protect the family.

00:51:54.000 The reason he leaves at the end is because he wants to protect the family.

00:51:56.000 He's already helped save the town.

00:51:58.000 He's already helped clean the town.

00:51:59.000 And now he has to leave.

00:52:01.000 And the boy doesn't understand it.

00:52:02.000 It's heartbreaking and it's wonderful at the same time.

00:52:04.000 It's such a good film.

00:52:05.000 Okay.

00:52:06.000 Now, here's where I'm going to spoil a little thing about Godless.

00:52:08.000 So in Godless, basically, there's a town of women, and all the men in the town have died in a mining accident.

00:52:13.000 This is all in the first five minutes of the show.

00:52:15.000 And a character exactly like Alan Ladd comes to town, right?

00:52:19.000 You don't know his background.

00:52:20.000 You know that he's sort of a criminal.

00:52:22.000 But he comes to town, and he gets involved with Michelle Dockery, who you'll remember from Downton Abbey.

00:52:27.000 And she also has a son, and in exactly the same way.

00:52:29.000 I mean, it's exactly the same plot, OK?

00:52:31.000 It's a rip-off.

00:52:32.000 And Roy comes in, and he's training the kid.

00:52:35.000 He's training the kid to, you know, ride a horse, and he's training the kid how to farm better, and all this kind of stuff.

00:52:42.000 And meanwhile, the mother is sort of falling in love with him.

00:52:44.000 Now, she's not married, right?

00:52:45.000 Michelle Dockery's not married, but it's pretty clear that there's another guy in the town who has a crush on her, and he's also a good guy, right?

00:52:51.000 He's a sheriff who's going blind, and it turns out that he has known her for a while, and I won't spoil that part of it, but in any case,

00:52:59.000 One of the things that ends up happening is that very much near the end of the show, near the end of the show, she goes into the barn and they have sex.

00:53:07.000 Okay, this is paralleled in this movie Mudbound. 0.96

00:53:11.000 In the movie Mudbound, basically, as I talk about on the show, Carey Mulligan is a woman who's living with her husband in the down-home South, and her husband is kind of a schlub. 0.87

00:53:21.000 They have a couple of kids, and her husband's brother is this sort of romantic pilot figure who has PTSD.

00:53:25.000 He comes back to town, and the two brothers go up against one another because one of them's racist and one of them isn't, basically. 0.76

00:53:30.000 And near the end of that movie, she has sex with the brother. 0.50

00:53:34.000 In both cases, let's just say that they end very similarly to Shane.

00:53:38.000 In both cases, the people don't end up together.

00:53:42.000 The people who have sex don't end up together.

00:53:44.000 And the reason that this drives me up a wall is because both of those films would have been better with a little more subtlety.

00:53:49.000 You actually end up destroying the character of the man by having him have sex with the woman in those films.

00:53:54.000 But our modern society cannot take the idea of two people being in sexual tension without there being consummation.

00:53:59.000 I can't take that idea.

00:54:01.000 Right?

00:54:01.000 That was the entire idea of human virtue, was the idea that you can be tempted to do something and you should not do it because it's immoral.

00:54:07.000 And what makes you a good person is withstanding the temptation to do things that are immoral.

00:54:11.000 That's what makes you a better person.

00:54:13.000 Not consummating it.

00:54:15.000 And it's a throwaway once you consummate it, okay?

00:54:17.000 The fact is that Godless would have been significantly better if Roy never consummates with this woman, because then he comes in, he helps the son, and you know that he wants to get together with her, but he also is not willing to stick around, and it's not kind to the woman, and it's not good for him, for him to consummate this relationship and then leave her to this other guy.

00:54:35.000 Like, that's bad, right?

00:54:36.000 That's why Alan Ladd leaves.

00:54:38.000 He leaves in Shane because he wants this family to be together, because it's important for the family to be together.

00:54:44.000 In Godless, it's exactly, I mean, it is down to the note, exactly the same plot, and yet the guy sleeps with the girl, and it ruins, it's not good, it's not smart, and it's bad, and it says something about modern society.

00:54:53.000 And the same thing is true in Mudbound.

00:54:55.000 They're trying to make a hero out of the pilot who stands up against racism, because they have him sleep with his brother's wife, one time, and then leave.

00:55:00.000 What the hell is the point of that?

00:55:02.000 Why would you do that?

00:55:03.000 It's only because we, as a society, have decided that self-control is no longer a virtue.

00:55:08.000 Self-control is no longer something worth prizing.

00:55:11.000 And then you wonder about harassment of women?

00:55:14.000 Seriously.

00:55:16.000 A society that does not prize and treasure and cherish and burnish self-control is a society that incentivizes men not to take part in it.

00:55:27.000 The ethics of Shane are much better than the ethics of Godless, and they're much better than the ethics of Mudbound, and it's also a better movie.

00:55:32.000 It's better art, because it's more true to what a good man does.

00:55:34.000 A good man withholds his own feelings when it means damaging other people.

00:55:38.000 Okay, we'll be back here tomorrow with the results of the big election in Alabama, which I'm sure will be a fascinating talk no matter which way it goes.

00:55:45.000 I'm Ben Shapiro, this is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:55:50.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Glover.

00:55:52.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:55:54.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:55:55.000 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:55:58.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:55:59.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Cormina.

00:56:01.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:56:02.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:56:05.000 Copyright Forward Publishing 2017.

The Ben Shapiro Show - December 12, 2017

Jimmy Kimmel Weaponizes His Baby...Again | Ep. 435

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